Marketing was easy in the old days. You had ABC, NBC and CBS, a local newspaper and half a dozen radio stations. That was it. There was no Fox, no WB, no cable channels, no FM radio and no such thing as a cell phone. You had to find a phone booth and a dime. When pay phones jumped to a quarter it was taken as a sign of the antichrist.I'm talking about the 1970s.Fax machines and VCRs did not exist for most of us until 1980. It took barely 10 years for them to become utterly indispensable and now they're becoming obsolete, kicked to the curb by email attachments, DVD machines and TiVo.The future is accelerating toward us. Take your eyes off the hurtling horizon – even for a moment – and the world will pass you by.It's time for you to get serious about a web site.Yes, in that list of things that didn't exist in 1980, I failed to mention personal computers, the biggest world-changer of them all.World-changing, let's talk about it.Recently, one of our graduates sat down to dinner at the old Clark Gable estate with 4 other World Changers:1. the president of a major television network2. a recent candidate for the Presidency of the United States3. the man whose name is attached to all the most spectacular hotels in Las Vegas4. a money man whose name you would instantly recognize if I were to say it.They gathered to discuss a project being headed by my friend. I hope to be able to tell you more about this project soon, as it potentially involves Wizard Academy.Another of our graduates is directing the worldwide Research and Development efforts of the US government to defeat bio-terrorism. If he is successful, Anthrax, Ebola, SARS, AIDS and other infectious diseases will no longer be life-threatening. Let's pray that he succeeds.A third graduate is the head of Pentagon News. I'm always fascinated to hear his perspective on world events.But the graduates whose work is most likely to affect your personal life – the ones who can help you catch up to the future – are the Wizards of Web, Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg.You know from recent memos that their book Call to Action became an international bestseller. Now, as a special favor to their alma mater, the Eisenbrothers have agreed to teach a world-changing 2-day event – Sept 8 and 9 – as a fundraiser to help build Engelbrecht House, the student mansion soon to be constructed on the campus of Wizard Academy. (No more renting of hotel rooms when you come to Austin!)You need to attend this event. No other investment will propel you as fast into the future. And at just $2,200 it's the bargain of the century. Academy graduates (and honorary graduates – those who have attended my public seminars) pay only half. Wow. That's only $1,100. Read the details of this one-time-only seminar – Call to Action – under Course Descriptions at wizardacademy.org.I wouldn't put it off if I were you.Roy H. Williams

Sometimes I go to funny places in my mind. Do you ever go exploring?Lately I've been imagining a world without oil. No oil for cars, no oil for 18-wheelers, no oil for jets. Not even any oil for construction equipment or ambulances. Same world, but smack out of oil. Can you see it?The funny thing is that it will happen. When that day comes, we may or may not have harnessed a renewable source of energy, but run out of oil we most certainly will. What will the history books say of you and me?The June 4, 2005 issue of The Economist tells us the Chinese are learning to drive. Last year they purchased more than 5 million cars, compared to the 17 million purchased by Americans. Next year they'll surpass the Japanese to become the second-largest car market on earth. And that's just the beginning. China's rumbling economic growth means that in just a few years she could buy 5 times as many cars as the US each year and consume as much oil as we currently use in half a decade.And you thought the price of gas was high.According to the most recent U.S. Geological Survey (2000,) there are 3,000 billion barrels of oil left in the world. Total oil production in 2000 was 25 billion barrels. So if world oil consumption increases at an average rate of 1.4 percent per year, the world's oil supply will not be exhausted until the year 2056. But that scenario doesn't consider the Chinese. If they punch the accelerator, our fifty-year supply could be gone in fifteen.The internet is looking more and more vital, is it not?I'm not trying to play Chicken Little here, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” My goal today is only to open the eyes of your imagination. There are lots of things to think that aren't being properly thunk, but if we all pitch in, we might be able to think them all. Here are just a few:Did J.M. Barrie intend for Peter Pan's ticking crocodile to represent how Time devours our youth? And if so, how deep does the symbolism run in this 100 year-old story?Jesus always “lifted his eyes toward heaven” when he prayed, so why do we always bow our heads and close our eyes?If color is a language, which colors are the verbs? What constitutes a verb in the language of music?Why do theoretical physicists not take the ideas of Julian Barbour more seriously?If your life ended today, what would you regret you had left undone?Sometimes it's good to go exploring in your mind.You can never be certain what you'll find.Roy H. Williams

Have you ever noticed how unhappy people always want to share their unhappiness with you? It may come in the form of a whine, a complaint, a rant, or sanctimonious “constructive criticism,” but come it most certainly will.The thing to remember when an unhappy person begins spraying unhappiness is this: It's not really about you. It's about them. And the wounds they carry. So try not to internalize it.Do you remember the Jewish father played by Roberto Benigni in Life is Beautiful? He illustrated the idea that happiness can be chosen in spite of unhappy circumstances; you are not a product of your environment. You are a product of your choices.Even weirder than unhappy people wanting to share their unhappiness with you is the fact that happy people generally keep their happiness to themselves. Why are we like this?I have a theory about leaving tips on tables at restaurants: the size of the tip isn't really an expression of your judgment regarding the quality of service you've received. It's an expression of your generosity, the bigness of your heart. It's not really about the waiter or waitress. It's about you.This idea can be especially fun when you receive truly abominable service. That's when you can leave a tip that's totally over the top and then smile all the way to your car as you contemplate all the different ways the story might end:1. The waiter, recognizing the tip as a gesture of love, pulls himself together and has a much-improved day, giving everyone exceptional service. Your ray of sunshine touches 276 lives before it fades into the memory of yesterday.2. The waiter, misinterpreting the tip as proof that it doesn't really matter whether or not he does a good job, continues his slacker attitude and reaps the life of mediocrity he deserves. But sometimes, late at night, he is haunted by the memory of the strange day he received a 20 dollar tip for serving a 7 dollar sandwich. What was that all about?3. The waiter, shamed by the monster tip he knows he didn't deserve, assumes it must have been meant for the cook. Your gift has now triggered a crisis of conscience. Will the waiter pass the tip along to the cook and grow as a human being? Or will he “steal” it and forever know himself to be a thief?4. The waiter, desperately needing the extra cash, accepts the tip as a gift from God. Congratulations, you are now an angel, God's messenger, a finger of His divine hand.5. The waiter, truly stupid, believes he deserves the tip and pockets it with bravado. Let him have his sad moment of glory. There won't be many like it in his life.The bottom line is this: People need love. Especially when they do not deserve it. And in the words of Iome Sylvarresta, “Love isn't something you feel. It's something you give.”Do something good today for a person who has done nothing to deserve it. Better yet, do something good for someone you don't even like.I promise you'll have a better day.Roy H. Williams

When business is slow, the wise business owner wonders what might be wrong with his business. The average business owner thinks only that something is wrong with his advertising. As I said last week, I believe it was advertising salespeople who taught business owners to think this way, saying, “The secret is to reach the right people. You've obviously been reaching the wrong ones.”But who, exactly, are “the right people” to buy a product no one wants?David Ogilvy once asked, “Can advertising foist an inferior product on the consumer? Bitter experience has taught me that it cannot. On those rare occasions when I have advertised products which consumer tests have found inferior to other products in the same field, the results have been disastrous.”William Bernbach echoed Ogilvy's statement. “Advertising doesn't create a product advantage. It can only convey it.”But it was Professor Charles Sandage who turned Ogilvy's complaint into a manifesto: “Advertising is criticized on the ground that it can manipulate consumers to follow the will of the advertiser. The weight of evidence denies this ability. Instead, evidence supports the position that advertising, to be successful, must understand or anticipate basic human needs and wants, and interpret available goods and services in terms of their want-satisfying abilities. This is the very opposite of manipulation.”Yet when traffic is slow, the accusing finger will usually point to advertising.Great ads flow from great products just as poetry flows from deep feelings. Telling a writer to write a great ad for a less-than-great product is like commanding a pregnant woman to give birth to a red-headed child.To know the power of the ads that I might write for you, only two questions need be answered:1. How good are you at what you do?2. How good are your competitors? (Yes, you are being compared to everyone in your category whether you accept it or not. This is why the Wizard of Ads partners never attempt to write ads for a client until they have visited that client's competitors.)The writing of sparkling ads for a dull business is like putting lipstick on a pig. If advertising were all it took to grow businesses to their full potential, the faculty of Wizard Academy would not be so heavily invested in the development of New School sales training, Wonder Branding, internet Persuasion Architecture, Systematic Idea Generation, Online Video Introductions, Radio in the 21st Century, Blogging, and Public Relations.Soon my partner Mike Dandridge will release his new book, The One-Year Business Turnaround: Breakthrough Marketing Without Advertising. In that book, Mike will reveal fifty-two tested techniques that helped him build his electrical supply company

For years, advertisers have attempted to target “the right customer” through carefully selected media vehicles. Mailing lists aimed at specific demographic, geographic and psychographic profiles have fallen short so often that a 3 percent conversion rate is considered a big success. Carefully selected TV shows and radio formats have failed to deliver equally as often. And now email opt-in lists are disappointing a whole new generation of advertisers.Not surprisingly, it is media salespeople who are largely responsible for today's overemphasis on “reaching the right customer.” After all, if they told you the truth – that business reputations and advertising results are built on saying the right thing rather than reaching the right person – they would have no leverage to convince you that you need to reach exactly who they're trying to sell you.In your next ad, try targeting through the content of your message rather than through demographic profiles.There are four simple steps in creating a sharply targeted message:1. Choose whom to lose. You can't really know who you're targeting until you can name who you're not targeting. Inclusion is tied to exclusion. The Law of Magnetism is that attraction can be no stronger than repulsion. In the following example, I'm choosing to lose bargain-hunters and posers. (Not that there's anything wrong with bargain hunters or posers. In another campaign, I might target them with great success.) When you're saying the right thing, you'll be surprised at how many people suddenly become “the customer you needed to reach.”2. Gain their attention. If the reader/listener/viewer isn't with you, you're toast. We live in an over-communicated society whose attention has been fractured by too much media. So never assume that people will be paying attention to your ad. Assume instead that you must wrestle their thoughts away from powerful images and distractions that are tugging at their mind. “If the lowest price is all you're after, this isn't the camera for you.” That headline/opening statement attracts the quality conscious consumer to the same degree that it repels the bargain hunter. The only task remaining is for us to explain precisely why our camera is worth the premium price we ask.3. Surprise them with your candor. Traditional hype and ad-speak make today's customer deaf and blind. They can smell hype and phony promises and they're turning away from them in greater numbers every day. So bluntly tell them the truth. Confess the negative or they won't believe the positive. “Another downside of this camera is that it's not the sleekest, prettiest one in its price class. No one is going to tell you how cool your camera looks. The upside is that it takes far superior pictures.”4. Make it make sense. Believability is the key. Tell them how and why your product can deliver what it promises. “The prettiest camera in this price class has a shutter speed of 1/15th of a second. But the shutter speed of the ugly Canon PowerShot S500 is a superfast 1/60th of a second, allowing you to take fabulous photos in low-light situations. Your indoor photos will look rich and vibrant when all the others look dark and grainy. And your nighttime photos will make people's eyes bug out. Beautiful contrast and luminance, even without the flash. This camera can see in the dark. Take a picture of your lover in the moonlight. It will become your favorite photo ever. And that superfast shutter speed is also very forgiving of movement. That's why no one ever replaces their PowerShot S500. Go to your local pawnshop and see if you can find one. We're betting you can't. But you will see several of that “prettier” camera available cheaper than dirt. So if you're looking for a great price on a sleek-looking camera, that's...

If natural resources determined the wealth of nations, Brazil would be the richest country on earth and Japan would be the poorest. But resources have little to do with building a healthy economy.Prosperity happens when the swimming pool installer sells four pools in one month instead of the usual two and says, “I'm going to buy myself three new suits and a big television.”Then the TV salesman cocks his hat and says, “I'm going to dine out every night this week.”The haberdasher, having sold 3 suits more than usual, says, “I'm going to buy my wife a piece of jewelry, give each of the kids a new toy, and then take them all out for a fine dinner.”The next day the jeweler and the toy-store owner, each feeling good about the future, get measured for new clothes and make reservations for dinner on Friday night.The restaurateur begins thinking about having a swimming pool installed.Economic prosperity is rooted in desire and confidence – both of which are stimulated by advertising.That's why Wizard of Ads, Inc. is planning to open an office in Afghanistan.We Americans are good at convincing each other to buy stuff. It's what we do better than any other nation. Call us naïve, but my partners and I believe that better advertising can radically change the future.Does your future need changing?Get yourself to Austin, Texas, on June 17 for an all-day Free Seminar in lavish new Tuscan Hall on the campus of Wizard Academy, and if you can, try to stay the evening and watch the gaslights flicker to life in Chapel Dulcinea at sunset. It will be a day you'll never forget.See you then.Roy H. Williams

Are you one who believes the reliability of research is assured when the sample size is adequate and the respondents are properly qualified? If so, “research” will likely lead you to some tragic conclusions if it hasn't done so already.The problem with most research is that it's done by mathematical types who have little appreciation of the nuances of language. Ask a witness, “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” and they will name a much higher speed than if they are asked, “How fast were the cars going when they made contact?” (This is not a speculative assertion. The full report can be found in&nbsp;Essentials of Human Memory&nbsp;by Dr. Alan Baddeley.)What's missing in most survey writers is an understanding of the illogic that we humans call logic.Neurologist Richard Cytowic was nominated for a Pulitzer in 1982. This is what he had to say in&nbsp;The Man Who Tasted Shapes: “My innate analytic personality had been reinforced by twenty years of training in science and medicine. I reflexively analyzed whatever passed my way and firmly believed that the intellect could conquer everything through reason. 'You need an antidote to your incessant intellectualizing,' Clark had once suggested, 'something to put you in touch with the irrational side of your mind.'… I had never considered that there might be more to the human mind than the rational part that I was familiar with. It had never once occurred to me that a force to balance rationality existed, let alone that it might be a normal part of the human psyche.”When Cytowic began to study this “force to balance rationality” he learned: “…some of our personal knowledge is off limits even to our own inner thoughts! Perhaps this is why humans are so often at odds with themselves, because there is more going on in our minds than we can ever consciously know.”“If a new soft drink came along that you thought tasted better than your current favorite, would you switch to it?”“Which of these two colas tastes better to you?”“Thank you for your opinion. You have been very helpful.”But when New Coke was introduced, America hated it. We were outraged,&nbsp;You're messing with our heritage!&nbsp;New Coke wasn't a genius marketing ploy to remind us of how much we loved old Coke. It was a genuine screw-up, fueled by millions in research.Joey Reiman, a founding partner of the BrightHouse Institute, (one of Coca-Cola's research partners) gave an interview to the&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;on Oct 26, 2003. “Focus groups are ultimately less about gathering hard data and more about pretending to have concrete justifications for a hugely expensive ad campaign. 'The sad fact is, people tell you what you want to hear, not what they really think,' Reiman said. 'Sometimes there's a focus-group bully, a loudmouth who's so insistent about his opinion that it influences everyone else. This is not a science; it's a circus.'” The article went on to say: “Advertising's main tool, of course, has been the focus group, a classic technique of social science. Marketers in the United States spent more than $1 billion last year on focus groups, the results of which guided about $120 billion in advertising. But focus groups are plagued by a basic flaw of human psychology: people often do not know their own minds.”Ask a person to speculate about what they would do in a particular circumstance and they'll tell you what they truly believe they would do. But when the actual circumstance comes upon them, they do something else entirely.&nbsp;My advice: Quit asking people what they think. Begin watching what they do. Ignore their words; study their actions.Still not convinced that numbers are easily misinterpreted and misunderstood?&nbsp;<a...

Features and benefits, features and benefits, features and benefits. We've polished our pitches to such a degree that we've dimmed our abilities to persuade. The customer is only half listening because the inner self is asking,&nbsp;“What are they not telling me?”Those who have heard my 90-minute presentation about the ongoing evolution of Western communication style are familiar with the problem:1.&nbsp;The fine art of Hype has been perfected and refined.2.&nbsp;Western culture has been submerged in it, held under until every last pore of our souls has been saturated.3.&nbsp;Consequently, we've developed an immunity to “ad-speak,” the language of hype.4.&nbsp;But we don't rage against it. We see the half-truth of hype as a fact of life.5.&nbsp;That's why we're ignoring it.6.&nbsp;And we're ignoring it in greater numbers every day.Do you want to surprise Broca, gain the attention of your customer and win back your credibility? Learn to name features, benefits,&nbsp;and downside.&nbsp;Trust me, the customer is already trying to figure out the downside. Why not just tell them? It's the best possible way to insulate yourself from the backlash when they finally figure it out for themselves.This powerful “tell the truth” technique is easily perverted into just another oily sales trick when the downside you name isn't the real one. As Francois Duc de La Rochefoucauld observed 350 years ago,&nbsp;“We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.”I'm saying confess the big ones. Knock your customers flat with your candor. Yes, it will cost you a few sales you might otherwise have made. But it will make you far more sales than it costs you.People aren't as stupid as you think.Roy H. Williams

“…And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'” – from&nbsp;the 1st book of Kings, chapter 19When Elijah focused on his own strength, his knees got weak, his hand began to tremble and his heart melted away. But as long as he kept his vision focused on his mission, he was filled with vitality and confidence and did miraculous things.Where is your vision focused?I have endured much questioning about&nbsp;The Quixote Collection&nbsp;at Tuscan Hall. People say, “Wasn't Don Quixote a delusional madman and a laughingstock? Why would you be taken with such a one?”Here is my answer. As long as Don Quixote's heart was filled with Dulcinea he overcame impossible odds. It was only after his friends convinced him Dulcinea did not exist that his heart shriveled within him.Each of us needs Dulcinea, a sense of mission and purpose. For without it, there can be no&nbsp;adventure.An itinerant preacher from Nazareth said, “If your vision is focused, your whole body will be full of light. But if your vision is unfocused, the light that is in you will be darkness. And if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” One of the ways Mathew 6:22 can be interpreted is this: “If a mission consumes you, your life will be filled with optimism, creativity and stamina. But if no purpose fills your heart, the echo of its emptiness will fill your mind with a mournful song.”I believe that millions flounder and whine and are depressed because they refuse to sell their lives to something bigger than they are. They are sad because they have no purpose. Stephen Crane spoke of the power of purpose this way:A man saw a ball of gold in the sky;He climbed for it,And eventually he achieved it —It was clay.Now this is the strange part:When the man went to the earthAnd looked again,Lo, there was the ball of gold.Now this is the strange part:It was a ball of gold.Aye, by the heavens, it was a ball of gold.– passage 35 from&nbsp;The Black Riders and Other Lines&nbsp;(1895)Your heart, my friend, is the size of a stadium. If you try to fill it with small things – a new car, a vacation, a promotion at work, a bigger home, a stock portfolio – a mournful echo will fill your life. But if you fill your stadium with all of humanity and search for ways to make their lives better each day, you will find yourself in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing in the right way. Serendipity will come to stay.Do you have a purpose outside yourself?Are you climbing for a ball of gold?Roy H. Williams

When your business category is dominated by a single brand and all the other brands put together don't equal them, it's time to create a counter-brand.Counter-branding – business judo – is rare and dangerous. But when you're overwhelmingly dominated, what have you got to lose?Prior to the creation of their “Uncola” counter-brand in 1967, 7-Up had survived for 38 years as a lemon-lime soft drink with the slogan, “You Like It. It Likes You.”Yippee Skippy call the press, a soft drink likes me.As in Judo, the secret of counter-branding is to use the weight and momentum of your opponent to your own advantage. In other words, hook your trailer to their truck and let them pull you along in their wake.The steps in counter-branding are these:1. List the attributes of the master brand.&nbsp;In the case of 7-Up, the master brand was “Cola: sweet, rich, brown.” Everything else was either a fruit flavor or root beer and all of those put together were relatively insignificant. “Cola” overwhelming dominated the mental category “soft drinks.”2. Create a brand with precisely the opposite attributes.&nbsp;To accomplish this, 7-Up lost their lemon-lime description and became “The Uncola: tart, crisp, clear.”3. Without using the brand name of your competitor, refer to yourself as the direct opposite of the master brand.&nbsp;7-Up didn't become UnCoke or UnPepsi as that would have been illegal, a violation of the Lanham Act. But when you're up against an overwhelming competitor, you don't need to name them. Everyone knows who they are.Let's look at a current example: Starbucks. Notice how I didn't have to name the category? All I had to say was “Starbucks” and you knew we were talking about coffee. That's category dominance.In the February 2005 issue of&nbsp;QSR&nbsp;magazine, Marilyn Odesser-Torpey writes about Coffee Wars, opening with the question, “Starbucks will certainly remain top dog among coffee purveyors, but who is next in line?” A little later we read, “Many of the competitors in the coffee segment are Starbucks look-alikes; if you take the store's signage down, it would be hard to tell the difference.”Traditional wisdom tells us to (1.) study the leader, (2.) figure out what they're doing right, (3.) try to beat them at their own game. This strategy can actually work when the leader hasn't yet progressed beyond the formative stages, but when overwhelming dominance has been achieved, as is currently the case with Starbucks, such mimicry is the recipe for disaster. Are all competitive coffee houses forever doomed to occupy the sad “me-too” position in the shadow of mighty Starbucks?&nbsp;Yes, until one of them launches a counter-brand.To determine what a Starbucks counter-brand would look like, we must first break Starbucks down into its basic brand elements:1. Atmosphere:&nbsp;quiet and serene, a retreat, a vacation, like visiting the library. Bring your laptop and stay awhile. They've got wi-fi.2. Color Scheme:&nbsp;muted, romantic colors. Every tone has black added.3. Auditory Signature:&nbsp;music of the rainforest, soft and melodious4. Lighting:&nbsp;subdued and shadowy, perfect for candles or a fireplace.5. Pace:&nbsp;slow and relaxed. This is going to take awhile, but that's part of why you're here.6. Names:&nbsp;distinctly foreign and sophisticated. Sizes include 'Grande' and 'Venti.' (No matter how you pronounce these, the 'barista' will correct you. It's part of the whole Starbucks wine-bar-without-the-alcohol experience.)Counter-brands succeed by becoming the Yin to the master brand's Yang, the North to their South, the equal-but-opposite 'other' that neatly occupies the empty spot that had previously been in the...

People have said for decades, “Word-of-mouth is the best kind of advertising. That's the best kind: word-of-mouth.” You hear this so often when you sell advertising that my friend Bob Lepine used to joke about opening The Word of Mouth Advertising Agency. He said he was going to hire people to sit at bus stops and ride the elevators in tall buildings and say to people, “Have you tried that new restaurant over on Fifth Street? It's GREAT!” The funniest part of Bob's idea is that it probably would've actually worked.The power of the buzz – word-of-mouth advertising – lies in its credibility. But the only way to create buzz is to rock a person's world so hard that they can't help but talk about it to their friends.I'm going to try to do that today.Ray Bard of Bard Press, the publisher of my bestselling&nbsp;Wizard of Ads&nbsp;trilogy, looked at the new hardback book about to be released by Wizard Academy Press and wrote me an email. (I was walking out the door to meet Ray for lunch when a boxful of advance copies arrived from the printer. On impulse, I grabbed one for Ray.) These comments by email were completely unsolicited:RoyGreat to see you and catch up yesterday. And, thanks for the new Wizard Academy Press book. I usually refrain from providing comments about books after they're published (I've made enough mistakes myself over the years) but there is one issue that may deserve attention.When I got home last night I gave the book a quick look. It felt good in the hand and the inside contents looked good. Although the title sounded like a political book and provided no information about the content, I know that it can get by as it is. The other, more difficult issue, is the price. When I first saw the $13.95 I thought it was a mistake but noticed it was printed in two places. The last time 300 page hard cover business books sold for $13.95 was probably 30 years ago. The retail price is a statement of what you think the value of the book is. When most similar business books are selling for twice as much today, you can see the message this sends.If the publisher is pursing a strong merchandising strategy with lots of face out retail space I recommend pushing the retail into the “value” category. Unless you have a new distribution effort, I would not recommend it for this book. And, the $13.95 is way beyond “value” pricing.For what my opinion is worth, I would have priced it at $30. and sold it at $20 for special customers. I think you can see the difference in psychology.Again, I regret bringing this up now, but I know the book will be used in the company's marketing efforts. And, as it is, the price sends just the opposite message you want.RayRay Bard is America's most successful publisher of business books. He is responsible for putting two of my books on the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal&nbsp;bestseller list and one on the&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;list, so I listen carefully to what Ray says.He's right. Thirteen ninety-five is way too cheap for a 314 page hardback containing this kind of detailed information about&nbsp;how to make online marketing actually work.&nbsp;These pages are chock full of little-known techniques for improving online marketing results. More than a dozen Fortune 500 companies have paid the authors huge amounts of money to learn this stuff. That's why our plan all along was to price the second printing at 25.95. But this first printing exists only to create a buzz.&nbsp;That's why we're giving you 2 additional copies for each one you buy at just $13.95.&nbsp;We know you'll give them to friends. We know your friends will be rocked. We know your friends will talk about it to their friends. It's all about the buzz and this book...

Standing inside Chapel Dulcinea recently, I looked up to see the great ribs beneath the roof beams above me and thought, “Jonah in the belly of the whale.” Do you remember the story? It's only four short chapters, a 5-minute read. The next morning, Princess Pennie went back to Dulcinea with me and we sat together while I read the book of Jonah aloud. Somehow, it felt like the right thing to do.Let me summarize it for you: Running from God, Jonah boards a ship headed in the opposite direction from the place he knew he was supposed to go.&nbsp;(Have you ever rebelled, brazenly, from what was expected of you by someone else?)&nbsp;And then a storm came.&nbsp;(Somehow they always do.)&nbsp;Thrown overboard, Jonah is swallowed by “a great fish” in whose belly he reevaluates his priorities and finds his soul again. Jonah's time of reflection and prayer in the belly of the beast is&nbsp;a marvelous thing to read.&nbsp;The fish then vomits Jonah unceremoniously onto the beach.&nbsp;(Ever been unceremoniously barfed by circumstances following a storm that hugely kicked your ass? Me too.)&nbsp;Now this is where the story gets interesting to me: Jonah, having survived the crisis, finally does what he should,&nbsp;but with a really bad attitude.&nbsp;The tale ends with Jonah being unbelievably petty and small, a pale shadow of the giant he had been during his time in the belly of the beast.Evidently, I'm not the only person who can go from high thoughts to low thoughts in a very short period of time. And neither are you.Interestingly, Jonah's pendulum swing was the inverse of Elijah's. Whereas Jonah went from high thoughts in the belly of the beast to low thoughts during his mission, Elijah went from high thoughts during his mission on the top of Mount Carmel (where he called down fire from heaven to burn up an offering to God in front of a huge crowd of witnesses,) to low thoughts immediately after his triumph. “Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. 'I have had enough, LORD ,' he said. 'Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.' Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.” When Elijah awakened, he went to spend some time in a cave at Mount Horeb. Read the 19th chapter of 1st Kings and you'll recognize another belly, another whale.Every caterpillar must go into the cocoon if she will spread her newfound wings.Some will find Chapel Dulcinea to be the belly of the whale, a place for reflection in times of crisis. Others will find Dulcinea to be the cave at Horeb, a place to regain their balance after riding an emotional rollercoaster. For thousands of young couples, Dulcinea will be the cocoon from which will emerge the two-winged butterfly of marriage. But always it will be a place of&nbsp;transformative change.No one but Pennie knew that I was contemplating the book of Jonah and the value of reflection, so it came as a soft surprise when Bryan Eisenberg forwarded to me a quote he thought I might find interesting:&nbsp;“The Internet radically redefines a person's psychological relationship to time and space. Attention is riveted on what is tangible, useful, instantly available; the stimulus for deeper thought and reflection may be lacking. Yet human beings have a vital need for time and inner quiet to ponder and examine life and its mysteries… Understanding and wisdom are the fruit of a contemplative eye upon the world, and do not come from a mere...

Hi Roy,Thanks for the mention in the MMM today. It never ceases to amaze me the buzz something like that creates.Reading it also reminds me of the other conversation that took place at the same time, when you and Dave were talking about how a chef reduces the sauce to intensify the flavour and how that process can be related to writing. That conversation adds clarity to today's argument raging in the US about 60's vs. 30's.CheersSteveThe “other conversation” mentioned in this email from my partner Steve Rae was with Dave Martin, the Academy graduate and friend in whose restaurant we were dining. Following&nbsp;my discussion of paint with Bob Shrubsall, Dave and I began discussing how impact grows when it's concentrated into less of the carrier vehicle. This is the secret of perfume, reduction sauce, and the edge of an axe. But just as sharpening an axe or simmering the water from sauce takes time and patience, editing words from descriptions is not a task for the anxious or twitchy.Easy reading is damned hard writing.Think of this principle as&nbsp;The Law of Refined Essence.I've always been a fan of David Ogilvy and J. Peterman, two of the great masters of evocative description, and both were advocates of long and colorful copy. These men were legends in their day but I believe that day is fading. The rules of communication are shifting beneath our feet.Haven't you noticed?We're entering an era of stimuli bombardment, visual ecstasy, sound bites, the micro attention span. A committed reader is a rare bird.Over-communication has accelerated beyond critical mass and the resulting explosion has fragmented the public mind.So the new rule is to say what you've got to say. And say it hot.Speaking to authors, Elizabeth Spencer said, “Don't overwrite description in a story – you haven't got time.” I believe her advice rings truer today than ever.What do you believe?Roy H. Williams

People who try to stay “on the cutting edge” tend to see everything as new. But the thing that has been will be again. And that which currently is, has been, long before our time.If this observation seems familiar to you, it's probably because you remember it from a book written a few thousand years ago. Solomon went looking for the meaning of life and the essay he wrote about his journey,&nbsp;Ecclesiastes,&nbsp;opens with a similar observation about the cyclical nature of things.I call such observations Laws of the Universe and I depend on them to make my clients rich. Sounds like a book title, doesn't it?&nbsp;The Wizard's Laws of the Universe?&nbsp;Perhaps I'll write it someday.Right now I'm looking at a business card I've been carrying in my wallet since late autumn, 2000; Pennie and I were in Stratford, Ontario, while the Bush-Gore “hanging chad” debate raged in Florida. No one was sure who had been elected president. So at dinner in the basement of Fellini's, my partner Steve Rae casually asked, “So what do you think will happen if your boy gets elected?”My reply was detached and instant. “We'll be at war within a year.”Stunned, the table went quiet until Dave Martin, our host, set down his fork and asked, “Why?”“Never put a Texan in the White House,” were the eight short words of my answer. Then, looking across the table at Bob Shrubsall, I said, “They tell me you know more about the science of paint than anyone I'll ever meet. Is that true?” Bob, in the understated way that is typical of Canadians, shared a little of his lifelong obsession with pigmentation and how it had led him into a specialized course of higher education that culminated in several college degrees and a career in research and development.“So what makes one paint different from another?” I asked.This question obviously energized Bob, so I pulled out a pen and began writing down what he said; “Paint, any paint,” he said, “is composed of only 4 things: pigment, vehicle, additives, and resin.”Funny thing. Advertising is like that, too.The&nbsp;pigment&nbsp;of an ad is its color, tone, temperament or style. It's what makes us recognize the ad as part of a specific campaign. Think of this “ad pigment” as brand essence. Most ads today are evocatively pale due to a lack of pigment.The&nbsp;vehicle&nbsp;of an ad is the media which delivers it; newspaper, television, radio, outdoor, direct mail, internet, yellow pages and word-of-mouth are all vehicles of message delivery.The&nbsp;additives&nbsp;of advertising are the specific message points it hopes to deliver.The&nbsp;resin&nbsp;of an ad is what makes it stick in your mind. Surprising Broca and&nbsp;adding a Third Gravitating Body&nbsp;are just two methods of adding stickiness. Ultimately though, your ad's resin is the salience of the message as measured by the central executive of Working Memory in the dorsolateral prefrontal association area of the brain's left hemisphere.Yes, there are laws of the universe. And one of them is that lots of things are like paint. Advertising is like paint. Reputations are like paint. It pays to understand paint.Half the people reading this memo were likely irritated by the hyper-generalized nature of the 8-word statement I made at dinner in the basement of Fellini's. “It's more complicated than that, dammit! To say 'never put a Texan in the White House' is just shallow and simplistic and childish and irresponsible.”Yeah, you're probably right.But we did invade Afghanistan 10 months later.Roy H. Williams

A few years ago, your customer could compare you only to your competitor down the street. But information gathering and comparison shopping have since become effortless, thanks to the internet. Tens of millions of us are gathering and comparing info 24/7 in the comfort and seclusion of our own homes.But we're not “your customer,” right?I recently spoke to an audience of 1600 businesspeople at a conference in Las Vegas. Just before I walked onstage into the spotlight, my host whispered into my ear, “It would probably be better if you didn't make any references to the internet, because this audience is almost exclusively 55 and older.” I smiled and nodded at him just as the man at the microphone said “Roy H. Williams” and I walked out from behind the curtain to meet my fate.Taking center stage, I raised my hand and asked, “How many of you have used a search engine in the last 7 days to research a purchase that you were considering?” At least 90 percent of the hands in the room were instantly raised. I looked offstage and shot a smile to my host who was staring bug-eyed at the ocean of fingers.But I suppose none of those people were “your customer,” either.To get in step with the times, you must begin seeing the internet as an information directory at your customer's fingertips, because I can assure you that's how your customer sees it.But unlike yesterday's yellow pages, this new information directory is consumer reactive, offering sights and sounds and detailed information. “To heck with letting your fingers do the walking.&nbsp;Let your fingers trigger the adventure.”&nbsp;Today's new directory&nbsp;can deliver streaming video of your best salesperson making his best presentation on his best day,&nbsp;directly into your customer's home. It can answer all your customer's questions and calm their unspoken fears. But no salesman is going to schedule an appointment with you to make sure you're “in the book.”&nbsp;This is a call you have to initiate on your own.The times, they are a'changing.Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's enough to tell your customer, “Call or come into the store before closing time and our friendly staff will be happy to answer all your questions.” Yes, perhaps “your customer” has lots of free time and nothing better to do with it. Perhaps things aren't changing at all. Perhaps the old methods of marketing will always work.But then I am reminded of C.S. Lewis, who said: “The safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”Yeah. That's it. Just keep on doing what you've always done. I'm sure it will all work out.Roy H. Williams

NOTICE: This memo ends with a link to an ad writing course description. So don't be surprised.The last line in most TV or radio ads is usually a “call to action,” right? Especially if the ad was produced locally:“Hurry. These prices won't last long.”“Act Now. Offer expires soon.”“You must be present to win.”We say these things because we're trying to create a sense of urgency. We want to see customers respond immediately, so we yank the chain of self-interest. But the public is growing tired of having its chain yanked. And for this reason, ads that attempt to create a sense of urgency are becoming passé. We're developing an immunity to ad-speak.From the Great Depression through WWII, any product with the courage to advertise relentlessly was assured a place in the national consciousness. Mass media was cheap and all of America could easily be reached by it. You had three TV networks, a local newspaper and a small group of AM radio stations. Take your pick.Then we tumbled into the 60s and advertising got creative. Along came the 70s, FM radio arrived and right behind it, cable TV.Babies born in 1980 emerged into a plastic world of flashing lights and shallow hype. Cartoons like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were interrupted by ads for the Popeil Pocket Fisherman and the amazing Veg-O-matic. “It makes mounds and mounds of julienne fries! But wait! There's more!” Disco music and line dancing and riding the mechanical bull. Pop like a flashcube, baby. Then in 1983, Michael Jackson swept the Grammies and Madonna leapt onto the charts with Material Girl. “We are liv-ing in a material world. And I am a material girl.”Fast forward a quarter century: Never has a generation had so much to do and so little time. We're drowning in recreational opportunities. The Saturday morning cartoons of childhood blossomed into their own round-the-clock cartoon network and the nightly news has become a series of non-stop news channels. Comedy has its own unending comedy channel, movies their own 24-hour movie channel and department stores have morphed into a theme park of superstores known as Power Centers where we can watch the retail giants slug it out for our discretionary dollar:&nbsp;Circuit City&nbsp;vs.&nbsp;Best Buy.&nbsp;Linens'n'Things&nbsp;vs.&nbsp;Bed, Bath, and Beyond.&nbsp;Lowe's&nbsp;vs.&nbsp;Home Depot,&nbsp;OfficeMax&nbsp;vs.&nbsp;Office Depot, and&nbsp;PetsMart&nbsp;vs.&nbsp;Petco.What is a citizen to do?Those jaded infants of 1980 are turning 25 this year and they bring with them a new sensibility:&nbsp;Use technology to block out a too-much world.1. Digital Video Recorders allow us to skip TV commercials.2. Satellite radio and iPods allow us to hide from radio ads.3. Video games allow us to run from reality as we withdraw into an online world unreachable by modern advertising.MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) like EverQuest and WarCraft are a movie that never ends.&nbsp;The reality hook is that you are connected with other people who know you only as you have chosen to be known. Think of it as the ultimate costume party.Did you know that you can type a text message on the keys of your cell phone that will instantly appear on the cell phone of a friend? This “instant messaging” is slow and laborious, but millions do it as a way of showing courtesy to their friends. “Ring the phone when your message can't wait, send a text when it can.” Non-interruption is a high value among the emerging generation and they're beginning to spread an appreciation of it to their Baby Boomer parents as well.Bottom line: Our growing immunity to ad-speak means that the believability of ads...

I wrote three memos to you this week, but decided not to send the first two. The first one,&nbsp;We Are Sancho Panza,&nbsp;is the dancing safari into&nbsp;symbolic thought&nbsp;that I promised you in last week's memo. It begins,&nbsp;“Who can explain our four-century attraction to Don Quixote? The book is hard reading and dull, full of inconsistencies, and confusing. A little like the Bible. And yet Quixote is the second most widely-read book on earth; second only to… yes, the Bible.”&nbsp;Powerful and flexible&nbsp;symbolic thought&nbsp;includes all forms of metaphor, simile and corollary. Its function is to relate that which is not understood to that which is understood. Even as the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 42, “deep calleth unto deep…” symbolic language calls to the unconscious; deep waters to deeper still.I decided not to send you&nbsp;We Are Sancho Panza&nbsp;because it might have been misconstrued as a spiritual ambush. Some might even have called it religious. It definitely travels beyond the boundaries I impose on these Monday Morning Memos, so don't click that link unless you really want to go there. You have been warned.The second memo I wrote but chose not to send was some very specific advice about radio advertising called “How to Make a Fabulous :30 from the Average :60.” But I decided to save those seven simple steps to deliver at&nbsp;an event I'll be doing in Dallas in May as a gift to my friend, Eric Rhoads, in honor of his 50th birthday.So having written two memos to you and deciding to send neither, I wandered over to Academy Hall to peep in at a guest lecture in progress. There, on our mammoth projection screen, it read: “What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?” An interesting question, it immediately triggered a deeper one: “What would you attempt if you knew nothing you did would ever work out?”The first question urges you to dream big. The second, to be truly committed.What is worth doing even if you can't succeed? Is there a mountain worth climbing even if there's no hope of ever reaching the top? Think about it. Standing on the top of the mountain is a moment, supposedly&nbsp;the&nbsp;moment “that makes it worth it all.” Makes it worth all&nbsp;what? A lifetime of disconnection, alienation and misplaced priorities? The world's saddest person is that tragic has-been who speaks incessantly about his or her shining moment long ago. Do you really want to be the woman who “used to be” Miss America? Or the man who “used to play” professional sports?No mountain climber ever stays long on the summit. But the brevity of these visits isn't because someone drove them off to take their place. They leave because there is nothing more to do. The movie is over. The credits are rolling. Holding an empty popcorn bucket and a soft-drink cup, they go looking for a trash can and a bathroom.Susan Ertz once wrote, “Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” Life, if you will, is that rainy Sunday afternoon. What are you going to do with it?I'm talking about embracing a commitment to something far bigger than your own small and petty desires.Commitment is not to be found in brave talk, bold resolution, or dramatic gesture. And she will not be measured quickly. Strong and silent, Commitment steps into the light only in those dark and quiet moments when it would be easier to creep, unseen, away.How deep is your Commitment to what you're doing with your life? I ask only because I care.And it's never too late to change.Roy H. Williams

“And all shall be well and All manner of thing shall be well When the tongues of flame are in-folded Into the crowned knot of fire And the fire and the rose are one.”&nbsp;In this strange passage from&nbsp;Little Gidding,&nbsp;poet T.S. Eliot links the mental image of a rose to the image of an infolded knot of flame. We see the connection; yes, a rose does look something like a knot of fire.Much has been written about intuition and creativity. Most of it is wrong.Allow me to explain; Intuition is merely pattern recognition, a principal function of the right hemisphere of your brain. Centered in that wordless realm, intuition whispers, “I've seen this movie, or one similar to it, so I think I know how it ends.” But your right brain is without word-language, so this thought must emerge in your consciousness only as a hunch, a gut feeling, a precognition, an inexplicable insight. When such insights flow unrestricted from the right brain to the left and then out through the tip of a pen, they become powerful, poetic language, such as that of T.S. Elliot above. When from the tip of a brush, fine art. And when from the point of a draftsman's pencil, a new invention.Intuition and art, indeed all “creativity,” is based upon seeing the link between two dissimilar things that have no obvious connection.Gutenberg connected coins to books and invented the printing press. The link between them: duplication.&nbsp;“Gosh, if a coin die will stamp an image onto countless pieces of metal to make coins, couldn't the same be done with letters of the alphabet to make the pages of a book? All I would need is something to hold the movable letters in place that could then be easily lifted up and pressed down. A wine press! I'll use the plate of a wine press to hold the letters!”&nbsp;And the world was changed that day.Your left brain is the home of sequential, logical,&nbsp;analytical thought&nbsp;– business thought – always seeking to forecast a result; “What is the next step? How do I get to the next level? What would be correct?” For those familiar with the Myers-Briggs instrument, left-brain preferences are identified by the S and J designations.Your right brain is the place of complex, fantastical&nbsp;abstract thought, ever seeking to find a pattern. (Obviously the N and P preference in Myers-Briggs terminology, though to my knowledge the MBTI people have never acknowledged these preferences to be rooted in Dr. Roger Sperry's brain lateralization.&nbsp;Dr. Sperry's findings on the two hemispheres of the brain and their respective functions earned him the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1981.) When the right brain begins to out-shout the left, we begin seeing connections and patterns that aren't really there. Ever see the Russell Crowe movie,&nbsp;A Beautiful Mind? Badda-bing, badda-bang, a right brain goes out of control and now you've got a genius weirdo on your hands. (Chances are you know at least one person who fits this description.)Symbolic thought&nbsp;is the key to discovery. We'll talk more about it next week. Unless, of course, the beagle in my brain gets a whiff of something more interesting and then arooo! aroo-aroooo! we're off and running. That Russell Crowe character got nothin' on the beagle.Yours,Roy H. Williams

Getting confidence and keeping confidence – emotional muscle – is like getting and keeping any other muscle; it just requires daily exercise.But where does confidence come from? Is it merely a feeling – the product of an optimistic attitude gained through positive thinking rituals learned at motivational seminars – or is it something more substantial?According to Baltasar Gracian, confidence comes from authority,&nbsp;“…and the highest authority is that which rests on an adequate knowledge of things and long experience in different occupations. Master the subject matter and you will come and go with grace and ease and speak with the force of a teacher; for it is easy to master one's listeners if one first masters knowledge. No sort of abstract speculation can give you this authority; only continual practice in one occupation or another. Mastery arrives from an action done often and well… Authority originates in nature and is perfected by art. Those who attain this quality find things already done for them. Superiority itself lends them ease and nothing holds them back: they shine, both in words and deeds, in every situation. Even mediocrity, helped out by authority, has a certain eminence, and a little showiness can make everything come out right.”Keys to confidence:1. Do your homework.&nbsp;Know what you're talking about. Study, prepare, experiment, then experiment some more. Become an expert. Prepare true answers – not canned responses – for the questions you'll probably never be asked.2. Tell the truth.&nbsp;You can't have real confidence when you know you're lying. A lie that makes you a dollar today will cost you a hundred dollars tomorrow due to the erosion of your own confidence. When you don't know the answer, say, “I don't know, but I'll find out and get back to you,” and then do it for the building of your own confidence even if you suspect the person has utterly forgotten your promise. The confidence you gain in yourself will make the whole exercise worthwhile. There's that word again; exercise.3. Be a Little Bit Showy.&nbsp;Most people are average, and average is always boring. Experts, due to their deep knowledge of the subject and the ease with which they speak of it, are free to be entertaining. And the response you get to your performance will only increase your confidence.Baltasar Gracian, by the way, lived three and a half centuries ago but his advice remains on target&nbsp;because some things never change.Roy H. Williams

This year marks the 400-year anniversary of the publication of&nbsp;Don Quixote,&nbsp;so I seized the opportunity to spend some hours in the study of 1605. (Arooo! Aroo-Aroooo!) And as all such beagle runs will do, this one led to a delightful surprise in the form of one 'Baltasar Gracian,' a Spaniard who was 4 years old when&nbsp;Don Quixote&nbsp;was published and 15 when Cervantes died.As an adult, Gracian was rival to Niccolo Machiavelli, author of&nbsp;The Prince,&nbsp;and his writings are the rich, sweet antidote to the bitter sting of Machiavellian code. Gracian's interpreter, Christopher Mauer, describes him this way;&nbsp;“In Gracian's world, no rules, no instructions, no set of [7?] habits lead directly to success. Rules are inflexible; no book of instructions will ever compete with the randomness of human activity; and any habit or pattern of behavior makes us predictable and therefore vulnerable to others: it is easy to shoot the bird that flies in a straight line, or defeat the person who always plays his cards in the same manner… For Gracian it is a melancholy fact of life that fools outnumber the intelligent and a large part of their foolishness lies in an inability to move beyond appearances to what lies within. Funny, subtle, loyal to his friends and a lover of natural beauty, Gracian is far more delightful company than his Jesuit records suggest.”&nbsp;Yes, Gracian was a Jesuit priest who stayed in trouble with his uptight superiors.Here are a few examples of his anti-Machiavellian wisdom:“The eyes of the soul are drawn to inner beauty, as those of the body are to outer.”“The French have always been gallant, and this was the path that led Louis XII to immortality. Those who had insulted him when he was Duke of Orleans feared his succession to the throne. But he turned vengeance into gallantry with these inestimable words: 'You have nothing to fear. The King of France does not avenge the injuries done to the Duke of Orleans…'”“It takes subtlety to turn a defect into a distinction. Be first to confess your faults and you'll have the last word: this is not self-scorn but heroic boldness. Unlike what happens when we praise ourselves, self-criticism can make us seem nobler.”“Some come home from their travels as uncouth as they departed. Those of little depth make little use of worldly observation. Ambrosia was not made for the taste of fools, and no such knowledge is found in redneck bastards, who never stir from the here and now.”Okay, I'll admit I substituted “redneck bastards” for Gracian's original invective, but only because I thought it fit the paragraph. By the way, I have nothing but deep respect for the agrarian lifestyle and I revel in the earthy wisdom of farmers. Singer-songwriter Willie Nelson is not a redneck bastard. Eric's father, (the fictional TV character from&nbsp;That 70's Show) Red Forman, is. The Redneck Bastard is every man of closed-minded platitudes and belligerent, self-righteous certainty who has neither the will to understand his adversary's heart nor a hunger to learn the truth. The Ku Klux Klan exists because of Redneck Bastards.Thank you for not being one.Roy H. Williams

You had friends and laughter, adventure and romance. Remember the halcyon days of your youth? But then the friends went away, the laughter faded, the adventure ended and the romance was over.It was time to go to work.Do you ever feel like you're wearing ankle irons, condemned to row forever with the other galley slaves in the dim life below ship's deck? “I too have had my dreams: ay, known indeed the crowded visions of a fiery youth which haunt me still.” – Oscar WildeOne of the happy accidents of Wizard Academy is that students often rediscover who they were when they were young. They come to the academy to become better salespeople and&nbsp;scientists,&nbsp;journalists and educators, authors and ministers,&nbsp;business people&nbsp;and bar bouncers, ad writers and artists and we certainly make them those things. But somewhere along the way,&nbsp;students remember how to love their lives again&nbsp;and the dream-seed that fell into the ground during the dark days of winter breaks through the warm soil of spring to shout its message to the sky.“Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.” – Studs TerkelI want you to come to Austin on April 23.&nbsp;It's a Saturday. Tuscan Hall, our auditorium, is now complete except for the flagstone plaza and water features that will surround it and we'll certainly have those done before you get here. Likewise, construction is ahead of schedule for the April 23 opening of Chapel Dulcinea, the small, cliff's-edge structure that symbolizes the academy's heart and provides the fuel for its dreams.What are the dreams of Wizard Academy? To build a school of discovery in the arts and sciences: in short, the Harvard of a brighter tomorrow. Our students, partners, and adjunct faculty are already changing the world of business through&nbsp;more persuasive ad writing,&nbsp;'New School'&nbsp;sales training,&nbsp;and revolutionary&nbsp;internet solutions.&nbsp;Additionally, my partner&nbsp;Sonja Howle&nbsp;will soon be taking the reigns of our Art Marketing Workshop to help artists in every discipline – all over the world – make a better living from their work&nbsp;because we are convinced their work is essential.&nbsp;We'll soon be adding a new course in visionary architecture taught by one of America's greatest living architects who, miraculously, has agreed to participate in our April 23 event to explain in detail all the symbolism and feeling that is woven into the very architecture of the school. Prepare to be amazed.Now I need you to take a slow breath and sit down, okay? Because I'm getting ready to share with you a part of the dream that could easily sound delusional: It is our conviction that this school will exist and thrive for at least 500 years. That's why we've been careful to use only such construction materials and techniques that will withstand the...

A brief summary of this episodeNiche marketing was born the day a clear-eyed realist chose to dominate a subcategory when the master category seemed too high a hill to climb. “Instead of trying to become a major retailer of home furniture, I'll become the king of affordable dinettes. Instead of making a run at used cars, I'll dominate used Corvettes instead.”Focused specialization makes sense, and in some circumstances it's exactly the right thing to do. But beware the temptation to think too small. Climbing molehills is easy. And when the time comes to plant your flag on top, you'll find there's already a convenient hole in it for you. Long live the king.But then what have you really got?Early in my consulting career most of my advice centered around the idea of focusing on a niche, a subcategory, a genre. My first client was a jeweler who deeply loved rubies, emeralds, sapphires, tourmalines, kunzites, garnets and all manner of colored gemstones. Even better, he was a nationally recognized expert on them. So what better strategy could I recommend than suggest that his store specialize in colored gems? Thank God he didn't agree to it. If Woody Justice had taken my advice that day, he would have quickly become King of a Molehill instead of spending a delightful two decades becoming something much bigger than either of us dared dream.Sad it is to live your whole life without ever having a dream, a hope, a goal. Sadder still is to have a goal, but never achieve it. But saddest of all is to have a goal, achieve it, and then have nothing to do.I'm not being poetic or playing with double meanings. I mean exactly what I said. But I'm not the first, John Steinbeck said it this way: “In the dark the other night I wrote in my head a whole dialogue between St. George and the Dragon. Very close relatives those two. They are eternally tied together – actually two parts of one whole… So St. George must always kill the dragon and it must be repeated because if the dragon were finally killed, there would be no St. George – only a lonely man looking for something to do.”In the year 410, the man in North Africa who would be remembered as St. Augustine of Hippo wrote, “Why does it say in the holy Psalm, 'The hearts of them shall rejoice that&nbsp;seek&nbsp;the Lord, that&nbsp;seek&nbsp;His face forever?' Why does it not say, 'The hearts of them shall rejoice that&nbsp;find&nbsp;the Lord?'” Augustine ponders this awhile, then offers us his conclusion: “Things incomprehensible must be so investigated.” In other words, Augustine believed we are magnetically drawn and thrilled by what is too big for us. It makes our hearts rejoice.I think I agree. And that's why next week I'm going to share with you a dream too big for me alone. Heck, maybe it's too big for all of us together. But it makes my heart rejoice and it may do the same for you.We'll see.Roy H. Williams

I was writing an upbeat and instructional memo to send you today called&nbsp;Confidence: Where to Get It and How to Keep It.&nbsp;But it's going to have to wait. This other thing just wouldn't turn me loose until I wrote it down and sent it to you.Have you ever had a concept slap you in the face with every twist of your consciousness? The slap-fest began for me on Friday, when my chief media buyer asked to have a long discussion with me about television. Juan Guillermo Tornoe rarely requests my time. We had a long heart-to-heart about TV ads and then went home for the weekend.Upon checking my email that evening I learned that FCC chairman Michael Powell – the man who had tried to deregulate TV and radio so that a tiny handful of people could control what we see and hear – had finally stepped down. I slept a little more peacefully that night.I awoke the next morning, hopped into my truck to run some errands and stuck a new CD into the player, having no idea what to expect. I'd not heard of the group&nbsp;Green Day, but bought the CD impulsively when Amazon.com had suggested it. I had no idea what sort of music to expect. Here are the lyrics to the first song:“Don't wanna be an American idiot.One nation controlled by the media.Information age of hysteria.It's calling out to idiot America…”Again the pervasiveness of TV had popped up like a prairie dog the moment I lifted my glance to the horizon.Upon my arrival home the rotating quote that greeted me when I logged on to wizardacademy.org was,&nbsp;“All television is educational television. The question is what is it teaching?” – Nicholas JohnsonMore than 700 rotating quotes and that's the one I get. Hmm…Just then Pennie, having no idea how often I'd already been confronted with the idea of television's pervasive place in our lives, hung up the phone and mentioned that her sister called to say she felt Dr. James Dobson had finally stepped over the line into the land of the paranoid with&nbsp;his accusation that TV's SpongeBob Squarepants is teaching young children to be homosexuals.I wasn't much interested in the squabble between JamesDob and SpongeBob. The thing that snagged my attention is that Pennie and her sister had been discussing a&nbsp;TV newscast&nbsp;that reported what a&nbsp;media minister&nbsp;had said another&nbsp;TV show&nbsp;might be doing to children.The next morning Pennie handed me the newspaper's&nbsp;Parade&nbsp;insert because the cover story was an article by literary giant Norman Mailer. I don't ever read the paper, so when the Princess finds something in it she thinks I might want to see, she saves it for me. You guessed it. The great Norman Mailer was railing against TV.&nbsp;“If the desire to read diminishes, so does one's ability to read. The search for a culprit does not have to go far… If we want to have the best of all possible worlds, I believe that television commercials have got to go. The constant interruption of concentration of TV advertising not only dominates much of our lives, but over the long run is bound to bleed into our prosperity… Let us pay directly for what we enjoy on television rather than pass the spiritual cost on to our children and their children.”Halfway through Mailer's rant my email dinged for my attention. It was a note from a friend I'd not heard from in awhile. There's no way Dan knew what I was pondering. I swear I'm not making any of this up. Here's his email:“Two years ago I watched my last local TV newscast. I was fed up with hearing about murder after murder. I was beginning to believe, as many viewers must, that our society was out of control, with everyone shooting everyone on every street corner. It's not true. Not even close. I...

It was Christmas Eve, 1513. In just two more years, 78 year-old architect Giovanni Giocondo would be dead, having filled Europe with magnificent buildings and bridges that continue to stand unweathered in the year 2005. During that night he wrote a note to his friend, Allagia Aldobrandeschi. The note, like his other work, remains:I am your friend and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not got, but there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take.No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven!No peace lies in the future that is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace!The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see – and to see we have only to look. I beseech you to look!Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by the covering, cast them away as ugly, or heavy or hard. Welcome it, grasp it, touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there, the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence.Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty – beneath its covering – that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.Courage, then, to claim it, that is all. But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are all pilgrims together, wending through unknown country, home.And so, at this time, I greet you. Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you now and forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.I send you these thoughts today because my own mind is cloudy and damp and I need to shout some sunshine in. I've been crowded upon by too many fast people in wraparound sunglasses and leather pants, each with a crocodile smile and a toothy proposal they assured me would be “mutually beneficial.” It took me long to make them go away.Like Giocondo, I want to build things that will stand the test of time. Businesses for my clients and their families. An academy of higher learning for the world. A true and lasting friendship with you, even though we may never meet except through these brief notes on Monday mornings.Thank you for spending these minutes. My greatest wish is for you to have the strength to lay your hand upon those things Giocondo urged Aldobrandeschi to take.Yours,Roy H. Williams