Schedule a FREE Internet Marketing Audit

150: Case Study: How Kendelle Pollitt Grew Pier Law by 477%

Ten Golden Rules just didn’t help Kendelle Pollitt grow her law firm but we watched her become a local powerhouse in the process. In this case study, I walk you through the exact strategies we used to help Pier Law and Mediation grow 477% in just three years. From showing up in Google’s AI search to converting higher-value clients with better intake systems, we discuss what it really takes to scale with intention. We talk about what worked, what didn’t, and how focusing on the right clients, the right content, and the right systems led to exponential results. If you’re trying to grow your practice without burning out, Kendelle’s story will show you what’s possible.

Key Topics

01:29 – How Pier Law achieved 477% SEO growth and 350%+ lead increase

04:54 – Why opening in underserved communities helps growth and visibility

06:56 – Managing cross-border legal cases with US partners effectively

10:36 – Using conflict resolution training to de-escalate early in family law

13:03 – What a national award meant—and how they leveraged it for more leads

14:57 – The mindset shift from lawyer to business owner

17:22 – How niching down built consistency across locations and teams

19:43 – Why serving high-net-worth, cross-border clients works for them

20:56 – Niching helped them grow faster and made onboarding new team members easier

22:43 – SEMrush data shows 497 ranking keywords after deep SEO strategy

24:56 – How they eliminated bad leads by tightening the intake process

27:06 – Intake tips: empathetic language, follow-ups, and consistency

29:01 – Monthly performance meetings keep the team aligned and accountable

30:26 – How they landed top spots in Google’s new AI Overviews

31:46 – The secret: create Q&A videos based on common legal searches

36:18 – How those videos now bring in thousands of views and direct client leads

38:16 – Using cascading content to repurpose videos across platforms

39:28 – Local networking and giving back helped drive referrals and trust

41:13 – How to find and build COI (Centers of Influence) relationships

42:50 – Why women-led business groups like Soroptimist created deeper community roots

44:08 – Practical advice for starting out: pick one personal and one professional group

46:22 – Why board involvement leads to faster growth and better connections

48:44 – How masterminds and legal peer groups help scale smarter, not harder

52:19 – She now travels quarterly to meet her mastermind group for strategy and support

55:25 – What she looked for in choosing a good agency—and what actually mattered

58:13 – From the agency’s view: why great clients get great results

1:03:58 – The biggest growth mindset shift: “who, not how”

1:08:54 – Early steps: referral letters, community calls, and a strong website

1:13:22 – No magic bullet, but hiring the right partners made all the difference

Resources Mentioned

Books

Software/Tools

Mastermind Communities

  • Great Legal Marketing – A community for law firm owners focused on marketing, growth, and practice development. Regular mastermind events and an annual conference.  – https://www.greatlegalmarketing.com/ 

About our Guest:

Kendelle Pollitt, LLB, Q.Med. is the founder and principal of Pier Law & Mediation, based in Surrey and White Rock. A seasoned family lawyer and certified mediator, Kendelle has over 15 years of experience guiding clients through divorce, adoption, child and spousal support, custody, and complex property division, including matters involving high net worth individuals and business owners.

Her practice emphasizes personalized, strategic solutions through litigation, negotiation, and mediation. Kendelle holds a Certificate in Negotiation from Osgoode Hall Law School and has completed over 200 hours of advanced mediation training. Whether acting as an advocate or neutral mediator, she is known for her compassionate approach, deep listening, and commitment to achieving efficient, cost-effective outcomes.

https://pierfamilylawyers.com 

About Jay Berkowitz:

Jay Berkowitz is a best-selling author and popular keynote speaker. Mr. Berkowitz managed marketing departments at: Coca-Cola, Sprint and McDonald’s Restaurants, and he is the Founder and CEO of Ten Golden Rules,  a digital marketing agency specialized in working with attorneys.

Mr. Berkowitz is the author of Advanced Internet Marketing for Law Firms, The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing and 10 Free Internet Marketing Strategies that went to #1 on Amazon.  He is the host of the Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing Webinar and Podcast. He has been profiled by the Wall Street Journal, The Business Journals and FOX Business TV.

Mr. Berkowitz was selected for membership as a TITAN for Elite Digital Marketing Agencies, he is the recipient of a SOFIE Award for Most Effective use of Emerging Media, and a Special BERNAY’s Award.

Connect with Ten Golden Rules

Subscribe to Ten Golden Rules on YouTube

Check out our webinars on TenGoldenRules.com

Connect with Ten Golden Rules on LinkedIn

Follow Ten Golden Rules on Facebook

Connect with Jay Berkowitz on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcast review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. 

Transcript
Kendelle Pollitt:

We don't need to be experts in every little

Kendelle Pollitt:

aspect of our business, but we need to align with those who can

Kendelle Pollitt:

help us get the things done that we need to get done. Really, I

Kendelle Pollitt:

think the biggest thing too, is hire before you're ready,

Kendelle Pollitt:

because you're never going to feel ready. So just make that

Kendelle Pollitt:

jump, make that leap. Make an informed leap, but still make

Kendelle Pollitt:

that leap. The biggest thing too, is acknowledging your

Kendelle Pollitt:

comfort zone. Okay, well, I'm feeling nervous. I'm feeling

Kendelle Pollitt:

uncomfortable here, pushing through that comfort zone,

Kendelle Pollitt:

because if you don't push through your comfort zone,

Kendelle Pollitt:

you're never going to grow and hiring an agency, hiring people

Kendelle Pollitt:

around you. I wish we hired 10 golden rules earlier. Quite

Kendelle Pollitt:

frankly, I think we'd be further along than we are right now.

Jay Berkowitz:

Awesome. Thank you so much. You're welcome. I'm

Jay Berkowitz:

being honest. Who not? How is a great book? It is? Yeah, it's

Jay Berkowitz:

Dan Sullivan, who's originally an American, but he lives in

Jay Berkowitz:

Toronto, and his business is out of Toronto. Yeah. Of Toronto,

Jay Berkowitz:

and he has an amazing mastermind. But the concept's

Jay Berkowitz:

great. It's instead of saying, you know, I need to do this, I

Jay Berkowitz:

need to do this, always ask yourself, Who can do this? Who

Jay Berkowitz:

can I get to do this? And another I'll give you, if you

Jay Berkowitz:

haven't read Dan Martel's book, buy back your time. Another

Jay Berkowitz:

great Canadian he has a similar philosophies. Just get great

Jay Berkowitz:

people to do the work for you, and don't feel like you have to

Jay Berkowitz:

do all the work.

Jay Berkowitz:

All right, welcome everyone. So we got a really fun topic today.

Jay Berkowitz:

We're gonna We're with my friend and client, Kendelle, and she's

Jay Berkowitz:

gonna share with us her exponential growth case study,

Jay Berkowitz:

and we're both going to talk about some of the things we did

Jay Berkowitz:

to make this happen, but we have some really amazing results.

Jay Berkowitz:

253% growth in SEO, and all of her numbers are great. The

Jay Berkowitz:

number of website users and calls are like crazy, over 350%

Jay Berkowitz:

increase versus a year ago, and chats are down a little bit, but

Jay Berkowitz:

forms are up, so leads are way up, and the total leads and

Jay Berkowitz:

total cases are way up. So we'll get into how we did all of this

Jay Berkowitz:

and some of the things that you can apply for your marketing and

Jay Berkowitz:

law firms and our agenda. Today I'm we're going to do some

Jay Berkowitz:

introductions, and you'll meet Kendelle, and I'll tell you a

Jay Berkowitz:

little bit about my background. We're going to go through the

Jay Berkowitz:

awesome results, and we'll try and break down some of the

Jay Berkowitz:

things that worked really well for the firm. And one of the

Jay Berkowitz:

things that's really cool and really new is the artificial

Jay Berkowitz:

intelligence. And people also ask sections of search, and

Jay Berkowitz:

they're about 30% of the search results today. So we're going to

Jay Berkowitz:

talk about how we've achieved some great SEO results in the AI

Jay Berkowitz:

search results, like the Google version of chat GPT. We'll talk

Jay Berkowitz:

about the video strategy, cascading content and all 10

Jay Berkowitz:

golden rules meetings. We tell a joke of the week. Some people

Jay Berkowitz:

say they're dad jokes. Some people say they're bad jokes,

Jay Berkowitz:

but we got one per tradition, and really quickly, we're going

Jay Berkowitz:

to do a prize drawing at the coma conference. A couple weeks

Jay Berkowitz:

ago, we offered a YSL pert, so we're going to quickly do that

Jay Berkowitz:

so we can record it and have it online, just to make it official

Jay Berkowitz:

with that. Kendelle, welcome.

Kendelle Pollitt:

Thank you, Jay. I'm so happy to be here.

Kendelle Pollitt:

Thanks for inviting me.

Jay Berkowitz:

Oh, so I guess first things first is the prize

Jay Berkowitz:

drawing. So let's do that quickly. And I think I just have

Jay Berkowitz:

to click this. So these are all the people that came by our

Jay Berkowitz:

booth at the pilma summit, which is the personal injury lawyers

Jay Berkowitz:

marketing mastermind Association, I think,

Jay Berkowitz:

officially. And we had a booth, and we had all these folks. Just

Jay Berkowitz:

want to make sure this is the right one. Looks good. And I'm

Jay Berkowitz:

looking for people I know, but I don't know them. Anyways, here

Jay Berkowitz:

we go, and congratulations to Horace Hunter. That's pretty

Jay Berkowitz:

good, pretty fun. We'll be in touch with Horus about getting

Jay Berkowitz:

the hardware, getting the purse. So congratulations. And now back

Jay Berkowitz:

to our regular, scheduled webinar. Joke of the week, why

Jay Berkowitz:

don't lawyers wear tuxedos? Kendelle, any guesses? I don't

Jay Berkowitz:

know, Joe. They prefer lawsuits.

Kendelle Pollitt:

I'm used to saying Joe's My Account Manager,

Kendelle Pollitt:

so I usually my standard line at this stage is, I don't know,

Kendelle Pollitt:

Joe, tell me the answer.

Jay Berkowitz:

Yeah. Some people call them dad jokes, but

Jay Berkowitz:

whatever. Kendelle welcome from pure law and mediation in

Jay Berkowitz:

British Columbia, and she'll tell us a little bit about the

Jay Berkowitz:

locations. And then a couple new locations coming, including one

Jay Berkowitz:

that's the paint still dry, right? Yes, exactly, yeah. And

Jay Berkowitz:

she's a family lawyer and certified mediator Vancouver,

Jay Berkowitz:

Surrey and White Rock and the new locate. What's the the new,

Jay Berkowitz:

newest location?

Kendelle Pollitt:

So currently, we are, actually, I'm coming to

Kendelle Pollitt:

you live from Powell River, British Columbia. Yeah, Pell

Kendelle Pollitt:

river is our newest location that we are currently opening,

Kendelle Pollitt:

and we open officially on Monday, May 26 so we're really

Kendelle Pollitt:

excited about that. Congratulations, yes. Thank you

Kendelle Pollitt:

so much. So it's a fantastic community here, and they're in

Kendelle Pollitt:

need of more lawyers. We're looking forward to assisting

Kendelle Pollitt:

this community, but of course, on the horizon, we also have our

Kendelle Pollitt:

downtown Vancouver office currently in works, and so we

Kendelle Pollitt:

are in the permit stage, at this stage, trying to get permits

Kendelle Pollitt:

from the city of Vancouver.

Jay Berkowitz:

That's awesome. Congratulations. And for people

Jay Berkowitz:

who don't know, most people probably know Vancouver, very

Jay Berkowitz:

beautiful city, one of the most beautiful in the world, the

Jay Berkowitz:

Vancouver Olympics. Everybody got to see it. But tell us about

Jay Berkowitz:

the area. You're also just tap into the us a little bit as

Jay Berkowitz:

well, right?

