S04E154 Rediscovering Your Hobbies for Quality of Life Andrea Diaz

You can love the law and still miss yourself. That tension is where my conversation with public defender and author-illustrator Andrea Diaz begins, and it quickly turns into a practical guide for any attorney trying to protect their energy, creativity, and mental health while the work keeps coming. Andrea shares how she drifted away from the artsy part of her identity during the long push of training, commuting, and early-career pressure, then found her way back when a small window of time finally appeared. 

We dig into the surprisingly powerful habit that makes everything feel possible again: starting with five minutes. Andrea explains why “five minutes” is a gentle trick that gets you past resistance, how a tiny creative break can replace doom-scrolling, and why that reset often makes you more effective when you return to client work. We also talk candidly about lawyer burnout, especially in public service, and the guilt that shows up when you care deeply about clients or you’re balancing motherhood and career. Her reframe is clear: if you don’t take care of yourself, you eventually become unable to help anyone. 

Then we go behind the scenes of Jury Trial ABC, the children’s book she wrote and illustrated to fill a gap in kid-friendly legal education. Andrea walks through self-publishing, learning new software, building a product line, and the moment every creator fears: ordering 2,000 copies with a missing line of text. Her sticker-sheet solution is a masterclass in resilience and trust, and it highlights a theme I hear from strong leaders again and again: you don’t need perfection, you need follow-through. 

We close with what’s next, including Andrea’s upcoming children’s book about grief, inspired by helping her son understand loss in a non-religious and comforting way, plus where to connect and purchase her work. 

Reach Andrea here:
https://www.afternoon-recess.com/
@afternoon_recess on Instagram and TikTok

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Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:39

We connect you with successful firm leaders and industry experts who check approving strategies in a hard block with the stuff. Whether you're a statement leader or just starting your journey as a law firm owner, the Leadership and Law Podcast is here to equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to build a successful and fulfilling legal practice.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Welcome to another episode of the Leadership in Law Podcast. I'm your host, Marilyn Jenkins. Please join me in welcoming my guest, Andrea Diaz, to the show today. Andrea is a public defender and author and illustrator of Jury Trial ABC. She has a mom of two and a hobbyist triathlete. When she's not busy with all that, she can be found starting a new craft or working on her house. I'm excited to have you here, Andrea.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

From Art Kid To Lawyer

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Absolutely. Tell us about your journey that got to where you are.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

So I think like most people as a kid loved art, anything having to do with art, crafts, doing things with my hands. And I was told that maybe that's not the best career move to pursue that. My parents weren't wrong when they said that. So that is to say I ended up in law. I'm so happy that I did, but I had lost that part of myself, the crafty, artsy part, because there's not there's never enough time, right? Right to do all the things they want to do. So it wasn't until I was pregnant with my son, my my oldest, that I started to get that back. And it was only because I was on the last four weeks of my pregnancy, essentially, you're on disability, at least here in California. I don't know about other places, but you're in you're on disability. And so I'm home from work. And I finally had a little bit of that space to just what do I want to do? And my husband is an aerospace engineer, and we were getting all of these children's books about science and engineering and physics and all of that for the baby, but never anything about blah. And I started to look around and say, like, where can I get books like this? And they don't really exist. There are a couple out there, but they're not written by lawyers. They weren't really, they weren't doing what I wanted. It wasn't what I wanted. So I told my husband, I was like, I could do this. Like, I could make a children's book when, which is a little bit delusional, but maybe I bought an iPad and then Jury Trial ABC was born. So that got me back into that creative space. And I've been so fortunate that Jury Trial ABC has been doing really well. It's gotten some like high-profile people to post about it, and I've had a crazy amount of sales. I never expected this to happen. But the real beauty of the whole thing is that it got me back into that artsy, crafty mode. I have a little art business now on the side. I'm still a practicing public defender, but I have my little art business and I have just a litany of crafts that I'm doing at all times. And I now have two kids and I involve my kids in it whenever I can. Or I just take that time for myself when I'm watching them. So, like lately I've been doing embroidery. That's portable. I can take that anywhere. I'm at the park with the kids, I'm embroidering and then also watching them. And it's just given me some freedom and myself back, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yeah. I love that. Now, what was there like a moment? Obviously, you had time in your pregnancy, but was there a moment at some point in your career that you realized that you'd lost the things that you used to enjoy and that you needed to get them back in your life?

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Definitely. I would say, so at my office, the first year is almost like school. You're practicing, but it's all training. And at the time I was living an hour and a half drive from the where we train, knowing that it was just for a year, but it was one hour and a half in traffic that way, one way and back. And so in that mess, you really do lose a lot. You don't realize it because you're hyper focused on I gotta achieve this thing, I gotta learn how to be a good defense attorney, I've got to do all this stuff. But coming out of that and getting sent to somewhere closer to home, but still hard. And now just practicing as an attorney, when I got there, I realized, oh my gosh, my whole life for the last whatever four or five, actually college, law school. And that has just been reaching this one goal. And I finally reached this goal, and now what? And what do I have to show for it other than I'm here, I'm working, that's great. But there's so much more to me than just being an attorney. And I had to hyperfixate on it, but after I got there, it was like, where's where'd the rest of me go? Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Wow. And I know that you talk about taking finding like five to ten minutes to do the things you love. Why do you think starting small is the more powerful than people think?

SPEAKER_02 5:28

I think it's because really it's a lie that you're telling yourself. You're telling yourself, I'm gonna do this for five minutes, and you can find five minutes. And so you start doing something that you love for five minutes. Five minutes is might as well be 10 seconds. It's so short and you don't want to stop. So you keep going. And so if you can tell yourself, I need five minutes in my schedule, even if you really only do the five minutes, one, that's five minutes more than you would have done otherwise. But two, now you have that longing to do it again, to do more. And it has this ripple effect throughout your life because you're gonna be finding those five minutes wherever you can. And you'll realize that you're spending those five minutes doing things you don't actually care about or want to do or are benefiting you. But really, for me, it's always the lie I tell myself because I know if I sit down to do this for five minutes, it's gonna be a half an hour.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

I know that I think taking it in small chunks, because what we when you start analyzing your day, you know, when you get engrossed in something, you also find spots where you're using other tasks as procrastination, where if you took and actually focused on doing something you enjoy for five or 10 minutes, I think that gives you also a refresh and restart for your day.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

I think that's so true. I truly I take my crafts to my desk. And when I just can't, like at work, and I'm just like, I cannot do this anymore. And I have the urge to pick up my phone or to start looking at something online, I just pick that up instead. And one, it's done wonders for my mental health because most of the time whatever I'm doing on my phone is not helping me. But two, it does focus you almost in the meditative state on whatever you're doing. And I think it actually does clear the mind so that you can get back to work and actually focus and do your work much more efficiently than you would have had you not taken that little time.

Modeling Breaks And Preventing Burnout

SPEAKER_01 7:18

I agree. Just getting taking a break in the thought process. I used to do computer programming. If you're stuck and couldn't find the error, step away for a few minutes, come back and it's glaring at you. It's it makes a big difference. And so as a busy professional, obviously you're in an office. How do you help other people do that? How do they find more time for their hobbies?

