How to Master Any Skill FAST

Summary

This video presents a framework for mastering any skill, illustrated through the creator's journey in content creation and beatboxing. The speaker explains the four stages of mastery: unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence. Through personal experiences, the video emphasizes the importance of consistent practice and self-awareness in skill development. By understanding this framework, anyone can progress from a beginner to a master in any field. The speaker highlights how this approach can lead to mastery, sharing examples of how it has transformed their own path.

Takeaways

• 📚 The video explains a four-step framework for mastering any skill, emphasizing progression from beginner to expert.
• 🎯 The framework involves moving through four stages: unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence.
• 🎥 The speaker uses content creation as a current skill they're learning, while beatboxing represents a skill they have already mastered.
• 🤔 Unconscious incompetence is the stage where one believes they are good at something, without realizing the gaps in their ability.
• 🚀 Conscious incompetence occurs when a person becomes aware of their shortcomings and starts understanding what they need to improve.
• 🛠️ Conscious competence is the third stage, where one knows what needs to be done to improve and begins to consciously apply these strategies.
• 🎯 Unconscious competence is the final stage, where the skill becomes second nature, performed effortlessly without overthinking.
• 💡 The speaker stresses that mastery is about continuous practice, refinement, and applying knowledge in various scenarios.
• 🎤 Beatboxing is used as an example of how mastery leads to effortless performance, as it becomes a natural, automatic action.
• 🌱 The speaker encourages learning and applying this framework to any skill, aiming for long-term growth and mastery, rather than relying on luck.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The video discusses a framework for mastering any skill, using the speaker's personal experiences with content creation and beatboxing as examples.

What are the four levels of skill mastery mentioned in the video?

The four levels are: 1) Unconscious incompetence, 2) Conscious incompetence, 3) Conscious competence, and 4) Unconscious competence.

How does the speaker describe 'unconscious incompetence'?

'Unconscious incompetence' is when someone overestimates their ability, unaware of how much they don’t know about the skill.

What does 'conscious incompetence' mean in the context of mastering a skill?

'Conscious incompetence' refers to the realization that there is much more to learn, and the person is aware of their limitations and gaps in knowledge.

How does the speaker relate 'conscious competence' to content creation?

'Conscious competence' is when the speaker understands the process behind creating successful content. They know how to structure videos, create hooks, and understand the basics of algorithms, but still need deliberate effort to apply this knowledge.

What is the significance of 'unconscious competence' in the mastery framework?

'Unconscious competence' is the highest level of mastery where skills become second nature. The person no longer has to think about what they're doing—it just happens automatically with successful outcomes.

Can you give an example from the video that demonstrates 'unconscious competence'?

The speaker's beatboxing is an example of 'unconscious competence.' They can beatbox without thinking about it, even while walking or performing other tasks.

How did the speaker's understanding of content creation evolve over time?

Initially, the speaker thought content creation was easy and could be done without much effort (unconscious incompetence). Over time, they realized the complexity of the algorithm and the need to target a consistent audience (conscious incompetence), and eventually, they learned how to create successful videos with deliberate effort (conscious competence).

What does the speaker emphasize about the role of luck in mastering a skill?

The speaker acknowledges that luck can play a role, but they stress that success comes from consistent effort and following a structured approach. They focus more on the controllable factors rather than relying on luck.

What is the final message the speaker wants to convey about mastering any skill?

The speaker encourages viewers to use the four-stage framework to approach any skill and emphasizes that mastery is achievable with persistent effort and practice. They also mention that having a clear understanding of where you are on the mastery journey can help you achieve your goals.

Outlines

00:00

🎯 Mastering Skills Framework Introduction

The speaker introduces the concept of mastering any skill by providing a personal example of content creation. They share how learning a specific framework for mastery can make a huge difference in progress. The audience is encouraged to think about their own skill they are learning and follow along as the speaker connects the framework to both a new and mastered skill.

05:03

💡 The Journey of Content Creators During Lockdown

The speaker reflects on the boom in content creation during lockdown, where many people started creating videos thinking it would be easy. They highlight two groups: those who tried but never published and those who published but struggled with inconsistency. The speaker shares their own journey of overconfidence and learning the reality of mastering content creation through trial and error.

10:04

🤔 Realizing Incompetence and Facing the Algorithm

The speaker delves into the realization of their own unconscious incompetence in content creation. They discuss how early confidence gave way to understanding the complexities of YouTube's algorithm and audience expectations. By producing unrelated content, they learned the importance of targeting a specific audience and the challenges of replicating success, highlighting the conscious incompetence stage.

15:06

🔄 Reaching Conscious Competence in Content Creation

At this stage, the speaker has learned how to create videos that align with a particular audience and strategy. They discuss how conscious competence involves understanding the structure of successful videos, including hooks, explanations, and packaging content to meet audience expectations. The speaker acknowledges the role of practice and the nuances of content creation, like lighting and audio, which they previously overlooked.

🚀 Unconscious Competence: Achieving Mastery

The speaker explains unconscious competence, where actions and results become second nature. They give examples of everyday activities like walking or brushing teeth, which require no thought, comparing these to mastered skills. They suggest that reaching this level allows for problem-solving and innovation without conscious effort, and mastery opens doors to teaching others and understanding broader opportunities.

🎤 Mastery in Beatboxing: Applying the Framework

The speaker shifts to their mastery of beatboxing, recounting how they started with basic sounds and progressed through the stages of the mastery framework. They describe how early overconfidence gave way to recognizing the need for more practice. By consciously working on improving their skills, they eventually reached the point of unconscious competence, where beatboxing became effortless and enjoyable.

🔧 Mastery in Practice: Constant Improvement and Teaching

Having achieved mastery in beatboxing, the speaker discusses how this skill now allows them to teach others and explore industry opportunities. They compare mastering a craft to a blacksmith or woodworker who not only excels in their specific area but understands how to handle various challenges across the field. The speaker emphasizes that the same mastery framework can apply to any skill.

🚀 Planning for Mastery and Success

The speaker concludes by discussing how understanding the mastery framework allows for effective planning and goal-setting in any skill. By focusing on conscious competence and continually practicing, anyone can eventually reach mastery. They express pride in rising to the top of their industry and encourage the audience to follow their steps, offering a link to their full story for further guidance.

Keywords

💡Mastery Framework

The Mastery Framework refers to the structured process of becoming skilled in any task. In the video, the speaker explains how mastering a skill progresses through four distinct levels, from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence. This framework applies to any skill the person attempts to learn, from content creation to beatboxing.

💡Unconscious Incompetence

Unconscious Incompetence is the first stage of skill acquisition, where a person is unaware of how much they do not know. In the video, the speaker uses their initial belief about content creation, assuming it would be easy, to illustrate how they overestimated their abilities without fully understanding the complexities.

💡Conscious Incompetence

Conscious Incompetence is the stage when someone realizes they are not as skilled as they initially thought. The speaker enters this stage after creating varied content (e.g., finance, beatboxing) without achieving consistent results, making them aware of the gaps in their knowledge.

💡Conscious Competence

Conscious Competence refers to being aware of one's developing skills and knowing the steps required to achieve success. The speaker describes this stage in content creation when they learn to structure videos (e.g., having a hook, clear topics) and can begin achieving better outcomes with effort and practice.

💡Unconscious Competence

Unconscious Competence is the final stage of mastery, where performing a skill becomes automatic and effortless. The speaker uses beatboxing as an example, where they no longer need to think about creating beats—it happens naturally due to extensive practice.

💡Content Creation

Content creation involves producing digital media such as videos, blogs, or posts for online platforms. In the video, the speaker is learning how to create engaging videos on YouTube and emphasizes the importance of knowing the algorithm and tailoring content to a specific audience to achieve success.

💡Skill Progression

Skill progression is the journey from beginner to mastery. The speaker outlines their own progression in content creation, going from overconfidence (unconscious incompetence) to eventual mastery (unconscious competence) through learning, practice, and refining techniques.

💡Algorithm

The algorithm refers to the set of rules and processes that platforms like YouTube use to decide which content to promote. The speaker learned that understanding the algorithm is key to successful content creation, as inconsistent or unfocused topics can prevent growth and audience retention.

💡Beatboxing

Beatboxing is a vocal art form where performers replicate drum sounds and other rhythms using only their mouth and voice. The speaker mastered this skill over time, demonstrating how the same mastery framework applies, starting with basic sounds (B, T, K) and advancing to complex patterns.

💡Practice

Practice is the repeated exercise of an activity to improve one's skill. The speaker emphasizes the importance of consistent practice in reaching mastery, whether in content creation, beatboxing, or other fields. They highlight that with repeated practice, one moves from conscious competence to unconscious competence.

Highlights

Introduction to a framework for mastering any skill from personal experience.

The speaker's current skill focus is content creation, aiming to master it.

First stage of mastery: unconscious incompetence, where one overestimates their skill level.

The importance of aligning content creation with audience interests to grow online.

Second stage: conscious incompetence, where you realize you have much more to learn.

Example of unconsciously incompetent content creators—posting diverse, unrelated topics.

The decision point: continue learning and improving or quit, blaming external factors like algorithms.

Third stage: conscious competence—knowing the strategies and steps but still needing deliberate effort.

Key to conscious competence in content creation: understanding hooks, structure, and market targeting.

Fourth stage: unconscious competence, where mastery becomes second nature and you don’t have to think about execution.

Beatboxing as an example of moving through the four stages of skill mastery.

The importance of practice and repetition in moving from conscious to unconscious competence.

Mastery involves not just performing the skill but understanding its broader applications and potential impact.

A reminder that mastery applies to everyday skills (e.g., brushing teeth) and can be achieved by anyone.

Conclusion: by following the framework, anyone can master any skill and reach the top of their industry.

Transcripts

Double click.

In this video,

I'll be sharing the framework of exactly how to master any skill ever.

And I'll share it from the perspective,

from me currently learning a skill which I plan to master and as well as a skill

that I currently am a master of. Starting off,

think about a skill that you're currently learning or you actually plan to

learn. For me,

I'm currently learning this skill right here of content creation and at the end,

the framework we're about to get into,

I'll demonstrate how that exactly fits into a skill that I'm already a master

of. If I knew this earlier life as we know it would be supremely different,

like leagues different on my side, and now that I do know this,

I can make huge leaps of progress and make significant change for a grander life

setup. And right before we get into it,

since this framework does work for literally any skill ever,

don't get hung up too much on the details that I'm going over.

It's just to speak through basically the hands-on what's going on step by step

as we walk through exactly how to do this. So with that,

let's get straight into it.

Imagine a few years ago when lockdown was prevalent and social media was

blowing off, left, right center,

there was definitely a lot of media consumption going on as well as a lot of

folks becoming content creators.

What's important here is that as folks were sharing not just the videos that

we're making, but then also the outcome, for example,

how many millionaires overnight were made or how many people are able to replace

their nine to five day job by doing this. Essentially,

there was also a huge camp of people that would remark saying, oh,

look at these people. It's so easy. I can just whip on my camera too.

I can just say dances. I can just, you know,

vlog about my life and talk about anything and I can do it too. So easily.

The people we just talked about, there may be two groups,

one group where maybe they actually took that first step,

maybe they took a video of themself, maybe it's on their, you know, camera roll,

and they just never chose to publish or upload 'cause they didn't want to,

they didn't feel comfortable, what have you. At the same time,

there's folks that, you know, maybe did do this,

maybe there's 30 uploads that they did,

and they kind of took that first step towards mastering the skill.

The first group of people,

they don't really matter in our situation because they didn't take that next

step to learn or get anywhere close to mastery. So we'll leave them aside.

The second group of people, I was one of them where I was like, all right,

let me actually try to do this and kind of take it to the next step. For me,

I have experience public speaking and interacting slash engaging with live

audiences. And so for me, I thought, oh, my unfair advantage is this.

So all I gotta do as well is kind of, you know, be able to speak to the camera,

which I'm comfortable to do because it's like I'm talking,

let's say to a friend or a younger version of myself or to, you know,

a group of people which wasn't different from what I'm used to.

And so I thought, okay, you know, how hard could it be?

Let's embark on this journey with this context.

I was at that first level of mastery framework,

which is officially known as unconscious incompetence.

What that means in English is that I thought I'd be really good,

have great outcomes, you know, that confidence as if I'm, you know, God's gift,

and all of these things.

But then that brings us to the second level of this framework,

which really gets to the next step of mastering this skill or any other.

So at this second level of mastering, I'm basically at the point where, hey,

I am creating videos at the same time.

They're not really on the same topic or even kind of related really well,

where maybe I'm talking about, for example, you know,

how to make money as a beatboxer and I beatbox is kind of the skill we'll

get into later on. And so how to then make money in the stock market.

Then how to make money in the cryptocurrency markets like it is money and

finance related, but in the end,

the kind of people that are interested in these different topics,

whether you're talking about, hey,

how do you use credit cards or travel for free using points and miles or you

know,

how to get paid every single day through the dividends that you can earn in the

stock market by investing in certain stocks. All of these type of things,

like they're great and cool, uh, fun topics for me personally,

but when you post it like that, you're basically not targeting,

let's say the same audience, which I just thought, oh, you know,

everyone's like me. If you like money, if you like finance,

then all of these things are related. It's not that they're not,

but when you learn more about an algorithm and how YouTube works, as you know,

a system or how social media works as a holistic algorithm,

that's when I was realizing like, yo,

I'm not as good as basically what I thought.

And even though there's valuable info,

it's about how you package it and all these type of details,

which just in simple words is I wasn't where I needed to be.

But then I was aware that okay, I'm not as good as,

you know what I thought I was in the beginning to translate this to English one

more time.

It basically means if I'm creating videos about knitting and the next day I'm

having Minecraft or Fortnite type of videos, like video games,

and then maybe the next day I'm, you know,

have cute pictures of my pet or whatever, right? So they're all like,

could be good videos, they all could have, you know, huge potential, huge reach,

whatever you're looking for, like views and all at the same time,

does it really come together? So in other words,

if you subscribe for knitting content of you know someone, um, you know,

if they're posting all this stuff after the fact,

but never doing the content that you actually subscribe to them in the first

place, it basically indicates to YouTube like, Hey,

the people that subscribed to you are not returning to you.

So if they're not returning,

but even though they once kind of quote unquote liked you or wanted you,

then maybe we don't wanna promote this channel. Maybe let's not, you know,

allow this channel to grow until you know it's proven in another manner.

On the flip side, you may have a video that you know went super viral,

but since you're not able to repeat that process or the procedure of how you got

that outcome, you're basically in the same vein, you have a amazing,

let's say 10 million views video.

But if you don't know what you did to recreate those results,

then you're pretty much still consciously incompetent.

So all else equal at this point in the journey, there's a choice.

It could be like, Hey, I'm doing these videos and they're not all, you know,

hitting whatever your metric of, you know, success is.

And so some people quit at this point. Some people may say, oh,

you know what the, the algorithm, it's all luck. You know,

it's somebody back at YouTube headquarters is kind of clickety clack and

promote, you know, the next Mr. Beast for example.

And so all of this to say it's either a choice of continuing to go on or

realizing like, hey, maybe there's more to the picture.

And then getting to our third step in our framework,

the third step is known as conscious competence.

And what that means is exactly how it sounds. You know, that hey,

you're competent. You may know that, hey,

maybe I'm not the number one guy in the whole world in this. At the same time,

you know, you're not absolutely at the beginner level,

so you're consciously competent at this level from a content creation

perspective. For same example, it's essentially knowing like, okay, hey,

if I create a certain type of video, you know,

and with this type of structure where maybe in the beginning there's a hook.

