Speakeasy Authority Marketing

A major Google update called Core Web Vitals is set to be fully rolled out by May of 2021. There are four main elements of this update, each of which aims to provide users with fast, easy-to-navigate websites and an overall positive experience.

That's what you want for your clients too, of course, but how do you ensure that that's what your website offers? This is a critical question for anyone who relies upon their website for business since Google reserves the right to lower rankings or even delist someone whose website fails to meet their guidelines.

Richard Jacobs covers each of the four main metrics of Core Web Vitals: Largest Contentful Paint, First Input Delay, Cumulative Layout Shift, and mobile-friendliness. He explains what each metric means, how to know when your website isn't up to par, and how Speakeasy Authority Marketing covers all the bases for each and every one of their clients.

Over the past nine years, Jacobs has been closely following Google principles and updates, staying a step ahead of the game to ensure that his clients are in a good position with every update. By virtue of remaining diligent in this way, Google updates have never had a serious negative impact on any Speakeasy Authority Marketing clients.

For help with your website or to simply learn more, visit speakeasymarketinginc.com or call (888) 225-8594.

How can you examine the ghosts of your clients, whether past, present, or future? First, examine the current economic and social climate, and consider how it's affecting your practice area.

For instance, when it comes to family law, a lot of alimony and child support agreements are being modified as a result of economic uncertainty; people don't know whether they're going to lose their jobs, or maybe they already have, and they're currently or imminently unable to make the same payments.

When it comes to criminal defense, many jurisdictions are easing requirements for diversion programs and alternative sentences.

In the estate planning arena, unfortunately, there are illnesses, deaths, and changing family dynamics due to the stressors of the current situation; all of these events are going to require that people revisit and update their estate planning documents.

Regardless of which type of law you practice, contacting past clients and checking in on them is an opportune way to generate more revenue, and help people in the process. Your past clients already know you, so you don't have to spend your resources on marketing or on proving that you'll treat them well. Just reach out to them and see how you can help their situation in light of what's going on in the world.

In similar ways, clients present and future can be of benefit to your practice, and Richard Jacobs explains exactly how. Tune in for all the details.

For help improving your practice or for further advice, call (888) 225-8594 or visit speakeasymarketinginc.com.

A new ad format called Google Screened has been in the works for some time now, but is it worth it? What are the pros and cons? What are you really getting with this service, and perhaps more importantly, what are you risking?

A Google Screened ad is pretty basic: it'll contain the number of reviews you have, your picture, the number of years you've been in business, whether you're currently open, and the name of your law firm. It'll also have the words "Google Screened" followed by a green check mark. What does that mean, and will potential clients even know what it means?

The verification process for a Google Screened ad is extensive and could take four to nine weeks, or even longer in light of delays due to COVID-19. While most people probably don't know what it takes to qualify for a Google Screened ad, they'll see the green check mark and know you've been verified by Google, which certainly isn't a bad thing. Another positive about this ad format is that you can take a screenshot of your Google Screened ad, blur out the other attorneys who are in that screenshot, and use it on your website, in literature, or as part of your email signature.

Whether you get your money's worth for it is still unclear, especially considering that they are pay per lead ads, and use only commercial keywords. Since they are pay per lead ads, it's likely that Google will track the calls you get, and may even listen in to make sure you're handling things properly. On top of that, Google will have the authority to pull down your ad at any time, leaving you with nothing.

Richard Jacobs recommends doing what he's been helping countless attorneys do for years now: catch potential clients in the very early stages of their search for an attorney when they are typing question keywords rather than commercial keywords. By waiting until a potential client is searching commercial keywords, you're surrounding yourself with a nearly insurmountable amount of competition with other attorneys.

For all the details and to learn more about how to market yourself wisely, call (888) 225-8594 or visit https://www.speakeasymarketinginc.com/.

As court processes are being constrained or precluded altogether due to the coronavirus situation, alternative forms of dispute resolution are on the rise—perhaps like never before. What does this mean for your practice? What does it mean for how you should be advising your clients as they navigate the field of family law? The landscape is changing fast, and unpredictably. Richard Jacobs warns you of this, and shares information that could prepare you for dealing with it.

In addition to more alternative dispute resolution methods, court orders, such as those for spousal and child support are being created with modification provisions, in light of the changing economy and the constant risk of losing employment amid coronavirus restrictions.

