Mike Morse runs Detroit's largest personal-injury firm with 150 staff and $150-160M in annual verdicts. He credits delegation as his most important leadership skill and uses Gino Wickman's Traction system with a daily scorecard to track every key metric. His firm's humorous, authentic TV ads won national awards by breaking the mold of typical legal advertising.
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
My name is Mike Morse. I'm an attorney in Detroit, Michigan. I run the largest personal injury firm firm here in Michigan with 150 legal professionals, and we do about $150, $160 million a year in total verdicts and settlements.
Well, Mike, it's a pleasure to have you on the show. Question number 2: What is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?
Bad legal commercials. They are everywhere. They're— they make you cringe, and I'm a lawyer and they make me cringe. And so when I decided to advertise on 10 years ago, I decided I was going to do the opposite of my competitors. And I came up with a, I think, a winning formula. I've won national awards for our TV commercials, which can all be seen on the Mike Morse Law Firm YouTube page. And I think they're fun. I think they're different. I think they show off who I really am. And they're a a breath of fresh air. And people email me all the time that they pause my commercials, they rewatch them. And that's, it's great for my industry because as I said earlier, most commercials are laugh-worthy, cringe-worthy. And I just, I never wanted to do that.
Oh, I'm so glad of that. And I absolutely agree with you about the cringe-worthiness. It's like, oh my gosh, whenever I see one of those. So thank you for, you know, changing the tide on that with your firm. Pleasure. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
I think the chapter on delegation is the, uh, one that they should read, uh, first. I, uh, the coaching that I do with business leaders and CEOs and visionaries of businesses and law firms, I think that the single quality they're lacking is, is the ability to delegate things that they don't love to do and they're not great at. And I could go on and on with that answer, but it's, it's, it's just the most important thing for happiness, for them to find the space to work on their business and, and figure out what's important in their business. And once people do that, once I did it, it was a game changer in my business and freed me up to focus on what was important rather than running around doing all the things that all the business leaders do that they shouldn't be doing.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, because time is so, so much of a valuable asset. And as you're saying there, if you utilize your time for the really important stuff and you delegate the, the menial tasks that someone else can do, you're going to have a more effective company or more effective impact on your company, I should say. Am I right?
I think so. I think it's, it's the number one thing that I would recommend.
Awesome. Question number 4: other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, or care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
Well, those are good ones, but, you know, for, for business leaders, what we are focusing on other than delegation is know your numbers. Most business leaders that I sit down with and they say, Michael, we read your book, we love your book Fireproof, but we, we, you know, they—
we're missing things.
And I say, okay, well, tell me how much me how many things you sold or how many clients you signed up this week. They don't know. How long does it take to have a client go through your law firm? They didn't know. What is your forecasted model for this year? They don't know. And without knowing your basic data points, I'm not sure how people are making good decisions. I won't make a decision in my business without knowing the data behind it. If somebody brings me a question and there's data, I ask my COO to get the data together and let's make a smart decision rather than just making, uh, you know, go with a gut decision, which sometimes you have to do. But if there's data, then my suggestion is that every business leader knows every single number from how many phone calls, how long are people on the phone, um, when are they calling, the times they calling. And that's 4 points out of, uh, 500 points that everybody should be tracking on a daily, weekly Monthly basis, not a yearly basis, way more than that.
I love that. And it's, you know, it reminds me of the book Traction, where you're really, you're measuring the metrics. And because if you don't measure those metrics, how do you know whether or not you're improving or not improving? Am I right?
Well, Gino Wickman, who wrote Traction, is my personal coach for the last 13 years. So it's funny that you just brought up his book, which is one of my, one of the first books that got me to where I'm going. My book, Fireproof, mentions Traction. Gives— Gina Wickman wrote my foreword in my book. And so, I'm a big believer in that. And he taught me how to love my numbers, how to make a really good jumbotron or scorecard, which I look at every single day. And it's just critical.
Yeah. And I totally agree with you on that book too. So, I'm glad that you appreciate it as much as I do. Small world. All right. Well, question number 5. What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
You know, I think John Notch Hazel, my co-author, that's how you spell it, uh, Notch Hazel would be a great guest to talk to business leaders about data, which is his forte. Um, he's my integrator, so he's, he's running my business, which is unusual because I'm a law firm. He's, he's an MBA. And so he, he has a lot of great opinions. And, you know, different insight than I do. We come at it completely opposite, but we run my business together. So I think he'd be a good guest for you.
Perfect. I look forward to talking to him. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
So my first job was being a busboy at a restaurant, and I was 14 years old, and it was the only job that I could get, and I wanted to make money. I used to ride my bike and then my moped once I could afford a moped to the little Ram's Horn restaurant here in my town. And I'm telling you, it taught me a ton. It taught me about customer service. It taught me how to multitask. It taught me the value of a dollar, how hard I worked, how the backbreaking, the sweat, the grime to make $20, $30, $40. And from such a young age, It gave me the appreciation of a dollar. And I think kids these days, mine included, don't want to work at 14, don't want to break their backs at a restaurant, but it really set me up for success. I then went on to— I waited, I bussed for years, and then I waited tables. And I've always said that I could write a book on all of the things that waiting tables and bussing tables taught me to be an excellent businessman and trial lawyer. There are just so many things. That I learned and I recommend for every person listening, you know, not only get a job early on, but when you're hiring people, if you see people with service industry, prior service industry on the resume, take a really good hard look at them.
I completely agree with you. I did busing as well when I was a teenager. And it was such hard work, as you said, for very little money. Also got an appreciation for the rest of the kitchen crew. Because, you know, if you've never worked in a kitchen, you have no idea how how much work there goes into making that final presentation of the food to the table.
I agree with you. You know what? It sets everybody up for life because you know how to read a table. You know how to read a room. At a young age, I was dealing with a manager, right? Somebody, God knows how old they were. When you're 14, they seemed very old. You're dealing with other waitresses. You're trying to please the customers and the waitresses, and you're trying to, you know, they get to tip you out. So the better of a busboy you are, the more money you make. So That's how almost every business is, right? I mean, the better you are at something, hopefully the more successful you are. So I mean, it is— it was just such a wonderful first job. I'm super glad I did it.
Well, it's a great story, and thank you for sharing that. And Mike, thanks for being on the show. How can people find you?
So my social media channels are all @855MikeWins. I have a robust YouTube channel that people should check out, my website 855MikeWins.com. They can email me at Mike@855MikeWins.com. They can check me out, my book Fireproof, download it. It's on Audible, anything you want. And I'd love to interact with you, answer questions about the book if anybody has any questions, comments, feedback. And I really appreciate you having me on.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
