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Introduction to Automation and AI for Law Firms

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Robert Stanley: One of the things that is changing the game, particularly, for the small to midsize firm is automation and AI. And that's something that I'm personally investing a lot of time and money and resource into, and we're working on solutions for the firms that we work with there. And I think that there are other companies like mine doing that. So if you're a small firm, especially if you're a solo, and you're not really investing in technology. That can really free up a lot of time to give you a little bit of space.

If the cup's full, right? You can't fill it anymore. Give you a little bit of space in the cup to maybe invest in some training or coaching, right? Give you a little breathing room, maybe give you the ability to invest a little bit more market and to grow the revenue a little bit.

Welcome to Your Practice Mastered Podcast

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MPS: Hey, Law Firm Owners. Welcome to the Your Practice Mastered Podcast. We're your hosts, I'm MPS.

Richard James: And I'm Richard James, and [00:01:00] MPS, we've got a great show. I know I say that a lot of time. But I've got somebody I consider a dear friend. We've spent a lot of time together over the past 15 years. He has helped mold this business to where it is today. He's probably forgotten more about the subject of marketing for law firms and marketing in general, than most listeners to this podcast will have learned in their lifetime.

And so, I consider Robert an expert, as well as a friend.

Meet Robert: Marketing Expert and New Dad

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Richard James: Robert, thanks for coming on the show today and sharing your wisdom and your journey. And by the way, congratulations on the brand new Bambino.

Robert Stanley: Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you for that great intro and thank you for the congratulations, yes. So, for those of you that see the bags under my eyes, that's the part of the Bambino process.

Richard James: Especially, when there's a little gray on the chin.

Robert Stanley: It's not like I'm 20 years old anymore.

Richard James: Getting up at 1 and staying up until 6 is a lot easier when you're 23, than whatever you are today.

Robert Stanley: We're not going to say, we're not going to say.

Richard James: We're not going to say.

MPS: But we had some pre-show time with Robert and he's sharp as a tack, sleep has no hold on him. Robert, we're [00:02:00] excited to dive in a little bit. For those people listening that don't know about you, what's maybe something that not everybody knows about you?

Robert's Journey from IT to Marketing

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Robert Stanley: Well, not everybody knows that my prior to my career in marketing, I was in the IT business. And ran some very large IT organizations and computer systems for little organizations like Wells Fargo Bank and some international organizations like DHL. And prior to that, was in the military for about 6 years, in the medical field of all things.

And the reason I didn't continue the medical field is because, I found out in that early career path, that really wasn't for me. If it's anything like more clinical, I wasn't into that. But what it did help me understand was, the bridge between technology and healthcare, it was in that evolutionary process in my career. And then the evolution between technology and marketing. And so, I came through as a technology foundation and all paths in my life and that's why I'm here today.

Richard James: Yeah. So Robert, obviously, I've been a part of your journey for a long time. And obviously, thank you for your service way back, [00:03:00] I know it was an honor for you to serve. And I know that it was an interesting leap for you to leap into marketing and you won't toot your own horn. So, I'll toot it for you were quite successful in your exit from your first company.

I remember, you and I were in Masterminds together. And you're like, I know this marketing thing, maybe I should do something with it. And I'm like, I could use some help, and I think our clients could use some help. So, why don't we see if that works? And then boom, it just took off.

And you've been such a blessing to so many of our members throughout the years, not only with marketing and understanding, whether it be Facebook or Google or automation. But really, this idea of building an automated systems so that they could have it operate in a small firm environment, without feeling like they had to commit this massive capital commitment to major software development or major automation implementation that you guys were able to handle.

So you've been a real blessing, not only to me, but to our members through the years. And today, I can't wait to get into some of this conversation. I know [00:04:00] you're on the cutting edge of a lot of things. And there's also some just very practical things I hope we talk about today. But if you're that law firm owner, that's listening out there, it's 2 o'clock in the morning, it's Saturday night.

Just gotten off your 70th hour trying to figure out, how to get all the work done? And you're just bleary eyed wondering, why am I doing this? This isn't why I got into this. I want you to know, that there is hope and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Robert, you've seen it time and time again, smaller firms that have made it through and step by step found their way free. Is that a fair statement?

