unExpectedly Successful
The to-go podcast for aspiring women entrepreneurs. Join us to hear the raw and genuine stories of women business founders who, despite it all, have created their own pathways to purpose and possibilities—the journeys of women like you and me in their most authentic moments.
You will hear inspiration and know-how, find role models, and, most importantly, discover the next step you need to take. This is an invitation to use their experience, knowledge, and personal story to help you craft your own journey to be unexpectedly successful.
unExpectedly Successful
Latasha’s Business Path: From Grounded Roots to Legacy Building
Join us for a captivating episode featuring Latasha Sego, a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur whose unique blend of woodworking, real estate investing, and public speaking skills has carved her path to business success. From her roots in a small rural community to becoming a thriving business owner, Latasha's journey is a powerful narrative of overcoming doubts, leveraging diverse talents, and applying hard-earned wisdom. Her story is about mastering business ownership based on the profound life lessons learned from family and personal experiences, including end-of-life planning. Her journey exemplifies the crucial balance between using existing skills and embracing new knowledge.
Are you seeking inspiration and practical wisdom in life coaching, entrepreneurship, and personal empowerment? This episode is a must-listen to!
📣 Get in touch with Latasha:
💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/latasha-sago-b1ba5110b
🌐 Instagram: latashasago
📚 Facebook: Latasha Townsend Sago
Referenced programs & products:
🌟👥 John Maxwell Team, https://johnmaxwellteam.com/
🔄🎓Transformational Certification Program, https://www.danielsgroupcoaching.com/
📚 RECOMMENDED readings and programs:
🧠 On Mindset - Soundtracks: the surprising solution to overthinking, https://amzn.to/40W2zHv
💬 On Communication - The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication: Apply Them and Make the Most of Your Message, https://amzn.to/3N1c56g
📈 On Scaling Your Business through Synergies - Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork, https://amzn.to/4a7USlQ
🎧 Listen to the show:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/66x3kimKtCA4dSHE51IOEj?si=486ebbd41f284f3d
🍏 Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/un-expectedly-successful-the-podcast/id1691434992
💌 GET IN TOUCH WITH ME
🎓 Learn about my Online Academy, Her Path to Purpose and Profit, at drgriselda.com
💼 Economic Development Consulting: ascendostrategies.com
Who I AM:
I am Dr. Griselda Martinez, your transformational business coach, speaker, and consultant dedicated to empowering seasoned professionals like you to step confidently into entrepreneurship. After reaching the peak of my career, I realized my true calling was not in the corner office but in guiding women to unlock their purpose through business ownership.
Join me and a community of passionate, purpose-driven entrepreneurs making a real difference. Subscribe to become part of the un-Expectedly Successful tribe, and let's elevate your business journey together. Share your aspirations in the comments and discuss how we can achieve them. Ready to redefine success on your terms?
Let’s go!
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You know enough to implement something, possibly, and to serve people and to add value, and you're going to continue always acquiring new information, to continue to add value to yourself and others, but that's no excuse for not starting.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of Unexpectedly Successful the Show, and today we have this lady Powerhouse that I've been following for a number of months, and today I have the honor to dig into her story, our guest today. Let me give you a little bit of background on her. She is a lawyer. She has helped hundreds of families prepare for their, for their future, preparing, protecting their wealth, their legacy and for moments of uncertainty when somebody in their family passes away, and she helps them mourn in peace and not in conflict. Latasha Sego is my guest speaker today. Welcome, latasha, and let me just brag a little bit more about you with my audience. Latasha, she is an attorney. She is the lead lawyer in her law firm. She also is in real estate, investment, estate planning and a podcast coming soon to you all. So follow up what's happening with Latasha and let's get deep into into your story. Latasha, welcome to our show.
Speaker 1:Thank you, griselda, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:I'm excited to get into your thoughts and insights. So the first question what is it to be Latasha for Latasha?
Speaker 1:Wow, that's, that's a great question. What is it to be Latasha for Latasha? Because Latasha is for everybody else is a many different things, right.
Speaker 2:Yes, correct. How is it? What is it to be that for you?
Speaker 1:For me it's to be resilient, it's to be multi-talented, you know, a builder, a thinker, a visionary, a life lifelong learner. I love learning about new things, but I'm also you know also a mom, a wife, a sister, an auntie many things to other people. But yeah, most importantly I'm that and because of all the things that I, that I do and I see in myself, then I can be that for other people.
Speaker 2:Oh, how beautiful you can be that for other people. When you talk about multi-talented, tell us about it.
Speaker 1:Multi-talented definitely means I am a a jane of several trades I I, in addition to being an attorney, I also love to wit work.
Speaker 2:I yes. Oh, how awesome.
Speaker 1:I like wit working. I started a small furniture building company. I don't think we talked about this, but I I know, yeah, I refurbished, mainly refurbished old furniture, and at our previous house I had my whole garage set up as a wood shop and I had like a mitre saw. My husband got me a mitre saw for Mother's Day one time and I was really excited, awesome. And so, yeah, I love wit working and building things. I got that from my mom. She taught me so much about making what you need and building it. You know, if you want something, build it. And so so, yeah, I do wit working, I do, you know, dabble in a little bit of real estate investing and that that's having the wit working skill helps with that because you know I can fix a lot of things. I, yeah, I can't even think of all the things that I do.
Speaker 2:Tell us more. You're a speaker. Okay, tell us about that.
Speaker 1:That is just. You know, I think, think something. I have my certification from John Maxwell group, but I've also done some other speaker training through a recent group that we just we just went through with dangles, with the transformational speaking certification received through dangles coaching group, and but I just love to speak so I've always done a couple of, you know, bible studies and that's kind of how I got started. I realized that I don't mind getting up and speaking. For most events I'm going to be the MC because I don't mind getting up and just kind of talking. And so I've spoken at a couple of events before and I like speaking, I like again, I like receiving information, I like getting new information and then I like sharing that information with others. So that's that's where that comes from.
Speaker 2:So are you a teacher for teachers? I mean, sounds like you get. You get information digested and then give it out in a different way for others to receive.
Speaker 1:Yes, I've never heard it put that way, but I will receive that.
Speaker 2:That is so cool. That is so cool, okay. So you do woodworking and you are actually skilled to do the flipping of the investment homes that you, that you purchase. That is so cool that you have that set of skills. And then you've also talked about how much you love speaking and how you got into public speaking, and now you've been trained and now you are going to use it for your podcast. That's, that's exciting. Oh, wow, okay. So we'll dig a little deeper into all of these pieces and how that has has led to this point in your life. But what are you most proud about, latesha? I know that I asked you this and you said serving your first client, so tell us about that story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sir. So for my business, for for a state law office, my state plan and practice I kind of talked to you about this I was most proud to serve my first client, not only because I'm going to, you know, add value to that person in helping them have a clear plan, a clear estate plan for themselves and their and their loved ones If anything were to happen to them, if they become incapacitated or if they passed away, so their family could, you know, mourn and have clear instructions about what needs to happen next. But for me, that person added value to me because it proved to me that I could be a business owner, even though, you know, my business was already a business. Legally it was established as a business, but I believe that it was not a real business until I was serving people. And so my first person was that first you know real, concrete evidence for me to say I was in business.
Speaker 2:How exciting. So you said that your business was established but you did not necessarily have clients. So what was the window between you establishing the business legally and then you actually having your first client? And tell us what happened in that in that window, what, what, what was the stopper and then what made you keep keep going?
Speaker 1:I think it was.
Speaker 1:It was several months, if not a year, and I think that the stopper was just me not feeling ready.
Speaker 1:Me not feeling prepared, possibly me not feeling good enough to get started, and I always want to serve my clients to the best of my abilities.
Speaker 1:And so I was always on this journey of I got to learn more.
Speaker 1:I got to learn more. I got to learn more before I served my first client and I was doing a little bit of stuff for family and but I wasn't charging anything because I was still in that space that I think a lot of business owners find themselves in, where they're like, well, I'm not good enough to charge anybody yet, so I'm going to give these services for free, because we underestimate the value that we're adding right, we underestimate the value of what's the knowledge that we currently have and how we can serve people with that knowledge, and we underestimate the thought that we're always going to continue to grow. And if you're waiting to learn all that there is to learn, you'll never get started. And so I had to. I think I had to come to that realization that I knew enough to help people and that I what I didn't know there were other people in my circles that were there at the ready to help me, but I knew more than I thought I did once I got started. But I had to. I had to take that first step.
Speaker 2:So, letesha you I think you've you've brought to the discussion a very important piece about aspiring entrepreneurs. Right, we have that doubt, we have that uncertainty, and then we just keep postponing that first step that you need to take or the next step to get to that first client. Was there anything in particular that helped you go from that thought of I need to learn more, I need to be better than what I am right now to be able to add value? Was there anything that you remember that triggered that trigger, that shifting?
Speaker 1:Well, I think, just talking about it again, I like to, I like to talk.
Speaker 2:So I like to and.
Speaker 1:I like to share information, so I would find myself in circles or in situations because, as we're, you know, as we're talking about this, people are going through things right, people are having situations that come up in their lives and they're like I don't know what to do with this.
Speaker 1:My uncle just passed away and he had a lot of land and my aunt is, you know, trying to, you know, trying to figure out what's going to happen, because there's adult children, but he had children from a previous marriage and what. What's going to happen in this situation? And I find myself speaking about these things off the top of my head, not having to do research, but I'm you know, I'm saying, well, you know, if he didn't have a wheel, you know, based on the, the state of Mississippi, the laws kicking in, and here's how his, his property will go, and it started, it started becoming something that I realized that when I would speak about these things, people would look at me like oh, my gosh that's such a helpful information that people don't know Like this is not something that everybody knows, and I started realizing that I had information that was going to be helpful for someone.
Speaker 1:And one of our mentors your mentor too always says acquiring new information is no excuse for executing and implementing old information.
Speaker 2:I love it so that's.
Speaker 1:that's also something that comes to mind, and during that time I didn't even know that I had heard that, but that's how I would describe that situation and wouldn't you know, and would encourage any other aspiring entrepreneur. Our business owner is you know enough to implement something possibly serve people and to add value, and you're going to continue always acquiring new information, to continue to add value to yourself and others. But that's no excuse for not starting.
Speaker 2:That is awesome. I love. I love the, the, the quote you gave that the acquisition of new information does not prevent us from implementing what we already know. So they're not exclusive one from the other and it is definitely not an excuse to not move forward. And also, it sounds like you became aware, like as you were talking, you started becoming aware that people saw something different and unique about the, the skills you had, versus.
