Let Your Heart Do The Talking

Lately I have been thinking a lot about intuition. You know, that gut feeling you get when you don’t have enough information to justify your actions. What exactly is intuition?

It is the ability to think with your heart instead of your head.

In a nutshell, it’s what makes us smarter than machines.

They also say it’s what makes woman smarter than men. Yes I said it. But notice I said “smarter,” not “more intelligent.”

Men often focus on the mind while woman focus on the heart.

Intellect is fact based, while intuition is not. Intuition is like a whole lot of facts thrown in a cooking bowl and whirled around; watching to see what might “connect.”

Intuitive people can never convince an intellectual of anything, because they seldom have any proof. They don’t know how or why they know what they know.

Intuition fails more than intellect, but that doesn’t mean intellect wins either. Christopher Columbus had intuition. So did Alexander Graham Bell. Nelson Mandela had intuition. So did Benjamin Franklin. It was intuition that told them to go where none has ever been.

Don’t forget intellect, it still has its place. Just also remember to give intuition the credit it deserves. I hope to give you the courage to follow your heart because sometimes the thing that makes the least sense is exactly the thing YOU should do.

-          Martin

Intuition comes from the heart

Its Good Or It’s Bad

You have two choices when you advertise.

Your ads can be intellectual (information focused) or emotional (experience focused).

Emotional ads take the reader and lead him along the path of experience. He feels and tastes and sees what the ad writer wants him to: “As the light sneaks in on a cool winter’s morning, you feel the soft air tickle your face. You know today is going to be filled with unique experiences that will leave you feeling like there is no place like this on earth.”

However, when you choose the intellectual approach to ad writing, it’s no joking matter.

Most people write intellectual ads the way they tell a joke. They open with an obscure reference to what’s coming, and then they spend the rest of the joke adding little pieces of information working their way up to the punch line.

This is the worst possible way to write an ad. An ad is NOT a joke.

Those who listen to a joke are committed to listening. Those listening to an ad are not.

A bad intellectual ad starts off with a setup, where the writer tries to set the stage for the argument that is to follow. As the ad lingers on, the customer is thinking, “Get to the point, what’s in it for me?” In less than seven seconds you’ve lost the customers attention entirely.

 A bad intellectual ad can take up to twenty seconds to get to the point. What’s worse is it’s a point to a question no-one is asking.

A good intellectual ad begins with the punch line to a felt need, and then quickly backs up any claims with relevant proof.

Intellectual or emotional, a good ad is a satisfying experience.

Are your ads satisfying?

Or are they a joke?

 -Martin

Is Overchoice Killing You?

The great in this world all have one thing in common, passion.

Whether it is in business, marriage, relationships or sport, people with passion have a motivation that can hardly be overlooked.

When watching someone with passion we say, “He’s got a lot of heart.” This is because passion is the highest form of motivation.

More so than motivation, passion allows a person to focus on one thing and one thing only. Passionate people are tenacious and undistracted.

They have chosen one thing wholeheartedly instead of a lot of things vaguely.

Let me repeat: “They have CHOSEN.”                                              

Those who decide to commit to only one thing and deny the distraction of all others, get to enjoy the true experience. The price of passion is the willingness to say no.

The average person cannot say no. This is why he is average.

Every day he is tempted with all the different choices, all the while having a little voice whisper, “You can have it all.” These are the slippery slopes of overchoice.

Saying “no” allows us to focus on one thing, much like a skilled photographer who chooses to zoom in on his subject instead of allowing it to become lost in a sea of pointless angles.

A good photographer gets as close as possible to his subject, excluding everything that does not matter.

As my teacher would say, “The principle of focus is to exclude by choice that which matters less, so that we may give our undivided attention to that which matters most.”

What do you want most in YOUR picture?                                     

What will you eliminate to capture it?

Are you willing to ignore the less important?

Will you say no to overchoice?

To focus on one things is to forget all others.

Overchoice is a temptation that is constantly present, but passion is a way of life.

You can do two things averagely or one thing wholeheartedly.                             

Which will you choose?

“The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunityis where you are.” – John Burroughs                                  

 - Martin

The most IRRESISTIBLE 3 letter word…

You’re marketing and you need to produce results.

All your previous teachers with their years of experience tell you to do things like say the company name at least seven times in every ad.  Your experience tells you forcing the company name in places it doesn’t belong, makes an ad sound too much like an ad.

You’ve been down this road before haven’t you?

The same teacher who told you to use your company name seven times in your copy probably also advised you on the incredible power of words like “sale” and “discount”. The two most crippling words as far as building a long lasting brand goes.

This teacher is like all the ones before him. Numb to evolution and growth.

The most irresistible word in the English language has only three letters. The most powerful word is “YOU.”

“YOU” captures the reader’s attention. It puts him right in the middle of the action allowing him to experience it firsthand. (Or should I say second?)

When the reader lives in your ad he feels more compelled to take action. Besides, he’s been where you want him to go. He’s worn your watch, slid into your comfortable shoes. He’s smelled the smells and lived the adventure.

In your ads, the customer needs to already own what you are trying to sell him.  As a listener, you are inextricably engaged by the power of the imagery. By the end of the ad, ownership of the product you are selling has already been transferred.

It all begins with “YOU.”

-Martin

Overchoice strikes again!

People seem TIRED, BEAT UP, AND EXHAUSTED, but it’s not the things we’re doing that is wearing us out. It’s the things we’re not doing.

It’s thinking about the things we “should’ve” done that is slowing us down.

Whether we’re window shopping, channel surfing, or just browsing the World Wide Web, we’re constantly faced with an overflow of options. Overchoice strikes again!

This is not only keeping us average, it’s making us tired. We trick ourselves into thinking we can “find time” or “make time” for all the things we’d like to do, yet time can neither be made nor found.

We cannot manage time, we can only manage ourselves.

Too little time is spent thinking about what we really want.

For example, every day seems to get started in the same way – a big rush. We wake up, we DO what we have to, and we retire thinking about what we “should” have done.

This is robotic in its purest form.

One of my business partners would always use the example of flying ping-pong balls. He would stand a few feet away from me and toss me one ping-pong ball. I catch it easily – but when he tosses the rest of the balls together, I come up empty handed.

I automatically try to catch ALL the ping-pong balls and end up with none. The unique person who can actually hold on to a ball is the person who focuses on only one ball from the group and ignores the others.

Would you like to quit feeling rushed and pressured? Quit channel surfing. Ignore all the choices you are not making, just like you ignore the ping-pong balls you do not wish to catch. And your reward will be a nice brand new ping-pong ball that belongs solely to you.

“When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell

-          Martin

A Million Distractions…

A Million Distractions…

They say in advertising that you can choose one of three options; boredom, shouting and seduction. Which do you choose?
Every day we are exposed to millions of different signals that let’s your insular cortex (responsible for consciousness) know to act or not to act.
Stop at the red light, cross the street, have lunch, take a nap; some life threatening, some mundane.
The other day I was standing in an elevator with one of those glares across my face when I realized the elevator isn’t moving. I HAVE to actually do something. Click!
You and I have so much to remember on a daily basis that sometimes we completely forget what we are doing. We move into a kind of robotic mode. This is a result of over choice.

I bring this to your attention to remind you of something most marketers forget: the customer is seldom paying attention.
The same way I know I should push the button in order to make the elevator move, your customer is aware of needing to act. The problem is they just not thinking about it. They have too many other things to think about.

Most marketers’ solutions are to try to steal the attention of the customer. Loud colours, big banners, noise, SPECIALS!!

These are all sad alternatives that have a negative effect on the customer. Like sneaking up behind them and shouting, “LOOK OUT!”
Is this any way to start a solid relationship?
I vote for seduction.
They say the skilful use of words is the most impressive of human powers. Through words you can entice your customer with a thought more interesting than the one they are thinking.
The mind is an amazing thing. It is constantly looking, analyzing and scanning. All the while ignoring the average, mundane, the boring; the abnormal, fascinating and enticing is captured and examined.
If you want your customer to willingly give you their undivided attention the solution is simple. Give them a thought more interesting than the one they are currently thinking. Do this with magical words worthy of opening heavens gates.
You need not shout…

Manage Or Lead?

A lot can be said for Alexander the Great.

He was a dreamer who inspired everyone around him with his big visions of great possibility. Always on the front lines he never let his injuries or mishaps deter him from his greater goal. He shouts encouragement and never quits.

Alexander was renowned for knowing each of his soldier’s names. He would even send his men home after battle to be with their wives and children so that they can be well rested for the next battle. It’s no wonder they loved him so much.

When “The Great” was around people would become filled with inspiration. He could ignite passion in even the hardest men. He was a natural leader who conquered the known world until illness overcame him at thirty-three.

The life of Alexander clearly displays the difference between management and leadership.

He was a great leader capable of many tasks but an average manager at best.  He didn’t devote any time to accountabilities, systems or sustainability. Instead he would inspire and lead his men straight to victory. As a result his empire almost immediately disintegrated upon his death.

In the following fifteen hundred years the Romans wouldn’t see another leader like Alexander. Yet their system for management holds the Roman Empire together for decades, even centuries.

Even the greatest managers cannot do the job of a leader, and more so a leader cannot manage. Success is the result of having the right person in the right job at the right time.

Are you a leader or a manager?

What does your company need right now?

There is a time for Revolution and a time for Evolution.

Which time is now?

-          Martin

The POWER of Better Words

Do not pin your hopes on the magic of the next big idea, but rather place your confidence in the power of better words. The wheel needs not to be reinvented.

Sources confirm that Ralph Waldo Emerson is the author of the following words, “ If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbour, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.”

No one seems to know what year this was written, nor the publication in which it appeared. This is because the quote was actually penned 28 years after Emerson died – by an ad writer named Elbert Hubbard.

Hubbard admitted to writing the mousetrap epigram, after large numbers of visitors flocked to the tiny village of East Aurora where his manufacturing company was.

“I gave it specific gravity by attributing it to one Ralph Waldo Emerson,” Hubbard said. Was Hubbard deceitful? I don’t think so. He merely told the story a little more powerfully than Emerson.

On page 528 in volume 8 of Emerson’s Journal, February 1855, you’ll find:

Common Fame; I trust a good deal to common fame, as we all must. If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad, hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.

Hubbard said what Emerson said. Only he said it better. We are more likely to remember Hubbard’s words because he used verbs that are visually stimulating: “write,” “preach,” “make,” he gave us clear images: “book,” “sermon,””mousetrap,”; and his promise of benefit was memorable: “…the world will make a beaten path to his door.”

Emerson’s original statement is unknown because of its lack in delivery. He uses soft words like corn, wood, boards, chairs, church organs; and ends of with a weak qualifier: “…you will find a broad, hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.”

Hubbard, an ad writer, leads us through his story a little different, so that he might close with a grand gesture – the unforgettable image of the whole world beating a path to our door!

Emerson might have had the idea, but it took the keen eye of an ad writer to cause it to live forever in the imaginations of men.

How good are your ads?

“The Advertising man is liaison between the products of business and the mind of the nation. He must know both before he can serve either.” – Glenn Frank

- Martin