I hear all the time from people that they aren’t techie, and I’ve gotta be honest with you, it sets off all kinds of alarms in my head. It’s not that I don’t think I’m going to be able to help you build a website. In fact, I know I can help anyone build a website.
But when I read or hear that from you guys, here’s what you’re really saying:
- I’m going to apologize up front for asking you so many questions.
- I have no confidence in myself.
Do you think that people are born with an innate ability to use technology? Impossible!
How does a 1 year old learn how to walk? By trying to stand up and then falling a bajillion times before they finally get it right.
If you ask my mom about my most annoying quality, she would say “persistence”. Well, maybe she wouldn’t use that word… But anyway, when I was a teenager I wouldn’t take no for an answer. I always wanted to know why, I always had a counter argument and I always had a negotiation ready. And I was always grounded for having an attitude and not doing what I was told… Whoops. I know, can you believe it? LOL!
Lucky for her, I translated my persistence into an almost OCD-like obsession with figuring out the how and why behind everything I do.
The reason I understand how to use WordPress and fix computers and solve people’s tech problems is not because I’m the product of two super-nerd tech geniuses (although my dad is kind of a nerd) – it’s that I believe there’s an answer and I don’t give up until I find one or confirm that I can’t do something the way I wanted to do it.
Let’s say I wasn’t into this web stuff at all – I could become proficient at anything with persistence, right?
I don’t know why you told yourself you weren’t techie somewhere along the way. Maybe you got frustrated using badly designed technology. Maybe some idiot thought you needed to understand HOW a computer works for you to be able to use it. Maybe you were never taught how to use the Google machine to find answers to all of life’s problems (hint: you type in your question exactly as it’s formed in your mind).
Maybe you’re paralyzed by a lack of confidence and what you’ve really done is pigeon-holed yourself as someone who isn’t techie. Or someone who isn’t athletic, or smart, or beautiful, or whatever that voice in your head that lacks confidence tells you.
Look, all “being techie” means is having the persistence to figure something out, being willing to fail and try again a bajillion times and when you do fail, not internalizing it by telling yourself you’re stupid, or you’re not techie, or whatever that asshole inside your head is telling you. If we talked to our friends the way we talk to ourselves, we wouldn’t have any friends!
When you watch the Free 5 Day Website Challenge training videos, you’re not seeing the 7 times I messed up the steps before I got it right. The rest of that is on the cutting room floor. You get the benefit of me doing all the screwing up for you! Well, most of it anyway.
You’re going to run into times where your site is different than mine, or your problem is different or your product is different – but as my fave mentor Chalene Johnson says: “Everything is figure-outable.” I’m just giving you the shortcut, but don’t think I didn’t take the long way to get there.
And stop apologizing for not knowing something!! I’m guilty of saying “sorry” for things I’m not and shouldn’t be “sorry” for all the time… I’m working on it. Don’t apologize for asking questions – that’s what the group is for, that’s what Google is for, and that’s what persistence is all about.
You are techie. You are smart. You are beautiful. You are awesome. You have it in you to do this. You just have to believe that you can, and be open to failing as a learning experience, not as a frustration that makes you quit. You got this BFF! You got it!
