Customers Are Like Fish

Frequently Asked Questions

You Have Questions. Here's the Truth.

Every fisherman asks the same thing before he wades in: is there anything actually in this water? Fair question. Here's the honest answer to everything you're wondering right now — no sales pitch, no fine print.

The Book

Question 01

What is this book actually about?

You don't catch what you want — you catch what's actually swimming in the water in front of you. Customers Are Like Fish applies that one hard truth to business growth. It shows you how to find the market that's actually hungry for what you sell, sharpen your message until it can't be ignored, and build systems that make growth predictable instead of a lucky accident you can never repeat.

Question 02

Why the fish metaphor — isn't that a stretch for a serious business book?

Fair skepticism. Most business metaphors don't survive past the introduction. This one does because it isn't decoration — it's diagnosis. You don't catch what you want, you catch what's actually in the water, with the right lure, in the right lake, with the right patience. Swap "fish" for "customers" and every one of those rules still holds. The metaphor isn't the message. It's just the fastest way to remember it.

Question 03

What makes this different from every other business book on the shelf?

Most books hand you a slogan. This one hands you a method — three pillars, eighteen chapters, built to be used in order: Find Your Market → Master Your Message → Make Growth Inevitable. Inside: Choose the Right Lake. Create the Pull. Make It Spread. Build the Flywheel. Every chapter is a specific, teachable move — not a motivational poster.

Question 04

What's actually inside — is there a table of contents?

Yes, and it's mapped in three phases so you always know where you are. Phase 1, Finding Your Market (Ch. 1–5) starts with Choose the Right Lake and Choose Your Fish. Phase 2, Mastering Your Message (Ch. 6–10) covers Clarify the Message and Relentless Follow-Up. Phase 3, Making Growth Inevitable (Ch. 11–18) closes with Lower the Friction, Build the Flywheel, and Fishing in New Water. Every chapter ships with its own hand-drawn mind map — the whole idea, in one picture.

Question 05

Who is this book for — and who should skip it?

This is for entrepreneurs building something from nothing, start-ups still finding their first real customers, sales professionals tired of chasing quota one cold call at a time, trusted advisors guiding other people's growth, and business owners of every stripe — restaurants included — sick of playing whack-a-mole with growth: one campaign, one referral, one lucky quarter at a time. All of them want the same thing: a system instead of another one-off tactic. It's not for someone looking for a 10-minute hack, and it's not for a business that doesn't have an actual offer in the water yet. Get something worth selling first. Then come back.

Question 06

How long will this take to read, and how fast can I actually use it?

The eighteen chapters are built to be worked, not admired from a distance. Read Phase 1 alone and it can reshape how you see your market before you've finished it. Every chapter ships with its own mind map for exactly this reason — so you walk away with a move, not just an idea.

The Author & Framework

Question 01

Who is Steve Nakamoto, and why should I listen to him?

Because this isn't his first opinion about business — it's decades of pattern-spotting compressed into a system. He's a Writer's Digest Book Award recipient (2000, Non-Fiction/Self-Help, Men Are Like Fish) and a trained public-speaking and peak-performance instructor, with over two hundred media appearances translating complicated ideas into moves you can make Monday morning. He's also built and run real businesses himself — including Scotty's Flowers & Gifts, an FTD Top 500 shop — which is why the book reads like field notes, not theory.

Question 02

Does this apply to my business, or is it built for a specific industry?

The lake looks different for every industry — insurance, coaching, retail, real estate — but the method for finding it doesn't change. That's the whole point of the framework: it's built on the questions, not the industry. If you want it mapped to your specific business before you decide, ask below — Steve reads every message himself.

Question 03

Where did this whole framework actually come from?

Twenty years on the road as a professional tour director — touring every major city, popular region, and tourist attraction in the U.S. and Canada. That job put Steve inside hundreds of restaurants, hotels, resorts, cruise ships, airports, trains, ferries, museums, shops, theaters, events, celebrations, and attractions, not as a tourist but as a buyer deciding who stayed on the itinerary and who got cut. The job wasn't sightseeing. It was relentlessly comparing good to great, then swapping out the weak vendors for the strong ones, trip after trip, year after year. Customers Are Like Fish is that same discipline turned into a system — the pattern of what actually separates good businesses from great ones, seen up close, thousands of times, long before it was ever written down.

Question 04

What other books has Steve written — should I read those too?

