How I managed to get on the email list for this fellow, I don’t know. But I have to figure that however it happened, it wasn’t the best idea he ever had. I received this “ezine” from this self-proclaimed lawyer marketing guru, Nader Anise. He says he is “the most important marketing and money-making resource ever created for solo practitioners and small law firms.” At least he’s modest.
He calls the recipients of his ezine “lawyerprenuers,” which should give you some idea of his inherent brilliance right off the bat. I mean, really, doesn’t it make you feel so businessmanish when someone calls you something cute like lawyerprenuer?
This isn’t the first time I’ve noted that this fellow does not reflect my, ahem, ideal of dignity, but this is pure, unadulterated sleaze. “Where’s the proof,” you ask? “Why, right here,” I respond:
From: Nader Anise
Date: Sept. 5, 2008Dear Lawyerpreneur,
There may be an absolutely amazing PR opportunity waiting for you (regardless of your political affiliation).
Here’s what’s up: Unless you’ve been living under a rock or in a cave, or under a rock in a cave, you’ve no doubt heard and seen how Governor Sarah Palin has rocked the world of politics, literally, in a matter of days.
She has become a national phenom.
Why am I telling you this? Because according to media sources, many of Oprah Winfrey’s fans have been emailing her asking her to book Governor Palin on the show. They would love to see an Oprah-Palin interview.
Oprah’s response? No way, no how. According to ABC News, The Big O refuses to use her show “as a platform for any of the candidates.” http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=5736716&page=1
Can you say two-faced? Not my words, these are her fans speaking.
You’ll recall, Winfrey has publicly endorsed Obama and practically launched his career. He’s been on her show twice already.
What’s the matter O, afraid of itty bitty Palin?
Anyway, here’s the PR opportunity. Want to make a huge splash all over the country? How about you write a press release, even announce a press conference, in which you will call on a formal national boycott of the Oprah Winfrey show. That’s right… call on all the Oprah show viewers to immediately BOYCOTT the show unless and until Oprah has Palin on the show.
OK, so is this going to get the $250 million dollar a year media mogul to shake in her boots and suddenly see the error of her ways? Hardly. But that’s not the point. The point is for you to land some serious publicity because you are going up against a powerhouse.
The media loves David and Goliath stories and reward them handsomely with substantial coverage. This is about as close to you’ll get a PR slam dunk.
If you can get this thing out to the media Monday morning… and… if you’re the first to launch this campaign, I can virtually guarantee you some major coverage.
And when you’re being interviewed on CBS or Fox News or whatever… remember who gave you the idea!
If you seriously plan on doing this let me know and keep me abreast of the coverage you get.
Regards,
Nader
If you’ve ever wondered where the lowlife scum of the legal profession get their ideas, now you know. But wait! Nader the Masquerader isn’t done yet. A second missive came shortly afterward, apparently in response to the fact that I was not the only one utterly shocked and apalled by this sleazebag.
Dear Lawyerpreneur,
Wow, my last email seems to have struck a chord! A had quite a few lawyers laud the idea as “brilliant” while others insisted it was “politically motivated” and “beneath me.”
Regardless of what you thought, I do appreciate your feedback.
However let me make one thing very clear: THIS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS!
I recognized a truly special opportunity to receive some major publicity and wanted to pass it along to you. Love it, hate it, it’s up to you how you handle it. Those who see it as an opportunity will seize it. If it’s not your cup of tea, ignore it.
Frankly, — don’t take this the wrong way — I don’t care one iota who you vote for… or even… whether you will vote or not. I SIMPLY DON’T CARE.
The purpose of this ezine is to show you have to market your firm, generate publicity and make more money… and that’s exactly what I was doing.
Listen, I generally don’t talk politics in my ezine. But, at the same time, I’m not afraid to either. Ask me what I think of Obama or Biden, I’m more than happy to tell you. Ask me my opinion about McCain or Palin, I’ll gladly share it with you. But that’s not what I’m doing here.
This is simply a golden opportunity I wanted you to be aware of.
And by the way, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, you can use this Oprah-Palin thing to your advantage. It’s all depends on what “hook” you use in your press release.
Regards,
Nader
So just in case sleaze, with some modicum of actual purpose, might creep into one’s life, Nader is here to tell you that integrity is for losers; Sleaze is for winners like Nader.
Does it strike anyone else as odd that ol’ Nader sends this garbage out for others to do, and doesn’t actually do it himself? No matter. Come Monday morning, let’s see if there are any sleazebag lawyers who call a press conference to call out Oprah to get their sleazy puss on the morning news shows so they can be the latest and greatest sleazebag of the legal profession.
And if you think this is a really brilliant idea, then you probably shouldn’t be reading this blawg.
Leaving only one real question pending. What does Dan Hull at What About Clients? think of this?
You recently assailed Nadar Anise as being “sleezy” for his marketing techniques. I think first off you are offened by his choice of subject: Oprah’s refusal to let Sarah Palin on her show. Perhaps you are an Obama fan. But picking sides in this debate was not the purposes of his ezine. You missed the boat on the purpose of his email. It was not to pick sides. It was to highlight an opportunity to market via blogging. Now wether an attorney gets attention from discussing entertaiment; political; social; religious or legal issues, none are any better than the others. Now should someone doing something unethical to do so, you’d have a point. Nadar, nor the many attorneys who blog about whatever issues to get attention or provide advice on a variety of topics, do not doing anything unethical. Obviously you have not googled his name or researched the work his had done in lawyer marketing. Now I know nothing about you absent you attack on Mr. Nadar and others who’d do same. So I reserve comments on you. But marketing is an effective tool and one that has increased my business. I abide by all Florida Bar Rules and, like Mr. Nadar, pick my friends wisely, and conduct my life ethically. Had you digested what he said, as opposed to attacking him, you might have generated a new client by now.
This is gonna be very hard for you to understand since you characterize yourself as “Florida’s DUI Guy,” but let’s give it a go. Lawyers get clients by providing excellent representation and excellent client service. Lawyers do not resort to cheap scam marketing schemes to trick clients into coming to them or elevating their profile when they’ve earned no such recognition.
For those sad, pathetic people who think that success in the law is a function of some marketing scheme, they will follow their marketing gurus like little lambs. But they will never be lawyers. And they will never deserve to be lawyers. By the way, your messiah’s name is Nader, not Nadar.
Kudos to you, Scott, for not simply attacking Jerry’s grammar and misspellings. You’re a better man than me.
Hello Scott,
First of all, I would like to thank you for being a subscriber to my ezine, “The Lawyepreneur.” You’re not sure how you got on my list? Well, let me refresh your memory. About a year ago you signed up for one of my teleseminars on lawyer marketing. You claimed you tried listening to it, but just couldn’t make it past the first few minutes. Apparently you were so turned off by this awful experience, you just had to blog about it and vent. Little did you know you would get slammed with comments from lawyers who insisted the problem lied with you. You were the one who didn’t get it.
One would think that teleseminar experience so disgusted you that you would have UNSUBSCRIBED immediately to my ezine, right? No sir. Scott continued to receive my ezine, my ezine alerts, offers for products and other communications from me.
Never once did you complain, ask to be removed or unsubscribe.
One would think if my “sleazebag” ideas were so offense to your sensibilities, you would have seen my emails and immediately deleted them, right? Apparently not. You’re still opening them, and obviously, reading them word for word. It’s just unfortunate my ideas have fallen on deaf ears. You still don’t get it.
And to your question as to why I am not working this Oprah-Palin angle myself, frankly, even if I took the time to explain it to you, you wouldn’t get it. There are quite a few components that go into generating publicity (I used them all when I landed over $1,200,000 in free publicity from NBC television during primetime several years ago) and for me, it’s not ideal. But that may change. Who knows? Plus, why would I need to garner any more publicity? After all, here I am being blogged about on your global and renowned blog.
Listen, I don’t expect you to admit to being a fan. I mean how could you possibly do that AND save face at the same time? But, at the very least, don’t be two faced about it.
I welcome you to remain as a subscriber; or welcome you to unsubscribe, if you wish. Email me and I will personally give you the unsubscribe link. I’m sure you have my email address memorized by now.
Would it shock you to know that you were just one of a rather large volume of unsolicited emails that I receive, no more nor less worthy of unsubscribing as long as my delete button works? Every so often, I happen to read one, and yesterday was just your lucky day.
This isn’t about you, as you are just another self-absorbed irrelevancy, but about the sleaze you and others promote. And that is a subject that does interest me, as it demeans my profession.
Yuck, Scott. I had to read all that Nader verbiage in order to make a comment. Having done that, thankfully prior to showering, I’ll just say that I’m glad my spam catcher gets most of Nader’s missives, and I’m glad you care about the way members of our profession garner clients.
I was asked to listen to him on a teleconference by another blawger (who shall remain nameless). He was even less pleasant during the conference call. There is an entire genre who think that this is how lawyers are supposed to find clients, and that the only purpose to anything we do is to market and self-promote. Another reason for the public to adore lawyers.