It's not something I force myself to do

I simply do it on a daily basis

Do I question myself as well? Yes, however unlikely it may sound. This is why I continue to reinvent myself, and why at 48 I seek new challenges, instead of being in a steady job.

My journey began, however, in a steady profession few ever leave. Law, a discipline for which I am well suited due to my distinctive ability to connect the dots and use logical reasoning in my arguments. But after almost two decades, I decided to walk away.

Practicing law for so many years gave me a solid foundation, which I continue to leverage to this day. For me even more important than knowing certain rules and how to interpret them was the realization that those rules inform us only about the expected reality. That's why we have mechanisms which we apply when law was broken. By the way, this is not a common realization.

Unplanned adventure

A life of seeking new opportunities

Four qualities have always defined my approach to life: curiosity, creativity, entrepreneurship and strong bias for action (action over inaction). In other words:

• I have to explore (collect data, analyze it, connect the dots)
• I have to invent (ideas, projects, etc.)
• I have to test (turn ideas into projects)
• I have to solve problems (operate)

Equipped with them probably from birth, I turned my professional life into an unplanned adventure by seeking new, interesting, challenging, all-consuming things to which I could devote my energy, time, and enthusiasm—and I could always find one. In addition, my enthusiasm almost always turned out to be contagious.

My ability to confidently chart new territory without knowing the outcome, was the driving force behind my many creative endeavours. Not all of them were meant to be, quite obviously - isn't it the case in all spheres of life? So what are the examples of those which were meant to be?

• In 2013 I launched Poland's first regular online publication on conflict resolution, and soon after, an entire project on conflict resolution for lawyers was born (discontinued),
• In 2014 I co-created an event called Legal Market Day, which started as a concept to modernize the approach to educating lawyers,
• In 2023 I co-created LinkedIn Poland Women, which currently is among the fastest growing publications for women on LinkedIn, with a remarkable level of community engagement.

There always has to be a first time

About this collaboration with AI

I rarely have a clear idea of what to do next. Usually I need to initiate a change based on my intuition, and with no clear idea whatsoever. This means I need to take some initial action in order to generate momentum, which would then help me move forward. Soon, ideas emerge, followed by concrete goals.

Once I decided that I wanted to establish myself as an independent creative problem solver, change strategist and change agent, I knew I had to stop my ongoing involvement in LinkedIn Poland Women. It will do fine, and there are other ways I can contribute to its development. So this was my initial step.

I had very little experience crafting professional resumes and hadn't done anything like it recently—I can't even recall the last time I did. Since I have a satisfying ongoing collaboration with AI and have been exploring and testing this technology pretty intensely recently, I decided AI would help me create everything from scratch. And we pulled it off.

Entrepreneurship runs in my blood

As a 14-year-old, I launched a small business operation (a mobile store with sweets and snacks). I would carry an additional sports bag to school each day and sell these items during breaks. The school forced me to shut it down after a couple of months.

12.000 photos in 6 months (some good)

Each day after hours, I would turn into a regular Warsaw street photographer, shooting with an iPhone, as a newbie. I sold three prints to a distinguished 5-star hotel in Warsaw (part of a major international hotel chain) for their lobby.

Selling goods at up to 600% markup

I leveraged my pattern recognition skills and figured out a way to consistenly sell used goods at markups ranging from 100% to 600%

I probably was never bored once in my life

I turned my apartment into an art studio in which I painted, sculpted, shot photos and videos, made installations and collages, and wrote daily.

A terrible, terrible keynote speech

In 2015 I was invited to judge the Warsaw Negotiation Round (one of the most prestigious international negotiation tournaments). At the opening ceremony each member of the jury had to deliver a keynote on a topic related to negotiation. Despite much rehearsing, I stepped in front of the public, and my mind went blank. I stood there speechless for about 20 seconds, after which I decided to forget about my initial idea for the keynote, and say anything which would come to my mind. I uttered a couple of clumsy sentences, which I thought made at least some sense, and thanked the audience.

Masters of Laws

Legal Training for Legal Advisors

Negotiation and Mediation

Graphic Design

E.g. LinkedIn Poland Women (Logo, Logotype, Brand identity, Presentations)

Audio & Video Editing

E.g. LinkedIn Poland Women (Podcasts, TikToks)

Content Creation

E.g. LinkedIn Poland Women (Long-form and short-form Linkedin posts, TikToks, Podcasts)

Writing (creative, journalistic, copywriting, prompt engineering, legal)

E.g. Quora (active for 8,5 years, over 3K answers, over 12M reads - discontinued)

Public Speaking

E.g. Legal Market Day 2014, Workshops on negotiation and mediation, Court proceedings

Having an idea is not required

Ideas can come to us at any given moment, and we don't command them.

My experience tells me that any action (even a random email exchange or conversation) is likely to spur something. At the very least, we will know if there is good enough chemistry (which is the most important factor), or if we might refer each other to someone else.

• Drop me an email (all lowercase) llanieckilpw@gmail.com
• Text or call me +48 455 409 945

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