I was watching a few of Evan Puschak’s “Nerdwriter” videos when I heard my own inner voice composing a thank you note to him. In the quiet of my mind, I told Evan that I have always found his analysis of literature, movies, music, photographs, and paintings to be incisive and insightful.IncisiveInsightfulThose two words, back-to-back, hit me so hard that I stumbled and fell backward into a bottomless chasm of grief over the loss of Andrew Cross.Evan Puschak is incisive.Andrew Cross was insightful.“Incisive” conjures the precision of a scalpel as it slices open a surface to reveal what is hidden inside.“Insightful” describes the inner workings of intuition as it quietly assembles a mosaic in the mind.I was going to say that I have a “parasocial relationship” with Evan Puschak and Andrew Cross, but then I decided that I should check to make sure that “parasocial relationship” means what I think it does. Here’s what Captain Google told me.“A parasocial relationship is a one-sided, imagined connection or bond a person develops with someone they don’t know personally, usually a media figure or celebrity, often feeling a sense of intimacy or familiarity despite the lack of reciprocity.”Yep. It means exactly what I thought it did. 🙂This is Andrew Cross, the Desert Drifter.“Years ago, I ventured into a canyon alone. I thought I saw something perched high on a cliff. I looked closer. It was an ancient ruin of some kind. I assessed the climb to reach it, and I backed down. It looked too intimidating, but I’m not who I was back then.”“Nerdwriter” Evan Puschak has built a YouTube channel of 3.2 million subscribers over the past 13 years.“Desert Drifter” Andrew Cross built a YouTube channel of 484,000 subscribers in just 13 months. Both men are 36 years old.I continue to watch with anxiety as Andrew climbs impossible stone cliffs,hundreds of feet high, to examine the ruins of 1,000-year-old Native American cliff dwellings.I never suspected that Death would be waiting for Andrew at the corner of 1st Street and North Avenue near his home in Grand Junction, Colorado.While he was still with us, Andrew took hundreds of thousands of people like me with him – one at a time – to explore remote places that few people will ever see. And he never failed to share his wonder:“I had finally arrived. Arrived at what? Was the ruin itself what I was really searching for after all? As I looked around at the remnants of what once was, I pondered the reason I do all of this in the first place.”“Confucius once said, ‘By three methods we may learn wisdom. First by Reflection, which is noblist. Second by Imitation, which is easiest. And third by Experience, which is the bitterest.’”“These open desert spaces provide opportunities for all three of those. And they always beckon me to return. As long as I am able, I will answer their call, to discover more about myself and the people who have called this place ‘home.’ As you join me, my hope is for you, too, to find space for reflection, and the pursuit of wisdom.”“Thank you for accompanying me on this journey.”It was a delight to spend those hours with you, Andrew.The world is smaller now that you are gone.Roy H. WilliamsMichael Drew helps authors turn their big ideas into nationwide influence and income. He has guided more than 130 book authors onto major bestseller lists — including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. His methods are not just for seasoned authors. Michael has helped business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals turn their ideas into books that people buy and read. A bestselling book translates into higher speaking fees and the ability to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Roving reporter Rotbart says, “If podcasts had bestseller lists, this week’s episode would surely be a top-ten contender.” Listen and learn about the inner workings of what it takes to make a bestseller happen. MondayMorningRadio.comOn the last page of today’s rabbit hole, I have hidden a secret, limited-time-only recording of Michael Drew explaining the surprising way that The New York Times bestsellers list is compiled. It’s not the way that most people think! Aroo. – Indy Beagle

Magical Thinking is often misunderstood.Jason Segel plays a psychologist in the Apple + TV show, “Shrinking.” He is talking to a patient with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.He looks at her. “This again?” She is holding her breath. He says, “You looked at the clock and now you have to hold your breath until the minute changes?” Holding her breath, she nods her head. He says, “Look, I know you feel like this compulsion is gonna help keep bad things from happening, but that’s called magical thinking.”Medical News Today says, “Magical thinking means that a person believes their thoughts, feelings, or rituals can influence events in the material world, either intentionally or unintentionally.”But the summary of that article says, “This type of thinking does not always cause harm. In fact, it can have benefits.”The benefits of magical thinking are – according to me – exquisite.Magical thinking is the least destructive way to escape reality. When you compare it to alcohol, gambling, drugs, or adrenaline-producing dangerous behaviors, magical thinking is about as dangerous as eating raw cookie dough.Magical thinking is a requirement when you are:looking forward to a vacation, a wedding, or other happy event. Every time you imagine the future, you are visiting a world that does not exist.enjoying a television series, a movie, a novel, a poem, a song, a cartoon, or any other type of fiction. Half of your brain knows these things never happened, but the other half of your brain doesn’t care.being persuaded by a well-written bit of advertising.Life is happier when it’s less cluttered.Your house will be bigger.Your teeth will be whiter.Angels will sing.You’ll be a better dancer.Go to 1800GOTJUNK.comAnd prepare to be amazed.Words create realities in the mind.Magical realism is a type of writing characterized by elements of the fantastic – woven with a deadpan sense of presentation – into an otherwise true story.If you exaggerate, people won’t trust you. But if you say something so impossible that it cannot possibly be true, people will be delighted by the possibility you popped into their mind.SARAH:  When your home feels clean and happy, the people inside feel clean and happy.BRIAN: I’ve got a partner who lives down the street from you and we’re anxious to bring you a truckload of SPRINGTIME. [sfx magic sparkle]SARAH: You don’t have to lift a finger!Predictability is the silent assassin of advertising.Magical realism focuses the imagination, disarms the assassin, and delights the mind.BRIAN: We make junk disappear. [sfx magic sparkle]SARAH: All you have to do is point.Magical thinking is good for your soul.Magical realism is good for your business.Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.Roy H. WilliamsThe reinvention of Gigi Meier is nothing short of remarkable. After three decades at the boardroom level of a multi-billion-dollar bank, Gigi reinvented herself as a romance writer. Gigi has published 16 books, some quite steamy, across three ongoing series. Did Gigi to draw on her extensive banking experience to fuel her publishing success? No! She tells roving reporter Rotbart that the opposite is true! Gigi has discovered valuable insights as a romance publisher that would have been useful during her banking career! No one has guests as interesting as roving reporter Rotbart. Am I right! This party will get started the moment you arrive at MondayMorningRadio.com

Learn how to captivate audiences on social media with proven strategies from a master of engagement. Discover why YouTube remains the go-to platform for authenticity and growth, even if you think you’re late to the game. Hear about the challenge of navigating Facebook's pay-to-play model versus building an organic fanbase. Plus, get tips on crafting compelling stories that resonate with followers. Perfect for anyone looking to boost their online presence!

“Features and benefits” were once the most loudly shouted secrets of customer acquisition in Business to Consumer advertising (B2C). I even wrote a chapter in my first book – The Wizard of Ads – on the use of “which means” as a word-bridge between:1. naming a feature of your product and2. naming the benefit it delivers to your customer.But that was 27 years ago.When “features and benefits” became predictable in B2C advertising, they quickly tumbled into the gutters of “Ad-speak” and lost all of their effectiveness.Naming features and benefits is still the right thing to do in Business to Business advertising (B2B) and in Direct Response ads. In those environments, your customers already know they are in the cross hairs of a sales pitch. So name a feature, followed by “which means,” and then tell them about the benefit they will experience.Here’s how that Direct Response ad might sound:“TwinkleWhite toothpaste contains Polychromaticite® which means your teeth will be whiter, your breath will be fresher, and everyone will be attracted to you. TwinkleWhite toothpaste is the choice of 93% of billionaires and 97% of supermodels worldwide, which means Polychromaticite® is an essential ingredient in the creation of personal wealth and beauty. This miracle toothpaste isn’t sold in stores, which means you will save 65 percent when your order TwinkleWhite directly from the laboratory at TwinkleWhite.com”Direct Response advertising is a unique monster who lives and dies by its own special rules.1. It is judged by its ability to generate an immediate result.2. It offers no continuing benefit to the advertiser.Direct Response is the preferred method of advertising for people who are selling a stand-alone product, tickets to an event, or a quick solution for a short-term problem, such as roof repair after a hurricane. None of these people is building a brand.Although ads for B2C sales activation can sound similar to B2B ads and Direct Response ads like the one above, different rules apply.I will now whisper to you the quiet secrets of B2C sales activation in 2025.Every Powerful Message Comes at a Cost. Vulnerability is the currency that buys trust in today’s over-communicated world. Financial vulnerability, emotional vulnerability, and relational vulnerability demonstrate your sincerity.When you don’t have cash, spend time instead. Brad Casebier owned a tiny plumbing company in a town that doesn’t have enough water. So he calculated how much water a running toilet wastes every day, then advertised that he would install a new toilet flapper for free in every home that had a running toilet. No strings attached. Brad became a superstar and his company became huge. Interestingly, the average person who needed a new toilet flapper spent about $800 on other things they needed done.These diamond earrings whisper, “I love you.” Customer interest skyrockets when inanimate objects have thoughts, feelings, or the ability to speak.Promote your slowest day of the week. I rarely visit my favorite restaurant on Mondays because it is always too crowded. Their offer of “Buy a Burger and Get One Free” packs the house with people who buy lots of appetizers, side dishes, desserts, and drinks from the bar because they saved a couple of bucks on a burger. The offer is for dine-in only.Don’t think like a business owner. Think like the customer. Do not try to unload your buying mistakes through sales activation. Your company will be judged as out-of-touch and unfashionable.In-house financing at 0% interest is a friendly offer. It makes things buyable that would otherwise be out-of-reach.Powerful offers work, even when they don’t.The 40% of sales activation ads in your customer bonding campaign will accelerate the impact of the remaining 60%.Sales activation sends a signal that says, “This company is on the move. They’re putting a lot of energy into everything they do.”Some people lump sales activation ads and direct response ads into a common basket called “performance marketing.” My partner Johnny Molson recently highlighted an important point in a new 100-page research paper called The Multiplier Effect that says, “The payback of performance advertising is only as strong as the equity of the brand.” In other words, a stronger brand means you can have a better sale. And stronger brands are the result of customer bonding.The objective of your B2C customer bonding campaign is to make customers like you, trust you, and immediately think of you when they need what you sell.Nourish the seeds of relationship that you plant in the hearts of your customers with the water and sunlight of delightful sales activation.Customer bonding operates on the timeless principles of seedtime and harvest.This is why you can trust it.Roy H. WilliamsAndrew Matthews and his wife, Julie, have sold more than 8 million copies of their inspirational books about happiness and resilience. His first visit with us was one of 2024’s most popular episodes of Monday Morning Radio. In this, his second appearance, Andrew talks about the persistence, relationship-building and adaptability that are required to achieve success. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3. Persistence, Relationship-building, and Adaptability. We’ll get started as soon as you arrive at MondayMorningRadio.com

Philip Dusenberry once said, “I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes.”I can testify that Dusenberry is correct. The best ad writers make more money than the most highly paid lawyers and heart surgeons.Great advertising makes an enormous difference in the top line revenue of a company. A reputation for being able to write great ads makes an enormous difference in your bank account. But only if you get paid according to the growth of the businesses you write for.Did you notice that I ended that sentence with a preposition? A pedantic will tell you that I should have said, “But only if you get paid according to the growth of the businesses for whom you write ads.” But I chose not to do that. If you can tell me why, you might have the makings of an ad writer.Do you have a friend who reads the books of the world’s most famous authors?If you say, “Call me Ishmael,” and your friend says, “Moby Dick,” your friend has the ingredients to bake a wordcake.Say to your friend, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.”If your friend says, “Robert Frost,” he or she has the ability to lead people to places they have never been.Say, “The price of self-destiny is never cheap, and in certain situations it is unthinkable. But to achieve the marvelous, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.”If your friend looks at you and says, “Tom Robbins died last month,” they definitely have the makings of ad writer.“As you read, so will you write.”If the cadence and rhythm and unpredictable phrases singular to poets, screenwriters and novelists are echoing in your brain, your mind will spew rainbows of words like ocean water from the blowhole of a whale.Luke records Jesus as having said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” If you want to know what is inside a person, listen to what they say and read what they write.The minds of great writers are filled with the music of other great writers. Music cannot flow from your fingertips if it does not live in your mind.I don’t mean to be unkind, but most writers have no music in their mind.Tom Robbins told NPR in 2014, “I would tell stories aloud to himself, but always out in the yard with a stick in my hand. I would beat the ground as I told the story. And we moved fairly frequently. We would leave houses behind where one section of the yard was completely bare from where I had destroyed the grass. But I realized much later in life that what I was doing was drumming. I was building a rhythm. Even today as a writer I pay a lot of attention to the rhythm in my work.”When Tom Robbins died, hypnotic passages from his bestselling novels were quoted by NPR and The New York Times in their eulogies of his life.Character dialogue written by Aaron Sorkin is the standard by which all screenwriting is judged. Aaron says, “It’s not just that dialogue sounds like music to me. It actually is music. Anytime someone is speaking for the purpose of performance, whether they’re doing it from a pulpit in a church, whether it’s a candidate on the stump or an actor on a stage, anytime they’re speaking for the purposes of performance, all the rules of music apply.”The workload of my 81 Wizard of Ads partners will soon be at maximum capacity.I am looking for brilliant ad writers. Between now and the end of the year I will onboard a small group of writers who are worth a lot more money than they are currently being paid. They will attend the partner meeting this autumn.Selection, orientation, and enculturation requires diligence and patience on both sides.Our journey will begin when you send exactly 12 things you have written to corrine@wizardofads.com. Choose the work that best represents you.Know that it will probably be summertime before you hear anything back from us.The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.Do you have the courage to begin?Roy H. Williams

Twenty-four thousand men were crowded into Knockaloe Interment Camp in 1914 because they had been found guilty of being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong last name.Tightly confined behind barbed wire, those men grew increasingly weak, feeble, stiff and awkward until a man named Joseph was shoved through their gate on September 12, 1915.He gave his fellow prisoners strength, stamina, flexibility and grace.They never forgot him.When the war was over and those men were released, Joseph boarded a ship for America. While onboard that ship, he fell in love with a woman named Clara who was also headed to America. When they arrived in New York, Joseph and Clara opened a studio on 8th street that would send ripples across the world.The rest of this story is about how those ripples became a wave.George Balanchine sent his ballet dancers to Joseph on 8th street to gain strength, stamina, flexibility and grace.Martha Graham sent her modern dancers to Joseph on 8th street to gain strength, stamina, flexibility and grace.The best dancers on Broadway went to Joseph on 8th Street to gain strength, stamina, flexibility and grace.George Balanchine became known as “The Father of Modern Ballet.”Martha Graham is shown in Apple’s famous “Think Different” video as one of the 17 people that Steve Jobs felt had changed the world.Broadway, Ballet, and Modern Dance were lifted to new heights.When those ripples from 8th Street reached California, the “Golden Age of Hollywood” began.Gene Kelley danced with a light post and sang in the rain to the thundering applause of America.Slim, elegant, and incredibly strong, Fred Astaire did impossible things effortlessly.Ginger Rodgers did exactly what Fred did, but backwards and in high heels.A young man was known for his slogan, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” He brought strength, stamina, flexibility and grace to the world of boxing.Like Martha Graham, this young boxer was chosen to appear in Apple’s famous “Think Different” video as one of the 17 “crazy ones” who changed the world.He had been the heavyweight champion of the world for 5 years when a 10-year-old boy named Michael elevated dancing to an even higher place with the help of his 4 older brothers. Those 8th Street ripples of strength, stamina, flexibility and grace had splashed back from the California coast and were now rippling through Motown.Charles Atlas and Joseph Pilates were born one year apart and lived an almost identical lifespan.Charles Atlas gave men bulging biceps that other people could admire.Joseph Pilates told us how to gain the strength, stamina, flexibility, and grace to do whatever we want to do.What do you want to do?– Roy H. WilliamsPS – Joseph loved Clara until the day he died.Are your employees happy to follow you, or do they avoid you like a skunk at a garden party? Phillip Wilson says the more accessible you are as a leader, the more your business will thrive. But when leaders create a gap between themselves and their employees, they lose top talent and nudge workers toward unionization. Listen in as the famous Phillip Wilson explains to roving reporter Rotbart why “Approachable Leadership” is the only elevator that can lift employee morale, productivity, and retention. The button has been pressed and this elevator is about to up-up-up! But we’re holding the door open for you, hoping that you’ll join us at MondayMorningRadio.com

The biggest decisions I ever made didn’t seem big at the time.I’ll bet the same is true for you.Pivotal changes in direction seem obvious to us 10 years later, but during that tiny moment when we alter our course a little, it feels like a very small thing.Here are 4 small, pivotal moments that loom large in my mind today.Moment #1: I was a 22-year-old advertising salesman who was rapidly going bald. Every business owner I met was trying to decide, “Where should I invest my ad budget?”One morning I heard myself answer, “I don’t care where you spend your money. The thing that matters most is what you say in your ads.”The man didn’t believe me.But I believed me.The direction of my future was altered by a few degrees in that singular, magical moment.Moment #2, about 18 months later:I was writing exceptional ads and everyone was dancing except me. I knew something was missing, but I didn’t know what. And it was bugging me.I looked into my own eyes in the bathroom mirror for about a minute one morning. And then I said out loud, “Why am I not seeing better results?”My reflection reached out from that mirror, slapped my face, grabbed my collar and pulled me in so closely that my nose was pressed into the glass. I could feel its breath on my ear as it whispered, “You are reaching too many people with too little repetition.”You never forget a thing like that.Moment #3: I was pondering the “Reach and Frequency Analysis” of my media schedule that had been calculated for me by the most famous data company in America and It said everything was fine. But I knew I was reaching too many people with too little repetition. That was the problem.I found the cause of that problem – and the solution to it – buried deep in the methodology of how advertising everywhere is measured, sold, purchased, and evaluated.Good science is distorted by our erroneous assumptions. We gather perfectly accurate data and then misinterpret it. We rarely question our assumptions, especially when they are part of the universally accepted way of “How Things are Done.”If you could see the mistakes that hide in your blind spot, it would not be called “a blind spot.”Misinterpretation of data is an irresistible tide that carries every boat in the wrong direction.The first fatal mistake occurs so early in the process of data processing that we never really question it.The second fatal mistake happens during the implementation stage. You assume that spreading your small ad budget across different media is the right thing to do because everyone does it. This idea of a “media mix” is practiced by all the largest advertisers and taught in every university. They say to their marketing students, “This is what the biggest companies do. You should imitate them.”But here’s the dead fly in that bowl of soup: When a company has a much bigger ad budget than everyone else in their category, they can aim that firehouse across several media and soak everyone with relentless repetition.But you don’t have a firehouse. You have a watering can.If you use your watering can properly, you’ll be able to afford a garden hose. And if you use that garden hose properly, you will soon be able to afford a fire hose.The water in your watering can should be used to water all the people you can reach with sufficient repetition.“with sufficient repetition.”“with sufficient repetition.”Repetition is the non-negotiable you must protect at all cost.When you reach too many people with too little repetition, no one gets wet, and you stay small.NOTE: I am dangerously oversimplifying the solution when I say that you can achieve automatic, involuntary recall (known as procedural memory) by reaching the average person at least 2.5 times per week, every week, with a magnetically memorable message.That’s how you become a household word.That simple explanation is dangerous because the reports that are most commonly generated from the data will confirm you are achieving a weekly repetition of 2.5 when you are not, in fact, achieving it.Let’s review:(A.) When you are buying media, never forget that figures lie, and liars figure. You have to know more about data analysis than the media sellers who want to put your ad budget in their pocket.(B.) You will always be attracted to the media that is most easily measured, not the one that is the most effective. You must resist this fatal attraction.(C.) You will assume that the secret to success in advertising is “to reach the right people.” FACT: I have never seen a business fail due to reaching the wrong people.(D.) Your ads will need to win the heart, knowing that the mind will follow. FACT: The mind will always find logic to justify what the heart has already decided.(E.) Winning the hearts of people is amazingly affordable if you(1.) have patience and(2.) know how to write great ads.(F.) Winning those hearts at the last minute is extremely expensive. Don’t put it off until the last minute.When I discovered the secret of making miracles, I began making millionaires.Moment #4: I decided to quit charging by the hour when I was about 30 years old. My new plan was to charge a flat rate per month for one year, then adjust that monthly salary up or down by the same percentage the client’s top line had increased or decreased during the previous 12 months.This aligned my best interests with their best interests.Note to Great Ad Writers: Don’t be paid according to how much your client spends.Be paid according to how much they grow.That is how you will become the world’s most highly paid ad writer.The same is true for media buyers.Roy H. WilliamsPS – You definitely want to see page one in the rabbit hole today. To see page one, click the image of the sunset at the top of this page. If you are listening to the audio version of this memo, go to MondayMorningMemo.com and look in the archives for February 27, 2025. “Moments that Change Everything.”NOTE 1: Advertising professionals will notice that I refer to “reach and frequency” as “reach and repetition” throughout this essay. Roy does this because he writes for people who never took advertising classes in college. It has been our experience that people will often misinterpret the word “frequency,” but they always understand the word “repetition.”NOTE 2: Everything the wizard told you today applies only to B2C advertising (Business-to-Consumer.) It does not apply to B2B advertising (Business to Business). And Direct Response advertising is its own special monster.

If you believe that people today have a short attention span, you are mistaken.FACT: We live in an over-communicated society.This is why we have learned how to quickly filter out messages that do not interest us.FACT: We will happily spend several hours binge-watching shows that appeal to us.Where’s your theory about a short attention span now?If you want to get people’s attention and hold that attention, talk to them about things they already care about.If people aren’t paying attention to your ads, it is because (A.) you chose the wrong thing to talk about, or (B.) you are talking about it in a predictable way.I wrote an ad this morning for a jewelry store. This is how the ad begins:RICK: Sicily is the island at the toe of the boot of Italy,SARAH: and the town of Catania is situated on the seashore, staring at the toe of that boot.MONICA: That’s where Jay, one of our owners, traveled to meet Italy’s most exciting new jewelry designer.RICK: Tell us about it, Jay.JAY: When I met Francesco and saw what he was working on, I almost hyperventilated.Those 5 lines do not sound like the typical jewelry store ad.But I’ll bet you’d like to hear the rest of it.Let’s talk for a moment about another obvious truth:FACT: Ads rarely work for products that people don’t want. The ad writers and the media will always get the blame, but the real mistake is made when business owners convince themselves that advertising can sell things that no one wants.Advertising cannot, in fact, do that.I recently spoke to a friend who sent out 20,000 postcards that failed to get a response. This led him to conclude that “direct mail doesn’t work.”When he told me what was featured on those 20,000 postcards, I told my friend the truth. “Your experiment proved only that a weak offer gets weak results. Direct mail didn’t fail. Your offer did.”Your objective determines the rules you must play by.Direct Response – immediate result advertising – can be measured with ROAS (Return On Ad Spend.) Pay-per-click is perhaps the most common type of direct response advertising, but direct response offers are routinely made using every type of media. If you plan to introduce, explain, and sell a product or service to a customer with whom you have no previous relationship, you are rolling the dice of direct response. You can always measure the effectiveness of direct response ads with ROAS.Direct Response is a sport for surfers who like to ride the wave of a trend. It is a wild and crazy rollercoaster ride of feast-and-famine. If you like excitement, you should definitely do it. But be aware that the most successful direct response marketers are spending 25% to 35% percent of top line revenues on advertising. You need at least a 20x markup to play that game.I prefer sowing and reaping. Seedtime and harvest.Brand Building creates a long-term bond with the customer. The goal of brand building is to make your name the one that customers think of immediately – and feel the best about – when they finally need what you sell. Your Return on Ad Spend –ROAS – will look terrible when you first begin, but it will get better and better as you build a relationship with the public. In the long run, nothing can touch brand building. It is always the most cost-effective way to invest your ad budget if you have patience, confidence, and a good ad writer.Roy H. WilliamsTwenty-eight million viewers tuned in to “The Apprentice” each week to watch people be told, “You’re Fired.”But in the real world, dismissing employees is far more complicated —emotionally, ethically, and legally. How to dismiss employees isn’t taught in business school, and managers often fumble the process. Mahesh Guruswamy has spent much of his career delivering bad news — not just to employees but also to customers, investors, and even his superiors. Today Mahesh is sharing his hard-earned wisdom with roving reporter Rotbart. Make time for this episode! You are about to learn some incredibly valuable things at MondayMorningRadio.com.

Buying advertising is a lot like buying diamonds.Allow me to explain.Anyone who talks to a jeweler will be told that diamonds are graded according to the 4 C’s: Color, Clarity, Carat weight, and Cut.Customers ask the jeweler, “Which of the 4 Cs is most important?”This seems like a perfectly reasonable question, but the truth is that the 4 C’s cannot be compared to one another. There is no rubric, no metric, no algorithm that can equate them. The 4 C’s are distinctly separate from one another. They are not interchangeable.Advertising is like that. Each of the characteristics of highly effective advertising are distinctly separate from one another. They are not interchangeable.Natural diamonds can be an infinite number of shades of yellow, grey, brown, green, blue, red, or a mixture thereof. Diamonds can also be colorless.The only thing more valuable than a colorless diamond is an extremely colorful one.Color is a measurement of rarity, not beauty.Clarity is another measurement of rarity, not beauty.“Flawless” clarity refers to a diamond which is free of inclusions under 10x magnification. But under 40x magnification every flawless diamond is swimming with inclusions that cannot be seen under 10x. So get this idea of “flawless” out of your head, okay? It is a myth.Seven clarity grades below flawless is another clarity known as SI2, which looks flawless to the naked eye. Not even a jeweler can tell the difference without 10x magnification. But there is a huge difference in price between flawless and SI2 because Clarity is a measurement of rarity, not beauty, remember?Carat weight is how the size of a diamond is measured. We’ll come back to this in a minute.Cut does not refer to the shape of the diamond, but to the ability of the diamond to gather light, bounce it between the facets, and then shine it upward toward the eyes. When diamonds are cut perfectly, they do not leak light out of the bottom of the diamond. A perfectly cut diamond returns 100% of internalized light upward and outward in a wild spectacle of sparkles.You want sparkles, but you also want carat weight.When you cut a diamond crystal perfectly, you lose more than half of that diamond’s Carat weight. But if you cheat the cut a little, the diamond won’t sparkle as much but it will weigh more and sell for more money.If you cut the diamond with a thick girdle and a deep pavilion, the diamond will be dull because its internal mirrors will be misaligned, but it will be much heavier than if it were cut properly.A Carat is a unit of weight. There are 141.748 Carats in an ounce. This means that a small pouch of 1-Carat diamonds worth just $4,000 each will cost you $567,000 an ounce.Pure gold is less than $3,000 an ounce.Are you beginning to understand why diamond cutters are loath to grind away precious carat weight in the quest for maximum sparkle?Your logical mind tells you that it should be possible to create a diamond algorithm that says, “one colorgrade = 0.05 carats = 0.78 of a clarity grade = 2.13% excess weight above the projected carat weight for a perfectly cut diamond of this diameter.”Your logical mind tells you this because you continue to believe that dissimilar properties such as color, clarity, carat weight, and cut can be quantified, codified, and reconciled.In truth, they cannot.Buying advertising is even more complicated than buying diamonds.The rubric used to calculate the Gross Rating Points achieved in media schedules makes perfect sense until you realize it equates dissimilar properties and treats them as though they are interchangeable:Reach = the total number of different people who experienced your ad within a specified period of time.Frequency = how often the average person experienced your ad.If half the people experienced your ad only once, and the other half experienced it twice, your ad campaign would score a Frequency of 1.5 in your specified window of measurement.How Gross Rating Points are calculated. (And they will always automatically be calculated by the media sellers.)STEP ONE: Reach x Frequency (repetition) = Gross ImpressionsSTEP TWO: Gross Impressionscast as a percentage of the Nielsen population of your trade area= Gross Rating Points. (GRP’s)STEP THREE: Cost Per Gross Rating Point or CPP (Cost Per Point) is calculated byA: the cost of the scheduleB: divided by the number of Gross Rating Points it delivers.If the population of your trade area is 765,432 people and your ad schedule delivers 765,432 Gross Impressions in the specified window of time, your schedule achieved 100 Gross Rating Points, (the mathematical equivalent of having reached 100% of your trade area 1 time)But is that really what happened? Of course not.Perhaps you reached 50% of the city twice.Maybe you reached 33.3% of the city 3 times.You might have reached 25% of the city 4 times.Or 10% of the city 10 times, 5% of the city 20 times,Or 1 sad bastard 765,432 times.Do you believe that each of those schedules will deliver the same result?Of course not.But each of them delivers 100 Gross Rating Points.Gross Rating Points give you no insights that can help you, yet hundreds of billions of dollars are spent each year choosing media schedules according to their Cost Per Point.The fatal mistake was made in Step One. Reach and Frequency (repetition) are not interchangeable. You cannot multiply one times the other to get “Gross Rating Points.” That’s just stupid.Any local business that evaluates ad schedules based on their Cost Per Point will always reach too many people with too little repetition.Reach is easy to achieve. Frequency is hard to achieve unless you bite the hook of broad rotators which are added to your schedule at little or no cost. If you allow this “added value” to be included in the calculation of your reach and frequency, you are going to be deeply disappointed in the results of your ad campaign.You do not want to reach 100% of the people and convince them 10% of the way when the same small ad budget will let you reach 10% of the people and convince them 100% of the way.Repetition is what you’re after. You need an absolute minimum frequency of 2.5 per week, every week. If you accept the logic that “on a week, off a week” is all that you can afford, your schedule is going to fail.The Nielsen schedule report you want to see is a report that no one wants to show you. (Did I say Nielsen? Yes, I said Nielsen. I did not say another name.) You want to see Net Persons and Frequency for a ONE WEEK schedule, Monday through Sunday. And no broad rotators – zero – can be included in this calculation. And you must buy this ONE WEEK schedule 52 weeks per year.You can buy Net Persons that equal about 25% of the population of your trade area extremely efficiently, especially in larger cities.But the second 25% – giving you Net Persons that total around 50% of the city – will cost you nearly twice the amount you spent to buy the first 25%.The problem you run into is the declining efficiency of achieving new Net Reach due to cume duplication, or “shared audience.” But if you schedule that first 25% of the population correctly, you will soon be able to easily afford the price of reaching and owning that second 25%. Because you will have grown monster big.You are fooling yourself if you believe you can efficiently reach more than 50% of your city.And when I say city, I mean the 18+ Nielsen Population of your trade area.Like I said, buying advertising is far more complicated than buying diamonds.Roy H. WilliamsNext Week: Media Measurement Mistakes: Chapter 2By the way, the Tiny Tribe and I have prepared an exceptional rabbit hole for you today. To enter the rabbit hole just click the image of me at the top of this page. And once inside, each image you click will take you one page deeper. – Indy BeagleIsrael Duran shows people how to transform their businesses. And then he shows them how to leverage that success to impact, inspire, and influence their communities. Israel describes himself as an “impact architect” who helps business owner make money, make a name, and make a difference. Learn how to do it at MondayMorningRadio.com

I recently sent you two memos about our need for positive hope.“Hollywood’s Broken Angel” was the true story of a woman who desperately needed a friend to encourage her.“Hope and a Future” explained how easy it is to recharge the emotional batteries of a friend whose light has dimmed.Positive hope crackles with the vibrant energy of life itself. It radiates honesty, openness, forgiveness, acceptance, optimism, loyalty and love.Positive hope illuminates the heart and drives away the darkness.But there is also such a thing as negative hope. It promises salvation but delivers only hubris, which is desperation disguised as confidence.Negative hope is attractive, addictive, and cruel.Gamblers sitting around a poker table are the perfect portrait of negative hope. They ride a rollercoaster of elation and despair but tell themselves they have a system.A second portrait of negative hope is a lottery ticket, a receipt issued by the government to citizens who pay a voluntary tax because they believe in lucky numbers and are extremely bad at math.Bernie Madoff was a salesman of negative hope. He wore the mask of a self-made billionaire, but behind that mask was a desperate little con man who stole money from innocent people who believed they had been admitted into the inner circle of a genius who had a secret system.The world is full of elegant and attractive people who sell negative hope. One of them will sell you a worthless education by promising you a better-paying job. Another will sell you a garage full of crap by convincing you of the miracle of multilevel marketing. A third will sell you the promise of inner peace by convincing you they have it, and that it can be transferred to you for money.Negative hope is attractive, but you can easily recognize it now that you know what to look for.I’m really glad we got that out of the way because now I’ve got some great news for you: inner peace is real.And here’s some even better news: you can have it for free, no strings attached.Inner peace is honesty, openness, forgiveness, acceptance, optimism, loyalty and love. All of these can be yours for free. But first you have to give them away.It is a simple but fascinating system. The more you give these 7 things to others, the more richly they accumulate in you.Five hundred and eleven Christmases have come and gone since Giovanni Giocondo sent his Christmas letter to a friend in 1513. It said, “No peace lies in the future that is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace!”Likewise, I say to you, inner peace is hidden in this present little instant.Reach out and take it. It’s yours.Roy H. WilliamsWhen roving reporter Rotbart was a financial columnist with The Wall Street Journal, he met a young man named Steve Jobs who left a lasting impression on him. “When I spoke with Jason Schappert,” Rotbart says, “it felt like I was talking with Steve Jobs again.” Jason Schappert recently launched an AI-powered investment platform for middle-class consumers, providing the same insights and tools typically reserved for the ultra-rich. Today you have an opportunity to learn from Jason Schappert about how to identify opportunities, make bold decisions, and leverage your passion as roving reporter Rotbart meets with him at MondayMorningRadio.com