207: Authentic Personal Branding for Sustainable Law Firm Growth with Ilona Anderson

So, if you had one quick tip for someone who wanted to leave a law firm and start their own thing, what's that one quick starter?

Start going to get going to get clients because you don't have a business until you have clients, and I feel like so many law firm owners and entrepreneurs in general procrastinate by I'm going to build my website. I'm going to design my business cards. I'm going to work on my logo. I'm going to create you know beautiful signature for my email. Like all of these things that are branding related, but they don't actually have any clients and they don't have any revenue coming in. And until you have clients and revenue coming in, you don't have a business, you know. And so all

of this-I mean, yes, eventually we all want to have a beautiful website and beautiful logo and signature and beautiful branding. But if you're serious about your business, all of that is essentially a form of procrastination.

Welcome to the 10 Golden Rules of Internet Marketing for Law Firms podcast, featuring the latest strategies and techniques to drive traffic to your website and convert that traffic into clients. Now, here's the founder and CEO of 10 Golden Rules, Jay Berkowitz.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time you're watching, listening, or imbibing this podcast. Welcome to the 10 Golden Rules of Internet Marketing for Law Firms podcast. Great guest today, but as always, I start with a mini commercial. The commercial today is for the 10 Golden Rules podcast and webinar. If you haven't seen or listened to a lot of these, please go to our YouTube channel or iTunes or Spotify if you like this type of content. But we have over 300 internet marketing for law firms podcasts and webinars on topics like SEO for law firms,

and we just did a great grassroots marketing for law firms webinar that was really, really well attended. We've covered a lot of AI recently. So, the 10 Golden Rules Internet Marketing for Law Firms podcast is our advertisers today on the 10 Golden Rules Internet Marketing for Law Firms podcast. And welcome Ilona Anderson, whose law firm Carpe Diem is just a small part of her interesting story, we met through a marketing networking group called Provisors, and maybe we'll talk a little bit about that. But Ilona, welcome!

Thank you so much, Jay. I'm so happy to be here.

And she's a great personal branding expert, and we'll ask her to talk a lot about that, and we'll talk about networking, which she's really doing a great job, and we'll talk about her multiple businesses. But first, we always like to ask you about your journey. How did you get to where you are today, and where did it all start?

Absolutely. So you want me to start with my legal career or further back? Yeah,

go back. Go tell us the interesting stuff.

Sure. So I was born and raised in Russia, in Moscow, and I came to the U.S. on a high school exchange program. I landed in Anchorage, Alaska, because that's where I was sent. The program was a scholarship program. They matched this with host families, and wherever they could find a good fit, that's where they sent us. So I went from Moscow to Anchorage, graduated high school, came back to Alaska for college, and then absolutely fell in love with the United States, and then moved to Miami for law school, and then the rest is history. So went from one extreme to another,

from Anchorage, Alaska, to Miami, Florida, and honestly, haven't looked back. Alaska was amazing, but once I came here, I was like, "This is it.

Yeah, it's so fantastic. I wonder who came from a colder place. I come from Winnipeg, Canada.

Oh, one

day recently it was colder than Mars. But what was your hometown? Oh, Moscow. You said

hometown was Moscow, and then in Alaska was in Anchorage. So it was a little bit colder than Moscow, but not that much colder.

And Moscow wouldn't be as cold as like Siberia, right?

No, it wouldn't be as cold.

That's that's where if you do something bad, you go somewhere really cold. That

used to be the case. Yeah, and as far as my legal journey? Yeah, go ahead.

No, I'd like to know a little bit about Moscow and maybe your childhood and today. I don't know if you've been back, but I think it's a fascinating thing for a lot of us. What was life like, and what's life like today?

I haven't been back in a few years. First, it was the travel COVID-related travel restrictions now the war with Ukraine. So I haven't been back in a few years, but life in the-I mean, I was born in the Soviet Union before the breakup of the Soviet Union, and what I can say is now, especially that I'm a parent. How grateful I am for all the abundance that I have in my life that I'm able to give my children that I never have grown up. You know, I mean, as a child, of course, you don't feel it, right? Because that's that's all we know. And I mean, we were never we lived in a you

know very well educated middle class family wasn't you know weren't poor or anything like that, but not rich either. We had all the basic necessities, comfortable life. Both of my parents is, you know, still together, loving family. I had a great childhood, but just looking at all the opportunities that are present now, and all the things that I'm able to give my children, partly as a result of moving to the United States, it's just incredible, you know. So you probably

had you stayed in in Russia, you probably would be a professional and have a good life. And

I probably still would be a lawyer because I wanted to go to law school while I was still in grade school. I had already sort of made that decision that that's what I wanted. But I, you know, I still think my life would be very different. I don't know if I necessarily would be an entrepreneur. It's sometimes we never know, right? What our life would have would have been like. We can we can only suppose, but I can just tell you that I'm happy that I'm here. Very happy that I'm here. That's fantastic nowadays. And

so, how did law school in Miami come about?

So Alaska didn't have a law school. I don't know if they do now, but they didn't have a law school. So I had to get out of Alaska if I wanted to go to law school, and I already wanted knew that I wanted to go to a warmer climate, bigger city. Miami seemed like a perfect place to come, and I haven't regretted it since.

Fantastic! And so you're a member of the U alumni.

No, I didn't go to UM. No, I went to St. Thomas.

St. Thomas. Oh, great! I've heard very good things. How did your law career start out and evolve? Tell us that part of the story.

Yeah, started out with big law. I started out at Akerman and worked there for about a year, and then my career took a bit of a detour-not legal career, but really my life in general. Because when I initially came to the United States on that high school exchange program, I came on a-I can't remember-it was a j1 or j2 visa, but it was one of those that carries a two-year home residency requirement. Basically, before I can apply for a visa that carries immigrant intent, I I have to fulfill the home residency requirement, and I'd always assumed that I would be able to waive

it. You know, so essentially for a year I was able to work, and then the attorneys at Acreman applied for a waiver of that requirement for me and an H 1b visa so that I could continue staying there and working, and then the U S Department of State came back and said, "Oh no, she has to honor her part of the commitment. Those waivers are rarely granted anymore, so I had to go back. And so, at that point, I felt like my entire world was crashing down because I built a life in the United States. I received my professional degree. I passed the bar. I had my dream job. I had already met the

person who is now my husband and the father of my three children. Right, but even at that point, if we had gotten married, it wouldn't have overcome the requirement. So I felt like I had to just drop, give up everything, and go back to Russia, where I'm not a lawyer. And moreover, when you have that fear of your immigration status being uncertain hanging over you, like you never know if there's 100% chance I'll be able to come back, right? Because what if I visa doesn't get granted. What if you know? There's so many what ifs. So I ended up going back to Russia, and it actually worked out

really well. I got a job at KP. Thank you. I got a job at KPMG in their legal department. So I had doing was working on very interesting projects, working with offshore companies, do practicing primarily. Yes, I had to learn Russian law, but also a lot of what I was doing was based on UK law. Working a lot of foreign clients, doing mergers and acquisitions, due diligence projects, had some interesting work-related travel to Cyprus, for example, and then my then boyfriend and I stayed in a long distance relationship, which was a great test for a relationship, so, and it was nice for me

to reconnect with my family and you know spend time with my parents because I hadn't, although I'd visited, I hadn't really spent any extensive time in Russia since the age of 16, so ended

up

going by fast. It all worked out, and then I came back to the U.S. and worked at a couple of other law firms. I actually did work at a PI law firm for about three years right before I went out on my own. I was working at a law firm that specializes in asbestos and tobacco litigation and other catastrophic cases. So there, I got to have my first trial. I handled multiple medical malpractice matters. I've assisted with some asbestos and tobacco cases. I've done some mass torts. I did a variety of different things. I had my first employment case, and working in that environment

