Long-time readers would remember my crazy banana-focused antics from back in the day when I used to haunt the adventurous lands of X.
I haven’t been as obsessed with my favorite elongated yellow fruit anymore these days.
But I got reminded of “the good old days” today by looking at my bookshelf, in which I have a banana-themed notebook I once got gifted by a happy customer who discovered me through the weekly Twitter Spaces (if you don’t know what they are, think of it as a podcast) I used to host.
Anyway.
I used to talk about bananas almost every day. So much so that I very quickly became known as “the banana guy”. People would tag me in every post they saw which dared to mention bananas. Every other person talking about bananas would be labeled a fraud and a copycat. The comments on my posts were filled with banana jokes. People would send me messages saying they thought about me while walking past bananas in the supermarket. Hell, I even received pictures from people showing off their shampoo that smelled like bananas or their newly purchases socks with tiny bananas on them. More often than not, when I hopped on calls with people, whatever the reason, be it consulting, coaching, or just a casual chat, they’d show up and greet me with one or more bananas in their hands—even the CEO certain software tool I used (and still use) for my business referenced the bananas when they first reached out to me after I signed up to use their services. And yes, I got sent banana-themed presents and fan mail.
I hope I don’t have to tell you how powerful and valuable this was.
The funny thing is that this originally all started by accident.
Later on, though, I learned how to create buzz, engagement, and an image like this (with its many, many extremely valuable side effects) on demand. I realized it could be created by design. There was a repeatable formula for it—no miracles or happy accidents required.
This insight came to me after studying the dialogue of Pirates of the Caribbean.
See, TV shows and movies alike love to write dialogue in a way that’s entertaining, powerful, but above all, memorable. I’m sure you can name many popular and memorable lines or quotes right now without having to do much thinking (if any thinking at all).
Those types of lines or quotes are, by definition, free advertising and help out a ton in not just the lifecycle of that specific movie but also in every following movie (or episode/season for TV shows) they create.
Truly powerful stuff for sure.
Anyway.
The thing Pirates did was genius—and so simple once you finally notice it.
Instead of having to write really powerful, emotional, entertaining, funny, or dramatic dialogue or catchphrases and pray that the audience agrees with the intended greatness of the dialogue, they play the game on easy mode by simply… having the characters repeat and quote their own (or other character’s) dialogue.
By doing so they’ll instantly make it “quotable”, because, well…, it’s already been quoted.
Even more.
The audience hasn’t only heard a specific phrase once. They’ve now heard it twice, thrice, or sometimes even four or five times in total.
And as radio stations discovered last century, if something gets repeated often, it’s also appreciated and liked a whole lot more.
But I know what you’re thinking.
You don’t want to become known as the banana guy or any other fruit guy (or gal) for that matter, so why does this matter? Well, this goes for just about everything and anything.
Your philosophies, your products, your services, your branding as a whole, and everything else that’s unique to you (and may or may not make you a lot of money).
So remember.
Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.
About that: one of the most useful methods for target repetition I know—seriously, it’s not even close—has to be email marketing (preferably daily, but any frequency could work depending on your market).
And if you’re not sure where to start with email marketing, then check out my new introductory email marketing course that easily costs half as much as the coffee order of your average white girl at her nearest Starbucks.
Anyway.
Click here to check it out: https://alexvandromme.com/yourfirststeps/