In the past year I’ve spent more of my budget on the companies that cold emailed me than those who spent hours crafting targeted messages.
Every bit of my marketing training tells me that’s impossible and yet I can’t deny the fact that cold emails and calls do work. This week alone I’ve spent thousands on a company as a result of one email out of the blue and I spent nothing on companies I already knew.
It’s safe to say I have some element of pride for my University. After all it’s the place I spent four years of my life and racked up tens of thousands of pounds worth of student loan debts. Sure they fell down the league tables in the years I was there and never recovered (not my fault, honest) but they pad out on my CV at least.
Through presents over the years I’ve accumulated an Aston University tie, cufflinks, pens and even a teddy bear. I’m almost on my way to start my own branded merchandise Generation Game. So when I saw an Aston University hoody advertised on Facebook I figured it was worth a look.
Everything looked great until I actually read the text:
I used to think I had networking all figured out.
I read ‘How to Talk to Anyone’ by Leil Lowndes from cover to cover. From ‘flooding smiles’ to ‘epoxy eyes’ to ‘the big baby pivot’ I had all the little tricks sussed and for a long time everything was great. I got over my stage fright, spoke to strangers and got a ton of business cards.
But something was still bugging me.
Why writing would be boring without mythical items, plot twists and things that make no sense.
Growing up I thought Power Rangers was one of the best shows ever but as time went by I started to realise there was a fairly common pattern to the episodes. This typically began with a new enemy appearing, the rangers failing to beat it, then they would find some mythical item or new way to merge their Zords (aka giant robots) and suddenly they’d be able to win.