How to Sell Advice 111. Finding resources for continuing education, certification, and ongoing professional development
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Here's a great question from Michelle that came in earlier in the week:
There are lots of ways to keep learning as you go along in your business.
The big ones, of course are:
- Books
- Independent courses
- Certifications
- Traditional Education
- Coaching
As a marketing consultant, there are at least two areas you can focus on, too: marketing and business.
Sure, there is personal development and other areas to explore, but for now I'll cover these two.
Why continue learning?
Usually, it's to keep growing your skills to do better work and earn more money. But you might also use certifications and certificates to demonstrate that you know what you're doing on a subject. It's a form of proof.
I personally believe the best way to demonstrate credibility is to focus on demonstrating how you solve a particular problem for a particular group of people. In other words, specializing or niching.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of courses, books, and ideas I've explored recently in the past couple years that have helped continue growing.
None of these are affiliate links. I have not bought some of the courses mentioned below. But I tell you when that's the case so you know. The rest are quality recommendations in my book.
1. Business
- Pricing
- Value-Based Fees by Alan Weiss - Book
- Jane Portman's Productized Consulting Guide - eBook
- Jonathan Stark - Hourly Billing is Nuts
- Positioning and Strategy
- Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim - Book
- Obviously Awesome by April Dunford - Book
- Sales
- The Secret of Selling Anything by Harry Browne - Book
- Research
- 30x500 course - teaches audience research and product development (services, too)
2. Marketing
- Copywriting and content marketing
- Psychotactics has lots of great small and big courses on content, copy, and marketing strategy in general
- HubSpot has a lot of courses to learn at a high level about a lot of things
- Social media
- Dave Talas Instagram Course - I haven't taken it but it seems credible
- Daniel Vassallo's Everyone Can Build a Twitter Audience course
- LinkedIn Learning
- SEO
- Google Ads
- Facebook Ads
- Analytics
- Analytics Course by Jeffalytics
- Annielytics Dashboard course (have not taken this)
- Email marketing
- If you want to learn MailChimp - Chimp Essentials
- Email automation - Mastering ConvertKit (applies to CK but has a lot of great practices to learn for more advanced uses).
- Autoresponder Madness - I bought this bc some people I trust recommended it, but have not consumed it yet
- CRMs
- Hubspot Certifications
- Salesforce Certifications
- ActiveCampaign Certifications
I'll share more sources for continued education as I think about them or buy them in the future.
Got any good recommendations? Leave a comment below!
—k