Latest / Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love / 208: Tieesha Taylor | Scaling Her Law Firm with Purpose

Transcript

208: Tieesha Taylor | Scaling Her Law Firm with Purpose · Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love

• 0:00
  Tieesha: One thing is I sort of seek feedback from my team. I've started now, which has been a huge success. I sat down with every team member and I went over their personal financial and professional goals. And they loved that, that I was asking them those questions. And I started incorporating that.
• 0:17
  Like I even noticed like my VAs in The Philippines, they were like, it would just be so nice to just add like health insurance or something like give us an extra for health insurance. And it's very nominal. So things like that will create loyalty, I think, to the team. And I know that's how I changed because before then I really wouldn't ask those questions. I would just do like the annual or semi annual reviews, but I'm asking them what are their goals?
• 0:41
  What do they want to accomplish professionally, personally, and financially? And then I get an idea of what they want to make in the firm if it's in alignment with, you know, the goals of the firm.
• 0:52
  Intro: Welcome to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast. What if you could hang out with successful women lawyers, ask them about growing their firms, managing resources like time, team, and systems, mastering money issues, and more? Then take an insight or two to help you build a wealth generating law firm. Each week, your host, Devina Frederick, takes an in-depth look at how to think like a CEO, attract clients who you love to serve and will pay you on time, and create a profitable, sustainable firm you love. Devina is founder and CEO of Wealthy Woman Lawyer, and her goal is to give you the information you need to scale your law firm business from 6 to 7 figures in gross annual revenue so you can fully fund and still have time to enjoy the lifestyle of your dreams.
• 1:38
  Now here's
• 1:42
  Davina: Hi, this is Devina. And before we jump into today's show, I'd like first to introduce you to some of our sponsors. When prospective clients are looking for an attorney, they usually turn to Google first. Optimize My Firm helps law firms grow their practices and attract more right fit clients through on page and back end search engine optimization. Optimize My Firm can help your firm rank higher on Google so that clients can find you before they find your competition.
• 2:13
  They serve personal injury, family law, workers' comp, immigration, and other types of law firms. Optimize My Firm does SEO the right way, delivering meaningful results with geographic exclusivity and no contracts. Contact them today at optimizemyfirm.com or click the link in the show notes.
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast. I'm your host, Devina Frederick. And if I sound a little froggy today, it's because I have been sick. Like, COVID finally caught up with me after all these years. I was sick with COVID the last week and I feel just happy to be here at VIA Live and talking with one of my good friends and clients today, Tieesha Taylor.
• 2:55
  Tieesha Taylor is the founder of the Elderly Care Law Firm with offices in Hollywood and Miami Dade County. And I love her story. Before she founded the Elderly Care Law Firm, Tieesha worked as a project manager for a real estate developer. And when she was laid off on her birthday no less, Tieesha had more time to devote to community service. So she began volunteering with the Florida Long Term Care Ombudsman Council as an advocate for residents in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and adult family care homes.
• 3:29
  As an ombudsman, Tieesha met a wonderful elderly lady whose rights were removed through a guardianship proceeding. And she advocated on her behalf and worked with the woman's attorney to get her rights restored. That experience completely changed Tieesha's life. And from that moment on, she knew what her purpose and her passion was to advocate for the elderly and the most vulnerable citizens. This led her to start Elderly Care Law Firm to serve not only the elderly but also disabled individuals, veterans, business owners, blended families, terminally ill, unmarried couples, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender families, and protecting their legal interests.
• 4:07
  So noble work that Tieesha is doing. I'm so glad to have her on to talk about our law firm. Welcome.
• 4:13
  Tieesha: Thank you for having me, Dibina.
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: Happy to be here. Good. So you have such an interesting start. First of all, that you got laid off on your birthday. How rude.
• 4:23
  Tieesha: I know, right?
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: Right. And so tell me, let's dial back and talk about when you became a lawyer. What made you decide to go into the law to begin with?
• 4:34
  Tieesha: Sure. Yes. So I initially, I graduated from the University of Oregon and I didn't know what I wanted to do after law school, but everyone used to tell me, You should become a lawyer. You always like to argue. And so I, started working, work study at University of Oregon in the admissions department at the University of Oregon.
