Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: As a white guy growing up in, you know, a white community, we thought of people who spoke Spanish as, oh, they're Spanish, right? It's a language. It's not a culture.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: How's it going, everyone?
What's going on? We are recording and I got a cool guy here with me today. Knows a lot of folks that we all know. I got Lynn on the show.
Just kind of talking with Lynn here, just a little bit about, you know, different folks that we know.
Met Lynn actually in person. I think I was talking to Gary Sarner.
Everyone probably knows who Gary is, but we also know a lot of other folks. Charlie Mann, just had him on the show recently.
And of course, Ben and Brian Glass through great legal marketing. We were talking about Bob Simon and all these other folks that we know and events. But we met down at NTL in Miami and of course I invited him to come on the show.
And we got some cool stuff to talk about. You know, really Lynn's got a. A little. A special little niche up by Boston, but he's really done well in the Hispanic community and wants to kind of talk about how that has been going for him. But also he doesn't speak Spanish himself, so interesting combination there. But cool to hear Lynn's story and share some of that today. So, Lynn, welcome.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Thank you for having me. Kevin, good to be here.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, I always like to first, you know, for those that might not know who you are, imagine, I can't imagine who they would be, but like to have you introduce yourself, introduce yourself. Tell us about your firm and.
And your story.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Sure. Well, again, thank you. My name is Len Spada and I am up in the Boston area. I have a firm. The name of the firm is Spada Law Group. We have been in business practicing exclusively plaintiffs personal injury work since 1998.
From 1998 to about eight years ago, we operated under the name of Spada Log, Spada and Zullow.
And we were partners for 18 years, my partner Vincent Zullo and myself. And then unfortunately, about eight years ago, he passed away suddenly. We changed the name of the firm to Spada Law Group. It's been operating continuously, but due to certain ethical regulations here in Massachusetts, I had to change the name. So we've been known as Spada Law Group. We have about. I believe we are now 12 under roof, soon to have three VAs. So we're about 15 or 16 altogether. And our niche here, as you alluded to, we are predominantly servicing the Spanish community in the Boston area. When I say Predominantly just recently did the numbers. We're about 60% of our clients identify as Spanish speakers. The other 40%, which we identify in our case management software as English speakers. When we do a deeper dive, that 40% is actually, there's a significant percentage of that 40% who are bilingual or, you know, second generation, they live with parents who speak Spanish, et cetera. All told, I would say 70% or. Or more of our clients identify as Hispanics.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Wow, that's. That's impressive. I mean, so. And you're in a northern state, north, you know, New England.
And, you know, I talked to law firms, even clients that are either in southern states more prominent, you would think, and they don't embrace Spanish speaking or they, they don't lean into it. They actually kind of lean away from it, which I agree, if you're not going to fulfill it and help, then stay away from it. But you gotta see the opportunities that are out there, for sure, you know?
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just, you know, if you had told me 25 years ago, you know, when in 2025, you will be predominantly representing Spanish speakers, I would have thought you were crazy, because I'm practicing where I actually grew up as a child, I grew up in Boston. So if you've ever flown into Boston, you fly into Logan International Airport. It's not, I'm not. This isn't hyperbole. Like, you fly and you look down and you see my childhood home. That's how close. You know, it was a very urban bringing. So when I got out of law school, I was a. I was a prosecutor in Boston, and all my professional and social roots were in the city. You know, of course I got married and moved out of the city and. But I always, I've always worked in and around Boston. In this neighborhood that I'm in, I'm in the city of Chelsea, and Chelsea is. I can leave my office and walk to Boston in about eight minutes or six minutes, you know, less. And I can walk to my childhood home in 12 minutes. So it's, It's. It's a border city to Boston, and it's, it's almost all Hispanics. It used to be when I was a kid growing up, Polish, Italian, and then it slowly, you know, the demographics change like they do in many urban settings.
So when we first started practicing here, we weren't focused on marketing to Latinos, but they came to us because of the proximity to where they lived, and they were great clients. And, you know, as a backstory, my family is all from Italy and we all lived together. My Italian immigrants, my grandparents came over. All four of my grandparents, we all lived in one triple decker. It's like central casting for the Sopranos or something. But we all grew up in a triple decker. Grandparents couldn't speak the language.
Grandchildren translating for them, helping them. Very similar to the immigrant experience that I see in the Latino community, where, yeah, it's the same thing, it's just a different language. As far as the challenges, I mean, the challenges now are today's day much greater. But that whole story resonated with me and I guess I always liked, you know, fighting for the small guy and hating the bullies, you know, that old, you know, it's a cliche.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:08] Speaker A: As a, as a prosecutor in Boston, I was always standing up for the, the victims of cramps. So it just was a natural transition as I moved into. I worked at a big firm in Boston before I practiced on my own. But it was a really nice career for me and it's been incredibly rewarding. So even at the, you know, I'm going to be 60 in about six weeks, not that I'm counting the days. You know, it's like a big birthday. And for somebody who still thinks that 35, it's a bit traumatic, still feel great, still active, still have a ton of energy. But the practice that I'm developing and building now at age 59, it's very mission oriented. I feel very passionate about what it is we're doing. So when people say, oh, I'm not doing it for the money, I was called BS on that. We all do it to make a living, but I'm doing it much less so at this stage in my career than I was when I was younger. And I'm really committed to building something that outlives me and continues to serve this community. You know, it's. It's almost like I could hear my parents saying, oh, you're doing a great job helping those, you know, people from other countries. And, you know, so because my parents were always, you know, I was the first kid, I was the only kid to ever go to college. So me becoming a lawyer to my mother, you know, Italian, little Italian love, you know, anyone she met casually, she told her son was a lawyer. It was embarrassing.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: I can see. That's awesome. Yeah. Awesome story. And, and kind of what you're doing there. And I love Boston. My wife works for a company out of Boston, so I usually go there for around the Christmas time. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I've been there probably a Dozen times. Enough to, you know, navigate around and, and try different areas. Beautiful place and great people. So it's, it's a good spot to.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: To run. I feel the same way.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Next time I come up, I'm hit you up for sure. So.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Well, my, My. My family. My family owns several Italian restaurants in downtown Boston.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: So now we're talking.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: I'm always. Yeah, no kidding. I love, I love getting. It's funny too, because this, my niece in particular, they own several of them and they're all good, but I always send everybody to one to the point where she's like, do you think the others are not as good? I'm like, no, this one is definitely the best part of your collection of restaurants, you know. So I will make sure to take good care of you the next time you're in Boston.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: Excellent. Yeah, we. We used to see at the Parker House.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good. That's good living.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: That's fine. We. I was at the Seaport area or something like that. I've been over there. I prefer the older area, but. But anyway, it has more character.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: The. I agree with you. The only area has much more character, but the Seaport is a really bustling, popular place.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: It's blowing up. So, so I guess back to like the, you know, what you're doing and some of the strategies. You know, I just pulled up some data before we jumped on and you know, it's like 71% of the population growth last year was Hispanic speaking.
And it's like 65 million, which is like almost 19% of the total population. And the. Obviously it's, it's growing rapidly. So.
And then some of the states, like your state and many other states that are not necessarily southern states, you know, have massive, you know, amounts of Hispanic speaking. So it's a lot of opportunity for law firms out there that either are not capitalizing on it or they're not. They're not. You know, the websites don't translate or they don't have someone to answer the phone and to speak with someone. Because also a lot of Spanish speaking. Like you said, they're bilingual. They might come to you. Because you offer Spanish and services in Spanish doesn't mean they have to speak to you only in Spanish. And so not just thinking have that, that, that available is for any lawyer listening. I think it's a huge opportunity and growth area for them.
So I would think that, you know, just lean into it and, and explore that.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: I'm shocked and quite frankly happy in my market that they're not in, it's, it provides much more. But I'm also, I, I do think it's a, it's a greatly underserved community and there's enough work for everyone. And I'm really, you know, don't get me wrong, in my younger career, I didn't lean into it. So I look back sometime and say to myself, how could I have been so blind? I was so busy litigating cases, trying cases, that I never came up for air to think about, you know, how should I be marketing my firm? You know, it's cliche. You know, you can work in the business or on the business. I was a trial lawyer and coming out of the DA's office in a big firm, I had tried a lot of cases and my partner was a marketer. You know, he could, he could talk a dog off a meat truck. Like he had the, he was able to get the phone ringing. He was charismatic. Everybody liked him. His family owned businesses. So he, you know, he was very comfortable with his lane in the firm. You know, it's making it right. And I was, I was the worker, I was the person that was the one that could, you know, give, give some authority to the firm that we could actually handle the cases and take them to court. And it was a, it was a really good, good partnership that way. But when he passed away, you know, I was faced with the, okay, we know that I can try cases, but that's not really enough to continue to my those days of being, oh, he's a good lawyer, she's a good lawyer, don't have to worry about marketing. Those days are over. And I believe they're over forever for most people. Okay. Now if you're a lawyer that's only routinely just trying cases and getting, you know, eight, nine figure verdicts, other lawyers find you, you can actually, with minimal marketing skill, continue to function in that environment. But for the vast majority of lawyers, you need, you need to have some marketing savvy. And I had none. And I had no business savvy. So I was confronted with, for a period of time, walking in both lanes, trying to market, bringing the cases in, litigating them, trying to run a business, trying to learn how to run a business.
My partner's been gone now for eight years and I feel like my bachelor's degree, my master's degree, I'm working on a PhD on, you know, business, basic business skills for a law firm.
And when I say working on a degrees, it's probably cost me as much as a Bachelor's and a PhD with all the training and learning and masterminds and things that I've been trying to do for myself in the firm. So, yeah, I'm just shocked at how much opportunity is out there that people are not taking advantage of. And I mean, taking advantage of an opportunity, not a client base.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Sure. No, absolutely. Well, interesting story too, because, you know, you were forced into.
I gotta learn all this stuff now similar to, like, when someone goes on solo on their own, and then now they're not just a lawyer, they're a business owner and everything else. And I think most will stay as solo and kind of struggle through it and always be that and make a little bit. And then, you know, me and you, we know a lot of the other ones that have taken it to a totally different level and dove in and gone to masterminds and gone to conferences and paid to learn and soaked it up and became leaders and business owners and CEOs more so than they are lawyers. And I think that's really cool to witness. I'm a business owner.
I don't do marketing myself, and I haven't really in a long time.
I would say I'm a marketer, but Kevin ain't doing any of your marketing for you. You got to make that decision at some point and. And say, I gotta. I gotta figure the business to make.
[00:13:51] Speaker A: Sometimes for some people, because my identity was truly. My professional identity was truly tied to the skill and competency that I had developed as a trial lawyer. I felt very at home in the courtroom. I enjoyed it was.
It was a competitive outlet that once you, you know, you're past the age of competing in any type of athletics or sports or something, it really satisfied a need to remain a competitive person for me. And you were doing good work. I mean, if you did your job well and you. You developed skills, you were truly helping people. And I know that's corny. People are sick of hearing it. I like to help people. I went to law school to help you. And it is sometimes when I hear them like, you know, I believe you, but a lot of people probably think you're full of it, you know, but it's helping being able to be in a career where you can exercise your competitive juices, right? Flex those muscles, do really good work for people, and really try to make a terrible situation somewhat better by your efforts. Right. In personal injury work and the prospect of making a really good living, if you get good at it, you can have a really nice life. And you still know that you're going to work every day doing something that's very worthwhile. I. I mean, what's better than that? I mean, to me, like, there are a lot of unhappy lawyers. You're not looking at one, and I've never been one really. So it's. I feel blessed in that sense, you know, to. Truly. I was driving in today. I was thinking about it. I was stuck in traffic, and I was really still, like, excited to get to the office. I knew I had some good things to do today, seeing some people I needed to see. And I. And I had a moment of reflection. That happens when you get older. You have these, like, moments, you know, And I thought to myself, I'm truly blessed to be my age with an office and a law firm that I love walking in. Don't get me wrong, not every day is, you know, rainbows. See, I'm not trying to sell that. But to be excited to get out of bed and just be excited to get there and get the day started and do it now, by the end of the day, I'm a hot mess. I'm ready for bed at national, you know, I'm dead. And then I'm okay to do it again. So. It's just. Not everybody gets that I talk to people who genuinely hate going to work.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's when you're, you know, you're enjoying what you're doing. It's. It's exciting. Every morning you get up, pop up, let's roll.
And not everybody gets that. And, you know, I think that's. That's the main reason we went into doing business for ourselves or went out on our own. You know, it can be pretty rewarding. You know, it could be terrible if you don't know what you're doing or you don't listen to people or you don't to make some of those decisions.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: It's a lot harder than I thought it was like, when I did it, you know, I did it. I often wonder if I knew then how hard it would be, you know, I'd probably pause long. I jumped into it, you know, both feet. Wife was eight months pregnant. I'm leaving a prestigious law firm. Like, and now I think back, if my son came to me with his wife, eight months pregnant, he's like, dad, I'm just gonna. I. I wonder if I would be. Oh, that's not safe. Take a breath, be more cautious. I wonder if I would tell them to do the things that I did. Because you don't know if it'll turn out as well as it did for you.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: So it is what it is.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: No, that's good. That's interesting. I mean, I did the same thing. I was 23, was dating my wife at the time and just barely, you know, just cut my income. Boop. I'm going to start my own marketing company. And yeah, it was, you know, smack in the face pretty quick, but I never, never turn back. But yeah, it's, you know, I'm talking to younger entrepreneurs all the time. Like, I'm always like so excited when they're like, yeah, I just started my own thing. I'm like, that's awesome. It is awesome. Yeah. No matter what it is, you know, and you want to see them succeed, but yeah, are they going to have hard times? A hundred percent guaranteed, but they need that. If you don't have those bad times and hard times, you're not going to grow and get through it. And you're going to be a terrible owner and a bad leader. And so you kind of need to go through those painful moments. I wanted to throw, as we get.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Older, mentoring is such an important part too.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: Like that's. I just was on with an agency owner, young kid out of New Jersey. He linked in me and said, hey, I would love to like chat with you and like, I follow you and stuff. And so I just got done talking to the guy, started his own marketing, like social media for lawyers and sharp kid and just started doing his own thing. And I just spent a 15 minute call chatting with him on.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: It's nice, nice of you to give me time that way. I do the same and I get a lot out of it. I recently wrote a newsletter article about how I feel about it.
I never knew I would like that. It's time away from what you're doing. But for me, it's hugely rewarding to try to help somebody young that's going through it. Not as some old sage, but just imagine if you can just take a couple of obstacles out of their way, you know, And I just think it's a nice way of giving back. And it also shows the younger generation that, hey, this is a, it's a pretty decent profession people can be because there's a lot of fighting. I'm in litigation, so people always fighting with each other. It's an adversarial, you know, we're not doing deals, we're fighting each other, we're suing people. I just think some of the young people I mentor walk away thinking, okay, I can do this. It looks like he's had a good life and it gives them some hope and some positivity that I'm going to do this, I'm going to do a good job and Len did it and I'm going to do it and I make myself available and I think it's the right thing to do. I think more experienced lawyers, sure, I mean, I could write a book with all the mistakes I made.
It would be so selfish not to at some point, some way say, these are all the things I did wrong. You can go ahead and do them again yourself if you want. But if you're smart enough to listen and just, you know, look at some of the things I made a huge mistake on, you're going to make other mistakes, but you just won't make these. You know what I'm saying?
[00:19:52] Speaker B: Exactly. No, that's a rewarding part of, of all this. And all the attorneys that I know and been on the show here, they all can share so much and they, they do. Now I want to kind of go back to like a previous thing, a weird story. Just a bit ago, I got a call and like a form fill on my website for a lady looking for a lawyer for a cosmetic product injury or something like that. And I called her. I was like, hey, we're not a law firm. We actually do marketing for law firms. But let me see who I know and tell me some basic stuff and I'll reach out to a few folks. Houston, California, and, and. But she's like, yeah, I've talked to a bunch of lawyers. They haven't been very helpful. Some have been pushed. You know, they're not helpful. They're. I don't know what's going on. And I was like, listen, there's a lot of great lawyers out there that want to help you so you can find one. They exist. So I was like, all the ones I know are amazing and they, they're out there helping people. So. But immediately she was, you know, I don't know how she found me, but I know that's.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: That, that's interesting. You go check your keywords, right?
