The Chris Voss Show Chris Voss

Fashion Brand Founder Overcomes Legal Challenges and Ensures Compliance
Michellemaewholesale.com
Ellalane.com



About the Guest(s):
Ashley Lacer is the founder of Fashion Brands Ella Lane and Michelle May. With a background in real estate, wedding coordinating, and entrepreneurship, Ashley has grown her business in the fashion industry to offer size-inclusive apparel and emphasize accessibility and quality in her brands.

Episode Summary:
In this engaging episode of The Chris Voss Show, Ashley Lacer discusses her entrepreneurial journey and the legal challenges she faced while running her fashion brands. From dealing with copyright infringement lawsuits to making tough decisions to protect her business, Ashley shares valuable insights on resilience and business integrity. Listeners will learn about the importance of due diligence, turning crises into opportunities, and how to navigate legal pitfalls in entrepreneurship.

Key Takeaways:
Ashley Lacer emphasizes the significance of having a great attorney on retainer and seeking legal advice before making business decisions.
The impact of setbacks can serve as a setup for comebacks, highlighting the resilience and growth potential in facing challenges.
Delegating tasks and building a reliable team can help entrepreneurs focus on solutions rather than problems.
Entrepreneurs are urged to trust their instincts, make proactive changes, and embrace challenges with a positive mindset.
Learning from past experiences, implementing preventive measures, and adapting to new business practices can lead to long-term success.

Notable Quotes:
"Fighting wasn't a combative thing. Fighting was just an internal battle with myself to make me, my brand, and my team better."
"The reality is, as a business owner, you have a responsibility to know you have the rights to sell what you're selling."
"Every setback is a set up for a comeback."
"It's whack-a-mole. You're just like problem, bang, problem, bang. You're just like this all the time."
"I'd rather invest in those partnerships for my company than pay an attorney on a settlement again."

Misunderstood by Jay Sherfey
https://amzn.to/3SkJb3W
Jaysherfeytales.com




Something bad had happened in New York. Misdiagnosed as psychotic, abandoned by family, and in the hands of Pennsylvania Social Services, Jason Sutter enters the Dubois foster home for difficult cases.



The voices come from every direction and plague his waking hours. The medication offers relief but banishment from the house to the toolshed outback quieted the screams and sobbing calls for help.



Jason is not psychotic. A gifted telepath he must struggle to get out from under the medication then start down the long path to discovering what happened and how to control his abilities. He will make friends along the way and learn more and more about himself and his enemies: dangerous people like himself and normal persons like his foster mother Lydia Dubois.



The story in Book 1 tells how Jason recovers and decides how best to protect his friends and himself.

Future installments will capture the battles, the reuniting of his family, and how Jason's kind came into

existence.
About the author
An electrical engineer by trade I am closing on 60 years old. I am married with two near adult children. I live in Worcester, MA.

This is How We Heal from Painful Childhoods: A Practical Guide for Healing Past Intergenerational Stress and Trauma by Ernest Ellender PhD
https://amzn.to/3WiRP3Q
Ernestellenderphd.com





Many of your adult struggles are likely tied to painful childhood experiences!

During prolonged periods of chronic stress, family traumas, or dysfunctional family dynamics, your young brain likely created deeply ingrained physical and mental habits to help you survive. Unfortunately, these habits and core beliefs work against your adult life and relationship goals.

Even if you did not directly experience adverse childhood experiences like abuse or neglect, you have likely felt the harmful effects of intergenerational trauma (also known as generational trauma or transgenerational trauma) from your family, which can be inherited as genetic issues or passed along through skills deficits and dysfunctional relationships. When these ancestral issues go unaddressed, we hand them down to the next generation. Natural responses to childhood stress can include:
Chronic anxiety symptoms
Unhealthy, chaotic, or toxic relationships with self & others
Survival-based thinking (short-term, defensive, distrusting)
Personal or family substance abuse (or addictions like gambling, sex, work, porn)
These perfectly normal reactions to childhood stress do not automatically go away when you grow up! Recovery is challenging but quite possible through focused self-education and therapy as trauma survivors empower themselves with critical new skills.

This book presents 20 key concepts for comprehensively thriving past your stressful childhood. Each chapter explains a key concept before offering realistic drills (trauma workbook exercises) to develop healthier mental and physical habits that will help you self heal your past trauma and ultimately thrive! Many trauma recovery workbooks focus on two to three of these issues in depth but leave out many important concepts. Here are just a few of the 20 rules:
Trauma lies are just that...LIES
We must slow down to speed up
Practice treating yourself in a self-loving and self-respecting fashion
We are responsible for the decisions that we are aware of
It's us against trauma world
This encouraging and reality-based guide was authored by Ernest Ellender, PhD, who has worked directly with trauma survivors from all walks of life since 1995. He combined insights from his clinical psychology doctorate education and career with training methods from his martial arts career (Jiu-jitsu black belt instructor) to create this comprehensive and effective curriculum for healing from childhood struggles.

Clients benefiting from this curriculum have included those struggling with mental health instability; men and women in codependent and dysfunctional relationships; single parents wanting to do better for their children; divorced parents struggling with healthy co-parenting; clients diagnosed with C-PTSD (complex post traumatic stress disorder), ADHD, bipolar disorder, major depression, or dissociative disorders; clients whose prior therapists were poorly trained in trauma and CPTSD treatments; and parents who want to strengthen their family to prevent or minimize the impact of future traumas.

Following the guidelines of this book will lead to...
More control, stability, and confidence in yourself
A daily life free of toxic shame!
Empathic and mature self-care skills
Advanced self-advocacy and communication skills
Healthier, mutually supportive, and deeply engaged relationships with loved ones
The ability to articulate, set, and enforce healthier boundaries with both loved ones and toxic individuals
A lifestyle of healing and healthy pursuit of long-term goals

The Everything War: Amazon’s Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power by Dana Mattioli
https://amzn.to/3LyItfx








Most Anticipated by Foreign Policy • Globe and Mail • Publishers Weekly • Next Big Idea Club Must Read April Books

“Will stand as a classic.” – Christopher Leonard
"Riveting, shocking, and full of revelations." - Bryan Burrough

From veteran Amazon reporter for The Wall Street Journal, The Everything War is the first untold, devastating exposé of Amazon's endless strategic greed, from destroying Main Street to remaking corporate power, in pursuit of total domination, by any means necessary.

In 2017, Lina Khan published a paper that accused Amazon of being a monopoly, having grown so large, and embedded in so many industries, it was akin to a modern-day Standard Oil. Unlike Rockefeller’s empire, however, Bezos’s company had grown voraciously without much scrutiny. In fact, for over twenty years, Amazon had emerged as a Wall Street darling and its “customer obsession” approach made it indelibly attractive to consumers across the globe. But the company was not benevolent; it operated in ways that ensured it stayed on top. Lina Khan’s paper would light a fire in Washington, and in a matter of years, she would become the head of the FTC. In 2023, the FTC filed a monopoly lawsuit against Amazon in what may become one of the largest antitrust cases in the 21st century.

With unparalleled access, and having interviewed hundreds of people – from Amazon executives to competitors to small businesses who rely on its marketplace to survive – Mattioli exposes how Amazon was driven by a competitive edge to dominate every industry it entered, bulldozed all who stood in its way, reshaped the retail landscape, transformed how Wall Street evaluates companies, and altered the very nature of the global economy. It has come to control most of online retail, and uses its own sellers’ data to compete with them through Amazon’s own private label brands. Millions of companies and governmental agencies use AWS, paying hefty fees for the service. And, the company has purposefully avoided collecting taxes for years, exploited partners, and even copied competitors—leveraging its power to extract whatever it can, at any cost. It has continued to gain market share in disparate areas, from media to logistics and beyond. Most companies dominate one or two industries; Amazon now leads in several. And all of this was by design.

The Everything War is the definitive, inside story of how it grew into one of the most powerful and feared companies in the world – and why this lawsuit opens a window into the most consequential business story of our times.

The Yielding Warrior: Discovering the Secret Path to Unleashing Your True Potential by Jeff Patterson
Theyieldingwarrior.com
https://book.theyieldingwarrior.com/free-plus-shipping






Discover the Secret Path to Unleashing Your True Potential

Are you prepared to embark on a journey of personal growth and transformation that surpasses what you once believed was possible?

The Yielding Warrior offers a unique perspective on the intersection of meditative arts principles and life’s everyday challenges. Incorporating the core principle of yielding into actionable advice, Jeff Patterson, an expert in the meditative arts, offers readers a priceless and life-enriching resource.

After teaching 25,000 students in his martial arts academy and earning the equivalent of black belts in the martial arts of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Eskrima, Tai Chi, Qigong, Muay Thai, and Kenpo, Jeff now shares personal experiences, age-old wisdom, and the philosophies of meditative arts with his readers. In The Yielding Warrior, you will learn:

How to attain a higher level of proficiency in any sport or physical activity
To enhance emotional control and sharpen intuition for increased happiness and self-acceptance
To deepen self-awareness and esteem through the benefits of yielding
To apply meditative practices to excel in interpersonal communication and business relationships
To improve your focus by applying the skills attained through yielding awareness
Don't miss out on the opportunity to enhance your life with an engrossing book that offers realistic, easy-to-understand guidance in the ancient technique of yielding awareness.About the author
Jeff Patterson is a highly experienced martial artist, residing in Portland, Oregon, with over 36 years of practice under his belt. He is renowned for his exceptional skills in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Eskrima, Tai Chi, Qigong, Muay Thai, and Kenpo, having achieved black belt equivalency in all these martial arts disciplines.

Jeff's passion for martial arts and its transformative power led him to establish Northwest Fighting Arts and Portland Tai Chi Academy, an organization that has flourished over the past 29 years, with over 25,000 students benefiting from his teachings. With a large student base of over 500 individuals, the academy offers a diverse range of classes, meticulously crafted comprehensive curricula for each martial art they teach, including Muay Thai, Western Boxing, Jeet Kune Do, Filipino Arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Tai Chi, and Qigong.

Jeff is a firm believer in the benefits of meditative arts and their power to enhance overall life experiences. He has extensively studied the historical, philosophical, and health aspects of meditative arts and recognized the importance of the yielding concept to attain expertise in each discipline. Through his dedication and teachings, he has witnessed positive and profound changes in his students, which fuels his ongoing passion for sharing his knowledge.

Business on the Edge: How to Turn a Profit and Improve Lives in the World’s Toughest Places by Viva Ona Bartkus, Emily S. Block
https://amzn.to/4bQtrg2




A road map for how businesses can grow and make money while reducing poverty and conflict in some of the world’s most challenging environments

Many companies worry that expanding into emerging markets is a risky—and even dangerous—move. Professors Viva Ona Bartkus and Emily S. Block see things differently. They argue that by entering markets in the world’s frontline regions—areas stuck in cycles of violence and extreme poverty—businesses can actually create stability and expand opportunity for communities and corporations alike.

From helping Colombian farmers transition from growing coca to produce to disrupting human trafficking rings by creating more construction jobs in the Philippines, Business on the Edge proves that businesses can make money while advancing corporate social responsibility, environmental conservation, and social justice. Partnering with groups including multinational companies, NGOs, and the US military, Bartkus and Block outline their process for generating opportunities, detailing their successes and failures in launching over eighty growth-oriented business solutions in thirty countries.

Bridging the gap between academic research and real-world experience, Business on the Edge shows how businesses can reduce risks, cut costs, and increase profits, all while creating economic opportunities that transform communities.
About the author
Emily Block is an Associate Professor of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Management and the George Cormie Chair in Management at the Alberta School of Business. Her research program explores how values pluralism impacts the processes of legitimacy and change, the nature of social evaluations and how organizational theory can be used to understand and address grand challenges. Emily’s research has been published in journals such as AMJ, SMJ, JBV, JOM, MISQ and JMS. Her book, “Business on the Edge,” explores how business can both thrive and improve lives in post-conflict environments. She serves on the ASQ editorial board and is a Visiting Professor at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya. She received her BBA in Management from the University of Notre Dame and her PhD in Organizational Behavior from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign.