Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

Four words have echoed in my head for several days.“Not everyone. Not always.”Why do such thoughts leapsparkling like swordfishfrom the dark watersof the mind?I can’t be sure, but I suspect my heart is responding to all those authoritative voices making silly statements about “the customer” with misguided certainty. They whisper to us from websites, blogs and business books.How can they teach us about “the customer” when every person has two different customers inside them?When you are in “Transactional” shopping mode, youare thinking short-term.care only about today’s transaction.look forward to the process of shopping.fear only paying too much.plan to become expert through extensive research.are willing to spend lots of time investigating.are highly focused on price.When you are in “Relational” shopping mode, youare thinking long-term, hoping to find a permanent solution provider.consider today’s transaction to be one in a series of many.aren’t in the mood to comparison shop or negotiate.fear only making a poor choice, “buying the wrong one.”hope to find an expert you feel you can trust.consider your time spent shopping to be part of the purchase price.are likely to become a repeat customer.“Time and money are interchangeable.You can always save one by spending more of the other.”– Princess Pennie WilliamsA person in transactional shopping mode is more willing to spend time than money. A person in relational shopping mode is more willing to spend money than time.Customers in transactional shopping mode make high demands on your staff and on your time. Transactional customers are the source of about 80 percent of all your problems.Customers in relational shopping mode go straight to the provider they think of immediately and feel the best about. If this provider has a reasonable solution to their problem, they purchase it and are done. None of the competitors to this provider were ever given a chance to make the sale. In fact, they were never even aware this customer was in the market to buy. Relational customers are the source of about 80 percent of all gross profits, even though they represent only 50 percent of the shoppers in any given category on any given day.You buy the cheapest eggs because “eggs are eggs.” The grocer makes very little profit on this sale. But 3 seconds later you reach into the milk case and happily pay double the price of the cheapest milk because this particular brand of milk combines a unique set of production circumstances that you offer consequential benefits. No Bovine Growth Hormones!The person behind you buys the cheapest milk because “milk is milk.” The grocer makes very little profit on this sale. But 3 seconds later, they reach for eggs and happily pay double the price of the cheapest eggs because THESE eggs were laid by free-roaming, never caged, vegetarian hens that deliver higher levels of B12, B2, A, and B5, plus selenium and folate! And these yolks are a deep golden yellow!Each customer bought one item transactionally, one item relationally.You have a transactional mode of shopping and a relational mode of shopping and so does everyone else.Now this is the part that might stick in your throat a bit: I’ve never found a product or service category in which the ratio of customers in transactional mode versus relational mode wasn’t approximately 50/50. This holds true even for groceries and new cars, although grocers and new car dealers have a difficult time swallowing it. The problem, you see, is that customers in transactional mode are the vocal ones up in your face, making threats and demands, while the relational customer slips invisibly in and out, leaving only a pile of money behind as evidence they were ever there.The only way to target the relational customer is through your ad copy.Do you know how to write it?Dr. Roger Sperry was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1981 for his documentation of brain lateralization when he demonstrated that we don’t have a single brain divided into two halves so much as we have two separate, competing brains.Transactional mode is largely a function of the logical, rational, sequential, deductive-reasoning (and suspicious) left hemisphere of your brain. Relational mode is a function of the intuitive, pattern-and-connection seeking (not suspicious) right hemisphere.Are you beginning to understand why I’m uncomfortable with authoritative voices making silly statements about “the customer” as though every customer makes decisions according to the same criteria used by every other customer? Heck, we don’t even use the same criteria from moment to moment!I probably should have wrapped this up and concluded today’s memo 4 paragraphs ago, but I want to give you another fun bit of evidence of the never-ending tug-of-war between the left and right hemispheres of our brains.Got another minute?“Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.”– George Santayana (1863 – 1952)“Proverbs contradict each other. That is the wisdom of a people.”