Speaker 2:This is something that everybody has right, which is another thing that we tend to think. When we have talents and gifts, everybody has them Right and that is not true. So I love that you start to to realize that differentiation that you had in your unique skills. Okay, so tell me about you and what you gave some really cool pieces here about. You said you, you are part of, you are a builder and this came from your mom, who taught you if you need something, go ahead and build it, and you build physical things and you build businesses and you build other fun stuff. But tell us how this builder piece came about and how your mother is part of that story.
Speaker 1:Well, I was. It's a part of how I grew up. I grew up in a very small town of a named chemical Mississippi. Not too many people know about chemical Mississippi, very small town.
Speaker 2:No, just for the record how big is?
Speaker 1:this town. Wow, it's probably population 600.
Speaker 2:If that's amazing, amazing, everybody's family there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if that my graduating class, my high school graduating class, and I was valedictorian, it was 25 people. Wow, yeah, I was number one of 25.
Speaker 2:So that lets you know how small Congratulations number one yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a big accomplishment. Right One of 25.
Speaker 2:It is a big accomplishment.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so small town, so very rural community, and so I grew up on what I like to call a farm, but it's not the farm you know, a big farm like you think about. But we did. I had a chicken coop outside of my bedroom window. So every morning, every morning, I went out and got fresh eggs from the chicken coop. That's where we got our eggs from, and we raised hogs, so pork and we you know, and for meat.
Speaker 1:And we had gardens, you know, we raised and we called the smaller ones that were in the back of everybody's house and, mind you, we stayed in an area on family land. So my mom had about nine siblings, so my grandmother, my grandmother's house was up the hill and all of my aunts, my mom's siblings, kind of lived in houses near nearby areas, right? So we all had our own small gardens that we worked, that we kept the smaller crops in, like you know, maybe some tomatoes and cucumbers and everything like that.
Speaker 1:But the bigger field we call it. The field was kind of like in the central area of the land. That's where we grew all like the corn and the purple whole peas and green beans and butter beans, and every summer we all worked, like me and my cousins. We all worked the field Like. We all went out and planted, we all went out and pulled grass while the plants were growing and we all went out and harvested when it was time when everything grew. So I saw that I grew up and I told you earlier we didn't have a lot of money, but I didn't consider myself poor, so financially we didn't have a lot of money. I didn't go to McDonald's, I wasn't getting a new outfit every week, but I had what I needed. Yeah, that's what my mom taught me. She taught me, you know, we built cabinets and everything, and so she was all about working with her hands. She was not afraid of working with her hands, getting her hands dirty to get what she wanted.
Speaker 1:And that's what she taught me.
Speaker 2:You know, you talk about this experience and it sounds so rich and empowering. It's like I need something. I'll build it. And then you talked about in the center of the center field, it was community. It was not you alone, it was this community working towards a mission together. So it was team building. I mean, there were so many lessons there, right, hard work, team building, community. I just not what you said not getting, not being afraid of getting your hands dirty and doing what you needed to do, and the byproduct was yummy food. Yummy, yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, and better food right.
Speaker 1:Like and better food, yummy food and better food, and so, yeah, and my mom also, you know, unfortunately passed away in 2020, but prior to her passing, she had given us instructions and for years prior to my mom, it always been a very organized lady. I wish I would have got that from her, but she would tell us from time to time me and my siblings she'd say hey, if anything were to ever happen to me, here's this file cabinet, you know where this file cabinet is. She only she kept all of her important papers in one file cabinet and she's like here's, here's where I keep this documentation, here's what I have in life insurance, here's where I'm going to keep it, so you'll know where to find it. And again, that's something I took for granted for a long time, for years, because it started when we were teenagers. Right, like like yeah, okay, mom, okay, yeah. But you know, fast forward to 2019 and she was died and she went from being 100% independent to we noticed she was having some issues with just her eyesight and remembering words.
Speaker 1:And so, which led to a diagnosis of a brain tumor.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God.
Speaker 1:And it went from. She went from 100% independent to almost 95% in needing us to take care of her. I became her caregiver shortly after having you know her complete, you know her being completely independent, so and we thankfully loved on her and had her for three to four additional months before she passed away. But again, my mom taught me that it was so important to have these conversations, even when you feel like people are not listening to you, they don't hear you, a lot of people don't have notice right, and things can happen and, like before we know it, things can happen suddenly. And because we had already had these conversations with our mom and you know we knew where things were. She had already communicated this to us.
Speaker 1:There was no doubt Me and my siblings were able to come together and really do what was most important and focus in on what was also important, because we didn't have to worry about the questions that most people have. You know, what would mom want? Where is this documentation? Where is this? We got to take care of this. It was none of that. She prepared us and my mom, you know, had a high school education. She graduated high school and you know, I'm first generation college student, and so Congratulations, letesha, thank you. But she knew enough to know that she needed to prepare us, even when we didn't know and understand what she was preparing us for.
Speaker 1:And so that's just another nod to my mom and being able to help people to say, hey, a lot of us don't have notice. We were, if anything, we were, blessed with notice to be able to slow down and really focus in on what was important, and before was too late. But a lot of people don't have that. And so and it also goes to show that having an estate plan is not about what happens to your stuff after you pass away. That's only a part of it. What happens to you? Who's making these decisions for you when you become incapacitated? And you're unable to make those decisions for yourself when you're, when you're still here, because a wheel is not, does not become effective until after you pass away, so you can have a wheel in place that says that says my husband get this, my children get this.
