I didn’t learn how to sell and market by reading copy books.
Or handwriting sales letters.
Or analyzing winning copy.
All that was great and would come later.
I first learned how to sell and market by taking an English literature class with a professor who I thought (at the time) was a complete asshole.
In what way, you ask?
Well… in many ways haha (on an unrelated note, the prof looked absolutely identical to Albert Einstein lol), but on day one of the class I remember him looking at everyone and saying:
“This is going to be the hardest class you’ve ever taken. Attendance is mandatory. If you miss even a single class without a valid reason, then you fail the entirety of the course.”
“Fuck.” I thought in response. “This isn’t very Albert Einstein of you.” (The real Einstein loved to skip classes).
Here I was used to skipping half of my morning classes… but now … I had to make it to class 3x a week at 8 am… so I did what I would always do when hit with such a predicament…
I checked to see if I could drop the class lmao.
Turns out, I couldn’t. Deadline had passed. Not only that, but I needed to take this class in order to take another class next semester.
So I was not only stuck with it, but I needed to pass it.
Double whammy.
But whatever right – it’s just a class. Cannot be that bad.
So I gritted my teeth and decided to go through with it in my way which often meant partying the night before and showing up to the 8 am class half asleep and half buzzed (oops).
By doing so: The class was somewhat bearable because I was pretty much checked out for half of it.
But then it came time for the term paper…
The term paper wasn’t like your normal term paper.
It was one paper that was going to make up the bulk of your grade.
Not only that, but it followed a strict process:
You had to first come up with a thesis (aka big idea/argument) for the paper, get it approved by the professor, and only then could you write the term paper.
If you never passed the initial approval process for the thesis (which happened often with this hard nose professor), you’d just flunk the class as a whole. And never even get to write the term paper.
“This is annoying.” I thought.
But whatever, right? Cannot be that bad.
So I gritted my teeth and got started with the term paper.
The topic of the paper?
The book ‘1984’ by George Orwell (the theme for the entire semester was ‘dystopian’ novels – talk about depressing).
So I got to writing. And cooked up a half baked thesis aka BIG IDEA for the paper and emailed it to him.
His response?
“This sucks. Try again.”
“Ok.” I thought in response.
And wrote another thesis (much better than before). And sent it.
Only to get the same response.
Then I sent another thesis.
And didn’t get the same response.
But a worse one:
“I don’t want to waste my time reading a paper written on x topic. It’s boring and has already been written a million times before. Waste of my time. Come see me after class.”
I remember reading that and thinking:
“Dudeeeee I don’t even want to come to class. Now I have to come see you after class? Fuck. I should’ve just dropped the class and taken the fine and called it a day when I had the chance.”
But now I can’t. I have to see him after class.
So I did.
Only to be put through 60 minutes of English literature hell and arrive at the end with a list of ideas that still weren’t approved because they were:
Too boring
Too safe
Too vanilla
Too outdated
Too forgetful
Too worn out
Too repetitive
Too dull
Too similar to others
Too whatever
As a result:
I had to see him after class. Again.
Only to be put through the same process with the same result.
This meant…
I had to see him after class. Again.
Only to be put through the same process with the same result.
This continued for weeks on end.
By now the due date for the term paper is fast approaching and the majority of the class already has their thesis approved and the keeners are already done with their term paper and cruising through the class.
Meanwhile?
I can’t even crack the thesis lol.
So you can imagine how frustrated, annoyed and pissed off I was.
No longer did I give two Fs about 1984.
No longer did I give two Fs about the term paper.
No longer did I give two Fs about passing the class.
I had pretty much accepted my fate of flunking the class (there was only like a week left until the paper was due), but at the same time I wanted to crack open this stubborn professor’s mind and beat him by coming up with a thesis that lit his brain on fire.
So I remember sitting there after class one day, brainstorming ideas for the paper.
But this time instead of focusing on the book or focusing on stealing thesis ideas from Google or focusing on trying to play it safe.
I devoted my entire attention to the professor and thought:
“What thesis aka big idea can I come up with for the paper that will completely mind fuck this guy and be totally different from all the other ideas he’s read to date?”
And as soon as I posed that question to my brain, an idea pierced through and I scribbled it down onto paper without thinking.
Then I walked to his desk and showed him.
His response was physical before it was verbal.
Meaning his pupils expanded in size and his face cracked a smile while his mouth uttered the words:
“This is it. This is it. This is it. I can’t wait to read this paper.”
With those words in mind, I was officially dismissed from having to see him after class (finally) and left his office feeling on cloud 9.
What was the thesis aka big idea aka argument I came up with, you ask?
Well if you’re familiar with the book 1984 you know that the main character Winston Smith is in direct opposition to ‘big brother’ all throughout the book and actively tries to resist the force and fight back.
But my thesis was to prove how all the above was complete bullshit and Winston Smith was actually a double agent and secretly loved big brother and everything he did was to advance its agenda.
Simple, right?
Bold, right?
Memorable, right?
Unique, right?
Such is what makes a big idea, a big idea.
Once you hear it, it burns a hole in your brain and makes you wonder:
“Could this actually be true?!”
(On a side note, this experience also planted the seeds of my marketing philosophy: “When everyone is doing x, do y.”)
So with that in mind, I left the office and for the next few days I felt high as a kite.
Just seeing the reaction of the professor to the idea and the way it made me feel made me think I truly had something (similarly enough years later this same feeling would always come up prior to my biggest business wins. I would come up with ideas and angles in a similar fashion and only when I felt the above feelings would my spidey senses start tingling and make me think the promo/biz was a success before I even went to market).
And I was going to ace this paper.
But unbeknownst to me, I was about to learn another hard lesson that would go on to help me later on in my marketing career.
What was the lesson?
Well after I came up with the idea and started the process of writing… I needed to find supporting evidence aka ‘proof’ inside the book that actually supported the thesis and proved my argument.
So I flipped through the pages and couldn’t find anything.
The idea was too out of left field and there was no proof inside the book that gave it validity. But I wasn’t going to go back to the drawing board now.
So I did what anybody would do. I read between the lines and “interpreted” the words of Winston in a way that supported my idea.
Then I submitted the paper and called it a day.
Expecting an A+ or an A or an A- worst case.
But the result?
C+ with the following comment: “Promising idea, not enough believable evidence. Disappointing.”
I remember doing a double take and thinking:
“Maaaaaaaan F this guy.”
But ego aside, it was good feedback. And helped me later on in my marketing career because I realized:
A simple, bold, memorable, and unique big idea is important as it peaks curiosity and gets a foot in the door, but it’s ultimately the proof element that does the heavy lifting and generates the desired result.
A big idea with little proof is clickbait and disappointing.
A big idea with proof is where it’s at.
So with that lesson in mind, I shifted my business strategy from creating juicy big ideas for products AND THEN trying to find proof to support it… to… finding products that already had proof built in and then coming up with a big idea that would draw maximum attention to it.
This, in return, made marketing infinitely easier and led to insanely easier/faster/better results.
–
So that’s the story of how I first learned how to sell and market.
Ever since then and to this day, whenever I come up with angles and big ideas for lower levels of awareness… I try to elicit the same response in my target customer as I did with the professor.
In short, I know he’s read dozens of ‘papers’ aka sales letters with all types of ideas, so I evaluate my idea in relation by asking myself:
Will this make the target do a double take?
Will this make the target want to believe?
Will this make the target’s pupils pop with excitement?
Will this make the target’s heart beat a little bit faster?
Will this make the target think: “This couldn’t possibly be true… could it?”
If so, I proceed.
If not, I go back to the drawing board until I come up with something that starts making my spidey senses tingle.
And that’s all there is to it.
Thanks for reading.
Your friend,
/tej
Fiyah
Another banger!