The Secret of the Red Shirts
How often do you start one project and jump to another before you are finished?
Buy every tool you can but never actually get good at using them?
We live in an age of abundance when it comes to tools, opportunities, and social platforms. For many (myself included), this leads to just dabbling in a million different things without fully utilizing or mastering any of them.
Alvin Toffler wrote a book titled Future Shock, which introduced the idea that too much change happening too quickly can leave people feeling disoriented and in a state of shock.
He introduced the term “information overwhelm.”
Future Shock was written in 1970.
Things obviously haven’t gotten better.
Gary Bencivenga is one of the top copywriters in the world and below is his “Secret of the Red Shirts”, which gives his solution for narrowing your focus.
Let‘s imagine that you and I are sitting in a large stadium, watching a baseball game on a sunny afternoon in mid-July.
I say to you, ―Top Gun, look around the stadium. Take a good look and then close your eyes. You do so.
Eyes closed? Okay.
I then ask, ―Top Gun, how many red shirts did you notice?
You think for a moment and reply,Why, I really didn‘t notice any. I was looking at the crowd.
Just what I thought. When it came to noticing red shirts, your eyes were wide open but you were still asleep.
Alright, a second chance. Scan the crowd again, but this time, look for the red shirts. You do so and suddenly notice more red shirts than you can count.
Instantly, you have just experienced a quantum leap in your ability to perceive red shirts.
That‘s cool, you think. But why is this such a powerful secret for mastering marketing … or anything else in life?
Simple.
For the words, red shirts, substitute blockbuster headline. Or irresistible offer. Or product that will make you rich. Or new report that will sell like wildfire. Or career of your dreams. Or love of your life.
You won‘t likely stumble across any of these things by going through life staring blankly at the crowd. But you will spot them unfailingly once you look specifically, exclusively and persistently for each.
In short, intention facilitates perception.
“Seek and ye shall find” is one of the oldest truisms of life. But it works only when you seek for one thing specifically, exclusively and persistently. This is why The Secret of the Red Shirts takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master.
The problem is, we all want many things at once. Life is so rich and enticing, we flit from light to light like moths at a carnival. We seek not only red shirts. We desire whole wardrobes, awash in a peacock‘s palette of colors, and we want them all simultaneously.
But as you saw in the stadium of your mind, life reveals its precious opportunities one at a time. To find a red shirt, you must look for a red shirt and only a red shirt, and keep looking for a red shirt until you find one. Then you can move on to yellow shirts, or whatever else you desire in life.
So, Top Gun, what ―red shirt should you be looking for in your marketing campaign?
What do you think is the one thing that could most easily double your response? A breakthrough headline? Hot new premium? A lapel-seizing lead for your letter? Decide what it is, then start looking for it today.
And don‘t close your eyes until you find it.
Pretty cool huh?
“intention facilitates perception”
This one really hit home for me because I have a nasty habit of jumping from one thing to another — not focusing on one thing long enough to really actualize it.
Building an audience and helping them solve important problems is my focus for the rest of the year…
…and I am counting on you to hold me to that.
-Max
P.S. What is your red shirt right now? What do you need to focus on?
Let me know and maybe I can help get you there
