Perseverance: Twice a teen mother, high school dropout, and still built a multi-million-dollar family law firm.
Strawberry Letter
iHeartPodcasts
4.5 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning!
Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Attorney Tessie D. Edwards.
A family and criminal law attorney based in Atlanta, Georgia. Here's a breakdown of the key highlights and themes from the episode:
🔑 Key Themes & Takeaways 1. Early Life & Adversity
- Tessie Edwards grew up in a challenging environment marked by poverty, teen pregnancy, and systemic injustice.
- She became a mother at 16, dropped out of high school, and had her second child by 18.
- Despite these challenges, she never lost sight of her dream to become a lawyer.
2. Turning Point
- A pivotal moment came when someone told her that her daughter looked like her. That realization sparked a deep desire to become someone her daughter could look up to.
3. Relentless Pursuit of Education
- Earned her GED, then an associate degree to qualify for military service.
- After a brief stint in the military (cut short due to pregnancy and miscarriage), she pursued higher education.
- Graduated from Indiana University with five children and went on to law school with her then-husband.
4. Professional Success
- Now runs a multi-million dollar law firm in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Has handled over 2,000 criminal cases and is deeply committed to serving families in crisis.
- Her firm has been serving the Atlanta community for over 15 years.
5. Support System
- Credits her success to a strong support network: her husband (who co-runs the firm), her children, her brother, and her team.
- Emphasizes the importance of surrounding yourself with people who believe in your vision.
6. Advice & Motivation
- Be clear about your goals and stay focused.
- Don’t wait for the “right time”—start now.
- Believe in your dream even when others don’t.
- Use adversity as fuel for your ambition.
💬 Memorable Quotes
- “I feel thankful but not satisfied.”
- “My life was so divinely chosen… I was just given a dream and the courage to go after it.”
- “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”
#BEST
#STRAW
#SHMS
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Mark Seal. |
| 0:01.1 | And I'm Nathan King. |
| 0:02.3 | This is Leave the Gun, Take the Canoli. |
| 0:04.5 | The five families did not want us to shoot that picture. |
| 0:07.3 | This podcast is based on my co-host Mark Seal's best-selling book of the same title. |
| 0:11.7 | Leave the Gun Take the Canoli features new and archival interviews with Francis Ford |
| 0:15.6 | Kobola, Robert Evans, James Kahn, Talia Shire, and many others. |
| 0:20.2 | Yes, that was a real horse's head. |
| 0:22.2 | Listen and subscribe to Leave the Gun Take the Canoli on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:30.3 | Are you hungry? Colleen Witt here and eating while broke is back for season four every Thursday on the Black Effect Podcast Network. This season |
| 0:39.5 | we've got a legendary lineup |
| 0:41.3 | serving up broke dishes and even |
| 0:43.3 | better stories. On the menu, we have |
| 0:45.5 | Tony Baker, Nick Cannon, Melissa |
| 0:47.6 | Ford, October London, and |
| 0:49.2 | Carrie Harper Howey turning Big Macs |
| 0:51.4 | into big moves. Catch eating |
| 0:53.1 | while broke every Thursday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, IHeart |
| 0:57.3 | Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your favorite shows. |
| 1:01.0 | Come hungry for season fourth. |
| 1:03.2 | Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of IHeartMedia. |
| 1:06.3 | I'm excited to introduce a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. |
... |
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