Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Areva Martin (2nd Appearance) Full Interview

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Areva Martin (2nd Appearance) Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: My next guest is an award winning civil rights attorney,
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  Speaker 1: autism advocate, bestselling author, TV host, and a legal analyst
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  Speaker 1: for CNN. Please welcome back to Money Making Conversations or
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  Speaker 1: Riva Martin. Hello, Rashon, are you my friend? Good? Good? Ariva?
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  Speaker 1: So you know the West coast? Correct? Yes, Angeles? What time?
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  Speaker 1: Because you know I'm on the East coast and I
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  Speaker 1: care what time I call a Riva or email her,
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  Speaker 1: She responds, So what time do you get up on
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  Speaker 1: the West coast? Riva? Well, I have a pretty strict
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  Speaker 1: exercise regime that I follow, so in order to do
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  Speaker 1: everything I need to do in the morning before I
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  Speaker 1: hit the gym, I get up around five am Pacific
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  Speaker 1: Standard time. Okay, get up at five am. Because you
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  Speaker 1: respond back to you. That's what I love about it,
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  Speaker 1: you know. So obviously the phone is always near you
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  Speaker 1: because you are always making yourself available to breaking news
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  Speaker 1: or breaking political news for seeing incorrect. Yes, and because
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  Speaker 1: my job is breaking news, you know, and news breaks uh.
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  Speaker 1: In this world we live in today twenty four seven,
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  Speaker 1: I'm always checking my news site to see what's going on,
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  Speaker 1: what's hot, what's you know, what's trending? Because I never
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  Speaker 1: know when I'm going to have to show up and
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  Speaker 1: start talking about what's happening that or get a call
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  Speaker 1: or email saying did you see this story? Or what
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  Speaker 1: are your thoughts? What are your you know, your your opinions.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm a news junky. I love it, so I
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  Speaker 1: don't feel like I'm working. I feel like I'm enriching
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  Speaker 1: myself and it's what I love. I love news, so
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  Speaker 1: I can't consume enough of it now you seeing it
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  Speaker 1: being an analysts on CNN. You know everybody wants jobs,
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  Speaker 1: and how did that opportunity come to you? And how
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  Speaker 1: do you, Like I said, you always told me you
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  Speaker 1: enjoy the news, you stay on top of it naturally. Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: how did the opportunity to come to you? Well, that's
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  Speaker 1: a good question. I get asked that question a lot,
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  Speaker 1: and you're right, lots of people. As a lawyer friend
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  Speaker 1: of mine in lossents every time he sees me, said
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  Speaker 1: they I want your job. Uh. But I was very
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  Speaker 1: fortunate I started guests appearing. You know, I made myself
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  Speaker 1: available to some local news channels here in Los Angeles
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  Speaker 1: to talk about a bunch of local topics and things
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  Speaker 1: that were in the news. In the Los Angeles community
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  Speaker 1: and starting out doing those vocal news segments led me
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  Speaker 1: to getting some opportunities to talk on national TV. And
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't just being n it was MSNBC, it was Spots,
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  Speaker 1: it was UH, ABC News and other national news outlets.
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  Speaker 1: Is where I actually started. And before I actually became
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  Speaker 1: a paid contributor and a contracted with CNN, I wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: frequently appear, sometimes in one day on four or five
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  Speaker 1: different networks, UH, including UH, the BBC and Good Morning
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  Speaker 1: Britain and some shows that only you know can be
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  Speaker 1: UH shows that are aired outside the country. Now, let
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  Speaker 1: measu you this. So what you do, I think is
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  Speaker 1: is opinionated has to be fact driven. Do you feel
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  Speaker 1: a pressure do you feel to get it right or
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  Speaker 1: or because of the fact that it is an opinion
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  Speaker 1: but it is fact based. How do how do you
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  Speaker 1: deal with that? Yeah, that's a good question too, Rashan.
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  Speaker 1: And yes, I do feel pressure to be accurate because
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  Speaker 1: people follow me, people watching me, people UH quote me,
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  Speaker 1: they recite what they hear me say. And I picked
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  Speaker 1: that very seriously. And when I give my opinion or
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  Speaker 1: I you know, way in on issues and I'm talking
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  Speaker 1: you know, some of the biggest issues in this country,
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  Speaker 1: from abortion rights to sexual harassment to you know, the
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  Speaker 1: political debates that we just had with the Democratic candidates. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: police boute out and police shooting. I mean, all of
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  Speaker 1: the big issues that that are in the news every day.
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  Speaker 1: I typically am weighing in on and I want the
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  Speaker 1: information I provide to be active. I don't want it
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  Speaker 1: to be quote unquote fake news. I don't want to
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  Speaker 1: give the wrong statistics. I don't want to mislead people
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  Speaker 1: about the facts. So I often tell people for a
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  Speaker 1: three minute segment that I'm doing, I may spend three
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  Speaker 1: to five hours researching and reading, and not just one
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  Speaker 1: outlet or one opinion or one source, but reading and
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  Speaker 1: listening to videos and getting as much factual background as
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  Speaker 1: I can because unfortunately, so much there's a lot of
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  Speaker 1: no wayse in the news. Uh, there's so many different sites,
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  Speaker 1: there's so many different sources, and unfortunately, now you may
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  Speaker 1: have a story and that's released and it will be
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  Speaker 1: picked up by a hundred different outlets, and that story
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  Speaker 1: may contain a bunch of inaccuracy, and everybody just picks
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  Speaker 1: up on it and starts reciting it as if it
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  Speaker 1: is accurate, but when you do your research and dig deeper,
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  Speaker 1: you learned that maybe some of the facts, the facts
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  Speaker 1: of information sited are actually inaccurate. So I think I
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  Speaker 1: have a responsibility that someone who has a large platform
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  Speaker 1: to make sure that I'm using that platform in a
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  Speaker 1: responsible way. Well, you've always been responsible when I've spoken
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  Speaker 1: to you. Your background out of St. Louis uh Initiative,
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  Speaker 1: grew up in the inner city, and you went east
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  Speaker 1: and that go with a Harvard grad and now you west.
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  Speaker 1: You have a law firm with your husband based in
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  Speaker 1: Los Angeles, Martin and Martin. How is that working? Working
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  Speaker 1: in the environment of trying to maintain a balance, like
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  Speaker 1: we're gonna get your kids, because that's that's a major
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  Speaker 1: part of your balanced life. Because like you said, you're
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  Speaker 1: up at five years a radial resume. I didn't know this.
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  Speaker 1: You you you run five k races. Yeah, I became
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  Speaker 1: an avid runner. I was doing half a marathons a
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  Speaker 1: couple of years ago. Uh, and I kind of have
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  Speaker 1: marathon Rishawn, not even close to have maybe trodden I'm
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  Speaker 1: to have a friend as a marathon and she got
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  Speaker 1: me excited and geeked about running. So I was that
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  Speaker 1: was pretty hardcore for a while. I've kind of switched
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  Speaker 1: up and I'm working out more in the gym now,
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  Speaker 1: but I still I'm gonna do a five k on
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  Speaker 1: the fourth of July here to celebrate the holiday. But
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  Speaker 1: you know, you mentioned balance life, and it is so important,
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  Speaker 1: whether you're a woman or a man, that you have
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  Speaker 1: not only what you do professionally to earn a living,
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  Speaker 1: but what you do socially, what you do for the community,
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  Speaker 1: what you do to just even you know, gratify yourself
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  Speaker 1: and and uh, you know, enrich your own soul. So
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  Speaker 1: I'm all about self care, self love. Uh, I'm also
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  Speaker 1: about you know, finding those opportunities to do those things
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  Speaker 1: that that really helped, you know, keep you going, those
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  Speaker 1: things that motivate you, that inspire are you, that gives
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  Speaker 1: you a sense of renewal. And it's sometimes canna get lost.
