How to 10x Your Income - The 4 Ladders of Wealth

Summary

本视频介绍了如何通过财富创造的四个阶梯来实现财务自由。第一阶梯是时间换金钱，如工资工作；第二阶梯是传统服务业务，如自由职业；第三阶梯是产品化服务，提供标准化的服务包；第四阶梯是销售产品，包括数字产品、软件、订阅服务等。视频中通过萨拉·布莱克利的Spanx公司案例，展示了人们如何从第一阶梯开始，逐步攀升至第四阶梯，最终实现财务自由。同时强调了每一步所需的技能和挑战，以及拥有观众群体对于推动销售的重要性。最后，视频鼓励观众利用现有资源，如书籍和在线内容，学习必要的技能，逐步实现财务自由。

Takeaways

• 📈 **财富创造的四个阶梯**：视频介绍了Nathan Barry提出的财富创造的四个阶梯，从最基础的以时间换金钱到最终的产品销售，每个阶梯都代表了不同的收入水平和所需技能。
• 💼 **时间换金钱**：阶梯一涉及以时间换金钱的工作，如小时工或年薪工作，这是大多数人开始的地方，但也是财富创造潜力最小的阶梯。
• 🔧 **服务业务**：阶梯二涉及提供自由职业服务，如网站设计或视频编辑，这需要学习新技能，如客户发掘、提案制作和定价策略。
• 🛍️ **产品化服务**：阶梯三涉及将服务产品化，通过定义服务范围和价格，创建可重复销售的标准化服务包，这有助于扩展业务规模。
• 📚 **产品销售**：阶梯四涉及销售实体或数字产品，如在线课程或软件，这需要掌握更高级的技能，如客户支持、市场推广和供应链管理。
• 🚀 **无限潜力**：阶梯四提供了无限的收入增长潜力，尤其是软件即服务(SaaS)产品，因为它们的边际成本接近零，可以带来指数级的收入增长。
• 💡 **技能学习**：每个阶梯都需要不同的技能集，从基础的可靠性和一致性到更高级的销售、营销和管理技能。
• 🤝 **社交网络和市场**：拥有观众或社交网络可以极大地帮助推动任何阶梯上的业务，因为它们可以提供流量和潜在客户。
• 📉 **收入增长的挑战**：在阶梯二上，提供定制化服务可能导致业务操作复杂性增加，限制了收入增长。
• 💰 **财务自由的路径**：虽然可以跳过某些阶梯，但逐步攀登每个阶梯可以学习到宝贵的技能，这对最终实现财务自由至关重要。
• 📚 **资源利用**：利用现有资源，如书籍、播客和在线课程，可以帮助理解并应用这些概念，这些资源由已经成功的人提供，可以避免重复他们的错误。
• 🌟 **内容生态系统**：现代内容生态系统提供了大量关于如何建立和发展业务的信息，这使得获取知识和技能变得更加容易。

Q & A

什么是财富创造的四个阶梯？

财富创造的四个阶梯是Nathan Barry在其2019年的博客文章中提出的概念，包括：阶梯一，时间换金钱；阶梯二，传统服务业务；阶梯三，产品化服务；阶梯四，销售产品。

为什么直接从阶梯一跳到阶梯四通常是一个错误？

因为阶梯一所需的技能与阶梯四所需的技能相差甚远，直接跳转可能会因为缺乏必要的技能而失败。

萨拉·布莱克利是如何从阶梯一开始她的财务自由之路的？

萨拉·布莱克利从1990年开始，通过在一家酒店照看孩子每小时收费8美元起家，后来她创立了Spanx公司，到2021年公司估值达到12亿美元。

为什么说阶梯一的增长潜力有限？

阶梯一的增长潜力有限，因为它依赖于个人的时间来换取金钱，而每个人的时间都是有限的，这限制了收入增长的潜力。

在阶梯二中，为什么需要学习新的技能？

在阶梯二中，你需要学习如何找到客户、创建提案、定价服务，并且可能需要管理一个团队，这些都需要不同于阶梯一的新技能。

产品化服务与普通服务有何不同？

产品化服务是将服务作为产品来销售，提供固定范围和固定价格的服务，这样可以更容易地规模化和标准化服务，而普通服务则更侧重于定制化和个性化。

为什么拥有观众对于销售产品化服务特别有帮助？

拥有观众可以增加潜在客户的流量和信任度，从而提高转化率和销售额。

阶梯四的顶端是什么，为什么它具有最高的收入潜力？

阶梯四的顶端是市场和社交网络，如亚马逊、Facebook、Shopify和Uber。它们具有最高的收入潜力，因为随着用户数量的增加，网络效应使得平台价值增加，吸引更多用户加入。

为什么说在阶梯四上，每个产品的销售和交付不需要额外的努力？

在阶梯四上，产品如在线课程或软件服务一旦创建完成，其交付过程不需要额外的人力投入，可以实现自动化销售和交付。

为什么说从阶梯一直接跳到阶梯四可能会错过学习重要技能的机会？

因为每个阶梯都有其独特的技能和经验，如果跳过中间的阶梯，可能会错过学习如何与客户沟通、销售产品等重要技能的机会。

为什么说现在的创业者比过去更容易获得关于财务自由的信息和资源？

因为现在有很多书籍、播客、视频和在线课程等资源，由那些已经实现财务自由的人创作，为后来者提供了宝贵的信息和指导。

Outlines

00:00

🚀 财富创造的四个阶梯

本段落介绍了Nathan Barry提出的‘财富创造的四个阶梯’概念，旨在解释如何从最基本的收入水平逐步提升至财务自由。阶梯一代表着以时间换金钱的工作，阶梯四则是通过创建和销售产品来实现收入最大化。视频中强调了很多人试图直接从阶梯一跳至阶梯四，但这是一个错误，因为需要的技能集差异巨大。段落通过Sarah Blakeley的Spanx公司案例，展示了大多数人是如何从阶梯一开始他们的财务自由之旅的。

05:00

🤔 传统服务业务的转变

第二段落深入探讨了从阶梯一（以时间换金钱）向阶梯二（传统服务业务）的转变。作者分享了自己12岁时通过网络提供服务赚钱的经历，并解释了自由职业者如何通过Fiverr和Upwork等平台提供服务。此外，还讨论了在阶梯二上，从按小时收费到按项目收费的转变，以及最终可能雇佣他人来完成工作的服务型代理机构模式。

10:01

📈 产品化服务的策略

第三段落讨论了阶梯三——产品化服务。这涉及到将服务作为产品来销售，从而实现服务的系统化和规模化。视频中以视频编辑服务为例，说明了如何通过定义服务范围和价格来创建产品化服务包。此外，还强调了拥有观众群体对于推动业务增长的重要性，并提到了如何通过教育和内容创作来建立这种信任关系。

15:02

🌐 销售产品与平台的力量

第四段落涉及阶梯四——销售产品本身，包括数字产品、软件、甚至拥有交易平台。这阶梯允许创造者实现收入的指数级增长，尤其是软件产品，因为它们的边际成本接近零。视频中提到了不同类型的产品，如在线课程、订阅软件，以及市场和社交网络等平台。同时，也讨论了直接从阶梯一跳至阶梯四可能错过的关键技能，如客户沟通和销售技巧。

20:03

📚 财务自由的学习之路

第五段落强调了随着时间的推移，实现财务自由的路径变得更加清晰，因为那些已经成功的人会通过书籍、播客和视频分享他们的知识。这为后来者提供了丰富的资源，帮助他们避免重复前人的错误。视频最后鼓励观众利用这些资源，通过学习和实践来逐步实现财务自由。

Keywords

💡财富创造阶梯

财富创造阶梯是Nathan Barry在其2019年的博客文章中提出的概念，它描述了从最低收入到最高收入的四个不同阶段。这个概念帮助人们理解在财富积累过程中可能经历的不同商业模式和所需技能。在视频中，它作为核心框架，引导观众了解如何从时间换金钱的工作逐步过渡到创建和销售产品，最终实现财务自由。

💡时间换金钱

时间换金钱是指个人通过出售自己的时间来获得收入，这是最基础的赚钱方式，通常涉及按小时或年薪工作。在视频中，这被描述为财富创造阶梯的第一级，虽然它是大多数人赚钱的方式，但也是财富增长潜力最低的方式。

💡自由职业服务业务

自由职业服务业务属于财富创造阶梯的第二级，它涉及提供专业服务并按项目收费，而不是按小时计费。这种方式相比时间换金钱有更大的收入增长潜力，但需要学习如何找到客户、制定提案、定价以及管理团队等新技能。

💡产品化服务

产品化服务是财富创造阶梯的第三级，它要求将服务打包成一个具有固定范围和价格的产品。这样可以使服务提供者为多个客户系统化地提供服务，更容易扩大规模。在视频中，它被用作从提供定制服务到提供标准化、可重复服务的转变。

💡销售产品

销售产品是财富创造阶梯的最高级别，涉及创建和销售数字产品、物理产品、软件或拥有交易平台。这种方式有最高的收入潜力，但也需要最复杂的技能集合，包括客户支持、引导生成、供应链管理等。在视频中，它被描述为实现财务自由的最终目标。

💡财务自由

财务自由是指个人拥有足够的资产和被动收入，以至于不再需要通过出售时间来维持生活的状态。视频中讨论了通过不同的财富创造阶梯逐步实现财务自由的过程，强调了学习和适应新技能的重要性。

💡服务型代理

服务型代理是指提供特定服务的公司或机构，它们通常雇佣自由职业者或员工来完成客户委托的工作。在视频中，这是自由职业服务业务向更高级别发展的形式，它涉及到更多的管理和运营技能。

💡订阅软件

订阅软件是一种基于云的服务，用户按月或年支付费用以使用该软件。在视频中，它被归类为财富创造阶梯的第四级，因为它提供了持续的收入流和较低的边际成本。

💡市场和社交网络

市场和社交网络构成了财富创造阶梯的顶端，它们是人们进行交易和交流的平台。例如，亚马逊是一个市场，Facebook是一个社交网络。在视频中，这被描述为最难建立的商业模式，但也是潜在收益最大的。

💡技能发展

技能发展是指个人在攀登财富创造阶梯过程中所需学习和掌握的新技能。视频强调了随着从阶梯的一级向更高一级移动，所需技能的复杂性也在增加，包括销售、市场营销、系统构建和团队管理等。

💡内容生态系统

内容生态系统指的是围绕特定主题或领域（如创业、财务自由等）的大量内容，包括书籍、播客、视频等。在视频中，它被提到作为学习新技能和避免创业过程中常见错误的资源。

Highlights

介绍财富创造的四个梯子模型，由Nathan Barry提出，旨在帮助人们理解如何从基础收入逐步实现财务自由。

梯子一（时间换金钱）是大多数人开始的地方，但也是财富创造中最短的梯子。

萨拉·布莱克利（Sarah Blakely）通过小时工起步，最终创立了价值12亿美元的Spanx公司。

梯子一的上限是难以通过交易时间来实现财务自由，但某些高薪职业如软件工程师或医生可能例外。

梯子二（传统服务业务）涉及自由职业者或服务型企业，需要学习新技能如客户发掘和定价。

梯子三（产品化服务）通过提供固定范围和价格的服务包，更容易规模化和增长收入。

拥有观众或粉丝群可以极大地促进任何梯子上的业务增长，因为增加了潜在客户和流量。

梯子四（销售产品）允许创造者通过数字产品、软件或拥有交易平台来实现最高的收入潜力。

每个梯子都需要不同的技能集，从基础的可靠性和一致性，到更高级的销售、市场营销和管理技能。

作者分享了自己作为医生的年薪增长路径，说明了梯子一的局限性和晋升过程。

通过提供服务业务的转变，可以从小规模的自由职业者发展成为管理团队的服务型企业。

产品化服务的关键在于定义清晰的服务范围和价格，从而实现服务的标准化和规模化。

销售数字产品、订阅软件或拥有市场平台可以带来更线性的收入增长，而不是梯子一的阶梯式增长。

即使不按照梯子的顺序一步步来，也可以实现财务自由，但可能会错过一些重要的技能学习机会。

内容消费和实践是理解并应用这些财富创造梯子的关键，随着时间的积累，这些概念将变得更加清晰。

作者鼓励观众利用现有资源，如书籍、播客和YouTube视频，来学习如何实现财务自由。

通过站在前人的基础上，可以避免重复他们的错误，并更快地找到实现财务自由的路径。

Transcripts

hey friends welcome back to the channel

so what does it take to become

financially free well in this video

we're going to learn how you can turn

your income from this all the way to

this and then maybe even to this and to

answer this question we're going to be

using a framework called the ladders of

wealth creation this is a concept that

my friend Nathan Barry came up with in

his 2019 blog post that went absolutely

Mega viral on the internet and really

changed the way that I also consider

wealth building making money Financial

Freedom all that fun stuff now here is

what the four ladders of wealth creation

look like like ladder one is where you

make the least money ladder 4 is where

you make the most money and you can

climb as high as you want on any of

these ladders but some of these ladders

are ultimately just a lot taller than

the others so when trying to build

wealth a lot of people try to jump from

ladder one where you are trading your

time for money straight to ladder 4

where you are building and selling

products but this can often be a mistake

because the skills you need to climb

ladder one are a fraction of what you

need to climb ladder 4 and the thing I

love about Nathan's article here is that

he shows you all of the skills you need

to develop at each step of the ladder to

eventually make your way to ladder

number four

ladder number one time for

money this is Sarah Blakeley now Sarah

started her first business in 1990 when

she was just out of high school she

charged $8 to babysit kids for a few

hours at a local Hilton Hotel while

their moms and dads tanned fast forward

to 2021 and Sarah's company Spanx which

is a clothing company that makes

underwear and leggings was valued at

$1.2 billion and what I love about this

story alongside literally thousands of

others is that most people who become

financially free started off in ladder

number one with some kind of hourly job

now the Bottom Rung of ladder number one

is doing hourly work for someone and

this is where you think in terms of how

much money you're making per hour

otherwise known as a wage now I was at

this rung when I was 14 years old and

started working at a maths and English

study center called Kumon I was being

paid $5 an hour to uh work for 4 hours a

week um teaching kids math and English

and helping them with their like

coursework and that sort of thing now

generally The Next Step Up ladder one is

some form of salaried work and this is

where you work for a company and you get

told what your annual salary is this is

for example what I was doing aged 24 to

26 when I worked as a junior doctor in

the UK's National Health Service my

annual salary was around £36,000 GBP and

I was working on average 48 hours a week

and I had around 28 days off per year in

terms of like paid annual leave now you

might have noticed something a little

depressing which is that ladder one is

the shortest ladder when it comes to

wealth creation but ladder one is how

most people make their living and Ladder

one is the shortest ladder because it's

really really really hard to become

financially free by trading your time

for money yes there are a handful of

professions where you can become

financially free if you do trade your

time for money if for example you're a

very well-paid software engineer or

you're a very wellp paid doctor in the

US or you're like you work in finance

and like hedge funds or private Equity

or Investment Banking then yeah sure you

you're still trading your time for money

but your salary is in the millions and

therefore if you save a huge proportion

of your salary and then you put it aside

into Investments and you think about

things like the 4% Rule and blah blah

blah blah blah blah this is basically

the the method that most people who are

following the fire Community Financial

Independence retire early this is what

they're doing they're trying to earn

loads of money in their 20s and 30s so

that they can retire by age like 35 and

then that to them is Financial Freedom

but unfortunately if you're not in one

of those high-paying jobs it is very

difficult to become financially free and

even if you are in some of these

high-paying jobs you might find that

like the trade-off of working in an

investment bank for 15 years from age 21

to age 36 the amount of damage that does

to your life and your health and

relationships from what I hear from

people who are in that position much not

even be worth it when you do get to age

36 and suddenly you can retire but

anyway when you're on ladder one and

you're trading time for money your

growth in income will look something

like this you start off working for a

company and if you stay at the company

long enough and do relatively well then

you'll get a raise then maybe at some

point you'll get a promotion and then

you'll get another raise and these

little raises create these sort of small

step changes in your income graph for

example if I continued in my medical

career this is what my income graph

would have looked like in my Foundation

year 1 I'd be making about $40,000 in

Foundation year 2 maybe about 48,000

then during core training maybe I making

like 54k and then I become a registr

maybe I'm making like 58 to 60k and then

once I become a consultant age like 35

or above then I'm on around about

100,000 to 150,000 depending on how I

play my cards that is the annual salary

that I'm basically going to be at for

the rest of my life unless I decide to

for example do private practice which

could involve working for a private

healthcare company or starting my own

thing uh but that would take us to a

different ladder now interestingly in

the UK if you want to be in the top 1%

of earners that is an annual salary of

£60,000

P which is about $200,000 so if I

continued working in medicine I'd have

been around about at that salary I would

have joined the 1% maybe in my 40s or my

50s but however much money you're making

in a job there is inevitably some kind

of cap to how much you can make when you

are trading your time for money which

kind of begs the question why do most

people stay on ladder one depending on

your circumstances you might not be able

to actually physically go into ladders 2

or three or four and honestly I think

for most people who are sufficiently

privileged with all of the caveats aside

who are sufficiently privileged to have

the option of moving to different

ladders but who seem to stay in ladder

one I think a big part of it is that we

just don't consider that you actually

can move to these different ladders I

went through med school like it did not

even remotely occurred to me when I was

applying to medicine that there were

ways to make money other than to just

get a job and earn a salary and what it

took was for me to read Tim Ferris is

amazing book The 4-Hour Work Week at the

age of 18 to be like oh my God like my

whole world is opened up to the fact

that you can in fact make money using a

vehicle other than a salary job and

there's that fun story from David Foster

Wallace that I think really captures

this you might have heard it before the

two fish are happily swimming along and

they meet an older fish swimming the

other way the older fish nods and says

morning boys how's the water and then

the two young fish swim on a bit and

then they look at each other and they

say what the hell is water and for most

of us the water that we are swimming in

when it comes to making money is Ladder

one of the wealth creation ladder the

idea of trading our time for money by

the way if you were wondering about the

absolutely sick background music that

we've been using in this video and in

fact every other video on my channel

since 2017 that is from epidemic sound

who are very kindly sponsoring this

video epidemic sound incidentally is a

cross between a sort of marketplace and

a a SAS product software as a service

which we're going to talk about in

ladder 4 of the ladders of wealth

creation but sound design is an

incredibly important part of making

great videos and we get literally all of

our tracks and sound effects from

epidemic they've got a huge library of

over 40,000 songs and 990,000 sound

effects that are restriction free so you

can use them in pretty much whatever way

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just makes it so easy to build the

perfect sound design for your content

for example you might search inspiring

soaring piano music and then you can

find stuff and then you can click find

similar and that will make it easy to

find stuff that sounds similar to that

that's how I personally find a lot of

the music that I I use in my videos

their music is also professionally

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they own 100% of it as well so there's

never a chance that your videos are

going to get a claim or a takedown in

the future epidemic sound gives you so

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it all remains licensed even after you

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I've been using it for literally the

last 7 years so if you want to bring

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epidemic sound for sponsoring this video

so now we come to ladder number two

which is a traditional service business

now when I was around 12 years old I

discovered something absolutely magical

which is that I had the ability to make

money on the internet by offering

services to people online and through

that realization I learned how to make

websites I learned the basics of online

like coding skills and stuff and I

advertised my services on freelance

platforms where I was charging like $10

an hour to make websites for people and

that was like a major unlock because I'd

now gone from Trading time for money to

doing more of a service business and

this is Ladder two of the ladders of

wealth creation which is some form of

freelance service business and it's very

possible to make money like this there

are platforms like Fiverr and upwork and

people per hour where anyone in the

world can post themselves as a

freelancer with a particular skill and

then anyone in the world can hire you to

do that particular skill it's pretty

magical now on lad one the core skill

you need if you want a wage job or a

salary job is essentially being reliable

performing well and showing up

consistently yes of course there are

more specialist skills like if you're a

doctor then obviously you need the

doctor skills and if you're a banker you

need the banker skills and stuff but

when you jump to ladder 2 you then need

to learn a new set of skills now at the

bottom of ladder 2 you're most likely

charging for some kind of hourly work so

for example you might be charging $20 an

hour as a freelance writer or $50 an

hour as a video editor but at the very

least you need the skill of finding

clients who will actually buy your

service secondly potentially creating

proposals for those clients and pitching

for work and thirdly probably knowing

how to price whatever your service is

and then you graduate to doing per

Project based work so instead of me

saying hey I will Design you a website

for $10 an hour and it will take me 10

hours so I'm going to charge you $100

it's more like hey I'll charge you $200

to make your website and then in fact

the incentive is for me to take as

little time as possible in in actually

delivering that service because now I'm

not being paid by the hour and then if

you decide to move one step up in that

particular ladder then you're not

necessarily the one who's actually

delivering the work maybe you're selling

the work but you are hiring other people

to do the work for you and so that is

what a service-based agency is for

example if you hire a web design agency

it is very unlikely that the person who

you talk on the phone to who sells you

the web design project is actually the

one writing the code and making the

website chances are they have imployed

other people either as Freelancers or as

employees to do the service for them so

that they can deliver the results and

things can scale a lot better and if you

get to that point where you're managing

a team to do this sort of service work

then you're probably going to need to

learn the skills of setting up a company

figuring out things like accounting and

finance and the business side of

everything and putting out job

applications to hire employees to

support you and what you need these are

generally different skills to what you

have when you're trading time for money

because when you're trading time for

money usually you're a component in a

grander system and so you're unlikely to

learn those skills but you learn those

skills as you progress up ladder number

two now you can absolutely climb higher

on ladder number two than ladder number

one especially if you hire a team to

help you provide your services but there

is also a limit to how far you can climb

on ladder 2 because most people who are

freelancing are offering kind of agency

Based Services to clients most of these

people Begin by customizing the service

for each client and this is great for

the client but before you know it you

have multiple different customers with

like a dozen different requests each

maybe more and you end up going back and

forth and it's very difficult to scale

up a business that is providing such

bespoke services for every client

they're working with and that's where we

get on to ladder number three which is

productized services on ladder number

two we have the mindset of selling a

service but to move up to the next

ladder instead of thinking that we are

selling a service we are thinking of

selling our service as a product instead

hence the phrase productized services so

let's imagine that you're a video editor

for example even if you have no

experience editing videos you are

watching this video video on YouTube and

you probably know a little something

about like the fact that these videos

are edited for example so what would

this look like if we thought about video

editing as a productized service instead

of just a normal service so you might

for example develop a package called the

YouTube shorts starter kit and you'd

then Define the scope of this YouTube

shorts stter kit you could say this

package this product involves one Zoom

call per month for 1 hour with a client

10 hours of video editing work five

completed videos per month one revision

per video Max and all videos are 60

seconds or less then you put a price tag

on this for example I don't know $2,000

a month and this is your productized

service it is essentially a systematic

service that you can deliver for

multiple clients and you are selling it

as a whole bundle as a whole product and

if some of your clients are like oh but

can you do long form instead or this or

that or can you do funkier edits and

stuff you're like no I have one product

and I just do this thing repeatedly and

I get really good at doing this thing

which means you can then stop creating

systems and processes around the thing

you can now start hiring people to help

you do the thing and because all you're

doing is selling one thing that has a

very defined scope with a very defined

product price on it it means it's a lot

easier to scale a product High service

by the way if you're interested in

learning more about this my friend Robin

we has an amazing book called take your

shot which is basically about the

process of going from ladder number two

to ladder number three and you should

check it out it's fantastic incidentally

producti Services is what another

company of mine called Hey friends does

hey friends is like a done for you

productize service that helps people do

YouTube but basically does all the stuff

for them outside of filming the actual

video it's super expensive you can check

out the website if you want but that is

an example of a product service so I'll

put a link down below if you just want

to have a look at what it looks like to

do producty Services as a kind of

YouTube agency kind of thing now this

shift from ladder number two to ladder

number three is one of the most

important shifts for wealth creation so

on ladder number two there is a limit to

how much income you can actually grow

because we run the risk of scope

expansion the projects swell you get

more clients and it starts to become too

operationally complex but ladder number

three solves this problem because a

product High service is simply a

predefined packaged service offered for

a set price and a set scope so you're

