Become Recession Proof in 2023

1% Better 12/29/22

Dec 29, 2022

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Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself
🍾 1 Year Anniversary Special: Big Announcement

Happy Thursday, Everyone! I hope you had a fantastic holiday! The human experience is largely about finding purpose. One simple method I use to gain a small sense of purpose is learning new skill sets. I recently started an Adobe Premiere Pro course on Udemy (an excellent online course site). I want to become a video editing wizard in the new year so that I can send you all some compelling video content.

If you’re ever feeling down or have those periods of feeling like you’re in a funk like I do (it’s only natural), I’d recommend just trying to pick up a new skill for free online. I find it to be the best cure for those times when I feel a bit down spiritually. You can be on Youtube learning a new programming language in minutes. If you get the post New Years funk, try clicking one of these videos and pick up something that gives you a new small sense of purpose.

Learn Javascript

Learn Adobe Premiere Pro (video editing)

Learn Photoshop

Anyway, onto the alpha…

Latest Twitter Thread:

NFT God @NFT_GOD

Losing money without learning lessons is a mistake Losing money while learning lessons is just tuition Here are my 22 NFT Lessons Learned in 2022 (please learn from my mistakes):

Become Recession Proof in 2023

A recession is coming in 2023. This is all but inevitable. Almost every major bank has predicted it at this point. What typically comes with a recession? Companies that spent money like Paris Hilton in the early 2000s start to cut costs, and sometimes those costs are jobs.

The point of this column isn’t to scare you. The point is to convey that picking up multiple income streams has never been more essential. Let’s go over some of the skills you should be building and ways you can use them to make yourself recession-proof in 2023.

The internet has never made it easier to bring in extra revenue. There are two main reasons for this. One) picking up new skills is free and easy. Two) leveraging your skills to create income is only a few clicks away. I’m going to go over five skills you can pick up for free online and the ways you can turn those skills into revenue.

Your initial gut reaction might be, “I don’t have enough time to pick up any of these skills” or “these are too difficult”. I promise with just a little effort on a nightly basis after work, you can pick up a lot of these skills easily. I’m talking 15 minutes a night.

One thing I’d recommend to do simultaneously while learning any of these: grow your social media presence. By having an audience, it’ll be 100x easier to network and find roles. When I say having a Twitter audience is a superpower, I’m not being hyperbolic. Let’s get into the skills and side gigs:

Writing: Newsletter (premium or tips), copywriting agency, online courses

Writing is one of the two skills everyone in the world needs (the other being sales). Writing makes you more valuable in every aspect of your life. There are a thousand ways to turn writing into a revenue generator online. My favorite is what you’re reading now, newsletters.

Newsletters are the next frontier of content and social media. Newsletters are easy to produce, not dictated by an algorithm, and easily monetizable. If I could invest in Substack right now, I would. That’s how strongly I feel about it. Anyone can start one for free too.

I’ll get more into the newsletter playbook in a future article, but do yourself a favor and start a Substack. Send out a weekly article even if it’s to nobody. Build that skillset. Push people from your Twitter to your newsletter. Turn your tip jar on so people can send you a gift if they enjoy your content. Then eventually, once you’ve built up a strong following, you can turn on the premium tier and ask people to subscribe to you.

There are many other ways to profit from writing. I’ve had NFT projects contact me and ask me to ghostwrite articles and threads. This has been a great source of revenue as well. If you practice your writing then advertise it through social media like Twitter, you’ll start getting inbound leads looking to leverage your skills.

Want to pick up writing? I’d recommend picking up The Elements of Style and The Copywriter’s Handbook. By far my two favorite books on writing.

Programming: Build and sell software, join a project team

I get some complaints that I talk about programming too much. Sorry not sorry. I took out a $160,000 loan so I can get a piece of paper that said ‘computer science degree’ on it. I also think it’s one of the most valuable skills on the planet to learn. Learning how to code boosts your value in so many ways. It instantly makes you more valuable in your career in almost every field. It also opens up the potential for side gigs.

With a strong coding skillset, you can build your own software and sell it. There’s tons of room for new analytics tools to be built. NFT analytics tools are making millions right now. You can also join a team as a developer. Whether it’s an NFT project or another small team online, many projects are looking to pay developers good money for their time and knowledge.

As I’ll recommend with all these skills, build up your social media presence, tweet about programming, and inbound leads will come to you.

My favorite Javascript course (free)

Community Management: Manage communities for projects on Twitter or Discord

Community managers are becoming more in demand by the day. As digital marketing shifts from static ads to more modern marketing like community building, many positions are starting to open up for people to help build and manage these communities.

EVERY NFT project hires community managers. Traditional Web 2 brands are starting to get in on it as well. Even I’m playing with the idea of community managers for the 1% Club Discord. Project founders have a million responsibilities on their plate. Interacting with the community should be a part of the job, but is impossible to do 24/7.

I’d highly recommend learning community management skills. First, I’d get onto Discord and study well-run servers. What is the layout of the channels in the server? How are the admins running them? What are the managers doing in the server to keep the conversation flowing? Take notes on all of this. Bonus points if you learn how to script Discord bots. This skill is SUPER in demand.

Video Recording: Youtube ad $ and Tik Tok creator revenue share

Even if you don’t have a massive following on Youtube, it’s still possible to make decent money on ad revenue. One of the easiest ways to build a following is by recording review videos. You can review any technology or product you’re currently using. These videos get big numbers on Youtube.

I’d recommend studying other popular review videos and see how they record. What edits do they make, and how do they create thumbnails? Finding a niche like this and going all in can net you a nice little revenue stream.

I’ll be taking on this journey in 2023, so expect more tips and tricks as I progress! No fancy equipment is needed. Plenty of people have made quality videos on Youtube just with their smartphones.

Editing: Video and audio editing

Content creation is only becoming more popular among the average technology user. Social media platforms like Twitter, Youtube, and Tik Tok are turning anyone with a smartphone into a creator. New media companies are popping up every day left and right. ALL of these companies need editors.

Typically these content creators are more focused on filming and shooting rather than editing and are more than willing to pay people to edit their content. Editing is 90% of the game when it comes to Youtube/Tik Tok success, so these are critical skills to learn in 2023. In fact, I’m picking up Premiere Pro as we speak.

Pick up Premiere Pro and Photoshop, shoot a couple of videos, edit them for your portfolio, build a social media presence, and advertise your portfolio. You should be able to find leads in no time.

If you’re looking to take the exact course I’m taking on Premiere Pro, you can check it out on Udemy here. There are plenty of free content and courses on Youtube, though.

Conclusion

Being prepared for any economic environment is critical. With a potential recession incoming, it’s never been more important to increase your value and pick up additional revenue streams. In 2022 I built out my writing revenue stream. I was successfully able to do this by putting in a little time every night after work.

In 2023 I’ll be building my video recording revenue stream. I hope some of the resources I provided here sparked an idea for you. I’d love to hear what side hustles you’re working on! Feel free to reply back or comment down below. Happy building!

1% Club Content Coming This Week:

The 1% Club private Discord is officially open! This is the home base for everything growth mindset. It’s been a blast interacting with everyone in the Discord. I’ll continue to be in there every day helping build out sub communities and bringing as much value as humanly possible on a daily basis.

Exclusive 1% Club Content: How to Get Started in Video Creation. This week I’ll be going over my video recording setup and giving you some options for cheap, intermediate, and expensive setups. I’ll also give you a couple of ideas on how to get started with video recording for Youtube and Tik Tok

Previous 1% Club exclusive content:

How to Build POWERFUL Content Around Your Brand

Write Tweets That Attract BIG Attention

Replies of the Week

Thank you so much to everyone who’s replied to my tweets or emailed me this week! Look forward to hearing from more of you soon! Take care and have an excellent weekend!