Why You Must Stack Evergreen Skill Sets for 2020

In this video, I want to talk about why it is so important to stack evergreen skills and in the landscape we live in right now, where literally fucking, everyone is trying to get your attention, trying to tell you that their thing is the new thing or the best thing. So really I just had to take a step back and assess what’s best for you. Not in a one year slope but in a five, ten, twenty year slope. So let’s get into it now before we can go any further, I really just need to break down what I mean by an evergreen skill. So Evergreen means that it just lasts forever. What an evergreen skill to me is something that you can learn that isn’t going to be void or isn’t going to be pointless in, you know, three years, five years, tenyears from now.

It’s going to be a skill that if you learn today, is really just going to carry through for the rest of your life. And more importantly, in my opinion, it’s a skill that is evergreen throughout industries. So that doesn’t matter if you’re building a business right now in one industry or one market, it doesn’t matter if that collapses or you close down that business because you don’t enjoy it anymore. You can take that skill and it applies to every single industry and it’s an important component, an important key in building a business in pretty much any industry you go into. So now in 2019 as my agency started to scale up towards the back end of 2018 and also my training business, you know, completely started to scale. I’m starting to bring on more and more team members and I’m starting to bring on more team members for just different sections, different parts of my business.

Now, one thing that’s been really cool is I realized as I’m starting to hire all these different people, then throughout the years I’ve been stacking evergreen skills. You know, just to give you an example right here, video content creation, you know, video and content creation was something I learned in 2016 as I was trying to make some sort of better income. I was just trying to become a freelance videographer, a content creator as a way to make more money while I was still in school that has paid. Like I, I can only look back at it now and be like, Holy Shit, that paid such dividends no matter where I go in the world. If I want pretty good high quality content done, I don’t need a videographer because I can edit and still make pretty good stuff on my own. I don’t need a camera man because like I know ISO shutter speed, aperture, I know what the different lenses do, what the different focal lengths do or what the different apertures on the lenses, and how that translates when you look at the footage, like I know how to color grade. And you know, I learned all of this stuff. I learned this evergreen skill and now that, you know, when I was building an agency that paid dividends whenever I want it to do some sort of marketing material, and then now that I have my e-learning business as the main main focus, that has paid such a dividends in the fact that you know, I can very quickly just put the tripod down, set up all the manual settings that I need to, I can shoot a video, I can quickly edit it, color grade, throw it up on youtube and I can do all of this because I learned that evergreen skill, to give you another example, between 2014 and 2017 I read a book a week and this pretty much was never, you know, 98% of them were nonfiction.

I did that. And also when I was in school, I hated pretty much every single subject except for English. I loved writing. Funny enough, I liked writing poetry and just in general like I enjoyed, you know, creating short stories, poetry, stuff like that. And I just did a lot of writing. That’s really carried over to this day where I don’t need a copywriter. You know, like all of these people, I’m still going to bring on board. You know, I think a videographer at my scale and my stage a videographer and content creator, it’s really nice to have. Having a copywriter, for example, from my agency clients, that’s awesome to have. But if any of those people left or any of those people weren’t up to scratch and I had to fire them, it’s totally okay because I can carry over into their position and I could do it equally or maybe even 80% of their capacity.

So copywriting is another one, you know, copywriters get pretty expensive and it’s very hard to find good quality ones. So that was an evergreen skill that I developed without even realizing it. Another evergreen skill that I developed was sales. The first sort of service that I sold was personal training into my friends’ parents and stuff like that. Uh, and then from there I started selling my content creation services and I always placed to really important emphasis on sales because I realized very quickly and very early on that you know, at a smaller scale, at a larger scale, it doesn’t work like this, but a smaller scale if your sales skills are really good, even if your service isn’t that great. Like to give you an example, when I was a content creator, I was charging 200 pounds an hour for video and photo work.

