Your Job is to Be a Magician (Like This Guy, Kind of)

Image courtesy of renjith krishnan at freedigitalphotos.net
Image courtesy of renjith krishnan at freedigitalphotos.net

It’s not every day you have your mind blown.

I was in Vegas last week giving a talk to a group of (very) sober HR execs about why HR needs a serious brand overhaul (admit it, it does).

And at the cocktail party they had this magician who blew my fucking mind. None other than the Amazing Shimshi, a handsome young Israeli who pulled some shit I can still not get over.

But I’ll just tell you this one thing he did, as I WAS STANDING RIGHT THERE TWO FEET FROM HIM, not out in the audience somewhere. He took my friend Megan’s wedding ring in his left hand, made a fist, and then with his right hand, waved a lighter under his hand—without flinching, which is crazy enough.

Then he opened his hand—and the ring was gone.

I know magicians distract and deflect, but he didn’t stop to do a hat trick or say “What’s that over there?” He just took the ring, lit his hand, and then POOF. GONE.

I half expected him to pull it out from behind some girl’s ear like my dad used to do with quarters. But no.

He says, There it is.

We all look down–and it’s tied in a knot IN HIS SHOELACE ON HIS OWN DAMN SHOE.

I have two theories. He:

1. Had an identical ring made before the party and had already tied to his shoe when he walked in that night before ever meeting Megan; or

2. Froze time, like the girl does in that Discovery card commercial, rendering us all unconscious for a few moments while he bent down and tied it to his shoe.

#1 is clearly impossible. I’m going with #2. I think the Amazing Shimshi has some crazy secret power that he’s wasting at the Wynn when he should be using to stop Trump and save our nation from extinction.

(Watch as he does this trick on video, on some other chick.)

I’ve now watched this video a bunch, and have developed a third theory which takes me 75% of the way there (he quickly pockets the ring when reaching for his lighter or when returning the lighter to his pocket). But the remaining 25% of my theory requires that there be a tiny Shimshi in his pocket who climbs down his leg and ties it to his shoe at astonishing speed.

What does this have to do with anything?

Now. I have made nothing disappear in my own life except money and socks. But you and I both have SOME kind of magic, something you do that no one else does. Ok, maybe it doesn’t make people do spit takes or go into shock, but there is SOMETHING you do that someone else can’t even imagine.

That, my friend, is your business. Your brand. Your thing. Your bit of magic, if you will. And helping you find it happens to be my specialty.

I call it magic because you do it so well, so effortlessly, so flawlessly, that it impresses others, who say they could never do that. And so in that way, it kind of is.

If you don’t have enough money or clients or business or growth, I don’t believe it’s because you’re not “good” enough at one thing, or there isn’t enough opportunity out there. I call bullshit. It’s a sign that you haven’t landed it yet, or conveyed it powerfully to others.

Which means you’ve got a little branding problem yourself.

Spend some time thinking about that this week: Either what that magic is, or how you can better communicate it. What is that thing that makes people go, Wow! When you know what problem that solves for them, it practically sells itself.

(And if you want help figuring that out, why, that’s what I do!)

Meantime, I’m going to go make some snack food disappear.