The other night, Laura and I watched The Big Short (2015).🎥

It’s one of my favorite movies, and I hadn’t seen it in a while…

And with all the stuff going on in the world right now,

I’d been having this urge to watch it.

Especially because I keep thinking, “what is it that’s obvious, but that I’m not seeing?”🧐

That’s what the movie is all about.

It’s about the 2008 housing market crash…

And how a handful of people saw it coming, while the rest of us didn’t.

Which made them a huge fortune.💰

Now, the movie is worth watching simply because it’s a really good film…

With excellent performances from Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, and others

But the reason I’m writing to you about it today…

Is because this film does an incredible job of taking complex concepts…

And explaining them in easy to understand ways.

In one scene, Ryan Gosling explains to Steve Carell’s team how Mortgage Bonds are made up of layers of tranches…

And why that’s a bad thing that will lead to the housing market’s collapse.

He does it by using a Jenga set, where the pieces are labeled AAA, AA, A, BBB, BB, B…

He shows how as the riskier bonds at the bottom start to fail…

The whole system eventually falls apart.

It’s an entertaining scene, for sure…

But, what I love about it so much…

Is the way it uses a visual illustration…

And simplified dialogue…

To make a seemingly complex topic very easy to understand.

Because here’s the thing:

That’s what our main job is as marketers and copywriters…

We’re trying to show the real reason the prospect has been struggling.

And in order to do that,

We need to explain what are sometimes complex concepts to them…

But do this in a way that is stupidly easy to understand.

Well, The Big Short does this again, and again, and again: 

Early on in the movie, to explain mortgage-backed securities, subprime loans, tranches, and other complex terms…

They cut to Margot Robbie drinking champagne in a bathtub to explain all these concepts (here’s the clip).

Later, they cut to the late Anthony Bourdain in a kitchen as he explains Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) using three-day-old halibut to make a fish stew (here's the clip)…

I’ve linked to all of the afo rementioned YouTube scenes in this article.

And seriously – you really should watch them (like 10 minutes total)…

Because the way these scenes are written…

The way they take complex concepts and make them easy to visualize and understand…

Is identical to how you should be engaging with prospects in your marketing.

K, that’s it for now.

Hope you and yours have an awesome day!

 

– SPG

P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.