Think back to when you graduated from high school.  Didn’t you know everything?  I sure did. 

Are you a lifelong learner?

• Then I got to college.
• Then I started my career.
• Then I travelled.
• Then I became a mom.
• Then I started my own business.

It seemed that with each new role, I learned how much I had to learn.  I went from knowing everything to knowing just how little I really knew. 

To be successful in marketing, it seems like you have to become a perpetual student, because the game of marketing is always changing.  People’s preferences and tolerance for marketing is continually shifting.   Plus, marketing has become increasingly technology dependent, so when there are advances in technology or you want to use a specific tool, you have to learn a whole new thing.  I’ve always been curious about marketing, so being a lifelong student of marketing comes naturally to me.  (I also love teaching marketing!)

Recently, I went outside of my marketing comfort zone, and spent a weekend in Phoenix learning about sales and leadership from Blair Singer.  I wasn’t sure what to expect – and whatever I expected, I certainly didn’t get it.  The weekend was intense, with hands-on exercises that drove the points home.  I loved the interactivity, and plan to bake more of that into my own training sessions.  But more than that, I really “got” what holds me back.  Some of the lessons I learned that I’d like to share with you are:

• Hold yourself and your team accountable for the numbers.  The balance sheet. The number of sales calls.  Even the bathroom scale.  You can’t manage if you don’t know the numbers.
• Avoiding confrontation only leads to trouble.  Confront things when they’re small, and you won’t have big messes to clean up.
• Create a code of honor.  I loved this part so much that I’m kicking myself for not buying a couple of books for clients.  I’m definitely taking aspects of this and implementing it at work – and at home.

Now, none of those lessons were rocket-science type of lessons.  I knew them to be true at some level, but Blair’s teaching style makes you “get it” at a level that you won’t be able to easily forget, that compels you into taking action because you can’t now “un-know what you know.”

That’s always my wish for my students and my clients.  Take action!  Do something different.  What are you learning?  Are you pushing yourself out of your comfort zone?  What classes/teachers do you recommend? I’d love to hear.

(By the way, a.k.a. shameless plug, if you want to learn about blogging, we just broke out the WordPress blog training as a separate class. $39.00)