Trailer Episode: The Not Your Lawyer Podcast with Mona Reza and Guest Audrey Barnes
Audrey Barnes (00:06)
Welcome everyone to the very first episode of the Not Your Lawyer podcast. This will be your go-to spot for some valuable information about everything related to business, estate planning and administration, and nonprofits for female founders and entrepreneurs. My name is Audrey Barnes and I have the distinct pleasure of introducing you to your podcast host, Ms. Mona Reza.
Mona Reza (00:33)
Thank you so much, Audrey. I am so appreciative that you are willing to do this. There's no one better than you to help me get this started. And I look forward to having many more conversations ⁓ through this series. ⁓ But I really want our audience to get to know us and why I have ⁓ why I feel it's so important to get this information out there.
Audrey Barnes (00:57)
Well, it's such a pleasure to really be able to shine a spotlight on you. But after this, everyone should know you're on your own. It's your podcast. I'm just happy to get you started. So by doing that, let's start out with telling everybody a little bit about you and why you're starting this podcast. ⁓
Mona Reza (01:14)
Okay, so I've been a tax attorney for almost 30 years. I'm also a mom, a wife, I'm a Six Sigma Black Belt, and I'm a serial entrepreneur. And I feel like it's my mission to help women protect and grow their businesses and their legacies. I truly believe that that gender gap in the success of female owned businesses is largely due to a communication gap in information that women receive. They don't always receive clear, actionable advice. And I want to change that.
Audrey Barnes (01:45)
And you know, one of the things about podcasts is there's always a disclaimer. Like, you're not, not your lawyer is a really good title because you want people to know you're not their lawyer. Tell me about the title and how that all plays into what it is.
Mona Reza (01:59)
So in a lot of ways, this podcast is an homage to all of my free advice friends and family who come to me after spending thousands of dollars on getting legal advice and ask me to explain to them what their lawyers really mean. so the goal of the podcast, you what I get from that is that there are a lot of things that are left unsaid when you're at the table. ⁓
And so I want to make sure that those questions that keep coming back that we answer some of them in a general way. But I also want to tell you what I tell those friends and family members that I am a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer. So please know that we are not providing legal advice, just an opportunity to really dig in without worrying about billable hours.
Audrey Barnes (02:45)
Okay, well that's great to know. I want to find out what your pain point is that you're hoping to solve for the women that we've talked about in this intro. What's the pain point that you really feel you can have your finger on the pulse of?
Mona Reza (03:01)
Sure. So, you know, this all started, it didn't really start with female founders and entrepreneurs. I've been a practicing attorney for a lot of years. And when my kids were younger, my practice was very estate administration heavy, right? It really lends well to raising a family. And I worked with a lot of widows and what I would see is often they would come in and they would have these questions. And I had one widow in particular that I, you know, that I think of often she had inherited all of these businesses husband died suddenly real estate, lots of real estate properties. And she was panicking and thinking she needs to sell them all. And so what I said to her was this could be a great source of income. Let's talk to your accountant and see what he thinks. What would you need to do to be able to run this? If that's what you want. And she said, no, you know, I never want to see him again. She said, when we would have meetings, he never looked me in the eye. He would only talk to my husband and
You know, I looked at her and I said, you know what? The good news is he doesn't have to be your accountant. These are now your rental properties. This is your trust. You get to pick advisors that respect you and are able to give you advice that you can understand. And so I think how many of you, how many people have had that experience where you sit across from your lawyer or your accountant or your financial planner and you leave the meeting thinking like, what did we even talk about?
Or worse that, that you're being scolded like a child for something or your idea is being dismissed because they've never seen it happen before. So one of my goals is to make sure that when you are meeting with someone at my firm, we're partners. We're here to help you understand the part that we do because you know the part that you do. You don't need us to tell you that that's a terrible idea or you shouldn't have done this or you shouldn't have done that.
We are here to help you get to where you want to be.
Audrey Barnes (04:56)
So it sounds like from what you're saying is that this podcast kind of sprung out of all those stories of women being treated in a way that wasn't comfortable for them when they sought legal advice. Is that right?
Mona Reza (05:11)
That is certainly part of it. The other part was my own career, the way it came about ⁓ from, was, I was an attorney and I am an attorney, but I've had a lot of detours along the way. helped my husband with his business. I've had children, you know, my children have had different issues, ups and downs where they needed me more sometimes than they needed me at other times. And so it's really twofold. The law firm that I just launched last year, after all these years of being a lawyer is partly.
to build the firm I wish I had when I had a young family. And that applies equally to when you have aging parents or when you have a partner that needs extra care. Providing that kind of a work environment, that kind of a firm where attorneys can really grow. And the other part is that helping women build that foundation with that baseline understanding that we're going to explain it to you in a way that makes sense to you because more complicated doesn't necessarily mean that you're a better lawyer. And a lot of people, men and women get caught up in that jargon when they're speaking to clients. And you know what I always say is if your person lawyer, accountant, whoever cannot explain it to you, like you are like your five, they don't really understand it themselves. And so simplifying the complicated is our goal at the law firm. And in the podcast, is to take those questions that if everyone's asking the question, we have to look at ourselves and say, maybe as an industry, we haven't done a great job of helping people understand these things that really impact their lives.
Audrey Barnes (06:49)
I know that when I was starting my ⁓ video production and marketing firm, I was one of those friends you talked about who was always calling you up with epic conversations about, you know, intimate questions about how do I start this business? What do I do? All these things that I needed to know. So is that the kind of information you'll be dishing out on your podcast? Like things like LLC versus S Corp. And what does all that mean? Is that the kind of thing you'll be helping your listeners with?
Mona Reza (07:19)
Absolutely. And I think you bring up a really important ⁓ part of how the podcast came to be, right? Because you and I have known each other for years. We have a very close common friend, Stacey, who introduced us when you were launching your business. And we became closer because we were talking all the time about the different things you were doing. And that's genuinely so exciting to me. ⁓ And I used to think that everyone has the networks that we have, right? Women, know, girlfriends that they can turn to.
If you need an endocrinologist or you need a reporter to report on a story about something that's driving you crazy. And it became clear that that's not the case. We are very fortunate to have built these communities and these networks, and we're always referring each other to other people.
I really hope that this is a launch pad for not just, not just giving information, right. And helping people have that advice, but threefold. part of it will be that like information on simple things like that. You know, why do people choose an LLC over, you know, a C corp or how do you make that election or, you know, any number of things as a person, a sole member LLC really need an operating agreement. We can talk about all of that but also to have guests on who do things that I don't do. So I can share my network with a wider audience who can really benefit from knowing someone who has a great media company and knowing a great patent attorney. If you have an idea that you think really needs to be protected because I don't do all of those things, but I, there's a good chance that if you need help with one of these things, there is somebody I know that I can introduce you to.
And then the third part is those questions. People have these questions and sometimes you're embarrassed to ask it. Or, ⁓ I don't have the bandwidth to, you know, I, used to joke when I was younger that I could start a practice. Like completely solely run on free advice to family and friends. I don't have the time anymore to do that, but I certainly want to. And so the third part is, calling in questions. We're going to have people.
Audrey Barnes (09:25)
you
Mona Reza (09:34)
If you're brave enough to put it out there and call in, can take questions. Or if you send the questions out, we can do it in a, you know, read it out loud and I answer the question way. And I think it'll be kind of fun because we get some really funny questions. Like ⁓ somebody asked my assistant, are you cheap, expensive? And that's such a long answer because it depends on so many factors, but it is something that we can answer in a...
Audrey Barnes (09:52)
Hahaha!
Mona Reza (10:04)
if we are given more time.
Audrey Barnes (10:06)
So, you my background is in ⁓ broadcast news. so, you know, newscasts are always built with the tease in the middle of the newscast to keep people watching to the end. give us, give us a tease for the Not My Lawyer podcast, something that we're going to want to come back and learn on the podcast. Help me with that. Tease me a little bit. ⁓
Mona Reza (10:30)
So for example, one of the things we might talk about is ⁓ what's something actionable you can do. A lot of people have this problem when they're first starting out that they are mixing up their personal expenses and income with their business expenses and income. And often that's because you don't feel like you're making enough money to pay yourself. Right? So you're ordering Uber Eats or shopping in Nordstrom using your business card. And what ends up happening is
when it comes tax time, your accountant is going to reach out to you and make you separate all of those expenses and you're have to try and remember it's going to cost you more money and it's going to make you feel really stressed out like maybe I'm not making that much money at the end of the day. So here's one small thing that you can do. You can take those personal or personalish expenses and put them on a separate card. That way, at least it's a clean division. Even if you're paying off that card with business funds initially, you'll get a good sense of what you can afford to pay yourself.
and where your money is actually going.
Audrey Barnes (11:33)
I think.
You know, you've just made it worth my while to even be here today because that is such great information that I wish I had known when I first started my business because it was all commingled and it wasn't a good thing and everything you said is absolutely spot on. So that's definitely a tease that would get friends that I know, new entrepreneurs interested in listening to your podcast. So, you know, this is the trailer episode. This is your kickoff, but what should we do if we don't want to miss an episode? What's your layout? What's your plan?
you
Mona Reza (12:05)
What I
would love for everyone to do is to subscribe and follow the podcast. So we know you're interested. We know that you're listening. Share with a friend who's a founder or thinking about starting a business. We would, I would love to connect with you on socials. We're on Instagram, we're on Facebook. LinkedIn is my Rolodex for people old enough to get that. And YouTube, we're going to, we're going to be putting it on YouTube so that you can watch it if you're interested, but it's also going to be wherever you listen to your podcasts.
if you just want to listen while you're taking a drive like I do.
Audrey Barnes (12:38)
Well, I'm really looking forward to it and seeing all the great things and this mission of yours. I think it's just very admirable and I'm really looking forward to the Not Your Lawyer podcast. Mona, thank you so much for letting me introduce you to everyone and good luck with your program. I know it's gonna be a huge success.
Mona Reza (12:58)
Thank
you so much, Audrey. I so appreciate your time. I know how busy you are and I look forward to great things ahead for both of us and interviewing you as we move through this. Thank you so much.
Audrey Barnes (13:10)
You're welcome.