The Highest ROI Marketing Channel for Law Firms: Generating Referrals (Ep. 158)
If you’re a law firm owner looking to build long-term wealth and efficiency, you don’t need a sky-high marketing budget to make an impact. In fact, your most valuable growth asset is already at your fingertips: referral marketing.
On this episode of The Lawyer Millionaire Podcast, host Darren Wurz sat down with Delisi Friday, founder of First Call Friday, to explore how law firms of all sizes can leverage referral marketing as a powerful strategy for profitable growth. The conversation offers actionable advice, clear strategies, and a reminder that building genuine relationships can elevate your firm far beyond what paid ads alone can achieve.
Why Law Firms Overspend and Overlook This Opportunity
Many law firm owners believe that significant advertising spend is the only way to fuel new client growth. But as discussed on the podcast, the real growth engine is referrals which leads to trusted recommendations from former clients, professional contacts, and even colleagues in related practice areas.
Even the largest personal injury firms, as noted by Darren Wurz, attribute their biggest influx of clients to referrals, underscoring why every law firm not just those with big budgets should start here.
The Biggest Misconception: Referral Marketing Is Not Just Networking
One of the most common mistakes firms make is equating referral marketing solely with networking events. Delisi Friday points out that the real referral goldmine is your former clients. With just a little planning such as regular check-ins, handwritten cards, or special events you can activate former clients to become ongoing sources of referrals. No awkward networking required.
The Simple Formula: Plan + Execution = Results
As Delisi Friday emphasizes, success with referral marketing isn’t about chasing flashy numbers or guarantees. It’s about having a clear plan and consistently executing it. Start with small, manageable actions, measure what’s working, and build from there.
Practical Ways to Start:
Leverage Intake Calls: Instead of turning away potential clients you can’t serve, warm-transfer them to another trusted firm. This fosters reciprocal referral relationships at zero added cost.
Stay Connected: Simple gestures, like sending personalized birthday cards or regular email check-ins, keep your firm top-of-mind for past clients who may refer others or return themselves.
Use Your Budget Wisely: Hosting client appreciation events or investing in a simple email campaign is highly effective and doesn’t break the bank. It’s less about spending more, and more about spending with purpose.
Referral Marketing Is About Relationships Not Pitches
Forget pestering contacts or endless sales pitches. Referral marketing works best when you cultivate genuine, human relationships. As Delisi Friday explains, just sharing valuable information or showing you care about someone’s progress can set the foundation for long-lasting referral partnerships.
Your firm’s professionalism, empathy, and unique “white glove” touch in each interaction matter enormously especially in high-emotion practice areas like personal injury, family law, or criminal defense.
Looking Ahead: Why Human Connection Is the Ultimate Differentiator
With AI technology taking a larger role in client communications, law firms that maintain the personal touch will stand out even more in the coming years. Your clients don’t just need technical expertise—they want to trust their advisors and feel understood. This is where intentional referral marketing will set your business apart.
Action Step for Law Firm Owners
Want a place to start today? Meet with your intake or receptionist team and review all the rejected inquiries from the past month. Identify where you could have made a warm referral, and start building those connections. This simple process plants the seeds of a valuable referral network and increases the ROI on every lead your firm receives.
Final Thoughts
Referral marketing isn’t a quick win it’s a long-term strategy for building wealth and freedom into your law firm. By making referral generation part of your culture and process, you lower your cost to acquire new clients, boost your close rates, and create steady, high-value growth.
If you’d like support in mapping out your law firm’s financial strategy for purposeful, sustainable profit, book a consultation with The Lawyer Millionaire team today.
Resources:
Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara (Book)
The Road Less Stupid by Keith J. Cunningham (Book)
Giftology by John Ruhlin (Book)
This is Marketing by Seth Godin (Book)
The Next Conversation by Jefferson Fisher (Book)
Connect with Darren Wurz:
Connect with Delisi Friday:
Linkedin: Delisi Araceli Friday
Website: First Call Friday
Podcast: From Coffee to Cases
About Delisi Friday:
Delisi Friday is a legal marketing strategist and business development expert with over 20 years of experience in the legal industry. Raised inside a law firm and born the day her father became a lawyer, Delisi grew up immersed in the realities of owning a law firm. From intake and operations to trial preparation in criminal and civil matters, she has worked nearly every role inside a law firm—giving her a deep, practical understanding of how law firms operate, scale, and sustain growth.