– Stanislaw Lec (1909 – 1966)Look before you leap.He who hesitates is lost.If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.Don’t beat your head against a stone wall.Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.Don’t cross the bridge until you come to it.Haste makes waste.Time waits for no man.Life is what we make it.What will be, will be.You’re never too old to learn.You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.Hitch your wagon to a star.Don’t bite off more that you can chew.A word to the wise is sufficient.Talk is cheap.It’s better to be safe than sorry.Nothing ventured, nothing gained.“Rollercoaster, carousel.You can grab the ring, you can ring that bellWhen the ride is over, you can never tell.Well maybe I’m just cynical and all these words are lies.Experience keeps telling me that the cautious one is wise.But caution makes you hesitate, and hesitate you’re lost.So take your opportunities and never count the cost.”– Sara Ramirez, “Rollercoaster”Ciao for Niao,Roy H. Williams

Hi, everyone! My name is _____________________.Because Wizard Academy appreciates your generous donation to help keep Chapel Dulcinea open, free and beautiful, I’m going to take you on a 4-minute walk to Wizard’s Tower, where we’ll enter the underground art gallery, then go straight up to the Star Deck where I’ll tell you a 2-minute story, then you’ll have 15 more minutes to take photos and enjoy the view from nearly 1,000 feet above downtown Austin. Follow me, please.[Start walking.][Pausing at The Old Man and the Sea…]AThis is Ernest Hemingway’s“The Old Man and the Sea”by Jane DeDecker.If you remember that Nobel prize-winning novel, you’ll remember how the old man fought the giant fish – and then the sharks – for 3 days and 3 nights before sailing home.[Pointing now at the statue above the art gallery as you walk toward it…] The counterpoint to this symbol of the heroic, masculine struggle is Jane DeDecker’s symbol of feminine determination – “Into the Wind” – a living figurehead on the bow of a ship sailing above the art gallery. We’ll take a closer look in a moment.[Stopping briefly at the bronze plaque with the footprints on it….]bThis is the Laughlin Stone. If you place your feet on those footprints at night[Pointing now at the sword at the top of the tower….]you’ll see the North Star hovering just above the hilt of that sword. Since the North Star is positioned directly above the axis of the earth, it’s the only star that doesn’t move across the sky during the night…The Star Deck – just behind it ­­– is where we’re headed.[Begin walking again toward the tower….]rThe famous psychologist, Carl Jung, believed that life is a journey on water. Above the waterline is the conscious mind. Below the waterline is the unconscious, a shadowland of nonverbal symbols and music and mysteries.[Point up at “Into the Wind”….]You’ll notice as we enter the tower that we’re directly beneath the ship of “Into the Wind.” If the old man and his fish are on a beach – and that ship above us is sailing on the ocean, we are now 12 feet underwater, which is where we’ll find the art gallery, the wine cellar and the musical instruments of Wizard Academy, since each of these speaks to the unconscious mind.[Enter the art gallery.]iWizard Academy teaches advertising, marketing and communication to businesses across America and around the world. Our students include Nobel Prize-winning scientists, university professors and best-selling authors, as well as executives at companies like Procter & Gamble, Kellogg, and IBM. But mostly they are the owners of America’s 5.91 million companies that have fewer than 100 employees. Wizard Academy is where these people – people like you – come to learn big things fast, in an environment that feels like summer camp for grown-ups.[Give the group instructions about staying together and NOT going up the stairs.] e[When everyone has arrived on the Star Deck, ring the bronze bell near the stairwell door, then point at the statue of the boy on the paper airplane as you begin walking toward the sword.]If you look behind the base of that statue, you’ll see a little boy reading a book.[Point now at the larger boy, above.]And this is that same little boy, flying on those wings of paper. It’s called “Journeys of Imagination,” by Gary Lee Price. It’s about the wonderful journeys we take in our minds when we read good literature.I’ll be finished in just 2 more minutes, then you can admire the view.[Finish your talk as you stand next to the sword, facing north.]fLife is a journey on water.The conscious mind is above the waterline.The unconscious is beneath.You only meet 4 people on the ocean of Life, but you meet them again and again.The first person you meet is drifting, pushed this way and that by the winds and waves of circumstances. You know you’ve met a drifter when they say, “Whatever. It’s all good.”The second person you meet is surfing. They seem to be having a pretty good time, but they never really get anywhere. They just paddle around in the ocean, looking for a wave to ride. The surfer is forever looking for “the next big thing.”The third person you meet is drowning.We’re not just talking about “going under” and needing a helping hand.Most of us, if we’re healthy and normal, will occasionally need a helping hand from someone who loves us. We may need to be rescued financially, or chemically, or relationally. This is normal. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about professional drowners. You’ve met them. They say, “It’s been the worst week of my life, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” So you help them. You get them back on their feet. Then when you see them a few weeks later, they say, “It’s been the worst week of my life, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”The fourth person you meet is navigating. They’re challenged by the winds and waves of circumstances, just like the drowner, the surfer and the drifter. But the navigator turns the rudder of the ship to counteract the direction of the waves. The navigator adjusts the sails to harness the wind and make it take him where he wants to go.But the navigator does not navigate by watching the wind and waves.The navigator keeps his eyes on a non-negotiable standard that isn’t connected to his circumstances. The navigator has a North Star, a guiding light that never moves.Do you remember the wise men from the Christmas story?These wise men – these wise-ards – followed a star because they believed it would lead them to something wonderful. It is from these wise men – these wise-ards – that Wizard Academy takes its name.Thank you again for your generous donation.I’ll ring the bell when it’s time for us to go.#  #  #  #Written by Roy H. Williams for the ambassadors at Wizard Academy

I’m experimenting with radio in a way that, for me, is new and different.Many of those who understand what I’m doing won’t agree with the fundamental premise of my experiment. But that’s not what worries me.I’m concerned about those who will agree and then attempt it – and fail. I believe they’ll fail because they won’t do it right.Here’s what’s happening: I’m airing a 5-second ad every hour, 24 hours a day, for 365 days, on each station in a broadcast group in a major city. The result will be 51% reach (18+) with a weekly frequency of 10.4. This means that 51% of the total population in that region will hear one of my ads an average of 10.4 times each week, 52 weeks in a row.That’s right. One 5-second ad per hour, 24 hours a day, on each station in the broadcast group.You can run, but you can’t hide.Here’s why I fear people who attempt this experiment will likely screw it up:They’ll buy too little frequency.“Well, I think a spot an hour is overkill, so I’m just going to buy a 5-frequency instead of a 10+ frequency each week.”They’ll rotate too few ads.I’ll be producing 12 new 5-second ads every 6 weeks. Consequently, even though I have a 10.4 frequency each week, the typical listener is likely to hear 10 different ads, one time each.Their ads won’t say anything worth remembering.The key to success is to make a different, memorable statement in each 5-second ad. You can then open, or close, each ad with a single word that identifies the company. Only one or two ads in every series of twelve will feature the contact info of the company.Here’s what I like about this plan:Reach is double what I used to get for the same money.Frequency is triple what I used to get for the same money.With a 10.4 weekly frequency, I can safely expect a listener to unconsciously “connect and combine” each of my brandable chunks, nuggets and factoids to create a coherent mental image much bigger than the information found in a single ad. In fact, I expect that within a few months a large percentage of that city will be able to recite meaningful amounts of information about my client.The 5-second format – combined with 12 new ads in rotation every 6 weeks – will allow me to dodge the audience burn-out bullet.What will happen if my experiment proves successful?I’ll finally have a way to help advertisers with small budgets in big cities.Give me a schedule of 1 spot per hour, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year on the smallest station in town and it won’t be long before my client is on a second station, then a third.Get enough advertisers to do this and Radio will become happy again.Even if you believe that “a unit is a unit, no matter the length,” you can’t argue with the fact that airing twenty-four 5-second ads would mean only a 2-minute commercial load per hour. This would mean that a listener tuning in to your station would be greeted by a commercial – instead of music – just once in every 30 visits to your dial position, compared to the current 1 in 4.Even if radio stations began airing 36 ads per hour – more than double the number they’re currently airing – I’m fairly certain that listeners would be delighted with just 3 minutes of ads per hour.A radio station with 4 commercial breaks of NINE, 5-second ads each hour would have rollicking, rock-and-roll commercial breaks of just 45 seconds each and I’m convinced listeners would retain a higher percentage of those messages.The weakness of this plan is that so few people know how to write attention-getting, memorable 5-second ads.But don’t worry. We’re putting together a class.Indy says “Hi,” by the way.He just showed me what he put in this week’s rabbit hole for you.You’re going to like it.Roy H. Williams

