When I was in high school, I said
“when I finish school, I’m going to get a car and drive around Australia!“
Sound familiar?
It’s a common dream. But here’s the truth, I didn’t do it when I left school. But fast forward a decade and then about another half decade and things changed.
After a good year business wise, my wife finished up at her day job and we packed the spare car up and headed north on what became a month long road trip.
Finally!
After leaving Sydney, the first stop was Seals Rocks – amazing practically untouched slice of paradise. And we headed north from there touching in at all the usual spots, Port Macquarie, Byron Bay, etc, and turned back south after Noosa Heads.
At Seals Rocks, something very funny happened.
Before leaving for the road trip I’d already have the better part of a year where the hard work had been done and I was just enjoying the fruits of my labour so to speak.
I’m about to tell you something that you won’t believe until you’re in the same situation so it’s ok. Keep reading and just know, I’m ok if you don’t believe me because I know that one day, you will.
That is, something very interesting happens after you ‘make it’. When your brain and every other cell in your body no longer needs to focus on work, work, work, business, business, something very interesting happens.
What you won’t believe, and what happens is that it’s very hard to just relax and enjoy your spare time.
Yes of course, you do the trips to Rome, across South East Asia and Spain. But I’m talking after all that is over too.
When you wake up at 9am one day and you think.. shit, I’m bored.
And that boredom DOES NOT go away.
Again yes, you buy the complete Seinfeld box set and you watch every episode again from episode 0 to episode 180. You catch up with all the new movies and catch up with some old friends, but after a month or two of doing that something crazy happens.
You miss the work.
Or just the grind, and the work in figuring something out.
Have you ever wondered why you see more retired folks tinkering around with anything and everything? This is is why.
So when it was my turn, what did I do?
I went out and bought a fishing rod. I can’t explain it, but something very deep and primal inside of me wanted to be able to go to the beach, catch a fish, go home, prepare it and cook it.
There’s an inner caveman in all of us.
I never had much luck with the fishing rod. However, I also did not run out and use it as much as I planned to either.
So when my wife and I were going around Australia, there was a spot in the car for the fishing rod.
Our first stop at Seals Rocks was the perfect spot for me to be a caveman and catch a fish, because there is no shops there. There is one general store that closes early at 3pm (from memory).
When you’re there, you have the entire beach to yourself (that might be different during holidays – we were there during off peak). So I got some bait from the general store, and headed down to the empty beach. My wife came to watch.
I don’t know what the breed of birds are, but there are these birds that dive bomb from about 50-100m above the water. The dive straight into the water and come up with fish, so I know I was in the right spot.
Cast after cast, lost bait after lost bait.
Starting at one side of the beach, and working my way down the other side. I failed my wife and my non-existent caveman tribe. I didn’t even feel a bite on the end of the line.
But of course it wasn’t my fault! There was just no fish around that day! ( of course! )
My wife knows I’m no pro and I have no history of being good at catching fish! So there was no real need to feel embarrassed or to come up with an excuse.
But “there might be more fish around tomorrow” was the best reason to call it a day and head back to the cabin in the camping grounds.
Day 2
Along comes day 2, it’s time again to catch myself a fish.
As I was walking down to the beach I noticed there was a few 4wd’s on the sand. They had a big net connected between two of the cars. I learnt later that Seals Rocks is a bit of a hot spot for the local commercial fisherman.
I knew then I was in the right spot, and I was right! The fish WERE HERE today. I’d picked the right day!.
I walked past the 4wds and along the sand. Far in the distance, on the north side of the beach I could make out someone who looked like he was holding a bucket and a fishing road.
So once again, I’m so smart! I knew the spot to go to, and the day to go there.
So I walked all the way to the North side, as I was getting closer, the fisherman started walking back and off the beach (maybe he saw this city boy fisherman and decided it would be easier to just call it a day.
When I got to the north side, there was a little rough and very deep looking cove. I thought great! But then I saw the best sign!
There was a bunch of birds picking at pile of fish heads.
The Locals
The local fisherman had just caught and gutted about 6 of these huge fish. They were massive. Well, the heads were so the bodies must of been huge too.The fisherman had gutted and beheaded the fish right here and threw the offcuts to the seagulls.
I knew I was in the right spot. I’d figured it out.
- Right spot.
- Right day.
- The birds were diving in about 100m off shore.
- The commercial fisherman were on shore.
- And this local guy just caught enough for 4 Easter Long Weekends!
I turned for the shore, casted the bait and line into the deep cove and couldn’t wait for a big SNAP, and TUG on the line.
We we’re eating fish tonight my love!
I didn’t feel one bloody bite. I didn’t see one fish.
