Internet Marketing & Social Media Connections

Battling the Marketing Learning Blues & Spotting Steaming Pieces of Poop

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It’s no secret there’s TOO much marketing info out there….98% of which is either rehashed and NOT new or only teaches you bits and pieces which wastes a lot of other time trying to figure out what else you need to know, how to really go about it, what’s worth knowing, what’s not worth knowing, what doesn’t really work or work anymore, etc.

It was a huge problem of mine when I first started trying to break into the online marketing game. I was lost and confused. WTF – is all this and where do I REALLY start and what do I REALLY need to know and what REALLY works…and does this crap even REALLY work at all? Who do I listen to? Who is honest, who is not? It was overwhelming, frustrating and at times seemingly impossible.

Now that I’ve got it down, I see TONS of other people struggling with the same thing. I’m going to give you a peace of advice but I’m NOT saying it’s going to be easy either but I can say that it will solve those problems when you sort through it.

Get a mentor. Yeah, it’s as simple as that…but yet still not so easy because it’s hard to know who to trust, who to believe, who is giving you the REAL goods vs. the rehashed or outdated goods, who really cares or JUST wants your money, and who will be of the most benefit to YOU  because we all differ.

But the right mentor is really the way to go. The right mentor cares about your success – yes, they have to make money too so you will likely pay for their mentorship, but they still really do care. The right mentor knows how to cut the crap, make it simple, give you step-by-step instructions and simply cut all the b.s. fluff.

I may have given up years ago if it wasn’t for my mentor, and that’s real.

I was truly beginning to think this stuff was crap (and mind you, again, this was years ago when not so many people were as successful with it as they are these days) and I was starting to believe it was just one of those things that only worked for lucky people or already rich people who could afford anything they needed.

Then the best thing that could have ever happened to me happened. I got a mentor. It kind of happened by accident but nevertheless it happened and I’ve never looked back since. I have some successful affiliate ventures, I have a successful business in helping others with their SEO, link building and social media, I am a manager of a successful IM company ran by my mentor,  and I absolutely LOVE what I do. But again, I can honestly say if it weren’t for her, I would have very likely given up. May have come back at a later date and tried to attack it again, can’t say, but I know I was losing faith in it.

My mentor is Michelle MacPhearson, she has been for years and still is. She’s phenomenal and I’m sure you’ve heard me mention her over and over again but it’s beyond well-deserved. She’s the founder of Crowd Mountain, an Internet Marketing step-by-step course; a founder of SEOcialization (the art of achieving SEO with social and Web 2 platforms; creator of several marketing tools and plugins; mentioned regularly as a top marketer, leader, innovator, tech savvy lady; and the list goes on.

But there are other mentors out there too. You just have to find the one that works for you, provides what you need and provides the guidance you need (without all the fluff and confusing bits and pieces)…find a well trusted one. Don’t just fall for anybody, find out who they really are first and find out what others think about them and if they have a good, trusting, reputation.

Figure out what you need to know first. Do you need to know everything from top to bottom? Or have you already mastered something like WordPress (but have you REALLY mastered it?) and now need to understand more about SEO and link building? Do you know all you need to know about articles and bookmarking, etc. or do you need to learn more?

Do an inventory of what you know…and be BRUTALLY honest with yourself and figure out what you need to learn; then look for a mentor who teaches these things – try to find one that teaches them all (all the things you need to know) or gives start to scratch guidance rather than just bits and pieces…unless all you need is to learn a few more bits and pieces a little better (again being very honest with yourself, don’t give yourself too much credit and think you might know something very well when really there’s more to know).

You still may need to pick up more info from other places, but having a mentor that teaches what you need to know will give you a solid foundation and then you will easily be able to pick out any other courses, ebooks, etc. that are truly worth your time and money because you’re not totally in the dark buying just anything and everything.

I now teach my team members what they need to know (for one, so they can implement it for our clients; but for two, because like my mentor I would LOVE to help them also succeed with their own ventures) and they’re already seeing the light and learning that it’s VERY doable and it’s not necessarily as complicated as it seems when someone walks you right through it and teaches you what you REALLY need to know. Not only do you now have a foundation and ‘get it’ but it’s SO easy to sift through most of the b.s. at that point because it’s like spotting a big steaming piece of poop in your dinner plate - it stinks and looks out of place. That’s not to say you’ll NEVER purchase something that really wasn’t worth your time or money, or was everything you thought it’d be, but it WILL help you eliminate a lot of that problem.

And it also frees you up to stop digging around, stop wasting time on worthless people and products and actually IMPLEMENT the things you now know because you know you’ve finally got the GOODS. You now know where to really start, you know the ins and outs, you know what must be done and what’s a waste of time, you can now spot steaming pieces of poop …and you can now IMPLEMENT.

It’s too easy to spend countless hours, days, weeks, months and years never moving forward because you’re so busy learning. But a lot of that learning is misleading, confusing, unnecessary, doesn’t make sense because it’s not the big picture, just leads you to more crap, doesn’t work so you have to now read 50 more books that don’t work either, the bits and pieces just leave you trying to learn more (wasting more months digging around) because you’re still just not sure or unsure of how it all works together, still don’t know where your real focus should be, etc. So if you can cut the crap you can actually IMPLEMENT and move on to SUCCESS.

Surround yourself with people already successful at what you want to do and find a good, respected, trusted mentor that teaches the things you’re hungry for. I’ve lived it and I know it’s what has allowed me to move in a successful direction rather than drown in info, ebooks, scattered teachings, outdated strategies, money-sucking time-wasting garbage, and more…which could have lead to me deciding to quit. I couldn’t be happier with my ventures and involvements and I may have missed this boat had it not been for my mentor; and at the very least, I would have not caught the boat for who knows how many more years to come.

Karen J., Visibility Specialist
@areak on Twitter
areak on Facebook

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