Skills Don't Pay The Bills Until You Do This

At the beginning of our careers, we are unlikely to have many connections, so the value we bring to the market is through our knowledge and skills.  Therefore, we may embark on our journey through a few possible routes: 

1. Go to school, get a degree in a valuable field, then get paid doing work in that field, 

2. Train rigorously in a skillset through obtaining certifications, building a portfolio, and showcasing that skillset as proof of concept, 

3. Invent a solution, perfect it, and take it to the market. 

Sound familiar? 

If you’re like me and love to work on your craft with your hands, head, and heart, then you know the pride you feel when you see the fruits of your labor.

While leveling up our skills and knowledge may not be glamorous, the rewards of increased creativity, confidence, and performance efficiencies pay off handsomely. 

But what is our purpose in upgrading our skills? For a pure-minded disciplinarian, it is to improve and create different and better results. For those looking to make a living from it, we desire to secure a competitive edge that makes clients choose us over the competition in a dynamic market environment. 

The market demands the best talent, or so we’re always told. However, those considered the best today may become obsolete or irrelevant tomorrow. Also, a complete nobody today may catapult themselves to stardom and appear as an overnight success. 

So why don’t skills always pay the bills? Great entertainers can end up on the streets, while dull paper pushers live lavish lifestyles. Something seems amiss.

Three Major Misconceptions About Skills

There are three major misconceptions about skills and how they are rewarded: 

– 1 – If I Master This In-Demand Skill, Then People Will Pay Me Automatically. 

This misconception is nothing short of wishful thinking infused with entitlement. While it’s true that those who master in-demand skills are much more likely to secure work and receive excellent compensation, it is never guaranteed. 

We must recognize that the market does not operate with perfect information, and supply and demand are seldom in perfect equilibrium.  These imbalances stem from technological disruptions, changes in macroeconomic policies, shifting cultural values, and the nature of market corrections often lagging behind current information. 

Additionally, not all buyers value skills equally.  As a result, laborers in any given skill are compensated at levels above, within, and below the fair market value.  Most laborers land in the middle of that curve, whereas the rest deviate above and below. 

Skilled laborers who enjoy the splendors of their lavish compensation know how to sell themselves at premiums and/or provide value that goes above and beyond average expectations.  Higher earners in a skillset often secure accounts with clients willing and able to pay higher premiums in exchange for excellent service and a lower risk of supplier disruption. 

In contrast, some in the marketplace are well-known for lowballing laborers because they perceive them as desperate enough to take the first offer.  Whether they are small businesses run by stingy business owners or large corporations that hire an expendable army, these buyers pay below-market premiums. 

What they save in money, they pay for in reputation. These lowballers save money short-term but spend more to replenish their disenchanted workforce. I wonder why...

– 2 – There Is An Objective Way To Measure Someone’s Skills & Abilities. 

Most people know this isn’t true, but it needs to be in clear-cut writing.

The belief that a performer’s abilities can be objectively evaluated is often skewed by perception and our tendency to extrapolate an ocean of information from a fishbowl of observations. 

The old saying, “All things being equal, people tend to do business with those they like,” sufficiently debunks this myth. Naturally, any trade has a minimum performance standard to be economically viable. Beyond that threshold, the criteria for selecting a service provider shift from skills and performance to relatability and likability. 

Ironically, there are attempts to provide solutions to measure skills and abilities. Many hiring managers have relied on online assessments that measure technical skills and gauge behavioral responses to vet out the best candidates.

However, I know from experience on both sides that these assessments have major flaws. 

The first major flaw is that a crafty candidate could look up the answers on Google and game the system. Thus, the test transforms from a skills and knowledge assessment to a craftiness and resourcefulness game. These questions are recycled and stored in a database somewhere.

The second major flaw is that most tests are administered without context, acting as pure brain teasers that cannot measure a candidate’s ability to contribute positively to the organization. This type of testing contradicts most businesses' gripe that academia is too far removed from business to be useful.

The best candidates solve problems they can get their hands on and will adapt to the company’s culture to ensure a great long-term fit. Without context, these tests gauge how the candidate operates in a vacuum at best. 

– 3 – The More Skills We Have, The More Value We Bring To The Table. 

There is a time and place to widen our skill sets as we prepare for professional transitions. Being able to stretch out and connect the dots is an undervalued skill that can lead to innovations to solve market problems that cannot be approached from a linear mindset. 

However, when our newfound abilities fail to deliver, the bet on spreading our wings returns a loss.  The Law of Diminishing Returns dictates that there is an optimum breadth and depth to our skill sets that we should strive to secure at any point.  Anything beyond the optimal renders a negative return on our investment. 

Of course, knowing how to optimize our skills is impossible until we gain proper experience.  If we must choose between undershooting and overshooting, we should aim to overshoot it without question.  Regarding performance and delivery, it’s much easier to scale back than to push harder.   

Not only does a slight overshoot prevent us from building skills in a vacuum, but it also ensures that those skills are ready for the outlets they were designed to deliver in the first place. 

The Truth: The Most Well-Known Get The Deals 

The cruel reality of business is that the most well-known entities often win business over unproven contenders.  Good intentions only go so far when clients risk their money, time, and reputation by doing business with service providers.  Therefore, buyers and sellers must choose how they utilize their resources to obtain the highest returns possible. 

We all know about the woes of corporate mediocrity that plague well-established companies. Because of their long-standing reputation, these companies consistently do the same thing instead of innovating a new cutting-edge advantage.  

To compete against established service providers, newcomers must be more skill-driven, innovative, and willing to work harder. Additionally, the mystique of being a newcomer grants agility against their behemoth counterparts, which could propel them into new opportunities that established companies cannot touch.

