Marketing really interests me. For two quarters in college, I prepared a thesis on marketing in the form of a case study. I found it pretty fascinating; it’s really a study on human tendency and what moves people to buy.

One thing that I find even more impressive in marketing is how it works on ME. I get this odd sense of enjoyment when I see that a company’s marketing has worked on me, when they’ve suckered me in to buying, upgrading or subscribing to their product. I stop and think “well you know what, good for them! They marketed to me and they won.” I can think of a few specific examples of this.

It’s the finals. The game has been close. Your team is two points down and there are only 1.8 seconds left on the shot clock. The win is so close you can taste it.

You’ve set what you know is a solid play for your team. You’ve discussed it thoroughly by this point and you know Smith is going to get the ball and take a quick 3 point shot. Your player prepares to inbound the ball, an opponent wildly flailing his arms to distract the pass.

He passes it in to Smith.

1.7, 1.6, 1.5…

One of the best things I’ve enjoyed over the last few months is using a whiteboard. Sure, it feels like a bit of a throwback to high school math class. But, I’ve adapted it to be something that’s benefited me a lot recently.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S NOT READY YET?!”

“Sir, again, I’m so sorry about that. It seems like…”

“I HAVE TO GET BACK TO A MEETING AND NOW I’M LATE!”

He had a right to be perturbed. He’d placed a large order for an office lunch online, but there was a glitch in the system that had us scrambling to get his food ready with short notice.

I got right in there with the staff, to make sure this man’s food got to him as soon as possible. But I wanted to do more than just that. I wanted to go above and beyond to make him feel happy.

Hearing… One of the absolute BEST things I’ve heard as of late was the podcast Serial, season one. I’d heard about it back in late 2014, when it first gained major popularity upon its release. It wasn’t until about a year later when I finally jumped on the bandwagon and decided to give it a listen. It really blew me away.