“Sometimes what others might judge as your greatest weaknesses are really your greatest strengths. You are only disadvantaged if you think you are.”
Roy Williams is a renowned author and marketing consultant best known for his Wizard of Ads book trilogy, each of which has been featured on the Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestseller lists. He is the founder of the Wizard Academy Institute, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational institution located in Austin, Texas. Williams also produces and publishes a weekly column and podcast, “Monday Morning Memo.” He is the father of two sons and currently lives in Austin with his wife, Pennie. (www.WizardofAds.com)
The Interview
Dachshunds, or “wiener dogs” as we call them in Texas, introduced me to Roy. He owns the marketing company that helped found the annual Wiener Dog Races in Buda, Texas, and I made a documentary about those races called Lord of the Wiens: A Dachumentary. Though I did come up with the “dachumentary” part, I borrowed the name of the film from Williams Marketing, which thought up the brilliant theme of the races that year. (Lord of the Rings had just won the Academy Award.) I needed help with the artwork as my film took off, and Roy and his team could not have been more helpful and generous. Roy also ended up being my first official writing instructor, as he invited me to take a workshop at his Wizard Academy in the bucolic Texas hill country. I interviewed him on the campus two years later on a sweltering August day, and love reading his interview in the book — it’s fast-paced, uniquely Roy, and it always makes me laugh.