[00:20:53] Speaker B: I know, right? But yeah, well, we come up for like law firm SEO and law firm marketing, but regardless, I'm going to try to connect her. But my point with her was, hey, there's some great lawyers out there that can help you. And I apologize you haven't found one that, that's been, you know, responsive to you. But we're going to see what we can do. So. But back to that. I mean, yeah, there's just so many great people in this community and that want to share and that are actively mentoring and helping other lawyers out there. So there's any young lawyer out there listening. Like there's so many resources and so many good people like Lynn and others that, that are happy to help share information or, or guide them through this.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: I know, I know many, yeah, but.
[00:21:32] Speaker B: You just gotta open yourself up, put yourself out there. If you show up to any of these legal events or NTL or you got Charlie's group or great legal marketing open arms, well, you'll meet people the first day and they'll, you can ask questions and they'll dial you right into the right people. So there's a lot of good resources out there for sure. And that's coming from me, who's a marketer trying to sell lawyers marketing all day.
Very, very good community. And you know, I've been pretty accepted, so I appreciate that. So, so anything else you want to share, Lynn, on, you know, the Hispanic, you know, community, Is there anything specific that you've done that you felt, you know, proximity? Obviously your website has Spanish. You have a call, a number, it looks like, for Spanish speaking. Anything else that you've done? Do you do any like, outreach campaigns or anything like that that's been successful?
[00:22:27] Speaker A: I think just starting from like, you know, the 30,000 foot view, there are going to be people potentially who are watching this and be like, okay, there are opportunities that exist. Let me explore them. Can I. I truly feel this way. I feel like if you are making an attempt to get into the Spanish community and you're genuinely not interested in doing so for any other reason but the money, I think you're better off spending your money, time and effort elsewhere where you truly have a passion because it's not something. It comes with some unique challenges. And if you're not, if it's not a vision or passion to help a particular group of people, whether they be Hispanics or Asians, or because there are other communities that, you know, underserved and the language is completely foreign and it's a barrier, you need to start from there. Is this something you feel like you could, that would resonate with you, that you really, you know, want to help? Okay, then you take the next step. And what I learned in my years of doing business here in this community is that as a white guy growing up in a white community, we thought of people who spoke Spanish as, oh, they're Spanish, right? It's a language, it's not a culture. And the myriad of Cultures who share the language of Spanish are so diverse and they're as different as an Italian from an Irishman, from a German from a Frenchman or whatever. They're very different. They just have this common dilemma and they amongst themselves feel very culturally different. They, you know, if you take somebody from one part of Central America and you take somebody from South America, you and they speak the same language, you might, if you're not culturally sensitive, just assume that they, they get along, that they have the same cultures that they don't. You're extremely different. So, you know, now it depends too where you practice. So if you're practicing in a particular geographic area, learn the culture, learn that what ethnic groups comprise, surprise your Hispanic or Latino community, and then learn a little bit, educate yourself. It's actually really fun to continue to learn about these cultures and then see what you can do to make your office, your staff, your practice, not just have Spanish capabilities, but have cultural capabilities as well. Okay. And by understanding that, you know, for example, we have, you know, we, I don't know, we have 14, 15 people who speak Spanish, but we have people from different cultures. We have a Colombian, El Salvadorian, Honduran, Guatemalan, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, you know, from various ethnic groups within the Spanish speaking community, which really makes the place, it's a very welcoming place. So if you, you, you know, you come to my office and you're not an English speaker, no one ever answers my phone, ever, who doesn't speak Spanish. You never get the, you know, momento, you know, I mean, you don't get when they try to go find somebody. So now I know not everyone watching this can go out and start firing. I didn't do that either. I mean, we started slowly, but you start by hiring somebody, preferably from the community in which you would like to be of service. Okay. For a number of reasons. One is they are sensitive to what's going on. They're also an unbelievable source of business. You know, I, I found that staff members.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: That's a good point.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: You know, and not only that, you know, people come to this, to this country from other countries. If you treat them with decency, respect and diligence, they don't know anyone else. They don't want to talk to anyone else. I get calls now from people that I represented, you know, 25 years ago, who will not call anyone else. And they, and I, you know, now they're business people and they're calling me for, you know, intellectual property issues or license. I don't do any of that. But I'm still their person that they trust, you know, and you can monetize all these referrals. I learned that the hard way too. For years. I was just like, oh, we don't do that, we don't do that. And somebody at one of these marketing groups says, you know, Len, you're an idiot. And that person was right. Because since I have listened to them, I'm not exaggerating that it's, it's resulted in millions of dollars in referral fees that I monetize. Now, granted, I paid for the lead through pay per click or TV or whatever, but instead of just crossing it away and you're not doing a client in, baby, you're not, you're not helping that person. You're just sending them off into the, into the world, you know, like it can't help you.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: As opposed to be that, go to connector, right? That person, that.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: And that's what's happened. And that's really been.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: Hey, Lynn, I need a plumber. Who you got?
[00:27:02] Speaker A: It's like, well, I don't get that too often, but you do get some really bizarre requests. You know, it's a bizarre request. And then, and then, you know, the Latino community and culture, gado means avogado forever. And I'm like, it doesn't really work, you know.
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[00:28:39] Speaker B: Get back to the show.
So yeah, I mean, kind of going back to some of the things you said, there were amazing information like for, you know, I saw this the other day. I talked to a lawyer down in Florida who had Spanish speaking on his site and translated and he had all that stuff, but talking through, actually his coach that, that referred me to them. But yeah, he doesn't like Spanish speaking clients and he kind of is abrasive to him a little bit. He's not really wants to do that, but his site says he does it. I'm like, well, don't do it.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: That's not going to work for him.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: No, just remove it completely. Lean into what you want to do. Just like you said. I think it's a great a tip. And I also, yeah, I love what you said about if you really want to help, like do the education, really get involved and do it the right.
[00:29:35] Speaker A: Way to have the genuine interest in it. You can't force.
[00:29:39] Speaker B: Yes. It's not a marketing tactic.
[00:29:41] Speaker A: You can't force. You can't force it.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I think that's a, that's great advice. So anyone listening to that? You want to get into the Hispanic market? I think it's great. There's tons of opportunity there.
But do it the right way and learn, educate yourself. I think.
[00:29:57] Speaker A: So like anything, if you're not really into it, I don't think you'll ever be truly successful or truly good at it. And over time you'll be exposed for someone who's doing it strictly for financial gain. There's nothing wrong with financial gain because in our business the only way we really, truly have financial gain is if we're really good at what we do. There are, there are many plaintiffs, personal injury lawyers who struggle who aren't very good at it and they find it to be a very difficult way to make a living. So. Yeah, but anyway, there's a lot of things too. And you know, we're just, we've just been honing in like we're on, we're on spin. We don't advertise in English media. We're not, we do very little in the way of English PPC or LSAs. We, you know, we're on Spanish, we sponsor the Spanish radio station, the network here. So it's the, you know, Spain, a law group studio, the 97.7 Roomba. We're on Univision, Telemundo, you know, we're involved in civic activities, community activities of Latino based nonprofits in the community. So we try to do things in the community so that they, they don't just see us on tv, they'll see us at a, a food drive or they'll see us at, you know, a health fair or something else. You know, we're there, you know, they get a Kick out of the, you know, because of my commercials, I do speak some Spanish, but not enough that I would put on my resume proficient or, you know, conversational. And sometimes I'll have a Spanish speaking client come in and I'll get a little through the conversation and then I look at them and I'd be like, finito. Like, I'm done. I've exhausted all my Spanish. And they laugh and they appreciate the effort and they appreciate what it is that they're walking into. And, you know, they know that everybody there is, you know, able to communicate with them and able to communicate with them culturally. Culturally, too. So there's a big difference. Not just language.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: That's awesome. I mean. Yeah. When we first shared it, I didn't realize for one how much percentage of your clients were Spanish speaking and then how much you're, you're really leaning into it with all your advertising and all that stuff. So, like, you're, you're not just dabbling in it like it's your thing, which is awesome.
[00:32:16] Speaker A: My billboards are exclusively in Spanish. I've had people who've known me in my whole life say, what are you doing?
I can't read your billboard. I'm like, well, I wasn't, I wasn't trying to attract you, you know, and, and, and a lot of people thought that was a very bold move, but I think it made a statement to the community that I'm serving. We're here for you. This, you know, this billboard, you know, anyway, it's. You try different things and you try to figure out what works and you test them and see if they do work. Because just because you, you have an idea that you think might be genius, it might be the worst marketing idea in the history of marketing. You don't know. But if you're not prepared to spend some money, time and effort to test it, you're not going anywhere.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: That's awesome. I love what you've done there. I have, you know, I have some Spanish speaking attorney clients and I have three full time people at my company that speak fluent Spanish. So it's funny, like, sometimes we'll get on video calls, like client call, and they'll be speaking all Spanish. I'm like, I don't know what they're saying, but, but it's cool. It's definitely a different dynamic.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: So you just listen for the word.
[00:33:21] Speaker B: Kevin or cerveza or something like that. Yeah, but no, it's, it's cool. And so anyway, I love what you're doing. Really cool story hopefully it's helpful for others listening out there that haven't explored this in their firms or maybe have just thrown stuff up and. And have one person to answer the phone, but they don't really serve the community.
I think it's something you should consider.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: Well, one of the things I think that I like that we're doing that I think is pretty unique, as if. And it wasn't my idea. I don't have any original thoughts on this, but, I mean, I'm a curator of good ideas, is when we advertise, whether it be PPC or Hella City or whatever, and we know that we're putting it out there to the Spanish community. When they reach out to us, we know that the person calling came to us from a Spanish effort. We answer the phone in Spanish.
So just think about it. Imagine you were in Colombia or Guatemala or whatever, and you got into an accident, you were hurt, and you needed a lawyer, and you found an ad in English that said, we can help you here in Guatemala, wherever it was, Honduras. And you call and you get good morning, Gomez Law Firm.
It would immediately put you subconsciously, if not consciously, into a much more comfortable state. Okay. I found a place that I could at least begin to communicate my problem to, and I think I might be able to get some help. So that's what we're trying to create. We're trying to envision how we would feel if we were in a country that was foreign to us by way of language and culture, you know, and then just reverse engineer that. You know, how. How would I feel if this situation was. I was confused and injured and, you know, anxious and nervous and whatever. In another country. So that was one of the things. Yeah. Yeah. We have a really good consultant who works with us. You probably know. His name is Leo Levy at Nanato.
[00:35:23] Speaker B: I'm not sure if I knew. I'll have to reach out to him.
[00:35:26] Speaker A: You should reach out to him. He'd be an unbelievable podcast guest. His company is, you know, just ethically supreme. I mean, I've worked with a lot of vendors. He is a very successful marketing agency for lawyers who want to advertise and work in the Spanish community. But he's also extremely ethical. He and his staff, like, if they're. They're not about taking your money, they won't take your money. If your intake team stinks, they're getting leads to you, and you. They're like, they're done with you. Okay. Until you fix what's broken.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: I can relate with that one. Right There. So. Yeah.
[00:36:01] Speaker A: Yes. So. And he was, he was instrumental in us really spending the time needed to look at our intake team, be honest with ourselves about what we weren't doing well and how we were wasting money making it rain when we couldn't catch the drums. You know what I'm saying? So he'd be. I think he'd be a great podcast because he had a lot to offer.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: Well, I mean, that's smart. I mean, I see it across the board with, with clients all the time, with intake and leads and, you know, it's. It's something that you have to focus on. If you're in marketing, it's hard, too.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: It's hard to get it. To get it right is hard to do. It requires investments in people and money and training them. But I can tell you it pays huge dividends because advertising marketing is expensive.
The best ROI I've had is doing better, capturing the leads that are coming in. Turning a 65% conversion rate to a 95% conversion rate with no additional marketing spend is lots of money. Okay? I mean, that's a lot of money.
[00:37:04] Speaker B: You're paying for the visit or the click or the call already.
[00:37:09] Speaker A: So the money I spent to get it from 65 to 95 was a fraction of what I would have had to spend to just have more lead and all that. Your reputation suffers. All these leads come in. You're doing a terrible job. It's just not. I told you, we live in an urban environment now. We have a car alarm that will make a, A nice backdrop for this video. It's gone off now.
