I’ve been skiing for a long time… it’s been decades. And over the years I’ve gotten pretty good – I ski the entire mountain, including the black diamond runs, the moguls, the trees. So why did I finally take my first ski lesson just a few days ago?
The funny thing is that the answer is closely tied to how I’ve been able to build my business…
Scroll down, leave a comment and tell me what you think.
Tweetables:
The expert is always a student first. (Click to tweet.)
When you want to excel at something, the quickest path is studying with a true expert. (Click to tweet.)
No matter what you want to learn, someone has spent a life studying it… learn from them. (Click to tweet.)
Adama
I loved this video Jeff!
I am, right this very minute, circling back through the PLF content within the portal, getting ready to get started (no content, website, list, product, social media following, etc). I am thinking deeply about how to convey my message and what to write about, positioning, etc. ‘Expert’ has been the topic for me over the past two days, both from the teacher’s and the student’s perspectives.
Your message here was timely. I believe that ‘you never get it done’. There is always more to learn! Enjoy skiing!
All the best and with deep appreciation for all that you do…Adama xXx
Leslie
Very true! Learn from the best. Great idea.
On another note, your videos are always so clear! Looks like you are just using your phone. Do you have to edit after the fact?
Thanks Jeff!
CD
Timely for me personally — and one of the most helpful videos you’ve done!! Congrats and thanks for passing on what you are learning and thinking about.
Michael Morreale
Good Stuff…I absolutely agreed with learning from experts. It’s like my guitar playing, I’ve been playing / dabbling for years and I just started taking lessons last year; now, I need to get practicing that’s my biggest hurtle
Muz MURRAY
Great stuff, Jeff. I’d love to know how you get such perfect sound while outside.
Mariana Ferrari
It’s two of us! I was thinking the same! Lol
Jeff Walker
Snow is a perfect sound absorber!
If you listen closely, you can actually hear the sound of the snow falling on the camera. It sounds like a soft rain.
Ryan
I love that!
Alvin Wayne Weiss
Jeff, yes, I could hear that. I was an awesome soft sound.
Sidney
Wow. This is a great lesson. Thank you for taking the time to share this!
Saroni
Thank you Jeff, that was a great lesson today. Now to finding the right resources with the resources that I have to expend. I am grateful to have seen this, so thank you again.
Aaron Walker
Coaches help you get there faster. No athlete ever made it to the sports hall of fame without a coach. I want to be in the hall of fame, for something. I always have a coach/mentor. Great suggestion Jeff!
Allan
Hi Jeff , so true, that’s why I am doing your PLF course.
Michael Maloney
Great advice, Jeff!! So simple in principle, yet most often challenging to take action on. Cooking is a great example of where I could take a class and enjoy the learning immediately. Thanks for the inspiration, and have fun with your ski lessons!! Cheers!
Roy
hope you ski better soon!
Jeff Walker
@Roy: I already am!
Julie
I’ve found the one step forward two steps back approach to learning is counter intuitive, because we are really taking a giant step toward our goal and only a coup!e of tiny steps back away from a task we thought we had mastered. Habit die hard this is both a curse and blessing.
Kerry Lang
Great video and great advice. I agree 100%!
Kornel Varga
Hi Jeff! I fully agree, I had the same experience many times (also with ski and kayak :). End this is a BIG lesson, you cannot overestimate its importance. That’s why I am doing besides PLF other courses as well – which is a big challenge. But I have to eliminate many misimaginations in marketing, first, as I’ve never done it before. And then – hopefully – I’ll do it right.
Good skiing!
Mariana Ferrari
Kornel keep it up! The more you do the better you get, just like skiing!
Chris
This is gold. I knew it . Most people know it but we need a reminder. Thank you
bruce barton
Jeff I like what you said in the video about habit and starting over with good habits and a teacher that know what you want to do.
Cary
Hey brother – you always have such great things to share – thanks! And LOVE seeing you out in good old Colorado. I’ve never had much money to buy your programs – but even so have learned a lot from what you give. Awesome!
Ruth Ayres
Thanks for the reminder that when we learn from experts, we sometimes take a step back before a “quantum leap forward.”
Eva
You are an inspiration !
I’m so glad you came onto my path.
