Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to Quirky Podcast, where I reconnect with inspiring individuals from my circle and beyond to explore their unique journeys. This podcast isn’t just about talking to the elite 1% but about connecting with relatable people who’ve found success on their own terms. Through these conversations, I hope to uncover insights and advice that can resonate with anyone navigating their own path. Whether you're seeking inspiration, guidance, or just an engaging story, you’ll find it here.
Join us as we explore the diverse paths to success, share a few laughs, and spark meaningful conversations. Don’t forget to subscribe, engage, and be part of the conversation!
speaker-0 (00:01.398)
What are some tidbits that you can tell us that will help empower people to overcome that fear of stepping out, running your own business? Still the hardest and best question I've ever been asked in a podcast, and that is, what is your favorite sandwich?
speaker-1 (00:16.078)
If you are an authentic brand and you're the real deal, you're going to excel. You experience domestic violence and then it's over and then you move on, but that's not how it works.
speaker-0 (00:28.686)
Welcome back to another episode of Q's quirky podcast. This conversation is with Margarita Everline, an absolute baller in the legal marketing space. I had the pleasure of being on her podcast. I was so impressed. I had to have her on mine. She talks to us about the journey from being a single mom to growing a company, how to leverage your talents and grit to become a powerhouse in the digital space. Sit back.
Take notes and
speaker-1 (01:12.098)
Thanks for having me.
speaker-0 (01:14.062)
So why don't we get some context into how we met and then we can get into some some particular questions.
speaker-1 (01:22.99)
Absolutely. So I had the pleasure of interviewing you as a guest on my podcast, Care Sandwich, where we talk about care in the legal profession. And the sandwich metaphor is all about, hey, we advertise that we care. How do we then deliver that as an actual service that people experience? And then how do we follow it up with like
a real sense of, my gosh, I went through this process, I received the legal service, and I really get it. They care.
speaker-0 (01:54.754)
Totally and still the hardest and best question I've ever been asked in a podcast and that is what is your favorite sandwich? I'm thinking about it this day and every day it still changes. Yeah
speaker-1 (02:09.326)
And I'm always hungry after I ask that question.
speaker-0 (02:13.096)
You got to have a sandwich available, right? Yeah. So you did mention you're in the legal space. Is there any niche that you're looking to serve or any clients that you're passionate about helping?
speaker-1 (02:25.77)
about helping law firm owners that have that mindset of like, I love what I do, I wanna help people and I wanna go big. I think those three things, it really doesn't matter for me what practice area they're in. But it's that mindset because with what we do as a CMO firm, it really makes sense for somebody that thinks big and wants to scale and wants to grow and has that forward thinking.
mentality and honestly the grit that it takes to just show up, take risks and do scary things.
speaker-0 (03:01.964)
Yeah, you gotta show up in order to accomplish your task, right? Showing up is like half the battle, they say.
speaker-1 (03:08.226)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
speaker-0 (03:10.987)
You mentioned CMO. What is that for people who don't know the acronym CMO?
speaker-1 (03:16.78)
Yeah, so a CMO in any corporation means a chief marketing officer. And marketing is an ocean of things. for us, And for us being a CMO is about law firm marketing leadership. So CMO in any sense is about leadership, but for us, it has a special definition that applies to law firms. And the way that it plays out with us is
We don't just come in and give you our opinion like consultant and then, you know, best of luck to you and charge you $5,000 for an hour of our time. Like we're actually in it with you. That's why it's leadership. Like the CMO piece, when you Google search the service, many times it's consulting really, like somebody comes in and analyzes what's going on and they give you best practices and wish you the best. We are actually in it. We lead your marketing for you, with you, alongside you.
with a very comprehensive service that does include data analytics, which is traditionally what a CMO is tasked with, analyzing the data and helping to make those decisions. And then we also bring in the project management piece, the design leadership piece. So we actually have a design leader built in. So, you know, we can give you data about, hey, should we go with blue or purple? But we have an actual designer helping to...
figure out what that should look like for you and for your brand to create the experiences that you're wanting to create with your marketing. So it's very comprehensive for us with the leadership piece.
speaker-0 (04:55.062)
I like that I've interviewed or I've talked to a lot of people that offer marketing services and the consulting is always there. But the execution is more left up to the the firm itself. And that's where I think most things fall by the wayside, because most firms don't have they're not big enough to have a full team dedicated out to carrying out the execution of it. So it falls on one person or a lot of times it just falls off. So I think that's a unique separation.
and differentiate your firm from a lot of others I've talked to. So that's awesome.
speaker-1 (05:28.546)
Yeah, absolutely. And to add to what you described, many law firms also go to full service agencies and they go to the full service agency because they're like, you're gonna handle all the execution and you can give me a strategy. And I say this with so much respect for marketing vendors, by the way, because I was one and because I was one, I can tell you, even if you want to be unbiased and do what's best for your client, there's gonna come a point where you're gonna have to choose between what is best for your client
and what can you actually offer as a deliverable because I don't care how large your agency is, it really is tough to dominate every little thing in marketing to get to the point where you can honestly say, yeah, whatever you need, I got you. And with the leadership infrastructure that we have, we're not quite an agency that's gonna sit there and post on your social media per se, but we are leading that.
projects so that all we have to do is plug and play different people, different vendors. Sometimes we build out teams for law firms that we work with when they're ready for that step. And it's nice because it takes all that guesswork. know, many law firm owners that try to build an in-house team on their own without a leadership piece like ours end up frustrated because it's not like managing a legal team. Like it's circus. This is a lot.
speaker-0 (06:50.762)
Yeah, it's a whole different knowledge base and just the ability to carry it out requires a different mindset. Yeah. So is there an ideal client, like size firm that you're looking for? Are you helping small to enterprise law firms?
speaker-1 (07:07.104)
I hope my business consultant isn't listening. Listen, I want to help everybody. That's the answer in my heart. per the advice that we've received, because just like we consult, we also receive advice, our ideal is you're investing over a million because that means you're serious and you have enough money and skin in the game that you know you can't afford to waste right now. And you have enough...
fluidity with your investment size that you can swap things out. So a scenario would be if you're at a million dollar mark, if you need to change something, you can just move some money from one thing to something else and you can experiment. If you can't afford to do something new and you're stuck, there's really not a lot. know, like even if we tell you where to go, like you kind of have to, it's harder for a smaller firm that's not already investing that much.
to make those sorts of moves.
speaker-0 (08:07.768)
Totally. You got to have money to play. mean, at the end of the day, marketing and advertising comes down to grit, time, effort, but also money. with that said, give me just a high level background bio and what led you to the spot you're in today.
speaker-1 (08:17.794)
Yeah. Yeah.
speaker-1 (08:30.19)
I'm gonna try my best to condense it, because it's a lot. I feel like I was just destined to do this if there is such a thing. My background is in data analytics. So before getting into data analytics, I had this idea that I was gonna be an attorney and I studied for the LSAT and I I wanted to do intellectual property. And then I ended up in data analytics. And it's funny how things play out because it seems like I would have done it on purpose to end up here.
But it worked out because I had that itch for law. I wound up going to data analytics because I had an amazing opportunity with Nielsen that I just couldn't turn down. was like, maybe I'll do law school after I'm done with this, but then here we are. And I was analyzing data, working, having a blast with Nielsen, and I decided to be a mom. so, know, lifestyle changes. I wasn't able to travel as much. And I went to work with Telemundo here in Atlanta.
as a rep because I was like, it's a job that I can do with my skillset because I understand data and I can sell TV advertising and I won't have to travel. And then what ended up happening is like the stars aligned and there were some changes in immigration legislation during that year that I was working there. And I remember my GM said, hey, Margarita, you really should go after law firm owners in the immigration space. Now is a good time for them to advertise in Spanish.
And so I didn't think anything of it. like, yeah, sure. So I started, you know, working that part of the market and I fell in love. I fell in love with personalities, dry sense of humor. like just, I felt like I was home with that demo and I was like, yeah, like I am kind of salty and sarcastic. This is, you are fun. Like I like the darkness, you know? And so like on a personal level, I just felt alive working with these attorneys, helping them go on TV and
because I've always been a nerd and a data geek, we would just have conversations. We'd go out to a Hawke's King over beer and talk about like, so how's it going with your TV ads? And have you started a Facebook account? What's that? You should really do that because people are gonna go. And like total casual conversations. And I didn't know, because in between drinks sometimes, they were actually applying my advice. And so when I decided that it was time to go from.
speaker-1 (10:55.15)
from the TV space, I was trying to figure out like, well, what do I want to do now? And these law firm owners were like, hey, by the way, like, can you consult? Like, can you help? And I'm like, what do mean? And they're like, yeah, we'll pay you. Like, just tell us what to do because all the advice that you've given us like is actually working. Like, you actually know more than TV. And I was like, well, yeah, like, okay, let's go. And that's how it started. Like, that's how I started working in the market.
From there, I went and had my agency for a little while. But that's how I niched into the law firm space. I just feel like it was personality, circumstances, and just feeling comfortable with attorneys, honestly.
speaker-0 (11:36.814)
It sounds like the perfect storm and it totally fits your personality.
speaker-1 (11:40.482)
Yeah, absolutely.
speaker-0 (11:42.83)
So how long have you had your own agency?
speaker-1 (11:46.882)
So I had a full service marketing agency before COVID and I had it, want to say for almost 10 years. And then I shifted to marketing boss right around COVID. So how long ago was COVID? Like five years or so?
speaker-0 (12:02.36)
But I mean, it seems like a lifetime ago sometimes and then it seems like it's not so long ago other times.
speaker-1 (12:07.97)
Yeah, and don't let the smooth skin fool you. Like I've been doing marketing for like 30 years already. And it's been a wild, like long, like, I've seen so, like, I still remember working at Nielsen when we were going through the digital transition and, you know, everyone was freaking out because all the audiences, all the ratings were going to cable. And it's just, I come from that time.
speaker-0 (12:30.894)
You've weathered a few different storms, you're the calm in the storm, right? The eye of the storm.
speaker-1 (12:38.018)
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
speaker-0 (12:39.736)
That's awesome. So because you've had so much experience, what made you focus on the brand as marketing boss? Talk to me about that brand and the development of that brand.
speaker-1 (12:49.826)
So I love that question. So marketing boss, when I got the idea to name the law firm that I thought of it as I'm going to help law firm owners be a boss. Like I'm going to help them boss up. And the first iteration of the logo actually had like a little beehive thing, which that we faced out already, but, it's still kind of there in the background. And the concept is when you look at leadership of a queen bee,
A queen bee is not like a queen that like lords, a queen bee, the leadership philosophy of a bee hive is the queen bee transmits her DNA. Like that's literally all she does. And I wanted that to be the spirit of marketing boss where we're not hoarding information like an agency where it's like, I'll run your ads, but I won't give you access so that you don't, you know, so that you don't get to do this unless you pay me. We're like, no.
open it all up, empower the business owner, make it theirs, teach, replicate the best aspects of marketing that we know that we can dominate, that we can train on, and give it to the masses, right? Give it to the business owners. And so the philosophy really was marketing boss, we wanted to help empower business owners to be the marketing boss by doing it for them. And then it became my nickname.
So now it's my nickname and I'm like, okay, I'll take it.
speaker-0 (14:20.698)
It's perfect. It fits you. I like the part about empowering because a lot of these, I'm not going to bad mouth, but a lot of people come in and they're like, we have proprietary. It's our secret sauce. And those are always like turnoffs because you want transparency. And then you're wondering like, what really is behind the secret sauce or like there is no nothing proprietary about a lot of this information. I feel like a lot of times that's used as a selling gimmick.
but I don't want to be too pessimistic. So, yeah, I hear that stuff. I'm instantly turned off. So I like the transparency side that you walk.
speaker-1 (14:56.812)
Yeah, and here's the thing with marketing, and you know this and I know this if you think about it this way. Marketing is really just communication, right? So if you think of a cave painting, that was marketing back then, right? What does that tell you about marketing? Marketing is constantly changing. The way it's applied is constantly changing. So yeah, I have a proprietary methodology for blah, blah, blah, but I don't care. I'll give it to you. I'll teach you how to do it because guess what? Tomorrow,
it's gonna be outdated and then you're gonna come and ask me what to do next because the thing with marketing for me personally and this is what I teach my staff and what we try to teach the folks that we train is marketing is a way of like to be successful in marketing you have to have a way of solving problems. That's really the and I know you can relate to this as an attorney because it's very similar in the legal space right?
It's always a constant, how do I solve this problem before me? How do I fix this thing that's broken? One example that I'll give you is how many times have you had a vendor for a website, say that's the common one, where one day something's working and the next day it's not. It's not that they made a mistake. It's not that they did it wrong. It's just the marketing space is constantly changing. So whatever you did yesterday won't work.
people tell me, can you grow my law firm the way you do such and such? And I'm like, I'm not gonna lie to you. No, because that was a different time. Different audience, different marketing channels. I won't do you the dishonor of lying to you and telling you, yeah, let's do the same playbook.
speaker-0 (16:38.188)
Yeah, no, it's not cookie cutter, especially with technology and the advent of the internet now AI, everything is, like you said, evolving, but at a much faster clip. it's not only do you have to be knowledgeable about it, but you almost have to be ahead of the curve because you don't want to get left behind the eight ball and giving bad advice. And a lot of firms will take the money and then they're like, Hey, sorry, you know, it is what it is. This is what we do and it's not going to help. So
You want someone that's always educating themselves so they can empower you to steal your words. like
speaker-1 (17:10.091)
Yeah. And here's the thing agencies, their business model needs to run like that to survive. And I respect so many agencies and I get it. It's just, I can't not do it this way. So this is why I'm not an agency. Like I just, I can't go back.
speaker-0 (17:26.005)
Yeah, and it's kind of, it's also knowing your lane, you know, like once you become established and you know, I'm better in this lane than trying to occupy 10 lanes, I'm going to niche down and do this because the riches are in the niches as a lot of people say. So, I think it's, it's hard to identify a niche, once you do and you're able to capitalize on it, you're in a good space.
speaker-1 (17:51.576)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
speaker-0 (17:53.902)
So speaking of changes, you have a big, in preparation from this, do, I try and do as much background research as I can. And I notice your footprint in the digital space is pretty big. Tell us about how you decided to go full bore into the digital space and make such a presence known there.
speaker-1 (18:14.382)
So when, so I wrote my thesis on Cold War media. So I'll reference that as context. When it all started, right? Marketing as we know now, right? More modern. It was very much closed off to people that could invest in these expensive media. Like if you didn't have money, you couldn't advertise. You, you, the soap boxes like.
speaker-0 (18:22.126)
You
speaker-1 (18:42.178)
That made it really difficult for your average mom and pop business to really leverage marketing. And I believe that digital is kind of like a community revolution where now, like the person with the idea, just the idea, not even a brand, not even a business has a shot to be seen, heard, understood, get their message out. And that's why I'm so passionate about digital because out of all the marketing channels,
I feel like it's the most open, the most fair, where if you do not have value, substance, like you can't buy your way into it. I mean, you can, you can run ads, but there are certain things that if you are an authentic brand and you're the real deal, you're gonna excel. And I think that's beautiful. And from my personal brand, digital is very important.
It's something that I touch with every single one of my law firms that I work with because again, it's like you like it's the easiest thing that you can do for yourself is to really dominate digital. The degree to which you dominate it is going to, you know, depend on what resources you have and how many hands and all that because it is a lot of work and it's a high skill really to do things like SEO and things like that. But I think that your average business owner can at least stick their toe.
in digital and get something out of it with a little guidance. And I think that's beautiful.
speaker-0 (20:11.798)
I like that. someone I'm stealing this from someone else, but it's been the democratization of advertising to leverage more opportunity for people that don't have the bucks to spend on traditional advisor media spend. that's what I like about it. And I, I think what you said totally encapsulates that really well. What do you see since you're a kind of the head of the trends?
What do you see going forward in the next, we'll say, I don't even want to say years, could be months, but in the future, in the next wave of the trends, what's coming up for us?
speaker-1 (20:49.664)
Yeah, what I'm already seeing and it's been a reality for a while and it's just going to become more pronounced in different ways is authenticity is the best marketing strategy. When a law firm owner asks me, hey, what should my brand be? I want to talk about, well, who are you? Because if I tell you what your brand should be, but it's not who you are, that dog won't hunt.
We need to make sure that you are authentic. To me, that's the most important thing. So when approaching branding or messaging, I always want to understand who are you? What are you about? Why are you doing this? And I'll ask sometimes personal questions that we don't necessarily need to advertise, but what freaks you out about life? What brings you joy? Because those things help me understand from the visionary, the business owner, what their brand is actually about.
For me, that's not gonna change. I think that's just gonna get more and more pronounced. So I don't think that branding authenticity and marketing is gonna go away. I think it's just gonna get more and more pronounced. And it's gonna get more and more pronounced in what is successful on social media and other media, but even more so in AI. I don't know if you knew this, but AI is picking up on
a lot of cues from brands that have positioned themselves, not just on websites. So SEO search engine optimization on websites, but on social media. So for example, my brand right now is actually becoming more and more visible every day on chat GPT and other AI models because of the volume of content that we post, not just online, but on social media and all the backlinks and all of that is helping.
But again, it's authentic, it's consistent, there's a cohesiveness to it. And I think that that's what's gonna be most important in the future. And it's just gonna be more pronounced because if you're not already on that track of posting and distributing content that is authentic and that is unique and that presents your unique value proposition or whatever market is dark and you wanna label it as.
speaker-1 (23:12.844)
then it's gonna be really hard to thrive in AI. And right now AI is taking over even Google.
speaker-0 (23:20.398)
I love that. And there's so many little nuggets embedded in that. So I'm gonna encourage everyone to rewind a minute and listen to that going forward. But for me to attempt to summarize that content is king. You need consistent content, authentic content, and you need comprehensive content that reflects your character, right? And the is going to aggregate all that. And it's funny because I actually have messed around with a few of the AI models and put
speaker-1 (23:40.526)
Absolutely.
speaker-0 (23:49.548)
What is my brand like? Cha cha cha. And I just would go and mine all the data and a lot of it, like you said, is coming up with AI, or I'm sorry, social media. So I like that, those little nuggets you have, because that was part of my podcast was to distill nuggets from people that are successful in the space so others can try and take that and use it as their own. So thank you for that very awesome, short, concise little tidbit there.
There was a question that I wanted to ask you and I know this kind of dovetails from the last little lesson you educated us on. There's a lot of places to advertise and for law firms that don't have the seven figure budgets or that may not fit your business model. And I don't want you to give away all the secrets or go too deep into these lessons, but what are some really good
principles that they can extract from this conversation to take into their practice.
speaker-1 (24:51.234)
Yeah, I think look at what you have in front of you that you can do or your team can do and that you can have some small wins because I think that's more important than where you're pushing content out to or what you're doing. I think you need to experience those small wins so that you can see the ROI and get excited. One easy one is your GMB profile, your website and your social media.
At minimum, you have an idea or you have a service that you can describe in these platforms. And then from there, if you're comfortable, see this is where it gets tricky because it depends on the person. If you're comfortable and if you've got something to say and you're comfortable in front of the camera, social is a no brainer because it's there, it's free, it's easy, you can do it. I'm a busy single mom of five, okay? Like I post every single day because it's now a habit. Like it's not that hard.
And I also have a social media team and all that that layers on top. But if you're a business owner and you're not doing anything really, and you're just wanting to dip your toe in something, social media is just so easy. You post a picture with a thought and relate it to your business. That's it. Don't overthink it. And then what'll happen is you'll get those small wins. You know, the other day I posted a video of my kids setting up a fish tank, right? And I've got 15,000 views now on.
Instagram for it. We knew it was just pretty decent because my avatar is attorneys. You know, and so that was then exciting, but then that led to more ideas of other things that we could post with the children, right? So
speaker-0 (26:30.35)
It's crazy what tracks. Yeah, like, yeah, a lot of people have told me just post real life you doing mundane real life tasks and you think like, I need to get in front of the camera and talk about in my space, what you should do after a car accident. And that's so cut and dry, but maybe a video of walking the dogs is going to get more attention because people want to see the real life you and not just some, you know, something that you, you think you're
supposed to put out there to try and get attention or to try and attract, like you said, the avatar of your clients. And for people that don't know an avatar in this sense, that's your ideal client, right?
speaker-1 (27:10.656)
Exactly. Yeah, sorry. I'm using, I try not to use marketing.
speaker-0 (27:14.07)
It's okay. I'm only picking up on these things because I've had so many conversations with people in the last three or four years. So the, the lingo is getting embedded into my brain, but not everyone has that, knows what that is. I was going to ask you, there's, a new trend that I've been referred to where people use avatars in this sense, like a likeness of yourself, where will generate an AI version of you and you can just talk into an app and it will produce content. What do you think about those?
type of platforms that are using not real life videos of you, but producing a likeness and then layering a script on top of it.
speaker-1 (27:52.014)
So I'm not against it and I'll tell you a story which will illustrate how I feel. There is a law firm owner that was sold by a social media company this video package where they're like, listen, we're gonna come to your office and we're gonna film these videos and then we can use them for ads, right? And in theory that's genius, right? Except the guy hated the camera. Like he looked angry in every single video.
So like in that instance, I would have been like, no, use the avatar. It's just, that's going to be, and this is where I'm talking about where it's like, it really just depends on what you have going on. So if that's the situation, then yeah, use that, or if you're really that busy and you want to add filler content, or actually one of my clients uses AI content because it's funny. Like he's really funny. Like he, posted a video today. and Roger Orlando, if you're listening.
He posted a video today. Yeah, I'll send it to you too, because it's hilarious. But he's fun. Like this is who he is. So he posts a video made with AI. It's not him. It's an avatar where it says breaking news, man caught stealing a bra and he like grabs a bra and like sucks it in his jacket. And like, what does that have to do with personal injury and workers company? He's just a fun guy. right. So like, okay, that makes sense. You know, I did comment bro, what are you doing? But
speaker-0 (29:20.878)
But that's the stuff people want to see. They want to see that you're a human, not just some robotic attorney that's sitting, you know, in an office with books behind you with your arms crossed, super stern, and we're going to fight for you.
speaker-1 (29:33.546)
Yeah, but hey, if that's you, if that's you, then you know, like there's clients for everybody. But yeah, like you can have fun. You can do AI content. You can do the avatar where you clone yourself and they tell you can do all those things. You can make it work, you know, but your, your unfair advantage is going to be you. What's unique to you? What are you, are you like, what are you about? How can you show up best for you?
speaker-0 (29:59.17)
Totally, and thank you for sharing all that. You touched on entrepreneurship and you being a single mom of five kids, and a lot of people feel overwhelmed by the prospect of owning their own business, and this goes outside of law firm clientele. What are some tidbits that you can tell us that will help empower people to overcome that fear of stepping out, running your own business, being...
know, in a business dominated by men, just how did you manage to overcome all of that and become the success that you are today?
speaker-1 (30:31.992)
So I've got a lot of backstory that I can share, but I'll summarize it. And I'll say first that, yeah, I was at one point the mom that was like, how am I supposed to do all of this? Like, I know exactly what that's like. I was also the mom that was like angry every day because I was working and I couldn't connect with my kids. And my short answer is you need to take care of yourself.
And if you need it, I know I needed it. And I'm raising up both hands just in case y'all can't see. Get therapy, get help. Like, what was I doing all those years? My five-year-old is my youngest and my oldest is gonna be 18 soon, God, like in May. And my second oldest is 16. And he always tells his little brother, Jojo, you better not act up. Jojo is my five-year-old. You better not act up. Otherwise you're gonna meet.
you know, 2009 mom. Apparently I'm not the same mom. I'm more relaxed and I'm I feel like I have a more stable business, more stable life. Like, you know, I feel better. I'm healthier. And it's because I took care of me first as business owners. We think, oh, I got to sacrifice. I got a grind. And yeah, you do have to do all of that, but not like as a form of punishment. Like you need to feed yourself.
and make sure you're good. And then you can pour into your business and pour into your kids. And you also have to have faith too. I'm like a real big like faith person. I believe in God, I'm very spiritual and I believe in people and I've had really beautiful people in my life and my clients, many of them are really dear friends. And all those things create an ecosystem where, okay, this is doable.
And you can manage the, you can regulate, can manage the emotions and, that's really what it is. Is it really all on fire? No, you feel like it's on fire, you know? Is it that big a deal if you know, your kids are wrestling in the back while you're filming a podcast? I'm not calling it into existence by the way.
speaker-0 (32:42.9)
No, no, I got the dog wrestling winner in my feet right here.
speaker-1 (32:45.694)
You just you just navigate it right like that's it. It's its mindset.
speaker-0 (32:52.074)
I love how you talk about making sure that you're good with yourself because I think a lot of people, especially in the attorney industry, there was so much burnout previously. Now there's a recognition that there has to be some type of, I don't like the term self care, but some type of working on yourself so you can be a better version of yourself. And once you're better version of yourself, it's only going to extrapolate and make your business better because you're happier and you're not just there out of obligation and
anger and like, got to get this done. You're going to be more palatable to clients and you're going to get more work done. think it's also like a quantity versus quality argument. You want the quality to be there and not just being there half ass. If you're there fully engaged, present, intentional, you're going to be better service for yourself and your clients. And you're going to get more than you ever expected.
speaker-1 (33:42.988)
Yeah, and we even, I forgot to mention this, we even offer mindset coaching within our infrastructure that we have for Marketing Boss. We mainly offer mindset coaching as part of our law firm sales program because many law firms that have the whole marketing piece, they need also help with the sales piece.
But many times the mindset coaches will coach the business owner. Just, you know, like, hey, you wanted to double your revenue and now you're freaking out. Like, really need that right now. You know what I mean? So they'll have those conversations. And two of our mindset coaches are actually attorneys, like law firm owners that know exactly what it's like and they're certified mindset coaches. So yeah, because it is a thing. It is a thing.
speaker-0 (34:28.694)
Yeah. And I know with the state bar of California at least, and I know others are catching on part of our CLE is mindfulness and taking care of yourself. And that's now mandatory part of a lot of state bar CLEs. And it's good to see people you mentioned therapy or resorting to faith or resorting to community, whatever mechanism you find peace and centeredness in, I think is, is totally beneficial. And it's only going to enhance your practice and your clients.
as well. So thank you for sharing that. We're rounding the corner here. What are some resources that you rely upon and that you regularly share with your clients as a good place to not only learn from you, but also to refer to?
speaker-1 (35:14.48)
I have many books that I recommend to my clients. I'll list a couple. Never Split the Difference, the number one book when it comes to negotiating and it actually
speaker-0 (35:26.122)
That's the FBI hostage negotiator,
speaker-1 (35:30.274)
Yeah, and it actually helped me get my kids to do what they need to do. And it inspired me. It inspired me a lot when I was writing my book, Connet Convert for the law firm sales program that we have. So that's like hands down one of my favorite books. And then the illusion of money by Kyle Cease. And he's actually a comedian and it's a really great read. I've actually purchased it for a lot of my clients.
And it really talks about how money is an illusion. And sometimes we just kind of put a little bit too much pressure on ourselves. And it's been a real helpful book for me because I grew up very humble means, like my parents were immigrants and all that. So I had to really face a lot of mindset blocks around money. And that book helped me so much. And so those are the books that I recommend a lot. And then also the story brand book by Donald Miller.
is also huge, huge, And then the power of habit. So those are my top.
speaker-0 (36:34.103)
Excellent, and I'll try and make sure we link them. The name of the never split the difference is names on right up here. It's all sitting in my bookshelf.
speaker-1 (36:42.356)
Voss. His last name is Voss. Yes.
speaker-0 (36:44.248)
Boss. Yes. Thank you. Now I don't need to link it. James Ross never split the difference. And if anyone hasn't seen his talk, it's excellent. I saw him talk in Santa Barbara. It was an event put on by Even Up. So thank you, Even Up, for bringing him to me. I did notice on your LinkedIn, you have a lot of community service. Talk to me about your role and your passion for community service.
speaker-1 (37:09.11)
Right now, my biggest community service is around domestic violence. I'm a childhood domestic violence survivor and there's a local organization here that I'm just really connected with because, you know, they're here and they've been such a wonderful organization to volunteer with. I actually MC their fundraisers, you know, their GALA fundraisers that they do like for the year and try to support as much as I can.
because their program is so comprehensive. For those of you that don't know about domestic violence, the typical story is you experience domestic violence and then it's over and then you move on, but that's not how it works. Like it follows you. Like the pattern repeats itself. It's cyclical. And so the more, you know, the darker side of that experience is you become...
a child that experiences it and then you attract toxic partners and you repeat the cycle and then you become an aggressor because you never learned how to... And I love what they do. They come into families and they actually provide programs for the entire family. The infant that witnessed the domestic violence, the 10-year-old that participated in domestic violence, the father or mother that...
was a participant or the victim or whatnot. And actually they don't even use the word victim. They say survivor and they taught me to describe myself that way because I was like, yeah, that's right. I am a survivor, but not a victim. And it's all that like comprehensive programming that they do with the entire family that actually breaks the cycle. And I think that's so beautiful. And it's a very rare thing to find in that space. You see women's shelters and you know,
so many organizations and I love what they do too, right? I just love that this organization goes so much deeper, you know, and I love that I've been through this process of healing and so I get it and I've seen how my kids are just so blessed, you know, like last year they, two of my older ones went with me to the gala and I shared my story, you know, on the stage and talked about how like I was in the paper when I was a teenager and
speaker-1 (39:29.046)
and all of that and explain to them what I just explained to you about why I see the value of the program. And my kids got up and we're like, hi, like we're happy. Like, this is great. Like, you know, thank you. So yeah, was a really beautiful moment to share that with them. And it's like, yeah, like I'm really a big believer in that and those types of programs.
speaker-0 (39:51.872)
That's really neat that you find the time and the passion for that and giving back, especially something that's so uniquely and deeply personal, that's got to be hard for a lot of people to share. you know, I, fortunately, am not any type of abuse survivor, but I can imagine the horror and the trauma and just the will to overcome that and to succeed. That's really a testament to who you are as a person.
You did mention here, where are you located so people know?
speaker-1 (40:24.728)
So I'm based out of Atlanta, Georgia, and I work with law firms all over the country. I love to travel. I'm actually going to Miami soon to speak at a conference. And I've been to ClioCon in Boston and spoken there. So yeah, I'm all over the place. I belong to the country.
speaker-0 (40:41.998)
That's great. Last few questions. Five dinner guests at your table, past or present. Who are you going to have having dinner with you?
speaker-1 (40:50.734)
Past or present?
speaker-0 (40:53.44)
or even future if you can think of one.
speaker-1 (40:56.302)
If chat GPT was a person, I would want to have her at the table. Definitely. I would love to have Bob Marley, because I think his music is so beautiful and like has really changed the world in many ways. And I would love to have, let's see.
speaker-0 (41:01.068)
Pretty soon, maybe, right?
speaker-1 (41:21.518)
Jesus, that would be great. That would be an interesting, like I would love to hear what Jesus and chat GPT would say to each other. Like which one would know more? Anyway, my stomach is free. You said five, I have two more.
speaker-0 (41:33.226)
Yeah, if you want, or we can wrap it at three.
speaker-1 (41:36.11)
I think that's an interesting enough mix. Like, would we make music? Would we see who knows more? Gandhi. Gandhi. That would be a good one.
speaker-0 (41:46.126)
I like that you said Bob Marley because when I wake up in a good mood, I'm always playing reggae in the morning. And so my wife knows like, he's in a good mood today because reggae is playing and he's not going to be an asshole today. So at least in the morning, you know, maybe something might happen. What is one guilty pleasure for you when you're not running a business, running a family, lecturing in front of people or volunteering in your various ways that you are?
speaker-1 (42:15.374)
love hiking. I love, love hiking. I'm a tree hugger. go, I literally will hug trees. Like I'll go hike up Stone Mountain, which is five minutes from me. And I, there's a couple of trees I always go see and I give them a hug. I don't care if people stare at me. I'm like, I really don't care.
speaker-0 (42:33.742)
A lot of people will say that trees have spirits, if you want to believe in that. So hey, I fully embrace that. think nature is wonderful and a great place to be grateful and thankful and to get outside and clear your head. think nature for me is a remedy. So I share in that spirit. I'm not sure if you'll see me hugging trees, but I'll be at a tree probably.
speaker-1 (42:56.814)
You're like, you'll touch it. You'll touch Say hi.
speaker-0 (42:59.438)
One last question and then we'll wrap this one up. Who's one guest that you think I should interview? But the caveat is you have to help me get that guest.
speaker-1 (43:11.638)
Definitely Roger Orlando, because I already told you the story of him stealing the bra and I want you to ask him all about that. He's just so fun. And he's a really amazing attorney. Like he's handled some really big cases. There was a bio lab plant that like exploded and he was the lead attorney for folks that got injured there. And he's like the real deal. And I think and he's fun, you know, you don't often get that combo.
speaker-0 (43:39.102)
Yeah, you gotta have some fun and get some good results for people that definitely deserve it. So I look forward to meeting Roger and talking to him. For those of us that want to look you up or connect with you, where can we find you?
speaker-1 (43:52.184)
Well, you can Google me and you can ask chat GPT. I'm just kidding. Margarita Everline. I have a website with my name and then obviously marketing boss. It's marketing dash boss and I'm all over social media.
speaker-0 (44:03.906)
Margarita, thank you for joining me today. was a blast. can't wait to meet you in person and to meet Roger. Thank you for tuning into this episode of Corky Podcast. I hope you enjoyed diving into another inspiring journey and found some nuggets of wisdom to take with you. If you love this episode, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss a conversation.
You can find all our episodes on your favorite podcast platforms and on YouTube. Until next time, stay curious, be inspired, and keep carving your own unique path. Catch you on the next episode of Quirky Podcast.