How to Build a Powerful Personal Brand | Amanda Demanda

In this episode of Made By Challenge, Alberto Sardiñas sits down with attorney, entrepreneur, and branding expert Amanda Demanda for a practical conversation about building a career with purpose.

Instead of chasing shortcuts, Amanda explains how discipline, personal branding, confidence, and resilience helped her create one of the most recognizable professional brands in South Florida.

Whether you're starting your career, growing a business, or looking for your next breakthrough, this conversation is packed with actionable ideas you can apply immediately.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe for more conversations with entrepreneurs, creators and leaders who turn challenges into opportunities.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Amanda Demanda. Everybody knows you as Amanda Demanda. But what's your actual last name?

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Well, it's Demanda now, that's for sure. No, it's not. Yeah, no, it is. I wasn't born with that name. My last name was Del Busto, so it was with a D, so I was Amanda D. Then I got married and it was Suriel. I started practicing law with that name. And then because of all my branding and my law firm, I changed it to Demanda legally.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

You changed your last name legally to Demanda, which means Tools in Spanish.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

No, you don't change like your license and your passport?

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Yeah, it's my passport. But no, I go to the airport. Yeah, look, give me my license. You have it?

SPEAKER_01 0:37

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Yeah, look.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

No.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

It's it says Demanda.

unknown 0:42

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

She's actually Amanda Demanda. No way.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Miss Demanda?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

You're Miss On your driver's license?

SPEAKER_02 0:49

And my passport. So now I go to the airport, and all the ladies that work there that know me from you know the commercials and the billboards, they're always like, oh my God, it's you. No way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Okay, so what does that mean in terms of who you are?

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Well, I think Demanda is really the name I was born to become, you know, because that that's my mission and my purpose in life, and my my work is my life. You know, this concept of work-life balance, and people get so stuck on that. But to me, it's genuinely my work is my life. So it's okay if it blends. And it's now become my entire identity. And I think I was always supposed to be that. But I think the question you ask is rooted in something deeper that comes from like cultural or society. Like the name you're born with is your family name, or the name you marry into is now you're you're possessed, you know, by your husband, like the possession of something, and it's very cultural. But um, I just think that if I marry, change my name for a man that I love, I can also do it for a profession I love. So I married the game, the profession.

unknown 1:58

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Okay, how many people did you upset when you told your family that you're going to change your last name to Demanda, which is the name that shows up on every billboard in Miami?

SPEAKER_02 2:10

No, I didn't get any pushback, and honestly, I wouldn't have I would have persuaded them otherwise. I'm a very persuasive person, but actually it was interesting because when I start my own firm, my last name was already my husband's last name, and I start putting it like on a door and everything. My sister, who's also a professional in her own right, she's like, you know, I feel kind of funny that you're now Miss Suriel and that you have Surreal Trial Firm and you're giving so much name and recognition to your husband's last name, and even though we all love him and I'm with my husband, but it was like that's not our family name. And I think it kind of clicked, like, it's true. I have no real connection to that name, and I don't I don't have an ego that has to be like definitive of my family roots and things of that nature. So I didn't get pushback to change it. I think they all know that I'm kind of very passionate and that it would be the right thing for me. My husband's very easygoing, and I think that part of who I am and why I'm able to succeed the way I do is because I have a partner like him. So he was like, go for it. You know, he didn't give me any pushback.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Wow. Amanda, I'm trying to think about the Amanda that was 20, 22, 23 years old, and that decided to pursue all these different degrees that had nothing to do with law.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

So tell me, take me back a little bit to that so I can understand, and other attorneys can understand why in the world such a successful attorney actually started being somebody who did a major of communications.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Well, I, like many people, graduate high school, going to college, right? That's the track. That's what my parents are saying to do. No one in my family at this point, except my sister, who's 13 months older than me, was in a college. No one had ever graduated university or college. We're first generation in the United States. So it was kind of like the unknown. And all you know is you graduate high school, you're gonna get a job, you're gonna make money, get a house, do the things, right? But I was very ambitious and a visionary, but I didn't know what I needed, what I wanted to do or where I was gonna land. It wasn't like I had a clear vision to become an attorney. There's no attorneys in my family. It wasn't something that was palpable or like tangible to me. So I oddly enough didn't know how attorneys made money, and it kind of like scared me. I was like, I don't know what that means or what the track needs to be. My sister was studying accounting. I knew for sure I did not want to do that. And I'm a very social person. Some of my family had been in theater, my grandfather had been in novellas, you know, and soap operas, and he's very passionate about the artistry of acting, but I didn't want to be an actor. I never wanted to be on camera, oddly enough. So I was just like, communications felt right because I thought I can do like entertainment law. I could produce a TV show, and that's how I end up doing broadcast production and a double major in political science. So I was like, maybe law turns out, but I didn't know what that was. So that's how I end up with those degrees. Then I graduate University of Miami, still feel like I don't know if I want to go to law school, and then I get two more bachelor's degrees at FIU at Lorda International University in business and marketing, because I ended up working in marketing.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

So you did communications, you did business, you did marketing before getting into law?

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Yes, I had like four bachelor degrees. I'm like a nerd and I like a forever student, and I I just still do that today.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

So that was a few years ago. Do you think this type of track, this type of path that you took, is that something that people that are now 20, 22, 25 should look into and use as a reference? Or do you think the game has changed enough for that not to be a valid path anymore?

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Like to go to college?

