My grandma is 92 years old. Yesterday I was talking to her. She got to saying how she is “counting down the days.”
Everybody of her generation who lived in her building — a 17-story brutalist skyscraper built in the 1960s — has already died.
“The last two died just recently,” she said. ”There was Marija, who was 94, and then there was that guy—” here she turned to my mother “—what was that guy’s name, the guy who liked fried chicken?”
I found this both cruel and hilarious. You live your whole life, even a very long life, and this is how people remember you — “the guy who liked fried chicken.”
It’s not because my grandmother’s memory is failing. At 92, the woman is still razor-sharp and has a much better memory than I ever had.
It’s simply how how mental imprint happens.
Unless there’s something notable, sound bite-worthy, legendary about you, and unless you repeat it often enough to make it stick in people’s heads, then people will pick something random to remember you by — if they remember you at all.
Maybe you don’t want to be remembered. Nothing wrong with that.
But if you are driven to have people remember you, and if you want to make it good, then take matters into your own hands.
A/B test different sound bites about yourself. When you hit upon one seems to resonate, that people feed back to you, then repeat it from here to eternity. Either that, or risk becoming “the guy who liked fried chicken.”
And on that note, let me remind you what I already said yesterday:
I’m now launching my Most Valuable Postcard #2. I’m selling it until tomorrow night at a 50% discount.
Most Valuable Postcard #2 covers a fundamental marketing topic. In fact, it’s a topic that I claim is the essence of marketing and copywriting.
Last night, Jeffrey Thomas from Goldmine.Marketing wrote me to say (some parts redacted):
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Finished reading #2 tonight.
And it was great.
I’ll read it again tomorrow.
Earlier today, before seeing this offer, I thought about [here Jeffrey named “the best copywriting guide ever written” according to a reclusive, bizarre, and yet highly successful financial copywriter]—wild to see it appear in this Postcard!
#2 reminds me that [here Jeffrey spelled out the counterintuitive idea at the end of Most Valuable Postcard #2, which a lot of marketers and copywriters struggle with, but which is true nonetheless].
Definitely some new tools to use. Much appreciated John.
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I redacted some parts of Jeffrey’s message above. For one thing, I want to keep those specifics behind the paywall. For another thing, I don’t think you really mind. Do you?
Anyways, Most Valuable Postcard #2 is available now, but only to people who are signed up to my email list. Maybe you don’t want to get on my email list. Nothing wrong with that. But if you do, here’s where to go.