#ringing in the new year with trek novels for the second year in a row

[hopecomesbacktolife]

“And most of all, to my wife, Myra, who naturally didn’t invent the term Imzadi, but is, to me, the incarnation of it.”

hold on I need a minute—

[akocomyk]

Twenty-eight books read in 2019.  Sixteen longlisted books.  One person who wastes his time writing sh*t as if they really matter.

Here it is.  The best books I read in the past year.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The unfortunate books that I had to let go since I only had ten spots to fill.

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (2017)

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (1934)

History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera (2017)

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926)

Bird by Bird by Anne Lammott (1994)

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (2014)

*Ratings range from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

10th Place

56 by Bob Ong (2018)

Rating: 4.300

Bob Ong makes a comeback on my list with his latest novel.  His other book, Si, ranked 10th last 2015.  This is the second time a Filipino book enters the list and is also the second nonfiction book ever—after Into the Wild last 2016.

In his latest release, Ong returns to the writing style that made him famous— reminiscent of his earlier books like ABNKKBSNPLAko.  56 is like a 300-page commentary or editorial about the issues of the present Filipino generation.

Other readers have found the book a little too preachy.  I find it enlightening as it serves as a wake-up call to the Filipinos who are turning their blindsides to the harsh realities of our nation.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

9th Place

Mga Kirot ng Kapalaran (Kikomachine Komix blg. 11) by Manix Abrera (2015)

Rating: 4.445

This is a long-overdue recognition to my favorite comic strip artist (Fun Fact: I met him quite a few times already).  For many years, I've ignored the chance to even put his works in the list of contenders.  I'm not throwing it away again.  Now, I have my first book to enter the top 10 classified under comics and graphic novels.

In this collection of strips by Manix Abrera, his work remains as humorous and as satirically laughable as the first time I saw his comic. Themes have changed to reflect the new trends and issues of our present society.

For as long as Manix draws and publishes his work, I will continue to read them as I know he gives an intellectual yet amusing input to our society's problems.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

8th Place

Mga Batang Poz by Segundo Matias, Jr. (2018)

Rating: 4.450

“Beautiful and relevant, but not flawless,” this is what I said on my review for this YA novel.

Mga Batang Poz is the third Filipino book on this list.  Having three books on the list is a first.  Furthermore, this is also the first time in four years that a Filipino book enters the list.

As previously mentioned, I have certain problems with regard to the overarching narrative of the novel.  I wish that Matias could’ve written something more elaborate or something that doesn’t feel forced.

Nevertheless, the book accomplishes its goal of being a story that advocates HIV awareness, especially towards the youth.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

7th Place

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (2012)

Rating: 4.485

In this book, you'll see both the cruelty and the compassion of humanity through the eyes of a gorilla named Ivan who is the narrator of the story.

Ivan is based on a real-life gorilla who was being used as a live animal attraction in Zoo Atlanta.

It is quite obvious that the book is meant for a younger audience, but despite this, I know anyone of any age will be able to appreciate it.  Ivan is a gorilla after all, and I think the simplicity of how it was written suits his character, making the tone of the story more natural.

Overall, it was very touching.  Although it mirrors pretty much what happened to the real-life Ivan, it efficiently delivers its message for animal welfare.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

6th Place

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (1939)

Rating: 4.525

This is a mystery novel filled with suspense and everything that'll make you love and hate it at the same time.  The horror it gives chills you to the bone for every page you turn.

Agatha Christie is insane—and I mean that in a good way.  The plot was so well-thought out that even when nearing at the end, I had no clue who the culprit was.  When it was revealed to me, I was like, “Yeah.  That makes absolute f*cking sense.”

For a book that has ten major characters, it does well in handling them.  You know when a piece of literature is brilliantly made when even if its length isn’t considerably long, it doesn’t sacrifice the characters’ backgrounds and the narrative of the story.

Despite the novel’s inhumane and despicable acts, it also addresses issues about criminal injustices that are still prevalent today.  In our country alone, criminals—corrupt officials, master drug dealers, rapists, murderers—are still roaming around the streets, evading the consequences of their actions.   At times when the law is not enforced properly, people resort to their own type of justice.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

5th Place

Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram (2018)

Rating: 4.590

In this debut novel by Adib Khorram, the titular character Darius suffers from clinical depression.  Also, he's a Star Trek and Lord of the Rings fan.

This book demonstrates the fact that real depression is not simply cured by positive reinforcement and bible verses—as what most overly religious people think.

The novel highlights Darius' relationship with the other characters—most especially with Sohrab.  It shows how he copes up with them while he struggles with his mental disorder.

There are also subtle hints of homosexuality, which added to the overall tension of the story since the main characters are Muslims.  It wasn't blatant but it was obviously present—in the right and necessary amount.

To me, this is a spiritual brother of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz—one of my favorite books.  It gave me the same feeling of awe, beautiful pain, and joyful nostalgia. There were parts that broke my heart—I was ugly crying while riding a bus—and by the end, I was a complete mess, although I'm utterly happy.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

4th Place

Moonrise by Sarah Crossan (2017)

Rating: 4.595

What I love most about this book is how it was written.  Instead of being in paragraphs, it was written in verses—like poetry.  I thought it was creative and oddly fitting for the story.

Even though there are more blank spaces on the pages than letters, those words are enough to draw me into the story.

The novel is about Ed whose brother was up on death row.  I found myself rooting for him, and I was hoping similarly to how he was hoping in the story.  When the end came, I couldn't help myself from closing my eyes.

The narrative was fairly simple, it matches the way it was written.  The characters—although few and also written with the utmost simplicity—feel so human and are not flat, cardboard cutouts.

In the light of all the flawed justice systems and abuses of law enforcers not just in America but everywhere else in the world, it's good to find a book that's bold enough to address such issues and an author who's brave enough to write them.

Lots of murderers are on the loose, yet there are innocent people being slaughtered for crimes they didn't commit.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

3rd Place

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas (2018)

Rating: 4.605

Just when you thought Angie Thomas couldn't write anything as good as The Hate U Give (THUG), she gives us this.  If it's not better, then it sure is as brilliant as her debut novel.

This is Thomas' second consecutive year in my list, with THUG bagging the top plum last year.

The novel is proof of Thomas’s writing prowess.  It successfully immersed me into the life of her protagonist, a life filled with hope, angst, and ambition.  And the dialogue… Especially the rap battles.  They were amazing.  Seeing as Thomas herself was a rapper, you can feel the ingenuity in her words.

Moreso, this is one book that we really need in our present times.  It reflects all of my sentiments regarding social media and how it can make or break a person.  And how much the oppressed and marginalized communities lack representation, and how they are still subject to much prejudice.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

2nd Place

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (2007)

Rating: 4.680

This beautiful novel demonstrates the horror of domestic violence towards women.  It also provides a glimpse of the people and culture of Afghanistan during the times of war.

I'm in love with how Khaled Hosseini's characters flesh out from the pages.  You'd love them.  You'd care for them.  Their agony becomes yours.  Their pain drips out from the corners of the books as your tears trail down your cheeks.

And on their sweet, small victories, you'd give a sigh of relief as the anxiety is slowly drained from your body.

In the two years that I've read a book by Hosseini, it didn't fail to shatter my heart. The Kite Runner ranked first in my 2017 list, and now this. If ever get to read another one of his books, I've no doubt it will also be a contender for that year's list.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

1st Place

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman (2018)

Rating: 4.765

This book is also up on my shelf for the best sequels ever—be it for any medium.

I read this earlier this year and it remained unbeatable until 2019 ended.

This is the second book in Neal Shusterman's Arc of a Scythe trilogy, the sequel to Scythe—which placed 3rd in my 2017 list.

Growth and expansion. These are the things I love about the sequel.  Ronan and Citra, the two main protagonists of the trilogy, are older, wiser, and better people, despite the fact that they're teenagers.  You can feel their struggles with their respective endeavors.

Also, the universe is bigger.  The Arc of Scythe novels feature a world where death does not exist and everyone is biologically immortal.  In order to balance the earth’s population, there are these so-called Scythes whose life-long job is to assassinate anyone they choose.

In this sequel, you get to know more about the mechanisms of their world.  There’s a new main character, Grayson, who takes you deeper and gives you a view of what it's like to live as a normal human.

The book deals with the adverse effects of the ways power-hungry people want to achieve their ambitions.

But that's not why I went gaga after reading the book.

IT.  WAS.  EPIC.  The plot twists within the plot twists.  The narrative.  And the ending.  My god, that ending.  I COULD HEAR MY SILENT SCREAMS.  After the last page, the only thing I thought of was, "GIVE ME THE THIRD BOOK RIGHT NOW!"

Thunderhead isn’t flawless, but it’s a very fine piece of literature that I recommend to anyone who loves to read.

• • • • •

I hope I won't regret putting Thunderhead in first place after a few years.  I regret giving the top spot to I'll Give You the Sun last 2016.  After pondering about the books I've read in the past years, I've found that Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See is one remarkable and memorable book, and the one I should've given the highest honors.

Books with relevant themes dominated my shelf but the book that won my heart was the one with intricate plots and a phenomenal ending.  It feels weird but I hope for the best.

Happy New Year, everyone!

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 2 Easter Eggs & References

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This Star Trek: Discovery article contains spoilers for Season 3, Episode 2. You can read our review of the episode here.

In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “The Naked Time,” Scotty famously told Captain Kirk that “I can’t change the laws of physics.” The physics Scotty was talking about applied more to the science fiction rules of how the Enterprise’s warp engines work than real physics, but within Trek a larger point still stands: When it comes to outer space technology, Trek likes to keep its made-up physics fairly consistent. And, even though Discovery is now nine centuries beyond Scotty, the ship itself predates Scotty’s tenure on the Enterprise by almost a decade.

The second episode of Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 — “Far From Home” — feels like an episode of TOS in more ways than one. But perhaps the biggest way is the fact that the crew is trying to fix their starship without breaking the rules of Star Trek! Here’s all the Easter eggs and references we caught — from Scotty-esque dialogue, to some real spacetime science — in Discovery Season 3, Episode 2, “Far From Home.” 

Wormhole effect and Einstein-Rosen Bridge

As we see what’s happening to the crew on the other side of the Wormhole, we briefly see the “blurring” effect on everyone’s faces which we also saw last season in “Such Sweet Sorrow Part 2.” This visual effect is straight from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in which the Enterprise briefly entered a wormhole that was caused by an imbalance in the warp engines. In other wormhole-related references, the opening credits of Discovery now end with a diagram of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. In real science, Einstein-Rosen Bridge is the theoretical concept that would space and time travel possible via a wormhole.

Starship crash 

We haven’t seen Federation starships crashland on planets very often in Trek, and so when Discovery plows into this icy planet, it’s easy to be reminded of two of the most famous starship crashes in Trek history. In Star Trek: Generations, the Enterprise-D’s saucer section crash-landed on the planet Veridian III. In Star Trek Beyond, the saucer of the reboot Enterprise suffered the same fate. Lower Decks recently referenced starship crashes in Episode 9, when the Cerritos crash landed on a planet, too. But, in all these cases, the ships that crashed did not fly away intact after the crash. As Saru mentions later, he’s “aware that starships were not designed to lift-off in this fashion.” The only Trek ship that consistently did take off and land on planets (other than shuttles and smaller ships) was the USS Voyager. But, in the episode “Timeless,” even Voyager had a crash on an ice planet. 

Graviton beam

Discovery uses “graviton beams” to cushion the crash landing. This tech has been mentioned throughout Trek, but most notably in the Voyager episode “Scorpion Part 2.”

Nhan in the credits!

Actor Rachael Ancheril is listed in the opening credits seemingly for the first time. Ancheril plays Nhan, the former USS Enterprise security chief who stayed with the crew of the Discovery after the end of Season 2. Later in the episode, Georgiou questions why Nhan stayed with Discovery and she mentions the death of Airiam. In the Season 2 episode “Project Daedalus” the human cyborg Airiam nearly killed Burnham and Nhan after she was hacked by Control. But, Airiam fought against this programming, sacrificed herself and saved Nhan and Burham. 

Tilly foreshadows the twist ending

After Discovery crashes, Tilly mentions that because of all the technical failures on the ship, “we don’t know when we are.” This is the opposite of the premiere episode of Discovery Season 3, in which Burnham’s computer told her she was in the year 3188 right away. The information gap is relevant, too, since at the end of the episode we learn a year has passed for Burnham, while it’s only been like a day for the crew.

I don’t recall Terralysium being particularly icy

Reno mentions that the planet they are on is not their destination planet of Terralysium, because the terrain doesn’t match up. We only saw Terralysium in the Discovery Season 2 episode “New Eden.” In that episode Terralysium also had rings around it, which doesn’t appear to be the case here. Notably, Tig Notaro’s Reno doesn’t appear in “New Eden,” though she had joined the crew in the previous episode, “Brother.” 

Plasma manifolds and EPS relays and conduits 

Once we start getting into the nitty-gritty of what is wrong with the ship, classic technobabble starts happening. Reno talks about the need to fix the Plasma manifolds, EPS relays and conduits. All of these things are directly related and sometimes, referred to interchangeably in previous iterations of Star Trek. EPS stands for “electro-plasma system,” because it distributes both the electricity and gases necessary to make the power on the starship work. You can find references to “plasma manifolds” and the “EPS grid” littered throughout Enterprise, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.

Reno’s Scotty-like abilities

When the internal power is knocked-out on Discovery, Reno mentions she can “modify the tricoders, like I did on the Hiawatha.” This references the Discovery Season 2 episode “Brother” in which Captain Pike and Burnham rescued Reno from the USS Hiawatha, where Reno had managed to stay alive for several months basically on her own. Specifically, Reno is alluding to the idea that hand-held tricorers can be used to scan the inside of the ship since the internal sensors don’t work. The analogy would be like using a handheld flashlight when the overhead lights aren’t working. Later in the episode, we see one of Reno’s floating bots following Stamets. These makeship robot creations — which Reno nicknamed “the kids” — were also first seen in “Brother.” 

Transtator and Rubindium

Bryce says that one transtator on the ship needs an entire rebuild. Later, Tilly determines they don’t have enough Rubindium to actually make a new one. This references to very old pieces of Trek tech. The Transtator was mentioned in the TOS episode “A Piece of the Action,” as being an essential part of all Starfleet equipment. Meanwhile, Rubindium was an element used in “Patterns of Force,” which was used to create transponders which Kirk and Spock had implanted in their arms. It’s possible that Tilly is also referencing the real-world element, Rubidium, but maybe not.

Leland’s Death

When Georgoiu appears, it’s mentioned that she still has “bits of Leland” on her boots. Georgiou says someone still needs to “clean the spore cube” This references the ending of “Such Sweet Sorrow Part 2,” in which Georgiou killed Leland. Apparently, she also stomped on his remains after he died. 

Captain Pike’s broken table

When Saru, Tilly, Georgiou and Nhan confer, they’re having their meeting in Captain Pike’s old Ready Room. This is why there’s a broken table in the foreground, that was Captain Pike’s table from Season 2. This is the second year in a row that the Ready Room. 

“Treatment so we can breathe naturally”

Before heading out onto the icy planet (which is really Iceland IRL) Saru says that Dr. Pollard will give Tilly and himself a “treatment so we can breathe naturally.” This implies the atmosphere is not entirely “Class-M.” In the TOS episode “Amok Time,” Bones gave Kirk a shot to help him breathe easier in the atmosphere of the planet Vulcan.

The problem is in the Jefferies tubes

Reno and Stamets determine that the biggest problem with the ship is “in the Jefferies tubes.” The Jefferies tubes are the parts of a starship where one can access all the inner-working systems. The tubes derive their name from Matt Jefferies, the conceptual artist who designed the original USS Enterprise in the 1960s. Every version of Trek has had Jefferies tubes. 

Saru and Tilly’s “undercover” robes

Saru and Tilly don non-descript robes to make “first contact” with the people living in the Colony. Burnham and Saru wore similar robes when making contact with the people of Kaminar in the Discovery Season 2 episode “The Sound of Thunder.” Kirk and Bones also wore similar robes at the beginning of Star Trek Into Darkness.

Tilly references a Starfleet regulation from a ‘90s novel! 

The reason why Tilly says “we’re not freaking right now by being held at phaser-point by a bunch of strangers” is because of Starfleet regulation 256.15. This is a deep cut insofar as this regulation does not come from onscreen Star Trek canon, but instead, from one of the novels. Tilly says this regulation mandates that “Officers shall display behavior befitting an officer at all times.” In the novel Vulcan’s Forge, this exact regulation was said to read: “Officers shall show professional behavior at all times.” This novel was written by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz and published in 1997. Pretty cool!

Duranium alloy

More Trek tech-speak! Reno says that in the previous season, Stamets was impaled by a “Seven-inch shard of Duranium alloy.” Duranium is used to construct the bulkheads of most of the starships throughout the Trek canon. The earliest reference to duranium comes from the TOS episode “The Menagerie,” where Kirk talked about what kind of material the shuttlecrafts were made of.

This episode’s villain has the same job as Book

We quickly learn that the guy harassing the colony, Zareh (Jake Weber) is a courier. This is the same job Book says he has in the Discovery Season 3 premiere. Clearly, some couriers are nicer than others.

Gravitational waves

Zareh knows that the crew of the Discovery are time travelers because of certain gravitational waves. In the famous TOS episode “City on the Edge of Forever,” Spock and Kirk were basically led to the Guardian of Forever because of strange gravitational waves, which later revealed a time portal.

“Contact the Tellarite exchange”

Zareh tells his lackeys to “contact the Tellarite exchange,” and then mentions that he plans to give some of Tilly and Saru’s other tech to “the Orions.” This seems to imply there are different factions with different mercantile exchanges like the one that Burnham and Book visited in the previous episode. 

“V’draysh captain”

Zareh mocks Saru for not knowing how to speak a shorthand language he calls “pidgin.” In real life, “pidgin” refers to any shortened or abbreviated type of language. But, the telling thing here is that he uses the term “V’draysh” to refer to Saru, calling him a “Vdraysh captain.” This is a serious deep-cut from Short Treks. In the episode “Calypso” (which also takes place in a distant future for Discovery) a character named Craft mentions that the “V’draysh” were obsessed with “old things.” Picard, showrunner and writer of “Calypso,” Michael Chabon, later confirmed on Instagram that “V’draysh” was syncope of the word “Federation.” This is the first time we’ve heard the term spoken since “Calypso.”

Saru’s darts

You might wonder why Saru is able to fire darts out of the side of his head, but, this was established back in the Season 2 episode “The Sound of Thunder.” This is the episode where we learned that Kelpiens were destined to lose their threat ganglia, and become more formidable creatures, complete with nifty organic darts that they can shoot-out when needed.

Tractor beam rescue echoes Season 1 first episode

At the very end of the episode, when the USS Discovery is rescued by a mysterious tractor beam, visually, the series is echoing a scene from the debut of Discovery Season 1. During “The Battle of the Binary Stars,” the USS Shenzhou, was adrift and about to be destroyed, too. But then, at the last second, a tractor beam grabbed the ship. This was revealed to be the USS Europa, a Starfleet ship that had come to the rescue. Burnham was also rescued by a last-minute tractor beam in the Season 1 episode “Context Is For Kings,” the very first episode she actually boarded the USS Discovery.

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Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 is just getting started. New episodes air on CBS All Access on Thursdays.

The post Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 2 Easter Eggs & References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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The 3-Act “Cliffhanger” Formula for Crafting a Wickedly-Effective Call-to-Action

Whether you’re broadcasting a Facebook Live, writing an email or blog post, recording a video, hosting a live webinar, or anything of the sort…

You always need to give your audience a clear, benefit-driven, downright-irresistible reason to TAKE ACTION!

A limp call-to-action will lead to embarrassing results…

So read on if you want to learn a proven, 3-step formula for crafting a psychologically-compelling CTA that captivates your audience and compels them to stick around and do whatever’s next (click, opt-in, buy, etc.)

Before we dive into the formula, though, first let’s reexamine an age-old truism in marketing and answer, once-and-for-all…

Does sex sell?

Well, according to a 2014 study out of Johns Hopkins University analyzing which Super Bowl ads generated the most social media activity, press coverage, and “recall” (which is how well an audience can remember a given ad at a later time)…

The answer is unequivocally NO!

Or, more accurately perhaps, sex doesn’t sell better or worse than any other commonly-used advertising trope.

Now, this has HUGE implications for big brands.

Because when you’re sending over $5 million for 30 seconds of airtime, well, you better make it count!

And in case you’re thinking, “Okay, that’s neat-o, but I’m not in the market for an ad spot during the premier sporting event of the year,” then bear with me for a moment…

Because you’ll soon see that there are universal psychological principles at work here, which will make YOUR advertising significantly more effective and profitable, regardless of what medium you’re using or how big your budget may be.

Which Super Bowl ads performed the best?

To answer this question, the study, published in the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, conducted a two-year analysis of 108 Super Bowl commercials.

And they found that the most-common themes, such as…

Sex appeal, Humor, Celebrity endorsement, and… Cute animals

…were evenly distributed in terms of their results.

Thus, none of these elements alone correlated with the success, or failure, of a particular ad.

Yup, contrary to popular belief, you can’t simply rely on puppies, kitties, scantily clad beach-goers, talking babies, or over-the-top special effects to create a winning ad.

So what does work? What type of ad performed best, in every instance?

Well, surprise, surprise to all you budding copywriters out there, the study discovered that, hands-down…

Ads that tell stories CRUSH the competition!

Now, like I said, this might not come as a huge surprise, but there’s more…

The study discovered that it’s not just any type of story that’s effective.

Because, let’s face it, you could argue that almost any commercial is some form of a “story,” right?

So here’s what they found…

The stories that capture attention, and are memorable, follow a narrative arc.

A specific style of arc, in fact, following what’s known as…

And in case you didn’t study “The Bard” or take theatre, it goes something like this…

Here is Shakespeare’s five act dramatic structure…

Act 1: Introduction

The audience is introduced to the time and the place, the characters, and the conflict at the heart of the story.

Act 2: Rising action

Now the plot thickens with intrigue, conflict, secrets, revelations, or complications.

Act 3: Climax

The events at the heart of the climax cannot be undone.

This is the moment of peak suspense where the main character is presented with a crossroads or crisis, and whatever happens, the world and the characters will never be the same.

A couple of examples…

The Matrix: Neo confronts Agent Smith Star Wars: The assault on the Death Star Lord of the Rings: Frodo reaches Mount Doom Act 4: Falling action

Here we have the final “hurrah,” which is often a suspenseful moment that leaves us in doubt as to whether the protagonist will prevail over the antagonist.

Here we have the dramatic cliffhanger where…

Neo “dies” before being reborn and defeats Agent Smith Luke is the final pilot in the Death Star assault and must use the Force to hit the exhaust pipe Frodo hesitates to destroy the One Ring and is confrontatedvwith Gollum

Or, in a familiar “rom com” trope, the guy screws up royally and and you’re left in suspense wondering if he’ll win back the girl with a dramatic gesture.

Act 5: Resolution

Finally, the story wraps up and resolves itself.

Any loose ends are tied up, and the consequences of the story are played out, for better or for worse (depending on whether the story is more of a comedy or tragedy).

No doubt all that sounds familiar, right?

Okay, now that you know the Shakespearean formula, let’s get back to our study…

The psychological power of the 5-act narrative structure

What the study discovered is this…

Commercials that tightly conform to the Shakespearean formula are the most popular by a large margin.

A notable example are the Budweiser Clydesdales ads.

Have a look at their 2015 entry…

Bravo…if I don’t say so myself!

For the third year in a row, Budweiser’s ads featuring the Clydesdales ranked #1 according to USA Today’s Ad Meter.

And as you’ll see in this Shakespearean analysis, it’s a complete “mini-movie”…

Act 1 Introduces the setting and the characters: a farmer, the Clydesdales, and a golden retriever puppy, all on a farm Act 2 Complicates and advances the story: the puppy sneaks into a horse trailer and then gets lost while in transit through downtown Act 3 Climaxes with the puppy making the long trek back home only to be confronted by a snarling wolf, just on the edge of the farm Act 4 Reverses the puppy’s fortune, by just when things seem the most dire and perilous, the Clydesdales break out of their stalls and chase off the wolf, saving the puppy Act 5 Resolves when the farmer awakes at sunrise and looks through his kitchen window, sees the puppy and the Clydesdales running up the driveway…

Then it’s time to celebrate with a Budweiser, of course!

So you can see how the commercial follows the formula exactly.

It’s literally scene-for-scene and act-for-act, right out of Shakespeare’s playbook.

Now, that’s an interesting way of looking at what makes a commercial effective and this perfectly illustrates…

The emotional impact of a complete narrative arc

Oh, and by the way…

If you’re curious to read more about this study, there’s a great article in Time Magazine on the subject.

Now, there are some profound takeaways here for your marketing efforts, which we’ll get to in a moment.

But first, know that as direct marketers, we have to interpret these findings for our specific purposes.

Here’s what I mean…

When you look at the criteria used to determine what makes a successful Super Bowl ad, which are metrics like audience recall, YouTube views, polls and surveys, and social media signals…

You see that these are branding, not direct response advertising, metrics.

Let’s dive into that distinction for a moment…

Branding vs. Direct Response

Branding is often associated with the big companies out there, as its goal is to raise awareness, and build trust and likeability.

Direct response, on the other hand, is concerned with creating an immediate action on the part of the audience.

For instance, someone reads a blog post, watches a Facebook Live, or attends a webinar, and then wants to buy whatever’s being promoted.

Thus, there’s an immediate action, which can be measure and is thus what we mean by direct response.

Now, there’s overlap between direct response and branding, of course, and marketers often debate the merits of each.

But for our purposes, as bootstrapping entrepreneurs…

We’re more concerned with immediate and measurable results.

Right?

Therefore, we are concerned with things like impressions, clicks, opt-ins, attendees, and sales.

So here’s what you can learn from Super Bowl commercials…

You see, these popular Shakespearean-style ads are enjoyed and shared because they provide a complete narrative experience.

They’ve got it all—curiosity, intrigue, drama, action, reveal, and resolution.

These “mini-movies” are complete stories.

You feel a bit of excitement and emotion, everything wraps up neatly…

And then you go on with your day, right?

Now, in contrast, to be a successful Internet or network marketer advertising online, your goal is to compel someone into taking ACTION!

Thus, you don’t want to “complete” their experience until they’ve taken the next step.

In essence, you’ve got to resist providing the resolution to your story and create enough desire to to jump through a few more hoops to satisfy their curiosity.

Basically, you need to…

Create a “cliffhanger” of an experience

Look, if you’re looking to create action, you need to leave your audience WANTING more.

They should feel incomplete.

Agitated.

Until, that is, they’ve taken whatever next step you want them to take (register, opt-in, buy, etc.)

There’s actually quite a bit of psychology at work in this process.

If you’d like, you can look up “the Zeigarnik effect,” which describes the desire your brain has to complete unfinished tasks (…which includes completing a narrative experience).

Note that this isn’t anything new.

Shows like Lost, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and even serialized novels of the 19th century knew exactly how to exploit this quirk of the human psyche.

But, for fun, let’s take a look at a few savvy Super Bowl commercials…

Which probably polled poorly with the audience, yet no doubt created impressive direct response results.

Perhaps you remember GoDaddy’s risqué Super Bowl commercials from years past…

Where they would set up a sexually charged scene and then flash to…

I’d show you a clip, but they’ve been removed from GoDaddy’s YouTube channel.

And GoDaddy is far from the only company to try this technique.

Check out this GMC Certified Service commercial…

It’s clearly using the same “cliffhanger” psychology.

Or maybe you remember John Hancock “Life Comes Next” campaign (which have also been taken down), where you’re directed to dedicated “Hancock Next” website to see how the 3 individual stories in this series conclude.

These are all well-executed examples of withholding the resolution to the story.

Now, taking a step back…

Here’s what these ads are achieving in the Shakespearean framework…

It’s rather clever, and it goes like this…

In these commercials, they’re setting up the scene with Act 1, advancing the action in Act 2, but right when you’re getting to the climax of Act 3…

…everything stops, and then you’re asked to take action.

“Go to our website to see what’s next.”

That’s clever marketing!

Those are ads with a direct response mindset, where you are able to measure ROI (as the audience is taking quantifiable actions, such as visiting their website and engaging with the campaign).

Now, I seriously doubt if people share these cliffhanger ads.

A poll of the audience might even find overwhelmingly negative feedback.

After all…

It’s kind of annoying, right?

You’re not going to think, “Oh, I should totally post this on Facebook.”

No, you’re going to be downright irritated by the format!

And maybe even be bothered enough to hop on your computer and go to the appropriate website to check out what happens next.  ;-)

This is exactly how you need to think of your advertising if you’re trying to successful at marketing your business online.

So, remember: whether you’re broadcasting a Facebook Live, writing a blog post, recording a video, or hosting a live webinar…

You should always employ…

This is how you create ACTION in your audience.

Now, I can’t definitively say that Shakespeare would approve, but I have a feeling that if he was going to coach you on improving your direct response results, it might look something like the following 3-Act “cliffhanger” formula…

Act 1: Introduction

First, you’ve got to set the stage, right?

Introduce yourself and the topic at hand.

Orient your audience and make sure they know they’re in the right place listening to the right person.

Act 2: Advancing Action

Now you start providing enough value to keep your audience engaged.

Get them thinking about implementing the strategies you’re describing.

You want them identifying with your material, and picturing themselves in your shoes, doing what you’re describing in their business.

Just like in story telling…

Your audience should be able to envision themselves achieving the type of results you’re describing.

