This week, we explore how divorce, drink-driving offences, and defamation can cripple a career or clinic if not handled properly, and why most people react far too late. My guest, Tad Nelson, a criminal defence lawyer and “Super Lawyer” from Galveston County, Texas, who brings more than three decades of courtroom experience, plus a master’s degree in forensic toxicology, to our conversation.
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Drawing on his experience defending high-profile professionals, Tad shares practical advice for business owners, including podiatrists, on managing public perception, collaborating with PR professionals, and handling false accusations with integrity.
Key insights include:
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The three biggest legal traps that can destroy a business overnight.
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How to deal with false accusations and why “guilty until proven innocent” often feels like the reality.
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Why reputation management is just as important as legal representation.
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How being proactive, rather than reactive, can save your business, marriage, and sanity.
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The importance of empathy, humility, and communication in avoiding escalation, whether in law, business, or life.
Tad also reveals how social media, while a powerful tool for visibility, can just as easily become a weapon of defamation, and why business owners must understand how to play the “perception game.”
This conversation combines real-world legal experience with practical lessons for anyone running a business. Whether you’re navigating a complaint, dealing with a divorce, or want to safeguard your reputation, Tad’s advice is gold.
You can connect with Tad Nelson at tad@tadlaw.com or visit his website www.tadlaw.com
If this episode resonated with you and you’d like to work with me to strengthen your business foundations, from marketing to mindset, please visit my business coaching website www.tysonfranklin.com Don’t wait until a crisis hits. Build a stronger, more resilient business today.
If you’re looking for a speaker for an upcoming event or a facilitator to run a pre-conference workshop, please visit my Speaker Page to see the range of topics I cover.
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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT (Unedited)
Tyson Franklin: [00:00:00] Hi, I’m Tyson Franklin and welcome to this week’s episode of the Podiatry Legends Podcast. The podcast designed to help you feel, see, and think differently about the Podiatry profession. With me today is another legend who’s not a Podiatrist. His name is Tad Nelson, and he’s a board certified criminal lawyer.
He also class as a super lawyer, which we’re gonna dig into that from Galveston County in Texas. He’s been practicing for well over 30 years and he’s not just a criminal lawyer, he’s also mastered the science behind it. He has a master’s in forensic toxicology and Tad, it is absolutely fantastic to have you here today, and I know there’s gonna be some Podiatry listening to this going.
Tyson, why have you got a lawyer on here? And I’m thinking, why not?
Tad Nelson: I’m glad to be here, Tyson. This is gonna be a fun little chat.
Tyson Franklin: And I said to you when I, when we first jumped on the video, I’ve never met a Texan I haven’t liked, and so far we’ve been chatting for about half an hour before I first record.
And, this is gonna be fun. [00:01:00]
Tad Nelson: Yeah, we’re gonna have a good time.
Speaker: So what’s the what’s the super lawyer? T what was that?
Tad Nelson: , It’s a designation of, basically they, they send out, letters to all the bars and, certain people get nominated, then they send it out and make sure, and you grade other lawyers.
And if you grade out in like the top 10 or 15% you can have the super lawyer designation.
Speaker: Okay.
Tad Nelson: And that’s. You have to want to do it. You have reach out to you and you have to be interested in it. And ’cause you have to fill out some paperwork and bring some stuff to some judges and have them, write you letters and, so some people are too lazy to do it, but, but the group that really are, working hard and want the, want to be recognized for their craft, they obviously go do it.
People like myself.
Speaker: Okay. And then what made you do the master’s in forensic toxicology? What pushed down that side of things?
Tad Nelson: This is a great story. I started as a assistant district attorney. And that’s the prosecutor.
Speaker: Yeah.
Tad Nelson: So I started in Galveston County back in 91, did three years there.
And when you’re on that side, [00:02:00] you’re talking to the detectives. You’re talking to the the experts and. Not a lot of people really had the understanding. And then you’re on the inside of the jokes. When you know the detective, when you’re talking to ’em, preparing ’em or the expert for that matter, you’re hearing some of the shortcuts they’re taking.
So from being on that side, when I switched over in 94, I was aware of the shortcuts, and re the reality of it is, and there may be shortcuts in life, there may be shortcuts in the law. As well as I do, there’s no shortcuts in science. Science, that’s true. Science is what it is.
And it became more offensive. And so I started educating myself on the science because, these experts were coming to court and you don’t know that they’re rolling over you if you don’t have an idea what they’re doing.
Speaker: Ah,
Tad Nelson: yes. So I went and educated myself. And that way when they started, doing things that weren’t exactly, kosher, I could say, whoa, hold it.
That’s not the way it’s supposed to be done. Ultimately. More lawyers have gotten with it. I think I was at the beginning of it. Especially but more people are [00:03:00] realizing that, especially as a criminal defense lawyer that does a lot of dwi. I, and the other thing that I do a lot of is sex cases.
And you need to really understand the science there, between, the DNA and the semen and all that stuff. But but there were so many times that understanding it, the science has helped my, helped me save my client.
Speaker: Yeah, and that’s why it’s good having you on this podcast too, because we’re gonna talk a few things that are really gonna relate to podiatrists and Podiatry business owners, whether it’s be divorce or DWIs and defamation.
So we’re gonna get onto it, but I just was really easy dive in this first. The other thing I wanna know is what made you change teams from prosecution to defense?
