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Are you curious about using webinars to attract clients? How do you get started? What's the right path for you and your firm? Paul Yokabitus is our guest this week. Paul is the founder of Cary Estate Planning and Planwell Legal, where he practices Estate Planning law. Paul took what was looking like a disastrous downturn at the start of the pandemic, and turned it into a well-oiled client acquisition machine using webinars and lead-gen advertising. Paul and I discuss how you can use webinars to attract the best possible clients for your firm, and how to get them signed up for your services. Paul details his journey into using webinars, how long it took get it up and running, and his iterative optimization process. We cover reasons why your in-person presentations might not translate correctly for the webinar format. We get into the nuts and bolts of webinars: how to engage with the audience, how to time your webinars, how to experiment with format and ads, and perfecting your CTAs at the end. We even get into differentiation tactics that you can separate these all leads into. These are very widely applicable tips that can be used for all kinds of practice areas, and I think you'll be really interested in hearing them.    Find Paul's work at https://www.caryestateplanning.com https://www.planwell.legal https://www.discoverylegalmarketing.com Follow Paul on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulyokabitus and Twitter at https://twitter.com/YokabitusLaw ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

Is your office culture non-existent in a post-pandemic world? Are you struggling with a hybrid, virtual and in-person, work arrangement? How do you create a working environment that suits the new normal? I think most of our listeners understand that the new expectation for many workers in the U.S. is a higher level of work flexibility, in both time and location. It's your job, and your prerogative as a business owner, to determine how much flexibility you can offer and what setup matches your firm's values and culture. Our guest this week is Anthony Davies, Chief Revenue Officer at Forrest Solutions, where he follows outsourcing and staffing trends in the legal field, and consults on office processes and staffing arrangements for the modern law firm. Anthony gives us some macro trends he's seeing, and some real-life examples that Forrest Solutions is implementing in larger firms. We discuss a wide range of office and staffing issues facing today's legal industry. We really focus on how to reimagine and restructure the workspace to fit the new flexible workweek, and how to do it in offices built for traditional 5-day workweeks. We discuss in-office incentives and perks, and ways to arrange and schedule the office to make it inviting and productive for your employees. In the end, this is about service to your staff, which ultimately serves your clients well too. Find Anthony and Forrest Solutions at https://www.forrestsolutions.com/law-firms/ ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

We're on a brief break this week after the holidays, but we still want to give you something to think about (or revisit) in the mean time, especially if you missed it the first time around. Check out our chat with Jonathan Stark about how to ditch the billable hour pricing format. What could your business be like if you were no longer chained to the billable hour? Do you think your business model is even feasible without the billable hour? Does making the leap away from hourly billing sound terrifying? Stupid? Suicidal? Jonathan Stark is a former software developer who is on a mission to rid the world of hourly billing. He wrote Hourly Billing Is Nuts, hosts of the Ditching Hourly podcast, and writes a daily newsletter on pricing for independent professionals. We've talked about the importance of being an expert, and how it's less risky than being a generalist, and we expand on that this week, and how offering fixed prices positions you as the expert who's seen this before.  This helps you differentiate yourself and your work, and avoid a race to be the cheapest option to a client.  We'll also talk about the three important questions you need to every new potential clients to answer  Why this?  Why now?  Why me? This only scratches the surface of our discussion - I'm a big fan of Jonathan's work and I really hope you stay with us til the end - this chat could literally change the way you run your business. Take Jonathan's free six-day email bootcamp here: https://jonathanstark.com/vpb and get on his mailing list. I am! Follow Jonathan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonathanstark FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using Text Expander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander  

Is your sales process structured? Do you even have a sales process? How can a sales process affect your overall client service? Allison Williams of Law Firm Mentor joins us this week to discuss just that. Law Firm Mentor provides coaching services for solo and small law firms, and one of her specialties is perfecting their sales process. We've talked before about the importance of this process, and I love how Allison breaks it down in two parts: intake then consultation. We discuss where to start training intake staff and handing off those responsibilities. Again, it comes down to process. Then once you get to the consultation, it's about understanding the underlying issue your client needs solving, and ultimately, how you'll deliver the results they need. What I want you to walk away with is an understanding of how having a structured sales process leads to a better relationship with your clients. It helps set the expectations and norms, endears you to the client, lets you really understand their true needs, and sets you up as the expert. Get Law Firm Mentor's free "Getting Prospects to Yes" series at https://www.lawfirmmentor.net/getting-prospects-to-yes. Find Allison on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisoncwilliams and Twitter at https://twitter.com/law_firm_mentor. ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

