...and why you need one!

Create your own online business university or continuing ed program in order to stay current on online business trends, strategies, processes and more. Continuous learning must be part of your regular routine or else you will be left behind!

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In this post, I'm not sharing anything earth shattering that you probably don't already know. But just in case you aren't making it a practice to continue learning continuously about online business, I want to suggest that you really do that!

Online business (and technology and the internet) changes pretty fast just like Ferris Bueller said in Ferris Bueller's Day Off: "Life moves pretty fast". For that reason, I encourage you to create your own online business university or continuing education program!

I've been in online business since 2012 and ever since I started, I've always been learning. I love listening to online business podcasters, learning about strategies, reading books, and learning all the tech. I'm constantly listening to podcasts and following people on social who are teaching online business. 

The good news is you can also create your own continuing education program! You can create your own online business university with free resources on the internet! It's the greatest thing ever.

I'm going to date myself here in this post... because I know you've heard of podcasts, right?

You know, you can go to YouTube and get lots of training and resources. Facebook groups, yeah, you know all about that. You might be thinking, duh. Yes, of course I know about all of those.

How often are you really diving into all of those resources and putting into practice what you're learning?

The online business world moves really fast so being a lifelong learner is super important. Continuing education is essential to online work and you can create your own university through podcasters and all the resources that you can find. You just have to make it a practice to listen AND implement what you're learning as you go.

One of my good friends, Kelly, says that I am a podcast junkie because I'm always recommending people and episodes to her and saying, "oh, I heard on So and So's podcast the other day that said..." or "you should listen to So and So's podcast!". She said, I'm a podcast junkie.

The problem is, and I have found this problem to be true for myself, that when you have too many people you're listening to and you're getting all the advice and lessons that and strategies that they're giving, it can really become overwhelming. 

I'm going to date myself again here... Years and years ago I was a sales director for a direct selling company, which I think I shared that in one of my earlier episodes. Back then, we had cassette tapes and big cassette tape trainings.

I used to listen to these in my car all the time. I had a case like this with like ten cassette tapes for a training. We didn't have online courses. We didn't have online businesses.

I would listen to these cassette tapes and they were really expensive to buy a case with a whole training in it. These cases of trainings would be the university in my car! I even had one of these:

A little handheld cassette player that I would use when I would go to conferences so I could record the speakers.  I would go to conferences with ten empty cassettes so that I could record speakers because we didn't have replays back then.

This is a similar case to what I had in my car as my traveling university:

I had a case like this in my car and it was my traveling university!

That's what I want to encourage you to do today. No, you don't need to go get cassettes because you can't do that anymore.

I encourage you to use all the resources that are available online to create YOUR ongoing personal university!

Podcasts started becoming a thing around 2004-2005 so when my kids were little I switched over to podcasts from cassettes. I listened to them all the time in the car while I was taxiing the kids around.

Everywhere I went I was always listening to podcasts in the car. Again, I called it my little traveling university. I even got started in online business because of a podcast that I was listening to with Michael Hyatt! I got started as a virtual assistant because of that podcast.

Here are a few of my favorite podcasters for online business owners AND for virtual assistants.

1. Jasmine Star

2. Stacy Tuschl

3. Amy Porterfield

4. Steph Crowder

5. Amanda McKinney

6. Holly Marie Haynes

When you listen as a virtual assistant, you know what your clients need. Even if you're not running an online business - which you kind of are as a virtual assistant because you're running a consultant business the same way that online business owners is - you need to know what your online business owner clients need and what they're learning.

Like I said, my friend Kelly said that I am a podcast junkie. It's funny because the app that I use for podcasts is called "Podcast Addict". My "feed" in that app is full of online mentors and people that I love to follow. What can I say? I love learning and I love variety.

AND THAT can also become a problem...

When you're creating your ongoing personal university, find just a few people to listen to. Find a few good mentors or resources and just stick to those few.

The problem is that when you have too many voices that you're listening to, too many mentors, too many experts, it can cause you to feel overwhelmed and overloaded.

When you're creating your online business university or your continuing education program, I want to caution you against having too many voices that you're listening to.

Here are a few tips to creating your personal university or continuing education program:

1. Select only a few voices to listen to.

Too many voices and you'll get differing ideas, differing strategies. You'll be overwhelmed and you won't probably you won't take the time to implement and take action on what you're hearing because your brain is overloaded. Your brain is trying to figure out what to do first and you're just in a state of overwhelm mentally because there's so many things rolling around in there.

I would say pick 2 or 3 mentors maximum to listen to consistently for a while, and then maybe change it out to someone else. Listen to 1 or 2, maybe three people, for a good month or six weeks and just let what they're teaching really sink in.

2. Implement what they're teaching as quickly as you can.

I'm not great at this. I'm trying to get better. It's probably because I have too many mentors. I'm a podcast junkie like my friend said, but I'm trying to teach you to do what I say, not what I do. 😉

Another online business mentor, Marie Forleo, says clarity comes from action. So when you're listening to a podcast, take action on what you're learning so that the time you've spent investing in learning is really a great investment.

Time is your most valuable resource so you don't want to waste it. You want to be sure to implement what you're learning as quickly as you can.

3. Listen regularly.

If you listen to  something this week and you don't listen to anything else for 3 or 4 weeks, you're kind of going to lose some momentum. You're going to lose the energy and excitement about what you've heard so listen regularly to the FEW mentors that you select and they will help keep you motivated on the hard days.

It's true in online business there can be some hard days where you feel unmotivated or lonely. Online business can be challenging because a lot of the work is done alone and that can feel isolating. If that happens you can just pop in your earbuds and get some motivation anytime you feel yourself getting stuck, stagnant or uninspired.

I hope those three tips will be helpful for you. I would love to be one of your chosen mentors and that you'll listen regularly!

With that in mind..

• what would you like to hear more about?

• What would you like to learn more about?

• What are you confused about with online business?

Comment below and let me know!

Have fun creating your personal university or continuing education program! Maybe you'll find like me, your CAR is a great place to "go to class".🚗