Start Faster. Stop "Learning".

[Andy Black]

If you're just getting started, haven't made a sale, or feel you're spinning your wheels then this 8 minute video should help.

It's pulled out of a longer call (also linked below).


Curious what your main takeaways are, and what you'll do different going forward.

View: https://youtu.be/Hy1shfNiy1k

On LinkedIn:

Andy Black on LinkedIn: If you're just getting started in business, haven't made a sale, or feel…

If you're just getting started in business, haven't made a sale, or feel you're spinning your wheels then this 8 minute video should help.

www.linkedin.com

The original call:

• TFLF Call - For those getting started

 

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[Chet Shen]

So school teaches kids to study and learn about something 100% first before executing?

The school system is all about memorising and remembering facts and knowledge so that you can write it all up according to the criteria of the assessment, format it, check your spellings and grammar, send it in, get graded and if it's bad, you'll get an F and you won't be able to get it done again. They punishes mistakes and view them in a bad way.

In business it's the opposite. You learn from taking action not from learning from a course or book. You learn door to door sales from action. You learn Google ads from helping someone. You learn something by taking action, not by learning a course. You learn from others and your mistakes. It's best to learn something when actually DOING it.

In business, you fail, you learn from your mistakes, you try again and apply the mistakes you've learnt. And mistakes are expected and natural to come by, just have to learn from it.


We've been trained and conditioned to research and to get certifications even before helping anyone.

It's about asking yourself how you can help someone today. It's about asking someone if they need help.

Students who are in school feel like they cant help someone because they have to get this certification or get this course or handwrite a notebook about Facebook ads before you even help someone. They don't think they know enough to help someone. They have to know everything and plan ahead with every single problem identified before they even start and write it all down in their notebook.

What's USP? What's Avatar? What's CRM? What's Branding? What's PR?

Doing all of this research and studying all the terms of business without even helping one person. Sure, research and reading books are great for mindset, but if you don't do something about that knowledge, you won't learn much. The market decides whether if it's helpful or not, it cares about your output. The market decides.



please do correct me if I'm wrong or getting the wrong idea as I'm 15yr old teenage high schooler who is LITERALLY in the system itself

 

[WJK]

Here's 8 minutes pulled out of a longer call.

Curious what your main takeaways are, and what you'll do differently going forward.

View: https://youtu.be/Hy1shfNiy1k




Here's the original 2 hour call:

• TFLF Call - For those getting started

Andy, I loved this video. I agree that we should just start looking for that first contact and sale. Some think that they must have all their ducks in a row before they can start. We can put our faces out there and see if our idea works or if it needs to be tweaked. We don't have to be perfect. We only need to help one person at a time. Then next...

Here's the danger of having it all put together. It's harder to make changes. What if it doesn't work and you've spent all of your money? That's one of leading reasons of business failures.

My business programs are always a work in progress. I tweak them all the time. I try this over here and that over there. How do you know what is going to work before you try it? Also, I've grown a lot in both my ideas and my skills over the years. I educate myself every day.

 

[Andy Black]

So school teaches kids to study and learn about something 100% first before executing?

The school system is all about memorising and remembering facts and knowledge so that you can write it all up according to the criteria of the assessment, format it, check your spellings and grammar, send it in, get graded and if it's bad, you'll get an F and you won't be able to get it done again. They punishes mistakes and view them in a bad way.

In business it's the opposite. You learn from taking action not from learning from a course or book. You learn door to door sales from action. You learn Google ads from helping someone. You learn something by taking action, not by learning a course. You learn from others and your mistakes. It's best to learn something when actually DOING it.

In business, you fail, you learn from your mistakes, you try again and apply the mistakes you've learnt. And mistakes are expected and natural to come by, just have to learn from it.


We've been trained and conditioned to research and to get certifications even before helping anyone.

It's about asking yourself how you can help someone today. It's about asking someone if they need help.

Students who are in school feel like they cant help someone because they have to get this certification or get this course or handwrite a notebook about Facebook ads before you even help someone. They don't think they know enough to help someone. They have to know everything and plan ahead with every single problem identified before they even start and write it all down in their notebook.

What's USP? What's Avatar? What's CRM? What's Branding? What's PR?

Doing all of this research and studying all the terms of business without even helping one person. Sure, research and reading books are great for mindset, but if you don't do something about that knowledge, you won't learn much. The market decides whether if it's helpful or not, it cares about your output. The market decides.



please do correct me if I'm wrong or getting the wrong idea as I'm 15yr old teenage high schooler who is LITERALLY in the system itself

Spot on. You fleshed it out really well, probably because, like you say, you're still right in the system itself.

 

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[Andy Black]

Andy, I loved this video. I agree that we should just start looking for that first contact and sale. Some think that they must have all their ducks in a row before they can start. We can put our faces out there and see if our idea works or if it needs to be tweaked. We don't have to be perfect. We only need to help one person at a time. Then next...

Here's the danger of having it all put together. It's harder to make changes. What if it doesn't work and you've spent all of your money? That's one of leading reasons of business failures.

My business programs are always a work in progress. I tweak them all the time. I try this over here and that over there. How do you know what is going to work before you try it? Also, I've grown a lot in both my ideas and my skills over the years. I educate myself every day.

Dammit. In the call I even brought up the Mother Theresa quote in my signature, but I forgot to go looking for it and add it in. That would have been a perfect ending to this video. I'll do a different video specifically about that quote.

I'm so glad you watched and loved this video @WJK. I was pretty sure the original video wouldn't appeal to a lot of people purely because of how long it was.

Oh, and you're 100% right about people not wanting or being unable to change things when they've built too much out before starting. Setting up intricate systems can take a lot of time, effort, and money, and we're reluctant to change them completely because of it.

 

[WJK]

Spot on. You fleshed it out really well, probably because, like you say, you're still right in the system itself.

There used to be gatekeepers for everything and in every industry. And people used conformity and education as the entry into most parts of the economy. With the internet, now education and knowledge are available to everyone. When I was young formal education and that degree meant everything. Now when I want to know how to do something or learn a new skill, I can go online and have the answer at my fingertips in an instant.

 

[SnowLava]

Here's 8 minutes pulled out of a longer call (also linked below).

Curious what your main takeaways are, and what you'll do different going forward.

View: https://youtu.be/Hy1shfNiy1k




The original call:

• TFLF Call - For those getting started

This is EXACTLY what I needed. I was overthinking , 'making plans' for myself for the future - learn ML, learn communication skills, learn, learn, learn. However, I will have to start just helping people. Even if I don't know the full solution, I can at least show them a proper direction. First take action, spot your mistakes, then learn, and take action again. Am i right?

 

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[Andy Black]

This is EXACTLY what I needed. I was overthinking , 'making plans' for myself for the future - learn ML, learn communication skills, learn, learn, learn. However, I will have to start just helping people. Even if I don't know the full solution, I can at least show them a proper direction. First take action, spot your mistakes, then learn, and take action again. Am i right?

Exactly.

"You can't steer a parked car."
(James Schramko)

 

[ZackerySprague]

Action before answers.

 

[Andy Black]

Action before answers.

Indeed.

I'd even say action *brings* answers.

 

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[Jinzou]

This is so true and I truly admire your statements and how you are able to phrase them so smoothly.

I think a great proof for it can be seen in children before they come in touch with this "learning" society. They're completely unbiased and just waddle around in their small world, doing whatever comes into their mind. They don't stop after hearing a great pirate story and think "but wait, is there actually an ocean I can conquer?" Nope.
Instead they just go and start building their own ship with some dumped newspaper, leftover cardboard and old glue. They just start building it and learn from that very process. If their ship turns out to be leaking, they just go on and find something more sturdy than a newspaper to flick it, and so on and so forth.

It reminds me of my childhood, where I did the most weirdest things and no one judged me that my idea was 'lacking' or that I wasn't 'good enough yet and should learn this and that first'. I listened to a story I liked and the next moment I wrote my own story about fictional monsters or opened a restaurant for my family with just sand cakes to sell.

We can probably learn a lot about your statements by simply observing children. They're so pure and oftentimes can't express themselves properly, yet something in their way of doing things holds a wisdom we tend to forget when growing up in the "learning" society.

Thanks for sharing this important piece of knowledge with us.

 

[EliaR]

Incredibly valuable. Thank you Andy.
I'm new to web design and have decided to focus on Google Ads instead.
Was thinking about buying a course, but definitely won't now thanks to you.
I think entrepreneurs should be reactive rather than proactive.
Deal with each problem as it comes.

 

[Andy Black]

Incredibly valuable. Thank you Andy.
I'm new to web design and have decided to focus on Google Ads instead.
Was thinking about buying a course, but definitely won't now thanks to you.
I think entrepreneurs should be reactive rather than proactive.
Deal with each problem as it comes.

This should get you going:

MARKETING - The Shortest Google Ads Tutorial Ever

It took me HOURS to create this. Let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions. Hope it helps! View: https://youtu.be/7z7kx3kJC4M EDIT: Once you're running watch these two short videos to make sense of the metrics...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

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[Antifragile]

The message is right on point, bullseye! - do, get feedback, do another way, get feedback...

Wealth is made by creating something that people need before they even know they needed it. Then giving it to them for a charge. Invention is like that. That's business. There is no school that actually teaches business! There are business faculties, but no one learns how to start an Uber or Amazon or even a RE company in those classes.

But most importantly, if you record a video on this topic, you must have a British accent - it makes you 10x smarter in the eyes of the audience, instantly.

Tell me I am wrong! Haha

 

[Andy Black]

The message is right on point, bullseye! - do, get feedback, do another way, get feedback...

Wealth is made by creating something that people need before they even know they needed it. Then giving it to them for a charge. Invention is like that. That's business. There is no school that actually teaches business! There are business faculties, but no one learns how to start an Uber or Amazon or even a RE company in those classes.

But most importantly, if you record a video on this topic, you must have a British accent - it makes you 10x smarter in the eyes of the audience, instantly.

Tell me I am wrong! Haha

Thanks @Antifragile. Our education system has a lot to answer for. As @Jinzou pointed out, we're born as explorers and experimenters and then school trains it out of us.

if you record a video on this topic, you must have a British accent - it makes you 10x smarter in the eyes of the audience, instantly.

Lol. I didnt realise I had such an unfair advantage. Even Gary V said he'd be 10x more successful if he had an English accent.


I'm curious... do you think I packed too many concepts into that video? Or could it be better structured?

 

[Antifragile]

I'm curious... do you think I packed too many concepts into that video? Or could it be better structured?

I've read enough of your posts to know you. This means that when I hear you speak of a specific concept, it's clear to me what you meant.

How does it look like to people who see this as their only reference point to you Andy? I don't know. Form that point of view, perhaps there were too many concepts. Not from my point of view, as someone who knows these points from your posts and having had that history.

The most effective structure I can imagine is the old adage of "tell them what you about to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you just told them". And personal examples / stories stick in our minds the best.

One thing I'd like for the younger audience here on the forum to grasp is that these concepts are universally applicable. Meaning they don't just apply to google ads, video editing and other tech businesses. If you believe you can't be in gene editing business because you aren't a biologist, you've missed the point. @Kak is in chemicals and he probably knows next to nothing in chemistry. For me this came clear when entering RE development. Everyone said the same thing "you need deep pockets and you need experience". I agree, you do need both, but it doesn't mean both of those things must be actually yours. You can get investors for the "deep pockets" and you can partner/hire "experience". What you can never replace is leadership.

