Obviously, we all want to be successful online.
You wouldn’t go through the trouble of building a website and creating profiles on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc. if you didn’t.
Truth is, being successful online is uncommon. There are more websites that don’t rank on Google for the things they do and profiles without followers than successful ones.
It not only takes know-how, but then there’s the work… and believe me when I tell you it’s tedious, and many times difficult, and most times you have to force yourself to do it even though you really don’t want to.
It’s even worse when you’re not really sure what you’re doing and you’re just hoping what you’re doing will work.
Fyi, rolling the dice like this doesn’t work for 99.999999999999999999% of the people in Vegas and it won’t work for you either.
You know what else won’t work?
Guys (and now girls, too) that flex on Instagram and TikTok with rented luxury cars and homes that aren’t even theirs trying to sell you a course.
Here’s how all these online digital marketing courses work…
Pay guru what seems to be either too-much-but-okay-if-you-get-the-results-they-promote or cheap-enough-that-it’s-definitely-worth-seeing-if-it-works
Get immediate access to a no-haters “group” manned by paid moderators whose sole job it is to encourage cheerleading and kick off anyone with a negative comment
Receive a [usually] well-designed course with “modules” that typically have valid information but it’s either totally unproven (guru will 100% lie about this, of course) or completely outdated and doesn’t work anymore
You’ll be very excited and motivated to get through the modules quickly (partly because in the back of your mind you know that you have a relatively short window to return the product “nO qUeStIoNs AsKeD” that’s curiously shorter than the time it says it’ll take you to complete the course “at a normal pace”)
Complete the course
Steady drips of dopamine as you feel accomplished for getting through the course and you’re ready to go out into the wild
You realize the wild is…… WILD
Everything you learned is somewhat valid but it lacks the nuance of what you, specifically YOU, are looking to accomplish online
Instead of going from your current situation to your desired situation, you took a detour to learn stuff you could have learned much more efficiently on your own (or with a good marketing coach) and not wasted time and gotten further away from your destination
But alas, said guru offers Master Classes
You take out a home equity line of credit and pay said guru who is now willing to give you a few sacred minutes of his day to tell you what you need to do, specific to where you are right now and what your goals are (coaching?)
You finally feel good because you’re part of a tribe of successful people and you’re finally growing your brand online
To me, this seems like a VERY expensive and wasteful way to have someone tell you how to grow your business.
Anyone can give you bad or outdated advice for free. Why pay for it?
But if you REALLY want your guru’s sage advice because you know better than everyone else telling you he / she / they are a scam, my advice is to find their Instagram or YouTube (ideal) and look at their old videos.
You’ll see everything they did (especially the things they don’t share in their courses) to get to where they are.
But I digress…
Smart Successful people get coaches right from the beginning (instead of courses and master classes) because they want to get where they’re going faster and they want something catered to their specific needs right from the start.
If you’re the type of person that likes to get things done quickly, and you’re not really interested in the trial-and-error or experimentation and big learning curves, buying a marketing course isn’t for you.
Bottom line, if you’re fine with the idea of paying someone to help you get to where you’re going faster, there are better options than a marketing course.
The people that sell and market these courses don’t actually make money doing the things they “teach”.
They make money selling fake dreams to people who couldn’t possibly know any better, most of which can’t afford to lose money on bad “investments”.
Get a good digital marketing coach instead.
I hope this posts helps lots of people but even if it helps just one person, I can absolutely live with that.
Best,
-Ivan
Ivan is a professional digital marketer and advertiser.
He’s been doing this forever and there are few people that know the ins-and-outs like he does at the strategic, technical, and optimizational / practical level.
Whether you’re thinking about advertising for the first time, or looking for help identifying issues and / or correcting current campaigns, Ivan will make the process a truly simple one.
He does not speak computer geek.
He discusses with you in plain and easy terms exactly what we need to do (and never tries to sell you on unneeded extras).
He cares deeply about creating useful and effective campaigns that highlight your brand — and he can be as much or as little involved as you need; from sharing insights with your trafficking team to actually being your team.
Contact Ivan with your digital advertising or marketing related concerns.