Latest / The Jon and Marc Podcast / Confessions of a Law Firm CMO: What Really Drives Growth
Transcript
- 0:00I know everything's about AI and automation, but human touch
- 0:03things are human touch things and you need humans.
- 0:06You should invest in your community, and your community
- 0:08will take care of you if you've invested them.
- 0:10That word invest is exactly what it is.
- 0:12It's an investment. It's not going to maybe pay off
- 0:16right at the moment, but it will long term.
- 0:32Welcome everyone to the John and Mark podcast.
- 0:34Today we are live in person in Detroit city with the one and
- 0:38only Trudy Emma. We're very excited to have you
- 0:42here. Trudy is the former CMO of Mike
- 0:45Morris Law and the current CMO of George Sink Injury Lawyers.
- 0:51That is correct. Thank you for having.
- 0:52Me, welcome to the podcast. Very excited to hop in the
- 0:55conversation here today. So you've been ACMO for almost
- 0:59over a decade or being in the legal marketing space for a very
- 1:01long time. Yes, you moved on to a new role
- 1:04to start. I'd like to know, like what do
- 1:06you wish you could have told yourself when you first got into
- 1:09the CMO role? Now, now that you've known,
- 1:12learn of the lessons. That is a really good question.
- 1:15Geez, I thought you said they were softballs.
- 1:18I would say getting, you know, the data in place.
- 1:21I wish I would have had that sooner in the last role.
- 1:23Mike Moore soft firm is very data-driven.
- 1:25John Nachazel leading a lot of that.
- 1:28But getting that data in place just gives you so much
- 1:31confidence. It's no longer a guessing game
- 1:33and you're going by gut. You're actually going by numbers
- 1:35and knowing what levers to pull and push, and that really was a
- 1:39game changer. So if people that are trying to
- 1:41get the data in place that maybe don't have it, John and I are
- 1:43big data guys. We really like push this with
- 1:45the new clients we work with and that's usually the biggest
- 1:47challenge we have. We work with new firms is
- 1:49getting that set up. It's sometimes a big challenge
- 1:52of getting all the data orchestrated correctly, changes
- 1:55some business processes, training some people to do
- 1:57things correctly. Where do you recommend firm
- 1:59start when they're going through that journey of like, I need to
- 2:02track my marketing better, What are the metrics that they should
- 2:05care about? Well, the basic like the
- 2:07foundation is leads, one leads, sign ups and then cost per sign
- 2:11up like you're tracking nothing like start there and then
- 2:14obviously build that out. So then you can break that down
- 2:17by channel. You can start looking at case
- 2:19quality, which different channels are bringing in better
- 2:21case quality and you can layer on all the additional stuff, but
- 2:24foundational, that's your foundation and then build it out
- 2:28from there. Talking about that data, so as a
- 2:31marketer, you don't really have control of all those metrics to
- 2:34get access. So what was that relationship
- 2:36that you worked with the other departments?
- 2:37So mainly like the glue between marketing and like the firm's
- 2:40intake. True.
- 2:41So we were fortunate enough at Mike Morrison firm to have data
- 2:45people and it evolved to a data team.
- 2:47So there were four members on the data team when I left.
- 2:50But having someone that is in that role and that's their job
- 2:54to make sure I have the data I need, especially with the
- 2:56expense that's going out into marketing, they felt that that
- 3:00was definitely role worth having and paying someone for at the
- 3:04firm. So I did.
- 3:05I had a dedicated marketing data analyst that helped to make sure
- 3:10I had all the data I needed to make the decisions and that I
- 3:13needed to make so. As a firm that spend a lot of
- 3:16money on marketing across a ton of chance you've anywhere you
- 3:20can probably place an ad, you guys would probably put Mike's
- 3:22face on it pretty. Close.
- 3:23What is the balance that you have between making 100% data
- 3:26decisions or like trusting your gut and your creative instincts
- 3:30on? I think this is going to work
- 3:31because we're trying something new.
- 3:32Yeah. So one of the things I mean that
- 3:34I think is very important as a marketer is to be experimenting.