So in this video I was like, Hey,

I'm gonna walk you through the framework to master any skill and I'll give it to

you from the perspective of something I'm learning right now,

which I am as well as a skill that I'm about to get into that I've mastered.

And after the hook,

maybe you have a little more explanation of how are you gonna do this,

what's kind of the breakdown,

maybe additional information that folks need to know,

which is pretty much what I did. If you rewind this video and check it out,

and then getting into the meat of the subject. And so fast forwarding,

if you kind of know, you know, how to make a video,

but then how to make it on a similar topic or tangential topic or hey, you know,

these type of topics reach this type of tam,

a total addressable market where maybe, okay, you know, making an example,

right? Like financial mindset videos, for example,

budgeting or being frugal or financial minimalism for example. Like, you know,

consuming less, but then you know, being happy with what's in front of you.

So this type of topic may reach, let's say a maximum of 10 million people,

but if you want a hundred million, you know, viral type of video,

you may need to appeal for people of all ages, different groups. You know,

something that, you know, for example,

maybe there's no audio in terms of a specific language,

but maybe just music or you know,

kind of ASMR where it doesn't take somebody to know that language.

Maybe just visually appealing and it could appeal to kids like from a very young

age or you know, even older folks where that's the same difference in this case.

So it just really depends what you're looking for and how you want to target it,

but you're consciously competent of like,

what does the playing field look like if you do X?

You can expect Y of course there could be a sprinkle of luck,

but if you take luck aside the base skillset and the foundation,

you're consciously competent to repeat it one more time.

I'm definitely not getting too deep in the weeds. For example,

more than the structure of your script. Maybe you have, you know,

decent audio on a microphone like this or decent, you know, video.

And then there's lighting behind me that's natural at summer recording.

So there's other nuance that you kind of know over time or for me,

I just didn't know these things in the beginning and maybe others did, right?

So in the end,

there's a lot of factors and input which come from through just practicing,

practicing. Then you get to this baseline and now the mastery step,

let's talk about step number four. At this point,

you're unconsciously competent. In other words,

you don't even need to think about it. And it, it works, it happens, you know,

the results you expect, you don't even need to think about it. You're like,

okay, if I did this, why didn't this happen?

Is the question that comes up versus, you know, if I did this,

then this should happen. No, it's why didn't it happen?

And you're able to problem solve, dig deeper,

kind of connect the dots throughout, you know, the whole landscape.

And let me give one more kind of more obvious example.

Let's say when it comes to breathing or just walking or brushing your teeth or

using the restroom, or otherwise, if I ask you, or if you think about it,

are you a master of these things generally? Yeah. Like you're,

you're able to do it whether you're a little out of it, little tired,

little not, whatever, you know,

the point is these things can be like secondary actions and they're almost

expected in today's society. And no one says, oh,

you're a master of brushing your teeth. Good job. It's expected.

But that mastery is the same difference for a skillset that you're learning.

So from a concentration perspective,

maybe it's not about growing your own channel,

maybe you have mastery enough to teach, maybe you know, you know that, okay,

hey, that title, that thumbnail, that combination, maybe that doesn't work.

You know that hey, you know, someone's starting from scratch.

Maybe this is how you get from zero to 10,000 subscribers fast or to a hundred

thousand or a million. Just depends on, you know,

whatever niche or category you're targeting.

And so now transitioning to the skill that I've mastered,

I'll walk us through this same framework and how that looked step by step.

For me, I love to beatbox and when I learned about this skill in general,

all I knew was that the total scope per se,

and this was when I was a lot younger, like 12 years old, younger,

it was basically there's three elements.

And these three sounds or elements can basically replicate any beat

out there, period. They're known as B, T, and K.

So if you colloquially heard like boots and cats and boots and cats,

so BTKB is a kick drum,

like your T is hi hat.

