October 6, 2025 • 35 mins
Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Attorney Tessie Edwards and her husband Charles Edwards.
🎯 Purpose of the Interview
To explore the personal and professional journey of Tessie and Charles Edwards—a married couple who built a successful multi-million dollar law firm in Atlanta, Georgia—while highlighting their upcoming podcast “Love and Law”, which blends relationship advice with legal insights.
💡 Mission of the Podcast: Love and Law
To provide authentic, experience-based guidance on relationships, blended families, entrepreneurship, and legal matters, especially for couples navigating love and business together.
“We’ve lived through legitimation, divorce, blending families, foreclosure, food stamps—and now we’re here. That’s why we want to share.” – Tessie Edwards
🧭 Key Takeaways 1. Overcoming the Odds
- Tessie was a teen mom and high school dropout who went on to serve in the military, graduate college, and become a lawyer.
- Her original goal was to become a judge, but she ended up founding a law firm.
- Quote:
“I wanted my daughter to have someone to look up to.”
2. Blended Family Dynamics
- Together, they raise seven children: five from Tessie, one from Charles, and one together.
- They emphasize grace, communication, and unity in parenting.
- Quote:
“Children will try to play parents against each other. You have to be on the same page.”
3. Their Love Story
- Met at a football party in Atlanta and connected over a game of spades.
- Tessie wore a wedding ring to avoid attention but later revealed she was going through a divorce.
- Their first real conversation lasted seven hours.
- Quote:
“We didn’t get off the phone until 6 a.m.”
4. Business Partnership
- Tessie is the attorney; Charles is the Chief Growth Officer and “jack of all trades.”
- They’ve built two separate law firms: one for family law, one for criminal defense.
- Quote:
“If I’m going to work crazy hours, I’d rather do it for us.”
5. Challenges & Resilience
- They’ve faced financial hardship, foreclosure, repossession, and raising kids on food stamps.
- Their story is one of perseverance and rebuilding.
- Quote:
“We were at CVS on Christmas Eve trying to make the tree look full.”
6. Podcast Goals
- Share real-life relationship and legal advice.
- Feature subject matter experts, other couples, and audience Q&A.
- Topics include:
- Blended families
- Work-life balance
- May–December romance
- Building a brand together
7. Advice for Couples
Charles shares three pillars for sustaining a relationship:
- Desire to stay married
- Communication
- Grace
“You both don’t need to give up at the same time.”
🗣️ Notable Quotes
- Tessie:
“I wasn’t looking for a relationship. I was just trying to be outside and have fun.”
- Charles:
“I saw how she was with her kids. That’s the kind of mother I wanted for mine.”- Tessie:
“We’ve had knockouts and drag-outs. This hasn’t been all roses.”
#SHMS #STRAW #BEST
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rashan McDonald host this weekly Money Making Conversation
Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show provides
offer everyone. It's time to stop reading other people's success
stories and start reading your own.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I'm talking about you now.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
If you want to be a guest on my show,
Money Making Conversation Master Class, please visit our website Moneymakingconversations
dot com and click to be a guest.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
But and you can submit your information.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
You're a small business owner, you're new entrepreneur, motivational speaker,
influencer and nonprofit I.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Want you on much help. Now, let's get this show started.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
My guests, after almost eighteen years of incredible incredible marriage,
are one of the larger podcasts okay because they have
insight that they want to offer. Being a she was
a team mom and incredible ice of high school dropout.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
His side of the story. Won't hear about that today.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
But more importantly, they are a couple that are in
love and more importantly, they are successful couple.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
They build a multi.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Million dollar law firm in the state of Georgia in
the city of Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
They have seven children.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Go to talk about blended family and all those things,
but more importantly I about to talk to them. Please
welcome to the show, attorney Tess d Edwards and a husband,
Charles Ewarts.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
How you doing good? Good?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Thank you for having us well great. You know, Tessie,
our relationship. We've been here before on the show, and
I know your backstory. But feelings saying them a little
bit about your story and why so important that it
resonated with my audience so well.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Because it's overcoming the odds well.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
As we talked about my story before where I started,
I think a big thing for me was just loyalty
and wanting to attach myself to something that I love.
So I'm not sure if you're asking me about my
relationship with him or just overcoming the odds.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
From staff being the team mom. I apologize to not
being more specific.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Well, overcoming the odds as a team mom was, like
I told you before, having having a daughter, which was
my second child, and not wanting her to have the
same thing that I had, and so it just kind
of set set me on a path to give her
somebody to look up to, and so I started. I
went to the military for a brief moment, it went
(02:17):
to college, finished graduate graduating from college and then went
to law school and didn't think then that I would
have a law firm.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
That wasn't the goal. The goal was to be a judge.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And it just kind of snowballed from there and took
a lot of turns, ups and downs, and we landed
here with the family law firm.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Okay, Now you live here in Atlanta. Okay, what did
your relationship start with her?
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Charles?
Speaker 5 (02:43):
It started in Atlanta, Atlanta, And I chuckled because we
have a little joke that she met me in Indiana.
It attract me, but that's not true.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So you a former athlete, yes, sir, Okay, I can
see the bill. I see a little structure in you.
What was your specialty in track? The four hundred? Ooh,
that's a man's race that in the four hundred and
eight hundred. Those are racists there. Well, you good at it, though,
very good. Speak with confidence, speak with confident.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Good. So y'all met it in Indiana. I saw each
other in the Dana. No, we actually never met.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
We coincidentally, I probably say we lived within a five
mile radius.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Another For several years, I took summer classes at the
law school while I was trying to be at make
sure I stayed eligible for football. My mother also worked
at the same college that she attended as well, and the.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
College was Indiana University, Purdue University at Indianapolis.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Okay, cool, So.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
The whole state Indiana there was loving the air, but
y'all didn't connect.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
No, No, Charles. People ask him this and he tell
people we connected way back then. There's so many people
that believed what he said.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
We didn't meet till we were in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
But coincidentally we both lived in Indianapolis at the same
time and cross the past several times.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
But you're not hear what I'm saying. I said, there's
love and the air, but y'all did not connect. We didn't.
We could have been in this and that's all Charles
is saying. He's saying this was going to happen because
y'all was some paths.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Mom working here, he's going to law school, trying to
get some education here, and then you're doing this and.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
So you come to Atlanta. It was going to happen.
I wasn't school.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
I know, I wasn't in law school, but it was
IU and Purdue campus because I was in Indianapolis, but
I went to West lofeet I could take my summer
classes there, right, So we fast forward to our graduates
and my best friend actually went to law school with her.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
See coincidentally, we ended up at a party. Is she
fighting this Charles?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Cause he tell everybody this crazy story that other people
will will know and resonate this whole story about these
purple track shorts, and he was running track and I said, ooh,
I want them.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
When he get all.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
This said that once time, Testy, he did not say
that you were oogling on in the stands.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Today today, Oh.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
This is gonna be perfect. Now, you know the big
thing that we're going to get to as we go through.
But I just want to introduce them as a couple.
They're launching a podcast called Love and Law, but before that,
I want to make sure we understand who they are
as a couple. Now, I mentioned earlier about a blended
family of seven kids. Talk about that breakdown and how
(05:34):
when you say the word blended, explain to us exactly
how that worked.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
When we met, I had five children, he had one, okay,
when we got married, and then we have one together
and that's the seven.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So you have five, you have one and then another
one together, so seven, how does that blended family work?
Speaker 5 (05:53):
Charles who with a whole lot of grace, grace and
trying to be on the same page because I'm sure
people with children understand how they will try to play
one another, play the parents against one another, right, Mom
said I could do this knowing good and well Dad
is not going to allow that. So it you know,
(06:13):
it was a learning, trying time, but I think majority
of the time we were on the same page and
that's what what made it work as far as this
is what we want for y'all off, this is how
we want it done, and trying to make sure that
that goal happen.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
But let me take a step back. Okay, because you
have five kids.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Before you met him, Okay, you guys met in Atlanta, correct, Okay,
how did that beaded happen?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Well, we met at a we had mutual friends that
had a football party, just had people before a game,
and I came there and he came there and we
were spades partners that night.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
That's the short version. We were space. She can okay,
I've taught her very well over the years.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So we were space partners that night, and that's how
we met, and then everybody had a pet name that night.
I called him Similie because he looked like a baby,
and they were calling me Doogie Houser, and he Doogie houser.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
He's super smart, blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
But he called me a couple of weeks later literally
to ask me some legal questions about his daughter, because
he had recently broken off with his fiance and he
wanted to know some legal questions. And we started talking
then and he asked me, like, where's your husband? Because
I put my wedding ring back on that night because
I didn't want to be bothered. We got on the
(07:34):
phone later on that night, we were on the We
got on the phone. We got on the phone.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
No, no, no, no, you put the wedding ring back
a home because you didn't want to be bothered.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, the night I met. Was that a trick move
for you?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I didn't. It was a football game.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I assume it was gonna be a lot of guys
and I just didn't want to be bothered by them,
so I put on my wedding.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Ring for the atmosphere of the fun.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Meet my sister, my brother and hangout and I met
the brother and the sister that night.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yes, that was interesting, So he called you back. M H.
So in the Spade game, y'all exchanged numbers.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yes, we realized we knew people in Indiana at that
space game and called friends and like, oh you know
this person to realized how many people we knew together.
We didn't know each.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Other, but I'm trying to get this number exchange here. Okay.
Did he say maybe he might call you for legal advice.
That's why y'all exchanged.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
So at the time, she had said I'm bad with
directions and okay, and she's like, I don't know how
to get back to the highway. I was leaving the
ga home. She said, I'm gonna just follow you said, okay,
well follow me. I shut the door. She's like, but
if you end up driving too fast, you need to
call me so you can tell me which way to go.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
And I kind of at the time she was following you.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yes, so she gave you her number just in case
you're driving too fast and she got lost, and she
got lost.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
She is horrible listening to the woman with the wedding
ring on. That's all I'm saying, I asked him for
his number.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
She's following you to the highway, to the highway, but
she needed to give you her number just in case.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
You get lost, in case she gets lost.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
She following you to right You know, dark Free is
just one direction late at night, it wasn't packed freeways.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I'm trying to figure out how she was going to
get lost.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Where your thought is is like you, you're not gonna
get lost. My wife with directions is even when she's
following people. Yes, okay, cool, we got that down pack. Okay,
so now I got the number exchange.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So days past, you have some issues and you call her,
let's pick up the conversation from there.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Well, that night I believe, I actually think I talked
to her quite sometime. We didn't talk after you got
on the highway. No, so what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Okay, let me ask you this. You had a wedding
ring on right I did. When did you tell him
you were not married?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
The few days later on we talked?
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Okay, so he didn't because he didn't even call me
at any He didn't call. We didn't talk after that night.
We didn't talk that night. He actually called me at
work to ask me some questions, and I said, I'm
at work. I'll call you when I go home and
get my kids situated, put them to bed, and we
spoke that night and we got on the phone. We
were on the phone for two or three hours, and
then he said, can I ask you a question? I
(10:33):
said yeah, He said, where's your husband? Said, I'm not.
I'm not, I'm going through a divorce. I just put
it on because I'm want to be bothering, so on
and so forth. It was like really, but we got
on the phone that night like ten o'clock. We didn't
get off the phone till like six o'clock the next morning.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Okay, my father always told me, after thirty minutes on
the phone, you're lying.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
That's what you always told me. Gives us off the foe.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
When you're talking past thirty minutes on the foe, you're
just lying and just making up stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
And how long were you guys? Was on the phone out?
It was our first, our first real conversation. Did y'all
fall asleep and wake up? We were just talking and eating,
take a shower? What was How could somebody talk that long?
Because it's her first conversation. We didn't. We didn't know
each other.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Charles, you're not talking to it was it was a
lot to catch up on. So if I it was
very easy to talk to her. And if you, let's say,
you have a friend that you had.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
I ain't out.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Don't put me into a seven hour conversation because I've
never had.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
One, Charles, Tessie, Oh wow, we just talking. And then
we were just talking in seven hours. It's like, oh shit, along,
come in those two.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
But it's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
And who I'm talking to because it's an audio video,
I'm talking to Tessie Edwards. Charles Edwards their husband and wife,
eighteen years of marriage. You know, they were crossing paths
in the state of Indiana, didn't meet, came to Atlanta,
met at a kind of like football gathering.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
They were spade partners.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
She was getting lost potentially following him, so she gave
him her number. When he called her several days later,
you know, he asked her about her husband.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
She said, I don't have a husband.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I was just deflecting guys by putting his wedding rig on.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
And then y'all talked for seven hours.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Okay, after seven hours, Charles, what do is you know
mitch Man and the man.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Now ignore her. What were you thinking, brother?
Speaker 5 (12:20):
I need help, I need help so I can be
involved in my daughter's life. And she said that she
would help me.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Okay, So that seven hours just legal conversation. That's what
you're telling me, brother, Nah, okay, that's what we're talking about. Don'
don't don't give me that.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Dont sad bag me with the legal help talking that
that was about the first hour, the last six hours,
about a lot of other stuff.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
But did you know she was the one at that time?
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Yeah, no, it was. It was It was platonic. Okay, okay,
it was platonic. It was a it was an easy conversation.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
We had a lot of common ideas, and I won't
say we grew up the same, but there were parts
of the conversation that were relatable.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
So it made it easy, right, right. And so now
let's give a little on a background bout you. You
always know you're athletic, and so you're the growth officer.
I believe at the flaw for up correct, I was
a jack of all trades.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I guess, well that's what that's what I read on
the piece of paper. Brother, that's the title.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Did you get that? But before that, you were a
community was involved in fireman. Talk about your background. She's
so understated. That's why you love him, right it is.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
We have the conversation all the time.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
People ask him what he doing the fair like I
just you know, not just official titles, chief growth officer
right at the farm.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
I'm a jack of all trade. Just I just help
her whatever she needs help, you know.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
I mean I feel like that that's my job as
her husband to make sure that she doesn't fall and
help her with those things. And you know, wherever that
gap or that plug is. It's not a one size
fits all type of.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Things.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I'm gonna she says, Hey, I need you to do
this today. I'm fine with that through talking to you.
Fraternity test, Yes, tell us about your law firm.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Well, the law firm. You know, we started out doing
more criminal than family law. We kind of kind of
backdoored our way into family. But I really took a
passion in family law for the same reason that I
started out helping him.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
What is family law? Family law is any law that
touches your family.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
It could be a divorce, it could be a modification
of custody, of child support, visitation, any of those types
of things.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
So that's why you calling you. It was kind of
like a family law.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
It was a family law question. But not Ronnie think
I didn't practice family law. Then when we started dating,
I was a prosecutor, okay, and I hadn't done nothing.
