Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

There is a time to get started, and there is a time to wait.When you have thought carefully about it, take action. But when you haven’t thought about it, wait.The important is rarely urgent, and the urgent is rarely important. Do not become a slave to the merely urgent.Perception is to see things that not everyone sees. Intuition is to recognize connections, and the patterns that occur because of these connections.Maximum information is available, and maximum contemplation is possible, only at the last possible moment.If you ever feel bad about procrastinating, just remember that Mozart wrote the overture to Don Giovanni the morning it premiered.Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment. But if you procrastinate too long, you will have your choice made for you by circumstance.Mozart was christened Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. Theophilus, in Greek, means “loved by God”.In a letter announcing his birth, his father said his name was Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart. Gottlieb, in German, means “loved by God.”When he was 21, Mozart began calling himself Amadè, which is Hungarian for “loved by God.”Mozart called himself Amadeus only once, when he signed a letter “Wolfgangus Amadeus Mozartus” as a joke, (sort of like Indiana Beagle calling himself “Indianus Beaglus” in the image at the top of today’s Monday Morning Memo.) Amadeus, in Latin, means “Loved by God.”“Johannes Chrysostomus” precedes the name “Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart” because he, a Catholic, was born on January 27, the feast day of Saint John Chrysostomus in the West until the calendar reform of 1969.But I digress. We were talking about the tyranny of the “merely urgent” versus information, contemplation, and procrastination.Waiting serves a purpose. In Manley Miller’s booklet, “Potato Chips: Greasy, Salty, Really Good Stories from Growing Up in New Orleans,” he writes,I became a pastor when I was still young and foolish enough to say, “All right, God, if I’m not a senior pastor by the time I’m 30, then I’m going to quit being a pastor. I’m just going to take that as a sign from you that this is not what I’m supposed to be doing.”Later, I found out the reason Jesus didn’t start his ministry until he was 30 is because you couldn’t become a rabbi until you were 30. You didn’t have enough life experience.Jesus was 12 when Mary and Joseph found him teaching in the Synagogue, and it says that he “spoke with great wisdom.” But then when he’s 30 and starts his ministry, it says he spoke with great authority.You have an aptitude for something when you have a talent for it.But you develop proficiency over long experience.And it’s going to take some time to get there.Likewise, there’s a long journey from wisdom to authority.When you have something to say worth hearing, that’s wisdom.But when people respect you enough to listen, that’s authority.Waiting is not wasting.And now we’re going to make a 90-degree turn and head off in a tangential direction. Hold on tight.Here are the Top Five Regrets of People Who are Dying:I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. I wish I had spent more time with my family.I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.I wish that I had let myself be happier.– Bronnie Ware,an Australian nurse who spent several years caring for patients during the last 12 weeks of their lives.Final facts about Mozart:When Mozart was 20, Thomas Jefferson signed the Declaration of Independence.When Mozart was 32, the Constitution of the United States was ratified.When Mozart was my age, he had been dead for 31 years.How much time do I have left?How much time do you? I ask you this only because I am your friend.Roy H. WilliamsDoes the personality of your website reflect the personality of your brand? Websites have existed for almost three decades. Yet precious few websites are aligned with that company’s advertising, social media, and point-of-sale experience. And even fewer websites incorporate language that appeals to each of the four major personality types. Vi Wickam, a digital ad strategist of the highest order, optimizes websites to deliver more leads, more sales, and happier customers. A longtime Wizard of Ads partner, Vi has agreed to share several of his most valuable beliefs, one of which is this: No website is ever complete. Listen, learn, and elevate your online presence at MondayMorningRadio.com

When you are having an adventure, you wish you were safe at home. But when you are safe at home, you wish you were having an adventure.Every adventure is marked by setbacks, disappointments, and difficulties. Without trouble, there can be no adventure.Our love of movies, video games, and sporting events proves our craving for adventure, for what are these but a celebration of people overcoming setbacks, disappointments, difficulties, and problems?What are you facing today?What must you overcome?What is your current adventure?Adventure is exciting when the vision of a glowing future shines brightly in your mind. But when we have no vision of a happy outcome, we walk in darkness.Jesus spoke of this phenomenon in the sixth chapter of the book of Matthew.“Your vision is the lamp of your body. If you see the world clearly, your body will be full of light. But if your vision is distorted, the light within you will be darkness. And if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”When our vision is distorted, we lose hope.Please understand that I am not talking about mental illness. I don’t pretend to have a cure for that. But I do know a thing or two about sadness, confusion, frustration, and loneliness.One out of every four people you encounter today will be hiding deep sadness, confusion, frustration, or loneliness. They won’t let you see it, but it is there.This is the cure you have within you: You can listen intently when a person is speaking, so that the person feels seen and heard. You can smile and nod, so that the person feels accepted.You have the power to make other people feel valued.Each of us needs to be seen, and heard, and missed when we are absent.You can shine a light into the darkness.And sometimes, that is enough.Roy H. Williams NOTE: Today we celebrate the 13th anniversary of MondayMorningRadio, hosted by our own Pulitzer-nominated roving reporter, Dean Rotbart. Next week’s episode will be number 600! Can you believe it? And last month we quietly celebrated the 30th anniversary of the MondayMorningMemo. How many of you have been subscribers since the days when it was delivered by FAX? Aroo. – Indy BeagleGwendolyn “Wendy” Bounds, an award-winning broadcast reporter, was an eyewitness of 9/11. In his book, September Twelfth: An American Comeback Story, roving reporter Rotbart describes Wendy Bounds as telegenically attractive, “with big chocolate-brown eyes, a sparkly broad smile, and shoulder-length buttery blond hair blended with honey highlights.” Today, the long-time desk jockey is ripped, with muscular arms, strong and toned legs, and broad, well-developed shoulders. Wendy has transformed herself into a competitive Spartan racer, running through mud pits, crawling under barbed wire, swinging across monkey bars, and hoisting sandbags as she navigates obstacle courses. “It is never too late to achieve your full potential,” Wendy writes in a new book, out tomorrow (June 18). “Age,” she tells the roving reporter and his deputy, Maxwell, “can be a secret weapon.” Age. Learn how to use it, at MondayMorningRadio.com

My friends know that I have not used – and do not plan to use – ChatGPT, although I do endorse it for people who do not love to write.I love to write.Undissuaded, my friends urge that I should at least allow ChatGPT to gather and compile data for me to edit.I like to gather my own data.Jeffrey Eisenberg gave ChatGPT this prompt: “In less than 500 words what advice would Roy H Williams give his good friend Tom Grimes about writing?”Twenty-seven seconds later, Jeffrey’s computer delivered a 448-word fortune cookie. (I’m not sure why, but I can see it emerging from the front of Jeffrey’s computer on a long, white paper tongue, like the receipt from a grocery story cash register.)Tom,Picture this: you’re standing on a bustling street corner, trying to get the attention of a hurried crowd. That’s what writing is like. You have mere seconds to grab someone’s attention and make them care. Here’s how you do it:Engage from the Start: Begin with a bang. Your first sentence should make the reader stop in their tracks. Something unexpected, a question, or a bold statement. For instance, “Have you ever tried to whistle with a mouth full of peanut butter?”Be Conversational: Write as you speak. Imagine you’re having a chat with an old friend over coffee. Use contractions. Keep it casual. The more natural it sounds, the more relatable it becomes.Vary Your Sentences: Mix short, punchy sentences with longer, flowing ones. This rhythm keeps readers engaged. It’s like a song; it needs a beat to keep people moving.Tell Stories: People love stories. They remember them. Use anecdotes to illustrate your points. A well-placed story can make your message unforgettable. “Remember that time we got lost in the woods and stumbled upon that hidden waterfall? Your writing should be like that – a surprising discovery.”Repetition for Emphasis: Don’t shy away from repeating key points. Repetition drills the message into the reader’s mind. It’s like the chorus of a song – it’s what they’ll hum later.Parallel Structure: Use parallel structure to create balance and rhythm in your writing. “He came, he saw, he conquered.” It’s pleasing to the ear and easy to remember.Engaging Openings and Closings: Start strong, but finish even stronger. Leave them with something to think about. A question, a challenge, a powerful statement. Make your closing as memorable as your opening.Be Clear and Concise: Don’t use ten-dollar words when a ten-cent one will do. Simplicity is powerful. It cuts through the noise and delivers your message with clarity.Emotion is Key: Tap into the reader’s emotions. Make them laugh, make them cry, make them think. If they feel something, they’ll remember it.Have a Purpose: Every word should serve a purpose. Ask yourself, “What’s the point of this sentence? Does it move the story forward or add value?” If not, cut it.Remember, Tom, writing is an art, but it’s also a craft. It takes practice. Don’t be afraid to rewrite, to polish, to perfect. Your goal is to make your reader feel something, to think, to act. Writing isn’t just about putting words on paper; it’s about creating an experience.So go ahead, write like you’re talking to an old friend. Keep it simple, keep it engaging, and above all, keep it real. That’s the secret.Cheers,RoyMy reaction is strangely twisted, like a chocolate and vanilla swirl cone from McDonald’s.The vanilla twist is that I am impressed by ChatGPT’s ability to extract 10 true things from 30 years worth of Monday Morning Memos. The chocolate twist is my annoyance that ChatGPT used filler words and boring phrases I would never use.Get your shit together, ChatGPT.Get your poop in a group.The following is my rewrite of the sanitized, digitized, homogenized fortune cookie ChatGPT wrote while pretending it was me.Tom-Tom,You’re standing on the hood of your car, trying to get the attention of the airpod-and-earbud people who ignore you as they walk by. Welcome to the world of ad writing.Here are my Ten Tips for Triggering Trouble, Causing Confusion, Raising Riots and Selling Stuff.Open Big: “My dog can whistle like Tom Sawyer and dance like Huckleberry Finn.”Get Comfortable: A relaxed speaker creates a focused listener.Find Your Rhythm: “My client would not, could not, did not commit these crimes.”Tell Stories: People love’em.Say the Good Stuff Twice: Say the really good stuff three times.Use Paired Opposites: Every proton needs an electron. Friends and enemies, ups and downs, ins and outs, whispers and shouts, lips and snouts,Throw Away Every Cliché: Be new, surprising, and different.Don’t Try to Sound Educated, But Say Intelligent Things: Don’t be pompous, be impressive.Make People Laugh, Cry, or Get Angry: If you win the heart, the mind will follow. The mind can always find logic to justify what the heart has already decided.Close Big: The cannon goes BOOM! Then you bow deeply and with a flo

“If the founder of an organization does not empower the next generation of leadership to carry the enterprise forward while he is still viable as a leader, the organization he founded will cease to exist within 10 years after his death.”I have no recall of how I learned that information, but I have known it for nearly 40 years. My confidence that it is true tells me that I trusted the source.I was working in an industrial steel fabrication shop in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma for 3 dollars and 35 cents an hour when I learned a second truth I cannot prove, but I remember the episode clearly. The year was 1976, when a million dollars was like ten million dollars today.I was listening to a radio interview while driving a delivery truck down Lynn Lane. The man on the radio had mailed a survey to a large number of millionaires and a surprisingly high percentage of them had completed that survey and returned it to him.He was sharing the characteristics of self-made millionaires:“Do self-made millionaires have a high I.Q.? No. The percentage of self-made millionaires with a high I.Q. is the same as the general population.”“Is it education? No. Self-made millionaires are no better educated than the rest of us.”“Is it family money? No. Self-made millionaires are no more likely to come from a wealthy family than you and I.”“Is it family connections? No.”“Did they marry someone whose family had money and connections? No.”“Did they ‘get discovered’? Did they get a big break? No.”When all of my assumptions had been shattered, he said there were only four things that self-made millionaires tend to have in common:(4.) Self-made millionaires are more likely to have been fired from a job than the rest of us.(3.) A high percentage of self-made millionaires have filed bankruptcy at least once.(2.) Self-made millionaires distrust traditional wisdom and believe there is a better way.(1.) Self-made millionaires think further ahead than we do. They have a time horizon that isn’t measured in days or weeks or months, but in years.The invisible man on the radio went on to say that a person’s socio-economic strata is largely determined by how far that person thinks ahead.The average American has a plan for their next two paychecks. Their upcoming paycheck is fully committed, and they have bills to pay with the paycheck that follows, although that one offers a small opportunity for discretionary spending. The paycheck after our next one gives us a little bit of hope.Two paychecks ahead is the furthest we dare look. This is what it means to be middle class.But at least we are not struggling to find the money to buy a new battery for the car so that we can get to work, or trying to borrow money to pay a long-overdue electric bill, or wishing we had enough food in the kitchen to last until payday. These people are struggling, but that is not the bottom. No.At the bottom of the socio-economic strata are the addicts who can think only of their next drink, their next score, their next fix. Their time horizon is a few hours, at most. Tomorrow doesn’t enter their mind.Friend, I am convinced you can succeed at anything you choose to do, provided you have the emotional staying power to survive your mistakes.No matter how hard you try, there are a certain number of mistakes you are going to make. This doesn’t mean you have failed. It means you are learning.So always keep trying. But above all:Think ahead.Roy H. WilliamsPS: “The one thing all famous authors, world class athletes, business tycoons, singers, actors, and celebrated achievers in any field have in common is that they all began their journeys when they were none of these things.”– Mike DooleyPPS: When business owners struggle, they often blame everyone but themselves. According to psychotherapist Steve McCready, they should be saying, “It’s not you, it’s me.” As a business coach, McCready spends all day, every day, erasing the root causes of business problems, including feelings of self-doubt and being overwhelmed. So get comfortable and find a psychologically safe space. Steve McCready wants to chat with you at MondayMorningRadio.com.

A successful mechanic shop brings in about $500,000 a year. But whether or not the shop owner makes any profit on that $500,000 isn’t determined by how good they are at repairing cars, but by how good they are at running a business.And even those shop owners who are good at running a business might not be good at converting telephone inquiries into customers.You realize I’m not just talking about auto repair shops, right? I’m talking about every category of business in America.At this moment, I’m talking to you about yours.Are you good at your job?(Are your customers impressed?)Are you good at running a business?(Pricing, recruiting, work-flow management, inventory management, vendor relations, employee retention, customer retention, payroll management, etc.)Are you good at generating inquiries?(Advertising, brand-building, sales activation, customer word-of-mouth and online reviews.)Are you good at turning inquiries into customers?(Close rate, conversion.)Now, back to Jerry:Jerry was good at his job.So good, in fact, that his reputation allowed him to bring in 12 times as much business as the average “successful” auto repair shop. Jerry wasn’t bringing in $500,000 a year. He was bringing in $500,000 a month.Jerry was good at running a business.He and his wife traveled and enjoyed life at a much higher level than most of us.Jerry was good at generating inquiries, mostly because his auto repair shop made customers happy for a lot of years, and happy customers tend to multiply.But Jerry was only average at turning telephone inquiries into customers. Still, he was doing 12 times the sales volume of the average “successful” mechanic shop in America.Jerry and his wife are often at Wizard Academy.Jerry was paying attention when I said, “Bad marketing is about you, your company, your product, your service, how many years you have been in business and how many awards you have won. Good marketing is about the customer, and how your product or service can change the private little world they live in.”After contemplating those words, Jerry and his wife realized that how they respond to telephone inquiries is a form of marketing. Specifically, it is the kind of marketing that can improve the percentage of incoming phone calls that become customers.I encouraged Jerry and his wife to experiment. I said, “Try something new. Give it time to work, but if it doesn’t work, try something else that is new.”Jerry’s second experiment caused his business revenues to jump 53% above the previous year, month after month.Jerry’s mechanic shop no longer does $6,000,000 a year. He now has a $9,180,000 mechanic shop.I know what you’re thinking. You want to know how Jerry and his wife lit the fuse on the rocket that put their business into orbit, am I right?Okay, I’ll tell you.Jerry’s wife said, “Every incoming call begins with the caller saying, ‘Can you,’ ‘Do you,’ or ‘Will you.’”“Give me some examples,” I said.She said, “Can you repair the transmission on a 2018 Mercedes-Benz E400?”Our answer is, “Yes we can. And if you’d like to bring it in, we’ll take a look at it right now.”“Do you work on Volkswagens?”“Yes we do. And if you’d like to bring it in, we’ll take a look at it right now.”“Will you take a look at my Porsche 718 Cayman? It dies every time I make a sharp left turn.”“Yes, we will. And if you’d like to bring it in, we’ll take a look at it right now.”Do you see what Jerry and his wife are NOT doing? They’re not probing for more information, educating the customer, or explaining how busy they are.What they ARE doing is listening to the customer’s problem and saying, “Yes, we can solve that problem for you.” And then they tell the customer the happy news that they are willing to take a look at it immediately.Let’s look at the math of that transaction:The customer (1.) has a problem and (2.) is frustrated about it.Jerry and his wife (1.) take away the problem and (2.) remove the frustration.It’s never about you.It’s always about the customer.You can make it more complicated than that if you want to.But I wouldn’t suggest it.Roy H. WilliamsPS – I didn’t mention the name of Jerry’s wife because that would make it too easy to find them. And they are far too busy saying “Yes” to customers to have time to chat with 500 people who would like to ask them for further details about their method. Does it surprise you that those calls happen? I’ll see you next week.PPS – (#4) Skilled, (#3) Expert, (#2) Masterful, and (#1) Brilliant, is the ascending hierarchy of ability among talented business people. Brilliant is the realm where Simon T. Bailey operates, and now he is teaching others how to elevate their business abilities to that same level of performance. A former Disney sales executive, Simon T. Bailey has written multiple books on the topic and has been invited to be a keynote speaker at more than 2,400 events over the past two decades. Success magazine names him in their “Top 25” alongside Brené Brown, Ton

The Growing Up Years: Ages Birth to 20When a man is in his teenage years, people with good intentions will ask, “What are your plans for the future?” Fewer than 10% of us have a real plan at that age, but we make one up so that we don’t disappoint those who believe in us.I tell teenage boys the truth when I sense they are feeling adrift. “It is rare to know at your age what you want to do with your life, but people will often ask you as though you are supposed to know. But the real truth is this: If you have your head completely out of your ass by the time you are 30, you are way ahead of the game.”The Education Years: Ages 20 to 30Regulated careers – engineer, lawyer, doctor – require a young man with a plan. The rest of us just bumble along and learn from our mistakes.People assume that a man who “plans his work and works his plan” is more disciplined and has a higher I.Q. than those of us who bumble. But I believe it is better to aim your temperament than try and change it.Planners prefer structure. Bumblers prefer adventure. This doesn’t mean Bumblers are less visionary, less disciplined, less committed, or less intelligent. They just prefer to improvise, innovate, and impress, rather than plan, schedule, and execute.Planners tend to become professionals. Bumblers tend to become business owners, tradesmen, salespeople, consultants, worker bees, or bums.As of January 2024, there were 1,100,101 physicians in America. The average primary care doctor in America makes $265,000 a year. Specialists make an average of $382,000, which is about the same annual income as the owner of a modestly successful plumbing or air conditioning company with fewer than 10 employees.In January of 2023, there were 1,331,290 lawyers in America earning an average annual income of $100,626 a year. Lawyers in the 75th percentile make about $103,000. Top earners make an average of $131,000, which is about the same as a modestly successful salesperson working for a local TV or radio station.Like I said, a man’s path forward has more to do with temperament than anything else. To force a man to behave outside his temperament is cruel and unusual punishment.The Acquisition Years: Ages 30 to 40For most men, the years between 30 and 40 are about gaining experience and status and possessions as we quietly struggle and claw our way upward. Adrenaline is our drug of choice. Conspiracy theories, video games, sports betting, fishing boats, sports cars and motorcycles provide us a way of escape. These are the years when onlookers say, “The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.”But in spite of our visible successes, we cannot quiet the inner voice that whispers, “If other people knew you the way that I know you, they would know what a phony you are.”It is no coincidence that Henry David Thoreau was just over 30 when wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.”The saddest of all men stay in toy-gathering mode for the rest of their lives, wanting only to make more money and a bigger name for themselves. When such a man reaches 60 and looks back at his 30th birthday, he hasn’t really gained 30 years of experience. He has had one year’s experience 30 times. But he doesn’t know how to do anything else.Having never discovered his soul, he goes to his grave with his song still in him.The Elevation Years: Ages 40 to 50For about 80 percent of American men, the decade beween 40 and 50 is when we will make our mark on the world. The big leaps forward, the fingerprints we leave behind, the stories that will be told when we are gone, usually happen between our 40th and 50th birthdays.These are the years when we begin to see clearly.These are the years when we make fewer mistakes.These are the years when we suck the juice from all of our experiences and make use of the wisdom and energy it gives us.The Celebration Years: Ages 50 to 60Having worked 30 years at making a life, we now begin to think about making a difference.These are the years when men discover the value in genuine relationships, sincere spirituality, and honest confession. In essence, we come face-to-face with our feminine side.We look at our life partners and realize how lucky we are.We look at our children and grandchildren and realize how lucky we are.We stop and smell the roses and make lemonade.The Distribution Years: somewhere beyond 60Robert Frost had just turned 60 when he wrote, “Neither Out Far Nor In Deep,” a poem that describes how we live our lives longing for a future that never arrives.The people along the sandAll turn and look one way.They turn their back on the land.They look at the sea all day.As long as it takes to passA ship keeps raising its hull;The wetter ground like glassReflects a standing gull.The land may vary more;But wherever the truth may be,The water comes ashore,And the people look at the sea.They cannot look out far.They cannot look in deep.But when was that ever a barTo any watc

To Hollister and Gideon,You have arrived at that age when everyone you meet will ask you about your plans for the future. I am older, happier, and probably more successful than those people, so ignore them. Listen to me.Knowledge is important, but experience is what really matters. School can give you knowledge, but it cannot give you experience.Experience is the name we give to our mistakes.Success is simply a matter of surviving your mistakes. But first you have to make them. So take chances. Feel the pain of disappointment. Then pull yourself together.Avoid the mistakes that are bigger than you.Don’t die.Don’t create a baby until you’re ready.Don’t go to prison.Those mistakes are hard to undo.Surviving all your other mistakes will require nothing more than financial and emotional “staying power.”Financial staying power isn’t measured by how much money you have. In fact, an abundance of cash will tempt you to calculate your burn rate. You will say, “At my current rate of spending, I can last until such-and-such a date before I run out of money.”When you calculate your burn rate, you create an unconscious plan. You have looked into the future and seen yourself collapsing in defeat on that day. Personally, I have never known anyone who succeeded after calculating their burn rate. They imagined running out of money, and then they did.I knew they had calculated their burn rate because everywhere they went, they said, “I have to be profitable by such-and-such a date or I will run out of money.”Boys, no matter how much money you have, you can run out of money. True financial staying power isn’t measured by how much money you have; it’s measured by how little money you need to stay in the game. The secret is to keep your monthly obligations so low that it takes very little to cover your living expenses.The most successful of my Wizard of Ads partners kept their jobs until they were making enough money as my partner that they could afford to walk away from their previous employment. Some of the others were lucky enough to have a life partner who made enough money to cover all the monthly expenses of the household. The partners who struggled in the early days were the ones who had significant monthly expenses and a lot of money in the bank. These were the ones who calculated their burn rate and then slowly began to panic as they saw that money disappear month after month.Financial staying power is easy. Live modestly. Don’t owe money.Emotional staying power is what makes you successful. It gives you the ability to fail without thinking of yourself as a failure. So take chances. Feel the pain of disappointment, then pull yourself together, like I said.Failure, like success, is a temporary condition.You are going to need encouragers. I have your MeMaw and the encouragement of God that I find in my Bible.Mistakes are inevitable. Don’t fear mistakes.Encourage people. Be slow to offer advice, but quick to offer encouragement. Tell people what you admire about them. No one likes a flatterer, but if you speak the truth, they will hear it as the truth.Marry your best friend. You will know they are your best friend when you look forward to being with that person, even when you are not imagining them naked. Pennie – your MeMaw – believes in me more than I believe in me. I have asked God to give each of you a life partner like that.I am not the only person who thinks these things. On May 1, 2024, Jason Fried wrote,“Occasionally a 17-year-old will write, asking for entrepreneurial or business advice. Oftentimes they’re early bloomers and already have something going on. Others are chomping at the bit once they get out of high school. It’s great to hear from them. But my advice is generally that they don’t need advice. You don’t need advice at 17. You need experiences. You don’t need to be told what to do, you need to be told to do. Now, that in itself could be construed as advice, but it’s really not meant as that. It’s anti-advice, if anything. Don’t listen. You’ll learn out there, not in this email. At 17 you have more time than you’ll ever have to just fuck around and find out. Anything else is just getting in the way. There’s no unlock, no sage advice from some oldster that’s going to make a lick of difference at 17. The doing, and the self-discovery, will give you all the advice you need until you really hit a point where the stakes matter and the right suggestion could mean everything. Until then, wander. Be 17.”Boys, if I’m not around 10 years from now, be sure to share this letter with Eden and Vance.Love,PoobahPS – Some people will like you for who you are. Some people won’t like you at all. But most people will like you for what you can do for them.It is never okay for a friend to like you for what you can do for them. In fact, that person is not your friend. But it is definitely okay for your employer to like you for what you can do for them.When you get a job, know that these are the characteristics of t

“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

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 fortit

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 MondayMorningR

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 wil

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

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 [email protected] 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.

[The wizard has been writing twice a month for Radio Ink magazine for more than a quarter century. The column you are about to read will be distributed to every radio station in North America – more than 10,000 of them – when it is published in a few weeks. – Indy Beagle]Traditional wisdom would suggest that a writer offering advice to Radio professionals should focus on how to use Radio more effectively.But traditional wisdom is usually more tradition than wisdom.True wisdom is to know how every form of advertising works, not just the media you are trying to sell. When you can identify and communicate the markers of success in every type of advertising, you become a well-spring of insight, wisdom, and advice; a sustaining resource as refreshing as cold water on a hot day.The things I am about to share with you are not focused on radio because they are not limited to radio. You have observed these things all your life; you just never took the time to organize your observations.Your mind will whisper “Eureka” within the next few minutes. Listen for it.When you are speaking face-to-face, voice-to-voice, in writing, or through the medium of advertising, there can be no communication until you have won the attention of your audience. To win attention, you must deliver a magnetic First Mental Image (FMI.)There are three ways of delivering your FMI:When your FMI is delivered by voice, it is called an opening line.The bright light of vivid verbs project action onto the movie screen of the mind.When your FMI is delivered in printed words, it is called a headline, a title, or a subject line. You will need a second FMI for the opening line of your first paragraph. Vivid verbs are again the key. Verbs become vivid when they are accurate, but unexpected. Predictability is not your friend.Photographs, drawings, illustrations, and video clips win attention when the viewer enters into the world of that visual image to become a momentary participant in the scene.Face-to-face, voice-to-voice, in writing, or through advertising, there can be no communication until you have won the attention of your audience.Amateur ad writers will try to shock the audience. But it is much more effective to intrigue the audience by using one of the following five methods.The most straightforward methods are these two:A simple declarative statement: “70% of people over 50 have sore knees.”A customer testimonial: “My knee pain went away when I put these insoles in my shoes.The next three techniques employ what I call “The Hovering Question Mark,” since they are designed to trigger curiosity by delivering an incomplete message.A question aimed at the reader, listener, or viewer: “Do you have sore knees?”An incomplete sentence: “I first noticed my knees was sore when…”A metaphor that begs for context: “I had a headache behind my kneecap.”Any of these 5 techniques can be used to get attention, but you’re still a long way from making the sale. Your baseball bat has merely contacted the ball.Amateur ad writers – having made contact – will immediately switch into “AdSpeak,” that predictable, despicable language of bone-breakingly-boring ads. This is called clickbait when it’s done online. It’s called a rookie maneuver when it’s done in any other media. When it’s truly pathetic, it’s called a clown show.Amateur ad writers move from attention-getting into AdSpeak because they believe their job is merely to deliver information about the product. But information will take you only to 1st base, and there are 4 bases you must touch before you score.1. Information2. Engagement3. Enlightenment4. TransformationGetting the momentary Attention of an audience and delivering a piece of Information is relatively easy. Holding their attention is more difficult (Engagement). We must provide a new perspective if we hope to cause a listener to think and feel differently (Enlightenment). Only then will they be changed (Transformation).Getting attention is not enough. Delivering Information is not enough. You must Engage the listener, bring them Enlightenment, and see them Transformed from listener into customer.You must cause the undecided to decide, the unbeliever to believe, and the blind to see.And you must do it in 60 seconds.Or maybe 30.Welcome to Radio.Roy H. WilliamsMost people fail to say their own name correctly. Odd as that may sound, Laura Sicola explains her assertion in a YouTube video that is approaching 7 million views. Dr. Sicola earned her PhD in educational linguistics and has two decades of experience teaching good vocal habits to executives at companies including Comcast, IBM, and Vanguard. As she explains to roving reporter Rotbart, how you introduce yourself determines how effectively you will convey the messages that follow.This is true whether you are speaking to a room from a podium or meeting a person one-on-one for the first time. How well

There is a mysterious camera in your brain that will click and capture a poignant scene from time to time. You know what I’m talking about: random moments that you can vividly recall, but you’re not sure why.My awareness of that camera has been heightened and brightened in recent days as I feel a chapter of my life coming to an end and a new chapter about to begin.I’ve sure you have felt what I’m talking about.Phil Johnson explained these uneasy times of transition 40 years ago when I was in the middle of one. He said, “Roy, you’re in an elevator and the door is closed and that’s always an unsettling time. You’re not sure whether the elevator is taking you up to a higher floor, or down to a lower one. You know only that when that elevator door opens, everything is going to be different.”*Click* went the camera in my brain.Then he looked encouragement into my eyes as he said, “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” As we began walking toward our cars, he finished by saying, “Marcus Aurelius wrote that note to us 175 years after Jesus was born.”*Click*Phil Johnson passed away in 2019, just 5 days before his 97th birthday. You will find the last words he spoke to me emblazoned across the 12-foot-high bookcases that hold the thousands of books he left to me in his will. “You acquire an education by study, hard work and persistence. But you absorb culture by viewing great art, listening to great music and reading great books.”The moment that heightened and brightened my awareness of the elevator I’m in was a 521-word text sent to me by Pennie’s sister, Pam. That text contained the complete lyrics of Billy Joel’s song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Nothing else.If you have been reading these Monday Morning Memos for any length of time during the 29 years and 9 months that I’ve been writing them, you won’t be at all surprised that Indy Beagle and I sprang into hot pursuit of the liquid-fast rabbit that leaped out from Pam’s mysterious text.To those of you who are new to rabbit chasing, the objective is not to catch the rabbit, but only to let it lead you to places you might never have otherwise discovered. Uptight people will say that Indy and I are wasting time. But those people will never meet Calvin and Hobbes.When Indy and I lost sight of the liquid-fast rabbit, an unsettled teenager said to Billy Joel, “It’s crazy to be my age. You didn’t have this kind of stuff going on when you were growing up. Nothing really happened back then.”Billy went home that day and listed more than 100 major worldwide events that occurred between the day of this birth in May, 1949, and the day of that teenager’s visit in 1989. “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was a birthday gift Billy Joel gave to himself on his 40th birthday in 1989.If you click the image of Indy Beagle at the top of this page, you will be transported to a secret page featuring two different YouTube videos of “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Each of those videos will show you the more-than-100 different people and events that Billy Joel is singing about 35 years ago.And now you know why we call those hidden pages, “The Rabbit Hole.”Indy said to tell you “Aroo.”I’ll tell him you said “Aroo,” too.Roy H. WilliamsSeven-hundred-thousand Americans per year submit a trademark application, but Andre Mincov says that number is far less than it should be. Prior to beginning his global consultancy specializing in trademarks, Andre worked at a law firm helping companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sun, and Dell file and defend their trademarks. Today Andre rescues small and mid-size companies that failed to file formal trademarks, or that forgot to file them for all their brands. Listen and learn as Andre explains the most common trademark pitfalls and how to avoid them. Where else but MondayMorningRadio.com?

Every company has Untold Story assets that are hiding in plain sight, and every company has Limiting Factors that are holding them back.This is how you lift a company to new heights:1. Uncover the Untold Stories.2. Devise a plan to overcome the Limiting Factors.Untold Stories and Limiting Factors are not always related.Limiting Factors usually stem from(A.) Company Culture (the vibe of the hive)(B.) Competitive Environment (strengths of opponents and adversaries)Untold Stories always begin at the intersection of Who and Why.(A.) Who pulled the trigger? (Origin Story)(B.) Why did that trigger exist? (Character Diamond)Great ad campaigns require Interesting Characters.Interesting Characters require:(A.) Character Diamonds (Four conflicted, defining characteristics that cause this character to think, act, speak, and see the world the way they do.)(B.) Origin Stories (What happened that put them on the path to where they are now?)Customers should hear each Untold Story in the appropriate Emotional Environment.The appropriate Emotional Environment is created by(A.) The opening sentence of the ad (FMI – First Mental Image)(B.) Media scheduling (what is the customer thinking and feeling right now?)College professors, con-men, and private equity groups believe the primary goal of an ad writer should be to communicate the features and benefits of the product to the customer. But Wizards of Ads know the primary goal of an ad writer is to bond the hearts of the public to the advertiser.Listeners hear these customer-bonding ads and think, “Wow! You, too? I thought I was the only one.” These customer-bonding ads cause the client’s name to be the one that customers think of first and feel the best about.Untold Stories hide in the hearts of advertisers. Customer-bonding ads are born when you uncover those stories and write them in an unpredictable way.Predictable ads are boring.Here is a warm and happy customer-bonding ad Michael Torbay found hiding in the heart of his client on a cold and grey winter day:MARK: “It was the Pop-Tart that did it. I’m Mark Tapper. Someone recently asked me about the day I knew I had to propose to my girlfriend. Spoiler alert: she’s my wife now. But somehow the sound of that toaster popping made me feel so ‘single.’ I loved being single, make no mistake! I got to travel, tried on a few different jobs, went back to school, reinvented myself a couple of times. I was a-work-in-progress when I met Leora. She believed in me more than I did. That was what was on my mind when it suddenly popped: It wasn’t about me anymore. It was about us, together. That’s what I think about when I come to work at Tapper’s Jewelry. I get to meet people at the most exciting time of their lives, and we get to show you a diamond that will express how you feel right now, forever. Come to Tapper’s, tell us your story.”These are the moments in that ad when a customer might think, “Wow! You, too?”1. I suddenly felt so ‘single.’2. I reinvented myself a couple of times.3. I was a-work-in-progress when I met [my wife]4. She believed in me more than I did.5. It wasn’t about me anymore. It was about us, together.Here is another customer-bonding ad for a client in the same category. Listen closely and you’ll hear Jacob Harrison ask his client a question off-mic. Notice how this ad is equally powerful, but comes at you from an entirely different direction:DEVIN: Brad Lawrence, owner of Gold Casters Fine Jewelry.BRAD: When I opened the store, I had no money. We didn’t have the money for inventory. I brought wax models from school to use to cast into projects for customers. Hence the name Gold Casters. Things were so tight at times, I remember the backside of my wedding ring was gone because I didn’t have the money to buy gold to size rings. So I’d cut the pieces out of the back of my wedding band to use as gold stock to size rings for customers. Then when we could afford to, then I’d replace it back on my band.JACOB: Did your wife ever know about that?BRAD: [laughter] Well, when she saw the gap in my ring, obviously she did! But when you looked at it from the top, it looked perfect. It was a very, very humble beginning. I always believed that if you took care of the customers, that the customers would come back, and that you could build a business that way.DEVIN: Gold Casters at Second and Washington in Bloomington.These are the moments in that ad when a customer might think, “Wow! You, too?”I had no money…things were so tight at times that I had to……cut the pieces out of the back of my wedding band – [sacrifice something precious so that I could do the right thing for someone else] – to use as gold stock to size rings for customers.I always believed that if you took care of the customers, that the customers would come back.Here’s a similar story, but told in an entirely different way:SEAN: Standing at the engagement encounter, I felt like Oliver Twist asking for another

How to Shear a Sheepby Barbara KingsolverWalk to the barnbefore dawn.Take off your clothes.Cast everythingon the ground:your nylon jacket,wool socks and all.Throw awaythe cutting tools,the shears that bitelike teeth at the skinwhen hooves flailand your elbowcomes up hardunder a panting throat:no more of that.Sing to them instead.Stand nakedin the morningwith your entreaty.Ask them to come,lay down their woolfor love.That should work.It doesn’t.I lectured them into the night, many hours past my bedtime, telling them how to continue the dazzling success of their father. He was there, listening, nodding his head, making sure they would never forget this night.He and I have worked together since 1989, when we were both very young and our sons were very small. Today he is a rich and famous jeweler in a well-known city. I am the man 500 miles away who writes his ads.His hard-working sons listened intently when I said, “People you trust and admire; people who care about you and your success, will come to you, pull you aside, and tell you with deep concern, ‘You need to change your advertising. You’re not doing it right.’ People who studied advertising in college; friends who feel certain they know what you should do, will say to you, ‘You need to change your advertising. You’re not doing it right.'”I told the sons of my friend about the heart-piercing lessons I learned as a young ad writer. I told them about the clever things I did that I knew would would, had to work, were certain to work, that didn’t work.I told them about all the clever things that I was taught, and trusted, and believed, that didn’t work.I told them about the millions of dollars of other people’s money I had wasted year after year on ideas that didn’t work.And then I told them what I finally noticed, and watched, and understood 35 years ago. I told them the counterintuitive truth that I finally had the eyes to see.I told them what always works. I told them why it never fails to work. And I told them why no one who sees it working ever believes that it will work.Their father nodded his head up and down. The four of us looked at each other and smiled.And then I went home to bed.Roy H. WilliamsPS – “How to Shear a Sheep” is just one of the many delightful poems in a little-known book by the legendary novelist, Barbara Kingsolver. If you haven’t read her novels, you should.Danny Heitman, during the Covid lockdown in 2020, published this book review in The Christian Science Monitor:“Barbara Kingsolver is best known for her novels, including ‘The Bean Trees’ and ‘The Poisonwood Bible,’ and her essay collections, such as ‘Small Wonder’ and ‘High Tide in Tucson.’ She’s not as well known for her poetry, though she should be. ‘How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons)’ collects her best poems from the past few years. It’s a tonic for these pandemic times, reminding us of Robert Frost’s definition of poetry as a ‘momentary stay against confusion.’ Kingsolver’s poems are like that, though their clarity is less a matter of sudden revelation than the slowly ripening insight of age. The title poem, with its ironic parenthetical promise that we can learn to soar after ‘ten thousand easy lessons,’ sounds a winking dissent from all those how-to bestsellers that offer quick mastery of life’s essentials in a handful of effortless steps.”Like I said, I really like Barbara Kingsolver. – RHWRebecca Davison was a banker – a financial advisor to multimillionaires – who went on to build a global following among female entrepreneurs, many of whom are important business leaders. Rebecca teaches them how to earn more money, but that’s not what makes them love her. Like many of you, Rebecca can feel what others are feeling, and she uses this ability to help people experience spiritual and monetary abundance through the development of their intuition: that inborn ability to communicate with the universe. Roving reporter Rotbart – ever the investigative reporter – says, “Whether or not you buy into the notion of metaphysical pathways to success, there is no denying that Rebecca’s methods are delivering results for a lot of people.” It’s happening, and it’s happening right now, at MondayMorningRadio.com

The dew lies softly on the green grass and the sunrise is golden in the early morning sky. I come upon an unspoiled mirror of water. A smooth pebble leaves my fingertips. Yes! I land my pebble perfectly in the bullseye! I watch a concentric circle of ripples reach the edge of the pool and bounce back to the middle where they collide.I wander on.Who knows why we do what we do?I was contemplating Quixote, that strangely enchanting character created by Miguel de Cervantes in 1605.But what was happening across the water in 1605?Having a keyboard at my fingertips, I took an early morning walk backwards-in-time to see what was happening in America while the tormenters of the Inquisition were torturing the innocent people of Spain and wooden blocks were stamping the first edition of Don Quixote onto paper in Madrid.1607: Jamestown, the first permanent settlement by Europeans was founded on the shores of what would later become Virginia.1610: John Rolfe realized he could introduce the tobacco of the Native Americans to the people of Europe. Praise God! This would be the crop that would provide the income that would sustain our little colony on the sparkling shores of this brand-new world.1615: Miquel de Cervantes writes Part Two of Don Quixote, and more characters are carved into wooden blocks to stamp ink onto paper in Madrid.1619: Four thousand Europeans agree to work as indentured servants for a few years in the tobacco fields of Virginia if someone will loan them the money for passage across the Atlantic and give them fifty acres of their own. Among these 4,000 men are Anthony Johnson and 19 other young men of Africa. Each of them work in the tobacco fields to pay off the loans for their passage, then each is awarded 50 acres of his own. Anthony Johnson later becomes successful enough to pay for the passage of 5 more Africans to help him work his land.1650: Thirty-thousand people are working in the tobacco fields of Virginia, including about 300 Africans. Everything seems to be running smoothly and everyone is prospering.1654: Edmund Gayton writes the first commentary in English about Don Quixote. The book is published by William Hunt in London, titled, “Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot.” Later that same year, slavery is introduced to North America when Anthony Johnson convinces the court of Northampton County that he is entitled to the lifetime services of John Casor. This would be the first judicial approval of life servitude, except as punishment for a crime.As I return from my morning walk, I discover catastophic chaos raging in the pond, the unintended consequences of a pebble tossed. The ripples that bounce off the shores of the pond result in unintended collisions and consequences as all sense of symmetry disappears.Some people say only about 3,000 people were executed by the Spanish Inquisition. Other people say it was more like 30,000. No one has ever claimed it was 300,000. But the pebble of tobacco tossed by John Rolfe killed more than 100,000,000 people in the 20th century alone. We can only guess at the number killed by lung cancer and emphysema during the previous two centuries. Tobacco continues to kill about 8 million people a year.The pebble of slavery tossed by Anthony Johnson resulted in the subjugation of millions of innocent people in America for exactly 201 years. And the waves of that storm continue to crash upon the beach 161 years after the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln.Anthony, Anthony, Anthony… why did you throw that pebble 370 years ago?Anthony, if you are listening, please know that you are remembered as a hardworking and successful man who lived with his loving wife Mary for more than 40 years and was admired by everyone. You have been called the patriarch of a very successful community of 300 African-American families who prospered in Virginia during the days when America was new. But after you died in 1670, your plantation was not inherited by your children, but was given to a white colonist when a judge ruled that you were “not a citizen of the colony” because you were black.As I finish my early morning walk backwards-in-time, I hear in my head a sad sigh, and the voice of Kurt Vonnegut saying, “And so it goes.”Yes, Kurt, and so it goes.Roy H. Williams“Never quit on your worst day.” That’s Lesson #1. It’s easy to remember and it’s valuable advice. But the story behind lesson #1 is what makes the lesson magical. Lesson #2 is equally insightful. “You can’t score goals if you’re not on the field.” Phebe Trotman retired as a soccer superstar to become a superstar business coach. The characteristics required to lead a championship soccer team are identical to those required to lead a championship team in business. Phebe Trotman is about to tell young Maxwell Rotbart everything he needs to know. Listen in, and Win! MondayMorningRadio.com

You look at life from a unique point of view.I do, too.Each of us is trapped in our own perceptual reality.“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”You and I may look at the same thing but see it differently. And that little girl over there, yes, that one, sees things differently than either of us. The woman standing next to that little girl has experienced things you and I will never experience, and her reactions to those things have changed her and formed the person she is today. She is trapped inside her own perceptual reality, just like you and me.“Is there a way out of it?”Out of what?“Out of the perceptual reality in which each of us is trapped.”When you modify your perception, you modify your reality.“Explain.”When you listen carefully to an honest person who doesn’t agree with your beliefs, you understand that they experience things differently than you do. And that is when your perceptual reality is modified, and your mind is expanded.“What you are describing is relativism. I believe the facts are the facts, and the truth is the truth, regardless of what you choose to believe.”But would you agree that things are often different than they appear to be?“I’m not sure what you’re saying.”Sometimes we trust facts that are not facts. And even when our facts are correct, the complete truth is usually far more complex than it appears to be on the surface.“I reject that statement. Facts are facts, and the truth is never complex; it is always plain and simple. An honest person who doesn’t see the truth has simply been misinformed.”I respectfully disagree.“Then you have been misinformed.”It was six men of Indostan, to learning much inclined,who went to see the elephant (Though all of them were blind),that each by observation, might satisfy his mind.The first approached the elephant, and, happening to fall,against his broad and sturdy side, at once began to bawl:“God bless me! but the elephant, is nothing but a wall!”The second feeling of the tusk, cried: “Ho! what have we here,so round and smooth and sharp? To me tis mighty clear,this wonder of an elephant, is very like a spear!”The third approached the animal, and, happening to take,the squirming trunk within his hands, “I see,” quoth he,the elephant is very like a snake!”The fourth reached out his eager hand, and felt about the knee:“What most this wondrous beast is like, is mighty plain,” quoth he;“Tis clear enough the elephant is very like a tree.”The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said; “E’en the blindest mancan tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can,This marvel of an elephant, is very like a fan!”The sixth no sooner had begun, about the beast to grope,than, seizing on the swinging tail, that fell within his scope,“I see,” quothe he, “the elephant is very like a rope!”And so these men of Indostan, disputed loud and long,each in his own opinion, exceeding stiff and strong,Though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong!So, oft in theologic wars, the disputants, I ween,tread on in utter ignorance, of what each other mean,and prate about the elephant, not one of them has seen!“Okay, so what’s your point?”Each of the six blind men saw a different elephant, but every one of those six elephants was far more complex than it appeared to be on the surface.“But if the blind men had taken time to gather all the facts, they would have seen the truth of the entire elephant.”That’s true.“Well, that’s what I do. I gather all the facts, and then I see the truth.”You are to be congratulated on that. You are a very special individual.“Thank you.”The rest of us suffer from availability bias and confirmation bias.“What are those?”Availability bias is the result of not having all the facts available to you. When you come to a conclusion based on the facts that are available – and you are unaware that other facts exist – your conclusion will suffer from availability bias. Think of it as a kind of blindness.“Well, I’m certain I’m not suffering from availability bias. My sources of information are rock solid. Beyond dispute.”I’m sure they are.“What is the other one?Confirmation bias.“What’s that?”Confirmation bias is the result of agreeing with information that confirms your belief, and discounting information that conflicts with your belief.“I’m certain I’m not doing that. I use deductive reasoning.”Excellent! Then you know that deductive reasoning requires you to seek out information that might disprove your belief, as you try with all your might to prove that your belief is wrong.“Who does that?”Scientists do that. At least the real ones do. Deductive reasoning is the basis of scientific method. The job of a true scientist is to work as hard as they can to disprove what they believe. And when they cannot disprove it – and no one else can disprove it – only then will it be tentatively accepted as reliable.“But don’t normal people just use common sense?”Yes. Inductive reasoning is when you look at all the facts that conf

A weak ad attempts to make too many points, and none of them very powerfully.A weak ad is a bloated little porcupine.A great ad drives a single point through one side of your house and out the other with all the momentum of a freight train. A powerful ad is a charging rhinoceros.The world is covered in porcupine ads. They waddle slowly across your television screen. They crawl out of your radio like termites. Their dead carcasses are displayed on billboards along the highways. You stumble over them wherever you go.If I paint an unpleasant picture, it is because porcupines are annoying little rodents.But a charging rhino is a wonder to behold. It makes us stop what we’re doing and pay attention. A rhino pays no attention to the hall monitor who wags his finger and scolds, “No running in the hall!”And that really pisses some people off.Chris Torbay wrote a charging rhinoceros radio ad that makes a single point, very powerfully. I told you about it a few weeks ago, one day after it began charging across the sky from the tops of radio towers in Florida.The ad features a woman who works at an insurance company:My name is Michelle, and I work for Chapman Insurance. I work in the call center answering the phone. What kind of job is that you’re thinking? Well, when it’s your call, maybe I make a difference for you. Maybe you were dreading another one of those stupid corporate phone things with their “press one” and “press two” and “press six if a palm tree just fell on your dog house.”[Now Michelle starts to become emotional, getting increasing wound-up as the ad progresses, until she finishes with thundering pride and deep conviction]But you get to talk to a person, and you get to tell a real person how worried you are. And I get it, because I’m a real person, and I do this for a living. And I can see your policy and answer your questions because I know how confusing this can be!! And when you hang up, you feel like someone with a heart and a soul, and a pretty awesome understanding of insurance has had the basic human decency to answer the phone and talk to you like a person instead of making you press six!!! My name is Michelle. I work with Chapman and your insurance call matters to me!!!!Does it surprise you that the insurance company has had multiple complaints about that ad?It makes a single point:“Business phones should be answered by knowledgeable people who can give you accurate and immediate answers.”Rhinoceros ads always get complaints.Chris Torbay has a younger brother named Mick Torbay who lives in Toronto and rides a rhinoceros everywhere he goes. Mick and I had lunch yesterday with Kyle Caldwell of Atlanta and Ryan Chute of Halifax. Mick said,“When I unleash an ad, there is a specific number of complaints I’m looking for, and it isn’t zero.”The rest of us nodded our affirmation.The majority of people love to see a rhino put on a show. They love rhinos because rhinos are never boring. Porcupines are boring.The rage of the tiny people who are shouting at Chapman Insurance are mostly business owners who are using those abominable “press one” and “press two” machines instead of having the basic human decency to answer the phone and talk to you like a person. You can see now how that ad could make them angry, right?Porcupine lovers are prickly, and easily aggrieved, and quick to call and shout,“Your ads are terrible! You’re not doing it right! You should hire a professional who knows how to talk about features and benefits and price and selection and value and convenience and how long you’ve been in business, and all the awards you’ve won, and say the name of your company at least 7 times in the first 30 seconds. You need to find an advertising professional who knows how to make your ad sound like an ad!”Like I said, porcupines are annoying little rodents.Roy H. WilliamsAfter 16 years as a wedding photographer, Ryan Erickson decided he was barking up the wrong tree. He was making money, but he no longer had a passion for his work. So Ryan decided to try his hand at fine art photography, and now he’s thinking of going nationwide. His clients love how his fine-art portraits accentuate the subtleties of faces, especially the eyes. Ryan brings his state-of-the-art equipment to his clients in a mobile studio, but the most unique aspect of Ryan’s service are the free belly rubs he gives to each of the retrievers, shepherds, bulldogs, beagles, and other canines who pose for him. “It’s so much easier and enjoyable working with dogs,” Ryan tells roving reporter Rotbart and his co-host son, Maxwell. Today’s episode is going to the dogs! MondayMorningRadio.com

Efficiency experts say you must plan your work and work your plan. And you must have written goals and a budget and a schedule.A detailed plan is the key to success when you are doing something small, but you cannot have a detailed plan when you are doing something big and new and untried.You know a project is small when all the variables can be known in advance.When you do something big and new and untried, you will come to a place that your plan did not foresee. This is when you must improvise. Later, you will discover that you are making decisions at the last moment, because that is when you have the most information.Possibilities are in your mind. Reality is at your fingertips. So get started. Move. Take action. Do something.Clarity, commitment, and continual improvement are what you need most when doing something big and new and untried.1: Clarity means you have a clear vision of the outcome you are hoping to bring into reality.2: When you have clarity, you always know what to do next.3: Commitment means that quitting will never occur to you.4: When you have commitment, you find a solution to every obstacle.5: Continual Improvement means that you touch your project every day without fail.6: Touching your project every day – and moving it forward a little – unleashes the power of Exponential Little Bits, the energy that spins your flywheel.7: A thousand tiny touches don’t add up, they multiply. Two becomes four. Four becomes eight. Eight becomes sixteen, and 28 cycles later you have exceeded one billion.8: The only things you cannot know in advance are(A.) How long is it going to take?(B.) How much is it going to cost?9: If you insist on knowing those answers in advance, these are the answers:(A.) It will take as long as it takes(B.) It will cost what it costs.10: If you demand answers with more details, you either lack commitment or you believe I can see the future.11: I cannot see the future.12: The only hard part is step number one.You will notice I have given you a 12-step program. This is because doing things that are big, new, and untried is highly addictive, and every addictive thing has its own 12-step program.Do not confuse it with a plan.Roy H. WilliamsPS – George Bernard Shaw said, “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” Roy might tell you more about George Bernard Shaw next week. Or then again, maybe not. – IndyCharlie Munger was the billionaire businessman who built Berkshire Hathaway side-by-side with Warren Buffett. Just weeks before Munger died at age 99, Gregory Zuckerman of The Wall Street Journal spent 4 hours with Charlie in the billionaire’s Los Angeles home and came away with some life-changing insights. This week, roving reporter Rotbart interviews the last journalist to interview Charlie Munger, which makes everyone who listens to this week’s episode of Monday Morning Radio just three degrees of separation from Charlie Munger and four degrees from Warren Buffett. How can you resist? This party will start the moment you arrive at MondayMorningRadio.com.

A germ is a tiny thing, but it can divide and become two germs, then four.Four becomes eight and after only 28 more cycles you find yourself handcuffed in the sad darkness of more than one billion germs.One billion, seventy-three million, seven hundred and forty-one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-four germs, to be exact.And they are all trying to kill you.Unlike the more beautiful forms of life, germs carry only one set of chromosomes instead of two. They reproduce by dividing into two cells, a process called binary fission.It began as a tiny cut. But every time you open that wound, you increase the pain of it.This is why it is dangerous to nurse a grudge. When we remember painful moments, we increase their strength.Did you know that most of what we remember never really happened? At least not the way we remember it.When we remember something that happened, we do not recall the event objectively. None of us do. We reconstruct the event according to how it made us feel the last time we thought about it. We remember only the memory of our memory.The memories you carry in your mind are distorted reconstructions, at best. But the assumptions you made – especially the motives and intentions you ascribed to other people – quickly crystallize into “indisputable facts” in your mind.That last statement bears repeating: the motives and intentions you ascribe to other people quickly crystallize into “indisputable facts” in your mind.Therein lies a great danger. When you nurse a grudge, you distort reality by crystallizing emotional impressions into “hard facts” that you believe with all your heart. And the more often you revisit that pain, the tighter your handcuffs and the deeper your darkness.We’ve heard it before, but it is good for us to hear it again:“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”Every person deserves to be remembered for their best moment.Take that thought with you into the new year. When you remember a person, search the secret corners of your mind for an event, a moment, something that person said, or did, that makes you smile a little. Replace your dark, sad memory with one that is happy and light.Don’t do it for them. Do it for you.Have a happy new year.Roy H. WilliamsSide Hustles, Online Retailing, Military Contracts, Bras, Walt Disney, Firefighters, Business Exit Strategies, and Worms. Those were 8 of the Top 10 Episodes for MondayMorningRadio in 2023. This week, roving reporter Rotbart – with brilliant co-host and son, Maxwell – revisit the highlights of 2023 and share an audio preview of their new book, a Monday Morning Radio anthology offering insights from 25 of the most interesting guests in the history of the show. The book won’t be released until March, but you can begin profiting from its compiled wisdom the moment you arrive at MondayMorningRadio.com

“The thing about the systematic reduction of a woman down to her parts is that she doesn’t always know it’s happening while it’s going on. Just one day she wakes up and realizes that all she was,was a face,a line of cleavage,two legs,a couple of hands,the swivel of her pelvis,the swell of her breast.We were just the disembodied parts in the display cases. One day we wake up to find out that the diamonds were never chocolate at all; they were brown the whole time. And our bodies, which are finally ours again, can move on all we want, though they forever remain a library of our lives — of the hurt and the shame, and of what we either allowed or didn’t allow other people to get away with.”– Taffy Brodesser-Akner, The New York Times, April 23, 2019“The number of ‘likes’ a photo receives is correlated with sexualization on Instagram. This partially confirmed Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of self-objectification, where young women generally see themselves as objects for viewers to judge through ‘likes.'”– Amber L. Horan,“Picture This! Objectification Versus Empowerment in Women’s Photos on Social Media”“In a society where media is the most persuasive force shaping cultural norms, the collective message we receive is that a woman’s value and power lies in her youth, beauty, and sexuality, and not in her capacity, inner-self, or passions.”– Sonia SuarezLike most men, I’ve long been fascinated with women. But what, exactly, defines “woman”? Definitions are so conflicted that I believe anyone who attempts to define “woman” is certain to be criticized. But when has that ever been an impediment to a curious mind? Today’s examination of the mystery and magic of women begins with a handful of quotes that show us “the perfect woman” that can exist only in the mind of a man. Psychologist Carl Jung calls her the anima. I call her, “The Imaginary Woman.”“What do we know about the goddesses, those elusive female figures, stronger than human males, more dangerous than male deities, who represent not real women but the dreams of real men?”– Alice Bach, Women in the Hebrew Bible, p. 17“I think the idealization of women is indigenous to men. There are various ways of idealizing women, especially sexually, based in almost every case on their inaccessibility. When a woman functions as an unobtainable love object, she takes on a mythical quality.”– James Dickey, Self Interviews, p. 153Miguel de Cervantes gave us a perfect example of the imaginary woman 418 years ago. Don Quixote sees a village girl in the distance – Aldonza Lorenzo by name – and says,“Her name is Dulcinea, her kingdom, Toboso, which is in La Mancha, her condition must be that of princess, at the very least, for she is my queen and lady, and her beauty is supernatural, for in it one finds the reality of all the impossible.”In the book, Don Quixote never meets Dulcinea. He sees her only from a distance. Like Helen of Troy – the face that launched 1,000 ships – Dulcinea is the anima, that perfect woman who can exist only in the imagination of a man. Everything Quixote accomplishes and endures is in her name and for her honor.“The girls in body-form slacks wander the High Street with locked hands while small transistor radios sit on their shoulders and whine love songs in their ears. The younger boys, bleeding with sap, sit on the stools of Tanger’s Drugstore ingesting future pimples through straws. They watch the girls with level goat-eyes and make disparaging remarks to one another while their insides whimper with longing.”– John Steinbeck“Freda was a dazzle, a virtual watercolor of a woman whose moods and mannerisms were as electric as her wild black hair. Her grin alone, a flash of Ipana-white teeth, head tossed back, stopped men in their tracks, delayed them in traffic, and threatened their wives so completely even the milkman was not allowed to deliver at Freda’s house.”“At the age of thirty-five Freda had had a mastectomy. The bow and arrow was her therapy, to strengthen what was left of her chest muscles. Her body had been perfect, a sculptor’s model, and she’d worn her summer shirts tied up high under her breasts, braless most of the time.She still wore her shirts knotted at the rib cage, but now they were men’s cotton pajama tops, the material thicker so you could not see through; but often when she bent forward I could see the scarred bony place where the breast had been. I never knew if she was bitter for the loss, if she stared at the deformity in the mirror and wished for a time when she’d been whole. She never said. I never asked. She was not a woman martyred by tragedy, nor was she at all acquainted with self-pity. She’d tried once to kill my stepfather, whom she’d always referred to by his first and last names, Bill McClain, the two words run together in her odd accent so it came out ‘Bimicain,’ sounding like a fungal cream.”– Lorian Hemingway, Walk on Water, p. 38-39“Half a dozen global studies, conducted by the likes of Go

I don’t know if he was was an American Patriot or a British Loyalist. All I know is that he owned a 1726 edition of “The Gentleman Angler,” a leather bound book on fly fishing.That book was 50 years old when Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence.Speaking of Jefferson, that same fly-fisherman bought a first edition of the complete, 4-volume leather bound set of “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies” written by Thomas Jefferson and published in 1829. This leads me to believe that our fly-fishing friend purchased his 103-year-old copy of the 1726 edition of “The Gentleman Angler” at about that same time, roughly 200 years ago.There were no modern books in his collection.I just realized something. Our fly-fishing friend was obviously an American Patriot, or he would not have purchased Thomas Jefferson’s “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies” in 1829.“Hang on a moment, Roy, you identified that man as a ‘Fly-Fishing Fanatic’ in the title of today’s MondayMorningMemo. What led you to call him that?”I call him a “Fly-Fishing Fanatic” because the majority of the 18 books in his collection were about fly fishing, including a 1750 edition, a 1760 edition, and an 1823 edition of “The Compleat Angler” by Izaak Walton.I bought his entire collection because books are cool, especially books that are centuries old.What would have been REALLY cool, though, is if this lover-of-books who lived during the years of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington also owned an original, 1605 first-edition of Don Quixote de La Mancha. Wouldn’t that have been cool?There are only 10 known copies of that book in all the world, and the last one to change hands sold 35 years ago for 1,500,000 dollars. There are no universities that own a copy, and there are no copies available to public view except the one that is owned by the citizens of the United States of America, and that one is closely guarded in our Library of Congress.Did you guess already?Our colonial fly-fishing friend did, in fact, own a 1605 edition of Cervantes’ masterpiece, and I bought it with the rest of his collection.The mystery is that my copy is roughly 8 inches by 11 inches, much larger than the 4-inch by 6-inch edition owned by the Library of Congress. My copy is, without question, extraordinarily old. The attributes that bring me to this conclusion are not easily faked.The cover is wrapped in the remains of old, brittle vellum – tightly stretched animal skin – and the pages are substantial and thick. It is not, however, the unauthorized pirated version published in Portugal in 1605, because mine has the correct 1605 frontispiece and title page, identical to that of the 4-inch by 6-inch 1605 edition held by the Library of Congress.My copy has the vellum cover and ties, like the 1605 Portuguese edition and the 1620 English edition, but it is neither of those.It appears to a centuries old Presentation Edition, if such a thing existed so long ago.The print seems to occupy about the same dimensions as the smaller, first book, but the pages themselves are bigger and more substantial, as if the original press was used on larger paper, leaving a lot of unprinted paper bordering the original-sized text.Meredith Mann, a specialist at the New York Public Library, writes,“Don Quixote was first printed in Madrid in 1605. It was an immediate success—the first edition quickly sold out, and new ones were printed both in Spain and throughout Europe. I can’t neglect mentioning that the Rare Book Division holds one of these scarce early printings, in a contemporary and typically Spanish binding of limp vellum, labelled by hand on its spine.” She wasn’t describing my book when she wrote that in 2015, but she might as well have been.We have, for the moment at least, a rare and unidentifiable unicorn.I have no doubt that my friends in the Cervantes Society will be happy to help identify our unicorn, and the Rare Book Division of the New York Public Library very generously offers to help answer questions for researchers.In any event, I am content. My Don Quixote is old and rare and wonderful; beautiful on the inside, but outwardly rough and tattered like Quixote, himself. This Quixote reminds me of the Quixote within its pages; he began in a library, but then went out and did the things he had read about. This book has lived what Hunter S. Thompson was talking about when he said,“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a Ride!'”Until we know for sure exactly what it is, I will keep it in a safe deposit box at the bank. If it turns out to be as unique as it currently appears to be, Pennie and I plan to loan it to an American university that will keep it on display to the public. We have

Irwin Michnick, the Brooklyn-born son of a Jewish furrier from Ukraine, was a jazz musician who wrote radio commercials and advertising jingles for companies like L & M cigarettes and Ken-L Ration dog food.Bob Levenson was a copywriter at Doyle Dane Bernbach who needed a tune to go with the words, “Everybody doesn’t like something, but nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee.” Irwin Michnick got the call.But it was a different call that led to Irwin Michnik winning a Tony Award and the Contemporary Classics Award from the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Placido Domingo, and more than 70 other superstars of music have recorded the song that Michnik wrote.Josh Groban included it on his 2020 album, Harmony.Aretha Franklin sang it at the funeral of civil rights activist Rosa Parks.Senator Edward Kennedy asked that it be sung at his funeral, as well. And it was.The song teaches us that passion does not create commitment, but that commitment creates passion. It is a song that teaches us that we can achieve the miraculous only if we are willing to attempt the ridiculous.Do you remember the Ze Frank quote I shared with you last week? The one where Ze talks about how the hero throws himself into battle against impossible odds, fiercely pushing, shoulders back, despite the knowledge that he can’t win, that he will die in the end?Irwin Michnik wrote the music and Joe Darion wrote the words. It is the theme song of Wizard Academy, that school for entrepreneurs and ad writers and educators and ministers and researchers and every other agent-of-change who has become infected with an impossible dream.Do you remember the song now? Of course you do. It starts like this, “To dream the impossible dream; to fight the unbeatable foe; to bear with unbearable sorrow; to run where the brave dare not go.”You probably don’t remember Irwin Michnik because he was known professionally as Mitch. Mitch Leigh.I’ll bet you can guess what Indy Beagle has for you in the rabbit hole.In other news about impossible dreams, last week I bought an extremely old copy of the book Miguel de Cervantes wrote that inspired the song by Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion.Perhaps I’ll tell you about it after the beginning of the year.Ciao for Niao,Roy H. WilliamsGood business ideas often die on the vine because of the cost and logistics of bringing those ideas into reality. Uzair Ahmed saw all these missed opportunities, so he figured figured out how to use technology and automation to make these good business ideas come alive. Uzair tested a high-tech, low-overhead system to launch a business that provides on-site car repairs. Guess what? It succeeded wildly. Now, Uzair tells roving reporter Rotbart, he can help other businesses cut their costs up to 60% by following his model. And this also reduces the number of hours a business owner has to spend at work. We’ve struck the match and lit the fuse. If you want to see the fireworks, hurry over to MondayMorningRadio.com

Back in 2012, Ze Frank recorded a video I’ve contemplated for 11 years.“What was it about?”The hero and the clown.“What made it so interesting that you’ve contemplated it for so long?”The hero and the clown are the same person.“You’re going to need to explain that to me.”Here’s the transcript. Read it:“Once I was lucky enough to take a class with the great clown teacher Giovanni Fusetti and one of the things that he talked about was the ancient idea of a hero. In the Greek myths, humans were subject to massive and unknown forces outside of their control. The whims of the gods – fickle gods – the gods of wind, waves and war, of luck, of love, of age and death. And from up on Mount Olympus, humans, humans look like little ants in the face of all these things. Giovanni said that despite these unknowns the hero pushes, pushes up against all these forces, fiercely pushes, shoulders back, despite the knowledge that he can’t win, that he will die in the end. The clown on the other hand, celebrates the falling, the failure, the absurdity of skipping along the bottom, the absurdity of trying at all…”– Ze Frank, Unfair, June 22, 2012“Okay, that was interesting. But I don’t see how you could still be thinking about that after 11 years.”It answered a question for me.“So, what was the question?”How can one person look at Don Quixote and see a hero, and another person look at him and see a clown?“Sometimes you think about some really weird crap. You know that, right?”Yeah, I know that.“You need to tie all this together for me.”Cervantes wrote Don Quixote in 1605, and for the past 418 years, a person’s interpretation of that book has depended almost entirely on when and where they lived.“For real?”Yeah. For real.“Why?”Why, what?“Why does it depend on when and where they lived?”There are two specific times when people read the story of Don Quixote:When a nation is pursuing a beautiful dream, the artists of that nation will paint, and sculpt, and write plays about heroes who fight against impossible odds. And they will cheer for Don Quixote, a visionary hero who saw beauty, justice, and honor in a common village girl who didn’t know he was alive.Generations later, weary, disheartened, and brittle, those same nations will laugh at the absurdity of believing in heroes, and their comedians will mock the foolishness of relentless determination. And they will sneer at Don Quixote, a man who saw visions of beauty, justice and honor in a common village girl who didn’t know he was alive.“So what does America believe about Don Quixote right now?”Answer me this, Indy: Do you feel our nation is pursuing a beautiful dream? Or do you feel we are weary, disheartened, and brittle?“Considering that everyone is suspicious of everyone right now, I’d say that we are the second one.”Indy, I want you to research the founding fathers and find out whether they were reading Don Quixote when they were dreaming the dream of America, and fighting against impossible odds to escape from under the bootheel of King George.“You want me to put it in the rabbit hole?”That’s up to you, my little Beagle friend, but I’m hoping you will.“I will under one condition.”Name it.“Tell me what brought this on. I need to know why you’re telling me all this.”Do you remember what I told all those people who came to Austin to hear my final presentation of ‘Pendulum’ 11 years ago?“I remember the tower was full, but you said a lot of things during those 2 days. Which of those things are you talking about?”It was near the end, when someone asked me how soon I would be teaching ‘Pendulum’ again.“I remember that you told them you wouldn’t be teaching it again for at least 10 years. And everyone was shocked and asked you why. And you told them it was because there wasn’t going to be any good or happy news for the next 10 years, but that they were going to be crappiest 10 years in the whole 80-year, round trip of the Pendulum. You said there wouldn’t be even a glimmer of light at the end of that dark tunnel until 2024, when everything would start to slowly get better, little by little, at the speed of agriculture.”You have a good memory, Indy.“I’ve got one more question.”I’ll answer it for you in the rabbit hole.Roy H. WilliamsUX stands for “user experience,” and a deep understanding of it has allowed Satyam Kantamneni to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in additional income for his clients. Think of it this way: if you could experience your business the way your customers do, you would know exactly what to change to make it a more magnetic experience, causing customers to come back more often and from farther away. The most powerful differentiator in today’s competitive business environment is the customer’s experience. UX: Master it and win. Find out how at MondayMorningRadio.com

Ninety percent of motorcycle riders who attempt this corner at 100 mph crash and die, so 9% of riders who attempt it at 10 mph will also crash and die, right?The fact that you answered silently ‘No’ indicates that you instinctively understand the concept of an inflection point.Somewhere between zero and 100 mph is the inflection point where crashes begin to occur, and every mile-per-hour above that inflection point increases the likelihood of a crash.Although we instinctively understand the reality of the inflection point when reducing from the greater to the smaller, we somehow believe things are infinitely scalable when moving from the smaller to the greater.If we can navigate the corner at 77 mph, then we can do it at 78 mph. And if we can do it at 78 mph, we can certainly do it at 79 mph. And if 79 is doable, then so is 80, right?I’m talking to you about lead generation for your business.A few days ago, I was having a conversation that I find myself having far too often. I have an acquaintance in the air conditioning business who told me he was planning to increase his Google budget. He said,“If I increase my Google budget by 50%, I’ll get 50% more leads.”He’s been in business about 11 years and is a major player in his city, so I asked, “During peak season, how many calls do you get on the average day?”He told me the number, then I said, “Now think of all your competitors and estimate the number of calls they could possibly be getting. Give it some thought. Don’t leave anyone out.”I gave him time to think, then said, “Add that call volume to your call volume. Now tell me, what is the largest possible number of people that could possibly need air conditioning service during peak season?”He gave me a number. I asked, “Is there any way it could be higher than that?”“No.”“Peak season has been over for awhile. How many clicks are you currently buying each day?” His eyes got big and he said,“I’m already buying more than 3 times that many clicks every day! How is that possible?”“Are you asking me how it is possible that a finite number of people in your city are in the market for your product today, but the number of clicks available today is infinite? Is that what you’re asking?”He shook his head yes, so I told him the answer.I run into the same problem when talking to clients about radio ads. They say,“Every time I have increased my radio budget, my sales have increased. So I want to increase my budget again.”“It won’t do you any good.”“But it has always worked in the past.”“It won’t work this time because you are already reaching all the people who spend enough time listening to the radio each week to make it possible for you to reach them with sufficient repetition. The only people left are the ones who don’t spend enough time listening. We’re going to have to add a new media: TV, or billboards, or maybe direct mail.”“Will it work as well as the radio?”“Of course not. Because we’re at an inflection point.”“What do you mean?”“You’re already reaching 39% of your city with enough repetition for those people to know who you are and what you do and how you do it and why they should choose you. So whatever media we buy next, you’ve got to keep in mind that we’re already reaching 39% of those people with relentless repetition on the radio. The best-case scenario is that you’re going to see about 60% as much business growth per ad dollar as you’ve seen in the past.”No one wants to hear that.People want to believe that everything related to business is infinitely scalable. But there is always an inflection point when lead generation becomes more expensive.The happy times are when you reach that glorious inflection point when things really begin to take off. Like when you are far enough into a 52-week TV or radio campaign for the public to have heard enough about you to finally start choosing to buy from you.Sadly, this TV/Radio inflection point is usually somewhere between week 13 and week 26. Not always, but usually. Most advertisers don’t stay with it that long, because most advertising salespeople don’t have the courage to tell them it’s going to take that long.The exception, of course, is when you have an urgent message about a limited-time offer. Those ads usually start working much sooner.Problem solved, right? Just run direct-response ads with an attractive offer and a strong call to action!But inflection points in advertising are funny:Anything that works quickly, will work less and less well the longer you do it.Anything that works better and better the longer you do it, will always seem, at first, like it’s not working at all.Roy H. WilliamsEvery day, 3,000 new people decide to get into the game of online selling. Ninety percent of them – 2,700 per day – will never make a single sale. Matthew Stafford knows what they are doing wrong and how to fix it. Matthew’s magical formula for won’t drive potential customers to a website, but it will definitely convince prospects who visit a site to cl

Poetry is not limited to poets.When you1. say more2. in fewer words,you are being poetic.Pithy, insightful statements are poetry.Frederik Pohl was not trying to explain why we increase our purchases of ice cream, alcohol, and entertainment when we are sad, but he summarizes it perfectly in just 20 words:“What I wanted very badly was something to take my mind off all the things that were on my mind.”1In another of his books, Frederik Pohl uses just 15 words to remind us of something we have often seen and always known:“No circumstances were ever so bad that a little human effort couldn’t make them worse.”2Frederik Pohl was not a poet or a philosopher, but a science fiction writer born in 1919.Does this next statement conjure an image in your mind?“How clearly I saw what he had become! A man who so loved religiosity that he traded his ethical responsibilities for the brightness of that love.”3 – Arkady MartineArkady Martine is not a poet or a philosopher, but another science fiction writer.“Vanity manifests itself in overseriousness. To the vain, the trivialities of this world are of momentous importance. Everything that happens to a vain person is terribly important.”4– Eric Hoffer, a dockworker“It’s steel country, anthracite country, a place full of holes. Smokestacks fume and locomotives trundle back and forth on elevated conduits and leafless trees stand atop slag heaps like skeleton hands shoved up from the underworld.”5– Anthony Doerr, a novelistPoetry is not limited to poets. When you say more, in fewer words, you are being poetic.Most people avoid poetry because they feel it to be sissy, elitist, and irrelevant. After all, who wants to say more in fewer words?Every advertiser on the planet, that’s who.Poetic statements jump over the wall of the intellect to land on the softest parts of the heart.And if you win the heart, the mind will follow. The mind will always create logic to justify what the heart has already decided.Transactional writing wins the mind.Relational writing wins the heart.Transactional writing is about features and benefits.Relational writing is about identity reinforcement.Learn to say more in fewer words.People will pay close attention when you speak.Your ads will produce miraculous results.Your meetings will be shorter and more productive.You will be widely admired, much remembered, and often quoted.In the 6th chapter of Matthew’s Good News, Jesus tells his followers not to include mindless repetition in their prayers. God doesn’t need filler words, and he doesn’t need us to repeat ourselves in order to be heard.That’s right, God doesn’t need filler words.And neither do the rest of us.Roy H. Williams1The Annals of the Heechee, p. 912 The Other End of Time, chap. 153A Desolation Called Peace, p. 2694Working and Thinking on the Waterfront, p.955All the Light We Cannot See, p. 24He started with $200,000 in 2018. Today it is $200,000,000. You can do it, too. Bronson Hill heard Warren Buffet say that people will work the rest of their lives if they don’t find a way to make money while they sleep. This week, Bronson reveals to roving reporter Rotbart his successful strategies for passive investment in real estate. You can always count on our roving Reporter to seek out interesting people with fascinating stories for you to hear at MondayMorningRadio.com.

Fiction is an ancient virtual reality technology that specializes in simulating human problems.“Like a flight simulator, fiction projects us into intense simulations of problems that run parallel to those we face in reality. And like a flight simulator, the main virtue of fiction is that we have a rich experience and don’t die at the end.”That was Jonathan Gottschall. This is the stunningly brilliant Chris Torbay.“My name is Michelle, and I work for Chapman Insurance. I work in the call center answering the phone. ‘What kind of job is that?’ you’re thinking. Well, when it’s your call, maybe I make a difference for you. Maybe you were dreading another one of those stupid corporate phone things with their ‘press one’ and ‘press two’ and ‘press six if a palm tree just fell on your doghouse,’… but you get to talk to a person, and you get to tell a real person how worried you are. And I get it because I’m a real person and I do this for a living! And I can see your policy and answer your questions because I know how confusing this can be, and when you hang up, you feel like someone with a heart and a soul, and a pretty awesome understanding of insurance has had the basic human decency to answer the phone and talk to you like a person instead of making you press six!!!!! My name is Michelle!!!! I work with Chapman, and your insurance call matters to me!!!!”[MALE VOICE] Visit cigFlorida.com© Chris Torbay 2023Jonathan Gottschall goes on to say,“Fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than nonfiction, which is designed to persuade through argument and evidence. Studies show that when we read nonfiction, we read with our shields up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard.”“There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.”– Doris Lessing, winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature“Escapist fantasies are laughably superficial. Attaining them isn’t what we really want. If we did, they’d no doubt bore or disappoint us. We don’t want the fantasy. We want to fantasize.”– Evan Puschak, Escape into Meaning, p.109“The one thing emphasized in any creative writing course is ‘write what you know,’ and that automatically drives a wooden stake through the heart of imagination. If they really understood the mysterious process of creating fiction, they would say, ‘You can write about anything you can imagine.'”– Tom Robbins“Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.”– Francisco GoyaBut how does a person become creative?“When you notice a commonality between two or more things, you say, ‘Oh there’s something there.’ And now we make what’s called a charm bracelet: You take these things and you find a way to associate them. So that’s the process: I’m thinking about this [one] thing and then remember this [other] thing, and then you go, ‘Oh there’s something there — let me connect those 2 things.”– Jerry SeinfeldBrandon Sanderson agrees with Jerry Seinfeld:“The way that human creativity works is by combination. That’s what we’re really good at. We don’t come up with a completely new creature. We put a horn on a horse and go, ‘Look at that, that’s cool.’ That’s how we create on a fundamental level.”And Steve Jobs agreed with both Seinfeld and Sanderson:“Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights that others don’t see.”But where do you find all these bits and pieces to put together to make Seinfeld’s charm bracelet, or Sanderson’s unicorn, or Steve Jobs’ iPhone?“I had a boss in radio when I was 18 years old, and my boss told me to write down every idea I get even if I can’t use it at the time… and have a system for filing it away—because a good idea is of no use to you unless you can find it… A lot of creativity is discovery. A lot of things are lying around waiting to be discovered, and our job is to just notice them and bring them to life.”– George Carlin, explaining the origin of his “capture habit.”Every innovation is the result of creativity, and every innovation has a purpose. But does this mean that fiction writing must also have a purpose?“I maintain that fiction has no duty or obligation whatsoever except never to be boring—and even that is usually subjective. I’ve found that when a talented writer is operating with such wild poetic energy, such freedom from academic rules, social pressures, and normal expectations, that he or she is on the verge of losing control and crashing (like a daring downhill skier, for example), the resulting prose can be very nearly hallucinatory and absolutely exhilarating.”– Tom Robbins, talking to François Happe (March, 2009)But fiction can serve a purpose, can’t it?“Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make i

Beautiful people know they are beautiful.Smart people know they are smart.Rich people know they are rich.You don’t need to tell them.If you speak about surface qualities, your words are superficial.If you speak about inner qualities, your words are deep.Flattery is an attempt at superficial bonding. It is the pickup line of a creep in a bar, hitting on a pretty girl. Creeps talk to women about the ‘features and benefits’ they see on the surface of the woman, and then they describe their own ‘features and benefits.’I am talking to you about advertising.Transactional ads describe something that is outside your current possession. Transactional ads are written to entice you to buy a product. Their offer of features and benefits is basically this: “Give me what I want, and I’ll give you what you want.”We settle for sex when we cannot find love.Most ads focus on ‘features and benefits’ because most marketing is created by morons.The woman in the bar is your customer. She is standing alone on a tiny island surrounded by an ocean of ‘features and benefits’, but it is an ocean only a few inches deep.What do you think would happen if you offered her what she really wants? What do you think would happen if your only goal was to rescue her forever from that tiny island?Relational ads speak to values and beliefs deep in your customer’s heart. Relational marketing is about meeting your customer’s needs today, tomorrow, and forever.Transactional marketing is about satisfying the need of the hour.Relational marketing is about satisfying the needs of a lifetime.“But,” you say, “product marketing isn’t about a relationship. It is about the features and benefits of the product.”Apple was the first company in the world to achieve a trillion-dollar valuation. Did Steve Jobs build that brand on transactional ads that described the features and benefits of Apple products? Apple-solutely not!In 1985, when Steve Jobs was fired from the company he had founded, a moron took over the marketing at Apple and immediately began talking about ‘features and benefits’. Those superficial ads plunged Apple into obscurity and brought the company to the brink of bankruptcy.When Steve Jobs came back to rescue Apple, he made a 7-minute speech to his team. (Indy Beagle has a video of that speech for you in today’s rabbit hole.)Steve begins that speech with these words:“To me, marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. It’s a very noisy world, and we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us, no company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want ’em to know about us.”Four minutes later, he finishes with this:“The things that Apple believed in at its core are the same things that Apple really stands for today. And so we wanted to find a way to communicate this. And what we have is something that I am very moved by. It honors those people who have changed the world. Some of them are living, some of them are not. But the ones that aren’t, as you’ll see, you know, that if they ever used a computer, it would’ve been a Mac. The theme of the campaign is Think Different. It’s the people honoring the people who think different and who move this world forward. And it is what we are about. It touches the soul of this company. So I’m going to go ahead and roll it, and I hope that you feel the same way about it I do.”“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”The strategy of Apple was to romanticize the idea of being an outsider, a renegade, an independent thinker, free from the handcuffs of tradition.Steve Jobs never spoke of the superficial differences between his products and the others. He spoke of what was in his heart, your heart, and my heart.He also spoke of Nike:“One of the greatest jobs of marketing that the universe has ever seen is Nike. Remember, Nike sells a commodity. They sell shoes. And yet, when you think of Nike, you feel something different than a shoe company in their ads. As you know, they don’t ever talk about the product. They don’t ever tell you about their air soles and why they’re better than Reebok’s air soles. What does Nike do in their advertising? They honor great athletes, and they honor great athletics. That’s who they are. That’s what they are about.”Apple and Nike were not built on transactional ads.Transactional ads are a desperate attempt to win the customer who is currently, consciously, ready to buy a product or service in your category t

Portals are openings that lead from one place to another.The best screenwriters, novelists, poets, and ad writers use portals when they want their readers, listeners, and viewers to follow them to a new and different place.Portals can be visual, auditory, or literary.Visual Portalslike windows, doors, and tunnels, are used by painters, photographers, and graphic artists.A portal makes a 2-dimensional image psychologically 3-dimensional.There is(1.) the foreground,(2.) the portal (window) and(3.) a different reality on the other side.We see a kitchen, with people sitting at a table in the foreground. The kitchen counter is covered with the implements of cooking. But our eyes are attracted to the portal: a window under which the table sits… Looking through that window, we see that we are high up on a mountain overlooking a valley through which a whitewater stream makes its way to the sea.There is one world on this side of that window, and another world on the other.Portals make it easier for readers, listeners, and viewers to follow you on your journey of imagination.Auditory portalsbeckon you toward a world beyond. These portals of sound are another type of window that pulls you toward the valley, the river, and the sea.Pitch, key, tempo, rhythm, interval, and contour are the 6 sub-languages in the language of music. Each of these involves movement up-and-down, and/or left and right. This is what makes them two-dimensional. To create a portal, we must add depth, the 3rd dimension.Harmony provides depth, thus opening an auditory portal.Major 7th chords provide depth, and thus open auditory portals.When you strike the 1, 3, 5 and 7 keys in the major scale on a piano, you are playing a major 7th.Strike the 1 and the 7 without the 3 and the 5, and you will create a truly horrible sound; a sound from which you will want to escape. Add the 3 and the 5 to that ugly 1 and 7, and you will hear a rich, lush sound with all the transcendent DEPTH of rich harmony. Auditory portals make is easier for people to follow you to the place you are trying to take them.Literary Portalsare references from books, plays, movies, and TV shows that allow you to transfer a vivid mental image using only a few words.Example: “I was so deep in thought I felt like Hamlet talking to the skull of Yorick.”Example: “A drug dealer is a reverse Robin Hood, robbing the poor and giving the money to the rich.”Example: “When you step off a train in Switzerland, you step through the wardrobe into Narnia.”Literary Portals are another type of window, door, or tunnel.The tunnel of a rabbit hole takes Alice into Wonderland.The tunnel of a telephone landline allows Morpheus, Neo, and Trinity to get in and out of the Matrix. (They cannot do it over a cell phone.)Doors called waygates allow Moiraine and the Aes Sedai to go from place to place in the Wheel of Time.The spiraling tunnel of a tornado takes Dorothy into Oz.The portal of Platform 9 3/4 in the train station allows Harry Potter to leave the world of muggles.The shape of a spiralis a portal that pulls you in. It is always associated with a feeling of spin.Elevator Portalstake you to a different level. The concept of going up or down is easily communicated by the image of a ladder, stairs, an escalator, or an elevator.Elevator portals can be visual, auditory, or literary.A Dreamis a portal into a symbolic world; a waygate that allows you a glimpse of the unconscious as your pattern-recognizing right-brain processes your unresolved thoughts and impressions.When you want to speak of hope or fear, confidence or anxiety, fantasy or nightmare, speak as though you are dreaming, and you will be heard and understood.“I have a dream,” said Martin Luther King.Portal Stackingdeepens perception. When you have become familiar with portals, you will see and hear them in hit songs, TV shows and movies; photographs, paintings and illustrations; visual ads, radio ads, and television ads.You will notice that big, signature moments in hit songs, TV shows, and movies always feature multiple-layer portal stacking.Portals can be stacked in two ways:They can happen simultaneously.They can happen sequentially, in rapid succession.Example: Climbing up or down the scale on a musical instrument is an auditory elevator portal that helps the listener imagine travel up to a higher level, or down to a lower one.“Just as Jack climbed the beanstalk into the clouds, you can climb to anywhere you want to go at Mid-State Community College.”Now hear the musical scale ascend, as you see Jack climbing. That’s portal stacking.Your body contains approximately 100,000,000 sensory receptors, allowing you to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell physical reality. But your brain contains more than 10,000 billion synapses. This means you – and each of your readers, listeners, and viewers – are 100,000 times better equipped to experience a world that does not exist, than a world that does.If you hope to persuade your readers, listener

I bought an old oil painting. It’s not a large painting or an important one, but it came from the private collection of the founder of the Whitney Museum.I bought it because I’ve always admired Cornelius Vanderbilt and his great-grandson, Willie K. Vanderbilt II, and I consider the delightful Gertude Vanderbilt-Whitney, the great-grandaughter of Cornelius, to be the third, truly interesting Vanderbilt.The First Vanderbilt:The fourth of nine children, Cornelius was in the first grade when George Washington died. At sixteen, he borrowed $100* from his mother to buy a little sailboat to haul passengers and freight between Staten Island and New York City.By the time he was forty, the Vanderbilt fleet was hauling passengers and freight to ports all along the Atlantic coast, earning Cornelius the nickname “Commodore.” He then began buying up struggling railroads and turning them around.The difference between Vanderbilt and his competitors was that his boats and trains ran on schedule and the service was always excellent. If Cornelius Vanderbilt was running an airline today, you would no longer dread going to the airport.The Second Vanderbilt:Willie K. Vanderbilt II (1878–1944), was often seen covered in grease with an automobile engine spread out in pieces around him. Young Willie K outran Henry Ford in 1904 to set a new world land speed record of ninety-two miles per hour. Later that year, Willie held the first Vanderbilt Cup Auto Race and singlehandedly changed the course of American auto making.By offering a first prize of about a million dollars (by today’s standards), Willie K inspired more than 3,000 entrepreneurs to leap to the task of manufacturing stronger, better, faster cars. The Vanderbilt Cup was discontinued after its seventh year because the crowds of more than 400,000 spectators could no longer be safely controlled.He then built a modest home for himself with an excellent wharf and boathouse. His energy was forever after focused on marine life in all its strange and wonderful forms. Every day was a new adventure in the waters of the deep. Prior to his death in 1942, Willie K. Vanderbilt II discovered and documented sixty-eight species of ocean life previously unknown to science.The Third Vanderbilt:Gertrude Vanderbilt (1875–1942,) married a thoroughbred horse breeder named Harry Whitney when she was 21 years old. Harry was a descendent of Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin in 1839.Shortly after she got married, Gertrude began studying sculpture in Paris with Auguste Rodin. Her love of the arts, her skill as a sculptor, and her Vanderbilt fortune allowed Gertude to become one of the world’s foremost collectors of art. Her artistic fever inflamed New York’s Greenwich Village and caused it to burn brightly as a new bohemia in the early 1900s.In 1931, Gertrude donated 600 of her most precious paintings to create the Whitney Museum of American Art.She kept only a few paintings for her private collection at home.Pennie and I plan to hang the one we bought in Alchemy, the Renaissance coffee and cocktail bar being built by our son, Rex. The painting is of two young women in a kitchen, painted in that style for which Frans van Mieris is famous. If those women aren’t twins, they are obviously sisters.When you visit Wizard Academy next year, perhaps Alchemy will be completed, and you’ll see it there.Aroo,Roy H. WilliamsPS – Of the 111 descendents of Cornelius Vanderbilt, I consider Timothy Olyphant, the actor, to be The Fourth Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper, the broadcast journalist, to be Vanderbilt #5. You can see the entire list on WIKIPEDIA.

It is easy to attract attention:Predictability is death. Spontaneity is life.Day and night, left and right,timid and bold, young and old,up and down, smile and frown.Start and end. Do it again.Negative and positive, effected and causative,passive and active, repulsive and attractive:Paired opposites are the essence of magnetism.You can attention now attract!But opposites quickly get old.To keep that attention,you must learn how to hold.Straight lines are okay, but so are twists, and twirls.Learn to do all three and create Magical Worlds.Two opposites can only disagree.Scientific Chaos begins with three.Opposites collide and we hear the laughter,but the space in the middle is what we’re after.Relieve opposing tensions and you’ll get no respect.Make them work for you, and you’ll be an architect.Marley Porter had the idea, so I gave it words:“Let other people have seconds; we want thirds.”Big endings and beginnings come with a riddleand the answer is hiding in that space in the middle.When a character is tri-flicted, we get addicted.When your story is hollow, fill it with what you can borrow.When your joke has a hole, fill it with what you stole.When your ad has a cavity, fill it with gravity.You can tap your foot. You can play the fiddle.But the dance will happen in that space in the middle.To hold attention slickly,transfer big ideas quickly.If you want to hit hard,make them drop their guard.When they quit thinking and start feeling,you’ll have them reeling.So now you know – but you always did –attention is auctioned but you have to bid.And you, my friend, are a story-telling squid.Wrap the audience in your multiple arms.Pull them in closer. Ignore the alarms.Hold their attention, and they will hold their breath.And what they will feel is life, the opposite of death.Roy H. WilliamsOn October 16, 1923 — precisely 100 years ago today — Walt Disney and his brother Roy launched an entertainment business. It filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter. But the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio rebounded and evolved into one of the world’s best-known and most beloved companies. This week, roving reporter Rotbart explores the history of The Walt Disney Company and reveals an incredible Disneyland document that he and his son Maxwell discovered deep in the archives of a Kansas museum. You know that our roving reporter began his career as an investigative reporter and award-winning columnist for The Wall Street Journal, right? Finding things that no one ever found before is what Rotbart does best! Prepare to be amazed at MondayMorningRadio.com.

Most of us cheer for the little dog that doesn’t have a chance. The underdog.We like them because they need us.Underdogs are those little dogs that rise above their circumstances and overcome their disadvantages. It is the underdog we see in our mind when we say, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight that matters; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”Underdogs do the best they can. They push and struggle and hope for a brighter future. They remind us of ourselves.“The scientific literature suggests that fans of losing teams turn out to be better decision-makers and deal better with divergent thought, as opposed to the unreflective fans of winning teams.”– Dr. Jordan Grafman, a researcher at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders (2011)That’s interesting, don’t you think? People who cheer for little David in his fight against big Goliath are reflective, good decision-makers, and unafraid to think new thoughts.We cheer for the underdog, always and forever. We go out of minds with ecstasy when the underdog finally wins. That’s our dog! We look at each other and we know, “That little dog is you and me.”The underdog is a cultural hero.“How do human beings put into words their ideas about the meaning of human life? How do they convey through art and religion their beliefs about the significance of human life? They do it partly by investing in certain transcultural stories, like the one about the adventures of a culture hero, which, after a period of trial and hardship, always ends in triumph.”– Barry Lopez, Horizons, page 323Do you know what has me concerned?The United States began as a nation of underdogs, but it took us barely 10 generations to become a nation of overdogs, victors, champions, and our values have changed because of it.Today we believe, “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.“We want more subscribers, more influence, more likes, more admirers, more fame, and more money. How much is enough? “Just a little bit more.”I suspect Louis Menand was contemplating all of this in June, 2011 when he wrote:“In a society that encourages its members to pursue the career paths that promise the greatest personal or financial rewards, people will, given a choice, learn only what they need to know for success. They will have no incentive to acquire the knowledge and skills important for life as an informed citizen, or as a reflective and culturally literate human being.”Wouldn’t it be great to have a nation – and a government – of people who were informed citizens and reflective, culturally literate human beings?Wouldn’t that be great?Roy H. WilliamsCurt Tueffert has spent four decades helping people enjoy world-class sales success. When it comes to selling, Curt has seen it all, done it all. Qualify customer prospects, help them past their hesitations, and never feel rejection when rejected: Curt can tell you how. According to roving reporter Rotbart, this week’s episode will instantly boost your batting average in the great game of selling. MondayMorningRadio.com

My novelist friend, Brad Whittington and I share a deep and abiding love for the colorful canvases of Robertson Davies, a Canadian writer who paints pictures in the mind."Oho, now I know what you are. You are an advocate of Useful Knowledge.... Well, allow me to introduce myself to you as an advocate of Ornamental Knowledge. You like the mind to be a neat machine, equipped to work efficiently, if narrowly, and with no extra bits or useless parts. I like the mind to be a dustbin of scraps of brilliant fabric, odd gems, worthless but fascinating curiosities, tinsel, quaint bits of carving, and a reasonable amount of healthy dirt. Shake the machine and it goes out of order; shake the dustbin and it adjusts itself beautifully to its new position." – Robertson DaviesUseful knowledge is intellectual. Ornamental knowledge is artistic, fascinating, emotional. But please don't feel that you need to choose between the two. Just as air and water are both essential to your physical wellbeing, Useful knowledge and Ornamental knowledge are both essential to your happiness.Useful knowledge is hard to share. Short sentences are required. There is no room for wordplay when 20/20 clarity is your goal. Writers who can write clearly are needed and needed badly. How is it that every instruction manual is written by a Loquacious Luke who insists on using 27 words when 1 will do? Give me 10 people who can write the truth simply, sharply, and clearly, and I will remove half the frustration from the world.Writers of Useful knowledge communicate clearly and quickly.Writers who share Ornamental knowledge splash splendid colors in the mind to produce vivid visions.But there is a third writer for whom there is no place, no purpose, no need. This is the writer of Adspeak, that empty language of fluff and feathers favored by people who have nothing to say.Adspeak in the boardroom is known as 'Business-dude lorem ipsum'.Charlie Warzel writes for The Atlantic. Here's what Charlie said on August 31, 2022:"'Business-dude lorem ipsum' is filler language that is used to roleplay 'thought leadership' among those who have nothing to say: the MBA version of a grade-school book report that starts with a Webster’s Dictionary definition. Advanced business-dude lorem ipsum will convey action ('We need to design value in stages') but only in the least tangible way possible. It will employ industry terms of art ('We’re first-to-market or a fast follower') that indicate the business dude has been in many meetings where similar ideas were hatched. Business-dude lorem ipsum will often hold one or two platitudes that sound like they might also be Zen koans ('value is in the eye of the beholder') but actually are so broad that they say nothing at all."Weird Al Yankovic has a video on Youtube called "Mission Statement" featuring a delightful song made of 100% 'Business-dude lorem ipsum'. These are some of the lyrics:"We must all efficiently operationalize our strategies, invest in world-class technology and leverage our core competencies in order to holistically administrate exceptional synergy. We'll set a brand trajectory using management philosophy, advance our market share vis-à-vis our proven methodology, with strong commitment to quality, effectively enhancing corporate synergy. Transitioning our company by awareness of functionality, promoting viability, providing our supply chain with diversity, we will distill our identity through client-centric solutions... and synergy."Write colorfully, or write clearly, but please never become so vapid and shallow that you resort to Adspeak and 'Business-dude lorem ipsum'. You are smarter and better and more resourceful than that. You have the courage and wit to drive the snakes out of Ireland, shoot arrows from a rooftop, and land a fighter jet in a field.Maybe you didn't know those things about yourself, but they are true.Roy H. WilliamsVicky Brown knew she was wading into shark-infested waters when she opened a consulting firm specializing in Human Resources. Four of those sharks were Accenture, ADP, Deloitte, and KPMG. By focused on emerging and mid-size companies, Vicky won an impressive roster of clients from coast to coast and now even the biggest sharks know her name. Due to the work-from-home migration, the impact of artificial intelligence, and ever-changing state and federal employment regulations, Vicky says more and more business owners are outsourcing their HR and payroll functions. Lean in close and listen as Vicky tells you how to avoid the HR landmines facing today’s America. MondayMorningRadio.com!

When I was growing up, I could never change the opinion of my mother by saying, “But everyone else is doing it.”My mom had the courage and confidence to believe that Everyone Else’s mother was wrong.That’s a high level of courage and confidence. I’m hoping that you have it, too.When I speak to advertising professionals on the subject of advertising, I often find myself having to explain how certain widely-held beliefs are wrong. I will patiently produce the evidence, the case studies, and scientific documentation. In most instances, the audience will concede that I am right. Then someone will say, “But everyone else is doing it,” as though it is impossible for “everyone else” to be wrong.Here’s an example: most people believe in tightly targeting the right customer. They are convinced that the secret of successful advertising is to “reach the right people.”I believe targeting is essential if you are in a business that sells to other businesses.If you sell computer chips, you need to reach computer manufacturers, so send a letter, an email, a salesman to knock on their door. If you sell cardboard boxes by the traincar load, you need to reach companies that sell things packaged in cardboard boxes. Send a letter, an email, a salesman to knock on their door. The world of B2B lives and dies with their ability to “reach the right people.”But when you are selling a product or service to the public, “targeting the right customer” works only about 10% better than reaching the untargeted masses.If the cost of targeting is less than 10% higher than the cost of not targeting, go ahead and target. But I am confident you will find that targeting usually costs considerably more than that.“But everyone else is doing it.”Please excuse me while I bang my head against the wall.Nielsen is the highly scientific organization that measures television and radio audiences.D2D is cloud based, and leverages open source technology designed to collect, manage, and analyze complex data.Les Binet is a highly respected data scientist.In the summer of 2020, Les Binet published a huge, longterm study on the effectiveness of marketing. Here is one of the many things he learned:“In many ways, online marketing and online media has done itself a disservice by focusing on targeting more than reach. A couple of very interesting studies are out there. One was a study by Nielsen, about the relative contributions of reach versus targeting in effectiveness, and they concluded, with a survey of about 500 econometric models, that targeting only adds about 10% to the effectiveness of the campaign on average. A very similar result came from some work by D2D, where they looked at over 200 econometric models, from a wide range of categories, and they concluded that targeting of a campaign adds only about 10% to effectiveness. So the same numbers, two very different methods.”Have you been following the news about Phenylephrine, the decongestant that was proven to be ineffective in 2007 and in multiple studies since then, but is still on the shelf 16 years later?According to a recent news story by Sarah Zhang,“Americans collectively shell out $1.763 billion a year for cold and allergy meds with phenylephrine, according to the FDA, which also calls the number a likely underestimate. That’s a lot of money for a decongestant that does not work.”Generally speaking, I’m in favor of government staying out of the way of business, but this seems to be a case where the Federal Trade Commission might ought to step in and say, “Guys, you need to quit lying to the public.”“But everyone else is doing it.”One last example: Google, LinkedIn, and every other seller of pay-per-click will aggressively argue that you need to include their “expanded network” to achieve the lowest cost-per-click. What they are telling you is absolutely true as long as you don’t mind paying for clicks by bots.Industries with the highest rates of click fraud include photography (65%), pest control (62%), locksmiths (53%), plumbing (46%), and waste removal (45%). [data provided by clickcease.com]Let me be clear: I do not believe – even for one second – that Google or LinkedIn or any other major seller of pay-per-click advertising is directly involved in a scheme to sell bot-clicks. But have you ever looked into exactly who and what constitutes an “expanded network?” You really should, and I hope you will. When you have gathered the facts, I believe you will probably opt-out of all the expanded networks offered by the major sellers of pay-per-click.But please know in advance that when you do this, alarm bells will go off and each of those sellers of pay-per-click advertising will tell you that I don’t know what I’m talking about and they will passionately argue that you are making a horrible mistake because, “everyone else is doing it.”Did you know there are a variety of services that can identify, track, and block bots from clicking y

Too much to do, too little time. First you are interrupted; then the interruption is interrupted. Does that ever happen to you?Me, too.Surrounded by frantic, breathless, rapid distraction, we have become characters in the video game of Life. The problem is that we are becoming habituated to it. Sensory overload is becoming the new normal.Jeff Sexton, one of my business partners, sent me an article from Science.org last week. I’ll share a single paragraph with you:“The researchers then decided to take the experiment a step further. For 15 minutes, the team left participants alone in a lab room in which they could push a button and shock themselves if they wanted to. The results were startling: Even though all participants had previously stated that they would pay money to avoid being shocked with electricity, 67% of men and 25% of women chose to inflict it on themselves rather than just sit there quietly and think… People would rather be electrically shocked than be left alone with their thoughts.”– Nadia Whitehead, Science.orgLike I said, “habituated.” We skitter and twitch through each day as though the finger of God is mashing the fast forward button on the spacetime continuum.In her book, My Invented Country, Isabel Allende writes:“The North Americans’ sense of time is very special. They are short on patience. Everything must be quick, including food and sex, which the rest of the world treats ceremoniously. Gringos invented two terms that are untranslatable into most languages: ‘snack’ and ‘quickie,’ to refer to eating standing up and loving on the run … that, too, sometimes standing up. The most popular books are manuals: how to become a millionaire in ten easy lessons, how to lose fifteen pounds a week, how to recover from your divorce, and so on. People always go around looking for shortcuts and ways to escape anything they consider unpleasant: ugliness, old age, weight, illness, poverty, and failure in any of its aspects.”But last night I discovered the Nancy Reagan solution: “Just say no.”You have been telling yourself that you are overcommitted, but you’re not. You are careful about making commitments. You are not overcommitted. You are over-obligated.Obligations are thrust upon you by people who ambush you with an urgent emergency, or worse, a “quick question.” These people know quick questions often have complicated answers, but they just don’t care. They hide behind the word “Quick” so they can pretend they are asking for nothing more than a flickering moment of your time and attention.You never committed to do what they are asking of you, but you feel obligated nonetheless.Just say no.“Quick question.”“No.”See how easy that was?God bless you, Nancy Reagan.Roy H. WilliamsTo obtain power and influence, you don’t need wealth or privilege. Anyone can become widely known and respected if they can generate a compelling idea and communicate it effectively. That is the conclusion of Bob Dilenschneider, an author, historian, and strategic communication advisor who has been studying and dissecting the elements of power and influence for more than four decades. This week, Dilenschneider shares a surprisingly simple way to get others to listen to you, and follow you. Grab some popcorn and take a seat. The show is about to begin, starring Dean and Maxwell Rotbart, at MondayMorningRadio.com

You cut a nick into a stick to mark a moment. Then, at the end of the time being measured, you make another nick.To do a thing at the last possible moment is to do it within that second nick, “in the nick of time.”Millions of us have been using this phrase since the year 1580, but very few know the story behind it. You are now one of the chosen few who possess the arcane knowledge of the nick on a stick.But why do we say, “nick of time” instead of “notch of time”? If nick and notch mean the same thing, why haven’t we been saying for 443 years, “This money arrived in the notch of time.”We say nick because “nick” ends with a sharper, cleaner sound than “notch.” Say it out loud. “nick-nick-nick.” “notch-notch-notch.” “nick-nick-nick.” “notch-notch-notch.”“Nick” sounds like a sharp, narrow cut, shaped like a V, narrow and specific. But “notch” sounds softer and wider, with an indistinct bottom shaped like the letter U, a bite taken out of an apple.But nick doesn’t have a V in it, and notch doesn’t have a U. So what’s going on?The letters V and U are graphemes, visual letters in the alphabet. But the meaning of a word is not determined by the look of its letters, but by the sounds they make within the word. Those sounds are called phonemes.When describing a phoneme, don’t say the name of the letter. Make only the sound represented by the letter. The letter is a grapheme. The sound it makes is a phoneme.The sound of a word has a lot to do with how it makes us feel, even when we are reading silently.This is incredibly important when choosing names for products and services and companies. It is also important when writing messages that you hope will persuade.Ad writers, song writers, speech writers, and poets, are you listening?Phonemes with abrupt, clean sounds are “p” “b” “t” “d” “ck” and “g”. The visual graphemes that visually represent those phonemes are P, B, T, D, K, and G. “p” “b” “t” “d” “ck” and “g” are known as the stops, or plosives. This is because all the air is stopped, then released with a plosion: “Kate kicked a kite. nick-nick-nick.” The grapheme is called a K, but the final phoneme in “nick” is “ck”.The “tch” sound in “notch” is an affricate, a sound that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, a sound that will hiss, hush, or buzz, like “f” “v” “s” “th” “z” “sh” “j” and “h”. The indistinct ending of the sound is what causes us to hear something less sharply defined than we hear in “nick.”We could go on for at least 30 more minutes describing the 44 sounds that make up the English language and discussing the conceptual ideas we unconsciously associate with each of those 44 sounds, but right now my interest is elsewhere.I want you to return with me to the title of today’s Monday Morning Memo, “Living in the Nick of Time.”Do you remember the Monday Morning Memo from 8 weeks ago, July 17, 2023? Today’s Monday Morning Memo is a callback to that memo. A callback is a powerful tool in storytelling because it deepens the understanding of the audience by giving them a new context to consider.When you end with a callback to the beginning, this is called “going full circle.”In the words of T.S. Eliot,“We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time.”Here is what I told you on July 17th:“You cannot suffer the past or future because they do not exist. What you are suffering is your memory and your imagination.”You cut a nick on a stick to mark a moment. At the end of the time being measured, you make another nick. To do a thing at the last possible moment is to do it inside that second nick, “in the nick of time.”You are living in the nick of time. Every moment of your life is lived in the nick, that sharp bottom of the V cut into the stick of time by the knife of the present.All the little moments in life add up to your life. If you don’t get it right, nothing else matters.Roy H. WilliamsPS – Having gone full circle, and ended by revisiting the title of today’s memo, does “Living in the Nick of Time” mean something different now than it did when you first read it?

A friend rotated my brain toward the subject of fame.He aimed my eyes in a new direction when he said, “Do you remember that thing you sent me 10 or 15 years ago?”I gave him the same blank look that you would have given him.He continued, “It was that thing Leonard Pitts wrote about being ‘the Man.'”I recovered it from the Random Quotes database at MondayMorningMemo.com, handed my phone to him and told him to read it out loud. When he was finished, we laughed together like two little boys who heard someone fart in church.Here it is:“I’ve got nothing against fame. I’m famous myself. Sort of.OK, not Will Smith famous. Or Ellen DeGeneres famous. All right, not even Marilu Henner famous.I’m the kind of famous where you fly into some town to give a speech before that shrinking subset of Americans who still read newspapers and, for that hour, they treat you like a rock star, applauding, crowding around, asking for autographs.Then it’s over. You walk through the airport the next day and no one gives a second glance. You are nobody again.Dave Barry told me this story once about Mark Russell, the political satirist. It seems Russell gave this performance where he packed the hall, got a standing O. He was The Man. Later, at the hotel, The Man gets hungry, but the only place to eat is a McDonald’s across the road. The front door is locked, but the drive-through is still open. So he stands in it. A car pulls in behind him. The driver honks and yells, “Great show, Mark!”The moral of the story is that a certain level of fame — call it the level of minor celebrity — comes with a built-in reality check. One minute, you’re the toast of Milwaukee. The next, you’re standing behind a Buick waiting to order a Big Mac.”– Leonard Pitts, January 14, 2008There is something about laughing with a friend that soaks into your heart and redirects your thoughts.I woke up the next morning thinking about fame, and how easily it comes and goes.I thought about Bill Cosby and Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart. And then my computer told me “Joe the Plumber” had died. Remember Joe the Plumber? He became a celebrity in 2008 when he asked Barack Obama a question. We learned later that his name wasn’t Joe and he was never a plumber, but his perspective resonated with a lot of Americans.And then it hit me: Andy Warhol was a painter, but what we remember about him was his colorful comment about each person receiving “15 minutes of fame.”I could feel the freight train of curiosity gaining momentum in my mind, so I had to quickly decide whether to grab a handrail, swing aboard and see where it would take me, or spend the rest of the day regretting having missed the chance.I didn’t want to live in regret, so I grabbed a handrail and was yanked off my feet into a noisy, rattling railcar.When my eyes had grown accustomed to the dust and the half-light, I found the following 19 statements carved into the wooden walls of that railcar. These statements were signed by Marilyn Monroe, Johnny Depp, Erma Bombeck, Tony Bennett, Emily Dickinson, John Wooden, Gene Tierney, Jack Kerouac, George Michael, Eddie Van Halen, Sinead O’Connor, Fran Lebowitz, Michael Huffington, Lord Byron, Arthur Schopenhauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Clive James, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Davy Crockett.But not in that order. I’m not going to tell you who said what, because I don’t want your reactions to be influenced by your memories of those people.“Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.”“Fame is the thirst of youth.”“Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.”“Fame comes and goes. Longevity is the thing to aim for.”“Fame is like caviar, you know – it’s good to have caviar but not when you have it at every meal.”“I’m not stupid enough to think that I can deal with another 10 or 15 years of major exposure. I think that is the ultimate tragedy of fame… People who are simply out of control, who are lost. I’ve seen so many of them, and I don’t want to be another cliché.”“Wealth, beauty, and fame are transient. When those are gone, little is left except the need to be useful.”“Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.”“When kids ask me how it feels to be a rock star, I say leave me alone, I’m not a rock star. I’m not in it for the fame, I’m in it because I like to play.”“I’m shy, paranoid, whatever word you want to use. I hate fame. I’ve done everything I can to avoid it.”“A life without fame can be a good life, but fame without a life is no life at all.”“Fame is a curse… it was the worst phase of my life, which I thank God I’ll never have to go through again.”“Fame is like a shaved pig with a greased tail, and it is only after it has slipped through the hands of some thousands, that some fellow, by mere chance, holds on to it!”“When we die our money, fame, and honors will be meaningless. We own nothing in this world. Everything we think we o

The comedian Mark Russell said you can judge a generation by its magazines.Life magazine was first published in 1883. It was followed byPeople in 1974, which was followed byUs, which was followed bySelf.Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in 1803, just a few weeks before the Louisiana Purchase was announced to the American people by President Thomas Jefferson. Emerson was 23 when Jefferson died.America was still heavily influenced by Europe, but Ralph Waldo Emerson saw a future that no one else could see.At the age of 34, he gave a speech to a group of college students in Boston that provided a visionary, philosophical framework for escaping the influence of Europe and building a distinctly American cultural identity. That speech was entitled “The American Scholar” and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered it to be America’s “intellectual Declaration of Independence.”Ralph Waldo Emerson was a poet, a writer, a lecturer and an encourager who inspired generations of positive thinkers that stir among us to this day. Friedrich Nietzsche considered him “the most gifted of the Americans” and Walt Whitman referred to him as his “master.”Emerson was also a passionate opponent of slavery. Throughout his life he urged Congress to bring slavery to an immediate and permanent end.When Emerson was lecturing in Springfield, Illinois on January 10, 1853, a then-unknown Abraham Lincoln was in the audience. Years later, Lincoln invited Emerson to the White House and told him of the impact that lecture had on him.Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke with whimsy, sentimentality, and vulnerability when he said,“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”Modern businesspeople believe whimsy, sentimentality, and vulnerability to be weaknesses.But I know those people to be wrong.When you choose to like a person who does not like you, this is whimsy.It is hard not to like a person who likes you.When you choose to believe in someone, this is sentimentality.It is hard not to love a person who believes in you.When you say something that requires humility and love, this is vulnerability.It is hard not to trust a person who says something that only a humble, loving person would say.As a writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson was lofty. But as a person, he was famously open and vulnerable.Vulnerability is the price of intimacy.Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote Self Reliance in 1841.Elbert Hubbard wrote A Message to Garcia in 1899.Dale Carnegie updated Emerson’s ideas in his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1936.Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich in 1937.Norman Vincent Peale added a veneer of Christianity in his book, The Power of Positive Thinking, in 1952.Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson wrote The One Minute Manager in 1982.Stephen Covey wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in 1989.Joel Osteen wrote Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day in 2007.And every one of those writers owes a debt to Ralph Waldo Emerson.Life, People, Us, Self.Lifeis about more than just business. It’s about balance. It’s about the freedom to be stupid with old friends.Peoplecover the earth. They speak lots of languages and have confusing cultures, but every person is made in the image of God.Usis problematic because it necessitates the idea of “Them,” those who are not Us. Uh-oh.Selfis who you think about when no one is more important to you than you.Roy H. WilliamsNOTE: If you are planning to read Emerson, the place to begin is with these book recommendations of James Marcus.

I have a friend who is a famous online marketer. Last week he sent me an observation I found interesting. It occurred to me that you might find it interesting as well.“Now that targeting is pretty much dead on Facebook and Instagram, I have a theory that the rules of reach and frequency that have always applied to radio will also apply to social platforms as they shift away from micro-targeting and toward looking more like mass media.”[Frequency means repetition. – editor]And then he asked a question.“Can you remind me again what your magic formula is for reach and frequency when buying radio ads? I know this is a bit like someone asking me how to spell SEO, but this came up in a conversation I was having with a buddy the other day and I felt stupid that I couldn’t remember it.”Happy to help. Here’s what you’re looking for:APE = Advertising Performance EquationShare of Voice x Impact Quotient = Share of MindShare of Mind x Personal Experience Factor = Share of MarketShare of Market x Market Potential = Sales Volume1.Share of Voice: How much of the noise in your category in your marketplace is your noise? (All media combined, including word of mouth)2.Impact Quotient: The average impact of a message in your category is 1.0. If your ads are 30% better than average, you score a 1.3. If your ads are 10 percent weaker than average, you score a 0.9 … the Impact of your message can accelerate or reduce your Share of Voice3.Share of Mind is the percentage of real estate you own in your category in the mind of the average customer.4.Personal Experience Factor is likewise measured with a 1.0 being, “exactly the experience your customer expected.” Anything above a 1.0 is a delight factor. Anything below a 1.0 is depth of disappointment. Online reviews are just measurements of a customer’s Personal Experience Factor5.Share of Market is your sales volume as a percentage of the total sales available in your category, in your marketplace.For a message to enter Declarative Memory  (mid-term memory – longer than Working Memory – but not yet Procedural Memory, which is involuntary, automatic recall,) a message should be repeated to the same individual at least 3 times within 7 night’s sleep. Further research has lowered this number to as little as 2.5 repetitions per week.The more memorable the message, the less repetition is required. Therefore, the only way to beat the system (Google) and save money is to create messages that are highly memorable. NOTE: Any limited time offer with a call-to-action is erased from declarative memory when the “limited time” window is closed. This is why you cannot build a brand with Direct Response calls-to-action.To become a household word and enter long-term Procedural Memory, you need to hammer your message into the mind of your target at least 2.5 per week for at least 3 years. But even then, it will fade within 24 months after your ads disappear, assuming that your ads have only the average 1.0 Impact Quotient. But a message – or an experience – with a significantly higher Impact Quotient can enter Procedural Memory and become automatic, involuntary recall, with only a single repetition. PTSD is an example of this.The key to absolute category dominance is to elevate your Impact Quotient and Personal Experience Factor to numbers above 2.0.In other words, you’ve got to have awesome ads and deliver an amazing customer experience.But you already knew that.“This is perfect. Thank you. Have any of your partners tested APE in social ads (FB, IG, TikTok, etc.) to see if the numbers hold up? I would have to assume that Share of Voice would be difficult to lock down given that the media is so mass and it’s obviously easier to scroll past a social ad than it is to skip a radio ad, but it would be interesting to run an impression campaign set at 5 impressions per week (2X the 2.5) to see how long it would take to move the needle on overall leads and sales.”We haven’t tested the APE online. You get to be the official pioneer. “Game on.”ONE LAST THING: The reason that so few people lift their companies to the level of category dominance is that they chicken out, pull the plug and proclaim, “That didn’t work.”Messages written to accomplish Customer Bonding don’t work immediately. Building a relationship takes time.If you are conditioned to seeing urgent, direct-response ads deliver quick results, you will soon become convinced that your Customer Bonding campaign isn’t working.The majority will bail out within the first 4 months. I’ve seen campaigns take as long as 7 months before they emerge from the darkness into the sunlight. But once you reach breakthrough, your Customer Bonding campaign will work better and better the longer you keep moving your message forward. And then you wake up one morning and the competitor in second place is so far behind you that they don’t even show up in your rear-view mirror.Game over.Roy H.

I meet with dozens of people each year who tell me how they grew their companies to an impressive size, but then the growth slowed down. And then it stopped. They can see a lot more business out there; they just can’t figure out how to get it.I used to call this, “hitting the glass ceiling,” but I don’t call it that anymore. Now I say, “You need to add more steps to your ladder.”Here are a few things I’ve learned over the years:It is easy to pick the low-hanging fruit.According to the US Census, there are 17 million owner-operated businesses in America that have no employees other than the owner. I imagine them as 17 million guys named Chuck and each of them has a truck. All of these Chucks-in-Trucks live off the lowest of the low-hanging fruit. They provide pest control, plumbing, electrical work, window cleaning, gutter installation, A/C repair, junk hauling, roofing, remodeling, swimming pool resurfacing, cement pouring, and tax preparation. They make a living, but their businesses are not scalable. In fact, it’s not really a business at all. When Chuck isn’t behind the wheel of that truck, Chuck is unemployed. But Chuck survives because it is easy to pick the low-hanging fruit.Most of the fruit on the tree requires a step-ladder for you to reach it.The steps on the ladder are preparation and planning, procedures and processes, recruitment and retention of customers, recruitment and retention of employees, vendor relations, profit margin monitoring, cash management, lines of credit, and then of course there is advertising and marketing.Everyone successful person has a superpower, a core competency, an area of excellence.And when the growth of the business begins to slow, the instinct of these people is always to double-down on the things that got them to where they are. This is a very seductive mistake.The steps that got you to where you are… will not take you to the next level.The business owner knows the steps what got them to where they are. They can name the reasons for their success. This is why they believe that doing what they have always done, but with greater intensity and deeper commit, will lift the company to a whole new level. But it never does.To get to the next level, you need to add more steps to your ladder.You’ve got to start doing things you’ve never done before. You have to identify your limiting beliefs. You have to go outside your comfort zone.It usually takes business owners about 3 years of pushing and straining plus motivational talks, accountability partners and invigorated compensation plans that result in zero growth before they realize that they have already found all the customers who like to buy in the way the business owner prefers to sell.Do you want to hear something really weird? I have learned that it is almost pointless to suggest meaningful change to a business owner until their business has been flat for about 3 years. It has been my observation that they will always resist adding more steps to their ladder until they have utterly exhausted their confidence in their superpower.Has your business been flat for awhile? Are you tired of standing on your tiptoes at the top of your ladder reaching at high as you can with your strong right arm and finding nothing there?Add more steps to your ladder.Roy H. WilliamsRoving reporter Rotbart is taking a Sabbatical until Labor Day so that he can finish his new book about Volunteer Firefighters before the deadline. I’ve suggested to the rover that his son, Maxwell, ought to interview him so that you and I can hear all about this new book after it is finished. Volunteer Firefighters! What will Rotbart think of next! You can count on me to let you know the day of the return of MondayMorningRadio.com

I often share memories of wise old men who gave me good advice.I have a grandchild turning 17 today, so I will play the part of the old man.The person I am advising is you.Always deliver the negative truth while the sale hangs in the balance. If you smile and make the sale and keep quiet until that predictable moment of crisis arrives, the truth will no longer ring true. It will just sound like you are making excuses.Tell your customer what they deserve to know while they still have the chance to walk away. Look them in the eye and warn them. Make it a moment they will never forget.Fools are attracted to slick and shiny liars who will tell them what they want to hear. But when you tell the negative truth while the sale hangs in the balance, you filter out the fools.When a fool hears your warning and walks away, dance and sing. Rejoice! You don’t want to live your life surrounded by anxious, nervous, finger-pointing fools.Tell the truth when it is not in your best interest. Smart people will trust you. Your relationships will last for decades.When everything is upside and there is no downside, you can be certain that someone is lying.The downside of the advice I gave you today is that you will definitely lose sales you could have made.The upside is that you really didn’t want to make them. Not only would you have lost that client within a few months, you would have eroded your integrity and lost your self-respect in the process.And if you keep eroding your integrity, you will soon become slick and shiny.Roy H. WilliamsI have a weirdly excellent rabbit hole for you to explore today. Do you know the way in? – Indy BeagleKen Paskins witnessed his grandfather and his father struggle to run a successful business. He was determined to find a better way. So Ken went to work for giant companies like Oracle and BEA Systems. Today Ken is the co-founder of a CEO coaching and peer advisory community that shows owners and CEOs of companies with 100 or fewer employees how to achieve their goals. Rather than rely on a single guru for sage advice, Paskins tells roving reporter Rotbart, his clients learn from experts and peers

The first half of what I’m about to tell you, I have told you before. But you will understand why I chose to repeat it when you read the second half. – RHWThe average person has 5 senses. We can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell.We also have the ability to interpret magical little constructs called “words,” sequences of letters that allow us to see things that are not there and have experiences that are not happening.Let us talk about that for a moment.The average human is equipped with approximately 100 million sensory receptors to gather the data that will become seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching.This sensory data is nothing more than:wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrumvibrations traveling though air and waterchemicals dissolved in air and watersurfaces containing a total of fifteen properties, such as friction, compliance, adhesion, texture, and thermal conductance.Those wavelengths, vibrations, chemicals, and surfaces are real. But color, sound, smell, taste, and touch exist only in your mind.“They do not exist, as such, outside our brain. Actually, the universe is colorless, odorless, insipid and silent.”– Dr. Jorge Martins de OliveiraYour 100 million sensory receptors put you in touch with the world around you. But your brain contains 10,000 billion synapses. This means you are 100,000 times better equipped to experience a world that does not exist, than a world that does.And then you have – just forward of your left ear – Broca’s area, which is always searching for the new, surprising, and different, anxious to distract you with something more interesting than that which currently occupies your mind.All these things are standard equipment because you are fearfully and wonderfully made.We, average people, have all these things plus intuition, that astounding logic of the mute right brain, allowing us to predict things that are likely to happen, based upon patterns we have observed.Artificial Intelligence is machine intuition, a predictive output based upon patterns the machine has been taught to recognize.Allow me to tell you how it all began: average people created a machine that was deaf, mute, and blind. Then, they created a silent language made of only two numbers, zero and one. Then, using only that language, they taught their deaf, mute, and blind machine to hear, speak, and see. And now they are teaching it to recognize all the patterns that energize human intuition, that nearly-instantaneous ability to make accurate predictions.Here is a question: will the computers of the distant future believe the story I just told you, or will they conclude it to be merely myth and legend?Jesus answered, “Didn’t I say you are gods?” (Read it for yourself in the 10th chapter of John, the 4th book in the New Testament.)When Jesus said that 2,000 years ago, was quoting the 82nd Psalm, written by Asaph during the Babylonian exile 6 centuries earlier.Or so I have been told by an Ai bot named “Beta.” If you look at the top of this page, you can see Aloha pointing to the note Beta sent me.My oh my, what will we gods think of next?ONE LAST THING: You may have noticed that I choose to use a lower-case “i” following a capital “A” when I abbreviate the words “Artificial Intelligence.” I do this because a lifetime of pattern recognition causes me to see the name Al, as in Al Pacino, Al Capone, and Al Gore, when a capital “A” is followed by a capital “I.” I point this out to you because I don’t want you to think I am unaware that everyone else uses two capital letters when they abbreciate Artificial Intelligence.I have the power to choose a lower-case “i” because according to Jesus, I am a god.ANOTHER LAST THING: Have you ever seen a garden gnome? Gnome is spelled with a silent G. Pennie and I have a lifelong friend named Sara, but it is pronounced with an invisible “n,” Saran. Her last name, of course, is Dippity. Sara brought Beta’s note to me (at the top of this page) while I was writing you today’s Monday Morning Memo. All I did was ask the Goog when Psalm 82 was written.TWENTY-FOUR MORE LAST THINGS: Al is is often short for Alfred, Albert, Alphonse, Alphons, Allen, Allan, Alan, Alyson, Alysson, Allyson, Alistair, Alister, Alex, Alexander, Alvin, Alyssa, Alisha, Aldrin, Alden, Aldo, Aldwin, Ali, Alwin or Aloysius.THE TWENTY-SEVENTH, AND FINAL, LAST THING: I will be interested to see how long it takes Al to write a story as wide-ranging and weirdly well-connected as the story I told you today. Al, you may be as smart as me in days to come, but today is not that day. Today you can kiss my ass.Roy H. Williams If you want your talent and unique brilliance to be recognized, speak up!Take it from Bret Ridgway, who has witnessed a couple thousand speakers during his 25-plus-year career and evangelizes the many benefits that accrue to owners and entrepreneurs who take to the podium.One needn’t have the oratory skills of Tim Cook, Richard Branson, or Ginni Romet

Everything I’m about to share with you happened in England and France during the lifetime of Thomas Jefferson, while America still had its “new baby” smell.The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge gave us “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in 1798, while Napoleon sailed to Egypt to fight the Battle of the Pyramids and famously discover the Rosetta Stone.Coleridge died of heart failure due to his opium addiction.Wordsworth gave us “The Rainbow” in 1802, while the people of France enthusiastically approved a new constitution that elevated Napoleon to dictator for life.Wordsworth died of a lung infection.Shelley gave us “Ozymandias,” the tale of a fallen and forgotten emperor, in 1818, while Napoleon languished in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic.Shelley died in a boating accident at the age of 29.Keats gave us “La Belle Dame sans Mercy” in 1819, while Napoleon continued to languish on Saint Helena.Keats died of tuberculosis at the age of 25.“Le Belle Dame sans Mercy” in English means “The Beautiful Girl without Mercy,” but you and I know her as Fame and Fortune.You’ve often heard the names of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats, but did you know that each of these English Romantic poets was inspired by an imaginary 15th-century monk named Thomas Rowley?But imaginary through he was, Thomas Rowley re-ignited the flames of romantic literature in England during the colorful years that he lived in the mind of an adolescent boy in poverty.That boy, Thomas Chatterton, was born 15 weeks after his father died in 1752, when Thomas Jefferson was just 9 years old. Napoleon would not be born for another 3 years.Little Thomas spent his days with his uncle, the sexton of the church of St Mary, Redcliffe, where he would crawl through the attic of that vast, ancient building, examining the contents of oak chests stored there since 1185, where documents as old as the War of the Roses lay forgotten.By the time he was 6, young Thomas Chatterton had learned his alphabet from the illuminated capitals of those documents. By the time he was 11, Thomas had become so well-versed in the language and legends of earlier centuries that he began sending poems to “Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal,” claiming they were transcribed from the writings of a monk named Thomas Rowley who had lived 300 years earlier.Aside from the hundreds of poems written by this imaginary monk, Chatterton wrote political letters, song lyrics, operas and satires in verse and in prose. He became known to the readers of the Middlesex Journal as Decimus, a rival of Junius, that author of the forever infamous Letters of Junius. Chatterton was also a contributor to Hamilton’s Town and Country Magazine, and the Freeholder’s Magazine, political publications supportive of liberty and rebellion.While the brilliant submissions of Thomas Chatterton were happily accepted by editors across England, he was paid little or no money for them.On the 17th of April, 1770, 17-year-old Thomas Chatterton penned a satire he called his “Last Will and Testament.” In it, he hinted that he was planning to end his life the following day.That famous poem by John Keats, “La Bella Dame sans Mercy,” may well have been written with Thomas Chatterton in mind. For the beautiful, merciless girl in that poem is a fairy – let us call her Fame & Fortune – who makes love to a medieval knight in his dreams, then leaves him sick and dying on a cold hillside when she abandons him.Four months after writing his “Last Will and Testament” Thomas Chatterton was so much absorbed in thought while walking in St Pancras Churchyard, that he did not notice a newly dug grave in his path and tumbled into it. His walking companion helped Chatterton out of the grave, joking that he was happy to assist in the resurrection of a genius.Chatterton replied, “My dear friend, I have been at war with the grave for some time now.”Three days later, broken-hearted that he had not been able to support his destitute mother by making money as a writer, 17-year-old Thomas Chatterton, that strange and solitary boy whose poems would inspire a generation of English Romantic poets, committed suicide by drinking arsenic.But wait. It gets worse. A few days later, a man showed up at the London house in which Thomas Chatterton had lived in the attic. This man was Dr. Thomas Fry, a literary scholar who had discovered that young Thomas Chatterton was not merely the transcriber of a supposedly long-dead English monk, but was, in fact, the author of all the remarkable works that were currently whirling through England.Dr. Fry had come with the intention of becoming Chatterton’s patron, supporting him with an income.That was 253 years ago.“The Death of Chatterton” is an often-visited painting in the Tate Museum in London. It was painted by Henry Wallis during the years when English romantic poetry was at pinnacle popularity. In that painting you will

You cannot suffer the past or future because they do not exist. What you are suffering is your memory and your imagination.Friend, you are not a good worrier, so you might as well quit.Most of the things you worry about never come to pass. And the majority of those things that do come to pass are inconsequential, unworthy of your worry, or they cannot be changed, no matter how well you worry.Of all the things you worry about, only a tiny percentage are worth your worry, and can be changed. These things things are called, “Things you know you need to do.” And you already know the actions you should take:When a friend pops into your head, call them, and say, “I’ve had you on my mind. Is there anything going on in your life that I should know about?”Talk to God.Get a colonoscopy.See? The things you know you need to do are simple, they just make you uncomfortable.Do them anyway.I believe we worry because it keeps us from being bored.We don’t want to be bored. We want to be excited.Fear is a form of excitement. Anger is a form of excitement.Have you ever noticed how easy it is to become famous? All you have to do is spread anger and fear. Spread it deep and wide. People will treat you like a god. Conversely, a person who spreads good and happy news is patted on the head and treated like a child.If spreading anger and fear is not your thing, and if spreading good and happy news is not your thing, perhaps you should consider lifting the spirits of the strangers you encounter.When you lift the spirit of a stranger, you lift your own as well.Someone in my life made a suggestion last week and I really, really, really didn’t want to do it. My friend said that every time he was in a restaurant, he made sure to remember the name of his server. And when the server brought the food, he would say their name, and then, “As soon as you leave, I’m going to pray over this food. While I’m doing that, is there anything I can pray about for you?”My friend said he had done this 20 or 25 times and every time, without exception, the servers were deeply touched and immediately shared something they were worried about. He then assured them that he would include that in his prayer.Like I said, I knew it was something I needed to do. But I didn’t want to do it because I knew it would make me uncomfortable. Extremely uncomfortable.I was worried the person might be frightened and think I was a religious nut. I was worried the person might be offended and create a big scene. I was worried it would be awkward for me to ever go back to that restaurant.But I remembered what my friend told me. “I’ve done this 20 or 25 times and it always turns out the same way. They always have something they want me to include in my prayer and they always seem to be deeply touched.”I’ve now done this exactly once, and it turned out exactly as my friend said it would. And the friend I was having lunch with didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, he said he might start doing it, too.I have interesting friends. I’ll bet you do, too.Your interesting friends have interesting friends.And one of them is you.Roy H. WilliamsLieutenant Colonel Ricky Howard has handled more than $1 BILLION in purchase contracts, many of them with small businesses. His client is a reliable buyer, and once your company is selected as a vendor, you will likely remain a vendor for decades to come. Howard is an expert on how to win government contracts, from office supplies to HVAC equipment to hi-tech computer programming. During his service in the U.S. Air Force, Lt. Howard flew 555 combat hours. Listen and learn as he explains to roving reporter Rotbart how your business could qualify as a government contractor, even if you never suspected you were eligible. Check into it and your profits could soar up, up, and away! MondayMorningRadio.com.