Jason Melton:
I want them to know that it's going to be a long day. They see my name on a file. They're going to have to really work for it. I'm not giving away anything.
Chris Dreyer:
When you're just starting out, don't back down from a fight. Go the extra mile for clients, even if their case is tough, word will spread that you're a fierce advocate that can't be bullied. As your practice grows, don't be afraid to pivot.
Jason Melton:
I felt like I need to get younger and younger fast so I can have the longstanding growth. I was like, "Well, let's just eat the frog and get on social media."
Chris Dreyer:
Welcome to Personal Injury Mastermind. I'm your host, Chris Dreyer, founder and CEO of Rankings.io, the legal marketing agency that's all about proof, not promises. Each week you get insights and wisdom from some of the best in the industry. Hit that follow button so you never miss an episode. All right, let's dive in. Jason Melton's career has been defined by steady and strategic growth. After establishing his firm in Florida over two decades ago, he took on as many cases as he could, building his skills and reputation with each new client. His commitment paid off. Today, Whittel and Melton has grown to a team of 12 attorneys, and Jason himself has been nationally recognized, named among the top 100 High Stakes Litigators and a Top 20 Motorcycle Injury Lawyer in the United States.
But a few years ago, Jason's practice hit a plateau. He realized he needed to expand his client base to spark new growth. That's when he joined the National Academy of Motorcycle Injury Lawyers as a founding member to attract clients from the motorcycle community. He now serves as the president. But the crazy thing, Jason has never ridden a motorcycle. Jason shows that genuine care for a community and showing up in an honest way can lead to expansion in new markets. Jason shares how he successfully used social media niche marketing and proactive relationship building to shape his reputation, expand referral networks, and find high value cases. He provides strategies any attorney can use to amplify their voice, collaborate within a specialty area, and kickstart new growth. With consistency and care, Jason proves lawyers can overcome a slow period and reach new heights. Here's Jason Melton, co-founder of Whittel and Melton.
Jason Melton:
I grew up next to an insurance defense lawyer, a very successful one, and he was kind of like my idol growing up, but I had other friends whose dads were lawyers and they were all just so interesting. I remember him, I remember that guy, I wanted to be just like him. That kind of stuff creeps into your head as you start to make decisions about how you want to spend your time as a young adult and if you want to make some sacrifices to do something, and Lord knows it was a sacrifice going to law school. It was really tough. I have a lot of friends who are wealthy and grew up wealthy, and their law school experience was slightly different than mine, but it's humbling and that's one of the best character traits you can have, being a lawyer. One of my favorite mediators always likes to tell me, "I don't build them, I just fly them."
As a lawyer, you have to be humble because sometimes you don't have the best facts or your clients aren't the best at maybe telling you everything. You can't walk into every room thinking there's nothing better than what I have to say. Sometimes somebody else has something better to say.
Chris Dreyer:
I want to just dig right in. A lot of our listeners are trying to grow, they're trying to get leads, they're trying to get more cases. You've got 170,000 plus followers on Instagram. You're posting on LinkedIn frequently. You're doing really well on social media. That is uncommon in the legal space. Not a lot of people are. Where have you found success? Is it a cadence? Is it the hook? Where have you found success in these different channels?
Jason Melton:
For me, I think it was important to just pick a channel and just run as fast as you could in that channel. I think it's a mistake mostly when starting from nothing to try to do Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, all at the same time. I think it's too much. They're not the same. Oh, and then YouTube, I mean they're not the same. They're not even filmed the same. I think it's important just pick one and try to do your best at that one. Right? I did that. Now I do have a TikTok channel, but I'm not on there very often and I just post stuff when I'm bored and I repost my Instagram stuff to Facebook. But my Facebook has never really done that much.
I felt like I was in a bit of a crisis. I practice law mostly in West Central Florida. If you know, Florida is a very blue collar retirement area, and that's the best way to describe it. There are other ways to describe it, it's also pretty poor. That's why blue collar folks from the Northeast can retire there. They can buy a modular home in a modular community that maybe has some private law enforcement and has a feeling of security and there's other folks that come from the same background. The original marketing for Spring Hill, Florida, which is where my office is, it was from a corporation and they were advertising in New York City for folks making their commute home and to work, and that's how they got started. That's kind of why the place developed the way it did because that's where it started. It's an interesting area.
