Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
James Schramko here with some tips about getting good value for your investment when you join
paid memberships, communities, or courses.
I quite often join a paid community or membership because it’s a great way to invest in my
own abilities and skills. Even though I know a fair bit about stuff, I’m still learning,
so I actually invest in my own education to get a return on my investment.
A great post from FastWebFormula This week I saw a great post in FastWebFormula
by John. And John was reflecting on his first six months inside the community and I think
that the points that he makes are really helpful so I’m just going to go through some of
them.
The first one is he treats his membership fee as an investment, not an expense. He feels
that he would actually be worse off financially if he didn’t join than if he did. So that
is him being accountable to his investment, he’s working out what he pays versus the
result that he gets and then doing a little balance sheet on that. The answer for him
was that he’s actually doing better because he’s a member.
One of the things learned So what sort of things does John learn from
FastWebFormula that makes his investment such good value? The first thing is he’s got
a routine. He now knows what he’s supposed to be doing every day because I keep drumming
on about knowing what the point of any activity is. Once you’ve got a routine the routine
actually sets you free because you can cycle through your routine in a repetitive manner,
and that sounds boring but it actually takes a lot of thinking away from you. If you have
even something as simple as a checklist on a whiteboard like what’s behind me, then
you can routinely go through that checklist and you can tick off the things that you have
to do and things get done. For me it’s making a piece of content like this. Every day I
make a video and I put it out there, that is a routine but it actually sets me free
to do other things when I’m not making a video. I’ve just come off my tennis court
where I’ve been playing some tennis with the kids.
John likes the networking aspect of belonging to a paid community and the best thing is,
when it’s a paid community the network is of a higher caliber than a free community,
in general. It’s not always the case but most often it is the case. When you have like-minded
invested people in a community who are there for the same reason, then that network becomes
powerful and it’s encouraging and motivating and supportive.
Greater values learned Another thing John’s learned is to control
things. He now tracks and measures everything so he knows exactly what’s come in his site,
how it got there and what happens to it then whether it converts and turns into a sale.
Now knowing this is great because he can do more of the things that are working and less
of the things that aren’t working so that is something he’s learned and something
he’s been able to put into place.
Probably one of the best lessons that John has learned is that there’s no magical answer,
or as I say, there is no Holy Grail. There’s no one little thing you can do - as much as
people like to say there is, there’s a whole series of things that need to get done and
by knowing that and facing it on the chin you can actually move forward with the discipline
that it takes to get something worthwhile. Whilst there’s no magical thing, just one
thing, or no Holy Grail there are simple steps that can be taken and that’s using frameworks
and templates, and that’s what John’s using to get ahead. Checklists, routines,
template, and frameworks – the result will always come out exactly like a cookbook with
a recipe. You follow steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 – this is what you get at the end just
like the picture.
Take things into perspective Another thing, it actually gets you perspective
on how much you already know. Quite often we know what we’re supposed to be doing
but being in a framework or an environment where we can see how much other people know
or don’t know, it can get you an idea of where you’re at, so that’s what joining
a paid community can do for you.
I hope these tips are helpful, I hope it helps you when you pay for a course or join a membership,
and I hope to see you inside FastWebFormula and help you with your journey. I’m James
Schramko, I hope you’ve enjoyed this business news.