The Glamorous Grind
The Glamorous Grind is where bold legal minds meet unfiltered conversations. Join hosts Ilona Antonyan and Mila Arutunian—powerhouse attorneys at Antonyan Miranda—for this dynamic podcast as they dive into headline-making lawsuits, past cases, and the hustle of balancing career, family, and ambition. With fascinating guests, including celebrities, business leaders, and former clients, Ilona and Mila keep it raw, real, and always glamorous.
The Glamorous Grind
Manifestation Meets Discipline
Success isn’t just about manifesting—it’s about action.
Trial attorneys Mila and Ilona sit down to tackle the idea of manifestation. Does having a vision for your life hinder or help you? Can you really manifest your reality or it is just a nice starting point? They look at their lives as working professionals and mothers, revealing how they've built thriving law practices while staying true to their identities.
In this episode they explore the balance between visualization and hard work. Ilona shares her own manifestation stories—like real estate goals materializing years later—while Mila explains the discipline behind 3 AM wake-ups and intense career demands.
Parenting as successful professionals comes with unique challenges as well. How do we teach kids the value of hard work when they’ve never known scarcity? They share their strategies while navigating the constant teeter-totter of work and family life.
Can you really “have it all”? Join us on The Glamorous Grind to find out! Dive into real talk on success, setbacks, and staying stylish through it all.
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I believe in manifestation, but you got to do too. Nobody's going to come knocking on your door make your life beautiful. That's not going to happen. You got to get out there.
Mila:So what do you think? Can you have it all? Or is that just a marketing myth?
Ilona:I think, based on experience, you can have it all, but just not all at once.
Mila:To me it's work-life integration. I feel like it's a teeter-totter you can't control what happens to you, you can't control other people's behaviors, you can't control outside circumstances, but you can control your reaction.
Ilona:Welcome to the Glamorous Grind where law meets lifestyle.
Mila:We are lawyers, friends and your insiders to the world of legal drama. I'm Ilona Antonian, a litigation trial attorney and a certified family law specialist, and I'm Mila Aratunian, a litigation trial attorney and a certified family law specialist, and I'm Mila Aritunian, a litigation attorney specializing in employment and personal injury law.
Ilona:Every week, we're diving into our most unforgettable cases, showcasing inspiring success stories and sharing how we balance drive and determination with style.
Mila:So, whether you're a legal powerhouse chasing success, or just here for the juicy stories?
Ilona:grab your favorite drink, because we're pouring out wisdom with plenty of glam. It's law.
Mila:It's life, it's the Glamorous Grind.
Ilona:Welcome back to the Glamorous Grind. As you know, Mila and I are working attorneys with different specialties. We are cutting through the noise, debunking myths and sharing real-life cases, and we want to bring you the legal perspective on things we all face in life.
Mila:Success isn't just about having a vision. It's about making the right moves to protect and build your future.
Ilona:Today we're diving into a hot topic manifestation versus hard work. Can you really think of your way to success or does it take strategy, sacrifice and lots?
Mila:of planning, let's get into it. So, ilona, do you think that success comes from mindset or strategy? I think both.
Ilona:You have to have a strategic mindset and have to revisit your goals and check in on how you're doing and help being a dreamer and thinking of all the things I can do in this lifetime and picture it, because I think a lot of like what's to come in life to me personally helps not just to like read books or, you know, watch movies, but to put it down on paper, to revisit it and picture it. Actually, the most influential book for me that helped me figure an answer to that question is this book, and I found it when I was like 30 years old. Where will you be in five years from today? I didn't know back then what was going to happen. My goals at that point were well, grow my business, become one of the largest family law firms you know in Southern California, have a family. I had a whole bunch of goals and this book helped me plan it out in great detail, not just write I want to be happy, but have the right perspective and focus on the details of what I want, where I wrote a page about my personal plans and also like what I want in a guy.
Ilona:It was a long checklist. I don't know about doing that again. But and another one was a business plan that I wrote out. That was detailed. I was very, very specific, like, my plans at that point were to buy real estate in the future, and I was specific based on advice in this book when do you want it? What unit number do you picture you're going to want to purchase one day? And years later, when I compared my checklist checklist to go back I totally forgot about the unit number I wrote. But I ended up owning units on the 17th floor and the unit that I wrote in my detailed book was like 1701 and ended up purchasing 1702 and 1703. So I was a couple of numbers off, but it was exact and I was like, oh my God, it truly works. I believe in manifestation, but you got to do too. Nobody's going to come knocking on your door make your life beautiful. That's not going to happen. You got to get out there. Same thing with business.
Mila:What about you? I think there's a combination. I mean, I certainly think there needs to be some aspect of manifestation, of planning and keeping in mind kind of your end goal. But to me, like my life has always been very much about discipline, of kind of putting together my life in such a way where I don't have the option to turn back or not be disciplined. You know, not really following emotions and following the plan. I have like a thing that I would say like screw your mood, follow the plan and staying disciplined. I'm a big believer that how you do anything is how you do everything. So routines and, you know, making sure that I push myself out of my comfort zone on a regular basis has always been like my way of, I guess manifesting.
Ilona:I wasn't held back by my parents when I was growing up Like they just. They told me I was smart, they knew I was a good student and they just put all the pressure on me to figure things out and do well when we were there and when we came to America. So the only thing I was missing is guidance. How the hell did I do this? Like they didn't speak English, they didn't know how life works in America.
Ilona:I pretty much had to, like age 12, once I spoke English by the time I was 14, had to step into the shoes of being like a parent to my parents to translate documents to you know, go, do and be involved in all the adult things, just because of the English barrier at that point they've had. But so I guess I had to figure it out on my own and in part I think it's great. It would have been great to have someone guide you, because maybe I would have been way, way further in life now. Maybe it would be if, like, there was a mentor who knows how things work in this country and be like do this, do this, do that, don't do that.
Mila:I think that's arguable, right. I think that a lot of people who have that leadership and who have that backing behind them and they feel you know stability behind them, no matter what, and they have a mentor. They have you know stability behind them, no matter what, and they have a mentor. They have, you know, a family that can take care of them. Some of them may come out to be successful, but I think a lot of people innately will fall back on that and not be as driven and not be as ambitious. So I think people like you and I, who have had to figure it out ourselves to some extent those hardships, those obstacles, I think challenges and obstacles in life could break you or they could define you. If you choose to use them as fuel to overcome and be better and be greater, it could make you the best version of yourself. But a lot of people use challenges, use obstacles and kind of use them as a reason to feel sorry for themselves or feel like life is unfair to them, which it is. It's unfair that some people have it easy, are born into money, are born privileged, and other people have to work their butts off to get there. It is unfair. Everything is relative, so someone could be born into a really poor family versus someone born into a really privileged family, like that's not necessarily fair. They don't necessarily have the same opportunities. I mean, I went to USD law school and I went to USD, even though I got full ride scholarships to worse schools. I took the USD scholarship thinking like, because I'm an immigrant, because I'm foreign, if I go to a worse school, people are going to think I'm not as smart. And then I went to USD and from one perspective it was amazing because so many of my colleagues who were in school with me were really smart and came from these great families whose parents were judges and parents were lawyers. And I'm here like immigrant family. I didn't even know a lawyer in my life, but at the same time they had opportunities that I didn't have. I had to work throughout law school. I think one thing I struggle with is, I mean, obviously like we're not super rich but we do well. We're not like struggling to pay rent anymore, like when we were growing up, but with my kids and you'll understand this a little better when your kids are a little older, because my oldest is, you know, almost nine and he doesn't understand the value of money. And you know he has a walkathon right now and I donated money it's tomorrow actually. I donated like $50 and he's like Mom, can you just donate $400? And I was like Daniel, that's a lot of money. He's like it's fine, like don't worry about it. He doesn't understand, and it's not his fault. He's never had to like understand that people struggle for money, like I did when I was growing up. So I really have to, you know, reel him in and we'll go to the store and he'll be like I want this, I want that, and I have to make him cognizant of this costs money.
Mila:We work really hard for money. You can't just have things because you want them. It's really difficult because, from one perspective, you want to give your kids everything because our parents couldn't do that, and I want to just anything they want. I'm like, yes, I don't care, I won't eat tomorrow, I and do that, and I want to just anything they want. I'm like, yes, I don't care, I won't eat tomorrow, like have whatever you want, but on the other hand, you're not doing them any favors by providing everything they want, because then they can't possibly value that. And then how are they going to be motivated to work hard if they think money is just there. You know.
Ilona:Yeah, I mean, I think I'm guilty of that, that as well. But my excuse is that my daughter is just under five now, so I just buy her what, what she wants for now. But sometimes I'll be like I look at the price and I'm like, hey, that's not worth. This toy is not worth that much. I can order an amazon. So for the store. She's like I want it, mommy. I'm like, no, that's too expensive. So then she walks around the store saying it's's too expensive, we have no money to pay. I'm like, but you know, yeah, I make Daniel.
Mila:Now he like has his chores. So then you know, each day if he does his chores he gets a dollar and then it goes into his piggy bank. But he has to do all his chores without complaining. Like if he complains he doesn't get his dollar. It's like piano studying, reading like X amount per day and then he has his money. So if we go to the store and he like wants something like sometimes he has the worst sense of fashion I have ever seen it kills me, especially since, like now, we have this glamorous grind podcast, I feel like my kids should also be glamorous. But he wants these like ugly sweaters that are like oversized. They look like dresses. I'm like I am not paying for that kid and I'm like you can take money out of your own piggy bank and he does. It makes him think like is this worth you know $20 or $30?
Ilona:That's a good way to do it. You mentioned having discipline and routines. What are your routines?
Mila:So I have crazy routines. Everyone tells me I'm insane. Maybe I am, I don't know, but I. Normally my wake up time is around three, sometimes 3.30. And I usually work for like an hour in the morning. I like to organize my day so I know what I'm doing, and then I'm at the gym between four and 4.30. And then I'm done by like six at the latest and take a shower and I'm in the office by seven.
Ilona:Before you had kids was your schedule and discipline or routine the same or different it?
Mila:was different. It wasn't as crazy because I had a lot more time to like have leeway or work out later or so I still had a pretty disciplined schedule compared to, I think, probably most people. Usually like Sunday's my rest day from the gym. I don't go to the gym but I will run and that's kind of my time to manifest, I guess, if you can call it manifesting, because I usually will run about four miles but during that run I'm like listening to motivational podcasts and thinking about kind of everything I want Like I think about my cases, a lot strategy on them, how I want them to close. I think about kind of you know, well, now I have like two new practice areas that I'm helping you build and thinking about strategy on those and how to work them up. And Sundays is my day to just like really put everything out. My run is usually about an hour and during that hour I like think everything through, and during that hour I like think everything through.
Ilona:Once I had children. I think the only thing that changed is, instead of me working till about two, three in the morning, I now have to go to bed early, which I knew, and I always said the only thing that will make me a morning person will be having children, because they wake up early. And that turned out to be true, because my one-year-olds wake up at by seven in the morning, sometimes 545. And they also wake up several times through the night, and my daughter, ella, who sleeps with me, has to be up by 730. So I have to go to bed earlier than I ever did in my life ever. So I'm in bed with her by like 930. So I just have to lay there in the dark and most of the time now I fall asleep with her and then I'll just get up in the morning and my routine is get ready to run to work, drop her off at school Once she falls asleep.
Ilona:Sometimes, or on the weekends, I do all my Costco Instacart, all the ordering, because I take care of a lot of people at my house, so I do all my Costco Instacart, all the ordering, because, you know, I take care of a lot of people at my house, so I do all my shopping and then work. I come home three days a week, I have a trainer that comes to my house and I work out from 7.30 to 8.30. And then, you know, spend time with my daughter and go to bed. But yeah, I think I have more of a routine now than I ever had in my life.
Mila:I never had a routine growing up, so I feel like I just like craved it. I craved a routine.
Ilona:I don't like routines.
Mila:Like as a child, I felt I craved a routine, I wanted to go to bed. I mean, my mom would always laugh that like, no matter where I was.
Ilona:I would fall asleep at nine o'clock Because that would just be always made an excuse not to go to bed. That I'm, and my daughter is doing that now to like oh mom, I'm hungry, right when it's time to go to bed.
Mila:And then I want her to eat.
Ilona:So I'm like, Okay, I was opposite.
Mila:I was like let me go to bed. So when I you know now my kids like 7.30, they are in bed. I'm like I don't care what you do, that is so early. Yeah, it's early, they know, they know. And they get mad at me and I'm like too bad, I'm not your friend, I'm your mom.