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  Speaker 1: And I hear a lot of women there a lot
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  Speaker 1: of speaking around the country, particularly to women business owners
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  Speaker 1: and professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs, And that's always the biggest question,
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  Speaker 1: you know, can I have it all? Can I have
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  Speaker 1: a family? Can I have a husband or a partner
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  Speaker 1: or a spouse and children and you know, be successful
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  Speaker 1: in whatever my career choices are. And I like to
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  Speaker 1: tell people the myths of having it all, uh is
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  Speaker 1: in some ways just that and not to get caught
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  Speaker 1: up in how society defines what that all is. But
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  Speaker 1: I think women have to redefine or define for themselves.
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  Speaker 1: You know, what is a happy life of them that
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  Speaker 1: for a lot of women. It doesn't mean having children.
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  Speaker 1: That's not every woman's goal with or dream. Um. Not
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  Speaker 1: every woman wants to be married, you know, not every
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  Speaker 1: woman wants to be in the c suites. Know, I
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  Speaker 1: think you have to define for yourself you know what
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  Speaker 1: a happy balance life is, uh, you know, decided by
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  Speaker 1: those in the media that would like to tell you.
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  Speaker 1: You are talking to altorney Reva Martin. Area of legal
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  Speaker 1: expertise encompasses civil rights, gender issues, politics and rates. We
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  Speaker 1: come back, she's been honored. We want to talk about
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  Speaker 1: a lots of our causes, particular autism advocacy. Um. Just what,
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  Speaker 1: Sean McDonald, how are you going? You listening to money
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  Speaker 1: making conversations on the phone. As an award winning civil
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  Speaker 1: rights attorney, autism at advocate Best in the Author TV
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  Speaker 1: hosts legal analysts at CNN area of legal expertise encompasses
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  Speaker 1: civil rights, gender issues, politics and race. Uh please welcome
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  Speaker 1: back or Reva Martin, Riva. Let me ask you this
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  Speaker 1: question about your legal area expertise. How do you become
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  Speaker 1: an expert? And say, I just just just a question.
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  Speaker 1: I just need to know because sometimes we say these
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  Speaker 1: things like civil rights, gender issues, we say politics and race.
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  Speaker 1: How does one to become an authority and expertise in
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  Speaker 1: those areas? It's primarily by the practice that you engage
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  Speaker 1: in law school is uh more about general law. It
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  Speaker 1: doesn't most of all, don't require you to major in
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  Speaker 1: any particular area. You may take more classes in one
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  Speaker 1: particular area, say corporate law or uh civil rights law.
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  Speaker 1: You may load up on particular courses while in law school.
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  Speaker 1: But but essentially we all graduate with a law degree
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  Speaker 1: that gives us the ability to choose any practice area.
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  Speaker 1: So your expertise comes from the practice that you uh
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  Speaker 1: you know, start working in once you graduate. So for me,
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  Speaker 1: I spent a very brief period of time at a
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  Speaker 1: large Wall Street law arm where I was doing definitely
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  Speaker 1: more corporate law. And I left that law firm and
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  Speaker 1: went into a small private practice with a partner, and
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  Speaker 1: it was there that partner had been that lawyer that
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  Speaker 1: I started working with and built the business relationship which
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  Speaker 1: had been working in the area of civil rights litigation.
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  Speaker 1: And I learned the practice area primarily from my partner.
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  Speaker 1: And a big part of my civil rights work involves
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  Speaker 1: disability rights, and that was I incorporated disability rights into
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  Speaker 1: my practice. After my son Marty was diagnosed autism. I
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  Speaker 1: met so many families who had issues either in their
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  Speaker 1: local schools or in their hoccal communities, and they were
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  Speaker 1: hooking for representation. They want to file federal civil rights
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  Speaker 1: of office because their kids had been discriminated against because
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  Speaker 1: of their disabilities. Um. And that was what really helped
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  Speaker 1: me expand my civil rights practice. And just naturally I
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  Speaker 1: gravitated towards working with women who uh you know many
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  Speaker 1: women who have been sexually assaulted, sexually abused, actually harassed
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  Speaker 1: uh in the workplace, minorities who have been discriminated against
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  Speaker 1: on the basis of their race, uh, gender biased gender discriminations.
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  Speaker 1: So for me, it was about a personal with my
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  Speaker 1: son and then just my own personal interest in the
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  Speaker 1: areas of civil rights mediation. Now you know, legal commercials
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  Speaker 1: or commercials, you know, are dominating everything there going I
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  Speaker 1: see if I see him Morgan and Morgan, I see,
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  Speaker 1: uh call now now more money, we get your five
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars a million dollars. Listen to this. I went that.
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  Speaker 1: When I went, I went, what is going on with
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  Speaker 1: the legal profession? Well, the legal profession. For many years
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  Speaker 1: there were prohibitions against advertising. So if you think back
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  Speaker 1: twenty years ago, you didn't see all those illegal law
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  Speaker 1: firm ads on television. And over years those restrictions have
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  Speaker 1: been you know, loosened, and the lawyers have started to
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  Speaker 1: be treated by the profession like any other business. So
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  Speaker 1: you turn on the television and you see all these
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  Speaker 1: asks for these for profit colleges, you know, get your
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  Speaker 1: degree in uh, you know, dentistry or become a dental system,
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  Speaker 1: become a medical as system. So just like those colleges
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  Speaker 1: advertised once I'd said, the handcuffs were taken off lawyers
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  Speaker 1: and they were able to advertise. They realize that that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, that's a lucrative business. And there are people
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  Speaker 1: sitting at home watching television. You know, they don't have accents,
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  Speaker 1: they don't know lawyers, they don't have funds for attorneys.
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  Speaker 1: So they see those ads and they worked, because if
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  Speaker 1: they didn't work, you wouldn't see so many on television.
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  Speaker 1: So a lot of lawyers depend on that heavy television
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  Speaker 1: advertising as a way to drive and business to their firms.
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  Speaker 1: And it works obviously because like I said, every major
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  Speaker 1: city I go into our not even major city because
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  Speaker 1: a lot of these lawyerously they kind of like a
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  Speaker 1: pair up with other law firms and different cities and
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  Speaker 1: they kind of like umbrella like, so they've got three
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  Speaker 1: hundred lawyers that can, uh, how do your case. A
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  Speaker 1: lot of firms are you know, national firms, they have
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  Speaker 1: local affiliates in different cities, and you know the lawyering.
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  Speaker 1: And unfortunately law school they don't teach you about the
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  Speaker 1: business of law. But lawyering, uh is no different than
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  Speaker 1: running a sandwich shop, a coffee shop, or any other
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  Speaker 1: kind of business. I have the same issues, personnel issues,
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  Speaker 1: marketing issues, finance issues. You just provide a service called
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  Speaker 1: legal services, but you could be providing orange use. It
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  Speaker 1: doesn't matter. At the end of the day, it's a
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  Speaker 1: for profit business. Now, hopefully, depending on the kind of
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  Speaker 1: law that you practice, you might be doing some good
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  Speaker 1: in the world. But to keep those doors open. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you've got bringing revenue and deal with the same uh
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  Speaker 1: you know, finance issues and any other business stuff. Uh. Weva.
