BluShark Digital 0:00
Welcome to the Conference Connection. Your go-to place to get the scoop on what conferences are coming up that you need to know about. Here are your hosts, Paul Faust, President of Ring Boost, and Seth Price, founder of BluShark Digital and managing partner of Price Benowitz.
Paul Faust 0:16
How are you guys doing? Paul Faust here with Ring Boost and Sphere Consulting, along with my co-host, Seth Price from Price Benowitz and BluShark. Oh my god, do we have a guest for you this episode? Sat through the intros.
Seth Price 0:29
Ken Hardison, he needs no introduction in this space, the long-standing pilgrim supersonic. He is upon us this time in Denver, Colorado. Ken is very excited. What do you have in store for us? Oh,
Kenneth Hardison 0:44
Yeah, we are. We’re doing some new things this year. We’re going to have things I’ve never done before. We’re actually having a small breakout session at the end of one of the days. And I’ve got 16 experts, and you’re one of them, Seth, and we’re going to have round tables set up where people can just go around to like, somebody on TV, somebody on streaming, somebody on PPC, somebody on local, somebody on LSA, somebody on grassroots marketing, somebody on hiring, somebody you know, everything. You get 16 different round tables, and you can go around and just ask your questions. You know, it’s going to be a lot of the speakers, but it’s going to be some people that are not speaking, too, you know, social media, everything. So that’s kind of something new. We’re doing it this year. We’ll go see how it works. I’ve seen it. I saw it last year at another conference. It was a non-legal conference, and I really liked it. I was very fortunate. They let me sit at one of the tables on a marketing deal, and it was fun, and everybody really liked it. So hopefully the lawyers will like it. You know,
Paul Faust 1:48
Paul, I think, I think it’s a great idea. I think the conference has become sort of, sort of the same every year, when you ship things up and try new things, even maybe the first time, it’s a little uncomfortable for people, but then they’re like, alright, this Yeah, we just gotta get out of our habits. So now you’re saying a lot of new things. Does that mean there is not going to be karaoke?
Kenneth Hardison 2:05
Oh, there’s going to be karaoke on Thursday night. Of course, karaoke would be a pill more without karaoke. I think it’s 830 to lift. Another thing I did this year was make the receptions way right, right close to when we get through so people could go out and do dinners. A lot of the vendors like to do dinners. A lot of the people like to do dinners. We’re going late, so you go out to dinner and then come back for the party. You know what I’m saying. So we’re trying to get it where people can go and network and meet up with their friends and different vendors that they’re using, you know, take them out to lunch.
Paul Faust 2:39
I mean, dinner, right? I love it. One of the things we always ask people when they come on and look, most people know Pilma. They know the Pilbara masterminds. They know you, but who should be coming to Pilma? You know, there’s conferences for the trial lawyer. There are other ones for the COO. There are others for the firm owner and the paralegal. Who should be out of here? Who should we see? Who should firms bring?
Kenneth Hardison 3:00
Uh, firm owners, anybody in management, in a law firm, anybody in marketing, the marketing directors, marketing assistants, law firm administrators, COO office manager, law firm owners, anybody that’s trying, and anybody that’s trying to grow the practice, and what’s the latest and greatest? Because we always bring in speakers that are on the cutting edge of what’s new. We got three. We got two new speakers and one old speaker on just AI. How to use AI, marketing management, and what’s the new cutting-edge technology? So yeah, we got an expert guru on Jeff Hanson on YouTube. We have an expert on LSAS. He’s helped a lot of our masterminds, so I know he’s the real deal, Thomas Glasgow. We got Seth Price and Nalini, who are, you know, and they do, they do the same thing, but it changes. And that’s what I think, you know, say, well, we got the same speakers on some of the deals, but we got 19 new speakers this year. I will say that’s awesome.
Paul Faust 4:14
So again, just for people who don’t know if you want to register, what’s the deadline and where do you go to register? Is it pilmma.com mastermind, where’s the spot to go register for people that want to register?
Kenneth Hardison 4:25
Just type in Pilmma Summit, and you can sign up online. Also, they’ll tell you where to get your hotel, although the hotel is booked up.
