Instant Mastery ... There's No Such Thing
by Barbara Mencer
What do you do for a living?
And how long did it take for you to get good at it? Quite a while ... or did you achieve instant mastery?
Yeah, that's a dumb question. There's no such thing as instant mastery. Consider that even someone as gifted as Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team in his sophomore year. It took him a while to fully develop his skills. That's how it is when you're learning something new. You start out green and mature in your knowledge and proficiency.
So, why is it that people who've studied, trained, and practiced for years to develop their professional skills imagine that they should know how to market themselves successfully when they've never been taught anything about it? How exactly would one obtain that skill without taking the time to learn it? By magic?
Marketing is a skill like any other. Sure, some people have a kind of innate talent for it, but even someone who has the personality and instincts to manage the ins and outs of successful marketing quite easily still has to learn the ropes.
Whenever we learn a new skill, we go through four stages.
The first is unconscious incompetence. We don't know what we don't know.
The second is conscious incompetence. That's where we become aware of our lack of skill ... and decide to do something about it.
The third is conscious competence, where we know how to do something, but it isn't second nature yet. We do it deliberately ... with our tongues stuck out. It takes a lot of conscious effort.
The last stage is unconscious competence, where we can perform without even really thinking about it. Like driving a stick shift, what took total concentration in the beginning is now automatic.
It's no different with marketing. Don't expect it to come naturally. You have to learn the basic principles, many of which are counterintuitive. And then, you have to go through that awkward, conscious competence phase, building experience and expertise through trial and error.
Now, it may seem self-serving to say, since we teach marketing, but smart people get some help to make sure they're doing the right things ... help to speed up the process and smooth out the path to proficiency. The result? Less trial and error. More immediate results.
An aspiring violinist would want to work with a master to learn technique and be coached on performance, right? Likewise, no one would seriously consider entering competitive body building without hiring a trainer to coach and guide them, would they? So, how do you achieve standout performance in the marketing of your business? Work with someone who can teach you and mentor you and get you up to speed fast.
We're here to serve you, but the help doesn't have to come from us. My only request: Just don't attempt to wing it, trying a little of this and a little of that. That's a prescription for failure. Even if you figure it out eventually, it might be too late.
We see it all the time. People take too long to hit on what they need to do to market themselves effectively, and by the time they learn, if they ever do, they've burned through their startup capital. There isn't sufficient cash flow to sustain the business, and they face some tough decisions. Please don't let this happen to you. Get help somewhere.
In contrast, when you approach things the right way, you start seeing results pretty quickly. That helps with the cash flow, which helps reduce your stress level. And that's a very good thing.
What's most gratifying to me is to see clients develop from being unsure and hesitant to the point where they're working the system with little difficulty and getting good, predictable results. And what's really exciting is when I see them becoming so adept at and attuned to the process that they start spotting and pursuing marketing opportunities on their own and developing their own creative methods. That's proficiency becoming mastery.
The bottom line: When it comes to marketing your business, if you're unsure of what to do and a little intimidated by the process, that's normal. Don't be hard on yourself for not knowing what to do or not being a whiz right out of the gate. It takes time and effort to learn.
The good news is that it's a skill that just about anyone can learn. And, once you do, it's a powerful tool that can take your business anywhere you want it to go.
