May 15, 2025 • 40 mins
This podcast episode features a compelling discussion with Dennis Meador, a legal marketing innovator and founder of the Legal Podcast Network, who passionately advocates for empowering attorneys through the medium of podcasting. The primary focus of our conversation revolves around the profound concept that knowledge is power, particularly within the realm of leadership and interpersonal dynamics. Dennis shares his remarkable journey from a young entrepreneur to a leader in digital marketing for legal professionals, emphasizing the importance of encouraging and empowering team members rather than fostering an environment of fear. He elucidates how his leadership philosophy has enabled his business to thrive by aligning individual strengths with collective goals, thereby creating a motivated and cohesive team. Listeners will gain invaluable insights into the art of effective leadership, the significance of understanding team dynamics, and the transformative impact of fostering a positive work culture.
, the conversation delves into Dennis Meador's journey as a legal marketing innovator and the founder of the Legal Podcast Network. He shares insights from his two-decade-long career in digital marketing, emphasizing the transformative power of podcasting in the legal industry. Dennis recounts his entrepreneurial beginnings at the age of 14, where he first demonstrated his leadership abilities by managing small teams for snow shoveling and lawn care. This experience laid the groundwork for his future success, fostering a deep understanding of team dynamics and empowerment.
A pivotal aspect of the discussion is the idea that leadership is most effective when it is rooted in encouragement rather than fear. Dennis advocates for a leadership style that emphasizes motivation and clarity, arguing that this approach leads to higher team morale and productivity. He reflects on his own experiences with leadership, particularly how he has learned to navigate challenges and build a thriving business environment. His passion for helping attorneys connect with their ideal clients shines through, as he details the innovative strategies his company employs to streamline the marketing process for legal professionals.
The episode also highlights the operational efficiencies developed at the Legal Podcast Network, where meticulous systems have been established to optimize content creation and distribution. Dennis outlines the steps involved in producing a podcast episode and the subsequent content marketing efforts, illustrating how his team is able to generate substantial value for clients with minimal time commitment on their part. This focus on efficiency and quality underscores the importance of effective leadership in achieving business success and creating lasting positive impacts on clients and team members alike.
Takeaways:
- Leadership is fundamentally about empowering individuals within a team to achieve their full potential.
- The importance of creating a positive work environment is paramount for fostering team motivation and success.
- Effective leadership entails understanding the unique strengths of each team member and leveraging them appropriately.
- Building strong relationships with clients can lead to significant financial returns, enhancing overall business performance.
Links referenced in this episode:
Mentioned in this episode:
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(00:59):
Well, hello everybody andwelcome to another amazing episode
of the Unstoppable LeadershipSpotlight podcast. I am your host,
Jaclyn Stranger and on thispodcast we hear from amazing leaders,
their game changing insightsand how we can create a greater impact
in your leadership so that youare truly unstoppable. And today
(01:22):
I have an amazing guest,Dennis Meador. And he, first of all,
he lives in an amazing place.I have to just shout out about where
he gets to live every day. Buthe is a legal marketing innovator.
He empowers attorneys throughpodcasting. He is the founder of
the legal podcast network. Hehas over 20 years in digital marketing
(01:44):
for professionals and youknow, obviously primarily attorneys
and he has truly pioneer inthe legal marketing with over 20
years of experience and he'struly passionate about, about revolution,
revolutionizing. I can't speaktoday how attorneys connect with
their ideal clients. And asyou know, all of this relates back
(02:07):
so importantly to leadershipand our teams. So Dennis, welcome
to the Unstoppable LeadershipSpotlight podcast.
Thank you. It's good to behere. I always, always enjoy getting
to meet new people, find out alittle bit about them and then they
let me talk a lot about me andit works out fairly.
It does work out great. Whenwe first started again and listeners,
(02:30):
one of the key things that youwill learn and hopefully take away
by the end of this podcast isthat knowledge is power. Knowledge
is truly power and, andpowerful in our leadership and how
we interact with people. So wewere talking a little bit about this.
(02:52):
So Dennis, talk to share withthe audience a little bit about you
and how the legal podcastnetwork started and how it relates
to leadership.
Oh wow. Three part question.
Yeah, three part question.
I always tell my wife, if yougive me three items when I go to
(03:13):
the store, you gotta put em ona piece of paper. So if I get to
one and I forget, you got toswing. This brain can only keep two
things at once as well aseverything else swirling around in
it. So how did I get to whereI am? So long story short life, lifelong
entrepreneur, first real kindof entrepreneurial undertaking at
(03:34):
about 14. I tell this in everypodcast so people that watch my podcast
regularly, like, here we go.He was 14, he had the snow shoveling
and lawn mowing and paperroutes and then he resold them like
I did all the, the managementof it. And then my brother and his
friends actually would do thework and then I would collect the
money, get the, you know,split the money with them and it
(03:58):
worked out well for me. So Istarted that at 14 that's how I made
my money. We were in a privateschool, but we didn't have money
as a family. We were the kindof family like church dropped off
presents and, and, you know,for Christmas and, and turkeys for
Thanksgiving. That was, thatwas our family, literally. So. But
my mom, my stepmom was workedin the morning so we could go to
(04:20):
a private school, which I'mthankful for that sacrifice she made
because those kids probablyweren't always easy to put up with
me among them. And so we, youknow, I learned, like, I, I'm with
these kids. They got Jordansand they've got Bugle Boys, and you
have to be old enough to knowwhat that is. But, you know, they've
got all the cool clothes andall the nice stuff. And did they
(04:42):
shop at this place called VonMar, which was like the Midwest equivalency
of like, like a Nordstrom, nota Nordstrom rack, but like a Nordstrom
type level place. And so we,but I had enough money to be able
to kind of like keep myhaircut nice, have the same shoes,
have, have the clothes. Andthen that just kind of carried into
(05:03):
adulthood. My first. So I wasa youth pastor at 16, a pastor at
18, and I started my first LLCat 20 20, got married in 19. So I
was like the world's youngestold man. And now I'm like, I'm 47,
and for the last seven yearsI've really been the world's like,
I, I teasingly joke withpeople. I've been Benjamin Button
(05:23):
my life. Because at 18, 19,20, 21, 22, I was a pastor. I didn't
go out. I didn't like, youknow, I was married, I had kids at
starting at like 22. I alwayshad one or two of my own companies
as well as pastoring a churchor an evangelist or something like
that. So just very busy and alot of leadership roles. Then early
(05:45):
2000s, I switched to digital.I had been doing, you know, late
90s and stuff like that, morepaper stuff. But I saw where everything
was going with the Internet.And then I got recruited to sell
for a firm that was kind oflike law, what is it called, Law
Match or whatever it's called,where essentially they pay a monthly
(06:09):
fee and then they match themup with potential clients. And so
I went from asking for threeto five hundred dollars for an ad
and, you know, making 150, 200bucks off of it, whatever, to ask
you for $5,000 a month from anattorney. And then I was kind of
figuring out the marginspretty quick. And I was like, it's
(06:29):
a lot of money in this. So Isort of, I was like from then on,
I was kind of sold workingwith attorneys. And so, you know,
I've had social agencies, I'vehad text message game companies that
were, that did pretty well,that were fun. I've been able to
take three companies from lessthan a million to three to five million
within one to three years. Andjust throughout my entrepreneurial
(06:50):
journey, learning lessons, Imean, you know, some people call
them failures, some peoplecall you learn lessons, right? You
know, how to pick partners. Orfor me now, never again will I have
another business partner. I'vetried it three times. All three times,
times I ended up holding thebag and they ended up holding the
money that I made the company.So I, you know, I, I. A little over
(07:12):
a year ago, my now formerpartner, instead of renewing our
five year contract, bought meout at like our original term from
five years before. I had takenthe company from less than a million
to 4 or 5 million. And so whenhe bought me out, I was like four
months from my wedding, fivemonths. I was like, okay, what am
I going to do? But I'm anentrepreneur. I have a book that
(07:34):
I just write down businessideas that I come up with or things
that I think of. And I justput that in there and, and I could
literally go to that book andflip through and in about 30 minutes
to an hour be like, okay,here's my new business idea. Let's
launch it, let's go. And bythe following Monday, have a site
up and be selling the product.I took a little bit more time this
time with everything going onwith the wedding, but we launched
(07:56):
the podcast network officiallyMay 1st. So we'll be hitting a year
here. I mean, I don't knowwhen this will go out, but probably
sometime around the time thisgoes out or here in the next few
weeks. It's April 10th rightnow. And so we'll hit a year. We've
got about 110, 115 clients andwe've got about 25 people on the
(08:16):
team. So we've grown veryfast. Matter of fact, people ask
me, well, you know, how do yousustain growth bubble? It's like
I push back growth right now.Like right now I could sell more.
Like I have people with booksof businesses coming and saying,
I've got 300 attorneys thatwork with me and I want you to present
your product to them. And I'mjust like, okay. But you know, like,
(08:37):
hey, team, are we ready if 75people want to sign up next week,
are we ready to handle that?And so trying to prepare my team
for that sort of influx andthings like that. So that's how I
got where I'm at. Andleadership, I think that was the
last part. What doesleadership have to do with this?
I mean, whether I was forcedinto leadership because of the situation
(08:57):
of my life, or I just alwaysbeen a leader from the time I've
been a kid. You know, I was akid on the playground that made the
rules of the game as weplayed, not because I was bullying
anybody, but because I wantedeverybody to be included. You know,
I was the kid on, you know, injunior high that, you know, decided
who sold this, what snacks,and, you know, like, just. It's one
(09:19):
of those things. I don't pushfor leadership, but I often end up
in that position. And so forme, my leadership style has been
one that is, I try to use toencourage people and to empower them.
Because what I've learned isyou get a lot more from a team that's
motivated, encouraged, and hasclarity than you do for people who
(09:41):
are afraid of you and areconfused and are afraid to do something
that might mess up and makeyou attack them. And so that's why
I use that leadership style.And it's my natural style. Like,
I. I don't want to managepeople who are motivated by fear.
I want to manage. I want tomanage people who are motivated by
success or feeling like theydid well, or the team success or
(10:03):
whatever. So I hope thatanswers all three parts.
Yeah, no, that was awesome.That was absolutely fantastic. And,
you know, and I, you know, solisteners, I, I really want you to
hear and really want toemphasize, you know, leadership is,
you know, there's a fewthings, great nuggets, but encouraging,
empowering and. And helpingpeople really, you know, you know,
(10:27):
not be led by something offear, but really just encouraging
people. And that is soimportant in business. And so I'm
curious, so, Dennis, you know,you said, you know, you started,
you know, 14. You. You. You'reobviously a natural leader. And it's
something that. Notnecessarily that was taught. It's
(10:48):
just how you operate. As yousaid, you want to include people
in there. What do you think itis about, you know, when you're thinking,
thinking back, like, what isit, you know, that when you're thinking
of the. That first team thatyou created with, you know, your
brothers, you know, and thatbusiness and you're managing it,
what helped you be that leaderto Bring them together and to get
(11:14):
them excited. Like.
I mean, at the time, it waslike, the way it started was me,
my brother and his best friendwere knocking on doors to do snow
shoveling because a friend ofmine said, hey, man, I made like
a hundred dollars in a daysnow shoveling. I was like, oh, that's
crazy. You know? So we startedout, and I figured out quickly that
(11:37):
they didn't mind theshoveling, but they hated knocking
on the doors and asking peopleand getting rejected. And so once
I realized this is what theydon't like doing, and this is the
part that I mind the least.Like, I hate this bait, you know,
like, screw this. Like,showing, shoveling somebody's, you
know, snow. Like, I'll goknock on a thousand doors before
(11:58):
I'll shovel one lot, one walk.And my brother's like, I'll shovel
a thousand walks before youbefore I knock on one more door.
And I was like, this works forme. So we get to, you know, we're
about an hour in, we'refreezing cold. We get to the next
door, and it's, I think, mybrother's friend's turn. And he's
like, I don't want to do it.Because we had done, like, three
walks in the hour, and I hadgotten all three of them. And so
(12:20):
my brother's like, I don'twant to do it. I was like, okay,
I'll do it. So I go up, Iknock on the door, hey, blah, blah,
blah, you know, And I learned,like, with door to door stuff, you
always got to have a littlestory. So, like, hey, me and my brother
and his friends were justtrying to earn money, you know, like,
we go to a private school, so,like, we have some certain things
that our family isn't able todo. But, you know, like, I had a
whole. And it was true. Like,the money was going to me so I could
(12:42):
have nice school clothes likethe other kids of private school,
you know, like when I wasselling candy bars in front of the
grocery store, it was like,for sports equipment. Well, those.
The sports equipment was theJordans that all the other kids had
that. My parents are like,these are the $20, you know, shoes
that you get from. From Kmart,where my mom was the. My stepmom
was the shoe manager. They'relike, these are the shoes you get.
(13:04):
And I'm like, I can't wearthose in front of a whole team of
kids wearing Jordans, youknow, so. But I went up there, she
said, sure, $20. She handed mea 10 to 5. I walked down, I handed
my brother $5, I handed hisfriend $5. I put $10 in my pocket
and I said, I got a greatidea, guys. And like, what? I'm like,
you stay here and do this andby the time you get done so we don't
(13:25):
waste any more time, I'llstart knocking and get the next job
for you. And you could just gofrom job to job to job and we'll
just make money and we won'thave any breaks unless we want to.
And they're like, oh, that'sgreat. Because now they're thinking
like. So I emphasize the we'regoing to make more money, not, hey,
all I have to do is knock ondoors and make half the money. And
you guys got to do all thework and make a quarter of the money
(13:47):
each. So that's. And, andthat's kind of how it just grew from
there. Like all the kids inthe neighborhood were like, I mean,
I want a lawn mowing job, buthow do I get one? And I'd be like,
I'll get you. How many do youwant? Four. And I go get four lawn
mowing jobs and then I'dcollect it and then, you know, I
got all the paper routes andyou know, I just make sure I go collect
everybody. And I'd say, well,how are we doing? You know, and they,
(14:07):
oh, you guys getting here ontime? Okay, great. If I had somebody
wasn't doing right, I'd say,hey, do I need to give your wrap
somebody else? Like, it just,I didn't think about it. It wasn't
something where I didn't sitdown and, you know, the 14 year old
entrepreneur's guide torunning a business 101. I didn't
know of any such book.
No, but you know, but there'sa couple of key things that you did
(14:29):
and that, that again,listeners, this is such a key, huge
takeaway is that you got toknow your strengths. Your strength
was knocking on the door. Youand you and you pulled out what each
person in that team or in thepeople that you are quote unquote,
employing liked to do.Knocking on the doors takes courage,
(14:53):
right? And it's right. And ittakes a, it takes a skill of, of
being an eloquent, knowing howto speak and tell a story and almost,
you know, so that was knowingthat strength of yours and whether
you realize it or not, right?So you played on that. And then so
(15:14):
when someone said to you, oh,I don't, how do I get those? I can
get them for you, you justneed to do the part that you want
to do, which is mow the lawn.
Exactly. So we. We really. Oneof the thing principles I teach in
my company is the more thatpeople are doing the thing that only
they can do, the better ourcompany is. Yeah, when. And we hire,
(15:36):
like, we have VAs in thePhilippines and we have graphics
people in Pakistan. We have anumber of people, about 10, 15 people
in the US and like, when Ifind out that somebody in the US
is doing something that'slike, taxing, and it's like. Like
a spreadsheet or just diggingthrough that, I'm like, why are you
doing that? Couldn't so and sodo that. Like, that's why we have
VAs and that's why we havethese people that do these jobs.
(15:58):
I want you doing what you do,what I hired you to do. If you're
my content director, I wantyou working on content for our clients.
If you're doing clientsuccess, I want you face to face
with the clients. I don't wantyou doing this other stuff. And I
just. And sometimes that'sjust all I do. Even my sales guys,
they don't even enter into theCRM themselves. They have a Slack
(16:20):
channel. It's not Slack. Wehave our own Discord server just
to kind of have more fun, butthey just discord. And they're just
like, hey, Jenny, can you, youknow, so. And so I just called them,
can you mark this? Blah, blah,blah. And then they just move right
on. And so everything isfrictionless. Everything is stay
in the thing that you can do.What can I do for the company? And
(16:40):
I knew this, like, in thebeginning it was bringing clients,
and until January, I broughtin the clients. So I think we hit
almost 85 clients or so bythen. And that was me being the only
salesperson while running thecompany, while creating systems,
while doing everything else.But I also know that a bigger thing
that I can do for the companyis be an evangelist for it, go on
(17:01):
podcasts, create my ownpodcasts, build relationships, meet
with, you know, meet withreferral partners, you know, create
better content. All of thesethings that only I can do. Like my
team there. No one else in thecompany can be me in the way that
I'm doing these things. So myteam has empowered me to do that
(17:22):
by stepping in. We have threesalespeople now, so I don't sell
anymore by stepping in. And wehave, you know, people that do other
aspects. And I just work onthe business instead of in the business.
And that makes all thedifference in the world.
