The best way to play Scrabble is to make sure you have a high turnover of letters. That way you stand the best chance of making a better word.
When I was an actor, as long as I kept getting auditions, I increased my chances of getting a job.
Starting out as a mediator, I keep knocking on doors, attending PDG’s and Webinars, and talking to people far more knowledgeable about mediating than me. I have found the quality of the mediators I’ve spoken with uniformly excellent, both in the length and breadth of their knowledge and their willingness to share it while knowing next to nothing about me.
Just like being an actor, and remembering that the most important people on a film set or in a theater, are always the crew, other mediators have gone out of their way to help me. One expert in marketing gave me an hour of her time for free on Zoom, while speaking from France. Another, in Connecticut, arranged meetings with other mediators who had started out like me and now amazingly were making money, while a third in Tennessee made herself available to me and showered me with her expertise. The Southern California Mediation Association is a first-rate organization, very helpful and kind to me, utterly supportive of their members, and always looking for ways to let the public know that mediators are indeed a great public service.
The extraordinary Susan Guthrie’s podcast on Mediating Online before, during, and after Covid was remarkable and inspired me to create my own company, Magnum Mediation as a fully online mediation practice. Woody Mosten’s book on how to make mediation a career is as brilliant as he is, and Bill Eddy’s books on high-conflict mediation are priceless. There are so many others.
But I’m still not making any money. When I ask, “What’s luck got to do with it?” the answer, for the time being, will remain a mystery. But I would say that if good luck does eventually find me, it will be because of all these fine people who have shared their wisdom and time with me.
In the meantime, I’ll keep scrabbling my letters.