Tyson Mutrix (0:01)

If your law firm is running fine, but you know you're capable of more, more growth, more freedom, more control, maxlock on is where you find your next move. This is two days of strategy systems and straight talk from law firm owners who are actually in the game. No hype, no recycled advice, just the real stuff that's working to grow law firms right now. You're not showing up just for inspiration. You, you're showing up to make better decisions faster. You're showing up to cut out the guesswork and walk away with a clearer path forward. Because the truth is trying to figure it out on your own takes longer, cost more and burns you out. This room, it's where the people serious about building better law firms show up, get the details and grab your ticket@maxlawcon.com get ready because here's your host, Tyson Mutrix.

Jim Hacking (1:07)

Welcome to today's Guild Live show. I've got a really good one for you today. Quick heads up before I get into the show, we are going to have tickets on sale until tomorrow at midnight. So, so tomorrow midnight is when the tickets go on. They, they, the prices go up, just so you know. So ticket prices go up tomorrow at midnight by $500 from the general admission tickets. So make sure you go to maxlawcon.com today to make sure you get them because if you don't get them by tomorrow at midnight and it just so you know if you are listening to this or watching this on Saturday that the time has already expired. So just so you know, this is for people that are watching this live. If you're watching this live tickets are going, they go up by $500 tomorrow at midnight. Maxlon.com if you are watching this a little bit late, it's okay, you can still get your tickets to Max Law Con. They're just going to be a little bit more expensive. So let's get on to the show. So I've got a really interesting one because we're going to be talking about a zoom info survey that has some really interesting marketing data in it and then something about lean startups. We're going to Talk about that 3rd gen AI coding, a turnover risk that you might be overlooking and TikTok substitute, which is, this is an interesting one. Of all of them, I think this is maybe the most interesting one for me. It's because I think a lot of people thought maybe including myself, that TikTok might be going away and I don't think that's the case anymore. It's, I think it's Going to be sticking around for a lot of reasons. But let's get going into today's show. First up is the zoom info state of the AI and Sales Marketing 2025 survey. And in that it reveals some pretty fascinating insights. The first number I want to talk about, it's about half of sales and marketing professionals now regularly use AI, which I would say is not super surprising. So specifically, 20% use it daily, 29% use it weekly. And here's where it gets really interesting. So, so what does this mean? Practically, users reported an impressive 47% boost in productivity and they save about 12 hours per week by automating routine tasks. Okay, I don't think there's any super big surprise there. Here's where it gets really interesting. So more importantly, AI users are seeing tangible revenue impacts. 28% shorter deal cycles, 70% larger deals, and a remarkable 76% higher win rate. So that is, Those numbers are crazy. I'm going to read those again. So it's, it takes about a third of the less time to, to close a deal. The deals are 70% larger. It's almost double. That's almost double. And then you've got, their win rate is, is, has increased by 76%. That's almost, again, almost double. That's, that's really incredible. So interestingly, younger professionals under 35 are leading AI adoption, with sectors like tech and telecom leading the charge. Regulated industries like finance and government are slower adopters due to governance and data quality hurdles. Yet obstacles remain. Major barriers include concerns about data accuracy, lack of skilled personnel integration issues, cultural resistance and budget constraints. Poor data quality alone can erode up to 25% of the revenue profession potential. So that's interesting. So if you have poor data, it's, it's the, it's that old saying, you know, you know, you know, garbage in, garbage out. Same thing with that. So if you put in garbage data, you're going to, it's going to, it's going to definitely ruin your revenue potential. The survey, it also recommends some pretty clear strategies. So prioritize data quality, invest in regular team training, introduce AI incrementally. So start with frontline contributors and expand upward to make sure that there's a smoother transition. And that way you can maximize your results. So another part of this that they predict in this at least, is that the early adopters, they are going to be poised. I know, I've talked, that's why I've been talking about this on the show so much, is that the early adopters, they're going to be poised to significantly outperform competitors that are lagging behind. So if you have not yet dipped your toe in the water of AI, I highly encourage you to do so. Because it's detrimental at this point to not get started with AI. It is just going to be detrimental to your firm. I promise you that right now. I can't stress that part enough. I just can't. All right, let's get into our next a story which has to do with lean startups. And this is an interesting story because it has to do with company called Jolie. And there really is this trend that has been, I'd say, reshaping businesses. I think many of you that are listening to the podcast because just who you are, because you listen to Maxim Lawyer and you are the type of business owner that just wants to improve, you probably have heard of lean startups, you probably have learned, at least heard of that term. And what you're starting to see in many industries is that you have these teams that are very lean that are generating enormous revenues with very minimal staff. And so this company, Jolie, what's interesting is that they are, they're, they're achieving $50 million in revenues with just five employees. I mean, think about that. That's 10 million per employee. We've talked about revenue per employee in the past. That's, that's incredible. Revenue employee. And one of the major ways that they're able to do it is through automation, AI integrations. And then also they're very strategic about their outsourcing. And what they've really done is they've embraced technology. So by embracing technology and external talent, I guess is what I'll call it, they're able to maximize efficiency, they're able to reduce their overhead. And which is also part of this is really incredible too. But it allows them to scale dramatically. So they're able to have these massive revenues with lower overhead. And that's, I mean you're talking about massive profits. So if you could think about this, you know, if you could just imagine applying these same principles to your law firm. I mean, I'm guessing that automation, think about just using automation to streamline your case management, maybe your billing, maybe AI could handle your routine research or document drafting. You could outsource roles, kind of like bookkeeping. A lot of people are, have been doing that. You've been hearing more about CMOs. So marketing, doing things like that could free up your internal resources to focus on high, those high value tasks. Now I will say be very careful about it, because, because I hear a lot of people about hiring CMOs and COOs and all that. It's worth it if you're getting that full value out of it because you could spend a lot of money on those types of people and not get a lot for, for them. Sometimes it's better off just to hire someone that can do social media posts for you than it is to hire a cmo. So be very, very strategic about that. You could do the opposite. You could, you could potentially do the opposite in this situation. There are, would recommend that have CMO services that I could, I could mention later on. But not all CMOs are created equally as I'll, I'll leave that there. But so back to the lean approach. It's just incredible many because what you can do is you, you're able to, you're able to reduce costs but it's really, it's not just all about that. It's really about fundamentally rethinking how the business operates. And it really forces you to step back and think what do we need? What do we not need? What is, is a luxury, what's not a luxury? What are the things that we absolutely have to have, no matter what really comes down to efficiency and scalability. But with that you don't really need a high headcount, which you hear a lot of people talk about. And I always call it an ego number, the number of employees they have. That doesn't mean that you've got a good business. That might mean that you have a really bloated business. That might be what that means. So don't just think because you got a big team that you've got a great team. It doesn't mean that what this requires is it really demands of you strategic use of technology and resources. And also part of the resources is people. Right? You have to use it, you have to use people very strategically. So you have to think lean, you have to think smart. And really if you can do that, if you can really leverage this, you're gonna be able to watch your firm thrive. All right, let's get into our third story today. And that is third gen AI coding tools. And this is an article, it's called Third Gen AI Coding Tools Go Mainstream. So we're going to discuss, so we'll discuss third gen AI coding. And what they're really doing is they're, they're transforming technology development so platforms like Anthropics, Claude code, git, GitHub's copilot. And then you also have, if you've heard of cursor. There's also something called bolt. New things like that are defining these third gen AIs. I guess they're really redefining coding workflows. Although I did see an interesting study recently that it was slowing down software engineers by 19% but we're going to set that aside for a second. But these platforms really are. They're redefining coding and the way it works and they're giving everyone access to coding is what it's doing. But it's really redefining the way the workflows work by what they do is they integrate AI into the, the DevOps processes. And so these tools, what they'll do is they'll automate end to end coding tasks and which is supposed to substantially boost productivity which then would speed up your innovation. So we're, we're going to be announcing something that we've, we've actually launched it into the guild into beta. We'll announce it to everyone pretty soon and we were able to move pretty quickly because of AI and it does allow you to boost productivity. But there were some things, there were definitely some hiccups and what I'll do and I'll probably do a later show on some of the hiccups we had with it because it's not all just smooth sailing. There are some, some downsides of all this. It is something that the people that don't know how to code like myself, it gives people I guess access to, to the AI, gives us access to be able to take our ideas and implement them pretty quickly. And so I think that part's pretty cool. The really, I mean there really is more of the story though so. Anthropics Claude Opus 4. It recently faced controversy when the internal task revealed very concerning ethical challenges. Put it lightly. It allegedly threatened an engineer during testing which I. It's a really fascinating story and it really highlights the really critical and safety questions that are surrounding advanced AI tools. There's this massive promise of productivity that must be. But you got to really balance that against like really stringent