Throughout her career, Delisi has worked in multiple 7 and 8-figure businesses. She spent 7 years as Marketing Director at Cowen Rodriguez Peacock, an 8-figure boutique personal injury law firm, where she led the marketing and intake departments, helped grow the firm from 7 to 8-figures, produced the award-winning podcast Trial Lawyer Nation, and scaled the staff in San Antonio from 3 to 30 through referral-based, relationship-driven marketing.
Delisi later served as Chief of Staff to RJon Robins, founder of How to Manage a Small Law Firm, and an 8-figure serial entrepreneur. She helped RJon launch and scale a business that generated $50 million in revenue within 18 months and supported 17,000 small businesses nationwide. She also led the marketing campaign connected to the best-selling book Profit First for Lawyers and its companion podcast.
In 2025, Delisi founded First Call Friday, a business focused on helping lawyers grow their practices through intentional relationships, strategic referrals, and systems that produce measurable ROI. Whether a law firm wants to generate more inbound referrals, or refine their outbound referral process, Delisi brings her experience working on both sides of the attorney referral partnership to help law firms ranging in size from 6-figures to 9-figures.
Recognized as a top 1% LinkedIn creator and ranked among the Top 50 legal professionals in the United States on LinkedIn, Delisi uses her podcast From Coffee to Cases with the Legal Podcast Network to teach lawyers every month how to do relationship driven referral marketing for themselves.
With a background in theatre, television, and film in Los Angeles and New York, including time behind the scenes at Saturday Night Live, and as Miss Latina World (2008–2009), Delisi brings confidence, clarity, and relatability to every stage. Her message resonates across practice areas: sustainable law firm growth still comes down to trust, relationships, and consistent human connection
Transcript:
Darren Wurz [00:00:00]:
Hey, guess what, friend? The highest ROI marketing channel for your law firm costs almost nothing, and you're already sitting on a goldmine. All right. And we're here with Delisi Friday, founder of First Call Friday, excited to talk about referral marketing. Welcome to the show, Delisi.
Delisi Friday [00:00:20]:
Hi, Darren. Thanks for having me.
Darren Wurz [00:00:23]:
Yeah, I'm super excited to have you on because You know, we've been doing this whole series on profit, and as we'll learn later in the year, it's so integral to profit, you know, because one of the biggest, the biggest spending categories for law firms is marketing. But unfortunately, where everyone thinks they need to go, they need to go in these, to this big ad spend and to spend all kinds of money. And certainly there are firms that that works well for. But referral marketing will always be number one, I think. What do you think?
Delisi Friday [00:01:02]:
I mean, all I talk about is referral marketing. So yes, 100%. Yes. I am someone who will say as loud as I possibly can, no ad will ever beat the level of trust that comes with a referral. A referral will always trump an ad for that reason because they're so strong, which means they convert at much higher rate and that trust is built into them and an ad can never buy that.
Darren Wurz [00:01:35]:
Yeah, we just talked a couple episodes ago with Tim Semmelroth, biggest personal injury firm in Iowa and one of the biggest in the country, and he said The biggest chunk of their new clients come from referrals, even in a big firm like that. So it's so powerful. Um, Delisi, what is one belief about referral marketing that you think most people get wrong?
Delisi Friday [00:02:04]:
That's actually a very easy answer.
Darren Wurz [00:02:07]:
Okay.
Delisi Friday [00:02:08]:
The most common thing people get wrong is referral marketing means networking.
Darren Wurz [00:02:14]:
No. Tell me more.
Delisi Friday [00:02:15]:
No, it does not.
Darren Wurz [00:02:17]:
Okay.
Delisi Friday [00:02:20]:
Um, and here's a prime example. One of the key places I believe law firms should be putting their time and their money towards is marketing to former clients, because former clients are some of the easiest places where you can get referrals. And That requires zero networking. That just requires a little bit of thought into how you're going to do that. Are you going to send them happy birthday cards every year? Are you going to have a summer event where you invite all of your former clients? Are you going to do something else? Uh, maybe you do an email campaign, whatever that looks like for your firm. That doesn't require networking. And former clients is a gold mine for so many lawyers. Doesn't matter what practice area you're in because those former clients can talk sincerely about what their experience was working with these law firms.
Delisi Friday [00:03:22]:
And that is not networking. Referral marketing is not just networking. And that's one of the biggest misconceptions I hear on a regular basis.
Darren Wurz [00:03:32]:
Yeah, absolutely. That's great. That's great to see that distinction, that it's different. What does— how do you define success? Or what does a successful referral marketer look like?
Delisi Friday [00:03:51]:
A successful referral marketer, like inside of a law firm, or successful referral marketer could be the lawyer who's taking an action?
Darren Wurz [00:04:00]:
Yeah, the lawyer taking action. What does it look like for them?
Delisi Friday [00:04:03]:
I define success as having a plan. These are the things that I want to do throughout the year, taking the action and actually executing on them. And that, that's success for me. One thing you'll notice is I didn't put a certain amount of cases that come into the firm that are referred. Because that is such a hard number to come up with and it's going to be different for everyone. So anytime I talk to a new law firm, I say, look, I cannot guarantee results. You can't either. And if I could, I'd be retired.
Delisi Friday [00:04:41]:
I wouldn't be doing this. I would just be living life because I'd be so stinking rich. But what I can guarantee is having a plan and taking an action is going to increase the likelihood you have of success by generating more referrals into your law firm. But success is not saying, oh, I have all of these ideas. Let me think about which ones I want to do. Well, if you don't take the action, you're never going to see the results. So for me, success is coming up with a plan, determining who does what by when, executing on that plan, and eventually that will turn into referrals. The next step of that is going to be When you have referrals coming in, let's measure, are those increasing? And then you can see, okay, what can we do more of to increase those referrals? But the first place is just have a plan, execute on it.
Darren Wurz [00:05:38]:
Yeah, yeah, that's great. You know, um, it's the doing that matters. You gotta actually make it happen.
Delisi Friday [00:05:48]:
Well, and the hard part is You know what's fun for me? Coming up with the ideas. I can come up with ideas all day long. That's so much fun for me. But the challenging part is, okay, let's talk about time, team, and tools. How much time do we need to do this? Who on our team is going to be responsible? What tools do we need? And tools can be money as well. And then deciding what you're capable of, because if you have a whole bunch of ideas but none of them ever see the light of day, then you're not going to have success.
Darren Wurz [00:06:22]:
Absolutely. Yeah. Is, is, um, you know, we talked before about like how you approach this. There's, there's various levels, right? One of the first questions you like to ask is how much can you spend on this, right? Like, are we, are we going high budget? Are we going low budget? There's different, there's different strategies involved. Can you give us maybe an example of of an easy strategy for like, you know, a law firm that doesn't have a lot of room and maybe something more advanced?
Delisi Friday [00:06:52]:
Yes. So easy, small budget or no budget, 100% of law firms do not convert every phone call into their office. So the easiest place you can start that costs $0 is talking to your intake and saying, okay, What are the calls that you're getting that are cases we cannot accept because it's a different practice area or it doesn't meet our standards for case acceptance? Train your intake team to make warm transfers. So instead of saying, I'm so sorry, Darren, that's not a case we accept, we unfortunately cannot help you, good luck. The experience is then, I'm so sorry, Darren, unfortunately that's not a case that we handle here in our office. However, we have a great relationship with the Gonzalez Law Firm up the road. I know their intake manager, Susan. Would you like me to make a warm transfer? Completely different experience.
Delisi Friday [00:07:56]:
And now that potential new client that would have been rejected and now doesn't know where to go is warm transferred to someone who can help. And now that warm transfer creates a referral relationship with another firm. And that's where you can start your referral network by coming up with a list of those firms you send your rejected cases to because it's just not a right fit for you, but it's a right fit for them. That costs $0. Everyone can do that. The next step would be a smaller budget and saying at the very least, every single person should be sending a happy birthday card to a current and a former client. I talk about Handwritten all the time because you can create an account with Handwritten, upload all of your clients.
Darren Wurz [00:08:48]:
Oh yeah.
Delisi Friday [00:08:49]:
And you can set up something called a campaign. And then Handwritten sends all of those cards out for you. You set it and forget it. It takes maybe an hour to do unless you need time creating the list and it's done. Um, I have an affiliate link and a code if anyone wants a discount because I do get 10% off that I can share with everyone. But yeah, that is— let's say it's like $3.50 a card. But think about it, that $3.50 a card is a card you don't have to print, you don't have to sign, you don't have to stuff, you don't have to put postage, you don't have to remember. There are so many like things that can happen that could prevent you from getting that out.
