What To Do Immediately After An Accident | Monica Balyasny

What should you actually do after an accident?

In this episode of the Gold Coast Podcast, Eric Winegard sits down with Monica Balyasny, Attorney at JT Law Firm, to discuss personal injury law, insurance companies, entrepreneurship, family, and what it really takes to build a successful business while raising a family.

Monica shares her journey from graduating law school during COVID to helping build JT Law Firm alongside her husband. Today, she leads the firm's personal injury division while balancing life as a wife, mother of two, and business owner.

The conversation dives into:

- What to do immediately after an accident
- Common mistakes people make with insurance companies
- How personal injury cases actually work
- Why insurance adjusters try to settle quickly
- The challenges of running a business with your spouse
- Entrepreneurship during uncertain times
- Building a law firm from the ground up
- Motherhood, ambition, and work-life balance
- Why accessibility matters in legal representation
- The future vision for JT Law Firm

Monica also shares her philosophy of being a client's "Legal Bestie," someone who helps people navigate difficult situations with honesty, accessibility, and real support.

If you've ever wondered what really happens behind personal injury claims, how successful entrepreneurs balance family and business, or what it takes to build something meaningful from scratch, this episode is for you.

Guest: Monica Balyasny
Attorney | JT Law Firm
Website: https://jtlegaloffices.com/attorney-monica-balyasny/

Hosted By: Eric Winegard
Gold Coast Podcast

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Thank you all for listening in on today's episode of The Gold Coast Podcast!

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Hey guys, thanks again for tuning into the Gold Coast Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Weingard. Today I have a superstar attorney here, Monica Belasny of JT Law. She works with her husband. She's a family woman, a mom, and quite the sharp uh business person. And I'm very excited to have her on her show. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Thank you for having me. Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 0:20

But I don't even want to know. No, not this. There's not like a number here.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 0:24

Um like I wonder how many text messages I get a day.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

Is it a thousand? I mean, okay, if there's 50 people that text me a day, it's it's gotta be 500 times. Well, because my wife texts me probably 300 times alone, right? Are you married?

SPEAKER_01 0:44

I am. I actually work with my husband.

SPEAKER_04 0:46

Oh, you do? Yeah. Oh, okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

So he doesn't text me, he just walks into my office 300 times a day.

SPEAKER_04 0:51

Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. I um I work with my wife too. She's uh five months pregnant, so she's kind of yeah, thank you. It's our first. We're so excited.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Yeah, God bless. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:03

Yeah, we're very excited.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

You guys, do you guys know the the gender or are you guys waiting?

SPEAKER_04 1:08

Dude, we just had a huge gender reveal party. Do you know where the um Addison is in Boca? Beautiful spot. I did it big, like a wedding for a gender reveal. Having a beautiful little girl.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Congratulations. Thank you. Oh my gosh, she's gonna be so spoiled. Like Daddy's girl is such a real thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

You know, I have this funny thing. This is gonna come off weird when I say it. I'm really good with women because I grew up with a single mom.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:36

So whenever I first say that to people, they they think it means the other way. But um no, I actually genuinely get along with women very well. I know their sense of humor. Um, you know, I can kind of handle their emotional um cues and everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

But uh baggage is the word you're looking for. What was that with the emotional baggage?

SPEAKER_04 1:58

Is that well, I didn't want to say that, but you know, I'm I'm I'm great with women.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

That's good.

SPEAKER_04 2:04

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

That's fantastic. You're so your future daughter is very, very lucky.

SPEAKER_04 2:09

Yeah. I uh I had somebody spiritual tell me that they believe because my mother had a rough life. You know, we had a tough childhood. I had a tough childhood with a single mom. They said she's choosing to come back reincarnated as your daughter.

unknown 2:25

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 2:26

Imagine if that's the case.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

I believe in all of that. Do you? Yeah. I believe that there are forces that are greater than us that from the universe that you know they bring people back into our lives. Like I have the same thing with my son. So he's he's turning four less this year. Uh but my husband and I struggled for a very long time to have kids. You know, we went three years through you know fertility treatments, and you know, it was it was very difficult and you know, losing pregnancies and things of that nature. So my grand my grandparents are were very close to my grandparents, and we would spend every Friday with them. We would do what we call Shabbat dinner, but it was just basically dinner and we would just hang out and play chess. Yeah, like we would just we would just like eat and talk and play chess and then we would go home and go about our day and our weekend. Uh and then we went over one Friday. Uh I played chess with my grandfather. We talked, we ate. Next morning he wakes up, everything's good. He tells my grandma, I think it's so unfortunate that you know they're such good people, why can't they have a baby? I wish there was something I could do to help them. Next thing you know, he passes away in his sleep while taking a nap. Three months later, we find out that we're pregnant.

SPEAKER_03 3:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yeah, so we named my son after my grandfather. We believe that it's his spirit in our son.

SPEAKER_04 3:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah, so I I totally believe in that.

SPEAKER_04 3:55

Now, what's your son's name?

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Anatoly.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

Anatoly. What a cool name.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

It's a very old school name.

SPEAKER_04 4:02

I think it's badass. Anatoly. So what's his nickname?

SPEAKER_01 4:05

So in Russian, it's Tolik.

SPEAKER_04 4:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Um but uh it's like Toly or Tony.

SPEAKER_04 4:12

Yeah, just I'm trying to think what the kids at school are gonna call.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Yeah. I don't even want to think about what school is gonna be like.

SPEAKER_04 4:21

You know, I um there's this really interesting book you should read. Maybe have. Have you ever read Journey of Souls?

SPEAKER_01 4:29

No.

SPEAKER_04 4:30

Fascinating book. When I was younger, I think all of us go through like a spiritual search. And I was in my young 20s, and I was uh, you know, really curious, right? And it's a book about uh, I think the doctor's name was Dr. Newton. He uh took people through hypnotherapy and he originally was taking people into hypnosis and talking about their past lives, and people had all these crazy stories like, oh, they're in a Roman Emperor or not crazy stories, just interesting stories, right? And then he started to go, wait a minute, this is real. He goes, so why don't I ask them where they go in between lives? And what a lot of people started saying, over and over to the tunes of thousands of patients, is that we do go into this like layer of the universe, and we're these like balls of energy, and you kind of fly around with your a certain color group, like so all the orange souls travel together, and all the purple souls travel together. It might be 26 of them, might be six of them, and you know, the the colors determine like the maturity of the soul, and the whole purpose of reincarnating is so you grow as a soul and you mature as a soul. And so if you're an immature soul, and let's say it's the color orange, to mature yourself, you might choose a life, you get to choose your life that you know, um, maybe you're a woman that gets uh a young girl that gets abused or sexually abused by her father, and I'm not, I know it's weird to talk about, but apparently that type of hardship matures the soul. But then sometimes you have a few bad lives and you go, you know what, screw it, I'm just gonna go be Tom Brady and in this life, you know, and and I'm not gonna do any maturing, but I'm just gonna go be like the best looking, coolest athlete ever. But it's a qu it's a fascinating book. It's a fascinating book. Can I tell you what? Oh my god, you're gonna get chills. You're gonna get chills. So I had a uh one of the things that that book says, the guy asked one of one of the women, one of the guys, can you tell when you meet your soulmates? Like your spiritual soulmates, because the you there could be 20 of them here.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Because that's a question that everyone asks. Like, how do you know that you met your soulmate? Yeah, that's a big thing that everyone looks for.

