I would cry when I first started as a lawyer. I would cry. I remember sitting outside the courthouse and I would literally cry and I'd be like, what am I doing? Like, I'm not cut out for this. Why did you start your own law firm? This was a really stupid idea. Am I going to be successful? Is this going to work out for me? I've now represented thousands of clients. You know, when you hire a lawyer, it's like, I am placing my faith and my trust in you. And so that I don't take that lightly. And I've been able to grow the largest women run law firm in South Texas. Leah Wise is a Texas attorney, founder of Leah Wise Law Firm and the face behind Crash Gal. Known for her bold brand, pink feminine energy and client first approach, Leah has built one of the largest women run law firms in South Texas by leading with fire, heart and authenticity. If you walk into my office, it's very pink. It's very girly. It's all girls. We are 100% women run. And those were parts of myself that I tried to stifle when I was first starting off as a lawyer because I thought lawyers can't wear pink. Lawyers can't be feminine. They have to be stern. And I was like, you know what? I want to be authentic. I want to be myself. And if that alienates people, that's fine. But I'm also going to find my tribe by being myself. And I think that that is a big reason why people trust us. Because... My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast, the Women in Power edition. For Inside Success, I am Rhea Gutierrez. Joining me today is Leah Wise, attorney at law. Have you seen her face on billboards? I'm sure your face is on billboards. They are. Of course they are. She's real. She's sitting right next to me. She just finished her interview of Women in Power. Leah, how do you feel? Wow. I've never told my story that, like, I've never gone into that much detail. And it's such a release. It's, like, very cathartic, you know? This is the attorney. I know. I've never, like, I've never been that vulnerable. I've never told my story in that much detail. and it was nice to like get it all out. It was almost like therapy. Do people say that? Do people say it's like therapy? Yeah, they're like, wow, that was really my life. And then they kind of squeeze a chair. And then I'm like, you deserve to sit there. You deserve this moment. Yes, exactly. So talk about vulnerability equals power in your life. That is one of the main themes of my life, I would say, because any time I have like tried to, I don't know, like not be myself or like try to seem like stronger or like fake or like, yeah, I'm this big, bad, mean attorney. It's like, it always backfires, you know? And every time I'm like, you know what? I'm authentic. I'm going to be all, I'm going to be vulnerable. You know what? I don't, I don't know what that means. You know what? Um, yeah, I do struggle with this or I do struggle with that. It's always like turned into something beautiful. Like I've built a connection with somebody who didn't expect me expect me to be vulnerable in that moment and um I'm a big follower of you may have heard of her her name is Brene Brown she's a researcher right um and her entire like thesis um is like vulnerability is a superpower like her whole books are called like being vulnerable is your superpower and so I've listened to a lot of like her podcasts I've listened to her books and so I've learned that it's true being vulnerable is like it'll take you to places you didn't even think were possible because we're so busy trying to like seem strong and like put this facade on that we miss out on a lot of connection I try to be all tough like you said yeah then you can kind of see it right in my eyes it's like no dude like like you're trying to lead with your fire yeah right you lead with your heart yeah like where do you lead from your heart or with fire? Like where does your power come from? I'm going to, well, I'm a fire sign. I'm an Aries. I don't know. For people who know the Zodiac. I'm a Leo. You're a fire sign. So you're fiery. Who would have thought? I would say it's a mixture of both, honestly. Because I think I lead with fire. And then I follow through with heart and emotion. and sometimes I'm a little bit more impulsive than I would like to be. But it's all it all comes from the heart. You know, I'm definitely the type of person. My husband would say that, like, I wear my heart on my sleeve. He never has to wonder what I'm feeling because I'm going to say it. Or just feel it in the room. Energy's coming from the fire sign. My bad energy through the whole room or my good energy or whatever. So I mean I kind of like being that way because I know that there people who like they let their emotions get pent up And I just don think that that healthy And then it breeds resentment and so I like to be I an open and honest communicator I like to be transparent even with my clients in my profession I like to be transparent my job isn't to tell them what they want to hear it's to tell them the truth and it's to tell them like the reality and so I would say I'm fiery, but I still have a lot of heart and I like to be transparent and authentic with anybody I come across. Right on. Let's talk about your authenticity. Like how did you land being an attorney? Tell me this story, your origin story. I always knew I wanted to be an advocate. I always knew I wanted to uplift my community, be an advocate for my community. and when I was in college, I worked at the state capitol in Austin and I got to see a lot of legislators doing just that for their constituents, right? You're advocating for bills, you're authoring bills for your constituents, their best interests and mine. And I really loved that, but I have no desire to run for office. I do not want to be a politician. So the best way to do that was to become an attorney so that I could advocate for my clients, so that I could represent them in court, make sure that they're getting justice, make sure that they're being taken care of, make sure they have somebody in their corner taking care of them. And so I that's what made me fall in love with the law. Wow. Yeah. What was your first day like versus a date that you have every day today? Like walk me through the differences. So talk about being vulnerable. I was I would cry when I first started as a lawyer. I would cry. I remember sitting outside the courthouse and I would literally cry. And I'd be like, what am I doing? Like, I'm not cut out for this. Why did you start your own law firm? This was a really stupid idea. You know, you just go through. I'm sure you talk to a lot of entrepreneurs and you just go through like this roller coaster of emotions and you're just like, am I going to make it? Am I going to be successful? Is this going to work out for me? So those first, you know, few days, the first couple of years of my journey was very much a lot of self-doubt, a lot of insecurity. And now, after having gone through the fire, after having Kofi, the director, he said he said this really cool analogy. He said he called it building the plane while you're flying it. Yeah, for sure. That is such a good analogy because it's so true. I didn't know how to run a business. I didn't know how to be a lawyer. I didn't know how to do any of those things. But yet there I was building the plane as I was flying it. And now I would describe the plane as like the best, the best plane you've ever flown on. And it's like I have zero regrets every day I wake up and I'm like, you know what? This is such an honor to be able to represent my clients. I've now represented thousands of clients who've placed their trust in me, their faith in me. That is a huge honor in itself. You know, when you hire a lawyer, it's like I am placing my faith and my trust in you. And so that I don't take that lightly. And I've been able to grow the largest women run law firm in South Texas. Let's talk about this. Yeah, this law firm. What's the culture like? What inspired its creation? What's it like walking into this office? It's like walking into a Barbie dream house. No, I'm just kidding, but not really. It is. So my office is a former strip club that I renovated. And I kept one of the original poles in this in the one of the original strip club poles. It's still in my office. And the the woman, the contractor slash engineer who did the renovations, she did a great job of making it me. It's very girly. It's very pink. It's very feminine. and those were parts of myself that I tried to stifle when I was first starting off as a lawyer because I thought lawyers can't wear pink. Lawyers can't be feminine. They have to be stern. They have to be on the billboards, you know, with their arms crossed. Back to back. Yeah, exactly. And I was like, you know what? I want to be authentic. I want to be myself. And if that alienates people, that's fine, but I'm also going to find my tribe by being myself. And to me, that was more important. So I really embraced my femininity. I embraced who I was. I embraced, you know, that I'm a lawyer, but I like to be silly. I like to have fun. I like to make fun content. And it did alienate some people. You know, some people want a serious, boring lawyer. Some people, like, they want the lawyer who wears black, who doesn't smile, who doesn't laugh. And then a lot of people want a lawyer like me. And that's fine. And I realized that I didn't really start growing my brand and my influence until I started stepping into that authentic part of myself. So if you walk into my office, it's very pink. It's very girly. It's all girls. We are 100% women run. And I think that that is a big reason why people trust us because we have a lot of compassion We are all primarily Latina So we very fiery We very protective We very you know aggressive passionate Yeah Community oriented family oriented And I think that that has fostered a lot of trust between us and our clients. So it really does feel like you're walking into like a strong but feminine and approachable law office. I was just going to say the lore, even opening with the backstory to all of this. I really hope there's a website I can go to visit and know your whole story. Cause just the story alone of your, of the facility, the brick and mortar, your story, your philosophies. I'm like, how did it feel to just naturally be an influencer and then now a brand? It's quite the superpower. Thank you. And most folks don't understand what any of that is or understand how to even perceive it or even control it or create product within this world. It's really scary. Oh, absolutely. It's really scary. It is the most humiliating, dehumanizing process anybody can ever undertake. Well, I'm being dramatic, right? There are worse things, but being an entrepreneur, being a content creator, putting yourself out there on the daily is, it's hard. It's dehumanizing. People talk shit to you. People leave you hate comments. People make fun of your appearance. People make fun of the way you pronounce things. You know what I mean? They find the smallest things to nitpick. It's the same thing being an entrepreneur. For some people, you're never good enough. For some people. At least they're engaging. Yes. So the engagement's high. The engagement, yes. Exactly. There's no such thing as bad engagement. Well, there is, but at least it's thriving and the inventory's moving. Right. You know what I mean? Sometimes when people leave comments, I'm like, yes. because then there's other people in the comments fighting with them and then they're fighting together. And I'm like, this is perfect for the algorithm. And folks that are in the know that know how this works, they always go straight to the comments. Like they just kind of know like, oh, this is going to be quite the tea. And like you always land on that very first like smart ass, like passive aggressive comment of like, yeah, nailed it. That's exactly what I was feeling. And then you move on to the next thing. Exactly. It's a scary thing to be doing every day as an entrepreneur, as a lawyer, as a content creator, as all these hats that I wear. It's terrifying. Even now, eight years later, you know, I still sometimes I'm scared to open my TikTok comments and see what people are saying about me because I'm like, who's going to hurt my feelings today? Or try to. Yes. But it's always short lived. In the beginning, I would sort of obsess over the criticism, the comments. And I'd be like, you know what? I'm just going to stop doing this. I'm just going to close down my practice, get a job. and now I kind of look forward to reading the comments and now I'm like I kind of like enjoy reading them every once in a while I do get my feelings hurt but just for like a couple seconds you know I mean then I get over it and then you know at this point it's like I'm so desensitized to it that it doesn't really make a difference anymore but in the beginning it is really tough have you experienced that oh gosh I got canceled for god you got canceled of course I did look at me i haven't i haven't posted in seven years i'm retired i don't care oh yeah all my social media is nice and quiet it's been like that for seven years i've been doing the social media hustle since like 2004 2005 before it was a thing myspace uh myspace i i worked at playstation i launched their instagram like oh twitch channel oh yeah yeah and all that is gone because i got canceled oh okay well then you so then google me well then you know what it's like oh yeah you know what it's like also to have an arc now and be like great i got canceled now i have a comeback story yeah but it's also like i'm i don't need to post like i'm doing very well like i don't need to go out there and and slave away and go through the mental health of like now i have to create 10 pieces of content for the week because i have to entertain a bunch of strangers for likes and algorithms to generate a funnel to monetize what to monetize my life experience yeah right well that's that's a different chapter we're still in 2020 right we're not in 2025 right something i like to coach and i'm sure you can agree is you kind of find parts of your life pre-cancelization after cancelization go the version of myself that i was in this decade is what i'm going to monetize the version of myself that i am today no one has access to that this is the person that has healed grown and is moving on but i can still monetize this 10-year bracket which was the the launch of this the creation of that the like even what i'm doing now is masking it's a podcast yeah character and that's something that i enjoy teaching entrepreneurs or folks that sit in that chair they understand that now i have to create five avatars for my morning shift my afternoon and these are different avatars very much like a strip club you you don't you don't walk into a strip club you know acting like you're in a doctor's office you just put on a different facade Very much like Kofi here. Kofi's an amazing energy and he's standing back there waiting for me to shut up. Leah now that I can finally be quiet how can people find you How can people find your energy Where can they find your billboards Okay so I am located in Texas You can find my billboards in Austin, Texas, in McAllen, Texas, Edinburgh, Texas. Mostly throughout the southern border region is where you can find me. That's where I'm born and raised on the border. Love it. I was telling Kofi, like being from the borders is such a special experience where you experience like two different countries at the same time, two different cultures at the same time. And it really shaped who I am today. So mostly in the southern region of South Texas, but also Austin, which is where I went to school and love Austin. We're getting a lot of we're experiencing a lot of growth in Austin and really all throughout Texas. you can find me on Instagram at Crash Gal on TikTok at Crash Gal you can find me on my website leahwiselaw.com what am I missing? I don't do X do you do X? I don't do anything it's just sitting there oh that's right that's right that's right you can do X you can do threads oh threads okay so I have my Instagram set up to where when I post it automatically posts to thread yes thanks Mark Oh, I am on Facebook for the dinosaurs out there. I am on Facebook. I am a millennial. I'm on Facebook. And so that's just Leah Wise Law Firm. And you know what? I'm noticing a comeback on Facebook. Oh, so I was just going to say there's a resurgence. Yes. There's a resurgence of Facebook. I was like, I thought I was done with Facebook. And then lately I've been like, whoa, I see you, Facebook. Like I'm seeing engagement. and sometimes great leads too yeah great leads depending on your audience you know that's facebook still has a lot of value absolutely and like especially with the older crowd right like the like my mom and dad's generation like they love facebook and yeah i am noticing that i am i'm posting a lot more on facebook because there is a resurgence why is that who knows life yeah sure I'm not sure. Folks are just kind of gravitating to some simplicity form factors of UIs and UX. Like, I can give you the whole philosophy of the original Twitter designs, the original. But that's old school. Silicon Valley speak. But I'm also on TV. If you live in South Texas, you can see my commercials. I'm on radio. Right on. You said you were in Austin now? I have. Yes, I'm growing. I'm expanding into Austin. Oh, beautiful. So you can find my billboards there. I have a large amount of clients in Austin. I love Austin. I've lived there for three years. Oh, you did? How many years? Just three years, but it was during COVID, so I didn't really count. And it was Lakeway, so it's not really Austin. Oh, yeah, that's not really Austin. Yeah, right, but you know Lakeway very well if you know Lakeway. Yeah, so I'm... Sorry. So, yeah, I would say that my biggest presence is in South Texas, then Austin, and then Houston, Dallas. But I also lived in San Antonio for a time, so I do have a good network there. So really, I'm really I am trying to be all throughout Texas. Awesome. And what a place, what a state to be all throughout. Like I can't get any different between Dallas and Houston and Austin. It's so different. It's amazing. It's like three different worlds, three different countries. And then where I'm from in the border, that's like a whole different country. That's a whole other. Yes, exactly. So I'm lucky to be licensed to practice law in Texas where there's such a huge population that, you know, there's a need. And I'm lucky to be practicing primarily in my hometown. As I was telling Kofi, it's so rewarding because you hear about all these very, very talented people who leave the small town, go to the big city and never come back home. Right. And there's a lot of talent needed back home. So it's very rewarding to be back home and trying to grow my brand there, grow my influence there, make a difference in my community, uplift my community. So that's very rewarding for me. And I'm very happy to be in Texas because, like you said, it's like three different countries just in Texas. And it's a lot of fun. So I currently represent clients in every major city in Texas. Wow. So Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, South Texas, El Paso. And my goal is to become, you know, one of the largest law firms in Texas. Right on. And I foresee it. It has been done. You're welcome. Happy blessing. It's going to happen now. Leah, thank you so much for your vibrant, pink, feminine, beautiful energy. Thank you. Quite the powerful woman. And with that concludes yet another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast. For Insight Success, I am Ray Gutierrez.
