Wax On, Wax Off: Headfake Marketing, Without Marketing

Jim offers a great idea. He knows it’s good, but unfortunately a lot of people just don’t quite get it and therefore aren’t buying it. Jim is frustrated day after day when he sees how his ideas could be used by people in his community, but because he can’t communicate it clearly, and because the community aren’t sure of him, his idea isn’t selling.

One day, Jim decides to stop trying to market his idea, and instead decides to show his idea in action. He uses his idea to promote an entirely different idea altogether. People see Jim’s idea in action without realising it. Ok, so Jim is me. Jim is a lot of people.

Headfake marketing – the method of using one thing to teach another – is as old as the Karate Kid. Remember Mr. Miyagi teaching his student to ‘wax on, wax off’? By teaching him how to clean windows, Daniel actually learns to block punches.

How To Wax On, Wax Off

1. Create some kind of distance or magic curtain. Don’t let people see how you put it together, because that breaks the transformational effect.
2. Transfer your passion into the headfake. The headfake needs to be around a passion or a pain in order to provoke emotion.
3. Make the headfake a mindshift. Do it to such a high standard that people are hungry for the next thing you have. Create a phrase that people start using.
4. Tell stories. People forget what was said but they remember what they felt.
5. Package the idea to take home. After the headfake, people will want your idea. Present it clearly.
6. Convert it. Close the deal. If people are complimenting you, decide to have the confidence to ask for the commitment.

Randy Pausch’s ‘Last Lecture’ is the finest example of headfake in action – the whole talk is itself a headfake. Watch it.