The Benefits of Taking Action on the Things You Learn

Gathering knowledge alone, without taking action, won't get you very far on the path to realize your goals.  I vowed last year to start taking action on all the things I learned from books, courses, and conferences.   The results were amazing.

How many of you read book after book, take workshop after workshop, get all kinds of training and then do nothing with it?  We all do it.  I did it for years.  I attended writers conferences, took writing seminars,and read books on everything from how to plot a novel to how to find an editor and everything in between, for more than ten years before I ever finished the first draft of a novel.  And I don't even want to tell you how many courses I've bought over the years and didn't finish. But last year, I said no more.  I was determined to stop getting in my own way and wasting my time, money and energy.  I vowed to take action.  The result was phenomenal.

After making that vow, I signed up for productivity guru Todd Herman's 90 Day Year program.  It was the most I had ever paid for a single course outside of law school and so I was determined to make it work for me and to take action on what I learned.

Don't get me started on all that I learned from the program – that will probably be the subject of several future blog posts – but even I couldn't have ever predicted the results.  In the first six weeks of my enrolling in the 90 Day Year program, I sold more copies of my novels and audiobooks than I had in the past two and a half years combined.  I also grew my author newsletter lists from 5000 readers to more than 15,000 readers.

I even applied for and had one of my novels selected for a Bookbub promotion.  That was huge!  I had been applying since 2014 with no luck. Bookbub is known for being extremely selective and turning down bestselling authors on a regular basis. That happened because, by taking action on the goal setting, execution and productivity techniques and strategies I learned from Todd Herman, I also took action on the things I'd learned in Self Publishing School* about rebranding and relaunching existing books.  I grew my e-mail list, asked for and received more book reviews, changed my book covers, changed the book descriptions on the product pages, and placed my books on iTunes, Kobo and Barnes & Noble's websites (they were already on Amazon). All of these things made my books more attractive to BookBub's editors.

Todd Herman says that consuming books and courses on marketing, for example, without taking action and putting that knowledge to work isn't worth very much in terms of growing our businesses.   I tend to agree with him.

So, how will you take action on the things you've learned from this post?  If you're a writer, will you sign up for Self Publishing School?  If there's a goal you'd like to accomplish, will you sign up for a 30 minute clarity consultation so we can get you started?  Or maybe you have something else in mind,  Let me know in the comments below.

Remember, the longer you wait, the longer it will take to live the life you were meant to.

Coach Candace

 

*This post contains affiliate links.  If you click on one of them and join Self Publishing School I will get a small commission.  However, you should know that I only promote products and programs that I believe in and use myself.