SPEAKER_02 7:40

I think the biggest way I do it is leading by example. I have so many people that'll see me doing something and say, Oh, I wish I could do that. And then that's when I jump at the opportunity of saying, you can do that. And let me tell you how. Right now, I I've been in the office for about a decade. I am now a little mini supervisor, so I have new lawyers that I supervise. And I am always telling them, Step away, just get out of the office, go for a walk, do something else. You guys are so busy, you need to take time for yourself. I oftentimes find myself walking the halls and saying, go home.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

I think it comes down to a rhythm, a balance, uh, quality of life. But I think as young lawyers, you're expected to really grind.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

You are, and you have to because everything takes you longer because you're learning, and it's the nature of the beast. But I I see myself and those lawyers, right? I was definitely there all like late when I first started, but I also know how stressed out and burnt out I was. And so any little opportunity I get to try to say, don't burn yourself out. Don't stress out. You're gonna be here for the long haul. This is a long career. You're a public servant, you want that pension, you're gonna have to make it, right? So the only way you can make it is by not burning too bright at the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Great advice. And how do you, with kids and life and the triathlete training and stuff, how do you find the time to pursue your interests?

SPEAKER_02 9:13

I am very fortunate in that my husband is so supportive and such a good dad and can step in for me at any moment. I'm never there's not a task that mom has to do that dad can't do. And he understands the value of having a wife and mother that is happy and well balanced and adjusted. And I understand that he also needs that time. And so we have this back and forth of this is your day to do what you want, this is my day to do what I want. Um, and we really shift those responsibilities back and forth so to give each other a break. I didn't think anything of it when I was doing it. And then I just this is normal, this is fair, but I realized that is not the case for some of my closest friends, so many women in federal relationships, they are doing most of the work. And if I can get a sandwich board or get any kind of a platform, what I would say is help your wife. So women take on so much of that labor. And it I don't need to prove that to anybody. We all know that, right? We take on the emotional labor and the burden of community and society and so much of the mothering and parenting. And little things that I've done is made sure that I am not the only one getting the updates from the preschool. His email address is on there too, right? And it's little things like that you don't think of, but that end up giving you too much on your plate. And so I really think it's that. If my life were different, if I had a different partner, if I didn't have a partner, I think it would be much more difficult. I don't think it would be impossible. Everybody has time somewhere, but I I am very fortunate. I think that's why I've been able to accomplish as many different things as I have.

Getting Motivated To Restart Hobbies

SPEAKER_01 11:00

I love that. Yeah, I think communication and co-parenting in the same house, it's you need to both take responsibility. Agree. So if you're talking to someone who's thinking about the picking up something they did early in high school or whatever, what how do you help people find or suggest they find the motivation to get back to it? Obviously, you want that rhythm and you want that quality of life, but sometimes it's very hard to get motivated to go and do that thing again.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

I could not agree more. It's always I think the hardest step is always the first step. I would say what helps me anyway is watching a YouTube video on how to do it or something like an instructional something. There is something about watching somebody do your joy or do the thing that you want to do that really makes you say, I think I could do that, or I would like that. That doesn't seem so hard. And it's lessons, one, I think it gets your brain in the mode of already pretending like you're doing it because you're watching it happen. But two, I think it demystifies how difficult it really is to have a way of convincing ourselves that things are much more difficult than they actually are.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

And so watching it play out in real time, you realize this is nothing. And I can do that. I also think that, especially attorneys, we have that very type A personality, everything needs to be perfect. I need to get the gold star, I need to do this. Turning that part of your brain off is very hard, but reminding yourself that the stakes are zero. There are no stakes. I could do this, I could fail at it, and nothing will happen. I will have had some fun along the way. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

I think that's a great way of looking at it. There's no stakes here, it's just enjoyment.

Dropping Guilt And Raising Your Baseline

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Yes. And I think that sometimes you have to play that on repeat in your brain to get started because the fear that the end product is not going to be whatever you envision it to be will stop you from doing it. And so just enjoying and remembering that what you want is the process and not whatever the end product is, I think also helps.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Yeah, I think pottery trains you in that. But yeah, remembering I've done that once. That is hard. I've never tried, I never wanted to. It would be disastrous.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

I did it once and I thank God we had the teacher there because I was like, this is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Just looks like a disaster waiting to happen if I were to walk in that. Yeah. And I know a lot of people, so probably some of the people you supervise, feel guilty about taking time for themselves. And you're pushing them to take some time, whether it's a walk around the block or whatever. Do you how do you help people rethink that and get away from the guilt of me time?

Self-Publishing And The Misprint Lesson

SPEAKER_02 14:18

I think it's that classic thing that if your cup's not full, you can't fill up anybody's cup, right? I see it so much in especially at my job, because you're a public defender because you care, because you believe in the mission of the office, because you care about underserved people. And you can care very deeply about something to the point that you stop caring about yourself because you see all the ways that you're privileged and how much more you have than the people that you're serving. And you almost get this guilt of they don't have as much as I do. I have to do it everything I can. And I think it's the same with mothering, right? You have guilt taking something for yourself when it could be time for your children or money that spending on yourself that you could be spending on your children, but your leadership, whether that be as a mother or at work or whatever, is not just what you do and what you do at work and what you say or what you tell your kids they're supposed to do. They're also looking at you and how you behave, right? And so if the people that you're leading, you're leadering, leading, see that you are not valuing yourself and you are not valuing your time and taking care of yourself, they are going to believe that's how they should behave as well. And so you really I have to lead by that example. But I just try to explain to people that if you are burnt out, if you are depressed, if you are not taking care of yourself, you cannot help anybody else. You're a liability at that point. And if you do everything that you can for this year and work and burn yourself out and leave the office, then you're not helping your 24 other years of worth of clients because you've left the office because you burnt yourself out the first year. And so it's a it's like a marathon. You have to, I ran a half marathon, you gotta take your little goo. You know, if you don't, if you don't take the goo, you're gonna fall over. And so you gotta stop and build in those breaks.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Great advice. Great advice. Let's talk about your book. You decided to go for the book, so you wrote the book, you illustrated the book. Tell me about your experience. And you did you self-publish it?

SPEAKER_02 16:30

I did, yeah. It's been so fun. It's been so fun. I it was hard. I didn't know anything about self-publishing, I didn't know anything about printing, I didn't know anything about formatting a book for a printer. There's all these weird little things that I had to learn. And like I said, about the process of learning how to do it was almost more fun than the book arriving and then selling it, right? It was like really fun to just learn new software and what bleed is on a page. Apparently, your page needs to be bigger than you want it to be because when they cut it, they don't cut it straight or necessarily exactly the same. And so you don't want to cut the text off, like all these things. And so that was really fun. I will say I cannot be my own editor. So I did have I ordered another copy of the book, but I had changed just a few little things and didn't realize I left off a whole line of text and I had ordered 2,000 books that were missing a whole line of text.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Oh no.

Illustrating On iPad With Procreate

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Yes. I had a pre-order, I had 350 books I had already sent out. And it wasn't until one of my colleagues said, What's up with this page? It looks different than the other one. Oh no, that I I know it was that's when I realized there was a really dark night of crying and freaking out and realizing or thinking that I had destroyed the whole business, it was all over, what am I gonna do? And it was uh exercise in creativity because the next day I got up and I had an idea, and I was like, I'm gonna get a sticker made with the text, and I'm gonna send it to them, and I'm gonna send them a sticker sheet. So I designed a whole sticker sheet with the characters, and I sent an email to everybody saying this happened. I'm so sorry, but it was a little poem, so it rhymed like the book rhymed, and said, I'm gonna get you a fix, I promise. And when you get the fix, if you're not happy with it, obviously I'll return your money. Out of 350 people, one person asked for their money back. Yeah. And so now I have both options up. I have the misprint option up and I have the regular option up. And the misprint comes with a sticker sheet, and I thought, there's no way. I don't want to waste all this. So let's just see what happens. But I really was like, there's no way anyone's gonna pick that option, and it's 50-50, whether they pick the misprint option.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Yeah, I think the stickers are a marvelous idea. That was you just fix the page.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

You just fix the page. I was like, what would they do if they were a big publisher? They just I've had books that had law books have this all the time, the old ones before you know, before Westlaw that I've seen in our library. They have stickers like that and little additions and all this stuff, and you know wow, yeah, why not?

SPEAKER_01 19:05

So when it comes to so you got to learn new software, you did you design the whole thing in your iPad?

SPEAKER_02 19:11

I designed the whole thing on my iPad. And I actually, knowing what I know now, definitely did it the wrong way. I did it. There's an app called Procreate, it's just a drawing app. It's 10 bucks one time, at least at the time it was, maybe it's 20 now. It's not a subscription, it's just you own the software, and it's really wonderful software. It's very intuitive. I've been drawing my whole life. It feels like you're drawing. So if anyone listening to this wants to draw and wants an easy way to draw with no cleanup, no setup, an iPad with a pencil, the Procreate app, and you're not even on a subscription. Um, but all that is to say, I made a page for every single page was made on Procreate. It is not set up for layouts, but I did just put on a drawing grid and count. Okay, the text has to be one, two, three squares up. And that's how I laid how I formatted all 32 pages.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

They have software where you can just put in what you want and then it just organizes it for you. I know that now. But I also at the time didn't want to spend any money or anything. I didn't know what I was doing. I was just thought I was printing a book for my kids. Uh, and after it was done, my husband said, why don't we invest a little bit of money and see if anyone else wants to buy it? And so that's when I realized we were gonna turn it into a little business.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

I love that. And so you out of tea. That is so smart to not just discard the misprints, but actually put it as a product in your store.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

Yes, I just owned it. And then I told my mom and my husband and my everybody around me, I said, Don't you ever let me order a book again. I will throw it out. All of you signing off.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

True. I know that I published mine through Amazon and we get the author copies. And I just I now just go straight. I don't get the proofs because they have the line across, and I'm like, if I'm happy with it, I'm gonna just go straight to author copies. But I would definitely go through it before I order it. It's I couldn't imagine ordering 2000. I would still question that left and right before I am I ready?

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Yeah. Yeah. Is that I think I'm a little bit more type B than most attorneys. I'm not a like law review kind of attorney. And so I should have known this about myself because I did review it. I thought I had proofread the whole thing and somehow missed an entire line in text. So that says a lot about me, I think.

Finishing A Long Creative Project

SPEAKER_01 21:33

But I think as a normal person, what we when we write something, the reason we're so bad at editing our own thing is we read what we knew we said. That's so true. That line had to be there, it's always been there. And desktop publishing back in the 90s taught me anything, that doesn't mean it's on the page. Watch this change and you've lost it.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

Yeah, it's so true. And it was just because I didn't click a box when I was making the PDF. I didn't click that box because again, I did it on Procreate, which is not the way to do it, but just miss the click and I'm surprised that even you can still buy a piece of software these days.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

I thought everything was a nickel and diamond for the month.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Yeah, yeah, I know. I couldn't believe it. It felt too good to be true, but it's been five years now. I'm an avid procreator. I don't know how they make money. I'm just so happy that they use this.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Wow. Now, how long did it take you to write the book and draw the book?

SPEAKER_02 22:27

So I started when I was pregnant with my son, and then I got all the way in terms of concept, I wouldn't say finished art, but I got all the way to the S page. So I had just gone in order. And then shortly, my my son was probably five. Five, six months, and I was like, this is stupid. Why am I doing this? I'm not doing this. I'm not gonna make a book. That's dumb. And I just put it down. And it wasn't until the next maternity leave with my daughter that, and my mom had been bugging me every day. Why aren't you finishing your book? Finish your book. Just finish it.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

And my husband's on S, just move on.

Writing A Kids Book Kids Love

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Yeah. He was like, I don't understand why we did all that. You did all of that work and you're just gonna leave it there. But I don't know why I had convinced myself it was done. And then I'm pregnant with my daughter on that same four weeks where I'm not at work, right? Before she was born. And I was like, I'm gonna finish this book. And I did, and then I just mad rushed, uh finished it as much. I did as much as I could while I was on maternity leave with her, but two kids in maternity leave is a little different than one. And then when I got back to work, that's when I just on my lunch breaks, just finished, finished. So beginning to end to answer your question, like four years. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Wow. But all total about four months.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Yeah, who knows how much actual I think it was probably was yeah, three, four months of work or something. Yeah. But the mental anguish that counts for something. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Me sitting there going, am I gonna do it? Am I not? Am I gonna do it? I'm not gonna do it. That's dumb. I'm not gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Maryards are such a large population, and you like you said, there's so few children's books that you know that you can buy for your children.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

So that's yeah, and I think there's a lot of children's books that you can buy for your children that are written for the parent. They are not written for the kid. And I have so many books like this that I've purchased or that have been gifted to us. I think a lot of the ones that were given to us because my husband is an engineer, were like that. It was like for the adults to like and enjoy. And that always bothers me because we should enjoy it too, like a Disney movie. You can watch a Disney movie as an adult and enjoy it, but it's really for the kid. And so when I was writing mine, I made a huge point to make sure that a kid would enjoy this. And so a lot of the words in it are hard words or they're big words, and the kids might not understand at a certain age what that is. But that's why I made a point to make it rhyme because kids enjoy the rhyming kind of rhythm, especially really little kids. And that's why the drawings are super, super bright and super simple, because this is not the kind of art that a parent wants to see in a book. This is what kids like. So I have gotten a lot of feedback, thankfully, that their kids like the book, even if they don't know the younger kids don't know what it means. They enjoy just the pictures and it makes them laugh and they like the rhyming. So I'm glad I said I succeeded at that.

Why Lawyers Are Already Creative

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Exactly. And do you find that most of your customers are attorneys buying it for their children?

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Yeah, I would say most of them, yes, most are attorneys. I would say most of them are people gifting it. It's just a for some reason, it's a baby shower gift. It's a it's a gift for the new lawyer. Like firms will buy them for their new lawyers. I have I've had that. It's just highly giftable. But I do have a lot of lawyers just buying it for their kids. And it has a coloring book too. So oftentimes if someone's getting it as a gift, they'll buy the coloring book and the book and sometimes the sticker sheet, and then they'll let me know that it's a gift and I'll try to write something in the book for them.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah, okay. And expanded your product line. Love it, love it. And do you feel that part of that product is using like a different part of your brain than your criminal defender brain?

Motherhood As Creative Fuel

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Yes and no. I think lawyers are eternally creative, and we don't give ourselves credit for truly how creative we are, because our creativity is how we come up with legal arguments on a page, right? How am I going to distinguish this? How, how am I going to spin this story that sounds terrible for my client into a way that doesn't sound so terrible. So I think that part of our brain, that's the same. The creativity is the same. What I think is different is obviously the visual art aspect of it all, the colors, the drawing, the coming up with a little universe, but also the business side of it has been really fun too, because you don't, I think other lawyers do that have their own practice, but I don't have any of that business side of if I sell it for this much, does that make sense? And what are my actual expenses? And all that kind of stuff has been fun. Only because I've never used that part of my brain before, and because my husband has an MBA, so he's guiding me through the process.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

I think you make a good point that attorneys are more creative than they give themselves credit for. Only you're not necessarily creative with a paintbrush, but you are creative in the thought processes of how you can argue a case.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

Yeah, and there's some times where you, I'm sure you have a case that you don't have a lot to work with and you turn it into something, right? And that is a very creative skin.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

Wow. How do you think becoming a mom has influenced your creativity and your decision to expand the bookline? Are you gonna write more books?

A New Children’s Book On Grief

SPEAKER_02 27:33

I am. I'm in the process of writing more books. I think becoming a mom has exploded my creativity, just completely exploded it in so many ways. One, because kids are so they're the most creative little things around, right? They come up with stories and all this imaginative play and all this stuff. And being around their creativity rubs off on me. Looking at the things that they pay attention to, they'll notice a little butterfly flying around that I won't notice, and they'll stop and they'll look at it and they'll really take a moment to just wow, look at mom, it's orange, right? And doing that has slowed me down a lot in a way that I think has benefited my creativity and my just being my ability to be inspired by the things around me. I thank them so much for that. And actually, the dedication in my book is you are a constant source of joy and inspiration. It's actually dedicated to my kids because they really are. So yeah, and then I am working on more books. I hope to never not be working on a book. I hope this little business doesn't die and I'm doing this forever because I just I love it so much, it fulfills me so much. And my kids love getting to read my book. Yesterday, I'm not joking. Yesterday, my son goes, because we do books before bed, he's I want to read Tommy's book and pulled it out of his bookshelf. And I was like, Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Wow. So what are you working on next?

Where To Buy And Connect

SPEAKER_02 28:57

Okay, this is gonna sound crazy, but but I'm working on a book about grief, actually, for kids. Um, my grandfather passed, it's been two years now, and we were very close. And my son watched me grieve and go through that process, and I had to figure out how to explain it to him. We're not particularly religious, so I had to figure out how to explain it to him like in a non-religious way that wasn't scary, but also made him feel comforted and understand why I would be sad. And that sort of sparked the idea for this next book. So it's already written and it rhymes and it's happy. The not happy in the sense that the overall theme is that when someone passes, they're not here, but they're everywhere. Their body goes back to being everything. So when you look at the trees, when you look at a dragonfly flying by, when you look at whatever, they're there and they're with you. And I just thought there's gotta be kids out there dealing with the loss of somebody that they love or a dog or whatever. And there are books about grief, but I didn't see anything like this. So I thought, why not? Let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

And inspiring. I just and I love the joy in your face when you're talking about this and how it's just a different outlet for you. That's amazing. So I know my listeners will want to reach out to you, connect with you. Where would be the best place for that? And of course, get a copy of the book.

Law Marketing Zone Offer

SPEAKER_02 30:14

So I am on Instagram. That's where I'm the most active. My my handle is the name of my business, which is afternoon recess. So it's afternoon underscore recess, but they can type in Andrea Diaz and it should pop up. You can Google Jury Trial ABC and it'll pop up, or you can go to my website, which is www.afternoonhycen recess.com. It is not anywhere else, it's only on that website, so it's not on Amazon, it's nowhere. I can't manage all the different things. So my warehouse, aka my garage, can't handle all the different sources. Yeah, so if you Google Jury Trial ABC, it'll be there.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

That's the easiest way.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

Excellent.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

And we'll have all those links in the show notes as well. This has been a lot of fun. I've really enjoyed this conversation. And thank you so much for spending some time with us today.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Me too. Thank you so much, Marilyn. This has been awesome.

Community Links And Subscribe

SPEAKER_01 31:03

That's a wrap on today's episode of the Leadership in Law Podcast. Before you go, I want to make sure that you know about something that could be a real game changer for your firm. If you've been doing the work, showing up, serving clients, but your marketing still isn't producing the caseload you know you deserve. That's exactly the problem Law Marketing Zone was built to solve. My team and I work exclusively with law firms, and we don't do cookie cutter. We build a strategy around your practice, your market, and your goals. More high-quality leads, better cases, less stress, and more profit. Head over to LawmarketingZone.com/slash book a call and book your free case growth session today. The link is in the show notes. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next episode.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Leadership in Law Podcast. Remember, you're not alone on this journey. There's a whole community of law firm owners out there facing similar challenges and striving for the same task. Head over to our website at lawmarketingstone.com. From there, connect with other listeners, access valuable resources, and stay up to date on the latest episodes. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us to review on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, keep playing with Vision and keep growing your firm.