Radio Appearance with Heidi Hardy

welcome to real life dfw on fishville radio network this is Heidi Hardy your host welcome it’s Wednesday and we call it real life dfw day I’m so excited to be here with you listeners and thank you for tuning in we have a very cool show today it’s one of those shows that i really get jazzed about because it’s about powerful women and so the show is called it’s a woman’s world with Brandi Austin and if you don’t know Brandi Austin we’re gonna get to know her really well today in fact she’s here in

the studio with me hi Brandi hello awesome yeah we both been sort of getting excited about this the show because we met really about a month ago it hasn’t been very long not long at all no and so but ever since we met we sort of hit it off and this is a woman who is inspirational she’s got a great story and I think the other piece to this Brandi that I like so much is that you’ve got so many things happening today that that you’re passionate about and excited about so we’ll talk more

about that great yeah yeah it’ll be fun okay listeners I do have to start the show by telling you you can participate in the show and call in at any time to to 1443 1506 too we welcome your questions we welcome comments and brandi is an attorney and I don’t know that we’re going to go there as far as you know questions about law but if you have some questions about how to get your self into a law career or business owner question please bring it in and I don’t know Brandi do you have any questions

that are off limits well I can’t give legal advice but I can definitely put you in the right direction and give you great resources to help you figure out the solution to your problem awesome awesome okay well there you go so call us at 214 431 5062 if the spirit some moves you and also you and direct your family and friends to listen to the show at WWE live do em and there is a big huge red button called the easy button you just click on that button and that’ll get you right to the blue bowl here at fishable radio network

you can also go to FB are in US and click on the blue bowl there and that’s um that’s where we’re broadcasting from and this this show is brought to you proudly by deceit their nets Ethernet is locally owned and operated IT managed services internet services hosted voice mail solutions calls Ethernet today to get a free 30-minute consultation two and four to six nine eight three one six that’s 2142 698 316 and I did say free consultation so please do call 2142 698 316 okay let’s get back to the great

topic that we have at hand and it’s called it’s a woman’s world and one of the things that I like to do here on real-life dfw sort of remind the listeners what how real life dfw transpired what happened why are we here today and together I was invited by a friend very similar to to you Brandi being invited today and I got behind this mic and it was like a bolt of lightning it was it was so exciting I really enjoyed it it was also fairly easy to just have a conversation in in the room behind in the studio behind the

mic and and and and talk so so that sort of gave me the bug here and what I wanted to do and what I known I’ve had passion for our people love people story love to hear i love to sit down have lunch or coffee and talk about what they do and why they do it so real life dfw just kind of took on that format is let’s get to the real stories that we that we we want to hear that will motivate us that will make us cry that’ll make us laugh that will inspire us to do more and be more and i think

celebrities are great i say that all the time love beyonce and i love the professional athletes that are out there and they worked hard for their status but I find real people my next door neighbor my networking partners my friends my family I find them so much more interesting and I can connect better with those people than I can’t with Beyonce so so that’s what we’re left if w is about it’s about real people real stories in real life and so we’re really excited to have you again and we’re

going to get going on the show here very very quickly the whole topic is it’s a woman’s world but this is the part of the show that we’re going to talk a little bit about some funny things that are going on locally and Brandi I know nobody’s I think the whole country the whole world knows that we’re underwater yes definitely we are we’re underwater here in Texas and we’re we’ve seen the Sun and actually been squinting all days what is that I haven’t seen the Sun for

three weeks so unfortunately the sun is out today and we’ve got a little bit of a break from the rain yes a little bit no and so the the I guess what the world wants to hear or know it what’s interesting about internet radio is there people all over the world I think we have people from Korea and Australia and Great Britain people everywhere who listened to the show and we had a some I think this is the largest amount of tornadoes we’ve had in several years well I have a funny story okay funny I

guess I was traveling to Oklahoma and with my husband over the weekend and on the way back we got stuck in a toca Oklahoma which just happened to have a tornado so my daughter have a two and a half year old daughter so my daughter my husband and I were hunkered down in the men’s bathroom humble walmart while the tornado passed by just monday wow ok that not funny ha ha i’m finding a funny ironic i guess funny interesting wow so was your daughter scared she was very scared but there were a lot of people

there that were covering us with pillars and the staff was great and they could have used a couple extra emergency radios but other than that they did a really great job of keeping all the calm yeah well I do know that we’ve been in that situation where the big storm came down we were in toys r us and I hear what you’re saying about those extra radios because it was it was so interesting watching the people that work the managers go to work and you can tell the ones that are ready for it

right there maybe they’re going to push the people in the safe location and they’re going to make sure you know you’re not overwhelmed panicked and so I’m glad to hear that you guys made it out safe made it out safe yeah so there was no tornado was just a warning no no no there were tornadoes oh just not on the walmart they were that we were at I think there were two miles away and then there were the flash flood so it took us quite a while to get back home where we’re still having tons of water flowing

through our yard just daily yeah well that is really that’s the news lately right every minute if you’re watching TV if you’re listening to directional radio you’re hearing warning signals and signs of flash flood warnings and so today hopefully we’ll get a little bit dried up I I know we’re looking at some more possible storms later tonight but hopefully we’re seeing the last of it over the next few hopefully we’ve been in a drought for several years so I’m happy to have the water replenished and

all the lakes and hopefully we can just have regular normal weather for a few years you know it’s funny that you said that because i do i think it was 2008 it’s like the whole month of june it rained and we have a pool in our backyard and we’re really excited about summer because we like to just hang out back there and I just remember being bummed for a whole month because we had a ton of rain and I guess it comes and goes and comes ago yeah and waves but we’re we’re dry and we’re safe and so

and I am thankful for a little respite that we have and I my prayers and my heart goes out to those who suffered from from the flooding and the storms and hoping get our lives back in order turn around don’t drown there we go that’s so funny that is the slogan more the text is it Texas I think it’s the Texas it’s just a Texas National Weather Service or the Texas weather service or something I’m not sure I’ve heard it everywhere on every radio station every news channel on the

Weather Channel turn around don’t drown yes that’s hilarious well it is appropriate that today may 27th is national sunglasses day and I really meant to go buy some really cool piece and glasses what do you have sunglasses with you I do well at the break we’ll get our sunglasses on and we’ll get a picture of us celebrating national sunglasses day so and I’m really there’s actually there’s an actual day of it it’s it’s really quite interesting I think it’s you know I’ll tamala gist and

they want you to protect your eyes I swear by sunglasses even if it’s slightly a light outside I like to have them just because it protects it stops the wrinkles and protects your eyes from from all the bad stuff and UV rays and all that stuff so I swear by it I wear them every day unless it’s dark and my daughter wears them and my husband wears them we just left some buffing yeah we did too we’re the same way that’s so funny and I know we do too and we I wore them non-stop until I needed reading

glasses and then I have a hard time reading and with my sunglasses so I probably should just get a prescription of sunglasses but that’s another story happens after after a certain age is just start using your arms to read not yeah and and and I guess one other thing that I guess locally that’s gone on that they’re really I don’t know that it ended in a happy note but it’s a better ending than then I think a lot of people had hope but there was a young lady that was abducted the nine-year-old yes I

heard of that yeah and she I guess her uncle took her and you know I bring that up only because I know we’re both mothers and parents and and sometimes we have to be it part of being on the radio and having a show is just bringing back that awareness to protect your children and make sure that you know we’re telling them how to get in touch with us helping them remember their phone numbers and i’m not sure what the particulars are of this case i’m sure there’s a lot of personal things that

happen that we don’t know about from the media but I does remind us that you know the kids are vulnerable they really are and and I try to take extra steps as well um I have a job that there’s always an adversary on the other side and there’s always an extra person involved there’s an attorney and there’s usually a client on the other side and that does cause concern so I keep my daughter completely off of social media no facebook postings nothing like that i don’t want anybody

