Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

In the words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”But day after day, week after week, month after month, things that are “merely urgent” keep me from doing what is truly important.What? That’s been happening to you, too?On Tuesday, Vice Chancellor Whittington and I slowed down long enough to have our first real planning session since he accepted the job 2 and 1/2 years ago.But some great strides have been made during that 2 and 1/2 years.Our online learning center – AmericanSmallBusiness.org – is gaining momentum and beginning to raise eyebrows all over the world.Whisk(e)y Sommeliers certified through our Whisk(e)y Marketing School are in high demand and every class is selling out.The campus no longer looks like a work-in-progress. Our diamond-in-the-rough is beginning to sparkle!The House of the Lost Boys (6 rooms) and Bilbo Baggins House (1 room) are in the final stages of preparation and we’re hoping to break ground on one of them before the end of the year.I’ve begun to be overshadowed by some of the other instructors. It’s not uncommon for me to greet a roomful of students only to learn that more than half of them have never heard of me! This is a good thing and important to the long-term health of the school.But this is what made last week’s planning session so important:Harvard University – established in 1636 – is organized into eleven separate academic units.Yale University – founded in 1701 – is organized into fourteen constituent schools.Wizard Academy – established in 2000 – is currently being organized into seven constituent schools.Writing SchoolThis series of classes will include the Magical Worlds Communications Workshop, Advanced Wordsmithing and Brandable Chunks, the Young Writers Workshop, Fiction and Screenwriting Workshop, and How to Write and Sell Non-Fiction.Digital Marketing SchoolThis series of classes will include Direct Response Ad Writing, Buyer Legends, Principles of Online Video, Effective Social Media Strategies, and How to Create Online Education for Customers and EmployeesScience SchoolThis series of classes will align the principles of growing and guiding a business to the universal principles of science and physics. Classes will include DaVinci and the 40 Answers, Portals and the 12 Languages of the Mind, How To Sell Upscale Products and Services, Magic School, Fundraising for Non-Profits, Music and Creativity, The Art Marketing Workshop, Reputation Management, and Branding Highway.Decision SchoolThese courses will deal with the important decisions of life such as marriage, relationships, faith and psychology. (Wizard Academy’s Wedding Chapel Dulcinea is an outward-facing public extension of Decision School.) Courses will include Selling Customers Their Way, How to Lead a Dynamic Team, Public Speaking 101, Conflict Resolution, What to Do With the Rest of Your Life, and Escape the Box.School of FinanceThese classes will deal with the money side of business, including Employee Compensation Strategies, Personal and Business Finance (a.k.a. Budgeting Sucks!) Taxes and Legal Compliance, Diversity of Income, and How to Make Awesome Sauce.Whisk(e)y Marketing SchoolA series of certification courses instructing students in the arts of storytelling and pageantry related to Bourbon Whiskey and Scotch Whisky. Our certified Whiskey Sommeliers are in high demand to perform their own signature Bourbon Run and Tour of Scotland for groups of whisky aficionados around the world.AmericanSmallBusiness.orgTeaches weekly business nuggets through online video and hosts a live, 1-hour webcast including specific answers to questions from students who subscribe.Bottom Line: If you’ve been working too much in your business and not enough on your business, schedule a visit to Wizard Academy. You’ll return home happy and snappy with a clear mind and a bright heart.Wizard Academy is a 501c3 not-for-profit educational organization built as a gift to the world by several hundred appreciative Cognoscenti.Weirdly, Wizard Academy doesn’t advertise. The only way you’ll hear about the Academy is from an alumnus who thinks you belong.And guess what?You do belong.Roy H. Williams

When his classmates at Wizard Academy dared him to do it, Garrison Cox rewrote the opening section of the Declaration of Independence to make it more easily understood. According to Garrison, Thomas Jefferson’s original was written at grade level 19.5. That’s a college education plus 3-and-a-half years of grad school!Garrison wrote his first revision at grade level 10.3 and his second revision at grade level 5.2. You can read all three versions below.Frankly, I was stunned by the impact of Garrison’s playful exercise.That’s why I decided to share it with you and it’s why Pennie and I have given Wizard Academy $6,000 to award to three lucky adventurers bold enough to follow in Garrison’s footsteps.Here’s the deal: The Conversation of the Dogs is a short novella written by Miguel de Cervantes in 1613. Many scholars consider it to be his finest work next to Don Quixote, but I can find only one translation of that story into English and it sounds as high-toned as Thomas Jefferson!Cervantes work is now in the public domain, of course, so we can mess with it all we want and even publish it when we’re done. You can download that lone English version – translated from the Spanish in 1881 by Walter K. Kelley of London – in the