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Monday Morning Memo for December 12, 2005

[I just hate it when Roy gives out our top-secret breakthrough methods. As silly as this may sound to some of you tightly-bound analyticals, this really works! -Dave]

By Roy H. Williams

People tell me they want to learn to think outside the box.

No problemo. The secret is to stay out of the box to begin with.

You crawl into the box when you think about your problem and wrap its known obstacles around you. So quit. Focus instead on an interesting saying, quote, or phrase unrelated to your problem. Crawl inside that bit of wisdom and look at your problem from this cozy new perspective. Don't be surprised if your chosen phrase works like Ali Baba's "Open Sesame," and throws open the door to innovation, wealth, and recognition.

The secret to conjuring powerful strategy – also known as coming up with The Big Idea – is to free your beagle. Abandon the linear, sequential logic of your brain's left hemisphere and engage the pattern recognition of the right.

Last week I wrote to you about commitment, persistence. I had a reason.

"Just as a dog guards a bone safely between its paws when not actively chewing it, creative people nurture an idea even when not actively thinking about it… Creativity does not result from mysterious visions that come in dreams, or from fortuitous circumstances. Creativity and persistence are synonymous. Constantly thinking about the problem, consciously and unconsciously, maximizes the possibility that a chance occurrence is likely to be useful in solving it." – Dr. Richard Cytowic, neurologist

Pick a problem that's had you handcuffed. Now let's create a "chance occurrence" like the one mentioned by Cytowic. We're going to...

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Are you Merely Determined?

Monday Morning Memo for December 05, 2005

By Roy H. Williams

Determination is emotional, a moment of intense focus with clenched jaw and the visualization of a mission accomplished.

The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate,
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate;
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out.

I've known men like Casey, haven't you? All hat, no cattle? Big bravado, little substance? An alligator mouth with a baboon butt?

I'm sorry, but "merely determined" people seem shallow to me. Like Casey at the Bat, they get themselves all worked up, then just as quickly get unworked and wander off to do something else. Determination is transient.

But commitment is irrevocable, a decision that never looks back.

Ask someone you admire how they accomplished what they did, and they'll likely tell you a story of despair and the strong temptation to chuck it all, throw in the towel and quit. But they didn't. They hung on a little longer. And then one more day. And another…

Big things happen for the truly committed on the far side of the breaking point, long after the merely determined have quit and gone home. Does this sound unreasonable to you? Consider the words of George Bernard Shaw: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends upon the unreasonable man."

George Bernard Shaw understood commitment.

So did Margaret Mead. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, that is the only thing that ever has."

Commitment steps up to pay the price when mere Determination runs for cover.

I speak of marriage, faith, and business.

In chapter 19 of the first book of Kings, Elijah, in a dark mood, runs to a cave in the wilderness and pours out his complaints to God, who instructs him to go and find Elisha, son of Shaphat, plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. Elijah found him and draped his cloak around Elisha's shoulders. Recognizing that he'd been chosen to finish the job begun by Elijah, Elisha immediately slaughtered his oxen and cooked their meat over the fires of his plowing equipment. Elisha gave the meat to his co-workers and family, then set out to follow Elijah and become his attendant.

Elisha, a farmer, killed his oxen and burned his plow, leaving himself nothing to fall back on.

That, my friend, is commitment.

Is there anything to which you are truly and deeply committed? Is there anything for which you would kill your ox and burn your plow?

On the day you can answer yes, you will have learned what it means to be genuinely happy.

Roy H. Williams

PS – Commitment. Are you beginning to understand why Chapel Dulcinea, a wedding chapel, was the first building to be constructed on the campus of Wizard Academy?

PPS – Our first Christmas Gift for you is a free, MP3 music download of an instrumental guitar solo by the renowned Phil Sheeran. Mother of Sorrows is an introspective melody that will slow your heart rate and change your mood. Phil created this probing, haunting melody, then gave it as a gift to Chapel Dulcinea at Wizard Academy. And now we're sharing it with you. Enjoy. We'll have another gift for you next week.

What Are You Offering?

Monday Morning Memo for November 28, 2005

By Roy H. Williams

Businesses don't fail due to reaching the wrong people.

Businesses fail when they say the wrong things.

