Marketing Lessons From Butcher Surgeon Who Botched the Job

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(Now back to our regularly scheduled program…)

I once met a marketing “guru” who advised me to rent a fancy sports car and be photographed in front of it.

Those pictures would scream: “Look at me in front of my Maserati. I’m a super-successful marketing dude. And you can be super-successful, too, if you hire me.”

🙄 🙄 🙄

Reminds me of a surgeon named Robert Liston who was better at showing off than saving patients.

I’m not a surgeon. And I don’t play one on TV. But I know this much:

If you’re operating on ONE patient and THREE people die, you’ve botched the job.

That really happened to Doc Liston, who was famous in the 19th century for being the “fastest surgeon” around.

Doc Liston loved to fill his operating room with spectators. He would burst into the room and say, “Time me, gentlemen.” And then, with a flourish, he would start cutting.

One time, he accidentally sliced off a patient’s privates while amputating a leg.

But that was nothing compared to the three-in-one butchery…

While cutting through a patient’s leg, Liston accidentally sliced off his assistant’s fingers.

Then, while changing instruments, he accidentally sliced through a spectator’s coat.

The spectator wasn’t wounded, but he thought he was. He freaked out and died of shock.

The fingerless assistant died from infections.

The patient didn’t make it either.

One patient up, three innocent people down.

If only Doc Liston had focused more on the desired outcome and less on saying, “Look at me!”

So it goes with marketing — especially with social media and other content.

It’s not about you and how important, brilliant or accomplished you are.

It’s about your followers, and how they’ll benefit from interacting with you.

Your content has to educate, entertain and inform your followers. That applies to social media, email, your website or any other content you share.

If you create that kind of content, you’ll get a prospect’s attention, and you’ll demonstrate that you get them.

That’s what will get you hired.

Too much content is…

…Look at us…

…We’re so special…

…Here’s our great stuff…

…You should buy it…

If you want to stroke your ego, rent that Maserati. Pose in front of it with a wad of $100 bills.

If you want to attract and serve the right clients, put the focus on them and their needs.