rabbit hole. Just click the image of Dog Quixote de La Mancha at the top of this page and the download link will magically appear.The story begins with a young man in a hospital, who, through a window, sees and hears two dogs begin to speak at the stroke of midnight. The dogs, Scipio and Berganza, discuss their experiences with their human masters. Cervantes leaves the reader to determine whether or not the dogs have actually been talking or the bedridden man has imagined it.Are you up for this adventure? By entering, you agree to allow Wizard Academy to distribute your “simplified language version” to all the world. You will receive no royalties, but you will be free to distribute your work in whatever additional ways seem good to you.The goal is to tell the complete story in fewer words using simpler language. Don’t worry about the grade level of your writing. Just make it simple and fun to read and do your best to capture the wit and humor and personality of each of the characters.Send your rewritten Conversation of the Dogs to Daniel@WizardAcademy.org before midnight July 4, 2016.And now here are those 3 versions of the Declaration I told you about.ORIGINAL (GRADE LEVEL 19.5):THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICAWhen in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. – Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.FIRST REWRITE  (GRADE LEVEL 10.3):WHY 13 UNITED STATES ARE BECOMING AN INDEPENDENT NATIONThe American colonies of Great Britain need to declare their independence and become one separate, sovereign nation of 13 United States. So other countries will take us seriously, we explain our reasons for this momentous action below.Some things are just true:All people are created equal.Our Creator gives all people rights that no one can take away, including the right to live, the right to be free, and the right to seek happiness.People create governments to help them pursue these rights, but those governments have power only because their citizens agree to be governed.Natural law entitles citizens whose government tramples their rights to change that government – or even to abolish it. When crafting a new government, they should lay a strong foundation and align powers so as to ensure their safety and happiness.That said, people should not change longstanding governments for trivial reasons. Historically, people have been more likely to suffer as long as they can than to set things straight by throwing off their current government. But Great Britain’s king has become increasingly despotic by consistently abusing us and usurping power at every turn. (We set out 27 egregious examples below.) At this point, we not only can but must declare our independence and provide new ways to protect our security.SECOND REWRITE (GRADE LEVEL 5.2):IT’S NOT US. IT’S YOU.We 13 American colonies are so done with Great Britain. You know why?Here’s the deal:We are people. We are created equal.We have rights no one can take away, including the right to live, the right to be free, and the right to seek happiness.Governments are supposed to help their people pursue these rights. But governments have power only because their people agree to be governed.People whose government tramples their rights are entitled to change that government – or even to walk away from it. When creating a new government, they should make sure it is on a strong foundation and that its powers ensure their safety and happiness.We get it – people should not change their governments just because. Over history, people have been willing to suffer a lot rather than trashing their current government. But, come on! Great Britain’s king has become a dictator. He abuses us and takes our power whenever he can. (We’re just getting warmed up. We set out 27 specific complaints below.) At this point, we have no choice. We simply have to declare our independence and start over.Remember, if you decide to enter, you have until midnight, July 4, 2016 to submit your revision of The Conversation of the Dogs to Daniel@WizardAcademy.orgHappy writing!Roy H. Williamsand Indy Beagle

A developer is someone who wants to build a house in the woods. An environmentalist is someone who already has a house in the woods.”– Dennis MillerWe think everyone else sees what we see. How could they not?And we think everyone would believe what we believe if only we could explain it clearly.But this is almost never true.Two people stand shoulder-to-shoulder observing a scene.One person sees pain and injustice and despair.The other sees opportunity and purpose and adventure.The first person sees the second as an impractical dreamer.The second sees the first as a complaining pessimist.Every person has a schema, a belief system about how the world works. Your schema is the lens through which you see and feel the world around you. It dictates your perceptual reality. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying your schema changes the facts. It just changes how you interpret them.Twice a week for the past several weeks, Ray Bard has been sending out clusters of about 20 quotes to more than 1,000 quote judges so that we might help him score their impact. Last week, Ray told us something every ad writer knows.There’s always some surprises about which quotes score the highest. But there’s one thing that doesn’t surprise me anymore. It’s the range of opinions. For example, in the last Collection someone said: ‘Seems like you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for quotes,’ and the very next person commenting said: ‘So many great quotes. All winners for me.’”If your message has the power to move people, you can be certain that it won’t move everyone in the hoped-for direction. If you’re not prepared to smile your way through negative backlash from well-meaning friends, employees and associates, you’re never going to craft a message that will pierce the clutter of this over-communicated world.Ninety percent of all the books published each year are non-fiction. But the fiction books – the 10 percent – comprise 90 percent of all book sales. In the words of Tom Robbins, “People write memoirs because they lack the imagination to make things up.”Fictional characters in movies, novels and TV shows seem real even when we know they are not. We know fiction to be untrue, yet we treat it for a time as if it were true. We are simultaneously naïve, believing what we are told, and savvy, aware of the deception.Seven weeks ago I told you about a persuasion researcher, Maria Konnikova, whose work is being funded by two universities, Harvard and Columbia. Maria says the more a story transports us into its world, the more likely we are to believe it. The sweep of a story overcomes the facts of logic. When we are entertained by a story, we are likely to agree with the beliefs the story implies.In short: a story can reshape your schema.It is no accident that Jesus taught in parables.Most of us enjoy being pulled into a story. But some people have no taste for fiction or whimsy or wit.What you’re about to read is real and it happens all the time. My friend Jerry received this voicemail just last week:I am embarrassed for you because of your turning your business over to such a young person that has such a voice that I have to turn off the commercial. I have to go to my radio and turn it off. It hurts my ears. And the commercials are just childish. They are not professional. No, they are not professional. I would not use your company for anything. I am regretful I have used you forever. I told the world to use you. I’ve gotten you a million customers. I’m embarrassed and ashamed. And I’m sorry I have to make this phone call.”Would you like to know what triggered such heartfelt concern?[SFX – crickets, trucks driving past]ANNCR: Two people wait for the telephone to ring in an Allbritten Heating and Air Conditioning truck.JERRY: Uhhhh, Andrea?ANDREA: Yes Dad?JERRY: I know I’ve been encouraging you to start making bigger, owner-type decisions for Allbritten….ANDREA: Yep, and I’m rockin’ it, Dad.JERRY: [doubtful] Yes… well this new company slogan…ANDREA: Isn’t it great! “Our customers come first!”JERRY: Well, yes, but it’s a little bit misleading.ANDREA: What!JERRY: You’ve got to have happy employees before you can have happy customers.ANDREA: I know. But it doesn’t make a very good slogan to say, “Allbritten, where customers come second,” or “Allbritten, where customers are number Two.”JERRY: Keep thinking. You’re a smart girl.ANDREA: Care to give me some hints?JERRY: Nope.ANDREA: Pleeease?JERRY: Nope.ANDREA: [SFX – telephone ring and answer]Thanks for calling Allbritten, where happy employees make happy customers.JERRY: By golly, I think she’s got it.DEVIN: Allbritten Heating and Air Conditioning.ANDREA: Two nine twoJERRY: Forty-nine nineteenThis successful and light-hearted campaign lets you get to know the owners of the company through a series of comic, coming-of-age conversations. At a recent Home and Garden Show, Jerry and Andrea were the accidental main attraction as word spread throughout the convention center that they were personally in attendance. Countless people came by, quoted their ads and asked if they could have a photo made with them. “Is Andrea really your daughter?” “Yes.” “And she’s really taking over the company?” “Yes.”The conversations in the ads are fictional but the people are real.And they had an extremely, very good year.Roy H. Williams

The Internet rose to its full height in 2005 and cast a bright shadow across the land. It became our newspaper, our telephone book, our encyclopedia and our primary mailbox.Whole categories of advertising where swept away by that tsunami.Radio suffered the least damage of all the major media. She has proven to be far more durable than I had suspected.In their recent study of annual trends, Audience Insights reported some interesting findings. President Jeff Vidler summarized,We see absolutely no change in broadcast radio’s share of in-car tuning in the past 5 years. AM/FM radio is still dominant in-car, representing 66.2 percent of in-car listening. The growth of alternatives such as satellite radio and streaming audio appear to be coming at the expense of personal music (iPods, CDs and other libraries,) not broadcast radio.”Prior to that report I had no data beyond my own observation, but I knew that radio is continuing to reward its regular advertisers with a robust and hearty return-on-investment.And now I will tell you a story.Once upon a time, no one could own shares in more than 12 TV stations, 12 FM radio stations and 12 AM radio stations. We called this “the 12/12/12 rule.”We didn’t want anyone to be able to control the news.But this good law went “poof” in 1996 and consolidators immediately began gathering up radio stations by the armful. Big-business efficiencies were brought in to what had previously been a Mom’n’Pop category. Profits soared and Wall Street said, “Let’s do this thing. She looks doable, doesn’t she?”Corporate Radio was born with a full set of teeth but it had no reflection in the mirror.Investors have their own way of looking at the world. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but you can always be certain you’re talking to The Money when they do something that hurts like hell and then tell you, “It’s just business.”But Radio has never been “just business.” Radio is music and laughter and opinions and news and discussions and interviews with interesting people. Only a few minutes per hour are “just business,” and when a radio station is run correctly, even those few minutes can be entertaining and valuable and informative.Investors are a funny breed. They work themselves into a frenzy and then suddenly lose all interest.CBS announced in March that they plan to sell or spin off their radio assets this year. The goal, according to Les Moonves, is to “unlock value for our shareholders.” He indicated that radio has become “slow-growth” and “a drain on resources” that can be better directed to content production and digital endeavors.Cumulus pushed out founder Lew Dickey as CEO last autumn but that management shakeup didn’t stop the stock slide. Cumulus shares lost 80 percent of their value in 2015. The Washington Post recently quoted one debt-holder as saying, “The most logical thing is to break it up and sell it.”And now investors in iHeart (previously known as Clear Channel) are saying the same thing. Add it up and you’ll see that we’re talking about more than 1,400 radio stations possibly hitting the market all at once.Radio stations have lost their appeal to investors.But they haven’t lost their effectiveness for advertisers.In 2001, America Online was worth $226 billion. In 2015, Verizon bought AOL for just $4.4 billion. Somewhere along the way, it lost 98 percent of its value.In July of 2005, News Corporation, the parent company of FOX Broadcasting, bought Myspace for $580 million. In 2011 they sold it for $35 million, recovering just 6 cents on the dollar. It lost 94 percent of its value in just 6 years.I have no idea how much money these 1,400 radio stations will bring or even if all of them will be sold. I’m not pretending to be able to predict those numbers. But I definitely smell an opportunity for innovative local ownership of radio stations again.Do you smell it?It smells like springtime.This is good news for listeners,good news for business owners,good news for communities,good news for America.Roy H. Williams

Do what people expect you to do, say what they expect you to say, and you will quickly lose their attention.Nothing new… nothing surprising… nothing different. This is the essence of boredom. And it’s exactly what most advertisers put in their ads.And then there is a second group of advertisers who insert a series of “Once-in-a-lifetime! Don’t miss this event! One-week-only!” exclamation points in their ads in an attempt to make them exciting.But a third group – the adjective-addicted – are the most painful ad writers of all. They take the longest to say the least. Adjectives, adverbs and exclamation points are crutches used by writers unable to craft a sentence that can stand alone.So far, I’ve told you 3 things not to do:1. Don’t be predictable.2. Don’t yell.3. Don’t use too many words.To gain and hold attention, you must introduce an enigma, write a riddle, make a mystery, pose a puzzle.John Wheeler was a theoretical physicist who understood the hungry mind of mankind.If you haven’t found something strange during the day, it hasn’t been much of a day.”Isaac Asimov made a similar observation.The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but ‘That’s funny…'”We ignore the predictable but notice the anomaly. Gaps, disturbances and incongruities elevate our attention.But when an advertiser pays for an ad, they incorrectly assume the public will be paying attention. And in the fog of that happy delusion, they think all they need to do is say, “Isn’t my product great!”And now you know why most ads deliver poor results.I’ve been hired by someone in a boring business category to get the attention of the locals in Las Vegas.That’s right. Las Vegas.The first thing I’m going to do is put up billboards that make no sense. These billboards will show no product and contain no telephone number or website. There will be only a smiling face and six inexplicable letters of the alphabet. People will think, “That’s absolutely the worst advertising I’ve ever seen.”Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right?The key will be the radio ads. Fully one-third of the population of Las Vegas will hear them. And then the billboards will make perfect sense.The one third I reach will be happy to solve the mystery for the two-thirds that didn’t hear the radio ads. (Trust me, my one-third knows the other two-thirds.)These are the Two Big Dangers:1: The answer to the riddle of the 6 letters has to be such an interesting story that people will be happy to share it. This final piece of the puzzle must make a satisfying “click” as it snaps into place so that it triggers a tiny orgasm of delight. This is not an easy thing to do.2: Critical mass: the radio ads have to reach a large enough group of people often enough that the message will be shared with the rest of the city. If we fall short in this, all is lost and I am an idiot.Private Note to Writers: Ads that say, “Isn’t this product great!” are the safest ones to write. Advertisers always love them and when they don’t work, all you have to say is, “We’ve been reaching the wrong people” or “We’ve been using the wrong media” or “We’ve got to do something about those negative online reviews.” Advertisers never blame the ad when it says, “Isn’t my product great!” So that’s the kind of ad you must write if you want to play it safe.But if you want to run with the big dogs, if you want to have an adventure, if you’re tired of looking down at your shoes and blame-shifting, I’ll see you in Las Vegas.Roy H. Williams

