Welcome back to the show, my fellow extraordinary Americans. For today’s guests, we have Sophie Alpern. Sophie Alpern is a top 10 California immigration entrepreneur and talk leader. She’s a certified Specialist attorney in Immigration and nationality law by the State Bar of California and Board of Legal specialization. Her mission is to help people harness their strengths, follow their hearts, find direction in their goals, and live their dreams in the United States. 

She founded Alcorn immigration law, which is considered the top immigration law firm for startups in California. Global entrepreneurs, investors, and even countries weekly seek her counsel on immigration, Mobility, and economic policy. She also authors a check crunches advice column called Dear Sophie and hosts the podcast called Immigration Law for Tech startups. And she also helps draft the new legislation, which helps shape America’s immigration future. 

Lastly, she has been featured in Business Insider, the New York Times, and team vote. I have her as a guest today because I believe that she represents the American identity of the immigration identity and the pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit. That Americans need today, right? And she is an extraordinary American. So, I am honored to have her as a guest on the show today. Sophie, are you there?

Hi, yes, I am. Thank you.

Hey so. Yes. Thank you. For being on the show, Sophie, I know that you are an entrepreneur who specializes in immigration. You are an attorney and a podcaster. Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself, your background and how you got started?

Thank you. I grew up as the daughter of an immigration lawyer and an immigrant and was often inspired by all the stories I got to hear from my dad about all his clients who were Extraordinary new Americans from all over the world. At that time, moving to the Los Angeles area in the 80s and 90s. That was the environment I grew up in.

And when I came of age and got my degree, I studied international relations at Stanford and then decided to go to law school. I knew that I wanted to be more than a lawyer, but I’m very glad for my legal background because it’s allowed me to become an entrepreneur in the legal space. 

And the main thing that my law firm does for immigration law is to help brilliant individuals from around the world. Who are people of extraordinary ability? Who are, you know, creating jobs and companies in the United States and building things in the national interest? We help them and their families and their new employees live and work legally in the United States.

So an honor and a privilege. And I love doing this type of work because I can see the spiral effect out of the fractal effect. Out into the. World of the impact that my client has.

That’s awesome. So, Sophie, what is your overall arching goal and vision when it Comes to your career, especially when it Comes to immigration law?

Thank you. The big question would be… How do I help people most effectively at scale, to be able to follow their hearts and live out their dreams? So, for me in the immigration law and startup space, that translates to. How can I help 1000 or 10,000 the next you know little Steve Jobs running around in their homes in Venezuela or Africa to be able to be fully empowered to live in a safe place where they have access to all the resources, capital, and mentors they need?

That’s awesome.

So that they can. You will block them into that full version of themselves, regardless of the circumstances of their birth.

So, like as a continuation of this, right, like what was like from when you decided to do all of this? What was your foundational motivation or the way that led you towards this career versus any other career?

Well, it was a long and windy road, and I didn’t know I would end up here. I just knew that certain things didn’t feel right, and certain things felt better, so I’ve just always tried to listen to that inner voice of knowing about when something feels right, you know, go for it. And if something’s off or it’s not clear, then maybe it’s not right. 

And so, to iterate pivot relaunched test for most of my academics, years I specifically just said I don’t want to be an immigration lawyer because I didn’t want to copy my dad and I didn’t want to be in a situation working with him, where my job was perceived as being based on nepotism for example, I wanted to pave my own way.

So I you know, I studied international relations because it was the thing that aligned most closely to my values of understanding how. You know are raised. In different cultures and how we can interact and how we have different organizational systems for our countries. And you know what that means philosophically and anthropologically, in different countries around the world. I love studying languages. I’ve lived in several countries, and I love that moment, like when you start dreaming in the new language. 

So, there’s like this whole other world of understanding that opens up work concepts just like new concepts exist when you adopt the new language that is rooted around this concept. I studied international relations and then. Thought well, you know. Probably best to get some sort of grad school over with, So what could I do, like a multipurpose degree? I don’t necessarily want to be locked into Academia. I wanted to be doing things, I had a radio show in Undergrad and at some point, I got frustrated because at that time I was like, I don’t want to be talking about the news, I want to be making the news, so I ended up in law school. That was a powerful foundation. Lawyers get chained by the educational system to be worst-case scenario thinkers. But of course, that’s what you want your lawyer to be looking out for you. 

A lot of lawyers. Yeah, I know. Say like they get a lot of bad raps, but they are still a necessity, yeah.

And that’s like the most effective lawyer for a client is somebody who is, like, always mitigating the risk of the worst-case possible outcome. But that’s a tough way to live as a human being. That mode of thinking is great to be a strong lawyer, but for me, it didn’t work so well for happiness or interpersonal relationships.

Like doesn’t give you a pessimistic outlook on life, like just always looking at the world.

When I had my kid, he was like one and he hit another toddler at the park and took her shovel and the other mom chewed me out because her one mature one-year-old girl, you know, wouldn’t do that to people. And I went into this shame spiral. Where I ended up at the Public Library, researching psychological treatises on child development. I took all the research I made into this huge outline like trying to diagnose if my kid was doing developmentally appropriate things or not and like… I was, you know, spotting every potential issue, analyzing the risk associated with thinking, my arguments to myself, and at the end of the day, I was like, oh, OK, I’m going. OK, mom, my kid is doing fine. 

But that’s that absurd mode of thinking that I took from my law career when I was faced with a personal problem because that was my toolset for how you think about things. So, I prefer the creative mode and trying to expand 0 sum games into positive sum games and so that’s why I like the business of law and the business of immigration and helping people, you know, access visas where they thought that none existed for them. So that’s what I gravitate towards more now personally.

So, Sophie, like in your field, which is a combination of business and immigration law, right of what is the biggest lesson? You ended up learning over the years while you were in this field?

It changes, but the one I’ve been thinking about most recently Has to do with How by Putting ourselves in the environment we can become the person we want to be in that environment. 

So, when I went from stay-at-home Mom to solo practitioner attorney, and I was just starting my law firm my self-confidence was shot, and I would just tell myself like fake it till you make it, make it fake it till you make it because you know believe it because you already are it.

But like well, what do you think about the fake it tells you to make it? There are a lot of people who seem to succeed. But a lot of people think it’s also generated. But as an entrepreneur, what’s your take on?

Well, it helped me get through a time when I really didn’t believe in myself. But as I look back, I didn’t actually have to fake anything. All I had to do was believe in myself. I wasn’t doing anything… all the things I was doing painfully. The place of integrity. And I was competent, and I was doing my due diligence to make sure I was doing the right thing. Every time, the only missing Eastwood was I didn’t believe in myself when I was super insecure.

So, I think it has its place because it helped me at that stage, but at some point I had to switch the language to like to fake it till you believe it. Because I realized that. Like the only limiting factor in just my Self-belief. An image of myself wasn’t that I was actually an imposter. If you were doing something I shouldn’t be doing, I was eminently qualified. 

But now I’ve Put myself in the Silicon Valley environment and I see it rubbing off on me when I was an undergrad at Stanford around the dot com Boom. And I had a lot of Jealousy of the tech people who were in the startup world and I…

Why is that?

Instead of asking myself, ohh. Sophie is that because that’s something you aspire to do to, you know, have an organization of that magnitude and impact on the world that is at that scale. I come from a catholic route and that has a lot to do with martyrdom and money is bad. And you should selflessly serve others and not look, you know, not look for any outside validation. And like money and that essentially so instead of asking myself, oh, Sophie, do you just want to be a startup founder? I was like. No, you know that’s for those people I’m going to do a noble career of helping people.

So, I think I Probably wanted all of that for a long time, but didn’t, didn’t yet know how to admit it to myself. 

But now being in Silicon Valley and working with all these founders and seeing all the, you know, extraordinary new Americans who are who are creating products. It definitely gets my juices flowing and oh, you know, we could do this, or we could do that. And it’s just so fun to be in that environment of fast-paced creativity. 

And so now I’m looking at things at my law firm … No, we just Have to get product market fit people and like the jargon and the language rubbing off right in another sector that really had nothing to do traditionally with that type of business environment. It’s fun, it’s fun and it’s exciting. 

