Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

“Telling the truth more powerfully than is completely accurate” is to think and speak of a future event as though it has already happened. Some people call this “manifesting,” but I am uncomfortable with that word because it conjures the image of a person literally speaking things into existence, an ability that I believe is God’s alone.Yes, I am of that ancient belief that the Big Bang began when God said, “Let there be…”Although I reject the idea of “manifesting,” I do believe in visioncasting, which I define as the encouragement of others by speaking of a possible future as though it is certain to happen.When a person needs courage and confidence, give them yours. Tell them of the future that you see for them.I meet every Friday for a luxurious lunch with 5 friends, most of whom are over 60. Recently, after 3 hours of conversation around a large, circular table, we fell into a silence as each one of us took a sip of wine, or contemplated what had just been said, or looked at the menu for additional things to order. I looked up when I heard a voice say, “Who put it into your head that you could do the things you’ve done?”The friend who had spoken was looking directly at me. Reading the confusion in my eyes, he began to list a number of things that I take completely for granted. Remembering that his question had been, “Who put it into your head?” I told him the truth: “My Mother.”I was suddenly looking into 5 surprised pairs of eyes, and I was surprised that they were surprised.The awkward silence that followed made me realize they were waiting for me to continue, so I said, “Whenever I told my mother that I couldn’t do something, she would always say, ‘Of course you can.’ And then I would do it. I can’t remember her ever saying, ‘Well, just do your best,’ and she never once did something for me that she believed I could do for myself. She would just look at me patiently and say with complete conviction, ‘Of course you can.'”My friends kept staring at me in silence. I wasn’t sure what was happening. Finally, the friend who had asked the question looked into my eyes and said, “What a gift!” The others began nodding their heads as they repeated, “What a gift.”I had the good sense to shut up and listen.For the next half hour, I listened as each one of them told stories of their childhood that made me understand their admiration for my Mother.Those thirty minutes connected a lifetime of dots for me. Throughout my adult life, I have been embarrassed by people who have asked me questions about my supposed courage, or audacity, or vision, of some other such fiddle-faddle. I was never sure how to respond to those people because I know for certain that I do not possess those qualities.I have somehow successfully coasted through more than 65 years of life without a college education, happily married to the girl I have loved since I was 14 years old, because the two most important women in my life believe that while failure is inevitable, it is also a temporary condition, and in the end we will succeed, because, “Of course we can.”Please listen to what I am about to tell you.Give the gift of courage and confidence to the people you love. Tell them what you believe about them. Tell them what you see when you look into their future. The sentences you speak to them should begin with the words, “You are…” and “You will…”They will see what you see, when you speak it.Your words will change their thoughts and actions.And they will live to see it happen.Roy H. Williams

Two-letter postal abbreviations don’t have periods after the letters, so when I titled today’s Monday Morning Memo, “Reno is West of L.A.” I was not using L.A. as the postal abbreviation for Louisiana.Carson City – the capitol of Nevada – is likewise west of Los Angeles, as are 5 other state capitols. Juneau, Honolulu, Sacramento, Salem, and Olympia are the capitols of Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Washington. West, west, west, west, and west of L.A.Google it. Or Bing it. Or Yahoo it. However you like to do it.Reno is located at 119°49′ West.Los Angeles is 118°14′ West.Reno is 86 miles west of Los Angeles.The coordinates of a city give you its precise location, just like the chapter and verse numbers of books in the Bible.Psalm 119:49 – the Reno Psalm – says,“Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope.”Reno was founded by Charles William Fuller, who built a bridge across the Truckee river so that settlers would not lose hope.Psalm 118:14 – the L.A. Psalm – says,“The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.”Los Angeles was named “The Angels” in 1769 by Father Juan Crespi, a Franciscan priest who celebrated in his journal the discovery of a “beautiful river from the northwest.” A source of water that saved his thirsty band of travelers.You will remember that I mentioned Louisiana in my opening sentence.New Orleans is at 90°07′ West.Psalm 90:7 – the New Orleans Psalm – says,“We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation.”The French Quarter of New Orleans is 90.°06′ West.Psalm 90:6 – the French Quarter Psalm –says,“In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered.”Does the longitude and/or latitude of a city unlock a secret message from God to that city?No. Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. Have you lost your mind?But let’s pretend that it does.The latitude for my hometown of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma – which, prior to 1907 was “Indian Territory” – is 36.°06′ N.Psalm 36:6 – the Broken Arrow Psalm – says,“Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.”We create imaginary worlds when we pretend, but even imaginary worlds have to have rules. This truth is known to every author of Science Fiction, to every author of Fantasy, and to every 6-year-old.We must now make up some additional rules because some of the Psalms don’t have enough verses to match the coordinates of certain cities. As an example: Chicago is at latitude 41°52′ North, and its longitude is 87°39′ West.We’ll begin with longitude: Uh-oh, Psalm 87 doesn’t have a 39th verse.Now let’s take a look at latitude: Uh-oh, Psalm 41 doesn’t have a 52nd verse.But Genesis 41 does!Genesis 41:52 – the Birth Verse of Chicago – says,“The second son he named Ephraim and said, ‘It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.’”Chicago was incorporated in 1837, but it blossomed in an amazing second birth after the fire of 1871. Read it for yourself.I went with “birth verse” because Genesis means “beginning.” And Chicago’s birth verse is actually about a second birth! How cool is that!Admit it. You are a little bit curious to know the Psalm of your city, right? And if your city doesn’t have a Psalm, you’d still be curious for the Birth Verse of your city, the Proverb for your city, or the Prophecy for your city. Am I right?It might sound like I’m trying to convince you to believe in this silliness about the intersection of city coordinates and Bible verses, but I promise I am not. My only goal is to demonstrate how easy it is to select facts that support your premise.And now you know everything you need to know about conspiracy theories, propaganda, social media, and the nightly news.And advertising, of course.Roy H. WilliamsSean Lemson has encountered a wide variety of leaders – good, bad, and toxic – over the course of his career, including stints at PayPal, Cisco, and Nike. According to Sean, toxic leaders are a special breed of “bad” because they are capable, often without realizing it, of chasing off the best employees and slowly killing their companies. On this week’s episode, deputy reporter Maxwell Rotbart asks Sean Lemson about the most common toxic leadership archetypes: how to spot them, how to avoid becoming one of them, and how to immunize a business against their poisonous effects. Is there any podcast more interesting and informative than MondayMorningRadio.com? Nay, good citizen, there is not.

