- If you wanna learn the seven most important
business skills behind some of the world's
top-performing entrepreneurs and business owners,
well then this video's for you.
Let's get to it.
(upbeat electric guitar music)
Hey there, my name is Adam Erhart,
and on this channel, we help you grow your business
with proven marketing and business strategies, tools,
tips, tricks, and tactics,
so if that's something you're into,
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and hitting that notification bell.
After 17 years in the business world,
and having had both corporate, and professional,
and sales, and marketing jobs,
and a number of different businesses
thrown in for good measure, some successful
and some absolute dismal failures,
well, I can confidently say that I've noticed some trends
and some essential skills that really led me
to get to where I am today, and no surprise,
these skills are also shared by some of
the world's top-performing entrepreneurs
and business owners.
You see, one of my favorites sayings in business
and in life in general is that success leaves clues,
so it simply doesn't make sense
to not learn from those who've gone before us,
trying to model, and emulate, and learn from them
and what they've done along the way, both good and bad.
Now, the beauty behind the skills
that we're gonna talk about
is very few of these was I born with,
or were pretty much any successful entrepreneur born with.
Rather, they were acquired, and learned,
and developed over time, which means
you can do the exact same thing
in order to get very similar, or maybe even the exact same,
or hopefully even better results.
And that's why, in this video,
I'm gonna share with you seven
of the most important business skills
for you to succeed in today's wild
and wonderful world of business.
All right, let's dive right in with Skill #1, communication.
As we'll discuss in just a minute,
it's hard to succeed alone, which is why the first
and maybe even the most important skill
we're gonna be covering here is communication,
and mastering the art of it, specifically,
three key areas are at play
when we're talking about business.
Copywriting, speaking, and conversing.
Let's dive into each one now.
Copywriting comes first, and it's all about
your ability to clearly articulate
and essentially communicate what it is
that you're trying to do, and essentially, trying to sell.
Now, an important differentiation here
is we're talking about copywriting,
essentially the marketing communication
that you'd see in emails, on websites,
or in direct mail pieces, and not copyrighting,
or copyright, which is the legal term
for protecting trademarked and intellectual property.
Essentially, copywriting, this guy here,
is super important, because what it allows you to do
is reach a lot more people
by effectively persuading them
through the content that you create.
Now, when we're talking about speaking,
essentially what we're talking about
is the ability to reach more people,
whether we're speaking to a group,
whether we're speaking on video,
even giving a group presentation
or in front of a live audience.
Speaking is a really powerful business skill,
because, again, we need to be able
to clearly communicate our message
and what we're trying to get across.
Now, very few people are born competent
and confident public speakers.
This is a skill that takes a little bit of time
to practice, and definitely a lot of time to master,
especially if your goal is to appear calm, cool,
and collected, because, as we all know,
public speaking is one of people's single greatest fears,
so the more that you're able to address this
and essentially build up some experience,
the better off you're gonna be.
The last form of communication that I wanna cover here
is conversing, and I know conversing sounds really similar
to speaking, but essentially,
when we're talking about speaking,
we're talking about one-to-many.
In other words, you talking to a group,
or a number of different people,
and when we're talking about conversing,
we're talking about one-to-one,
or more intimate conversations.
Now, these could be conversations with a friend,
or a colleague, or at a networking event,
or dinner party, or gala, black-tie event, you never know.
Now, you don't need to be a master of small talk,
and we all know that cliche, "So, how's the weather?"
And we can avoid that if you like.
Really, the key here is
to appear curious in the other person,
and the best way to appear curious in the other person
is to be genuinely curious in the other person.
Shocker, right?
Fortunately, this is relatively easy to do.
After all, all you have to do is care,
and a good way to communicate that you care
is by asking a lot more questions
and really trying to learn about them
and what they're up to.
Not too many questions, though, don't be creepy.
Now the reason mastering communication
is such an integral part of business
is because they really lend themselves
to two of the main pillars of business, both sales
and marketing, which are essentially not much else
than clearly communicating your message,
and trying to influence and persuade the other person
to see your point of view, and essentially,
do business with you.
Now, I know, it's a lot to take in,
and a lot more to master, but that's why it's number one,
so it's definitely worth spending some time
on really refining your communication abilities.
All right, all that said, let's move on
to Skill #2, prioritization.
Now, in order to properly prioritize,
you first need to be properly organized,
because a messy mind leads to messy desks,
and messy work, and messy everything,
and you're not gonna be able to clearly articulate
and define what's most important
so you can tackle that first.
This is why the very first step
of prioritization is organization.
Next up, you really wanna step back
and take a 30,000-foot, or high-level overview
of the entire situation.
You wanna see what's going on
and really view the overall strategy,
and then formulate a plan from there.