to to know what she looks like and i rarely mentioned her name and just because of the extra concern yeah and i think that’s really smart I mean I definitely know that I want my kids are gone or cuz because I that I had no such restraint as you have but they’re my children are all grown and then my grandchildren you know I know that they’re very protective but I think that’s very smart as much especially if you’re in the public eye like you are yes so great segue by the way thank you

because you said you have a job that has to do with an advocate yes and so let me read to the listeners a little bit about you okay and I want you to know I read verbatim a little bit on on your on your bio that you send me but I’ll try not to try not to to do it to tube robotically okay so brandy Austin is a founding member of the firm her practice specializes in personal injury family law elder law small business litigation and wills and probate brandy attendant east carolina university in greenville

north carolina for her undergraduate degree she major majored in both english and political science she went on to attend baylor law school successfully completed Baylor’s prestigious practice court program she was part of Baylor’s national client counseling team and participated in their moot court competition that’s a lot of stuff yes it is well hold on we just took a little bit more here you went on to defend clients sued for medical malpractice which i think is really interesting

products liability and personal injury she has represented numerous clients at dispositions depositions I’m sorry hearings and trials however she wanted a closer partnership with her clients and decided to diversify her practice to include a variety of areas Brandi moved to North Texas immediately following law school and currently lives with her husband and daughter in Burleson Texas where she serves on the cemetery board I do that’s an interesting story I we’re talking cemetery is and yes the cemetery the

cemetery okay and your areas of practice again our personal injury family law elder law wills and probate and then of course it goes on to talk to us about your your wonderful education here as an attorney and you did there’s a rising star super lawyers I am a super lawyer this year oh my gosh that’s 2050 and then verdicts search publication in 2015 yes got a very nice verdict out of Johnson County nice verdict for us and we got a publication and a nice plaque and all sorts of good recognition that’s

amazing well good I mean so one of the things I’m we have a really good positive thought for the week in coming up at the end of the show we do at the end of show and and it is about if you’re doing something passionate that you’re passionate about things are you’re attracting good things to you yes and I that was one of the reasons why I wanted to bring you on the show because I know as we SAT and we had lunch and we’ve talked and visited that you’ve got this story about why you’re an attorney

today so we’re going to take a break in about four minutes can you give them a little tease let’s talk about brandy Austin brandy Austin law is what the firm is called but let’s talk about you know where what made you want to become an attorney okay well initially I had absolutely no interest in being an attorney I wanted to be a creative writer which I got my undergrad degree in and then I went to a program and a southern Illinois law school i believe it was for potential lawyers so I went

and I enjoyed it I was really good at it still didn’t want to be a lawyer ruling came back and I personally went through a divorce very when I was very young and worked at a legal aid and I got to see what people were like when they were going through divorce it’s often the worst time in their lives there at the most confused state they don’t know what to do they still kind of love this person but yet they’re at odds with them and I just wanted to help them through it is initially why I got started I wanted to

hold their hand and stand up for them when they couldn’t stand up for themselves so I went to law school and that was not the first job that that I was able to get I ended up doing medical malpractice defense which gave me some great litigation skills was able to learn how to draft all sorts of documents and do so all sorts of legal things which you know is what it is eventually when I had my daughter I kind of came back full circle I wanted to be with people helping clients holding their hands through some of the toughest

times in their lives whether that be an accident that occurs somebody dies in their family a divorce custody situation there’s so many different problems that happen in people’s lives and and I am blessed with the opportunity to be able to hold their hand and walk them through it and guide them to a direction where they can be happy with the outcome wow so it started with your desire to be a service yes we are a service but whether another attorney says or not lawyers are absolutely serve their clients its

customer service just like retail just like a waitress there’s a client that has a need we’re there to help fulfill that need and at the end of the day the client has to live with the results of the case and the choices that are made so they direct their case we just advise them through it Wow well you know that’s not how attorneys are perceived in the public eye all the time that’s not how all attorneys so that’s one of the reasons why I again I wanted to bring in the show because I know that’s one of

your differentiators in your practice definitely you believe in customer care you believe in I’m serving your clients and that’s why you’re doing what you’re doing well I that really moves me I had I’ve been divorced twice and I’m in my third marriage and I I’m proud because I think sometimes it takes you a little bit some people learn the hard way but you know each time that I went through that very painful situation I did feel alone even your family a lot of times they’re not

you know they’re not proud of it and they’re there they’re against the divorce and well you can’t tell your family everything it was a it’s personal it’s sometimes it’s secret and you don’t want to include everyone into your secret and until you get past the shame of the feelings that you have you’re not going to be able to deal with it so that’s why I attorneys are here we are bound to be confidential so we’re never going to spill your secrets and we can

guide you in the right direction Wow well I have to say I don’t think I had an attorney for either divorce and it was always because of Finance it was always me feeling that you know wasn’t something that I could do but knowing that and also not knowing that there’s firms like yours with women attorneys who have this kind of passion to be a service to people going through this hard time so again you know thank you for for that and for this message to anyone who’s listening that might need

help today absolutely there are options out there you don’t have to go with a guy on the billboard or the lady on the billboard absolutely find someone who fits your needs okay so that that’s great that that helps us sort of see where where you start it and once we get through with this break will go back to a little bit more of where you are today okay welcome back this is Heidi Hardy with real-life dfw on fishville radio network i am your host and we are having a fabulous show today today’s topic for

those of you who are just clicking in and listening is called it’s a woman’s world with brandy austin brandy is in the studio with me hello brandy hello welcome and thanks for being here you for having me absolutely absolutely so brandy is locally here in Arlington Texas in the dfw area she is a mother a wife a business owner an attorney did I miss anything I mean housekeeper occasionally I’m not really great at it but cook all those things in the cemetery you’re on the cemetery board

which loop I am on the cemetery ward in burleson because i live in Burleson Texas we meet quarterly to talk about the community cemetery and all the different things involved because actually the cemetery has its own laws and regulations I did not know that I didn’t either wow so how did you get recruited to be on the board there well I when I first moved to Burleson I wanted to get involved in some of the community government because I have a political science degree i’m an attorney it kind of all goes hand-in-hand and so

i just applied through an application i sent in my information and whenever they had an opening they invited man that is so interesting well I find cemeteries fascinating I don’t get spooked about that kind of stuff at all and they actually the better run the better kept you know it’s very peaceful it’s very lovely to be there and it should be for the loved ones who are still here yes and so good that’s that’s that’s great that’s great that you were chosen to do that and I did not know that they have

their own set of laws so we’ll have to talk about that a little bit more maybe in the later in the show today’s show is about strong women I mean that’s really what today’s show is about brandy and i’m at not too long ago and I immediately was drawn to her her light her passion her fire she’s got a fire about her and that for me is one of the things that we like to do unreal on POF w’s bring people who can inspire and motivate us with their stories with their light and passion because believe

it or not that that emanates even through radio waves I mean it doesn’t seem like it would but it does and and I think it’s important for listeners to be be aware that there are many great leaders in different forms and the forum today that we are taking our leadership is it is women yes we are leaders and you are leader in your community one of the things that I notice that you do really well and you’re very aggressive in a good way is you get out and really market your business so

tell us about that marketing piece of brandy Austin law well marketing is everything in my opinion if you want your business to be successful you need clients or customers and the only way to get clients and customers is to go face-to-face and meet people internet really helps don’t get me wrong but long-term customers come from face-to-face interactions and even if you can’t help one person then maybe find someone else that can help that person and connect those two and then those two people will remember you and

whenever somebody needs an attorney in my hands and still just say oh wait brandy Austin she does that and we’ll get a client that way and then it just builds on from there I make sure that every single person I hire is willing to go to to marketing event so everyone from the Secretary to me we all heard a ribbon cuttings we all go to parties pretty much anything to get our name out there to get our face out there and to show that we’re ready and willing to help in any way that we can which again

it’s so typically and I’m trying not to be scared I mean and the profession but there is some stereotype there and we talked about this at lunch the other day is you really when you think of an attorney you kind of see sort of a stoic you know yes gentlemen older white yes yes thank you and a very insurance same thing when you think of insurance yet in some professions you really do your your head goes into that mode although there are attorneys of all types of probably different types of practices and

certainly women have been attorneys for many many years and have had you know have taken I think from a from a law standpoint I think women have made big huge strides in that industry compared to IT yes we’re still bringing up the rear on that one we are we are you know they’re they’re still trying to get more and more women to get into the engineering schools and to become IT managers too and there are women interested in that but it’s still predominantly male so so I would say

from the law on the practice of that there are diverse types of attorneys but when you think in your head of an attorney at law a lawyer it always comes to this like you said an older gentleman who you know sitting behind this huge desk and doesn’t doesn’t have to move around much because everything all the business comes to him and that’s not true you just you just told us that is not true you’re not about in the community you’re on a board in your community and you’re doing that

because you have a business yes I love people I love learning about people I like to know what makes them tick how they got to where they are at where they want to go what their dreams are what their families are like I just really like people and I think that’s what makes the difference because I don’t want to sit in an office all day and you know type away at my computer I want to see people and interact with them and help them and and guide them and you know be a voice for them not just a guy

that signs a paper I’m regularly the youngest by a couple generations and the only female in a room when it comes to attorney functions but that’s okay because what you know I’m still aggressive I still get my job done and then I’m a good time doing it well again great segue because I would think emotional intelligence and being emotionally tough yes and strong is a real important piece to being an attorney yes these days especially you know if you own your own practice so I have an article and it says ladies

listen up ten things emotionally strong women do and this was written by Laura argant are in women I guess women magazine so we’re going to start with number 10 they don’t give in to fear the fundamental quality of an emotionally strong woman is one that for all four women named fearlessness so there was a little bit of a precursor to this article but not giving into fear give me some thoughts on that is that do you find that that’s a true statement that strong women emotionally strong women

don’t give in to fear I absolutely don’t give in to fear I I’m scared of a lot of things on a daily basis I’m scared I’ll completely fail I’ll sky I’m scared I’ll go into the court and the judge will laugh at me and say I’m just being stupid I need to go home but that doesn’t stop me I go I put on my brave face and I just go and do it and then the more I do it the easier it gets and that’s you know with anything in my life relationships you know when I

was younger it was a hard for me to commit to relationships but you just you just do it and you just forget the fear and breathe through it meditate do what you need to have a cocktail and just get it done or warm warm tea or whatever whatever calms you down I like my white wine yeah well that no i agree i think that you know getting through law school i would think was a pretty scary endeavor regardless of your your IQ level like you said you probably are minority in your law school courses well

actually that’s interesting and no it’s it’s generally 5050 in law school and then it drops off later a lot of women drop out of the practice later on but in law school it is especially at Baylor it’s very scary your third year you have this practice court program and there are two professors that are extremely mean and there aren’t there mean on purpose and so and they give you maybe a hundred pages to read the night before and you have to know everything about all the cases that you’re required to

read and they’ll call on you make you stand up and you answer every single question if you don’t get that question right they boot you out of the class and so you have to have read everything you have to understood everything and if you don’t get it right you’re publicly shamed on out the door so there’s a lot of fear of with that to you and you just you just do it you just I think that’s great no that’s a great story because really number nine if you’ll read number

nine for me don’t read it verbatim but just help us with the top part okay they don’t crumble at rejection and criticism and they’re resilient especially for women who are entrepreneurial in nature they work is valuable and they take all types of criticism criticism and I have to agree with that for me the criticism is the way I get better someone says hey I think you’re a little aggressive or you talk too fast which is probably my biggest complaint then I try to make efforts to correct it that way

I’m always striving to be a better person right right well it takes kick butt kick butt women to mentor kick future kick butt women absolutely and that’s not exactly how it was phrased in the article but it but really I mean you have to you have to be able to say okay are they attacking me you know you just just described a scenario that would make people like run and cry in fetal position being in front of a professor who is out and 100 students and a hundred students who’s out to you know

the hit their sole job is to make you feel you know badly yeah and then so not given into that because in your mind you have to put that into perspective yep they were critical yes I was rejected maybe I did I could have you know stayed up another at two hours and studied more but to be able to absorb that and not take it personally ninety-nine percent of criticism isn’t about you and that’s what you have to learn in order to get through it is that you know it’s either to help you make you better or it’s

something that that person is dealing with on their own and it’s up to you to make the decision whether you accept their information or you reject it right well and number eight they aren’t afraid to look to others for help being strong and independent doesn’t mean you have to exclusively rely on yourself surrounding yourself with valuable people eases the burden of personal and work related challenges well I know you know something about this because you have a wonderful team I do and I hire for the

personality a lot more than a higher for what their background is because there’s a good we need a good smart group of people that get along and can work together and provide a resource for one another it’s just like men asking for directions it’s best to stop and ask for directions and we were at the colonial this weekend and I’m not familiar with the golf course and there’s 18 holes and I had to get 21 skybox all the way down and I stopped and asked maybe five different attendance which way do I go but I got

there and I got there pretty quick so it’s definitely good to stop and ask for help whenever you need it no matter what the situation ya know I would agree with that and I think as strong women sometimes will put in situation’s whether it’s you know a tough marriage or or you know if you had a tough life childhood you you tend to lean on yourself because you lose trust and others and as you grow older and and I’ve learned this it really is a matter of just being a little bit wiser and

finding those people that you can trust and go to for help that to me when I give help its unconditional if you never want to talk to me again when I gave you my help I’m good we’re solid so it but again it took me some time to figure that out and it took and I think it takes people time to look for help yes definitely all right number seven read that for us number seven they don’t shy away from letting people know how valuable they are emotionally strong women first and foremost believe in

themselves absolutely true and if you look at all for women one characteristics they all have in common is self confidence and self-assurance isn’t just about focusing the attention on yourself however as susan Feldman shares being sure of yourself gives you the strength to be supportive of others and it also puts you in the right frame of mind to welcome constructive criticism so that you can continue to improve and grow and I do have something to say about this absolutely I have a lot to say just keep talking keep

talking and in the legal profession you find a lot of women adversarial against each other because they think they need to be the one and only there’s so few women in the legal profession as they want to be the best don’t the one woman that everybody thinks of and and I think that’s the wrong approach to take there are plenty of men plenty of male attorneys out there that are successful in their business and I think there can be just as many women who are successful in their business and

and going against each other and being adversary adversarial with one another is just the wrong approach to take and and I take that approach with you know all of my opposing parties and it’s just really good to try to get along with everyone and let them know hey I really appreciated that piece of information that really helps me make my decision a little easier and that especially goes for my team I make sure to let them know if they do a good job and even sometimes I don’t sorry Kelly Stoddard you do a

great job and I don’t always tell them but I try to remember to let them know and I appreciate everything that they do give a shout out to your team what’s your team’s name okay I had Kelly’s daughter and she’s my secretary and got Chris Jones she’s my elder law attorney at Lisa heart is a family law attorney and Kelly Bozeman is my right-hand lady paralegal and HR person and then my husband is the accountant Tim so shout out the tomb awesome awesome so you got it you got a surrounded by a great team

of men to hear about you and the practice there’s such warm and caring people and and I’m so lucky to have such a great team that I can pull together and help the community right right well we’re going to stop here and give you a couple minutes to tell us about it tell us the story about the practice how did you get into the practice is typically you go to a law firm out of out of and I did I went to a medical malpractice defense law firm it was it was a great firm for what you know getting started

but it was not a great work environment for me and some people like it and then I was found by a headhunter and went to a medical device litigation defense firm and so I was defending um medical devices like implants pain pumps things like that and if they malfunctioned and people were injured i was on the defense side so that didn’t really work for me either and then I worked as in-house counsel for an insurance company so I defended car accident cases and so that didn’t work for me and I got pregnant and had a

very tough pregnancy I was on bed rest for six months and surgery in the middle of it and all sorts of bad things I couldn’t eat I mean just call me Kate Middleton I was throwing up every five minutes it was awful hi actually as he can be tough I actually made my goal weight during pregnancy sir and then it wasn’t a good fit for a family working at an insurance company for another law firm so I stepped back I had to stay home with her for six months because she was premature so I stayed home with her

then I was ready to get back i had a part-time job it was a general practice firm so i was able to get my feet back feet wet again and get my foot back in the door and the legal practice and pick up some different areas that I was comfortable with and then I kit was like if this guy can do it I can do it and so I started with one room and a google phone number awesome yeah I had a partner who kind of helped me a little bit along the way she eventually went a different direction and but we started

just with one room and a phone number and just kept building and putting the money right back into the business and now and it’s really successful and we’re growing and looking to add and I’m just super excited how well it’s done right right well they do describe you as on fire right now I’m on fire all the time my life has been on fire ever since I realized it so I had a very tough childhood and was difficult for me to trust other people and well as difficult for me to let friend in and eventually

I’m had an idea in my head of what I wanted my life to look like and and I’m embarrassed to say it was like Ally McBeal I love that sure what it was like I might be 0 and Elle Woods and Sarah wanted to be this attorney and I wanted to live in a high-rise condo and sit and I wanted to drive a fancy car and so I caught all those things and I still wasn’t happy and I’m like what in the world what am I supposed to do now and so I just started radically changing everything until it fit you know and so

now i live on like three acres of farm ashan it that’s tiny but it’s still like we got a barn and all sorts of stuff and I have my own firm I work 830 25 unless there’s a trial I surround myself with positive people and I just try to put out into the world what I want to get back well that that is a sure way to success and it takes people a lot longer than your young age to figure that out it so good for you certainly there’s some glamour to come with well I’m an attorney I’m a lawyer you would think

student loans also come with that that is not glamorous you know I have children going through that process right now in fact we are too i mean i had some student loans are still paying on those but but there’s you know there’s there’s a phaser bonus or a price to pay for for the education that we gain and and sometimes those are in student loans and sometimes it’s giving up a lot of things for the first few years trying to get your your bearings absolutely i gave up a lot I it was my

sole focus to get to the end of that degree and so I committed once I commit to something I commit to it so I committed to it all the way to the end and while other people were going to Cabo and touring Europe I was not I was going to school I was focusing on work I finished law school in two years and three months Wow and yeah i got i had a double major and undergrad I you know finished yeah just focus focus focus all the way through until I’m here yeah Wow okay well we’re going to read through

these together here’s number six they don’t back down from challenges starting at a young age women are socialized to stay on the sidelines and act passively we’re taught to wait to be invited instead of stepping up and joining them now i will tell you that I I like that one of the books I listen to audio books and my listeners I mean you’re listening to real life dfw on fishbowl radio network this is heidi hardy with our special guest in the studio brandy austin and we’re talking

about brandy we’re talking about being a woman in this world and doing what you have to do to find the life you want to live absolutely and I love that because i believe we build our own abundance we create our own abundance I tell that to my daughter and my sons and it is just part of the way we live and one book that I read was Sheryl Sandberg’s book at lean in and it was a great book I mean it was I think it was really geared toward the younger generation that are up-and-coming women trying to figure out

how getting to their their career right what place do they have right around the table but it was a great book from a woman who leaned in I mean how much more leaning and can you possibly do then Sheryl Sandberg so Sheryl Sandberg is the CEO of facebook I believe yahoo I forget ok well one of them will look hurt yeah yeah I ever have her book right here but but she is she wrote this book it was a big it was sort of a big controversial thing you know should women think this way there’s always

somebody who’s critiquing when there’s a strong woman out there and so I thought I felt like okay I’m gonna read this book and I’m gonna I’m gonna find out you know is it a great book and it really was it was a good story she talks about her life and her family and so I enjoyed it a lot I’ll have to disagree with you a little bit didn’t like it did you read it i bought it i read the first a couple of pages and I thought it was not what I wanted to hear okay I put it down I love it that you’re arguing with

me so tell me why tell me why can’t I wish I could I can’t remember because I I literally read it read the first couple of pages I thought she was just full of it and I and I put it down I can’t write it I just left it out of my head after that but it was not her theory of leaning in was not what I wanted my life to look like okay so what is your theory and we really only have about five minutes but so maybe that’s what we’re lead into with the new hour is your theory of what leaning it is I love it I

love it go ahead go ahead and read the next one okay they don’t compare themselves to others and be your own inspiration and I can say that’s that’s absolutely sure is well I think this list is actually pretty good I don’t compare myself to other sometimes I do catch myself comparing this or that like every other person but I do analyze how other people do things pick what fits best for my personality and then make my own version so I don’t compare necessarily but I do analyze extract it

and then make it my own so comparing yourself to other women or me well other people you’re right you’re absolutely right I think there’s a positive way to do that and a negative way to do right you know I think you can look at someone and admire their accomplishments and who they are yes and then emulate them because it inspires you that’s one way and I don’t think that’s the way they’re talking about this here you know like you said yeah trying to stay emotionally strong by tweaking it for your own but

yeah usual so you shouldn’t care if somebody else has a Mercedes than you don’t that absolutely you don’t know what she or he had to do to get that car yeah absolutely absolutely everybody’s stories different so here’s here’s the last few i’m going to read to and then i’ll let you read the last two and they don’t measure their self-worth by other people’s opinion i think that goes right back to that you know the law so they don’t compare themselves to others

emotionally strong women don’t care about what people think because they are making their lives on their own terms i love that number three they don’t get wrapped up in anger or resentment being an emotionally strong woman can quite literally mean not letting your emotions get the best of you instead practice remaining level-headed we had show a couple of weeks ago about emotional intelligence what is that and it really is just being able to measure and monitor your own emotions and the

motions of people around you and so emotional intelligence I’ve worked on that for many years and I find it very very interesting I missin number two is they don’t lose their passion and being emotionally strong doesn’t mean you should totally be devoid of emotion absolutely and passion comes in many different forms and passion can change over time just because you’re passionate at where you know for one thing at 25 doesn’t mean you can be passionate about it at 35 and it’s important to

understand that’s okay life changes you can change it’s important to adapt it is it really is and you’re right go ahead number one is absolutely my favorite they don’t hold back you just use go for full force and you just go whatever works works whatever doesn’t you know what that’s learning experience and you take that and you move on and that that I think encapsulate seeeeee you and you you went to law school you built your business you looked at somebody and you said hey I can do this yes I love that

part of your story and then and here you are how many years later how many years have you been in business um I’ve owned my own practice for two years and I’ve been an attorney since november of 2008 okay okay so seven years yes seven years you climbed your way through a lot of different experiences and I like your sidebar note that it’s okay to change yes it’s okay do not be passionate about the same thing that you were absolute when t5 and I find that your undergrad your creative writing that’s such a what

is it a contradiction or I was a screenwriter and I actually wrote I mean I do have a screenplay and one day in retirement and maybe I’ll go back to screenwriting because I love movies I love the story and i love the development of them so yeah so you would be great a trait that real-life dfw radio because you like to get that story out of people absolutely it’s it all kind of wraps up I love people and their stories and the psychology of it and just getting to know someone so it’s all

intertwined yeah well what can I I’m tease the listeners you’re listening to real-life dfw on fishbowl radio network and this is Heidi heart of your host we are with Brandi Austin and Brandi Austin is she she’s got the world in her hands and and we’ve been talking about how she’s gotten started and how she was inspired and motivated to do what she does today she’s a mom she’s a wife she’s a business owner she’s a cook I do that she is an attorney and she’s

here locally and she’s very compassionate and and a really a really great example of somebody who’s really taken life by the horns and run with it so and I think those are like two different analogy life by the way but back to shell Sandberg is she’s the coo of facebook okay and I do we’re going to will go back come back to this but you mentioned a couple things one is and as much as you’d like to share you said you had a tough childhood so we’ll talk a little bit about that in the second hour

okay and because i think from my story it is so important that people don’t get stuck in their story from from the past right don’t get stuck there it’s over let’s go you know and I’m not minimizing people’s pain and their stories but it it is it’s a part of that personal growth and process so we’ll talk a little bit about that and then we’ll also talk about where you’re headed what’s going what’s in the future for brandy austin and and all that is going

to happen right after this break we’ll be right back welcome back this is heidi hardy your host of real-life dfw on fishbowl radio network and we are broadcasting live from arlington texas our show today is called it’s a woman’s world with Brandi Austin hello brandy why thank you for having me yeah that first hour just zoom by it really did I know I know and so Brandi and I are talking about strong women and what do strong women do and we had some some tips at the first hour about mostly

strong woman and what they do the second and we’re going to talk to Brandi a little bit more about her story and she’s going to share with us some things that she finds would help someone who might be thinking you know what I I could never be an attorney or I could never go to college and accomplish that because of you know ABC in my life brainy’s going to help us get past that because that’s something that she’s done in her life also going to talk a little bit about her practice and where she’s headed

she’s a woman on fire for sure so thank you for joining us again this show is brought to you by ethernet ethernet is a managed services in structure as a service internet and voice provider if you would like to sit down with someone and talk about your IT needs you can call 2142 698 316 that’s two and four to six nine eight three one six and we’ll be happy to sit down and talk to any business owner who just might want some great advice or really want to look for a solution for their business okay

brandy we are back to you and you’re a really great great resume here I mean you you’re an amazing woman you’re a mom you’re a wife your business owner you’re a attorney and I put him in that order but I’m not sure I mean obviously being a wife and a mother are the first thing seen absolutely okay I make sure to be it everything that I can especially for my daughter if she has she’s two and a half so they have like craft things that happen on occasion nothing you know of

importance but it’s important to her so it’s important to me absolutely I make sure to be there yeah well it’s tough and one of the things we talked about on the break that was really kind of fun was we talked about lean in by sheryl sandberg and yes she’s the coo of facebook which is a big job and for sure because again i t went women in 90 there’s very few of them and then from a leadership standpoint and that c-suite it’s it’s very very few it’s a very elite group but one of the things that

you said that i love said you know what I didn’t like that book tell us why you didn’t like that because I think we kind of discovered a little bit what yes let’s do the wrong way but i think is she said that you had to have a staff of people to help you a nanny you had to have a couple of nannies cook a housekeeper all these people to support you and your personal life to allow you to lean in at work and I think that approach is wrong personally I don’t want to miss a minute of my

daughter’s life and although i would like a housekeeper Tim I don’t want to miss a minute of my daughter’s life so I would delegate the other and I do delegate tasks to other people if there’s a hearing or something that is going on at a time when my daughter has something that I need to be at well somebody else is going to go to that hearing and I think that you know I realized that it gets a little different when you get to higher executive levels but there’s always someone you can

partner with to cut to help cover for some of these things and she had to go here and go there will take your kid with you take a kid with you just always um prioritize your fan twill in my opinion prioritize your family first you can still lean in you can still climb to the top you may be up a little later at night you and your work but you know you don’t need ten nannies to do your job you know I find that very very interesting because at the end of the day one of the things that I would agree

with you on in the book and I don’t remember that that part of the book particularly but is that we’re not really she’s not being realistic when she says you need a nanny and you need a chef and you need a bunch of people so we do have a collar and I would like to go ahead and take a quick break to get this call hello caller who am I talking to this is heidi Harding with real-life dfw well my name is M I’ve been pretty familiar with Randy’s story because I’m her husband I got to you yeah got to

walk the road with her a little bit so to say hi Jim thanks for calling in so she’s bright pink so you still have that effect on her what what would you like to share with us about brandy Austin well oh it’s been exciting I I I tuned in through through half of my phone so I could listen my wife is famous now she’s found a radio I wanted to be a part of her eyes that vein so she wouldn’t forget me when she said I’m sure she won’t you saying like a real mean guy so it’s really like I said I

well we’ve have been married really a relatively speaking a terribly long time but we’ve had a lot happen in our our marriage so far you know life events have been going on around us and I still couldn’t help but just grin listening because I was there to the whole story I’ve been through shortly after law school we met he’s still exciting to to relive it get to hear it all and it it’s fun to hear the story and um you know to her being everything to everyone you mention it a little bit ago she has been

she’s a great mom and she she makes sure that when work time is done and it’s it’s family time that she she’s there with the family and that’s it’s just so much fun to see her balance everything all together and be be everything to everyone literally he went home at work she runs the show at work and I mean I won’t admit it publicly good maybe she can run to show at home just a little bit it takes a real man your life man to admit that Tim that’s awesome no I had

to say my husband listens to the show when he can but then he would he would admit that too I’m a little bossy and that’s my baby in the background I think yeah I’m uh I’m baby wrangling our child and Brandi’s paralegals child cuz it both go to school together and they’ve got the week off so I volunteered I’ve got more gray hair because of it yeah well everybody at the firm it’s a team effort so I Kelly needed childcare and my husband stepped up and they’re having

a blast together thank you thank you for calling in to him we really appreciate it i think i think it’s it says a lot about someone when their spouse can also walk down that same path with them and have the same pride i can hear in your voice I can you know I can almost in you know envision the two of you doing that together so her successes are your successes and her challenges when your challenges so congratulations to both of you for having such a strong marriage and relationship every day right horn something I’ve been

married this is my 10th year with my husband and we are every single day grateful for even you know some of the hard time but but I do appreciate that you called art to give her some moral support absolutely thank you for having me keep up the good work Brandi all right thank you all right oh my hi wow I’m so glad he called see you guys got an opportunity to hear from him well he does sound like a real support system I couldn’t do it without him yeah yeah well and I think that that’s important

when you’re a woman on fire or your woman with a mission we did have a guess and the topic was called a woman on a mission and hurt her should the same sort of fire and passion and she’s a nonprofit that she’s trying to kick off the ground and so I’m not going to say that you’re a woman on a mission as much as you’re a woman who knows what you’re doing and you envision where you’re going so let’s go there let’s go with today you have a practice you said something about growing the other day

when we were at lunch you said so I have this big vision tell us about that vision well I do have a big vision I would like to be a much bigger law firm on top of several other things so as far as the law firm is concerned I would like to provide a place for women and men who are family oriented to have a place to work to know that five o’clock is five o’clock and unless you can’t get all your stuff done in the regular time you can go home and be with your family of five o’clock and it also like to be

known throughout the state of Texas as a law firm and where if you want someone to help support you through your your problems that I’m the place to go to there are a lot of strong arms and the hammers out there but no one that’s really going to sit with you and explain the process and help you through it and that’s really what are our goal as a law firm is and I’d like to have several offices in several different areas right now we’re growing this one we have three attorneys here

