When to stop following experts

Every 6 months I like to have to remind myself something very simple.

Reading too much into what others suggest you should do, will not make your marketing more effective, or your work life very enjoyable.

It’s not easy to build a business, market your product, or win over an audience. So we turn to others with experience, and find lots of advice on different platforms. Here’s when that can do more harm than good, and some advice on how to take advice.

Great answers create more questions

The problem is, experts only have great answers, when you have a specific question.

Without a question, expert opinion is nothing more than a distraction. A distraction that – even if you agree with – still wont help you.

You have to be incredibly strong minded to ignore tweets and opinions from people you admire – especially when you agree with what they’re saying.

If consistency is one of the keys to success, then social networks can make you forget where you put them. Every time you need to go out.

Twitter is the quickest way to self doubt

I 💙Twitter.

Facebook pulls your memories, Twitter pushes you forwards.

If you're aspiring to build a business; market your product; learn from experts; the value you'll find is incredible. I recommend it to everyone.

I offer just one disclaimer:

Your Twitter feed isn't designed to answer a question you've asked, which means it'll often inspire you with another question.

Traditionally if you have a problem, you'll ask for help, read a book or search Stack Overflow. That's a great way to tackle a problem because you're in the middle of solving it. You need an answer, and there's people out there that can help you right now.

Unwelcome questions

But Twitter, can interrupt you with a new question. Every. Single. Scroll.

Character limits make opinions look like facts, and uncover questions you didn't have before, feel more pressing than ever before.

Unplanned distractions

You had a plan for today, but after scrolling your favourite feed, there's a few more bookmarks and a few more things that you now absolutely have to do instead.

I see it happen a lot, because marketing is a subjective art; with 000's of methodologies; and no proven answers. You can even end up liking 2 tweets, with completely contradictory advice.

Who's in control around here?

I'll repeat: Reading too much into what other marketers suggest doing, will not make your marketing more effective.

• The more you read, the less you do.
• The more you read, the less you know what to do.
• The less you know what to do, the less you do.

You'd think learning more would help us perform better.

That hasn't been my experience. The truth is, if you're feeling anything like the above then you don't need the experts.

They're not going to help.

My chosen method for improving things:

• Remove myself from the networks that are making me feel worse.
• Talk to people who can restore confidence in myself.
• See the process itself as a valuable lesson.

My chosen mantra for moving forward:

• You have come this far, stop polarising your creativity, and trust yourself.

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If you found this useful, you can read the full version here

I'd love to know what you think in the comments.