Paul Faust 4:37
And if I’m correct, there are no spots for vendors. The vendors and the sponsors are sold out.
Kenneth Hardison 4:43
Well done. 72 vendor spots as of last Wednesday. Wow. Yeah, we had a lot of interest this year for some reason.
Paul Faust 4:57
So vendors, you hear that if you’re one of the 72 vendors out there. Sure, invite your lawyers to sign up. The more lawyers who have come in, the more conversations we all get to have with people. It’s not Ken’s responsibility to get people to conferences. It’s our responsibility as a community. We want our law firms to grow. We want them to meet you and other vendors. So let’s help promote the film and the other conferences we talk about because it’s good for all of us.
Kenneth Hardison 5:18
Yeah. Yeah. And the thing about that, Paul and I push this to the vendors. Bring two or three. Get two or three of your best clients to come. Because then, when you’re talking to somebody who knows, you say, well, over there’s Paul. He’s been using me for three years. Ask him. Nobody asks me. Because, you know, I mean, I always tell people what you say about yourself is good, but what others say about you is golden, right? And so that’s what you really need to do. I know some vendors say, Oh, I don’t want to, because I’m afraid to use somebody else. Well, if you’re that scared of your deal, you probably don’t need to be there to be honest with you, because, you know, well,
Paul Faust 5:55
I’m going to tell you, Ken, I’ve been, I’ve been a vendor, thing, things maybe before I had kids, you’re one of my early mentors in the industry. I have not missed the pill in a long, long, long time. It is a great environment for lawyers and vendors. I could tell you, as a vendor, if you don’t meet with most of the attendees there, you don’t want to. There’s time for this, there’s hanging out. Speakers are a great line of the street. So this, I always tell people, look at a conference. Look at three things. Look at who’s attending. We know there are great people to come to. Pilma Who’s speaking, great speakers, right? And look at the vendors, great vendors. We have a formula for success and a new fun city. So we hope everybody joins Ken and Pilma and me and Seth out there.
Seth Price 6:34
You know two things I’ll jump on there. One, I think with Ken’s tutelage, I think over the years, I’ve evolved from going to conferences like Ken’s, right? Ken’s is about as drinking from the fires as you get. He brings people who are bringing updates in different areas, as well as new ideas, which is what I love. But I think one of the things I found most challenging is you go, you get ideas, but it’s getting shit done when you get back home, and that’s by bringing the leadership team with you. It gives you a better shot at being able to implement when you come back. You know, I wish it wasn’t like this, but very often, if it’s the entrepreneur, the evangelist idea, they’re like, Ah, just another crazy idea. But when they go and they get to hear and drink what’s being poured, they’re much more likely to allow you to implement you know, it’s one thing to hear me to come and try to describe what Justin lovely is doing, but when my team got to meet them, when you did your AI breakout thing down in Carolina, to me, that is a differentiator, which actually moved the needle at the firm.
Kenneth Hardison 7:38
Yeah, we both. I try to get speakers that will give good, actionable, something you can take back home and implement, not just a bunch of theory, or, I call it fluff, you know, which is nice, but we’ll have maybe two speakers that do that. But at a battle, maybe 38 speakers, maybe two, but sort of majority of its going to need to do this, this and this, if you want to get these type of cases, or if you want to be successful on the maps, or if you want to be successful on LSAs, if you want to, you know, we got some guy, I convinced a bunch of our masterminds to show like we got Matt Dubas going to tell how he went from 300,000 years 16 million. We got Lawrence Laros, we’ll talk about how in two years, he doubled his net profit. And he’s a small law firm. I mean, he’s got, he’s got a significant firm, he’s got a big he’s got a big firm. And then we got a mailman up in Chicago to talk about social media. He’s doing a lot of good stuff with social media. We got a little guy, a small law firm, the two-look-man law firm that’s killing Charleston, and they’re having to go up against Seek and John Morgan and he’s doubled his practice three years in a row. It was not a big budget, not a big budget.
Seth Price 8:57
I think it’s something that people think is inside baseball, right? Paul and I have an entire podcast on conferences, so we get it. But I think what the difference is, I could say this is the majority of the people you have speaking are not even putting a dime as sponsors into Pilma, the lack of pay-to-play that you’ve put together, where you actually have found the best speakers in different areas. Many of them were lawyers with nothing to sell. When I started coming to film, I spoke just to a law firm owner. And so, I think that Paul and I had a lot of discussions about the proliferation of conferences. You know, obviously, you see them popping up and the challenge of but I think what’s kept the Super Summit strong was that its volume, if one speaker isn’t great 30 minutes away from the next one, but it’s consistently high value, both out of the box as well as fundamentals. That combination is, you know, there’s, I don’t think there’s a better bang for the buck from the people who aren’t there for the practice of law, but for the marketing and management. As the name says, that is what I think differentiates this conference.
Kenneth Hardison 10:03
Thank you. And you know, I appreciate that, you know. And here’s the deal, I’ve been doing it for 15 years now, and every year I offer a refund after the first day if you don’t think you got, you know, 10 times your value, and I’ll pay you up to $1,000 of reimbursement for your cost again in 15 years. This might be the year I get it, but nobody’s ever asked for the money.
Seth Price 10:25
But I still remember reading that when I went to my first Super Summit in Atlanta some 1213 years ago. And it was like, it was just the mentality that everybody else is, like, you know, here it is, but like, you know, what? If it’s not for you, God bless and move on. And just the fact is, it’s a self-selecting crowd. I believe it’s almost like a fraternity at this point. All different groups are out there. And the fact that you’re able to attract in this competitive environment, yeah, many interesting, thoughtful people focusing on the business of law to be as testament as you can so guys,
Paul Faust 10:58
We got Ken’s, got the venue, got the speakers, got unbelievable vendors coming. The only thing left you do is register. We will all be out there. This is one that, if you miss it, you know, don’t complain to people that maybe you practice and go in the right direction. Everything is out there for you to succeed. And all the people there too. So and
Seth Price 11:19
I’ll get there, and register. One final thought, which is, I think the difference, and there are plenty like there’s a place for both a vendor and a lawyer, right? When you hear a vendor speak, that’s great, but when it’s being used inside of a firm, that is the game changer. So the list that Ken just gave of lawyers speaking about what they’re doing at their firm. Lawyers love to talk. They love to share. And the fact is that if you can take something that you said before, that’s actionable, versus theory that is to me, every time I leave a Pilate list of 10 action items to put, used to just throw them out there. Now they go into our quarterly rocks, but things that I’m like, we’re going to get this done in the next three months.
Kenneth Hardison 12:01
And I’m doing something special this year, because of just what you said, because at the end of seminars, how many people got 10? How many people got 1520, and we have, you know, there’ll be 20% it’s got 30 things, but they don’t know where to start or how to get it done. So I’m actually going through and showing them kind of what you’re doing with the rocks. But it’s a little different. I call it quarterly strategic planning and doing two or three projects a quarter. And you know, it’s a combination of Rockefeller habits and the 12-hour week. I put it together about four or five years ago, and it’s worked really well at Pilma for us. And so I’m chairing that. I
Seth Price 12:38
appreciate that, and I know that you want to use the word rocks as a heavy licensing fee to the EOS people, so God, God, bless you. Saving money, left and right.
Kenneth Hardison 12:50
Yeah, yeah. Alright, guys, implementation on steroids.
Paul Faust 12:56
Well, it’s there for you guys, Pilma Super Summit. If you don’t know, look at this. You’ll see links. If not, you can always reach out to Ken, reach out to Seth, reach out to me, and as always, I will ask you to tell your lawyer, friends, and vendor friends in the industry to follow this page. We are here just to be a resource to let everybody know what events are out there and where you need to be.
Seth Price 13:14
Thanks so much.
Kenneth Hardison 13:16
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Y’all have a great See you in Colorado. See you
Paul Faust 13:20
there, my friend. Alright. Seth, I’ll see you, buddy.
BluShark Digital 13:23
Thank you for tuning into the conference connection. Make sure to hit subscribe if you haven’t already, and we will see you for our next episode. Bye.
