← Personal Injury Mastermind w/ Chris Dreyer
Personal Injury Mastermind w/ Chris Dreyer
362. Big Verdicts + Billion-Dollar Brand: NIL, Intake, and Trucking Trials w/ Digger Earles
00:31:46
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- [00:00]
Chris Dreyer
You fight to win every case. Your marketing should fight just as hard. Whether they're searching on Google or AI. Make sure your firm is the first name clients see. Lead the pack with AI. Search from Rankings IO. Show up first. Sign more cases. Start dominating at Rankings IO. Big verdicts get headlines.
- [00:20]
Digger Earls
The best cases weren't going to the.
- [00:22]
Chris Dreyer
Best lawyers, but they don't build a brand alone.
- [00:24]
Digger Earls
They were going to the best marketers.
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Chris Dreyer
If you want to scale a personal injury firm today, you've got to compete like a marketer and operate like a CEO.
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Digger Earls
Intake is the most important part of your business. The best lawyers in the world can't do anything without the client.
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Chris Dreyer
That is Digger Earls. He built La Boarde Earls Injury Lawyers into one of the largest firms in Louisiana. Seven offices, 30 plus attorneys, over a billion dollars recovered for their clients.
- [00:48]
Digger Earls
My view of the world these days is you're going to be a litigator or you're not going to be a personal injury Lawyer.
- [00:56]
Chris Dreyer
This is Pim, powered by Rankings IO. I'm Chris Dreyer. Today you'll learn how to turn verdicts into leverage. How to use name, image, likeness deals to build instant B2C credibility, and how to run intake like an operator. Let's go. Let's start with the good stuff. What's like a big win that you've had recent that you could share?
- [01:15]
Digger Earls
Well, I got a $5 million verdict last week. That's my most recent big win. I'm very proud of. Yeah, very proud of it. It was a different case. It was a insurance bad faith litigation. We'd got a jury verdict three years ago and then got what's called an assignment of rights from the insureds, the defendants to proceed against their insurance company for the bad faith handling of their claim. And we were able to pop them with a $5 million verdict. So in all, we will have recovered $6.6 million on a $1 million policy.
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Chris Dreyer
That's incredible. Congrats on that.
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Digger Earls
Thank you.
- [01:46]
Chris Dreyer
You know, so a lot of the audience listening, it starts with the leads, right? We got to talk about that. So you're in a tough market. A lot of big firms that have been advertising for a long time. So just, you know, throwing a couple billboards up and doing the basics isn't really going to break through the noise. How do you think about marketing in a competitive landscape like you're in?
- [02:06]
Digger Earls
Well, I think I've been listening to your podcast for a very long time and all your guests come on and say, hey, I'm in the most Competitive market. I'm in a very competitive market.
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Chris Dreyer
Right.
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Digger Earls
But I gotta tell you, Louisiana, I want to echo those guys, because Louisiana is as tough as it gets, in my opinion. You know, Baton Rouge, Louisiana is the most expensive market in the country. New Orleans is probably number three or four. Lafayette, Louisiana is in the top 10. I mean, it's, it's a lot of ad dollars spent based on the population that, that we have. So it is, it is very competitive. What do I think about marketing? Absolutely hate it. I mean, I wish we didn't have to do it, but you know, 15 years ago, 12 to 15 years ago, when we, when we launched this marketing blitz, we always got cases, we always did a good job for our clients. But we quickly realized that the best cases weren't going to the best lawyers, they were going to the best marketers. We had some very large marketers in our markets that were just the churn and burn, mass advertising. Get lots of cases in, get them in, work them up, settle them, get them out the door. And we were litigators, we were fighters. But we saw that we had to jump into that world if we were going to survive. So we did. And we took a different approach. We wanted to keep our litigation practice live and well, but we knew we had to start marketing to be able to get the cases to show our talents. We started marketing, getting cases in and kept on litigating them, getting great results. And then, you know, just snowballed one thing into another. Now we have seven offices throughout Louisiana and still growing.
- [03:31]
Chris Dreyer
I've worked with a bunch of PI firms and, you know, if you look at referrals as a channel to get leads, I've had a few of the non litigating firms we work with at our big advertisers and they just, they don't get the peer referrals.
- [03:44]
Digger Earls
Right.
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Chris Dreyer
They'll get the clients and friends and family stuff. You've put some big numbers on the board. You know, trial first, you said, you know, talk to me through that, that channel, the peer referrals channel.
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Digger Earls
We know what our cost per acquisition is. You know, we spend X amount of dollars on marketing. We sign up X amount of leads, X amount of those will want it. We convert, you know, our target is to convert 95% of wanted leads, so we know what that cost per acquisition is. We track everything here. And the best cases seem to come from referrals from other lawyers. Right. We get our fair share just from our brand. But every small town lawyer throughout the country has their cousin or friend or so. And so who has a horrible accident and a great frickin case and they're going to their local guy no matter what. And the local guy may not be equipped to litigate it or try it. And so that's where relationships come into play. And hey, let me take that case on. And you know, they'll probably pay you $1 million, but if I can get 5, then the client wins, you win, everybody's better off. I really enjoy that part. The the business to business marketing. Building those relationships and working those cases with mostly young lawyers, but some older lawyers as well. And it's proven to be a very good business model and a good way to build up great cases.
- [05:04]
Chris Dreyer
In court. You see world class B2B marketing in action. Lawyers proving their value to other lawyers. That's how peer referrals happen. But B2C is different. The public never sees the trial, never reads the verdict. So how do you build that same credibility? Fast nil. Name, image and likeness. Deals that let you borrow trust from people in your community that they already follow. It's a shortcut to consumer awareness and a modern play that works.
- [05:30]
Digger Earls
We look for ways to be different. Every lawyer commercial out there when we started this was, you know, stuffy lawyer in the library talking about I am the best lawyer in the country and you need to send me your case. So when you got a competitive market and lots of lawyers standing there saying hire me, hire me, hire me, you have to be memorable in that very competitive 30 second TV spot. So through our core value of community, we reached out to Alvin Kamara's team and partnered with him on his nonprofit to give back to our community in exchange for, you know, him participating in some ads with us. The south in general is football crazy and Louisiana is no exception. It's football. Our football players are legends and heroes, especially Alvin Kamara. I will tell you that the idea came to us about Drew Brees because at the time, the Saints had just won the super bowl with Drew Brees. And we got the price for Drew Brees and you know, who's next, right? And then we got the next one. We're like, who's next? Well, we got this rookie, Alvin Camara, who seems to be pretty promising. And I knew Alvin Kamara's name from Tennessee because I'm a massive football fan myself. So we took a shot on him. He turned out to be rookie of the year. His personality was infectious and people just loved him. And then we, we've turned that into Bobby Hebert, who's an Old retired Saints legend. Now Taysum Hill is our partner. Now Taysum's number seven. Our phone number is all seven. So it's kind of a play on that. But just we, we really go after really good humans who are on that big football stage and give back a lot to the community through their organizations and our nonprofits and our passions. And it's. It made us stand out, it made us different, and it just, it worked. If national brands have figured out that celebrity endorsements works, why can't that work for our business? So we, that was our way of thinking, and it's paid dividends.
- [07:19]
Chris Dreyer
I completely agree. I mean, look, you know, looking at the other side that, you know, you got to look at your competitors and, you know, how they're marketing and stuff. You got, you know, state farms, got Patrick Mahomes and, and some of those. And it's like, you know, it doesn't matter if you're looking at shoes. And, you know, I think Shaq just bought Reebok and he's trying to resurrect that brand. And so now he's got one of the top golfers, I think DeChambeau. But yeah, so I think it's smart. Do you see, like the social proof component? Like, hey, you know, I saw you with Alvin, so they must be great attorneys, you know, 100%.
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Digger Earls
It's almost like it gives you instant credibility. Now, look, when we partnered with Alvin, he was a rookie. So how old are you when you're a rookie? 23, 21, 22 years old. So at 22, 23 year old, because he, you know, has multiple hundred yard rushing games and scores 15 touchdowns in his rookie season, gives me instant creditability. Not my 20 years of service in the legal field and my multi million dollar jury verdicts and. But to the general public, hey, he's with Alvin Camara. He's with Taysom Hill. That guy must, must be stand up, you know, let's. Let's give him a shot.
- [08:23]
Chris Dreyer
Yeah, I think that the B2C that gives you social proof, you know, the B2B to your peers, you know, those big litigating numbers, they know, Right. Who are the people trying cases?
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Digger Earls
Earlier, I told you that we quickly realized the best cases were going to the best marketers, not to the best lawyers. And that's true in the B2C, but in the B2B world, it is the best lawyers getting the best cases. So you do need to, you do need to prove your yourself to those guys. Although I have had referring lawyers ask me for an autographed Alvin Camara jersey.
- [08:52]
Chris Dreyer
There you go. There you go. That's awesome. You know, the other thing that I just, I just appreciate, you're so client first, right? It's not just, it's really going the distance. I think that's part of that. The true trial attorneys, like, they get into it because they, they want to fight for the, for the client because they're getting undercut, they're not getting what they deserve.
- [09:12]
Digger Earls
So we're very data driven. We are extremely client focused. And in Louisiana, or whatever market you're in, you know, it's so competitive to get that case. When you get it, you damn sure want to be sure. You hold onto it. And then taking it a step further, you do the good job, you do a good job for them, they become your largest referral source or your best advertisement. Right. Like, I look at our data, and far and away, our number one referral source is former clients or friends and family of former clients. You give them a first class experience, that Ritz Carlton experience, from the day they. They walk in the door to the day they walk out the door. And you'll be amazed at the return on investment you get from that. So. So we've implemented lots of little details along the way to make sure or ensure that our clients have the best client experience there is. The number one complaint we always got was, you know, I never hear from my lawyer. Well, we have checklists in our CRM that every 15 days they hear from their lawyer or the paralegal. 15 days, lawyer calls. 15 days later, paralegal calls. 15 days, lawyer calls just to check in. Now, I told you, we track everything. We track inbound calls, too. And you'd be amazed at the volume of inbound calls, the decrease in inbound calls. Just because you call them so much, they don't have to call you. They don't call you to complain about. I never hear from you. They don't call you to tell you, hey, I need to go back to the doctor, or I haven't had an MRI because we're on top of it. You got to talk about something when you call them. So, hey, have you had that MRI I saw? You saw the doctor, you know, two weeks ago, and it's been eight weeks post accident, and there's no MRI or what's the doctor telling you? Those little tidbits, they enter them into the note section so the next person calling can read them. It makes for a better client experience and a happier client. Number one, it's all about Those five star Google reviews, Chris, So you get the benefit of that. You get the benefit of their referral sources and you're telling all their friends their friend's in an accident and says, man, I'll never hear from my lawyer. And they say, shit, I hear from mine all the time. So much that I don't have to call them. So client experience is a big deal. We hire so much to us that we hired a client experience manager. Her sole job is mapping out the client journey and maximizing the client experience, whether it's from welcome video, text messages or hey, your case has progressed to the next stage. Anything we can do to make a better client experience to ensure that they become a fan at the end is what we want to do.
- [11:34]
Chris Dreyer
You know, I got to say, you know, just not too long ago you went to that chick Fil A, you know, I'm looking for that, you know, it's our pleasure. The Ritz Carlton, you know, it's our pleasure. It just makes you feel good, keeps you coming back. And the other thing I'll just highlight is a lot of firms I talk to, it's like, oh, we're asking for a review at the closeout or maybe once or twice. But if you're meeting with them every 15 days, you've got a lot of opportunities to find a moment when they're really happy.
- [12:00]
Digger Earls
Well, our team are trained on to strike at the best time to get that five star review. Maybe it's at signup. We've had five star reviews for our team on cases we've turned down just because they helped them. I'm sorry, I can't help you in this case. But you know, they gave them good advice and referred them to where they needed to be or, you know, pushed them along the way and just was kind and courteous and said, hey, would you mind leaving a five star review so it doesn't have to be at disbursement, it can be at sign up. It could be. Any good interaction along the way is an opportune time to get a five star review. Foreign.