I felt like I was going through a bit of a crisis because I don't have the benefit of my dad was a lawyer or I grew up in the community. I grew up in Texas. I did not grow up in Florida. None of my relatives are professionals that are older than me, certainly not in the legal profession. My community of lawyers I knew in Florida, when I started as a prosecutor in Miami, I had that network of folks. Then when I moved up to Spring Hill, I just met everybody as I worked. I didn't have the benefits that a lot of people have in starting a business. Over time we did well. The thing about that area is a good percentage of the community, they didn't grow up there either. Legacy advertising, it doesn't mean anything. You can find people from advertising to them for five days because they didn't have 20 years of getting beat over the head with your message. Now that's becoming less the case as Spring Hill becomes more of a normalized community with kids growing up there and staying there and developing offices there and things like that.
But when I moved there first, that's how it was. I've noticed over time that a lot of my clients and the clients who they refer to me, candidly they're dying. They're getting so old that they're actually dying, or they're not who they were when they were 58. Now they're 70 and their life has changed. I felt like there was a crisis somewhat in who my people were. I felt like I need to get younger and younger fast so I can have the longstanding growth. I was like, "Well, let's just eat the frog and get on social media." It's the most opposite of everything I do. I am not on TV. I do some terrestrial radio.
Most consumers, I think they want their problems resolved. They don't really want to know all of the legal reasons. For the same reasons. when we go to the doctor's offices, we ask good questions, maybe because we're interested in our body, but at some point our brains click off just like they clicked off when we were in science class in 11th grade. We wanted to know the reason why, but after a while, the teacher starts talking and you can't keep up.
I was like, "You know what? I'm just going to do something that's me, and if it doesn't work, at least I know I did me." And then if that content which is going to be out there essentially forever, I will feel comfortable having someone try to use it against me. I think that's why one of the reasons why lawyers don't jump into social media very quickly is they're afraid of that lasting image of themselves being used against them, because what do we do every day? We counsel our clients get off of social media.
I didn't want to be the best example of why clients should stay off of social media. I was like, I'm just going to be me and I'm just going to talk about stuff that I like. I did a lot of travel things because I love to travel. It's my most favorite thing to do. I just found ways to segue travel and the law. I think honestly the biggest reason why it worked is I was committed to posting every ding dong day. I'm just going to post every day, even if it's something I posted 12 months ago, I'm going to post every day. I know they say post three times a week and then do five stories a day, or you hear people say different things. I post four or five stories a day and I post a reel every single day. Some reels do well and some reels fall on their face. They're all me. I'm just being me. Listen, I've had some nasty comments before, plaintiff's lawyers get sometimes and it's fine, but I know it was me.
Chris Dreyer:
I think with any type of fan base, you're probably going to get even more of the trolls. That's just the nature of social media.
Jason Melton:
But the great thing about being authentic, Chris, is that it's really easy to produce content, really easy. If I see something I want to do, I just whip out my phone, put it over my head, and I just do it. I'm a real strong believer in one take. If you need to edit it a little bit, you can edit it. But I can do content very quickly because now it's become second nature. But the real reason is because I'm just being me.
Chris Dreyer:
Yeah, that's awesome. Just iPhone, you don't need a ton of high tech. Obviously, you're doing some editing and got the experience there over time.
Jason Melton:
And if you look at the history of my account, you're going to see a big jump in editing around June of last year. Why is that? Well, I have a video editor that I hired through a company called Regents Remote Services out of Mexico, and he's fantastic and he edits all my videos. Now, why do I very specifically tell you the name of that company, Regents Remote Services? Because I co-founded that company. Basically in 2020 I started hiring staff members to basically duplicate my office in Florida. Where I have a position, I have someone who basically kind of does the same thing in Mexico in a support role, but also in a side-by-side role. Hiring virtual assistants in Mexico has been a total game changer for me. Quality of the people is amazing. What you can do for them is amazing. I'm hiring people with incredible education levels for positions where before I was just happy if they would show up every day and try. Now I can demand excellence from people who are really smart. They're incredible.
Chris Dreyer:
It's a little taboo when you hear it in the US, but there's pricing arbitrage. You get talent for less. They're working in similar types of time zones, so you don't have that 12 hour gap. We're interconnected through Zoom, through Slack, through what have you. Yeah, hats off to you on that. I like the thought process of being authentic and working that into your marketing so it's more natural, kind of combine and live your life, but also create content. Gary V talks about document, don't create and that's exactly what you're doing, so live your life and talk about things you know.
Jason Melton:
He's right. As he's right about a lot of things.
Chris Dreyer:
Right. Right. Does that play into your love for travel? Do you ride motorcycles? Is that kind of, "Hey, I'm going to pick the motorcycle niche because I ride and I travel." How did you fall into that niche?
Jason Melton:
Yeah, so great question. As you know, I'm currently the president of the National Academy of Motorcycle Injury Lawyers, and I don't ride. I've never ridden. My dad, when I was like eight, he had a really scary fall that could have been really, really bad. I watched him basically swear against ever riding again. I could see it in his face. He was scared. It was just a bad fall. From then on, I've really had zero interest in riding. I work in an area of Florida where lots of people ride. One of the great things about being a lawyer, it may be the best part about being a lawyer, is that you get to take on the causes and challenges of your clients no matter where they come from. We have a lot of bikers in our area. When I started doing personal injury, I was confronted with issues with motorcycles that honestly I didn't really understand and I had to learn it all the really hard way because I couldn't even relate to it because I didn't ride and slog through it.
Looking back, I can really appreciate a lot of mistakes I made in different cases. I came to appreciate all the things that they ... Maybe not all, but close to all the things that they appreciate about riding, and especially the camaraderie and the way the groups come together. Then if you can appreciate the history of motorcycle groups as they relate to a really important social movement in our country and how that evolved. That's just fascinating.
The way in World War II, when motorcycles were used in World War II, guys were coming back as heroes. Everybody wanted a bike. It was cool to have a bike, and then Vietnam happened and when those guys came back, it wasn't cool. People were either really upset with them or didn't want people to know that they supported them. The whole thing was very strange. These guys were outcasts and they had a love for motorcycles, so they created little clubs to go hang out, talk about stuff they liked like bikes, but mostly just to get away from the public. It was a terrible time to be a recent veteran. It's a horrible mark on our society too, to treat our soldiers that way. It's not like they picked where they wanted to go. Most of them would've been like, "I'm good here. I don't need to go over there."
You had this time where the bikes became the common thread for these guys. It evolved into this motorcycle culture, but that culture is so intertwined with our history and the way they hang out together and why they had to hang out together. It's just fascinating. I felt a lot of kinship with that. I thought that was very cool.
Then just over time and just appreciating all the different things and then all the biases and the hardships that you go through as a lawyer. Right? Because there's a lot of biases against bikers. The first one is, "Oh, well, you're obviously up to some sort of criminal activity because you're a Hell's Angel." Or some sort of moniker like this. They're always too loud. They don't like the way they dress. Then to some extent, they'll frequent certain bars and not other bars just so they can hang around each other and not have to deal with all the stuff I just talked about. Bikers are literally every facet of the population. That's the other thing too about representing bikers is everybody assumes that I'm hanging out with guys at a saloon trying to figure out who's a drug dealer and who's got a warrant and blah, blah, blah. It's like, honestly, half the bikers that I represent are retired people who do some weekend joy riding with little clubs. Some of them in the villages. You would be shocked that they were even riding bikes at all.
To me, it's almost like a requirement if you're going to practice law in an area where you put yourself out as essentially a consumer lawyer, people who ride bikes, drive cars, walk, eat, drink. This is what we do. There's bikers, why not get to know them?
Chris Dreyer:
Leading up the National Academy of Motorcycle Injury Lawyers, obviously there's a trust, there's a kinship. Have you found that being part of that community has lended itself to more referrals? It reminds me of you know when you want a new car and you're like, "Oh, I want this new," whatever car, but let's call it a Ranger Rover. Then you see it on the road all the time, but it's always been there, but you just never noticed it. Is it one of those things where you're attracting motorcycle accidents being part of the community?
Jason Melton:
My real motivation in being a part of the group originally, I just wanted to do a better job at what I was already doing because I was already representing bikers and I knew that I knew a lot, but I knew I didn't know everything. Be it safety issues, cross-examination techniques, things to look at on accident scenes. Then there's the other side, the marketing side. I had no marketing plan for bikers, I was using the same marketing for bikers as I was for car accident victims. Certainly through those networks and all of our meetings and mastermind meetings, and I love the PILMMA Mastermind group that I'm in. What's great about NAMIL is that we have our own mastermind through NAMIL.
