Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Perseverance: Twice a teen mother, high school dropout, and still built a multi-million-dollar family law firm.

Transcript

Perseverance: Twice a teen mother, high school dropout, and still built a multi-million-dollar family law firm. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi, I am Rashan McDonald, our host the weekly Money
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: show provides off for everyone. It's time to stop reading
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: other people's success stories and start living your own. If
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: you want to be a guest on my show, please
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: visit our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and click the be
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: a guest button first submit and information will come directly
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: to me. Now let's get this show started. My guess
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: that I have currently on the show today fights to
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: find the right solutions for families in crisis. Would her
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: years of experience as a prosecutor. Attorneys respect Tessa as
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: an aggressive advocate who knows how to achieve client's objectives.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Clients see her compassion side, where she and her team
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: take the time to listen to gain a full understanding
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: of the situation. Please work to Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Attorney Tessa D. Edwards. How you doing, Attorney Edwards.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: I'm good. Thank you for having me with Sean.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: First of all, being an attorney was that something you
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: dreamed of?
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: It is? I actually knew I wanted to be an
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: attorney since I was in third grade. I had a
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: teacher that asked me what I wanted to be, and
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: being a person that likes to talk and debate and
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: just liking to I just challenge other people against an argument.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I knew very very early that I wanted to be
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: an attorney.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: So so again the attorney was now argument and debating.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Now you just well, you just one of those people
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: just wanted to have to get the last word.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Is still sometimes I want to get the last one.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, your coach Tessa, you know she ain't gonna let
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: nobody talk but her. Here's your come, here's your come.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Now when you see a talent like that, I will
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: be a front. I'll be upfront with everybody about my life.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Is that I didn't really know what I wanted to be.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: And for you just say you wanted to have that?
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: You had that vision so early. What compelled you? Was
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: it your surroundings with somebody, something you saw on TV
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: that made you say, you know, that's what I want
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: to be.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Well, kind of like what you're saying, I always had,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: you know, this idea that I like to argue. I
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: love debating, I love strategizing about a debate. And if
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: I could win an argument with anybody, a sibling, a pair,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: or anybody. It just kind of inspired me. I just
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: liked arguing either side, it didn't matter. And so when
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: I realized that, I that there was a career for
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: people who liked the art of debate. That's what drove
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: me to do that. So it wasn't necessarily my surrounding,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: it was more my personality. Some people learn to litigate.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: I feel like I was born to litigate. I liked
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: the challenge and the art of trial work and just
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: strategizing debate.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Wow, I like that. Now when you look at turn
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: on the radio, personal injury commercials dominate the airwaves, and
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: so that means that the legal profession people have one
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: version of it right now being pounded in who they sponsored,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: evening news, they have commercials, it's all types of broadcast
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: is making it available for personal injury talking about how
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: much they can win for you, how much you can
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: give you come to us. If that version is not
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the version of law that you practiced, Why did you
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: choose the version of law that you're practicing now?
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Well, as I talk to people and tell them all
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: the time, I am a project ghetto born and raised,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: and what I thought around me was a lot of
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: strange suffering, a lot of arrest, a lot of team pregnancy,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: which I was a team in, a high school drop
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: out myself, and just seeing that around me, I grew
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: up with a very unhealthy idea of the justice system.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I saw a lot of friends and family members and
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: neighbors getting arrested. I didn't always believe that what happened
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: was fair, didn't believe that the police were honest, and
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: I wanted to go into criminal justice as a way
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: to argue for my community, for my family members, and
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: have someone fight for them and have their voice heard
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: if they ever found themselves in that situation, because I
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: didn't feel like that was something that I saw growing up.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Now, that's interesting because you said something very casually because
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: you've overcome it. You said teen pregnancy and high school
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: drop off, and now you are very prominent lawyer, family
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: lawyer that practiced crimin law as well over two thousand cases.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: How did that happen being a teen mom and what
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: age was it that you became a teen mom?