at that law firm gave me confidence that I could handle anything that came my way because there was just so much thrown at me, and it was very, very much a sink or swim environment, which was tough at the time. But you know, I looking back, I'm super grateful for it. So when I got pregnant with my first child, I was faced with a decision: What do I do? Because I didn't want to put my career on hold. I was enjoying being a lawyer, and but at the same time, I didn't want to be an absentee parent. It was important for me to breastfeed and bond with my child. And this was pre-COVID,

pre-flexible work arrangements. So when I went to talk to my boss to see if there could be some kind of flexibility, initially in the first few months, maybe working from home, couple of days a week. His response was, "We know you can handle it, but we don't want to set that precedent because if we let you, then others will start asking. And you know, I mean, I know that mentality now sounds archaic now that it's so normal to work from home. But back then, that was you know, that's how things were, and the next day I gave my resignation notice. I decided it's easier if I'm going to start

something of my own. It's easier to do it before I give birth to my child, and then shortly thereafter, I then met the person who then became a law partner for the next 10 years, and then together we built and scaled to seven figures and employee rights litigation law firm, and that was before I exited and then started Carpe Diem Law Firm. So that

congratulations! Fantastic story. And then was the next evolution to Carpe Diem?

Yeah, the next evolution to Carpe Diem was you know it's interesting when I when I look back at my career, it's it's getting like more from macro to micro in a sense that big law, medium law, partnership, and now I'm the sole owner of my law firm. I don't want to say sole practitioner because ultimately my plan is to grow, and I am actively looking to bring on other attorneys. So while sole practitioner may be an accurate characterization now, it's really not like the mindset that I have, right? Because I do do plan on on building and scaling a law firm, but I'm the sole

owner of the law firm. And so, when I exited the partnership that I was in and decided to go out on my own. I thought, okay, what do I want this new chapter of my career to look like? And I realized that I really wanted to be of service to entrepreneurs because that law firm was the start of my entrepreneurial journey, and I've really grown to perceive myself as an entrepreneur as a result. Right, I've gone to a lot of entrepreneurial events, done coaching, was in various entrepreneurial groups, went to Tony Robbins Business Mastery, read tons of entrepreneurial books. You know, made a

lot of mistakes. I was the way my partner and I had our responsibilities divided is that he was overseeing the legal work, and I was overseeing the business aspects. Obviously, you know there was we were all involved in in how respect each other's parts of the business as well, but for the most part, that's what we were accountable for. So at that firm, I was doing marketing and business development and hiring and firing and policies and systems and procedures and financial controls, all of that, and so that really awakened an entrepreneur inside of me, and I fell in love with the

business of law. And going into my this new chapter of my career, I felt that okay, as a plaintiff's employment attorney, I don't really have anything to offer to entrepreneurs. I don't have anything to offer to the people that I like to be around. Conversely, you know, I could potentially sue them on behalf of one of their employees. But the other reason why I really switch sides, or rather added sides, because I still do some plaintiff side employment law. But why I rebranded and started focusing more on business owners and entrepreneurs, because as a plaintiff's lawyer in litigating

employment cases, but especially wage and hour cases, I saw how many employers were not what you would consider bad actors in a sense that they weren't malicious. A lot of them just didn't get good advice. They just had you know too much of a tunnel vision, focusing on growing their business that they didn't really realize what's going on in HR, and that they didn't have proper documentation, that they weren't keeping track of how many hours their employees were working, or if they were working overtime, they didn't have proper policies and procedures. So it's not that I mean, yes, there

were many that were intentionally malicious, but there were was a very large percentage. We just didn't know any better because they didn't have the right ally to audit their business and tell them, okay, this is a landmine and this is going to be a problem. And so I wanted to become that person for those types of business owners to help them prevent those issues because a lot of them don't realize how expensive very quickly employment cases can become, you know, especially unpaid wages cases. There's kind of like this misconception that, well, we're just talking about some unpaid

minimum wages. We're talking about some unpaid overtime. Like these are not large amounts. It's a slap on the wrist. If I get sued, I'll deal with it. But in reality, they don't realize that there's liquidated damages provisions. There's fee shifting provisions.

