Welcome to the 10 Golden Rules of internet marketing for law firms podcast, featuring the latest strategies and techniques to drive traffic to your website and convert that traffic into clients. Now, here's the founder and CEO of 10 golden rules, Jay Berkowitz.

Well, good morning, good afternoon. Good evening, whatever time this podcast finds you. Welcome to the 10 Golden Rules of internet marketing for law firms podcast. My guest today is attorney Jason Melton, we've got some great stuff to talk about. So let's just get right into it. Jason, welcome. And tell us a little bit about your background.

Thanks for having me on Jay. Well, I've been a lawyer for over 20 years now. I grew up in Texas, went to law school in DC area Catholic, and I took on my first job as a prosecutor in Miami. And that first job really sort of molded almost everything I've done up till now. It's incredible, like the things you learn in those first couple of years, and how it affects all the decisions you make. Moving forward. You know, starting at the State Attorney's Office in Miami, is really interesting, because you start with, like, 50 people, right? That's not like you got a job. And you know, some office where the you know, like, you're the one person they hired that year, you start with 50 people. So it's almost like going to another college or another class, right. And so like those people are friends or colleagues are some sort of relationship for the rest of your life. And then from those people, they're just like trees of new people. And for someone who didn't go to law school in Florida, that was super important, because I knew essentially nobody down here, right? So. But that Job was a great job. I think for young lawyers, I don't, I don't really believe there's a better job than being a prosecutor or a public defender in either the state or federal jurisdiction. I know there are more Steve Jobs like clerking for judges, and these sorts of things. And for some of those really, really, really bright people who are great writers, and will probably never have to waste their time, maybe speaking to a client, then I guess those are great jobs for them, but forever for the rest of us who need to deal with people and need to work on client skills. And you know, because we don't eat, they don't teach that in law school, and learn to develop skills in the courtroom in particular, they're the best jobs because you're essentially doing the government work. Right. If you're a public defender, you're helping people defend themselves where they couldn't otherwise afford a lawyer. And if you're a prosecutor, you're helping the government prosecute cases in court for really reduced wages, I would highlight reduced.

And is that why they start with 50? Because it calls itself out pretty quickly.

Yeah. I guess for a long time people didn't advertise in an area, they didn't want to go to the court there. So that's correct. And that was now it's so much more virtual? Well,

yeah, the pandemic, you know, had some interesting effects. That was one of them, is that people felt fancy free about taking cases 250 miles away from their office, because they figure well, I'll just show up via zoom in before I can remember conversations, I'm not taking a case there. There's no highway to that courthouse. Right. And I remember conversations about building highways. And people would say, is there any way we can talk to the legislature about building that highway so that it doesn't connect to the courthouse? So it's just a little more difficult for folks from the big cities to come up to the

crazy lobby or market? So yeah. Firm and how you built the firm? And where you're at now?

can you tell the story of that case? Like, how did that evolve?

Sure, I mean, I can speak in generalities, it's a, it was a head on DUI collision, family was in the car. And essentially, they were injured, they had a lot of sort of the normal injuries that would occur and a head on collision, some of them ended up being surgical with regards to their neck and back. But the biggest component of those cases were brain injuries. And so we had to work really hard to get these folks in front of people who could work with them, rehabilitate them, as well as diagnose them. And, you know, because the case went on so long, that was that was the toughest. And in terms of value, maybe the best part of the case is that you could watch you watch these injuries really affect your own clients, right. And the two clients in particular, in that case that were of note, one was a retired clerk from the courthouse, and one was retired deputy. And they were married. And they were basically like, your civil servants, people that you like, we hope that we live next door, right. And you could see some decline. And the way they spoke to each other the way they spoke to therapists, but for me, it was the way they spoke to us, and the way they handled us. And I have a child who's autistic and ADHD on spectrum. And so I've had to learn sort of the hard way, having no experience of dealing with people who need a little extra help and need a little empathy. And it's kind of helped me in practice of law too, because he's folks with brain injuries. You gotta take a deep breath before you talk to him, deal with them, because you don't know what version you're gonna get. You don't know what's gonna set them off. And, you know, deep down, they're not interested in being, you know, the odd man out. They have, but life comes at them differently after an accident like this, right? So it's a, it's one of these cases that candidly shouldn't have taken four years to get resolved. But the insurance companies involved, thought otherwise and felt like it was something they wanted to put their put their flag down and take a stand on and they did not choose wisely.

Well, what I was interested in is you've actually turned this into a business. And it sounds so great. But the good news is you've made it available to other attorneys. And yeah, so that evolution, what's the name of the business? And how can what type of positions are available for other companies to hire?

you touch on the mastermind. I know that's been a big part of your life and your evolution. Talk about your mastermind and the power of the mastermind, for an attorney.

no, I'm with you. I've been very fortunate to join a mastermind of seven figure agency. And there's 300 agencies that are members of this group. And then there's about 20 of us who are in the what we call the Titans elite. But the what we share with each other as best practices, what's working for us? And then like you said, if you've got a question, we have an online forum, you just ask, and five or six other folks have gone through exactly what you've gone through. You know, picking a software. Yeah, hiring issue, a staffing issue, a legal issue. You know, it's fantastic, the feedback. And then you go to these mastermind meetings, and the energy, you come back with the ideas you come back with. Yeah, the hard part is picking. I was trying to pick the top three things to do. Because I've got a list of 20 things I wanted to do. Yeah,

so I should have noted, I come away with eight to 10 things to do, I usually only accomplished two, maybe three, right? But nevertheless, I don't have to go search for them. I don't have to go to a Tony Robbins like, you know, Pump up the jam thing downtown for two days and get excited and then try to figure out what to do. It's just real world advice. And, you know, the therapy part of it is that, you know, you're not crazy when you go to those meetings. Right? You know that what you're going through? It's not that unique. Other folks are doing it, too. There's no reason to get hysterical about your stuff. You know, I think sometimes we get our own little cacophony. And we don't realize that a lot of the stuff we're going through other folks are going through two. And that's it's it's a it's a somewhat of a breakthrough to find those groups where you can talk to these people, and they're, they're just as willing to talk to you as you are then

we're gonna do a webinar on masterminds. I hope Ken Hardison will participate from Belmont and classroom GLM, and our John from how to manage and we have a really great session. So look for that early in the new year. We've got invitations out, just a couple of quick questions. Jason, I know you got to run these, we call these quick snappers or whatever, give us a couple apps or techniques you use for personal productivity.

So for me, within my you know, because I'm affiliated with a lot of different businesses, one of the great business apps that I've come across is something called Pipedrive. I think it's terrific. I think it's really good. I don't hear it mentioned very often. That's why I think it's a second time I've heard that tell us about it. It's just basically like a, an interface to help you with following up on leads, customer good customer service, via if you're selling something to somebody, or if you're just making sure people are happy. I mean, at the end of the day, so much of what everybody does, whether we like it or not, it just boils down to customer service. And so I really like it as an ongoing way to manage your own ability to serve your customers. And

is it an app or is it a people access? People

know it's an app? Yeah. So you put in your own information. It's not it's not a social network, like a CRM, essentially. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's not as it's not as developed as like my CRM and my website, but in my in my law firm But it's yeah, it's basically like CRM forever.

That's business books.

So I'm a bad person for this question, because I don't read books. I haven't read books. Since college. I read a lot of magazines and newspapers. Yeah. So I, you know, I read the Wall Street Journal almost every day. And I read a lot on Instagram. People may know me from Instagram, I have a lot of followers. And

you were up to like, 150,000. Right? That's awesome. Yeah, yeah. On Instagram, what do you do on there? And how did you build it up?

And what blogs, podcasts, YouTube or other Instagramers do follow.

I really like there's two lawyers, I really like on Instagram. There's a lawyer in Los Angeles called lawyer dad, and there's a lawyer in New York, Kyle Newman, I think they do the best on Instagram, I think they produce really good content, thoughtful. It's not the same. You know, one thing I will say in the last few years that I have really noticed is people are, I think are just now starting to appreciate the value of LinkedIn. And I think for me, the folks watching this podcast is think about what you're doing on LinkedIn. And I can say, admittedly, I don't do enough on LinkedIn. But the work I do on LinkedIn is very fruitful. It's worthwhile. So if you're putting together a social media marketing strategy, think about including LinkedIn, especially if you're a lawyer, but even if you run any kind of business, I just, I think it's invaluable. I think the audience there is really good, is the fastest way to get in front of your peers, without a doubt. And I just think it's really worthwhile and people should should spend more time on it. I do think like, I think tick tock. This may be the last year of tick tock. I could, I could foresee Congress doing something there. I think Instagram is a little more safe. Domestic. Entertainment,

Instagram. It might make sense to last questions. Who's your NFL team?

I'm a Browns fan, for sure. I mean, he couldn't Browns fan. It's a struggle. It's an easiest team to follow. Hasn't been around. We're on our fourth quarter back to here, but you get some. You get some flare ups over the last 10 or 20 years. Oh, yeah. And that where can people get in touch with you? So you can certainly contact me my law firm will Melton, the web address for the firm is the FL law firm, that's th e f L. Li w f irm.com. So the FL law firm, or you can contact me through regions, which is regions rs.com. Either of those businesses, I'd be happy to work with you. And of course through Instagram, you can DM me, Jason Melton, Esquire. Be happy to chat with you there. But, you know, I'm, I've gotten to the point now where I feel like a lot of early years we were so hell bent on trying to create our own secret sauce, and compete and compete and compete. And I think as I've gotten older, I've gotten to the point now where I feel like my secret sauce is sharing. It's no longer competing. And through sharing, I'm actually more prosperous than I was competing before, which is, I think to say, but we're still competitive. But I love helping people. And if people need help, I mean, I take random calls from lawyers around the country all the time, and it's, I'm happy to do it. Awesome.

Well, Jason, thanks for your time. This was full of awesome stuff. Stay in touch.

Who's your NFL team?

The offense I came here from Canada. That was, you know, Team agnostic, I, you know, had some allegiances. And, you know, 20 years somewhere, the watercooler talk was always about who we who we acquired and our new coach and yeah, I'm fully in and thank God, we're having a fantastic year. Finally, the

team is is really good. I really liked the team and your coach is what a gem

like, it's great. So if anybody's team kind of sucks, and you're not gonna make the playoffs, you know, feel free to hop on the bandwagon for the rest of the year. And watch hard knocks on HBO. This season is fantastic. Yeah. Terrific. Awesome. Thanks

for having me on. I appreciate it.

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