Hello and good day!
If you've been reading these emails for a while, you'll recall that I spend many hours every single day walking around my neighborhood, talking to people about our retail chocolate shops.
I've made the claim that I talk to more strangers on a regular basis than just about anybody else in the entire world. I stand by that claim.
I work long days, and those few hours are a good chance to decompress, get some exercise, breathe fresh air, and be out in the real world, interacting with other human beings in the flesh.
Anyhow, I want to share the results of an interesting sociological experiment with you.
I conducted the experiment myself, so the results are informal and not scientifically verified.
I'm going bald and I am fairly well advanced in the process.It doesn't bother me.
It is what it is.
My dad and brother shave their heads and they look very cool.
I don't find myself with enough time to engage in that kind of upkeep, so I tend to look a little more unkempt.When I do cut my hair, I cut it short.
But I am not very consistent and as a result I end up as one of those guys with hair growing around an ever expanding bald spot. Actually, a bald "spot" undersells it, As a result of the above, I usually wear a hat when I am walking around talking to people.
I sport the brown Fortunato Chocolate hat that we sell on our website. It is a very cool hat and I think that I look cool in it. I believe that it makes me look younger and hipper.
Well, a few days back, I left my office to go into the shop, and I forgot my hat. There are hats in the store and I could have grabbed one. But I didn't want to make the company eat the cost of a hat because of my forgetfulness.
So I went around with no hat and I felt a bit self-conscious about it at first. I hadn't cut my hair in a while and my baldness was on fully display. Luckily I am tall and most people can't see the top of my head, but still.
And then, the most fascinating thing happened. Many, many more people were receptive to my approach.
I'd say that I am at least two to three times more effective without a hat on. Based on that, I stopped using my hat when running errands, going to the store, or going to the park with my kids.
Same result.
More smiles. More chatting. More friendliness.For whatever reason, people seem to prefer a bald or balding man to a hatted man.
I'd like to put a pin in that for a second. I had a long conversation the other day with a marketing professional.
The topic of authenticity came up.
I do all the marketing for our company and I did much of the direct selling in our wholesale business for a very long time. I know a lot about sales and marketing, especially as it pertains to our products.
I told my conversational counterpart that I am coming to believe that authenticity is the key to good marketing. He disagreed vehemently. He said that authenticity is a cop out.
When people can't think of anything good to say, they fall back on authenticity. If the creative juices aren't flowing, then you can always be yourself. Just because you are authentic, doesn't mean people will respond. Authenticity alone isn't enough.
Interesting point.
I told him that I wanted to qualify the authenticity thing. It only works if you have the goods.
If you have a great product, then showing people how it is actually made and where it comes from is fascinating and powerful. I also told him that I think many companies confuse marketing with distribution.
Marketers think they are doing brand management, but all they are really doing is reminding you that something is always there. They aren't necessarily creating desire for the product, which in theory is what branding is supposed to do.
We agreed to disagree, but I wholeheartedly believe in what I call Mayberry Marketing.
You should treat customers and company messaging as if everybody lived in the small town of Mayberry from the Andy Griffith show. Ellie May will shoot you straight about the products in the pharmacy. She isn't going to spout off selling points cooked up by executives in an office somewhere.
Anyhow, going back to being bald.
I think my little experiment is a proof of what I was trying to say. Something about just being yourself is compelling. On a sub-conscious level I think people were seeing me with the hat on and wondering what I was trying to hide.
But with no hat, you just get the real, balding, Adam. People seem to prefer that. The lesson is that it is better to be your real self and share it with the world.
You don't necessarily have to hide the little things you might be insecure about. However, I do think there is a caveat similar to the point I made above about having the goods.
Authenticity works best if the product is great. If you are very transparent about a product and the product sucks, then people will have behind the scenes knowledge of exactly how you screwed it up.
Likewise, if you are a bad person or some kind of creep, and you let that come out and be seen, it will probably go worse for you.
The good news is that the vast, vast, majority of people are fundamentally good. I wholeheartedly believe that and most people would benefit from letting their light shine into the world.
So bald men, take off the hats and let the world see you as you are!
Thank you so much for your time today.
I hope that you have a truly blessed day!