There is if the employer fails to comply with the record keeping requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act, then the employee's testimony is given the presumption of accuracy. You know it's a rebuttable presumption, but if you don't have the documents and records to rebut it with, then the employee's testimony largely stands, and then you're responsible for your own attorney's fees, for the prevailing employees' attorneys' fees, for the actual damages, and for double amount and liquidated damages. So something that looks small can really blow up into something very expensive very

quickly.

So you've represented employees in employment matters against law firms, and you represent law firms today when employees bring a matter. Give us like three top level tips. What should every firm have in place to prevent them from getting these employment matters?

Yeah, and I think it it applies not just to law firms; it applies to any business because a law firm is a business just like just like anybody else, I don't just represent law firms. I represent businesses, all Florida businesses, all across various industries. So one of the most important things is to accurately classify your employees versus independent contractors, and that's that's also a big landmine because a lot of entrepreneurs think that if I give somebody a contractor title, and if that if I pay them with a 1099, and they agree to receive a 1099 versus a w2, then

unequivocally they're a contractor. But under the law, it's not the labels that matter. What matters is the economic realities of the relationship, and so there is a six-prong test promulgated by the Department of Labor, interpreted by various case law. There is a similar test, not identical, but very similar test that the IRS has as well, and it comes down to such factors as control, how much control the employer is exercising over the employee, how much freedom the employee has to earn money? Meaning, can they work for others? Can they choose how much or how little they work? Can they

subcontract? Do they have to have their own tools and insurance versus those provided for them? And none of the factors is determinative in and of itself. So the courts look at the totality of the circumstances, so that's one area where businesses get tripped up. Because the moment you prove that somebody is misclassified as an independent contractor, but in reality they're an employee, as an employee, then they're subject to minimum wage laws, they're subject to overtime laws, and they're subject to anti discrimination laws. You know all of these federal and state statutes that now apply

to them if they're truly an employee and not an independent contractor. The other type of misclassification that's very common is exempt versus non-exempt. Again, a lot of kind of misunderstanding in that area because employers sometimes think, well, if I pay somebody a salary and I give them the title of a manager, then there are exempt. But there is various requirements that apply for an exemption to be executed correctly, and one of them is a primary duty test. Is your primary duty really managing other employees? Do you have the ability to hire and fire employees to make decisions

as to matters of significance, because what often happens is somebody is called a manager, but 80% of the time they I don't know they're stocking shelves in a grocery store, you know that, and they they can't fire or hire anybody. So again, labels don't matter nearly as much as the actual duties in this case, and also there's certain minimums that you have to pass in terms of the salary test, which you know shifts from time to time. And then I would say the third major requirement or area of danger is for your hourly employees not keeping track of when they work, how much they work, and

and if they're working overtime, there's a lot of employers who tell their employees we don't pay overtime, so don't work any overtime. But then the employee still works overtime, and they don't get paid because the employer says, "Well, but our policy is that you're not supposed to work any overtime." But the law says is that the every hour in excess of 40 has to be compensated at a time and a half. So if the employer knows that the employee is working, whether or not they permitted, they requested it, etc. they can't turn a blind eye. If your employee is working more than 40 hours a week

and they're hourly, you have to pay them overtime and time and a half. Now it could be a disciplinary issue, right? If they didn't comply with your policy, if they didn't follow your instructions, but just because they violated your policy, you can't punish them with non-payment of wages. Those issues are entirely separate.

Fantastic. Well, thank you for sharing, and you'll keep us and hopefully some other folks out of trouble. I want to delve into the rebranding because, of course, this is a marketing podcast, and you did a great job with your branding and awareness and building awareness among the community down here. You're extremely well known and highly regarded. But what was the positioning strategy? Carpe diem. It I think it means like seize the day, but maybe you can expand on on your thinking for that if people don't know. And then what was the positioning and branding exercise you

went through to end up there, and how do you market and brand the company today?