[00:37:29] Speaker B: It's all good. It's. It's real. It's real life, so no worries. I can barely hear it anyway. I'm sure the guests don't care, but, you know, just, just good chairs all around, you know, just so I think anyone listening, listen to what Lynn's got to say. If you're going to go in the Hispanic community, do it intentionally and, and, and don't just do it as a marketing tactic.
[00:37:50] Speaker A: And for anybody that is listening, and I mean this wholeheartedly, I'm willing to share so much more with anyone who has a genuine interest in trying to, you know, better serve the community. I will. I'll give up my time. Talk to them, zooms, whatever, because I do think it's a service that I could be providing in other markets, you know, so anybody wants to call, I'm an open book. I'll share. For me, it's, it's, it's. I try As I got older, to adopt more of an abundance mindset, you know, where just share. There's a lot of. There's a lot of work out there. And even in your own market, so many people won't execute. You could tell them everything you're doing, and there's going to be a real, real select few who will actually implement it and do the work that's necessary. And once you realize how hard it is, you're like, yeah, I'll tell you everything. You might know how hard it is. Go through it, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:38:49] Speaker B: Same with my market. I talk to my competitors all the time, and I've even had some competitors, direct legal marketing competitors on my podcast. So it's. There's. There's plenty of work out there. So I, like, we're not all fits for the same people, you know?
[00:39:01] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I like when people do that. So I.
One guy who's big in the marketing space here in Massachusetts is one of my good friends, Chris Early. He's got podcasts.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: He's.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: He's Chris.
[00:39:12] Speaker B: Chris has been on the show, on my show like two or three times.
[00:39:15] Speaker A: Yeah, he's everywhere. Texting him this morning and, you know, and people be like, you know, he's a direct competitor of you. I was like, he's a friend of mine. He's a good. He's a good guy. He's a good father, He's a good husband. You know, he's not going to get all the cases. I'm not going to get all the cases. And so, yeah, so sometimes people find that odd.
[00:39:34] Speaker B: I know, right?
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: I mean, people. If I talk to my competitors, you know, it's the same. I get the same feedback sometimes, like, oh, why, why are you talking to them? Or why'd you have them. Them on your show? Which might give them, you know, some marketing. Free marketing.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: Chris and I have shared. Shared, you know, some.
Not confidential, but like some really important information about what we're doing or what we're struggling with, you know, and I'm there to help him. And I, I called him two days ago about employee compensation, like lawyer compensation. Like, hey, listen, you know, I'm struggling trying to devise a comp plan for a couple new lawyers. I want to. And he's just like, open book, you know?
[00:40:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Chris is awesome.
[00:40:16] Speaker A: Get off this call and he'll have hired one of them and I'll be all upset.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: Oh, no.
Chris has been on the show a few times. He'll be on more.
We chat all the time. On LinkedIn as well. So, yeah, good people out there. I guess the story is here. Just great people out there. Everyone that's been on this show is amazing and everyone's willing to share.
And then of course, Lynn's sharing today with what he's been successful at with the Hispanic community. So, Lynn, I want to get you on your way. What's the best way? Other lawyers listening in that are like, you know what I need, I want to do that in, in my market or just pick your brain. What's the best way for them to, to contact you?
[00:40:51] Speaker A: Give me an email. Anyone can email me and I'll give you my cell number. If somebody wants to call me and is genuine about trying to help the community, call me. My email is lspeda@beta law group.com and my cell phone number is 617-256-4005. Call me, send me a text and like I said, we'll talk.
[00:41:14] Speaker B: And as always, if you want me, I'll do an intro email to. So reach out to me if that's easier and I'll do a direct connection to both of you and make sure you can connect so well. Lynn, thank you so much for sharing today. Awesome story, Great stuff that you're doing. You're passionate about it, it's working well. And, and thank you.
[00:41:32] Speaker A: Thank you for having me, Kevin. I appreciate it.
[00:41:34] Speaker B: Absolutely. Everyone out there, put your heads down, dig in, grow your law firms. There's plenty of help out there. And we'll see you out there and about and we'll see you on the next show. See you later.
[00:41:44] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:41:45] Speaker B: Bye.
