Once upon a time at elBenbo’s Lair:
I was talking to Stefania about the infamous Myers-Briggs personality test. She is one of the few marketers out there who uses it to sell with intelligently (even the great “founding father” of online advertising according to Time Magazine – Ken McCarthy – interviewed her on his prestigious “System Club” about it), instead of treating it as astrology, like a typical boss lady life coach haunting social media is likely to do.
To the point:
She made an off-hand remark that reminded me of why I so coldly and ruthlessly blacklist and cut people out of my business, as well as why certain people in general frustrate the hell out of me through no fault of their own.
What did she say?
She said:
“Most people are S’s.”
S’s are the opposite of N’s in the Myers-Briggs.
They are people who simply cannot easily do forward-thinking.
It has nothing to do with intelligence, IQ, or experience, either.
They simply aren’t “wired” for forward or longterm, big picture thinking.
Take, for example, a story Ken McCarthy talked about in his magnificent “System Club Letters” book. Back in the early to mid 1990’s, when a lot of “name” gurus were still figuring out what they wanted to be when they grow up… he sold an 8-page newspaper called “The Internet Gazette”, that had a circulation of 25,000 people.
And, one of the articles was about internet video.
The multi-media expert he hired couldn’t understand why Ken wanted to write about that.
“You want me to write about THAT? Why? No one can do it.”
“But someday people will be able to and when they can it will be the most powerful thing on the Internet. Let’s be ready.”
Back then, it took a half hour to download even a 4mb clip. It was agonizingly slow. And S’s — like the reporter I am guessing was, or at least sounded like he was — simply could not understand the reality that it wouldn’t always be that way, despite intellectually knowing the speed and rate at which technology was growing. But Ken, being an especially strong N not only saw it, but I suspect was often frustrated with all the S’s in silicon valley who didn’t even see what he clearly saw with things like click-thrus being a way to measure response online (which even Time Magazine credits Ken with discovering).
Yes, my fine feathered little pigeon:
Ken “saw” the potential of videos, webinars, livestreams, etc almost 20 years before they became mainstream, as well as social media, too, as he was preaching community-building long before blogging was fashionable or before Facebook was even a brain fart.
Take Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street, as another example of S’ery.
He is a very strong S in the movie.
And, like a lot of S’s, incredibly good at one-on-one sales.
Since he was (mostly) in the here & now, he wasn’t always trying to guess what a prospect was thinking or going to say so much as dealing with what is. But, when he tried to be forward thinking — timing his drug consumption, writing manipulative sales scripts, and constantly dreaming up more money-schemes, for example — he ended up self-sabotaging himself and landing on the FBI’s radar.
That is the plight of the S:
Great at “here & now” tasks & tactics – for selling, negotiation, martial arts, etc.
But almost no foresight.
Or strategically thinking ahead.
Or being able to fully comprehend the future consequences of their current actions or inactions, even if they want to and intellectually know they should.
Again, it’s not an intelligence thing.
I’d argue Tony Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron was an S.
i.e., when he tried to be an N he created a robot that wanted to commit mass genocide…
It’s simply how an S sees the world.
Which brings me to the point of this whole Sha-bang:
I always knew there were certain people who were horrible customers for what I sell and teach. I could not pin-point it. But I knew, at a gut-level, there were certain people who just irritated the hell out of me whenever I did any kind of coaching, consulting, or client work. They are the same people who are so caught up in the moment currently with the economy, virus, etc they clearly cannot see the obvious bountiful harvest of opportunities such times always have historically created and are already creating now.
Those people are always, almost without exception, S’s in my experience.
And, it’s why I now spend as much time turning the really “hyper” versions of them away as I do on selling the people (mostly N’s) who do make great customers for what I offer.
My worldview is totally different than an S’s.
And, they make decisions that make zero sense whatsoever to me.
Like, for example, this guy who subscribed to “Email Players”, made a lot of money (by his own admission) for the two or three months he was on it… but then said, “I am two issues behind, OMG, I have to cancel!”
To an S reading this, that kind of hamster spinning probably makes perfect sense.
But to an N such as your faithful storyteller?
It’s insane.
That is hyper-S behavior at its worst.
And to an N reading it, it probably sounds almost like I am exaggerating.
But this is simply a hyper-S’s worldview.
They are incredibly good at some aspects of business, and incredibly terrible at others, just like N’s are incredibly good at some aspects of business, and incredibly terrible at others.
Neither is “better” than the other.
But when you understand how to harness other peoples’ personalities you can make lots more sales, close more clients, build a much stronger business, and create unbelievably powerful business relationships, JVs, and other alliances.
Perhaps one day I’ll do a live call with Stefania about this.
We shalt see.
In the meantime, for more email-centric training go here:
Ben Settle
