Mel,
Ray Bradbury was the celebrated science fiction author who wrote Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and Dandelion Wine.
The Smithsonian Institution once hired Ray to help them improve their planetarium show.
Bradbury explains, "It was boring the hell out of everybody. Within ten minutes into the show, everyone was asleep. So they asked, 'What are we doing wrong?'
"I said, 'You're teaching and you should be preaching. A planetarium is a cathedral. A cathedral of space, where you go to worship. You're trying to teach science in there.
"No, no, get out of the way and let me celebrate the universe. Let me shout and scream for you. And if I do a good job, people on the way out will buy your damn books. They'll go to the library, they'll borrow the books. But you can't put the books on the ceiling. Put the exhilaration up there.'"
"A good teacher is an exhilarator. All the good teachers we've had, we fell in love with because they were in love with life. Now let me be in love with life. I'll stand in the middle of the planetarium, and I'll shout out the birth of the universe."
Amen, brother. Preach it, Ray.
Here's my question for you:
If cold facts about quasars and black holes and galaxies billions of light years distant don't inspire anybody to look up at the nighttime sky...
Then how on earth is a list of technical specs going to get people to buy your circuit boards?
Your 5-year-old son isn't obsessed with Tyrannosaurus Rex because he weighed 9 tons and roamed the earth 65 million years ago.
No, your little boy takes those toy dinos to bed every night because mean ol' T-Rex can eat a screaming, flailing, "blood-sucking lawyer" in a single gulp.
Deep in the heart of every boring, middle-aged paleontologist lurks a seven-year-old kid with a dinosaur picture book.
And if the guy still likes his job after 20 years, it's because he still remembers what it was like to be seven...
NOT because he loves presenting papers at the annual paleontology symposium.
Exhilaration. Story. Romance.
Call it what you want.
It's the missing ingredient in 99% of what passes for "content marketing" these days—soulless "marketing Muzak" churned out by dead-eyed content drones to appease the almighty Google.
And it's the real reason that truly great copywriters can command 5 figures for a "simple sales letter."
Consultants, want a string of glowing testimonials?
Find what exhilarates your clients.
Push their buttons. Wind 'em up... Then get out of the way while they light their customers' minds on fire.
And entrepreneurs—here is your secret weapon.
Tap into the deep passion and childlike fascination that got you into business in the first place.
Make YOUR business a cathedral...
Show them the wonder of a marriage free of bitterness...
Let them marvel at the beauty a sensor design that won't fail when someone's iPhone burps in the next room...
Put the romance back into your marketing...
And to shouts of "Preach it, Mel, preach it!" they'll pick your bookstore clean.
Carpe Diem,
Perry Marshall
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