Tune in for all the details. Get in touch or subscribe for the monthly Authoritas newsletter by visiting speakeasymarketinginc.com, calling (888) 225-8594, or emailing [email protected]

Every area of law impacts every other area of law, and that includes the topic of today's show: personal injury. An auto accident, for instance, can lead to bankruptcy, divorce, or the need to create or revise an estate plan.

Richard Jacobs shares a second batch of insight offered in full as part of the monthly Authoritas newsletter, providing the latest updates in the world of personal injury law. In this field of law, one of the primary impacts of the coronavirus has been on access to medical care. And as any personal injury attorney knows, failing to see a doctor in a timely manner after a personal injury can wreak havoc on a claim.

On top of that, rough economic times have bred more desperate victims of personal injury, making the acceptance of lowball settlement offers much more common. There is no doubt that the insurance companies—which are themselves struggling amid overall economic decline—are well aware that they can use to their advantage the financial struggles of victims of personal injury.

Tune in for the details on all of this and more, including recent changes to the statute of limitations for certain legal actions, and how to mitigate the challenges brought about by the current climate.

Each month, the Authoritas research team looks at 33 to 35 sources to determine the what, who, why, and the how of the very latest in law—whether it's bankruptcy, estate planning, criminal defense, family law, or business. What's working for whom, and why is it working? How can you develop and implement similar strategies to boost your clientele, mitigate the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, and ultimately become more successful while actually helping people?

This is the type of information you'll find in the Authoritas monthly newsletter, which Richard Jacobs gives you solid insight on in this episode. Today's focus is on bankruptcy, but that doesn't mean it doesn't offer invaluable advice for attorneys practicing other types of law, as bankruptcy tends to be surrounded by or connected to a multitude of other legal issues.

Tune in for practical advice on practical issues.

Happy Halloween. Today is the 13th and luckiest or unluckiest day, where I describe the monsters that are there to feast on your practice, suck it dry, destroy it, ruin it, trample it, and do all the evil things that monsters love to do. Our last two are friends, other associate attorneys, partners, or anyone in your life. They may be very close to you, and they may even work for you, but they're monsters and you've got to look out for them, look out for these qualities, and stamp them out. You've got to get rid of them.

The first one I'll talk about is the Tom Sawyer. This is someone who gets everyone else to paint their fence and do the work for them, and they take credit for it. They don't want to do anything. They don't say thank you, and they don't give credit where credit is due. They're just demanding. They are tyrants. Then we're going to talk about the ever-retiring Rasputin. Remember Rasputin? They tried to kill him 10 different ways and he just refused to die.

This is an old timer, someone who has been there a long time. They don't have to be old, but they've just been there a long time. This could be a staff member that just does things their own way, and they actually run the practice and you work for them. This could be an admin that in essence, if you really think about the power dynamic, is holding you hostage. They don't want to do this; they don't want to do that. They don't want to use new technology, they don't text, they don't do live chat, they won't do this or that or the other, and they're holding your practice back. It could be an older staff member who just really needs to retire, but won't go and they dominate the firm.

The Tom Sawyers would be good if they did systematize your practice, so they can be harnessed for good, but you've got to watch out. What's good about them is that they are good at getting other people to do work that needs to be done, so they should be coached to set up systems so that eventually you reduce your dependence upon the Tom Sawyer. This could be an office manager; a good office manager is essentially a good Tom Sawyer because they're getting other people to do stuff for them. But you want to do it in such a way where if that office manager needs to be fired for some reason, or they want to quit, or they want to make a career change, you don't want to be their hostage.

This happens in a lot of firms where someone knows everything, so they can't be fired. Or, if they want to quit or have to quit for some reason, like their husband or wife gets very ill or they have a sick child at home—whatever it may be—then you're screwed. Look for the Tom Sawyers but coach them to systematize everything, make procedures, make checklists, etc. Some great references here is the Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. It sounds really boring, but it's actually really fascinating. For instance, in this book they talk about a checklist that was developed for hospitals. When someone comes in, how do they evaluate whether they're having a heart attack or not? It's like a five-step checklist. They talk about pilots; would you want a pilot to fly a plane with no checklist, just trying to remember everything they are supposed to do? Hell no.

Checklists and procedures, instead of being stifling, are actually freeing. They're really great ways to systematize your business. I've been working on systematizing Speakeasy Authority Marketing for almost four years now, and I've done it again and again and again. I go from customer satisfaction to the product we produce to human resources to marketing and round robin again, and again. I keep systematizing and systematizing and making procedures and checklists. It's made things really smooth. I used to joke and say that we fought fires every day, and then it got to be a couple of times a week, and then it got to be once a month. You may cringe at this, but now it's like a hemorrhoid every three months; we'll have a flare up of a problem. But with our systems and checklists and procedures, we can tamp it down pretty quickly. Life is a lot happier, a lot more peaceful, more relaxed, and everything is really systematized. It took a long time to do this.

If not for being aware of these Tom Sawyers, and I guess secretly wanting to be one myself, I wouldn't have gone to this extent. I highly encourage you to look for these people in your practice. If they're there, corral them, get them under your wing, and get them going to systematize stuff. If you're the Tom Sawyer, well, you're the business owner, so that's probably totally fine. But you don't want to be the micromanaging Tom Sawyer; you want to be the one who can go fishing while everyone else is painting your fence.

There is another book called Work the System by Sam Carpenter. The whole book gets repetitive, but the first five chapters have most of what you need to know. That's a great reference for you to systematize your business to make it run like a clock and reduce your hours there.

Let's get into the ever-retiring Rasputin. This is someone who just refuses to die and refuses to go away. They've been there a long time, and they're just stuck in the old paradigm of doing things, and you just can't kill them, you can't get rid of them—or at least you think you can't. These people can stop you from moving forward into the modern world.

For example, it has become apparent on our side that Zoom consults are a fantastic way of selling, especially when clients can't come to your office. It beats the heck out of the phone. I did a product called the Virtual Closing System on how to use Zoom to pitch clients, diagram their case on a whiteboard, get the contract in front of them right then and there, get them to sign it, and get them to pay the retainer all on that call.

We use it now to get new clients, and any attorney who is out there really should be using it too. You don't have to buy it from us, but you can if you want to. At least listen to what I'm telling you and do it for yourself. If you've got someone in your business who is saying, "Oh, that's, that's not going to work," or, "This is the way we've always done stuff for the 12 years I've been here," and they don't want to change, they're holding you back. If you don't change, things will change around you, whether you like it or not, and your firm is going to be left behind in the dust. You may think, "Well, I've been doing what I do for 20 years, so why do I need to change now?" If you look, you will see stuff changing around you radically.

Back in 2005 before I started in attorney marketing, I spoke to Braden from Legal Brand Marketing, who has been in it since at least 2005. He said to me, "Back when I started, attorneys didn't even know they needed a website and I had to convince them. Now look how different it is. Pretty much everyone's got a website, and if you don't have one, you're the odd person out." Things change big time. Some of the big changes are here, obviously with COVID, not being able to see clients in person, staff working from home, text messaging has gotten huge, and mobile marketing and mobile search is now far more common than laptop search or desktop search. There have been a lot of changes in this industry. I've been in it 11 years now. Braden's been in it longer, and he had a great insight.

If you've been in this industry, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 years, things have changed dramatically. If you find yourself being left behind and being stifled, it could be because you have a Rasputin in your business that you've got to get rid of. This refers back to the Tom Sawyer. Part of the fear of getting rid of a Rasputin is that sometimes they don't want to go. But if you have any authority to get rid of them, do it. You may have to plan a few months ahead and start systematizing what they do so that someone new can slide in there quickly and there will already be checklists and procedures in place. You want to watch out for these people because they can stifle and smother your business. Like I said, you'll find yourself left behind in the next couple of years if you don't make major transitions.

We've covered 26 monsters over the past 13 days. Like I said, Happy Halloween. I'm just going to recap the monsters for you. I'm going to tell you all 26 right now, and I'm going to associate the monsters with the day so you can go back and listen if you'd like.

Day one, we talked about the ghost and the backseat driver; day 2, the nervous nellie and the vampire; day 3, the wimpy and the backstabber; day 4, the bungler and the narcissist; day 5, the canary and the branding barbarian; day 6, the social media serpent and the Rip Van Winkle of referrals; day 7, the follow-up fumbler and the SEO siren; day 8, the paid leads pusher and the new client hopium dealer; day 9, the lowball leech and the omnipresent omnivore; day 10, the budget bully and the strangler; day 11, the devil's advocate and the bride (or the spouse or the partner in newspeak) of Frankenstein; day 12, the fear monger and the narcissist, and today, day 13, the Tom Sawyer and the ever-retiring Rasputin.

I hope you've gotten a lot out of these podcasts and that they're a good resource to you. If you have any questions about any of this and if you want our help getting rid of any of these monsters, putting a stake through their heart, and helping your practice to grow and move beyond the terrible oppression of these monsters that are sucking your blood, come to speakeasymarketinginc.com or call 888-225-8594. Happy Halloween. Take care.

Good evening, it's Richard Jacobs with Speakeasy Authority Marketing and Jacobs & Whitehall. It's day 12 of 13 of the monsters that are there to suck the life out of your practice. Today we are going to talk about the fearmonger and the narcissist. We had a narcissist under client monsters, but narcissists can rear their head amongst staff, family, and friends.

First, we'll talk about the fearmonger. This is a staff member, another attorney, spouse, or someone who you work with whose head is on fire. They are constantly worried about everything. What's going to happen if we do this? What's going to happen if we don't make payroll? What if we can't pay the rent? What if the judge rules against my client? I've seen a group of attorneys do this, and it's not nice but I call them headless chickens because they are constantly worried.

Some attorneys tell me they don't even have time to breathe. That's not good. If you are going to run a successful practice, be confident in court, research with peace of mind, file motions, and really go to bat for your client, you can't be in a state of fear. That's no good. If you are because of finances, you've got to pay attention to that and alleviate that as best you can. I can give you a few quick suggestions here.

During this COVID crisis, we called a bunch of our vendors and were surprised that there were some that were willing to working with us, and we've worked with some of our clients during the COVID crisis. It helps everyone out; it's embarrassing to ask, but sometimes you have to do it. If you are in financial crisis right now, and if your staff, family, friends, spouse, or partners are in a state of fear, it's infectious. You are not going to think rationally and you are not going to be able to make decisions properly.

You are going to do things that could be completely contrary to what the facts are and what reality is, and you will really put yourself in a bad situation and cut off your nose to spite your face. Examples of this are stopping all marketing and thinking that the world is going to end. I think a lot of us were beyond that in March, and in April, this was even more important advice. I was afraid too, but you've got to take charge and stand up and get going.

Things have been upside down and inside out this year. We are now in October; we are close to Halloween. It's time to take control of that fear, if you have any. If you have a staff member, family member, friend—whoever it is—who is just full of fear, you are going to have to have a talk with them. If you can minimize your interaction with that person, fine.

If you can't, then you are going to have to do something and let them know that you are sorry they have fear, but they've got to move forward. If you don't, then you are not going to have a practice left. Even though this is Halloween, this is the quintessential monster that can really take you and derail you. It's very important to pay attention to it.

Now, let's talk about the narcissist. The narcissist could be you, a staff member, family member, friend, or spouse. The narcissist is always worried about how people see you, see the firm, see the website, etc. I've heard a lot of attorneys unfortunately fall victim to this. The narcissist says things like, "The last person we had do our website, it was embarrassing" and, "That social media post was embarrassing." The honest truth is that most people don't care; they don't even notice.

At one point, I weighed over 300 pounds. I easily could have said, "I'm fat, no one wants to look at me. I am embarrassed of how I look. I am embarrassed of myself." But I didn't. Instead, I did something about it; I got healthier and worked out and all that. I'm not slim but I'm doing a lot better. If I'd just said, "I'm embarrassed" and went into my shell and didn't do anything about it, where would that have gotten me? In truth, no one really cared what I weighed or how I looked. When I lost some weight and I did better, people said to me, "You are doing better, you look good. You lost some weight." They were more inclined to say things.

When it comes to your website, there is nothing to be embarrassed about. The only reason you should be embarrassed by your website is if you haven't worked on it at all and it looks like a website from 15 years ago; that may be embarrassing, but you can do something about it. What good is it to just sit there and say, "Oh, I'm embarrassed, customers are not going to work with me, clients are not going to hire me." You may be totally wrong on that. What clients want to know is are you capable, do you care about them, are you listening, can you help them. That's what they want to know.

If you espouse those things, your website is not going to matter very much and neither are your posts on social media. A lot of times, no one even sees them, just to let you know. We do a lot of social media work and have accounts with thousands of likes, and sometimes we'll put a post out there that will get no attention—none. And the attorney says, "Oh, I'm embarrassed," while no one really cares or sees. The narcissists are all about looks. They are all about what other people think of them. You don't know what other people think of you. I'm just being totally honest; you just don't know. You'd be totally surprised.

If I asked all of you what you think of me, then I'd get good comments and I'd get bad ones. It'd be funny to show you my email inbox. There are days when I get an attorney who says, take me off your list, you are a scammer, and literally, five minutes later I'll get an attorney who says, "Rich, I love your stuff. I've been on your list for a year and a half. Thank you so much. I implemented some of the stuff that you said." It's just hilarious. Thank God I see both of those things side by side because it tempers the bad stuff, but I get some serious hate mail.

If I said, "Oh my God, I'm doing bad things, I'm emailing too much, I shouldn't be saying anything, I shouldn't market, I shouldn't do what I do," then a lot of attorneys would miss out. I'm not being arrogant by saying that, but you know; you are on my list and you listen. You've got to put yourself out there. Yes, some people will take shots at you. There are trolls out there and there are people who will post bad reviews (I have some), but there are a lot who will post good reviews. There are a lot who will come to your aid.

If someone is not your client and is not going to become your client, then who cares what they think about you? If someone pays me, then I'll care what they think about me, but if someone just makes snide comments and they aren't even a client and will never be a client, then I don't care. I'll show them the same attitude. Narcissists are no good. They are narcissists for a reason. They are concerned about themselves, and in the end, they don't care about you.

If you are a narcissist, that's one thing; if you have a narcissist in your practice, that's very bad. There is no way they are going to be rolling along with the rest of the team to move you forward. They care about themselves, and when the time comes, they are just going to drop you like a bad habit and run.

If you have this in your practice, get rid of it. If you have this in yourself, work on it, try to tamp it down, and try to put that ego aside. Just get to work, get clients, build that practice you want. That's what we all need to do to move forward. Hope this helps.

Good evening, this is Richard Jacobs. Today is day 11 of the 13 unlucky days of monsters attempting to suck the blood from your law practice. We've talked about client monsters: the ghost, the backseat driver, the nervous nelly, the vampire, the wimpy, the backstabber, the bungler, the narcissist, and the canary.

Then we talked about the marketing monsters: the branding barbarian, the social media serpent, the Rip Van Winkle of referrals, the follow-up fumbler, the SEO siren, the paid leads pusher, the new client hopium dealer, the lowball leech, the omnipresent omnivore, and the budget bully. Now, we are talking about some of the most pernicious monsters: staff, family, and friends, (unfortunately).

We talked about the strangler, and now we are going to talk about the devil's advocate and the bride of Frankenstein. The devil's advocate is a staff member or maybe a fellow attorney who is just a devil's advocate in everything. Any idea you come up with, any client you take on, any case that you work through with a partner, or any case that you have a staff member help on, they are always pointing you to the dark side. "What if this happens?" or "I don't think this is going to work," or "Maybe we should reconsider…" What this does is turn you into a "two steps forward and 1.9999 steps back" person, and you essentially go nowhere. You just jiggle back and forth in position.

Meanwhile, the market changes around you, other firms get clients and try new things, and win or lose. The firms that just kind of jiggle back and forth and don't aggressively market, try new things, or adapt to new technologies like live chat, texting clients, or using Zoom for intakes, start to lose ground to other firms and younger attorneys who may have 20 fewer years of experience than they do. They start to eat your lunch, they start to take over, and you start to get very frustrated. At times, you might feel like a dinosaur. You've got to watch out for these devil's advocates; they mean well—they really do—but unfortunately, they have to be coached.

If a staff member, family, friend, or anyone else is being the devil's advocate, say to them, "I really appreciate it. You are a good sounding board and you are a great devil's advocate, but I want you to deliberately think, 'How can I do this?' What advice would you have for me if you knew that there was nothing I could do and that something had to be done and you at least wanted to help me do it as best I could?" Change their frame of mind so that they are supportive instead of a devil's advocate because the devil's advocate only goes so far. If you have idea after idea after idea and that's all you get back, it's going to take the air out of your balloon. It's going to deflate you, and eventually, you'll give up and just sink into mediocrity and helplessness.

You won't want to engage with your marketing firms and you won't want to move your firm forward. You are going to lose ground and just lament that you didn't go anywhere while other firms surpass you. As you know, there's a lot of competition in the world of attorneys, especially this year with COVID. The sands are shifting, the tectonic plates are shifting big time. There are big-time winners, and there are big-time losers. You've got to be either a winner or a loser going forward because things are changing dramatically. Watch out for these devil's advocates. Again, they mean well, so turn them around so they help you instead of hurt you.

Now, the bride of Frankenstein. I could have called it the spouse of Frankenstein, but in the movie, it was called the bride of Frankenstein. Forgive me if instead of a bride, you have a groom; it's your partner or spouse who is unsupportive. You've tried things in the past, and they are worried about the finances, they are worried about the kids, and they are worried about your financial situation.

I can't give you relationship advice here, but I want to point it out. If you have a spouse or a partner who is unsupportive, it can easily suck the life out of you and make you do nothing. I can't tell you to get rid of your partner or spouse. All I can tell you is to be aware that the approval or the withholding of approval of a spouse and the withholding of other things can really make life very difficult.

I don't know how you are going to manage it. Again, I don't even want to go there; I just want you to be aware of it, and if it is a factor in your life, it is going to affect your practice, and it's obviously going to affect your personal life. It's going to affect everything. The only thing I can recommend is that you not let yourself be in a situation like that for too long. Then again, you have to decide how long "too long" is for you.

Unfortunately, the longer it goes on, the less likely it is to change or improve unless action is taken by both parties. Of course, take your side of responsibility for the whole situation; it might not just be your partner…it might be you too. There are definitely great resources out there that can really help you. I recently read the book, Change Your Questions, Change Your Life by Marilee Adams, PhD. I am literally just about to finish it, but it's a really great book that can help you with any issues that you have. It can apply to most of the monsters you deal with (maybe even all of them), and this monster in particular because it's such a tricky one. I recommend you check out that book. It's excellent.

There's also 5 Love Languages, which sounds kind of funny, but it's a fantastic book. There are five different ways that people express love in any relationship, and you'd be very surprised. When I read through this book and looked at the people around me, like my wife, my kids, and my other relationships, it's literally like wearing a new pair of glasses where you see people in a way you've never seen them before. It's really cool. One love language is physical touch. Another is acts of service, where we do something for someone and they feel loved. Another is quality time, where you spend quality time with them. The fourth love language is gifts, and I forget the fifth one. It is an excellent book.

I highly recommend these two books because they'll take the friction out of a lot of your relationships and really help you have a smoother time. If my wife is mad at me, it can ruin my whole day. I'm not saying she's bad or blaming her or anything—I do plenty of things wrong to annoy her—but I know it's important when a partner or spouse is not supportive; it really can take the wind out of your sails, so it's really important to address it. It's not nice to call it a monster, but I'm including it. I hope this helps you. On today 12 tomorrow.

Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with Speakeasy Authority Marketing and Jacobs & Whitehall. We are getting there; it is day 10 of the monsters that are set upon devouring your business. You've got to stop them. We've gone through a whole bunch of them and there are more. You just wouldn't believe it, they keep coming, and I want you to know about them.

Today, we are on our last marketing monster: the budget bully. Then, we are going to get into a whole new genre of monsters. These are staff, family, and friend monsters, which are sometimes the worst of all. Within this group, we've got the strangler.

First, we've got the budget bully. This could be a CPA or financial advisor, someone in your firm, or someone who has nothing to do with your firm. They are a bully, and they are always crying, "Oh, it's not in the budget. We have money budgeted for that and you can't spend any more than the budget." Are budgets smart to have? Of course, they are; they are prudent, but what if you budget a certain amount of money for marketing activity and things are going well and you've found marketing methods that work? Yelp, SEO, Facebook, or whatever it is maybe working for you and you may start getting clients and things may start getting better. Are you going to stop marketing and putting more money in that because your budget says you can't go over it?

I've literally run into firms that say, "Oh well, my CPA told me the rule is I shouldn't spend more than 10 percent of my money on marketing. So, I'm going to have to pull back or shut the marketing down." That's just stupid; it's ignorant. CPAs and financial advisors know what they know, but they are not running your law firm and they certainly don't do marketing.

That's not their bailiwick…they look at numbers. Cold, hard cash, ratios, percentages, etc. That's great to have and you definitely want to listen to that stuff, but should there be an exception? Does this budget make any sense, or is it just an arbitrary number?

