Maximum Lawyer

Let’s talk about running a law firm but instead of talking about running it the “right” way — let’s talk about what NOT to do and the mistakes that Jim and Tyson have made. Here are six mistakes that cost them financially that they wish they could go back and fix. Hopefully you find this helpful and hopefully you can shortcut some of these mistakes to save yourself the financial headache. Mistakes of: ➡️ Starting your own firm and not knowing your first hire➡️ Riding a financial roller coaster ride of “rich” to “broke” ➡️ Confusing people with your marketing message ➡️ Hesitating with hiring a team ➡️ Being the #allthethingslawyer2:57  Set up your books and hire a bookkeeper on day one … DO NOT WAIT! 5:48 Niche down as much as you can as early as possible8:18 Let go of the niches that your heart is not in, it’s not worth hanging on and screws up your marketing with mixed messages about what you do11:26 Waiting too long to hire a team of people to help move the firm forward 15:26 Know your numbers. What numbers are important? What numbers aren’t important?  What do the important numbers mean to you and your firm, both in the short term and the long term? 18:16 Not paying yourself a salary Jim’s Hack: Read a book called Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday. Tyson’s Tip: Need a pump up of motivation? Go to YouTube and search “I Want More Levels with Kevin Hart.” 🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube.Resources:Join the Guild MembershipMeet us in San Diego! The final quarterly mastermind of 2022 still has tickets available! Become a member to purchase your ticket.Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

If you’ve been around Maximum Lawyer for a hot minute you may have seen and heard about Jim’s health transform this past year. Losing 75+lbs in the last four months with the coaching help of our guest today, Charles D'Angelo. Charles knows first hand what it's like to feel stuck, once weighing 360lbs as a bullied teen. He took charge of his own life, dropped 160lbs, and for the last two decades has been on a mission to help others reclaim theirs. His unique coaching program focuses on changing your mindset so that you can change your life. It’s recognizing that you have to set aside blame and excuses, and ask yourself the question “How am I gonna move forward?”Listen to this episode where Charles shares the first three steps you can take today to start making changes in your life for the future you want. Which will uplevel everything. Your home life, work life and everything in between. Let’s dive in. 01:50 Charles journey from a 360lbs teenager to a decision to life changing result03:53  Charles’s unique approach to a healthy life 08:01 How to get people motivated to change ... The core issue is NOT what you think12:10 Helping other helpers become more effective and more efficient 16:37 Let talk about negative self-talk …19:43 Why you really need someone you can trust to talk to … a.k.a sanity is best outsourced.21:26 Cool tools that Charles would recommend to people … and it’s not what you think Jim’s Hack: Sweat, sweat, sweat. That 5:00 AM on the treadmill. That is you telling yourself, you're a priority! Charles Tip: Step one: Write down all the things that you'd like to see happen in your life. Step two: Go through and label each item on your list with how many years it will take you this creates a vision for your life. Step three: Start reading about the topics of the plans on your vision list to shorten the time it takes to get you there. Tyson Tips: In the Apple watch, when in the, fitness app, you can turn your dial whenever, you're running and it shows you what zone you’re in especially handy if you want to do some zone two training, 🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nYd_UUd-lD8Connect with Charles:WebsiteInstagramFacebookYoutube TwitterResources:Join the Guild MembershipMeet us in San Diego! The final quarterly mastermind of 2022 still has tickets available! Become a member to purchase your ticket.Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

Ever thought about buying or selling a law practice?! Our guest on the podcast today, Tom Lenfestey, helps lawyers buy and sell law practices. Law firm real-estate anyone?! It's a topic that people ask us about all the time and it's interesting because one thing we always hear people say is, “I wanna sell my firm. I'm gonna make it to some name that doesn't have MY name in it.” It’s like the branding and naming is the afterthought to what your end goal with your law firm is. If you are opening a law firm, what's your exit strategy? This and more is what we talk about in today’s episode. Listen in!Episode Highlights:01:30 Meet Tom and hear how he got started in the Law Practice Exchange04:15 Why it doesn't work for lawyers to sell their practice and just walk out the door, like a dentist05:50 What mistakes do lawyers make at the beginning when they found their firm AND what structural naming issues pop up when people want to get out. Tom’s advice:Have clean financialsSet up a firm brand that is apart from youBuild out your systemsTrain your peopleTrain and operate people on those systems10:35 How do you tell people you are selling your law firm practice? 13:26 What should people that are thinking about taking over a practice of another think about and ask about?17:13 What are some red flags you want to look for when you are thinking about acquiring a law firm?20:13 What is it like to work with Tom and his team to brokerage a deal and acquire a law firm Jim’s Hack: Find what motivates you! For me its reading books that get me fired up, like: “The 12 Week Year” or “Zone To Win”. You got to fill your brain with positive and idea generating material. Tom’s Tip: Read the book: Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow Tyson's Tip: Read the book: “Measuring what Matters” By John Doerr. It's about how to track things in your business. What you should and shouldn’t track.  🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube.Connect with Tom:Website Twitter Facebook LinkedinLinkedin with Tom Youtube Resources:Join the Guild MembershipMeet us in San Diego! The final quarterly mastermind of 2022 still has tickets available! Become a member to purchase your ticket.Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

Ever wonder what name you should name your company? If you rebranded your law firm, what would you name it? And why?! Today we are talking with our naming guest expert, Alexandra Watkins who’s claim to fame is being responsible for naming Wendy's “Banconator!” In this episode Alexandra goes over tips for naming your business with a memorable name. There is a process! Then she goes over the mistakes that you need to avoid when naming your company. Jim and Tyson also talk to her about why a name that is reflective of the company is so important and not naming your law firm after yourself is a great way to get started. Listen into this valuable episode and get the creative marketing juices flowing. Episode Highlights: 00:56 Meet Alexander03:02 The qualities of a good brand name … hint, it’s not your name!07:24 What NOT to do when naming your business11:18 What to do when your exact match for a domain name is gone13:03 The thought process to develop a good names 14:12 How to change your brand name midstream17:09 The importance of not being boring …Jim’s Hack: Post regularly on LinkedIn (Mon-Fri) and see the surprising benefit of what happens and that is the awesome resumes that the lawyers and paralegals submit to your company!Alexandra Tip: To test your brand name to see if it passes the “test” use S.M.I.L.E. and S.C.R.A.T.C.H. technique (listen all about these technique in episode 481) Tyson’s Tip: Use a bland white ceramic cup to drink your water or coffee from so that when you are on videos for marketing or on Zoom meetings you don’t trigger people with your Starbucks!🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube here.Connect with Alexandra:WebsiteLinkedin Book Resources:Join the Guild MembershipMeet us in San Diego! The final quarterly mastermind of 2022 still has tickets available! Become a member to purchase your ticket.Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

Let’s talk about design! Design is something that so many law firm owners don't spend enough time thinking about. ➡️ What does your design say about your company? ➡️ Should you create a brand book for your firm? ➡️ What are some design mistakes that you’ll need to avoid? ➡️ Does design really matter? ➡️ How often should you freshen up the look of your website? These are some of the questions that our guest — Lauren Felter is answering today. She's a design educator for non designers and a former ladder climber. She spent the first decade of her career overseeing marketing operations and technical systems for a university admissions office, while also teaching design as adjunct faculty. Then in January, 2020, after intense burnout and an identity crisis at the top, she decided to blow it all. And do it her own way. So she turned her highly sought after university design course into one specifically for professionals like lawyers and business owners who aren't graphic designers, but find designing an inevitable part of their regular to-do list. 02:06 Laura’s journey … and and getting results 09:19 Design tips that attorneys should know …11:51 Creating a brand book for your company 12:44 Design mistakes to avoid …15:34 Paying five bucks for a designed logo on Fivverr may not be a good idea … here’s why 17:52 How do you remove your personality, out of the branding? 20:01 How often should law firm owners be thinking about freshening up their look? Jim’s Hack: How often do so many of us feel like we have to justify taking care of ourselves to make sure that people don't think we're too highfalutin? We don’t have to justify ourselves to other people.  Lauren’s Tip: You are allowed to change your mind. If it’s not working or serving you right now you are allowed to figure out what's a better fit for you. Pivoting is not failure. Tyson’s Tip: Read the book Fascinate by Sally Hogshead to deep dive into creating an irresistible brand.🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube.Connect with Laura:Website Instagram Resources:Join the Guild MembershipMeet us in San Diego! The final quarterly mastermind of 2022 still has tickets available! Become a member to purchase your ticket.Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

Our guest today is Deanna Johnson. She's a new guild member here at Maximum Lawyer. She has been practicing law for five years. She started out doing community property litigation with a small firm of two guys who were experts in this area. After leaving this she went on to experience insurance defense and more. While this built her expertise and confidence as a lawyer for other companies — she always knew she wanted to go out on her own, and start her own practice.She thought it would take a long time to start but after finding the Maximum Lawyer Podcast and the Guild her plans have changed! She shifted gears and planned for all the things she needed to figure out before she quit her job before she went out on her own. Which she did!Join us in this conversation where she shares about starting your own business, quickly and successfully!03:25 The actual moment that it clicked … 04:29 First week on the job and where 90% of the work comes from05:53 Some mindset shifts, before going out on your own06:59 Exceptions vs. reality when going out on your own08:30 How did you pick your practice area? 11:40 What does your day look like? 15:15 Your first hire?17:46 Ideas for getting that revenue up19:15 Niching down your firm's practice21:26 Looking back, is there anything you would've done differently? Jim’s Hack: read the book called What's In It for Them? to get into author Joe Polish (co-host of the I Love Marketing Podcast) mindset of how important connections with other people are. Deanna Tip: Build connections by defining your target audience, then go do something you enjoy and have natural conversation with people. Tyson’s Tip: Use this easy editing app called InShot for assistance with editing your TikToks🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube.Connect with Deanna:WebsiteFacebook Resources:Join the Guild MembershipMeet us in San Diego! The final quarterly mastermind of 2022 still has tickets available! Become a member to purchase your ticket.Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

Calling all lawyers — you might relate to this episode — when you've had a team member call you out. This happened to Jim the other day and in this episode he and Tyson reflect on what happened and the falling out because of it. It’s probably not what you think.It’s about numbers and it’s about keeping an eye on your firm's roles. Are they all filled? Do you need more people? What kind of people? Jim and Tyson fill in the conversation around what they do for the team and the numbers they track as well. (And you should be tracking too!) Let’s dive into today’s episode and wake up call. 04:59 RSF (relentless solution focused) and putting Jim in the hot seat today!07:29 When you have an entire system helping to sign up cases … this is what it looks like09:28 Starting in January goals … 11:02 Going back to numbers you need to track … according to Jim.13:45 Looking at season over season numbers17:38 Hiring a director of sales? Jim’s Hack: the Road Less Traveled by M Scott. Making the case that you need to be in therapy, like it's really about doing that hard work. it's a real clarion call to wake up and accept the fact that things are hard and then soldier on, hopefully with the help of someone that you can confide in and talk to and who's gonna call you out on your shit. Tyson’s Tip: Ask the question of “what can I learn from this?” to open your mind to learning.🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube.Resources:Join the Guild MembershipMeet us in San Diego! The final quarterly mastermind of 2022 still has tickets available! Become a member to purchase your ticket.Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

Did you know that it is human nature to think of adding things into our lives before we think about subtracting? Like when life gets stressful … we add. Or when work gets too busy - we add. Today we are excited to talk to our guest Leidy Klotz, author of the book “Subtract”. We talk about our instinct to add, and answer the question of “What if we thought about subtracting?” We talk about a huge physical example of subtracting (San Francisco freeway) and a subtraction checklist that we can use to cue ourselves to stop and think about subtracting as well. For example, Do you really need to go to that meeting? Or are you just a passenger? Join Jim and Tyson today as they deep dive into this idea of: “Why do we think of adding before we think of subtracting? And what can we do about it?” Because one of the biggest challenges with subtracting is that it's invisible to your calendar. So what are the benefits to you personally and to your business? Listen in and take notes. 1:11 Meet Leidy Klotz …04:28 Are we built to add? Is it a survival instinct? 06:06 The exercise of removing 5 things from your calendar every week AND the benefits!08:00 How do we stop so that we can  intentionally think about subtracting from our lives?10:16 Even after we do think of subtracting, it can be hard to execute — just like the San Francisco freeway …  here’s why …14:06 What is a checklist for subtraction? And what would be on it? 19:47 What are the recommended standards for when something should be eliminated for business and personal purposes?22:09 What about when you want to do a bunch of different things and you're trying to get it all done? (personal and business) 24:31 Time famine … and what we can do about it Jim’s Hack: Drink a gallon of water a day! Benefits = clear and healthy skin, less headaches and joint aches, plus more!Tysons Tip:  Pick one of the things that you’ve been putting off in your life and start doing it, but FIRST — remove 2 things from your calendar to free up your time to do the thing that you’ve been wanting to do.Guest Tip: If you like to read books, read anything by Eduardo Galiano because he wrote the best soccer book of all time called “Soccer and Son and Shadow”. Brilliant writer!🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube or show notes here: https://maximumlawyer.com/leidyklotz477/Connect with Leidy:Bio: https://www.leidyklotz.com/about-leidyWebsite: https://www.leidyklotz.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeidyklotzResources:Join the Guild MembershipMeet us in San Diego! The final quarterly mastermind of 2022 still has tickets available! Become a member to purchase your ticket.Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

Have you heard? NEW in 2023 we're adding 1/2 day workshops to every quarterly Guild mastermind!If you watched Jim and Tyson live in the Facebook group yesterday, they announced that we will be kicking things off in the new year with a Video Marketing Workshop to help you create an action plan to start your YouTube channel or improve your current strategies and systems. We've jam packed this 4 hour workshop to cover everything you need to know:Content CreationContent Calendar + IdeasBuilding a Tribe Using VideoStudio Setup EditingYouTube SetupDistributionRepurposing ContentEquipment ListLogisticsMastermind Schedule:Thursday January 19th, 2023 1:00 - 5:00 PM | Video Marketing Workshop6:00 PM | Welcome Dinner for you and a guestFriday January 20th, 20237:30 AM - 5:00 PM | Mastermind Day Member HotseatsView the full mastermind schedule here.Check out the Guild community for legal entrepreneurs here. Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn

When one of your hacks turns into a smashing success … that’s what happened to today’s guest on the podcast. Keith Lee is CMO for a software company called Case Status. Through a phone app or website portal all law firm clients are able to check the status of their cases. Just like online banking.This eliminates roughly 85% of a law firm's inbound phone volume from current clients. With the support of the messaging system, calendaring tasks, reminders, e-signature, and stage levels, clients expectations are set about your firm's work and where everyone is in the process. This is not a case management system, but a client management system that we are talking about in today’s episode. Listen in as Keith goes over the 3 big reasons why you might want to check out Case Status to manage your clients. 01:18 Keith’s journey which a super weird non-traditional, legal career path03:08 Keith’s insights on what mistakes most legal tech vendors make when dealing with law firms and lawyers04:35 Making a career change …  15:06 What is Case Status? And how can it help lawyers? 21:14 What integrations come with Case Status  …Jim’s Hack: This week is a mindset shift from short patient’s levels, where if something doesn’t work you quickly jump over to the next thing, TO instead of jumping around — why not try staying the  course and see what happens.Tyson’s Tip:  A new website and app called Wombo, that takes words you give it and creates art about those words. It could do some fun social media things. Keith Tips: Check out Naval Ravikant, micro podcast series all about his fundamental strategies to build wealth over a long period of time. Listen to this gem in less than 3 hours! Perfect for any business owner. 🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube.Connect with Kieth Lee:Website TwitterMembershipCase StatusResources:Join the Guild MembershipMeet us in San Diego! The final quarterly mastermind of 2022 still has tickets available! Become a member to purchase your ticket.Subscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn Resources:Join the Guild MembershipSubscribe to the Maximum Lawyer Youtube ChannelFollow us on InstagramJoin the Facebook GroupFollow the Facebook PageFollow us on LinkedIn