Maria Monroy
Don't be afraid to let someone take over.
Sonya Palmer
To compete as a business owner - delegate and spend wisely.
Maria Monroy
Sometimes it's hard to delegate, but when it comes to marketing, really just find an agency that you trust, and don't be afraid to spend money.
Sonya Palmer
According to a recent survey, only 19% of managing partners in US law firms are female. We'd like to see that change. Hello, and welcome to LawHER, the show where we celebrate the trailblazing attorneys and entrepreneurs who are changing the game for women in the legal field. Be inspired by their stories. Learn from their mistakes. And look forward to the future they're helping build for the next generation of women in law. I'm Sonya Palmer, your host and VP of Operations at Rankings. The SEO agency of choice for Personal Injury lawyers. This is LawHER. A woman's experience in the legal field will is different from that of their male colleagues. This translates to the way female lead and owned firms are marketed as well. Maria Monroy, President of the legal marketing firm LawRank, shares with us how women striking out on their own should think about marketing their new venture. We also dig into the mindset, time management, the power of delegation, and letting go of guilt. Maria is president at LawRank - which means that she handles all client-facing operations, speaks at conferences, sales manages employees, and tackles ops. Maria shares the story of how her husband and CEO, Mariano Rodriguez, started LawRank. Let's dive in.
Maria Monroy
So he was in law school at the time and his brother was a lawyer. left the DA's office and started his own law firm. And asked my husband, "Hey, you're pretty techy. Can you figure out how to get a website up and running?" and he became fascinated by this idea of how to school determine. What lawyer shows up. So we're in New York City on vacation so summer, so he doesn't have law school at the time. So I'm super excited. We're there with my, our nine-month-old at the time. And he wouldn't leave the apartment because he wanted to get him to the first page. And then all of a sudden he gets a case, his brother. And starts getting more and more cases. And other firms are calling us, asking my husband to do this for them. And then we just had a moment. We were like, wait a minute like we need to start an agency. His brother started paying him and the rest is history. It's addicting. Isn't it like when you get somebody to rank like first and second on Google, There are times where I'm just like, Hey, it's 11 Like you need to stop. Like I can't.
Sonya Palmer
What do you like best about working with lawyers?
Maria Monroy
It's funny because lawyers have such a reputation. And it, when I first started really being involved at LawRank, I was so like, Hesitant and I didn't know what to expect. And I love working with lawyers and I don't know if it's just our clients are the best are no jokes that I pick them. It's yeah. Cause you're picking them. I'm like, no I don't know if it's just like an energy thing and we're, I'm attracting a certain type of client, but I love working with lawyers. I really do. And I love helping them grow. And watching that evolution I'm getting X amount of leads. And now we're at this many leads and the excitement and let's open another office. And a lot of our clients have become really good friends of mine, which is something that was like, so unexpected for me. I feel the same way. I'm like, our clients are great, but I do like how competitive and like you said, growth-minded attorneys tend to be, PI attorneys are, they're still business minded. And I love that because from owner to owner, you can talk shop,
Sonya Palmer
Yeah. Small business owners, B2B stuff like that. There's a lot in common when you're trying to run an agency and run a business. So what's it like working with your husband?
Maria Monroy
The good, and the bad are ugly. It's great. We're very lucky because I feel like we've created a lot together. So from, we have three kids and we have LawRank and overall it's amazing. And we very much stay in our lanes. Of course, sometimes it's, I, it's hard to draw that line of Hey, I, as I said, 11:00 PM on a Sunday. I don't wanna talk about this. I, I just wanna watch Stranger Things, and please leave me alone. So I would say that the biggest thing about working together is like we're always working and it's not ideal when you have kids and they're bored and we're talking, about work, but overall I love it. Very lucky and grateful.
Sonya Palmer
Do you have a list of things that you guys typically, own, or is it like co-ownership on everything?
Maria Monroy
We don't even work together during the day. So we're like completely separate. We do very different things. Again, I'm the one talking to potential clients. I'm the one managing our VP of business development. I'm the one that's involved in some of the like vision that goes behind like web design conferences, strategic partnerships, all of that. More, I do that. And he's doing more of like managing the SEO team or the pay team or the development team. There is some overlap when it comes to project management. So when a client has a question and it gets escalated, sometimes I can answer it. Sometimes his team has to answer it. Sometimes he has to answer it. So it depends. But for the most part, we are doing very different things day to day.
