The Managing Partners Podcast: Law Firm Business Podcast

Robert Weiss is the founder and president of Multivision Digital, a digital marketing company that specializes in video production.

With over 12 years of experience in the industry, Robert has helped numerous law firms and businesses create high-quality video content to enhance their marketing efforts.

In this episode, Robert shares about the importance of video in law firm marketing.

They discuss how video is just another form of content and how it can be used to engage potential clients and build trust.

Robert emphasizes the need for law firms to start incorporating video into their marketing strategies and shares different options for producing video content, including remote video capture.

They also touch on the benefits of video for SEO and the power of video in establishing a personal connection with clients.

Donald Marcari is the Managing Partner of Marcari, Russotto, Spencer & Balaban, a personal injury law firm based in Virginia. With over 36 years of experience, Don has built a successful career in the legal profession. He is known for his work as a defense counsel in the Navy's Mobile Trial Team, which became the basis for the movie "A Few Good Men."

Don shares his journey from being a City Manager to becoming an attorney. He discusses his time in the Navy's Jag Corps and how it led to the basis for the movie "A Few Good Men." Don also talks about his firm's focus on personal injury, workers comp, and veterans' cases. He emphasizes the importance of customer service and the need for continuous growth in the legal profession. Don offers advice to young attorneys and highlights the value of marketing and case selection. He also shares his passion for coaching youth football.

Stephen Nalley is the Founder and Managing Partner of Black Briar Hotel Group and Black Briar Advisors.

Black Briar is a uniquely positioned full service real estate investment company that specializes in the acquisition, financing and management of distressed hotel & resort assets.

Prior to Founding Black Briar, Mr. Nalley was the Chief Operating Officer and Chairman of the Executive Committee for Ocean Waters.

Ocean Waters was a multifaceted real estate investment company, which consisted of over 129 separate entities, 79 real estate assets, 45 operating hotels, and various office, retail, and residential components.

Prior to his civilian career, Stephen Nalley served in the United States Army as a light infantry squad leader and commando with the 10th Mountain Division’s Special Troops Battalion.

Mr. Nalley was honorably discharged and is a disable service connected veteran.

Stephen Nalley received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Healthcare Administration from the University of North Florida, and earned his MBA and DBA from the University of Atlanta and a Law Degree from Washington University School of Law.

He is also a Certified Hotel Administrator through the American Hotel & Lodging Association and received Graduate Certificate’s from Cornell University in Executive Leadership and Hospitality Management.

Learn from his expertise and what trends are helping grow his firm on this episode of The Managing Partners Podcast!

Ben Glass, founder of Ben Glass Law and Great Legal Marketing, believes that lawyers should prioritize their own happiness and well-being instead of solely focusing on serving their clients. He emphasizes the importance of marketing and building a strong team in creating a successful legal practice. Glass's marketing strategy is to offer free resources to potential clients before they hire him, which establishes trust and shows that his firm has experience in handling cases like theirs. He also uses a "shock and awe box" to send potential clients more information if they are not yet sold on his services.

Glass's approach to managing his law firm and coaching other lawyers is informed by his experiences as a father of nine and a high school soccer referee. He recommends eliminating bad spends in advertising and marketing programs and taking the time to read marketing books to improve their approach. Glass wants to create a cool place to work where people can make a lot of money, love the culture, and recruit the next one into the business.

Glass believes in starting and showing up differently, even if it means playing a position you've never played before. He emphasizes the importance of mindset and challenging ingrained beliefs, but acknowledges that it can be difficult to do so on your own. Glass recommends joining a mastermind group, coaching group, or finding like-minded individuals in your community to challenge yourself and improve.

He also suggests finding individuals who are the 20 percenters in the country who think about marketing and business in interesting ways. Glass believes in being a leader of tribal leaders and expanding his network to be a resource for potential clients who need legal services. He emphasizes the importance of not neglecting referral sources and continuing to build relationships with them even as a business becomes more successful. Glass believes that by adopting these practices, lawyers can create happier, thriving lives for themselves and their families.

Ben Glass, founder of Ben Glass Law and Great Legal Marketing, believes that lawyers should prioritize their own happiness and well-being instead of solely focusing on serving their clients. He emphasizes the importance of marketing and building a strong team in creating a successful legal practice. Glass's marketing strategy is to offer free resources to potential clients before they hire him, which establishes trust and shows that his firm has experience in handling cases like theirs. He also uses a "shock and awe box" to send potential clients more information if they are not yet sold on his services.

Glass's approach to managing his law firm and coaching other lawyers is informed by his experiences as a father of nine and a high school soccer referee. He recommends eliminating bad spends in advertising and marketing programs and taking the time to read marketing books to improve their approach. Glass wants to create a cool place to work where people can make a lot of money, love the culture, and recruit the next one into the business.

Glass believes in starting and showing up differently, even if it means playing a position you've never played before. He emphasizes the importance of mindset and challenging ingrained beliefs, but acknowledges that it can be difficult to do so on your own. Glass recommends joining a mastermind group, coaching group, or finding like-minded individuals in your community to challenge yourself and improve.

He also suggests finding individuals who are the 20 percenters in the country who think about marketing and business in interesting ways. Glass believes in being a leader of tribal leaders and expanding his network to be a resource for potential clients who need legal services. He emphasizes the importance of not neglecting referral sources and continuing to build relationships with them even as a business becomes more successful. Glass believes that by adopting these practices, lawyers can create ha

David Crum is the CEO & Co-Founder of Cardinal Concepts in Denver Colorado.

When David Crum graduated from George Washington University with his law degree, most of his classmates were taking positions with large D.C. law firms and positions in government. Following his true calling, David moved to the high desert landscapes of New Mexico after graduation and founded New Mexico Legal Group at the tender age of 26. One year later he had settled his first high profile federal case and his law firm was off to the races. He began to focus his practice in the area of Divorce and Family law, and eventually created two additional law firms, one in Nebraska (his hometown) and the other in Colorado (which he thought was super cool).

In 2016, in response to requests for more information about David’s background, practice philosophy and practice strategy, he wrote the book: Confessions of a Divorce Assassin: What Your Really Need To Know About Your Case, Your Kids and Your Attorney. This book continues to sell like crazy online and is available for purchase at: Confessions of a Divorce Assassin.

As the CEO of US Legal Groups, David has founded and grown three best in class divorce and family law firms: New Mexico Legal Group, Nebraska Legal Group, and Colorado Legal Group. David personally recruits and trains the country’s most talented divorce lawyers, who are chosen for their legal skills, their ability to communicate effectively with clients and the courts, and to deliver outstanding results to their clients. Each firm focuses exclusively in the area of divorce and family law, and it is this unwavering focus on excellence that allows the firms to excel in this area of practice.

Over their many years in practice, David Crum and his then Marketing Director, Brent Harkins, developed marketing strategies that allowed them to dominate their practice areas. When other firms began asking how David and Brent might help their practices, they created Cardinal Concepts, a marketing firm that assists other divorce and family law attorneys in acquiring more clients and achieving financial freedom.

Learn from his expertise and what trends are helping grow his firm on this episode of The Managing Partners Podcast!

Michelle Jeppesen is the Director of Business Development and Customer Success of Jill's Office located in Clearfield, Utah.

Michelle is a fierce believer in the importance of human connection and passionate about providing businesses an economical way to have one-on-one, live interactions with customers in increasingly automated world.

Michelle have consulted with thousands of business owners to help them strategize the best systems and processes to accelerate the business growth while living a balanced life.

She helped start and grow several businesses from the ground up with my zeal of having the best personnel, technology, and processes in place to accelerate business growth.

Most recently, she helped Jill’s Office grow by 500% over the past 5 years through building strategic partnerships, implementing the service in new markets, refining the training processes of employee personnel, and improving the sales and customer satisfaction strategies and support.

In this episode of the Managing Partners Podcast, Kevin Daisey interviews Andrew, the founder of Meanpug.com and a former director of paid advertising at Morgan and Morgan. Andrew has been in the marketing space for a long time, beginning with ecommerce and then transitioning to legal advertising. During his time at Morgan and Morgan, he was able to gain insight on which campaigns worked and didn't work. Andrew and his partner then went on to form their own agency, Meanpug.

The conversation focuses on the importance of having a strategy for marketing a law firm. Andrew explains that the feedback loops in legal marketing are slower than in ecommerce, and the advice out there is not necessarily the best. He emphasizes the need to have a good strategy up front and to be constantly updating it, and he encourages viewers to check out Meanpug.com.

Don Morgan's book, Can't Teach Hungry, is a great resource for any law firm, or any business owner, to learn how to run a successful business. Andrew and the team at their agency focus on strategy first when working with clients. They take the time to audit and analyze the unique situation of the client, their market, and what will be effective before beginning work. He believes that attorneys are bombarded with different tactics and services they can use, but they need to figure out what is right for them and their practice. The importance of strategy for different attorneys, practice areas, and cases is discussed.

This conversation is about the different strategies that law firms may take when it comes to marketing their services. It is important to take into account the type of cases the firm takes, their budget, the temperament of their managing partners, and the criteria of the cases that they want to take. For well-known case types, such as motor vehicle accidents and divorce, a branded funnel and search strategy can be effective. For newer case types, such as first-party insurance disputes, it might be best to focus on creating demand for the case type before investing in a search strategy. Additionally, it is important to build up the foundation of the law firm before attempting to rank number one on Google, as this will help to build trust and recognition.

The conversation discussed the two different approaches that attorneys take when it comes to marketing and advertising. The first approach is the direct response campaign, where attorneys put in money today and expect to see results within 30-90 days. They can back into an average fee income per case and calculate the ROI. The second approach is the medium term, where attorneys invest today to build their referral network. They attend events, build their reputation, and expect to receive referrals back from firms. Both approaches have their benefits and drawbacks, but attorneys should consider which approach fits their needs best before making a decision.

