Remington Begg
When you hear the word training, what comes to mind? It might be something you do to get ready for that 10K race or hotdog eating contest. It might be a flashback to that intense movie with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawk. Or it might be the tedious process you go through when you begin a new job.
The training I'm referring to is the latter. There's always new things to learn when you start a new job. Training usually doesn't make one reach for the sky and do cartwheels, it often is a long, dare I say boring process. New procedures, a new sales system, a new filing program—it's enough to scare anyone from starting a new job. New procedures is change, and most people don't like change.
I recently started as an Inbound Marketing Consultant with Impulse Creative and am currently going through the training process. However this training process is different. It does have me reaching for the sky and feeling like the Ethan Hawk hero character in Training Day. King Kong ain't got shit on me!
The Difference
When searching for a new more challenging, more creative position in the Fort Myers job market I came upon Impulse Creative. As I researched the company I learned that they used HubSpot and that all their employees go through the HubSpot Academy, collecting, and displaying their certifications in the process. These certifications are known industry wide and they were something I wanted.
I've been reading the HubSpot Marketing Blog for a long time. I knew that the company positioned themselves as a leading force in Inbound Marketing and has developed a powerful tool for helping companies grow through online marketing efforts. My new team at Impulse Creative uses this tool to help grow its clients' businesses. Now I was going to learn how to use the tool, happily displaying those fancy badges on my bio page. How was I going to do that? Through training.
Training
Like I mentioned before the word training might not be the sexiest word in the English language, but HubSpot training has me pumped. The certification process involves dozens of videos, hundreds of slides, and a pretty intense test at the end that takes well over an hour. It may sound daunting, but to someone that was eager to learn it was pure joy.
I viciously scribbled chicken-scratch notes into a notebook as the HubSpot Academy teachers went though each class. Video after video I tried to sponge up as much information as I could. Training it was, work it was not. You can read about my first test experience here. Nervous I was!
Key Take-away
With any new job there's going to be training, there's going to be a learning curve. The difference between sitting in front of a computer screen with glazed-over eyes or sitting in front of a computer screen with laser focus, is passion. Do you want to be there or not? Do you want to learn something new or don't you? It all breaks down to passion.
Someone once told me to find something you love, then make a career out of it. If you do that then you'll never work a day in your life. That's what Inbound Marketing is to me. It's helping others find solutions to their problems through creative and education writing. Hopefully that passion shines through in my Impulse Creative projects.
That passion also shined through in the HubSpot team members that conducted the training videos. They were energetic, personable, and always relayed the information with a smile. Their passion for Inbound Marketing Strategies, the HubSpot tool, and helping others really made the training sessions a pleasure.
So in the end don't think of it as Training, think of it as Learning. Passion makes the difference.
