As I wrap up business for 2017, I can’t help but notice the messages swirling around my social media feeds.
IF ONLY you joined a mastermind, THEN you would net six figures in revenue.
IF ONLY you did 1-on-1 business coaching, THEN you would know how to position your services.
IF ONLY you took this self-paced course, THEN your skills would be more valuable to your client.
Well-played, internet marketers-who-shall-remain-nameless 👏
They’re probably right. There are things I could learn that would improve my business.
But for me, 2018 is the year of learning less and doing more.
Why We’re Obsessed with the Potential for Success
Our desire for success has long motivated us towards paying for additional education and training.
Don’t believe me? Look at this old-school direct response ad from 1967.
While I’m not old enough to remember this Eugene Schwartz ad when they ran…
I am old enough to remember when Donald Trump was a real estate investor trying to build an audience.
Whenever The Donald published a new book, my dad would always make the same comment…
If he knew how to do to [be successful], he would do it — not write about how to do it.
While that’s not 100% true, you know the books were just the start of his funnel towards a degree from Trump University — and we all know how that ended.
I’m not saying every Internet marketer is scheming to take your hard-earned cash. Of all the ones I’ve met, they seem genuinely interested in helping everyday people grow their businesses.
What I am saying is that with every investment you make — there is the belief that professional development automatically equals success.
And because I didn’t believe I could reach my goals without the right training or education, I probably invested a little too much.
Here’s How My Insecurity Cost Me $40,000
In the fall of 2009, I enrolled in a Master’s in Public Administration — otherwise known as the MBA of government work.
It was a lousy time for employment — the recession had hit, and the schools didn’t even have to make promises of what success you could achieve IF you enrolled in their program.
I did it because I wanted a Get-Out-of-Law-School free card — and the Feds were happy to give me the loans to do it.
3 years later, I did end up getting a job for the 5th biggest city in WA state — worked 14-hour days to pay off my student debt — and then quit in 2016 to focus on consulting.
And my alma mater never got the memo.
In hindsight, spending $40,000 to get a degree irrelevant to my business wasn’t the best idea.
The irony is, I didn’t even need the degree to get the job that I had. I was the only few people on my team with a master’s degree — and zero experience in the field.
So for my second career move, I’m done with spending money on education. I don’t need more theories.
I just need to concentrate on making more money.
3 Things I Learned Starting my Business
2017 was my first year consulting full-time, where I experimented a lot and learned quite a bit.
I spent most of Q4 reflecting on what worked and what didn’t — and here are 3 lessons I learned.
ONE: The tools can make or break your workflow
There are a number of business tasks I did that were pretty clunky, like:
- Delivering proposals via PDF
- Using Skype to chat with prospects & clients
- Using Google Docs for…everything
The free stuff works if you’re running lean — until it slows down your productivity.
So, recently, I signed up for a free account with HelloSign so my clients can sign PDFs with an electronic signature.
After months of video conferencing issues with Skype, I switched to Zoom and can’t imagine life without it.
And to save myself from Google Doc’s terrible filing system, I put all of my standard operating procedures and client files onto Notion.
TOTAL INVESTMENT: $30/month.
I use more tools in my stack than the ones I mention, but that’s another blog post for another day. These 3 are the ones that impacted my business the most in 2017.
TWO: “What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get managed” -Peter Drucker
The Internet is full of productivity hacks.
And bullet journaling is the one that the Internet is obsessed with right now.
At first I didn’t think it was necessary. After all, I use Asana, Fantastical, and Post-It notes to keep myself on task. Why do I need to add something else?
But my husband/business partner and I spent part of Q4 working on our 5-year plan — and realized that our goals were correlated with our daily habits.
Our daily habits came down to 5 things…
- Prospecting for new business
- Writing for me, coding for him
- Meditation
- Exercise
- Reading
Pretty straightforward, right? And all I did was buy a journal to start keeping track of whether I accomplished each of those 5 things or not.
TOTAL INVESTMENT: $36 for 2 Leuchtturm1917 journals. I already owned the writing utensils
THREE: I can study the books I already own
When I first studied copywriting, I started out with free online resources.
But the tactics only get you so far. So I started investigating the heavyweight copywriting books — and discovered a copy of Breakthrough Advertising was sitting on my bookshelf.
If you know anything about copywriting, you covet this book. It’s out of print and super rare to find on Amazon — at least without paying $150 for it.
That’s not the only book sitting on my shelf. I own a John Caples book, a Joe Sugarman book, plus dozens of other renowned books on business & marketing.
So instead of signing up for another class, I should probably just read what I already own — and use my library card to get books I don’t own.
TOTAL INVESTMENT: $0.
Plus, one more thing
Part of growing your business means growing as a person — and there’s nothing worse than being stuck in a rut with your business.
Even though I’ve chosen to nix coaching, classes, and masterminds for 2018, it doesn’t mean I think investing in your growth is a bad thing.
I’ve just chosen something else — living abroad.
So for the 1st quarter of 2018, I’ll be running my business from southern Vietnam — halfway across the world from my hometown of Seattle, WA.
Stay tuned for more details.