You see a lot of crap during 40 years as an ad writer.You see big, steaming piles of predictable ads written by amateurs who assume the audience is required to listen.You see frozen piles of heartless ads that speak to ideas rather than to people.You see the scattered shrapnel of ads written by highly creative but trigger-happy typists who don’t understand the necessity of strategy.Amateur ad writers believe in creativity. Accomplished ad writers believe in strategy.Good ad copy flows from strategy.Strategy flows from whatever is in the pantry of the advertiser.You must begin by prowling through that pantry. Take inventory of all the unused story elements you will find hiding there.Bad strategy is usually the result of someone’s ego.A business owner wants to hire you. When you meet with that person, you realize that they want to be perceived in a certain way. They usually call this fantasy their “brand essence,” and if you do not indulge them in their fantasy, they will accuse you of not understanding their brand.They want you to continue doing what they have done in the past, but make it work this time. If you disagree with their strategy, they will say, “You don’t understand who we are.”You will say, “No, that is not who you are. That’s just who you want to be. But you don’t have the ingredients to bake that cake.”This is always an unproductive argument, so when a business owner who wants to hire you says, “This is what I want you to do and this is how I want you to do it,” the best answer is to say, “It sounds to me like you’ve got things under control. Great idea! Follow your dream. God be with you. Stay in touch! Goodbye.”If you employ the same strategy they have used in the past, it’s not going to work any better than it did in the past.You will be tempted to do what your prospective client is asking you to do. “After all, it’s their company, right?”Your reason for thinking these thoughts will be that you need the money. But if you do what your prospective client tells you to do, this is what will happen:Your ad campaign will underperform.Your client will blame you.You will be fired.You will have a record of failure.You will lose confidence in yourself.Find your money elsewhere.Before you accept a client, ask yourself, “Am I willing to give this person a place in my life?”Consider that question carefully, because your client will certainly occupy your thoughts. Will you look forward to speaking with them, or will you dread it?Even the best clients will occasionally ask you to do something that you believe is a bad idea. This is when you will need to do the opposite of what I told you a moment ago. When you have accepted the job, you can no longer say, “It sounds to me like you’ve got things under control. Great idea. Follow your dream. God be with you. Stay in touch. Goodbye.”You have given this client a place in your life. You have accepted the role of being their ad writer. You have an ongoing relationship. This is when you have to remember that they did not hire you to be CEO.Tell them that you will definitely do what they say.Then tell them why you think it is a bad idea.When they have heard you, and understood you, and asked that you do it anyway, make it a point of honor to figure out how to make their bad idea work.Take ownership of the idea. Put everything you have into it. Be proud that you were able to make it work.When you have an ongoing relationship, you no longer have the option to say, “You’re on your own.”Most ads are not written to persuade. They are written not to offend.The power of an ad can be measured by the strength of the backlash against it.Backlash doesn’t mean the ad is good; it means only that the ad is powerful. Really bad ads will generate negative backlash.But so will the really good ones.This backlash can come from:the clientemployees, friends, or advisors of the clienta small but vocal group of people who have willfully misinterpreted your message so that they can jump onto their little soapbox and proclaim their favorite grievance with thunder and lightning and outrage.Being offended makes people feel superior and important.I am not saying that your goal should be to offend. I am saying only that you cannot say anything powerful without someone being offended.Most ads are critiqued, questioned, altered, and watered down so that no one can possibly be offended. This is why most ads are limp and ineffective.Which frightens you most: ads that don’t work, or criticism for ads that do?Roy H. Williams“A Martian colony is inevitable,” says Chris Carberry to roving reporter Rotbart and his deputy Maxell, “and there are ample opportunities right now for entrepreneurs and independent businesses to climb aboard.” Early next month, experts from government, industry, small business, and academia will come together in Washington, D.C., for a two-day summit focused on sending humans to Mars. This event, the largest such gathering on earth, is being organized by Carberry, the CEO and Co-Founder of Explore Mars, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering a permanent human presence on the Red Planet no later than 2033. The countdown to out-of-this-world adventure will begin the moment you arrive at MondayMorningRadio.com.