• 4:52
  I said, Let me see if I can get in. And the ladies there were like, yes, you can get in, just apply. And so I applied under their early admissions program and I got accepted. I spent three years at University of Oregon. And after that, I said, I don't know what I want to do.
• 5:08
  I don't want to stay in Oregon. I want to move. I want some sunshine. So I considered California and Florida. And Florida had an LLM program in real property development at university of Miami.
• 5:19
  And so I went there for one year and I fell in love with real estate development. And I said, I don't want to practice law. I want to be a real estate developer, developing age restricted housing for seniors and elderly. And so I started working for a developer, the largest real estate home developer in the country, Doctor Horton. And then I was laid off in 2007 on my birthday.
• 5:42
  And I said that was a something from God that I need to go out on my own because I always wanted to go out on my own, but that was a push that I needed.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: Right, right. Sometimes that's the way it happens is that, you know, we keep sort of staying in our comfort zone until the universe comes along and knocks us off. And then we're like, okay, well maybe I should do something else. I'm curious about your passion for working with the elderly. Even when you were interested in being a real estate developer, there was a focus kind of on senior housing and that kind of thing.
• 6:12
  Is there something in your background, you know, maybe a parent or something that happened that sort of, or was it just sort of being introduced to this area of practice?
• 6:20
  Tieesha: Yeah, I'm glad you asked that question because my mother used to be a home health aide. And so she would go into the elderly's home and help them in their home. And she would take me along with her. I didn't like it at the time, but I now in hindsight I appreciated that. And I think that's where I had grown to love working with older adults and seniors because of that experience.
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: Oh wow, that's so interesting. And so you decided to go out on your own. Did you have fears around that at the time? Or were you just like all excited and I'm going to do this and you know it's going to be great?
• 6:53
  Tieesha: I had a little fear but not a lot. Again, I did not want to practice law when I stopped real estate development. So I started doing some consulting work with assisted living facilities, trying to find residents for them. And then I had this experience, I said, I need to volunteer, I need to give myself a service. I think that's when I'll find my calling because I really knew what I wanted, real estate development, but then I really didn't.
• 7:15
  The real estate market had taken a turn. So I said, let me just volunteer. And so that's when I started volunteering with the Florida Long Term Care Ambudsman Program. And we would go out and inspect facilities. And that's when I met Sylvia and her rights were taken away from her and she was clearly competent.
• 7:32
  And so I assisted her in getting her rights restored. I said, is this a thing? And someone was telling me, you know, there's an area of law called elder law. And I said, really? And that's how I started.
• 7:43
  I started my practice like advocating for seniors whose rights were removed and then estate planning became a part of it and other areas started developing.
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: Right, right. You said that you didn't think you wanted to practice law. I think sometimes we have vision in our mind of what a thing is. So oftentimes we go through law school and we think, I want to practice law. And then we get out and then we go, we start doing the work and then we go, oh, this isn't what I want to do.
• 8:07
  In your case, you just kind of knew in your mind, like, I don't know if I really want to practice law. It was just kind of your lack of understanding of what that meant or that none of the practice area sounded appealing to you or what was that about?
• 8:19
  Tieesha: Yeah, to be quite honest, I didn't really enjoy law school. Mean, I I didn't enjoy being around law students. I just didn't like that mentality of law students. So I didn't really want to be around other lawyers, to be honest. And then the litigation part in law school, I worked at the prosecutor's office.
• 8:33
  So I was a prosecutor. I was allowed to prosecute misdemeanor offenses. And we would prosecute people who were homeless on the church steps. And I was like, I don't know if I could do this law thing.
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: Why? Right. So it's your very particular experience. Yeah.
• 8:48
  Tieesha: It was a yes particular experience. And I decided I didn't want to do But then I didn't realize there was elder law or things that I can do more transactional and didn't have to be adversarial. And so I enjoyed that.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: Right, right. I think most people have it in their mind that it's always about going to court and fighting against other people and all that. And then when you realize there's so many areas that opportunities that we get to serve and we can use our knowledge to help serve people in different ways. So because if you have that servant's heart and you have that sort of compassion and everything to find your place in the law can be challenging because you feel like a lot of times you're representing people against the downtrodden. So Hollywood, Miami, Dade County, that is a great area for the type of law that you're practicing.
