From Self-Doubt to CEO: Legal Confidence that Builds Legacy

This discipline that I have perfected, if you will, over time. It's free. It doesn't cost a penny. And every entrepreneur needs to be on this page, because there's going to be so much negativity thrown at the entrepreneur. Every single day. People are looking at you saying you can't do that. It's already been done. That's going to cost too much money. I mean, if you listen to everyone, we would never get out of bed. So one, know who you are, know the blood that's running through your veins, know who you are, and two, live a life of gratitude. It's amazing. The opportunities that just open before you amazing.

Welcome to Relaunch To a Rich Life. And today's guest is truly a force of nature. She is CEO of Bagla Law firm 2024 top CEO nominee and proudly known as the Queen of business law, Kelly Bagla, with over 20 years of trailblazing experience in law entrepreneurship, she is not just breaking glass ceilings. She's rewriting the rules for how business gets done from going into corporate law when only 3% of women were practicing to founding four businesses, becoming a New York Times best selling author and standing as a champion for veterans, animal welfare and ethical entrepreneurship. Kelly embodies what it means to lead with both power and purpose. Kelly Bagla doesn't just protect empires. She actually helps build them. So let's dive into the mindset, mission and momentum behind this legal powerhouse. Kelly, welcome to the show.

Hillary, what an introduction. Thank you so much. I

mean, you know what? When we first met, and I remember seeing it was a video, it was a Zoom video, and you were in your Queen's chair, and you just commanded an audience. I was like, Oh my gosh. When can I work with her. How can I collaborate with her? You when you started to explain your journey? And there's always moments where I'm talking to people and I'm like, it's a little bit of a stretch in terms of this relaunch journey, yours wasn't and so I want to take people through how it came to be, because it wasn't always like this and your significant relaunch journey really changed the trajectory of where you are today. So can we go back to that, absolutely,

absolutely, that was many moons ago. Well, we've

all done a lot of relaunches, right? Yes, yes, but I want to, I want to hear the one that happened many moons ago, many

moons ago, I am the baby of seven. I am the only one that went into law. Everybody else, all of my other siblings, they went into some sort of discipline in the medical field, not me. I decided to follow in my father's footsteps. Now this was prior to me being born. My father and mother, they were they were born and raised in India. They had a beautiful life there. And my my dad, decided to become adventurous. And he, even though they had an extremely comfortable life in India, he said, Well, let me see what else is out there. And he took the chance and came out to England. When he was in England, and he actually got a job in a factory. It was a denim factory, so he's working on the on the floor with regular employees. And before you know it, Hillary, he worked his way up, and he ended up buying the factory. Now, this is my Fauci

great, great story that's that's really impressive from legacy. Oh, exactly.

And so I've got a great role model right out of the gate. And I knew I always wanted to do something in business, but I always wanted to be a lawyer ever since I was five years old. I remember watching a show back at home in England, and it was called the Queen's counsel at the time, and the barrister would come in, and he would save the day. And I was just so in awe of this, this lawyer, and I stuck to my guns, and many years later, here I am Hillary, and I decided not to practice in the country that I was born. I decided to pick a very difficult state, which is California, right? And it has one of the toughest bar exams. So I said, Okay, I'm taking my bar exam in California. Pass. And my very first attorney position was with Baker and Mackenzie. At the time, it was the largest international law firm in the world, so I That

is incredible. First off. So that at five years old, you knew you wanted, okay, I'm sitting here thinking, at five I wanted to be I wanted to be bewitched. Elizabeth Montgomery, and you're wanting to be a lawyer. I'm like, wow, dang. That's good. That is so good. But you just brought up something about, first off, how hard it is to, you know, practice and pass the bar, and especially in California, and a really male dominated world at that point. And I would like to understand, where do you get your strength, and how has that fire evolved in a very male dominated world? How did you how did I mean, look at you. You're gorgeous, you're you know you, you are definitely a presence. How did you manage? How did you manage being a woman in a male dominated one?

I have to stay I have to absolutely start off Hillary first of all by saying that I'm extremely blessed. I am. I'm very, very blessed. My journey, when, when we were being brought up, we were being raised, and dad and mom, they always, always made sure we understood where we came from. Where was our ancestry? Where did we come from? But at the same time, we also assimilated into the countries where we were born. So three of us, my other two siblings and myself, we were born in England, and my other siblings were born in India. But yet I can speak multiple languages. I can I know my culture inside and out, I know my religion inside and out, but yet I still am able to function and work in any country because we were given the ability to assimilate. That means not to forget where you are now. Hilary, by birth, I was born into Sikhism. My father and mom, they're Sikhs, meaning that it's a religion from northern part of India, and it arose probably back in the 1400s and this was when Islam was it was going around and trying to convert Hindus to become is Muslims. There was a handful of people that stood up to this injustice, and that's where Sikhism arose. So literally, Hillary, I have warrior blood running through my veins. I have warrior blood.

