0:00:05.9 S1: Welcome to the Legal Learning Podcast. I’m your host, Jolene, and with the Legal Learning Center, I help pre-law students and law students with their legal journey. Today’s guest is Sarah, the blogger behind Cerebellum Chef. Sarah will share the ups and downs of blogging while in law school. After our chat, I’ll give you my top takeaways, but first, a quick word from our sponsor, Financially Free Aspiring Attorneys is a course with over $300,000 in money saving tips. If you wanna go to law school, but don’t want to pay for it. Visit legallearningcenter.com/financially-free for more information on how you could avoid law loans.
0:00:49.6 S2: I started blogging when I was in college in undergrad at Baylor University, and enjoyed it so much that I kept it up as a way to continue to talk to a lot of my friends that were at different universities and different stages in their life, and it transformed into a food blog because I love food and law school blog because I needed an outlet for my creative side while in law school and just needed something to do and wanted to make sure there’s a voice for people like me that just didn’t feel that there was enough blogs out there talking about the girl’s perspective or a Latino perspective, and also the perspective of taking breaks during those hectic study periods. I was a big fan of that. So I’ve continued that.
S1; Now, when did you start law school?
S2: I started law school in 2016.
S1: Okay, and when did you start your blog?
S2: I started my blog in … I wanna say it was 2010.
S1: Okay, alright, so you had several years under your belt before you started law school…
S2: Yes.
S1: Okay, so did you already have a system or a rhythm then that you were using before you started the law school blog part of it.
0:01:56.8 S2: I didn’t have a big system, I kind of wrote when I felt like it, I used it as a creative outlet, and when I got to law school, I was a lot more consistent with what I wanted to say and how often I wanted to put something out there.
S1: Okay, so how often were you putting something out there during your first year?
S2: My goal was two posts a month, occasionally, it was more than that, rarely was it less unless there was a break, and even then I think I still got my two in
S1: and what type of topics were you discussing?
S2: I discuss things from legal research to how to set up your moot court packet, reading through outlines, dealing with different classes, the different types of people that you’re gonna come across in law school, almost everyone is type A, but then there’s varying shades of gray with who’s gonna be the self-starter and start color coding everything, who’s gonna be a little bit more lax, how to handle those individuals that are famous for saying they don’t study and then manage to pass all of their classes. So I wanted to talk about a lot of that because I have some excellent friends in law school or from law school now, and we were very different breeds of study types, we could not study together, but we could socialize, but studying was very different, so I wanted people to understand, especially as a former educator, that it’s not the same fit for everybody, and you can still be very great friends with an individual and not be willing to take away their study habits because that might not work for you.
0:03:27.3 S1: Were there any limitations that you felt on the topics that you could cover…
S2: There were limitations, I was very diligent about not talking about law school classmates, I think there was one post that came pretty close to an experience that I had in class, but it was more so written in the perspective of a former educator, where I would find myself frustrated that as adults in the classroom, not children, we were putting a lot of pressure on professors to give us a lot of the… Why is the law this way? And sometimes you just have to take it as, This is the way it is, this is not a history of the law, this is what the law is. As it’s written, you need to understand it this way, and that’s the end of the story. And a lot of my classmates had a lot, had a very difficult problem with understanding and dealing with that particular topic, and so I just felt that it was important to write that, but I was… In such a small class, I wanna say maybe there was 80 of us that you can’t talk about your classmates, you can’t talk about particular nitpicky moments you might have had in a conversation with an individual because they’re gonna know who you’re writing about, and in some ways, I think it was really good practice to kind of start that confidentiality early and talk about broad topics instead of things that might have urged me from a particular class or an individual that I met or work, it’s just a better practice to not do that, especially as an attorney later in life.
0:04:58.5 S1: Now, did the blog come into play during your law school admissions packet? Did you mention it anywhere?
S2: I did mention it. I feel like it didn’t come into play as much in my law school admissions as it did in securing my internships, so my internships, I actually had a paid internship for The Dallas probate court, and that played a major role in getting me the position because they noticed that I was blogging while I was in school, I was doing research, I worked for the law library, and they felt that that was useful, so they hired me in that capacity, and then when I went on to intern for the Public Defender’s Office at the Federal level, here in the Northern district, one of the interviewers, who’s a really great mentor of mine now, she actually read my blog posts and she identified with my first day of law school and getting cold called, so it was kind of nice, it’s a good little ice breaker blogging isn’t something that everybody does and blogging on topics that specifically relate to me and how other people that might be helpful for… There’s not a lot of those, there’s a lot of, This is how you study, or this is how you can set up your study space, there’s not a lot of wiping egg off your face talking about your first day of law school was and what happened when you got a cold call in class, so I think that was really helpful for me.