So, It’s sort of like another version of fake it till you make it. It’s like putting yourself in that situation and doing your best. Eventually it will rub off on you one way or another.

So, Sophie, you talked about your religious roots, where they talk about how money is bad, should be selfish. But we understand that in today’s world. You have to have Resources and at least financial resources to make any sort of impact.  So what would you tell the audience who has religious roots and who have, like, bad ideas about money? And like, how would you like it? How would you talk to somebody and money is pretty bad. And then like them at the same time as they want to make a change or something like that.

That’s really tough because being in that. It’s like If you’re like a fish in a Fishbowl. It’s really hard to imagine what it would be like to be in a different fishbowl, or walk on land, or be in the ocean, right? It’s like, hard to imagine something that you haven’t passed yet? I mean, my current belief system. My different beliefs have definitely shifted and evolved over the years and now I would say that money is simply a tool and expression like a 3D physical world manifestation of energy and whatever you put out into the world to create value for others, you have the option of, you know, reclaiming some of that in the form of currency as a as a measure of that value and It’s just it’s just the tool People use.

It is neutral.

It’s just a medium and whether you’re a person of integrity, you know as a separate matter and whether your money. To promote your values and if those are good values, right? I think it’s. It’s not really the polarity between right and wrong and good or bad. It’s just, you know, money is available if you want it. There are ways to earn it and you can be a good person and create wealth and you can choose how to deploy that wealth and things that you believe in that have a positive impact on the world.

No, I totally agree with you that I like it, but it’s important for the audience to know that because a lot of people are less subconscious that we’re brainwashed to believe one is evil, but ultimately, it’s neutral. It’s how we utilize it. Whether we’re going to use it for Good or bad ultimately decides to Be you know. 

So, Sophie, on a different note. You are a female entrepreneur who is also a mother, and you know a lot of women out there actually want to be entrepreneurs, but they have a family and they’re really afraid of the fear of failure and financial rule. And they want to go into a field, and they want to succeed. You’re one of the few people that have, actually not only have gone through the hurdle of being like a female entrepreneur but also you have a child that sits seated. In spite of that, what advice would you give to other women out there, especially ones who have children on starting business or even going into law?

And I’m a single mom, too. I got divorced in this whole process. So, I had to figure out how to make it on. My own in Silicon Valley, which had the very high cost of living, and I and I went from having, you know, given up my career and didn’t really have a network there when I started everything. It was very scary. There were lots of dark hours of the soul and It’s not for the faint of heart. 

Because that would mean, I think for a lot of parents, right, you just want stability and security for your children and for them to have the best life possible. And so that can feel at odds with personal empowerment or taking risks to create something greater than what was there before. Sometimes I think that… It’s sort of like… You knew all the drops on the roller coaster. You might not strap yourself in for the ride, but if you’re in it and you’re committed and you’re strapped in, you’re just going to grow because there’s only one way and It is forward

but it’s true.

So that is a very powerful motivation, but at that point there’s not a lot of choice either. The only option is to succeed and mess them up. An intense situation that isn’t necessarily the right thing for everybody to put themselves in if they have a choice.

But like we’re talking about like, uh, like, let us say, a mother with children, like, who’s trying to be an entrepreneur at the same time. Like you have to think of the kid as well. You know, there’s a fewer financial ruin. There’s, like, a lot of factors that can go wrong. But you’re saying that we should just keep moving forward no matter what, then.

I think that whether to embark on this journey is, you know, a very personal decision that everybody has to make for themselves based on what’s in their hearts and doing the right thing for themselves and their family. It’s not for everybody, but if somebody had done that deep inner work of discernment about whether entrepreneurship is right for them and whether they want to do it? It’s totally possible. 

I recommend having accountability partners and mentors and support and to avail yourself of. Financial resources and investment and to have people in your life who will help you, who can either help fund you or invest, or who will help you create a solid business plan. 

