EL094: How I saved my Family’s Law Firm, with expert marketer, Tony Litster
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“Attorney websites are notorious for being full of statements that are so over-used that it means nothing to the end user”– Tony Litster
When it comes to running a law practise, Tony Litster has done it all – except be an attorney. Having started off as a janitor in his family personal injury practise, he began to learn the ropes, help to streamline systems and eventually become responsible for marketing. He has had accidents, learned about marketing and uses his public speaking skills to become an expert marketer and video marketing guru. In today’s show, Jacob and Tony chat about new online marketing strategies, how video is changing and why it is essential for businesses to put themselves in their customers shoes.
“If you can get into their head, and into their heart, and your message speaks that, that’s when you’re gonna connect.”– Tony Litster Play Podcast
When you are competing against a bunch of other attorneys in the same city, it can be difficult to make yourself stand out. According to online marketing expert, Tony Litster, it is all about understanding exactly what your customers want. Having put these strategies into practise, Tony has saved his family law practise and now helps others too. In today’s show, Tony chats to Jacob about changes in online marketing, using video for marketing and why understanding your customers is so important.
If you prefer to watch the discussion in action, here is my recorded interview with Tony Litster (please refresh your browser a few times if it isn’t loaded properly the first time):
In this interview you’ll learn
- 01’30” – Tony’s story and how he got to where he is today
- 05’37” – Why attorneys need to change their websites
- 14’25” – Video marketing
- 20’51” – The important elements of video marketing
- 23’33” – Website changes to improve your marketing
- 28’40” – Why it’s important to put yourself in the place of the person that you are marketing to
Written Podcast Transcription:
Jacob: Hello everybody and welcome to the Enchanting Lawyer podcast. This is your host, Jacob Sapochnick. Every week we have an exciting entrepreneur or a business person or an attorney that helps us share stories that inspire us to do our job better. Today, I’m honored to have a very exciting guest. His name is Tony Litster. He is an attorney in Idaho.
Tony is a very interesting guy. He’s an author of multiple programs, coaching programs. He himself has been a coach for CEO’s in the past 10 years. Now he’s a marketing director for Litster Frost, the largest personal injury law firm in Idaho.
Tony, I’m excited to have you on the show. How are you?
Tony: Thanks, Jacob. I’m super excited to be here. I’m doing great. Thank you.
Jacob: Excellent
I talk to attorneys and people in the marketing and in [unclear 00:01:23] world helping attorneys either in marketing or in business. It’s interesting to get all these different perspectives as to what works right now in building successful law firms which are like any other business.
I’m excited to have you today because I know that your background is — you have such a diverse background. Why don’t you share with us a little bit about your personal story because I think it’s inspiring and kind of tells us about how you got involved with this law firm.
Tony: When I was 17 years old I started working as a janitor for my uncle’s law firm. This is in the early days of personal injury law. I remember he was a criminal lawyer and he got into personal injury law. He had this big stack of binders he came home from a seminar with and said, “I’m going to start doing something different.” This is the early, early days and no one knew how to run personal injury law firms at all.
I was the janitor in high school then as I got older I took different roles. I was the receptionist for a while and I was like 20, 21 years old. I was the runner for the law firm. I started managing cases for the law firm as we set up a case management system. Then few years later he brought me in to set up a negotiation department. Which in terms of efficiencies and personal injury law firms, having attorneys negotiate cases is really inefficient. And so we set up a negotiation department.
I won’t get in to all the legalities because you have to jump through some legal loopholes to make sure you structure your negotiation department right. But we basically — I came in and streamlined, created a negotiation department, negotiated hundreds of cases myself. Really understood the dance between the insurance company and the client themselves.
About 15 years ago I was in an accident, and then again about a year ago was rear-ended by a drunk driver. So I got to experience from the patient side of this, the missing gaps in this. I basically had every position in the firm except attorney. They wanted to send me to law school and have me go get my law degree and I’ll be one of the lawyers on there. I didn’t want to. So I went off, ran my own businesses for about 10 years.
To read the complete transcript from this podcast, click here.
Show Notes
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