Empathy, Authenticity & Impact: How Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste Grows Her Inclusive Law Firm

Viktoria Altman: Guys, welcome to the Law Firm Accelerator. Today with us, we have Marie-Yves, a family attorney located in Maryland. Marie-Yves, welcome to the show. So nice to have you here.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: Thank you for having me.

Viktoria Altman: Tell us a little bit about yourself and about your interesting way of describing your practice areas.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: I practice three different areas of law that effectively affects everyone. It’s family law, trust and estates, and taxes. We all at some point in our lives have to deal with these areas. When I was building my law firm, back in 2017, I thought to myself, I have all this training.

I have an LLM in tax and I’ve loved tax work for, since I could remember right early in my teens, which most teenagers don’t care for taxes, right? And so I thought to myself, well, outside of tax, I also have states and trust training. And family law has always been something that I’ve been interested in, which hilariously enough when I was in law school and I was a law clerk with the Department of Social Services Law Office, I said, no family law.

I’m not doing it. But, as time went on, I realized that we could really make a difference if we blend all three areas together. That’s what I focus on. We do a little bit of real estate law. But for the most part, 99% of our practice is trust and estates, family law and tax.

Viktoria Altman: So you are a lawyer who is also an accountant.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: In a sense, yes. Because a lot of my work, on the tax side involves following the money, right? I have to look at, okay, the IRS or Marilyn says, you owe x. I understand that your CPA or your tax preparer prepared the income tax return, but let’s see where they went wrong.

Because a lot of times it’s a miscalculation or maybe a client didn’t divulge all of the income because they were provided with wrong information. So I basically have to create an accounting. And follow the money in order to get where I need to go. My job also involves accounting on the estates and trust side because when we’re preparing to close out a probate where someone has passed away, we have to prepare an accounting of what the person passed away with, all of the expenses, all of the deposits.

And who the money is gonna go to. And we call that an accounting. So a lot of my job is crunching numbers.

Viktoria Altman: That’s interesting. That’s a unique practice area and how do you market yourself?

 

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: I do not, I have to do a better job at putting myself out there. I’m a very extroverted person, but also very introverted. I light up when I’m around people I know that I’m familiar with, but around strangers, I don’t do so well. You know, when you go to networking events, I find a corner and stay there until someone comes up to me and introduces themselves.

Lately, I said I’m going to join every single organization I can. I’m gonna go to all the marketing events and continue what I do on TikTok. So, lately I’ve been doing this thing where I find random questions on the internet and I just answered them on social media and apparently people really like that.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: One of the Q&As that I did, surrounding family law, child support, that got a lot of traction. So it was just a random day. I found a video about child support and DNA on TikTok. And I was just so infuriated as to the outcome of the video.

But it was amazing to see how many people in the comment section just didn’t understand how child support works and how DNA affects that. And so I created six different videos responding to comments and those got a lot of traction. So I think there is something there that I need to tap into.

It will help me with marketing, but I have done such a poor job of marketing because I’m so engrossed in the work that I do. I know as a business owner, I need to let that go and put myself out there because the success of my business depends on it.

Viktoria Altman: So a couple of things there. I’m a fellow corner stander at all social events. But yes, you’re right. Joining organizations can certainly help. The TikTok thing is interesting. What’s your TikTok handle, by the way?

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: I believe it’s @saintyveslaw. So if you type in Saint Yves Law, you should 100% be able to find me on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. I use the same handle for all of them to make it easier to find me.

Viktoria Altman: Yeah, that is actually a good tip. To use the same handle whenever possible.

But with estate planning specifically. Estate lawyers tend to have a longer sales cycle, right?

It’s not like a DUI lawyer, personal injury lawyer where they need somebody right away.

So when you have a longer sales cycle, investing some time and money in social media makes a lot of sense because people get to know you. TikTok is a little bit of a unique place because it tends to skew younger, which may or may not attract the clients you’re looking for at least this year. Five years from now, it’s a different story, but certainly if you enjoying it that’s a good thing.

Now, when you say you don’t market, it’s funny because I speak to a lot of lawyers in this podcast and so many people tell me they don’t market. But when I start having a conversation with them, it turns out they’re marketing in just the way that feels so natural for them, that they don’t think of it as marketing.

Now that you say it out loud, I’m like, yeah, actually I do market. It feels natural and frankly, that’s what marketing should be. I remember when I first started my practice, I was talking to a friend of mine at the time and I said. You know, I’ll never be one of those attorneys that have those weird commercials.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: Because that does not come natural to me. So I figured out a way to do what I love. Spend time with the people that light me up. Because realistically we have one life and whatever we do in this lifetime, we should be surrounded with the people that add to us and not take away.

