October 14, 2024 • 11 mins
In this bonus episode, we take a moment to reflect on the incredible journey so far, sharing highlights and lessons learned from launching the podcast. We express our excitement for what’s to come and invite listeners to share their feedback as we continue to grow and evolve. Join us for an honest and heartfelt conversation about the passion driving this project forward!
If you know of an Advocate in DC that should be considered for a future episode, please email kballena@gmail.com for consideration.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
One of the things that I enjoyed about this journey was one, getting to know you, but
(00:27):
second, is getting to know our guests.
In each of the podcasts we're talking to people that are not necessarily from the US or not
necessarily from the sea.
And it's amazing how we get to involve a little bit of our background, my background in Colombia,
your background from Peru and other people's background.
(00:52):
It's very enriching, I think.
It's funny, it wasn't until halfway through the season that we're finally getting to a
Washingtonian.
We're talking to Peruvian, Colombian, Filipino attorneys, all with different perspectives,
but all for different reasons.
They all want to be advocates.
And we didn't figure out the name of the show until halfway through.
(01:15):
And I was really inspired because of some of the stories.
Because a lot of them are here, but you don't know who your neighbor is.
When we started this journey, I never thought that I would talk to as many people in the
legal sector, in the legal field, in Washington, professionals.
You would think that they had a lot of egos, but a lot of them want to help people, want
(01:35):
to help their industry, and they actually love what they do.
I actually remember the first time we talked about the podcast when you pitched me the
idea that you told me, I want to get lawyers to open up.
My reaction was like, good luck.
Yeah, no, no, when I pitched the idea, I was just like, how do I do this?
(01:56):
And initially, when I thought about the idea, I thought, because a lot of lawyers do not
open up, could I talk to their spouses or their children, adult children at this point,
not like little kids.
But could I do that?
And it could still be successful.
And one person said, you would get in trouble because they would probably start talking
about things that they weren't supposed to be revealing about their spouse.
(02:19):
And I'm like, well, I don't want it to be a two episode.
That would be problematic.
So I thought, OK, well, then we can't make it about what their thoughts on controversial
topics.
It was mostly about where they grew up, what motivates them and why they do the things
they do.
They love their pets.
They love their kids.
They love hiking.
(02:40):
They love all these other things.
And that's really more about the person behind it.
And every one of our guests, at some point, you see their sort of body language.
And the moment they start talking about something they love, they just like light up and they
like open up.
They look like they're a little nervous at first and they open up.
We don't even have to ask much.
(03:01):
Not just for the legal field, but for example, our interview with Julian talking about how
is it important to be more inclusive with people that have sometimes difficulties or
other abilities?
That's really cool.
And Kevin, how to network.
That's a very important skill.
(03:23):
It's true.
Most of his time is networking and connecting people, connecting firms, collaborating.
Yes, totally.
It's very interesting.
Yeah.
And when I was in school or even thinking about law or what I wanted to do for the rest
of my life, being a professional networker was never one of those options or maybe even
(03:45):
the average law student doesn't realize that's a field that I'm going to have to master.
And nobody out there is telling me that right now, but I need to know how to do it.
I don't know why, because I mean, five years of law school back in Colombia, not once I
was told, dude, you have to network.
(04:07):
You have to network.
Open your eyes.
But as we learned from our interview with Santiago is that a lot of attorneys aren't
supposed to be making money.
I guess you feel this guilt of making money or being profitable out of helping people.
You're supposed to be, I guess, more humbled about it and not as a business.
Yet he was really great about explaining how it is a business and you have to maybe think
(04:31):
of a little bit differently about it.
We learned from Kevin, they're learning how to connect, how to learn with different people.
I had great motivation.
She was trying to balance out inequality in helping people who may not have that opportunity
to have an actual legacy to pass on correctly to a generation who may not have that opportunity.
(04:57):
So it's been a really great ride.
So far, I mean, like we're only halfway through this, but yeah, I've learned a lot.
It's also amazing how, you know, I thought that the PAS podcast was a great idea because
it's a way of showing people there's just not one path to get to where you want to be.
(05:18):
And that's important.
You know, in life, sometimes you get frustrated because you are not getting what you want
when you want it.
And it's amazing to see how, for example, Kate talked to us about journalistic experience
and studies in Peru.
But then I found out that was not for me.
(05:39):
And so I changed to law and it was amazing.
That was my path.
But also in her legal career, she has had so much changes and she has been open to so
many different experiences.
And that's nice.
It is nice because then Kevin reflects that sort of difference.
He kind of mirrors that.
He was like, well, I wanted to do law.
(05:59):
And then it wasn't for me.
It was too expensive, out of reach.
I'm sure today that would be different, but he has now mastered his craft and not become
a lawyer.
Yeah, that's true.
It's true.
So many options that sometimes we do not stop and take the time to consider because we're
(06:19):
so blinded by something we think we want, but it's not necessarily what we have to get.
Right.
And then Mateo talking about his family and everybody back home, musicians.
I think it was inspiring and you were a tremendous part about opening this up to people in Spanish,
(06:40):
in their native language, so that they feel comfortable discussing this because it's not
just an English speaking audience.
And a lot of podcasts out there, especially legal topics are in English only.
It's true.
It's true.
That's also part of the magic.
We're letting people show us their true essence in the way they feel most comfortable.
(07:01):
And we're all humans and we're all looking for the same things.
You know, we're all struggling.
We're all fighting.
We all have dreams that we want to achieve.
We're all self-conscious.
We're all worried about the business and being relevant.
It's been nice.
It's really nice to get to know all these people.
I'm glad that you didn't think I was crazy when I started pitching this idea, because
(07:22):
at some point I was just like, I even talked to some people about it and I was like, this
is what I want to do, but I don't know how to do it.
But seeing your enthusiasm about it and then knowing that you're a native Spanish speaker,
I was like, oh wow, there's more things I can check off and we can do it right.
And then initially we started the podcast with just some, some regular equipment and
(07:46):
then we need to upgrade so that we can have more people talk.
And you can't do this on zoom because the moment that one person talks and then the
other person talks, it's like it interrupts because there's this delay.
The technology is really bad.
So you really need to do it in person.
When somebody is in person, like they just relax, you know, it just takes a few minutes
(08:08):
and then just relax and they just talk freely and talk their passion and stuff.
But you would never be able to do that on zoom because you're like, you're staring
at the screen.
Yeah, it's really nice.
It's, it's, I actually really like doing it in person because you get to connect a
lot more with that person that is coming to the show.
Well, to the show.
The show.
(08:29):
Yeah.
I know I like what the audience won't notice is that a lot of times I would just call it
the show because it's so halfway through it.
I didn't know what to call it.
And I was like, you know, and I wing things a lot, you know, that's, that's a bad habit.
I just, I just wing things and just like, we will find a name for it at some point,
you know, and we're already halfway through it.
(08:50):
And I hadn't thought of show names out there.
And then I talked to an attorney and to see if they can make sure that it's not already
trademarked or something like that.
And then finally, like, they're like, no, yeah, this one is.
So you need to find another name.
It's like, ah, fine.
Back to the drawing board.
But the more and more we talked about it, the more that I found out these people are
(09:11):
not only heroes in their community, but they're like really trying to make a difference.
And nobody has ever, at least up until now, nobody has sat down and said, I do this for
the money.
They all had like, I had dreams of doing this, but then I ended up doing this other thing
because something inspired me diversity.
I'm making a difference.
(09:32):
I mean, people who are facing issues, justice, like all these are very common themes.
And up until now, nobody's said, well, I'm doing this because I wanted a six figure
ring.
Yeah, totally.
That's true.
Even though that's nice, I know, but a lot of that's not really what motivates people.
And that's inspiring.
And by the way, I don't know if I had the chance to say this before, but thank you for
(09:56):
making me part of this project.
Oh, I appreciate once this becomes successful, you know, and we actually like get sponsored
by someone.
Although, I mean, that's not really the goal.
I mean, the idea is really like, let's make sure that we reach people, but to reach people,
it takes the right equipment, time, money, you know, time is valuable.
I always thought that this was going to be like a 20 minute type of show.
(10:20):
And then when the first one was an hour, then the second one was an hour.
And I was like, wow.
I know, I sure we thought about not making them so.
Yeah, but they all said that they were having fun.
So if they were having fun, I didn't want to cut it off.
I didn't want to cut off a story with like, all right, so now I got to DC and that's like,
okay, we're 20 minutes in.
We got it like, you know, it's like, well, we just got interesting.
(10:42):
I think there was one where you were like, oh, I think it was my tail where it was literally
20 minutes in.
And then you finally started talking about Star Wars and all these other things and the
little mermaid and the breach of contract and all this stuff.
And we're like, wait, this got really interesting.
I love Disney and Star Wars and music.
(11:04):
And he never stopped talking about it.
You know, like, oh, no, I think we could have had an entire show on just one Disney topic.
And that's amazing because that's that's the idea of these interviews for them to show
us who they really are.
And I think we have achieved it.
The hard part now is to keep it going.