SPEAKER_04 7:17

Yeah, and and and your significant other, your lover, isn't always your soulmate. Sometimes it is. Okay. Okay. Fascinating. I'm sure you and your hubby are, I have no doubt. I know me and my wife are. But the way they responded is they said, you can always see it in the eyes. Always. Always, right? So when I was in the Navy while this was going on, I'm reading this book. I swear in my life, I'm reading this book. And this is I I like uh the San Antonio Spurs, it's a basketball team, and I'm from upstate New York, right? And what's the connection? Yeah, yeah, it's odd, right? You know, it's weird, right? They had a really good player in 1990 that I followed, right? And uh, and there when I was in the Navy, I'm on this giant ship with 3,000 people, and I would always see this tall guy walk around, and I would always kind of look at him and notice him. And that night I saw that same guy out at a bar, and we we really hit it off. And he goes, I'm from San Antonio, I'm a huge Spurs fan. And I go, Oh, cool. He goes, Man, I always knew we would get along. And I go, How'd you know? He goes, because of this.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 8:30

And I was reading that book that week, and I mean it gave me chills when he said that back then. And we're buddies to this day.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

It's the universe, it just it places things in front of you that you need at that at that time, you know, to show you that someone like something or some force is leading you to where you need to be.

SPEAKER_04 8:48

Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

I think that's fascinating.

SPEAKER_04 8:50

Yeah, no, I agree. How long you and your hubby have been married?

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Uh since 2019. Okay. I'm clearly an attorney because I can't do math.

SPEAKER_04 8:59

No, no, that's not your thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:01

So tell me about tell me about um the the legal practice. What are the main areas of law that you guys focus on?

SPEAKER_01 9:07

So we focus on uh pro first party property, which is property damage and uh uh personal injury.

SPEAKER_04 9:13

Okay. Yeah. Interesting mix.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Yeah. I mean, we're dealing with insurance companies.

SPEAKER_04 9:18

Okay, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

On both yeah, so both of them are just we're just dealing with insurance carriers all day.

SPEAKER_04 9:23

Okay, all right. PI can be lucrative, obviously, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:28

Um what how did you get into these areas of law originally?

SPEAKER_01 9:34

So uh once I when I finished uh the bar in Florida and I passed the bar in Florida, I immediately took the New York bar, which is the UBE. So I got licensed in Florida and New York within a year.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

The 2019-2020, and then COVID hit. So by the time I was actually able to practice and put all of my knowledge from the bar exam to work, we were in New York, in Brooklyn, New York, at the time. Everything was shut down. Uh so I couldn't work for the DA's office, which was my original plan. I really wanted to be a prosecutor and I wanted to get trial experience and be in the courtroom doing some badass things. Yeah, I just want, you know, I wanted to just do like this hands-on, like awesome work. But it was COVID, so everything's shut down. No one's hiring, no one's even in the office at this point. So I had to make a choice. Uh, do I, you know, sort of coast and wait for people to come back into the office and get a virtual job, or do I just bite the bullet and sort of go into business for myself? At the time, I helped my my husband had already been practicing before I before I passed my uh bar exams. So I helped him establish JT Law Firm, which is the law firm where we're at today. Uh, and then I kind of just said, you know what? Screw it, let's do it. And I did a really scary thing, which was went to work for myself right out of law school.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

Good for you. Yeah. When you're here, you're doing well, right? Like, God bless. Knock on wood, yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah, everything's good, yeah. So um, since then I've been working with my husband. It's been great.

SPEAKER_04 11:15

So do you guys and I don't know, like I've worked with hundreds of attorneys, but I don't claim to be a legal ex expert. Like, do you guys work on cases together or yeah?

SPEAKER_01 11:26

So um I have my own caseload. I'm I'm the personal injury attorney, so I'm the one who handles all the personal injury claims and cases that come in. He does property damage. But I do help, I do help him, and he helps me, and we bounce ideas off each other, and there are cases that we work on together as a team. And we also have our other partner who joined the firm later on, and we have associates. Uh, but personal injury is pretty much my realm.

SPEAKER_04 11:56

Your forte, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, maybe it'll be Morgan and Morgan in a f in uh 10 years. Is that how they made all their money? I believe so.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

I believe so.

SPEAKER_04 12:05

The guy's a billionaire, yeah, isn't he?

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Yeah, he he got in early, and now the market is pretty saturated, but I feel like there's enough wealth to go around.

SPEAKER_04 12:16

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Yeah. I I think that I I I don't mean to interrupt you, but it's No, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 12:21

This is about you, not me.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

But you know that you can throw a stone in Florida and and hit up like 10 PI attorneys. And I think that everyone thinks that it's a big competition to get cases and you know who can make the most money. But I I don't like that. I I think we can all I think we can all work together. I think we can bounce ideas off each other. I think that instead of being in competition, it should be more of a community because at the end of the day, the insurance carriers have a monopoly, and they, you know, they have an in with the legislature, the laws are very favorable for them, and we shouldn't be fighting against each other. We should be working together as a group to help the plaintiffs, to help the victims.

SPEAKER_04 13:03

When I was uh probably 23 years old, I've been in one car accident my whole life.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Oh, that's good. Knock on that.

SPEAKER_04 13:10

I know, I know, I know.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

That was bad.

SPEAKER_04 13:15

And uh I probably had a good claim. I should have probably had a good personal injury case, but uh I was the passenger and the car hit the passenger side, and we spun around, and my neck hurt. It did. Oh, my neck look legitimately hurt, okay? And my right arm really hurt, and I was young and strong, so I probably healed in a couple of months. But I remember I got a call from the insurance company, I think it was Geico, and they were like, Oh, how you feeling? I was like, Oh, I my neck hurts. They're like, Hey, we'll give you, you know, a couple thousand bucks right now, you settle. I probably should have called one of you guys. Yeah, I probably should have called it.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Probably damn. They like to get in early, they got in quick.

SPEAKER_04 13:57

Yeah, they got in so fast with me. Um, how would you? I I'm I'm curious if somebody gets like if somebody hurts and falls, you know, at a restaurant or something, you know, I slip on some water, like what should they do?

SPEAKER_01 14:13

I think the first thing they should do is obviously get help. So if if it's really, really bad, they should go to the ER or urgent care something right away just to get checked out. If they need to be seen by a chiropractor, I get an MRI or an X-ray or any of those. That's number one priority is is your health and and how you're feeling. Because if you sit on it, you don't want to make it worse. Then, depending on how bad the damage is, you know, you should look into calling an attorney. Even even if uh you don't have a case or you don't have a claim that can be made, an attorney would be able to tell you that. But you never know unless you speak to someone. And I know a lot of people are very scared to speak to attorneys, and I don't know why. We're here to help you. We're your friends.

SPEAKER_04 15:00

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you're so just knowing you for five minutes, you're so sweet and friendly.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 15:05

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Like uh I am I'm I'm a bulldog when I need to be.

SPEAKER_04 15:08

Oh, I have no doubt. Oh no, you can't be in your line of work and not be a bulldog. Yeah, I'm talking about the client-facing side, not the insurance-facing side.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Yeah, absolutely. Um but I've also found that you know, when you speak to adjuster, like insurance adjusters, let me clarify, um, or opposing counsel, if they're cordial with you and you're sweet with them, sometimes that just resolves cases so much faster than just being on the attack all the time. Also something that people take for granted is just, you know, just be sweet, be nice. If the other person's being, I don't know if I can curse on here. If the other person's being an asshole, then you can be an asshole back. But there's no reason to, you know, be nasty to someone.

