With the recent CPI (Consumer Price Index) data reporting year-over-year inflation over 6.2%, now is the time to be thinking about high income skills and how you can acquire them. This is the highest rate of inflation that we have experienced in the past 30 years!
Given the astounding rate at which your money is declining in value, you will need to bring in a serious salary in order to have a financially secure future.
With that in mind, let’s discuss a high income skills that could earn you five figures (or more) per month.
How to Acquire High Income Skills
As I’ve written about in the past, money is a scarce, in-demand resource. Therefore, to get more of it, you have to make yourself into a scarce, in-demand resource. This is because people will only trade their money for things of equal or greater value.
You aren’t yet commanding an high income, the reason is simple: You yourself are not yet a scarce, in-demand resource. As a result, you can’t trade your skills for other scarce, in-demand resources (money).
So, what’s the good news here? The good news is that now that you know the “recipe” for how to command more money, you can take the appropriate actions to position yourself as more valuable within the marketplace.
High Income Skills to Command More Money
Below are six skills that you can teach yourself to quickly command a higher income. For each of these opportunities, you can either:
- Offer these new skills to your current employer, thereby positioning yourself for a substantial raise.
- Offer your newly acquired skills to other people in your spare time to create a second stream of income.
- Start your own business and use your newly acquired skills to create a full-time income.
Because all three of these approaches work well, it’s up to you to decide which one you want to pursue. With that in mind, let’s dive in.
1. Online Paid Media
According to eMarketer, digital ad spending now accounts for more than half (54.2%) of all U.S. ad spending and the annual spending has soared to over $129 billion per year. Today, more advertising dollars are spent online than offline, which is what makes this such a phenomenal career path.
Online paid media involves running:
- Google Adword campaigns
- Display Ads
- Social Media Ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, or TikTok
- Video Ads on YouTube
- Podcast ads
- Etc.
Nearly every major company (and most of the smaller ones too) now run online ads, so this is an incredibly high demand skill to acquire. To learn this skill, check out the digital marketing courses on Udemy.com.
That is not an affiliate link. I simply believe in Udemy and the educational courses it is putting out, many of which it sells for $20 or less!
2. Podcasting
According to Forbes, an estimated 100 million people now listen to podcasts each month and that figure is expected to soar to 125 million by 2022.
With podcasting on the rise, there is a growing need for studio set-up, audio editing, and podcast promotion. Additionally, more and more podcasters are hiring for help with contacting guests, writing show summaries, arranging transcriptions, handling branding, and beyond.
If you can teach yourself to be an audiophile (that is, a person who is enthusiastic about high-quality sound reproduction), then you’ll have immediate value in today’s economy.
To learn this skill, explore YouTube videos on the topic or grab one of Udemy’s masterclasses on podcasting.
3. Video Production
Video is one of the biggest trends in of the last few years, with an estimated 81% of businesses now using video as a marketing tool. That statistic is astounding.
If you learn how to record, edit, and distribute high-quality video, then you’ll be in extremely high demand.
To learn this skill, consider grabbing one of Udemy’s masterclasses on video production.
4. Copywriting
Copywriting is the art of writing to sell, that is, persuasive writing. Teach yourself this skill through books and courses and you can immediately command six-figures or more.
Why is this? The main reason is that great copywriters don’t just get paid a flat fee to write. Rather they collect an up-front fee, as well as a percentage of the sales that are produced from their work (often 0.5 to 2.5%).
If you negotiate your terms right, you may be able to write a content piece that produces income for you for months to years after you complete it. If you don’t believe me, look up famous copywriters like Gary Halbert, Joe Sugarman, David Ogilvy, and Jay Abraham. They have made fortunes from this particular skillset.
Yet again, Udemy is a great way to learn this skill, because they have an excellent course on it priced at only $17.99.
5. Post Production Skills
Increasingly, businesses are using one piece of content, such as a single video, and repurposing it into dozens of different types of content pieces. For example, a single video could be:
- Turned into dozens of shorter video clips for use across social media (Facebook/Meta, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and LinkedIn)
- Quotes from it could be made into quote cards
- The audio could be turned into a podcast
- The audio could be transcribed into a blog article
- The audio could be released as a LinkedIn article
- Screenshots from could be used to make more social media posts
- Etc, etc, etc.
This skill set is known as “post production” work, and in today’s modern world, it is needed by nearly every business worldwide. Popularized by the influencer Gary Vee, the term “post production” is now both a job title and a skill-set that is in extremely high demand.
If you don’t know how to acquire this skill, simply check out Gary Vee’s guide to “How to Make 64 Pieces of Content in One Day.”
Read that article and its accompanying slide deck a couple of times, sprinkle in a dash of creativity, and you’ll have yourself an all new career!
6. Phone and Video Sales
What most people don’t know is that sales is a skill that can easily be learned and sales people who sell high-ticket products can easily make $100,000 to $250,000 or more per year. Yes, those numbers are accurate. Sales positions can pay extremely well!
If you don’t know where to start learning sales skills, then I’d recommend that you look up Grant Cardone, a renowned sales trainer, on YouTube. Search for his videos specifically about sales training and you’ll find a ton of amazing content.
He also has a $49 course that will teach you the basics of how to make high-ticket sales. The term “high ticket” simply means that you’re selling high priced products, usually priced at $5,000 or more.
Once you feel like you understand the basics of selling, then go on a job board like Indeed and apply for “high ticket sales” positions where you will be paid a base salary plus commissions.
Your other option is to join a company like Cutco, which it is renowned for the sales training that it offers. Once you get trained by a company like that, you can move other positions that better match your interests.
High Income Skills for a Financially Free Future
The reality is, if you want to be paid more than you are right now, then you have to make yourself more valuable to others. That’s how our business (and life) works. I hope this article gave you some simple, straightforward, and actionable ways to bump up your income today.
Which of these high income skills are you going to learn first? Let me know in comments below.