The Fine Print of Sety B

Known for her infectious laughter and the high pitched “Praise Santa,” Seterria is the S in BS on The Fine Print.  On the Fine Print, she’s the Whitney to Bryan’s Bobby Brown, so while she seems sweet on the surface, you can never be sure what outrageousness she will bring to the table.  Who is this giggling girl who can just as easily cut a man with her sharp tongue?  Well, I sat down with her to find out.

“Hey darling!” Seterria greeted me with the words, but her tone said she didn’t trust me.  I knew already that she was going to make me work hard for this interview.  We didn’t have much time.  I was forewarned that she works and goes to school, and so, plans her life almost to the minute.  Meeting her in her home worked best for everyone.

The first thing I noticed when Seterria led me to the sitting room was the red sectional couch.  I would have expected something quieter and more traditional from her.  This let me know that there was a lot more here than meets the eye.

“So, let’s get started.  However, don’t ask me about my family or my personal life.  Period.”  Seterria laid the ground rules and shot straight.  She effectively wiped out a third of my planned questions.  I asked, “Is there some reason those things are off limits?”  

I discovered Seterria has an expressive face that says, “F*ck you and everyone in your household,” even when her words remain professional.  “Yes.  My father passed away a year ago, my family fell apart, and men are a puzzle that drives me nuts if I think about it for more than 5 minutes.  So, don’t ask.”

That only made me want to ask more, but her face dared me.  When I called to set up the interview, she’d made it clear that she pays her own bills, so I took that to mean I’d better respect her and her house.  In the interests of actually getting an interview complete, I didn’t dig.

As I got into the interview, I discovered a few things pretty quickly.  1) Seterria really does laugh all the time, but it doesn’t always mean something is funny. 2) She puts a lot of thought into everything in her life and takes most things seriously. and 3) No one would know everything she’s been through because she doesn’t wear her problems on her sleeve.

Seterria was born and partially raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  Her birth father was absent and her mother worked hard.  That was all she would say about her childhood.  However, I got the distinct impression that there was more trouble and pain back there that she would not discuss.  However, she did say, “I made the choice NOT to be a victim a long time ago.  Making that choice was never easy then and it’s not easy today.  But I made the choice that I was more important and more significant than any negative events or negative people.  That’s the choice I would love to teach young people today how to make for themselves.”

Powerful.  Particularly when she grew up never knowing that the life she has today was even a possibility.  School was her ticket.  Or her “hustle,” as she calls it.  “We all have a hustle.  That’s something that we can work and “pimp” to get the greater things we want in life.”  School was easy for her and she used that and her hustle spirit to make it happen.  She went to undergrad and law school on full tuition scholarships.  How did she work that out?  “I didn’t.  It was nothing but God.  I always know the path God has for me because, even though I have work to do, he knocks down any perceived obstacles and paves the way.”  

What did she want to do before law school? “I wanted to sing.  I still do love it.  I don’t want to be famous.  I just want to sing.  I can’t imagine my life without it.”  So when did she decide to be a lawyer?  “When I was five years old.  We didn’t have a lot of money.  The only people I knew who had money were lawyers.  Probably saw that on TV somewhere because I didn’t know any lawyers.  So, I wanted to be a lawyer so we could have money too.”  That’s pretty sound logic for a five year old, but after having met Seterria, it doesn’t surprise me.

In law school, Seterria kept her “hustle” spirit alive.  She worked pretty much throughout, one summer even working two jobs and taking classes.  She took MBA courses to earn a certificate and earned the Advanced Legal Writing Certificate from Mercer Law as well.  “I came in wanting to be an entertainment lawyer.  That went nowhere.  So I searched.  I worked a variety of jobs and tried a variety of hats.  Ultimately, tax law grabbed me.”  Tax law!??!

Turns out, Seterria likes things that are complex.  And what’s more complex than the U.S. tax system?  Having a path and an ever-thriving hustle, Seterria couldn’t just be a tax lawyer.  She wanted to be the best and learn from the best.  “I hustled my way to Georgetown University Law Center in D.C.  The #2 program in the country.  I looked forward to the program, but even more, I looked forward to living in a new city, a whole new environment.”  

Listening to Seterria talk about her experiences in D.C., you can tell she and Bryan had a ball there.  She even let it slip about one particularly embarrassing night, about which she threatened me if I told anyone.  I’m sure Bryan would be all too eager to share, but I wouldn’t dare ask.  All I can say is....she didn’t make it.

