Anyone with any kind of business savvy is on the lookout for investments these days. However, the one that will generate the biggest return isn’t property, cryptocurrency or stocks. And it’s certainly not going down the pub or watching Netflix every night.
It’s knowledge.
In order to grow your practice, your team and yourself you need to invest in knowledge. This is what will fill in the gaps between where you are now and where you want to be.
Of course, this comes with a caveat – you need to invest in the right knowledge and commit to learning in the right way.
Let’s take a look at the four-step learning process you need for maximum growth.
Step 1: Gaining Knowledge
The first step is identifying the gap between where you are and where you want to be. What do you need to learn in order to solve the problem you are currently experiencing?
For example, if you want to lose weight then learning about proper nutrition is what will enable you to bridge the gap between your current weight and your goal weight.
In terms of practice growth, it might be that you need to learn how to attract high value clients or to put better systems in place so that you can maximise your profit margins.
In short, you need to work out what you don’t know, and then start looking at who can teach you.
Step 2: Repetition
Remember at school when you would learn something for an exam… only to completely forget it once you passed?
In order for information to become truly embedded in your brain, you need to repeat it many times.
You can’t just watch an educational video once and absorb all of the information. You have to repeat it several times for the knowledge to truly become ingrained in your mind.
My children watch the same few shows on Netflix time and time again. It remains entertaining to them because they don’t absorb everything on the first watch. They notice new details and appreciate new elements with each rewatch.
If you watch my live videos regularly, you’ll know that there are certain themes that come up time and time again. And yet, I’m more than happy to repeat myself because I know that you need to hear this information over and over so that you can retain it.
Step 3: Implementation
Once knowledge is starting to become ingrained in your brain, you must then implement it.
Consuming content can only take you so far. When we put information into action, we strengthen the neural pathways in our brain and reinforce the knowledge on a deeper level.
This is the difference between shelf-help and self-help.
Shelf-help is when you constantly consume helpful information but fail to put it into practice. Knowledge won’t generate an ROI if it remains locked away inside your brain; you need to act.
For example, I wasn’t born with all of this sales and marketing knowledge. I learned it from my mentors and repeated it until I was ready to put it into action and get results. Then, I began teaching clients and those around me, and the knowledge became embedded deeper still in my brain.
Step 4: Accountability
Finally, you need someone to hold you accountable for your actions.
It’s easy to promise yourself that you are going to act on knowledge tomorrow or next week because it’s not urgent right now. But the truth is, if this information isn’t actioned today then it will be forgotten tomorrow and never acted upon.
This is why I invested so heavily in a coaching program all those years ago, when I had barely a penny to my name. My back was against the wall and I had no other choice but to learn everything I possibly could. I had others around me to set an example and a coach to keep me in check. This made all the difference for me, and finally gave me the much-needed momentum that got my practice off the ground.
To this day, I continue to invest in coaching and my coach regularly slaps me in the face with a wet fish, as I like to say. He calls me out when I am getting in my own way and won’t let me be complacent. He holds me accountable and pushes me to keep on learning.
Summary
When it comes to building a freedom practice and up levelling your life, knowledge is the very best investment you can possibly make. You must continue to learn, repeat and implement new knowledge and most of all, you must be held accountable for doing so. Following the above four steps will generate a better – and more reliable – return than any other investment ever will.
