Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

A Message at Graduation Time The person who achieves spectacular failurehas at least attempted something bold.Failure is a temporary condition.Success is likewise temporary.Life, itself, is temporary.So quit hesitating.Do something. Mediocrity comes from having perfectly implemented tried and true, traditional wisdom.The outcome is the only thing that separates confidence from hubris. If your bold idea succeeds, you were a confident visionary. If your bold idea fails, the walking dead will accuse you of being full of yourself. “It was hubris,” they will say.Ignore the zombies. Life is risk. Risk is life. The only death is mediocrity. The only stupidity is fear. Fling yourself into something uncertain. The view from the edge is spectacular. What the hell, go ahead and put all your eggs in one basket. If you lose those eggs, you can find some more. The world is covered with eggs.Zombies invented the lie that curiosity killed the cat. But it wasn’t curiousity that did her in. It was boredom.Boredom killed the cat.Security, boredom and a bloodless life are all the zombies have to offer. But if you follow your Beagle of Intuition into the Forest of Uncertainty, you’ll ask directions of angels and they’ll answer you by opening a door you never knew was there. You’ll kiss the hand of Serendipity as you gaze upwards into her face. And she will smile. Zombies tell many lies.Their most famous lies are:1. A college degree is the key to getting a good job.2. If you give your money to financial experts they will grow it into a fortune. (Strangely, this second lie is partly true. But often, the only fortune those experts will grow your money into is their own.)Your Beagle of Intuitionknows different truths:1. Opportunity comes to those who have asked directions of angels.2. Money flows to those who have seen the smile of Serendipity. The world is covered with eggs.And there is a miracle inside every one of them.Roy H. Williams

1. Today’s reader is riddled with information hitting us from every side.2. Traditional and online media assault our senses to the point of sensory shutdown.3. Consequently, today’s reader is strongly attracted to numbered lists.4. A numbered list promises a starting point, a conclusion, and milestones along the way.5. A numbered list contains the fewest possible words.6. A numbered list feels memorable, portable and doable.7. A reader who would have glanced at your headline and then moved on will often give your message a second look when they see a numbered list.Information organized into paragraphs feels casual and intimate. But that same information in a numbered list feels authoritative and useful.8. Information in paragraphs feels casual and intimate.9. Information in a numbered list feels authoritative and useful.SUMMARY: When you need to present a big idea, develop a numbered list. Your information will be easier to follow, appear more credible and trigger a clearly measurable response.Trust me on this. I’ve been experimenting with numbered lists for more than 25 years.A few weeks ago I presented Pendulum to a few hundred executives from big corporations. A few hours before taking the stage, I chose 4 slides that contained information in paragraph form and altered them to unveil that same information as a numbered list. In each of the 4 instances a numbered list appeared, hundreds of iPhones were lifted to capture a snapshot of it. Most of the audience didn’t even bother to read it first. These men and women reached for their cameras the moment they saw the information was sequential.Numbered lists feel authoritative and useful.Have you learned anything you can use?Come to Wizard Academy.We’ve only just gotten started.Roy H. Williams 

Want 'em? “Show me what a people admire,and I will tell you everythingabout them that matters.”– Maggie TufuI agree with Maggie Tufu even though she’s a character in fiction.Dare to look closely at what our society admires. It will take your breath away.We’re a nation of addicts, craving that which makes us weak, frail and small.We hunger for fame and fortune.Fame is seductive, addictive and corrosive. We never possess it. It possesses us.Fortune is debilitating. You’ve noticed how rich people are often aimless, unmotivated and unhappy? Of course you have. We know these things. We’ve seen the evidence. But we desire fame and fortune anyway. We believe we‘ll be smarter than those others. Fame will make us twinkle. Fortune will make us dance.We’re addicts. Not once have we seen fame and fortune bring the peace, contentment or fulfillment they promise but we hunger for them anyway. Weird, isn’t it, to be addicted to something we’ve never had?Fame is erased by time and distance. It is a fire that dies slowly in the night.The handcuffs of fortune could be escaped in an instant if a person had the nerve. But our addiction to wealth is too deeply rooted.In the tenth chapter of his report, Mark tells of a young man of great wealth and authority who approached Jesus to ask him the secret of life. After a little banter back and forth about all the actions the young man had already taken in his quest for purpose and