Tad Nelson: Yeah. It’s, it’s like everybody you can only grow. So it’s all money related. Yeah. Obviously you wanna, as a prosecutor you’re gonna be limited, especially then you go wanna run your own business, you wanna, row your own boat.
You wanna, if you’re a prosecutor, you’re a government employee, you’re always capped at whatever, if you work hard, it’s like [00:04:00] all our dads taught us, there’s a direct correlation between how hard you work and what you get. And really there isn’t in a government, it’s like any other government, job you’re gonna be limited.
And one other thing, I think also, I think my heart was more in it. I don’t know that I’m by definition, I don’t think I, I enjoy, punishing people,
The way I think of things, the government is.
The big bad wolf in my, I think of myself as the last strand of chicken wire between the fox and the hen house.
Speaker: Yeah.
Tad Nelson: And I take pride in that.
Speaker: I like that. That’s a really good analogy. But one, one of the things interesting was only just recently we were watching a TV program and we figured out that the district attorney, like in the United States is actually voted in that it’s almost like a Yes.
So they, campaign for that position.
Tad Nelson: Yes.
Speaker: They become the district attorney, but then everybody else under that is an assistant to the district attorney. Yes.
Tad Nelson: And is hired by at their leisure, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Tad Nelson: The d the elected DA decides who his people are.
Some of ’em are lifers and stay [00:05:00] around,
Speaker: but Yeah.
Tad Nelson: But yeah,
Speaker: but so as some of his voted in and you really supported them, and you were right behind ’em, and then you were on the wrong team and a new person came in that you didn’t support, you could just lose your job straight away.
Tad Nelson: Oh happens. Every day so you know Houston, Harris County, I think 50 of ’em lost their jobs this last election.
Speaker: Just like
Tad Nelson: that. You, hey, you, there’s, when there’s a red and a blue team, if you pick the wrong team, there’s consequences.
Speaker: It’s
Tad Nelson: true. It’s it’s like they always say the First Amendment, there’s freedom of speech, but there’s not freedom of consequences.
Speaker: Yeah, that’s true. Ooh, jeez. It sounds like when people.
Complete their law degree like in the United States. To go and work for the government for a few years is like how you earn your stripes a little bit just to get your experience up before you move on to something else.
Tad Nelson: Absolutely. And you’re getting trained. There’s a little less pressure, when somebody’s handing you real money, they expect real results.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah.
Tad Nelson: But, at the government, you’re, especially when you start out with misdemeanors, but here’s, I wanna tell you a little funny story about how I got to be in a criminal [00:06:00] lawyer and how I got to be an assistant da. I started out, when I was in law school, I had no intentions of litigating, I came out of the University of Texas.
I was an accounting major and I always thought that I was gonna be some kind of a, tax advisor, whiz kid kind of thing. And I came out of law school. I started with a big probate firm in Houston and I always also was getting a tax LLMA, master’s in Tax Law from U of H.
And I did that for about nine months. I was about to hang myself. I was so bored. Yeah. And my dad had been good friends with the elected DA in Galveston. He had always told me when I graduate, you ever want a job? And just one night I was just home. I had just gotten married. I was young. And I just was telling my wife that I just, I can’t take it anymore.
I’m losing my mind. And she goes, well call Mr. Reno. And I picked up the phone. I called Mr. Reno. I said, I can’t take what I’m doing, can I still have that spot? And he said, absolutely. Two weeks later, I was an assistant da.
Speaker: It’s amazing how we fall [00:07:00] into our chosen career sometimes.
Tad Nelson: Yeah. I No idea.
You know what they say the average, interesting 25-year-old does not know what he wants to be when he grows up. Yeah. I didn’t have a clue.
Speaker: Yeah. I’m 59 now. I still wonder what I’m gonna do when I grow up.
Tad Nelson: Yeah. That’s funny.
Speaker: I tell my mom that all the time. That’s,
Tad Nelson: We’re the same.
I just turned 60. So we’re the same age.
Speaker: Yeah. 60 next year in July. But yeah, my mom still says to me, have you figured out what you wanna do yet in life? I went still working on that mom. I said, Colonel Sanders didn’t figure out till he was 64. I said, so I give myself five more years.
Tad Nelson: That’s good stuff.
Speaker: So if you get to 64 and I’m doing what I’m doing, then that’s what was meant to be.
Tad Nelson: Yeah,
Speaker: it’s Hey. Question, just a side thing before we dive into how, with what we’re gonna talk about is gonna help Podiatry and other business owners ’cause there’s are people that aren’t Podiatry. Your listen to podcast as well, favorite law show being a lawyer. Do you watch law shows or did you ever have a favorite movie or a favorite law show that you sort Yeah, that’s,
Tad Nelson: It’s [00:08:00] there, there was one about 20 years ago called The Practice.
Speaker: Yes.
Tad Nelson: With Dylan McDermick or whatever his name was. And Bobby Donnell was his name, and I just love that one. And LA Law was great going back in the day. Boston Legal was great with Denny Crane,
Speaker: oh, yeah,
Tad Nelson: Denny,
Speaker: Boston Legal. Boston Legal was a spinoff from the practice.
Tad Nelson: Yeah. Yeah. And then there was actually another one, I can’t remember, but yeah they spun off a couple of the players. Yeah, I loved both of those. James Spader was great in that. Yeah. And then the ultimate legal movie ever. Can, I guess it Justice for All?
Speaker: Oh, what was
Tad Nelson: it?
I’m guessing? And Justice for All with Al Pacino.
Speaker: Ah, no, I was gonna say my favorite law movie is from the Hip.
Tad Nelson: Oh, really?
Yeah. That’s just a crazy movie. That is crazy. Like I said I’m like, oh, I’m when I’m thinking law movies, I’m always thinking the more serious ones.
Yeah. Like the verdict,
Speaker: oh,
Tad Nelson: yeah. Those are the, yeah, those are just the ones that just, the really intense courtroom drama, first degree was good with Kevin Bacon, that was a great one.
Speaker: What was the [00:09:00] Tom Cruise one? He was the lawyer.
Tad Nelson: Oh, Jeff. Few good men.
Speaker: Yeah, a few good men. Yeah. But yeah, from the hip. So from you, from the hip, what I’m talking about, the ju Nelson,
Tad Nelson: I remember seeing it, but I’ve seen it once. The rest of ’em I’ve seen like a zillion times.
Speaker: Yeah. Judd Nelson and Darren Mcg Gavin. And that was right. Because it starts, it’s a comedy, but then all of a sudden that’s za it gets really, really deadly serious murder trial.
And then totally twist again into a comedy. So yeah. I’ve watched it so many times.
Tad Nelson: Wow. I’m gonna watch it again.
Speaker: Yeah you’ll see it in a different light. Okay. Let’s move on to ’cause we were talking about, when I received the email from you about what we could potentially talk about.
Some of the things you said that really captured my attention was one, the title was What Every Business Owner Gets Wrong About Legal Crisis and How to Stay Ahead. But you also talk about the truth by the time you are reacting, the damage you already done to your business, your [00:10:00] reputation and financial future if you’re not careful.
Tad Nelson: Exactly.
Speaker: And I just think that is just really important to sort of unpack, because I know there’s a lot of Podiatry, a lot of other business people that they do all of a sudden that they’re hit whether, but it could just be a divorce they’re going through or it could be a drink driving charge. It’s how to react in those sort of situations.
Tad Nelson: Yeah, without a doubt. And then, and either one, it’s almost, and they’re completely different. Although they have so many similarities. Let’s just say if you’re reacting to a dwi, I,
Speaker: yeah.
Tad Nelson: The all they can really do is get out there get, really good legal counsel and start, nipping the problems in the bud.
Usually what if you can at least have a conversation? The number one thing, and this, as well in, in your business, in any business, anything you accomplish is, attack everything head on, get a plan. Follow your plan, and so like when somebody gets a dwi, I, you better make sure you start fighting it upfront.
There’s certain things, and here’s what I’ve seen with the doctors I [00:11:00] represent. We have these. These fly by night agencies and they put your picture out. But you can call these places and pay them to take it down. It’s one of the ways they make money. It’s a scam. But yeah, they take your mugshot.
I know doctor wants their mugshot, just I represent some lawyers too and some other, high ranking business people, for 500 bucks you take your picture down off the website, doesn doesn’t happen over here.
Speaker: That doesn’t happen
Tad Nelson: in Australia.
Really?
Speaker: No. No,
Tad Nelson: that doesn’t.
Oh, we are such shame culture over here. It’s horrible. And there’s not a scam somebody hadn’t figured out over here. And unfortunately that’s a legal scam, to, you’ve got a guy who literally goes to the county website and takes all the new mugshots and throws ’em up, probably does a little research on who’s important and puts those at the top of the deal, and those people ultimately call ’em, and it’s 500 bucks to take it down.
And that’s the number one. Believe it or not, that’s one of the things that we’ve, prioritize for our, people that can’t afford the embarrassment.
It’s ridiculous, but you think about, oh my [00:12:00] god, Ted, you’re a lawyer. Why do you gotta track down these, these rats?
Yeah, we do. It’s just, it’s not fortunate, but we do have to do that.
Speaker: One of the other things you wrote down here too was the silent threat and this. This really actually made sense how good business people lose their businesses. Not because of the law, but because they dunno how to fight that perception game.
Yeah. And you said earlier too, about people that may have had a sex crime or sex offender or something like that. And I’ve said that to podiatrists in the past that anyone could accuse you of anything
Tad Nelson: without a doubt,
Speaker: without any evidence whatsoever. They can just make. Accusation. Yeah.
And how do you respond to that? And how do you keep working? ’cause I know even in Australia, a sometimes our registration board, AHPRA, you are guilty until proven innocent or guilty. They just, they treat you without badly right from the start.
Tad Nelson: Without a doubt. And to be honest, that is the hardest one to get by the [00:13:00] sexual assault allegation.
And even if you get a not guilty, sometimes you can’t kick that smell. That stigma stays with you forever. Lemme just tell you the one place that unfortunately, the really, the only time I might be able to help that is in the courtroom. So here’s, so I’m a 60-year-old man like we were talking about, I was late to the party on children.
I have an 8-year-old. Geez, that’s my only child. So I was really late to the party. Yeah,
Speaker: very.
Tad Nelson: But to be honest since I’ve gotten that, we all grow up in our own, like you said, we didn’t grow up either, so
Speaker: Yeah.
Tad Nelson: Don’t point fingers at me so anyway so you know, the whole thing was it’s once you do have a child, it does.
