Its Easy The Marketing Strategy of the Present

[Music]

[Applause]

okay good morning everyone

so actually i’d like to start off by

doing something real quick so if you

guys could

all participate that would be great on

the count of three i’m going to have

everyone snap their fingers okay one

two three okay so pretty easy for almost

everyone

so i came to this realization the other

day that

there was a point in time where no one

could just

snap granted this was in about second

grade

and and

well it’s just like you

didn’t know how to do this action and it

was something that

it really required a lot of thought to

do but now

moving into the present this is an

action that comes so naturally to you

that you don’t even have to think about

it you just snap

hi my name is jessica lat and today i’m

here to talk about

how some of the things that we perceive

as easy

in reality like snapping it takes a lot

of work

and struggle in order to do it and when

we say that something is easy

this is because of a reaction that is

specifically marketed to the people of

the present

the present so this year it’s 2020

not only a new year but a new decade

and i remember people on new year’s eve

posting their final thoughts for 2019

and their hopes and goals for 2020

and throughout this i remember seeing

this really funny challenge

um called the 10 year challenge and so

the main concept of this

is you take a photo of what you look

like today

and you compare it to a photo of what

you looked like 10 years ago

and to me i remember

just really reflecting and thinking

where was i 10 years ago where will i be

in 5 10 or maybe even 20 years into the

future

what will the world look like and these

are the moments where

i’d already be looking up all of these

inspirational quotes and asking myself

the deep hard-hitting questions like who

am i

and if i were to be approached on this

like up on the street and i had to

introduce myself

what would i say and so

in short this translates to i did my own

ten year challenge

and all i can say is 10 years

is a lot of time and a lot of things can

change

and 2010 to me was a completely

different era

i still remember watching tv with my

family

and sitting in the living room and

watching shows

until i would end up dozing off to sleep

and then magically waking up the next

morning back in my own bed

but some of these other days i remember

waking up to the loud colorful and

abrasive

infomercial shouting at me and what is

the thing that i see

and hear that when i wake up

the thingamajigger3000 is easy to do

easy to use completed in a matter of

seconds and

apparently certified by the ancient gods

of narnia

so at this point i would be sold and i

would be waking my parents up and saying

okay i have the answer to all of life’s

greatest problems

we just need a blanket with sleeves to

do it

and so everyone in life

has a situation where they

are scared of something and

one of these things that i’ve realized

is when someone is

trying to tell you that something is

easy

this is because they are trying to sell

you something

so in life everyone has something that

they’re so

greatly scared of that it gives them

physical

like chills every single time they think

about it

for me this thing was phone calls i

remember

and i just know where to sit in order to

be the farthest from my family’s

landline

when the phone rang however

one day that all changed

it was a dark and gloomy night no i’m

just kidding it was a typical

school night in fourth grade and my

family had just decided on ordering

takeout

this sounds great right but little did i

know

that i would be the one ordering

and so my family is all gathered around

the table extensively discussing what

we’re going to order

and then my dad dials the number

ring ring ring ring all of a sudden

before i could even realize what is

going on my dad goes

okay here you go jess and before i could

even like be confused or utter single

denying response

he throws the phone my way my worst fear

has become my reality

i still remember him saying the words

think fast

yeah i’ll tell you what i’m thinking

take the phone back

dad i can’t order this food dad please

take it back please please

they’re gonna pick up hello

let’s just say that this order didn’t go

exactly

as i have i would have wanted it to

but i still did it and this would

signify

the first time out of many that i would

do something

that i really did not want to do

everyone comes across situations in life

where they have to

face challenges that they

that make them uncomfortable but they do

them anyway

and sometimes all you need is for

someone to pass you the phone

for me like i said before the person to

do this

was my dad my dad

has always taught me to learn

how to find success in the face of

adversity

and of fear and when i was younger these

small successes ranged from those same

phone calls

to even volunteering myself onto a stage

in las vegas

full of clowns actually um but these

were things that were so

nerve-wracking to me but now i consider

embarrassing stories that i can tell my

friends and family

or in this case with all of you

so and coming from a place where

i was too scared to even pick up the

phone

i have found myself becoming better at

communicating

and putting myself in places that i

would have never pictured myself in

we all grow up with the phrase it takes

hard work ingrained into our heads

yet we are still searching for the

easiest

ways of doing something the truth of the

matter is

no one ever just whips up the best thing

that they have ever done

except sometimes we skip straight to

snapping

and forgetting that we spend hours on

the playground just trying to get there

we forget about the pain and the

embarrassment we feel

once in order to get good at something

once it comes more naturally to us

or sometimes we actively try and forget

it

and instead even purposefully tell

ourselves that something was easier

after the fact in order to succeed

because we are searching for the easy

success that is marketed to us

in advertisements however

what i would like to tell you is that

nothing

comes easily without hard work

and reflecting on my last 10 years and

my growth as a person

i have discovered some tips and some

repetition in the things that i’ve done

in order for me to find some of my

success

tip number one

find motivation so

while my father has always told me to

and push me to do things that i really

