Beyond Billables

In this episode of Beyond Billables, Mike engages in a candid conversation with Claire Styles, founder of C Legal and Co. Claire shares her journey of building a successful legal services business over the past two and a half years. The discussion delves into the key elements of her business development strategy, encompassing branding, social media, content creation, and marketing. As a solo entrepreneur specializing in asset protection and tax minimization for high-net-worth individuals and business owners, Claire provides valuable insights into the evolution of her brand and the lessons learned along the way.

The episode explores the importance of networking and relationship-building in the legal profession, with Claire emphasizing the significance of strategic connections over sheer quantity. The conversation also touches on Claire's transition to working from home and how it influenced the refocusing of her business. Listeners gain valuable advice on the delicate balance between personal fulfillment and business success, with Claire encouraging aspiring legal entrepreneurs to align their professional pursuits with their true passions. The episode concludes with a glimpse into Claire's exciting future plans and upcoming guests for Beyond Billables in 2024.

Business development can be a minefield. How do you become great at it? Which strategies work? Which don't?

On the podcast this week, we dive into key questions surrounding BD with returning guest Matthew Hollings, Director of Clients and Marketing at Sky Discovery. While this discussion is largely focussed on business development, we also discuss Matthew's background in law, the industry of many of our clients.

Matt shares some unique insights on the power of having the right BD strategy; as well as habits and consistency that professionals at all levels can take onboard and implement to help them win more work.

As for Matt himself check out his bio below!

Matthew has been a part of the legal industry for over 12 years. First, as a practising solicitor working in litigation for a large national firm. Second, working in-house for a large financial institution in its disputes team, before moving into the world of legal technology. Matthew has spent the last 9 years using his practical experience as a litigator to support lawyers with eDiscovery solutions that help them to collect, analyse, manage and review the increasing volumes and types of data related to their disputes, regulatory responses and investigations. Working in close partnership with their clients throughout the entire matter lifecycle, Matthew and his colleagues use their legal and technological experience to develop solutions that make the technical, practical and the complex, simple so that those legal teams can focus on the law, and their clients.

AI is changing the SEO game forever.

Is your business ready? Today on the show, I chat with James Banks, Founder of Rankmax.AI. Rankmax is an AI SEO business that assists enterprises looking to leverage the power of AI, and ultimately grow website traffic.

Having worked in the industry for 15 years, James recognised the huge changes AI was bringing which drove him to launch Rankmax in 2023. Today, we dive into everything you need to know about AI, SEO, content and how technology is shaping search engine optimisation.

If your business utilises SEO to generate leads, this is a must listen. More than a business discussion, James also opens up in candid detail on his journey as an entrepreneur. He shares about some of the incredibly tough times that have shaped him as a leader and the pursuit of happiness in business that led him to this point.

https://www.rankmax.ai/

In this week's show, Mike dives into the "Net, Lure and Spear" marketing framework as a way to make better decisions on where you invest your marketing, BD and content investments.

Mike dives into the significance of distinguishing between these three elements when investing time and resources in marketing your business. Net fishing involves broad messaging and brand building, creating a lasting impression. Lure fishing targets specific industry problems with tailored content, while spearfishing is highly focused on individual relationships, often involving personalized communication.

Mike emphasizes the importance of making clear decisions regarding where to allocate time and money within these elements.

On this week's show I sat down with my friend and incredibly successful online business strategist Steph Taylor. Steph helps service-based business owners build profitable and sustainable online businesses that continue to grow even when they're offline.

This was a great discussion on Steph's business journey, what's worked and what hasn't, and how she has managed to find success. Steph and I worked together for 2 years, so it was great fun to revisit that time, reflect on her journey and hear all her insights on online business. From business to mental health, this is a great discussion on business and life.

In 12 months, Steph took her online business from $100K to $1 million, and the best bit? This didn't come with the trade-off of more hustle and more time. In fact, by creating a solid online business and sales engine, she was able to take weeks off to hike around the outback with a tent on her back, and be off the grid for a month in a camper van with her furry best pal, Archie. By leaning on strategy over tactics, value over the hard sell, and longevity over quick wins, Steph believes that a successful online business shouldn't feel like you're pushing an elephant up the hill, but instead should feel fun, flowy, and fulfilling.

