Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

It’s impossible not to like someone who likes you.This is why the secret of success is to just keep showing up.My friend Brett was studying theater in college until the day a professor told him to lie on his back, close his eyes, and “breathe blue.” Brett did his best, gave up, got up, walked out.Brett did not become an actor. But he did become a highly successful political consultant.In Brett’s own words, here’s how it happened:“I was looking at the bulletin board in the hallway of my dorm when I saw a little poster that said, ‘All the pizza and beer you can eat and drink if you work 2 hours on the telephone.’ I like pizza, I like beer, so I went to the address at the appointed time and made calls to ‘get out the vote’ for a political party. I didn’t care about politics at all, but I cared a lot about pizza and beer, so I came back night after night. They thought I was really dedicated.”“After several months of showing up, they invited me to work at an out-of-town rally. I went along and noticed the food is better when you go out-of-town. So I kept doing out-of-town rallies until someone asked me if I could write some ads for a campaign. One thing led to another, and here I am. Go figure.”The only unique part of Brett’s story is the part about breathing blue. The rest of it – the part about always showing up – is the world’s most common path to success.Brett quit showing up for acting classes. But he never quit showing up at political events.You will become the thing for which you keep showing up.“Believe in yourself” and “Never give up” are motivational clichés. They sound good, but they give you no real action to take. Do you want to succeed? Just keep showing up.We hear a lot about the value of persistence and determination, but the way to demonstrate those qualities is to just keep showing up.The most important time to show up, is when you don’t feel like showing up.When everyone else has dropped out, faded away, and quit, you are the king of the mountain.In his final speech at the end of his long and wonderful life, Paul Harvey talked about the importance of never failing to show up. He said, “Repetition is effective. Repetition is effective. Repetition is effective.”When you want your company to be the one people think of immediately and feel the best about when they need what you sell, just keep showing up. It’s easy to do. The problem is that most advertisers will choose to reach 100% of the people, but convince them only 10% of the way, due to not enough repetition.They didn’t “show up” long enough to become a permanent fixture in the mind.That same money could have convinced 10% of the people 100% of the way, but most advertisers aren’t willing to do that because they worry about who they are “leaving out.”I’ve got news for you: You don’t have enough money to reach everyone. Limit your focus to only that number of people you can reach with relentless repetition.Keep showing up.It works in relationships.It works in business.It works in advertising.Just.Keep.Showing.Up.

My partner Kyle started a non-profit called “Neighbor in Need” after a developer made a comment that caused Kyle to become concerned about all the elderly people in his neighborhood who didn’t have the money to repair their homes, buy hot water heaters, replace air conditioners, or fix roof leaks. So Kyle decided to do something about it.What Kyle did was new, surprising, and different.That’s why it worked.If you want to bore people, just say what they expected you to say and do what they expected you to do. It works every time.You might even see them fall asleep.I have a friend who is building a condo tower in a town with a population of less than 100,000 people. He called a few days ago, laughing.He had hired a worldwide, world-famous company to manage the sale of the residential units in his building. They made a presentation to him about the “tried-and-true marketing plan” they intended to use.My friend said, “No, I’m going to ask my buddy to write me a series of radio ads. I’m planning to spend a small fraction of what you’re telling me I need to spend.”These professionals, understandably, began to vibrate with panic. “But we’ve tried radio and it doesn’t work! We’ve tried it again and again and it doesn’t work! You need to follow our plan!”My friend told them that radio advertising – quote – “works only as good as the ads you write.”Later, when they actually heard the radio ads, their panic rose to whole new level. The language and perspective of the ads was new, surprising, and different. And those three words can often mean, “experimental, reckless, and dangerous.”Things that are new, surprising, and different never feel as reliable as traditional wisdom.Don’t get me wrong; I believe in bringing the best of the past forward. I believe it to the core of my soul. In my heart, I am a traditionalist. But the problem with traditional wisdom is that it is often more tradition than wisdom.The problem with traditional wisdom in advertising is that it creates ads that feel familiar. And familiarity breeds contempt. Remember what I said earlier? “If you want to bore people, just say what they expected you to say and do what they expected you to do.”People hate ads that are predictable.The real estate marketers begged him not to air the crazy radio ads. They urged him to consider the story of how – in a much bigger city – they were able to convince nearly 1,500 people to register so that they might have a chance to buy a condo unit the moment they became available.Real estate roll-out campaigns like these typically span 56 days. The best they had ever done in 56 days– with a massive online push and billboards that blanketed a major city – was about 1,500 registrations.My friend was laughing because we were at day 14 of our radio push and our “experimental, reckless, and dangerous” radio ads had already generated more than 1,400 registrations and would soon top fifteen hundred.I wrote four ads and only the first of the four has been aired.I believe the second and third ads are the strongest.So now you know why my friend was laughing.I want you to do me three favors:1. Put things in your ads that are new, surprising, and different.Delight the public. Be remarkable.2. Quit thinking that the secret of success is to – quote – “reach the right people.”3. Slap the shit out of anyone who says to you, “No one listens to the radio anymore.”Indy has a wonderful rabbit hole prepared for you. To enter the rabbit hole, just click the image of Indy Beagle at the top of this page. Each click of an image takes you one page deeper.

The ancient Greeks understood psychology a lot better than they understood science.Hippocrates, the father of the Hippocratic Oath, believed that our information-gathering and decision-making processes are determined by an imbalance of 4 bodily fluids – red blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm – two of which have never existed in the form that Hippocrates theorized.But the four basic temperaments that Hippocrates associated with these four fluids have lived on to be verified, codified, dignified and personified by screenwriters and novelists and social scientists* around the world. Hippocrates called these temperaments Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic.More than 400 years ago, Shakespeare depicted the full range of human behaviors and character types by embracing the original theories of Hippocrates. The National Library of Medicine has an interesting online exhibit about it.We see these four basic temperaments in ourselves, our family, our friends, and all the most interesting characters in every form of story-telling:The Wizard of OzLion (sanguine) Scarecrow (choleric) Dorothy (melancholic) and Tin Man (phlegmatic)Archie ComicsArchie (sanguine) Veronica (choleric) Betty (melancholic) and Jughead (phlegmatic)I Love LucyRicky (sanguine) Lucy (choleric) Fred (melancholic) Ethel (phlegmatic)Gilligan’s IslandGilligan (sanguine) the Skipper (choleric) the Professor (melancholic) Mr. Howell (phlegmatic)Star TrekCaptain Kirk (sanguine) Spock (choleric) Scotty (melancholic) Bones (phlegmatic)Magnum P.I.T.C. (sanguine) Tom (choleric) Higgins (melancholic), and Rick (phlegmatic)FriendsPhoebe and Joey (sanguine) Monica (choleric) Ross (melancholic) Rachel and Chandler (phlegmatic)SeinfeldKramer (sanguine) Elaine (choleric) George (melancholic) Jerry (phlegmatic)FrasierRoz (sanguine) Frasier (choleric) Niles (melancholic) Daphne (phlegmatic)The Golden GirlsBlanche (sanguine) Sophia (choleric) Dorothy (melancholic) Rose (phlegmatic)Sex and The CitySamantha (sanguine) Miranda (choleric) Charlotte (melancholic) Carrie (phlegmatic)Schitt’s CreekMoira (sanguine) Johnny (choleric) David (melancholic) Alexis (phlegmatic)Desperate HousewivesSusan (sanguine) Gabrielle (choleric) Bree (melancholic) Lynette (phlegmatic)Unbreakable Kimmy SchmidtKimmy (Sanguine) Jacqueline (Choleric) Titus (Melancholic) Lillian (Phlegmatic)Big Bang TheoryHoward (sanguine) Sheldon (choleric) Raj (melancholic) Leonard (phlegmatic)The OfficeMichael (sanguine) Dwight (choleric) Pam (melancholic) Jim (phlegmatic)Game of ThronesArya (sanguine) Sansa (choleric) Jon (melancholic) Bran (phlegmatic)Entertainment is the only currency with which you can purchase the time and attention of a too-busy public.An understanding of the predictable frictions between these four temperaments – and their deep and abiding need for one another – is the basis of every form of long-term entertainment. The novelists who win the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes know this. The screenwriters of all the hit TV series know this. And the ad writers who make a difference know this.When you become intrigued with an interesting fictional character, you spend time with them, whether they are in a book, or a TV series, or in an ad campaign.Most ad writing is transactional: “Give us money, and this is what we’ll give you in return.”Transactional ads are about short-term “harvesting” but they work less and less well the more continuously you use them.Relational ads are about long-term “customer bonding” and they work better and better the longer you use them.Do you want your company to be the one that customers think of immediately and feel the best about? Create a long-term ad campaign that is 2/3 relational customer-bonding ads and 1/3 transactional sales-activation ads. These are the ad campaigns that create consistent year-over-year growth.Think of it as seedtime and harvest.Seedtime and harvest.Roy H. Williams*You may have heard of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or DiSC, or the Enneagram, or the Four Colors. Each of those 21st-century assessment tools has its roots in the 2,400-year-old observations of Hippocrates.

I made you a promise on November 22 in a Monday Morning Memo called “Time Travel”.This was how that memo began:“My friend Don has a time machine. He takes me with him sometimes. You should come, too! Every person who rides in Don’s time machine is changed by it.”“The United States Department of Justice has booked passage on Don’s time machine for countless prison inmates. State and local governments and hundreds of rehab centers have booked journeys for people as well. Thirty-five million in all.”“Each trip through time begins with a series of words…”I then described two different types of storytelling and the purpose and effect of each. And to give myself a little “third-party credibility,” I quoted Professor Steven Pinker of MIT and Harvard.When the word-count of that Monday Morning Memo indicated that we were approaching our destination and it was time to land, I instructed you to store your tray-table and return your seat to its full, upright and locked position. Then I told you something you probably didn’t know:“Every word in the English language is composed of just 44 sounds called phonemes. We arrange these into clusters called words which we string together in rapid succession so that others can see in their minds what we see in ours.”And then I talked about the Book of Beginnings. Do you you remember?“In the first chapter of Genesis, God says, ‘Let there be this’ and ‘Let there be that’ for 25 verses, and then in verse 26 he says, ‘Let us make mankind in our own image.'”“According to that ancient story, God spoke the world into existence and then gave you and me the power to do the same. When you, as a storyteller, speak a world into existence in the hearts and minds of your listeners, you are doing the work of God.”“Don Kuhl has spent the past 30 years unleashing the power of storytelling to help 35 million people find peace, hope, and happiness, and now he has written a book for you and me. It will be published early next year.”And then I promised you,“I’ll make sure you know when it’s available.”Roy H. WilliamsThat book is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. It’s called “Changing with Aging: Little Stories, Big Lessons.”Don sent preview copies to several people I know. Everyone who has received a copy has been enchanted and enthralled by the stories in Don’s book, as I knew they would be. Don is a remarkable teller of short, bright, heart-warming stories that overflow with honesty, transparency, and wisdom.Peter Vegso, the original publisher of that record-breaking series of books, “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” is such a fan of Don’s stories that he jumped at the chance to publish Don’s book.I have fulfilled my promise. I told you the book is available for pre-order. Do what seems to you good.My partner Johnny Molson was asked to speak to a 4th grade class last week about his career as an ad writer.When he left the school, Johnny texted me to say that two of the children had asked remarkably delightful questions. The first child asked,“Have you ever cringed at your own commercials?”Johnny answered yes, that he always cringes at the predictable commercials his clients occasionally demand that he write, but no, he never cringes at the happy ads that flow from the depths of his heart through his fingertips and then onto the radio and television airwaves. That’s when the second child asked,“Do you have a criminal record?”A conversation with a child is a remarkable adventure full of twists and turns, with surprises around every corner.Today’s rabbit hole is like that, too. It is a theological journey that begins in the first chapter of Genesis and ends with me saying, “We are passengers on a world spinning out of control. Having wrongly been taught that everything happens according to ‘God’s Perfect Plan,’ we blame him for every sadness.”Some of you will be outraged and offended and feel compelled to explain to me why I am tragically and horribly wrong, but I think the more open-minded of you will be intrigued and fascinated by things you never heard before.But none of you will be bored.The title of this photo-filled essay is “God is Not in Control. We Are.” But it is not a denial of God. It is my strange and unusual confession of faith in him.Indy Beagle is teaching a seminar in Dubai this week and gave me complete authority to do whatever I wanted in the rabbit hole.To enter, just click the image of my friend, Don Kuhl, at the top of the page.Aroo,Roy H. WilliamsCraig Archibald is an important acting coach in Hollywood. His client list would rock your world. The thing that makes Craig special is that he teaches his clients that acting is a highly competitive business.  He tells them that if they want to succeed as actors, they need to think like entrepreneurs. Craig also recommends that business owners study acting to improve their financial performance! Fascinating, right? Take your seat, grab some popcorn, the curtain is about to rise on the mesmerizing connection between Hollywood and Business and you don’t want to miss it.  Friend, you won’t find this sort of thing anywhere except MondayMorningRadio.com!

A successful cluster manager was one of 36 people in a class I taught 2 months ago. When we went into Q & A, he asked for suggestions about what to do with a poorly performing radio station in his cluster.He expected me to suggest a format change, or a clever promotional campaign using billboards and TV. Or he may have thought I was going to give him some half-baked idea about how he could use social media to build an affinity group around the station’s format, because these are the kinds of suggestions people make when a radio station wants to attract a bigger audience.Why is it that everyone assumes the way to increase a radio station’s revenues is to increase the size of its audience?I said, “I’ll answer your question if you want me to, but I need to warn you that my answer is extremely simple, it always works, and it’s going to embarrass the hell out of you that you haven’t already done it.” Then I smiled and asked, “Are you sure you want me to answer in front of all these people?”Since he was the only broadcaster in a room full of business owners and the whole group had bonded pretty tightly during the previous 2 days and nights together, he just smiled back at me and said, “Bring it.”I wrote something on a piece of paper, then folded it and laid it on the table in front of him. “Game on.”The other 35 people in the room clapped and cheered because they knew we were about to have fun.He said, “It’s my number 6 station. My top 3 stations are doing fantastic and numbers 4 and 5 do pretty well, but number 6 just kind of limps along.”“Does it make a profit?”“Yes, but nothing special.”“How many units per hour do you feel would be the right spot load on that station?”He said he’d like to keep it to just 14 units per hour.I said, “6AM to midnight, 7 days a week, 14 units per hour yields 1,764 ads per week.”Next question: “Based on your current audience size, name a spot rate you would be happy to get on that station if every advertiser bought equal daypart distribution across 4 dayparts, morning drive, mid-day, afternoon drive, and evenings until midnight.”He named a modest price per ad.I said, “I’m a local business owner, I’m going to buy 40 ads per week, every week for 52 weeks, and I insist that my 40 ads get equal daypart distribution 6a to midnight. I want morning drive, mid-day, afternoon drive, and evenings until midnight, just like we talked about; none of that R.O.S.* crap. Got it?”He said, “Got it.”I said, “During the next 12 months, I’m going to become a household word to a whole lot of people. Frequency and consistency! That’s the right way to use radio! Forty ads per week for 52 weeks is going to make my business the one your audience thinks of immediately – and feels the best about – whenever they or any of their friends need what I sell.”Next question: “On your #6 station, what’s going to be my 1-week net reach with a weekly 3-frequency, 52 weeks in a row?”The man knew his station, so he was able to name the approximate net reach my schedule would deliver each week. It was a net reach that could make a real difference for any advertiser. I said, “Never let an advertiser compromise frequency and consistency. If they don’t want to do radio right, they don’t get to be on this station.”He said, “But that’s not how advertisers buy radio in my town.”I said, “We don’t need to convince the whole world. We just need to find 44 small business owners who can understand that this is the right way to use radio. We’re going to explain it to them and answer their questions until we have found 44 business owners smart enough to buy 40 ads per week with equal daypart distribution 6AM to midnight.”Then I reminded him how little money those 40 ads per week were going to cost those 44 advertisers each month. I asked, “How many businesses can afford that monthly investment?”That’s when it hit him. He appeared to be deep in thought when he muttered, “There’s a bunch of advertisers in our town that can’t afford our big stations, but they could easily afford that.”I said, “Your problem is that you’ve been allowing your sales team to sell all 6 stations. Take number 6 away from them. Turn it over to just one A.E. (Account Executive – salesperson) and make it the only radio station they get to sell and 40 ads per week/52-weeks is the only schedule they get to sell. Do you have someone in mind you can turn that station over to?”He started getting excited. He said, “I’ve got a couple of people in mind.” Then after a brief pause, he said, “At that price per month, I can have 44 clients sold within 90 days!”I nodded my head. “Every advertiser can afford it and it’s going to work incredibly well for them and most of these advertisers are going to be new business for you. Your people haven’t been calling on those businesses because they don’t have enough budget to buy your big stations. That’s why you’ve got to turn station 6 over to just one A.E. and let them focus on selling and servicing those 44 clients. You’ll want to choose an A.E. who can write great ad copy, because that’s how you keep annual contracts on the radio year after year.” [Results come from ad copy, and clients buy Results.]It was beginning to soak in. He said, “That A.E. is going to have 10 times as many prospects as the big stations! Every business in town can afford this schedule!”I handed him a calculator and told him to calculate the revenue he was going to bring in from just 14 units per hour at the modest spot rate he had named. His eyes popped open and he shouted, “That’s 5 times what we’re billing right now!”“Open the piece of paper in front of you,” I said.He opened the paper and started laughing. Then he held it up for the rest of the room. In fat black magic marker it said, “5X.”Everyone clapped, but we weren’t finished yet. I said, “The only way you can screw this up is to let the rest of your sales team continue to sell station #6. You’ve got to take it away from them. Now calculate the commission of the lucky A.E. who gets to sell your smallest station, the one that every business can afford.”He calculated a moment, then said, “It’s almost 350 thousand dollars a year.”I said, “No one can do a really great job with 44 clients, but a good A.E. can make 22 clients feel like royalty. Can people survive in your town on just 175 thousand a year?”He assured me they could, then asked, “Have you ever done this?”I told him the truth. “It’s how I became successful in radio. By the time I was 26, I was making more money than most doctors and lawyers, and I was selling the number 23 radio station in a city of 23 stations.”He laughed and confessed, “You were right. I’m embarrassed I haven’t already done this.”Roy H. Williams* R.O.S. means “Run of Schedule,” 6AM to 6AM. The problem with ROS ads isn’t that the overnight spots have no value – because they definitely have value – the problem is that broad rotators like R.O.S. will cause the Nielsen computer to give you wildly inflated frequency numbers, and you can’t afford to not know the truth about how much repetition you’re buying. Radio lives and dies with ad repetition. “Reach” is how many people will hear the ad. “Frequency” is how often the average person will hear the same ad. You need to ACCURATELY know how often the average listener will hear your ad in one week – your target is 3X – then buy that same “typical week” 52 weeks in a row, year after year. You need the same listener to hear the same ad 3x within every 7 nights sleep. This is how empires are built using radio. Most people schedule their radio ads Wide and Shallow, but that is incredibly dangerous if you have a limited budget. If you buy too little repetition (frequency,) you may reach 100% of the people, but convince them only 10% of the way. A much better plan would be to use your limited budget to buy Narrow and Deep: reach 10% of the people and convince them 100% of the way. The cost is the same. – Indy BeagleAAs an active U.S. Army Colonel, Christopher Kolenda — a West Point graduate — led 800 paratroopers in Afghanistan. Six of his soldiers were killed under his command. The loss of his troops and the lessons he learned about effective leadership during his military career are very much on Colonel Kolenda’s mind this Memorial Day. Whether on the battlefields of Afghanistan or in the bunkers of American business, Colonel Kolenda says that victory always stands on a foundation of three legs: Leadership, Culture, and Strategy. If your business is weak in any of these, Colonel Kolenda believes you are forfeiting your competitive advantage. Listen in as Kolenda takes roving reporter Rotbart to school at MondayMorningRadio.com

What you do today is important, because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.What will you do today?“If your life’s work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you’re not thinking big enough.”– Wes JacksonI knew a man who used to say, “I don’t ever get my hopes up. That way, I’m never disappointed.”If I had been the executor of his estate, his gravestone would say: “He had potential.”I often write about Identity, Purpose, and Adventure:Identity: Who am I?Purpose: Why am I here?Adventure: What must I overcome?Without trouble, there is no adventure.That being said, children and grandchildren are the most wonderful adventure.“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries: avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, non-redeemable. The only place outside of heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love is hell.” – C. S. LewisMy friend J.P. Engelbrecht sent me a text last week,“Finally read A Gentleman in Moscow. What a lovely book! Thank you for the recommendation.”For those who have not read it, A Gentleman in Moscow is about an older man who becomes, through no choice of his own, the protector and caregiver of a little girl. It is truly a remarkable book.Now that I think about it, Little Orphan Annie is essentially that same story.Many years ago, Pennie and I loved watching Anne of Green Gables (1985) when it was available on TV. Right now we’re watching the updated version, Anne With an E. Basically, it’s about an elderly brother and sister who become, through no choice of their own, the protectors and caregivers of…Oh, I guess it’s the same story as the other two.“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.”– Albert SchweitzerTo protect and equip and encourage others is what each of us was born to do.Who are you protecting?If you are a not a protector, you need one.What are you equipped to do?If you are not doing it, now would be a great time to start.Who do you encourage?Let that be the personwho decides what to carveon your tombstone.Roy H. WilliamsA Young Brian Scudamore had a series of private chats with a man who took $1,000 and turned it into a personal net worth of $3.5 billion. Simon Sinek told Brian his deepest insights the night he slept on Brian’s sofa. In Brian’s new book, you’ll meet an NBA superstar, a past president of Starbucks, a British advertising tycoon, and a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics as they wander on and off the pages like movie stars on the red carpet at the Academy Awards. Wait! I just saw Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Dr. Seuss, and Charles Schwab. Roving reporter Rotbart talks to mega-famous Brian Scudamore, a longtime client of the wizard, on today’s happy and hilarious episode of MondayMorningRadio.com!

I write advertising because I’m good at math.According to my calculations at age 18, the odds of making a living as an ad writer were 117,682% higher than the likelihood that I could make a living as a poet.But really, poems and ads are the same thing.Good poems promote a new perspective in a brief, tight economy of words.Good ads promote a new perspective in a brief, tight economy of words.The objective of both is to get you to see something differently.Poets and ad writers want to alter your perception. To do this, they use words that cause you to hallucinate; to see something that isn’t really there. They want you to look into their magic mirror and see yourself less worried, happier, and beaming with light.Every generation worries about what the next generation seems to have forgotten.Perhaps I am an outlier even among my own generation, but I have long been concerned about how few people today understand the purpose of the arts.I am frustrated that so few understand the differences between the heart and mind.I am broken-hearted that so few know the basic stories of the Bible.“Earth’s crammed with heaven,And every common bush afire with God;But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries.”– Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, 1857Using the megaphone of poetry to whisper to us from 165 years ago, Dizzy Lizzy Browning is referring to the reaction of Moses in the desert of Midian when he saw a bush on fire in the distance that was never consumed.Moses turned aside to see it more closely. Looking into the glow, Moses heard a voice and took off his shoes because he knew he was in a special place.Elizabeth Barrett Browning is telling us that wonders are all around us, if only we would open our eyes. She is saying, “Stop. Notice. Go to the place. Realize that it is special.”How is that not an ad?When you know the basic stories of the Bible and the ancient Greeks, you see them echoed in the biggest movies, the best-selling novels, and the top-rated television shows.When you know those stories, you can use them as templates in communications of your own.These are stories that have proven to be magnetic, memorable, and persuasive. Note that phrase: “proven to be.”Repurpose the proven.In a movie directed by Oliver Stone in the second half of the 1980’s, Charlie Sheen plays a young man who follows a bad father figure, then turns to follow a good father figure. Can you name the movie?If you said Platoon, you are right. If you said Wall Street, you are right. Both movies told the same story, and both were a huge success. The primary difference was that Platoon took us into the green jungles of Viet Nam circa 1967, and Wall Street took us into the concrete jungles of Manhattan circa 1985.Here’s my point: Wall Street premiered less than 12 months after Platoon, but no one who saw it complained, “Hey, we were told this story last year!”Learn when and how to repurpose the proven.Solomon – another interesting Biblical character – said,“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. And though it cost all you have, get understanding.”Unconscious competence is called talent. A talented person instinctively knows what to do.Knowing what to do is wisdom.Conscious competence is called skill. A skilled person has studied talented people long enough to figure out what they are unconsciously doing and why it works.Talented people know what to do.Skilled people know why to do it.Skilled people have understanding.Aim for understanding.Roy H. Williams

In his 3,000-year-old book, Ecclesiastes, King Solomon tells us of the stages and phases of his life, his fads and fancies, his regrets and realizations. Then he gives us his final conclusions and advice. Next to the Good News of John, Ecclesiastes is probably my favorite book in the Bible.Oscar Wilde wrote a similar summary of his stages and phases, fads and fancies, regrets and realizations in a private letter to his best and last and only friend. Later published as De Profundis, “From the Depths,” this 55,000-word letter shines with the unfiltered transparency of a man who has nothing but time, nothing to gain, and nothing to lose.Indy Beagle shared a couple of passages from De Profundis in last week’s rabbit hole. After receiving several happy emails from rabbit holers, Indy suggested that I give Oscar’s story a wider frame and take you on a deeper dive.Grab your scuba gear.As a young man, Oscar fell in love with a woman who dumped him to marry his more conservative childhood friend, Bram Stoker. So Oscar married another young woman who bore him two fine sons. He soon became flamboyantly famous as a comedic playwright, a social wit, a raconteur, and a writer of children’s stories.*Oscar Wilde was like Coca-Cola. He was everywhere.And then he went to prison for being gay.“The gods had given me almost everything. But I let myself be lured into long spells of senseless and sensual ease. I amused myself with being a flaneur, a dandy, a man of fashion. I surrounded myself with the smaller natures and the meaner minds. I became the spendthrift of my own genius, and to waste an eternal youth gave me a curious joy. Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went to the depths in the search for new sensation.”“I had lost my name, my position, my happiness, my freedom, my wealth. I was a prisoner and a pauper. But I still had my children left. Suddenly they were taken away from me by the law. It was a blow so appalling that I did not know what to do, so I flung myself on my knees, and bowed my head, and wept, and said, ‘The body of a child is as the body of the Lord: I am not worthy of either.’ That moment seemed to save me. I saw then that the only thing for me was to accept everything. Since then—curious as it will no doubt sound—I have been happier.”“I want to get to the point when I shall be able to say quite simply, and without affectation that the two great turning-points in my life were when my father sent me to Oxford, and when society sent me to prison… I was so typical a child of my age, that in my perversity, and for that perversity’s sake, I turned the good things of my life to evil, and the evil things of my life to good.”“A man’s very highest moment is, I have no doubt at all, when he kneels in the dust, and beats his breast, and tells all the sins of his life. I am completely penniless, and absolutely homeless. Yet there are worse things in the world than that.”“Nobody is worthy to be loved. The fact that God loves man shows us that in the divine order of ideal things it is written that eternal love is to be given to what is eternally unworthy. Or if that phrase seems to be a bitter one to bear, let us say that everybody is worthy of love, except him who thinks he is.”“Love is a sacrament that should be taken kneeling. Where there is sorrow there is holy ground. Someday people will realize what that means.”“Indeed, that is the charm about Christ, when all is said: he is just like a work of art. He does not really teach one anything, but by being brought into his presence one becomes something. And everybody is predestined to his presence. Once at least in his life each man walks with Christ to Emmaus… [Christ] had an intense and flamelike imagination… He understood the leprosy of the leper, the darkness of the blind, the fierce misery of those who live for pleasure, the strange poverty of the rich… When you really want love, you will find it waiting for you.”Oscar Wilde was released from prison on May 19, 1897, precisely 125 years ago next Thursday.Upon his release, Oscar fled to France. He was no longer welcome in England.There is a strangely prophetic passage in De Profundis when Oscar says,“Many men on their release carry their prison about with them into the air, and hide it as a secret disgrace in their hearts, and at length, like poor poisoned things, creep into some hole and die. It is wretched that they should have to do so, and it is wrong, terribly wrong, of society that it should force them to do so.”Shortly after his arrival in France, Oscar Wilde died of acute meningitis caused by an ear infection. In his semiconscious final moments, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church, which he had long admired.He was 46 years old.Roy H. Williams*”The Happy Prince”, “The Nightingale and the Rose”, “The Selfish Giant”, “The Devoted Friend”, and “The Remarkable Rocket” are Oscar Wilde’s most famous stories for children.NOTE FROM INDY – One month after Oscar was sent to prison, his childhood friend Bram Stoker began writing Dracula, a novel about shadowy characters with transgressive sexual impulses.

If relationships matter to you at all, don’t put your negative emotions in writing.Spoken words land softly on their feet like a cat that has fallen from a tree. But written words often land with a thud, and the crack of a fractured relationship.My son Jacob taught me an African proverb last week,“The axe forgets, but the tree remembers.”That proverb reminded me to warn you,“Never put a negative emotion in writing.”There are few things as reckless and destructive as a text, an email, or a letter in which you “clear the air” by venting your anger, your fear, your frustration, your disappointment, or your sadness.If you cannot speak face-to-face with the person that you feel needs to hear what you have to say, then at least find a way to speak voice-to-voice.Never put a negative emotion in writing.I speak recklessly, but I write carefully. Every time I have put a negative emotion in writing, I have regretted it.Introverts prefer to communicate in writing. As a member of that 49 percent of our population, I say,“I understand your preference for writing instead of talking. You are good at writing. This is why it is especially important for you to realize that your negative, written words hit harder, hurt more deeply, and cause more widespread destruction than the words of your extraverted friends. So please, never put a negative emotion in writing. But the opposite is also true: your written words of recognition, praise, and encouragement will raise the spirits, strengthen the resolve, and give new energy to every person on whom you shine that happy light.”During the dark times, the tree will remember that light.And smile.Are you ready for a surprise? The same applies to advertising.If your relationship with prospective customers matters to you, don’t put negative emotions into your ads.You ask, “But don’t I at least need to describe the pain of the problem before I tell them about the solution?”No, because if you do, your name and your brand will unconsciously become associated with pain and problems. People will remember you when they need what you sell, but they will feel better about someone else. And this “someone else” they feel better about will probably make the sale.If you want to be that “someone else,” learn to write ads that make people feel good about themselves, their future, and you.I’ve been saying it for 35 years:“Win the heart and the mind will follow. The mind will always find logic to justify what the heart has already decided.”Did you know that I think about you several times each week? As I sit in the light of my computer screen at 2:30 each morning, I ponder the price you pay to read what I write to you. Money can be replaced but time cannot, so each minute you spend with me is spent forever. It can never be replaced. This is why I try to give you things that will last; things you can take with you and use again and again.I cannot see your face but I feel your presence and I want the best for you, just as you want the best for all the people that your life touches.Shine on, bright friend, shine on. All the trees around you will remember.Roy H. Williams

An affinity group is composed of peoplewho share an identity marker.Backpackers are an affinity group.Corvette drivers are an affinity group.If you like to sew, you are part of an affinity group.Every sports team has “fans,” an affinity group.If you like wine, you are in that affinity group.People who like science are part of an affinity group.If you would rather drive than fly, you are part of an affinity group.In a class he taught at Wizard Academy, Ryan Deiss said,“Identify a tribe. Develop the tribe. Market to the tribe.”Ryan was talking about affinity groups.Affinity groups have an affinity for – an attraction to – a particular thing.Marketing to affinity groups is a smart thing to do.*Do you know the jargon of the affinity group you are trying to sell?People who spend time to save money are in an affinity group.People who spend money to save time are in a different affinity group.Your ad copy attracts one of these groups more strongly than it does the other. Do you know which group you are unconsciously targeting?Maggie Tufu is a fictional character, but she spoke profoundly when she said,“Tell me what a person admires and I’ll tell you everything about them that matters.”Mark Zuckerberg is rich because he controls one of the major gateways that allow advertisers to reach affinity groups.Every time you click on something – anything at all – you reveal intimate things about yourself to Mark and dozens of other data brokers. Soon you will have told them everything about yourself that matters.Allow me to quote a video that you will see near the end of today’s rabbit hole:“What all these companies have in common is they collect your personal information and then resell or share it with others… The entire economy of the internet right now is basically built on this practice. All the free stuff that you take for granted online is only free because you are the product. They make money by selling your data… As one expert puts it, ‘They’re the middlemen of surveillance capitalism.'”Several of the apps you have on your phone are tracking you for the purposes of letting you know which of their locations is “Nearest You” at any given moment. And they sell that data to data brokers, some of which are happy to tell anyone – who wants to kill you, kidnap you, or sell you an extended warranty – exactly where you are right now.The going price for that information is $45.Seems like there ought to be a law that makes this impossible, right? Well, there is an outside chance that such a law might soon be enacted.According to that video you’ll see near the end of today’s rabbit hole,“The one time that Congress has acted quickly to safeguard people’s privacy was in the 1980s when Robert Bork was nominated to the Supreme Court and a reporter walked into a local video store and asked the manager whether he could have a peek at Bork’s video rental history. And he got it. As soon as Congress realized there was nothing stopping anyone from retrieving their video rental records too, they freaked out. And lo and behold, the Video Privacy Protection Act was passed with quite deliberate speed.”At the end of today’s rabbit hole, you can see how one man is currently trying to motivate Congress by threatening to reveal all the detailed, personal information he gathered about each of them after spending just a few dollars with data brokers.This could get interesting.Roy H. Williams*Earlier, when I said, “Marketing to affinity groups is a smart thing to do,” please notice that I did not say that marketing to affinity groups is the “only” smart thing to do. I continue to believe in the effectiveness of untargeted mass media – TV and radio – because it works miraculously if you know how to use it. It reaches your target, but it also reaches the influencers of your target. And compared to online marketing, Mass Media is astoundingly affordable.