• 9:32
  Practicing. From the beginning, was it pretty easy for you to get clients or was that something that you had to sort of develop a plan for?
• 9:38
  Tieesha: Yeah, no, it wasn't easy at all. I had to develop a plan. I had to do a lot of networking. So in my early career, owning my practice, I attended so many networking events. I would give presentations at senior centers, attending Alliance for Aging events, all the events related to seniors, guardianship programs.
• 9:56
  And I was, you know, on the pavement really working. In South Florida, we have a huge Spanish speaking community. So, and I didn't speak Spanish. So I really had to develop my niche and client area around that. And a lot of people would tell me, they're like, you're crazy starting there if you don't have like a Spanish speaking attorney on your staff.
• 10:12
  And you know, they would kind of discourage me that way. But I said, you know what? I know there are people out there who may speak Spanish, but I have multicultural clients now, bilingual, all types of cultures who come to me. So I'm glad I did not let that stop me. But yeah, it was difficult at first.
• 10:26
  And then in elder law, it was a small community of attorneys who only practiced elder law. So I would reach out to some of them, or I even would try to volunteer and do public service just to learn that area like Medicaid. So they were like, no, we don't have time to train you even with free services. And so I had to learn a lot on my own.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: Oh, wow. Oh, well. So I bet that was pretty intimidating.
• 10:47
  Tieesha: Yeah, yeah, it was initially because I would reach out. I was like, I'm going to call, you know, them to see if they would just allow me to do some guardianship cases on the side for them. And even like the legal aid, they were like, we don't have time to train you. And so I really just had to learn all of that on my own because I never worked for a firm. And so I really started from scratch.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah. So when you learned on your own, did you take CLEs or were you just taking cases and figuring it out, doing the research?
• 11:15
  Tieesha: Both. So I would take CLEs, it's many classes, buy books on elder law. And then of course clients would come to me and I'll explain that I'm new and they would allow me to take their cases. And that's how I learned by just taking cases.
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: Wow, wow. See I think a lot of people when they're starting out they think they've got to know everything and know all the answers. And I think you're a perfect example of what the reality of it is when you're starting an area of practice is that you really have to just say, Yes, I'm going to help you solve this problem. And then you figure out how to do it, right? And that's what makes you a good attorney over time.
• 11:51
  So you started in 2009. And so was it just you by yourself for a while? Did you hire somebody immediately or what happened?
• 11:59
  Tieesha: Yeah, it was just myself for a while. I would say I was working out of my home office for a while. I want to say maybe a year, maybe a year, year and a half. And then I found a little small office down in, South Dade. And then I hired my first legal assistant from AARP.
• 12:17
  They had a program. I was looking for programs like this. They had a program where you can hire someone for two weeks, they'll pay their salary. And if you like them, you can keep them. So I hired my first legal assistant.
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: Oh, that's fantastic. Through AARP. So is this an older person?
• 12:34
  Tieesha: She was. Yeah, she was an older person who was having difficulty finding work. And so they tried to place them in organizations or firms to get work and see if they're great workers. The employer will usually retain them after the two weeks period.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: Oh, nice. So it was just you and this person for a while. How long did that go before you started adding other employees?
• 12:55
  Tieesha: Yeah. So one thing I will say, I've never been afraid of hiring. So even if I didn't have a lot of money, I was still, you know, not money coming into the firm. Would hire because once I found out I can hire, it freed up my time to do other things. So after her, I hired another gentleman who was helping out, like doing more case management.
• 13:15
  And then I continued hiring from them. I'd hire other legal assistants and you know, when she was no longer working and I continued to hire throughout that process. Yeah. Right, right. So how many people do you
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: currently have working for you?
• 13:28
  Tieesha: Yeah, I currently have a total of 10 people. I have six paralegals and one legal assistant and one attorney and two intake coordinators. So 10 total.