Robert Stanley: That's that's a fair statement.

The Importance of Implementing New Ideas and Systems

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Robert Stanley: But that also doesn't come out with some sacrifice in terms of committing your time to new ideas, new methodologies and new systems. I think, one of the challenges we all have as human beings is, we like things the way they are, but what's the definition of sanity, right?

Doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. One of the things that I think that all of us in this call are really pretty good at is helping translate, what works into a bite sized implementable process. Cause I think, [00:05:00] sometimes, we have kind of two sides of the coin here when we are dealing with small law firms.

One is, they try to implement too much, too fast, and then it doesn't work because they're trying to do too many things. The other, they just don't do enough or they're doing it in the wrong order. They're trying to spend a whole bunch of money on marketing, when really, their operational side or their sales side as Michael's super good at is not quite dialed in.

Cause if you have 10 leads coming in a month, and you're only converting 1 of those, what if you converted 3? Like, there's all kinds of pieces to this puzzle, and if you don't understand those levers, right? Within that process, then you can get frustrated pretty easily. And it's really, you see it quite often. I know you do Rich, and I see it too with the attorneys I work with where they just say, we tried that, it doesn't work.

Richard James: Yeah. The levers is a key, Michael.

MPS: Yeah, the levers is a huge key. Actually, you've said two things there, Robert, that sparked me a little bit.

Effective Marketing Strategies for Law Firms

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MPS: So, at this latest partners club event that we did, I had done a presentation on Facebook ads funnel. And I was very curious going [00:06:00] into that presentation. If I would hear, Oh, I've done Facebook ads before, it doesn't work, I don't like it.

I know you had a chance to check out that presentation as well. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on it. Do you find that, you get a lot of people that come in that say, I've done Facebook before I've done this before, it doesn't work and have you proven that otherwise? And B, any takeaways from that particular presentation?

Robert Stanley: Yes to both. So, we often run into small firms, whether it's Facebook or Google or something else. But they said, I already did that, and it doesn't work. Oftentimes, they did that with their cousin, Joe, or some huge agency who knows nothing about legal process, right? Or what the avatar is for that firm? That's one issue.

The other is that, they may find a great organization that's good at generating interest and leads, but there's no process to close those leads, which is super important and helpful.

The Power of Facebook Ads and Appointment Booking

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Robert Stanley: One of the things that I thought was fantastic about your presentation, a lot of it was made total sense to me, very familiar. There's one little key there that [00:07:00] you guys added, which was that last step, where you get people to book directly inside of Facebook, book an appointment right away.

And immediately, we have some shared clients, right? Immediately, we talked to a few of those and started implementing that. I don't have the entire story of the end to end process, but I can tell you, early indications are that it's working extremely well in terms of getting those appointments booked directly off of Facebook.

One of the things that we would see is a constant complaint from law firms and other companies, it's just that, Hey, these people aren't answering my call or, they're not good leads or whatever the scenario is. So, adding a few little changes to the qualification process and then that self booking component, I'm finding so far that, depending on your practice area, it's going to be a game changer, right? Because every certain practice areas are different, like PI versus others or whatever. But this is absolutely a game changer for the majority of them.

Richard James: Yeah. So, if I can plus one on that, I would tell you, it's been a game changer for us. So Robert, you and I worked kneecap to kneecap for years to try to figure this stuff out. And it wasn't [00:08:00] until we added, literally, a thousand hours a month. And it's not a lie, that's not an exaggeration. It's a thousand hours of labor a month on our team, trying to figure this stuff out.

And we stumbled upon through investing and coaching for ourselves, Michael and I, of realizing, Oh, wait, there's a step maybe we missed here. And I will tell you, so for those that you are listening, my business is no different than your business, right? Michael's business is no different than yours. Robert's business is no different than yours.

When we wanted to grow, we had to unlock the lever that was going to work. And what we discovered by going through this process and what's working today, we need to caveat that, today with Facebook. But what's working today is, now we've figured out, that if we add that little component of direct scheduling into the tier one or the appointment setting team.