I pick and choose the events that I attend. Like I was at an event yesterday for the Bel Air Lions Club where we were sponsoring. We went to Market Street Brewery in Havre de Grace, which is owned by a buddy of mine, Andy Chabalowski, who’s also an attorney. We were there raising funds to provide vision and hearing services for children.

You know, things like this I can get behind because I can commingle my marketing efforts for worthy cause. And it nets a profit or a benefit rather for both individuals. Things like that are more natural to me, rather than going to an event and shaking somebody’s hand and saying,

Hey, my name is Marie-Yves. What do you do? It just doesn’t feel natural at all. I think what makes it worse is as attorneys or just as humans who happen to be adults, we’ve gotten to a place where life has kind of beat us upside the head in many different ways, right?

So we’re not as open to putting ourselves out there. We’re not as open to being vulnerable. And I said, for the second half of 2025, I’m gonna throw all that out the window and I’m putting myself out there on every single front and I’m gonna see what it nets. I have a feeling that it’s gonna net a very positive outcome for my business.

So that way we can continue to grow.

Viktoria Altman: Makes a lot of sense. So you’ve been very intentional, speaking of doing good things, about making your practice inclusive.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: Very.

Viktoria Altman: Now, has that mission-driven branding ever created marketing challenges? How do you implement that?

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: I think so. When you lead with values like inclusivity and equity, it tends to narrow your audience. But in my opinion, it does that in the best way possible. Frankly, I’m not for everyone and I’m okay with that. A lot of people when I talk to them, they really do not believe that I’m an attorney because I am, as they say, down to earth, and normal per se.

I treat everybody equally. Maybe that stems from the fact that I was born in Haiti. I came to the United States when I was two years old. My parents made everything out of absolutely nothing. I grew up in an environment where I was never taught to look down on others.

I was taught the principles and morality of equity and inclusion. So when I opened my firm, it was about the people. It has remained about the people, and the people that resonate with our message, are the exact clients we wanna serve. Those who want transparency, cultural competency, and a human-centered approach where everyone is treated equal regardless of their socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender, race, et cetera. And, frankly, the challenge has been visibility, not interest because the people that call our firm do want to work with us, but it has been visibility and trying to rise above the noise of social media because there are a lot of attorneys out there.

But once people find us, they often say, man, I wish I knew about your firm sooner. As a small firm it can be difficult to balance our charitable efforts and business. But we’ve been standing for eight years and that’s a big thing, especially when most businesses fail after or before five years.

So being here for eight years and consistently being in the black every single year and just growing. Being for the people has been working for us and I think it’ll continue to work long after I’m gone.

Viktoria Altman: Yeah, so you are doing exactly the right thing there. I interviewed somebody who markets herself as the Philly Gay Lawyer.

She’s been doing this for 25 years and she leans into this part of her. That’s all she does, and everybody knows her.

It works really well when you’re very authentic and upfront about who you are because you attract the kind of clients that want to hire and the kind of clients you want to work with. Right? And even for me, I’ve turned down clients because I felt we were not aligned in some specific ways. I felt it would be problematic for us to work together.

It makes you a happier business person, and I strongly believe that happier business person is also a better business person.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: 110%. If you are not a happy attorney or if you’re not a happy business person, you’re not gonna be able to do your job properly. And people are going to see it. They’re gonna see it in the way you talk, the way you act, the way you carry yourself. They’re also gonna see it in your output. Because as human beings, there are days where we don’t feel like getting out of bed.

But we have to and those are the days where we kind of wanna kick our feet, like, oh, why did I have to grow up? But the reality it is, and you hit it right on the head, is, a happier business person. It’s a good result for your business, your people, and frankly your clients.

And they deserve a happier you.

Viktoria Altman: Absolutely, and your employees are happier if they feel like they have a real mission rather than just showing up.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: I tell my people all the time, I don’t know what I would do without you guys. My paralegal came, I said that yesterday. I was like, I know I tell you this every day, but I don’t know what I would do without you, and I truly appreciate you. She’s like, I know, and I appreciate hearing it.

And I said, well, you’re gonna keep hearing it.

Viktoria Altman: I love that. So you also had a podcast, The Daily Attorney Podcast, which featured conversations with attorneys, legal professionals.

What inspired you to start it and how did it align with your mission?

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: I started The Daily Attorney Podcast as a way to pull back the curtain on what life as a female attorney really looks like, especially for those balancing work, family, and self-care. My therapist put it a certain way and I love how she put it.

She said, Marie-Yves, you are like a spider in the middle of a web. You have all these little things going on and you’re tugging and pulling. She said, you have to realize that when you pull one string you have to ease up on another. Which means that nothing will ever be balanced, nothing will ever be perfect, and you have to be okay with that.

So in starting this podcast, I wanted people to see that it wasn’t about perfection or branding, it was simply about connection. I wanted to normalize the emotional and entrepreneurial rollercoaster attorneys go through from making the decision to go to law school to the practice of law, and just offer something real to legal professionals and clients.

And I think it really aligned with the law firm because the firm is built on transparency, resilience, and the belief that your humanity is your strength and not your flaws. I think I can speak for many people when I say that I’ve made many mistakes in my life and coming from the background that I come from, it was all about perfection.

But then when you get into business and it’s like that ebb and flow, you’re like, nothing is perfect. You know, you have to step back and realize, wait a minute, you’re a human being. Like my therapist said, that web. One thing is going to suffer, and you just have to be okay with alternating those strings to at least try to balance it out as much as you possibly can.

But the reality is you’re not gonna be able to do all the things all at once. Unless you’re Mariah Carey and have 8 million different people helping you out, you’re never gonna be able to do all the things. So I just really wanted to shed light on that.

 

I interviewed other women lawyers. We did not have any men on the podcast because I did not want to cater to the male audience. I wanted to cater to the female audience because I feel like as women we tend to be very hard on ourselves, especially with that perfection ideology that we have.

I really wanted to speak to women, so it was just women attorney and we had women that were in so many different stages of their lives. A lot of them are still in private practice, but some, judges and magistrates, decided to close their practice and move overseas. It’s been such an amazing thing.

I love it.

Viktoria Altman: That’s awesome. And from a marketing point of view, that’s also a great way to introduce yourself to potential sources of referral and network and all that good stuff.

We actually have a new product that we are rolling out. We do podcasts for lawyers. It’s similar to what I’m doing, but I’m doing it for other lawyers.

We do all the reach out and all the work, basically.

The lawyer just has to show up. And specifically for this reason, I love doing the podcast. I figured my clients would also enjoy it. It’s a great source of referrals and just making friends and creating your team, you know, your squad of people that you like.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: 100%. And I think that as humans, we have a lot to share outside of the stuff that we see on social media, we really have a lot of value to share because all of our experiences are so unique, but they’re not at the same time. If you ever look at something on YouTube and you’ll look at the comments so many people are like, oh my gosh, me too.

And I think that putting that stuff out there and putting that value in the text sphere really helps people. And it would be nice to see more of that for individuals that might be thinking of either law as a career or something law adjacent, because there’s so many different things you can do with a law degree that many people don’t even realize.

I think it’s almost 800 different career paths. I’m all about sharing and connecting. Those are two big things that really light me up.

Viktoria Altman: And a big benefit of it is, I don’t know how familiar you are with the ongoing change in search, AI. When you create a podcast and you have a conversation with somebody about topics that are your primary area of focus, AI will actually see that entire transcript, and it’ll associate your brand with those keywords, with those phrases, with those ideas.

So you’ll be much more likely to come up in a search of someone looking for, let’s say, an inclusive lawyer that focuses on taxes than someone who didn’t have this conversations.

It makes a big difference.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: AI is big, believe it or not, and I think it’s only like 10% of attorneys that are currently properly using AI in their business. Frankly, I use it every day and it makes my job faster. I don’t use it to sub out my legal skills, I use it to make my job faster.

So if there’s an email I wanna draft. Maybe I don’t like the tone. Because I’m a human being and when I get a certain email from an attorney, I don’t care for their tone. And then I’m like, lemme ask ChatGPT to rephrase this.

Viktoria Altman: That’s a big one for me.

I have so many emails, I’m like, no, not today. I’m going to use ChatGPT. Rephrase this nicely and professionally.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: And Chat’s like, we’re not gonna do this, Marie-Yves, we’re gonna do this. I’m like, thank you, Chat. I have a great reputation in the legal community and I don’t wanna do anything to kind of muddy that. So I’m like, let me put my feelings to the side and move forward in a very different way.

And that has worked for us.

Viktoria Altman: And AI is very good at putting feelings to the side.

So let’s talk about growing your company. You mentioned this really cool TikTok thing you’re doing right now, and it sounds like it’s exciting.

But has there been anything else that you’ve done that you feel like helps you a lot in your law firm’s visibility.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: Honestly, the shift for me came when we started answering legal questions on social media. It was nothing fancy, just honest answers to real problems. I think it helped people see me, not just as a lawyer, but as someone they could trust a real human that just wants to help.

Some of these questions, I’m in my sunroom, at my home, in my pajamas, just answering these questions. A lot of my friends who are attorneys and some of them are new, some of them are very seasoned attorneys. They comment all the time. They’re like, Marie, we love what you’re doing.

Keep it up. Because they learn little things. I don’t just answer certain problems. I’m gonna shoot a couple today where I will talk to people about some changes coming in the legal world, we have a new legislative session. Some laws are changing in October, so I also tell people, Hey, these are the things that are changing.

Make sure you keep an eye on that. I would also say that joining the clubs and I know it’s a slow way to market really and doing CLEs. I have taught probably 19 to 20 CLEs. I have about four or five scheduled from now to the end of the year where I teach attorneys and they reach out to me and offer referrals. So that has been a big thing.

And has also helped with our Google. We are now showing up on the first page, which was really cool. When I first heard about that from a potential client, I was like, oh my gosh, that’s amazing.

So I really want to just stress that showing up consistently and authentically, I think can be more impactful than a polished campaign. People want real, they don’t want perfection. It doesn’t mean that you don’t strive for perfection, but over time, I learned it’s just better to get yourself out there.

Go to the events, shake hands, show up for charitable events and so forth because people are going to remember you. You just have to show up consistently. I think consistency and authenticity has been the two things that really helped us over time, where we don’t have to spend $3,000 a month on Google Ads.

‘Cause I’ve never had to do that. And lastly, a friend of mine, Sherry Hoer, told me, if you do good work, people will show up. So it’s not just the marketing, but when you get that person to sign and they’re working with you, treat them how you would wanna be treated and you’ll be okay.

‘Cause a lot of our referrals come from our current clients.

I’m actually going out to dinner today with a current client. She is so happy about the outcome of her divorce. I mean getting someone a few million dollars, I’ll be happy too. She’s so happy that she’s like, Marie, I have to take you out to dinner, so we’re going out to dinner.

So it’s really just treating people in a way that you would wanna be treated and being consistent and authentic. You may not make $80 million a year, but I promise you’ll never have to worry about being able to put food on the table. So it’s a good balance.

Viktoria Altman: I love it. So you had some really interesting points there. When you’re posting on social media, are you posting on trending topics as well? ‘Cause you mentioned some news, but are you responding to the things that are trending and how do you find those?

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: Yeah. So sometimes I have to do better with that, but it requires that I’m on social media and I feel like I go into this deep, dark hole. I have to remember, okay, you’re on this for 30 minutes to an hour because you’re working, not because you’re playing around.

I do tend to look for little things and I try to stay in my lane. So I don’t wanna comment on, let’s say like the Diddy trial. I don’t wanna comment on allegations of misappropriation of funds by Hollywood execs or whatever. I try to just stay in my lane.

For example, I alluded to this earlier. I saw this clip, it was one of those DNA shows on TV, and the comments were just blowing up and I was like, oh, I think this is a good opportunity. It was really nice to see how many followers we got from those videos.

So I think it’s something that people should tap into but like you said, stay on the trending topics versus the ones that are a little stale.

Viktoria Altman: Great tips there. So it sounds like you’ve done many things correctly, but this is my favorite question. What is a marketing idea that you’ve tried that just did not work well for you?

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: I would have to say outsourcing social media without understanding my voice or my audience. I also didn’t have a hand in green lighting posts. I think it came off,when I look back at it, I’m like, that was not me. And you can tell it’s not me. I think it came off generic.

I don’t think it connected with people. What I learned is that people can feel something that is inauthentic. You cannot delegate connection. You can systemize it later. I firmly believe that the heart of it has to come from you first. So what I did was, even though I’m not consistent with it.

I took matters into my own hands. When I say I’m not consistent, I’m not posting every single day, but when I post, I post 4, 5, 6 videos at a time. I wanna start posting maybe two to three videos per day. I’m actually taking time off from July 3rd to the eighth to look at my calendar for the month of July, August and September to make sure that I carve out space to do that.

And that’s what I mean by showing up and just doing the work. I took matters into my own hands and I was like, oh no. Whether or not I have a demanding schedule and my spoiled clients.I was like, I have to create the posts and just do the work for the firm. And when I say spoiled, I mean.

