Emily Merrell  00:00

Hey, my name is Emily Merrell. I’m a taco loving people connector, and I’m obsessed with playing the name game and all things networking. I’m the founder of second degree society, a female focused networking community, as well as a business coach for female business owners, passionate about bringing their business to the next level with the help of events, community and connections. I crave deep conversations and am continuously curious to see what makes people tick, and I’m invested in uncovering their stories with some life lessons along the way. This podcast is aimed to inspire and educate as you tackle your busy day. So join the conversation and tune in for the second degree podcast. I’m your host, Emily, and today I’m so excited to have my friend Colin O’Brien. She is the founder Attorney At Aluma law firm, and all around badass human being, Colin, welcome to the show.

 

Colynn O’Brien  00:57

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, Emily.

 

Emily Merrell  01:00

I’m so excited to have a lawyer on the show. I feel like we can break many laws together today.

 

Colynn O’Brien  01:06

Yes, right. Do

 

Emily Merrell  01:10

you feel like people, like, are test the waters with you a little bit more because they’re like, Oh, I’ve got a lawyer in my group. Like, we’ll be able to get out of the situation. Sometimes,

 

Colynn O’Brien  01:18

yeah, or it’s like, it’s always like, if they say something that has to do with legal or that might be, like, mess with like, could be an legal issue, they like, look at me, and they’re like, oh, we have a lawyer in the room. What do you think about it? And like, don’t call me out. Like that.

 

Emily Merrell  01:33

You’re like, the therapist. Kind of like, when someone finds out you’re a therapist, they like, spill their life secrets. How many times on a plane, have people shared their legal problems with you? Actually,

 

Colynn O’Brien  01:43

not that many times, because usually I have my dog and my spouse next to me, so usually it’s not, you know, and I think that there were other times where people talk to me on planes, but I, most of the time, don’t disclose the fact that I’m a lawyer for that reason.

 

Emily Merrell  01:57

Yeah, have you what’s the most uncomfortable lawyer question you’ve had from a stranger.

 

Colynn O’Brien  02:04

I it’s more just when people, like are asking me about an area of law that I don’t practice, and then, regardless of how many times you say that you don’t have experience, or that you in that area, or that you would need to know the entire story and like, dissect every little fact that they keep bothering you about and asking you, like, hey, what would you do? And you’re like, I literally cannot answer

 

Emily Merrell  02:29

that. As a lawyer, my recommendation would be to talk to a lawyer who understands the law in this particular area Exactly,

 

Colynn O’Brien  02:36

exactly. And then they’re like, Well, what do you think? And I’m like, No. Talk to this. Talk to my friend. I have my friend over here. You can call.

 

Emily Merrell  02:43

I imagine you have to kind of protect yourself with like a legal, a legal posse of friends to refer out to, especially for situations like that,

 

Colynn O’Brien  02:54

exactly, yeah. So there’s always Yeah, always referring people to other people who are in other areas that I don’t practice in.

 

Emily Merrell  03:01

So the other day, when I was at my university, I actually moderated a panel for women in law, which is fascinating. No experience in law at all. So it was fun to come from a beginner’s point of view. One of the questions I asked is, What TV show do you think best represents the law? Like your actual legal experience?

 

Colynn O’Brien  03:27

Well, you know, that’s hard, because I would say that suits does not but from a like working in big law perspective, like the nice offices and all the different like, you know how it actually works. And, like, when I was in big law, I actually worked in an office that looked like that, wow. But I wouldn’t say that the unethical things that they’re doing, generally, you know, those things you can’t do as a lawyer. I’m not saying that there’s not lawyers doing it. So every time when we would be watching it, I’d be like, This is not how this works. You cannot do that. You’re like, writing. I’m sure there are some bad actors out there doing this. But it also just like, shows like that are fun, but they kind of, like, decrease the level of trust for lawyers when people are already, like, kind of suspicious already. And I feel like that’s a shame, because we’re here. Most of us are here just to help other people and, you know, make sure that everyone’s compliant with things that they need. So, yeah, that’s my goal, kind of, in with my law firm, is just to be more approachable and like people know that they can trust me and things like that. But it is hard when you have to say it depends a lot,

 

Emily Merrell  04:35

I’m sure, especially because it’s not the law isn’t black and white in some areas. Too. Yes,

 

Colynn O’Brien  04:41

exactly. And it could totally depend on your situation, like it could usually be like black and white, but there may be a fact in your situation that changes it.

