Jordan Ogren

May 23, 2022

The best marketers do this…

I've never had surgery before (aside from getting my wisdom teeth out).

But I bet you have. And, even if you haven't, this analogy should still make sense.

Imagine you go in for a complicated surgery.

You're nervous and a little weary. However, that changes as a professional-looking woman greets you. She is genuine and seems to "care." This makes you look toward the surgery with less angst.

Then, she drops the bomb.

As she begins to grab her tools, she shares how she has seen this surgery done millions of times. In addition, one of her favorite YouTubers has done a few tutorials on it.

You ask if she has ever done the surgery before. 

Her answer? No, but she's watched how to do it.

Would you still get the surgery done? I wouldn't.

I would rather have someone who has done and perfected the surgical moves than the person who has seen someone else do it.

Many marketers, myself included, act like this woman. We see someone or company use a marketing technique, and we begin using it. Using the surgeon analogy, we fail to grasp the reasons why we shouldn't cut across the stomach; we follow blindly.

This results in never having conviction about what we are doing.

We don't understand the underlying mechanisms rendering us incompetent. We can't provide unique insights and apply unique strategies and techniques when needed. We can only echo back what we read.

The truth is: The best marketers think independently.

Sure, you can use other companies as examples or read books on marketing, but you must be able to think without them.

You must be able to reason from the first principles or foundation of marketing. Without this, you will struggle to bring unique solutions to your problems. Instead, you simply apply what John did at company Z and never think twice about it.

To become a better marketer, you must learn to think independently and have a unique conviction rooted in expertise. At least that's what I'm doing.

The alternative is to follow the sheep to the slaughter.

🧠 + ❤️ // JO