Len Spada

Len Spada (00:00)
As a white guy growing up in a white community, we thought of people who spoke Spanish as, they're Spanish, right? It's a language. It's not a culture.

Kevin Daisey (00:10)
How's it going everyone? What's going on? We are recording and I got a cool guy here with me today. Knows a lot of folks that we all know. We got Lynn on the show. Just kind of talking with Lynn here, just a little bit about, you know, different folks that we know. Met Lynn actually in person. I think I was talking to Gary Sarner. Everyone probably knows who Gary is.

But we also know a lot of other folks, Charlie Mann, just had him on the show recently. Um, and of course, Ben and Brian Glass through great legal marketing. We were talking about Bob Simon and all these other folks that we know and events, but we met down at NTL in Miami. And, uh, of course I invited him to come on the show and, uh, we got some cool stuff to talk about, you know, really, Lynn's got a little, a special little niche. He's up by Boston, but.

He's really done well in the Hispanic community and wants to kind of talk about how that has been going for him, but also he doesn't speak Spanish himself. So, interesting combination there, but cool to hear a Lynn story and share some of that today. So Lynn, welcome.

Len Spada (01:18)
Thank you for having me, Kevin. It's good to be here.

Kevin Daisey (01:20)
Absolutely. Yeah. So, uh, you know, I always liked it at first, you know, for those that might not know who you are, imagine, I can't imagine who they would be, but like to have you introduce yourself, introduce yourself, tell us about your firm and, um, and your story.

Len Spada (01:28)
Yeah.

Sure, well, again, thank you. My name is Len Spada and I am up in the Boston area. I have a firm, the of the firm is Spada Law Group. We have been in business practicing exclusively plaintiffs' personal injury work since 1998. From 1998 to about eight years ago, we operated under the name of Spada and Zulo. And we were partners for 18 years, my partner Vincent Zulo and myself.

And then unfortunately, about eight years ago, he passed away suddenly. And we changed the name of the firm to Spada Law Group. It's been operating continuously, but due to certain ethical regulations here in Massachusetts, I had to change the name. So we've been known as Spada Law Group. have about, I believe we are now 12 under roof, soon to have three VAs. So we're about 15 or 16 altogether.

And our niche here, as you alluded to, we are predominantly servicing the Spanish community in the Boston area. And when I say predominantly, I just recently did the numbers. We're about 60 % of our clients identify as Spanish speakers. The other 40%, which we identify in our case management software as English speakers, when we do a deeper dive, that 40 % is actually

There's a significant percentage of that 40 % who are bilingual, who are second generation, they live with parents who speak Spanish, et cetera. So all told, I would say 70 % or more of our clients identify as Hispanics.

Kevin Daisey (03:12)
Wow. That's impressive. mean, so, and you're in a Northern state, you know, New England. And, you know, I talked to law firms, even clients that are even Southern states, more prominent, you would think. And they don't embrace Spanish speaking or they don't lean into it. They actually kind of lean away from it. Which I agree, if you're not going to fulfill it and help, then stay away from it. But.

Len Spada (03:19)
Yep.

Kevin Daisey (03:38)
You've got to see the opportunities that are out there for sure.

Len Spada (03:41)
Yeah, it's just, you if you had told me 25 years ago, you know, Len, in 2025, will be predominantly representing Spanish speakers. I would have thought you were crazy because I'm practicing where I actually grew up as a child. I grew up in Boston. So if you've ever flown into Boston, you fly into Logan International Airport. It's not, I'm not, this isn't hyperbole. Like you fly and you look down and you see my childhood home. That's how close it was, you know, it was,

Kevin Daisey (03:48)
you

Len Spada (04:09)
a very urban upbringing. So when I got out of law school, I was a prosecutor in Boston, and all my professional and social roots were in the city. You know, of course, I got married and moved out of the city. But I've always worked in and around Boston. In this neighborhood that I'm in, I'm in the city of Chelsea. And Chelsea is, I can leave my

Kevin Daisey (04:34)
Okay.

Len Spada (04:37)
office and walk to Boston in about eight minutes or six minutes, know, less. And I can walk to my childhood home in 12 minutes. So it's a border city to Boston. And it's almost all Hispanics. used to be when I was a kid growing up, Polish, Italian, and then slowly, you know, the demographics changed like they do in many

urban settings. So when we first started practicing here, we weren't focused on marketing to Latinos, but they came to us because of the proximity to where they live. And they were great clients. And, you know, as a backstory, my family is all from Italy. And we all live together. You know, my Italian immigrants, my grandparents came over, all four of my grandparents. We all lived in one triple decker. It's like, you know,

Kevin Daisey (05:29)
Yeah.

Len Spada (05:30)
Central casting for like the sopranos or something, but we all grew up in, you know, a triple decker. Grandparents couldn't speak the language, you know, grandchildren translating for them, helping them. Very similar to the immigrant experience that I see in the Latino community where, yeah, it's the same thing. It's just a different language as far as the challenge. I mean, the challenges now are today's day much greater, but

That whole story resonated with me. And I guess I always liked, you know, fighting for the small guy and hating the bullies, you know, that old, you know, it's a cliche. So as a prosecutor in Boston, I was always standing up for the victims of crimes. So it just was a natural transition as I moved into, worked at a big firm in Boston before I practiced on my own.

Kevin Daisey (06:08)
Yeah. Yeah.

Len Spada (06:21)
But it was a really nice career for me and it's been incredibly rewarding. even at the, you know, I'm gonna be 60 six weeks, not that I'm counting the days, you know, it's like a big birthday. And for somebody who still thinks they're 35, it's a bit traumatic. I still feel great, still active, still have a ton of energy. you know, the practice that I'm developing and building now at age 59,

Kevin Daisey (06:35)
Yeah

Len Spada (06:50)
It's very mission oriented. feel very passionate about what it is we're doing. So when people say, I'm not doing it for the money. You know, I was called BS on that. We all do it to make a living, but I'm doing it much less so at this stage in my career than I was when I was younger. And I'm really committed to building something that's outlives me and continues to serve this community. You know, it's almost like I can hear my parents saying,

Kevin Daisey (07:07)
That's awesome.

Len Spada (07:16)
you're doing a great job helping those people from other countries. My parents were always... I was the first kid... was the only kid to ever go to college. So me becoming a lawyer to my mother was... Italian, little Italian mom. Anyone she met casually, she told her son was a lawyer. It was embarrassing.

Kevin Daisey (07:36)
I can see that's awesome. Yeah. Awesome story and kind of what you're doing there. And yeah, I love Boston. My wife works for a company out of Boston. So I usually go there for around the Christmas time. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, I've been there probably a dozen times enough to, you know, navigate around and, and try different areas, a beautiful place and great people. So it's a good spot to run a firm.

Len Spada (07:47)
yeah, think so. You mentioned that. Yep.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

I feel the same way.

Kevin Daisey (08:04)
Yeah, next time I come up, I'm gonna hit you up for sure. So,

Len Spada (08:08)
Well,

my family owns several Italian restaurants in downtown Boston. I'm always, yeah, no kidding. love getting, it's funny too, because my niece in particular, they own several of them and they're all good. But I always send everybody to one, to the point where she's like, do you think the others are not as good? I'm like, no, this one is definitely the best part of your collection of restaurants. So I will make sure to take good care of you the next time you're in Boston.

Kevin Daisey (08:14)
Now we're talking.

Excellent. Yeah. We, we just had the Parker house. not everybody.

Len Spada (08:41)
Yeah,

that's not slumming it. That's good living.

Kevin Daisey (08:44)
That's a fun. We've, I was at the Seaport area or something like that. I've been over there. I prefer the older area, but, but anyway, well, yeah.

Len Spada (08:51)
It has more character. I agree

with you. The older area has much more character, but the seaport is a really bustling popular place.

Kevin Daisey (08:58)
It's blowing up so So, know, guess back to like, you know what you're doing in some of the strategies. Um, yeah, I just pulled up some data before we jumped on and you know, it's like 71 % of the population growth last year was Hispanic speaking And it's like 65 million which is like almost 19 % of the total population and the obviously is growing rapidly so and then some of the states like your state and

Many other states that are not necessarily Southern States, you know, have massive, you know, amounts of Spanish speaking. So it's a lot of opportunity for law firms out there that either are not capitalizing on it or they're not, they're not, you the websites don't translate or they don't have someone to answer the phone and to speak with someone. cause there's also a lot of Spanish speaking, they said they're bilingual. They might come to you because you offer Spanish and services in Spanish. It doesn't mean they have to speak to you.

only in Spanish. And so not just think of that, that that available is for any lawyer listening, I think it's a huge opportunity and growth area for them. So I would think that, you know, just lean into it and, and explore that.

Len Spada (09:52)
That's true.