That's what I liked about the video. It's about leadership. Lead yourself first - get that first sale. Ask someone if they need what you think about offering. Get that commitment. Learn that you are on the right path. Get that feedback. And if that feedback is a "no" then pivot, do something else. Unlike in educational institutions, the grade here isn't A,B, C or D/F - no such thing. The grade doesn't exist at all. You are growing, learning, adapting.

Nature is a perfect example of this. A hungry predator can't give up, overthink it or "not feel like it". A wolf hunting prey is testing and failing a lot before a meal. Same with business, failing isn't some permanent grade on a report card. It's just an experience of what doesn't work. It's valuable!


P.S. Whoever said "I would have written you a shorter letter but I just didn't have time" - yeah, that's my reply here lol.

 

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[Andy Black]

I've read enough of your posts to know you. This means that when I hear you speak of a specific concept, it's clear to me what you meant.

How does it look like to people who see this as their only reference point to you Andy? I don't know. Form that point of view, perhaps there were too many concepts. Not from my point of view, as someone who knows these points from your posts and having had that history.

The most effective structure I can imagine is the old adage of "tell them what you about to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you just told them". And personal examples / stories stick in our minds the best.

One thing I'd like for the younger audience here on the forum to grasp is that these concepts are universally applicable. Meaning they don't just apply to google ads, video editing and other tech businesses. If you believe you can't be in gene editing business because you aren't a biologist, you've missed the point. @Kak is in chemicals and he probably knows next to nothing in chemistry. For me this came clear when entering RE development. Everyone said the same thing "you need deep pockets and you need experience". I agree, you do need both, but it doesn't mean both of those things must be actually yours. You can get investors for the "deep pockets" and you can partner/hire "experience". What you can never replace is leadership.

That's what I liked about the video. It's about leadership. Lead yourself first - get that first sale. Ask someone if they need what you think about offering. Get that commitment. Learn that you are on the right path. Get that feedback. And if that feedback is a "no" then pivot, do something else. Unlike in educational institutions, the grade here isn't A,B, C or D/F - no such thing. The grade doesn't exist at all. You are growing, learning, adapting.

Nature is a perfect example of this. A hungry predator can't give up, overthink it or "not feel like it". A wolf hunting prey is testing and failing a lot before a meal. Same with business, failing isn't some permanent grade on a report card. It's just an experience of what doesn't work. It's valuable!


P.S. Whoever said "I would have written you a shorter letter but I just didn't have time" - yeah, that's my reply here lol.

Maybe you could have written it shorter, but would it have lost something by doing that? Maybe the authenticity and conversational nature of your reply? That's what I feel I'd lose if I scripted it. I do agree that telling stories helps.

I also wish more of the youngsters grasped these concepts. Dare I say they're prerequisites for getting started, and keeping going. Until people grasp them they seem forever tangled up or spinning their wheels.

Maybe one day I'll try to create more focused videos that explain one concept each. It's so much easier (for me) to chat live, and also to reply in the forum.

Oh, and I hadn't thought of it as leadership, starting with leading ourselves. You're right, so thanks for pointing that out.

Thanks for the feedback, and bringing more people to the video too.

 

[Canadoz]

Great video Andy.
And you'll be pleased to know what you say is actually backed up by the latest peer reviewed research on how people learn.
For a substantial number of disciplines, the research tells us that "active learning" is the best way for people to learn i.e. putting what we know directly into practice.
Business and law schools try to replicate this with their case study approach. However, I still don't thing it beats the real thing of going out there and setting something up.

 

[EliaR]

This should get you going:

MARKETING - The Shortest Google Ads Tutorial Ever

It took me HOURS to create this. Let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions. Hope it helps! View: https://youtu.be/7z7kx3kJC4M EDIT: Once you're running watch these two short videos to make sense of the metrics...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Watched it already, great video!

Would love your advice on this.
I'm a beginner web designer wanting to make the switch to google ads.
This is the case for a variety of reasons, such as not enjoying building websites, wanting MRR, and giving more value to people.

