Michelle Etchebarren:
Power is resilience, and having courage, and helping other people realize that they have that within them as well.
Sonya Palmer:
You're listening to LawHer powered by rankings.io, where we explore how the boldest women in law own power faster and keep it longer. I'm Sonya Palmer. This season, we're talking about courage, the kind that shows up long before the winds, quiet reinventions, high stakes pivots. And the power that builds, not in boardrooms, but in kitchens and in moments of near collapse. Michelle Etchebarren knows that terrain. She built a national legal tech company, the Uber of appearance attorneys, as a single mom of four with no safety net, no roadmap, just an idea and a deadline. Make it work or lose everything. Her story isn't just about success. It's about what you're willing to risk to create it.
Michelle Etchebarren:
When I was starting Attorneys in Motion as a single mom of four kids with no money or mentors, I was literally up against a wall. It was, if I don't make this work, we're going to be homeless. The courage to do it anyways, because you have to have a powerful why. And they were a powerful enough why for me to make things work. I didn't realize then. I didn't feel powerful then. But when I look back, I see how powerful I was, because when you're in the thick of it, you're discouraged, you're stressed out, you're scared. Am I making the right decision? None of those things feel like power. It feels like stress and fear. But when you look back, that's exactly power. I wish I would've felt it then the way I see it now. I would say that's probably one of my first most powerful moments in my career, is just having the courage to get out there, and do it and say, "Oh, we're going to be homeless if this doesn't work, so I better make it work."
I told my kids, I was like, "Christmas is not going to be good. I can't afford anything. I'm going to build this business. I'm doing it in that moment." And my kids looked at me, and it makes me want to cry, like my tears, because they're like, "Mom, we believe in you. We know you can do this." I mean, nationwide company, we've done very well. COVID hurt very badly. Going from living in poverty to making millions of dollars, to losing millions of dollars sucks. And I had some moments during that where it was really scary, because I had a lot more bills then, too. I have employees to pay. I have all these things, these responsibilities. But it's about not quitting, being resilient. What can I do next? How can I pivot?
Sonya Palmer:
Michelle built her company, Attorneys in Motion, from the ground up, often on borrowed time and sheer nerve. At a time when the legal industry lagged behind in tech, she was already thinking like a systems designer, blending hustle with a kind of spiritual discipline, a morning ritual that held her together and forward.
Michelle Etchebarren:
My morning routine was critical for my. Days raising four kids and trying to make a business work, and sometimes driving a few hours. I would work during the day and sometimes I would have dinner for them. They're old enough. They would put it in the microwave, whatever, and I'd go to a lawyer event or whatever. But those mornings, I would get up at 4:00 in the morning. I would drink my coffee, watch the news, go for a run, do a workout, do my green juice, make my kids their lunches, cut the crust off their sandwiches, because I know they didn't like that. Clean up, take them to school then. But in between that even, in the morning, it was like 4:00 to 4:30, do this. 4:30 to 5:00, get on LinkedIn and just message everybody in the world, whatever I had to do to try to get business. I didn't even know what I was doing. I was guessing my way through it. B.
Ut I like to think of a morning routine, not as a routine, but more as a religious ritual. Because if you think how dedicated people get to religion, to their religious rituals and habits, whatever you do for whatever religion you're in, you do that. If you're a Catholic, you go in a church, and you dip your finger in the holy water, and you do the sign of the cross. I grew up Catholic, so I know that. And you feel bad if you don't do it. So, my morning routine was religious. I was. It had to be the sacred religious process. And if it didn't, because there's times where you're not motivated or you're so discouraged because business isn't going great, and all you want to do is lay in bed and cry your eyes out. But it's that religious ritual that keeps you going when you lose the motivation and don't want the discipline, because you just want to cry.
Sonya Palmer:
Attorneys in Motion was more than a startup. It was a lifeline for Michelle and for hundreds of law firms across the country, suddenly freed from the chaos of last-minute court appearances. Her innovation married convenience with legal precision and turned the gig economy into a tool for real legal infrastructure.
Michelle Etchebarren:
Prior to starting Attorneys in Motion, I managed a law firm and I even helped an attorney start her own law firm. Throughout that process, I saw a need for... Well, there were already companies out there that are appearance attorney companies nationwide. They're doing it. And they weren't using technology to the extent that it could be used. When I did that, I think I started having my developers start working on it in 2011 when Uber was still using... it wasn't just anybody could drive their cars, it was still TCPIP. But they had the app, so it was convenient there. And I saw that. I was like, "Oh, I wonder if I could do that for lawyers." And then they didn't really have a messaging system on there or anything, so I took match.com, and they're matching and messaging. And I married the two together and I built Attorneys in Motion, Uber for appearance attorneys.
Unfortunately, it did not benefit me during COVID because all the courts closed down. But that's when I started my company Lobbies. And it's a contract attorney platform, so attorneys can go hire other attorneys to draft whatever they need to have drafted. And that was my pivot during COVID, was building another platform. And it's scary to spend money, because you don't know what if something happens and I lose all the money. What if this is a bad choice and I ended up wasting the money, and then who knows what's going to happen after that? I would say really looking back, some of my bolder decisions that were really difficult for me at the time are spending a lot of money to go to conferences, because conferences are really expensive.
And I was one of the little guys, so I didn't have $100,000 budget for a conference and I'd be just perfectly fine with it after. $10,000 was a lot for me, so it's taking those chances. I was afraid to spend the money, but having the courage to say, "I'm going to spend the money anyways," because spending money is hard, but you have to do it.
Sonya Palmer:
A decade into her company's life, Michelle did something few founders do. She paused, reflected, and then decided to give it all back through a foundation built to support women like she once was, starting out scared and unreasonably brave. Her goal? To make sure no woman building her future in law does it alone.
Michelle Etchebarren:
So, when my company turned 10 years old, I reflected. And so, a lot of people don't know that statistically only about 30% of businesses make it to 10 years for one reason or the other. It might not be that you're a bad business person. It might be that COVID or something comes around and collapses your business. There's a billion different reasons why only 30% of businesses make it to 10 years. And so, I took those numbers, and I reflected, and I felt grateful. And I started to think about what it was like for me when I first started Attorneys in Motion, and how I cried myself to sleep a lot, how I said a lot of really mean horrible things to myself. "God, I hate you. Such a stupid decision? You shouldn't have done that. What are you even thinking? You really think you're going to make this work?" We're so mean to ourselves.
When I think back and I look at me, I can imagine in my head me sitting there saying these things to myself, and I want to cry because I feel so bad for her. And I thought about that. And I've done some public speaking to women's groups and I talked about that. And so many women came up to me and said, "I do the same thing. Thank you for making it so that I don't feel alone." I mean, you don't have to beat yourself up. We don't have to do that. That depletes us of our energy. We need to focus on our wins. So, I was thinking about those things, and I was thinking about how much even $2,500 could've helped me in the beginning. Before COVID happened, I was making so much money in my sleep and I was probably only working about 10 hours a week, and I felt so unfulfilled. I should've been happier.
I should've been happier because I was poor and now I had money, but I was not living in a purpose anymore. All of my reasons why and my purpose has evolved. And then I had gotten to the point where those whys were no longer needing me as much. I am going to start this foundation, and I'm going to give back to the very community that has fed me, and my kids, and put my kids through college, and bought them cars and whatever else I needed to be to provide to my kids. So, I'm going to give back. And I also reflected after a few of these speaking engagements I did with women law groups, I had a couple of attorneys come to me about a year later and say, "You inspired me to start my own law firm." That's really exciting. I love it. I'm so excited about that.
And that's another reason why, because there's so much psychology and mindset that we need to have that's going to get us through all these really difficult challenging times. And if I can provide that and a few dollars, then I think I'm setting people up for success. And that's what I'm going to do. You have to think about these things. You need somebody to help analyze, just talk. "Hey, what are you doing? What are you spending money on? Why are you doing that? Why are you putting your money here?" I'm not a lawyer, but I know how to grow a law firm and I know how to grow a business. But our other mentors are great business people, but they're also lawyers. The mentorship is not totally on the lawyering part, it's on the business side. I want people to run a business that has a foundation, and systems, and processes that work so they can grow.
Sonya Palmer:
Scarcity versus abundance, a compass for decision-making. Mindset is everything. Michelle's story reminds us that the line between survival and success often comes down to what we believe we're allowed to have and how well we can name our wins.
Michelle Etchebarren:
The difference between a scarcity mindset and abundance mindset is the difference between being tempted to cut corners. Ultimately, and my goal is to make better lawyers overall, because you have your business under control and you're in an abundant mindset. You're not going to cut a corner here and there with your client or whatever it might be that you might be tempted to do. Human beings, everybody feels the temptation. If you say you don't, I don't know, maybe you're lying, maybe you're not. But as a human being, I feel like we all have that temptation. It's just a matter of being abundant or not in your mindset. And in my life, what I do to keep myself from falling into scarcity and staying in an abundance mindset is I always like to ask myself the question, why are you doing this? Why are you making this decision?
Another great tool is focusing on your wins, because we get busy in our days. And I know sometimes our days are really stressful and you're like, "Oh, fudge, I just don't really... Whatever it is that I won before I'm not in the mood to think about right now, because I need to get this done. I don't have it in me to be all cheerful about myself." This is reality of humans in day-to-day life. You have to. You got to freaking celebrate yourself. And you don't have to be like, "Oh, yay, I made my bed this morning," whatever it is. Small things. "Hey, I got to this level. I started my business. If I could do that, then I can do this." Seriously, we don't give ourselves the credit that we really deserve. Giving yourself credit, just give yourself credit, even, just a little bit.
Sonya Palmer:
For years, Michelle hid the softer parts of herself, believing leadership meant control. But it was through vulnerability, through letting others see her humanity, she found deeper trust, connection, and power. In law and leadership, that kind of authenticity is still radical.
Michelle Etchebarren:
For the first five years that I had my company, I was actually embarrassed of my feminine energy. I thought I needed to be more masculine. I thought I needed to be commanding and leading in a masculine way versus a more nurturing way, which sometimes you need to lead in a masculine way. Sometimes it doesn't really serve you. Sometimes a more nurturing, vulnerable approach to leadership does the job, too. I've found that learning to be comfortable in my emotions and expressing them, not in a victim kind of way, but in a way to where it's relatable to other people and to where it allows them to open up. Because I've found when I'm vulnerable and I'm in my feminine energy, a lot of women that I talk to thank me for it, because then they get to acknowledge some of their pains, and some of their struggles and they get to feel okay. It's just being able to embrace it in my emotions and just talk to people on a more authentic level. I think vulnerability brings forward authenticity.
Sonya Palmer:
There's no tidy formula for balance, not when you're raising four kids and building companies from nothing. But Michelle shows us what it looks like to integrate, not perfectly, but with intention. Her version of success has room for boundaries, breakdowns, and deep breaths.
Michelle Etchebarren:
What I've done throughout the years is I made choices, because every single thing we do, I think it's careful to... number one, you need to really truly figure out to you what success equals. What does success really mean? Because everything comes with a cost. And so, if money is your ultimate outcome, well, then you're going to have to sacrifice time with your kids. And you're going to have to sacrifice your idea of being the best mom in the world, because you can't be both. If you want to be the best mom in the world, you're going to have to sacrifice time with your business. It's all a matter of cost and where you decide what in that moment is worth sacrificing.
So, there are times where I would sacrifice business, because being home and making my kids dinner is more important, or watching them at a school thing was more important. I'm going to sacrifice that money. If I don't make it, there's always going to be money to be made, so I'll make that money later. But it's all about what is more important to you at that time. And to me, there's no such thing as work-life balance. It's more of an integration. It's a matter of evaluating costs and making decisions based on that. And sometimes the burnout, it's hard to avoid, because there's just things coming at you from every direction.
But also, just taking that time to sit down and breathe for a second, creating a healthy boundary for yourself. Like, "Hey, everybody, just get away from me for a second. I just need to breathe, because if I don't, I'm probably going to... I don't want to yell curse words, but they might come flying out of my face in a minute." But being able to communicate that with whoever's around you is an important part of that.
Sonya Palmer:
Michelle Etchebarren is a founder, a mother, a strategist, and a systems thinker. She's building more than businesses. She's building bridges. If her story resonated with you, share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. And subscribe to LawHer for more conversations with the women who are reshaping law from the inside out.
Michelle Etchebarren:
When I see women supporting each other on an authentic level, it means the world. On May 9th, it's our first annual charity event, and there's so many women that have reached out to me and said, "Hey, what can I do? Is there anything I can do to help you with this?" And that's support, the sacrifice, because that's taking time out of their time, too. If women could give to each other without expecting anything in return, from your heart, a mutual worshiping of each other to where we just know, "Hey, we're giving in a loving, authentic way because you need help. That gives me hope." And I'm seeing it happen with a lot of women. And I hope that continues. And I think as more conversations like this happen, I think that's paving the path to a very powerful world of women lawyers.