I'm shocked and quite frankly happy in my market that they're not. It provides much more. But I'm also I do think it's a greatly underserved community and there's enough work for everyone. I'm really, you know, don't get me wrong, in my younger career, I didn't lean into it. So I look back sometime and say to myself,

Kevin Daisey (10:09)
You

Len Spada (10:29)
How could I have been so blind? I was so busy litigating cases, trying cases that I never came up for air to think about, you know, how should I be marketing my firm? It's cliche. You can work in the business or on the business. I was a trial lawyer and coming out of the DA's office in a big firm, I tried a lot of cases and my partner was a marketer. You know, he could talk a dog off of me truck. He was able to get the phone ringing. He was charismatic.

Everybody liked him, his family owned businesses. So he was very comfortable with his lane in the firm. It's making it rain. And I was the worker, I was the person that was the one that give some authority to the firm that we could actually handle the cases and take them to court. And it was a really good partnership that way. But when he passed away, I was faced with a, okay,

We know that I can try cases, but that's not really enough to continue to my those days of being, he's a good lawyer. She's a good lawyer. Don't have to worry about marketing. Those days are over and I believe they're over forever for most people. OK, now, if you're a lawyer that's only routinely just trying cases and getting, you know, eight, nine figure verdicts, other lawyers find you. You can actually with minimal marketing skill continue to function in that environment.

But for the vast majority of lawyers, need to have some marketing savvy. And I had none and I had no business savvy. So I was confronted with, for a period of time, walking in both lanes, trying to market, bringing the cases in, litigating them, trying to run a business, trying to learn how to run a business. I mean, my partner has been gone now for eight years and I feel like I've gotten my bachelor's degree.

Kevin Daisey (12:14)
Ha ha ha.

Len Spada (12:20)
my master's degree and working on a PhD on, you know, business, basic business skills for a law firm. And when I say working on a degree, it's probably cost me as much as a bachelor's and a PhD with all the, you know, training and learning and masterminds and things that I've been trying to do for myself in the firm. So, yeah, I'm just shocked at how much opportunities out there that people are not taking advantage of, you know, and I mean,

taking advantage of an opportunity, not a client base.

Kevin Daisey (12:51)
Sure. No, absolutely. Well, you know, interesting story too, cause you know, you were forced into, gotta learn all this stuff now. Similar to like, when someone goes on solo on their own and then now they're not just a lawyer, they're a business owner and everything else. And I think most will stay a solo and kind of struggle through it and always be that they make a little bit. And then, you know, me and you, we know a lot of the other ones that have

Taking it to a totally different level and dove in and gone to masterminds and gone to conferences and paid to learn and soaked it up and became leaders and business owners and CEOs more so than they are lawyers. And I think that's really cool to witness. I'm a business owner. I don't do marketing myself and I haven't really in a long time. I would say I'm a marketer, but Kevin ain't doing any of your marketing for you.

So you've got to make that decision at some point and say, I've got to figure out the business of this.

Len Spada (13:49)
It's a tough one

to make sometimes for some people because my identity was truly, my professional identity was truly tied to the skill and competency that I had developed as a trial lawyer. felt very at home in the courtroom. I enjoyed it. was, it was a competitive outlet that once you, you you're past the age of competing in any type of athletics or sports or something, it really satisfied a need to remain

a competitive person for me and you were doing good work. I if you did your job well and you developed skills, you were truly helping people. And I know that's, it's corny people are sick of hearing it. like to help people. went to law school to help you. And it is sometimes when I hear them, like, you know, I believe you, but a lot of people probably think you're full of it, you know, but it's helping being able to be in a career where you can exercise your competitive juices. Right.

flex those muscles, do really good work for people and really try to make a terrible situation somewhat better by your efforts, right? And personal injury work and the prospect of making a really good living. If you get good at it, you can have a really nice life and you still know that you're going to work every day doing something that's very worthwhile. I mean, what's better than that? I mean, to me, like there are a lot of unhappy lawyers, you're not looking at one.

And I've never been one really. So it's, I feel blessed in that sense, you know, to truly, I was driving in today and I was thinking about it. I was stuck in traffic and I was really still like excited to get to the office. I knew I had some good things to do today, seeing some people I needed to see. I thought, and I had a moment of reflection that happens when you get older, you have these like moments, you know, and I thought to myself, I'm truly blessed.

to be my age with an office and a law firm that I love walking in. Don't get me wrong, not every day's, know, rainbows. I'm not trying to sell that. But to be excited to get out of bed and just be excited to get there and get the day started and do it. Now, by the end of the day, I'm a hot mess. I'm ready for bed at 9pm, you know, I'm dead. And then I'm okay to do it again. So it's just, not everybody gets that. I talk to people who genuinely hate going to work.

Kevin Daisey (16:06)
Yeah. mean, yeah, it's, when you're, you know, you're enjoying what you're doing. It's, it's exciting every morning to get up, pop up, let's roll. and not everybody gets that. And, you know, I think that's, that's the main reason we went into doing business for ourselves or went out on our own, you know, it can be pretty rewarding. You know, it could be terrible if you don't know what you're doing or you don't listen to people or you don't make some of the decisions you need to. Yeah.

Len Spada (16:07)
Let's go to suck.

but it's a lot harder than I thought it was. Like when I

did it, you know, I did it. And I often wonder if I knew then how hard it would be. You know, I'd probably pause long, I jumped into it, you know, both feet. Wife was eight months pregnant, I'm leaving a prestigious law firm, I'm like, yeah. And now I think back, if my son came to me with his wife, eight months pregnant, he's like, dad, I'm just gonna, I wonder if I would be.

Oh, that's not safe. Take a breath. Be more cautious. I wonder if I would tell them to do the things that I did, because you don't know if it'll turn out as well as it did for you. so it is what it is.

Kevin Daisey (17:06)
Yeah.

No, that's

good. That's interesting. I mean, I did the same thing. I was 23, was dating my wife at the time and just barely, you know, just cut my income. I'm going to start my own marketing company. And yeah, it was, you know, smack in the face pretty quick, but I never, never turned back. but yeah, it's, know, I'm talking to younger entrepreneurs all the time. Like, I'm always like, so excited when they're like, yeah, I just started my own thing. I'm like, that's awesome.

Len Spada (17:34)
It is awesome. Yeah.

Kevin Daisey (17:35)
No matter what it is, you know, and you want to see them succeed. But yeah, are they going to have hard times? A hundred percent guaranteed. But they need that. If you don't have those bad times and hard times, you're not going to grow and get through it. And you're going to be a terrible owner and a bad leader. And, so you kind of need to go through those painful moments. I wanted to throw. go ahead.

Len Spada (17:45)
No, yeah.

That's why as we get older,

mentoring is such an important part too.

Kevin Daisey (18:00)
That's true. just was on with an agency owner, a young kid out of New Jersey. He linked in me and said, Hey, I would love to like chat with you and like, follow you and stuff. And so I just got done talking to the guy. He's started his own marketing, like social media for lawyers and a sharp kid and just started doing his own thing. And I just spent a 15 minute call chatting with him on, you know,

Len Spada (18:20)
It's nice. Nice of you to give you time

that way. do the same and I get a lot out of it. I recently wrote a newsletter article about how I feel about it. I never knew I would like that. It's time away from what you're doing, but for me, it's hugely rewarding to try to help somebody young that's going through it. Not as like some old sage, but just imagine if you can just take a couple of obstacles out of their way.

I just think it's a nice way of giving back. And it also shows the younger generation that, this is a pretty decent profession. People can be, because there's a lot of fighting. I'm in litigation, so people are always fighting with each other. It's an adversarial, you know, we're not doing deals. We're fighting each other. We're suing people. I just think some of the young people I mentor walk away thinking, OK.

I can do this. looks like he's had a good life and it gives them some hope and some positivity that I'm going to do this. I'm going to do a good job. Len did it I'm going to do it. I make myself available. I think it's the right thing to do. think more experienced lawyers should. I shit, I could write a book with all the mistakes I made. That would be so selfish not to at some point, some way say,

These are all the things I did wrong. You can go ahead and do them again yourself if you want, but if you're smart enough to listen and just look at some of the things I made a huge mistake on, you're gonna make other mistakes, but you just won't make these, you know what saying? Yeah.

Kevin Daisey (19:52)
Hey, exactly. No, that's

a rewarding part of, of all this and all the attorneys that I know and been on the show here, they all can share so much and they, they do. Now I want to kind of go back to like a previous thing, a weird story. I just a bit ago, I got a call and like a form fill on my website for a lady looking for a lawyer for a cosmetic product injury or something like that. And I called her and I was like, Hey,

We're not a law firm. actually do marketing for law firms, but let me see who I know and tell me some basic stuff. And I'll reach out to a few folks, she's in California. And, but she's like, yeah, I've talked to a bunch of lawyers. haven't been very helpful. Some have been pushed, you know, they're not helpful. They're, don't know what's going on. And I was like, listen, there's a lot of great lawyers out there that want to help you. So you can find one. They exist. So I was like, all the ones I know are.

amazing and they they're out there helping people so but immediately she was you know i don't know how she found me but yeah

Len Spada (20:50)
I know that's interesting. You

can go check your keywords, right?

