Podcast appearances and mentions of roy h williams

[With this episode, we launch our 14th year delivering weekly All You Can Eat Business Wisdom. That's more than 650 episodes — and we're on the verge of celebrating our one-millionth download.] In two words, Johnny Molson distills what it takes for a business to soar above the ordinary in its advertising and marketing campaigns to attract and keep lifelong customers. Johnny is one of the elite global Wizard of Ads partners. Building on the groundbreaking strategies developed by the legendary Roy H. Williams, he and his fellow Wizards work individually and collectively to help businesses craft powerful brand identities and turbocharge their results. At the heart of Johnny's method, he explains, is a sharp distinction: the difference between messaging that drives immediate sales and short-term gain — and marketing that builds and sustains long-term customer loyalty and cascading profitability. He also unpacks the proven “60/40 Rule” for marketing budgets and shares why repetition — not reach — is the real key to being remembered. So, what's Johnny's two-word magic formula for a steller campaign? Discover the answer as this week's episode of Monday Morning Radio takes a deep dive into his proven approach. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Johnny Molson, Wizard of AdsPosted: June 9, 2025Monday Morning Run Time: 53:20 Episode: 14.1 RELATED EPISODES: Two Living Legends of Marketing Offer You Actionable Tips for Success Trash-Talking Brian Scudamore Offers Many Pearls of Business Wisdom The UnBusiness Story Behind Chapel Dulcinea  

Show Notes:If you work with people from different generations, live with people from different generations, or encounter people from different generations in your daily life, you probably need to listen to this episode. You might walk away with a better understanding of how different generations work, react, and think, and this understanding might make you a better leader.Phil Gwoke is a proud Gen Xer, a generational expert and the CEO of BridgeWorks, an organization that helps companies bridge generational gaps and foster cultures of understanding and respect. Each generation is shaped by unique events and conditions that happen during their teenage years, and Phil knows how important it is to adapt leadership styles to meet these generational needs. He offers some excellent advice for leaders, and some interesting insights into the differences among Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z.Resources:Learn more about BridgeWorks.Books mentioned by Phil: Wisdom at Work by Chip ConleyPendulum: How Past Generations Shape our Present and Predict our Future by Roy H. Williams & MIchael R. DrewThe Fourth Turning by William Strauss & Neil HoweFollow Phil on Instagram

From writing a regular article in Radio Ink magazine to a weekly outbound memo to free clinics, Roy H. Williams created a marketing school like no other. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick in business partner Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [Travis Crawford Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here alongside Stephen Semple. And Stephen has just told me what the topic for today's episode is and well, I have some thoughts. Stephen Semple: I sure hope so. Dave Young: So we're going to talk about Wizard Academy, we've mentioned it quite a few times on the podcast and I don't know that it falls into the pantheon of super empire type brands, but the things that Wizard Academy teaches have definitely helped some businesses achieve at least some local empire status in the growth of their business. Well, thank you for making this one of the topics. Stephen Semple: Yeah, and part of the reason why I wanted as one of the topics is first of all, we've referred to it a lot and so we might as well let people know what the heck this thing is that we refer to you work there, I'm a major donor there, taught there a few times, been a student there a lot of times. And the thing I find incredible is, look, it's not a big school. When you go to do a class, it's not a hundred people, it's small classes it's like 18 people. But when I was there last, when I taught the course there with Matthew Burns and Gary Bernier, we had people from the Czech Republic, we had somebody from Australia. I've been there where there's been people from Central America and South America. When you go and there's people that are from around the world coming to this little place, it fits it to a degree because it tells us how special this place is. So let's talk a little bit about the specialness of it and the origin of it. Dave Young: I love it. Yeah. So origin-wise, man, I'll go back to my origin and my first exposure to Roy Williams who founded Wizard Academy. I was managing my family's small market radio stations in Nebraska starting in the mid eighties and in the radio broadcasting world, there are national groups like the National Association of Broadcasters, the Radio Advertising Bureau, and there's only ever been a handful of privately held industry publications that focused entirely on the radio broadcast industry. One of those is a magazine called Radio Ink, and it's not INC like incorporated it's Radio Ink as in printers ink, I-N-K. And started by a guy named Eric Rhoades, and I'm not sure how he and Roy first met, and by the way, Roy's got a hilarious story about Eric Rhoades dad speaking of empire building. We'll save that for another time. But Roy started writing a column for Radio Ink in the nineties, and the column was just, Hey, here's some things that you ought to consider when you're writing ads for businesses and you're in the radio business, or here are some tips for radio salespeople to sell more long form kind of schedules. And so I'd been reading those, you'd go to the post office once a month and there'd be the Radio Ink in the mail and it was always exciting because it was great writing, it was one of the few pieces of industry focused Journalism that was really engaging if you were in the radio business and Roy's column was always the first thing I looked at. And at some point he started doing the Monday morning memo and I think promoted it in the Radio Ink article. Hey, if you want, subscribe to The Monday Morning Memo send us a fax at this number.

Calvin is looking up into a star-filled sky when he says to his tiger friend Hobbes,“If people looked at the stars each night, I bet they'd live a lot differently. When you look into infinity, you realize that there are more important things than what people do all day.”My friends are Calvin. I am Hobbes.Last week Hobbes was complaining to Jeffrey Eisenberg about his frustration with a company that had “upgraded” its website, making it impossible for Hobbes to buy what they were trying to sell. Jeffrey responded like Calvin,“The only things that matter online are Motivation, Momentum, and Friction. It sounds like this company has introduced so much Friction into the buying process that your decision to purchase has lost its Momentum and your Motivation is about to disappear. Am I right?”Jeffrey's summary was so piercingly accurate that all I could do was vibrate my head up and down in a sort of big-eyed, high-frequency nod.Motivation, Momentum, and Friction are the only three dials that matter on the e-commerce machine.Turn the knobs of the first two dials all the way to the right.Turn the knob of the third dial all the way to the left.Stand under the spout where the money gushes out.Enjoy being rich.The next day I got a text from Tim Storm.” I think this needs to be understood: We are literally time travelers.”A few moments later, a second text appeared.“I don't use drugs, but that felt profound to realize.”Tim is right, of course. Physically, we are 3-dimensional creatures traveling through a 4th dimension called time.Friends say insightful things if you're listening.Perhaps the most impactful thing a friend ever shared with me happened 48 years ago. He said,“Depression is unfocused despair. You can rise above it by trying to help someone else. When you see a person who is sad or worried or afraid, take a few minutes to encourage them. Forget about your own problems and focus on theirs. Find a person who needs help and help them! If they're trying to carry something heavy, help them carry it. If they need someone to help them scrape bubblegum off the bottoms of school desks, help them do it. When you make a series of little differences, you win a series of little victories. Keep this up and the cloud over your head will fade away and the sun will shine again. This has always worked for me. Perhaps it will work for you, too.”He was right. It has always worked for me.Perhaps it will work for you, too.His name was David. You would have liked him.Roy H. Williams

Welcome back to another episode of the Multifamily Collective! Today, I discuss the powerful quote from Roy H. Williams' book, *The Wizard of Ads*: "The risk of insult is the price of clarity." As a masterful copywriter and founder of The Wizard Academy, Williams emphasizes the necessity of boldness in communication. You may risk offending others when striving for clarity, especially in multifamily and PropTech leadership. It's crucial to understand that your unique perspective, shaped by your upbringing and experiences, will sometimes clash with prevailing sentiments. Yet, this conflict is often necessary for clear and effective leadership. In times of crisis, hesitation can lead to failure. Leaders must be decisive, even if it means ruffling a few feathers. Being transparent and direct is not just about persuasion; it's about ensuring your vision is understood and acted upon swiftly. If you found this insight valuable, please like this video and subscribe to our channel for more leadership tips and industry insights. Multifamily Leadership, PropTech, Crisis Management, Leadership Clarity, The Wizard of Ads, Roy H. Williams, Bold Leadership, Effective Communication, Organizational Success, Risk of Insult, Direct Communication, Clear Leadership, Wizard Academy, Decisive Leadership #MultifamilyLeadership #PropTech #CrisisManagement #LeadershipClarity #TheWizardOfAds #RoyHWilliams #BoldLeadership #EffectiveCommunication #mikebrewer #multifamilycollective #multifamilymentoring #multifamilycoaching #multifamilypodcast #leadership #OpenAi #multifamilymedianetwork --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mike-brewer/support

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...

Michelle D. Gladieux will celebrate 20 years of running her company, Gladieux Consulting, this year. Michelle and her colleagues have advised hundreds of companies, including Best Buy, General Dynamics, Lincoln Financial, and Medtronic, on ways their executives and employees can communicate more effectively to improve their performance and satisfaction. Michelle is one of 21 previous Monday Morning Radio guests showcased in All You Can Eat Business Wisdom, the new anthology authored by deputy reporter and co-host Maxwell Rotbart. This week, on Michelle's second podcast appearance, she delves deeper into the correlation between effective communications, career advancement, and life satisfaction. What you say, how you say it, and — importantly — how you listen really do matter. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Michelle D. Gladieux, Gladieux ConsultingPosted: May 20, 2024 Monday Morning Run Time: 42:44 Episode: 12.46 MONDAY MORNING RADIO BOOKSHELF: Communicate with Courage: Taking Risks to Overcome the Four Hidden Challenges by Michelle D. Gladieux All You Can Eat Business Wisdom: A Monday Morning Radio Anthology of Actionable Advice by Maxwell Rotbart September Twelfth: An American Comeback Story by Dean Rotbart The Wizard of Ads: Turning Words into Magic and Dreamers into Millionaires by Roy H. Williams

“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

Here's a festive treat for everyone! There's no better way to embrace the holiday season than by gathering with loved ones for a joyous feast or celebration. In the true spirit of the season, I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be continuing my tradition of hosting a special Christmas Eve live event. Join me on YouTube Live this Friday, December 22nd, at 1 PM Eastern Time and 2 PM Atlantic Time for an unforgettable experience that's expected to last around 4 hours. We'll have engaging conversations with some special guests, reflecting on their 2023 experiences and offering insights into what the upcoming year may hold. Get ready for an afternoon filled with laughter, warmth, and anticipation for the adventures that lie ahead! Rocky Lalvani, Host of the Richer Soul and Profit Answer Man podcasts. Rocky coaches entrepreneurs to implement the Profit First system in their businesses. https://profitcomesfirst.com/ Mike Finger, a former business owner, business broker and consultant who helps business owners prepare their businesses for sale. Mike is also the co-host of my new show Your Exit Squad. I'm sure we'll be sharing some of the details of this program as season 1 is about to be released. https://www.ExitOasis.com https://www.YourExitSquad.com Henry Lopez, former car wash and suite salon owner and current co-working space and frozen yogurt shop owner will be visiting too. Henry is also a business coach and the host of the How of Business Podcast. https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/ Aaron Baer Providing Practical Legal Advice to Clients an entrepreneur first and a lawyer second - which allows him to tackle legal issues by putting himself in your shoes. https://www.rennoco.com/ Patrick Dichter has successfully executed a search for a CPA/Bookkeeping firm without being a CPA! He is now growing this company from being highly regional to a national service provider. https://www.appletreebusiness.com/ Lisa Forrest has over 30 years of experience writing loans under the US Small Business Administration's (SBA) loan programs.https://www.linkedin.com/in/forrestlisa/ Mark Willis, from Lake Growth Financial. Mark is a channel sponsor and helps people secure his client's financial future with the Bank on Yourself system. https://www.NewBankingSolution.com Marc Mawhinney, Three-time business owner and business coach to coaches will be stopping in. Marc is the host of the Natural Born Coaches Podcast. https://www.naturalborncoaches.com/ Finally, I've got Rick Nicholson who will be visiting near the end. Rick has owned seven different food/coffee businesses over the years and is a Wizard of Ads partner with Roy H Williams' Austin, TX based organization. He's also appeared this past year as a live guest on the YouTube channel. https://wizardofads.org/ As a live event, if you can join us during the broadcast, you'll be able to post comments that I'll be able to see and so it could be quite interactive for us. If you can't make it and want to submit a question for me or any of the guests, just hit ‘reply' and send me a note right now. If you can't make it to the live broadcast, the recording will be available for you to see later and I'll put the audio on my regular podcast feeds as well. See you! Cheers David Barnett - Do Business with David using these incredible internet links... - David's Blog where you can find hundreds of free videos and articles, https://www.DavidCBarnett.com - Join David's email list so you never miss any new videos or important information or insights, https://www.DavidCBarnettList.com

In this third and final segment of our interview with the Wizard of Ads, Mark and Lorraine dive deeper on Roy H. Williams' thoughts on why positioning and his philosophies apply whether the marketing is B2C, B2B or D2C. Roy spends considerable time explaining: why we are consumers regardless of where we're buying (work or home),why  the emotional environment of the prospect is so critical,why gross rating points is a farce in selecting media,why the portable people meter (PPM) is your better media planning gauge,why positioning is critical to supercharging your brand-building efforts, andwhy repetition of your message matters.Spend 30-ish with Mark and Lorraine – AND Mr. Williams – to learn more about advertising, marketing, and positioning.

Mark and Lorraine share part 2 of the interview with the Wizard of Ads, Roy H. Williams. Roy discusses deep insights on his understanding of the human condition and why we buy what we buy. From discussing reductionism and spirituality to "dead cows everywhere," Roy provides insights that any advertiser will appreciate. Learn: why demographic targeting is a myth and how to properly target through the message,why media targeting is so costly and the alternative we should consider, why a prospect's realm of association is so critical, why positioning is one of the most critical components of marketing, andwhich books Roy recommends for marketers (it's only 3 titles long).Spend 30-ish with Mark and Lorraine – AND Mr. Williams – to learn more about advertising, marketing, and positioning.

Mark and Lorraine welcome The Wizard of Ads, Roy H. Williams, to the show today. The first 30 minutes of our interview (part 1 of 3) with the wizard covers the genesis of the Wizard Academy, how Roy came up with The Wizards of Ads moniker, and why sound is so critical to human emotion, memory, and memorable advertising. Each word had us sitting on the edge of our chairs and we're excited to bring this first of three parts to our subscribers.Spend 30-ish with Mark and Lorraine – AND Mr. Williams – to learn more about advertising, marketing, and positioning.

It would appear that journalists can no longer see clearly or talk plainly. They hand you something twisted and bent and assure you that it is straight.Propaganda hangs thick in the air around us and we are weary of it.It has gotten so bad that each of the people I could count on to keep me informed have chosen to cut the umbilical and set themselves free from the pollution of newscasts.I was contemplating these things in the predawn darkness when I remembered a comment made by Hosea 2700 years ago. His words were translated into English in 1611: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal.”The Contemporary English translation of the Book of Hosea was published in the year 2000: “If you scatter wind instead of wheat, you will harvest a whirlwind and have no wheat.”This morning's Roy H. Williams translation says, “If you scatter falsehoods instead of truth, you will harvest confusion and have no truth.”You can use nuclear energy to illuminate great cities, or you can use it to vaporize them. Nuclear energy has no conscience, no ethics, no obligation to do what is right. It is we humans who must have conscience, ethics, and a sense of obligation.Artificial Intelligence is like nuclear energy. You can use it to solve complicated problems, or you can use it to create them.In recent weeks millions of people have seen photos showing Donald Trump being tackled and carried away by a group of police officers. We have seen Pope Francis wearing a white puffer jacket. We have seen an explosion at the Pentagon.The Pentagon bombing was believed by enough people that it affected the S&P 500 on Wall Street.But those things were the work of mischievous amateurs.I wonder what is going to happen when the big boys decide it is time to play for higher stakes?America has been losing its grasp on the truth ever since the Fairness Doctrine was repealed in 1987 and the 12AM/12FM/12TV limitations on broadcast ownership were lifted 20 years ago. This made it legal for anyone with a lot of money to buy all the TV and Radio stations and replace the news with falsehoods, half-truths, and outright lies. And we called it Freedom of Speech.Now we are holding onto the truth by our fingertips, trying not to let it slip from our grasp.As I sit in the predawn darkness, I see the rapidly approaching freight train of a Presidential election and I hear the sound of an approaching whirlwind.Roy H. WilliamsDr. Michael Lenox is an expert on artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. He knows the opportunities and the dangers of digital technology. Dr. Lenox advises business people on how to prepare for 2024, a year in which more data will be generated than in all previous years combined. Dr. Lenox is interviewed today by roving reporter Rotbart, a flesh-and-blood journalist. But Dr. Lenox says Rotbart could easily be replaced by a sophisticated algorithm. (Don't tell Mrs. Rotbart.) The joy, the fear, and the wonder await you at MondayMorningRadio.com.

[This edition of Monday Morning Radio begins our 12th year of podcasting in conjunction with the non-profit Wizard Academy and its co-founder, Roy H. Williams. This is our 550th episode.] When it comes to career moves, bestselling author Joanne Lipman has been very successful and resilient.  She was the first woman to become a deputy managing editor at The Wall Street Journal. She was the founding editor-in chief-of Condé Nast's award-winning Portfolio magazine. She served as editor-in-chief of USA Today and chief content officer of its parent company, Gannett. Currently, Joanne is a regular contributor to CNBC and a lecturer at Yale University. In her latest book, Next!: The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work, Joanne provides countless examples of people who reinvented themselves - some willingly, others who had no choice. As she tells host Dean Rotbart, anyone following the methods she prescribes can make the successful leap from one career to the next and the next after that.  [Joanne discussed her bestselling book, That's What She Said, on our June 17, 2019, podcast.] Photo: Joanne Lipman, Next!Posted: June 18, 2023Monday Morning Run Time: 41:45Episode: 12.01 RECENT EPISODES: What Would Your Business Do Differently Today If You Knew the Future? Hear the Fairytale-Esq Story of Dave Combs' “Rachel's Song” – and the Business Savvy That Propels It In Today's Business World, the Means to Success Often Matter As Much as the Ends

You have tiny openings in your mind.When you look through one of those keyholes, you see a world that could easily become real, but only if you keep looking through that keyhole.Look through that keyhole long enough and it will expand into a window, then grow to become a door of opportunity through which you can pass into an entirely different future.Don't look where you don't want to go.If you gaze at dark possibilities, you are headed toward darkness.We do only those things we have rehearsed in our minds.Opportunity never knocks.It smells like jasmine in the air around you.It tickles like a feather in your open mouth.It twinkles like starlight in a midnight sky.It whispers like a girl behind a paper wall.Look only where you want to go.If you stare at goodness, you are headed toward good things.It smells like the sweat of people digging a tunnel through a mountain.It tickles like happy music played by musicians on the other side.It twinkles like the eyes of children having a bright adventure.It whispers like a companion who is urging you forward.As your friend, I have only one question.Where are we going?© Roy H. Williams, 2023Indy's Favorite Meme of the Week: “Drink water. Eat vegetables. Be nice to animals. Exercise regularly. Explore nature. Find a small door under a tree. Open it. Take a look inside. Get pepper sprayed by a tiny elf. Learn a valuable lesson about knocking first.” – Roxi HorrorIndy's Second Favorite Meme: “Novels are so great. Novels are like, ‘I made up a little weirdo. Oh no, now he's in trouble!'” – Gabrielle MossDr. Henry Mintzberg has written more books than the Beatles had #1 records. He is an organization and management rock star. Dr. Mintzberg says many organizations – for-profit and nonprofit – are making a big mistake when they embrace a one-size-fits-all approach to structuring their operations. Listen as Dr. Mintzberg – who has received a whopping 21 honorary degrees – tells roving reporter Rotbart that there are seven different “species” of companies, each requiring an executive playbook as distinct from each other as football is from basketball, and baseball is from hockey. Where can you hear amazing people talk about fascinating stuff like this? MondayMorningRadio.com of course!

Although officially, the business spotlighted on this week's podcast is less than a week old, host Dean Rotbart says that given its lineage and the marketing genius supporting it, RomanticSpotsinAustin.com is a sure bet to be an entrepreneurial role model and a global success story. Two years in development, the online guidebook to amorous Austin, Texas, is the brainchild of Pennie Williams, brought from the drawing board to last week's rollout with an assist by her son Jake and her husband, none other than Roy H. Williams. Pennie has been nurturing love and romance for decades. She is responsible for launching Chapel Dulcinea — the world's first free wedding chapel — in 2005. Situated cliffside on the edge of an ancient walking trail overlooking the Texas Hill Country, the chapel hosts 1,100 ceremonies annually. RomanticSpotsinAustin offers searchable, unbiased descriptions of a cornucopia of places and activities — from famous landmarks to little-known hideaways, sweeping natural landscapes to rooftop lounges, crazy art and adventures to violins and candlelight. Listings on RomanticSpotsinAustin.com are free and selected for inclusion solely by the editorial team behind the digital guidebook. “Visitors to RomanticSpotsinAustin.com need only be guided by their mood of the moment, whether that means hiking the cliffs at sunset, sharing cocktails at a dark corner table, or touring any of Austin's outstanding museums,” says Jake Williams, who serves as chief executive of the new venture. “The only essential ingredient, of course, is that you have the one you love by your side.” Listen closely, as this week Roy not only explains the strategy behind RomanticSpotsinAustin, but he also shares some of the proven marketing techniques that have made him the most successful and admired ad writer in history. Photo: Jake Williams, CEO, Romantic Spots LLC Posted: February 13, 2023 Monday Morning Run Time: 43:05 Episode: 11.26

Lately I've been trying to explain to uncomprehending faces how the most powerful opening lines are never questions, but statements that trigger more questions than they answer.I am certain those uncomprehending faces are my fault. I fear the idea that I am trying to teach may be bigger than the teacher.I am going to do my best today – one last time – to make it as clear as I can:The job of the opening line is to engage the reader, listener, or viewer.If the opening line doesn't do it's job, you risk becoming invisible.If your customer turns their attention away from you, you cease to exist.The most famous opening line in literature is, “Call me Ishmael.” It is a simple 3-word statement, but it triggers the following questions:“Is your name not Ishmael?”“Why are you unwilling to tell us your real name?”“And why did you choose the name ‘Ishmael'.”“Are you hiding from someone?”“And if so, why?”The face on the billboard at the top of this page is a close friend of mine. The billboard contains no company name, no logo, no domain name, and no telephone number. We give you no clue that might allow you to answer the questions that swirl in your mind:“Who is Elmer?”“Why is he coming”“What will he do when he gets here?”“Did su madre really name him Elmer?”As an ad, that billboard, “Elmer is Coming,” is woefully incomplete. In fact, every dilettante in the world of advertising will take great joy in pointing out that “only a moron” would put up such a billboard. It will be the talk of the town.“What a stupid billboard! It doesn't have a call-to-action and it doesn't have any contact information or even a logo!”But those billboards are only the opening salvo of an ad campaign that will continue for decades.After 4 weeks, when the city is buzzing with “Who is Elmer?” my friend will introduce himself on the radio and share who he is, where he came from, and what he hopes to do. Everyone who hears those ads will be anxious to tell their friends all about Elmer.What I am describing is not a “unique selling proposition.” It is simply a literary device, an artifact of truth upon which we can build a captivating ad, the beginning of a highly successful ad campaign.You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.Your first impression of Elmer is that he is easy-going and interesting and fun. (All of that is true, by the way.)Both of the examples I gave you earlier were just three words.Are you willing to try your hand at writing a 3-word statement that triggers more questions than it answers?I am not talking about a 3-word caption that needs to be accompanied by an image. “Elmer is Coming” works its magic even without a picture. Likewise, “Call me Ishmael.”Can you write a 3-word statement that triggers more questions than it answers? If your three words make Indy and me to want to know more, Indy said he will publish your name in next week's rabbit hole.Send your three words to indy@wizardofads.com before midnight Saturday, February 4th.If you see your name in the rabbit hole the following Monday, that means you got an A+.Roy H. Williams

