Susan Filan: Finding Joy and Peace in a High-Pressure Career

In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Susan Filan discuss:

  • Reclaiming life before life demands it
  • Asking the questions that change everything
  • Stepping off the professional hamster wheel
  • Choosing authenticity over performance

Key Takeaways:

  • Near-death experiences show how fragile, temporary, and precious life truly is. Fulfillment starts when we stop postponing purpose and intentionally live each day in alignment with what truly matters most.
  • Fear often hides our deepest desires, but asking the right questions clearly reveals them. Imagining our future self at the end of life helps guide decisions toward what we genuinely want and value.
  • Overwork often masks misalignment with our own integrity, health, and needs. Sustainable progress begins by recognizing limits, slowing down, and making intentional changes that honor both well-being and meaningful work.
  • Long-term fulfillment cannot grow from roles we play to please others or meet external expectations. True joy and inner peace emerge when we live, work, and lead consistently in alignment with our authentic selves.

“I can’t outsource my happiness. So if I’m not happy today with what I have, where I am… I’m not going to be happy then when I get it.” —  Susan Filan

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About Susan Filan: Susan is a former prosecutor and MSNBC Senior Legal Analyst turned transformational speaker and life strategist. With over 30 years in high-stakes arenas—from prosecuting cold-case murders to defending clients on death row and analyzing national cases on cable and network television—she has faced some of the toughest challenges imaginable. Her greatest trial, however, came in a near-fatal accident that became her ultimate wake-up call, inspiring her to help others transform crisis into clarity and purpose. Susan blends legal grit, neuroscience, and spiritual insight to guide high achievers in breaking free from limiting beliefs, reigniting their deepest dreams, and creating lives of joy, fulfillment, and impact. Known as The Wake-Up Call Speaker and The Architect of Reinvention, she delivers keynotes, private strategy sessions, immersive retreats, and media appearances designed to awaken potential, spark transformation, and help people reinvent their lives from the inside out.

Connect with Susan Filan:

Website: https://susanfilan.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanfilan/

Connect with Steve Fretzin:

LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin

Twitter: @stevefretzin

Instagram: @fretzinsteve

Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.

Website: Fretzin.com

Email: [email protected]

Book: Legal Business Development Isn’t Rocket Science and more!

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Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Steve Fretzin  [00:00]

Alert everyone. If networking makes you cringe and you’d rather stay invisible, this episode may hit harder than expected. What’s next might open doors you didn’t even know were closed. Hey, Steve Fretzin and everybody here just having some fun with you. Settle in and enjoy the show.

 

Narrator  [00:21]

You’re listening to be that lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Each episode your host, author and lawyer coach, Steve Fretzin, will take a deeper dive helping you grow your law practice in less time with greater results. Now here’s your host, Steve Fretzin.

 

Steve Fretzin  [00:43]

Hey everybody, Steve Fretzin, and welcome to the be that lawyer podcast. We are super excited. You’re here as usual. We are here to rock and roll every single week, twice a week, to help you be that lawyer, confident, organized and a skilled Rainmaker. It takes a village, right? And this village is the be that lawyer experts that I bring on who are so kind and generous to share their wisdom and to help you live your best lawyer’s life. Today is going to be an exceptional show for you guys. I’ve got Susan waiting in the wings. Susan, how are you? I’m great. Steve, how are you good? Good. I know like the day before I go on a two hour flight, I get nervous and a little angsty. How are you before a 24 hour trip to India.

 

Susan Filan  [01:23]

I’m excited. You’re excited. I love that time in the plane. And I get that we have very different backgrounds with airplanes, and I respect bro. I love it. I mean, it’s like that time in a pod where you can just zone into what you want to focus on, totally undisturbed.

 

Steve Fretzin  [01:40]

Okay, okay, yeah. And hopefully you’re, you’re sitting somewhere where you have a little bit of space to move around, versus a middle seat in five people in coach, which is, I know that can be tough. Oh, these are in there. Yeah, not good. Like, anyway. Well, fantastic. So we are going to jump in and get to our quote of the show. And here we go. We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings, having a human experience, which is like, blow your mind like that quote, welcome to the show and tell us why that quote, and what does that mean to you?

 

Susan Filan  [02:10]

Yeah, that’s a quote by French philosopher Teilhard de chargnette. And what it means to me, basically, is that I have to remember that I’m poured down from source into this tiny, little cylindrical tube for about 90 to 100 years, after which I will return. I mean, we’re all at our core energy, and you can’t destroy energy. So we’re eternal beings. But when we over identify with the ego and the personality and the body, and we think that this is everything, and this is it. And I know you can relate, because you’ve had a near death experience, as have I, and when that veil is ripped from your eyes and you see the illusion that life is and you see what’s behind it, nothing’s ever the same. And so that’s why I think this quote is so important. Yeah.

 

Steve Fretzin  [02:51]

I mean, healthcare has been a big part of things, but we are all fragile, right? And we don’t know, the next moment, someone looks down at their phone, and come, they look up, and then, you know, their headlights are in our face, and that’s the end of it. Like, right? We just don’t know. So we really, yeah, I talk a lot about that experience, but mostly is about like you sometimes we, you know, I hate that I had to go through that to get to the point where I can appreciate life on another level and understand, like, I’m here to live an amazing life, to take care of people and to make sure that I leave this place better than I found it. And I don’t know that everybody kind of jives with that.

 

Susan Filan  [03:25]

Yeah, no, unless you’ve had a reason to get that, it’s a very hard you know, pain is the greatest teacher, and if you don’t have to learn something, why would you? Yeah, but once it’s forced upon you, it’s forever.

 

Steve Fretzin  [03:39]

And even when we take it down to a smaller level, and I’ve mentioned this on the show and over time. But like, you know, lawyers have to go through a struggle with business development or a tough boss, or they have to, you know, our teenagers have to, you know, have a bad year at school for them to realize, hey, I better get my act together. Like, we can’t just have it a straight, easy path through, because we’re not really learning about what life is about, and how we how to overcome, yeah, you know, it’s interesting.

 

Susan Filan  [04:03]

You say that because I was an anthropologist before I was a lawyer, and we’re a species. This is, you know, an evolutionary process at work over, you know, millions and the earth, billions of years, and the struggle is to survive and to evolve. And that’s exactly what happens in our lifetime. We evolve from one level of consciousness to the next, or from one type of behavior to the next, or from one kind of being to the next.

 

Steve Fretzin  [04:29]

Yeah, and I don’t know that I want to go back like I’m 55 years old, and I feel like I’m sort of, like, hit, you know, maybe not the top of my game, but like I’m definitely, you know, hitting my stride as far as life and just like getting it, like really getting it, understanding it. And it doesn’t mean my teenager is going to listen to me, but it does mean that, you know, everybody should get to a point where they just, they feel like they they’ve just kind of, they’ve learned a lot of lessons. It’s led to where, you know where you are, wherever that may be, but it’s exactly.

 

Susan Filan  [04:59]

And there. Is no point of arrival. I mean, it was just a journey. We’re on this path to learn and grow. Yeah, we never arrive. I mean, when, when you kind of have it all figured out, your ticket gets punched?

 

Steve Fretzin  [05:10]

Well, yeah, in fact, I just posted something on LinkedIn. It said, like, smart people learn every chance they get, like, moderately smart people, you know, get things through. I’m totally blowing the quote, by the way, with Socrates, by the way, and like, you know, average people, you know, learn from experiences, and dumb people know everything already, like something like that. Anyway, beautiful, I did just blow that up. Anyway, everybody. Susan Filan is the founder of the wake up call speaker and coach. We met at a networking event, and I just, right away, I was like, No, I pop on MSNBC, and there you are, right in front of me talking shop on a major network. And I was like, Oh, my God, this is too good to be true. So Well, welcome to the show and again. And please give us a little background, because, I mean, just it’s so interesting the life that you lived up to this point. So, and then heading off to India, so catch us up.