Sonya Palmer
So like the front of house and then back of the house.
Maria Monroy
Yeah. People joke oh, you're the face of the company, but he's really like the brains. So it, I almost feel like it's unfair, but he doesn't want to be that. So it works out.
Sonya Palmer
Yeah, I think, yeah, I think it works really well for you guys. So I'd like to refocus on your position as a leader. I imagine there are a lot of parallels to being a firm owner and president of an agency How do you do time management? You have three kids. You're running an agency. You travel a lot. What's your approach to time management?
Maria Monroy
So first of all, I go to the gym. That's like the very first thing that I do. I drop kits off at school. I have breakfast. And then my very first 90 minutes are. That's me working without interruptions. So that means I'm not on any calls, internal or external, and I'm working primarily on processes and those first 90 minutes, and I don't know if you've ever listened to hub men on his podcast. There are studies behind us on how in the first 90 minutes like you're so much more productive. So I've started implementing that and even implementing it with some of our team members. It's let's not talk for the first 90 minutes and just get all those big tasks out of the way. Then I always ask myself, what's gonna make the biggest impact. And then you should take a break and he says, at best you can get another 90-minute period of hyper-focused, like Adderall type of, not that I've never taken Adderall, but I want to type of time. And I have found that it works amazing. That on Saturdays is. That's another day that I'm just like admin type of tasks. Yes. I love my Saturdays or my everything I didn't get to do during the week. That is more about law rank versus about like client management or, dealing with, an employee or a client. Cause there's always something I could be doing. I could work 24 hours a day. I have so many ideas, and so many meetings I wanna do, but I always ask myself, what's gonna make the biggest impact. What it, assuming that there's nothing pressing, right? Like obviously if I'm at a conference that's time-sensitive. And then I scheduled things on my calendar. So I will literally schedule, working on this process or working on this training or whatever it is that I'm working on. I'm gonna schedule it and block it off, turn off notifications. I removed iMessage from my computer a while ago to avoid distractions. Somehow it's back on like the past two weeks Mar did something and it's back on and I need to figure out how to remove it again because it is very distracting.
Sonya Palmer
Maria emphasizes the power of friendship and people to bounce ideas off of as a business owner.
Maria Monroy
And I have so many friends in the legal space. You're one of 'em, Chris Dreyer is another, I have people that I call constantly Hey, can I run this by you? Or I'm struggling with this? What do you suggest? I do run a lot by Mariano. We talk a lot, even about things that don't like, he's not in charge of. I'm like, Hey, what should I do here or there? And that's the benefit I think, to have a business partner because I can. Especially being married to him. Bounce an idea off them at any time, which he claims is unfair because I'm the one that's more I don't wanna talk about this anymore, but then when I need something
Sonya Palmer
Answer now.
Maria Monroy
7:00 AM and I'm like, I wanna talk about this. But that's something else that's been really surprising to me about the legal space. I never thought that I would make friends in the legal space. Not that I thought I wouldn't, I just never thought about it. To me. It was just like, this is our business. This is my job. And I've made such great friends.
Sonya Palmer
I love that about us and I feel that's true of our clients too. Just creating a community, even when it's competition. They all are very willing to help each other out. I, so I like that. you said, mindset coach. What's the difference between a mindset coach business coach? What's the value there?
Maria Monroy
So ours does both mindset and business coaching which is why we went with him versus someone else just because he does do both of those things. Mindset is just really tied to limiting beliefs. Why are you struggling with something? It can go as far as like childhood issues, trauma, that sort of thing. But just and I've been reading self-help books, my whole adult life, when it wasn't even like cool or,
Sonya Palmer
Before it was trendy.