My big gift to all of you. Nothing celebrates the holidays like getting together with friends and family for a big meal or a party. It's in this spirit that I've decided to continue my tradition of doing a Christmas Eve live special. I've invited some friends to come and talk about their experiences in 2022 and what we might expect for the year to come: Mike Finger, a former business owner, business broker and consultant who helps business owners prepare their businesses for sale. Mike is also the co-host of my new show Your Exit Squad. I'm sure we'll be sharing some of the details of this program as season 1 is about to be released. https://www.ExitOasis.com https://www.YourExitSquad.com Giuseppe Grammatico, The Franchise Guide from New Jersey who has appeared on my show discussing franchise opportunities. https://ggthefranchiseguide.com/ Rocky Lalvani, Host of the Richer Soul and Profit Answer Man podcasts. Rocky coaches entrepreneurs to implement the Profit First system in their businesses. https://profitcomesfirst.com/ Ted Leverette, The Original Business Buyer Advocate™ Ted's been working with clients around the world to help them buy some impressive businesses. Maybe he'll share some of their successes or one or two of his secrets with us this year. https://partneroncall.com/ Henry Lopez, former car wash and suite salon owner and current co-working space and frozen yogurt shop owner will be visiting too. Henry is also a business coach and the host of the How of Business Podcast. https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/ Marc Mawhinney, Three-time business owner and business coach to coaches will be stopping in. Marc is the host of the Natural Born Coaches Podcast. https://www.naturalborncoaches.com/ Mark Willis, from Lake Growth Financial. Mark is a channel sponsor and helps people secure his client's financial future with the Bank on Yourself system. https://www.NewBankingSolution.com Finally, I've got Rick Nicholson who will be visiting near the end. Rick has owned seven different food/coffee businesses over the years and is a Wizard of Ads partner with Roy H Williams' Austin, TX based organization. He's also appeared this past year as a live guest on the YouTube channel. https://wizardofads.org/ As a live event, if you can join us during the broadcast, you'll be able to post comments that I'll be able to see and so it could be quite interactive for us. Starting on the 24th, I'm going to be releasing this year's Holiday Chat calls. I'll be sending out one each day to people on this email list only. If you have a friend who should be on the list to get this information and those Holiday Chat calls, then send them to https://www.DavidCBarnettList.com Cheers and enjoy the holiday season. David C Barnett Show sponsors: Build an equity asset that is guaranteed to grow over time, never lose value and give you access to liquidity whenever you need it without having to qualify for credit- EVER. Learn more and sign up for a no-obligation consultation at https://www.NewBankingSolution.com www.jeffalpaugh.com/dcb10 https://www.SMBPodcastNetwork.com Sign up and receive weekly emails with the internet's best new conversations about small and medium sized business. David, Ted and Mike will be at the BossUp Virtual Conference, Feb 16 and 17th, Learn more and sign up FREE here: https://hopin.com/events/bossup-virtual-micro-m-a-conference

Communication breakdown is costing you millions In this episode of the Successful Life Podcast, I will discuss communication's importance in business. We discuss poor communication with your CCRs and service techs and how they cost you millions of dollars annually. You'll learn how I secret shop my customers and  how communication can increase or decrease your business's revenue by 20-30% a year.  Roy H. Williams, the wizard of Ads, was interviewed on  "To the point- home services podcast" with Chis Yano, CEO at RYNO Strategic Solutions. was so good this week! Roy and Chris discuss the cost of mass media, SEO, and Diamonds.  Roy H. Williams is the owner and creative director of Wizard Academy, an advertising agency in Austin, Texas. He is also the author of several books on marketing and advertising, including "The Wizard of Ads" and "Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads." Communication is Crucial It's no secret that communication is key to success in any business. But for HVAC and plumbing companies, communication is crucial. That's because poor communication can cost these companies big time – in terms of both money and customer satisfaction. Consider this: A recent study by the home services review website Angie's List found that communication problems are the number one reason customers are dissatisfied with their home service providers. In fact, 70% of survey respondents said they were unhappy with the way their provider communicated with them. And nearly half (45%) said they would never use that company again because of communication problems. What's more, those communication problems cost HVAC and plumbing companies an estimated $75 million annually in lost business, according to the study. So what can these companies do to improve communication and avoid losing customers? Here are a few suggestions: - Make sure your customer service representatives are adequately trained in communication. This means teaching them how to be clear and concise when speaking with customers, as well as how to listen actively. If you're in the home services industry, communication is key to keeping your customers happy. That's why it's essential to have a customer service representative available 24/7 to answer customer calls and emails. However, even with excellent communication with your customers, there's always the potential for hiccups in the process. One of the most significant hiccups can occur when it's time to follow up with customers. It's essential to have a system in place to ensure that all customers are followed up in a timely manner. This may mean utilizing a call center or answering service outside of regular business hours. No matter what system you use, communication is essential to keeping your customers happy and ensuring that they'll use your services again in the future. Key Talking Points of the Episode 1:50 Roy H. Williams- The Wizard of Ads 4:55 Importance of 2-way communication in dealing with business. 6:05 What's the benefit of it to HVAC, Plumbing, or any home services? 9:02 Engaging builds relations 11:42 After engaging, follow-up comes next 13:43 CSRs/CCRs wins customers through empathy- lack of it, they will lose them 16:45 Good communication reduces cancellations at the same time, increases business Empathy wins every time In business, communication is critical. Good communication can help to build rapport, trust and understanding between parties, while poor communication can lead to misunderstanding, mistrust, and even conflict. When communicating with customers, businesses should aim to add empathy, acknowledgment, and assurance to their communications in order to build strong relationships and achieve positive outcomes. By doing so, businesses can create a positive customer experience that leads to repeat business and referrals. Empathy involves putting yourself in another person's shoes and understanding their perspective. It's important to remember that everyone has different needs and wants, so it's essential to take the time to understand where they're coming from. Acknowledgment involves recognizing someone else's thoughts or feelings. This can be done verbally, non-verbally, or through actions. For businesses, acknowledgment can be a powerful tool for building customer rapport and trust. Assurance is about providing reassurance and instilling confidence. This can be done by communicating clearly and concisely and following through on promises made. By providing assurance, businesses can build customer loyalty and create a positive reputation. Good communication is essential for businesses of all sizes. By understanding the importance of empathy, acknowledgment, and assurance in communication, businesses can create strong relationships with their customers and achieve positive outcomes. Please join my free Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thetradeschools YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrPl4lUyKV7hZxoTksQDsyg Follow me at: https://www.instagram.com/coreyberrier/ www.linkedin.com/in/coreysalescoach https://thetradeschools.com/ Download my #1 bestseller, "9 Simple Steps to Sell More $H!T" with this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2C3HHMC

We're off to see the wizard! Well rather, the Wizard of Ads has come to see us! We welcome the world-famous, one and only Roy H. Williams! Join us for an incredible meeting between host Chris Yano and Roy Williams where Roy takes us through his start in advertising, his work with some of the most legendary names in the home services industry, and what you need to understand about branding and advertising!

My friend is forever shouting about his Freedom. It is the only song he sings. Freedom is a good thing, but our love of freedom is why family sizes are shrinking. Children are a responsibility. Freedom and Responsibility are paired opposites, a duality. The more you have of one, the less you have of the other.I had written only those few words when I received a request from the American Small Business Institute to answer a question from Glenn in Calgary; he wanted me to predict the Top Five Qualities of an Advertising Consultant in 2023. I had the Freedom to answer however I wanted. I could be flip, funny, cute, self-serving, dismissive, scholarly, insulting, pedantic, or predictable. My Freedom was unrestrained. But I also had the Responsibility to give Glenn a list of five specific, attainable goals that would make him and his clients more successful. I told Glenn the Top Five Qualities for 2023 would be these: Ability to write good ads. I've never seen a business fail due to “reaching the wrong people.” Businesses fail because they say the wrong thing. Knowledge of how to differentiate a business from its category. You must make your client's business distinctive and memorable. Honesty. You must be willing to accept responsibility for the failure of your ad campaign. Courage to say what needs to be said to the business owner. This is how you avoid campaigns that fail. Wisdom to know that good advertising will not fix a broken business. Choose your clients carefully, Glenn. Depression and Joy are another duality. The more you have of one, the less you have of the other.Pride – the inability to feel grateful – is what keeps us from feeling joy. The disembodied voice that tells us we need to be “proud, self-made men and women,” is the devil who robs us of our joy. Depression is unfocused anger. Joy is unfocused gratitude. The more you have of one, the less you have of the other. If you look for reasons to be angry, you will find them. If you look for reasons to be grateful, you will find them. Don't be angry. Be grateful. Justice and Mercy are a third duality. And the tug-of-war between them is intense.The only hard choices in life are the choices between two good things. Justice and Mercy are both good things. When you encounter the tug-of-war between them, which one do you favor? Opportunity and Security, a fourth duality.When Opportunity increases, Security declines. This sounds like Risk and Reward, but it's not. If Risk and Reward were a duality, increasing your risk would decrease your reward. But increased risk of failure increases potential reward. This makes Risk and Reward a synchronous potentiality contained entirely within the realm of Opportunity. Ultimately, it all comes down to Choices.Our plan is always to make good choices, not bad choices. But most choices are neither good nor bad in the moment we make them. They become good or bad in hindsight. They become good or bad due to consequences. The outcome is never entirely clear until after the show is over. We learn more from our failures than we learn from our successes. Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from bad decisions. You cannot judge a person's experience by their age. You can judge it only by what they have experienced. A person can have 30 years of experience, or they can 1 year of experience 30 times. Which will you have? Will you choose to embrace risk and take your beatings when you fail and learn hard lessons and win great victories? Opportunity is a good thing. But then again, so is Security. Roy H. Williams

I was the new kid in a new town, ­getting ready to start the third grade. We had moved into a rented house beyond the outer perimeter of Skiatook, Oklahoma. There were no other houses within sight, so there were no neighbors to visit, no new friends to meet, nothing to do except walk in circles. School had not yet started. Our house – like most houses back then – had no air conditioning. The Oklahoma air was too hot, too dusty to breathe. That's when Indy showed up and introduced himself. He said, “What are you doing?” “Walking in circles.” “Can I do it with you? “Sure.” I wasn't surprised that Indy could talk, and I wasn't surprised that he could walk into photographs and paintings and talk to the people in them. When he walked out of those images, he would tell me the most amazing stories. Indy suggested I should become a writer. The following summer, I was the new kid in another new town – Broken Arrow – but we had neighbors and a park and a house with air conditioning. Mrs. Fisher would read to the class for about 15 minutes each day while Indy slept beneath my desk. She read Charlotte's Web and Way Down Cellar and then she told us to write a poem about anything we wanted. I wrote a poem about a dog. Everyone was impressed, even Mrs. Fisher. Pennie and I were 19 and had been married about a year when I launched “Daybreak,” a daily, prerecorded message of encouragement you could hear if you knew the right telephone number to call. You couldn't leave a message because it was an “announce-only” machine that Pennie and I leased from the telephone company for $50 a month. I never told anyone my name or how they might be able to contact me. “Daybreak” was just the voice of a stranger on the telephone, talking to you as though he knew you. I woke before dawn each day and spent a couple of hours writing and recording a new 2-minute message and then I went to work. Fax machines had not yet been invented. The internet wasn't even a fantasy. “Daybreak” grew to the point where Pennie and I had to add a roll-over line and lease a second answering machine from the telephone company because too many people were getting a busy signal when they called. One thousand different “Daybreak” messages were written and recorded in 1,000 days between 1977 and 1980. “Daybreak” cost us about $130 month which is a lot of money when you make $3.35 an hour before taxes. With 25% of our income going down those telephone lines each day, I got a second job monitoring an automated radio station in Tulsa once a week. I was given the shift that no one wanted. I went to work each Friday night at midnight and worked until 11AM on Saturday morning. Indy would always go with me to keep me company. I had been there for more than a year when the General Manager walked in one Saturday morning about 9AM with a few notes scribbled on the back of a napkin about “Amir's Persian Imports,” a local place that sold Persian rugs. He asked me to write an ad for them, so I wrote a 60-second story that took listeners into the sky on a magic carpet ride. The ad performed well. Amir was impressed. My boss was impressed enough to offer me a full-time job. Indy just smiled and winked at me. Roy H. Williams

