Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 0 (00:03):
Hi everyone, welcome
to another episode of the Carry
On Friends podcast.
So today's topic is paralysisby analysis when learning
hinders action.
So this year as if you're, ifyou never heard my episode
before this year I dubbed it thebus out year, and bus out again
in Caribbean parlance is tostep out, to break out, break
(00:24):
away from just you know, youknow, just stepping out on the
scene, whatever it is.
And this year I called it thebust out year because there were
some things that I need to workon.
Implementation and execution onideas was key for me.
This year, as opposed to thelast couple of years, I've been
doing some implementation, but Ifound that maybe 90% of my time
(00:48):
80 to 90% of my time I was inthe gathering of information as
opposed to acting on thatinformation right.
And since I've declared Bustleyear and I've been intentional
about implementing on thingsthat I've learned, I've been
seeing the most progress sinceI've started blogging back in
2013 and the podcast back in2015.
(01:09):
So I wanted to take thisopportunity to talk to you about
learning.
While it's an amazing gift thatwe all have an opportunity and
there's so many ways and placesthat we can learn, it can hinder
action when you gather too muchinformation.
There's information overload,and as entrepreneurs, content
(01:29):
creators, even businessprofessionals, we're always
trying to seek out the latestand greatest information, or as
much information as possible, todevelop our different
strategies and tips, to grow ourbusiness or to further our
career.
But as we're gatheringinformation, we're not in a
place of putting thatinformation to use right, and so
that gets in the way.
(01:49):
Learning for the sake oflearning will have you seeking
out information that you may notneed right now.
You might need it someday, andthen, even if you're looking for
information you need right now,there's also a situation where
we end up on different tangents,right.
So if you've ever experiencedgoing for a search, looking for
something, and you've gone offon this other topic that seemed
(02:13):
interesting or seemed thatsomething that you could use for
the future, and before you knowit, you're down this rabbit
hole, you're not sure how yougot there from your initial task
, and so this is the informationoverload.
It's like what information canI put to use right now for my
needs?
Right now, the blog is abiweekly podcast, and I chose
(02:33):
that intentionally because Ialso consume content, and I
wanted it to be biweekly becauseI wanted that, between the time
the podcast is happening, thereare things that you're learning
and you have an opportunity toassess and put certain things
into action, or start puttingcertain things into action,
whichever actionable itemresonates with you.
And when I listen to podcasterswho I like, who maybe podcast a
(02:58):
week and some people do itdaily if I should miss a day or
two or a week, I feeloverwhelmed by all this
information that I've missed.
And as an entrepreneur, acontent creator, you don't want
to feel like you're missinganything.
You're like I got to listen tothis episode because if I miss
it, oh my God, there's going tobe so much good information that
I'm missing, and so I didn'twant to overwhelm my audience.
(03:20):
I wanted the ability to giveyou time to digest that
information right.
So with so much new informationtechnology and strategies
available, it's natural to wantto learn more.
But have you ever found yourselfbeing more overwhelmed and
confused?
I have.
That was me last year, and youknow you take one class on one
(03:41):
topic.
You see another class thatseems to go deeper than the last
course you've taken.
I mean, I've done this too,completed one too many workbooks
.
There's just so many differentthings because we feel like it's
the next best thing.
But what happens is, unless weare putting that information to
use, we're going to always be inthe cycle of being unsure as to
(04:02):
what we really know.
If you feel like your judgmentis clouded or you're more
confused than you were beforethe last training, the last
webinar, the last workbook, thenyou've probably done too much
analysis and learning and it'stime to implement what you've
learned.
The other thing is that learningis not a magic or overnight
solution.
You know, we know what we needto know to get us to the next
(04:25):
step and we need to makemistakes to learn, because not
everything will be in a course,a book and a webinar.
Everything won't be there.
Specialized learning with aspecific action plan, a mentor,
an accountability group or apartner, a mastermind group,
you'll have a better chance ofsuccess than just solely basing
(04:49):
your information on learningfrom these different webinars
and stuff and I'm not knockingwebinars, I just want you to
understand that you can consumeall this information.
Think of it as a sink fillingup, a tub filling up with water,
and if the drain is closedright, there's no way for the
water to go.
It's going to overflow andyou're overflowing with
(05:11):
information and not doinganything with the information
that you've been retaining.
Learning is part of the journey.
It's not the destination andit's ongoing, but it has to be
specific for the items or thethings that you need to address.
Everything has to beprioritized and the learning has
to be specific to what yourneeds are well.
(05:41):
So, whether you're creating apodcast, a blog, it's doing that
well and based on what you know.
You figure out things as you go.
How I am in the podcast now isnot what I was a year ago.
I had to learn more and do itand even in my early episodes I
wanted to do a podcast for twoyears.
It took me two years toimplement.
So I'm also talking fromexperience.
I'm not just preaching, I'mtalking from experience and I
(06:01):
learned more in doing than justgathering research as to
different places.
How I should do a podcast,because it's only going to be
what works for me.
Learning is not a bad thing.
It's just that you most of yourtime is figuring things out as
you go and making iterations andadjustments based on what works
and what doesn't work, becauseremember, in a class you're
(06:23):
being taught X right and somepeople will apply it differently
and maybe get a differentresult, but that different
result might work for them aswell.
Learning without action is likegoing to school and classes and
never getting homework, nevertaking a quiz, never taking exam
, never doing a term paper, andwhile we were in school we would
(06:45):
all say, yeah, this sounds good.
But as adults we know that ifwe didn't get a homework, a term
paper, a quiz or exam, we wouldhave no way of knowing if what
we were taught or if we learnedanything from what we were
taught.
And so it's the same thing interms of learning, right or test
is applying what we know to oursituations and seeing if it
(07:07):
works and then makingadjustments from that.
A few months ago, arsha Jones ofthe brand Teasing the Trap sent
a newsletter out and in hernewsletter she says she loves to
learn and she spends a lot ofmoney on self-help products and
workbooks et cetera.
And she said, while it isn'tnecessarily a bad thing, it can
(07:27):
be a hindrance if not kept incheck.
She said she spent thousands ofdollars on courses, which I can
relate to, but she never hadthe time to complete everything
she learned from them all.
And that's also another thingright.
It costs a lot of money to doall of these courses and these
webinars, and if you don't havetime to complete them, then you
(07:48):
are looking at your financialinvestment.
The other reason why some of usmight find ourselves in a
perpetual cycle of learning,it's fear, because if we are
always in a place of learning,we don't get to act on the
things we've learned and we'reusing the learning and the
education as a safe place.
(08:09):
That's more of thevulnerability of putting
yourself out there.
You know what if I fail and asa perfectionist, I understand
that you're like, like, oh myGod, how do I know that?
I really know, and everythingthat I'm saying that do it
anyway.
It's like the opposite whenyou're operating in fear, like I
(08:31):
want to make sure it's justright and I want to make sure
it's perfect.
And we will never know if it'sjust right or perfect until we
do it In terms of what you cando.
So, before you take anothercourse, ask yourself what am I
doing with the information thatI'm learning?
What am I going to do with it?
How am I going to put thisinformation to use?
The next time you're tempted totake another course or a webinar
(08:54):
.
Ask yourself what was the lastwebinar that I took?
How am I implementing thethings from that webinar?
And how will this particularwebinar or course or whatever
learning initiative that you'redoing, how will it help you
enhance your brand?
I suggest you create a plan ofwhat you want to accomplish and
when you want to accomplish thatsaid thing.
(09:15):
You have to create a specificlearning game plan so you can
get better at achieving yourlearning goals.
That will help you takespecific action you seek for
your career, your business.
You want to give yourself areturn on investment time and
ROI time right.
You can't go into a course thisweek and say by next week, you
(09:37):
have to be realistic with thosegoals to say, well, you know
what, it's probably going totake me a couple months to do
this, especially as solopreneursor freelancers.
When we're doing everything, wedon't have a team to help us
right.
So you want to give yourselftime to execute on what you've
learned in a particular learninginitiative before you jump to
another one.
(09:57):
My last blogging conference thatI spoke about that was
Blogalicious last year, and lastyear I was very specific about
what I wanted to learn and thereason why I did that because my
very first conference I had noidea what I was getting into and
it was blogging while brown andthere was so much information
and I said, okay, that was myfirst time, so my next time.
(10:17):
I know that I have to go inwith a strategy and a plan.