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: Wow. So you've hired attorneys from The Philippines to work with you in your Florida law firm. Tell me about that experience and kind of why you decided to go that route. I'm sure a lot of people are considering hiring workers who work in other countries because they have such challenges finding people to hire here in The United States. And yet there's intimidation or fear around that for people because they don't really know how it works.
• 14:06
  So could you sort of tell me about your experience with that?
• 14:10
  Tieesha: Sure. Yes. So I had the same fears. That's one fear that I did have. I would hear other attorneys on Facebook and other groups talking about how they were hiring staff from overseas.
• 14:20
  And I said, I could never do that. How would they, they could have asked us to your client's records and had all of those fears surrounding that. And then one day a colleague of mine, she said, Hey, I just hired someone from Ecuador. He's excellent. And I said, You're hiring?
• 14:33
  And she said, Yes. And so I consider it. So I looked on this website, someone referred me to go and look at. I started hiring paralegals from The Philippines and intake coordinators. And the people I hired have law degrees and some of them are even licensed attorneys in The Philippines.
• 14:51
  And hiring them has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. Very reliable, very educated, conduct research well, writing excellent. And so they've been a part of my team. And I started that, I want to say back in November is when I began doing that. And it has just been a wonderful experience.
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: That's terrific. So tell us, how do you manage sharing of information with them? And I know people are going to want to know how you pay them. What tools you use to do that? So maybe you can give us a little insight sort of the inner workings of that.
• 15:23
  Tieesha: Yeah, sure. So I use several systems. I'm huge on the technology now. So we have a voice over IP telephone system where it records, everyone can have their own extension. I can listen to calls.
• 15:36
  They each have, I use one password to give them passwords, access to our case management system. And then I use a program called hub staff, which they have to log in. All of my team members log in, even the ones here locally must log in during their shifts. And I can look at their screen. It takes a screenshot of their screen every ten, three times, every ten minutes to see if they're working, to see what they're working on.
• 16:00
  I don't have to use it often because I usually don't have a problem with them working. But when I go on there, I can take a look and see what they're doing. I do pay them through, it's called Wise Transfer. It's almost like a Zelle program, but it's an international transfer system where you just go in and pay them and they don't take a lot of their money. So they get to keep a lot of their salaries when I pay them.
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: Excellent. Excellent. You've had tremendous results with this. Do you find that there are any particular management challenges that differ with working with overseas workers or people in other countries as opposed to The United States?
• 16:34
  Davina: In the next ten years, 90% of legal services will be delivered online. Gavel is the software lawyers are using to streamline internal document automation and build online legal products like landlord legal or hello divorce. With gavel, you can easily build client intake that generates document sets through powerful logic based document automation. Gavel, formerly known as document can be used internally or you can make it client facing. It also integrates with nearly everything.
• 17:08
  Clio even rated Gavel their best integration tool. Visit www.gavel.io and mention the Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast for a free fourteen day trial, or just click on the link in the show notes.
• 17:22
  Tieesha: I haven't noticed a significant difference. I know there's some cultural differences. I know, for example, during Good Friday, they're a twelve hour difference. So a lot of them called in on that Thursday and I said, what's going on? They all called in sick.
• 17:36
  I said, what's going on? And another one said, it was Good Friday over here. So that was something different. And I said, so next year I will allow them to take off that Good Friday. So there's those types of cultural differences.
• 17:49
  But other than that, there hasn't been a lot. I mean, I've set up systems, through your program and your information. I set up systems where I create videos. So for their onboarding, I have all these videos created that they'll come on and look at the videos and they will come the next week ready to go. You know, they're ready to start work.
• 18:07
  So there aren't any significant trainings or anything that's different than our local team here.
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. So you said you've never really had a peer route to hiring. I think that is so interesting because that's what I hear a lot is that people worry about the money and how am I going to pay these people and all of that. But you didn't seem to have that concern.
• 18:27
  Was it just a confidence that
• 18:29
  Tieesha: you knew you could get the work? Possibly or just possibly that I'll get the work. But a lot of times I was really broke. Honestly, when I would hire people, I think it was just the confidence that I knew it would free up time that would allow me to do more and bring in more business. You know, I'd always try to hire before I get a lot of the work coming in.
