She Found the Loophole. Then the School Called.

What’s Brewing?

Back-to-school season always makes me think about Cam’s senior year.

We homeschooled, but she went to the academy two days a week for a few classes because I am self-aware enough to admit I am not 100% sure of my teaching skills in every subject.

On the first day of her senior year, I gave her the speech.

“Let’s make this a great year. No calls from the school. It is your senior year. You are almost done.”

Cam absolutely hated school.

So naturally, on the third day of school, my phone rang.

They told me I needed to come pick her up because she was having “intrusive thoughts.”

Of course, I was mad, so I did not ask nearly enough questions.

I just went and got her.

She climbed into the truck and I asked, “What intrusive thoughts were you having?”

She looked at me and said, “Oh my gosh. Apparently the teacher learned a new word because she has used ‘intrusive’ every way she can think of for the past three days.”

At that point, I knew there was more to the story.

There always is with Cam.

Apparently, they were having sandwiches for lunch.

Again.

For the third time that week.

Cam asked the teacher if she could DoorDash something.

The teacher told her that only a family member could bring food to the school.

Cam knew I was busy.

So she found herself a loophole.

She ordered DoorDash anyway and put in the delivery notes that whoever brought it needed to pretend to be her aunt or uncle.

Depending on who showed up.

Problem solved.

At least according to Cam.

Unfortunately, the person who delivered the food was very obviously not related to us.

That did not stop her.

She argued that her mother had family members of different races.

Which is true. Sorta, I have great friends we consider family and even call them by relative nicknames. 

The school finally dug the DoorDash receipt OUT OF THE GARBAGE to prove that she was lying.

At that point, I almost had to admire the commitment from both sides.

And yes, we had a conversation afterward about lying.

But we also had another conversation.

Finding a loophole does not mean you found a good solution.

Sometimes it just means you found a more creative way to get yourself in trouble.

Marketing Over Easy

Business owners do this all the time with marketing.

We look for the loophole.

The shortcut.

The algorithm trick.

The newest automation.

The fastest way to crank out more content.

The magic keyword.

The thing somebody swears will “hack” Facebook, Google, SEO, email, or whatever platform everybody is mad at this week.

And sometimes the loophole technically works.

That is the dangerous part.

Because when something works once, we convince ourselves it was smart.

But marketing is not just about whether you can make the system do what you want.

There is a real person on the other side of it.

Your customer.

They are deciding:

Do I understand what this business does?

Do I trust them?

Do they seem like real people?

Will they actually do what they say?

Is this going to be easy, or am I about to regret contacting them?

That is why I will take clear, consistent, human marketing over a clever trick every single time.

People first.

Relationships over clicks.

The numbers matter, but the experience matters too.

That is how trust gets built.

Take Home the Bacon

Before you try the newest marketing shortcut, ask yourself three things:

Does this make things easier for my customer?

Does this sound like us?

Would I still do it if there were no algorithm to impress?

If the answer is no, it probably is not a strategy.

It is a loophole.

And eventually somebody is going to dig the DoorDash receipt out of the garbage.

Cam did eat her food, though.

So I cannot say the plan was a complete failure.