(11:25):
We can do that.
I think so.
I'm afraid that I'll get busy or you'll get busy or you'll get a job in the UK or something
like that.
And then we'll be done.
The UK.
Who knows?
I don't know.
One of the things that I enjoyed about this journey was one, getting to know you, but
(00:27):
second, is getting to know our guests.
In each of the podcasts we're talking to people that are not necessarily from the US or not
necessarily from the sea.
And it's amazing how we get to involve a little bit of our background, my background in Colombia,
your background from Peru and other people's background.
(00:52):
It's very enriching, I think.
It's funny, it wasn't until halfway through the season that we're finally getting to a
Washingtonian.
We're talking to Peruvian, Colombian, Filipino attorneys, all with different perspectives,
but all for different reasons.
They all want to be advocates.
And we didn't figure out the name of the show until halfway through.
(01:15):
And I was really inspired because of some of the stories.
Because a lot of them are here, but you don't know who your neighbor is.
When we started this journey, I never thought that I would talk to as many people in the
legal sector, in the legal field, in Washington, professionals.
You would think that they had a lot of egos, but a lot of them want to help people, want
(01:35):
to help their industry, and they actually love what they do.
I actually remember the first time we talked about the podcast when you pitched me the
idea that you told me, I want to get lawyers to open up.
My reaction was like, good luck.
Yeah, no, no, when I pitched the idea, I was just like, how do I do this?
(01:56):
And initially, when I thought about the idea, I thought, because a lot of lawyers do not
open up, could I talk to their spouses or their children, adult children at this point,
not like little kids.
But could I do that?
And it could still be successful.
And one person said, you would get in trouble because they would probably start talking
about things that they weren't supposed to be revealing about their spouse.
(02:19):
And I'm like, well, I don't want it to be a two episode.
That would be problematic.
So I thought, OK, well, then we can't make it about what their thoughts on controversial
topics.
It was mostly about where they grew up, what motivates them and why they do the things
they do.
They love their pets.
They love their kids.
They love hiking.
(02:40):
They love all these other things.
And that's really more about the person behind it.
And every one of our guests, at some point, you see their sort of body language.
And the moment they start talking about something they love, they just like light up and they
like open up.
They look like they're a little nervous at first and they open up.
We don't even have to ask much.
(03:01):
Not just for the legal field, but for example, our interview with Julian talking about how
is it important to be more inclusive with people that have sometimes difficulties or
other abilities?
That's really cool.
And Kevin, how to network.
That's a very important skill.
(03:23):
It's true.
Most of his time is networking and connecting people, connecting firms, collaborating.
Yes, totally.
It's very interesting.
Yeah.
And when I was in school or even thinking about law or what I wanted to do for the rest
of my life, being a professional networker was never one of those options or maybe even
(03:45):
the average law student doesn't realize that's a field that I'm going to have to master.
And nobody out there is telling me that right now, but I need to know how to do it.
I don't know why, because I mean, five years of law school back in Colombia, not once I
was told, dude, you have to network.
(04:07):
You have to network.
Open your eyes.
But as we learned from our interview with Santiago is that a lot of attorneys aren't
supposed to be making money.
I guess you feel this guilt of making money or being profitable out of helping people.
You're supposed to be, I guess, more humbled about it and not as a business.
Yet he was really great about explaining how it is a business and you have to maybe think
(04:31):
of a little bit differently about it.
We learned from Kevin, they're learning how to connect, how to learn with different people.
I had great motivation.
She was trying to balance out inequality in helping people who may not have that opportunity
to have an actual legacy to pass on correctly to a generation who may not have that opportunity.
(04:57):
So it's been a really great ride.
So far, I mean, like we're only halfway through this, but yeah, I've learned a lot.
It's also amazing how, you know, I thought that the PAS podcast was a great idea because
it's a way of showing people there's just not one path to get to where you want to be.
(05:18):
And that's important.
You know, in life, sometimes you get frustrated because you are not getting what you want
when you want it.
And it's amazing to see how, for example, Kate talked to us about journalistic experience
and studies in Peru.
But then I found out that was not for me.
(05:39):
And so I changed to law and it was amazing.
That was my path.
But also in her legal career, she has had so much changes and she has been open to so
many different experiences.
And that's nice.
It is nice because then Kevin reflects that sort of difference.
He kind of mirrors that.
He was like, well, I wanted to do law.
(05:59):
And then it wasn't for me.
It was too expensive, out of reach.
I'm sure today that would be different, but he has now mastered his craft and not become
a lawyer.
Yeah, that's true.
It's true.
So many options that sometimes we do not stop and take the time to consider because we're
(06:19):
so blinded by something we think we want, but it's not necessarily what we have to get.
Right.
And then Mateo talking about his family and everybody back home, musicians.
I think it was inspiring and you were a tremendous part about opening this up to people in Spanish,
(06:40):
in their native language, so that they feel comfortable discussing this because it's not
just an English speaking audience.
And a lot of podcasts out there, especially legal topics are in English only.
It's true.
It's true.
That's also part of the magic.
We're letting people show us their true essence in the way they feel most comfortable.
(07:01):
And we're all humans and we're all looking for the same things.
You know, we're all struggling.
We're all fighting.
We all have dreams that we want to achieve.
We're all self-conscious.
We're all worried about the business and being relevant.
It's been nice.
It's really nice to get to know all these people.
I'm glad that you didn't think I was crazy when I started pitching this idea, because
(07:22):
at some point I was just like, I even talked to some people about it and I was like, this
is what I want to do, but I don't know how to do it.
But seeing your enthusiasm about it and then knowing that you're a native Spanish speaker,
I was like, oh wow, there's more things I can check off and we can do it right.
And then initially we started the podcast with just some, some regular equipment and
(07:46):
then we need to upgrade so that we can have more people talk.
And you can't do this on zoom because the moment that one person talks and then the
other person talks, it's like it interrupts because there's this delay.
The technology is really bad.
So you really need to do it in person.
When somebody is in person, like they just relax, you know, it just takes a few minutes
(08:08):
and then just relax and they just talk freely and talk their passion and stuff.
But you would never be able to do that on zoom because you're like, you're staring
at the screen.
Yeah, it's really nice.
It's, it's, I actually really like doing it in person because you get to connect a
lot more with that person that is coming to the show.
Well, to the show.
The show.
(08:29):
Yeah.
I know I like what the audience won't notice is that a lot of times I would just call it
the show because it's so halfway through it.
I didn't know what to call it.
And I was like, you know, and I wing things a lot, you know, that's, that's a bad habit.
I just, I just wing things and just like, we will find a name for it at some point,
you know, and we're already halfway through it.
(08:50):
And I hadn't thought of show names out there.
And then I talked to an attorney and to see if they can make sure that it's not already
trademarked or something like that.
And then finally, like, they're like, no, yeah, this one is.
So you need to find another name.
It's like, ah, fine.
Back to the drawing board.
But the more and more we talked about it, the more that I found out these people are
(09:11):
not only heroes in their community, but they're like really trying to make a difference.
And nobody has ever, at least up until now, nobody has sat down and said, I do this for
the money.
They all had like, I had dreams of doing this, but then I ended up doing this other thing
because something inspired me diversity.
I'm making a difference.
(09:32):
I mean, people who are facing issues, justice, like all these are very common themes.
And up until now, nobody's said, well, I'm doing this because I wanted a six figure
ring.
Yeah, totally.
That's true.
Even though that's nice, I know, but a lot of that's not really what motivates people.
And that's inspiring.
And by the way, I don't know if I had the chance to say this before, but thank you for
(09:56):
making me part of this project.
Oh, I appreciate once this becomes successful, you know, and we actually like get sponsored
by someone.
Although, I mean, that's not really the goal.
I mean, the idea is really like, let's make sure that we reach people, but to reach people,
it takes the right equipment, time, money, you know, time is valuable.
I always thought that this was going to be like a 20 minute type of show.
(10:20):
And then when the first one was an hour, then the second one was an hour.
And I was like, wow.
I know, I sure we thought about not making them so.
Yeah, but they all said that they were having fun.
So if they were having fun, I didn't want to cut it off.
I didn't want to cut off a story with like, all right, so now I got to DC and that's like,
okay, we're 20 minutes in.
We got it like, you know, it's like, well, we just got interesting.
(10:42):
I think there was one where you were like, oh, I think it was my tail where it was literally
20 minutes in.
And then you finally started talking about Star Wars and all these other things and the
little mermaid and the breach of contract and all this stuff.
And we're like, wait, this got really interesting.
I love Disney and Star Wars and music.
(11:04):
And he never stopped talking about it.
You know, like, oh, no, I think we could have had an entire show on just one Disney topic.
And that's amazing because that's that's the idea of these interviews for them to show
us who they really are.
And I think we have achieved it.
The hard part now is to keep it going.
(11:25):
We can do that.
I think so.
I'm afraid that I'll get busy or you'll get busy or you'll get a job in the UK or something
like that.
And then we'll be done.
The UK.
Who knows?
I don't know.
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