• 18:47
  But I noticed there was a pattern that when I would hire more competent people, I would get more clients for some reason. I would have the resources to pay these people because I know there's a lot of fear about how am I going to pay my staff? I've never had a problem in paying my staff when I would hire them. So then that builds up more confidence. Like I can now hire an attorney because I know if I hire an attorney whose salary is higher, I'll be able to pay that attorney at some point.
• 19:11
  So I've had that fear. Yeah.
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: So I think one of the biggest mistakes that people make when they're hiring is they're trying to fit into a certain budget and they hire people who may not be qualified. And so one of the things that caught my attention was you said hiring competent people. Tell me what you've done to be good at hiring and hiring particularly competent people. What is it that you look for that helps you sort of hire people that you know are more capable of doing the work without all the hand holding?
• 19:42
  Tieesha: A good question because I will say I was very frugal when I used to hire. So this was a learning experience. Initially I did not hire people who were competent. I just hired people within my budget. And so, or my projected budget in my mind, I was like, I can't hire this attorney or this paralegal.
• 19:58
  So I had to work to that point. And so what I look now is for more cultural fit. And recently I'm starting to give, employment assessments because I am not the best person to pick out, someone. I'll be honest about that. I'll have my team interview first and then I'll interview.
• 20:18
  But now I add an extra layer because I now have employment sort of assessment to discuss how they would fit into our culture. So that's what I'm So
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: that involves some sort of like personality tests and things like that or in criteria that you set out?
• 20:33
  Tieesha: Yeah, well it's actually this gentleman Jay Henderson, he allows fifteen minutes. You just have to complete a questionnaire and then he'll talk about some of their strengths and maybe things they need to work on and how they would fit in with our culture. And I've done it a couple of times. I'm telling you it's dead on. It has been so real and it really fit the person's personality.
• 20:54
  I don't know how
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: they Oh, do that's wonderful. So you've come to the point where you're looking more holistically, how is this person going to fit in to our team? Not just do they have the skills to do this particular job, but how will they fit in with everybody else? And so you have this idea of everybody's sort of personalities in your business and then how this person will fit. Is that kind of how it works?
• 21:12
  Tieesha: Yeah, how it works and also how they will in terms of leadership, some of their weaknesses. One time I just did it and they were like, that person will miss. And I had a one on one with Jay and he said, that person's probably gonna call in frequently. And that same day she had called in and she only had been working two weeks. So it was really on point.
• 21:31
  So it kind of discusses, yeah, their personalities, but some of their strengths and weaknesses in terms of how they will work as a team, how they are in terms of leadership, if they're in a leadership role, those sorts of criteria.
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: That is so fascinating to me. Jay Henderson, right? Yes. And what's fascinating about that is like to that level of detail, this person is probably going to be somebody who calls in frequently and calls out. And so you wonder what personality characteristic was like popped up, what questions she answered that caused Yeah, it to grade that
• 22:04
  Tieesha: correct. I had taken the course, I mean the assessment and they had even given me my strengths and weaknesses. And I was a little shocked based on my weaknesses. You know, they were saying I could be a little overbearing. I was like, Emma, but it was very, you know, so yeah.
• 22:19
  So it definitely does give you an idea of like those types of traits and how you fit in with the team.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. That is so interesting. Besides kind of the assessment, what other sort of improvements have you made in terms of leading? Because I imagine when you first start out, this is one of the things that, you know, we don't really think about.
• 22:37
  If we've never been in a leadership position before we start a business, we start hiring people and we don't really think that maybe part of the issues are a lack of leadership skills. And we develop those as we mature and grow as business owners. But what are some of the things areas that you think you've improved in as a leader over time?
• 22:54
  Tieesha: Yeah. Well, one thing is I sort of seek feedback from my team. I've started now, which has been a huge success. I sat down with every team member and I went over their personal financial and professional goals. And they loved that, that I was asking them those questions.
• 23:11
  And I started incorporating that. Like I even noticed like my VAs in The Philippines, they were like, it would just be so nice to just add like health insurance or something like give us an extra for health insurance. And it's very nominal. So things like that will create loyalty, I think, to the team. And I know that's how I changed because before then I really wouldn't ask those questions.
