Episodes

In this episode, Alay and Keith discuss: Who should be looking into succession planning. Defining financial success and leaving a legacy. Creating enterprise value. Internal and external succession planning. Key Takeaways: When your firm hits a certain threshold, you should reevaluate compensation and ensure it isn’t tied directly and solely to production. Enterprise value comes when leadership can focus on business growth and company culture, not when they are focused primarily on production...

In this episode, Alay, Raquel, and Demetrio discuss: How COVID changed the game for small businesses. What to look for when vetting a virtual staffing firm. The importance of reviews and references of your virtual staffing company. The universe of virtual services that a law firm can utilize.   Key Takeaways: Law firms should hire a VA that has training done in advance, so you don’t have to put in the time for the additional training. Understand what time you are looking to regain by hiring a...

In this episode, Alay and Jerry discuss: Why lawyers don’t change their practice areas (even when they want to). Getting unstuck from your practice area. The benefits of taking the leap of faith to change your practice area. Finding your small wins as you make the transition.   Key Takeaways: Law is like any other business – when you get into a routine it can be difficult to break out of that routine. If you are feeling drained or not committed to your business, you will feel the drain in oth...

In this episode, Alay and Lisa discuss: How COVID impacted men and women. Navigating the future of work authentically for employers and employees. Diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Refocusing on what builds you up, not what tears you down. Key Takeaways: COVID reduced women in leadership roles to levels from the 1980s. During the pandemic, we saw a smaller impact on men than on women in terms of added responsibilities. Hourly billing is going to be harder and harder to justif...

In this episode, Alay and Steve discuss: Why Alay originally started focusing on attorneys in his coaching practice. Alay’s book, Staffing Up: The Attorney’s Guide to Hiring Top Talent. Hiring at the right time for the right role. Time management and investing your time wisely. The changing future of legal and coaching. Key Takeaways: If you run your law firm as a business, you have the opportunity to avoid many of the pitfalls that so many other lawyers face. The scariest hire is the first h...

In this episode, Alay and Katherine discuss: What a legal project manager is and how it can help your firm. Project management systems for small firms. How project management tools can help reduce errors. How a project management system is different from a case management system. Key Takeaways: Utilizing tools and technologies, such as project management tools, can help to reduce human errors and can help to keep projects more organized and efficient. You will want to make sure there is someo...

In this episode, Alay and Bo discuss: What lawyers should look for when hiring a digital marketing and advertising agency. Focusing on your goals and needs, and not just general tactics. Day in the life of a digital marketing agency. Prioritize setting expectations. Key Takeaways: Your marketing agency should have some expertise in the legal area you are in so they can best understand the nuances of your niche. There are a lot of nuances with legal, particularly personal injury law, that incl...

In this episode, Alay and Nikki discuss: Getting permission to sell. Great questions to ask during your sales process. How your knowledge and experience can be communicated to assist your clients. Crafting and practicing your pre-frame.   Key Takeaways: Sales is done with someone, not to someone. It is a relationship to solve a problem. Asking really good questions will help to build trust before you start the sale. Not all clients are the right fit for you – sometimes the best thing to do fo...

In this episode, Alay and Evelyn discuss: The roller coaster of entrepreneurship. Building a remote, global team. Delegating to better serve your clients. Adversity creating business excellence. Key Takeaways: You do not need to have your entire team in the office in order to be productive and cohesive as a team. Free yourself so you are doing your highest-value work. Anything else can be delegated to other team members. If your team is all cohesive, anyone can answer client questions – they ...

In this episode, Alay and Scott discuss: How business development has been affected by the pandemic. Business development versus sales versus marketing. Categories of business development. Key Takeaways: Every vision needs to be written down – if it isn’t written down, it doesn’t exist. Part of your vision needs to be your ideal client – this is based on 2 things: your best client ever, and the client you never want to work with again. Pricing is more important than many people expect – chang...

In this episode, Alay and Aashi discuss: What imposter syndrome is and how it tends to appear in attorneys. Difference between imposter syndrome and lack of self-confidence. Personal and professional consequences of imposter syndrome in lawyers. Recognizing and overcoming imposter syndrome. Key Takeaways: Due to the hard work and competition needed to get into then through law school, it is not a surprise that many lawyers experience imposter syndrome. If an attorney is feeling recurring feel...

In this episode, Alay and Matthew discuss: Why living training is so impactful. Creating a successful, interactive training or seminar. One of the most common mistakes employers make. Matthew’s book and how it can help employers. Key Takeaways: Having a good education on rights and responsibilities in the workplace will prevent lawsuits in the future. There are nuances in every employee/employer relationship that lawyers will go after – they know the playbook and they know where to go after. ...

In this episode, Alay and Eli discuss: How Eli got into the document concierge space. Building a nationwide ecosystem of clients and referral partners. Using tech to serve more clients. Staying up to date in the tech space and trialing the tools in early access. Key Takeaways: Look at the pain points that your clients are having and look for creative solutions to their problems that they may not even recognize at the time. Forming deep relationships with your clients allows you to be partners...

In this episode, Alay and Laura discuss: Why understanding the business of law is critical to your law firm’s success. Making yourself marketable as an attorney. Reframing selling as relationship building. Key Takeaways: More attorneys need to get comfortable with asking questions around money and making money in a meaningful way. Ask the questions you have – if you don’t ask, you won’t know the answers, and your career may stagnate, both in a solo firm or in big law. Developments in the worl...

In this episode, Alay and Hugo discuss: Why all attorneys should be marketing to the Spanish-speaking population. What sets Abogados NOW apart from other Spanish Legal Marketing agencies. How Hugo became an expert in multicultural marketing. Key Takeaways: 1 in 5 people in the US speak Spanish (and the number of English-only speakers is decreasing). Marketing to a Spanish-only market or English-only marketing is different from marketing to a bicultural market. Give consumers what they want. T...

In this episode, Alay and Victoria discuss: How Victoria’s career as an estate planning lawyer led to her current role. Why valuation is the first step to selling your law firm. Building value in your law firm to position it for a max profit sale. Naming your firm for marketing and selling. Key Takeaways: Your value is more than just your gross or net income. Phone and website traffic can affect the value of your law firm. You want to have a plan and know what you want when selling your law f...

In this episode, Alay and Julia discuss: Why it can be difficult to find a good paralegal. Paralegals and business managers create a smoother-running law firm. The invaluable knowledge of an experienced paralegal. Key Takeaways: The little things can get lost if you don’t have someone focused on getting them done – things like intake, customer relations, AR, billing, technology, etc. You can always start small when you bring someone in – something like an outsource service can assist with eve...

In this episode, Alay and Angela discuss: How the markets and marketing have changed and are changing. Branding on LinkedIn to stand out from the crowd. Signs your LinkedIn needs a tune-up. Becoming a thought leader through LinkedIn. Key Takeaways: LinkedIn is more than your online resume. It is about what you can do for your ideal client. According to the ABA, 94% of attorney referrals are going to look at your LinkedIn profile first before they follow up on that referral. Thought leadership...

What is the best way to level up my marketing focus? How long should we wait to determine whether a marketing effort is working? In this episode, Alay and Elijah discuss: Challenges in the first year of starting a solo law firm. Maximizing the effectiveness of your technology and tools. Understanding the efficiency and time flow at your firm. Creating marketing plans and referral plans for your law firm. Key Takeaways: Technology is a tool and will need to evolve over time as your organizati...

In this episode, Alay and Brett discuss: Why 24 months is a short time in business (and how you can find freedom in that time). The 7 positions in a law firm that you need to hire for. Hiring internationally to grow your firm for less. Shoring up your systems before hiring another attorney. Key Takeaways: Hiring is an investment in your firm. Their work frees you up to continue building business. If you don’t have an assistant, you are the assistant and you are worth too much to do those assi...

In this episode, Alay and Chris discuss: Differentiating one digital marketing firm from another. Tracking leads, pay-per-click, and SEO. Why SEO takes more time than you initially think. Key Takeaways: Ask your digital marketing company who is going to be working on your account, how many people, how many firms, how frequent communication will be, etc. Search engine results are always changing as the algorithm changes. You can utilize a landing page to understand which leads are coming in fr...

In this episode, Alay and Luis discuss: Why you should aspire to have an 8-figure firm. Things that get in the way of growing an 8-figure firm. The mindset of a CEO. The phases on your way to 8 figures. Key Takeaways: If your firm depends solely on you, it can never become passive income. The biggest barrier is transitioning from doing all the work to becoming a leader and trusting others to do the work. Establish an employee avatar to understand who you are looking for to make your hiring pr...

In this episode, Alay and Sasha discuss: Why marketing is key to your business success. Your firm’s five major systems. How to get good leads. How much time it takes for successful digital marketing. Key Takeaways: The riches are in the niches, you cannot do everything and expect to find success. To build a large, successful law firm, you need to have systems that run your firm successfully. You cannot do it all yourself. For different pains, you need different answers. When looking for a con...

In this episode, Alay and Daleele discuss: How to save time and money with automation and technology. Implementing processes and systems before new technology. Common time wasters for attorneys. Key Takeaways: You can use technology to automate many of your tasks if you set it up correctly. Process first, technology second. You may already have the technology that you aren’t utilizing in full. Understand your challenges and pain points. Without knowing those, you won’t know how technology cou...