I didn’t catch any thing except rocks and seaweed.
Not one fish.
I was sure I’d get one. The other just got about 6 huge fish. In the exact same spot!
I gave it a good hour. I found it both hilarious and infuriating at the same time.
But I was really disappointed and confused. I really wanted to catch a fish! And I didn’t know why I couldn’t get one.
It was like there were conspiring against me!
So here’s a question for you:
Is it possible to be in the right spot, at the right time, with the right tools and still miss the opportunity?
If someone else could catch a group of big fish in the exact same situation as I was, is it possible that I was still missing something?
Even though I was annoyed, amused and ready to give up fishing there and then for good. I knew what it was.
And maybe you’ve come to the same conclusion?
Experience Wins
Having the right tools, being in the right spot and being there at the right time meant NOTHING unless I had the experience of being there and catching fish before.
Experience is difficult to wrap up and explain isn’t it? Maybe I was missing one or two subtle ingredients to this recipe and on top of that, there was likely a couple of situational clues that I was missing.
I could spend the next 20 years fishing in that one spot to catch up on the experience that the other local fisherman had. But that would take a long time with no guarantee that I’d figure it out by myself.
But what would happen if I was able to convince the local fisherman to let me stand next to him and ask 10 questions a minute, the next time he was going to be there.
How would my chances improve if I convinced him to start of the day with a 60 minute training session on how to do it, how to achieve my goal which was catching a fish.
Imagine the amount of trial and error I could bypass just by simply doing what he advised me.
Much sooner than later, I’d be proudly bringing home fish in the bucket. Ready to clean up and grill. I love seafood, so does my wife.
But if I tried to figure it out all by myself, or by even standing by and watching the local fisherman. My journey to catch a fish would be a lot harder, probably 100x time harder.
If I’d catch a fish, it would be more so luck, rather than a likely outcome based on the non-existent plan that I had to catch the fish.
The Marketing Lesson
When it comes to marketing on Facebook, getting enquiries and finding paying customers on Facebook, I’m like the local fisherman.
I’ve fished the Facebook waters for years. I’ve tried hundreds of different types of bait on a dozen different type of fish (customers).
I know the signs to look for when the seas of Facebook start to get rocky, and when I can stay in bed rather than waking up early and going for fish.
But I can also see when the Facebook ocean has it’s easy days – and it’s going to be easy. On these days I know I need to bring three buckets for all my fish/customers instead of one bucket.
I guess when it comes to marketing a business on Facebook, I’m the same as the local fisherman is to ‘catching real fish on Seals Rocks beach’.
If you’re looking to market your business on Facebook, to get hundreds of customers a week and build your business to be #1 in your area and industry, you really have two options.
Option 1: Get very busy, and dedicate every waking hour over the next however many months or years it takes you to figure out how to do it.
or you have this option:
Option 2: Get unlimited access to 12 years of ‘online business’ and internet marketing experience that has been concentrated and condensed into a 18 Part Course on Marketing Your Business on Facebook.
I created and wrote my 18 part course on Facebook Marketing for business owners who are ready to dive head first into LEARNING Facebook Marketing for Business..
..and who DON’T want to spend the next 2 years and waste thousands and thousands of dollars making the same mistakes like I did when I first started.
I named this advanced Facebook marketing course the Social Formula, and if you’re ready to see what is in the course, you can check that out for free here:
not currently available.
The 18 Modules of the Social Formula, Facebook Marketing course were very carefully thought through.
It took me a few weeks to think through the best order and steps for a business owner to go through, for the course to be easy to understand and also easy to learn from.
I literally start at Step 0, and then we move onto together to Step 1, and Step 2.
If you live a busy life, this is the course for you. Each Module stops and starts at the right time. You could watch one module at a time, when you have a spare moment.
Replace the latest episode of WHATEVER new reality show is on TV and press play on the next module of your Social Formula course.
If you’re ready and hungry to jump right in, you could finish the course over a few week nights after work, or you can smash through it and consume it over a weekend.
You can hear more about this advanced course on Facebook marketing here: not currently available.
But don’t think this Facebook marketing course is all information and information overload.
This is a very practical and hands on course, because that’s what it HAS to be!
Drowning you in 100,000 pieces of useless information was not my goal. You get what you need to know, and I haven’t pulled any punches or withheld any information to ‘sell you later’.
Everything you need to know and learn, is in this course.
If you have other questions about the course, you will find the answer here on this page:
Check it out here: not currently available.
I hope you enjoyed reading the story about the local fisherman and how he proved to me that experience wins 9 out of 10 times.
It was great to share it with you.
Sincerely,
Craig Marty
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