No Doubt, This Has Happened To You...

Dear Friend,

No doubt, this has happened to you.

You're down at your local Department of Motor Vehicles, which of course is located in the absolute dirtiest seediest part of town.  You're sitting there minding your business when someone makes an "open" comment in your direction, trying to get your attention.

You know, something like "Gosh, this is taking forever..." or "I'm late for work..." or even, "I wonder if they have a soda machine in here?"

The comment is hurled in your direction, but it's so general that you -- or anyone else who's heard it -- can choose to answer...

Or not.

Whenever this happens, you only have a split-second of time from the moment you hear the question, to decide if you want to respond.

If you wait too long, you can't respond, but if you answer, Lord knows who you're going to get stuck talking to.

I screwed up and answered.

The guy across from me had said "I'm so frustrated, I lost my license."

And I lifted my head up from my book and responded "Oh, how'd that happen."

To which he replied...

"It Got Stolen From Me When I Went To Prison The Third Time!"

Shit, now I'm really in a mess, I thought.

There's about a ZERO percent chance me and this guy are going to find some kind of "chemistry" between us, and I sure as hell don't want to alienate and ignore this man, because I'm thinking going to prison is probably easier for him, than it is for me to have to come down to this DMV office I'm sitting in -- so the last thing I want to do is irritate this guy.

So there I was, me and Inmate Number 867-5309whatever, just hanging out -- two cool dudes experiencing some male bonding right here at the DMV.

I was going to ask him if he'd read John Caples "Making Ads Pay", since that's what I had in my hand, but I figured I might get stuck as his new reading tutor if he said "No, but I'd like to", so I figured, let me ask him something else.

So instead I asked him -- since he tossed it out there in the first place -- "Why'd you go to prison?"

And as a copywriter who uses this theme, over-and-over again, I nearly died laughing when he gave me his answer.

In fact, it took everything I had in me NOT to burst out laughing.

Because the very first thing he said was... "Yo, it wasn't my fault!"

How funny is that?

Then he proceeded to explain how, even though he pulled his knife on the guy -- it wasn't like he was really going to USE it or something like that (reminded me of one of my kids -- "Just because I took the cookies out of the box... and just because there's chocolate all over the sides of my mouth... I wasn't the one who got cookies all over the couch.")

He just got upset and he wanted to make his point -- THAT'S why he pulled the knife -- for "effect".

And then, it turns out -- and this was the real kicker -- we both grew up in the same neighborhood in the Bronx!

So by the end of the conversation, while I wouldn't say he and I were going to be exchanging phone numbers and e-mail addresses or anything like that -- talking to this guy wasn't so bad after all, and it probably did pass the time a little quicker.

Of course, I wasn't about to lend him my car or anything like that...

Listen, I'm going out of town on business for the next 2 days, so no tip until Friday.

So if you have any questions about registering for the Information Marketing Expo - http://www.informationmarketingexpo.com -- just shoot me an e-mail or give me a call after I get back in town.

Remember, tuition for the event goes up by $250 Dollars at the end of this month.

Now go sell something,

Craig Garber

P.S. Want to know how to eliminate the "slick operators" in your industry from threatening you at all?  No problem, just check out "22 Ways", right here:  http://www.kingofcopy.com/22ways

Any comments?

Send them to me by scooting over to the contact form on my "Here's How To Contact Craig" page, and maybe I'll publish them -- I appreciate your feedback!

You can reprint, or link to this article, or to any article on this web site, as long as you include the following text-box: