February 7, 2021 |

Finding Nemo: Lessons on Where to Look for What You Want

Stay in the Loop

Get practical marketing insights, branding tips, and growth strategies delivered straight to your inbox.

Subscribe

Remember Finding Nemo?


Much like in the movie, Marlin wasn’t going to find his son by staying close to home. He needed to go out to where Nemo was in order to reconnect. Unfortunately for him, he had no idea where he needed to go and had to discover clues along the way.


For you though, you don’t have to swim on the back of a turtle forever in order to get in front of those you are seeking. You have a leg up here. You know where your constituents are.

In a recent conversation on the Relish This podcast, I brought up the idea of “swimming in the right pool.”


What I meant by this was that when you are trying to optimize your communication and outreach, instead of spreading yourself too thin and posting on every social media platform or calling every local business to support your cause, look at where your constituents are engaged and interact with them there.


Having a strong sense of your ideal audience, you can learn where they go for information and camaraderie and interact with them there to start to build relationships on their terms.


This is beneficial because activities focused on where your audience already engage increases your organizational efficiency.


Since you can be strategic about where you are engaging your audience and telling your story, you will save time and effort, focusing your attention to reach a larger audience of like-minded people.


For example, if your organization works in the outdoor space as an advocate for trail preservation and maintenance, you could start your “pool” exploration by assessing where like-minded individuals go for information and entertainment.


If this target demographic enjoys sharing photos and videos of outdoor adventures, you would be wise to get active on Instagram on which you can set a goal to follow and engage with users who appreciate the outdoors, cycling and hiking adventure travel, and the like.


Swimming in this (very specific) pool will help ensure that your efforts are focused on the right individuals to build effective relationships and expand your mission.


Focusing your efforts on this small, but engaged pool improves your opportunities to connect, focuses your marketing investment where it will be most effective, and keeps you from spinning your wheels messaging to an incompatible audience.


Think about where you are “swimming” and ask yourself, does my ideal audience interact with me here? If not, find where they are more likely to interact and engage with you.



Want to learn more about how to select the best pool in which your organization should be swimming? Drop us a line.


< Older Post

Newer Post >

Thoughtful strategy. Practical execution.

Clear thinking, honest perspectives, and experience shaped by years of doing the work. No shortcuts, no borrowed opinions, just lessons learned by showing up, solving problems, and following ideas all the way through.

Four hikers with backpacks walking along a rocky mountain ridge under a blue sky

Mellow Monday

May 8, 2026
We are each our own greatest inhibitor. People don’t want to do new things if they think they’re going to be bad at them or people are going to laugh at them. You have to be willing to subject yourself to failure, to be bad, to fall on your head and do it again, and try stuff that you’ve never done in order to be the best you can be. ~ Laird Hamilton Yesterday: Hit Range Balls/Hike – Casa del Critters, 1:15 Today: Run – GGCSP, ~2 hours Tomorrow: Ride – Somewhere singlespeedy, ~2 hours Yesterday, Rach and I took a nice stroll in the woods around our house. The songbirds were going crazy-nuts and surprisingly, we only saw one other person walking his dog. I love where we live – close proximity to fun trails and the ability to get away from it all in just a short walk from our house. During lunch yesterday, I went to the driving range to get a few cuts in before playing a round of golf with my dad next week. I don’t get to play very often so need to brush up on my skills (or lack thereof) whenever I can. I am looking forward to playing with my pops and hope to break 100. I shot a 102 the last time I played so I am within striking distance of the sub-triple-digit score. We’ll see how things go. I usually do okay for most of the round and then fall apart on a couple of holes pushing my score way up. Dad shoots in the low 80s usually (I think). I am not sure I will ever play enough to be that good but it is fun to get out on the course now and again. I also went to see Dr. Paul yesterday for my ankle problem (which seems to have been resolved) and my knee (which is still a bit swollen but has decreased in size markedly over the past several days). The knee stems from my unscheduled nose-dive back in May (see this post for details). The shot some pictures and believe that everything is a-ok so that was good news. I just need to select better places for splashdowns in the future. And today is Luke’s birthday. Age is one place where I will always beat him but visit his blog to congratulate him on trying to catch up. Until next time…
Runner silhouetted at sunset on a rocky trail, mid-stride between hills.

Fun run

May 8, 2026
Progress comes from the intelligent use of experience. ~ Elbert Hubbard Yesterday: Run – Casa del Critters/Flume, 1 hour 15 minutes Today: Ride/Hike/Relax Tomorrow: Run/Hike – Pawnee/Buchanan Passes, 6 hours? Yesterday I ran around the house. Not literally, mind you, but in the neighborhood. It was a gorgeous evening – calm, cool. Perfect. The wildflowers are really starting to take off up here and I was treated with a bold display of color throughout my run. Tons of Columbine lined the trailside as I ran on old mining roads and singletrack trails. It is really fun to see how much differently I am able to handle familiar terrain. I used to have difficulties running this loop and would have to walk major sections. Last night, I ran the entire loop without trouble and was able to moderate my speed to maintain a steady cadence through the run. Good times. Contracting is staying steady. A bit of a drop-off this week given the holiday but I am still managing to put in a decent number of hours. I picked up another new project today and will need to get started immediately to ensure that it gets completed on time.  Tomorrow, we are going to head up Pawnee Pass and loop back around to Buchanan Pass in the northern Indian Peaks Wilderness. This should be a fun challenge as we’ll get up pretty high, have to navigate some snow (most likely) and will be out for quite awhile. I am looking forward to it for sure . Movie time: I forgot to mention Shopgirl, a Steve Martin vehicle, we watched the other night. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but found this to be a charming film about loneliness. It was well acted and would recommend it for sure. The pacing is steady throughout and some might find it a little on the slow side but it was an engaging film that had a lot to say without being overly sappy.
Hands holding a tablet displaying a video player interface. The video is paused.

Two videos…

February 20, 2026
In case you hadn’t seen these (and also for my friends at Adventure Film ), here are a couple of must-see running movies from Joel Wolpert:  Geoff Roes: Slogging to the Top