Carena Lemons Ep. 58 - One day she was an attorney going to work in an office in a suit. How did she get from attorney to movie star? In this episode of Trailblazers Impact Podcast, Nan McKay has the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Carena Lemons, owner of Lemons Law Firm where she specializes in unemployment, bankruptcy, and entertainment law sharing her insights on adopting business management principles into her "practice of the law". She also has to her credit the recent addition of movie star having landed parts in "Hickory The Series", hosting her TV talk show, "It's Your Life" , and landing a part in the 2019, block buster history-making film, Harriet; the telling of the story of Harriet Tubman, a heroic abolitionist and the most famous of all of the conductors of the famous "Underground Railroad" who planned and led dangerous missions to liberate hundreds of slaves through the Underground Railroad starting on Maryland's eastern shore and going as far north as Canada.
Top Takeaways:
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- How to follow your passion even when you've made a career for yourself.
- Learning to run your law practice as a money-making business.
- How to look at discrimination at a higher bar.
- The importance of strategizing, timing, and innovating when running a business.
- Why you don't need to be passionate about what you're selling in order to be successful at it.
Listen to her journey from attorney to movie star.
"It's Your Life." - Carena Lemons
Carena shares how she initially shied away from acting although she had done so in both high school and college where she had taken an acting classes, performed a monologue, and left the experience feeling she was "horrible" at it., and subsequently pursuing "the law" instead. She practiced law and fell into business. Although she enjoyed being an attorney and entrepreneur, it was hard, especially at first. What do you do with a law degree? Immediately hang out a shingle? She says, "Terminating people is something, when I had to do it, it just devastated me. I dreamt about it. It was the hardest thing I think that I ever had to do." Through professional networking groups to promote her business, she met a director/ producer who invited her to join their production company. From this reentry to the world of entertainment she became a talk show host and later an actress.
She now embraces everything about the acting process and wants to do it for the rest of her life!
Key Moments:
How did she go from a law profession to an actress? [0:48]
How did she get from a talk show host to a feature film actress? [5:00]
How was her childhood? [8:39]
What's an important contribution she feels she has made? [11:34]
What is the biggest challenge for women starting a business today? [12:30]
What did she do when she was faced with adversity? 17:18
What is the best moment of her life? [18:28]
What is the hardest thing she ever had to do? [21:22]
What are her fears for her children growing up today? [22:44]
Has she ever faced discrimination in her life? [25:15]
How does she protect her children from cultural insensitivity? [27:39]
What is her biggest success story so far? [29:04]
What life lesson does she have for young people? [30:48]
Relevant Links
LinkedIn Carena Lemons
Bio
Lemons Law
Medium Article: Access to Justice Should Not Be Based on Affordability
Speaking Out on Workers' Rights
3B's on the Law Podcast
Attorney at Law Magazine
Just Between Us
African American Attorney Network
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