The Three Quivering Questions of Modern Society:
- How can I achieve my goals with less effort?
- How can I achieve my goals in less time?
- How and where can I find pleasure?
These are the “How to…” questions.
(I call them the Quivering Questions because they contain an anxious energy similar to that of an addict looking for his or her next “fix.”)
Shortcuts, pro tips, life hacks, and insider secrets are snippets that exist to tell you “How to…”
Schools, seminars, master mind groups, and countless consultants exist to tell you “How to…”
Millions of books and Youtube videos have been written and produced to tell you “How to…”
The answers to the “How to” questions are always Informational.
The Three Ancient Questions That Echo Within Us:
- Who Am I? (Identity)
- Why Am I Here? (Purpose)
- What Must I Overcome? (Adventure)
Those are the “Fascination” questions.
Fascination is the drive behind our search for God and our hunger for entertainment.
Faith and entertainment seem incongruent until you realize that both of them fascinate us because they change our mood and lift us higher.
The answers to the “Fascination” questions are always Relational.
When you understand these 6 questions, you understand the essence, attraction, and purpose of social media.
Youtube offers only “How to” videos and “Fascination” videos.
Likewise, every book is either a “How to” book or a “Fascination” book.
Television shows are either “How to” or “Fascination.” Movies and music lend themselves mostly to fascination.
I told you, “Fascination is the drive behind our search for God and our hunger for entertainment.”
When we contemplate our existence and the possibility of God, we ask,
- Who Am I?
- Why Am I Here?
- What Must I Overcome?
Your answers to those questions will determine your faith, whether it be Judeo-Christian, Hindu, Moslem, Buddhist, Atheist, Agnostic, or one of the many other belief systems with millions of followers.
When entertainment elevates our mood, our fascination comes from identity reinforcement.
The books, movies, and television shows that we love are the ones that show us a reflection of ourselves.
When we identify with a character, we vicariously experience the challenges they face. These challenges are known as the plot or the “narractive arc.”
We likewise experience the evolution of that character when they are changed by those challenges. This is known as the “character arc.”
The characters with whom we identify remind us of who we are.
Identity reinforcement is the essence of affinity groups.
An affinity group is any group of people who are attracted to the same thing.
Every religion is an affinity group.
The fans of a sports team are an affinity group.
People who follow fashion are an affinity group.
If you like jazz music, or hip-hop, or Jeeps or NASCAR or backpacking or sewing or science fiction or romance or current events or capitalism or gossip, you are in an affinity group.
Mass media and social media exist to attract and serve affinity groups.
The size of a business opportunity is largely determined by size of the affinity group it serves.
If you are an electrician, a plumber, or an HVAC technician, your affinity groups will be people who like and need electricity, running water, and comfortable temperatures. Your limiting factors will be
- the population of your trade area
- the strength of your competitors.
- how often the average person needs your services
- Whether or not your name is the one people think of first and feel the best about.
If you are a dentist, a jeweler, a lawyer, or a tree trimmer, your limiting factors will be
- the population of your trade area
- the strength of your competitors
- how often the average person needs your services
- Whether or not your name is the one people think of first and feel the best about.
If you own a restaurant, a grocery store, or sell some other product that people need weekly, your limiting factors will be
- the population of the neighborhood in which you are located
- the quality of the customer’s experience
- the visibility of your location
Believe it or not, everything I have told you in these 727 words is extremely important when you are creating the messages that you will spend your advertising budget to deliver.
I understand if you are surprised by this, but it is true, nonetheless.
Roy H. Williams
Facebook has 3.07 billion monthly active users
YouTube has 2.5 billion monthly active users
Instagram has 2 billion monthly active users
TikTok has 1.58 billion monthly active users
LinkedIn has 930 million monthly active users
NOTE: Monthly Active Users tells you only the Reach of these platforms. But to compare Effectiveness, you would need to know how much time each week a user spends on each platform. You would also need to know how many times each week the same user could be reached on that platform. I’m Indy Beagle
THIS WEEK on Monday Morning Radio: Steven Mercer speaks from personal experience when he tells entrepreneurs how to build a service practice without sacrificing their values, their time, or their financial stability.
Deputy rover Maxwell Rotbart asks brilliant questions and scribbles notes while Steven Mercer explains how to transition gradually from current employment to independent practice. He then explains how to attract clients through referrals and valuable content. He also explains how to decide when advertising makes sense.
Do you want to know the best ways to set fees, establish boundaries, and handle difficult clients?
Class will begin the moment you arrive at MondayMorningRadio.com.
