I would never hire me!
My wife and I love the popular reality show Shark Tank, a program where wealthy investors hear pitches from aspiring entrepreneurs and decide, supposedly with their own money, whether they’d like to invest.
The Sharks are charismatic and playful, hyping their personalities for the sake of ratings. Still, there’s plenty of wisdom to be gleaned from these successful investors if you listen in-between the absurdity of the reality TV show premise.
But one recurring theme drives me up a wall: how often the Sharks will dismiss a pitch or product and refuse to consider investing because they themselves do not use that product.
In an age when we are all marketers, constantly trying to pitch a product, service, message, or ourselves to others (if you don’t think you’re a marketer, think again), it’s crucial we understand precisely what our job is.
Our job is empathy.
Who are you talking to?
Empathy is the emotional recognition that other people’s beliefs and wants are different from your own, and that just because we believe and want different things doesn’t mean we can’t connect. In fact, I regularly argue that we can connect with others not in spite of our differences, but because of them.
Which brings me to the point of this post: I would never hire me.
When I was a full-time magician I worked mostly at corporate and private events (and still do, on occasion, by request-only, for the right client). These private events were often exclusive house parties for milestones (birthdays, anniversaries, etc) or holiday celebrations. Many of them were for less than 20 people and paid anywhere from $1000-3000 to have me in their house doing card tricks for an hour or so.
That’s ludicrous, right?
If you tried to convince me to hire a magician for an hour at a house party I was throwing for my immediate family and some of our closest friends, and told me it was going to cost thousands of dollars, I’d laugh you out of the room.
It’s not that I don’t believe what I do for my clients isn’t worth it, or that I’m running some of scam; it’s that I’m not my own ideal client. I don’t offer a service for people like me; I offer a service for people like them. My clients have a specific set of beliefs and desires that I intimately understand after 15 years in business, and I deliver a service that uniquely speaks to their worldview.
You don’t need to be the kind of person who buys what you’re selling. You just need to understand who that person is, what they believe, and what they value. Speak to them in a way that makes them feel heard, understood, and valued, then give a product or service that over-delivers on every metric.
When people feel understood they’ll not only hire you, spread your message, or buy from you, they’ll thank you for showing up in the right way at the right time. And that is the factor on which sustainable careers are built.
To improve your ability to empathize with others, I recommend learning and practicing perspective-taking. Toss your email into the box below to join our community and gain access to multiple resources including “How to Use Your E.A.R.S. – the Art of Actively Listening to People.”
