WHERE DOES MONEY COME FROM?

Making Money appears to be a mysterious and confusing process. It’s a lot like when a child asks “Where Do Babies Come From?” 

And like a frantic Parent making up stories about the Stork rather then just being straight, it leads to a lot of nonsense and unnecessary confusion. 

You’d be better off consulting a psychic than utilizing the many silly tools available to try and somehow associate a person’s academic aptitude and interests with an actual career and means of making money. I’ve seen tests that include sequencing shapes and picking colors. Somehow a test of abstract logic is supposed to help a teen determine their life path. 

“Billy is good at sequencing shapes so he’ll be a good Computer Technician.” 

Teachers will clumsily attempt to have students imagine what their future Career might be.

“Well, Joanie likes people so maybe she’d be a good Human Resources Director.”

Completely divorced from Reality, student are further misled into believing that a Major somehow leads to a related career. Like getting a degree in Philosophy gets you a job at the Philosophy Factory — when in reality it gets you a job stapling earning reports in an office, if you’re lucky. 

Everything is theoretical and skewed, it’s no wonder students are confused beyond belief. 

So I’m going to attempt to explain money from Square One. 

Here’s the Answer: “You Make Money by Providing Goods or Services of Value”.

That’s it. It’s about Value. 

Perceived or Real, you must provide some kind of value to make money. 

The most commonly understood, inefficient, and (typically) unpleasurable way to make money and provide value is through what is known as a “Job”. 

A “Job” is a legal contract whereby a Company pays you Money in exchange for your Time to do certain tasks. Everyone from a Lawyer to the Cashier works a Job, and is compensated proportionally to the value they provide to their company. 

A “Skill” or “Skill Set” is a description of the tasks or actual work done for the company. Being a Cashier is a Skill Set. You have to know how to speak to shoppers, use a cash register, do basic math, get on the intercom for a price check, etc. 

Practicing Law is a Skill Set. You have to Research Case Law, write Legal Briefs, and make possibly make Arguments in Court. 

Cashier Skills can make you anywhere from $8-$15 an hour depending on where you work. 

Law skills can make you anywhere from $55 an hour to $1,000 an hour, depending on the kind of law you practice and where you work. 

Basically, the point is, there is a big difference in earnings for different skills. 

Lawyers are only paid a lot because they provide Value to Clients who need help in Real Life. Whether it’s getting a divorce, suing an employer, or getting out of jail, very often a lawyer can hold a person’s fate in their very hands. The same, of course, could be said of Doctors. They deal with people’s health and literally life and death. 

One thing is clear: these skills and knowledge have an incredible amount of Value.

You can’t really say the same thing about Cashiers. The skill set is not hard to aquire, doesn’t require much intelligence, and doesn’t provide much value. In fact, the Skill Set is so low in value that in many Supermarkets cashiers work right next to automated check out counters where customers, with absolutely no training, can do the job themselves. 

Law and Medicine are two of the most prominent fields in our culture, and they are also one of a small handful of fields where a degree and tons of school is really necessary. 

Unfortunately, this has led to the widespread misconception that school/Academic Credentials somehow leads to skills that make more money.

The problem with Law and Medicine is that since these fields do require so much school, many Doctors and Lawyers are riddled with more debt than the average undergraduate could fathom. Typically $300,000 or more in debt. So, at the end of the day, the overall profit and take home money these Professions make isn’t that much. 

People also have such a superficial understanding of Money and Careers that they turn this into a massive generalization with two extremes. 

One side: More School = More Money 

And if you don’t go to school, you’re stuck being a broke Cashier. 

This is completely wrong, but it is why so many people are locked in a cycle of either being stuck in a dead end job or perpetually going to school, getting a worthless degree, and not getting any further in life. 

The answer is to realize that you can get Valuable Skills directly and through more efficient methods. This is where Self Directed learning will come into play. 

The good news is this: you don’t have to save peoples lives to have a valuable skill. 

 

SKILLS AS TOOLS, NOT YOUR IDENTITY

The best skills to get are going to be Technical Skills. Because the Internet. 

That’s what I am going to be focusing on primarily. And a few others.  

Someone with Digital Marketing, UX or Web Development skills can make more money than a Lawyer or a Dentist, and without all that damn schooling. You can learn these things online. 

