Secret Formulas and Inspiring Stories (from the Wizard of Ads)

On goodreads

This book was recommended to me by a fellow writer and entrepreneur, someone who personally seems to ooz success in every endeavor. In fact, one of his Life Manifestos hangs in my entryway as our family theme. Stephen Palmer is a worthy mentor for any writer, most especially because he approaches life with a holistic, full embrace of every valuable thing, from family to business to civic duty and community enrichment. I highly recommend learning more about him.

When I first picked up my hold at the library, I was taken aback by the seeming antiquity of Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads. (It was the 1999 Business Book of the Year!) But honestly, antiquity has always charmed me, so I opened it up eagerly to see what wisdom this old book had to offer.

Wisdom and humor shone back at me from every page. I laughed. I pondered. I was uplifted. I was inspired. Through a mixture of unlikely and little known biographical anecdotes about famous leaders of industry and state, stories from the advertising industry, and fascinating facts about the brain, Roy H. Williams kept me flipping the pages and soaking up his playful wisdom. 

More than once I began reading about some poor sap with all the chips set against him, only to find a few paragraphs later that he became Abraham Lincoln, or Teddy Roosevelt, or Frank Lloyd Wright. 

The Wizard is a man after my own heart. He's someone who sees the patterns and connectivity in everything, and realizes the value of applying more than just fancy advertising terms and spreadsheet statistics to marketing. In fact, he understands the importance of selling only what you love. As writers, I think there's a key in there for us. Do we love what we write? Enough to sell it with passion?

Since every writer is his or her own best advertiser at the end of the day, I highly recommend you read Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads. If it doesn't inspire you to take up mountaineering or to become president of the United States, at least you'll find real, working solutions for your need to advertise what you love.