IAM990- Attorney Helps Build Online Businesses Legally

Nicole is an attorney licensed in the State of California for almost 10 years.

Nicole has a settlement-minded family law practice. As a mediator, collaborative law, and consulting attorney assisting families through legal separation and divorce, paternity, and post-judgment modification proceedings, Nicole believes that alternatives to the traditional court divorce process are both beneficial to families and less costly.

Nicole also works as a legal consultant, helping online freelancers and service providers build their online businesses legally with custom contracts and policies or legal templates that they can customize for their unique businesses.

• CEO Hack: Having a coach
• CEO Nugget: Take care of yourself before taking care of other people
• CEO Defined: Taking that vision, knowing when to delegate and trusting yourself to lead

Website: https://nicolecherioden.com/

Law Firm:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-cheri-oden/
https://www.instragram.com/nicolecheriodenlaw
https://www.facebook.com/nicolecheriodenlaw

Online Business (legal templates):
https://www.instagram.com/nicolecherioden
https://www.facebook.com/nicolecheriodenlegaltemplates
https://www.pinterest.com/nicolecherioden

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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00:10 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO podcast.

00:38 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Nicole Oden of Nicole Sheree Oden Law. Nicole, it's awesome to have you on the show.

00:48 – Nicole Oden

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

00:50 – Gresham Harkless

Super excited to have you on as well too. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Nicole so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Nicole is an attorney licensed in the state of California for almost ten years. Nicole has a settlement-minded family law practice and is a mediator, collaborative law, and consulting attorney assisting families through legal separation and divorce, paternity, and post-judgment modification proceedings.

Nicole believes that alternatives to the traditional court divorce process are both beneficial to families and less costly. Nicole also works as a legal consultant, helping online freelancers and service providers build their online businesses legally with custom contracts and policies or legal templates that they can customize for their unique businesses. Nicole, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:34 – Nicole Oden

I'm ready.

01:35 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's do it then. So to kinda kick everything off, I want to rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more about your CEO story. We'll let you get started with all the awesome work you're doing.

01:44- Nicole Oden

Yeah. So I took a pretty, I guess, traditional attorney track. I took a year off after undergrad and started law school. I clerked during law school, jumped into an associate position right after, and was doing the twelve to fourteen-hour-a-day grind at my practice, which I didn't mind because I love what I do. But then I had my daughter and it just flipped my world upside down because working those long hours with a three-month-old at home just didn't work anymore. And so I remember, it was like probably like my second week back at the firm and my managing partner had taken me out to lunch. It was like listing this laundry list of additional stuff he wanted me to kind of pile on my plate. And I was like, well, holy I don't know how I'm gonna get this accomplished.

02:25 – Gresham Harkless

Right.

02:26 – Nicole Oden

So it was one of those, I'm either going to have a nanny raise my daughter or I'm gonna have to find something else. And so I jumped ship and I decided to build my firm. I like to say that I built a lifestyle business because I built a business around my lifestyle. And I still do what I love and I get to, you know, take the afternoon off to pick my daughter up from preschool and we'll go to the park. At night, sometimes I'll still work and sometimes on the weekends, but it doesn't feel so much like work because it's what I love and what I enjoy, and now it fits around my family.

02:56 – Gresham Harkless

So Nice. I appreciate that. I love that phrase, lifestyle business. I say so often that I think we forget about the human aspect of business, and there's nothing like little ones to help you change your perspective on a lot of the things that we're doing. So definitely sounds like you've had that experience.

03:11 – Nicole Oden

Yeah. I think that she was my greatest life lesson. Like, I always tell her that she's, kind of my biggest inspiration and it's nice to be able to show her a hard work ethic, but also the fact that as a woman, you can still have a business and balance both because I'm a firm believer that you can have both a family and a business and enjoy what you're doing and love what you're doing and succeed at both.

03:32 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And that's huge. I'm a big believer in, like, you know, you sometimes become the environment you surround yourself, and you don't sometimes feel like something's even possible till you see somebody do it. So I love how you're kinda blazing that trail to be able to kinda showcase that for your daughter, but I think it also is a reminder for so many people that if you have a vision for what you wanna do, it doesn't have to be either or. It can be both, and you can build that into your life and your business.

03:56 – Nicole Oden

Yeah. I agree wholeheartedly with that.

03:59 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear a little bit more on how you work with your clients. Could you take us through a little bit more of that and what that looks like?

04:06 – Nicole Oden

Yeah. So, I learned quickly at my old firm that I just did not appreciate the litigation style of family law. I think that it's needed sometimes. I think if you have a case with domestic violence or a narcissist, there's just a certain something that comes with having a judge in a black robe on the bench telling you how things are gonna go. But so often people start the process, they don't even know what it looks like, and they don't know what to expect. They're draining their children's college accounts to pay their attorney retainer.

