We recently connected with Wani Iris Manly, Esq. and have shared our conversation below.

Wani Iris , appreciate you joining us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

The most innovating thing I’ve ever done is becoming an entrepreneur in 2008 with starting my first business and never looking back.

Wani Iris , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

So, I’m a Business and IP lawyer, a TEDx and award-winner speaker on Change and Entrepreneurship, and a multi bestselling author. I’ve been practicing law for 19 years and have been an entrepreneur and business owner for 14 years.

I started my first business in 2008 in Miami — my law firm W. Manly, P.A., a boutique business, corporate and IP law firm, when I got laid off from my cushioning law firm job that for a year prior, I wanted to quit because I had zero freedom. I also have an online business I created while in Covid lockdown in Paris, Where Inspiration Meets Law®, which provides attorney-drafted legal contract templates for coaches, online businesses, and entrepreneurs. I’m also the Founder of The House of Inspirational Business, which is my Paris-based speaking and global consultancy firm where I work as a speaker and corporate consultant.

I thought I’d be a lawyer my entire life, but that all changed on New Year’s Eve in 2010, when I made one decision that would change the entire trajectory of my life and business. I decided that instead of going out to party with my friends in Miami to bring in the New Year, I stayed home and instead analyzed my life that year and planned for 2011. I spent the entire day in my condo at the time on the Miami River looking at my achievements and failures, followed by looking at my limiting beliefs about myself, and then planning out everything that I wanted to be, do, have, and experience in 2011. After writing for hours on end, I visualized each and everything on the list, did Sanskrit mantras over them and when the clock struck midnight, I took one sip of a glass of champagne and passed out. I had been at this process since 6:00 am that morning.

Three days later, my entire world in Miami changed and the signs began. That is, the signs about Paris. My entire world in Miami became infiltrated and bombarded with any and everything about Paris, France, French culture, French this, and French that. French everything. It was beyond strange to say the least because I had no connection to Paris or France whatsoever. I’m Liberian, West African, and Liberia isn’t a Francophone African country. I also was not your typical American cuckoo-for-crazy-puffs about Paris or anything with a label that says “Made in France” on it either. So, none of this made any sense.

In February 2011, I visited Paris to see what the signs were all about. What was the message for me? I spent 4 days in a meditative state in Paris, waiting to receive an answer from God or the Universe as to why all of a sudden, my Latin American world in Mami had suddenly transformed to all things French and Parisian. I got nothing except sick with the flu, as it was brutally cold and windy in Paris, and I was there dressed in Miami clothing.

After Paris, I then went to the French Riviera and visited every major city along the Riviera except Saint-Tropez. It was my first time ever there but when I got to Monaco, Monte Carlo, I had the strangest feeling and happening. Everything and everyone looked incredibly familiar as if I had lived there before. It had the strangest feeling of home; yet it was my first time ever setting foot in Monaco. After having lunch, I went walking around and after turning a corner, I came across a water fountain in the symbol of two opposite fishes, which is my zodiac sign of Pisces. It was at that moment that I finally received a message. It was, “Wani, your life is in transition from a lawyer to a writer.” I thought to myself, “That’s it”? All that for this? Disappointed, I went back to Miami thinking that would be the end of that — the end of the signs that is, but it wasn’t. The signs tripled, quadrupled. Every single solitary day in 2011, was consumed with daily signs of everything and anything about Paris.

Finally, in August, I was working on Brickell on a gorgeous Miami day, and the last place I wanted to be was in an office looking at a screen looking at legal work. I noticed yellow butterflies and thought it was odd to be seeing butterflies flying this high. At that moment, I heard my heart speak to me and say, “Move. Move to Paris.” I thought about it for maybe 20 seconds, and said, “Yes.” And from that moment on, everything began to orchestrate itself for my life and business to change aligning me with my next chapter. I sold my loft on the Miami River, my beloved Porsche Boxster, I had gifted myself for passing the Illinois Bar, sold a few things on Craigslist for less than a $100 bucks profit, and gave the rest to three charities through a friend and began my sojourn to Paris.

And it was in Paris where I started writing books, and published my first book, ‘Get Out of Survival Mode and Live the Life You Really Want’, which made me a bestselling author and sparked my speaking career that would eventually land me on a TEDx stage in Northern Ireland, doing all that I do now. That is, speaking on change and entrepreneurship, writing, and practicing law in a way that’s unique and unconventional.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Coming into 2020, my intention was to put the practice of law behind me and to go full time into speaking. I started speaking in November 2015 and initially I was speaking for free. At that time, many event holders were asking me to speak at their events as I had recently left Miami for Paris purely on following signs that led me to the iconic French capital. I had moved to Paris without knowing a single person in the city or indeed France, did not know one word of French, and had no clue as to what I was going to do once I arrived in Paris. As my story got airwaves and picked up momentum, I started speaking about it and giving talks on how to live the life you really want, as I had also published my first book that became an Amazon Bestseller, ‘Get Out of Survival Mode and Live the Life You Really Want’.

When I started speaking, I really loved it and decided that I was going to do this for the rest of my life. Speaking came rather naturally to me and it also was revealed to me that this is what I was meant to be doing. However, the issue then became, ‘How do I make money as a speaker?’ And so, I started investing in various speaking programs, coaches and masterminds and they were all from the angle of using speaking to grow an existing business. That never sat well with me, as I don’t believe in working for free and never will. And so, I went on a quest to find a coach, program or mentor that would show me the business model(s) of speaking—specifically, how to make money speaking. And towards the end of 2019, I found such a mentor, learned the ropes, and coming into 2020, I was ready to forge forward.

In fact, for my annual 2020 planning, I had mind-mapped my year and had written 53 countries and cities I wanted to speak in and stuck that list on my refrigerator. When the year started, I began to execute the plan my mentor gave me, and then in March Covid hit. I had to stop as the live speaking industry was heavily hit by restrictions and lockdowns.

Unlike nearly the majority of speakers, I didn’t jump on the virtual speaking bandwagon. In fact, I had an opportunity to deliver my first TEDx Talk virtually, and I declined, telling them I would rather take up their invitation when live TEDx Talks resumed.

So instead of virtual speaking, I created an entirely different business, a legal template business that sold attorney-drafted legal templates and bundles to coaches, consultants, experts, entrepreneurs, and online businesses. I saw how the entire world was shifting to digital, giving rise to the ‘Pandemic Entrepreneurs’, and that this particular sector of the new gig economy would need legal education, resources, and counsel to legally protect, grow and scale their budding online empires.

It was the best decision I could have ever made. It gave impetus to my existing business, my law firm W. Manly, P.A. while the new business, Where Inspiration Meets Law, LLC also took off. What’s more, it brought me clients and visionaries that were truly heart-centered and conscious and were creating businesses that had a huge impact on the world globally.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I’ve increased my clientele significantly with Social Media thanks to the decision I made in 2020 to turn my personal Facebook page into a virtual billboard for my services and a vital source of legal education. I began putting value-based content out there daily to not only help educate entrepreneurs in the relevant laws for their coaching and online businesses, but also solve their business problems with my attorney-drafted legal templates.

The strategy was also effective as I’m authentic true and true. I’m the same on and offline. I’m happy on Facebook and I’m happy in real life. And in the age of Social Media where there’s so much fake and fluff, people, as tuned in as they are, highly appreciate that and buy from that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wanimanly.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelovelywani/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaniManly
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wani-iris-manly-esquire-44510a5a/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelovelywani?lang=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@waniirismanly8089
• Speaking Agent: https://prather-marketing.com

Image Credits
Nelly Boutchoki Tommy Dickson @Bonnie.M_Photography Antonio Piedra