Teaching Amanda Fische (A man to Fish) - I have had this idea brewing in the back of my head for many many years, I think it is time to put it out there. I have been in sales and marketing for almost 30 years and I have found it interesting in sales over those years how many metaphors there are in every day circumstances. I have been putting together a series of short subject books on that I call "Teaching Amanda".
Amanda is a fictional character and a metaphor for just about anything a person may want to do better in life, the Amanda Fische character is a perfect fit for real estate and how if agents can learn to be self sustaining, they can basically write their own ticket. Now many of the Activerainers have figured this out, but my experience over 13 years in real estate as an associate as well as an owner is that many agents come in and try to duplicate what some super agent has done and lo and behold they fail. They are different people and different personalities, if each agent can only find their own path they will be much better off, if they can discover that spark in themselves that really lights the fire for what they have a passion for, they will not only find success, but enjoy every bit of the ride.
I met Amanda in college. We attended a small college in a very outdoorsy Colorado mountain town. I chose to go to college here because of the incredible location, 30 minutes from world class skiing, 2 minutes to gold medal fishing, 5 minutes to boating and other water sports among many other outdoor recreational, I am a Colorado native and I love everything that is offered here in the state, so naturally I wanted to stay here while I went to school.
Amanda was from the inner city of Chicago, rarely did she ever venture outside of the city, and this remote college town appealed to her "get in touch with nature" side. She was accepted and made the transition. Now many colleges have a varied schedule of classes and this particular school seemed to cater to the avid skier, it was very easy to schedule a full load on Tuesday and Thursday so you had five days to enjoy the slopes, I was also able to be done with classes by noon every day which allowed time for me to go to my favorite fishing hole to catch some dinner.
Amanda and I had struck up a friendship and she was curious if she could tag along to go fishing with me as she had never done this before. I had plenty of extra gear and we got her a license and off we went.
After teaching her the basics she was ready to fish, I suggested a lure that had worked well for me, but she wanted the shiniest one in the box, so I indulged her, I suggested she cast upstream and reel in very quickly to give the lure "action" as it quickly drifted downstream, she preferred to cast downstream and let the lure float with the current until she was almost out of line, and then reel it back in. I suggested she at least cast it over the bigger rocks where the fish are most likely to be, she was afraid of getting it stuck, and she got it stuck almost every cast anyway.
A couple hours into our day I was catching fish and occasionally handing her my rod so she could get a feel for the thrill of reeling in the fish. She loved the feel, but insisted on casting the prettiest lure downstream, so she did not have to work as hard, after all I was casting about 12-15 times more often than her, but I was also catching fish.
She was looking for the easy way, or at least what seemed like the easy way and I think this is very similar to the way many agents market, if you know your target and you know what the like to see and when they like to see it and how they like it delivered doesn't it make sense to give them what they want? I can't tell you how many agents (and other salespeople) I have met over the years that are looking at the world from their perspective instead of the clients (fishes) perspective.
Fish are constantly swimming upstream, they are looking for anything coming downstream to eat, it is much easier for them, if something is swimming up stream they will usually let it pass as it is not as easy to catch and eat. Why not make it easy on yourself and fish where the fish are looking.
If you do any kind of marketing at all you must learn what your target is most likely to respond to, if you are a discounter why are you advertising in the luxury magazine, if your target is first time home buyers then advertising in AARP is probably not the smartest place to be, however if you are focusing on low-maintenance lifestyles, then by all means contact a senior periodical and ask to be a guest writer. I did this for several years when I targeted golf course lifestyles, I called the best golf magazine in the area and asked if they wanted me to write about the local real estate market, not only did they love the idea, they paid me for my articles, imagine getting paid to advertise your area of expertise.
I will be occassionally adding to my "Teaching Amanda" series.
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