You know, again, that's a,again, huge game changing insight.
Right. To be able to get tothe point where as a leader, you're
(17:44):
working on the business or ifyou're leading a team, you're on
the team, you're leading theteam, you're, you're not, you're,
you know. Yes, you need to getin and do, you know, be a, be a player
in the, you know, and be aplayer on the team. But if you're
running it, you don't want tobe in the weeds too. You've got to
be, you know, you almost likesetting up here.
(18:06):
The coach isn't the backup goalie.
Right.
The coach stays off the sideof the field and he says, hey, hey,
watch out. Right there, rightthere, right there. Come on, let's
go. You know, that's a coach.I see myself as a motivator, a mentor,
a coach, not a businessleader, CEO, founder, although that's
the titles that are put on.Like me, what are. If people say,
(18:26):
what are you? I'm a motivator.I love to mentor people. I love to
coach people. If I have, if Ican't help people by doing those
three things, they're onlymotivated by fear, then I usually
end up saying, listen, like Ijust, I don't manage by fear. And
every time that you fall off,I have to threaten you. It's just
isn't a good fit because Iwant people that are motivated by
(18:48):
positivity and goals and allof those things.
Yeah. And, and that is, it'sone of those things that I think
is so important as a leader tobe able to understand, to do, you
know, so, you know, it'sleading by fear does not ever make
anybody feel good. And sobeing able to be that cheerleader
(19:11):
coach, the mentor, the personthat's like getting people excited
about the work that they aredoing. It's, it's really exciting
because people will want to domore when they're feeling empowered
and feeling good and wantingto work. So your, your business.
Tell us a little bit about howthis all plays into what you do for
(19:34):
your business and your clients.
So what we do is prettyintricate and we had to create a
system because in thebeginning, you know, we went from
spreadsheet tracking ourprojects to Monday tracking our projects
to I for time work or I forgetwhat it was called. And then now
we're using ClickUp and we'reactually using a company helping
(19:57):
us with customization on thatproject management. And like A client
has, from the moment they sayyes until the time that their four
month cycle rounds with us hassomewhere around 303 steps in our
process. Just the onboardingto the first episode alone is like
(20:20):
over a hundred. And so youknow, this person, we got a qa. So
like for example, let's take,you know, like we'll take, they do
the podcast shoot. Let's justtake a simple 30 minute podcast shoot,
seven to 10 questions. Thenthat takes about 17 to 21 minutes.
At the end of seven, then wecut that, we take that 17 to 21 minutes.
We put an intro, we put anoutro, we put transitions, we make
(20:42):
it look all nice, it's got allof their branding. We then take that,
we put it on YouTube, we putit on LinkedIn, we put it on other
video, we then pull the audio,put the intro outro, you know, did
all the editing, the audioscrubbing, all of that, put that
on all of the different audiooutlets. Okay, that's just the beginning
because now we're going tocreate 30 pieces of content, one
(21:03):
per day if they're doing oneepisode a month, two per day if they're
doing two episodes a month, orthree posts per day if they're doing
four episodes a month. Andthat is one post per day on up to
10 different outlets. So we'retalking about Instagram, Facebook,
TikTok, YouTube threads, bluesky X, Twitter, Pinterest is a big
(21:29):
one. So there's like all ofthese places that we, we post all
of their content plus we takethat. So we make reels which are
like minute or less videos.We're all familiar with those. Then
we make audiograms which islike a static. And then it kind of
just has the thing come acrossand I, I know you know it, but I'm,
you know, maybe people herearen't as familiar. And then just
regular static posts as well.Hey, go check out episode 12. We
(21:53):
then build them like a linktree. And all of our clients have
one call to action. Click onlink in bio. And that always applies
to everything. If we say checkus out on itunes, click on link in
bio, they look down the linktree. There's the Apple podcast.
So we have, you know, anywherefrom 10 to 30 links down there. All
their social, their website,everything. So we're able to take
(22:18):
30 minutes of an attorney'stime and create an evergreen show
that gives them 30 days worthof content. So that's how we apply
that. It's, it's, it's a wholeprocess, you know, and we've gotten
better. We started off withthree pieces of content per episode,
but AI and getting betterwithin our systems and more systematized
(22:42):
has gone. We've gone from 3pieces to 33 pieces. So an 11x in
less than a year delivery withour product just because of adapting
to AI, learning how to use AI,getting better with it, and then
also refining our. Our owninternal processes so we can produce
more. I always say better,faster, less friction.
(23:05):
Right.
If we're seeking to do thosethree things, we want to do everything
better, we want to doeverything faster, and we want less
friction for our clients. Wewant it to be easy for them to sign
up with us. We want it to beeasy for them to find us. We want
it to be easy for them to workwith us consistently. We want it
to be easy for them to shootthe podcast. We want this just to
feel like, how is thismarketing? I thought marketing was
(23:27):
way harder than. This is whatI want them to think. But in the
meantime, I've got me and myteam just going, you know, we're
like the, the guy at the, theJapanese steakhouse. You know, the
knives are spinning and, andwe're cracking eggs on spatulas and
throwing shrimp into people'smouth, and they're just sitting there
like, what a show. This isgreat. But somebody's moving fast
(23:48):
and somebody's working hard.
Right? And actually. Andyou're probably doing it. You're
not nearly sweating as much.
Well, yeah, we're not standingover a hot grill.
So. But so, I mean, it'sreally amazing the amount that you're
actually able to produce. Andobviously, you know, obviously we
(24:09):
have these, you know, we haveattorneys who are, you know, they're
using the time wisely. Right?
Yeah.
30 years of time, you know,which is really great.
Yeah, I mean, they're, they'rejust using a little bit of their
(24:30):
time. And, and that's theother thing. You know, people with
money buy time, and so that'swhat we're selling. Like, yes, we're
selling quality. We have. Ihave an amazing team. This thing
turned off. I turned it on tooearly. So we're just going to pretend
like it still looks prettyback there. Pay no attention to the
man behind the curtain.
(24:51):
Oz.
Yeah. Yeah. So. So, yeah, Imean, we were able to. We're able
to deliver a lot, but withvery little of their time. And, and
I mean, to me, that's awinning formula for any business.
If I'm saving people who wanttheir time saved and delivering a
(25:12):
product that then on top ofthat, returns our return, a return
on an investment of, you know,five to one. Like, I mean, I have
one, I have one guy who justtold me, yeah, I just met with him
this morning as a matter offact. First thing he said, you know,
he said through the podcastalready, I've only released like
two or three episodes. Hesaid, I've already built a relationship
where this one relationship isgoing to pay for this podcast for
(25:34):
the whole year. If nothingelse happens, the podcast is paid
for. And he's like, And I'veonly. And he's, he does a weekly
show, so he hasn't even done amonth's worth of shows yet, and he's
already paid for it.
That's really fantastic. Youknow, and a key, you know, a couple
of really key things here.It's, it's, you know, when I think
about this, I mean, I'm lovingwhat you're doing for your clients
and what you're able toprovide them, but it's also being
(25:57):
able to deliver something withquality and provide great service,
which as a leader, we need todo that for the people that are on
our team. I share, and I saythis often, that our team members
are. And the people that weemploy, they are team members. They
(26:19):
are not employees. They'repart of the team. And we work together,
we partner with them. So, youknow, it's. You're. You're delivering
on that service and helpingpeople have, you know, elevate their,
Elevate their businesses,generate more income. And you're
doing the same thing for thepeople that are your team members.
(26:40):
And it is so important inthat, within leadership for people
to be able to see that. Andyou're providing such a great example
and, you know, for people thatare in, that are coming into, you
know, your realm, so to speak.
And I, yeah, I mean, one ofthe things I do when, with, with
my team is when I'm firstmeeting with them, I ask them, I
(27:01):
say, realistically, now, weall want to make a million dollars
a year. I get it. Butrealistically, what do you need to
make per year to live the lifeyou want to live? And once I find
out that number and if it'srealistic, I say to them, okay, well,
we're not there yet, but Ithink we can get there in about this
amount of time, assuming thatyou show value and you grow. And
(27:22):
if we can get you into thisposition, then we can put you to
where you're making that sortof income. I have five or six people
that A year ago, were making afew hundred dollars a week, are now
making a few thousand dollarsa week working with me. So they went
from just like, okay, I'mtrusting you, like, I'm making this
work. And if I need to take anevening, like, literally, because
(27:43):
I was starting from scratch atthat time. I, I, I didn't, you know,
like, I mean, I had a littlebit of money, but, like, I didn't
have anybody say, here's amillion dollars, you know, you got
burned. Like, I, internallyfunded, just started it from scratch,
you know. So those people now,like a year ago, they were saying,
like, I need to make thismuch. And now like one guy, year
(28:03):
ago, he started off in like,kind of like a junior sales under
me. He was the one helping setmy appointments. And I told him flat
out. I was like, listen, like,I want to get you up to sales because,
you know, you're, you're not,like, you're not where you want to
be living. You want to live ina better situation. You're having
to take the bus or get Ubersever. You don't have a car. You know,
(28:23):
you're, I can't imagine youare where you want to be in life
right now. And he was justlike, no, dude. Like, you know, you
can tell he was discouraged.And I was like, listen, I know that
you're, you're good and youcan do this, but you've got to believe
me, you've got to trust me,and you've got to allow me to help
you. He's like, I'll dowhatever, man. Like, and he's like,
mid-30s, you know, not ayoung, young guy. And he's like,
I'll do whatever, man. Like, Iknow you, your reputation. I, I,
(28:45):
I, I trust you. So here weare. Like I said a year ago, he's
making 4, 5, 600 bucks a week.Here we are a year later, this guy's
making 2500 a couple times.Made 3000, 3500 in one week. So he'll
probably make somewhere around120 to 150 this year. He's never
made over 40 grand in hislife. And so.
(29:06):
Wow. Yeah.
And so those are the stories,right, that I, that, that I get excited
about. Like, yeah. And I couldtalk about my clients too, but, like,
that is where I look at it,and I'm just like, that's why I do
this.
Yep.
Because I get to see otherpeople and it's like sometimes I
sit down and like, I'm goingto try not to get emotional. But,
(29:27):
like, I just sit down and Ithink, dude, like, something in my
head, I just thought thiswould work. Well, there are now 25
people who, literally, theirwhole lives depend on it, and it's
already starting to provide adecent living for me and mine. And
within a year, I'll be backahead of where I was with my old
(29:48):
business partner that took mefive years to build up to. And I'm
just like, I like that. That'sthe day and age we live in, that's
the market that we live in,that's the opportunities that we
have. I don't know thateverybody can do something like this,
but let me say this. I failedenough at it to know that if I quit
(30:11):
because I failed, I wouldn'tbe where I'm at today. Yeah.
Yeah. You know this, Dennis. Ilove what you're doing, and I love
your heart. And I think that'sactually one of the key things about.
I just kind of want to, youknow, listeners have heart and. And
get to know the people on yourteam and what do they want? I talk
(30:36):
about that a lot. Like, I. I'ma big believer in, like, knowing
your mission, but know themission and the vision of the people
that. That are in your fold,because if you know that, you will
help them soar, and it comesback to you, like, tenfold. Like,
I can see it in your face andin your, like, how much that really
(30:58):
matters to you. And it's.It's. That's the impact that. A great
leader. So I'm going to callyou a great leader. Great leaders
make. It's. We're, you know,if we can impact people positively,
it's just going to make for abetter world. I hate to say that.
It's like, absolutely. Even ifit's just our own world, our own
(31:19):
sphere of influence. Yeah.
Yep.
You know, I mean, absolutely.And I think that, you know, and I.
I mentioned this in anotherpodcast. I don't know how long we're
going, so I'm going to justkeep going, but until you tell me
we're done. But, like, one ofthe things that I try to do is, like,
I remember having managementat different times, and I remember
the dreaded, hey, can you meetwith me for a few minutes later on,
(31:42):
like, and you're psycho.Great. I'm going to get fired. I'm
going to get this. I've madeit a habit to where 75% of the time,
at least, when I pull peopleaside, it's because I want to praise
them. And give them something.So I'll be like, hey, I just wanted
to let you know so and so andso and so in your division has come
to me and told me how awesomeof a job you're doing, how hard you're
working. I want to let youknow I appreciate it. Do you have,
(32:05):
can you, can you do Amazon inyour country or. No, it's this. Okay,
well, I'm Gonna send you $50on Amazon or, or whatever and just
let you know that you're beingnoticed and the team notices it.
So there's a atmosphere not ofjust me looking, but my whole team
looking around and thenpraising each other and then bringing
it to me and being especiallymy directors, because I have three
(32:26):
directors that they're kind ofboots on the ground of being like,
who is doing an extra, youknow, who, who, who's really going
above and beyond. We just seta goal by June 1, hit on 150 clients.
If we do, I'm going to giveaway $1,500, 750, 500 and 250. Everybody
in the company is eligible.They have their minimum daily work
that they have already anyway.And so if they do that minimum daily,
(32:48):
they get an entry. But thenthere's also above and beyond opportunity,
so and so sick. So you pick upextra work or you're a host and you
step in at the last minute,whatever it is, those, they get three
entries. And then come June1st, if we hit our 150, I'm going
to draw three names. Someone'sgoing to get 250 something, get 500.
Some is going to get 750. Andso my whole company now is going
(33:11):
150, 150, 150. I better notmess this up. Because if we lose
a client, that's anotherclient we got to win, you know. And
so all across the whole thing,they're just all looking to the same
thing. Instead of just likenormal day, back to work, do the
minimum so I can come go homeand watch tv, you know, like, no,
that's not the mind frame.It's just like we want to get there.
Because 750 might not be ahuge amount to me and you, but to
(33:36):
somebody in Pakistan orsomebody in the Philippines or in
South Africa to give them anextra $750, that is a lot of money
for them. And even here in theStates, like, if I just said, here's
750, you wouldn't be like, Ican't be bothered to bend over and
pick that up. You know, like,you'd be like, nice, I'll take it.
You know, you do somethingnice with that. And so, and so, like,
(33:58):
that's the kind of stuffthat's like getting your team all
on the same page. Leading byleading with kindness. I mean, I
think it's is in essence whatyou've said. Yeah, leading. Leading
with kindness and in kindnessand being clear where the company
is, where it's going, allowingall of your teams. Because I've worked
(34:20):
with people who they isolatethe teams and they play them against
each other and I'm just likeall of those games that people try
to play with other people andit's like, sure, you can take people
who maybe aren't their IQs andas many points as yours and you can
kind of have your like sicklittle fun. But like, at the end
of the day, like, what are youreally accomplishing by. By playing
your own people against eachother? Doesn't work, you know?
(34:42):
Yeah, so, so that's. I, I lovewhat you just shared. I'm like such
a. It's again, another greatinsight and key thing is when you
get everybody on the samevision and mission, working together,
the team works together betterand they all bubble up, everything
bubbles up. So, so Dennis, youhave just done a great information
(35:04):
and shared some amazinginsights. How can our listeners connect
with you, learn more aboutyour company, get more of your wisdom?
Where do they go?
Sure. So probably the easiestis going to be LinkedIn. If you're
a LinkedIn, which most of usare anymore, it's almost like we
have to be. There's no Choicethere but LinkedIn. I share some
(35:27):
videos, I share kind of some,like, business like, insights on
like, how I think aboutthings, like what it means being
a business owner, all thatsort of stuff from doing it for as
long as I have now. So that'sprobably the easiest way is LinkedIn
and then our company, thelegal podcast network.com testimonials,
we've got a section on therefor. We actually have two sets of
(35:51):
podcasts that we do. We dopodcasts for attorneys about how
to run their business andmarket it, and we actually partner
up with people in the industrythat are specialists. We have a show
that we just signed in,actually two shows that we just signed
into production. So right nowwe've got a guy who's like an AI
specialist to help run a firm.We've also got a lady who's a certified
(36:12):
financial professional forindividual attorneys. Now we're bringing
on a fractional CFO for Lawfirms. And we're bringing on a lady
who basically teaches lawyershow to effectively speak on camera.
And so just I want to haveabout 20 shows like that where we
call them sponsored shows. Andso we have about 20 shows like that
(36:33):
that just give tons of reallygreat info to our clients. I'm developing
a show like that calledBuilding Authority through Media.
Bam is the. Is the name of it.It's superhero themed, like comic
book. Like comic book Batmanfrom the 60s sort of vibe to it.
And every week it's going tobe the Dynamic Duo and me and whoever
is my guest, we're a teamfighting against conquering sameness.
(36:56):
Is the, is the, the, the themeof the show.
I love it.
So we're all conqueringsameness on LinkedIn, conquering
sameness on Facebook,conquering sameness on our website,
whatever it is in marketing.How are we conquering sameness? So,
you know, that'll be on oursite soon enough as well. But check
us out on our website, Checkus out on the socials. If you look
(37:16):
up Legal Podcast Network. AtLegal Podcast Network, we've got
three or four Instagramsbecause we've got one just for attorneys
with like, kind of bits fromour shows. One that is not answers,
which is for people who aren'tattorneys, but our attorneys create
that content. One that's dotlolz. So we're doing like lawyer
(37:37):
memes just to kind of engagewith them on a different sort of
like in a different way. Sowe're like just creating all these
lawyer memes and funny. Havefun with it and, you know, make those
connections. So, yeah, any of,any of those places. Just look up
Legal Podcast Network. Youshould be able to Find Us or YouTube.
All. All of the outlets. We'reeverywhere. We're so. We are, what
(37:58):
do I say? Outlet agnostic.Okay, so find us everywhere.
Yeah, no, I love it. So,listeners, if you have found this
episode worthwhile and you'vegotten some great nuggets, which
I'm sure you have, do me afavor, please and hit subscribe.
Also, make sure you go andconnect with Dennis on all the socials
(38:20):
and check out all of hisstuff. He's obviously a great wealth
of information. And pleaseshare the podcast as well with your
friends and colleagues. And aswe can make better leaders, we make
a better world. And that iswhat we all want. Great leaders,
great life, great people. So Iam Jacqueline Strominger, the host
(38:40):
of Unstoppable LeadershipSpotlight Podcast. Thank you for
being a great guest, Dennis,and thank you, listeners, for listening
in.
Thank you very much for havingme. Thanks.
Well, hello everybody andwelcome to another amazing episode
of the Unstoppable LeadershipSpotlight podcast. I am your host,
Jaclyn Stranger and on thispodcast we hear from amazing leaders,
their game changing insightsand how we can create a greater impact
in your leadership so that youare truly unstoppable. And today
(01:22):
I have an amazing guest,Dennis Meador. And he, first of all,
he lives in an amazing place.I have to just shout out about where
he gets to live every day. Buthe is a legal marketing innovator.
He empowers attorneys throughpodcasting. He is the founder of
the legal podcast network. Hehas over 20 years in digital marketing
(01:44):
for professionals and youknow, obviously primarily attorneys
and he has truly pioneer inthe legal marketing with over 20
years of experience and he'struly passionate about, about revolution,
revolutionizing. I can't speaktoday how attorneys connect with
their ideal clients. And asyou know, all of this relates back
(02:07):
so importantly to leadershipand our teams. So Dennis, welcome
to the Unstoppable LeadershipSpotlight podcast.
Thank you. It's good to behere. I always, always enjoy getting
to meet new people, find out alittle bit about them and then they
let me talk a lot about me andit works out fairly.
It does work out great. Whenwe first started again and listeners,
(02:30):
one of the key things that youwill learn and hopefully take away
by the end of this podcast isthat knowledge is power. Knowledge
is truly power and, andpowerful in our leadership and how
we interact with people. So wewere talking a little bit about this.
(02:52):
So Dennis, talk to share withthe audience a little bit about you
and how the legal podcastnetwork started and how it relates
to leadership.
Oh wow. Three part question.
Yeah, three part question.
I always tell my wife, if yougive me three items when I go to
(03:13):
the store, you gotta put em ona piece of paper. So if I get to
one and I forget, you got toswing. This brain can only keep two
things at once as well aseverything else swirling around in
it. So how did I get to whereI am? So long story short life, lifelong
entrepreneur, first real kindof entrepreneurial undertaking at
(03:34):
about 14. I tell this in everypodcast so people that watch my podcast
regularly, like, here we go.He was 14, he had the snow shoveling
and lawn mowing and paperroutes and then he resold them like
I did all the, the managementof it. And then my brother and his
friends actually would do thework and then I would collect the
money, get the, you know,split the money with them and it
(03:58):
worked out well for me. So Istarted that at 14 that's how I made
my money. We were in a privateschool, but we didn't have money
as a family. We were the kindof family like church dropped off
presents and, and, you know,for Christmas and, and turkeys for
Thanksgiving. That was, thatwas our family, literally. So. But
my mom, my stepmom was workedin the morning so we could go to
(04:20):
a private school, which I'mthankful for that sacrifice she made
because those kids probablyweren't always easy to put up with
me among them. And so we, youknow, I learned, like, I, I'm with
these kids. They got Jordansand they've got Bugle Boys, and you
have to be old enough to knowwhat that is. But, you know, they've
got all the cool clothes andall the nice stuff. And did they
(04:42):
shop at this place called VonMar, which was like the Midwest equivalency
of like, like a Nordstrom, nota Nordstrom rack, but like a Nordstrom
type level place. And so we,but I had enough money to be able
to kind of like keep myhaircut nice, have the same shoes,
have, have the clothes. Andthen that just kind of carried into
(05:03):
adulthood. My first. So I wasa youth pastor at 16, a pastor at
18, and I started my first LLCat 20 20, got married in 19. So I
was like the world's youngestold man. And now I'm like, I'm 47,
and for the last seven yearsI've really been the world's like,
I, I teasingly joke withpeople. I've been Benjamin Button
(05:23):
my life. Because at 18, 19,20, 21, 22, I was a pastor. I didn't
go out. I didn't like, youknow, I was married, I had kids at
starting at like 22. I alwayshad one or two of my own companies
as well as pastoring a churchor an evangelist or something like
that. So just very busy and alot of leadership roles. Then early
(05:45):
2000s, I switched to digital.I had been doing, you know, late
90s and stuff like that, morepaper stuff. But I saw where everything
was going with the Internet.And then I got recruited to sell
for a firm that was kind oflike law, what is it called, Law
Match or whatever it's called,where essentially they pay a monthly
(06:09):
fee and then they match themup with potential clients. And so
I went from asking for threeto five hundred dollars for an ad
and, you know, making 150, 200bucks off of it, whatever, to ask
you for $5,000 a month from anattorney. And then I was kind of
figuring out the marginspretty quick. And I was like, it's
(06:29):
a lot of money in this. So Isort of, I was like from then on,
I was kind of sold workingwith attorneys. And so, you know,
I've had social agencies, I'vehad text message game companies that
were, that did pretty well,that were fun. I've been able to
take three companies from lessthan a million to three to five million
within one to three years. Andjust throughout my entrepreneurial
(06:50):
journey, learning lessons, Imean, you know, some people call
them failures, some peoplecall you learn lessons, right? You
know, how to pick partners. Orfor me now, never again will I have
another business partner. I'vetried it three times. All three times,
times I ended up holding thebag and they ended up holding the
money that I made the company.So I, you know, I, I. A little over
(07:12):
a year ago, my now formerpartner, instead of renewing our
five year contract, bought meout at like our original term from
five years before. I had takenthe company from less than a million
to 4 or 5 million. And so whenhe bought me out, I was like four
months from my wedding, fivemonths. I was like, okay, what am
I going to do? But I'm anentrepreneur. I have a book that
(07:34):
I just write down businessideas that I come up with or things
that I think of. And I justput that in there and, and I could
literally go to that book andflip through and in about 30 minutes
to an hour be like, okay,here's my new business idea. Let's
launch it, let's go. And bythe following Monday, have a site
up and be selling the product.I took a little bit more time this
time with everything going onwith the wedding, but we launched
(07:56):
the podcast network officiallyMay 1st. So we'll be hitting a year
here. I mean, I don't knowwhen this will go out, but probably
sometime around the time thisgoes out or here in the next few
weeks. It's April 10th rightnow. And so we'll hit a year. We've
got about 110, 115 clients andwe've got about 25 people on the
(08:16):
team. So we've grown veryfast. Matter of fact, people ask
me, well, you know, how do yousustain growth bubble? It's like
I push back growth right now.Like right now I could sell more.
Like I have people with booksof businesses coming and saying,
I've got 300 attorneys thatwork with me and I want you to present
your product to them. And I'mjust like, okay. But you know, like,
(08:37):
hey, team, are we ready if 75people want to sign up next week,
are we ready to handle that?And so trying to prepare my team
for that sort of influx andthings like that. So that's how I
got where I'm at. Andleadership, I think that was the
last part. What doesleadership have to do with this?
I mean, whether I was forcedinto leadership because of the situation
(08:57):
of my life, or I just alwaysbeen a leader from the time I've
been a kid. You know, I was akid on the playground that made the
rules of the game as weplayed, not because I was bullying
anybody, but because I wantedeverybody to be included. You know,
I was the kid on, you know, injunior high that, you know, decided
who sold this, what snacks,and, you know, like, just. It's one
(09:19):
of those things. I don't pushfor leadership, but I often end up
in that position. And so forme, my leadership style has been
one that is, I try to use toencourage people and to empower them.
Because what I've learned isyou get a lot more from a team that's
motivated, encouraged, and hasclarity than you do for people who
(09:41):
are afraid of you and areconfused and are afraid to do something
that might mess up and makeyou attack them. And so that's why
I use that leadership style.And it's my natural style. Like,
I. I don't want to managepeople who are motivated by fear.
I want to manage. I want tomanage people who are motivated by
success or feeling like theydid well, or the team success or
(10:03):
whatever. So I hope thatanswers all three parts.
Yeah, no, that was awesome.That was absolutely fantastic. And,
you know, and I, you know, solisteners, I, I really want you to
hear and really want toemphasize, you know, leadership is,
you know, there's a fewthings, great nuggets, but encouraging,
empowering and. And helpingpeople really, you know, you know,
(10:27):
not be led by something offear, but really just encouraging
people. And that is soimportant in business. And so I'm
curious, so, Dennis, you know,you said, you know, you started,
you know, 14. You. You. You'reobviously a natural leader. And it's
something that. Notnecessarily that was taught. It's
(10:48):
just how you operate. As yousaid, you want to include people
in there. What do you think itis about, you know, when you're thinking,
thinking back, like, what isit, you know, that when you're thinking
of the. That first team thatyou created with, you know, your
brothers, you know, and thatbusiness and you're managing it,
what helped you be that leaderto Bring them together and to get
(11:14):
them excited. Like.
I mean, at the time, it waslike, the way it started was me,
my brother and his best friendwere knocking on doors to do snow
shoveling because a friend ofmine said, hey, man, I made like
a hundred dollars in a daysnow shoveling. I was like, oh, that's
crazy. You know? So we startedout, and I figured out quickly that
(11:37):
they didn't mind theshoveling, but they hated knocking
on the doors and asking peopleand getting rejected. And so once
I realized this is what theydon't like doing, and this is the
part that I mind the least.Like, I hate this bait, you know,
like, screw this. Like,showing, shoveling somebody's, you
know, snow. Like, I'll goknock on a thousand doors before
(11:58):
I'll shovel one lot, one walk.And my brother's like, I'll shovel
a thousand walks before youbefore I knock on one more door.
And I was like, this works forme. So we get to, you know, we're
about an hour in, we'refreezing cold. We get to the next
door, and it's, I think, mybrother's friend's turn. And he's
like, I don't want to do it.Because we had done, like, three
walks in the hour, and I hadgotten all three of them. And so
(12:20):
my brother's like, I don'twant to do it. I was like, okay,
I'll do it. So I go up, Iknock on the door, hey, blah, blah,
blah, you know, And I learned,like, with door to door stuff, you
always got to have a littlestory. So, like, hey, me and my brother
and his friends were justtrying to earn money, you know, like,
we go to a private school, so,like, we have some certain things
that our family isn't able todo. But, you know, like, I had a
whole. And it was true. Like,the money was going to me so I could
(12:42):
have nice school clothes likethe other kids of private school,
you know, like when I wasselling candy bars in front of the
grocery store, it was like,for sports equipment. Well, those.
The sports equipment was theJordans that all the other kids had
that. My parents are like,these are the $20, you know, shoes
that you get from. From Kmart,where my mom was the. My stepmom
was the shoe manager. They'relike, these are the shoes you get.
(13:04):
And I'm like, I can't wearthose in front of a whole team of
kids wearing Jordans, youknow, so. But I went up there, she
said, sure, $20. She handed mea 10 to 5. I walked down, I handed
my brother $5, I handed hisfriend $5. I put $10 in my pocket
and I said, I got a greatidea, guys. And like, what? I'm like,
you stay here and do this andby the time you get done so we don't
(13:25):
waste any more time, I'llstart knocking and get the next job
for you. And you could just gofrom job to job to job and we'll
just make money and we won'thave any breaks unless we want to.
And they're like, oh, that'sgreat. Because now they're thinking
like. So I emphasize the we'regoing to make more money, not, hey,
all I have to do is knock ondoors and make half the money. And
you guys got to do all thework and make a quarter of the money
(13:47):
each. So that's. And, andthat's kind of how it just grew from
there. Like all the kids inthe neighborhood were like, I mean,
I want a lawn mowing job, buthow do I get one? And I'd be like,
I'll get you. How many do youwant? Four. And I go get four lawn
mowing jobs and then I'dcollect it and then, you know, I
got all the paper routes andyou know, I just make sure I go collect
everybody. And I'd say, well,how are we doing? You know, and they,
(14:07):
oh, you guys getting here ontime? Okay, great. If I had somebody
wasn't doing right, I'd say,hey, do I need to give your wrap
somebody else? Like, it just,I didn't think about it. It wasn't
something where I didn't sitdown and, you know, the 14 year old
entrepreneur's guide torunning a business 101. I didn't
know of any such book.
No, but you know, but there'sa couple of key things that you did
(14:29):
and that, that again,listeners, this is such a key, huge
takeaway is that you got toknow your strengths. Your strength
was knocking on the door. Youand you and you pulled out what each
person in that team or in thepeople that you are quote unquote,
employing liked to do.Knocking on the doors takes courage,
(14:53):
right? And it's right. And ittakes a, it takes a skill of, of
being an eloquent, knowing howto speak and tell a story and almost,
you know, so that was knowingthat strength of yours and whether
you realize it or not, right?So you played on that. And then so
(15:14):
when someone said to you, oh,I don't, how do I get those? I can
get them for you, you justneed to do the part that you want
to do, which is mow the lawn.
Exactly. So we. We really. Oneof the thing principles I teach in
my company is the more thatpeople are doing the thing that only
they can do, the better ourcompany is. Yeah, when. And we hire,
(15:36):
like, we have VAs in thePhilippines and we have graphics
people in Pakistan. We have anumber of people, about 10, 15 people
in the US and like, when Ifind out that somebody in the US
is doing something that'slike, taxing, and it's like. Like
a spreadsheet or just diggingthrough that, I'm like, why are you
doing that? Couldn't so and sodo that. Like, that's why we have
VAs and that's why we havethese people that do these jobs.
(15:58):
I want you doing what you do,what I hired you to do. If you're
my content director, I wantyou working on content for our clients.
If you're doing clientsuccess, I want you face to face
with the clients. I don't wantyou doing this other stuff. And I
just. And sometimes that'sjust all I do. Even my sales guys,
they don't even enter into theCRM themselves. They have a Slack
(16:20):
channel. It's not Slack. Wehave our own Discord server just
to kind of have more fun, butthey just discord. And they're just
like, hey, Jenny, can you, youknow, so. And so I just called them,
can you mark this? Blah, blah,blah. And then they just move right
on. And so everything isfrictionless. Everything is stay
in the thing that you can do.What can I do for the company? And
(16:40):
I knew this, like, in thebeginning it was bringing clients,
and until January, I broughtin the clients. So I think we hit
almost 85 clients or so bythen. And that was me being the only
salesperson while running thecompany, while creating systems,
while doing everything else.But I also know that a bigger thing
that I can do for the companyis be an evangelist for it, go on
(17:01):
podcasts, create my ownpodcasts, build relationships, meet
with, you know, meet withreferral partners, you know, create
better content. All of thesethings that only I can do. Like my
team there. No one else in thecompany can be me in the way that
I'm doing these things. So myteam has empowered me to do that
(17:22):
by stepping in. We have threesalespeople now, so I don't sell
anymore by stepping in. And wehave, you know, people that do other
aspects. And I just work onthe business instead of in the business.
And that makes all thedifference in the world.
You know, again, that's a,again, huge game changing insight.
Right. To be able to get tothe point where as a leader, you're
(17:44):
working on the business or ifyou're leading a team, you're on
the team, you're leading theteam, you're, you're not, you're,
you know. Yes, you need to getin and do, you know, be a, be a player
in the, you know, and be aplayer on the team. But if you're
running it, you don't want tobe in the weeds too. You've got to
be, you know, you almost likesetting up here.
(18:06):
The coach isn't the backup goalie.
Right.
The coach stays off the sideof the field and he says, hey, hey,
watch out. Right there, rightthere, right there. Come on, let's
go. You know, that's a coach.I see myself as a motivator, a mentor,
a coach, not a businessleader, CEO, founder, although that's
the titles that are put on.Like me, what are. If people say,
(18:26):
what are you? I'm a motivator.I love to mentor people. I love to
coach people. If I have, if Ican't help people by doing those
three things, they're onlymotivated by fear, then I usually
end up saying, listen, like Ijust, I don't manage by fear. And
every time that you fall off,I have to threaten you. It's just
isn't a good fit because Iwant people that are motivated by
(18:48):
positivity and goals and allof those things.
Yeah. And, and that is, it'sone of those things that I think
is so important as a leader tobe able to understand, to do, you
know, so, you know, it'sleading by fear does not ever make
anybody feel good. And sobeing able to be that cheerleader
(19:11):
coach, the mentor, the personthat's like getting people excited
about the work that they aredoing. It's, it's really exciting
because people will want to domore when they're feeling empowered
and feeling good and wantingto work. So your, your business.
Tell us a little bit about howthis all plays into what you do for
(19:34):
your business and your clients.
So what we do is prettyintricate and we had to create a
system because in thebeginning, you know, we went from
spreadsheet tracking ourprojects to Monday tracking our projects
to I for time work or I forgetwhat it was called. And then now
we're using ClickUp and we'reactually using a company helping
(19:57):
us with customization on thatproject management. And like A client
has, from the moment they sayyes until the time that their four
month cycle rounds with us hassomewhere around 303 steps in our
process. Just the onboardingto the first episode alone is like
(20:20):
over a hundred. And so youknow, this person, we got a qa. So
like for example, let's take,you know, like we'll take, they do
the podcast shoot. Let's justtake a simple 30 minute podcast shoot,
seven to 10 questions. Thenthat takes about 17 to 21 minutes.
At the end of seven, then wecut that, we take that 17 to 21 minutes.
We put an intro, we put anoutro, we put transitions, we make
(20:42):
it look all nice, it's got allof their branding. We then take that,
we put it on YouTube, we putit on LinkedIn, we put it on other
video, we then pull the audio,put the intro outro, you know, did
all the editing, the audioscrubbing, all of that, put that
on all of the different audiooutlets. Okay, that's just the beginning
because now we're going tocreate 30 pieces of content, one
(21:03):
per day if they're doing oneepisode a month, two per day if they're
doing two episodes a month, orthree posts per day if they're doing
four episodes a month. Andthat is one post per day on up to
10 different outlets. So we'retalking about Instagram, Facebook,
TikTok, YouTube threads, bluesky X, Twitter, Pinterest is a big
(21:29):
one. So there's like all ofthese places that we, we post all
of their content plus we takethat. So we make reels which are
like minute or less videos.We're all familiar with those. Then
we make audiograms which islike a static. And then it kind of
just has the thing come acrossand I, I know you know it, but I'm,
you know, maybe people herearen't as familiar. And then just
regular static posts as well.Hey, go check out episode 12. We
(21:53):
then build them like a linktree. And all of our clients have
one call to action. Click onlink in bio. And that always applies
to everything. If we say checkus out on itunes, click on link in
bio, they look down the linktree. There's the Apple podcast.
So we have, you know, anywherefrom 10 to 30 links down there. All
their social, their website,everything. So we're able to take
(22:18):
30 minutes of an attorney'stime and create an evergreen show
that gives them 30 days worthof content. So that's how we apply
that. It's, it's, it's a wholeprocess, you know, and we've gotten
better. We started off withthree pieces of content per episode,
but AI and getting betterwithin our systems and more systematized
(22:42):
has gone. We've gone from 3pieces to 33 pieces. So an 11x in
less than a year delivery withour product just because of adapting
to AI, learning how to use AI,getting better with it, and then
also refining our. Our owninternal processes so we can produce
more. I always say better,faster, less friction.
(23:05):
Right.
If we're seeking to do thosethree things, we want to do everything
better, we want to doeverything faster, and we want less
friction for our clients. Wewant it to be easy for them to sign
up with us. We want it to beeasy for them to find us. We want
it to be easy for them to workwith us consistently. We want it
to be easy for them to shootthe podcast. We want this just to
feel like, how is thismarketing? I thought marketing was
(23:27):
way harder than. This is whatI want them to think. But in the
meantime, I've got me and myteam just going, you know, we're
like the, the guy at the, theJapanese steakhouse. You know, the
knives are spinning and, andwe're cracking eggs on spatulas and
throwing shrimp into people'smouth, and they're just sitting there
like, what a show. This isgreat. But somebody's moving fast
(23:48):
and somebody's working hard.
Right? And actually. Andyou're probably doing it. You're
not nearly sweating as much.
Well, yeah, we're not standingover a hot grill.
So. But so, I mean, it'sreally amazing the amount that you're
actually able to produce. Andobviously, you know, obviously we
(24:09):
have these, you know, we haveattorneys who are, you know, they're
using the time wisely. Right?
Yeah.
30 years of time, you know,which is really great.
Yeah, I mean, they're, they'rejust using a little bit of their
(24:30):
time. And, and that's theother thing. You know, people with
money buy time, and so that'swhat we're selling. Like, yes, we're
selling quality. We have. Ihave an amazing team. This thing
turned off. I turned it on tooearly. So we're just going to pretend
like it still looks prettyback there. Pay no attention to the
man behind the curtain.
(24:51):
Oz.
Yeah. Yeah. So. So, yeah, Imean, we were able to. We're able
to deliver a lot, but withvery little of their time. And, and
I mean, to me, that's awinning formula for any business.
If I'm saving people who wanttheir time saved and delivering a
(25:12):
product that then on top ofthat, returns our return, a return
on an investment of, you know,five to one. Like, I mean, I have
one, I have one guy who justtold me, yeah, I just met with him
this morning as a matter offact. First thing he said, you know,
he said through the podcastalready, I've only released like
two or three episodes. Hesaid, I've already built a relationship
where this one relationship isgoing to pay for this podcast for
(25:34):
the whole year. If nothingelse happens, the podcast is paid
for. And he's like, And I'veonly. And he's, he does a weekly
show, so he hasn't even done amonth's worth of shows yet, and he's
already paid for it.
That's really fantastic. Youknow, and a key, you know, a couple
of really key things here.It's, it's, you know, when I think
about this, I mean, I'm lovingwhat you're doing for your clients
and what you're able toprovide them, but it's also being
(25:57):
able to deliver something withquality and provide great service,
which as a leader, we need todo that for the people that are on
our team. I share, and I saythis often, that our team members
are. And the people that weemploy, they are team members. They
(26:19):
are not employees. They'repart of the team. And we work together,
we partner with them. So, youknow, it's. You're. You're delivering
on that service and helpingpeople have, you know, elevate their,
Elevate their businesses,generate more income. And you're
doing the same thing for thepeople that are your team members.
(26:40):
And it is so important inthat, within leadership for people
to be able to see that. Andyou're providing such a great example
and, you know, for people thatare in, that are coming into, you
know, your realm, so to speak.
And I, yeah, I mean, one ofthe things I do when, with, with
my team is when I'm firstmeeting with them, I ask them, I
(27:01):
say, realistically, now, weall want to make a million dollars
a year. I get it. Butrealistically, what do you need to
make per year to live the lifeyou want to live? And once I find
out that number and if it'srealistic, I say to them, okay, well,
we're not there yet, but Ithink we can get there in about this
amount of time, assuming thatyou show value and you grow. And
(27:22):
if we can get you into thisposition, then we can put you to
where you're making that sortof income. I have five or six people
that A year ago, were making afew hundred dollars a week, are now
making a few thousand dollarsa week working with me. So they went
from just like, okay, I'mtrusting you, like, I'm making this
work. And if I need to take anevening, like, literally, because
(27:43):
I was starting from scratch atthat time. I, I, I didn't, you know,
like, I mean, I had a littlebit of money, but, like, I didn't
have anybody say, here's amillion dollars, you know, you got
burned. Like, I, internallyfunded, just started it from scratch,
you know. So those people now,like a year ago, they were saying,
like, I need to make thismuch. And now like one guy, year
(28:03):
ago, he started off in like,kind of like a junior sales under
me. He was the one helping setmy appointments. And I told him flat
out. I was like, listen, like,I want to get you up to sales because,
you know, you're, you're not,like, you're not where you want to
be living. You want to live ina better situation. You're having
to take the bus or get Ubersever. You don't have a car. You know,
(28:23):
you're, I can't imagine youare where you want to be in life
right now. And he was justlike, no, dude. Like, you know, you
can tell he was discouraged.And I was like, listen, I know that
you're, you're good and youcan do this, but you've got to believe
me, you've got to trust me,and you've got to allow me to help
you. He's like, I'll dowhatever, man. Like, and he's like,
mid-30s, you know, not ayoung, young guy. And he's like,
I'll do whatever, man. Like, Iknow you, your reputation. I, I,
(28:45):
I, I trust you. So here weare. Like I said a year ago, he's
making 4, 5, 600 bucks a week.Here we are a year later, this guy's
making 2500 a couple times.Made 3000, 3500 in one week. So he'll
probably make somewhere around120 to 150 this year. He's never
made over 40 grand in hislife. And so.
(29:06):
Wow. Yeah.
