Unleash Your Inner Lady Shark: Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Everything in Between with Chrissy Grigoropoulos

In this empowering episode of the She's Brave Podcast, Kristina sits down with the incredible Chrissy Grigoropoulos, CEO of the Grigoropoulos Law Group and author of "Lady Shark: How to Become a Millionaire in Your Thirties." Chrissy shares her journey from a young girl with a dream to a successful entrepreneur, offering invaluable insights to overcoming self-doubt, embracing resilience, and achieving financial freedom. From navigating career transitions to mastering the art of networking, Chrissy's wisdom shines through, inspiring listeners to unleash their inner Lady Shark and seize their dreams with confidence. Tune in for a dose of motivation and practical advice that will empower you to take charge of your life and career.

About Chrissy:

Chrissy Grigoropoulos is the founding and managing attorney of The Grigoropoulos Law Group PLLC. She is also the corporate Real Estate Broker of Property Shark Realty, Inc, as well as the CEO of IME Sharks, Inc. Chrissy has vast experience in criminal defense, primarily handling high profile criminal cases and large exposure personal injury and third-party workers’ compensation matters. She also appears as Trial Counsel to other law firms, litigating their personal injury lawsuits in New York courts, at arbitrations and mediations.

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Transcript

  Hey everyone! It's Kristina with the She’s Brave Podcast. You guys, today's guest is nothing short of amazing, uh, may zing.  Do you feel like you're stuck in a life that no longer serves you?

We're going to be talking a lot about that today. Today's guest is Chrissy Grigoropoulos. She has a new book called Lady Shark, How to Become a Millionaire in Your Thirties. She's only 35 years old. She's an inspiration to all of us. You guys, women all around the world. She is the CEO of the Grigoropoulos Law Group. She offers a roadmap to overcoming chronic self doubt and achieving personal and financial freedom by challenging conventional wisdom and emphasizing authenticity, resilience, and strategic savvy over traditional paths to success. Welcome. Welcome, Chrissy. 

Thank you so much for having me, Kristina. It's a pleasure to be here. 

It is amazing to have you and a deep honor to have you on my podcast. You have accomplished so much and you're only 35 and before everybody jumps to conclusions, yes, she is a mom too.

She's got a two and a half year old and 11 month old. You have done it all Chrissy. And I just love that about you. And I love that you want to share your secrets because  before we hit record, you were telling me. The reason why you wrote this book was that so many people were watching you do all these amazing things in your life, you know, including opening up multiple law firm locations.

You know, you said you're on your third location and people would be asking you all the time, how do you do it, Chrissy? How do you do it? And you thought, I need to write a book about this. So Can you share your journey of becoming self made and how you've used street smarts and savviness to work your way up?

Of course, of course. So sharing is caring, obviously it'd be cliche with the statement. Um,  once upon a time I was a young girl. I finished high school when I was 16, college when I was 19, I went to law school. I always knew that I wanted to be a lawyer from a pretty young age. My dad went through some, um, some battles with, uh, one of his homes that he had owned. It was an investment house. So he went through a lot of court stuff. And I remember going with him to one of his appearances and he was complaining about how much he was paying the lawyer. And, you know, I was asking him, you know, how much, what do lawyers do? And he was telling me they fight all day and they get paid a lot of money.

I'm like, Oh, that sounds, I like to fight all day. You know? So as adolescent as that sounds, that's really where the seed was planted. And I was encouraged. I was lucky to have very encouraging parents, a very good foundation in that respect. And I just kept pushing away and plugging away at it. And I basically worked my way from the bottom through the school process.

And I wasn't a great test taker, overcame all that fun stuff of the LSAT to get into law school, the bar exam, all that, you know, Stuff that are requirements to be where I am today, which is obviously after working for a few different law firms, honing in on skills and building that foundation and ultimately, uh, we began the firm in 2016.

Uh, so here we are today. We're still plugging away. Yes, we just opened up our, newest office and I wanted to share to the world, you know, that you don't have to be this Harvard grad or, you know, inherited millions in order to be successful.  

I love this so much. And I love you so much. From the minute your name came across my desk, I just felt like you were like my sister. 

And we need to really unpack your new book because it's coming out June 11th. And I got a sneak peek. It's called Lady Shark, how to become a millionaire in your thirties.  Holy crap. A moly Chrissy, you guys, everybody, we need to read. We all, everyone needs to read this book. So. Let's talk a little bit more about the book.

Um, in your new book, you introduced the idea that life is a process requiring consistent effort. Can you expand on this mindset and its importance?  

Of course. I like to say that success isn't a destination, but it's a journey, a never ending journey, because. For me, I have that fire inside that you always think that you have a checkpoint where once you reach, you'll be then quote, unquote, successful, but  it's never really that destination because once you have something you want more and more and more, and I'm pretty sure that the most of your listeners as well as The people that would want to read the book, they have that fire.

And some don't know how to get there in order to achieve financial freedom. So it really hones in on financial literacy and the baby steps that you can take in order to get to that destination of financial freedom and enjoying your family and not having to be stuck at work and living paycheck to paycheck.

I absolutely love that about you because as you know, in my, in a former life, I was a financial advisor and I feel like money is our. My late husband used to say that is our blood, sweat and tears take care of it, understand it. , I think people think, and women in particular think it's this big, crazy, complicated thing.

Did you know that? The average 12 year old can learn to invest just fine. . It's not rocket science. It's not. And basic financial literacy is something that I don't see. It's just not talked about enough among women. And the fact that you talk about it in your book is. Awesome.  

Thank you.

It's baby steps, sometimes the phrase financial literacy, it's scary to people that are known, so I try to make it as simple as possible. It's just know your bills, know what the requirements, the month to month requirements that you have to pay. Some people don't even know it. They just wing it.

When the bills come, they just try to, you know, gather together the pennies and just pay the bills and hope that everything gets paid that month and then move to the next paycheck and hope they can pay some more. So the foundation is really knowing where you're spending your money, where you're required and where your wants are.

And once you're able to, at least, you know, even it doesn't have to be formal, doesn't have to be an Excel advanced spreadsheet, get a pen, get a paper, go through your bills that no one likes to open every month, go through the mail. Some people don't even open the mail. Um, and write everything down and take a look and do some balancing and, and that's really the first step. 

Yeah. Beautifully said. Beautifully said. So you talk about the salary versus skills mindset in the book. How can individuals navigate this gap to build a fulfilling career?  

So I think it really starts with honing in on what are you good at? Are you good at giving advice? Or can you consult someone on the side?

Are you good at organizing? Can you do an organizational side business? You shouldn't be stuck in your nine to five or your paycheck to paycheck because those are your work hours and you think you won't have time for something else that can help you build towards that financial freedom. Have that Side job to generate income, to buy another business or to create your business.

There's so many things nowadays that, that women and I call them lady sharks, you know, they could be men too, but lady sharks are, you know, hungry, uh, women, you know, are hungry people that really want to take that next step. Maybe they're too nervous to stop having that job security that they have right now and want to build something else that they can grow for themselves and their families. 

So in your book, you talk about opportunity mapping and you say that it's crucial for your strategy. Can you explain how to spot and leverage opportunities that others might overlook? 

Sure. A lot of times people are great at things that they don't realize they can get paid for, you know, gift baskets. I have friends that  give these great gifts and it doesn't have to be anything extravagant.

You can go to the dollar store and get beautiful things. Put it in a basket together and then poof, there's a hundred dollar basket. You spend 15, 20 for maybe a little bit more and so on and so forth. So if you have great skills, such as a niche like that, or if you have something, like I said earlier with organizing, you can, you know, organize closets on the weekends.

If you're good at food prep, you can do food prep as a side job, um, balloons and party planning, things of that nature. I feel like everyone does balloons now when it comes to, I want this decor for a child's Party or a grown person's party. They have the, it is the, the options are endless, uh, table rentals, tent rentals, chair rentals, um, charcuterie boards.