For me, personally, I've really expanded my network of lawyers that I know throughout the country because essentially I'm in two different mastermind groups. The network of people that you meet just through those two organizations, that's going to be some number X of the investment in being in those groups just through referrals. You're just helping each other out. It works the other way too. It's not just people sending me stuff in Florida. It helps that people like to vacation in our state, but we get cases where the people, because it's Florida, frankly, less people are from here. We'll have cases where a friend of mine referred me a case of a woman who was hurt down in The Keys. She lived up in Indiana. I needed his help to handle all the medical part of the case up in Indiana because I don't know those doctors. I don't know what's appropriate for billing. I don't know which doctors had licensing issues and yada, yada, yada. Right? He obviously needed my help because it was a case in Florida, worked together on it, and it was an awesome experience for everybody.
There's so many reasons why these groups work. That, to me, is the most obvious one. But certainly getting involved in a lot of the grassroots marketing is very helpful. There's so many ways to skin a cat. You don't have to be that person at all the bike rallies to be successful in doing this. Honestly, I'm probably the best example because I do the least of what is mostly known for our group because I have just done things differently. It may be because I have a lot on my plate right now. It may also be because I don't ride. I'm certainly not going to take pictures of me with a helmet on screeching around a corner through some sort of animation to make it look like I'm riding a bike. I want all my insurance claims to do well for no other reason in my office because I don't want those insurance adjusters to think they can get away with something with me with certain types of cases.
If it's cruise injuries, if it's nursing home abuse, med mal, car accident, motorcycle accident, slip and fall, whatever it is, I want them to know that it's going to be a long day and they see my name on a file. They're going to have to really work for it. I'm not giving away anything. I think for those of us who have sort of medium-sized offices and handle different types of cases, that should be our goal, I think.
Chris Dreyer:
We talked about being out there at the grassroots, the social media being authentic, and taking cases where you can really serve the client and going deeper so that you can provide them more value and then keep the insurance companies at bay, so to speak, and not low balling you and holding them accountable to pay out what's deserved. How has your marketing evolved? How has your firm evolved through the visibility, the growth, the distribution that you've created?
Jason Melton:
Well, certainly the firm has grown in size. Interestingly, the number of cases hasn't grown at the same rate that the firm has grown. A lot of that has to do with what types of cases we handle now versus what types of cases we used to handle. We're way more discriminating than we were 10 years ago, 15 years ago. We were really hell-bent on growing early on. I was taking way more risks with files than I do now. I'm not saying I only take obvious cases now, but there needs to be a recognizable upside on a case for us to move forward on it. Whereas before, I would venture into court on cases that were really, really borderline.
If nothing else, I was just super thirsty for the experience, and I was willing to take the risk, and I looked at it like if I can spend 20 grand on a client and just get crazy amounts of experience and get my money back, but don't make any money, but just do enough to just get my money back and let the client feel like he got his money's worth. You know what I mean? For a case that wasn't that good. Honestly, that helped me develop a reputation in the community is being very aggressive and somebody who doesn't lie down.
We're still as aggressive as we were back then, and we're going to do everything we can to push the limits of recovery. But in terms of what we take, I think we've probably dialed that back a little bit. That's affected our numbers a bit. I think also in the last two or three years, especially the advent of maybe the worst advertising product that I've ever seen as a lawyer has garnered so much use that our numbers have dropped a little bit in terms of volume size, and that's the LSA, what a horrible product. It's the most unethical, monstrous product that they have rolled out. They should really be embarrassed about what they did in our space.
When they rolled that product out. Just for those watching, I'm talking about the local service ads that Google had now has. It's the top of almost every search you do. They initially rolled that out with home services. Right? Air conditioners and plumbing. The idea was, which is why they called it local service ads, was to match up consumers with local leaders on the topic that they were searching for. They tried it with, I think immigration lawyers in Austin, Texas and maybe bankruptcy lawyers in a few other communities. It seemed to work okay. They said, "Okay, let's open up the floodgates." And in Florida, it's a complete free for all. Lawyers in Miami frequently show up for searches in Spring Hill, Florida, which if you look on a map, there's literally no reason for that to occur. It makes no sense.
If the product is a local service ad, if that's what it deems to be, then they have failed and they have failed miserably. They've failed the public too, because now the public is hiring law firms that are 500 miles away who will absolutely tell them that they can handle their case. Ethically, there's no reason why they can't. They're a Florida lawyer, they're licensed to take the case. They're going to end up calling me or some other person for either help or to co-counsel the case or something because they actually can't handle the case. They don't know the doctors. They're not familiar with courts, and they also don't want the case, ultimately. They say they want it, but they don't really want it. The case might be worth 30, 50 grand and it's local. They don't really want that case if there's not enough juice for the squeeze, as they say.
