EDITOR’S NOTE:

Val Geisler is the Chief Email Officer of Fix My Churn, a micro-agency dedicated to supporting brands through better customer experiences (mostly that’s email). 

In only 328 words, Val shares:

• What happens when you allow yourself to fail… 

• How to see the results of your work faster...

• How to achieve any goal you set… 

And more…

Thank you, Val.

Let’s get started:

1) “What’s your work routine?”

I don't have much of a routine. 

I try to block mornings for deep work and afternoons for calls but that's about it. Oh, and there's always a cup of tea and a big glass of water next to me. Like there is right now.

2) “What do you know about your work now that you wish you’d known when you first started?”

You have to fail a lot and try things and start over and ask for help and ask for forgiveness and learn a lot and be true to yourself. 

So mostly you're going to learn more about yourself than you ever thought possible. 

3) “What did your biggest professional failure teach you?”

No matter how prepared you think you are, you can't ever really be prepared. 

You have to allow space in your work and life for human error and when you do that, there's so much freedom. If you know that you don't have all of the answers and you won't have everything exactly right all of the time, you can breathe a little. And breathing is nice. 

4) “What’s the #1 thing that has helped you shorten your craft’s learning curve?”

Practice. 

Honestly, practice what you want to do every single day. If you want to write, write. If you want to speak, speak. If you want to host a podcast full of the best guests with millions of listeners, host a podcast. 

Start with one and build on it. But do it every day and you'll see the results of your work so much faster.

5) “What book has helped you the most over your career?”

Atomic Habits by James Clear. 

6) “And your parting piece of advice?”

Get to work. 

Reading stuff on the Internet is nice and inspirational and makes you feel cool but you know what's actually cool? Doing what you say you're going to do. Reaching your goals. And you can't do any of that if you're browsing. 

Stop browsing, start working.