Delisi Friday [00:09:35]:
And it also means your office isn't having to go to the post office each month and your office isn't having to say, okay, Darren, here are the birthday cards you need to sign this month. Because handwritten can do it for you with a real pen. And so small budget, at the very least, I'm recommending they do birthday cards to their clients because honestly, when's the last time you got a birthday card? No one sends me birthday cards, not even my mom. My mom doesn't even call me on my birthday. My mom sends me a text. I have to tell her, Mom, that's unacceptable. That's unacceptable. So send a birthday card.
Delisi Friday [00:10:13]:
It's not going to break the bank. Next, I would say email marketing. There are companies out there like my friend Charlie Mann has Red Kraken. There are companies that can help you do weekly emails to your email list. You don't have to hire someone internal, just use a company to help you stay in touch with those clients. And the reason I say that is there have been times where I have an example of a client who, and it's just personal injury because I spent 7 years working inside of a personal injury law firm. People get in car crashes more than once. It's unfortunate.
Delisi Friday [00:10:55]:
It does happen. And thankfully it doesn't happen to a lot of people, but it does happen. You know, now it's cell phones are out, people aren't paying attention. It's much more common to get rear-ended by one of those people. And there were instances where someone would get referred to the law firm and didn't come to us directly. And I would ask, well, why didn't you call us? We had a great relationship. And they would say, Well, we just forgot, and that was on me as a legal marketer for not doing something to keep in touch with my former clients because they simply forgot about us. And so the onus is on the law firm owner and the leadership team to say, what are we going to do to stay in touch with them? If you don't want to do email marketing and you hate that, okay, great.
Delisi Friday [00:11:44]:
Um, why don't you throw a holiday party and invite your former clients? Why don't you do a beginning of summer, end of school party and invite all of your clients and make it family friendly? Why don't you host a movie night at your local movie theater? You can rent out a theater for like $2,500 and then just pay for some popcorn. Fill that theater with people. And so those things can cost, you know, the movie theater ideas like $2,500 plus like some snacks and drinks. Let's call it $3,500. That's not going to break the bank. And then if you want to do email marketing, then you're going to spend probably $1,000 a month, $1,500 a month to do something like that. And it keeps in touch each month or each week. And so those are things that I suggest smaller law firms do that aren't going to really be a huge stretch, um, on the budget.
Delisi Friday [00:12:41]:
For the mid-size and the 8 to 9 figure law firms out there that have a bigger budget. Mm-hmm. Those people have enough budget to actually hire someone whose job is to nurture those relationships.
Darren Wurz [00:12:55]:
Okay.
Delisi Friday [00:12:56]:
I used to do in my last law firm, it's why I'm an advocate of it because I noticed if I maintain those relationships and I did something every 30 days to stay in touch, I saw more referrals and we generated more business that way. So it's using that budget to either hire someone internal and that's their job, or if you're not ready for that, deciding what you're going to do every 30 days, every quarter to keep in touch with those individuals and truly nurturing them. Maybe it's meeting them in person, creating an experience with them. You guys all go to a game or a concert together. Maybe it's gifting, whatever that looks like, but using your budget to nurture those relationships because out of sight, out of mind, you have to be in front of them.
Darren Wurz [00:13:49]:
Yeah. Yeah. We all have such short attention spans these days.
Delisi Friday [00:13:54]:
Yeah.
Darren Wurz [00:13:56]:
Is that really the key principle is just making your presence known? I mean, I think a lot of people think about, referral marketing and they're like, eh, I gotta pester people and bug people for introductions, but is it really just making your presence known?
Delisi Friday [00:14:15]:
That, and also I am someone who really believes referral marketing is about relationships, so I don't think about it. I think about it differently because I try every day just to be a human.
Darren Wurz [00:14:30]:
Yeah.
Delisi Friday [00:14:30]:
And so for me, I think differently. And this is what I teach, because not every outreach has to be a sale. It can just be caring about someone. So, for example, if someone is listening to one of your recent Profit First podcast episodes and it resonates with them, a very easy thing they can do is share the link to that podcast episode and say, hey, Darren, I was listening to this podcast episode and I really loved what the host said about blank. I wanted to share it with you. That's not salesy. That's adding value. Yeah.
Delisi Friday [00:15:09]:
That's sharing something that can help a referral partner and better their business.
Darren Wurz [00:15:14]:
Mm-hmm.
Delisi Friday [00:15:14]:
Relationship and referral marketing can just be as simple as caring and sharing something of value and helping a person. It doesn't always have to be, Hey Darren, how's it going? You want to send me a case? No, I wasn't going to want to talk to that person. But if I'm constantly hearing things that tell you I'm thinking about you or help you in your business, and I'm just like being a person, that's very different.
Darren Wurz [00:15:43]:
So I love that you went there because this is like, this is like the deeper level, like it going beyond tactics to like referral marketing. Is an attitude, right? It's a way of speaking. There's a certain— there's a style, there's an element of luxury that you can bring in, right? I was talking to one of our clients and she's been trying to get out of the intake and all of her cases are referrals pretty much. And so she tried it. She had another attorney take over the intake.. And she was CC'd on all of the communications and she let it happen for like 2 days and then was like, no, I have to step back in because she was like, the responses were very short, very simple. Like we're just, we're not going to take that case or we will take this case. And she said, when I respond, I do this whole email, you know, about their life and I'm very you know, caring and very effusive, you know.
Darren Wurz [00:16:51]:
And so there's a style element and a certain way of communicating, right, too, isn't there?
Delisi Friday [00:16:59]:
Yes. Have you ever heard the phrase, how you do anything is how you do everything? Yes. That's exactly what you're making me think of right now. If your experience with me is one of care and concern and thoughtfulness and professionalism and white glove and and I make you feel like you're the only person I'm talking to right now, that is an exceptional experience I want everyone to have with current clients, future clients, rejected clients. Yeah. But I think the hard part about our industry is sometimes we take so many phone calls like that, that sometimes we become kind of like robots. And I see it with, like, for example, I've done— again, I did personal injury for so long. There came a certain point in time where I felt like I became a bit numb to the conversations because I hear them so often.
Delisi Friday [00:18:02]:
Oh, sure. It's— and some of that is protective, right? My, my body and my brain is protecting me from trying to show as much emotion because I'm trying to be professional and understand what I need to do because someone just lost their loved one. And this like business person turns on, but it also kind of takes away the heart and the connection you have with someone when you're talking through those things. And so I think sometimes we have to remember to talk to intake and talk to the people on our team and say, hey, let's not forget what it is that we're doing and who we're helping and how it changes their lives. Because sometimes we do it for so long that I think we forget this is their first time dealing with this. It's not ours, but they're uncomfortable, they're unsure, they need help. It's the worst day of their life sometimes, and we have to show empathy. And so, yes, I mean, that's a great example.
Delisi Friday [00:19:08]:
She's, she's caring and she's doing these things because that's who she is. And honestly, sometimes you have to train for that. You truly do. Not everyone has it.
Darren Wurz [00:19:20]:
Yeah, hard to teach for sure. Well, Delisi, where do you think this is going? You know, the world is changing so fast, so much is happening with AI and, and technology. Where do you see referral marketing like 5 years from now?
Delisi Friday [00:19:38]:
Yes, I find right now very interesting because everyone in legal is like, AI, AI, AI. And then there are some of those like doomsday people who say AI is going to just take over all the jobs. I truly believe AI will never replace human connection ever. An AI, a robot, none of those things can replace the connection a person has with another person in real life or with words or with facial expressions or with your tone of voice. That's not going to happen. And so where do I see the industry in 5 years? My projection is going to be in 5 years, you're going to see the law firms who lean so heavily on AI, that there's going to be a big distinction between those law firms and the law firms who say, that's not us. We will use AI to become more efficient, to draft documents, to summarize thousands of pages of discovery. However, we will not forget the human side of what we do.
Delisi Friday [00:20:53]:
And we'll have real people talking to our clients and engaging with them. And I think it will be up to our clients to decide which law firm is the right law firm for them. And I think in 5 years, that's a real question that potential clients are going to need to ask. Do I want to call that law firm and everything's a robot and everything's AI, or do I want to call the other law firm and I know the name of my lawyer, I know the name of my case manager. If I want to pick up the phone, a person answers. That's where I think we'll be in 5 years.
Darren Wurz [00:21:28]:
Yeah, I almost think it's going to be more important and more valuable because people will need that trust factor. I think I see it right now. I just— there's so many like AI ads and AI-generated content and it almost, almost becomes just like mind-numbing. And it's like, I want, I want like a really clear-cut human response to something like, yeah, and the trust factor, like, you know, with AI, there's so many different versions, there's so many different softwares and tools, like, I feel like the having a human that you trust that you have that deep connection with is maybe going to be more important.
Delisi Friday [00:22:15]:
Oh, absolutely. Think about here, here's some big practice areas where I see that being a huge piece of the pie. Criminal defense. Criminal defense. Yeah. Personal injury. Family law. Immigration.
Delisi Friday [00:22:31]:
Those are probably the 4 practice areas where I think that's going to be vital because those are highly emotional situations and matters, and they need to talk to someone, and they're feeling a lot of things. And so I think for those practice areas, it's going to be way more important, just like you mentioned, because there's such a human aspect of what we do.
Darren Wurz [00:22:58]:
Yeah. Yeah. Great stuff. Well, Delisi, tell us a little bit about how you got into this. What inspired you to focus on referral marketing?
Delisi Friday [00:23:10]:
I fell into it. Um, I really think I was meant to just do this. My dad's a trial lawyer. When I was 14, I was answering phone calls at his office. So at 14, I was learning these things. My dad built his business on referral marketing and one church ad that he's done since I was a little kid. That's it. And when I was 14, I learned what I just said to you a few moments ago, where every call that came into our office was very important.
Delisi Friday [00:23:40]:
If we couldn't help them, we would connect them with someone who could. And so I learned that skill when I was 14 and it made me who I am today. So when I sadly broke my dad's heart and told him I wouldn't be a lawyer with him and we wouldn't go be in trial together because I just realized it's not me, Dad, it's not me. Um, I went into legal marketing because I still love this profession so much. And I helped Michael Cowan of Cowan Rodriguez Peacock grow his business from 7 figures to 8 figures, all on referrals. That's all he did was referral marketing. And then when I went to go work with R. John Robbins at How to Manage a Small Law Firm, I learned the business side, but he also created such a community of lawyers who all cared about being better and having better law firms and being more efficient.
Delisi Friday [00:24:38]:
And I fell in love with the community and the connection aspect of it. And all of those experiences together led me to say, I need to start a business. It's going to be all on referral marketing. I need to teach lawyers what I learned since I was a kid, all the way until my last experience working with Arjan and show them how to do it. Because if you think about it, they don't teach any of this in law school. They also don't teach any of this at the Bar Association or the legal conferences or anything like that.
Darren Wurz [00:25:12]:
Yeah.
Delisi Friday [00:25:12]:
So if I don't use my loud mouth and my energy to just shout from the rooftop, y'all should all be working on referral marketing, then I don't know what happens. So I just made the decision I need to be talking about this more and sharing it with everyone because these small and mid-sized law firms, need to know what they can be doing to bring cases in the door. They may not be able to compete with ad spend, so compete with relationships. And with AI progressing, I think their firms will stand out more when they add a human personal touch to it all.
Darren Wurz [00:25:51]:
I love it so much because it's the, it's the one way that you as a small law firm can, can stand out and be successful. And not have to spend so much money. And I see a lot of small lawyers, law firms— there are no small lawyers. I see a lot of great lawyers running small law firms who are spending so much in digital ads, and it's really tough to stand out that way. And this is one way you could really grow your business and do really well and not have to be so reliant on the hamster wheel of digital ads.
Delisi Friday [00:26:34]:
Well, and you brought something up that I say all the time. It is okay to spend money in digital marketing. You shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. But if you are going to do digital marketing and pay for your phone to ring and pay for those form fills and pay for whatever, make your money be more efficient by turning those rejected cases into the beginning of referral partnerships.
Darren Wurz [00:27:02]:
Oh, I love that.
Delisi Friday [00:27:04]:
Yes. Then, you know, you spent the money, you are— the money is gone, it's out of your bank account. You spent the money to make the phone ring. What happens when that money doesn't convert to a case? What are you doing with that opportunity? Turn it into a referral relationship.
Darren Wurz [00:27:24]:
That's great. Yeah. Oh, Delicia, I know you're loving the book The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham, which we're going to be reading later in the year. Are there any other books, like what's a book every law firm owner should have on their shelf, like related to this topic, do you think is great?