Can’ t wait to learn from you, the expert 😉
Rick Mullen
An “over-inflated view of your own capabilities” can be conter-productive and even dangerous. Arriving at the point where you are comfortable asking for help and admitting what you do not know is liberating. Like Jeff said…sometimes it comes later in life. Great message!
Marv Overman
Jeff, Great reminder for me not to spend too much time trying to figure out techniques on my own. Research to find an expert to learn from. Becoming Good to Great!
Kathy
Hi Jeff. Love to this video. Makes me want to be in Colorado! This is such greag stuff about growing. Reminds me of The Beginner’s mind- that sometimes when we learn new things or a better way of doing something we’ve done before it’s almost like we can’t feel the ground underneath us for a while. But then the reward- this feeling of flying compared to walking before… and knowing mastery! Thanks for inspiring The Beginner’s mind and Mastery Jeff!
Penny Weber
Great advice! As an illustrator I need this reminder to study other artist’s processes.
Thank you!
Adriana Bandeira
Thank you, Jeff! His words are inspiring. We should never stop learning. Every day is born rich in opportunities and there are always people who have been on the road for longer than we have. We can learn from them.
Angel
Thank you implicitly for that reminder Jeff. Similar situation only mine was horses. I grew up on a horse ranch and was on a horse literally before I could walk and rode every day despite weather. I started training colts at 12. As a youth I was winning all thes trophies and ribbons. Of course by the time your 20 “you know everything” Maybe I did but only that style, and it was ranch-horse. I knew nothing of the science to reining, cutting, reined cow, trail or western-pleasure… I won’t even talk about the English riding side. So when I turned 30, I went to go get my National certification and trainer licence to be recognized a professional. I was told it was mandatory to go through the Equestrian federation classes to prove “competency” long story short I was never more humiliated by the instructor and yes same thing as you stated, I had “A Lot of Bad Habits.” However I had a choice let my pride / ego get in the way or have the proof I was a safe Nationally Certified trainer. Luckily I had the type of personality that would die to prove you wrong if you said to me, “you won’t make it or you can’t.”
That lesson transferred to almost everything in life. We may have natural talents but you are right, we do have to step back to quantum leap. I think what makes it hard is our passion attachment. We do most things with our hearts and when we are criticised it crushes us. Constructive criticsm can even detrimentally destroy the student who could have been an Olympian because it was the one thing they loved. They spend the next decade miserable believing we are worthless, and another decade in therapy reversing the memory. That would also means we need better coaches with stronger communication skills and become better coaches to nurture the fledgling, not rip its juvenile feathers before it could fly. Thanks again I love the stories… helps me connect to being better. Have an excellente’ day
Stewart
Great information Jeff. Bad habits can become quickly ingrained and we don’t even notice them anymore. Indeed, sometimes we have to take two steps backward in order to make good progress forward and an expert can make that happen quickly.
Maryellen
Great, simple, practical advice Jeff. We tend to miss the most obvious things that are right in front of us. It makes perfect sense to learn from people that have mastered what we want to learn.
Jeff Rolka
Great video, Jeff. Thank you so much for sharing your launch formula with all of us as well as regular inspiring and informative videos. As a teacher myself, I really resonated with your description of your process of relearning the roll. Very well articulated. Many thanks!
Jeff Rolka
P.S. Today is my ‘open cart’ day on my first launch! Thank you so much for your process!
Anric Blatt
Nice one Jeff, thanks for the note, greetings from Blue Sky Basin at Vail – like nothing on Earth
Danelle Denney
Jeff! I have been a PLF Owner since Sept 2015. I have devoured, digested, pondered, plotted, strategized, agonized, collaborated, created relentlessly. I continue to be amazed at how much you give to me. You letting me into PLF 2017 because of my Sept ’15 purchase of PLF 2016 has just lit a fire for me! See you in Arizona!
Stephanie L. Jones
Great video! This was a great lesson on humility too! No matter how long we’ve been doing something and how much we’ve accomplished, we must humble ourselves and realize that we are always someone else’s student!
Catherine Faure
Wow,
Great lesson, Jeff. Here’s what I liked– what you speak about can be transferred to learning in business or even to anything we do in life. Thank you, and happy new year.