And then K is a snare like, or in this case,

so really quick with these three sounds, you can do example like hip hop stuff.

Like

you can also have variations where the can roll to become like,

so for example, trap music.

So there were definitely a couple different sounds there,

but the bass framework is really that with these same sounds you have rega

tone for example. So like

very like simplistic there without even me trying to add really other variations

or other sounds. And then for example, drum bass you have,

so again, like variations and stuff, but to that effect,

so I go over this because in the beginning, all I could do when the basics were,

all I could do was like, And I thought, well, hey,

I can do so there's only two other sounds. In other words,

I could be a master of beatboxing period. Like, so that's where my mind was at.

And so I was basically unconsciously incompetent.

The next stage was basically realizing like, hey, yeah, okay,

there is a lot more to learn and I'm not there yet.

And so when I was comparing myself to others or seeing other YouTube videos,

for example, of like where beatboxing was just at in the landscape at that time,

like we're talking 15 plus years ago,

it was really centered around hip hop or you know,

maybe having kind of like throw based type of stuff or dubstep. So like,

so like,

So this was like a big deal back then.

So just like that's like level two for example. Like, hey, there's more things.

And I definitely couldn't do that at the time easily.

And I knew I needed to practice. Eventually I became consciously competent,

which is our step three of four, where, okay, I know that alright,

if I gotta go, you know, do basic stuff, I can do basic stuff,

I can kind of jack it up to a more advanced level and eventually become a

master, right? So at that consciously competent time,

I can basically repeat again and again and again and get things more refined.

So a simple example is it's called like, um, I'll just do it for you.

So it's like, you know, it goes from single click to double click,

so you can kind of hear it out and uh, here's a quick sample,

double click,

Just, you know, something like this. So there's like a variation.

I could just keep practicing and keep practicing and this is like off the cuff

so I can get it even more mastered if I wanted to.

I could practice 10 more times before I recorded this right now on camera.

But it's basically that fourth level of mastery,

which is unconscious competence. So at this level, I'm able to just, you know,

beatbox on the fly, I'm doing stuff, you know,

as I'm walking I don't even realize, oh, I'm beatboxing, like, oh snap,

you know, stuff like this.

Or I'll be practicing something that I want to get better at,

but I'll just be doing it because I know deep down I'm like, oh man,

I want to get that, you know, mastered perfect, et cetera.

And so at this point I'm able to teach others,

I'm able to see the concepts in other fields, see how things are related,

see an opportunity in the overall market,

like not just me doing the thing alone, but how it could connect to others.

What other, you know,

financial opportunities could there be within this industry?

Because like doing the thing is one part and then spreading it from a community

perspective or adding value to others.

Like all of those things are like what I consider like mastery of a skillset

where you're not just making, let's say if you're a blacksmith,

like the best knife, but maybe you know,

knowing how other metals work because that's the master of that,

like craftsmanship. Or if you know you're into wood shop or wood,

wood workmanship, basically there's different types of woods.

And so it's not about just being perfect at one type of wood,

maybe it's how to handle different situations in general.

Essentially if you know these four concepts, you can master any skill ever.

And if I knew this earlier, were to help me a lot and annoying them,

now I kinda look at anything I'm learning, I'm like, okay,

where am I on the graph or where am I on that step by step, you know,

pyramid per se of rising to that unconscious competence level.

How far am I away from mastery? And I'm also able to know like, okay,

what are the inputs, what are the, you know, outcomes I could expect?

Where do I need maybe a little luck? But I never look at it or rely on that.

It's more about if you do, you know,

that conscious competence of the step-by-step again and again and again,

you're definitely gonna get, you know,

some type of outcome if not the outcome that you're looking for.

And you can think and not just dream,

but plan for hitting whatever goal you have to be bigger and bigger and get

there one fine day, whenever that is.

I'm really proud to say because from mastery I eventually rose to the top of my

industry. And you can definitely do that too.

And I have the full story of what I did step by step.

I'll leave it over here and I'll see you there.