Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo From Whence Comes the Power to Persuade?
When you’re trying to transfer a thought or a feeling to someone else, the impact of your communication will be determined by the following equation:
- How big is the thought in your mind, or the feeling in your heart?
- How quickly can you transfer it?
The Law of Impact (or force,) documented by Isaac Newton, applies to communication as much as it does to physics: impact is the product of mass (size and weight) times acceleration (speed.)
How massive is your thought or feeling?
How quickly can you transfer it?
The works of illustrators like Norman Rockwell and painters like Andrew Wyeth are often criticized as being “too obvious.” But the visual communications these artists produced were among the 20th century’s most recognizable works of art.
Rockwell and Wyeth became famous because they were able to communicate big ideas clearly and quickly. Today I’m going to help you do the same with words.
Have you ever noticed how short quotes pack a greater punch than long ones?
The fewer the words, the greater the impact.
Shorter hits harder.
Boring people take too long to say too little.
Interesting people know what to leave out.
The best way to get good at this is to fill your ears with it. As you read, so will you write. If you read the writings of long-winded people, you will learn to wrap a great many words around a small idea.
But if every day you read big ideas condensed into few words, you will soon be able to speak and write with greater impact.
“The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from.” – Gene Fowler (1890 – 1960)
Ray Bard published my Wizard of Ads trilogy 19 years ago. We made the New York Times bestsellers list together. The second book in that series became the Wall Street Journal’s #1 business book in America.
More than 50 percent of the books published by Bard Press have become New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers. No other publisher has achieved even 10 percent.
As a young man, Ray sold books from door to door and he’s been collecting quotes about selling for more than 40 years. His jury of more than 1,000 quote judges spent an entire year evaluating and voting on the best-of-the-best from Ray’s collection.
Today, August 7, 2017, is the day these quotes are finally available. Maximum thought in minimum words.
Fired-up! Selling.
This small book is a gorgeous work of art.
It looks like embossed leather but Ray swears no animals were harmed.
Three silk placeholder ribbons.
Full-color on every page.
The distilled essence of a lifetime collection.
Think of it as a textbook
that teaches you
how to say
big things
quickly.
Roy H. Williams