And, a lot of the attorneys are very litigious just to be litigious. Like that's just, that's how they paid their bills. That's how they keep the lights on in the firm. And to me, that doesn't help your clients. I'm a firm believer in finding an approach and a strategy that walks your clients through the process because, at the end of the day, they're still gonna have their family, maybe in a different, you know, situation, but they're not gonna have their divorce attorney. We're we're gone. So they have to deal with the repercussions of what that divorce looks like.

So my biggest driver was finding processes that I think accomplish that based on each family's kind of unique situation. So I focus heavily on mediation, and also collaborative law, which is kind of working together as a team with another attorney and other team members depending on the issues in the case, and then also limited scope services. So if you, you know, have something and you just need an attorney to come in and give you some advice and look at the paperwork and help you file things, maybe make a very brief court appearance, but you don't wanna pay the full, you know, retainer because family law retainer is here.

I'm in Southern California. So you could, depending on the issues, get a retainer, you know, up to fifty thousand dollars. And so if you can come in and pay a lower retainer and have somebody help you on that issue you can manage a lot of the case yourself. I think it just makes the situation a lot less litigious. It helps keep the family dynamic intact a little bit more. And financially, it just is a lot more affordable and accessible.

06:00 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And even I was talking about why you started your business and how your business came about the human aspect. Sounds like you're very, aware of that as well too. And like you said, you know, keeping that family dynamic together even after the proceedings are kinda taken care of because I think so many times you forget about that in the I don't wanna say casualties, but just kind of like the things that happen as a result of having that litigious kind of aspect or an approach to something like this.

06:28 – Nicole Oden

Yeah. I think casualty is a very good word to use because I think that people become traumatized by the divorce process. Especially if you have kids, your kids get caught in the middle and there's this push and pull and who shot whose side should I choose? And if you have one party that's using the kids as a mouthpiece or putting them in the middle, it just gets so difficult. So I think trying to kind of stop that before it starts essentially is a really good approach. And I think just finding out that there are options, you have options. It's not that typical war of the roses divorce that everybody just assumes you're gonna go through.

07:02 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Right in line with what we talked about your daughter. Just understand that this is a different alternative. This is something that maybe we didn't know about mediation and all those different aspects, can be, an option for families that are going through that. And so I know you create a lot of templates and things for clients as well. So could you talk a little bit more about that and how you support your clients there?

07:24 – Nicole Oden

Yeah. So the online business portion of my firm kind of started as a passion project. I was connecting with a lot of women in the online space who had businesses, and they kinda started asking legal questions because, for them, it was like Google. I'm just gonna Google my legal and figure out what I need. And so I would work with clients. And so I started helping them getting kind of like their website policies in place or their coaching contracts or, an NDA if they're gonna be hiring a freelancer. But some of them would just say, look, I'm just getting started. I don't have a legal budget.

So working with an attorney one-on-one, it's just it's I'm not there yet. And so I decided to develop legal templates, which are basically, a contract that you can customize for your business. And it's a theme. So you get something in place, you get a contract, your clients can sign, and you have your privacy policy and your terms and conditions on your website.

And I always recommend that you take them to an attorney that you can work with to kind of make sure that they cover your funds at the end of the day. But it's a starting point because a lot of business owners kind of have that decision of, well, I'd rather go spend the money on a shiny website and my branding versus the contract is gonna matter at the end of the day. And so it's a good starting point, and then you can build from there.

08:37 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I love the phrase starting point because, again, you wanna make sure that you're setting yourself as much as possible for success, but you don't wanna have to be stuck in either situation as we kinda talked about the other aspect of your business. So being able to kinda find that alternative and that way to kinda get started is huge. And so I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce, and this could be for yourself or your businesses, but what do you feel sets you apart and makes you unique?

09:03 – Nicole Oden

I think it's the combination of my attention to detail and my empathy. I think that so much is automated today, especially in the online space, and I'm a huge proponent of automating what you can automate. But I think that people also crave human connection now more than ever, especially since we're in the middle of a pandemic. And so it's just that human touch of knowing that there is another person on the other side that has their back and is gonna walk them through the process and answer questions. And they don't feel like they're just alone kind of floating there trying to figure things out on their own.

09:33 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That's huge. And I think that with all this technology, you know, it's kinda pulling from us, but we're, you know, losing that, humanistic aspect. But I've always felt like, you know, automation allows, to me, for you to spend more time being human, allows you to do whatever you do best, and creates time and space for that. So you're not sending emails back and forth necessarily, but that doesn't mean that when you connect, you're not having that interaction. So I love that empathy, you know, with that because I think it emerges both of those, and it gets to what we're ultimately trying to do, I think, builds connection and relationships.

10:05 – Nicole Oden

Yeah. And I think that that that is every business owner's secret sauce. I mean, at the end of the day, relationships are what make your business successful. And I think if you forget about that, then you're kind of at a disadvantage.

10:16 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And, I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:28 – Nicole Oden

I think for me, it's having a coach. I think that having somebody that's from the outside looking in to kind of give you their five thousand foot look, and advice is it helps you get farther faster. I don't think it's required, but for me, I'm so in my business and I get so passionate about working with my clients that it's like that. Are you in your business or on your business type? And so it's been helpful to have somebody check in and be like, well, okay.

Well, let's not forget about this or the bigger picture. Like, for my online business, it's been growing, growing, growing. And in my firm, I've had a lot of my online business owners asking for trademark protection and I've consistently referred those out. And so my strategist looked at me this year and was like, why are you not doing this? Like, just add it to what you do. And so I just launched that part of my practice too, last month. So yeah.

11:19 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And as you said, you know, so so many times we're so close to our business that may not even realize you were referring it out so much, and that could be a potential, you know, another, you know, opportunity and revenue stream, you know, to be able to build and even grow the business even more. But I think that as you said so well, being able to have somebody at a different vantage point, be able to kinda see those things helps you to be present. You don't have to worry about balancing both of those things. You get to be present in serving your clients, and you get to have that person you can kinda lean on to be able to help you increase your likelihood of being successful.

11:51- Nicole Oden

Yeah. Exactly.

11:53 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. So I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you hacked into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

12:04 – Nicole Oden

I think it's just that you have to take care of yourself before you can pour into other people. I learned this the hard way by burning out very, very early on in my career. So for me, like my morning routine is nonnegotiable. I get up, I journal, I meditate, exercise and it's all before my family gets up so that I'm like on me. And the rest of my day is devoted to porn into my clients and my family and everybody else. And I have that chunk of time that's just mine and I guard it very protectively.

12:33 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on their shelves. So Nicole, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:43 – Nicole Oden

I think it's just really taking that vision and trusting yourself to leap and to go for it, but also knowing when to ask for help and when to delegate. And I think you have that combination of having the vision and also being able to let go of some, which I think is very hard for business owners because they think of their businesses as their babies.

13:03 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah.

13:04 – Nicole Oden

But we forget that our babies grow up and don't necessarily need us so much anymore.

13:10] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I love that I love that metaphor too just because so many times yeah. I think that, along the lines of the book, like, the E Myth, and I'm sure your coach sounds like it probably has mentioned that as well too, is making sure that, you know, you don't get stuck in, like, I'm the only one that can do this. I can do this better than anybody else and not let go when you want to see your child or your baby to be able to walk and be a leader.

13:33- Nicole Oden

Yeah. You don't wanna have them stuck in diapers, essentially, for a long time. I mean, you want them to be potty trained and good functioning.

13:42 – Gresham Harkless

No. That's absolutely, huge. And I think it's a great kinda reminder for all of us, that, you know, we build our businesses to not necessarily need us, which sounds counterintuitive because you have the sounds counterintuitive because you have desire to serve so much and wanna give all you have, but you have to also understand when we become the bottlenecks to our businesses, we have to take a step away and allow it to grow, prosper, and get out of those diapers, of course.

14:06 – Nicole Oden

Yes.

14:08 – Gresham Harkless

Well, awesome. Well, Nicole, truly appreciate that definition, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all awesome things you're working on.

14:21 – Nicole Oden

Yeah. Well, I think it's just important to know that you don't know what you don't know. And so if you have an issue arise that you need to explore either family law, legal, or online business legal, reach out to an attorney. You can always schedule a consult and just make sure that you have your finger on the pulse of what this is gonna look like because it's kind of adopting that hope and pray and hoping and praying nothing's gonna happen method is ninety-nine point nine percent not success full.

So it's something to remember. And I am on basically all of social media. It feels like Nicole Shree Oden's law. So I'm on Instagram, which is where I'd like to hang. Facebook. I'm on LinkedIn as Nicole Shree Oden. And you can feel free to reach out. I cannot give any specific legal advice unless I have a retainer with you, but I am always happy to direct you to a resource and point you in the right direction.

15:11 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Nicole. We will have the links and information in the channels. And just to be clear to you, the templates and everything that you have online can help out any business anywhere, but you are a practice or your practice in California. Correct?

15:25 – Nicole Oden

Yeah. So my firm, I'm able to work with online business owners based in California for contracts and anywhere in the US for trademarks and in California for family law. The legal templates for Nicolestreetodin.com are for US-based businesses. You wanna make sure if you're looking for legal templates online, a, you wanna make sure it's something that an attorney drafted, and b, make sure you recognize what country it's coming from because, yes, we're a global economy at this point, but laws do still differ greatly. So it's something to pay attention to.

15:55 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I appreciate you for making, that integration and letting us know about that because I think so many times we get the information, and googling, as you said, definitely doesn't work for your doctor. It shouldn't work for your legal advice either. So, make sure you listen to a professional. So, again, we will have the links and information in the show notes. But, again, I appreciate your time and hope you have a great rest of the day.

16:13 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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