5 Things I Learned at Brendon Burchard’s 2012 Experts Academy

I have to admit, I really do enjoy attending a good conference. This past week I had the pleasure of spending three days at Brendon Burchard’s Experts Academy and I wanted to share some of what really stood out for me with you:

1. Be fanatical about learning.  Less than 5% of people read more than one book a year last time I did some research for one of my clients.  If you read more than one book – count yourself among the small group who do this.

Brendon is passionate about reading just like I am. Many of the books he suggested to the audience are books I have also read.  Your knowledge is a competitive advantage in todays information age and there is no shortage of places to acquire it.

Take for example the knowledge I acquired while I was at Experts Academy.  I could have done tons of research online, read multiple books and probably learned what I did but – learning in the setting from someone who has done what you want to do allows you to fast track the learning.  When you fast track your learning – you get there first. In business that is a competitive advantage.

2. Share your failures too.  One of the things I really appreciated from Brendon was hearing not only about his success but his failures too.  The things he did early on that did not work allow me to sit and know that some of my first attempts were not as bad as I thought either.

Too often we think it is our success that endears others to us but in truth it is our vulnerability and our willingness to take the next step – and not get stuck just because something didn’t work the first time.

I am about to launch a new program called Video Creation Formula for people who have never done video but want to start and I plan on being completely transparent about all the mistakes I made along the way – the horrors of doing my first video and how I have progressed to having thousands of views on my channel and hundreds of comments and email exchanges telling me how much my videos have helped someone.

I never would have experienced the win if it were not for the early stumbling blocks.

3. Always think Strategy.  Brendon asked a question about how many people have been trained on strategy and out of 800 people there were only 3 in addition to myself who could say yes to this.

Strategy is key in business.  If you work for a corporation you know that death by meeting usually revolves around strategy, objectives, tactics and efficiencies.  I am glad Brendon brought this up because I have a renewed passion to approach my business in a more strategic fashion.

I have modeled what other people do for long enough – it is time to trust my (and your) intuition and create a well thought out strategy for my business.  Strategy and measurements (objectives) are critical if you want to take your business to the next level in the next 12 months.

4.  Think in terms of models or frameworks.  We all have systems, processes and ways that we do things in our business.  Often they are habits that have never been documented or contemplated because we are so busy doing.

Take some time and think about how you do what you do.  What are the top five ways you get results? What are the top five ways you engage with your clients? What are the top five ways you set up and get ready to blog or use social media?

There are processes inside of all of us, models we could be using to teach others that we are not even conscious of.  Take time to think about these and write them down.  There is gold in the way you do things.  Remember – if you are a reader you are a five percenter.  This means you are further along the path in what you do than 95% of the population.  How you do things can fast track the learning for someone else.

5. Practice your skill.  Brendon had us do several exercises in groups where we had to demonstrate the very thing he was teaching on the fly.  We also had to do it with a different group each time adding more to the discomfort.

In adult learning principles you have to hear something, see something, write it down and practice yourself if you want to take the learning up to 90%.  Brendon did an exceptional job of creating a learning environment for his students.

My only constructive comment would have been around the hugging.  I get that he wanted us to connect but being asked to hug five strangers when you are a woman is not always comfortable. It left me feeling a bit uncomfortable to the point that during the last exercise on Saturday I left and chose not to participate because I did not want to be there when he did the predictable and asked everyone to hug five or ten different people.  I feel that shaking hands would have been plenty of an introduction.

I would love to know how you feel about this type of exercise. Are you all for it or do you think it’s a bit too close for comfort to hug strangers at an event? Share in the comments!

All in all it was a great conference and experience.  I was amazed by the number of Canadians I met and appreciate Brendon asking all the women in the room to stand up and be acknowledged for bringing their leadership to the expert community!