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The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
I am more convinced than ever that nothing that traditional bar organizations are doing is going to move the needle on the sad stats on lawyer happiness ...
The root cause of all lawyers' problems is financial stress. Financial stress holds you back from getting the right people on the bus, running the right systems, and being able to only do work for clients you want to work with. Financial stress keeps you in the office on nights and weekends, often doing work you hate for people you don't like, and doing that work alone.
(Yes, you have permission to do only work you like doing and doing it with people you like working with.)
The money stress is not because the lawyers are bad lawyers or bad people. In fact, most lawyers are good at the lawyering part and they are good people.
The money stress is caused by the general lack of both business skills and an entrepreneurial mindset.
Thus, good lawyers who are good people get caught up and slowed down in bringing their gifts to the world. Their families, teams, clients, and communities are not well-served because you can't serve others at your top level when you are constantly worrying about money.
We can blame the law schools and the elites of the profession who are running bar organizations, but to blame anyone else for your own woes is a loser's game. It is, in itself, a restrictive, narrow, mindset that will keep you from ever seeing, let alone experiencing, a better future.
Lawyers need to be in rooms with other entrepreneurs. They need to hang with people who won't tell you that your dreams are too big or that "they" or "the system "won't allow you to achieve them. They need to be in rooms where people will be in their ear telling them that their dreams are too small.
Get in better rooms. That would be the first step.
Second step, ignore every piece of advice any general organized bar is giving about how to make your firm or your life better.
The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
Renegade Lawyer Marketing (Audio Book) – Chapter 9: What Do You Think About? Ideas, Things, or People?
This is Chapter 9 of the free audio edition of Renegade Lawyer Marketing (Second Edition)—only on the Renegade Lawyer Podcast.
In this short but important mindset chapter, Ben Glass breaks down new survey data showing how most small firm lawyers spend their time—and what they should be thinking about if they want to grow.
You’ll hear:
- Why most lawyers spend 40% of their day not practicing law
- The top reason lawyers lack confidence in their marketing
- Why “networking” (as most lawyers do it) doesn’t work
- The hidden opportunity behind your competitors' marketing struggles
- And how to reframe your thinking around where to focus next
📣 Shout-out: Special thanks to our friends at Intaker for supporting this podcast and sponsoring the Great Legal Marketing Summit. We’ve used Intaker’s video-integrated chatbot for years, and it’s been a game-changer for lead conversion at Ben Glass Law.
📘 Get the book + bonuses at RenegadeLawyerMarketing.com
🎟️ Join us live at GLMSummit.com
Ben Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury and long-term disability insurance attorney in Fairfax, VA. Since 2005, Ben Glass and Great Legal Marketing have been helping solo and small firm lawyers make more money, get more clients and still get home in time for dinner. We call this TheGLMTribe.com
What Makes The GLM Tribe Special?
In short, we are the only organization within the "business builder for lawyers" space that is led by two practicing lawyers.
One thing we're sure you've noticed is that despite the variety of options within our space, no one else is mixing
the actual practice of law with business building in the way that we are.
There are no other organizations who understand the highs and lows of running a small law firm and are engaged in talking to real clients. That is what sets GLM apart from every other organization, and it is why we have had loyal members that have been with us for two-decades.
Hey everyone, this is Ben Glatz. Welcome back to the Renegade Lawyer Podcast and this is Chapter 9 of the audio version of Renegade Lawyer Marketing. This was the shortest chapter in the book. It's the beginning of the mindset section of the book. It's really important and as we begin, I just want to give a shout to our friends at Intaker. Intaker. We've been a customer of theirs almost back from the beginning of their existence, as soon as we saw their chat platform with the integration of video, and now they've added a whole ton of integrations and features to the program. We were sold and we fired our old chat company and have been a part of Intaker or had used Intaker at the Ben Glass Law website for a number of years now. So they'll be at the Great Legal Marketing Summit, as will a lot of the other very popular vendors and speakers in a relatively small meeting. So it's not 1,500 people. There's going to be a max of 200 lawyers and their team members here at Dulles Airport. If you have not registered, go to glmsummitcom. That's glmsummitcom, and it's one of your last chances that you'll ever get to see Dan Kennedy speak live.
Speaker 1:Okay, chapter nine what do you think about Ideas, things or people? What we think about all day at the office is apparently not the practice of law. Reuters Institute's new survey suggests that small firms spend 40% of their time not practicing law. In 2022, 80% of small and medium-sized firms said that spending too much time on administrative tasks and not enough time practicing law was a significant or moderate challenge. So what are they doing all day? Are we marketing advertising, voting? Nope, apparently not.
Speaker 1:Now, remember, I'm talking about your competitors. I'm probably not talking about you because, especially if you're a great legal marketing member, you're not one of these. But what do these firms say? Networking. I put air quotes around the word. Networking is the most commonly used marketing technique, used by 63% of firms and, frankly, used inefficiently. So if you think being in a room full of other lawyers is networking that's valuable, you're probably wrong. You need to get in rooms of other business owners For us, a lot of local business owners who are not doing what you are doing, and you need to be curious about their businesses.
Speaker 1:Next, 45% of small firm owners said they aren't confident that their marketing helps drive business for the firm. So almost half of all lawyers who you are competing against are not confident in their marketing that is helping drive business, and the main reason that they are not confident, I can tell you, is that they don't have any way to track things. They've been taught to brand build, to do advertising quotes Again, eric quotes around the word advertising that is not trackable, to have generic messages, to not have trained intake and sales teams that ask the right questions, because they're using scripts and their brains to help figure this out and, as a result, if you don't know, you're not confident of where your clients are coming from. You don't know where to go spend the next dollar. Again, that's what we're really good at at Great Legal Marketing is helping you figure out which dollars bring back the most dollars. Figure out which dollars bring back the most dollars.
Speaker 1:Next, 38% of firms don't use online marketing tactics social media, seo, online directories, blogs, et cetera. Now, that number is surprising because you and I, we live in the world where we are interested in marketing, or you wouldn't be listening to this podcast, you wouldn't be listening to this book, and we think everybody is doing it to the level that we are doing it at, and they're just not. If you go to the regular bar association meetings, like you know the externals really, and you listened to what they are doing, or listen to what they are not doing, you will be really amazed. It is incredible the absolute lack of knowledge about marketing basics by the vast majority of solo and small firm practitioners. Again, these are your competitors, so they're not even using the tactics that you and I battle over and discuss and try to refine every single day.
Speaker 1:And 53% of firms say that less than half of their business each year comes from new clients suggesting significant room to expand their practices. In other words, they're getting a repeat business, but less than half comes from somebody new. And, of course, that's what great legal marketing is all about. It's not only keeping the client for life and yes, that includes your personal injury clients, who maybe you will represent only once, but you want them in your world for the rest of your life and their lives. But there is a ton of opportunity. 53% of firms say less than half of their business each year, half of their revenue comes from new clients. And so lawyers are still here we are 2025, still pretty befuddled about how to go get a new client. As we've talked about in other chapters, it's largely because of the paradox of choice. There are just way too many choices out there and most of the people selling you the choices aren't selling you the way to accurately track if the dollar you spent with them is bringing back more than a dollar when it comes back to you. So we ended the chapter. What do these numbers mean to you? They mean opportunity. Most of your competitors are running inefficient, poorly marketed law firms.
Speaker 1:Okay, next time, chapter 10, the Secret is the Mental Thing. Again, I told you we're entering the mindset part of the book. If you've followed me for any length of time, if you read my book for teenage soccer referees, you'll find it is a total mindset book. Play Left Full Back. Another one of my books, a total mindset book the Live Life Big Journal. A total mindset book Because, while we do not have the power to change a lot of things that are external to us, we do have the power to shape how we think about the world, how we see the world, how we communicate to the world.
Speaker 1:And that's the space where even though this is great legal marketing, like everybody wants to like what's the best marketing technique Once you change the way you think about your life, your space in the profession and what it is you want to build in. However many days and months and years you get on this earth, then you have the power. So we'll see you next time. Again, reach out. I'm easy to find on LinkedIn. You can visit our websites and we'd love to have you at the Summit Great Legal Marketing Summit at GLMSummitcom. All right?
