Why it is IMPORTANT to continually LEARN new skills as an entrepreneur

Do you know what is the question that I get asked the most when I share my opinion or advice about social media, well-being or traveling?

"hey Céline, where did you learn all about these?!"

So, nope, I am not a genius (a pity, because suddenly, I would not have invested in training or culture, nor traveling, let alone the time to write this post)! No no! I took the time to learn. Yep. Learn. It's probably one of my favorite words. I'm the kind of person that hates to hear one say "damn, I would LOVE to do this but I don't know how to do it!" Follows a serie of primary screams, signs of my frustration. Then a "well, let's see ..." which actually precedes some researches on Google to see how I can LEARN.

As far as I can remember, I've always been hungry for knowledge. Being a pretty good student (although lazy ... not anymore), I always dreamt of creating my own company. Thing I managed to do when I was 25 years old. I did not grow up within an entrepreneurial culture in my family, but I've always been told that you always have to work hard to succeed: that's what I've been doing since then.

But, sometimes, I was facing some difficulties because of my incompetences in some areas. So I had to learn. To train myself. 
Some examples :

When I was doing scrapbooking (when it was my full-time job I mean), there was this platform called Two Peas in a Bucket. It was the most influential and important website / forum / shop all over the United States (all over the world to be more precise) and they had a team of designers who were seen as pioneers / scrapbooking world-class "bosses". I secretly dreamt of being part of their team. In fact, I knew I would someday. And, guess what? One day, I received an invitation to join them!

<----- Imagine my face!

Yup! I was like this!

But there was a hitch: I was asked to provide 2 videos per month, filmed from above, creating pages or albums. It was all about filming and editing and that, my friend, I had absolutely NO skill whatsoever.

But there was NO way I would let this chance pass! I had to take it.

So I did some researches on editing softwares, tripods to shoot from above, photo gear, and I enrolled in a training at the Apple Store in Montpellier to learn how to use their editing software iMovie.

I spent days learning. Even nights. And I joined their team! First French girl to be part of their team. Bim. Done.

Another story.
When we had our publishing company, we manufactured, printed and distributed a quarterly paper magazine in newsstands. I (and my husband) learnt how to work on InDesign / Photoshop / Illustrator, the basics of working in collaboration with a professional printing company (in France then Spain) and the impenetrable (and yet incomprehensible) world of press distributors (MLP ). Ugh. It was tough, man.

Last example.
When I started my Young Living business, I had no expertise in Aromatherapy. I knew the use for Lavender, or peppermint, but not more than that. Since then, I have read dozens of books, did an online training that allowed me to get an Aromatherapy Practitioner diploma, but beyond my knowledge of aromatherapy, I developed skills in Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, setting up sales funnels and Webinars, not to mention new software skills (InDesign to create a paper guide for example) and competences.

What I mean to tell you, with this blog post is this : when we do not know something, we learn. We MUST learn.

Learning new skills means adding value to your business


When you create your business, it is often to highlight your skills and monetize them, and make it a job full time.

The entrepreneurial path is like our life: time goes by and we grow, we learn. When you start your business, you have skills that you master. A new customer? A new challenge? A new project? AWESOME. But do you lack the competence to finalize, convert, seal the deal? TRAIN YOURSELF!

Today we are foluckytunate to be able to learn new skills everyday on YouTube and Google. When looking for more general or advanced skills, then training organizations (physical or online) are probably the ones we are going to turn to.

But anyway: LEARN!

A curious entrepreneur is a happy entrepreneur!

The moments I feel the most proud of myself are when, after spending hours on a training module, I put into practice my new challenge and succeed! YAAAAY! HUGE BIG UP.

For me, a happy + successful entrepreneur is the one who learns, the one who puts forward his skills and is always looking for new challenges.

A trained entrepreneur is more credible to his clients

We are not going to speak about "diploma" here, but more about life experiences. Have you ever had an interview with a customer who tells you that he wants you to work on this or that thing and in your head, the famous sentence "shit, I have NO IDEA how to do this". There is nothing that frustrates me MORE : the lack of knowledges. I know I can not learn everything, but it's damn frustrating for me not to do what I want in my job just because I do not know a few things. So of course yes, we can delegate to other professionals, what I do for certain things, but there are topics that fascinate me so much that I need to know how they work.

So yes, tell your future customer "Listen, I just did an online training with this company to master new Digital Marketing strategies. It has enabled me to set up an effective communication strategy, so I can not wait to put some things in place for your company. " BOUM. Score.

More skills = a better financial deal!

Well, I think I do not need to go into details for this one, right?

More skills = a clearer vision of your goals

It seems SO obvious to me! For example, let me explain my new BIG project for my company: implement an effective digital strategy around my website, which includes blogging, social media, emailing, webinars, to generate a larger community of bloggers / mompreneurs / creators of all kinds / mamas who want to explode their potential, whatever it is.

For that, I need to put my Digital Marketing and Blogging skills on the right path, but I don't feel expert enough in Webinar strategies (that's why I signed up for a Amy Porterfield training), and in Copywriting (taught by a French company called LiveMentor).

Online training? Faster, more efficient, less expensive

I remain convinced of online training. Why? A few years ago, I launched the first french platform for papercrafts courses. Admittedly, it was not up to our investment, but despite the failure, I remain convinced that we are at a stage that learning online, networking, doing FB live and other live streaming courses, online training is the future, especially for us, entrepreneurs! We save time (in traffic jam, in class), we study at our own pace, we can go back to classes indefinitely, and it's cheaper!

Today, every time I acquire a new knowledge / skill, I feel that nothing can stop me. I want to climb mountains and I know that, whatever happens, I will achieve my dreams and achieve all the goals that I could put myself in a personal capacity.

In short, you will understand, the subject fascinates me. I am passionate about learning. And I'm passionate about TEACHING. But this, I will discuss about it in another blog post :)

And you? If you had to choose a training of your choice, what would it be?

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