Let us supposethat this everyday worldwere at some one pointinvaded by the marvelous.1According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, such an event“requires a distinctive mode of organization—what sociologists call an art world. In art worlds, artists (musicians, filmmakers, writers, designers, cartoonists, and so on) gather in inspired collaborations: They work together, learn from one another, play off ideas, and push one another. The collective efforts of participants in these ‘scenes’ often generate major creative breakthroughs… the mass-culture industries (film, television, print media, fashion) thrived by pilfering and repurposing their innovations.” 2Today we’re going to look at three different art worlds and then I’m going to suggest that you create your own.Art World One: Although the works of the individuals that composed The Bloomsbury Group (1905 – 1937) profoundly influenced literature, economics and aesthetics in western society and altered modern attitudes towards feminism, pacifism, and sexuality, this highly diverse group had no real agenda other than enjoying one another’s company. The group had ten core members and twenty occasionals. A few of the more well-known core members were Virginia Woolf, a fiction writer, Lytton Strachey, a biographer, John Maynard Keynes, the economist, and Vanessa Bell, a post-impressionist painter.The Bloomsbury Group was an art world, not a mastermind group.A mastermind group is focused on finding business solutions.An art world exists only to enjoy one another’s company.Art World Two: “Oh God, no more Elves!” Hugo Dyson groans in agony, lolling on the couch. J.R.R. “Tollers” Tolkien is about read from his work-in-progress, The Lord of the Rings. “It’s bad enough listening to Lewis read about Narnia!” Hugo Dyson prefers the works of Shakespeare and in the early 1960s hosted some televised lectures and plays about him. Dyson’s relaxed, easy style won him accolades around the world. The Inklings were a group of ten interesting people who met at The Eagle and Child pub from 1932 to 1949. In the end, each of the ten left their mark on the world, high and bright.The Inklings didn’t get together because they were important.They became important because they got together.Art World Three: It all began when Lauren Bacall looked at a group of friends sitting around her living room and said, “You look like a goddam Rat Pack.” Did you know that Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop weren’t in the original Rat Pack? The first Pack was a group who got together each week in the home of Lauren Bacall and her husband, Humphrey Bogart. The Rat Pack included Bogart and Bacall, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, David Niven, Spencer Tracy, Cary Grant, Rex Harrison, Sid Luft and Swifty Lazar. Visiting members included Errol Flynn, Nat King Cole, Mickey Rooney, Jerry Lewis and Cesar Romero. The group broke up when Bogart died in 1957. Shortly thereafter, Sinatra began his famous “Rat Pack 2.0”The Rat Pack was an art world.They got together only because they enjoyed being together.They did not expect an outcome or a result.You cannot participate in an art world if you have an agenda.You’ve got to be a Worthless Bastard.Q: Why are you calling obviously successful people Worthless Bastards?A: Because the conversations of an art world must never revolve around problem solving or the creation of value or “worth.”Q: Why is it important that the group NOT try to create value?A: The key that unlocks an art world is play. Perfectly relaxed, undiluted play unleashes the creative powers of the mind. You don’t experience the life-changing benefits of an art world during your get-together, but because you got together.Q: Is this idea of “creating no value” really essential to an art world?A: Play is all too often a form of work disguised as recreation. If you have a goal – if you’re trying to win – if you’re keeping score – if there is an objective – you are still “at work” and will see only the benefits associated with that form of exertion. Work – no matter how happy or pleasant – does not unleash the restorative power of play.If you attend an art world for purposes of “networking” in the hope of building your business, you will be perceived as the ass at the dinner party who is trying to sell everyone life insurance.Leave your business cards at home.Leave your plans and goals and objectives at home.Bring only your curiosity and a desire to unwind.Play routinely stumbles upon serendipity.Play makes everything interesting.Play is the way to seize the day.Are you capable of being worthless?Would you like to start an art world, a weekly meeting of Worthless Bastards in your town?Just visit worthlessbastards.orgAnd welcome aboard.Roy H. Williams(and Indy Beagle!)

