“You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.” - Anthony Robbins

A recent comment on this blog caused me to consider the question of how do you go from knowing nothing to developing expertise in a subject.  That is a challenging question and not easy to answer in one post…but I would like to begin meeting that challenge starting with this post.

Of course, I’m considering this from the perspective of Internet Marketing for obvious reasons which can be challenging due to the number of skills and strategies that can be learnt and the degree of choice available to all participants.

To begin though, I went back to my NLP training and renewed my understanding of conscious competence theory which is another name for the “Four Stages of Learning,” a theory put forward by psychologist Abraham Maslow.  This theory explains how people learn something, progressing from 1. Unconscious Incompetence (you don’t know that you don’t know something), to 2. Conscious Incompetence (you are now aware that you are incompetent at something), to 3. Conscious Competence (you develop a skill in that area but have to think about it), to the final stage 4. Unconscious Competence (you are good at it and it now comes naturally). Click on the image to the left to see an illustration.

Success, particularly significant success only comes for a person when they get to a Stage 4 level of competence and the challenge is how to get (and stay) there, in the shortest possible time. Now that you are aware of the competance model, you can judge which stage you have reached for all the things you wish to be successful at in your life. The reality is, that for all the things we think we know or have done, we will be at different Stages of Competence depending on our need, motivation, enjoyment and level of success.

But this post is about considering the competence model in relation to Internet Marketing…so here goes.

Stage 1 – Unconscious Incompetance

People that have no knowledge, understanding or awareness of Internet Marketing will be in this stage. My assumption is that most of you reading this post have past at least into Stage 2 and the thing that causes that is awareness.  For what ever reason, you have become ‘aware’ of Internet Marketing and have decided or consider the possibility that it is a subject of interest to you.

Stage 2 – Conscious Incompetance

The bulk of people that participate in the Thirty Day Challenge (30DC) start in Stage 2.  They are aware that they don’t have any competence with regards to Internet Marketing and are looking for a way to learn as quickly as possible.  We at the 30DC understand this, and do our very best to lead people from Stage 2 to Stage 3 as efficiently and as easily as possible.  Unfortunately, for many people, the desire to learn and experience a quick outcome are interlinked and if the outcome is not rapidly achieved, these people don’t progress ultimately to Stage 4 and stay trapped in Stage 2 or 3 simply swapping from one strategy or skill set to another without ever becoming truly competant.

The strongest determinant of whether someone passes from Stage 2 to Stage 3 is motive. Motivation is a VERY important subject but I would like to discuss that subject in more detail in a forthcoming post.

Stage 3 – Conscious Competance

Having participated in a training program like the Thirty Day Challenge or having bought (and read) an educational product, the person has progressed to a level of Stage 3 competance.  They know what to do but may not have ever implemented that knowledge or have only implemented once. This is where the most significant challenge in Internet Marketing raises it’s ugly head. This is the body of wannabe marketers who are constantly buying products to learn a different Internet marketing strategy or skill (Stage 2 activity) but who never implement or do implement only once or partially but don’t ever really become competant (stay stuck in Stage 3).

The reason is probably due to the fact that the person does not perceive that they can or will receive a short term outcome that is consistent with the motive that is driving them to learn in the first place. Consequently, the ‘grass is greener’ phenomenon kicks in and rather than take action and implement, it seems more attractive to go back to Stage 2 with a different strategy or skill set rather than push through to Stage 4 with what they have already learned (but not become expert in).

Or it may have just seemed all too hard and caused you to reconsider why you were bothering to learn in the first place!

The strongest determinant of whether someone moves from Stage 3 to Stage 4 is a preparedness to take action…to implement the knowledge they have learnt.

Stage 4 – Unconscious Competance

Some people either due to their particular psychological makeup (preparedness to take action) or luck in receiving a short term positive outcome push through Stage 3 into Stage 4. They begin implementing the knowledge they have learned and with repeated application gradually transition to Stage 4 competence.  This does not happen immediately.  For some people it takes implementing just a handful of times to achieve Stage 4 competence and for others it may take many times. But, over a period of time, the person suddenly realises they don’t have to think about it anymore and can undertake the tasks to implement the strategy automatically and easily. This is the place from which true success can happen. There are other factors that influence the ultimate outcome but it definitely won’t happen if you don’t achieve a Stage 4 competence with the strategy you are learning.

I am constantly reviewing this understanding of competence in relation to the 30DC. Our goal is that participants achieve a Stage 4 competence in ‘testing’ new niches on the Internet.  We don’t try and teach everything there is to learn about Internet Marketing (in the 30DC) but we do want people to acquire and be able to implement a sustainable and successful strategy for testing niches. Over time, we have tried to improve the ease with which people learn and implement the strategy by improving the quality of the education and by developing tools and services that offer leverage (making it easier and faster to implement the strategy).

I ask you all to consider what Stage of Competence you have achieved with the skills and strategies you are trying to learn. Have you ever stopped short of achieveing Stage 4 competence before swapping to a new strategy? Have you ever considered why you did that?

Given that true success will not occur unless you achieve Stage 4 competence in at least one Internet Marketing strategy can you see how important it is for you to push through and take action as many times as is needed for you to achieve that level of Competence?  If you don’t, the success that you seek will always remain elusive.

It is…as it is.

GuruBob

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