The Empowered Entrepreneur — by Zach Marañon
December 20, 2023

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Hey bud,

In letter #032, I talked about how embracing the short-term pain of self-discipline is crucial for success.

This applies in life, and in business.

The problem, however, is that self-discipline is such a broad topic to touch on.

It’s hard to take action from just knowing that self-discipline is important.

You may wonder,

“What exactly do I develop self-discipline in?”

In today’s issue of the Empowered Entrepreneur, I’ll share with you the 5 evergreen skills that I’ve observed in my (so far) 6 short years of working that make people successful.

You can filter self-discipline through the lens of these 5 skills, and identify which you want to develop self-discipline in.

Let’s get into it.

The 5 Evergreen Skills of Business

When I think of the word “evergreen” I imagine a lush field where flowers are always in bloom and the climate is always perfect.

In business, evergreen skills mean skills that always have value and are always in demand.

These are skills that can apply to 100% of industries.

Mastering just one of these skills will create a significant impact in your life and business.

1. Marketing

Marketing is all about getting qualified individuals interested in a product or service that you offer.

“Qualified” means that they fit into the ideal customer avatar that you are offering your products or services for (because it’s futile to market or sell to everyone).

There are many ways to do this:

• Ads

• Social Media

• Word of mouth

• Email marketing

• Cold Outreach

Since my background is in life insurance sales, I’ll speak from that perspective.

I personally used social media marketing for my insurance sales business.

It worked well for me since my ideal customer avatar were family, friends, and friends of friends.

Now, I use a combination of social media marketing, and email marketing for my marketing efforts.

(These emails I send you for example — apart from being a way to help you level up are also a way for me to market my coaching services to you).

The goal of marketing is to help potential prospects go from:

• Unaware of a problem they have that your product / service can solve

• Aware of a problem they have but aren’t aware of any solutions

• Aware of potential solutions to solve their problem (but still aren’t aware of your product / service)

• Aware of your product / service but aren’t completely aware of everything it can do for them

• Very aware of your product / service and what it does but they haven’t decided to purchase yet

Just as a playful thought for you to ponder on, where do you feel you are in these 5 levels of awareness in regards to my coaching offer?

(Yes — I’m breaking the fourth wall, in a sense. Lol).

2. Sales

Sales is all about having an actual conversation with an interested buyer, and getting them to purchase your product or service.

Marketing then leads to sales.

I’ve observed that those who have developed this skill well are those that make a lot of money.

If you are employed and are considering of starting your own business one day, this is one of the most important skills you can learn as a business owner.

If you are an entrepreneur, this is one of the skills you need to master.

Why?

Sales is all about influencing people about your ideas, beliefs, and convictions.

From an internal perspective, if you want to hire top talent — you need to have great sales skills.

It will allow for them to believe in the idea that working in your company is highly beneficial for them.

From an external perspective, if you want to convert prospects into customers — you need to have great sales skills.

It will allow you to help customers identify specific problems that they may not even know they had in the first place.

This will later allow you to help them solve those specific problems using your product or service.

If you can master the skill of sales, it is almost impossible for you not to be successful.

Personally, I haven’t mastered this skill yet, but I’m very much aware that I need to constantly work on this skill if I want my business to be successful.

3. Speaking

Speaking is all about communicating well through spoken word.

Effective communication is the very core of human interaction.

If you can articulate your thoughts and ideas in a convincing and influential way, people will listen.

When people listen to you, it means you have their attention.

And in today’s society, attention is the new currency.

People I look up to when it comes to being good at speaking are people like:

• Patrick Bet-David

• Anthony Robbins

• Simon Sinek

• Gary Vaynerchuck

• Jordan Peterson

These are people that are exceptional speakers in their own rights, and because of that they have seen phenomenal success in their fields.

4. Writing

Writing is another powerful way to communicate to others.

I’ve found that it’s as important as speaking, especially when it comes to the type of businesses that are built on the internet.

Think about it, the backbone of every online business is writing.

Persuasive writing gives you social media posts that draw you in and compel you to read an entire post (even if it takes you a couple of minutes to finish).

Writing is the foundation of each piece of content you consume online.

From the reels to the videos to the podcasts you consume. Each of these examples most likely started with first forming a script or even just an outline.

This is one of the other reasons I started a newsletter series.

I wanted to start to develop this evergreen skill of writing.

This is also the evergreen skill I feel I am lacking in among the 5.

5. Leadership

Leadership is getting people to do things they wouldn’t do on their own, and setting a great example for others to follow.

It’s all about being able to cast a clear vision that others believe in and are willing to move with you towards.

The role of a leader is to keep holding up that vision in spite of challenges, trials, and tribulations.

There are many other aspects of leadership that I won’t go into here like:

• Influence

• Integrity

• Decision-making ability

• Compassion

• Adaptability

The key point here is that it is the core evergreen skill that the previous 4 are built on.

In Conclusion

The 5 evergreen skills are:

1. Marketing

2. Sales

3. Speaking

4. Writing

5. Leadership

Master 1 of these, and you are sure to survive today’s business world. Master all of these, and you are sure to thrive.

As something to ponder on, I want you to think about which of these skills is most important for you to develop right now.

Once you’ve identified it, try learning and applying that skill at least once per day.

Read something once a day around that skill.

Do something once a day that practices that skill.

This is what you will develop self-discipline around.

Work on this for 6-12 months and see how your business changes.

For me, I’m working on the evergreen skill of writing as my top priority.

I’ll continue to work on it until my business flourishes.

If you want to learn more on developing self-discipline, you can read the letter I posted last Saturday here (in case you haven’t opened it yet).

All the love,
All the power,

— Zach Marañon

P.S. Whenever you are ready, there are 3 ways that I can be of help to you:

1. Follow me on Instagram here if you want a source of bite-sized ideas and content that can help you reach your next level in life.

2. Book a free kick-off conversation for one-on-one coaching here if you are an entrepreneur or sales professional currently looking to create solutions to a problem or challenge in your life but you seem to be stuck.

3. Download my goal setting guide here if you are wanting to create clarity on your desired outcomes (Free until 100 downloads — and then I convert it to a paid resource).

P.P.S. If you are from the Philippines and are looking for a personal mastery workshop to help you experience growth and transformation, check out Discovery by I Am Plus Coaching and Training Systems. It’s where my journey of self evolution personally got fast-tracked.