Too Much Of A Good Thing?

The good news:

There are tons of free courses, learning-summits, and workshops for entrepreneurs online.

The bad news:

There are tons of free courses, learning-summits, and workshops for entrepreneurs online.

Huh?

A client called me recently after watching an online copywriting-summit, a free event with 20+ copywriting experts sharing their “secrets for amazing content!”

Did she leave it energized and ready to write?

Nope.

She was fried, demoralized, and nowhere closer to her goals.

So, lets talk about some pitfalls of all this great online education, and some questions to ask yourself before you go for the next offer that lands in your inbox.

Pitfall #1: Sometimes we burn ourselves out taking in too much content. Like a dog in front of an endless supply of kibble, we assume that more is better— but we might just be taxing our system.

Often, we do this when we’re in Fear (“Am I good enough? Maybe I will be if I learn even more from this free summit…”). Decisions from fear often backfire.

Pitfall #2: Comparison.

My client, who is new in her business, said “All these copywriters are talking about how they’re making multiple 6-figures in their businesses, and they’re so put together and organized, and I just feel like a loser in comparison.”

I reminded her that a) these presenters have spent years, with tons of hard work, building to this point. Their job is to make it look easy (but it rarely is), and b) several of the speakers are probably wearing sweatpants below their gorgeous tops and perfect hair, and have stacks of clutter out of sight of the camera.

Comparison is demoralizing. Avoid situations (or courses) that will lead you into “shoulding” on yourself.

Pitfall #3: Avoidance

This same client had already signed up for several courses for her business, including my program. She didn’t need 20 more coaches teaching her. We figured out that sometimes learning is a way to avoid implementing what you already know. Implementation is vulnerable, tedious at times, and… not as shiny & new.

We discussed a few questions to ask when faced with all those exciting inbox-offers and online ads:

*Instead of doing a course, can you hire someone to do the work? (Instead of a copywriting course, can you pay a copywriter? Instead of learning all the secrets of Instagram, can you hire a social media manager?)

*Can you put yourself on an “information-fast” until you’ve set aside time to implement some of the things you’ve already learned? FOMO makes you want to take in more information, but you may already be sitting on a goldmine of steps and secrets for your success.

*Ask yourself, would I pay [insert your hourly rate] to take this course? Guess what— you are paying that much, if you’re giving your time to it.

The moral of the story? Curate your input wisely. Even if you aren’t investing money in an online offering, you’re investing your time, your morale, and energy into it. Make sure it’s worth it— by choosing selectively.

You, and your business, are worth it.