So I remember some shoots would be like a weekend long. I’d make like two grand and I would make two grand and there would be other content creators. There were way, way better than me, yet they made way less money simply because I learned that evergreen skill, which is sales. And that translates whether you’re doing face to face, meeting with a client over zoom on the phone that translates over. So there’s three evergreen skills that I learned right there, which was once again, content creation, copywriting and sales. Now, these are skills that I can take into any business that I have. You know, let’s just say I started a coconut water company. I could do my own content creation. Yes, it wouldn’t be as good as a videographer. The charges me 5K for a shoot or something like that. But who cares? I just saved 5K and I can do it all myself and I can really, you know, make anything kind of bare bones.

I don’t need to wait until a videographer comes over to my house to shoot a video. I can just do it on the fly or say quickly, one an edit done for an event that’s being held. Like I could quickly just do that on the fly. So content creation is really a skill that I learned without realizing that, you know, it would have the purpose that it has in my businesses these days. And I learned that skill and I said I can take that skill. And it’s important in pretty much any industry. You know, content creation is an important part of marketing. Content marketing to me, if you’re trying to build a seven figure business is quite literally the most important thing. If you’re trying to go from seven to eight figures, I believe it’s paid traffic. That’s a perfect example right there. The other one, copywriting, no matter where you are, what business you are, copywriting, email marketing, that’s almost always going to be important.

You know, at the time, according to this, it’s actually something I’m completely neglecting, but that’s because there’s other parts of the business I got to focus on. But once again, I don’t have to pay some expensive copywriter to write my client’s copy if I don’t need to or if I don’t want to or if I want to increase my profit margins. The next thing is sales. No matter what business you go into, sales is always going to be important. And I actually forgot a fourth one which is paid traffic now that I learn paid traffic because I was able to play around and test around with so many different ad accounts from my clients. And because I was also able to do that with my e-learning business, my training business, now I can pretty much go to any business and guarantee it’s going to scale quickly.

Just as long as the product is good, the sales process is good because I know how to run the paid traffic for it. So when you have pretty much all these people all around the world telling you, hey look, you know, you got to learn Chat Bot or you have to learn Infusionsoft or you have to learn this, a web design or graphic designer at this thing or that thing. Really I think assessing, is it evergreen skill and is it a DIY skill? Now let me tell you what a DIY skill is for me. A do it yourself skill is like something, for example, content creation. Videographers get very, very fucking expensive. Editors get super expensive. So if you can learn how to do that skill yourself, I’ve probably saved myself multiple five figures of the last, two years in content creator costs because anywhere in the world I just create my own content and I edit my own content.

For the most part, obviously now that I’m recording this in Bali, super cool. I Have Nabeel, my videographer here with me, but for the most part, anywhere I am in the world, I just create the content myself. So that is a skill. That’s a DIY. You know, it’s something that if you learn how to do it yourself, we’ll save you so much money. Paid Traffic is another example. People who actually know what the fuck they’re talking about when it comes to paid traffic, media buyers, et cetera. You know, namely for Facebook and Google, like they’re quite expensive because they know their worth. So if you know how to do that yourself, that’s kind of like a DIY skill where it doesn’t matter if you leave your current business and go into another business, it’s going to save you so much money because it’s constantly something you have to do.

And that’s the other sort of thing that I’m trying to get across with this DIY scope. I will always have to have a camera in front of me. Whether that means I’m recording one of my Meridian masterminds or I’m recording content for a new updated course, or whether I’m just doing some content marketing. For example, here on Youtube is trying to provide some value. I will always have a camera in front of my face. I will always need to take photos, whether that’d be for creatives, for ads, or whether that just be for general. Once again, Instagram, Facebook, like some sort of content marketing to paint a picture. I will always need to do this. This is going to be a lingering costs throughout the years, but I’ve imagined to avoid that lingering costs as much as possible because I learned how to do it myself.