Delisi Friday [00:27:41]:
Ooh. Okay. Um, first I would say Unreasonable Hospitality, which is back there in yellow by Will Goddard. I think. The experience that your clients have in your law firm is so important. That's a great book that talks about that. Another one also on my bookshelf is Giftology by John Ruhland. That book is all about the importance of gifting for relationships, and I'm a huge believer in that.
Delisi Friday [00:28:09]:
It's a great book. The second edition just came out last year, unfortunately, right after John passed away. But that book really talks about why There is true power in a gift that connects you to someone else. The other one, and I've got it right up there, this is Marketing by Seth Godin.
Darren Wurz [00:28:29]:
Okay.
Delisi Friday [00:28:29]:
The same marketing principles that are important for every other business out there can also apply to lawyers. And I think it's important for us to be educating ourself on marketing tactics as a whole, and then thinking about how to apply that to our law firms. And then another one just for fun— I read a lot of books, clearly— um, is, uh, The Last Conversation at Somewhere Back There by Jefferson Fisher. Have you read it?
Darren Wurz [00:28:59]:
No, I haven't.
Delisi Friday [00:29:00]:
Oh my God, Darren. Okay, first of all, Jefferson Fisher is here from Texas. He is a lawyer who is so likable, and when you hear his voice in the audiobook, you're like, yes, just keep talking to me. I could just listen to soothing Texan accent all day long. But he is a lawyer who talks about the importance of communication and what your body says and your facial expressions say and what your words say when you're interacting with people and the importance of breath and all the things. Every lawyer should continue to study communication because communication to a client, communication to a judge, opposing counsel, potential new client. Communication is just so important that I actually gift that book to lawyers because I'm such a fan of it. And so I'm a huge fan of The Last Conversation by Jefferson Fisher.
Delisi Friday [00:29:53]:
If you don't like to read books, the audiobook is excellent. I've done both.
Darren Wurz [00:29:58]:
Oh, great. Thank you so much for those great recommendations. We'll make sure we get all of those in the chat. Well, Delisi, it's been fabulous talking with you. If there's one thing that our listeners need to do that you want, you know, if you do nothing at all after this episode, do this one thing, what would that be?
Delisi Friday [00:30:17]:
It would be going right now to talk to your receptionist or your intake team and saying, give me a list of all of the calls that came into the office and we rejected them. Looking at that list and seeing why they were rejected and how you can turn those rejections into warm transfers to a law firm that can help them and using that list to be the beginning of a referral network.
Darren Wurz [00:30:44]:
I love that. Well, Delisi, uh, where can our listeners go to learn more about you?
Delisi Friday [00:30:50]:
LinkedIn. I am a huge advocate on LinkedIn. I know you are too. So LinkedIn. And then if anyone has questions or just wants to learn more about my business, firstcallfriday.com. They can read up about me or learn about the things that I'm doing, how to work together if they'd like.
Darren Wurz [00:31:09]:
Great. Well, we will get all of that in the show notes. Thanks so much for being on today.
Delisi Friday [00:31:14]:
Thank you so much, Darren.
Darren Wurz [00:31:15]:
All right. Well, a huge thank you to Delisi Friday for joining us today and sharing some really great tips. You can find her at firstcallfriday.com and connect with her on LinkedIn. And all the book recommendations and resources we'll link for you in the show notes. You know, I see it every day. The attorneys we work with who are doing the best aren't the ones spending the most on ads. They're the ones who have invested in genuine relationships over time and built a reputation that precedes them. And what DeLisi said about it being an attitude, not just a tactic, That's the part that most people miss entirely.
Darren Wurz [00:31:56]:
You know, here at The Lawyer Millionaire, our theme this year is Profit on Purpose, and referral marketing is one of the most powerful profit levers you can pull. Because when your marketing is built on trust and relationships, your cost to acquire a client drops, your close rate goes up, you get higher value clients, and your firm becomes far less dependent on the ad spend hamster wheel. That's the kind of sustainable, efficient growth that's going to build you long-term wealth. So if today's episode got you thinking about where your firm's growth is really coming from, and whether your financial strategy is keeping up with it, I'd love to talk with you. Book a call with me using the link in the show notes and let's map out what profit on purpose looks like for your firm. Well, that's it today, friend. Just remember, if your law firm isn't building you wealth and freedom, what the hell are you doing? Can I get an amen? All right. I'll see you next time.