If you say "I want to spend $1,000 on Pay-Per-Click and that's all I am spending," well it may take $2,000 a month, but if you make $7,000 with it, is that a good return? If things are working and you have a chance to spend $4,000 or $5,000 a month, you may think, "My God," but if you are making close to $20,000 a month and spending $5,000 a month, who cares? It's like a gumball machine, where you put a quarter in and two quarters pop out or 100 gumballs pop out.

How many times do you want to use that machine? As much as possible. The same is true with marketing. Obviously, you have to have the discipline, you have to test and track, and you have to look at what you are doing to make sure it makes financial sense. That's key, but budgets with solid numbers that don't care about reality and changing conditions and all that are stupid.

Imagine if you stuck to your 2020 budget and then the coronavirus crisis hit, and the whole world turned upside down and inside out. If you stick with your budgets and your numbers, what do you think is going to happen to you? Things could go really well or you could be out of business very quickly because this year there's been major upset, which I don't need to explain to you. Some people have gotten rich, and some people have withered and died on the vine. Things have changed big time.

Budget is a static thing that you must not be a slave to, and especially if you are being advised by someone who is not in your business day-to-day. Again, there's nothing wrong with them, but CPAs, accountants, financial planners, and other people who are not in your business and know nothing about marketing and nothing about your real numbers are the people you want to avoid because they are bullies. They always cry, "Oh, it's not in the budget," or "We are not going to review a new budget until Q1." Well, we have an opportunity now, and if we can't take advantage of it, it's a big problem.

On the other hand, budgets are great guidelines, so watch out if you are spending your allocated three months in a certain area and the budget is being chewed up in the first month. That would tell you something is wrong, and something is not working numerically like you thought it would. If that's the case, then you can adjust. Use budgets as guides; don't let them bully you.

Now, we are going to get to the first of the staff, family, and friend monsters. This is the strangler. The strangler can be an older attorney who squashes or quashes all of your ideas and says "No, we can't do that. That's not how we do things here." Or, it could be a partner, husband, wife, secretary, or someone who has been there for a long time and just resists change and resists any ideas you have. Maybe you've gone to a seminar or you've listened to some of my podcasts or another marketer, and you want to try a new form of marketing and they just say, "No, you can't do that," or "That's not going to work, that's going to make us look bad, and it's not professional."

They are just a strangler. Any idea that comes, they grab it by the neck and choke it to death; they don't let it have even a breath of life. Stranglers are bad news. Some stranglers do it because they are trying to help, but oftentimes it's because they have their own motivations that you may not be aware of. An admin or a secretary won't want to change. They just want to be left alone and get their pay.

Maybe they are close to retiring, maybe they have three kids at home and a husband or a wife that drives them crazy and the kids needs braces and they are having money troubles at home, and now you want them to engage in this new activity where they have to work more hours and not be paid, or they feel like it'll endanger the firm and they are going to say "No" to all the ideas and resist them as much as possible. That's one kind of strangler.

Again, there could be an older attorney, let's say Bob, who is already a partner or has been in it for 35 years and he has two or three years until he is out the door. Do you think Bob wants to try anything new? You've been in the firm for three years and you want to do things differently, and Bob says, "Hey, we are a white shoe firm. We don't even market. We don't do those kinds of things, and I'm not going to approve anything that has to do with social media or SEO because based on my past experience, that stuff just doesn't work.

We are not trying it." These people are stranglers. They don't listen and they don't give you a chance to prove your ideas; they just strangle the ideas in the cradle and they never get anywhere. You've got to be really careful around them. You may not be able to extricate yourself from their purview, and that's a problem. That's a longer-term conversation.

You also always want to set yourself up to be free and autonomous so that you can make your own decisions. But sometimes the strangler can be your spouse, and any idea you give them, they say "Hey, you've put this family through a lot and you've tried a lot of things these past few years, and a lot of them didn't work out. I'm not comfortable with you doing this." Sometimes it's for a good reason; they want to protect the family, they have more of a preservation mindset than a mindset like you, and they may be giving you good counsel.

If you find someone in your firm, in your family, or a friend who just strangles all your ideas, look out for that and ask yourself, "What's their real motivation for doing this? Why are they so intent on killing everything I talk to them about? Do they really know what they are talking about or are they just trying to strangle everything?" Be careful of these two monsters I've described to you because they are insidious.

It may not be obvious what they are doing and what their real motivations are, but they can kill a practice, make you unhappy, ruin your career, or prevent you from getting anywhere. Keep your eyes peeled; danger can lurk anywhere.