Kendelle Pollitt:

Yeah. So actually, our original office is

Kendelle Pollitt:

in White Rock, British Columbia, and so we are. We share border

Kendelle Pollitt:

with Blaine, so right on Washington state. So our

Kendelle Pollitt:

practice is very border friendly, I guess because we

Kendelle Pollitt:

have a lot of our clients share. They have multiple homes, both

Kendelle Pollitt:

in Canada and the US. They may live in one country and work in

Kendelle Pollitt:

the other. So it's really interesting, and Vancouver

Kendelle Pollitt:

shares a lot of those characteristics. So we do lot of

Kendelle Pollitt:

cross border work. Vancouver, of course, is right on the coast of

Kendelle Pollitt:

the Pacific Ocean. So we've got and for Canada, it's one of our

Kendelle Pollitt:

big cities.

Jay Berkowitz:

Hopefully people at least know Vancouver, right?

Jay Berkowitz:

And what's the biggest difference? You explained, a lot

Jay Berkowitz:

of people, a lot of your clients, might have a business

Jay Berkowitz:

in the US live in Canada or vice versa. And sometimes it gets a

Jay Berkowitz:

little complicated when with divorces and families and assets

Jay Berkowitz:

owned in different countries. How does that work? From a legal

Jay Berkowitz:

perspective,

Kendelle Pollitt:

you know what it's just about? From our

Kendelle Pollitt:

perspective, it's about creating partnerships, and so we work

Kendelle Pollitt:

closely with lawyers in the US, and we determine which

Kendelle Pollitt:

jurisdiction is going to take hold of a particular matter. In

Kendelle Pollitt:

some instances, we have part of a case, say the parenting is

Kendelle Pollitt:

being dealt with in Washington State, and the property is being

Kendelle Pollitt:

dealt with by British Columbia. We've been known to host

Kendelle Pollitt:

mediations at my office where we've got multiple parties and,

Kendelle Pollitt:

or, sorry, multiple actors, yeah, that take part in the

Kendelle Pollitt:

litigation or the resolution process, the mediation process.

Kendelle Pollitt:

We've got lawyers from all over joining in and putting their

Kendelle Pollitt:

heads together to try and help resolve the potential. Sometimes

Kendelle Pollitt:

it can be conflictual. Of course, we're in family law.

Kendelle Pollitt:

Resolve the conflict for these people,

Jay Berkowitz:

great. And you went to the University of

Jay Berkowitz:

Saskatchewan, and this is probably pretty rare for most of

Jay Berkowitz:

the people watching this live, and sometime in the future, that

Jay Berkowitz:

two people have actually been to Winnipeg and Saskatchewan. And

Jay Berkowitz:

I'm from Winnipeg, Canada, and so I know Western Canada really

Jay Berkowitz:

well, and I've been to Saskatchewan, and most people

Jay Berkowitz:

can't even pronounce it and it, by the way, you get your your

Jay Berkowitz:

credibility, because anyone who could get through a couple years

Jay Berkowitz:

in law school in Saskatchewan, it is cold on the prairies,

Jay Berkowitz:

Canadian Prairies, maybe tell us a little bit about the law

Jay Berkowitz:

school experience in Saskatchewan.

Kendelle Pollitt:

Saskatchewan is definitely cold. So when you

Kendelle Pollitt:

think of Canada being cold, that is definitely the place, and it

Kendelle Pollitt:

certainly fits the stereotype. So I went to law school in their

Kendelle Pollitt:

city of Saskatoon. It's a very pretty city, but it does get

Kendelle Pollitt:

cold in the winter. I remember days having to park back in what

Kendelle Pollitt:

was called B lot, and by the time I got from my parking lot

Kendelle Pollitt:

to the law school, I'm slapping my legs and trying to wake

Kendelle Pollitt:

everything up. And of course, back in those days, we didn't

Kendelle Pollitt:

have weather apps and smartphones, so we would always

Kendelle Pollitt:

be checking the weather channel before we left the house to head

Kendelle Pollitt:

out to really anywhere outside of a building

Jay Berkowitz:

with you didn't really need a weather app from

Jay Berkowitz:

about November to to march. You need a scarf and gloves like no

Jay Berkowitz:

exposed skin, right? Yes, exactly, just to the east of

Jay Berkowitz:

Saskatchewan or the Province of Manitoba, where I grew up, and

Jay Berkowitz:

it's right in the middle. So if you're in the United States,

Jay Berkowitz:

it's due north of North Dakota.

Kendelle Pollitt:

Yes, exactly. But where we live, people I

Kendelle Pollitt:

usually with all my American friends. I get lots of cold

Kendelle Pollitt:

weather jokes, quite frankly, and then they're surprised to

Kendelle Pollitt:

because I'm from Canada, they're surprised to learn that I'm

Kendelle Pollitt:

actually. In Vancouver. We're fair weather people because

Kendelle Pollitt:

we're right on the west coast there, so we don't typically get

Kendelle Pollitt:

those cold weather snaps. We're get our four seasons and quite a

Kendelle Pollitt:

bit of rain. But other than that, those really cold days

Kendelle Pollitt:

don't send don't tend to impact us too much here on the west,

Kendelle Pollitt:

yeah,

Jay Berkowitz:

most days it's probably more beautiful in

Jay Berkowitz:

Vancouver than it is in the rest in half of the US. Yeah, it's

Jay Berkowitz:

beautiful place, that's for sure. And they did a certificate

Jay Berkowitz:

of negotiation at Osgoode Hall in Toronto. I also spent some

Jay Berkowitz:

time in Toronto. What was that

Kendelle Pollitt:

like? Oh, it was awesome. It's it's a great

Kendelle Pollitt:

law school, and the program was fantastic, and for me, it was

Kendelle Pollitt:

just another opportunity to build my toolbox with respect to

Kendelle Pollitt:

conflict resolution skills. So one of the things I found was,

Kendelle Pollitt:

as a young junior lawyer, learning to litigate was really

Kendelle Pollitt:

important, because it's a tough skill, and it's not necessarily

Kendelle Pollitt:

something they actually teach you in law school, really, as

Kendelle Pollitt:

all my lawyer colleagues will know, that we learn very little

Kendelle Pollitt:

of what we need to be a lawyer in law school. But yeah, the

Kendelle Pollitt:

certificate of negotiation, it was really eye opening, and it

Kendelle Pollitt:

really helped me give some scientifically backed skills to

Kendelle Pollitt:

help bring my clients towards resolution without unnecessarily

Kendelle Pollitt:

or unduly creating conflict. Right? Because, especially in

Kendelle Pollitt:

family law, really anywhere, conflict breeds conflict. So the

Kendelle Pollitt:

key is to try and resolve family law disputes as early in the

Kendelle Pollitt:

process as possible, before they can really even be characterized

Kendelle Pollitt:

as dispute. Really is my goal, and that's what that helped me

Kendelle Pollitt:

do. That certificate,

Jay Berkowitz:

awesome. I started my career also in

Jay Berkowitz:

Western Canada, in Winnipeg, and worked at Sprint and Coca Cola

Jay Berkowitz:

McDonald's as a director of marketing, before moving down to

Jay Berkowitz:

the United States and founding 10 golden rules, 23 years ago.

Jay Berkowitz:

Now, we actually met at a conference right where I did one

Jay Berkowitz:

of the speakers. And so one of the nice opportunities for me of

Jay Berkowitz:

speaking and doing this content and our YouTube channel, we have

Jay Berkowitz:

over a million views, which is amazing to me every time I see

Jay Berkowitz:

it. If you're watching this sometime in the future, not

Jay Berkowitz:

watching it live, we'll be putting it on our YouTube

Jay Berkowitz:

channel, but we do these webinars every month, trying to

Jay Berkowitz:

do what I call thought leadership marketing, where we

Jay Berkowitz:

share our expertise, and hopefully it puts a positive

Jay Berkowitz:

light on 10 golden rules. Without further ado, let's have

Jay Berkowitz:

a quick peek at the website and big congratulations. Actually,

Jay Berkowitz:

you were one of Canada's top growing companies last year the

Jay Berkowitz:

Globe and Mail is like the big national paper in Canada. Yes,

Jay Berkowitz:

congratulations, and you had a party and had some press around

Jay Berkowitz:

that. How did that go? Oh, it

Kendelle Pollitt:

was awesome. It was such a great experience.

Kendelle Pollitt:

And I think, yeah, we definitely had a celebration for that

Kendelle Pollitt:

award. We were recognized for 477% growth over the past three

Kendelle Pollitt:

years. So that was, from our perspective, quite an

Kendelle Pollitt:

accomplishment. And we definitely had a community

Kendelle Pollitt:

celebration, because, of course, pure law and mediation is a

Kendelle Pollitt:

community law firm, and without our community, we wouldn't be

Kendelle Pollitt:

able to be where we are. And I'm just so lucky to have business

Kendelle Pollitt:

offices in communities that are just so supportive of small

Kendelle Pollitt:

business. And so we really wanted to celebrate the impact

Kendelle Pollitt:

for not only pure Law Mediation, but also for our communities,

Kendelle Pollitt:

our small communities being recognized nationally.

Jay Berkowitz:

And one of the things we always say, and we

Jay Berkowitz:

talked about this when you got the nomination, is it's great to

Jay Berkowitz:

get an award like that, but one of the things that you can

Jay Berkowitz:

really take advantage of is tell people about it, have a party,

Jay Berkowitz:

press releases and social media and stuff like that. That's one

Jay Berkowitz:

of the benefits. And I'm sure that worked really well for you

Jay Berkowitz:

guys.

Kendelle Pollitt:

Certainly, yeah, we took a multifaceted

Kendelle Pollitt:

approach to really capitalize on that opportunity. But of course,

Kendelle Pollitt:

10 golden rules was an integral partner to us in making sure

Kendelle Pollitt:

that happens. I know you and I, J had quite a few talks about

Kendelle Pollitt:

this. Okay, how are we going to leverage this award in terms of

Kendelle Pollitt:

letting others know it's one thing to be a good law firm to

Kendelle Pollitt:

be a good lawyer, but in order for us to be successful, we need

Kendelle Pollitt:

to let people know that we are doing a good job and that they

Kendelle Pollitt:

can trust us with their legal problem. And certainly, yeah, we

Kendelle Pollitt:

had lots of talks around how to leverage that opportunity, and

Kendelle Pollitt:

I'm really happy with with the results of those campaigns.

Jay Berkowitz:

Yeah, so by extension, that's one of. The

Jay Berkowitz:

things that I always coach people on is, if you do anything

Jay Berkowitz:

like win an award, win a huge case, sponsor the 5k even,

Jay Berkowitz:

sponsor the local baseball team, yeah, you want to do about as

Jay Berkowitz:

spend as much money on the award or the sponsor sponsorship as

Jay Berkowitz:

you spend on marketing it and telling people about it. There's

Jay Berkowitz:

nothing wrong with that, certainly if it's in your social

Jay Berkowitz:

media and your marketing, and if it's a bigger deal, make do a

Jay Berkowitz:

press release, and that works really well.

Kendelle Pollitt:

Yeah, I think one of the things I've had to

Kendelle Pollitt:

get over as a business lawyer is, especially as a female, we

Kendelle Pollitt:

tend to not want to brag about ourselves. But it took me a

Kendelle Pollitt:

while to get my mind around that concept and realize that by

Kendelle Pollitt:

letting people know we're doing a good job, we're helping them

Kendelle Pollitt:

to find us and find a service provider that's trustworthy and

Kendelle Pollitt:

can actually serve them in the best way possible. So I think

Kendelle Pollitt:

that mindset shift really helped me really get away from just the

Kendelle Pollitt:

lawyer mindset where I'm just sitting down, grinding away,

Kendelle Pollitt:

doing a good job for people, but also to the business owner

Kendelle Pollitt:

mindset, where I'm thinking, Okay, how do I best let people

Kendelle Pollitt:

know that I am doing a good job, and my firm is a good, reliable

Kendelle Pollitt:

firm to assist you with so that,

Jay Berkowitz:

yeah, you're right. I remember that sometimes

Jay Berkowitz:

it takes time when you start a business to realize that there's

Jay Berkowitz:

absolutely nothing wrong with social media content and

Jay Berkowitz:

publishing content, and particularly what I call thought

Jay Berkowitz:

leadership, like if you share valuable information, there's

Jay Berkowitz:

absolutely nothing wrong with that, and got to step up and do

Jay Berkowitz:

it. So one of the things we talked about, and I asked

Jay Berkowitz:

Kendelle to share as many tips for law firms that are maybe

Jay Berkowitz:

just starting out or into their first couple of years and

Jay Berkowitz:

haven't had the kind of success she's had. What are some of the

Jay Berkowitz:

things that work the best for you? And you talked about

Jay Berkowitz:

identifying the persona of the firm and really figuring out

Jay Berkowitz:

your niche or niche, depending on which country you're watching

Jay Berkowitz:

this in. And we've had a lot of success with niching down to

Jay Berkowitz:

lawyers as well. But I'll let you talk about finding the

Jay Berkowitz:

persona for the firm,

Kendelle Pollitt:

yeah, for me. So we are a family law firm, and

Kendelle Pollitt:

we have just recently expanded our services to include wills

Kendelle Pollitt:

and estates. But from my perspective, it still fits in

Kendelle Pollitt:

with that niche, because what we do is we serve families, and we

Kendelle Pollitt:

help families plan for their futures and have safe, secure

Kendelle Pollitt:

and really fulfilling futures, really, whether it be through

Kendelle Pollitt:

they are going through a family transition, through divorce and

Kendelle Pollitt:

separation, or they're planning for The future when they're no

Kendelle Pollitt:

longer here with us and planning for their families. So that was

Kendelle Pollitt:

a really big I think that key niching down really helped us

Kendelle Pollitt:

with the growth. Because in order to be successful, from my

Kendelle Pollitt:

perspective, we need to be able there's just so much to do

Kendelle Pollitt:

really right? And so if you're trying to be the jack of all

Kendelle Pollitt:

trades and be good at everything, it's really almost

Kendelle Pollitt:

impossible. So when you really niche down and you say, Okay,

Kendelle Pollitt:

this is what I'm focusing on. Then from there, you have the

Kendelle Pollitt:

time and the energy and the resources to okay, what is going

Kendelle Pollitt:

to be my process around this one aspect of my practice area? How

Kendelle Pollitt:

am I going to make sure that everyone in my firm and everyone

Kendelle Pollitt:

around me is carrying out this service in a consistent manner,

Kendelle Pollitt:

so that we can provide the same level of service, regardless of

Kendelle Pollitt:

whether or not you get Kendelle or another lawyer at the firm,

Kendelle Pollitt:

or you are in our downtown urban firm of Vancouver, or you're in

Kendelle Pollitt:

our small town firm of Pell river. So I think that is really

Kendelle Pollitt:

important, and it also helps you streamline your marketing

Kendelle Pollitt:

message. Again, it's about letting people know that you are

Kendelle Pollitt:

someone who can be trusted and you know what you're doing and

Kendelle Pollitt:

you can really help them. And by letting people know that you are

Kendelle Pollitt:

the right person to help them, that is giving back to them,

Kendelle Pollitt:

we're we're helping people know who to go to get an efficient

Kendelle Pollitt:

and effective service,

Jay Berkowitz:

and that's one of the things that helped us a lot,

Jay Berkowitz:

is like you really figured out your persona, or some people

Jay Berkowitz:

call it an avatar, which is basically like your target

Jay Berkowitz:

consumer. Yes, we actually didn't nail it. Maybe in our

Jay Berkowitz:

first meeting, it took a couple of meetings and a couple months

Jay Berkowitz:

to really. Really hone in on the advertising, the messaging and

Jay Berkowitz:

the good news is you guys, pretty much had it figured out

Jay Berkowitz:

that someone a couple with high net worth is a much better

Jay Berkowitz:

persona for you than a young couple with no kids who are just

Jay Berkowitz:

separating they don't have a high interest or a high

Jay Berkowitz:

financial investment in in getting that divorce or even

Jay Berkowitz:

getting a prenuptial. And

Kendelle Pollitt:

for us, I think just given the location,

Kendelle Pollitt:

the geographic location of our office locations, as well as the

Kendelle Pollitt:

expertise of our lawyers, what we excel at is the property, the

Kendelle Pollitt:

difficult property division issues. So if you've got

Kendelle Pollitt:

businesses and you've got cross border issues, that's what we

Kendelle Pollitt:

excel at. And so for us to try and find those clients that we

Kendelle Pollitt:

can best serve for the issues we know best has really helped us

Kendelle Pollitt:

with our success.

Jay Berkowitz:

And for us, we picked the lawyer niche over

Jay Berkowitz:

five years ago now, and we'd been working with lawyers for

Jay Berkowitz:

1617, 18 years, and we heard this term, there's riches in the

Jay Berkowitz:

niches. And I started hearing from a couple different sources

Jay Berkowitz:

that there's a lot of value in in really focusing on one niche.

Jay Berkowitz:

And I met a software company that sold for three, $60 million

Jay Berkowitz:

and they only did software for one industry. It was

Jay Berkowitz:

construction software. And I met a bunch of agencies, other

Jay Berkowitz:

digital agencies, that only focused on one niche, and I was

Jay Berkowitz:

hesitant, but when I picked the one niche, we get a lot more

Jay Berkowitz:

referrals, because people know Jay and 10 golden rules does

Jay Berkowitz:

Internet Marketing for law firms, and I gave up if there's

Jay Berkowitz:

200 si si codes, I gave up 199 si si codes. But since we've

Jay Berkowitz:

been focused on the niche, we get more referrals. And the

Jay Berkowitz:

other thing that I knew we'd get better at doing lawyer marketing

Jay Berkowitz:

if we were focused but the one thing I didn't realize is would

Jay Berkowitz:

be a lot easier for my team, because that's all they do, and

Jay Berkowitz:

that's what they're really good at. They don't have to. In the

Jay Berkowitz:

old days, we had to figure out Amazon stores and E commerce and

Jay Berkowitz:

affiliate marketing, and every day the client had a brand new

Jay Berkowitz:

set of needs. But now we pretty much get great at doing the one

Jay Berkowitz:

thing do it really well over and over. Any, any last thoughts on

Jay Berkowitz:

picking the niche.

Kendelle Pollitt:

I think, really, it's just picking what

Kendelle Pollitt:

you're good at, picking what will get you out of bed in the

Kendelle Pollitt:

morning, and then just focusing on it, going forward, embracing

Kendelle Pollitt:

it. Sometimes it's just making the decision and then being

Kendelle Pollitt:

confident the decision and just going with it really

Jay Berkowitz:

all right, so we promised some awesome results,

Jay Berkowitz:

and talk a little bit about the numbers and how we got there.

Jay Berkowitz:

The first headline is, and this is a tool called sem rush. It's

Jay Berkowitz:

a public tool. So these are the SEO results, and we, when we

Jay Berkowitz:

started out, you all had relatively few keywords that

Jay Berkowitz:

were coming up on the first page of Google. And what this means

Jay Berkowitz:

is we had about 12 keywords on the first two pages of Google,

Jay Berkowitz:

and some of the SERP features are things like Google Maps and

Jay Berkowitz:

things like that, the green number, and now we're into like

Jay Berkowitz:

the 497 results, really effective. And a lot of times

Jay Berkowitz:

when you get keyword growth, it doesn't necessarily equal

Jay Berkowitz:

traffic. So you've got to have the right keywords. You've got

Jay Berkowitz:

to be ranking for things that people are searching for

Jay Berkowitz:

relative to your practice area. But fortunately, we've got the

Jay Berkowitz:

messaging right, and we'll show you some more examples of that

Jay Berkowitz:

in a minute. The website traffic is up 56% year over year, the

Jay Berkowitz:

phone calls are way up, and the key things we measure are like

Jay Berkowitz:

website traffic, but more important are the calls, chats

Jay Berkowitz:

and forums. And even more important is how many of those

Jay Berkowitz:

folks became new clients. We also break down the difference

Jay Berkowitz:

in the traffic between just overall, and there's other

Jay Berkowitz:

sources of traffic, like people who come directly to the

Jay Berkowitz:

website, people who are referred by other websites, like they go

Jay Berkowitz:

to the Bar Association or fine law or the Globe and Mail

Jay Berkowitz:

newsletter would be a referral, if people look for the fastest

Jay Berkowitz:

growing companies and came to the website. But we at tingle

Jay Berkowitz:

the rules, we focus a lot on the organic traffic. So how many

Jay Berkowitz:

people came from free Google searches? So that's up 100%

Jay Berkowitz:

where the overall website traffic's up 56% so as a

Jay Berkowitz:

percentage, you're getting a lot more of those opportunities for

Jay Berkowitz:

free. Really good for business. And then this chart is the total

Jay Berkowitz:

leads and clients retained, and we've continued to grow over the

Jay Berkowitz:

past. I guess this is a year and a bit now, we keep updating

Jay Berkowitz:

these slides, and you're getting more leads and signing more

Jay Berkowitz:

clients. What have you seen with the marketing and the results?

Jay Berkowitz:

What's worked the best from your side?

Kendelle Pollitt:

I think the big thing for us is you. Yes,

Kendelle Pollitt:

getting more leads, but it's not just more leads from our

Kendelle Pollitt:

perspective, it's the right leads. Jay, you may remember

Kendelle Pollitt:

this, but before we hired you, we had hired another company

Kendelle Pollitt:

that I had found on, I can't remember, right? I just found

Kendelle Pollitt:

them online, and I spoke to the owner, and I talked to him about

Kendelle Pollitt:

the kind of clients we're looking for what we were doing,

Kendelle Pollitt:

and it just didn't once I got off that initial phone call with

Kendelle Pollitt:

the owner of the company and was passed on to someone else,

Kendelle Pollitt:

really, I was put in with someone who had no idea really

Kendelle Pollitt:

about lawyer marketing and lawyer leads and lawyer or any

Kendelle Pollitt:

really idea about my business, and didn't, quite frankly, care

Kendelle Pollitt:

to learn about it. So we kept getting all these leads and all

Kendelle Pollitt:

these phone calls, and we kept getting all these phone calls

Kendelle Pollitt:

people looking for free lawyer and legal aid lawyers, and we

Kendelle Pollitt:

don't do legal aid at my firm. And so I was like, What the

Kendelle Pollitt:

heck's going on? We looked into it. And I guess because the

Kendelle Pollitt:

keywords from the marketing agency's perspective was like,

Kendelle Pollitt:

there's a lot of people looking for a pro bono lawyer, so then

Kendelle Pollitt:

they were marketing me towards pro bono lawyers. I was like,

Kendelle Pollitt:

No, that is not my avatar client. We have a business we

Kendelle Pollitt:

need to get paid for our work, and I was paying money for these

Kendelle Pollitt:

leads. From my perspective, there's a lot more to it than

Kendelle Pollitt:

just the numbers, which are good and I'm happy with but it's also

Kendelle Pollitt:

about the kinds of clients that are coming to our website and

Kendelle Pollitt:

calling the office.

Jay Berkowitz:

And the one thing we really focus on is trying to

Jay Berkowitz:

get phone calls, because typically, a phone call is much

Jay Berkowitz:

better than a form fill. These days, someone fills out a form a

Jay Berkowitz:

lot of times you call them back and they don't even pick up the

Jay Berkowitz:

phone. And I know you guys have done a lot of work and worked

Jay Berkowitz:

with our team on intake and answering the phone and making

Jay Berkowitz:

sure you're not missing calls and converting those calls a

Jay Berkowitz:

little bit better. So maybe talk about some tips for folks about

Jay Berkowitz:

how to answer the phone and go from a lead to a assigned

Jay Berkowitz:

client.

Kendelle Pollitt:

First thing we do is every time we take a phone

Kendelle Pollitt:

call, if it's someone who is looking for a lawyer, then we

Kendelle Pollitt:

ask for the name and phone number first, in case we get

Kendelle Pollitt:

disconnected, and then that way we can reach out to them again.

Kendelle Pollitt:

I think the big thing that has been really instrumental for us

Kendelle Pollitt:

is getting a system in place for follow ups and training staff on

Kendelle Pollitt:

how to connect with people, potential clients on the phone,

Kendelle Pollitt:

right from the get go, learning and training staff to really

Kendelle Pollitt:

listen to the clients, make those empathetic statements when

Kendelle Pollitt:

appropriate, so that they know that they've touched they've

Kendelle Pollitt:

called the right place, they've made the right touch point,

Kendelle Pollitt:

they've reached the right law firm for them, and it's made we

Kendelle Pollitt:

are the ones who can help them, because we understand where

Kendelle Pollitt:

they're coming from. So I think that's been a big game changer

Kendelle Pollitt:

for us. But like everything, especially as the firm grows and

Kendelle Pollitt:

evolves, our our systems become more sophisticated, and the we

Kendelle Pollitt:

talked about this a year and a half ago, Jay and we were

Kendelle Pollitt:

working on it, and then, most recently, a couple of meetings

Kendelle Pollitt:

ago, we're looking okay, what's going on with intake? How can we

Kendelle Pollitt:

approve again? And how can we evolve this system? And how can

Kendelle Pollitt:

we again, dig in, see what's working, see what's not working,

Kendelle Pollitt:

and how can we improve upon it? So it's all a process. Nothing

Kendelle Pollitt:

is ever perfect, because as our firm changes, the processes grow

Kendelle Pollitt:

and evolve with us. But those are some of the things that we

Kendelle Pollitt:

do at pure law that have made a really big impact on really

Kendelle Pollitt:

catching those clients right from the first phone call and

Kendelle Pollitt:

getting them into our pipeline.

Jay Berkowitz:

Yeah, tracking super important, and a lot of

Jay Berkowitz:

this data we go through every month in our performance

Jay Berkowitz:

meeting. And one of my mentors has a great line. He says, what

Jay Berkowitz:

gets measured gets attention and improves. And I'm sure you all

Jay Berkowitz:

have some key performance indicators you look at as a

Jay Berkowitz:

company, but at least every month, like you're going to find

Jay Berkowitz:

out from us how many leads you got, how many calls, how many

Jay Berkowitz:

chats, how many phone calls, and we provide that in a shared

Jay Berkowitz:

Google Sheet, and then your team tells us which of those leads

Jay Berkowitz:

were converted. But I think the attention on that number every

Jay Berkowitz:

month probably holds your team accountable, right?

Kendelle Pollitt:

Yeah, it does, and it helps us realize, okay,

Kendelle Pollitt:

what's working or what's not, or okay, why are the phone calls

Kendelle Pollitt:

down this month? Or what did we do really well that we were

Kendelle Pollitt:

getting more leads those kinds of things, okay? Or also, it

Kendelle Pollitt:

helps us, you and I and our account manager, Joe and grant

Kendelle Pollitt:

will. Uh, we'll look at something, if the numbers are

Kendelle Pollitt:

down or looking a little bit funny for the month, we'll

Kendelle Pollitt:

discuss it, what's going on, what's happening, and how can we

Kendelle Pollitt:

fix it? Is it an anomaly? Is it because summer holidays are

Kendelle Pollitt:

coming up and people are just putting off divorce until kids

Kendelle Pollitt:

go back to school? Or is it something we need to look at and

Kendelle Pollitt:

adjust, so that's really helpful for us.

Jay Berkowitz:

Okay, great. Next up is a couple really cool SEO

Jay Berkowitz:

results that I teased in the opening. And this is the new

Jay Berkowitz:

Google AI overview. And this is a search for separation in BC,

Jay Berkowitz:

Canada, and you guys are getting, I don't know, like, 50

Jay Berkowitz:

of these really great results. And this is basically like a

Jay Berkowitz:

chat GPT. And you probably, everyone's probably started

Jay Berkowitz:

seeing these. And basically what Google is doing, and chat GPT

Jay Berkowitz:

does, is they read the Internet, and then they use artificial

Jay Berkowitz:

intelligence, AI to compile an answer. Now there's good and

Jay Berkowitz:

bad, right? If they do a really good job answering the question,

Jay Berkowitz:

a lot of people aren't going to click and go to a website, but

Jay Berkowitz:

the good news is, if they use your website to compile the

Jay Berkowitz:

answer, and if we click here to see show more, we see that your

Jay Berkowitz:

website came up as one of the the websites Google used to

Jay Berkowitz:

create this answer. And each of these links, by the way, is a

Jay Berkowitz:

link to a website, and most consumers are just getting the

Jay Berkowitz:

hang of this, right? This is really new. Google introduced it

Jay Berkowitz:

about mid year last year, and had some stumbles out of the

Jay Berkowitz:gate. So really it was:Jay Berkowitz:

more and more, and the AI is pretty good now, and the AI is

Jay Berkowitz:

just going to get smarter and smarter, because the AI learns

Jay Berkowitz:

from people like they if the answer is really good, and the

Jay Berkowitz:

person clicks on a few of the websites, they know they got the

Jay Berkowitz:

answer right, if the answer is not right, and they keep

Jay Berkowitz:

refining the question by doing an additional search, Google

Jay Berkowitz:

knows that they didn't get the answer right, and the AI learns

Jay Berkowitz:

from all that. Another similar area of success we've had is you

Jay Berkowitz:

guys are coming up in a lot of what we call PAA in the

Jay Berkowitz:

industry. People also ask. So this is a paid ad, and then this

Jay Berkowitz:

is like the number one answer, and they actually pulled a

Jay Berkowitz:

snippet from your website. So Google's actually saying your

Jay Berkowitz:

website has the best answer to the question, prenuptial

Jay Berkowitz:

agreement, BC, Canada. And these are other variations. People

Jay Berkowitz:

also ask similar variants of this, and then your main website

Jay Berkowitz:

comes up also in the SEO results. So this is like a dream

Jay Berkowitz:

result, where you're right at the top of the page and Google's

Jay Berkowitz:

pointing you up. Of course, it's really nice to have great

Jay Berkowitz:

results, but the question is, how do we get there? And one of

Jay Berkowitz:

the secrets, and Kendelle has done an amazing job at this, is

Jay Berkowitz:

we do Q and A videos, Question and Answer videos. And the

Jay Berkowitz:

rationale is essentially, when someone does a Google query,

Jay Berkowitz:

they're asking a question like, prenuptial agreement, BC Canada.

Jay Berkowitz:

Or do I need a prenuptial How do I do pre nup true? How much does

Jay Berkowitz:

a prenuptial cost? Or here it is, do prenups hold up in court?

Jay Berkowitz:

Can a prenup have a cheating clause? Do you need a lawyer for

Jay Berkowitz:

prenup in Canada? And so we take a lot of these questions, and a

Jay Berkowitz:

lot of times, when you type something, Google shows you

Jay Berkowitz:

additional suggestions. It's called Google Suggest. We take a

Jay Berkowitz:

lot of those questions, and then we just generally take a lot of

Jay Berkowitz:

keywords that we want to be ranking for, and we do Q and A

Jay Berkowitz:

videos. So Kendelle sits down once every three months, we send

Jay Berkowitz:

a videographer into her office. We attend by zoom, so we're like

Jay Berkowitz:

the directors of the video shoot, but it's pretty simple.

Jay Berkowitz:

And then Kendelle records question and answers for these

Jay Berkowitz:

simple questions, right? Do mothers get custody by default?

Jay Berkowitz:

British Columbia divorce? What rights do I have in British

Jay Berkowitz:

Columbia in a split if we live together but never married. And

Jay Berkowitz:

you see some of these are getting amazing traction. This

Jay Berkowitz:one has:Jay Berkowitz:

simply. We do some more sexier social media stuff too. But

Jay Berkowitz:

essentially, the design here is that if someone comes into your

Jay Berkowitz:

office, and this is Kendelle, is boardroom, they're going to ask

Jay Berkowitz:

a question, and you're going to answer the question anything. Or

Jay Berkowitz:

maybe I'll, should I play one first? Or do you want to talk

Jay Berkowitz:

about it first? Oh,

Kendelle Pollitt:

gosh, do we have to?

Jay Berkowitz:

Oh yeah, you do great. You do great. So we'll

Jay Berkowitz:

just play a minute of it. I'm going to make sure I have the

Jay Berkowitz:

video shared.

Kendelle Pollitt:

As family lawyers, we commonly get the

Kendelle Pollitt:

question, What rights do I have in British Columbia, in a split

Kendelle Pollitt:

if we live together but never got married? In British

Kendelle Pollitt:

Columbia, we have the Family Law Act, and the Family Law Act sets

Kendelle Pollitt:

out a property regime. Name That applies to both married couples

Kendelle Pollitt:

and couples who lived together in a marriage like relationship.

Kendelle Pollitt:

So what's a marriage like relationship in order to be

Kendelle Pollitt:

considered a spouse living in

Jay Berkowitz:

all right, I'll let you off the hook, Kendelle,

Jay Berkowitz:at news is that if these have:Jay Berkowitz:

like these videos. And what the reason I know that is because

Jay Berkowitz:

the way the algorithm works is if people watch them, and they

Jay Berkowitz:

watch them through and then they watch a couple more videos, that

Jay Berkowitz:

means that people are using these as an asset. They're using

Jay Berkowitz:

it to build the knowledge base, and a lot of times, Kendelle,

Jay Berkowitz:

I'm sure you get calls and people said they watched the

Jay Berkowitz:

videos, right? Yes, yeah, it's talk to us. It's we're tough on

Jay Berkowitz:

you. We make you record these videos, but we do a little

Jay Berkowitz:

rehearsal in advance. We give you the questions in advance.

Jay Berkowitz:

And essentially the design is you just have to answer

Jay Berkowitz:

questions that you ask all the time. Literally, if a client

Jay Berkowitz:

calls in or is sitting in your boardroom, you're answering

Jay Berkowitz:

questions that people have on the tip of their tongue. So talk

Jay Berkowitz:

about it from your side of the table.

Kendelle Pollitt:

Yes, it feels a little different when you've

Kendelle Pollitt:

got a room full of people recording you and listening. I

Kendelle Pollitt:

think that video was probably one of my first videos, and it

Kendelle Pollitt:

was very uncomfortable. I think I described it to a kin as a

Kendelle Pollitt:

torture, but it's gotten easier and easier as we've gone along.

Kendelle Pollitt:

And yeah, I don't know they're good. It's people like them. It

Kendelle Pollitt:

helps. It helps people to answer questions that they have,

Jay Berkowitz:

yeah, and hopefully you've heard this,

Jay Berkowitz:

clients tell me all the time, Jay, thank you for getting me to

Jay Berkowitz:

do those videos. We just got a great case, and our client said

Jay Berkowitz:

she watched four or five of the videos, and she knew we were the

Jay Berkowitz:

right lawyer for them, and I, and these videos are on YouTube,

Jay Berkowitz:

they're on the website, and then we use them in all the social

Jay Berkowitz:

media we it's a concept we call cascading content. So we start,

Jay Berkowitz:

we put post the video on YouTube, we search engine

Jay Berkowitz:

optimize it, so we use keywords, and literally, we use the

Jay Berkowitz:

question as the title of the video. So we're actually doing

Jay Berkowitz:

search engine optimization against a question, not a

Jay Berkowitz:

keyword. And Google, in the last four or five years has built

Jay Berkowitz:

semantics into their SEO, meaning that the human language

Jay Berkowitz:

like semantics is like the understanding of human language,

Jay Berkowitz:

so they understand questions where, if you think back five or

Jay Berkowitz:

10 years ago, you had to put in like family lawyer for

Jay Berkowitz:

prenuptial agreement. White Rock, British Columbia. Like to

Jay Berkowitz:

get a really good search result, you had to be super specific.

Jay Berkowitz:

But now you could just say, obviously, like, what do I need

Jay Berkowitz:

for prenuptial in British Columbia and Kendelle site pops

Jay Berkowitz:

up because we've answered that question, or Google's determined

Jay Berkowitz:

that the website has the best answer, or in the case of the

Jay Berkowitz:

AI, they've used your website and the information on your

Jay Berkowitz:

website and judged it to be part of the correct answer to the

Jay Berkowitz:

question. That's super valuable. And have folks commented that

Jay Berkowitz:

they've watched your videos before, you've met them and stuff?

Kendelle Pollitt:

Uh, yes, we've got, we have got a few comments

Kendelle Pollitt:

like that,

Jay Berkowitz:

hopefully more to come as you keep coming up with

Jay Berkowitz:

these AI results. So just a quick example of what the

Jay Berkowitz:

cascading content looks like. So basically, the concept of

Jay Berkowitz:

cascading is like a river goes over a waterfall and creates a

Jay Berkowitz:

bunch of small rivers and tributaries and little

Jay Berkowitz:

waterfalls and little pools of water, we would start with

Jay Berkowitz:

either a YouTube video or a blog post. In this case, this was the

Jay Berkowitz:

winner, the information about the report on business and being

Jay Berkowitz:

part of Canada's top growing companies. And so we use that

Jay Berkowitz:

consistently on Facebook, on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on the

Jay Berkowitz:

blog, on in, in the monthly newsletter. And so basically,

Jay Berkowitz:

the the the waterfall is the blog post in this case, or the

Jay Berkowitz:

YouTube video, and then we cascade it through all the

Jay Berkowitz:

social media. So it's super effective, super cost effective

Jay Berkowitz:

and super easy. Another area that you've been super

Jay Berkowitz:

successful in is networking and community building. And maybe

Jay Berkowitz:

you could share some tips on how you build the business through

Jay Berkowitz:

the network and through the community.

Kendelle Pollitt:

Yeah, I think what we try to focus on is

Kendelle Pollitt:

really a multifaceted approach to sharing information about the

Kendelle Pollitt:

firm. Networking and involvement in the community has been a huge

Kendelle Pollitt:

aspect of pure lawn mediation, marketing strategy, growth

Kendelle Pollitt:

strategy, and is a driving force, really, for our success.

Kendelle Pollitt:

I think we contribute a lot to the communities that we serve.

Kendelle Pollitt:

So that means we provide scholarships to high schools.

Kendelle Pollitt:

Students in our local area, we sponsor many community events.

Kendelle Pollitt:

We make an effort to go out into the community, be seen, be

Kendelle Pollitt:

present, and get to know the people in our community and some

Kendelle Pollitt:

of the CO wise in the community, so our message can be spread

Kendelle Pollitt:

exponentially, as opposed to just through our word of mouth.

Kendelle Pollitt:

So it's really, I think the networking and the community

Kendelle Pollitt:

piece and giving back to our community has really been

Kendelle Pollitt:

instrumental in terms of our growth. For sure, another idea

Kendelle Pollitt:

that we have is we do our monthly library sessions, so we

Kendelle Pollitt:

call them, ask a lawyer, or we have in twas, and we've got,

Kendelle Pollitt:

sometimes you've got ask a paralegal. And so we it's, from

Kendelle Pollitt:

my perspective, access to justice is a huge issue, and so

Kendelle Pollitt:

that's how we give back.

Jay Berkowitz:

What's a COI

Kendelle Pollitt:

center of influence? I know these words

Kendelle Pollitt:

now, all these acronyms.

Jay Berkowitz:

How do you identify the centers of

Jay Berkowitz:

influence, and how do you connect with those folks?

Kendelle Pollitt:

I think the more you get out into the

Kendelle Pollitt:

community, and the more you start to network, the more you

Kendelle Pollitt:

become exposed to those people who are also out in the

Kendelle Pollitt:

community and networking. And so I think there's no real strategy

Kendelle Pollitt:

that I have on identifying a COI, but really just getting out

Kendelle Pollitt:

there and seeing who's the more people you know, the more you're

Kendelle Pollitt:

out there, putting yourself out into the community, the more

Kendelle Pollitt:

people are going to recommend you to others in their circle.

Jay Berkowitz:

So these are other lawyers, accountants, who

Jay Berkowitz:

are other good Cois

Kendelle Pollitt:

for you, for us? Yeah, definitely. Other

Kendelle Pollitt:

lawyers, accountants, counselors are a big source of client

Kendelle Pollitt:

referrals for us and just other business owners. Quite frankly,

Kendelle Pollitt:

because we're a business owner, we're out there in the community

Kendelle Pollitt:

trying to get our name out there. And one thing I found is

Kendelle Pollitt:

business owners are just so supportive of each other, and so

Kendelle Pollitt:

we want to help everyone we know how hard it is and the struggle

Kendelle Pollitt:

and the grind. And so when we can help others be successful,

Kendelle Pollitt:

it feels good. So I think other business owners are also a huge

Kendelle Pollitt:

COI for us.

Jay Berkowitz:

And where do you find these folks, like chambers

Jay Berkowitz:

of commerce, and even you're a mom too. We skipped that part,

Jay Berkowitz:

soccer moms and things like that. Like, where do you find

Jay Berkowitz:

these COI relationships?

Kendelle Pollitt:

Well, I spend a lot of time attending industry

Kendelle Pollitt:

events, so actually getting out, meeting my colleagues who are

Kendelle Pollitt:

also lawyers, those are really important. I think, from my

Kendelle Pollitt:

perspective, they've helped our business grow, getting out to

Kendelle Pollitt:

Chamber of Commerce events, going to local community galas,

Kendelle Pollitt:

participating in charities. I am a member of the Soroptimists,

Kendelle Pollitt:

which is similar to rotary, but it's Women's International

Kendelle Pollitt:

Organization, and we work on those issues that are important

Kendelle Pollitt:

to women, so I think those are important for us. Was there any

Kendelle Pollitt:

one group that is hit the ball out of the park type group? No,

Kendelle Pollitt:

but I think again, we it's again coming down to that multifaceted

Kendelle Pollitt:

approach and just getting out there, meeting people, and

Kendelle Pollitt:

always remembering to be kind and nice and welcoming to

Kendelle Pollitt:

others. Because if we're welcoming and supporting to

Kendelle Pollitt:

others, we get what we receive what we give. And so that's my

Kendelle Pollitt:

philosophy. I'm always trying to give and help others, and I've

Kendelle Pollitt:

been very fortunate that I've had the same kind of support

Kendelle Pollitt:

come back to me. And if

Jay Berkowitz:

you're just getting started, one of the

Jay Berkowitz:

simple things is pick one personal and one professional

Jay Berkowitz:

group and get a little bit more involved. A lot of people think

Jay Berkowitz:

they can just show up at the Bar Association once a month, and

Jay Berkowitz:

that's networking. And by the way, they often show up right

Jay Berkowitz:

when the event starts and leave right when it ends. And but

Jay Berkowitz:

that's not going to be super effective, so you want to be one

Jay Berkowitz:

of the first people in the room, because the best networking

Jay Berkowitz:

starts before the educational component starts, or before the

Jay Berkowitz:

speaker starts. And you meet people at the coat check, at the

Jay Berkowitz:

line for cocktails or the buffet or whatever, whatever type of

Jay Berkowitz:

event it is. And I always say, have a very simple goal that you

Jay Berkowitz:

want to follow up with, meet people and then follow up with

Jay Berkowitz:

two people after the event. So yes, you want to have a one on

Jay Berkowitz:

one, where you have a coffee or you have a Zoom meeting. And get

Jay Berkowitz:

to know them a little bit better. So in Kendelle's case,

Jay Berkowitz:

she'd be looking for COI centers of influence, accountants,

Jay Berkowitz:

counselors, the other attorneys. Because obviously, if you're a

Jay Berkowitz:

personal injury lawyer, you're not going to handle a divorce

Jay Berkowitz:

case 99% of the time. And you can refer to them and they can

Jay Berkowitz:

refer to you. So if you meet someone and you guys hit it off

Jay Berkowitz:

a little bit. And you think, this is a person who's probably

Jay Berkowitz:

has a decent amount of business. You meet them for a coffee or

Jay Berkowitz:

lunch, and then get to know each other a little bit. And then the

Jay Berkowitz:

next time you see each other at the networking event, you're

Jay Berkowitz:

fast friends, and they introduce you to people. And that's how it

Jay Berkowitz:

grows. And then the other thing I recommend is get involved a

Jay Berkowitz:

little bit in the organization. So what I've said before, one

Jay Berkowitz:

personal, one professional pick, the Bar Association, and I'm

Jay Berkowitz:

going to I'm going to double down. I'm going to make sure

Jay Berkowitz:

it's on my calendar. I'm going to go to the bar every month and

Jay Berkowitz:

maybe get involved on a committee or something there

Jay Berkowitz:

everybody, every organization's looking for volunteers. And when

Jay Berkowitz:

once you get on a committee, next thing you're on the board,

Jay Berkowitz:

next thing you're the chairman of the board, and the personal

Jay Berkowitz:

could be your kids soccer team, run the fundraiser, or if you're

Jay Berkowitz:

a runner, join the committee for the 5k Fun Run. But get a little

Jay Berkowitz:

bit more involved. Pick just, just. All you need to do is pick

Jay Berkowitz:

two, one personal, one professional. If you're just

Jay Berkowitz:

getting started. It sounds like Kendelle is doing a lot more

Jay Berkowitz:

than that. I'm involved in five or six different organizations,

Jay Berkowitz:

but you don't have to go there when you're just getting

Kendelle Pollitt:

started. And that's exactly it. Yes, I'm

Kendelle Pollitt:

doing more than that now, but when I started, for example,

Kendelle Pollitt:

it's about finding that person who can help make those

Kendelle Pollitt:

introductions as well. And so one of those people for me was

Kendelle Pollitt:

Adam Smith, our printer, Guy of Uptown printers. And so he was

Kendelle Pollitt:

helpful to me in getting involved in the chamber. And I

Kendelle Pollitt:

think one of the big confidence building opportunities for me

Kendelle Pollitt:

was also getting involved in the board on that chamber. And Adam

Kendelle Pollitt:

helped introduce me. And then that's how it's through him,

Kendelle Pollitt:

because he was on the board of the Chamber of Commerce at the

Kendelle Pollitt:

time, he helped me to meet people and get the confidence to

Kendelle Pollitt:

take on that leadership opportunity. And so I think

Kendelle Pollitt:

that's it, because when you just keep attending these things, it

Kendelle Pollitt:

is important, but it takes a long time, right? I think the

Kendelle Pollitt:

biggest takeaways I would have is yes. Number one, if you can

Kendelle Pollitt:

get involved in some kind of leadership opportunity with the

Kendelle Pollitt:

organization you join, I think that's very important. And

Kendelle Pollitt:

whether that's joining a committee or joining the board

Kendelle Pollitt:

or doing something so that you can tighten up the group that

Kendelle Pollitt:

you can network with. That helps. And then also, when you

Kendelle Pollitt:

attend these networking events, exactly, I don't go there

Kendelle Pollitt:

thinking, I need to meet everyone in the room and make

Kendelle Pollitt:

connections with everyone in the room. I go to these events, I

Kendelle Pollitt:

think, okay, who can I connect with? I need two to three people

Kendelle Pollitt:

that I can connect with. And then you've got to do the follow

Kendelle Pollitt:

up.

Jay Berkowitz:

Yeah, that's a great point. A lot of people

Jay Berkowitz:

think they have to hand out as many business cards as possible,

Jay Berkowitz:

but we all avoid the business card hand. Writer, guy, yeah,

Jay Berkowitz:

want to just have high quality conversations with folks. And

Jay Berkowitz:

another little pro tip is ask the organizer of the event, or

Jay Berkowitz:

if you're involved, if you're on the committee, you can prep in

Jay Berkowitz:

advance, know who's coming and target a couple folks that you

Jay Berkowitz:

would like to meet and do one of those follow up one on one

Jay Berkowitz:

meetings with Yes. Next up is conferences and masterminds. And

Jay Berkowitz:

I wanted to touch on this a little bit because one of the

Jay Berkowitz:

we've done a full webinar on masterminds, if you want to see

Jay Berkowitz:

that on our YouTube channel, and you're a member of a mastermind

Jay Berkowitz:

and we met at a conference. So I'll let you go first.

Kendelle Pollitt:

Yeah, I think one of the, not, I think I know

Kendelle Pollitt:

one of the huge, the driving force, quite frankly, for me,

Kendelle Pollitt:

especially in the early days, was networking with other like

Kendelle Pollitt:

minded law firm owners, and the group I found that helped me

Kendelle Pollitt:

with that was Great Legal Marketing and Ben Glass and all

Kendelle Pollitt:

of his people there. And so for me, I continue to this day to

Kendelle Pollitt:

travel to Washington, DC, from the West Coast, to meet with my

Kendelle Pollitt:

mastermind group quarterly. And for me, that's just been really

Kendelle Pollitt:

helpful, and it it provides me a community of colleagues. I can

Kendelle Pollitt:

bounce ideas off, I can vent to if I need. And because, quite

Kendelle Pollitt:

frankly, usually when you've got a group full of people who are

Kendelle Pollitt:

all going through the same thing, usually someone has

Kendelle Pollitt:

already experienced the problem or the circumstance that you're

Kendelle Pollitt:

dealing with at that moment, and so it's great to get that

Kendelle Pollitt:

insight and guidance from supportive colleagues without

Kendelle Pollitt:

necessarily having to I don't know my spouse is a great

Kendelle Pollitt:

sounding board for me, but quite frankly. Week, sometimes I

Kendelle Pollitt:

always don't want to hear his advice. So even though he's got

Kendelle Pollitt:

his master's degrees MBA, and he's been in leadership for a

Kendelle Pollitt:

lot longer than I have it, some usually comes easier from

Kendelle Pollitt:

someone outside of my marital relationship.

Jay Berkowitz:

Yeah, that one can be tricky, for sure. Yeah,

Jay Berkowitz:

the power of a mastermind is amazing. And I mentioned

Jay Berkowitz:

earlier, we're in a mastermind with several other agencies,

Jay Berkowitz:

digital agencies, and it's really fantastic, because any

Jay Berkowitz:

question I have, we have a private Facebook group, and I

Jay Berkowitz:

can ask the question. The other day we I was looking at how to

Jay Berkowitz:

pay one of our employees is in Nicaragua, and like, within

Jay Berkowitz:

seconds, I got four answers, and it was all the same software,

Jay Berkowitz:

and you can either ask the group, or yesterday, we actually

Jay Berkowitz:

had our monthly conference call, and everybody can ask one

Jay Berkowitz:

question, and you get what they call a hot seat, and everybody

Jay Berkowitz:

in the room provides you with feedback, and you break into

Jay Berkowitz:

people at your level. So I'm dealing with the bigger

Jay Berkowitz:

agencies, and everybody's got great feedback. And yesterday I

Jay Berkowitz:

was talking about staff retention issue, and I got great

Jay Berkowitz:

feedback from the room. What's some of the great things that

Jay Berkowitz:

you've do? You guys do hot seats as well. At your mastermind,

Jay Berkowitz:

yeah,

Kendelle Pollitt:

yeah, we do hot seats and like you. So what

Kendelle Pollitt:

we've when I first started with Great Legal Marketing, we

Kendelle Pollitt:

started there's two different groups depending on your revenue

Kendelle Pollitt:

level and firm size. So when I started, I was basically just a

Kendelle Pollitt:

solo me and my legal assistant. And now, of course, we have a

Kendelle Pollitt:

firm with 18 people, multiple lawyers, multiple staff. So,

Kendelle Pollitt:

yeah, we we network with, not network, I guess it is

Kendelle Pollitt:

networking, but it's i It's a social group. It's a

Kendelle Pollitt:

professional group. Quite frankly, it's a friendship

Kendelle Pollitt:

group. I've made some friends through this group that will be

Kendelle Pollitt:

with me my whole life. But yeah, like we network with or we meet

Kendelle Pollitt:

with people and other law firm owners who are generally the

Kendelle Pollitt:

same stage as us, was that the question, did I miss that?

Kendelle Pollitt:

Sorry?

Jay Berkowitz:

Oh, no, that's great, and they might be in a

Jay Berkowitz:

different practice area. Yeah, if your questions about escrow

Jay Berkowitz:

accounts or staff issues or real estate, you just got two new

Jay Berkowitz:

locations. What an amazing thing to tap into. I got another

Jay Berkowitz:

attorney who's got a second or third location and talk to them

Jay Berkowitz:

about how to do those kind of things, right?

Kendelle Pollitt:

Yes, exactly. It's yeah.

Jay Berkowitz:

And by the way, there's a counter to this, and I

Jay Berkowitz:

see it all the time, because we're in the fortunate situation

Jay Berkowitz:

of working with about 100 different law firms now, and the

Jay Berkowitz:

folks who struggle are typically not the ones who go to

Jay Berkowitz:

conferences and they're in masterminds. They're trying to

Jay Berkowitz:

do it themselves there. It's like that persona of, I'm

Jay Berkowitz:

smarter than everybody else. And frankly, their growth is nowhere

Jay Berkowitz:

near the people who go to conferences and participate in

Jay Berkowitz:

masterminds, because it's like, success leaves clues. And if you

Jay Berkowitz:

go to one of the better conferences, and Great Legal

Jay Berkowitz:

Marketing is awesome. There. Ben and Brian, his son is his

Jay Berkowitz:

partner in Great Legal Marketing work really hard to put two days

Jay Berkowitz:

worth of experts on stage. And sometimes the best stuff happens

Jay Berkowitz:

at lunch or breakfast. You meet people and you ask them, what's

Jay Berkowitz:

working in their business? By the way, that's a great question

Jay Berkowitz:

for networking. What's working for you? And you just learn so

Jay Berkowitz:

much at these conferences. And then the mastermind is, like

Jay Berkowitz:

Kendelle explained, super focused, like I'm sitting down

Jay Berkowitz:

with agencies at my level, the problems we have are very

Jay Berkowitz:

similar and but we also coach the people who are just starting

Jay Berkowitz:

out in the mastermind and answer their questions in our Facebook

Jay Berkowitz:

group and at the live conference. So it's really

Jay Berkowitz:

awesome if you're just starting out. And obviously, both of us

Jay Berkowitz:

are big fans of masterminds. We highly recommend finding one

Jay Berkowitz:

that fits for you, and Great Legal Marketing is coming up.

Jay Berkowitz:

Are you going to be there? I hope you're going to be there,

Jay Berkowitz:

that's the plan. And you're going to tell me the dates. I

Jay Berkowitz:

hope, right, I'm

Kendelle Pollitt:

going to October, yeah,

Jay Berkowitz:

and it's October and it's in DC, yeah, and you

Jay Berkowitz:

can just search Great Legal Marketing, or maybe Elizabeth

Jay Berkowitz:

will help us and put a link in the chat, and I'm going to be

Jay Berkowitz:

speaking there, and the content is amazing. I'm in the room the

Jay Berkowitz:

whole two days, and even if they're talking about lawyering,

Jay Berkowitz:

I sit there and I learn because the speakers are great and the

Jay Berkowitz:

content is great, and it's relevant for me, and then the

Jay Berkowitz:

networking is fantastic, and I highly recommend it if you.

Jay Berkowitz:

Haven't been to conference, haven't joined a mastermind.

Jay Berkowitz:

We're preaching here, but we're preaching to the converted. So

Jay Berkowitz:

the next part we talked about in the pre pre event advertising is

Jay Berkowitz:

how to pick a great agency. And I wanted you to talk a little

Jay Berkowitz:

bit about what went through your mind when picking us, and what

Jay Berkowitz:

makes a great agency from the client side, in dealing with an

Jay Berkowitz:

agency

Kendelle Pollitt:

for us, picking an agency, I felt like

Kendelle Pollitt:

it was a big step for us, because, I mean, I had met you,

Kendelle Pollitt:

Jay. So it was really for me, it was very helpful, because I was

Kendelle Pollitt:

able to put a face, and not only a face, but a name that I

Kendelle Pollitt:

trusted because I had seen you speak, and we had chatted a

Kendelle Pollitt:

little bit about my firm before we we settled on you. But of

Kendelle Pollitt:

course, there's lots of agencies out there, but it was a big step

Kendelle Pollitt:

for us, because it's number one, it's a big financial commitment,

Kendelle Pollitt:

and we had been trying to haphazardly do a lot of this

Kendelle Pollitt:

stuff on our own, but and doing it on the cheap, but what I

Kendelle Pollitt:

found was again, hiring the PPC guys or the ads. All of a

Kendelle Pollitt:

sudden, I'm paying PPC, paying Google to do ads for pro bono

Kendelle Pollitt:

lawyers. That was obviously not the result I was looking for. So

Kendelle Pollitt:

working with an agency really has helped us. It's just it's

Kendelle Pollitt:

taken a lot of stress off my shoulders, because we have, you

Kendelle Pollitt:

guys, have you've got your experts in each niche, again, of

Kendelle Pollitt:

the digital marketing so we've got our content marketers, we've

Kendelle Pollitt:

got our the digital marketers, we've got the PPC experts, and

Kendelle Pollitt:

it's all working with One Agency. And then, of course,

Kendelle Pollitt:

we've got our account manager. Who's my account manager is Joe

Kendelle Pollitt:

Doyle, and Joe's the one who makes it all come together and

Kendelle Pollitt:

works with me every day, and, of course, grants great too. So

Kendelle Pollitt:

that's the thing I like about an agency, is that I only need to

Kendelle Pollitt:

work with one, one entity, and then I get all of these

Kendelle Pollitt:

services, and the quality is great as well, right? Because I

Kendelle Pollitt:

don't necessarily know, or it takes me a long time to figure

Kendelle Pollitt:

out what's going on with why are we getting so many phone calls

Kendelle Pollitt:

people asking for pro bono lawyers we don't really

Kendelle Pollitt:

understand and but with an agency, there's a lot of checks

Kendelle Pollitt:

and balances, and that I find as well, because there's so many

Kendelle Pollitt:

different people working together to create our digital

Kendelle Pollitt:

marketing footprint. And so that's what I found. I think the

Kendelle Pollitt:

best is there's checks and balances. I enjoy having you pop

Kendelle Pollitt:

in every now and then and see how things are going. And also,

Kendelle Pollitt:

I find our account manager is very receptive and eager to help

Kendelle Pollitt:

and respond to any questions that we have. So from my

Kendelle Pollitt:

perspective, that's what the that's a really great thing

Kendelle Pollitt:

about working with an agency, particularly your agency.

Jay Berkowitz:

Thank you so much. That's awesome. I also

Jay Berkowitz:

wanted to share it from the other side, because I touched on

Jay Berkowitz:

this a minute ago. It's like the clients that we deal with make a

Jay Berkowitz:

huge difference in the success that they get when they're a

Jay Berkowitz:

great client. And sometimes it's simple things like showing up,

Jay Berkowitz:

and I know that shouldn't be so complex, but we have a monthly

Jay Berkowitz:

performance meeting, and some of the clients are notoriously late

Jay Berkowitz:

or notoriously missed meetings or cancel at the last minute.

Jay Berkowitz:

And it's a subtle thing, right? But I was also a director of

Jay Berkowitz:

marketing for McDonald's and Coca Cola and sprint, and I had

Jay Berkowitz:

a bunch of agencies calling on me, and some of the agencies had

Jay Berkowitz:

their act together, and they showed up and they were ready,

Jay Berkowitz:

and they had they were on time and on budget, on their project

Jay Berkowitz:

projects and stuff like that. And so we always try and show up

Jay Berkowitz:

ready. We've got a report, we've got a PowerPoint, like a Google

Jay Berkowitz:

Slides, so that we try and respect the client's time, so

Jay Berkowitz:

we're, like, super organized and ready to go, but by the same

Jay Berkowitz:

token, the client, if the client shows up 10 minutes late and we

Jay Berkowitz:

have a 30 minute meeting, guess what? They got 20 minutes of

Jay Berkowitz:

time to talk about their performance and what we're doing

Jay Berkowitz:

next. And so something on the agenda is not going to get

Jay Berkowitz:

covered, right? So it's pretty basic, show up, and then the

Jay Berkowitz:

next thing is track and report. So we give like we talked about

Jay Berkowitz:

earlier. We give Kendelle's team all the calls, all the chats and

Jay Berkowitz:

all the form fills, and then they have to go in and just take

Jay Berkowitz:

510 minutes and tell us which one's converted into clients.

Jay Berkowitz:

And then we give that feedback to our SEO and our Google team,

Jay Berkowitz:

and they figure out like what's working. And then we can do more

Jay Berkowitz:

of what's working and less of what's not working. But again,

Jay Berkowitz:

the client has to be on their numbers. Great intake is not

Jay Berkowitz:

really an option anymore. What I mean by that say. Answering the

Jay Berkowitz:

phone professionally, having showing empathy and being able

Jay Berkowitz:

to sell you just you gotta, like Kendelle said, You gotta take

Jay Berkowitz:

the name, phone number. You've gotta try and get a meeting with

Jay Berkowitz:

those folks, but and not let them call three other lawyers,

Jay Berkowitz:

because your odds just went down if you have the empathy and the

Jay Berkowitz:

professionalism, and if necessary, get them on the phone

Jay Berkowitz:

with an attorney. Great intake is going to make a huge

Jay Berkowitz:

difference. Like 50% you're going to you're going to get 50%

Jay Berkowitz:

more cases if you really nail that. And we've done some

Jay Berkowitz:

webinars on intake. If you want to learn more about that, have

Jay Berkowitz:

an open openness to testing best practices. And what I mean by

Jay Berkowitz:

that is we, when we discover something like the first time I

Jay Berkowitz:

discovered AI chat intaker that we have on our website, I tested

Jay Berkowitz:

it by myself first. Then I tried two or three clients who I know

Jay Berkowitz:

like to test new things once we started recommending that, or

Jay Berkowitz:

any other software that we discover, or new systems, when

Jay Berkowitz:

we say it's working for three or four other law firms. Some

Jay Berkowitz:

people are like, okay, great, let's try it. And some people

Jay Berkowitz:

just have that hesitant mindset. But when we say something's

Jay Berkowitz:

working better than something, you have to trust your

Jay Berkowitz:

professionals. And if you don't trust your professionals, and

Jay Berkowitz:

we're bringing like data to the party, you're missing out. Have

Jay Berkowitz:

good case management technology. Run your business like a

Jay Berkowitz:

business. We're running the EOS operating system, and a lot of

Jay Berkowitz:

law firms aren't. You don't have to run Eos, but you have to have

Jay Berkowitz:

a leadership team, regular meetings, track your numbers,

Jay Berkowitz:

and have an organizational chart and a business plan. And we do a

Jay Berkowitz:

business planning process every year, an annual business

Jay Berkowitz:

planning process, so we, if the client doesn't have, like, the

Jay Berkowitz:

marketing piece of the business plan, figured out, we're going

Jay Berkowitz:

to do that with them, and then have a scorecard to track your

Jay Berkowitz:

numbers. That's what we find makes a great client. And the

Jay Berkowitz:

clients who basically have their act together and run their

Jay Berkowitz:

business like a business and show up on time, but those are

Jay Berkowitz:

the clients that we grow with and have success over time, and

Jay Berkowitz:

they're growing, and the clients that really can't get their act

Jay Berkowitz:

together, can't answer the phone. Guess what? They blame

Jay Berkowitz:

us, and they don't get great results. But I think you can

Jay Berkowitz:

tell from my passion about the difference between winning and

Jay Berkowitz:

losing, right? Anything else you'd add to that?

Kendelle Pollitt:

No, I think, I think that's just, we do take

Kendelle Pollitt:

these meetings with you guys seriously, right? Because we're

Kendelle Pollitt:

paying, we're paying you a fee to help us and help us do our

Kendelle Pollitt:

business better, and so we make it a priority, really. And

Kendelle Pollitt:

there's always other things. This is the thing about the

Kendelle Pollitt:

business of law is that the law part always feels more

Kendelle Pollitt:

important, and there's always law that wants the law part

Kendelle Pollitt:

wants to interfere with the business part. And so it's a

Kendelle Pollitt:

matter of having that discipline to really say, Okay, no, if I

Kendelle Pollitt:

can't have the clients, if I don't have the clients that I

Kendelle Pollitt:

want, need and best serve, then I'm not really doing law

Kendelle Pollitt:

anyways. So making that time and putting in that commitment and

Kendelle Pollitt:

effort, and also always realizing that we're learning

Kendelle Pollitt:

and growing and evolving, and what works one month or one

Kendelle Pollitt:

season or one year may not be working for you anymore, and

Kendelle Pollitt:

always being open to adjusting that. And one of the things I

Kendelle Pollitt:

appreciate about working with you, Jay is that I talk to you

Kendelle Pollitt:

about my business, and so we can I find I have a mentor in you as

Kendelle Pollitt:

well in terms of, okay, this is what's going on. I'm not really

Kendelle Pollitt:

sure how to deal with this. Do you have any ideas? And that is

Kendelle Pollitt:

something I really appreciate, and that is something that I

Kendelle Pollitt:

find valuable.

Jay Berkowitz:

Yeah, that's a great point. And please anyone

Jay Berkowitz:

reach out to me, because I have a unique opportunity now that

Jay Berkowitz:

I've been doing this for God knows how long, 30 years, but

Jay Berkowitz:

I'm actively involved with a number of the other vendors in

Jay Berkowitz:

the industry, and so I spend a lot of time like I do a weekly

Jay Berkowitz:

podcast, and it's not subtle, but I'm interviewing like all

Jay Berkowitz:

the top people in the legal industry. We do this monthly

Jay Berkowitz:

webinar. So please reach out to me if you have any questions

Jay Berkowitz:

about technology, about Eos, about hiring. I've got tons of

Jay Berkowitz:

great vendors and people that I've interviewed for an hour on

Jay Berkowitz:

my podcast. So I know, I know they're really great, so please

Jay Berkowitz:

don't hesitate to ask, find someone you can trust. So we're

Jay Berkowitz:

on to questions and answers, and I see a few questions coming in

Jay Berkowitz:

the chat. Go ahead and in the Q A or the chat, or the LinkedIn

Jay Berkowitz:

chat, for those of you live on LinkedIn, hey to you all, and

Jay Berkowitz:

Elizabeth is going to grab the. LinkedIn questions and pass them

Jay Berkowitz:

on to us. The first question I see is from Colin, and he says,

Jay Berkowitz:

Are you doing anything specific to link the YouTube videos to

Jay Berkowitz:

Kendelle's site, such as embedding them there? And the

Jay Berkowitz:

answer is, yeah, 1,000% that concept of cascading content. So

Jay Berkowitz:

we start, we'll post the video on YouTube, and then there's a

Jay Berkowitz:

video section on Kendelle's site. And then the videos are on

Jay Berkowitz:

Facebook, on on LinkedIn, on Twitter. We use them in a

Jay Berkowitz:

newsletter. We'll use them on Google Maps. Google Maps, by the

Jay Berkowitz:

way, is, we didn't talk a lot about it today, but super

Jay Berkowitz:

important part of the SEO algorithm, and you want to be

Jay Berkowitz:

updating your Google Maps, getting reviews on a regular

Jay Berkowitz:

basis. Super valuable, super important. Anything you would

Jay Berkowitz:

add to that?

Kendelle Pollitt:

Me, no, that's your domain. Make it all happen.

Kendelle Pollitt:

Jay,

Jay Berkowitz:

okay, great. We've got a question from Josh

Jay Berkowitz:

on LinkedIn, what were the very first steps Kendelle and your

Jay Berkowitz:

team took to kick off this growth? Was there a specific

Jay Berkowitz:

area you focused on first

Kendelle Pollitt:

when I first thing I did was get a website.

Kendelle Pollitt:

When I first went out, I didn't even have a website, I think

Kendelle Pollitt:

what I did so I got a website, spent a lot of time really

Kendelle Pollitt:

getting that content up and going. And there was a lot of

Kendelle Pollitt:

little things that I did. I think one of the things I did,

Kendelle Pollitt:

quite frankly, was I joined Great Legal Marketing and I did

Kendelle Pollitt:

their whatever process they had. Basically what they did was they

Kendelle Pollitt:

said, Okay, join this group, and then we give you tasks. So you

Kendelle Pollitt:

do tasks A, B and C, and then when you're done, you let us

Kendelle Pollitt:

know and we'll send you a gift card. And so I just did whatever

Kendelle Pollitt:

they told me, and that's how it happened. So some of the initial

Kendelle Pollitt:

things that I did was send out what were called referral

Kendelle Pollitt:

letters. So I chose just 25 businesses that were near to me

Kendelle Pollitt:

in terms of where my office location was. I chose criminal

Kendelle Pollitt:

lawyers, I chose counselors, I chose accountants, and I sent

Kendelle Pollitt:

out these referral letters and said, Hey, I'm getting referrals

Kendelle Pollitt:

for people who need services like you, I introduced myself,

Kendelle Pollitt:

told them a little bit about myself, and I'd love to do

Kendelle Pollitt:

coffee with you, or I'd love to get to know you. And these were

Kendelle Pollitt:

COVID days, right? So I think it was a zoom call at that was

Kendelle Pollitt:

coffee over zoom. And that was really efficient, because again,

Kendelle Pollitt:

what I find is small business owners. We all want to support

Kendelle Pollitt:

each other, and so that was a really big kickoff for me,

Kendelle Pollitt:

putting together content, so doing the information marketing.

Kendelle Pollitt:

So when people come for an consult at my firm, they leave

Kendelle Pollitt:

with information. So if they're coming in to talk about child

Kendelle Pollitt:

support, I've got handouts on the law and child support, they

Kendelle Pollitt:

leave with a small gift. They leave with confidence that they

Kendelle Pollitt:

know they have been in the right place, because we do little

Kendelle Pollitt:

things like little success cues around the office to let them

Kendelle Pollitt:

know that we actually know what we're talking about, I think the

Kendelle Pollitt:

referral letters, if you were to do pick one thing that would be

Kendelle Pollitt:

the best, and then you've got to do the follow up. The key is the

Kendelle Pollitt:

follow up. And it's the worst part. It's the part that's the

Kendelle Pollitt:

hardest. It takes the most discipline. But if you have a

Kendelle Pollitt:

legal assistant, have your legal assistant get on your butt about

Kendelle Pollitt:

it, and just go through with it, set the plan and follow through

Kendelle Pollitt:

regardless, then you'll get there. And

Jay Berkowitz:

do you remember some of the things that we did

Jay Berkowitz:

together when you started working with us as an agency?

Kendelle Pollitt:

I remember we had lots of meetings about my

Kendelle Pollitt:

business and what we're looking for, and then just the content,

Kendelle Pollitt:

like we just started getting out a lot of content, and again,

Kendelle Pollitt:

it's just getting out the information for people. I don't

Kendelle Pollitt:

know, what am I forgetting? Jay, it's been a while. Yeah,

Jay Berkowitz:

yeah, it's been a year and a half or so. One of

Jay Berkowitz:

the things we do early on is we do a real deep dive SEO audit.

