Maximum Mom

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This week on Maximum Mom, your host Elise Buie is joined by Sarah Walton. Sarah Walton is a business coach and sales expert who’s been featured on The Today Show, speaks at women’s conferences all over the world and has helped hundreds of women start and grow businesses they LOVE.

From growing up in a low-income household with a single mom to helping moms turn their passion into a business they love that can support their families, Sarah’s lived experience shows how women can powerfully change their lives and the lives of their families and communities. Sarah’s transitioned from being “just another coach” to being a change-maker. It’s time to put more money in the hands of more women, and Sarah is all in.

Take a listen!

06:04 Reframing sales conversations and identifying problems to solve for clients
09:15 The concept of high functioning codependence among women and its impact on financial decisions
14:03 Sarah recommends books, including "Boundary Boss," and emphasizes the importance of doing unsexy tasks for financial success
15:52 Recognizing and addressing high functioning codependence and the physical manifestations of unhappiness
16:05 Encouraging children to do their own chores and the importance of teaching independence from a young age
17:18 Parenting challenges related to children's responsibilities and social media influence
19:12 How high functioning codependency affects physical and mental health, particularly in women
20:08 Strategies for self-awareness, including recognizing internal signals and making different decisions
22:05 Offload tasks and the impact of holding onto tasks for self-image
31:10 Recreating life to move through it with peace, calmness, and hope, and the impact on professional practice
31:27 Shifting mindset to find joy in daily tasks and the impact of a positive mindset on success.
32:18 Exploration of the positive impact women can have with money
34:18 The importance of empowering women with money to bring about positive change and the intertwining of power and money
35:37 Shifting mindset from saving to expanding opportunities and the impact of mindset on financial growth

Connect with Sarah:

• Website
• Podcast
• YouTube
• Instagram
• TikTok

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This week on Maximum Mom, your host Elise Buie is joined by Bridget O'Toole.

Bridget is a millennial environmental, land use, municipal and energy lawyer and mom to a 4-year-old son. She opened her own law firm on April 1, 2023 (April Fools Day) in one of New York's most rural counties after leaving a bougie downtown boutique law firm.

She’s been practicing since 2011 and represents clients all over New York State in her practice areas.

Take a listen!

01:11 Meet Bridget

04:58 Bridget’s practice in environmental, land use, municipal, and renewable energy law

09:37 The challenges of working from home

10:35 The persistent issue of schools contacting mothers first

16:42 Bridget's work in renewable energy and her experience working with commercial fishing associations in New York State

22:44 The benefits of meditation for stress management and the importance of unplugging from technology

29:18 Bridget’s fear of what others would think if she opened an office in a rural county and how she overcame it

31:26 The value of giving trusted referrals

34:56 The lack of access to justice and technology in rural communities and how it affects her practice

39:53 The different types of insurance that are necessary as a law practice grows

41:19 The significance of joining a mastermind group and connecting with other women who have similar experiences as working moms

📹 Watch the interview here

Resources:

• Join the Guild Membership
• Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube Channel
• Follow us on Instagram
• Join the Facebook Group
• Follow the Facebook Page
• Follow us on LinkedIn

This week on Maximum Mom, your host Elise Buie joined Jeena Belil.

Jeena is one of the first female owned personal injury law firms on Long Island, which started back in 2007 as a virtual office, while other firms looked at her sideways. She thinks of being a solo attorney not as a job, but as a lifestyle. She was able to create a successful practice on a shoestring with a smart business plan. She was able to stay home and make sure her daughter actually saw her mom for more than an hour or two a day.

Jeena’s areas of practice include Plaintiff's Personal Injury, New York No-Fault and Uninsured Motorist Law, subrogation, medical and auto insurance coverage disputes. She is admitted to the New York State Bar. She received a B.A. degree from Rowan University and J.D. degree from Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center.

Jeena is formerly associated with AutoOne Insurance as Managing Counsel and Travelers Insurance as First Party New York Regional Coordinator. In those positions, Ms. Belil was responsible for the management and organization of the New York No-Fault case handling structure that serves as the template for the defense of first-party claims. In addition, Ms. Belil has been instrumental in the management and preparation of many cases that have established the benchmark for defending arbitrations and suits and investigating and prosecuting No-Fault fraud.

She has presented seminars and round table conferences on diverse topics such as First Party Examinations Under Oath, Using Evidence at Uninsured Motorist Framed Issue Hearings and Arbitration, and Insurance Fraud. Ms. Belil has also represented the interests of Plaintiff clients in Personal Injury litigation from inception through trial.

Since 2007, Jeena has used her prior insurance defense experience in representing New York State Healthcare Providers and the patients they treat in the areas of personal injury, no-fault, and worker's compensation collections.

4:24 you’re not going to have a brick-and-mortar practice

7:05 the younger generations don’t need to be face-to-face

12:33 go where you’re needed

16:32 I consider myself lucky

20:52 people will be happier where they work

24:39 you may not remember exactly what happens

29:01 this accident gave me a perspective

34:58 times have just changed dramatically

38:24 shut it all down

Watch the interview here.

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This week on Maximum Mom, your host Elise Buie joined Lara Bazelon.

Lara is a law professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where she directs the Criminal & Juvenile Justice and Racial Justice Clinics and holds the Barnett Chair in Trial Advocacy.

Before that, she worked as a deputy federal public defender and the director of a Los Angeles-based innocence project. Along the way, she got married, had two children, divorced, and worked to create a different kind of family. Advocating for criminal defendants and writing about systemic breakdowns in courtrooms and in families have always felt interrelated and important.

So often, people stay within their silos, unaware of the rich possibilities for collaboration, support, and mutual understanding. Her writing seeks to break down those barriers and ask that her readers open their minds to unexpected—even unlikely—ways of thinking about problems that may not be so intractable after all.

To learn more, check out the profiles in MM LaFleur’s Lives with a Purpose and The Sun Magazine.

4:37 they're at great risk

7:24 it sparked a huge reaction

12:01 we’re choosing what to do

16:41 opening your mind

20:28 great lesson

24:21 missing a couple of hours, she was going to learn more

29:25 how do you look at these issues

34:40 turning that mirror on yourself

38:00 is it really anything such as too much information

Watch the interview here.

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This week on Maximum Mom, your host Elise Buie joined Heather Moulder.

Heather is a recovering lawyer who practiced in Big Law for over 18 years, made partner, and built a thriving ($2.5MM practice). And she did the latter while staying balanced and happy - but only after burning out and wondering why she’d ever wanted to be a lawyer in the first place. This shift occurred about 4 years into her legal practice, after hitting a mental brick wall and realizing that not everyone was so unhappy.

After looking around, she realized that there were key consistencies in people who were happily successful lawyers (as opposed to the typical near-burnout, never-happy, always drinking-from-a-fire-hose attorney). That's what convinced her to change law firms and build a values-based practice while leveraging her strengths.

This started with a mindset shift around how she defined success for herself (based on aligning to her values and what she put in and letting go of what other people thought of her). And slowly changed how she perceived not just what success meant to her but also who she was, how she showed up, and how she perceived her place in this world (as a lawyer, wife, mom, and person in general).

Fast forward a number of years, and Heather was a partner in BigLaw who was quite happy. Everything changed when she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. She took almost 1 year off to be with her kids and fight that uphill battle (She was only 38 and her boys were 6 and 2 at the time). After coming back to work full-time, she tried hard to go "back to normal" (something she thinks a lot of people are doing now post-pandemic). And eventually realized she couldn't do that and had to figure out what her "new normal" would be.

Cancer and the journey she took had changed her. Heather needed to figure out how, and what that meant for her moving forward. It took several years to figure out, but eventually, this personal journey led her out of law and into coaching. She now helps lawyers build the practices they actually want. And it all started by helping them rewire their minds for resilience and confidence, reconnect to their values and realign around their priorities (while ditching stress, overthinking, and people-pleasing).

She does this both through mindset leadership coaching and business development coaching (which contains a fair bit of mindset coaching). Because real success - where you're actually happy and not just successful on paper - is created from within.

3:02 two boys

7:52 It’s scary

11:09 rewire your mind to think differently

15:06 things get in the way

20:13 I didn’t like who I was becoming

24:28 mine was a 9

29:56 we’re not supposed to make mistakes

36:07 choosing to be happy

40:28 you can fall off of that roller coaster

45:16 everybody who needs it isn’t ready for it

Watch the interview here.

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