SPEAKER_04 15:50

Yeah. You know, every uh any legal case I've been in, and of course I've had people send us the most unreasonable stuff ever. Like it's crazy. But you know, to be fair, they're just telling their attorney, like I don't hold anything against their attorney, they're just telling that attorney their side. And you know, we're just telling the attorney our side, and I and I have found just in general that most attorneys are trying to make things amicable. My experience, I haven't had any poor experiences yet. I will here we go. I'm gonna get in a car accident and have a terrible lawsuit.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

No, God forbid. God forbid.

SPEAKER_04 16:33

Yeah. Um, but so and and the reason why I'm saying that is that usually is the goal of the attorney, is the intention usually to create things to be amicable?

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Is that okay so the intent is to basically take what's in look at the cards that you're dealt, look at what's in front of you, and be realistic with the client. Now, sometimes it's not what they want to hear, but at the end of the day, we're trying to get you the best possible resolution. If that means going to trial, then that's fine. We can go to trial. We're not that's not something we're worried about. But if the cards that are dealt in front of you and the evidence that we need is not there, then that's that's a conversation we need to have about maybe it's time to start making some compromises.

SPEAKER_04 17:18

Yeah. If I uh let's say my company does 10 million a year, my mouth is very important for me, podcasting, social media. If I got if I fell and hurt my mouth so bad that I couldn't talk for two years, am I owed 20 million dollars by somebody?

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Can't I can't tell you that off just right off the cuff.

SPEAKER_04 17:41

Um I know that it's a lot of variables.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Yeah, but if it's something where you were injured because, you know, let's say you you tripped or you slipped and you know there was no sign and someone should have done something about it or warned you and didn't, and you you hurt your mouth or you lost your teeth or you did something where you can't speak and you can't do the podcast anymore. Let's say whether it's forever or six months or however long it is, yeah, then there is some valuation to that. But again, it depends on the situation.

SPEAKER_04 18:10

I'm just trying to get you to say something crazy so it goes viral, but in a good way, not in a legal way.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

If something goes viral, if I say something crazy and it goes viral, that means that I'm about to get a bar complaint. Okay. That's that's pretty much how that works.

SPEAKER_04 18:23

I'm messing with you.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Um no, it's fine. I get it. Like I love it. If I can, I will, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:29

Um so yeah, no, I you know, it's interesting. I uh I think if I could if I had to rewind my life, I probably would have gone to law school. Yeah, right? That's interesting you say that. That's interesting you say that. I think it's you know, listen, it's a very doctors and lawyers, it's very prestigious. I th I think when you tell somebody you're an attorney or a doctor, it's um the respect is usually granted immediately. Um and usually you're you can be a high earner, usually a very high earner.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Yeah, I you know, I I agree with you on those parts. But you seem to be doing great, and you did not go to law school and pay m billions.

SPEAKER_04 19:16

No, that's true. No, that's true. Yeah, you're a billion in debt, you're only making a million. I get it. That's brutal.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Um not that I regret it, like I love what I do, and I'm very happy and proud of myself for for that. But you know, if if there's another path for someone that you know they're passionate about, or you know, something like this, where you don't need a law degree or a medical license, then I encourage it. I think that's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 19:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:46

Do you um do you find do you and your husband okay. Do you work well with your husband?

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Most of the time, yes.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

Okay. Okay. You know, well, because I'm relating to you with this, like I'm confiding with you in this because my wife and I work great together. Don't get me wrong, we were on a Zoom last night with some of the people on the team, and you know, I had to like trump her a little bit. I'm like, wait, who's been doing this 25 years? I said, relax. You know, like, you know, there's a right, like I got a little experience on her. She's cunningly talented. Like it's scary how talented she is. But usually we work through everything well, and I find that I like working with her. Now she's taken a I don't want to say a back seat, but she's been working from home a lot. She's five months pregnant, obviously. Um, but I I like working with her because I I it's one of our bonds. Is it is it one of you and your husband's bonds that you have, or does it?

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And the question that I'm sure you get a lot, which is a question that we get a lot, is oh my god, how do you make that work? Do you guys just fight all the time? And it's like, no, we don't fight all the time. We fight a lot, but it's but it's not, you know, personal, it's work-related. You know, it's you with with a law firm, and you know, you've dealt with legal professionals before, so you know like there's deadlines and there's court dates and there's motions that need to be filed, and there's certain, you know, case files that need to be worked on. And sometimes there's just not very good communication because while I have my workload, he has his. And if he's looking for an update, even if I have one for him, if I don't get it to him within the time frame that he wants, that turns into, well, aren't you working on this? What's going on? And vice versa, you know, and sometimes, you know, we work in the same office together. So there'll be days where I'm very much into what I'm doing and what I'm writing. And he comes in and he wants to talk and just wants to kind of sit in my office, and I have to literally shoe him away and be like, Don't you have work to do? Like, what are you doing standing here bothering me today?

SPEAKER_03 21:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

But at the end of the day, it is a bonding experience because with how much we work and how much we put into the business, and we have two little kids, we would barely have time for each. Other. So it is nice to have him. We try to have lunch together. We try to drive together as much as we can. And at the end of the day, like it's nice that we have this thing that we can relate to and bond over.

SPEAKER_04 22:14

Yeah. Well, I find I not well, I um I agree with you. One of the things that I like about working with my wife is, you know, the last uh person I was with, the last girl I was with, when I would come home and express my frustrations, like maybe I had a bad day at work, right? This was before I owned my own business. She kind of didn't understand what I was talking about. So she knew I had a bad day, but she didn't actually understand. And vice versa. You know, she worked too, and I didn't know, like, oh, you had a bad day. Sorry, babe. Like, you know, let's have a glass of wine, let's cuddle or whatever. You know? Or whatever. I actually meant cuddle. All right. I didn't, you know, um, and with the dogs and everything too. Um, but but her Alexis and myself, if if she has a bad day, like yesterday she had a few hours where she was really frustrated. She was doing a lot, and I really understood it. I really, I go, damn, babe, I'm sorry. I go, I go, what can I do to you know uh carry some of the load for you? Let me know. Because I really knew what she was doing. So I would encourage my whole point is this like I would encourage husband and wives to work together if they can make it happen. Um, because when when something really successful happens, rather than me coming home and going, hey, I got a promotion or hey, I got this big deal today, it's like we fist bump together. Like, look what look what we just did. Do you do you find that you and your husband, you know, even though you're sharing some of the frustrations together, you're sharing the wins together.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 23:51

Too, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Yeah, absolutely. So it makes it worth it because you know, if I if I get a you know, settlement or if he wins a trial, or just any, you know, little thing that happens, I'm able to share that with him, tell him right away, and he understands where I'm coming from, and I'm able to tell him what case it is and how it happened, and this is what I did, and all that. And he understands all of that. So I I don't have to not not belittle, but I don't have to, you know, just summarize or or not belittle, but like make small my my victories.

SPEAKER_04 24:29

Minimize?

