If you don’t currently have a plan for your skill acquisition as a creator you’re likely wasting a lot of valuable time all while experiencing a lot of frustration in the process.
Being caught in an endless loop of distractions and uncertainty.
Chasing the next new thing in hopes that it’s what tips the scales in the direction of your success.
I wouldn’t actually say that chasing is a bad thing.
The question is are you chasing the right thing?
Having the right skillset(s) will give you a competitive advantage, make you stand out from the crowd, and pave your path to success.
But what should you focus on?
What you’re probably doing now that just isn’t working
Most coaches and creators I talk to fall back on one behavior pattern when it comes to the wire and they need produce.
Do more and do more of it
Crank out more videos
Write more posts
Talk to more people
And do as much as humanly possible.
Having the ability to operate at your edge is a vital skill as an entrepreneur.
But no amount of hustle in the wrong direction is going to get you where you want to go.
There’s an easier way.
In this article, I’ll break down what skills you need as a creator to be successful and how to develop systematic mastery in order to intentionally acquire those skills through the art of deliberate practice along with a simple framework I’ve used personally to train for ultra marathons, create thousands of videos and posts, grow my business to multiple 6 figures, and help my clients do the same.
Before I dive into the specific skills, let’s unpack a simple method to acquire them.
Deliberate Practice
James Clear succinctly defines deliberate practice as:
Deliberate practice refers to a special type of practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance.1
While I’m not going to go super deep into deliberate practice here (you can check out James’ blog if you want to dive deeper into that topic) I do want to point out a few things about it that are important for our use here.
Purposeful and systematic are key.
It would be accurate to assume that the purpose here would be to grow a successful business. And the deeper purpose or motivation would be your own personal goals or your why.
To support a family
To be and feel successful
To help thousands or millions of people
Systematic would mean that you actually have a method for acquiring these skills. Part of this is deliberate practice and the other aspect is knowing what to do when and how to shift to the next thing.
You can execute the concept of deliberate practice in order to get really good at different aspects of the creator business
- Video creation
- Messaging
- Sales page creation
- Launches
- Sales videos
- Email marketing
The great part about all of these is that they have feedback baked right into them. It either works to bring in new business or it doesn’t.
So how do you train these skills through the art of deliberate practice in order to grow your business?
Fundamentals of skill acquisition as I see useful
Most people bite off more than they can chew.
If you’ve ever made a big New Year’s resolution and didn’t even stick with it till March, then you’ve experienced a version of this before.
- Setting the goal to lose 20 lbs by training 6 days a week and eating healthy but tossing that out the window at the first party
- Resolving to not get in an argument with your girlfriend, boyfriend, or partner and 1 month in blowing up because they left a wet bathing suit on your wooden kitchen table
- Posting consistently on social and aiming for 10k months, not hitting it by February and going back to the drawing board (through more information) which is basically giving up
- Planning to run a Spartan, Half marathon, or 10k but falling off the wagon because it was just too much with everything else you have going on
Even though the goals you set are genuinely something you want, you bail on the goal.
Staying right where you are.
One aspect of this is not having a solid plan and the other is likely that it’s just “too hard” as you see it.
Whether we’re talking about losing weight or controlling your temper it all comes down to your level of proficiency in a skill that will get you to your goal.
Lacking the proper skills is what sets you up to lose.
The approach I’m about to outline is kind of like habit stacking but instead of combining habits, you’re breaking down a goal into smaller pieces, mastering those pieces, and then adding them all together to master the larger skill.
Let’s take posting on social media for instance…
At the end of the day what you want to be able to do is consistently post content that has people raising their hand to work with you or buy your digital product or course.
This is marketing intended to bring in customers.
While that’s the end goal, there’s an infinite amount of aspects to this.
If you can take it on in parts, master one of those parts at a time, and then add them all up at the end, you’ll have a complete skill set in that department along with the results you were aiming for.
Example…
Let’s say you’re a decent writer and you can at the very least record a video and post both of those.
But you’re inconsistent.
While finding ways to stay consistent is important what will significantly lower the barrier to entry is having a level of excellence in what you’re doing.
Part of why you’re inconsistent isn’t just because your time is maxed out. It’s because you’re not skilled enough at the thing and it takes longer than it would if you were skilled.
So the answer isn’t to throw in the towel.
It’s to up your skills.
If you got to the point where you could decrease the amount of time you spend on creating a post from let’s say 2 hours to 30 minutes, you’ve just significantly improved your output.
Here is what this would look like if you chunked it down…
- Have 1 day a week where you flush out content ideas to the point where they are ready to write or shoot
- Start posting consistently 5-7 days a week JUST focusing on frequency
- Then get better at writing and creating a post around a more targeted core message
- Then start writing specifically with your ideal avatar in mind
- Then work on the hook
- Train on painting the problem and the pain
- Then work on the solution and call to action
What was just “write and post” is now broken down into 7 (or more) distinct parts. And if you were to focus on these parts while being purposeful and systematic, while improving performance you’d soon be a master at this one particular skill.
The problem that most creators run into is that they try and do ALL of this at once and just like setting a New Year’s goal to lose 20 lbs and work out 6 days a week (when starting from 0) you added on too much too fast.
If you applied this mentality to each of these 5 skills, you would in a relatively short period of time, be well on your way to your goal whether that be 10k months, or even 20 or 30k just from organic content marketing.
The handful that made the cut
After years of trial and error, at least a hundred thousand dollars invested in coaches, courses, and programs, hundreds of books read, and countless hours implementing and working with clients, I’ve distilled this down to the essential few.
As a solopreneur, you can get to 150-300k without hiring a bunch of help. I’ve done this myself and a bunch of my clients have too. Now this is through the lens of being a coach who sells high-ticket 1:1 coaching.
While I know plenty of people who’ve hit this goal with digital products, myself and my clients have all achieved this goal through 1:1 coaching and some with small group programs as well.
As you get better at each of these you will absolutely see more calls booked, more of those calls converting into clients, and your business will grow.
It’s inevitable.
5 Creator Skills You Need To Succeed
- Writing and Storytelling: Copywriting, creative writing, sending emails and messages… Everything in your business requires some kind of writing. Your ability to craft compelling content, sales letters/pages, and emails that convert interested prospects into customers is the most important skill you will learn. It gives you a sense of agency that nothing else will. Personally, this was the hardest one for me to train, but also the most valuable. When I initially got serious about writing and consistently using social media, it took me about 2 hours to write a post. Now it takes me roughly 30 minutes. Training this skill and cutting my time spent creating posts down 75% was a huge win and continues to pay handsomely. If I had to pick one of these skills as the most important it would be writing.
- Video Creation: It’s not news that video is here to stay. Whether it’s long-form YouTube videos, lives on Instagram, or short-form content like reels, most consume through video. It’s also the best way for people to get a sense of who you are. While writing alone can do a lot of the heavy lifting, video gives people a way to connect with you virtually that writing doesn’t offer. Also, being able to articulate a message on video translates to in-person and vice versa. As far as creative outlets go, this is at the top of my list. There’s such a wide variety of different styles you can do with video too. All the way from straight-up talking head to cinematic quality content that gives people an emotional experience. There’s a lot to play with and master here.
- Offer Creation: At some point in your creator journey, you’re going to have to create something to sell. Your ability to craft an offer can quite literally be an ATM. Prior to truly understanding how to craft a compelling offer, I spent so much time in courses, with coaches, and learning. I was chasing strategies. The moment I realized that no matter what strategy I used to market I must have a compelling offer, everything changed. I’ve gone pretty deep into this in past articles… The Action-Based Approach to Defining Your Offer And Audience and Designing Offers Your Audience Can’t Refuse: A Step-by-Step Guide. If you’re still struggling to understand the mechanics of offer creation then you’ll absolutely want to check those out and implement the principles and steps.
- Sales: Clearly, if you’re selling something you need to know how to actually sell that thing. (thanks Jeff 😏) But in all seriousness… being able to confidently present your offer in the form of a sales call is a MUST-have skill. Also being able to craft compelling calls to action, and understanding the flow and structure of a sales page, or sales video is critical to bringing in new clients. This was an area where I was significantly lacking skill. A few years back I accepted a sales job doing calls for a program a friend offered. During this time, I conducted over 500 sales calls. Before this self imposed bootcamp, I was converting 1 out of every 10 calls. Now in my own business, I don’t remember the last call that didn’t convert when that person was a fit. There have been a handful that I decided not to make an invitation to but that was because I didn’t think it was a good fit. Consuming information on how to improve sales is good, but combining that with as many reps as possible is where the growth is. That can be in the form of calls and/or sending very specific sales messages.
- Marketing: There’s a lot that falls into this category. Overall I’d say this is more about your greater strategy and how you campaign and direct attention to your offers. Sales refers more to the actual act of selling. At the end of the day if you’re using organic marketing to reach your ideal customer, getting VERY good at speaking directly to them and doing that enough over a period of time is what’s required here. This is part messaging, part strategy. Knowing your available channels, how you’re going to use them, and planning out your campaigns is what I’m talking about here. This could also be the angle you’re using to sell your products and programs. Think of marketing as the larger vehicle that holds the other 4 skills and intelligently directs those efforts.
Picking each of these apart and systematically mastering each one will give you everything you need to succeed.
You could say that money management or something along those lines is also a much-needed skill. While it is, you need to make money in order to manage it.
This reminds me of the first accountant I hired.
When we started chatting in her office behind closed doors I was so excited telling her about all the ideas I had for asset allocation.
I could tell she wasn’t super keen on what I was saying by the puzzled look on her face.
She stopped me and said…
“You just need to make more money.”
WTF?! I was pissed!
But she was right.
I needed to pull in more money before I could ever think about what to do with it.
This isn’t far from what we do as creators.
We think that we need all these strategies and funnels that, without the proper skills, just don’t make sense.
What we need to do is focus on the basics.
Master the fundamentals and move from there. Then if you choose to deploy a more complex solution or strategy down the road, you can.
But trying to execute a 10-step funnel and not knowing how to put a message out on social and generate calls is kind of like thinking about asset allocation when there’s not enough money to allocate.
It’s just a lot of noise and distraction.
And you’re not building the fundamental skills required.
Master the fundamentals first.
I hope you enjoyed this one.
If you want to explore what it would look like to work together to systematically master each area of your creator or coaching business you can submit an application to work with me here.
Chat soon,
Jeff Agostinelli
1. Clear, James 2017, The Beginner’s Guide to Deliberate Practice, https://jamesclear.com/beginners-guide-deliberate-practice.
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