Never Exclude Yourself

"You don’t have to be a father to get the Father’s Day deals."

I like to joke about this around Father’s Day. Sometimes there’s a chuckle, but more amusing to me are the quizzical looks I get when I say it—like I’ve magically turned into an 86-year-old grandpa giving mothball wisdom.

But there’s real wisdom in it—beyond the old-school mothball-thrifter kind: never exclude yourself just because you’re not the intended audience.

There are hidden opportunities and advantages in not being the person someone else never had in mind.

Let’s take, for example, a 55+ retirement community. If you’re under 55, want to buy a house, and have the financing—they’ll sell it to you. They can’t turn you away. Discrimination laws won’t let them.

So what are the hidden opportunities and advantages of being a young person in an over-55 community:

• Amazing pool and clubhouse amenities
• Typically no lawn care—your lawn care is included in the HOA
• Little kids only appear in the neighborhood for holidays and special occasions
• Your neighbors are quiet
• When you go on vacation, you have multiple neighbors offering to keep an eye on the house
• Everyone else has security cameras, so outside of a doorbell cam, your security needs are covered by everyone else’s setup
• You’re always the young one—and you’ll get compliments for it
• If you don’t look like you belong on the cover of a fitness magazine, there’s no need to feel body-conscious. You’re going to feel okay being you.

Sometimes the rules aren’t what you think they are—and the door you think is closed is just a door someone told you not to open.

Don’t be afraid to open those doors. Something wonderfully unexpected could be waiting on the other side.

💡 OffLabel-001 | Self-Permission

Diagnosis: Marketers self-select out of important rooms—not because they’re unwelcome, but because they misread the cues.
Prescription: Enter the room. Opt in by default. Treat your presence as a marketing asset, not a liability.
Strategic Medication: Liminal Framing, Presence Defaults, Perceptual Signal Shaping [provisional]