Now, again, the subject matter could be absolutely anything…

Blogging, video marketing, Facebook ads, webinars, anything.

The key here is to provide enough value and training so your audience doesn’t tune you out or “change the channel.”

Act 3: Climax Interrupted

Now, here’s the crux of this formula…

You’ve always got to be creating curiosity and anticipation to get your audience to take the next step in their customer journey.

As we’ve discussed, if your goal is to create action, you can’t resolve their experience until they’ve taken the next step…

Facebook ads must create enough curiosity to generate a click Blog posts tease valuable lead magnets Facebook Lives might tease a Messenger follow-up conversation Emails build rapport and create anticipation for upcoming events Webinars create immediate buying action through desire and scarcity

That’s the psychology of the ascension deeper and deeper into your business’ ecosystem.

You’ve leaving breadcrumbs throughout every touchpoint, creating a series of cliffhanger-like experiences.

Where, you’re essentially saying to your audience…

“If you want to learn more, you’ve got to take the next step…”

Make sense?

So, as an example, let’s say this blog post is a script for a Facebook Live you’re delivering.

The call to action could look something like this…

Okay, so now you’ve learned all about the psychological power of story.

  And you’ve learned that instead of giving your audience a complete Shakespearean 5-Act experience, you’ve got to tease them—like one of those annoying Super Bowl commercials—using a 3-Act narrative “cliffhanger,” so they always want to take the next step to learn more.

  Now, if you want to see multiple, word-for-word examples of my most effective cliffhangers…

  Click the link in the comments below to read more over on my blog!

See how that works?

Notice the next step is essential to successful implementation

You LEAD your audience deeper into your funnel by creating a path where the concrete steps to implementation are on the other side of taking an action.

That’s how you, in the spirit of GoDaddy, GMC, and John Hancock…

“See what happens next at Elite Marketing Pro dot com!”

Now, of course…

You simply can’t learn all the ins-and-outs of successfully broadcasting Facebook Lives, writing effective emails or blog posts, recording dynamite videos, and hosting profitable webinars from reading a single blog post!

These are all big topics, after all!

But you can get a crash course in effortlessly connecting with your ideal customers without being pushy or ‘spammy’ by getting access to Elite Marketing Pro’s FREE 10-Day Online Recruiting Bootcamp.

You’ll discover a step-by-step business-building blueprint called “attraction marketing,” which has a decade-plus track record of creating success stories.

You’ll learn about about the specific tools and techniques you can use to connect with prospects online, so you’ll never have to act desperate, chase down or strong-arm anybody to make a sale, or deal with cold calling and rejection, ever again.

These methods allow you to build your business automatically—where prospects reach out to you (instead of you having to reach out to them).

You can take advantage of these methods starting today—no matter how much (or little) online prospecting and recruiting experience you currently have.

The bottom line is that, in today’s age, you don’t need to be pushy, obnoxious, or overly-aggressive to build a successful business!

So if you’re ready to get started…

Simply click here and you’ll get access to EMP’s 10-Day Online Recruiting Bootcamp.

  Until next time,

Andrew Draughon Director of Content Elite Marketing Pro

FREE INTERNET RECRUITING COURSE Finally, An Easy Way To Recruit Into Your Network Marketing Business – Rejection FREE – Without Wasting Your Time & Money Chasing Dead Beat Prospects & Leads… Claim Your Free Internet Recruiting Bootcamp… CLICK HERE FOR INSTANT ACCESS

  The post The 3-Act “Cliffhanger” Formula for Crafting a Wickedly-Effective Call-to-Action appeared first on Elite Marketing Pro.

Read more: elitemarketingpro.com

[mredwinsmith]

That Primal Feeling

I played Ultimate for eighteen years, from 1979 when I was a Harvard freshman, through many years in Boston, until the fall of 1996 when I went to Nationals with my Colorado team. The whole time I was also trying to write but I didn’t publish my first book until I quit playing. When that book came out in 1997, I moved from Colorado back to Cape Cod. The book was with a university press, nothing flashy, but it did land me representation with an agent who worked for a big agency called ICM. My ICM agent asked to see all the various projects I was working on so she could strategize about what book to do next. She was looking for a big book, a “break out” book. The projects I sent her included a new novel and a memoir and a book about birds. But she wasn’t interested in those books, but another, a simple proposal that I’d dashed off before mailing her the package.

“I think we should go with the one about Ultimate Frisbee,” she said.

The book proposal suggested that I would return, in George Plimpton fashion, and play with Boston, then both National and World Champs, for a season. Even though I’d played for almost two decades while simultaneously struggling to become a writer, two efforts that proved metaphoric mirrors, I had never really considered writing about Ultimate before. But now that my agent was excited so was I. Maybe I could kill two birds with one stone and both win Nationals and write a big book. The year was 1998 and though I had been out of the sport for a couple of seasons I was a still relatively-young thirty-seven.

The Boston team was receptive, and I travelled with them down to a spring tournament in New Jersey. I went to the tourney as more of a writer than a player, and between games I interviewed as many of the players as I could. And while I was there to take notes and do research, I played okay for someone who had been out of the game for a while. But it wasn’t playing Ultimate that I was really excited about. I couldn’t wait to get back home and start writing.  

The night after we won the Jersey tournament, I returned to Cape Cod and went to bed early, excited about getting up the next morning to type up the Ultimate notes I’d been accumulating. But I didn’t make it until morning. At midnight I sat up in bed, wide awake, and since I couldn’t sleep I decided to head to my study and get to work. I started typing and didn’t stop for the next week. I caught snatches of sleep but other than that just wrote and wrote and wrote, an experience unique in my writing life. Up until then the subjects of my writing had been nature, my father’s death, Thoreau, profound stuff. Now I was writing about Ultimate! It was perfect really: I might finally make people understand that Ultimate was not a joke but a real thing, a great thing.

* * *

During my years playing I was driven by a complicated mix of motives that included ambition, whimsy, love, and vanity. But it wouldn’t be until I hung up my cleats that I would start to recognize what I missed most about the game. What I missed most was not just camaraderie but camaraderie with a purpose. I missed all the moments, few and far between, when I lost myself completely in the game, when pestering thought disappeared and was replaced by a joyful thoughtfulness and a sense of being a strong animal.

