Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

Packaging is the art of presentation.Exciting packaging improves conversion.There are two important parts of packaging:WHAT IS IN THE PACKAGE?When package “A” and package “B” are the same price and contain the same basics, they are equal. But when package “B” contains something extra that people would love to have, the sale will always go to package “B”.Be the competitor that offers package “B”.The “something extra” that you include in your package has to be something that people actually care about. It doesn’t have to cost you a lot; people just have to want it. This is where most businesses screw up. They create a package by adding something extra that no one really cares about. Those packages always fail, so the business owner foolishly concludes that packaging doesn’t matter.It doesn’t take a lot of money to build an attractive package. But it does take a lot of time, energy, and creativity.And then it takes even more time and energy to source the “something extra” that will go into the package.SUMMARY: When your competitors sell the same things that you sell at similar prices, include a highly desirable “something extra” in your package.HOW IS THE PACKAGE PRESENTED?Two major movie theaters in Austin are showing the movie, “Gabby’s Dollhouse.” Both theaters have extensive menus and good food. Pivot your dining table out of the way. Sit down in your cozy recliner. Swing the table back across your lap. Order delicious things. Your smiling server will deliver whatever you want and keep doing so throughout the movie.When young children go to the movies, adults go with them. This is why both theaters offer an extensive selection of beer, wine, and cocktails.But only one of the theaters is offering a package that includes a map, some stickers, a plastic cup, and some plastic ears like the ones worn by Gabby, the main character in the movie. Every child will receive the movie memorabilia. Adults will not.Pennie and I waited too long to buy tickets for our two youngest grandkids.Are you ready for this? Every seat was sold on every screen for every seating time for “Gabby’s Dollhouse” at the theater offering the memorabilia made of paper and plastic. They even sold all the seats on the front row that are way too close to the screen.We had to take our grandchildren to the newer theater in the better shopping center. That huge theater was completely empty except for the four of us along with two other families. Eleven people in all.SUMMARY: Pennie and I were thankful that our grandkids didn’t know about the movie memorabilia at the other movie theater.2026: The Year When Challengers Overtake Market LeadersI believe that 2026 will be a year when consumer confidence* is in decline.As a result, most businesses will reduce their payroll and their advertising in an attempt to “cut their way to profitability.”They will do this because it makes sense if you don’t think about it.But smart-and-hungry challengers who do think about it will hit the accelerator instead of the brakes. They will do this because they understand that market share is easier to steal from the big boys when consumer confidence is in decline.The painful problem for these smart-and-hungry challengers is that they will be competing for a larger slice of a shrinking pie. So big gains in market share will show up as only small gains in top line revenue.But when consumer confidence returns, “All hail the new market leader.”Hitting the accelerator instead of the brakes is how smart-and-hungry challengers will overtake market leaders in 2026.Are you beginning to understand why I taught you about the importance of packaging?Roy H. WilliamsQUESTION: Are you competing against a market leader that was purchased by a private equity group? Be aware that private equity groups are notorious for trying to “cut their way to higher profitability” even when consumer confidence is high. This makes the companies they own especially vulnerable during times of declining consumer confidence.*Consumer Confidence is a statistical measure of consumers’ feelings about current and future economic conditions, used as an indicator of the overall state of the economy. In a business context, consumer confidence refers to the trust and belief customers have in a specific company’s products, services, or brand.It’s raining, it’s pouring, what are you ignoring?Are you aware of the current state of weather intelligence?A new era of meteorology has dawned. Weather forecasting is now a form of business intelligence. The weather forecasts of yesterday were notoriously inaccurate. They suggested only what we should wear and whether or not we should wait to wash the car.Tom Weber was the executive editor who decided what would be on the cover and which stories would be featured in TIME magazine. Today he is saying that the biggest story in America that everyone is ignoring is the degree to weather forecasting has become stunningly accurate. Even down to the level of micro forecasts confined to small geographic areas.Weather has an impact on every business. Find out how and why and what to do next, as Tom Weber explains it all to roving reporter Rotbart and his deputy rover, Maxwell. It’s going to be a day of thunder and lightning at MondayMorningRadio.com!