Like, if you’re going into entrepreneurship from not having any background, you know it’s very important to be prepared. But if you do those things. I think that it’s just as possible for a woman with kids to succeed as it is for a man without kids. For example, you know I’ve done it.

That’s really inspiring to hear. Yeah, a lot of people out there need this inspiration because, I mean, they’re going to see you. They’re going to be like, you know what Managed to do. I think I have it. Yeah, I could do it as well.

Yeah, it’s like living life on our own terms. You know who’s, who’s going to dictate? Is it society? Is it culture? Is it fresher? Is it fear of failure or is it a possibility of hope and our guidance towards inner knowingness. Where there’s a will There’s a way for sure.

Love that? So what? What would you like? What is one thing you wish you’d know before you started at the beginning of, like, your career? What would you advise anybody else who’s just starting off in your field? Especially like you know women entrepreneurs who are also lawyers, and they want to combine the two together?

There’s like this balance between planning and strategy and execution and I think the biggest risk is just not moving fast enough. Trying to be perfect and not making enough decisions quickly enough.

I am of the philosophy that it’s for me and my personality, it has worked better to long and iterate. They’re just, yes, something out there tries to, you know, get feedback from customers. Clients, in my case, right? But just do it because you’re going to learn 1000 times more than the actual process. Then you could in a vacuum with a whiteboard or a Google doc plan something out. They’re just. You know, give it your best go, but at some point, they’re going to hit a planting wall with a marginal return. They’re just getting Something out there. Anything to sell? Figure out if People even want to buy it, or if they buy it how it goes for them. Right. And then from there? You have so much valuable information. Failure is a super valuable source of information, right? Everything works.

I love that too.

Thank you. Everything that doesn’t work is an indicator of what might work instead, or how to do things differently.

The different way to look at it fairly, you know, most people get a failure like, oh, I’m going to give up, but it’s just a learning curve. It’s an educational experience. I love that. Yeah, I. Love that you mentioned that.

Like if you make ten decisions and nine of them are perfect and one isn’t right, then you’ve done 9 perfect things. But if you make, let’s say you only have an 80% success rate or even 50% of your decisions are goods turn out to be the right business decision, but you take 100. Right then you’ve made 50 good decisions and of the 50 that didn’t work out, at least you learned, and you’ve known you’ve made 50 steps forward instead of just nine steps forward.

So, Failure is OK, it’s not going to be perfect. And that was really hard for me to come from a Lawyer mindset, where it is a 0-sum game. You know when you lose the case, it’s a totally different way of thinking in the business. What’s the difference? Tally system for the game, right? It’s like, oh, how profitable is this? How much money is there? Where do I reinvest it? How much can it grow? It’s a very different way of thinking.

No, it totally is. So, Sophie, on a different note, right, America, they say that America is the land of the free and the place where dreams are made. Do you agree or disagree with that?

Oh, I totally agree with that. I think that. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and perception creates reality. The choice of whether to be the glass-half-full type of person, I think that. Because I’ve been, you know, raised as a child from a young age to see all the People breathing opportunities in the land of the free and the place for dreams are made. 

I gravitate towards that, and I see all of the success stories and the examples, and that reinforces my worldview and It’s like money. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s thinking that makes it so and so for somebody who, you know, wants to pay their own way and make their own opportunity, there’s really no better place in the world to do it than the United States.

And that’s why my immigration law firm is so successful is because, you know, if you have any business inspiration from anywhere in the world, this is the place. Freedom and opportunity and a capitalist system and you know, lower than average taxes in the world, right? And you can have predictability in your business negotiations. And there aren’t mafias taking all your money, your government corruption. 

So, like very low bar standards for why it’s a great place to live. And work in the world that but even. Within the country, of course, there are disparities. But I believe in the power of the individual too. Live their life the way they want to and make choices and make decisions to uplift and advance them. If they would like to and I think we can do that here.

I love that you say that because a lot of Americans in America take the country for granted and all the opportunities that they have, it’s usually like immigrants that come from outside. That you realize that they’re so grateful because there’s a contrast, right? They come from nations where it’s difficult to do entrepreneurship. There they come over. You’re like, wow, we kind of like, hijack that A lot of the people who need us don’t realize. What do they have? And they’re just whining and complaining. A lot of the time, to be honest though.

There’s a generational thing, too, that happens where immigrants and the children of immigrants are super successful because they still carry that… So much of wanting to prove their relatives back home, wanting to make them proud and wanting to achieve for the whole family unit what people couldn’t do back home because they feel that you know, the weight of oppression that happened in the form of the country or the missed opportunities or how people sacrifice to help them come here. 

But after about the next generation, like they’ve kind of lost touch with the immigrant heritage like very, you know, where it’s easy to be privileged and comfortable and especially over the last two years with travel being impacted, you know you have to really go out of your way to experience different cultures. If you’re living in the US These days.

No, totally as a continuation since we’re talking about immigrants and everything. And since you’re an immigration lawyer, I wanted to get your perspective on it. Right. 

So, you know, America is a nation of immigrants and everybody over here is either immigrant or a descendant of immigrants. And we have an immigrant identity, but over the past so many years, there’s been, like, a wave of like anti-immigrant when it comes to the economy. But you are an entrepreneur and you’re an immigration lawyer. Can you tell the audience a little more about how immigration can actually positively affect the economy? And like entrepreneurship, which is basically what American identity is about? 

Identities are essential to America’s economic growth, job creation, and the tax base. Innovation staying competitive with China. We would do better as a country, creating jobs for native Foreign Americans, if we welcomed more immigrants, not just brilliant startup founders but also field workers or even unskilled workers. Right, there’s a huge crisis in construction and trucking and farming where people need to do jobs for our food supply for example, right? 

That is something that Americans don’t want to do. Every immigrant is paying taxes, even undocumented people. And there, you know, keeping our Social Security fund. Having money in it and then at the most extreme, with the innovation and the startup founders over. 50 I think like 55% or more of all Billion dollar and higher value companies created in at least the last 20 years, but maybe further have at least one immigrant founder. 

So, immigrants. It’s like a no brainer and then you know, we’re turning people away. There are people begging to come in, start companies, pay taxes and create jobs for Americans, and we don’t get them visas. And that’s why I have a law firm. So, I have to help people navigate that other countries are giving people hundreds of thousands of dollars to come and create startups, and we’re not even letting them in.

Well, this is actually really important because the part of the show is like to understand like, you know, like there’s a conception that immigrants are taking jobs with the reality that if immigrants come in and start companies here, you’re actually creating jobs which will actually help them.

Then just immigrants going to Walmart and buying food for their families and buying houses like that money through the economy as well, like even at that level, yeah.

No, I mean, I didn’t know that 55% have at least one immigrant or like that is that is music made. Yeah, it’s basically because I think the army needs to hear that because there’s always a misconception that there’s like an antenna. But if they’re going to create jobs they are going to help. They call me, then it is important to have, like, it’s part of our national identity altogether, you know.

And where immigration gets. It’s like the third rail of American politics and everybody. Lumps everything together so nobody can agree, so we haven’t had immigration reform since 9/11. Really, in any meaningful way and there are few issues with it, but I would contend That there are even at the root, just like self-interest, how rich is America going to be. How much prosperity will we have? 

Just like that, selfish dollars, or taxes perspective, I think the evidence is super clear that even, you know, low-skilled immigration. I would help with that. Especially with things like the birth rate declining, Boomer aging, and there are so many job shortages in America. I have a very different view of what the economy is doing compared to what I think is promoted in mainstream media. And the way I see it, there’s tons of opportunities. Tons of people would love to work in the United States. And they can.

So yeah, the reason I’ve asked you this question is that you have an interesting intersection where you’re an immigrant lawyer and you’re like you, and you’re also an entrepreneur, right? But a lot of people that are into entrepreneurship are more towards are more rightly the more conservative-oriented, but it still happens and there’s a thing that. The more considerate or the more there’s like a way of anti-immigration or as they call it legal. But like at the same time, we’re showing in this audio that not like you can be an immigrant and. You can have and you. Can actually help the company versus hurting it because that has been all the kind from what I’ve Seen the last 10/20 years, there’s been a lot of like and like an anti-sentiment towards it.

There has been a ton of anti-immigrant sentiment. And I think it’s just that. You know a lot of people gain from fear-mongering. That gets promoted as the standard wisdom, but it’s not true.

Like personally for me, as an immigrant, I came to this country right. Like I’m kind of like I’m pro entrepreneurship and everything of that, but it’s kind of like I’ve always been caught between two of these things, because like you. Know the same people that are pro-entrepreneurship, it seems like there’s a stereotype that they’re also anti-immigrant, but the identity of America is immigrant immigrants and descendants of immigrants and entrepreneurial spirit. And it was just so confusing to me.

Yeah, I mean everybody wants to put everybody in a box but You got to live your life. And not everybody will get it, but that’s OK.

No, I love this conversation.

Both at the same time and still much more. You can be an immigrant and an entry.

No, I know that but like but.

Yeah, no.

Politically, it’s like. Ohh, either you are on this side or you’re. On that side. But the truth? The matter is like there is good love that wants to be entrepreneurial as they’re also the body. The thing you know.

Right. And if there’s money in the world, who would you rather have it? You know, if you’re going to find people with good or bad, like, would you rather have the good people have the money or the.

So, exactly. So, Sophie, what is your, what do you think is the biggest hurdle that Americans face when it comes to realizing the American dream? And how do you think they should overcome that?

Most Americans. Yes, Sir. Wheel of consumption. Buying into the narratives of fear. And so, I think from that perspective, we are always spending money on new items that you’re going to give away in six months anyway. 

And I just cleaned out my garage and I just can’t believe how much stuff I’m, you know, that I purchased for self-soothing reasons over the last few years. When everything is presented as the next crisis. The fear and then. All the hours are spent working hard and all the money. You know, go to pay the bill. I think it’s really hard to step away from that and perceive that the American dream is possible, that it is an option. Worse, there are things to change in the world and change in our country. But where does that start? 

I think there’s like an old Chinese proverb about that right? It’s something like, you know, if you want to change the nation, if you want to change the world, change the nation, if you want to change the nation? Change the state. You know you got to change the city. If you want to change the city, change the family. If you want to change the family, change. Like so. I think that’s all.

Fully agree. It all comes down to changing ourselves. It’s like the ripple effect, you know.

That’s so hard, right to go from like a hamster wheel of urine consumption to Mindfulness, whatever that looks like can be a lot of things. For different people. If they, you know, come to their center walking in the woods, they’re meditating or sitting in a yoga class or whatever. But being OK with silence can be so scary because like the thoughts that plague our brains can be so overwhelming sometimes. 

So, it’s really hard to acknowledge even that the American dream is an option for yourself if you feel oppressed by inner demons and fear because it is scary to step off the train of comfort and or you know, find your own path and risk that people won’t understand you or they might not like you, or you might lose everything that you thought you would work so hard to gain. But the thing I’m realizing. Now is that. Yeah, you’ll lose this thing, but when you get to the point where they leave your life, you’re actually not going to mind too much because you’ve changed and you’re a different person than you can let it go and it’s not actually that.

It’s deep, it’s all about Self-improvement which is actually the only truth. How it could. Have positive change instead of blaming other people, we have to start changing ourselves, you know, become better human beings and then we can affect the communities around us. So yeah.

And by better human beings, just more authentic to ourselves, you know, just doing the right thing in the hearts for what our path is. And that’s not going to be standard, right? There are however many billions of people in the world. We’re all different, and that’s good. Things you know.

So, Sophie, I know that you’ve done this advice column. This advice column is called Dear Sophie. And you also did a podcast called Immigration Law. Can you tell us more about what prompted it? You start all of this and a little bit more about that.

Sure, I will write an article. It’s for the online technology newspaper TechCrunch, which is like the top global startup. You know, startup business, entrepreneurship, technology, newspaper publication. I also have a podcast that I started. I started both about 2 1/2 years ago. The podcast was called Immigration Law for a tech startup and it’s available on Apple and Google and Spotify and wherever you get your podcast. 

