The difference in perception between tearing things apart, putting things back together, and peace-making versus ripping away and how does this relate to Brian Frederick's children book.Brian enjoys acting as a full-time mediator, mainly in commercial litigation disputes. Brian is also the owner of GetMediation and heads up the panel of mediators there. Brian specializes in commercial disputes of all kinds, and he brings many years' practical experience to bear with a kind ear, imparting dexterity and empathy to broker effective solutions.Brian is an accredited Mediator for Civil/Commercial and Workplace mediations. He qualified as a mediator in 2012 and has been practicing mediation ever since. Brian set up his own Commercial Mediation panel GetMediation in 2013 and is the owner and one of the senior mediators available there. GetMediation has most recently been awarded the Mediation Service of the Year Bristol 2020 prize in the Bristol Prestige Awards. Brian believes in cost-effective dispute resolution and insists that mediators on his panel are “adept at alleviating some of the particular personal animosity and bitterness which can tend to exacerbate the legal situation in commercial disputes, and pay particular attention to focus thoughts towards costs because the parties will often have a very uncompromising adversarial attitude towards each and every point at issue.”He is also an author of a children's book titled Ziggy loves Sausage.Ari Gronich0:11Welcome back to another episode of create a new tomorrow I am your host, Ari Gronich. Today I have with me, Brian McKibben. Brian is an attorney turned author of children's books; I'm going to let him tell you a little bit about that story of how he went from that transition. So, Brian, why don't you tell the audience a little bit about that transition of how you went from an attorney, who specializes in mediation to an author writing children's books. Brian McKibbin0:43Yeah. Well, first of all, I didn't expect to take that transition. When I went to school, I was always sort of funneled into this career. And I discovered I liked being what I sort of call an anti-lawyer more than a lawyer. So that's why I became a mediator because you're trying to put people back together rather than in litigation, you're essentially you're trying to tear them apart, it's in your best interest as a lawyer to keep the fight going, because you keep getting paid. It's in the client’s best interest to settle the case because that's what they're going to do in the end. I find I didn't like fighting. I liked peace-making. And so that was a transition in my own career. And I think with that mindset, I've always wanted to be a writer. But when I was younger, I thought I would write thrillers. And I guess with that, more sort of serious adult mindset that you might say, is in the lawyer’s typical head, when I became a mediator, it's about shifting perspective. And generally, about bringing happiness. And I think that all sort of coincided them with the little thing that happened to be in locked time, Ari Gronich2:01Component lock time, somebody may not know what that means. Brian McKibbin2:05Sorry, that's just my accent lock time. And during the pandemic, like when we were all told to stay home, some local kids decided to cheer us up, I guess. And they would, they would ring the bell, you know, the little game children play ring the doorbell and run away. But when you came to answer the door, the first time I came was very surprising, because I looked down. And there was a little bouquet of flowers. So, they left these little flowers that they picked, and they'd, they tied them up with a bit of sort of coarse grass. And, and then they came back over a few days, and it became apparent that they wanted to play a little game and, and for me to talk to them, so I did. And then gradually, these little heads would come out from where they were hiding. And we play this game that I could pretend not to see them and still talk to them, you know as if I'm talking to thin air. And this went on for a few months. And when I was taking walks, we have some woodland behind where we live, the idea of a story came to me and so I started to write this book called Flower fairies as a result of this sort of little inciting incident. And then I got, I got a bit of writer's block. With that after a while, and luckily enough for me, one of my characters in the story had this pet accident. And one day the story about one of the adventures of the little dog came to me instead. And that one flew, I'm still writing the other book, it's still in development, I guess you'd say. But Ziggy the dachshund and was born and I've written about half a dozen of those stories now. Two of them are published, and there's a sequence ready to go. So that was the transition really, partly mindset, and then partly a little bit of luck, I guess, and a little bit of inspiration from some of the little kids ...