I'm anxious about giving google ads services to clients.
The anxiety stems from not wanting to waste clients' money and not providing results.
I really wouldn't like to be in this situation, although I know nothing is guaranteed in life.
What do you think? Thanks!

 

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[Andy Black]

Watched it already, great video!

Would love your advice on this.
I'm a beginner web designer wanting to make the switch to google ads.
This is the case for a variety of reasons, such as not enjoying building websites, wanting MRR, and giving more value to people.

I'm anxious about giving google ads services to clients.
The anxiety stems from not wanting to waste clients' money and not providing results.
I really wouldn't like to be in this situation, although I know nothing is guaranteed in life.
What do you think? Thanks!

Start with low budgets and low fees till you can prove it works for people?

 

[EliaR]

Start with low budgets and low fees till you can prove it works for people?

Yeah good idea.
And I'll make sure to set expectations.

 

[EliaR]

Start with low budgets and low fees till you can prove it works for people?

Going to run Google Ads for the first time for a lawyer I already built a website for.
Her business consultant (whose company referred me to her) was startled that I don't have any experience, so we're doing first month free.

Thinking of niching to lawyers as my country has the highest density of lawyers per capita in the world.
Also asked my parents to ask their lawyer friends and I have 2 more lawyers interested.

I still don't feel like I know enough (not sure what bid strategies to use) but I'll never learn by sitting around. Gotta start!

 

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[WJK]

Going to run Google Ads for the first time for a lawyer I already built a website for.
Her business consultant (whose company referred me to her) was startled that I don't have any experience, so we're doing first month free.

Thinking of niching to lawyers as my country has the highest density of lawyers per capita in the world.
Also asked my parents to ask their lawyer friends and I have 2 more lawyers interested.

I still don't feel like I know enough (not sure what bid strategies to use) but I'll never learn by sitting around. Gotta start!

You don't know until you try. And try several different things. Do some A & B tests.

 

[I.M.Viktor]

Just a thought here:
Is it possible to start a brain surgery bussines, by learning on the way without studying too much and just trying to help people? No no need for schooling, a degree? Can we start faster and stop learnig in this case?

Where do we draw the line? Because some things DO have to be known preciselly before attempting. Some professions need degrees and school venen tho school is not the best way to learn.

But if you think about it, even brain and hearth surgery was developed through trial and error(on animals and eventually indeed on people).

Therefore is there no line to be drawn? Can I start ANY bussines by action and bootstraping to create value?

I gues the answer is: it depends.

Nothing really requires you to have a degree, except a few areas of STEM, where you could harm peoples lives if you attempted it without being properly educated or trained for the job. For example chemistry, design of manned aircraft or a bridge, medicine and so on.

 

[Andy Black]

Just a thought here:
Is it possible to start a brain surgery bussines, by learning on the way without studying too much and just trying to help people? No no need for schooling, a degree? Can we start faster and stop learnig in this case?

Where do we draw the line? Because some things DO have to be known preciselly before attempting. Some professions need degrees and school venen tho school is not the best way to learn.

But if you think about it, even brain and hearth surgery was developed through trial and error(on animals and eventually indeed on people).

Therefore is there no line to be drawn? Can I start ANY bussines by action and bootstraping to create value?

I gues the answer is: it depends.

Nothing really requires you to have a degree, except a few areas of STEM, where you could harm peoples lives if you attempted it without being properly educated or trained for the job. For example chemistry, design of manned aircraft or a bridge, medicine and so on.

Some work requires certifications. Most don't.

Curious what our resident engineer thinks @ZCP

 

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[ZCP]

In the US, there are regulated professions that you have to be licensed to provide services to the public (engineering, law, insurance, architecture, medicine, etc.). Most licenses require some form of degree / school and a bunch of tests / references / etc.

You can do your own engineering on your own land for your own person. But to get permits, insurance, etc., you often need approved plans. Since we no longer have people to do plan review (and make sure things are safe / to code / etc.), they often require it to be 'stamped' by a registered architect / engineering licensed in that state.