Send us a text Bo Royal is a former Fortune 500 advertising agency executive turned law firm marketing expert. After holding leadership positions at eBay’s marketing solutions division and scaling the online advertising revenues of a variety of well-known brands, such as Calvin Klein, Bo pivoted into the world of legal marketing over five years ago and never looked back. Today, Bo co-owns and operates Pareto Legal, a growth marketing agency positioned to help small and medium-sized law firms add...
May 06, 2024•40 min•Ep. 54
Send us a text Map listings are the single most important component of search marketing for any family law firm. The maps are Sterling Lawyers' most important lead generation channel. In this episode, my co-founder, Tony Karls, and I discuss the essential elements that have amplified our firm's map visibility. If you want to rank highly in the maps, this is the definitive playbook. ------------------------- Go to: www.JSterlingHughes.com for tons of Family Law Practice resources. My purpose is t...
May 02, 2024•15 min•Ep. 53
Send us a text When I sat down with Jonathan Breeden for this episode, my intention was to get his blueprint on how to create a hyperlocal podcast for family law firms. We certainly covered that topic. But, there turned out to be so much value in hearing his story. Jonathan Breeden is a seasoned family lawyer who takes us behind the scenes of his North Carolina firm's impressive growth. We explored his journey from a solo practitioner to leading a team of seven attorneys across four offices Jona...
Apr 29, 2024•46 min•Ep. 52
Send us a text The best law firm lead generation system in the world is useless without a good intake team. One of the performance secrets at Sterling Lawyers has been our intake team. They excel at the critical task of answering the phone and supporting potential clients facing a family legal crisis. In this episode, Tony Karls and I do a deep dive into our family law firm intake strategy and key metrics. ------------------------- Go to: www.JSterlingHughes.com for tons of Family Law Practice r...
Apr 25, 2024•16 min•Ep. 51
Send us a text Kyle Harbaugh is the Founder and President of Chief Go Officers. He is a holistic business strategist for law firms and his focus is on helping firms grow and operate better by providing Done-For-You projects and fractional services. In this episode, we have a full conversation about the challenges that firms encounter to move from the founder(s) doing all the legal work to building a legal team. Kyle is also the co-creator of a comprehensive Business Health Analysis that dissects...
Apr 22, 2024•33 min•Ep. 50
Send us a text The Sterling Lawyers origin story began on a whiteboard in the late fall of 2013, where Tony Karls and I sketched out the strategic blueprint of the law firm. Today, ten years later, we are revealing the essential components of that strategy. It's not surprising that almost nothing worked out like we planned, including our firm's mission. There are two things that have not changed: 1 - Our core values 2 - The primary elements of our strategic plan Enjoy! ------------------------- ...
Apr 18, 2024•10 min•Ep. 49
Send us a text Katie VanDeusen co-leads a team of 25 family lawyers. She is a highly successful leader, especially when it comes to developing less-experienced attorneys. Katie has always been a top-performer at Sterling Lawyers. She has set more than a few performance records. In addition to her own prolific practice, she mentors other attorneys, some of which have surpassed her early performance. This episode peels back the layers of what it takes to challenge and support a team of high perfor...
Apr 15, 2024•35 min•Ep. 48
Send us a text People are the most important success factor in every law firm. There are no exceptions to this rule. At Sterling Lawyers we take hiring (we call it "selection") very, very seriously. Over the past 10 years we have honed our selection process into a finely tuned machine. Robin Esch oversees the sourcing and selection of all our teammates. She is our Director of Team Growth (AKA, "Human Resources"). In this episode, Robin unpacks our selection process and breaks it down in a way th...
Apr 12, 2024•13 min•Ep. 47
Send us a text Tom Lenfestey is the founder of The Law Practice Exchange. He's also a practicing North Carolina attorney, licensed CPA, and Accredited Business Intermediary. Tom is one of North America's most knowledgeable experts on selling a law firm. In this fascinating conversation we discussed: State of M&A in law People law firms v. Business law firms Law firm ownership deregulation Family law firm valuations Best practices to maximize law firm value on an exit The Law Practice Exchang...
Apr 08, 2024•37 min•Ep. 46
Send us a text Attorney Patrick Slaughter is an attorney coach with substantial "Street Cred." He has built a very successful law firm and sold it. Now, he helps other lawyers do the same thing. His story is non-traditional to say the least. Patrick was a magician for 20 years before attending law school. Once out of law school, he hustled, networked, and worked incredibly hard to build his firm from the ground up. He succeeded wildly. If you want inspiration or firm growth ideas--or both, liste...
Apr 05, 2024•54 min•Ep. 45
Send us a text Business 101: If you are not measuring it, you are not managing it. This principle is true when it comes to a family law firm culture. My guest this week is Robin Esch, Sterling Lawyers' Director of Team Growth. We explore how we measure a critical aspect of our law firm -- our culture. ------------------------- Go to: www.JSterlingHughes.com for tons of Family Law Practice resources. My purpose is to Empower Family Law Attorneys so they can build a beautiful family law practice a...
Apr 01, 2024•14 min•Ep. 44
Send us a text Attorney Jeff Morrell is a Senior Partner at our family law firm, Sterling Lawyers. Since joining our team, Jeff has been a pace-setter. This episode is a conversation between me and Jeff riffing on his productivity strategies. He shares a load of valuable insights on how to improve the efficiency of a family law practice. Enjoy! ------------------------- Go to: www.JSterlingHughes.com for tons of Family Law Practice resources. My purpose is to Empower Family Law Attorneys so they...
Mar 28, 2024•22 min•Ep. 43
Send us a text Jon Morris is the founder of Rise Interactive, a wildly successful digital agency that he exited a few years ago. Since then, Jon has started two more highly successful service businesses: (1) EngineBi (www.enginebi.net) and (2) Fiscal Advocate (www.fiscaladvocate.com). Jon also sits on the Sterling Lawyers Board of Advisors. Over the years, Jon has discovered the ideal ratios for professional service firms to be healthy. Here they are: Gross Margin - 50% + Profit - 20%+ SG&A ...
Mar 25, 2024•35 min•Ep. 42
Send us a text As I reflect on our first ten years of building and leading Sterling Law, there are 11 lessons that have surprised me. Here they are: 1 - Being a leader is your identity 2 - Building a law firm is a sprint and a marathon 3 - Vulnerability is confidence in action 4 - Discipline today avoids pain tomorrow 5 - Leadership isn't winning your way. It’s clearing the way for teammates. 6 - Hire to complement. Not get compliments 7 - Indecision turns temporary pain chronic 8 - Ten minutes ...
Mar 21, 2024•22 min•Ep. 41
Send us a text Holly Mullin co-leads one of the largest family law teams in the United States. Her well-earned law leadership insights have come through years of trial and error. She has a reputation for professionalism and genuinely serving her teammates. Holly is well-respected by every member of the Sterling Law team. In this episode, we explore: 1 - Leading through growth and adversity 2 - Nurturing family law talent 3 - Importance of empathy over technical prowess 4 - Balancing supporting a...
Mar 18, 2024•40 min•Ep. 40
Send us a text Law firm leadership is visual. Teammates do what they see. Leadership is not about title or position. It is about modeling the behavior that we want duplicated. The truth about leadership modeling in a law firm is: 1 - The higher up leaders go, the fewer privileges they have--and more weight they must carry. 2 - When the leader engages in bad behavior, the team will amplify that behavior to excess. Conversely, the same is not always true about good behavior. 3 - The leader's relat...
Mar 14, 2024•11 min•Ep. 39
Send us a text Paul Mackiewicz is the owner of Honorable.Marketing, an AI-powered digital agency focused on serving law firms. In this interview, Paul and I go deep down the digital marketing rabbit hole in the family law context. We discussed: - How to get started as a family lawyer online - The order of priority when building digital assets - How to hire and work with a digital marketing agency - Looking at your online presence as a whole - Maximizing law firm exposure - Managing your reputati...
Mar 12, 2024•44 min
Send us a text So much about leading a law firm is paradoxical. On their face, the concepts don't seem to make much sense. Yet they often make the difference between success and failure. These are my favorite law leadership incongruities I have learned through the pain of failure. 1 - Unless the decision can kill you, make it fast 2 - Leadership vulnerability is a show of strength 3 - The law firm leader is the CFO - Chief Focus Officer 4 - In hiring, if you're not repelling most candidates, you...
Mar 07, 2024•14 min•Ep. 37
Send us a text This episode is all about how to execute a podcast for a law firm. My guest is podcasting expert, Robert Ingalls, owner of LawPods. Robert is a lawyer and "gets" what it takes for lawyers to use podcasts to grow their firm. We delve into all the salient questions that need answers for attorneys to start and grow their podcast. Enjoy! ------------------------- Go to: www.JSterlingHughes.com for tons of Family Law Practice resources. My purpose is to Empower Family Law Attorneys so ...
Mar 04, 2024•53 min•Ep. 36
Send us a text Hiring great family lawyers is the leaders' most important task if the firm is to grow. Nothing is more important. At Sterling, our formula for hiring Family Law Lawyers: 1 - Must share our core values 2 - Don’t mind being measured 3 - Has drive and ambition 4 - Has high level of empathy and people skills 5 - Coachable to adopt proactive practice habits What is not important and has little to no correlation to client success: Grades Law school Family law experience If you catch ev...
Feb 29, 2024•21 min•Ep. 35
Send us a text The most famous client satisfaction number in the world is Net Promoter Score (NPS). The survey question is: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?" Responses of "9 or 10" equal a promoter. "7 or 8" is a neutral. 6 or less is a detractor. Blend all the responses and get your NPS. We have made this single question the cornerstone of the Sterling Family Law client strategy. In this episode, my partner, Tony Karls, and...
Feb 26, 2024•16 min•Ep. 34
Send us a text When I sat down beside business titan Bobby Martin at a New York restaurant in 2005, I never imagined it would mark the beginning of a mentorship that would alter my law leadership career. In the years that followed, Bobby taught me many lessons. Three, in particular, stand out: 1. "Never milk the mouse" 2. "When the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box" 3. "Can't never could" This is a short podcast but long on career value. I return to these often. Thank y...
Feb 22, 2024•8 min•Ep. 33
Send us a text Corey Quinn drops pure gold for lawyers looking to grow their law firm through digital marketing. In this episode, he reveals: The three step digital marketing strategy for lawyers seeking to break into a market How to use targeted marketing strategies to support specialization Law firm digital marketing best practices The importance of clarifying a firm's go-to-market strategy How to transition a law firm from founder led sales to a more sustainable model If there is anyone quali...
Feb 19, 2024•35 min•Ep. 32
Send us a text Imagine transforming a vision into a 25 lawyer family law firm reality—Tony Karls and I did just that with Sterling Law Offices. In this episode, we pull back the curtain and describe how a lawyer and a non-lawyer worked together to build and scale our family law firm. We discuss the following: 1 - bringing complimentary skills to our business relationship 2 - our initial thesis to be dominant on one area -- digital marketing 3 - focusing on business process once we reached a mode...
Feb 15, 2024•22 min•Ep. 30
Send us a text My guest this week is Jeff Morrell, Senior Partner at Sterling Law. Jeff is a brilliant lawyer and constant legal innovator. And, he is our firm's resident AI expert and tool builder. In this podcast, Jeff shares a number of tactics on how he has used AI tools to enhance his family law practice. His applications are practical. Anyone can implement them. Jeff has discovered ways to streamline his client communication, which is one of the largest time investments in family law. In p...
Feb 12, 2024•22 min
Send us a text As we have grown our law firm from zero to 25 attorneys, I have seen how our firm matched up with other very successful law firms. And, I have noticed that top performing law firms have some common characteristics: 1 - Leaders have a growth mindset. They listen to feedback and ideas from others. They welcome criticism and have people around them who disagree with them. 2 - There is a simple, easy to understand plan in place. Effective leaders make business plans simple to understa...
Feb 08, 2024•16 min
Send us a text Jennifer Gore-Cuthbert's journey is wildly inspiring. Our conversation is loaded with valuable insights on how to build a firm from nothing to a flourishing practice. Jennifer's path wasn't smooth. She faced the daunting challenge of failing the bar exam while pregnant and then managing a startup firm with a newborn. Immediately after passing the bar exam, Jennifer started her law firm from her spare bedroom. The firm has grown exponentially over the years and is an Atlanta powerh...
Feb 05, 2024•35 min
Send us a text The vast majority of Family Law firms do not grow beyond two attorneys. There are three primary barriers that stifle growth: 1 - Ineffective leadership by the lawyer leader 2 - Poor marketing 3 - Lack of scalable business process systems Each of these obstacles can be overcome. At Sterling Law, we’ve bumped into each of these roadblocks at least once. We pushed through, and so can you. This episode isn’t just about identifying the problems; it's a guide to understanding why these ...
Feb 01, 2024•12 min•Ep. 27
Send us a text I welcome Dennis Yu, a world-renowned marketing expert and CEO of Blitz Metrics. Dennis shares his journey from a math-focused child who didn't speak English until age six or seven to becoming a key figure in internet analytics and digital marketing. Born in Dayton, Ohio, Dennis was recognized for his web development skills by the CEO of American Airlines, which led to early career opportunities. Driven to empower the "underdog," Dennis focuses on training young adults and student...
Jan 29, 2024•38 min
Send us a text In this episode, we explore an emotionally tough topic --handling criticism. At any given firm, the leader is the person criticized the most. This goes with the territory. The reality is that accepting leadership puts you first in line to be criticized. The higher you are in the organization, the more exposed you are to criticism. And the less likely you are to hear about it. There are two kinds of criticism: (1) Unfair and (2) Fair. How you deal with either of these has a direct ...
Jan 25, 2024•9 min•Ep. 25