And once again, as I said, it’s the same thing with paid traffic. If you’re really trying to scale a business, you will need to be spending money on ads. You know? That’s just the truth of it. So if you know how to do it yourself, then that means that no matter what business you go into, you just avoid yourself an immense, immense cost. So the next time someone tells you, hey, you know you should be learning web design. You know, for example like web design is something I’ve thought of. I’m like, Oh, maybe I should, you know, spend some time learning web design. Then I think about it, I’m like a website only needs to be done once. It’s not really that important for my business. And just like it’s the frequency in which you do it. You know, content creation is something that I will always have to do.

It’s, it’s got a high frequency too. Whereas web development, it doesn’t have a high frequency or for example, say something like, you know, really delving in and learning InfusionSoft or Active Campaign learning these automation systems. If you’re just building one for example, for a webinar funnel, you know, how often are you going to have to build your webinar funnel? Most of the time, only once, unless you’re like my agency and you have to do it for multiple clients or let’s just say something like a chat Bot. Once again, how often realistically do you have to create a chat Bot if you’re a coach or consultant? Not that often. So these are things that don’t have a high frequency to them over the years. So as I said, I’m looking at two things. Number one, evergreen.

Will every single business require me to be an expert in automation, probably not. Whereas every single business require paid traffic. Yes, absolutely. Will every single business that as said, hypothetically I have down the road, will all of them need chatbots at the moment? No, it’s not looking like that. Whereas with every single business need copywriting, you know, once again, whether that be an email form, chatbot form, long form sales page, the answer is yes. So that’s why as I said, you know, you need to look at where your skills are at right now and look at the things that are really going to provide the highest dividends for where you’re at right now. If you’re trying to get to 10K a month, honestly the most important thing is learning operations and systems building and learning sales because if you have operations and you have systems building, then you can get other people to do the work for you because you know how to build this system, build this machine and it just, as long as you don’t how to sell that, then you’re pretty much golden and after in my position, which is you’re trying to build an eight figure and or the down the line nine figure a in revenue business, then you’ve got to learn some different skills.

For example, like managing a team, you know, I have to get really better and really, really learn how to hire and attract great talent, great employees, and then I have to learn how to actually manage them. You know, that’s still something in 2019 I’ve identified as really, really important. But you need to understand that if your goal is to get to like seven figures, you probably won’t need to delve too deep into how to hire great talent and manage great talent that’s probably not as important for you. So really what I’m trying to get at here is before you click on the next ad or you look at the next shiny object to the next shiny skill that everyone’s saying, Oh, if you learn this, it’s, it’s going to take your life and your income to the next level. You just got to ask yourself, number one, is this evergreen?

Which means can I apply this, healed any business that I have currently or in the future? And will this always be important? And number two, is it a DIY skill? By that I mean is it a skill that if you learn how to do it yourself, you could potentially save yourself, you know, multiple five figures, if not multiple six figures, if not multiple seven figures in costs in the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years. And if the answer is yes, for example, say something like learning operations systems, building sales, potentially copywriting, potentially paid traffic, then go for it and also bring your attention to is this something that’s super important for me right now because I know in the next two or three years I’m going to become an expert at… I’m pretty good at copywriting but email marketing specifically and automation, but for right now I got to focus on hiring great talent, managing great talent, and starting to really go from what 2018 was, which is starting to build a really cool business, you know, with myself a couple of contractors to 2019 and 2020 where I’m trying to build a huge fucking business.

So you also got to take a step back and go, okay, what’s the right time for what I said. If your number one goal is to get to 10 k probably it’s not the right time for you to learn content creation probably is the right time for you to learn sales and operations, because that’s really the thing, the lever that you can pull to get you to 10 k a month in the quickest time. So guys, I hope you enjoyed this video. Hope it made sense. Let me know a couple evergreen skills that you’ve learned or you’re looking to learn down below. And I’ll be watching out for the comments. So guys, hope you enjoyed this video. I’ll see you in the next one.