And they say the wrong things when they believe what the public tells them.

Conduct a survey. Ask the public to describe in detail the kind of place they'd like to shop. Then build that place, exactly as described, and see if they ever show up.

Experience tells us they won't.

We'll use furniture stores as an example. People say they want a store where they can look at all the different styles of furniture, see all the different patterns and colors of fabric and grains of wood and colors of wood stain, and then have their own ‘dream furniture' made according to their choices. Today you'll find that furniture store on every corner. "And we'll even show you on a computer monitor exactly what your new sofa will look like! Want to see it in another fabric? Click this button. Another color of wood? Click this button. And we'll deliver it to your home, direct from the factory! You'll be buying factory direct!"

His real name is Jim McIngvale. They call him Mattress Mac. Twenty-five years ago he dove headlong into the furniture business with just five thousand dollars. It's all he had. This year that furniture store will do nearly 200 million dollars in a single location, placing it among the most successful stores in the world.

Jim occasionally buys a day of my time to pick my brain and bounce ideas off me. I should be paying him.

During our last visit, I asked my friend if I could share the secret of his success with you. Graciously, he allowed it: As simple as this may sound, Jim's 200 million dollar secret is immediate delivery. When people buy new furniture, they want to see it in their home immediately. "Buy it today and we'll deliver it tonight," is Jim's angle. He doesn't do special orders. "If you see it, we've got it." Remember all those people who said they wanted to pick from a large selection of fabrics and wood grains? Tell them you'll deliver their new sofa in 8 to 12 weeks. Then Jim will show them something entirely different but offer to deliver it immediately. Guess who usually wins?

What people say they would do is rarely what they will actually do. This is what makes it foolish to put too much faith in surveys. We don't know ourselves as well as we think.

Ask any real estate agent. The homes people buy are never the ones they described to the agent when they got in the car. Not even close.

Now let's talk about you. Chances are, you've been reaching the right people all along. You've just been saying the wrong things. Some ads are like waving raw meat in front of hungry dogs. Most ads are lectures, explaining to these same dogs all the joys of organic popcorn.

Do you have a tasty message to deliver to the world? Or are you expecting your ad writers to apply a thick layer of creativity to hide the fact that you have nothing to say?

Truthfully, what percentage of your ads say anything worth hearing?

Sholem Asch was right when he said, "Writing comes more easily if you have something to say." But Morris Hite said it brazenly, "If you have a good selling idea, your secretary can write your ad for you."

We're here if you need us.

Roy H. Williams

PS - Look to the far left of this memo and you'll see this week's featured product. Selling Customers Their Way is a wonderful DVD featuring my partner, Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Wizard Academy board member Dr. Richard Grant, a consulting psychologist. If you read the product description at WizardAcademyPress.com, be sure to download a sample. It's fun viewing.

Do You Need A Miracle?

Monday Morning Memo for November 21, 2005
By Roy H. Williams

Finances. Relationships. Health... the tall monsters we face in life's dark ocean when we awaken underwater, alone in the night, not knowing what to do.

Ever been there?

People respond to deep crisis in different ways. There are:

1. Handwringers who talk about the problem to anyone who will listen. "You just won't believe what I'm going through."
2. Dark worriers who internalize the problem, then grow despondent and depressed. "Life sucks and then you die."
3. Positive thinkers who prop themselves up with platitudes: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." "God helps those who help themselves." "It's not the size of dog in the fight that counts, it's the size of fight in the dog," etc.
4. Analytical planners who gather the data, calculate the odds, do whatever makes the most sense, then resign themselves to the eventual outcome. "I've done all that I can do."
5. People who abandon steps 1 through 4 and run to God like little girls. "Daddy! Daddy! Save me!"

Does it surprise you that I've always been part of the run-to-God crowd?

I'm not trying to be religious here. I'm trying to be helpful.

Many of you will find today's memo completely irrelevant. I realize that. But with 31,000 readers, I've got to believe that at least a few hundred feel they are suffocating in darkness. (If you're in the sunshine-and-song, problem-free majority, you're free to quit reading right now if you like:)

It seems to me that we're reluctant to run to God for different reasons:

1. Doubt. "God doesn't exist and I'll not demean myself by caving in to that Myth after a lifetime of self-sufficiency."
2. Pride. "I ought to be able to handle this on my own."
3. Religiosity. "God is sovereign. If I suffer, it is because He has willed it."
4. Shame. "I haven't earned the right to ask God for anything."

Doubt has never been a problem for me. Maybe someday I'll tell you why.

Pride is one of my less endearing traits. Frankly, I'm as territorial an alpha-male as any redneck bastard that ever drank Budweiser. But I have no pride when I ponder God. I'm arrogant. But I'm not stupid.

Religiosity. I agree with Arthur C. Clarke, who said, "You can't have it both ways. You can't have both free will and a benevolent higher power who protects you from yourself." In other words, I believe a once-sovereign God gave up absolute control of our circumstances on the day he gave us free will and put us in charge of this world. "Religiosity" is also what Tom, a friend of Anne Lamott, was talking about when he said, "You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."

Shame. Like you, I've never earned the right to run to God like a little girl crying "Daddy, Daddy, Save me." Certainly not. Instead, I take the position, "Jesus, let's not make this about how good I am. Let's make this about how good you are."

Call me crazy. Call me delusional. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I believe in a God who likes me and is on my side. And I am no stranger to miracles.

Do you need a miracle? Like it or not, I've given you what has always worked for me. It's the very best advice I've got: "God, let's not make this about how good I am. Let's make it about how good you are."

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.

Are there things for which you are thankful?

Roy H. Williams

PS – I wrote this memo fully aware that 4 groups of people will complain:

How to Buy Word of Mouth

[The topic of this week’s Memo is already a 30–60 minute PowerPoint that I’m ready to give at your next Chamber, Ad Club or PTA meeting. In addition to travel expenses, my fees are quite reasonable. I can also turn it into a presentation and workshop where every business owner will walk away with a WOM plan. -Dave]

By Roy H. Williams

The price of making a powerful statement is cheap compared to the cost of ads that don't work. So make a statement that counts. This is the best advice I can give you.

I'm not talking about making a grand and sweeping claim, such as, "Lowest prices anywhere. We won't be undersold." No one believes hype anymore. I'm talking about a statement that is bona fide, no loopholes, easy to experience. And it only takes one such statement to put a business over the top. This is why you should designate a percentage of your ad budget to purchase word-of-mouth advertising.

Word-of-mouth is credible because a person puts their reputation on the line every time they make a recommendation. And that person has nothing to gain but the appreciation of those who are listening. What are you doing to make sure your potential ambassadors feel secure? What are you doing to trigger word-of-mouth?

1. Word-of-mouth is triggered when… [Continue reading at WizardAcacemy]

MMMemo: Are you Willing to Be Weird?

[NOTE from Dave: Willing? I don't know anything else. People have been trying to stifle my weirdness all of my life. It's never worked (stifling it) and I've never been more successful than when I finally embraced it, quit my day job and became a full-time Wizard. How weird is that? Wizard for hire. My wand works on web sites, retail stores, ad reps and damn near anything I point it at. Weird, huh?]

By Roy H. Williams

No one wants to be average. But everyone wants to be normal.

What's up with that?

You can't imitate your way to excellence. It can be achieved only by breaking away from the pack, abandoning the status quo.

But breaking away from the pack is also the way to spectacular failure.

Are you beginning to understand why there is so little excellence in the world?

A weird person who succeeds is called eccentric. A weird person who fails is called a loser. Most people just walk the middle path and wonder what might have been.

If there is, somewhere, a Book of Days, what will be written in it about you? Will the book say you played it safe, never took a chance and were buried in such-and-such a place?

I think Tom Peters gave excellent advice to managers when he said, "Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes."

The New York Times tells us, "She embarked on a show-business career at 15 by going to Manhattan and enrolling in John Murray Anderson's dramatic school. From the first, she was repeatedly told she had no talent and should return home. She tried and failed to get into four Broadway chorus lines, so she became a model for commercial photographers. She won national attention as the Chesterfield Cigarette Girl in 1933. This got her to Hollywood as a Goldwyn chorus girl. For the next two years she played unbilled, bit roles in two dozen movies. She then spent seven years at RKO, where she got leading roles in low-budget movies. But she was wrongly cast and mostly wasted in films."

In all, Lucille Ball appeared in 72 B-movies before she became too old to be...

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MMMemo: For Sale: FREE TIME

[Note from Dave: Roy's advice at the end of this memo is to find something that scares the hell out of you...and do it. I've started a list. I'm not a list kind of guy. Number 1 on the list is "sharing this list with everybody". Number 2 is finding 100 small businesses by the end of the year that don't want me to do a Persuasion Architecture®  project for them. Why would I want to find 100 businesses that don't want to spend money with me? Because in that search, I'll very likely screw up and find a few that want and need to increase their conversion rates by multiples. In fact, probably enough to meet a few of our financial goals and dreams. I'd better get to work! Julie, get ready to quit your day job.]

By Roy H. Williams

Do you want more free time? Then you must buy it. Free time is never free.

There are only four ways you can buy free time:

1. Work fewer hours. Learn to say no. You'll have more free time immediately.
Cost: Lost opportunities, reduced income.

2. Develop systems, methods and procedures that save time.
Cost: Time and money spent in developing those systems, methods and procedures.

3. Recruit, hire, train and manage other people to do your work for you.
Cost: Time and money spent in recruiting, hiring, training and managing.

I heartily recommend these three methods. But I recommend against number four:

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MMMemo: Imagine No Delusions

By Roy H. Williams

We Baby Boomers had beautiful dreams back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but we didn't do much about them. It was enough back in those days just to "Visualize World Peace" and sing wistfully about a brighter tomorrow. Remember John Lennon's song, Imagine?

Imagine no possessions.
I wonder if you can.
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer,
but I'm not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

But dreaming didn't change the world. We don't all live in a yellow submarine.

Those who have heard me explain Society's 40-year Pendulum will recall my conviction that we're in the third year of a new generational cycle that will be remembered for its small-but-effective actions rather than its grand-but-impotent dreams.

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Monday Morning Memo: What Kind of Cat are You?

By Roy H. Williams

It was a term once used to describe exceptional jazz musicians. African-Americans spelled it "hepcat," while their white counterparts heard "cat" and assumed "hep" to be a modifier. Hence, "hep cat."

In 1942 Bob Clampett created the first color Looney Tunes cartoon, The Hep Cat, featuring an unnamed feline that would later develop a lisp and become known as Sylvester, (derived from silvestris, the scientific name for the cat species.) Soon, people were being referred to as all kinds of cats, as in cool cat, crazy cat, and "hep" became "hip."

And it all came from the African Wolof word "hipikat," meaning, "someone finely attuned to his/her environment." Makes sense, right? An inspired improv from a blower in sync with his fellow jazz musicians would trigger the rejoinder "hipikat" from a bystander familiar with the African word. Anglos heard "hep cat" and a new, misheard word was born.

Language is an interesting thing. If you enjoyed that brief summary of "hep cat," then you're definitely my brand of crazy. I enjoyed it, too. Arooo! Aroo-Arooooo!

New subject: Winning a Race

Nothing changes when you win a footrace. But the person who wins the hearts of men and women can wonderfully change the future. Do you have the skill to win the eye, the ear, the doubting heart? Can you win the human race?

I Did Not Die Today

[For those of you who like the hands-on, how-to, git-er-done over the abstract and thought-provoking material that Roy sometimes writes, you'll LOVE this memo. -Dave]

An Introduction to Chaotic Ad Writing

By Roy H. Williams

I am, for the moment, alive and well as an ad writer. But I feel I'm being stalked by iPods, cell phones, instant messaging, and increasingly fragmented media choices. And they're all gunning for my life.

Over-communication rides rampant across the mindscape of America, putting greater-than-ever pressure on ad writers to create ads that produce results.

Today I will teach you how to write such ads.

The opening line is the key to impact. So open big. I'm not talking about hype; "Save up to 75 percent off this week only at blah, blah blah." I'm talking about a statement that is fundamentally more interesting than what had previously occupied your customer's mind.

Wasn't your attention piqued by the opening line, "I Did Not Die Today?" Magnetism is why I chose it. Frankly, I had no idea how I was going to bridge from that opening line into the subject matter at hand. But it can always be done.

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