On the other hand, the most well-known tend to leverage their reputation to secure the trust of prospects based on past accomplishments.  Their reputation grants a license to frame their competition as fake, short-term, and other slanders typically used to dishearten new competition.  Their words tend to corner their competition as they pummel them into verbal submission. 

Marketing Your Skills More Effectively 

We have seen very talented individuals scrape by and barely make ends meet, whereas others are barely economically viable but achieve wild success.  We wonder what went wrong in both cases, as an insatiable marketplace should have relentlessly rewarded the skills we craft.   

However, the good news is that if we can master new skills and knowledge, we can transfer those lessons to master our marketing.  Everything involved in successful branding, marketing, and selling ourselves is a learnable skill set that only needs to be mastered to an optimal point to suit our needs. 

Before we learn those skills for marketing our services, some underlying psychological principles should be considered: 

Acknowledge The Reality That We Need To Market 

It’s okay to admit it—working to master our skills and knowledge is an exhausting endeavor by itself. Marketing our skills on top of that feels like a tall order that is completely unnecessary. After all, shouldn’t our time be directed towards relevant endeavors such as delivering great service? 

Unfortunately, that’s not how business works. Business is a social game in which we deal with people with finite attention spans who can’t possibly know everything. It’s hard to admit it, but we will never know about thousands of great artists, craftsmen, engineers, and other service-based professionals. 

Out of the gate, learning to market and sell our services is equally as important as their delivery and performance, if not more important.  Initially, it’s unlikely that we will be equipped with large budgets, an established reputation, or connections that can provide a steady stream of clients.  Therefore, we must make it a priority to network and market ourselves to the best of our abilities. 

In the beginning, we might be excited (or terrified) to meet new people. However, we’ll quickly find out that not everyone needs or likes what we do. This can be disheartening and make us question the value of our work and our marketplace. 

As we lose steam, we must regularly remind ourselves that it’s okay to market and get ourselves out there, but it’s crucial for our survival. We have to put in the time in marketing to increase our probability of securing enough sustainable business so that we can focus on improving our services without worry. 

Have you ever seen a talented friend give an emphatic announcement on Instagram about their new photography business?  They have great pictures, amazing equipment, and even a personal smile that lights up a room.  Waves of encouragement and excitement pour in as their friends show genuine support through likes and comments. 

But after a few weeks pass — crickets.  No one has booked them.  Was their business not meant to be after all?  Of course not.  The proof is in the pudding, but nobody knew about their services because they didn’t market them properly. 

We should strive to avoid becoming starving artists by embracing marketing as part of our craft. Ultimately, we should do what it takes to get ourselves out there (and enjoy it along the way) so that we may continue to do what we love while serving the right clients—and ultimately, win. 

Don’t Be Afraid To Market Ourselves 

Marketing our skills and abilities opens the doors to more opportunities to deliver, get paid, and continue improving our craft.  Everything from creating brand awareness to closing the sale to qualified clients is important to the process. 

Talented individuals with incredible skills and abilities often fall for the stigma that if they market themselves, they will scare people off. This mental trap has thwarted many rewarding careers from blooming and terminated many others who had the potential to make an impact. 

Instead, we must reframe our marketing from being a chore to acting as a public service that helps clients discover us.  Clients seeking skilled labor services won’t start with a perfect list of people who can assist them.  If they know about us before they need our services, we will be on their shortlist as they ask us for them.    

Use Creativity to Our Advantage 

Imagine a highly skilled person who says they have Skill X and are looking for work. Their pitch is as short and to the point as the previous sentence. Are we going to feel compelled to hire them? It’s highly unlikely. 

Marketing is a creative opportunity to tell a great story that compels people to act.  The most rewarding outcome is crafting a memorable marketing message that grabs attention and gets people asking questions. Of course, the first is getting paid.

Whether we are artists, technicians, or in the people business, deploying creative marketing messages that resonate with people is a great way to leave a lasting impression and secure our place as a cornerstone resource in our communities and the global marketplace. 

Keep Our Marketing Messages Relevant 

There are endless ways to differentiate and market ourselves against the competition.  However, we have to be mindful of who our messages reach to avoid giving the wrong impression to the wrong client.  Every business has certain types of clients that work better for it than others. 

As we market our services, we must consider the nature and impact of our messages to capture the right clients. For example, suppose we’re building an elite tutoring business that serves the needs of affluent clients only. In that case, we don’t want to craft marketing messages about economic viability that attract penny-pinching Karens. 

Instead, we must build our message to resonate with the problems of affluent families.  Our messages must target the worries of parents directly, whether it’s to provide academic and mentoring support, free up time for parents to focus on their careers and businesses, or any other needs common to affluent families. 

We all speak English, but the English we speak with our clients must match theirs. Identify their problems. Build a solution. Tell them about it, tell them some more, and tell them again. Listen to their needs. Then, ask to work with them. 

Skills X Marketing = More Possibilities

Building and optimizing our marketing skills is a rewarding journey where we can uncover new insights to apply to our craft.  Everything from the cradle to the grave in marketing has an application to improve our skillsets and knowledge. 

The tipping point is when marketing turns from a game of hunting and killing to farming and cultivating.  When that threshold is broken, resources can be redirected from our marketing efforts to improving our services.  Until we achieve that breakthrough, it’s all about grabbing attention in unconventional ways that make us pop out in the market. 

Along the way, we should experiment, keep score of what works, and don’t be afraid to be innovative occasionally, even when business is booming.  Market conditions are ever-shifting — what works today may not work tomorrow.  In corollary, what doesn’t work today could work tomorrow, but we should be mindful if we’re betting on the waiting game. 

What’s your first step to making yourself known in the marketplace?