Top 13 Communication Skills to Earn More Money Fast

Communication cuts across every aspect of our lives but sadly, the ability to effectively convey information is a skill that could do with some improvement in the vast majority of us. What’s worse, many do not realize that they are lacking in this area.

No matter the career path you've chosen, you are sure to come across and make use of some form of this important life skill.

So, in this article, we’ll break down the top 13 skills to earn more money fast, barriers to effective communication, and walk you through a few ways to make more money with these communication skills.

Let’s jump right in!

What is Communication?

As human beings, we rely heavily on communication to be the bridge that connects us to those around us. We are constantly communicating with others—whether we plan to or not—through conversations, body language, our expressions, email, social media and so much more.

In his 1992 book Communication as Culture, media critic and theorist James Carey defined communication as “a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed”, stating further that for us to define our reality we should share our experiences with others.

Communication skills are often ranked as one of the most sought-after soft skills among employers—93% of them expect their employees to demonstrate the capacity to communicate clearly, among other things.

The goal of communication is to ensure that there is a shared understanding of the information being communicated.

Communication can only take place with the presence of both the listener and the speaker. The roles of both are vital to communication. While the speaker imparts information, he must have a listener to receive and digest the information.

Barriers to Effective Communication

To make money off your communication skills, you must understand that there is a marked difference between just talking and communicating.

On the surface, passing information across seems easy enough but if you don't pay attention to the person you're communicating with and the atmosphere around the conversation, there will be room for misunderstanding.

Let’s now take a look at some of the barriers to effective communication.

1. Lack of Interest

It is harder for us as human beings to pay attention to things we have no interest in, and this is just as true for communication as anything else. A person with no interest in the topic of discussion will likely disregard anything you have to say.

The best way to overcome this problem is to present the information in a way that is appealing to your target audience. You first need to be comfortable with your communication skills and figure out what works for your audience, then apply it when communicating with them. Once one or both parties lose interest, communication fails.

2. Inability to Listen to Others

Active listening is a crucial part of effective communication that we will discuss later in this article. If you're not able to listen, you won't be able to engage anyone in a proper conversation.

Communicating without listening is bound to be disastrous because you will make assumptions about others’ wants and needs. And these assumptions are often incorrect since they are based on our individual perception of things rather than reality. Remember: communication is a two-way street, not unidirectional.

3. Lack of Transparency & Trust

Effective communication thrives on transparency and trust. Once these are absent, you leave room for speculation that might not always be true.

If you are the kind of person that says A and does B, no one will ever want to pay attention to any information you want to share. Gaining the trust of your target audience is a must for you as a communicator.

4. Differences in Communication Styles

We as humans have different features, mannerisms and other attributes that make us unique and our diverse communication styles also contribute to this nature.

Our different communication styles are obvious in our individual styles of approach and how much detail we include in the information we pass across. No matter the communication style we might favor, it is important that we do not get so entrenched in our style that we forget that our target audience might not favor such a communication style.

5. Conflicts

Although we cannot necessarily avoid conflict since it can happen for several reasons and on different scales, when it does happen it can become a barrier to effective communication.

No matter the nature of the conflict that arises, the important thing is that it gets resolved. When conflict is not properly resolved, it only serves to further limit effective communication.

6. Cultural, Religious, and Language Differences

If you intend to reach people far and wide, you must understand that people have different cultural dispositions, and most times, these cultures affect how they communicate.

Religion can also stand as another barrier that affects how people communicate with one another. A person's language also plays a large role in how they communicate with others.

If you intend to make money off your communication skills it is important to understand these differences in culture, religion, and language so you do not offend anyone.

Language barriers often consist of how people express themselves both verbally and nonverbally. Some issues that have been identified as language barriers include different languages, strong accents, and the use of slang.

7. Psychological/ Emotional Barriers

The mental and psychological issues that form barriers to effective communication are numerous. Your emotional stability is critical in determining how easy it will be for you to receive or pass information across.

You might have to deal with issues like stage fright, speech disorders, phobias, depression, and others if you want to build a career for yourself with your communication skills.

Psychological conditions are a bit harder to control and pose a serious threat to communication. Conditions like dyslexia and shrillness of voice can create physiological barriers to effective communication if not handled properly.

8. Technological Barriers

Technology has become a big part of our everyday lives and the technological advancement in how we communicate is nothing short of amazing. As much as there have been several positive impacts of these technological advancements, there have also been a fair number of negative impacts.

The most obvious technological barrier to communication is the cost of some of the tools that you might need to make money in this field. With the constant development in technology, it can be hard to keep up with the newest developments.

There has also been the development of multiple communication platforms. With the wide variety of platforms that do the same thing, choosing the best communication platform for you is potentially a lot harder. Ensure you research properly before making your decision.

9. Perception Barriers

People's perceptions on different issues vary, they can perceive the same things in different ways. You must gather knowledge on perception levels to communicate effectively with your audience.

Once you have an in-depth understanding of this, there will be less room for differing interpretations.

10. Clarity and Consistency

Whether you're a blogger, public speaker, or influencer, you need to ensure that the information you are giving is clear and easy to understand so you don't put off your audience. This is especially true for business correspondence.

This is considered a barrier to effective communication because in addition to your audience losing interest in your message, putting out unclear information will also lead to misinterpretation that could hurt your brand.

The information you release should be consistent because if your messaging across the different platforms you handle is inconsistent, it will lead to a lack of understanding and trust.

Best Communication Skills to Develop

1. Active Listening

Active listening is a skill that goes beyond hearing; it requires understanding, remembering, and responding thoughtfully to the information heard.

Although active listening is difficult to master, it can be acquired and developed over time with constant practice and lots of patience.

This is a communication skill that involves all your senses. As you are giving total attention to the speaker, you should also show that you are listening. Otherwise, the speaker may conclude that the topic of discussion does not interest you.

You can convey interest through the use of verbal and nonverbal cues like maintaining eye contact, nodding your head and smiling, and many others. When you provide such feedback, the speaker will feel more comfortable.

Listening is the most fundamental component of interpersonal communication skills.

Here are a few tips to improve your active listening:

1. Maintain Eye Contact

In most Western cultures, eye contact is a key ingredient of effective communication. We are expected to look each other in the eye when we talk.

In a conversation, it is offensive to look everywhere except at your conversation partners. In our digitalized world, virtual meetings have come to stay and if you are talking to people virtually, then it is best to look into the camera to give the impression that you are looking right at the person at the other end.

2. Stay Relaxed and Attentive

Once you make eye contact, the next step is for you to relax. The important thing is to be attentive and absorb all the information that is being given out. You can look away once in a while so you don't end up looking like a creep.

You will have to screen out background distractions and noise. Also, avoid getting carried away by the speaker's mannerisms or accent. You will also have to ensure you are not distracted by your thoughts, biases, or feelings.

3. Keep an Open Mind

To be a good listener, you need to listen without criticizing what that person wants to tell you. Once you indulge in judgmental amusements, your effectiveness as a listener has been compromised.

The speaker uses language to express the thought and feelings in their mind. The only way to find out what these thoughts are is to listen without jumping to conclusions.

4. Picture What the Speaker is Saying

It helps when you allow your mind to create mental images of what is being discussed. Once you are focused, your brain will automatically start creating an abstract arrangement of concepts or a literal picture along the line of what is being discussed to aid your understanding.

If you listen to someone for a long time, it is best to remember and concentrate on keywords and phrases.

5. Don't Interrupt the Speaker When You Have Questions

You should wait till when the speaker takes a pause instead of interrupting the speaker just to get clarification on something they said.

Questions often show that you've been listening and should be encouraged but ensure that your question does not lead to an area that has nothing to do with the topic of discussion.

In a situation where your question has led the speaker astray, you should be responsible for asking questions that will get the conversation back on track.

6. Feel The Speaker's Emotions

Empathy is key to active listening, your effectiveness as an active listener is only sure when you can feel the emotions of the person speaking to you and convey those emotions through your facial expressions and words.

Empathy takes energy and concentration but it does facilitate good communication.

7. Give Regular Feedback

You need to show that you understand the speaker’s feelings to give proper feedback. If you do not completely understand the speaker’s feelings, then a good tip would be to occasionally paraphrase the content of the message.

Your feedback provides the speaker with the reassurance that you are listening, and that you are following their train of thought—not being carried away by your own thoughts.

8. Pay attention to nonverbal cues

You can glean a lot of information about a person without them speaking a word to you. Even over the phone, you can learn a lot about a person from the cadence and tone of their voice.

When you are with someone physically, you can easily detect their enthusiasm, boredom, or irritation through the expression around the eyes, the set of the mouth, the slope of the shoulders.

You should not ignore these clues since words only convey a fraction of the message.

Irrespective of your industry, almost everything you do will depend on the relationships you have been able to form with others. If you have not developed your active listening skill then it will be harder for you to develop meaningful relationships.

2. Tone of Voice

Contrary to what you might think, tone of voice does not only cover how you speak. It is also not the same as good writing and strong messaging; tone of voice goes a level higher than both of them.

You use tone of voice to craft a unique and recognizable voice for the communication of your brand.

Once all the content you put out has the same tone of voice, your audience will recognize you as the same person speaking whichever way they have to communicate with you.

Consistency in your tone of voice communicates reliability and shows your audience that dealing with you is bound to be a good experience.

The impression you leave on your audience who hear and read you is the main focus of your tone of voice. Everyone on the planet has their own way of expressing themselves, but your tone of voice distinguishes you in the following ways:

1. Educates Your Audience About You

With a good tone of voice, you get the opportunity to advertise yourself in the best way possible. Your target audience often determines your tone of voice. For example, while your tone could be authoritative and professional if you're targeting business people, it should be more light-hearted and quirky if your target audience is teenagers.

Over time a consistent tone will help you build a likable personal brand. Be honest; don't market yourself as what you're not, the key to longevity is honesty. Your choice in the different types of tones of voice should be the one that best depicts your values.

2. Makes You Different

Your amazing brand will probably be perceived as dull or the norm without the right tone of voice. You will most likely be lumped together with others if you do not consider voice and tone.

Tone of voice is best deployed to demonstrate your warmth, expertise, sense of humor, or other attributes that you want to showcase to the audience, and this is what will set you apart from your competitors.

3. Builds Trust

Your personality is usually tied to your tone of voice. Your audience starts to form an image of the person they are communicating with based on the tone of voice you present.

When you develop a consistent tone of voice across all connections that customers have to your brand, including all your social media channels, you appear more genuine, familiar and put your audience or customers at ease. There is a huge sense of comfort in familiarity because your audience can predict what to expect from you.

4. Can be used to influence and persuade

Once you have gained the trust of your potential customers, you can use this to influence their decisions and persuade them into doing business with you. After all, they are more likely to do business with someone they like and trust.

It is in the best interest of your brand to figure out who you are and ensure that your discovery reflects in the tone of your voice. After you’ve clearly outlined your values as a brand and how you want to be perceived, the next step is to make touchpoints that will refer back to these values.

You can choose to imitate some companies that create brand guidelines to help you stay consistent when relating with your audience.

3. Asking Questions

Due to the fact that we use information to learn, solve problems, aid our decision-making process, and understand others better, gathering information is considered a basic human activity.

To gain more information, we have to ask questions. Without asking questions, interpersonal communications will definitely fail. To successfully communicate with one another, we all have to ask and be asked questions during a conversation.

Questions and answers can be fascinating and entertaining. For certain careers, the ability to ask the right questions contributes directly to how successful the practitioners will be.

Although the most recognized type of questions are verbal, there are also non-verbal questions. A good example of this is raising your eyebrows, which could be translated to mean, “are you sure?” or “really?”. We use our facial expressions to ask different types of subtle questions at different times.

We really can’t exhaust the reasons why people ask questions but listed below are some of the most common reasons for questioning:

1. To Obtain Information

The main reason why we ask questions is to get useful information on different issues. A simple example of this would be asking someone for the time or directions.

2. To Help Maintain Control of a Conversation

Many times, the person asking the questions is usually the one in control of the conversation. Most assertive people take control of conversations through the questions they use to gather information.

3. To Find Out More About Another Person

Asking questions can be useful when you are trying to find out more about the respondent. This communication skill can be useful when you want to build rapport, show empathy, or just need to know the other person better.

4. To Clarify A Point

In communication, questions are frequently used to clarify something that the speaker might have said. When questions are used for clarification there is bound to be less room for confusion and more room for effective communication.

5. To Explore The Personality And Difficulties The Other Person May Have

You can use questions to explore the feelings, beliefs, ideas, and attitudes of whomever you are questioning. You can get a better glimpse into what a person is feeling with questions and understand their experiences better.

6. To Test Knowledge

We see questions all the time in quizzes, tests, and exams, where they are used to ascertain the knowledge level of the respondent.

7. To Provoke Further Thought

A great way to get people to give something further thought is to ask questions. In this context, questions are worded in a way that gets the person to view a topic in a new way.

No matter their nature, all questions fall into at least one—or more—of the following types:

• Open questions: These are questions that are used to gather information and facts.
• Probing questions: You can use probing questions to gather additional information.
• Hypothetical questions: These questions are used to suggest a new approach or introduce new ideas.
• Reflective questions: Reflective questions are used to check a person's understanding.
• Leading questions: Although these questions are used to help a person come to a conclusion that you feel would be better for them, they are not always well received. An example could be something like, “Have you considered giving the marketing role to Cole?”
• Deflective questions: These are questions that are used to redirect another person's attack in an aggressive or defiant situation.
• Closing questions: Other than bringing a discussion to a conclusion, closing questions also trigger agreement and commitment.

From the above explanation, we see that questions can be used for different purposes, such as providing structure, directing flow, or helping us to reach closure. Look for opportunities to use effective questions in your interactions with colleagues.

4. Body Language

Body language is simply the act of communicating nonverbally through the use of physical behavior, expressions, and mannerisms. You can help people be at ease, build trust, and connection with others using nonverbal communication.

However, if not handled properly you could also use nonverbal communication to create tension, confuse others, and create an uncomfortable environment.

You need to understand your body language to avoid situations where your body language communicates something different than what you are saying.

Non-verbal communication affects the words you speak in so many ways. It can contradict your words, reinforce your statement, substitute the meaning of what you might be trying to say, complement what you are trying to say, or even accomplish a combination of all the above possible things. Body language is something that is usually natural and is often done instinctively rather than consciously.

Since it is often done instinctively rather than consciously, non-verbal communication constitutes the majority of our overall communication. Body language includes:

1. Facial Expressions

You can use your facial features to communicate six universal expressions which convey basic emotions, including surprise, happiness, anger, fear, sadness, and disgust. Your facial expressions play a key role in communication as individuals’ perception of facial expressions helps them to read the situation around the conversation.

2. Body Movement And Posture

Your body movement and posture cover many aspects, including sitting, walking, standing, bearing, stance, and even the most subtle movements.

3. Hand Gestures

Hand gestures include actions like pointing, waving, and using hands when speaking. People generally talk with their hands more often than they realize, especially when the topic of discussion is something they are really passionate about.

Many believe that the use of hand gestures can help process and express their thoughts more effectively.

4. Eye Contact

Eye contact is an important part of non-verbal communication as you can see a lot through one’s eyes, including honesty, hostility, attraction, and affection. Eye contact is also key in maintaining conversations since they convey empathy and concern.

In conclusion, it is quite obvious that body language plays an important role in all forms of communication as it can help break the barriers as well as form a better connection with other individuals.

5. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence or emotional quotient (EI or EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.

Emotional intelligence helps you build stronger relationships, succeed at work, and achieve your career and personal goals. It can also help you to connect with your feelings, turn intention into action, and make informed decisions about what matters most to you.

Our ability to be aware of and understand our own emotions can aid our awareness and understanding of the feelings of others. The lack or presence of this sensitivity impacts our ability to communicate both in our personal and work life.

In the workplace, individuals who have higher emotional intelligence usually have a better approach to conflict resolution in a collaborative manner and work well with others to reach a mutually acceptable outcome.

Emotional intelligence has received greater attention in recent years as an important means of effective communication within teams, including the growing area of virtual or remote teams.

In situations where those with lower EQ levels may get defensive in stressful situations and escalate the conflict, individuals with higher EQ have the skills to communicate effectively without leading to confrontation or tension escalating.

To increase your EQ level, there are the components of emotional intelligence that you need to develop.

1. Self- Awareness

Self-awareness has to do with your having total knowledge of your emotions, morals, behaviors, feelings, strengths, and weaknesses and also understanding how they affect people around you.

For your team to be at its best, you need to have enough self-awareness to bring out the best in yourself. Once you are self-aware, you will understand your feelings and be able to manage your emotions and actions positively to lead your team effectively.

Here are some ways to become more self-aware:

• Evaluate yourself by comparing your performance with the feedback from your team.
• Be careful how you respond and react. This basically means you should think logically about every situation—no matter how small—before you react.

2. Self Regulation

Once you understand your emotions and are self-aware, the next step is to regulate yourself and your emotions.

Self-regulation means having control over your emotions and being able to manage these emotions based on the situation. To lead your team effectively, you need to have self-regulation to manage arising conflicts and difficult situations.

In other words, self-regulation means turning negatives into positives. If your team comes across an issue, you will have to maintain a positive outlook and solve the problem constructively without losing your patience.

With self-regulation, your team members will feel free to seek help under you. They will not hesitate to ask questions, deliver their ideas, or even inform you about any arising issue. As such, a healthy and comfortable workplace will be established.

Steps to improve your ability to self-regulate:

• Keep in mind that your moral values will be needed to lead your team.
• Be ready to take responsibility for your actions.
• Try not to panic and ensure you manage stressful situations with a calm mind.

3. Self Motivation

Great leaders’ ability to internally motivate themselves is one of the most important components of emotional intelligence.

Self or internal motivation means that you as a leader are passionate, optimistic, dedicated, and interested to work without the influence of external motivation like fame, money, or promotion.

When a leader is internally motivated, they focus more on achieving their set goals. They give their best to yield excellent results as a leader.

A self-motivated leader of a team boosts their team’s morale; thus, the team also gets motivated to accomplish the task.

Here are a few tips to enhance self-motivation:

• Constantly remind yourself of the reasons you chose a job as a communicator.
• View all obstacles positively and make them opportunities by reacting smartly.
• Understand the importance of your position and how it affects your team. A positive leader births a positive team.

4. Empathy

Empathy is basically putting yourself in someone else’s shoes to understand them and keeping their circumstances in mind.

A key component of effective leadership is empathy. For you to be a great leader you need to be empathetic towards your team. Empathetic leaders tend to listen to their team, understand their needs, and help them more as a member than as a leader.

Once a team has an understanding leader, team members are most likely to be engaged, comfortable, and free. Team members will be fearless when bringing their problems to the team leader to assist them accordingly.

How to improve empathy:

• Try to listen carefully to your team members’ questions and respond in a friendly manner.
• Understand your team member’s feelings and do not overburden them.
• Appreciate your team members constantly to boost their morale.
• Understand their body language to know how they truly feel.

5. Social Skills

The last component of emotional intelligence for good leaders is social skills. To be a great leader, you need to have good social skills that will help build and manage relationships.

Emotionally intelligent people interact with people and keep expanding their network. They have amazing communication skills which help effectively translate ideas to their team members.

With great social skills, leaders know how to receive both appreciation and criticism. The best team leaders listen and solve all the issues within their team. Team members look up to them for assistance and guidance.

To build social skills:

• Improve your verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
• Learn how to solve problems within your team and outside it.

6. Providing Feedback

Since giving and receiving feedback became institutionalized, team members and leaders all over the world have come to dread this ritual.

Team leaders store comments and documents on the things they might have noticed about a person's performance and then wait for long periods before unloading constructive criticism on them.

The problem with this approach is that when you wait so long to give feedback, the emotional environment will not be conducive for discussions about performance, suggestions for improvement, and goals for the future.

This puts to shame the main aim of giving and receiving feedback which is key to engaging people and keeping them on track.

For feedback to lead to outstanding performance, it has to be done the right way and with the right intentions. When feedback is delivered carefully and frequently, your team members will have an idea of thoughts and suggestions on ways to improve.

Giving feedback is a communication skill that you have to keep practicing to get right. Before you even give feedback, you need to ensure that you are doing it for the right reasons.

The purpose of giving feedback is to improve the situation or the person's performance, not to belittle your team member. You won't improve anything by being harsh, critical, or offensive.

Although feedback is not always positive, You are bound to get a better response from people when your approach is positive and focused on improvement. The goal of feedback is to be fair and balanced. You can use tools like the Feedback Matrix to ensure you get the exact balance right.

7. Communicating in Stressful Work Situations

Dealing with stress is something that we all have to handle from time to time. It is basically our body reacting to something that happened or is happening. Your body will react to the situation that causes it physical, mental, or emotional strain.

Although stress is very common, it doesn’t always have to be a negative thing. Stress is one way the body helps us avoid danger. It may also help to increase your productivity and motivation.

Even positive changes like a promotion, marriage, or a new baby can cause or increase the stress in one's life. That said, none of the positive benefits of stress applies to chronic or severe stress.

Stress at the workplace is nothing new. This could be the result of heavy workloads, organizational change, or long work hours, but it can easily be managed.

How can we navigate high-stress situations at work without alienating our colleagues or making the situation worse? Here are a few tips to consider:

1. Timing

The first tip to handle stress is to ask yourself if you are confronting the issue at the right time. It is usually best to deal with a disagreement or confrontation when it arises, but there are times when the best move to manage the situation is a later date.

To get a healthy resolution, it is best to gauge the situation and consider your and your colleague’s energy and ability to have a productive conversation.

2. Clarity

When you are addressing a tense or stressful situation, you must have clarity on what that situation is. Set realistic objectives for the conversation and ensure you focus on one thing at a time.

If the person you are addressing made a mistake, focus on that issue rather than piling on other unaddressed issues you have with the person. In case a disagreement arises, be sure of your stance and the way you forward to avoid confusing multiple issues.

3. Focus

When you do discuss the issue at hand, be sure you’re focusing on just that: the issue. If someone has made a mistake or disagrees with your approach, avoid centering your conversation on the person and instead keep the focus on the situation.

Avoid statements that begin with clauses and phrases that personify a situation like “You never…” and “You always…”; they only serve to distract from solving the immediate problem and can result in miscommunication and animosity. Focus on the problem, not the person.

4. Breathe

You might think this is cliche, but once you give yourself a moment to take a few deep belly breaths, it goes a long way in not just calming your emotions but also clearing your head. Once your belly is relaxed, it sends a signal to your brain that you’re safe.

When you take slow, deep inhales and exhales it helps slow down your heart rate and lets you think clearly. Deep breaths also help you check your body language, meaning you will naturally unclench your jaw or fists and present yourself in a more open stance.

5. Listen

People that are stressed out usually have a harder time remembering things so ensure that you intentionally deploy your active listening skills to the test in this situation. This will diffuse any potential miscommunication.

When you’re dealing with a difficult or stressful situation with someone, they need to be able to trust that you care. You will have to Illustrate that you’re truly listening to what the other person is saying by paraphrasing their concerns, validating their feelings, and asking questions that will ensure that they believe that you intend to find a solution that suits you both.

Getting into stressful situations is something that cannot be avoided, but the tips listed above would prove useful next time you come across a stressful conversation or scenario.

8. Developing Trust

Effective communication without the element of trust is impossible. When you need to make an important presentation, you will probably spend a great deal of time and effort ensuring your delivery is perfect and making sure your content is correct.

However, you need to dedicate the same amount of time you devote to these hours to ensuring that you have the trust of your audience.

You might be wondering what you can do to ensure that you are more trusted when giving a presentation. Here are three ways that you can build trust:

1. Foster Positive Relationships

Most human beings trust those they like and distrust the people they dislike. There are a couple of ways to build positive relationships.

To begin with, be inclusive and appreciative of those who think, look, or act differently from you or what you are used to. Being excluded is not fun for anyone.

Next, ensure your speech fosters the development of others. Help people learn skills that will make them more effective, this will be highly appreciated and valued. Share information with them that will provide insight into their problem areas.

Third, give honest feedback in a way that also throws emphasis on the positive. If you look closely, most of your team members do more things right than they do wrong, so recognize when they do right and help them improve on a few wrongs.

2. Provide Others With New Information That Will Benefit Them

When others have expertise that we do not possess, we are more likely to trust their opinion. It can be really boring when someone tells you things you already know. By providing those around you with additional depth and new insights, the information you share will be much more compelling and helpful.

3. Be Consistent

We can only trust people that do what they say, not those that change their minds at every turn. Making promises is far too easy, but the fulfillment of those promises is a different ball game.

People may not remember anything else from what you say but once you promise that something good is about to happen or that something bad will not happen, that is what they will always remember.

The level of trust that people have in you can have a dramatic impact on how effective your communication with others is. As you communicate with others, always try to gauge the level of trust that others have in you and actively seek ways to improve it.

That said, being Machiavellian about it will only end up costing you precious trust points and earning you enemies in the long run; you must be genuine in your interactions with others.

9. Confidence

Confidence is a skill that many people lack but to succeed in any industry that you may find yourself in, it is important that you work on your confidence level. The lack of confidence in oneself usually stems from several reasons. Regardless of the reason, here are a few ways to improve your confidence level:

1. Pretend to be Confident

If you are not a naturally confident person, then you will find that pretending to be confident is almost the same as being confident. The reason behind this is that confidence is a choice.

Once you pretend to be confident others will regard you as a confident person. Over time you will believe what they say and find yourself acting confident all the time.

2. Communicate Clearly

Most of us believe that being confident depends on the things we say. It doesn’t, it depends mostly on what the audience hears. That’s why communicating clearly is very important. Here are a few tips for you:

• Ensure you speak at a comprehensible and steady pace.
• Practice breathing in rhythm and in time with your speech.
• Don’t mitigate what you are saying by using words such as ‘just’, ‘like’, and ‘perhaps’.
• Remember to smile and maintain eye contact at all times.

3. Use Humor

If you think about the funniest people that you know, they might also be the most confident people you know. Being funny is all about taking risks. Just like confidence, humor is infectious so spread it at every appropriate opportunity—’appropriate’ being the operative word here.

4. Find a Mentor

Find a mentor to constantly remind you of where you intend to be and the things you need to do to get there. Having a mentor helps because it reminds you to be ambitious at all times.

Ensure the person you choose is someone who can help you grow by nurturing your identified strengths, as well as introduce you to a wider support network.

5. Look the Part

There is a higher chance for you to feel confident if you’re feeling comfortable. Smart attire is important when attending a formal event, but this does not mean that you should not be comfortable.

When you feel uncomfortable in the clothes that you’re wearing, you might start fidgeting and that can easily be interpreted as restlessness or a lack of interest.

6. Prepare Ahead

Make sure you are fully prepared prior to an important meeting or presentation. This will help settle your nerves, get your mind in the right frame and ultimately translate to you being more confident with your delivery. In life, once you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

7. Think positive

Do not succumb to negative thoughts as it is a weakness that most of us suffer from every once in a while. When a negative thought enters your head, banish it immediately.

You can reinforce confidence and positive feelings by focusing on the positive and seeing your self-belief grow.

Putting into practice these seven steps will definitely help to create a good impression on everyone you meet.

10. Public Speaking

Public speeches are presentations that you have to give live before an audience. The goal of these speeches often differs; they may be to educate, entertain, or influence your audience. Sometimes, visual aids in the form of slideshows are used to make the speech more interesting to the listeners.

Over the years, public speaking has played a major role in education, government, and business. With words, you have the power to inform, persuade, educate, and even entertain.

Since speaking in public is done before a live audience, there are some special factors you need to consider which we will address below:

1. It is Normal to be Nervous. Practice and Prepare!

We all feel some physiological reactions like pounding hearts and trembling hands when we want to speak publicly. Assure yourself that these feelings have nothing to do with poor performance. Sometimes nerves are good. The rush of adrenaline will make you sweat but will also make you more alert and prepared to give your best performance.

The best solution to anxiety is to prepare and keep preparing. Go over your notes several times. Once you are comfortable with the material, practice it a lot. Get a friend to critique your performance or record yourself and play it back to see how well you have done.

2. Know Your Audience

Before you start crafting your message, consider the people the message is intended for. Research your audience as much as you can. This will help determine your choice of words, organization pattern, and motivational statement.

3. Organize Your Material in the Most Effective Manner to Fulfill Your Purpose

Organize your speech’s framework. Write down your topic, general and specific purpose, central idea, and the main points of your speech. Make it a goal to grab the audience’s attention in the first 30 seconds.

4. Watch for Feedback and Adapt to It

Ensure your focus is completely on your audience. Watch out for their reactions, adjust your message, and make sure you stay flexible. Delivering a stiff speech will let you lose the attention of or confuse even the most devoted listeners.

5. Let Your Personality Shine Through

Be yourself, don’t turn into a talking head—in any type of communication. You are sure to establish better credibility when you let your personality shine through. Your audience is bound to trust you more if they can see you as a real person.

6. Use Humor, Tell Stories, and Use Effective Language

Once in a while inject a funny anecdote in your presentation, this will definitely grab your audience’s attention. People generally like a personal touch in a speech. Stories provide that personal touch.

7. Work from an Outline. Don’t Read Unless You Have to

Reading from your slide disrupts interpersonal connection. Maintain eye contact with the audience, so the focus will be on you and your message. A brief outline will help jog your memory and keep you on task.

8. Use Your Voice and Hands Effectively

Nonverbal communication conveys most of the message. To avoid distracting your audience and convey your ideas effectively, ensure you omit nervous gestures and too much hand movement.

9. Use Audiovisual Aids Wisely

Too many audio-visual aids can break the direct connection to the audience, so use them sparingly. The goal is for them to enhance your content, or capture your audience’s attention.

Good communication is never perfect, and you don’t have to be perfect. but, ensuring you spend ample time preparing will help you deliver a better speech. Your nerves might not completely disappear, but you can always learn to minimize them.

11. Make Complex Concepts Easy to Understand

We have all experienced the confusion that occurs when someone conveys complex information in an unclear manner. Simplifying complex information is a major challenge for a lot of communicators.

When it comes to making complex concepts easier for your audience you need to address two main issues that always pose a problem.

The first is the assumption that we make about the audience’s level of knowledge which causes us to take shortcuts in our explanation. The next is the fact that for the most part, we tend to convey information in a way that is most comfortable for us to receive information.

To avoid confusing your audience with complex concepts, here are some points that may help:

1. Understand Your Audience

The first step to take is to understand your audience. If you don’t have a clear understanding of the knowledge level of your audience, you won’t be able to help them understand anything. Without proper knowledge of your audience, you might either be too lowbrow and insult them, or too highbrow and leave them confused.

2. Define Your Terms

Giving a detailed definition, especially when the concept you are explaining contains difficult or unfamiliar vocabulary to your audience will eventually be helpful. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that your audience knows what you are discussing. If you don’t explain the basic terms that surround your subject of discussion, your audience will not understand why it’s important.

3. Classify and Divide Your Concept Into Smaller ‘Chunks’

You should describe how your topic fits into different categories or how it can be broken down into smaller parts that can be explained easily. This helps your audience fit your concept into relatable scenarios and increases their understanding.

4. Compare and Contrast

It is best to give examples of other concepts that might be familiar to your audience and explain how your concept is similar or different from them.

5. Tell a Story or Give an Example to Illustrate the Process or Concept

With a step-by-step explanation of how a concept is used in practice. You can link it to a story to make it more relatable.

6. Watch Your Language

Using long, technical words might seem impressive on the surface, but it does nothing to help anyone understand what's being said. The use of unnecessary jargon or highly-niche phrases can be a huge turn-off for your audience.

So, it is best to opt for simple, everyday language. When it's impossible to avoid using these complex terms, make sure to define them.

Breaking down complex ideas can be a challenge for even the best communicators, especially in cases when you are addressing an audience that has zero context about the said concept. But as long as you highlight the most important information, ensure your language can suit everyday conversation, and give them some context, you're on your way to getting them to run with your idea.

12. Emotional Control

Emotional control, or emotional regulation, is about how you manage and control your emotions—specifically, your reactions. It’s about how you can learn to stay calm when handling problems and give the right amount of emotional reaction to any situation.

Your ability to express and experience your emotions is a lot more important than you realize. You need to learn to have control over your emotional reaction so you’ll have the ability to give the best response, given the situation.

Emotions play a large role in your daily life but without proper control, they can take a toll on your emotional health and interpersonal relationships when they start to feel out of control.

According to Vicki Botnick, a therapist in California, any emotion—even those you view as positive—can intensify to the point that it becomes hard to control.

Not only does good emotional regulation skills affect your well-being but it is also linked to corporate and financial success.

Here are some pointers that will help you get started on getting control of your emotions:

1. Take a Look at the Impact of Your Emotions

Intense emotions aren’t all bad. Your emotions contribute to making your life more exciting, unique, and vibrant. When you have strong feelings it can signify that you are willing to embrace life fully and not repress your natural reactions.

It’s completely normal for you to be overwhelmed by your emotions from time to time. Take some time to evaluate how your uncontrolled emotions might be affecting your daily life. This will make it easier for you to identify problem areas and monitor your successes.

