15
Do You Have “What It Takes” To Compel Immediate Action?

By Chip Kessler

At core, what was THE secret that made John Brinkley’s fame and fortune, his self-creation of the lifestyle of big money, fancy cars, mansions, larger than life vacations, and being able to build his own hospitals, buy his own radio stations, and amaze the nation, versus just eking out a living or having to find another line of work altogether? What ONE THING more than any other propelled Dr. Brinkley to the mountaintop?

What ONE THING, more than any other, enabled Brinkley to motivate men to spend large sums of money for a goat-gland transplant and travel hundreds of miles to a strange city to first meet with him, and then to instantly agree to get the operation? And to motivate these men’s wives to support them in this decision? Think about this for a moment—after all, how many wives usually approve of their husbands spending large sums of money on anything? Indeed, Dr. Brinkley’s emotionally charged marketing messages stirred something in both genders.

It is difficult to synthesize this Brinkley “power” into a simple explanation. After a great deal of thought, while pouring over thousands of pages of information about John Brinkley’s amazing success, archives of his materials, recordings of his radio broadcasts, and other resources, I decided to put it this way: Dr. Brinkley did not merely advertise, market, promote, sell. He was a motivational personality. John R. Brinkley developed the ability to make people get the “desire to believe.” Not just making them believe; that’s cross between parlor tricks and classic salesmanship. The greater success is making people want to believe. This one element can move mountains in your business; no matter what business you are presently in or want to be in.

JOHN R. BRINKLEY did NOT merely advertise, market, promote, sell. He was a MOTIVATIONAL personality.

When was the last time that you made a decision or purchase, or took an action, and there was no doubt in your mind that you were making the right decision and moving forward on it? In your heart and mind, you knew what you were doing was right.

Dr. Brinkley had this effect on people, and it made him stand head and shoulders above the average run-of-the-mill marketer, anyone else offering any product, service or cure. Most importantly, John Brinkley found ways to connect to the most profound reasons someone would want to believe in him and his proposition.

A great example of this was handed to John Brinkley, but to his credit, he recognized its potential value when it occurred. John’s gift came from that farmer who first went to the Milford, Kansas physician because he lacked “pep.” John R. Brinkley’s handy-work below the belt not only brought praises from the famer Bill Stittsworth and his wife (remember, she was so elated with her man’s newly rediscovered sexual ability that she then wanted to have ovaries from a female goat transplanted herself), it also brought one other thing:

Billy Stittsworth, Jr.

There are ways of letting your target market know about the effectiveness of what product and service you are marketing … and then there are ways. The best is some evidence of the validity of your proposition that is intensely, profoundly motivational, triggering desire to believe. The emergence of a Stittsworth off-spring not only spoke volumes about the transformative power of Brinkley’s goat-glands surgery, but also tapped into the greatest desire many men and women have: the need to have a baby. For the man, it’s the continuation of his name. For the woman it coincides with her need to bring life into the world. In John Brinkley’s time, it was still seen as the natural, expected fulfillment of marriage, and the absence of offspring represented embarrassing failure—a sign that, either the woman was barren or the man not a man at all. A couple without at least one child was not blessed by God, and family, friends, even the entire community wondered why, and viewed them with pity. These were the cultural conditions into which Dr. Brinkley had brought his cure. And now, Brinkley had an in-the-flesh demonstration of what a goat’s transplanted testicles into a man can produce! The farmer’s story and his living, breathing son provided a rock-solid foundation for others’ belief.

HIGH VALUE QUESTION: how do you… how can you inspire the desire to believe?

(Can you list ten ways you do this?)

John Brinkley knew how to present his ‘miracle’ in a way that made people want to believe. Billy Jr. provided the unassailable reason to believe. This is a most potent combination. And Dr. Brinkley took full advantage, turning the farmer, his wife and little Billy Jr. into what we would now call ‘compensated spokespersons', presenting them to groups of potential patients in person and through media at every opportunity.

The million-dollar question then is: how can you inspire the desire to believe, and what walking, talking, living, evidentiary demonstration can you present, providing unassailable reason to believe?