 

Susan Filan  [05:59]

Well, I was a lawyer. I’ve seen since 1991 so that’s 30 plus years. Prosecutor, former MSNBC SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST, covered major trials, traveled the country, and, you know, did the talking head thing from either outside the courthouse, interviewed major players, and I really had an incredible time. Cover the Michael Jackson trial, live from inside the courthouse, and I’ve practiced law. I’ve had my own law firm. I’ve been a member of a law firm, and then I decided to reinvent myself, and I went back to law school 30 years after I graduated, to get an LLM in Indigenous People’s law and policy, which was going to translate into a practice in federal Indian law. And I was invited to be a law professor. This was all online. Thank you, covid. And then I was invited to get my doctorate, which I completed all the coursework, and was about to start my dissertation, stepped off the curb into the crosswalk and bam, got hit by a car as a pedestrian. Never saw the car coming, never saw the car hit me. Didn’t know I’d been hit by a car. What I found out later was I bounced up onto the hood, bounced up onto the windshield, was thrown off onto the street, hit my head as I went down, and when I came to I was flat on my back, looking up at the sky, thinking, Oh, I’m dead. Wait, am I dead? I’m dead. I didn’t even know if I was alive or dead. Wow, that’s crazy.

 

Steve Fretzin  [07:33]

It’s just that, yeah, it’s that. It can be that quick, everybody. I mean, this is the life, this is life and death, right?

 

Susan Filan  [07:40]

So what happened next? Well, my adult child was their 21st birthday. That day was with me, and I just screaming, I can’t see my child. Where’s my child? And I adopted both of my kids from China when they were little baby bunnies, and they’re 23 and 26 now, but everybody was looking for this little kid under a tire wheel or something, and it’s not a little kid, it’s an adult, and they don’t look like me because they’re Chinese, so they were behind me with their hands on my shoulders, figuring out what was going on, and raised their hand and said, I’m the child. So basically everybody stopped looking for me. Help my mother. People rushed toward me to try to help me up and Hallie, my child, was fierce, and said, Don’t touch her. A nurse appeared out of nowhere and kind of took control. Somebody called the ambulance. The paramedics came, and I heard them say, talking to each other, oh, it’s not a fatality, because the intersection that I was crossing, you get hit by a car, you’re dead. So I was newly remarried, and we’d been married 10 months, so I wanted you know him, and he was involved in work, and so uniformed police officer was sent to his door and knocked on his door. Imagine his face when he saw that. Anyway, rushed to the ER, and it took a long, long time. I had five surgeries over the course of a year, and had literally to learn how to walk again like heel toe roll through left arm goes with right foot the whole thing.

 

Steve Fretzin  [09:13]

Geez. So then let’s lean into this, you know, spiritual conversation of you and I go through something so traumatic, and both think we’re dead, and both come out of it, the other side of it, and have to recover. I had no arms for a number of months, which was brutal, just not being able to do anything for myself. And it’s not a competition, obviously. But you know, we both have experienced so where does that leave us? Like, where do we go from there, from a standpoint of how we either see things, or how we perceive life, or how we perceive the future.

 

Susan Filan  [09:45]

Well, I think when the human body is threatened the way ours was, the part of the animal that has to survive kicks in, and you didn’t have arms, I didn’t have legs, and it’s terrifying. You can’t You know, I was prey, basically, and you’re at the mercy of. Then for me, I evolved from terror to gratitude like it hit me. But as I lay in bed for a long, long, long time, I am alive. My lungs are breathing. For me, my heart is beating. I’m not doing a thing now. Mind you, I’ve had like yourself and your listeners, a really intense career where I was busy. I wore that like a badge of honor, and anything happened, I made it happen, and I pushed and I banged and I litigated and I tried cases, and, you know, it was a machine, and here I am lying. My heart is beating for me. My lungs are breathing for I’m not doing a thing, and I have the gift of life. Why was I spared? Why am I alive? What is my purpose? What have I come to do? And that was a spiritual awakening for me, to just be grateful to be alive. There was no more to it. For me, I didn’t need to achieve or prove or be or have or I’m alive, and I would have missed the whole gift. If I had died in that moment, I would have died having completely missed the meaning of life and the point of being alive.

 

Steve Fretzin  [11:07]

And someone would have said, What a hell of a career you had up to that point. But that’s not the same as the change that occurs with that gratitude and that second chance and how we perceive the world after something like that happens. It’s all it’s a gift. We don’t want that gift on everybody. We don’t want to put that gift on everybody, if you will. But it’s like, how do people get the gift without having gone through it? It’s kind of a challenge.

 

Susan Filan  [11:31]

That’s exactly it from us. I don’t know exactly. That’s my hope. You don’t have to get it from us. Like, you don’t have to, yeah, like, I got hit by the car for you just wake up.

 

Steve Fretzin  [11:43]

So All right, so then, so let’s talk about the lawyer that is listening right now, who is on this frickin hamster wheel, 2000 you know, billable hours and limited, you know, limiting that battery, wearing down the battery wearing, you know, limited time with the family, just constantly being pushed around by partners and clients and all this. How do they get off that wheel? What can they take away from this that would help them step off?

 

Susan Filan  [12:09]

I think the first question to ask oneself is, where am I out of integrity with myself? Where Am I blowing my relationship with myself? In other words, where am I overriding my nervous system. Where am I making myself work harder than I can humanly work? Yeah, where am I blowing my opportunity to be still and breathe and experience the joy and the gift of life? Where Am I blowing my opportunity to connect with people that I love and that love me? So first, where am I out of integrity with myself?

 

Steve Fretzin  [12:42]

Yeah, that’s it. That’s where a lot of it starts just taking I guess, you know, you’re calling it integrity. Would someone else call it a gut check or just, like a reality check? Like, where am I really right now, physically, mentally? Like, you know, is this really a path I can stay on?

 

Susan Filan  [13:00]

Yeah, it’s basically, let me just tell myself the truth. Doesn’t mean I have to tell you or admit it out loud or do anything about it, but let me just tell myself the truth. Yeah, this is not sustainable.

 

Steve Fretzin  [13:09]

Okay, got it. Got it. I love that. I love that. And then, you know, it’s hard to make change, though. We can tell people to change, right? Or we hope that people change, and we’d love to change things about ourselves. How do you look at change, and how you change, and how you’d like to help other people change?

 

Susan Filan  [13:25]

Well, two things, one thing, I ask people to answer the question, what would I do if I were not afraid? And people always know instantly, they don’t necessarily want to hear it and they don’t necessarily want to do it, but people know instantly when you say, what would you do if you weren’t afraid? They know what it is. It’s the one thing they want to do more than anything. It’s one thing that scares them the most. And then I would say, what would your future self? Thank you, if you made that change today. So if you think about it, either you’re on your deathbed looking back at your life, or you get the diagnosis, you have three weeks, three months a year to live, yeah. What are you going to change in your life? Well, it’s instantly obvious, you know, everything you’re going to stop doing. Now I’m not suggesting that we radically upend our lives like that, but we use that as a diagnostic tool, and we make slow, gradual change toward our own answers that live inside us, yeah.

 

Steve Fretzin  [14:22]

With proven SEO and digital marketing strategies that drive actual clients to your firm, rankings.io. Prides itself on proof, not promises mentality. The best firms hire rankings.io. When they want rankings, traffic and cases other law firm marketing agencies can’t deliver get more rankings, get cases and schedule a free [email protected] today. Hey everybody. It’s Steve Fretzin as the you know, I’m the host of the be that lawyer podcast, and if you’re serious about growing your law practice, let’s talk. I’ve coached hundreds of attorneys to build bigger books of business without selling chasing or wasting time. This isn’t a sales pitch. It’s a real 30 minute. A strategy session to explore what’s possible for you in your practice. Just head over to fretzin.com and grab a time that works for you. And let’s make this your breakout year. I think about it too. Like the world that we’ve lived in, you know for the last number of years is changing and evolving so fast with AI and with the political scene and all the things that are going on. And do we really know what’s going to happen in a year? Two or five or 10? There’s just a lot more uncertainty now than maybe in the last 2030, years. So I’m looking at it as, what do I want to accomplish? And maybe, instead of it being 30 years in front of me and it’s now, it’s like five or 10 years in front of me, not because I’m trying to be, you know, negative about the world or anything, or trying to be, you know, someone who’s thinking that all the world’s gonna blow up or anything. I mean, certainly could. That’s nothing like it could anytime. I don’t know, but we go along like everything’s fine. But I’m starting to get, like, push my wife a little bit into, hey, you know that trip we want to take to New York, or that, you know, going to Israel, or going to Africa, wherever it is, India, wherever it is that we went, we may want to consider, like, moving that up a little bit.

 

Susan Filan  [16:05]

Well, I think that’s a really, really good point, but what I want to tweak on that a little bit is nobody knows. I mean, you say it’s a time of great uncertainty, every day in our lives is a day of great uncertainty, because tomorrow is promised to no one. You never know what’s going to happen in the next minute, and if we live our lives like now, is all there is there is no tomorrow, there is no later, there is only now. I think that helps us frame our choices. I was in a meeting last week with a guy. I only met him a couple of times. Lovely man. Didn’t know him well at all, but I went to the same meeting again today, and somebody said, do you know he died? I said, What? He was, 56 years old. He was literally here one day and gone the next, no cause, no reason. Drop dead. This, you know, lovely person who had everything to look forward to. So I think the whole myth of certainty, and that was certainly shattered for me in a good way, yeah, and you know, just to tell you a really quick little story, when I was lying in that bed, I started remembering who I was as a kid and all the things that I love to do and what was important to me then. And you know, all these years have passed, and I never did it. Why? So I made a decision right then and there, as I was lying, you know, broken in my bed, I’m going to Paris. And I booked a flight to Paris. And I went to Paris by myself, with my crutches, with my limp, with all, you know, by myself, my husband was like, I’ll go with you. I said, No, I want to. I want to live my life as myself, and I want to have an experience as me. And I did, and it was incredible. I mean, it wasn’t great in every sense. And then I was, you know, limping and hobbling along, yeah, right, you know, climb stairs and stuff. But that wasn’t the point. The point wasn’t, I’ll wait till I’m perfect or I’ll wait till I’m healed. Point was I’m not waiting another minute to do something that I’ve always wanted to do.

 

Steve Fretzin  [17:49]

Yeah, and you know, if we turn it back to attorneys too, for a moment, in their careers, there’s a lot of people waiting to get to partner or equity partner. There are a lot of people waiting to go out on their own and be an entrepreneur. They just keep year after year, putting off business development, putting off client development, putting off, you know, more time with their family, like I’m taking off Fridays, and I have been for the last, you know, number of months, nice. I mean, how long did I put that off? I’d wanted to take Fridays off and play golf in the summer and the afternoons. That’s great. But like actually having a day to decide if I want to work or not work or whatever, and I just think people are letting things drag out too long. How do you help them again? Make that change and just make a strategic decision that what they’re doing is working, but it’s really not a long term play.

 

Susan Filan  [18:37]

Well, one thing I had to get clear on is that I can’t outsource my happiness. So if I’m not happy today with what I have, where I am, the rank and title and money and job and whatever else, yeah, I’m not going to be happy. Then when I get it, because it’s not some fictitious, magical, you know, olive branch that comes down from the future and goes boing, now you’re happy. So if I won’t be happy until I’m this, or until I have that, or until I’ve done this, or until I’ve bought this or achieved that, I’m chasing a false dream, I have to be happy today as I am, you know, with whatever’s broken, whatever’s not working, whatever is not good enough, whatever I don’t have enough of, and just Be happy today with what is.

 

Steve Fretzin  [19:22]

Yeah. I was telling you earlier that I there was a time when I first got into business and I had big eyes, and I started chasing after money and chasing after stuff, yeah, and I saw these big houses in my neighborhood, and I wasn’t in one of them, and I said, I will be. I will be. I will be. And then I realized, talking people in those big houses, they’re not happy they have these massive mortgages and massive taxes, and all they do is complain about two things. They’re massive mortgage taxes, and they have all this space that they’re not using. And it’s like, okay, so, you know, dodged a bullet with that. But I think more than that, I’ve sort of taken stock of like, what matters to me and what matters to me. Is taking care of my family, taking care of my health so I can, yeah, this battery charge. I did Pilates this morning. I’m in a room with 11 women every single time I go, and it’s, it’s great. And I look, I just know I have to be there. It’s not an option. I have to be there to take care of this thing. Too many people breaking hips and then, yeah, fail falling ill, because they’re not protecting our batteries. And I think, you know, I’ve become a master saver. So with the thought that we’re protected in the future, and also that we can take trips and do things and live life, right? Because I think if you’re broke or you’re in debt, it really hinders your ability. You could still be happy and in debt. I don’t know too many people that are, but I mean, you could be happy living in a shack. But the point is, I think most people don’t want to have they’re not as happy when they have the stress of debt and bills and knowing that they’re not sort of covering what they need to cover.

 

Susan Filan  [20:52]

I think that’s absolutely right. You know, taking care of oneself means taking care of one’s finances, one’s security, one’s abundance. But what I would say is I wouldn’t waste a day being unhappy. If you’re in debt, get out of debt, but be happy in the meantime. Just don’t waste a minute spending energy on something that you can change, that you’re changing, but delay your happiness until you know it’s right, or you’ve got it right, or it is the way you want.

 

Steve Fretzin  [21:19]

Yeah. So what are a couple of ways that you work and coach people to help them get into a more positive mindset? There’s a lot of negativity, and there’s some people wrapping up their years right now and they didn’t get the bonus, and they didn’t get the promotion, and they’re blaming everybody, and they’re they’re really in, not in a good mindset. What are some things you could share that help that when you work with someone to help them kind of get through that.

 

Susan Filan  [21:43]

The first thing that we take in inventory is all the fear, because fear is a huge driver. And, you know, it’s not even real false evidence appearing real fear is a fiction of our imagination. But, you know, we’ve got this futuristic fear that’s driving our today, and so I try to help people stop living on fear. And then I ask people to start to ignite their dreams again, ignite the spark within the spirit that lights us up and gives us energy and gives us fuel. And then we work on strategies to implement what are your wildest dreams and how will you achieve them, and don’t give away your peace. You know, you said one of the things that’s most important to you is, you know, time with loved ones and savings. To me, it’s my inner peace. Nothing’s going to rob me of my peace today. It doesn’t matter what the external circumstances are. It’s not going to rock my peace. And I try to help my clients get to a place where the Inner peace is a ever, you know, burgeoning fountain and from a place where your nervous system is not operating out of, you know, safety and security and crisis and fear, but it’s acting out of creation and coherence and regulation. When you get to that place in yourself, the sky’s the limit, because what we think is what we create, we basically imagine our lives and then draw it to us.

 

Steve Fretzin  [23:07]

Yeah, is that conducted through meditation? What’s the way that you find that peace.

 

Susan Filan  [23:13]

For myself or that? Yeah, free. Let’s start with you. I do love to meditate, but I don’t have to meditate to get to peace. I can get to peace just by being I mean every breath that I draw, every beat of my heart, every realization that I am alive and awake today, gives me my peace. I just love life. I love being alive. I love the joy of it. And I got here by nearly losing it. So it’s not like, you know, this was some woo, woo little trip I took. I nearly died, and that’s how tough a customer I was, because I had gotten other Wake Up Calls before, but I was so stubborn and so hell bent on achievement and performance and success in the externals. I didn’t have a good relationship with myself. I didn’t love myself, I didn’t respect myself. So I had to prove myself and my worth as if it came from outside me and nearly dying. I realized the fact that I’m alive is my worth, the fact that I’m here is my joy, the fact that I breathe is my peace, and nothing is going to take that away. Why? Because I don’t have another wake up call left in me.

 

Steve Fretzin  [24:19]

One and done, one and still going. I find that, you know, sometimes just going to your point, going back to the basics, you know, breathing and just closing my eyes and meditating and just sort of clearing my mind, maybe turning off the news or giving myself a break from the social media and the non stop messaging and taking a long walk and just looking at trees like, right now, you know, we have all the snow on the trees, and so I walk outside and I just look at all the beautiful white trees and just kind of realize, you know, hey, we’re spinning around this freaking universe 1000 miles an hour, and we’re all worrying about, you know, little things that are just so ridiculous, but that’s. And beyond our control and beyond our control? Yeah, we’re powerless. Yeah, crazy stuff.

 

Susan Filan  [25:05]

Well, let’s, let’s talk about something joy, the way already, the way to pieces. Find what brings you joy?

 

Steve Fretzin  [25:10]

Brings you joy? Yeah, I love that. I love that. Let’s talk about something, I mean, maybe outside of the accident. But what was something in your career, Susan’s big mistake? What happened there that you could you came out the other side anything other than the I know you’re big one, but is there a secondary.

 

Susan Filan  [25:25]

Well, I think it was kind of a daily mistake, which was to not be myself. I always thought I had to be somebody else to be successful, and I was a bit of a Maverick and was super original, and I taught myself to conform down to the clothes I wore and the shoes I wore and the way I conducted myself in a courtroom. But I think that was a big mistake, because I think I had way more gifts than I allowed myself to use, because I was afraid of what people would think of me if I was different.

 

Steve Fretzin  [25:53]

So it wasn’t being you weren’t being your true, authentic self, right? And that’s the takeaway, is that you’re trying to kind of fit this scope of what everyone needed, what you believed, everyone needed to perceive, instead of just being yourself, right?

 

Susan Filan  [26:05]

And I cared more about what other people thought than how I felt. Yeah, I get it. I get it.

 

Steve Fretzin  [26:09]

Well, really cool. Let’s take a moment and just thank our wonderful sponsors. Of course, rankings, io, crushing it for PI firms and making sure everybody’s getting those leads in the doors. Now more than ever, it’s important, of course, the law her podcast with my friend Sonia and check out everybody future rainmakers. It’s a little different podcast than this one. It’s really just me, me kind of sharing the things that I teach my clients every day. So if being a rainmaker, being an equity partner, running your own clients, is important to you, that’s the other podcast you’re going to want to check out Susan, before we get into your digits and how people can get in touch with you. Can you just take a moment and just share your about a little bit about your business the Wake up wake up call, speaker and coach, yeah.

 

Susan Filan  [26:48]

I’m a keynote speaker. My message is to inspire, motivate and transform people so they become who they really want to be and live the lives. I call it wake up to a life you will love. I also do private one on one, coaching. I’m a writer, and I am trying to help people not have to go through what I through, go through, not have to go through what I went through to have what I have now.

 

Steve Fretzin  [27:11]

Yeah, wonderful. And then if people want to get in touch with you, what’s the best way for them to reach out?

 

Susan Filan  [27:15]

I have a website, susanfilan.com, my cell is on that website. Text me, call me, reach out to me. My email is on there. It’s s [email protected] and I want to thank you, Steve. I learned so much from you. I listened to your podcasts. I’ve read some of what you’ve written. You’re a tremendous teacher, and your service is huge, and I am one of your grateful students. Wow.

 

Steve Fretzin  [27:36]

All right, well, ego done for the day. I might have to call my teenager to get that evened out, right? You know, he texted me, he says he wants to at a concert. I think that with me. I think that means he wants me to pay just put that out there. But anyway, I so appreciate that. It’s very, very thoughtful. And I’m obviously doing my best to try to help the legal community and help people to be that lawyer, confident, organized in a skilled Rainmaker. Excellent segue to wrap things up, Susan, thank you so much, and thank you everybody for hanging out with us for last 30 and be safe and be well. Don’t step off the curb, don’t get on a plane without enough gas, things like that. Okay, take care everybody. Thank you again. Susan, bye, bye, bye.

 

Narrator  [28:22]

Thanks for listening to be that loyal, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve’s website. Fredson.com for additional information and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important links about today’s episode. Check out today’s show notes.