2. Aim for regulation, not repression

You can’t just switch off your emotions. But it should be a goal to manage your emotions. Leaving your emotions running high at all times is a recipe for disaster but repressing them is also dangerous.

Anytime you subdue or your emotions, you stop yourself from experiencing and expressing your feelings. When this is done consciously, it is called suppression and repression for when you subdue your emotions unconsciously.

If not addressed either of these, it can lead to mental and physical health symptoms, like anxiety, depression, insomnia, muscle tension or pain, and so much more.

To learn how to manage your emotions, you need to ensure that you are not sweeping them under the rug.

3. Identify what you’re feeling

You will have to take a moment to check in with yourself about your emotions so it can help you begin gaining back control.

No matter the situation you may be in, the best way to stop yourself from reacting negatively is to ask yourself questions that help identify what you’re feeling, Some of these questions include:

• What am I feeling right now?
• What made me feel this way?
• What do I want to do about these emotions?
• Is there a better way of coping with them?

When you consider possible alternatives, you’re reshaping your thoughts, which eventually helps curb extreme reactions.

4. Accept your emotions—all of them

While you’re trying to manage emotions, you are most likely to downplay your feelings to yourself.

Even when you hyperventilate after hearing good news or overreact when you can’t find your keys, you might start telling yourself, “Calm down,” or “Don’t freak out.” Doing this invalidates your experience since It might actually be a big deal to you.

You accepting your emotions as they are helps you get comfortable with them. Your comfort around intense emotions helps you fully experience them without reacting in unhelpful, extreme ways.

As you practice accepting your emotions, try to think of them as messengers that are neutral despite the feelings they provoke in you. Accepting your emotions can help give greater life satisfaction and fewer mental health symptoms.

5. Keep a mood journal

Documenting your feelings and the responses they might trigger helps you discover any disruptive patterns.

Writing your feelings on paper can help you reflect on them more deeply. It can also help you recognize how certain circumstances might be triggers for harder-to-control emotions. When you identify these triggers, you can come up with ways to manage them more productively.

6. Take a deep breath

Taking a deep breath is crucial, whether you’re really happy or so angry you can’t speak. When you slow down and pay attention to your breath, your emotions will not disappear.

Deep breathing exercises help you ground yourself and withdraw from the first intense flash of emotion and any extreme reaction you might regret later.

7. Know when to express yourself

You have to understand that there’s a time and place for even your intense emotions. While some situations like the death of a loved one can lead to an intense display of emotions, some other situations call for some restraint.

Being mindful of your situation and surroundings can help you learn when it’s acceptable to let feelings out and when you should resist reacting.

8. Try meditation

Taking on meditation can help increase your awareness of all your feelings and experiences. When you meditate, you let yourself sit with those emotions, to be aware of them without judgment or trying to change them or make them disappear.

Meditation helps you increase your acceptance of your feelings. There are some other benefits that include helping you relax and get better sleep.

If you continue to feel overwhelmed with your emotions after all these steps then it might be best to seek professional support.

13. Clear Delegation of Duties and Responsibilities

No matter the industry you work in, having countless responsibilities can be overwhelming. But this is why you have a team. With other team members, your workload should reduce. While some struggle with this transition, to be an effective leader, you will have to learn the art of delegation.

Effective delegation improves your and your team's productivity. It can also help your team learn new skills and establish a culture of trust.

Delegation is when leaders use their authority to assign responsibility to team members in their workplace. As a leader, it is important to delegate other tasks because the higher-level strategic planning that falls on your shoulders takes time and energy.

When you delegate, it not only empowers your team but also builds trust, and helps with professional development. You will also learn how to identify team members best suited to tackle each task or project.

Here are some steps to take to achieve effective delegation:

1. Choose the Right Person for the Job

A large part of being a good leader depends on how well you know and understand the strengths, weaknesses, and preferences of your employees. When you have to delegate a task that requires a lot of collaboration to complete, you don’t delegate it to someone who prefers working alone instead of someone who prefers collaborating.

If you have a list of tasks you have to delegate, you might want to consider going through the list with your team and letting people select the tasks they’re most comfortable taking on.

When you let people choose the tasks that are delegated to them, you are on the path of building trust and inspiring engagement among your team.

2. Explain why you’re delegating

If you unexpectedly have to delegate a task to someone, it would be helpful if you provide context for why you have to give them that responsibility.

When you select people to delegate a task to, be specific when you are telling them why you chose them and how you expect them to use it to grow. This will help them see each task delegated to them as an opportunity to take on more responsibilities or grow new skills.”

3. Provide the right instructions

To be a good delegator, you need to provide basic and important information without micromanaging. The author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey, suggests that you delegate results rather than methods.

Let your employees know the goals or the milestones you intend to reach and let them solve the problem in their own way. You should not look for perfection nor should you micromanage. As long as you get the result you’re going for, it does not matter if someone else completes a task differently than you would.

4. Provide resources and training

You have to ensure that the person tasked with a particular job or project has the necessary tools and resources they need to be successful.

You should let them watch you perform a similar task or you should do the task along with them before you let them try it on their own.

Make sure that when you delegate a task, the person has the tools and skills they need to complete the task—or provide a way for them to work on those skills.

If you ask a team member to use a specific tool they have never used before to complete the task assigned to them, make sure to plan for them to become familiar with the tool first.

5. Check the work and provide feedback

There really is nothing more discouraging than a leader who delegates something to an employee and then lashes out on the employee when something goes wrong.

It is important that you check the work you delegated to a team member when it’s complete, ensuring that they did it correctly, and provide them with any feedback that will help them improve when handling such a task going forward.

6. Say thank you

When your team members complete a task or project you delegated to them, you should show genuine appreciation and state specifically the things they did well.

When you note those specifics, you’re giving them a roadmap for what they have to keep doing to be successful.

When delegation is done properly, you will increase the level of trust and commitment among you and your team members, improve productivity, and make sure the right people are assigned to the tasks that suit them.

Don’t be afraid to pass the baton. It will take practice to become great at delegating, but as you work at it, you’ll get better.

How to Earn More Money with Your Communication Skills

As hard as it may be to believe for some, there are tons of people that are making money online just by communicating. They combine their creativity and excellent communication skills to either make more money each month or set up full-fledged careers as communicators.

Most of the time, they work on these projects either in their homes or in their spare time. They have the freedom and flexibility that most professionals crave.

Below, we’ll explore some of the career opportunities that let you use your communications skills to make more money.

1. Host Your Own Podcasting Show

Podcasting as a media tool is just starting to gain traction. As of December 2021, there are just about 2 million podcasts globally, compared to the over 600 million blogs available globally. As such, now is the perfect time to start a podcast.

Starting a podcast is fairly easy; first, you’ll need a good podcasting platform like Buzzsprout. With Buzzsprout, you get a podcast hosting service where you can host and store all your podcast episodes. This platform also has advanced audience analytics features that can help you with your marketing efforts.

