Maximum Lawyer

In this episode, Jim and Tyson will catch up with each other, they will go over what’s been going on with their businesses and then they will dive in into this week’s topic: where are they going to be 25 years from now. Also, they will discuss about building a culture in a law firm and BHAGS.  

This episode is all about building for the future, expanding, and putting in place systems that will allow us to grow; Innovating and improving ourselves.

BHAGS - Big Hairy Audacious Goal

“If you pick the wrong BHAG, your setting your firm off on a terrible course. If your team isn’t unified on that goal, your gonna screw the whole thing up.”

 Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins

In 25 years:

Jim sees his firm with offices across the country and as the biggest law firm for family immigration services, with all their systems build out and a franchise model.

Tyson wants to have the most successful personal injury law firm in the midwest, with an office in every single city of the midwest.

Hacking’s hack: A book about having a learning organization:

 The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter Senge

Tyson’s tip: An app to look good.

https://www.mtailor.com/

Custom Clothing Made in Your Size

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In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Jason Selk. Jason is considered to be one of the top performance coaches in the United States; he trains individuals and teams to develop the mental toughness necessary for high-level success. They will go over the importance of having a performance mindset in your life and your business, and how mental toughness can help you grow your firm.

Jason’s Website

Are you fighting it out to the very end?

The importance of confidence: The perfectionist mindset VS. the performance mindset.

Self confidence is the number one variable for all performers. What that perfectionist mentality does, is it really takes its toll on a person self confidence. If I keep thinking about that error or that missed opportunity, and not focusing also on the things I’ve done well, my confidence is gonna take a beating. We try to train people to develop the performance mentality, that it’s about recognizing what you have done well and relentlessly improving.

“Highly successful people NEVER get anything done in one given day, but what they do is, ALWAYS get their most important activities done each and every day.”

Plateaus in business

“Plateaus will happen. There will be times where you’re kind of in that phase of doing the work and not seeing the immediate results, but if you stay with it: 30, 60, 90 days, nailing your one most important and usually getting the 3 most important done each day, you are probably gonna find plateaus don’t last very long; that you find ways to keep moving it to the next level.”

The mindset of saying no

The first step to saying no is evaluating where your time and energy are going, and in terms or relevance, what’s most important? If right now you are feeling overwhelmed, the next step is to eliminate 10% to 20% of what you are currently doing. The third step, is moving forward. The next time anyone ask you something, before saying yes, identify what will you say no to.

Don’t overload yourself. Prioritize.

 The book

Hacking’s hack: Have a podcast!

Jason’s tip: Go back to the 3 most important and 1 must. Identify your 3 most important activities and of that 3 what’s the one most important activity that must get done every day.

Tyson’s tip:

1. If you ever had problems downloading and viewing .ZIP files, there’s an app called Browser. The icon is an arrow pointing down.
2. Get the book  Organize your team today.

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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.

Resources:

• Join the Guild Membership
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In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Marisa Portuondo, a solopreneur who runs her own business law practice in Miami, Florida. They will go over her journey as a lawyer and entrepreneur paying special attention to her marketing and discussing ways to improve it. Also, her biggest struggles and the value of assistants.

Marisa does basically everything for business owners: that is transactional or litigation. That has  branched out into construction, because a lot of her clients are in the construction industry. Recently she started doing property damage.

Her Firm: Portuondo Law Firm

03:14 - Experience

Marisa has a lot of experience in small firms and learned many valuable lessons about running a law firm: “I learned a lot about how to run a law firm and how NOT to run a law firm from the different bosses that I had.”

03:59 - 1st Day as a Solo

“I just thought, I don’t even know how to get clients! Marketing has changed so much since then... ”

05:17 - Marketing

“Whenever they think about a property claim they think of me, because they don’t know any other property claim attorneys.”  Main marketing is word of mouth

08:39 - Her Struggles

Marisa’s biggest struggle is that there’s just never enough time. Marisa has a background in information systems, so she’s now implementing automation and starting to see how much more efficient she’s becoming.

09:57 - Her team structure

They will go over Marisa’s team and her new mindset about virtual assistants.

12:44 - Technology

Marisa’s main software is Practice Panther

14:30 - Flash Forward

“I don’t know if I ever want to become a big firm. I don’t know if that’s the lifestyle that I wanna lead.”

15:30 - Why do Marisa does what she does

“I just love helping business owners… I’ve learned a lot about business and I love sharing that information”

16:53 - The Advice

Get staff earlier!   

20:01 - Hack and Tips of the week

Hacking’s hack: Jim’s been listening to James Schramko and he has a tutorial named “Own The Racecourse” The best articulation of the mindset that you should have when creating content.

Marisa’s tip: Automation. Get it done. Dig in into your software and automate. If you don’t have one, get one.

Tyson’s tip: Tyson’s in the process of hiring 2 new employees and has one very simple piece of advice: make sure that you have the job applicants make them send you a copy of the resume in pdf format. That simple thing is gonna weed out the people who can’t do that single and simple task.

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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.

Resources:

• Join the Guild Membership
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In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Michael Whelan. Michael runs his own law firm, organizes a lawyer conference and is writing a book about running a law business. They will go over his background, the conference and the book; it’s main principles about being a solo practitioner, deep expertise and legal supply chain.

“Law is not a business plan, it’s a product, it’s a monetization strategy. It’s how we turn knowledge in to cash so that we can live. How we do that is really up to us.”

The conference: http://www.lawyerforward.com/

The Book:

You can sign up to be on a mailing list where Michael talks about what’s going on with the book: http://www.lawyerforward.com/bookupdates/

3 main ideas:

1. Financial capital is not a good play for specially solo attorneys, but social capital is highly available, and should be the leverage point for people trying to run their own law firms.
2. The 2 most valuable pieces of any transaction are the relationship and deep expertise.
3. People should connect on a legal supply chain. A different way to structure human capital.

Hacking’s hack: Jim’s been listening to James Schramko (https://www.superfastbusiness.com/about/) and he said something that really struck a nerve with him.

“I create content when I have something to say.”

Michael’s tip: A daily task app that is fantastic and it’s gamified. Great to use with your kids.

https://habitica.com/static/home

Tyson’s tip: A tool to manage social media.

https://www.agorapulse.com/

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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.

Resources:

• Join the Guild Membership
• Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube Channel
• Follow us on Instagram
• Join the Facebook Group
• Follow the Facebook Page
• Follow us on LinkedIn

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.

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

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

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.”

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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.

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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.

Resources:

• Join the Guild Membership
• Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube Channel
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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.

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

The firm:

https://www.ruaneattorneys.com

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.

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:

http://www.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.

Resources:

• Join the Guild Membership
• Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube Channel
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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.

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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!

Resources:

• Join the Guild Membership
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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!

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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.

Resources:

• Join the Guild Membership
• Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube Channel
• Follow us on Instagram
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• Follow the Facebook Page
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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.

Resources:

• Join the Guild Membership
• Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube Channel
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• Follow the Facebook Page
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In this episode, Jim and Tyson interview Hayden and David Haskins, owners of Haskins & Company a Law Firm Marketing Company. They will go over their background, their business setup, and their law marketing work and strategies, paying special attention to how to hire the right marketing and social media company for your law firm. Listen to the episode to learn some great tactics to choose the right fit for your company.

Also, Hayden and David have political marketing and campaign work backgrounds, and they took many things from that sphere into law firm marketing… In this episode they will go over some of these lessons learnt…

Their Firm:

https://haskins.co/

“A lot of times Attorneys get into marketing arrangements, contractual agreements, and they are not as familiar with the lay of the land as somebody like us, that have actually seen a lot of the work that’s out there or a lot of the shady tactics that people do... ”

Some of the red flags when hiring an online or offline marketing company:

1. Contractual limits and ownership of content and IT.
2. Transparency and reporting

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

Hacking’s hack:

Jim mapped out his ideal week, and going through that exercise has helped him a lot. So, map out your week!

David’s tip: The best SEO book David has ever read! It’s like a Google biography so hopefully it will help you create content that Google likes.

 In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives

Hayden’s tip: Figure out how to track where your leads are coming from. Get as granular as you possibly can with that information. And figure out what your true cost per case is.

Know where your leads are coming from with: https://www.callrail.com/

Tyson’s tip:

Move Pay for a private server. It’s more expensive but it will speed up your website.

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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.

Resources:

• Join the Guild Membership
• Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube Channel
• Follow us on Instagram
• Join the Facebook Group
• Follow the Facebook Page
• Follow us on LinkedIn