An Open Experiment

This will be the smartest thing I’ve done in years or it will be the stupidest. And I’m going to do it openly so the whole world can watch to see what happens as these next few months unfold.

The promotion of Wizard Academy is about to be turned over to someone else.

Mark Fox said, “Roy, instead of hiring someone to do what you do badly, why not hire someone to do what you do best?”

“Huh?” Mark is on the board of directors of Wizard Academy so I had to keep listening.

“You say the Academy needs a vice-chancellor to stay connected with the students because you do such a bad job of that. But the truth is that the faculty and staff are making sure that everyone’s needs are met. What we need is a marketing apprentice, someone who can spend all day, every day, doing the ten thousand things that need to be done to promote the academy and its classes.”

Suddenly I remembered why Mark is on the board. I am on the inside, looking out, and had been seeing the problem backwards. Mark is on the outside, looking in, and saw the problem clearly. 

Have You Chosen advertising, marketing and public relations to be your life’s work? Are you overflowing with ideas, energy and time? Are you teachable? Are you willing to relocate to Austin, Texas? Can you live on less than $50,000 a year? The marketing apprentice at Wizard Academy will attend classes for free and be advised by some of the greatest media minds in America: Mark Huffman of Procter and Gamble, Dean Rotbart of Wall Street Journal fame, Greg Farrell of Bloomberg News and David McInnis, the revolutionary founder of PR Web. And these are just 4 of several hundred giants who will be happy to take your phone call.

The online marketing books of Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg have ridden the bestseller lists of The New York Times, BusinessWeek, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. Bryan and Jeffrey will help you in any way they can. The scope of Wizard Academy’s relational resources is so vast that you’ll need to lie down and put a cold rag on your head when the full impact of it lands on your mind.

Your office will be in the tower at Wizard Academy, overlooking Austin from a 900-foot plateau at the edge of town. You’ll be horribly overworked and underpaid, but you’ll have a fabulous office and lots of friends.

This job does have a downside: The chancellor of Wizard Academy will be your boss and the current chancellor is overcommitted, reclusive, moody and impatient. He will expect you to use short sentences and make your points very quickly. He will not help you process your thoughts. You’ll have to use other staff members for that. And you WILL have to live in Austin so that you can meet and interact with your principal resource: the alumni and friends of Wizard Academy. Telecommuting is not an option.

Are you up for it? If so, email us 2 pages. Tell us about yourself on the first page. We want to know who, what, where and why. The second page will be a 1-sheet marketing plan detailing exactly what you would do to promote Wizard Academy if your only tools were a computer with online access, a recording studio, a television studio, access to hundreds of profoundly important people and the names and email addresses of a few thousand Wizard Academy alumni. If you have an idea that requires anyone’s energy but your own, that idea is immediately disqualified. And one last thing: you have no marketing budget whatsoever. Are you still up for it? Email your 2 pages to Corrine@WizardAcademy.org

Good Luck,

Roy H. Williams