Kevin Daisey (20:53)
I know. Right. But, yeah, well, we come up with like law firm SEO and law firm marketing, but regardless, I'm going to try to connect her. But my point with her was has some great lawyers out there that can help you. And, I apologize. You haven't found one that that's been, you know, responsive to you, but we're going to see what we can do. So, but back to that, I mean, yeah, there's just so many great people in this community and, they want to share, and that are.

actively mentoring and helping other lawyers out there. So there's any young lawyer out there listening, like there's so many resources and so many good people like Len and others that are happy to help share information or guide you through this. Yeah.

Len Spada (21:29)
There are. There are. I

know many.

Kevin Daisey (21:32)
Yeah. But you guys got to open yourself up, put yourself out there. If you show up to any of these legal events or NTL or you got Charlie's group or great legal marketing open arms. Well, you'll meet people the first day and you can ask questions and they'll dial you right into the right people. So, there's a lot of good resources out there for sure. And that's coming from me. Who's a marketer trying to sell lawyers marketing all day. Very,

Very good community. you know, I've been pretty accepted. So I appreciate that. So, so anything else you want to share Lynn on, you know, the Hispanic, you know, community, is there anything specific that you've done that you felt, you know, proximity, obviously, your website has Spanish, you have a call, a number, it looks like for Spanish speaking. Anything else that you've done, do you do any like outreach campaigns or anything like that that's been successful?

Len Spada (22:26)
I

think just starting from like, you know, the 30,000 foot view, there are going to be people potentially who are watching this and be like, okay, there are opportunities that exist. Let me explore them. And I, I truly feel this way. I feel like if you are making an attempt to get into the Spanish community and you're genuinely not interested in doing so for any other reason but the money, I think you're better.

off spending your money, time and effort elsewhere where you truly have a passion. Because it's not something it comes with some unique challenges. And if you're not, if it's not a vision or a passion to help a particular group of people, whether they be Hispanics or Asians or, cause there are other communities that, you know, underserved and, you know, the language is, is completely foreign and it's a barrier.

You need to start from that. Is this something you feel like you could, that would resonate with you, that you really, you know, want to help? Okay. Then, then, then you take the next step. And what I learned in my years of doing business here in this community is that

As a white guy growing up in a white community, we thought of people who spoke Spanish as, they're Spanish, right? It's a language. It's not a culture.

And the myriad of cultures who share the language of Spanish are so diverse. they're as different as an Italian from an Irishman, from a German, from a Frenchman or whatever. They're very different. They just have this common development. And they amongst themselves,

Kevin Daisey (23:57)
Mm-hmm.

Len Spada (24:00)
feel very culturally different. If you take somebody from one part of Central America and you take somebody from South America and they speak the same language, you might, if you're not culturally sensitive, just assume that they get along, that they have the same cultures, that they don't. They're extremely different. it depends too where you practice. So if you're practicing in a particular geographic area,

Kevin Daisey (24:17)
Yeah.

Len Spada (24:26)
Learn the culture, learn what ethnic groups comprise your Hispanic or Latino community, and then learn a little bit. Educate yourself. It's actually really fun to continue to learn about these cultures and then see what you can do to make your office, your staff, your practice, not just have Spanish capabilities, but have cultural capabilities as well. Okay. And by understanding that, you know, for example, we have

You we have 14, 15 people who speak Spanish, but we have people from different cultures. We have a Colombian and El Salvadorian, Honduran, Guatemalan, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, you know, from various ethnic groups within the Spanish speaking community, which really makes the place, it's a very welcoming place. So if you come to my office and you're not an English speaker,

No one ever answers my phone ever who doesn't speak Spanish. You never get the, you know, well, a moment though, you know, I mean, you don't get that, you know, when they, when they try to go find somebody. So now I know not everyone watching this can go out and start hiring. I didn't do that either. I mean, we started slowly, but you start by hiring somebody preferably from the community in which you would like to be of service. Okay. For a number of reasons. One is they are sensitive to what's going on.

Kevin Daisey (25:27)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Len Spada (25:46)
They're also an unbelievable source of business. You know, I found that staff members, know, and not only that, you know, people come to this country from other countries, if you treat them with decency, respect, and diligence, they don't know anyone else. They don't want to talk to anyone else. I get calls now from people that I represented, you know, 25 years ago who will not call anyone else. And they, and I, you know, now they're business people and they're calling me for

Kevin Daisey (25:51)
yeah, that's a point.

Len Spada (26:13)
you know, intellectual property issues or license. don't, I don't do any of that, but I'm still there person that they trust that, you know, and you can monetize all these referrals. learned that the hard way too. For years, I was just like, we don't do that. we don't do that. And somebody at one of these marketing groups says, Len, you're an idiot. And that person was right. Because since I have listened to them, I'm not exaggerating that it's, it's resulted in millions of dollars in referral fees.

that I monetize. Now, granted, I paid for the lead through pay per click or TV or whatever, but instead of just tossing it away and you're not doing the client any favor, you're not helping that person. You're just sending them off into the world, like, can't help you, as opposed to... And that's what's happened. And that's really been...

Kevin Daisey (26:46)
Yeah.

You want to be that go-to connector, right? That person that, yeah, hey, Lynn, I need a plumber.

Who you got?

Len Spada (27:03)
Well,

and I don't get that too often, but you do get some really bizarre requests. You know, it's a bizarre request. And in the Latino community and culture, abogado means abogado for everything. And I'm like, it doesn't really work, you know?

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Kevin Daisey (28:47)
So yeah, I mean, kind of going back to some of the things you said there were amazing information. Like for, you know, I saw this the other day, I talked to a lawyer down in Florida who had Spanish speaking on his site and, and it translated and he had all that stuff, but talking through actually his coach that referred me to them. So yeah, he doesn't like Spanish speaking clients and he kind of.

Is abrasive to him a little bit. He's not really wants to do that, but his site says he does it. I'm like, well, don't do it. Just no, just remove it completely. Lean into what you want to do. Just like you said, I think it's a great tip. I also, yeah, I love what you said about if you really want to help, like do the education, really get involved and do it the right way.

Len Spada (29:17)
That's not gonna work, fine.

I don't

Yeah, I you have to have

the genuine interest in it. can't force it.

Kevin Daisey (29:40)
It's not a marketing tactic.

Len Spada (29:41)
You can't force it on me.

Kevin Daisey (29:43)
Yeah, I think that's great advice. So anyone listening to that, you want to get into the Hispanic market, I think it's great. There's tons of opportunity there. But do it the right way and learn, educate yourself.

Len Spada (29:57)
I think so.

Like anything, if you're not really into it, I don't think you'll ever be truly successful or truly good at it. And over time, you'll be exposed for someone who's doing it strictly for financial gain. And there's nothing wrong with financial gain because in our business, the only way we really truly have financial gain is if we're really good at what we do. There are many plaintiffs, personal injury lawyers who struggle, who aren't very good at it.

and they find it to be a very difficult way to make a living. So, yeah, but anyway, there's a lot of things too. you know, we've just been honing in, like we're on Spanish, we don't advertise in English medium. we're not, we do very little in the way of English PPC or LSAs. We're on Spanish, we sponsor the Spanish.

Kevin Daisey (30:50)
That's awesome.

Len Spada (30:51)
radio station, the network here. So it's the Spada Law Group studio, the 97.7 Rumba, we're on Univision, Telemundo. You know, we're involved in civic activities, community activities of Latino based nonprofits in the community. So we try to do things in the community so that they don't just see us on TV, they'll see us at a food drive or they'll see us at, you know, a health fair.

something else. We're there. And they get a kick out of that because of my commercials. I do speak some Spanish, but not enough that I would put on my resume proficient or conversational. And sometimes I'll have a Spanish speaking client come in and I'll get a little through the conversation. And then I look at them and I'll be like, finito. Like I'm done. I've exhausted all my Spanish. And they laugh and they appreciate the effort.

Kevin Daisey (31:32)
You

Len Spada (31:47)
And they appreciate what it is that they're walking into and know that everybody there is able to communicate with them and able to communicate with them culturally, culturally too. So there's a big difference, not just language.

Kevin Daisey (32:01)
That's awesome. mean, yeah, when we first started, I didn't realize for one, how much percentage of your clients were Spanish speaking and then how much you're, you're really leaning into it with all your advertising and all that stuff. So like you're, you're not just dabbling in it. Like it's your thing, which is awesome.