Fast forward to today and Seterria is still on her journey.  Her career has taken so many turns, but her current passion is to help women and children of sexual abuse and sexual violence.  “No man, woman, or child is exempt from victimization.  None of us is above it.  What’s needed is education.  We have to educate everyone to prevent future perpetrators and to arm future survivors with the tools to thrive.”

While Seterria feels strongly about victims, she generally feels strongly about respect and human rights.  She can rant and rave with the best of them, and The Fine Print gives her the platform to call B.S. on a lot of issues in our society while educating people on the fine print of the law in a way that helps the everyday man.  

Closing the interview, I felt like I’d made a new friend--one I wouldn’t dare cross.  But a friend nonetheless.  Maybe she’s not always understood, perhaps she’s not the more outgoing partner in the B.S. duo, but she certainly brings the balance and the laughter.

You can always catch her on Twitter @SetyB.  Remember to check out the The Fine Print of B.S. on Saturday, February 2, 2013 at 6pm on www.blogtalkradio.com/thefineprint!

The Fine Print of Bryan Babcock

by Bryan Babcock ...

“Hello all you lawyers, lawmakers, law enthusiasts, and law breakers out there,” is usually how he starts. He’s one of the hosts of “The Fine Print” and as public as his personality is to his over 6,000 listeners, he’s still a mystery. As part of its second season, “The Fine Print: We’re Calling ‘B.S.’” decided to give its listeners a glimpse into the people behind the “B.S.” I had the pleasure of meeting Bryan Babcock, the favorite host to hate, over a day of errands and labors. To introduce his listeners to a new season of zany legal discussions, I sat down with the host to find out who he really is, and how he has managed to corner the market on legal discussions just by “keeping it real.”

“Get your ass over here and cut these onions,” says Babcock, waving a very sharp knife in my direction. It was 4:30pm and we had been running errands all day--from getting a haircut at “The J Spot,” owned by celebrity stylist Derek J., to clothes shopping where an OCD Babcock bought 18 of the same shirt or sweater in different colors for “uniformity,” to grocery shopping for the dinner he was going to prepare for me before we end our day together--a day that started at 7:00am. Now it was time for dinner, and I was unaware I was required to help in order to eat. It seems that Babcock drags everyone into his world, whether they like or not. His immediate world was cooking dinner, and I didn’t have a choice but to be a part of it. That had been the case the whole day.

I rang the doorbell of his brand new home (which he named Beauvoir … French for “beautiful sight”), and the door immediately opened to Babcock scrolling on his phone, scolding me for being five minutes late, and rushing me to the garage so we could start his day of errands. I only had a second to take in the fact that the home was beautiful … and very much empty. “I am working slowly on putting furniture in this house,” he tried to explain about the emptiness of the home. “I bought the house so quickly, I was never able to put any real savings away or plan for a furniture budget. So I’m living in an empty home for a while. As long as I have a bed and a working kitchen, my life is just fine. That will teach me not to save for a house before I buy a house.” There was literally nothing in the house but two chairs and a bed.

As I tagged along with Babcock on his errands of the day, I realized I wasn’t there to interview him at all. I was there to listen and report. Everything I wanted to know about Bryan Babcock I would learn just from being a sidekick to his day. How? Babcock is a talker, and a storyteller. I assume it comes from his Deep South roots; I’m told Southerners are storytellers, and always a pack of colorful characters. Throughout each conversation he had with the strangers and friends he met that day, he read from the pages of the open book he calls his life. All I had to do was listen and write. From the hair salon to the grocery store Babcock was greeted by a variety of people who wanted to engage him in conversation; he was happy to oblige as long as it didn’t interrupt his overall schedule (the obvious sign of a man obsessive about order). “There’s always time to talk; I budget it into my schedule,” he said. “You must always schedule the spontaneous moments of your life. Otherwise you just live in chit-chatty chaos. I like human interaction, but not when it fucks with my hustle. People aren’t worth my life.” I know what you’re thinking; and yes, he always gives conflicting advice like this.I think he does it intentionally.

Babcock is a self-identifying “Bama” born in Selma, Alabama in a year “that’s none of your damn business.” Born to a blue-collar father (Marine and former law enforcement) from Selma, Alabama, and a blue-blood mother from an affluent Orlando, Florida family, Babcock is the most elitist country bumpkin you’ll ever meet. Whether he’s conversing about the French Revolution or the history of Fabergé eggs and the Romanov Dynasty, or waxing sentimental about fried bologna sandwiches and potted meat, or just randomly telling a story from his past, he always does it with humor. I have never laughed so hard at one person.

Your host’s path to law was not a straight one. Babcock is an artist; as a youth he was a dancer, an actor, a singer, a violist, and a pianist. He was also a language enthusiast, and an excellent cook. “If it was artistic, I did it,” he told me, laughing at how fascinating he made himself sound. And yet, in a Selma Times-Journal (his hometown newspaper) article written about his life aspirations, at the tender age of six, he was quoted as having ambition to one day be a “lawyer.” This ambition continued on to a second article in the Selma Time-Journal at the age of ten when, after placing second in a poetry contest, Babcock again professed his desire to join the legal field. “I was focused as a kid,” he said. “I thought a lawyer would be the greatest occupation I could ever achieve, and I really didn’t know why. I only knew that my grandmother thought it would be a great profession for someone as stubborn as me. So, I was on board to be a lawyer like she wanted.”

It was in his senior year of high school that the possibility of becoming a lawyer started to fade. Preparing to graduate with honors, Babcock was headed to culinary school. “I loved to cook,” he continued as he relayed this new story. “Culinary school was my chance to be an artist … the new Wolfgang Puck.” Fortunately, a sharp teacher convinced Babcock to attend college to become a Spanish teacher or translator, and a law-bound student was on his way to college, double majoring in Spanish and International Relations with a Minor in Latin-American Studies. In college, Babcock found an unbreakable bond with the law after taking a Constitutional Law class. The discussion of law was so appealing that he decided to continue it at Mercer Law School for his J.D., Georgetown University for his LL.M., and most recently the University of Alabama for a second LL.M. Earlier in the day, Babcock mentioned how much he hates school; again, I couldn't overlook the contradiction in his words.

Back to the dinner at hand. “Hey, you don’t get to sit around,” Babcock barked as I tried to take a seat on his floor. “If you don’t help me cook this meal, you won’t be eating it.” He was such an ass, but he made a good point, “I expect everyone in my house to get on top and do some work.” I wasn’t sure what that meant … but I learned that day. “What I mean is just don’t be a lazy fish. It’s like a woman who just lays there in bed. That’s not work; get on top and do something. It’s great advice for the bedroom, the boardroom, and kitchen … everywhere If you don’t take command of what’s going on around you, you’ll just get dragged along. And if you don’t like what’s happening, you’re stuck with the result because you didn’t do anything.” I’ll tuck that little bit of advice away for my girlfriend to get later .Now was the time for food.

What is it about cooking that you enjoy so much? “There’s something very relaxing about cooking a great dinner for your friends … or even a special someone you plan on making dessert afterwards,” is how he explained it. I’m still not sure if that was a hint that I could have ended up dessert. I won’t ever try to find out since I made it out with my clothes on. “There’s something ancient about it: in a world of instant gratification and McDonald’s, taking the time to plan a meal and make it from scratch invites conversation, and allows you a trip back in time to an era where food was the most caring thing you could do for a person. A time when a hot meal made you sit around a big table in your home and enjoy your company in love and friendship. What’s better than that?”

The menu for the night was amazing: roasted shrimp with cocktail sauce (all homemade) and warm roasted almonds with light Pink Himalayan salt for an appetizer; roasted beef tenderloin with basil-curry mayonnaise, grilled asparagus with soft-boiled quail eggs, caramelized onions, and sauteed potatoes for the main course. I had to help make it all; that was less amazing.

As we sat down to dinner, I had to ask the cliche question: What kind of lawyer is Bryan Babcock? Overall Bryan is a champion for the law. Regardless of the topic, it is his firm belief that the law should rise above petty politics, and the changing whims of the people. “Law should be not only stable, but ever-evolving with the idea of creating the most neutral goods in our society. Law should not be the knife we use to stab each other in the back. And this is why I do the show.”

Ah the show, my reason for being here with him. Despite having an exciting career in his respective field, Babcock really enjoyed having legal discussions that did not pertain to his field. So, he got the idea to do a blog on law. After a phone call with his law school partner-in-crime, Seterria Brodnex, the two discovered they had the same idea of opening up a legal forum for more in-depth conversations about interesting topics of law. And “The Fine Print: We’re Calling ‘B.S.’” was born. “When I do the show,” he explained, “I want to say the most outrageously offensive, politically incorrect things that can be said on the air. But, I don’t want to mean the things I say; I simply want to provoke, catch off guard, shock … and if my delivery is on point, entertain.” But that is not the only reason Babcock does the show. “I hope that by doing the show I will open up a dialogue with the public that informs them of the legal implications of their everyday activities. At the same time, I am trying to teach other attorneys how to engage their clients in a “real talk” conversation that the client can understand. Too often we lawyers talk above our clients. They need to know some of what we know so that they can take comfort in the work we do for them. I find entertaining them a little lets down their guard, and opens their mind to learn.”

And speaking of entertaining, Babcock is most comfortable being his outrageous self in the “B.S. on Sex” volumes. These are the episodes that are strictly about raunchy, dirty, explicit sex. Known in many circles as the sex guru, he is not shy about delving into any sexual topic of discussion. His willingness to talk openly about any sexual activity, whether he participates in that activity or not, expands his circle of friends into the most unpredictable places … like the pornography industry. Many of the “B.S. on Sex” listeners out there already know that Babcock has established a pretty secure friendship with porn actor Rod Daily. “Rod is a lot of fun. If I had met him on the street, and didn’t know about his job, I’d still be his friend. He’s just a cool guy. He might talk me out of my drawers one day if I’m not careful, but he’s cool.”

Over the course of the day I found myself very confused by this loud mouthed lawyer who loves to talk about sex; a country bumpkin who knew more about aristocracy than the very aristocrats he knew; a constant student who hates school. It just didn’t fit, and yet it was perfectly Babcock.

As we proceeded to his special dessert--Mayan chocolate cupcakes with Nutella ganache--I began to wonder how a Bama could achieve so much from such a start of so little. How do you explain your fantastic success in life? How did you get so lucky? “I don’t think there’s anything special about me, what I’ve done, or what I dream of doing next,” he answered. “I haven’t had an easy road to get where I am, but I had enough respect for myself to be certain of my options in life. I doubted every choice I made. But at the end of the day I told myself, ‘I deserve to know if I’ll ever amount to anything--instead of singing my shoulda, coulda, wouldas--so I’m going for it,’ and whether I fail or succeed in my choices I will always know what I have is what I was meant to have. Anybody can make that decision; so how am I special?” As I continued eating this extremely rich dessert that I helped make, I could tell it wasn’t a for-show modesty Babcock displayed, but genuine desire for a better life at any cost, and an acceptance of the reality that not everyone can be on top. “Someone has to be on the bottom, but only after being sure that’s where they belong. It’s not a bad place in life if that’s what you were meant for. It just turned out that wasn’t where I would spend my life. A controversial revelation, yes; but not an incorrect picture of the world, I think.” I had learned so much that day.

By 10:00pm I finished dinner, dessert, talking, and cleaning, and packed up to leave. As I walked out to my car, leftovers in tow (Babcock made it clear that he didn’t eat leftovers, and if I didn’t take them they would be thrown away), I wondered if this article would provide any insight to my subject. If all the information I gathered was the same information he freely gave to even the strangers in the hair salon, what could I possibly add to the public’s knowledge of him? And then I got my answer from Babcock himself as he opened his door to say goodbye again, “I had better get an advanced copy of this article. I may seem to be free and easy about life, but I am a control freak like nobody’s business. Every detail of my life is carefully examined and scrutinized by me before it’s released to the public ... including my own stories of my life.” Was his entire demeanor a planned act? “I tell the truth, but I always reserve enough to keep people coming back for more … I’m an honesty seductor.” Ah ha … just what I needed to finish my story. That’s Babcock … a big ol’ tease.

Be sure to tune in to the Season 2 premiere, “The Fine Print of B.S.,” set to air February 2, 2013, at 6:00pm. If you like Bryan (or hate him … he’s not picky on feelings apparently), be sure to follow him on Twitter @BryanBabcock1, and like the show’s Facebook page.

In the spirit of “The Fine Print,” I’ll end this article by saying remember to always read the fine print … because that’s where you’ll find ‘Bama Bryan!