Maria Monroy
You're like, yeah, you're like embarrassed at barns because you're like in the self-help section, but I've always been so drawn to that. And, it's everything from like very tied to manifestation. I don't believe manifestation is like what the secret teaching, which is oh, think positive. And, things will show up. There has to be intent. You have to make a decision, you have to change and like your beliefs. And if you make a decision, you have to almost back it up. If you don't really believe it, you have to say, okay this person did this, or there's a time that I did this and this happened. So prove to yourself that this can be done, that sort of thing, but, and then a business coach is more and he does this as well, but coaching on the business, right? Like anything from culture to training, to marketing, to really anything. Yeah, I, what I like about my coach right now, it's that he's willing to adapt to whatever I'm currently dealing with. So I love that. And I love manifestation. I feel like athletes use manifestation all the time in visualization. What are some of your favorite self-help self-development books? My favorite, like nothing, can beat this is Think and Grow Rich. That is like by far I read it later in my life and so a few years ago, and when I read it, I literally felt like every other book spun from that. And I felt almost betrayed like this should have been my starting point. Like how I barely read books. That's one of my favorite Conversations with God. And there are three of those, but it's really not a religious book. And it kinda, I grew up Catholic. It changed my belief systems about religion and just really resonated with me. What else? There are so many Power in Now
Sonya Palmer
Power of Now
Maria Monroy
And what's interesting is that our mindset coach, I think does a really good job at taking these theories and actually telling you how to implement them. And I think that's, what's missing sometimes from these books. It's okay, you read it, but are you gonna take action? And like, how do you actually implement these things? Yes. I completely agree with you. I think they neglect action. How do you just absorb this information and apply it and then actually take a step forward? So you, do you do conferences networking. How do you build a community? I talk to my like friends in the legal space more than I talk to, my best friends. I just go to conferences that I. I'm pretty outgoing and I just talk to people and a lot of the same people go to the same conferences. So that part makes it really easy. A lot of our clients go and obviously if I've already had multiple conversations, I love socializing. According to a recent survey by the American bar association, 82% of women have been mistaken for lower-level employees, not one male respondent said the same. I wanted to hear Maria's take on how a marketing strategy can establish authority and credibility for women in the legal field. I think it's tough. but I think that being a female there is such an upside because the empathy that we have Is in my opinion, very powerful. I also feel like a lot of people feel more comfortable with a female and they provide a level of safety. Most of us are first associated with something safe as our mother. So I think it's just using that to our advantage, and I think that women are gonna attract the right type of clients. I'm all about energy and I think. You are ranking well, and you're a female you're gonna do amazing. I don't think it's oh, this huge downside. I think the upside that exists is going to balance out any downside. It's also somewhat unique because most lawyers, at least in our space are male. And we're seeing all these female attorneys, these amazing, crazy big settlements. So it's really exciting. So I don't see it as a, I get that, the survey said that and I know that there's truth to it, but in our space, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. It's also a uniqueness when you have nine males ranking on the first page and one female, There's just one female that can be contacted then from that first page.
Sonya Palmer
Yes. I completely agree with you, particularly in PI where people have been injured. It's a terrible experience. There are a lot of bills. I do think that a female who has typically had more empathy can sometimes, Be preferable. So I completely agree with you. Do you think then marketing a sort of typical law firm that might be run by a male, but lots of female lawyers is different than marketing a female-owned firm?
Maria Monroy
For SEO purposes. I think it's gonna be the same, not an identical strategy because every firm and every market's different, but it's gonna be. A very similar approach, especially in a market like PI, if we start talking about maybe family law, there, maybe there could be, some different angles that we can approach. But for PI, no, but I do think we have to think about, the hero image on the website, are we doing, I wanna, I would wanna lead with the female lawyers. I don't want a picture of the city or anything like that, which we don't recommend anyways, but, and then really think about what the headline byline is gonna be, which I think goes more into branding versus an SEO approach.
Sonya Palmer
Many of the women attorneys we have had on the podcast start their own firms because a rigid work structure leaves little room for family or personal time. For a woman attorney thinking about striking out - this is what should be done first:
Maria Monroy
website - for sure. A website. Cause even if you're just working off referrals, you're gonna need a website so I would say both rankings and law rank offer websites.
Sonya Palmer
I am social versus a website.
