Brian Gubernick argues that teaching is the fastest way to master anything. He cites Brendon Burchard's story of someone who became a credible investor educator by interviewing experts, not by investing themselves. The key: study the material, be transparent about what you're learning, and schedule time to teach it to someone.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today I want to talk about a topic that we've in fact covered a time or two in the past. I want to go over it again because I think it's one that we should hear 2, 3, 4, maybe 5 times This should be something we're always thinking about. I believe it's that important. And that something is, if you want to improve or learn or develop something, teach it. Teach it to others. Teach it to your family. Teach it to your team. Teach it to your business or your peers. If you want to learn something, get it on the calendar and go out and teach it. If you're running a business and say you want to get better at sales conversion, Teach others how they can get better at sales conversion. If you want to be a better leader, go teach others the 5 things that you can do to become a better leader starting today. If you want to be a better public speaker, go to a group of people a month from now and teach them all the 12 tips to becoming a better public speaker. I know that sounds kind of funny. It sounds kind of goofy, but why am I saying that? I believe firmly that if you want to learn something, you go out and teach it. Why? Because if you teach it, you yourself have to go study it and become a master of it before you stand up in front of a room and present to others. Why is that? Well, number one, we want to impress those that we're teaching to. We want to showcase what it is we know. Number 2, and maybe more importantly, because so many people are driven by fear, we don't want to be fraudulent. We don't want to stand up in front of a room and not know what we're talking about. Number 3 though, and maybe most importantly, in the process of learning it, you will deepen your own understanding. You will build that knowledge into your psyche, into your, into your being, because you will get so repetitive with it. Anytime that I want to get better at something, I throw it on the calendar and I teach it to somebody. Now here's what I want you to think around. There's a book called The Millionaire Messenger by a guy named Brendon Burchard. Many of you know who Brendon Burchard is. Brendon wrote this book, gosh, maybe 13, 14 years ago. And the book, The Millionaire Messenger, was about the idea that everyone has a message to share with the world. And that by sharing your expertise or your experiences, you not only make a positive impact, but you can also create or achieve some financial success. So it's a blueprint for how to monetize your knowledge. That's not what I'm talking about here with respect to teaching, but there's a point in that book. And I'm going to totally butcher this story, but this is the way I remember it. In that book, Brendon describes a scenario. He says, would you want to learn investing advice? Would you want to take financial advice or investment advice from somebody that has never ever invested a dime of their own money? Someone that's never invested, or maybe even has been broke their whole life. Would you take investment advice or would you want to learn anything about investment from somebody that's never invested? And the answer of course is no. Why would I want to learn from somebody that's never done it? But then Brennan follows that up with, would you take investment advice or would you learn investments from somebody that's never invested their own money, but has just interviewed 10 of the world's top investment minds? And, and, and taken their best practices, put it in a presentation, and is ready to show it to you over the course of an hour. Would you take advice from that person? The answer is yes. Now, what's the difference between the first guy who's never invested and the second person who's also never invested but has now studied 10 of the top investment minds in the world? The difference is the knowledge that that second person now possesses, even though they haven't put it into practice yet. Why do I tell you that story? Because too often we lack confidence in teaching or presenting around something because, well, maybe we haven't done it. And I'll tell you, um, that's not what makes you fraudulent. What makes you fraudulent is if you've acted like you've done it. But if you stand up in front of a room and say, hey, here's a story. I'm working on my own sales conversion. As a matter of fact, it's not great. I don't have a great track record yet, but I did just spend the past 30 days reading every book I could find about sales conversion. I interviewed 5 of the top salespeople I know. I spent hours on the internet reading the best tactics of those that convert at the highest levels. And I've even started testing some things on my own. I'd like to share that with you. Do you think people would show up for that class? Of course they would. If you were not known to be a great leader at all, as a matter of fact, maybe you'd fallen on your face as a leader multiple times, but you said to the room, I may not be the best leader, I'm still working on it, but I just read 3 John Maxwell books. I just read 2 Ray Dalio books. I just watched a Simon Sinek, uh, TED Talk. And I've done these 7 other things and I've compiled all of my insights into one 30-minute class that I want to share with you. Think that class would be valuable? Of course it would be. So what's the point today? What am I trying to stress to you today? Number 1, if you want to learn something, teach it. The— it's self-serving. I understand it, but it's self-serving to a degree because you are going to make an impact on some people, but you're going to make an impact on yourself the most. You will learn more than anybody else that you're teaching to. So number 1, if you want to learn something, teach it. Number 2, if you don't have confidence, get confidence by go reading, by, by reading some books, interviewing some people, listening to some podcasts, and studying what it is that you're trying to learn, and then just be open and transparent with the process that you went through. People do not consider it fraudulent that you didn't do it. They would only consider it fraudulent if you acted like you have, but you really have not. So be transparent and say, here's what I've learned. I'd like to share it with you. So today, the focusing question for you: what are you looking to learn in business? What are you looking to learn in health? What are you looking to learn in relationships or life? Whatever it may be. What is it that you want to learn? Okay. Now that you've identified that, when can you teach that subject to somebody else? You don't have to stand up in front of a room, though I love that practice. Maybe it's just teaching a friend or teaching a peer or teaching your family. When can you commit to doing that? That's the focusing question for you today. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