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Minimize. There we go. That's the word. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 24:32

If you want to say it over again, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Thank you. Yeah, I don't have to minimize my victories because he understands where I'm coming from. So I'm able to give him all the details and he's able to understand it, process it, and then and the same thing with me. He's able to tell me exactly what's going on. Um, you know, just like when he preps for trial, he does the opening statements, and I will sit there and I will listen to him practice that opening statement over and over and over again. And I'll because I know what to listen for, and I'll sit there and say, I really liked it, but this is what you should work on. Instead of saying this, you should do this, or you instead of using, you know, stopping here, like you should stop there, and things like that. So it is awesome to have that together.

SPEAKER_04 25:15

How do you balance how do you balance this part of the business? I'd be curious to hear the dynamic. You're servicing your clients, right? That's like priority one, but then you also have a business to run. Right? Who's who's the business manager of the team?

SPEAKER_01 25:33

So my husband, uh my husband is like he's he's a businessman. He's he's a he's a lawyer who's really a businessman.

SPEAKER_05 25:41

Cool.

unknown 25:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

So he has a caseload and he works on his claims and his cases, but the business is our first baby. So he's he manages it, he makes like the hard decisions, he's looking at how we expand and you know, all those little like nooks and crannies that people don't really see, especially if you're just an if you're just a lawyer who is looking to we get cases in, we settle them, we put cases out. That's not really how a business works, and I'm sure you know that. There's so much more that goes into it. So I take on the burden of being more hands-on with the law so I can let him run the business so that our law firm can flourish.

SPEAKER_05 26:23

Good. What's your what's your husband saying?

SPEAKER_01 26:25

John.

SPEAKER_05 26:26

Is that is that JT what JT is for?

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 26:29

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

So, like I said, I I helped him open it because he was practicing for, I believe, five years before I was.

SPEAKER_03 26:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Uh, and we weren't even married, I don't think, when he first started talking about, or we had just gotten married or something. It was just right there in that mix. Um, but he just came to me and he's like, I I hate where I work right now. I'm I'm not happy. I feel like I know enough to do this on my own. And I I helped give him that push to open that law firm. Um, and I was there with him from day one. And then once I was licensed and everything was good, I joined.

SPEAKER_04 27:08

So how do you, you know, I always admire, especially a woman, when I always admire a woman when she's an extreme professional, which you are, your partner attorney in a law firm. Yes. With your husband. Yes. Sounds like your husband's uh alpha for sure. He's a CEO and uh attorney. Yeah, I got a feeling I know what he's like, but I'm sure he's sharp as heck. And uh, but you're also running a family, you're probably the CEO at home with two children.

unknown 27:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 27:38

I know you don't just work from nine to five.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

No.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

How in the world do you balance all that? And especially as a woman and a young woman.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

I have no idea. It just people ask me all the time, especially, you know, younger female professionals that I I deal with, you know, who are not married yet or don't have kids yet, and they're always like, How do you find the balance? Because my work takes up so much of my time, I can't imagine having kids. And like, what am I gonna do? You just find the time. You just do it. Once you have kids, your priorities just shift. You find the energy, you find the time, you find the balance. And yeah, sometimes I I don't work a typical nine to five. Sometimes I work till seven or eight. Sometimes I come home early if I if my kids need me or I need to do something at home. But you find the balance where family always comes first, obviously, but that but work is not neglected. So it is exhausting, it's a it's a lot of work, but as a mother and as a woman, somehow you just have it in you, and as soon as you have kids, it unlocks. It just it just does.

SPEAKER_05 28:46

Yeah, you're a beast, I can tell. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Like I I do my best. I am I am sleep deprived and just you know all over the place. But how old are you? I'm 35. Well, I'm turning 35 this month.

SPEAKER_05 28:59

Okay, you look young. You look so much younger. Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Oh my god, I thought you were. Oh my goodness. Can I 28?

SPEAKER_04 29:05

I thought you were 28.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 29:07

No, you're you look great. Now, are you also going to the gym too? Yes. Because you look like you're fit.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

When do you squeeze the workouts in?

SPEAKER_01 29:16

In the evenings, as much as I can. Um, it doesn't happen every week because sometimes some weeks are just more hectic than others. Yeah. But I do try to get an hour in after work somewhere between 6 and 8 p.m.

SPEAKER_04 29:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:29

So what kind of workouts are you doing? Running, weightlifting?

SPEAKER_01 29:33

So I'm not very good at taking myself to the gym because even though I know what to do, I don't hold myself accountable. So if I'm extra tired at the gym, I'll do like a rep and be like, uh, that's it. I'm done. Like I came. So instead, we we just uh joined Crunch Fitness. Yeah, and they have workout classes. So now I force myself to go to at least three workout classes a week. Yeah. As much as as many weeks as I can, um, because those people hold me accountable. There's someone who's literally telling me what to do, and other people who are doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and uh, and I get very competitive, so I don't want to fall behind.

SPEAKER_04 30:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're a warrior. I love it. You know, I've always I've always uh really admired a working woman. You know, it's it's wild because most of the people that are in my circle are conservatives, most of them, right? I'm not trying to get political with you, I'm just telling you.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

That's okay. We can get political. That's fine.

SPEAKER_04 30:34

Most of them are, and and uh most of the men are hyper successful, right? Leaders in various industries for sure. And but a lot of them, most of them believe the wife should be primarily at home. Primarily, not that they can't work, but primarily, right? And you know, it's interesting. I I've always just and I think it's because I grew up with a single mom who she grew up on well, I we were on welfare, but she eventually became a nurse. And once she became a nurse, I mean she worked 80, 85 hours a week, just nonstop. 12 hour shifts, 12 hours.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

I can't even imagine 12 hours. Nursing is just, oh my goodness. I admire nurses so much.

SPEAKER_04 31:17

So I just I grew up watching a woman work. I don't know what you want from me, right? Yeah, like so so for me, I just I'm just attracted to a woman that works. And and my my wife, you know, she likes it, she enjoys it. And and I even told her, I said, babe, my I feel my job as a man, I believe, is to put our family into position to where you have a choice. If you want to come and be a boss lady and be a power couple with me, awesome. But if you want to, you know, nurture the nest and take care of our future kids, like God bless you. Like, I'm cool either way. But I think it's kind of hot that she likes working. Like I'm really attracted to it.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

I love that and I completely agree with you. I think that it's great to be in a position where you get to choose. And I think you're going to find that after you have that first kid, she's gonna be so tired between work and and taking care of the baby, especially the newborn stage, is is I I personally think it's one of the most difficult stages because it's all so new. It's all so new to you. There's gonna be moments, and I get those too, where I look at my husband, I'm like, why am I killing myself at work? Like, I just want to be home. I'm gonna be a stay-at-home mom, I'm gonna take care of the kids. And then he'll look at me and be like, you can if you want. And then after thinking about it for 10 minutes, I'm like, I couldn't do that. Like, I I can't sit at home all day. I I like socializing, I like my job, I like being out there and knowing that I'm contributing something to my family. So, and I get the women who stay home and you know, they're stay-at-home moms, and I admire that because I know how hard it is to be with the kids all day. It's it's frustrating and it's a lot of work, and you're basically doing like a hundred jobs at once. But it maybe it's not something for me, but it's but I agree with you, it's great to have that choice. Yeah, you have the freedom to choose what you know what you want to do.

SPEAKER_04 33:12

Can I give you a crazy cheat code for sleepiness and for brain fog?

SPEAKER_01 33:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 33:17

You're gonna think I'm crazy.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 33:19

Okay, but I can confirm this works.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 33:22

So I really struggle with sleep. It's just always been a nemesis of mine ever since I was a young kid. I've tried to consume less caffeine recently, and try I've tried a few things to make my sleep routine better. Over the past year and a half, it has gotten a little better. Okay, but I never do I sleep from 10 to 6, 8 hours, get deep sleep in REM. Uh-uh. Nonexistent. Right? It's like, if I can get a straight six hours without waking up, that's like, whoa. Yeah, that sounds fantastic. That's like, are you kidding me, babe? Or like I got over an hour of REM last night. So now I I say it jokingly, but I follow this doctor and I followed her for probably 10 years. Her name is uh Dr. Rhonda Patrick.

SPEAKER_03 34:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 34:13

And, you know, she's the kind of type that's been on like Joe Rogan, and you know, she's she's really up with all like the modern studies on you know health and nutrition. Okay. I'm not sure if she's leading the studies, but she's very intimate with them on creatine. And apparently, ready, I saw this about four months ago and I started trying it. She said that creatine gets absorbed by your muscles, but if you take enough, it spills into the brain. And just like creatine, I'm about to give you the best cheat code ever, just like creatine can make you do more reps, like rather than doing six curls, you can do like nine. It's unbelievable. It really does have that effect. It's the same thing for your brain. So I'm like, let me try it. All right. But you gotta take 20 grams. So normally people are taking five grams.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

I don't know what that means. You have to like how much is that four X a normal serving. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 35:17

Yeah, so it's like taking four X normal serving. So I started doing it and I and I've taken 20 grams, probably six days a week for the past four months. My brain is unstoppable. Unstoppable. I'm never tired, I'm never not sharp. Doesn't matter if I sleep three hours, I am sharp as heck. 20 grams a day. It's the cheat code. If you're welcome, mic drop. Now I'm gonna get attorneys addicted to creatine.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

So it's so funny because uh my husband did come home one day from Costco with like a big tub of creatine, and and he I don't know if it was for sleep or uh he was saying some things and I I was half listening about the creatine because I've never taken it and I was like, okay, this doesn't have anything to do with me. Uh but he's basically like, we have to take this every day, and it's going to help us like function. I obviously didn't listen because I barely drink water as it is, which I know is very bad, but that's just I know myself, so I I wasn't taking it, but he was. I don't I think he was getting the effects of it. I have no idea. Here's the issue you're about to have a baby. Yeah, so it doesn't matter. You could you could drink a whole tub of creatine. You are for the next I would say two years, yeah, you're not getting I'm screwed. You're you guys are screwed. You're you guys are getting no good sleep. Okay, no good sleep for the next like two years, but it's worth it, but you're gonna be tired.

SPEAKER_04 36:50

Take me up on the creatine challenge.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

I will. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 36:53

It's 20 grams, is the magic number. Okay, it really is. Now, now, if you take the powder, even for me, the powder, um, sometimes it my digestive system feels a little off, like you feel a little bloated. Not not off the way you think, you just it feels like a little like it takes a while to digest. So I buy the creatine gummies and they taste really good.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 37:17

I'm telling you, first thing, I I drink a little protein in the morning, and then I have my 16 creatine chews in the morning, and within an hour it's in it's all deep into my bloodstream, and and I'm a monster. Okay. Telling you, even on nights where I haven't slept well, even on nights where I sleep three hours, sometimes I wake up at 2 30 in the morning and I'm like, I'm good, I'll go get my creatine. It's real.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

All right, I think I'm gonna try that. Try that sounds awesome.

SPEAKER_04 37:42

Now you gotta drink a ton of water.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

Okay. See, that's where you lost me.

SPEAKER_04 37:46

Yeah, you gotta drink a ton of water.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

I'm so I'm so bad at drinking water. I'm which I know is very bad for me, but I just I don't know what it is. I just can't bring it to the water.

SPEAKER_04 37:55

Do you drink coffee in the morning?

SPEAKER_01 37:56

I used to. I stopped. Now I just wait for my Diet Coke at lunch. Okay, and then at night. Guilty that's my guilty pleasure. Okay. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 38:07

Cool. So what's um so where did Mackenzie meet you?

SPEAKER_01 38:11

Where did you guys we met at the Boca Chamber women's lunch? Oh, awesome. Yeah, cool. Yeah, it was awesome.

SPEAKER_04 38:19

Yeah, we we love the chamber. We do a little business with them. I don't know if she shared it with you, but like we kind of do some marketing for them.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

No, I don't I don't think she shared that with me. Really? Yeah. Um, but it was it was the first time I met her. I think it was both of our like first or second events, so we were kind of nervous, not knowing what to do, where to go, or like where to sit. Yeah, it's a huge room full of you know women and you want to network, you want to talk to everybody. So and this is our first year joining the Boca Chamber. So I've never been to their events before, so it was all very new to me. But it was awesome. I met Mackenzie and now I'm here.

SPEAKER_04 38:56

Cool. No, the I I've done a lot of work with a lot of chambers throughout the country, and just like every other business, there's good ones in there. I don't say bad ones, but there's poorly run ones, exceptionally well run chambers. The Boca chamber is exceptionally well run.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

That's what I'm finding. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:16

It's exceptionally well run.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

Yeah, they have great events.

SPEAKER_04 39:20

And in the summertime, they it's like I think it's August, they just put out a bunch of like a party every day. There's something going on every day.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

Is it because it's so hot outside we need to distract ourselves? I think so.

SPEAKER_04 39:32

Now, are you from New York City? Yes. Is there you born and raised?

SPEAKER_01 39:36

From Brooklyn, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:36

Okay. Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

I'm from Rochester. Oh, okay. Yeah, upstate, yeah. Nice. Western, actually. So what brought you to Florida?

SPEAKER_04 39:43

You know, I uh I had an interesting a few things all kind of happened at once. Um, I was at a company for a long time. They wanted me to, you know, really kind of take that final step and be the CEO of the company, you know, and I think they were hoping I was the successor. But I was never never had any plans on that because, you know, to be candid, I think there was a competitive part in me that was always like, I don't want to climb the corporate ladder. Part of me wanted to make a corporation.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 40:22

Right?

SPEAKER_00 40:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:24

And it was just this, like I just gotta test myself to see if I can do it myself. But then COVID hit, and it it was like the thing that I was just like, you know what? Let me go do it. I'm gonna do it. And I got divorced, I was in a dumb marriage for two years. Fortunately, no children.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

Um it's always the second one. That's what I say. The second marriage is the one that that counts.

SPEAKER_04 40:45

Yeah, the second one that counts, yeah. And uh, but yeah, with within within a 90-day period, I quit my job, started a company, got divorced, got a new girlfriend, and left upstate New York and moved down to South Florida. So I had got a new girl, a new job, and a new zip code, and completely changed my life.

SPEAKER_00 41:06

And wow.

SPEAKER_04 41:08

And uh, but but it's happy ever, it's a happy ending for sure.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 41:15

Yeah. So I'm not I didn't become an entrepreneur until I was 40. You know, so like it's it's impressive that you know you guys are doing your thing, you know, pretty early.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

Well, it's it's the same as you, right? Like I said, you know, COVID hit, and I basically had to make a choice, and I just chose something that was very scary, and I honestly didn't think I had it in me. Like I I grew up with my my mom's an entrepreneur, she's started many successful businesses. She was also a pharmacist, so she was a professional, so I admired her so much and I wanted to be like her, but I never felt that that spark that you need to have, that I thought you needed to have to be a business owner or an entrepreneur. I thought that it was something innate in your personality that I just thought I was missing.

SPEAKER_03 42:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

And now I'm here all these years later, and apparently it wasn't my personality. I just didn't, I wasn't looking at it the right way.

SPEAKER_05 42:15

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:17

So co is COVID's wild because COVID, like, for all the chaos it created, like it really, you know, if it wasn't for COVID, I don't know. Maybe maybe I'm maybe I'm still, I don't know. Uh maybe I'm just still 50 pounds heavier and in upstate New York and still working for the same guy I didn't like working for. And yeah, you know, and just probably 50 pounds even heavier, you know, because I I lost a bunch of weight. I mean, I know I don't look like lean during COVID? Uh no, the past few years.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Yeah, I was gonna say, because that's the opposite. People were gaining weight during COVID.

SPEAKER_04 42:53

I fattened up good. And that's also when I met my girlfriend at the time. So we were we came down to South Florida. She she doesn't recall the story like this, but listen, when you move from upstate New York down to South Florida, like we partied it up for a year straight. A year straight. We were out drinking two, three nights a week, and you know, I wasn't even starting my work day till about 11. And I've always been a worker, so that was like an interesting year for me. I kind of just mentally took off, you know. But we were falling in love and having a good time and you know, building businesses together, and we we were building up this like real estate thing, which didn't really need my time from eight to five, like like this type of career does. But but yeah, no, we've built up uh you know quite the business, and it probably wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for COVID, you know?

SPEAKER_01 43:44

Yeah, and as as miserable as COVID was, especially dealing with it in Brooklyn, New York, where everything was completely shut down, it was a disaster. Uh but yeah, a lot of great things in law came out of it also. And one of the best things that came out of it was Video conferences.

SPEAKER_04 44:01

Yes. The best.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

The best. So now we don't have to worry about have I mean, sometimes we still do, uh granted, but most of the time we don't have to worry about schlepping ourselves to some conference room with like five, six other people for a deposition. We don't have to worry about driving five hours out of our way to go to court. Everything's on Zoom now. It's fantastic. We can do multiple things a day. We can have multiple hearings, multiple depositions, multiple mediations, whatever we need in a day, and not have to feel a time crunch like you know, like it like it would have been if if COVID did not bring that to fruition.

SPEAKER_04 44:39

Yeah. So you're Russian?

SPEAKER_01 44:42

Uh so so my my family came to New York from the Soviet Union. Okay. But now Ukraine.

SPEAKER_05 44:50

Ukraine. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

But we but we speak Russian because it's Soviet Union, so I grew up speaking Russian.

SPEAKER_04 44:55

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:56

And then, okay, then you and in Brooklyn?

SPEAKER_01 44:59

Yep. Okay, cool. In South Brooklyn, there's a really big Russian population. Well Russian speaking population.

SPEAKER_04 45:04

Yeah, yeah. Ukrainian.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

Yeah, they now today, yeah. It I think it was in the 70s. A lot of the uh people a lot of uh former former Soviet Union uh asylum seekers came to New York, uh, my dad being one of them, and then uh my mom after that. And they created this community where there's people till this day that just don't speak any English. They all speak Russian. There's stores there. Yeah, there's there's stores like I I don't know if you've ever been to Brighton Beach.

SPEAKER_03 45:34

Yeah, I have, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

So if you've been to Brighton Beach, you've seen like the stores, the the storefronts, they're written in Russian.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

There's like no English to be found most of the time. So that's where I grew up. So my first language was actually Russian.

SPEAKER_04 45:48

Not to get like because to be candid, I can't even pay attention to current events today. I'm so knee deep into my business, but you just made me realize something. They haven't talked about the Ukraine-Russia war in the past. Iran war beginning.

SPEAKER_01 46:03

It's yeah. It's always it's always the new shiny thing, right?

SPEAKER_04 46:06

Which it's not even talked about right now.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

Yeah. Which kind of sucks because it it should be getting more publicity than it is now. But yeah, now the the big thing is Israel and Iran and you know the whole Middle East conflict that's going on. And now, you know, the Russia-Ukraine war has been, I wouldn't say swept under the rug, but it's it's not as important because it's been going on for four years now.

SPEAKER_03 46:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:32

Right? So four years, and now it's onto the new the new thing, the now. Which, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:40

Yeah, I feel I feel like this is just my instincts. I don't I'm I'm not an insider and I'm I probably know less than anybody. I don't think they're just gonna pack up and come back over here. I don't think that's how this is gonna work. Because uh I feel no, I mean like US and Iran, etc. I don't think it's I don't think we're just gonna see in the news, oh ceasefire, we're done, everything's you know, we're good to go.

SPEAKER_01 47:09

No, I I think that it's going to escalate. I think that's I think something is brewing. And I know a lot of people don't, I and not to get political, yeah, but if we've learned anything from Trump's first term, he doesn't share a lot. He shares the wrong things. He he says things that I think it's like a misdirect, but what he does in the shadows, he doesn't share with the public. And I think something's going I I feel something is going to come out in this war, whether it's good or bad, we'll we'll wait and see. But it's definitely there's definitely gonna be an escalation.

SPEAKER_04 47:47

I I I think it's an obvious thing. Um here's here's something I just feel like okay, you know what false flag events are? False flag events like um well, like I think uh for the Vietnam War, uh I mean we I wasn't even alive, right? I was born in 80. So you were born in 90?

SPEAKER_01 48:11

91, yes. 91, okay.

SPEAKER_04 48:13

So there was uh, and I and I'm probably gonna not accurately describe this, but there was a Gulf of Tonkin incident. And what that was was one of our naval ships was in the Gulf of Tonkin, and I believe they were reporting back here stateside that the Vietnam had started to attack our warships, and everybody here was like, let's go get those fuckers. Time to fucking blow them up, right? Like war ready, right?

SPEAKER_01 48:43

But that wasn't that but that wasn't accurate. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 48:46

And today it's declassified that it wasn't real, yeah. So I feel I've just this is just my instinct. I don't I've heard anybody say this, but they have all of our naval ships right now inside of the Strait of Hormuz, and they're looking for mines and blah blah blah blah blah. And and that's actually one of the ways they can block the Strait of Hormuz, is they put a bunch of like mines in the water, so like all the ships are like, I'm not going in there. Like, that's actually one of the ways they can block it. And uh, I just feel like there's gonna be an explosion, yeah, and it's gonna sink a ship or something like and it's going to ignite, yeah. To for them to go do what they really want to do, and I don't know what that is.

SPEAKER_01 49:31

Yeah, I don't know what that is, and if it's not that, it'll be something else. Yeah, yeah. Because if history has shown us anything, that is exactly how the world operates. When you want something to be done, and I know this feeds into a lot of conspiracy theories as well, but I'm I'm thinking I'm thinking of just like I'm just thinking, you know, just historically, you know, people are fed false information, yeah. And you know, there's no real way to verify that information until it's too late and it's 20 years in the future. And at that point, there was either a conflict or there wasn't. Yeah. So I I think that it's gonna be the same thing here. I think that if they wanted if they want to escalate this into an all-out war, they they'll find a way.

SPEAKER_04 50:16

This is this is just me using my instincts. They talked about um and and once again, I'm not taking this, I don't have I don't have like a dog in the fight. I'm just I'm just trying to be an um a realist, a truther. I think they said that Iran has uh um you know killed like 45,000 people or slayed them. And I find that hard to believe. That's a lot of people, dude. 45,000, like that's a stadium. You know? So part of me sometimes thinks I'm like, I'm not saying they haven't, I'm not saying it's not 5,000, I'm not saying it's not 2,000 or 4,000, but 45,000, I like my my conspiracy brain just goes, they had to say that to get us to go over and be like, well, we can't let that happen, you know.

SPEAKER_01 51:12

This and that's and that's what's so frustrating, right, about the news and about social media nowadays, because it's you listen to the news and and you want to believe what they're telling you, and you want to believe what that what they're reporting is factual, but at the same time, we've also been bamboozled, and there's so much misinformation that it's very hard to just accept what's going on. So everything that that's happening, we we have to think about we we have to think about it more than once. We have to do our own research, and it's so much work, man. It's hard to know.

SPEAKER_04 51:45

Like it's hard, like where do you actually research?

SPEAKER_01 51:48

Yeah, it's like it just it leads you down, and even when you research, whether it's TikTok or Google or wherever, it leads you down rabbit holes depending on what you want to see.

SPEAKER_03 52:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:00

So you basically, whatever you're reading, at some point you meant I I think you subconsciously take a side and it just leads you down a certain path.

SPEAKER_03 52:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:11

Now I'm not saying it's the wrong or right path, but I mean, at some point when you're reading, you sort of make a decision.

SPEAKER_04 52:18

Yeah. I think here's here's what I know. Like, if I don't care if you watch CNN or Fox, here's what I know. What they're saying is not the whole truth. Like it's like it never is, it never has been.

SPEAKER_01 52:30

Yeah, even when you watch them side by side, if they're reporting the same thing, it's two different stories.

SPEAKER_05 52:34

It's like, come on.

SPEAKER_01 52:35

Yeah, so you know, it's you sort of have to watch both and then kind of find the middle ground in order to even get a glimpse of what the truth is.

SPEAKER_03 52:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:43

I guess you just like I said, you have to pick a side, and that's the rabbit hole you want to go down.

SPEAKER_04 52:48

Yeah. Yeah, I've gone down some rabbit holes. You don't want to know the rabbit holes that I've been down, because if I told you how far I've gone down, you'd probably walk out of here thinking I'm the craziest ding bat ever. So I just gotta keep some things to myself.

SPEAKER_01 53:03

Oh no, I love that.

SPEAKER_04 53:04

Conspiracies, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:05

So I'm I'm a big history buff, so conspiracy theories, the historic you know, events in history, declassified documents, all of that, all of those things. I live for that stuff. I think it's so fascinating. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:20

No, I I I I do love a good juicy conspiracy. You know what I mean? Like, I love it. Um, I wish you know the Epstein stuff wasn't true, but obviously it clearly is. You know, that's another thing, too, that I keep bringing up. Like, this war just happened right after, you know, like once again, I'm just thinking this through. There's rumors, or not rumors, but they believe that maybe you know Israel was behind the Epstein thing. I'm like, okay, I got no nothing against Israel or Israeli people.

SPEAKER_01 53:52

I I heard that one about and and honestly, I fed into that where where I said that um Epstein was a Mossad agent and he was sent to do all of this horrible stuff to get dirt on like all of these politicians and and powerful people in the world. Honestly, I that was a conspiracy theory where I went down that hole. I was like, that makes sense. That makes sense not impossible. No, I mean look at in in Iran, like now they're finding that like the number twos and all of these high-ranking officials were Mossad agents. And that's how they didn't hear that. Yeah, so they were they were finding that the way they were getting to the Ayatollah and and all of these high-ranking people was because they had they had penetrated Massad agents infiltrated in in like the government and and they were high ranking, and they were, you know, the number twos and like the wives and like all the stuff, and it just some crazy stuff. So Mossad does some incredible stuff when it comes to you know, like secret agent type shit. Yeah, like they're like number one, like they they there's no boundary they won't cross.

SPEAKER_04 54:59

Um there was something, and I don't know if I'm that I dreamt this or something, but I thought I think there's a story of Israel had like they created they were creating drones inside of Iran. I think they had like um like rever. I'm gonna botch this story, so I probably shouldn't even say it. But basically they had these like drones that were you know in these like dump trucks and like underground, and what they told Iran, this was like a year ago, is that hey, you know, we have thousands of drones underground in in your country, you know, don't do anything or else we're gonna release, you know, 3,000 drones. And what they had told them is that, you know, we dug underground with a few of these sites, so just like really, you know, real really interesting stuff. Yeah, I could listen, I'm holding back right now, but I I just know this. I just know enough that whatever whatever they're telling us, whatever the reason why, that might be the truth, but there's also some other ulterior motives. I know I'm not getting the full truth, so I try to just if I'm if I sit down and watch Fox News for 20 minutes, I try to dissect what's really okay. Wait, what's actually going on here? You know, because they already said there were not gonna be any troops there, and now I think there's like 10,000.

SPEAKER_01 56:24

And now there's troops there. There's no troops there, then there's troops there. There's no ships there, and then there's ships there.

SPEAKER_04 56:29

Yeah, so it's just like, you know, I think I think this thing is gonna get um I just for me, it's just tough because I have a theory like um like Oracle just fired 30,000 people. It's just my theory. You know, they're all saying it's AI. I think it's the economy. I I believe that Oracle, Facebook, all these companies that are laying off tens of thousands of people. I just think that somebody real high up is calling them. Oh, you can you can let them go, but you gotta say it's because of AI. But I really think the economy's really tight. Yeah, and the I don't know how and in your line of work, maybe you're blessed in a certain way, but I've seen the past quarter, even for my business, like because I I work with so many businesses and do their marketing, I've seen them tighten their belts, I've seen them, you know, a little cautious.

SPEAKER_01 57:18

Yeah, I so yeah, I think that there is a pattern, and I think that not releasing certain reports uh from the government when it comes to employment and things like that, it makes you nervous because those are telltale signs, you know, that there's definitely something wrong with the economy, that I don't know how bad. And I'm I feel I don't want to say that I'm I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I do think that no one was very prepared for what happened in 08. And I think for those of us who were alive at that time and working or you know, were old enough to understand what was going on. I think that we need to be cautious and at least start preparing that that the economy might do that this the same thing might happen. Just because just like just like you said, you know, like everyone's belts are tightening. It's there's I it does feel off. You could just feel it. Yeah, it just feels it feels off. Everything feels off, and it feels like no matter how hard you're working, it's almost like you're still struggling.

SPEAKER_04 58:27

Yep. Yep. Now, is your I would assume your line of work though, being a PI attorney, I would assume, you know, I'm not saying you know, a trillion dollar case occurs every week, but it feels like it's probably relatively insulated from the rest of the economy. Is that true or or no?

SPEAKER_01 58:47

Um you can say that.

SPEAKER_04 58:49

I mean, if you're if you're it's like a funeral home, like people are dying, like yeah, people get in accidents, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:54

Yeah, so that's true in that sense. People always need attorneys. So no matter how bad things get, if you if you really need an attorney, if you need to sue someone, uh it just depends on that level, right? Of what kind of attorney you need. Uh and I and in my line of work, I work on contingency. So when my clients come to me and if money is tight, I don't have to come to them and say, Well, you owe me a retainer, it's you know, it's a percentage. So if you if you win, that's great. And if you if you lose and we did everything we could and you know nothing came out of it, you don't owe me anything out of pocket. Like I'm taking that risk as your counsel. So I do like this particular line of work that I'm in where I don't have to turn people away because of monetary struggles. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:45

Yeah. Maybe uh maybe in a bad economy, criminal defense attorneys go up because more people are commit committing crimes or something, too. I'm just thinking.