And so those are the stories,right, that I, that, that I get excited
about. Like, yeah. And I couldtalk about my clients too, but, like,
that is where I look at it,and I'm just like, that's why I do
this.
Yep.
Because I get to see otherpeople and it's like sometimes I
sit down and like, I'm goingto try not to get emotional. But,
(29:27):
like, I just sit down and Ithink, dude, like, something in my
head, I just thought thiswould work. Well, there are now 25
people who, literally, theirwhole lives depend on it, and it's
already starting to provide adecent living for me and mine. And
within a year, I'll be backahead of where I was with my old
(29:48):
business partner that took mefive years to build up to. And I'm
just like, I like that. That'sthe day and age we live in, that's
the market that we live in,that's the opportunities that we
have. I don't know thateverybody can do something like this,
but let me say this. I failedenough at it to know that if I quit
(30:11):
because I failed, I wouldn'tbe where I'm at today. Yeah.
Yeah. You know this, Dennis. Ilove what you're doing, and I love
your heart. And I think that'sactually one of the key things about.
I just kind of want to, youknow, listeners have heart and. And
get to know the people on yourteam and what do they want? I talk
(30:36):
about that a lot. Like, I. I'ma big believer in, like, knowing
your mission, but know themission and the vision of the people
that. That are in your fold,because if you know that, you will
help them soar, and it comesback to you, like, tenfold. Like,
I can see it in your face andin your, like, how much that really
(30:58):
matters to you. And it's.It's. That's the impact that. A great
leader. So I'm going to callyou a great leader. Great leaders
make. It's. We're, you know,if we can impact people positively,
it's just going to make for abetter world. I hate to say that.
It's like, absolutely. Even ifit's just our own world, our own
(31:19):
sphere of influence. Yeah.
Yep.
You know, I mean, absolutely.And I think that, you know, and I.
I mentioned this in anotherpodcast. I don't know how long we're
going, so I'm going to justkeep going, but until you tell me
we're done. But, like, one ofthe things that I try to do is, like,
I remember having managementat different times, and I remember
the dreaded, hey, can you meetwith me for a few minutes later on,
(31:42):
like, and you're psycho.Great. I'm going to get fired. I'm
going to get this. I've madeit a habit to where 75% of the time,
at least, when I pull peopleaside, it's because I want to praise
them. And give them something.So I'll be like, hey, I just wanted
to let you know so and so andso and so in your division has come
to me and told me how awesomeof a job you're doing, how hard you're
working. I want to let youknow I appreciate it. Do you have,
(32:05):
can you, can you do Amazon inyour country or. No, it's this. Okay,
well, I'm Gonna send you $50on Amazon or, or whatever and just
let you know that you're beingnoticed and the team notices it.
So there's a atmosphere not ofjust me looking, but my whole team
looking around and thenpraising each other and then bringing
it to me and being especiallymy directors, because I have three
(32:26):
directors that they're kind ofboots on the ground of being like,
who is doing an extra, youknow, who, who, who's really going
above and beyond. We just seta goal by June 1, hit on 150 clients.
If we do, I'm going to giveaway $1,500, 750, 500 and 250. Everybody
in the company is eligible.They have their minimum daily work
that they have already anyway.And so if they do that minimum daily,
(32:48):
they get an entry. But thenthere's also above and beyond opportunity,
so and so sick. So you pick upextra work or you're a host and you
step in at the last minute,whatever it is, those, they get three
entries. And then come June1st, if we hit our 150, I'm going
to draw three names. Someone'sgoing to get 250 something, get 500.
Some is going to get 750. Andso my whole company now is going
(33:11):
150, 150, 150. I better notmess this up. Because if we lose
a client, that's anotherclient we got to win, you know. And
so all across the whole thing,they're just all looking to the same
thing. Instead of just likenormal day, back to work, do the
minimum so I can come go homeand watch tv, you know, like, no,
that's not the mind frame.It's just like we want to get there.
Because 750 might not be ahuge amount to me and you, but to
(33:36):
somebody in Pakistan orsomebody in the Philippines or in
South Africa to give them anextra $750, that is a lot of money
for them. And even here in theStates, like, if I just said, here's
750, you wouldn't be like, Ican't be bothered to bend over and
pick that up. You know, like,you'd be like, nice, I'll take it.
You know, you do somethingnice with that. And so, and so, like,
(33:58):
that's the kind of stuffthat's like getting your team all
on the same page. Leading byleading with kindness. I mean, I
think it's is in essence whatyou've said. Yeah, leading. Leading
with kindness and in kindnessand being clear where the company
is, where it's going, allowingall of your teams. Because I've worked
(34:20):
with people who they isolatethe teams and they play them against
each other and I'm just likeall of those games that people try
to play with other people andit's like, sure, you can take people
who maybe aren't their IQs andas many points as yours and you can
kind of have your like sicklittle fun. But like, at the end
of the day, like, what are youreally accomplishing by. By playing
your own people against eachother? Doesn't work, you know?
(34:42):
Yeah, so, so that's. I, I lovewhat you just shared. I'm like such
a. It's again, another greatinsight and key thing is when you
get everybody on the samevision and mission, working together,
the team works together betterand they all bubble up, everything
bubbles up. So, so Dennis, youhave just done a great information
(35:04):
and shared some amazinginsights. How can our listeners connect
with you, learn more aboutyour company, get more of your wisdom?
Where do they go?
Sure. So probably the easiestis going to be LinkedIn. If you're
a LinkedIn, which most of usare anymore, it's almost like we
have to be. There's no Choicethere but LinkedIn. I share some
(35:27):
videos, I share kind of some,like, business like, insights on
like, how I think aboutthings, like what it means being
a business owner, all thatsort of stuff from doing it for as
long as I have now. So that'sprobably the easiest way is LinkedIn
and then our company, thelegal podcast network.com testimonials,
we've got a section on therefor. We actually have two sets of
(35:51):
podcasts that we do. We dopodcasts for attorneys about how
to run their business andmarket it, and we actually partner
up with people in the industrythat are specialists. We have a show
that we just signed in,actually two shows that we just signed
into production. So right nowwe've got a guy who's like an AI
specialist to help run a firm.We've also got a lady who's a certified
(36:12):
financial professional forindividual attorneys. Now we're bringing
on a fractional CFO for Lawfirms. And we're bringing on a lady
who basically teaches lawyershow to effectively speak on camera.
And so just I want to haveabout 20 shows like that where we
call them sponsored shows. Andso we have about 20 shows like that
(36:33):
that just give tons of reallygreat info to our clients. I'm developing
a show like that calledBuilding Authority through Media.
Bam is the. Is the name of it.It's superhero themed, like comic
book. Like comic book Batmanfrom the 60s sort of vibe to it.
And every week it's going tobe the Dynamic Duo and me and whoever
is my guest, we're a teamfighting against conquering sameness.
(36:56):
Is the, is the, the, the themeof the show.
I love it.
So we're all conqueringsameness on LinkedIn, conquering
sameness on Facebook,conquering sameness on our website,
whatever it is in marketing.How are we conquering sameness? So,
you know, that'll be on oursite soon enough as well. But check
us out on our website, Checkus out on the socials. If you look
(37:16):
up Legal Podcast Network. AtLegal Podcast Network, we've got
three or four Instagramsbecause we've got one just for attorneys
with like, kind of bits fromour shows. One that is not answers,
which is for people who aren'tattorneys, but our attorneys create
that content. One that's dotlolz. So we're doing like lawyer
(37:37):
memes just to kind of engagewith them on a different sort of
like in a different way. Sowe're like just creating all these
lawyer memes and funny. Havefun with it and, you know, make those
connections. So, yeah, any of,any of those places. Just look up
Legal Podcast Network. Youshould be able to Find Us or YouTube.
All. All of the outlets. We'reeverywhere. We're so. We are, what
(37:58):
do I say? Outlet agnostic.Okay, so find us everywhere.
Yeah, no, I love it. So,listeners, if you have found this
episode worthwhile and you'vegotten some great nuggets, which
I'm sure you have, do me afavor, please and hit subscribe.
Also, make sure you go andconnect with Dennis on all the socials
(38:20):
and check out all of hisstuff. He's obviously a great wealth
of information. And pleaseshare the podcast as well with your
friends and colleagues. And aswe can make better leaders, we make
a better world. And that iswhat we all want. Great leaders,
great life, great people. So Iam Jacqueline Strominger, the host
(38:40):
of Unstoppable LeadershipSpotlight Podcast. Thank you for
being a great guest, Dennis,and thank you, listeners, for listening
in.
Thank you very much for havingme. Thanks.
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