Over the years I became interested in players who seemed in the throes of what I called “going animal.” More than once I saw a wild glimmer in the eyes of my teammate, Scott “Turbo” Conrad, for instance, and there were times when he could appear practically feral. But Turbo was naturally pretty wild and the story that most intrigued me was one involving a more unlikely Wildman.

It happened in 1997 while Boston’s team DoG (Death or Glory) was playing a North Carolina team, Ring of Fire, in the Semifinals of the National Championships. Boston was a team with immensely talented players, and when they were flowing, their offense was a ballet of nonstop running and jumping, the disc zinging from hand to hand. But now DoG was in disarray, down 6 to 1 in a game to 18, and after winning three championships in a row it looked like their dynasty was over.  Their play looking more like comic opera than ballet: players overthrew open receivers, tripped and fell, let out anguished cries after dropping easy passes.

Ring of Fire couldn’t believe their good luck. Ring had always been a solid team, a top ten team, but no one had really given them much of a chance to beat Boston. Now they were playing out of their heads, diving and skying to snatch discs out of the air as the adrenaline pumped through their blood. As with any underdog that suddenly finds themselves way ahead, a part of them wondered when the magic would end, but for now they rode the wave.

Finally, Boston began to show a little life, and it was Jim Parinella who started to lead them back. Of average height with a slightly exotic blur to his eyes and dark curly hair, Parinella was a tireless runner and one of the game’s best players. He was also a self-admitted engineering geek, who could look at his own game as disinterestedly as a computer program that needed debugging. In fact, he worked for Raytheon, where he studied enterprise systems with an eye toward creating efficiency. Earlier in the tournament, after dropping a pass, he’d considered changing his receiving style and actually said, “I will probably adjust my pass-catching algorithm to incorporate this new information.” It wasn’t particularly surprising that Parinella would be a factor in Boston’s comeback. What would surprise everyone is the manner in which he did it.

Down 6-2, sensing the desperation of the situation, the Boston players began laying-out everywhere. Ring of Fire, however, still rode its early confidence; their offensive players dove, too, catching the disc just beyond the reach of the Boston defenders. Near the goal line, just when it looked like Ring would score, Boston’s John Axon anticipated a pass, threw himself through the air, and intercepted the disc with his outstretched hand. Boston now had it—this could have been what swung the game’s momentum—but suddenly there was yelling, confusion, and play stopped.

What had stopped the game is that someone on the North Carolina team had called a foul. Finally, after a long argument, the disc was returned to Ring of Fire, and, soon after, they scored to make it 7-2.  But while Ring had won the battle, the argument seemed to have added fire to Boston. When Parinella caught the next goal, he became wildly excited, screaming and exhorting the Boston players.

“Come on, we’re still in it!” he yelled. “We’re not going to lose this thing! Come on!”

Boston’s Death or Glory (1998)

Later, Parinella would recall this as perhaps the most emotional moment of his entire life, and for a second his teammates didn’t know what to make of him. They were shocked. It was like watching the episode of Star Trek where Spock finally finds passion. But as Parinella continued, his face uncharacteristically animated, they got swept up in his emotion. That’s right, we’re not going to lose this thing, we’ve worked too fucking hard! The Boston sideline came alive, players pumping their fists and yelling encouragement.

And suddenly Boston had it. The defense made several spectacular blocks, and the gap in the score gradually tightened. 10-6.  11-6.  11-7.  11-8.  12-8. Soon Boston was in a kind of place where even bad plays turn good. Parinella, perhaps overamped by the endorphins pumping through him, put a little too much mustard on a throw to Chris Corcoran and the Frisbee sailed past him down the field. But Mike Cooper, a long-limbed man who was built to run, anticipated the screwup and caught up to the disc for a 40-yard gain. Jordan Haskell, who was running the team’s offensive substitutions, began to criticize Parinella’s throw, but Parinella uncharacteristically turned on him.

“Don’t even fucking think of pulling me,” Parinella snapped, and Haskell stepped back, slightly amused but also intimidated by this new creature. Parinella, meanwhile, was caught up in whatever it was he was becoming. The feeling surging up in him may be the real reason that people put so much into a sport that seems to give back so little of what’s usually considered important. This wasn’t about money or trophies or reputation, or even about that satisfying afterglow that can come once the game is won. Right then it was about feeling. He could suddenly hear the breathing of the man he was defending and knew where that man would cut before he did. It was a primal sensation: running, skying, diving, hucking.  In his normal life he might study enterprise systems, but at that moment he was a strong animal who couldn’t be contained. When he caught a goal to pull Boston closer, he felt something he’d never felt on a Frisbee field before. Tears welled up in his eyes.

“I felt I wasn’t going to let the team lose,” he’d say later. Ring of Fire remained ahead by 2, but Boston would win this game; Parinella was certain of that now. And as great—as absorbing and enlivening—as this feeling was, it was made better because he was part of a team. For Parinella, it wasn’t hard to see a physical manifestation of the feeling that was welling up in his chest. He only had to look at the faces of his teammates, faces that shined with joyous savagery. They moved with one surging purpose, trusting their teammates as they trusted their own muscles and judgement.

It was, as Parinella sensed, a shared thing. They were part of something and they all felt it and it showed more and more in how they played. Steve Mooney, the team’s captain, flew around the field, directing traffic, throwing strikes, giving his teammates an easy target. Lenny Engel, the team’s emotional sparkplug, had been hobbled by a knee injury all year, but now he was suddenly sticking to his man, celebrating wildly after each goal, and breathing fire. At the other extreme was Jeremy Seeger, the man that my Harvard teammate Simon Long had once dubbed “God.” As a god Jeremy was fairly unassuming, certainly not the Old Testament one, closer to a wisp thin Modigliani Jesus with hollowed eyes. But if Jeremy sometimes appeared unassuming off the field, on the field he was set free.

For Ring of Fire, the goals were getting harder and harder to come by. What had been flow was now a trickle. Boston had many spectacular blocks, but the one that really seemed to break Ring’s back was made by a relatively unheralded player, Jeff Yu, also known as “Jethro.” Always quietly intense, Jethro would later admit to being even more fired up by what he’d come to call Parinella’s “primal scream.” He was ready when the man he was defending cut upfield and another Ring player got ready to throw. Jethro baited the thrower by pretending to be a little further off his man than he really was, and when the throw was made, Jethro pounced. He flew through the air, stretched out to his full length, and the disc stuck to his fully extended left hand. The Boston bench exploded.

It was gradually beginning to dawn on Ring of Fire that their little dreamtime was over. When Boston received the disc, up 15-14, they called a set play that involved Moons throwing to Alex de Frondeville who in turn would throw to Parinella who would throw to Chris Corcoran. But when de Frondeville received the disc on his own ten yard line, Parinella sensed that the Ring defender was overplaying him. He faked out, then in, and the defender bit hard. Parinella took off deep and de Frondeville launched the disc up and out. Eighty yards later, Parinella caught it for a goal. 16-14. At that point the game was capped. Ring of Fire scored to make it a one point game, but Boston could put them away by simply scoring one more time.

Then the inexplicable happened. The disc was worked up the field to Jeremy Seeger, who saw Parinella streaking across the end zone. This was it for the game, and when it left Seeger’s hand, it felt good. The man guarding Jeremy practically conceded defeat by saying, “Damn, nice throw, how’d you get that off?” But Parinella somehow didn’t catch the disc and, as there was no game film, the why of it would remain open to debate. To many spectators, it seemed as if the Frisbee could easily have been caught; it was described on the sport’s internet newsgroup as “an inexplicable drop on an easy lay-out catch.” Parinella didn’t see it that way. In his mind, he made a tremendous effort but couldn’t quite make a “best catch of the game” grab. But a mistake could no longer could send Parinella into a funk. He had become a different player, a sloppier player perhaps, but a better one.

Parinella’s miscue was soon rendered moot. A Ring player dropped a difficult blade, and DoG quickly converted for the winning goal. Parinella felt his chest starting to heave. They had won, despite his fucking up, and part of what he felt was relief. But it wasn’t all relief. His emotional high had been tailing off, but now the whole surge of it came back strong again, washing over him. The rest of his teammates raced onto the field, losing themselves in an orgy of high fives, hugs, and victory hoots. After calming down a little, they went through the ritual of shaking hands with the vanquished Ring of Fire players, before setting to the serious business of beer drinking, reliving great plays, and basking.

***

The next day Boston would beat Seattle in the finals and find themselves partying again. In Ultimate, there is no locker room to which players retire, so the celebration occurs right on the field.  This tradition, which is known as “the milling period,” or simply “the mill,” can last as long as two or three hours after the finals. Most of the fans are usually players from other teams, and, drinking beer, they try to forget about their team’s losses or their own poor plays, and join in the carnival spirit of the mill. For Boston, it was time for pure revelry, with no need to forget. DoG players sought out friends from other teams who had watched the game, basking in praise (and occasionally fishing for a few more compliments) and beginning the endless process of reliving their greatest plays and gravest errors.

Though more and more games were being filmed, Ultimate was still a sport remembered not by instant replay, but through the oral tradition, through the retelling of great plays and heroic feats, and already today’s tales were being spun. We may live in a country where it’s hard for people to imagine the concept of glory and achievement without national television or magazine coverage, but at that moment you couldn’t convince Jim Parinella that what he had gone through has been anything short of glorious.

“I wish I could describe exactly what was going through my head,” he said, thinking back to that surge during the semifinals comeback .  “But I can’t…I can barely remember it.  At the time, though, every action looked perfectly clear, every motion was exaggerated.  I have never before in my life been in such a heightened state of awareness.”

* * *

I wrote the above pages in approximately the same mood in which Parinella played the semifinals. For a week, in an unwinterized attic room of a house on Cape Cod back in the cold spring 1998, I kept warm by typing around the clock, not just scenes of the DoG team playing but games remembered from my own years playing. I was full or fire and energy and wrote with a fluidity I had never felt before. Could it have been that during my twenty years playing Ultimate I hadn’t been a player so much as a spy, a sponge, a reporter? That my real job had been to take the stories from the game’s oral tradition and put them on the page? Whatever the case, it felt great to get what I remembered down on paper. I sent some sample pages to my agent who was also excited. And sure enough there was interest in the Ultimate book from New York publishers! I drove down to New York to attend meetings, thrilled to think that I would finally be published by a big press. From my journal, I know that my wife and I had less than fifty dollars in our joint bank account at the time.

It was close, my agent told me later, they almost took it. Why didn’t they, I asked. In the end, no publishers would buy the book, mostly because the marketers and publicists were afraid no one would know what Ultimate was. There it was again. Is that the thing you do with the dogs?

That was almost twenty years ago. It hurt, I won’t lie, and it took a while until I moved onto the next subject, the next book. It wouldn’t be until another eighteen years that I would return to writing about ultimate.

But while I remember well the sting of the moment, I also remember the joy of first discovering ultimate as an unexpected muse. Most of all I remember losing myself in the subject, and that is a feeling that I know Jim Parinella understands.

There was one other moment during that long-ago Finals that I took notes on but never wrote about. Sometime during the mill after that ’97 Finals, a player from another team, who himself was eliminated early in the tournament, teased Parinella about having dropped what could have been the final pass of the semis the day before. At first, Parinella felt tempted to rush to his own defense. But, in his state of near blissful calm, he stopped. He could handle the teasing. Let the snickerers snicker, the hecklers heckle, the nitpickers pick nits. The appropriate attitude toward those who had merely watched, Parinella decided as he sipped his beer, was not defensiveness, but pity. Pity the poor observers. After all, they had not been in it. They hadn’t experienced that overwhelming tribal sensation that Parinella would always remember. They had no way to comprehend what it was like to be part of that surging whole.

More info about Ultimate Glory:

Order Ultimate Glory by David Gessner here.

Book website: http://ift.tt/2roxxJL

Book trailer: http://ift.tt/2rD4Ypk

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