 

Emily Merrell  04:48

So Colin, tell us, what was your journey into law? What got you wanting to be in the big bed suits office? Yeah.

 

Colynn O’Brien  04:57

So I always. And Well, growing up, I was always creative, entrepreneurial, always kind of wanted a farm, and also like to be in advertising, which was really weird. So I actually, when I was applied for college and everything I think I wanted to do, like advertising and marketing as, like a double major. And then, like my senior year, we were just like studying. I had a couple classes where we were studying, like, Supreme Court cases and all those different things. It was, like, some reason I got really interested. And it was actually just, like, a couple months before I started school that I changed my major to political science, like pre law track so and decided to go to law school. So it’s really weird. It was that, like, career that I was always like, Oh, I would never want to be a lawyer. And then, like, I just ended up being becoming one because of all those things and wanting to make an impact. So, oh, sorry to interrupt.

 

Emily Merrell  05:48

I was gonna say, Was there a particular case that read you, that you read that like pissed you off, or got you fired up knowing that, like, you could make a difference in the future, or that person, in that case changed the world in some cases,

 

Colynn O’Brien  06:02

I think it was just like a lot of the bigger Supreme Court cases that we were studying. It was like all of them just seeing how, you know, the law does make a difference, and seeing just how being, you know, a judge. And actually, for a while, I wanted to be a judge, no longer want to be a judge if you want interest, awesome. Yeah, I have some friends from law school who are now judges, which makes me feel like I’ve been out of law school for way too long at this point. But yeah, it was just like different. We were studying different concepts on the law and just, you know, just grammatical things. It was a very interesting class. It was like, called Western civilizations or something. So it wasn’t even just on that, but it but it was interesting. So

 

Emily Merrell  06:44

so how did you pick your area of expertise? And can you tell us a bit more about what type of law you practice?

 

Colynn O’Brien  06:50

Yes. So I started off doing insurance litigation, actually. So it was a lot of like, homeowners insurance, business insurance, I would actually litigate those cases. And I did really like doing that, but I ended up wanting to make more of an impact. I wanted to work for myself, and again, being a creative I thought I’d go off and do something more creative, like a blog or, like, just some sort of creative thing, like photography or something. But as I was, like, networking with other female founders of women owned businesses, I realized, like, oh, a lot of these women have no idea where to start with their legal and it’s not only like hurting their confidence, it’s like hurting their confidence in their business, and we need more confident women owned businesses. So that’s where the light bomb went off. And I was like, I want to make an impact, but like, I can make a bigger impact by helping all of these women owned businesses who are also making an impact. Think about like the ripple effect that would have. So that’s why I started to live a law firm. And so light bulb. So I’m here, and also I do so I do business and trademark intellectual property law for women owned businesses, so anything from business formation, contracts, trademarks, copyrights, all that fun stuff. So

 

Emily Merrell  08:02

I love that, because I think I wish I had known you when I started my business, because the only way you found a lawyer back in the olden days, I guess there was Legal Zoom, or it was like your friend’s husband doing your friend a favor by helping you out. And that’s real, real life scenario, and you just it’s so overwhelming, and the person’s doing a solid for you, but they don’t practice that type of law. They’re just trying to help you out, because they’re a lawyer and they can help you out. Yeah. So, so a lot of mistakes can and have been made, at least in my personal business story. So Colin, what for those that are listening, who are maybe brand spanking new in their journey, or their their sole proprietor right now, what advice do you have for them to to getting their business not only protected, but established in a bigger sphere beyond their their small net of clients? Yeah,

 

Colynn O’Brien  08:59

and I would say, first, establish a relationship with a lawyer that you know you you like, and that you know, that you can go to and then after that you know, have a meeting with them. Most lawyers have either reduced price consultations for the first consultation, or complimentary consultations or discovery calls, so you can always call them, talk to them, get a feel for who they are, and then they can just kind of give you a rundown of like, the things you need so and usually starting, you know, it’s usually the business formation. A lot of people look at LLCs, but there are other forms of businesses that you could be more beneficial depending on what your goals for your company are and where you’re at. So that’s one thing that you know you should talk to a lawyer about, make sure that you have all the right documents for that. And then your contracts. That’s like, usually the most important thing is having solid contracts in place that, like, clearly and specifically set everything out. And then again, if you’re like, very brand forward the trademarks, getting your trademark. Done as soon as possible, so you don’t have to rebrand, because, I mean, to rebrand, I think you know a little bit about it.

 

Emily Merrell  10:11

It’s not fun, and it will give you emotional like anxiety and strife. So yes, listen to that hated that old name now, so over it, yeah, but you know it, I love that you said cop contracts and you said the brand and trademark. Some areas that I feel like we forget to talk about include like Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. So can you talk a little bit about how those, how those should live in your world?

 

Colynn O’Brien  10:43

Yeah. So privacy policies are another thing that we deal with every day. You need them for your website to basically at the highest level. And again, while I’m talking about all this, this is solely for information and educational purposes. So it’s not specific advice to like your situation, like I said, it

 

Emily Merrell  10:59

will depend he’s a lawyer, but your disclosure, disclosure, yeah, yes,

 

Colynn O’Brien  11:03

but at the highest level, you need the privacy policy that, and this is from a customer service and legal perspective, but that explains like, what personal information you collect on your website. So like your email like if you have a contact form, or people can subscribe to your email list, you need to make sure that you’re telling them what information you’re collecting from them, how you collect it, why you collect it, why you use it, and any third parties that you are sharing it with, and why you’re sharing it so. And that’s at the highest level, because there’s a lot of other little requirements in there, but that’s generally to not get too detailed here on the podcast, is what you would need just to avoid fines. And there are also personal lawsuits that people can bring against you if they want to, and if you’re not disclosing those things, and again, it shows you’re you’re being transparent with your privacy practices.

 

Emily Merrell  11:56

I just reread my privacy policy, and I was like, Wow, I’m glad I have all these and I paid a layer to write it out and make it specific. But I was like, damn. Like, all the things that we’re saying in it, like, yeah, we have third parties we’re sharing, or, Yes, we will be emailing you to correspond upcoming events. It was pretty thorough. I was I was it was still relevant with all the changes that that have happened over the years. But in terms of you were saying about people coming after you, or like suing you or something, do you find that our country is like the number one sewer of people? Or have you found other countries that are as litigious, litigious as we are.

 

Colynn O’Brien  12:42

Honestly, I’m not 100% sure. I feel like there’s a statistic on that somewhere that, you know, we do Sue more often. But also it is actually generally, it’s a European like European laws of California, laws that people can come like, if they’re in the GDPR, which I won’t get into too much. It’s an EU law, some people from Europe, and even though, even if you’re not actually taking those people on as clients, if they can do your website and you’re not, you don’t, you’re not compliant with the privacy policy, the data protection laws like the GDPR, they can bring a personal action against You.

 

Emily Merrell  13:17

So that makes me sick.

 

Colynn O’Brien  13:21

No, it is. But it’s a simple thing to set and, like, not necessarily forget, because that’s one of the things that we do. Is legal planning services as well, where, and a lot of lawyers will do this too, where you can come to us and, like, every, you know, a month, quarter, whatever you need, and kind of have, like, a call where we go over, like, what’s going on in your business? Have there been any changes and things like that. And I do recommend that, dear legal, it’s not as hard as you think it’s going to be get it done, but also set times to, like, check in with your lawyer to make sure that everything’s still the same and that if you need to make changes, you can just have them made.

 

Emily Merrell  13:58

I always think of like rich, fancy people in shows who they’re, like, I’m talking to my lawyer about this, or like, I’ll have my lawyer call you. And this idea of having a lawyer on retainer, like, I have an accountant on retainer. So having a lawyer on retainer, Is that doable? Like, how does that work?

 

Colynn O’Brien  14:18

So you can have a lawyer on retainer, and usually, actually, we do more of, like, a flat fee type of thing. So it just depends on the lawyer. There’s different structures. I actually had someone email me just before this, like, Hey, do you do retainers? Or how does this work? And I’m like, trying to explain it to her, like, no, actually, we don’t, but we do, like payment plans and things like that. So it’s similar to that. But you know, there are lawyers who offer different types of things where you don’t have to, like, put all this money up front, you know? So I

 

Emily Merrell  14:46

love that I was, I mean, this is actually, I’m actually curious about your experience and these types of things, but I recently signed up for HubSpot. Are you familiar? It’s like a CRM tool, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I had to send one big email with a lot of contacts and add, added about 3000 people, and then it said my tier went up. I was like, Cool, I’ll pay it for a month, and then I’ll decline it, and they lock you in for a year contract on that one tier. Oh, no. And so I have a friend who works at HubSpot, like, as a kind of ambassador or something, and I was having him talk to them, and they’re like, No no exceptions. And then I went on to, like, Better Business Bureau to see other people’s experiences, and they all were complaining with something similar. And then I’ve actually just got an email confirmation. They’re like, we’ll make a one time exception, but from a legal kind of Yeah, I was like, Well, I’m gonna go call my credit card company and tell them to stop payment on this is the next approach I was gonna do. But when you’re in scenarios like that with these bigger companies and you’re a small business owner, do you have any feedback, or any any thoughts on, like, how to like, they probably had an ironclad contract that I checked terms and agreements and didn’t read about. Yeah. Like, how would you how would you advise navigating something like that? For things like

 

Colynn O’Brien  16:12

that, it depends kind of on what you’re like, like, if it’s something where you’re like, okay, like, I would recommend reading through this even like skimming or having your lawyer look at it, but it just depends on, like, what’s actually at stake, you know? So if it’s something where you know, it could actually really affect your business, like, it’s a very big investment, I would definitely have a lawyer review it, because if there aren’t refunds, or you can’t get out of it, then you know, or at least make sure that you’re reading it. And then if you don’t understand something, you could always ask your lawyer to take a look at it too. And I

 

Emily Merrell  16:42

feel like there’s so many interactions where we’re moving so fast and you want a quick solution, which was my case, like, oh, slow desk, I can cancel it every month. Like a lot of these businesses that we’re interacting with, have more flexibility in policies and in the user experience. So I feel like it’s very antiquated. Kind of reminds me of, like an older school SAS program, SAS, you know, selling the software where they lock you in for like, a one year contract or two year contract, which I didn’t anticipate. Yeah,

 

Colynn O’Brien  17:14

and that’s something that it feels like they should have disclosed when you were clicking on it. I feel like most companies do, but it doesn’t always, you know. So I would say, look out for that next time. But

 

Emily Merrell  17:24

yeah, no, I’m now, like on a mission to dethrone

 

Colynn O’Brien  17:35

it’s I lost my train of thought.

 

Emily Merrell  17:38

That’s the thing, too. About train of thoughts, they just disappear. They go, yeah, no, but reading reading closely. And I think these kind of situations are like, good PSAs for just reading through something, understanding what you’re reading before you sign something. And, yeah, I don’t know contract. Let’s dive into contracts, because I’m, I’m always so curious about contracts where say someone is unhappy with what you’ve offered. Or, like, I, I had someone who’s membership just renewed, and it renewed automatically, and she emailed me, and she’s like, Oh my gosh, I didn’t mean to do that. Can you refund me? Like, of course. Like, I don’t. I’m not. I’m I would never want to hold someone to something that they felt like they weren’t opting into it. It just wouldn’t sit well with me. So in terms of contracts, so say, I had someone who didn’t pay me, and they you keep falling up and they are supposed to pay you. At what point do you start pulling out the legal jargon and getting a little threatening, yeah,

 

Colynn O’Brien  18:41

and that it’s going to depend on the situation and, like, how you want to deal with the person and your relationship with them, like, you know, if you if they’ve been kind of terrible to you all the way through, then you might want to pull out all the stops earlier. But if there’s someone that you want to keep a relationship with, you know, that’s something where I would call your lawyer, probably after, you know, two to three times a day, maybe not, depending if it’s been, like a month, I’d probably talk to your lawyer and see, you know, if you can get, like, a letter or something like that, or if you just want to do a strongly word and email and just kind of go from there, but that’s that’s also just up to your discretion, but you can have things in your contract that lay out like, hey, interest is going to accrue. So that’s something that, you know, I’ll bring up, like, if someone doesn’t pay me within the 30 days or whatever, and just say, Hey, I’m just following up on this. I don’t want it to accrue interest. Like it says in our contract, you know. Or like, you could put things in your contract that actually say, what happens? So that you could say, Hey, I don’t want to have to do this, but you’re not paying so or, like, I just have your lawyer send it like a letter saying, Hey, we’re going to sue, you know, but it just for something like that. It will depend on again, your relationship, and if they paid you in the past, or if they’ve just kind of, you know, ghosted you.

 

Emily Merrell  19:59

Yeah. No, I think that that’s a great, great thing. Are there any other things, legal pieces that I’m forgetting to ask that you want to stand on a milk carton and talk about soapbox milk carton, all of the things that you want to talk about, that you want to inform and empower people about? Yes, so today, I

 

Colynn O’Brien  20:18

mean, there’s a ton of different soap boxes I can get on with this is, and I’ve been getting this is, and I’ve been getting this question a lot, is, What are the dangers of taking, like a con someone else’s contract and changing it for you, or just taking something from the internet? And that’s soapbox, which, granted, I do have a contract template shop, and a lot of other lawyers I know have those as well, but they are usually more specifically spelled out allow you to make the changes without messing it up. So I will just make that disclosure. But if you’re just getting something online that you don’t know what it says, and then you’re just changing things how you want it, it’s most likely not going to hold up in court, because it’s going to be confusing. And that’s the most important thing about your contract is that one it’s easy to understand. So both parties can look at it, and if there’s like, a dispute, you can say, this is exactly what it says. There’s nothing in here that’s conflicting. So And usually, if there is a dispute and someone’s like, Oh, I’m going to call a lawyer, the lawyer will look at it and say, Well, this is clearly what it says. It’s not worth litigating over, because the court’s most likely going to say, this is what it says. This is what both parties signed. So that’s one of the dangers of that, is kind of adding in things that don’t line up with everything else in the contract, so that makes it confusing or inconsistent. And then the other is potentially copyright infringement, because it’s someone else’s contract, so someone could potentially come after you for infringement, which doesn’t always happen, but it’s something that could be an issue. So like, for instance, say, I wrote a contract, and then I find out someone’s using it that and like they’re using it without buying it for me, or without me actually writing it for them. I could not saying that, I would, but I could go after someone for that because, you know, I put all of my education, time, experience and a lot of hard work into actually drafting that contract. So for someone to take it and use it for free without my permission is, you know, it’s upsetting, because it’s just like, if you had like, like, if someone had, like, an online course, and someone took it and used it like, sold it to someone else. So I think

 

Emily Merrell  22:21

that’s a great way to think about it, because definitely templates have been treated in my world before. And I think what’s interesting about that is you think that the language is just so universal at this point, like a privacy policy is a privacy policy, but to your point is the privacy policy unique to your offer? Is it unique to your program, so on and so forth? So I think that’s a really, really fantastic reminder of, you know, investing in a lawyer or going to a template shop. How much is a copy like a contract template for you,

 

Colynn O’Brien  23:00

most of them, they range from like 90 $99 to three to like 399

 

Emily Merrell  23:06

so again, like investing $99 versus the pain and the headache of a shitty contract from the internet sounds sounds like it’s a well, well spent amount of money. So I love that well, in in regards to working with you, how can people work with you and find out ways to learn more about legally protecting themselves in their businesses? Yeah,

 

Colynn O’Brien  23:31

so usually the process is they can come to me, either at Illuma law firm, or you can go to she’s legit, where I have my contract templates and eventually, hopefully some online courses and things like that, just to get women owned businesses and business owners as a whole, educated on, like, the basic things you need to know so and when to go to a lawyer. So, which usually is right away, you need to have that knowledge so that if you are entering into a business transaction, you could say, oh, I need to call my lawyer. Oh, I understand. You know, so we’re, Oh, I already have this contract, so you can go there, or you can book a call At Aluma law.com and we have, like, a free discovery call where we’ll go over the things that you like, what’s going on in your business, your goals, what you have, what you don’t have, and kind of figure out how to go from there. And then we give you a proposal on, like what you need at the time and potential future things, and then you can decide either way if you want to work with us. And then if we can’t work with you, we’ll refer you out. So

 

Emily Merrell  24:29

love that. Yeah, remember, she’s got this posse of referrals of really awesome people to refer out to. And fun fact, we hire at Lexi and I at Ready Set coach hired Colin to do our trademark, which was such a good feeling to have trademarked. And you know, have that under own, your brand, yeah, only took like forever. It feels like in the moment. It feels like forever. And now I’m like, was that seven years ago?

 

Colynn O’Brien  24:57

I know, right? Yeah.

 

24:59

Well, it’s funny, when I get

 

Colynn O’Brien  25:01

the registered trademarks come through, I’m like, it feels like forever, but I’m also like, didn’t we just had her have our initial call? Like, yesterday?

 

Emily Merrell  25:09

Yeah, oh, I forgot this was still in the pipeline. It’s probably like, having something in the oven and the timer goes off. Like, Oh, my bad. Well, Colin, I would love a listeners. Go check out Colin. She is the most approachable, wonderful human being, and just a great place to start, especially as you’re navigating and you’re so I don’t want to put words in your mouth when be like, Emily, God, darn it, but you’re so gracious with your time and again. She is so thoughtful about saying it depends, and pointing you in the right direction, where you need to go. So it’s always good to have a call in. Everyone should have a call in. So yay. And before we end, Colin, I would love to ask you some six fast questions. Mix things up a bit,

 

Colynn O’Brien  25:52

ooh, fun thinking off of the top of my head, great.

 

Emily Merrell  25:56

Yeah, this is where you don’t know stuff. Ready? Well, my first question is, tell us an unknown fun fact about you.

 

Colynn O’Brien  26:04

I have a twin brother. Most people don’t know that, especially in the business realm, because I just don’t let I wouldn’t really talk about it. So that’s something that I’m like, oh, people need to know this.

 

Emily Merrell  26:14

Does he have a unique name as well?

 

Colynn O’Brien  26:16

No, my name actually. So His name is Chris, after my dad. And mine is because they named him after my dad. They wanted to give me a name after someone, so they did my dad’s initial CO and Lynn, which is my mom’s middle name. So another unknown fact,

 

Emily Merrell  26:33

have you ever met another colon,

 

Colynn O’Brien  26:36

not with my spelling, but there was someone like, back in the early days of Facebook, who found me and was like, and she has the same spelling. She’s somewhere in Canada, so she seems really cool. I’m like, so we’re friends. We’re Facebook friends, but I don’t know, other than that saying, Hey, we have the same name,

 

Emily Merrell  26:50

I don’t I’m glad to hear that you did that too. I’m friends with, like, every Emily Merrell, that there is one of them’s a musician and has very good SEO, so I always feel like I’m competing with her, which is weird. Yeah, I’m like, you want to do my jingle for my podcast. Okay, who would be a dream person to connect with?

 

Colynn O’Brien  27:11

I’m trying to think, I think Britt Morin would be awesome for Britain. CO

 

Emily Merrell  27:16

that’s a good one. You could make that happen. Yeah? What show are you currently watching? Oh, we

 

Colynn O’Brien  27:25

are watching Loki on Disney. Plus,

 

Emily Merrell  27:29

is it the second season out? Yes, that’s

 

Colynn O’Brien  27:31

what. We just remember that the second season was out. So we’re like, let’s watch

 

Emily Merrell  27:34

that. Oh, gosh, we need to reactivate our Disney plus then, yes, okay, we’ll turn off one. This is what we’ve been doing, like, turning off one to, like, then act because we had European, like, over 100 100 and,

 

Colynn O’Brien  27:47

yeah for all. And I feel like the shows actually don’t all line up to where they’re all on at the same time, anyway. So it’s like you can actually do that right now, anyways, which is nice. So,

 

Emily Merrell  27:56

yeah, that’s a good idea. I’ll bring that. Bring that home with me. Um, what book are you reading? Are you currently recommend that people read?

 

Colynn O’Brien  28:05

I am reading. What is it? The the inner work. I’m not sure who it’s by, and then the four hour work week by Tim Ferriss. And I kind of always have, like, five books going at the same time where I just, like, pick up. I wish I could just like, read one and be like, okay, you know, on to the next one. Yeah,

 

Emily Merrell  28:23

you know you gotta, you gotta really mix up your brain and listen to them. Read them all. Um, what is your favorite emoji?

 

Colynn O’Brien  28:33

Favorite emoji is probably the sunshine emoji. Ah, Florida

 

Emily Merrell  28:36

girl, yeah. And then, what permission Do you want to give to our listeners today.

 

Colynn O’Brien  28:41

Permission, permission to be yourself. I feel like it’s one of those things where everyone’s like, Oh, you’re just, like, kind of hiding, and just like, oh, I don’t want to, like, let my light shine. And that’s something that I’ve been working on a lot too, which is probably one of the reasons why the sunshine emoji lately, as of late, has been like, my favorite.

 

Emily Merrell  28:59

Yeah, I love that. I think that’s great permission, and especially from a lawyer who, I imagine, in your legal career, you felt I’m putting words in your mouth, but like there’s a certain image of what a lawyer’s supposed to look like, how they’re supposed to act, tattoos, all, you know, the whole kit and caboodle and redefining what the law looks like on your terms, exactly. Yeah, well, Colin, thank you so much for being today’s guest and for having me and sharing all of the freaking legal guys. This is like a legal digest in here, so make sure to take re listen to this

 

Colynn O’Brien  29:35

episode. Yes, I try not to make it too overwhelming. Sometimes it just and it’s really not. It’s one of those things where, if you’re like, listening to this, it seems like a lot of information, but like just calling a lawyer and talking to them it that’s one of those things that we like to do too. Is just like done for you services so you don’t have to worry about it

 

Emily Merrell  29:55

totally between an account and a lawyer. My favorite investments I’ve made in my business, yeah. Wow, yeah. Well, thanks, Colin and listeners, if you like today’s episode, please make sure to follow Colin on Instagram, connect with her, learn from her, and we’ll see you the next time on the second degree with Emily Merrell. Have a great day, everyone.