So now there is no doubt that's

true. So now, if you were brought up knowing that you had warrior blood running through you, I think you would be unstoppable, which you already are, and knowing who you are, knowing where you came from. But the most difficult part truly is the confidence right? It's the confidence level that has gotten me to where I am, and you're absolutely right. Hillary, there were 3% of women in corporate law when I decided to go into corporate law. On top of that, there was less than 1% of minorities in corporate law. Did that stop me? Absolutely not. I see things as a challenge. I think my dad taught me, amongst many things, this very, very important lesson. He said, If you want something in life, want it from your heart, become laser focused and go after it. Otherwise, don't bother because you're wasting your time. And everything that I've wanted and everything that I've gone after Hillary, that's exactly what I've done, laser focused, and I've achieved it every single time. It's the confidence level. It's knowing who you are and where you come from,

and I can see how you really stand behind that. And just knowing you as I have this last year, I'd like to go back to the relaunch and take me through how the shifts and the turns impacted you, because it hasn't always been easy. It hasn't always been like this happened and this happened there's been, you know, obviously the the relaunches along the way, with the bumps and the bruises. So let's go back there. You

got it. This was when I was a brand new attorney. 20 years ago, brand new attorney, by the way, I started when I was three.

Glad you clarified that

exactly, exactly 20 years ago, I was this, you know, young lawyer, fresh out of law school had, you know, stars in her eyes, dreams. And I was just, give me, give me. I want to learn how to, how to do, how to practice law. And I learned from the brilliant minds, not just domestically, but internationally, because it was the largest international law firm I worked for, and I really, really got to learn how to practice law from there, as time went on, Hillary, as internal corporate politics arise, we actually got a partner from hell. She literally was a partner from hell when she joined the firm. Within the month, there were 10. Of us that left it was that bad? No,

this one woman, weird house, yes, well, what was so bad about her?

She was in it for herself. She was not a team player. Everything that she did, it was all for herself. She was willing to throw any of us under the bus. She was not the one that was going to lead us. She was not a leader at all. And so I I came to America Hillary because I want to live my American dream, right? And let me be the first to tell everyone the American Dream is alive. And Well, I'm a pure example of it every single day and waking up and feeling sick to your stomach because you have to go into work and face this monster and the stuff that she's going to download on you. I couldn't do it anymore. That was not my American dream. So I decided, fantastic. I've loved my time here. I'm going to walk. I'm not going to allow this and live like this. It's not my American dream. So I walked from there and I went to a different firm. It was a smaller firm. I was the only female attorney there, only I went into the corporate group. Within six months, I was the head of the corporate group there. Then at the big firm, Hillary, they don't teach you how to make rain. They don't teach you business how to communicate with customers and clients. They don't teach you any of that. We're just worker bees. But at this other law firm, I actually went to networking events with the partner, and he taught me how to network and actually how to ask for business. So as time went by, I said to the partner, well, you know, I'm I'm bringing in some business now. Let's talk about partnership. He goes, Oh, Kelly, that would be great. But you know what, we have about $3.7 million worth of debt on the books, and we need to clear that. So all that profit that's going to come in, we're going to clear that. And I said, Thank you so much, that's your debt, not mine. It's not for me exactly. Moment that moment Hillary, that's when it came to me. I said, if I can make money for someone else, why can't I do it for myself? I hold the same law license as they do the same law license. So again, I tapped into my confidence. Where am I from? If I see a challenge, how do I attack it head on? I opened my firm in 2009 with a handful of clients. The the very first client that I opened my firm with is still my client today, still my client today, and every year, you

know why? I think that that is, is because you had developed that leadership. And you also are so focused on protecting legacies. You really genuinely are, you know, you launch entrepreneurs, you you're so and I've seen this, you care so much about the entrepreneurial journey, I do want to ask you, because people are probably like, okay, she's got to ask the question, what's the biggest legal blind spot that could really impact a entrepreneur in the business and trying to become super successful,

not having a proper legal structure

if you don't have that, tell us more about what that really means.

Yes, if you don't have a solid legal foundation to stand upon, for example, you say, Okay, I'm bringing in business. Now I'm bringing in some money. I'm going to quickly need an LLC. So let me go online and let me go ahead and quickly get an LLC for 300 bucks. Okay, great. Now, as you're going along and you're going along, you're going to you're building wealth, you're accumulating wealth, and all of a sudden you're going to get sued. And when you get sued, opposing counsel is going to ask for all of your corporate documents and see whether, one, you've been you've got the right entity for protection, and two, whether you've been following corporate compliance, meaning, have you done your filings? Have you done your annual minutes? Have you met all of that stuff? And when they see what you have done online, you will be sued personally. Let me say that again, you will be sued personally, so not having the proper legal foundation to build an empire on. That's mistake number one. The other mistake is quickly, there are several types of LLCs. Hillary now you go on to the social medias, right? And everybody out there who's an influencer is saying, you need an LLC, and you need a LLC, and hey, LLCs for all, guess what? LLCs will get you in trouble. Specifically, if you pick the wrong type, there's a member managed, there's a manager managed. If you pick the member managed, you are in trouble. So go back, take a look at your corporate document. If you are a member, manage, make sure you make an amendment and make that into a manager. Managed because it gives you that extra layer of protection of an officer. I'm

