Make Money Online

So a listener wrote in, tweeted in with this question for us. Just an open ask to everybody listening. If you have any questions for us, email addresses in the footer of the website, makemoneyonline. exposed. You could tweet at me, Kai S. Davis. You could tweet at Nick. Nick Dean? No. Do not tweet at Nick. Tweet at me. You won’t regret following me on Twitter. But one of our lovely, attractive, beautiful listeners, I think they just got a new haircut, wrote in and said. How do you track down your number one skill to start off your consulting business? And I thought it was an intriguing question because I take a very Let’s say controversial approach to tracking down that skill and starting a consulting business. And I think that there’s a really cool conversation we could have here around this question and where they’re coming from. Hey, how do I start my own independent business? And How I think the question should be phrased. And I think it should be: how do I figure out what the frack I sell as a consultant? How do I figure out what exactly it is? I’m putting out there in the market for people to buy. And I think that’s a better question to ask than how do you track down your number one scale? The reason I say that is when we focus on just the skills we have, I do PHP. I’m really good at email marketing automation. I do the drip really well. When we focus on just that, I was essentially saying, and it’s the same old metaphor I use every time. I swing the hammer really, really well. Why won’t people hire me to swing a hammer for them? Well, it’s because people don’t actually need people to swing hammers for them. They need decks constructed or rooms finished or beautiful new eight-person jacuzzi baths installed in their bathroom. So we need to focus on what’s the business outcome that somebody is looking for? What’s the problem the market or the problem somebody in our target market is experiencing that they want solved? And I think getting to that point is a really interesting journey. But once you get to that point, once you’re able to say, hey, for this market, they’re experiencing these problems. I’m going to focus on this problem in specific. And Create offerings to solve that problem, then you’re in a really powerful position as a consultant because you know who you’re selling to, what you’re selling, and what you’re making available for them to buy. I don’t know. Does it have to be only one skill though?

Does that make sense? Yeah, and I completely agree with that. And I’ve had a thought burger in my head for a while about positioning where. What I see as the dominant philosophy for positioning, and the philosophy that I espouse is: well, you want to start with the target market and then move forward to it. But there is A interplay there between, well, I’m good at this stuff, I want to choose a target market that needs this stuff. And I so I think a large part of it is, as you’re saying, Identifying what it is that you’re good at already, what are those skills that you have, and then saying, well, what are the industries that hire for these things? Do auto mechanics spend a lot of money on graphic design compared to do e-commerce stores spend a lot of money on graphic design? Well, one will be more of a source of revenue than another. One will be, the metaphor I always love is a river of money. One will be a Or flowing river of money, and you want to set up your little shack next to the bigger river of money. And so I think part of it is understanding the skill that you have that you want to bring to the market. And then saying, well, what is the market that would benefit from this scale? I don’t think that the discussion or the conversation inside yourself needs to end there because I think that leads you to. Not quite an undifferentiated generalist, but you have some idea of who you’re selling to, but you’re still focusing on the skill instead of the business outcome or business problem. it’s a good path to take along the way of figuring out what exactly you’re going to be selling. And I think there’s a conversation that needs to happen somewhere in here about skill augmentation, which I don’t often see discussed within Freelancing circles, when do you decide, hey, people are paying money for this thing. I’m going to go learn how to do that thing and then sell my service at doing that thing. I think it’s a really viable track. I just never really see anybody talk about, like, well, so you want to XYZ. Like, I see a lot of code boot camps out there, but I don’t see a lot of services that say, Well, hey, if you want to learn how to CRO really well, we’re going to teach you how to CRO. We’re freelancers saying, I decided to get into CRO because there was a lot of money to be made there, so I took these two courses and started selling my service.

Right. And I’d even flip it around and say There is no skill set as a consultant, a freelancer, or an independent business owner that cannot be acquired through skill augmentation. There is no black magic to what I do. Please correct me if I’m wrong. There’s no black magic to what you do. If somebody said, I love what Nick is doing, I want to be the next Nick. I want to learn A-B testing at CRO really, really well. I want to understand how to help businesses make more money through this practice. Practice, they could learn that skill. I mean, they could read the same books you’ve read, they could practice it, they could level up at that skill. Am I wrong?

I’m reminded of, I think it’s Kirby Ferguson who did Everything is a Remix. He had this wonderful print that came out when he was doing one of his Kickstarters. The basic elements of creativity being copying something, transforming something, or combining two things into one. And I think about that concept a lot when I think about consulting, where, like you said, the rip-off ability of it, there’s not a lot. Unique out there. And it’s, I think, perfectly fine to say, hey, I see this person doing this thing. I’m going to copy that thing. Not wholesale ripoff marketing page, please, but oh, I see they’re providing this service to this target market. Obviously, people are buying. I’m going to provide a similar service or the same service to the target market, or I’m going to take that service and take it in a different direction. I started with link building and turned it into get you reviews on e-commerce blogs, or you’re going to combine different things. I took get you reviews on e-commerce blogs, and oh, people care about podcasting to combine it into I will get you on podcasts. And I think that within consulting overall, there’s There’s a large opportunity to apply, like copying, transforming, and combining things to create new service offerings or to identify what to provide. If I was starting off fresh as a consultant today, I think I would look around and pick a target market. I would see what that target market is spending money on. And then I’d say, do I already have the skill to provide that service? If not, How do I learn that skill? How do I acquire that skill if I really want to work with e-commerce stores? And I’m like, ah, they seem to really care about Facebook retargeting and abandoned card emails. That seems to make them a lot of money. I’m going to provide those as a service. Well, actually, honestly, how many articles do you need to read before you’re good enough to sell a basic service of I will set up Facebook retargeting for you, or I will write an abandoned cart sequence for your store? Yeah, two ops. You really don’t. 10 hours of work, 20 hours of work, maybe. Like read a couple books, read a couple articles, understand the principles behind it, do a test campaign, and then start. Providing that service. Like, yeah.

The pie does not shrink. The pie will only grow. I want a single slice of it. There’s more than enough for other people out there. And you’re absolutely right about how to, guys. When I first decided to double down on SEO as my initial focus service offering, My first step was, okay, I’m going to go read six how-to guides on like how to SEO your e-commerce store, and I’m going to combine them into a spreadsheet, an SOP, a standard operating procedure that I could follow. And it was super valuable. And I think just taking that step, taking four hours and reading through these different guides, it allowed me to talk with people in my target market about the problems they were experiencing. Okay, I see what the major issues are. Are you doing A, B, and C? Okay, no. Great, here’s what we’ll do next. And it gave me a playbook, a runbook to follow, where now I know: okay, I’ve combined these guides to one Uber guide. I know what steps to take to SEO a store. I’m going to move forward with it now. I think you’re absolutely right. How-to guides are such a valuable sign of there being an open market there. Yeah.

I’d say there’s even one more important thing there. And like, let’s, let’s. Let’s take the premise of everything you write being a ripoff of conversion exile, which I disagree with, but let’s play with it for a second. They’re getting your particular framing and those lessons, these ideas and concepts through the lens of Nick DeSabato. In their inbox. And I think that more than anything is what people are paying for. It’s the application of that insight through your decade plus of work in the field. And they could read Conversion XL and see Peep’s article on it. Great, wonderful. But that’s one lens on it. Your lens might be more appealing to them because. They resonate more with you, or is somebody else that we have yet to identify is writing about the same topics? And, well, their approach is a little more interesting. Oh, who’s her name? She does itty biz. I’m ashamed that I can’t remember her name. Googling. Googling filling time. Let’s see here.

Hi, Naomi. I hope you’re a listener. But I realized, like. Her approach and Sean DeSauz’s approach are really, really similar. Like, a lot of the products and courses they’ve released are very similar. Like, how do I write headlines? How do I create content? How do I know what to focus on in my business? Well, They’re solving the same problems for the audience, but some people will say, Hey, I really like Sean’s style. Or some people will say, Hey, I really like Naomi’s style. Or some people will say, I really like this other person’s style. And That’s a good thing. The fact that they might be solving the same problem: how do I write a headline for an article or a page on my site? Well, I’m going to resonate more with one person than another. And so I’m going to seek out the content that that person is creating. And I think that’s an important part to recognize as well. It’s not just simply, well, I’m selling the same skill, the same commodity that somebody else is selling, but Okay, I am selling the skill through my lens, through my perception, placing importance on the things I believe are important. I believe in outreach, understanding your target market is essential. And I think everything starts from there, starts from positioning. I have colleagues who also work in outreach who say, you know, we disagree with that. We think it starts somewhere else. And that’s fine. We both get results from the campaigns. But we’re approaching it from different directions. And that viewpoint, let’s say, is one thing that attracts people to you as a consultant, that attracts clients to you, because they’re paying money to access your world view. When otherwise they wouldn’t have that access.

No, it’s only been after five years, four years of actively podcasting and writing that I’m starting to say, oh, I want to have a voice. And To rabbit hole on this for a little bit, I think there’s value in having that voice, even if it’s just drawing a line in the sand and saying, I believe in A and not B, and seeing who decides to stand on that same side of the line as you, and who goes and stands on the other side of the line, creating that. That passion or that emotion where somebody says, I really disagree with you on that point. I think this methodology is better, or this idea is better, or this concept is better. Well, that’s good. Like, I’d much rather draw that line in the sand, have that voice, have that strong feeling, and have people say, I agree with you. I like that worldview. Let’s talk more. Because you’re right, those are going to be the kindred spirits.

Mark Rosewater is the lead designer for a little card game called Magic the Gathering. It has a. Great podcast. Oh, very small. Very small. Called a podcast called Drive to Work, where he records a podcast on his Drive to Work every day about Magic the Gathering and game design. And wonderful, wonderful podcast that I love. Because I’m a huge nerd and love magic and also love product design and game design. But he has a very, very strong belief where when you’re creating a mechanic or creating a theme within your game, you want people to either love it passionately or hate it passionately. The worst thing you could get is people to play your game and say, like, it was okay, because you’re getting no good feedback. You want people to either say, I loved playing that game. That was so fun. Can we play a second time? Or people saying, your game is a piece of shit. I hate it. Why did you make this thing? I hate A, B, and C about it. Please fix A, B, and C, and then we can play again. Because that gives you actionable information. If people are just like, it was okay. Now you have nothing. You know, people gave it a C or maybe a C plus, and you can’t iterate based on a C or a C plus.

Right. Now, jumping back a thread to the listener’s question, let me present a contrary question here and say, is it even important to track down that number one skills or better to say Here are an array of skills. Let me start with one of them and see what happens. And see if I get a passionate response or not. See if people enjoy it or not. Just like we’re talking about developing a voice. Well, You’re going to develop a specific skill that you practice. Like we talked in earlier episodes about how, based on our mastermind retreat, you cut out a couple lines of business you were involved in. I would equate that to refining your voice.

Roll me a pop. It’s going to be hard to record a podcast when I can’t talk for another month.

Until we get a sponsor, that is.

Does anyone want to sponsor this? One thing I would say is, like, at the top of the episode, I said, well, I think we might be asking the question reverse here. And I think that. It’s not about tracking down your number one skill, but tracking down the number one problem that your target market or your audience or your buyers needs solved. Connecting to the skill augmentation discussion we had in here. Well, the methodology I promote and that I like is: okay, figure out who you want to work with, who’s that target market. And, like, You could do the darkboard approach. You could look at your past clients. You could say, Hey, I worked in this industry for 10 years and know it well. Okay, great. You now know who your target market is. Go talk to 15 people who work in that market, 15 decision makers, 15 business owners. Ask them questions like: How does your business make money? What’s scary right now? What’s changing? What new technology is out there? What do you wish was easier? What’s causing you agitation right now? What’s the number one thing that’s been on the top of your to-do list? Figure out the problems they are experiencing as business owners. Then, okay, great. Now you have a list of big problems. You’ve talked to a bunch of people. You have, you know, some problems came up more often than others. Well, maybe you should focus on the problems that came up more often. But then you’re faced with that question of like, will people pay for this? And can I do it?

Right?

And a wonderful way to do it is just practicing. And I think I, six or seven years ago, might have asked this exact same question: I want to do consulting. I want to quit my day job. What’s the skill I want to do? Well, it’s hard to know until you start getting some experience. The first skill I had was: I fucked around with WordPress for a couple years in college, so I guess I’ll sell WordPress websites. I looked around and was like, oh, people seem to buy WordPress websites. Excellent. That’s convenient for me. People will spend money on this thing. And so I started practicing that skill. But through practicing that skill, I discovered that I was able to ask. Questions about the business or the business behind the business for my clients. Why do you need a website? Why not use the old website? What’s going on? And, like, There were shitty questions, and I’ve evolved them since then. But by asking these questions, I feel like I was always able to focus on a more expensive problem as I iterated through my business. And so I started with that first skill, something I was good at that people would pay for, but I continually said, there’s more money to be made here, there’s more problems to be solved. What is A problem that’s more important to the business that I could focus on solving. And by asking that question, figuring out where I needed to augment my skills and take my business and my practice to the next level, that’s how I feel I was able to build a better business.

exposed.