Bono’s Diabolically Effective Parenting (and Marketing) Advice

Bono recently dropped by to chat with the middle-aged hosts of the Smartless podcast.

One story he told delivered both great parenting AND business advice.

And it highlights one of the most powerful marketing and sales tools you have at your disposal.

Here’s his story:

Bono and his wife, Ali, were worried about their son a few years back. The boy was about 14 or 15 at the time and spent most of his days playing World of Warcraft (WoW).

Ali was particularly worried about Elijah. She wanted him to get off the video games and asked Bono to talk to the lad.

So one day, while Elijah was playing WoW, Bono went up to Elijah and asked, “How’s it going?”

Intensely focused on shooting stuff, Elijah didn’t look up and replied, “Good.”

“You’re getting really good at that.”

“Oh. Alright. Thanks.” (Continues shooting stuff.)

“You know you should practice more.”

“What?” (Still shooting stuff.)

“If you really work on this, you could be one of the best at World of Warcraft. Like ever.”

“Yeah.” (Shooting even more stuff.)

“Yeah, when you’re like 21, that’s really gonna make a big impact on women, with that.”

Elijah stopped shooting, put the controller down, looked up at Bono and said, “Oh, yeah, right.”

Then Bono said, “No, but you’re an amazing guitar player. Just don’t forget that.”

According to Bono, Elijah never paid attention to any advice Bono tried to give him. But this one sunk in.

Elijah is now the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for a band, Inhaler, which has topped the charts in Europe. (Evidently the apple didn’t fall very far from that tree!)

In this interaction with his son, Bono employed one of the most potent sales and copywriting strategies around.

Creating a vision.

Bono gave his son a vision of a future he didn’t like. A 21-year-old loser, sitting in front of a game console, playing WoW, unable to score a date.

Giving people a vision of their future — as it relates to your product or service — is a technique wielded by many a top copywriter and master salesperson.

It could be a negative (as Bono did here) where you paint a clear, vivid picture of a future your prospects want to avoid.

Or it could be a positive where you paint a clear, vivid picture of them living the good life in the future, all thanks to your product or service.

Or you could do both (in a compare-and-contrast sort of way).

When done effectively, creating a vision for your prospect is like using a Jedi Mind trick on them.

It’s way more effective than blabbering on about your product or service.

For example, don’t lecture people on how great your dog training course is… give them a vision of what their life will be like after they use it.

The vision of:

• Being able to go for walks without a leash because you know your dog will stick with you and won’t bolt to chase after cars, other dogs, squirrels or anything else that looks interesting.
• Having no worries about your dog when you have guests over because she never jumps up on people and is particularly patient and calm around kids… even if the kids are being brats.
• The pride you’ll feel from the impressed looks and comments you’ll get from other dog owners who are amazed at how well-behaved your doggo is.

Especially if you’re not an experienced copywriter, I suggest creating a positive picture for your prospects.

Think about the ideal outcome your prospects can get from using your product or service. Describe what that looks like. Then paint that picture for them in landing page copy, emails, so-shill media posts, etc.

Don’t overthink this too much. Test it out.

If you get good at this, it can be life-changing.

Customers will flock to your business. Demand for your product skyrockets so much you’re able to raise your prices without any slowdown in sales.

Your cash flow issues will disappear, and you’re able to take more money out of your biz.

Things go so well, you pay off your car and your home. You and your spouse take a month and go on that trip to the south of France you’ve been dreaming about since you got married.

At Thanksgiving dinner, your jerk of a brother-in-law — the one who, for years, always had snide comments about you being a struggling entrepreneur — comes to you for business advice.

And, for the first time in your adult life, you’re not stressed about money. You’ve got enough to get your kids through college, retire early and travel the world, and still have plenty left over to leave a nice legacy for your kids and grandkids.

See what I did there? 🙂

Like this article? I publish more in The Daily(ish) Advocate — a digital marketing email newsletter by middle-aged biz owners, for middle-aged biz owners.

So adjust those readers, finish your stretches, pop that multi-vitamin and head over here to sign up for free! (This link will take you off Medium)