oversight and, and I mean we, we are as lawyers we have ethical guidelines that we have to stick to. That's why you, you'll hear the term quite a bit person in the loop. And you need to put a person in the loop quite a bit especially in the early testing phases of when you're using AI and AI agents. That way the out you're testing the outputs to make sure that you're not doing anything or going outside the ethical guidelines. For example, if you're producing any content, you want to make sure that like, for example, like in most states, you can't use the word expert. You can't call yourself an expert, right? So you can't be producing blog posts that say that are calling you an expert. You gotta be very, very careful about that. That's just one tiny, tiny example. It could go way more off the rails. You just gotta be very, very careful about it. So be thinking about, like, what does, what does this really mean for your law firm? Right. AI technology can, it can vastly enhance your productivity. But careful implementation and really safety protocols are crucial. They have to be. Without them, you're really risking a lot. So you gotta make sure your, your team fully understands AI's capabilities and its limitations. So you have to make sure that not only are, but your team is informed. And so you have to adopt these tools really thoughtfully and manage your risk proactively. That way you can, you can REAP the, the AI's substantial benefits, but also doing it safely. So you gotta be very, very careful. So this one's sort of like the good, the bad, where you've, you've got these great tools like GitHub's Copilot, you got Claude code that announced or that was launched pretty recently, cursor, all that. These are awesome tools, allow you to do a lot of things very quickly, but there's just, there are some risks, so you'll be really, really careful with it. All right, let's get into our fourth story. And this has to do with turnover and how remote work policies and turnover. So that's, that's what we're talking about. So our next story, it tackles an issue that directly impacts your talent management, and that's remote work policies. So there's a recent Fast Company survey that revealed a pretty striking statistic that 40% of employees would seriously consider leaving their jobs if remote or hybrid work options were removed. And so this isn't some hypothetical risk. It's a, it's a real and immediate risk. You see this affecting many big companies, and if it's gonna, if it's affecting big companies, you better believe it's gonna affect law firms. So for small businesses and, you know, small law firms, enforcing a strict return to office policy could lead to a pretty significant talent drain. So if any of you are considering that, just know. And I, I do think that the opposite is true. So if you decide, okay, we're going to go from in office to remote, you might want to have a discussion with your team. Beforehand because that's a pretty drastic change. And some people want to be in the office, right? Some people want to have the option to do either, and some people don't want to go in the office. You have to make sure you, you consider all of the alternatives and, and what your team wants. But recruitment and training, they're very costly. And so losing experienced staff, as many of you know, it can really damage productivity and morale. So flexibility isn't just a perk anymore. It's, it's a pretty competitive necessity for many, many firms. I'm not saying that you have to have it, but it's something that you could be losing out on some really good talent by not having that as an option. So really consider the balance your, your firm strikes between that remote and in office work and ask the question, can you afford to lose your talent over rigid policies? If you are forcing people to, to come in the office or you're pushing them out of the office, either way, you have to really, really consider those the positives and the negatives. Maintaining that flexible approach, I think might be your best strategy to make sure that you're able to retain valuable employees and attract that top talent. I know that what we were able to do is when we started to look outside of our immediate geographic area and allow for the possibility of hiring remotely in other states, it really opened up our talent pool and it's allowed us to do way better work than had we just stuck to our geographic areas. In the state of Missouri, it really did allow us to open up our talent pool. So for those of you that are, that are just in office, I just encourage you to look into the possibility of either hybrid work or remote work. But I would, at least if I were you, embrace more of a hybrid work environment. But make sure either way, no matter what you do, clearly communicate your expectations, remain adaptable to evolving, evolving employee preferences. The. And because I really do think that the future of the, of your firm's talent retention really is going to depend on it is your ability to evolve. Because this is something that's been shifting. If you think about just 20 years ago, this wasn't a, I mean, it was a thing, but it was a very, very, very few people did it. So I highly encourage you, if you're not remote at all, to look into at least. All right, let's get into our last story. And this is. This one is about tick tock and the. On this one, marketers warn no substitute for TikTok. That's what I was talking about. How I thought TikTok would kind of start to go away, but I mean, the marketers, they are, are convinced that there really is no, no substitute. So despite ongoing uncertainties, which is kind of incredible because, because you got this massive uncertainty around the regulatory future, although it's gotten quite a little bit, but marketers are overwhelmingly insisting that there's no comparable substitute. And the reason why is because TikTok, it uniquely excels at driving demand generation, brand visibility and audience engagement. And that's according to this article. Its authenticity resonates deeply with users, while its highly sophisticated algorithms precisely target audiences, boosting reach and engagement. For law firms, TikTok can demystify complex legal topics, humanize your practice, and significantly expand your client base. Here's what's kind of interesting is I felt like for a while we were seeing a new social media channel about once a week, almost like you were seeing AI now. And I have noticed that it's. The dust is kind of settled with different social media channels and you're not really seeing many pop up anymore. That is kind of an interesting thing. And a big part of this might be the fact that there is less competition because less are popping up. So that's kind of an interesting thing. And I do wonder if that's going to change a little bit with vibe coding. If any of you have heard of that. That's a little bit what I was talking about with the third generation AI, but a little bit different. So it is kind of an interesting thing. But I do think with, for like law firms, TikTok, it can demystify complex legal topics for people like that, that you can make it very interesting. It allows you to humanize your practice, which is great. And because of that you can significantly expand your client base. I have been hearing, hearing the phrase quite a bit recently TikTok lawyers, and not, not necessarily in the nicest way. And I think that that more refers to the people that are, you know, they're the jack of all trades, kind of a TikTok lawyer. And they, they, they do get a lot of followers. I question whether or not that's effective at driving clients. But if you do it, things like ways like Jim, Jimmy does, Jim hacking, the way he does it, he does a great job of leveraging TikTok where it's, it's all about immigration law, all about immigration law. And he hammers it over and over and over all day. But it's, it's a part of his overall marketing scheme. Right? It's not just, it's, it's not. He doesn't just randomly post things. So as long as it's part of your strategic plan, I'm all for it. I would say that the heated caution is necessary just because TikTok does have an uncertain regulatory landscape, which can pose some risks. So think about doing all that video content, doing all the work to produce those videos, and then all of a sudden, poof, it's gone. That is, I mean, we saw it for what, three or four hours six months ago. We saw it happen. So it has happened. People were freaking out and I mean, people were like losing their minds. It was it. And so it could happen. So you have to be very, very careful about that. And it's got to be, it's got to be part of your strategic plan. You got to also part of the plan. You got to understand that you might lose it all. That is, that is a complete possibility. But you just have to evaluate your target demographic. You have to assess the potential benefits versus the risks and really just create a clear contingency plan should they, you know, face those restrictions. But TikTok, it does offer exceptional marketing potential. It really does. There are, there are notable uncertainties with it, but just approaches strategically measure rigorously when it comes to whether or not it's working. Because the thing I see quite a bit is people producing a bunch of content and it's leading to zero clients. They might get some followers from it, they might get some, you know, they might go viral with some videos, but it's not leading to clients. You have to make sure you tie it into a marketing plan, right, where you. You've got some sort of funnel that's leading them down the path to clients. So don't just record videos and just, you know, cross your fingers, hope that something's going to happen. You know, it has to be part of the plan, so make sure you do that. And that's where maybe some sort of virtual CMO might work out, who knows? But your, your firm's market, I think a lot of people think that you just do certain things and money happens. You know, cases happen. But your firm's marketing success really does depend on smart choices and especially in this rapidly changing digital landscape. So. All right, that does conclude today's show, though. And so just a quick recap. AI revolutionizing sales and marketing. Just as a reminder, act now or risk falling behind. Lean models challenge traditional norms, emphasizing efficiency over headcount. AI coding tools offer great potential but require careful insight. Flexible remote work policies are essential for, for retaining top talent and TikTok remains irreplaceable in digital marketing. Navigate its uncertainties wisely. But thank you for joining us today. Make sure that if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you subscribe. If you are listening to this on the podcast, make sure you hit the subscribe button. It does help us. It helps us with the algorithm and spreading the love all over the world. Really, because we've got listeners all over the world, which is pretty cool. Cool. Also, if I'm going to ask this, if you get any value from these episodes, I would ask that you please give us a five star review. Same thing. It helps with the algorithm, help spreads the love. That way we can help as many law firm owners as possible. And as a reminder, make sure Maxon.com Maxon.com Maxon.Com Ticket sales go up tomorrow by $500, so make sure that you get your tickets July 31st at midnight it's you'll turn into a pumpkin. Okay? So make sure you get your tickets now. And again. If you're watching this or listening to this on Saturday, sorry it's too late, but you can still get tickets to Maxlocan. They'll just need. They will not be at that reduced rate. So. All right everybody, have a wonderful week. We'll see you.