Fred
Love it! Undoing old habits… one step back, quantum leaps forward!
Kevin
Simple, solid, valuable advice. (Y
ou’re right Stephanie – it also requires humility!)
Elva
Like always Jeff, You are full of great and helpful advice!!
Dennis
Great advice!
And, wish I lived so close as you are to great mountains 🙂
Dave
Excellent! Knowing that you need to learn and then taking action to actually learn (and unlearn) have helped me too. Thanks so much for the reminder!
Carolina Ramonde
Amazing video and I loved your stories.
As a bad skier and a regular sea kayaker myself I felt identified and will be scheduling lessons next time.
I’m a self made auto didact restless worker starting up as a Global IT Recruiter and another global social business project on the work for some years, always looking to learn and would love to have mentors like you
Milena
Hi Jeff, I just adore all your videos thank you! & one day soon I will be able to purchase all the programs I desire from the experts I am called to work with & fine tune whatever needs improvement..I’m all about growth. However now since my mastercard is not available i am focusing on the teachings/healings/growth guided by my soul & source. I guess this is the blessing of this time. Much love, gratitude & blessings to you and yours, Milena xo
Pedar
I am always encouraged by the things you have to say. I may move ahead by inches, but I am moving ahead. Thanks.
Susan Olmstead
“Great Reinforcement!” It is so very true that sometimes we do need to take a step or steps back and look at the “Why’s, What’s and How’s” of our previous actions and performances of moving forward! Creating the “Habit” really does help to move ahead!
I ask myself these three words all the time which helps me to evolve all the time forward!
Fawn O'Connor
Thanks so much, Jeff. Always learn valuable, usable ideas from you. This sort of reminded me of the quote from the late great John Wooden – “There is nothing you know that you haven’t learned from someone else.”
Think this even applies to what we think we have “self-taught”.
Aaron K
@fawn__o’connor: Loved your quote from John Wooden, one of the greatest college basketball coaches ever!
Valentina Bellicova
While I have a lot of crutches stored in my entrepreneur closet I look at them as my notches of progress. Along the way I did buy courses, some from up and comers, some from the best and a lot of self determination and doggedness. On looking back my observation is that I began by buying complex courses that I was not ready for and did not have the financial ability to upgrade to personal coaching. So I ploughed through, and when i got some more $$$, I bought another course, usually one that was focused on an area I got stuck at. So yes, lots of crutches in the closet.
Recently I decided going full circle … starting where I first began and building a new business. Bought a course. I see things much more clearly now. Building my business and applying “new revelations” (ha! I just did not see them before, the principals were always there) to not only my new business but to my existing one where it makes sense.
Your message in this video shone a light on the process. Thank you.
Sharon
Love this!!! I’m a serial learner. Someone who is grateful beyond measure for the giants on whose shoulders I stand.
Jeff, your videos are a massive dose of encouragement. Thank you.
Kim White
Great lesson on taking lessons to improve anything you want in your life. Thanks Jeff. cheers, Kim
Diane
Thanks, Jeff! Your videos are always so helpful and inspiring — and often beautiful to look at, too! Enjoy the fresh powder!
Daniel Wildt
This is sooo true. I like to see myself struggling and learning from doing and as time goes by, I look for mentors, people that can move me faster.
Sometimes I signup to a training, knowing all the content, but I want a permission to talk closely to someone I want to have as a mentor. 🙂
I believe that’s why I have changed my own training business to be like 70% mentoring sessions, 30% open training classes
— Daniel Wildt
Marieke
Jeff, you are such a good, sincere example of God’s creation. Thanks for the lesson.
Cynthia Wolf
I totally agree! Thank you for sharing your insights and knowledge. I’m on your email list and watch your videos when I receive an alert. As a gallery owner I’ve been approached by a lot of aspiring artists over the years who want to know how to progress. My best advice? Find an artist or artists that creates work that you really like; their techniques, styles, etc. Find out if they offer weekend or week long workshops and sign up! There is everything to be gained by learning from someone who has the skills you want to acquire, a method you understand, who is willing to share their knowledge, plans, guidelines. Applies to anything you want to learn or advance in. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and expertise! I’ve gone thru a challenging re-structure of my 2 businesses (no employees/sole proprietor) and even your Free on line courses are full of valuable guidance and info. Has helped me a lot moving forward.
Charlie White
Jeff, really enjoyed your video. You really drove home some very valuable points. Thanks for sharing.
Estelle Donoghue Harder
gee looking great Jeff thanks all good love it very clear and awesome thank you again
enjoy that mountain .
Michele
What a great selfie! We love you!
Shannon
Great reminder and perspective as I venture into an area new to me. Thanks!
Sylvia Peters
I am so very grateful to be in your class! Thank you, Jeff.
jeng cua
lovely video Jeff! I truly believed that everything can be learned. We just need to master one thing at a time and be a master of that thing.
By the way, what a nice skiing area. hope to ski with you there. Stay safe!
Alan Jansson
Love your choice of ski wear Jeff, Patagonia forever. Thanks heaps for the reminder 🙂
Kim
Jeff,
Amazing content and spectacular advice! I’m so very thankful that you came into my life when you did. I was really to make a move and then there you were. The Universe is always watching 😉 Yes, the expert is always the student first. Love learning from the best!!!
Lorraine Warshaw
Thanks for the reminder – learning from an expert saves so much time and money!
Martha
Love your videos – always clear, concise, to the point – I’m a teacher and always a student, and now a student to get my business going! Thanks from Lyon
Vince Czaplyski
Thanks Jeff, I appreciate your insights always, and this one is a real golden nugget. We can all benefit from if we take it to heart and implement it in those areas where we need to grow.
Anthony Osai
A M A Z I N G !
This year I had begun developing myself and doing research on how to launch my business as a business strategist. I thought to myself that learning the hard way, putting personal experience behind the theories and strategies for Business success I already knew worked and learning from my own mistakes was the best way to go. I read a quote by Newton, I think, that says: stand on the shoulders of giants. This video connected with that quote buried deep in my memory and shattered the idea of struggling through personal experience to validate ideas I knew would work even when I hadn’t personally tried them.
Thanks for this Jeff! I learn a lot from your videos, even though I never comment. One of my big plans this year is to make enough money to afford one of your courses; you’re a true expert.
Martina Lauterjung
A great reminder!
shoshanna steinovits
you are always an inspiration!!
yes, you remind me that one should be humble and always seek to learn more more and more.
Joanne Taylor
Jeff. Thank you for sharing your information and experiences in “best practice”. Seems each time I have listened, you have offered nuggets of hope and next step in my selima. Much gratitude for your offerings in Mt journwy.
Christine
I think my challenge is the feeling of going backwards when trying to unlearn some “crutches.” It is forward momentum that keeps encouraging me to be brave, and having to stop to relearn something “the right way” is discouraging. How do you handle that? Thank you.
Martha
Love your message Jeff! As always it’s great to watch your video and thank you for the reminder
Jody Weima
Thanks so much for posting this, Jeff. Like others, for me it seems to be perfectly timed; I’m experiencing this right now, though on a more personal level. I think the thing about this also is the humility. We need to put our ego aside in order to let go of old ways, to gain the new. It’s a constant cycle.
Thanks again!
Abdullahi Bello Umar
Quintessential Jeff Walker! Learn from a Master, You will get there Faster 🙂
Cody Weber
This is great. I totally agree. However, how do you properly read through and see through the sales copy to figure out if a particular coach or master is right for you?
For example, I purchased a high dollar program for becoming an online personal trainer for $5K – I have no issues with the price-tag, but it turned out that it was really for people who already had a massive following on social media, which I didn’t at the time. His program would have been great for me to purchase right about now as opposed to a year ago… but I couldn’t tell when purchasing it?
What are your thoughts on that?
Side note – when does your PLF come open for registration again? I bought the book and we are creating a PLF style launch based off of the book here at the beginning of April. Excited to see what this initial launch does!
Brian Spielmann
Good reminder Jeff and thanks for launching me on this adventure. It’s been a brilliant ride and been 3x each year.
Mathew Peachment
Watching this video and the snow wants me to go skiing! Such great advice Jeff! Always learn from someone who is ahead of you.
Carrie Sechel
Thanks for this great advice… there are so many awesome people out there who we can learn from!
