Marketing is like foraging…
Don’t know what I’m talking about?
Just keep reading, it’ll make sense soon. Promise!
This summer, I’ve been spending long hours in the forest at the weekends foraging, which gave me plenty of time to think about the similarities between mushroom hunting and marketing.
[Yep, once you’ve practised content ideation often enough, you’ll be able to link any random thought, topic or activity to your field of expertise and use different stories to make your point.]
So without any further ado, here are my marketing lessons from the forest, inspired by foraging:
1. Knowledge and research
Knowing which mushrooms are edible (and delicious) requires a lot of knowledge, research and practice. It’s absolutely essential that we are 100% sure that we know which mushrooms are good for us and which are not.
Similarly, we need to be clear on who our ideal customers are, otherwise, we might find many prospects out there, but they might not be the right fit for us, and vice versa.
Understanding your ideal customers is essential.
We also need to keep their challenges, pains and preferences in mind as this will help us reach them with the right content and build relationships with them through engagement.
Even in the forest, you need to know what environment your favourite mushrooms like and make sure you go looking for them at the right time, to have the best chance on a successful hunt!
2. Practice and keep learning
Learning which mushrooms to pick, when and where to find them, how to cook them and how to store them is an art. It’s a skill!
There isn’t a trip to the forest when I wouldn’t discover a new mushroom or a plant that I’m not sure what it it, what it’s good for, or if I should stay away from it.
You might have a set list of fungi and plants you know and are foraging for, but very often you’ll come across many different species. Many of which you know, some of them good for you, and some of them not so good. But you’ll for sure encounter new species that you.
It takes a lot of practice to learn all the colour nuances of different species of mushrooms to identify the good ones.
You guessed it, it also takes a while to learn marketing.
And most importantly, it takes practice.
Honing our craft, improving our skills, testing, analysing, tweaking and optimising.
Showing up regularly and investing the time & effort are necessary to really develop our marketing skills.
3. Patience and perseverance
Both mushroom hunting and marketing take time and effort.
Many times you’ll feel like giving up because you don’t see any mushrooms anywhere for miles.
All your tried and tested spots are bare, the forest seems to be mocking you. Twigs are poking you in your eyes, spider webs tickling your face, branches scratch your hands and feet, and leaves getting stuck in your hair.
What’s the point you ask yourself?
Why am I doing this to myself?
Is it even worth it?
And then, your first little mushroom peeks at you.
You’re excited. Your hope is restored again.
This wasn’t a completely pointless excursion.
So you keep going, keep looking, and one by one, you’ll start filling your bucket.
The same goes for your marketing!
It’s difficult to get started and keep going and it might take a while to gain momentum.
You will have to overcome a lot of obstacles and invest a lot of time and effort at first, and for a while, you might feel that it’s pointless, but if you persevere and keep showing up, keep posting, keep engaging, keep testing and tweaking, one day you’ll get your first lead and a first sale, and then the second and third, and out of nowhere, you’ll see prospects everywhere and your pipeline will be full!
4. Law of attraction
I’m sure that you’ve experienced the annoying law of attraction in practice before.
Maybe when you were single, looking to meet your soulmate. When you were dating, it felt like there were no eligible partners out there anymore, but the moment you committed to someone, you kept meeting so many amazing people who could have been “the one” as well.
Or maybe when you’re foraging for mushrooms and for hours you struggled to find a few decent shrooms here and there [none of the good ones, just some wonky inedible ones here and there], but once you’ve decided you have enough and started heading home, not paying much attention to what’s around you anymore, out of nowhere there are many more mushrooms popping up everywhere.
The same goes for finding ideal clients. When you’re desperate and have a big capacity, no one seems to want to work with you. But once you’re in demand and don’t have any availability, out of nowhere you have a waitlist of people wanting your help.
And even though that’s exactly what we want, it’s frustrating that this mostly only happens when we’re fully booked (or when our baskets are full to the top) and we can’t take on any more.
