Personal Injury Marketing Minute

Allison Williams, founder of The Williams Law Group and author of Crushing Chaos joins the podcast today to discuss some of the major pitfalls lawyers face in their marketing strategies. Most importantly, we discussed the importance of institutionalizing marketing efforts and strategies for repurposing content. Key takeaways from today’s episode include: Figuring out your identity and how it relates to your target audience Creating data driven marketing strategies Developing consistency in your marketing plan Visit Attorney Allison Williams online here https://lawfirmmentor.net/. Or here: https://familylawyersnewjersey.com/about/allison-c-williams/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. Transcript coming shortly.

Most personal injury lawyers get into the profession to make a difference in the lives of those they serve. However, if you aren’t getting outside the office walls, you are missing out on a substantial opportunity to serve in your local community. Chris Munley of Munley Law in Pennsylvania joins us today to discuss how attorneys can take action to make a difference locally. In this episode we discuss: Having the right mindset when it comes to giving Ways to give back through time, money, and making connections Unforeseen benefits of giving back to the community Visit Chris online here: https://munley.com/our-attorneys/james-christopher-munley/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=852K92q2wPc Transcript coming shortly.

As many personal injury attorneys look to grow nationally, many consider building a national practice. However, fierce competition with established law firms in saturated markets makes this a nearly impossible task. However, it can be done with the right angle, vision, and leadership. In today’s episode, Steve Levin of Levin & Perconti joins us to share lessons learned in his development of a personal injury practice that nationally tries both nursing home abuse and birth injury cases. Key takeaways: The importance of niching down to compete in saturated markets Knowing your core values and establishing your law firm’s corporate culture Building your network and your knowledge as pillars to growth Find Attorney Steve Levin online here: https://www.levinperconti.com/attorneys/steven-m-levin/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXhVgauReSQ Transcript coming shortly.

If your law firm’s marketing isn’t memorable, it isn’t effective. But how can you stand out from the crowd when you have dozens of other personal injury firms in your market? Lee Rudin of Rudin Law has built a firm based whose marketing centers around their catch phrase, “Get Rude.” He joins us today to discuss how personal injury firms can leverage their authentic selves to build a memorable brand. In this episode we cover: The importance of grabbing attention as a new law firm How Lee developed the “Get Rude” brand and why it works for him How to recognize if your branding is working Visit Attorney Lee Rudin here: https://www.getrude.com/lee-rudin/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. a

Attorney burnout is wildly common in the legal community. In fact, roughly half of all attorneys – and 78% of legal professionals – experience burnout at some point. Burnout should not be ignored, and should be addressed early on to prevent a ripple effect into your career, family life, and overall well-being. This episode features Rob Levine of Rob Levine Legal Solution and Rob Levine Law, who will delve into the topic of lawyer burnout, offering strategies for coping and prevention. In this episode we discuss: The reasons burnout is so prevalent for personal injury attorneys Ways to quickly identify burnout at the onset Dangers of unaddressed burnout Strategies for nipping burnout in the bud Visit Rob Levine Law here: https://roblevine.com/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cxfcgj75cQ

Across the country, attorneys are seeing a surge in rideshare accident claims. Companies like Uber and Lyft may advertise their $1 million insurance policies, but these cases are rarely straightforward. Insurance carriers aren’t eager to pay out the full amount—and in many serious crashes, that million dollars may not come close to covering the total damages. Fortunately, there are proven strategies attorneys can use to pursue additional compensation for their clients or their families. I recently attended the Atlas Lawyers Practice Management and Legal Marketing Seminar, where attorney Katie Nealon of Munley Law shared her insights on overcoming these challenges and securing results that go beyond the basic policy limits. Katie joins us today to discuss: Her journey at the onset of rideshare law Challenges for clients when their damages exceed the initial coverage limit How to develop legal strategies to hold all parties accountable and get more money for clients Visit Katie Nealon here: https://munley.com/our-attorneys/katie-nealon/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39aJPXY0ukE   Transcript coming soon.

Sometimes you just have to take a break from personal injury law and talk about treasure hunting. In this episode, we interview Lieutenant Commander and Navy JAG, Jordan Foley about maritime treasure law. Why? Because I didn’t know anything about it and wanted to hit “record” while I learned. During this conversation, we take a “deep dive” into some of the misconceptions surrounding treasure law and some of the challenging legal arguments that come up during international treasure disputes. Visit Jordan online here: https://www.usni.org/people/jordan-foley. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eQ0BZ0M1V4 Transcript: Lindsey: Welcome to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute, where we quickly cover the hot topics in the legal marketing world. I’m your host, Lindsey Busfield. Well, I should amend my opening spiel. We usually cover the hot topics in the legal marketing world, but sometimes we’re just going to talk about whatever I want to. I recently taught a CLE at the Maryland State Bar Association, and while I was there, I met Lieutenant Commander in Navy JAG, Jordan Foley. While he currently serves as the Department of Defense Fellow to Senator Mazie K. Hirono in Hawaii, he has a special background in naval warfare and a deep understanding of maritime treasure law. Knowing absolutely nothing about this myself, I wanted to take the opportunity to learn more about treasure law and invite you listeners to join me on this educational journey. Thank you so much for joining us today, Jordan.   JJ Foley: Absolutely. Thanks, Lindsey, for having me, and it was great meeting you in Ocean City, and I was glad we could talk a little A little bit.   Lindsey: And as I like to say, nerd out about treasure law. So that was fun. I mean, who doesn’t love treasure law as kids? You know, we are taught to play pirates and you steal the treasure. My kids do this on their play set. You know, it’s just kind of built into your childhood and development as a natural curiosity. So tell us a bit about your background and how you got involved in treasure law.   JJ Foley: Absolutely. I’ll actually start with saying knowing more about treasure law takes some of the romance out of it, which we’ll get into later. But it is a fun topic. But so, you know, as you stated, I’m an active duty Navy judge advocate. I started off my naval career as a submarine officer. So I got ship driving experience and deployment experience there. And they got selected for a Navy program where they sent me to law school and I became a Navy JAG through that. So I have a bit of a mix. I’m about 15 years into my career and half of it was spent on submarines and now about half of it as a judge advocate. And a lot of what I’ve focused on over the years has been. Naval warfare and legal analysis. So whether that is applying law to sea to board deploy missions, or sometimes weapons reviews, as I was doing at the Pentagon most recently before I joined Senator Verona’s office as a defense fellow, a lot of it’s been bridging the gap between my naval warfare experience and the legal and policy world.   Lindsey: And a lot of this comes with your understanding of international law, treaties, and working with our partners and allies, and sometimes even teaching and providing legal support for our partners and allies. So I’ve had this broad experience, and as one does in the beautiful profession of naval law and such, you find your interest areas, and mine became very quickly, for a lot of reasons you mentioned, treasure law, because it’s cool and it’s fun, and it’s almost a bit of a hobby for me, too. But in the industry, in the private sector, it is an area that you have some specialized attorneys. He’s in maritime and admiralty, and I like to see myself as maybe extra specialized with admiralty and maritime law, as focused in the Navy, but it doesn’t stop me from nerding out, as we said, about things like treasure law. So let’s start with kind of a broad focus here. What exactly is maritime treasure law, and how does it differ from other types of maritime or property law?   JJ Foley: So interestingly enough, it specifically deals with ownership, salvage rights, protection of valuables covered from shipwrecks, and submerged cultural heritage. So it’s unlike broader maritime law. That’s going to cover your shipping, your navigation, commerce. Treasure law focuses on the intersection of property rights, historic preservation, and salvage operations. So you actually find an interesting niche here, and it’s very complex in a lot of ways. So for international lawyers out there, it’s great. For a hypothetical question on… Law school exam, I’d absolutely throw one on there if I was teaching international law. But with treasurer laws, involves just complex international treaties and competing claims from governments, private salvers, and descendants of original owners.   Lindsey: You know, it’s making it tightly and highly specialized, nuanced area with just storylines galore. So that’s really how it differentiates itself. And anyone who dives into it, pun intended, too, can really see where the romance we spoke of comes from with treasurer law. And you have so many different parties that are involved in this, as you mentioned, you know, you have historic preservation, you have people who are going after and finding the treasure and having that excitement and kind of that, and an investment in going down and finding this as well as the country of origin. And there, I mean, it just, as you said, makes it so incredibly complex. And since it is complex, clearly, there are probably some big misconceptions out out there that have to do with this when somebody is kind of taking a top-level glance at this case. So what are some of the biggest misconceptions that people have about treasure hunting and maybe the legality surrounding it?   JJ Foley: I do love, Todd, because this is where my wife doesn’t let me tell my daughters about the nuances here because she doesn’t want me to take away the whimsy. But a big one is there’s not really finders keepers. I think that’s a big one. So one major misconception is that anyone who finds a shipwreck or treasure automatically owns it. But in reality, the ownership and salvage rights are subject to these treaties, national laws, historic claims that we talked about. So it can get kind of messy. So I would say that’s definitely one of them that we look at as saying, hey, you found it, it’s yours. No, actually, it’s contrary to what you believe in a lot of ways. Another one is that, you know, sunken warships are still sovereign territory. Warships can be centuries old and remain the property of that. But thanks to sovereign immunity, which is a concept that I work with pretty extensively. So that means if you find a Spanish galleon or something from the 1700s, it may still legally belong to Spain. So Duncan worships are still sovereign territory, which is a foundation that we practice as a Navy and beyond. But there’s also a treaty for all this stuff, I guess. UNESCO, a convention on the protection of underwater cultural heritage, talks a lot about this. I think I mentioned earlier, you know, there’s some protectionism in it. And there is a treaty. We think about this stuff. People think about this stuff. The UN thinks about it. And then I would say the other one where people think like after a long period of time, like how long do you got to wait for this to just expire, right? It’s time doesn’t always expire on your ship. So you think that after like 200 years, all bets are off. But we still have heirs to shipping companies that have successfully claimed cargo centuries later after. It was lost. So I think those are a lot of the ones.   Lindsey: And then, you know, one movie I tend to sometimes, you know, ruin for people is The Goonies. I know my child would.   JJ Foley: So, you know, the kids find the one-eyed Willie’s treasure and, you know, it’s going to, you know, they found the loot, right? But in reality, it would raise serious questions. So it’s like, you know, was the treasure bandit? Who owns the ship? Was it a protected heritage zone? But, you know, it’s these movies and I think the whimsy around finding treasure that make it in so many popular films. But I tend to enjoy picking apart some of the ones. And people always say, like, you know, as a jag, what do you think about A Few Good Men? And it’s like, well, yeah, I mean, think it’s a great movie. was a great recruiting tool for us. And then anybody who practices in a courtroom will tell you what was on and off. But I think, you know, the reason why there’s so many shows, Jag being one of them, one of the most popular ones, I would say, you know, for a stretch there in the 90s, is. That the courtroom provides drama. And then this treasure law, a component of it too, treasure, you know, provides the whimsy and the interest. So I think, you know, marrying the two together, it’s interesting.   Lindsey: I don’t know if we’ll ever, Lindsey, don’t know if we’ll ever see a treasure law sitcom movie or anything that’s really deep into the practice. But if Hollywood comes knocking, I’d be happy to help them write that script. And I think it would be a great script because it is, it is complicated. And if you have somebody who is an heir to a treasure that was lost, let’s say 200 years ago, they might not even know it exists. If they know it exists, they don’t have the resources to go get it. And then you have somebody else who has invested in the resources, had a hunch that something might be down there and has gone and recovered this. So you would think that part of that claim would go to the person who recovered it, but because without their effort, that recovery never would have happened. And clearly there are, there’s a lot of interest in this and government. And some private companies and

  When it comes to settlement strategy, some law firms (and clients) prefer to get as much as they can as quickly as they can – maybe leaving money on the table for the sake of time. Other law firms would rather hold out for larger figures, especially on the bigger cases. GGL law is a litigation-focused PI firm that takes a unique approach. They set a value to every case that comes through the door…and they hold to it. From day one, they prepare to litigate and fight for the maximum value. This ensures that they are doing right by their clients and increasing revenue for the firm, all while building their reputation in their community. In this episode, we cover: How internal expectations are set – and consequences when expectations aren’t met. Setting and fighting for the maximum value for cases. Reinvesting in employees to avoid burnout. Visit Lawrence LeBrocq online here https://ggllawyers.com/our-attorneys/lawrence-a-lebrocq-esq/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/.   https://youtu.be/L-0hO6Gt9i8 Transcript coming soon.  

So many entrepreneurs get stuck in the mindset that profit is what is leftover from business expenses. But this tends to leave business owners as the last ones getting paid – even though they are the ones accepting all of the risk and responsibility. However, there are long-term ramifications of this mindset. When lawyers are paying themselves last, they risk damaging their emotional health, home relationships, and general wellbeing. As personal financial stress piles up, they are less likely to serve their clients or business well, damaging the long term sustainability of their practices. Ben Hockema joins today to discuss: The risks of lawyers paying themselves last How to implement the “Profit First” business model How to balance paying yourself while still fueling your business Visit Ben online here: https://www.illuminatewm.com/. Buy “Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz here: https://amzn.to/46XmQ3Y. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/.

