Jerry Maguire’s cure for madness ~ fewer clients, more good vibes

Fucking crunch time.

I started writing this on Monday, and I’m finally publishing 3 or 4 days later …

What day is it, even?

Oh, nevermind …

So, anyway … there’s this running joke in the office …

We blame it all on these ‘paratroop’ tasks that keep dropping down on us.

Playing dirty tricks with our schedules.

Which are already pretty hectic as-is …

Long story short … it’s just that we’ve been working late a lot lately …

And we’ve all been experiencing these ‘moments of weakness’ from time to time … 

When it’s just kind of too much to handle.

Oh well, c’est la vie … 

Sometimes it’s just part of the biz, I guess, especially during the initial growth stages.

And we all love the biz, anyway. :)

I mean … none of us would even bother if it was the other way around.

And to top it all of, it’s all making us become an even stronger crew.

By relying on each other and trusting in one another to get the job done.

So, even in the middle of madness … here it is, finally, my confession

on ‘The things we think and do not say’

It’s 9:07 AM and I’m right back at the office with the rest of the fellas. 

We’re just moments away from the whole Monday madness ‘routine’ …

The calm before the storm.

And I’m still feeling the coolest ‘after-party’ vibes on the planet.

You see …

I just came back from a whole weekend’s worth of celebrating my 31st birthday with my family.

Every moment I get to spend time with them all … it just makes me feel so full of life.

There’s so much love, and care … and laughing. 

We laugh a lot.

They always kind of make me feel like a little kid.

Happy.

A little ‘looney tunes’, yeah, at times, but mostly just lucky, real lucky.

To have so much with so many … my family and friends. My tribe. :)

Good vibes only.

That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

Anyway, to cut this here daydreaming trip short …

I’m just feeling a really intense ‘Jerry Maguire’ moment right now.

Do you know what I mean?

The whole “Show me the money … it’s a family motto” thing?

I mean, just take a quick peek at this here slice of Oscar-winning material ...

Oh, and here's some friendly spoiler advice … it gets a little loud. 

Anyway, the 2-minute back-and-forth fiesta between Mr. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Mr. Tom Cruise is the ‘let’s get to it’ moment of a finely scripted motion picture.

You know … when the point of your story really comes to life.

When it all goes into overdrive and the film finally turns into

a charming tale about being real and a heartfelt story about commitment

And both of these plots have a real cool thing in common, too …

They both have this focus … this ‘Quan’ as Cuba’s character puts it in the flick.

A carefully considered and passionately dedicated point of view.

That the pursuit of happiness is really the pursuit of balance … both in business and in life.

Almost a kind of state when one truly ‘has it all’ …

“It means love, respect, community... and the €, ￡, and $ too. The entire package … the Quan!”

But the thing that fascinates me the most is the whole ‘light bulb eureka’ moment that happens just before the whole ‘commitment-outburst-over-the-phone’ scene. 

Jerry Maguire experiences his true influence on his client’s life as a sports manager.

And, what’s more, as a human being.

And it all plays out right in front of him.

In an emergency room … with his client in bed, just waking up from another blackout …

Followed by an emotional scene with the

“hockey player’s kid, who’s worried about his dad getting that 5th concussion.”

Because it’s his dad’s job as a 'defenseman' to literally bang his head into the other hockey players and oftentimes into the ice as well …

Until ultimately … it all made Jerry’s own ‘wall’ crumble down ...

And he had a ride of a lifetime kind of moment for himself, too … an actual damn epiphany ...

The ‘Quan’ moment, that was the making of Jerry Maguire’s Mission Statement.

Which inspired this here little outburst you’re reading right now.

It made me think about growth. 

And we’ve been lucky to have grown a lot over these past couple of years …

I mean … we went from doing email automation campaigns to sales pages and crafting killer sales funnels …

From website revamp projects to building online shops from scratch ... 

Handling the whole 9 yards from strategy, UX, and design to sales, copywriting, advertising, and even photo shoots and video.

We’re even taking care of organizing all the shipping and distribution and administration stuff now.

And then there’s this whole other side of it all …

The results.

The happy people.

And even further behind the scenes … 

All the hours and hours and hours of beating on our craft.

Our love for the art of copywriting is proving fruitful.

But it’s the people who guide our hands.

We are storytellers.

“Blessed to be able to do something that we love.”

That’s what’s real and personal about our business.

And all this crunch we’ve been experiencing lately?

To quote Jerry’s dad …

“Every time you allow a problem in your life, you are actually at a point of transformation.”

And as Jerry summed it all up …

“This is not something to fear, it is something to celebrate.”

This is what’s really fueling and guiding us towards leaving a mark worth remembering.

The spark behind all the passion project ideas and our own little branded operations.

The voice behind all our decisions. 

The heart and soul of who we are.

We’re growing a tribe … with fewer clients.

And more passion projects …

Just a couple of hours ago I had this conversation with a good biz buddy of mine …

He told me it’s a pleasure to cooperate like this …

That what matters the most to him is feeling like we’re all in it together.

Jerry’s mentor wrote this book called ‘A Happy Life’.

And he believed in a simple, beautiful philosophy …

“The secret to this job,” he said, “is personal relationships.”

And to develop real-life relationships, you need to invest time and energy …

Your heart and soul.

To grow a tribe means to truly devote yourself to the greater good for all.

Your team.

Your buddies in the biz.

Your friends and family.

Those are the ones you’re happy to take time for.

The circle of life that’s more than worthy of your love and care.

This is the true pursuit of happiness.

Not an endless hunt for money and glory.

That too will follow.

As long as you can keep it real with one another.

The great ones all do one thing at the time of their greatest success.

They change the game.

They make it harder for themselves.

They raise the bar.

And we must do the same.

We need to create more honesty, more focus, and the answer is fewer clients.

Biz communities of sorts.

Tribes.

People who are hungry, driven, and willing to share their resources, ideas, and knowledge.

To help each other grow.

There’s this story in Jerry’s Mission Statement about

the art of persuasion and conversational copywriting

During his dad’s time, there was this whole ‘revolution’ going on with answering machines.

Now, Jerry’s dad didn’t buy into the whole machine movement …

He believed that “People only like to talk to people.”

Imagine his surprise when it only took around 3 years for the machines to take over almost every household.

People started leaving voice messages, using personal beepers, even started personalizing their automated response messages.

“They started talking with machines, regularly and familiarly.

The machine became a part of life, but only when everyone learned to personalize it.”

This is an important part of turning your craft into art.

Especially the kind that has the right patrons to support it.

Now, emotional copywriting is a lot of things …

And boy does it shine when you use it to go full-on conversational.

I mean … it works in ‘real-time’ and in all kinds of forms, from ads, and sales letters, to video scripts, and storytelling narration …

We’ve been seeing crazy numbers running copy that introduces real-life heroes into the story.

Everyday people. With everyday lives and experiences.

The secret’s in letting the hero take the wheel and kind of lead your audience …

In their own voice. Which is easily captured visiting various forums and online communities.

Focusing on the way they have conversations.

To “bring soul and character to what is already there.”

The exact same applies to ‘making our clients look good’.

That’s why it’s our core service … copywriting and storytelling.

Even Jerry sees it as 

“This great lost art that will never truly die.”

That’s what we bring to the table.

A table we share with our tribe.

The Quan philosophy talks about love, respect, community, and the €, ￡, and $ too.

Give a little back for the greater good.

To create a community more personalized, more truthful, and fulfilled. 

Together!

It’s why I’ve mentioned my family at the very beginning of this tale.

Because I really owe it all to them.

They’re the ones who taught me about doing good and being good, even when no one’s looking.

There’s this magic called integrity, that will burn bright for you, just like the northern star.

It’s not easy to follow sometimes.

But it’s always worth it.

To know by yourself and those closest to you that you’re all giving it your all.

In the words of Martin Luther King ...

“A life is not worth living until you have something to die for.”

You owe your talent, your craft, and your tribe … to leave your mark

Because …

“Right now, these are our lives, and it is time to start living it.

It is time to not second guess, to move forward, to make mistakes if we have to, but to do it with a greater good in mind.

Let us start a revolution.

The cause is caring about each other.

The secret to this life is personal relationships."