the artist's J.D.

2 days ago

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2 min read

🦅 Problem client patterns + simple logging system + your weekly roundup

POSTSLINKS

Hi Reader!

You might know about my “Stuff I’ll Never Do Again” Notebook. (If not, I tell the story in this week’s blog post.)

The short version is that every time a client situation doesn’t sit right, I jot it down: what happened, how I responded, how I felt, and what I could do differently next time.

Over the past 15 years, it’s been my favorite tool to spot patterns about what isn’t consistently working in my business.

The real power of the notebook wasn’t in venting about what went wrong.

It was the fact that it helped me spot patterns: the repeated conversations, the surprise scope creep, the clients who expected that “quick” thing.

Because when you see the same issue written down five times. It stops feeling like bad luck and starts feeling like a fixable business problem.

So your assignment this week is to create a place you can start gathering this data so you can start spotting your own patterns.

And once you have a pattern, you can interrupt it.

Because if you know that A → B → C, then when A happens, you can try something different.

And if you are lucky, B and C will never happen.

👉 Your action item

Create a note on your phone, grab a blank notebook, or create a Google Doc and name it something like “Business Hangups”. And add a recent entry of something that went wrong.

For bonus points, for the next month, every time something costs you more than 30 minutes, add one line explaining what happened. In less than a month, I bet you’ll have the data to pinpoint your first tweak.

Did you complete this task? Hit reply and share your thoughts.

If you only have 20 minutes this week, the task above is the most important thing to do. But if you have a little more time, keep reading.

Chat soon,

P.S. If your Hangups note makes you realize that having some ready-to-send email scripts would help your client relationships, click here to start Copy + Paste Legal Week, where I share my favorite battle-tested scripts.

The clause to notice

One small section of a contract that can have an outsized impact later.

This week’s focus: Perfection isn’t the goal

When it comes to your own contract (or a contract you are negotiating), you don’t need to understand every sentence to make a good decision.

What matters is noticing the clauses that affect:

  • how you get paid
  • how much work you’re committing to
  • who owns the work
  • how the relationship can end

Once you let go of "I have to understand everything," you open yourself up to focus on what actually matters and needs your attention.

If contracts are starting to come up more often in your business, the Contract Decoder is your secret weapon to signing contracts with confidence.

LATEST VIDEO

The system I use to log (+ prevent) problem clients

Learn the simple logging system I’ve used for 15+ years to identify recurring client problems and prevent them from repeating.

Other things on my radar...

  • One of my favorite law school copyright textbook cases was about a low-budget horror movie, “The Stuff,” but apparently, this case didn’t make such an impression on other attorneys, because the same topic was the center of the recent lawsuit over Ye’s Donde album.
  • One of the MCLEs I recently attended dug deep into what’s required when a business partners with a non-profit for a campaign (like a buy 1, give 1 or % of profits donated). These kinds of commercial co-ventures have several tricky nuances for both the business and the non-profit. This article gives a good basic overview, but if this is something you’d like me to cover deeper, let me know.

Protect the business you’ve worked so hard to build

Each Friday, get a focused, jargon-free legal task, designed for creative entrepreneurs who want to protect their ass(ets) without legal confusion. No fluff, no overwhelm. Each one takes 15–30 minutes and helps you handle what matters, without wasting time on what doesn’t.

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