Luckily, in business, we have many ways to deal with the abundance of leads. From waitlist, cross-selling, subcontracting or increasing prices. It’s a good problem to have!
[Caveat about the universe and our intuition]
I’ve been thinking about whether or not it’s possible that we might have a 6th sense to know which way to go to find mushrooms. If somehow on an unconscious level, we might be able to tap into the wavelength of communication between mushrooms and the rest of the forest, to feel where to look.
5. Flexibility and adaptability
Forests are unpredictable things. You may have a plan in which direction you’re going to go and how long it’s going to take, but nature very often has a different plan. There can be lots of unexpected obstacles standing in your way, forcing you to change direction, take a detour, change your plans or abandon your mission altogether.
In business and marketing, we might have the best laid-out plans, but the reality is a bit more complex than that and the universe sometimes has different plans for us. So we need to be agile and adjust our course when needed.
It is pointless to push through the most dense part of the forest. You’re only going to end up full of scratches and aches from bending over or even crawling on your knees for too long.
Equally, if you see that your original marketing plan doesn’t flow as imagined, you see a big obstacle standing in your way, it’s usually a good idea to change course, adapt and make a new plan.
6. Quality Matters
This one might be a bit controversial in the world of foragers because some definitely go for volume and will pick any kind of mushroom, but I prefer to focus on quality, flavour and aroma.
The same goes for our marketing.
Some people might be chasing the volume, trying to get thousands and millions of followers, but for most business owners, especially service providers, quality, resonance and relevancy matter more than volume.
You don’t need 100k followers or 50k email subscribers, in most cases, you need maybe around 100-1000 of the right connections that resonate with your message and either need your services directly or have a network of people who could be your ideal customers.
7. Collaboration and sharing resources
The more I learn about the world of fungi and trees, the more amazed I am at how smart they are.
And in how many different ways they communicate with one another, share information and resources and collaborate!
There’s so much going on under the surface or in the air that we can see, hear or touch – and yet, it’s happening. Chemical and electrical communication, nutrition sharing, warning signals and so on.
There are incredible layers of communication between fungi, trees and other living creatures. The whole forest is one big interconnected organism.
And in business, we know that we can’t go it alone.
We need other people, we need partners, collaborators, peers, colleagues, clients, prospects, teachers, accountability buddies and coaches to be able to fully blossom and build a thriving business.
If you keep the law of abundance in mind, it’s easy to see that if we share our resources, if we support others, if we offer help without any expectation, we’re not robbing ourselves. It’s the opposite – the more we give, the more we receive back!
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And lastly
There are no guarantees!
It’s uncomfortable and time-consuming, and you never know whether or not you’ll find something.
And even if you find some mushrooms, they might not be edible.
On your way, you’ll likely meet many fungi that you know but don’t want.
The same with clients.
I know that marketing your coaching business might be uncomfortable, overwhelming and time-consuming at first, and unfortunately, there are no guarantees that if you post on LinkedIn daily, send a weekly newsletter, blog every week and host a podcast, you will attract the right clients.
You might get a few prospects here and there, but there’s no guarantee that they will be the right fit.
But, once you’ve figured out what works, in which forest you are likely to find which type of shrooms, on which platform and with what kind of content you are more likely to attract the right clients, it’s much easier to find the next and the one afterwards.
I guess the same goes for fishing, you need the right pond, the right bait, the right time and patience. But once you’ve figured it all out, you’re in with a treat.
The good news is:
Where there’s one there’s likely more
You’ll find old ones and not-ready ones, but that’s a good sign that what you’re seeking is just around the corner. So keep going and keep looking.
You’ll always get some leads from clients who simply don’t fit your criteria. That’s OK, leave them to someone else!
It takes patience and knowing exactly what you want (but still being open to exploring new options), to be able to find the right fit.
But once you get into it and figure out what works, it’s addictive!
