We recently connected with Amber Saunders and have shared our conversation below.

Amber, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I am definitely a happy business owner. However, I still think about what it would be like to have a job every single day.

Although there are many obstacles as a business owner, what keeps me going is knowing that I make a difference in my community. I help families BUILD their legacy. That’s huge. Many of us (African Americans) didn’t grow up with trust funds or family estates but we can turn around now and create that for our offspring. Their futures are in our hands and what keeps me going is that I am helping make that difference in the African American community. Many of us either weren’t afforded or don’t have enough examples of generational wealth. I am proud to be a part of changing that narrative.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I’ve always wanted to be an attorney since I was a child, so I am truly living my dream. Specifically, I get to help people with difficult situations on a daily basis. I am an estate planning attorney. That means I get people to confront a topic that most people try to avoid at all costs, death. We are all going to leave this life at some point. We are so deliberate about how we LIVE our lives but not as deliberate in how we LEAVE it. That is where we come in. We are your personal family lawyer. When emergencies happen, we want to be the ones that you and your family know they can count on. We help you create an estate plan that fits the needs and uniqueness of your individual family, not some template documents that are one size fits all. Your estate plan is the last love letter you get to write to your loved ones, we want to help you make it a good one.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The Obstacle is The Way by Ryan Holiday is a bible of sorts.

What stands in the way becomes the way. It applies to everything (generally).

The things that I try to avoid, that are inconvenient, etc are things I should study for myself to determine why I am pushing against them. Something is there. Whether it be wrong thought, wrong perspective, selfishness, laziness, etc. Whatever I am looking for on the way, the thing stopping me from getting there is me refusing to plow through that obstacle.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

I’ve had so many of those, but it always works out. I’m a first generation business owner so like many of my peers, I don’t have anyone else to fall back on. I am my own back up plan. It’s those people, like me, that keeps me going. The African-American community needs an estate planning attorney that they can TRUST. That understands what our family legacy means to us. So I know I have to do what it takes to stay in business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thesaundersfirm.com
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wealthplanningesq
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSaundersFirm
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ambercsaunders/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuzce9xfzI9gA6ZdG_PO1mg