Speaker 1:But if you are diagnosed with a brain tumor or anything that happens to you, are you, you know, unfortunately have a car accident and you're unable to speak for yourself, who will speak for you? And we need to make those decisions now, while we have a voice to make those decisions, because when you no longer have a voice and that includes in life you know you don't want, you don't want your family trying to figure it out.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh, wow. That's such an amazing explanation of the importance of planning and communicating and knowing what is important to us that we won. After we cannot make decisions because we often I mean when we think about not being on earth anymore that's one thing, but we seldom consider the option of not being able to speak our mind right, right. And so that is so important and I love it, latasha, that it's your, it's you speaking in your expertise and your gifts and your talents as a planning, as a state planning expert. So I love it, I love it. I love it For my audience.
Speaker 2:I know this is a hard topic for many of us, but it is harder if we don't plan about it, if we don't talk about it, because then, as Latasha said, she's helped hundreds of families just mourn in peace and not in conflict, because I've seen it and I've lived through it and we need to be prepared. We need to be prepared even though it's not fun, but it's better than the alternative. So, latasha, going back to the pieces that you've dropped in your story, so you graduated first in your class, then you were first generation college student. What was that trajectory between your little town and then college and then law school? Tell us about that.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I just knew I wanted to get out of the small town. Let me, let me start there. Law school was not part of my plan. My mom I can remember being very, very young, when I was about 10. And I guess it was probably because I talked a lot and because I asked a lot of questions my mom would say you're going to be a lawyer when you grow up. And I was like no, like no, that's not going to happen. Because the one thing I knew about attorneys is they went to school for a long time and I don't like school. I was, I was good at school, but I didn't, I didn't necessarily like being there. So I said, no, I'm not going to be a lawyer. But I knew I would go to college because I knew I felt like it was the way I could get out of my small town and make the kind of money I wanted to make, you know, so that I can go to McDonald's, you know and buy your burger.
Speaker 1:And buy my burger, that I felt like I was missing out on life because I hadn't had and and you know, so yeah, and I actually are the town over actually got a McDonald's like finally got a McDonald's when I became a teenager and I worked there, so I was able to get your dream came true.
Speaker 2:Yes, my dream came true.
Speaker 1:I was able to get a McDonald's, but finally. But yeah, so I knew I wanted to go to college. Just, I didn't. You know, I really have a huge plan, but I felt like going to college and getting a degree is what you hear is the way to be successful in life. So I wanted to go to school. So I went to school and I majored in engineering because I liked math and science. And I took a test, an aptitude test, and somebody told me hey, you should major in engineering. I didn't.
Speaker 1:I didn't know what engineering was necessarily. But I knew I could build stuff. So I majored in mechanical engineering Initially and I was very excited about that. And until I got to college and I realized that before you start building stuff you have to take calculus and physics and physics. And I didn't necessarily like that, I wanted to just build stuff I so. So you know, long story short, that led to me changing my major a lot.
Speaker 1:I went to nursing school shortly. I applied for and got into nursing school. I did a whole year of nursing school before I worked at a hospital and just one, I think, just a small job. I was like an in the ICU and it was just because of the job, the particular job I had, I decided I didn't want to be a nurse and not not realizing I don't have to do this particular job once I get my degree. But I decided, you know, I don't want to be a nurse anymore, I'm going to go. I want to be a doctor, because the doctors make all the money and they don't really work that much. So the nurses do all the work. So I'm going to go.
Speaker 1:I went back to the university. I started out in Mississippi, mississippi State University, and you may not even want all of these colleges, but I'm going to give it to you. I started out at Mississippi State University where I met my awesome husband. But yeah, started out at Mississippi State University majoring in engineering. Then I transferred after my maybe my second year to Holmes Community College for nursing school. Then I went back to Mississippi State University to major in chemistry because I was going to go to medical school after undergrad. Okay, then I decided and that was actually the time that met met George, but anyway. Then I decided I didn't want to be a doctor. I still wanted to go into into engineering, but I changed my major to chemical engineering because I felt like I wanted to be a scientist. Now, this is now. This is something I felt like I should have stuck with, but I did not. I measured in chemical engineering shortly and then I wanted to get out of the state, so I majored. I went to LSU oh, louisiana, yes and I majored in petroleum engineering.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, and the reason why I majored in petroleum engineering this is. This is a funny story too. I did this out, if you want to. I needed to figure out a way. Again, I'm first generation college student, so I'm doing all this on my own about I'm about 20, 21. Yes, I needed to figure out how to not pay out of state fees, so I did some research and I found this Southern educational cooperative program, where if you major in something within the connecting states that your state does not offer, no university in your state offers, then you don't have to pay out of state fees.
Speaker 2:Oh, so the researcher in you gave you the answer.
Speaker 1:Yes, so I majored in.
Speaker 1:I majored in petroleum engineering because I was going to be taking some of the similar classes Right, I was going to be taking organic chemistry and if I, if I ended up transferring back to Mississippi state. So I said, okay, I majored in petroleum engineering and I modeled while I was. I went to modeling school, oh wow. So I modeled in New Orleans and did a couple of things and I ended up coming back home to Mississippi state and majored a transfer back, major in I think it was chemical engineering at the time and then found out I was pregnant. I had to. Oh, I had two more years of school and then we found out we were pregnant with Madison and I said I can't do two more two more years of school with with a baby. But after I saw, after I had her, I looked at all the, all the education I had, all the all the classes oh my God, all the hours, it's a lot Very diverse.
Speaker 1:Yes, like what? What can I? What can I do and major in to get out of school as quickly as possible, because now, now I have a child? Yes, and I ended up figuring out that I could get my paralegal studies degree from Mississippi University for women in one year If I transferred. So I transferred all of my hours to Mississippi University for women, which was in the next town over in Columbus, mississippi, and I majored in paralegal studies. And so I'm, I'm doing my courses and I told you this, I think offline. I, madison, gave me purpose.
Speaker 2:You know find out.
Speaker 1:I was pregnant and responsible for another life, another human being.
Speaker 2:A gift.
Speaker 1:You said offline yes A gift, I knew I had to stop playing around and get serious, and so so that was I got my first 4.0.
Speaker 2:Congratulations, another milestone.
Speaker 1:I was in college after I had my child, so and so, yeah. So I majored in paralegal studies and I had a professor in my paralegal studies course that kept asking me are you going to law school? Because a lot of people in the paralegal studies program that was their next step, their next step was going to be law school, and I said, nope, have no plans to go into law school. I'm here so I can get out as quickly as possible. I have a child and I didn't mention Madison had a medical condition. She was not only, she was born early. She was born 10 weeks premature, at three pounds and four ounces.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, she's a baby miracle. Yes.
Speaker 1:And yeah, we were initially. She was pretty awesome and at three months old she was diagnosed with hydrocephalus and had her first brain surgery. And oh my God. So I'm in school telling my professor I'm trying to get out of school, I have things to tend to let's just say that I have things to tend to. But I but I felt like I owed it to myself. I had done so many years of school to get a degree so that we could take care of her and George and I. I'll go back to that. Let me finish this but finish my.
Speaker 1:But the professor really encouraged me to go to law school and everybody who was in my program they were that I would see them studying for what's called the LSAT, which is the law school interest interest exam. Yes, and they were taking courses that cost money, thousands of dollars, to take the LSAT to score high enough to get into law school. So that was my kind of what I thought that I would have to do that. So I told my professor I'm like I cannot afford to take any courses to study for this LSAT exam to go to law school. Yes, and he gave me, he gave me $1. He gave me a dollar and he said go to the grocery store and buy a logic puzzle book.
Speaker 1:A logic puzzle book, a logic puzzle book, and I never heard of this, so I'm like it's in the grocery store. He's like, yeah, go to the grocery store in the magazine section and buy a logic puzzle book. Do all of the puzzles in the book Apply to? Take the LSAT, when the LSAT was probably about two or three weeks after I'm doing this. Right, it was right.
Speaker 1:It was right around the corner and he said if you score high enough to get into any law schools, you should go. That was a good challenge. It was a very good challenge because he gave me the dollar and I like doing puzzles, because I'm a lifelong learner, and I took them up on it. So I said, hey, I don't think this is going to be me, but he keeps bothering me about this thing, this law school thing. So I'm going to try it and I did it. I did the logic puzzle book, all of it, and I applied to take the LSAT. And that was two weeks later and I scored high enough to get into three law schools.
Speaker 2:Three law schools, not just one, wow.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Lettasha, you like this brilliant mind that has so many talents and so many skills and interests. Right that I mean you did well in every single major area of study? Yeah, that is so exciting. So how many years was it from your first year of college to that point where you have been accepted to law schools?
Speaker 1:I started college in 1999, age of myself in 1999. And I graduated from undergrad in August of 2005.
Speaker 2:And I started just six years. And I started that bad.
Speaker 1:I started law school in August of 2005 too. So it was like I was oh wow, it was on the cusp, like I was right there. So, yeah, everything happened so fast, and then I graduated law school in May of 2008.
Speaker 2:So, you went quick on that one.
Speaker 1:Well, it's three years, and it's either three years or something's happening. You take a break or whatever. And even though I did, we had our second child, my second year of law school.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow. And I was organized at that point and on purpose, so I was.
Speaker 1:I was I. I I wouldn't say I was organized. I'll say I had made up my mind that God would show up if you would let him and if you would get out of his way, and that he had done so many things for me when I, you know, up to that point, up to that point and I said well, you sent me to law school, and I believe that I still believe that to this day.
Speaker 1:He sent me to law school because I would, otherwise I would have never gone. And I said you have to do it because it's it's not going to be me and I tell people that all the time because I finished law school with two children. I am, I've never been a person that likes school and you know, I'm just not that person that I'm just going to go that extra mile to do things. But he gave me what I needed and he gave me the grace and and and I and I believe that when he does that, when he shows up like that, there's purpose in it and that was another reason why I started my practice. I'm like there's purpose in me practicing and for me to, and me gaining this knowledge, and I have to, I have to figure out what that is.
Speaker 2:That is so awesome. So let's you mentioned how you started your practice offline. We talked about how you started seeing families in rural areas losing their land. Can you tell us how you have your law degree now and then you become aware of these issues that are happening to people like you that you care for? That you were, that was part of your your growing up, right, and so how has that led to you specializing now in state planning in your own practice, right?
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so, just again, just this thing of of, of feeling like, um, feeling like I didn't know anything that anybody else you know.
Speaker 1:I didn't know anything that was more than what anybody else knew, right? Yes, so that was kind of my approach to to life and and until I started seeing a couple of things happen and people not having answers and solutions to things that were going on in their lives and me being able to say, well, all you have to do is this, right, like, sometimes you get, you can expert and be like, well, all you have to do is ABC and D and realizing that that's not common knowledge, yes, and that people need to know these things and you can add value to people's lives and help them build legacy by sharing what you have, um, and what you know, and so that's kind of what led to the practice. Also, just this desire to help build generational wealth for my community. Um, so many of us, um, so many of us do get out of the small towns and we do build the wealth, but then we don't know how to transfer it properly.
Speaker 2:We don't know what to do next right.
Speaker 1:And then we, we hand off businesses to children who are not interested in working the service based business, like we are, like your bobbers and your cosmetologists who do hair, like in small towns, that's what you find. And they build this business and they think that just handing it off to a child who does has no desire to, to, to do hair or to or to cut hair. So they think, well, I can't pass my business down, but there are ways that you can set that business up to be run by somebody, right, um, who wants to cut hair? Who wants to to, to, uh, be a cosmetologist. But your children still receive a benefit because you built that business.
Speaker 1:You know that you're that you're, that you're, you built that, and so your family has a um, you know, has a right to continue to benefit from that business and you have a right to be able to transfer that as part of your legacy. So, um, I started seeing these things and I just wanted to help. I just wanted to help, but I still want to help.
Speaker 2:That is so cool. That is so cool. And every time you start talking about state planning, Natasha, you go into your this amazing zone of expertise and you start just pulling from your well, so on that, I'm going to ask you I know this is not legal advice for my audience, but for anybody considering state planning what would you tell them the first three steps that they need to take to start in that journey, to set their, their belongings, their wealth, their home, their car, their business I mean, we were talking offline their classes, right, their coach, like what would be the first three steps that you would say are the most important ones for anyone considering starting this journey of planning?
Speaker 1:Well, I think that's a good question. I'm going to try to make it three steps and and, and. I wouldn't say the three most important steps, but I'm going to just talk about three steps. Yes, because there are so many important steps, right? Yes, and it also depends on where you are in your journey. I find that a lot of people who call me, which is, I think, is one of the important steps to reaching out to an attorney or a professional in a state planning that can help you on this journey.
Speaker 1:But one of the things that I find, even after some people reach out, they're not financially organized enough to to be able to communicate what they need, Like they know that they know they need an estate plan. That's great, that's that's. That's part of the you know part of the resolution. Right, you need an estate plan, but what are you going to put in your estate plan? What are you? What are you passing down? What assets do you have? Because I find that a lot of people don't value what they have right.
Speaker 1:They don't even recognize that. I had one client, you know client come in and he had a collection of baseball cards and because it was just a collection of baseball cards to him that he had no intention of auctioning off or selling or anything like that, he didn't even think to talk about it with me in our initial meeting. Until we're at, you know, we're at signing day and we're about to sign this, you know, sign all of his information and I kind of go through and make sure, like is everything included? Is everything included? And I have a conversation about other things. I talked to you about this offline. Anything of anything that you possess after you pass away, after you pass away, can be a point for your family to fight over.
Speaker 1:Yes, I mean anything Anything, because, even though you don't think it's it's big, it's going to be. It's not. It may not be big and it may not be expensive are of value right now, but after you pass away, anything that you touched is a value to the people who have lost you, because it's a way for them to hold on to you. Yes, and so I always try to make sure that people are clear on. I mean, and it's like a fur coat, mom's fur coat, you know, like in our, in our, you know where I come from like, buying a fur coat is a big thing, especially if you, if it's like one of the one of your big purchases of life and you wear this fur coat and you wear it, like on Sundays or for church, and everybody knows you buy this fur coat. The fur coat needs to go specifically to one person and you can't split it amongst the children, right?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So that's, that's something that needs to be discussed, and so you need to be clear about those things. So when I say financially organized, I mean knowing what assets you have knowing, an inventory of assets and everything.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I love the way you said it An inventory of assets and starting with your life insurance policies, not just the ones that you personally own, but the ones that you have through your employers, so that we can address how, who's the beneficiary of those policies. We need to, you know, we need to be looking at those your retirement plans, any land that you own and here's another issue that I found we we know what we own, like what we've purchased, but what land, our house or property are we entitled to through inheritance from?
Speaker 2:someone else that we haven't even considered. Yes, yes, so those Wow.
Speaker 1:All those things come into play. So becoming, I would say, the, the, if not number one. Number two is becoming doing an inventory of your assets so that when you have your conversation with your attorney, you're ready to talk about what all you want protected and then you can talk about options for how you, you know, talk to the professional about what are your options for protecting those things Because there are options and um and for communicating how those things will go, because a lot of times, once you do the inventory now you have to really think through who do I want to get the fur coat?
Speaker 2:Exactly who do I want to get the? Fur coat, so you get to do the fun work instead of those people mourning for you.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, because even if, even if Susie wanted the coat, if if mom was clear in her instructions that Carol gets the coat, then Susie's going to respect that. Yes, and she's not going to be mad at Carol because, because they're just talking about word of mouth and who gets the coat? Right, he said, she said, um, you don't have to, you don't have to have that conversation and um, and so that's um, that's um one of the big things, um, I hope I, I hope I, I hope I answered your question.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, I know, number three, number three.
Speaker 1:I'll just say um, just get it. You know, get it done. Um, there are ways that you can write down your wishes, um, and most importantly, for incapacity. Let me let me talk about that Because I think this is very important to touch on. Everyone needs some type of power of attorney, and there are two types. There's a general, durable power of attorney where you, you appoint an agent or someone else to be able to handle your finances, your financial business, if, if anything were to happen to you, you become incapacitated, um. And there's also, like a healthcare power of attorney where you, where you can appoint an agent to speak on your behalf when you become incapacitated, about, you know, your healthcare, um, and I always give this fun uh, tell this, talk about this, and people think this only applies to older people. This applies to all of us.
Speaker 1:You know this applies um, especially my single people. If you're listening and you are single and you don't have a spouse, that's kind of like accepted as your, as your person, to speak for you If anything were to happen.
Speaker 1:Um, your agent. You need to designate an agent and they need to know what your desire is, what your desires are. And I'll give you one interesting situation where people don't think about Um. We had a. We had a situation it was another fellow attorney who had a situation where a daughter, an adult daughter, had a really bad car accident.
Speaker 1:She's single, um, had been living in California for years. Her friends knew her, they knew she was vegan and when she had this really bad car accident and she needed to be rehabilitated, she wasn't able to speak for herself and kind of needed to go home and live with her mom, who lived in another state, and her parents, um didn't know she was vegan, um, and you know, having no idea why she was vegan, but she was vegan and so artificial nutrition is typically dairy. Hmm, it's the default. Artificial, artificial nutrition is going to be dairy and, especially this day and age, a lot of people are paying more attention to their health and they're going to get in and they're vegetarians and they may not eat something, because in adulthood you find out your more sensitive to something Um, and so you know she had a really bad reaction.
Speaker 1:This daughter had a really bad reaction because of the wow yeah, because of the artificial, artificial, uh nutrition that she was being provided, being introduced into her body when she was vegan. So this is something that you can put on your um in your healthcare power of attorney documents. I am.
Speaker 1:I am vegan. I've not had dairy for years, here's why I haven't had dairy. You could have a reaction to it, um, and that needs to be communicated, and it can be communicated in these documents, because we think we put things on file at our primary care care physician's office. Yes, yes, but if you're on vacation and you have a car accident or if you're you know you could.
Speaker 1:Several things could happen If this person doesn't have a right to come in and speak for you. Um, because they need the documentation to if something happens to you. Yes, then the doctors. You know there are HIPAA laws that prevent them. It is illegal for them to allow to share to share the information about you, so they need you need to empower your people. This is a way to empower people who you want to speak on your behalf to be able to do that.
Speaker 1:So um having having a general power of attorney and also a healthcare power of attorney in place is is just key, yes, incredible, yes, wow.
Speaker 2:And also, you mentioned life insurance, latasha, and even though this is not the topic for our conversation, it's part of how we build wealth right. So, for our listeners and I don't have a life insurance policy yet, but I'm working on it it's part of how we leave legacy behind us and for our loved ones to to have a better life than what we did, because we've worked really hard to be here and we know we want legacy, so that's another really important piece. So, latasha, there are so many questions that I want to ask you, but tell me about this business ownership journey and difficult moments that have been pivotal for you to say. You know, I know my wife is bigger than this issue and I will continue to go forward.
Speaker 1:Okay, so my business ownership journey has been very interesting. It's definitely a difficult. It can be difficult, I'm not gonna say it has to be difficult. It depends on your personality. I'm only me. I can only speak from my experience. Yes, and so it takes a lot of being self-aware. Number one, being self-aware of who you are, what your strengths are and where are the areas that you can improve, which. Those are the areas where you can delegate. You may need help, you may need to bring in assistance.
Speaker 1:I talked about not being as organized as most. So I definitely have to have assistance with being organized and, you know, just keeping up with different things. But when it comes to the knowledge and the you know, the key components of what my business does, I am. You know I can be better prepared for that and better do my job if I'm okay with delegating all of the other things.
Speaker 2:I love it. That can be delegated. I love it yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's a lot of that and it's a lot of fighting through the self-sabotaging thoughts, fighting through the insecurities, fighting through the fear of failure which you know we all learn as we grow is helpful in our success, because we learn, sometimes you win and sometimes you learn and a lot of times you learn a lot it.
Speaker 1:You know failures can help propel you even exponentially above where you were, and so, yeah, so I do think that you know only your own business is it takes work and it takes perseverance and you just have to keep pushing. And there are some seasons and I think I talked to you about this offline there were some seasons where I had to pause, definitely in the season of taking care of my mom where I had to pause, but the key and critical component is never give up.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you have to rebrand, sometimes your business looks different than it did when you first started. But the most critical part of that is to keep going and don't give up and keep your eye on your why. You know starting with why and helps you to end with your why and which never ends right. So it's ongoing. So that you know you gotta say I'm gonna keep going, cause here's this North Star here and I mean I keep marching towards that.
Speaker 2:That is so awesome. Just keep going and continue to know what's your why, to guide you through that process. What are you most thankful for as a business owner? Latasha.
Speaker 1:First and foremost, I gotta thank God, right? Yes, I know this is you know it sounds so cliche, but it's so true. It is so true. I have to thank him first and foremost because without him I would not be here, I would not have achieved any of what I've achieved, which I believe is a miracle and I can.
Speaker 1:I can truthfully and honestly say that I like to thank my mom and her vision for my life and for her teaching me things that she even probably had no clue how it would bless me and add value to my life, but I think that's a testament to what we are supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1:God asks us to do one thing, and we don't have to know what that looks like in that person's life right, and what it's gonna show up as like five years from now from them, but we have to do what we're supposed to be doing in this moment, even if it's small and cause. You never know how it's gonna touch someone and bless their lives. So my mom I definitely have to thank my mom. My dad, who's a key and critical component of my life, also brings his own sense of you know me learning something from him and, in his own way, my husband, george, who you know has been a big support.
Speaker 1:He's been on this journey with me, you know, from the day we found out we were pregnant and having a new life coming to the world, and we're both looking at each other like what do we do now?
Speaker 2:Wow, what an amazing moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's next? And it's so beautiful that we, as you know, as young as we were having no knowledge of what a five year plan is, or what.
Speaker 1:I've never read Start With why or anything like that. We kind of did those things. We implemented those principles without having the words or language to say we implemented those principles. So what we did is we're like so we need to come up with a plan, cause we were both neither one of us had finished college and we were both not anywhere near graduating college when we found out we were pregnant. And so we came up with this plan called Four Madison Five, and it was F-.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it. So it was F-F-O-R Madison, the number five, and essentially that's how we referred to it, and so the deal was before she turned five, we had to both have graduated from undergrad. We wanted to have both have at least bachelor's degrees and, mind you, the law degree was not part of this plan.
Speaker 2:But it got within those five years. Yes, it did.
Speaker 1:And so that just lets you know. When you put your yes on the table to God, he'll add the increase.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:So we said we had to have finished our degrees, we wanted to live in a town where there was a good school system so that she could start kindergarten in a really good school system, and we wanted to have bought a house and yeah, so really small things that we just both had our eyes on. And again, it's a North Star, right, we're always aiming for this Y and you go.
Speaker 1:I was going to classes at night, sometimes after she got off work, because he would work in the daytime and I would go to class at night to finish up my undergraduate degree. And you're tired because you've been taking care of a baby all day and you have to remember what's my Y. And I remember four Madison five, four Madison five. And it just kept us going. And so, before she turned five, and she was born, january 2004. And so, before she turned five, in January 2009, we bought our first home in May of 2008. Oh, wow, I graduated actually graduated from law school in May of 2008. Awesome, wow, yeah, and we both had our undergraduate degrees. George graduated from Mississippi State University in December of 2004. Wow and yeah. So it was awesome and it was a testament to God, but it was also. He worked on that with me, right?
Speaker 2:George was there. Yes, totally yeah, it was a team effort.
Speaker 1:It was definitely a team effort I can't make any. I can't tell you it was perfect all along, but it was definitely a team effort and when things got off track we always remember our Y Like. I said before we had language for it.
Speaker 2:Wow, latasha, this is so cool. You've touched on this, but were you expected to be successful?
Speaker 1:Oh, Was I expected to be successful? That's a very interesting question. If you ask me, I don't know. I think I had imposter syndrome for a while. I don't think. I think my expectation of successful was to be a mom. I've always wanted to be a mom.
Speaker 2:Mm. I love it.
Speaker 1:So anything above mom was not in my, not my aim. I just wanted to be a mom. I wanted to be a great mom and that's what I wanted to be. When I was smaller, I wanted to be a mom and you know, I went to college because I was like, well, I want to have enough money to give my kids what I didn't have. I want to be able to go to Disney World, you know.
Speaker 2:I want to be able to take them to Disney World.
Speaker 1:And McDonald's. That's the most important part of having a kid being able to take them to McDonald's. So so, yeah, I, I'm trying to recall in high school, because I graduated valedictorian in my class, which was, you know not, I guess it was a, it was a, it was a great feat, but I guess some people expected me to be successful. Oh, wow, and some, and some on some spectrum. But, yes, success is defined differently for different people. Yes, and so yeah. So I think success should be defined and I think somebody else, I wrote this down somewhere but success shouldn't be defined by what you've done in comparison to others. It should be defined by what you've done in comparison to what God designed you to do. That's awesome, and so yeah. So that's the success I, I, I aim for every day, which has no monetary value attached to it, no, no notoriety attached to it. It just has what, you know, god has called you to do. Are you? Are you doing that?
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, amazing. Let's ask one last question how would you summarize your business journey in one word, just one word.
Speaker 1:Growth inducing Is that one word?
Speaker 2:Growth inducing. We put a dash in between. Yes, growth inducing. I love it.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:It is so true. I mean we have to grow as business owners every single moment. Latasha, thank you for your time, Thank you for your insights, thank you for the value that you bring to the audience, for my audience. I hope you enjoy this conversation, that you learn, that makes you reflect on the things that you need to do for you, for your family, for legacy and also for business ownership, which is the ultimate goal of this podcast and show. Latasha, thank you so much for being with us and for my audience. More to come until next time.
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