Yes, You Have Marketable Skills
The final countdown for the Location-Independent Six-Figure Consultant Course, and its companion course, Consulting: Getting Started From Scratch has begun. Because of this, over the next two weeks, articles here at this blog, at the newly revamped Caleb Jones Blog, and at my mailing list will be focused more on the topic of you being successful in your own business (consulting business or other business), either a full-time business or a part-time side hustle.
Normal topics will resume at the end of the month when the course release is over. For those few of you who dislike these more business/financial-oriented topics, I apologize for the temporary diversion. Just remember that I polled my entire audience last year and the topic of how to be a successful consultant easily beat out all the other topics I presented, even over some woman topics, so as always, I’m doing what most of my audience wants.
Now it’s time to talk about making more money on your terms so you can live the life of free Alpha Male 2.0 instead of a corporate wage slave.
One of the biggest excuses/questions I’ve received in the past when I discuss the topic of being self-employed as a consultant, coach, or content creator is, “But I don’t have any marketable skills” or “I don’t know anything.”
If you’re about 16 years old, then sure; I agree it’s possible you really don’t know anything (though there are millions of young men this age who do indeed have marketable skills and/or knowledge and could indeed start a location-independent business on the side).
But I have this sneaking feeling, call it a wild hunch, that you’re not 16 years old. It’s more likely you’re 23, 25, 29, 34, 39, 46, or something like that.
This means the following:
1. You have a set of natural skills and talents, things you have always been good at and where you are better than most people. In my case, I have a natural talent of macro systems thinking and public speaking, as two examples. I’m naturally good at those and I’ve always been good at these things from the get-go.
I am also absolutely terrible at art, and have no artistic ability whatsoever. Yet, I don’t look at people who are great at drawing or painting and then lament that “I’m not good at anything.” Instead, I mostly ignore these people and instead capitalize on my natural talents, building them up when I can and finding ways to monetize them.
I don’t care how inexperienced, unskilled, or dumb you think you are. I promise you have at least two, and possibly more natural talents where you are exceedingly good. The odds that these things are things no one on planet Earth would ever pay you for are low.
Moreover, even if you have skills that you think are low-value, you can still attach a monetizable aspect to them. For example, if you’re naturally musically inclined and know how to play the violin really well, you could argue that is a low-value skill. If you try to become a famous violinist, then I agree with you, but if you instead niche yourself by only teaching high-class violin skills to Chinese high school students from wealthy families, brand yourself well, and market yourself hard, that could easily be a six-figure business.
2. You’ve had numerous jobs and/or hobbies and/or educational experiences where you were either trained or self-taught certain skills from which you can turn around and build a business. Yes, you have these skills, right now.
As human beings, we tend to devalue our own skills. We subconsciously think that A) everyone has the same skills and B) no one would pay us for these skills.
When I was a young man in my early twenties, I was convinced that everyone in the world knew how to purchase a computer. I figured that everyone knew how to identify all of the correct specs and pick out the type of computer they needed and could afford. I thought this because, back then, computers consumed my entire life, and I could do things like that in my sleep.
I was shocked to find out that most people actually didn’t have this skill at all. I was doubly shocked to discover that people would actually pay me, and pay me quite a bit, to help them with this task that was, to me, simple to the point of being almost stupid.
That’s how this works. But that’s probably not a great example because one could argue that knowing computer specs really was an amazing skill and I was just being a young dumbass (which I was back then) for not seeing it. So, here’s a better example.
One of my all-time business mentors is a woman who is near-famous in the professional speaking field. When she was younger, she went to finishing school. If you didn’t know, this is a school on high-class etiquette, like which fork is the salad fork, what side of the plate it goes on, and useless crap like that.
She was convinced for years that “everyone” knew this stuff. She was shocked to find one day that most people had no idea. She went on to become very wealthy and successful teaching people etiquette skills (then later moving on to communication skills and so forth).
I could give you many more examples (and I give more in the bonus course) but I think you get the point.
3. You have a skill or two that you’re currently not using to make money. Either you’re not using it at all, or you’re only using it in your hobbies.
If you’re a natural mechanical wizard with your car, that’s a marketable skill. If you know how to build your own computer, that’s a marketable skill. If you play amazing tennis, that’s a marketable skill. If you can write amazing calligraphy, that’s a marketable skill. If you are good at putting on group events for your local youth group or baseball team, that’s a marketable skill.
And so on. Just because you’re not currently making money with your current set of skills doesn’t mean you don’t have any marketable skills. You just need help in taking those skills and encapsulating them into a business where you can make the money you want. And frankly, that’s the easy part.
Every adult over the age of about 20 I have ever met and gotten to know at least a little bit has had at least one, and often two or three marketable skills that could make that person a six-figure income or close to it provided they do the right things and put in some work. For you to say you “don’t have any skills” or “don’t know anything” is not only silly, but it’s also factually wrong.
You do.
The Consultant Course comes out first thing in the morning, 12:01 PST/PDT Friday, March 22nd. Put it on your calendar, because you’ll only be able to get it for one week after that.
FYI one of my staff jumped the gun and upgraded this blog’s theme a little earlier than I had planned. Thus there will be lots of little problems/bugs with this blog over the next few days. Please be patient, we will address them all. Thank you in advance for your patience.
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I have been living this way for about 15 years now. I have recommended this course to a few people based on how structured and organized Caleb is, I assume his course offers great value. Gentlemen: This IS the only way to live in the 21st Century. Brick and Mortar businesses and tons of staffing is pulling people away from living their best life.
If you do not have a Internet Connected, Virtual business, GET ONE.
Very interesting. I indeed have an artistic skill that is, by itself, very hard to market (and believe me, I tried, for years). But this almost useless skill is actually very useful in the business world, for marketing and communication purposes. I’m pretty sure there’s a ton of money to be made there, and working on making it happen. I’m looking forward to getting that consulting course.
Caleb, concerning your blog revamp: the joinsmic.com link (“Coaching” in the upper bar) doesn’t seem to work.
On Android mobile with Google Chrome browser, the first picture of each article appears now twice since the blog displays this new pink (wtf with this color btw?) theme.
eye opening.
FYI – One of my web guys jumped the gun and upgraded the theme of this blog a little ahead of schedule. There will be lots of little problems over the next few days here; we will fix them all. Thank you all in advance for your patience.
Exactly.
The problem is that I already make a good money from my primary job/skill so I have no other skill which I could use to make more money per hour of my time which means that the side business I start should be scalable and automatizable at some point which means that I should use most of my spare time for the next couple/several years to achieve that.
The problem with most skills is that you have to use and keep using significant amount of your time to keep the money coming in.
And there isn’t too many automatizable and/or low upkeep businesses (or ideas) floating around.
Yeah I tried posting a comment on the Caleb Jones blog, but it didn’t work. I only comment on it like once every couple months.
It’s there now. Just like with this blog, if your comment doesn’t show up instantly that means it was spammed out and you need to be patient while we push it through.
What you just said made no sense. Perhaps rephrase.
Incorrect. I gave about 30 such ideas in the last course, and there are many more.
I make about 45euros/hour. If I work overtime, I’ll make 67,5e per hour (and I could almost use all my time working if I wanted. Employer would be happy but I think they wouldnt let me work on Sundays with 200-250% salary per hour tho).
I have no secondary skill where ppl would pay 67,5e per hour of my time which is the minimum requirement for me because otherwise it’s just smarter to work overtime and improve my skills on my primary profession.
If I think about my primary profession – making 15-20% more (per hour) assuming that I could get customers, isn’t just worth the hassle and uncertainty that comes with entrepreneurship. This would be different if I was making only 20e/hour or something similar. As entrepreneur, the fee I could charge of my time, would be around 100-120e/hour on average – maybe 150e/hour on a good deal (but obviously that’s only half truth because I would have to use time on sales/marketing etc.).
PS. I have to say that the lessons of your course seem extremely interesting.
Zech, but you didn’t seem to consider building a business that brings in passive income. Spending a certain number of hours of your life to get to a point where you aren’t selling your time anymore is a great investment.
You’re thinking like an employee and not an entrepreneur, which is completely understandable since that’s your frame of reference.
You can take the same exact skill you are now using to make 45 euros / hour and make 70, 80, 100, 200, 500, and even more euros per hour when you are self-employed in your own company where you determine how much money you are paid in the long-term. This is based on your pricing, which would not be by the hour but by the project, retainer, and/or selling digital or hard products, plus your branding, plus your marketing, plus the economies of scale you can accomplish in a business that you can’t in a job.
Simple example. I’m Blackdragon. I teach dating/relationship advice. If I taught this advice as a job, I’d be making about $30,000 per year at best, because I’d be limited to doing it one-on-one (no scale at all) and at a very low rate paid but the customer (determined by my boss) and at an even lower salary (also determined by my boss). But since I have my own business, I make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from this one income stream alone… and in both cases I’m using the exact same skill.
Yes, I could price whatever I want but someone has to be willing to pay it.
Yes, this is a great example but this isn’t the same skill that you used to do money with (IT-consulting). That’s the field I’m working on and I would assume that you noticed the same thing – it’s not scalable because you are selling your time which is limited. Atleast I’m having difficulties figuring out how to scale without getting employees or to establish some passive income.
Anyway, I’m constantly trying to figure out some business ideas which I could start small on the side but they would have to be scalable and low upkeep (atleast at some point).
How can I find out about my marketable skills?
You said that, if you interviewed me, you wouls be able to pinpoint at least one. What questions would you ask me?
Easy. You find a customer who’s losing $1M per year due to some IT problem, you offer them to fix it for a low price of $100k, you spend 3 months doing it. Then you spend 3 more months actively searching for another similar client and so on. You now have a decent $200k per year, and half the year is sufficiently free for you to research other possible income streams, improve your skills etc.
Another option is to do some work, typical hourly work, for a client, and in addition negotiate a support/maintenance contract. When you’re done, they pay you a certain amount of money each month to ensure the system you built for them keeps running smoothly. Most of the time you don’t have to do anything. At a certain point the support contracts alone will bring you income equivalent to full-time work.
The option of building some service with paid subscription is obvious.
There are many more.
Correct, therefore you need to learn positioning, pricing structures, and closing techniques to get your price as high as you can while still having a few people (since you only need a few clients to make $100K a year) willing pay it.
I have worked with scores of consultants who didn’t do anything like IT consulting and made six figures. I talk about many of them in the course. This has nothing to do with IT.
Scaling is a completely different topic than income. You have the ability to make $100K per year using your marketable skill as a consultant, scaled or not. And sure, consulting is much harder to scale than, say, selling products. Doesn’t really matter if you want that $100K per year. Plus you’re in a job, which means you aren’t scaled at all, so worrying about scalability isn’t really relevant in your case.
Buy the bonus course, then the material will “ask” you everything you need to be asked. The bottom line is I would go through your entire history, pull out skills, talents, and knowledge, then quantify those.
Can you make a decent amount of money through coaching services then? I guess it’s possible, since you did it (and still do, through subscription services). But coaching typically is an hourly-based task, isn’t it?
Another thing: even if you are not getting paid by the hour, doesn’t it make sense to estimate you hourly income anyway? I mean, I’d rather earn $2k a week while working 20 hours than $3k while working 40 hours.
Of course. Dan Pena makes millions of dollars doing nothing but coaching.
There you go. I do it through subscription services, not hourly.
We don’t give a shit about typical. We only care about optimal. Thus, if you were a coach, you would not want to charge by the hour (unless it was an exception to the rule in your business).
In terms of your own goal setting and time management, yes. In terms of charging customers or clients, no.
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2019/03/11/cher-calls-for-laws-to-control-mens-bodies-must-be-circumcised-show-papers-or-penis/
The liberals, via the DS, have turned America into a puritan prison. Hillary, Pelosi, Kaine, Obama, etc.
Some of the so called “Independents” need to wake up and figure this out. Women in America have more options than any country in the world.
So the million dollar questions are. 1. How do I find my skill? 2. How do I market it? The courses tech this? Why must I buy the special course?
The main course touches on 1 and gets into massive detail on 2.
The bonus course gets into great detail on 1.
“Must?” There is no “must.” Buy it or don’t; that’s up to you. But if your priority is helping determine your marketable skill(s), the bonus course will really help, since that’s one of the biggest reasons I developed it.