I once had a client that basically told me that she refuses to speak with my paralegal because every time she speaks to me, she feels better and I ease her fears. So you have to balance that with making sure that you are on social media and you’re doing your posts and you’re doing all the things that you have to do.

But 100% doing it myself I think has been great. And if there is a company out there that can do it for me. I would rather that they learn who I am, they learn about me, they learn what resonates with my clients before they just start doling out generic posts because it just

doesn’t work. So that I would have to say was my biggest fail.

Viktoria Altman: So this is very common. I hear so many people talk about how they outsource social media, and it was totally wrong.

One good tip I can share with you is that should you want help with social media, bring somebody in house instead. That could even be a paid intern who is currently attending college and grew up TikTok.

Somebody who is next to you who can see who you are. Somebody whose personality aligns well with yours. Somebody who is on the same wavelength as you.

And that’s a person who can help you with things like scheduling.

You still have to do the recording, but they could certainly follow appropriate accounts and find topics and things like that.

So that’s a much better way to do it. I’m not a big believer in outsourcing who you are to a company, and if you are not authentic on social media, it just lands flat and there’s point in doing it.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: And I don’t care for that at all. And I agree with you 100%. One of the next thing that I wanna start doing is we have a law clerk who happens to be my son, MJ. He’s gonna be 18 in less than two months. He does all the things that we don’t wanna do.

And one of the things that I’m gonna have him do is. Start coming with me to the charitable events that I usually attend and taking pictures so we can start posting it on social media. Not just to raise awareness for charity, but to raise awareness that all of these events are out there and we want people to take advantage and also as a way to brand the organization. So that’s gonna be a job that he’ll take on.

Viktoria Altman: That’s a great idea. And speaking of charity, you are on the Board of Boys & Girls Club of Hartford & Cecil Counties.

Where do you find the time?

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: Girl, I don’t know. Some days I’m like, oh my goodness, I’ve gotta give something up. And then now I just joined another one. I joined the Bel Air Lions Club. But doing all the work that I do, not just with the Boys & Girls Club, but with the Women’s Bar Association of Hartford County with the Bel Air Lions Club with Route 40 Business Association, with the Harford County Bar Foundation.

It just really reminds me of the why. Whether it’s working with youth or adults, for me it’s more about the legal work, a legacy and lifting the next generation. That involvement reinforces the need for my firm to be part of the solution.

Whether through education, mentorship, or just showing up in spaces that matter. It really teaches me a lot. And it’s nice for my son to see, as parents, we work, and we’re thinking none of it is getting through. My birthday was on May 19th and my son, the card said.

Thank you for showing up for others, and I’m so proud to see the change that you make in our community. And I’m like, oh, he’s paying attention. So it’s the little things that we’re doing and we’re showing up and we’re doing all this amazing stuff, and we don’t realize that our kids are actually paying attention.

Viktoria Altman: I love that I have a 19-year-old son. He also works for me, but I don’t know if he’s working quite as hard as yours.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: Didn’t say MJ working hard. But I’d rather him be here doing the work than you know and he’s a good kid. It’s nice to see him grow and they really do pay attention to what we do and the people we connect with. Our only hope is that it rubs off. Right?

Viktoria Altman: Yeah, well he registered to vote. He’s been voting, so at least I know something is rubbing off on him.

So you’ve worn so many hats. Lawyer, board member, community advocates, how has those other experiences affected the way you run your law firm?

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: I firmly believe it teaches me to lead with empathy and perspective. Being a mom, a board member for many different organizations, and deeply connected to my community, has given me a multidimensional view of people’s lives that I would not have gotten in any other way.

If I’d stayed in my little lawyer bubble. That translates to how I build our systems, how I train my team and how I advocate. I don’t wanna just run a law firm. I wanna run a place that changes lives. Our firm is more than just a law firm. Our next endeavor is opening a nonprofit.

And the nonprofit is Saint Yves Scholars, where we’re going to focus on education. And when I say education, I don’t just mean in the classroom, but education all around is a holistic measure. So we’re definitely more than just a law firm.

Viktoria Altman: I love it. That’s beautiful. I saw you are going to be DJing, or you did DJ. Your first events on May 2nd.

I did. It was so funny. So I am a huge lover of music. In fact,my other half and I, I don’t remember what we were doing.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: I put on some rock music and she goes, do you need a hug?

And so I said, what do you mean? She’s like, your music is just all over the place. I remember growing up, my mom would be like, oh my gosh, please turn that off. My sister makes fun of me. I love all kinds of music, but in 2025, the music I grew up listening to and the music I listen to now is so very different than what the teenagers are listening to.

And over time, I fell in love. I love music. I am a raver. I’m a partier. I love going to different events and just rocking out. Watching DJs do their job is amazing because for them it’s the way they feed their family, but for us, it is a way to escape our realities for an hour or two or three and just be a big kid again.

And so I started learning how to DJ. I’ve always been curious about it, and everybody that knows me knows that I love music. I think it’s joyful, it’s expressive, and it gives people permission to feel good. I started learning music theory, production and DJing probably for about a year and a half now, almost two years.

And so when my dad passed away in May of 2024, I stopped learning the art of music. I was just over it. I didn’t really wanna do anything. I was also finishing my own basement.

And it’s been a three year project and I’m almost done. I just stopped doing everything.As time went on, I started thinking about it again. I was in one of my Boys & Girls Club advocacy meetings. The opportunity came for a DJ.

Immediately I said yes. And totally had the wrong date. And then I reached out to my friend, I said, Hey, can you remind me of the date? He was like, oh, it’s this weekend. I’m like, this weekend? You told me it was a month away. So now I’m freaking out. I reached out to the director at that specific Boys & Girls location.

And I said, listen, can you tell me what these kids are listening to, because if I show up there with Eminem, Jay-Z DMX, and all this stuff, they’re gonna look at me like I’m crazy. You know? I’m gonna get booed. And so she thankfully told me, so I practiced my mix. I curated a playlist that I think my 17-year-old was dancing to.

So I was like, yes, I got this. And I did it. It was so freeing. It was powerful. And frankly, it’s something that I’d like to keep doing. I just need to figure out, remember that spider web that I was talking about?

I need to figure out that spider web. ‘Cause I don’t know if I can add one more thing onto it.

Viktoria Altman: That’s a complex spider web you got there.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: It is, so I might have to give my son a raise. It’s a lot of work, but I love every second of it.

Viktoria Altman: One of my proudest moments as a mother was when my son, who’s also DJing in college, had me listen to his mix. He had Tupac in there and I was like, I’ve done something right. I almost started crying. I was so happy.

 

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: That is definitely a proud moment because I feel like these kids need to know where the music came from. It’s that history and that evolution of music I think would really benefit them. So that’s awesome.

Viktoria Altman: I grew up in Brooklyn and I’m also a child of immigrants, so I grew up on the edge of the music culture.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: I grew up in Brooklyn too.

Viktoria Altman: Where?

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: So my family still lives on Bedford Ave by Brooklyn College.

Viktoria Altman: I am in Midwood and you’re like five minutes from here.

Okay, so before we wrap up, what’s next for you and Saint Yves Law, what do you see a firm heading in the next few years? What’s exciting for you?

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: Right now, I’m focused on sustainability, stability, consistency, and scaling with a purpose. Getting delusional with the consistency, I think, because it’s like trying to lose that last 10 pounds. If you are not consistent, you don’t show up and you fall off the wagon, it’s gonna be a lot harder.

And so being consistent and scaling with a purpose, is my goal. I wanna grow the firm into a multimillion dollar practice, not for ego, but for the deeper impact I wanna make. One of our big endeavors has been building transitional housing for individuals that need it.

And launching the Saint Yves Scholars Foundation.I’m also working on building a brand around DJing for charity. Who doesn’t love to dance, right? And if you can DJ for charity and bring people together to listen to either the oldies, but goodies and the new age stuff, it just makes sense.

So when you couple that with a charitable purpose, I think it makes it much sweeter. I’m also working on getting better systems in place. Ensure that we’re able to just help clients quicker and more efficiently. I like to take my time and get it right, but sometimes some of our cases that come

to our desks, we just don’t have that time. And of course, continuing to build a team that I trust. We are a team of four and we get along so well. Lastly, giving myself permission to live a full joyful life while I do it. As a business owner, I’ve become very entrenched in getting to where I need to go with this business that I sometimes forget how to live life.

That is definitely at the forefront, just giving myself permission to be happy and live and love and not apologize for being happy.

Viktoria Altman: Those are perfect last words. Thank you so much, Marie-Yves, for coming to the show.

Marie-Yves Nadine Jean-Baptiste: Thank you for having me. It has been amazing. I always love to do these podcasts.

They remind me of where I’ve been, all the effort that I’ve put into this and where I’d like to go.

Viktoria Altman: Thank you.