"You cannot decide to jump in the ocean and still keep one foot on the shore"
Welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview with Lisa Gill, a visionary entrepreneur and attorney whose passion for legal and financial literacy has transformed the lives of countless individuals.
In this captivating discussion, Lisa shares her story, shedding light on her remarkable journey and the driving forces behind her mission. Lisa’s unwavering commitment lies in empowering small business owners and women to navigate the intricate realms of law and finance.
As the founder of Gill Family Law, she specializes in handling complex family law cases, offering comprehensive legal solutions to families facing unique challenges. Her expertise extends to areas such as mental health, addiction issues, business ownership, and the preservation of generational assets.
Additionally, through her consulting firm, Graygill Consulting, Lisa educates business owners on the profound impact of the law on their enterprises. By conducting workshops and providing accessible content, she empowers entrepreneurs to understand the legal landscape and strategically position themselves for success.
Join us as we delve into the insights, wisdom, and transformative approach of Lisa Gill, a beacon of empowerment in the realms of law, finance, and small business ownership.
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET FEATURED?
All interviews are 100% FREE OF CHARGE
Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Lisa Gill: I am an entrepreneur and an attorney. I am most passionate about legal and financial literacy.
Primarily, my goal is to: (1) educate small business owners about how the law impacts their businesses and how they can impact the legal process and (2) raise women’s awareness of how to gain greater impact & power through financial education and growth. I concentrate my practice in all areas of family law.
My law firm, Gill Family Law, handles complex case matters, including families having mental health and/or addiction issues, families owning businesses, and families wanting to protect their assets for generations. I am a small business owner and was a small business owner prior to becoming an attorney.
My experience as a small business owner helped me better represent business owners. I am aware of their struggles, issues, and concerns.
My consulting firm, Graygill Consulting, educates business owners on how the law impacts their businesses and how they can impact the legal process through workshops and published content.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Lisa Gill: Our company connects business owners with critical legal information that impacts the way they do business. Changes in court reforms or legislation can completely change the way an entire industry does business in a single sweep of the pen.
Yet, we’re living in a time where everyone is so inundated with information, it is more difficult than ever to figure out reliable sources. Gill Family Law is offering legal services based on how our clients want to do business.
Graygill Consulting is helping business owners carefully select candidates and understand pending legislation.
With this information in an easily digested format, business owners can make informed decisions and gain greater representation both in their access to courts and to the legislative process.
What advice do you wish you had received when you started your business journey and what do you intend on improving in the next quarter?
Lisa Gill: The unknowing is your job. At some point, you must stop trying to be all-knowing. We do not grow or let others grow by trying to be all-knowing. We grow and let others in the organization grow by starting with why and acknowledging we are all embarking on this journey together each day.
That is what makes being on the ground floor of a company’s journey so exciting. If you’re doing it well, there’s no “we’ve always done it this way” mindset getting in anyone’s way. It’s a mindset of exploration and improving the way you provide services or a product to the public, in this very nimble way.
In the next quarter, we will be focusing on AI and automation. We will be looking at where we can utilize AI and automation to reduce costs and employee “wear and tear.” I think it is a misnomer that employees do not like to learn new things.
Employees get worn down by repetitive exercises that do not seem to add value. If you can utilize automation or AI to do those types of tasks without reducing quality, it’s a win-win for clients and employees. Clients have a higher level of service and employees have not been completely exhausted to provide it.
Here is a two-fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Lisa Gill: Reboot by Jerry Colonna. Reboot is an in-depth reminder of that FEAR acronym. Feelings Experienced As Reality. What you feel at any given moment is not necessarily your reality. Fear is not always a sign to turn back, often it just means “this is unfamiliar.”
We’re often putting too much weight on each single decision when in fact accepting the fact that there has got to be some comfortable margin of unknown. Otherwise, you’re telling yourself you cannot move forward until you’re omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent; if that’s what you’re waiting on before you’ll be ready to grow and move forward, it’s just never going to happen. Your mindset is stuck.
Reboot is the book I’ve gifted the most too. It’s not your typical leadership book. It requires you to step out of the box and listen to yourself and get out of your own way before taking any next steps.
Christopher Hitchens, an American journalist, is quoted as saying that “everyone has a book in them” Have you written a book? If so, please share with us details about it. If you haven’t, what book would you like to write and how would you like it to benefit the readers?
Lisa Gill: I’ve never written a book. If I did write a book, it would be about how bravery does not exist on a timeline. We start out as humans, very brave. We fight to enter the world, learn to speak, walk, or do whatever we need to survive.
At some point, we’re taught there is a timeline upon which things should occur. All lies. You can start a business as a parent of young children. You can start a business as a single parent. You can change careers at any time. You can go to law school as a single parent and start a new career after your children start school. The only thing you cannot do is think taking risks will not require a new reality.
You cannot decide to jump into the ocean and still keep one foot on the shore. The other thing you cannot do is demand a guarantee before you’re willing to take the next risk. That’s a luxury life does not afford us. If you’re unhappy, you do not get a guarantee that any specific change will “fix” it.
You have to decide to take the risk, sometimes one step at a time but, never that any of those steps has any specific result. Mindset is the hardest thing to shift and the only real thing we have any control over.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Lisa Gill: Comfort with discomfort. You have to get comfortable and even seek discomfort. You cannot be constantly afraid of failure or trying new things. There is no place where you’re trying to “arrive.” No zone where you’re going to get comfortable.
Each day, I remind myself I’ve got an opportunity to learn something new. Every meeting with my team, I remind them change feels false. Change feels uncomfortable like shame.
However, we should be more ashamed of holding on to an old model of doing things that do not benefit us. We should never be ashamed that we are learning new things. Change always means learning new things.
What does “success” in 2023 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Lisa Gill: Listening more, asking more questions, and not giving the answers. I want to help people be self-sufficient and gain self-esteem by realizing they know more than they think.
I want to help everyone, including myself, realize that when you take the training wheels off, it turns out you could ride the bike all along. So, just ride.
Lisa Gill, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Lisa Gill for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Lisa Gill or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