Four, and each one built a piece of what shows up here. Men Are Like Fish — the book for which Steve is a Writer's Digest Book Award recipient (2000, Non-Fiction/Self-Help, Men Are Like Fish) — applied this same lake-and-fish thinking to relationships, long before it was aimed at business growth. Talk Like a Winner sharpens the communication skill every chapter of this book leans on. (Wall Street Craps and Dating Rocks! cover trading and dating — different lakes entirely.) None of them are required reading first. Customers Are Like Fish stands on its own. But if the framework clicks, you'll see exactly where it was field-tested.

Tools & Ongoing Value

Question 01

Is there anything I can use right now, before the book launches?

Yes — and this is the part most visitors miss. Twelve Strategic Business Tools are already live, organized under the same three pillars: Find Your Market, Build a Pitch That Sticks, Fix Your Sales Leaks, Turn Buyers Into Referrals, and more. Two of them — Know Thy Self For Business and Legal Red Flag Alerts — are completely free. No purchase. No sign-up.

Question 02

Do I need to buy the whole book to get value, or can I try one tool first?

Start with one free tool and zero commitment. If it changes how you think about your business in five minutes, you'll know exactly what the book delivers at full length.

Question 03

Will there be a way to try before I buy — a sample chapter or preview?

The clearest preview available today isn't a PDF excerpt — it's the free tools themselves. Run Know Thy Self For Business and you'll feel the same thinking that runs through every chapter. Early chapter excerpts will go out to the notify list before the book hits shelves — that's the fastest way to read a page before anyone else does.

Question 04

Is this a one-time read, or does it come with ongoing tools and support?

The book gives you the framework. The Strategic Business Tools give you the reps — practical, chapter-aligned applications you can run today, on your own timeline, independent of the book's release date.

Launch & Purchase

Question 01

When can I get it?

Customers Are Like Fish is Available January 1, 2027. Get on the notify list and you'll hear the moment it's live — not the moment everyone else finds out.

Question 02

If I sign up for updates, what happens to my email — will I get spammed?

One thing: notice of launch, pricing, and the occasional early chapter excerpt. Nothing else. This isn't a funnel that sells you five other things while you wait for the book. Every message that goes out, goes out because there's something worth telling you — not because a day passed on a calendar.

Question 03

What format will it come in, and what will it cost?

Pricing and formats — hardcover, ebook, audiobook — will be announced as launch gets close. The list is the only place that gets the number before it goes public.

Question 04

Do you have any guarantees?

No, there are no guarantees. The book and tools provide business strategy and information, but the results depend on how you implement them. You can, however, try the free business tools first to test the thinking before spending anything.

Question 05

Where will the book actually be sold?

Retailer links go live as launch approaches. If you're on the list, you won't have to go looking for them — they'll come to you.

AI, Results & Contact

Question 01

Does this book actually address AI, or is it already behind the times?

Chapter eighteen — Fishing in New Water — is built entirely around it. AI isn't a late addition bolted onto an old framework; it's the argument taken to its logical edge. When every competitor can automate outreach in seconds, the businesses that actually win are the ones customers can tell are real. That's not a hedge against AI — it's the whole book, sharpened.

Question 02

Won't AI just replace the need for a book like this?

AI doesn't replace the need for a market and a message — it multiplies whoever already has one. Automated outreach, AI-written copy, a chatbot answering leads at 2 a.m. — none of it works if you're fishing in the wrong lake or your message is forgettable in the first three seconds. The framework decides what's worth automating and why. AI just runs it faster once you've done that work.

Question 03

Should I be using AI in my business right now, and does the book help with that?

Yes — and the same rule applies to AI as to any other vendor Steve ever cut from a tour: don't let the tool run the business, use it to run the plays that already work. Chapter eighteen shows exactly where AI amplifies each pillar of the framework — and where it quietly erodes the human trust the other seventeen chapters teach you to build.

Question 04

What results have people gotten from this framework?

The framework is new to print, but the thinking behind it isn't. It's built from decades of real client work and Steve's own ventures — including growing an FTD Top 500 flower shop from the ground up. As readers put the eighteen chapters to work, their results will be added here.

Question 05

Can I talk to a real person or ask a question before deciding?

Yes. Every question sent to customersarelikefish@gmail.com gets a real answer from Steve — not an autoresponder. If you're on the fence, that's the fastest way off it.

One decision, right now

See the method work before you spend a dime.

Join the notify list and be first in line at launch, or try a free Strategic Business Tool today.

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