We in our company, we went from scheduling, say, 12 new appointments for new potential clients in the course of a month say, that in the [00:09:00] same 5 or 6 week period, we scheduled a hundred and twenty appointments. And we didn't change our ads, it was with the same ad, it was with the same ad set. It was just a difference in the goal and what we were doing.

And yes, I agree with you, for those that are using pay-per-click advertising and social media, that added step really is, can be a game changer if executed correctly. But let's leverage on that for a second. It does take proper guidance to execute on that correctly. Because most law firms are not going to have the thousand hours of labor to invest in this every month.

So, they need to rely on partners like your firm and others that can help do this for them. What did you find as you were helping them do this? What did you have to overcome with them to get them to take that step? Or what did you have to help them do to be able to move that forward? Or maybe, why is it just so important that they work with an expert and they got to get out of their own way?

Robert Stanley: I think, there's several [00:10:00] answers to that question. And one of the key answers I would provide is the technological component. So, just cause we say, Hey, you do this and you add this link and then they can now self schedule. Makes it sound pretty simple, but there is technology behind that answer, right?

Is there not? So, unless you're a highly technical law firm or law firm owner, unless you're going to spend that thousand hours figuring out how to do this stuff yourself, it's highly unlikely that you're going to figure it out just out the gate. Whereas you could talk to somebody who has experience in that field or is already doing it, and they could say, Yeah, it's this much money and we'll have it done in 2 days. So it's a key component, speed execution.

The other aspect of that is, and I think this is one of the key things that maybe we haven't touched on even in your presentation, Michael, is that the 10 minute appointment isn't just a 10 minute appointment, it's a speed to response to the client need. So, we see this a lot when you look at data and analytics on the marketing side, the faster you get back to the client who inquires, the more likely you are to get the business, at [00:11:00] least in, in today's terms.

And so I think, one of the components that we didn't really may have not dived into a lot, and that I think is a key component is that, if I'm trying to book on Rich's calendar under a normal circumstance, like even this podcast, I think it was a month in advance, it's a month out. But I don't know what I would be doing in a month, and if you're a prospect, a potential new client for an attorney, there's all kinds of things that could happen.

If they're going through a divorce or it's a criminal matter or whatever, they want help as fast as possible, right? And so, the 10 minute appointment means, I could potentially book an appointment today or tomorrow. Whereas if i'm trying to book with the attorney directly, that could be a week or 2 weeks or whatever. So, what does that give the client? It gives the client, potential client, immediate satisfaction, that they've been heard and that they have a chance to speak to somebody.

And it gives the attorney a little relief in terms of, not having to talk to an unqualified lead. So, that 10 minute appointment, not only can give the potential new client the satisfaction of speaking to someone, but from the law firm process side, they can stop [00:12:00] wasting their time with appointments that really aren't fit for their firm or their practice area or whatever the scenario may be. So, it's multiple facets to that.

The other thing that we have to consider in that process is, the follow up after the 10 minute and all the technologies that go into that. That's another thing that, you know, it's all about speed to conversation with the client, but there are other levers that we have to pull to turn that 10 minute conversation into an actual signed contract for lack of a better description.

Richard James: Yeah. And so, real quick as a plus one on that. So, for those of you that are listening, here's what I know to be true, Michael, you could speak to this maybe, because you've seen, you've worked with so many different law firm owners at this point in that sales function, that a lot of law firm owners have this feast and famine cycle, right?

But if the prospect is lucky enough to catch the lawyer in their famine cycle, when they're not very busy and they need to get business, then they can get that appointment right away. But if they catch them during the feast cycle, when [00:13:00] they are so busy, they barely have time to get the work done that they've got as it is, there's almost no time available on their calendar.

To Robert's point, they're going to be booking out, could be a week. I know some firms that are booking out 3 or 4 weeks at this point. Michael, have you seen that to be true? And how could this affect that change based on Robert's perspective?

MPS: Yeah. Robert's spot on, it's absolutely true. And A, it's making sure that you've got layer between ideally the attorney and the prospect. And that would be an appointment setter, right? So, that's step one is having a dedicated appointment setter, someone that's there to manage the phones and manage intake.

And then 2, yes, not only does it increase the speed at which someone's able to contact the firm, because ideally, to Robert's point, they're able to snag either a same day or next day, 10 minute slot with the firm. Now it adds that layer of being able to meet with them quickly and then get on whoever it is, whether it's an attorney or non attorney sales person's calendar for the next step. And this would be another [00:14:00] argument for a non attorney salesperson, right?

Because now, we can fill their calendar. So, the attorney doesn't even have to be involved theoretically in the sales process until a signed client is delivered to them for an onboarding session. But you're spot on, Rich. Now, Robert, I'm curious.

I'm someone that good, bad, or indifferent with Facebook and technology. I'm just going to use my method, use my words and do what I want. And if they slap me on the wrist and say, otherwise, Oh, I'll fix it then. I know you have some thoughts on some best practices from a policy perspective though. Is that right?

Robert Stanley: Yeah I do.

Navigating Advertising Policies and Regulations

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Robert Stanley: So, this is more or less a message to the do it yourselfers out there, right? It's not necessarily for those that are hiring professionals, for individuals like myself have been doing this a long time. We've already made these mistakes and read the policies, there's a key point here.

So, for your business where you're advertising B2B. There are different federal regulations for the B2B sales process versus B2C. So, if you're at a legal practice area where you're advertising to consumers, let's just say [00:15:00] family law, for example. There are things you can say, and you can't say, and every ad platform is different. Facebook, for example, doesn't like it in certain areas. If you use the word you or your, they consider that personally identifying. So I say, let's use a weight loss example and say, are you too fat? If you use that, they're going to shut their ad down.

And if you make that mistake a few too many times, they'll actually shut your account down and you'll never be allowed to advertise again. We have some clients who have made that mistake. They try to use a different credit card and under their wife or husband's name and Facebook is smart enough to still not allow them to advertise. So, you need to tread lightly around their policies and terms. There are certain demographics you're not allowed to target for certain types of advertisements. There's a vast array of rules and regulations.

So, instead of getting super deep into that topic, I created a resource document for you guys to share whoever watches this podcast. But just know that those regulations, rules, and concepts are [00:16:00] different for every platform. So, TikTok has different rules than Facebook. Facebook has different rules than Google. For example, a long time ago, long before Facebook became so stringent, Google would not allow our bankruptcy attorneys to use the word debt or credit repair, because the credit repair companies got upset about it.

So, they actually have a policy now that if you use anything related to credit repair or debt removal or something to that nature, you have to be a nonprofit registered organization and you have to file a paperwork with Google to use those terms. And that didn't exist 5 years ago. And so, one of the challenges is when you try to do these things yourself also, is that these are moving targets in terms of what you're allowed to do and not allowed to do.

Fact of the matter is that, a lot of these kind of quirky things changed when Zuckerberg had to stand in front of Congress and explain, why they had so much information on individuals? And then certain regulations came down and changed things then. As a matter of being overly [00:17:00] cautious, many of these platforms have taken it a step further than even what was required.

Some word of advice, use the document that we're providing and read through it thoroughly, right? Make sure that you're not using imaging that you're not allowed to use, for example, if you're in the PI attorney business, you can't have this massive car accident injury, they consider that too violent. Stuff like that.

So, you need to write, read through those things before you use those. And then make sure if you do hire an agency, that's going to do it for you, that they're familiar with this already, cause this is the other challenge we've seen. We hire the biggest advertising firm in Los Angeles. They're used to working with Nike and all these other big brands, and they're not used to working with small law firms and they are not familiar with these regulations and these rules. The other thing I'll add to this piece of conversation is now the followup process, rules have changed there. There's even in the world of email, there's something called can spam, which is really not that big a deal these days. But I think, all of us would agree that it's very valuable to get somebody's cell phone number as a prospect. Would you agree?

Richard James: Absolutely.