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Well, I was pregnant at fifteen. I had my first
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: child as a sixteen year old, and my second child
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: at eighteen. Third child at twenty one, I am the
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: prow mother of seven children today. And how I got
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: from being a teen mom to where I I am now,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: which is the proud owner of a multimillion dollar law
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: firm in Atlanta, Georgia, was nothing other than dreaming it,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: seeing it, and then persistently going after time and time
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: and time again. The first time I can imagine to
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: even begin to tell you how many hurdles and obstacles
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: were there, but just seeing that vision and that dream
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: so clearly, and staying the course whatever comes, just having
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: the will to go over it. And when I had
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: my first child, it was very uneventful. Unfortunately everybody around
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: me and all the girls around me were pregnant teens,
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: and a lot of the guys, including some of my
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: family members, were in the system, in prison or in
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: on probation or some sort of custody. And when I
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: had my daughter, my second chalid eighteen.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Sixteen year old. Because that's you know that right there
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: is usually with shuts down opportunities, and when you read
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: about it, you know the dreams, you know, become a
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: welfare our kids, second, third, or four, or may go to drugs,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: may go to a minimum wage opportunities. There are no
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: extended version of educations after that. At sixteen years of age,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: What did your family, how did your family react to
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: that and how did they come to your to your assistance.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Well, my family didn't actually did not react surprised. Like
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: I said, everybody around me, it was the norm to
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: be sixteen and have a baby. Like there's a lot
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: of teen pregnancy unfortunately. What's states this in Florida, Okay, Florida, Coco, Florida, Okatrobe, Florida.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of team moms. There's a lot of
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: teenage boys and sometimes girls that are already in the system,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: whether it's juvenile or sell any system early. So it
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: was the norm. It was not a shock. Or had
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: family members that were teen moms, so it wasn't anything
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: that really shocked them, and they rallied around my mom,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: my mom, my siblings. They all helped with my son,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: and so it was very uneventful in my life. But
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: when I had my second child at eighteen, it was
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: her girl, and that changed everything. She was six eight
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: six to eight weeks old and someone was visiting and
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: they told me that she looked like me. And you
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: know how you have that moment that just kind of
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: stops you in your track and you get a big
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: frog in your throat you can't swallow. When the first
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: time that someone told me my daughter looked like me,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: it moved the rest of my life. I felt like,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: if she looked like me, she may want to be
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: like me. And so I felt like I needed to
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: be something that she was proud of. And so when
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: she went to school on career day and talk about
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: her mom, she would have a story that she could
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: be proud of. My mom does this mom? I didn't
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: want to say, my mom is, you know, work at McDonald's.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: No knock at McDonald's, employee us or anything. But that's
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: not what I wanted for my daughter to aspire to
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: be if she was aspiring to be like her mom.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: And so that changed everything going forward, and this mean
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: that I had as a little girl now became real
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: a goal more than just a dream at that point,
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: it was a goal.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: So were you in high school?
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Drop out at that point, Tessa that pregnancy? I did
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: drop out with that pregnancy. I dropped out with that
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: pregnancy because I missed a lot of school and they
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: told me I had to come back and go to
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: summer school, and me being the defiant person, I decided
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: I was done with school. That year was my senior year.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: I wasn't coming back. I was going to college in
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: the fall. So that's what I did. I went and
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: got a GED and went to community college and I
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: got an AA. So I had decided that was my
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: senior year. And that's so that's what it was.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: So once you got focused, it was you were relentless.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Yes that is a good word.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: But you know, because the story, you know, people are
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: listening to this story, and thank you for sharing your
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: story on Money Making Conversation Masterclass, because it's about motivation,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: it's about overcoming the arts. I'm talking to attorney Tessa
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Deep and what's uh started a team practicing sixteen fifteen,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: going on sixteen. Now she runs a multi million dollar
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: law practice, family law practice in Atlanta, Georgia. And how
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: proud are you when you say that to yourself that
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: you run a multi million dollar law practice in Atlanta, Georgia,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: knowing where you've come from.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Tessa, you know, honestly, sometimes I still am in shock
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: and in awe of how far I came. When I
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: look back at that little girl as an eight year old,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: nine year old, ten year girl. Hell, even looking back
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: as a sixteen year old eighteen year old, because it
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: was such a long road, so many curves, so many valleys.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: It still amazes me. And when I say multimillion, I
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: mean we have barely even scratched the service of where
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: we're going to do. The growth we hit in twenty
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: twenty four, our goal is to double that this year.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: So the aggression will never stop. If I wanted, I
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: am absolutely going to give it everything in my power
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: to go get it.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Now, So how did how do?
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: How?
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Now let's talk about the journey because you mentioned a
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: lot of kids here, and I'm sure it's a strong
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: man in your life who allows you to be able
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: to be yourself. Also your husband. Now you had did
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: you was there any other experiences after college? Did you
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: do the military? Did you do go to a four
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: year institution? How did? What were the next steps? After
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: your second child? And you got your GED?
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Well, after I got my GED, I didn't know how
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: I was going to pay for college, and so I
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: decided to enlist in the military. And because I was
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: a high school dropout, they required me to have a
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: two year degree to join, and so I got my
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: two year degree and I went in and me being
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: the fertile myrtle that I am, I got pregnant when
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: I came home for the Christmas break. I went in
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: like in November and everybody got to go home for
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: two weeks being on birth control. To make a long
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: story short, I still got pregnant. I was released from
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: the military and on my way home, I had a miscarriage.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: I had a miscarriage that you never even know. But Rashona,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: the you're the crazy thing is I would have never
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: ever known that I was even pregnant if I hadn't
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: made friends with my drill sergeant and I was trying
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: to get out of doing a drill. He allowed me
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: to go through the clinic and they did a routine
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: test and something that I was pregnant. The interesting thing
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: about that, though, when I went to the military, my
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: drill sergeant, and you know, the first day or two
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: people had pointed me out and came to me and
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: were commenting on my score. And I honestly don't even
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: remember what it was, but they were coming to me
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: talking about my test score, how high it was, and
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: why are you here You're incredibly smart. You should be
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: doing something else.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: This is it for you?
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: And I'm thinking to myself, well, I need to pay
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: for college, so it might not be for me, but
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: this is where we are. And so when I got out, okay, well,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: my plan B is to figure out a no way
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: to face the college because that's the only reason why
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: I was there. So I got out and finished, you know,
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: finished up what I was doing, and transitioned into uh
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: law Indiana University. It was, but I had to finish
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: my bass. When I got out, I finished my bachelor's
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: and then law school, all in Indianapolis.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Wow. So we went from Florida and Indianapolis Military stopping between.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: You got two kids at this point, unfortunately. Uh my
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: prayers went out to you on that when you lost
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: your third child. So so I'm assuming because you said
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: it in a humorous way, Miss Fertile. Uh so you
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: have two kids. Did you have two kids when you
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: went through law school or did you have another kid
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: while you were in law school? I got to ask
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: that question, honestly, the way you're dropping these kids.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Here, Well, I was dropping online there with hot potatoes
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: when I graduated undergrad when I graduated. When I graduated undergrad,
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: I have five children. When I graduated undergrad, I have
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: five kids. My ex husband and I went to law
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: school together. And I say this to everybody, laughing and jokingly,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: but I don't even know that a lot of people
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: knew our name. You were just a couple with the
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: five kids because we started law school together, right, And
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: we had five kids and we started law school, and
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: everybody was like, oh, you should wait until your baby,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: who was you know, very young, like one, You should
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: wait till she go to kindergarten. And I say, all
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: the time, what am I waiting for the same four
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: years are going to go by, whether she's in kindergarten
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: or not. So what are we waiting for? Let's go,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Let's go. And we started and she graduated kindergarten when
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: I graduated law school. There's nothing to wait for us.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: So you are something else? Can I say that? I
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: have never spoken to somebody as determined as you. Five kids.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: You know, had ain't got your law degree yet. Sixteen
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: years old, you had a child. Eighteen year old, you
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: have a child? You what did the military? Unfortunately lost
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: a child. Now you're at Indian an US verse everybody's
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: telling you how fantastic, how smart you are. And that's
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the interesting thing about living in these communities that don't
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: really push our children because they don't understand we just
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: trying to survive. I grew up in that type of community,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: you know, fifth ward. My father was a truck driver.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: My mom, she went to college. You went to high school,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: didn't go to college. Six sisters, two brothers. We loved,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: you know, in two bedroom, shotgun house. And so I
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: know that they wanted me to be successful. They wanted
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: me to be good. But guess what. When I graduated
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: from high school, I became a forklift driver. That's what
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I became a forklift driver. So the same people that
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: saw you in the military testa when you should you
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: don't need to be here. You can be better than this,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: you can be better than this. What were you saying
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: yourself when they were telling you those things.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: I didn't really believe that I was smart at all
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: I knew was me, and so I felt like I
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: was smart, but it didn't feel like anything exceptional, Like
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: I didn't I wasn't my own cheerleader. Then it was
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: just okay, whatever, I need to do this in order
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: to get to there. So I wasn't. I was never
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: wrapped up in anybody else's praises of me. I didn't
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: take compliments. Well, so you were telling me that I'm
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: smart means nothing. My smartness haven't shown me how to
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: pay for college and this is how I know how
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: to do that. So I only discounted it like whatever.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: I didn't pay it a whole lot of attention.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: As he owns a family owned law firm that has
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: been serving the Atlanta, Georgia community for over fifteen years.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Your attorneys provide enthusiastic representation and brings along extensive experience
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: and representing their clients. Tessa, when I say overcoming the odds?
