MASTER THESE 5 SKILLS IF YOU WANT TO GO BIG THIS YEAR

Being a skilled at writing marketing strategies or pitch decks is not as great as having these skills.

Someone said something really profound at a virtual event that I attended in 2022. The person said (I’m paraphrasing) when you find yourself in a place of prominence, trace your steps back to find out how you got there, or who, what got you there. For instance, if you were invited to work on a huge project that you didn’t think you’d ever be a part of because it’s super high-level, after the adrenaline rush, you want to really think back to find out what caused the new level.

When you get an idea of what you think helped you get to that place of prominence, you should then replicate those things on a bigger level so that you can get on an even bigger platform.

You see, it’s a different year for your business, and that means that you are going to be doing a lot of reviews of the previous year to find out what worked and what didn’t and also to focus on what you’ll be doing to go big this year. When you’re running an online business, things change so fast, trends come and go, strategies that worked last week are already outdated this week, and things move so fast. But the only thing that you can totally bank on is YOU. You’re the only one that is constant in that business and even though you’re constant, you also need to change.

Let’s go into what those 5 skills are. But before I do so, please know that these are not tips that you’ll find on every Tom, Dick, and Harry’s LinkedIn page. No, they are not new, but they are not random picks either. They are things that we know but we often ignore.

Ability to Keep Quiet So That You Can Learn From Others

In case you didn’t know, having an opinion every time someone else is speaking is a toxic trait. Oh, I mean you can have your opinions, but you need to sit still and listen quietly. You need to be able to listen well and ask questions that’ll encourage the person speaking to tell you more.

You see, when you speak, you say things that you know, when you listen, you learn what you don’t know from others. In a world where everyone wants to air their opinions and care about their ‘personal brands’, people often say things that make you wonder if they even thought it through at all.

If you went to a seminar or training and the facilitator started to speak, would you interrupt them to air your opinions? No, you wouldn’t. The key to learning new strategies, coming up with great ideas, brand new innovations, etc. for your business is by listening, learning, and forming your opinions from the things you have learned.

Ability to Express Yourself & Literally Convey Your Thoughts

It’s very important to know how to speak. It’s very important to know how to express yourself and convey your thoughts whether that’s through speech or in writing. I mean think of all the IG lives you’d be doing as an entrepreneur, think of Livestreams, etc. especially now that video content is on the rise. How will you get on top of it and bring your A-game to video if you cannot even speak good grammar?

Running a successful business, whether it is going to be predominantly online or not, requires that you, the founder should be able to express yourself, I mean it’s the natural thing to do. I always say this, one very special skill that everyone (and I mean everyone) needs to get is writing skills. You are going to be writing emails, copies, web content, social media captions, proposals, pitch decks, etc. That cannot be outsourced so get the necessary skills that you need to.

Ability to Sympathize with Others

One very outstanding thing about Jesus Christ was that He had compassion for people. His was beyond sympathy, it was deeper, it was compassion and we have been called to be like Christ. So as a founder, where’s your sympathetic side?

I used to work with someone who showed a total lack of care for me when I had an emergency and I was surprised. When we eventually had time to trash things out, he apologized and has since become really empathetic towards the people around him.

Being this way makes you human, afterall, you are. You become loved by the people around you because they can feel that you genuinely care fore them. This simple act of kindness breeds loyalty, whether that’s from clients, employees or your audience in general.

Ability to Work with Others

Let me tell you a shot story. I was part of a project in 2022 where I had to work on a campaign with a popular strategist (name withheld) who supposedly studied and lived abroad for many years.

This strategist had so many good iedeas but would either work on them on his own or would refrain frm giving his own opinions about the work. Long and short of the story, he got sidelined by our project manager because who has time, and many of us will never look at him with the same admiration again.

You’re going to be collaborating with other creators, you’ll be working in a team, you’ll have projects to work on, you need people. Teamwork is the lifeblood of any venture that is going to suceed.

Leave ego aside, I know it sounds very good to say “I worked on XYZ myself, that was totally my idea”, etc. but never underestimate the power of working on a team.

Ability to Remain Unswayed by Other People’s Successes

One thing I want you to know is that there’s room for everyone to thrive, there’s literally enough room at the top. So when others are making waves, it’s not the time to hunker down and start feeling bad.

In fact, what you should do is to leverage on people’s successes. When someone is succeeding at something, instead of getting jealous, collaborate with them and ride on the waves of their success.

We usually say this in our Church “When God blesses your neighbour, it shows that God is in your neighbourhood.

Conclusion

These 5 skills are very important soft skills that will help you grow both as an individual and as a business. People will tell you to learn how to create strategies, marketing plans, and all but even after you learn those things, soft skills will keep you in business for long.