Today Seth and Jay talk authenticity and video virality with Tik Tok Superstar and Texas PI Attorney Mike Albee.
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Transcript: Maximum Growth Live with special guest Mike Albee
Speaker 1
welcome to the podcast edition of maximum growth live. The number one program for lawyers who want to grow their practices. Each week, our hosts Seth price and Jay Ruane tackled the fundamental questions about how to grow the profit and profitability of your law firm. To watch the program live. Submit your questions and hear the latest episode tune in every Thursday at 3pm. Eastern on Facebook for our live show maximum growth live is a production of maximum lawyer media.
Jay Ruane
Hello, hello and welcome to another edition of maximum growth live. I am one of your host, Jay Rue wave founder of firm flex social media marketing for lawyers, as well as managing partner of ruined attorneys, a civil rights and criminal defense firm in Connecticut with me, as always, my good friend Seth priced out in DC, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, the Carolina see that I even messed up the word Carolina. Anyway, he is the founder of those wonderful organizations Price Benowitz, a great law firm, as well as blue shark digital, which does SEO for law firms. And he is with me today from where are you today? Seth? Are you in Maryland DC or Virginia?
John Fisher
Same place I am every day? Well,
Jay Ruane
you know, we’ve got a different backdrop today. So I wasn’t sure if you were your home office or on the road.
John Fisher
Anywhere you want with a green screen right? lady walking down the steps with the dress right? You could do any message you want I can be you go to town.
Jay Ruane
Exactly, exactly. So how’s your week going? This week? Seth, you’re doing okay.
John Fisher
What’s going? Well, the COVID SPIKE definitely taking a toll. You know, we thankfully haven’t had it spreading because we’re most people were working independently. But I am seeing this is the first time locally that I am seeing, you know, a sizable significant non, you know, non insignificant, you know, bump that is that scary.
Jay Ruane
Yeah, you know, we’ve had a couple of family members, friends who have tested positive, and we’re starting to get more and more reports of people we know, who are testing positive and going through the ill effects. Luckily, you know, you know, we haven’t had anybody get hospitalized yet that we know of personally. So that’s, that’s a good thing. But it’s really it is spiking. And it’s and it’s, you know, I feel like we’re back in April, again, with, with with the volume of people that are getting it. And I’m just hoping that this is the last spike. And you know, the news of the vaccines that are coming out, is gonna get us to a place where we can, I don’t want to say get back to normal because I think our whole worlds have changed no matter what. And so hopefully, we just get back to where we can start to be together again, you know, I know I’m looking forward to those days where I’m back in the office, I go in now it’s a ghost town to pick up my stuff that I need. And I leave it for 15 minutes, and the lights are all off. And it’s sad. But so look,
John Fisher
that’s a great segue to what we’re talking about today, because we have Mike Albie, who has taken, you know, a medium that was really a COVID, medium Tiktok. You know, I gotta tell you when I when I downloaded it, and I can easily go an hour and look up and not realize that hours gone. It is so addictive. And it figures out what you like and shows you more of it. And Big Mike Pete gray API lawyer from North Texas has been a friend of ours for a lot of years. I feel like he has leveraged this medium as well as anybody we know in the legal circle. As far as eyeballs, there are a lot of people who are doing great information with Tik Tok and other other social mediums. But it’s just awesome to watch when he posted his first video, I just You could tell from that very moment that he was onto something. And it’s just great to see this this larger than life personality. Find a home in a social channel. So I can’t wait to get him to tell us his story and learn a little bit about the ride he’s on. Yeah, you
Jay Ruane
know, one of the things that’s, that’s interesting is that with with tic tock and what he’s done with it, it’s really allowed his own personal authenticity to shine. Because when you see when you know him, and then you see the videos he puts out there. It’s one in the same. And so the great thing about him using a platform like this is that it’s allowed. It’s not some stuffy lawyer who, you know, trying to create. It’s Big Mike and and I think that’s I think that’s important. And that’s something I want to talk to him a little bit about, because I think it’s important, but we had we had a great show on Tuesday. We’ve got Mike coming up today. Why don’t we do this? Why don’t we take a quick break? Let’s get him in here because let’s let’s talk about this stuff. We’ll take it Quick break, we’ll hear from our sponsors. And when we come back, we’ll have Big Mike Albie Pei lawyer from Texas. And we can talk to him about his use of Tiktok and authors and his authenticity and what it means for him long term because I think it’s a good conversation to have this week on the show. Sounds good. Sounds great. Awesome. We’ll be right back folks, with Big Mike all day for the max growth interview.
