If it looks like a shark...

 If it looks like a shark...

Today we talk about ducks, sharks and a less than tongue-in-cheek

word of caution.

Let us begin with ducks.

You know the expression "If it looks like a duck, and walks like a

duck, and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck?"

It's not just a useful rule-of-thumb for figuring out whether

something is a duck or a not.  

You're probably pretty good in the duck identifying department

already.

It is, however, a little reminder to pay attention to signals, and

not to ignore what you see.  

Because sometimes we do that.

Especially when we don't want to see the duck.  

Because sometimes, we don't want it to be a duck, and we

rationalize. 

We pretend it's not so duck-like so we don't have to deal with the

implications of duckishness.

Which brings us to sharks.

You could reword our little quotation to "If it looks like a shark,

and swims like a shark, and bites like a shark, it's probably a

shark."

Even if you don't want it to be a shark.  

Because sometimes, we don't want to see the shark.

=-=-=-=

Which brings us to marketing.  

There is a lot of money to be made in marketing.  (If you don't

believe just how much, consider all the people you know who have

made the transition from "whatever perfectly respectable thing they

were doing before" to "marketing coach." You know who I'm talking

about.)

But we're not talking about them at the moment.  Let's just say

we're talking about marketers who have always been marketers.

Some of them make quite a significant amount of money.  

Some of them engage in some VERY shark-like behavior.  

Many a shark enjoys levels of success that, if we're honest, we

want to have for ourselves.

Because we want to have what they have, we can look at that

shark-like-behavior and kind of tune it out.  

We can tell ourselves that it's not THAT sharkish, because we're

hoping it's okay to do it, too.  

I mean, it's a tiny little fin.  It's not poking out of the water

or anything.  And those teeth?  Well, everyone has teeth, right?

And so we see marketing tactics that should set off the shark

alarms and - because we know how much money they're making with

them - we cover up the red warning light.  We want to believe it's

okay for us to do, too.

You think, well, it's just a *little* sharkish.  

Maybe you could show just the edge of a fin.  

Maybe you could swim a LITTLE more like them - but not really like

them, because you're not a shark, right?

And so, sometimes innocently (because we're rationalizing the shark

activity), and sometimes not-so-innocently (because we're hoping it

will be lucrative enough to not matter), we swim a little too close

to the sharks.

Even if we're not using the same tactics as the sharks, we swim

pretty close, hoping to catch the halo effect.  Or we do a softer

version of what they do, so we can get the benefits without being

tarred by the same brush.

Except, that doesn't actually work.

In life, it doesn't matter if you're actually a shark or not.  

If you swim NEAR the sharks, we assume you're a shark.  

If you swim LIKE them - even just a little, we assume you're a

shark, too.

It's the duck effect - but with sharks.

=-=-=-=

We are entering The Season. 

The Season is where everyone wants to sell their Big Thing. 

You're looking to sell your Big Thing. (Yay!)

They're looking to sell THEIR Big Thing - which is generally titled

something like How To Sell Your Big Thing Power Formula System

Solution.

They are going to teach you how to market how they market.

They are going to teach you how to sell like they sell.

They are going to teach you how to look like they look.

Do you want that?

As one luminous Galilean once said, "By their deeds you shall know

them."

Indeed.

And by YOUR deeds we shall know YOU.

You will look how they look. 

On their worst day.

This is worth pondering.
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Edward