Maria Monroy
I think you need both. And social is very inexpensive to get up and running and shoot videos on your own. I see a lot of female attorneys shooting, and a lot of great talks. I think that's something that is very inexpensive you can do on your own. So I think that's a no-brainer if you're okay being in front of the camera and putting yourself out there and, utilizing social media. But I think a website is also non-negotiable. Cause if somebody Googles you and they can't find your website, that's problematic.
Sonya Palmer
And I think even more so recently with Google My Business, relying so much on the website, the content on the website to rank in the map pack and even more so important. Yes, I agree. We talked earlier about like growth lo liking to work with attorneys because of that like growth mindsets, when. You're an established firm. What can they then do to enter growth mode or get to the next level?
Maria Monroy
I hate to sound like a lawyer, but it just really depends on the firm and what that means to them. If we're talking about, an SEO campaign, then engaging an agency that has a proven track record that can show them a return on investment. I think, obviously, you and I are gonna be pro SEO because we see what it can do. And what's interesting about SEO is that it can either be the best investment you ever made or the worst. Because if you're on the second, third, fourth, fifth, plus peach of Google, there is no return. So a winner takes all types of scenarios. And there is, it's not just one winner, but a couple.
Sonya Palmer
The second page doesn't do you any good? And the first page is increasingly more competitive, but I still subscribe to the idea that organic SEO at the first three, or four spots is the best ROI a firm can make in their marketing. So I still think that's very true when looking to hire a vendor like us what are the questions that should be asked?
Maria Monroy
I think a lot of lawyers come into this and they've been through so many SEO agencies and they've either ranked for a short period of time or haven't ranked. And, they're very frustrated and I would be too. Absolutely. But they feel that at that point they've spoken to so many agencies, they've learned a little bit from each agency that they're, they get on the phone and they're like, oh, I know enough to be dangerous. And I'm like no, you don't. If you did, you wouldn't have ended up here, enough to think, enough to be dangerous. And that's even more dangerous in my opinion because they know what questions to ask. But any agency with a great sales team. Even without a great sales team can just tell them what they wanna hear. And it's really not about telling the lawyer what they wanna hear. It's being ethical and honest and Hey, this is what it's gonna take or what you're telling me, your idea isn't gonna work, or we don't do it that way. This is why we don't do it that way. And oftentimes I feel like lawyers come loaded with these questions that I'm like, oh God, Someone's gonna give you a run for your money, these questions, and they're asking you the wrong. What you should really be doing is making sure that the agency that you're speaking with can show you that they have resulted in markets similar to yours. And for the practice area that you're in, obviously PI being the most competitive you could argue mass towards, but mass towards is on a nationwide scale. So I'm talking about more of a, what we would consider local. Exactly. Yeah. You get me and. I would say, instead of even what questions to ask, I would say educate yourselves. This is not any harder than at least knowing the basics of like how to track an agency. And how to compare it to the top rank firms. So let's say you're in, while you Diego, as an example, let's say you're in San Diego and you're like, okay, I'm not ranking. I've been with three agencies. None of them. And then look at your metrics and look at your top-rank competitors. Learn how to look at referring domains, content, and traffic, learn how to use sum, rush, or SCM, rush, whatever it's called RFS. And yeah, maybe it'll take you a few hours, but it's actually really not complicated to learn how to track these metrics. And I'm not talking about anything like super technical. And learning how to look at results at other firms' results. Versus asking questions to like a trip up the agency. They can say anything to you,
Sonya Palmer
Yes.
Maria Monroy
It's okay.
Sonya Palmer
I love this about attorneys and lawyers because they care so much. about their business. so many agencies and so many people proclaim to be SEO experts and they'll run an audit they'll highlight a few things and then put it in front of a firm. And I think you're right. Educating, just knowing the basics, Just stress test the agency. Can they do this?
Maria Monroy
Get a get, get a local Falcon account, and measure your own local SEO. And we teach this I, I tell this to firms every time I jump on a, even an intro call, I'm like, look, this is what you need to do. We might not be the best fit, but, and that's okay that I'm not saying we're the only ones that can do this, but this is what you should look at. And these are the tools that you should use. Because otherwise, and I get it, I put myself in the lawyer's shoes. I do this all the time and I'm like, okay, what if I had to say, I'm gonna hire someone and they're gonna make sure that we get leads. What if I had to take lead generation out of my hands? And that's really scary. And what if I had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and it just hadn't worked or it worked for a month and then it stopped working. Like I would be pretty jaded.
Sonya Palmer
You have to work with people that know what they're doing and that have a plan and a strategy. it's a huge investment and it's a lot of time in addition to money. But if you can put both of those in I think it's very much well worth it, so
Sonya Palmer
What project management tools do you guys use? The systems person in me needs to know.
Maria Monroy
We use whatever's best for whatever task we're trying to accomplish. So we use Monday internally for project management. We have Trello for whoever wants Trello. Just because it's more visual. We have slack. and then we use the base camp for client files so they can upload things directly onto base camp. And then. Our content team uses air tables. There's a reason why they switched from using Monday to they wanted air tables. And then of course, oh, we use HubSpot for sales and project managing. Now we're moving some of the project managing management over to HubSpot. We use all sorts of things.
Sonya Palmer
Okay.
Maria Monroy
Miro has ever used Miro.
Sonya Palmer
Yes.
Maria Monroy
Oh my God. It is the
Sonya Palmer
I literally just got it last week for like a flowchart, start
Maria Monroy
It's amazing. If you are gonna do any process, you first wanna put it in neuro and I would even say for law firms, one of the things that I think law firms really lack is processes and training. Like all of our training, we put 'em in training. So it's literally if you we think back to at, and T when we would have a, they would roll out a new training, you'd go in, you'd watch the videos and you would do a test. That's what we do for everything. And I think law firms should use that. Literally. I have a train on how to use it, like how to set up your calendar. Like the things that it's I never want to train this again because it's so mundane and likes easy. And then we have like really complex stuff in there.
Sonya Palmer
Yeah, I completely agree. As far as like law firms and operations a lot of the attorneys I've talked to and I'm sure this is the same for you. Law school does not teach them how to be a lawyer. It's a ton of theory. and then they just send them out into the world and are like, okay, go be a lawyer. And it's the same thing with running a firm. This is why like marketing, you get a really amazing lawyer and now they have to do marketing and accounting and HR.
Sonya Palmer
Is there any marketing advice that you would give particular to women who sometimes feel like, they can take it all on and that they can do it themselves? What advice do you have for them?
Maria Monroy
Yeah, that's a great question. So when it comes to marketing, I would say don't be afraid to let someone take over. And I think sometimes it's hard to delegate, but when it comes to marketing, really just finding an agency that you trust and knowing that you can compete with. All the big male players and don't be afraid to spend money. I know that I'm like much more conservative than say my husband he's much more let's do this, let's do that. And I'm like what does it cost? But I would say don't be afraid to invest in your firm, invest in marketing, invest in video in everything. I'm not even just talking about SEO. And don't feel like you can't compete with men because we have a lot of, so practitioners and they're men, but they're dominating the first page of Google. We can do the same for women, even if you're a small firm. And if anybody ever, feels really hesitant about this. Even if you're considering working with another agency and you just want someone to talk to, I am happy to talk to anybody. Doesn't have to be about using LawRank. Just you wanna run something by me, you're really hesitant. I've seen a really big increase in divorce lawyers, and female divorce lawyers doing marketing, I personally love female clients. I think they're the best ever. And I love, love, love nothing more than to see them grow and expand.
Sonya Palmer
Especially female attorneys that have started running their own firms, running an agency, being a lawyer and then trustinging people it across the board, accounting marketing. All of those different types of things that not necessarily an expert on could probably figure out. Cause they're very capable people. But if you will invest and trust other experts the results are amazing and life is easier.
Maria Monroy
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And I, and actually Jen Gore talks about this and her, and I have had conversations about this because she's you have to delegate. And I once told her that we had someone that cooks for us and I was like, don't say anything to anyone. And she's no, you own that. Like you need to delegate. It's totally okay. Nannies, housekeepers like this, that, and it's the same thing. And I get it because I feel like as women, we are so U, especially as mothers like this, I can talk about from like the experience of being a mom, that you have so much mental load, and you're like, I have to do this and I have to do that. And I have to take the kid here and I have to do this and the doctor and the dentist and the clothes and this. And it's you are literally just like, Running like very quickly. And for the first five years of LawRank, my involvement was minimal and there was a time my daughter was one or I think she was 18 months that I said, okay, I'm ready to go back to working full I love my kids, but I don't wanna do this anymore. And my husband had always pressed me like, Hey, I want you to come. This is half yours. Like you need to come. He was always very supportive. If you really don't want to. Okay, but you love to work as you need. And I was just very attached to the kids. So then I did it right. And like a week and a half later, he says to me, Hey, Maria, we're out of toilet paper. And I said that's great. Cool. And I just stared at him and he was like, you're right. I'm so sorry. I will Amazon private right now. Good on, there you go. And what's the point of all? This is delegated on all ends. Don't grocery shop. I don't cook. I don't clean. I don't watch my kids a significantly large percentage of the time. And I'm an assistant and I've really just learned to delegate. And sometimes I struggle for the most part. I'm pretty good about it, especially now. I think there are areas that I'm more I feel more hesitant to delegate. And the shame that comes with it. And Jen and I talk about this, she's you have to own that. There's nothing wrong with you having a chef. Like nothing. That's great. Like you work like so much and you travel and you have three little kids and or the fact like she has a trainer have a trainer. We talked about the too. She's don't have any shame. The fact that you have a trainer. That's good.
Sonya Palmer
Yes. Time is money, particularly. That's what my husband says when you're a business owner when you're not, working on the business, then that's a loss. And I think working in operations, you start dealt like at work. Delegate things, automate things, and order groceries. Amazon prime delivers toilet paper every month. I was like my brain freed up and then I applied that like to my personal life and totally it's I think like for moms that choice, like some moms, love making lunch for theirs. I don't, but then, or me and like that the choice there should be zero shame in how you wanna spend time with your own kids, what that, what does that look like? Is it going for a walk? Does it make lunch? Is it watching a movie? Whatever you want it to be? No shame outside of that.
Maria Monroy
Yeah. And I think that's just ingrained. And I learned from a very early on, since becoming a mom, I learned that you're gonna feel guilt no matter what. Like it doesn't. If I'm with them full time, I feel guilty because I'm not working. And I feel guilty because I'm not showing them or especially my daughter. Like you can work, you can have it all. But if I'm working, I feel guilty because I'm not their primary caretaker, X percentage of the time. They're either in school and after-school care or they're with a nanny. And, but I just learned I'm gonna be guilty no matter what. So I might as well do what makes me happy and be able to say to them, especially my daughter, do what makes you happy? If being a stay-at-home mom makes you happy. That's amazing. Yes. Great. I must have been a great mom if you're cool with that. But if you're not, then go do whatever you're passionate about and whatever makes you happy. And I don't tend to regret many things and I don't regret the time that I spent with them, but I do regret allowing myself to feel guilty. And now I'm just like, Nope we're going to Europe in a few weeks. We're taking her nanny. It is. And I joke about it on Instagram all the time. Like best mother's day ever, cuz nanny was with us, it's helpful. It's another set of hands and it really does make the difference.
Sonya Palmer
How you parent. It's up to you, and if removing some of the admin, like getting your child a drink of water as I said, frees you up mentally and your time then does it. Yeah. Do it. No guilt. Yeah. But I liked what you said. I think for moms. Should you focus on trying to resolve that guilt, then stop feeling guilty, or just do what makes you happy regardless of whether or not you feel guilty? I think, yeah.
Maria Monroy
I would say both. I would say it's a combination. Like I definitely try to walk myself through the reasons why I'm not gonna okay. I feel guilty. And when I feel it, I'm gonna let it go. That's a great book, by the way, letting go. I'm gonna, I'm gonna let it go. And. But at the same time I am acknowledging, okay, I'm feeling guilty. Why shouldn't I feel guilty world because of B, C, and D I'm reinforcing that decision that I've made and also being kind to myself because I am human and I am gonna feel guilty because I don't think we can help, but I think it must be. Some sort of like scientific, there must be like a reason as to why like probably because we wanna protect them. And maybe that's why we feel guilty at, I don't know, but I would say it's a combination. I'm gonna feel what I'm gonna feel. And I feel about that in general, like whatever feelings I'm having, I'm gonna allow those feelings and I'm gonna process them and also try to let them go. Because they're not gonna any negative feelings. Aren't. Serve me if I hold on tight.
Sonya Palmer
Yes. A feeling does not have to dictate an action just because you feel a certain way that does not need to drive a specific behavior or an action because you feel that way. So yeah, I think analyzing how you feel and recognizing why asking before making a move or doing something is very. A good skill to have.
Maria Monroy
Yeah. And I just, I think in general, I think it's hard to be a mom and work. I personally think it's harder for me to not work and have that full time. stay at home mom, position. I think that's a much harder job. In my opinion, just because I'm not wired that way. That's just not what I want to do, but I think, but it's very tough to balance it, to balance the work-life balance. And I know some people are like talking about integration now. And I have that to some extent because I work with my husband, but when the kids are involved and they're very little, I'm not gonna teach them how to do SEO.
Sonya Palmer
A benefit of, running your own agency and the flexible schedule that can offer. I think that's part of the reason why you see a lot of female lawyers starting their own firms. They don't wanna work from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM at an office. they want the flexibility to, go pick their kids up go to the school play, or absolutely. Anything like that and still is an effective lawyer. There's no laziness in that. , there's no wanting to cut a corner or dodge, a responsibility. They typically, I think can just get more done in less time.
Maria Monroy
It's all about, I get we talked about time management and I think that also plays into like how happy you are with your position or your business. If you have that flexibility to say, Hey, I'm gonna go to my kids' school event today, or my kid is sick. So I'm just gonna keep them home and not have to send them to daycare or whatever. Like when I first started working, my daughter was still nursing. So every two hours I'd go downstairs and I would nurse her and I'd go back upstairs. I worked at a very nice attic at the time. So you know it's just, that there is that balance and that flexibility. that I think is so appealing to women because the workforce isn't very kind to us. As much as we like to separate work and life - what happens in your life, will show up in your business. Maria explains how daily habits impact her business.
Sonya Palmer
Even like the amount of sleep that I get, if I exercise, if I eat healthily, even those things impact me as a business owner, my focus, just my energy, everything There are so many things that impact you as a lawyer. And I forget, I think it was Tom BIU. I don't know how to pronounce his last name, but he had a podcast. He has a podcast, but he had an episode where he said something that really resonated. He said I think every business owner should weigh, train at some point in time, their career to see that change is possible. And I was like, whoa, mind blown, because it's so true. If I can change my body, I can change my agency. I can change my law firm. Like we can evolve and it's that you don't see it that one day that you go work out. But it's like the consistency of it. I love that about weight training. It also teaches you that you're often way more capable than you think you are.
Sonya Palmer
I think you have to put yourself in hard situations and do things that you're uncomfortable with. And then when you get in those situations again, you can pull from that. Oh, did it already survive? Thrived. We'll give it a go.
Maria Monroy
I think fear is like actually pointing you in the right direction. And I love that. I read. fear and excitement are like, literally, it's the same chemical being released in your body. So you can actually just say I'm really excited, right? Assuming a lion's not chasing you, like for me, public speaking was like a big one or even like doing podcasts or webinars, back a few years ago. I was petrified. But I didn't let fear stop me. And I was like, I'm just excited. It's exciting because it's something new.
Sonya Palmer
Do things even when you're intimidated by them. It is the only way to grow. Take stock of what makes you feel better, emotionally, mentally, and physically - and take time each day to do that thing. Women have been conditioned to feel guilt no matter what. Learn to let go of the guilt and the heavy mental load. Delegate in your business and in your life whenever possible. Do not feel ashamed for needing, asking for, and receiving, help. To do your best, you can not do it all. A big thank you to Maria for sharing her story and unbelievable insights with us today. You’ve been listening to LawHER with, me, Sonya Palmer. If you found this content insightful, inspiring, or just made you smile, please share this episode with the trailblazer in your life. For more about Maria Monroy check out our show notes. While you're there, please leave us a review or a five-star rating. It really goes a long way for others to discover the show. I'll see you next week on LawHER where we'll shed light on how another of the brightest and boldest women in the legal industry climbed to the top of her field.
