Episode 301: Serving Immigrant Communities and Owning Your Story | Evelyn Moon | Immigration Attorney & Founder of Evelyn Moon Law
Evelyn Moon is an immigration attorney and founder of Evelyn Moon Law PC, where she helps individuals and businesses navigate the U.S. immigration system with clarity and compassion. In this episode, she and Kara talk about the reality of immigration law today, from navigating ICE raids and executive orders to supporting families and companies through visa, green card, and citizenship processes. Evelyn shares her journey from Seoul to Southern California, what inspired her to pursue law after being falsely accused in a car accident, and how she balances advocacy, motherhood, and entrepreneurship. If you care about human rights, immigration reform, or building a more inclusive future, this conversation is essential.
This episode explores immigration law, entrepreneurship, and purpose-driven leadership.
“I really pride myself in helping individuals achieve their American dream”
-
-
Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
(00:00:41) - Introduction to Evelyn Moon and Her Background
(00:02:14) - Evelyn's Journey to Becoming an Immigration Attorney
(00:05:58) - The Impact of Immigration Policies on Individuals
(00:09:19) - Understanding Immigration in America Today
(00:14:47) - Advice for Those Navigating Immigration Processes
(00:31:50) - Balancing Personal and Professional Life
(00:44:10) - The Importance of Networking and Community
(00:46:49) - How to Connect with Evelyn Moon
I really pride myself in helping the individuals achieve their American dream in this land of opportunity, like how I did myself. And also I really love helping the companies, US companies, to be able to hire foreign talent.
That's immigration attorney, Evelyn Moon. I'm Kara Duffy, and this is the Powerful Ladies Podcast. Welcome to the Powerful Ladies How are you doing today, Evelyn?
I'm good. How are you? Thank you for having me.
I am very excited that you're here. I have been asking you for a while now to be a guest. And the worlds have aligned to make this possible. So let's jump in and tell everyone your name, where you are in the world, and what you're up to.
Okay. So my name is Evelyn Moon. I was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea and I immigrated to the United States with my family when I was in high school. So we first landed in Fullerton in California, and then I went to college in LA, and now I currently live and work in Irvine, California. And I practice immigration law.
I'm a founder of my own law firm, Evelyn Moon Law PC. So we practice all types of immigration law, including family, business, investment, immigration. I really prime myself in helping the individuals achieve their American dream in this land of opportunity, like how I did myself. And also, I really love helping the companies, U. S. companies, to be able to hire foreign talents. And also, I help the investors to be able to come to the States through their foreign investments in the United States and the U. S. projects by creating U. S. jobs. That way, I also help the U. S. economy, boost the U. S. economy. And I really love helping the families unite in the United States. So that's what I do.
How did you decide to become an immigration attorney?
Oh, my God, that's a five hour question, but let me try my best to put it in a short term. So when I first immigrated to the States, I was 14 and I was in high school as a foreign foreigner who just immigrated to the States. You don't really dream of becoming an attorney, right?
Because you're so busy, like learning the language, right? And Learning the new culture, adjusting yourself to the new culture. You're just so busy with all this new stuff, right? But when I was 19 I was preparing to go to college. I was working a lot of part time shifts and, I actually, at that time, my family was very struggling financially because my dad, who came to the States as an executive of the big company in Seoul, Korea, and he was transferred over to the U. S. company, U. S. subsidiary, because of the very You know, crazy economic downturn in South Korea. They had to close their U S subsidiary office. So suddenly he lost his job, right? We had to find a way to cut down our living expense. And one of the ways we chose to do is to exclude myself from the auto insurance, which was crazy.
I didn't know, I had no idea what I was doing at the time. Then I got into a huge car accident. And I was falsely accused of causing the accident by being accused that I was dozing off behind the wheels, which was not true, and I never stated that it was my fault, right? After being falsely accused, I got sued.
By the other party driver and all the passengers were half a million dollars. I had to go through all the litigation process, a mediation process myself, and all the legal actions myself, pro se, and I didn't know what I was doing. And it was very scary and intimidating process because my parents couldn't speak the language, so they couldn't really help me.
So it was intimidating, right? And that's when I felt like, okay, I really need to know the law. And to protect myself and my family, and also I really wanted to help, other people who might be in the same situation. So that's how I ended up being a lawyer, but I practiced personal injury and I didn't like it.
Even though I ended up being an immigration lawyer it really broadens my perspective, learning the legal, how legal system works and it really opened a lot of doors of opportunities for me.
It's always interesting to me how people end up on their career path because there's situations like yours where you were forced into it and realize Oh, like this is a big deal.
And, it feels ever since I've known you, I'm like, of course, she's an immigration attorney. Of course. What else were you supposed to have done with your life? I couldn't have imagined you doing anything else, right? And the level to which you care about your clients and also the level to which you believe in the prosperity and opportunity and how it really is mutually beneficial. Those thoughts are suddenly controversial in the past two weeks. I can only imagine how many phone calls you've been getting in January.
Yeah, it was crazy and it is still ongoing, since day one, ever since president Trump took office he issued a whole bunch of executive orders. Even before that, there are a lot of speculations, we as immigration attorneys and industry as a whole, like we were very nervous, anxious, we were speculating and we're, guessing what's going to happen, based on what happened during Trump 1. 0. But since day one, a lot happened, right? Several executive orders were issued one after another and lawsuits filed against.
That, to block it. And then several news, it was everybody every minute by every minute, not even on a daily basis. Yeah. So we've been bombarded with all this new executive orders. And it is, in a way it is very heartbreaking too. Cause this mass deportation, try to end the birthright citizenship and temporarily suspend the refugee program. And it just very crazy.
So how, what advice are you giving people who are, in the process of bringing in foreigners to work for U. S. companies? Or if you're a foreign company, in process, if you're in process already, are those going to be able to be completed or are they up in the air right now?
So if we're talking about the U. S. companies who are trying to sponsor for the foreign nationals who are already in the legal status, I'm not too concerned about those, except that, it'll delay the process and, they're gonna. It's subject to higher scrutiny and we're going to get more difficult RFE.
It's called request for more evidence. Sometimes USCIS, U. S. Immigration, they issue RFE to request more evidence to make it difficult, when they're not 100 percent satisfied. Then we have to prepare the response to those RFEs. To be able to, get the final approval, right? So if they were already in legal status, for example, their student, right?
International student in a legal F1 student status. And the U. S. company is trying to sponsor for their, work visas or a green card. Then they're allowed to stay legally, right? Lawfully because. They're already in legal status and company is trying to sponsor for them, but it becomes a problem when they are trying to hire, those people they want to try, they want to hire those people who are in a lawful presence or, without any status, that's the problem, unless you have.
Citizenship, citizen spouse, not many people have, ways to obtain their status, legal status.
It's just, it's so heartbreaking right now what's happening and the, I think people think sometimes about ICE and immigration and thinking about people crossing the southern border.
It is so much bigger and broader than that. There are people coming from every corner of the globe. With all different levels of education and experience and families versus single people it's very broad. For people who really don't understand the scope of kind of immigration to the U. S., temporary or permanent can you give an overview of what immigration really is in America today?
It's a really broad question, but in overall, I think their immigration reform is much needed in a process that we all want, right? We don't want any illegal immigrants or who can be criminals, cross the border and come to our states.
I don't even want that, right? But we're not just talking about those illegal immigrants with, with criminal backgrounds, right? We're also dealing with those immigrants come here who came here legally, but end up staying after, their renewal of these applications were denied for some reason, right?
Those people, they don't have any criminal backgrounds, right? And they end up staying here because they already established their life here, right? And these people. They work really hard. They pay U. S. tax, right? And they're the ones who work on the farm, right? Cleaners, nannies, and, those people who, wash shrimps at the, in the seafood market, right?
And yet they're now fear of being deported, right? And they're, they fear of going to church grocery market, grocery shopping. And while it is I really completely agree that we need, we do need immigration reform, and we don't want any illegal immigrants, but at the same time, we don't want this kind of mass deportation where we don't even think about humanity and, their rights and family unity, right?
I think there should be some kind of orderly, more, more structured way of doing this instead of. Just mass deportation and not even thinking of like those family members who are making, who have been making great contributions to U. S. economy, right? Then who's going to replace those farmers, right?
Farm workers and chicken factory workers and nannies and cleaners, so it's not like we can replace them overnight, like instantly, right? So I think while I agree with immigration reform the intention behind it, but the way how This current administration is doing it. I don't really agree.
It agreed to it.
And I think that it's a misconception that there aren't immigrants embedded everywhere. Like even if I look at my own family, there's parts of my family that have been here for generations and there's parts that have been here for one. And I'm a white female, but you might see some family members and not know if are they white or not, who's deciding.
And so it's really, I think it's just naive to think that everyone who gets credit for being American, for working hard and doing the right thing, that they're all citizens. And that's the funny part to me because I don't think people realize how many people in their communities on their block, in their apartment building, in their neighborhood are like citizens versus not and what status everybody is.
Especially heartbreaking is the, like, why are we backing out of refugee programs? Technically,
and maybe
You might know more than I do, but my understanding is that if we're going to be part of the UN or NATO, I forget which one, it's required that you take so many refugees. Because everyone part of those organizations has agreed that we will help out when people need it.
And my understanding is that the U. S. agreed to a refugee program when they had turned a boat away full of Germans in World War II. That ended up, they all went to the concentration camp. And they're like, never again will we turn away people who truly are refugees.
And I just think it's naive that the idea that we can run our economy, we can have the life that we expect today, that all the opportunities and the things just American citizens will do it, it's so silly. It's so silly.
Even these refugees, that were temporarily put on hold. These were the people who already went through a very heavy extreme vetting process, year long, years long, right? And they already sold their, properties and if they had any, and Got ready to come to the states and, ready to be get on a flight and yet, they heard this bad news that they there is temporarily on hold and we don't know when they'll be able to get back on and, resume this process.
So it's really heartbreaking because, their situation is very devastating, right? So it is life or death kind of situation. It is really heartbreaking that it You know, Trump administration decided to put a hold, temporarily suspended the refugee program.
So for people who are in the process of being documented or in the process of getting a green card or citizenship, what can they do right now to either expedite that process or protect themselves?
You mean both undocumented and documented people, like people who are in legal status waiting for the green card? There's not much option for them to do because in order to expedite their case, it has to be very humanitarian purposes or some kind of severe financial hardships to their companies.
Their parent is dying, right? Or they have to attend a funeral, reasons and they have to have a doctor's note, right? Or they have to have a really good evidence to show that without their work authorization, this U. S. company will suffer severe financial hardship. So unless you have that kind of reasons, there's no, really, there's not much an option for them to exploit their process.
And for people who are undocumented, who are married to a US citizen, they're actually luckier than other people, right? Because they can start the process immediately, right? But while the case is pending, there's no way to expedite the process. But luckily, those marriage based cases have been processed pretty quickly lately.
But it is just for those who are in DACA status or, undocumented without having any family members who can sponsor them. Like it is very unfortunate situation for them.
Is it almost better to just hide it out until it's safe to even try the process again? Or is that A bad idea.
As long as they have, lawful like work authorization like DACA, they can actually, it's until Trump administration does something to the program, their work authorization is valid, right?
So they can go to work and work go to work and do things as usual. But For those who do not have any status, any like completely undocumented people, I feel like, yeah, I totally understand their fear, because I'm not sure if you heard about like Lincoln Riley Act that was passed yesterday. Oh, yes.
From the poor girl who was killed in Georgia.
Yeah. She was a nursing student and she was killed by this illegal immigrant, right? I think he. He was charged for shoplifting and, he was released because he was allowed to stay in the U. S. until while the while the process was ongoing and then she was killed, right?
Because of that act, now ICE can, Actually detain someone who is charged with crimes, including misdemeanor offenses before they're actually convicted. So let's say, you're charged with shoplifting. Then and you don't have any status then technically you can be detained. It even creates more fear if of course then don't do anything bad you can say that right?
But you know sometimes things happen and sometimes you sometimes have to do certain Take certain actions in order to defend yourself and during the process miscommunication or Misunderstanding can happen just like what happened to me, right? I was falsely accused of causing the car accident and there was no way for me to defend myself, right?
So if that kind of, very If that kind of situation happens, then they will be detained, even though they're not actually convicted, which is very unfortunate.
I don't, I'm pretty sure we have some laws against detaining people, right?
So we'll see how things go. But for now, things after another things, news after another news, it's just very. Overwhelming, to be honest even for me as an immigration attorney it's just very overwhelming to even catch up with all those news and updates.
Do you feel threatened just as someone who wasn't born in the U. S. and someone who has a slight accent? Do you, does this make you more nervous?
Not necessarily, but it just, I just feel cause like last term, during his last term, he even tried to something about citizens to us, citizenship too. So a lot of my clients call me like, is it gonna, it's something that happened to me. Cause you know, I naturalized, I wasn't born in this country. I naturalized too. I came here, immigrated to this country and then naturalized, but it's just so Unfortunate situation, in my opinion, but I don't necessarily fear because I know what to say and, I can defend myself.
You're equipped and you're also in a state that seems to be pushing back on a lot of these things too.
That's why it is really important to know your rights, right? For those who do not have legal status. Do not have any, lawful work authorization. Do not have any US citizen, boyfriend, girlfriend to marry, right? Have no other way, but they're undocumented. They need to know their rights, right? So if you go to the websites like A CLU or immigration ILRC website, there are a lot of resources where they can, print out the flyers and a, know your right toolkit so that they can carry with them. I think it's called red card or something. And I think it's really important for them to always be equipped and know their rights and what to do. They don't have to open their door when the ice knocks on their door, right? They don't have to comply with their requests. So they should know their rights.
It's, I think it's so fascinating how U. S. citizens don't know their rights. And how can we expect, if U. S. citizens don't know, then how can we expect non citizens to know? But there are protections for people. There are, we've already decided as a country that some things are not okay.
And we have to follow due process most of the time when it's not being overwritten. But it is it's like there's I've been hearing stories of the schools in Chicago who are telling them like, no, you can't come in. And the fact like going after kids, guys, come on, we have better things to do with our time.
And Just making I have a, there's another story of a woman who was printing out cards in the South and having them laminated and she was nervous because it was a white woman who was working at the store and she, but the woman's no, I'm going to do this for free and we're going to double the amount and give them all out because I think there's no matter what your positions are on what's happening with illegal immigration I don't know anyone who's okay with just scooping people up and throwing them into a detention center or now sending them to Guantanamo Bay, which is I think we've done this before in history.
We know this is a bad idea and we keep coming back to it. I'm glad that there are people like you who are doing the work that you are and helping the people who you can. And there's many more of you like there, there are immigration attorneys everywhere who someone thinks they don't have the money to hire one, I would challenge you to go make the phone call first and then figure it out because I haven't met an immigration attorney who has turned people away who really need the help.
And you're right, like it's, we forget that it can be so easy to be on the wrong side of the law when you didn't do anything wrong.
Exactly.
It's heartbreaking. What else should people know about? Immigration to the U. S. What are things you just are surprised that people don't know?
There are a lot of things that I'm very surprised that people don't know. There are too many, right? But for the purpose of our discussion, because we have limited, limited time, I want to share with you my recent experience. Recently one of my clients green card got approved. But when he first came to my office, he was really like he's, he seemed very sad and, without any hope and said, I consulted with seven different immigration attorneys in Orange County and L. A. County, and none of them told me that there's an option the green card option for him because his company is too small and not generating enough profit. And I looked at, I reviewed his tax return, company's tax return, and his company's profile. And I told him No, there's a way. There's an option.
And a lot of these immigration attorneys, some of them were seasoned, highly, very well reputable attorneys. And I was very surprised that they missed this point, right? So there is a way that it's called executive or managerial multinational green card called EB1C. And in order to get the EB1C you have to have, it is only for the midsize or large size companies with a lot of employees.
And, you have to be the manager or executive of that company. But there's a way that you can still obtain that green card executive or manager, a green card called EB1C. Even though you don't have. That many employees under you, like subordinate employees under you. As long as you oversee the function of the companies instead of, so there are two ways, people manager and functional manager, and all these attorneys did not know about it, or maybe they didn't.
They haven't done it before, right? Even though they knew about the law, but they haven't done it before. So I was able to focus on functional manager position instead of people manager, and it was approved. So it is just one example of, how you can overcome that issue by Knowing the law,
When somebody comes here and they're a student or they get that initial visa to work, how long should they immediately start applying for green card status?
Should they wait for that visa to run out? Like I, I worked in Germany on a employment visa and it was relatively easy for my type of visa to keep getting renewed. I wasn't like at risk of getting kicked out for any reason when it expired because it was like an automatic renewal. We just had to send the paperwork in six months before.
But how challenging is it like once you are here, should you be taking actions right away or is it a long process to move to the next step?
If you can find a sponsoring employer who's willing to sponsor for your green cards, go for it. A. S. A. P.
Yeah.
It is really difficult to find, can be very difficult and challenging to find a U.
S. employer who's willing to sponsor for their Work visa and ultimately green card because it costs them money and time, right? So not many U. S. workers, unless you're exceptional and extraordinary and very special, they're not going to say, okay we're going to sponsor for your visa, right? So the usual step is for the F1 international student is to obtain their temporary work visa because, companies are not going to Want to start the green card process first, right?
But if they can find an employer who are willing to start the green card process, they should just take it, right? But usually they sponsor for the work visa first called H 1B or there are other options called J 1 or it can be O 1 if they're very extraordinary. Then, once they're, once they prove themselves, right?
If the employers really like them. And once they prove themselves, then they're willing to sponsor for the green card, then the process begins. But for Indians and Chinese each country has limited number of green card that can be issued. I didn't know that. Yeah. So there's a heavy backlog, especially for Indian.
They have to wait for 13, 15 plus years, right? So it is really critical for them to get the work visa first and then adjust their, move on to the next step, which is to convert to green card ASAP. So it is really critical for them to get the sponsorship unless. They have very exceptional ability.
There's a way that you can get, obtain the green card without the U S employer sponsorship. If you're very exceptional and extraordinary, or if you have a lot of money that can be proven the source and path of funds can be proven. that is lawful, then there's a way to obtain green card without sponsorship.
But vast majority of people they need a sponsorship, right? For Indian, that's why the end of birthright citizenship, which federal court temporarily suspended, put a hold on it. It is really critical for those Indian people because in case they The birthright citizenship is, and is ended.
Then those Indian people were in the U S in temporary work visa and waiting for their pending green card to be approved. It'll take 13, 15 plus years. Then in the meantime, they have their children born in the States. Then their children's, we don't know if it's retroactively applied that we don't know what's going to happen to their kids.
So that. Attempt to end the birthright citizenship is just I really totally against it.
Yeah, it's also one of the founding things just being American and how it's all set up. And just the audacity to forget that people who were writing all these laws. Like they were either first generation or had to get birthright and citizenship themselves.
Like they come from exactly. And then the idea that they, that he wanted to take away citizenship from. Native Americans. I'm like, okay, we have clearly forgotten how this all works. A company who wants to sponsor somebody, what are those costs? Like what's it going to be out of pocket to sponsor someone for a work visa and then also support them for a green card?
You mean the cost wise?
It really depends on the type of green cards and the process. So it really varies. So it'll be very hard to.
But is it like 10, 000, 100, 000?
Oh, it won't be 100, 000. It'll be around like 10, 000 to 15, 000. Okay. In that range.
So in theory, if people were upset about what's happening with immigration, they could start volunteering sponsorships if they wanted to.
And could. Of course. If the U. S. companies really want. They're talented for national workers who are, let's say in student status, then they can start sponsoring for their green card. That's actually what's happening right now to a lot of my clients, because, they really, especially for those startup companies and midsize companies who don't have that luxury of getting a lot of like resumes from qualified applicants they already trained these very talented foreign national students, right?
And didn't want to go through another hiring process and training them, and they really desperately want to keep their employees. So it actually prompted them to start the process.
I want to come back to you. If we go back to eight year old you, would she have imagined that this is your life today?
No. I had no idea at the time that we would immigrate to the U. S. And my dream was to become a nurse. For some reason, I wanted to be a nurse. And then. And then wanted to become a a businesswoman. My dream constantly changed, but I never thought of becoming an attorney. And that car accident just completely changed my entire career, my dream, and my lifestyle everything. Yeah.
And you're running your own practice. You also have an entire life how are you balancing all the roles that you carry of daughter and business owner and wife and mother and there's a lot of different versions of you. How are you balancing that? And are there any systems or structures that you have in place so that you can keep all of that moving together?
Yeah, First of all, that's the reason why I decided to open my own practice after, working for a firm, big firm, small firm, midsize firm for almost 12, 13 years. I really needed that flexibility and control over my time because I really want to volunteer for my son's school. I volunteer for his art class.
And I really wanted to be present. I wanted to be there, I didn't want to regret looking back. Oh, I've been. I just, my whole life, I worked like a crazy person, working 80, 90 hours per week and never saw my kids and never witnessed their growth. I didn't want to regret, right?
That's the main reason why I opened my own law firm. And with this flexibility and control that I have, I'm able to control my schedule, right? Instead of. Organizing something that can create a lot of potential new clients, I try to make balance and make sure that I only take cases to the extent that I can handle on a monthly basis, I have my plan and I make sure that I only, take cases, take number of cases that I can handle, right?
And also at home. My husband really helps a lot. My loving husband, he really takes good care of our kids. So we each have our own task. He takes care of laundry and I do the dishes and I make meals. We take care of each son's pickup and drop off.
So that all, that really also helps a lot. And also mind control too. I really make sure that I leave some time of my day, my very hectic and busy schedule out of my hectic and busy schedule, I make sure to have my own time to reflect on, what I've done for the day and how I could have done better. So that self reflect time to have self reflection is I think really important to maintain that balance.
We are one or two days into Lunar New Year. What how do you celebrate Lunar New Year with your own family?
So in Korea, I'm from Korea. It's a really big celebration, just like China.
So what we do is we make it's called tteokguk. So it's a rice cake soup, so we make soup with rice cake in it, and we marinate it with very delicious yummy soup, and we put the eggs on top of it, like fried eggs, but then we cut it, cut the fried eggs and then we put seaweed on top, and we eat that, eat it together as a family.
There are some other traditional Korean food that we eat, like side dishes that we eat with tteokguk, and then there are some traditional games that we play called yunnori, so that's how we celebrate, and then Most of the families wear a Korean traditional gown called hanbok, and that's how we celebrate Lunar New Year in Korea.
And are you celebrating on the first day, on the last day, wherever it fits for your family to get together? Yeah, wherever it fits family.
To get together.
Yeah. But usually So are you guys celebrating this weekend?
Oh, I see. We already celebrated. You did. Okay. Yeah. So usually it's on the day of Lunar New Year where all the family members try to get together and celebrate. But if the schedule doesn't work out, then some families just get together on a different day or on the weekend. Yeah. Yeah.
Is it also common in Korea that you are doing the cleaning, the big cleanup and organizing before New Year happens? Oh yes. I think that's universal.
For, yeah.
No, because I think it's such, I do this practice just with the calendar New Year as well. I don't want to bring clutter and junk and anything that doesn't serve me. I don't want it coming into the New Year. And I was talking to a friend of mine who's American Vietnamese and she was stressing out. She's I have all these deadlines for work and I have to clean the house. And I'm like, it'll be okay. Think I know that in we're so good at making this date. That we've chosen be the end all be all date. I'm like, I think if you go one day over, you'll be okay, right? She'll be fine. She'll be fine. Yeah. When you hear the words powerful in ladies, what, how would you define them and do their definitions change when they're next to each other?
Oh, it's a really good question. So I think powerful lady. It refers to a woman who endures pain with grace and love, and also who is able to see a rainbow in the midst of crazy storm and who's been doing it for a long time. So after practicing, after owning and operating my firm for over two years, I realized how incredible it is for a, for someone to run their own business for 30, 40 plus years.
That means they weather all the storms, right? They persevere through all the crazy ups and downs and, all these they've seen light at the end of the Not less tunnels, right? And they've conquered it and they, they made it and they're killing it. And, I really have incredible respect and admiration for them.
And I also have great respect for those stay at home moms who had the courage to set aside their career aspiration and put all the love and devotions for their family, like full dedication. So regardless of whether you're a working mom, stay at home mom, or single mom, doesn't matter, right?
I think when powerful ladies get together, this collective effort to, collective ability to do something together, build something incredible, I think it gets amplified and magnified when they're next to each other.
Love that. Yeah. For, We ask everyone where they put themselves in the Powerful Lady scale.
If zero is average everyday human and ten is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you put yourself today and on an average day?
Today, I want to give myself 10. Because? Because I got invited to speak on this amazing podcast and I'm very honored, right? I feel really great about myself and I really thank you for giving me this awesome opportunity.
But on a usual day, I would, I sometimes give myself three to four or sometimes zero or negative, struggling with imposter syndrome. And, I think it's really important to always remember to remember that, I can do this, instead of finding validation from others, focus on myself be confident, but it's really hard sometimes.
Yes. Yes. There are days that I am carrying the weight of a company called Powerful Ladies. And I'm like, I don't want to be powerful. Like I would like to stay in bed today. I don't want to be powerful. But I, it's the same thing that you said about how there's The power gets magnified when we're together and doing this podcast and remembering who else is out there.
We're all working in our own little corners to do the right thing and make things better and help people. And you're working away in immigration. I'm over here helping people, with their businesses because both being of service to people who are up to other things, like it does create that ripple effect.
And I think sometimes we can forget. The degree to which people are looking for us and that imposter syndrome balance, I'm sure it goes away every time you get a great victory for one of your clients.
Oh yeah. It's always, it's almost like a rollercoaster ride, right? Like sometimes, some days I'm like so proud of myself for a great achievement, but some days I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm so terrible.
What am I doing? But I think it's over time I've realized how important it is to trust myself and constantly remind myself that It is only one side of not even myself, but one side of my daily picture, right? It does not define who I am. So me, myself, like deep inside, my core foundation is still there.
It'll never change, right? But even though some days we have, sometimes we have a really bad day. Sometimes we're criticized and we're like, we feel very low and down and depressed. But that does not define who we are, right? Because our core foundation deep inside of us will never change. But I often, when I was younger, I often forget about it and forgot about it.
And I focused on finding validation from others. I feared of being criticized. And when I was criticized, I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm worthless. And I try to stop thinking like that. Always remind myself that no, this is just one side of my daily process and it's going to pass. It's going to move on, but my core foundation, Evelyn, who I am like today will never change.
You know what I mean? That really helps me to just get through the day, and, remind myself to be confident that really helps.
And it's I was listening to a podcast talking about how if AI is going to start doing all of our jobs someday and robots, what will humans do?
And they're like for the first couple of months, we all might be depressed because we don't have a purpose, but then we might get through that and realize we were over defining ourselves. With our purpose, with our work, with our what if we could just be, like, we already are these beautiful, interesting, fascinating creatures we forget that sometimes there's a level of forgetting just how incredible and interesting All these, look at all these like eight million miracles that are on the planet.
Exactly.
So I love that you have that perspective. Yeah. We've, had the pleasure of meeting through our networking group. And I think also for everyone listening, how important is networking and actively building your own community? How important has that been to your personal life, but also your professional life?
I actually really underestimated like networking and connecting with other people. When I was younger, like in my career, early in my career, I felt Oh, that's not necessary. I'm going to focus on my work and I just got to do a great job on my work, right? But the more I network and connect with people, I realized the power of Connecting with other people, right?
Cause the energy, the positive energy that I get, not just to get the business or get something out of it, but just the positive energy that is created from connecting with others, because, I constantly learn something new from everyone. Like every single lunch, some kind of luncheon or meetings or dinner.
I learned something new from that person. And I really, truly enjoy learning from them and trying to apply that to my daily life. And it's been incredible. So not just for my business, but also just for my own development. And sometimes sanity because they can be my therapist too.
Sometimes I just vent and I just, talk it out and it really helps too. So networking and connecting with other people has been a core momentum for me and almost like a oasis, in the desert. Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. We've been asking everyone as well, what do you need? What's on your to do list, your wish list, your to manifest list?
This is a connected, incapable community. What would you like to ask for? Ask for your audience or? Yeah for the other guests or just me, what would you like? How can we help? Oh. What do you need?
What do I need? Yeah. I think I would need. constant support from a network like the one you created, especially like Powerful Ladies, so that I am always reminded that I have a support group that I can always lean on and always, go to whenever I struggle whenever I have some difficulties, right?
And I think it's really powerful. And I'm so glad that I do have multiple different, great people and communities that I can, that can always lean on and rely on. So it is just beautiful and amazing, and I just hope that I can continue to get that support. And vice versa, I would love to give in exchange.
For everybody who would like to be part of your community or needs your services, where can they find, connect, and follow you?
Oh, yeah. I'm on LinkedIn, Instagram. I really want to start TikTok too, but for now, Facebook, And my website is my name, EvelynMoon. com. And then my email, Evelyn M at Evelyn Moon dot com, you can, they can always reach out to me if they have any questions, or want to learn more about the resources, especially, with everything going on, they can always reach out to me and I would love to share what I can share with them and answer their questions.
Thank you so much. It has been such a pleasure to spend time with you this afternoon. Thank you for being a yes. Thank you for doing the work that you're doing. I'm so glad that I've gotten to know you in the past year and I look forward to getting to spend more time with you. It's, it really is a pleasure having you in the community.
Likewise, and thank you so much for inviting me. It was so fun.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with a friend. Head to ThePowerfulLadies. com where you can find all the links to connect with Evelyn, learn more about the state of immigration in the US, as well as learn more about Powerful Ladies. Come hang out with us on Instagram at PowerfulLadies and you can find me and all my socials at KaraDuffy. com. I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
Related Episodes
Episode 196: From Growing Up In Iran to International Human Rights Lawyer, Actor & Modern Activist with Sara Seyed
Episode 207: Kelly Lucinda Galligan | Corporate Lawyer, Merger & Acquisitions Firm Partner
Instagram: evelynmoonlawpc
Website: evelynmoon.com
LinkedIn: attorneyevelyn
Email: evelynm@evelynmoon.com
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
