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The Pontificator

Your daily dose of inspiration to get your marketing juices flowing.

How to Outsmart Your Brain in 5 Seconds

General

Sometimes, or most times, our brain can be our own worst enemy. Its default setting is self-preservation and that mode knows squat about the big picture.

To remedy this, Mel Robbins invented the 5-second rule. It's quite simple really. When you get a thought worth acting upon, like "I should cold call that big shot CEO", or "I should go over and ask that girl out", you should act within 5 seconds. That way you'll work faster than your brain can kick in its all too familiar "voice of reason".

Here it in her own words in her now famous Tedx talk.

What About the Prep Work?

Marketing

If you’ve ever seen Sir Anthony Hopkins deliver a thoroughly engaging monologue in a movie, you would think that he is a natural.

And you’d be forgiven for thinking that.

The truth is though, that a lot of work goes into it behind the scenes. The legendary actor has stated that he reads a script about 200 times before performing. In his own words, this is because it gives him a “tremendous sense of ease and the power of confidence”.

How much preparation are you putting into your work? Trust me, it will show.

How We Ruin Everything

Copywriting

A recent shower thought talked about how, since the dawn of creation, man used to dream about flying as the ultimate human accomplishment. Now that we’ve achieved it, it’s become one of the most dreaded and boring activities on the planet.

It only takes a little perspective shifting to change that though.

Rediscovering the wonder of once awesome but now mundane activities can get your creative juices flowing, and get the neurons and what-nots in your brain to start firing in ways they haven’t in a long time.

Copywriting legend Joe Sugarman says that one of his secrets to good copywriting is living life to the fullest. This way you always have fresh ideas, new perspectives and engaging stories to share with the world.

Everyone has a plan until…

Marketing

…they get punched in the face. Mike Tyson said that.

Plans are good to get your focus your in the right place. But when plans fail, and they often do, adaptability is what will get you through.

The world of marketing is changing fast and frequently. What works amazingly today will work less awesomely tomorrow, and even less the day after. You know how it goes.

The ability to think on your feet is one factor that separates the great marketers from the rest of us. Here’s what Mike Tyson says about it:

“If you’re good and your plan is working, somewhere during the duration of that, the outcome of that event you’re involved in, you’re going to get the wrath, the bad end of the stick. Let’s see how you deal with it. Normally people don’t deal with it that well.” – source

Faking Celebrity

Marketing

Humans love to follow. The guy in the video below made a whole city think he was a celebrity because he travelled with an entourage.

We’ve heard stories of how hawker stalls hire professional “queue-ers” to feign the appearance of demand.

How is your business using this principle to your advantage?