“Put that shit on.” — AB
I have a love-hate relationship with AB. When he played for my Steelers, he was my favorite player. Then he went haywire:
* He quit on my Steelers, and we released him
* He got signed to the Raiders, then quit on the team just two days before making millions of dollars
* He then went to the Patriots and teamed up with Tom Brady (but he called Robert Kraft a cracker—I think—and got released)
* Then, after Tom Brady went to Tampa Bay, AB eventually made his way down there, he even lived at Tom’s house for a while when he first moved down there. In Tampa, AB won a Super Bowl (even though he was a shell of his former Steeler self)
* After winning a Super Bowl with Tom, he returned to Tampa, but then quit on the team in the middle of a game by taking his shirt and shoulder pads off.
* After leaving Tampa (and after Tom Brady got divorced) AB started alluding that he his Tom’s wife did the damn thang while he lived at Tom’s house.
* In between all this, he had a bunch of negative media stories from whipping out his manhood in a public pool to throwing furniture at movers to becoming a rapper
* Of course, during this time, every figured he was suffering real bad from CTE (and there’s a certain hit he took when he played for the Steelers that may signify the start of it)
* And since then, he’s become a X legendary troll
* He’s even started his own sports network, which he cleverly calls CTESPN
* And I’ve come full circle on him. Watching my favorite player leave my favorite team hurt, especially because he teamed up with Tom Brady. But he’s one of the funniest follows on X
And you know what?
From the outside looking in, dude’s still making money. Maybe not NFL money. But who knows.
Why?
Because he learned a skill that most business owners, to put it frankly, don’t have the cajones to use:
He turned his worst attribute, his biggest skeleton in his closet, into a certified brand.
He may or may not have CTE… But he’s a person biz owners should study.
Not only did he have legendary work ethic when he played, but since he’s retired from the NFL and rap he’s kept that legendary work ethic (even if it only means tweeting and selling Trump / AB shirts).
Anyway, moral of the story?
When your product, business, or personality has a major flaw like AB’s, instead of shying away from it and suppressing it, lean into it.
It has the power to turn your biggest haters into your biggest fans.
Wanna see how this works in your email marketing strategy? Hit reply, and let’s chat.
As AB says: “Put that shit on”
John
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