0:00 Kevin bemel and we're here in season five of our show and we meet every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. to talk about things related to professional success and wealth building and how we can improve our situation there too does that sound too fancy I hope not so today uh we're GNA be talking about how to use professional organizations and and journals in order to improve your um your situation and so I'm going to go right
0:37 into this there we go okay um so professional organizations and journals and well that's that's weird it it reformatted my uh my PowerPoint okay well whatever anyway um so for those of you familiar with the show you're also familiar with the three pillars of attainment this is the basis for everything we do here on the way to wow shows and today we're going to be working here in the finances realm um but we'll also be talking about
1:13 relationships primarily uh friends and colleagues a little bit so uh okay so I'm going to talk first about how to use professional organizations to uh enhance your career and then after that um I'm going to talk about uh using journals to do the same thing so there's five ways that um or there's four ways I should say that um organizations can enhance your career and then I'm going to talk about some
1:48 best practices as those are pursued so knowledge and learning professional development which you'll see are not the same thing although you could certainly make the case I suppose that knowledge and learning is a sub set of professional development relationship building other practices other benefits and then best practices so let's go into the first one so knowledge and learning one of the best reasons to participate in a professional organization is um in order to um be able surround yourself with
2:26 people who are um doing the same kinds of things that you're doing um in the same industry and therefore can you can gather their perspectives on what's going on so um one of the things we want to know about in any industry are industry Trends right so um one of my primary businesses is the real estate business and I maintain a number of uh friends and contacts in that business and one of the
3:02 reasons I do so is in order to uh get their get get basically have access to their knowledge right about what's happening in the industry so um what's reported in the newspaper okay and uh just you know here's my you know trusty Wall Street Journal right you know me I I read it I read it every day it's part of it's part of my work so one of the articles in the um business section of the journal was talking about data centers okay and and
3:37 and this is something that's that that's been of interest to me for a couple of years now so the reality is that what's published in the journal is probably old news uh to anyone who's actively involved in in the data center industry okay so um by being involved in a professional association you get news before it hits the you know the general public okay um next you can improve your skills and
4:14 qualifications so um for example as a professional fiduciary I'm a member of uh Pac the professional fiduciaries association of California um it's it it's in its name it's a professional organization and Pac uh has various chapters throughout the state um and they meet periodically so um for example I think it's next week I'll be attending virtually a meeting up in montere
4:49 California at which the presenter is going to be talking about Tax Matters related to handling trusts and Estates right so that's by way of doing a couple of things one is um being you know keeping up to date with industry Trends obviously taxation is is a bit is an important part of handling any trust or um estate um but also um potentially at least enhancing my skills and qualifications so now you know in in this particular case I I
5:25 don't know the level at which they're going to be talking although there saying it's they're going to be talking at a pretty advanced level okay so um that being the case then perhaps there is something new for me to learn there which is one of the reasons why I want to attend you know um and and you'll often see that you know in some cases um an educational presentation may be for beginners and if you're not a beginner so then it won't necessarily improve your skills on the other hand you may be able to teach it and so what I found
6:00 over the years is um even if I'm teaching the basics of a subject it's helping me to learn about it more deeply because I'm seeing that that topic Through The Eyes of people who are viewing it for the first time and so they they have questions that um oftentimes necessitate my sort of going back into the memory bank so to speak and um you know drawing out sort of somewhat dormant information and bringing it back
6:36 to the to the foreground of of my mind um and that's a good thing so um other um other professional organizations may actually have um qualifications or certifications that you can earn so um I've been talking to uh um a Woman by the name of uh Judith Pearson uh who is um a a board member of an organization called the um independent trustees Association and they have a certification program as as part of of
7:11 the of building this organization okay the American Bankers Association which is a a a very longstanding U Professional Organization also has a number of certification programs one of which I'm looking at so um these are these are great these are great re well they're great um yeah I mean they're a type of resource um sort of dovetailing on on the third category um that um that you can take advantage of by participating in a professional
7:47 organization okay um but even even if you're not taking formal classes just interacting with other people in your field in your field and there's a picture of a field there sorry it's you know the the the humor was was was unintended I assure you um just by interacting with other people hearing about the challenges that they're having in in in their uh in their work um it will help you build your skills as well okay so
8:22 you get a new perspective on on how a particular problem can be approached okay and then finally resources I I spoke about uh you know classes and certification programs those those are a type of resource but there are others so um there can be many um professional organizations have uh libraries available to you um off oftentimes they're online um they have U just you know General online learning resources um again talking about Pac
8:57 they have a whole series very they they generally speaking um catalog the various trainings that they've done over the years and you can go back and and look at those um which is which is very handy it's it's great to be able to be able to just be able to review things it doesn't those don't necessarily you know enhance your skills um but it's it's good to to get up to date um other resources I'm going to talk about some other resources that are of of a non knowledge and learning uh perspective um
9:32 but um so oh oh another Professional Organization in which I'm involved um the society for military history so um one of the resources that you get as a member of this organization is access to um I think it's called Eco host basically it's an online searchable database for articles related to military history history so if if you know if I were writing an article I I I could go to that and and I would be able to log on and that's
10:07 included in my membership um if I had to buy that membership in Epco separately um it it would be very costly so academic databases oftentimes um you know several hundreds if not thousand you know in some cases thousands of dollars um depending on the breadth of the database access that you have so so that's a terrific resource that um you get being a member of the Society of military history you know if it's something that interests you in this case um while it's a Professional
10:44 Organization I'm not a professional historian um I'm I'm an avid lay historian I call myself um for those of you who have who watch my other Show Business lessons from the military so that that has U grown out of that um uh you know that that interest in in in military history so okay uh okay anyway I got I got a a chat comment here um from dve so I don't know they I guess they they discovered my
11:19 show so anyway knowledge and learning is is one uh one benefit from being part of a Professional Organization okay next is professional development so one of the things about being in a professional organization is you have an opportunity to become part of the leadership okay and and in some cases you can become part of leadership pretty quickly so um you know honestly if if I think if I um wanted to have a
11:54 leadership role in one of the local chapters of Pac even though I've only been a member for about a year and a half I I probably could could get it um many of these organizations uh struggle to to to find leadership because um you don't get paid for doing these jobs well you don't get a monetary payment for doing these jobs the the remuneration you get um is is experience it's the ability to meet people at a higher level
12:29 um it's the ability to have an a larger impact on your profession or your industry okay and and and it it's those kind of things so I I I I would argue that taking a leadership role is very remunerative even though um the organization itself is is not paying you um so um and then in being in a leadership role you get a chance to hone your leadership skills um typically there are people in a professional organization who have not
13:05 only been in the industry your industry a long long time um but they've also been in leadership roles especially if it's a large organization so um the the uh senior leadership um you know may also be senior people in your industry so they may be senior Executives or they may be you know very long long long tenured individuals for example in um uh the um bar associations or or the CPA associations um senior leadership tends
13:41 to be those who have been in the profession for a long long time and so not only do they have very deep knowledge about their profession but they probably also have a lot of experience leading teams or or running a comfort of thing and so especially if you are new to to a profession being part of a Professional Organization can give you an opportunity for um for mentorship um outside of the firm that you work for or if you're if you have your own firm it gives you uh you know
14:17 again an opportunity for mentorship that you don't have within your own firm okay second um you have an opportunity to develop your resume and portfolios so especially if you're in a leadership position in a professional organization that's something you can put on your resume and it will enhance your professional prospects so let's say that you're relatively new to an industry um and yet you know you've been able to get even a a you know an entrylevel leadership position in a professional
14:55 organization um that's that still shows that someone has recognized your ability to lead and you've also shown that that you have um the desire to do that um and and so that all redounds to your um you know to your benefit okay a portfolio so um you know a as a in a professional um uh organization there are opportunities to give talks and and and as I mentioned earlier in the learning and knowledge
15:30 section to potentially teach uh workshops or whatever so that all expands your P the portfolio of what you've been able to do okay and then third um your your reputation so um by participating in a professional organization your name is more likely to become known by others in your field so um whereas in your company um you know you may be a mid-level person um at the same
16:06 time if if you've worked to become uh if you've worked your way through the leadership of a Professional Organization you could be known for being you know vice president of of X or you know president of X so um uh you know um well I'm not going to use this example because I don't want to I don't want to potentially embarrass someone but but um uh but in any event um you know being known in an industry or a profession um can be um very very important and it can and and when you
16:42 have a higher profile reputation that can also bring to you opportunities that you might not otherwise have had because people don't know your name okay so professional development okay relationship building so I think when people when people um think about professional organizations one of the first things that comes to mind is networking so um I specifically
17:17 don't use that term here and and and there's a reason why um I think networking has become um non-descriptive of the process that really needs to take place and that's why I use the term relationship building okay so um it's all good and well to go to a meeting uh a oneoff you know networking meeting or whatever um and and you know
17:56 meet a bunch of people maybe get I you know for those who still off said you know give them out business cards and all of that um in the end that's going to have very little impact on your professional success what's going to have impact is the building of the relationships that starts at that networking event so networking is all fine and good but it's only the very very preliminary step okay so what you're what we're
18:32 really looking to do is to build connections build relationships and in doing so um um build a support network of individuals who are in our industry in our profession who are wrestling with similar challenges to the ones we're wrestling with that we can share resources with we can um have conversations with and get thoughts
19:07 about how to deal with you know different issues etc etc um and and over time um build the same kind of relationships that we might have in our personal lives okay um and and really the best business relationships are those that are friendships as well um now in large companies where there's a lot of corporate politics that can sometimes be frankly difficult um because you know you're sometimes you're not sure you know is is does this person really have my best interests or are
19:42 they you know they playing sort of office office politics so I think that you know one has to be a little more uh careful in in situations like that nonetheless um the building of solid connections um is is a is a big part of being in a professional organization and the typically the regular participation in that organization seeing people on a regular basis communicating with them on a regular basis that provides a forum
20:19 through which these relationships can be created okay and and and in in the end that's what it takes to build a relationship is ongoing contact with someone um that that um helps you to get to know the other person better helps you understand them better etc etc okay now I mentioned in the in the last slide um mentorship this is also a function of relationship building so if you're a more senior person then one of the um
20:55 best ways to participate in a profession organization is by offering mentorship to people who are younger less experienced than you are um as they work their way work their professional journey through you know through their life and and a mentorship relationship is is different than a a peer relationship typically um but it is it can be equally as valuable um and the thing about a mentorship relationship and I I I it's important I think for us to um keep this in mind is um The
21:35 MENTOR should be getting as much out of it as the mentee and and what I mean is um The MENTOR should be learning and growing too okay so um you know mentees will I don't know they'll sometimes send gifts or you know bring cookie I mean that's all that's a very nice don't get me wrong but that's not the kind of benefit that I'm talking about um on on the mentor for you know for the mentor so um as a mentee someone who's being
22:12 mentored part of your responsibility is to be thoughtful about how you engage with your Mentor okay um they're not just you know someone for you to call when when you're just stressed there's someone with whom you are exploring your professional relationship looking to learn and at the same time providing them with an opportunity to lead in a a one-on-one
22:48 sense if you will um but also learn better how to um how to work with um you know Young upand comers okay so um you know each generation kind of has a different way of relating to work they have a different way different ways of learning because of of what they've been exposed to in school Etc and so that's something as a mentee that you can bring to your Mentor that can help them so a
23:23 mentor mentee relationship is a mutually beneficial relationship um it it it tends to just it it's it's less of a peer relationship in in the sense of age peer experience peer Etc okay and then finally job opportunities so as you build relationships as people get to know you um as you you know build your reputation in the organization so you know almost inevitably job opportunities will arise
23:58 so the fact of the matter is for all the explosion over the last whatever it's been 20 25 years of online job boards and all that kind of stuff it is still the case that the vast majority of people hired come through personal contacts okay so you can post 200 résumés a day on job boards and do that day after day week after week month after month and not get a job especially the high high quality the job the more likely it's going to be filled through
24:33 some kind of personal contact and so if you're looking to advance your career um the the one of the best ways to do that is through building relationships um especially with people outside your immediate uh your outside the company for which you work or or you know outside of of your company um um and I mean I would I'm not saying that you you know want to hang on this all the time but just creating those relationships creating that reputation
25:09 inevitably they're going to come to you okay next so some other benefits of being in a professional organization um one of them is insurance and and and multiple types of insurance so often times professional organizations offer things like health insurance disability insurance that um you may not be able that you may not um get at your company or um if you especially if you have your own business
25:45 may be much more expensive for you to buy um on your own um and you so you can get it um at a at a discounted rate um because you're it's it's it's the organization offers what amounts to almost a um a a company plan um and so you know they're a the the the insurance company is able to spread their risk out over a lot more people and so therefore um they can reduce the premiums um but you can also if you're in a profession um you can get oftentimes uh
26:20 professional liability insurance so in my previous real estate company I was a member of the American Society of appraisers the ASA and one of the reasons was uh because I could get um errors and omissions insurance for appraisers um much more economically than I would have been without having that membership and that's that's a huge huge benefit um and so um you know these days it seems like people are ever ever more litigious and so having that kind
26:56 of insurance is is is very important um so um again that's I think that's one of the key benefits of of being a part of a Professional Organization another um benefit is is just discounts so you may be able to get things like travel discounts um I know as a member of the Society of military history um I get discounts on office supplies from Office Depot uh I'm not sure why that's the case to be honest I mean you know I mean I know why because Office Depot has that
27:33 relationship with the um SMH um but I'm not sure why Office Depot was offering it to you know people who are members of that group but I mean I'm glad they do it saved me money over the years um it it's annoyed the people who work at at Office Depot because the little tag you get on your keychain is not scanable so they have to punch in the numbers by hand but you know um small price to pay I suppose um you know you can have um like discounts for you know amusement parks or you know movies I don't know
28:08 you know depending on the size of the company they can have you know huge huge I mean not not size company depending on the size of the organization they can have all kinds of um you know discount benefits so um and and those are nice you know especially if you have a family and you know you travel or whatever often times you can you can take advantage of those discounts and then another uh benefit is you have a community so people who are in your industry who are in your profession um as I've mentioned a few times already they're likely to have similar challenges to yours and it's it's it's
28:45 good to be able to um uh you know talk to people um and and who you know who can understand um what it is you're dealing with with so um uh you know you even if you're not um you know actively looking for support so to speak um knowing that that support is there can you know can provide some some emotional Comfort if nothing else um and um oftentimes you know if something
29:20 really you know difficult happens in your life I think you will see members of the your you know Prof Prof organization Community kind of rally around you help you out that sort of thing um and and that can be again that can be a a source of great comfort um you know in those troubled times and as well um it gives you know us an opportunity to help other people right which I think is equally important um I mean there's there's lots of discussions about this with the you know the rise of
29:55 social media and such that the sense of community that people feel you know in indeed at postco um has has um has dropped significantly and and so um having that there can be um very important and and the opportunity to give is at least as important if not more important than the ability to receive and so um I again I would um put community at as as one of the um you know key benefits uh of being
30:34 in a professional associ professional organization Association okay and so some best practices first of all make sure that whatever organization you join is the right Organization for you okay so um I I'll I'll I'll give you an example um although as an appraiser um um in my previous real estate company as an appraiser I I belong to the American Society of
31:09 appraisers um and I was you know I was a little bit involved in that not not a whole lot frankly because as I mentioned before I did it primarily for um the uh Eno Insurance discount um the organization with which I was most active was a CPA's organization called the credit grantors committee and the reality is I I wanted to be a part of an organization that would help me um enlarge my practice and so I was the
31:46 only appraiser who who was involved in in that group and so when someone in the group needed an appraiser or had a situation where and appraiser was needed and they wanted to make a referral I was pretty much it right and so um that for me being um in in that organization was um uh a big boost for my business and then also um I was able to learn a lot about other areas of
32:23 practice that were much more lucrative for me um then I necessarily would have working for other appra not working for um being in an organization with other appraisers so while I liked the um educational opportunities um that the ASA the American Society of appraisers offered and and and the different you know books they published Etc um when it came to expanding my practice um and and um figure fing out you know sort of
32:58 guiding that the journey I wanted to take um much more of that came from my involvement with uh the CPA California Society of CPAs and with uh various bar associations because again I did a lot of work with lawyers so excuse me um when so I think you know we need to we need to consider why are we getting involved with an organiz ization um and and that goes back to some of the um various benefits that I
33:33 talked about before are we doing it to um enhance our knowledge are we doing it to create relationships and grow our business are we doing it to build a sense of community um and and in the case of the CP California Society CPA um I'm still friends um with with people I met in that organization now more than 30 years ago in fact one of them lives kind of up the hill from me um and um and we still discuss various uh business
34:09 matters um from from time to time so um you know they they become part of my life at this point so um you know because then looking at best practice number two so let me skip to that and then I'll go back to the SEC to the first one because for for for you to get value from a professional association you want you need to be not you want to be you need to be active and engaged in what's going
34:44 on that's a big time commitment and so to justify making that time commitment you really need to be clear about what do I want to get from this Professional Organization okay or from my involvement in the Professional Organization okay because what you're going to find is if you're in the wrong organization you're spending a tremendous amount of time to to know a veil and that that ends up being very frustrating and then probably eventually you're you're GNA quit and so um you you
35:21 would have been much better off to um in the beginning maybe check out several organizations um you know get to know a few people a little bit and kind of see what's really going on um before you make a major commitment um to to the organization so um that's that's the phase that that I'm in right now is I'm I'm looking at as I mentioned a few organizations um and and deciding you know which which ones or which one you know do I really want to make a major
35:57 commitment to so that I can be active I can be engaged and I'll feel like it's worthwhile because it's helping me meet my professional goals okay and and so then that leads to the third best practice which is um you need to be patient and persistent so um depending on the size of the organization okay if if you really desire to um you know to move up in the organization um it really takes patience and and persistence um so I I'll go back to the
36:35 SMH Society mil for military history um this is a National Organization it's it's quite large um now I don't aspire to holding an officership in the organization um but I become friends with someone who is now the president of the organization and um she's she's been a long time member so it wasn't like she joined the group and a few years later she became the president she worked her way up slowly but surely until now she's the president of the organization and and good for her um that patience and
37:12 persistence paid off it's it's it's I I I think that's admirable um so from a from a you know leadership standpoint that's when it's going to take but also from now if you're looking to um get business from being involved in an organization again you have to be patient and persistent so it's unlikely that you're going to get business right off the bat it could be six months 12 months even longer for people to get to know you well enough understand your business well enough especially if if
37:47 you take the route that I described with um my being an appraiser involved with accountants while accountants you know in general they know what appraisers do um you know how exactly they can help you um more broadly than oh I need an appraiser for this specific thing they're not going to be necessarily be familiar with that because that's not their business so you're going to have to help them learn that and it's going to take time for it to kind of sink in to build the relationship so um again patience and persistence are really what
38:24 it's going to take um in in order for being involved in a professional organization to bear fruit okay so next let's talk about journals so um just like with um uh professional organizations there are benefits to um um um being in involved I'm going to use that term somewhat Loosely um in professional journals um and and there are some best practices so um one is stay informed the first is stay informed two develop expertise
39:01 three build relationships um there's a theme there right and four we'll talk about some other benefits and then five we'll go over some best practices so um let's let's look at stay informed first so um a professional Journal is going to be the place where the latest research the emerging technology and trends are first likely to be sort of codified and identified in a coherent way so the kind of informal exchange of information and
39:37 such that may happen as part of a um uh involvement in a professional organization is going to make its way into professional journals okay and and often times a Professional Organization will publ publish a professional Journal so I'll give you an example Society of military history they they publish a journal quarterly called the journal for military history and in that publication they typically have
40:13 three long research pieces on various aspects of military history and then several dozen book reviews on recently published books okay and and I I know my earliest sort of active involvement in the society for military history was writing book reviews for that journal it just it just so happened that um I had written some encyclopedia articles for the um
40:51 editor at the journal for military history um who was in charge of of dolling out who's going to write which book reviews he was the book review editor basically and and so after I wrote those articles um for the encyclopedia he was editing he asked me if I'd be interested in you know doing some book reviews and I thought it'd be fun now by the way one of the cool things about doing a book review is you get a copy of the book for free so for a biblo file like me that that was great I you know I was able to build up my library a little bit um and um and and
41:26 it was also fun and it was a way uh sometimes of knowing about uh sort of knowledge and research Trends um that were happening in the field um before they were you know at least generally known to the public um so these are all parts of of of a following and and and um I I follow a couple of um histor history professional journals and one of the reasons I do so is to find out what not only what's going on in terms of
42:01 Trends in historical um uh research Etc but also what's going on um um in terms of research in the areas that are of most interest to me so what are the leading topics in um World War II research what are the leading topics in um library and Museum history research that that sort of thing okay so um uh you know um sort of like professional journals many um organizations also have
42:38 uh periodic newsletters oftentimes quarterly so those aren't really a journal per se um but they are um they're typically keeping you up to date with um uh happenings in the organization um but sometimes you know these these quarterly bulletins will also touch on um you know emerging technology latest research Trends Etc um and so you know we'll we'll talk about this more under best practices but um you know which one of these are you going
43:13 which one of the you know thousands upon thousands maybe tens of thousands of professional journals um are you going to um follow because um generally speaking just like with organizations you you you're going to want to find one or maybe two that you read on a regular basis okay next so um develop expertise so um I I remember again this is going back to my first business um one of the things I was in while I was
43:49 in the real estate business I also had a a a very keen interest in the entertainment business and so um I wanted to expand my knowledge um and the way I did and I I was talking to a friend of mine um about that and and what he told me is he said read one of the trades every day cover to cover okay and and that's what I did I started reading daily variety which was which is one of the two best known um um entertainment business trade Publications the other being The
44:24 Hollywood Reporter um at the time they were print Publications um and I would get it every morning and I would read it pretty much cover to cover and and pretty quickly within about a year I I had a very uh I think a reasonably indepth knowledge for someone who was not actively involved in the business yet I had some tangential involvement but I wasn't active on a day-to-day basis and and that allowed me then to get involved in a more solid way so um reading reading regularly a
45:01 professional publication a professional Journal will help you build your knowledge base it will also stimulate critical thinking so especially if it's a a research article that sort of thing so um you know as you read these um do they make sense are do they align with your experience if they don't with your experience why might that be is there something going on um in your practice that's that's different than what the writer of the article in that journal
45:38 experienced or um maybe the the writer um actually you know he he didn't research his topic well something like that so um just because it's printed in a professional publication um it can't be necessarily taken at face value and since you're involved in the industry as well you'll have the knowledge base to really look at what's being presented and and and um and approach it from the standpoint of how valid does this appear
46:13 to me okay um finally we're g I think the next point is going to get into that a little bit more so that's why I'm going to stop on that there also I don't want to run out of time so um also you can publish articles so as I was saying with the journal for military history I wrote book reviews um it it was it was fun it was interesting um and through publishing my own writing um it it it gave me um the uh confidence to
46:49 look to get published in other areas um so whereas my my earliest professional writing aside from like a self-published newsletter um was was for was Bill basically oriented around military history the fact that I I you know was able to do these articles um in the case of the encyclopedia articles I did get compensated interestingly enough I didn't think I was going to um I got a a free set of the encyclopedias along with um uh they were like sort of gift
47:25 certificat get to buy more books from the publisher which which for me was as good as money because um this particular publisher um had a line of books I was very interested in in buying but they were kind of expensive and so you know with these gift certificates I was able to buy the whole range of books um uh so um on on the basis of that I I felt like I I could you know go on and write other things which I did I I started um I I first expanded into to more sort of General articles on military policy I did several of those um and since then
48:02 I've I've written on um some other topics so um I I think I mentioned uh last week I've got a new website in the offing and so um once that website is up you can go to the publication section you can see the kind of stuff I did um I think the most recent thing was I I wrote uh uh a letter for the Wall Street Journal that got published and you know for me that was that was a big thing I mean I'd love to get an article published in the Wall Street Journal frankly um but even just to have the letter published was was very cool um and I even got a text message from uh um
48:37 my former uh running partner saying wow I saw your piece in the Wall Street Journal it was great you know kind of thing so so it was neat um and and and so you know this is a good place to get started if you have the writing bug um and and want to do something along those lines um I since i' I I've also written a book I'm working on actually a friend of mine is working on a publisher for it so um these are this is another way of developing your expertise your your ability to communicate in
49:13 writing okay next um so again um build relationships this is you know fairly similar to um what we talked about um in um in in being a part of an organization in this case though um if you're there's a couple ways you can build relationships um with uh by reading a professional journals so one is and and I've done this um many times in the past
49:48 is to reach out to people who have written pieces that you find interesting that you like that you have questions about um what I found is in general um the writers welcome my contacting them okay now by the way they don't always take it seriously I won't give the name of the of the one that still stands out of my mind as being you know pretty dismissive and rude about my contacting him on his piece but whatever that's how some people are um but in other cases um I've I've reached out to
50:25 authors um and we have actually uh created relationships um so um in one that jumps to mind um and and all of a sudden I've gone up on his name uh Stephen I can't think of his last name anyway um he wrote a book on um journalism in World War II um it's called the war it was called it's still called the war beat Europe um it's it's a wonderful book and um I I just looked up you know his name and found he he's a
51:01 professor at the London School of economics and I I sent him an email um saying I I re I just read your book or just finished reading your book really enjoyed it it's a fascinating topic and I I thought you know was written very very well I think I asked him a question or two about it and you know lo and behold he responded um and we um some subsequent to that actually um met uh face to face well not face to face literally but virtually in a zoom meeting and and we talked we since then we we've done that a few other times um
51:36 and it turned out he was writing a second book called The War beat Pacific um and he asked me if I would um read the book um and give him input on it to improve it because since I had been in the military I had that perspective um I've been in the American military he's he's um he's a a britisher um and and he thought that that would be useful and indeed you know I agreed to it was great um it was really fun being able to read a a a a book in G which is meaning in the pages before it's
52:12 published um and lo and behold very very nice of him he acknowledged me in the acknowledgements of the book which is you know that's kind of nice I mean I I didn't do it for that reason and I assure you I did it because we were we we we were building a relationship and I wanted to help them out and I was interested in the subject so um that's one way that um you can build relationships is by reaching out to people whose work you um like and respect um and another is um by you know
52:48 being a part of um the the team that produces um the journal or produces content for the the journal getting to know some of the key players the editors Etc um like I mentioned with um the journal for military history um and in that way um you you know you have an opportunity to meet key players um within the journal or or if if if the journal is part of an organization then within the organization as well so um and and it's a it you're building a different kind of relationship typically
53:24 um than and you might in a um uh in an organization among the the sort of General membership um because this is probably going to be based on some kind of intellectual interest in your industry or profession okay and and um and and again it can be very very fulfilling and really help you develop your knowledge okay I think we got a couple more slides yeah okay so other benefit benefits of um of reading and being
53:59 involved in the production of a professional Journal first of all it's you're going to um improve your written communication skills so um the the various book reviews that I've written the various articles that I've written um they're always subject to editing by people who even if they're doing it on a voluntary basis are professionals at editing and such and and so the quality of my uh writing has uh improved over over the years I it's been a lot of years now that I've been doing this I
54:34 think about 15 20 years that I've been doing these various writing projects um and and as well um my desire to improve my writing skills um has has also risen because I want to keep you know doing keep keep getting making my writing better and better and better so um that's that's a I think a key benefit another is is is is problem solving so um by um writing about an issue that
55:14 you're facing in your practice or in your business often times you you can figure out a way to solve a problem either because you need to do research on on the problem and and and dive into information and such that perhaps you hadn't considered before or Andor you'll have to work through it and and that process of working through it will lead you to some kind of solution um and so um the the whole the whole writing process um depending on on the subject
55:52 of course is often times a problem solving process and so um if you're writing an article for sure you have that opportunity but even reading a journal you'll get new ideas about how you could potentially uh solve or deal with various challenges in your practice or in your industry in your business and so um that that is is a is a big benefit and finally confidence so um H you know being familiar with a
56:30 key source of information for your industry that alone will likely give you confidence going forward number one um but especially if you decide to um participate in it the confidence you get from writing being published or if you get even if you get into the editorial staff of of reviewing other people's writing and working with them to make it better all of that builds your own confidence um and and that's that is really a great side benefit in and in
57:07 fact if you know as as I was talking about I I I mentioned this as I was talking about um doing the encyclopedia articles and the book reviews it gave me the confidence then to go on and do other types of writing that I I'm not sure I would have um attempted to do had I not had that earlier experience um you know like like writing a book I'm I'm not sure I you know writing a book is is a lot of work um it's a great experience um but you know
57:43 had I not been had I not had those other writing experiences which also led me to um start my own blog and to be a regular blogger for many years all of that gave me the confidence then to to write a book okay and uh we're we're going to we're going to run out of time here in a minute so I'm going to go ahead quickly on okay so we're gonna talk about some best best practices so like with um deciding about which organization or organizations to be involved with um the journals you want to read and follow
58:19 need to be relevant to your practice now um you're probably not going to um get business from being involved in a journal or from reading a journal um so in this case the journals you read you know should focus on the um industry in in which you're a part um and and help you expand your knowledge expand your ability to solve problems um etc etc etc okay having uh and and and there are as
58:56 I mentioned in the beginning thousands if not tens of thousands of journals so um before you settle on which which one or two or three maybe that you're going to follow on a regular basis keeping in mind oftentimes they can be expensive to subscribe to um you really want to see the whole range of what's out there um so that you can then Focus your your time and attention on the most relevant journals okay so um in in my case um there isn't a
59:33 professional fiduciaries Journal yet um but uh they do a uh I believe it's a quarterly newsletter so I read that um there are um bulletins issued by the state of California I read those um and and and you know that's that's where that is um one of the things I'm I'm looking at now is um finding the U the best professional journal or two that deals with trust and estate issues beyond the professional fiduciary realm
60:08 to continue to increase um my knowledge in in that respect and as you might imagine there's quite a number of them so finding the one that's going to be best um you know I want to take some time to do that the one that's going to be most relevant to my practice okay and then finally engage in the ways that I've been talking about engage with the writers um engage with the editorial staff ask questions um suggest topics for articles um just just beware that if
60:43 you're suggesting topics the response you might get is yeah we like that topic uh why don't you write it okay they may take it as an article query which wouldn't be a bad thing by the way um and and and by the way you another way to engage in a journal is to do a formal formal query a query is a uh it's basically a a letter of interest um or an email of interest to the publication about having you write an article on a particular subject um and I guess you know maybe in another another show I can talk about how to do um queries and that
61:20 sort of thing so um engage in an again engage with the the writers engage with the editorial staff okay um and I think that's it for the slides so um you know what and I I I realized I forgot to put this in where do you find professional organizations where do you find journals and and the the the simplest thing is well there there there are two main places I would go one is you can do an internet search and just search you know indust your industry and Professional Organization
61:56 or just your industry and organizations so let's say you're into cyber security okay so cyber security professional organizations just search that and you're going to get you know a list of whatever ones are out there okay um if you're you know an accountant you know you're there's going to be a state accountant accountants uh at least one estate accounting professional organization uh sometimes more than one um but there's also going to be or organizations that that are more specialized focused so if you're a tax accountant there's probably um tax
62:32 accounting uh you know specialty organization um a as well as in the in the large organization there's probably a section for tax accountants okay so so that's where to find organizations another place to find them is to go to LinkedIn and find a group in link in on your profession on your industry Etc and then ask people join the group and ask people in the group what are the professional organizations out there that they might
63:07 recommend okay and and and they'll they'll tell you um there's a you know probably a reasonable chance officers from these organizations are part of the group and and one of the things that's always uppermost in an officer mind is increasing membership so they're going to be happy to tell you about it and help you find information okay and and essentially the same applies with journals so um if you're looking for journals you can do an internet search um you can go to uh a LinkedIn group and ask them about professional journals um you can go to libraries go to a business
63:44 Library um um uh like at at your local University um if they have a business school they'll have a business Library you you can probably go down there you may not be able to take them out but you can look at them there in the library and see what journals are there um as well as talk to the reference Librarians about different journals out there and the reference Librarians can help you nowadays a lot of reference librarian services are available online so you don't necessarily have to go to uh to you know to the library so for example
64:19 if if you're in the entertainment business um you can contact the um Academy film Library um which is located here in Los Angeles on the corner of uh I think it's Olympic and La Siena um I don't remember the name of the building but anyway um you can I I think you can email the um the Librarians I know you can call them and if you're looking for professional journals or trade journals in the entertainment business in this case specifically the film business um they'll be they'll be happy to help you so
64:54 think about you know think about those kinds those are some examples to use um but you can always um uh you know refocus those same kinds of things into your own industry okay and um just dovetailing on that if you have any questions or you want some help finding relevant professional organizations or professional journals feel free to drop me an email or put a comment into social media all these links will be in the show notes after the show posts so um
65:29 I'm happy to help you out um one of the reasons I know about reference Librarians is because um I have a degree in library in information science and so I'm happy to put those skills to you know to your service and helping you find these out um I if if you would like um and then uh I think the final slide is as always the legal stuff right there we go the legal stuff so okay uh go ahead and and and stop this go back to uh the regular thing so um I thank you very much for joining me um I I would
66:04 absolutely encourage you find at least one Professional Organization to get involved with find at least one professional journal to follow and and really learn from no matter what your business is now I've been using the term professional but you know if if you're an elect nurition um or you're in more of a a so-called trade business a plumber those kind of things there are still organizations out there first of all you may have a union and a union is is kind of a is is is essentially a Professional Organization it's just of a
66:41 different form and it has um additional purposes to it um besides um uh knowledge and networking that kind of stuff um now having said that if if I were um um in a you know construction trades especially like a plumber electrician those kind of things while it's fine to be a part of the union and all of that um I would recommend that you get involved in like some kind of real estate organization where you're going to meet a lot of real estate agents property managers people like that who need services like the kind
67:16 that you offer okay or a building you know if if you don't do repairs but you do new construction so then get involved D in a building construction um there are different um I can't think of the name of the organization there's a National Organization of multif family um residence Builders and I think they have some local chapters as well um they certainly have a publication I used to read it um I think it was a monthly publication um back when I had my real estate company so you know look for professional organizations to be involved with where your customers or
67:53 clients your professional customer potential I should say uh clients or customers may be um and and and become a part of them um and and and you know really really get involved really engage okay so um again thank you very much for viewing this is our final show for the week so I'm going to wish you not only a great rest of the day but a a wonderful rest of the week as well uh next week we start again at 10:00 a.m Monday Pacific time uh with trust and Estates weekly
68:29 Tuesday at 10: a.m. Pacific time is business lessons from the military and then seven days from today we'll be back with the next edition of people making money um and I know I have some guests coming up next week I off the top of my head I don't remember them I believe a week from today uh is my guests will be um Aaron and Kelsey Holtzman now you may remember Aaron um was a guest on my show um uh several weeks ago he's uh an entrepreneurial accountant um based in
69:04 Austin Texas and um at at the end of the show or maybe this was after the show concluded um Ain and I were talking about um what it was like to start a business when you know when when you're married and so um we're going to explore that subject and and I invite you to join us for that um because it's it's really an important topic if you're already in business I think you'll learn from um the interaction between Aaron and Kelsey as they talk about how they dealt with the
69:39 various challenges and if you're a business owner and you're not married and maybe you're a little bit apprehensive about getting married so then I also encourage you to to watch this show because I think you will find that um that that um Aaron and Kelsey being married was not a hindrance to their professional success rather um it was a a support to their professional success so um I I I again I I invite you I encourage you to tune in a week from today so one last time thanks again for watching um all the best to you and
70:15 signing off as I always do Marie you're my bell all the best folks