There are certain things that Ineeded to learn and even with
those two conferences, I stillhaven't executed half of the
things that I wanted to execute.
Some of them may not be asimportant in terms of where I am
with the blog and the podcast,but it goes to show that even
with a specific learning plan,it takes time to execute on all
(10:42):
the plans.
You know it takes time beforeyou see that return on
investment.
Another solution or tip is findan accountability partner, a
mastermind group, or start oneyourself.
Right, you want to start onewith someone who's gold, focus
or ambitious or is a bloggerlike you.
You collaborate whatever iseffective someone to hold you
(11:04):
accountable.
So even on the days when you'relike man, I don't feel like
doing this, I want to do this, Idon't want to do this, they can
keep you in check.
In my episode with Eva onwork-life balance and even my
collaborator, michaela, how manytimes have.
I want to switch tracks andshe's like no, this is not what
you're supposed to do.
That's what an accountabilitypartner or a mastermind group
(11:27):
does.
You set goals for yourself andthen you see how those goals
align in a bigger picture.
I have different people keepingme accountable for different
goals, because they're differentgoals in your life, and I
needed that, because if I wereto do it all by myself, it would
not happen.
Their goal is to get me to makesure I'm sticking to the goals
(11:48):
that I've set and help me when Iget stuck and get in my own way
, and that happens all the time.
So before I leave, I just wantedto recap a few things.
Learning is not a magic andovernight solution.
It's great to learn from allthese successful entrepreneurs,
but their story is aninspiration as to what could
(12:10):
possibly work for you, and youknow you get excited when you
hear certain things because theideas are flowing.
Catch those ideas, write themdown and map them out right and
stick to them before you go intothe next training initiative,
unless that training initiativeis going to help you and go
beyond where you can't go anyfurther on your own, and even
(12:32):
then you want to make a plan asto what specifically I want to
learn, by when I want to learnthis and by when I want to
execute what I've learned andapply in my business and set a
realistic expectation as to whenyou want to see a return on
investment on what you'velearned.
So, as I wrap up, I just wantedto reiterate that, as
(12:54):
entrepreneurs and careerprofessionals, learning is an
amazing, amazing gift that wehave, but we shouldn't let it
distract us from doing the realwork that needs to get done
right.
There's real work to be doneafter we learn.
This quote by William ButlerYeats said education is not the
filling of the pail, but thelighting of a fire.
So that fire you get whenyou've gone through a course and
(13:17):
you're like, yes, this isinformation.
It should light your fire toexecute, implement and just put
things into action.
And you know what?
Some days it's going to be hard, it's going to feel like it's
not worth it.
Before you even get to thatpoint, you line up a buddy,
somebody to help you, a successfriend, as Julian Gordon says,
to get you to where you need tobe.
(13:38):
You need help.
You can't do it alone.
You know the Warriors are thebig thing right now.
As a team, they are where theyare.
You need your own team.
Another quote by Paulo Coelhoasked what does learning mean?
Accumulating knowledge ortransforming your life so you
could accumulate all thisknowledge?
But it's the transformation,right, it's the transformation.
It's not so much the acquiringof knowledge, but what are you
(14:01):
going to do with this knowledge.
So you should act.
I don't want you to onlyconsume content and only consume
all this information.
I want you to act At all times.
I want to know, I want to helpyou.
How can I move you to act?
Are you stuck with something?
You don't know where to start?
Email me, hello atcarryonfriendscom, tweet me at
(14:23):
carryoncarry or atcarryonfriends.
I want to help you move forward.
In the next episode, I'm goingto take a look back at some of
the gems given and actionableadvice that have been discussed
on the podcast with previousguests, and I'm hoping that it
will refresh your memory,because a lot of times you
(14:44):
consume so much content that italso just disappears from our
head also quickly.
So it's to refresh and remindyou of some of the things that
we've discussed and hopefullyreignite the fire that you might
have experienced when you firstlistened to the episode and say
, yes, I should be doing thatBefore I leave.
On social media, connect withme Twitter and Instagram at
(15:05):
Carry On Friends, and if youhaven't done so, please leave us
an honest review that's veryhelpful to the show and also
share with your friends.
Again, I want you to succeed.
I am invested in your growth,and learning is an amazing thing
, but we also want you to putwhat you've learned into action.
(15:25):
And until next time, walk good.