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The Invisible Mentor Weekly Newsletter: Brain Food Fridays Number 60 – Learn How to Solve Workplace and Business Problems
Dear Reader,
Learn How to Solve Workplace and Business Problems?
This is a follow-up article to the one last week about using books as problem solving tools. I decided to use myself as an example to demonstrate a point. There are three big things on my mind, and I wanted to find the answers in books.
- Write better sales pages for my products.
- Improve the quality of this email newsletter to increase engagement.
- Strengthen the reading process to take your reading to the next level.
The primary way I learn is by reading books and taking online courses. As you know, I’ve been reading a lot of sales books and I was surprised by how little I knew about the sales process. After reading over twelve books, I had a better understanding of selling. From the books, I learned that the first step was to build rapport in the first few seconds of a conversation. But what I didn’t know was how to do so on a sales page.
Write Better Sales Pages for My Products
I mentioned the problem to a friend, and he recommended that I read The Cold Email Playbook. I read the book, but felt like I needed to know a lot more about specifically writing a sales page. I’m always recommending to readers to read more than one book on a topic you’re interested in. I decided to take my own advice, so I also read How to Write the Perfect Sales Page.
Although I’m a writer, my niche is not writing sales pages and so on. I also have a hard time selling myself. I was surprised by some information that is supposed to be on a sales page. Both books had great examples. More than likely though, I’ll read a couple more books to get a broader perspective, then combine the information from all the books to come up with something new.
When I read the other books, I’ll show you the combined ideas from all the books. This will give you a sense of how to use the process when you’re reading to learn.
Improve the Quality of This Email Newsletter to Increase Engagement
Last summer I took a course on how to operate a business with a heart. And I realized that was something that was important to me. How do I serve others? The engagement with this newsletter is not great and I want to change that. I have failed so far, and want to make changes. I want to provide more value in each newsletter. So far, I’ve read:
- Do Open: How a Simple Email Newsletter Can Transform Your Business
- How to Write Profitable Newsletters
- Newsletter Success Secrets
The first two books on the above list were better than the third one. To grasp a subject, you typically want to read at least five books, so I have two more to go. In the next month or so, you’ll notice an improved newsletter based on what I’ve learned from the books.
Strengthen the Reading Process to Take Your Reading to the Next Level
In the current reading process that I teach to take your reading to the next level, the participant previews the book, then focuses on the sections that align with her purpose for reading, as well as answers the questions she has. The next step is to pick out the big ideas, then combine them to make them bigger and better. I always recommend that they apply the ideas.
Most of the process is structured and the reader knows exactly what to do and how to do it. The implementation stage is not that carefully outlined. You’re told to implement the ideas, but specifically not how to do so. I implement the ideas by testing them, and others do that as well. But some people will need a little more help.
I decided to read books to understand the best way to implement your ideas, so I could add that step to the model I use. I’m reading Creativity Rules and I have to read From Idea to Reality, Rocket Thinking, and Startup Runway. I’m also going to revisit the creativity books I’ve read and then create a process to implement ideas.
At that time, I’ll add the steps to the reading process.
The Invisible Mentor Blog
This week I profiled Harriet Tubman, who Led Slaves through the Underground Railroad to Freedom.
Harriet Tubman was very courageous, and understood that life was more than about her. After she freed herself from slavery, it is believed that she returned up to 19 times to the South to lead 300 enslaved blacks to freedom.
Until Next Week,
Avil Beckford, Founder, The Invisible Mentor!