SPEAKER_01 59:54

Good criminal defense attorneys are already pretty expensive.

SPEAKER_04 59:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:58

So well, fortunately, I haven't had to hire many attorneys for many things. Um, you know, outside of like business, but um, I'll definitely be using you if I ever slip and fall, I promise.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:11

I appreciate that. You'd be in great hands.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:14

Yeah, I I have no doubt. I have no doubt. Give me um give me the vision of the of the firm for the next couple of years. I know sometimes you just knee deep in it. It's hard to have a vision, but yeah. But what's what's what's the goal for the next few years? Do you you want a few more attorneys? You're trying to blow this bad bad boy up? What are you trying to do?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:33

So, my vision, and I and if you speak to my husband, it'll probably be, I don't know, maybe the same, maybe different. I don't know. Yeah, my vision is expansion. I I think more so with personal injury, because as you know, living in Florida, what do we get a lot of? Hurricanes. What was the law very favorable to? Homeowners up until 2022. So we put property damage at the forefront. And personal injury was something that I did on the back end, where you know, we didn't really advertise it as much because property damage was the big thing. There was a lot of property damage attorneys in Florida. Now the laws have changed, and you'll see that a lot of them have pivoted. But we've established ourselves pretty well. Let me not say we, I'll say my husband has established himself pretty well in property damage. So I think that in the coming years we're going to probably put personal injury more in the forefront. So I'm gonna be taking a lot of the lead. But with the property damage, I really want to expand that as well, but to other states. And we've sort of started that already, where we are either hiring attorneys who are licensed in other jurisdictions or we're partnering with law firms in other jurisdictions where we can get cases brought in and we're able to help clients not just in Florida or New York or New Jersey, but in Texas and North Carolina and Georgia and Pennsylvania, and you know, hopefully, hopefully one day all 50 states. Hopefully it'll be like Morgan and Morgan. But I I think what Morgan and Morgan did is incredible. But what sets us apart and what I want to keep as much as I can is our accessibility. Because my whole my whole brand is your legal bestie. And what that means is when you are in a shit situation, when you are in a horrible situation, like an accident, you don't want someone who's talking to you like an attorney. You want someone that you can confide in. So I'm your best friend in that situation. I'm there to advise you. I'm not there to push you, I'm there to help you however I can. And that's why on my business cards, I give out my cell number. Because if you want to talk to me, I don't need I don't want you to have to go through a hundred levels of people to reach me. Yeah, you call me up, you tell me I got your card from so and so. And if I can't talk to you in that moment because I'm in a hearing, I will I will call you back, or I will say, you know, this is my number, this is my cell, you can text me, or I take the call right then and there. But my whole thing is accessibility.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:14

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:15

The legal bestie. Do you do that in any of your marketing at all? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:19

That's all my marketing.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:21

Yeah, no, I like it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:22

It's all pink. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:24

No, I I would want to hire you. I for sure would. Um thank you. Yeah, no, I I think I think one of the challenges is our company's grown. Like we have people in you know, in Texas, Minnesota, we we have people all across the country. And one of the challenges I'm personally having right now um is I have to make myself less accessible. And and I wish I could stay as accessible. I do, I love it. But I'm just can you know, confiding in you that um a lot of times people will reach out to me, certain clients, etc. And I'm really the CEO today, and I manage the sales team. I really don't manage the accounts. You know, we have a few dozen people that do. So I'm not as like, don't get me wrong, I'm I I get updates from the team weekly on how things are going. And if they, you know, something goes poorly, I'll say, hey, do you know, have you tried this? Do this, this, you know, so I'll have my team meetings, but it's impossible for me to talk to every client. Yeah, it's impossible, right? Like, I don't I actually don't even have enough. If I you know, if we have uh 300 clients, me personally, you know, like if I talk to a what's an it's only 160 hours a month, I can't even talk to them one for an hour over the course of every hour of every day for a month, right? So I'm I'm really struggling with that right now because I don't want to be rude to people. I don't, I don't, I really but I have to say sometimes, I'm like, hey, you know, I'm not I'm actually not as locked into your account, you know, that's what so and so is for. I said, but please if there's an issue, please tell me. So I'm just telling you as as you grow, you know, it is it is tough. If you're if you're 30 attorneys one day, and I'm not I'm not trying to claim I'm a business expert, I'm just saying the legal bestie will be tougher.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:27

You know, and but I'm just confiding in you that for me it's getting tough.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:31

No, and you're absolutely right. And I I hope to have that problem someday. Yeah, I hope you will. I hope that in the next three to five years, I'm I'm very ambitious that we grow to the point where it does become something that we have to think about. Um but it is also something that that I'm working on where even if I'm not the one that's maybe handling the case because we have the associates and you know, they they all have have their caseload, yeah. That I still want to be the person that when we get a new lead or someone calls us for a consultation, that I'm still that person who's taking that call.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:13

Because at the end of the day, it's I think it's very personable to say that you know that a partner a lot like the law partner is calling you to ask you about your claim.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:23

Yeah. My next, my next podcast, husband, uh, uh mother, daughter, uh real estate team.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:30

Oh wow. Yeah, we get a lot of a lot of like family dynamics.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:35

No, I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:36

Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:37

No, I think like like we should all like I but I believe this to my core. Like, we're all in this together. Like, we gotta support each other, right? So it's like I don't I don't know any other PI attorneys, so you know. You don't?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:51

No, that's such a weird thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:53

No, I actually don't have a no, I've I don't have a relationship with any of them personally.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:57

That's so crazy because there's so many. Like I like even the people that I know, they're like, oh yeah, I know like this person, that person, I'm friends with that one and that one. It's just it's it's funny.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:05

I had a bunch that were my clients in Dallas uh uh years ago. Um, but no, but so to like so somebody gets uh, you know, people ask me all the time for silly stuff. I guarantee you like you get your referral here soon, you know. But like I feel like, you know, we're like as small business people, we gotta help each other out. Yeah. Um and I like to I love connected people if I can.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:27

Oh yeah, I I love that too. I think I think it's something about small businesses where you want to help other small businesses.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:33

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So uh this was fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:37

This was awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:38

Yeah, you're awesome. You're you're awesome. You're the whole thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:42

Yeah, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:43

Yeah, you're the whole package. I'd I'd love to meet your husband someday.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:46

I'm sure he's uh I can set up uh one of these with him.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:50

Yeah, no, I'd love to if he's got time. Yeah, I'd love to hear his perspective and uh and uh do do me a favor, uh take a look at that camera.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:58

And if uh somebody wants to learn a little bit about your law firm, uh for you know, learn a little bit more about you and potentially uh choose you as their attorney, where can they find you?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:08

Yeah, so we are JT Law Firm. Our physical office is at 7700 Congress Avenue, suite 3117 here in Boca Ratone. Uh, or you can give us a call at 855-585-2997. Uh, or if you have a personal injury case that you want to discuss with me, or you know you were in an accident and you just want a consultation, you can reach me at 917 533 8988.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:34

And we'll have all that cool stuff on like a banner for you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:38

Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:38

Guys, thanks again for tuning into the Gold Coast podcast. Make sure to give us a like and subscribe, and we'll see you again.