• 23:29
  I would just do like the annual or semi annual reviews, but I'm asking them what are their goals? What do they want to accomplish professionally, personally, and financially? And then I get an idea of what they want to make in the firm if it's in alignment with, you know, the goals of the firm. That has been a success. So I think I've grown in that sense and I will start implementing that every quarter going over that with them.
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. I know we had a conversation in the league about that. And I have this belief that if you don't create a career path for people within your organization, they will create a career path outside of your organization. And so going in and really asking, and I also think we're at a time since the pandemic, the culture of employer has changed in our country. And we really have to be more tailored in what we're providing our employees to make sure that we're meeting their particular needs.
• 24:22
  So asking those types of questions and saying, what is it that you do want? Because oftentimes like in our own mind, we think, well, I'll just throw more money at the problem and that will solve the problem. And sometimes we ask questions and it's a little thing that could easily be rectified that doesn't cause us to have to shell out a whole lot of money we can't afford, right? So I love that that you've taken time to do that. And also I think people feel just more heard, seen and heard.
• 24:51
  Tieesha: They do. Yeah. What they told me. They was like, I can't believe you're asking us these questions. I feel like, you know, I'm on the spot and no one has ever, no employer has ever asked them those questions.
• 25:03
  And a lot of it wasn't financial. It was, you know, maybe getting off early one day a week or one day out of the month, just so I could spend time with my family. It was more of those things than financial, you know. So it's good to take a listen to what they have to say about that. And those are easy changes.
• 25:18
  Oh, that's easy. We can implement that.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. So what advice would you give other women law firm owners who are attempting to scale their business and maybe struggling with hiring or managing people?
• 25:34
  Tieesha: I guess my advice would be, and I wish I would have done this earlier, is hire coach. So someone like you. And I'm not just saying that because I'm on your program. I'm serious. I mean, I started in 2009.
• 25:45
  I know I would have scaled a lot faster, but I didn't know what I didn't know. I had no idea. And I only started last year really thinking about coaching and because I'm listening to other attorneys, but if I would have started early on my career, I know I would have been a lot further along. So I mean, getting coaching and it's worth it to get it because you told me things, you taught me things in your program that I didn't even know that existed, and it made it easier for my firm. So that is one thing.
• 26:13
  And then hiring, don't be afraid to hire. Figure out what you need, what someone can take off your plate, and then just hire them. And if they're competent and they help with the firm, then your firm will grow and you'll be able to pay their salaries. Don't be afraid to hire. So those are
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. I actually think it'd be good for people to get a sense too because I know you had some changes in your life and by going through the program and also by hiring more and expanding and setting up systems, it really freed up your time. So tell me about what that has been like for you.
• 26:44
  Tieesha: Yeah, sure. So I have two toddlers and then about to have another baby at the end of the year. And so setting up systems and putting all this together, hiring has allowed me to have more freedom to do that because I want to homeschool my children. And I should say world school them. I want to travel while homeschooling.
• 27:01
  And the only way I can accomplish that is to scale and to put systems in place and people in place so that the firm is running without me. And that's the goal.
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: Right, right. So what do you think is sort of next level for your law firm? What is your vision for the future?
• 27:17
  Tieesha: My vision is I want to hire a few more attorneys to kind of handle several teams. And I think I want to expand throughout the state of Florida. So we're in South Florida, but there are a lot of needs in other areas of Florida. So we definitely want to expand. And I've been speaking to I've actually started hiring attorneys from other areas because I couldn't find any locally.
• 27:39
  So the attorney I recently hired, she lives two and a half hours from where we're located. So we are expanding where we'll become more of a virtual firm and we can spread throughout Florida.
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: Right, right. Do you think there are any particular challenges within your practice area that have made it a challenge to grow? Or do you think that it is, this practice area has been a really good practice area for you to scale?
• 28:03
  Tieesha: I think this is a great practice area to scale. Yeah, I haven't really had any, I can't see any challenges. But no, this is estate planning, elder law. A lot of these can be done remotely, of course, the separate signees and executions. But now we have mobile notaries, mobile witnesses who can go to the clients.
