Episode 01: Introduction to Not Your Lawyer Podcast
Mona - Welcome to the very first episode of the Not Your Lawyer podcast, where we talk about everything related to businesses, estate planning and administration, nonprofits and tax for female founders and entrepreneurs. I am Mona Reza. I am a serial entrepreneur, a wife, a mom, a Six Sigma black belt, and a tax attorney. And it is my mission to help women like you protect and grow their businesses and their legacies.
I truly believe that part of the problem with the gender gap in the success of female founded businesses is a communications gap. Too many women don't get clear, actionable advice. And I want to change that. This podcast is an homage to all of my free advice family and friends who come to me with legal documents that they've paid thousands of dollars for and ask me to explain it to them because they don't understand.
what they've got in front of them. And so I'm going to share some information with you and also tell you what I tell them. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer. So please know that we are not here to provide legal advice. It's just an opportunity to dig a little bit deeper, have some discussions and not worry about billable hours. Share a little bit about myself so you know where I'm coming from.
The lawyer part is self-explanatory, as every business owner knows, entrepreneurship is a mindset and it's a calling. I was so busy raising my kids and getting my LLM in tax when they were young that until my husband, who's a physician, he has a medical practice, needed my help running the business side of his practice. I didn't realize how much I loved business building.
And once I started doing that opportunity started coming from me in the healthcare business arena. And while I really enjoy that and I have a unique skillset because of my husband's business, I wanted to help everyone. So initially I was a industry agnostic and I was out there advising all kinds of businesses, but there's a saying in business. And if you don't know it, you're going to hear it here. The riches are in the niches and
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how I fought back on that because I didn't want to leave anyone out. I knew that I could help law firms and I could help design firms and I could help Airbnb owners and franchisees. Why limit myself? And I'll tell you why. Because if you're all over the place, clients don't know who you are. Your ideal client does not know where to find you. And so a very wise and successful marketing person said to me, forget about the industries.
What you love is female founders and entrepreneurs focus on that. And she was so right. So why female founders and entrepreneurs? Well, as I started thinking about this and building my own law practice after years of working for other people, I realized that it's almost like a sense of responsibility. How many of you have sat across the table from your lawyer or your accountant or your financial planner?
And left a meeting thinking, I have no idea what we just talked about or that you were being actively discouraged or scolded during the meeting. I have been in enough rooms like that, that I've learned how to not put up with it. And neither should any other client. This journey really began for me, not with female founders and entrepreneurs, but, early in my career, was very state administration heavy. And I worked with a lot of widows. Here you are.
in perhaps the most vulnerable time of your life. And I'm going to tell you, it doesn't matter if you've inherited billions or if you are swimming in debt, you are still so overwhelmed and you feel so exposed. had a client who had, inherited investment, real estate investment properties from her husband. And I suggested we get some information from her accountant, right? Husband had died suddenly in a freak accident.
And she looked at me and she said, no, I don't want to talk to him. She said, whenever we had meetings, he would never look me in the eye. He only talked to my husband and he makes me uncomfortable. Guess what friend? He does not have to be your accountant. He needs to earn your business like everyone else.
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And there are plenty of advisors, right? this isn't picking on or limited to male, male advisors. are plenty of female advisors out there who follow that old school competitive mentality or, this intentional brusqueness to show you how much they know. and by the same token, there are plenty of male advisors who are really kind and compassionate and respectful to the person sitting across the table from them. these people are there.
That's who you need to find to be your advisor. Right. And so when I decided to build this, I set out to build something different, a place where culture and competence go hand in hand and not just for our clients, but as a workplace as well, because it does spill over. So in the next 12 weeks, we're going to get into it. And we're really going to get into it. Our format is a mix of simplifying some complicated topics that nobody seems to understand, but everybody wants to talk about.
like operating agreements, scaling a business, wills and trusts, like specifically revocable trusts versus irrevocable trusts, protecting your family and your business, but also protecting them from each other sometimes. And also some of the things that are unsaid in the process, right? Like the importance of health, your health in all of this and how to make those decisions.
the role that it plays in the success of your business, the psychology behind why we are afraid of estate planning or thinking about our legacy generally, even though we know that ultimately this is going to be good for us. It's going to be good for our business. I'm looking forward to talking about nonprofits and legacy. have a sub stack. It's called nonprofit lawyer, and we will pull some, some of that content.
and break down some common questions that I've gotten from nonprofit founders that really fueled that sub stack, but also dig deeper into planned giving and philanthropy as part of your estate plan and your business plan and look at some stack strategies around plan giving. We're going to mix up the format. some of it will be just me sharing information with you. We will also have call in sessions with real people who want to hash out some of their questions.
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And are open to either sharing with us, or, we can also respond to anonymous questions. We're going to have some expert guest interviews and this I am super excited about because I always say that my biggest asset in growing my business has been my fantastic network and I cannot wait to share them with you. So a little preview of our season, we're definitely going to talk about business formation basics. Like when would you make that S-Corp election?
Or why would you choose an LLC over a corporation? what happens when you die without a will and you have a business or why would a single member LLC need an operating agreement? And there are reasons, there are a lot of reasons we're going to have an interview with a nonprofit leader about his journey and planned giving and creative ways to work that into your own estate planning. Our emphasis is really going to be on talking about things that are both practical and inspiring.
We're going to take what some people may think are boring topics and we're going to make them easy to digest and hopefully really fun to learn about. So what I want to leave you with today is a little takeaway and hopefully an action item to move you forward in your business. Just a little. This one is for the solopreneurs, especially. Do you have a clear separation between your business accounts and your personal accounts?
It's okay if you don't, a lot of people don't. and the reason often is because you're not paying yourself, right? You're working so hard, but you're not paying yourself a salary. And there's this misconception that anything you buy through your business becomes deductible. and so what's going to happen if those charges are all mixed up is at the end of the quarter, the end of the year, when you send your statements to your accountant, she's going to make you separate those personal expenses out and it's going to take up time.
It's going to cost you money. It's going to make you feel bad about yourself. So here's one small thing you can do to make it a little bit easier. Take those personal 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 could afford to pay yourself and also where your money's going.
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These small steps of taking control of your business finances are part of building wealth and protecting your legacy. Here's what I need from you. Please subscribe and follow our podcast. Share with a friend who's a founder. Connect with us on social media, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, wherever you are, we're there too. We would love to hear from you if you have a question that you'd like answered.
We have a form on our website that you can fill out or you can shoot us an email for episode two. We are going to speak with my friend, Diana Ingo Mason of white wolf CPA. She is an accountant and she has an accounting firm that does a lot of work with the athletes in the NIL arena, but she also works with a lot of businesses, both small and large. And we're going to get her take on a lot of these hot topics.
in business formation and the practical day to day of running your business. Thank you so much for being here for episode one. really are Mark. Our goal for this show is to help you grow your business, protect your assets and build a legacy that you deserve. So I hope to see you for episode two and the rest of this season. Thank you.