YOUNG ONE: “Master, does success go to the clever one, or to the lucky one?”MERLYN: “Success is sometimes discovered by the clever one, and occasionally by the lucky one, but it is most often laid hold of by the determined one.”YOUNG ONE: “Will you teach me to be determined?”MERLYN: “Determination is dangerous… relentless… remorseless… and inescapable. It returns to its master with treasure between its teeth.”YOUNG ONE: “Is Determination a dog? Shall I summon it with a whistle?”MERLYN: “The whistle is a four-note tune that comes at a high price.”YOUNG ONE: “Teach me the notes. I will pay.”MERLYN: “Everyone wants to be a beast, until it’s time to do what real beasts do.”YOUNG ONE: “Teach me the notes.”MERLYN: “As you wish.”This is what the old wizard taught me:NOTE ONE: Count the cost.MERLYN: “Consider everything that might go wrong. Is your goal worth enough that you would endure all this discomfort and pain? If the answer is yes, then make peace with those possibilities and you will be bulletproof. No matter what happens, you will not panic. You will have already been there in your mind.”NOTE TWO: Throw your cap over the wall.MERLYN: “A group of boys walk a pathway next to a high stone wall that surrounds the estate of a nobleman. The older boys challenge each other to climb the wall, but none of them can do it. The youngest boy then takes off his cap and tosses it over the wall. Confused, the other boys watch as he quickly climbs the wall. Upon his return, he looks at them and says, ‘I was not going home without that cap.'”NOTE THREE: Employ Exponential Little Bits.MERLYN: “Ask yourself at every meal, ‘What difference have I made today?’ Do not let your head touch your pillow until you have taken an action that moves you a Little Bit closer to your goal, no matter how tiny that action might be. Exponential Little Bits are relentless activities that compound to make a miracle. When daily progress meets with progress, it doesn’t add, it multiplies.”NOTE FOUR: Be an observer, a simple witness to what happens.MERLYN: “You are responsible for your actions, not for the outcome. To be effective, you must be objective. Become a tool in the hand of the goal itself. Eliminate your ego. Do not seek recognition. It isn’t about you. It’s about the thing you’re doing. Are you willing to pay this price? Can you whistle the notes that summon the dog?”YOUNG ONE: “You said the dog returns to its master with treasure between its teeth.”MERLYN: “Yes.”YOUNG ONE: “I see blood on that treasure.”MERLYN: “Yes.”YOUNG ONE: “And the blood is my own.”MERLYN: “You are ready to whistle the notes.”Roy H. Williams

Wizard Academy is now 16 years old.If we could find her birth certificate, we’d take her down to the DMV to get her driver’s license and then she could sport about town in Rocinante (above,) the only vehicle she owns.They grow up so fast.When Wizard Academy is 30, I’ll be 72. At least I hope I’ll be 72. Not everyone who attempts to hike to that mile marker gets there.Will you help us take the impossible dream of Wizard Academy forward into the future?Wizard Academy was launched by accident and grew through the addition of self-selected insiders, as did the Tuesday Group of Stéphane Mallarmé (1880 – 1897,) the Algonquin Round Table of midtown Manhattan (1919 – 1927,) and the artistic salon of Gertrude Stein (1913 – 1939.)The difference between our Academy and theirs is that:1. our group became an official 501c3 educational organization and built a permanent campus, and2. we are not artists who love business, but business people who love art: music and paintings and sculpture and photography and movies and literature and whatever you like that we didn’t mention.“When bankers get together for dinner, they discuss Art. When artists get together for dinner, they discuss Money.” – Oscar Wilde, of the Tuesday GroupWizard Academy is here to stay. And if you’re reading this, I’m fairly certain you belong here. You will be amazed, energized, entertained and encouraged by the people you meet. You will gain insights that make you profoundly more successful.The Tuesday Group (Les Mardistes) of Stéphane Mallarmé included writers like André Gide, Paul Valéry, Oscar Wilde, Paul Verlaine, Rainer Maria Rilke and W.B. Yeats, along with painters like Renoir, Monet, Degas, Redon, and Whistler. Also to be found among them was the quintessential sculptor, Rodin. Everyone who knew about the Tuesday Group, came.The Algonquin Round Table was a self-selected group of writers, editors, actors, and publicists – about 30 in all – that met for lunch on a regular basis at the Algonquin Hotel a block from Times Square. There hasn’t been another group quite like them in American popular culture or entertainment until now. Just visit the Toad and Ostrich pub in the tower at Wizard Academy any Friday afternoon at 4.The gatherings in the Stein home on Saturday evenings brought together confluences of talent and thinking that would help define modernism in literature and art. According to Gertrude Stein, the gatherings began by accident when,“more and more frequently, people began visiting to see the Matisse paintings—and the Cézannes. Matisse brought people, everybody brought somebody, and they came at any time and it began to be a nuisance, and it was in this way that Saturday evenings began.” (Interestingly, that’s also why Pennie Williams launched Wizard Academy.)Self-selected insiders included Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Braque, Thornton Wilder, Sherwood Anderson, Francis Cyril Rose, René Crevel, Élisabeth de Gramont, Francis Picabia, Claribel Cone, Mildred Aldrich and Carl Van Vechten.A visit to Wizard Academy is like a wonderful vacation in a foreign country. Few people come here only once.Did you know that you have a vacation home high on a plateau in central Texas where rabbits and deer wander the campus, wine flows freely and wedding bells ring 3 times a day?Come. Let your eyes be opened to answers that have been staring you in the face.Roy H. Williams

Standing in the corner of a dark theater, Joe listens as melancholy, majestic music rises from the orchestra pit to soar high above the spotlights.Joe has been hired to write lyrics for a musical play about Don Quixote. The first lyricist – the famous poet W.H. Auden – has been fired because his lyrics were downbeat, defeated and bitter. Joe Darion is his replacement, alone and unqualified, a nobody standing in the darkness with his back against the wall.“This music cries out for lyrics that speak of a yearning so deep that a man might rise above himself!” Joe stares into the darkness beyond the spotlights hoping to catch a glimpse of those lyrics.The music continues, as wistful and sweet as the hope for a better tomorrow.Joe closes his eyes and sees stars where the spotlights had been. His eyes are wet. “And to think the composer was a Madison Avenue jingle writer whose only claim to fame was the television ditty, ‘Nobody Doesn’t Like Sara Lee.’ The man has risen above himself.”“The playwright has risen above himself, too. But he stood on the shoulders of a giant.”Joe recognizes the play as a clever reframing of the work of John Steinbeck who won the Nobel Prize in Literature two years ago and is now in failing health. “Certainly Wasserman will acknowledge his debt to Steinbeck.”“Certainly he will.”Twelve years ago Steinbeck spoke of his admiration for Miguel de Cervantes – the author of Don Quixote – in his prologue to East of Eden, a retelling of the biblical story of Cain and Abel. But in Steinbeck’s tale the boys weren’t the sons of Eve in the garden of Eden. They were twin sons of a reluctant prostitute.Nine years ago Steinbeck’s musical play, Pipe Dream, set a new record for advance ticket sales on Broadway. Steinbeck sent inscribed copies of Don Quixote to the play’s producers with notes explaining it was “required reading” for the project. And Steinbeck’s would-be Dulcinea, Suzy, was once again a reluctant prostitute.Seven years ago Steinbeck began a novel called Don Keehan, the Marshall of Manchon, whose Quixote was a California farmer who had watched one-too-many westerns on television. And again his Dulcinea, Sugar Mae, was a reluctant prostitute.“In the original version of Don Quixote, Dulcinea is a village girl with nothing special about her. Quixote sees her only from a distance. They never meet. And she is not a prostitute.”So Wasserman’s portrayal of Dulcinea as a reluctant prostitute can’t have been inspired by the original story of 1605.It was obviously inspired by Steinbeck.“Certainly Wasserman will acknowledge him. Certainly.”This musical, Man of La Mancha, is a revision of the non-musical play Wasserman wrote 2 years after John Steinbeck had written his third Quixote-inspired story featuring an inexplicable, reluctant prostitute. That first, non-musical play of Wasserman’s was called, I, Don Quixote. Joe has a copy in his back pocket.Joe wipes his cheek, “But none of this helps me solve my problem.”“Steinbeck rocked the world with East of Eden, a story that echoed the Bible. Hemingway rocked the world with The Old Man and the Sea, a story that echoed the crucifixion of Christ.” Joe would like to rock the world, too. He pulls his dog-eared script of Wasserman’s first play from his back pocket and angles it to the light.“Somewhere in here is a scene where Quixote talks about God and Dulcinea.”He finds it.DR. CARRASCO: There are no giants. No kings under enchantment. No castles. No chivalry. No knights. There have been no knights for three hundred years.DON QUIXOTE (indifferently): So say you.DR. CARRASCO: These are facts.DON QUIXOTE: Facts are the enemy of truth!DR. CARRASCO: Would you deny reality?DON QUIXOTE (coolly): Which… mine or yours?DR. CARRASCO: There is only one!DON QUIXOTE (smiles calmly): I think reality is in the eye of the beholder. (DR. CARRASCO opens his mouth to answer but Quixote interrupts:) No, my friend , it is useless to argue. Give me my way and let the devil take those who have no more use for imagination than a rooster for his wings. (DR. CARRASCO turns away, angry.)PADRE (fascinated): Why do you do this?DON QUIXOTE: In the service of God…and my lady.PADRE: I have some knowledge of God… but this other?DON QUIXOTE: My lady Dulcinea.DR. CARRASCO (pouncing): So there’s a woman!DON QUIXOTE: A lady! (Softening.) Her beauty is more than human. Her quality? Perfection. She is the very meaning of woman…and all meaning woman has to man.PADRE (with a sad smile): To each his Dulcinea.DR. CARRASCO (studies Quixote a moment, then in a businesslike tone): Come, Padre. It’s a long way home.PADRE (hesitates a moment): Go with God. (Follows DR. CARRASCO, pauses to look back.) There is either the wisest madman or the maddest wise man in the world.“The maddest wise man… The maddest wise man… The maddest wise man…”Ever looking upward, the wise men followed a star far beyond the borders of their country into realms beyond imagination.Joe looks once more into the darkness above the spotlights, hoping to see the lyrics hiding in the darkness of that music. He closes his eyes and hears Quixote in his mind.“This is my Quest; to follow that star,No matter how hopeless, no matter how far,To fight for the rightWithout question or pause,To be willing to march into hellFor a heavenly cause!”“And I know, if I’ll only be trueTo this glorious Quest,That my heart will lie peaceful and calmWhen I’m laid to my rest.”“And the world will be better for this,That one man, scorned and covered with scars,Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,To reach the unreachable stars!”Man of La Mancha ran for a total of 2,328 performances and won five Tony Awards. Joe won the Tony for Best Lyricist, the jingle writer won for Best Composer and Man of La Mancha won for Best Musical.Joe’s song, commonly known as The Impossible Dream, has been recorded by more than 80 major recording artists and is one of the most beloved songs in the Great American Songbook.Sometimes it pays to lift your eyes upward.Roy H. Williams

Facts are stacked like bricks to become a tower. Do you see it?But a story is a wave that takes you on a journey and leaves the memory of the tower far behind.Facts are solid.Stories are seductive.You will find the facts in the paragraphs below.You will find the stories in the rabbit hole.A Harvard graduate, Maria Konnikova received her Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia. She is the recipient of the 2015 Harvard Medical School Media Fellowship and is a Schachter Writing Fellow at Columbia University’s Motivation Science Center.Let me put it a little more “Texan.”Harvard Medical School believes in Maria enough to give her money.The Motivation Science Center believes in her enough to give her money.These big-league institutions are helping to fund her research.Conclusion: Maria Konnikova is neither a poser nor a lightweight.In her new book, The Confidence Game, Maria explains how cognitive scientists are proving that stories are the most effective way to get people to change their minds.Eric Barker of Wired magazine was impressed with Maria’s book and followed it up with an interview. He talks about it in his blog, Barking Up the Wrong Tree. “When people tell us stories we tend to let our guard down. We don’t think we’re being ‘sold’ something, so we tend to go along for the ride. We quietly lose motivation to detect lies.”“When psychologists Melanie Green and Timothy Brock decided to test the persuasive power of narrative, they found that the more a story transported us into its world, the more we were likely to believe it… The more engrossed a reader was in the story, the fewer false notes she noticed. The sweep of the narrative trumped the facts of logic. What’s more, the most engaged readers were also more likely to agree with the beliefs the story implied.”– Maria Konnokova, The Confidence GameEric Barker’s additional research included the following nuggets,“Nothing beats a story when it comes to convincing you of something…”“Our brains are wired to respond to stories…”“Paul Zak, the director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, has found repeatedly that nothing changes our emotions and behavior like the flow of a good story…”“Keith Quesenberry at Johns Hopkins studied more than 100 Super Bowl ads to determine what the most effective ones had in common. The answer? They told a story.”Will you give me a couple of extra minutes today if I promise to teach you something valuable?I want to help you understand what is – and is not – a story.I want to help you attract more customers.I’d like you to compare this week’s MondayMorningMemo – the one you’re reading now – to last week’s memo, Herbert and the Bullfight.Herbert and the Bullfight tells a story.This week’s memo does not.This week’s memo uses simile, “Facts are stacked like bricks…” and metaphor, “a story is a wave…” to make statements of fact more colorful.But it takes more than color to tell a story.You met several characters in this memo – Maria Konnokova, Eric Barker, Melanie Green, Timothy Brock, Paul Zak and Keith Quesenberry – but none of those characters took you on a journey. You never felt what they were feeling or saw the world through their eyes. You never identified with any of them.Nothing happens to them, so they remain unchanged.A story…1. has a character2. with whom you identify3. and a pivotal moment. (The best stories have a series of them.)4. As a result of these moments, the character – and you – are both changed.Good advertising is relevant. This means the customer relates to it and feels connected.Good advertising is credible. This means it agrees with the customer’s beliefs.Facts are presented by salespeople in the hope of changing a customer’s beliefs. They’re hoping the customer will make a new decision based on this new information. And this method often works. But only after you have convinced the customer to give you their time.To win the customers time, you must offer them entertainment.Well-told stories are entertaining.The salesperson who wins the customer’s timeis the one most likely to win their money.Have you been bludgeoning your customers with facts and data?Try stroking them softly with stories.Storytelling is a sport that requires training and practice.It is an art that requires boldness and restraint.Are you ready to learn it?Roy H. Williams