Hey there, Legal Tea Listeners –This is your host, Jenny Rozelle! Last week, I teased that this week would be a ‘cautionary tales” type of episode, but after recording’s last week’s episode, I was like, “Wait, this next episode will drop the week of Thanksgiving!” I thought about doing something kind of pertinent to the holiday (something maybe around family … or something like that!) but I did an episode a few weeks ago, episode 169, about being around family for the holidays and what to do if you notice your family member has physically or cognitively declined. So, that’s definitely pertinent and if you didn’t catch that episode, go back and check it out! Though, as I was trying to think of the topic for this episode, I was trying to find something that excreted thankfulness, gratitude, and … like good-feeling things, so I don’t talk like doom-and-gloom this week! So, today may feel a little airy-fairy, but today is going to be … five things I, a wife, an animal Mom, a daughter, a sister, an in-law, a small business owner and estate/elder law attorney, etc., am extremely thankful and grateful for.
I mean, why not! It’ll peel back to the curtains of maybe me, the voice behind this podcast – because you know I’m a real person, guys! Alrighty, let’s get started then – the first thing I’m so very thankful and grateful for is my husband and my family, including the furry ones. Without them, I’m a whole lot of nothing. Well maybe that’s not true – but life would sure be far less wonderful, that’s for sure. You see, I met my husband while in law school. I’d seriously give up my law degree if I had to choose between law school and him. Thankfully, I don’t have to choose, but if I DID…! My shortcomings are his biggest strengths … and I’m just so lucky and grateful to have a spouse like him. A little fun fact for all of you, Legal Tea Listeners, about 5ish years ago, we moved out of the suburbs north of Indianapolis-area and into a pretty rural area. We’re both from rural areas of the State, so it was our goal to one day, to move out of the city and into quiet rural life.
Now, my husband grew up on a farm and raised animals – well, I think moving to the country sparked that passion because next time I know, we’re getting cows. Fast forward to today, we have about 15-20 cows at any given time … and people think it’s hilarious that we’re two lawyers who live on a small cattle farm. But you know what … they are like our therapy. They force us to get outside, be active, and work on SOMETHING ELSE together that is not the law firm. So, when I said earlier, about my family including the furry ones … well, it’s our cows and our basset hound, Flossie. We are basset hound people and have adopted from the Ohio Basset Hound Rescue – we lost, as in put down, our basset, Mildred/Millie, a few months ago – she was 13 and started to fail. It was the humane thing to do, but boy, it's always hard! So, now we have our Flossie and our cows – all which I have named, of course.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention my family, my Dad, Mom, and Sister, we are super, super close today. We bond over laughter. If you ask my husband, he’d say, “You guys hug so much!” It makes me laugh because I never noticed it until I joined his family … and being around other families … that WE DO! We hug when we see each other, we hug when we leave, we’re just a hugging family, okay! We have each other’s backs, we’re each other’s biggest cheerleaders and supporters. Same for my husband’s family – I hit the jackpot when it comes to in-laws. I was having a conversation with someone a year or so ago – and it was another woman/wife, and she did not get along well with her mother-in-law. I know that stuff exists – heck, I know blood relatives that don’t speak –but I’m super grateful for them too – and actually, we’re going to head to Hawaii with them next year, which will be my father-in-law’s final state of the fifty states. He’s been to 49 – Hawaii next year will be number fifty for him!
Alrighty, shifting to the next “thing” I’m grateful for … The second thing I’m extremely thankful for is my office, Indiana Estate & Elder Law. I have about the coolest career path in the world that I’d love to share. So, I graduated from Butler University (go Dawgs!) and shortly after undergrad, I was somehow smart enough as a 20-something that I realized law school was just as much of a financial venture as it was an educational endeavor. I am one of those weirdos that said I wanted to be a lawyer in the second grade, so after undergrad, I was like, “Maybe I should go work at a law office to see if that’s what I want to do for a career.” I started at the law office that I now own – but I started in a assistant/receptionist/paralegal-like role. For a long time, my business card was blank because everything I did, I did it well and did it with 150% effort. I got a couple years in and I mentioned to the founder of the law firm that I wanted to go to law school one day. She latched on to that, held me accountable, and next thing I realize, I’m signing up for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Fast forward time, I was accepted to Indiana University – and chose to go through law school in their evening program.
So yes, I worked at the law firm during the day full-time and after work, drove to law school every night. I literally ate all three meals outside my house Monday-Friday for three years. It was brutal, but worth it. It was time for the Bar Exam – I got through that craziness. Fast forward more time, the founder was ready to retire. At this point, I had sat in nearly every seat in the firm – from receptionist, to paralegal, to attorney … and very long story short, my husband and I bought the firm and took the baton to carry it on. At this point, that was about 5-6 years ago now – so we’re about 5-6 years into business ownership, even though the firm has been open for over twenty years now. So yeah – it’s a cool, wild story! One I’m so thankful for – A lot of attorneys don’t have a career path like that. Most go to law school, enter a firm as an attorney, and have no idea what the receptionist’s job looks like, what the paralegals get frustrated about (especially when attorneys are the source of the frustration!), etc. So, my path to where I am now – allows me to really understand every team member, what they are going through, their work day and work load, etc. which makes me very “tuned in” as a business owner, if that makes sense.
Shifting to a third thing I’m very grateful for are the clients of my office. I mean, I know I’m biased, but the firm’s clients are the best. I think it has a little to do with the fields we are in – estate and elder law tends to be very touchy-feely and personal. As a byproduct of that, our relationship with clients tends to be pretty deep … so many have poured their hearts out to us about their kids, grandkids, family, etc. So, in a way, we feel like they are our family or our friend. It sounds kind of weird, but I’d bet many, many of our clients would agree with me on this. We’re there for them if something happens to their spouse, if something happens to a child, or if their child is going through a tough time and they need help on options on how to support them. Because of that level of a relationship, it really gives a sincere meaning to what we do … occasionally, around the office, you’ll overhear team members talking about random clients and they’ll say something like, “Oh I love them!” or “They’re just so nice!” So, if you’re a client that happens to be listening to this, I hope you know how much we appreciate your trust in us, of course, but also know that we look at you as our little “Indiana Estate & Elder Law family.” That’s what you are!
Now, a fourth thing I’m super thankful for is the team of my office. I always tell people that the reason it looks like I have my crap together is because of the team – some of the team members are “behind the scenes” and you never see, some are client-facing and you see all the time. Regardless of who they are and what role they are in, they are extremely important to keep the office chugging along … to keep the business successful to ensure the office is long-lasting for our clients and to ensure the office is profitable so we can continue to employ them. We have “core values” as part of firm’s culture and one of our core values is “Approachable Professionalism” and it’s defined as, “We don’t take ourselves very seriously, but as ruthless advocates, we take what we do very seriously.” That’s a really nice way of saying … you know what, we have fun at the office, we’re the furthest thing from stuffy, and simultaneously, we work our tails off and are very serious about the client work – the quality of it. I could not ask for a better group to be surrounded by to serve our clients. I’m just so thankful for them!
Lastly, a fifth thing I’m super thankful for is this podcast – Legal Tea. Sometimes, I hear from people, “How do you have time to do everything you do?” Honestly, I’m not sure, but I’d be lying if I said there have been many times that I’ve almost dropped doing this podcast. It doesn’t produce any revenue – it’s purely for education and it honestly takes a ton of my time. Though, the moment something like that crosses my mind, I swear that’s when someone will be like, “I LOVE your podcast, Jenny!” Then, I’m like, “Okay – stick with it – it’s doing good stuff out there!” This is episode172 .. a lot of podcasts don’t last this long and don’t commit to a weekly episode! But something I’m extra thankful about this podcast is that it keeps me on my toes and always learning new things within the estate and elder law space. Some episodes I’ve done…have required immense research. Most of this content is not just in the back of my mind – I actually have to research this stuff, folks. But that makes me a better lawyer, a more informed human, etc. That’s what I mean by it keeping me on my toes – and anything that keeps ME on my TOES … and is a challenge, I’m thankful for. So, let’s shoot for another 172 episodes, shall we?!
You know, I know this episode probably felt a little different. I was struggling coming up with a topic for this episode and once I pieced together that it would drop Thanksgiving week, I was like, “Well I should do something around gratitude, thankfulness, etc.” This idea popped up and I just ran with it. So, if you didn’t like it, well, we’ll be back to regularly scheduled educational content next week, but if you did enjoy it, I’m glad! It was fun to put together the script for this episode.
Alrighty, let’s wrap this episode up and shift to a sneak peak at next week. Next week we’re back to a “cautionary tale” episode where we talk about real-life clients, real-life cases that I, or my office, have worked on -or- maybe they are just generally good things to know/be aware of so you don’t slip up and turn into a cautionary tale one day. Next week, we’re going to break down the saying “Trust Fund Kid” – and why I’d like that term of art to just go away. Many very normal, average net worth families use Trusts – and the term sort of signifies this “Oh, they’re rich and spoiled” kind of feeling. So yeah, we’re going to talk about that next time, but until then, Legal Tea Listeners…take care and be well!
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