As you increase your words, you decrease their impact.Communicate your thoughts in short sentences. Those thoughts will be remembered, and you will, too.Shorter hits harder.I read a book by a man who is a deep thinker, a great strategist, and a good writer. His strengths are that he can identify, organize, and communicate key ideas.But those ideas would hit harder if the man could write tighter.Tight writers1. reject unnecessary modifiers.2. reduce the word count.3. prove what they say.4. use active voice.Modifiers:Adjectives and adverbs are fatty foods. They give energy to your story when used sparingly but cause your sentences to feel bloated, sluggish and fat if you overindulge. Adjectives are less dangerous like good cholesterol, and adverbs are more dangerous like bad cholesterol, but a steady diet of these modifiers will clog the arteries of your story and slow it down until your audience falls asleep.Word count:Editing will reduce your word count, but it is hard to edit what is freshly written. Look at it the next day and your mistakes will become obvious to you. Rearrange, reduce, and eliminate elements until your story is woven tightly and shines brightly.You can communicate twice as much by using half as many words.Willie Shakespeare taught us, “Brevity is the soul of wit.”1Blaise Pascal and Benjamin Franklin are remembered for their wit. This is why both of them apologized in writing when they took too long to say too little.Blaise Pascal in his Lettres Provinciales of 1657, wrote, “The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.”Likewise, Benjamin Franklin concluded his 1750 Letter to the Royal Society in London by saying, “I have already made this paper too long, for which I must crave pardon, not having now time to make it shorter.”Prove what you say:A rainbow of people across the internet report that Martin Luther, Mark Twain, and Cicero of Rome made statements similar to the statements made by Blaise Pascal and Benjamin Franklin, but none of those colorful people can offer meaningful documentation.Martin Luther died in 1546. A biography of Luther published 300 years later – in 1846 –quotes Luther as having said he “didn’t have time to make it shorter,” but the biographer could cite no text left behind by Martin Luther to support that quote.Mark Twain died in 1910. In 1975 an article that appeared in the Chicago Tribune attributed a version of the “didn’t have time to make it shorter” statement to Twain, but the journalist could offer no text, no chapter, no page number, no contemporaneous witness as proof.The person claiming that Cicero said he “didn’t have time to make it shorter” cites a book of quotes published in 1824 as “proof” of what Cicero supposedly said 1,800 years before that book of quotes was published. Cicero left behind no writings that contain that quote.“Do not believe what you read on the internet.” – Albert EinsteinUse active voice:Passive voice:“The sword is carried by me,” is passive because the subject – “The sword” – is acted upon by the verb.Active voice:“I carry the sword,” is active because the subject – “I” – takes the action.Sentences spoken in active voice command attention.Sentences spoken in passive voice are easily ignored.A child becomes an adult when they say, “I broke the cookie jar,” instead of, “The cookie jar got broken.”Don’t speak like a child. Let the subject take the action in every sentence you speak and write.Here’s an Example:Like the man I mentioned earlier, Matt Willis is a deep thinker, a great strategist, and a good writer. But unlike that man, Matt is also a good ad writer. Matt recently wrote a marvelous 575-word blog post. But so what? Lots of people can write good blog posts. But the writer who can reduce his word count by 84% and punch his message home in just 94 words… that, my friend, is an ad writer.These are the 94 words.You can read them out loud in just 30 seconds.Advertising agencies are the pythons of advertising. They measure you, size you up, and then eat you. You wanted to grow, so you hired the pythons. The pythons wanted to grow, too. So they measured your ad budget, convinced you to increase it, then took the biggest bite they could. The Wizards of Ads don’t bite. We work for a monthly salary. You increase it once per year by the same percentage your top-line grew. We triple your business. You triple our pay. Get out of the snake pit. Go to WizardOfAds.comRoy H. Williams1 spoken by Polonius, in act 2, scene 2 of Hamlet.Scott Mautz ran several of Procter &Gamble’s multi-billion dollar businesses, so he is obviously an effective leader. Scott now hosts free leadership classes on LinkedIn that have attracted more than two million registrants. He teaches people to work out daily. But no sit-ups, pull-ups, bench presses, or squats. Scott believes in rigorous mental workouts to increase your boldness, fortify your fortitude, and build your decision-making muscles. He has developed 50 different “mental strength” exercises, so after just one session, Roving reporter Rotbart now has Schwarzenegger-style mental muscles. Ready for a workout? Go to MondayMorningRadio.com

Kings and pirates both wear swords, but for different reasons.A king wears his sword as a symbol of the army he commands. A pirate wears his sword so that it will be at hand when he needs it.Pirates have a high tolerance for risk because they have nothing to lose. Kings have a low tolerance for risk because they have everything to lose.A pirate says, “No pain, no gain.” A king says, “No pain, no pain.”A king is the establishment, the ultimate insider, the protector of the status quo. A pirate is an anti-establishment outsider looking for an opportunity.I was 10 years old and my father was 30 when he took me with him to visit an important old man. After we left, I said, “He was really nice. I like him a lot.”My Dad answered, “Yes, he is really nice, and I like him a lot, too. But old men like him always keep a sword in the closet.”Confused, I asked, “What do you mean?”Dad said, “If you crowd him, cross him, or attempt to ambush him, that nice old man is going to pull his sword from that closet and run it through your guts.”It’s been more than 50 years since I met that old man, but I’ve never forgotten the encounter.I know a lot of old pirates today who became kings just like that old man. With clenched teeth they built castles in their minds, then brought those castles into physical existence using their own hands to stack bricks they made by mixing their blood and sweat with the dirt they stood upon.Pirates are the founders of empires, not the inheritors of them, and I am honored to count pirates among my friends.Rich people raise their children to be kings. But poor boys like me raise their children to be pirates.When our sons were very young – perhaps 4 or 5 years old – I said to them, “Your mother and I will give you gifts on your birthday and at Christmas and at other times, but you can never ask for a gift. When you see a toy, you cannot ask us to buy it for you. You have to buy it yourself. And to make that possible, we will pay you as though you are adults so that you can afford to buy whatever you want. But you won’t get any money for cleaning your room or for any of the other things you do in our home. You will do those things because you are a member of this family. And I will never give you an allowance. But if you ever want to make some money, just tell me and I will drive you to the office and give you work to do.”If you pay a child the wages of a child, it is impossible for them to ever buy anything for themselves or for the people they care about.Our boys began their careers by gathering the trash from all the offices and then tossing it into the dumpster in the parking lot. This might take 20 minutes and earn them 20 dollars each, but now they had money of their own. If they wanted to make more money, they had to gather all the gum wrappers and cigarette butts and debris from the parking lot and put that in the dumpster as well. This might earn them another 15 or 20 dollars each.If a 5-year-old child will push themselves to the realistic limits of a 5-year-old (which is usually 20 or 30 minutes) they should be able to make enough money to buy themselves the kinds of toys that all the other kids have.When our sons wanted to buy something, they would ask Pennie and I to drive them to the store where we would watch them choose what they wanted, carry it to the cash register, pull their own money from their pocket, and then buy it.By the time they were 9 or 10 they were puzzled to see their friends pick up something in a store and ask their parents, “Can I have this?” The idea of asking for something was foreign to them.Pennie and I raised our boys to be pirates and my grandsons became pirates as well, making their first money as groundskeepers and later as construction workers under the watchful eye of Joe Davis, a pirate of the highest order. Those grandchildren are now 17 and 14, and the two younger ones, now 6 and 7, are learning to shout “Ahoy, Matey!” and “Land Ho!”Study history and you will see that every kingdom was founded by a pirate – a conqueror – who became a king.And I can promise you that every one of those old kings went to his grave with a sword in his closet.Roy H. Williams* Privateers were not pirates. They were a group of bloodthirsty ambushers who worked for the government. Sort of like the Internal Revenue Service.Steve Wunker, a master of innovation, says these Three Big Myths are holding most companies back.Myth #1: A company needs to invent a better product or service to be “innovative.”Myth #2: The hardest part of innovation is hitting on the “big idea.”Myth #3: Innovation is the exclusive province of high-tech companies.Wunker says every company, big and small, can innovate, but the real secret is to trailblaze, to go where no company in your category has ever gone before. Listen and learn as Steve Wunker tells roving reporter Rotbart Where to begin, How to begin, and Who should lead the effort. It’s Trailblazing Day at MondayMorningRadio.com!

Every time you make a declarative statement, you choose one of only 9 sentence structures.You have been doing this unconsciously for as long as you have been able to speak and write. Today I am going to teach you how to do it consciously.Ten minutes from now, you will be able to speak and write with greater impact.You must first choose a perspective. First person perspective is when you are speaking for yourself, or as the spokesperson for a group: (I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours)Second person perspective describes the experience of your reader, listener, or viewer individually or collectively:  (you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves)Third person perspective is then you are speaking not of yourself, or of your audience, but of some other individual or group: (he, she, him, her, they, them,)After you have chosen a perspective,you must choose a verb tense that frames the action of your sentence in the past (was), the present (am), or the future (will be.)That much has been known and taught for decades if not centuries.This next part is astoundingly useful and absolutely new, so if you quote it or teach it to someone else, be sure to spell my name right, okay? “Roy H. Williams”The Wizard of Ads® is now going to teach you: (A) the specific voice of each of the 9 declarative sentences, (B) how the addition of a status, a mood, or an emotion allows you to determine the intention and the impact of your sentence before it has even been created.First person, past tense, is the voice of personal MEMORY.“I was standing in the snow…”First person, present tense, is the voice of ANNOUNCEMENT.“I am standing in the snow…”First person, future tense, is the voice of PREDICTION.“I will be standing in the snow…”Second person, past tense, is the voice of WITNESS.“You were standing in the snow…”Second person, present tense, is the voice of reader/listener/viewer INVOLVEMENT or ENGAGEMENT.“You are standing in the snow…”Second person, future tense, is the voice of FORESEEING. (Fortune telling)“You will be standing in the snow.”Third person, past tense, is the voice of HISTORY.“They were standing in the snow…”Third person, present tense, is the voice of NEWS REPORTING.“They are standing in the snow…”Third person, future tense, is the voice of PROPHECY.“They will be standing in the snow.”REVIEWFirst person, past tense, is the voice of personal MEMORY.First person, present tense, is the voice of ANNOUNCEMENT.First person, future tense, is the voice of PREDICTION.The addition of a status, a mood, or an emotion allows you to determine the intention and the impact of your sentence before it has even been created.First person, past tense = MEMORY + humility = confession “I was hoping to be finished in one hour, but I wasn’t able.”First person, present tense = ANNOUNCEMENT + humility = vulnerability “I am self-aware enough to know that I am more lucky than good.”First person, future tense = PREDICTION + humility = management of expectations “I will be concise to the best of my ability.”First person, past tense = MEMORY + authority = declaration “I was the highest scoring basketball player in Texas every year from 8th through 12th grade.”First person, present tense = ANNOUNCEMENT + authority = proclamation (manifesto) “I look across the landscape and see a nation that hungers to be united.”First person, future tense = PREDICTION + authority = imperative command “I expect your vote because you know I can do what needs to be done.”First person, past tense = MEMORY + joy = reminiscing “I have known the wonder of discovery and felt the electricity of success.”First person, present tense = ANNOUNCEMENT + joy = celebration “I dance on my housetop because the way is clear, and the work begins.”First person, future tense = PREDICTION + joy = anticipation/invitation “I will be pleased to announce the results of this race when it is over.”First person, past tense = MEMORY + anger = rage or regret “I have been exposed to things that cannot be unseen.”First person, present tense = ANNOUNCEMENT + anger = a threat “We are coming for you.”First person, future tense = PREDICTION + anger = a curse “We will celebrate your death by dancing around your tombstone.”First person, past tense = MEMORY + desire = craving/mourning “Our people were hungry for hope to appear.”First person, present tense = ANNOUNCEMENT + desire = hope “We look toward the sky for that first ray of light.”First person, future tense = PREDICTION + desire = fantasy “When it appears, we will see a rainbow of hope glitter across the earth.”First person, past tense = MEMORY + disdain = nightmare “We were lied to, and we believed it.”First person, present tense = ANNOUNCEMENT + disdain = contempt “We hear your words, and we hate them.”First person, future tense = PREDICTION + disdain = dismissal “We will see you walk over the horizon and vanish forever.”REVIEWSecond person, past tense, is the voice of WITNESS.Second person, present tense, is the voice of ENGAGEMENT.Second person, future tense, is the voice of FORESEEING (fortune telling)     The addition of a status, a mood, or an emotion allows you to determine the intention and the impact of your sentence before it has even been created. 