0:06:24.3 S1: Yeah, I noticed that your blog posts are this really nice mix of professional and personal, it definitely has your personal touch all throughout with your feelings or your thoughts, but then it’s not gossipy or anything like that, it’s very much professional and helpful to others, so… Yeah, I’m sure that was very helpful with those internships, anyone who sees it an employer is not gonna be, I think, turned away, so that is definitely something people need to be a little bit cautious about, so… How about with post-graduate internship or job interviews? Has that come up at all?
S2: So my boss offered me to the job site unseen, he had read several of my blog posts and he looked at my resume, he gave me a call and I had to ask him for an interview, and he said, well you already have the job, but if you wanna come in. And I thought that was so strange, but now that I know him a lot better in his firm and how it operates, it makes total sense, he just knows what… He sees what he thinks is gonna be valuable for him, and he just jumps on it and make sure that it works, and he is an excellent mentor, so it did come up briefly, only I still blog obviously, but I don’t ever blog about work.
0:07:42.1 S2: I continue blogging about just the experience and a lot more of those relaxing recipe types and just kind of the little tiny takeaways, I don’t blog about the office at all, is always a good policy.
S1: So my fear with any incoming law students that wanna start a blog or a vlog is that they are going to try for this certain consistency, whether it’s once a week or once every other week, and they’re not gonna be able to meet it just because they are… Overwhelmed with law school, and then that just adds to their sense of disappointment and failure on themselves, which they don’t need that kind of negativity in their first year. It’s overwhelming enough. Do you have any tips for those students to either make themselves feel a little better or how to gain that consistency?
S2: I would start small. That’s actually advice that my husband gave me and he said, I thought once every few days would be great, and he said, That’s just not a good idea, you’ve gotta study, there’s other things you’re doing. And so for me, twice a month was great, and you can set aside that time, you can think about the topic ahead of time, I tended to start a draft post several weeks in advance, start writing it and then realize, Oh, this other situation happened in class, I had to prepare, for example, my moot court folder, and that took precedence for me, so I wanted to go ahead and write about that first, so I started that post instead, and so it was kind of nice because if I didn’t have inspiration, I already had something partially drafted that I could work on, but setting myself up with the twice a month was a lot easier to just set aside, sit down and set aside time to work on that particular post versus once a week trying to cram typing 500 words after reading all of these cases and then working on individual things for class, it’s just too much at once.
0:09:46.9 S2: So my recommendation would be to start small. If you do more than the two blog posts a month or more than the number that you set yourself out for, that’s great, but you won’t feel disappointed in yourself if you fall below that number, if it’s 10, all of a sudden that just gets a little bit wild, you wanna make sure it’s very digestible number that you’re doing every month,
S1: and I love what you said about the drafting, certain thoughts that you already had, so whether or not you use them, if they were just there already, ’cause there’s definitely things that we all know are going to happen, you’re gonna have orientation, you’re gonna have your first day, you’re gonna have the first time you were called on, did you share with your classmates that you were writing a blog…
S2: I did and I didn’t, it wasn’t something that I just went around talking about, but I was on social media platforms that I also shared with several of my law school classmates, and so I post my blog to be Twitter, and Facebook recipes would go off of Instagram, and so naturally, they kinda just fell across it, and I did have some really great individuals that would read often and they would comment on something that I’ve said or suggested, or they would give me advice on what they wanted to read, and so that was really helpful.
0:11:05.8 S2: But it wasn’t something I advertise per se.
S1: Okay, and did you have any negative feedback either from the school or from students…
S2: I did have some negative feedback on one particular occasion, which is the post that I wrote about a classroom experience, and having been a former educator, I wanted to kinda defend the professor, so that one… I feel like there was an individual who wanted to make their voice heard to me personally, and they very much did not align with my ideas on that particular post. But aside from that, I didn’t really get a lot of negative comments. I did get quite a few positive comments, and there were several times that individuals that were looking at starting school at the same university would reach out, they do in emails or messages on Facebook and they would ask for more personal information in terms of my opinion on different professors or what the particular curriculum was like, and that was, I think, great because a lot of people reached out and it’s nice to know that you’re just not talking to a void. So yeah,
S1: it’s so hard as a pre-law student if you have your school picked out more or less to get any insider information, so yeah, your blog is great for that because you have your school listed there and people can connect the dots there. There’s two types of logs really out there, there’s the ones that are just like a journal, this is mostly for me, I just wanna get my thoughts down and out, and then there’s the ones that they want to maybe make it a business, make some money off of it maybe not right away, but they’re thinking, I’ll start it and then we’ll kinda see where it goes, but my hope is maybe I’ll get something out of this in the end, and for those ones especially, they might start doing the research on blogs, you need to have search engine optimization, and you’re supposed to have a Pinterest infographic in a tweet button and all of these things, so that everything’s super shareable and easy to find, so Google promotes it, all these things, and that just… Again, if you’re just starting out is so overwhelming, so do have any tips for those just starting out on what to focus on or ignore?
S2: I definitely think SEO is very important in that search engine optimization, I use it, I make sure that the hashtags are relevant and that the key words and phrases are relevant, so that Google is going to pop up my website a lot higher than other blogs having a very appealing, a visually appealing blog matters, people don’t like to read things that just don’t catch their eye or their attention…
0:13:44.2 S2: That’s just marketing 101. So if you are planning on trying to monetize your advice, then you’re gonna have to go the extra mile and look up all of the different websites that you can get stock images from, and figure out how to set up your Pinterest buttons and make sure that everything is clickable, I do that, but it’s taken a lot of practice and it adds more time, it’s not just writing something down, it then becomes a four-hour venture in making sure that all of these images line up the way you want them to, and that they actually… If you click on them, don’t send you to a different website, you wanna make sure they pop up outside in a separate tab, so people are still on your site reading, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of focus on what you… Not just wanna say about what you wanna convey, and then you also have to make sure that you have an affiliate link information piece at the bottom of your blog, and so you kinda start dabbling a little bit in law because you wanna make sure that you’re not using trademark infringement of images and that you are making sure people understand that you might get paid if they click on affiliate links, all those things kind of intertwine.
0:14:58.3 S2: So it becomes a little bit more hectic. And you’ve gotta be careful with that. So I think when I first started blogging, we’re talking not a whole lot out there, there weren’t stock image sites at that point in time, and the rules were very different, now we have Creative Common licenses, and there’s just… There’s so many changes that you kinda have to keep up with, and as I’ve gone and had a length of time with my blog, I’ve had to go back and change posts or just update them so that they don’t have images that they shouldn’t have on there. I don’t want Disney coming after me later, so there’s a lot of things you have to consider, and I think that that research definitely plays a big part in being successful with the blog and also kind of deters people from staying consistent in a way because it’s a lot more effort than people realize when they decide they’re gonna start on this venture, definitely, it really does become more overwhelming the more you look at it, and if you don’t look at it enough, then you are setting yourself up for some legal liability.
0:16:07.9 S1: Okay, so are there any classes that you took to get all this knowledge or did you just kinda learn it over time?
S2: I learned it over time. I didn’t take any classes in particular, and I did read a lot about different blogs, different bloggers, perspectives on how they set things up, it’s always nice to keep up with the technology that’s changing so that you can quickly edit an image or there’s… Now, like I said, multiple websites that you can use for stock image photos, and in terms of my actual blog site, I did eventually pay for an actual template because I wasn’t happy with the ones that Word Press had at the time, the ones that they do have now are fantastic for the most part, but that investment for me was really great, and then I kinda had to teach myself a little bit of coding to implement all of those different sections of the template, which again was something that took time and I did not do that template change during my law classes, I did it on break between one of my summers.
S1: Okay, so if somebody is just starting out right before law school, so they don’t have all the stock image type info or SEO info, would you recommend that they just start more casually, more like a diary and then maybe go back and fix it up at Christmas or in the summer,
S2: I think if that’s something that they really need to do, then absolutely, I use…This is my creative outlet. So it was something that I wanted to invest time into and learn how to do, and ultimately it just became something that I enjoy immensely, and it’s kind of a past time, I treat it more of a hobby now, truly, than a job or trying to stay consistent it’s more because I feel like I want to write and I enjoy that. And if this individual really wants to start a blog and kinda treat it like their diary, I would caution in that sense that you just don’t get too informal if you’re gonna put your name and your picture on it, if it’s just gonna be you writing on Medium or WordPress or what have you, and there’s no other information personal out there about you as the blogger, by all means, you can always go back and change that later, but to have just a stream of consciousness with all of your personal information and where you go to school, fixing it later is probably not gonna be helpful, so I wouldn’t recommend going that route,
S1: I could definitely see that stream of consciousness hurting you in potential job interviews, one, just if you write a little too much, but two, if it’s not in that nice formal writing style, it may not present well as a writing sample to employers, so…Yeah, I definitely think there’s a way in here where… Which way are you gonna go? Make sure that you’re as anonymous as possible or a little more formal and together, any other tips for anyone considering a blog or a vlog?
S1: I think consistency is obviously key, we’ve talked about that and touched on it, and in terms of tips, if somebody’s gonna set up in an actual blog, they need to be aware that people are gonna know who they are, and that is something I caution people for, because you just don’t know, in this day and age, it’s so easy to get your information where you live is not too far from where you go to school, just be very aware of that being a real possibility that your privacy is gonna be invaded potentially, and it might not be a very good experience for you. So if you’re gonna blog or you’re gonna blog and put your name on there, I just caution individuals to realize what it is they’re putting out there, whether that’s the content that you’re putting out there or yourself, I mean, you’re essentially a billboard for your own brand, so making sure that you are understanding of what that entails, if you have to research that ahead of time, then that’s much better than just going in Incan, not understanding at all what you’re getting into, and I think that’s hard to comprehend if you don’t bother to put the research and ahead of time, so making sure you research not just your posts, but also how to put stuff out there, how to make sure that your actual vlogs or your blogs are getting seen, there’s different techniques for making sure that your blog comes up higher on Google, where the YouTube is actually letting you play your videos properly, depending on what you pay for, and a lot of times nowadays, you do have to pay for a subscription service to get the better access to images or videos or what have you.
0:20:51.9 S2: It’s an investment, it’s not just time, sometimes it’s money, and if you’re hoping that this is gonna be an overnight success, that’s just not the case for 99% of these blogs, so you might just be doing it for you, and you should realize that before you go into it.
S1: Really good advice. Thank you so much, Sarah, if people wanna reach out to you. How can they do that?
S2: We can email me at cerebellumchef@gmail.com, or you can go to my website and send a message directly from there at Cerebellumchef.com, and I’m always happy to answer… Happy to help with law school questions, educator questions, how to set up a resume questions, all of those things are completely valid, and I enjoy them, and I’m happy to help anyway,
S1: I can’t think… You mentioned Instagram to Instagram too,
S2: also, cerebellum chef. It’s very easy.
S1: Perfect, alright, thanks so much.
0:21:46.6 S1: Before we get into my top takeaways, a quick word from our sponsor, Juno, if you need to take out student loans. Check in with Juno first, Juno can often offer law students one to 2% less in interest rates on their student loans below direct loans with not only no cost of the student, but also cash back as well. Visit joinjuno.com/p/legalLearningCenter for more information.
So my top takeaways from this chat, number one, there is a lot that goes into a blog, photos, search engine optimization, just to name a few, it’s a good idea to get started before law school, so that you have the tech figured out and you have a flow. Number two set reasonable expectations. Law school is hard enough without adding extra pressure to it, you don’t want anything outside of law school to distract you or make you feel bad if you miss a deadline. So start with minimal expectations, number three, keeping politics and personal classroom items out of the blog can really help you, Sarah’s employers were able to see her writing abilities without worrying that she might gossip about work. 0:23:08.2 S1: Since this recording, Sarah has passed the bar exam. Congratulations, Sarah, I’m so happy for you. All right, that’s it for this episode. But tune in next week when we talk to Angela Han, she is the founder of Fit To Practice Society. Angela is going to show us how physical health can lead to mental health, and how it’s all tied into professional health, things we all need. Now, all tips. Links and so forth will be in the show notes. A full transcript will be available on my website at legal learning center.com/cerebellumChef, and if you learn something today, please like subscribe, leave a review that just helps the show become more visible so that those who may need it can then see it. Thank you.
Next week we will speak with Angela Han of Fit to Practice Society and learn how mental health, physical health and professional health are all tied together.