Through her podcast Imperfect Action that's clocked over 2 million downloads and in supporting over 4,000 paid students and counting, Steph today teaches online businesses how they too can create financial, choice, time, and location freedom through her framework that blends strategy, content, sales, systems, and mindset.

This week, Mike sits down with founders of Oh My Digital, Kaitlyn Gillies & Hayley Peters to chat all things business evolution! Katy & Hayley are a dynamite duo that have grown their agency through hard work and a commitment to constant evolution. We discuss their history, how they tackle the big issues that all business owners face, and how those issues impact on them personally. Join us for a deep-dive into the reality of running an agency, the personal toll of owning a business, and how embracing constant change can help (in all aspects of life).

Oh My Digital are your marketing cheerleaders. We help passionate brands kick marketing goals, backed by a #cheersquad of besties, whether you're a rookie, a pro or anywhere in between! We will educate, inspire & empower you to demystify your marketing once and for all (and have a lot of fun along the way). We offer DIY and done-for-you options, so your brand can grow with us - whatever stage you're at! We love a good 2000s throwback movie, Friday night cosmos & helping businesses grow with no BS digital marketing advice and strategy.

On the first interview show this year Mike spoke with Dominic Woolrych, Co-founder of Lawpath Australia's number one online legal platform that has helped over 400,000 small businesses across Australia and the US. On the show we discussed Lawpath and Dom's journey, how they have scaled the business and some of the big questions business owners have to grapple with. Dom shared openly about the challenges of being a non-technical founder, how he has developed as a leader and how he manages it all. More details on Dom's bio can be found below!

Dom's mission is to transform and digitalize the legal industry to make it accessible to all small businesses and show lawyers that there are many non-traditional opportunities in the legal sector. Dom is on the advisory board and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology and a director of the Australian Legal Technology Association (ALTA). In 2022, Dom became the finalist at SmallBiz Week Young Hero Awards in the Young Innovator category and was voted the top 20 University of Technology Alumni.

As a young entrepreneur, Dom first cut his teeth as a commercial lawyer at Minster Ellison, Australia's largest law firm, where he realized that only a select handful of businesses could afford top legal advice. This experience and his subsequent work representing vulnerable people through Legal Aid gave him the insights and skills needed to disrupt and revolutionize the legal industry. Together with his co-founder Tom Willis, he witnessed how other industries moved their services online and applied this principle to the legal sector. With the automation of tasks and cutting-edge technologies (including AI), he bridged the gap and made gaining legal advice accessible to everyone, especially small businesses. Dom's vision is to continue to build his digital platform and help small businesses globally to access legal support at a fraction of the traditional system's time, cost, and complexity. Today, Lawpath is recognized as one of the top 10 legal start-ups in Australia and the top 50 globally. It is the fastest-growing online legal platform with over 400,000 small business users and has started 5 percent of all companies in Australia.

Welcome back to the Beyond Billables podcast!

It's been a hot minute and a lot has been happening, but we are excited to once again be making the show. In this first episode of the year Mike shares candidly on the evolution and growth of the Beyond Billables agency, the decision to put the show on hold during his wife's cancer treatment and the excitement about being back in the podcast chair!

It wouldn't be a BB show without insight on some key professional services strategies and in the second half Mike dives into the "Work on vs Work in" your business conundrum and shares a 5 step process to help owners, executives, and senior leaders work out what balance suits them.

From Associate in the Supreme Court to playing packed out comedy shows around the world, this week Mike caught up with the incredibly talented Josh Glanc just before Edinburgh Fringe! Josh shared openly about his journey in comedy and the real challenges anyone faces who embarks on a career in a creative field. We spoke about the impact of the pandemic, how he approaches his standup and the reality of getting work as a comedian around the world. This was a very personal, engaging chat with a hugely talented Australian who is destined for great things.

On the show this week Mike spoke with Law Firm SEO expert, Chris Dreyer, CEO and founder of Rankings.io. Rankings.io is an SEO agency that specializes in helping personal injury law firms dominate first page rankings. This was a really interesting discussion on SEO, Content, niching down and the power of brand across everything law firms do. Chris also shared on his own interesting personal journey and how he built his brand through content and the strategies he helps clients implement. Mike also discussed the upcoming launch of Chris' first book called: Niching up: The narrower the Market, The Bigger the prize.