HER STORY
Lady Boss
Hi! I'm Samah. Before I tell you what this newsletter is, you should know where I come from:
At 5, my pre-K teacher looked at my name and said, "Oh no, honey. You're not Samah. You're going to be Samantha." I was Samantha for a whole year. On the first day of kindergarten, I walked up to my new teacher before she could say a word: "My name is Sam."
I grew up in Section 8 housing, on food stamps, the only Muslim family in a small Southern Baptist town in Florida.
I got my first job at 11. I nannied in my hometown until 17, saved up, and bought my own car.
I worked through college. I worked through law school.
My first job as a lawyer was the worst job of my life. Screaming. Cursing. Getting called names in front of people. I quit with nothing lined up and promised myself that if I ever had my own firm, it would never feel like that.
In 2018, I started it. One of the first things anybody said to me was: "You're gonna fail, and you're gonna come back to me."
Fear drives me in the opposite direction, honey.
Today, that firm is The Florida Probate & Family Law Firm. About 60 people across multiple offices, on the Inc. 5000 four years running. And I'm doing it while raising two little kids (soon to be 3), teaching at FIU, running multiple businesses, and sitting on multiple boards and organizations.
I worked my ass off to get here, and I KNOW so many women who did the same.
I'm fortunate enough to meet Florida women business owners and talk about everything: the business, the family, the money, the things nobody posts about. I know exactly how hard these women are working.
I want to spotlight them. Properly. Because I'm done with the masks, the stage talk about revenue, the cars, the house. I want the real stories: how they came up in the world, what it cost, what broke, what they'd do differently.
That's what Lady Boss is. Every Sunday, one Florida woman tells you how she's actually building it: founders, firm owners, women running something real, in their own words.
Know a Lady Boss? Reply to any of our emails with her name and one line about what she's building. That's how every story here starts.
I'm so happy you're here.
XOXO,
Samah