Jay Berkowitz:

Because when we meet someone in the sales business development

Jay Berkowitz:

cycle, we're looking at the website from the outside in. But

Jay Berkowitz:

once we become your partner and get access to your Google,

Jay Berkowitz:

there's a thing called Search Console, or Webmaster Tools, and

Jay Berkowitz:

it actually is a bunch of diagnostic that Google gives us

Jay Berkowitz:

on the website. So now we're looking behind the curtain, if

Jay Berkowitz:

you will. So we do a deep dive on that. We look at competitors,

Jay Berkowitz:

what your competitors are ranking for, and find a whole

Jay Berkowitz:

bunch of keywords that we want to rank for. You also had a pay

Jay Berkowitz:

per click campaign. We didn't cover that, but we're getting a

Jay Berkowitz:

lot of great leads from the paid advertising as well Google Pay

Jay Berkowitz:

per click. And one of the interesting things for. Those of

Jay Berkowitz:

you in the United States, Canada hasn't launched local service

Jay Berkowitz:

ads or Google screen yet, so we don't have that little tool at

Jay Berkowitz:

our disposal. But the Pay Per Click, therefore, is more

Jay Berkowitz:

focused in Canada. So we do a deep dive audit on the SEO the

Jay Berkowitz:

pay per click. We looked at your Google Maps, and typically

Jay Berkowitz:

there's some best practices that the previous agency didn't know

Jay Berkowitz:

about there's you can do 50 different things with your GBP

Jay Berkowitz:

Google business profile, to optimize it, to pick the right

Jay Berkowitz:

like a lot of people just have law, they don't even have the

Jay Berkowitz:

practice areas. And you can designate, I think, six practice

Jay Berkowitz:

areas, so you're going to come up when people search for that

Jay Berkowitz:

type of law going out and looking at your link profile,

Jay Berkowitz:

who's linking to your website, and then we build a whole bunch

Jay Berkowitz:

of links. We we have a list of a whole bunch of directories, and

Jay Berkowitz:

we search other associations and directories that link to the

Jay Berkowitz:

firm, and make sure the address is correct and all the

Jay Berkowitz:

information is correct. A lot of times that's incorrect and

Jay Berkowitz:

changes, and Google's a computer, so everything's got to

Jay Berkowitz:

be super precise. The first round for us is a lot of audit

Jay Berkowitz:

and best practices and cleaning up a bunch of stuff like that.

Jay Berkowitz:

We the copy was very important, like we had to learn about your

Jay Berkowitz:

persona, and so we didn't nail it right out of the gate. And

Jay Berkowitz:

then what we did is we had the writer and the editor on a call

Jay Berkowitz:

and interviewed Kendelle for about an hour and a half and had

Jay Berkowitz:

a whole bunch of questions. And then I think the we got our

Jay Berkowitz:

messaging a lot better after that.

Kendelle Pollitt:

Yeah, for sure, in the beginning, yeah, it

Kendelle Pollitt:

was okay. I needed to do a lot more editing and things like

Kendelle Pollitt:

that, whereas now my the editing is almost it's very nominal.

Kendelle Pollitt:

It's very nominal. So it took a while, and I think too to keep

Kendelle Pollitt:

in mind, I think again though this goes from as your firm

Kendelle Pollitt:

grows and evolves, your marketing needs grow involved,

Kendelle Pollitt:

right? So when I first started, it was just me and a legal

Kendelle Pollitt:

assistant, and the referrals were enough to just get me

Kendelle Pollitt:

going. But then, as you grow, things need to become more and

Kendelle Pollitt:

more sophisticated, but certainly getting those and you

Kendelle Pollitt:

need to make sure your marketing grows with you, as opposed to

Kendelle Pollitt:

holding you back. And that was one of the things that

Kendelle Pollitt:

struggled. We've struggled with actually, as a firm, and for me

Kendelle Pollitt:

personally, because I can get all these ideas, but then I

Kendelle Pollitt:

can't implement them, and then I'm also my my knowledge and

Kendelle Pollitt:

expertise, so to speak, is in law and not in marketing. So it

Kendelle Pollitt:

was really helpful for me to have you guys do all these

Kendelle Pollitt:

things that I knew about, like landing pages and getting all

Kendelle Pollitt:

the service pages up and going and all these things. And it was

Kendelle Pollitt:

really nice, because the service pages, they just happened, and

Kendelle Pollitt:

they were bang on right. And so it was all these things on my to

Kendelle Pollitt:

do list that I knew didn't know about.

Jay Berkowitz:

I want an agency to write internal pages for my

Jay Berkowitz:

website. Because the worst thing for tangled rules is like, when

Jay Berkowitz:

we try and do our own stuff, we're like the shoemakers.

Jay Berkowitz:

Children have holes in their shoes. Yeah, the last thing, the

Jay Berkowitz:

last client that gets attention is me. Here's a question from

Jay Berkowitz:

Carrie Kendelle, what specific marketing move made the biggest

Jay Berkowitz:

difference in helping you grow your family law firm so quickly?

Jay Berkowitz:

How can other attorneys apply that to their practice

Kendelle Pollitt:

specific marketing move, there isn't one.

Kendelle Pollitt:

There is no golden hammer that you can just hang bang on the

Kendelle Pollitt:

table and poof, you've got growth. I think the thing is,

Kendelle Pollitt:

you know, align yourself with partners who have the same

Kendelle Pollitt:

values as you and really understand what your vision is,

Kendelle Pollitt:

and have people help you, because you can't, you can't do

Kendelle Pollitt:

it all yourself. One of the books I read, and I can't

Kendelle Pollitt:

remember the author now, that's just been instrumental, and just

Kendelle Pollitt:

even the title, I remind myself of the title, and it's called,

Kendelle Pollitt:

who, not how. We don't need to be experts in every little

Kendelle Pollitt:

aspect of our business, but we need to align with those who can

Kendelle Pollitt:

help us get the things done that we need to get done. Really, I

Kendelle Pollitt:

think the biggest thing too, is hire before you're ready,

Kendelle Pollitt:

because you're never going to feel ready. So just make that

Kendelle Pollitt:

jump, make that leap, make an informed leap, but still make

Kendelle Pollitt:

that leap. The biggest thing too, is acknowledging your

Kendelle Pollitt:

comfort zone. Okay, well, I'm feeling nervous. I'm feeling

Kendelle Pollitt:

uncomfortable here, pushing through that comfort zone,

Kendelle Pollitt:

because if you don't push through your comfort zone,

Kendelle Pollitt:

you're never going to grow and hiring an agency, hiring people

Kendelle Pollitt:

around you, I wish we hired 10 golden rules earlier. Quite

Kendelle Pollitt:

frankly, I think we'd be further along than we are right now.

Jay Berkowitz:

Awesome. Thank you so much. You're welcome. I'm

Jay Berkowitz:

being honest. Do not house a great book. It is. Yeah, it's

Jay Berkowitz:

Dan Sullivan. Man who's originally an American, but he

Jay Berkowitz:

lives in Toronto, and his business is out of Toronto, and

Jay Berkowitz:

he has an amazing mastermind. But the concept's great. It's

Jay Berkowitz:

instead of saying, I need to do this, I need to do this, always

Jay Berkowitz:

ask yourself, Who can do this? Who can I get to do this? And

Jay Berkowitz:

another I'll give you, if you haven't read Dan Martel's book,

Jay Berkowitz:

buy back your time. Another great Canadian, he has a similar

Jay Berkowitz:

philosophies. Just get great people to do the work for you,

Jay Berkowitz:

and don't feel like you have to do all the work. All right, so

Jay Berkowitz:

we got time maybe for one more depends how long my answer is,

Jay Berkowitz:

Jay, what are the core systems or strategies you implement for

Jay Berkowitz:

law firms that consistently lead to rapid growth in leads clients

Jay Berkowitz:

and sign cases, instead of, like, core systems or

Jay Berkowitz:

strategies, I would say there's stuff that moves quicker and

Jay Berkowitz:

there's stuff that moves slower, and so what we recommend to our

Jay Berkowitz:

clients is you want to do both concurrently. So for Kendelle,

Jay Berkowitz:

the pay per click is going to move faster because we can

Jay Berkowitz:

immediately like, if it's working and working, we define

Jay Berkowitz:

by cost per lead and cost per sign case. So we measure like,

Jay Berkowitz:

if we spend, Kendelle Google account spends $3,000 how many

Jay Berkowitz:

calls did she get? How many forms, how many chats? So always

Jay Berkowitz:

measuring three intake sections and how many of those turned

Jay Berkowitz:

into signed clients. So if she gets 100 leads, it's $30 a click

Jay Berkowitz:

on Google. And if she signs 10 clients, and it's $3,000 spend,

Jay Berkowitz:

it's $300 cost per signed client. And if that metric works

Jay Berkowitz:

for the firm, like if your clients are worth more, a lot

Jay Berkowitz:

more than $300 to the firm, we might turn the budget up a

Jay Berkowitz:

little bit next month, and the Pay Per Click works quickly in

Jay Berkowitz:

Kendelle, case, in Canada, in the United States, we're always

Jay Berkowitz:

going to target the local service ads the Google screened

Jay Berkowitz:

LSAs, so jet, we'd love it if a client hasn't turned on their

Jay Berkowitz:

LSAs, because Google generally gives a new LSA account a little

Jay Berkowitz:love, and it's going to send:Jay Berkowitz:

first three or four months. And if you answer the phone and you

Jay Berkowitz:

disposition the leads, and we show them how to use the

Jay Berkowitz:

software, the Google back end will generally get those leads

Jay Berkowitz:

on a consistent basis, month after month. So the paid stuff

Jay Berkowitz:

can get the traffic relatively quickly, and then the SEO takes

Jay Berkowitz:

a little bit longer. So we're going to start working. I talked

Jay Berkowitz:

about optimizing the Google business profile, the Google

Jay Berkowitz:

Maps and the SEO. We talked a lot about doing the videos,

Jay Berkowitz:

doing the content, doing the articles, and generally, that

Jay Berkowitz:

stuff's going to take three to six months till it starts slowly

Jay Berkowitz:

kicking in. And you all saw the chart like over a year and a

Jay Berkowitz:

half candles gone from, I don't know, 30 or 40 keywords, to 500

Jay Berkowitz:

keywords that are ranking on the top of Google. So it definitely

Jay Berkowitz:

takes time. But if we work concurrently at those things,

Jay Berkowitz:

it's beneficial, and also it's super beneficial too. Like

Jay Berkowitz:

there's a subtlety to doing the videos and doing the content.

Jay Berkowitz:

When people come to your website and they if they watch the

Jay Berkowitz:

videos and you answer the question, and they feel like

Jay Berkowitz:

they could trust you, they're going to call you up. Same

Jay Berkowitz:

thing. If they find an article, they read the article and you're

Jay Berkowitz:

answering the question, they're going to they're going to click

Jay Berkowitz:

on the chat or the call button on your website. So producing

Jay Berkowitz:

the content helps your website convert, even though the SEO

Jay Berkowitz:

takes three, six months to start kicking in, really 12 months

Jay Berkowitz:

till it's really a power drive, I think we're right about time.

Jay Berkowitz:

So Kendelle, thank you so much for doing this. This was

Jay Berkowitz:

awesome. Where can people find you, if they're live or if

Jay Berkowitz:

they're watching us? Sometime in the future,

Kendelle Pollitt:

you can find us at our website, peer, family

Kendelle Pollitt:

lawyers.com P, I, E, R, family lawyers.com and or you can find

Kendelle Pollitt:-:Kendelle Pollitt:

much for inviting me, Jay. It's been a lot of fun,

Jay Berkowitz:

awesome, and Jay Berkowitz at 10 golden rules t e

Jay Berkowitz:

n Golden rules.com and I'm Jay Berkowitz on LinkedIn, Facebook,

Jay Berkowitz:

Twitter, all the social media I try and get there before the

Jay Berkowitz:

other more important Jay Berkowitz is Dr Jay Berkowitz

Jay Berkowitz:

and Professor Jay Berkowitz. And I apologize to those guys,

Jay Berkowitz:

because I've always got the Jay Berkowitz on Twitter and

Jay Berkowitz:

LinkedIn, but Kendelle, thank you so much. This was awesome,

Jay Berkowitz:

and I look forward to our next meeting together and seeing you

Jay Berkowitz:

in DC for great. Yes,

Kendelle Pollitt:

see you soon. Thanks.

Jay Berkowitz:

Bye. Bye.