James Arthur Ray is declaring himself an expert on the career comeback, which is weird, because he really hasn't made one. Don't tell him that, though. His marketing angle, ever since he was released from prison, has been an evolving narrative about how well he's been able to make killing people work for him. Kirby Brown, Liz Neuman, James Shore, they just had to be "sacrificed" so that he could rise like a phoenix from the ashes of their lives. It "had to happen" so he could "learn and grow." Noticeably absent in this new pitch is any reference to the "full and complete responsibility" he previously claimed to have taken for those deaths. Now it's a nameless bad thing that damaged his career. Every single element of this pitch is a study in self-pity and exploitation. What follows is a trip down that page.
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One teensy, little mistake! You cook a few people to death and no one'll let you forget it. It's just so unfair!
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Pedestal?! Let that sink in. He actually thinks successful people should be up on pedestals. And he's still begrudging the fall from his.
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"Regardless of what they're trying to do your career," the vultures. Yeah, he's the victim.
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Who exactly are the "biggest and best" he's supposedly coaching? Does he want us to think Alisyn Camerota is... a client?! That picture was from an interview on CNN. It did not go terribly well for him, either.
"Whether they're accusing you of..." Notice that there is absolutely no notion of personal responsibility in that statement. No one's really guilty of anything... except those awful people who try to make you accountable for your crimes.
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In this segment, James Ray seems determined to remind us that he can't write. "Crisis Coaching," which is elsewhere in the page followed by a registered trademark symbol, is, in this passage, reduced to a list item without one. His service is here conflated with business and legal advice, which will "most likely" help you. He's over-inflating his value and lowering expectations, at the same time.
So what do he and the actual professionals he's conflating himself with offer you? "[T]he tools to manage ruthless media with finesse and suave." Does he mean "finesse and savoir faire?" Because "with suave" is not a thing. Note to James Ray: Always check the section on how to use a word in a sentence, when you're raiding the dictionary for fancy words to make yourself look smarter.
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Trust me, not them. TRUST ME!!!
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Awww... good ol' Truc Do. I wonder how she's doing. Did she ever manage to reverse the body-swap with that middle school girl? Was she able to reclaim her dignity? So many questions.
Far from taking responsibility for the deaths he caused, Ray is now whining about having been "drawn and quartered" over "unfortunate incidents" that happened somehow at a retreat his "company" ran.
Ya mean when you cooked people to death in an "hellacious hot" sweat lodge that you'd been warned repeatedly not to run, lest people get killed?! YOU ARE NOT THE VICTIM!!!!
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Yes, book a consultation right now! Admit it. That icy, cold stare is really enticing.
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"Leverage!" He really loves that word.
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Yeah, so um, how much money do you have, ya know, btw?
P.S. How much available credit do you have access to? Maybe you could call your credit card companies and ask them to up your limit? It's an INVESTMENT. No, really. It is.
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Serious question: Why does he want to know the name of your legal team?
In this pitch, Ray claims to have rebuilt his empire. That sounds pretty odd coming from this guy. One thing that documentary made clear is that Ray always lived beyond his means, even at the height of his career. He never had the good sense to put a little away. Now he's trying to claw his way back, producing small events in shabby hotels and makeshift venues.
The biggest press he's gotten in a while is this article in Deadspin and it's not flattering. It's a good piece, underscoring the deaths he's caused, including that of the rarely discussed Colleen Conaway. I have to offer a couple of corrections, though. The article claims that Ray has "released a book, The Business of Redemption." That is inaccurate, as I explained here. The book, to date, is a nothing but a digital mock-up of what appears to be a self-published vehicle, with an indefinite pub date. Whether there will ever be finished books is anybody's guess.
Now, as to the "comeback" event the article cites:
Ray, 61, has been announced as the keynote speaker for an upcoming tech summit to be held at the regal Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. According to marketing materials for the event, Ray’s talk will focus on “reinvention.” His own summary of “things you might know me for,” and other press releases promoting the appearance, pump up his ties to Oprah, and his having written a New York Times best-seller.
Both of those links bring up 404s. There was, indeed, an event in DC. It just ended, but I was able to pull up the details on the website.
This is the agenda, but I could not find his name listed either there or on the site's list of scheduled speakers. This is all that remains of the James Arthur Ray bio that was once posted on the site.
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Yeah, he's the comeback king.
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