- [12:37]
Chris Dreyer
Is asking ChatGPT right now, who's the best lawyer near me. If it's not you, you just lost the case. At rankings, we make sure your name shows up, go to Rankings IO and dominate aio, also known as AI Search before your competition does. That's Rankings IO for AI Search. When people ask legal questions on Reddit or Quora, AI is paying attention. And if your firm isn't part of those conversations, you're missing a big Opportunity to shape what AI says about you. Join us live on November 17th at 3pm Central Standard Time for the AI Feedback Loop, our new workshop on form strategy for law firms. We'll show you how to use public discussion boards to feed AI the right proof of your expertise, boost your visibility, and sign more clients. Grab your seat at Rankings IO Webinar. That's Rankings IO slash webinar. You can have the best marketing in the world, but if your team can't convert calls into cases, it's all wasted spin. Intake is the engine room where tech training and speed decide your roi.
- [13:39]
Digger Earls
So, intake, when we started this process, if you'd have told me, intake team, or you know, I would have been like, you're crazy. Like, if somebody calls and wants to hire us, if they, you know, we get them 100% of the time. Well, when you start advertising and that volume comes in and you start really looking at the data, you start to understand what you're missing. So if you're listening to this podcast and you don't, and if you don't know that intake is the most important part of your business, you need to take a deeper look at your business. Because you know the best lawyers in the world can't do anything without the client. If you don't have a refined intake process, you're not getting that client. And they're going to go home and see a hundred other television commercials and a hundred other billboards and they're going to hire your competitor who has their intake process refined. So we use Litify. We've come a long ways in litify. We have KPIs established for our intake team. We have team leads on intake. We have openers, and we have closers like the guys, the intake teams that get the client. If they can't close it, then it goes to a closer, someone who's really proven that they closed higher volume of cases. We have an intake attorney whose old sole job is overseeing the intake process and being there when, hey, I want to talk to a lawyer. Or if someone's on the fence, hey, how about, how about I get a lawyer on the phone to answer your questions? When we started really diving deep into our intake numbers, we were, we were converting about 84% of wanted leads, which was just embarrassing. And our goal now is 95%. And I'm happy to say as we sit here Today, it's about 95.4% of wanted leads.
- [15:08]
Chris Dreyer
That's incredible. You know, I like the extra touch with, hey, get the lawyer on the phone. And you got the go into the closer if you got one that's kind of, you know, him and Han around because it is sales, you do have to close.
- [15:20]
Digger Earls
Look, we've spent so much time focused on intake and training and listening to those phone calls. Our entire intake team now has mirrors at their desk so they can see themselves while they're on the phone with the client. Because if you have the resting bitch face, that's coming across to the caller. Right. And that's not what we want. So we want them to see themselves be happy and hopefully relay those emotions to the client. Being compassionate and a pleasure to listen to.
- [15:46]
Chris Dreyer
That's smart. You know, one of the things just on Alidify. Cause I don't. I don't know. I know it's built off of Salesforce. One thing that intrigued me and I thought maybe you could just touch on it was they have this like, I guess a referral portal.
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Digger Earls
Yeah.
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Chris Dreyer
That makes referrals easier. Could you just. Just briefly. Cause I. I have no idea how that works. Could you just give me a little.
- [16:03]
Digger Earls
Yeah. It's no different than there's lots of, you know, Attorney share with Bob Simon. I know, I know you know Bob Simon.
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Chris Dreyer
Yeah, Bob's great.
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Digger Earls
Yeah. Attorney share is one of those platforms. Michael Mogul and Chris Pep, their own file shared deal as well. Litify is no different. It's just a way of putting together partners from around the country. You know, we advertise in Louisiana, but, you know, maybe the Louisiana guy was in Colorado and got him in a car wreck and needs a lawyer there. And they call us because they're from Louisiana and I'm looking for a referral partner. So it's just a referral network within Litify.
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Chris Dreyer
So let's talk about the trial side. Let's talk about ops.
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Digger Earls
Sure.
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Chris Dreyer
You know, some firms do. They'll have a pre lit department and then a case gets flagged and then it goes to trial. You know, the trial pods. Like how are you set up? How are you? Have you seen the most success to kind of handle because you're advertising for the volume. But then you got the A, Bs and Cs. Those tier one cases come in.
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Digger Earls
Right.
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Chris Dreyer
So talk to me about that.
