Getting to Know You: Sean Gentile, Certified Florida Supreme Court Family Mediator

Sean Gentile has been in the business of helping people for more than two decades. Originally hailing from Worcester, Massachusetts, Sean relocated to Fort Lauderdale, Florida with her family at the age of ten.

After completing secondary school, she earned her Bachelor’s degree from Florida International University. From there, she pursued her education further, enrolling in American Intercontinental University and ultimately graduating with an MBA.

As she left academia and entered the professional world, Sean Gentile chose a career greatly influenced by her innate desire to help others. Harnessing her own personal experiences in the Florida child support system decades earlier in life as inspiration, she became a Certified Florida Supreme Court Family Mediator, eager to help families navigate their way through court processes. It was that same inner passion to help others that caused Sean Gentile to become an entrepreneur, founding Non-Attorney Divorce, a South Florida business that offers service and support with all manner of family documents, such as divorce, modifications, time sharing with children, notary services, and process serving.

In her capacity as owner and operator of Non-Attorney Divorce, Sean Gentile cites her strengths as paying great attention to every detail of each case, helping to validating the feelings of her clients, and maintaining availability seven days out of the week—up to and including complimentary follow-ups on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Sean firmly believes in the importance of serving her clients with courtesy, compassion, and the highest degree of professionalism, and she impresses these values upon every member of her team.

Outside of running her company and executing her role as a Certified Florida Supreme Court Family Mediator, Sean is also an author. She has penned several tip books that concentrate on the themes surrounding her vocation, including 100 Effective Ways to Collect Child Support, and her latest title, Pilot Max’s Betrayal, a graphic book .

What do you currently do at your company?

I oversee all business that involves helping our clients with documents and services pertaining to family court, such as divorce, child support, paternity cases, name changes, and other such matters.

What was the inspiration behind your business?

23 years ago, I went through the child support system. That experience catapulted my decision to found Non-Attorney Divorce. I believed a better job could be done when assisting people as they navigated their way through family court. I wanted to help people and give them confidence by showing them court procedures, guiding them through the process, and telling them what to expect.

What defines your way of doing business?

I’m with customers every step of the way and the company is open every single day of the week. I love what I do and it shows.

Tell us one long-term goal in your career.

I want to continue doing more of what I currently do, as well as finding new and different ways to reach people. I’ve written a few graphic books that highlight how people get involved with each other, and then when they get angry, how it can all fall apart. The books also address what happens when the people involved want to figure out where the fault lies in such a situation. Overall, I want to keep studying and shedding light on human behavior through court processes.

How do you measure success?

I measure success by how much joy I feel and how happy my customers are.

What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned through the course of your career?

The most valuable lesson I’ve learned in my career is to allow people to feel whatever they feel and express whatever they want to express. I want to validate their feelings. For example, I’ve never once told any of my clients to calm down because I know that it’s healthy for them to express themselves.

What advice would you give to others aspiring to succeed in your field?

My two major pieces of advice would be to enhance response time and to be there for your client. I’ve noticed it makes people feel valued when you respond to their inquiries or concerns in a short amount of time, so I’ve made that standard procedure across the company. I also make sure to always be there for my clients—with boundaries, of course. At Non-Attorney Divorce, we have our weekly workflow including client meetings, and then we offer complimentary follow-ups on the weekends.

What are some of your favorite things to do outside of work?

I enjoy creating graphic books that depict and analyze human behavior in order to shed light on what can happen when people deal with family court. Beyond that, I also like advertising. But I genuinely enjoy working. I love what I do.

How do you maintain a solid work life balance?

I have a very grueling schedule, so a lot of the time my breaks happen in very short increments. I might take 45 minutes for dinner at night or ten minutes for a break here and there throughout the day, and that serves as my downtime.

What is one piece of technology that helps you the most in your daily routine?

My cell phone helps me the most in my daily routine because everything related to work is on it. I’m able to make calls and update clients with text messages and pictures of things relating to their cases. I’m trying to advance my knowledge on other pieces of technology that could be helpful, but right now, my cell phone is the main piece of tech that helps me to run the company.

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Getting to Know You: Sean Gentile, Certified Florida Supreme Court Family Mediator