The original title of this article was “How to Choose the Perfect Program to Grow Your Business (and Why Most Programs Fail)” but it was too long.
It’s a crazy trend: templates, cheat sheets, hacks, swipe files, formulas all designed to give us the keys to the kingdom of untold wealth, riches, success.
At first blush, it sounds great, especially when you’ve read about the hundreds of thousands or millions in sales that resulted.
And the numerous testimonials that provide the “social proof.”
Even serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk has noted we are being taught “to memorize things and then to regurgitate the information.”
That approach is not the kind of learning that leads to the kind of independence which is vital to entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, and creators of any kind. Instead, that type of education leads to memorizing some facts.
An enormous difference.
You’re One Funnel/One Ad/One Script Away, So What’s The Problem?
Being a lifelong learner and always looking to elevate my game, I have over the years taken a few of these looking to “learn some new tricks.”
Each of them were “gurus” of one sort or another, very well known, a few were NY Times bestselling authors and thought leaders.
- Some showed little tactics.
- Others showed “hacks.”
- Others showed “their formula.”
- Some showed “how they below on some social channel.”
Only problem: Nobody ever explained HOW any of this worked or WHY.
Not one.
Maybe I chose the wrong ones. Maybe, against the odds, I chose the ones that followed some “course outline.”
But as Seth Godin said in his blog post, Two Kinds of Schooling:
“Type 1. You can take a class where you learn technique, facts, and procedures.
“Type 2. You can take a class where you learn to see, learn to lead, and learn to solve interesting problems.
“The first type of teaching isn’t particularly difficult to do, and it’s something most of us are trained to absorb. The first type of schooling can even be accomplished with self-discipline and a Dummies book. The first type of class is important but not scarce.
“The second kind, on the other hand, is where all real success comes from. It’s really tricky to find and train people to do this sort of teaching, and anytime you can find some of it, you should grab it.”
Empowering Entrepreneurs and Making Informed Decisions When Dreams are at Stake
In other words, if I tried one of these “tools” and it didn’t work, they hadn’t educated me to teach me what to see, what to look for, and what to ask to sort it out or debug it.
Let me give you an analogy:
Imagine you wished to be a magician.
So you intern under a world-class magician who shows you all the moves but none of the insight into why that trick worked when it worked to “wow” people and blow their minds.
The same is true for stockbrokers or salespeople or chefs who “have that magic Midas touch.”
Or artists who never taught you to actually draw or paint, they just showed their own mojo that you would, through osmosis or something equally inexplicable, somehow embrace.
Uninformed, we are slaves of “some technique.”
But taught to see? To ask? To decipher and challenge? Only then are we empowered to lead our path towards our goal.
What’s At Risk When You’re Taught To Think For Yourself?
Mindless, color-by-number templates that seek more people to “drink their kool-aid.”
What else is at risk?
Those who create cookie-cutter answers rather than teach you the tools to think for yourself.
Those who feel threatened when you think for yourself are not allies. In fact, they’re more like passive-aggressive dominators who thrive on your dependence.
Me? I like to think for myself and when you’re free to think for yourself.
I like it when you challenge “norms” and question “the way it’s always been done.”
Me? I want to drink my own kool-aid.
And I want you to drink YOUR own kool-aid.
FACT: If you can’t think for yourself, then you’ll always be dependent upon another’s ingenuity, their genius, their imagination, and their ability to as “Why?” and “Why not?”
But I ask this. “Why not you?”
So in stark contrast to the programs that gave you and me various templates, formulas, and checklists and color-by-number swipe files yet leaving us as clueless at the end as we were in the beginning, I decided it was time for a different type of class:
A class where you built up actual knowledge and actual certainty so you knew why you made the choices you made in building your message, your brand, your story, and your movement in the world.
So instead of having “souvenirs” (like the diplomas on the walls of lawyers and dentists) but remaining as uninformed as we were when we arrived, I changed the metric.
What to Look For When Looking for The Perfect Program to Grow Your Business
Here are some powerful tools to give you back your independence.
The qualities I demanded in the forms of education I thrive in have these qualities:
- KNOWING (instead of reciting theories)
- LOOKING (open eyes instead of a closed mind)
- AGILE (instead of fixed)
- INQUISITIVE (rather than accepting previous conclusions)
- AWARE (rather than oblivious)
- INCLUSIVE (rather than exclusive)
- BIGGER PICTURE (rather than myopic hyper-specialization)
- CONNECTING (rather than disconnecting)
That is what formed the foundation of the Brand Intervention Masterclass (a hybrid of mentoring and a deep dive into “tools that give you insane insight and form the foundation for incredible growth”).
This is what’s formed the foundation of my upcoming masterclass where YOU are the center of the program, and YOU are in the spotlight, not me.
If you share my values of independent thinking and are ready to stand out and defy (and rise above) the routine noise, click here.
With enrollment now open, I invite you to learn more about it below.
In Case You Don’t Know Me:
I am David Brier, the recipient of over 320 international awards on design and branding, and am honored to have the rare distinction of being presented the Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship medallion.
My work’s been featured in ADWEEK, Fast Company, Forbes, INC, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Thrive Global, the New York Times, and numerous blogs and podcasts around the world.
A native New Yorker and Google’s #1 ranked rebranding expert, my four decades of branding expertise are sought after by companies of all sizes — from startups to global organizations — and every industry demanding an unorthodox edge in today’s business climate.
In addition to being a branding and rebranding rebel and keynote speaker, I am the bestselling author of my #1 Amazon book, “BRAND INTERVENTION, 33 Steps to Transform the Brand You Have Into the Brand You Need” with the Foreword written by Shark Tank star and CEO of FUBU Daymond John.
Some amazing people have recognized this work, one of which is the remarkable Claude Silver (Chief Heart Officer at VaynerMedia, Gary Vaynerchuk’s agency) who wrote of my book, “This is not only an outstanding book on branding but is an excellent example of branding, design, and content I keep in my office. I only wish I had this book at the beginning of my career.”