7 Things I Would’ve Done Differently To Learn Faster
We recently were interviewed by CanvasRebel, an online magazine for artists, creatives and entrepreneurs. Thank you CanvasRebel for featuring this article.
Enjoy our snippet below and to read the full blog, click HERE.
I’ve always been an entrepreneur, ever since I was 13. My first experience of supply & demand was in that middle school cafeteria, selling a hundred dollars worth of gimp bracelets. It was amazing and I think that memory always sticks with me because it’s not something I learned in a book- it’s something I learned through connecting with people.
I continued my love for fashion and went on to get a BFA from Parsons so books eventually did come into play. Surrounded by the best professors the fashion industry had to offer, I had the environment needed to clarify my voice as an artist. That’s probably the most important benefit I’d say about learning from school/similar settings- is that the environment in which you’ll need to grow has already been curated for you. You only need to know how to navigate it.
1) Learn in community. Your learning environment is crucial to how you learn. Like any thriving habitat, it must be rich with diversity. When you learn alone, you keep yourself from accessing how rich learning can be.
How I responded to feedback then was a crucial part to navigating my environment. Critique sessions in an art school environment were not new to me, but it was definitely at another level! So what impacted how I learned in that season of my life was how I navigated the feedback I received. Was I going to reject every comment, harboring it as negative and a direct attack on my character? Or was I going to free up my mind from housing my insecurities, my need to be right and to constantly defend myself, and instead make space to at least chew on the feedback? I didn’t have to always accept it, but was I at least going to consider it before dismissing it? And what I found out was that the more I practiced letting go of offense, a whole new world of things I could learn opened up. And the feedback ended up informing, empowering, and establishing my work as a young artist.
2) Consider each critique. It can be an opportunity to inform, empower, and establish your work.
Parsons was great but after graduating with no job in sight, I took a chance on myself and launched my very own clothing brand. In one year, I imagined I’d dress Solange by the next year and be on the racks of Bergdorf Goodman by year 3. 2 years after and a closet full of unworn designs taught me that I was not yet done learning!
So when my parents persuaded me to go to business school I agreed (reluctantly of course lol). Although those 3 years did not go as planned, I learned something that became a powerful tool for me during my MBA- a business plan is great, in fact, any plan is great. But sometimes you just need to jump into action! Because there are things that you learn by doing you would’ve never thought to plan out. I would’ve never thought to include influencer marketing (because no one knew what that was yet in 2015) into my business strategy until I saw how much of a return it was bringing to my business. Or even renting out my samples as a way to open up my business to other market segments until I just did it and the demand increased.
In some cases, your plan can actually be the thing that slows you down. You can spend 2 years planning and then when you finally decide to execute what ends up unfolding right in front of you looks different from what you planned. If you don’t learn how to be flexible and allow experience to teach you, sticking to your plan could actually be your downfall.
3) Planning is great but application is better. Learning by doing is the most effective method to inform your decisions.
With two degrees at the end of 2019, you’d think I’d done all the learning I could do! But you never stop learning. There’s never a point where you “arrive” at knowing it all, no matter how many degrees you have. And I think accepting and embracing that is a part of learning in itself. There is always room for growth. There’s always room for more!
4) If you can accept that there is no “arrival point” in life, that the goal is not perfection but continual progression, then it will impact how you learn in such an enlightening way.
Accepting progress over perfection (especially as a recovering perfectionist) allowed me to embrace that there was more for me. Specifically, the “more” that Jesus illustrates in all of His promises to us. In the most confusing time of my life- a failed business behind me and an unclear path ahead of me- it was what I learned about God that kept me grounded, secure, and loved. With every scripture I read, my hope in Him fueled hope in myself. I learned to see my situation differently because of His word and my eyes opened up to opportunity again.
5) When all else fails and the situations of life steal your hope, the one thing that you can always depend on is Jesus and His word over your life. His word never fails, and if you can learn it and know it you’ll know that setbacks are just a setup for your victory.
In 2020, I relaunched my fashion business as a branding agency. That’s right, during a flipping pandemic! But I knew enough about God and His love for me at this point, that a pandemic didn’t scare me. In all my bios, from LinkedIn to my agency website, I copied and pasted the praise I received in recommendation letters from my marketing teacher. I didn’t know what a marketer sounded like! It wasn’t even my focus during my MBA, just a class. But in it, I could combine everything I was passionate about – business, art, and people!
The funny thing about starting afresh in an information overload era where demand for content was skyrocketing, was that to dominate in some capacity you had to prove yourself as a “thought leader”. But now I was out of school environments, so I had to discover new avenues of learning.
I picked up the habit of reading more books and watching less Instagram and I invested in programs like Union College Leadership Program and conferences like Path To Prosperity.
There is a time in our life when learning is kind of forced on us. When we’re babies we have no choice but to learn. Even when we’re old enough to go to school, we have no choice but to go! But there comes a time when learning is not forced on you. At some point it becomes your choice. The level in which you pursue learning depends on how badly you need a solution. And what you’ll find in your pursuit is that some doors were closed to you simply because you didn’t know to look for them or to ask for them.
6) The solution won’t always be waiting for you. Knock on all the doors, ask all the questions, and don’t be afraid to ask again. Learning is pursued so keep chasing after it.
To be a thought leader, you’ve got to keep in mind this 1 thing- communication is key. I mean, I know that’s true in every area of life but if people are paying you for your ideas/insight, then you really have to be good at communicating them. The only way to get good at communication is to practice it. In fact, the only way you know you’ve really learned something is when you’re able to teach it to someone else and they understand.
Again, understand. They have to leave understanding what you just said. If not, then you haven’t communicated well enough.
No one asked me to nor was it a business strategy, but I’ve launched podcasts and community platforms just so I could practice communicating. What I’m most proud of is that these platforms also create opportunities for me to pour into others and help them in their personal and business life. I don’t ever want to learn and consume and learn and consume and get so full like a sponge in water and then just sit there. Eventually, that sponge starts to mold because it’s so full! You can only save it from deteriorating if you squeeze it out. We should consume so that we can create. We should learn so that we can teach. All this learning, it’s not so that we can hoard it for ourselves. We need to pour back into the pool of genius we took out of. And when we do that, we make room to be poured into again.
7) Learning is a cycle of learning and teaching, pouring out and pouring in. Don’t wait until it’s required of you to pour back into the pool of genius you took out of. Launch the podcast. Launch the blog. Launch the book. Launch the class. Even with just 10 eyes watching. Even with no eyes watching. Pour it out and teach even if it’s just so that you can make room to be poured into again. I promise you, someone will find value in what you’ve shared because your genius is unique. It is like no other. And the world needs to experience it too.
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Read the full article, click HERE.