Deb Gallardo
@jeffwalker: Back in the mid-1970s I joined the Women’s Army Corps (now absorbed into the Army completely.) I was 25 at the time, in a company of women, many of whom were 18-19 years old. Taking “raw” Army wannabes and turning them into soldiers is almost an art form, and our female cadre had the technique down to a science.
Because I was a few years older than most, I had a slightly different perspective than those who’d just graduated from high school. I already had my undergraduate degree. I’d taught music for two years and had performed on stage in plays and musicals since I was 14. Instead of knee-jerk-reacting like a lot of the girls, I took a step back when things got “interesting” as some people had issues with the discipline and exactness of what was expected of us.
A lot of them didn’t have the perspective I seemed to possess instinctively. I didn’t see our training outside the classroom as just learning how to polish our brass insignia, how to shine our leather shoes, how to iron our uniforms and store them in our wall lockers, how to fold our other clothing in the way we’d been instructed, how to arrange everything else in our footlockers. Even how we made our beds was a big deal.
What I saw that most others didn’t see was that we were being trained to pay attention to detail. Although we were not instructed in combat, we might someday find ourselves in a combat zone. Attention to detail, regardless of our field of service (our Military Occupation Specialty–MOS) was paramount for our own safety and the safety of those with whom we served.
I seemed to have absorbed that instinctively, for some reason–just like I absorbed everything else. Up at 5:00 am to march to the dining facility, learning to run a mile within a given time frame. And since I was older, how to lead a squad, counting cadence and calling commands. (a-TEN-shun! for-WARD ma-arch!) It’s a lot like singing, which is probably why I got it so readily.
Only a couple of girls were sent home because they couldn’t or wouldn’t adapt over those many weeks. The Army technique, at least back then, was to get rid of old habits and replace them with new, ones that would serve us and one another better. For our male counterparts, it was more a matter of tearing down who they had been as boys and rebuilding them into men, into soldiers.
You don’t know you’ve got bad habits until someone shows you the proper way of doing them. Then you wonder how you had the audacity to think you knew anything. And then suddenly it all falls into place. Thanks for the life lesson, Jeff. You’re a master teacher.
~Deb
Josie Tytus
Goosebumps! It took me a long time to allow myself to invest in the help I knew would make a huge impact on my business and my development. I now have my radar up for who can take me to the next level faster, with greater vision and focused positive energy. I always have something on the go now for myself. With the work I do, I also get to reach behind me to pull the next person forward. Loving it! I’ll be sharing this one with my community 🙂
Olivia
Thank you for all that you do! You inspire me every time I watch you videos.
Kim
Thanks Jeff. Funny how you are describing my life right now. It feels like I’m a beginner again and it was feeling awful! Now thanks to you I have a new perspective- Ye ha! Maybe I really can do this! Cheers Kim
Toni Narins
Ahhh…snow! This video reminded me of when I lived in New Mexico….I learned to ski by skiing with women who grew up on skiis….as well as from a friend who had been a downhill racer. Fast forward to today – it’s why I jumped into LaunchCon and then followed it up with PLF. I’m learning from a master!
Danielle
my favorite trip was when I was 14, in the GRAND CANYON, before I wore a back brace in Highschool for two years, and before VACCINES screwed me up. That freedom I had is what I am trying to GET BACK IN MY LIFE. Sure is challening.
Kacey Griggs
Thanks so much for this video, very inspirational & re-assuring. Doesn’t feel so overwhelming now when I feel I’m ‘slipping’ backwards. I’m just slipping back to break the habits and gain momentum with expert advice!
Felicity
Always good to be reminded that an expert can help us turn decades of learning into days – and that when you fine tune your techniques, you are going to feel as though you’re going backwards, until the mind and body are reconditioned to the new habit. Thank you, Jeff!
Kim
Where are you skiing? What are you working on?
Masha Liokumovich
always so timely and on point! thank you Jeff!
Nikka
So true! Love taking in these new experiences and the concept of self-rescuing.
Also (random)- loooove the crispness in your video. Gorgeous! Do you mind sharing which lens you’re using? 🙂
Thank you! <3
ron
Thanks for the great advice, Jeff. The patience to step back before moving forward is invaluable advice.
Gregory
It sounds like a very small effort for a huge leap forward.