QUICK!
STOP!
ANSWER ME THIS!
WHY AM I TYPING IN CAPS?????
Ooops, sorry, no, that's not what I had wanted to inquire. 🙂
Instead, it's this.
Have you ever wanted to smash your learning curve so that even if you're a newbie, you have a master's knowledge at your fingertips?
Okay, yeah, yep, I know.
That's probably a sillier question than asking Captain Kirk if he wanted to unwind at an intergalactic Starcraft gaming convention gentleman's lounge.
But seriously. The point does remain, right?
You have a mission-critical goal, say:
- Write your latest book like Max Your Holiday Profits in 6 days (yes indeed, that's how long that took me),
- Get your customer's holiday shipping not only *out*, but to their destination before the 24th
- Start to plan your fantastic 2011 online business success
But wait.
Hmmmm.
The above, you see, assumes that you've already had *some* experience in the subject, right?
What do you do if you're on fire to attempt something *completely* new?
Something, say, like actually *putting* your business online for 2011….and you've never learned about the steps required…..before?
Think about it.
If you were going to, oh, gee, I don't know, build a new home for your pet mooses (or doggies or birdies or misbehaving family members or coffee cup or….) you wouldn't just fling about wood and nails and hope the end result gained you a mention in Architectural Digest now, would you?
Heck no!
Instead, you'd look for a guide…something you could trust to follow that takes you by the hand walks you through exactly the steps that are critical for success.
I'll showcase my own personal answer for this at the end of the post, but let's break up the steps now to obliterate your learning curve, shall we?
Every time you need to get up to speed faster than politicians need to uncover new and improved lies, do the following.
Step 1.) Ask yourself, what is the problem I'm trying to solve?
It's more difficult than you would think.
Let's say that you want to master updating your *own* wordpress so you don't have to ask someone else to do it for you.
- Are you talking about massive fixes?
- Just adding images?
- Just changing the color scheme?
- Adding e-commerce?
Depending upon what you *really* want to achieve….you will modify your searching.
For example, you might not *know* that images are called, well, 'images' on WordPress. Non-techies might simply call them (get this!) "pictures".
Thus, you would simple search for
how to add pictures to wordpress
But if you wanted to sell your goodies from your blog, you could search for
how to sell my products on wordpress
You'll notice that both searches return far different results! And *those* results might be easy *or* tough, depending upon your current knowledge.
But I'm getting ahead of meself.
Once you know the problem you crave to solve, it's time to:
Step 2.) Search for problem solutions
Once you know what you want to do, you want look for handholding guides.
You can simply search for your problem like so:
Or you could tack on power words like 'blueprint,tutorial,guide,video' like so:
- photoshop shadowing (blueprint|tutorial|guide|video)
- product creation (blueprint|tutorial|guide|video)
- wordpress plugin (blueprint|tutorial|guide|video)
If you have time to spare (and hey, you might!) you might be able to come across some super free resources that are worth their weight in golden coffee beans.
'Course, you might come across something that involves intermediate steps…so you then need to research *those* to boot.
And when that happens…
Step 3.) Realize that time is money, and buy the most logical guide out there.
Like you, I'm big on saving money…and free is always great!
But making the most amount of money with my own time is even better, and my vast old age has shown me that cutting thru the chase and buying the best how-to out there makes tons of sense as well.
Useful ways of determining this step include:
- Researching thru Amazon.com
- Asking your colleages, "Jeepers! What did *you* use?"
- Checking out what your popular local forums say.
One thing to really keep in mind, of course, is the experience of the guides' author. For example, bringing this whole post back to my original idea of getting your business online, I recently wrote
21 Easy Steps for Putting Your Business Online….in Less Than 24 Hours
It's over at my Weekly Expert Sales site.
I've been putting my own businesses online now since 1997…and it's a fair shake to say that yes indeed, I *do* know what I'm doing there!
And because it's the holidays, I've decided to run a sale for it too – you can slash off $10 from the price at the above link!
Or heck, this link here:
Yes, I'll be moving that book to this site too, but the point remains.
When you're looking to smash your learning curve flatter than a compressed cupcake who said "Hi!" to a Mack Truck, sometimes, it just plain makes sense to *buy* and get it under your belt.
Wouldn't you agree?
In closing, the best way to Easily Get Up To Speed In An Obscene Amount of Time is:
Step 1.) Ask yourself, what is the problem I'm trying to solve?
Step 2.) Search for problem solutions
Step 3.) Realize that time is money, and buy the most logical guide out there.
I hope the above simple steps help you find the information you need for a truly successful 2011!
And one last thing….
Today would be Day 14 for Maxing One's Holiday Sales.
And in the book, Day 14 is, "write about products solving problems. "
Which, you'll notice….I just did. 🙂
Learn more about Max Your Holiday Profits by clicking on this adorable book cover below!
Enjoy!
Grow strong,
Barbara Ling
Get Started Here
You’ll love what you learn… Promise!