Deep Dive Learning

What is the best way to learn something new? Nicola recommends “deep dive” or “immersion” learning, where you consume everything you can about the topic as quickly as possible then take action. Learning something as if you are going to have to teach it to someone else is a great technique too.

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Clicks And Leads is a “tongue in cheek” digital marketing Vzine by entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, Nicola Cairncross.

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Hi, Nicola here and as you can see it’s a lot brighter in Greece. The rain has finally stopped raining, the thunder has finally stopped thundering, and the internet is staying up for more than a few minutes at a time which is always good thing.

In the middle section today I’m going to teach you about something that I do when I want to learn something really, really fast so I hope you enjoy that and get a lot out of it and as always I love to hear your comments under wherever you’re watching this vzine.

So I just wanted to let you know that my brand new book is out. It’s called Attract 3.0 and it’s a combination of my very popular book How to Market Any Business Online brought bang up to date for 2019 and the comprehensive instructions I’ve put together for people who want to be everywhere online, who want to use my social media technique to promote their own businesses. And again, I’ve put a load of stuff into that, that isn’t available anywhere else, so go and check it out if you go to nicolacairncross.com/attract you’ll be able to get your hands on the book and work through it and I also give you an invite to my personal mastermind on Facebook, where you can get your questions answered about anything that comes up for you in the book. Let’s get on with the show shall we?

Okay, so this week I wanted to talk to you about my new hobby. And before you turn off, it’s got some learning in it for you, so bear with. Basically I’m trying to write a book, I’m trying to write a science fiction book because that’s the kind of books I love to read to myself. And I joined a writing club about two years ago and after about three months of going along, and they knew I could write because I’ve written business books, but after about three months of going along, I finally had an idea.

Well, the idea has morphed out of all recognition as I’ve been sort of slowly and painfully working on it and the thing that I was finding very frustrating was that a lot of the learning around how to write a book was being delivered to me in a way that wasn’t suiting me in that I’m a visual learner and then kinesthetic is my second learning style, so I like look and then do. So anything that’s drawings or things I can watch is great and anything that lays things out visually is even better. And then I like to do, and learn as I do.

So, I’ve been faffing about for about a year or so on this book, and I’ve got about, something like, five chapters written. And then I discovered, I can’t remember how I came across him, but I think I was looking for an editor because I had found that working with an editor before you finish your book is a really good idea. So I went looking for a science fiction editor. And I found a guy called Shawn Coyne. Now, Shawn is the creator of a thing called The Story Grid. And then he worked with an author called Steven Pressfield. And the first time he worked with him, he was working on one of Steven’s books about an ancient war in Greece, and it was set locally which is a bit of a spooky coincidence, don’t you think?

Anyway, so that got my attention as well, and then I suddenly realised that Steven Pressfield is not just a fiction writer, he’s a writer of inspirational, personal development self help books. One of which is called The War Of Art. Now, I’ve never read this book but everybody I know talks about it. It’s all about creativity and resistance and it’s a funny little book. I’ve got it now, and I’m reading it but it’s not what I expected it to be, put it that way.

But also Shawn Coyne is a partner with Steven Pressfield in a publishing company called Black Irish Books, and what they’ve done is put together a series of videos bringing to life Steven Pressfield’s way of writing a book which is called The One Page Foolscap Method and Shawn Coyne’s way of editing books, screenplays and films, and he has worked with some of the top authors in the world, some of the best screenplay writers in the world and he is a great editor. So I suddenly started paying a lot more attention, got his book The Story Grid, and started watching YouTube videos with these two on. And then I found out that The Story Grid has podcasts and it has a guy called Tim Groll who is an aspiring writer who’s been in the publishing industry for the marketing end of things, but now wants to write his first books, and he’s got an idea. Basically it’s really involving me as a potential writer.

And, the thing I’m loving about it is as I get deeper and deeper into this, I’m learning more and more. And the thing I love most about it is that Shawn Coyne is a visual kind of guy. So he’s created a way of mapping out the bones of your story using Steven Pressfield’s One Page Foolscap Method and then the actual spreadsheet that plans your entire book out, which is just fantastic for visual people like me.

Now, “it doesn’t sound very creative,” you might be saying to yourself, but actually, it’s doing exactly what I love most which is taking a creative pursuit and giving it a structure that you can hang your creativity on. And this really fires me up, I mean I was awake in the middle of the night listening to this podcast and I’m going to be going at… You know, there’s so many episodes and just as I listen to an episode of the podcast I’m getting ideas for my book, and how I can make each bit better. So this is what you should be doing with Own It! the podcast if you’re a business owner because we’ve got 200 episodes where we talk about different aspects of being in business. And if you can just listen to as many of those as you can, no matter what you’re doing, driving, walking the dog etc. then you will learn stuff about business and marketing that you can apply to your own business.

This is called deep dive learning, and I absolutely love it. It’s called total emersion learning as well. And it’s the one that suits me the best because when I’ve got a passion on the go I want to learn everything I possibly can about it, and get some momentum rolling. So, I hope that’s helped you. If you’ve got any questions at all about emersion learning or anything I’ve talked about today, don’t hesitate to leave a comment underneath wherever you’re watching this video. Speak to you next week.

What’s on the blog and the podcast this week?

Well, on the blog this week you’re going to find a series of videos all about why having a mentor is so important. I’ve always had a mentor, ever since I first learned about coaching and in fact I had a coach and mentor before I even learned about becoming a coach myself. So, I highly recommend it, I’ve always got a mentor on the go, if not several. And I outline in a series of short videos why that’s beneficial to you. And it’s already brought in a few enquiries of people who’d like me to be their mentor so from a marketing point of view, my one minute videos are working brilliantly.

What’s on the podcast this week?

In episode 212, so ownitthepodcast.com/212 or you can find it on my blog at nicolacairncross.com/blog, we’re talking about how to hire a coach. And it’s a sort of similar theme really. Judith was interested to know what brings her clients to her, who find her on all different ways, social media, search engine optimisation, that kind of stuff. And then she also wanted to know how I go about hiring a coach and what I’m looking for in a coach, and then also what I think my clients come to me for, which is very different for what her clients come to her for. So, go and check out that.

Okay, and on the vzine last week, episode 86, was the episode where I talk about the questions that make you think differently and that’s one of the things a mentor or a coach can do very well, is ask you great questions. Doesn’t even have to be that, could be a family friend. The other day someone asked me a very good question that made me think completely differently about something, so you got to have people around you who are bright enough and interested enough to ask you great questions. And episode 87, that may or may not be out by the time by the time you see this is going to be all about different personality quirks, and how they can manifest themselves in different behaviours in your business, in you and people around you, so do check out that one as well because that’s well worth watching. That’s episode 87 of the vzine. Hope you have a great week, speak to you next time.

Creative Direction & Video Editing
Phoebe Soremekun

Intro Music
Pool Cosby

Incidental Music
The Messenger – Silent Partner (No Copyright Music)
[Non-Copyrighted Music] Chill Jazzy Lofi Hip Hop (Royalty Free) Jazz Hop Music
Chill & Relaxing Lo-Fi Hip-Hop Instrumental – Warm Nights // No Copyright Music

Drone footage of The Mani
Georgios Ser-Aouas

Drone Footage of Shoreham by Sea
Scott Wright Photography

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