How Do You Make Money From Your Knowledge If You Don't Know Anything?
Ayodeji Awosika
I help client-based business owners sell 4-5 figure offers using the ‘write, chat, sell’ method.
Your first business shouldn’t be teaching other people how to make money given that you’ve never made money before.
I teach people how to make money, but I do it specifically in one avenue that I perfected on my own, for years, before I ever charged people money to teach them how to do it.
It’s getting a bit out of hand, isn’t it?
Everyone is coaching entrepreneurs on how to be entrepreneurs.
Feels a bit pyramidy, doesn’t it?
I can’t knock it because I’m part of the game, but I can share some of my two cents on how you can start to make money from your ideas, your content, and your skills if you don’t have a ton of experience.
Document, Don’t Create
Gary Vaynerchuk came up with this phrase years back.
If you want to become a content creator, spend time documenting how you’re improving your life or honing whatever skill you’re teaching people in your content.
As you gain more knowledge and experience, you can build more authority.
When I first started writing about self-improvement in 2015, I mostly focused on writing book reviews and talking about the lessons I learned as well as the ways I implemented the lessons.
But if I’m being honest, I got too preachy too fast. It was bullshit. I hadn’t earned the right to speak the way I was speaking.
I felt more confident in the future because the process of writing every single day, day in and day out, was a form of self-improvement and proof that I was practicing what I preached.
But I should’ve preached a lot less and spent more time documenting what I was doing.
You can use a simple framework:
I think of people like James Clear who curated all of these amazing strategies for developing good habits.
He’d research and test these theories on himself then share them with his audience.
If you want to teach others marketing, practice running marketing experiments of your own. If you want to teach self-help, document how you’re improving your life.
My process of writing every day for eight years and making a bunch of money writing became my documentation for being able to teach it.
Even though it was built on a faulty foundation, I do know how to write so I am qualified to teach it.
To be honest, it feels a lot better knowing that I really earned this new phase of my career.
It’ll take more time upfront, but you’ll feel better in the long run if you earn it by testing your theories out in real-time.
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That’s the framework for those of you who want to be content creators, but what about those who want to freelance?
A similar sentiment rings true. You’re going to be more confident in selling your services if you actually know what the fuck you’re doing.
How to Get People to Pay You A lot of Money For Your Freelance Services
Again, it makes sense here to practice the sort of service you’re going to offer to other people before you offer it.
I read an article from Nat Eliason once where he said you should start a blog to practice writing and marketing skills, but it should be about a subject that isn’t marketing.
Diving straight into making content about making content is a bit of a circle jerk and it’s not gonna be that fun anyway.
Nat did go on to start an SEO agency — a skill he got good at by doing it on his own website — and it took off quickly because he’d built a reputation as someone who knew how to do SEO.
He used it on his own blog and he did marketing work for popular SaaS companies like Sumo.
I worked at an agency for five years and I’ve been practicing my writing skills for eight. I’d feel pretty confident starting an agency right now if I wanted to because I’ve done the work.
Bottom line: there is no way around doing the work.
There are too many homogenized content creators who aren’t good at what they sell. Copywriters who don’t know how to write good copy. SEO agencies that can’t rank their own articles.
Here’s the thing, though. You don’t have to have insane levels of experience to be a successful freelancer, you just need to be able to drive results.
And this process is the simplest way to get there:
Now you don’t have to wonder whether or not you’re good at the service you offer. You can do the same thing with an online course if you’re in the first group I talked about.
Doing stuff for free, testing out your theories, sharing your processes, and truly struggling to learn something is hard.
Calling yourself an entrepreneur coach when you have no entrepreneurial experience is easy. Everyone does it.
As for right now, I’m just doing this newsletter as a public service. I’m not going to become a business guru. I’m sticking in my lane, and writing, and I’m going to focus on getting really, really, really good at it.
When you’re good at something, you know it. When you know you’re good at what you do it’s easier to promote, it’s easier to sell, and it’s easier to get people off the fence and join your cause.
So do the dirty work to get good, first. The money and the status will come later.
Here are some links to other cool things you’ll enjoy:
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2 年Hey man, awesome value-packed article. Most of society wants the cookie without the cookbook. This shit takes work and persistence, and I recognize that by reading your stuff. Thanks for the read, I'll definitely take this advice into consideration for my creative pursuits.