We encounter “meta” most often in the word metaphor.We create metaphors when we see the same pattern in two, unrelated things.Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.”But Shakespeare wasn’t the first to see the similarity between the world and a stage. Seneca the Younger – sixteen hundred years before Shakespeare – wrote, “Life is like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.”In his marvelous new book, Metaphors Be With You, Dr. Mardy Grothe reveals the importance of metaphors in everyday communication:“Metaphor is the energy charge that leaps between images, revealing their connections.” ­– Robin Morgan“Effective metaphor does more than shed light on the two things being compared. It actually brings to the mind’s eye something that has never before been seen.”–Rebecca McClanahanThe poet Robert Frost said, “An idea is a feat of association, and the height of it is a good metaphor.”“Metaphor isn’t just for poets; it’s in ordinary language and is the principal way we have of conceptualizing abstract concepts like life, death, and time.”– More Than Cool Reason, George Lakoff and Mark Turner“Meta” has recently evolved a second meaning.It now refers to things that are self-referential. Ben Zimmer tells of a librarian named Lauren Dodd who recently tweeted, “Just saw a librarian shush other librarians at a library conference.”(Indy Beagle is chuckling his signature, “Heh, heh, heh,” after reading that over my shoulder.)Educational psychologist Jerome Bruner talks about “how to get students to reflect, to turn around on themselves, to go ‘meta,’ to think about their ways of thinking.”Yep, “to think about your ways of thinking” would definitely qualify as self-referential.In his book, Tilting Cervantes, my friend Bruce Burningham says,“We delight in the notion of a stand-up comedian named Jerry Seinfeld who creates a sitcom on NBC in which he plays a stand-up comedian named Jerry Seinfeld who eventually creates a sitcom on NBC in which he plays a stand-up comedian named Jerry Seinfeld.”If triple-meta were a recognized designation, I believe Bruce Burningham’s sentence would qualify.To understand a thing that is new and different, you need only search for what it is like.Monkfish is the poor man’s lobster.Success is a bastard with many fathers, but failure is an orphan.America is a melting pot.You are my sunshine.He drowned in a sea of grief.Every new concept, invention, innovation or idea reflects an established pattern.That pattern has just never been used in this application before.Contemplate a metaphor. See the pattern. Consider how it might be used as a solution to your problem. Do this again and again and your spinning brain will soon be flinging ideas like a grinding wheel throwing sparks at the darkness.Perhaps you’ll discover a miraculous solution. Perhaps you’ll just have fun.Give it a try and see.As Indy walked away just now, he called to me over his shoulder, “Anything you can do, I can do meta.”I’m going to have to ponder that one awhile.Roy H. Williams

If you don’t understand the title of today’s memo, just ask a 12 year-old boy. (If you didn’t grow up in the South, your 12 year-olds may be more familiar with “He who smelt it, dealt it.”)With a title like “The Smeller’s the Feller,” does it surprise you that today’s memo is about a tried-and-true management tool?A couple of days ago, my partner Tim Miles made a brilliant suggestion about how we might begin the 3-day Business Growth class we’re having in March. (Sorry, completely full.)I first heard about Tim’s idea when I got a funding inquiry from the Wizard of Ads group director. Tim had suggested something really awesome. Expensive, but awesome.I sent Tim an email. “Fantastic idea, Tim! You’re in charge.”TIP: Always assign responsibility for follow-through to the person who had the idea. Give the fun of chasing the rabbit to the dog who sniffed it out of hiding. (In essence, the smeller’s the feller.) AHERE’S WHY:1. No other person will have quite the same vision in their mind or enthusiasm in their heart.2. No one has more to gain – or lose – than the person who had the idea.BONUS BENEFIT: Word will spread, and it will slow people down from coming up with so many things “YOU” ought to do.When we were constructing the buildings at Wizard Academy and a group of people would arrive on campus, at least one of them would pull me aside and say with excitement, “Here’s what you ought to do…”PROBLEM: I was already as busy as a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest, as stressed out as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs and as uptight as a frog on a freeway with his hopper stuck. So one day I impulsively shook the hand of the person who had made the suggestion and said, “Great idea! You’re in charge!”They asked how much money they could spend and I said, “As much as you can raise.”Amazingly, they raised the money, refined the idea and brought it to full execution.When I saw how well their idea turned out, I said to myself, “Make a note: do that more often.”When my partner Tim got my email, he replied tongue-in-cheek, “Man, as long as I’ve been around, I really should have seen that coming.”I say “tongue-in-cheek” because Tim has made numerous suggestions over the years, and he’s always been willing to take full responsibility for implementation.“Great idea! You’re in charge!”  is one of the guiding principles of the Wizard of Ads partners. It has also become a tradition at Wizard Academy.I suggest that you test this technique within your own company.It’s the perfect way to determine if you’re surrounded by the right kind of people.Roy H. Williams

Successful advertising touches the hungers, wants and needs of a person. My job as a professional ad writer is to identify these needs and speak to them.If you have a heart beating in your chest, you have hungers, wants and needs.We can intellectualize our conscious needs, but we cannot intellectualize our unconscious ones.All your friends, all your neighbors, all America, all the world has an unconscious need for encouragement right now.The reason history repeats itself is because we pay too little attention the first time.When people are frustrated, frightened or angry, they elevate a strongman to become their leader. We smile in memory of England’s blustering Winston Churchill, a devoted servant of his nation, and our own thundering Teddy Roosevelt, a devoted servant of our own. And who can forget the swaggering Douglas MacArthur wading to shore in the Philippines? Or steely-eyed George S. Patton who encouraged his men, his allies and his nation when he said, “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.”We are encouraged by the swagger of the strongman.But not all strongmen are good.Russia was frustrated, frightened and angry when she turned to Josef Stalin in 1929.Germany was frustrated, frightened and angry when a strongman overturned their democracy in 1933.Japan was frustrated, frightened and angry when the boy they believed to be a god sent airplanes to bomb Pearl Harbor.Frustrated, frightened and angry people gave power to Manuel Noriega of Panama, Cambodia’s Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Uganda’s Idi Amin.It seems that everyone, everywhere today is frustrated, frightened and angry; the people across the street and around the corner; the people across the sea and around the world.January 27, 2017: Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who presided over the dissolution of the Soviet Union, said, “It looks as if the world is preparing for war.”The antidote for frustration and fear is encouragement.The antidote for anger is to listen, smile, and extend a hand.I’ve decided to make this my year of encouragement.I believe it’s what people need right now.Will you join me?I’m going to be unreasonably optimistic, ridiculously cheerful and oblivious to fear. Or at least that’s my plan. And I’m going to hand out sincere and honest compliments everywhere I go.Encouragement can be conjured from the scantiest of materials.If you do this with me, I can assure you that people will say we’re being foolish and naive and many of them will accuse us of seeing the world through rose-colored lenses. They will tell us we’re not being reasonable.“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard ShawYes, they’ll tell us we’re being unreasonable.I’m okay with that.Are you?Roy H. Williams

Some lessons we never learn.For me, the familiar face of failure hangs like a Royal Portrait above the grand staircase of my social behavior.Lest my meaning be obscured by that flowery metaphor, I am simply stating for the record – before God, the world and you – that my greatest recurring mistake is that I often disappoint my friends.Not my casual friends. No, never those. I disappoint the friends I care about the most.This happens because I allow the merely urgent to displace the truly important.In fact, I’m doing it right now. I should be answering emails sent to me by Garrett and Dan and a friend I’ve called “Other Roy” for more than 25 happy years. But this is the day the trash service comes, so I’ve got to wheel our trash and recycling carts to the curb right now so Princess Pennie won’t worry that we’ll miss the truck. After I do that, I’ll write thoughtful and well-crafted responses to Garrett and Dan and Other Roy… as soon as I write the four ads I promised to have to my client by 8AM. But just before I do that – just to get them out of the way – I’ll pop off a few 5-word and 12-word answers to 26 other emails that really don’t matter at all.You can see where this is headed, right?I’ve had “Email Garrett” near the top of my to-do list for exactly 21 days. “Email Dan” has been just above it for 63 days. And I’ve put off responding to so many of “Other Roy’s” emails that I’m surprised he’s still speaking to me. And those are just 3 of the names on a list that stretches the full length of our grand staircase.I don’t want to give half-baked “quickie” answers to these good friends, so they wind up getting no answers from me at all.I speak recklessly but I write carefully. Much too recklessly and a little too carefully, if we’re being altogether honest. So people who know me through my writing have met me at my highest and best, and people who know me through my speaking have met me at my lowest and worst. I judge myself by my writing. I suppose this is why I am reluctant to write quickly to the people I care about the most. I don’t want them to read a poor representation of me, so I delay responding and trust they will forgive.I’m hoping someday to outgrow these bad habits. (Indy is laughing as he reads this over my shoulder because he knows we’ll soon be celebrating the 29th anniversary of my 30th birthday.)Oh, well. That’s me.What about you? Do you have a recurrent shortcoming, a familiar face of failure?Send it to indy@wizardofads.com.I would tell you to send it to mebut we already know how that would turn out. ARoy H. Williams

“Don’t need a Buddha head.” What are those 5 words telling us?Are we being warned that “need” is the antithesis of Zen? Are we being told that a desire to think like Buddha is the opposite of thinking like Buddha? “Don’t need a Buddha head?”Or are those 5 words a repudiation of Buddhist beliefs? Are we being told of someone’s inspection and rejection of Buddhism? “Don’t need a Buddha head.”We often seek meaning where there is no meaning.This is the foundation of all fine art and the fundamental premise of Gestalt Theory.The real truth is that Pennie and I were scrolling through an auction catalog on our computers when she said, “Look at 296.” So I did. It was an antique piece of garden statuary, a carved sandstone Buddha head.I said, “Don’t need a Buddha head.”Hearing the rhythm of those syllables and the obstruent d and t of “Don’t,” the d of “need,” the b and d of “Buddha” and the d of “head,” I smiled and said it again. “Don’t need a Buddha head.”A moment later it became a chant. “Don’t need a Buddha head. Don’t need a Buddha head. Don’t need a Buddha head. Don’t need a Buddha head.”Pennie just smiled and kept scrolling through the catalog.We see a face in the shadows on the moon.We equate a minor key with sadness.We want to dance to songs with 120 beats per minute.And we find deep symbolic meanings in phrases that, on the surface, are nonsense.If only one of us did that, he or she would be crazy. But since a majority of us do it, we call it art. We call it beautiful. We call it subtle. We call it deep.Song writers, Ad writers and Poets depend on this.Wichita Lineman, Galveston, and By the Time I Get to Phoenix made Glen Campbell rich and famous.But all 3 of those songs were written by Jimmy Webb.Up, Up and Away is the song that made The Fifth Dimension rich and famous.But it was written by Jimmy Webb.Jimmy Webb’s MacArthur Park lifted an actor named Richard Harris to the top of the Billboard music charts. Ten years later Donna Summer sang it to the top of the charts again. It has been recorded by Frank Sinatra, Waylon Jennings, Andy Williams, The Four Tops, Glen Campbell and Maynard Ferguson. It’s been played countless thousands of times and heard by hundreds of millions of people.The lyrics of MacArthur Park are often called stupid and ridiculous, “the worst song lyrics ever written.” And I have no argument with that.“Spring was never waiting for us, girl. It ran one step ahead as we followed in the dance between the parted pages and were pressed in love’s hot, fevered iron like a striped pair of pants. MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark, all the sweet, green icing flowing down. Someone left the cake out in the rain. I don’t think that I can take it, ’cause it took so long to bake it, and I’ll never have that recipe again. Oh no! I recall the yellow cotton dress foaming like a wave on the ground around your knees, the birds, like tender babies in your hands, and the old men playing checkers by the trees…”In an October 2014 interview with Newsday, Jimmy Webb explained, “The old men playing checkers by the trees, the cake that was left out in the rain, all of the things that are talked about in the song are things I actually saw… Back then I was kind of like an emotional machine, like whatever was going on inside me would bubble out of the piano and onto paper.”His wife, Savini, a Public Television host, says, “When people see he’s my husband, that’s always the first question I get: ‘What’s MacArthur Park mean?’ And I always say it’s an abstract painting, an impressionist painting. It’s art, but in a musical form. You make it what you want it to be. Jimmy plays it down, but it’s a heartbreaking song when you listen to just him sing it and you hear all the words without all the orchestrations. It blows your mind — oh, my God, all the pain in that song.”The clear-eyed mind sees silly nonsense,but the tear-filled eyes of the heart seebeauty and majesty,pain and remorse,love and lossin MacArthur Park.Do you want to become a highly paid ad writer?This is all you need to know:Win the heart and the mind will follow.The mind can easily create logic to justifywhat the heart has already decided.Thanks, Jimmy.Roy H. WilliamsPS – When I read what Savini said about hearing Jimmy sing the song without all the orchestration, I asked Daniel Whittington if he would do that for us. Just click Indy Beagle and he’ll take you to where you can hear it on PAGE ONE of today’s rabbit hole. Prepare to be amazed. – RHW

I was in the middle of a storm at sea last week when my lover, wife and partner of 40 years spoke some wisdom into my life. She said, “Tell me what happened, step-by-step, play-by-play.”So I did.She said, “Honey sometimes when you’re talking with someone face-to-face, you think you’re being clear when you’re really not.”And then she gave me some examples.And then she asked the questions that my adversary should have asked. She said, “Roy, you slammed the door on that relationship pretty hard. So what are the odds of this being worked out? Is there any chance at all? Give me some numbers.”I said, “His odds are about 50/50.”She said, “That’s what you need to tell him, immediately, the next time you talk.”And then she asked me several more questions and demanded detailed, specific answers. And in every case, she said, “He deserves to have that information. Trust me. You’re much harder to read than you think you are.”Forty years is a long time. You’re sort of required to listen to a person who has shared the majority of your waking moments with you since Richard Nixon was President. Pennie and I have been together through Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. And 4 of those guys served 8 years each.In the end, I had a follow-up conversation with my friend and everything is fine now. But we agreed to use a code language as a form of insurance.When both people know the code, all a person has to do is ask, “How strong are your feelings about that?”People deserve to know when they’re walking into a minefield.The code was taught to me 36 years ago by my friend Richard Exley. I should use it more often than I do. Would you like me to teach it to you?It all comes down to assigning a number to the strength of your feelings.ONE: “No emotional attachment.”TWO: “I have an opinion.”THREE: “I have feelings on this subject that cannot be changed, so be very, very careful.”When two people know the code, at any point in a conversation a person might say, “I’m at about a 1.5 on this. Where are you?”The other party might then say, “I’m at like 1.0.”In that exchange, the first person said, “I don’t really have an opinion that I’m willing to defend. In fact, this whole subject doesn’t really matter much to me at all. I’m just sharing some things that are popping into my head.”And the second party – the one who had a 1.0 – basically said, “I’m just trying to hold up my end of the conversation. In reality, I have no feelings on this subject whatsoever, so I’m fully prepared to let someone else make the decision.” In this instance, the code helped both parties understand they were discussing something that neither of them cared about.If both parties tell the truth, the system saves a lot of time and it helps to reduce misunderstandings.When you say you have a “number one,” you are saying, “You can ignore this completely. You can laugh at it, mock it or kick it to the curb, just please don’t judge me by it because I haven’t put any thought into it whatsoever. In fact, it may actually be a really stupid idea.”When you say, “This is a number two,” you’re saying, “I need you to take this seriously and not just blow it off. I have an opinion and I have some feelings attached to it, but I’m open to hearing your thoughts. I believe this needs to be discussed.”I’ve never heard anyone say, “That’s a number three with me,” because to have a true number three is to say, “I have a loaded pistol aimed at your head with the hammer cocked. If you so much as blink, this relationship is over. So if you care at all about remaining my friend, you won’t say another word.”I’ve had people tell me they were at a 2.8 or a 2.9, but no one has ever said, “Number Three.” And I’ve always appreciated knowing that I had stumbled into an area where there was essentially no room for discussion.My friend and I very nearly parted ways forever because he stumbled blindly into an area where my feelings run deep. So I shared a couple of stories with him, thinking that he would understand what I was telling him. When he didn’t respond correctly, he crossed a line.My life-partner helped me understand that my friend hadn’t even known the line was there.Does any of this sound familiar to you?Is there a chance that a person who wounded you, offended you, or made you furious had no clue they had walked into a minefield?Or maybe you’re a person who was blown to bits because you had no idea you were walking on someone else’s holy ground.You canSave time,Avoid misunderstandings, andArrive at conclusions more quicklyif you know the code.And now you do.Share it with people you care about.Roy H. Williams

Bad ads are about you, your company, your product, your service.Good ads are about the customer and how their sun will shine brighter, the air around them will glitter with magic, and the stars in their darkness will twinkle more richly if they choose to bring you into their world.I’m going to hire an assistant.Hundreds of Millennials have applied for this job and sent me an ad.But not one of them realized that was what they were sending me.They thought it was a cover letter attached to their resume.Hey, Millennial. Here are some examples of the kinds of ads your competitors are sending to employers. (This is extremely GOOD NEWS for you!)“I’m looking for a position where I can grow and continue to learn. My ideal job is somewhere I enjoy working, and enjoying my surroundings.”– Briana“I want to attain a position at your company to enhance my experiencein the medical industry while working towards my degree, andprovide your company with positive energy and improve productivity.”– Leanna“I am a hardworking and self-driven individual looking for full-time employment.”– Jose“I was a cheerleader for basically my whole life so yes! I’m cheerful and a happy person. I love talking and meeting new people.”– Alexis“Working in multiple places of customer service, I have gained key communication skills. Through achieving my bachelors degree I have also develyoped excellent writing, research and organizational skills that are necessary to be successful in this position.”– TreverI promise I didn’t make any of those up. In fact, I gave Trevor ­– the young man who develyoped excellent writing skills – a second chance. Did I mention that he also misspelled his own damn name? (I checked.)Those examples are 5 of the first 10 applications I randomly pulled up from a field of several hundred. Obviously, I’m offering a desirable job. Every person who has served in this position for at least 4 years is now making more than $150,000 a year.So, my Millennial friend, the bar you need to jump is very low indeed. You should be wiggling like a puppy!“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king,” is a saying you may have heard before.Here’s all you need to do to stand apart from your competitors.This is how to become King in the land of the blind:TIP 1: Send out fewer resumes. Getting a job is not a numbers game. Select a small number of companies and send each of them a cover letter crafted exclusively for that company.TIP 2: There is no such thing as an attention span. The applicant that wins more of the employer’s time than his or her competitors is the one most likely to win the job. So write an interesting cover letter. Long isn’t dangerous. Boring is dangerous. Predictable is dangerous. Orthodox is dangerous. Stand apart.TIP 3: Take a chance. Dustin Hoffman is considered to be one of the most versatile actors of his generation. According to the Goog, he’s made about $50,000,000 since the day in 1967 when he played Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate. The problem is that his performance as a button-down college graduate and track star was so convincing that most critics and directors assumed that Dustin had not, in fact, been acting. The prevailing opinion was that his acting range was limited to only that single type of character. And John Schlesinger, the director of Midnight Cowboy, knew the lead character in his film – Ratso Rizzo – was to be precisely the opposite kind of character.This was Dustin Hoffman’s pivotal moment – the big decision – that launched him as one of the great acting talents of the 20th century: Dressed as a homeless person, wearing a dirty raincoat, his hair slicked back and with an unshaven face, Hoffman approached Schlesinger in Central Park.At the end of the encounter, Schlesinger was sold.Dustin Hoffman didn’t assume his career would forever be bright simply because his first movie was a runaway success. He knew the world was full of one-hit wonders. Dustin was worried about being typecast. It happens to all but a select few actors.It seems to me that Millennials want to be understood.Being understood feels good, doesn’t it? But to get a job, to win a promotion, to gain authority and rise to the top, it is better to understand than to be understood.What are the attributes your employer is anxious to find in you?Who do they need you to be?When your attention is focused on your own needs and wants, you’re probably not going to get the job, or the promotion, or ever rise to your full potential.I promise I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m trying to help you.Focus on the employer’s hopes and needs and you’re likely to get the job. Then be the person you promised to be. It may take a year or two, but people are definitely going to notice you’re exceptional.And then you’re on your way.So do the hard thing; quit thinking about yourself.Start thinking about your employer.I really am just trying to help you.Roy H. Williams