Maximum Lawyer

In this episode Jim and Tyson will discuss the importance of following up on clients. Simple tasks that will help you grow your business.

“The more you build that connection between you and your client when they ARE your client, that’s gonna help you on the long run”

Have a system in place where you can follow up with your clients. Current and prior ones. Educate them to know all your practice areas, and as we always say, be the “hub”, be the one who refers and advises clients.

Stay in front of your clients. Market yourself. Don’t let the client forget you!

Hacking’s Hack: A legal keyboard! Check it out! Specially designed for lawyers!

https://www.legalkeyboards.com/

Found it in:  http://www.lawsitesblog.com/2017/01/video-unboxing-using-legalboard.html

Tyson’s Tip: A cool book to read: Sapiens: “A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari.

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 will take a stand. This podcast is for people who want to open and run their own law firm and get management tips.

“It’s not about getting your name out there and pounding your chest so just people know who you are. It’s about getting clients into the firm so you can make some money and run a business.”

Our focus is on the solo firms; the small firms. Helping those people survive and thrive and do really well. We practice what we preach.

Narrow your focus. That’s what we are doing. That’s our marketing strategy.

Sometimes when you get your message out there, some people won’t get it, but others will.

What do you stand for? What’s your message? Who your client is? Who your avatar is?

Hacking’s Hack: A book: Shoe Dog: “A Memoir by the Creator of Nike” by Phil Knight.

Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company's early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world's most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands.

He is one of us.

Tyson’s Tip: http://www.chetholmes.com/. You’ll really dig deep into your business.  

Read the book first. “The ultimate sales machine”.

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

“Whatever you give, it will get back 10 times”

About John:  http://www.protectingpatientrights.com/bio/john-fisher.cfm

“Give a 100% and don’t ask for anything in return, and you’ll get paid back a fortune”

“Surround yourself with the highest achieving people you can possibly find and immerse yourself and learn as much as you can”

The Master Mind Experience: http://mastermindexperience.com/

“You come with your biggest problem and we all try to solve it. Then it’s up to you”

Hacking’s Hack: 10 minutes of reading every day.

You can read a business or an entrepreneurship book in the mornings for example. It will help you focus and keep you motivated.

Possible book: “Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers” by Tim Ferris. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (December 6, 2016).

John’s Tip: https://www.indeed.com/. An excellent platform for hiring new employees.

Tyson’s Tip: A book. “Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think” by Peter H. Diamandis. Free Press; Reprint edition (September 23, 2014)

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

"How to make the phone ring and convert that phone call into a client."

(In a few words) Seth started his law practice focusing only in Criminal Defense. With an effective digital marketing plan in place and excellent legal work, his practice soon turned out a success; this gave him the possibility to expand his practice to other areas, hiring excellent law talent and applying the right digital marketing strategies his firm continue to offer high quality law services.

In the first part of this excellent episode, Seth will tell us about his practice and some intake pearls which are definitely worth knowing.

“When you as a lawyer get busier, you can and should raise your rates. Supply and demand.”

“When you are dealing with digital search and people who have never heard from you are finding you, it’s imperative to have a rapid response.”

“If you miss a call and you have caller ID, you can get back immediately and don't lose that lead.”

In the second part of the episode; Seth walk us through SEO, Adwords and digital marketing nowadays.

4 main points which will move the Google needle:

1. Content: quality content
2. Links: quality links
3. Optimized website: a well structured website
4. Local: combination of the organic positioning and listings in Google My Business.

Listen to the episode and learn a lot more of this!

“If you cover many practice areas: a single website for each one of them is what Google is pushing you to right now…”

Seth’s Tip: 99 Designs. https://99designs.com

A great way to start. Design websites, cards, letterhead. It’s really fun and easy.  Check it out!

Tyson’s Tip: A book. Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini Ph.D. Simon & Schuster (September 6, 2016)

“Getting someone to make their decision before you even ask them the question.”

Hacking’s Hack: Facebook Groups.

Interact with people with common interests. Clients. Stay in touch.

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, Tyson and Randall Ryder will try to identify bad clients, and explain why it’s a good idea not working with them.

As many of solo practicing lawyers, Randall has the “good” struggle of not having enough time to do everything. He’s in a point in which he may need to add an associate or an assistant. He’s having trouble letting things go that he SHOULD let go.

Every client is not created equally and there are some clients who really aren’t worth 5 times what your normal fee would be.

You can’t bill for waking up on the middle of the night. You can't bill for sitting in front of your computer willing to smash your keyboard because someone isn't listening to you.

They’re just not worth it.

So, how do you identify those clients? With experience. When somebody calls you and something just doesn’t feels right about what they said, or something about how they’re talking to you just doesn’t feel right, something doesn’t line up; just go with your gut.

“I have a great case!”... No you don’t!

Bad clients can crowd out good clients, they leave you without energy to deal with new clients or with actual good clients. Re-allocate your resources from all the bad places to good places.

Randall’s Tip: You need to stand a lot of time on https://lawyerist.com/ reading a lot of articles. Free information for people who want to go solo.

Hacking’s Hack: Google Sites. It allows you to build internal or external facing websites, and you can use it as an intranet. Very easy to use!

Tyson’s Tip: A book; “What to Do When it's Your Turn (and it's Always Your Turn)” by Seth Godin. The Domino Project; 1st edition (December 1, 2014). It’s inspirational and motivational.

 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

Nowadays, Marketing can be found in so many forms and be applied in so many ways that it is really important to have some criteria and pick the things and strategies that really make sense from a marketing standpoint.

1. Sometimes you are already doing enough and the thing that you are doing have a lot of potential to grow. You need to do deeper, not broader. Stick to what you are good at and what’s working You are already doing plenty, just keep going with that, don’t add something new to the mix.

2. You ought to pass on a marketing tactic if you don’t understand it. Do not put money on the line for things you don’t understand.

3. Feel it in your guts. If you feel a tactic it’s not for you, then it’s not for you. DON’T DO IT. You ought to be excited and energized about any marketing idea you are considering.

4. Don’t do the marketing tactic because somebody else is doing it. Pick your own tactic, the one that works for you.

5. Don’t do things that don’t work. If you are being pitched on a tactic and there is no evidence that it works, don’t believe it works just because this company is still pitching it to you. Get references, real life lawyers. Don’t buy it unless the vendor can prove to you that it actually works.

6. You don’t trust the vendor: STAY AWAY. Trust your instincts.

7. Commitment. There is no reason in the world we live in today, to sign a 1, 2 or 3 year deal. The things that today work best for us, involve no commitment.

8. Ethics. Beware of unethical tactics.

9. Expensive tactic. Today, we can market our practices on a small budget. There are incredible possibilities!

Hacking’s Hack: An app: Google Keep. https://www.google.com/keep/ Screenshots, tasks, notes, you name it.

Tyson’s Tip: iPhone app: Chartistic. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/charting-app-chartistic/id1127272574?mt=8 It allows you to easily create charts from your phone.

Lee’s Tip: An A.I. (artificial inteligence) personal assistant: https://x.ai/ It provides you with an artificially intelligent bot that helps you with scheduling meetings!

Another A.I. personal assistant but for travelling: https://pana.com/

A gift from Lee! https://divorcediscourse.com/ri/get-rosens-rules/

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 talk about the advantages of thinking long term and transforming one happy client into many.

Think long term. How many referrals will I get from a particular client down the road, or how many more times will this person is going to hire me if I do a good job.

Cost Per Acquisition Of a Client: if your lifetime value of your client is less than your acquisition cost, then you are doing something wrong.

Calculate your cost per acquisition of clients =

 How much do you spend every month/year in your marketing

_________________________________________________

Clients that you acquire that month/year (You can do the same with leads instead of acquired clients)

 How much is worth you to get a new client… As long as you get out more than you are putting in, then it’s OK, right?

Once you figured out what the value of a client is for one case, then the next step is to figure out how can you increase the number of transactions you do with this client and how can you orchestrate referrals down the road and transform 1 client into 5. In other words, increase the lifetime value of this client. Therefore you are going to be willing to spend more money to get those leads.

Follow up! If you take that extra step and you create things and stay in touch with your former clients, that makes a big difference.

If you just market to the people who are already in your tribe, it is cheaper and more effective.

