Career Changes: Staying Motivated
I knew I’d have difficulty staying motivated studying by myself over a period of three months but honestly, I lasted a lot longer than I thought I would. With a mini degree that is as intense as CXL’s Conversion Optimization, it’s not surprising that I’ve been losing steam these last few weeks.
It was inevitable. My attention span has never been anything to boast about. When I was in college, I couldn’t handle classes that were longer than an hour without sleeping with my eyes open. Sitting in a meeting for more than two hours is pure torture these days.
What is surprising is that I lasted for six weeks before conking out.
Work has started up again. Life has gotten in the way. Distractions have come. Maybe I was too optimistic with my study schedule of four to five hours every day on top of a full-time job, leaving little to no room for rest and recreation. Maybe I’m just being lazy and need to stop complaining and get the work done, after all, it’s only for three months. Maybe I need to ease up on the studying and incorporate some downtime into my schedule.
Either way, between work, NetFlix, and sleep, I’m not studying as much as I did initially. The worst part is when I’m not studying, I’m thinking about studying and when I’m studying, I’m thinking about not studying.
I’d love to be able to squeeze in some exercise time but I just can’t figure out how to do that on top of everything else. Which is a shame because I could really use the stress relief.
Foundations Module
After nearly six weeks, I finally finished the foundations’ module of the Conversion Optimization mini degree. I’ve gone through the following eleven courses:
- Intro to CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)
- Best Practices
- Intro to Conversion Copywriting
- Product Messaging (a favorite)
- People and Psychology
- Social Proof
- Intro to Neuromarketing
- Developing and Testing an Emotional Content Strategy
- Influence and Interactive Design
- Google Analytics for Beginners (a favorite, must go through again and again)
- Landing Page Optimization
Looking back, I’m pretty proud of my accomplishments. Many of these courses I’ve never heard of before or looked at the way I am doing so now. The CXL Institute has blown my mind by showing me how much effort is put into the design and optimization of the websites that I frequent with little thought to their structure and make up.
I wonder if many websites utilize the tips and tools that I’m learning to optimize their sites or are they just winging it. Do they really understand their target audience the way they need to? Do they consider things like the motivations of their users when crafting their copy?
If they don’t, it means there will be a lot of work for me to do when I finish my mini degree. Which is great news for me. But if you’re a business owner who has been struggling with your online presence and you don’t know why I can’t imagine how frustrating that must feel.
Just twenty courses left to go. When I look at it that way, my motivation starts to wane because the finish line seems so far away. I’m hopeful that now since I’ve learned the basics, things will move a little faster.
Landing Page Optimization
I was able to complete the Landing Page Optimization course this week. I could not believe my eyes when I passed the assessment on my first attempt. The course was really easy to understand.
It also ties in all the aspects of psychology, design, information, and visual hierarchy that I’ve learned about in previous lessons. I know that before I complained about how it seems like various parts of the mini degree are repetitious. I now find that the repetition is helping me to remember what I’m learning (yes, even I’m rolling my eyes at myself as I type this).
One added benefit of this course is that it’s teaching me patience. Every time I have a question or something is not too clear, I’m learning to wait a little bit. Eventually, my questions are answered.
This is so rare to see in an online course (or any type of course, to be perfectly honest). It shows that the course was very well thought out. As someone who works in Learning and Development, I admire CXL Institute’s ability to cover all the bases. I’m left will little to no questions by the time I finish a course.
It must have taken a lot of trial and effort to be able to cover such a wide topic as thoroughly as they have.
Conversion Research
I started with the Conversion Research module this week and I’ve been stuck on it all week. As I’ve come to expect with Peep Laja’s courses, it’s a lot. It’s packed with a lot of information. So much so that it’s impossible to rush through it.
Every time I want to skip ahead, my conscience won’t allow me to do because I know the extra videos or articles will provide additional information that will be beneficial to my career aspirations.
So when I saw that the total time for the Conversion Research course was four hours and twenty minutes, I knew good and well it was a gross underestimation. But I can’t be mad because every bit of it will (and is) be worth my time.
I honestly wish I had found this course way before I spent money on other copywriting courses. I would have saved my money, time, and effort and gotten on this new career path a lot faster. This course is by far, the best copywriting course I have ever taken.
I’ve not learned anything that is a waste of my time. I’ve been given the tools to hit the ground running.
I’ve even come to enjoy writing these weekly articles because they allowed me to review what I’ve learned. I almost wish I could sit down and talk with the people who put this program together to learn how they did it. Was the process more of trial and effort or they had expert consultants who guided them through?
It would be interesting to find out.
