A little over 15 years ago, I was working at a marketing company in Memphis. I was hired to write marketing copy for the company’s more than 90 health supplements. The company cleared over $40 million a year with these products. I remember my boss speaking with me in a meeting saying sales were down and that he needed me to write some sales copy for a new version of one of our most popular products.
At the time I was still learning the ins and outs of marketing, so I asked him if telling customers that we had a “new” version of the product would really do the trick in boosting sales. I’ll never forget what he told me. He said the two most powerful words in marketing are free and new. He said, yes, people always want something new. He went on to explain that the majority of people want to be in the crowd who has it first, the new thing.
To make a long story short, I wrote the copy for the product. The company added one ingredient that wasn’t in the original version. Customers didn’t know it, but the company I worked for at the time was able to say it was a new version of the product and the copy I wrote convinced customers that they would experience new and even better results…and that a whole new world awaited them. The sky was the limit with this “new” product.
My boss later told me that the new product sold like hotcakes and sales were over and beyond where they had ever been simply because we created something new. Customers embraced the new, and they experienced new things.
However, as I write, I find it funny how in our daily lives, God often shifts us into something “new” but unlike in the consumer world where the new is craved, for many people, embracing the “new” thing that God has presented is sometimes hard to do.
I’m reminded of 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here.” This particular verse at its core is talking about how those who accept Christ are new creatures from the inside with the Holy Spirit living within. In addition to the spiritual newness, we as Christians can also look forward to the physical newness and change of seasons in our lives.
Personally, God has placed me in a new season, a season of trying things, such as creating a podcast to go along with my first book. That book is slated to release in 2019, in addition to me accepting an adjunct professor position at a local college here in the Houston Metro area (I’ll teach a class in August).
Yes, God has definitely placed me out of my comfort zone. I’ve historically been more of a private person, but in order to help with book sales and promotion, I’ve had to embrace putting myself on social media. I’ve never had a problem promoting “businesses” on social media, but being out there “personally” is an entirely different story.
But I can say that although a lot of the “new” that God has presented before me has been scary and sometimes uncomfortable (and I have no idea where all of this is leading me to), I’ve really had a blast and I can really feel or sense that God has something in store that will blow my mind.
with that said: if God has YOU in this same place, where the new has come, I encourage you to embrace it, because just as it was with the new product my former company released some 15 years ago, the new thing that God has for you, the sky is the limit!
FYI: my podcast is now available in Apple iTunes. In case you’re interested, click here to listen to my podcast’s first episode. It’s a short 5-minute welcome/introduction episode.