But whatever the Skills we discuss, let’s start with some context. 

When I was growing up in the early 1990s there was no internet. The best we had was BBS boards run by nerds. There was absolutely no way in hell I could learn anything by sitting at my home computer. 

You guys have access to Petabytes of information, and that includes Online Courses where you can aquire many of the skills that have the highest demand today. 

Some people might be thinking, “But I don’t want to learn tech skills. I’m not a tech person.”

I’m a filmmaker. I went to Art School and neglected learning how to acquire valuable skills, and I ended up broke as a joke for 15 years, which left me with no energy or time to focus on making films.

But thanks to the internet, I learned Digital Marketing, got my first job, ended up managing over $1M annual ad spend and making $100,000+/Yr within 3 years. The Power and Flexibility from having Digital Marketing skills gave me the freedom to ultimately pursue my artistic desires and make a feature film. 

The fact is you have to find a way to provide value in this world. Everyone needs money, not just businessmen. Poets and Artists, Writers and Dancers need it too. Some people are so desperate they end up becoming strippers or working 15 hour days in a factory in exchange for money. That’s all the value they think they can provide. 

I say that even if you have other passions in life, which is great, acquire some of these skills as a foundation. When you have a Foundational Skill of Value, you can whip it out and use it whenever you want. You don’t have to define yourself by these skills or work 100 hours a week. 

One thing that annoys me about most Career Advice books, blogs, and articles is that they often feed into this notion that a Career is supposed to define you as a person or be an extension of your soul’s purpose on Earth. A popular one, called “What Color is Your Parachute?” even administers some very colorful personality tests to help you determine your ideal work environment and your mission in life. But it doesn’t get into the jobs themselves and what you actually do. 

So, like in school, a lot of job seekers end up in this endless acid trip of searching for their “ideal career”. And the process is full of struggle and unnecessary difficulty. 

Skills aren’t your “calling” or life’s purpose – they are tools. Just like you use a hammer to put a nail into a wall, you can use these Skills to earn the money you need to live your Adult Life and support whatever Lifestyle you want. You can even use it to finance your exploration of your Mission in life or whatever other path those other career books may send you on. 

I’m not going to provide a list of 200 possible careers or skills, or give you a vague notion of your personality type and send you in a general direction. I’m going to suggest specific skills I believe that pretty much everyone under 30 should acquire, because they give you a base level of power in determining how your life goes. 

By the time you’re done with this section of the book, I want your head spinning with ideas and possibilities. You should have a million tabs open on your browser and be unable to sleep because you’re so stressed/excited about what skills you could acquire to start building your life.

 You’re tapping your foot in excitement, trying to figure out “Which skills should I get? Which course should I take? Which business should I build?” 

This will put you on the path to financial solvency and power over your own life. 

They’re trying to figure out “What should I Major In?” Hotel Management? Political Science? 18th Century French Poetry? 

This will put them on the path that’s going to get them a job at Best Buy…if they’re lucky.  

 

HARD AND SOFT SKILLS

Hard Skills are tangible, measurable skill usually involving a processes or procedures. A Hard Skill is something like being able to diffuse a bomb. Or Program in C+, Tax Preparation, or Search Engine Management. You either know how to do it or you don’t. 

Soft Skills are more esoteric. Soft Skills are things like being creative, innovative, being able to work in terms, etc. 

Most College Grads have absolutely no hard skills and a limited supply of soft skills. Because of this, when trying to get jobs they frantically try and highlight their soft skills. All a College Grad can offer a potential employer is various intangible qualities about their personality. Saying you’re a “Very Hard Worker” or “Team Player” without Hard Skills is like having Icing with no Cake. Icing is great but without a Cake it’s just a disgusting sugary mess. 

I’ve read a ton of blogs and books giving advice to young people about their Careers. And they almost exclusively focus on soft skills. They talk about how to craft your resume, interview, get people’s attention, demonstrate aspects of your personality… but they never get into the actual jobs or skills necessary to do these jobs. 

So that’s what we’ll be doing. 

JOB SECURITY VS. SKILLS SECURITY

In the Olden Days, there was something called “Job Security.” Your Grandparents could have potentially started working for, say, General Electric when they were 20 years old and worked for 30 years, retiring at age 50 with a nice Pension (a monthly or weekly stipend of cash paid even when you stop working). Those were the glory days!

It ain’t like that anymore. 

Job Security no longer exists. 

As the Economy continues to tighten, as the population soars, Companies culture has changed. Your Company has no loyalty to you. You are a cog in a machine, and you are only as good as the Value you provide to that company. 

Most people switch Jobs and/or Careers multiple times through their life. The idea that you’re going to pick the one career you’ll have for the rest of your life at age 17, having no previous experience, is like trying to pick your future Husband or Wife at the Senior Prom. It’s insane. 

So rather than freak out about this, embrace it. Understand that a Job is just a way to make money to support your lifestyle. It’s not “Who You Are” or something you should expect long term Security from.

And don’t become attached to one job or career path. Understand that in every job you are going to be evaluated regularly, as companies are under more and more pressure to perform. 

Some people will criticize “Skip College for Success” as being too risky, which is absurd. It’s much riskier to get into debt for college and graduate with no marketable skills or clear direction in life. While there isn’t anymore “Job Security” there is “Skill Security” – meaning you know that as long as you have a valuable skill you can always find a way to get work and earn income. 

Every since I got these Digital Marketing skills, I’ve had a peace of mind I never knew before. Even if I end up broke and bankrupt, I know I can always get a job. I never have to worry about that again. 

Remember Jeremy, who got that job at an Agency with no degree?

Jeremy, with no degree or debt, has a lot more “Security” than those poor grads who are living at home to save up and pay for their loans. 

You are Free Agent – a hustler. You will have to stay on your toes no matter and stay current what field you work in. Stop worrying about find the “right” or “perfect” job and instead focus on what can make you the most amount of money in a way that is congruent with your interests, talents, and lifestyle.

And build upon it. 

WHAT LIFESTYLE DO YOU WANT?

Do you want to work full time 40 hours a week in an office with cool co-workers? Do you want to work for yourself, or part time on your own schedule? Do you want to be able to travel, or have a lot of free time to do things other than your job? 

You actually have a choice about this. 

As I said earlier, most people take a “Job” because that’s what everyone else does. And you may love having a job, especially if it involves a valuable and engaging skillset. You get to be social and work in teams. 

But there is another option, and it’s called “Freelancing”. Or running your own business. This doesn’t mean you go on Shark Tank and look for $500,000 in startup capital. It simply means that you are the person responsible for getting clients i.e. customers to pay you directly. 

Most people start out in a Job, because it’s more comfortable and common. We live in a culture that doesn’t support the freelancing lifestyle. For example, if you post on Facebook or Instagram that you just got a new job, you’ll get hundreds and hundreds of likes. If you post that you have started your own business… not so much. 

Jobs are much more popular because they are easier. If you do get hired, you show up, do your job, and go home. You don’t usually have to worry about the very existence of the company you are working for. A Barista at Starbucks only has to deal with making Lattes and Customers, not with acquiring new customers. 

If you ever do decide to Freelance or get your own clients, you’ll discover it’s a whole skillset of its own. You are the Sales department and the Customer Service Department of your own small operation. This is more responsibility, but it comes with much more freedom

Because Everyone Needs Marketing, it’s a hell of a lot easier to get Digital Marketing Clients than say clients as a Graphic Designer or Personal Trainer. I’ve met clients at parties, casually striking up a conversation at the Supermarket. Even while waiting at the Chevy Dealership for my car. I don’t have to do much selling, I just let people know that I help people get more traffic via Google and Facebook, and a large percentage of the time, whoever I am speaking with has an interest. 

Beyond that you can approach businesses directly, or utilize an online platform like Upwork to find businesses that need Digital Marketing services. 

Most of my students start out working at a company or agency in order to gain more experience and confidence until they feel ready to eventually strike out on their own and freelance, building their client lists. 

Freelancing doesn’t have to mean scrambling for Clients every day. If you do a good job, clients in this field will stick with you. Typically the pricing model is based on a monthly retainer, so you can make anywhere from $500 to $1,500 a month or more per client. 

Just 2 or 3 regular clients can easily replace a typical Day Job income. And this frees you up to do what you want with your life.

This is a completely grounded, practical, and realistic way to earn money. This is how you could actually work from the beach if you so choose. 

The work is conducted completely online anyway – it doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in an office in downtown LA or working via Wifi from a beach in Mexico or Hawaii. So long as you have access to the internet you are able to do the actual work of managing the accounts and communicating with clients. 

You can even do freelance work on the side while you are working at an Agency job. 

In case you missed it, my student Athena dropped out of college at age 19 and got her first Agency job making $50K. Now, just 3 years later, she makes over $75K in salary plus makes over $30K a year with her freelance clients. (Again this is just one of hundreds of similar success stories you’ll find on my Youtube Channel and on this site).

Freelancing definitely has its own challenges… and rewards. 

It’s all part of determining your own lifestyle and life path. Most young people don’t even realize that Freelancing is a possibility. 

The best thing that an In Demand Skill gives you is options. Options you should be thinking about much earlier than age 22. You can start planning all this out when you’re still in high school.

SKILLS: DEMAND & LEARNING CURVE 

We discussed High and Low Value skills earlier. Like how Law skills are worth a lot more than Cashier skills. But the other really tricky component to the whole game is the level of demand for a particular skills. 

For example, my Dad graduated Law School in 1991. He was 40 years old, it was his second career. At that time, the demand for Lawyers was through the roof. He was recruiter while in school and landed a great Corporate Environmental Law Associate job right out of school. 

Flash forward to 2019 — the demand for Lawyers is much lower. It’s not terrible, but it’s not like it was in 1991. Many Law School graduates, riddled with debt, struggle to find their first position if they weren’t tops in their class. Some have to settle for part time hourly work. 

It’s the same in any field – the supply of skilled workers and demand for them should be something you are trained in like boot camp in high school. This way people wouldn’t waste precious time and energy on fields that are either over saturated with workers or fields where there is absolutely no need for the skills. 

Being a Realtor was a huge opportunity in 2005 — then the housing market crashed. Realtors were unable to sell houses and had to find other things to do. 

Learning longhand, mimeograph machine repair- these were once in demand skills. Today they are meaningless. With the advent of the internet many skills have shifted radically. 

Today the biggest demand for skills is in tech. The skillsets have completely transformed in 20 years. In 2000, many of these jobs didn’t even exist. Making websites was a hobby in 1995. Now it’s an essential component of any business. Web Development is a lucrative skill set. 

Linkedin publishes a list of the most In Demand Skills every year. In 2019 it includes: 

 

• Cloud Computing – UX Design – Mobile Application Development – Video Production – Sales Leadership – Digital Marketing – Computer Graphics – Web Development

 

I graduated with a Film Degree, and back in 1999 there was almost no demand for Video Production. This was years before Smartphones and the saturation of video on the internet. Now because of that it’s an In Demand Skill. 

So it’s important to be aware of what Employers actually need. 

You can get a sense of this not only from this list but from doing job searches and looking at the number of open jobs.

Beyond straight Tech Skills, other In Demand Skills I will be talking about include Bookkeeping, Proofreading, Transcribing, Tax Preparation, and the Skilled Trades. 

Do this. It’s simple, and your Parents and Teachers won’t do it for you. 

The last factor to consider is, of course, how hard it is to acquire these skills. As mentioned above, the problem with something like Medicine is that it is one of the most difficult skills to acquire, even though it can pay well. 

Certain other tech skills like Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and Coding are easier to learn than Medicine but still require rigorous analytical engagement. Skills like Digital Marketing, Proofreading, and Bookkeeping are much easier and faster to learn than Coding. 

You can learn many of the skills on Linkedin’s list online, which is something you can’t do with Medicine, Law, or a variety of other fields with varying levels of demand. 

This also relates to how much you will actually enjoy or be able to engage positively with these skills. Like I said earlier, you shouldn’t expect any of these skills to provide your life with meaning and endless orgasms. But it is possible to find skills more suited to you than others. 

THE #1 HARD SKILL I RECOMMEND

I can’t pull a rabbit out of a hat, but I’ve helped a 19 year old get a $40K/yr job. I’ve trained 21 year old to make $52K a year working from home part time. I’ve helped hundreds of people with and without degrees get into great careers. 

That’s Magic to me. 

Out of all the skills you can learn, in my opinion Digital Marketing is the best. You may recall some of the many testimonials I’ve shared in the previous sections of this book. They all came from people learning Digital Marketing Skills. These are the skills that changed my life. 

In 2010, I was just an unemployed art school grad. I spent about 6 months online, learning about how to run ads, build websites, do email and affiliate marketing. I didn’t have too much success learning how to make money online, but I had acquired a bunch of skills and knowledge that, unbeknownst to me, were in demand. 

I’d finally landed a job at a call center doing telemarketing, frantically looking for a better job on Craigslist during my lunch break. One day I saw an ad for “Account Technician”. I had no idea what that meant, but it said you should have an understanding of Google Ads, SEO, and Internet Marketing. All the things I’d taught myself. 

I threw together a resume and applied. To my shock, I got a callback within a couple of hours. Interviewed and a week later I was hired at $16/hr, which at the time was a miracle for me. 

Immediately upon being hired, I was handed $100,000 in monthly ad spend and 32 client accounts. I had never managed more than $100 and now I was going to manage 1000 times that. 

Within a year I had even more valuable experience in the field. I eventually went up from earning $38,000 a year to $60,000 a year at another company. Then I was hired In House at a private company and paid $75K plus bonuses, making more than $100K a year.

All of this happened within the span of 3 years, and it started with me screwing around and teaching myself things on the internet. There are other great skills I’ll discuss later. But Digital Marketing, to me, is the absolutely best place to start. Here’s why.

First off, there is an incredible demand for skilled Digital Marketers and an incredibly low supply. This isn’t something you’d really know unless you met someone, like me, who has experience in the field. There isn’t much news coverage on this and it’s not even understood in most high schools or colleges. 

I call it “The Most In Demand Career Nobody Knows About.” 

It’s actually thanks to the backwards teaching taking place in college that this opportunity exists. I’ve helped many Marketing Majors, students who literally studied Marketing for 4 years, and never learned the practical skills necessary to work in Digital Marketing. Most of those programs are so outdated, students are learning concepts from decades ago. 

Second, Digital Marketing has the one of the lowest learning curves of any of the in demand skill sets. I taught myself most of the necessary skills in a few months back in 2010 — those skills are even more relevant and valuable today, then when I first got them. 

Through my online course “The Digital Marketing Career Blueprint” I’ve been able to take thousands of people from having zero knowledge to getting interviews and hired at agencies within a few months. Students often go from struggling to find work to getting contacted by eager recruiters after learning, absorbing and applying this skill set. 

People are often skeptical about this. They ask “Isn’t the market getting oversaturated?” The answer is no. In fact, since I started teaching the course in 2016, the number of daily job openings in Digital Marketing has risen from about 30,000 to 60,000. Note: this number was down to about 26,000 a day at the height of the Pandemic, but is now back up to around 46,000 jobs a day. 

 

And students who take this practical approach send me messages like this every week. 

People are usually confused, shocked, or inspired by results like these. Most people simply can’t understand how someone with no previous experience or education can get a good paying job in such a short amount of time. And this is because so many of us were indoctrinated into this system of believing in “Higher” education and credentials vs. skills.

But even so, it doesn’t alway make sense. What exactly are these jobs, why are they so in demand, and how can people get hired into them so quickly?

Because the Internet. 

The Internet isn’t just a place to buy shoes and watch funny puppy videos. It’s absolutely transformed everything about how we live as human beings, in ways that were unimaginable twenty years ago. People laughed at Jeff Bezos back in the late 1990s and now he’s the richest man in the world. Amazon went from being a quirky little website selling books to bringing in $232 Billion Revenue in 2018. 

The Global Economy has been transformed by the internet. And this has affected all the different kind of jobs that exist. As I said before, being a web developer in 1995 was just a hobby, now it’s a lucrative career. 

The Internet has also transformed Marketing and Advertising. Most of us are inundated with Marketing every day but have no idea how this Multi Billion Dollar industry works. Marketing and Advertising is the engine that fuels the economy. 

Every company and small business has to Market and Advertise. They have to tell people about what they offer, whether it’s Amazon or a local juice bar. 

In the Olden Days, the primary avenues of advertising were Television, Radio, and Newspapers. Local Businesses used the Yellow Pages. These are known as “Traditional Advertising” – and they’re dying. 

Digital Advertising refers to advertising online, using ads on Facebook, Google Searches, Youtube, Linkedin, on blogs and websites. Those ads you see before a Youtube video or on Hulu are digital ads. The ads you see while you’re shopping on Amazon are digital ads. 

Digital Advertising is a $200 Billion Industry, and it’s killing Traditional Advertising. 

That’s a recent chart, but if you go back a few years you can really see the trend. This is from a Global Perspective – TV is still a big medium but you can see the Internet sneaking up like a Cobra and just striking it hard. 

The big difference between Traditional vs. Digital Advertising is ACCESS. 

Google allows anyone with a few bucks to promote their website in the Search results. Same with Facebook and Linkedin. This has no only transformed the advertising landscape, but the jobs landscape. 

Google and Facebook have “self serve” platforms, where individuals can control their own ads, where they appear, how much they spend. These platforms appear to be simple, but they are sophisticated. And hence, Companies end up hiring experts who understand how these platforms work to manage the ads themselves. 

Google and Facebook make their Billions from their advertising platforms, and companies need people to manage their ads. That’s where these jobs and opportunities come from. 

Because of the meteoric rise of this industry and how fast it changes, many people don’t understand it. Some people think of it as a fad that will pass. This career isn’t going anyway anytime soon. Internet Advertising has grown from $40 Billion Annually a few years and is projected to break $120 Billion a year by 2020 and 2021. 

There is such a low supply of skilled workers as the field continues to grow, that my students are regularly contacted by Recruiters, desperately trying to fill open positions. This is absolutely insane for most millennials to experience. The typical college grad is desperately trying to get a single interview or callback, while young people with skills that companies need are actually pursued by those companies. 

I say it’s like being the prettiest girl at the dance. Here are some examples. 

Companies need Skills. They need people who can actually do the job that needs to be done. When Recruiters reach out to me and my students, it’s because they have a client spending Real Money advertising Real Products and they desperately need someone who understand how to manage those ads. They don’t care about that person’s Degree or personal background. They care if they can get the job done, because in many cases there might be thousands of dollars being spent incorrectly every day. 

Learn how to be that person, and you will start to get the same kind of results.

I’m going to move on to some additional skills and points, but if you’re interested in learning more I explain this in more detail in my free mini course at https://www.digitalcareerblueprint.com 

EVERYONE NEEDS MARKETING & SALES SKILLS

Other than it’s low barrier for entry, low learning curve, high demand and low supply of skilled workers, there’s another huge reason why I focus on Digital Marketing. 

Everyone. Needs. Marketing. 

Everyone. 

You could say “Screw the internet! Screw Tech! I’m gonna open a Yoga Studio!” 

Well how are people going to find out about your Yoga Studio? 

Marketing. 

On the Internet. 

Every business on the planet does marketing. From Tom Cruise pimping out his latest stunt on Mission: Impossible to a Dentist Office pimping out their sale on Veneers, companies have to share what they do with the public in order to get customers. 

Lawyers have to Market. Doctors have to Market. Sex Shops have to Market. 

Even if you don’t think of yourself as a marketer and want to get a job as a Grant Writer, at some point you have to submit a resume and give an interview with your employer. 

That’s Marketing – you’re trying to pitch a company on why they should hire you. 

Marketing is the most ubiquitous skill in existence.

That’s why I recommend it. Because when it’s not only an incredibly valuable skill that will get you hired, get you clients… you can use it on your own projects as well. If you ever do decide to open that Yoga Studio, or a Juice Bar, or an MMA Gym, you will have to market it. And then you can do it yourself instead of paying someone else to do it. 

Most people who have Jobs have no idea how Marketing supports their very existence. You could be a Receptionist or a Graphic Designer, but someone at your company has to do some kind of Marketing in order to make the money to pay your salary. Salesman are out there hustling products and Advertisers are out there running ads to make sure the company is solvent enough to support its Payroll. 

The Job Mindset isn’t terrible, but it’s limiting. When students approach me about Digital Marketing I say yes, there are 47,000 jobs open in the US. But that’s not the only way to make money with this skill. 

The important thing is this: most young people don’t even have a clue how valuable skills are. Most are still focused like lemmings into chasing a degree off a cliff. Once you know that you need skills, it’s just a matter of picking which ones you want to use to make a good income.