I got scammed on the first online business course I ever purchased.
It was an over-the-shoulder-style course on starting an affiliate marketing blog (I cringe looking back) and the course creator delivered half the content before bailing with the excuse that his mom was sick. He never came back and he never finished the product.
I don’t blame myself for trusting the product creator – and in retrospect – I received plenty enough value from the first half of the course to warrant the purchase.
The problem was what I did next.
Because I’d been burned on "affiliate marketing", I threw the baby out with the bath water. I started bouncing around looking for different business models. I looked into ecom and selling physical products. I wanted to start an agency of some kind. Digital info products and membership sites seemed promising. Basically, if there was an online business model, I was game to try it back then.
Over the next few years I developed a very unhealthy case of the dreaded Shiny Object Syndrome. I bounced from idea to idea and course to course. I couldn’t focus and worse, I didn’t know what to focus on.
After I started my own businesses and got established, my Shiny Object Syndrome didn’t automatically disappear – it simply shifted into other areas. "Maybe I should do paid traffic. How can I grow my X or Facebook account? Should I be on Tik Tok?"
Again I went from course to course until I hired a coach that essentially told me to cut the sh*t and focus.
Does any of this sound familiar?
I’ve worked with enough entrepreneurs and freelancers to know this is a massive problem for anyone who’s been struggling to 1) start a business and get it off the ground or 2) grow a business from 5 or 6 figures to 7.
Most solopreneur problems of growth stem from a lack of focus and Shiny Object Syndrome of some kind.
So this week I want to explore how to kill Shiny Object Syndrome once and for all, and show you a systematic way to pull more ROI out of your course purchases.
(Yes, I think you should buy a lot of different courses, I still do. But you need a system for consuming them.)
Actually, what I’ll really be talking about is how to grow a business 2x or 10x or 100x (if you’re just starting out), by focusing and sticking to proven roadmaps.
We’ll start tomorrow by getting clear on where exactly to focus – the 2 most critical levers that grow any business – especially soloprereneur businesses looking to grow into 7-figures.
Talk to you tomorrow!
– Derek