What You're About with Chad Aboud

I used to take others’ career opinions as commandments. But he only took them as data points. And that let him design the career of his dreams. By April of 2023, Nolan Ritzel had done all of the things: - Success in Biglaw - AGC at Shopify - GC at DC Bank Impressive titles. Great money. Proud parents. But something was off. He wanted his career to fit into his life. Not the other way around. So wh...

From Anchorage to Toronto in a market crash. And from BigLaw to In-House, to BigLaw and back again. Angie Jackson, Director of Legal at Uber and Pam Hinman, AGC at the University of Calgary know what it takes to bet on themselves. They realized early on that testing themselves was part of designing an intentional career. Careers filled with twists and turns they could never have expected. But that...

His parents were happy he was working at a prestigious Law Firm. But his dream was always pushing him further. So he ran after it. Figuratively and literally. Down hallways. Through cold calls. And slammed phones. Manav Deol grew up playing competitive sport. And very early on he knew he’d do everything to make sport his Career too. In this week’s episode of the What You’re About x Goodlawyer podc...

She’s faced lies, slander and ridicule. But she remains a warrior for the Legal industry. Having no interest in the status quo and proving that empathy and curiosity make money. Leena Yousefi has absorbed more hate than most in the legal industry could ever imagine. Yet she’s turned that negative energy into fuel to become CEO of YLaw, the largest female led Law Firm in Canada, an author, voted To...

If Lawyers have a monopoly on legal services, nothing changes. Many talk about legal innovation. He lives it. Whether it's Mitch Kowalski’s books about how Lawyers can avoid extinction or his international projects with governments and massive brands around the world... he walks his talk. In this episode, as usual Mitch pulls no punches as he shares how the legal industry needs to change to improv...

“Keep coming up with your ideas — but keep them to yourself.” This was the nail in the coffin for Brett’s BigLaw career. As a lifelong entrepreneur, he’d heard “No” before. As a kid, selling found golf balls on the fairways. In college, selling house painting services. But this was different. This was his industry – the legal industry – telling him that they didn’t value his creativity, his agency...

She was working late on Christmas Eve. Feeling the pressure of getting a deal done while her kids were asking for her. A painful moment many Lawyers experience. But for Amy Grubb, it was the final straw. She didn’t know what was next but she knew it was something different. And it was something big. In the conversations that followed with her community, Amy described her goals and what she believe...

Sarah had the “perfect” General Counsel role. Exciting scale-up. Enjoying her team. Receiving positive feedback. And then she walked away. Leaving it all behind to build something that only she could. Because she realized: she was the niche. Learn how Sarah went from being a SaaS GC in Dublin to becoming a globally sought after Community Builder, B2B Influencer, Venture Partner and Angel Investor,...

How does someone go from a Guamanian jail, to a successful legal practice in St. Louis, to living in the wilderness 3 hours north of Toronto writing some of Legal’s most eye-catching LinkedIn posts for a living? Tony Albrecht’s lawyer life has been anything but typical. He’s walked away from the Partnership track. He was a digital nomad years before it was a thing. He’s worked, and seen the inside...

Lawyers continually fight against industry stigma. Mental health pressures. Wanting a more creative way to practice. Spending time with family & on side businesses. Yet the traditional legal career models struggle to sufficiently serve a large segment of lawyers and companies. To launch Season 2, Pauline Chan, a fractional General Counsel, serial entrepreneur and Head of Lawyer Experience at G...

There are moments in our Career when risk doesn’t feel so risky anymore. Because the traditional path can’t give us something. And the path less travelled calls us. Our excitement and fear equally asking: “Am I really giving up my secure life?” If you’ve ever felt this, you’re not alone. This week, Sarah Ouis, visual design guru and Founder of Law But How, takes us through her journey from her sec...

It can feel nice to have complete control over our environment. To stop anyone from changing our vision. But doing everything on our own has downsides too. There are parts of our business where we aren’t strong. We miss feeling connected to others with a shared vision. We begin to see everyone as competition because we aren’t working with anyone. But when we find trusted partners we gain inspirati...

When our Career is in a tough spot, it feels like the world’s against us. No one will give us a chance. So we retract and hold tightly to what we have. Which leads us to feel even more alone. But what if we took the opposite approach? By giving first and tapping into every resource available. Jessica Nguyen, CLO of Lexion, grew up with no resources or community support. She had to carve her own pa...

We receive advice constantly. Following the right advice can change our lives. So how do we know whose advice is worth taking? John Lindsey intuitively knew the answer from a young age. And that allowed him to make two critical decisions: (1) not following his parents’ financial advice, and (2) listening when his technology adept partners pushed him out of the Product Team and into Sales. John’s a...

Have you ever felt self-conscious about your look at a corporate event? Trying to fit in, so you won’t stand out. Leila El Gharbi used to feel that way. In fact, she was told to dress and act that way. So, she did. Never feeling quite like herself. Struggling to create meaningful connections. But after her health began failing and a life changing experience hiking the Camino Trail, she decided it...

What if your friend was a surgeon. Teaching, training and helping those in need. You’d probably be thrilled for them, right? What if that friend was also spiraling. Ashamed of their unhappiness but terrified to change their outwardly perfect life. This was Dr. Bryan Sagray. And it took the passing of his father to pull him out of it. Thankfully, Bryan turned that tragic loss into a career rebirth....

As a kid arriving from the Soviet Union, Victoria Tollossa marveled at Whitney Houston. She wanted to sing like her. Be like her. Share a message. So she worked tirelessly to win in the music industry. She was even nominated for a Grammy. But after years of contorting herself to fit others’ expectations, she left. Walking away from a childhood dream that was no longer serving her. But her creativi...

He had it all. Fancy job. Nice salary. Prestigious employer. And then he found himself on the operating table trying to stay live. Owen McGrann’s job as a complex case litigator looked really impressive to the outside world. But it was destroying his health so significantly that it almost killed him. And from the operating table, Owen gained a new perspective. That he needed to create meaning from...

How do our chosen families impact our behavior? Why aren’t we all given an equal starting point? And how can we help those that need support? These questions have been foundational to Lisa Blasser’s career. Through her legal practice, her book and her new course, The Law School Operating System, Lisa has had enormous success personalizing legal education for her clients and students around the wor...

Your parent is a doctor, so everyone calls you Doc. Because of course, you’ll be a doctor too. But that’s not what you want. You have other gifts. But what if no one else can see them yet? This was the path that Mando Sallavanti III, Financial Planner at a MassMutual agency in Pennsylvania, walked before he became a go-to financial planning voice. In this inspiring interview, Mando shares how he u...

Imagine living in three different countries by the age of 16. And then feeling such intense pressure to be someone you’re not, that you had to run away from home to pursue who you really are? Roma Khan, CEO of Crush Contracts, and Inventor of GlobalNDA and Zoey, did just that. What she discovered was that by changing how she looked at failure, she opens new windows every time a traditional door se...

Rob Hanna is the Founder of KC Partners, one the UK’s top legal recruitment firms. He also hosts the top 1% ranked Legally Speaking podcast and is an advisor to, and investor in, multiple companies. But if it was up to one of Rob’s idols, none of this might have happened. Because Rob’s grandfather desperately wanted him to become a Chartered Accountant. Rob shares how he overcame family pressure t...

We're finally here and I can't wait to go on this journey with you. Here's a 2 min sneak peek into just a few of the incredible leaders and entrepreneurs we interviewed in Season 1. This show is your shortcut to the tools and tips they spent decades figuring out. Because you deserve to have a career filled with impact that is uniquely yours while feeling happier too. And it all starts...