2nd person, past tense = WITNESS + humility = recall“You were the prettiest girl in our school.”2nd person, present tense ENGAGEMENT + humility = truthspeaking “You walk into a room, and everyone sees you.”2nd person, future tense = FORESEEING + humility = advising/cautioning “You will find it hard to separate those who love you from those who merely want you.”2nd person, past tense = WITNESS + authority = compliment/reprimand “You have done what I have never seen done before.”2nd person, present tense = ENGAGEMENT + authority = instruction “Your fingers on the clay are a little too anxious.”2nd person, future tense = FORESEEING + authority = command “You will practice and become a great potter.”2nd person, past tense = WITNESS + joy = reminding/reframing “You have been a student unlike any other.”2nd person, present tense = ENGAGEMENT + joy = praise “You are a wonder to behold.”2nd person, future tense = FORESEEING + joy = encouragement “You will create things that have never been imagined.”2nd person, past tense = WITNESS + anger = denouncement “You came among us with false intentions.”2nd person, present tense = ENGAGEMENT + anger = rebuke “You tell us lies, take our money, and smile.”2nd person, future tense = FORESEEING + anger = denunciation “You will be spoken of as the killer of dreams for 100 generations.”2nd person, past tense = WITNESS + desire = admiration “You have always been stunning.”2nd person, present tense = ENGAGEMENT + desire = captivation “You appear and I can see nothing else.”2nd person, future tense = FORESEEING + desire = visualization “You will fall in love with me, and we will both be happy.”2nd person, past tense = WITNESS + disdain = reprimand “You were lazy and refused to do the work.”2nd person, present tense = ENGAGEMENT + disdain = rejection “You are a waste of my time.”2nd person, future tense = FORESEEING + disdain = mockery “You will spend your life pretending you are an unrecognized genius, but you and I both know better.” REVIEWThird person, past tense, is the voice of HISTORY.Third person, present tense, is the voice of NEWS REPORTING.Third person, future tense, is the voice of group PROPHECY. The addition of a status, a mood, or an emotion allows you to determine the intention and the impact of your sentence before it has even been created.Third person, past tense = HISTORY + humility = information “They landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, fifteen years after Cervantes wrote Don Quixote.”Third person, present tense = NEWS REPORTING + humility = hesitation “Their arrival is not so important as we once believed.”Third person, future tense = PROPHECY + humility = anticipation “They will continue to find evidence of settlers who came to North America 1,000 years before the Mayflower arrived.”Third person, past tense = HISTORY + authority = documentation “They have written in the journal Nature of a new kind of radiocarbon calibration based on spikes in solar radiation that has proven a Viking ship landed in America between 990 and 1050 A.D.”Third person, present tense = NEWS REPORTING + authority = evaluation “He, Neil Price, writing for National Georgraphic, speaks of hard evidence indicating the time of the Viking arrival.”Third person, future tense = PROPHECY + authority = detailed prediction “Their archeological discoveries will continue to diminish the historical importance of the arrival of the Mayflower.”Third person, past tense = HISTORY + joy = description of glory days “They sailed with courage and resourcefulness toward lands unknown.”Third person, present tense = NEWS REPORTING + joy = acceleration “They are an inspiration to entrepreneurs around the world.”Third person, future tense = PROPHECY + joy = elevation “They will forever be remembered for their vision and their courage.”Third person, past tense = HISTORY + anger = criticism “Those politicians have minimized the discovery of Vikings in America to protect the cultural myth of the importance of the Mayflower Compact.”Third person, present tense = NEWS REPORTING + anger = condemnation “They fraudulently argue that the Mayflower Compact is proof of America being founded as a Christian nation because it says, “Having undertaken for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country…”Third person, future tense = PROPHECY + anger = judgment “They will replace my words with the traditions of men and refuse to believe I meant it when I said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.'”Third person, past tense = HISTORY + desire = wanting yesterday “He looked behind him and saw the past and hungered for it.”Third person, present tense = NEWS REPORTING + desire = wishful thinking “He sees the signs of the times and eagerly awaits the future.”Third person, future tense = PROPHECY + desire = statement of hope “He will see the future unfold and celebrate its arrival.”Third person, past tense = HISTORY + disdain = judgement of wrongdoing “She remembered and felt her anger burn.”Third person, present tense = NEWS REPORTING + disdain = disgust “She watches and feels her heart sink as the bile rises in her throat.”Third person, future tense = PROPHECY + disdain = sentencing the criminal “She will see the day when he pays the price and the sun shines bright again.”Each of the 9 declarative sentence structures has a voice that whispers a single idea, 9 ideas in all. The addition of a status, a mood, or an emotion allows you to determine the intention and the impact of your sentence before it has even been created. I think of this as the algebra of language, and I am fascinated by it.Knowing these things will allow you to more easily create sentences that communicate what is in your heart and on your mind.Roy H. WilliamsFor the past 30 years, Fredrick Dudek – also known as “Freddy D.” – has been studying companies that have enthusiastic fans, the kinds we normally associate with sports teams. Interestingly, these companies always seem to have employees that like to win. Listen and learn as “Freddy D.” shares tips from his time-test business playbook with roving reporter Rotbart. The game is about to begin at MondayMorningRadio.com.

The tectonic plates of America are shifting beneath our feet. Can you feel the tremors?I’m not talking about the foundations of our continent. I’m talking about the foundations our nation.Our continent is rock, soil, and water; mountains and prairies and oceans white with foam.Our nation is a people; a family that we love.And if I might continue quoting Kate Smith for a moment, we would be wise to ask God to, “stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above.”We feel the tremors of our unsteady family – our nation – not in our soles, but in our souls.I felt the tremors of the waning “Me” generation shift into the groupthink perspective of the “We” in 2003. To read my nascent ramblings about it, just go to MondayMorningMemo.com and type “1963 All Over Again” into the website search block. This will take you to my MondayMorningMemo for December 15, 2003.These are the important paragraphs:“AOL and Google.com are the Kerouac and Salinger of the new generation that will soon pry the torch from the hands of Boomers reluctant to let it go. Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley have become Tupac Shakur and Eminem, and the Baby Boomers’ reaction to them is much like their own parents’ reaction to Chuck and Elvis. But instead of saying, ‘Take a bath, cut your hair and get a job,’ we’re saying, ‘Pull those pants up, spin that cap around and wash your mouth out with soap.’“At the peak of the Baby Boom there were 74 million teenagers in America and radio carried a generation on its shoulders. Today there are 72 million teenagers that are about to take over the world. Do you understand what fuels their passions? Can you see the technological bonds that bind them?”“Baby Boomer heroes were always bigger than life, perfect icons, brash and beautiful: Muhammad Ali… Elvis… James Bond. But the emerging generation holds a different view of what makes a hero.”The only hard choice in life is the choice between two good things.Freedom and Responsibility are both good things. But like all dualities, they oppose each other. The more you have of one, the less you have of the other.All responsibility with no freedom makes you a slave. All freedom with no responsibility makes you a self-absorbed hedonist and an asshole.But I promised to tell you how to keep your balance during this earthquake, didn’t I?Here’s how to do it: remind yourself that different people perceive the world differently. They notice different things. They value different things. They live in their own private reality, and you live in yours.You are acutely aware of what you see that they do not, and you want to open their eyes.They are acutely aware of what they see that you do not, and they want to open your eyes.Both of you feel you are being attacked.I have a question for you: do the two of you have the courage to shut up and listen? Really listen? Can you muster enough courtesy and grace and self-restraint to share why you value what you value without disparaging or attacking what they value and why they value it?If both of you can do this, you will find your balance and quit hating each other.The birds will start singing, the flowers will bloom, a rainbow will appear, and everyone will laugh in joyous relief that the ugliness is finally over.As I look back on the events that have marked the previous 37 zeniths of the “We” generation that have occurred during the past 2,960 years (937 BC,) I realize that no one is likely to do this.But I thought I would give it a shot.Roy H. Williams50,000 new restaurants open in the United States each year, and most of them are out-of-business a few years later. David Page can tell you why they close, how they could have avoided it, and how you can profit from this knowledge regardless of the business you are in. David is a two-time Emmy winner and the creator of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network, as well as an expert on American entrepreneurship, culture, and cuisine. Join us at the table as roving reporter Rotbart and David Page share a feast of ideas, explanations, and secrets for small business owners at MondayMorningRadio.com. Bon Appétit!

My reputation is built largely on the fact that I cheat.I openly admit my cheating, but no one cares, because the way that I cheat is not unethical, immoral, or illegal.I realized in 2017 that Warren Buffet and I do exactly the same thing. Here is how he describes it:“Ted Williams wrote a book called The Science of Hitting and in it he had a picture of himself at bat and the strike zone broken into, I think, 77 squares. And he said if he waited for the pitch that was really in his sweet spot he would bat .400 and if he had to swing at something on the lower corner he would probably bat .235. And in investing I’m in a ‘no called strike’ business which is the best business you can be in. I can look at a thousand different companies and I don’t have to be right on every one of them, or even fifty of them. So I can pick the ball I want to hit. And the trick in investing is just to sit there and watch pitch after pitch go by and wait for the one right in your sweet spot. And if people are yelling, ‘Swing, you bum,’ ignore ’em. There’s a temptation for people to act far too frequently in stocks simply because they’re so liquid. Over the years you develop a lot of filters. But I do know what I call my ‘circle of competence’ so I stay within that circle and I don’t worry about things that are outside that circle. Defining what your game is – where you’re going to have an edge – is enormously important.” These have been my filters for the past 35 years:Do I believe in the business owner? And do I like them enough to give them a place in my life?Has their company been flat, or declining, for the past 3 years?Do I see a clear path to grow them a minimum of 4x in 4 years or less?If we focus 80% of their ad budget on a single media, will that number of dollars allow us to reach enough people with enough repetition to see significant growth in the second half of the first year?These are the reasons behind those questions:If the business owner is incompetent, I cannot help them. If I do not like them, I do not want to help them. (Yes, I am tragically self-accommodating.)If the business owner has not been flat or down for at least 3 years, they won’t be willing to make the changes I need them to make.If they have no potential for massive growth, there is no potential for me to make massive money.When buying mass media, it takes more money to reach 20 percent of a large city than it does to reach 20 percent of a small one. Is the ad budget big enough to give us a fighting chance?A business owner and his son spent a day with us in Austin last week. I like both of them and they are obviously good at everything except lead generation. They live in a large city and have been receiving horrifically bad marketing advice for the past 20 years.They are doing $2 million/year in a town where $30 million would have been easily accomplished if they had started doing the right things just 9 or 10 years ago.I am now going to share with you a formula that I trust, even though I have never tried to disprove it. (A real scientist would have tried to disprove his hypothesis. I am not a real scientist.)I have observed this pattern for many years:Anything that works quickly will work less and less well the longer you keep doing it.Things that work better and better the longer you keep doing them always perform poorly in the early months.When you have discovered their untold story, and created a strategy that will work, and launched the right message to their city, the dollar growth you see in Year One will allow you to project with some accuracy the growth of that company for the next two years.At the end of 36 months, you will know if your business owner is tall enough to ride this ride.This is the math I used when I agreed to help this father and son:80 percent of their $250,000 ad budget will allow me to reach at least 300,000 people (and possibly as many as 500,000 people) at least 3 times a week, 52 weeks in a row. That means the average listener will have heard their ad 156 times by the end of 12 months.That much repetition among that many people should allow us to grow $1,000,000 in Year One. (Notice that I am tracking dollar growth, NOT percentage growth. If you track percentages, this formula falls apart.)When you know how many DOLLARS your new message has added in Year One, you can count on 2x that many new dollars in Year Two, and 3x that many new dollars in Year Three. Because the longer you keep doing the right thing, the better it works.1x + 2x + 3x = 6x by the end of Year Three. If 1x is $1,000,000, then we should be able to finish Year Three with a sales volume of $8,000,000 if the business owner is able to maintain their close rate and there are no major disruptions to the economy or to the business category.By growing the business 4x, I will be paid 4x as much money each month for writing their ads. They grow; I grow in lockstep.That’s how I cheat. I wait, and wait, and wait for a pitch that is in my personal sweet spot, because in the game of ad writing, you are never required to swing at a pitch you don’t like.Have a great week.Ciao for Niao,Roy H. WilliamsDr. Hanah Polotsky is an expert in treating diabetes, thyroid disorders, and hormonal abnormalities. She also excels at showing executives — both in and outside the medical field — how to run teams and apply the tenets of lean management. Her observation is that in virtually every field of endeavor, administrators are unprepared to provide the leadership expected of them. This week, Dr. Polotsky shares with deputy reporter Maxwell Rotbart her prescription for curing the most common supervisory ailments. Listen now, and you’ll start to feel better, and perform better, immediately. MondayMorningRadio.com

In the Monday Morning Memo for Oct. 10, 2022, I wrote,“Do you want to be one of the world’s great ad writers? Don’t read ads. Read the poems, short stories and novels written by the winners of the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes in Literature.”My friend Tom Grimes – the waterboy of Amarillo – texted me this insightful correction:“I’ve heard you teach in class that magicians, stand-up comedians and the creators of comic strips always structure their storytelling in that same tight economy of words used by the world’s great poets. ‘And then what happened, and then what happened, and then what happened…'”I stand corrected. Thank you, Tom.Yes, comedians, magicians, and the creators of comics are three different types of writers who know how to capture and hold our attention, just as the world’s great poets have done for centuries. These writers show us possible futures, imaginary pasts, or an exaggerated present; realities that exist entirely in our imaginations.And they do it in a brief, tight, economy of words.Likewise, the best ad writers take us on journeys that begin and end quickly, but leave us altered, changed, modified, different.I don’t list AI in my pantheon of persuasive writers for the same reason that I don’t list the makers of movies.Great movies are created from great plays and great books. Even Disney’s animated cartoon adventuresbegin with great stories.Stories are written by writers.The actors, directors, and illustrators who portray those stories are called artists and they are assisted by technicians. Artists and technicians don’t write the stories; they adapt stories to fit a format and then show them to us.AI is not a writer. AI is an artist and a technician.Dune was written by Frank Herbert 59 years ago and has sold nearly 20 million copies worldwide. Artists and technicians adapted it into a 1984 film, a 2000 television miniseries, and then a major motion picture in 2021 with a sequel that was released in theaters just last week.The Lord of the Rings was written by Tolkien and adapted by artists and technicians.The Godfather was written by Puzo and adapted by artists and technicians.Harry Potter was written by Rowling and adapted by artists and technicians.Charles Schultz, Bill Watterson, Neil Gaiman, Stan Lee, Scott McCloud and Tom Fishburne are writers who tell stories in comic panels.Robin Williams, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Ellen DeGeneres and Dave Chappelle are writers who tell stories in short bursts while standing behind a microphone.Penn and Teller, Siegried and Roy, David Blaine, Brian Brushwood, David Copperfield and Nate Staniforth are writers who stand on stage and tell stories while proving that you cannot believe your eyes or trust your logical mind.Ian Fleming, Cormac McCarthy, Stephen King, Truman Capote, and Elmore Leonard are writers who tell stories using only words.Artists and technicians adapt their stories for stage, film, and video.Shakespeare wrote 38 stories that artists and technicians have adapted for the past 450 years. The artists who gave faces and voices to Shakespeare’s characters include Judi Dench, Patrick Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Kenneth Branagh, David Tarrant, Derek Jacobi and Peter O’Toole.We have writers. We have artists. We have technicians.Can one person be all three?Certainly. George Lucas did it 50 years ago on the big screen. Rex Williams, Brian Brushwood, and 1,000 others are doing it today on YouTube.AI is not a writer.AI is an artist. AI is a technician.AI works its magic through aggregation and compilation.These are not the same as creation.Roy H. WilliamsNOTE FROM INDY – Did you notice that Tom Grimes did a near-perfect imitation of Mr. Haney from Green Acres? Pop into the rabbit hole and I’ll play you a short compilation of Mr. Haney outtakes.When David faced Goliath, he wasn’t playing games. But when Bob Moog faced Hasbro and Mattel, his games and puzzles were all that he had. Bob has gone nose-to-nose with the world’s biggest players and found a way to beat each of them at their own game (pun intended). In this fun, fun, fun episode of Monday Morning Radio, Bob Moog, the co-founder and president of University Games plays “20 Business Questions” with roving reporter Rotbart and his son Maxwell. Hey! Let’s all play a game! Maxwell needs a nickname. What will it be? Listen to this episode and then send your suggestion to corrine@wizardofads.com and she’ll compile a list. Are you ready? The game is about to begin at MondayMorningRadio.com.

There are two ways to become invisible, and both are easily accomplished.To become invisible to yourself: get lost inside your own head. When you ignore other people, it never occurs to you that they can see you. This is how you become invisible in your mind.To become invisible to others: say what people expected you to say; do what they expected you to do. This will blur you into the background and make you invisible. To make people see you again, all you have to do is say something new, surprising, or different.These techniques also work in advertising.If you get lost inside your own head, your ads will focus on your company, your product, and your service. You will ignore the things your customer cares about, and speak only about what they ought to care about, what they should care about, what you want them to care about. You will answer all the questions that no one was asking. You will be visible to yourself, but invisible to others. When your ads talk to you, about you, for you, no one other than you is interested.When you say what people expected you to say, they quit listening. Ads that sound like ads are filtered from conscious thought. The mind is constantly scanning for the new, the surprising, and the different, and for pain, pleasure, urgent necessities, and entertainment. If your ads look like ads and sound like ads, you can be certain they will be invisible.Bad advertising is about you, your company, your product, your service. Good advertising is about the customer, and how their life will be altered if they allow you to come into it.Talk to your customers about them, not you.If you want to talk about you, find an old pay phone and drop a quarter into it. Call your mother. She’s the only one who cares.I slapped you just now because you are delirious, and you need to wake up. My slap may have stung a little, but it was an act of love.Five paragraphs ago I said, “The mind is constantly scanning for the new, the surprising, and the different, and for pain, pleasure, urgent necessities, and entertainment,” because these are the things that interest us.The New is always interesting because it might be relevant to us. When we have judged it to be irrelevant, it disappears.The Surprising is interesting, but only until it is no longer surprising. A magician knows that every surprise must be followed by another surprise, or they will lose the attention of their audience.The Different is interesting because it might be an improvement. But if we conclude it is not an improvement, we dismiss it.Pain is interesting because we want to avoid it. When your ads speak to pain, you become associated with pain, and the minds of your customers will recoil away from you. If you want to test this theory, just kick your dog every time you see it.Pleasure is interesting, always. But if your statements about pleasure are not judged to be credible, your listener will feel they are being manipulated and you will be viewed as a seducer, a con-man, and a snake.Urgent necessities are interesting because we need them, and we need them now. This is why so many advertisers spend copious amounts on Google ads. The problem with this strategy is that all your competitors are doing the same. This results in a high cost per click and a low rate of conversion.Entertainment is interesting because it allows us to escape into the lives of interesting characters. When you are watching a football game, the mirror neurons in your brain allow you to be part of the game as you live vicariously through the actions of others. The same is true of TV shows, movies, well-written novels, and interesting ads.Win the heart and the mind will follow. But please don’t be so foolish as to believe that people bond with soulless corporations.Personalities bond with personalities.Does your company have a personality? Does the public understand how and why your company came into existence? Do they understand the forces that shaped and formed your company to become what it is today? Do they know what you believe and why you believe it? Do they understand what your company stands against, and what you are trying to eliminate? Do they understand your quirks and eccentricities, and do they know what caused them?When the public knows these things about you, they talk about you because they find you interesting. They no longer type their urgent need into the Google search window. They type your name instead.Cheap click. High conversion rate.When your company has a personality, it becomes a character with which your customer can bond. People read, watch, and listen to your ads when your ads are interesting and entertaining.Then, when they need what you sell, yours is the first name that comes to mind, and the name they feel the best about.When you want to win the hearts of the public, give them ads that feature colorful and interesting characters. People intuitively understand the motivations of characters. This is how they will know what your company believes, why you believe it, and what makes you do the things you do.You can advertise in the way that I just described to you, or you can do what everyone else has always done, and hope that it works out better for you than it did for them.Again, I slap you only because I care.Roy H. WilliamsWhen two historians start talking, the conversation can skip across centuries like two little girls playing hopscotch. On this week’s episode of Monday Morning Radio, historian Maxwell Rotbart talks with historian Ron Shafer about how the future is looking a lot like the past. If Rod Serling were alive, he would say, “Consider if you will, two historians who looked into the Mirror of Time [pause] and saw the Future.” Or perhaps one of those little girls playing hopscotch will someday grow up to be Snow White, and Lucille La Verne is the evil queen looking into that mirror in 1937. You’ve seen the movie. Say it with me, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall…” [pause, followed by four notes stair-stepping downward in a minor key] MondayMorningRadio.com