meaning, “Jesus looked at the young man and loved him,” and in that historic moment said, “The only thing left for you is to sell everything you have, give the money to the poor and come, run with me.”Can you imagine that moment? I imagine Jesus with a smile, standing as a person stands when they’re holding a door open for someone else, gesturing with an upraised palm and extended arm toward the pathway that lies ahead. Mark (ch. 10) and Luke (ch. 18) tell us the young man “was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.”A number of years ago a friend asked a group of us to imagine a single moment in history we would visit if we could step across time and space. It’s an interesting question. What event would you witness if you could be there, in person, to see it happen?I knew my answer immediately. When asked to speak of my chosen moment, I said, “On the shores of Galilee in the early morning hours when Jesus said to Peter, Andrew, James and John, ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men,'” and their grand adventure was begun.I’m in the business of helping others achieve fame and fortune. It’s what I do. It’s my job. And frankly, I’m very good at it. But the fame and fortune my clients win is just a consequence of each of them having made a difference.They make the difference. I just figure out how best to tell their story.Make something better: a product, a system, a circumstance, a life. Make something, anything, better. Fame and fortune will follow if you have a friend who will tell your story.Don’t do it for the fame. Don’t do it for the fortune. Make a difference because that difference needs to be made. Be the person who changes something for the better.It doesn’t even matter what the thing is.Let the adventure begin.Roy H. Williams

Fantasy and Science Fiction are alike in that each requires the creation of a complete new world. Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, The Avengers and Planet of the Apes each occupies its own imaginary universe.Fantasy and Sci-Fi are great for entertainment but not so great for selling most products and services.The process of selling requires a reality hook, something that gives us, here in this world, a handle on the impossible. Would you like to sit and listen as John Lennon writes the lyrics and melody to Imagine, one of the most popular songs of all time? It’s easy to go there. All you need is the white Steinway piano on which John composed the song. You can see the cigarette burn on it from a moment when he got distracted and forgot it was there. That cigarette burn is a reality hook, a point of focus that brings an abstract moment from yesterday into the black and white of now.The power of any message – particularly an advertisement – is increased when you add a detail easily imagined by the listener. It was easy to see that cigarette burn on the white Steinway, wasn’t it? This piano exists, not in fantasy, but in the residence of Yoko Ono in Manhattan’s famous Dakota building. John gave it to her on her birthday in 1971.If you are a writer, a real one, you need to study magical thinking. Unlike science fiction and fantasy, the world of magical thinking is this world and all its impossible events happen in this, our own all-too-familiar universe. The writing style created by magical thinking is called Magical Realism and you’ll need to be good at it if you want to gain and hold the attention of 21st century America.Fortunately, a new book was just published about it. The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking     by Matthew Hutson1. Objects Carry Essences: Cooties, Contagion, and Historicity“John Lennon sat at this piano.”2. Symbols Have Power: Spells, Ceremonies, and the Law of SimilarityA Red Sox jersey bearing the name and number of Dave Ortiz was buried by a construction worker under the foundation of the new 1.5 billion dollar stadium of the New York Yankees. Yankee management took this curse seriously enough to consider filing criminal charges.3. Actions Have Distant Consequences: Using Superstition to Make Luck Work for You.A ‘lucky fisherman’s hat’ makes you feel different. Consequently, you make better decisions.4. The Mind Knows No Bounds: Psychokinesis, ESP, and TranscendenceAt the root of the bestselling book, The Secret, is a bit of magical thinking called The Law of Attraction which says if you focus on a thing and see it in your mind and believe it is yours, you will have it. The book has sold more than 19 million copies.5. The Soul Lives On: Death Is Not the End of Us.We think of a thousand different ways to say it and believe it. “There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.” – Thornton Wilder, last lines of The Bridge of San Luis Rey6. The World is Alive: Animals, Objects, and Gods are People, Too.In her award-winning book, The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion speaks of coping with the death of her husband. “I stopped at the door to the room. I could not give away the rest of his shoes. I stood there a moment, then realized why: he would need shoes if he was to return.” Likewise, most of us never delete the telephone numbers of close friends who have died. We leave them on our cell phones because there is part of us that believes if we called that number, they would answer.7. Everything Happens for a Reason: You’ve Got a Date with Destiny.In Ernest Hemingway’s famous short story, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, a writer named Harry goes on safari with his lover, Helen. A thorn scratches his knee as he photographs a herd of waterbuck, and the wound becomes infected. The story opens with Harry dying on a cot in the shade of a tree as birds circle above. “I don’t see why that had to happen to your leg,” says Helen. “What have we done to have that happen to us?” Helen, like most of us, needs to believe that everything happens for a reason.A new series of radio ads is playing in selected markets across the United States. The ads are working fabulously. In them, you’ll notice the careful weaving of simple, factual information with reality hooks and magical thinking. These ads feature the founder of the company, Brian Scudamore, with a sidekick:SIDEKICK: You fill your garage with it.BRIAN: You walk around it,SIDEKICK: step over it,BRIAN: put it into closetsSIDEKICK: and cram it in the attic.BRIAN: It’s been there so long you don’t see it anymore.SIDEKICK: Bottom Line: You’ve got junk.BRIAN: We can help with that!SIDEKICK: Call 1-800-Got-Junk.BRIAN: We’ll be there before you hang up the phone. We’re the company Oprah told you about,SIDEKICK: and The New York Times,BRIAN: Dr. Phil,SIDEKICK: The Wall Street Journal,BRIAN: and Good Morning America.SIDEKICK: Call 1-800-Got Junk. BRIAN: Life is happier when it’s less cluttered.SIDEKICK: Your house will be bigger.BRIAN: Your teeth will be whiter.SIDEKICK: Angels will sing.BRIAN: [slowly, as though this is the deal-clincher] You’ll be a better dancer.SIDEKICK: Go to 1-800-Got Junk.comBRIAN: and prepare to be amazed.The human mind is wired to believe the impossible. If you exaggerate just a little bit you’ll get caught. People will know you’re lying. But promise a thing that’s utterly impossible and there’s a piece of every listener that will believe you.In a class he teaches at Wizard Academy, Mark Huffman, the executive production manager at Procter and Gamble, (responsible for all integrated marketing in the organization that spends the largest ad budget on earth,) told his fellow Wizard Academy students the backstory of P & G’s breakthrough TV campaign for Old Spice Body Wash for Men. You remember that ad don’t you? It won the worldwide Effie Award for making a bigger difference to a company’s bottom line than any other ad on earth that year. See if you can spot the magical thinking and the reality hook:“Hello, ladies. Look at your man. Now back to me. Now back at your man. Now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me. But if he stopped using ladies scented body wash and switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he’s me. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re on a boat with the man your man could smell like. What’s in your hand? Back at me. I have it. It’s an oyster with two tickets to that thing you love. Look again, the tickets are now diamonds. Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady. I’m on a horse.”Magical Thinking. It’s the next big thing.But only for those who have the skill to craft it and the nerve to use it.Do you?Roy H. Williams

The average person would rather be angry than bored. Anger is exciting.Likewise, love and hate are not opposites. The opposite of both is indifference.I’m not suggesting that you be angry all the time. I’m suggesting only that you care enough to take action. No, that’s not it either. I’m suggesting that you take action even when you don’t care. Curiosity and action are the only cures for boredom.“I’ve an idea. Why don’t we have a little game? Let’s pretend that we’re human beings and that we’re actually alive. Just for a while. What do you say?”– Jimmy Porter in John Osborne’s 1956 play, Look Back in AngerBoredom and indifference are deadly poisons. “Just go with the flow,” “Don’t make waves,” and “Whatever…” are the mantras of the walking dead.Don’t be dead. Be alive. Make a choice. Commit. Hold your ground. Stand, chin in the air, ready to endure the coming storm or be utterly blown away by it to a strange and different land.Welcome to Oz, Dorothy. Where did you get those shoes?I grow weary of people who speak endlessly about goal setting. It’s like listening to someone agonize over where to take their vacation. I feel like shouting, “Just pick a place and GO there! Choose! Go! There’s cool stuff to do EVERYWHERE.”“I just can’t find my passion.”Whiner, I’ve got news for you: Passion does not trigger commitment. Commitment triggers passion.Feelings follow actions. So make a choice. Commit irrevocably. Take action. Passion will explode like a flame, giving you energy and lighting your way. Congratulations! You’re about to embark on an adventure called Life.Knowing how to do a thing is not the same as actually doing it. “Many times after one of my six-week classes is completed, a student, excited by what he or she has just learned, has said to me, ‘You should teach an advanced class!’ I am always flattered, but always a little surprised. Advanced? I know for a fact that they have not mastered the most basic principles, and yet they feel that they are ready to move on to the next level.” – Brian McDonaldWizard Academy equips people who have chosen a purpose. We don’t help you find a purpose; you’ve got to aim that arrow on your own. And then you’ve got to act. You’ve got to release that arrow and ride it.We just help you hit the bullseye.I like committed people. I avoid people who are not committed. They waste my time and frustrate me with sad stories and soft sighs as they sing the song of the weasel. You’ve heard the song. All its verses begin with the words “If only”:“If only I had the money.”“If only I had gone to college.”“If only I had chosen differently.”A committed person paints a picture of a possible future and then works to bring that picture to life. They see it before it happens. They believe it before it’s true. And they take action.Weasels are dreamers. They see possibilities and sigh wistfully, “If only.”Committed people are dreamers, too. But they see possibilities and take action. When that action doesn’t work they take another. And another. And another and another and another and…Weasels believe success and failure to be permanent. Committed people know both to be flickering moments, points on scoreboards that are constantly changing, tiny adventures called victories and defeats.What are you trying to make happen?Do you have the courage to say it out loud?Do you believe in the future you see in your mind?“You must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” And you must take action, because the person who does not take action “is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” (Both quotes are from the first chapter of James in the New Testament.) Some of you are offended by what I have written today.But honestly, wasn’t it better than being bored? Roy H. Williams

“You know me; I find a crowd all headed in the same direction and call it my parade.”– Roy Laughlin, April 26, 2012Brother Laughlin uttered this phrase as he was telling me of his involvement in the development of two new daily radio shorts involving a couple of well-known celebrities. Living as he does in Los Angeles, Laughlin sees crowds headed in the same direction long before these crowds are visible to the rest of us.Laughlin managed KISS-FM during its glory years under the ownership of Gannett, then Jacor, then Clear Channel. I’ll never forget the day in 2004 when “Other Roy” called to say, “I’m thinking about replacing Rick Dees with this new kid, Ryan Seacrest. Do you think I’m nuts?” Laughlin often thinks out loud in my ear. It helps him, somehow, to hear himself say what he’s thinking. He finds it useful. I find it interesting.Last week was a classic Laughlin moment.“Music is everywhere,” he said, “you can get it everywhere. All kinds of services, all kinds of devices, we’re swimming in an ocean of music. Radio is headed to the spoken word. Live talk is just gonna get bigger and bigger and bigger. You won’t be able to get it on these other devices.”I hadn’t really thought about it but I instantly knew he was right. (Calm down, music radio junkies. Evolutions like this don’t happen overnight but I do believe we’ll see a steady trend toward FM talk for at least the next 10 years.)My confidence in the correctness of Laughlin’s prediction is rooted in my study of Society’s 40-Year Pendulum, a theory that says public opinion is driven by the energies of a duality, the “Me” and the “We.” Each of these, when balanced by the other, is a good thing. But we always take a good thing too far. Then, suffering the consequences of our own mania, we hunger for what we left behind and begin a 40-year journey to the other extreme.Moving from its central, balanced position (1963,) the Pendulum swung upward 20 years to the “Me” zenith (1983,) then down 20 years to return to the central point (2003,) now we’re headed up the other side toward the zenith of “We” (2023.)These are the opposing values that drive the Pendulum:“Me,” the individual, unique and special and possessing unlimited potential1. demands freedom of expression2. applauds personal liberty3. believes one man is wiser than a million men, “A camel is a racehorse designed by a committee.”4. wants to achieve a better life5. is about big dreams6. desires to be Number One. “I came, I saw, I conquered.”7. admires individual confidence and is attracted to decisive persons8. believes leadership is, “Look at me. Admire me. Emulate me if you can.”9. strengthens a society’s sense of identity as it elevates attractive heroes.The most recent 20-year upswing of the Pendulum into “Me” values began in 1963 with the Beatles song “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Self-indulgence and freedom of expression reached their zenith in 1983 with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Every zenith of “Me” is marked by plastic, hollow posing and outlandish costumes as each of us struggles to be unique.The 20 years from 1983 to 2003 marked the downswing of the “Me” as it began to deflate and lose energy. We called these “the Gen-X years.”We’re currently at the halfway point in an upswing into the “We” perspective (2003 to 2023.)“We,” the group, the team, the tribe, the collective1. demands conformity for the common good2. applauds personal responsibility3. believes a million men are wiser than one man, ”Two heads are better than one.”4. wants to create a better world5. is about small actions6. desires to be a productive member of the team. “I came, I saw, I concurred.“7. admires individual humility and is attracted to thoughtful persons8. believes leadership is, “This is the problem as I see it. Please consider the things I am telling you and perhaps we can solve this problem together.“9. strengthens a society’s sense of purpose as it considers all its problems.“Me“ and “We“ are the equal-but-opposite attractions that pull society’s Pendulum one way, then the other.The 20-year Upswing to the Zenith of “We“ (1923–1943) is followed by a 20-year Downswing as that “We“ cycle loses energy (1943–1963). Society then begins a 20-year Upswing into “Me,“ (1963–1983) followed by another 20-year Downswing as the “Me“ cycle loses energy (1983–2003). We’re currently headed toward the zenith of “We,” when our beautiful dream of “working together for the common good” calcifies to become conformity, obligation and sacrifice. In the final phase, these hard virtues evolve yet further to become legalistic intolerance and self-righteous judgementalism.Talk radio will be used to define “the common good” as we approach this next zenith of “We.” It was near this same halfway point (March 12, 1933) in our previous 20-year upswing into “We” (1923-1943) that FDR united us as a family with his famous radio “fireside chats.” Germany had Adolph Hitler pulling that nation together “for the common good” during the same upswing into “We.” The man working “for the common good” in Russia was Josef Stalin. Blood flowed in the streets.Please don’t think America is immune to the charms of a vicious extremist who has access to a microphone. Senator Joseph McCarthy held his reign of terror over our nation during the decade immediately following the “We” zenith of 1943. Blacklists, false accusations of conspiracy and irrational Witch Hunts have been the marks of every zenith of a “We” for the past 3,000 years. The 10 years on each side of a “We” zenith are always legalistic and intolerant.Open-minded, thoughtful, considerate discussion is what America will need as we approach this next zenith of “We.” Sadly, that’s exactly what Germany and Russia needed at this same halfway point 80 years ago.But that’s not who got their microphones.To whom will we give ours?Will it be men and women like FDR or will it be Joseph McCarthy?Roy H. Williams

She jumped from the window of a building on New York’s East Side on January 19, 1981. Her face was erased by the fall.I’m not sure what I was doing that day but I did not kill myself.No one knew her name so her body remained unclaimed until she was reported missing. She was identified by her clothes.Suicide troubles me. I get it but I don’t.I think I’ve known more people who killed themselves than the average person. This, too, troubles me.Francesca often denied the camera her face, turning away from it as though she didn’t want to be photographed. But Francesca was a photographer, the very photographer, in fact, who was taking her picture.I think Francesca Woodman was hiding from herself. And one day she hid so very well that she never found herself again.Francesca was a profoundly artistic photographer. Had she not hidden herself so completely she might have enjoyed a visit to 1071 Fifth Avenue. The photographs she made during the 9 years following her 13th birthday have become the feature attraction of the Guggenheim, one of the world’s most prestigious museums. I put a few of her photographs in the rabbit hole for you. (Just click the photo of Francesca hanging from the lintel of the door above the title of today’s Monday Morning Memo. Each click of a photo beyond that portal will take you one step deeper.)Francesca Woodman was born when I was 5 days old. Steve was a couple of years older.I remember Steve because he and I often prayed together when I was 22. One day he and his wife asked Pennie and me to have dinner in their home. On a different day, his wife asked Steve for a divorce. Steve moved out, as requested.On a final day, Steve broke into his house while his wife and young son were out. He went into his son’s room. I remember that room. You know what happened next.I don’t know why I’m telling you this.Steve was a lineman for the telephone company.He had a life and then he didn’t.Maybe I’m telling you this because one of you is thinking of quitting early.All I can say is this and it’s probably the wrong thing to say; decades of sadness and confusion are the legacy left by those who quit early, the bitter inheritance you give to those who created a place for you in their hearts.Not everyone is showcased by the Guggenheim.Roy H. Williams

Guilt is about what you have done.Shame is about who you are.I’ve always been attracted to people who are guilty, but unashamed. Guilt without shame is audacity, a special kind of courage.  It’s what we admire in the little boy who shouted, “The king is naked! Right there in the middle of the street! Naked!”Everyone was thinking it, but no one was willing to say it.I’ll bet that kid was in trouble when he got home. His mom probably even used all three of his middle names, “Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, what were you thinking?”“Well Mom, I was thinking the king was naked.”“Oscar, what you did was unacceptable… inappropriate… inexcusable.”The boy was guilty of speaking a socially unacceptable truth. His mother knew the danger of it. “Oscar, people are rarely thankful when you pull aside their veils of pretense to reveal their grand delusions.”Oscar Wilde died 112 years ago but we still recall the piercing observations of his stiletto wit.“The worst vice of a fanatic is his sincerity.”“And he goes through life, his mouth open, and his mind closed.”“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.”“Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That is the difference between the sexes.”“Men always want to be a woman’s first love. Women have a more subtle instinct: What they like is to be a man’s last romance.”“When bankers get together for dinner, they discuss art. When artists get together for dinner, they discuss money.”“Bad artists always admire each other’s work.”“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” If you are committed to speaking the truth, it will be your choice of tools that defines you.  Oscar Wilde was a playwright. He put his words, like a ventriloquist, into the mouths of actors on the stage. Ad writers, screenwriters and novelists differ only in their ventriloquist’s dummies, the masks they hide behind.Dorothy Parker was just 7 when Oscar Wilde died but he left her his stiletto wit. Dorothy became a journalist. No dummy. No mask.When a Broadway play was interrupted to announce the death of Calvin Coolidge, Dorothy leaned over and whispered to a friend, “How do they know?”When reviewing The Autobiography of Margot Asquith for the Oct. 22, 1927 issue of The New Yorker, Dorothy wrote, “The affair between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith will live as one of the prettiest love stories of all literature.”In another review, she said, “This wasn’t just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it.”Dorothy Parker had the audacity to speak the truth.“All those writers who write about their childhood! Gentle God, if I wrote about mine you wouldn’t sit in the same room with me.” Not even the church was safe. “But as for helping me in the outside world, the convent taught me only that if you spit on a pencil, it will erase ink.”In later years, she said, “I had been fed, in my youth, a lot of old wives’ tales about how men would instantly forsake a beautiful woman to flock around a brilliant one. It is but fair to say that, after getting out in the world, I have never seen this happen.”The bright clarity of her observations earned her a place on the infamous Hollywood Blacklists of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Committee on Un-American Activities. But Dorothy was not dismayed. She said: “They sicken of the calm who know the storm.”In other words, bring it on.If it’s a crime to pull back the veil of public pretense and name the nakedness of kings, Dorothy was definitely guilty.Dorothy Parker died 5 years before Ze Frank was born, but I recognize the flash of that blade; big ideas packed into few words. Ze Frank is Oscar and Dorothy for the 21st centuy.Ze showed us the power of the video blog when, in 2006, he committed to post a new show every day for a year. The Show with ZeFrank is the stuff of internet legend. March 18, 2007, was a desolate day for millions of fans worldwide. The 365 days had ended. No Show. Ze was gone, just as he said he would be.When, a couple of weeks ago, Ze Frank announced he was going to do something new, a spontaneous party erupted around the world. There were fireworks, laughter and dancing in the streets. Our new Vice-Chancellor, Michele Miller, miraculously convinced Ze to share what he knows with us on September 13 at Wizard Academy. You’ve heard me say that Leonardo da Vinci, Buckminster Fuller and Walt Disney would teach here if they were still alive. I know this because each of them was creatively disruptive, our brand of crazy. If the face of Ze Frank were carved alongside da Vinci, Fuller and Disney on Wizard Academy’s private Mount Rushmore, he would not look out of place.I wouldn’t miss this event for anything. Neither should you.I will say no more about it. Roy H. Williams

He seems to have been crazy.Seems to have been.Bubbling, babbling in bits of broken English, Sam was a cantankerously crazy old man.But what he left behind was beautiful.He worked on it alone from 1921 to 1954, then signed the deed over to a neighbor and disappeared.Never came back.The Beatles put his face next to Bob Dylan’s on the album cover ofSgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967.The surreal structure Sam left behind was declared a National Historic Monument in 1990.He was crazy like Leonardo Da Vinci. Crazy like Buckminster Fuller. Crazy like Antoni Gaudi. If Sam could illustrate what he saw, he would have been crazy like Dr. Seuss. But his paints were not liquid. They were broken bits of glazed pottery and colored glass embedded in concrete over wire-covered steel.AIn Sam’s fingers a shattered 7-Up bottle became a splash of sparkling green in the sky above Los Angeles. Milk of Magnesia bottles offered Sam the riches of cobalt blue. The sea placed at his feet the whitewashed shells of underwater creatures and the dumpster of a pottery factory gave him the Sunflowers yellow of Vincent Van Gogh and the red blood of an Italian saint.Spain’s Antoni Gaudi began the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona in 1883.America’s Sam Rodia began Watts Towers in south central L.A. in 1921.He finished and vanished before I was born.Sam made bas relief murals in colored cement by pressing his tools into the mix when it was still young and impressionable. He made an impression on me as well and I am no longer young.Three weeks ago I asked Paul Sherman for the money to build a winding sidewalk from Wizard Academy’s tower down to where the chapel path meets the Garden of Joy. Paul granted us the cash because Paul is a generous man who appreciates what he has learned during his visits to the Academy and the difference this knowledge has made in his business. And now I’m asking you to help build an archway, a portal on Paul’s sidewalk, in the manner of Sam Rodia. This archway, this portal to adventure, will be built by Pennie and me from the objects you send us along with the fifty dollars or more you donate to Wizard Academy. Sam’s style and method of building from found objects has been called naïve art, outsider art, folk art and junkitecture.I call it enchanting, inspiring and crazy.Are you in?Roy H. Williams

How tall is your brand?As long as we’re on the subject of brand identity and reputation, how are brands created in the first place? Is a brand merely the sum total of all the things a company says about itself?Of course not.Ads do, of course, play a big part in branding. Brand personality is communicated by:1. what you say,2. how you say it, and3. what you leave out. That’s right. What you leave out says as much as what you shout. This is because our minds read between the lines. Consider boxing legend Mike Tyson’s rebuttal to a statement made by sportswriter Wallace Matthews: “He called me a rapist and a recluse. I’m not a recluse.”What you leave out says as much as what you shout.Now back to the idea that a brand is the sum total of all its ads. The simple truth is this:1. Some ads have more relevance than others.2. Some ads have more credibility than others.3. Our opinion of a brand is not just a reflection of that brand’s current ad.4. Our opinion of a brand is not just a reflection of that brand’s advertising during the past 30, 60, or 180 days.5. A two-year rolling window seems to be the interval of primary influence. (Notice that we said primary influence, not total.)6. Thus, it can be loosely said – to the degree that ads communicate a brand – brand identity is largely a composite of the previous 24 months’ advertising. Ads older than 24 months fade into the mist of yesterday’s truth. You might remember an ad from 30 years ago but it’s not likely to greatly influence your opinion of that brand today. 7. Sleep erases advertising. The less relevant the message, the more quickly it is erased.8. “Save 30 Percent, This Week Only,” becomes utterly irrelevant next week except for one little tidbit that sticks in the mind of the customer: “Wait, and they’ll put it on sale.” Our minds read between the lines. There are two factors beyond advertising that greatly inform our opinion about a brand:1. Our own experience. “What you are doing shouts so loud I cannot hear what you are saying.”2. The opinions of others. News stories (the result of a good P.R. campaign) and word-of-mouth (the result of the experiences of others) influence brand reputation and thus, brand identity. News stories are tricky to get. Word-of-mouth is not. The problem with word-of-mouth is that it’s much more likely to be negative than positive. This is because:1. Rage is a stronger motivator than joy. (Not a stronger emotion; a stronger motivator. Rage demands action. Joy does not.)2. Most people “play it safe” when it comes to word-of-mouth. If they tell you, “It was a great movie,” you’ll think less of them if you see the movie and don’t like it. But if they say, “It was horrible. Don’t go,” you’ll be grateful they saved you from making a mistake. Positive word-of-mouth is risky to the recommender. Negative word-of-mouth is not. Do you want to know the secret to generating positive word-of-mouth? Never promise everything you intend to deliver. Keep an ace up your sleeve. The bigger the happy surprise you deliver when your customer comes into contact with you, the stronger the positive word-of-mouth that will follow. And this “happy surprise” can’t simply be great service. You’re going to have to come up with something far more eye-opening than that.Did you learn something in today’s memo you can use?Good. Now go tell two other people about MondayMorningMemo.comDo it for them.Do it for me.Ciao for Niao,Roy H. Williams