Have you ever “matrixed” yourself? If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry—but it’s a thing (and if you’ve seen the movie The Matrix, you know what I mean).
So what is matrixing? It’s like waking up to the reality of what’s happening out there, becoming able to see things in a different way. You learn how to make sense of it all, and to better control how you feel about something.
And, you can apply this idea of matrixing yourself to the world of marketing! When you open your eyes to how marketing actually works, it’ll help you understand when you’re being sold to, and why marketers do what they do. It’s fun—and over the long haul, it’ll help you strengthen your own marketing chops.
SPI 570: The Marketing Matrix
Announcer: Welcome to the Smart Passive Income podcast, where it’s all about working hard now so you can sit back and reap the benefits later. And now your host, his new Pokémon YouTube channel has 100,000 subscribers in less than a year, Pat Flynn.
Pat Flynn: Have you ever “matrixed yourself” with anything? If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry because I just made that up, but it is a thing, right? If you’ve seen the movie Matrix, it is like you wake up to the reality of what’s happening out there, and you’re able to see things in a different way. You’re able to make sense of it all. You’re able to better control how you feel about something. You’re able to better understand the things that are happening, the forces that are happening out there in the world. And so I’m not going to spoil The Matrix, but that’s an idea of The Matrix. You kind of can see beyond just the automation and the things that are happening out there. And hopefully in the end, make your own decisions and choices.
Pat Flynn: I once matrixed myself with relation to art, and I went to architecture school at UC Berkeley. And in my first spring semester, we had fall semester, it was a lot of sit down and lecture type of classes for architecture plus marching band, which was just a load. And it was awesome. But in the spring semester, I had my first studio class, and in architecture, studio classes, where you go in, you get your own desk and you do things. You draw, you paint, you model and whatnot. And this drawing class really opened up my eyes. It matrixed myself to the world of art, but more than the world of art, just the world around me in general. There was a particular lesson where we learned how to shadow our drawings. Shadow is a very important thing when it comes to art, especially when you’re eventually going to be drawing buildings and want them to look great to clients or best represent the mood and the scenario that you’re creating with the building that you’re creating and designing.
Pat Flynn: Anyway, this lesson taught me about how to look at shadow and how to look at light and how it gets reflected, how it gets blocked, and how all those things combined are able to create something that’s 3D to your eye. It’s why, when you look at pictures and there is an image and that image has a shadow, it really tricks your mind if you will, to think that thing’s really there. If you’ve seen any of those chalk drawings or sidewalk drawings, where you watch a person color on the sidewalk and all of a sudden it just takes life and it takes life, and it actually takes hold in the environment it’s in because of the shadow that it creates.
Pat Flynn: And we don’t normally look at a thing and go, “Oh, because there’s a shadow there, therefore that thing actually exists.” But when you’re drawing, you start noticing those things. And so quickly, even after just one or two lessons, of course, being forced to draw and forced to share your results or share your drawing in front of a whole bunch of other people, your classmates and random people who come in to judge your drawings. I mean, you want to do a good job. So you are forced to pay attention to these things. And wow, my world opened up.
Pat Flynn: I started to notice shadow in buildings. I started to notice shadow when people were sitting on the grass. I started to notice how shadow changed length, depending on the time of day and the angle of the light. I started to notice how, when there is an overhead light, it creates and casts a shadow on a face that looks a little bit more scary or, just unnatural versus daylight coming in, which actually casts very little shadow, not direct light, but daylight, in which case you notice this, if you’ve ever taken a picture facing a window and you take a selfie, it’s the most beautiful lighting in the world, because your face has this nice blended light and shadow wash on it.
Pat Flynn: Anyway, that was my first real moment of going, “Whoa, there’s this whole world of light and dark and shadow and glare that I’ve just never noticed.” It’s why when you see a drawing of a sphere and a person colors in the sphere and different shadings, but then they take a eraser, and you know that little white glare that’s on the upper right hand corner usually of a marble or a ball? They just take an eraser and just clear that part out and boom, that’s the light that’s reflected from the light in the scene that that ball is in. It’s just like, wow, it really pops.
Pat Flynn: So forever from that class, I have seen things differently as a result of that. I’ve matrixed myself in the world of light and dark and sunlight and shadow and whatnot.
Pat Flynn: And ever since I started doing entrepreneurship back in 2008, I mean, it didn’t happen right away, it wasn’t an art lesson. In fact, it wasn’t any lessons from others at all. It was self-taught, for the most part. I did get guidance along the way, and those definitely opened up my eyes. But over time, I would say about a year and a half into it, I started to see things differently. And not only did I start to see things differently in a way that allowed me to better market and to better share my messages and to better connect with people and serve people, but it allowed me to understand what it was like to be marketed to.
Pat Flynn: When you are a marketer and you are an entrepreneur, you start to see how other people try to convince you to purchase something. You, that they have something worth paying attention to. You, they try to convince you. And you could either just go with the natural forces that are out there and just automatically react in a way that you automatically react. Or what if you said, “You know what? I’m going to step back out of this. I’m going to unplug from the matrix, if you will. And I’m going to start to see things in a way that’s different. I don’t want to be like those other people who just buy things to buy things or are sold to, and then make a snap decision based on unconscious or subconscious efforts.” When you are consciously marketing all day long and entrepreneuring and serving people online, you start to notice when people do it to you. And it’s really fun to look at everything, from billboards and the phrases on the billboards.
Pat Flynn: Why does it say that? Why on the Chick-fil-A billboards are there cows painting something across the word “”beef” and hopefully trying to get people to eat more chicken? “More chicken.” Why is it that when you are in a store, certain prices are the way they are? Why is it that when you are on a call and they start selling to you, did they say those things in the way that they said? And what are they trying to do with you? And it’s not always a bad thing. Again, it’s not bad to be sold to. In fact, I love, I absolutely love when I’m being sold to, and you know what, it’s funny because when I’m sold to really well, and maybe this is a bad thing, but when I’m sold to really well, I’m actually more likely to say yes or at least help that person out in some way. You know, “I can’t afford this or, I’m not able to buy this right now, but I do know somebody that can probably benefit from this, so let me give you their information instead.”
Pat Flynn: Poor selling comes across very quickly too. It’s similar to when I used to wait at Macaroni Grill. I was a waiter, and then I became a bartender actually, but now I’m forever unplugged, if you will even from that, whenever I go to a restaurant. Now, I, I don’t want to say judge, but I kind of do. I kind of pay attention to the things that my own waiters and waitresses do to take the order, to make me feel welcome, to ignore me, whatever it is it might be. And it hits home more. And I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing in terms of going to restaurants. Maybe it just ruins my experience, or perhaps heightens it. I mean, it maybe makes the ups higher and the lows lower, but the whole purpose of sharing this with you is because I want you to be conscious of when people are selling.
Pat Flynn: I want you to be conscious of when you are being shared messages and why they’re being shared in the way that they are. And again, not all selling is bad. Selling can be great. And when it’s great, pay attention to it, understand why, because you can do that too. And when it’s not so great, hopefully you can back check yourself and go, “Okay, well, at least I’m not doing that.” It’s just so fun. It has absolutely just been so fun to be unplugged from the marketing matrix. I mean, I’m not going to say that I’m never swayed by marketing messages without knowing what’s going on, because some messages are just that good or some person or some product just gets right in front of me at the exact time that I’m in the moment of needing it, and it solves my challenge and problems.
Pat Flynn: So, I’m not like, “Hey, look how well these guys are marketing to me.” I’m just like, “I need the thing. I’m going to go buy it.” But I recommend that you see, even just try it for 24 hours, like from this point forward, 24 hours from now, check in with yourself and go, “When am I being sold to? Why is it being sold like that? Why does it have that name? Why is that commercial coming on right now? Why does that person on the phone say that? It’s just so fun, and what it does over the long haul is it helps you better strengthen your own marketing chops too. Because as you start to notice great things that are happening out there in the world of marketing and entrepreneurship, you begin to even subconsciously, because you are conscious about these things, you unsubconsciously begin to start practicing those good things too, and avoiding or removing yourself from bad practices as well.
Pat Flynn: So let me know what you think. I’d love to hear you on Twitter or Instagram @ PatFlynn. And I invite you to enter this new world; take the yellow pill, not the red or the blue, it’s the yellow pill. Yellow, green, I don’t know. Purple, I don’t know. I don’t know what color the pill is, but it’s a fun color to have. I’m not condoning taking pills. It’s just an analogy. If you haven’t seen The Matrix, then don’t blame me, that’s your fault. Anyway, this has been fun. The interviews, they’re so formal. I mean, they are great conversations and I’m just so excited for the next ones that are coming. We have some great guests coming this year. I cannot wait to share more guests with you, so make sure you hit subscribe if you haven’t already, but I just love these episodes because I just get to chat with you.
Pat Flynn: And what’s also cool is we have some Teaching Fridays coming up. We have some members of SPI Pro who are coming onto the show to take the mic on Fridays for the next few weeks, not next week, but perhaps the week after, because we’ve got some great workshops to share with you, some great experiences, some great learnings from our very own community. And if you don’t know what we’re talking about, check out SPI Pro and you can apply at spipro.com. We have some amazing people in there who are in a community who support each other. It’s a safe space for entrepreneurs to gather. And I want you to gather there too.
Pat Flynn: If you go to spipro.com, you can apply and potentially get in too. We want to make sure it’s the right fit for both of us. If it’s not, we’ll point you in the right direction, so you can learn and grow to get to the point where it does make sense for you, but just go to spipro.com. We’re going to take care of you either way, and you can join this amazing group of incredibly generous, kind and so, so smart entrepreneurs to come in and learn from and to just share experiences with. SPIPro.com and look out for those teaching Fridays coming up very soon. In the meantime, I hope you have an amazing weekend and I look forward to serving you next week. Cheers, peace out, and as always, team fun for the win.
Pat Flynn: Thanks for listening to the Smart, Passive Income podcast at smartpassiveincome.com. I’m your host, Pat Flynn. Our senior producer is Sara Jane Hess, our series producer is David Grabowski, and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. The Smart Passive Income podcast is a production of SPI Media. We’ll catch you in the next session.