So I’ve been doing the podcast that started as help for immigration, how to get an H1B, how to get an O1, how to quit your, you know, big tech job. If you’re from India and get a green card by yourself to be able to start your start-up. So, a lot of questions like that in the startup sector. The column answers readers’ questions on related notes every week that comes out on Wednesdays, and you can subscribe to TechCrunch flow to gain access to that. 

So, it’s been fun. And that happened because I took initiative and stuck my neck out. I didn’t know if it would work or not, but I found out that a few years ago, her company was looking for a call for experts in Silicon Valley and they wanted to create, like, a vetted expert service listing directory. And I asked a bunch of people to nominate me, and I had 76 nominate me.

Now, congratulations.

Thank you, The tech crunch people were like, you’re clearly an expert, and in my mind, I’m like. Oh my God, I’m an imposter.

So, I just, I just said you’re like ohh, do you guys ever need the content? And they’re like yeah like? Well, what if I you know? Helped you with this thing and then they were like we would like to publish one thing and try it and then they liked it, right? And I kept offering more and then. Like and if you guys ever have a conference or something and they’re like, oh, you know, you’re not. Well, if you’re not a venture capitalist we would want to speak, but then I got a call like we just decided to put this together. The thing for experts. Are you still going to be interested in talking like I Was like. Of course. And so, then I went to a couple of those conferences in 2019. I crunched my throat.

Think I was washing my hair and. I was like, what if? I had an immigration advice column, kind of like that person who answered people’s dating issues like in the 90s and newspapers called your Abby. What if people, like, wrote in them about their, you know, broken hearts about immigration? And I could answer the questions. Wouldn’t that be funny? And I pitched it to them. And they’re like, yeah, we could, you know, run it a little bit. And it worked. So, it’s been going.

That is awesome.

Here’s how it’s super fun.

I would definitely advise my audience to take a look at that, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And if you follow me. On Twitter, Every month now I’m doing a Twitter live with tech crunch to answer folks’ questions around the well life. It’s super fun. It’s like an hour each month.

So Sophie, is there any other work that you’re doing right now that you want to let the audience know or give and give them a listen to?

Thank you so much. My main focus is … so this coming from the world of the professional service provider to becoming a business owner and then I had to figure out brand and marketing and now you know the thing that is needed for my firm to continue to scale is internal automation. So, I’m just heading down on building and reimagining. You know the best flying experience possible. We have such beautiful products and wonderful apps that we can use, but there are so many things about humans. Are hard to work with and so think about. From a businessperson.

What’re the best humans?

Well, all my clients are aliens.

I know I wouldn’t believe it. Myself, what about times?

It’s a badge of honor, truly, because it’s, you know, a testament to your grit and determination and everything that journey has meant for you and your family, which I’m sure is not insignificant. So no, it’s a wonderful thing to be able to say

Yeah, it’s been a journey for sure. So, Sophie uh, where can our audience uh connect with you and get to know More of what you’re doing.

Well, I’m on very active on LinkedIn and Twitter. Sophie Alphorn, the law firm, is called Alcorn Immigration Law, and there you can contact us to get information about our visa and green card services as well as enroll in our extraordinary ability boot camp online course to get an extraordinary ability visa or green card or national interest waiver. Going forward, by yourself from anywhere in the world. So we have that educational content for you and you can also subscribe to the blog there and the podcast. 

So, we’d love to, you know, stay engaged and keep in touch. And I’m always excited to consider new opportunities in this space or speak to groups. So, you know, very excited to just. Connect with any listeners and keep in touch. So, thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, totally. Uh, well, Sophie, that concludes the show for today. Thank you so much for having us come to the show and everything. And you are an extraordinary American. And not only that, but you’re also an inspiration to female entrepreneurs that want to take the chance and do entrepreneurship and become financially free by themselves. 

Thank you, cosmos. I get it.

Well, we would definitely want to have you back to the show at some future time.

I would love that. Think they’ll let me.

I want to conclude this show by telling my fellow extraordinary Americans that, hey, look, there’s extraordinary within each and every one of us and it’s our job to unleash them until the next time. Bye for now.