As a small attorney, you know how important Google is to your business. But you might not realize that your Google My Business profile - the info that pops up when someone googles or searches for your firm in Maps - might be your firm's real key differentiator between you and your competitors. This week, I'm joined by Paul Cashman and Wes Lungwitz of Civille, a legal website, SEO and analytics firm with a specialty in Google My Business.  Paul and Wes detail not just the basics you need to consider when setting up your Google My Business profile, but how you need to maintain it.  Client reviews, Q&As, content posting, and how to make sure your firm is showing up first and foremost in Google and Maps searches. This is super valuable info, and all things you can do easily and inexpensively as part of your regular digital and SEO work. Find out more about Civille's services at https://getciville.com/ and find their GMB white paper here: https://getciville.com/law-firm-google-my-business-guidebook/ ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

What would happen if your firm's network, your email, your social accounts or your client files got hacked? How devastating could it be to your company? More importantly, what could you be doing now to protect your data and your business? Our guest this week is Tom Lambotte, of Boba Guard Security, who joins us to discuss preventative measures lawyers should be taking to protect the client experience digitally. Your digital security IS reputation management in today's world, and a breach affects not just your clients, but also your colleagues, your vendors, and even your competitors. We discuss multi-layered approaches and straightforward, affordable strategies that firms can take across their digital footprint to make sure you're not one of the 29% of firms who experience a breach. Find out more about Boba Guard at  https://www.bobaguard.com/ and find Tom on LinkedIn at  http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomlambotte and Twitter at https://twitter.com/legalmacit. ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

Do you find yourself slogging through the days and weeks, buried in work? Are you frustrated at your current growth? Is your company culture simply some version of “Work hard. Bill hours. Make money?” Are you happy with that? Our guest this week is a brilliant entrepreneur, David Heinemeier Hansson. David is the cofounder of Basecamp & HEY, creator of Ruby on Rails, author of “It Doesn’t Have To Be Crazy At Work”, race car driver, and the list goes on. But this conversation is really rooted in lessons from his book and his experience with Basecamp and work culture. We tackle the mindset of modern firms that there just aren't enough hours in the week. You don't need more time. You don't need to work MORE. You need to work better and you need to have a mission. You need to understand why you're truly even doing this work, and at what point you're satisfied. David walks us through his growth strategies and mindsets that led to his success, and lessons from many different companies. If growth is what you want, it doesn't need to happen all at once, or even at a constant rate. Find David at https://dhh.dk/ or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/dhh ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

We're on a brief break this week after the holiday, but we still want to give you something to think about (or revisit) in the mean time, especially if you missed it the first time around. Check out John's take on setting your firm's standards. You have standards and expectations for service in your personal life - shouldn't your firm have standards too? By formalizing these standards, you can ensure great service and communication, and make things easier for clients and within your firm. When we understand our own business models, our processes, and our desired outcomes, then we can create and implement these measurable standards - and they can help you day in, day out. FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055

Is every member of your staff on the same level when it comes to tech proficiency? Is it possible that you actually *losing* efficiency by employing tech? This week, we're joined by Alicia Pierre of Legally Techie, who specializes in legal-focused tech training. We want to get a lot out of our tech tools, but a lack of competence and a lack of training can lead to wasted time and wasted effort. There are so many built-in features that firms simply overlook. And on the other hand, firms can also fall prey to duplicating tech. Alicia and I discuss how to avoid these pitfalls with tech training. We discuss how to assess your firm's need for tech training, how to structure and start that training, templates and naming conventions for files, and even time management techniques for using your tech. Ultimately, we shouldn't let the tail wag the dog where new tech is concerned, and we need to have our goals, our training, and our processes aligned before we employ tech in our workflows. Find out more about Legally Techie at https://academy.legallytechie.com/ and find Alicia on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciapierre/ and Twitter at  https://www.twitter.com/legally_techie/ ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

Do you want to know how to make your job postings pop? How do you weed through a sea of applicants and land that dream employee? How do we make the hiring process better and easier for law firms? Our guest this week is Molly McGrath of Hiring & Empowering Solutions. For nearly 25 years, she's coached and consulted law firms to get the best results from their hiring efforts. Molly gives us a ridiculous number of tips and tricks to level up your hiring & interviewing game. Seriously, it might be a record for a Five Star Counsel episode. We cover how to approach the job posting itself, what information to put out there, how to set expectations on the interview process, and ultimately how to attract the ideal new employee for your firm. Learn more about Hiring and Empowering at https://hiringandempowering.com/ and find Molly on Twitter at https://twitter.com/HireAndEmpower and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-hallmcgrath/ ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

We're on a brief break this week, but we want to give you something to think about (or revisit) in the mean time, especially if you missed it the first time around. Here's John's take on the importance of your firm's values, culture, and standards. Client service should stem from an overarching goal or philosophy. Our firms' values, standards, and ideal culture are the starting points that guide our service. If those are wrong, or undefined, or ignored, then our service will follow. John walks us through the basic ideas, and explains how you can start defining and implementing these concepts in your firm.  FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055

Has tech made traditional legal assistants and secretaries obsolete? Think your firm can slash costs AND improve productivity by letting that support staff go? Not so fast. Law firms are laying off their support staff at alarming rates, thinking that automation is going to improve their service and efficiency. The big problem is, the automation infrastructure isn't really there yet.  My guest this week is Michelle Spencer, the Product Marketing Manager at NetDocuments, a leading document management tool. She's a huge believer in both the power of automation and the value of a great legal assistant. Michelle and I discuss the evolving role of non-lawyers in the law firm. Now, if you've been listening to this show for any length of time, you know we frequently talk about humanizing our use of tech in regards to service.  In this episode, we focus on how traditional legal assistants can still function well with a high lawyers to assistant ratio. How? By both humanizing the tech and automating the human functions. There are still so many client communication and air traffic control tasks that are best suited for a real-life human assistant, and we'll explain why.   Learn more about NetDocuments at https://www.netdocuments.com/ and find Michelle on Twitter at https://twitter.com/txmischief and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/txmischief/ ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

Is your firm's efficiency still being judged by hours logged? Are your firm's flexibility policies still resulting in micromanagement and long hours? How can we get out of this paradigm of management by clock? Our guest, Jody Thompson, is the founder of CultureRx and creator of the Results-Only Work Environment or ROWE - a management strategy anchored in 100% accountability and 100% autonomy for employees. This is a mindshift in how we work with our employees and how to get the most out of them, where results are all that matter, and you're managing the work, not the people, and not their time.  Jody has a fantastic outlook on how we should measure our employee's success, and why hours worked aren't a badge of honor, especially if they aren't delivering on the company's goals. We discuss ways to start to implement this mindset into your firm and get buy-in from employees by tying the employees to the outcome and purpose of the company.  Find more about ROWE at https://www.gorowe.com/ and Jody on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jodyrowe or LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jody-thompson-48a5827/ ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

How much do you earn every year from referrals? What if you could dramatically increase that number with some simple steps? Our guest this week is Stacey Brown Randall, Referral Ninja Master, and creator of the Referrals Without Asking strategy. Her program is designed to generate referrals without asking, without manipulation or feeling inauthentic. We discuss the finer points of this strategy, and how to make a consistent and easy process for us, our clients, and our referral sources. We define and differentiate terms like "referral" vs "word of mouth buzz" vs "introduction" vs "warm lead" - and why your response to each should be different. Referral clients are vetted, easier to close, and have that transfer of trust from the referral source, so we should put extra effort into maintaining those referral relationships.  Find Stacey at https://www.staceybrownrandall.com/ or LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/staceybrandall ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

Throughout the first year in our podcasting journey, we've learned a lot from our guests, and our core tenets have been honed and adjusted.  We thought we'd take this time to refresh our growing audience on the essentials, and talk about the core concepts of Five Star Counsel that have come into even clearer focus.  We'll discuss our show's goals, our definition of service, how to think about your product, and how to think of your service holistically across your business. We'll also discuss the spectrum of tech and humanity that should drive your service, and the pitfalls and red herrings you need to avoid.  Our service paradigms will to continue to evolve and grow, and we're thrilled to have you along for the ride. We're very excited about our upcoming guests and future episodes. As always, email your thoughts and feedback to john@fivestarcounsel.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander  

Are you fearing a new future where big tech companies push you out of business? Where the Amazon of legal services makes you obsolete? My guest and I are here to tell you to put those fears to bed. Conrad Saam is the founder of Mockingbird Marketing, an agency focused on marketing for the legal industry. He previously spent 6 years running marketing for Avvo, and he really gets the role big tech and automation can and will play in the legal services market. Conrad joins us this week to discuss the future of big tech in the legal space. Since seeing brands like LegalZoom actively enter the legal practice in Arizona, there are some alarm bells going off and lawyers fearing the Amazonification of law, and being made redundant and overpriced. We discuss why these fears are unfounded, and how big tech can actually expand the whole market for legal services. Automated services can make the whole pie bigger, instead of just stealing your slice. We see parallels in the medical and even accounting industries proving just this.  The sky isn't falling, but you may have to embrace new tech and really think about your differentiation tactics and unique value propositions. Find Conrad at https://mockingbird.marketing/ or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ConradSaam ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

Are you ready to bring on new associates? Great! Now, how do you expect those new employees to know and understand your firm's processes, values, and work culture? You can't just throw them in the ocean and assume their law school knowledge will keep them afloat. That is old-school, 1984-law firm stuff, and we have to be better than that. Modern onboarding practices are all about giving new employees direction, but also giving them agency, and letting them come to conclusions and propose solutions themselves. Yes, it's a little more work on your part, but your firm and the employee will be so well-served by it. Defense attorney and friend of the show, Justie Nicol, is back to give us insight into her innovative onboarding processes, and how we can adapt these ideas into our own unique practices. We'll discuss how to approach client service and firm-values training, and how to balance that with the more obvious operational and law-focused lessons. We'll end on a broader focus on your employee's long-term goals, and why we should let those guide the short-term goals we set together. Find Justie at https://colawteam.com or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/justie4justice ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

Is a client going to pay for a service they don't value? Even if they do, are they going to be happy about it? Ed Kless is the Senior Director at Sage Accountants Solutions and host of the Soul of Enterprise podcast. Ed has fantastic takes on pricing and billing for professional services, and we had him on the show this week to discuss the concept of value pricing. Put simply, value pricing is a method of setting your price not based on a multiple of your cost, but based on the client's perceived value of the work. What are they really willing to pay for it? Attorneys can stop setting prices and just hoping a client will go for it. If we base our prices on the perceived value, we're much more likely to land those potential clients, and that they'll be happy to pay us. Find Ed at https://www.edkless.com/ or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/edkless Check out Ed's excellent podcast The Soul of Enterprise here: https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/ ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

Lee Cockerell is a customer service icon, and I was thrilled to have him join our show. Lee served as the Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World Resort for ten years. This means he ran 20 resort hotels with over 24,000 Guest rooms, 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, 5 golf courses, a shopping village & nighttime entertainment complex - pretty much every aspect of the resort you can imagine. Now, Lee clearly isn't an attorney, and his focus has never been in the legal field, but so much of what he does is at the heart of what I preach here: a holistic take on service that involves your clients, your staff, and your executives. We discuss how a *little* something extra can go a long way with your clients, but over-the-top gift giving is a wasteful distraction. We talk about the mistaken idea that customer service is a department. It's not just there to answer problems. It's how we deliver, and limiting it to just problem resolution means that we're doing nothing when everything goes right. Lee's got decades of experience, and an easygoing way of discussing and thinking about integrated service techniques. He understands the true value that service can bring a company and how happy customers make for easier business and bigger bottom lines. All of this can and should be translated to you, and your firm's overall approach to service. Find Lee at https://www.leecockerell.com or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/leecockerell ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander

Does the term "Sales" make you shiver? Are lawyers, law firms, and legal services somehow above a lowly sales process?  Sales is all about need fulfillment, and your clients have needs! That you can fulfill! You're not selling them on something they don't need, you're helping them solve their problem, or move their needle on an important issue.  Steve Fretzin is here to explain why sales isn't, in fact, a four letter word, and why you don't need to play used car salesman. Steve runs Fretzin Inc., where he acts as a “business development therapist,” coaching and training lawyers in modern-day business development skills. On this show, we talk all the time about how systems are key to keeping your firm running smoothly, and the sales, marketing, and biz dev side of your firm is no different. Steve delivers some tactics for approaching and setting up those systems, and some common missteps that he sees his lawyer clients making before they come to him. Steve really wants you to email him your prospecting plan, which he'll review for free (listen around 19:00 in the show)! Email it to steve@fretzin.com Find Steve at https://fretzin.com/ or https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevefretzin/ and the Be That Lawyer podcast at https://fretzin.com/podcast-episodes/ ----- FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using TextExpander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander