The lesson I learned from taking notes in high school

One of my favorite parts about middle/high school: Taking notes. (This was before laptops and iPads were the norm, so you had to take notes with good ol’ pen and paper.) I took my cue from Claire Woods, the girl with the perfect penmanship — so good you’d look at her handwriting and think she’d typed it! As soon as that bell rang to start class, I’d pull out my whole set of pens and my pretty spiral notebook (my splurges)... And get to work. But the problem was, sometimes there’d be so much to remember that I’d have to rush through my art cough note-taking. Which meant… I’d have to redo my entire set notes after the class. Yes, I was one of those students. 😳 But thank goodness… Because I got to practice more in summer school! (Doing the whole “take more classes during summer so you can get more credits and look better to colleges” thing.) Which meant that by the end of junior year, my notes were…epic. Not only did MY handwriting now look like I’d typed, not written, it. (Dare I say, even better than Claire’s?) But I’d also learned how to draw the cutest cats, dogs, flowers, snails, and text-art along the way. No one else knew though, what an artist I’d become. Until the day Stephanie Klembus asked to borrow my notes. Now, Stephanie was one of the coolest girls in school. Plus, she had the kind of perfectly straight and frizzless hair I could only dream about. And oh-so-stylish clothes NOT purchased from Wal-mart (whoa). Of course I gave her my notebook. And it wasn’t until she started walking away from me that I realized… “Ohmyyygoooossh, she’s going to see all my random notes and doodles!! WHAT WILL SHE THINK.” A few days later, I had my answer. She quietly walked up to me with her eyes wide, handed back my notebook — “Here you go” — and walked away. I never spoke to her again. Probably because she thought I was weird and crazy. (Looking back now, some of my doodles were weird.) But despite potentially being remembered forever as weird and crazy, by one of the coolest people I’ve ever met? I don’t regret all that time I spent on my notes. Even though I don’t write like a “computer” anymore — my handwriting is much messier (and in my opinion, much more interesting and human) nowadays. And even though I don’t really remember any of the things I took such detailed notes on. Probably because I spent way more time on how my notes looked than the actual material. Because I’ve learned my lesson. These days, I’m the exact opposite of how I used to be. Plus, I teach my clients to be that way as well. Take the talk I helped one of my clients craft last year for an event. We spent a LOT of time putting it together, making sure we covered every angle — including the slides, which we went back and forth on forever to get the messaging and visuals right. (We might have been even more detailed than I used to be with my notes!) But we had a very different goal in mind than just having the slides “look pretty” — First, the results: That one talk ended up driving five-figures in sales for him (even though he wasn’t technically allowed to “pitch” during the talk) in less than a month! So of course, he’s doing it again this year. Except this time? He only had to spend a few minutes on updates… And that’s it. Because we did it right: Do it right the first time. So you never have to redo it. (Possibly the BEST lesson I learned from my note-taking days.) Focus on the things that actually matter — in this case the content and messaging. And use it for a long, long time to come. It’s one of my best “tips” for building a business that grows consistently every year, while having all the work you’ve put into it continue to work for you — so you never have to “redo” something you’ve already done. Luisa Zhou PS - If you’d like more help from me in growing your business in the most efficient and systematic way, here’s what I have for you depending on where you are in your business… If you want to build a business that replaces your 9-to-5: [The 4-Step Formula I Used to Build My Coaching Business and Replace My Salary BEFORE I Left my 9-5]( If you’re ready to go from 1-on-1 work to no longer trading time for money: [How to successfully create & sell your own online course for true financial freedom]( And, if you’re ready to scale to multiple 6- to 7-figures: [How to Go from Hustling Coach/Course Creator to 7-Figure Business Owner]( If you no longer wish to receive these emails, click here to [unsubscribe]( Zhou Ventures, Inc. 54 State Street, Ste 804 #5511 Albany, NY 12207