Speaker 4
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Speaker 5
In this world today, if you want to grow your business, you want to grow your firm, you want to take on more cases and make a better impact. You have to have a digital blueprint. Statistically throughout the time that we’ve been working with blue shark digital, our law firm, the Atlanta divorce law group grew over 14 100%
Jay Ruane
Seth and his team have years of experience in this area.
Speaker 6
blue shark is truly a part of the firm. So I don’t consider blue shark any different than the employees in my office.
John Fisher
Big Mike, great to have you here. Thank you for being with us.
Unknown Speaker
You bet pleasures all mine.
John Fisher
Well, I’ve been a big fan of your brand and gotten to know you over the last years, primarily through the John Fisher mastermind, and just been great to see the evolution. When I saw your video the other day. I was like it was like magic. You were like this. You know, you’d seen a viral video out there already. But you’re like, Man, this just jumped off the page. It’s been great to see the ride. Tell us a little bit and Jay, if we could get the video playing that that’d be awesome. We turn up in a moment. Like you hit paydirt with social something not easy to do love to sort of have you tell you tell the story of what happened and what you’ve been going through with it.
Speaker 7
Sure, so I’m actually brand spanking new to Tik Tok. I did a Tik Tok video with my son back in like, April. And I think like my mom and my aunt might have viewed and that’s about it, you know. And then I’ve wanted to do it for a while my wife will send me funny videos. And so for those who don’t know, there’s a lot of trends that go out there. And so there’s a guy who rode down the street and was chugging some Ocean Spray on his skateboard, and it went viral. And so I thought, you know, I’m an older guy, I’m big, I can still skate forward, I should come up with something that goes along with this. And so my buddy Ryan
John Fisher
Tiktok was made, you know, not only that video go viral. But you know, the the band members, you know, we’re doing it Ocean Spray CEO is doing it, this guy got a truck filled. I mean, basically, this video itself, I think was sort of like the COVID breakout. And it wasn’t just that video that but people were then using that video to sort of do their own interpretations.
Speaker 7
Yeah, and that’s one of the cool things about tick tock is you can put your own flavor to it. And like in my situation went viral. But I saw a Facebook video of a janitor who was writing a mop the leaf blower in a bucket, and I thought, let’s do that. So I recorded that and kind of took off from there.
John Fisher
You know, one of the things about social and Jay and I go back and forth, Jay calls me anti social, you know, this is the social that I love. It’s just very hard to sort of script it like you hit it, you know, and just like the guy who did the original dog face, you know, he stumbled into this this was a guy living in his, you know, trailer working in a potato factory, you know, that basically, you know, hit paydirt. What are the things this you know, while in one sense, it’s it’s happenstance. This seemed that it was a calculated on your part, a calculated move to say, hey, here’s a medium. Here’s a trend. Let me see if I can hit it. It wasn’t just I’m doing a random video and hoping for the best. This seemed to be much more of a calculated move knowing what you Do you have a brand? You saw somebody else doing something? How do I combine my brand with an ongoing trend?
Speaker 7
Absolutely, yeah, I sent it to my sister. And she said, Wow, what a coincidence, you’re wearing a t shirt for your law firm. And yeah, that was a calculated move there. I didn’t, I thought it had some potential. But it took off more than I thought. And what was crazy, too, is I actually took the exact same video and reversed it, and added some comments, because people were debating physics didn’t change any other parts of the video. And that one took off way more. So it’s just kind of funny how, what, you know, what resonates with different people on different platforms.
John Fisher
And that’s, you know, something that like I’ve, I’ve looked at, and I’ve just sort of, you know, again, there are paid versions of social, put that in category A, on the organic side, finding something that works. You know, I’ve been watching a lot through tick tock and sort of studying what people are doing. And there are a lot of people sort of in the immigration space, which makes a lot of sense to me, because they can get a client from anywhere in the country, to me is far for yourself. You know, it’s great to have the local notoriety, but many of your fans and followers from these series of videos are in our national, how is it sort of playing back as far as your core sort of business itself and the marketing plan that you have in place?
