A few weeks ago, I was back home visiting family. Before we started lunch one day, my mother sat me down at the kitchen table. She crossed her arms, and she said:
“Well? Are you going to tell me? I hope you don’t expect me to read that book to find out. So? What is the highest paid quality on earth?”
The story is that my mother has recently taken to reading this newsletter. And the day before the lunch, I had sent out an email about “the highest paid quality on earth.”
I teased that highest paid quality mercilessly in my email. At the end of the email, I still didn’t reveal it. I simply linked to a book where I promised you could find out what the quality is.
(By the way, why tease like this, including your own mother? Good question. I’ll talk about that another time.)
Meanwhile, I got a message from a reader, Howard Shaw. Howard’s a Partner at Chester Toys, a UK toy wholesaler that’s been in business for 60 years.
Howard actually did order and did read the book I linked to at the end of that email.
As a result, he did find out what that most highly paid quality is. But there were consequences.
To tell me about those consequences, Howard sent me a photo of the book lying on his couch. And he wrote under the picture:
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A book I was introduced to recently and that I enthusiastically recommend.
The point of this email? I am not sure.
Although I am currently looking to embrace some situations with enthusiasm, and searching out business options that I may have previously dismissed.
One of these came my way Thursday, and by Friday afternoon had meant a new client and a deposit already in the bank.
So I thank you for taking the time to re-introduce me to my enthusiasm.
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If you’re a particularly perceptive reader, you may have picked up from Howard’s message what the highest paid quality on earth is.
But does it really matter?
Did you have your mind blown as a result?
Or more likely, are kind of… disappointed?
And yet:
There’s Howard’s story. There’s new client where there was no client before. There’s the new money in the bank where there was less money before.
All of which brings me to the most life-changing idea I’ve been exposed to since I started learning about marketing. It’s this:
“There is an inverse relationship between the value of knowledge and what people are willing to pay for it. The most important things in life you’ve probably heard a hundred times before, but you’re not paying attention. When you’re in the right place and you hear it, you have that ‘aha’ moment and everything changes.”
I write more about that idea, and the A-list copywriter who said it, in my 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters.
Is this the first time you’re hearing about that book? It might be worth a look then.
Have you heard me talk about this book before? It might be worth a look then.
Here’s the link: