As a young girl, I found the Wizard of Oz to be a very scary movie with the flying monkeys and witches attacking Dorothy.  Yet there was beauty and fun when Dorothy first landed in Oz and joy when she got back home.

Let’s pretend Dorothy was a court reporter, the flying monkeys and witches to be firms/individuals/attorneys who take advantage of the working court reporter.  Red slippers?   Kansas?  Is there a court reporting analogy?

Characters in our analogy:  Dorothy (court reporter); Toto (steno machine/CAT software/laptop); a Scarecrow; Lion; and Tin Man. 

Toto:  Dorothy took care of and protected Toto.  When the witches went after him, she found the courage to chase after him, grab him, and hold him tight.   Our steno machines and CAT software needs to be protected, watched after, and respected.  I just know Dorothy would keep her software up-to-date, pay maintenance fees, and know the technology.   Toto is the court reporter’s best friend.      

The Tin Man wants a heart:  I have met court reporters who want to love their profession, but have become discouraged, angry, and apathetic.  Something happens on their journey wherein either no one wants to train/mentor them when they get out of school, or perhaps an attorney was particularly mean or disrespectful on a particular day.  These scarecrow court reporters yearn to love the court reporting profession once again, but are lost.  I believe they are searching for a fellow court reporter or friends found in a state association to help teach them the ropes, someone to commiserate with, and give advice on how to move forward with pride and excitement.

The Lion who wants courage:  I personally know court reporters who are scared of new challenges and opportunities, scared to hook in even though they are CRRs.  I wish in my heart of hearts they could just step out of their fear, respect who they are, and showcase the skill they were given.

The Scarecrow wants a brain.  This character I would analogize as court reporters who are scared to think for themselves.  I have met court reporters (young and old) who tell me, “It has been four months since I did a job for X firm.  When do you think I will be paid?”  I reply, “Have you asked the firm you worked with their payment policy? Before you took the job, did you ask what their pay rates were?”  The answer usually is, “No.”  Court reporters have to know they are business people and need to know they have a right to think for themselves and ask questions.

The Wizard:  I can’t come up with a wizard analogy for our profession.  Please leave me a comment if you can come up with something.

Monkeys and Witches:  In the Wizard of Oz, the witches controlled the monkeys.  The monkeys were forced to do evil while under the control of witches.  All of us know court reporting firms who represent the witches, firms who don’t pay their reporters, don’t respect a court reporter’s hard work, and we know great people/court reporters who are under the witches’ control.    

Let’s think about what ultimately sets everyone free:  heart, courage, brains, and a simple wish with red slippers clicking together. 

As a profession, we need everyone to have heart, courage, and brains, or we will not survive.  Let’s all click our heels and make a wish.  Dorothy’s mantra was, “There is no place like home.”  What should be the court reporter’s mantra?   

rosalie@kramm.com

Twitter:  @rosaliekramm

Some may consider me to be one of the lucky ones since I got out of court reporting school in less than two years and took my CSR (California Certified Shorthand Reporter) test 15 months after I began court reporting school and passed the test on my first try.  Why I write “may be considered one of the lucky ones” is because I went through so quickly I picked up few briefs and was pretty naïve as a 20-year-old in a field that requires business acumen and social sophistication.  My first two years as a court reporter were really tough, a huge learning curve in many ways, (the subject of a future blog post.)

The focus of this post is to talk about hitting a speed plateau, and what to do next, in my opinion.  My speed plateau was 140 – 160.  I got out of theory in four weeks.  The rest of the speeds, 100 – 120, 120 – 140, every speed I was out of the class in two or three weeks.  I was intense, competitive, and determined.  Then I hit 140 – 160.  Ugh.

My typical day during court reporting school was to wake up, get to school by 8:00 a.m., then at 2:00, when school got out, drove straight to Terra Title Company and type title reports until 5:30.  After work I would go home, have dinner, get out my machine and write for two to three hours.  That was Monday through Friday.  I refereed soccer games all day Saturday and Sunday.  I was obsessed with getting out of court reporting school.

So when I got to 140 – 160 and week one, two, three, four, five, six – month two, month three, month four went by, I was frustrated, angry, and scared.  Every Friday we would get our speed tests to allow us to move on to the next speed.  Every Friday I failed.  I remember vividly the first week of month six, it was a Friday, the jury charge was given, but I missed by four.  That day when I heard I didn’t pass, I got into my peanut butter-colored Opel, drove out of the parking lot, crying.  Rather than driving straight to work, I drove to Harbor Island, parked my car, and looked up at the downtown San Diego skyline.  I remember saying out loud to myself, “That is where I want to be, working as a court reporter.  As God is my witness, I am going to be a court reporter.”  (I loved old movies and Scarlett’s great line about never being hungry again.)   I made up my mind at that moment I was going to pass the jury charge the following week.  It was a new mindset that I had not experienced before.  It is a knowing I can pull up even today when I am in a deposition and everyone is talking 300+ WPM.  I have read about sprinters and marathon runners hitting the wall during a race or in their workouts.  Great athletes, I believe, know how to re-focus and get into this zone, their “Wa.” 

My advice to court reporting students stuck at a certain speed, do the work.  Go to class.  Practice, practice, practice.  You can’t cheat the school or the system or yourself with excuses about missing classes and not practicing.  No one cares if you are too busy, too tired, too distracted, or too…  Reaching the speeds necessary to pass each speed test takes discipline and hard work.  It also takes a mental mindset, a feeling that is difficult for me to put into words. 

I suggest when you are tired, frustrated, and angry just stop.  Find an inspiring and quiet place to sit.  Focus on what you truly want, who you want to be, and make up your mind you have the ability to get there.  Then be at peace with yourself and court reporting school.  Be conscious of that feeling at that moment.  You will need to draw on that feeling to get through school, testing, and work.  That feeling is something that needs to be practiced and strengthened. 

You might think it is a little crazy, but I gave that feeling a name when I went through school.  I called it “Wa.”  (I don’t know how to spell it, since I have never written it down before.) 

During the taking of the California CSR, the CRR, I remember putting my head down and saying to myself, “It is time to be in Wa.”  To this day when the testimony is out of control, I go back to the state of Wa. 

Maybe in a future blog I will try to explain Wa more.   It’s a tough subject.  Being a great court reporter takes tremendous skill, but more importantly it is a mindset that comes from within.   

rosalie@kramm.com

@rosaliekramm