I feel like everyone does cheese boards. Now, why not you? And the book really talks about , my favorite quote, or one of them is why not you? Why can you not be a millionaire? Everyone else has done it. Not everyone, because, you know, maybe that's cliche, but. Why can't you have that freedom? Why can't you spend the time with your family?

Once you invest your time, treat your new business or your side hustle as your baby, and then you'll have that.  

I love it. And you are the living, breathing, beautiful example of it. Why not you? You're like, I didn't go to an Ivy league school. There's no excuse there. People. You know what? We don't all have, we don't have to be a genius.

You don't, you don't have to be a genius. You don't have to go to Ivy league school. You can basically get out there, get whatever degree, do your thing or not get a degree. Just do it. Just do it. Right. Chrissy. 

Exactly. Exactly. Oh my gosh.  

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. You are incredible. So in negotiations, you've learned that no isn't the end, which I love. I love hearing that. No, isn't the end. How many of us women have been stuck where when people tell us no, we think it's the end.  What is that all about?  

So I look at it as you're never a failure unless you give up a no is never the end unless you take it as the end. Um, you have to rebut. I mean, it comes with sales background, I guess.

I think that everything is sales. Even if you're selling yourself, um, you need to figure out why is that a no? I hate the world. The word no, my mom will tell you from an infant age, I probably hated the word no, but, um, you have to figure out exactly why is it a no? How can you surpass that? No. And get to a yes.

Is there, it's genuine curiosity when it comes to speaking with one another. Um, no, you know, as a surface answer, okay, understand, but how can, why is it a no? Then you would understand better as to how did you reach that? No. And how to get it to a yes.  

Yeah. So give us an example of when you applied this whole principle of where it gave you an unexpected opportunity. 

So myself, , I tried to get into law school at a very young age and, um, I was told, no, I was told that I was high risk. Because I was such I had such, you know, young age when I was looking to get into law school and I didn't take that no as a forever no. I just kept trying to move to the next school. 

I had to go out of state into a extremely hard law school that, you know, of course, you don't realize these things before you're going through the process. But if you want something bad enough, there is no, no, that will stop you. And it's really the courage. That we all need to have inside of us to take that no and say, you know what?

Who are you to tell me? No, I will go get that. Yes. Even if it's from someone else.  

Oh, so empowering, so beautiful, so simple, and yet so empowering. So, okay. I absolutely love this term that you use, lady sharking, okay, like a lady shark and lady sharking. And you know, you talk about it in the book, and so in the book you say it goes beyond traditional networking. So how do you approach building relationships that are mutually beneficial?  

So speaking of networking, that's not an easy thing to do to go to networking events. And I speak about it in the book, how sometimes you have to be this lone ranger and sometimes your friends or coworkers or people around you, they don't want to network and  they're not extroverts.

Um, I, by default, was definitely not an extrovert, but you have to put yourself out there. You have to figure out what the iceberg is. Breakers going to be in your field? What type of networking event are you at? Uh, for me, my networking really began with, my area of law is personal injury, so we do all types of injury cases and I was required to go to networking events that had doctors and lawyers.

So I'm like, okay, I don't wanna go up to men. I'm not a woman that goes up to men ever. So now I have to, because obviously it's a male dominated business and okay, what am I going to. say is pretty much everyone's question. And mine was, Hey, are you a doctor? Are you a lawyer? And poof, everyone's ready to give you that answer.

And if it's not one of those two, the third or fourth or fifth option gets thrown at you. And then you start having a conversation. And a lot of times when you first meet someone, people may think, okay, what can I get out of this person? What can I get out of this person? And if you have that mentality, You're never going to be successful because it's not what can I get?

What can I get? But you know what? What can I help you with? That's free. My time, my skill set. What can I give you? And then you'll remember me because I'm not a user. I'm looking to help you with what I have. And maybe one day you'll keep me in mind so you can one hand wash the other with me in the future. 

That's so beautiful. And I think especially for us women, that's such a powerful tool that's easy for those of us who are naturally introverted. Um, you're claiming you are, um,  and I'm claiming I am too. People are always telling me, no, you're not, but I've taken the test and I am. And I love this angle of, You know, walking into a room, it's so freaking intimidating to network.

It's hard. It's freaking hard. I had to do it as a financial advisor. It was freaking hard. And I wish somebody had told me just walk in the room with this attitude of how can I help these people?  Like, I think as women, if we can just reframe in our mind, when I'm networking, how can I help the people I'm networking with?

Wow. That's a game changer. Like, that's like, it's easy. All of a sudden it's easy, easy to network if I'm helping somebody. Right?  

Wow. I talk about cleaning up the room. You go into a room and let's say it's 200 people cleaning up the room. You got to get your business card out. Obviously you need a business card.

So whether you, it's the side hustle that you're making. Go to Vistaprint or any other, I'm sure there's a million other websites. Um, make your business card, get a logo with AI nowadays. You can get one online in about four minutes, I'm sure. Um, and get that business card, get your cell phone on it, you know, and give it out, go to every single person in that room that you can possibly have a conversation with,  pick up your icebreaker and.

Go through it. You don't have to be there for four hours. Let's say the event is four hours. If you quote unquote, clean up the room and you get those encounters because you're not going to get that new business or that new level that you want to be at just sitting at home and waiting for your phone to ring from the stars above, so you have to go out and get it.

Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes I used to trick myself. Maybe you did that too. I'll just go for 15 minutes, you know, and then all of a sudden it's four hours later.  All right, exactly. 

Oh my gosh. Okay. Here's another gem in your book that I absolutely love so much. You emphasize resilience and viewing failure as feedback.

Okay. I have never. Heard that. I freaking love that. So we need to look at failure  as feedback. Okay. Let's just, let's, let's talk about this more. 

For sure. How'd you, how'd you figure this out? Or where'd, where'd this come from? Failure, the word? No, it's never a, no, you've never failed unless you give up.

If you give up, then you fail. But if you don't give up, you take what didn't work and you tweak it. You know, it's the test, check and revise. You want to figure out what you tried. Hopefully you can make mistakes based on other people's failures or where they may have not excelled with trying something.

And don't make the same mistake. Don't go down that path. If you saw, okay, they tried it. It didn't work. I'm not going to, I'm going to try and reinvent the wheel the same exact way because clearly that didn't work. So. When you're able to look back and try something new after getting bad feedback from an original plan, it's just plan ABCD, you know, one plan B isn't enough.

Sometimes, especially as an entrepreneur, it's the hardest job. I always said that even in my law firm,  my first business was. You don't go to law school to learn how to be a business owner. I wish that they taught us how to do that. I went to school to be a lawyer and I, you know, thought I excelled amazingly, but then start your own business, have to manage employees and manage their time and your time and tasking.

And all of a sudden you have this snowball and you're creating this monster and you're like, no one told me how to do this. So you got to teach yourself. And sometimes things work and sometimes they don't. It's not a failure. And. Unless you give up. So you have to just keep tweaking, keep pushing at it until you find what works best for you.

Beautifully, beautifully said. So speaking of such, how do you prioritize your time? How do you manage your priorities?  

So my, as I stated earlier, my first business was the law firm. And, I describe it as a baby. Even in the book, when you have a new business, it's called a baby. It's your baby business.

So you have to really put in all the time. , the same way a newborn needs all your time in order to survive. That's how it is. So lucky for me, when I did start my business, I didn't have a newborn at home. I didn't have a relationship that needed nurturing. So my focus was my business after the law firm, I started my real estate brokerage.

Um, and that took up a lot of my time as well. So juggling definitely is easier without kids, but once you have kids, you really just learn how to prioritize time a little bit better. And for me, um, I try to just hone in on working the maximum amount of, getting the maximum amount of tasks done during the work hours.

And of course, it's not a given that I'd be home by five o'clock because that's unrealistic for me. Um, but I try to maximize my, you know, nine to five, nine to six, nine to seven, and then be able to go home. Whereas when I was building my business, I was working from, let's say, 8 AM in the morning until two, three in the morning.

So, um, it was a lot more and, and it does pay off, you know, a lot of people were Criticizing and saying you don't need to work that much. The work will always be there. Just go out, have fun. And of course I wanted to, but I knew what was necessary was what was the necessity at that point of my life. And now it's just a matter of being a professional juggler in the circus of life.

Oh, my gosh. I love that statement. I'm a professional juggler in the circus of life. And what I love so much about you, Chrissy, is that when you're talking to every essence and who you are, the essence of who you are as a human is you're living your life on your own terms, you know, and you have your family and you've got your work and, you are deciding this is how much I want to work and you know, no judgment there.

Like some women  want to work a lot, you know, and some women want to work a little and some not at all. We're all on the spectrum somewhere, but wherever we are, we all need to honor each other about where we're at, because. There is an advantage, you know, to your children, even if they have a working mom, you are a beautiful example to them of empowerment.

It's incredible. And so you're, and you're not compromising yourself. You're saying this is me. I own it. I'm living life on my terms. 

Right.  Sometimes work hours obviously take advantage of the time that you wish you were spending at work. But you know what? There's a time and place for everything and you try to do your best.

And , I know before having kids, I used to look at moms as the pros of the world and they're always right. And everyone has , Uh, their way of doing things and they got it, but we are all human and we are all, you know, navigating through it. We're learning on a day to day basis. You know, we all can lose our cool or wish that we had more time with our children or wish that we had more time to invest in a work activity, but you juggle , and you have to feel good about yourself.

And hopefully you have a partner, you know, or someone or family, a support system to have your back. If you have to step away from the kids and the family. It does take a tribe.  

It definitely takes a tribe. And I think as women, we are all working on that together. And I'm really happy to hear you say that too, that let's all work on this together.

You know, as women, let's all help each other out.  Let's empower each other. Let's lift each other up, but you're just like such a beautiful example of it. You know, your mindset is amazing. It's truly amazing. Um, can you share a pivotal moment in your career that required a significant mindset shift?

Because what I find with entrepreneurs is, you have to be ready to shift your mind. You've got to be ready to pivot at any time. Things just can change on a dime and then you have to adjust for sure. For sure. I think that COVID forced a lot of people to, to pivot and to really snap back or not.

You know, there's so many businesses that failed during that time. Um, a lot of people were furloughed. I was lucky enough to have my, I had two locations at that point. Unfortunately, we were all required to leave. I know that I appealed the first shutdown and we got a few more weeks still open as essential workers with the law.

And I was able to find some fine print to keep us open a little longer, but it was inevitable for everyone. And I really had to think outside of the box. How do you generate business when people are not getting around? How do you continue to have business when your doors are closed and people may want a lawyer or want something, but you're not there.

So, I think technology, thank God for everything when it comes to that moment, was key. Uh, I learned a lot more about technology, uh, being able to work from home, having staff work from home, really getting in touch with them through Zoom. Zoom didn't really exist the way it does now before.

COVID and as well as a bunch of other technological innovations that we were required to really learn before COVID. We used to have to do in person appearances and believe it or not, it was something new to not have to do that anymore, or be required to be on a computer, talk in front of the lights and then not go in person where you can have conversations, learn in class.

Court and things of that nature. But, um, , you have to just look at it with a positive light and say, you know what, maybe I can't go into the court and, be more personal and, try to meet, you know, people and, try to have, uh, business relations, but I can save time now that I'm not going to a courthouse.

I can do more appearances. I can have my staff be more productive with their time, with appearances. Uh, we can work through online, uh, and virtual. Intake process. So we save a lot of clients time. We can save a lot of, uh, everything all around when it comes to paperless now, because we were required to learn that and pivot really quickly, with the COVID, um, time.

So it enabled me  to really cherish the time, uh, because I never had that much free time ever in my life. Not that it was free per se, but I was never home for that long, the way that we were required to be during the COVID time. So I've got a little stir crazy, but. You have to adjust and figure out how to do your best with the cards that you're dealt. 

Wow. So good. So good. So good. So I know a lot of my listeners out there are in this space of, you know, maybe they're a stay at home mom, or maybe they are stuck in their career. They're not happy. What kind of practical advice can you give  for someone looking to make a considerable career or life transition? 

Safety net, I guess, is the first thing that stands out in my mind, because I know that I have a lot of peers of mine, family members, um, that want to make a change, but that job stability that they've had for 10 plus years, they don't want to make a change somewhere new, maybe in a different realm of work.

It is difficult, and you don't have to think that that is a requirement. Wireman in order to grow and get to the stepping of the journey of financial freedom. Think small, think what are you good at? Think of the little things that you can do as a side hustle first, let that baby grow. And once you need more time and you feel more secure that you know what you built this business, you have an online following or a business following word of mouth grows very quickly.

Whether it's, uh, something like what we spoke about earlier, like gift baskets or charcuterie boards or party plates,  Rentals or it's something like a real estate agent. If you are a people person and you can be a real estate agent on the side for the weekends or at night or something of that nature that can help you grow the capital that you need.

Maybe you're just trying to do something short term, like grow capital to buy a business. It could be any type of business, even if it's your corner deli that you're, you know, I'm from New York. So corner delis are many years. So. If it's owner financing, maybe you don't need a huge capital investment, but you can, you know, still get that.

So there's so many different ways. You just have to really think about where your passion is. Obviously having the nine to five and working for this boss may or may not be the best person. It doesn't really give you that drive and that wants to think outside of the box. But if you can find something that you're good at, there's no reason why you can't make that your baby and grow it until it becomes your route to financial freedom. 

Absolutely. And you are the living, breathing, beautiful example of that.  Chrissy, are there any last words of advice that you would like to share with my listeners? And you guys don't forget her book's coming out June 11th. We will probably try to air this right around then so that , you guys can run out and buy the book because you guys are going to want to buy the book.

There's no, there's no question. Right. so much. I mean, it's, it's, it's, you're amazing. This book is amazing. Yeah. So any last words of advice? 

I would say that my advice isn't about overnight success. It's embracing the process of personal growth, gaining financial literacy to live life to the fullest. Uh, you know, I incorporate intuitive decision making street smarts as key components. It really motivates you and the failure and little things in life that you need that motivation or self doubt that means nothing. You just have to start somewhere. And once you start baby stepping, it will all come and you'll be more secure and fake it till you make it as much as you're not faking it.

You know, convince yourself that you are empowered. You can do it. Why not you?  

Oh, my gosh. So, so good.  I cannot wait for June 11th. This is so exciting. I cannot thank you enough for, you know. Honoring yourself and listening that so many people asking you, how do you do this? And you, you gave the gift of writing a book about how you did it.

That's it. It's beautiful. 

It's just gotta be a lady shark. Just do it.  

I love it. Okay. Chrissy, let us know how we can find you. 

So, um, my Instagram is Chrissy G official. The book is going to be sold on Amazon and a million other places. Um, but I'm here. I'd be more than happy to share advice. If anyone ever has questions, I'm always happy to help.

So, you know, it takes a tribe. A lot of people have helped me through my process of where I am today. And there's nothing beneath anyone. You're never better than anyone and everyone needs help. I need help. 

I love that. I love that. I think that's a really great last point to talk about a little bit more is, you know, just to have the courage.

And I think, again, as women, sometimes, um, we don't even have the courage to ask for help.  

No asking, no getting.  

Yeah, right. You know, it's okay to ask for help. And you're saying you asked for a lot of help along the way. It sounds like. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well,  thank you. Thank you, Chrissy, for coming on my podcast today.

This has been Absolutely. Thanks so much, Kristina. You're awesome. Amazing, amazing. You are so inspiring. I think many women's lives are about to change. 

Thank you so much for having me, Kristina. You're the best.