we want to aim for just-in-time learning. Learn things just in time to go execute them, not just in case learning. Just in case learning is what most people do. Most people do just in case learning, which is I'm going to read this book, where I'm going to do this thing, or going to absorb this thing just in case I may need it in the future. I'm going to buy all these courses just in case I need them someday. I'm going to buy this book because this person recommended it online on Instagram, and I should buy that just in case I might need the information too. [Music] Years ago, I heard a quote that goes something like this: The rich man has the biggest library, and the poor man has the biggest TV. And I think it's pretty darn true. And in this episode of the Trevor truck talk, because I'm driving to the office after driving the kids on dropping the kids off at school, I'm going to kind of talk about how I read books, how I choose books, what books I

have written have read lately, and kind of the counter-intuitive approach that I have about reading about consuming that is probably a little bit different than what you may be used to. And it enables me to soak in the right information at the right time, but not too much information where I feel like I'm consuming more than I should consume. So, first of all, let me kind of take it way back, way back 2000, let's say 2007, 2008, when I was really starting to get going as an entrepreneur. Around 2006 or so, I'd never read a book that I willfully chose to read that was not related to school that I remember. Like maybe years ago when I was a kid, I read some of those Goosebumps books and things like that, but I don't remember as a high school or college kid or writing that year after college. I don't remember actually ever choosing to read a book for the growth of myself or to add value to the world. Okay, I saw

people who would read novels. And I saw people who would read things like that as number one wasting time. And then number two, whenever I would see like a personal growth type book or any book like that, I saw as like, well, why do you need that kind of a thing, you know? I don't need quote unquote personal growth. And so it wasn't until I walked into an office that I was doing some consulting work with my uncle. And you walk past the lobby, past the receptionist desk, turned right, and there was two or three big old shelves there that had tons of books, tons of courses, tons of CDs, tapes, the whole thing. That was kind of my introduction to personal growth. It was my introduction to reading and consuming information for the growth of something good, rather than just for passing time. And so his name was Brandon, and he did pretty darn good financially until he didn't, until he got taken down for doing some things that were not good. But basically at the end of the day, guys, Brandon said you can take any of

these books take into these courses, as long as you return them when you're done. And so, I kind of went on a journey and started to grab books, grab courses, and consume information. Now, at that time, everything was new, everything was good, but the problem with it, guys, the challenge with it, was that the information I was consuming, while it was very good information, oftentimes it wasn't the right next bit of information that I needed to take the next step in my life for business. And so, in this episode, I am going to talk about how to consume information, how to read books. I've done episodes before on what's called Just in Time learning versus just in case learning. I'm going to do a little bit of a Refresh on this one here, specifically related to books and information, okay? So, the first thing, guys, the biggest I'm going to give you guys a few different kind of changes on how I consume information versus most people. The first thing is most people will read books just to read books, right? So, we've all heard people who go, I read

a book a month. Or I read a book every other week or whatever, and that's amazing if you do because once again the richest, the rich people have big libraries, poor people have big TVs. Now various people also have very big TVs and big libraries, so it's not that they're mutually exclusive, but you'll very rarely watch it walk into someone who's financially poor, okay, financially poor that that has, you know, a library of books that has books that they've read that's more than just two or three but is dozens and dozens of books potentially, okay, and so a lot of people set out on a goal to read a book a month. And I've done that as well, you know, where I'm going to read a book a month, book every every other week, read 50 bucks, 100 books a year. I've done those things. The challenge is I feel like I got, um, you know, broadly wise but I didn't really get, um, you know, narrowly focused on things that were going to really drive my life.

forward in that moment. And so, if you're going to do the book Challenge and read a book a month, I'm going to challenge you to change it up a little bit, okay? So, I don't have any goals anymore, guys, on reading a book a month. I don't have any goals on reading x amount of books. I do have goals in Reading 10 pages a day, but the way that I do it is this: I go, What's the number one challenge or opportunity I have in my life right now? And then I go ask people, or I go research, What are the top two, three, four, five books, maybe even a course that is out there in the world on that topic? Okay, so let's say I'm looking to be a better leader. I might ask people who I feel are good leaders, and research, You know, what are the top five books on leadership related to the type of situations I'm going through? Is there a course, or you know, a person who's amazing on YouTube on leadership? And then that's what I focus.

