It’s nearly impossible to succeed as a one-person knowledge business without these 10 little-understood skills
I’ve been in the game of personal brand-building and making money without relying on a boss for 16 years.
I’ve had years where I made not much more than $10k.
And I’ve had years where I’ve made over $150k.
The mistakes I’ve made could be pulled out and used to script a long season of a comedy tv show.
I’ve been up, and I’ve been through incredible lows.
If you want to grow an audience and ultimately monetise your skills, experiences, personality and passions, these are the skills you can’t be without…
Being ok with NO.
I’ve seen it over and over and over again.
People allow their inner snowflake to run the show.
Ignore at all costs. Being concerned about rejection in all its manifestations is a recipe for sadness, avoidance, comparison and - ultimately - quitting.
You must find your strength.
You must level it up some and see the good in a NO. That’s how you can’t lose.
Be biased to early monetisation.
Businesses end prematurely because they aren’t sustainably funded right here, right now.
You want money coming in, even if it’s a dollar a day. Don’t wait to grow an audience before you monetise, as some tout.
You want to be acutely aware of the need to establish yourself as a seller of products and services early. It’s great for confidence and better for business.
At the very least, have some income from an outside job or freelance gig.
Creating when you don’t feel like creating.
The hard truth about being in the content-creation business is the seemingly overdone advice to be consistent.
This isn’t new news. You know it.
Consistency ensures data and attention are accumulated over time in your favour.
As such, you need to be willing to show up days when you just want to take an entire croissant and cram it into your pie hole.
Be strong, young apprentice.
Act when you least want to.
It’s in quiet moments like these that your business becomes a business.
Close connection-building.
It’s not all about sharing ideas and gradually building a massive audience.
Those closer connections you build and nurture are so significant.
You can partner up with people in ways that open you up to their communities, for example.
That’s not knowing one additional person, is it? No. That opens you up potentially to thousands of people.
Be strategic and be clever.
When I struggled to create clients and opportunities in my twenties, when I was building my design business, it was often closely tied to my lack of relationship development.
Build connections today, and reap the rewards next month.
Master the art of reaching out to new people and making friends. Lots of them.
Self-coaching.
Most of us are our own business.
There’s no one telling us what to do and little outside support. I encourage you to find partners, coaches and to join communities and groups containing like-minded people. They will keep you accountable and give you needed props.
But when the sun comes down, it’s only you.
So you need to get good at encouraging yourself.
You must become your most motivating team member. So side-step those negative remarks and find self-compassion.
What you’re doing is not easy. Be on your side each step of the way.
Energy management.
You might get away with regular hangovers in a 9-5 when the buck can be passed, and it’s easier to camouflage slovenly activity.
But when you’re running your own deal and have to push your tired carcass out of bed each morning?
No. You need to take responsibility here, or you’ll be in continual conflict with your incessant need to procrastinate.
Sound energy management is the solution.
This means cutting the crap that saps your energy and doing more of those things you know keep you high.
Brazenness.
If you’re building your brand, it’s all about standing out.
This doesn’t tend to go hand in hand with being a bit timid. This doesn’t necessarily mean being a screaming, wide-eyed attention-seeker.
Though a little doesn’t hurt. Be brazen in terms of how you communicate.
Pick a view and stand by it.
Be willing to put some people off. Be assertive in your asks. Ask big and ask often.
Be a bit cheeky in how you do things. Be willing to rock the boat.
Because if you don’t, you’ll dissolve into a sea of same.
Follow your weird. Stand out.
A kind of blind light-heartedness.
Look around you.
There are 101 reasons you can easily find that suggest things aren’t going the way you want them to go.
This is inevitable. Look, and you shall receive. Your worst suspicions are there to be confirmed.
Be weird in this regard.
Be unreasonably upbeat, light-hearted and optimistic.
Even in the face of seemingly terrible news. You must find this within yourself, friend. Have others talk behind your back.
And when they speak, this is what they say:
‘I don’t get how Alex manages to stay so cool, fun and chill all the time. How does the guy do it?’
Talking to your prospects.
I always encourage you to write content (when writing, but this also applies to speaking) for yourself first.
But it must be done within the context of the people you want to help.
You can’t honestly know what problems others want to solve until you read their comments and speak to them directly.
Get your finger firmly on the pulse of your ideal customers’ pain points.
What are they struggling with? Wrangle it out of them and then find the solutions.
Solve problems through your tweets, LinkedIn posts, personal stories, consulting work, and products.
Tunnel vision.
It’s very easy to compare yourself to what others are doing as you float along the river of online business-building.
Nate shared a post that went viral yesterday, and I’ve never gone viral. Hmph.
Jessica always seems incessantly upbeat, and I can’t even find the energy to blow dry my hair.
Quit that.
Get inspired by others, but it must stop there.
Return to your lane because deep down, you know everyone’s responding to unique data and dealing with their own obstacles.
We’re all on totally different paths, even if they fall under the same category.
So comparison is futile. It’s all smoke, mirrors and illusions.
Focus on improving 1.7% every day, and in a year you’ll look back on this time with a shit-eating grin.
Want to learn how to apply your natural energy to growing your online audience?
My Online Writing Alchemy course shows you exactly how to write things that resonate in a way that grows your online following fast.
When you do, you’ll regularly enjoy that warm, fuzzy feeling of readers sending you emails of thanks.