Hacking’s Hack: A book, and it’s a little bit dated in the marketing message: it’s pre internet, but all the same principles apply.

“Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition” by Jay Abraham, St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (October 12, 2001).

It’s fantastic, it’ll give lots of ideas.

Tyson’s Tip: Actually, a tip! The “if when then principle”. If you wanna stop doing something, or if you wanna achieve something in your life, one of the most effective ways of doing it is getting in the mind set where when something happens, then you do something that is healthier, better, or improves you in some way.

From the book: “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition” by by Robert B. Cialdini, Harper Business; Revised edition (December 26, 2006).

 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

If one person is asking then more than one person is asking. In this episode Jim and Tyson discuss how to get attention from the marketplace; how to differentiate yourself and let people know that you are not a typical lawyer.   

Focus on the customer; what do they want? What does the client want from us?   It’s not only just about pounding your chest and showing in your website all the awards and diplomas you have. Create content, answer questions. That will make people find you better on the web.   Track how customers come in and improve it.   The more competitive your legal area is, the more important it is to have a greater quantity and quality of content (It doesn’t cost anything!). A good way to create content is to write down the questions people make you and answer them to all the ones having that same question.   You can do videos, podcasts, or even keep it simple and just do a blog. Just keep track of your topics and put a simple system in place.   Hacking’s Hack: An amazing book: “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World” by Gary Vaynerchuk, HarperBusiness; 1 edition (November 26, 2013). It goes through all the ways you can communicate in social media but most importantly it stands for the proposition that you have to give value and then ask for someone to hire you or buy you something.   Tyson’s Tip: A book: “Exploiting Chaos: 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change“ by Jeremy Gutsche, Avery (September 1, 2009). It really simplifies how to exploit chaos in any environment, any economy.  

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 Attorney Mike Campbell and go through the issues of running and growing your own law firm.

One of the things of growing a firm; it’s like raising a kid, it’s like an organic thing; it’s alive. Mike Campbell graduated from the University of Missouri in 2011 and after working as an attorney for other lawyers for a couple years, he decided to take the leap and open a solo practice. He runs his own law firm since 2015. 

http://mikecampbelllaw.com/   

Staffing

Should I hire someone?

Major issue for Mike. As the firm grows, more work needs to be done, and if you want to keep on making a good job with clients and results, you’ll need to eliminate, delegate and/or automate. If your systems are in place, sometimes the only way is staffing, and having people working for you is not easy.  

What are we doing well? What should we do better? And what we should stop doing?

Tyson’s Tip: A podcast; “How I Build This”. http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this

It is awesome. They bring on people with established businesses to talk about how they built their companies. Hacking’s Hack: Believe it or not, an INK PEN. Write down your tasks and things to remember, you will be more effective.   Mike’s Tip: Ring Central. 

https://www.ringcentral.com/ A web based app, a cloud service. An online office. Lots of great tools, check it out.   

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

Some people are just don’t made to run a law firm or solo practice.

1. You don’t like hustling for clients.

Finding the people that need our services in a way that is energetic, purposeful and deliberate in a way that attracts people to you and makes them want to hire you.  

When you run a solo practice, hustling is fundamental. It’s the only way you will get clients and grow, therefore, it’ll be the only way to keep your firm running.

1.  You don’t want to monitor your numbers. KPI’s.

Key Performance Indicators. The number of potential clients. Cash in - Cash out. Numbers, statistics. Information that will show you how the firm is and how it will or can be.

KPI’s will let you modify, improve, reduce, fasten, the way you work and systems and that way maximize your firm.

1. Risk

You’d rather be comfortable with a monthly paycheck as opposed to the risk and reward of running your own firm.

There is definitely some internal strength that you are going to need in order to be able to soldier through when things get tough and there are ups and downs to practice.

Sometimes you feel the risk is greater than the opportunity. Hacking’s Hack: 

http://sproutsocial.com/. Social Media Management Made Easy. Sprout’s collaborative platform ensures smarter, faster and more efficient social communications.   Tyson’s Tip: The Ink World Magazine App. http://www.inkworldmagazine.com/ A great and easy app to use. Up to date marketing trends, business advice. Really cool.  

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