Bill Barrett, CEO of the law firm Mandelbaum Barrett and author of Authentic, shares the lessons he learned from his father Dave: be transformational instead of transactional, live from abundance instead of scarcity, and give without keeping score. One lunch with an adversary turned into seven years of work.
"Trying to be transformational in all of your relationships instead of transactional is probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest, takeaway." — Bill Barrett
In this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times, Chris Schembra sits down with Bill Barrett, CEO of Mandelbaum Barrett, a full-service law firm headquartered in New Jersey with over 150 attorneys practicing in 30 practice areas. Bill hosts the Fingerprints on Success podcast. His new book, Authentic, came out in May. It's a tribute to his father, Dave, built on the business principles Dave taught him: integrity, presence, resilience, and relationships that outlast transactions.
Asked the 7:47 gratitude question, Bill thanks his dad, whose "fingerprints are kinda all over the person that I've become." From there the conversation turns to Bill's core message. Relationships should be transformational, not transactional. And because fewer people work that way today, the ones who do stand out.
Bill shares the stories behind that belief. A fellow managing partner snubbed him at a conference, and the moment showed him the scarcity he never wants to live in. He met a young lawyer for lunch, gave advice freely, and a month later that relationship brought a fabulous engagement, with referrals flowing in both directions ever since. Then there's the single largest piece of business of his career. After settling a contentious non-compete dispute, Bill invited opposing counsel, Seth, to a Friday lunch to celebrate the good work they'd done for their clients. The next Monday, Seth and his managing partner called with a referral that became over a million dollars a year of legal work for seven consecutive years.
Chris connects the stories to Seneca's "bookkeeping of benefits," to Adam Grant's Give and Take, and to a friend who donated to his clients' favorite charities and then shredded the receipts. Bill describes how his friend Mark Murphy leads with people's dangers, opportunities, and strengths. They also talk about why Bill hires "unicorns" with old-school values, the Zig Ziglar tapes his dad played on the commute from New Jersey to New York City, and Chris's first-ever rapid-fire questions from his upcoming book, Earn Connection.