IAM2796 – Founder and Immigration Attorney focused on High-skilled Professional and Family Based Immigration

Full Podcast Interview

Full Audio Transcription:

Yalda Hajavi 00:00
Yeah, it's okay to say no. If something doesn't feel like it's aligning with you, it's okay to say no, I think, especially when you're starting out. I know when I did like my first six months, I felt like I had to take every case and client that walked through the door. And looking back, I should have said no to some of them because they, they were very difficult situations to be in. Not just because of the case type, but like, you know, I just wasn't the right match for this client. So it's okay to say no. Saying no is not no to everyone. If you say no to one person, other opportunities will come up.

Gresham Harkless 01:05
Hello, hello, hello, this is Gretch from the IM CEO podcast and I have an awesome guest on the show today. I have Yalda Hajavi. Yalda, excited to have you on the show.

Yalda Hajavi 01:13
Thank you for having me. I'm excited.

Gresham Harkless 01:15
Yeah, I'm super excited as well too. And I know you're doing so many awesome things. So super excited to talk a little bit about your story, your journey, and all the impact that you're having. But of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Yada so you can hear about some of those awesome things. Yada is founder and principal immigration attorney at YH Global Immigration pllc. She focuses her practice on business immigration for highly skilled individuals and family based immigration. Yada is a daughter of immigrants and her perspective as an immigrant has deeply shaped her work as an immigration attorney as well too. And one of the things I was looking up before we hopped on this call in this interview was that she was recognized by her peers with honors such as a Rising Star award from the Iranian American Bar Association. And just when we first connected, we had a great conversation. She has a great story, including how she got started, which I'm sure we'll dive into, and how that three month trial turned into all the awesome work that you're doing. So Yalda, super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Yalda Hajavi 02:11
Of course. Super, super excited to be here. And thank you for that intro.

Gresham Harkless 02:15
Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely Easier to read it. And I'm sure you're doing all the hard work and things that you're doing. So I guess to kick that off, let's rewind the clock. Hear a little bit more on how you got started. What do you call your sales story?

Yalda Hajavi 02:25
I started my business, yh, Global Immigration, not by choice, but by default. What I mean by that is it was not planned at all. I know I talked to a lot of business owners, law firm owners, throughout my life and career. And a lot of them you hear say that, okay, this was something that I'd been planning for a year or I always wanted to be a solo and I did all these things to set myself up for that. My path was not the linear path by any means. It was very much nonlinear. So I worked at a pretty well known law firm in the Washington, D.C. area where I was doing a lot of the work that I'm doing today. I left that firm, worked for a firm for a little over a month, had an unfortunate family emergency where I had to step away from work for about five days to a week, came back and lost my job. And what does one do when you lose your job? You start your own firm. So I was not in a position to start interviewing law firms at all for a variety of reasons. And my late mentor, who I definitely want to honor today, Colleen de Santo, try not to tear up every time I say her name. So she told me, you know, start your own llc, I'll send you cases. I was like, this sounds ridiculous, but okay, I guess I will. And she's like, but you need malpractice insurance too. I'm just like, walk me through that. So I started this LLC as you had pointed to earlier as literally a three month project. I was like, I'm going to do this for three months. I got a mailbox for three months where clients could send me documents if needed. And I get like notices from the government. And then I was going to start interviewing and go back to a law firm. Three months went by and I was like, okay, this is weird. Like, I had one client, now I have four. And I like the flexibility of having my own business. It also is giving me time to attend to my family, which I really needed to do at that time. So then I extended my mailbox to six months, and then I extended my mailbox to a year. And then when I hit the one year mark, that's when it set in. And I was like, oh my God, this is my full time job now. Like, I have my Own law firm. So from then on I, you know, just, I rebranded a lot of things. I went in harder in terms of wanting to see the business grow. So yeah, I just, you know, reiterating that it was not a decision that was planned, it just happened. But I'm, I wouldn't have had it any diff any other way. I think everything that has happened in my career until now set me up for having this firm.

Gresham Harkless 05:03
Absolutely. So I want to drill down a little bit more. I know we touched on a little bit on how you're working with and serving your clients. Would love to hear a little bit more on what that looks like, what that process is and how you make that impact.

Yalda Hajavi 05:12
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I work mostly in business, immigration or employment based integration. It's really the same thing. I work with high skilled individuals. So the engineers of the world, the data scientists of the world, the AI experts, but it could also be the creatives of the world like the musicians and dancers and so forth that wanna self sponsor themselves for the green cards. So what does that mean? A green card will allow you to stay in the US permanently, whereas if you have a work visa or student visa, you're supposed to come here and then leave unless you, you know, change your mind or change your intent later on. So that is a bulk of my practice is doing these self petitioning green cards not to, you know, throw up an Alphabet out there. But NIWS EB1A's and O&O1s are with an employer, but they are for high skilled individuals. But I also help employers figure out what they need to do to sponsor foreign nationals through a work visa. And then more on like I would say, you know, quote unquote traditional side of what we understand immigration as the family based immigration. So helping you know, a spouse get married and then file for a green card or bring a child here that's abroad or if you're already here navigating that as a family. I do a little bit of asylum. I feel like I'm going to start doing more of it given the current climate and you know, fears of returning to various countries. But I, you know, it's not the bulk of my practice, but the thing with immigration is that your practice sometimes shifts based on policies shifting. So it's kind of hard to be an immigration attorney sometimes. But that's something that I've been seeing happening where okay, I need a shift strategy or shift maybe the type of cases I'm working on because of the climate.

Gresham Harkless 07:02
Yeah, that makes so much Sense I appreciate you and breaking that down. And like you said, I, you know, you always think of like, what's the law? What can you do? What can you not do? But that strategy piece, I wonder if you having a handle on that or, or maybe a temperature on that is what is your secret sauce and what sets you apart and being, not just being able to say, okay, this is the law, but understanding how to strategize around that for the family, the business or whoever, you know, you might be working with.

Yalda Hajavi 07:24
I think part of it of course is just staying up to date with the news all the time. Like I'm on so many different listservs, I follow so many different immigration channels, even ones I don't agree with personally. So I can understand the other side. But on a more like deeper level, I'm a very spiritual person and I think understanding humans should come before understanding the business. Sometimes when you get a client's case, it's the first time you've seen that, right? It's the first time you've seen those set of facts. It's the first time you know, you're dealing with that issue. It's easy to panic and be like, I don't know what to do versus taking a step back, going inward and coming up with creative arguments to, you know, make it happen. And this is true on all sides of, of a case. I think even with my more high skilled or business clients, I've had cases in the past where you know, they've gone to a law firm and they've said, you know, this, this is hard to do. Like I don't, I don't know how I'm going to make an argument about why your work is so important. In the US I've been able to strategize differently because I've been able to look outside of the box and come up with arguments in their favor. So that, that's one aspect of it is like the spiritual coaching. And then also on a technical side, like having a system helps me like when I get a case, an email from a potential client, I do have a system that I go through where I vet them out, I have them fill out questionnaires when I onboard them. Same thing, a system. And depending on the case type, there's also different systems that I've developed and built over time to handle those situations or cases.

Gresham Harkless 09:10
Perfect. Perfect. Well, I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or even A habit that you have, but what's something you, you know, and that makes you more effective and efficient.

Yalda Hajavi 09:21
Definitely trusting my gut, which I guess is not that much of like a CEO hack, but like really like listening to that has been a strong point even when it, when it means like onboarding clients. Right. Like this is. Is this the right client for me? I'm sure we'll get into that later too, but that's definitely a part of it. Is. Is a client right for me, not just if I'm right for them. And I do like to read a lot about like immigration law itself. I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to that. So I. Whatever profession that you're in, you should be an expert in the, the books of that. So we have this book says I would bring it if it was right here. But it's this big book. It's like this big. It's called Kurzban. But this immigration guru wrote where it has all the laws and policies broken down and, and he simplified it and there's like different versions of it. I literally read that for fun sometimes. Like I read it by the pool school or like I read it when I'm just hanging out at home because I think understanding the, the law, especially in the field that I'm in, is really, really important before anything else. And this goes for any business. So like, let's say someone's in. I don't know, I can't think in an accounting business. Right. Like understanding the, the core, the foundation of that business is crucial. You need to know the basis to excel. So I think, you know, getting a little nerdy and reading those more like strict and not so fun statutes helps.

Gresham Harkless 10:56
Perfect, perfect, perfect. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice. It might be something you would tell your favorite client or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

Yalda Hajavi 11:08
Yeah, it's okay to say no. That's my big one. If something doesn't feel like it's align, I'll give a specific example. But if something doesn't feel like it's aligning with you, it's okay to say no. I think especially when you're starting out. I know when I did like my first six months, I felt like I had to take every case and client that walked through the door. And looking back, I should have said no to some of them because they, they were very difficult situations to be in. Not Just because of the case type. But like, you know, I just wasn't the right match for this client. So it's okay to say no. Saying no is not no to everyone. If you say no to one person, other opportunities will come up. And then on the other end of that, like let's say an opportunity doesn't work out, I can say, you know, be very frank. Right now there's like these two cases that I'm waiting on for this client to sign on. I found myself like stressing out over like, oh my God, I really want their case, like a really cool case. It's a bigger case that I'd be working on. I haven't heard, heard back yet. And then a couple days ago I sat back and I'm like, that's okay. You know, it's not the last client that I'm ever going to have. So I don't need to freak out about it. I just need to again, trust the process and wait. So yeah, I think every business owner, when they first start out, they feel like they need to say yes to everything and everyone. You'll just end up draining yourself, in my opinion, in every possible way. So practicing saying no is a, is a good skill and habit as well.

Gresham Harkless 12:44
Perfect, Perfect, perfect. 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 the show. So yada, what's being a CEO mean to you?

Yalda Hajavi 12:54
Two things. One is being having a growth minded mindset. I think being a CEO means wanting to grow, not just your business as a human being as well. Because we all evolve, I think through our businesses. And then the other one is being accountable. Accountable to your business, your clients, to the services that you're providing. When you're a CEO, you're overseeing a lot of things and you know, at bigger companies, a lot of people as well. You have to be accountable to the mistakes that happen. Do the things that don't go your way. Of course, the things that go your way, that's great too, you know, give yourself kudos. But definitely taking accountability for the various things that aren't going your way or if you're not getting a result that you wanted because you know, it's, it can be everyone's fault, it can be other people's fault, but as the person in charge, you have to be the person in charge and take accountability.

Gresham Harkless 13:55
Perfect. Perfect. Well, I truly appreciate that definition, yada, and of course I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course, how best people can get a hold of you find about all the awesome things that you're working on.

Yalda Hajavi 14:10
I think it relates to my personal story and, you know, one word of advice for people that are watching that maybe want to start a business is that it's never going to feel like the right time and you're not, you know, you're not always going to feel ready to do it, but you just have to do it anyways. There's always going to be fear involved. But fear is, is a place of power as well. It pushes, it forces us to push through things that we didn't believe we could overcome. So don't, don't feel discouraged that, oh, you know, it's not the right season or I'm not mentally there yet, I don't have the capital for it yet. Like, find a way to start. If it is something, something that you want to do, your idea can grow into something great. You know, Apple started with an idea, the most extreme. Right. And to get in touch with me, I'm, you know, if you Google my name, my website pops up available through my website. I don't know if you're able to share my email address as well, but definitely by email as well.

Gresham Harkless 15:11
Yeah, absolutely. Did you want to mention your email as well too?

Yalda Hajavi 15:13
It's My first name. Yalda. Y a l d a y h gould globalimmigration.com awesome, awesome, awesome.

Gresham Harkless 15:20
I appreciate that, Yad. And of course we're definitely gonna have the links and information and show notes as well too. So you can Google, but you can definitely go to the show notes and find all that information as well too, so that everybody can reach out and have those conversations. But I truly appreciate you obviously for taking, you know, time out and chatting with us. I love, love, love that last point you kind of left us with. Like you said, even Apple became, you know, began with an idea. A lot of times an idea. Maybe you can find a garage which a lot of these tech companies started in as well as, and marry those things together and do really phenomenal things. But I think if we don't kind of give ourselves space and an opportunity to be able to do that, we'll never see what's possible. And I think it's so important to kind of take that step and just kind of move forward and you never know when the perfect time is, because there is no perfect time. All you do is take that next step. And if you take that next step, then that can lead you to doing some really phenomenal things. So I love that you did that, love that you remind us of how important important that is. And I appreciate you and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.