Maximum Lawyer

Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conqueror. He was trying to conquer Mexico with only 600 men, and when he got there and saw how huge the enemy was he realized that the only way they were going to do such thing was if his army knew that there was no way back, no turning back. So he burnt the boats. He is the first person to conquer Mexico.Commitment. Commit to your firm. Running and building your own law firm is hard, so if you’re going to be half in, in the long run you’ll do yourself and your client a disservice. If you are not committed to building a well oiled machine that functions properly and that all the things that a healthy law firm needs to do, you can’t double in this, you can’t be half in.If you don’t have work to do, you need to be generating work. It is not OK to stay at home half of the day because you don’t have any work. Work hard, get clients. Hussle. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” (Jim Rohn)Be in a law environment. Be around succes, around inspiration and motivation. Hacking’s Hack: A podcast and a blog: http://www.lessdoing.com/podcasts/, dedicated to outsourcing and finding people to do tasks for you and to make your life more automated. More optimized. Tyson’s Tip: Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Harper Business Essentials), by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras. (Harper Collins Publ. USA, July 1st 2004) The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm. Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

In this episode Jim and Tyson talk about how they get people to raise their hands and let us know that they’re interested in our legal services.The before unit: before you get the client.The during unit: your representation of the client.The after unit: after you handled the case.There are lots of people walking around who may need your services. Your job is to identify those people and find where they gather.Nich down (we already talked about this in a previous episode). Narrow down the nich. Pick the target.Clients need their problem solved. So if you advertise with a lot of practices, the ones that the client don’t need will act as noise and will distract. Your message needs to be clear. From a practical standpoint, if you do the things you can do and are good at, your clients will be happy and will go out and tell other people about you. Create an effective add, a compellent offer. Hacking’s Hack: New podcast: “More Cheese, Less Whiskers”: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/more-cheese-less-whiskers/id1135262567?mt=2Tyson’s Tip: https://www.purechat.com/$20 a month to manage your web chats, web questions, etc. You can link it with Infusionsoft. The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm. Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

In this episode, Jim and Tyson discuss the benefits of building a good and strategic referral network.Usually the best cases, the most qualified leads, come through a referral. Connect with people. That will lead to referrals down the road.http://www.bni.com/: Network with people, build connections, get referral partners and build trust.Virginia Muzquiz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/virginiamuzquiz: BNI connected. The Referral Institute. It will help you build connections.If you give referrals you will end up gaining. Refer clients you can’t handle to other lawyers and make efforts to have them call somebody else that you know does that practice. And make sure that attorney knows that client comes from you, so they’ll know they’re getting something from you. This is very valuable. When you give a referral, explain why you are connecting them.Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert B. Cialdini. Harper Business; Revised edition (December 26, 2006)“People give referrals to show that they’re connected”When you refer - or, before you refer-, you are pre qualifying the person before they even contact the lawyer, and you are helping the lawyer and the client. Be that guy that everyone goes to: Be “The Hub”, so you can start dishing up the cases and definitely grow your network.Hacking’s Hack: https://overcast.fm/. Free app. Pretty interface, but more importantly, the player will delete the spaces between when people are talking. This feature will shorten up the podcast if you are short of time. Another thing, it will boost the audio of the speaker.Tyson’s Tip: https://hootsuite.com/. An app that allows you to schedule up all of your social media network posts.Very easy to use and it saves a lot of time.Be careful of how many posts you schedule and when you do it. A lot of scheduled posts loose the “original and live” feel of a content. There are some kind of posts that work great with an auto schedule, others don’t. The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm. Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

Use content as a way to teach them about their issues, about the questions that they have. Videos educate your clients and work as a filtering process and an easy way to answering questions. Once you have your video system set up, you can do it for multiple things; training modules for employees, for example. Besides, they work 24h. People get to know you. That’s good for business. Basic set up (You can learn a lot watching youtube):Video Camera (1080p, microphone input jack)TripodMicrophone (to the camera)Set of lights (You can learn how to in Youtube)Green Screen (Optional; If you want to overlay a firm logo digitally) Tyson’s Tip:Secrets of Lawyer Video Marketing in the Age of YouTube, by Gerry Oginski. Word Association (April 17, 2012)Great book. It guides you through all the video production process; what to do and not to do. And it makes it easy.Hacking’s Hack:Owen Hemsath.https://www.youtube.com/user/videographybyowenhttps://thevideospot.net/He teaches you to use Youtube through Youtube. Lots of practical tips. The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm. Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

In this episode Jim and Tyson discuss about whether if it is good or not to run your law firm as a business. The old guard versus the new guard. Some young attorneys still work exclusively on building their skills. That's great, if you are going to work for somebody. If you are going to build your own firm, you can be the best attorney in the world, but if you don't have any clients you will not be able to be the best attorney in the world.What’s the most important part of being an attorney? Get the clients to the door. Develop business and bring business. Quickbooks, payroll, hiring… Lots of skills you'll need to learn if you are going to have staff. And if you won’t learn them, they should be taken care of by an assistant.Hiring staff: are you good at it?A connected world has it’s advantages, you can outsource stuff virtually. Delegation: take the things that you shouldn’t be doing and give it to the people that should be doing them. Very key to run a successful law firm.Allow yourself to think of law as a business. Develop clients and grow your client base. Hacking’s Hack: The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies. By Chet Holmes. Portfolio; Reprint edition (May 27, 2008)Practical advice on bringing in business. Systems. Maximizing. Client retention and obtaining efforts. Go on and listen to it in your car!Tyson’s Tip: The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks Than Others Do in 12 Months. By Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. Wiley; 1 edition (May 20, 2013)Braking your year into 12 weeks at a time and stop thinking annually. You get more done. Goal Setting.The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm. Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

“The Riches are in The Niches”In this episode Jim and Tyson share with us their personal experiences about niching down and how it helps to grow your law practice and firm!You can’t do more than 2 very well and you can’t market more than 2 very well. Niching down makes your marketing and processes easier, it makes you more efficient.Referral network. You can feed it and it can feed you right back (clientwise). Other lawyers who work on other practice areas refer you and you refer them. Fact: Look around and see the most successful lawyers in the country, you’ll notice they do 1 thing or 2. If you have 12 practice areas in your website, it may look better but your message is garbled. Get the client to the door, then you can be the best lawyer, but to be the best lawyer you must know and master your practice areas. If you focus on many you will never be a good lawyer.Tyson’s Tip: Slack. https://slack.com/An app for mobile and desktop to communicate with your team. It’s free. You can share and coordinate everything.Hacking’s Hack: A simple Hour Glass (or 50 minutes) to FOCUS.Shut down everything that distracts you and just work for 50 minutes. Then take 10 minutes to stretch, walk, talk. Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

In this episode Tyson and Jim discuss about the perks of managing a growing firm.As you hire more people, there are more people that are dependant of you. Sometimes this consumes your time and your energy. Don't become a bottleneck in your firm.Keep track of what it is that needs to get done. Make a list and then figure out who's the best to do it. This will give you more space and time to you to make the things YOU need to do.KPI: Key Performance Indicators: Things that you can identify, you can look at, that give an idea of what the direction of your firm is. For example: new clients, new leads. If you have your KPI’s in place you can correctly determine whether to hire or not a new employee or which decisions should be made. Put plans in place and follow through.Hiring employees is difficult and expensive. Not financially but everything else> the time assisting, developing and growing them.Sometimes, hiring a non experienced employee is better. They don’t have preconceived notions coming to the office and you can train them the way you need.Hacking’s Hack: Zig Ziglar’s podcast. https://www.ziglar.com/Automobile University. You can learn and listen in your car as you commute or travel. Get the most out of everything. Maximize.Tyson’s Tip: The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea (Bob Burg, John David Mann, Penguin UK, 25 feb. 2010).You give more to referral partners, to your clients, you give and you receive. A simple book, it breaks things down for you with 5 principles. Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

In this episode Tyson and Jim discuss about things they both wished they had known when they started their firm.Branding: changing the name of your firm. KNOW your demographics, it will help you choose an adequate name. Putting your name on the firm's name is not always a good idea; don´t make everything about you, try to use the service you provide instead.Make sure you make up a system to take track of everyone who contacts your law firm. Build a database. Get your clients information, it will be of value. Use call scripts.Segmentation: make sure you choose and work with the right clients.Hackings Hack: Build to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You (John Warrillow, Penguin, 2013)Great book for lawyers to read and to think about as they start building their practice.Tysons Tip: UpWork.You can hire all kinds of assistants. It saves you a lot of money and it gets things done. Your firm running 24hs. The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up, and maximize your firm! Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

In this episode Tyson and Jim discuss about how to work ON your law firm instead of IN your law firm. Building systems is fundamental.Building systems and building for the future is gonna make a better lawyer. You´re gonna be more efficient, you´re gonna provide better service to your clients, you´re gonna get a better result. Use your present time to make your future better.Choose wisely your experts and consultants. Keep it simple. And don´t rely that much on other people, at the end of the day, you´re the one using the system.Tyson´s Tip: Comunication with your team. It´s important.Slack. www.slack.comYou can share everything and keep your communication in ONE place. It´s free.Hacking´s Hack: The E-Myth Revisited, by Michael E. Gerber.How to think about your business. Entrepreneur + Manager + Tactician.Learn how to balance your focus.Partner up and maximize your firm! Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

In this episode Tyson and Jim introduce themselves and tell us how they began their law journey.Hacking´s Hack: Go on and listen to Dean Jackson and Joe Polish talk about marketing in their podcast - http://ilovemarketing.com/Go back and start from the beginning, there are lots of great podcasts about marketing! Before unit, during unit, and after unit: you come upon them at different stages of your project. Learn how to manage them.Tyson´s Tip: Basic, but elemental: The Top Five.Every day you should write 5 things to be done. The same with your week. At the end of the day and the week they must be done. Small tasks are just fine, but write them done and get them done, this will keep you moving forward. Green pen for the completed tasks, and red for the non completed. You will hate to take out that red pen!The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Partner up and maximize your firm!y. Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn