5:52am
Saint Paul
Oy, what’s the good word?
I’m getting a late start today, and –I know– I missed emailing you on Saturday. No excuses.
On Saturday night we watched the film, Crazy Rich Asians. It was much better than most rom-coms out there. Going into it, the most I knew was about a single scene where some fancy watch was flown around the world for the filming.
Watches. What can I say, Google Now knows what I like.
(Actually it’s pretty bad — I get too many stories about Super Hero shows and movies! I can’t tell GNow often enough that I’m not interested in whatever super hero film of the week)
Anyway, during the Crazy Rich Asians movie, of course my kids wake up and call out for water and all that. While my lovely lady was helping them, I took the opportunity to record a video for you.
5:28am
Saint Paul, MN
I don’t want to be too alarmist here, but your phone has the potential to melt your brain.
If you’re holding it in just the right any-which-way, the visual stimulation can
overwhelm your understanding of reality!
You see, your phone’s visual power hijacks your prefrontal cortex and amygdala. That 200,000 year-old-brain doesn’t stand a chance!
It’s hard to look away when there is more information to be read or watched; more altered photos of a perfect life you’d like to lead; more outrageous headlines to glance at.
(A new study this week says that people who read Facebook news previews —not the full article— believe they’re more informed than they actually are. That doesn’t mean those articles are accurate of reality of course…)
When you’re poking at your phone, your sense of time changes. Minutes or even hours go missing from your day — precious time from your bank of life. And once that… time is gone…
you’ll never get back!
Your understanding of the world changes. You begin to see the hostilities of the semi-anonymous people on the other end of so many interactions. You wonder if everyone is so hostile, and you begin to keep to yourself in a crowded area. Why converse with the people around you if you can stare at your phone?
Stories and news feeds are customized to your interest; echos of your opinion are reflected back at you, re-enforcing your beliefs because, hey, everyone seems to feel this same way!
And the people that feel otherwise…
are wrong!
must be stopped!
don’t have a heart!
don’t believe in science!
Do you know who Alex Jones is?
He’s a right-leaning Texan with his own rant-filled “news show.”
On the show, Jones connects conspiracy dots across time and space from many different sources, painting an
alternate understanding of reality.
It’s all quite entertaining to watch, and his sources are all out there for you to find. I can’t say that he’s correct, but I can’t say that he’s not ever correct either.
But if you were to follow one side of the media, *|FNAME|*, you’re told that Jones is dangerous, or that he doesn’t believe that horrific school shootings happen.
Now, Jones has spoken out to say otherwise, to clarify his position in light of different evidence. He made an appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast last week and his stance on horrific school shootings was one of the first things they discussed.
But for the media to cover that story (or make any corrections to their narrative) would give Jones credibility—
something the media cannot allow!
So the media keeps pushing their profit-driven agenda to divide people,
You willingly stare at the headlines on your phone,
Your brain is fed stories which override critical thought and creativity,
And everyone pays for this very privilege.
Orwell envisioned a future where we’re all being watched by devices that can’t turn off; where the powerful devise a storyline about current events and the people follow along.
Orwell never considered a future where we willingly refuse to turn off our devices, where we willingly carry tracking mechanisms in our pockets, where we willingly fight among ourselves and keep people divided.
And… it’s more profitable than Orwell ever imagined.
Jeffrey
PS. I try to reread Orwell’s 1984 every few years, and it’s been a while. I picked it up recently and it’s incredibly sad how much of current reality it seems to reflect. Check it out if you’re not familiar with the story or if it’s been a while. Find it here on Amazon, and I’m sure your local library has a copy.
If you’re interested to learn more about the divisiveness in the media, check out the movie Hoaxed. It’s all about the profit motive in media and how easy a narrative can be pushed. If you’re resisting this idea, the movie is all the more important.
http://hoaxedmovie.com/
Additionally, this Sunday, right-leaning political maverick Candace Owens has a conversation with the left-leaning leader of Black Lives Matter New York, Hawk Newsome. They’re looking for common ground; I can’t wait. Watch the trailer here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFUKLwzvA-s
Good luck out there.
Today’s episode of the Persuasion Play Podcast features Author, a former professional Heavyweight Boxer, and Master of Mindset Ed Latimore.
Listen as Ed discusses his career in boxing, his methods to grow his Twitter influence to over 65,000 followers, his methods to maintain a positive mindset, and so much more.
5:31am
Saint Paul, MN
I really do like Phil Collins as a solo artist.
(Bring on the hate.) (more…)
6:38am
Saint Paul
Good day dear reader!
Are you snowed in yet?
It’s snowing again here in the midwest. We have the snowiest February on record, and there’s another week ahead of us.
I almost had a day at home with the kids —not really a break at all— and I was hoping to edit the podcast.
Alas, it didn’t pan out that way today. I’ll be in the office today, all good.
While in the office yesterday I got an email:
I have some thoughts on that.
My grandfather was in the printing business. He taught me a few things about fonts typefaces that echo true today.
One thing I’ll always remember is that using all-capital blackletter typefaces (also known as Old English) is a cardinal sin in the printing world:
I most often see this all-caps choice as a sticker on the back window of pickup trucks. It’ll read GONZALEZ or MARTINEZ or something.
The illegible message always makes me think of Grandpa.
Anyway, I’d like to share a few additional thoughts about typefaces that might improve your written persuasion and marketing.
If you’re interested, read on.
The first thing I noticed in yesterday’s email is the difficulty of reading the text, especially at the small font size:
The email uses a serif typeface, which is almost certainly a choice of the author.
Serif typefaces have those little swirls (or hooks, or serifs) at the ends of letters.
The serifs exist to lead your eyes across the letters. They’re meant to improve legibility… on the printed page.
Yes, serif typefaces are designed for printed text, or for larger sized headlines where clarity isn’t as much an issue.
Sans-Serif fonts, however, are designed for computer screens. Like emails and blogs.
Sans-serif means the font has no serifs. In smaller sizes, those lovely serifs muddy the screen. Sans-serifs remove those hooks to improve readability.
Here’s the same message in a sans-serif font:
And here it is again, in a larger size to further improve readability:
Daniel Kahneman wrote in Thinking, Fast and Slow about the brain’s ability to understand a written message.
Kahneman created experiments that had fuzzy letters or low-contrast type, and would measure people’s pupils while they read these texts.
As participants’ mental loads increased, their pupils measurably expand.
(You can test this by looking at your eyes in a mirror and count downward from 200 by sevens, for example. Pretty cool, isn’t it?)
When the brain has to work harder to understand a message, two things happen:
In persuasion and marketing, you often don’t want the message to be seen. Being memorable isn’t necessarily the goal.
(By the way, my current website header intentionally uses difficult-to-read text against that bookcase, to be more memorable. Scroll up and check it out. I’ll still be down here.)
Anyway, you want the message’s intent to have an impact. You want a clear pane of glass to see the possibilities beyond.
In other words, your fuzzy, fancy font…
might be a distraction!
Eugene Schwartz said you want to speak to the gut, to the monkey brain.
You want your message to bypass logic and skepticism, to help the reader feel what’s possible.
Now, if someone reads your message and they’re looking at the design, and not the product on the other side of that message, you’re doing yourself and your market a disservice.
Famed designer Massimo Vignelli suggested that designers limit their typeface choices to some very basic, readable options.
Garamond, Bodini, Century, Futura, Times Roman, and Helvetica were his suggestions.
Many designers might disagree, saying that a typeface helps to brand your company.
If you’re more worried about your brand than about helping your clients, well, I don’t know what to tell you.
Ok back to it.
Jeffrey
Give them some rope!
6:49am
Saint Paul, MN
I’ve been hearing a lot about ecom drop-shipping stores trying to pivot to full, reputable brands.
Part of this is because Fbuck’s advertising algorithm is, apparently, punishing the all-hype ads that drop-shippers are known for.
I came across two ideas recently that play directly into this.
Would you like me to share them with you?
Because even if you’re not a dropshipper, these might apply to you or your business.
(And I’ll wrap with a story of my own dissatisfaction. But first…)
You would? Ok here goes…
One idea comes from Gary Halbert, a well known direct-mail king.
(Oh, by the way, read a review of Halbert’s book The Boron Letters here—
https://www.persuasionreadinglist.com/10-things-youll-learn-in-the-boron-letters-by-gary-c-halbert/ )
Anyway, Halbert suggests (but not in the book) offering a money-back guarantee on your products.
Not for 30 days.
Not for 60 days.
Nope. Halbert suggests a full year, or even many years.
How is this good for your business, you might ask?
Customers want to feel safe in their purchase. The longer your money-back guarantee, the more time they think they have to feel safe…
…and the more time they have to forget to take advantage of your offer!
Give them enough rope to hang themselves, as the saying goes.
The other idea comes from Drayton Bird, an old-school advertising pro from the UK.
Drayton suggests that people want to be a bit sneaky.
They want to get everything for free… to pull the wool over your eyes… think they’re getting away with things.
But they won’t necessarily act on that.
If you let customers think they might have the opportunity to take advantage of you, they’re more likely to buy your product.
And with a good product, and good service, and happy customers… in the long run, they won’t take advantage.
In fact, they might become repeat customers. And you have a reputable brand.
And repeat customers are where the real money lies. It’s harder to make a new customer than it is to sell again to a satisfied customer, after all.
Now, here’s my experience with feeling ripped off with a guarantee.
A few years ago I took an online course to help start my own online business.
The class offered methods to research your market, find a problem, create your own online class to solve that problem, ways to advertise, options for outreach…
I was sold. Who doesn’t want their own business that could grow as fast as I could push it?
I dropped $2,000 dollars from my grandpa’s inheritance to take this 6 week course.
And once I was in, I had access to all of the material for life. Because of course, most new businesses aren’t going to be stackin’ cash after just 6 weeks.
There was, after all, a 30 day money back guarantee — if I could show that I did all the work involved.
To be honest it was comprehensive and quite a good class. I learned a lot, and PRL came out of it — though this isn’t exactly stackin’ cash either.
The problem with the course was— there was no way for me to wrap up this course in the 10 weeks that included that guarantee, much less the 6 weeks the course was “expected” to take.
There were hundreds of hours of video to watch. Work to do. Things to read. Planning and straight up thinking. Plus my day job and family time had demands as well.
The course even says as much, that it might take some time to find a profitable business idea.
In short, the guarantee felt designed to ensure there was no way to get my money back.
I’m not making excuses. It was my choice to purchase the course.
And honestly, I didn’t want my money back. Like I said, I learned a lot and I continue to apply what I had learned.
What irked me — still irks me — and has prevented my from ever buying another course from this person — was the impossibility of that guarantee.
If you want happy customers, repeat buyers:
make your offer as favorable to your customer as you can.
Peace out!
Jeffrey