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Am I being? Am I understating what has happened in
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: your life? Or am I hitting it right on the
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: nail on the head?
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: You are hitting the nail on the head. Absolutely, do
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: you do public speaking?
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Come on, Tessa, you gotta be telling your story. You
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: got to be. You are an absolute motivator, and you're
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: so casual about it. I'm gonna tell you something. What
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: you know this story? I don't know who's it driving
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: around the car, sitting at home, probably eating while they
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: listening to this interview. But what you're talking about is
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: pretty pretty impressive for a sixteen year old team. AM
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: eighteen year old team, AM wandering out there having five
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: kids in undergraduate before you finish law school, and now
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: you're still focused enough, focused enough, and your children are
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: still in your life, and but you're so casual about it.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Am I wrong in saying that? Sounds kind of like
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: you a different you cut from a different cloth.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I say all the time, and I
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: mean it sincerely. I feel like my life is sound
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: almost fruitful when I say that, But when I felt
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: like my life was so divinely chosen, that the path
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: for me was chosen from somebody higher than me, and
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: I was just given a dream and the courage to
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: go after the dream, and blessed enough to have people
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: around me that believe and support my dream and my
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: visually and so I do think that it is insane
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: when you say it out loud, but you know, I
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: don't usually say it out loud.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: I'm say it out loud. I'm gonna say it out loud.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it out loud. Attorney Tessa D. Edwards
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: is a blessing attorney Testity Evans, it would excuse me
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: as opposed to child for overcoming the arts. You are
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: a person that needs to tell your story over and
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: over again because you know why, because I get tired
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: of people being that I come from the inner city.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: They will they stereotype us, They tell us that we
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: can't achieve or we don't achieve. They don't give credit
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: from the community for people around us, the people who
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: believe in us. And so that is why if I
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: do anything in twenty twenty five, and this is not
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: going to be the last time I interview you, and
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: because your story and your personality in general needs to
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: be amplified, can I do that?
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: You should and I will be honored. I will be honored.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: No, I'm honored. And the reason I say that is
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: that so many of our people of color, African Americans,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: you know, we're in an administration right now now that
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: you know the diversity, the echoing inclusion, and they act
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: like they've given us opportunities, like they like we have
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: an earned opportunity. You are a poster child for earned
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: earned Big E. You're the big E. You've earned everything
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: you've achieved in life, and this new administration will make
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: us believe that you didn't earn it, you didn't achieve it.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: And So when you look at giving people advice, what
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: advice do you give them?
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: Attorney Edwards, The biggest advice that I can give anybody
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: is to make it make it clear of what it
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: is you're going after, so that you don't waste time
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: doing things that's not going to help you get to
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: that goal.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Just be clear about what it is you want. Be driven,
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: be focused, be hungry, and wake up and go to
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: sleep with your eye on that goal even as you're
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: going down that path. To get to that goal, you
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: have to have people around you that support you. I
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: can tell you my husband, Charles, who probably is one
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: of the biggest cheerleaders I have. That daughter that you're
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: talking about is one of my four daughters, has three
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: sons biggest cheerleaders very supportive, always ready to go in.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: My brother. I have a younger brother. I have several
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: younger brothers, have five brothers and five sisters. But one
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: of my brothers beat you.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Said five brothers and five sisters. Have six sisters and
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: two brothers.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Well, I have a big family supported, but that one
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: brother that's two years younger than me. My day one,
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: like we grew up the hard way, beside me hustling,
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: eating out the garbage can. When we were younger, we
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: would some up with I would come up with the plan,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: and he was the executor, and that was our role.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: And to this day, if I say, hey, I'm going
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: to do this, he's always what do I need to
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: do to help? How can I help the same thing
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: with my husband. So my husband runs the firm with me.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: He's there one hundred percent bought in. He'll tell anybody
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: we're gonna bet on us all day. Things we set off.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: BUYD too have never failed anything that we've ever tried
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: to do. We've always succeeded when we are doing it
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: to like mine together thinking it and doing it. My
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: team and my firm is incredible. Now one of them
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: is the reason I'm talking to you today. So I
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: have a lot of people around me, and just surround
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: yourself with people that believe in you, and even when
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: you have those tough days, because it's not if it's
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: when you need people around you that believe in you.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: When you're tired and you don't necessarily have the belief
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: in yourself in that day, surround yourself with people who
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: who are aligned with your vision.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Attorney Edwards, My wife just text me, have I been
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: seeing your name room?
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: You have it? It's okay?
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, no no, she texted me for Sean
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: you're seeing her name room. Please tell everybody that these
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: your first name, Tessie. Yes, Attorney tess D. Edwards. Yes,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: I will never make that mistake again. Can we tell
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: everybody how we can reach out to your law firm
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: that's been in practice for fifteen years in the state
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: of Atlanta, Georgia.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Well, they can follow us on any of the social
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: media platforms. They can call us at four zero four
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: three three zero eight three three. My website is my
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: name TESSI B. Edwards, So any one of those things
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: you can google Testy, which you can probably even spell
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: it the wrong way, and.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Like versa, make me feel bad. Make me feel bad,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Come on, make me feel bad. But I'll tell you something.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: You know, this this the story our relationships to day.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: She was you know, she had my office. She thought
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: it was a lively person there. But I'll tell you something. Uh,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I will tell you something. TESTI Attorney Ewards respectfully speaking
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: to you this way, is that your story is why
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: I wanted you on my show today. It's unusual, and
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: but it's not unusual because it happens. It's unusual because
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: of the story that they overcoming the odds and people
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: looking at you and telling you you are blessing and
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: you hearing it, you hearing it and reacting to it
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: and not ignoring it. And that's what happens to a
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: lot of people. They ignoring it because the work that
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: goes along with it. And that's what people are forgetting
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: in this story, is that yes, yes, she had two kids,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: she was a teenage mom. Yes, but she applied work, ged,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: she went to the military, then she got scholarships. Then
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: she went to Indiana University. She had five kids at
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: that point, she still graduated. And now she's in Atlanta
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and she's like she said, she wants to double her
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: revenue of twenty twenty four into twenty twenty five. When
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: you hear me say that, you hear a stranger saying
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: all those things about you. You have a husband who
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: supports you, your daughter who you said, somebody said look
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: just like you, that motivated you to change your life
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: now works in that same law firm with you. How
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: do you feel now, Attorney Edwards?
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: I feel thankful, but not satisfied. Thank you, there's so
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: much chilse to do. Let's go, Let's go, let's go,
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: let's go, let's go.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Well, my friend, thank you for allowing to be me.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Come on my show, and as we close out this
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: show one more time, I we can get in touch
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: with you. And again I want to consider you a
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: person I can call on. And I want the next
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: thing I want to bring you on the show. We'll
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: get that straight where you'll be at okay? And I
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: want people to call in and ask questions and uh
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure you have some responses that will
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: change some people's lives. Can we make a better deal
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: on that?
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: We can definitely make a deal. I would love to.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, cool, Thank you. Please tell everybody how to reach
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: out to you and we're gonna close out this interview.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: They can reach us at four zero four three three
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: zero eight eight three three, follow us on any other
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: social media platforms at my name Tessei D. Edwards old
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: fashioned way Google me.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: I'm laughing because I said your name m my wife Cord.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: If you don't start saying her name right right now
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: and then then I asked you just even saying it wrong, sir,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: even saying it wrong. But again, you're fantastic. Thank you
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: for coming on Money Making Conversation Master Class and we
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: will talk and see each other soon.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: Bye bye bye.
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: on the show today and thank you listening to audience now.
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: If you want to listen to any episode I want
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymakingconversations dot com.
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: Our social media handle is money Making Conversation. Join us
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: next week and remember to always leave with your gifts.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Keep winning