EP64: Re-Education - Your Path to Success!

Friends - you don't need to convince me - I get it!

No one…

And I mean, NO ONE wants to continue going to school.

Especially if you are busy with other things, that are more pressing, or otherwise tugging at your strings.

We're ALL busy.

It's 2022.

Everybody is busy.

But...

Did you know that even busy doctors, attorneys, realtors, and many other professional business persons MUST get continuing education (CE) credits to keep their professional license?

Wait long enough and our governments will have that for online businesses too.

Thankfully we don't - right now.

But that does not mean we don't need to keep re-educating ourselves!

In the military, like a gazillion years ago, I was trained in advanced electronics. I guess that's not completely true. I was trained in basic electricity & electronics first, and then on successful completion, I moved on to advanced electronics.

So you would think that that's it. I got all the knowledge I would ever need, right?

Wrong!

Immediately, after advanced electronics, I was sent to a few specialty electronics schools, for advanced, TOP SECRET, communication equipment.

And every few years, there were other schools to go to. Yup, still top secret!

Without boring you…

The US Navy understands that for their people to do their jobs effectively, they need to be educated.

It has been estimated that the education I received is valued in the 5-6 figure range. That being spread out over 12 years.

So, while you will NEVER spend that much money on your education in online marketing [unless you want to], you will need to be educated in some form or fashion.

You can pay for it, or you can learn it the old-fashioned way, by making mistakes.

I did the old-fashioned way for a long time. You may be in that club as well.

I do not recommend it.

We ALL need to decide what is important for us. That includes me too.

I decided a few years ago to get my education from experts in the field.

The military didn't send me to just anyone the learn how to protect national secrets.

He'll no!

They sent me to the experts in the field. Instructors and educators that could be trusted. Their students needed to get the job done, right out of the gate.

Today, you are not fighting any enemies, or in a war zone, but you're fighting for your economic survival.

The education you get will either help you become successful or not.

"Formal Education Will Make You a Living; Self-Education Will Make You a Fortune." - Tim Rohn

That part is completely up to you.

How you learn.

Whom you train with.

What you learn.

I am still educating myself for success. Over the last few years, as we ALL know, the online environment has had some drastic changes.

It started with Apple changing its way of tracking individuals. Soon thereafter, Google and then Facebook jumped in too.

This has changed the effectiveness of online advertising.

So I'm going through some training on Google and Facebook advertising.

I have had this training for about a year now, but was super busy (see what I mean?), and am just now getting around to it.

What is holding you back?

We all must continue learning, as we build our businesses.

Of course, not everything must be re-learned. But when things stop working, and you need to push your way through, the fastest way to do that, is to reach out to the experts in the field.

We cannot ALL be experts at everything, right?

Nor should we be!

But - as the owners of our businesses, we must have priorities that dictate what we should be an expert at, and when it is best to pass on that to an employee, an assistant, or a team.

So we learn - as business owners - what we need to get the job done and specialize in what is important.

As an example: If you do most of your messaging and selling through email, you need to become an expert in doing that.

Find what is CRITICALLY important to your business and become an expert at it.

Most Solopreneurs want to stay solopreneurs because they desire to keep their business small, agile, and lean.

Some solopreneurs, do hire outside assistance to put in place some systems, that can afterward be run alone. They are leveraging the expertise of others to keep their business lean.

And then there are still others who can't wait to be big enough, and profitable enough to hire team members, to do most of the grunt work. And eventually maybe even replace themselves, so they can do more traveling and living. Because no one wants to work forever, right?

The point of today's podcast/blog post was to help you see that we all need to continue learning how to operate a business built around an ever-changing system.

Platforms change constantly.

New email service providers pop up all the time too.

Regulations such as GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation – are just one of the newest regulations to be on top of.

So YES, learning or re-learning is mandatory, if you care about doing your job right.

And I know you do.

You’re HERE, learning right now.

So, with that said, I hope all your efforts are successful.

2022 has been and will continue to be a rollercoaster of a ride.

Buckle up, sit upright, and keep your hands inside at all times.

And – let the games begin.

This ends another podcast episode.

I will see all of you again, next week.

Until then...

James "Still Learning" Brown

P.S. - In the event, you DO find that once an episode has been produced and posted, that YOU really would like more information, just let me know. Use the Podcast Questions link, click on the link here. Or you can just leave a voice message here.