I’m sitting in the Eurostar train station in London, waiting to board a train to Amsterdam, when I hear a man say, “Are you Matthew Dicks?”
His name is Mike. He’s an American from Nashville who teaches guitarists to write music. His company is Songwriting for Guitar. He had just finished conducting a retreat in the Cotswolds and is on his way to Paris with his wife.
He read my book “Stories Sell” a while back and has used my storytelling principles to level up his business. He’s seen me enough on YouTube to recognize me across the way, as I was watching last night’s “Saturday Night Live” on my phone.
We shook hands and talked for a bit. He introduced me to his wife. Then, before he left to board his train, he asked for a photo together, which he posted on Instagram soon after.
I don’t get recognized often, but it happens from time to time, and it’s always thrilling to know someone is reading or watching or listening to something I’ve made.
Oddly, I get voice-recognized almost as often as folks recognize my face.
It turns out that people listen to me at least as much as they watch me.
But here’s the funny part:
As soon as he leaves, a woman gets up from her seat and asks me for a photo.
“Do you know who I am?” I ask.
“Of course,” she says.
But she doesn’t. She just thinks I’m a celebrity because of Mike’s reaction to me, so she wants a photo.
I agree, wishing I could be there when she shows her friends the photo and asks, “Who the hell is this?”
As soon as we finish our photo, I turn to sit, but before I can, someone else asks me for a photo. He doesn’t speak English, so he motions to me, his phone, and me again, then mimes taking a picture.
I agree again.
As we finish this photo, my train is called, so I collect my bags and head for the platform, leaving behind two people with photos of me that will make no sense to anyone they know.
It’s the perfect example of a simple marketing principle:
“Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd.”
It’s also a perfect example of the current state of the world, described brilliantly by comedian Bo Burnham:
“The desire for content at any cost means we no longer look at a sunset to experience beauty. We look at it to see if it makes a good background.”
Mike’s desire for a photo with me made sense. He wanted to remember meeting someone whom he admires.
I get that. I may have done the same.
But the others?
They were just looking for a sunset background. Something to produce a few more likes on their journey to nowhere. Consumed by FOMO and the desire to say, “Look who I saw!”
Even if they don’t know who they were seeing.
But it also made me laugh, so that was something.
