Lately, I’ve been revisiting some audio recordings of a marketing course from way back, hoping for a nugget or two of wisdom to help my YouTube channel or newsletter.
Did you catch how I said “revisiting”? Because this isn’t the first time I’ve listened to these tapes. The first time was a couple of years back, when I dove headfirst into the promotion and advertising world. The first time you learn all of this stuff, it’s like an avalanche. It’s just so much information, you tend to just keep moving on – time is money and all of that.
In the recordings, the advertising guru discusses his first winning ad, a letter blasted to the great unwashed masses. It sold a piece of paper with their family crest and history on it. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Here’s the problem. Both the letter’s content and the signature below, create the illusion it’s been written by his wife. The letter leads you to thinks his wife accidentally stumbled upon this particular family crest which happens to carry your name. And as a favour, she’s asking for a small sum of money to “cover the cost of printing and mailing.”
Doesn’t that seem strange to you?
It should. Remember, this ad man came up with the whole plan and wrote the letter completely on his own. Yet, he wants the reader to believe some nice lady just so happened to send them a letter. And by now you should be able to figure out why.
Let’s be real here, this is stretching the truth to its absolute limit. The only solace being, that it might technically be true – if you squint your eyes real tight and overlook a few inconvenient facts.
The crazy part is, even back then, when I was first learning this information, I had these exact same thoughts. “But his wife didn’t write this. He did.” Yet, I doubted myself, second-guessing my instincts, thinking I must be missing something. Surely these businessmen had some insight that eluded me. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Nowadays, I know for a fact my gut-feeling was dead-on.
The thing is, this ad man’s success story, innocent as it may seem, was just the beginning of a pattern. And patterns, my friend, they tend to repeat themselves. Ad after ad, he twisted the truth to its breaking point. Always justifying it with the mantra, “Well, technically it’s true,” and “Results are all that matters.”
I remember finding it so strange back then, to hear all of these stories, telling of the chaos in his personal life. The man went from one crisis to another, forever getting entangled with various shady characters in his business dealings. By now it should be obvious: that’s no damn coincidence. It’s the obvious consequence of the pattern we’ve just discussed.
We’re dealing with someone who had loads of talent: funny, curious, a good writer, and a charismatic kinda guy. But all those positive qualities mean zip, when you’re constantly in the search for maximum money in minimum time. It explains exactly why his life turned out the way it did.
Now, as I’m writing this, it all seems pretty obvious, right? You’d be an idiot not to see it, right? Well of course, I’ve connected all the dots for you. But think about the possibility that what you’re convinced of right now will turn out to be a load of rubbish in a couple of years. Bad news, my friend: in reality, the dots are often hidden, obfuscated, and obscured (sometimes due to your own naivety)… and it’s your job to connect them. ‘Cause nobody’s gonna do it for you. Food for thought
Regards
Vincent J. Dancet