Yeah, so a lot of the branding was really built around the trademarks practice area, which I added on when I launched Corputeme Law Firm, and trademarks is something that I completely fell in love with, and I wish I would have discovered it earlier in my career. I've been a litigator. I've been practicing now for almost 20 years, and virtually the entire time, except for my short stint at KPMG in Moscow, I've been a litigator. So when I added trademarks, it was like a breath of fresh air because there's such a different energy about it. I'm talking about trademark prosecution,

which means helping business owners conduct clearance searches, register their trademarks, and then respond to any office actions from the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, and because as a litigator, you you you're always in a reactive mode, right? And you're always stuck between two parties that that are fighting. As a trademark prosecution attorney, I get to work with entrepreneurs that are excited about launching their new business, their new brand. You know, they they come to me, you know, kind of on a high, sharing their ideas. And this is what I'm thinking. This is what I want to do.

What do you think about this name? What do you think about this logo? I'm rebranding. You know, I mean, yes, every area of law obviously has its challenges, and sometimes I have to deliver unfortunate news that if I conduct a clearance search, it turns out that the trademark is not available, or sometimes my client receives a cease and desist. So it's not like all sunshine and rainbows, but it's a very different energy around that practice area versus around the litigation practice area, where it's all about fighting and justice and courtroom. So I decided because my focus was on growing that

practice area, I allowed my branding to be lighter and more creative and more whimsical and more authentic, and not be just like this stuff lawyer in a suit in front of a library of books, you know, with the scales of justice symbol. And honestly, it just it felt good to me because I felt that it allowed me to be myself and not do any posturing and kind of allow my own authenticity shine, you know. And when we spend our time being ourselves and not pretending, right? Things kind of would just feel better if you look, for example, on my website. Some people say, "Oh, why do you have so many

pictures on your website? or "Why do you have pictures of your family on your website? You know, it's really like to me, it's not about like vanity or like look at me or things like that. It's more about I want them to get to know me as a person, and yes, obviously they see my credentials and they see that I'm an award-winning 20-year attorney, and they see you know this and that and client results, and they can read my Google reviews. But people like doing business with people they like, right? There's so many options for lawyers, and I feel like sometimes you look at various lawyer

websites, and you know they they just all look all look the same. We have 30 years of cumulative experience, and this and that.

And you have your family, and your tennis, and your

yeah

taekwondo.

And and you know, and I'm fully aware that some people could be turned off by that. Some people could look could look at that and say, you know what? No, I want I want an attorney who looks like look a bulldog and who looks scary and who you know. Not that I don't zealously represent my clients, I absolutely do. But that's kind of a given, right? As an attorney, that's why I'm in this. That's why I'm in this field. That's why I have the Google reviews that I do. That's why I get the results I do. But you know, I wanted to show more human side of me because we are all

multi-demand. Beings, you know, and just because I have a label of a lawyer doesn't mean that there isn't other aspects to my personality. And when we work with clients, we relate to them on on a lot of different levels. You know, the exchange ideally, right, is not transactional. And there's a reason we're called attorney and counselor at law. We have long conversations, and you know, we give them we give them advice, and we truly counsel them. And with some of my clients, we really bond, especially other entrepreneurs that are you know maybe launching brands, especially in the in the

areas that I'm interested in, such as wellness and and health and things like that. So we find that common ground, and if an entrepreneur wants to register a trademark for a vegan brand, and they go and find me, and they see that I'm vegan, or they launch something in the tennis field, or you know they have a wellness product and they see that I own a wellness center on the side, they will probably resonate more with me than an attorney that they know nothing about.

No, I love it, and so you've launched a couple law firms in the last 10 or 12 years. Talk about the launching of a law firm, the marketing, the positioning, the branding. What lessons can you share with our audience?

I can tell you that it's interesting. When I was launching my first law firm, which would now be 13 years ago, and now and then there was another law firm in between because I took a short stint between when I exited the partnership and when I launched Carbiti and Law Firm. I had another law firm that was kind of unconventional. It was always intended to be temporary in nature. I had a team of lawyers. We were helping businesses recover their or apply for their employee retention tax credits, and so because that program was temporary, the the business was temporary as well. We

were basically a compliance check for a large ERTC filer, so that business scaled very quickly to seven figures. But also, I didn't have to go out and look for clients because we already had this big whale sending us all these clients, and we just had to build a team and systems to be able to support them. So when I was launching my very first law firm, I've never owned a business before. That was my first business, so I was learning everything as I go, and things were extremely manual at that time compared to how quickly things can move nowadays. That we have AI. I mean, I'm just thinking

back, like how many, probably hundreds of hours I've spent creating SOPs, you know, systems, systems and policies and procedures for my team, and nowadays all of that work that took me hundreds of hours with Claude, I can probably do it in one hour. You know, and

that's so fantastic.

It's fantastic. You know, marketing too. I mean, all of the copywriting was obviously done. You know, by hand and tweaking, and I use AI all the time on a daily basis. Obviously, it's so important, and I'm sure you talk about this: is to inject your own taste and creativity and personality in it. Because everything is LinkedIn or anywhere you look, everywhere on social media, online. Like we're drowning in this generic AI-generated content. It's not a replacement for your own taste and creativity, but it makes things so much quicker. So I feel like we can go from idea to

execution nowadays so much quicker than when I was originally building the law firm.

So if you had one quick tip for someone who wanted to leave a law firm and start their own thing, what's that one quick starter?

Start going to get clients because you don't have a business until you have clients, and I feel like so many law firm owners and entrepreneurs in general procrastinate by I'm going to build my website, I'm going to design my business cards, I'm going to work on my logo, I'm going to create you know beautiful signature for my email, like all of these things that are branding related, but they don't actually have any clients, and they don't have any revenue coming in. And until you have clients and revenue coming in, you don't have a business, you know. And so all of this,

I mean, yes, eventually we all want to have a beautiful website and beautiful logo and signature and beautiful branding, but if you're serious about your business, all of that is essentially a form of procrastination. Sometimes you have to examine your own beliefs and think, okay, why am I not getting out there and really like meeting people, promoting myself, calling people to see if they have any referrals for me? Do I have possibly any fears, imposter syndrome? Like, what is it that's really stopping me? Because there's usually something in our mindset that's keeping us busy with this busy

work, as opposed to out there really focusing on building a business.

That's great, great advice. So we both are involved in this networking organization called. Provisors, and you've become a group leader. I've become a group leader. But how do you recommend folks get involved and really make the most out of everything from their local chamber of commerce to a fantastic organization like Provisors?

Yeah, I've definitely drank the Provisors Kool Aid. I'm a big fan of it, but for good reason as well. Because not only have I met amazing people such as yourself through provisors, but also it has made a meaningful difference in my business more than any other networking organization that I've ever belonged to. And part of what I like about provisors is how non transactional it is, and it doesn't have to be provisors. This is not a plug for provisors, although you know I'm like I said I'm a huge fan of it. There's other great organizations there as well, but what I absolutely

hate is being in a room where people are just like giving out business cards and not really you know you're not really connecting versus organizations such as provisors, yes, it it might maybe a slow ramp up because nobody's people actually dissuaded from pitching to each other and being salesy because it's all about building relationships. It's all about getting to know each other, building relationships, and developing that long term trust. But eventually, it's starts paying off, and so I think what has worked for me improvisers, and it's not even that I intended it to work for me that

way, but I just see that it is. Interestingly, since I became a group leader, I actually started focusing less, a lot less, on guesting, promoting my own law firm, like meeting people for my own personal benefit, just because I've been so busy with growing my my own group and making sure everybody in the group feels like they're getting value, like they're having good experiences, that our meetings are meaningful, etc. But when I started focusing on nurturing the members of my group, making sure that I'm constantly sending them introductions. I'm looking out for referral opportunities

for them. I'm supporting them on LinkedIn. So my focus has become less on myself and more on how can I provide value. How can I make sure that people around me, you know, feel good, getting value, or well taken care of. Interestingly, my referrals started going through the roof. So

that's so great. Yeah, yeah. Give to get is not just a slogan, right?

Yeah, not just a slogan. It it really does does work. And like I said, I was you know it's the effort was genuine and and helping people around me because I take the group leader responsibility very seriously, but sort of like this-a beautiful side effect was that it's actually helping my business grow, even though I'm not putting as much effort into making my business grow. If

someone's just starting out with networking, what's one tip you would give a newbie?

I would say go deep instead of wide, in terms of your networking relationships, because there's so many opportunities to meet people. It's so easy to meet people. There's like every day you can probably find like five different networking events advertised somewhere on online, on on Facebook, on LinkedIn. You know, you get invited somewhere. You can guest in this group, BNI, this and that, you know, cocktail hour, happy hour, etc. And it's all great. I mean, it's great to meet as many people as possible. But at some point, when you kind of like find your tribe, then focus on

building those relationships and deepening those relationships because at some point, like you could spend, you could have 20 Zoom meetings in a week, but then a month later, do you what do you remember about those people? You know, you may vaguely remember the name. You know, maybe what they do. Do you remember what they told you about their children? You know, did you send them a follow up note? Do you remember the meaningful milestones in their life that maybe you can congratulate them on, you know, in a year because they just finished celebrating the anniversary with their partner. To

me, it's better to focus on a smaller group of people, but really build those relationships than meet as many people as possible. And then a month later, you don't remember who they are and they don't remember who you are.

And I was also going to ask for the advanced tip. Maybe that's it. But for someone who's pretty sophisticated, they're deep in a couple different networking groups. They've got a great network. What's an advanced strategy you would share?

I would say have multiple touch points with them throughout the year, so whether it's you think of you meet somebody who you think would be a good introduction for them, and then you know you send them that email introduction or potential referral, maybe you come an article come across an article somewhere or YouTube video that makes you think of that person. And then you can send them a quick note or text saying, "Hey, saw this video and thought of you because this is like what we discussed in our Zoom meeting a few months ago. You know, having those touch points because

there's so many of each type of professional, right? There's tons of trademark attorneys. There's a tons of employment law attorneys. There's a ton of you know CPAs, wealth planners, etc. So when somebody has an issue, you know they're going to go through their mental rolodex, and they can they're going to think about the top of mind awareness. So even if they had a good experience with you two years ago, but they never heard from you, they'll probably think of the person who made an effort to reach out to them recently, and maybe give them something of do something for them, or give

them something of value, or warm their heart in some way. So I think those touch points are important for that top of mind awareness. It's not all one done.

Great, I love it. And for the regulars of this podcast, and I assume anyone who stuck around for 45 minutes is regular. So thank you for staying with us. You were at Tangled and Rules Conference TGR Live Growth Strategies for Law Firms. If someone hasn't been in person, how was the experience, and what would you tell folks about coming down to Florida?

Oh, it was a fantastic conference. I was so glad to be invited. I think, even though I'm not a personal injury attorney myself. I think it's so valuable to understand the trends generally in marketing trends in AI. I mean, there were so many things that were discussed by speakers from stage that are applicable to any attorney, not just a personal injury attorney. There were so many in-depth discussions on AI marketing. Obviously, it's not something that you can learn once and say, "Okay, I understand marketing, because everything evolves. You know, especially especially

nowadays. So it's so important to not only upgrade your knowledge consistently, but also be in that circle of like-minded individuals, and not only for people to exchange ideas and network, but also to show you what's possible. Because some of the people, some of the speakers that you brought, who spoke from stage about what they've accomplished in their law firms, the kind of growth they've accomplished, the kind of systems they've built, the kind of service that we've been able to provide to their clients is truly inspirational, and so you know, to me, it's so important for us to always

uplevel our mindset. And I definitely got my not only dose of information but also a dose of inspiration at the event. So I would thank you

for that, and we do cover a wide breadth of marketing and EOS and strategy. It's not just PI by any means. We've come to the time which I call the short one-liners, and I'll just ask you some quick questions and just give us a quick one-line answer. What's your best personal productivity hack?

My best personal productivity hack is to get the most important tasks done first thing in the morning before I do any morning routine. For many many years, I've wasted. I I wouldn't say wasted, you know, because we're always experiment. But I spend so much time trying to fine tune my morning routine. I'm going to do my meditation. I'm going to do my journaling. I'm going to do my exercise. This and that. But then I realized that my energy levels and my focus level is the best first thing in the morning, and so I was really using up that best energy and best focus on the

routine that could wait until 10 o'clock. You know, but if I get my most important tasks done from like you know between six and 10, I've already done four hours a day. I have entered my flow state, knocked out like three of my top priorities, and then I can ease up, do my morning morning routine, or whatever it is I want to do exercise, and then kind of start that next shift for the day.

That's great. What is your personal wellness and fitness routine?

Wellness is healthy eating for me is non-negotiable. I cook for myself every single day, and I'm very deliberate about what I eat and what I put in my body. Fitness, I have to break a sweat every day, even if I'm working long hours. I have to do something, so I do play tennis. I'm a second degree black belt at Taekwondo. I do yoga, and sometimes I just go on walks in the neighborhood or just lift weights at home. So it's nothing complex or complicated. I don't do you know, two hour Peloton classes or anything like that. But but it's consistency.

Something every day. Yeah, and

meditation. I I meditate regularly, almost daily, and I I feel it's very important as well for just general wellness and connection with the with the source, whatever you want, whatever it is for you.

Yeah. Now we talked about this earlier, and you've read several 100 business books, but what would you say is your top two best business books?

I would. Top two again, top of mind awareness, right? So I have to think think back as to what comes to mind. I'm sure as after we hang up, I'll be like, oh my god, I can't believe I forgot this book. I would say "Rich as" by Amanda Francis. Oh, she's such a powerhouse, and it's it's a fantastic book on business mindset, just breaking through limits and building life on your own terms. And the second one that comes to mind, it's not really as much of a business book. It would, it's, I would say, it's a productivity anti-productivity book. It's The Imperfectionist by Oliver

Bucherman, and when you read that book, when you are a Type A organized person with you know who has to do lists and your routines, and then at the end of the day you still feel like, oh my god, I didn't even get you know my list is even longer and I didn't you know I'm with a longer list now than when I started and I just put in you know a 10 hour day and got all of these things done. That book just completely shifts your perspective on allowing yourself to be imperfect, to not finish your to-do lists, to not have that guilt. You know, to enjoy your life, and so it provides a nice

balance to those that have the tendency to be always on the go and chasing that productivity high.

Those are great. Thank you. I'm not familiar with either, and I need some fresh summer reading. Tell us about your podcast and where can we find it.

Thank you for asking. My podcast is called the Ilona Anderson Podcast, and it can be found on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and soon coming to YouTube, and I interview entrepreneurs. I call it podcast for conscious entrepreneurs. People that are basically doing well by doing good, or building their businesses in unconventional ways, or doing things their own way, and not necessarily the traditional way. Yeah,

sounds great. And last two questions: What's a good referral for you? Who should we send your way?

So, any entrepreneur that has not taken steps to protect their brand should definitely talk to me or another trademark attorney. Brand protection is again frequently so overlooked by entrepreneurs because the mindset that some have is that well, brand protection is for big businesses. It's for the Nikes, the Amazons, not for the little guys. And then maybe I'll think about it when I'm bigger, when I'm more established, when I have greater cash flow, when I have more visibility. So they they pick a cutesy name that they fall in love with is they start promoting their goods and

services under that brand, and when they finally get around to registering it, they realize that either it's no longer available because somebody swooped in and registered it, or something similar enough, or it was never available to begin with, and they're actually inadvertently infringing upon somebody else's brand. And the only way to know if the brand is truly available, it goes well beyond just a Google search or USPTO.gov search for exact matches. Because an attorney would do a comprehensive clearance search and identify all the risks areas that go well beyond just exact matches.

Great, and last question: Where can people find you?

Carpe diemlawfirm.com and Carpidium Lawyer on Instagram.

Ilona, this was lots of fun and and educational and inspirational. So thank you for your time today.

Thank you so much for having me.