But a lot of people think if you're a lawyer,
you can do all lawyery things, all.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Right, law, don't feel bad. I think that's sometimes other
than corporate and patent law. I think that you can
do anything that's not true. No, no, not at all.
So but he thought that I knew something about that.
I'm a mother, and so I could help him give
him advice as a mother what he could do. So
I couldn't give him legal advice because I didn't know
any about that. But that's what he was calling me
(15:15):
to ask me about.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Did you get your questions answered, sir? So seven hours
later you didn't get your quurtion's answer.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
No.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
As the conversation went on, I was more interested about her.
Oh well, that's all I've asked. That's all I've asked you, sir.
You know all this tend toive conversations. Please don't go anywhere.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations master Class.
Welcome back to Money Making Conversation master Class with me
Rashawn McDonald.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Now the interest has to go both ways, Tessey. You've
seen like a person who straightforward, you know, prosecuting attorney.
You're very fact driven. Okay, you have five kids, introducing
a man you you got to ring you want to
take off your finger another man in your life. How
(16:14):
does that work in your brain with the with the
lifestyle that you have, plus he has a child.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Well, I was going through a divorce, getting a divorce.
I wasn't legally divorced when I met Charles. But when
I met Charles, I was not looking to be in
a relationship at all. I was just gonna have fun
for the summer. I'm trying to be outside. And so
when I met him, it was very easy and platonic
because I wasn't looking for anything.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yes, and that's what I had in my mind. It's
probably the best way to get it in a relationship.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
It was so laid back and just we were friends
and we were platonic, and then it took a turn.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Okay, it's a good time.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
How many how many months did it take to get
to that turn? A turn of turning romantically? So sick
of for you because I'm.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Trying to be respectful of your show, or do you
want to just talk candidly because.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
I know podcast.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I think you're going to be talking candidly to your guests,
to your people who want to hear the truth, your
authenticity being organic.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Yes, Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
So when I started dating Charles, we were having fun.
Charles's eight years younger than me. I wasn't looking for
a relationship. But we can be friends with benefits, But
I was not looking for a relationship, okay. And then
after we had became intimate and we were hanging out
and it was just fun, it turned into a romantic relationship.
But I wasn't open to dating somebody eight years younger
than me. If I was looking for a relationship, I
(17:37):
would not have considered him, right.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
I never dated anybody younger than me. So when you
say when it was like something you have put in
your rule.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Book subconsciously, I just wouldn't have At thirty three when
I met him, I was thirty three, he was twenty five.
I would just would not have thought that you were
at that phase of your life where you would be
I just had never thought of dating somebody that much
younger than me at all. And when we started dating,
it it was just fun. But because of his age,
I really met him as a friend. We're gonna hang
(18:05):
out and it's gonna be platonic. I went with a
girlfriend to a club. He met with some of his
friends there, and we were at the club and the
little girl come up to her and dancing, and she
turned around and tworking and doing all this kind of stuff,
and I was like, get my shit ready to go
and go home, like, get me my keys.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
He was like, what's wrong with you? I'm like nothing,
You're good. Do what you want to do. Go home.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
But that's when I realized, Okay, well I guess I
kind of do like you. And that's what opened my
mind to where we could be friends with benefits. But
before then, I really didn't have any desire or thought
that we were going to do anything. We were hanging out,
We're gonna get something to eat. I was looking for
a home. We were just kicking it, hanging out platonic
because of the age gup. So I saw her turn
around and took the little booty up at him.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I'm like, that, ain't it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
You know, I said, now, mister, mr fly, mister eight
years younger.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
She is five kids. Why did that run you off?
Speaker 5 (19:05):
I saw how she was with her kids and how
thoughtful she was, and it was I felt like the
person that she was was everything that you would want
the mother of your children to be. So I didn't.
It didn't run me off because I thought it was
a good thing. You got five kids, Okay, I have
one difference between one and five. I mean who you
(19:27):
are as a parent. It was I don't know if
inspirational is the right thing, but the way that you
thought about them, the way you spoke of them, and
many months later when I met them, how respectful they were. Right,
I didn't. It didn't run me off at all.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Now that we talked about that, there are two divisions
of your law firm. Correct, Yeah, but we said the
family law. What's the other division.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
It's not even a division. We broke off and made
two different firms. Okay, so the one is criminal defense
and one is family law. Okay, But to double back,
I thought he was crazy. I told him that all
the time. I'm an older divorced woman with five kids.
You're crazy. I did tell him that a lot because
I thought it was crazy too, like what.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Are you doing?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
But my grandfather had done it in his family, his
grandmother and grandfather and a lot of them have the
women are ten years older, and so it was normal
for him to date somebody, very comfortable for him.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
I never thought about it. There was age gaps the
same as ours. I knew that he had came into
a family that had eight eight eight aunts and uncles,
and he came into that.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
I didn't.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
I didn't see any fault or anything wrong with it
because it was something I had grew up with my
whole life and didn't really understand it or look at
it until we started dating, Like huh, well grandparents didn't.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
They've been married my whole life right right.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Now, here's the interesting thing about business, because y'all are
in business together, correct?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Correct? How does that work for you? Charles? I mean
it works. It's one of those things that.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
When I worked at the fire department, I'm doing twenty
four to forty eight and I'm putting all this time
into something else that doesn't belong to me.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Right, So when it came to us doing it.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
If I'm gonna be driving myself crazy, working crazy hours
doing these things, I'd rather do it for us.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Now.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
In the beginning, at twenty five, it was an adjustment
just because the maturity level wasn't there, So there were
some unnecessary conversations and disagreements that we had that I
was just like, you know what, I can get a
job somewhere else. I go to the fire department, And
that's essentially how I ended up there.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Now, when you.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Incorporated love and marriage and business, how does it work
for your testing?
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Honestly, it is very intentional, but it is difficult a
lot of days because our personality.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Are very different.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
As you can say, I'm a very aggressive, outspoken, over talker, and.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
He's kind of laid back.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
He's a calm to all this crazy storm, right, But
I'm very very driven and focused. And so when we
opened the firm, and it was his idea, but we
opened the firm, we worked together, just me and him
side by side for four years, and then he went
to the fire department and he just returned back to
the firm full time, like three or four years ago.
So I have my thoughts and ideas of how I
want to do things, and if I want it this way,
(22:27):
this is how we're gonna do it. A lot of
times I can be very stubborn. I don't want to
hear what anybody else has to say to my fault. Sometimes,
but trying to not have what we have going on
at home interfere with the business, He'll just say, I'm
gonna just stay home. I work from home today, Brock,
you go ahead and go ahead in or a vice versa,
(22:47):
because there's a lot of days that we bump hit.
We bump his at the office and at home, and
sometimes it does leak over and then just understanding the
end game of the end goal and take a day
to cool off. It's not something that goes and goes
and goals, but yeah, we go at it.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Sometimes it's a difference at twenty five and forty four
is different, right, argument you linger on a lot longer
opposed to now we're able to get over it.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
And that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Some of the maturity came on and back then I
didn't even know.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Or we have an argument. You know what, I stay home,
you go ahead and go to work.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
Now we have time to cool off because there's no
time to decompress. You take it to work with you,
and there's no no way.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
To really get over it.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Well, you know the beauty of honesty. I'm looking at
an honest couple, you know. But I say that that
means that you honestly said that, Okay, he's younger to me.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
I don't want this.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
He honestly said, look, hey, I want you that it
all initiated, initiated.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Itself on a seven hour phone call.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Now you want to carry this, this transformative relationship to
a podcast?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Why you know?
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I would say so many times over the last fifteen
sixteen years that we've had a law firm and we
talked to people, not because we were thinking about a podcast,
but so many people have just said, oh, y'all, y'all
should talk to people and share your story. You guys
give good advice, but it's the advice of our life,
of what we've lived through. Like we've lived through legitimation, divorce,
(24:22):
We've lived through blending a family what is it called
May December romance? How to work life balance, We got
custody of two grandkids, and just try how to stay
focused with each other despite the knockouts and drag us
because we didn't have a hell of a time like
this ain't been No, oh, it's an incredible marriage because
it's all been the best of times. Like we've had
(24:44):
a house and foreclosure, we've had a car that got repossessed.
Well we got food stamps together, like we have been
on a journey up and down to sit where we
sit now and so trying to stay We laugh about it.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Now, what time we didn't have money.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
For the kids Christmas gifts and week you know, we're
feeling bad on Christmas even we scrounged up a couple
of extra dollars and we were at was it CBS?
We were at CBS trying to buy whatever we can
find to make the tree look full.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
So being here now was going through all of that.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
But when we're talking to people in our firm now
and they'll be complaining, whether we're talking to the husband
or the wife or the mama, the dad, and they'll
talk about things and we're like, okay, but you can
overcome that this is this and this is this, and
you know, celebrate the smallest things. I'm not going to
have Halloween with my child, And just the advice to
say Okay, well you don't have to celebrate Halloween on
(25:36):
October thirty. First we take the child to the pumpkin patch,
do trunk or treats? Just things that people don't open
their mind to that just get stuck on.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
This is how this thing is.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
And having almost eighteen years of marriage but a nineteen
year relationship of going through the ups and downs, push
you into place to be able to share that with
other people.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Okay, No, when you hear title, you see love and law.
So when I tested, I see law. Yeah, Charles, do
I see love?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
You do I love her? No? No, no, no, no, no, not
that you love her. I'm talking about it. You know
she's gonna give advice. Well, she gives advice by law.
I know. I'm coming to the source. Now you're talking
about love.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Why should I be listening to you, Charles, Well, if
you ask my opinion, that's one reason.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
But also with the law side, no, no, no, no, no, love
you love.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
I guess the law and you're the love. It's right
because that's how people go look at it. Because everybody
looks at a.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Point of view from what they recognize is the expert
attorney appears in front of her name. So I'm not
gonna ever ask you a law question. I'm gonna ask
her that. Now you might comment, but I'm still gonna
get the final results from her. Now you strapping looking
(27:02):
good eight years younger?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
What you got going on?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Mister love doctor? When I come to you, what you
Why should I believe what you have to say? Gonna
help my problems out? My wife is struggling. I'm a
man and that woman don't know how to communicate with her.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Man kept me out.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Brother, Well, I'm going to start from just I guess
personal experience. There you go, and I trust that what
worked for us, Now you can take what you would
like out of it and maybe apply it to your
situation and that may help get you through. So it's
again with the highs with the lows. Some of the
things that we did that did not work, yes, sir,
(27:43):
some of the things that we did that kind of worked,
and some of the things that definitely worked. And I'll
share my story with you and hopefully you can get
something out of that to apply it to your life.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Well, let me ask you. Let me ask you this
because of the fact that you know advice is all
we ever want from somebody, and do you take that
advice and hopefully it makes you have a better day
or better life.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Okay, just three things, just three if you have to
give me three tips. And I'm struggling with my wife.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You know, you know we're not talking, and you know
we're sleeping in separate beds, so you know we don't
have we just it just ain't.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
There right now?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
What three things that you would say that Tessie and
you Charles have enabled you guys to sustain eighteen years.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Just three points.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
I guess the first one is the biggest one is
do you want it? Do you want to stay married?
Something that kind of stuck with me early on, As
someone told me, as long as you want it and
you're not willing to give up, that's the first thing.
You both don't need to be at the place that
we're going to give up at the same time. Right
(29:02):
as long as we both wanted regardless of how bad
it looks and how you may be feeling woe is me,
you both want to work on the relationship has to.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Still be there. Yes, okay, that's one. Okay, communication, you
hear it. If you were to say communication, I have
walked you out this door. It's rough though, because.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
It's something we still we still work on and we
still struggle with. But you always need to be kind
of told what you need to hear, not what you
want to hear, and you kind of go from there.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
And I guess the third.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
Say communication we said we both want and in grace,
you got to give the other person grace. They make
mistakes just like you make them, and I understand you
have your point of view, but that doesn't mean that
it's the only point of view. You both can be right,
but I just need to understand where you're coming from.
So it still falls back on communication.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
But grace, I think love just passed a test test
I think so. So let's talk about the podcast in general. Okay,
because every episode is different. What is the perception of
both of you guys or you can respond testing, What
is the podcast? And what is the general purpose of
(30:21):
creating and producing this podcast?
Speaker 1 (30:24):
The general purpose of creating a podcast is again to
give relationship advice to other couples. We have been together
through for nineteen years, through a lot of ups and downs.
Like I said, the blending of the families, building a brand,
working together, work life balance, every vow that's been there,
we have have seen, tested and passed and so and
(30:45):
that's that's what eighteen nineteen years gets you.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
And then on the other side of that is the law.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
How we've done that and interwoven. Having the law firm
and blending that and bringing that as a part of
it is a part of our story. It's a part
of our love. It's a thing that we've built together,
and it's how we provide for our family and create
a legacy for our future generation. So bringing those two
things together, I think there's a lot of couples that
(31:10):
are interested in having a business together, a lot of
couples that have a blended family, a lot of couples
that do a lot of the same things that we do.
And so it's been a asking, a request for years
and we were just both very resistant to it until
now it just feels right now, so we're ready.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
So thank you for that answer. So, Charles, your role
in this you being a man, which gives you kind
of like a physical man of really physical you know,
we see things and we're attracted to Women are more emotionally.
They can see past the physicality and just go, this
is what I want to long term or short term?
(31:53):
Would you being a person who is the love aspect
of you are working in a law firm, why are
you doing this podcast?
Speaker 3 (32:04):
I'm still always going to fall back.
Speaker 5 (32:06):
I don't want to help my wife, but I also
want to get that message out because I feel like
there are to help some of the people that feel like, hey,
I have heard this legally, or I'm in this space
and I don't have an answer. I feel like there's
no one that I can ask these questions to. Hopefully
I can be that voice of reason, or I can
(32:27):
show them another way, or you're you're I guess just
you're confused and you need some direction and hopefully year
do you think men are flawed?
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Okay, cool, now now we're talking. Now we're talking because
see in the end, I really want to hear what
you have to say about Okay, because I'm a flawed man. Okay,
I'm working with a person that's emotional, I feel because
we're in conflict right now. Okay, we may have a child,
man to have a child. So knowing that I'm a
(33:03):
flawed person, how do you walk me back into the
relationship so it could behold again?
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I mean, give you different life examples. I might give
you the example of.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
Think of it this way now, and one of those
I guess for me, yeah, is she can tell me
something all day, but I can hear it from you
and it sounds totally different. Yes, but I can also
put a different perspective on it. And then you hear
that and you're like, well, you know, coming from another man,
I didn't think about it that way, it sounds different.
(33:38):
So some of the things that I guess made that
turning point for me, or something that she was saying
that made sense, And Joe Blow came and explained to me, well,
did you think about when you do this? And you
do Nah, I didn't think about that. Okay, Well let's
go a little step further. Let's put you in her
shoes and turn the story around, and now I present
it to you that way and then you.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Say, wow, Okay, yeah, I messed up. I didn't think
of you right, right.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
So the bottom line as we as we wrap up
this interview, so is it going to be a podcast
where it's just the two of you, or will you
be responded to social media messages or emails.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Or will you have other.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Authorities or subject matter experts on the show, a couples,
all of.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
It actually be a little bit all of it.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
We will have subject matter experts when we're talking more
on the law side, we will have other couples to
compare and ask questions. But we will engage the audience
with questions and stuff. And we're on all of the
major social media platforms, so we invite people to send
us questions or topics they would like for us to
discuss on the show. So we're open to all all
(34:52):
of it.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
And you, well, you love and law the title. I feel.
I wish you much success.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Thank you for allowing me to have another conversation with
a couple that's very successful and the legal businesses have
under as honest. I think that's why I like about
the potential of the podcast. This has been an honest
conversation about changing people's lives. I would tell my staff
that we come to work to improve other people's lives.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
And I really do believe.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
That the podcast that you guys are releasing this out
there currently is going to be in a podcast that
will change people's lives, and I think that's a blessing.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Well, thank you, thank you, and thank you for coming.
No Money Making Conversations Masteric class than thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
This has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashaun McDonald.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Thanks to I guess and our audience.
Speaker 6 (35:48):
Visit Moneymaking Conversations dot com to listen and register to
be a guest
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rashan McDonald host this weekly Money Making Conversation
Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show provides
offer everyone. It's time to stop reading other people's success
stories and start reading your own.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I'm talking about you now.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
If you want to be a guest on my show,
Money Making Conversation Master Class, please visit our website Moneymakingconversations
dot com and click to be a guest.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
But and you can submit your information.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
You're a small business owner, you're new entrepreneur, motivational speaker,
influencer and nonprofit I.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Want you on much help. Now, let's get this show started.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
My guests, after almost eighteen years of incredible incredible marriage,
are one of the larger podcasts okay because they have
insight that they want to offer. Being a she was
a team mom and incredible ice of high school dropout.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
His side of the story. Won't hear about that today.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
But more importantly, they are a couple that are in
love and more importantly, they are successful couple.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
They build a multi.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Million dollar law firm in the state of Georgia in
the city of Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
They have seven children.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Go to talk about blended family and all those things,
but more importantly I about to talk to them. Please
welcome to the show, attorney Tess d Edwards and a husband,
Charles Ewarts.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
How you doing good? Good?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Thank you for having us well great. You know, Tessie,
our relationship. We've been here before on the show, and
I know your backstory. But feelings saying them a little
bit about your story and why so important that it
resonated with my audience so well.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Because it's overcoming the odds well.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
As we talked about my story before where I started,
I think a big thing for me was just loyalty
and wanting to attach myself to something that I love.
So I'm not sure if you're asking me about my
relationship with him or just overcoming the odds.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
From staff being the team mom. I apologize to not
being more specific.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Well, overcoming the odds as a team mom was, like
I told you before, having having a daughter, which was
my second child, and not wanting her to have the
same thing that I had, and so it just kind
of set set me on a path to give her
somebody to look up to, and so I started. I
went to the military for a brief moment, it went
(02:17):
to college, finished graduate graduating from college and then went
to law school and didn't think then that I would
have a law firm.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
That wasn't the goal. The goal was to be a judge.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And it just kind of snowballed from there and took
a lot of turns, ups and downs, and we landed
here with the family law firm.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Okay, Now you live here in Atlanta. Okay, what did
your relationship start with her?
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Charles?
Speaker 5 (02:43):
It started in Atlanta, Atlanta, And I chuckled because we
have a little joke that she met me in Indiana.
It attract me, but that's not true.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So you a former athlete, yes, sir, Okay, I can
see the bill. I see a little structure in you.
What was your specialty in track? The four hundred? Ooh,
that's a man's race that in the four hundred and
eight hundred. Those are racists there. Well, you good at it, though,
very good. Speak with confidence, speak with confident.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Good. So y'all met it in Indiana. I saw each
other in the Dana. No, we actually never met.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
We coincidentally, I probably say we lived within a five
mile radius.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Another For several years, I took summer classes at the
law school while I was trying to be at make
sure I stayed eligible for football. My mother also worked
at the same college that she attended as well, and the.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
College was Indiana University, Purdue University at Indianapolis.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Okay, cool, So.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
The whole state Indiana there was loving the air, but
y'all didn't connect.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
No, No, Charles. People ask him this and he tell
people we connected way back then. There's so many people
that believed what he said.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
We didn't meet till we were in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
But coincidentally we both lived in Indianapolis at the same
time and cross the past several times.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
But you're not hear what I'm saying. I said, there's
love and the air, but y'all did not connect. We didn't.
We could have been in this and that's all Charles
is saying. He's saying this was going to happen because
y'all was some paths.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Mom working here, he's going to law school, trying to
get some education here, and then you're doing this and.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
So you come to Atlanta. It was going to happen.
I wasn't school.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
I know, I wasn't in law school, but it was
IU and Purdue campus because I was in Indianapolis, but
I went to West lofeet I could take my summer
classes there, right, So we fast forward to our graduates
and my best friend actually went to law school with her.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
See coincidentally, we ended up at a party. Is she
fighting this Charles?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Cause he tell everybody this crazy story that other people
will will know and resonate this whole story about these
purple track shorts, and he was running track and I said, ooh,
I want them.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
When he get all.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
This said that once time, Testy, he did not say
that you were oogling on in the stands.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Today today, Oh.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
This is gonna be perfect. Now, you know the big
thing that we're going to get to as we go through.
But I just want to introduce them as a couple.
They're launching a podcast called Love and Law, but before that,
I want to make sure we understand who they are
as a couple. Now, I mentioned earlier about a blended
family of seven kids. Talk about that breakdown and how
(05:34):
when you say the word blended, explain to us exactly
how that worked.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
When we met, I had five children, he had one, okay,
when we got married, and then we have one together
and that's the seven.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So you have five, you have one and then another
one together, so seven, how does that blended family work?
Speaker 5 (05:53):
Charles who with a whole lot of grace, grace and
trying to be on the same page because I'm sure
people with children understand how they will try to play
one another, play the parents against one another, right, Mom
said I could do this knowing good and well Dad
is not going to allow that. So it you know,
(06:13):
it was a learning, trying time, but I think majority
of the time we were on the same page and
that's what what made it work as far as this
is what we want for y'all off, this is how
we want it done, and trying to make sure that
that goal happen.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
But let me take a step back. Okay, because you
have five kids.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Before you met him, Okay, you guys met in Atlanta, correct, Okay,
how did that beaded happen?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Well, we met at a we had mutual friends that
had a football party, just had people before a game,
and I came there and he came there and we
were spades partners that night.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
That's the short version. We were space. She can okay,
I've taught her very well over the years.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So we were space partners that night, and that's how
we met, and then everybody had a pet name that night.
I called him Similie because he looked like a baby,
and they were calling me Doogie Houser, and he Doogie houser.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
He's super smart, blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
But he called me a couple of weeks later literally
to ask me some legal questions about his daughter, because
he had recently broken off with his fiance and he
wanted to know some legal questions. And we started talking
then and he asked me, like, where's your husband? Because
I put my wedding ring back on that night because
I didn't want to be bothered. We got on the
(07:34):
phone later on that night, we were on the We
got on the phone. We got on the phone.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
No, no, no, no, you put the wedding ring back
a home because you didn't want to be bothered.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, the night I met. Was that a trick move
for you?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I didn't. It was a football game.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I assume it was gonna be a lot of guys
and I just didn't want to be bothered by them,
so I put on my wedding.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Ring for the atmosphere of the fun.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Meet my sister, my brother and hangout and I met
the brother and the sister that night.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yes, that was interesting, So he called you back. M H.
So in the Spade game, y'all exchanged numbers.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yes, we realized we knew people in Indiana at that
space game and called friends and like, oh you know
this person to realized how many people we knew together.
We didn't know each.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Other, but I'm trying to get this number exchange here. Okay.
Did he say maybe he might call you for legal advice.
That's why y'all exchanged.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
So at the time, she had said I'm bad with
directions and okay, and she's like, I don't know how
to get back to the highway. I was leaving the
ga home. She said, I'm gonna just follow you said, okay,
well follow me. I shut the door. She's like, but
if you end up driving too fast, you need to
call me so you can tell me which way to go.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
And I kind of at the time she was following you.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yes, so she gave you her number just in case
you're driving too fast and she got lost, and she
got lost.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
She is horrible listening to the woman with the wedding
ring on. That's all I'm saying, I asked him for
his number.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
She's following you to the highway, to the highway, but
she needed to give you her number just in case.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
You get lost, in case she gets lost.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
She following you to right You know, dark Free is
just one direction late at night, it wasn't packed freeways.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I'm trying to figure out how she was going to
get lost.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Where your thought is is like you, you're not gonna
get lost. My wife with directions is even when she's
following people. Yes, okay, cool, we got that down pack. Okay,
so now I got the number exchange.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So days past, you have some issues and you call her,
let's pick up the conversation from there.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Well, that night I believe, I actually think I talked
to her quite sometime. We didn't talk after you got
on the highway. No, so what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Okay, let me ask you this. You had a wedding
ring on right I did. When did you tell him
you were not married?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
The few days later on we talked?
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Okay, so he didn't because he didn't even call me
at any He didn't call. We didn't talk after that night.
We didn't talk that night. He actually called me at
work to ask me some questions, and I said, I'm
at work. I'll call you when I go home and
get my kids situated, put them to bed, and we
spoke that night and we got on the phone. We
were on the phone for two or three hours, and
then he said, can I ask you a question? I
(10:33):
said yeah, He said, where's your husband? Said, I'm not.
I'm not, I'm going through a divorce. I just put
it on because I'm want to be bothering, so on
and so forth. It was like really, but we got
on the phone that night like ten o'clock. We didn't
get off the phone till like six o'clock the next morning.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Okay, my father always told me, after thirty minutes on
the phone, you're lying.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
That's what you always told me. Gives us off the foe.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
When you're talking past thirty minutes on the foe, you're
just lying and just making up stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
And how long were you guys? Was on the phone out?
It was our first, our first real conversation. Did y'all
fall asleep and wake up? We were just talking and eating,
take a shower? What was How could somebody talk that long?
Because it's her first conversation. We didn't. We didn't know
each other.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Charles, you're not talking to it was it was a
lot to catch up on. So if I it was
very easy to talk to her. And if you, let's say,
you have a friend that you had.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
I ain't out.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Don't put me into a seven hour conversation because I've
never had.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
One, Charles, Tessie, Oh wow, we just talking. And then
we were just talking in seven hours. It's like, oh shit, along,
come in those two.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
But it's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
And who I'm talking to because it's an audio video,
I'm talking to Tessie Edwards. Charles Edwards their husband and wife,
eighteen years of marriage. You know, they were crossing paths
in the state of Indiana, didn't meet, came to Atlanta,
met at a kind of like football gathering.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
They were spade partners.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
She was getting lost potentially following him, so she gave
him her number. When he called her several days later,
you know, he asked her about her husband.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
She said, I don't have a husband.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I was just deflecting guys by putting his wedding rig on.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
And then y'all talked for seven hours.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Okay, after seven hours, Charles, what do is you know
mitch Man and the man.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Now ignore her. What were you thinking, brother?
Speaker 5 (12:20):
I need help, I need help so I can be
involved in my daughter's life. And she said that she
would help me.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Okay, So that seven hours just legal conversation. That's what
you're telling me, brother, Nah, okay, that's what we're talking about. Don'
don't don't give me that.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Dont sad bag me with the legal help talking that
that was about the first hour, the last six hours,
about a lot of other stuff.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
But did you know she was the one at that time?
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Yeah, no, it was. It was It was platonic. Okay, okay,
it was platonic. It was a it was an easy conversation.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
We had a lot of common ideas, and I won't
say we grew up the same, but there were parts
of the conversation that were relatable.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
So it made it easy, right, right. And so now
let's give a little on a background bout you. You
always know you're athletic, and so you're the growth officer.
I believe at the flaw for up correct, I was
a jack of all trades.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I guess, well that's what that's what I read on
the piece of paper. Brother, that's the title.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Did you get that? But before that, you were a
community was involved in fireman. Talk about your background. She's
so understated. That's why you love him, right it is.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
We have the conversation all the time.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
People ask him what he doing the fair like I
just you know, not just official titles, chief growth officer
right at the farm.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
I'm a jack of all trade. Just I just help
her whatever she needs help, you know.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
I mean I feel like that that's my job as
her husband to make sure that she doesn't fall and
help her with those things. And you know, wherever that
gap or that plug is. It's not a one size
fits all type of.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Things.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I'm gonna she says, Hey, I need you to do
this today. I'm fine with that through talking to you.
Fraternity test, Yes, tell us about your law firm.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Well, the law firm. You know, we started out doing
more criminal than family law. We kind of kind of
backdoored our way into family. But I really took a
passion in family law for the same reason that I
started out helping him.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
What is family law? Family law is any law that
touches your family.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
It could be a divorce, it could be a modification
of custody, of child support, visitation, any of those types
of things.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
So that's why you calling you. It was kind of
like a family law.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
It was a family law question. But not Ronnie think
I didn't practice family law. Then when we started dating,
I was a prosecutor, okay, and I hadn't done nothing.
But a lot of people think if you're a lawyer,
you can do all lawyery things, all.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Right, law, don't feel bad. I think that's sometimes other
than corporate and patent law. I think that you can
do anything that's not true. No, no, not at all.
So but he thought that I knew something about that.
I'm a mother, and so I could help him give
him advice as a mother what he could do. So
I couldn't give him legal advice because I didn't know
any about that. But that's what he was calling me
(15:15):
to ask me about.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Did you get your questions answered, sir? So seven hours
later you didn't get your quurtion's answer.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
No.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
As the conversation went on, I was more interested about her.
Oh well, that's all I've asked. That's all I've asked you, sir.
You know all this tend toive conversations. Please don't go anywhere.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations master Class.
Welcome back to Money Making Conversation master Class with me
Rashawn McDonald.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Now the interest has to go both ways, Tessey. You've
seen like a person who straightforward, you know, prosecuting attorney.
You're very fact driven. Okay, you have five kids, introducing
a man you you got to ring you want to
take off your finger another man in your life. How
(16:14):
does that work in your brain with the with the
lifestyle that you have, plus he has a child.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Well, I was going through a divorce, getting a divorce.
I wasn't legally divorced when I met Charles. But when
I met Charles, I was not looking to be in
a relationship at all. I was just gonna have fun
for the summer. I'm trying to be outside. And so
when I met him, it was very easy and platonic
because I wasn't looking for anything.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yes, and that's what I had in my mind. It's
probably the best way to get it in a relationship.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
It was so laid back and just we were friends
and we were platonic, and then it took a turn.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Okay, it's a good time.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
How many how many months did it take to get
to that turn? A turn of turning romantically? So sick
of for you because I'm.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Trying to be respectful of your show, or do you
want to just talk candidly because.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
I know podcast.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I think you're going to be talking candidly to your guests,
to your people who want to hear the truth, your
authenticity being organic.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Yes, Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
So when I started dating Charles, we were having fun.
Charles's eight years younger than me. I wasn't looking for
a relationship. But we can be friends with benefits, But
I was not looking for a relationship, okay. And then
after we had became intimate and we were hanging out
and it was just fun, it turned into a romantic relationship.
But I wasn't open to dating somebody eight years younger
than me. If I was looking for a relationship, I
(17:37):
would not have considered him, right.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
I never dated anybody younger than me. So when you
say when it was like something you have put in
your rule.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Book subconsciously, I just wouldn't have At thirty three when
I met him, I was thirty three, he was twenty five.
I would just would not have thought that you were
at that phase of your life where you would be
I just had never thought of dating somebody that much
younger than me at all. And when we started dating,
it it was just fun. But because of his age,
I really met him as a friend. We're gonna hang
(18:05):
out and it's gonna be platonic. I went with a
girlfriend to a club. He met with some of his
friends there, and we were at the club and the
little girl come up to her and dancing, and she
turned around and tworking and doing all this kind of stuff,
and I was like, get my shit ready to go
and go home, like, get me my keys.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
He was like, what's wrong with you? I'm like nothing,
You're good. Do what you want to do. Go home.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
But that's when I realized, Okay, well I guess I
kind of do like you. And that's what opened my
mind to where we could be friends with benefits. But
before then, I really didn't have any desire or thought
that we were going to do anything. We were hanging out,
We're gonna get something to eat. I was looking for
a home. We were just kicking it, hanging out platonic
because of the age gup. So I saw her turn
around and took the little booty up at him.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I'm like, that, ain't it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
You know, I said, now, mister, mr fly, mister eight
years younger.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
She is five kids. Why did that run you off?
Speaker 5 (19:05):
I saw how she was with her kids and how
thoughtful she was, and it was I felt like the
person that she was was everything that you would want
the mother of your children to be. So I didn't.
It didn't run me off because I thought it was
a good thing. You got five kids, Okay, I have
one difference between one and five. I mean who you
(19:27):
are as a parent. It was I don't know if
inspirational is the right thing, but the way that you
thought about them, the way you spoke of them, and
many months later when I met them, how respectful they were. Right,
I didn't. It didn't run me off at all.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Now that we talked about that, there are two divisions
of your law firm. Correct, Yeah, but we said the
family law. What's the other division.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
It's not even a division. We broke off and made
two different firms. Okay, so the one is criminal defense
and one is family law. Okay, But to double back,
I thought he was crazy. I told him that all
the time. I'm an older divorced woman with five kids.
You're crazy. I did tell him that a lot because
I thought it was crazy too, like what.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Are you doing?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
But my grandfather had done it in his family, his
grandmother and grandfather and a lot of them have the
women are ten years older, and so it was normal
for him to date somebody, very comfortable for him.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
I never thought about it. There was age gaps the
same as ours. I knew that he had came into
a family that had eight eight eight aunts and uncles,
and he came into that.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
I didn't.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
I didn't see any fault or anything wrong with it
because it was something I had grew up with my
whole life and didn't really understand it or look at
it until we started dating, Like huh, well grandparents didn't.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
They've been married my whole life right right.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Now, here's the interesting thing about business, because y'all are
in business together, correct?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Correct? How does that work for you? Charles? I mean
it works. It's one of those things that.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
When I worked at the fire department, I'm doing twenty
four to forty eight and I'm putting all this time
into something else that doesn't belong to me.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Right, So when it came to us doing it.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
If I'm gonna be driving myself crazy, working crazy hours
doing these things, I'd rather do it for us.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Now.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
In the beginning, at twenty five, it was an adjustment
just because the maturity level wasn't there, So there were
some unnecessary conversations and disagreements that we had that I
was just like, you know what, I can get a
job somewhere else. I go to the fire department, And
that's essentially how I ended up there.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Now, when you.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Incorporated love and marriage and business, how does it work
for your testing?
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Honestly, it is very intentional, but it is difficult a
lot of days because our personality.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Are very different.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
As you can say, I'm a very aggressive, outspoken, over talker, and.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
He's kind of laid back.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
He's a calm to all this crazy storm, right, But
I'm very very driven and focused. And so when we
opened the firm, and it was his idea, but we
opened the firm, we worked together, just me and him
side by side for four years, and then he went
to the fire department and he just returned back to
the firm full time, like three or four years ago.
So I have my thoughts and ideas of how I
want to do things, and if I want it this way,
(22:27):
this is how we're gonna do it. A lot of
times I can be very stubborn. I don't want to
hear what anybody else has to say to my fault. Sometimes,
but trying to not have what we have going on
at home interfere with the business, He'll just say, I'm
gonna just stay home. I work from home today, Brock,
you go ahead and go ahead in or a vice versa,
(22:47):
because there's a lot of days that we bump hit.
We bump his at the office and at home, and
sometimes it does leak over and then just understanding the
end game of the end goal and take a day
to cool off. It's not something that goes and goes
and goals, but yeah, we go at it.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Sometimes it's a difference at twenty five and forty four
is different, right, argument you linger on a lot longer
opposed to now we're able to get over it.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
And that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Some of the maturity came on and back then I
didn't even know.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Or we have an argument. You know what, I stay home,
you go ahead and go to work.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
Now we have time to cool off because there's no
time to decompress. You take it to work with you,
and there's no no way.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
To really get over it.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Well, you know the beauty of honesty. I'm looking at
an honest couple, you know. But I say that that
means that you honestly said that, Okay, he's younger to me.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
I don't want this.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
He honestly said, look, hey, I want you that it
all initiated, initiated.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Itself on a seven hour phone call.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Now you want to carry this, this transformative relationship to
a podcast?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Why you know?
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I would say so many times over the last fifteen
sixteen years that we've had a law firm and we
talked to people, not because we were thinking about a podcast,
but so many people have just said, oh, y'all, y'all
should talk to people and share your story. You guys
give good advice, but it's the advice of our life,
of what we've lived through. Like we've lived through legitimation, divorce,
(24:22):
We've lived through blending a family what is it called
May December romance? How to work life balance, We got
custody of two grandkids, and just try how to stay
focused with each other despite the knockouts and drag us
because we didn't have a hell of a time like
this ain't been No, oh, it's an incredible marriage because
it's all been the best of times. Like we've had
(24:44):
a house and foreclosure, we've had a car that got repossessed.
Well we got food stamps together, like we have been
on a journey up and down to sit where we
sit now and so trying to stay We laugh about it.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Now, what time we didn't have money.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
For the kids Christmas gifts and week you know, we're
feeling bad on Christmas even we scrounged up a couple
of extra dollars and we were at was it CBS?
We were at CBS trying to buy whatever we can
find to make the tree look full.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
So being here now was going through all of that.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
But when we're talking to people in our firm now
and they'll be complaining, whether we're talking to the husband
or the wife or the mama, the dad, and they'll
talk about things and we're like, okay, but you can
overcome that this is this and this is this, and
you know, celebrate the smallest things. I'm not going to
have Halloween with my child, And just the advice to
say Okay, well you don't have to celebrate Halloween on
(25:36):
October thirty. First we take the child to the pumpkin patch,
do trunk or treats? Just things that people don't open
their mind to that just get stuck on.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
This is how this thing is.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
And having almost eighteen years of marriage but a nineteen
year relationship of going through the ups and downs, push
you into place to be able to share that with
other people.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Okay, No, when you hear title, you see love and law.
So when I tested, I see law. Yeah, Charles, do
I see love?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
You do I love her? No? No, no, no, no, no, not
that you love her. I'm talking about it. You know
she's gonna give advice. Well, she gives advice by law.
I know. I'm coming to the source. Now you're talking
about love.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Why should I be listening to you, Charles, Well, if
you ask my opinion, that's one reason.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
But also with the law side, no, no, no, no, no, love
you love.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
I guess the law and you're the love. It's right
because that's how people go look at it. Because everybody
looks at a.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Point of view from what they recognize is the expert
attorney appears in front of her name. So I'm not
gonna ever ask you a law question. I'm gonna ask
her that. Now you might comment, but I'm still gonna
get the final results from her. Now you strapping looking
(27:02):
good eight years younger?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
What you got going on?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Mister love doctor? When I come to you, what you
Why should I believe what you have to say? Gonna
help my problems out? My wife is struggling. I'm a
man and that woman don't know how to communicate with her.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Man kept me out.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Brother, Well, I'm going to start from just I guess
personal experience. There you go, and I trust that what
worked for us, Now you can take what you would
like out of it and maybe apply it to your
situation and that may help get you through. So it's
again with the highs with the lows. Some of the
things that we did that did not work, yes, sir,
(27:43):
some of the things that we did that kind of worked,
and some of the things that definitely worked. And I'll
share my story with you and hopefully you can get
something out of that to apply it to your life.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Well, let me ask you. Let me ask you this
because of the fact that you know advice is all
we ever want from somebody, and do you take that
advice and hopefully it makes you have a better day
or better life.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Okay, just three things, just three if you have to
give me three tips. And I'm struggling with my wife.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You know, you know we're not talking, and you know
we're sleeping in separate beds, so you know we don't
have we just it just ain't.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
There right now?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
What three things that you would say that Tessie and
you Charles have enabled you guys to sustain eighteen years.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Just three points.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
I guess the first one is the biggest one is
do you want it? Do you want to stay married?
Something that kind of stuck with me early on, As
someone told me, as long as you want it and
you're not willing to give up, that's the first thing.
You both don't need to be at the place that
we're going to give up at the same time. Right
(29:02):
as long as we both wanted regardless of how bad
it looks and how you may be feeling woe is me,
you both want to work on the relationship has to.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Still be there. Yes, okay, that's one. Okay, communication, you
hear it. If you were to say communication, I have
walked you out this door. It's rough though, because.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
It's something we still we still work on and we
still struggle with. But you always need to be kind
of told what you need to hear, not what you
want to hear, and you kind of go from there.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
And I guess the third.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
Say communication we said we both want and in grace,
you got to give the other person grace. They make
mistakes just like you make them, and I understand you
have your point of view, but that doesn't mean that
it's the only point of view. You both can be right,
but I just need to understand where you're coming from.
So it still falls back on communication.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
But grace, I think love just passed a test test
I think so. So let's talk about the podcast in general. Okay,
because every episode is different. What is the perception of
both of you guys or you can respond testing, What
is the podcast? And what is the general purpose of
(30:21):
creating and producing this podcast?
Speaker 1 (30:24):
The general purpose of creating a podcast is again to
give relationship advice to other couples. We have been together
through for nineteen years, through a lot of ups and downs.
Like I said, the blending of the families, building a brand,
working together, work life balance, every vow that's been there,
we have have seen, tested and passed and so and
(30:45):
that's that's what eighteen nineteen years gets you.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
And then on the other side of that is the law.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
How we've done that and interwoven. Having the law firm
and blending that and bringing that as a part of
it is a part of our story. It's a part
of our love. It's a thing that we've built together,
and it's how we provide for our family and create
a legacy for our future generation. So bringing those two
things together, I think there's a lot of couples that
(31:10):
are interested in having a business together, a lot of
couples that have a blended family, a lot of couples
that do a lot of the same things that we do.
And so it's been a asking, a request for years
and we were just both very resistant to it until
now it just feels right now, so we're ready.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
So thank you for that answer. So, Charles, your role
in this you being a man, which gives you kind
of like a physical man of really physical you know,
we see things and we're attracted to Women are more emotionally.
They can see past the physicality and just go, this
is what I want to long term or short term?
(31:53):
Would you being a person who is the love aspect
of you are working in a law firm, why are
you doing this podcast?
Speaker 3 (32:04):
I'm still always going to fall back.
Speaker 5 (32:06):
I don't want to help my wife, but I also
want to get that message out because I feel like
there are to help some of the people that feel like, hey,
I have heard this legally, or I'm in this space
and I don't have an answer. I feel like there's
no one that I can ask these questions to. Hopefully
I can be that voice of reason, or I can
(32:27):
show them another way, or you're you're I guess just
you're confused and you need some direction and hopefully year
do you think men are flawed?
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Okay, cool, now now we're talking. Now we're talking because
see in the end, I really want to hear what
you have to say about Okay, because I'm a flawed man. Okay,
I'm working with a person that's emotional, I feel because
we're in conflict right now. Okay, we may have a child,
man to have a child. So knowing that I'm a
(33:03):
flawed person, how do you walk me back into the
relationship so it could behold again?
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I mean, give you different life examples. I might give
you the example of.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
Think of it this way now, and one of those
I guess for me, yeah, is she can tell me
something all day, but I can hear it from you
and it sounds totally different. Yes, but I can also
put a different perspective on it. And then you hear
that and you're like, well, you know, coming from another man,
I didn't think about it that way, it sounds different.
(33:38):
So some of the things that I guess made that
turning point for me, or something that she was saying
that made sense, And Joe Blow came and explained to me, well,
did you think about when you do this? And you
do Nah, I didn't think about that. Okay, Well let's
go a little step further. Let's put you in her
shoes and turn the story around, and now I present
it to you that way and then you.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Say, wow, Okay, yeah, I messed up. I didn't think
of you right, right.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
So the bottom line as we as we wrap up
this interview, so is it going to be a podcast
where it's just the two of you, or will you
be responded to social media messages or emails.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Or will you have other.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Authorities or subject matter experts on the show, a couples,
all of.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
It actually be a little bit all of it.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
We will have subject matter experts when we're talking more
on the law side, we will have other couples to
compare and ask questions. But we will engage the audience
with questions and stuff. And we're on all of the
major social media platforms, so we invite people to send
us questions or topics they would like for us to
discuss on the show. So we're open to all all
(34:52):
of it.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
And you, well, you love and law the title. I feel.
I wish you much success.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Thank you for allowing me to have another conversation with
a couple that's very successful and the legal businesses have
under as honest. I think that's why I like about
the potential of the podcast. This has been an honest
conversation about changing people's lives. I would tell my staff
that we come to work to improve other people's lives.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
And I really do believe.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
That the podcast that you guys are releasing this out
there currently is going to be in a podcast that
will change people's lives, and I think that's a blessing.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Well, thank you, thank you, and thank you for coming.
No Money Making Conversations Masteric class than thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
This has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashaun McDonald.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Thanks to I guess and our audience.
Speaker 6 (35:48):
Visit Moneymaking Conversations dot com to listen and register to
be a guest
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.