Kevin Daisey, the host of the Managing Partners podcast and founder of Array Digital, welcomed Sarah Tetlow to the show. Sarah is a productivity strategist and consultant and the founder of Firm Focus, which specializes in helping lawyers and legal professionals with time, project, task, attention, and email management. She and Kevin had met at the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) statewide conference. Sarah explained her system ART (A-R-T-T), which helps lawyers and other professionals with email management. She also shared that she had worked in law firms for 15 years before deciding to create Firm Focus to help more lawyers than just the ones she had been working with. They discussed how email can take up too much of our time, and Kevin asked Sarah to share more about her background.

Sarah is from the San Francisco Bay Area and is married with two children (ages 8 and 9.5). She is very organized and has a good sense of time management, demonstrated by an anecdote about buying an expandable file and scheduling bills when they were going to study abroad in Russia. They wrote out the checks, sealed them in envelopes, and wrote notes for themselves to do things like water the plants. The speaker was able to plan out their bills for the entire period they were gone. They also have certifications in project management.

Kevin and Sarah discussed the importance of organization and planning in business. Sarah shared a personal story of how she has been organized since a young age, when she created a system to organize her mail. She has since used this skill and other organizational techniques to help others create processes, systems, and streamline tasks. Kevin added that staying organized makes life much easier and brings peace and joy. The speaker cautioned against fake coaches and consultants who have never actually done what they teach, and instead only learn things to make YouTube videos.

Sarah talks about their offerings under the firm Focus umbrella, which includes speaking, training, presentations, coaching, and team coaching. Under speaking and training, they offer programs like From Frazzle to Focus, Stop Welcoming Distractions, and Learn to Do More by Doing Less. Under coaching, they offer one-on-one private coaching and team coaching, with a three month starter plan. They also offer a 30 minute, no pressure discovery call to anyone who wants to learn more.

Chris Finney is a trial-based plaintiffs lawyer located in St. Louis, Missouri. He is joined by two other lawyers and four support staff. He is born and raised in St. Louis and his wife is from there as well. He is committed to the practice of law in the area. He started his career as a prosecutor in the city of St. Louis before leaving to pursue an insurance defense job which offered more pay and benefits. He only lasted there for Six months, but it was a learning experience, and he is now committed to the plaintiffs practice.

Chris is a trial attorney who turns 40 later this year and has 30 jury trials under his belt. He started out working in his father's injury practice, going out on his own afterwards. He and his firm aim to have around five to seven jury trials a year, but he found himself getting too worn out when he tried seven the last time, resulting in a couple of losses at the end of the year. He understands the importance of trial work and the reputation it brings, in order to get the best results for his clients, unlike many other firms which just want to settle.

Chris is discussing the infrastructure of a law firm and how they have found success in generating new cases. He explains that they started out in their father's basement and had to figure out how to get business in. They tried a variety of methods, including marketing on the only urban radio station in town, but that was not very successful. However, they did get through this marketing turned into many other leads throughout the same community. This led to realize that their game was more about word of mouth referral marketing, which is reputation based.

Chris is discussing his approach to building up his business. He has an old school approach of using newsletters to communicate with his clients. The newsletters are written by himself and sent out in print every month. He also focuses on building a “raving fan base” and providing excellent service to his clients. He also utilizes word of mouth and Google AdWords to reach new clients. He has noticed an uptick in referrals from former clients in the last two years and is currently collecting data to see how it has changed over the last five years.

This episode of the Managing Partners podcast is a solo episode hosted by Erik J. Olson and Kevin Daisey, the other host and co-founder of Array Digital. The episode focuses on SEO for lawyers, discussing the importance and value of SEO and providing basic information on the topic. Erik explains that SEO is a fundamental and foundational digital marketing tactic that every law firm should take advantage of. He goes on to explain the basics of SEO, including how search engine algorithms work, how to optimize content for visibility, and how to measure the success of an SEO campaign. Erik also suggests that law firms should focus on long-term strategies as well as short-term tactics such as pay-per-click advertising. By taking advantage of SEO, law firms can increase their visibility and reach more potential clients.

When someone is looking for a lawyer or law firm, they often turn to Google to find the best solution for their needs. On Google, the very first thing that people see are ads, which require payment in order to keep appearing in search results. Following the ads are the organic listings, which are the possible solutions to the person's problem. The organic listings take up almost the entire top of the page on both desktop and mobile devices. People may also ask friends and family for referrals, which is another way to find a law firm or lawyer.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a way to increase website traffic and visibility through organic search results, meaning the results that appear on a search engine page without being paid for. 97% of people click on the organic results instead of the ads at the top of the page. This means the organic results are incredibly more powerful and valuable than the ads, as they are free clicks that don't cost anything to get into those positions. SEO is a great way to get more website traffic and visibility without having to pay for ads, as organic results are trusted more by users.

In order to get rankings on Google, a lot of effort and specialized expertise is required. Hiring an SEO agency like Array Digital is the best option for most business owners, as it is a full-time job to keep up with the changes in Google's algorithm. Most people do not have the time or desire to learn the industry inside and out, and being on the first page of Google is essential for visibility. Array Digital has multiple full-time SEOs that are experts in the field and can help businesses get the rankings they need.