Speaker 7
Sure. Can you hear me okay, I feel like my, my air pods. Okay, good. So that’s been interesting, because I found back and forth, because originally I thought, you know, hey, let’s just make this fun video. And then partway through it, as I’m getting millions of views. I thought I should throw my website URL up here on my profile. And as we are glad that you did that. Yes, I wish I’d done it earlier. But, you know, that’s kind of my dilemma is, you know, do I just keep going with funny zany videos? Or do I try and sprinkle in some law content at some point. And there’s actually lawyers on Tik Tok, who go straight law, who have hundreds of 1000s of followers get millions of views. And it seems actually the secret sauce is creating content, because nobody’s making content. A lot of my followers haven’t zero videos. So it’s something I want to work towards getting that in there. As far as sprinkling in law, I think I’ll lose some followers at some point. But hopefully, I’ll find the people that click with me, and they’ll continue to follow with me from a content that I create.
John Fisher
You know, it’s something I’ve looked at, and we hear these anecdotal stories of lawyers that have done really well with Instagram. And I’ve been sort of struggling with how do you get a brand. And I have one of my in house people. She’s a model in New York, and she’s create an Instagram account. But it’s the if you’re big enough, I guess you sprinkle in law, and that works. Or if you start with law, you know, can you take a fun brand and pivot into something substantive? It’d be it’d be a fun sort of case study to see what happens.
Speaker 7
Yeah, and I think, you know, I’m in Texas, and we have a guy here that refers to himself as a Texas law hawk. And he does fun, crazy YouTube videos. And I’m sure that there’s some people who say, I would never hire that guy. And then a lot of people say, hey, that guy’s fun. I’d hire him, you know, and the people who know me, they know when I’m going to show up to the office wearing a polo shirt, and jeans, when I’m going to suit up for court and be ready to pound somebody you know. So I don’t know that it’s too bad to show your flavor and to show who you are. And I think I want to go a little less zany, but keep the zany. But then also, you know, show my true colors in the day in the life type of stuff to humanize me to my clients and potential clients.
John Fisher
Maybe the next one with the leaf blower, you’re you are suited up for court. And that takes you to the courthouse steps.
Unknown Speaker
That’d be good. I like that.
John Fisher
So, Jay,
Jay Ruane
so Mike, you know, we’ve gotten to be friends now over the last couple of years. And I’ve often, you know, been very impressed with your authenticity, and how you have been an open book. And I recall something that was very emotional, your podcast episode with maximum lawyer podcast, where you talked about that boating incident, and how it really sort of shook you to your core. One of the things that I think you know, your Tiktok stuff has allowed you to be is your authentic self in your marketing. And let’s talk a little bit about that. Because I think, you know, one of the things that a lot of lawyers tend to try to do is portray this vision of, I’m so successful, I wear the three piece suits, I drive the Mercedes, and that type of thing because they think that that’s what resonates with clients. But I think you’re a prime example of what really truly has resonated with people has been your authenticity, and you live who you are. I mean, you know, you did the tic tac I saw, you know, I’ll put another one up here now, with you going in to block your wife from the fries. I mean, it’s stuff like that, you know, as a big guy, I say, you know, I’ve done that to get your hands off my fries. And so let’s talk a little bit about how you feel authenticity plays a role in who you are as a lawyer and how you can attract clients. Well.
Speaker 7
First of all, let me stick up for my wife for a second because her initial reaction of hey, don’t fill me was 100% legit. But I encouraged her to grab my fries. And she shares her fries way more with me than I did. She have a great life. So look out for her. I think the authenticity So speaking of authenticity, what happened is my first video started going viral, I realized I had no other content. And so what I did is I went and grabbed some videos that I had filmed and share it on Facebook and things like that. And I uploaded them very quickly. And what’s interesting is they didn’t get the same level of traction. And I think part of that is because it wasn’t something that was truly, in the moment, authentic, you know, that kind of thing. So I think that’s the key is being authentic. And so when my wife and I filmed that video of getting the fries and stuff, and we’re eating lunch, actually filmed three tech talks, during the day while we were out running errands, and it was really just moments were like, Oh, this kind of funny. And I think those are the things that become magical versus saying, well, crap, let me come up with some content. I’ll go back a year and a half go I know, I’ve got this funny video, you know, and the platform’s react differently as well, I learned that tick tock, I had a video I thought was hilarious. And I was way too slow to get to the point. And people just scroll on through, you know, so I think authenticity is key. And I think a lot of people will be surprised to know if they would just create the content because people are not, it’s an open market. You know, Gary Vee has been saying get on there for a long time. And if you’ll just create something that’s real, it’s not gonna resonate with everybody, but it’s gonna resonate with some, and they’ll follow you, and it’ll help you and your brand. So I think just being authentic and who you are, I’m a goofball, my inner 14 year old is very much alive and well. And that turns some people off, and other people think it’s entertaining. So it is it is what it is.
John Fisher
And you bring up two points, though, you can’t be everything to everybody. So if somebody doesn’t like the brand, so be it, they’re probably some big TV advertisers, they’re gonna get traditional, and you’re gonna say, Hey, anybody who doesn’t want that, and I look at that way, I’ve sort of marketed multiple lawyers within an office, some people want a boy, some people want a girl, you know, the piece that I thought was interesting that you brought up here was sort of knowing your medium, that you could have the greatest content that might work on YouTube. But if you’re not getting to the point, it’s not going to work on tick tock, you know, as you think about planning things out how much of the content you’re creating is specific, because we’ve talked historically, about cross purposing content, right. Whereas here, it seems that if you can get the Mojo with one of the platforms, you could then share it back with others. But unless you get some sort of critical mass, then you’re sort of sharing fluff or volume, but not something that’s going to resonate, are you now focused on what’s going to work for tick tock specifically, versus just high quality videos that might work in other arenas.
Speaker 7
So I feel like right now, I’m just gaining followers daily, and the algorithm is working in my favor, still. And so I’m gonna ride this wave while it lasts. And so I’m gonna link to some of my other platforms. But at the same time, I’m going to focus on this. And it’s causing me to adjust a little bit like I was thinking this morning, about a Facebook picture, some somewhere from a couple years ago, I was driving the court, as listening to Beastie Boys, you got to fight for your right to party, right? And I posted a picture of that. And another stuffy lawyer said, Oh, geez, don’t tell me you’re listening to that on the way to court. And I was. So all I have to do to switch that is to now introduce a song, find a way to safely videotape it as I’m rolling up to court, and then post it. So it’s things that I’m already doing. I’m just now having to look for ways to record a video and kind of add comments and promote that little bit versus just snapping that picture. So I’m looking for that I’m tweaking that, but right now, I think my priority will be Tik Tok, and for the foreseeable future.
John Fisher
Have you seen I’ve been hearing rumblings I see a little bit of my own tick tock feed. I’m one of those people that watches but does not does not post. Are you finding that they are localizing at all that you’re getting any greater love locally? And are you going to do anything within the video to try to signal Hey, we’re here because, obviously, while you could refer a case from anywhere in the country that sends it to you, keeping that brand locally would have the greatest ROI. What are some Some of the tips have started to get whether it be tick tock or others to see you as that local player.
Speaker 7
Well, I, I don’t have, it’s been hard to track to be honest because it shows you get up to 99 notifications. And that can include new followers, new views, new comments, and this and that. And basically, when I look at my phone, I’ve got more than 99 Something’s, like every time. And so it’s funny because of my low performing views. That’s where I found people actually know who view and comment. And that’s, oh, I can follow you back. So it’s been really difficult for me to get any kind of when you get to 1000 followers, you get analytics. It breaks it down by country, but now by state, I am predominantly in the United States with followers at this point, but I really haven’t tracked very much. And I know also one thing that seems to help I did it for the first time. The other night, it was a little painful, is if you do a tick tock live, that supposedly helps boost things. I don’t know if it doesn’t more locally or not. But I do think you know, hashtags would come into play. I live in Texas, we have a Texas shaped waffle maker like I don’t know if they have those for DC or Connecticut, but I have my doubts. You know, Texas is very proud. And you know, we’ve got our own little culture. So I think that running with a Texas thing would definitely be helpful. So I think hashtags, and you know, those kinds of things can kind of help narrow that and share things that are authentically Texas. I think those will help over time.
Jay Ruane
Now, Mike, do you have anybody helping you brainstorming with you? Do you sit around with your friends and your family and say, I want to come up with some ideas? Or is this all coming out of your head?
Speaker 7
It’s basically coming out of my head. It’s so funny. My, my daughter had her first basketball game the other night, it was so awesome was like jungle ball. It was just the best game ever. And she has super duper hustle. But we were waiting for it to start. And I wanted to post a recent Tech Talk. And I asked my wife go, Hey, I’m thinking of posting this. What do you think? And she came up with some ideas. And my wife’s an elementary school teacher in my responses. You’re a great teacher. And she really is. But you know, I’d be a terrible teacher. So yeah, it’s coming out of my head. So like last night, I created an uncle Eddie yard decoration for Christmas, who’s standing by my street with a big house. And so they have a closed transition tic toc where something happens. And so what I want to do is I’m going to throw the hat up. And then when the transition happens, I’m gonna have my uncle Eddie mannequin there for the rest of the TIC tock. So trying to do little Christmas things. Now some people might think it’s funny, and it might fall flat. I don’t know. But I’m just trying to think of life’s good I chuckle a lot. I try and find ways to laugh and the things that make me chuckle I kind of just stopped to say, Wait a second. What other people find this funny? What can I do to make this entertaining? And then they’re only 15 seconds. So it doesn’t take very much time. Even if you have to do a couple of takes, you know, it’s not sucking up your whole day, you can just do it and run with it.
John Fisher
That’s awesome. No, like, we’ve always talked about you, when people do what they like doing. And you clearly like it. It comes through in the videos. And from the very moment I saw it, I was like, This is This is Big Mike, you’ve created a brand you found like, it’s like what Gary, we talked about you created content. And at some point that that intersection of your content with the medium and what was what how the algorithms were working, paid pay hit paid or just excited to watch this ride.
Jay Ruane
Yeah, you know, I’ve been thinking about this lately. And I’ve been waiting for somebody to come up with the COVID challenge. I mean, I was looking at some videos with the ice bucket challenge from a couple years ago. And I’m thinking, gosh, you know, if somebody came up with the COVID challenge, and I don’t know what that is, but you put that on tick tock.
John Fisher
This may have been it right. You know, I think that Mike your bow, that this was the COVID challenge. Somebody was like, they hit the perfect combination of song and carefreeness and a time when everybody was was dying for it. And you know that I think that it literally Mike hit hit what is not for charity, but for, you know everybody looking for that distraction. And that really frankly, why Tiktok has done so well. Now everyone’s looking for an escape and what better escape than this for our ADHD culture.
Speaker 7
Yeah, and I’ve definitely written the tailcoat of, you know, the people that dogface guy he apparently he paid 320k cash for a new home the other day. And he was living in a trailer that had no water and I think it had electricity, but I’m not sure. But you know, yeah, it was just that. That guy has been in the struggle for a long time. And a lot of people are struggling right now. And it provides that escape. And then I think too, there’s this kind of voyeuristic gene that we have as humans where we like to get insights into other people’s lives. And I always refer to the Osborne’s with Ozzy Osbourne. That was one of the earlier reality TV shows and people are like, holy cow oz. His brain is fried, but he Kids still talk back. They still don’t take the garbage out for the first time. And it humanize them, you know, and for us, we’re like, wait a second, that’s like my family, you know. So I think the more real we are, the more we get sucked into it. And it just it works.
Jay Ruane
Yeah. You know, it’s interesting. I was talking to another lawyer recently, who had forwarded me an email from a lawyer’s listserv, where one lawyer was lamenting that, you know, he’s seeing lawyers on zooms, and they’ve got open collars, and they’re not wearing jackets and ties when they’re having these meetings. And in his office, it’s very important that you still wear your jacket and tie and he wears a suit every day to the office, even during Coronavirus. And what what I think people need to realize is that, yes, that works for him. But I think what the society is starting to realize is, man, do what works for you. And people will be attracted to you. And that’s one of the great things about you being out there on Tik Tok is that it really is expressing who you are as a person, because I think if someone were to see your videos, and then meet you, they would be able to connect with you pretty instantaneously, because you are who you are. So let’s talk a little bit about that. You know, there’s, you know, the Texas law Hawk from people I know who know him. I don’t know him personally. He is the kind of guy who will be sitting at the end of the bar, making jokes, that type of thing. I think it would be difficult if this is not your personality to try to do this. Let’s take it can take for example. You know, I don’t know if Craig Goldfarb could get on a can get on a skateboard and do what you did. And there’s things that he can do that you can’t do. And I think that’s one of the things like Seth, I can’t see Seth on a skateboard. It’s just, you know, challenge accepted. Well, there you go, folks. There you go, folks, let’s see we get Seth on his skateboard this week. You know, the interesting thing is I got Seth on a peloton, but he was just the picture. It wasn’t him pedaling. I don’t think he’s ever actually pedaled the thing. But But that’s, that’s really the thing that we want to talk about, you know, we talked about in other episodes, doing what you love, but it’s also doing what you love with this authenticity that I think really is what Rach is ratchets it up to the next level? Where do you see yourself going with this? Is this? Is this something that you’re like, Hey, I’m going to ride this as long as it goes? Or, you know, is it that I, you know, I’m going to do this for six months, and then I’m going to turn my attention to something else.
Speaker 7
So I’ve seen lawyers in particular, the other night, I was looking at trying to see what other lawyers are doing. It’s working. And I saw one individual who had barely any followers. And, you know, it was kind of, hey, this what I’m doing, you know, I feel like I have a huge leg up by having the amount of followers in fact, my view is skewed. Last year, yeah. Last week, I’m like, Oh, my goodness, I fell below 300,000 views today with a lousy day, you know, and that’s not how things should start, you know, so I see myself doing
John Fisher
better ride this wave as long otherwise, we’re gonna come down there. And, you know, I feel like it’s the Simpsons. I didn’t do an episode like, please, you know, this, this has to be written until it does not work. You have this huge head start.
Jay Ruane
Well, think of it. I mean, how many how many personal injury lawyers in Texas would would kill to have 300,000? People see their TV commercial in a day?
Speaker 7
Yeah. And that’s, I mean, I’ve got I’m approaching 10 million. I’m over 10 million views, you know, on these videos, and who would have thought that that many people would actually watch Big Mike skateboard, you know, it’s just, it’s wild. And the other thing is you got I’m looking pull this up real quick. This is what blows my mind is you’ve got people. Let’s see here. So total playtime. Fit a 16 second video, okay. 5474 hours, 22 minutes, 57 seconds. That’s on one video. No, I’m sorry. That’s my little video. That’s not even my big one. So that one’s you know, six times higher than that. So when you look at the Hours of people watching these 15 second clips, it’s just not. My plan is to keep doing it. I have like, I’m Big Family Guy. And so I want to I’d like to introduce my kids and a little bit my wife. She doesn’t like it so much. That’s okay. But I also want to make sure that it’s not eating into my family time, things like that. And it doesn’t really I mean, like I said, I’ve done like two eggs on everything that I’ve done, Max, I’ve done one or two. And then you know that It’s part of what makes it fun. It’s when it’s not perfect. And so it’s just not time consuming. So as long as I’m strategizing and figuring it out, you know, this weekend, we did a bunch of stuff around the house, my wife said, Are you going to do any tiktoks Go now we’re bringing the stuff out first, you know, and, you know, back to the grind of tick tock now, but, you know, as long as it doesn’t eat, it’s my family time and my work time. I think a lot
John Fisher
of the stars on Tik Tok, the dancers and such, I’ve always incorporated their kids. I mean, there seems to be a absolutely a natural progression to you if you’re going to do this and make it part of your DNA. That is there’s great opportunities to make it part of family time.
Jay Ruane
So Mike, I got a question for you just for the people who aren’t using Tiktok, which is probably the you know, the majority of our audience at this point is all the production done within your app on your phone? Are you actually uploading videos that you’ve produced offline, I see in some of your stuff, you’re adding title cards and that type of thing. Tell us a little bit about the creation process. So that people who are listening today can get an understanding of how you actually go about making these videos so that they can get the wrap their head around it and see that it’s not so difficult.
Speaker 7
So straight out the gate, I would just start with the app. It’s very user friendly, you basically hit record, it plays the music you can hear, it’s like when I did the skateboard one, we had a plane to the Bluetooth of my truck. So I could know when we were starting and things like that. And my wife had the windows down as she was driving along my daughter recorded. But I have since added an app called Video leap. It’s like a couple bucks a month, I think I just bought the lifetime because I’m committed. But I mean, it’s like 50 bucks for life. But that one that allows it where I can fill multiple clips just using my my phone, right and I can record in 4k if I need to versus seven ADP. And then I can, you know extract music from click clips on tick tock, it’s very user friendly. So I’ve started using that just because it’s a little bit easier to kind of put puzzle pieces together. But the app is totally user friendly. The only benefit, like I said is I can edit a little bit easier. And multiple clips with videotape. And there’s other competitors videotape, I didn’t even shop around I just saw somebody who shared that on Tik Tok, and she’s got a lot of followers, I thought, hey, I’ll try it, you know?
Jay Ruane
Yeah, I think one of the things that if you’re going to use any one of these platforms is, is understanding the different ways to get content, so you can use their app, you can bring in content that you’ve pre produced, and import it. But it was such a short, you know, timeframe of 15 seconds. You know, it’s it’s important that you really sort of hit your point first, right? Because if people aren’t catching the hook early, it’s almost like you got to start with the chorus, right? You know, because if you don’t start with the chorus, and you don’t have the hook there, people are going to swipe off of your video, right?
Speaker 7
Absolutely. And I think to one thing, going back to the app that it helps with his reformatting for different platforms as far as layouts and stuff I spoke with Umansky the other day on his podcast. And he’s like, Dude, you’re like, not even doing much on Instagram. Like, I know, I’m an old fuddy duddy. I’m a Facebook guy, you know. And so I’ve started adding stuff there. And I’ve had people share it there and had millions of views on Instagram as well. But it does help you tweak and adjust. And obviously YouTube, you know, same principle, you want to get to the point fairly quick, but you couldn’t go longer if you wanted to. And I think an app like video lead can do that. It can, you know, you can upload in higher quality, it’s not going to have the Tick Tock watermark on it, which that’s not necessarily bad either, because people can say, Where’s this guy on Tik Tok? Let me go follow him. But it does help you tweak for the platforms as well.
Jay Ruane
You know, and one thing I can say to the viewers out there, if you have any interest since 15 seconds is the max that you’re doing with a tick tock video, if you have something like Mike has has done, you can take that 15 second clip, and you can actually put it up on YouTube as an Unskipable pre roll ad. So that you can really sort of target so you could take your your 15 Second Tiktok clip, and then put it up as a pre roll video ad on YouTube and just target people in your local area. So you can build your brand and basically get people seeing it in Texas in North Texas where you are. And so you get the benefit of them saying oh yeah, that’s the guy saw on Tik Tok, and you’re reinforcing your local brand there. And that’s something that you can really do, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 7
One thing to add, though, just so that we’re getting the full picture is the 15 seconds is what you’re limited to, if there’s music involved due to copyright issues. And so if somebody wants to talk about something for a minute, that’s the max you can do so I know like Marco Brown, he’s a divorce lawyer in Utah. And he talks straight up law he’s not doing dances or anything like that, and he’s got quite a few followers and views and people asking questions. And so if you want to get a little bit more into the substance of something that’s a little bit legal or something, you could go for up to a minute if you didn’t have a song playing in the background or things like that,
Jay Ruane
right. I guess I forgot to mention that part. Yeah, but no, that’s absolutely that’s absolutely true. And, you know, maybe we should bring in Marco, to talk about his experience with because he’s really doing it a totally different way. Although I would pay big money to see him on a skateboard with a leaf blower. So Marco, you’re out there. Let’s let’s do the big mic challenge. And maybe we’ll start that in our in our little community, we’ll have the big mic challenge. I don’t know if I know we have a skateboard in one of our garages. And I definitely have a leaf blower. But I don’t know if I have health insurance enough to be able to handle what would happen to me if I got on a skateboard having not been on one in probably 40 years. So yeah, and
Unknown Speaker
give me a
Unknown Speaker
goal. That’s sorry,
John Fisher
go ahead. No, go ahead.
Speaker 7
I was gonna say let’s Elizabeth pickle, she also does a good mix of she’s really into dancing and having fun. But she also sprinkles in some last stuff. And I think she said she got like seven consult consults a week ago, from a tick tock video. So she’s obviously doing something right as well.
John Fisher
That’s awesome. You know, I figure you know, while it would take a lot to get me on the skateboard, if I brought the leaf player blower down, I’m going down Pennsylvania Avenue, I have a feeling that like a bunch of Secret Service guys would be tackling me which could go viral as well. Might be hard to hear. They might challenge downtown DC right now.
Jay Ruane
That’d be very cool, though. I would pay to see you get tackled by the Secret Service any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
John Fisher
Thank you so much like this. This is awesome. I think part of it inspires people. They hate trying stuff. I mean, Gary Vee has been talking about it for a long time. But throwing spaghetti at the wall, do what you love. Because, you know, it’s just great to see the ride you’re on and want to want to continue to follow and hopefully come back and share with us. You know, hopefully, that is monetizable. That’s my wish for you is that you’re able to somehow intersect is great fun with you know, ROI for the firm by the end of next year.
Speaker 7
I am getting paid from tick tock for views and you’re not supposed to say how much you get. It’s definitely not enough for me to quit my day job. And I don’t know if I quit if I was a teenager, living at home with my parents and working at McDonald’s. But I think the name of the game is not getting paid from tick tock, we’re getting to the point where you can generate more business. I was a law firm owner.
John Fisher
That’s my point. How do you get that intersection? It’s great to the viral is pager, that’s huge. But like how do we how do we intersect that? So that? You know it does you know because look, the name of the game is having all these channels work together. And the beautiful thing is you had your brand already, it just furthers your brand. And it’d be harder for some of us that don’t have that sort of carefree, authentic brand. You know, I’m excited. I’ve been, you know, trying unsuccessfully within sort of the social sphere, you know, within Instagram and things like that. It just great to see when somebody hits a homerun. And I hope that that tailwind carries you that much further.
Speaker 7
I really appreciate that. Thank you. You guys are great marketing and legal minds. And I just appreciate both of you guys. And I’m looking forward to the next time we can actually see each other face to face again.
Jay Ruane
So my so my you know, it’s funny. One of our friends posted a picture of us at the winner’s circle in Chicago for anniversary. And that was that was a good night and I love that and then we went and listened to some some live view blues. And that was a great night. It was one of my favorite nights hanging out with you, Mike so they it’s good to get to connect with you back this way during Coronavirus, but I’m looking forward to being with you again for sure. Yes. Cool. All right. So we’re gonna leave it at that right. Yep. All right, man. Thanks, Mike. Thanks for being with us today. Now, I will talk to you soon.
Unknown Speaker
All right. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
Becca Eberhart
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Jay Ruane
You know, says I love spending time with Mike Alby. It’s, you know, anytime I get to hang out with him, even if it’s virtually for a little while, I wind up with a smile on my face. How about you? I
John Fisher
just I haven’t smiled as much in a while. This is awesome. Yeah. And I think you know, look, he’s proven the truism do what you love and inspires me I feel like there’s opportunity out there now. 99% of us are not going to hit a viral video like that. At. But if the idea is leveraging the mediums that are out there, finding out how you can find those intersections, I mean, we’ll have plenty of people we could even have on the show in the future that have don’t have dove in, and they’re not on a skateboard with a leaf blower, but they are providing great content. And if they can find their audience, there’s so many people on there right now, that if you can find your audience, that intersection of audience with with content is something that right now, like a no other time in the history of the world, that you can just post something and get to people that are looking for what you are talking about.
Jay Ruane
Yeah, you know, it’s interesting, it kind of kind of brings up a segue, you know, from an SEO perspective. You know, you and I have talked about this for years, you write what the people want to read, you know, like, you have to phrase your your language, and write it in a way that people want to read your next paragraph, you obviously, because that gets eyeballs on your site, and you’re writing for the consumer with tick tock with these viral videos and that type of thing. You’re giving the consumer what they want to see on a regular basis. And I think that makes a difference with a finished product. And if you could tie these things together, it really comes out, you know, working well on all cylinders.
John Fisher
Might look it’s basically he has a tension, right? He’s getting free media for lack of a better earned media, some people would call it right. So for me, what I love is that FAQ started alluded to this, Hey, let’s make sure that X percentage of people watching this video, click through that website. Google loves that traffic. That’s why TV advertisers and they’ll recent algorithm updates and hadn’t a benefit. If he can use this notoriety and get the get the traffic through his website, even if they aren’t people that are ready to buy that aren’t injured people. The fact is, Google will see you as part of this ecosystem. So that my hope is that even if this is not, you know, there are going to be people around the country around the world as people view the site and see who you are. And if you design the site appropriately, so that it’s not just a stuffy law firm site, but that he has landing pages that deal with Big Mike the personality, then people are coming through your site. That’s SEO. So the the fact is that it sounds like he has taken Mike has never been a guy who’s dove into SEO, but I feel like he just did, whether he likes it or not.
Jay Ruane
Awesome. Alright, so with that, I think we’re gonna leave this week’s episode. Just a great time chatting with him. Once again, people. If you want to catch any of our max growth live shows, you can find them. In our videos tab on our Facebook page. It’s facebook.com backslash maximum growth live. You can also find our syndicated podcasts on the maximum lawyer podcast, as well as our standalone podcast available at anywhere you find your podcasts. I know, we’re available on Spotify, on Apple podcasts on Google podcasts. And I think we’re now even available on Amazon slash audible podcast, I gotta check in make sure because I I submitted the feed to them. I want to make sure that we’re up with that. So with that said, I’m going to leave you thanks for being with me this week. Another great week and maximum growth live. But for now, I’m going to say bye. You got anything left for the people out there?
John Fisher
No, just have it. Have a great weekend. Stay safe, and we’ll see you next week.
Jay Ruane
Awesome. Yep, God willing. we’ll see everybody next week. So with that, bye for now. I’m Jay. He said. Have a great weekend. Talk to you later, folks. Bye.
Speaker 1
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