In this episode of Personal Injury Marketing Minute, we explore the motivations and ethical considerations behind personal injury law – getting at the heart of why many lawyers enter this legal sector. Ryan Perdue and Joel Simon, both former defense attorneys for oil companies, share their journey from defending corporations to representing injured contractors. Inspired by their firsthand experiences with the vulnerabilities faced by oil industry workers, they discuss: Transitioning from defense work to plaintiff advocacy Systemic changes needed for better worker protection Battling potential conflict of interest issues when working opposite former employers The challenges of practicing across multiple states with different personal injury laws Visit Simon Perdue Law online here: https://www.simonperduelaw.com/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/.

This episode of the Personal Injury Marketing Minute highlights a critical issue faced by personal injury clients: managing immediate financial burdens while awaiting settlement payouts. Traditional funding options, such as personal loans and settlement advancement loans, often prove inaccessible or predatory, adding stress to an already difficult situation. In response to this challenge, the Milestone Foundation has emerged as a nonprofit alternative, providing pre-settlement funding that aims to protect clients from exploitative practices. Rachel McCarthy from the Milestone Foundation joins us to share the organization’s innovative model and its mission to address the financial inequities within the legal system. She explains the foundation’s non-recourse settlement advancement model, which sets it apart from traditional funding methods, and its low, simple interest structure designed to offer clients a fair and transparent solution during their time of need. Visit The Milestone Foundation online here: https://themilestonefoundation.org/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. https://youtu.be/kpS4dNg3XfY Transcript: Welcome to the personal injury marketing minute, where we quickly cover the hot topics in the legal marketing world. One of the biggest challenges that clients face after a personal injury accident is how do I pay the bills that I have right now with a good personal injury lawyer? They know the settlement is coming and it will cover things on the backend, but what about today? There are options for personal loans, but it can be tough to qualify. Then there are settlement advancement loans, but those can be insanely predatory and will eat away a client settlement. Fortunately, a nonprofit settlement funding foundation is now providing an alternative for settlement advancement. Rachel McCarthy: from the milestone foundation joins us today to discuss the foundation’s groundbreaking mission, the inspiration behind its creation. and the critical need for a non-profit alternative to traditional funding methods. Thank you so much for joining us today, Rachel.   Rachel McCarthy: Thanks, Lindsey. I’m happy to be here.   Lindsey: Well, could you give us a brief overview of the Milestone Foundation and its mission?   Rachel McCarthy: Absolutely. So the Milestone Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and we exist to help plaintiffs who are having trouble covering their basic living expenses while they are pursuing justice. So most of the families and individuals, we provide financial assistance to help them cover basic living expenses like housing or vehicle or utilities, groceries, while they are going through the duration of their personal injury lawsuit.   Lindsey: Well, what inspired the creation of the Milestone Foundation as a non-profit pre-settlement funding option?   Rachel McCarthy: So our founder, John Baer, was a settlement planner, and he… He would work with families who were going to be receiving a settlement, figuring out the financial plan for these folks once they have their settlement funds. And he kept noticing that plaintiffs would owe a huge, a significant portion of their settlement to these for-profit lending companies. And he thought there has to be an alternative for these folks, and there wasn’t. There was no alternative. So his wife, Amy, and him decided to start a non-profit model that would do pre-settlement funding, so advancing a small amount of funding on the settlement, and do it as a non-profit. So not looking to make money, but just looking to help people bridge the gap and then grow the work that we do as much as we can.   Lindsey: And that is huge. mean, A, to acknowledge that need, and then to do something about it, that speaks volumes about- about where they are in terms of wanting to actually help their clients. As opposed to just profit from working the cases. And that is incredibly admirable. And I mean, there are other options out there, but they can be predatory or they can be difficult to qualify for. And it leaves a bulk of the clients who are just trying to get by in a really bad financial situation on top of being in a difficult physical situation as a result of their injury.   Rachel McCarthy: Yeah, we always say it’s like insult to injury, really, truly, because, you know, most people these days are living paycheck to paycheck or you might not have a substantial savings. And if something happens to you, like some kind of catastrophic accident or a car accident or, you know, a medical device accident, injury, you don’t have a pool of savings or you don’t have a support system that can get you through. You know, litigation can take years or even even if it’s just for. Six months, you still have to pay your bills. You still have to pay your rent or your mortgage. And where is that going to come from? It’s like you might know that you’re going to be getting $1 million, $2 million, $500,000 down the line, but that doesn’t help you today. And so that’s where these people get really stuck.   Lindsey: And so this model is just so different from everything else that’s out there. So walk me through how this advancement model works and how it is different from the other funding models that are out there.   Rachel McCarthy: Sure. So the Milestone Foundation provides settlements, advances on settlements at 10% simple interest. So what that means is simple interest is calculated only on the principal amount that you’re advanced. If you take out a $10,000 advance from us and it takes you a year to pay it back, the interest that would accrue is just 10% simple interest. So it’s $1,000. A lot of the for-profit companies in the industry… They charge much higher interest than that, and also they do so in a way that compounds. So the difference with compounding interest is that it’s calculated on the principal plus any interest already earned. So it could compound monthly, it could compound quarterly, biannually. Everyone has a different model. And when you take that into consideration and the interest rates that they’re doing that at, we’ve seen people owing an interest of 49% at the end of the year on what they’ve been advanced. It’s really egregious. And the reason why it can be that way is because the industry is really not regulated. It’s not federally regulated. Certain states are more specific with rules or restrictions or guidelines around this. But for the most part, the type of lending is called non-recourse. So that means that if you don’t recover, if you don’t, in these cases, if you don’t receive a settlement, if your case doesn’t, you know, you don’t win. Or maybe you received a settlement, but it’s much smaller than what you were advanced, then you don’t have to pay it back. So if we fund a plaintiff who is struggling to make ends meet and their attorney feel like it’s a great case and in the end something happens and it doesn’t work out, we’re out that money. And so the fact that it’s that high risk, it justifies the for-profit lenders to charge such high interest because they need to cover that. And so that’s one of the things that’s great about us, but also tricky is because we don’t charge those high interest rates because we’re not trying to turn a profit. But then if we end up giving out a lot of money and we don’t get it back since we’re a non-profit, it just limits how much more we can give out.   Lindsey: Right. And I’m sure that as a non-profit, you’re looking for other ways to offset that risk. Looking for grants and other ways that support, financially support your foundation. And since it is risky, are there any limits on how much an applicant can borrow or what expenses the loan can be used for?   Rachel McCarthy: Yes. So the Milestone Foundation is a little more strict in what we will fund, given what I said, that we don’t have, we don’t charge a lot of interest. We don’t have a big cushion. So we are more reserved in what we will fund. We do not typically fund more than $25,000. And I would say our sweet spot is around $6,000 is the average advance that we give. It’s really just intended to be a bridge, a bridge gap to help them get to their settlement. And we encourage people to not take much more than they need, you know, and that’s another thing that makes us different than the other companies. They may say, yeah, take whatever, take, you know, take $100,000 to them. It doesn’t, it does no skin off their back. Because they’re just growing interest on that. And so the more you take, the more they’ll make. So we really work with families and plaintiffs to try to figure out what they think they need. And we will only provide for basic living expenses. So housing, transportation, child care, support, groceries, utility bills, those things.   Lindsey: And that makes a lot of sense. Because no, you don’t want to be bridging the gap and then having somebody go out and get like a new handbag that’s, you know, $3,000. Right. Exactly. So that’s really not what it’s used for.   Rachel McCarthy: Yeah.   Lindsey: And so with this, you know, what other preventative measures do you put in place to make sure that your borrowers are actually going to win their case? How do you protect yourselves with that?   Rachel McCarthy: I mean, there’s not much we can do. know, part of consumer litigation funding is you’re not taking an interest in the case or you don’t have any say or influence over how the case pans out. So really, we rely heavily on our network of trial lawyers to send us plaintiffs in cases that they feel are pretty strong. And so we sort of think of that as our first level of vetting, I guess, is we really want trial lawyers who recommend the Milestone Foundation to their plaintiffs to understand how we operate and how we’re different. And then to send us cases that they feel like there’s a good likelihood that this person will recover and that you will get your advan

On this episode of the “Personal Injury Marketing Minute,” the spotlight is on how to make PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns and landing pages click with the right audience. While PPC campaigns can sometimes feel like a tough nut to crack in crowded markets, they can be a game-changer for the right law firm—if they’re done the right way. Mary Blackiston joins the conversation to share her tips, tricks, and personal experiences in creating PPC ads and landing pages that actually convert. In this episode, we cover: How PPC ads and landing pages work together Data to look at when creating language for PPC ads and Worst PPC/Landing Pages Mistakes Visit Mary online here: www.thryvedigitalmarketing.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/marybblackiston/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. https://youtu.be/GxvgwMLWUmg Transcript: Lindsey: Welcome to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute, where we quickly cover the hot topics in the legal marketing world. Traditionally, we steer clear of talking about PPC campaigns. For many attorneys in saturated markets, PPC campaigns haven’t produced a great ROI. However, they can be incredibly useful for the right firms, but only if they’re done right. So today, we’re going to take a deep dive into the art of creating PPC ads and corresponding landing pages that convert. Mary: joins us today. to discuss her approach to creating PPC ad language and landing pages that are backed by research and data, increasing conversions based on the user. Thank you so much for joining us today.   Mary: Thank you for having me.   Lindsey: Well, tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into marketing.   Mary: Yeah, so I started working in marketing about 8.8 and a half years ago now. I started working as a content marketer at a digital agency, and I stayed there for about four years. While I was there, started to kind of dip my toes into copywriting, and that’s when I realized, hey, this is a lot of fun. I really like doing this, but I didn’t really get into it until I broke off to do my own thing. So that was about four and a half years ago that I, you know, became freelance, and I started to Basically to learn everything I possibly could about copywriting. I went through copy school, which I’m not sure if you’ll are familiar with that, but basically the most comprehensive copywriting training on the internet today. Got certified in a bunch of their courses, read as much as I could about marketing and psychology and copywriting. And yeah, they just started putting everything into practice, working with clients. Over the last two years, I started working more and more with law firms in particular, and that work felt really meaningful to me. I really enjoyed it, and I felt like I was making a positive impact by helping those firms. So that’s why I decided to specialize in legal marketing.   Lindsey: And so how did you end up working with PPC ads and landing pages for PPC ads?   Mary: Yeah, so I had one client in particular that we worked on a Google ads campaign for him, and we got some… Amazing results. And I felt like, you know what, there’s, as I looked at more and more PC campaigns, I was like, there’s a lot that I can do to help optimize these campaigns to help these firms bring in more qualified leads. And we can talk about that a little bit more later, some of the biggest mistakes I see. But yeah, I saw a lot of room for opportunity there. And it’s something I really enjoy doing is kind of digging through that data and, you know, figuring out, okay, what can we do to bring in not only more clicks, but more, you know, qualified leads. And yeah.   Lindsey: And PPC is so complicated. And you’re right, there are so many things that can go wrong with it. And there are some people who are really great with the technical aspects of it. There are people who can be great with the written content pieces of it. But before we get into too much of the weeds, let’s start with kind of an overview. So for those of our listeners who have never used PPC, How is it set up? So how is a PPC ad written? And where does a user go? How do they navigate to the landing page? Can you walk us through that process?   Mary: Yeah, so when someone searches for something on Google, you know, there’s some ads that pop up, and then the ad takes them to a specific landing page. The goal is for you want the ad in the landing page to feel, you know, kind of like a seamless experience, meaning the message and the tone should match people when they land on the page, should be not really any surprises. So if the ad, for example, says like injured in a car accident, get a free legal consultation, then the landing page should continue that conversation, not suddenly talk about unrelated services. So I see a lot of firms that like maybe actually have an ad for one thing, but then they take people to their homepage or something that’s unrelated to what. People are searching for, or they, you know, their ads are showing for services that they don’t offer. So this is just a complete waste of your ad budget. So, you know, you want, that’s why it’s so important to either have more, more targeted keyword type, like phrase or exact match, or add a lot of negative keywords to your campaign to make sure that’s not showing up for, you know, for those keywords.   Lindsey: And so kind of, I want to, I want to jump to another question that I had in mind, but how much control do you have over the language that appears in the campaign language versus how much does Google change the language after you’ve said it?   Mary: Well, when I first write the ad copy, like the headlines and the descriptions, I write the ad copy and then Google tests different combinations to determine the best placement of the copy, you know, depending on what people are searching for. So that said, I normally prefer. To pin headlines, because I found that that can lead to the best results. Google doesn’t really like it because Google likes to have control over your campaign. But pinning your headlines gives you more control over how that appears and allows you to attract like a more targeted audience. So for example, like with one of my clients, this client helps women who have been harassed by their landlords, we noticed that a few unqualified leads have been trickling in. So for some reason, we’ve been getting leads that had nothing to do with what he offers. So rather than let Google mix and match our ad copy, I suggested that we pin the headline Stop Housing Harassment. So that would appear first in the ad and kind of essentially help pre-qualify leads. So my thinking was, okay, it might help, it might decrease our CTR, but it would increase our conversion rate and bring in higher quality leads. So I was right. Click-through rate dropped from 14.29% to 4.26%. And then our conversion rate for that ad went up from 7.87% to 19.36%. And then most importantly, the lead quality improved. So it’s all just from hitting the headlines. But then the funny thing was that our quality score, which is like what Google says, if your ads are poor or good, and it stayed poor, presumably because we weren’t listening to Google’s recommendations, but the ad actually performed better. So it goes to show, don’t pay too much attention to the quality score. At the end of the day, it’s not a very important metric.   Lindsey: Right, because what Google wants is to make money.   Mary: They want people to be clicking on that ad.   Lindsey: And their metric for success is how many clicks is this ad generating? And it’s not necessarily, it doesn’t have the data to show, you know, what is the… Lead quality at the end of this and how qualified are the leads that are coming in? So they’re using the only metric they have. And of course, it’s going to be poor, but you want to be targeting the right types of clients. And so this starts with doing research on the clients that you’re trying to target. And that’s one of the things that I really appreciate about your method. So let’s dig into your PPC campaign development a little bit. What research do you conduct when you’re hashing out the language for the PPC ads themselves?   Mary: Yeah, so I start every project with the discovery phase and the voice of client research. So first, I hop on one or two 60-minute messaging intensive calls. That’s what I call them with my clients. That’s where I ask a series of questions to find out more about their goals, their firm, their unique differentiators, what is their story, like the why behind what they do, the different services that they offer, and their target audience. ahead ahead and if Bye. Then if possible, I’ll also like to speak with the intake specialist or two, since they speak a lot with the ideal client. I also ask my client to send over any research and data from the last year, if they’ve been running any PPC campaigns. So that could include intake call recordings or transcripts, particularly if they can be anonymized. Anonymize is great. Email exchanges with clients, and again, if those can be removing any identifying information, testimonials, conversion data, or any data on lead quality, website analytics, like that sort of thing. And then from there, I do my own research, and that’s the voice of client research. So reviewing all the research that my client provided me with. Also, I’m interviewing three to five of my clients’ clients, sending a survey to their email list if they have one, checking out forums or like Reddit or Facebook groups where their ideal client hangs out. To see what questions they’re asking, the words that they use, looking at the language and all of that. And then I analyze the research and look for any trends and pull everything together into comprehensive messaging docs. And that outlines basically the, like who the ideal client is, and the solution that my client is offering. So, yeah, it

Levin & Perconti is a leading personal injury law firm based in Chicago. Joining us today is managing partner Margaret Battersby Black. Margaret is an award-winning attorney who has obtained many large verdicts and settlements including record ones for her clients especially in the areas of nursing home and medical malpractice cases at Levin & Perconti. Margaret is committed to the advancement of women in the legal profession and serves as a mentor to law students and younger lawyers. In 2023 she was bestowed the “Carole K. Bellows Women of Influence” award which honors those who are advocates for action addressing women’s issues and promote involvement by women in the legal community at all levels. Additionally, Margaret will be  installed  as the 3rd Vice President of ITLA, ascending to the presidency in 2028 as the organization’s 75th president. She will become the 4th woman president in the organization’s history. Today, she’s going to talk with us about what it’s like being both a personal injury attorney and a mom with two young kids. Visit Margaret online here: https://www.levinperconti.com/attorneys/margaret-p-battersby-black/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. Transcription: Lindsey: Welcome to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute, where we quickly cover the hot topics in the legal marketing world. I’m your host, Lindsey Busfield. Every year, more and more women have been joining the legal profession. According to the ABA, women now comprise 41% of all lawyers in the United States. With women now making up over 56% of all law school students, this trend is only expected to escalate. But women face some hurdles in their careers that men simply don’t, at least not to the same degree. This is especially true when it comes to balancing motherhood and a high-pressure career. To be clear, many male lawyers are amazing fathers who are actively engaged in their kids’ lives, and y’all deserve support and praise too. But as women continue to join the legal profession in droves, it is important to be mindful of the challenges and opportunities to provide support as we push forward in our path to legal excellence. Margaret:, an award-winning… Attorney from Levin & Perconti joins us today to discuss life as a personal injury attorney and a mom with two young children. In 2023, she was bestowed the Carol K. Bellows Women of Influence Award, which honors those who advocate for women’s issues and promote women’s involvement in the legal community. Thank you so much for joining us today.   Margaret: Thanks, Lindsey. I’m glad to be here.   Lindsey: Well, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started in your legal career.   Margaret: Sure. So I’ve actually been working in my legal career, and this is now my 18th year, I think, 17th year as a lawyer. But I actually started with this firm as a law clerk back in 2006. And so backing up a little bit, I grew up in Michigan. I come from a family of lawyers and judges, and according to my parents, I always had a sense of fairness and justice. And so I think that was probably a challenge for my parents, but they understood that maybe it meant that I had some spirit that was destined to, you know, take me to into the field of law. And so I did, actually, law was not my first career. I went to the University of Michigan, had the great fortune of getting into their undergrad business school, and there were a lot of opportunities for me coming out of undergrad to move to Chicago and work at a financial firm. So I did that for several years. I liked it. I had great opportunities, but I did realize that I probably wasn’t meant to sit at a desk in crunch numbers. And the idea of law school was always in the back of my mind. My dad had suggested that I take some time off and work. Work, just make myself distinguishable in the legal marketplace for when I would come out of law school. And so I worked for three years for JPMorgan Chase in Chicago, and then started law school. When I started, I knew I wasn’t going to become a corporate lawyer or do big law, or I knew I wanted to be a trial lawyer. I knew I wanted to be in front of people. I knew I wanted to help people. I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be a prosecutor or, you know, criminal defense lawyer. And so I had the great fortune of having a conversation in December of 2005 with one of my dad’s best friends from law school, who knew Steve Levin of Levin & Perconti, where I now work. And he said, you know, reach out to him if you’re interested in something for the summer. You know, he, you know, frequently will hire law clerks. So I. Reached out. I got an interview, which at the time, apparently I was highly impressive to Steve because I brought a paper copy of my resume and also sent an electronic one in advance. And back in 2006, don’t know, maybe many people weren’t doing that. So he hired me, funny enough, because we’re doing a podcast right now. He hired me way back when legal blogging was just kind of taking off. And he had all these great ideas. He’s a really innovative marketer in the personal injury space, but he could not execute them. And so he hired me to learn how to blog and to just start blogging about different topics. So that was kind of towards the end of my first year in law school. And I liked working with him. They needed a full-time law clerk. So I stayed on for the summer. on for the And I think that summer is when I knew that personal injury was probably going to be the right move for me, because I was able to work that summer on a trial that Steve Levin and Mike Bonamart, my current partner, were working on that involved a family, two younger, I’ll say, 20-something daughters who had lost their mom due to neglect in a nursing home. And just kind of some personal background, when I was 23, I lost my mom in a car accident. And so I was able to relate to what it’s like to be in your 20s and maybe not have gone through some of the milestones with your mom that you were expecting or be able to learn from your mom some of the things that you need to know to become a mom and as you age. So Steve… And appropriately and softly asked if that was something I was willing to work on, to meet with these women, try to get out of them some good evidence so that we could put their testimony on at trial so that we could bring to the jury what they lost. And that was really rewarding to me. And I really bonded with these women because we had been through similar experiences where there’s a sudden loss. And, you know, just on that note, since we’re talking today about women in personal injury, I think that that is one really strong skill set that women bring to this profession is, you know, that we typically have empathy and we, you know, are able to maybe, you know, better navigate people through times of crisis, just with maybe some motherly instincts. It doesn’t mean you have to be a mother to have those motherly instincts, of course, but because at the time that I was. Doing that, I was not. But that was, we won that case. The clients were, you know, thrilled. And I had a great time working with Mike and Steve. And I told my dad, you know, I think, I think I want to do what you do, because my dad is a personal injury lawyer, too. And so that was always in the back of my mind, too. Meeting clients who he had helped throughout his life, you know, who still kept in touch and thanked him for changing their lives. And it felt a lot better than crunching numbers at a bank. Well, and it’s clearly a natural fit for you.   Lindsey: You come from a, you know, long line of lawyers, and you have the family support there. And it sounds like you made a real personal connection when you were choosing your field and realizing that this was absolutely the right type of practice for you. And so you have your legal career, and you are also balancing, clearly, motherhood at the same time.   Margaret: So tell us a little bit about. about your family and about your kids. Sure. Well, today, I have an 11-year-old, Evelyn. She will be a middle schooler next year. And a 10-year-old, William, so he’ll be in fifth grade. And they’re at a great age right now where they still like me and want to hang out with me, but they can do things for themselves. So, like, you know, Evelyn can go to the corner grocery store and pick up some things for me. And, you know, William, he can take the trash out. He’s not quite as adventuresome with his willingness to, you know, do things for me. But it’s been a long road, you know, as you know. You know, they were infants and toddlers. They’re 19 months apart. So certainly integrating, you know, working at a law firm and kind of, you know, I don’t really, I would say I probably didn’t really ever. I my pace in terms of what I was able to handle with trials and workload. I certainly had a lot of support and help at home. I had, you know, Annie. My husband decided around COVID time that he would retire and he would be our childcare solution. And that obviously allows me great latitude to be able to do what I want. And, you know, obviously I had a lot of support at Levin & Perconti. So when I went on maternity leave, it was the first maternity leave that they had experience with a lawyer in 21 years.   Lindsey: Oh, wow.   Margaret: Yeah. So my partner, Susan Novosad, who was one of the founder, founding lawyers of the firm, she had three kids. So she went through it, but it had been a while. And I just remember, you know, I. I love what I do so much that, although obviously I needed maternity leave and I loved maternity leave and I, you know, wanted to take it and bond with the kids, like it was very hard for me to completely disconnect. And I have, you know, really great colleagues who would keep me filled in, but still would cover things for me so, you I could spend time with my kids. But, you know, I did stay connected when

Adrianos did not initially plan to become a lawyer, but after finishing law school, he decided to start his own practice rather than work for someone else. He met a mentor who took him under his wing and encouraged him to take on a car accident case, which ended up being a turning point where Adrianos gained trial experience and won an $80,000 verdict. This experience convinced Adrianos that he could succeed as a personal injury attorney. Adrianos decided to focus his practice on serving the Brazilian and Portuguese community in Los Angeles, as he saw a need that was not being met. His own family’s experience immigrating to the US and facing challenges like language barriers and lack of support networks inspired him to help this underserved population. Adrianos works to build trust, provide education, and offer extra support services to his clients from this community. Visit Law Offices of Adrianos Facchetti here: https://facchettilaw.com/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. Transcript: Lindsey: Welcome to the personal injury marketing minute, where we quickly cover the hot topics in the legal marketing world. I’m your host, Lindsey Busfield. Some of my favorite episodes are when we dive into the stories of professionals making a real impact in their communities. Today’s guest is doing just that, and in a way that is both personal and powerful. Adrianos Facchetti: is not your average personal injury attorney. Based in Los Angeles, he’s built a thriving practice by serving a very specific community, Brazilian and Portuguese immigrants. And the reason? It’s deeply rooted in his own story, which gives him a rare and authentic cultural connection to the people he now advocates for in court. From overcoming language barriers to navigating the complex U.S. legal system. problem… Here He’s made it his mission to protect and empower those who often feel overlooked or misunderstood. Thank you so much for joining us today, Adrianos.   Adrianos Facchetti: Glad to be here.   Lindsey: Well, tell us a little bit about your origin story and how you got into law.   Adrianos Facchetti: So it wasn’t like I was always planning on being a lawyer. In fact, when I had gone to law school, was probably the, I met like one lawyer until that point. But it was sort of a default position. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do, and I wanted to sort of keep my options open. Then when I finished law school, just because of my background, my dad had started his own businesses. My brother started his own businesses. I think we were all just too stubborn to work for somebody else that would have made a horrible employee. And so I knew I wanted to start my own thing. And so when I started out, I had no connections, nothing. My parents had come from Brazil and Argentina. And so it wasn’t like I had, you know, a silver spoon. My mouth or any kind of connections. And then I figured out that I needed to get business, right? And so I had met a mentor about two years in, and I had no idea what I was doing. And he said to me, look, I’m going to sort of take you under my wing. I’m going to teach you what to do. I said, great. And we started doing kind of litigation. So real estate litigation, business litigation, whatever you can think of. And then one day, he says to me, we’re going to do a car accident case. And I said, I’m not sure I want to do that, George. And he says, we are going to do it. So I said, okay, fine. So long story short, we’re working on this case, and we were like the fourth attorneys in the case, so it’s not a good case. And he says the policy limits are $25,000 and the offer is $7,500. And I’m calculating that that’s about 200 bucks in my pocket, which was like a million dollars for me. I needed the money badly. said, yeah. He says, no, we’re going to go to trial. So I said, as long as you do the entire trial, I’m totally fine with it. He said, don’t worry. He was like in his mid-70s. So we get to trial and all of a sudden, you know, it’s not going well. He’s a little too old, a little too long in the tooth. And he turns to me and says, you know, I think trial is a young man’s game, Adrianos. I want you to start doing stuff in the trial. I said, George, I can’t do it. He says, if you don’t do it, I never want to see your face again. And so I got thrown into the deep end. And so I did it. Same thing with the closing argument. He has me do the closing argument. I do it as best as I can. And then after the closing argument, we’re sitting in the hallway and the defense attorney turns to me and says, know, Adrianos, that was the best closing argument I’ve ever seen. And I looked at him because I thought he was hitting on me or something. I could not believe that this was a real compliment. And I said, okay. And then whatever. So we go in front of the jury and the jury reads the verdict. And we got an $80,000 verdict. So my thought was, you know, maybe I can actually do this. And that’s how I started. And just little by little, just grinding, trying to get more business and trying to get a reputation in the personal injury community.   Lindsey: Well, and that’s fantastic. mean, and so many attorneys start out because their family is full of lawyers, and they’ve had this experience growing up, and like, it’s just expected of them to go through this path. So it’s always refreshing to hear from somebody who didn’t grow up dreaming of being an attorney or who didn’t have those built in mentors in life. And you don’t necessarily need to know everything or be inundated with it, you know, when you’re a kid, so long as you know who to ask. And so having that mentor relationship was clearly, you know, fundamental in your success and to where you are now. And so you’re in Los Angeles, and which, as everybody knows, is a fiercely competitive market. But talk to us about how you have niched down your practice and a little bit about your cultural background and how that influences the cases that are naturally drawn to you now.   Adrianos Facchetti: So growing up as a kid, I saw how difficult it was for my parents to sort of, you know, get used to the culture here, to make a living. Obviously, they were from different countries, didn’t speak the language initially, but they did a lot to sort of educate themselves and to sort of build this amazing life, which I’m really proud of them for doing that. And, you know, a few years ago, unfortunately, three or four years ago, my mom had Alzheimer’s and passed away. And so I decided, how do I stay connected to the culture? Like, how do I – there’s not a ton of Brazilians in California. And so I thought, you know, maybe I can help the community. So I went around to all the different Brazilian lawyers and I said, who’s the guy or gal who does personal injuries? Right. They all looked at me and said, it’s going to be you. And I said, that can’t be true. Either there’s no market or there’s just nobody doing it. So I started asking other attorneys and they kept on saying the same thing. And so I said, you know what, maybe I should get into this market, see if I can help this community. And I started doing that. And so once I got into the community, I realized how much of a need there was for somebody who actually spoke Portuguese. I’m a dual citizen Brazilian. I was raised in L.A. But I started really focusing on that segment of the population. And it’s really paid dividends for me.   Lindsey: That’s fantastic. So how does this inform your marketing efforts?   Adrianos Facchetti: So how do you get connected in the community? So a couple of different ways that I get connected with the community is, like I said, I’ve met other pillars of the Portuguese community, Brazilian community. I’ve met with other attorneys, gotten to… Create wonderful relationships with them. And honestly, I would do it for free, just because it keeps me connected to the culture. But it’s sort of impacted how I do marketing in general, because I try to do marketing that’s something that’s fun for me. I’ve learned that it’s not fun, you’re not going to do it. And even if you do do it, it’s not going to work, people are going to see right through it. So if I’m having a meeting like this one, my thought is, what’s one interesting thing I can learn about the other person? That’s kind of how I look at things. And so getting back to the marketing. So what I do is, I get involved in Facebook communities, where people are asking questions, they have problems. Every once in a while, I’ll, you know, make comments on certain posts. It’s not, I’m not selling anything. I’m just trying to be helpful. And I’m also getting a pulse on what’s important to them. Right? How do I get to sort of the mind of the person who I want to help? And then eventually, like, you know, Every once in a while, once a week or so, I might do something that’s more educational with a call to action at the end of the post. And so a couple of those things, not a lot of work, maybe like half an hour a week in these Facebook groups. It’s just about identifying those groups and building relationships with the owners of those groups so that they’re comfortable that you’re a legitimate business owner that can actually help. Because the real problem, Lindsey, is that there’s a lot of, unfortunately, non-attorneys who give or try to give advice to these vulnerable populations. And I’ve seen it so many times, especially for immigration law, where they will take advantage of people. And the sad part is, and I’ve talked to so many people, they’ve gotten in an auto accident, Brazilians, and they get a serious injury, like a back injury where they needed a surgery. And they just didn’t even know they had any legal rights. Number one, because they’re deathly afraid that if they make a claim… And they just are not aware that this actually exists as a legal right because it doesn’t exist in their country. So it’s ab

Personal Injury Attorney Josh Branch of The Law Offices of Joshua W. Branch joins us for Personal Injury Marketing Minute podcast #107 to discuss getting into the field to make a difference. Josh is driven to a life of service through the practice of personal injury law. Visit Josh online here: https://www.thegeorgiainjuryattorney.com/. Visit Extra Special People, Inc here: https://www.cityofwatkinsville.com/185/ESP. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. Transcript: Lindsey: Welcome to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute, where we quickly cover the hot topics in the legal marketing world. I'm your host, Lindsey Busfield. Even though there are some bad players in the personal injury world who are more interested in profit than people, most personal injury lawyers get into the field because they want to make a difference. Josh Branch of Josh Branch Law in Georgia is one such lawyer who is driven to a life of service through the practice of personal injury law. Thank you so much for joining us today, Josh.   Josh Branch: Thank you for having me, Lindsey.   Lindsey: Well, tell us a little bit about yourself and about your practice.   Josh Branch: A little bit about myself, we have a current operation or base. In Athens, Georgia, that's the primary location, the law office of Joshua Branch. We also have satellite offices in Atlanta and on the Georgia coast where you accept cases throughout Georgia and in the Florida accident, licensed to practice in Florida as well. About me, that's as far as wide of a question as we can go. It's the worst question I could possibly ask. No, no, no, it's fine. It's absolutely fine. To kind of piggyback on the topic, I have been around law since the time I was 15 or 16. My church league basketball coach was a lawyer, and he said, you argue so much. You're going to become a lawyer. And everybody else in my family and friends said the same thing. I think I was a little bit apprehensive of doing what everybody else already foretold as my future. But actually, they were right. And so I'm very blessed to be in this position and helping others.   Lindsey: I mean, to be able to... To argue, you know, when you're a kid, it can drive everybody else crazy. But if you can harness that energy for good and put it to the benefit of others, then that turns into a superpower. I'll agree. So, I mean, clearly you loved to argue when you were a kid and you went down this path. But why did you want to become a personal injury lawyer at the end of your educational career?   Josh Branch: It's a great question. Once I finally decided I did want to go to law school, I initially thought I wanted to go into environmental law. That was my pursuit when I entered into law school. However, as much as I got into it, more I realized that I'm not, and this is most things about me, I'm not on the extreme on either side. So in environmental law, I didn't see myself working for a large oil company. And also at same time, I didn't see myself, you know, working for Greenpeace. They both have places in this world. And, you I didn't feel my heart for myself one way or the other. I worked for an entertainment lawyer. I was in law school. It great. We had incredible experiences. I helped put on a seminar at the Russian Consulate in Manhattan in New York. Great experience. Got to meet a lot of A&R reps and reps from different bands and things of that sort. But when it really came down to tracking towards what I want to do the rest of my life, there is a proverbial David versus Goliath day in, day out when you deal with injured victims dealing with insurance companies. And even though insurance companies and their complete wherewithal and financial backing of which no individual really has outside of a few on the top of the Forbes list,

Personal Injury Attorney and Harley Davidson rider Paul Hernandez discusses what it means to be known in the Virginia motorcycle community. This is an excellent episode - if you are considering a niche, listen to every minute of this podcast at least once. We have talked about the benefits of niching down a few times before. We primarily discuss niching as a strategy to attract more clients in saturated markets. It also makes sense when you are a member of a community that is regularly at risk for catastrophic injury. This is especially true in the motorcycle riding community. Visit Attorney Paul Hernandez here: https://www.kalfusnachman.com/attorneys/paul-r-hernandez/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. https://youtu.be/lsrcoWmAhOY   Transcript: Welcome to the personal injury marketing minute, where we quickly cover the hot topics in the legal marketing world. I'm your host, Lindsey Busfield. We have talked about the benefits of niching down a few times before. We primarily discuss niching as a strategy to attract more clients in saturated markets. It also makes sense when you're a member of a community that is regularly at risk for catastrophic injury. This is especially true in the motorcycle riding community. Now, every personal injury lawyer would love to have more motorcycle accident cases, but they seem impossible to regularly get through the door. However, Paul Hernandez: of Calphus and Nackman has figured out how to become the motorcycle accident lawyer throughout Virginia. He joins us today to share his insight. It's on what works and what doesn't. Thank you so much for joining us today, Paul.   Paul Hernandez: Thank you. Appreciate you inviting me.   Lindsey: Well, tell us a little bit about yourself and about your practice.   Paul Hernandez: Yeah, so I've been practicing 30 years. It's hard to believe that time flies so fast. We have a team of 16 lawyers here, and our staff's about 90 people. We started handling personal injury cases. We do personal injury. We do longshore and workers' compensation, and we do social security disability. But we have a special area, a special division at our firm, and that is our Law Tigers division. We're a Law Tigers group. We're part of that group. But I have a specific group of people who handle all of our motorcycle crashes, and it's a select team of people. So if it's an investigator, if it's a paralegal, if it's a lawyer, if it's a negotiator, it doesn't matter. Everybody rides. Everybody's in the community. Everybody supports the community. So, you know, what is our firm? We do handle cases. I'm licensed in North Carolina and Virginia, and we have people licensed in Maryland and D.C. and things of that nature. But, you know, our big part is Virginia. And by handling motorcycle cases, you know, we've really become experts and specialists in that field. And everybody can't do that. But I know we're going to talk about that in a little while. But that's a little bit about who Calpus Enactment is. The firm has been around for over 45 years. So it's a great ride, to be honest with you. I'll be honest with you. I love coming to work every single day.   Lindsey: And that's the best job to have, you know, regardless of what industry you work in, regardless of what sector, legal sector you work in. If you are loving what you do, then you are going to be serving your clients in absolutely the best capacity. And this is clearly a passion for you because you're a part of the motorcycle community.   Paul Hernandez: So the big question, the most important question. Of course, what kind of bike do you ride? And how long have you been riding? Right. So it's funny. said, what type of bike do you ride? What type of bike do you like to ride? Right? So I have been riding. Oh,

Chris Mullins, The Phone Sales Doctor, joins us today to discuss her upcoming PILMMA roundtable – Intake. You can spend millions of dollars on marketing and have it be all for naught if your intake team is dropping the ball. Afterall, your intake sales specialists are the first warm introduction between your law firm and your prospective clients. They need to not only collect the right information, but they need to do so while showing empathy and compassion to people experiencing trauma. On this episode, we talk about: What to look for when hiring intake sales professionals How to train intake sales professionals for each type of case Big mistakes law firms make with their intake specialists Visit Chris Mullins here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismullinsphonesalesdoctor/. We’ll be at PILMMA Super Summit 2025: https://optimizemyfirm.com/pilmma-2025/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. Transcript coming soon.

Attorney Lawrence LeBrocq, CEO and Managing Partner of Garces, Grabler and LeBrocq PC (GGL), joins us today to discuss Processes and Systems to Maximize Profit in a Personal Injury Law Firm. He'll be speaking at the PILMMA Super Summit this year. There are many skill sets that come into play when growing your firm. It is easy to oversimplify it. One might think, “I’ll invest in marketing, get more clients in the door, then add more attorneys once I have the business growing.” While those are all important, there is a crucial piece missing for maximizing profitability long-term: systems and processes. Without these in place, you risk costly inefficiencies, poor client relationships, and employee burnout. In this episode, we discuss: Processes to maintain consistent communication with clients Systems and checklists for streamlined workflows Setting standards to prevent under-settling cases Visit Lawrence LeBrocq online here https://ggllawyers.com/our-attorneys/lawrence-a-lebrocq-esq/. We’ll be at PILMMA Super Summit 2025: https://optimizemyfirm.com/pilmma-2025/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. Transcript coming soon.

As we continue our Spotlight on PILMMA series, Attorneys Greg Ward and Jany Martínez-Ward of  join us to discuss the strategies and pitfalls lawyers face as they scale their practices. The Ward Law Group has grown significantly, and has offices in both Miami and New York. Growth is exciting — but without the right foundation, it can become a nightmare – leaving you with damaging scars. But real success isn’t just about getting more clients — it’s about scaling the right way. In this episode, we cover: The mindset shifts that are required to grow Core systems and processes for scaling your firm How to hire and manage the right employees for your firm’s values Visit The Ward Law Group online here: https://www.855dolor55.com/. We’ll be at PILMMA Super Summit 2025: https://optimizemyfirm.com/pilmma-2025/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/.   Transcription coming soon.

Cindy Speaker, CEO of Speaker Media and Marketing, joins us today as we continue our "Spotlight on PILMMA" series. At the PILMMA Super Summit 2025 conference, she will be discussing the Best Strategies for Business Marketing. But today, she will be walking us through some of the bigger mistakes lawyers make along the way. Using videos in your marketing strategy just makes sense. People are regularly searching for videos to summarize complex issues. Google is even starting to prioritize videos in search results. You just have to start doing it. In this episode, we discuss: What types of content to make in your videos Legal and ethical missteps while making videos (so you don’t get sued) Cliché tropes to avoid so that you don’t blend in with all of the other lawyers Visit Cindy online here: https://cindyspeaker.com/. We’ll be at PILMMA Super Summit 2025: https://optimizemyfirm.com/pilmma-2025/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. Tanscript: