We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nicole Martins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nicole, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

The entrepreneur route is not linear. There are so many ups and downs and feelings of “this is my life calling and I love what I do” to “should I take a job somewhere”. And sometimes those thoughts happen in the same day.

Running your own business is exhilarating and terrifying. Not having a steady paycheck can be scary. Being responsible for the livelihood of your team, the trust of clients with sensitive needs, and still having to think about payroll, marketing, sales, scaling the business, while juggling personal responsibilities, is a wild ride.

The most difficult of times have been when a client dies unexpectedly. It does not happen often, but it did recently. A young father retained our firm to assist with his estate plan. He had a really young child, but the client died before we were able to sign his estate planning documents. It was unexpected. No one could have predicted this. But that case still haunts me and keeps me up at night. As a business owner who genuinely cares about her clients and their well-being, it was gut wrenching. I don’t believe I would have cared any less if I was an employee at a firm, though I genuinely believe that the majority of the tasks carried out following his passing would have been handled by a more senior person at a firm. As the business owner, especially in this field, you are far more exposed than if working as an employee elsewhere.

Despite the emotional toll, it served as a lesson and ignited a fire in me and my team to work quicker and more efficiently. The intention being that we minimize our time in signing documents to reduce the chance of something like this happening again.

Nicole, 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?

I’m an estate planning, probate, and asset protection attorney. I often tell people I’m a cleaning lady: I clean up messes that are left behind (probate), though my ultimate goal is to prevent those messes in the first place, through proper estate planning.

For as long as I can remember I wanted to become an attorney. Though for many years, I thought I would be a criminal attorney. Turns out that’s not what I wanted at all. My career started as a civil litigation attorney. The experience was great, but not personally fulfilling. After reflecting on my favorite subjects in law school, I knew I needed to give estate planning a solid go. The best professional decision I’ve made!

MLF was founded in 2018 with nothing but hopes and dreams. Investing in those has been rewarding in every way. Challenging in other ways I could not anticipate, but more rewarding than challenging. Though we never set out to be a firm that niche’d in the Brazilian community, that’s exactly what happened. I suppose it makes sense to share that my family is originally from Brazil and I am fluent in Portuguese. Turns out there’s about 300 thousand Brazilians in Florida. A great place to be for this niche. I’m proud of the education and resources we have provided to the Brazilian community through over 50 events, speaking engagements, countless articles, and key figures who have significant Brazilian clients (bankers and financial advisors, to name a few).

Our goal has always been to plan efficiently based on each family’s need to ensure their loved ones avoid court and conflict. We have helped hundreds of families do exactly this.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Covid 19. It forced us to do things differently. In the thick of it all, there were clients in dire need of planning. The type of planning in the event of death, but specifically during this time, a huge focus was on planning for incapacity. My office building was shut down for several months. To ensure everyone who needed planning was seen, we conducted signings in the parking lot. Wearing masks, gloves, and sanitizing every inch of every item we used. Oftentimes, clients who were already sick did not get out of their car. We had witnesses on each side of the car with clipboards passing paperwork around the car to get signed, notarized, and witnessed. It was the right thing to do, but wow, what an effort that required so much more planning (no pun intended) to accomplish what used to be a simple meeting at a conference room table.

We had to let people know how we would safely conduct their signing. The photos and social media posts from those days seems silly, but it was our reality for quite some time.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Your word is your bond in this field! You do what you say you’re going to do and you do it well. Maintaining contact with clients through social media, newsletters, and random phone calls just to say hi – yes, phone calls from your lawyer just to say hi and ask if we can help in any way. All of this built a reputation of trustworthiness, competent, and truly caring. Referrals from former clients and other colleagues who know how we operate is the biggest referral source. And it is an incredible compliment to receive these referrals.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.martinslegal.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/themartinslawfirm
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/themartinslawfirm

Image Credits
Tampa Branding Photography