just

they weren’t necessarily easy he’s also

led by example

in doing this my entire life when i was

two

my family found out that my dad has

leukemia

this is a type of cancer that affects a

person’s blood

and as a result like many cancers it

causes a person to become very weak

what i’ve i remember watching him

fight and persevere every single day in

order for my sister and i

to get to know the crazy and goofy

person he is today

this is my dad after three years since

his final round of chemotherapy

running in an ironman triathlon yeah

let’s just say that the typical

i’m too tired excuse while i was playing

sports wasn’t really valid for me

but i just remember seeing him persevere

through these type of challenges

and coming out of the other end

successful as well as watching my mom

adapt to the situations that were just

thrown at us

has been some of my greatest motivators

in life

moving forward into the future

what my family has taught me is that

life will throw you

these situations and you will have to

find

places to be resilient and to be willing

to endure this type of pain

in order to better yourself because your

story

is based on all the experiences that you

face

tip number two start with the small

steps

so we as viewers and consumers are sold

on the images of end results and final

products

we are sold the rewards and never truly

understand the amount of work it takes

for someone

to get to where they are today when we

see an image

pop up on our screen and this has caused

us to have this perception

that small steps are still failures

that when we take a small step and it

still falls short of that

dream ending that it’s

bad and that we need to or we shouldn’t

even try to do this

however small steps are the key

to success what i have learned in my

life

is that taking these small steps allows

you

right now to allows you in the future

for to find success a little bit more

easy and

the hardest challenge you’ve ever faced

continues to be

your newest one for me

this challenge came last year in my ap

calculus class

at the same time first semester began

was

the same time that my dad began a new

medication and was facing some of the

painful side effects that come with it

i remember seeing a loved one in pain

and that was mixed with the fear of an

unknown future

and i started to feel myself slipping in

this class

i was struggling to find motivation to

learn the material or even

to find enjoyment in the subject anymore

i would and i specifically remember

coming home one day

and him asking so jess how was your day

at school today

and i was searching for something that

i was proud of and i could tell them

about but all i could think about

was feeling failure

in this class when i took it and

at this moment i told myself you know

what jess i really want to understand

what i’m doing

i want to be proud of myself and i want

my parents and my family to be proud of

me

and sometimes in life you feel so stuck

where you are

and that life it it’s there’s no moving

forward past it

however this is where you need to take

the small steps

so i started taking my small steps

by coming into class early in the

morning and teaching myself the material

that i didn’t really understand before

and this allowed me to build up

confidence in

order for me to over time even start

enjoying the subject again

i tried to make calculus fun in any way

possible

even to the extent of becoming the go-to

creator

of calculus-inspired pick-up lines

i would write these on the board for my

entire class to see

and by the end of the class when we had

to take the ap

exam i remember not only feeling like i

was going

in as an individual but really feeling

like i had built

a team around me

and there are a lot of tear shed

throughout this entire process

but i remember one final happy

ugly cry being spent with my mom

as i got the news over the summer that i

had gotten a five on my ap calculus exam

this would mark for me one of

my biggest moments of strength and of

perseverance

and put a big picture idea into a little

bit of perspective

that you can really achieve anything you

want to in life

you just have to start with the small

steps

tip number three recognizing

your hard work so let’s

take this universal slogan it’s

easy and put it into a bit of

perspective

just what is being made easy i mean you

call the 1 800 number and

bam what do you get when you think of

everything that is important to you

whether it be school sports a job

a loved one these are the things that

don’t just come easily to you

but this is a these are the things

that we dedicate most of our time to

there seems to be this common idea that

the most

valuable things are the things

that are made easy for us i mean

logically

why would we want to do something that

is harder

or more awkward or more uncomfortable

instead it seems logical to

invest in the things that are made easy

done for us

and saving us time but it is now that

that i encourage you to take a step back

and think of anything that you take

great pride in

and recognize all of the hard work that

you have taken

in order to get there

easy is an idea that we need to stop

searching for

the hours and hours of practice that you

spend

in order to get to where you are today

is what is important

and it should be taken pride

in your struggles make up your story

because

all of the things that you’ve ever truly

cared about haven’t just been

handed to you what i’ve realized in my

life so far

is that we need to reshape our views of

what is considered valuable

and make them not what is the easiest

we need to realize that everything that

we want

doesn’t come easily

2020 is the very beginning of a new

10-year challenge in 2020

i encourage you to instead of asking

yourself the question

do i have to tell yourself that i can

i want to leave you with this wish it

dream it do it no matter how

big or how insignificant an action may

seem

because in some cases in order to reach

these successes

you need to take a leap of faith into a

state

of uncomfortable and even then

it may be worth more value than a

thousand thingamajigger3000s

but because when you look at the

universal marketing term

easy and look beyond it

and truly learn to rely on yourself to

persevere through the actions and the

challenges that come your way

you will not only be left with the

product of your actions but instead

with the innovations thank you

you