Joseph McDaniel: Boring Man or Clever Marketer?
I was looking at Phoenix bankruptcy lawyer Joseph McDaniel’s Avvo profile today and I got a good chuckle from his “About Me” section. It says:
I’m the world’s most boring man.
How boring am I? My personality is so anti-magnetic I can’t carry credit cards. I have been known to induce narcolepsy by walking through a room.
When I was a kid, I read comic books, and wished for superpowers like super-strength, super-speed, or the ability to fly.
As it turns out, my super power is exactly the correct one for my profession as an Arizona bankruptcy attorney.
Being super-boring is helpful in dealing with terrified clients; they calm down almost immediately when they are fighting to stay awake.
And being super-boring is helpful when I’m dealing with very angry creditors; they forget to be angry when they’re dropping into a soporific state, and then they can think rationally, and decide whether they want to win, or they want more money under my suggested deal. More money always wins, when a large creditor is bored enough to be economically rational.
This seemingly whimsical snippet of Joseph’s Avvo profile is really quite brilliant. While many lawyers have probably already scoffed at it, for his *target audience* it is spot on. It adds levity and humanity to a potential client who has already lost a lot. It basically says, “Let’s all calm down. I have this bankruptcy thing so wired that we can joke about it a bit.”
While it is surely not the only way to market a bankruptcy practice, I’ll bet it is highly effective in the highly stressful bankruptcy world. I would be curious to know if Joseph has had prospective clients mention his self-description when contacting him.