Change your growth curve. Yeah. And I really do think I’ve become a better family lawyer. I used to always be good at the numbers. Obviously because of my background, I was always really weak on the, the child custody. But now once you have a child, those things start making more sense.
But here’s what I wanted to tell you about. The sexual assault case. So I try a lot of these.
And unfortunately when you go to trial, in, in America we have, we get juries on most of our cases, [00:14:00] especially big cases, juries, so when I go talk to the jury originally on a sex case, there may be 95 people in there and repairing ’em down to only get 12.
You get rid of some for cause and you have some peremptory strikes, but you ultimately pair it down to 12. So when you’re talking to these people, I’m standing next to, a guy charged with touching a child.
And you can just feel them looking at you. They just want to kill us.
Kill us both. You know him for touching a child and me for representing him. And I al and one of the first things I stand, especially now that I have this 8-year-old and the last couple years, I, I can say, look, I get it. There is nothing worse than taking the innocence of a child.
Somebody touch my little girl.
Tyson E Franklin (2): Oh, you won’t
Tad Nelson: turn pot. Oh, absolutely. But then I said, but I do want y’all just to think, just close your eyes, just a second and think about it. Imagine being accused of touching a child and not doing it.
Tyson E Franklin: Oh, I know. That would be worse.
Tad Nelson: You know,
Speaker: They’d so much
Tad Nelson: worse. You’re sitting there, your life is ruined. What you thought was life. It’s like when, when Roadrunner comes to that screeching halt.
Speaker: [00:15:00] Yep.
Tad Nelson: That’s your life. True. With a sex case. And you can’t get it back ever to where it was.
Now you can do the best you can, try to play the PR game and then if you win, obviously pay it even more, but. The taints gonna be there. You’ve, we see movie stars and and athletes every day that are 20 years, 20 years since they’ve scored a touchdown or kicked a goal.
And we still, when we see him go, oh yeah, he used to beat his wife.
Speaker: Yeah.
Tad Nelson: Stuff like that.
Speaker: I think the only person that, the only person that’s ever was able to get around it remember Robert Downey, Jr. Yeah.
Tad Nelson: Yeah.
Speaker: He got in trouble earlier on in his career for making videotapes
Tad Nelson: oh. All kinds of stupid stuff.
Speaker: And that really stuck and the drug for a while, but then all of a sudden it has been forgotten. But I know in the health industry especially, or anyone that owns a business, you’re accused of anything like that. It is going to stick. Yeah. And it will be a very long time before people [00:16:00] forget.
Tad Nelson: And I think, like you were talking about Robert Downey and he kinda did the same thing George Michaels did when he got caught with the guy. I, I’m not a PR person, but I, it does seem like the guys like them that came out there. Threw it out to the public.
This is what I did. Fell on their sword, took it like a man and said, I’m gonna grow from it. I made a mistake. Nobody can argue with that, but I’m gonna grow from it. I don’t know that you can grow from touching a child, but their mistakes,
Speaker: no,
Tad Nelson: their mistakes were bad enough that you could grow from it.
Like Robert Downey’s mistakes were age appropriate mistakes,
Speaker: yeah.
Tad Nelson: And the same as, George Michaels. But yeah. It’s tough.
Speaker: Yeah. But even you go back to bill Clinton Yeah. I did not have Exactly, I did not have sexual relations with that woman.
And, but even when it all unfolded and everyone knows what happened, everybody knows what happened. But even then. It’s a different type that he was able to overcome that. But also I think once you found out it’s then dealing with it a certain way, dealing [00:17:00] with it correctly.
Tad Nelson: Yeah. And Clinton basically, went, heart in hand, and basically apologized, he.
He knew that what he did was wrong. He was contrite. And that goes a long way. Bowing up this whole, acting like you’re a Teflon don and it didn’t happen. Nobody buys that.
Speaker: Yeah. So with say, anyone in this, in the health industry, they get in any form of problems. They, they have somebody accused ’em of something could be, malpractice or even just their reputation.
The sooner they actually seek legal advice, the better.
Tad Nelson: Absolutely. And then, not every case. Obviously lawyers do mostly lawyering. Yeah. But occasionally, but most of us that do get big cases or get big names here, occasionally, you’re in touch with a PR firm, somebody that can, put the fire out and at least, have a, like I said, a plan to how we’re gonna take care of this.
And it’s all through it. It’s gotta be intertwined in the [00:18:00] entire, defense or divorce, whatever it is. And sometimes I’ve had conversations with people that are very wealthy. Wife’s out there are gonna, say some crazy stuff.
And it’s like the old Fram wool filter. Can you can pay me now or pay me later.
If you can give her some money now, get her to go away. We may be able to, nip some of this in the bud and that way you keep your business that’s just thriving, because the damage she could do to it. And it could be the other way. It could be the guy, doing it to a lady doctor.
Yeah. My last couple that got really interesting were guys that were being, run through the mud. And again, the old, the old hell has no fury, like a woman scorn, the
Speaker: But you said that’s the big three legal trips that can take down a business almost overnight was divorce.
Tad Nelson: That’s
Speaker: DWI and just defamation.
Tad Nelson: Absolutely. And the defamation usually is, can come from the other two. A lot of times, now there can be defamation where there’s something not related to either of the two, but it could be just either way, the def crazy defamation, which you do see that time where you’ve have, somebody that’s upset with you is bad [00:19:00] enough.
Yeah. But when it’s coming from family is the one that just, those are the ones. ’cause those people are so motivated just to keep going. And now with social media, yeah. I.
Speaker: It’s
Tad Nelson: so easy to ruin people
Speaker: through, but so what’s the legal aspect then on, you are a practitioner and someone writes a blatant obvious negative review online about you personally, your business or any other aspect?
What’s the legal ramifications of that?
Tad Nelson: They, it’s almost with social these days that they can almost get away with it. I had a lawyer friend that pursued one that he thought was unfair and he thought it was done by a, and he pursued it to the tune of lawsuits about $250,000 and ended up getting zero out of it.
Even though the person totally, it was nonsense. It was, it was, just related just to hurting and it was all made up and you just, y. It’s a very unfortunate game with social media. [00:20:00] You just have to, deal with it and hope you can win the game,
Speaker: yeah.
I’ve seen reviews on a particular Podiatry and sometimes you can re review and you can, if you’ve got common sense, you can tell when the person writing it is probably at fault. ’cause you read through it and go, what you’re saying doesn’t make any sense.
And I think the average person, what we call it over here the pub test. With the average person at a pub or a bar, look at that and be able to just see that it’s
Yeah. Probably the patient has the problem. Yeah. But do you see other ones where there’ll be a complaint about a Podiatrist and they’re using their name.
You can see it’s very personal’s, very personal attack. It’s not just about the practice and not just about the work. It’s them. So you’re saying even those ones, it’s really hard to
Tad Nelson: Oh,
Speaker: turn them around.
Tad Nelson: Because in theory, a review is nothing more than an opinion, and you’re entitled to your opinion, and that’s what the one thing I’ve learned late in life in the last couple years. I’ve always thought of myself as a decent lawyer, but I finally understood that I’m a service industry. [00:21:00] It just so happens that my product is legal advice and I better act like a service industry. And then, and if you don’t do that.
You’re missing out because people that you know, even when they get a bad result, if they feel like they’ve been heard, respected. Given a little bit of dignity, that they can live with a bad result. Because, some people, I’m sorry, you commit crimes, sometimes you deserve a bad result.
Speaker: Yeah,
Tad Nelson: I’m gonna put stick on the pig, but at the end of the day, a pig’s a pig. I can’t change that. And same in a divorce, somebody’s upset because, their wife came into the marriage with, $2 million worth of separate property and now we’re on the way out.
She wants her separate property on the way out, that we can’t change those things.
Don’t ever forget that these people need to be served and they need to be heard. They need to be respected and it will make any practice. And see, the doctors, y’all get a bad rap. You know when they say that, that guy’s horrible man.
He has a horrible bedside manner.
And that’s, there’s doctors around this area that they’re the stupid stuff they’ve done [00:22:00] just resonates through the community,
Speaker: yeah. It’s, and it’s their own fault. Yeah. Because we talk about word of mouth in marketing for any sort of business, word of mouth is a strong marketing tool. But it can also be a negative if you’re doing the wrong thing.
Tad Nelson: Absolutely. And that’s what it, we, we’re all the same. We’re gonna get some of our, some of our business, some of the internet, we’re gonna get some from social and some from word of mouth.
You cut any one of those out, it might be hard to make payroll or it might be hard to take that, that trip to Aspen this year or whatever. You’ve gotta do everything right and you cut any of ’em short, you got a problem.
Speaker: Yeah. And I think one of the things you pointed out earlier too, just about say divorce, which is.
Is it still 50% of marriages end divorce? Is that still the stat?
Tad Nelson: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it’s still very high, isn’t it?
Tad Nelson: Very high. And what’s funny is the stat that’s really funny is it’s right at 50%, but yet more than 50% get divorced. And basically what that’s saying is there’s some repeat offenders,
Speaker: Yeah. Okay. [00:23:00] Yeah. Yeah. I know. I always say if you get divorced the first time. It could be anybody’s fault. You get divorced a second time.
You could just start, thinking about who is at fault. You get divorced a third time, you are probably the problem.
Tad Nelson: Exactly. It’s I don’t know if, did you read JD Vance’s book?
Hillbilly Effigies?
Speaker: No.
Tad Nelson: He goes through it and, he talks about when he was young in life, he didn’t really fit in the scouts. And then he got to Harvard. He didn’t really fit in there. Then he got in the military. He didn’t really fit in there, and always had these problems, look in the mirror, you go three or four places and you know you’re not fitting in.
Maybe it’s you.
Speaker: That’s a good point. The other thing I wanted to say about divorce though, and this relates to what you said earlier on when we’re talking about word of mouth and defamation, is if the divorce rate is so high in society, like at 50%, that means a lot of, even the Podiatry listening to this or other business owners listening to this, there’s a chance that they are gonna go through that at some stage.
Yeah. And what you’re saying, it’s really important to get in front. And you said earlier on, sometimes [00:24:00] the earlier you can. Pay out the other person or make the other person happy, whether it’s the husband or wife the sooner you can come to an amicable arrangement, the better it’s going to be for the business.
Long term.
Tad Nelson: Absolutely. As assuming every divorce is different, obviously.
Speaker: Yeah.
Tad Nelson: But there’s so many times where, you know. That all the, that one of the, one of the people in the marriage can really mess with your divorce because usually, very few couples actually work a business together.
So usually the, like with doctors, the ones I’ve seen, either it’s her firm or her partnership, or his partnership and the other one doesn’t really know anything about it. Once there’s, there’s issues, I’ve seen where they’re fi filing motions to have a receivership, which means to bring somebody in there to run your business, all this stuff and now some things can’t be solved. There’s little doubt about that. Sometimes you just have to work harder to get things solved, but sometimes, things can get solved and those are the ones that you know, you need to get, make it [00:25:00] happen. If it costs you a little more money, do it.
And it also depends, how. There’s some people that can get a divorce and be reasonable, but that’s, it’s starting to be the exception and not the rule to be honest. Society is acrimonious these days,
Speaker: yeah. Look I had been married once before , when that fell apart, I just said to my wife at the time, you have everything. I said, I can. I can rebuild. Not a problem. I said, I don’t have a problem with it. Take it. You just take everything. I’ll rebuild pretty much
Tad Nelson: what I did when I got divorced. Yeah.
Speaker: And that was all good. And then she spoke to someone and said, you should be entitled to half his business.
And , I was contacted by someone. I said, I’ll make it real easy. I said, you can have the whole business. And I was just gonna start another one.
And then very quickly,
Tad Nelson: how did she handle, how did she handle that?
Speaker: Very quickly, they very quickly they figured out Tyson, do you just have your business?
It was just easier because I’d already just given them everything else and said, you just take everything else I know I can rebuild and that was easier. It was just one [00:26:00] person whispering in their ear that then could have potentially caused more problems, but in the end it just worked out.
Tad Nelson: Your business is probably like mine.
If they were to come to get my business, once you take me out of it all that’s, there is a few computers, some desks, and some wall, wall hangings, yeah. It’s not, it doesn’t have any intrinsic value without you, you are the business.
Speaker: Yeah.
If I wasn’t in the business, ’cause I was the only one there at the time, there was no business.
So it was crazy. Anything else? So what’s the, give your law firm and website and contact details? A plug while there just talking about that.
Tad Nelson: My, like I, like you said, my name is Tad Nelson. We’re all over social media at Tad Nelson and Associates.
Our law firm website is Tad Law, T-A-D-L-A w.com. Easy to find easy to reach out to us. There’s tons of information on there. If anybody has any questions, they can always just DM us and we’re happy to answer.
Speaker: I went and had a look on your website and I loved just.
Just the simplicity of everything on your website, but just so [00:27:00] easy to actually go through everything.
Tad Nelson: Thank you. Yeah, we try to, it’s, I don’t wanna say dumb it down, we, but you really do. But you
Speaker: do. You do,
Tad Nelson: And that’s whenever I’m writing anything, if I have chat helping me or anything I always tell it.
Make it like I’m talking to an eighth grader.
Speaker: Yeah.
Tad Nelson: There’s no reason to talk at a higher level. There’s just nobody that understands you. Even the social stuff we do these days, we, we’ve experimented with different stuff on TikTok and Instagram and I’m telling you the stuff that’s a minute and 15 seconds, nobody’s watching it.
But if you give ’em 30 seconds worth of stuff, it is shocking. The attention span of the general public these days and their understanding level. It is, it’s mind boggling.
Speaker: Okay. That’s quite important what you said then. So you’re a 60-year-old male who was a lawyer in Galveston County, Texas, and you have a TikTok channel.
Tad Nelson: Yeah, we’re all over it. And you know what,
Speaker: how’s that
Tad Nelson: guy? We only started about 14, 15 [00:28:00] months ago. Yeah. And my website people were like pestering me for over five years. And finally I went to this seminar and I listened to these guys talk and
one of ’em said, try it. And I literally tried it, saw the results, saw you know it, and the bottom line is that people are out there seeing you. Now I get people that come into the office, they feel like they know me ’cause they’ve watched a couple shorts and heard me explain something. And, it’s just different.
It’s just an awareness campaign. Anybody that’s not on social that has a business.
Speaker: Yeah,
Tad Nelson: it’s, I mean they’re just, they just don’t get it. They are literally missing out.
Speaker: We were talking about this on a Podiatry marketing podcast the other day, just about. The social media platforms, they’re there.
And I think you, you do need to know who your patients are, who your ideal patient is, and then find out what sort of platforms they’re going to be on. But once you start creating something, like I, I had, I wrote something a while back and I put it into a Facebook group. They have the product business owners club, and then just recently I thought, oh, I’m gonna use that and I can put [00:29:00] that on my Instagram page.
And then from that I thought. That’d be a good idea for a short video. So then I did that for my YouTube channel. But then from that video, you’ve got so many other places you can put it. So once you start, once you create the content, I think it’s fun actually seeing what you can do with it. Oh
Tad Nelson: yeah.
It’s a blast. It’s fun. For like this, for example, I’m sure I’m gonna get a copy of this podcast that we’re doing. Yeah. And I’ve got a software I can put in it. It’s gonna give me, 10 shorts. It’s gonna go do it themself and put the verbiage in there for me.
It’s gonna be amazing. And these shorts are so interesting.
Speaker: Yeah. What’s the program? What programs do you use for that?
Tad Nelson: What is the name of it?
Speaker: Yeah, I’ve got one that I use called Opus Clip.
Tad Nelson: Opus Clip. Yeah. That’s
Speaker: the one I use. It’s op clip. Same one. Yeah.
Tad Nelson: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: What I’ll do is when this video is when we finish this, I’ll just set up a Dropbox folder to share the link with you. You can chop it up as many ways you want. Yeah. But then I’ll give you all the links and all the artwork to the episode and you can play around with with that as well.[00:30:00]
Tad Nelson: Yeah. We’ll, yeah, we’ll send it all over. That’s what our, I have a little staff. I’ve got a, editor down in the Philippines that works for us.
Speaker: Yeah.
Tad Nelson: Doing all this, I don’t know if you looked at my stuff, if you look at the social week, we do a couple cartoons a week,
no,
Speaker: I didn’t get onto the social pages.
I got onto your website and I just, like I said, when I went through it all, I went, this is just so easy to navigate, and I tell podiatrists that all the time, that just make sure when you’re, whatever you’re putting on your website, you’re writing it for the average patient. And a 12-year-old should be able to go on your website, scroll through it all, and know exactly what you’re talking about.
Yeah. If they get confused, then it’s too complicated.
Tad Nelson: Totally agree. I totally agree.
Speaker: So there’s podiatrists listening to this and like we, we’ve talked about divorce being quite a popular problem, 50% problem for society. Yeah. DWIs will drink driving and it mentioned in Australia it’s. It happens, but it’s, it doesn’t come with the same stigma.
We don’t [00:31:00] have people setting up websites naming and shaming us for that, thank God. We don’t, and yeah. And the defamation. What are some other things like from a legal aspect that podiatrists business owners in general should just be aware of? Do try and get ahead of the game.
Tad Nelson: Obviously we talked about dealing with being charged with a crime.
Speaker: Yeah.
Tad Nelson: And then, the defamation, if somebody’s, saying bad stuff about you, that’s a tough one. That, that really is a tough one. And then I think when you really think about it from the divorce perspective, I think that, like you said, 50% of it, so the number one thing is gonna be dealing with divorce.
I think that’s the biggest, just people you know. If they do head for a divorce, try to be, be amicable, be, be nice, play nice. I, this is what I tell my people all the time, you can always go from nice to mean. You can’t go from mean to nice. That’s
Speaker: true.
Tad Nelson: And and sometimes, at the beginning of it, that’s when I usually like to have these conversations [00:32:00] because if you are nice, you can get from point A to point B.
No, nobody. The bottom line is if anybody’s happy. After a divorce or during a divorce, it’s not working. The whole purpose is, it’s not supposed to make one side happy. Both sides should be equally miserable, but at the end of the day, it’s like anything where there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, you know the old joke, they say, you know why divorce is so expensive because it’s worth it.
That’s the kind of, the thing. So you’ve gotta get to the, you’ve gotta get to the other side, and that’s just what and sometimes you have to put a little bit of your pride behind you. Just if you’re angry, put the angry, the anger behind you and just real, especially, and the toughest thing for me to accept, especially, now that I have this 8-year-old, and maybe I’m fortunate because at 60 you can respect how lovely a 8-year-old is rather than, I don’t know, if you’re a 30-year-old and you’re, you’re still burning the candle at both ends and you’re trying to build a business and all that nonsense. I, you probably don’t appreciate it as much as an older guy like us.
But but I see these younger people and the stuff they’re doing [00:33:00] just to torch their kids, and obviously. If somebody’s a little more mature about the children and the other person not so much. That’s only gonna make them further and further apart, so I guess the little bit of sage advice here is put your pride behind you.
Get the olive branch out, go hat in hand, be humble, because divorce isn’t a good situation. You just might have to work a little harder to get through it.
Speaker: Yeah. And I suppose it depends too, what was the instigation behind the divorce? Was there a right third party involved?
Was it purely just you grew apart? Do you have children? Do you not have children? There’s so many reasons why people would go through that, and depending on what the cause was, could,
Tad Nelson: yeah.
Speaker: I think even if you were totally in the wrong, you did the wrong thing, maybe there was another person involved.
I like what you said. It’s put out the olive branch, the earlier you do that. Even if you were in the wrong,
Tad Nelson: yeah. The
Speaker: better it’s gonna end up long term than just coming out comes [00:34:00] blazing.
Tad Nelson: And I can’t, when people do separate, when they go get a girlfriend right off the bat.
Yeah. Especially, and I, it’s funny, I see it more with doctors than I do with anybody else than the doctors. A lot of the guy doctors I represent that are in divorces, it seems like they they’re married to a woman that’s roughly their age and then they go get this young model.
And it just, it’s just such a bad situation.
Speaker: So are you saying the tip is if you get divorced. Is, find someone older and uglier than your current partner, and that will solve a lot of problems.
Tad Nelson: Hey, I’ve never thought about it that way, I might, that could be a billboard only
Speaker: for six months.
Yeah. Just for six months. Just do that for six months, to get through the rough, fake it, and then move on. But yeah, I do know what you mean, but I’ve, we’ve seen people here in Cairns patients who, you’ve seen the husband and wife with their kids for over a decade as patients and then, they part company.
Yeah, and then you’ll see one of them, I’m saying the male or female, but you’ll see one of them with someone just not that much older than the kids. [00:35:00] And
Tad Nelson: yeah,
Speaker: and you just go really just what could you possibly have in common? It,
Tad Nelson: I see it every day
Speaker: and yeah, I just shake my head and then that one will disappear.
And then there’s another one.
Tad Nelson: The reason we have cliches is ’cause they’re accurate. It’s like stuff, a, a leopard doesn’t change their spots, the, and it’s just so true. And people don’t change, really.
Don’t.
Speaker: I saw a photo once on the internet and had all these people on the beach Yeah. Swimming, bobbing up and down the water. And they had this really big overweight white old guy. There and it had this like stunning young girl next to him with his, with her arm around him, and it said under this, pick the billionaire.
Tad Nelson: Yeah. I love it. It’s so true
Speaker: and so true. Yeah. So I suppose those cliches, like if it they weren’t real, then people wouldn’t make jokes of them either,
Tad Nelson: right? No, they’re dead on.
Speaker: So what you’re saying, that’s probably one of the worst [00:36:00] things anyone can do, whether it’s the husband or the wife or whatever way that it break, it breaks down.
Like I said, you said it’s the olive branch. Be nice. You can always move up to mean later, but don’t. Don’t be mean and also don’t be stupid.
Tad Nelson: And even, we’re joking about a guy getting a younger woman. Yeah. And that just don’t go get a girlfriend, the last thing.
I, I’ve got one I’m dealing with right now where the guy’s got a girlfriend and he’s posting on social daily.
Speaker: Yeah.
Tad Nelson: And you don’t think she’s just stewing over there?
Speaker: Yeah.
Tad Nelson: This thing’s been going on forever. And it’s because, I’m sorry. If you if you go hit the, the the Hornet Nest, they’re gonna come out.
It’s crazy. It’s not rocket science,
Speaker: but even twisting this in, not just in divorce, if you are even just, you have a problem with a patient. Who has come at you for one reason or another, whether you’re at fault or whether you’re not doing that same thing. And that was something I saw.
I was at a Podiatry conference many years ago and there was someone [00:37:00] from, there was a lawyer there, one the insurance companies, and they said 90 and they’re rattle off some stats, but I’m pretty sure it was something like 80 to 90% of claims could have been halted in the first couple of months. If the lines of communication were maintained and opened and the practitioner stopped and just listened to the patient
Tad Nelson: Yeah.
Speaker: And kept the lines of communication open, didn’t just put up a wall and then all of a sudden went from nice to mean that they, they just went, they started mean, and then there was no coming back from that.
Tad Nelson: Our golden rule at my office is, people make mistake when you’re a busy law firm.
There’s stuff going every which way. There’s gonna be things that don’t get put on the calendar. There’s gonna be mistakes. Yeah. And the our deal is, it’s like a fumble in football. You jump on it, you, you admit what happened, you do whatever it takes to fix it.
You call the client and let ’em know we’ve made a mistake and here’s how we’re doing to rectify it. But the bottom line is once [00:38:00] something is, figured out, if you just approach it head on, acknowledge it to the client and do everything you can to make it right, that’s gonna be so much better. Then like you said, starting the argument or trying to bow up or what have you, just fix it, that’s what people want. That’s why they hired you and it could be like, maybe somebody came into the doctor and you don’t have their appointment down. Figure out how to fix it.
Speaker: Yeah. This is such good advice. You
Tad Nelson: treat ’em right? Yes.
Speaker: This is good advice, and this is why I said right at the beginning of the episode that.
I knew anyone that listens to this episode is going to get something from it. Whether they live in America or they’re in Australia, they’re in the uk. I think everybody would’ve taken something away from this conversation.
Tad Nelson: Yeah, hope so.
Speaker: Oh, I hope so too. So Ted, I want to thank you for coming on the Podiatry Legends Podcast.
I’m assuming this is probably your first Podiatry podcast you’ve ever been on.
Tad Nelson: Ever. First [00:39:00] one ever. Yeah,
Speaker: it is for a lot of people,
Tad Nelson: some podiatrists. I didn’t even, until I saw yours, I didn’t even know there was a Podiatry podcast.
Speaker: Yeah. This is the best one. So you got on the best one first.
Everything after that, won’t be as good. So, Ted, I wanna thank you for coming on, sharing your knowledge and wisdom and yeah. Hopefully we stay in touch in the future.
Tad Nelson: Absolutely, definitely sounds good. Okay. I’m gonna send you an email ’cause I really if you have any other places, like I said, I’m going to Melbourne.
Speaker: Oh, that’s
Tad Nelson: right,
Speaker: yes.
Tad Nelson: I’m going in January and I’m already going to the the old Melbourne jail and I’m gonna go to the Victoria Market. So if there’s any others, make sure you tell me.
Speaker: Yeah, there were two suggestions. So anyone who’s listening to this, Ted is going to be in Victoria in January.
He’s not running a conference or any, he is there for a two week golf trip and he wants some suggestions, so if anyone’s got any other suggestions, email ’em. You can email what’s your email address if they wanna send it straight to you?
Tad Nelson: It’s an easy one. It’s Tad Tad@Tadlaw.com.
Piece of cake.
Speaker: Okay. So if anybody else has [00:40:00] any suggestions that Tad can do when he’s in Victoria, like I said, I mentioned Victoria Markets and the old Melbourne jail and the, also the MCG Tour, if you wanna do that. Melbourne’s great. So it’s a fantastic place.
Tad Nelson: Can’t wait.
Speaker: And I know a lot of podiatrists down there who should be emailing you and sending you a suggestion.
So Ted, once again, thanks for coming on here. This has been I’ve had a lot of fun. This has been great.
Tad Nelson: Me too. Thank you so much.