Ramblings from my journal on an early morning…. the war and life and prosperity

I'm going raw today. Totally transparent. Letting you see sketches and notes in my journal. Morning ramblings between me and God and an invisible student who might be paying attention.

It’s no secret that the best way to improve our skill at work and in business is to learn new things, stay ahead of the curve, invest into ourselves and be more consistent and persistent than anyone else. But in an online world driven by social media and websites, is it still the BEST investment you can make to travel to an event, conference or seminar? Or is it wise to save your money, learn online and discipline yourself to success?  In my 18 years of working online very successfully, and one of the keys to my success that earned me the nomination of “Top Online Marketer” in Entrepreneur Magazine recently, is my ability to learn in multiple capacities and keep my mind focused with several discipline strategies that very few people use. This includes IN PERSON and ONLINE modalities.

I’ve heard the stories of people who say that learning LIVE in person is the best. Yet, I’ve also hosted several events in the last 5 years, and repeatedly, the ‘in person live event’ is not necessarily the deciding factor of what separates the people who succeed in business and work, from those who do not. There’s another missing key that no one ever talks about. It’s the reason 2 people can travel 6 hours to the same live event and get different results. It’s the core reason 2 people can attend an online virtual college level classroom, with 6 hours of learning, handouts and more and get very different results.

This ‘thing’ that separates the outcome of learning in these cases is not determined by race, income, gender, age, environment or anything the typical demographic studies would like to suggest.

My personal case study of researching and identifying the learning habits and outcome of online vs. in person learning comes by personally teaching more than 75,000 people on our live, online, paid and free classes in the last 12 months. Of those 75,000 people, roughly 8000 worked with me personally in private groups, on private web-broadcasts and in person at our live events. The information I am going to share today is not my personal opinion, but an interesting trend I’m seeing in a world that requires online learning in school and in the workplace. 

So what makes the difference? 

Is it really BETTER to network in person? Do people REALLY get more results when they attend an event in person, face to face, than learning in a virtual environment? And WHAT is the deciding factor for the person who goes on to build a solid 7 & 8 figure business who did all independent online self-training courses vs. the person who did one on one mentorship every single month in person, traveling to do so?

We’ve all done it. 

We attend a live event, get a ton of business cards, bump our iPhones together to share contact info and we even schedule our planner with follow up calls to get in contact with that ‘break -making’ person we met. But do we all follow up? Are people really seeing MORE results from this kind of meeting verses finding someone online?

There are many online tools that make internet and social media networking incredibly successful. The ability to save someone’s contacts, keywords, social media pages, contact info, photos and more INSTANTLY to our phone. Not to mention the incredible ability to store notes, audios, videos and more- and tags for quick recall and reference. So is ‘virtual’ connecting really inferior to online in person networking?

What about the online vs. the in person classroom? In today’s colleges very little hands on learning exists. Most classrooms and study labs are filled with pre-recorded videos, hand outs, online learning labs that the ‘in person’ students log into and the only thing one gets in person in the classroom is a professor who acts more like a tour guide. When did we get to this place where colleges no longer have walls, and really showing up LIVE in class is no longer required to be one of the top students on campus?

I was recently listening in to a group of my students as they chatted. Comments like, “I really love online learning! I can get more results, replay things I miss, take portions of content in the pace I can personally use and the implementation is much better.” and then someone chimed in, “I have a ton of classes on my hard drive and I never even open them! Online learning never works for me. It’s a delusion and I only learn well live, when I have to sit in a chair and show up, in person.” More people began to talk about live in person networking and the real reason they even attend seminars and conferences any more. “The people we MEET are the big key! It’s worth the travel, food, expenses, hotel rooms and more!” and instantly someone else pipes up, “Are you kidding me? The KEY people I really need to talk to are NEVER available at events! Even when they have these private exclusive get together, they’re so guarded and time-sensitive scheduled, you really don’t get any one on one time. I found that finding them on Twitter, getting to know them, following their content and making an honest effort to get in touch with them works. Social media is the ONLY key that made that possible!”

So what is the answer?

It is my belief that the REAL issue is not in the ‘online classroom’ verses the ‘in person study hall.’ It has NOTHING to do with the live in person networking vs. the social media I can suddenly access anyone world. It has everything to do with us!

We deceive ourselves, convincing ourselves that the travel, the trip, the expenses and hard work it takes to get to a live event will FORCE us to learn more and take action more, when the reality is we are still just as lazy and undisciplined once we get home. Now we have a ton of self condemnation and nothing done AND a long list of expenses we can’t afford!

We make the excuses that the online classroom and virtual events aren’t as effective and we complain that the only way we can learn is in person, when the reality is, thousands of people every single day get HISTORICAL results online. People who could NEVER afford a hotel, plane ticket, flying across the nation or the ocean RISE UP and become the latest and greatest marketing stars and social influencers EVERY single day! The people who could hardly read learn to do so with audio books and online classrooms and the shy introverts who could NEVER handle a crowd rise up to be our greatest speakers because of the safety and security of learning with others in a virtual event or study hall.

So the big issue, the one that no one seems to want to talk about is US. The personal habits, self discipline, follow through, persistence and consistency that it requires to succeed. No matter how we cut it, it comes down to us.

What will you do now? Now that the lights have been turned on and the truth has been revealed? Will YOU keep making excuses and lying to yourself? Or will you FINALLY put your feet down, discipline yourself, make appt in your schedule, and make it happen?

When my students DISCIPLINE their lives, make personal appointments in their calendar to watch an online class or virtual event, they get fantastic results! When my students don’t access failure as an option and make personal appointments in their calendar to DISCIPLINE themselves and to DO what they learned at a live event, they see historic results! The “I DID IT” comes when they follow through with the business cards, make the appointments, write the emails, reach out on Facebook and Twitter, take the time to do the work. 

That’s what it boils down to. The war. The war of our life. The war. 

Will YOU do the work today? Your future is 100% up to you.

With love,
Sandi Krakowski