Through the use of clever marketing, cult-like loyalty building, and customer identity companies create lifelong customers and lock us into a spending addiction which we cannot hope to fight unless we are aware of it. Even if we are aware of how our minds are attracted to fancy labels, brand recognition, and brilliantly rhetoric sales pitches, we may still find ourselves spending far more of our hard earned money on items and products that we either do not need or that we can get far cheaper through other avenues.

As a matter of fact, not even a week after submitting last week’s article I found myself at the shopping mall. Not because there was anything there that I needed to buy but because Halloween is approaching and I like to search out items that may be useful in putting together my costume. While at the mall I remembered that I had recently run out of casein protein powder the day before and that I would need to stop at Vitamin Shop in order to stock back up. This was something that I could justify as a necessary purchase as I am currently two weeks out from my fifth amateur fight and my diet is of utmost importance with regards to my preparation. All that aside, driving from the mall to the Vitamin Shop was enough of an inconvenience to suede me into simply walking over to the GNC store within the mall. Full disclaimer: I normally hate GNC and am always reluctant to go. Well, I knew going in that I could find cheaper casein at VS but that didn’t stop me from shopping around. Eventually I found a product that was hugely marked up but that I had used some time before much to my liking, and this one was a "NEW FORMULA WITH ENHANCED FLAVORS!!!." Against my better judgement, I chose to buy the product. While I was at it, I thought that maybe I wasn’t eating enough high quality vegetables or fruits a day (most of my veggies come from a can to save money…). So I also picked up a container of green drink mix which was far more expensive than it was worth, BUT IT WAS "PROBIOTIC REINFORCED AND LEMON LIME FLAVORED!!"! When I got my bill my heart sank, 70.00 dollars for two measly products. Though my excitement to try both products outweighed my better judgement at the time, on my way home I began recounting what had just transpired and how much more I could have done with that 70.00 dollars. The lesson here is that brand marketing is so powerful that even myself who is audacious enough to lecture you on it, is still subject to the producer’s black magic.

This leads us into the primary point of this entire article series. Be a producer, not a consumer! The producers are the ones who benefit the most from this business arrangement. They sell, we buy. As I stated before, they are not foolish enough to fall for their own marketing scams. They invented the game and they know how to play it. They can purchase well within their means and can usually find the best deals on any product anywhere. How do they do it? It starts by understanding the mechanisms at play with regards to sales and marketing. We have already beaten that dead horse back to life and then back to death so I won’t discuss it much more. Secondly, they figured out how to monetize themselves and their worth. That is the secret to success. Many of you might recall one of the Joker’s most famous lines in The Dark Knight where he answers the question of why he hasn’t killed The Batman yet if he thinks it’s a simple task. The Joker cleverly responds “If you are good at something, never do it for free.” In The Joker’s case he exceptionally good at killing, which he showcases through the remainder of the film. The Joker didn’t even care about money, as we see him burn over one million dollars just to prove a point. That however didn’t stop him from understanding a very basic capitalist concept. In order to find financial success, you need to monetize your skill set. After all, isn’t that why many of us are in school? I know that’s what I am doing here. I came to the University of Wisconsin in order to hone my craft as both a writer and a media creator so that I could later monetize those skills and maximize my income. I don’t have any misgivings about simply wanting to express myself, or showcase my artistic prowess. Those are vain pursuits that leave the pocket book baron and my stomach empty. You want success? You need to do three things. Find out what you are good at, figure out a way to make money doing that thing, and then get better at that thing than everyone else in your circle. You may find that you have multiple talents and skills. I’d like to think that in addition to being a half-decent wordsmith I am also pretty competent behind a camera. In an aim to maximize my earning potential I then strive to maximize as many of my skill sets as possible.

Until you are able to make money doing what you are good at then you will forever be trapped in the type of dead end jobs that we discussed in the first article, and not only that but you will forever be subject to people who

ARE producing.