Fishing, Marketing, Thoughts, & Action5 min read
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I woke up last night thinking about the following question. (look, let me know if this makes sense to you OK?)
“Who would I be if I couldn’t believe the thought(s) that stop me from reaching out in my marketing?”
So, here’s one way to think about this…
Fishing is a very good metaphor for Marketing and attracting clients.
In both fishing and marketing, you need skills and tools and then you’ve got to take action to actually fish or to reach out in your marketing.
In fishing, you need the skills of knowing where to fish, the equipment to buy, and the bait to use.
In marketing, you need the skills of knowing who and where your clients are and what messages you need to deliver to get their attention and response.
With some study, application, and work you can be very successful at either of these pursuits. Other people have been successful at them, after all.
There are challenges to both pursuits. It can sometimes be hard to find where the fish are or where the clients are. And it can be tricky to find the right bait or the right messages.
But with time and work, those challenges can be solved. And the more you practice fishing or marketing, the more successful you will be.
Not only that, both fishing and marketing can become fun.
But there’s one big thing that can derail your success in both fishing and marketing:
YOUR THOUGHTS.
What if, as a fisherman, you thought: “I’m just no good at fishing, there are no fish around here, the bait I have just doesn’t work, and fishing is a waste of time.”
A fisherman who has those thoughts will not be a successful fisherman. The thoughts will stop him and he won’t even give it an honest try.
What if, as a marketer, you thought: “I’m just no good at marketing, there are no clients to be found, the message I have just doesn’t get attention, and marketing is a waste of time.
Well, the marketer would have about the same luck as the fisherman. The marketer, stopped by his thoughts, would fail at attracting clients.
I’ve only seen this a zillion times. Thoughts stop people, not situations, challenges, technology, etc.
Then one day, the fisherman and the marketer were introduced to the “Work of Byron Katie.”
Katie’s work is about questioning your thoughts, seeing if they are true or not, what the impact is of those thoughts are, and who you might be if you couldn’t believe those thoughts anymore.
Here are the Byron Katie questions applied to the fisherman:
“I’m not good at fishing.” Is that true?
“Well, I think so…”
Can you absolutely know you’re not good at fishing?
“Well, no, I haven’t really put a lot of time or effort into it, to be honest.”
How do you react when you believe you’re not good at fishing?
“Well, I avoid it, I just don’t do it. I stay home. I watch TV. I eat canned tuna.”
OK, well, if you could no longer believe the thought, “I’m no good at fishing,” who would you be?
This, my friends, is the key question!
It’s not, “if you could no longer believe the thought, what would you do?” No, you don’t need to know what to do! You’ll work that out.
The question is, “Who would you BE?”
And I think one of the most obvious answers would be:
“I would be in action. I would be fishing.”
Of course, the same goes for marketing.
If you could no longer believe you were bad at marketing (or whatever your limiting belief might be), you would be in action in your marketing.
You would be trying new things.
You would be experimenting with things.
You would be looking for better ways to market.
You would be engaged in your marketing.
What we fail to see is that “BEING IN ACTION” may be work but it doesn’t really take “effort.”
When a baby is learning to walk, they are in action. They are trying everything possible to walk.
Luckily, a baby doesn’t have the thought, “I’m not good at walking!”
They are simply in action, until they learn to walk.
Learning to walk for a baby isn’t “effort,” it’s actually fun.
They are smiling, squealing, beaming.
That’s what it’s like being in action.
When we can no longer believe the thoughts that stop us from marketing, we are naturally, effortlessly in action.
The action is not what is hard.
We make it hard with our limited thinking and beliefs.
So, when it comes to the activity of reaching out in your marketing, you are going to have thoughts that tell you you’re not good at it, that you’ll be rejected, that you’ll be interrupting people, that the technology sucks.
Whatever. The list is endless.
Question your thoughts. Are they true? Usually not!
How do those thoughts impact you? They stop you cold, right?
And then look at who you would be if you couldn’t believe those thoughts anymore.
Ultimately, you need to find your own answer, your own insight.
But I’m willing to bet that you will BE IN ACTION!
Happy fishing!
Cheers, Robert
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