In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Harlan Schillinger a Legal Marketing expert, strategist and consultant. They will go over what was like to advertise back then, the main changes in marketing and advertising nowadays, and common mistakes lawyers do.

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Legal Advertising in the early 80’s

“We then went out across the country and we met with law firms. That was the challenge. I went to the Yellow Pages, I opened up the book and I looked for the biggest add. I called the lawyer up and I said; I have something I’d like to run by you. And they were sceptical because they didn’t want to be the first.”

 

The phone banks lit up!

“When the commercial ran, the entire phone bank lit up. And at that point, lawyers said: where do I send the money, how do I sign up?!”

 

Marketing & Human Nature

“There was a tremendous correlation between advertising and human nature, because you have to make that connection...”

 

The change in advertising

“Things changed when competition started to come in. People started to build agencies. More and more lawyers started to advertise. The market got crowded and things changed in the consumers mind.”

 

Advertising Concepts

“The Internet is a game changer, because it allows you to reach a lot of people, it allows you to be yourself and that’s a whole new commodity. But advertising is advertising, you wanna appeal to someone…”

 

Talk to an audience as you would talk to a jury

“If you are looking for valuable business, you have to have more than a message, you have to have a story, because it’s about caring, it’s about compassion, it’s about realle restoring your life to the way it was before the accident…”

 

Marketing mistakes nowadays

Lawyers completely underestimate intake and conversion. Also, lawyers don’t understand how to develop a referral business from existing clients.

 

“If I had 1 client or I had 50, I would constantly stay in touch with them or find a way to stay in touch with them after settled the case. (..) I can honestly tell you that the best case that comes into your office comes through a referral.”

 

Intake

DON’T CONFUSE AN ANSWERING SERVICE WITH AN INTAKE SERVICE!

“Intake is answering the phone, and making somebody feel absolutely welcome and formulating a relationship as quickly as possible. Within the first couple of words, somebody is going to decide whether they are going to stay with you, or they are going to find someone else…”

 

Lead Docket, an intake management system that is focused on simplicity and a straightforward and consistent process for every lead.

 

1. Gain better knowledge of where your leads are coming from
2. Completely manage your marketing efforts
3. Increase your profits without more spending
4. Know your ROI on all advertising

 

Jim’s hack: Each time I do something different this month, I’m making it into a sticky note, and in the end of the month I’m going to compile all my sticky notes into different categories and then I’m gonna either automate it, eliminate it, or delegate it.   

 

Harlan’s hack: If you want to grow; WORK ON YOUR BUSINESS, NOT IN YOUR BUSINESS.

 

Tyson’s tip: Upload notes to your firm’s WIKI, so you can share notes with other people in the firm. People will learn from this notes.

 

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Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

 

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

 

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Noemi Puntier-Vasquez, an immigration attorney in Atlanta, Georgia. Since the 2018 Maximum Lawyer Conference Noemi has done a lot of improvements in the way she runs her law firm. We will go over this improvements and she will explain us how this changes have helped her grow her business.

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Lessons learned starting her own firm:

“When you don’t have the experience and you are looking to get a mentor or someone you are going to hold hands with, you need to do your homework because you’re holding hands with someone else’s reputation that could damage you or move you forward.”

 

The change that’s made the biggest impact in her firm:

Systems, strategies and mindset… To be more of a business owner and less of an attorney: “I also changed the way I practiced. I am no longer the lawyer that’s going to court and trying cases, I’ve actually sat down a little bit and now I am a business owner. So I have the time now to cater to that relationship, and bring in the business, meat with the clients, and not be so overwhelmed.”

 

Her team’s response to this changes:

“I came back with tools and a plan… I think they started to respect that vision. They see now someone who is in charge, someone that’s holding herself accountable.”

 

The Biggest Struggle

Noemi’s biggest struggle is her work schedule; prioritizing.

 

Jim’s hack: A new Mike Michalowicz book, Clockwork; devoted to building systems.   

 

Noemi’s hack: An app where you can get unlimited audiobooks for $8,99. Scribd

 

Tyson’s tip: Set your goal for this last 12 weeks, hit it, and then finish the year strong and start the next one stronger.

 

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Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

 

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

 

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Tyson and Seth will go over the fundamentals of digital marketing and SEO.   

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Seth’s digital marketing company: https://blusharkdigital.com/

 

4 Fundamentals

“When somebody comes to me and says: hey my website is not performing the way I want to, more often than not 1 or more of those areas is being neglected or ignored.”

 

• Content:
• Links:
• Coding component:
• Local component (Google My Business: REVIEWS!)

 

“What’s difficult is executing on each of theses areas, and consistently month after month continuing to move the needle, to demonstrate to Google that you are an authority in the area you wanna be, and that when somebody searches, that you come up as the best answer for what somebody is looking for.”

 

“Make sure that everything that’s done it’s genuine and done right.”

 

Listen to the episode and learn how to get a $500 PPC bonus with Blue Shark Digital!

 

//

 

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

 

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

 

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Seth Prince and John Fisher! They will dive into their marketing going through their systems, strategies, advice to people going solo, the future of marketing, and more!

