I am a big advocate of professional development in business.
I believe that in order to keep growing, you need to keep learning.
And it’s definitely why I choose to teach!
Of course in order to grow from your learning, you need to implement what you learn into your business.
So although I suggest learning as much as you can, you still need to monitor what you are doing (especially the free stuff which can get out of control quickly!) so that you are only doing as much as you can implement.
There will always be another social media class or planning day, but if you can’t put into practice what you are learning then you should think twice about learning it right now.
I recently was sharing my journey with some new connections, and reflected on just how much I have learned over my 20 years in business (it’s a lot!).
I have taken a lot of courses, but in particular I want to share with you some of the people who I have worked with as my coaches. I believe that coaching is a very important part of being a business owner – and that you should be working with a coach on a variety of things, to set and reach goals.
I have spent thousands of dollars on coaching in the last 7 years, and it has helped me to build my business (and to stay in business!) because I implement what I learn as I go along. Making an investment really helps you to stick to the plan!
So I thought I’d give you a peek behind my curtain, so you can see what I have invested in and learned.
Marketing – I learned a lot about marketing from my original business coaches Brian Stark and Paige Stapleton. They were instrumental in me starting Your VA Mentor way back in 2010. They also ran the first mastermind group I ever joined, and I even travelled all the way to Maine to spend 3 days with my mastermind group! This changed my business completely, and many of the principles I learned about marketing from them I still teach to this day. I also did private coaching with them for more than 2 years – monthly calls and accountability sessions – I highly recommend the personal attention you get with private coaching. They moved away from their private coaching business to work with Suzanne Evans and her team.
Sales – I learned a whole lot about sales and sales objections from Carolyn Herfurth. I joined her group coaching program and I still work with her as a client. She has a brilliant business mind and she makes sales really simple and effortless. I learned how to handle objections long before they ever came up in a sales conversation. I used to have a job as a sales rep in a courier company. Working with Carolyn reminded me of all of my knowledge that I had from that job (we did Tony Robbins and Zig Ziglar training sessions!) and taught me how to turn it into everyday language. The principles are the same but the approach is WAY different. This sales training has won me so much business over the years, because I handled myself easily on calls, even when talking about money!
Speaking – I learned how to write my signature talk with Odette Peek, who teaches the importance of developing a story that is interesting and engaging for your audience, no matter how long your talk is or who your audience is. I have done a lot of speaking over the years, and I always prepared something that was like a 3 Tips to … talk and walked through that. Meh. Boring. When I started adding stories to my talks, they became so much more engaging and natural. During the talk I did at the Waterfront Series in Ottawa recently, two stories in particular resonated – one was about me jumping out of planes (parachuting) in university and the other was about going skiing for the first time in 21 years and getting frozen in fear on the chair lift. Stories help you make your point and your talk becomes more impactful for your audience. I also joined one of Odette’s group coaching programs!
Getting Clients – I learned the simplest method of getting clients ever from CJ Hayden. Her Get Clients Now system completely changed the way I did all of my strategic planning to get clients. It quite simply, works. Being able to really strategize what you are trying to accomplish and then take small action steps daily will help you to reach your goals. I teach a similar method to Get Clients Now, on a much smaller scale, to my clients. Even by doing a tiny bit of strategy and following through with action, you will be able to get clients easily. I have also done private coaching with CJ.
Mindset – I have learned mindset training from several different coaches, but the ones that really stuck were with Diana Lidstone and Lisa Larter. To run a successful business, you need to have a positive mindset and that takes practice and technique. It can be easy to let the negative creep in, and being able to identify those thoughts and crush them are so important to business. I joined both Diana’s and Lisa’s group programs to work on this. As my business has grown, my mindset of who I am has to change as well, and it’s important to move yourself into that higher frame of mind. It’s hard to do without help. By gaining new business knowledge you can uplevel yourself much more easily at growth points in your business.
Internet Marketing – I have done extensive study in many areas of internet marketing over the years but the most significant learning I did came from VA Classroom (Craig Cannings) and Pam Ivey. I learned about analytics (which I love!) and other fun stuff like marketing funnels, list building, content management, conversions and SEO from these two people. They are both brilliant marketing minds and pull together the most important information in simple to understand training so that you can implement it all easily in your business. I have done classroom training with both Craig and Pam and they have both taught me things that I continually use in my business, and that I also now teach.
I could go on and on (apparently!) but I’ll stop there for now.
I just wanted to share with you how to incorporate professional development into your business, and why it’s so important.
I have taken a million free trainings, some low level courses, been involved in membership programs, masterminds, full day workshops, virtual trainings, small group programs, larger groups programs, private coaching, and more. And I have worked with many more coaches and trainers than I have even listed here!
The point is that training and coaching is something you should budget for. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money – group programs are notoriously affordable – you should get the help you need when you need it!
We will be covering many of these topics in my live group program that I will be running live again in 2018 – Earn 50K as a VA: The Business and Marketing Training Camp for Virtual Assistants. Learn more and register here: www.50kvabiz.com
If you aren’t sure if this particular program is for you (I have other options!), or if you just need some help figuring out what you need to get some training or coaching in (even if it’s not working with me!), contact me for your complimentary ‘Cut to the Chase’ Call and I’ll help you clarify what your next step is, for your success!
Book yours here: www.yourvamentor.com/15-min.