- 3:37So constantly testing and seeing how things work and and yes,
- 3:41relying on the data to see was that a good test or not a good
- 3:44test and we need to bail on it. But part of coming up with what
- 3:48you should be testing is, is trusting your gut and saying,
- 3:50OK, I think this is going to be a good test.
- 3:52You wouldn't pick something that you didn't think would be good.
- 3:55So relying on gut instincts for that.
- 3:58Obviously creative is another big area where we one time put
- 4:02out. Nobody trucks with us or
- 4:05something similar to that message.
- 4:07And it was, it was like what, you know, it was a gut thing.
- 4:10Like Michael, he pushed for it. We were a little unsure how the
- 4:14general public would respond to that.
- 4:16But it was a successful campaign.
- 4:18Everyone was talking about it. But yeah, I mean in those
- 4:21situations, like I said, especially with creative, but
- 4:23picking out like what areas you want to test, it's it's relying
- 4:26on gut. Our mutual friend Sherry from
- 4:28Fair and Farah. So when I went to visit them
- 4:31last week, I would got an Uber and immediately I was like, hey,
- 4:34ask him about like law firms and getting his opinion.
- 4:37He's like, yeah, the only one I really know like for sure is
- 4:39Fair and Farah. And he's like, we're going by
- 4:42and we start to look at billboards.
- 4:43He's like, I like that one. It was like, make it a fair
- 4:46fight. He's like, I really like that.
- 4:47I mean, another one was like, let Farrah cook.
- 4:49He's like, I don't understand that at all.
- 4:52But it was interesting to get like, you know, you sometimes,
- 4:54like, you have to take chances on different messaging and it
- 4:57won't resonate with everyone. Yeah.
- 4:58But sometimes you just like go outside, take some risk and they
- 5:02work out really well. That is funny because Sharon
- 5:04Sherry and I have talked about let Farrah cook because I have
- 5:07a, they actually helped us with our billboards in Detroit.
- 5:10So we would have lots of talk about billboard and billboard
- 5:13lines and we were trying to bring in, there's this what up
- 5:16dough line in Detroit. Like if you're a Detroiter, you
- 5:19know what up though, It's just how people introduce themselves.
- 5:22We were trying to play that in and it never really resulted in
- 5:26anything. But she brought up, this is
- 5:28something we're doing that's like like along those lines.
- 5:30And so that's funny that you bring that up because I actually
- 5:33know the story on that one. Speaking of like creative, you
- 5:36started your career and early on with my Morse as a traditional
- 5:40TV media buyer. And then, you know, over the
- 5:43past decade, the marketing space has evolved pretty dramatically.
- 5:46We'd love to like know more about like your experience in
- 5:49TV, what you've seen work and then kind of how you've adopted
- 5:52these different channels to evolve the overall marketing
- 5:54strategy. Yeah.
- 5:54So I came in from Comcast Spotlight.
- 5:57So I was actually Mike Moore's law firms Rep and I was yeah,
- 6:02yeah, imagine that. So I had worked at Comcast,
- 6:05Comcast selling TV and actually some digital there for about 9
- 6:09years and I had had some little ones at home.
- 6:12I was going to take a step back. I went in and let John and
- 6:15Michael know that I would be leaving and we were going to
- 6:18transition the account over to another rock or whatever.
- 6:21And I get in my car. I start driving back to the
- 6:24office after this meeting and John Nachazel calls me up and
- 6:28he's like, Hey, what do you think about coming over and
- 6:31working at the firm? He's like, you could work part
- 6:33time. What do you think about that?
- 6:35I'll find a role for you. I just want you to come over and
- 6:37it's like, maybe it's a media buyer, maybe it's something
- 6:39else, but we just would love to have you at the firm.
- 6:42I was really nervous about fully stepping back from I'd been
- 6:46working and successful. And so it was just, it was
- 6:49scary. So I was like, you know what,
- 6:50this would be a perfect in between.
- 6:52So I took the job, worked two days a week for the firm as a
- 6:56media buyer. I did that for literally up
- 6:59until last January, I was still doing the media buying.
- 7:01And then we hired a media buyer. And this is kind of a funny
- 7:05story, but I ended up hiring my boss from when I was at Comcast
- 7:08Spotlight. So she became our Yeah.
- 7:11So she's now the media buyer, but I had once worked for her
- 7:15selling media and then now she's the media buyer.
- 7:17So anyway, I had done that for years, over a decade at Mike
- 7:21Moore saw firm. Funny story, while you're you're
- 7:23recouping of the John and Mark podcast, normally John's with
- 7:26me, my Co host. Yeah, John used to be my
- 7:28customer and then I would go work for him and then he was my
- 7:31boss and now we're partners. So we've had like the whole arc.
- 7:34OK, well, that's funny. And I always laugh about this
- 7:37with Eileen too. Like who would have ever thought
- 7:39back then that she would end up working for me?
- 7:42And like, who would have ever thought it was, you know, it was
- 7:44very sad when I left. So anyway, getting back to the
- 7:47TV and where we went from there. So started out with buying the
- 7:51TV and doing that for the firm, and then that led into like
- 7:55community events and I just was getting into more and more
- 7:58conversations. So that's when it LED to OK, Now
- 8:02do you want to go into the Director of Marketing and then
- 8:05into the CML role? And then obviously as you grow
- 8:08into those roles, you're taking on all of the different elements
- 8:12of marketing. And when I stepped into that
- 8:15director of marketing role, Michael pulled me aside and he's
- 8:18like, you need to learn this stuff.
- 8:20He goes, it might take you 2 years, but this is what you need
- 8:23to learn because we need to be really strong in these areas.
- 8:27So so he. Pushed you do, you know, Yes.
- 8:29Step your game up, up your skills, round it out a little
- 8:31bit. Yeah, so I just dove in.
- 8:34Luckily, I had worked with some great partners that were good at
- 8:37teaching. I just posted about this on
- 8:39LinkedIn recently. But you're talking to him and
- 8:41it's just like word soup and you just can't figure out what
- 8:44they're actually saying. Explaining to me like I'm 5th
- 8:46grade please. Thank you.
- 8:47Yeah. But I had some great partners
- 8:50that really took the time to teach me the insurance and outs.
- 8:53Of course, I, you know, spend a lot of time podcast and reading
- 8:56and, and just, you know, webinars, whatever to soak it
- 8:59in. But that was kind of the task he
- 9:01put at hand for me. And I love that part.
- 9:04I mean that that part's so data-driven and not that the
- 9:06other side isn't, but it's been a part of the the job that I, I
- 9:10really love and have enjoyed getting to learn more and more
- 9:13about every day as it continues to evolve.
- 9:15The transition to a question I've I've been wanting to ask
- 9:18you and I'm I'm very curious. So what's your opinion on, you
- 9:20know, you've done a ton of stuff in house, you've worked with
- 9:22agencies. What are some stuff do you think
- 9:24a firm should keep in house? What do you think agencies
- 9:27should do? How should they manage those
- 9:29relationships you've dealt with a lot?
- 9:31Would love like your input on that.
- 9:32Yeah. So I think in house is like they
- 9:35need to have a very strong pulse on the brand.
- 9:38So that's roles where you know, a designer, of course, if you
- 9:42have an in house designer, I think that's a great internal
- 9:44role, but also that they can shift with the priorities of the
- 9:47firm. So I know at least the world I
- 9:49came from, we were shifting priorities constantly and
- 9:53needing to move very fast. And I think an agency when
- 9:56you're saying, oh, do this, Nope, do this, Nope, do this,
- 9:58that doesn't work that well. So in that instance, I really
- 10:01like having an internal person that I can take and grow with
- 10:05the firm. External is, you know, when
- 10:08there's when I need an outside point of view.
- 10:10So creative agencies, my internal team can't, they can't
- 10:14have that outside point of view, right?
- 10:15So that's when it's like, OK, who can bring that in?
- 10:18I like that for a creative agency in terms of outsourcing
- 10:21that I like it for like think of like technical SEO, like that's
- 10:26just a deep knowledge base that you need to have that.
- 10:29I just, I don't know that that's necessarily the best one for
- 10:33having internally. I mean, some people do and
- 10:35that's great, but my opinion is I'm fine hiring that one and
- 10:39having a vendor in that role. So that's kind of how I look at
- 10:42it. I think obviously if there's not
- 10:43enough work for internal employee, it might make sense to
- 10:48have a vendor in that role. But I also like with vendors or
- 10:51outsourcing when they can bring in insights from other
- 10:55industries, like they do have that legal base that they can
- 10:58see what's going on there. But maybe, you know, they work
- 11:01with Realtors or something like that.
- 11:03So they can bring that into our campaigns.
- 11:05And then, you know, let us be in the forefront of some of the new
- 11:08things, for instance, Google might be rolling out or
- 11:10whatever. So that's kind of how I look at
- 11:13that. I agree with most of that
- 11:14perspective. I I think it's extremely
- 11:16important to have a strong internal marketing team that has
- 11:20a really, really strong pulse on the firm of the business and can
- 11:24get things done correctly and knows how it operates.
- 11:27There's just so many moving parts.
- 11:28If you don't have that, that leader, that's like controlling
- 11:31the quality, controlling the vision of the brand.
- 11:33Even with the best agency, sometimes you will lose, you
- 11:36know, too many people throwing in the wrong direction.
- 11:38Yeah, I completely agree. That's when the inconsistencies
- 11:41in the brand happen. I think.
- 11:44Also I've noticed with sometimes with agencies the output gets a
- 11:48little sterile. It doesn't have like the heart
- 11:51and the the feel of what you would want if it were coming
- 11:54from an internal person. So.
- 11:56I can see that. So agents you do love working
- 11:59with that's important is like a creative agency.
- 12:01So Mike Morse, you know, I'm go to all the conferences.
- 12:05He's very well known for his book as well As for pushing his
- 12:08commercials. He's well known for.
- 12:10I think he attributes a big part of his growth and success is
- 12:13changing his marketing messaging.
- 12:15I would love to know the process of going from, you know regular
- 12:18like lawyer commercials to like a little bit more bespoke on
- 12:22brand unique commercials. Yeah.
- 12:24So that really boils down to finding a great creative agency
- 12:29that really thinks outside the box and isn't just delivering
- 12:32that same old talking head lawyer that we all see.
- 12:35So he found before my time, it was about a year before I got
- 12:38there or so Learner Advertising, who has worked as the creative
- 12:43agency and still to this day is the creative agency for Mike
- 12:45Moore Software. He does a great job of just
- 12:48thinking outside of the box. He has a great team.
- 12:51He himself is a very creative person, but he has a great team
- 12:54behind him that helps come up with these outside of the Vox
- 12:57ideas that really showcase Michael, like they showcase
- 13:01Michael, but as well as like the Firm and what the Firm stands
- 13:04for. They've been really great at
- 13:06figuring out how to really humanize and make people see the
- 13:12firm in a different light than just this scary, expensive
- 13:17lawyer, which is what a lot of the traditional generic stuff
- 13:20kind of puts out in terms of the feeling.
- 13:23And you know what they're saying to the viewers, in my opinion.
- 13:26I don't resonate a lot with TV commercials just from my my
- 13:30generational thing. I don't watch a lot of TV.
- 13:32And I also think there's a big issue with in the legal space
- 13:34where they are making a lot of the same commercials.
- 13:37And like, do you have any advice for like how to make an
- 13:40effective TV like ad for your firm?
- 13:42I do. So here's what I would say.
- 13:45Try to think of quality over quantity.
- 13:48When you are just trying to crank these commercials out and
- 13:51you know get a batch out and there's new ones every month or
- 13:55whatever it needs to be. I would say you are better off
- 13:58taking the time, getting a really great spot that's thought
- 14:01out and shooting, you know, once a quarter or something like that
- 14:05instead of trying to constantly be cranking out new spots.
- 14:09I think it just puts everybody under the gun to try to think of
- 14:13new ideas instead of letting like really good ideas come to
- 14:16the surface. I like that a lot, pivoting me a
- 14:19little bit from traditional TV. One of the things you, the the
- 14:22firm that you're very involved with, they've known for is
- 14:24community service events. Most people do not consider
- 14:28community involvement as marketing, but I do.
- 14:31I think it's a core to the success of personally and Drew
- 14:33law firms and it's underutilized.
- 14:36I would love to know, like some of the initiatives you did, how
- 14:38you guys came up with them, the execution at being involved as
- 14:41the CMO. Yeah, I'm assuming a lot of that
- 14:43fell on your plate. It it really did yeah, yeah.
- 14:46Big part of the job that I absolutely love was our
- 14:48community events. We started off with doing a
- 14:51backpack project backpack campaign.
- 14:53We didn't even have a name for it the first year.
- 14:55It was just like the backpack event or whatever.
- 14:57And then eventually somebody was like, you should probably name
- 14:59that. It became project backpack that
- 15:03had how long do we do that for? I think we were on our 12th year
- 15:06this past year. So 2025 was 12 years of doing
- 15:09that program, but grew up from like a 400 backpack event with
- 15:13one school in Detroit to 5000 people coming into the Mike
- 15:17Moore saw from parking lot with band and a live band and food
- 15:21trucks and face painting and and all the things that you can
- 15:25imagine to, you know, a big celebration would include.
- 15:28So that's how that one came about.
- 15:30I think first it was brought to us through ACBS Rep that was
- 15:33like, Hey, we have these things, like different community things
- 15:36that we do and you can get involved.
- 15:37And we did the 1400 backpack and we were like, wow, that was
- 15:41really great and we thought it was really impactful.
- 15:43And then Michael being who Michael is, he's like, let's go
- 15:46big or go home. So we went in and did 23,000
- 15:50right after the 400 in the spring.
- 15:51We did 23,000 in the fall and it just went upward from there.
- 15:55That's insane and amazing at the same time.
- 15:57How do you even buy 23,000 backpacks?
- 16:00Well, there's a way, yeah. One year we thought we would
- 16:05stuff the backpacks and it was like one of the years we did
- 16:0833,000 and we thought we would be able to do this.
- 16:12We got a team together. We had no idea what we were in
- 16:14for. It was, I mean, late nights,
- 16:16early mornings, way more days than planned.
- 16:18But we got them all stuffed and they got out to the schools.
- 16:21So they asked Project Backpack. We also did pet adoption events,
- 16:24which we were a big, a big thing.
- 16:26So we did a sponsorship with the local NBC station and pet
- 16:30adoptions. So it was we would pay the pet
- 16:33adoption for whatever pet was featured.
- 16:35We started getting so many calls into the firm about those pets,
- 16:39people wanting to adopt the pets, they would call us.
- 16:41It was actually in partnership with Michigan Humane as well.
- 16:43So call instead I. Find Mike Wade and say hi.
- 16:46I saw Pitbull. Exactly Julie.
- 16:48Is Julie available? Yeah.
- 16:51So your intake team would be like what is happening?
- 16:52Right. Well, they would come to
- 16:54marketing. So I would, I was really, I
- 16:56really had a pulse on like how well the public was responding
- 17:00to this campaign and knowing Michael is passionate about
- 17:03adopting adoption, pet adoption, I said, what do you think about
- 17:06doing a pet adoption event? And he's like, do it.
- 17:09And so we, you know, got a hold of Michigan Humane.
- 17:13They had been with the Detroit Zoo for a long time, but that
- 17:16was sounding like it was just kind of shifting in a way that
- 17:19they weren't sure where it was going to go.
- 17:20We had this massive parking lot. So that's how that.
- 17:24So you did it in the parking lot at the office?
- 17:26We haven't. It was a massive parking lot, so
- 17:28it's easy. We're staying at the hotel right
- 17:29across the street, so we drove by.
- 17:30It like, oh that's funny. Yeah.
- 17:31It's a very big parking lot, lots of faith, very fortunate to
- 17:34have that. And it was easy to host events
- 17:37there and the building management company was always so
- 17:40great about it. So yeah, they would be hosted
- 17:42right there. And I loved that because it gave
- 17:45people. Going back to your initial
- 17:47question about people don't value events that much, I think
- 17:50part of that is because they think that there's going to be a
- 17:52case that comes out of it. And we did learn to like, yes,
- 17:55have a booth or whatever that's like with a have a case sign.
- 17:59And people could come up if they did have a case and we would
- 18:02have sometimes get cases. But that was not what it was
- 18:04about. And never would we ever expect a
- 18:07case to come out of it. It was more about becoming known
- 18:12to that the people that come to the event.
- 18:14So now they know our name and we've given them a backpack or
- 18:18they've adopted this pet that we've helped facilitate the
- 18:22place where they got it from. So that leaves an impression on
- 18:25the person. And so when or if they are in an
- 18:29accident or their loved 1 is in an accident, they think of us
- 18:33and maybe they don't think of us even right away.
- 18:34But when they go to search for us and we're one of the three in
- 18:38the map pack or at the in the LS as or what we're the ones then
- 18:41being picked because there's that we planted that seed early
- 18:45on. How do you hear about us?
- 18:47This is a horrible question to ask.
- 18:49Exactly. It's a milestone in their
- 18:52journey and that's what we're trying to do with events and
- 18:54also just be part of the community.
- 18:56I think it's a good local. There's, as you know, lots of
- 19:00national players constantly coming in and and being part of
- 19:03the fabric of your community is really important to kind of
- 19:06combat that in a way, but also just being a good community
- 19:11partner in general. I see some some marketers at law
- 19:14firms and some law firm owners where they look at these
- 19:17community events and he's like, how many cases am I get out of
- 19:19this? Like you're looking at it
- 19:20completely the wrong way. It's not like should I do this
- 19:23to get more cases? It's like you have to do it and
- 19:25like you need to invest in your community.
- 19:27You need to be a part of it to be successful.
- 19:28You can't expect just to, I'll just throw an event.
- 19:31I may go get a case. I'll get some goodwill and some
- 19:33TV coverage. Like, you should invest in your
- 19:35community, and your community will take care of you if you've
- 19:37invest in them. That word invest is exactly what
- 19:40it is. It's an investment investment.
- 19:41It's not going to maybe pay off right on the moment and not even
- 19:45maybe it's not going to, but it will long term.
- 19:48And that's how you have to think about just like you think about
- 19:50your branding spent. It's like that.
- 19:52We did a podcast and with Cassie Lewis, she's a CMO.
- 19:54I love her. She's crazy.
- 19:56Right. Yes, but she invests heavily in
- 19:58community events and they've put a ton of money and time and
- 20:01effort into really digging into their community.
- 20:04They've put deep roots in there, secured them against national
- 20:07players coming in. But they have a huge amount of
- 20:11referrals, over 50% of the case, they call it Friends of the Firm
- 20:14that come in every month. And they're like ARC, it was a
- 20:17long term play. It didn't pay off overnight.
- 20:19Over years and years of putting in the effort, they are
- 20:22receiving the fruits of their labor.
- 20:24I will say the exact same thing. I've seen the same thing happen
- 20:27and we'd call them the same thing.
- 20:28Friends of the firm, So past client, current client, because
- 20:32it is marketing to them obviously too or reaching them.
- 20:34I, I should say more of but, but yeah, friends of the firm,
- 20:37people who just are raving fans of Microsoft firm because what
- 20:40we do with the, the animals or what we do with helping kids and
- 20:44families that are underprivileged.
- 20:46It's a thing, and it really does work.
- 20:48Quick question for you, I don't have to get into details.
- 20:50Was the community service events, did that come out of the
- 20:53marketing budget or is that a separate budget?
- 20:55Marketing budget. Now we did say have the Mike
- 20:58Morris Foundation. So there were instances where
- 21:01the budget would be, you know, coming out of there.
- 21:04But a lot of times there's marketing, yeah.
- 21:07One of the things I want to talk to you about is I've gotten
- 21:10really big on shifting my mindset from a marketing
- 21:13approach. Traditionally, I would say
- 21:15personal injury lawyers have been extremely heavy on direct
- 21:18response marketing. I'm going to work forever and I
- 21:20still still think it works today.
- 21:22I personally believe it's working less effectively today
- 21:24than it used to maybe five years ago.
- 21:26And I'm really big on branding or before I wasn't big on
- 21:29branding. Now I'm like, it's the future.
- 21:31What is your opinion on building a personal brand versus direct
- 21:34response marketing and how to properly maybe blend that
- 21:37together as an overall marketing strategy?
- 21:39It starts with like where is your firm at?
- 21:42If you're a newer firm and you need cases and you need like for
- 21:47financial reasons, you need cases now.
- 21:49Keep the lights on there's, you know.
- 21:50Exactly. Then you're putting a lot into
- 21:53what I would call. You're calling director
- 21:55response, I call performance marketing, but it's that PPC,
- 21:58it's the lead Gen. It's they've been injured.
- 22:01They need a lawyer now and you're at that bottom of the
- 22:04funnel. A large percent of the budget
- 22:06would go towards that type of marketing.
- 22:09When you're new or you know, getting established and have
- 22:12these financial reasons that it makes sense.
- 22:14As you grow, your budget grows too.
- 22:16So as more revenues coming into the firm, your budget then can
- 22:20evolve into being a full funnel. So now you have top of funnel
- 22:24and you have bottom of funnel and you have mid funnel.
- 22:26So that's when you start taking and putting more into brand.
- 22:32As that budget grows, as the firm grows, that's going to
- 22:35allow you to scale and it's going to make all that bottom up
- 22:37funnel marketing that you're doing work so much better.
- 22:39So a mature firm, I would say, you know, 60% at least could go
- 22:44into branding. And the more you can put into
- 22:47branding, I think the more that it's going to just benefit you
- 22:50all around. So, so that's kind of my take on
- 22:52that. And then to talk about what you
- 22:54said about I think branding is really the play right now and
- 22:57you believe so strongly in it. Yes, like with AI that those
- 23:01brands that are omnipresent, that's what's really being
- 23:04pulled in with the LLMS into the LLMS is they need to have all
- 23:08these touch points online in order to do well and show up in
- 23:12those searches. So I think that's another reason
- 23:14why branding is so important at the top and then doing that top
- 23:19of funnel and then having obviously the bottom of funnel
- 23:21to make sure you're catching the people and they actually go to
- 23:23search your name. I'm on a journey going into 2026
- 23:26to educate lawyers on like what branding is and like the new
- 23:30level of effort it takes to be successful in the marketplace.
- 23:33Filming a commercial that you call like your brand TV
- 23:36commercial is like does is not not enough.
- 23:38Filming 1 brand video that you have on your websites, it's like
- 23:413 or 5 minutes long is not creating a brand.
- 23:44It is a holistic strategy that you are making the firm known to
- 23:48the real world and as many unique touch points as possible.
- 23:52And it's going to require managing partners and the
- 23:54lawyers of the firm to be heavily involved in the branding
- 23:56exercise, which is going to take a ton of time away from their
- 23:59actual lawyering to do that. That's true.
- 24:01They're turning into legal influencers is what they're
- 24:03going to have. To be, I think the legal world
- 24:05needs that. I mean, we even my designer and
- 24:07I, when I was at Mike Moore's offering, we would talk about, I
- 24:10think you need to do like a master class.
- 24:12The designer's name is Amber. Amber.
- 24:14I think you need to do a master class just in branding like
- 24:16consistency in your branding from even like the fonts you use
- 24:20to the obviously the colors, how you use your logo in the space.
- 24:25Just think like you could niche it down clear to that level.
- 24:28And I think it would be so beneficial to a lot of law firms
- 24:32out there. Well, I think you should do
- 24:33that. Me.
- 24:35Too I nothing drives me more insane than and having two
- 24:38different fonts on something. I'm like guys.
- 24:40Yes, completely agree. Sometimes when you're doing like
- 24:43marketing and you're make trying to make an impression on
- 24:45someone, there's all these little fine touches that it's
- 24:48the last 10% of details. You have to put a ton of effort
- 24:51to always get correct that people just skip because they're
- 24:54moving fast, but makes like more of a difference than you would
- 24:56think it would. Absolutely.
- 24:58And it's funny, I, I would get told a lot like, oh, you pay so
- 25:01much attention to all these details and it's like.
- 25:04That's a good job. That's what makes the brand, you
- 25:09know, really look polished and refined and like, you know, like
- 25:12we're a solid brand that you can have confidence in is having,
- 25:15you know, that look for details. So it is kind of funny in that
- 25:18way. Some conversations I've been
- 25:19having with John is a bunch of things we were discussing right
- 25:22now going to next year is like, how do we as marketers, you
- 25:27know, for the John Mark podcast for our own clients, start
- 25:30scaling unscalable marketing efforts or interactions with
- 25:33people. How do you make personal touches
- 25:35at like that take a lot of of effort, happen more often?
- 25:40Writing a handwritten letter? Extremely difficult for people
- 25:43to do at scale. Sending a personalized gift?
- 25:46Extremely hard to do at scale and doesn't make financial sense
- 25:50sometimes but has a huge impact. Huge impact.
- 25:53And you are so right. And to be focusing on something
- 25:55like that and figuring it out because in this world where it's
- 25:58going with AII think consumers are going to start filtering out
- 26:03anything that's not personal, like personalized.
- 26:07So I. Personalized isn't like putting
- 26:09truding in the front. Filling in in an e-mail.
- 26:12No. With an auto filler.
- 26:14No, no, exactly. No, I, I just think they're
- 26:16gonna, anything that feels generic is just gonna start
- 26:18getting filtered out. So touches like that are but
- 26:21gonna become even more important.
- 26:23The 1st place my brain goes is like, you need to build a team.
- 26:26Like you need a team to do stuff like that.
- 26:27You're right, you can't just have a that automated
- 26:31necessarily if especially a handwritten note.
- 26:33So you need a team so you have the space to do that or they
- 26:36have the space to do that. But that's how I would scale
- 26:39something like that, which seems the old fashioned way at this
- 26:41point. I know everything is about AI
- 26:43and automation, but human touch things are human touch things
- 26:46and you need humans to do them. You've been in this space a long
- 26:51time. You're a seasoned vet.
- 26:52That Mike Moore's firm is some of the most well known firms in
- 26:55the entire nation. You know he has fireproof people
- 26:59Listen to him speak. He talks about his success.
- 27:01You were part of that success as they've grown.
- 27:03Would love your opinion on you know what you learn now where
- 27:06you kind of see the future going as the industry's changing.
- 27:09I think everything's going to start happening faster.
- 27:14So everything will be like think like even like Google alerts and
- 27:18having real time data and utilizing that type of data.
- 27:22I think everything's going to be more elevated just in general
- 27:26with content. I guess ultimately where I think
- 27:28things are going is I think if you're not on the forefront of
- 27:32of that stuff while also bringing in what you're talking
- 27:36about with those human touch elements.
- 27:38I think that's where marketers are going to have to figure out
- 27:41is how can we be on the forefront of of all these
- 27:44automations and elevating our content in our marketing, but
- 27:48also bring in those human touches so they can, you know,
- 27:51continue to have a connection with their with the consumers.
- 27:55It's a terrible answer, but that's my I.
- 27:57Thought it was a great answer I was listening to hanging on
- 27:59every word. Awesome.
- 28:04This was an absolutely incredible episode filled with
- 28:07Nuggets that I think anyone listening is at home taking
- 28:09notes. I thoroughly enjoy the
- 28:11conversation. I would love to do this again
- 28:13with you in a year from now to see how accurate we are with our
- 28:16predictions and our analysis on the industry, but I cannot thank
- 28:20you enough for taking time out of your day to meet with us here
- 28:22in Detroit. You have a busy morning, you are
- 28:25a busy woman and I appreciate it very much.
- 28:27Well, I truly enjoyed it too. I will be back in a year if you
- 28:30want me back in a year. This was great.
- 28:31I had a lot of fun. Thank you so much for having me.