Ilona:Let's talk about what was our mindset before right and what do we do as adults to change our mindset, to guide us in a better direction, to be able to accomplish more?
Mila:things From my end. I think before my mindset was I was normal, right, it's normal to like. Things go wrong and you let them get to you. You're stuck in traffic and you're sad and it ruins your whole day. Someone honks at you and you're just like oh, why did they honk at me?
Ilona:And on top of it, you'll put on some sad music that will make you cry, which what I've learned through this book is change the channel. Just put on happy music. Don't dwell on it, don't sing along. Just change the channel and think of something positive, because you can control that.
Mila:Well now I've been reading a lot about stoicism and I don't know if you're familiar with the stoic mindset. Sounds boring, but no, go ahead. It's pretty boring, but it's helpful, because what the stoics think is we as humans, you know, we're basically captains of the ship and our job as the captains of the ship, and like life, is the ocean and the waves come at us and we could sit there and be pissed off that the waves are coming and the weather conditions suck, or we can just focus on trying to steer the ship in the direction and not worry about the waves in the ocean, and that's pretty good.
Mila:Well, and that's kind of the thing, right, you can't control what happens to you, you can't control other people's behaviors, you can't control outside circumstances, but you can control your reaction when things come and hit you and bring you down. Are you going to let it get you down? Are you going to feel sorry for yourself?
Ilona:Are you going to get up and I don't dwell on things, I just like move on, because what's the freaking point of sitting there and being upset? All you do is create negative energy. Your stomach turns, you're upset and you don't feel good, like emotionally. Physically, I just say, okay, well, this is the problem. What am I going to do about it? What can I do about it? The question one is can I do something about it? Is it within my control, something I can change in my behavior and what I say or what I do? Or is it out of my control Because it depends on someone else and that someone else may listen to me, or they may not, because they are their own individual and they're going to do their own thing.
Mila:So well, here's the thing that I always find like crazy is that people see someone like you who can handle things so well, right, like things happen to you that are out of your control and you can just be like you know what it's's out of my control, I'm not gonna worry about it. People will see that and be like, wow, she's so lucky, she's so lucky she's able to do that. But no one understands that. It's a mindset you have to train in yourself and you have to continuously remind yourself, because the second you let that go, it's so easy to fall back in to the place where you're letting things affect you and you're letting things bring you down.
Ilona:It's normal. We're human, like we have feelings and you're just not. It's hard to do 100% of the time. None of us do. But I think when you see you may get caught in this negative energy of exerting it because you were impacted by something negative and creating more of it, then you just have to kind of assess the situation what can I do about it? Can I do something about it or not? And if I can't, great do it. Focus on doing and fixing things rather than being mad and upset. You can still be mad and upset, upset, but just move on and take action. So think it can be a better day that's right.
Mila:To me, like fitness is such an imperative part of my life of voluntarily putting yourself through hardship basically because fitness is hardship right it's like difficulty on your body voluntarily going in and like thing first thing of the day, at four in the morning, that's what I do.
Ilona:I can't be like you. I hate working out, I really do, but I know I have to, because you know, if I don't, then I won't look good and I have to stay looking good and young for my family.
Mila:There is glory in like doing things you hate to do, but doing them like you love them. There is glory in going in doing hard things and going through them with a straight face.
Ilona:It would be great if we would just look great without all that glory. I don't want the glory. I don't want to work out.
Mila:I love the glory we have to.
Ilona:But here's the deal. I actually made a commitment in November and my trainer reminded me and sent me a video of that the other day, because starting March 1, I committed that I'm gonna take my workouts seriously and that by July I said I'm gonna do a photo shoot with my trainer. He was Mr California muscle mania back in the days, or whatever, he got that award.
Ilona:He used to be a big Schwarzenegger fan and I said, Okay, I will do photo shoot with you. And used to be a big Schwarzenegger fan. And I said, Okay, I will do photoshoot with you. And he's training my boyfriend, we'll do a photoshoot together.
Mila:So now I'm envisioning posters. I'll do another photoshoot with you. Okay, we can do a third one.
Ilona:We have a garage and we have Arnold Schwarzenegger posters around it. So now I'm like, okay, I want a poster of us there and I want a picture and I want it to be, you know, real. That's how I look, not photoshopped. I'm gonna be good starting March 1st and we'll see where we get. But I'm saying this now publicly, because you mentioned discipline and I'm not disciplined and I'll have to be disciplined this is your chance to execute your mindset.
Mila:To me, fitness, like the looking good part, is like such a I mean, it's a part of it for sure. I I love like being lean and looking good, but so much more of it is training myself to do hard things and kind of kicking my own ass. Like first thing in the day I like kick my own ass. So then anytime any other battle comes before, me like anyone who's like up against me. I'm like, okay, I already kicked my own ass this morning, let's do this.
Ilona:I don't need to kick my own ass and work out to be able to do that, Like when it comes discipline to work. I can sit for 12 hours straight and not get out from the chair. If I have a deadline or if I have anything I get shit done.
Mila:I like push through when we, when I have like full on fights with opposing counsel, I'm like ready for it and I'm like you're gonna get tired. Before me my favorite quote is by Will Smith and he goes you know, I may not be smarter than you, I may not be better looking than you, but if you get on a treadmill next to me, one of two things will happen you will get off that treadmill first, or I will die on that treadmill because I will not give up before you.
Mila:And that like is my mentality in life, like whoever I'm up against, whatever I'm up against, good luck, because you will get tired before me.
Ilona:I feel like I mean, I've always said that nobody cannot work me when it comes to my cases and I feel like when I was a new lawyer I didn't know the law very well and I went against many experienced trial attorneys, but in most of my cases I won because I knew my facts, I was prepared, I was overprepared because I was scared to lose and I hate losing and I did everything. So you know, there are many smart people out there, but I think hard work and wanting to win and that desire and hating to lose and being creative in your legal arguments, thinking, you know, outside the box, I think that's kind of the key to being successful in practicing law. A long time ago, when I was a new lawyer, I ended up picking up this case that was aired on Channel 10 News because my client ended up having a child that was unfortunately born stillborn and they wanted to bury the child and the hospital and a doctor wouldn't finalize the death certificate and put the cause of death. The doctor was too busy. When I deposed him. There were tons of excuses why he didn't get around to it. Hospital had excuses. We sued both the doctor and the hospital, but this poor family couldn't put the death of their baby to rest for months. We ended up filing a lawsuit. My client was living in the United States at the time, also had residence in Mexico, in Tijuana. She had like eight other children.
Ilona:And you know, in a litigation proceeding we get served with form interrogatories. There are questions for the other side to assess the strength of your case and evidence and information and documents you may have to support your case and the elements of the law. They're signed under penalty of perjury. So one of the questions was have you ever been convicted of a felony? So you know we respond in writing at a translator. I speak Spanish too, so we respond she signs under penalty of perjury. No, I've never been convicted of a felony. Great, all good. Well, what did I learn close to trial? She had a felony conviction. I was like what's going on? You told me you had no, you never been convicted or arrested for anything. And lesson learned Turns out she was trying to smuggle some drugs from Puerto Rico and got busted at the airport and lost her green card. So now I have invested.
Ilona:At that time I was a new lawyer and during this trial I had to designate experts and this client would sometimes go missing and I had no way to reach them. I had no choice but to stay on the case and hire all these experts. I had to put $60,000, you know out of my pocket in this case, not knowing if I have a client, if she's going to cooperate. It was pretty messy, but eventually we get to the time of trial and she cannot come here. So I file a motion with the court and I say your Honor, I need this would happen. My client would be violating federal law if she's going to illegally cross and come to United States because she has no papers. And at that point 2007, the judge denies my. I said can't she appear virtually? Can't she testify through video at trial, like we have Zoom right now, like we have court call? And the judge says no, ms Antonian, technology and the legislature have not caught up with each other. So I'm going to deny your motion and you're welcome to file for an appeal and change the law if you'd like.
Ilona:What I did is I hired a video cameraman here in the United States, I took a deposition court reporter and I traveled to Mexico Instead of presenting my entire case and exhibits at the time of trial.
Ilona:Like you'd normally do in front of a jury, I had to show all my cards to both defense counsel in advance, pretty much doing my entire case through a deposition, hoping that I'll be able to use that video deposition at a time of trial. Somehow I showed my entire case to the other side. Here comes trial. I have my client's husband on the stand and he was as dry as a rock. I mean, he would show like no emotion, he would just answer yes or no, which sometimes can be good, but in this case was not that great when it comes to emotional distress, damages and ultimately, um, what happened is we won the jury trial. We got a verdict against the doctor and against the hospital. Eventually, you know, through the man letters etc. They were able to get the body. Oh, you know what? We sued the cremation facility because they wouldn't release the body, because they needed the certificate and the body was actually cremated and they weren't releasing it. So the family didn't get to bury the baby.
Mila:So what do you think? Can you have it all? Or is that just a marketing myth?
Ilona:I think, based on experience, you can have it all, but just not all at once. See, having it all like. As women, what do we want? It's different at different stages in life. When I was younger, I wanted to get married, find this guy who's going to sweep me off my feet and be so romantic and tall and handsome and all that stuff right. I had a whole checklist of what I wanted.
Mila:I think that changes as you grow and develop right a whole checklist of what I wanted. I think that changes as you grow and develop, right, like what you want and what you may have thought was really, you know, inspiring when you're at one age may not be the same at another age, but I couldn't have it all because my business was my baby and it took so much of my time, like from 2005 till 2019.
Ilona:Like I said, I worked six, seven days a week and I was around the clock almost, and I still, you know, made time to have a good time here and there, but it wouldn't be possible. There wasn't enough time in a day for me to have a successful relationship, have all this time to go, hang out and do all these things and see the world which would be great and also have a business. And then, you know, did I eventually meet somebody who offered me that that I was married to for only four months? Because he ended up being crazy? Yes, but I think I was smart enough, being a divorce attorney, to know that I'm not just going to close my law firm or not go into a partnership and not pursue what I've already devoted, at that point, 10 years of my life to and just rely on a guy to. You know, take me traveling and buy me things.
Ilona:Because what I see happening to women and it can happen to men too is that if you lose who you are, if you give up your career, if you're not really sure that this marriage is going to 100% work because only time shows right. If you can make it through difficult times together or not, then you can find yourself with nothing. You can be dumped, left struggling, having to fight for spouse support, having to rebuild from scratch, and you could have children on top of that, so life could be very difficult. So my advice to people out there is don't give up who you are, what you are and what you've built. Pursue it.
Ilona:Don't get too comfortable in life, because you never know when shit is going to hit the fan. You don't. It could be in personal life. You could have a really great husband or boyfriend, but you know things happen. Somebody could die and they may not have life insurance and you have to figure things out on your own. There could be somebody coming along that may take that person away from you. You know it's possible. The lesson is have it all within yourself so you can be self-reliant. Rely on yourself to the extent possible.
Mila:And I think about this a lot that success is so different for every person, depending on their personality and who they are and what they're passionate about. Some people may find success in just having a family and other women can't, or other men can't find success unless they also have a career that's really stable. I also feel that you can have it all, but not at the same time. I think to me as I've grown and developed as a mom and an attorney and I've noticed that work-life balance is kind of a fallacy. Every time I try to chase a balance it fails and it makes me feel like a failure because it's more of a teeter-totter.
Ilona:I think it's been popularized, that's how it like. Everybody's like oh yeah, we have work-life balance here. Okay, if you do nine to five, okay. But most lawyers they can do nine to five if they're good lawyers, if they have years of experience, if they're seasoned and they have answers right away without having to do additional research and they've been there, done there right.
Mila:Most good lawyers, ambitious lawyers, don't work a nine to five job.
Ilona:Right, they don't. You can't be good if that's what you're going to be, Well, and that's the thing Like to me it's work-life integration.
Mila:I feel like it's a teeter-totter, Like especially when you have a family and you're a successful entrepreneur, whether you're a lawyer I think most lawyers are entrepreneurs because so much of our job is marketing ourselves, no matter who we work for, we have to brand ourselves if we want to be successful. And it's a teeter-totter In some weeks your family needs more of you and you're a little bit less of a lawyer, because you can't put that 70 hours a week in like you normally do. And then other weeks you're in trial or your caseload is insane and you have to put more into work and you're kind of a shitty parent, True, and like your kids have to learn that, like you're doing that because you're trying to work really hard to provide them a better future and I think the acceptance of that, the teeter-totter and the work-life integration, has made me feel so much better.
Mila:because then, if I have to give more to family and I'm not as present at work, I don't feel as guilty. If I have to give more to work and I'm not as present at home, I don't feel as guilty. If I have to give more to work and I'm not as present at home, I don't feel as guilty because I know that both are important for me, for my success.
Ilona:You just gotta do the best you can every day. I mean, I think when you have a family, you obviously love and care about your family and I think you wanna be with them, right. But when you also have a career on top of that, you with them, right. But when you also have a career on top of that, you want to be good at what you do and not lose your spark and not lose your edge and remain a good lawyer. And to do that you have to keep going and practice, because if you don't practice, if you know, then they'll. You know, you'll get rusty.
Mila:You know they. I think you have to be passionate in whatever it is that you do. And I remember hearing this quote about Poverati, the opera singer, and they were just like, oh my goodness, you're so ambitious, you're so passionate, because he would just like practice around the clock. And he was like it's not practice, this is devotion. I'm devoted to my craft, like I work hard every single day to put myself into what I do because I love it so much and I feel like no matter what you do, what your career is, if you enjoy what you do and you find purpose in it, you're going to be good in it.
Ilona:Can you have it all? What is the all for you? Like, what do you want? Because maybe this one person, a man or a woman, just wants one thing, and that's not hard to do to be devoted to one thing. If you don't care about having family, if you don't care about hanging out with friends or having close friends, if you don't care about traveling, if you don't care about focusing on your health, like if you don't have all these different aspects, like, oh, you don't care about spirituality or whatever else people are into then it's easy to be damn good at one thing. That's all you got, or you better be good at it right For me personally.
Mila:I have this. I mean it's a blessing and a curse, but I can't half-ass anything. I can't. Every time I've tried, I just feel awful about it. I have to put my like heart and soul into everything I do When's like with my kids. When it's cooking, I can't stop until like the table is so full you can't see the tablecloth. When I'm working, I can't stop unless I'm like fighting everyone and getting like the best results for my client. When it's with my kids, it's I just can't. I'm like so passionate, I have so much like fire in my soul. I just want to put everything into everything but for that's having it all. But like people look at me and they're like you're insane, stop.
Ilona:Yeah, it's like, it's for you, like you have your alls that are important to you, right All these different components and make it your all for you and that's your all right now. It'll be different in another five years. Your children grow older. You know they go to college, etc. In another five years your children grow older. Don't tell me that they go to college, et cetera. And you know, same thing it's like for everybody. You take a snippet of our life right now. What is the all right now? What do you have when you have young children? You don't have time. I mean, okay, I guess you can say in a perfect world you could have time for romance and all that stuff.
Mila:I haven't had a movie in eight years. I haven't. I mean I got one massage in the last seven years.
Ilona:You and I went together remember.
Mila:Yes, so it's like, but like, those things for a lot of people are non-negotiable. It's like, oh, I have to get a facial every two weeks, or else, because it's like super soothing for them.
Ilona:Fortunately, you look good and I wouldn't be able to tell you haven't had a facial in a decade.
Mila:I use beef beef tallow as moisturizer. You know what that is? What beef tallow tallow? No, it's uh, it's literally beef and it smells like meat. So, like, my face smells like meat. But it's amazing, it's the best moisturizer.
Ilona:It's okay, it's cow fat, put some liver on it I have a recipe for you take a little mixer, put some chicken liver, put on your face. Take a little mixer, put some chicken liver, put it on your face. I'm a little bit of a witch. I eat liver every day. It reminds me of like back in the former Soviet Union, because we didn't have hair conditioners and people made funny recipes to make their hair soft. And I remember one time one of the recipes was you take a couple of eggs, you put in mayo yes, I remember this mayo, and I think you might have had to put some pee in it too I don't remember and it's supposed to make your hair soft.
Mila:That brings us to the end of this episode of the Glamorous Grind.
Ilona:Success isn't just about the dream. It's about doing Until the next time. I want to share a quote I enjoy when one door closes, another opens. But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. That was Alexander Graham Bell.
Mila:If you're ready to level up in your career or your relationship legally and strategically, make sure you're subscribed to the Glamorous Grind Stay bold, stay fierce and we'll see you next week on the Glamorous Grind.