Robert Stanley: So, there's a new set of regulations around that called [00:18:00] A2P, which essentially, all of the cell phone carriers now force you to register your business in EIN with any number you're going to use for text message marketing. You have to give opt-out abilities to clients. And you have to prove that, if I run a Facebook ad to try and get Richard James as a client, I have to prove that he said, Yes, he's willing to receive text messages from me.

This is another scenario where if you get it wrong, they will shut you down and you will not be allowed to send text messages ever again, using that EIN business number. Because I could go to another platform, register my business, got to go through ATP. They're like, No, we've already registered this business, these guys messed up, he can't send text messages. So, knowing these kind of the rules of the game are important and you won't think it's important until you actually get slapped on the wrist.

So, some of these things are go beyond understanding ad copy and the 10 minute appointment and stuff like that. You just have to know all of the nuance involved in these processes. And I want to add one final thing. And this is, we're going to go back to the beginning here a little bit when you talked about advertising in the 10 minute, [00:19:00] feast or famine. Let's go back to feast or famine for one second.

The Feast and Famine Cycle in Law Firms

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Robert Stanley: The one thing that we didn't mention, probably because we just have that curse of knowledge, we already know this, is that it's not uncommon, and tell me if I'm incorrect here, for the attorney, when he's really busy, to just be doing the work. And then the famine part hits.

Now, he goes and wants to spend a bunch of money in advertising and marketing, instead of having a consistent process and lead flow. They waste thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars to fill the pipeline. Where is if they work through a system and a process and understand you're the 10 minute appointment thing. The non attorney sales person stuff allows you to scale in a very steady fashion. There's more to this than just understanding marketing. It's also just managing your budget and your workflow at the same time, would you agree?

Richard James: Oh, yeah, the whole feast and famine cycle wreaks havoc with the business in general. It wreaks havoc with their lifestyle, it wreaks havoc with their stress and their mental acuity, it wreaks havoc with their profit and loss and their cashflow. [00:20:00] It wreaks havoc with their ability to do things at scale ever.

And then as you said, it creates a bunch of waste. Because they're ramping up and then settling down, ramping up and settling down, and they never develop a consistency and a rhythm. Now, this is all good conversation. I want to make sure we're honoring those that are listening. Because if we're not careful, I think we could be leaning a little bit towards the fear factor of this.

Robert Stanley: Yeah. It's not all doom and gloom,

Richard James: It's not, to quote a famous movie line, the juice is worth the squeeze. It is worth it to have a professional firm help you do this and execute it. Because done correctly, the good news is, playing by the rules, it's actually a very viable way to generate clients that are profitable for the law firm. Did I say that accurately, MPS?

MPS: Yeah, absolutely. There's always going to be guidelines and stuff you got to play within, but when you do it right, results [00:21:00] follow so you just have to play it right.

Richard James: Yeah, I'm just thinking about like James Housen, right? So, James Housen is a guy who started, he was doing $7,000, he was an EAY finalist. That's the Entrepreneurial Attorney of the Year, this year, EAY finalist. We had him on the podcast, and he was doing $7,000 a month. They did $142,000, I don't know, 3 months ago.

And so, that number is ridiculous. And I just talked to him the other day, and he's now hiring his second non-attorney salesperson. Because his first non-attorney salesperson is booked out for 3 weeks. And at the end of the day, he's doing it right. He's not breaking the rules, he's just following the processes and ramping up. And when you do this, it does compound. Robert, I suspect, you have found this to be compound, this compound effect to be true with your clients as well.

Robert Stanley: Absolutely. There's a system, there's a process and there's a flow. And what the 10 minute appointment, the non-attorney salesman, all of these components allow you to do is scale in a [00:22:00] method, in a fashion that you can do comfortably and without error. I think all of us, when we've built businesses, cause I know Rich, you've built others. When you grow too fast, what happens is, you drop the ball here and there and you actually upset a lot of people. And these days, people complain about it on the internet.

If you don't have a good post sales follow up, like for example, I go spend $10,000 in advertising. It's great I get tons of leads, I get a bunch of 10 minute appointments, but I don't have a non-attorney salesperson. I'm the guy that's doing all the closing. Suddenly, they're upset because they never got to talk to me. So, there's all these little key components. So, it's not doom and gloom. It's just knowing the right levers, as we said, to pull and write pieces to put in place.