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Go to college, experience all these different bachelor's degrees, and you know.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

I hear a lot of uh talk on on the social media networks and all different realms and things up being people like knocking college. And I think that's a mistake. I don't think we're in a world where you don't need college being an entrepreneur. We're not all built like that. And if you go to college, it's an extension of high school, it's an opportunity for you to engage with other people from different backgrounds, it's an opportunity to expand your mind, it's an opportunity to develop your discipline because you're no longer going to school in the bell rings, you're going to your class at whatever time that is, you're turning in that paper whenever it's due to you. And those are skills that become transferable to be successful in any industry. So I wouldn't knock uh going to college. I I think that some colleges are too expensive. Yes, there could be a conversation about that, not getting in debt with degrees that maybe are not as uh fruitful later on. But I don't say don't go. I think in your early 20s, we're all kind of lost and we're all have big visions for ourselves. And I think that that's a time that at least you're getting something done under your belt that can help you later define who you are. And that's not gonna be the moment you define who you are. Some people are lucky enough to strike that at that moment, but it's not the norm, I would say. But I would I would definitely encourage young people to go to college. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Is it okay to be lost in your 20s?

SPEAKER_02 7:02

I think it's expected. I think you would be kind of an outsider if you're found at that time.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

So so what you're saying is that the Amanda Demanda that I see with the level of success being all over South Florida and more on billboards, being a very sought-after attorney, being someone who bought her own building for her offices recently and is doing so well, was lost in her 20s a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Yeah, but so you know, I never describe things as lost or challenge, but now I look back and I was like, yeah, that was that seems like I was lost. But in the moments, I've always led by with optimism or confidence and kind of just trusted the process, right? I I'm the type of person that won't just do something for a small time and be like, oh, that didn't work out, I'm gonna go to the next thing. And I've kind of given things their chance. I've taken away the most I could, and when I feel that they're no longer a challenge, or I'm not challenged anymore, or I can't grow anymore, or I'm not feeding myself something that's like learning, then I pivot. And and I do think that looking back, me doing all these different things was because I was kind of getting through them. I was successful at it. I'm like, what's next? What's next? Right? And that is kind of being lost because nothing fulfilled me. And I think that ultimately, then when I go to law school and I become the type of lawyer that I am, I was like, this was what I was supposed to do. And I came with time. So I would just tell people, don't rush it. This is life. What you're doing now is life, right? The planning of it, the failure of things, it there's just beauty in it. But there's nothing more beautiful than the climb. And once you reach certain levels of success and you get that thing you thought you're never gonna get, you look back and you said, I should have dreamed bigger. That would be my advice to younger me. Dream bigger. It's possible.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Even with the big reality that you're living right now.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Yeah, I should have dreamed bigger. So my my dreams for like 10 years from now are like big. Like big in capital letters.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

It sounds like you put yourself under a little bit of self-pressure when it comes to your dreams.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Oh, I'm the hardest person on myself, but I'm also very kind to myself. Uh, I speak to myself in very kind words and affirmations constantly. And uh, and in silver lining moments, I'm a very optimist person. You could see things like, oh my god, this day sucks, or something good's gonna happen to me, something good's gonna happen to me. And you can find the smallest thing to be something like, oh, that was good that happened to me. Like you got to the grocery store and the front parking spot was open, or someone handed you a shopping cart and you didn't even ask for it, you're like, Oh, that was the good thing that happened to me. Or you could live life, you know, kind of down. But one thing I'll tell you about me if I put it on like a list of things to do for today, it's getting done today. I will not push. I I dress up and show up. I'm very disciplined. I outdiscipline people because I believe that true discipline is freedom. You don't have to guess what's gonna come next, you don't have to guess what consequence has from the decision that you made make in a rush or with the unknown. I really try to have routines and be very disciplined. Of course, I do a lot of things, uh, and and things are gonna come at you. But when you have that level of like clarity and stillness, then you can make better decisions.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Teach us your system for discipline. Where do you write things? Where do you remember stuff? How do you remember stuff? How does how does an Amanda demand that they roll out to make sure that what needs to be done gets done?

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Well, let's just say this. Right now I'm at the mercy of my calendar because I we log everything there, my whole team knows. Like, I wake up and I'm literally like, okay, today I have to wear this suit, then I change into this, and then I'm going to baseball game for my son, then I'm going to work out, and like I just pack the car and it's getting done, unless something happens that really interrupts that, and that's very rare. Um, but memory-wise, I am blessed with an incredible memory. Some people may say that's a curse. My husband may say that's a curse. Like, damn, you remember everything. Um, but I really have a crazy memory. Like, I can remember like all my clients' names, fact patterns, and I have thousands of people I represent. It's it's pretty crazy. So I and that's not something you could teach, you just kind of have that or you don't, but there's so many tools of how you can work things these days so that it's easier for you. I just tell everybody use one of them, don't think it's gonna happen naturally. It's not. Organization leads to discipline, leads to the routine. So you need to kind of create that for yourself. What works. Some people like to write things down. I think putting everything on your calendar or having notes, like in my notes and my phone, you'll see like crazy things from like what I have to do today on certain notes. If we're gonna meet today, what do I need to look up? Or all or there's a no of like long-term goals, and there's one of short-term goals, and I constantly add to that because whatever comes in my mind right now, I'm writing down. And I I just go back to those things so I don't forget that vision. But I I really do like memorializing things by writing them, and I'm no longer writing like this, but like writing like this. I I think people should practice that absolutely. Because I don't know who said this, but I remember reading this and I thought that's so true. When you have an idea formulating in your head, and it just feels like I can't roll this out. How do I do this? How do I do this? If you go pen to paper and write it down, and you're able to synthesize it in a process or when I'm gonna do it, what step I'm gonna take next, the thing is half done. Just like put it on paper. Yes, it's clear, it's it's there. The vision is tangible now. Now you just have to act and execute. And I think people don't give themselves the time to like think, daydream it, feel it, write it, speak it. And I'm just I'm a big like not manifest, like I'm gonna do uh a vision board and you know, paste things on it, no, no, like I put it in action and writing it is a big part of that.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

So people know you because you represent a lot of you know regular folks that may not have a penny to their name, and most of the time, so a lot of times, you're going against insurance companies.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

That's correct.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

However, you started your legal career representing insurance companies.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

That's correct.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

What happened?

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Well, I leave law school and I have a very clear vision of the area of law I want to be in, which is called torts, which is what I do personal injury or defamation. That's a type of law that's different from contracts, it's different from estate planning, it's different from criminal law. It's torts. And in our legal careers in in school, they there's a class torts, and that's where we do this kind of law, which is all in the civil courthouse and it has to do with negligence. And I know I I really like that area of law, which is pretty unique to the United States, and it comes from like an England background, and not everywhere in the world do you have this ability to have a Seventh Amendment right, to have a trial by jury of your peers and things of that nature, and I really liked that to be able to communicate to people like me, my clients' problems, and see what they have to say about it. I like talking in stories, and it just piqued my interest. But I get out of law school and I don't have any connections in the legal world, and this was 14 years ago, and there isn't that like need for attorneys anywhere or the hiring, and it was hard to get anywhere. And I was lucky that I even got called back from this law firm. I put my resume everywhere, and they told me, Well, here we represent the defense of the people you know that come for a client into court. We defend the companies that did the wrong, we defend, we we protect that their insurances and things of that nature. And I said, Well, you know what? At least I'll be working in the field and I will learn what they're doing on this side. And I did, and for a year and a half, I got to see how they operate on the other side and what tactics they use just to minimize what they're gonna pay or hide information. And I realized that the attorneys that were bringing the demands and the lawsuits, their clients were definitely at their mercy. Some attorneys were so eloquent and per and asked the right questions, and they got higher values than maybe someone else that had like a better case just because of the injury, but they weren't doing the right work or asking the right questions, and I was like, Oh my god, I felt bad for those people, they were being like misrepresented. So I ultimately decide I need to switch sides, and that's what I did.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Was there a case, was there a moment, was there an instant in which you said, enough, I need to be on the other side? Was there a trigger?

SPEAKER_02 15:38

No, actually, an opposing counsel, an attorney from a defend uh defending a person. Yeah, representing a person on an injury was opposing counsel to me, and he emailed me late afternoon on a Friday, and it was like, when you get a chance, call myself. And I went to my partner, then I'm like, Oh my god, did we miss a deadline? Did I not do a motion? And he's like, Oh, he probably wants to offer you a job, and I was like, Oh, that's not true. I called his attorney and he did. He was like, I want to tell you something. From all the young attorneys I've seen work at that firm and other firms in defense, you're too good, you're too detailed, you're lethal, you're doing it for the wrong side.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

And I was like, Somebody told you you were doing it for the wrong side.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

Yeah. And I was like, I know, you're right. I I can you're gonna offer me a job, sure. And I took a pay cut to go do it.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Was this the same moment in which you started a career with someone that maybe they don't let you shine as much as you felt that you should?

SPEAKER_02 16:40

I think that happens to a lot of young lawyers. Um, so I go work with this gentleman who is a very small practice, right? I'm coming from a big law firm with a lot of attorneys, and you're just a number, and you're just kind of billing and representing big insurance companies that don't really know you and saving them a bunch of money, which maybe I shouldn't have. And I go work for this gentleman. He has a small firm, it's what we call a boutique trial firm. So we're getting into court, we're trying the cases. I'm talking to my client directly. It feels very passionate, it's exactly where I wanted to be. And I learned a lot from him from the lawyering side because he was a dog. Like, we're not gonna take less for this client if that's not what you know they deserve. But I did feel looking back now that for those four years that I was at his firm, I was kind of like like I was a shiny little star and he didn't show me off. And in hindsight, I look and I'm like, well, maybe it was because I was the little cash cow and he wanted to keep that for himself and not let me know what the real world is. Because if I if I spread my wings, now we all know what happened. If I spread my wings, it I was just gonna leave him in the dust. And that was a moment where I realized, and that's a very hindsight moment, that I should, I could have been doing more, but everything happens for a reason, right? Maybe if I would have gone off on my own sooner, I wouldn't have had the ideas I've had now or the experience I had. So I'm always grateful for anybody that's been in my path for the lessons they've taught me, good or bad, you know?

SPEAKER_01 18:06

A lot of people have a hard time finding just this feeling of being grateful with someone that gave you a hard time. How do you do that? Because I mean, what I gather from you, and I've known you for a few years now, is that you tend to live like at peace with everything that happens to you, even during the worst moments. How do you how do you manage that and what could we learn from you to do the same?

SPEAKER_02 18:35

I just think about it in a way that whatever happened had to happen for me to be where I'm at now. And if it would have happened any differently, it would have not amounted to the these results. So that equation shouldn't have been broken or changed. And for me to look back and still down that person or blame them for anything, I it's just not a mindset I've ever subscribed to. I don't think it's helpful. Um, and gratitude starts with you, and and sadly or not, like you're thinking this person that did something to you is thinking about you, they're not thinking about you anymore. They're still preoccupied with themselves, like most humans are. And it's not a selfish thing. That's just how we are wired for survival and day to day that for me to carry your misactions or whatever your intentions were is a load that I don't need to carry. It's not my cross to bear. You should be looking back and be like, damn, I missed that train. You know, like not like it's not mine.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

How did I not see Amanda Demanda before, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:33

So I've never seen it that way. And it's just a mind shift, like a mindset shift, and you just have to subscribe to it, but to everything in your life. You can't just be like, Oh, I'm gonna be so positive about my career, but in my personal life, I'm still gonna hold grudges. It's very hard to do that. The energy it takes to stay mad or remember something in a negative way and let that fester your mind is so much heavier than just being light. Just have more levity.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

So there's one day in which you open your own firm. Yes, 2019, that's correct, and finally hang up your name at the door.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

January 7th, 2019.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

January 7th, 2019, and a year later the world changes.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

So what do you do?

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Well, I start my firm in 2019. No one knew a pandemic was coming in 2020. So I said, okay, 2019 is gonna be the year where I structure this, right? Because I just ripped that band-aid. I had come back from a trial, I had told the gentleman I was working with, I want a partner. He doesn't agree that I should that we should ever advertise. He thinks it's cheesy and that good attorneys shouldn't advertise, and you're such a good attorney, you're a trial attorney, you don't put your face on a billboard. That's cheesy. And I was like, Well, I have this vision, I have to kind of go do it. So, you know, I said, I gotta go. And I was like, I'm gonna give myself 2019 to set it all up. I mean, I just got a little office, it was like a size of a closet. I didn't even have like proper phones, so I had to go get phones, bank account, you know, the whole thing, set up a business, which they don't teach you in law school. But I was like, I'm in 2019, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna make sure I'm respectful to the person that I'm separating from. So if we have some cases to work out together, we could do that. And then 2020, I'm going to launch this vision of marketing. And 2020 comes and it's like the world literally stopped. And it was a big lesson because I had to pivot. And at that moment, I realized that if I could make it through that, I was unstoppable. And that year I grew exponentially because I didn't do only car accidents, right? People that do personal injury rely a lot on car accidents. I came from a world where I was defending the big box stores and you had an injury at a store or at a hotel. So, like, you know, you're slip and fall cases, or you're assaulted at a location, or you fall, or something falls on you. I represent those people. So I was able to pivot and focus just on that. And because there were so much like hand sanitizer being put in dispensers in the front of the stores, they were creating like a puddle. People were wiping out.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

No way.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

So, yes. So I was able to And those were cases for you. Those are cases because they knew that they had this. They weren't putting rugs. The machine things were the machines were malfunctioning, like just squirting out, and and then people were tripping and slipping and falling, torn ACLs and all these things. So I pivoted to that. Now people were, restaurants were putting their furniture outside in parking lots because social distancing and the furniture is not equipped to be moved that way. So you sat in a booth and it collapsed, and people were injured. So that's a case. The guys who were only doing car accidents could not pivot to that work. So I capitalized on my like lawyering skills to be able to focus on that, and I grew a lot. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Amanda, is it true that somebody once let me repeat the rephrase question? Amanda, is it true that somebody inside a courtroom one day called you sweetheart and you had a reaction to it?

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Well, yes, I did. And it was, listen, I'm I'm now no longer that young, but when you're a younger lawyer and you are female, you're going up against other attorneys. I've been doing this a long time, or male attorneys, and you're young, and it's you could see the stark contrast, the way we argue presenter cases, the way the judges treat us. And this gentleman, I almost felt bad for him after because he was an older attorney, and I was making an argument, and he made an argument, and I won. It was a simple motion. We walk outside, and right when we're leaving, he's like, All right, sweetheart, like he, why don't you draft that that order? And I looked at him, like, did you just call me sweetheart? And then he blocked, like, he got so red, like and he was like, I'm so sorry. I did not mean to degrade you. It's just like you literally remind me of like my granddaughter. And and in that moment, though, I realized I could take this as like, oh, he's trying to degrade me. Or I could take this genuinely like he comes from a different generation. And to your point, I always see things from the lighter side because it helps me cope, not because I'm trying to fix the world. He can continue to call people sweetheart and he's gonna find someone with a different reaction or a different life view. But I I decided this is gonna continue to happen. This is an old guard, it's a different generation, and they're gonna try to excuse it. But maybe part of him was trying to be like, all right, sweetheart, you won. You think you're a big shot, you know? And I was like, Yeah, I won. So, but I'll tell you another interesting takeaway from that experience in court and not that specific day, but where when you're going up an uh an attorney that's a man or older, they just have a way to talk and command the room. They're very persuasive. And I find myself sometimes, even with female judges, that they give more deference to the older gentleman than me.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Why do you think that happens?

SPEAKER_02 24:57

I think it's just in in like embedded in us because of our culture fab or cultural fabric. I don't think it's like intentional, and it's just kind of like the patriarch, the grandfather speaking kind of thing. And we're supposed to be equal in court, but there is still that decorum, that's so the social decorum that does bleed into the courtroom. And just being aware that it's just that and nothing more is very important so that we're not reactive to those situations. Because if you are reactive to that and the judge thinks, like, oh, you're trying to make me out to be like, you know, misogynist or whatever, like that's the worst situation you could do. Like, no, you know, don't give the judge that that feeling. Uh, because I don't think they're doing it intentional. Again, I don't do anything intentionally malicious to people, so I find it very hard to believe that other people do, even though there's some people that probably are. I just don't prefer to pass that judgment on people. That's not where I operate from. But it is interesting in the courtroom for sure.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Amanda, for those of us that are not attorneys, there's this urban legend that I've heard about attorneys, which is that they can be killing themselves and killing each other in the courtroom.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

And they can be having a drink that same evening or the next evening and be friends. Is that is is that real?

SPEAKER_02 26:15

Yes, it is. It's not an urban legend. It's just, and it's funny because I represent average people that need representation in court, and so do so many other attorneys that do that. But that's not who I see today day to day, right? I who I see day to day are the people defending the insurance company, they're the opposing counsels, the defense attorneys. I see them at a deposition, I see them at a hearing, I see them in trial. I I, you know, we have to go take a deposition of a doctor at 7 p.m. in Jackson in the middle of the dark, and we're parking in the same, you know, parking lot, we're walking over together to take the deposition at night. Like you have these life-lived experiences with these opposing counsels, and you realize you're human and they're like, man, can we get out of this depot quick because my my kid has a soccer game. And that's just professional like etiquette. So you get to know them. And as long as we're professional and we're arguing on the basis of the law and the facts, and we both understand we have a job to do to represent our clients and we advocate, then I don't I don't see a big issue with that. But yes, we'll be in court and we will be arguing in front of the judge, like a standing our point, and then someone will win or someone will not and be like, hey, we're all going across the street for a beer or a cafecito and we're all like in the same ventanita just having a coffee.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

But is it always when you when you're in front of a judge and in front of a jury and you're making a case, is it always real belief in the case, or is it a little bit of acting where you have no other choice but to believe in something?

SPEAKER_02 27:46

No, I don't I don't believe in that way of practicing. When I say arguing, I mean like debating over an issue. We're not, it's not contentious, it's not nasty, or it shouldn't be. Some attorneys do take it there because they're frustrated that they either don't have great facts in their case or the law is not on their side. But I'll only ever make an argument that I wholeheartedly believe in and that is based in truth and in law and that benefits my client. What happens is that the law is not all written in stone, and every case is very different. So the facts in any particular case can actually be read or interpreted differently on the law that exists, or it can help create better law for plaintiffs or better law for the defense. So we're constantly fighting to see how far we can push for one side or the other because the law sometimes allows for gray areas depending on the circumstances of each case, and the judge has to make that ruling. So I will go in, and if I have standing to make an argument that benefits my client, I will.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

So you were talking about running into other attorneys that say, you know, I have a kid to pick up from baseball, etc. You're a wife, you're a mom. Have you ever had to make a tough decision between your career and being in the courtroom and having to be somewhere versus having to be at a baseball game?

SPEAKER_02 29:02

Absolutely, yes. Um, I and I think I kind of mentioned this earlier, but my life is my my work and it all blends together. And I think there's a misconception for people that like to say work-life balance and that that has to be exactly balanced. Like the amount of hours I put in work has to be the amount of hours I put into life. But my work is my life. So it's fine if it blends. And my kids understand that if I couldn't make their baseball game because I had to go to an event for judges or whatever, it's a it's not a reflection of me being a bad mom or not being there for them because I've invited my kids into my profession, into my work. When I go do community service, when I go to court or some events I could take them to, I bring them, I make them proud about what mommy does. So I don't try to separate those things so that there's an understanding and a level of expectation that's fair for both my kids and for myself. And I always say, like, I didn't have kids to fulfill me as a person. I had kids because I genuinely believe that we should keep bringing people into this beautiful world and let them flourish and have their own life. So them having to understand early on that mommy cannot make every game is real life. And when they're met with that kind of adversity later on in life, and their girlfriend, wife, spouse, whatever has to travel for work and can be it's something they're doing, it's not a personal reflection of like they don't love you. It's just real life. So I think that teaching kids that early on and speaking to them, explaining it to them really kind of manages any ill emotion. But yes, absolutely, I've had to choose work over a baseball game or things of that nature.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

I feel we live in a world that has a lot of judgment, no pun intended. Uh and it seems to me like being in your position puts you in a place where you can be easily judged by others, whether it's because of the level of success, whether it is because, oh may, you know, she's probably so successful that she also takes care of her kids. You know what I'm saying? Like there's so much out in society. Oh, look at her, or she's blonde and she has light eyes, oh, that's you know, it's easy to succeed if you, you know. Have you ever confronted that judgment and how have you reacted to it?

SPEAKER_02 31:13

When people's judgment or criticism of me is based on really them misunderstanding me or underestimating me, again, it's a reflection on them. That's a personal problem, and to me, it's all noise because I know the truth. And I always say this two things could be absolutely true. I'm a very generous, genuine person, and you just don't like me. And they both can be absolutely true, but your dislike of me does not discredit my generosity or my genuineness and how I lead my life. And people struggle with that. And you know why I learned this? I learned this early on in high school. I was class president of a really big class, and I quickly realized that people would do things in spite of me to try to upset me, and when it didn't upset me, and I let it roll off my back, it bothered them more. And I said, that seems like a you problem. You can't catch me, and even if you catch up, I'm gonna keep going forward. So I just I I shut that noise that noise down, and one thing I'll tell people if you ever aspire to be in the public eye, if you ever aspire to do big things, you need to have the courage to be disliked because not everyone's gonna like you. And I'm perfectly comfortable being disliked.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Amanda, you definitely have a strong personality that allows you to be who you are in in all aspects of your life. And I bet you it's not easy to make you cry.

SPEAKER_02 32:51

Actually, I'm a softie.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

So, what do you remember the last time that you could share with us that you cried and would you be able to share something that made you cry?

SPEAKER_02 33:00

Oh my god, at the St. Jude Gala, we were both there. I cry. I I do a lot of work for St. Jude, and I was a tri-delta in the sorority at University of Miami, so St. Jude's a soft place to me. Listen, the work I do is very hard.

unknown 33:12

Right?

SPEAKER_02 33:12

You see a lot of cute commercials about me stopping a truck with a heel, but the accidents with trucks are usually fatal. And I'm the one sitting with that family member or that mom that just lost the son to an accident. And I have to be their emotional punching bag, and I have to process all that. And I will cry with my clients. I will cry during my workouts and my trainers. Since I tell my trainer, you're more of my therapist than my trainer. But um I believe in crying, I believe in letting it out. I think that it's it's a smart way to go through life that whenever you're feeling an emotion, be it anger, sadness, happiness, and you literally feel it in your body, let it feel it. Go through all the feelings, let it out, and just recognize that it's just a feeling leaving your body and it's nothing more. I think people that trap that stuff and don't cry or don't tell somebody they're angry or try to keep those things in, then it all festers. But yeah, I've cried because we sign up really sad cases. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

I believe there's a case where you found compensation of over 40 million dollars at some point. Did that case make you cry? And can you can you give us a little bit of whatever you can share?

SPEAKER_02 34:17

We went to trial on, and um, it was a drunk driver that that caused terrible injuries to an older couple. And I remember in the closing argument I did on that case that I try not to cry in court because we want to not try to be like bring sympathy into the case. But some facts are just so hard and tough that you're human. But the jury was crying, the whole panel was crying, and uh that was a very emotional case, and I'm glad that we were able to be though for those clients and give them that day in court because they were able to take the witness stand and and say their story and have their peers listen to what happened to them and try to correct the law, especially against drunk drivers.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

In your opinion, I mean, I see so many stories in the news with politics, with uh people that try to sue that it doesn't work out, with people that maybe we feel we shouldn't be suing and they sue and they succeed. Is justice still prevailing in this country, in your opinion?

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Oh, that's a big question. Because justice the word itself carries so much weight and it's defined so differently by so many people, and it can be used in so many different contexts, right? Um justice is a concept. I think that the laws in this country are equipped to best try to give us that as opposed to other countries in this world. But it's never enough no matter how many I get, a mom that lost a child in an accident. That's never justice. All I could do is try to convince our legislators and the politicians to never pass laws that limit access to courts so we can at least go say our stories, right? And there's many policies that get passed, and there's like, oh, we're just trying to kill fraud or we're just trying to eliminate the ambulance chasers, right? Which is a real threat to my industry. And it's it's scummy and scammy, and it's not.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

What's an ambulance chaser?

SPEAKER_02 36:22

Well, that's the that's what people call personal injury attorneys. Like, oh, there's an ambulance, you're like, yes, I'm gonna get a case, right? And actually, the sound I hate most in the world is an ambulance. Because to some people, you're like, oh, there's an ambulance.

SPEAKER_01 36:32

To me, I know that they're going to so you're saying that there are attorneys that can literally chase an ambulance? Well, this is to try to get a case.

SPEAKER_02 36:40

This is the whole concept that they call it like they're probably running behind that ambulance to see like who it was that was hurt so they can get the case. So there is this stigma around personal injury attorneys, like we're just trying to get money out of companies. But if you take time to hear the story of the person that we're trying to give their day in court, it's very powerful stuff, right? The money doesn't come unattached. And that's all I could ever try to do to bring justice to these people that have been wronged. But from their perspective, that's probably the first conversation I have with clients with very difficult cases. And I say, let me tell you something. There's no such thing as justice and what we're gonna do. It's just about trying to make it as right as possible. But yes, the conversation of justice is a is a big conversation and it and it goes many different ways, but it's a very passionate one.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

Take me through the moment in which you received from a client the biggest and most significant thank you you've ever gotten in your career.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

Oh, I don't think it's a specific moment that I got the biggest thank you. I get a lot of things from my clients and uh as a thank you, from cards to flowers, to they've knitted things for my kids. Um it's a very recurring thing, thank God, that I'm able to help people this way and that they're grateful and they appreciate it. I don't look forward to that. Like it's not I think I deserve that, but every so often I I'm in the office and there's just like something there, like handmade paper flowers. I'm like, who put this here? Like, oh, a client came by and sent it. But what's more interesting is that I get a lot of outreach and a lot of like gifts, you know, like small trinket things and and good lux and handwritten letters from just people in the community that have never been a client. Just like thinking for what you do in the community. I love watching you. You make you make the Cuban uh American uh population and and group so proud. Like you made it. You are the proof of like why Hispanics that migrated here can have a path and can be successful. And thank you for representing us in court, things of that nature.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

Amanda, you're so successful in what you do and you have marketed yourself really well. Are you ready to give that person who's absolutely unknown but wants to be relevant a quick personal marketing masterclass? Sure. Where do I begin if I'm a nobody that wants to be noticed in my job, in what I do? I'm starting to work, maybe selling an insurance policy, maybe as a doctor, maybe at a bank. And I feel like everyone is ignoring me. Where do I begin to market myself?