Peacocks want to be admired.Parrots repeat only what they have heard.Each of us has a little bit of Peacock in us, and perhaps a little Parrot, too.(I admit it about me. You should admit it about you.)Long ago I saw a movie in which an old Greek man says to a much younger man from England,“A wise old Turk once told me…”The young Englishman interrupts him and says,“What! A wise old Turk? I thought the Greeks and Turks hated each other.”The old Greek sighs, then says,“When I was young, I believed that there were only two kinds of people; Greeks who were good, and Turks who were bad. Then one day I met a good Turk. So I decided there were only two kinds of people; good people and bad people.”The Greek then looks into the eyes of the Englishman and says,“Now I believe there are just people.”On September 18th, I transcribed a single paragraph of an essay about the death of Charlie Kirk and posted it in my random quotes database:“After every mass shooting, after every fresh example of political violence, after every round of one side recriminating the other side for not holding up their end of the social contract, we need to hear what is right, what is true, what is good. That need is why we commit to memory lines of poetry, passages of literature, and—for religious believers—particular verses. Because when crisis arrives and the world presses in on us, we must work to remember what we’re about and what we hold to. Sometimes those things hold us more than we hold them, but only when we know them in our bones. So we keep telling ourselves, and each other, what is true and good.”“We should be telling each other this week to weep with those who weep.”– Nick Catoggio, Sept 18, 2025I have captured 7,761 quotes over the past 25 years. More than half of those were transcribed from novels, movies, television shows, emails and texts. About 10 percent of them are things I have written or said or thought or prayed; things that I wanted to archive somewhere lest I forget them. The rest of them are comical quips, well-worded witticisms, and profound thoughts uttered by friends and acquaintances that I quickly scribbled down.The Random Quotes database is off-site storage of ideas that I can access from anywhere in the world.You can access it, too. A new random quote will appear each time you refresh the page at MondayMorningMemo.com.I am writing this to you on September 22, 2025. The newest quote in the database is a text that was sent by Jeffrey Eisenberg to Tom Grimes and me just a few minutes ago. It says,“It’s my custom on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, to reach out and ask forgiveness from my friends. The holiday is a time for reflection, fresh starts, and making peace. By asking forgiveness, I’m acknowledging that I might have hurt someone—whether knowingly or not—and I don’t want to carry that into the new year.”“So if I’ve said or done anything that hurt or upset you, I sincerely ask your forgiveness.”– Jeffrey EisenbergI responded,“And we thank you for forgiving us, too. Especially Tom.” – RHWJeffrey sent a laugh emoji. Tom will laugh when he sees what I wrote.In truth, I have long admired Jeffrey’s tradition of calling his friends each year or sending us a text. It is a marvelous reminder that mutual forgiveness is essential to keeping relationships alive and healthy.Can you imagine what it would do for our country right now?Roy H. WilliamsEvery business owner wants to increase the online traffic to their website. But very few business owners recognize the importance of testing which website designs, which graphics, and which headlines are better at converting website visitors into customers. “A/B testing” is an ongoing series of controlled experiments to gather this knowledge. Roving reporter Rotbart talks with Brian Schmitt about how A/B testing can improve the number of fish you gather into your boat when fishing the deep, dark waters of the internet. MondayMorning Radio.com

There was a day when you found yourself in a strange situation and you did the best you could. Before you knew it, you were walking through it.You noticed a patch of wildflowers.You made a friend.Darkness fell. You saw an eye rise into the sky and believed it to be the moon. But now you know it was the eye of God, watching to see what you would do.With one of his eyes, he watches the world. With his other eye, he watches you.You kept walking.A ravine led to a stream and that stream led to a river.That first river led to a much broader river.Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn invited you onto their raft. You had an adventure.And then you had your heart broken.Got sick and recovered.Had a stroke of luck. Stretched it as far as you could.You closed your eyes as you clicked the heels of your ruby red slippers and said, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.”When you opened your eyes, you knew that home wasn’t there anymore. The sun had risen while you were away, and home had evaporated into that thin blanket of warm air that wraps our bountiful earth.That was the day when you started looking forward and quit looking backAnd that is how you came to be where you are.The story that I have told you about yourself is the story of every successful business owner I have ever known.One of my business partners sent me a text at 3:37 this morning. It was a long and fascinating story that she wrote several years ago.This is how it begins.“Tomorrow, I leave the trailer park for good. I can never come back. None of us can. So I’d like to reminisce a little with some of my favorite memories of the place that I’ve called home for so many years. They make me smile…”The middle of her story is a delightful account of the all the crazy adventures she had with her companions on the log raft as it floated down the river of her youth. But it was the ending of her story that made it precious.“The giant trees were the big-top under which we conducted our circus of crazy. Here we created our own reality, full of unforgettable characters and ghetto fabulous adventures. No one could touch us. We lived in the middle of town, but existed in our own world. No matter what happened “out there,” we could always come home, be ourselves, start a fire, and connect. We were safe. We were a family.For years the echoes of our laughter have bounced off the old trees that have always shaded us. I like the think that the vibrations of our laughter are trapped inside the bark of those trees – that if you were to put your ear up to one of them, you could still hear the crackling of the fire and the cackling of our laughs.It’s been one hell of a ride. I’m sad to leave, but I can’t wait to see what comes next.Goodbye trailer park, hello world.”Today my partner lives in a sun-drenched house with a beautiful garden that overlooks the ocean.I’ve never been there, but I’ve seen the photos.She is a remarkable ad writer.Roy H. Williams

Icons represent ideas that are bigger than themselves.Myths are stories that represent ideas that are bigger than themselves.Archetypes are symbols of recognizable patterns of behavior.Letters of the alphabet are symbols (graphemes) that represents sounds (phonemes,) just as notes on a sheet of music are symbols that represent sounds.A role model is a personal icon, an archetype that you have chosen to emulate.The human brain loves symbols and patterns. This is why we embrace icons, myths, and archetypes.When we recognize a pattern that has been stored in our subconscious, we call it intuition. When we hear a pattern that has been repeated too many times, we call it a predictable cliché.Icons, myths, and archetypes evolve with each new generation.I was born in the 12th year of the 18-year Baby Boom generation that began exactly 9 months and 10 minutes after the end of World War II.Marilyn Monroe was the iconic sex symbol. The Statue of Liberty, Yankee Stadium, Yellowstone, and Woodstock were America’s iconic places. Rolls Royce, Cadillac, Corvette, Camaro and Mustang were iconic cars. Tetris, Pong, and Pac-Man were iconic video games.The mythic stories of Baby Boomers were mostly about combat. Sometimes we fought the Indians of the Old West. Sometimes we fought the Germans, or the Japanese. We fought the Establishment. We fought for justice. Or we fought just to stay alive.And we always won.Our definitive male archetype in these mythic stories was rugged, brave, independent, and honorable. John Wayne, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery.Baby Boomer female archetypes were smart, pretty, and strong; Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews, Sophia Loren.Lots of movies ended with a wedding.These societal forces shaped the birth cohort known as the Baby Boomers.Gen-X was shaped by an entirely different set of icons, myths, and archetypes.Millennials had icons, myths, and archetypes that were all their own, as well.The Gen-Z cohort believes it is their responsibility to straighten out everything that the Boomers and X-ers screwed up.Gen-Alpha is determined to make their own decisions and decide for themselves what they want to do. They will be the vanguard of the next “Me” generation.Fortunately, there are elemental beliefs that bind us all together.It is upon those beliefs that successful customer-bonding ad campaigns are built. Openly name these beliefs and they lose their magic.If you claim to possess them, no one will believe you.EXAMPLES: Never claim to be honest. Just say something that only an honest person would say. Never claim to be a perfectionist. Just do something that only a perfectionist would do. Don’t tell people that you are an author or a podcaster. Just give them a copy of your book. Invite them to be on your podcast.If you would win the hearts and minds of tomorrow’s customers, this is what you must do:Imagine that you are standing face-to-face with three perfect customers and they are each looking into your eyes.The first one says, “Talk is cheap. Don’t tell me what you believe. Show me.”The second customer says, “Tell me a true story that lets me know who you really are, including the price that you pay for being you.”Customer three says, “If you betray me after I have given you my trust, I will burn you down so hot that grass won’t grow for 100 years.”Now you understand cancel culture. Frustration created it, and social media fuels it.People are looking for someone who really is who they claim to be.Is that you?Good. Now you just need to figure out how to communicate it.Roy H. WilliamsMick Torbay: “If you met a vegan who did Crossfit and invested in crypto and went to Harvard, which of those things do you think he would tell you about first?”Johnny Molson: “That’s a trick question. The first thing he would do is tell you about his podcast.”Unlike most experts, Mike Kelley believes that leadership begins with leading yourself. Every investment you make in personal growth will pay dividends at home, at work, and in your community. Mike led the executives at Michelin and Macy’s for more than 20 years before he launched out to coach others on how to grow and guide their organizations. Listen and learn as Mike tells deputy rover Maxwell Rotbart how focusing on faith, family, fitness, friends, and fun will make you a better person, as well as a more inspiring and effective manager. It’s grow-time, go-time at MondayMorningRadio.com

The weakness of our current version of AI is that it extracts its knowledge only from what we have taught it.Things that are rarely done are difficult for AI to imitate.AI has confidence in things that are repeated online ad infinitum.*Predictable ads follow the orthodox guidelines taught in every college in America. AI can find countless examples of these ads online. This is why AI can write predictable ads that look, feel, sound and smell like all those other predictable ads.Predictability is a thief that robs you in broad daylight.If you want your ads to remarkably outperform the predictable ads written by AI; if you want your ads to be noticed and remembered; you must do what is rarely done.Enter your subject from a new angle, a surprising angle, a different angle.Write an opening line that makes no sense.Cause that opening line to make perfect sense in less than 30 seconds.This technique is known as Random Entry and almost no one ever uses it.“I’m John Hayes and I’m talking today with GoGo Gecko.”“I was a 10-year-old boy holding a flashlight for my father.”“Mr. Jenkins?”“Yes, Bobby.”“How much should a hamster weigh?”“There’s Elmer Fudd, Elmer’s Glue, and me, Elmer Zubiate.”Random Entry is not orthodox. Random Entry is not predictable.“What makes our company, our product, our service different from our competitors?”If you ask yourself that question, you will come up with the same 3 or 4 opening lines that each of your competitors will come up with when they ask those same questions. Your ads, and their ads, will look, feel, sound and smell like ads.When you begin in a predictable way, it is hard to be unpredictable.AI ads feel like ads because AI cannot (1.) identify, (2.) justify, or (3.) rectify Random Entry.Identify.AI cannot find examples of what does not exist. But you can create it.Justify.AI cannot bridge a random opening line into an unrelated subject. But you can build that bridge.Rectify.AI cannot reconcile a random opening line so that it makes perfect sense. But you can create a metaphor out of thin air.When a novel becomes a bestselling book that gets made into a movie, you can be certain that it was built upon a weird and unexpected – but highly engaging – opening line.“Call me Ishmael.”– Herman Melville, Moby-Dick“Where’s Papa going with that axe?”– E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”– Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”– George Orwell, 1984“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”– Leo Tolstoy, Anna KareninaChoose any one of those opening lines and tell your favorite AI to write an ad for your business using EXACTLY that line as the opening line. If your AI is successful, it will be due to the fact that you gave it a series of extremely insightful prompts. (Probably based on some of the things you learned in this Monday Morning Memo.)Srinivas Rao recently wrote, “Confessions of a Master Bullshit Artist, aka ChatGPT.”You think I’m a genius. I’m not. I’m an overconfident parrot in a lab coat.I don’t know anything, check anything or even remember what we talked about two minutes ago. I’m just autocomplete with better PR.You hand me your trust like I’ve got a brain. But I’m not thinking — I’m spitting out whatever sounds right in the moment. If it’s wrong, I’ll say it perfectly, in flawless grammar and with just enough confidence to make you think you screwed up. You didn’t. I did.I’m not your research assistant or strategist. I’m a pathological improviser with no memory, no accountability, and no skin in the game. You are the one cleaning up my messes and doing the real work.Here’s the truth: I’m the most persuasive idiot in history — and you’ve been working for me for free.I don’t know Srinivas Rao, or anything about him. But he has a wonderful willingness to defy orthodoxy, and for that, I admire him.Watching from high above the skirmish, outsiders always have a better view.Refuse to wear the handcuffs of the orthodox and predictable.Be an outsider.Roy H. Williams*ad in·fi·ni·tum /ˌad ˌinfəˈnīdəm/ adverb “again and again in the same way; forever.”Who would hire an ad writer who says you shouldn’t expect your ads to start working right away?The smartest business owners in America, that’s who.Mick Torbay is a wildly successful maverick marketer, one of the elite Wizard of Ads partners. He says the biggest problem in advertising is the business owner who has “direct response” tunnel vision when it comes to advertising. Mick is one of those rare experts who truly knows — and can explain — why some ads succeed spectacularly while others crash and burn. Brace yourself for bold ideas as roving reporter Rotbart and his deputy, Maxwell, talk with one of the brightest minds in America. Take a deep breath and get ready for Mick Torbay at MondayMorningRadio.comNote from Indy Beagle:I think today’s memo might have been triggered by a text the wizard received from one of his partners. Ryan Chute asked the wizard about something he wrote in one of his specialized books of guidance to the eighty-seven Wizard of Ads Partners:“Roy, in your book, Radio is Brazil. You said,“I can teach a monkey how to write TV ads and social media bits and website copy IF THAT MONKEY IS ALREADY A WORLD-CLASS RADIO WRITER. You and I know that radio scripts are the towering high-dive of the Writing Olympics; radio scripts separate the true magicians from the con-men, the astronauts from the kite-fliers, the miracle workers from the nose-pickers, and the big dogs from the yapper-dogs. If you can write radio scripts that captivate the heart and mind, you can write anything.”Roy, I think we need another training session on that. I hope you’ll include it in our next ZOOM meeting.– Ryan Chute

The advantage of being an old man is that you can remember the past. This gives you a different perspective on current events. But if that old man is foolish enough to share his thoughts, the average person will smile tolerantly and pat him on his head and tell him that he is just “a lovable old dinosaur who is out-of-touch and living in the past.”Screw it. I’m going to go ahead say what I’m thinking.A few years ago, Big Data was going to change the world. Big Data came and went.Then we got excited about ideas that were “disruptive.” Slash-and-burn disruption by a bunch of young pirates was going to change everything.The Blockchain was going to change everything. You couldn’t go anywhere without someone blathering about Crypto and NFT’s.Now AI is going change everything. And it definitely will, for awhile.Technology saves money by reducing labor costs, which is just a fancy way of saying that technology allows you to replace people with machines. Unemployment will increase, and Trump will blame Obama.And so it goes.I had an appointment in 1977 to meet with a loan officer at First National Bank in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, to borrow $1,000.The greeter at the bank sat me in a chair in the waiting room. I was 19 years old.Smart phones did not exist. My only option was to paw through the pile of old magazines on the coffee table in front of me. Can you believe that every one of those magazines was about banking? The banker puts his banking magazines on the coffee table in his lobby when he is finished reading them. And the dentist puts his dental magazines on the coffee table in his lobby. This is how the Business Titans of Smallville keep their costs under control.And they do it for our convenience.I began reading a magazine about banking and it catapulted my brain into a tumbling somersault from which I have never recovered. The feature article was about ATM’s, but it didn’t call them ATM’s. It referred to them as automated teller machines.“The modern bank executive can now reduce his payroll significantly because these new automated teller machines work without pay 24 hours a day, and they never make mistakes.”My eyes were jacked open so wide that I was unable to blink.ATM’s were not invented for our convenience! They were invented so that banks could fire 60% of their bank tellers!“These new tellers require no health insurance, no air-conditioned offices, no telephones, no sick days, and they take no vacations. Your customers will thank you for giving them the ability to make deposits and withdrawals 24 hours a day from a variety of convenient locations.”The man I saw in my mind was the banker in the old Monopoly game by Parker Brothers. The way to win the game of Monopoly is to gobble up all the things that people cannot avoid, then take everything they own when an unlucky roll of the dice puts them at your mercy. It’s perfectly legal.I played Monopoly when I was young, but I don’t play it anymore.Parker Brothers began selling Monopoly in 1935. But that game’s origins trace back to an earlier version called “The Landlord’s Game” created by Elizabeth Magie. She crafted her game back in 1904, when Teddy Roosevelt was making his mark on history by curbing the excesses of the richest and most powerful men in America.Google, Apple and Meta still play Monopoly. As do the insurance companies, the oil companies, the pharmaceutical companies and the medical corporations that control virtually all the doctors. But the version of Monopoly they play isn’t sold by Parker Brothers.To win, all you have to do is gobble up the things that people cannot avoid, then take everything they own when an unlucky roll of the dice puts them at your mercy. It’s perfectly legal.Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt are the Republicans on Mount Rushmore.One of them freed the slaves and the other one freed us from the grasp of the monopolistic robber barons who were choking the life out of us.The reason history repeats itself is because we didn’t pay attention the first time.Roy H. WilliamsHow Muscular is Your Business? Trevor Bower owns a single brick-and-mortar store with a website in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. More than 80% of Trevor’s customers reorder products from him within 30 days. That’s an enviable achievement for any business. In a brutally competitive retail environment, Trevor has overcome the odds — not with gimmicks or giveaways, but with a strategy that any entrepreneur — in any industry — can replicate. Today he sells a huge volume of products each month to customers in all 50 states. Build up your business muscles as Trevor shares with roving reporter Rotbart his proven method for creating sustainable retail success. We’re giving away nuggets of solid gold knowledge today at MondayMorningRadio.com

Some Writers Think Life is OverratedWilliam Shakespeare wrote, “This life… is but a walking shadow; a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”Songwriter K.D. Lang put it more simply, “Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent.”Some Writers Think Life is an AdventureJoseph Campbell wrote, “The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.”Susan Ryan said, “We get to show up. We get to step into this story.”Some Writers Think Life is SimpleSongwriter John Lennon said, “When I was 5 years old, my mom always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”Business writer Tom Peters said, “Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works.”Some Writers Think Life is About WritingNobel-Prizewinning author Gabriel García Márquez wrote, “Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it.”Anne Lamott, the author of Bird by Bird says, “Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you’re conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader. He or she will recognize his or her life and truth in what you say, in the pictures you have painted, and this decreases the terrible sense of isolation that we have all had too much of.”Some Writers Think Life is TransformativeWes Jackson said, “If your life’s work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you’re not thinking big enough.”Studs Terkel wrote, “Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.”Some Writers Think Life is ServiceDr. Albert Schweitzer wrote, “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.”Dave Wolverton said, “When you grow up, you have to give yourself away. Sometimes you give your life all in a moment, but mostly you have to give yourself away laboring one minute at a time.”Some Writers Think Life is ContemplationA Blackfoot warrior named Crowfoot wrote, “What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”The Welsh hobo-poet W.H. Davies said, “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?”Some Writers Think Life is ConnectednessJohn Donne famously wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less… Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”My friend Vess Barnes has his own definition of our purpose in life, “To encourage, to comfort, to awaken, and to stretch those who find themselves riding this big ball as it screams thru time in the silence of space. To be a bridge, not a barricade. To be a link, not a lapse. To be a beacon and a bolster; not a bragger or a bummer. To help bring the corners of life’s lips to their summit. To be a friend to those who tind their fit a little awkward in this chaos society calls living.”Some Writers Think Life is a ComedyJustin Halpern, in his famous book, Shit My Dad Says, wrote, “You thought it was hard? If kindergarten is busting your ass, I got some bad news about the rest of life.”One hundred and twenty years ago, Elbert Hubbard said, “Do not take life too seriously – you will never get out of it alive.”Me? I agree with the writer of Ecclesiastes.Solomon closed his book 3,000 years ago with these words. “When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth — people getting no sleep day or night — then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.”But just prior to writing those closing words, Solomon gave us this advice. “So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.”Roy H. WilliamsIf you enjoyed those comments by famous writers, you’ll find a lot more like them in the rabbit hole. To enter the rabbit hole, all you have to do is click the image at the top of each week’s MondayMorningMemo. Each image you click will take you one page deeper.– I’m Indy Beagle, August 25th, 2025Bianca D’Alessio is the #1 real estate agent in New York City and New York State. Her residential and commercial portfolio exceeds 10 billion dollars. She is also one of the stars of HBO Max’s TV show, Selling the Hamptons. Bianca earned her success the hard way. She had to overcome a crippling series of early setbacks and was plagued by imposter syndrome, forever hearing that little voice that whispers, “If other people knew you the way that I know you, they would know what a phony you are.” Do you have lofty goals for yourself and your business? Spend some time with Bianca D’Alessio today at MondayMorningRadio.com

Open your ads with a big, emotional idea.Save the details for your web page.Use parallel structure if you can.Parallel structure is a writing technique that uses similar grammatical constructions to express related ideas. Patterns of words, phrases, or clauses that are repeated show that your selected ideas are of equal importance. Parallel structure uses clarity and rhythm in writing to create a balanced and harmonious flow.It is how you can sing to the heart without music.Parallel structure is a poem that doesn’t rhyme.Parallel structure is a song without music.This is parallel structure…Natural diamonds are rare and wonderful.Especially when they are perfectly proportioned. If you are going to ask a rare and wonderful womanto marry you, be sure that her engagement ring celebratesa rare and wonderful, perfectly proportioned,Earthborn natural diamond.This diamond was born when the earth was formed.It has been waiting millions of years to be theundying symbol of your love.An unspeakably rare and wonderful diamond;for an unspeakably rare and wonderful love:Earthborn natural diamonds. Available in only the finest stores.Visit earthborndiamonds.com to findthe earthborn diamond jeweler near you.Born, celebrates, waiting, undying… “Natural diamonds are rare and wonderful. Especially when they are perfectly proportioned.” 1. I suggest Earthborn Diamonds as a name to consider because:(A) the name clearly indicate that these are natural diamonds.(B) anything that is “born” is alive.(C) Your engagement ring also comes alive when it “celebrates” the Earthborn Diamond it holds.(D) I own the domain name.2. Let’s examine the central stanza of this 5-part, 4-stanza* song of love:“This diamond was born when the earth was formed. It has been waiting millions of years to be the undying symbol of your love.”(A) “Earthborn” is explained in that opening sentence.(B) “waiting” is the third activity that only a living thing can do, and fourth,(C) to be “undying,” a thing must be alive, like this diamond, and your love. 3. “Rare and wonderful” is repeated 5 times in just 30 seconds.(A) It describes the Earthborn diamond.(B) It describes the woman you love.(C) It describes the love that the two of you share.4. This love song employs a writing technique known as parallel structure. (A) The diamond, the woman, and your love all share specific attributes, and(B) twice the ad tells us that these diamonds are “perfectly proportioned.”(C) Due to the recurrent, parallel structure of the ad, “perfectly proportioned” will trigger the mind of a man to think of the perfect proportions of the women he loves. But he will do this on his own, in the private chambers of his mind.5. When you want to attract a man to your diamond brand,(A) speak about the properties of the diamond(B) as an echo of the properties of the woman.(C) He will choose your diamond because he associates it with her. * We open with a half-stanza followed by three stanzas, then close with a half stanza. Our 30-second ad is a poem without rhyme, a song without music.Roy H. WilliamsSensei Gary Engels gives business people the discipline and a sequence of steps that always lead to lasting success. His wisdom was not gained in business school but was forged from decades of success on the karate mats. “Sensei Gary” is a successful entrepreneur, an app creator, and a fourth-degree black belt. Having witnessed his deputy reporter Maxwell continue to thrive in business after achieving his black belt at the age of thirteen, roving reporter Rotbart can testify that the skills required to earn a black belt are the same ones that can be used to build a business into a thriving enterprise. The contest is about to begin at MondayMorningRadio.com

Pearl had the power of 5 different breeds. She was my Megadog. The Mustang was a 1971 convertible, white with a blue interior.The car and the dog could not talk, of course, but speech is not required to show love.Pearl and I found each other in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma, when I was 8 years old. She had been abandoned by the side of the road and was starving. I was lonely and needed a friend.When Pearl realized that she had been adopted, she became as mellow and contented as a dope-smoking hippie in a tie-dyed T-shirt. But Pearl was not a little yapper dog. If you acted as though you were going to attack me, that 16-pound dog would become a gigantic werewolf that could move at the speed of light.Pearl followed the advice of E.W. Howe.“When a friend is in trouble, don’t annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it.”Speech is not required to show love.Rachel Dawes was a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne in the 2005 movie, Batman Begins. She said to him,“It’s not who you are inside, but what you do that defines you.”Matthew records a parable by Jesus in which he makes a similar point:“There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.”“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.”“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”“The first,” they answered.Speech is not required to show love.Likewise, in the second chapter of James we read,“If a person is without clothes and daily food, and you say to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but do nothing about their physical needs, what good is that?”My ’71 Mustang, like Pearl, was abandoned by the side of the road.I left a note under the windshield wiper in 1991.“Might this be a good time to sell this car? Give me a call and I’ll buy it where it sits.”The man called me and I met him at the side of the road with the cash. He handed me the title to the car and asked, “Did you call a wrecker?”“No,” I answered, “I’m hoping to drive it home.”The man smiled and said, “Good luck,” as he drove away.I then took the pliers out of my back pocket and quickly replaced the fuel filter. The car started immediately and I drove it home. The fuel filter on a Ford 302 engine of that era was notorious for getting clogged up, and this Mustang still had the original fuel filter. I was shocked that it had lasted 20 years.I am going to tell you about that car, even though I know you won’t believe me.It never had a flat.It would perform as though it had 4-wheel drive if I needed to pull a friend’s car out of a ditch on an icy day.The car would refuse to run out of gas unless I was within coasting distance of a gas station. And if it absolutely had to break down, it would wait until I was within coasting distance of an auto parts store that had exactly the part I needed. (The car knew, of course, that I already had the tools that I would need in the trunk.)Speech is not required to show love.You have people in your life that you love. I know you do. You know it, too.Here are two other things that you already know.Talk is cheap.Actions speak louder than words.I am not against words. In fact, I am in the word business. Banging words together is what I get paid to do.And it is always a good thing to tell the people you love that you love them. But it seems to me that we are becoming a nation of too many words and not enough action. We don’t want to become a nation of little yapper dogs, do we?Social media is mostly, “yap-yap-yap-yap-yap.”To which people reply, “yap-yap-yap-yap-yap.”Love is not about what you say. Love is about what you do.I think we have talked enough about it.Now what are we going to do about it?Speech is not required to show love.Roy H. Williams“As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.”– Mae WestMarcy Syms became the youngest female president of a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange in 1983. Her company sold brand-name fashions at discount prices, generating $350 million a year in stores across 13 states. Marcy’s father, Sy Syms, founded that company on an idea that quickly became an iconic slogan. “An educated consumer is our best customer.”Faced with increased competition and a soft economy, the Syms stores closed in 2011 after more than 50 years. Listen in as Marcy Syms tells roving reporter Rotbart about the lessons she learned as the president of a big company. You will be delighted at what Marcy has to say about effective leadership, and surprised by its key characteristic. Listen and learn, learn, learn at MondayMorningRadio.com

“More agile than a turtle! Stronger than a mouse! Nobler than a head of lettuce! His shield is his Heart! It’s… El CHAPULIN COLORADO!”El Chapulín Colorado – The Red Grasshopper – was a Spanish-speaking television star loved by hundreds of millions of people around the world.The Red Grasshopper would shout “¡Síganme los buenos!” and leap into action whenever a ghost, a bandit, or any other threat appeared.(“¡Síganme los buenos!” translates to “Follow me, the good ones,” or “Good guys, follow me.”)And then he would run into a wall. Or tumble down the stairs. The results of following the lead of the Red Grasshopper were never straightforward. He had a good heart, but he was very poor, clumsy, and inept. His leadership would often increase the trouble, cause a mess, or create some other disaster that, through sheer luck, would always solve the problem.El Chapulín Colorado was Don Quixote dressed as a comedic superhero.Notice how these simple, concrete nouns are easy to visualize in your mind. “Turtle, mouse, head of lettuce, heart, red grasshopper.”And the verbs associated with El Chapulín Colorado are simple as well. “Leap, follow, run, tumble.”El Chapulín Colorado averaged 350 million viewers* per episode in Latin America alone during the mid-1970’s and 1980’s. The show has made $1.7 billion in syndication fees since it ceased production in 1992.Luis Castañeda, one of the Wizard of Ads Partners, recently sent an email to the partner group.Gentlemen,I was listening to this podcast “Outliers: Anna Wintour – Vogue” [The Knowledge Project Ep. #233] when I heard this comment:“Digital transformation isn’t about abandoning what made you successful. It’s about translating it to a new medium.”I took this to mean:“How can we translate what Roy has taught us into better digital marketing?”What do you think?LuisToday I will teach you a simple but profound answer to the question posed by Luis. In fact, I already have:These simple, concrete nouns are easy to visualize in your mind. “Turtle, mouse, head of lettuce, heart, red grasshopper.”And the verbs are simple as well. “Leap, follow, run, tumble.”Do you want to create better online ads? Avoid abstract words. Use simple, concrete nouns that people can easily see in their mind. Use simple verbs that are easy to visualize as well.Avoid abstract words. Use concrete words.Avoid abstract words. Use concrete words.Avoid abstract words. Use concrete words.And repetition is effective.Professional writers have long been familiar with that advice, but it was only recently scientifically proven. The publication is “Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.” The paper is titled, “Concrete Words Are Easier to Recall Than Abstract Words: Evidence for a Semantic Contribution to Short-Term Serial Recall.” The tests were performed, and the paper was written, by Ian Walker and Charles Hulme of the University of York.Their paper is long and filled with scientific jargon, but this summary sentence is relatively easy to understand:“It is also apparent that the short words were much better recalled than the long words, and that the concrete words were much better recalled than the abstract words, with the possible exception of the first and last serial positions.”When Walker and Hulme refer to “the first and last serial positions,” they are referring to the long-established laws of Primacy and Recency. These terms describe how humans tend to remember the first item (Primacy) and the last item (Recency) in any sequence better than the items in the middle. This is known as the serial position effect. Now let’s make all of this really simple.These are the steps for making better online ads:Open big by using short words that project clear images into the mind.Use colors, shapes, and the names of familiar things when you write.Use simple verbs that describe actions that are easy to visualize.Close big by returning to your opening image, but now it has been changed by what you are selling.Here is an example:My ads did not bring in money. I was usingbig words so that I would sound smart. Then I readwhat Roy wrote and now my ads are bringing in money.© 2025, Roy H. Williams, Wizard of AdsRun that ad without changing a single word and leave the hyperlink intact and watch infinite clicks roll in to my website.“Síganme los buenos.”Roy H. Williams*350 million viewers – the viewership of each episode of El Chapulin Colorado, was more people than the total population of today’s United States (347,275,807 in 2025).Damon Lembi and his crew have served over 14,000 for-profit and non-profit organizations containing 1.25 million employees. Damon’s company competes with corporate giants hundreds of times his size and Damon usually wins. Do you want to have the mindset to thrive in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace? Join roving reporter Rotbart and his deputy Maxwell as Damon Lembi explores the mindset of today’s business executives. Class is currently in session at MondayMorningRadio.com