# Start by Giving Her Flowers

> My niece. The 5-second test. And the day I accidentally wrote the Booster Manifesto.

Chapter 5 of The Open Book — Alexander Reisch / Booster
Canonical: https://alexreisch.com/story/buy-her-flowers-first
Published: 2025-03-12

I need to tell you a story. About my niece.

She's small. Sweet. And she doesn't like being picked up by people she doesn't know well. Which is fair — I don't like that either.

The other day I walked up to her slowly. Arms wide open. Big smile. And her? She just walked around me in a wide arc. Ignored me completely.

My mother-in-law, dry as ever:

> "Alex… maybe bring her flowers first before you drag her into the bushes."

I laughed. Then I stopped laughing. Because I realized: That's exactly what 90% of coaches do in their marketing. Sell directly. Without building trust first. Without speaking the language the other person understands.

## The Curse of Knowledge

In March 2025 I wrote an email. Not a planned one. No funnel behind it. Just an email because something was on my mind.

The core idea: Your brain plays a trick on you. It makes you believe your offer is crystal clear. But your potential client has no clue what you actually mean.

**You think:** "This is a damn good offer. It makes total sense."

**The client thinks:** "Uh… what exactly do I get here?"

It's called the curse of knowledge. You know too much about your own offer. Your client knows nothing. And you don't notice the gap — because you can't get out of your own head.

## The 5-Second Test

In that email I described a test:

Pull up your offer. Read it. From the perspective of a stranger. Then ask yourself: **Would YOU buy this?**

No "yes, but." No "if you know the context." Just your first gut reaction in 5 seconds.

If the answer is no: Back to the workbench.

## What I Didn't Know Then

I just sent that email out. As a newsletter. To my small list. Didn't think much of it.

But today — a year later — I know: That was the Booster manifesto. Everything the chatbot does now was in that email:

- The blind spot — you can't see what you can't see
- The 5-second test — can you say it in one sentence?
- The curse of knowledge — your biggest problem is that you're too close
- The solution: A mirror. Someone (or something) that shows you what you can't see yourself

I wrote the manifesto without knowing it was one. Sometimes you build the right thing — you just don't recognize it yet.

## The Voice Shift

Something else happened during that time: My tone changed. My first posts in February were full of emojis and hype. BREAKING! CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOREVER! GAME-CHANGER! The whole circus.

A few weeks later: Not a single emoji. Short sentences. Direct. Honest. "Start." instead of "Become the best version of yourself."

Not planned. It just happened. Because I started writing the way I talk. And I don't talk in emojis.

*— Alex, Wagenhoff, March 2025*

My niece saw in 5 seconds what I didn't see in 5 months.

Sometimes you need a mirror. That's exactly what the Booster is — a mirror for your offer. Except it doesn't take 5 seconds, it takes 5 minutes. And it doesn't just tell you what's wrong — it tells you what to say instead.

*What I did not know back then: before the flowers could come, I first had to sell the house. And that changed everything.*

> **What this means for you:** Do the 5-second test. Now. Show your offer to a stranger — not your wife, not your friend. A real stranger. And watch their face. If after 5 seconds they don't say "Tell me more" — you're speaking the wrong language. Not the wrong message. The wrong language.