This week’s edition is a little different.

I’m writing it from my hotel room in Riga, Latvia.

In two days’ time, I’ll be delivering a full-day seminar to the tax lawyers of Sorainen — one of the most prominent law firms in the Baltic region.

Here’s how that happened.

In the summer of 2020, I joined an online programme called The Creative’s Workshop, led by Seth Godin.

The core commitment was simple and demanding:

Create and ship something every day for 100 days.

That is where I wrote my book The MARVEL of Happiness.

It is also where I met Janis Taukacs, a tax partner at Soraine, who was working on his own project at the time.

We connected through the workshop and stayed in touch over the years — through Zoom calls, emails, and by engaging thoughtfully with each other’s work on LinkedIn and elsewhere.

No pitching. No chasing.

Just consistency and mutual respect.

A few years later, I delivered an online workshop to his firm and got to know the team better.

Then, a few months ago, I wrote to Janis to let him know that my flagship programme — Marvellous Client Care & Professional Excellence in the Age of Legal Disruption — had gained significant momentum after being officially accredited by the Cyprus Bar Association for 6 CPDs – the only such program of its kind to be fully accredited.

We scheduled a call.

On that call, I did something very deliberate:

I presented the programme properly.

Structure.

Rationale.

Case studies.

How it would be adapted to SORAINEN’s specific realities.

In other words, to sell a presentation, I delivered a presentation about the presentation.

Janis asked for the full proposal.

He shared it internally.

The team responded positively — helped, I’m sure, by the fact that Janis himself was genuinely excited about the substance.

Flights were booked.

Hotels were booked.

And today, I’m sitting in Riga, preparing for the session.

So what’s the real lesson here?

Nothing lands on your desk unless you create the conditions for it to land.

If you don’t sell, nothing happens.

If you don’t show your thinking, people can’t trust your work.

If you don’t invest in long-term relationships, there is no shortcut later.

And when trust is built over time, people don’t just hire you.

They recommend you to their team, their peers, their tribe.

Have a wonderful day ahead.

Philippos