And there's a formula based on the size of the firm. Wouldn't you say, if you're a solo or typical model. If you're much larger firm, there's another kind of typical model. And you have that data. And I have that data on the marketing side. Cause we've both worked with similar size firms from small to large. And it's my business is no different than yours. It's just knowing what those components are that make you successful.

Richard James: To thine self be true, [00:23:00] right? So understand, if you're a small and solo and you're doing everything yourself, you have to fall inside of certain constraints. If you want to keep it small and keep it all, that's okay. But if you want to start to grow and scale, you're going to have to add resources. Usually, in the term of team members, sometimes of vendors that can help you, but you're going to have to add resources to help you grow. And then as you grow to that next stage of, let's say, the manager level you can then start being the person that's managing the team.

That's the hellish section, we want to quickly leave there and get to the CEO level as fast as we can. And once we get to the CEO level from that point, the next stop is the investor level where you're not actually working in the business at all. But most law firm owners I know would be very happy to get to the CEO level. Where everybody else is running the business and they're doing the role as the CEO, but you can't go from small and solo to CEO right away.

If you try to do that, everything is going to break. [00:24:00] Not only are we going to break things in marketing and sales and disappoint, but we're also going to break like the bar association and we're getting complaints and we're going to have like real issues and we're not going to do well by our clients.

And I know that's a general concern for most law firm owners. They probably err on the side of not wanting to over outstrip their ability to serve the client, they're all very good about that. But sometimes, they get over their skis. And that's why they need guidance from people like you and Michael and myself to be able to say, Hey, hang on, let's just throttle back for a second.

I know you had a great month and you want to spend twice as much we did on advertising next month. But could you handle the double the number of clients that we have coming in and what will happen to the inside of your business and being able to have that conversation, so we can throttle it.

Yeah, maybe it doesn't happen next month. The good news is, if we just temper it over the period of whether it's 6 months or 9 months or a year, we will ultimately get there. MPS, where do you want to go from here in the conversation? We landed in this Facebook realm and pay-per-click advertising. And I just want to say real quick, and Michael, maybe you could speak to [00:25:00] this. We are not speaking about organic posts on Facebook or YouTube or anything like that. But Robert and Michael? We're talking about paid advertising.

Robert Stanley: You got to put some money in the game. And let's do a little history lesson here. When Facebook first came out, you could post something and 100% of your followers would see that. And if one of those followers clicked like on that post. All of their friends would see it.

Now, it's maybe 5% of your followers would see that post. So, it's not effective form of advertising. I know some businesses still think it is. I think, the only platform that may still have that kind of viral advantage at the moment, which is changing rapidly is TikTok. The hurdle with TikTok is 100% video. So, there's a lot of things there.

Leveraging AI and Automation for Growth

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Robert Stanley: What I would add to this conversation, if you guys will allow it, is maybe a touch of conversation on automation and AI.

MPS: Yeah.

Robert Stanley: of the things that, so I've built a couple of businesses, and one of the things that happens to every business is we hit these little shelves. We can't get past this next level [00:26:00] and it's either like I need or need to get a little bit more revenue, but to get a little bit more revenue, I have to hire the non -attorney salesperson. I got to have a little more resource on the back end. One of the things that is changing the game, particularly for the small to midsize firm is automation and AI. And that's something that I'm personally investing a lot of time and money and resource into, and we're working on solutions for the firms that we work with there. And I think that there are other companies like mine doing that. So if you're a small firm, especially if you're a solo, and you're not really investing in technology, that can really free up a lot of time to give you a little bit of space.

So again, that's comes back to the lever thing and it's your point, we said, Yeah, the 10 minute appointment booking is what's working today. The stuff that you and I did, [00:27:00] Rich, 3 years ago doesn't work today. So, we got to take what's working today, use it as much as we can, and realize that we have to be open to the idea that this stuff is a moving target. We have to stay educated, stay involved. I think that's one of the things that I really like about being involved with you guys, everybody in your group, and a lot of your attorneys.

Is that there's that constant communication of what's working, what's not working. And if you're living in a silo, you're behind your desk in your office at 2 in the morning, as you like to say, it's pretty hard to get that kind of insight and understanding.

Richard James: Yeah, MPS, that's a rubber brought up a great point. You're the youngest of the three of us here. You're maybe closest to the technology.

Robert Stanley: I don't know. I thought I saw some gray right there.

MPS: Yeah, hopefully not yet, but.

Richard James: Apparently, his puppy isn't sleeping. So, that might be it. But what would you say, Michael, based on what you've seen as you've transitioned through the technology that you've used in the years you've grown your businesses, do you think that an intelligent person like a law firm owner, or an attorney, could invest just a small amount of time in starting to understand how to [00:28:00] leverage and utilize AI through third parties, like firms like Robert and others? So that, they could gain some space and some bandwidth for themselves?

MPS: So, you said could, everybody could, everybody has the option to. I think the answer is should. They should invest that small amount of time to do that. Otherwise, at the exponential rate that technology is growing, firms that choose not to will get left behind and I now stand behind that.

At first I wasn't sure, but now I'm more sure than ever that if firms just choose not to adapt and adopt the new technology. It's just moving too quick and it's going to put them in a tougher position than they would like to see themselves in. So, I think the answer is should, and I'm excited that Robert and his team are investing the time and resources to learning this stuff. Because you've got a great asset there to be able to bounce some of these new concepts off of.

Richard James: Let's bring, [00:29:00] 2 of these concepts together. So 1, we haven't talked about Joey Coleman, we interviewed him on the pod about never lose a customer again. And so, his entire process of nurturing that customer process, and how he wants you to do that, and how he loves the idea of personalization. Then you take somebody like Robert and his investigation into the use of AI for the creation of customized videos.

Now I know, there's some rules and regulations against what you can or can't do, Robert. But just speak to the fact, we've come so far now that a law firm with very little effort on their part could likely start to create a customized message for every single client they on board.

If nothing else, just to say, thank you, Julie, for hiring our firm. We don't take your trust lightly. We want you to know, we're going to help you get through X, right? And the Julie and the X could be customized .So that, the attorney doesn't even have to say it, that you could write it in a script, and a [00:30:00] program will send out a text or an email with the video, with the owner's face on it, with a customized message to Julie. Is this an accurate statement?

Robert Stanley: That's an accurate statement. And it's going to become, it's going to go much deeper and bigger from here. That I think, what Michael was saying is, now it's a should, it's an absolute. Because for those that don't adopt it, they're going to not only get left behind, I think they're going to get smashed.

Unfortunate thing to say, however, at this very moment, this very moment in time, if someone listening to this decided to take that extra time and do the should, they are at a key pivot point where they can take advantage and even leapfrog a lot of their competitors. So you're at a moment in time, you could leapfrog your competitors right now. So, get off the chair, and get on the internet or call Michael or something. And figure out how you can implement this stuff. Because if you don't, the guy, the next block down is going to, and you're [00:31:00] going to miss out. So, don't do that, just do it.

Richard James: You nailed it. So, the David versus Goliath moment is really where we are, right? So, most people who are in PI know the Morgan & Morgans, Hastings & Hastings, Lerner and Rowe, whatever, name the big dog in your area. If you're a PI firm and you want to get ahead and you're the small player in that area, AI is one way you could leapfrog all the other competition and get really close to them.

Name the game, whether it's a fighting game. Family law firm, a criminal firm, an estate planning firm, a bankruptcy firm, an immigration firm, it doesn't matter what your practice area is. There is a big player that has always been dominating because of the old way things used to be done. The new technology will allow the new player, somebody who's just getting started, but has had enough chutzpah to go out there and invest the time and energy and some resources into learning about this new technology.

And they could massively leapfrog everybody else. Robert, it reminds me back in the day of when [00:32:00] you'd used to be able to get a website and get a Google, my business, it was called Google local, I guess back then, and if you were just ahead of everybody else, you would dominate your competition overnight. Would you agree?

