"You have to be able to take responsibility if and when you drop the ball."
Mariah Street Tweet
Mariah Street, Esq. is the CEO and Founder of Legacy Street Law. Her law firm, currently based and licensed in North Carolina, provides legacy and business succession planning services to legacy-minded small business owners looking to build generational wealth for their families and children. She particularly focuses on helping black family-owned businesses establish a legacy plan so that they leave wealth and a legacy for their children’s children.
For the last 3 years, Mariah’s firm has been using a proprietary legacy plan system and method that her firm’s clients have been leveraging and implementing to create true generational wealth for their families. Mariah started her law firm because her mother died suddenly at a very young age. Since she didn’t have any type of planning in place, all of her assets went to her father which meant that neither she nor her younger brother would personally see a penny from her estate.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us today. Please introduce yourself to our readers. They want to know you, some of the background story to bring some context to your interview.
Mariah Street: Hello! My name is Mariah Street and I am a licensed attorney, CEO, and Founder of a law firm (Legacy Street Law), transformational speaker, and legacy advocate and strategist.
This all sounds great, right? You probably think she’s accomplished so much. But some years ago, I went through hand-down the most life-changing, life-altering moment of my life. When my mother died suddenly (in seemingly good health), without an estate plan, and then my aunt died suddenly (also seemingly in good health) a few years after, again without a plan in place — I knew I had to change something. Both of them were young. My mom-46. My aunt-35.
Because my mother didn’t have a plan in place, everything – all assets of hers – went to my dad. An average person would think that that’s fine, but it wasn’t. I nor my brother didn’t see a penny of her estate. And then even though my aunt saw this chaos and stress that not having an estate plan was wreaking on our family after my mom’s death, she never got her things in order. And when she passed, I saw the emotional pain and the mess that was left behind for my extended family. People were fighting over the littlest things – it was crazy. I remember being in law school, already stressed about school, but then I had to deal with the absolute craziness going on with my family and of course deal with my grief on top of all that.
So I decided to make a complete shift in my career by starting my law firm and shift out of the traditional way people typically provide legal services. Now, I serve business owners and families to make sure that: 1. what happened in my family doesn’t happen to anybody else’s, and 2. people, especially the black community (because there is a great need here), are knowledgeable on how to pass down their wealth and legacy for the benefit of future generations in a way that is easier and smooth.
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your viewpoint, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Mariah Street: Entrepreneurs are made. I have found that I and a lot of my other friends who are business owners started their business kind of out of necessity. Meaning maybe they either got laid off, there were very few jobs/career opportunities, they were applying for an ample amount of opportunities and kept getting denied, etc., and needed a way to feed their family. So, therefore, we had to learn how to run a business as we went along our entrepreneurial journey. I know this has been the case for me. (I don’t have a business degree or any form of a business background – I started from ground zero).
I think even if someone intentionally started a business – you can prepare and try to do all the things people tell you to do, but there are some things that you just have to learn as you go in business ownership. Like figuring out who your ideal clients are, marketing strategies that work best for you and your business, sales, creating processes, etc.
Now I think there are certain traits of an entrepreneur that someone needs to have and/or be developed if you’re going to be successful at entrepreneurship long-term, such as taking ownership and responsibility, having vision, flexibility, resilience, and being innovative (to name just a few). But as I was saying, these things can be honed and developed if you’re serious and diligent about it.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Mariah Street: I would describe myself as resilient, diligent, and innovative. Resilient because I never give up, even when something hard comes along. I have an innate ability to power through. (And that doesn’t mean I just gloss over the challenge because let’s face it – sometimes we all need that good cry session, but after that, I boss up and take care of whatever needs to be taken care of). I’m diligent because when I believe in something am focused on that vision, there’s nothing I can’t accomplish. And I’m innovative because I’ve always been the type of person to either do something different than everyone was doing, improve something that already exists to make it better, or identify a gap/lack in something (a strategy, industry, relationship, whatever) and find a way fill it.
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Mariah Street: My law firm is an NC-based legacy planning law firm. For legacy-minded CEOs, business owners, and their families, we are the leading law firm that provides comprehensive generational wealth and legacy planning. We combine customized planning strategies, culturally relevant education, and the legacy goals and values of our clients to make the ultimate plan that works and impacts generations to come. And we are particularly focused on serving the black community in this area. (We serve anyone, but this is our focus).
The mission that I’ve just stated has, for the most part, always been the same. I did, however, shift to primarily serving business owners and their families. When I first started the firm, I was trying to serve everyone but as I gained some experience and worked with different people with different planning needs, I found the type of clients that I enjoy serving the most – and that was business owners like me. That’s because they tend to have a legacy mindset if they are in business full-time and truly care about the mission of their business.
Outside of that, some of my processes and systems have changed as I saw things that worked for me and how I ultimately desired to operate my business. I think this certainly happens for any company that is in business for a while.
Thank you for all that. Now for the main focus of this interview. With close to 11.000 new businesses registered daily in the US, what must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business?
Mariah Street: An entrepreneur must assume when starting a business that there will be a lot of trial and error along their entrepreneurial journey. As I mentioned earlier, each company goes through iterations of improving their business, products, and services to better serve their clients and customers. Don’t think that how you start is how you’re going to keep going. Go in with the expectation that things will change, and that’s okay because they actually should. When you better your business, your clients and customers will be happier and served better. All you have to do is just start.
I also think you need to assume that your future customers or clients are self-interested and are going to ask themselves “why should I buy this product/service from you?” And you should make the answer to this very clear to them or else they likely won’t buy from you.
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Mariah Street: Yes!! So for me, I assumed that if I simply “launched” my business and told people that I now owned a law firm that clients would come flocking to me. For about a year or so, I seriously believed this and it ended up costing me a lot because I lost time that I could have spent actively developing strategic marketing strategies. I learned that no matter what your business is, you NEED TO MARKET. And you have to do it consistently, intentionally, and strategically. I heard someone say that marketing is the oxygen of your business and that is true.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain.
Mariah Street: I would tell myself to make sure I’m always in some sort of community or at least really good friends with other business owners. Entrepreneurship is lonely and isolating. And if you’re not intentional about putting yourself in a community, you can feel as though you’re doing this thing alone which isn’t good. There were times initially starting that I wanted to bounce ideas off of someone, but I didn’t have a lot of support from people around me who had been in business and had the wisdom to share with me.
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Mariah Street: The worst business advice I received was that I should market to anyone who needs my services. Whew — after trying to do that, I can go ahead and tell you that is a lie. You need to have an idea of the type of person you want to serve/market to. I learned that if you try to market to everyone, you’re marketing to no one because no one is going to resonate with what you’re trying to say. Double down on that ideal client and, to them, you’ll look like the PERFECT solution for them. (Bonus and related tip – you also don’t need to take everyone who walks in your preverbal door either).
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Mariah Street: I think the pandemic hasn’t changed the fact that businesses are still relevant and are still able to thrive, despite everything going on in the world. Aspiring entrepreneurs should still assume that people have money to spend and they can spend money at your business. All you have to do, as I mentioned before, is make it clear as to why they should spend money with you (what problem are you solving for them).
What the pandemic, I believe, has changed about what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business is that you don’t necessarily have to have a brick-and-mortar store or physical location. You can start your business in the comfort of your own home. And you can start your business with limited resources – you don’t have to have the latest and greatest of every single system and tool. A lot of really successful businesses start this way anyway.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Mariah Street: A common myth about entrepreneurship is that you have to have a lot of money to start. I know I for sure didn’t. I had the money to file for my legal paperwork ($125) and that was about it. What I would spend time focusing on when you are starting is a simple business plan that includes what type of business you’re starting, who you’re going to focus on serving, and where you can find those people. If you do that, you’ll create a good foundation that you can improve on overtime. Once you start making money, you can re-invest that money into the business for those systems and tools you want to buy and even hopefully (if you wish), employees.
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Mariah Street: Self-leadership, responsibility, and innovation.
Self-leadership because if you can’t lead and manage yourself, you won’t be able to lead and manage other people. And whether you eventually want employees or not, you need to be able to manage yourself just generally or your business will be a mess. You won’t be organized and it’ll show in your service to your clients/customers. In entrepreneurship, you don’t have someone watching over your shoulder to make sure things are getting done so you have to have that self-leadership and self-discipline.
Responsibility because you will be OWNING a business. So that means if things go wrong, that is your name and reputation on the line. You have to be able to take responsibility if and when you drop the ball.
Innovation because as most people saw with the pandemic, things can change in an instant, and you have to be able to adapt. This sometimes means shifting completing and finding new ways of doing something. You can count on the fact that things will change – please do not be that business owner that is stuck in their ways and is resistant to change. Your business will not survive if you have that type of attitude.
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Mariah Street: Absolutely! I highly recommend always continuing to learn business and entrepreneurship principles. For books, I’d recommend ‘Profit First’ and ‘The Pumpkin Plan’ by Mike Michalowicz, ‘Start With Why’ by Simon Sinek, ‘Never Split the Difference’ by Chris Voss and ‘The Little Red Book of Selling’ by Jeffrey Gitomer.
I’m also a big Marvel fan, and I think that there are really good lessons on delegation and the duties of an assistant-type role in the first 2 Iron Man movies 😉
You have shared quite a bit of your wisdom and our readers thank you for your generosity but would also love to know: If you could choose any job other than being an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Mariah Street: I would be a travel blogger! I love to travel and also love sharing my travel experiences with people – things I learned, things I did, etc. I think that would be fun. Either that or a dancer (I always thought it would be cool to be in a Broadway play).
Thank you so much for your time, I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say that this has been incredibly insightful. We do have one more question: If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, but not a politician, who would it be; why?
Mariah Street: I would probably add Oprah. I think she’s contributed so much to culture and society and has made great strides as a black woman in America that she deserves that level of recognition.
Larry Yatch, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Mariah Street 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 Mariah Street or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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