on learning that month okay so I buy those three four five books, and then next I'm going to kind of walk you guys through how I then read and do it quickly to absorb the right information and put it to action, rather than be an analysis paralysis. So I buy those three four five books now, right now it's on pricing. Okay, I'm wanting to learn how to be a better pricer for all products. We bought investor fees, I own carrot, and I'm an investor and owner and other other software companies and other types of companies as well, and pricing also really does matter for other businesses, including real estate businesses. So it really really does matter, okay, and so I bought the the top two or three books on pricing. I went in find the found some podcast episodes on pricing specifically, and then I found some really really good deep articles on pricing. So I probably put about half hour of research into finding the right pricing related resources. About a year ago, I did the same thing about half hour into researching the top leadership resources.

leadership for the phase I'm in. Okay, about three or four months ago, it was on strategy. What are the top three, four, five resources? Books, blog articles. Are there any courses on strategy? How do you create informative, communicate strategy? So pinpoint what is the right next thing you need to learn in your life or business to grow. The right next thing. So that's this is where the Just in Time versus just in case learning podcast episode comes up. And I'll kind of paraphrase it for you guys. That we want to aim for just in time learning, learn things just in time to go execute them, not just in case learning. Just in case learning is what most people do. Most people do just in case learning, which is, I'm going to read this book, or I'm going to do this thing, or going to absorb this thing just in case I may need it in the future. I'm going to buy all these courses just in case I need them someday. I'm going to buy this book because this person recommended it.

online on Instagram, and I should buy that just in case. I might need, I might need the information too, and just in case learning is an okay thing when you're starting, okay? Just in case learning is an okay thing when you're starting when you're not really sure where you're wanting to go, it's, it's okay when you're exploring, trying to soak up as much information as you can because oftentimes in the start, just in case learning can give you kernels of ideas that give you focus on where you want to go, okay? So just in case learning is good. I've talked about this on other podcast episodes here, about this with your career when you're starting as a real estate investor or agent when you're starting trying to figure out what you want to do. I think it's okay to go abroad and do everything, uh, one of one of my friends and and the guy who runs this podcast, Brady. I remember when he was before he was working with Karen, he was in a career transition, and he was really trying to figure out

what he wanted to do, and the advice they gave him was like, just do everything right, and he went out there and did. I think it was a couple dozen odd jobs that summer. Uh, he took gigs on Craigslist, he did a bunch of other things, and he really found out what he liked and what he did not like. So I think that's a good thing at the start, but once you have a business, once you have a career, once you have a focus, then it needs to shift to just-in-time learning, okay? So pick the topic you're wanting to learn about right now that's just in time to help you advance your career, advance your life, prevent your faith or events your health or advance whatever it is you're wanting to advance in your life, okay? Go out there and research the top three to five books, the top podcast or podcast episodes, and then research a little bit of articles and find the top one, two articles. So now you're going to have somewhere between three and eight resources on this topic. What I do then is I put them on an Apple

note, so I've got them right there with the title of it, you know, something related to what I'm trying to learn. There, the next thing I do now is I go read those books. Now, here's the way I read books, it's quite a bit different. So, back in the day, I felt this guilt that if I started a book, I would have to finish the book, right? Because I'm like, I want to be a finisher. I took the Colby, the Colby test, which we've talked about Colby on the cast before. It's the test we have all of our employees take before we hire them, and it shows how you work. And it's a, you know, fact finder, which is how much do you want to research before you make a decision. I'm a high fact finder, so I tend to make decisions slowly, and I want to, and I'm trying to change that actually right now. Um, I'm a high quick start, an 8 out of 10 quick start, which means I love ideas, and I'll, in the past, I'd be okay with

having four books halfway read. Because I had this guilt of um of of finishing what I started. But then I'm a low follow through a two out of ten fall through. So I'm like oh my gosh I need to learn how to fall through better. So every book I opened I finished a darn thing even if I'm like I'm just slogging through it. Because I thought it was a mindset thing. I thought it was a if I don't finish this this book what else am I going to not finish in my life right. And I had this pattern of starting things not finishing things. And so that means book reading just an unenjoyable experience for me. So one day I just started to go well screw this like why am I reading the book. I'm not reading the book for the act of finishing it. I'm reading the book so I can get certain knowledge to drive forward and solve a certain problem. So as soon as I actually started changing my mindset around books and information that it is only there to solve a certain

problem then you remove any guilt about finishing the darn book. Because when you're reading books just to read books, then you feel like you got to finish the book. When you're reading books just to solve a specific problem, you stop reading the book as soon as the problem is solved and you shut the book. Problem solved, you value got and done, okay? So shift that mindset, guys. It's magical for me. So I started reading books differently. The first thing I do is read the back cover, okay? And I think that's not uncommon, but read the back cover. Read it two, three times, really fully understand what is this book trying to sell me, what is this book trying to teach me, what am I going to learn from this book. The very next thing, then I open up the table of contents and I, and I, and I take the broad 50,000-foot view of the book. Now that came from the back of that cover. Then I go look at the table of contents. Table of contents, if it's structured well, should then give me like

the 20,000-foot view of the book. It should basically be a breakdown of what the back cover showed, but in more detail. And then, at that moment, I go, Does it seem like this book is going to solve my problem based on what I've read? Guys, there's been many times where I've looked at it, I'm like, This isn't going to get me what I want at all. I might flip to a couple chapters in the book that seem like they're going to more narrowly solve my problem or give me the information I need. And if it doesn't look like it's going to give it to me, I don't even start the book. And so, I read the back cover, read the table of contents, the items that are more specific to the challenge or opportunity I'm trying to solve. I flipped to those chapters, skim the chapter, do the same thing, and look at the front of the chapter, read the first page, read the back page on the last page.

back last page on that chapter, and then if it seems like it started well and finished well, then I'll read the chapter. Okay, but if it doesn't seem like it started well and finished well, I checked it out in a couple chapters that are the most relevant to me in that book. I put the book aside, and I don't read it. Okay, so let's say I do dive into the book, and I skimmed the table of contents. I skim some of the most relevant chapters. I'm like, Oh yeah, this is going to be good. What I'll do next is I do start at the front of the book and work my way back. I don't just randomly jump chapter to chapter. I'll start and read the introduction, but I don't usually read the whole thing. Okay, I'll read the first couple pages of it to get the gist or they just telling me story and fluffers that lead in a certain direction. It's going to help me out. I'll read the back page of

that of the introduction. If there was any big open loop, so I'm like, Whoa, how did he come to that conclusion? Then I'll skim the pages. Now, the way that I skim pages is I read the first paragraph, for the first couple sentences of the page, and then I'll probably read like the first sentence of every paragraph just to kind of figure it out. If I'm really wanting to dig in, I'll read the first and last sentence of every paragraph because that kind of usually finishes a thought. And if I'm starting to see that this is good, then I'll just read every... I'll read the whole page. Okay, so I'll read the first page, first sentence or first paragraph of the page, last sentence or last paragraph of the page. If it seems interesting, then I'll do first sentence of every paragraph, last sentence of every paragraph, just buzz through it. If that seems like it's telling a compelling story, then I'm probably just going to read the whole chapter at that point. Okay, so I can get

all the information and so from there. Then I have my iPhone up, and I've got my Apple notes up, and I have um, I have Apple notes basically for every topic I'm learning on. And then I start to take notes on the biggest learnings from that book. Okay, I'll take pictures of pages, I'll put them in the Apple note if it's especially if it's got graphics. I'll take um, and and I do what I call dog-earing my books. So I don't like I don't like reading on Kindle because I want a dog-ear. I want to draw things on my book. So you'd never want a book after I well, maybe you would, you might want to see what I learned and what my biggest takeaways were, but I dog-ear because then if I'm if I'm like, Oh my gosh, I remember this thing I learned in this book five years ago, I go to the book and I just look at the dog-ears because I know if that concept stood out to me now.

it probably stood out to me then, and I probably dog-eared the page. And the way that I'll do is I'll take the darn dog ear. And if the concept that I found was in the bottom left, you know, part of that book, I'll full dog year the bottom left of it. And I'll literally take the point of the dog ear. And I'll have the point touch to sit. And that is the sentence or the paragraph that was compelling for me. If I've got a pen on me, I'll outline a paragraph or sentence. I'll star it, things like that. If there's a big, big, big concept, guys, it's the double dog year. It's the double dog year. So I fold the tip of the sentence or the tip of the page in, then I fold the tip back. So it's double folded dog ear. Because that one, then if I'm flipping through the book five years later, that page, those double dog ears actually stand out the most. And I go to those first. And so I know it's a weird system.

but it was kind of cool because about a month ago, I started reading a book, and I did a podcast episode or two on this book, uh, the five pieces to life, life supposedly by Jim Rohn, and guys, I read that book probably in 2010, 11 or so, might have even been 2009, and I was dog-earing even them. And it's kind of cool because when I opened up that book to reread it, I was able to see what stood out to me 10 years ago. I was able to see the concepts that were important to me 10 years ago, that were impactful for me 10 years ago. And this time, I dog-eared things that were relevant to me now, but I made a note on it every dog year from this time through. I just put a 2022 on it. And so that's kind of a new thing I'm going to start to do because I'm rereading a lot of the books that I read in the past that were

valuable and relevant to me. So I'll do the same thing with the course. I'll do the same thing with an article. Okay, all of the learnings from the topic go into one Apple Note. And now I have the best learnings in the world potentially on this topic. And then I go execute. Okay. And I don't pick up another book. I don't go and do another course. I don't, you know, read a bunch of articles on any specific topic until I've sort of executed this and started to see some results or have some other questions or challenges. Okay. And then once I learn it, now I've got a resource I can take and I can train somebody else or I can go back to if I have challenges with that problem again. So that's the way I read, guys. Hopefully it was valuable to you, but a couple of concepts I want to recap in here. The first thing is just-in-time versus just-in-case learning. Once again, it's okay to have just-in-case learning at the start when you're exploring

you want to kind of figure out what you're going to do next, and you're just soaking in all the information that you can. But as soon as you get some focus on a specific business or what you want to do in health, or whatever it is, then and you want to pull back and say, What specifically is the right next thing I need to learn? What's the biggest challenge I have? What's the biggest opportunity? And now let me go out and learn on that. The second concept after just a case first just-in-time learning that we talked about is then we collect the top three to five books, the top couple articles, and if there's a course or a podcast episode or two, you collect those, put them on an Apple note, link them up, and then you spend the next week or so going through all those things, maybe two weeks, okay, maybe it's that whole month and um, and for me like I said I'll carve out probably uh two or three mornings. I didn't talk about this. I'll carve out.

two or three mornings to really dive in into those Concepts into those books because I know I need to learn this thing to get over the challenge or opportunity that I've got in front of me right now. So it's valuable to carve out the mornings and work time to do so um and I'll jam through those and I can probably get through the top three to five books probably in in two to three weeks uh if if I mean I've done it quicker. I've done it a week before where I get the main Concepts out of it um but two to three weeks is probably about right for me for the top three to five books do with that method okay. So the third thing how to go through books the way that I do it so I don't have the guilt of finishing a book because number one the third thing is is realize that the book is just there to solve a problem or create an opportunity for you and there's very very specific challenges you're trying to solve with

it. So as soon as you've solved the challenges, you shut the book. The most famous one that I've done this with was back in 2011 and 12 when I had too many things on my plate. I had too many commitments. I had four or five businesses that I was, quote unquote, running. I wasn't doing good in any of them. I was overwhelmed and I read the book The Pumpkin Plan by Mike McAllowitz. Guys, I read the back cover. I read the table of contents. I read the introduction. I got to page 16. I got to page 16 in that book, and page 16 is where I stopped. I shut the book. I've never read another page of that book, and I've probably given that book to 200 people. I've probably talked about that book to, you know, that book then more, more than any other book that I've ever read. I've only read 16 pages. I shut it because my problem was solved on

page 16. Okay, on page 16, it was a graphic. It compared this versus that. Mike bam, that's the problem solved. I got the concept. I don't need to read the rest of the fluff. Now, now, was there value in the rest of the book? 100%. Yeah, there's value in the rest of the book, right? I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna tell people that you're, you're going to read 10% of the book and that's all the value in the book. But oftentimes, the rest of the book is, is adding context for the concept, okay? I'm oftentimes looking for the concept, and if I need more context, I will go read the stories because some of those stories may relate to my specific situation, good to give me more context so I can go implement the concept. But I'm looking for the concept, and then I only go as deep as I need to go to get the context that's going to help me execute it better, okay? So most of the rest of the books oftentimes after you

learn the concepts are just context to help you uh get you know get this get get the lesson even deeper okay so that's that's the third part guys is carve out the time I'd get the three to five books get the top two articles get the course the podcast or two whatever uh carve out a few weeks where you're doing two to three mornings uh two to three hours four hours at a time and then you do back cover um you know table of contents see what chapter is the most relevant see if those are going to give you the concepts that you need if not put the book away if they are then you start at the start of the book and you read the introduction or part of the introduction but then I go uh basically first um first paragraph of the chapter last paragraph of the chapter if it seems like it's setting up a good story then I'll then I'll go Page by Page I'll go first sentence or last or first sentence or first paragraph and then last sentence or last paragraph of every page

if it seems like it's interesting, then I'll start to go first sentence last sentence of every paragraph. If it really does seem like it's nailing it, then I'll read the whole chapter. Okay, so then that's the concept number three, that might have been four guys adjust the way you read the book. And then I think the fifth concept really is making sure that you collect it all so you can really organize your thoughts and refer them refer back to them in the future. The way I do that is with my Apple notes and with the dog ear process. And so guys, hopefully this kind of teaches you a different way to read books. It's a lot more enjoyable for me. It's removed any guilt around finishing a book. Now it's making it so I'm learning the right things at the right time, and I'm able to accelerate my growth, accelerate my path through these challenges and opportunities that I have. It makes it to where I'm not just consuming information just to consume in in in creating this.

app this creating this this opportunity where I'm consuming social media. Consuming all these books that aren't relevant to what I'm doing right now. I'm pulling nuggets out, but man, you just end up consuming so much. You can't really drive things forward. So get out of consumption mode. Get into problem-solving mode and change the way you guys read books. Now I guess hopefully that was some valuable valuable information for you, kind of a little bit of an insight into the way that I think and the way my brain thinks. If you want more of that, guys, check out carrotcamp. Carrotcamp.com. Get to spend two, two and a half days with me in my office in a small group of other people. It does sell, they'll sell out every single time. You also carecamp.com. Check it out. If there's a page accepting applications, apply and then we open them up and then we sell them out really really fast. So get your application in early early. And also, guys, hit up our team and and ask

about the authority leader program. The Authority leader program is going to be something that I'm going to be more and more tightly tied to, really adding value, really driving more of this content into the authority leader program members on a monthly basis as the only touch point with me. So connect with our team, ask about the authority leader program. The program's not cheap. It's a thousand dollars a month or so, that includes your Advanced marketer plan subscription. You get our team does things for you in the authority leader program. So we'll build out and modify your blog posts on a quarterly basis. We'll build out, you know, some of your location Pages for you. We'll coach you, we'll hold you accountable, and then it'll be the only touch point with me outside of carrot camp where you'll learn my Concepts and you'll be the first one to learn those. And we're going to start adding in a group format to Authority leader as well, which could be exciting. There's a lot of other benefits to it guys, but check it out. Alright guys, have an amazing amazing

rest of this week. No matter what time of the year you're listening to this, write down the biggest challenge or opportunity you've got. Do some Google searches, ask people that you trust on what the best resources, books, podcasts, articles are on that topic. Create an Apple note, carve out time, start reading, start cataloging that information, put into action right now, see improvements in your life and business. All right, guys, have an amazing rest of the week. Give ratings and reviews. I love them. I love seeing them every time I see them on Apple podcasts. I dive in, read them, share them with the team. So guys, if you have received any value from the podcast, take a minute, take 30 seconds to kind of go, let me know what you've gotten out of this. That's what charges me up, that's what gives me energy to continue to do this work. I absolutely love helping you guys build businesses of freedom and impact. And when I hear about the impact that we're making on you, it fires me up even more. Hit me up on IG, trevor.mock.

that's much on any questions you have. I want to start asking answering questions in these travel truck talks. Questions you have about entrepreneurship challenges you're experiencing, whatever it is. I'm going to take those and pull them into the podcast to help you guys work through these even more in these economic changes. All right guys, talk soon. [Music]

My Counterintuitive, Effective Approach to Reading AKA Just in Time VS. Just in Case Learning

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