taking a note just to double check that, yes, very fast learner, excellent,

excellent. So that that's usually the biggest blunder that could take down a company that's building, and especially when it's got wealth, people are going to

come after you. So when you said the LLCs, and you're saying that there's different ones, there's the sole proprietorship, there's, you know, different ones, what do you recommend if you are a solo entrepreneur? And you do you're just starting out. There's a lot of people out there. Which one do you recommend if

you're a solo entrepreneur and you're just starting out, once you start to make this two reasons why you should incorporate. The first one is, are you doing business with the public? Is there a likelihood that you could get sued because you put out a product that's damaged someone if you're selling a product, then absolutely, before you do anything, you should be incorporated. And again, it it depends on what their goals are, because I always ask them, what's what's the end goal here? Because that way we can reverse engineer, instead of setting something up that's not going to work for them, and especially the journey that they are on. So for a soul solar entrepreneur, first, if you, if you have a product and it could potentially be risky, incorporate immediately, and in fact, you should be a corporation. Specifically. If you are a resident or a citizen of the US, then you can actually have a S Corporation, which is only taxed once. Now the other point is, if you are making or going to make over $43,000 a year, then you should really incorporate, either an LLC or a corporation, again, depending on your journey and where you want to go. And now you start to actually save on taxes as well. So those two markers, I would say, is for solar entrepreneur to start thinking when they should incorporate.

So as people are hearing this, and you know, if they've been in business for over five years and they're having that success, they're getting high sixes, sevens, eights. Are there different things that you're saying? Oh, now you're ready to really lean into this part of it, or is it all under one umbrella.

So if we make an analogy Hilary, we as individuals, were people. We were born, we grow up, we our ambitions, change our dreams, change our direction changes. And then eventually, you know, we we leave this wonderful world. So there's a there are phases to our growth, if you will. Same thing applies to a business as well. So for a business, there's a startup phase, there's the growth phase, there's an established phase, which is always a wonderful phase, and then there's the exit phase. But as the business grows, so year one, you know, is going to be completely different from year five. Now, as you are, as the business is growing, it's going to need more legal protection, and it really is a case by case basis. But when, for example, let's take real estate. That's always a brilliant one, right? So with real estate, people always hold real estate in their own name, and then they put it into an LLC, and then they have the LLC do business with the tenant. So what's the problem there? If the tenant decides, gets hurt, and decides to sue, they will sue who they signed the contract with, which is the LLC, and the LC holds the property. So basically, Hilary, you're saying, Here you go, tenant, here's my property. You can take it. So this is what we prevent against. It's It's difficult. It's so difficult starting a business, let alone make money at it, right? So do it the right way from the beginning. I know people say I don't have the money, but keep these things in mind, it's not just you going into business. It's your family going into business too. So don't think that somebody could not sue your wife or your husband as an entrepreneur. The risk is 100% on your shoulders, and you're the one that needs to take the right legal steps to make sure that your husband or wife or your spouse, they're not hurt when a lawsuit comes knocking, because one will come knocking, it always does. That

is you know what? Your advice everybody should at least give you a call and have a consultation call. It is so. Important, I have been through this where one of my last companies, I had a board member decide to actually do a mediation around I mean, it is. It's the worst thing on the planet to have to go through this. But I do want to really ask you, you have four businesses. Yes, you have best selling books, you have all of these different things. How the heck do you manage your time? I don't know. Give me the secrets girl.

It all starts off with me. It has to start off with you. Entrepreneurs. We have to be selfish. We have to my husband and I, we wake up at three, 3am in the morning, which has to go to bed in a couple of hours.

Everyone. We're recording this right now. It's two o'clock. It's one o'clock. I mean, that is so funny. That's crazy, exactly.

So we, we start our day early, and we, we have breakfast together. We go to the gym together, and then from there, he goes to work, and I come home, and I have three Kelly,

our gyms even open at that time.

They have to be right for the go getters Hillary, you got to find one that's ready for you. 5am

clap, I mean, and this is taking it to the extreme.

It is, it is it truly is. I have three beautiful dogs. They're the loves of my life. And so when I come back from the gym, I take them out for a nice run around the park, and then I'm usually in the seat, in my power seat, ready to rock and roll by 637, and and the world is still sort of rolling around and trying to climb out of bed. And it's it's such a wonderful place to be, because now you are in control of how the day goes. Hilary, that's that that's huge for every entrepreneur to really understand. You control the day. So get up, get you, get your bums up early, right? You can sleep when it when you're dead, you don't need to sleep right now

I'm gonna interrupt you, yeah, when you first wake up, yes, what do you say to yourself

when I first wake up? My eyes are open. I'll say to bestie. I call God my bestie, Hilary, so I will say thank you, bestie, for this incredible life you have given me. Those are the words I say every single morning and every single night before I go to sleep. You

know what you're doing there. You're putting out positivity. You're putting out gratitude. The first thing in your mind, it's just so powerful. People don't realize how powerful that is. It that's

amazing. I really, as we're talking I'm getting gooses because I feel it. I'm getting gooses Hillary. It's amazing. This, this discipline that I have perfected, if you will, over time. It's free. It doesn't cost a penny. And every entrepreneur needs to be on this page, because there's going to be so much negativity thrown at the entrepreneur every single day. People are looking at you said you can't do that. It's already been done. That's going to cost too much money. I mean, if you listen to everyone, we would never get out of bed. So one, know who you are, know the blood that's running through your veins, know who you are, and two, live a life of gratitude. It's amazing. The opportunities that just open before you amazing.

You know, it's interesting both Jim Rohn and Tony Robbins, the very first two things that they say that you should do in the morning is choose positivity, choose happiness is number one, and be grateful for everything throughout the day, because that increases one. You can't you can't be depressed, you can't be angry, you can't be, you know, anxiety ridden, if you are in a grateful state. So I you just hit it. It's so beautifully. Said, Okay, so now we're at the desk, and again, we're trying to figure out, like, how do you manage for companies, best selling, books, all these different things, because there's so many people out there that haven't have a very challenging time just just managing one right? And they go into laser focus on just the business, and then their marriage, or their relationship starts to fall, or they feel like, I never see my friends, I never get to travel. I never, never, never, never goes through. So help people with giving them advice around what you have been able to do, which is really leverage what I call the harmony key, which is being able to have a life that you're like, yeah, it does feel like it's in alignment.

I would have to say. You have to know where your boundaries are. You have to set boundaries entrepreneurs. You absolutely have to. Now I am a workaholic, and I love it because I love what I do on a daily basis. I absolutely love it, and I absolutely love my husband. I'm married to the love of my life, Hillary, and I'm not about to take away from that relationship, to put into something else and my other establishments. Now, the way I run high girl,

because I feel the same high five, right there, boom, excellent,

excellent. Now I as far as my other businesses, when I run my my first love and my passion is my law firm, bagler law firm that's the solid firm that's allowed me to build my other empires, if you will. I delegate, right? Remember that little word, delegate, delegation that can be an entrepreneur's huge friend. In fact, incorporate that word and use it and utilize it. So you need to delegate as far as certain operations go for your businesses. When my husband comes home, I am able to close the door of my office and be with him only, Hillary only. And then when, when my husband needs to go to sleep or I need to come back into the office, I'll always say, Sweetheart, I've got to work a little bit because, no problem, because that was one on one time with my husband. We connected during that time that I wasn't, I didn't have one foot in the office and the other foot, you know, at home, that's you can't. You cannot do that. Don't do that. So give your attention 100% attention to your spouse, to your family, for your dedicated time, and really, really, actually dedicate some time, and then when you need to go in and do a couple more hours, you don't feel guilty. You feel extremely happy, and you know you're supported, because your family loves and supports you in what you're doing. So make sure you have the dedication focused time for every relationship that you have in your life

and on that note, I have to say, how can people find you?

I am I'm out there. Hilary, I'm out there. The firm is called bagler law firm, and the way Sarah, she's my executive assistant, the way she tells people it's bag L A law.com you can Google me too. Kelly bagler, it's, I've done a thing or two Hillary, because I can, right? That's the attitude you you should have. It's, I want to do this because I can. I I'm a person that really loves life. I'm a I'm an entrepreneur at heart. And it really takes an entrepreneur to understand the needs of another entrepreneur. So that's what really sets my firm apart from all the other law firms out there. You're actually talking to someone that's walking in your footsteps and written about the footsteps that you're going to take too. But you can always call us as well. Our phone number is 760-579-6789, and that leads me to share a really quick joke with you. So why was six afraid of seven? I don't know because 7890,

you are very good. Hey, you even get a little humor wrapped around here. Kelly, you have a phone number. Kelly, thank you so much for being on the show. And I know there's so much wisdom that people have received, and again, in the show notes, we will have all of this information, including the phone number. And I do suggest strongly, reach out to Kelly, get things in order, because it saves you so many headaches later. So Kelly, thank you again, and until next week, everyone relaunch into your remarkable and I'm so excited to be back with you again, sharing yet another relaunch journey.