I’m not sure who needs to hear this, but:
There’s a lot of bad advice on the internet.
Our angry little monkey minds love to sort the world into heroes and villains. (And sometimes, we have actual Nazis to cope with, which makes us all the more prone to rigid thinking.)
You’ll find enthusiastic flame wars going on in nutrition, social justice, investments, raising babies, and …
Business.
I still laugh about a post I once wrote about the fable of the scorpion and the frog. It fascinates me how many business teachers assumed I put them into the “scorpion” category, and got mad at me about it.
While there are a few outright villains out there, mostly I’ve found that business advice sorts into “more-useful” and “less-useful” categories.
There are a couple of approaches that I’ve found lean toward “less-useful.”
This usually doesn’t work
Completely step-by-step formulas are appealing. Unfortunately, they only work when you’re trying to do something really simple.
These often come from someone who did something and had success, documented their process, then packaged it up for you as a “success-getting system.”
Usually, you’ll try step one, which works ok, and step two, which starts to get wobbly.
You quit at step three, and blame yourself because you “didn’t implement.”
Implementation is hard. But it’s harder when we’re trying to implement advice that’s like an IKEA desk with the wrong instructions in the box. You might be able to make it work, but the odds are better that you’ll quit in disgust.
But this doesn’t work either
Them: “Be unique! Be amazing! Be exceptional!”
Me: “Yes, I want to do that! How do I do it?”
Them: “Um, yeah, that sounds like a You Problem”
Doing complicated things rests on knowing how to do easier things.
You can pour your life into trying to reinvent the wheel (and keep getting something that just doesn’t roll).
Or you can learn some pieces that you know will be useful, and use that learning to point you to what you don’t know yet.
The success I’ve had rests on learning things. Lots of things.
- How to write.
- How to write for business.
- How to teach
- How to use content to support business goals.
- How to write persuasive copy.
- How to deliver a really good talk.
- How to manage human beings.
There are lots more pieces in that list. And I mainly learned them from other people. I had to figure out how they’d work for me, but I needed to learn them, first.
If “business in a box” is IKEA (with someone else’s instructions), this approach is more like Lego.
Get some bricks. Make a thing.
Get some more kinds of bricks. Make something bigger.
The astronaut fallacy
I think of certain business teachers as being a bit like astronauts.
A lot of our heroes fall into this category. Let’s pick Richard Branson, partly because he figured out how to get his business to actually send him into space.
Whether you like Branson or not, he’s done a lot of amazing projects.
But having combined charisma, hard work, and a metric ton of luck to launch himself into space doesn’t give Branson a magical ability to help you.
Now, Branson is a busy guy and he’s worth a ton of dough, so his time is worth a lot of money.
So, he’s been known to package up tiny bits of his time, (like single-day packages) and sell them to entrepreneurs. I’ve known some folks who have bought these.
If you buy a day with Richard Branson, or whoever your business hero might be, you’ve bought an expensive day of hanging out.
Which might be completely worth it to you! It may have been energizing, inspirational, and really fun. And it’s possible it might spark an idea that ends up being worth more than you paid for the day.
But recognize it for what it is.
Richard Branson is smart about plenty of things.
But he’s fundamentally dumb about you and your business, because he doesn’t know you.
No one can understand you and help you find your right path in a day. And getting shot into space doesn’t change that.
It’s fine to admire astronauts. (I happen to like the real kind.)
But don’t make them into all-knowing gurus who will magically solve your problems.
You don’t need someone to tell you what to do
You need someone to help you find the right path.
Sometimes we spend so much time and money chasing the next “miracle” system. Trying to find the right instructions for someone else’s IKEA desk.
When we’d be better off building up our stash of Lego.
Why I’m shrinking my customer base (yes, on purpose)
I have created some big-impact courses and projects with literally tens of thousands of students.
(I just checked … as of today, my Coursera course has had 245,317 students enroll. Holy dang.)
I’m proud of that course. And of all of the courses, workshops, certification, and other projects I’ve built over the years.
But a series of videos or audio recordings can only do so much.
I’m diving deep into the concept of cohort-based courses, where I guide a smaller group of people through a more dramatic set of transformations.
This format lets me actually get to know people. And it has us learning by doing, side by side, with guidance and support for the sticky parts.
This November, I”ll be launching my first cohort-based course, called Content Flagship. Update: Registration is now closed for the course, but you can get on the waitlist for the next cohort at that link if you’d like.
We’re going to be working on using your website and a smart client attraction system to get you more writing clients, every month.
(To be clear, we’ll be working on the words, not the website technology.)
If you’re a writer and you don’t love your website, you have a ton of company. We’ll get your site to sparkle, and start building better paths for clients to do business with you.
If you’re a working writer who needs more clients, this might be a great fit for you. Make sure you’re on my email list, and I’ll let you know when I have more details for you.
I’ll also send you a free ebook on becoming more prolific, and my weekly newsletter (this is one example), The Fierce.
That’s The Fierce for this week! Have a fantastic weekend.
Until I see you again, May the Fierce be with you.
Sonia