we’re looking to add one probably in August November time and then after that comes Austin and we’re going to open a branch in austin texas i believe so we’re super excited about that and then just keep going from there Texas is a big State it is well Brandi else is gonna take it by storm I can tell absolutely well for those of you who are just clicking into the show this is heidi hardy and i am your host of real-life dfw real-life dfw is about real people and their stories of triumph

and challenge and how they can connect us to our own dreams and motivate us to keep keep moving forward Brandi Austin is a local business owner we’ve met through networking and and it’s so as I listened to my shows Brandi I do record the shows and you put them on podcasts and so this show will be on podcast so please share it with your family and friends but as I do that I certain started realizing that I meet almost everyone that’s been on my show through some sort of business related

relationship oh yeah and so back to being a compassionate but you know a aggressive businesswoman yes you you really your your integrity your drive all those things are so critical to your personal brand and who you are absolutely taking that brand with you and so I was fortunate enough to meet brandy and we have we hit it off and we had lunch and I got to know her a little bit better and I just knew she’d be a great not just a great guest on the show with her story but also possibly and you

know future co-host or future other other endeavors together because I think we both having fun here I absolutely adore you I when I first met you you had such an energy about you and I like to connect with people who have a positive energy and I went back to the office and I said that Heidi that’s a lady and every time I hear your name or they talk about you at the office I’m like I just love her I just love her energy I think she’s doing so many good things and people just don’t underst

she’s she’s she’s somebody to watch oh wow wow i get i got a little the cleft on that because thank you it’s true well thank you thank you i think that’s a huge compliment especially coming from you because you are such a you know wonderful person yourself and you have a lot of things going on and so to be able to recognize somebody I really do appreciate that for those listeners who haven’t been weren’t with us for the first hour let me tell you a little bit about Brandi Brandi is on the founding

member of her farm and it’s called Brandi Austin law Brandi Austin law firm Law Firm PLLC okay get those letters oh yeah so we’re with if somebody wanted to call you for any reason whether it’s you know you need your help from a legal standpoint or even advice how would they get in touch with you well that’s great and so we prac we focus our practice on personal injury family law elder law small business law usually under a hundred employees wills and probate and those are the areas that we practice but

even if you need help in an area that we don’t practice we have a great referral network setup of people that we’ve met with and and been in contact with and referred cases back and forth to each other and we know that they take good care of you so you can either give us a call at 8 1784 1990 6 or go to our website WWE and I often law com awesome awesome well and will repeat that layer in the show as well because I I do want people to to know not just again through this live recording but through our

podcasting that they can reach out to you absolutely and it’s so funny to me internet radio is global so people all over the world can hear us but we focus really here locally in the Arlington dallas-fort Worth area and your practice is in Arlington Texas yes yes and you have a beautiful a beautiful practice office and it’s I say beautiful I walked in and you you can feel the spirit of the office when you walk into somebody’s office I felt warm and welcoming you know a welcoming environment I didn’t

feel like there was a lot of stress and you know sometimes there’s a there’s a easy feeling in offices and that wasn’t the case in yer well we do that on purpose and I searched high and low for an office and luckily i found laura bergen who is the owner of the building and she had similar tastes and so we have tile floors high ceilings so it feels more like a home when you walk in and then on top of that we add regular furniture so there’s no office type desks all of our desks and furniture

come from places like cratenbarrel or pottery barn things that you find in your home and then we just use adapt them for the legal practice so it really does we have we have carpets that you would put in your house the whole thing feels like walking into someone’s home and that’s on purpose because we want you to feel comfortable I can share your story with us and so we can get the full and complete story so we can help you in the best way that we can well i would definitely going to at the last about

the last 15 minutes or so of the show i would like to talk to you about the different types of law that you practice and the kind of people that you would be helping but let’s let’s talk a little bit more about you it said one of the things that we went to the first hour is you are strong emotion you have to be strong to finish law school yes you have to have emotional intelligence treng ‘the you said earlier i had a tough childhood and to your comfort level of sharing tell us about that and and tell

us how you overcame that okay and well so my parents weren’t very good people and neither one of them I’ve had deal a lot with sociopaths in my life and the consequences thereof so um let’s just just say there was a lot of abuse in many different ways and as I grew up I started to realize what that meant when I got to high school I was kind of a hot mess as you would say had no direction I just knew that you know I kind of grew up the only parenting i had was television hence the ally ally mcbeal which was about that

time frame and so I just picked somebody and happened to be her because she was popular along with the Green Bay Packers at the time I think I picked her and I just focused on it and I just put that as a goal and so if you’re sitting out there and you have like a really bad situation just pick something focus on it and just do everything you can to get to that spot and I just no matter what happened in my life emotionally and I wasn’t very emotionally smart for a very long time and I still struggle with it

but therapy is a wonderful thing Sarah and I went through some therapy and was able to come to terms with where the family that I had and then move on from it I have to family members that I really count on now and that’s my sister Kelly and my Aunt Peggy and I can turn to them for anything but I really don’t have anyone else so learning to depend on myself and learning to create a family out of non related people really helped because now I can find you know I have people that I can count on so I

think it’s just focused learning kind of focus on something other than what your current situation looks like if you are living in a roach-infested bad neighborhood and just pick something and you know step by step by step just little steps if it if say you can’t leave your house just take one step out the door and come back in yeah then take two steps the next day and go back in and sorry I mean it’s easier said than done but just learning to accept that you know you can’t change those things

but you can make a difference in the future you can change you you can change you how you look at it absolutely that’s a very touching and and relatable story thank you so much for sharing that I think that again one of the things that I enjoy about this show and being able to talk to people is knowing that there are people with the same struggles that we have and had and I grew up in a family listeners hear me say this probably every week that it applies but my father was an alcoholic and and there was a lot of abuse in the

household and there’s all it was always this feeling that I never knew what was going to happen next and and children that grow up in that environment there’s a post-traumatic stress syndrome absolutely and and you don’t know as you’re growing whether it’s your preteens or your teens or even past your teens that there’s it’s not you it’s it’s your environment that you were right subjected to and post-traumatic hosts PTSD post-traumatic stress disorder is very difficult to recognize

people often misdiagnosed bipolar disorder depression all sorts of things for PTSD and that’s why I therapy is important because the medications that people take sometimes for depression and bipolar are not the medications that you need to take for PTSD sometimes you don’t even need medication on PTSD and if you have the appropriate therapists psychologists psychiatrists whatever you need they can really dig in and figure out what’s going on then you may be able to solve the problem in a different way

and so that’s why I think it’s really important for people that are struggling with those sorts of paths feel like they’re kind of stuck in a rut they go and get some help and talk to somebody to really analyze what it is because you don’t want to take lithium which is for bipolar disorder which will you know sometimes put you in a catatonic state for days on end when you could just take something you know meditation or tai chi or yoga and help relieve some of the stress that comes from PTSD because it’s

just fear that comes up and dealing with that fear and anxiety that’s that’s so true and it’s great advice I know again that I felt alone for a long time and one of the things that I do we’ve had several shows that do bring out the reality of domestic violence the reality of abuse the things that we can do today now that I’m not living in that right I’m like you and I’m so proud of you because you you said something that I thought was very poignant and that is I’m building a family without it being

you know necessarily family members family is different for everybody every single person right and so if you can embrace people for who they are what they you know what they what they are I think sometimes then you’re opening the door to many opportunities for people that can inspire you and love you that was hard for me it took me a long time to allow people to love me and I have to say today I’m one of the most blessed and grateful people you know obviously I can’t compare myself to others but I

