Self-Taught or Done-for-You? The Pendulum Swings

When the pandemic hit, there was a SURGE of popularity of courses, communities, and coaching. And honestly? It made total sense. People were worried for their finances, so they wanted investments that were a lower barrier-to-entry. But the reprioritization of time also did the work of illuminating everyone’s need to work on themselves. People wanted to invest in their own skills rather than outsourcing to someone else to do it for them.

Then, as the past two years have gone by, there was a shift. After the pandemic fear died down a bit, in the wake of stimulus payments and some businesses excelling rather than failing, business owners and leaders seemed to swing back over in the direction of done-for-you. Agencies were on the rise — heck, our agency was even born during this time! — and service providers were crushing it while coaches, courses, and communities took a bit of a hit.

But, guess what. I’m seeing another shift, and I know my friends in the industry (and other industries) are as well. The pendulum is starting to swing BACK toward prioritizing the self-taught resources. I think this could be great for you, and I want to talk about how you can maximize this pendulum swing to your own benefit so you can see more growth.

How to Take Advantage of the Self-Taught Swing

Most self-taught resources can fall under one of these 3 categories: courses, communities, and coaching.

Courses
If you are at a stage where you want to grow to the next level, one of the best ways you can do that is to strengthen and add to your own skillset. The amount of courses out there truly astounds me, because you can truly take a course on ANY skill. The way I like to approach this is rather going wide, I go deep in one direction so I can show I’m becoming an expert. For me, that looks like community, sales, and business optimization. For you, maybe you want to become an expert on relationships or motivation. Whatever it is, decide the area you want to strengthen, and then you can find a course to help you go deeper in that direction.

Communities
Communities like memberships and groups with like interests had their TIME TO SHINE during the pandemic. I mean, there was no other way to get connection, right? But as a result, they got kinda diluted, maybe a little too broad for lots of our tastes. So of course, after their time to shine, they’ve taken a hit over the past year. But I can see that they’re coming back. What that means for you is that it’s time to actively decide what communities you want to be a part of in order to get where you want to go, and which ones don’t deserve your time. The right community is POWERFUL, but the wrong community will always be a waste of time. So make sure you’re finding rooms where other leaders are going after goals, and are aligned in how they’re getting there, too.

Coaching
If you’ve had a coach before, you know that it’s a relationship designed to facilitate your work on yourself. Whether that’s with a business bent or a personal one, coaches are the ones prompting you to see things differently, but you are the one putting that into daily action. And I’ve seen that to be invaluable in my own life. I know most of the time I don’t need another task or type of content to change my business or life trajectory, I just need to keep learning how to get out of my own way. And if you have a hunch that the same is true for you, finding a coach (bonus: find one with a community!) is a great way to support yourself on that journey.

What’s That Have to Do with LinkedIn?

If you thought of that, you’re smart. Because you know almost everything I talk about relates back to LinkedIn somehow, right?! Well, I think this shift back toward self-taught makes LinkedIn an easy place to FIND self-taught resources that are targeted to the kind of future you want to create. It’s so easy to get into communities on LinkedIn that are geared toward what you want to learn more about, and the vibe is to ALWAYS learn more on LinkedIn. In addition to that, if you’re someone who sells those self-taught resources, it’ll be a no-brainer for you to do that on LinkedIn where you know people are looking to uplevel in their careers and lives. So what are you waiting for?!

Are you feeling the pull toward self-taught, or will you stick with done-for-you in the coming months for your own growth path?

Let me know in the comments, or hop over to LinkedIn and send me a message!