Len Spada (32:16)
My

billboards are exclusively in Spanish. I've had people who've known me my whole life say, what are you doing? I can't read your billboard. I'm like, well, I wasn't trying to attract you. And a lot of people thought that was a very bold move, but I think it made a statement to the community that I'm serving. We're here for you. This billboard, you know. But anyway, you try different things.

Kevin Daisey (32:26)
It's not for you.

Len Spada (32:44)
You try to figure out what works and you test them and see if they do work because just because you have an idea that you think might be genius, it might be the worst marketing idea in the history of marketing. You don't know. But if you're not prepared to spend some money, time and effort to test it, you're not going to know.

Kevin Daisey (33:00)
Yeah, that's awesome. I love what you've done there. have, um, you know, I have some Spanish speaking attorney clients and I have three full-time people at my company that speak fluent Spanish. Um, so it's funny, like sometimes we'll get on video calls, like client call and they'll be speaking all Spanish. like, I don't know what they're saying, but, um, but it's cool. It's definitely a different dynamic. so, or serve VESA or something like that. Yeah.

Len Spada (33:19)
You just listen for the word Kevin.

Kevin Daisey (33:27)
But no, it's cool. so anyway, I love what you're doing. Really cool story. Hopefully it's helpful for those listening out there that haven't explored this in their firms, or maybe have just thrown stuff up and have one person to answer the phone, but they don't really serve the community. I think it's something you should consider.

Len Spada (33:46)
Well, one of the things I think that I like that we're doing that I think is pretty unique is if it wasn't my idea, I don't have any original thoughts on this, but I mean, I'm a curator of good ideas is when we advertise, whether it be PPC or LSA or whatever, and we know that we're putting it out there to the Spanish community. When they reach out to us, we know.

that the person calling came to us from a Spanish effort. We answer the phone in Spanish. So just think about it. Imagine you were in Colombia or Guatemala or whatever and you got into an accident and you were hurt and you needed a lawyer and you found an ad in English that said, we can help you here in Guatemala or wherever it was, Honduras, and you call and you get, you know,

Good morning, Gomez Law Firm. It would immediately put you subconsciously, if not consciously, into a much more comfortable state. Okay, I found a place that I can at least begin to communicate my problem to, and I think I might be able to get some help. So that's what we're trying to create. We're trying to envision how we would feel if we were in a country that was foreign to us by way of language and culture, and then just reverse engineer that.

You how would I feel if the situation was I was confused and injured and, you know, anxious and nervous and whatever in another country. that was one of the things that's yeah, yeah, we have a really good consultant who works with us. You probably know his name is Liel Levy at Nanato.

Kevin Daisey (35:13)
Nah, that's good, on.

I'm not sure if I know it. I'll have to reach out to him.

Len Spada (35:26)
You should reach out to him. would

be an unbelievable podcast guest. His company is, you know, just ethically supreme. I mean, I've worked with a lot of vendors. He is he's a very successful marketing agency for lawyers who want to advertise and work in the Spanish community. But he's also extremely ethical. He and his staff like if they're not about taking your money, they won't take your money.

if your intake team stinks. Now, if they're getting leads to you and you, they're they're done with you. Okay. Until you fix what's broken. Okay. Yes. So, and he was, he was instrumental in us really spending the time needed to look at our intake team, be honest with ourselves about what we weren't doing well and how we were wasting money, making it rain when we couldn't catch the drops. You know what saying? Um, so

Kevin Daisey (35:53)
haha

I can relate with that one right there. yeah, big problem.

Len Spada (36:18)
He'd be, I think he'd be a great podcast guest. He's got a lot to offer.

Kevin Daisey (36:23)
Well, I that's smart. mean, I see it across the board with clients all the time with intake and leads and, you know, it's something that you have to focus on if you're in marketing.

Len Spada (36:33)
It's hard

to, it's hard to get it right. It's hard to do. It requires investments in people and money and training them. But I can tell you it pays huge dividends because advertising and marketing is expensive. And the best ROI I've had is doing better at capturing the leads that are coming in, turning a 65 % conversion rate to a 95 % conversion rate.

with no additional marketing spend is lots of money. Okay. I mean, that's a lot of money. so the money, so the money I spent to get it from 65 to 95 was a fraction of what I would have had to spend to just have more lead. And not only that your reputation suffers, all these leads coming in, you're doing a terrible job. It's just not, I told you, we live in an urban environment. Now we have a car alarm that will make a

Kevin Daisey (37:02)
You're paying for the visit or the click or the call already.

Len Spada (37:26)
a nice backdrop for this video. It's gone off now.

Kevin Daisey (37:29)
It's all good. It's it's real. It's real life. So, no worries. can barely hear it anyway. I'm sure the guests don't care, but you know, just, just good chairs all around. you know, just so I think anyone listen, listen to what Lynn's got to say. if you're going to go in the Hispanic community, do it intentionally and, and, and don't just do it as a marketing tactic.

Len Spada (37:51)
And for

anybody that is listening, and I mean this wholeheartedly, I'm willing to share so much more with anyone who has a genuine interest in trying to better serve the community. I will give up my time, talk to them, Zooms, whatever, because I do think it's a service that I could be providing in other markets. anybody wants to call, I'm an open book.

For me, I try as I got older to adopt more of an abundance mindset, where just share. There's a lot of work out there and even in your own market, so many people won't execute. You can tell them everything you're doing. And there's gonna be a real, real select few who will actually implement it and do the work that's necessary. And once you realize how hard it is, you're like, yeah, I'll tell you everything.

You might know how hard it is, go do it, you know? Yeah,

Kevin Daisey (38:47)
Just share. Yeah. Same

in my market. I talk to my competitors all the time and I've even had some competitors direct, well, legal marketing competitors on my podcast. So it's, there's, there's plenty of work out there. So we're not all, we're not all fits for the same people, you know?

Len Spada (38:58)
I like when I see that.

Yeah, no, I like when people do that. So I am one guy who's big in the marketing space here in Massachusetts. One of my good friends, Chris Early, he's got podcasts. He's he's Chris is Chris is

Kevin Daisey (39:11)
Yeah, Chris has been on the show

on my show like two or three times.

Len Spada (39:15)
Yeah, he's

everywhere. I'm texting him this morning and, you know, and people will be like, you know, he's a direct competitor of yours. Like, he's a friend of mine. He's a good, he's a good guy. He's a good father. He's a good husband. You know, he's not going to get all the cases. I'm not going to get all the cases. so, yeah, so sometimes people find that odd. Yeah, I really understand.

Kevin Daisey (39:23)
Chris is awesome.

I know, right? Yeah. I mean, people, if I taught them,

can better, you know, it's the same. get the same feedback sometimes like, why are, why are you talking to them? Or why did you have them on your show? Which might give them, you know, some marketing, free marketing.

Len Spada (39:48)
Chris

and I have shared some, not confidential, but some really important information about what we're doing or what we're struggling with. I'm there to help him and I called him two days ago about employee compensation, like lawyer compensation. Hey, listen, I'm struggling trying to devise a comp plan for a couple of new lawyers. He's just like open book.

Kevin Daisey (40:14)
Yeah,

Chris is awesome.

Len Spada (40:16)
Watch,

I'll get off this call and he'll have hired one of them and I'll be all upset.

Kevin Daisey (40:20)
no. Chris has been on the show a few times. He'll be on more. We chat all the time on LinkedIn as well. So yeah, good people out there. guess the story is here. Just great people out there. Everyone that's been on the show is amazing and everyone's willing to share. And then of course, Lynn's sharing today with what he's been successful at with the Hispanic community. So Lynn, I want to get you on your way. What's the best way other lawyers listening in that are like, you know what? want to do that in my market.

or just pick your brain, what's the best way for them to contact you?

Len Spada (40:51)
give you

an email. Anyone can email me and I'll give you my cell number. If somebody wants to call me and is genuine about trying to help the community, call me. My email is lspada at spadalawgroup.com and my cell phone number is 617-256-4005. Call me, send me a text and like I said, we'll talk.

Kevin Daisey (41:14)
And as always, if you want me, I'll do a intro email to, so reach out to me if that's easier and I'll do a direct connection to, to both of you and make sure you can connect. So, well, then thank you so much for sharing today. Awesome story. great stuff that you're doing. You're passionate about it. It's working well. And,

Len Spada (41:25)
Exit.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me, Kevin. I appreciate it.

Kevin Daisey (41:34)
Absolutely. Everyone out there, put your heads down, dig in, grow your law firms. There's plenty of help out there and we'll see you out there and about, and we'll see you on the next show. See you later. Bye.

Len Spada (41:44)
Thank you.