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  Speaker 1: We mentioned earlier about you being a autism advocacy advocate
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  Speaker 1: and then your youngest son has autism and you started
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  Speaker 1: the special needs networking. On July twenty seven, Holly Robinson
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  Speaker 1: Pete and her husband will be honoring you and uh
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  Speaker 1: tremendous program that I will be in attendance. I will
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  Speaker 1: be there also long being honored that same night, to
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  Speaker 1: be an Eva Longoria. When you're being honored because the
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  Speaker 1: recognition have come to you on a regular basis, because
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  Speaker 1: you're passionate about it, because this is a personal concern
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  Speaker 1: with yours. To be honored on that event on July
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven, what does that mean for your brand? What
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  Speaker 1: it means to the attention you're trying to bring to
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  Speaker 1: the cause of autism because also Holly Robinson Pete and
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  Speaker 1: Rode Pete have a have a son who has autism
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  Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, I'm excited about it here. Rodney and
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  Speaker 1: Holly and I have collaborated in the past at so
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  Speaker 1: they have a foundation uh that works. They do a
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  Speaker 1: lot of work with adults with artists, and they've opened
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  Speaker 1: up a couple of centers that provide job training. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: The work that my organization does it's different and that
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  Speaker 1: we've really focused on underserved poor communities, early intervention, early detection,
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  Speaker 1: and providing autism behavioral therapies for kids as well as
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  Speaker 1: advocacy training for their parents. And we've also focused a
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  Speaker 1: lot on legislation within really the drivers of some key
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  Speaker 1: laws that have been passed in the state of California,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: and the consultants at the national level on several federal
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  Speaker 1: pieces of legislation. So it's great when you have organizations,
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  Speaker 1: you know, whether it's save the wells or save the children,
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  Speaker 1: that have common goals, common purposes for those organizations to
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: figure out ways to work together. When I first started
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: my organization, you know, people would always ask me about
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  Speaker 1: how Holly, and you know, Holly tells me people always
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: ask her about me. But what I'm excited about it
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: is an opportunity to show her audience, which she has
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  Speaker 1: this really at this event she gives every summer. She's
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: at twenty one or twenty third year. But it's it's
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: been going strong and autism and purposes these which her
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  Speaker 1: dad had partisans, but now her brother has partisans. But
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  Speaker 1: just like the opportunity for me to show the autism
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  Speaker 1: and the broader social justice visability community that you know,
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  Speaker 1: here to nonprofits run by African American families who have
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  Speaker 1: been touched by this disorder, and you know, we're working
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  Speaker 1: together for a common goal which is helping thousands, not
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  Speaker 1: billions of other families and children are inductantly So I'm
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: excited about it. Excited to see you, Excited to see uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the great group of people that Holly and
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  Speaker 1: Rottney Green together every year, the star studded event. Yes, Malibu, California, Yeah,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: beautiful state, amount overlooking the ocean or ever? Your focus
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: going in and out? Are you walking around or your phone? Okay? Cool?
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Was it going in and out? Sometimes you're clear, sometimes
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: you're not clear, and I do want to make sure
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  Speaker 1: that sorry, and I'm saying, you know, it's a big
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  Speaker 1: party but with a really incredible purpose. Well, the thing
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: about it is that you know we've got two minutes,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: less than two minutes left, and I know you're branching
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: out into uh doing your own productions, uh, you know,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: executive producing your own shows and pitching your own ideas.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Why is that a desire? You're you know, you're a
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: successful lawyer, You're an advocate, and you have a voice
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: in social media. You've been recognized as a legal analyst
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: of seeing it. Why is it important for you to
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: produce your own projects? You know? I feel Sean, I've
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: always had lots of swords decided me and I told
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  Speaker 1: those stories are different platforms via social media, contributed tons
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  Speaker 1: of articles to online and print publications like Time, UH,
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  Speaker 1: Motto dot com and CNN dot com. And I've just
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  Speaker 1: I've been a writer pretty much throughout my career, and
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  Speaker 1: TV is another medium through which I get to tell stories.
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  Speaker 1: So I am excited about this new chapter. I get
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  Speaker 1: to add producer title uh to my you know, long
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  Speaker 1: list of things that I've been able to accomplish in
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  Speaker 1: my life and and it this is another way that
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  Speaker 1: I get to tell what I think are important stories.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: What I think are stories that will not only informing
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: it and educate, but stories that will also inspire and
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: motivate it and and cause people to take action in
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: their own communities and in their own lives. As an advocate,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: that's what my whole journey is about, is you know,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: being the voice for the voice list, but also helping
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  Speaker 1: other people find their voice. We wanna thank you for
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: calling my show. You are amazing. You know I'm a
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  Speaker 1: big fan of yours and I would be seeing you
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  Speaker 1: probably I would be seeing you before July twenty seven,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: but definitely be there too. Uh. Wish you well keep winning, Okay,