I really like Roy H. Williams, his Wizard of Ads is an excellent book!

The Gift of 500 Years

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 of them 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

Before You Begin Writing Those Ads...

Which do you think would work better, the brilliant execution of a flawed strategy, or the flawed execution of a brilliant one?

In business, it's the flawed execution of a brilliant strategy that usually wins the day.

Most advertising professionals are unwilling to question a client's strategy because they're afraid of losing the account. So they happily pretend that "good writing, scientifically selected colors, powerful pictures and reaching the right audience" is all that's needed to make money in America.

Piffle and Pooh. Give me average writing, bland colors, no pictures, the wrong people and a strong strategy and I'll have to rent a trailer to haul my money to the bank.

It's hard to tell a powerful story badly. But it's easy to tell a weak story well. I've never seen a business fail because they were "reaching the wrong people." But I've seen thousands fail because they were saying the wrong thing. Please hear me correctly. These catastrophic failures weren't saying the right thing badly, they were saying the wrong thing well. It's amazing how many people become "the right people" when you're saying the right thing. Believe it or not it's advertising third, customer delight second, strategy always first.

At the heart of every moneymaking ad campaign is a powerful strategy, a story that needed to be told. But not every business has such a story. When your ads aren't working, return to the core, look at first causes, heal the central wound. No writer, no matter how brilliant, can dress up a bad idea and sell it to intelligent people. It usually takes more than good writing to pull you back from the brink of disaster.

How did you get to the brink of disaster in the first place?

Business owners wander near the brink when they:
(1.) fail to have an attractive core strategy.
(2.) pretend their competitors don't matter.
(3.) believe that "reaching the right people" is the secret to success.
(4.) worry about "increasing traffic" more than delivering a wonderful customer experience.

Give me a business that delights its customers and I can write ads that will take them to the stars. But force me to write ads for a business that does only an average job with their customers and I'll have to work like a madman to keep that business from sliding backwards. Unless they have no competitors.

I'm amazed by business owners who assume that every successful business deserves to be successful. The truth is that a business with weak competitors is going to succeed no matter how bad their advertising or how consistently they disappoint their customers. Could good advertising save a bad restaurant? No, but these restaurants succeed in spite of bad food and no advertising when they're the only restaurant in the hotel. Strategy triumphs again.

Roy H. Williams

"As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might."

Marian Anderson
1902-1993, Concert and Opera Singer

"The apartment makes everything plausible," said Mr. Emko, whose one bedroom is so tiny it fits only a bed. Despite the apartment's size - barely more than 300 square feet - an affordable rent-stabilized rental on East 89th is still considered a plum.

Guess what the rent is for 300'FT? In New York City? $715/month!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/realestate/23habi.html

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."

Leo Buscaglia
Author and Speaker

"After seventeen years of research and twenty seven books, I can reduce the keys to raising high achieving children to three words...'gentle but firm.'"

Doug Wead
Author of The Raising of a President

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."

Thomas Jefferson
1743-1826, Third President of the United States

This is the message I got about a container of furniture coming in this week:

Homer, when you open the link above, go to the top of the story and
play the news clip. It's not encouraging but I can hear you now... aw
man, I got furniture on that train...

I finally found out that the train wreck was west of Ft. Sumner so I
called the Billy the Kid Motel I stayed in one night last week for the
local scoop on the wreck and then the Super 8 across the street where
the railroad guys are staying.

All I found out is the trains are moving and trucks have come through
town carrying cars that derailed so they're being moved somewhere.

You'll see in the link above that 35 cars derailed so we have pretty
decent odds that we've got trouble so Jeff you might as well get us a
copy of our insurance so we'll know who to contact in the event we do
have claims to make.

The local Ft. Sumner folks really didn't have any details other than
the rr can't be seen near Yeso where it derailed. Unfortuneately there
were no rr guys that I could talk to that could tell me where the
crashed cars are going to or anything else?

Jack


Yes a train wreck and our container was on it!

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050107/NEWS08/501070357/1001/NEWS

From Clark Howard: www.clarkhoward.com

The cell phone situation
Americans love to talk on their cell phones. We also love to gripe about our cell phone companies. According to Consumer Reports, people about as unsatisfied with their cell phone company as they are with their cable company. So, are there any redeemable companies out there? Verizon and T-Mobile are doing better than the others and they are growing faster than any other, according to the magazine. T-Mobile has very competitive prices and many people like that. Verizon is credited with being the best in service. But that means the best in a bad lot. Clark wants to remind you that the local only companies sometimes offer the best rates for unlimited calling. These companies – Cricket Communications and Metro PCS – are often forgotten in the game. But they are great deals, as long as you can keep your conversations to your “home service area.” Another option is pre-paid cell phones. If you don’t use your phone very much, but you pay $30 or $40 a month, a pay-as-you-go plan might work great for you.

"There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters? Over that I have complete control."

Leo Buscaglia
Author and Speaker

If you think you had a rough last few days:

In one rare good luck tale, a cargo ship rescued an Aceh man who spent eight days floating in the sea on an uprooted tree, living largely off coconuts and rain.