To start your podcast, follow these steps:

• Research, identify and select your podcasting niche.
• Choose a topic and name for your podcast.
• Decide on the show and episode format. This includes deciding if you intend to have a co-host or not, the number of episodes you would have per season, and so on.
• Create cover art that shows the theme and colors of your podcast.
• Decide on your intro & outro music, the podcast hosting platform you will use, the type of microphone and recording equipment you will use, and so on.
• Record and edit your audio recording.
• Upload the edited audio file to your preferred podcasting platform.
• Promote your podcast with the promotion tools and techniques provided by your podcasting platform.

Regardless of the podcasting platform you eventually choose, you need to make sure it has features like an easy-to-use interface, marketing features, and tools to help you grow your podcast in the long run.

2. Launch a High-End Blog

Although blogging is a popular and arguably saturated industry, it is still a great way to make money with your communication skills. The process of starting your own blog is similar to starting a podcast.

1. Choose a Blog Topic

You first need to select a blog niche that you are familiar with so you don't run out of things to say. You need to ensure that your niche has a good search volume. Also, stay away from topics that have been overflogged or at least come up with a new way to present such topics.

2. Name Your Blog

The next step is to name your blog. Ensure the name you pick is relevant to how you want to portray your channel since it is the first point of contact for your target audience. You can use your name or a name that relates to your blog. Make the name fun and interesting. Don’t make the name too long.

3. Pick a Blogging Platform and Set Up Your Website

Choose a blogging platform —such as WordPress—that gives you total control of your blog. You’ll also need a few other tools, such as:

• A web hosting service like Bluehost
• A professional them for your website, which you can get from StudioPress, Divi, or Themeforest

4. Launch Your Blog

After choosing a theme and designing your website, write properly constructed and compelling pieces about your topic that would attract new readers and keep old ones coming back.

3. Become a High-Paid Freelancer

Whether you’re a student trying to get more money or you just want to create a career for yourself that is not as restricting as a regular nine-to-five, freelancing could be the answer for you.

Freelancing is great not just because of the freedom you get in choosing your workload, projects, and clients but because a lot of freelancing fields can compete with the money you make in the corporate world.

There are many different paths you can take to succeed as a freelancer in 2022. Whether you start out taking on gigs in your spare time or go full-time right from the beginning, below are four steps that will guide you through the journey.

1. Define What Services You Will Offer

First, you’ll need to take inventory of what skills you currently have. Then you must put yourself in the client’s shoes and ask yourself the following questions:

1. What problems do your prospective clients have?
2. How can your skills be used to resolve those problems?

The key to success as a freelancer—or in any business for that matter—is recognizing that clients will only pay for solutions to specific problems that they have. If you can define what their problems are and find a way to solve them with your skills, you’re well on your way to success.

With your communications skills, many opportunities exist for you. You can freelance as a content writer, copywriter, ghostwriter, speechwriter, marketing consultant, and so on.

2. Create a Portfolio

Most clients would want to see past work before they hire you. And that’s the role of your portfolio. It is important to create a compelling portfolio that showcases your past accomplishments and successes.

Ideally, your portfolio should contain case studies detailing the challenges faced in the past projects and how you overcame them. This gives your prospective clients insight into your problem-solving ability.

Highlight your absolute best work on your portfolio, even if it’s not client work. Include testimonials, data-driven results, images, charts, work samples, mockups, and so on. Include anything that will show prospective clients that you know what you’re doing and have achieved similar results for others in the past.

3. Figure Out Pricing

Your goal here should be to maximize how much you earn without losing out on prospective gigs. And the best way to do this is to find out what your competitors charge for their work.

You can price by the hour or charge a fixed price per project. Whatever you choose, make sure that you charge enough to cover your business expenses and make a profit.

4. Reach Out to Clients

Armed with a solid portfolio, it’s time to reach out to clients and sell your services. Identify what kind of clients would be a good fit for your services. Being great at what you do is not enough; you must put yourself in a position to be found. You must actively seek out new clients.

There are three main ways to do this:

• Marketing, advertising, and outreach
• Freelance job platforms like FlexJobs, SolidGigs, Fiverr, and Upwork.
• Leveraging existing connections

Reach out to your family and friends and even to businesses that you frequent. These people already know, like, and trust you and are more likely to hire you than a total stranger.

They’re also likely to refer you to their contacts. Imagine having 10 friends refer you to 10 of their friends. If you provide a great service to those friends, they also will be likely to refer you to their friends, and the cycle would continue. The returns are exponential.

4. Become a YouTube Influencer

You can choose to use your improved communication skills to become a YouTube influencer. This line of work is easily one of the most sought-after career choices today not just because it can lead to fame but also due to the other endorsement deals and opportunities that may come your way as a result.

As attractive as all these sounds, it is not easy to break into this industry, considering how competitive and saturated it is. There are a lot of challenges you will probably encounter in regards to gaining viewers and followers.

It is obvious that the success of YouTube influencers has caused a shift in traditional marketing because companies can now reach their customers through the platform of these influencers.

Here are a few tips to help you get started on YouTube:

1. Decide on Your Niche

The first thing you will have to do is decide on a niche. You need to have a clear idea of the areas you would be focusing on and the industries that are in the line you are focusing on. Your mind can easily be all over the place when you try to cover too many topics and niches.

If you are going to focus on more than one niche then it is best to choose a few related niches depending on your interests and/or your expertise. For example, a fitness YouTuber can create content about workouts and eating healthy.

2. Outline Your Channel Goals

You will have to take time out to ask yourself critical questions like:

• What do you intend to achieve with your channel?
• Do you intend to help people through informative videos?
• Do you want to teach people how to do things by creating tutorials?
• Or do you just want to entertain people?

It is important that you outline the goals you will be achieving with your channel so you have the direction for your videos. Doing this will also help you start strong and consistent rather than having to cover everything and anything in the name of releasing content.

3. Brainstorm Content Ideas

The next step to take is to come up with video ideas. This is an extremely important step that you are advised to take before you even start creating your channel. By taking this step you are insuring yourself against running out of ideas after creating only a few videos.

You will have to go through the content of other YouTubers that are already creating content in your niche. Decide if you can create something similar that is still unique. It will even be better if after questioning yourself you are able to come up with something better.

Another angle is to consider the pain points and areas of interest of your target audience. You will have to come up with topic ideas that address their interest and pains. The best way to distinguish yourself is to address these areas in a way that would intrigue them.

4. Develop a Content Schedule

With a clearly drawn-out schedule, there is a higher probability that you will be consistent with putting out content. A schedule gives your subscribers the assurance that they can count on your putting out new videos on the scheduled dates. You also get a proper timeline that you will have to use to organize your content and stay on track.

Before you even start the process of creating a channel, you will have to decide on a manageable publishing schedule. Uploading content daily can be a great way to attract a new audience, but it can easily lead to you burning out especially because you are a one-person team.

5. Assess Your Equipment Requirements

The quality of the videos you produce is determined by the equipment you use. It is important to have a clear idea of the type of equipment you will need to create the kind of content your YouTube channel will be known for. You don’t have to invest in equipment that is expensive from the start of your YouTube career, but you will need to have a few essentials.

The first thing you’ll need is a computer with speed and specs that will meet your needs. Next, you will have to invest in decent video editing software. You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on this software, just ensure it covers all of the basic features for what you want to do.

Last but not least, you will need a camera or a device that can record quality videos for you. With the rapid advancement in smartphone camera technology these days, even your smartphone could be useful here.

6. Create or Optimize Your Channel

Once all these basics are in place, you can create your channel. If you already have a YouTube channel, you can still follow these steps to optimize it.

Pick a channel name that’s catchy yet unique. If you prefer, you can decide to use your own name.

Go to your “About” section, make sure you give a thorough description of what your channel is all about. Ensure that you prioritize readability by breaking blocks of texts into shorter paragraphs.

7. Upload and Learn from Your First Video

After setting up and optimizing your channel, you can get started with creating and uploading your first video. You can pick any topic from your content ideas list and create an intriguing video that will capture the audience’s attention instantly.

You need to understand that no matter how many times you re-record and how much effort you put into your first video, it will not be perfect. This is a challenge that every YouTuber experiences when they start out. Experience is the best teacher in this field and you will have to learn from the mistakes you make on this first video.

Make the most out of the comment section to watch people’s responses to it. Watch out for what they like and the things they are complaining about. Take all this in and extract the valuable feedback that will help you improve on your next videos.

5. Educate People with Paid Webinars

The world is currently a global village, people can now work from home and this development has contributed immensely to the popularity of webinars. For years, webinars have been used to educate students and prospective clients, large online captive audiences, and even teach corporate workers.

For those who may not be familiar with the concept of webinars, they are presentations, events, seminars, workshops, classroom lectures, and training sessions delivered and hosted online with the use of webinar software.

The main advantage webinars have over physical lectures is that you don’t have to spend money on the location of the event or stress yourself with all the logistics that have to do with hosting a physical program.

Paid webinars are quite profitable ventures because of how little you have to spend compared to physical events. Keep in mind that hosting a webinar is not a breeze either, it is much harder to pull off than most people think.

Let’s take a look at the process of organizing and hosting a paid webinar from inception to promotion.

1. Choose A Webinar Topic

If you’re thinking about hosting a paid webinar, then you better have some expert-level knowledge to share with your audience. People would only pay for a webinar if it contains knowledge that they would have to pay for to get elsewhere. You can’t get away with sharing high-level knowledge that they can get for free in a paid webinar.

Whatever topic you choose, make sure that it resonates with your target audience and is going to provide a lot of value to them.

2. Create An Outline

List the subtopics you intend to cover in your webinar. Focus on the exact problems you want to solve for the attendees of your webinar. The insights you provide in a paid webinar need to be super-actionable and deeper than the surface-level insights they would normally get from a free webinar.

The outline you create could follow this template:

3. Write Out Your Webinar Script

With a paid webinar, people expect excellence. So, no matter how fluent a speaker you might be, it makes sense to create a script for your webinar, at least as a guide to keep you on topic at all times.

Test the script to make sure that it isn’t too long. Ideally, your webinar should last no longer than 45 minutes to an hour.

4. Design Webinar Slides

You wouldn’t like to stare at a blank screen for an hour while someone drones on and on about some obscure topic, would you? Neither would your audience.

Create beautiful slides to go with your presentation. Remember, this is a paid webinar; putting up a half-hearted effort with some PowerPoint templates isn’t going to cut it.

Also, don’t recycle content that’s already published online—like on SlideShare. The audience is only going to end up feeling cheated.

If you lack confidence in your slide design abilities, use a service like Fiverr or 99designs to get professionally designed slides for your webinar. The extra expense and effort will be well worth it.

5. Choose a Webinar Software

Hosting a webinar is hard enough already. You don’t need to make it any harder than it has to be by skimping on webinar software.

Great webinar software like Demio or WebinarJam will be easy to set up and use, include native integration with payment processors for paid webinars, allow attendees to access the event without downloading anything, and allow you to record the event and send replays to attendees.

6. Set a Date and Promote Your Webinar Online

To make the most money from your paid webinar, you need to get as many people to attend as possible. Generally speaking, webinars see peak attendance between 11 am and 2 pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

But before you commit to those times, you must ask yourself if your webinar is work-related or hobby-related. If it’s work-related, then it’s fine to hold them at these peak attendance times. But hobby-related webinars will have to be held in the evenings when most people have gotten off work.

Promoting your webinar is another important step that you can’t afford to ignore. How would people attend your webinar if they don’t know about it?

Max out every marketing and outreach you know, including Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, YouTube ads, SEM, and so on.

Also, leverage free channels; Facebook Groups and your social media channels are fantastic ways to get attendees. Get family and friends to post about your upcoming webinar and encourage your followers to share content about it.

6. Productize Your Knowledge into a Valuable Online Course

As an expert in your field, it is a waste of your potential if you’re not making extra money by creating value-packed courses that you can sell online.

When you teach, you leave no doubt that you know what you’re talking about, and you show that you are good at what you do and are an expert in your field.

Creating online courses is one of the fastest and most impactful ways of getting your knowledge out to a global marketplace, ensuring you make a bigger impact and earn more money. Here’s a quick overview of some of the stages involved in creating a successful online course:

• Pick the right course topic
• Ensure your course topic has high market demand
• Create learning outcomes that are magnetic and compelling
• Select and gather your course content
• Structure your modules and course plan
• Determine the delivery method that is most engaging and effective for each lesson
• Film, record, and edit your online course
• Set up your online school
• Put a price on your course and make sure it feeds into a bigger education-based business model than what you are starting with
• Launch your course and market it continuously

While this isn’t an exhaustive list of all the things that you need to plan, prepare for, and successfully create and sell an online course, it provides an overview of the major milestones that you will come across on your way.

Whatever you do, you’ll need to host your online course somewhere. The best and easiest way to do this is to use online course platforms like Thinkific and Teachable.

Communication Skills FAQ

Ready to Turn Your Communication Skills into Cash Fast?

If you are still unsure about making money with your communication skills, consider all that we have discussed in this article so far.

We’ve learned about the barriers to effective communication and how to avoid them. Also, you probably now have an idea of the skills you currently practice and those you need to work on improving.

Plus, knowing what you now know about monetizing your communication skills, you can choose the right career path for you.

All that’s left is for you to take action and turn your communications skills into cash fast.

And don't forget to keep improving.

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