Don't Fall Behind: High-Income Skills to Learn Today

Everyone says you should invest in yourself, but where do you start? What are some of the highest leveraged skills you can learn to make the most amount of money in the least amount of time? In this video, I'm covering four of the most important skills slash character traits to have. Number one, having a personal brand. A personal brand is something that will subconsciously be in people's mind when they think and talk about you. It is what someone thinks of when they think of you, the words they would use to describe you, what your selling points are, what your values are, how you present yourself to the world. For instance, if you look at Steve Jobs, when you think of him, you think of his jeans and turtleneck uniform, all very simple, easy, and his brand was an extension of him. It was very simple yet effective, and everything he touched and created had a ridiculous level of attention to detail. Then you have Indra Nooyi, who is one of the previous CEOs of PepsiCo. She had a personal brand centered around power and purpose. She prioritized sustainability, and she led PepsiCo to expand its product range and move towards healthier options whilst she was CEO. The reason why a personal brand and creating one is so important is because that thing, without you even knowing, will have an impact on what your next job is, when your next promotion will be, growing your business, the customers you get. When you understand the power of this, you can identify values or qualities you wanna be known for and then create a personal brand based on those values. People who share the same values as you will connect with you. It's about the skills, the experiences you have, your integrity, how you communicate with others. I was thinking about what my personal brand is and how I would describe it in three words. And I would say, firstly, it's a no BS approach with things. I like to be straight to the point. I love facts and there's no beating around the bush, just what you need to know with no filler words. Secondly, transparency. I'm very open, especially with my friends and family about what I'm working on, the ideas that I have, what's not working. I also really appreciate it when others are just as open. And thirdly, being a cheerleader. I like to take a go get it approach with everything I do. And I like to try and push that attitude onto as many people as I can. And I like to think I bring these values to my YouTube channel as well. And even if it wasn't YouTube, whatever I do for a living, those are the values that I'd like to uphold in everything that I do. So think about what values you wanna live by and build a brand around that. Number two is the ability to just go for it. This is probably the most important one on the list. And I would go as far as saying it is more important than all the skills and the qualifications and the knowledge that you have. Whatever you're thinking of launching, whether it's a YouTube channel, a business, a project, a podcast, or anything else, it all starts somewhere with an idea. And you probably have an idea right now, but without action, the idea is nothing. Multiple people will have the same idea, probably at the same time. But most people, when they have an idea, they won't action it. That idea will be overshadowed by fear, by laziness, by doubt, by uncertainty, and they simply won't do it. There are people who are less capable than you, less skills, less experience, but they are doing something that you want to do and are making a lot of money from it just because they went for it. When I started this channel and I hit my first 100,000 subscribers, I remember so many people telling me how hard it is to get to that point. And they screenshotted and sent me articles about how only 0.1% of people get there, how many personal finance channels there are, et cetera, et cetera. And I remember looking at all of this information and thinking, I am so glad that I didn't know any of this information before. If I knew this at the time of me starting and trying to build a YouTube channel, I wouldn't have done it. I would have talked myself out of it, 100%, definitely. I would have stayed in my box, doing what I know, taking zero risks. Sometimes you've got to ignore everything else. You've got to ignore the numbers, ignore the data, ignore the little signs that are telling you not to do something and override all of it. Start and then learn, don't learn and then start. Number three, the ability to organize the chaos. Whether it's for note-taking, for admin tasks, for side projects, delegation, the contrast in performance and in self-control between someone who can maintain an organized workflow and someone who has just a disorganized, chaotic mess is huge. When I first started on my YouTube journey, I had a separate document for everything. I was alternating between Microsoft Word and then Google Drive and then PowerPoint and then I'll be using Gmail to communicate with everyone else. And it was a huge mess and I don't know how long I would have been able to keep that up for alongside having a day job. You really want to try and create your system or anything you're doing to be more organized in a way that is really easy for you to keep on top of things. So the system I use for almost everything that happens behind the scenes of my workflow is Notion. And I reached out to them and asked if they could sponsor this video and they very kindly agreed. So I'll show you what my system looks like. So I have the main workspace homepage, which then branches off into the different areas of my life, my goals, my admin stuff, my content creation and each of these pages or these sub pages has different access levels depending on who is involved. So for example, this is my content creator track, which basically includes all my ideas A to Z when it comes to my YouTube. And then the videos I'm researching and planning, they move into that column. And then the videos that are ready to record, once I've recorded them, I move it into the editing column, which my editor then has access to. And then he'll know what is going to release next and what he needs to start working on. Actually shout out to Ali, who walked me through his workflow and gave me the inspiration to have it all set out like this. And what's cool is I could go into each of these scripts and I can leave comments and links within it. So for the last video that went out, I left a links and comments to all the research papers I read and then my editor go in and see, okay, at what sentence does she speak about a research paper? Okay, I can then create a graphic around that based on what the link is. I've also got a project task here on the making money workshop that I mentioned that's coming up, link below to sign up. So here's everything that I'm planning for the three days, the ideas that I have jotted down and I have the Notion app. So even when I'm on the go and I think of an idea, I'll just open up the app and then put it in and it's all kind of connected across my laptop as well. I also have the upgraded AI feature, which I pay for. And that's a really good addition. My favorite feature on that is the ability for the system to check your spelling and grammar. So when it comes to my weekly newsletters that go out, I write them up in Notion and then just as I'm finished, I ask Notion AI to do a proofread to check all my spelling and grammar and then once that's done, it's ready to go out. One of the things that's helped me consistently upload every week without losing my mind and running out of ideas is Notion. And I've now used it for so many other areas of my life whether it's note-taking or admin or having my paperwork, what subscriptions I've got, like everything is in there. If you want to create some organization in your life, I would highly recommend giving it a go. You can try it for free using the link in my bio. Number four is marketing and sales. In the vast expanse of skills we gather throughout our lives, marketing and skills stand out as two of the most valuable. And when you first think about it, these skills seem limited to just the business world, but so much of our lives revolves around the simple act of persuading and communicating. If you think about it, every day we find ourselves in a situation where we need to promote or we need to sell something. It can be simple like trying to persuade your friend to try a new restaurant or negotiating with your child about bedtime or as complex as presenting a business proposal. The key is how effectively can you convince someone of your point of view. When I first started on the graduate scheme at the first bank that I worked at, I had this idea that helped graduates on the program better understand what all the different teams in the department did, so that they can use that information to make an informed choice when deciding on what their next role will be and what their career trajectory will look like. And at the time I came up with my idea and I pitched this idea to my mentor before pitching it to HR. And I explained it very differently to how I just did. I completely over complicated it. I wrapped the idea up in layers of unnecessary detail and made it very confusing. And my mentor at the time, so grateful for him, he basically told me how dull my proposal was and that was too long and he couldn't clearly see the benefits of it. And that was the first time I realized the importance of being able to simply explain an idea and make it persuasive. I knew it was a great idea, but I just didn't know the best way to present it. And he sat with me for hours and refined it and listened to me practice multiple times and the real thing went down really well. But the point is, you might have something really valuable, but if you can't unlock it for others, it's value diminishes. And your ability to market, to sell, to communicate, that will set your ideas apart. So those are four of what I believe are the most important skills and character traits to have to increase your income. I'd love to hear from you, if any of these in particular resonate with you and what you're doing to grow your business.