Say “Aye” When You Unsee It

I’ll let you in on a secret of sorts. It’s a lesson I teach other people regarding marketing. The reason I’m telling you is that there’s deeper insight in this message. If you want to use it for marketing, too, have at it. 

Look at the image above. Did you notice the red nail polish? I did. It’s the first thing I noticed. The image above isn’t a stereotypical image. In fact, because of the painted nails it likely wouldn’t be chosen as a stock photo for “bench press” in an image database. If an LA ad agency was filming a commercial or shooting a print ad for a bench press scene, it likely wouldn’t include this hand on the bar. For most anyone ignorant to training, it’s confusing. Confusing is hard and hard doesn’t sell. 

When we think of “marketing” we think about education. What’s critically important about education is the growth of knowledge or perspective. Hold that thought.

The reason why we have stereotypes about people, places, or things is that it’s an energy saving tactic. Getting to know individual people, places, and things takes effort. Stereotypes get our brain close enough, we save effort, and we move on. Consider that we’re all granted our stereotype understanding by others as a baseline.

Now, recall the role of education. To educate someone about us would mean to create insight beyond our stereotype. Marketing (and subsequently education) about who we are is an act of covering the margin between our stereotype (or perceived value) and our true value. “I’m not just a jock. I’m well read and wield a mean paint brush,” one might say to transcend his stereotype. 

In this case, to further our stereotype that DEUCE is a grungy gym where meatheads bang heavy weights would reinforce a lazy, undervalued stereotype. We’re not that simple, are we? We don’t need to market more heavy metal and douchey gym rats. Our stereotype gives us that much. The best thing we can do to educate about our true value is to share that we’re a school of movement and sometimes folks with beautiful red nails learn and do things here that would put any stereotypical meathead to shame and then they go on to enjoy twenty-three other hours in the day slaying dragons in countless industries with style and grace. That is true and breaks out stereotype.

I promised a message for you beyond marketing tactics, so here it is. The reason this concept works is that we know how the mind grows. The mind grows when it’s presented with information that shakes up the mind’s understanding of the world. This is the reason why distance from disconfirming information keeps people racist, nationalistic, and dogmatic. When faced with unforgettable truth that contradicts your belief system, the conscious mind must grow. In that way, feeding your mind information that challenges its assumptions and beliefs isn’t just a great value creating marketing tool, it’s a model for all development between your ears. 

Now, if we can just get people to quit being afraid of the barbell.. 

 

Logan Gelbrich  

@functionalcoach

PS – If this has you intrigued, I teach this plus much more at the Hold the Standard Summit. I promise to blow your mind in Nashville, Los Angeles, or Barcelona this year. DETAILS.