• 28:20
  So I think it's been pretty easy to scale once I put my feet where to start it. Yes, it was pretty easy to start that process because once you set up those systems, it made it easier to scale.
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. Well I ask because I think there's a lot of people who might consider well serving veterans and disabled population, elderly people, that it might not be lucrative. Especially if you're dealing with government benefits, things like that. What have you found?
• 28:50
  Tieesha: No, it's definitely lucrative, especially like in the Medicaid planning arena. These are people who have assets and they need to plan around that when they go into skilled nursing. Veterans benefits, they may take a while to pay, but we do get a percentage and we deal in bulk. So we have lots of veteran clients. And so it's been pretty lucrative for our firm and we've grown year after year.
• 29:10
  So in elderly people, you know, our older clients, they have assets, you know, they want to try to play with their assets. So it may not be like a corporate payment for a law firm but they do have assets and they do have assets to pay for law. Yeah.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: Want to ask best and worst advice that you've ever received. Because I had that when I was interviewing Dania last week and she said she got some really bad advice when she was starting out. Hearing you say people say, you you can't speak Spanish. What are you doing down there? It just brings to mind how often we hear bad advice.
• 29:42
  So what would you say best advice and worst advice you got when you were starting out?
• 29:46
  Tieesha: When I was starting out, would say that was the worst advice saying, you need to be careful. Why don't you start somewhere else? You can't start in South Florida because you don't speak Spanish. That was the worst advice because I kind of set myself apart. I had like a little niche area where I didn't require my employees to speak Spanish.
• 30:03
  So when I would hire a lot of, especially when you try to hire in South Florida, it requires that you're bilingual. I didn't have that restriction. So I was able to get employees who did may not speak Spanish, but were very competent. So that was bad advice that someone would say that. Several people have said it.
• 30:20
  And then the best advice that I've received, it was probably from my best friend starting out. When I got laid off on my birthday, we went out to eat dinner and she said, good, I'm happy you were laid off. Now you can start your practice. You can start doing your own business because that's what you wanted to do. So that was the best advice.
• 30:38
  And most people would have been offended. They wanted a pity party, But my friend at the time, she said, good for you. I'm glad you were laid off because you would never have gone out on your own if you were not laid off. So that was the best.
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's so wonderful to have friends like that who will just tell you the truth and also but do it in a way that's for your highest and best good and supportive, you know? So that's wonderful. Any final thoughts you want to leave us with today?
• 31:02
  Tieesha: I would just say if you please get coaching, mean, get someone in there who knows, who's been there, who's done that. Don't do what I did, who's starting from scratch. And I had to learn it the more difficult hard way. I mean, if you have these resources out there now, take advantage of them because I wish I would have, because even taking advantage of it starting last year, my practice has grown immensely and I've been able to scale in that short period of time.
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. I know. I know when we first met, you were already doing really well. You and I had a private conversation before you joined the league and you were already doing really well but it is amazing to me the dramatic leap that you've made in such a short period of time just being kind of in a coaching program. I created this program because when I started out I didn't have access to anything like this and I didn't know what I didn't know.
• 31:54
  And I think that's really for most people coming in it's like that moment of I never even knew this was, I could think of it this way or I can look at it this way. So I've certainly see that with you and we've enjoyed having you in the program. It's been so wonderful. So tell us where we can connect with you and find out more about your law firm business.
• 32:11
  Tieesha: Sure. My website is elderlycarelawfirm.com and on social media it's ElderlyCareLaw Firm. And you can reach me via email at contactelderlycarelawfirm dot com.
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: Wonderful. Tieesha, thank you so much. I really enjoyed our conversation. I especially appreciate you helping me get through this first recording back after I've had COVID.
• 32:33
  Tieesha: Glad you're feeling better. Good.
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you. It was touch and go there a while, but I am definitely on demand. I appreciate it. I really enjoyed it, and I thank you for being here.
• 32:43
  Tieesha: Yeah. Thank you. My pleasure.
• 32:46
  Intro: If you're ready to create more of what you truly desire in your business and your life, then you'll want to visit us at wealthywomanlawyer.com to learn more about how we help our clients create wealth generating law firms with ease.