Dawn Hudgins

I think success is a relative term, and I don't necessarily think of myself as extraordinarily successful in the traditional sense. For me, to be successful means leaving everybody better than I found them when I come in contact with them. That's something I can't truly measure because when someone leaves you, you don't really know the full impact you may have had on their life, but I definitely want it to be one that encourages them to be all that they dream to be. Not everybody gets that encouragement, and I think that's very important. I sometimes feel that success is touted as what your CV looks like, not how you've affected someone's soul or how you've affected their lives. So my measure of success is really about the positive impact I have on others and encouraging them to reach their full potential.

The best career advice I've ever received is know what you're good at, know what you're not good at, and surround yourself with people who are really good at what you're bad at.

My biggest advice is this: if there is a dream that you have in your heart, if there's something that you want to do or accomplish, and it has been done before or has the potential to be done, there's no reason why you can't do it. Stop thinking about it and go do it. Too many times, people get stuck in this loop of 'I don't have the qualifications,' and they wait for somebody to hand them a certificate of authenticity that they have reached a certain level, when in fact, all the little steps along the way are actual physical things that you have done to prepare yourself to be ready. The question is, how much are you willing to pay for being uncomfortable? Because stepping out of your comfort zone has a level of being uncomfortable. You just have to step past that. I spend most of my conversations these days encouraging people to do all the things that they want to do, because they're already qualified. They just have to have the self-confidence. It's a confidence gap, not imposter syndrome. So just bridge that gap. There's even a book coming out this summer called 'Imposter Syndrome, Stop Calling It That' because this is such a hot button for me.

The opportunities are incredible - the sky's the limit. Technology is moving faster than it ever has, and it's moving faster tomorrow than it is today. The challenge is keeping up with that pace and making sure that you keep capacity in order to be able to keep up. This becomes particularly challenging when working with law firms and legal technologists, because law firms move at a pace that standard organizations do not, and the level of excellence required is far higher than the average organization. There's a blend of opportunity and challenges when it comes to making sure you're keeping your membership and the law firms as educated as possible on the things they need to be educated in. But it's not just about the technology side - we also need to help make sure that we educate them on the psychological, the neurochemistry, and the neurobiology side as well, to help them stay healthy in that role. This industry has a high rate of depression, a high rate of alcoholism, and a high rate of suicide, so all of those need to be taken and balanced because both sides are important.

Trust is my definite biggest value. Authenticity is also critical to me. And I would say my third would be attitude - bringing with you each day that success that you want to see. Attitude plays a 100% role in that. You can't enter a day wanting to be successful, and to be kind, and to be uplifting to others if you're not bringing that to the table.