Before I get into today’s lesson, I wanted to share a picture that Lori sent in after reading Part 1 of this series, GROWL LIKE A VIKING. How awesome is this?
Now, there were a lot of Gods that the Vikings bowed down in front of – Odin, the ruler of Asgard and god of war, Loki the mischievous shape-shifting god, Thor the protector of humanity and god of thunder.
The Vikings did whatever they could to avoid the wrath of their gods and regularly held sacrificial ceremonies.
PART 7: THE GOD OF THUNDER
I suppose I could have chosen any of the Gods to name-drop for this lesson but Thor is my favourite. And not just because of the hunky portrayal in the Marvel movies. He vehemently protected humanity and weiled one hell of a weapon – his hammer Mjölnir.
If you’re a Marvel fan, you’ll get a kick out of this video that explains, rather comically, how Thor’s hammer’s name mysteriously changed from “Uru” to Mjölnir.
Now, this lesson isn’t driving into the heart of religion. Well, in a way I supposed you could look at it like that.
No, I’m talking about the so-called “gurus” of the online marketing world. The ones that some people set aside common sense and belief in their own creativity and ingenuity to blindly follow what those gooroos have to say.
The operative word is BLINDLY. Remember when we were talking about looting (ethically of course) you learned why and more importantly how to follow other people and what they’re doing.
Let me tell you a story. I generally don’t share stuff like this unless there’s a lesson to be learned.
I once worked with a client and found that she often compared her business and other similar ones. Always trying to figure out what the missing piece of the puzzle was so she could break through the glass ceiling.
She was navigating through some tricky waters and, much like the Vikings, she found her version of Polaris – that big, bright shining star – and followed it blindly. Unlike the Vikings though, there was no guarantee of landing on land just by doing so.
Coaches that gave inside peeks and strategies that they used in their own business. GuruX does this and they have more time and money than we do and I’m sure there’s a reason for it. Putting to use recommended software or practices and feeling frustrated when it didn’t work out the way we had hoped.
“Complex logic” in marketing and automation requires a special kind of finessing and quite often, out of the box solutions aren’t the perfect fit. It left us frankensteining a bunch of things together and expecting the simplicity that the mentors had promised.
The reason I’m sharing this with you is because it’s actually insanely common.
I don’t want you to follow ANYONE blindly. Your mentor could have a ninja team of tech-savvy people or a VA who’s been bending a piece of software to their will for years.
Just because the {insert gooroo of your industry} is doing something or using something –it doesn’t mean that it’s the perfect solution for YOU.
The reason you look to these “gods” is because of where they are NOW. They were once just like us – small, grinding and hustling every day. No team or fancy systems. A thought, a dream and a laptop.
But I guarantee that behind every tactic, there’s a strategy. When you follow what you can see (the tactic) without knowing and adjusting the strategy that’s behind it, it’s – well, just stupid.
That’s why I also recommend not “god-hopping”. In the beginning, it’s hard to figure out the strategy behind the tactics so when you start to hop around finding new people to follow advice from, you end up with shiny-object syndrome.
Here’s an insider tip. There’s nothing really new in what you can learn from anyone online.
It’s all pretty much the same shit. It’s explained in a different way, some people resonate with you more than others, and – here’s the biggie – if you package up your information and give it a name that’s unique to you, it sounds like it’s something brandfucking new to the world.
SAGA ADVENTURE MISSION:
Post in my Facebook group:
- Look in your own business and find something that you’ve “looted” from someone else and write down the strategy that’s behind it. If you’re doing something like my client did – just using it for the sake of using it – now is the time to brainstorm the REASONS or strategy behind it.
- If you’re stuck on figuring it out, tell us that too and we’ll all help out.
