3 Skills That Helped Me Build a 6-Figure Online Business in Less Than a Year

And how you, too, can use their power.

For me, the pandemic was a blessing. At least business-wise.

The Coronavirus forced my partner and me to rethink our entrepreneurial path. And as we had plenty of time to do so during the lockdown, we ended up with an entirely new business.

Last year, we were hosting personal development workshops and courses for young professionals in our city.

Today, we’re running a fully digital business that already made 6-figures in revenue this year.

Even though we’ve already been into online business and digital marketing, we started from scratch at the end of March.

We built two new websites: One dedicated to personal growth and one for writers. We also started two email lists from zero because the entire community we built prior was a German one.

Due to the local restrictions, we had plenty of time and we spent almost every free minute working on our dreams.

But it eventually paid off and we managed to build a solid foundation in less than a year.

And looking back, this massive growth was mainly possible because of three critical skills.

#1 (Copy) Writing

Writing is a critical skill, no matter what kind of online business you want to build.

Even if you’re not a writer, you’ll likely need texts for your website, your sales pages, email newsletters, product descriptions, ads, and so much more.

While content writing is meant to educate, engage, and build brand awareness, the goal of copywriting is to convert.

A great copywriter can turn a reader into a subscriber and a subscriber into a customer.

In our business, content writing, as well as copywriting, are incredibly important.

I make five figures per month by writing on Medium and creating content for a few clients.

But we also reach our readers and subscribers through my written articles.

Once someone subscribes to one of our lists, we pitch our products through the copy on our landing pages and sales letters.

Writing is how we generate leads and how we ultimately sell.

No matter what precisely you want to sell, the odds are high that you, too, need to create engaging texts as well as persuasive sales copy.

And the best news is that you can learn both skills if you’re willing to invest some time and money.

Most people believe that great writing is based on talent, but that’s not true. It’s a skill anyone can learn. But what’s even better is the fact that excellent writing can be analyzed copied.

Whenever you build a new sales page, you can look at the sales pages of your customers.

And whenever you write a new article for your company blog, you can look at existing content and create something even better than what you find online.

Great writing isn’t always based on talent or creativity. Quite often, it’s a matter of strategy and analysis.

#2 (Persuasive) Public Speaking

I’m good at public speaking because I hosted more than 30 workshops over the past three years. Yet, I wasn’t aware of how much speaking would influence the success of my digital business.

But in the past six months, my public speaking skills had a significant impact on our revenue.

A) I’m hosting live trainings in my Facebook group for Medium writers, where I answer questions and share valuable insights. Additionally, we launch our products through webinars and sales videos.

B) I’m invited to lots of interviews either about entrepreneurship and business or about personal growth. If I wasn’t persuasive, I couldn’t convince listeners and viewers to become a subscriber or even customer of my business.

And C) I offer free insight calls for those who want to join one of our educational programs but still have questions. During these calls, I must be confident and persuasive, that’s why my public speaking skills are critical to generating sales.

Even if you run a digital business, you might need to show your face and interact with your audience.

The odds are high that hundreds, if not thousands, of people are doing the exact same thing as you. So you need to find a way to stand out from the crowd and build a relationship with your audience.

Particularly educational online businesses often share similar content and sell comparable products and courses. That’s why your speaking skills can make or break the buying decision of a potential customer.

In my experience, the combination of emotional writing and persuasive speaking is the perfect match to convince prospects of your product or service.

And the easiest way to improve your speaking skills is by practicing it on your own.

Record short videos talking about a topic you’re knowledgable and passionate about and rewatch them to find out what you could improve.

To take it one step further, send them to friends, family, or great public speakers, and ask for their feedback.

Once you feel ready, take any opportunity to practice in front of people. You can join public speaking associations or start a small mastermind group where you support each other through constructive feedback.

#3 Modeling of Excellence

One of the main reasons why I succeed in business is because I analyze my industry in-depth.

I’m a successful writer on Medium.com because I’ve analyzed the thriving writers for almost two years.

I have Excel sheets full of successful headlines so that I can use the same structures myself. Plus, I went through almost any course and book I found on the topic.

Success is never a coincidence. It’s the result of dedicated action and of having clear goals.

Only if you know what you want can you analyze those who already have what you want and figure out what they did to get there.

Before launching Personal Growth Base, my partner and I analyzed hundreds of personal development websites. We know almost any of our competitors because we did our homework before making investments.

And while analyzing them, we modeled their best work.

When creating new products, we look at dozens of alternatives so that we can create something even better than anything that’s already out there.

Modeling of Excellence is a term that is mainly used in NLP, but it can be transferred to almost anything you want to learn.

Whatever skill you want to develop, you always have the opportunity to learn from those who already mastered the craft.

If you want to succeed in business, learn from those who create great results.

If you want to succeed as a writer, make sure to understand how the most successful authors write.

And if you want to be a top CEO, look at the path of those who’re already leading huge companies.

Whatever it is that you’re trying to achieve, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, you can look at those who’re ahead of you and learn from their past. Or as Austin Kleon states:

“Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.”

Final Thoughts

If you had asked me about the most critical skills to build a successful online business a year ago, I probably would have answered digital marketing, UX design, or building funnels.

And while all of those matter, none of them was as important as writing, speaking, and modeling of excellence.

A beautiful website is worthless if you can’t sell products. So is an Instagram profile with 20k followers if you can’t turn them into paying customers.

And a great funnel isn’t worth a penny if you can’t get people into the funnel in the first place.

If I had to start from scratch, I would heavily invest in the three skills that had the most impact on building a 6-figure online business in less than a year.

• Improve your writing skills: Understanding the basics of emotional and persuasive writing will allow you to convert readers and visitors into subscribers and subscribers into paying customers. If you’re not into writing, make sure to hire someone to do it for you. The easiest way to lose time and money as a digital entrepreneur is to write content and copy that sucks.
• Strengthen your public speaking and pitching skills: In addition to writing, you can also communicate and persuade through video or audio. A confident and inspiring speaker will always generate more sales than someone who’s afraid to record videos.
• Analyze your heroes: You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, pick a few heroes who are already living your dream and learn from them. You won’t ever succeed by merely copying someone, but if you carefully model their strategies and add your own unique touch, your success becomes inevitable.

Wanna build or scale your online business but don’t know HOW? Download my FREE Framework.