I help time-starved lawyers + law firms build & strategically position what makes them unique into their online presence to connect with qualified clients and high-quality referral networks consistently. 

Are you ready to leverage LinkedIn for business growth? 
As a trained lawyer, I'll help you with industry-specific business development strategies. 
Short on time? I can even handle it all for you.        

𝙎𝙀𝙍𝙑𝙄𝘾𝙀𝙎 
I offer custom online business development plans and strategies for lawyers, law firms, & business owners...

🟥   LINKEDIN CONTENT MARKETING (DONE FOR YOU)
▹ custom plans to create your online presence
▹ manage your online activity 
▹ engagement to build authority + develop quality client relationships consistently.

🟥   LINKEDIN CONSULTING (DONE WITH YOU)
Audit discovery & strategy sessions to help create content that resonates with your clients to build solid connections. 

🟥   LINKEDIN WORKSHOPS 
Presentations & workshops for law firms, law schools, conferences, law firm retreats, bar associations, & meetings.  
Topics include:
▹ LinkedIn Leveraged Lawyers
▹ Yawnworthy to Trustworthy Branding for Lawyers
▹ Promote & Protect: Social Media Policy 
▹ Content Making & Marketing

🟥   LEARN (ON YOUR OWN)
Private/firm-wide training or coaching on how to establish, build or elevate your online presence & best practices, (or conveniently via my Linked-In Leveraged Lawyers™ course.)         

𝙒𝙃𝙔 𝙒𝙊𝙍𝙆 𝙒𝙄𝙏𝙃 𝙈𝙀
By combining a decade of business law + a decade of online business development, I offer a unique perspective on how to efficiently position you & your firm to connect, engage and build trust with your ideal client. I also understand the unique challenges, communication styles and regulatory requirements related to a lawyer's online activity.

❝ HessConnect understands online media for the legal industry! Law firms resist change in the technological arena. Viveca’s creative, nuanced know-how along with her legal background is critical for business growth. ~ Heidi Weaver, Esq. 

❝ With a wealth of marketing knowledge, Viveca sincerely cares about everyone who works with her. The value Viveca places on building relationships reflects the high quality of her work, making her a person you want on your team. ~ Evan Dwin, Esq. 

🟥   𝙇𝙀𝙏'𝙎 𝙏𝘼𝙇𝙆
619.962.5504 / viveca@hessconnect.com / connect on LinkedIn 
Explore Call ➤ https://calendly.com/hessconnect/15min-1


_____


I do not signify any affiliation with or endorsement by LinkedIn®️ Corporation or its affiliates.

Viveca Hess, J.D.

Former lawyer leveraging LinkedIn™ for lawyers to gain quality referral relations and connect with qualified clients efficiently ~ (when I’m not ocean swimming).

Friday confession:
I miss my daughter.

She’s off at college, out there living her best life… while I’m at home doing very normal, very sane things like:

• pausing mid-sentence because I 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳 I heard her laugh in the hallway
• scrolling through old photos like I’m an unpaid archivist for The Museum of Our Family
• buying her favorite snacks “just in case she stops by” (she lives 300 miles away, but sure, Viveca)
  
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder.
And yes. Absolutely.

But can we also acknowledge it makes the brain grow…slightly unhinged? (Just me?!)
Because the missing is weirdly specific.

I don’t just miss “my daughter.”
I miss:

• the random drive-by commentary from the other room (“That’s a choice.”)
• the kitchen pop-ins that start with “I’m starving” and end with me losing half my lunch
• the way she can roast me with one sentence and somehow still be adorable doing it
• the noise. The mess. The 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦.
  
Now the house is calmer. Peaceful. Mature.
And honestly…suspicious.

Like…why is it so quiet? Who approved this? Where’s the background sass?

Here’s the part no one tells you:
Missing your kid isn’t only sad.

It’s also kind of hilarious - because you start realizing how much of the joy was in the tiny, ordinary stuff you didn’t think you’d miss.

So yes - my heart is fonder.
But my fridge is also fuller (for no reason).
And my phone storage is at 2% because apparently I’ve decided to become the CEO of “Rewatching My Own Parenting Highlights.”

Your turn:
👉 What’s one oddly specific thing you miss when someone you love isn’t around?

And, happy Friday! 🤩

Thursday night. Good food. Loud restaurant. One friend I hadn’t seen in over a year.
 
You know the kind of dinner where the first 10 minutes are catch-up logistics…
And then suddenly the real question lands.
 
“So,” she said, leaning in,  “what are you actually focused on now, in 2026?”
 
Not 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮.  Not 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳.  Not the tidy version.
 
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙤𝙣𝙚.
 
I laughed, because yes, like most humans with a calendar and a pulse, I’ve done a little navel-gazing lately. Looking back. Looking ahead. Trying to name the thing beneath the thing.
 
And here’s what surprised me:
 
The answer wasn’t LinkedIn.
 
LinkedIn is the channel. The vehicle. 🚗 The microphone. 🎤
 
What I actually do is quieter - and bigger.
 
I help people make sense of their story. 
➛ Your unique message. 
➛ Your positioning. 
➛ Your authority.
 
The 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 version finally matching the 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 version everyone already trusts, refers, and wants in the room.
 
My sweet spot?  Digging into what sets you apart when you’ve been too close to see it.
 
The career twists. The lived experience. The judgment calls you’ve made a hundred times that others still struggle with. The thing you assume is “obvious” because it’s 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴.
 
I’ve spent a decade building tools, asking better questions, and having thousands of conversations to surface that.  Then position it - clearly, honestly, and without the cringe.
 
So I told her, simply:
 
“I discover, resurface, and position who you are, what you do, and why you do it.”
 
Because when people have choices - and they always do - they choose professionals they trust and connect with. And, I hope, make them laugh (or at least smile) - another content pillar of mine! 
 
And here’s the part I didn’t expect to say out loud, but felt true as soon as I did:
 
This year, I want more real life. 
More rooms. 
More stages, of any size. 
More conversations that don’t start with a profile view.
 
Still strategy. Still clarity. Still visibility.
 
Just with more eye contact.
 
If you know of places, teams, events, or conversations where this kind of work belongs 
- in person - I’d genuinely love to hear about them. 
 
And I’m curious for you, too:
 
When someone asks what you 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 do…𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙟𝙤𝙗 𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙡𝙚?

Owen McGrann

The bite of Big Law mobilized for good | Entrepreneur & Troublemaker | Startup Sherpa | Estates Maven

"Yeah, and who the hell are you?"

I'm Batm…Er – hi, I'm Owen. I help small businesses (and the people who run them) navigate legal stuff without feeling like they've accidentally wandered into a Kafka novel. I'm technically a lawyer, yes, but I got out of Biglaw before the molting was complete—before I started talking in passive voice and billing people for my own confusion.

So, I run a law firm. I know. That's not the kind of sentence that usually gets people excited. But hear me out.

I started Seed Counsel because, somewhere along the way, I realized that most law firms are...well, they're kind of the worst. They charge by the minute, they act like they're doing you a favor, and they treat "being a human being" as a sign of weakness. It's like going to a haunted house where every room has another invoice in it.

I didn't want to be that guy. So I became this guy instead.

I work with startups and early-stage businesses and most of my time goes toward helping business owners feel less alone. I give advice without dressing it up in Latin words. I explain things like a person. I don't bill by the hour, because time is imaginary. And I meet on Zoom so you never have to put on pants with buttons.

I used to work at Very Serious Law Firms™. The kind where people talk about "synergies" and bill clients just for thinking about their names. I left when I realized the business of law had stopped being about helping people and started being about winning at bonuses.

Now? Now I try to do things differently.

I live in Pittsburgh. I'm married to a woman much smarter than me. We had two Airedales; now we have one, who's either a genius or just very committed to the bit. I used to be pretty good at guitar but get worse every year. I read too much. I've nearly died a few times, which isn't even a joke, and probably explains why I care so much about doing something that matters and not wasting time on nonsense.

Also: I write novels. And essays. I run a Substack where I talk about law, business, literature, music, politics, and my occasional existential spirals. It's all part of the same project: making sense of this weird, beautiful mess of a world and maybe, just maybe, helping a few people along the way.

If you're building something, protecting something, or just tired of wondering whether lawyers are a real species or just a trick of capitalism—let's talk.

Founder & Resident Troublemaker

Seed Counsel by McGrannLAW LLC is a firm dedicated to working with startups, early-stage, and small businesses exclusively.

Although technically a law firm, I have made damned sure Seed Counsel doesn't do business like any firm you've worked with before. With an offering of three levels of subscriptions and flat fee packages, your startup has access to an experienced startup attorney without any of those heartstopping surprise invoices.

I've designed the operations of the business to align and partner with our customers' businesses, allowing us to empower true startups and to embed with established startups and small businesses to provide ongoing, consistent counsel.

Just imagine an attorney who understands your business, can sit in on executive meanings and competently discuss product lines (while understanding the politics of the team), and understands that, "No, we can't do that" is a last resort rather than an opening pitch.

Let's not allow ourselves fall into the complacency of "here we go again..."

Eyes open. This is happening. Now.

“Insubordinate, even if usually correct” | Troublemaker & Gentleman

This one has been brewing for a while. Came pouring out this afternoon. Not many photos. Lots of text. I hope you'll read.

We’re into the new year, so everyone is focused on goals and learning and growth. 

All good. Respect the hustle. 

But it is so easy to fool ourselves into thinking there’s a right way or an answer—and if we’d just plan harder or think better, we’d find the one and truth path to all our little hearts desire. 

Don’t set yourself up to be the fool. 

There’s no right way. There is no answer. 

You’re on your own, kid. (Thank god.)

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Starting 2026 fresh for Accountability Friday. Partially because I can’t be bothered to go look up the last list of goals I posted and partially because I have been thinking about what this is for in the first place. 

So, a brief word about why I find this exercise useful for me: I’m good at setting long-term goals and then floating from one thing in front of me to the next, then being shocked that the big goal due date has arrived without me having done any work on it. 

(This is one of the problems with EOS. Having 90 days to complete a rock enables—you might say incentivizes—delay. You have another three months to do it! Then with two weeks left, lots of panic as four rocks remain to complete and they’re completed half-assed to meet deadline.)

Anyway. I began using Accountability Friday as a way to focus me on short-term goals that align with long-term projects, with the needed (for me) public accountability to those short term goals. Lately, I’ve been just making some shit up on Friday morning to get a post out. 

So, moving forward, I’m going to try to be more consistent about tying these weekly goals to the larger projects that are core to what I’m hoping to do in 2026, or more simply, Q1.

With that throat clearing, my goals for this week:

📬 Finalize the mostly-finished first tranche of agent queries for Pennhollow, to be sent out 1/27 and 1/28. (Anyone know Bill Clegg, PJ Mark, or Julie Barer? 😅 kidding, not kidding)
👨🏼‍💻 Actually shut down work for next week’s annual planning retreat
🌱 Get new Seed Counsel website launched, as McGrannLAW is subsumed into the Seed Counsel brand. 
📚 Have some books to read to ensure comps I’m using in queries are strictly accurate

Friends! You survived the holidays. We’ve made it through 2025. 2026 is off to a…hell…of a start. How does life find you as we barrel back into normal patterns? How come your projects? What new projects do you have?

Kant famously wrote, “Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made.”

And yet. 

And yet we fail to see the loveliness of those imperfections. 

And yet we fail to remember that “utopia” literally means “nowhere.”

And yet we get into feral moods where we feel compelled to tear down cultures and institutions because they are not perfect. 

And yet we fall for charletons who promise only they can fix it. 

With the same crooked timber out of which nothing straight can be built.

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