I was writing about third gravitating bodies and I needed to know the year that Henri Poincaré wrote The Third Body Problem and won that huge cash prize from King Oscar II of Sweden. I typed “third gravitating bodies” into the Google search block. At the top of the results page was a featured snippet and something about it looked familiar. When I glanced at the source link, I saw that it was a Monday Morning Memo I had written recently. Evidently, Google thinks I know far more about third gravitating bodies than I actually do, because they seem to be under the mistaken impression that I am an expert in the field of theoretical physics, and I can assure you that I am not. But that's not what freaked me out. When I clicked the source link, it took me to a Monday Morning Memo I wrote a few months ago. I had a clear memory of writing that memo, and for some strange reason I have a particularly clear memory of creating the image at the top of the page. I created that image by selecting three different magazine covers over which I overlaid an image of the Broadway cast of Hamilton. My memory of writing that memo and creating that artwork felt like it was only four or five weeks ago, but I knew that it was more likely four or five months. What freaked me out was when I looked at the date of https://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/newsletters/paired-opposites-and-third-gravitating-bodies/ (that memo.) I has been almost 6 years since I wrote it. I felt like Rip Van Winkle. I looked up at the door in the room where I was sitting, and waited for Rod Serling to step into that open doorframe. I could already hear his voice. “Consider if you will, the man who stared so deeply into the void of his computer, that when he looked up, he was 6 years older. There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call The Twilight Zone.” My friend and business partner Ray Seggern spent yesterday afternoon with me. Ray is old enough to have an adult daughter who has completed college and worked for companies like Luis Vuitton and Rolls Royce and who will soon be married. Ray is 9 years younger than me. Shortly after he arrived for our meeting, he said, “You know how time seems to pass more quickly as you get older?” I nodded, so he continued, “What's the word for that? Everyone says that a year seems like a long time to a 5-year-old because it's 20 percent of his lifetime, but that same year goes by 10 times faster for a 50-year old man because it's only 2 percent of his lifetime. What's the word for that?” Ray and I sat and thought and scratched our heads and looked at each other for a long while. Here's why I'm writing to you today: What's the word for that? If you know – or even if you just made up a good word for it and are willing to share ­– send the word to indy@wizardofads.com Your name will appear in the dictionary we are compiling. More about that in the rabbit hole. Indy says Aroo. Roy H. Williams

Predictability is the silent assassin of persuasion.When static electricity saturates the sky, lift the lightning rod of the new, the surprising, and the different and let the concert begin. The booming of the big bass drum will make the draperies tremble as the lasers light up the night. Give that anxious electricity something to focus on. Win the attention of the storm. Don't tell us, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Light it up. When your jagged blade rips a gash in the sky and makes the darkness cry, we will lift our faces into the wet and laugh until the grass is green again. Light it up. We rarely raise our faces from these glittering screens because you rarely have anything new to say. We stare at the electricity behind this glass because it is always new, always surprising, always different. Look into our eyes and you will see the static electricity of our boredom is always there, always anxious, always looking for an outlet. Lift your lightning rod into that darkness. Set our world ablaze with the unexpected. We will reward you with our attention. Pixies, faeries, sprites and elves run naked through the darkness, laughing at everything, giggling with glee, eyes twinkling, feet flying, they run with abandon, afraid of nothing. What are you afraid of? Do you read boring, fact-filled fluff? Or do you read fluff made of different stuff? As you read, so will you write.When colorful, unexpected words fill your sight, you have raised your ink pen into the night and filled it with ink of electric light. Now write. When you have nothing to say, don't let anyone convince you to say it. But when you have something to say, don't say it regular and tidy with tucked-in corners. Say it with the rhythm of faeries running naked through the night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Where you begin is unimportant. How you proceed is all that matters.‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even the faerie hiding behind the curtains with a match in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other. This is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. But it is the end of the beginning. So tell me, what happens next? Roy H. Williams

Rugged individualism is the essence of America.It is also the reason that we, as a people, feel isolated and lonely. Our focus on personal, individual success is the reason we feel disconnected from one another. This is happening even in our marriages according to Ian Kerner, author of the book, So Tell Me About the Last Time You Had Sex, and Terrence Real, author of Us: Getting Past Me and You. “Individualism is not a natural fact; it has a history. In American Colonial days, society was communalism on a small scale. It was about farms and small towns and small villages. When you lived face to face with your neighbor, it was a palpable reality that the good of all was the good for each of us. Civic virtue was the force that went beyond individual gratification. It was part of being a civilized person that you had a sense of civic virtue. With the Industrial Revolution, and the myth of the self-made man, all of that went by the wayside and it was each man for himself.” – Terrence Real We are living in a very conflicted time because most of us hold two conflicting beliefs. (1.) We believe in a culture of individual achievement, “ME”, (2.) but as we approach the zenith of a societal “WE”, there is a desire to find our tribe, to join, to belong, to work as a group for the common good. Next year is the zenith of our current “WE.” It happens once every 80 years. The previous “WE” zenithed in 1943 when America was united against Hitler. We threw ourselves into something bigger than ourselves; something we believed in, something that satisfied our need to belong and make a difference. And now you know why we see all those deeply impassioned splinter groups in the news each week. Here's the good news: you can harness that same “need to belong” to recruit and retain good employees.Good employees are attracted to companies with a strong culture. They are looking for a company they can believe in, a place where they can belong and make a difference. When you want to strengthen your company culture, you need to publish your Unifying Principles. I have previously called these your “We Believe” statements. Publishing them is the easy part. The difficult part is that you have to live them. About eight minutes into his famous TED-X talk at Puget Sound, Simon Sinek says, “The goal is not just to hire people who need a job; it's to hire people who believe what you believe. I always say that, you know, if you hire people just because they can do a job, they'll work for your money, but if they believe what you believe, they'll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.” Indy Beagle will tell you about Culture Wizards in the rabbit hole. Roy H. Williams

In today's show, we are putting Roy H. Williams in your passenger seat to discuss how the concept of story plays a vital part in accomplishing your message. Whether it is advertising on the radio or marketing yourself in the home, the story matters. So often we try to talk about quicker, faster, better, and the list goes on; but what about the story? What about how a product is going to make a difference? What about how your service makes someone feel? Every purchase is an emotional one and as such the heartstrings must be tugged with a picture, either physically or verbally. Roy H. Williams is the master story teller. A lifelong student of humanity, Roy H. Williams has spent a quarter-century asking, “What makes people do the things they do?” And he's been using the things he's learned to stimulate miraculous growth for his small business clients for more than 25 years. His books and Monday Morning Memos are a constant source of fascination and entertainment for his students and friends around the globe and have been named the Wall Street Journal's number one Business Book in America as well as New York Times bestseller. With forty branch offices in the US, Canada, and Australia, Wizard of Ads, Inc. is now serving the advertising and marketing needs of business owners around the globe. Roy joins the show today to share his expertise on making yourself and your business memorable and moving.

KEY TOPICS & SUBTOPICS Defining data analysis The benefits of data analytics for service business owners How data analysis works and the types of insights gained from it Demystifying the stigmas and negative mindsets around data analytics  The role of data hygiene in the accuracy of data analyses What is data hygiene and why does it matter for service businesses? In this episode we discuss: What is data analysis and how can it benefit service business owners? Demystifying the stigmas and negative mindsets around data analytics  The role of data hygiene in the accuracy of data analyses   Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:  This episode is kindly sponsored by Sera (visit their website), Podium (visit their website), CompanyCam (visit www.companycam.com/SBM for 14 day trial and 50% off your first two months). Join the Service Business Mastery Facebook group ServiceTitan Be Like Amazon by Jeffrey Eisenberg, Bryan Eisenberg, and Roy H Williams   Meet the Hosts: Tersh Blissett is a serial entrepreneur who has created and scaled multiple profitable home service businesses in his small town market. He's dedicated to giving back to the industry that has provided so much for him and his family. Connect with him on LinkedIn.   Joshua Crouch has been in the home services industry, specifically HVAC, for 8+ years as an Operations Manager, Branch Manager, Territory Sales Manager and Director of Marketing. He's also the Founder of Relentless Digital, where their focus is dominating your local market online. Connect with him on LinkedIn.   Meet the Guest: Jeff Eisenberg is the CEO of DataTurk.ai, a company that analyzes home service businesses to help owners make more money and achieve the greatest ROI on their company. He's also a partner (along with his brother) at BuyerLegends.com, a company that teaches business people how to create customer-centered, data-driven customer experience design that is supported by narrative.   Links to content here:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreyeisenberg https://www.facebook.com/jeffreydeisenberg https://twitter.com/JeffreyGroks  https://buyerlegends.com  https://dataturk.ai   Tune in to hear the latest and greatest in business services trends on Service Business Mastery on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and our website.     Listening on a desktop & can't see the links? Just search for Service Business Mastery in your favorite podcast player.

What can an annual race featuring weiner dogs teach serious entrepreneurs and business owners about correctly predicting the outcome of any marketing campaign before spending a dime on testing the concept? Plenty. That's the bottom line of Peter Nevland's latest book, Wiener Dog Marketing: A Silly Sounding Book for Serious Business Growth. The fast read not only features lessons Peter has gleaned from teaching and attending classes at the Wizard Academy, it also maps the mind of the Wizard himself, Roy H. Williams. Peter is one of the elite Wizard of Ads partners who helps already successful businesses find their unique path to much greater success, much faster. Peter was last a guest on Monday Morning Radio a decade ago, when he discussed his evolution from an engineer to a wordsmith and word coach. This week Peter shares with host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart the secrets of sniffing out a successful marketing strategy, one short-legged, long-bodied canine at a time. Photo: Peter Nevland, Weiner Dog Marketing Posted: June 27, 2022Monday Morning Run Time: 45:10

Brian Scudamore was a high school dropout. Waiting at a McDonald's drive-through, he spotted a ratty old pickup with “Junk Hauling” spray-painted on the side. “I could do that,” Brian told himself. Driven by an insatiable curiosity and inspired to do things bigger and better, Brian bought a beat-up old truck and launched what today is the $600 million global industry giant, 1-800-Got-Junk, which dominates the junk removal business. Brian is the founder and CEO of Vancouver-based 02E Brands —  Ordinary 2 Exceptional — which offers innovative home services franchises, including 1-800-Got Junk, Wow 1 Day Painting, and Shack Shine. This week, Brian shares practical insights from his latest bestselling book, BYOB: Business Your Own Business, Be Your Own Boss. The book debuted at #2 on The Wall Street Journal's bestsellers list. BYOB is a follow-up to Brian's popular 2018 book, WTF! [Willing to Fail]: How Failure Can Be Your Key to Success. Both BYOB and WTF were written with Roy H. Williams, founder of Roy H. Williams Marketing and co-founder of Wizard Academy. Brian is a fervent believer in the power of thinking BIG. Listen in as he explains why everyone has it within their means to achieve their dreams. “If Brian can succeed, so can you,” says host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart. “And that's not rubbish.” Photo: Brian Scudamore, O2E BrandsPosted: May 23, 2022Monday Morning Run Time: 44:12

I write advertising because I'm good at math.According to my calculations at age 18, the odds of making a living as an ad writer were 117,682% higher than the likelihood that I could make a living as a poet. But really, poems and ads are the same thing. Good poems promote a new perspective in a brief, tight economy of words. Good ads promote a new perspective in a brief, tight economy of words. The objective of both is to get you to see something differently. Poets and ad writers want to alter your perception. To do this, they use words that cause you to hallucinate; to see something that isn't really there. They want you to look into their magic mirror and see yourself less worried, happier, and beaming with light. Every generation worries about what the next generation seems to have forgotten. Perhaps I am an outlier even among my own generation, but I have long been concerned about how few people today understand the purpose of the arts. I am frustrated that so few understand the differences between the heart and mind. I am broken-hearted that so few know the basic stories of the Bible. “Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes, The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, 1857 Using the megaphone of poetry to whisper to us from 165 years ago, Dizzy Lizzy Browning is referring to the reaction of Moses in the desert of Midian when he saw a bush on fire in the distance that was never consumed. Moses turned aside to see it more closely. Looking into the glow, Moses heard a voice and took off his shoes because he knew he was in a special place. Elizabeth Barrett Browning is telling us that wonders are all around us, if only we would open our eyes. She is saying, “Stop. Notice. Go to the place. Realize that it is special.” How is that not an ad? When you know the basic stories of the Bible and the ancient Greeks, you see them echoed in the biggest movies, the best-selling novels, and the top-rated television shows. When you know those stories, you can use them as templates in communications of your own. These are stories that have proven to be magnetic, memorable, and persuasive. Note that phrase: “proven to be.” Repurpose the proven.In a movie directed by Oliver Stone in the second half of the 1980's, Charlie Sheen plays a young man who follows a bad father figure, then turns to follow a good father figure. Can you name the movie? If you said Platoon, you are right. If you said Wall Street, you are right. Both movies told the same story, and both were a huge success. The primary difference was that Platoon took us into the green jungles of Viet Nam circa 1967, and Wall Street took us into the concrete jungles of Manhattan circa 1985. Here's my point: Wall Street premiered less than 12 months after Platoon, but no one who saw it complained, “Hey, we were told this story last year!” Learn when and how to repurpose the proven.Solomon – another interesting Biblical character – said, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. And though it cost all you have, get understanding.” Unconscious competence is called talent. A talented person instinctively knows what to do. Knowing what to do is wisdom. Conscious competence is called skill. A skilled person has studied talented people long enough to figure out what they are unconsciously doing and why it works. Talented people know what to do. Skilled people know why to do it. Skilled people have understanding. Aim for understanding. Roy H. Williams

If relationships matter to you at all, don't put your negative emotions in writing. Spoken words land softly on their feet like a cat that has fallen from a tree. But written words often land with a thud, and the crack of a fractured relationship. My son Jacob taught me an African proverb last week, “The axe forgets, but the tree remembers.” That proverb reminded me to warn you, “Never put a negative emotion in writing.” There are few things as reckless and destructive as a text, an email, or a letter in which you “clear the air” by venting your anger, your fear, your frustration, your disappointment, or your sadness. If you cannot speak face-to-face with the person that you feel needs to hear what you have to say, then at least find a way to speak voice-to-voice. Never put a negative emotion in writing. I speak recklessly, but I write carefully. Every time I have put a negative emotion in writing, I have regretted it. Introverts prefer to communicate in writing. As a member of that 49 percent of our population, I say, “I understand your preference for writing instead of talking. You are good at writing. This is why it is especially important for you to realize that your negative, written words hit harder, hurt more deeply, and cause more widespread destruction than the words of your extraverted friends. So please, never put a negative emotion in writing. But the opposite is also true: your written words of recognition, praise, and encouragement will raise the spirits, strengthen the resolve, and give new energy to every person on whom you shine that happy light.” During the dark times, the tree will remember that light. And smile. Are you ready for a surprise? The same applies to advertising. If your relationship with prospective customers matters to you, don't put negative emotions into your ads. You ask, “But don't I at least need to describe the pain of the problem before I tell them about the solution?” No, because if you do, your name and your brand will unconsciously become associated with pain and problems. People will remember you when they need what you sell, but they will feel better about someone else. And this “someone else” they feel better about will probably make the sale. If you want to be that “someone else,” learn to write ads that make people feel good about themselves, their future, and you. I've been saying it for 35 years: “Win the heart and the mind will follow. The mind will always find logic to justify what the heart has already decided.” Did you know that I think about you several times each week? As I sit in the light of my computer screen at 2:30 each morning, I ponder the price you pay to read what I write to you. Money can be replaced but time cannot, so each minute you spend with me is spent forever. It can never be replaced. This is why I try to give you things that will last; things you can take with you and use again and again. I cannot see your face but I feel your presence and I want the best for you, just as you want the best for all the people that your life touches. Shine on, bright friend, shine on. All the trees around you will remember. Roy H. Williams

Thirty-five years ago, he patrolled a stretch of beach as long as two football fields on a Caribbean Island whose name I cannot remember. He pushed a wheelbarrow full of ice as he pranced from one end of his empire to the other, the music of his voice rising and falling over the sound of the surf. “I'm sorry I'm late, but I'm here. You want it. I got it.” His music would often stop. Then resume. Stop. Resume. Stop. Finally, we saw him, a tiny, native islander in his late 50's, as slender and leathery as a bullwhip, his naked feet falling as lightly as snowflakes on the soft Caribbean sand. “I'm sorry I'm late, but I'm here. You want it. I got it… I'm sorry I'm late, but…” His song would stop abruptly when he saw a hand raised. Sprinting to that spot with his wheelbarrow, he would ask the vacationers to name the drinks they desired. I watched him for a while. He was a genius. Occasionally he would reach into the ice and produce the requested beverage, but usually, he would pull his empty hands out of the icy water and fly like a bullet to his shack at the back of the beach. He would leave so quickly that you had no time to tell him you would happily accept a substitute. He would return like Santa's reindeer, his feet barely touching the sand, with the requested drink in hand, triumphant and proud not to have let you down. Once, as I saw him fly over the sand with cold drinks in hand, I thought I could hear the sound of sleigh bells, “More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name: ‘Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!‘” That's when it hit me: “This sandy song and dance is the daily floor show he gives us in this magnificent tavern without a ceiling. He is making a fortune in tips, and earning every bit of it.” I observed him long enough to decode his methods: if he suspected vacationers of feeling entitled and flinty, he would immediately pull their drinks from the ice, accept their money, and resume his happy song. “I'm sorry I'm late, but I'm here. You want it. I got it.” I was honored when he couldn't find our drinks. Pennie and I smiled at each other as he sprinted across the sand and returned with them 90 seconds later. One minute after that, we smiled at each other again when we saw him pull those same drinks from the ice to serve an unhappy couple 20 feet away. Like I said, the man was a genius. When an unpleasant person is demanding my attention and I feel like showing them the bird that I keep in my hand, I think of that happy, slender islander, and tell myself that he is still there, his hands in the ice, his bare feet falling like snowflakes on the soft Caribbean sand. Roy H. Williams

"Entrepreneurship is that great privilege of, let's make the world a better place.” After 30 years of entrepreneurship, three successful brands and half a billion in revenue, Brian Scudamore has stories to tell and knowledge to share. With a gentle push and support from his marketing wizard and co-author, Roy H. Williams, Brian has now published two books that are inspiring tens of thousands of entrepreneurs toward their visions and dreams. Over the years, Brian has developed the mindset, "if you can imagine something then you make it happen". So he's created the Can You Imagine movement, to help people have the courage to bring their visions to life. Check out the link below to see a clip of Brian delivering this message on the Ellen Degeneres Show. Brian is the founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, Wow 1 Day Painting and Shack Shine. He's the author of WTF?! (Willing To Fail) and the recently released BYOB: Build Your Own Business, Be Your Own Boss. Expert action steps: Vision. Start with a great idea. Not necessarily your idea, but the why and how. People. What system of people do you need to help grow and run your business so you as the entrepreneur can get out of the way of the parts that aren't your strengths. Systems. Look at your business in an organized and systemic way. Track your goals and their timelines. More information about these brands can be found at https://www.o2ebrands.com. You can find more information about Brian's Can You Imagine Movement at https://brianscudamore.com/can-you-imagine/. Check out this clip of Brian on the Ellen Degeneres Show. You can work in person with Nicky and a group of like-minded people in one of the quarterly, three-day, eCircle thought leader immersion events in Toronto.  Visit eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level. Send any questions, comments and feedback to info@ecircle.ca.

The choice between a good thing and a bad thing is never a hard choice. The only hard choice is between two good things. Science is a good thing. And so are the Arts. Why choose? Rube Goldberg became wildly famous 100 years ago because his elegantly absurd inventions combined Science with Art. Elegant absurdity surprises and delights us because it reveals lofty creativity and deep commitment aimed at something that is not – to the logical mind – worth the effort. Confronted with the elegantly absurd, pure logic snorts a derisive laugh, but the heart laughs with peals of pure joy.YouTube and TikTok are filled with elegant absurdity. OK GO rode the rocket of the elegantly absurd to heights unknown, then Walk Off the Earth rode it like a surfboard to the edge of the world and beyond. The absurdly elegant inventions of Mark Rober and the elegantly absurd shenanigans of Rex and Daniel have given them massive influence in their fields of endeavor. Marching bands, baton twirling, and tap dancing… perhaps all kinds of dancing… are examples of the elegantly absurd because they require creativity and commitment to achieve something that, again – to the logical mind – isn't worth the effort. Indy Beagle has examples of all these for you in https://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/rabbithole/ (the rabbit hole.) Satire is another elegant absurdity. “Satire has done more to change society than a mountain of political policies. Everything from All in the Family to Saturday Night Live to The Daily Show… (not to mention court jesters, Twain, Menippus, Will Rogers). It's a battering ram disguised as a rubber chicken.” – Johnny Molson But is ‘elegant absurdity' as absurd as it first appears? “Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.” – Jeannette Walls “The more evolved an animal is, the more time it spends playing.” – P.J. O'Rourke “Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.” – Tom Robbins, Still Life With Woodpecker, p. 19 So there it is. When you are literate in the basic concepts of the Sciences and the Arts, you are qualified to be elegantly absurd. You are that flash of energy, that illumination we see when two wires come into close proximity after having been connected to opposite poles of the same high-voltage battery. Shine on, bright friend, shine on. Roy H. Williams

Gordon Atkinson's Land of La Mancha is the finest literary work of loneliness that has been chronicled since Henry David Thoreau spent 2 years on Walden Pond. Here is how Thoreau opens that most iconic of early American books: “When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months.” Walden Pond, by the way, is only 2.2 miles from the old North Bridge in Concord where a British soldier fired https://historyofmassachusetts.org/where-did-the-shot-heard-round-the-world-happen/ (“the shot heard 'round the world”) that triggered the Revolutionary War. Come with me now to July, 1845 when Henry David Thoreau first arrived at Walden Pond: It has been only 69 years since Thomas Jefferson wrote that document by which 13 colonies of England broke away from King George and banded together to form this baby nation. (To put this in perspective, it has been 69 years since Chevrolet introduced the Corvette. – RHW) There are tens of thousands of Americans today who can remember growing up in the 13 colonies. They can recall reading the newspapers of Benjamin Franklin with his constant showering of articles advocating “No Taxation Without Representation” and how their fingertips became blackened by newspaper ink that was not quite dry. Florida became the 27th state 90 days ago and Johnny Appleseed died 15 days later. There is talk of the Republic of Texas also becoming a state. The newspapers of New York are buzzing about a new poem by Poe in which a raven walks around saying, “Nevermore.” That was America on the day Henry David Thoreau wandered off into those woods from which he and his book Walden would emerge 2 years and 2 months later. You've never read https://www.fulltextarchive.com/page/Walden-by-Henry-David-Thoreau1/ (Walden?) Here is a short passage from “Brute Neighbors,” one of the later chapters: “The mice which haunted my house were not the common ones, which are said to have been introduced into the country, but a wild native kind not found in the village. I sent one to a distinguished naturalist, and it interested him much. When I was building, one of these had its nest underneath the house, and before I had laid the second floor, and swept out the shavings, would come out regularly at lunch time and pick up the crumbs at my feet. It probably had never seen a man before; and it soon became quite familiar, and would run over my shoes and up my clothes. It could readily ascend the sides of the room by short impulses, like a squirrel, which it resembled in its motions. At length, as I leaned with my elbow on the bench one day, it ran up my clothes, and along my sleeve, and round and round the paper which held my dinner, while I kept the latter close, and dodged and played at bopeep with it; and when at last I held still a piece of cheese between my thumb and finger, it came and nibbled it, sitting in my hand, and afterward cleaned its face and paws, like a fly, and walked away.” Gordon Atkinson is still writing his book, Land of La Mancha, but 3 days ago he posted 25 entries from the journal he has been keeping since the day he became the inaugural artist-in-residence at Wizard Academy. Gordon and I have not yet spoken. You will understand why when you https://landoflamancha.com/ (read what he has written.) Roy H. Williams

Motivational speakers often tell their followers to visualize accomplishing their desired outcomes; to mentally go into the future and feel the joy of that not-yet-happened moment.Visualization is the mental rehearsal of possible future events. When the word “rehearse” was invented more than 700 years ago, it meant to hear again; to re-hear. I am an ad writer. My job is to get people to repeatedly imagine doing what my clients want them to do. I want prospective customers to live those events in their minds. I could just as easily have been a songwriter. Each time you imagine an action that is followed by a sequence of events, you move precipitously closer to taking that action and bringing those events to pass. Athletes in every sport are taught this by their coaches. This is why I don't listen to country music. I don't want to visualize those events and imagine those feelings. Visualization – mental rehearsal – is a powerful thing. Visualization affects one-and-a-half percent of us a little more strongly than it does most people. We are the ones who are warned by psychologists not to get involved in role-playing games because we can get lost in the characters we play and lose touch with reality. This is why, for me, listening to a country song about heart-breaking loss and gut-wrenching grief is exactly like watching a horror movie. But I believe I understand the appeal of country music to people who are not afflicted with my condition. Shauna Niequist writes, “My friend Eve told me once that the ability to cry is a sign of health, because it means your body and your soul agree on something.” If I am right, people love country music because it helps them remember the things that are important in their lives. As Solomon said in the 23rd division of the book of Proverbs, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” His words apply equally to both of us, I think. To me, Solomon is saying, “Do not be in your mind the man you do not want to be.” But to the country music fan, Solomon is saying, “Feel deep and meaningful feelings in your mind if you want to be a deep and meaningful person.” I could be wrong. I have certainly been wrong before. But I do not think I am wrong this time. Roy H. Williams

A brief summary of this episodeThe goal of branding is to build a relationship with future customers. When a relationship has finally been established, you become who these people think of immediately – and feel the best about – when they, or any of their friends, need what you sell. Direct marketers often disdain mass media because it doesn't allow them to “target and track” their prey. But these same Direct Marketers will give heavy bags of money to online influencers. It never occurs to them that every person listening to the radio or watching TV is an influencer of approximately 250 people. These 250 people are their Realm of Association. They are the people who listen to them when they speak. They are mostly friends and co-workers, but some of them are family. You have people in your life – acquaintances – with whom you are familiar, but they never quite made it into that circle that is your true Realm of Association. Here's my question for you. Do you trust those people who never contact you unless they want something from you?Those people remind me of direct marketers. They target you – get something from you – and walk away smiling. Your true friends are the ones who spend time with you, who make you smile, laugh, feel good, and rarely ask for anything at all. A brand that you love is like a friend. Ads are either transactional or relational. A long series of transactional ads does not build a brand. It builds name awareness, yes, but not a brand. If I reach and win only 10 percent of your realm of association through my focused use of mass media, but you ­– my future customer – are not within that 10 percent, I am not worried in the slightest. My relational ads will have won the hearts of 25 of your best friends and it is likely that one or more of them will get my message to you when you finally need what I sell. If I reach and win 20% of your community through my relentless use of cheap and effective mass media, I will have reached 50 of your best friends. Decisions are rarely made in a vacuum. Each of us is surrounded by influencers who do not have blogs or podcasts or YouTube channels, but we value their opinions very highly. We trust the recommendations of our friends. “Reaching the right people” is not the secret to building a brand. The secret is to say and do the right things.Getting attention is easy. Any fool can do it. To win a person's heart, you have to hold that attention. You have to nurture that little spark by the breath of your mouth and then blow it into a flame by your actions. You have to cause people to look forward to their next encounter with you. You have to make them enjoy spending time with you. This, mon chéri, is branding. Brand building is not something you test. Brand building is something you do. Your first encounter with a cold contact will be Low CAP. Low Conversion. Low Average sale. Low Profit margin. But when that contact types your name into the search block because they are looking for you – precisely you – those encounters will be High CAP. Direct marketers wear their CAPs low. Brand builders wear their CAPs high. The most successful direct marketers are those who first built their brands, then began offering specific things to their brand families at specific times, all the while maintaining and nourishing that bond their customers feel with the brand. My personal formula is one-third transactional ads, two-thirds relational. Television and radio advertising are astoundingly cheap and effective. They are the way to go if you want to build a brand. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Aroo, Roy H. Williams

There are four kinds of thought.Verbal Thought is hearing a voice in your mind. Analytical Thought is deductive reasoning that seeks to forecast a result. Abstract Thought embraces fantasy and all things intangible. Symbolic Thought relates the unknown to the known. The pattern-recognition power of the right brain connects new ideas [abstract thought] with known information [analytical thought] in the deductive reasoning left brain. Symbolic Thought allows you to communicate the abstract by pointing to something familiar that shares an essential attribute with the abstraction you are trying to describe. This is the essence of all similes and metaphors. “This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, stand like Druids of old, with voices sad and prophetic…” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline “murmuring…” “bearded…” “garments…” “Druids of old, with voices sad and prophetic…” We're talking about trees, remember? Symbols are a language of the mind. But that observation is just the beginning. I have no proof of what I am about to tell you. So if you continue to read, please understand that I will be sharing nothing more than a deeply held pet theory of mine. I can reference no sources other than 25 years of experimentation and my conversations with Indy. I believe the 4 types of thought are composed of 12 essential languages. Think of these 12 languages as the Operating System of the mind. I believe Numbers are a language of the mind. There are things that can be said in the language of Numbers that can be said in no other language. It is easier to learn mathematics when you think of Numbers as a language and the order of operations in math as the grammar and syntax of that language. I believe Color is a language. Red and pink say different things. Likewise, Shape is a language. A curve says something different than an angle. Arranging colors and shapes so they speak to us is the essence of composition in photos, paintings and illustrations. It is the basis of architecture, Feng Shui, and industrial design (cars, jewelry, furniture, etc.) In fact, it underlies every type of visual communication that causes people to think and feel a certain way. The human mind is given wings by its unique ability to attach complex meanings to sounds.When you use words, you are rapidly choosing which of the 44 Phonemes of the English language shares an essential attribute with the fractional abstraction you are trying to describe. Yes, the entirety of the English language is composed of just 44 sounds. This is not a pet theory of mine. This is settled science among the linguists of the world. When you speak or write, you are connecting Phonemes together in rapid succession to create words – sounds – that represent what you are trying to communicate. Did you know the written word has no meaning until it has been translated into the spoken word it represents? Graphemes, the letters of the alphabet and certain combinations of those letters like ch, sh, and th, merely represent the sounds – the phonemes – to which we attach deep meaning. Look again at ch, sh, and th. Don't say the names of the letters in your mind. Make the sounds that each of those two-letter combinations represent, “ch,” “sh,” “th” Did it occur to you that “th” has two different sounds? Voiced “th” is the sound we hear in “the”. Unvoiced “th” is the sound we hear in “with”. It is my belief that a basic understanding of the 12 Languages of the Mind will make you a better communicator. Indy Beagle gave you a glimpse of one of the Languages – Symbol – before he got carried away in today's illustration. And I gave you a glimpse of 4 of them: Number, Color, Shape, and Phoneme. Perhaps one day, if you are interested, we'll tell you about the other seven. Roy H. Williams

Storm is a character in my mind. No, not so much a character as a caricature, an icon, an archetype. I occasionally meet Storm in the real world. Storm is sometimes male, sometimes female. You've met Storm, too. Storm is easily infatuated.  Storm is in love with Love.  Storm talks a lot about passion. But Storm is a rabbit, a mouse who runs at the first sign of difficulty or hardship. Don't tell me what you are passionate about, Storm. Show me. Storm, I am old. I have lived many lives and I can tell you with certainty that commitment is the only true form of passion. Passion is not a feeling of fluffy-headed excitement. Passion is suffering. My friend Manley Miller taught me this. Passion comes from the Latin word “Pati,” the root word of Patience. We think of patience as an ability to wait. But patience, more accurately, is an ability to suffer. Compassion means “to suffer with,” to become a partner in the suffering of others. Compassionate people feel the pain of persons other than themselves. “…for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health…” Better and richer and health speak of hope. Worse and poorer and sickness speak of passion. Storm, let no one deceive you. Passion does not produce commitment. Commitment produces passion. Have you never heard about the injustices endured by that boy who was born less than 9 months after his parents were married, who then spent his life bringing peace and help and hope to others? He endured mockery, false arrest, a sham trial, a bullwhipping, and then spikes were driven through his hands and feet. They call these events, “The Passion of Christ.” Passion, at its core, is a parching thirst that cries out to be quenched. No, Storm. You are not passionate. You lack the commitment to be. I am finished talking to Storm. Now I am talking to you. Have you been saying, “I can't find my passion”? Would you like to be passionate? Would you like to feel so strongly about something that you would be willing to suffer for it? Passion is a fire easily lit: just make a commitment and don't look back, or left, or right; only forward. Make a commitment. Pay the price of it. Mark Jennison has a passion for the gym. I know this because he goes to the gym every day and suffers. Princess Pennie has a passion for gardening. I know this because I see her on her knees, patiently digging and planting and weeding and pruning to create a look and feel of harmony across acres of land. Brad Whittington has compassion for the homeless. I know this because he cooks for them and drives to an unsettling place to serve them one-by-one, face-to-face. Commitment is the only true form of passion. Make a commitment. Passion will follow. Aroo, Roy H. Williams

I learned about advertising from listening to my eighth-grade football coaches. “Every play is a touchdown play if everyone on the team does their assignment properly.” That was one of the two things they bellowed at us every day. The other one was this: “If you succeed in football, you will succeed in life.” I was only 12 years old but that didn't mean I was an idiot. I finished that season, but I never played football again. Those coaches believed what they were saying and that made my head spin because I knew it wasn't true. If you believe, deep in your bones, in always doing what is correct and expected, right and proper, then I want you to be the engineer that builds the bridges I drive across. I want you to be the surgeon that operates on me. I want you to be the policeman that cruises the streets I drive. I want you to be the running back, the tight end, the wide receiver of the team I am playing against. When you're playing offense and you know exactly what you are going to do and how you are going to do it, the defense knows it, too. You're “telegraphing the play.” Defenders can read you like an open book. When you're carrying the ball and the defenders don't know what you're about to do, it's because you, yourself, don't know. You are an amazing “broken field runner” because you make every decision at the last split second. You are never where anyone expected you to be. They leap to tackle you and grab empty air. If you believe in doing what is correct and expected, right and proper, I want you to write all the ads for the company my client and I are competing against. Predictable platitudes drip from the lips of people who say what is correct and expected, right and proper. Predictable platitudes flow like ink from the pens of the world's worst ad writers. Predictable platitudes cause people to roll their eyes and say, “Get real.” I'll tell you a secret if you promise not to be offended. I've never met a great ad writer who was taught how to write ads in college. Great ad writing is counterintuitive. You learn how to write great ads by keeping careful track of all the good ideas that should have worked, but didn't. When you finally run out of good ideas and decide to do something crazy, dangerous, and ill-advised, tell your neighbors to keep an eye on the sky because the airshow and the fireworks are about to be spectacular. Congratulations, you have finally written a good ad. Every play is a touchdown play when your team is the only team on the field. But that's not how football is played, is it? When you begin with the wrong premise, you always reach the wrong conclusion. To write an ad that is “correct and expected, right and proper” is the most foolish thing you can do. That's all I have to say today, but Indy Beagle is going to take this discussion to a much deeper level in https://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/rabbithole/ (the rabbit hole.) That's where I'm headed now. Care to join me? Roy H. Williams

“Hoare writes with the license of the nonexpert; you can feel the delight he takes in being unbound by anything but his enthusiasms.”John Williams was describing Philip Hoare when he wrote that line, but he could easily have been describing me. As a nonexpert, I am free to speculate and arrive at my own conclusions. So are you. And so is your customer. You, me, and your customer claim we use deductive reasoning, but it simply isn't true. Deductive reasoning – the basis of scientific method – would require us to work diligently to disprove what we believe. Do you know anyone who actually does that? Rather than use deductive reasoning, we use inductive reasoning to search out information confirming that our values, beliefs, instincts, and preferences have been right all along. When confronted with contradictory information, our confirmation bias kicks in to assure us the contradictory information is not correct, so we dismiss it with the flick of a mental finger. Let me help you with that flicking away of contradictory information. I am an ad writer. Magical thinking, inductive reasoning, and confirmation bias sparkle at my fingertips. My job is to speak to that which is already within you. You have more than enough information. Let me agree with what you already believe. Google and Facebook will use their algorithms to help us build a community where we can surround ourselves with like-minded people who share our opinions and beliefs. Everyone who doesn't agree with us is uninformed, misinformed, fooled by faulty data, foolish rumor, or evil geniuses. Magical thinking, inductive reasoning, and confirmation bias sparkle at the fingertips of every evil genius. But I am not an evil genius. I am the genius that agrees with you. Magical thinking is difficult to explain, but Kurt Andersen does a pretty good job: “Americans have always been magical thinkers and passionate believers in the untrue. Our nation was started by Puritans in New England who wanted to create a Christian utopia as they waited for the imminent second coming of Christ and the End of Days. To the south, a bunch of people were convinced, absolutely convinced, that this place they had never been was full of gold waiting to be plucked from the dirt in Virginia. They stayed there looking and hoping for gold for 20 years before they finally faced the facts and decided they weren't going to get rich overnight.” “This was the beginning of America. Next we had centuries of ‘buyer beware' charlatanism and medical quackery to an extreme degree, along with increasingly exotic, extravagant, implausible cults and religions.” “All those things came together and were supercharged in the 1960s, when you were entitled to your own truth and your own reality. A generation later the internet came along, giving each of those realities, no matter how false or magical or nutty they are, their own kind of media infrastructure.” A wonderful story is dazzling and attractive, regardless of whether or not it is true. This is the basis of all successful advertising.“Hoare writes with the license of the nonexpert; you can feel the delight he takes in being unbound by anything but his enthusiasms.” John Williams wrote those words in https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/books/review-albert-whale-albrecht-durer-philip-hoare.html (his recommendation) of Philip Hoare's new book, “Albert and the Whale: Albrecht Dürer and How Art Imagines Our World.” John Williams book review column is titled, appropriately, “Books of the Times.” Roy H. Williams

The limiting factors that will challenge business owners in 2022 are inflation, Covid, and the recruitment of good employees.The bad news is that I can give you the solution to only 1 of these 3 problems. The good news is that it's the big one: the recruitment of good employees. Ivan Pavlov won the Nobel prize for proving it's not hard to sell a dog on the taste of meat. Successful jewelers know it's not hard to sell a man on the woman he loves. Recruitment problems disappear when you know how easy it is to sell a parent on their child. A couple of years ago, Dewey Jenkins and I had a series of conversations about opening a free, private day-care center as a benefit for the employees of Morris-Jenkins Air Conditioning and Plumbing. The thing that kept us from doing it was that the majority of his employees – the technicians – drove their trucks home every night and went straight to their first repair each morning. Consequently, they would have no opportunity to drop off their child. But still, it was a great idea. Do your employees report to a specific location each day? Have you noticed that space for lease just down the street from you? Lease that space. Get a daycare license. Hire 2 or more people to run it. Open your recruitment ads with the words “Free, Private Daycare.” (And now you know why I was explaining the importance of “framing.” – Indy Beagle) Prepare to be amazed at the quality and volume of job applicants. Your employee problem has now been permanently solved. You're welcome. What? What did you just say? “I can't afford it.” Raise your prices. Inflation is happening whether you participate or not. “It's easier to pay a big signing bonus.” Signing bonuses attract job-hoppers. “It sounds like a lot of trouble.” Paying big money for bad employees is another kind of trouble. Is that the kind you prefer? “I'll just wait it out. Things will go back to normal pretty soon.” Here's a fun fact I'll bet you didn't know: to maintain our population and our workforce, American women need to birth an average of 2.1 children each. The parents of today's workforce produced only 1.8 births per woman and the birth rate today is at 1.64 and declining. We are at least 10 percent short of having an adequate workforce because that 10 percent was never born. So if you're waiting for the workforce to get larger, you're going to need to convince women across America to have more kids and then wait 20 years for those kids to grow up. Child-care is a huge, for-profit business that is crippling the buying power of single-parent (and two-parent) households across America. It is within your power to solve that problem for a small group of people, and in so doing, solve your own problem as well. Give it some thought. And may you have a Prosperous and Happy New Year. Roy H. Williams

When your intuitive mind senses a pattern and begins to search for the completion of that pattern, we call this, “curiosity”. But sometimes our searching for the completion of a pattern goes sideways, takes a shortcut, gets it wrong. The false logic that springs to mind as a result of this wrong turn is so common that it has a Latin name, “Post Hoc, ergo Propter Hoc.” Blame Isaac Newton. Newton taught us to think of cause and effect as sequential: a pool cue strikes a ball, which strikes another ball. As a result of our trust in Newtonian physics, the often-wrong logic of Post Hoc ergo Propter Hoc is almost irresistibly seductive because it begins with the observation that two events occurred in sequence. Remember a TV show called The West Wing? Jed Bartlet: C.J., on your tombstone it's going to say Post Hoc ergo Propter Hoc. C.J.: Okay, but none of my visitors are going to be able to understand my tombstone. Jed Bartlet: It means, “One thing follows the other, therefore it was caused by the other.” But it's not always true. In fact, it's hardly ever true. We did not lose Texas because of the hat joke. Do you know when we lost Texas? C.J.: When you learned to speak Latin? Do you remember The Big Bang Theory? In a 2009 episode, Sheldon Cooper was speaking to his mother on the phone: “The Arctic expedition was a remarkable success, I'm all but certain there's a Nobel prize in my future. Actually, I shouldn't say that. I'm entirely certain… (audience laughter) No, Mother, I could not feel your church group praying for my safety… (audience laughter) The fact that I'm home safe does not prove that it worked. That logic is Post Hoc ergo Propter Hoc… (audience laughter) No, I'm not sassing you in Eskimo talk.” Similar to “Post Hoc” is the broken logic of simultaneous occurrences, Cum Hoc ergo Propter Hoc, “With this, because of this.” “The bigger a child's shoe size, the better the child's handwriting. Therefore, having big feet makes it easier to write.” The mental sleight-of-hand of “Post Hoc” and “Cum Hoc” are what make advertising – and conspiracy theories ­– so easy to believe. @WardQNormal writes, “The trouble with conspiracy theories is that a lack of evidence is taken as proof that the conspiracy is everywhere. This is like thinking that the reason you never see elephants hiding up in treetops is because they're good at it.” Seeing patterns where they don't exist can be costly and dangerous. But still, I am wildly in favor of curiosity.Zora Neale Hurston wrote, “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” Albert Einstein said, “Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.” Gemma Stone, “When we enter a conversation with curiosity, we allow ourselves to see things differently and to be surprised by what we discover.” Tom Robbins, “Curiosity, especially intellectual inquisitiveness, is what separates the truly alive from those who are merely going through the motions.” Dorothy Parker, “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” And none other than Daniel Boone – yes, THAT Daniel Boone – said, “Curiosity is natural to the soul of man and interesting objects have a powerful influence on our affections.” Like I said, I am wildly in favor of curiosity. If I could, I would inject it into your arm with a needle. Curiosity will take you on trips like no other drug. Roy H. Williams

“Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with.” – Rebecca Solnit In just 25 words, Rebecca gave “hope” a new identity, introduced a new purpose for it, and caused us to imagine the beginning of a new adventure. She supplied the words, but we created the movie in our minds. Persuaders don't tell you the truth; they lead you to it and let you discover it for yourself. Rebecca Solnit is a talented persuader, a gifted teacher, and a wonderful storyteller. She made us see hope as a powerful tool that can smash down barriers and give us access to things we desire. We broke down the door that kept us out, so now we are… where? That is up to you. What do you hope for? # # # # I will now reveal – bit by bit – my true purpose in writing these things to you: “Astral projection is a term used in esotericism to describe an intentional out-of-body experience that assumes the existence of a soul called an ‘astral body' that is separate from the physical body and capable of travelling outside it throughout the universe.” – WIKIPEDIA “That sounds a bit woo-woo, so I'm out.” “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen… Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” – Hebrews 11:1-3, in the Bible “That sounds religious, so I'm out.” “Every morning, Tony Robbins engages in https://www.pinterest.com/pin/669277194608234672/ (a 10-minute priming exercise) to channel his energy and create the ideal conditions for a fulfilling day. By taking charge of his mindset and emotions, he cultivates a positive state, which greatly increases the odds that he will experience happiness, success and fulfillment throughout his day.” – tonyrobbins.com “That sounds like mind-over-matter, so I'm out.” “Don't worry. Be happy.” – Bobby McFerrin “Wishful thinking is self-delusion, so I'm out.” “Stay focused, ignore the distractions, and you will accomplish your goals much faster.” – Joel Osteen “Every elementary school teacher has said that to every little kid in America for the past 100 years. I'm out.” “Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with.” – Rebecca Solnit Each of us has hope. We cling to it. Rebecca told us precisely what all those other people were trying to tell us, but she chose the word “hope” instead of “visualize,” “focus,” “priming exercise,” “faith,” “Astral projection” or “The Law of Attraction,” because each of those other words and phrases have associations and connotations that might push us away from the truth. What is the truth? This is the truth: You imagine action before you take it. You see yourself do it before you do it. No person has ever cheated on their life partner without first imagining it in their mind, and no person has ever created anything marvelous or good without first seeing it in their mind. And no person has ever sold anything without first causing the customer to imagine buying it. The job of an ad is to cause people to imagine taking an action. I asked earlier, “What do you hope for?” Let me ask it differently, “What action do you want your customer to take?” Do what Rebecca Solnit did. Begin with something familiar; something that you and your customer agree on. Then build a bridge from that point of agreement to where you want them to go. You cannot take your customer where you want them to go until you first meet them where they are. What does your customer already believe in? Start with that. Roy H. Williams

My friend Don has a time machine. He takes me with him sometimes. You should come, too! Every person who rides in Don's time machine is changed by it. The United States Department of Justice has booked passage on Don's time machine for countless prison inmates. State and local governments and hundreds of rehab centers have booked journeys for people as well. Thirty-five million in all. Each trip through time begins with a series of words. My friend Don is a storyteller. Stories of the past help us to know who we are. Stories of the future help us to see who we can become. Stories are more effective than facts for changing beliefs and behaviors. Facts cause us to put our shields up and become skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard. With these thoughts in mind, Don invented “interactive journals,” booklets that allow people in crisis to revisit their past and imagine a better future. Each reader of an interactive journal becomes the co-creator of two stories. (1.) the story of how they got into this mess, and (2.) the story of a brighter tomorrow. We imagine every action before we take it. If we want to change our behaviors, we need only to imagine different actions than the ones we have imagined in the past. Stories are portals of escape into alternate realities. An examination of the brain of any mammal will let us know its superpower. Monkeys can swing artfully through trees, not because their bodies are different, but because more than half their brain mass is devoted to depth perception, color differentiation, and guided grasping. According to Professor Steven Pinker of MIT and Harvard, “The human brain, too, tells a story. Our brains are about three times too big for a generic monkey or ape of our size. The major lobes and patches of the brain are different as well. The olfactory bulbs, which underlie the sense of smell, have shriveled to one third of the expected primate size (already puny by mammalian standards), and the main cortical areas for vision have shrunk proportionally as well…while the areas for hearing, especially for understanding speech, have grown…to twice what a primate our size should have.” The superpower of we humans is our unique ability to attach complex meanings to sounds. Every word in the English language is composed of just 44 sounds called phonemes. We arrange these into clusters called words which we string together in rapid succession so that others can see in their minds what we see in ours. In the first chapter of Genesis, God says, “Let there be this” and “Let there be that” for 25 verses, and then in verse 26 he says, “Let us make mankind in our own image.” According to that ancient story, God spoke the world into existence and then gave you and me the power to do the same. When you, as a storyteller, speak a world into existence in the hearts and minds of your listeners, you are doing the work of God. Don Kuhl has spent the past 30 years unleashing the power of storytelling to help 35 million people find peace, hope, and happiness, and now he has written a book for you and me. It will be published early next year. I'll make sure you know when it's available. Roy H. Williams

When Pennie and I were preparing to move away from the town of our childhood, I told my friend Phil that I felt I was holding onto the end of a rope in the half-light of limbo, and I had no idea where the other end of the rope was tied. I have never forgotten what he said. “This is your time in the elevator. You are between two worlds. You are leaving behind the way it has been, but you have not yet arrived at the way it will be. You don't know if you are going to a higher place or a lower one. The only thing you know for sure is that when those elevator doors open, you will be surrounded by new faces, new spaces, and new places; everything will be different. A new chapter in your life will begin and you will have to figure everything out. But that part is easy. The hard part is being in the elevator. The hard part is not knowing.” Your going-away party is over; your friends are gone. A new opportunity and a new town await you, but you are not yet there. You are in the elevator. It is awkward and filled with uncertainty. You want those doors to open so you can face what awaits. You remember that feeling, don't you? Phil's counsel about the elevator came from a book he had read. He said the book was called Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life, by Gail Sheehy. It was published in 1976. When Phil Johnson died, he left me his favorite tie. It is blazoned with shelves of beautiful books from top to bottom. He wore it often. Phil also left me his library of more than 3,000 books, a portion of which now fill the shelves in the reading room of the Enchanted Emporium in the Village of La Mancha, just 200 yards south of the Tower at Wizard Academy. The next time you're on campus, wander over to the Enchanted Emporium and plop yourself down in one of the soft, red leather reading chairs with a glass of wine and a book from Phil's library. When you see the titles of the books he read, you will know the man. I think you will enjoy having met him. Roy H. Williams

“Unless your goal is to go backwards, you cannot make progress while staring into the rear-view mirror.”An opening statement like that would usually indicate a motivational message, but I'm doing something different today. I'm not backing up and I'm not moving forward. I'm pausing to look at the long road behind me and the short road ahead. A reflective mood requires a rear-view mirror. I've spent an hour on the phone each Friday morning for the past 10 years with my friend Dewey Jenkins. We won't be doing that anymore. Dewey was offered so much money for his company that it made no sense to keep it. At the top of this page is a photo I snapped as Dewey walked onto the second-story porch of the historic Duke Mansion in Charlotte a few years ago. I had been sitting out there admiring the view when he walked in with his characteristic grin. *Click* We had wrapped up the famous “Mr. Jenkins and Bobby” campaign by giving Bobby $100,000 so that he could pursue his dream of becoming an actor in Hollywood. Now we had to accelerate our momentum and elevate our trajectory in a new and different way. Dewey and Jonathan and Casey and I were building a rocket ship while we were flying it. The new campaign, “Mr. Jenkins Told Me…”, has been even more successful than “Mr. Jenkins and Bobby.” Mr. Jenkins is still the center of attention even though he is now off-stage. The values and beliefs of his company are reflected by the things his employees remember him saying. “Mr. Jenkins Told Me…” The people of that company will be recalling things Mr. Jenkins told them for generations to come. (Indy put some of those TV ads in the rabbit hole for you.) I left the company when Dewey left, but Jonathan and Casey will doubtless reach the stars.Dewey Jenkins called me the morning after he closed the sale of his company. Mr. Jenkins told me, “It was June 23, 2000, when I heard you speak at the Airtime 500 Conference in St. Louis. I bought your first two books for $20 each and they took me to $20,000,000 a year. And then I came to see you in 2011 and we began this grand adventure…” And a grand adventure it has been. # # # # I closed my computer and went to bed after I wrote that sentence. Three days have passed and a lot has happened. Two more of my close friends have sold their companies, bringing the collective sales price for all three companies to considerably more than one billion dollars. Pennie tells me I must write to you next week about, “Your Time in the Elevator.” It is a story that began 37 years ago. I look forward to writing it. Roy H. Williams

King Edward of England inherited control of Gascony in France from his mother, Eleanor of Provence, a French noble. But when the 27-year-old King of France decided in 1295 not to let the King of England control part of his country, Edward asked his English nobles to raise an army so that he could regain control of his real estate on the other side of the water. His nobles said, “Edward, Gascony doesn't really belong to the nation of England; its revenues belong to you, personally. So we're out. You need to deal with that on your own.” A con man who wants your money will present you with a phony opportunity. But a con man who wants your vote will present you with a phony emergency. Having thus been rebuffed by the Earls of England, Edward summoned a vast assembly of barons and bishops, knights and burgesses, men of the shires, and representatives of towns and cities, and told them their nation was in danger. He said, “The King of France, not satisfied with the treacherous invasion of Gascony, has prepared a mighty fleet and army for the purpose of invading England and wiping the English tongue from the face of the earth.” 1 It was complete bullshit, but it worked. Alarmed, outraged, and afraid, the people of England gave lying King Edward the army he needed to invade France and fight for his real estate. And thus the fuse was lit that would later explode as The Hundred Years War. Edward's lie cost the lives of tens of thousands of English husbands, sons, and fathers. Fifty years later, Edward II told that same lie to a new generation of English husbands, sons, and Dads. In 1345, he began spreading propaganda throughout England that the French were spies and aggressors whose only goal was to invade England and convert the population to French speakers. He got the people of England so worked up that when they got to France in 1347, “they tore it to pieces like a pack of distempered dogs. The army marched through the countryside, slaughtering and brutalizing as it went.” 2 The war that Edward II started that day lasted 116 years, 4 months, 3 weeks and 4 days, and resulted in more than 3,000,000 innocent people dying violently in France. In the end, the French won. The English lost all of their possessions in France except for the city of Calais, which they held until 1558. Fifty years apart, two different kings told the same lie to create a national emergency. And both times, it worked. And it still works today. Roy H. Williams

On a Rainy Autumn Day…October 18, 2021 http://goodies.wizardacademypress.com/MMM20211018-OnARainyAutumnDay.mp3 (Listen) https://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/roy-wloren-in-mirror/ (A) His father called him Bunny because he was born on Easter Sunday. Bunny's younger brother got a scholarship to Harvard. I've had both of Bunny's phone numbers memorized for the past 48 years and I mention his name at least once a week. “Don't make me say Loren L. Lewis” has been a private joke between the Princess and me since we were 17 years old. I spent my Oklahoma weekends helping Loren load and unload the mountain of antique furniture he would buy at auction. Loren infected me with an addiction for auction browsing that has never left me. At the end of each auction, he and I would load 5 times more furniture than could possibly fit into – and on top of – his 1960 Ford Station Wagon. It became a point of honor that we never had to make a second trip. Loren was a legend. He and I could have hauled the entire contents of the average 3-bedroom home, including all major appliances, in just one load. Pennie witnessed Loren work his magic more than once, so when she and I go to Costco or Home Depot or a plant nursery or an auction and buy far more than we can possibly pack into her little SUV, she will always look at me and say, “Do you think we can get it all home?” I smile and say, “Don't make me say Loren L. Lewis.” I always get it home in just one load. Always. We may look like the Beverly Hillbillies as we roll down the road, but I graduated magna cum laude from the Loren L. Lewis School of Hauling, where our school motto is, “Of course we can get it in just one load. Don't make me say Loren L. Lewis.” When I was 15, Loren was 30. Anyone who saw us together would assume he was my older brother or my very young uncle. Loren taught me how to rebuild an automobile engine. Loren drove me to the emergency room when I nearly sliced off my forefinger while trying to shave down the edge of a plastic light switch cover. After we left the emergency room, Loren took me to a seedy bar in a weird part of Tulsa to show me how to hustle pool. I woke up last night feeling that I had allowed the merely urgent to displace the truly important. I Googled “Loren Ladic Lewis” and saw his obituary. My big brother died on June 20th of last year and no one told me. What's even worse is that in the 16 months that have come and gone since he died, I was always too busy to call either of the numbers I have known by heart for the past 48 years. What was I doing 17 months ago that was so desperately important? Is there a person you love that you haven't called in a while? Don't make me say Loren L. Lewis. Roy H. Williams

In America, “generosity” implies an openhanded sharing of material resources. A restaurant can serve generous portions. A donor can be generous with their money. A friend can be generous with their pickup truck, their lawnmower, or their cabin at the lake. While some people are generous with their money; others are generous with their time. They will drive you to the airport, feed your pet while you're away, and help you pack your stuff, load the truck, and move you to a better place. Are you more generous with your money or with your time?Those who are generous with their money are known as givers or donors or philanthropists. And those who are generous with their time are known as helpers or volunteers. But we have no special name for people who are generous with their encouragement, because those people are extremely rare. What is encouragement, exactly, and why is it so rare?The prefix en was extracted from Latin and came to us through the French. When it precedes a noun, en means to include, allow, or cause to happen. So when you encourage someone, you cause courage to happen within them. You give them a gift they can carry bravely into their future. You make them less afraid. Generic encouragement is as obvious and awkward as flattery. “You're a winner!” “You can do it!” “Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger!” To truly encourage a person, you must speak to an ability, a talent, or a special sensitivity they possess. When you privately tell a person about something special you see in them – something that they, too, know is there – you give them courage and confidence. “I've noticed that you see connections and relationships between things that most people never notice. I think this may be one of your superpowers.” “I've noticed that you can always tell when someone doesn't feel included, and then you make them feel like they are part of the group. I really admire this about you.” “I've noticed that when everyone else is making excuses, you are the one who steps up and does what needs to be done. The world needs more people like you.” To see the good things that hide within a person, you need only to pay attention.Attention is high-denomination currency in any transaction between two people. Attention is something you pay and insight is what you can buy with it. If you want to have insight into a person's hopes and dreams, you need only to pay attention. I know you. You want to empower people. You want to give them courage and confidence to face the future with a smile. You want to help them be stronger and happier. How do I know this about you?By choosing to read these memos I write, you are showing me a little of what is inside you. I tell you this so you will know I am not flattering you when I say that I know you want to give that little jolt-of-joy and spark-of-life to the people you care about. So the next time you're with someone that matters to you, talk less and listen more, pay attention to their actions, and when you notice something they are good at, tell them what you have noticed they are good at. Everyone else who knows them will forever be giving them advice. Be that rare and special person who gives them honest encouragement and loyal support. Aroo, Roy H. Williams