Rapid Fire Resilience Interview No. 3 - Tony Albrecht
Rapid Fire Resilience Interview No. 3 - Tony Albrecht
One ex-lawyer's sobriety journey from rock bottom in Guam to new heights in the Digital Arena.
How often do people get to feature their boss in their newsletter? More importantly: how often do people want to feature their boss in their newsletter?
I’d say it’s pretty rare.
In a world where many are “quiet-quitting” or getting burnt out - I’ve found myself on a team that makes me look forward to every meeting we have. This is largely due to Tony Albrecht, my boss and the founder of CONTENDER.
CONTENDER exists to help law firms develop and execute effective strategies for sharing their message and building an audience on LinkedIn as a way to generate referrals and grow revenue.
But at the core of it is a message that Tony not only preaches about but practices too: be authentic, be true, be creative.
I hope that everyone can one day find themselves in an environment where their coworkers and boss push them to be the best version of themselves. Hearing Tony’s sobriety journey and his decision to leave the law in pursuit of his creative dreams has been a gift to me.
One that I want to share with you today:
Rapid Fire Resilience Interview No. 3
Can you share a moment in your life where you became a more resilient person - if not immediately in that moment, then in hindsight?
On Thanksgiving night of 2009, I regained consciousness on a concrete slab in a jail cell on the island of Guam.
I had graduated from law school in my hometown of St. Louis 6 months earlier and was just 3 months into my first job as a lawyer.
While I had taken more than one criminal law course in law school, I hadn’t learned until that night that if you end up flat on your back during a field sobriety test, that’s an automatic fail.
Based on the story you shared previously, what was it specifically about that experience that cultivated resilience?
The beautifully terrible thing about resilience is that you can only get it by getting knocked down. Chances are that the moments that most contribute to resilience are the ones we look back on with gratitude to some degree, even though they felt like hell in the moment.
I went to my first AA meeting a week after that night. It was in those rooms, I learned the saying that you hit rock bottom when you stop digging.
That’s when I stopped digging. And getting knocked down that time was painful enough that I became open to considering alternative ways of thinking and behaving. Suddenly I liked the idea of becoming less likely to get knocked down that way again.
So that experience both taught me I could get up in difficult circumstances and also that I could, in fact, learn. I could change. I could even get a little bit better by, in AA terms, making the next best decision one day at a time.
What would you advise to someone who is facing a similar situation?
My advice to addicts and alcoholics?
You’re ready when you’re ready.
Try to mitigate the damage until that point. You’re going to make mistakes and screw things up. Try to keep those mistakes from being irreversibly catastrophic.
You’re not the star of this movie. Life will get better when you accept that.
There is life after booze. Possibly, life even gets better.
“So that experience both taught me I could get up in difficult circumstances and also that I could, in fact, learn. I could change. I could even get a little bit better by, in AA terms, making the next best decision one day at a time.”
Tony spent more than a decade as an insurance defense litigator on the (in)famous Madison County Asbestos Circuit. Initially, LinkedIn was nothing more than a digital resume. He had 368 connections and had posted almost nothing by the time he left the law in 2021. One year later, his content was seen 2.9M times. His network grew to more than 6,500. Additionally, Tony realized that almost every law firm is missing the plot for how to effectively leverage LinkedIn. So, he started CONTENDER to help law firms develop and execute effective strategies for sharing their message and building an audience on LinkedIn as a way to generate referrals and grow revenue.
You can learn more about CONTENDER here:
https://contenderllc.com/
My Top 3 Recommendations
Factor Nutrition
I’ve been wanting to try out a meal-prep delivery service for years now and finally took the leap due to some health goals I’m working on. I’ve seen Factor everywhere on social media which is why it was my first pick. If the first meal I tried last night (a Spicy Turkey Poblano Bowl) is indicative of the rest of the meals…I might just be hooked. Try it for yourself.
Day Trading Attention: How to Actually Build Brand and Sales in the New Social Media World by Gary Vaynerchuk
I’m only 50 pages into this book and have realized a couple thing. I was either (1) going about the wrong way with my social presence or (2) have been ignorant about certain social media capabilities. This is an easy read and provides a breakdown of how to be successful on social media. So far, yes, it sounds similar to information I’ve heard before BUT what sets Vaynerchuk apart is his authenticity and the fact that he practices what he preaches. Check out the book in more detail.
The End of Trauma: How the New Science of Resilience Is Changing How We Think About PTSD by Dr. George A. Bonanno
Does that name sound familiar? It should! I referenced some of Dr. Bonanno’s remarks from a 2013 panel in my last newsletter. As I was trying to find follow up research for each doctor or scientist that I mentioned, I came across his latest book from 2021. It’s on my to-read pile and I plan on picking it up next. Trauma (and resilience, to be fair) has been a buzzword so I’m itching to read what his results were on the intersection of the two. Check out the book here.