Mitchell & Webb Moment

The magic of not using a person’s name

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When I was, I don’t know, 18, my grandfather handed me a book. “Read this book,” he said. “It’s very important.”

The book was How To Win Friends And Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. It was one of my grandfather’s stock book recommendations. I think he gave me another copy a few years later.

I read the book then, and several times since.

It really is important. It’s full of simple but useful advice like, smile… be interested in other people… remember and use people’s names.

Of course, you can do all this stuff and still get nowhere, or do worse than simply not doing anything.

I remember a Mitchell & Webb skit in which two guys meet at a dinner party. One of them, played by Robert Webb, is introduced as a real “people person.” Sure enough, he does everything Dale Carnegie advises, dialed up to 11.

The guy he’s talking to, played by David Mitchell, doesn’t pick up on it at first. But then he starts to sense something strange. And eventually it dawns on him:

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Ohhh, I see what’s going on. You think you’re good with people. It all makes sense now. The fake mateyness… the rapey arm-touching… the way you keep using my name in a way that makes me feel oddly violated, as if you’d just dipped your cock in my drink.

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In short:

There’s something known as “calibration.”

In long:

When you learn any new technique and persuasion strategy, you gotta twiddle and tweak the knobs until you dial it down to the lowest possible effective dose. Otherwise you go from being a people person to being that guy or gal who “thinks he’s good with people.”

I’m telling you all this in anticipation of my new book, all about persuasion and influence, of the full and magnificent title:

10 Commandments of Con Men, Pick Up Artists, Magicians, Door-to-Door Salesmen, Hypnotists, Copywriters, Professional Negotiators, Political Propagandists, Stand Up Comedians, and Oscar-Winning Screenwriters

My goal is to finish and publish this book by March 24.

Until then, I will be writing about this book and how it’s progressing, plus what I’m thinking about doing to make it a success when it comes out.

If you are interested in the topic of this book, and you’re thinking you might wanna get a copy when it comes out, click below. I’m planning some launch bonuses and I will be dripping them out early to people on this pre-launch list:

​​​Click here to get on the bonus-dripping pre-launch list for my new 10 Commandments book​ ​

Idiots competing for a job

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“As you can see, it’s just not working.”

I recently watched an old but still funny Mitchell and Webb skit. In the skit, the comedy duo play two TV execs. They are reviewing a failing Apprentice-like show, in which a group of office workers compete for a prestigious job.

“Maybe that’s the problem,” says Mitchell.

“Go on,” says Webb.

“How would it be if instead, it was idiots competing for a relatively junior job?”

“Idiots?”

“Yeah. We deliberately pick sixteen idiots. Real idiots. Assholes as well. And then we get to watch them screw everything up.”

At this point, I had to pause the skit so I could write down the thoughts that had bubbled up in my head. Like several other times during Mitchell and Webb skits, I realized this was a comedy illustration of a genuine and valuable marketing trick.

I wrote that down and then I clicked play again.

“Maybe it can work,” says Webb. “But only for a season, right? Once people can see that all contestants are idiots, no one will want to apply.”

Mitchell shakes his head and smiles. “Idiots will. In fact, it will make the application process a lot easier because we’ll only get idiots.”

So there you go:

A valuable marketing trick hidden inside an old but still funny Mitchell and Webb skit.

If you think on it for a bit, maybe your own thoughts will bubble up, and you will see how you use this trick to transform something in your own business that’s just not working.

Or if you can’t figure that out, I got an offer for you:

This same idea is discussed in much more detail inside my Copy Riddles program, specifically in round 17.

Because this trick applies to copywriting as well as to marketing.

This trick is not hard to do, but it’s also not something you will see people doing instinctively, or might want to do instinctively yourself.

And yet it makes copy better, and can be used and applied way beyond the words you use to sell more, or to sell some, if you’re selling nothing right now.

For more info on this trick, and on Copy Riddles:

https://bejakovic.com/cr