Now, once all that's done, it's probably time
to simplify your business, and maybe even
the number of products, or offers, or services
that your business offers.
Far too many businesses are doing way too many things,
and many of them unprofitably,
when they'd be much better off
by simply doubling down on their highest margin,
highest leverage activities,
but we'll get to that in a minute.
Now, the key with prioritization is
to properly identify exactly what needs to be done
so you can do that first.
Then, it also allows you to identify
the things that don't need to be done,
so you can ignore them,
and find the things that need to be done,
but maybe not by you, so you can delegate them,
which leads us to Skill #3, delegation.
As we touched on briefly in Skill #1, nobody succeeds alone,
and one of the biggest mistakes I see
a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs make
is trying to do absolutely everything themselves.
A lot of this stems from perfectionism
and the inability to let go.
Trust me, I get it.
I'm a perfectionist myself,
but it wasn't until I started letting go
that my business truly started to grow
and reach that next level.
I knew that I simply couldn't do everything alone,
not with only 24 hours in a day, and seven days in a week.
I was gonna need some help.
Now the key here, much like prioritization,
is to 80/20 everything, or apply the Pareto's principle,
essentially identifying the 20% of things
that you're amazing at, and delegating the rest.
Now, fortunately, thanks to the 80/20 principle,
that 20% of things that you're amazing at
is probably gonna be responsible
for 80% of the results, if not more,
especially if you stay true to yourself,
and really understand your unique ability,
or special zone of genius.
See, we all have one or two areas
that we're just absolutely amazing at,
and then a whole slew of areas that we're not so good at.
You want to identify the areas that you're not good at,
don't enjoy doing, and really don't progress your business,
and delegate them as quickly as possible.
Now, proper delegation is obviously
all about building a team,
but this doesn't mean going out
and hiring a ton of in-house employees.
It could simply mean outsourcing some simple admin tasks,
or maybe hiring a contractor
to take some of the work off your plate.
Start small, and build from there.
I think you'll find it's very addictive over time,
and you're gonna become infinitely more productive
the more that you scale up, and the more
that you outsource and delegate.
Essentially, every time you delegate a task,
or hire someone to work, say, 40 hours a week,
well, you're getting an extra 40 hours
of productivity to your business
without you needing to do it yourself, it's pretty amazing.
All right, moving right along to Skill #4,
which is having an action-based identity,
opposed to a results-based identity.
Here's the deal, if you've been in business
for any length of time, then you know
that you're gonna win some, and you're gonna lose some.
The key is to not tie your identity
directly to the results that you're achieving,
but rather to the process, or the actions that you take
in order to get there.
The entrepreneurs and business owners that get ahead
in the long run are the ones that have learned
not to associate failures with being a failure themselves,
and the same thing goes for their successes,
understanding that failure isn't fatal,
and success isn't permanent,
so every time they get a success, they celebrate,
and enjoy it, of course, but they understand
that they have to keep working
and progressing towards their goal.
To paraphrase Earl Nightingale, they understand
that success is a journey,
and the progressive realization of a worthy goal,
is that progressive realization
and constant action that really leads to their success.
The takeaway point here is to base your identity
on what you do on a day-to-day basis,
and the actions that you take, rather than the outcome,
which may contain some variables,
and some elements that are a bit outside your control,
but the main things you do on a day-to-day basis
and the actions that you take,
well, most of them are directly in your control,
which is why it's so important
to form that action-based identity.
You're successful because you act successful
and do successful things, that's the point.
All right, moving right along to Skill #5,
which is empathy and understanding.
Now, some people are naturally more inclined
to be empathetic and understanding than others,
but this does not mean that you can't learn
and develop this incredibly valuable business skill,
and as we've touched on numerous times already,
no one succeeds alone, which means you're going to need
other people on your journey, and on your rise to the top,
so it's gonna be a lot easier, and a lot more enjoyable
if you learn to develop that empathy and understanding
so you can really form
meaningful connections with other people.
Now, if there's a word that I could suggest to you here
to help you further and deepen your level
of empathy and understanding, that word would be curiosity,
because there's no greater way
than to develop empathy and understanding,
and to be genuinely curious,
and interested in the other person
that you're trying to talk to.
As the saying goes, "Before you judge someone,
walk a mile in their shoes",
and that's not just so you're a mile away
and you have their shoes,
but rather so you can really understand
where they're coming from, what they've been through,
and really try to listen, and understand about them,
about their pains, and problems, and frustrations,
and really just lend an ear,
and the better you understand them,
the better off you're gonna be in business.
You see, people don't buy when they understand,
but rather when they feel understood,
and empathy, understanding, and really listening
and feeling cared for, well, those are at an all-time low
in the customer viewpoint, especially when it comes
to bigger businesses today, so if you're able to develop
and essentially hone these skills,
you're really gonna stand out in the crowd.
Now here's the kicker, you really can't fake this,
so the best way to seem like you actually care about people
is to really care about them, and if you don't,
you may be in the wrong business.
All right, moving right along
to Skill #6, energy conservation,
and I'm not talking about turning off the lights
and making sure the air conditioning's set on low
when you leave the house.
Rather, I'm talking about the ability to protect yourself
in order to be able to deliver the absolute best
business performance possible.
You see, when you're flying on a plane,
there's a reason that they tell you
to put on your own oxygen mask before assisting someone else
in the event of a depressurization.
This is because if you pass out first,
you're not really any good to anyone else.
We call this protecting the mothership,
because if you're tired, sick, beat-down,
or simply burned out, well, all the skills in the world
aren't gonna really help you perform your best.
Fortunately, there are some pretty simple things
you can do in order to operate at peak efficiency.
The first of these is avoiding the negative.
We're talking about people like time vampires,
you know the ones I'm talkin' about.
The ones that stop by and chat endlessly,
really seem to have absolutely nothing to do
other than waste your time,
obviously you want to avoid these.
The same goes for negative people.
Again, you know what I'm talkin' about,
the people that gossip, and always complain,
and really criticize, and essentially just bring down
the energy in the room.
You gotta get rid of these people, and as much as possible.
Same goes for negative situations,
if there's a place or situation that makes you uneasy
or uncomfortable, not in the good kind of way
of uncomfortable, when you're pushing yourself
and really trying to achieve more,
but the bad kind of uncomfortable,
where you really just feel bad,
well, you want to avoid those
because it's draining your energy
and your ability to operate at your highest level.
On the flip side, you want to surround yourself
with positive people, uplifting people,
and people that are going places
and have similar goals, or at the very least,
support you and your goals.
To sum up energy conservation,
it basically just means avoiding the things
that really drain you and make you feel beat up
and beat down, and doing more of the things
that make you feel good, and give you more energy.
It's as simple as that, and all successful people know this.
All right, and moving on to Skill #7,
being responsive, not reactive.
One of the most common and damaging themes in business
is seeing the entrepreneur or business owner
who runs from crisis to crisis, putting out fire after fire,
and really never getting any positive, solid work done.
They seem to live in this constant state of chaos,
constantly reacting to things, and putting out fires
rather than slowing down, taking a deep breath,
and responding to things in order to correct them now,
and maybe even forever.
Now, I appreciate if you're living in a reactive state,
this might seem like a bit of a stretch.
It's gonna be hard to kinda wrap your head around
and really see how you could implement this yourself,
but I assure you, it is possible,
so here's a few quick tips
to really help move you in the right direction,
away from reactive, and towards responsive.
The very first thing you need to do
is ensure you have systems
and standard operating procedures in place.
This can help to eliminate a lot of the headaches
and a lot of the recurring things
that kinda seem to come up again and again
and again, well, handle them once,
put a system in place,
and you should never have to deal with it again.
Next, take a look at all the objections
you seem to get on a regular basis,
and start to come up with educational content ahead of time,
and it's gonna answer these objections
before they even arise.
An educated customer is the best customer.
Next, just like we already covered,
understand that failure isn't fatal,
and success isn't permanent,
so you're gonna wanna prepare
for the bad times and the good times.
Don't push them off, pretending they're never gonna happen.
Be prepared, make sure you've got a plan in place.
Another way to look at this
is to really know your numbers.
Understand what's going on inside your business
and outside your business.
Know what things cost,
know where the money's going,
know how your lead flow and customer acquisition is coming.
Again, this is gonna allow you
to see trends, and forecast any problems
that might arise in the future.
Are your marketing campaigns working?
Are your customers happy?
Are on track for a profitable quarter?
All of these questions need answers,
which will allow you to operate
from a position of confidence,
and allow you to respond
in the event of an emergency rather than react.
And lastly, we have a bonus tip: an action bias.
You see, a bias for action
is one of the most valuable skills
that a business owner or entrepreneur can have.
Time and time again, studies have shown
that the ability to make decisions quickly,
and then, most importantly, to actually act on them
is really what differentiates
successful from unsuccessful people.
Don't get stuck in analysis paralysis,
don't put off tomorrow what you should be doing today,
and don't wait to act on that next great idea,
because you never know what tomorrow's gonna hold,
and fortune favors the bold.
All right, so thanks so much for watching.
I hope you enjoyed the episode, if so,
make sure to give it a thumbs-up, say hi
in the comments section below, and subscribe to the channel.
So thanks again, and I'll catch ya next time.