SPEAKER_02 39:21

Well, for one, I would never use the words or put out in the universe like I'm a no-one. Like I just to you have to understand the world is your oyster, and you should feel like you aren't just as important as anyone else. So self-talk first. Self-talk, self-worth, uh, absolutely self-worth. And I treat myself, and it's very evident obviously in my brand, but as a brand. And in this country, corporations are a legal entity equal to a human being. So if you were to think, okay, Nike or X company advertises and puts investments into its brand and thinks about the feeling it gives and the colors behind it, you should do that the same for yourself. Okay? You should take the moment to sit down, write out who am I, what's my mission and and vision, and and and do a brand kit about you as a person, not only as what you're selling or the company you're working at or anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 40:23

What would my first brand kit have in it? If I'm opening a document and I'm creating my brand kit because I want to be the best accountant in this 55-story building.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

Okay, so you have a mission statement for a company, you have a mission statement for you. Your mission statement, what's your mission statement for your life? My mission statement is live a life of purpose. And I know that, right? And what are your core values? Not your company's core values, not what you want your accounting firm to be, you as a person. When you can define who you are, then you can translate that into almost any business or any any endeavor you take because it's a transferable skill and the thing you bring forward. And I've just always envisioned myself like that. I want to have a life of purpose, I know what my core values are personally, and I know what I want to get out of life. And I don't care about the details so much because life will figure that out for itself. Opportunities are gonna come, challenges are gonna come, and you're just gonna draw away from that, whatever it may be, and you're gonna have to pivot, but you know who you are. And many times I say with young people, even people that have worked for me, and they're like, I'm thinking about quitting, or you know, maybe I should go do X, Y, and Z. And I always tell them, like, look, you can go do whatever you want, but if you told me right now, like if I wanted to keep you, what do you want out of life? And they don't know. Not even like the smallest thing, right? So, how is the universe gonna give it to you? If you don't even know that opportunity may be right in front of you and you don't even know it. Because you haven't sat down and given yourself that moment, and everyone should do that exercise and just what's your mission statement? What are your core values? Even like what colors do I want to live in? Kind of like as a real brand. Like, how do I want to dress? How do I want to like people to see me when I walk in a room? There's many other blonde girls, right? I walk in a room, and when you leave that party, is like, did you meet that blonde girl, Amantha? No, I didn't. I didn't mean no, did you meet that blonde girl Amantha? Yeah, the one that didn't shut up about herself. Awesome, great. That's what I was going for.

SPEAKER_01 42:26

But we are very afraid of talking about ourselves.

SPEAKER_02 42:29

Okay, but that's fine, but that's who I am. That's not who you are, so then be definitely.

SPEAKER_01 42:33

But is it a good idea? I mean, should we all try to become more of an extrovert?

SPEAKER_02 42:38

No, I don't think forcing something that's not genuine and authentic is is really beneficial because you will deplete your social tank and then crash and burn, and that doesn't help you or the person that you that maybe thought that we're getting an off like a social person out of you, and that's not who you are. So now you sold them on something that you can meet the expectation of. So I just think being very honest with yourselves and listen, it's very hard to say, this is my limit, and it's okay. And what I want for my life is a million dollars. Or what I want for my life, I don't care about money. I want to leave work at 4 p.m. every day. I want to walk my dog. Like, that's what really drives me. And those things could change. And I think that in life, you should be doing this analysis of yourself almost every five years because you should always be doing like, what do I want to accomplish in one year? What do I want to accomplish in three, five, and ten? And you take out that paper every like you could do it every three years and look at it, and I have them written down, and it's like, oh man, I accomplished this. I didn't, I no longer went for this because it no longer served me or it no longer piqued my interest, and that's fine. We're growing, we're changing, and like I said, opportunities and challenges are gonna come and you're gonna have to pivot. But I I really think that we should treat ourselves like a brand and thought, like, if I am Nike, if I show up to Nike tomorrow and they have to sell me, what are they selling about you? He's the boring accountant. But he's gonna get your numbers right. You know, you show up to a networking thing, even if you talk to one person, you're gonna have a conversation with that person that they're not gonna forget because you told them something that you have studied and you have in your mind, and how you your differentiator, right? Like a brand. You sit down, you say, What differentiates me?

SPEAKER_01 44:18

So I'm picking up, you know, how you talk to yourself, number one. I'm picking up also what your mission is and have it written down. I'm picking up also the idea of goals and being able to track your goals, whether you check them every year, every couple of years, etc. Now that that's the inside part. Now we want to go outside for a moment in this masterclass about marketing. You have shown me over the years that we've known each other that there are certain little things that you do that make people remember you, whether it's a commercial, which is a bigger league type thing, or it's a little cafecito cup that you give that has that has your name. If somebody is a professional trying to start a business or working for someone, what could be a cheap but highly leveraged piece of marketing that they could start implementing?

SPEAKER_02 45:03

I want to be very clear about that. There's marketing and there's advertising, right? The billboard, the commercial, that's about advertisement. That is just where I'm amplifying my marketing, my brand. But I can equally amplify it in an interview I'm going to. How do you do that? You make a nice resume, you know, with colors or it's structured different, it's not just black and white. And I know sometimes it's controversial for certain industries. They're like, no, don't do that because in accounting or in law, you just have to have the resume needs to look like this, but like, no, think outside the box, be memorable. You have to make it authentic to yourself, but there is little things you could do to really push the envelope and be memorable. Or they might say, What an idiot. That guy just brought a resume that's totally outside the norms. But someone sitting at that boardroom or making that decision might be like, hmm, I'll tell you this interesting anecdote. When I was leaving a firm, and there was uh someone that was saying, like, Amanda's such a bitch, she's so aggressive, she's doing this and this and this. And look at what she's doing. And then all this talk at a gym where other attorneys were at. One of those attorneys, cold called me, didn't know the guy. He goes, Hey, I'm so-and-so, and I have not stopped hearing about you through so-and-so, because they're talking so much crap about you. No way, but everything that they say, I think is a genius move. So I wanted to meet this bitch.

SPEAKER_01 46:37

You're kidding me.

SPEAKER_02 46:38

No, I'm not. This is a real story.

SPEAKER_01 46:40

They were talking so bad about you.

SPEAKER_02 46:42

Well, they thought they were talking bad, they were just really saying what I was doing.

SPEAKER_01 46:46

They caught the attention of somebody who reached out.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

Yes, and then they they ended up referring me cases because they're like, you seem like the aggressive type of bitch that should be handling these cases, you know? And I was like, exactly, because so even if you think you didn't you didn't strike a good conversation with that person, but but you made a wave, you you made some commotion, someone will pick it up, someone will be appreciative of that. And that's the person that you're really gonna want to connect with. So I just listen, there's so many sayings about this, I don't want to get cliche, but like you have to fail many times to be able to get the yes. And is you just need one yes. In a vacuum, you're like, that sounds so corny. But if I look back at every time that I put myself out there and had like a failed podcast or whatever launch we did, or cheesy commercial, then I look back, I'm like, oh my god, you know? But I'm proud of it because I needed to step on that stone to get to the next.

SPEAKER_01 47:42

So it's fair to say that you regret a lot of the marketing and advertising stuff you've done over the years. No, but there's a lot of stuff that just didn't work out.

SPEAKER_02 47:51

Or didn't work out, or people can against criticize me or judge me. Maybe I turned off some people, but it was meant to be that way, right? I again, to me, it was just it was meant to be that way. I just tell people don't be afraid because and the higher you get up, and then you go and you sit in rooms with politicians, with the president, with senators, and you're like, oh my god, I'm so scared, or who are these people? And then you sit at a dinner table and they're talking about the same things as you. And some of their conversations, they don't know what they're talking about, and you're just like, that's it. And not to discredit them because it takes hard work to get into certain positions, but not not one person is all knowing. And you may be bringing something to that table that is missing, right? And that they want to invite.

SPEAKER_01 48:38

And what I've heard from a lot of people spending time with extremely successful successful, and what I've heard from a lot of people spending a long time with very successful people is that they don't feel they're any smarter than them. At the end of the day, I mean they've made the right move, they've tried enough times, they've really done their work, but they don't necessarily have a higher IQ or more intelligence than anybody else. Amanda, I'm sure there's somebody watching or listening right now who's going through a very dark moment. Somebody's trying to figure it out, they're applied to a thousand jobs, they don't know what to do, maybe they're going through a you know failure in their relationship or in their family, etc. What could you tell someone who's going through his or her darkest moment right now that could help them start to see a light at the end of the tunnel?

SPEAKER_02 49:24

First, I want to say this too shall pass, right? Um, not that I'm like religious or want to tell anybody to adhere to any religion, but almost every human mistake has been done or written in the world. You're not the first one to go through it, you're not the first one that's gonna come out of it. How you perceive this challenge and this moment and what you take away from it is the differentiator. So I would just say put something in action, even if it's something small that gives you some sort of peace of mind, and just stick to it with blinders on and trust the process because time does change things. Things start to shift around you, opportunities come up, or something that feels so dark or so trying is a real adversity that you need to go through to eliminate from your life something that does not serve you, and that's really hard to see in the moment. I've helped a lot of people in my life, I've given a lot of people opportunity, a lot, and they've ended up getting out of my life in very hurtful and painful ways because who they are, and I've had to look at it from a lens of this is the universe or God or whatever it is, taking out of my life people who are just gonna continue to suck energy from you and seek from you opportunity and seek from you guidance and seek from you lightness because they can't self-sustain. So God is saying, like, you can no longer do this, they're sucking too much out of you. You need all your energy for this life of purpose you're trying to live. So, whatever is whatever it is you're shedding, let it go and go through the emotions. It's just a feeling. It's just a feeling. Let it out of your body.

SPEAKER_01 51:17

So we always wrap it up on this podcast with a question that helps you visualize for a moment. And we're going to pretend like we're at a hundred years from now. We're going to imagine that Google still, you know, we're gonna so we have a tradition on the podcast in which we wrap it up, imagining for a moment that we're at a hundred years from now. Okay, and let's pretend that Google still exists, and somebody Googles Amanda Demanda, what would you like those top search results to say about you?

SPEAKER_02 51:46

Oh, I would like it to say she was a great mother. But I don't think of my life as like what's my legacy because I don't I don't operate from like that I don't do things to say what people what am I gonna like leave in people's impression. I do it more so from like the lens of my kids. I would love for that top thing to be something my kids wrote about what I meant to them. Because I am living a life of purpose for them and for my community. I just I don't have that big grand vision of like what my legacy is. I think that's very egotistical, but that's just my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 52:29

Amanda, you have uh taught us a lot today, not only about marketing, but about uh believing in ourselves, about dreaming big, about being strategic with our goals, but especially about living a life of purpose. And and living a life of purpose is probably the last thing you would think about an attorney with a big name, big billboards, and a big brand with such level of success. So I thank you for that. Thank you for breaking up the patterns, the models, the way things are done, and for also showing us that success and purpose can coexist.

SPEAKER_02 53:15

Yeah, two things can be true.

SPEAKER_01 53:16

Two things can be true. Thanks so much.