That just murders the market for the consumer. How are they to trust what they're getting when they search on Google or Bing or whatever. That product, to me, that's the biggest barrier to clean advertising that we have right now in our industry is LSA. It's a very powerful product, but I do not like the way it's used right now.
Chris Dreyer:
I 1000% agree because here's the deal, if you want to spend the money on Google Ads, spend the money. On LSA, region response and review, like well the region, as you mentioned, doesn't even work. Reviews, well that penalizes the litigating firms that have higher case selection criteria, and that incentivizes the settlement firms that just do volume that don't take anything to trial. I'm with you.
Jason Melton:
For those of us who also do criminal law, you can imagine the sorts that we get on the phone sometimes who want to hire us and have difficulty with rejection and truth and these sorts of things, and they leave crazy reviews. The whole process is so flawed, but ultimately, it's what you first said. If they want to spend a bunch of money, there's a product for it. It's pay-per-click. They can do it. But if Google wants to do something for consumers under the umbrella of local service ad, well then do that. Don't just do ad. That's all it is is ad. There's no local service. There's nothing local and there's no service being done.
Chris Dreyer:
I completely agree. Jason, this has been amazing. This has been such a fun conversation with your expertise of growing your firm through social media, through being a part of the motorcycle community, and just your thoughts on growing a firm. What's next for your firm and how can our audience get in touch with you?
Jason Melton:
My law firm is Whittel and Melton, and the web address is thefllawfirm.com, as in T-H-E. If you are interested in virtual assistants, that group is Regents Remote Services, which is regentsrs.com, and we can provide medical doctors in Mexico to do medical summaries and request records. We can provide lawyers to be legal assistants. You can have your own call team instead of using a call service where they're only answering your calls, not somebody else's and 500 other people. It's awesome. Those are the two fastest ways to get ahold of me. Obviously, any injuries in Florida, if we don't handle it, I'm happy to give you somebody very specifically who I deem to be really good in their field having been practicing for as long as we have in Florida. Yeah, but I really appreciate, Chris, you having me on. It's been fun.
Chris Dreyer:
Thanks so much for Jason for sharing us wisdom today. Let's hit the takeaways. Time for the pinpoints. You are the best asset. Diving into social media marketing is so much easier when you are simply yourself. Tap into what you know best, you. Don't try to be someone you're not. Let your unique personality and passions shine through. Your followers will appreciate and connect with the real you.
Jason Melton:
So I was like, "You know what? I'm just going to do something that's me. If it doesn't work, at least I know I did me." If that content, which is going to be out there essentially forever, I will feel comfortable having someone try to use it against me.
Chris Dreyer:
Be honest, you don't necessarily need insider credentials like a homegrown legacy firm to build trust within a niche community. If you want to serve motorcycle accident victims, but don't ride yourself, that's okay. Come from a place of genuine care and desire to help. Share your story and highlight why this group matters to you. Authenticity goes a long way.
Jason Melton:
I'm currently the president of the National Academy of Motorcycle Injury Lawyers, and I don't ride. I've never ridden, but I work in an area of Florida where lots of people ride. I'm certainly not going to take pictures of me with a helmet on, screeching around a corner through some sort of animation to make it look like I'm riding a bike. One of the great things about being a lawyer, it may be the best part about being a lawyer, is that you get to take on the causes and challenges of your clients no matter where they come from.
Chris Dreyer:
Seek your squad. An established referral base takes time. To speed it up, join masterminds and networking groups tailored to your niche. Connect with leaders are already serving the community. Learn from those around you. Building relationships and adding value for others seed future referrals. With consistent outreach, you can organically grow your niche network nationwide.
Jason Melton:
I had no marketing plan for bikers. I was using the same marketing for bikers as I was for car accident victims. Certainly through those networks and all of our meetings and mastermind meetings, and I love the PILMMA Mastermind Group that I'm in. What's great about NAMIL is that we have our own mastermind through NAMIL. For me personally, I've really expanded my network of lawyers that I know throughout the country.
Chris Dreyer:
For more information about Jason and Whittel and Melton, check out the show notes. While you're there, please hit that follow button so you never miss an episode of Personal Injury Mastermind with me, Chris Dreyer, founder and CEO of Rankings.io. All right everybody, thanks for hanging out. See you next time. I'm out.