know personally that I feel more blessed and more grateful than I have my entire life and it’s just that first step at the door like you said it was a tiny step I got back and I had counseling and one of the things that I’d like to have you back on the show and to help me with is maybe we can get some guests here to talk about what are those you know what are those first steps if people are in that situation you mentioned earlier in the first half of the show that you practice family law because you noticed

that people were struggling through legal aid in your university and and that motivated you to want to help people absolutely so what about family law and your pat your experience in your life have you seen have you been is it making a difference is that the driving factor for you is I’m going to make a difference in individuals lives yes and I have a story one of my earlier clients in a law firm she came in and she was a disaster she was crying she didn’t know if she wanted this and her her

soon-to-be ex-husband was quite aggressive he hired a very expensive aggressive attorney and she couldn’t afford a very aggressive expensive attorney so she got a very expressive cheap attorney but um she just she was she was down she was really down she didn’t know how she was gonna her kids were gonna take it and so we just kind of worked through it together we sat down we made a plan that worked she was able to email and call and ask questions regularly and at the end just to see her

kind of back to a better self it was so rewarding for me she does yoga she you know is happy with the arrangement that everybody agreed to she’s able to move on with her life and that’s the part that i really like i like to get them through the stressful part on to the other side when they’re happy and excited and ready to move on and this is not exclusively for women I think sometimes I’m don’t get me wrong I’m all about girl power and i do want women to be motivated and i want them to be

emotionally strong i would loved for this show to reach even one woman that that maybe feels more inspired and more motivated but the end of the day you know men and women have stressful things in their lives i know in our family it’s my sister my brother and myself I’m the middle child and he’s the youngest and he handled the stress of the abuse differently hmm so part of being in an attorney is to be able to recognize the different needs of your clients in their different situations absolutely and

recognizing how they need to be walked through it and not to exclude men there was a I did have a male client and he really wanted to fight for custody of his child turned out his child was being abused so we were able to get that child out of the situation and make sure that nothing happens to him again so but men and women come in and they’re different men come in mad and angry and aggressive and and ready to tear down walls to get what they want and women come in many times when it comes to

family law broken and not sure of how to move forward and we kind of are able to take both of those and and and walk them through best way possible calm some of them down and then you lift some of them up yeah yeah well that’s that’s pretty amazing and like I said I wish I would have known you several years ago I am gonna stop for a moment and we’re going to answer this call and see who’s giving us a call kind of caller this is Heidi Hardy how can we help you today I was wanting to comment on your program today

with a whisper in the Austin wonderful whom who are we talking to my name is Peggy or dog I am brandy fan well Brandi has a loving support system I can tell so Peggy tell us a little bit about brandy or just um go ahead and make your comments and let us know what well I I just wanted to say I’ve been listening to your program since the beginning and I’m just I’m all even made by heart and I am her biggest cheerleader i’m behind her one hundred percent whatever she does and i am it work can’t say how

proud i am of her and what she speaks is is her truth she she lives the life that she is saying that she does and if i ever need how about i’ll be calling nurse up i’m in north carolina stuff hello laid away so that’s the only bad thing but thank goodness for a taste time and all of that today so we can all keep up with her here but now I’m Anderson she was born and I I’m her biggest cheerleader and she is right even when I want to do the craziest things like stop everything and

become a record producer she’s like well you know what if that’s what you want to do then we can support you through it luckily I did not do that there was a time was it that goes to trial and error like she said you’ve got to push on to find your passion and and I believe she’s found it in when you had when you find your passion and that’s your work and it’s not work we all have to make a living and if we’re lucky we’ll find that that niche that is not work it’s

just what we love to do well Peggy her face lights up when she gets when she starts talking about the practice and what she does and what she’s passionate about so it’s contagious yes it is but I am just very proud of her and I know she is already has is going to big places and I think people can put their full faith in her when they come to her and believe what she says well thank you yes yes thank you so much for calling in and giving her some moral support and and you know there’s a little bit of

nervousness that comes with a being on the radio but she’s done so well and and so we’re definitely having a good time here the same done extremely well and I didn’t know he was that articulate she said she should be a radio host you might be right we’ll work on her yeah we work out okay thank you again Peggy thank you for calling in I’ll thank you for listening alright that was Peggy was Peggy’s listening or dog or doc or docx I know right or dog it was an awesome last name actually and she is your aunt

and she’s one of those people that you go to when when you need is what I’m support yes absolutely fantastic fantastic and she’s been listening to the show so you know what that’s what the show is also is it’s an opportunity for your family to sort of walk through those steps with you and it’s so funny because I think as I tell my story a little bit at a time over and over again my family connects with me even more every single time so I’m so excited that you have them and they’re listening yeah and I

can see how that happens because I do share a little bit about how I feel about certain topics that I may not discuss with family or friends and and I think this is a great way for people to get to know you better yeah yeah well it is time for our break and then we’ll come right back to learn more about brandy we have had a fantastic show our show airs live every wednesday from three to five pm and you can always listen to our show by going to WWF brn us and clicking on the blue bowl we that

is fishbowl radio network’s website and/or I made it a little bit easier we go straight to my website which is WWE live dfw calm and there’s a big red button that says easy button um we have our caller calling in and I believe this is our patio review caller hello caller this is heidi Hardy who am I talking to hi this is Kelly Bozeman absolutely hi Kelly how are you hi Hardy Hey well thank you for calling in and I’m imagining that you’re calling to give brandy and some moral support I am but

I’m not calling just as an employee I wanted to call it as her friend oh well she’s she’s amazing she’s done a great job so take it away Kelly tell us well I just wanted to say that this has been one of the best years of my life getting to know Brandi I’ve been working here since June of last year and not only has she been a great employer she has been an amazing friend someone who inspires me motivates me to be a better person and I just wanted to say how thankful I really am oh you’re welcome that is very

cool that it’s rare that we get to we get to say those things to the two hour I guess our boss or the person that works with us and so you know good for you thank you for so much for calling in and giving her that moral support so I hear you guys have a wonderful practice and Kelly what law are you practicing there I’m a paralegal and I handle the personal injury aisle okay okay awesome awesome well again thank you so much for calling in and we’re coming to the end of the show so we’re going to let you go unless you

want to share anything else now great job Randy and a great job how do you guys are doing amazing oh thank you we’ll talk to soon okay thanks nobody bye we have some more callers the society hardy and you’re on real life dip w how can I help you this is Diana hi Diana and right you are calling in to do real-life patio talk at so I’ve missed it we’ve missed it the last few weeks so I have to give you a new and new introduction my sister and I we love being outdoors in the summer in

springtime and drinking a cold beverage whether it’s iced tea or margarita and live music and just doing the outdoor thing so selfishly we both were like ha ha we got the radio show let’s go around Dallas Fort Worth and find a way to bring our experience to the listener so this is Diana’s segment I’m so proud of her she’s done a great job so Diana take it away i’m not going to talk anymore you tell us all about the last patio of review okay well hello everyone on May sixteenth which was Saturday it was a

Saturday not last Saturday but the saturday before my husband and i visited the hofbrau pack i think i accidentally hung up on day and i hope she calls back I know I’m sorry Diana we do have another caller on the line is this to tell me who this is this is heidi hardy it’s a strong wet bar hi Sean we’re gonna put you on hold for just a moment okay we had another caller in and we can’t wait to hear your segment as well but we’re gonna put you on hold just a moment okay thanks

well silence on the radio is never a good thing yeah but we’re trying to navigate through a couple of calls and I hope Diana does get a chance to call back but what we’ll do is we’ll go straight to Shawn segment yes absolutely so Shawn I’m going to unmute you and bring you into our our segment here thank you for calling in Shan Shan and I also met well through LinkedIn which i think is a great tool and you’re listening to real life dfw on fishville radio network at this is Heidi heart of

your host my guest today is brandy Austin and we have Shawn require on the phone he is a he’s very passionate about what he does and I’m going to let you Shawn tell the listeners what it is that you’re passionate about and give us sort of an introduction to Shawn I’ll make sure you can hear me I’m on my cell phone here yeah perfectly clear right well yeah thank you I appreciate the introduction and the opportunity to speak yeah I started about 17 years ago as a financial planner and I realized

that there’s a lot that that job entails I ended up kind of moving over in a certain direction and then found health insurance was a tool that could help my clients save money and addition to the other services that I was doing and wasn’t too long about a year into it that I switched full-time into the health insurance as a primary function and I work for an agency that really showed me how to read policies and how to get into the details of a plan versus just selling co-pays and deductibles

from one PPO to another so I did that for about five years and then broke off and started to become a broker all the while I was working with individuals and small very small businesses mom and pop businesses and as I’ve gone through the years I’ve grown to love more products different companies and along with all the changes and not work with larger companies and have gotten into the group market that I hope that would really save a lot more money affect more people at one time and do what I’d love to do which is make sure

people understand their there are insurance get coverage and protection you know at the doctor and hospital that they want to go to and have it affordable so they can keep their insurance and and use it and have it when they need so Sean one of the things that really struck me when we talked and again your passion is contagious is the Affordable Care Act is a mystery to so many people and you’re very passionate about not necessarily explaining it because I don’t know that anybody can but but really navigating with your the

customers and the clients that you have navigating through that process right yeah that was one of the things I thought of talking about with some of the rumors that are out there about the Affordable Care Act and the marketplace a lot of people use the term Obamacare when they talk about the law insurance today and the products that are out there that folks can choose from and I have some I’m quite a bit quite often laughs at that term because it’s used by sometimes physicians and clients and

just people passing down the street I want to talk about it when they know what I do and I am not necessarily for or against the law I do swing one way or the other a little bit to the right and I just believe that because of this law Affordable Care Act affects my industry and my clients so greatly you know I’ve just decided to embrace it as much as possible and to help maximize the benefits of it and avoid the problems and the penalties of it for my clients so yes I have learned he pros and cons

the do’s and don’ts of this of the marketplace and the different tools that are available to businesses as well as obviously individuals that would want to participate or look into that as an option okay so in the one of them I’m sorry no no go ahead I was just going to say one of the you know the biggest rumor is probably that you can use the word Obamacare it means something it really doesn’t I’ve had doctors if you don’t take Obamacare and i bet i’ve trained agents i hire agents

at my at my agency and they want to know you know what that means and I explained that everything is Obamacare if you want to use the term just just say Obamacare and it means insurance because nothing is untouched by Obamacare it’s either taxed through the law changed by the law mandated you know or forced or penalized so there’s no Obamacare free zone in America today as a matter of being a letter blue state you know an elephant or a donkey it’s all the same in Texas is no different we you know we want to

become a union but we’re not so there are very stiff penalties for not doing it right and there’s great opportunities if you do and that’s what we try to help people realize you know I actually have a lot of clients come in who do not understand health care and do not have health care for themselves or their children because they don’t know what to do so I I I do think it’s a big issue yeah absolutely and that’s one of the things that we’d like to invite sean to come back and be our segment sponsor

because i think that there’s a value to getting this information to the public absolutely we need more people who are as passionate as sean is about this just to be unbiased and talk about it as something that is a matter of fact and and this is the best way to go about it so Sean we’re looking forward to getting that information from you and and for you to share your knowledge with our listeners if that’s something that you can do under weekly-based I do yeah I look forward to it as well it’s

definitely something that I am passionate about and I want to get more information out to the public and as quick as possible so that they can avoid some of them major setbacks that I’ve ran across other people experiencing yeah and so each week what we’d like you to do is bring some some more helpful information to people like Brandi Brandi ends she’s a small business owner here in Arlington and I think like you said this is a United States thing it’s a you know obviously it affects us in Texas

and then affects us locally but any information that you can bring that someone would want more how would they get in touch with you well you can reach me the easiest number is to call the office directly it’s 817 277 9000 or you can go to my website I have two websites once under construction the one that’s available now is ww join shawnette and it’s jo I n SI n dot net terrific well thank you so much again for calling in and we do look forward to the next segment where you can share some tips

and some helpful information with with our listeners Sean a wreck Meyer is a health insurance broker health benefits consultant and an ACA compliance consultant you can reach him at 8 1 7 27 79 thousand and again thank you for calling and thank you for your passion in this I think it’s really needed absolutely and quite honestly I would like to talk to you myself well that’s great and I appreciate it and I hope just talk to you very soon alright Sean thank you again and we look forward to

hearing more from you alright have a good day well Brandi we are really running out of time we are getting to the end of our show and I did text Diana and see if she would call back i’m not sure she’s able to cuz she does this from work and so I know I know but just so that our listeners know we we are going to post our next patio Palooza and lately it’s just been raining you really can’t be should have a whole show with people who go to Patty hi love patios there’s nothing more you

know I’m originally from North Carolina and they didn’t have like a whole patio setting and when I came to Texas it was the best thing just sitting on a patio eating having a cocktail or green tea whatever floats your boat it was just so much fun it is it is and we are fortunate we’re in a nice warm state that does allow us to do that most times of the year so so if she cannot call back that’s ok we’ll we’ll save it for next week because she did she does do her research and we call it research so

when are you going to research this week and so I won’t spoil the the patio review that she put out but i will say that we put this on my website which is WWE live dfw calm and you can go there now and see the last three pay VA 0 reviews that we did and it was just a lot of fun we been all over the metroplex just I’m tasting and enjoying the Sun when it’s out it looks like the sun’s coming that’s going away going away and the clouds are coming back so it’s been a great show thank you so much

we are coming down to the last couple of minutes and I I’m kind of bummed because we didn’t really get into all the law practice all right now that you do so we definitely need for you to come back absolutely and help us navigate through some shows that you know are really specific to what you do and how you help people so again this is Heidi hardy and i’m your host of real-life TFW our guest today is brandy austin she is a business owner she’s a wife she’s a mom she’s a

nice sister she’s a great boss apparently and there you know those things I think we sometimes minimize the impact we have on other people’s lives I think we could do a whole show on impacting other people’s lives and not realizing it absolutely yeah and I I think as I’ve grown a little older every year I start to to be more cognizant of that that ability and so smile more be kinder have you know be more compassionate if nothing else in your the way you look at people sometimes compassion you know comes from nonverbal

as you equal absolutely everyone is and so yes please come back I think you and I could talk for hours and all kinds of really cool conversations so but do me a favor read the positive thought for the week a woman what the purpose doesn’t have to pursue people or opportunities her light causes people and opportunities to preserve pursue her I really like that to me to you I strive over the years and all the challenges that I’ve had and have helped build this foundation of understanding that life isn’t perfect

and if you’re doing the right things and pursuing excellence for yourself whatever that means i know its individual then those opportunities and those people will come to your life nailed and you’re one of them thank you so much for being here today you’re been in my life and now in the listeners live so we’re really grateful for you sharing your story and thank you for having me I’ve had so much fun yeah it is it’s a it’s a great platform for you know just just people in general their stories are

so amazing so this is the end of the show we are going to have a great show next we got to tell you brandy you might want to come back we add as moral support to me because the show is about dating oh I remember I remember that that is you know I date my husband and I’m sure you date Tim as well but dating hi we’re going to have a dating expert and we’re going to have some women on the show that are in that dating life and we’re going to talk about the ups and downs the real life stories of

people who are dating today so don’t miss next week’s show and don’t forget to live your real life

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