I used to be an info-junkie.
If there was a marketing course, business course or business book within my sights… I ordered it.
I devoured them. Just about every one I could find. And I learned a lot.
I learned a lot. Because I thought that by learning a lot, and knowing more than the next guy, I was going to be catapulted to the top.
Ha!
Instead, my “break with reality” sent me on a wild goose chase that would limit my success for almost 2 years.
Before I tell you what that wild goose chase was (and why it’s really limiting the results of most businesses out there), it’s important that you know this:
I started off in this business as a copywriter. Mainly because it came pretty naturally to me, and also because, on the low end of the fee scale (which is where I started), copywriting is a fairly easy sell.
Clients who have any business being your clients understand what a copywriter does. They write copy. And you don’t have to communicate the results that can be created with great copy. Plus, the value proposition is pretty easy to communicate:
They pay you, you write.
If things go well (which is rarely in your control, since at the beginning, you’re probably taking just about any client and product/service that walks through the door) they hire you again. If things don’t go well, they often hire you again anyway… simply because you did what you said you would do… on time. Turns out, that’s pretty rare.
After a few months, I got really bored writing copy. I got bored mainly because I quickly saw much bigger opportunities that my clients were missing to grow their businesses.
And I realized that one salesletter couldn’t leverage those opportunities all by itself.
After all, great copy is only ONE smallish piece of the puzzle. And if you’ve ever been in the trenches of business yourself, you know that. You know that product and people (your audience/market/crowd/tribe whatever they’re calling it these days) rank way above that in terms of importance.
But I was the copywriter. Hardly someone my clients were looking to for business growth advice. Once you’re in the “copywriter” box, it’s a little hard to break out.
Now if you know how to sell yourself, you can get paid well to write copy. But you can get paid a whole lot more to completely reinvent your client’s business and double and triple her profits.
To me, that’s a whole lot better than writing 8 hours a day.
So that’s the business I went into… the business growth business.
I quickly became a copywriter/marketing consultant/business consultant.
But unlike the recommendations I got from all of the consulting books that said, “Consultants don’t implement, they get paid for their ideas,” I decided to actually do things for my clients.
What’s the value of a bunch of ideas? As a business owner, I know that the value of an idea not acted upon is zippo.
And that’s when my real business education began. Because instead of just reading books about business and marketing, I actually jumped in the trenches and took responsibility to make sure all of it happened.
- The marketing strategy…
- The copy…
- The graphics…
- Pay-Per-Click and other traffic “getting” tools…
- The websites…
- The tracking…
- The split testing…
Soup to nuts, I did it and took responsibility for it.
And that’s when I quickly realized something about business:
It’s Not So Much Fun to DO Things in Your Business
It’s Much More Fun and Exciting to TALK About Doing Things
You know that “I can conquer the world,” feeling you get when you take a course or read a book on business or marketing? You get caught up in the success or perceived success of the author and you project that feeling onto your life.
That’s the very feeling I got reading all those marketing books and courses. All those ideas gave me the feeling that I was about to have a huge breakthrough…
That’s why I bought them, deep down. I could say I really wanted the breakthrough… but at the core, I think I just wanted the feeling.
Remember the wild goose chase I told you I went on?
Well the wild goose chase is something I call the “Learning Trap.” I spent a ton of time learning. Listening to other people’s ideas. Hearing the techniques, strategies and tools other people used to grow their businesses.
Two things happened because of that:
1. I was so busy listening to other people’s ideas that I drowned out ever being able to hear my own.
2. I confused learning with progress.
But now I know the truth.
I don’t have to learn more than the next guy, I just have to have a clearer picture of reality out in the marketplace. And I get that picture from doing. Doing more than the next guy.
So while I still do read these days, my appetite for the latest course, book or business strategy has calmed down.
And I operate under a slightly different, but far more powerful philosophy:
You Don’t Learn Anything By Reading.
You Learn Only By Doing
Until You DO, It’s All Theory
Business is not a head game.
Business is a game of experience.
You take your experiences, combine them with your own creative ideas and you step up to the plate. Again and again and again.
The real work isn’t going through a course, or reading a book or attending a seminar and taking notes.
The real work is going out into the trenches and getting stuff done.
You do that and you won’t really have to worry too much about the competition. Your business will grow.
I’ve stopped getting caught up in the “build my business” fantasy. The one that keeps me looking into the future for the next greatest thing to help me move forward.
Instead, I’m taking each moment, and using it in the best way I know how:
To take action. My results so far show me that’s far more powerful than any book.
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