Robert Stanley: I would agree and I'd add an additional one to that. If you look a little further back in time, if you had the front or the back page of the yellow pages, those guys who stuck with that model got smashed by the guys who moved to the internet. And the guys who are just doing the internet now and thinking SEO and websites enough are going to get smashed by the people that are going to do the AI and the new technology.

So, it's a constantly evolving game. And if you try to stay in your old ways, if it ain't broke, don't fix it is the attitude you hear a lot, and that's true. But what does it hurt to invest a little bit of time, money, resource, and find out from somebody who's actually used it and implemented it, and look at that possibility that it could absolutely make you the new Goliath. Let's say, David who smashes the old Goliath however you want to phrase that. But you're right, I mean, there were these key little points in history here where those things happened.

Richard James: MPS, I know we got to wrap this [00:33:00] up.

Closing Thoughts and Call to Action

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Richard James: We're getting a high note from our producer, but I want to make sure I give a warning out there. So, this is to the law firm owner who's listening. I don't know if you're, you've been at this for 20 or 30 years, maybe you've been at it for 40 years and you're wondering, Boy, I don't know.

I want you to know, there are some new young attorneys who are coming out and they're going right from law school into owning their own firm. Because they've got this entrepreneurial spirit. Because the internet is pushing them that way. There's more coaches information about opening up your own business and practice and they're thinking differently.

And so, that's coming and non-attorney ownership is already wildly available in 3 states, or 3 areas of the United States, and it's coming more and more. There's litigation every day out there that's trying to push that envelope. I'm warning you, this is coming.

It's not a, Oh, I'll just hang on my business, we'll just skip along. No, we're talking about, real, what is that word? Disruptive, right? We're talking about a [00:34:00] disruptiveness in the legal industry that's coming, and it's coming because of this technology that we're talking about today. We've covered a lot of that, but MPS, where do you want to go from here as we wrap it up?

MPS: First off, you took the words right out of my mouth. But secondarily, Robert, what's got you excited? What's got you fired up and excited today? Could be business, could be personal, could be both. I think we got a touch of that just a minute ago.

Robert Stanley: Oh, yeah. The baby's got me excited. And that's why I'm drinking the iced tea to keep myself awake. But I would say the most exciting thing for me being a technologist, most of my adult career, is this merge between old and new. When we talk about emerging technologies of AI, automation, CRM systems, practice management systems.

If you're still pushing paper and manually sending emails to clients to remind them about their appointments and all that kind of stuff, this is the time to really adopt this new set of tools and listen to a podcast like this. Stay informed, stay educated, and try to keep yourself one step ahead of everyone else.

Richard James: Yeah, I completely agree with [00:35:00] Robert. That is the thing that we should all be excited about. And Michael, you said I took the words out of your mouth, but I think we should all be a little bit worried if we don't do it, correct?

MPS: Oh, absolutely. And especially, to your point, young attorneys and non-attorneys, it's coming. But, Robert, thank you. Thank you for investing your time today. And to the attorneys listening, thank you for investing your time today. There was a lot of insights to be able to pull from.

If this isn't your first time listening or watching, and you got some value, make sure you hit that follow or subscribe button, depending on where you're listening or watching and drop some love down in the comments for Robert. And let us know your thoughts on AI and what it's going to do for you are in the industry? I'm curious to hear but Robert, thank you again. I appreciate you.

Robert Stanley: Thank you guys for your time. Appreciate it.

Richard James: Yeah, Robert, you're the man, brother. As you said, we'll put in your show notes, the access to the document that you told us about. if you're a little confused about that presentation that Michael did, and you want more about that, put a comment in there. We'll make sure we get around to you and have that conversation with you.

But most importantly, for [00:36:00] those that are listening, take action, do something today. Don't wait till tomorrow. Go search some information about what you can do next? Right now, take action today. And Robert, to you and to Allie, congratulations.

Robert Stanley: I see her hovering in the background. See if the little crack, I think she's got the baby right there.

Richard James: Oh, nice. Good. I can't wait to meet the baby in person in Virginia beach. And I'm praying for you, for your health and for some sleep.

Robert Stanley: Thank you, I appreciate it. I need to sleep for sure.

Richard James: Absolutely.