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John’s podcast episode

His firm: https://protectingpatientrights.com/

 

Seth’s podcast episode

His firm: https://blusharkdigital.com/

 

Referral Marketing VS Online Marketing. Which is better?

 

John has a strong history with referral marketing; his medical malpractice firm thrives on referrals from other attorneys… He will over his systems in place and different strategies.

 

“Basically they were transferring the trust that they’d built up with their client on to me…”

 

“When I would get a referral, it could be from the biggest plaintiff’s firm in the state of NY, who spends millions of dollars in marketing expenses every year, but I’m not paying a penny for that.”

 

The Moonshot Challenge

“Every lawyer listening to this should have his own Moonshot Challenge, and that is an ambitious 5 year plan for your firm that you think it’s absolutely impossible to achieve.”

 

Seth Price’s Marketing Strategy

 

Seth has a strong history with Digital Marketing, and he runs his own Legal Digital Marketing agency.

 

“Having a goal, puting systems in place and executing on them is the right answer for whatever you wanna do.”

 

“We wanted the best from both worlds. We thought that if we leveraged digital for expanding our footprint and building that raving herd, that the referrals would also come over time. And that has happened. That allowed us to grow at a rate that we could not have, if we had only relied on relationship marketing.”

 

John and Seth’s advice if you are about to start your own firm

 

John: “The first and sole responsibility that you have, it’s with your family. And that means protecting them. It’s ethically permissible to notify the clients who you are actively handling their cases, that you will be leaving the firm while you are working in the firm. Once you are physically out the door it’s ethically permissible to go to the clients and solicit them.”

 

Seth: “Have a URL, put it live, put some content up, let the URL start to age, so while you are figuring things out, getting your house in order, you re at least taking care of what would be dead or wasted time on the Google sandbox; time that Google doesn’t really allow a website to be seen until it knows you are going to be around for a bit.”

 

How the law and marketing is going to be different in 5 years? And how you are going to have to adjust the way to market now to fit that?

 

Seth: “Looking for places where there’s less competition, and then also looking for areas in the law that are underserved…”  

 

John: “You have to consider your harsh reality. This means looking at the worst case scenario that you have for your Law Firm, and accepting it as a possibility.”

 

What’s one thing that you would like to adopt from the other person that you are not using in your practice right now? Listen to the episode and learn these answers!

 

If you want a free copy of John’s book, go to thepowerofasystem.com

 

Hacking’s hack: A blog post. https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

 

It talks about how if you can build a tribe of 1000 people  who really know you and really like and trust you, that you can really build out everything you need from a marketing and referral based practice. Great article.

 

John’s tip: Build a website that’s just for internal purposes in your law firm where people right entries for new policies in your firm every day.

 

Seth’s tip: The idea of repricing major expense areas.

 

Tyson’s tip: Filevine, Case Management Software for the Modern Law Firm.

 

//

 

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

 

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

 

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Karen Caffrey a licensed professional counselor and a lawyer; Karen went from the practice of law to the practice of therapy mainly counseling lawyers. They will go over the importance of wellbeing and health for lawyers, the mindset of wellbeing, and how that wellbeing can be achieved. Also, how therapy works and how it can help your personal and business.

“You can’t be a good lawyer if you are not a healthy lawyer.”

Karen’s web site: http://www.karencaffrey.com/

What does it mean to be healthy?
It’s multifaceted, there’s a physical aspect, a spiritual aspect, a work aspect and a mental and emotional aspect...

Lawyers are reluctant to go to therapy
Because of 2 things: first, stigma; the fear of how are they going to be judged, and the second is fear on confidentiality.

The business of law and psychotherapy
“The nexus between the business of law and psychotherapy Is a lot of the challenges lawyers face in having a good business of law come from psychological reasons.”

“Who we are as people, directly impacts who we are as lawyers and who we are as business owners doing the business of law.”

Please give us a shout out in the ABA JOURNAL’S ranking of podcasts!

Hacking’s hack: Whenever you can take a day off of the week. Unplug yourself: get away from the phone and the computer, the office.

Karen’s tip: Put your wellbeing on your radar screen and to do this by diaring it. You can dairy it every day, and spend 5 minutes talking about your wellbeing. Prioritize your wellbeing.

Tyson’s tip: Productivity - A website: Activtrak: https://activtrak.com/. It allows you to plug in yourself, your partners and employees, and it shows your productivity level.

//

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Jay Ruane. They will go over his background, his role in his firm and how he managed to grow and improve it, paying special attention to his Adwords experience and strategies. If you want to start using adwords and pay per click or improve your strategy, this episode is for you.

“Start small, figure how it works, and then grow from there.”

The firm

Actually, Jay is more of an administrator of the firm than ever before, but he is still in the business, he does some court appearances from time to time.

Jay's Twitter: https://twitter.com/jayruane

Some of the topics:
The importance of content:
“We’re no longer advertising generic terms out there to drive people to information on our website, because people are finding our website organically based on all the content that we have”

A big mistake:
“One of the biggest mistakes people make, especially when it comes to adwords is thinking that more money is going to get them better results. That’s a misunderstanding of how the adwords auction system works.”

“There’s a tendency to wanna have the widest net, but the widest net doesn’t necessarily catch the fish that you want.”

How to build ads:
“We need to get in the mindset of the consumer. And those are the ones that are going to get clicks; the ads that resonate with the people who are facing the problem that needs a lawyer..”

How do you tell if an ad is working?:
“One of the things we like to use ourselves is, we direct the ad to a specific landing page on our website that is more sales oriented than our organic pages.”

Facebook vs Adwords:
“Facebook is great, but you have to have the right approach to facebook. You can’t expect it to give you the same type of results as pay per click because it’s just not built that way and the people aren’t there for that.”

Marquis Jackson’s episode:
https://maximumlawyer.com/podcast/legal-hope-pop-up-episode/

Please give us a shout out in the ABA JOURNAL’S ranking of podcasts!

Hacking’s hack: The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier. how to be a good coach in an office setting!

Jay’s tip: Curate your negative list on Google. Go back and take a list of the 100 top baby names for the last 50 or so years. Male and Female. Because a lot people in this field may hear that their friend got arrested for a DUI. If they are not the person who is looking to hire you don’t want to be advertising to them.

Tyson’s tip: Check out Ryan McKeen’s book: Empower Yourself: A Practical Guide to Connecticut Personal Injury Law.

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Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Jim and Tyson will check in on what’s going on with both of their practices, talk about MAXLAWCON and go over the Sales Prevention Department List; 10 things lawyers and law firms do that prevent the closing of sales.

First, Jim and Tyson will discuss about case management and catch up meetings, Tyson will go over the importance of synergies in a partnership and then they both will go over the difference between own generated leads and referrals of Personal Injury Attorneys.

Also, they will go over next year’s conference. Lessons learned and a lot of improvements! It’s going to be awesome!

And then, our topic; The list of The Sales Prevention Department:

1. Not having a live and empathetic person answering the phone.
2. Not returning calls or taking too long to call a lead.

“When you think about all the money that you spend to get the phone to ring, to not maximize what happens after when the phone rings it’s just waste of money.”

3. Having a slow sales process.

“They never love you as much as they do on the day that they sign you”.

“If you can stop them from looking for other attorneys, then you have done 90% of the battle. Get them to sign the contract”

4. Being too salesy AKA too much “whiskers”.
5. Brand and generic marketing.
6. Not having the knowledge base for the types of cases you’re advertising for.
7. Not following up on clients after an initial phone call.
8. Hiding the ball or over promising; being disingenuous.
9. Not being crystal clear on what it is that you do: NO REFERRALS.
10. Being afraid of walking away from the table.

Please give us a shout out in the ABA JOURNAL’S ranking of podcasts!

Hacking’s hack: No external information until 11am!

Tyson’s tip: Talk to every person as if you never gonna talk to them again.

//

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Johnnie Finch, a criminal defense attorney who runs his own law firm. They will go over his background, his business, and how it is like to be a lawyer as a member of a minority. Also, they will discuss about his recently published book “Black Lawyer Confidential”. 

“I wanted to come up with a book or some type of manual for those who are from small towns or minorities that have never had parents who were lawyers, or ever been in the court system before to try to deal with it…”

Their Firm:
http://johnniefinchesq.com/

The Book:
BlackLawyerBook.com

Johnnie’s Twitter

Please give us a shout out in the ABA JOURNAL’S ranking of podcasts!

Hacking’s hack: https://audiojungle.net/
You can download royalty free music and audio tracks for a Dollar, and you are able to search it by emotions or music type. Great cheap resource.

Johnnie’s tip:
Leave 15 minutes early! For the rest of your life!

Tyson’s tip:
Ride a bicycle in your office whenever you are working or on calls or doing a Podcast!

Please give us a shout out in the ABA JOURNAL’S ranking of podcasts!

//

Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.

In this BONUS episode, Jim gives a talk at SLU Law. He will talk about his early days as a lawyer and his journey as a law entrepreneur who now runs his own immigration law firm, going over his mindset, his business, his firm and his marketing strategies.

“This is a lot of work, but to me it’s worth it and it’s fun. I am having more fun that I’d ever would’ve had, and I’ve had three really big law firms in St. Louis talk to me about coming in to that firm and I’ve turn them down every single time, and I laugh when I do it because I would never be able to do half of my crazy shit if I went to one of those big firms. And if I hadn’t agreed to be the plaintiff in that law suite, I don’t know what would’ve happened, I don’t know how many kids I would have. I don’t know what kind of life I would have; I would have a very different life probably. So I’m very grateful for everything that’s happened and I am exactly where I want to be.”

Jim Hacking

Please give us a shout out in the ABA JOURNAL’S ranking of podcasts!

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Thanks so much for listening to the show! If you want to know more about this and keep on maximizing your firm, please join our Facebook Group or like us on Facebook and comment!

You can also go to MaximumLawyer.com or, if you’d prefer, email us at: [email protected]

Do you want to get on the show? Shoot us an email or message us!

The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm.