Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

Every few months, I remind my partners of something that took me way too long to learn.I say, “When a person believes in what they’re doing – even if it’s an imperfect plan – let them keep doing it. Give them advice and try to open their eyes, but don’t fight them too hard, because, ‘A person convinced against their will, remains unconvinced, still.’ So be careful. If you finally convince a person to quit doing what they believe in, and to start doing what you would do if you owned their company, they’re probably going to fail.”People who have spent time with me may find this difficult to believe, but I’m a lot less combative than I used to be.Here is the non-combative technique I use.Listen attentively to the person with whom you disagree.Let them speak until they’re finished.Find a point of agreement, something you can honestly endorse.Tell them why you agree with them. And if they have altered your opinion in any way, confess that to them, as well.Use the point you agree upon to introduce another point which you feel might expand and enrich their perspective.Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not talking about introducing “alternative facts.”I’m talking about introducing your idea as a logical extension of the idea about which you have already agreed.This will cause the other person to feel like they already knew the thing that seemingly just occurred to you.In essence, you’ll be giving them an entirely new perspective while reinforcing what they already believe.Bottom line: Try to avoid telling people they are wrong. You’ll make more progress and achieve more change if you can figure out a way to tell them they are right.Here’s a recent example:An air conditioning client was convinced that we should target the perfect customer profile by using “addressable TV” ads. This would allow us to target specific households individually – rather than as a demographic, geographic, or psychographic group – by using data provided by broadcaster set-top boxes (STBs) and over-the-top (OTT) streaming devices like Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Roku, or Amazon Firestick.The CEO of the air conditioning company said, “Why should we pay to reach people who live in apartments, or who rent their houses from landlords, or who have a home warranty contract with a company other than ours? Wouldn’t it make more sense to target ONLY those homeowners living in houses old enough to need a new air conditioner, and who don’t have a home warranty?”“I love that idea!” I said, “And we’ve already got some great TV ads we could air!” I gave him a high five, then asked, “How much did they say it will cost us?”“They said it will be extremely efficient since we’ll be aiming a rifle with a scope instead of using a shotgun like we’re doing now.”“I don’t doubt that a bit,” I said, “but we do need to find out how much they’re going to charge us per 1,000 households they deliver (CPM.) We’re currently paying a cost-per-thousand (CPM) of $3 on broadcast radio. Now I’m DEFINITELY willing to pay more than $3 per thousand to reach the PERFECT customer rather than the unfiltered, mixed-bag, untargeted customers we’re currently reaching, but how many untargeted customers is one PERECTLY TARGETED customer worth? Is it 4-to-one? 7-to-one? Are we willing to trade 10 untargeted customers for 1 targeted customer? How many are we willing to trade? I think at some point there’s going to be at least one perfect customer in our current, unfiltered assortment of broadcast TV viewers and broadcast radio listeners, don’t you think? And then we get all those other people for free. But I still think this “addressable TV” thing is a great idea. So call and tell them exactly who you want to target and ask for the cost-per-thousand.”After he checked into it, he learned that the cheapest we might possibly pay was 12x to 16x our current cost-per-thousand, but with the layers of targeting he wanted to add, we would be trading at least 26 broadcast radio listeners for every 1 “perfectly targeted” homeowner.After thinking it over, he decided we were already reaching more than 1 “perfectly targeted” homeowner in every group of 26 unfiltered, mixed bag, untargeted radio listeners.My point is this: I didn’t have to argue. I didn’t have to debate. And my client, the CEO of that business, was treated like a CEO.I’m just the consultant who agreed with him.Roy H. Williams

I’ve often wondered what happened to him.Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, 1979: Pennie and I had just moved into our first house.It…was built before Oklahoma became a state,had never had a mortgage on it,had been expanded 3 different times,and was now barely 800 sq. ft.,had sat vacant for more than 10 years,and was sold to us for $21,500.It wasn’t an impressive neighborhood.Pennie looked out our front window and saw a frightening-looking man working on his car. She mentioned it to me. I looked out the window and saw a man in his mid-30s wearing ragged clothes with a dirty pony-tail that trailed below his belt. He had rented the unlivable shack across the street.I walked outside to meet him. “Hi. I’m Roy. I live over there.”“Hi. I’m Harold.”I helped him fix his car, a worn-out Chevy Vega.Harold and I became good friends. He was soft-spoken, respectful, and sentimental. Pennie liked him, too.One Sunday afternoon, the phone rang. It was Harold. “Roy, do you have $400 in cash?”Miraculously, I did have $400 in cash that day, an extremely rare occurrence. “Harold, if you had called on any other day, I wouldn’t have been able to say yes. But I do, in fact, have $400.”“Man, I need you to come and bail me out of jail. I ran a red light at midnight and didn’t have my driver’s license with me. Can you come and bail me out? I can pay you back as soon as we get to my house, I swear.”“I’ll be right there.”As we pulled away from the police station, Harold said, “If you will, I need you to do me one more favor.”“Okay, what is it?”“Follow me to my boss’s house. He’s been wanting to buy my Vega and stuff a big motor in it to make himself a drag racing car. I’ve decided to sell it to him.”We stopped at Harold’s house where he paid me back the $400, then I followed him a few miles to where his boss lived. Harold’s job was to mix cement all day and hand it up in 5 gallon buckets to the brick masons on the scaffold. They paid him in cash each week.Harold gave his boss the car keys, got in my car again, looked at me with tear-filled eyes and said, “One last favor?”“Whatever you need.”“Drive me to the bus station.”“Harold, what’s going on?”He was blinking away the tears. “I’m going to buy a ticket on whatever bus is about to leave the station and I’m going to move to wherever that bus takes me. Roy, I’m an escaped convict.”It took me a few moments to find my voice. “What were you in for, Harold?”That’s when he told me his real name was Jeff-something. Sadly, I’ve forgotten Jeff’s last name because he spoke it just that one time, during a highly distracted moment, 39 years ago.“I had just turned eighteen when my Dad beat the crap out of me and I decided to leave home. I hitchhiked and slept in open fields for a couple of days until I ran out of money for food. I was walking down the road on the morning of the third day when I saw a farmer working all alone. I walked over and asked if he would give me a meal and pay me a few dollars if I helped him all day. He said he would. At the end of the day, he gave me a meal but claimed he never agreed to give me any money. I was really mad, so I walked out to his barn and took a 5-gallon can of gas and a .22 rifle he had for shooting rats and then I started walking down the road.”Back in those days, it was easy for hitchhikers to catch a ride when they were carrying a can of gas to give to whoever picked them up.“I was planning to sell the .22 at the nearest pawn shop. It never occurred to me that the farmer had seen me and called the sheriff. I had only walked about 200 yards when I was arrested and taken to jail.”“What happened next?”“I had been in jail a couple of weeks when I hid under a big pile of dirty clothes in a canvas laundry cart just before they rolled it onto the truck. I don’t weigh much, so no one noticed. Then, when they stopped at a traffic light, I jumped out of the dirty clothes and scrambled out the back of the truck. That was the first time I escaped.”My eyes grew big, I’m sure. “How many times have you escaped?”“The third time was two years ago. They always catch me because of a traffic violation. I don’t have a driver’s license.” He smiled a weak smile. “I was really lucky they caught me on a Saturday night because the fingerprint place isn’t open on Sundays. If you hadn’t bailed me out of jail, they would have walked into my cell tomorrow morning and called me by my real name.”“What were you in for the second and third time?”“Escaping. They always increase your sentence when you escape. I’ve been in and out of prison for 16 years.”“And the only thing you ever did was steal a 5-gallon can of gas and a .22 rifle?” Jeff could only nod as the tears ran into his beard. We didn’t talk for a while. Finally I asked, “How did you get out this last time?”“I went over the wall.”“What?”“I went over the wall.”“But how?”“Roy, if everyone and everything that made your life worth living was on the other side of a 30-foot cement wall, but your side of that wall was an unendurable hell, do you think you could figure out how to get over that wall?”I nodded yes.“Roy, it’s not the wall that keeps you in prison; it’s the guys with the rifles in the tower.”I quietly contemplated what he had said. After a moment, he continued.“You go over the wall when the guys with the rifles don’t scare you anymore. Because one way or the other, you’re not going to live another day in prison.”I’ve often wondered what happened to him.Roy H. Williams

Dear Radio,I’ve loved you all my life. In fact, I have more confidence in you than you have in yourself.But you have a blind spot, and it’s killing you: radio advertisers are reaching 100% of the city and convincing them 10% of the way, when they should be reaching 10% of the city and convincing them 100% of the way.You’re letting advertisers squander their money on reach without frequency.Your spot rate is determined by your reach, your audience size.The bigger your reach, the bigger your bank account.This is why you dance when you have a good book. 1You push reach.“We’re #1” means “We offer the most reach.”But your client’s success is determined by his frequency.I am your client. Sell me a schedule that gives me big reach with small frequency and I’ll soon be singing, “I tried radio and it didn’t work” at the top of my lungs.Sell me small reach with big frequency and I’ll take over your city, one station at a time. I’ll use relentless frequency to become a household word on a little station, then when that station’s weekly cume of many thousands of listeners 2 have grown my company into a bigger one, I’ll add another station, then another and another until I’m on every station in town.This is not theoretical. I’ve been doing it for 38 years and it has never failed to work. In truth, our clients across the U.S., Canada, and Australia are seeing greater success through radio today than ever before.Frequency should be non-negotiable. Why do you let people on the air without it?And since I sell products and services that have a long selling cycle, I’ll also need consistency.Consistency is the frequency of the frequency.52-week consistency is essential when your client has a long selling cycle. Things like engagement rings, A/C repair, home appliances, drain opening, legal services, auto repair, and insurance have long selling cycles. The way I can win these categories is to become the provider the customer thinks of immediately – and feels best about – when they, or any of the people in their circle of influence, finally need what I sell.The only clients who can succeed without consistency are sellers of food and entertainment – things with a short selling cycle – things we buy every day, or at least every week or two.Reach and frequency are not interchangeable.Who was it that decided we should multiply reach times frequency to calculate gross impressions, and then cast gross impressions as a percentage of the population to calculate gross rating points?The hunger for gross impressions and gross rating points always leads to the purchase of too much reach without enough frequency. When you multiply reach times frequency, you blur the line between the two. Reach is easy to obtain in a media mix. Frequency is not.Reach is not a substitution for frequency.Frequency must be protected at all costs.If I buy 100 gross rating points, I’ve reached the mathematical equivalent of 100% of the population of the trade area 1 time. It would take 1,000,000 gross impressions to give me 100 gross rating points in a city of 1,000,000 people. But does this mean I’ve reached 100% of the people 1 time? Or does it mean I’ve reached 50% of the people twice? Or does it mean I’ve reached 25% of the people 4 times? Or does it mean I’ve reached 10% of the people 10 times? Or does it mean I’ve reached 5% of the people 20 times? Or does it mean I’ve reached 1 sad bastard 1,000,000 times? Each of those scenarios is 100 gross rating points.The only numbers that really matter are:(1.) a weekly Frequency of at least 3.0 and(2.) 7-day Net Reach (18+) 3Sleep erases advertising. This is why you must always measure frequency within a window of 7 night’s sleep. It’s also why 52-week consistency is vital.This is the question that really matters: How many people (18+) can I reach at least 3 times each within 7 night’s sleep, 52 weeks in a row?If you sell me a 26-week buy spread out “on-a-week, off-a-week” over 52 weeks, you’re selling me a station that costs twice what I can afford. Soon I’ll join that other guy in singing “I tried radio and it didn’t work,” and a lot of people will hear us sing it.According to Kleiner Perkins, the average American spends 4% of their media time with print, but print is getting 9% of our national ad spend. Print is punching 5 points above their weight.The average American spends 13% of their media time listening to broadcast radio, but radio is getting only 9% of our national ad spend. If radio was punching 5 points above its weight, radio would enjoy 18% of the ad spend instead of just 9%.Is this doable? Is it possible for radio to double its annual revenues? You bet it is.Radio, to start winning 18% of the ad spend, all you need to do is:(1.) focus your attention on advertisers with a long selling cycle.(2.) make sure that every schedule achieves a 3-frequency (18+) each week, 52 weeks in a row.(3.) learn how to write engaging copy.This is the radio success formula that never fails.Roy H. Williams1 Nielsen Ratings2 “Cume” is cumulative audience, the total number of different people who listen to a station3 (18+) Adults 18 years of age and older

Is established information or new information more likely to be true?Which is more effective, planning or improvisation?Are people essentially good, or essentially selfish?Which is more important, individual rights or collective rights?Will the future of America be better than its past?Are low-income people less intelligent than high-income people?Is the Bible true, or just a collection of ancient folk stories?Are attractive people more reliable than unattractive ones?You may think those questions have obvious answers. But in truth, just as many people chose the opposites.Each of us has foundational assumptions upon which our worldviews are predicated.If your foundational assumptions are different than mine, you’ll interpret experiences, evidence, and data differently than I do.Psychologists call a foundational assumption a “cognitive bias,” but only if your assumption is tightly focused. If we’re discussing your entire collection of foundational assumptions, we’re talking about your “schema.”Your schema, or outlook, is how you believe the universe works.Asking a person to reconsider a foundational assumption is like asking them to change their religion.But every foundational assumption comes with a blind spot.This is true even if your foundational assumptions caused you to answer our opening 8 questions by saying, “Well, it depends on…”We often believe our foundational assumptions are shared by intelligent people everywhere.Because when you “know” something deeply and intrinsically, it’s hard to imagine other people not knowing it. This cognitive bias is often called “the curse of knowledge,” and it’s responsible for a high percentage of bad advertising because it will cause you to answer questions in your ads that no one was asking.Are you beginning to see why it’s important to be aware of your blind spots?Most of us refuse to believe we have blind spots, because to accept that you have blind spots is to accept that your foundational assumptions are flawed, and then who would you be?To point out another person’s blind spot is like undressing them in public; you will not be soon forgiven.And now you know why polite people “never discuss politics or religion” with people outside their own ingroup.And although this may sound Machiavellian, I share it with you not so that you might employ it, but so that you might guard yourself against it: It is easy to manipulate a person when you know their foundational assumptions.Don’t let people manipulate you.When you have the courage to recognize your foundational assumptions for what they are, you are more likely to be happy, more likely to be liked, more likely to experience personal peace.But this open-mindedness comes at a price: you will never be the leader of villagers with torches and pitchforks.But that was never really a goal of yours, was it?Was it?Roy H. Williams

A lawyer and a rabbi are arguing about what it means to be kind.It is an ancient argument.The lawyer thinks a “kind” person is always polite and considerate.The rabbi thinks “politeness” is superficial, and “considerate” simply means to consider the consequences before taking any action, but that true kindness comes at a price. The rabbi believes that true kindness will take insult, inconvenience or injury upon itself in order to save another person from the same.We read of this encounter between the lawyer and the rabbi in the Biblical book of Luke. You may remember the story of a traveler who is robbed, stripped of his clothing, beaten, and left half dead alongside the road.Jesus, the young rabbi, tells the lawyer that two religious people passed by the wounded traveler, but both of them avoided the man. Then, the member of an ethic minority came upon the injured traveler. The most common name for this ethnic minority was a racial slur in the day of Jesus, so to help make his point, Jesus used the racial slur as the name of the man: “a Samaritan.”According to Jesus, “the Samaritan,” at his own expense, took the injured traveler to an inn, treated his wounds, and paid the innkeeper to take care of him.Jesus then asked, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”The lawyer, too polite to say “Samaritan,” said, “The one who had mercy on him.”Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.”Rabbi Jesus was clearly demonstrating that kindness costs the giver, and that it is our actions that define us, not our origins.Disagreements occur when there is a lack of definition of terms. When there is no agreed-upon definition of a word, arguments will revolve around it.I believe the word that has the largest number of conflicting definitions today is the word “Christian.”If we were to poll our nation, we would doubtless discover countless definitions for “Christian,” but I believe most of them would fall somewhere in the middle of a three-cornered continuum.At one extreme of that triangle, a Christian is a believer in Christianity, a religion founded by Jesus, who came to give us a new moral code and teach us a better way to live. This Christian is patriotic and rejects behaviors that he or she believes to be immoral.At the second extreme of that triangle, a Christian is a believer in Jesus as God Incarnate, who came to earth to purchase eternal life for all who would believe. This Christian does not believe that Jesus came to deliver a new moral code, but to die so that we might live.The third extreme of our triangle is a definition occasionally embraced by people who do not identify themselves as “Christian,” because they define a Christian as:a religious person who believes poor people deserve to be poor because “anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps through good decisions and hard work.”a religious person who is in favor of guns, but against gays.a religious person who believes Americans are exceptional, and that all other nations are inferior.It is not my purpose today to start an argument, but to defuse one.Christianity and politics are in turmoil today due to the lack of an agreed-upon definition of the word, “Christian.” I have no intention of offering my own definition of Christian, since it is unimportant to anyone but me. And I do not expect your definition of “Christian” to be any of the three extremes I named. I expect you have a complex, nuanced definition that you feel strongly about. You may even be anxious to share it in the hopes of “clearing the air.”Please don’t. AMy only goal today is to ask you to consider – for just a moment –that a good person might hold views and opinions dramatically different from your own without becoming “the enemy.”This person could even become your trusted friend.Even if they are “a Samaritan.”Roy H. Williams

I began losing my hair when I was 19. By the time I was 21, I looked like I was 30.Best thing that ever happened to me.People take you seriously when you look like a grown-up, and I needed people to take me seriously.I sold advertising for the smallest radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We were rock-solid at number 23 in a city of 23 radio stations. We had a 0.5 share during the Average Quarter Hour. This means that out of every 200 radios that were turned on, only 1 of them would be tuned to my station.Best thing that ever happened to me.At any given moment, my station would have between 500 and 800 people listening. But the total number of different people we would reach in a week was about 18,000. Woo-Hoo! I was overjoyed. There wasn’t a single business in our city of 1,000,000 people that couldn’t use 18,000 more customers.All I had to do is figure out what to say to get my 18,000 people to remember – and prefer – my advertiser. I cannot say with certainty how I knew success would be found in the crafting of a persuasive message rather than in the selection of the “right” audience, but my memory shows me a young boy sitting in an empty classroom reading books during recess rather than playing with the other kids on the playground.Best thing that ever happened to me.Yes, I know I’ve said “Best thing that ever happened to me” three times and they can’t ALL be the “best thing,” but I don’t feel like ranking them “#1 Best,” “#2 Best,” etc., so go with the flow, okay?I restricted my sales calls to businesses that were so tiny they couldn’t afford any advertising other than my little nothing of a radio station. When these people believed in me and wrote me a check, they were giving me their life’s blood. If my plans for them failed, my clients couldn’t pay the rent. They couldn’t send their kids to school with a sack lunch. They couldn’t pay the electric bill.When you face those kinds of consequences, you lie awake at night figuring out how to make the ads you sold work, because there is no one with whom you can share the blame. It’s all you.Guilt, Pain and Remorse are powerful teachers.I quickly figured out how to make advertising work.And what Guilt, Pain and Remorse taught me was very different from what is being taught in colleges.Few marketing professionals will ever be solely responsible for the outcomes of the ad campaigns they help to create. Most people in my profession go to college, get a degree, and then become a cog in a marketing machine. Their failures can be attributed to a wide variety of forces beyond their control. Their ink pens are never filled with the blood of the families for whom they write.My station owner was hoping our little station might bring in about $11,000 a month. Within 18 months, my personal billings were averaging $51,000 a month. My base pay was $800/mo. and I made a 15% commission. Do the math.I spent my early twenties as a joyously married, rapidly balding boy with ten thousand stories in his head and an ink pen full of blood in his pocket. Then, at 26 years old, they made me the General Manager of a much larger station.Worst thing that ever happened to me.I no longer spent my days talking face-to-face with business owners and crafting stories. Instead, I stared blankly at spreadsheets and spoke by telephone with corporate officers and bookkeepers and listened to the whining of 32 employees who had me confused with their mommies.Six months into it, I said, “You can keep the cheese. Just let me out of the trap.”With the unwavering support of Princess Pennie, I became an independent ad writer and media negotiator. I adapted my stories to fit billboards on the highway and TV ads during the Superbowl and websites on the internet.But some things never change. Thirty-four years after saying “no” to spreadsheets and corporate politics, my relationships continue to be one-on-one with business owners, never with the companies they own.I don’t believe in destiny.I believe in choices and consequences.I believe each of us chooses what we become.What have you chosen to become?If plan A isn’t working out for you, consider plan B or C or D!New choices bring new consequences.Isn’t life a wonder?Don’t forget to live it.Roy H. Williams

A thing cannot exist without its opposite. This is why a positive statement – without its corresponding negative – is usually a platitude.1Every proton has its electron.Every summer has its winter.Every Yin has its Yang.Every up, its down.Every inside, its outside.Every justice, its mercy.“The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement.But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.”– Niels BohrNiels Bohr was not a philosopher. He was a scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics.Duality, in the form of paired opposites, is essential to high-impact communication.It is not enough to explain what you believe.You need also to explain what you don’t believe.It is not enough to explain what you stand for.You need also to explain what you stand against.I saw you flinch just then. You don’t like “being negative.” Am I right?You believe in abundance.You believe in optimism.You believe in fairness and peace.You sound like a Hallmark greeting card.Now tell me if I’m being “negative.”I stand against poverty.I stand against hopelessness.I stand against bullies.I sound like someone who might actually make a difference.Don’t just tell us what you include.Tell us also what you exclude.Don’t just tell us what you are.Tell us what you are not.“At Kesslers, we do diamonds better, because diamonds are all we do. We don’t sell watches or pearls or gold chains. But we do sell every style of engagement ring that has ever been designed.”“At Goettl Air Conditioning, we do things the right way, not the easy way.”“Jigsaw magnesium is a mineral, not a vitamin. And it delivers real energy, not caffeine energy.”Here’s why photos of you never really look like you:You see your face in the mirror every day. You see photos of yourself only occasionally. But the mirror shows you a reversed image. The “you” that your friends see is opposite the image that you see.If you speak only of what you see from your perspective, you miscommunicate to everyone who sees the opposite.Comprehensive communication always shows both sides:The verse and the inverse.The upside and the down.What’s left in and what’s left out.Do you have the breadth of mind to do this?Do you have the courage?Roy H. Williams

Doubtless, they will someday say, “Inspired by Roycroft and Bohemian Grove, Pennie and Roy Williams built Wizard Academy…”But they will be wrong.Yes, the Princess and I – with the help of hundreds of good friends around the world – began constructing the Wizard Academy campus in 2004. The “wrong” part is that we were inspired by Roycroft and Bohemian Grove.This error is forgivable, however, because jumping to conclusions is what makes us humans so adorable.Elbert Hubbard was a marketer whose magazine, The Philistine, was read by subscribers around the world 120 years ago. Likewise, my Monday Morning Memos and the e-zines of Indiana Beagle are read by subscribers around the world.But Elbert Hubbard did not inspire me to become a marketer or to write these Monday Morning Memos. And I’m pretty sure Indy Beagle wanders the rabbit hole for reasons of his own, as well.Elbert Hubbard published a book on advertising but I did not write my Wizard of Ads trilogy because of him.Elbert and his wife, Alice, began building the Roycroft Campus as a writer’s and artist’s enclave in East Aurora, New York, in 1895. But Pennie had never heard of the Hubbards or their Roycroft Campus when she decided to build Wizard Academy. I know this to be true. I was there.Yet there are definite similarities between our organizations.Wizard Academy bridges the gap between business and the arts. Like the Roycrofters before us, we celebrate the study of the arts for the furtherance of business.*San Francisco’s Bohemian Club began constructing Bohemian Grove in 1878. The “Bohemians” in those days were writers and artists. But business people wanted to hang out with them and were immediately attracted to the club.Oscar Wilde attended The Grove in 1882. Afterwards, he said, “When bankers get together they talk about art. When artists get together, they talk about money.”Think of the annual encampment at Bohemian Grove as the original TED Conference.An invitation to The Grove remains the hardest of all tickets to obtain. Security is incredibly tight. The guests invited to Bohemian Grove today are Nobel Prize winners, top-tier artists and authors, Senators, and Fortune 500 CEOs.Interestingly, Wizard Academy attracts many of these same people, but on a smaller scale.The official motto of The Bohemian Club is a line taken from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “Weaving Spiders Come Not Here.” It means, “Business deals and any thoughts of ‘networking’ are to be left outside. This is a place of escape.”Like Bohemian Grove, Wizard Academy is a place of escape, renewal, and inspiration for people who wrestle with giants.Do you have a dream, an enterprise, a mission, a purpose that occupies your heart and hands and mind?Come. You have a tribe. Hang out with us. You will be a stronger wrestler when you leave.Roy H. Williams

Trouble happens to everyone.“Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble.”– Carl JungBut don’t worry about it.“Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.”– George WashingtonReally. Don’t worry about it.“Don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”– Jesus, in the 6th chapter of Matthew’s Good NewsBecause I’ve got this.“In this world you will have trouble. But be of good cheer! I have overcome the world.”– Jesus, in the 16th chapter of John’s Good NewsAnd I’m your friend.“Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness.”– EuripidesTrouble is a searchlight in the darkness that shows you a person’s heart.“You never forget three people:the person who helped you in trouble,the person who left you in trouble,the person who put you in trouble.”– Randy PhillipsAnd sometimes that searchlight is reflected back at you.“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.”– Theodore RooseveltBut finally, the sun rises, morning comes, and it’s a brand-new day.“Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and repeat to yourself the most comforting words of all: ‘This, too, shall pass.'”– Ann LandersRoy H. Williams

“Radio is dying.”“Radio is dead.”“My friends and I don’t listen to the radio. We (blah, blah, blah) instead.”“No one listens to the radio anymore, especially in high-tech places like San Francisco, in the heart of Silicon Valley. That’s right, isn’t it?”Isn’t it?A few paragraphs from now, I’m going to tell you exactly how many people we’re reaching in San Francisco each week and precisely how many times the average San Franciscan hears our radio ad.But first, let’s look at why we can trust those numbers.You’ve heard of the Gallup Poll and you’ve heard of the Nielsen Ratings. And of course, you understand scientific survey methodology and statistical analysis.Nielsen measures San Francisco’s radio listening habits continuously, using a sample size of about 2,400 adults.Oh? You say you don’t understand scientific survey methodology and statistical analysis? You didn’t know the Gallup Poll is usually based on just 1,000 interviews? And that those 1,000 persons represent the entire population of the Unites States with a high degree of accuracy?“How can a poll of only 1,004 Americans represent 260 million people with only a 3 percent margin of error?” This is the name of an article you’ll find in the online archives of Scientific American. In that article, Professor Andrew Gelman of the departments of statistics and political science at Columbia University, says, “The margin of error depends inversely on the square root of the sample size.”This is what Professor Gelman is saying: The smaller the universe, the larger the percentage of that universe must be queried. If you want to know the opinions of a universe of 10 people, you’ve got to ask all 10 of them.The larger the universe, the smaller the percentage of that universe must be queried. To accurately measure the opinions of 700 people, you’ve got to ask 250 of them. But a sample size of only 384 persons will measure the opinions of 1,000,000 people with an identical degree of accuracy.When the Gallup organization wants to get nitpickingly accurate, they crank their sample size up to 1,500 persons. And that’s to measure the whole United States.That Nielsen sample of 2,400 persons in San Francisco isn’t looking quite so small anymore, is it? By the way, the annual report of Nielsen Holdings indicates they had revenues of $6,572,000,000 last year. That’s right. Six and a half billion dollars to monitor our listening and viewing habits.I say “monitor” because Nielsen doesn’t trust our memories or our motives. Nielsen gives each of those 2,400 San Franciscans a small, electronic device to carry with them each day. This “Portable People Meter” detects the radio stations to which you listen, and notes the precise times that you listen to each station, each day. This data is uploaded to Nielsen and serves as the basis of their ratings report.Electronic devices don’t lie.Nielsen’s methodology and math are irrefutable and unimpeachable.I say we can trust Nielsen’s numbers. What say you?We recently negotiated a weekly schedule on the broadcast radio stations of San Francisco. That schedule reaches 43% of the total (18+) population of that city an average of 2.7 times each week, 52 weeks a year, at a total cost of 47 cents per person/per year. This means each of more than 2.5 million San Franciscans will hear our full-length message an average of 140 times in 2018. (52 x 2.7 = 140.4)About 50 percent of America spends enough time listening to the radio each week that you can efficiently and affordably reach those customers with sufficient repetition to become a household word, an intimate component of their daily life.This familiarity accelerates and enhances every other effort at selling; email, online, outdoor, voice-to-voice on the telephone, and face-to-face on the sales floor.In the first chapter of the book of Genesis, it is written 11 times, “And God said…”The only description we are given of God in the book of Genesis is that he spoke a world into existence. But then, in verse 26, it says that we are made in his image.I believe this is why we can speak possible futures into the hearts and minds of other humans. It’s an art we call “selling.” And it works wonderfully well on the radio.It’s okay with me if you believe the Bible is a fairy tale. But if you think Nielsen numbers are a fairy tale, you are in a special kind of denial.Might I humbly and respectfully suggest that you pull your head out of your ass and see the light?That was meant to be a funny, unexpected punch line. If you took it otherwise and it made you angry, I’m sorry. Please say hello to your colon for me.Roy H. Williams