Choosing the Best Training and Seminars – Pick Dave’s Brain

This week’s question comes from Angela in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Q: There are so many experts with conferences and seminars in my industry. How can I know which one to choose? Or are they all the same, and once you’ve learned from one, it’s a waste of money to continue?

Click to tweet this: Stop seeking success by weighing “pros” and “conferences.” Great mentors measure up to YOU. @DaveCrenshaw

Video transcript:

You may have heard of horse whisperers. But is there a “you” whisperer? I’m Dave Crenshaw and it’s time to Pick Dave’s Brain!

This week’s question comes from Angela in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Angela:

There are so many experts with conferences and seminars in my industry. How can I know which one to choose? Or are they all the same, and once you’ve learned from one, it’s a waste of money to continue?

Dave Crenshaw:

It’s a great question, Angela. It’s something I see with a lot of people in a variety of industries. There are just so many options and they kind of get into this seminar addiction, where I just have to go to every conference this year.

The first thing I would ask you to consider is what’s the result that you’re trying to achieve? Just filling up your mind with all sorts of random knowledge in it of itself is not a virtue. Instead as an entrepreneur, you need to be focused with your time. So the question is—of all the available options, which of them get you that result?

Also, you want to consider how many conferences you can actually attend and still take action on what you’re learning? I believe the point at which you should stop attending conferences or working with an expert is the point at which you can no longer take action on what you’re learning because you already have too much to do.

If you fill yourself up with more and more things to do and you’re still falling behind on the stuff that you learned from the last conference, that’s a good sign it’s time to slow way down.

But there’s a deeper question that you’re asking here Angela. What you’re really wanting to know is who should I work with? Which of all these available options is the best one for me? And the answer is the Angela whisperer.

Now what that means is that there are lots of different people sharing things in different ways. It may not necessarily be unique but they may speak in a way that speaks best to you. The goal is to find someone who helps you move forward and take action.

There’s no absolute truth when it comes to business. This isn’t a moral question. The question is—what works best for you? And then begin that relationship of student and teacher with that person for as long as it provides value to you.

Also, there’s nothing wrong with working with one person for a long period of time and then getting into the point where you say “You know what, I’ve learned a lot from you and now it’s time to move on to someone else.”

It doesn’t mean that that person stopped being a good teacher or mentor for you. It just meant that you reach that point where it was time for you to evolve with someone else. I’ve often done that with many of my clients. Moving from either them working with me and then to someone else or the other way around. They wanted something new, and so they began working with me.

That’s a great question Angela.

And if you would like to pick Dave’s brain, all you need to do is click on the bottom underneath this video. Or go to DaveCrenshaw.com/ask.

And there, you can ask me your burning question.