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Digger Earls
So we're set up. We have a lit and pre lit model. I know you know what I'm talking about there. You've been through this before. All cases that come in go to the pre lit department and they are setting up treatment, verifying coverage, getting the case set up and gone. And then we have an attorney in charge of legal operations that's monitoring those cases. And why hadn't this case settled? What's going on here? Whatever the deal may be. And then when it comes time for litigation, he moves them to the litigation department. We also have, we implemented what's called settlement committee. We meet every Tuesday. No case can be settled for less than policy limits without presenting to the settlement committee. And the settlement committee, it rotates, but it's three lawyers that are signed each week. And if you want to settle a case for less than policy limits, you make your pitch and they decide, they vote yes, that's a good number to settle for. Or no, you need to do this, this and this, and you can get more money for it.
- [17:51]
Chris Dreyer
Could you give me an example on one, like maybe one at just top of the dome, like, hey, we were going to consider and settle on this one, and bam, we hit a big.
- [17:59]
Digger Earls
Yeah, well, young lawyer comes in and says, hey, this is, this is my case. This is the venue. I mean, we have a litify pre populates a form for us for settlement committee, and it identifies the client. And you know, is this a credible client that would present well to the jury, or is this a good venue with a good judge, or is it defense oriented? You know, it's a lot of stuff that goes into it. Past medical, future medical, everything's in there. And then they, they do their research of what they think the generals are and they make their pitch. Well, a young lawyer had one and he wanted to settle for $400,000. But coming to the settlement committee with senior lawyers there, it's just bouncing ideas off and they're like, hey, if you get a life care plan for what the doctor's telling you, then that number could drastically improve. So young lawyer, that's his opportunity to learn. Hey, life care plan increases settlement value. He did it. He settled the case for 950. So that's our settlement committee, and that's what it was designed to do. And it works.
- [18:50]
Chris Dreyer
That's great. Yeah, that's that asynchronous that, that upside, you know, the value side, right, of. Of experience, where it comes into play, you're about utilization and people executing and working. And I think they're. What was the name of the tool?
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Digger Earls
Active Track.
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Chris Dreyer
Yeah, activetrack.
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Digger Earls
Active Track. Yeah. We spent a lot of money with vendors on different programs, and whether it's Litify or all kinds of programs, we spent a fortune on. So we implemented this program called ActiveTrack that kind of monitors the utilization of the different programs, I mean, how much time are we actually spending? Is our team actually using those programs to their fullest extent? So, number one, it identifies programs that, hey, this is costing us a lot of money, and it's obviously not beneficial because they aren't using it. Or two, you know, these 10 team members are using this program and these 10 aren't, and the productivity shows it. So maybe it's a learning experience. Hey, did you know this program could do this, this and this, and, you know, maybe merge those, those two teams in for a quick meeting to see how they're utilizing that program and how it's benefiting them and how much more efficient it's made them? Stuff like that.
- [19:56]
Chris Dreyer
That's incredible. You know, I also want to just kind of lean in. Like. Like, not only are you trial first firm, but you're also an expert in trucking, you know, over two decades. And, and one of the things that kind of caught my attention when I'm doing my research. Right. Is, is you even have your own cdl.
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Digger Earls
Yeah.
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Chris Dreyer
Like, so do you. Do you go when you're trying these cases in court, have you used that? Like, hey, I'm speaking from experience, you know, how does that play into it?
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Digger Earls
I haven't used that in front of the jury yet. But we, we market so much, we advertise so much. I'm pretty sure they know that. I mean, I walk down the street and people say, yeah, that's the guy that drives the trucks. I'm a CDL driver that became a lawyer. I'm not a lawyer that became a CDL driver. Right. I grew up on a farm in rural Louisiana, and that's just what we did.
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Chris Dreyer
Right.
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Digger Earls
So I know my way around a big truck, and I know much more than. Than most lawyers about the inner workings of big trucks just from growing up around them.
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Chris Dreyer
Yeah, that. That makes sense. And, and it's funny how those things work out with, like, the. Your background, your experience, and how it applies to the future, your future career and. Yeah, I thought that was really intriguing because it's like, why don't more of these, you know, trucking accident attorneys have their cdl? This kind of makes sense if you're going to go all in there.
- [21:06]
Digger Earls
Yeah. Talk about the ultimate certification for being a truck accident lawyer. Right. I mean.
- [21:10]
Chris Dreyer
Right.
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Digger Earls
I took the test.
- [21:11]
Chris Dreyer
Yeah.
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Digger Earls
Well, it just. It just hit me one day that, you know, all my. All these guys are out there advertising that, you know, send me your big truck case because I'm the big truck guy. But are you like there's a lot more to it than just saying it. So it just hit me like I kind of am the big truck guy. You know, I've been driving trucks since I was 18 years old. I know a thing or two about them. And the truth of the matter is when it comes to litigating an 18 wheeler accident, you just see things a little differently when you actually know what they supposed to do or know what they should have done and where they should have been and how they should have acted. And you know that CDL manual is ripe with lots of nuggets whenever you're looking at a trucking case.
- [21:53]
Chris Dreyer
You can build systems, automate intake and scale marketing but at the end of the day, it all runs on talent. Trial lawyers are the rarest asset in business. Limited supply, high impact. The question every firm faces is the same. How do you find them, keep them and build around your heavy hitters.
- [22:11]
Digger Earls
We've recruited insurance defense lawyers who we've been against and we're very impressed with. We hired guys and gals right out of law school and kind of developed them through our pre lit department and then ultimately built them up to litigators. We have, in my very biased opinion, the best team in the world. Our guys are really passionate about what they do and their success proves it. My view of the world these days is you're going to be a litigator or you're not going to be a personal injury lawyer. Because with the advent of this AI technology and lots of other new opportunities and software out there and new avenues to push cases along in pre lit, I mean the pre lit world is going to shrink. Needing a lawyer to handle the day to day task of a pre lit case is just not going to become necessary. Right, like AI can read the medical records and tell me a summary of the medical and seconds but would have took me an hour to do it. So is that the best utilization of your legal talents? Reading medical records and figuring out what they say? Or can you run it through the AI program? And we have our own custom GPT built for us that kind of summarizes them for us and puts the key tools in the hands of the litigators that know how to use them.
- [23:24]
Chris Dreyer
I couldn't agree more. 1000% stamp it. That's why I think the value of the trial attorneys are going to increase. That's why I've been hitting on it.
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Digger Earls
I do too. Not only the value of the trust, like yes, smart lawyers, hardworking lawyers that really know how to litigate super valuable. But there's another tier to that, and it's the guys that stand in front of that jury and are able to present a case.
- [23:45]
Chris Dreyer
The orators.
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Digger Earls
The orators. Sometimes those aren't the same people. Right. Sometimes the super bright guy that knows this law backwards and forwards and is very skilled at building a case and deposition isn't the right person to. To present that to the jury. So there's a different type of person that could be very beneficial to you.
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Chris Dreyer
That front of house versus back of house. And look, we got them too. Right. So on our side.
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Digger Earls
Yeah.
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Chris Dreyer
You know, one thing I'll tell you that I, I was just. I don't know why I'd never thought about this. And you have people like, you know, Mr. McCready, who's, you know, very into AI and ChatGPT, and I did Hermosi her. Alex Hermosi sucked me in his book launch. And before I knew it, I went in thinking I was going to buy one book and ended up getting upsold to 18k or and community and workshops. But I was in this community and you have to enter and say, hey, here's the best thing that I'm doing for my business. And one of the posts that caught my attention is this business converted all of their SOPs into custom GPTs. And I was like, oh, wow, that's powerful. Because you could just download your SOPs and you plug it in the GPT and it. I just was really intrigued by that. So that's one of the things that we're starting to do on our bigger processes.
- [25:00]
Digger Earls
Yeah, I've heard of firms eliminating their HR department because they're.
- [25:04]
Chris Dreyer
Yeah.
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Digger Earls
You know, you have a question. You have the firm's custom GPT. Is the. Is your HR department. You know, what's our sick leave policy? Well, just ask the LE GPT and it gives you your. Gives you the answer.
- [25:17]
Chris Dreyer
Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. It's just wild what the future holds. What do you see for the future? Like, you already kind of alluded to the trial first, but like, you know, collision detection, you know, like. Like what, what about that space? What's your thoughts on that? I mean, waymos are here.
- [25:32]
Digger Earls
Waymos aren't here. They weren't in Louisiana yet, but so, yeah, I think, I think we have a little lag time there, but yet. To your point. Yeah. Waymo is rapidly growing across the country. Elon Musk is, you know, Tesla cars are driving themselves and my wife's car. I was driving my wife's car last Weekend on the phone, I must say, and should have rear ended somebody, but it wouldn't let me. It locked up the brakes. So I told you we, we track data like probably no other firm in the country. And, and I know that accidents in Louisiana are down. They're down like 20% year over year. And it, you know, that's, you know, safer driving or better technology. Of course, safer cars, newer cars, self driving cars. I mean there are fewer, fewer accidents out there. So you better be able to maximize the ones that you get. It's going to be a tougher landscape, a tougher environment to get these, these fewer auto accident cases. So you better set yourself to stand apart.
- [26:25]
Chris Dreyer
Well said. I didn't know it was that high. Geez. That. And it's a good thing, right. So then it opens up opportunity for other practice areas and because you know, the insurance companies are obviously going to lowball when they can, you know, that's their model.
- [26:39]
Digger Earls
Well, the best thing for our business as trial lawyers or is the, the greediness of the insurance companies. I tell my clients all the time that if insurance companies ever just learn to act right and do the right thing, they would put us out of business. But fortunately for us, they just can't do it. So there's fewer accidents. The premiums are still through the roof. They're still lowballing clients on their damages. And that keeps us in business. But you know, it is a scary time with the more the safer cars get, the fewer the accidents. It's a tough business. So you better maximize the ones you have and you better find a way to stand out, set yourself apart.
- [27:14]
Chris Dreyer
I agree. You know, Digger, so you've had incredible success and one of the things we don't talk about enough is team. So you know, how do you take care of the team? Talk to me about that, that component of everybody kind of rowing in the same direction.
- [27:27]
Digger Earls
Yeah. So we. You're only as strong as your team. Correct. The team behind you. We're the guys on tv, we're the guys in trial, we're bringing the cases in. But if your team lags behind, then that client experience suffers and then you have a disgruntled client and you've really taken a step back instead of a step forward. So we want A plus team members at every level. Whether it's our lady at the front desk is, she's our ambassador of smiles to the accounting department behind the scenes. We want A plus team members. So it's really difficult to get those team members. And then when you get Them, it's tough to keep them because when you train them up and they're A plus players, then other people want to poach them, right? So how do you stand, how do you set yourself apart and make it a place that they want to stay? Number one, you pay well. You pay at the top tier, the 80 percentile, and above the market, you pay well. And number two, your culture. And we're really big on culture here at Laborde Earls. We do quarterly retreats, we do meals. We celebrate everything. We celebrate team members, we give back to our team a lot. Because the truth of the matter is you spend more time at work than you probably do with your spouse, right? You spend more time with your coworkers than you do with your spouse during the week. So it needs to be a happy place. It needs to be a place where they want to come to work. We have team members that hang out together on the weekends and their families are supporting. They're godmothers to other. I've married two people in our office. They asked me to officiate their wedding. That's incredible. So that's team building. That's culture. You know, our retention rate is higher than it's ever been because of those things. You get an eighth player, you spend a lot of time, effort and money training them up on your way of doing things. And if you lose them to a competitor, then you're taking a step back and it's really costly. It costs a lot of money to train these players. So invest in your culture, invest in your team, and the culture pays dividends that you can't even measure. Just unmeasurable return on investment with a culture investment.
- [29:20]
Chris Dreyer
Thank you for sharing, being so transparent for our audience listening. That needs a great trial. First firm in Louisiana or wants to connect with you, has questions about something we discussed on the pod. What's the best way to get in touch with you?
- [29:32]
Digger Earls
Yeah, well, my cell phone is 318-359-5069. It's with me 24 hours a day, seven days a week. My wife will attest. You can find me online onmyside.com my email address is diggernmyside.com shoot me a text. Shoot me an email. Instagram Digger Earls. I'm easy to find. I'm out there.
- [29:54]
Chris Dreyer
Winning big verdicts isn't enough anymore. You've got to compete like a marketer, operate like a CEO and deliver like a tactician. This is Pim. I'm Chris Dreyer, CEO of Rankings IO. Every day at Rankings, we help personal injury firms dominate search and sign more cases. If you're ready to scale like the best in the business, head to Rankings IO. See you there.