“You can’t Fish with strawberries, can you?”
“This is crazy…what is he talking about?”
Are You Fishing With Strawberries needs to be explained. So while you are shaking your head in disbelief I’ll explain…
Two weeks ago, I heard Oprah Winfrey say something about the #1 success. I have been following Robert Kiyosaki, Suze Orman, Tony Robbins, Zig Zuglar and Dale Carnegie and all said the same thing, the #1 success ingredient is:
“Do something different, challenge yourself, don’t follow the crowed, you can be the person you want to be, changing the world begins with you!
They may say it in a different ways, but at the heart of the statement is….. YOU!
I read lots of personal development books, such as Think And Grow Rich, The Secret, How To get Control Of Your Life, The Butterfly Effect, Acres Of Diamonds and my favorite Jonathan Livingston Seagull and they all try to motivate you to do something to better yourself.
It’s likely you have some goals:
- Being able to pay your bills
- Be financially free of debts
- Being able to set your own schedule
- Having more choices about what to purchase and when
- Having more flexibility, so you can be available for kids and family who need you
- Being able to live anywhere you want
- You may even have desires to quit a job
You may even have some bigger goals:
- A big new house
- A sports car
- A cabin boat
- A long vacation to exotic places
Many Of Us Have The Same Common Desires
I’d bet the majority of us (you and me) have some of the same common desires and goals I’ve listed above. Mine is “A long vacation to exotic places with the family.”
And you may be someone with higher goals or someone with lesser goals. Everyone is different and that is a good thing.
However, I firmly believe we are all born with a desire to have a life that is fulfilling based upon our wants and desires.
Now what is this Fishing With Strawberries Nonsense? Here’s a quote from Dale Carnegie, about fishing with strawberries:
“I often fish up in Maine during the summer. Personally I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn’t think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. I didn’t bait the hook with strawberries and cream. Rather, I dangled a worm or a grasshopper in front of the fish and said: “Wouldn’t you like to have that?” – Dale Carnegie
Now, of course, that was a parable, but a powerful one. Don’t you think?
To be successful, it’s not about what you want, but what they want. Here’s another quote to drive home what I am saying:
“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar.
How This Applies Personally and Professionally
As an example, we often go thru scenarios where we want something while the another person wants something completely different–these scenarios can be simple or complex. They can be situations of us wanting our kids to eat their vegetables while they would rather eat french fries. It could be that we want someone to join our affiliate business while they would rather go fishing.
These scenarios can also happen in professional settings like when we write a blog post and want someone to purchase what were are offering.
The problem is, most of us bait the hook with strawberries. We’re writing and thinking about our goals, this is what I want, rather than writing and thinking about our reader’s ultimate goals.
Again, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar.
You need to do some serious thinking about your audience:
- Who am I writing my articles to and why?
- What are their current circumstances?
- What problem(s) do they have?
- How can I solve their problems or issues?
- What solution do they want or looking for?
- What can I do to guide them from where they are to where they want to go?
- What’s it feel like on an emotional and physical level?
This is otherwise called “empathy.” According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of empathy is:
“the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner”
Getting Laser-Focused
It’s important that we put or Readers, Customers and Business Partners at the forefront….otherwise, we’ll look like the fishermen who bait the hook with strawberries. Fortunately or unfortunately how we bait our hook in terms of acquiring and retaining readers, customers and business partners will directly correlate with our success in any business.
So, my take-a-way for you is to identify the worm in every situation: whether you’re dealing with your kids, your spouse, or your readers, customers, partners. Bait the hook with the worm of their preference, desires and wants and not your’s.
You will find that by shifting from strawberries to worms you will accomplish so much more in your life and in your business.
Here Is A Question For You
How are you going to bait your hook? Are you going to use a strawberry because it’s want you want or are you going to use a worm and give them what they want? The choice is yours.
“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar.
Here’s to your success,