being super clear to the customer about

what they can expect and these clear

expectations are what helps you scale a

predictable model now the skills that

you need to create and sell a product I

service are also a little bit more

sophisticated for example you know how

to write sales copy that can make a sale

without necessarily you having to talk

to the customer you need to learn how to

design sales Pages or learn how to hire

experts who can design sales and landing

pages for you you need to know how to

process online payments assuming you're

selling over the internet and you need

to figure out some sort of standardized

system so systems building to be able to

deliver repeatable quality with each

service now here the way Nathan

describes it is that the Bottom Rung of

this ladder is fixed scope for a fixed

price which is what we're talking about

then you might go up by selling

recurring Services provided by your

employees and then at the final rung of

this ladder number three you would have

recurring product High services and that

is for example what hey friends is now

at this point your income curve starts

to become linear rather than stepwise as

it was in ladder number one because

essentially the more traffic or the more

leads you can generate for your product

and the more sales you can get for your

product in theory there is no limit to

how much of a product High service you

can sell and this Nuance is is here

because if your product I service has to

scale with people then you start needing

to hire more and more and more people

and then obviously you then have to

require the skills of managing a large

team and operations and complexity and

people issues and HR stuff and all of

the stuff that's associated with running

a bigger business there is sort of a cap

in terms of like the people Max Capacity

that you can personally deal with but

you can always get better at dealing

with that capacity of people over time

but one of the problems is that you need

to constantly have traffic and this is

actually where having an audience

becomes particularly helpful in fact

having an audience is a massive hack for

any of these different ladders and I've

done a bunch of videos that you can see

on the channel about how to grow your

YouTube channel you know all that kind

of stuff but basically if you have an

audience of people who know like and

trust you you're way more likely to be

able to drive leads and drive traffic

towards your freelance business or your

producti service or even your product

compared to someone who doesn't have an

audience and then we come to ladder

number four which is selling products

themselves now the wealthiest people on

the planet typically did not get rich by

selling services in any capacity instead

they sell digital products or physical

products or software instead or even

better they own the platform upon which

these different transactions take place

now when it comes to L 3 in theory if

you progress far enough it sort of

removes the need to talk to the customer

to kind of give them a kind of

customized package so in in a way L 3

removes the work of talking to the

customer and in theory lad 4 removes all

of the manual work from delivering the

product because all of the work is

front-loaded into actually creating that

product in the first place so for

example if you sell an online course

like I do the parttime YouTuber Academy

then there is a stupid amount of work

that goes into writing and filming and

editing the course but when someone buys

the course you usually don't need to do

any additional work in delivering that

course now this is the ladder that

allows you to climb the highest but it's

also the ladder that requires the most

skills for example customer support at

scale and lead generation and Gathering

customers at scale and supply chain and

operations and all of that complexity if

it's a physical product and shipping if

it's a physical product a bunch of stuff

that generally service businesses don't

have to deal with now the Bottom Rung of

this ladder is selling digital products

like what I do which is courses and

ebooks and

downloadblack and tripods for

vloggers ton can you Chuck me the light

keyboard please so for example this is

V1 of the light mode keyboard which you

can check out light mode.com if you want

a funky keyboard that looks nice and

feels nice to type

on then we go up to rung number four

which is subscription software launch

with some kind of Consulting service so

if for example I was doing a Consulting

service that was offering Facebook ads

services to businesses you know that's a

service based business but if I then had

my own software or licensed software

that would help them manage the ads I

could then charge a recurring fee for

the software that is attached to the

Consulting service then you go up one

wrong of the ladder and that is directly

software as a service where the thing

that people are buying from you is

software and ideally they are paying

some kind of recurring revenue for that

so for example we are in beta at the

moment of a product that I'm developing

with my friend Pablo it's called voice

pal it's like an AI enabled uh creative

tool that helps you overcome writer's

block you just speak into the phone and

it creates a first draft of your

newsletter or your YouTube video or

whatever thing you're trying to build

we've got around 2,000 beta users for

that it will launch publicly but you can

join the wait list with Linkin below if

you want to check it out it's at voicep

pal. me so that software that's software

as a service people either have a free

account or hopefully they pay for a

recurring monthly Revenue subscription

plan and they keep getting value from

the software this is great because it

means that for us to deliver the product

for more customers there's no additional

like capital expenditure we have to do

and the marginal cost of us onboarding a

new customer is basically zero and then

the final rung of the ladder is Market

places and social networks so for

example Amazon is a Marketplace Facebook

is a social network Shopify is a

Marketplace of sorts Uber is a

Marketplace these are very difficult I'm

nowhere near anywhere near building a

Marketplace or platform product but it's

the the final rung of the ladder now

climbing up ladder number four typically

takes quite a lot of work because each

product takes a lot of work to create

upfront but each individual sale and

fulfillment of that sale happens without

much additional effort hopefully from

the owner of the business but ladder 4

is really where you have the potential

of unlimited upside especially in

software because you're not limited by

things Beyond server costs and team

sizes and stuff as you scale but you

also have the potential for exponential

income growth because if the product is

good then in theory each sale of the

product should make the next sale easier

because you have some kind of word of

mouth effects and this is especially

true when you get to the highest rung of

the ladder with marketplaces and social

networks because the more people that

join a Marketplace or a social network

that creates a flywheel because then

more people will want to join the

marketplace of social network because

the network becomes more valuable the

more people you have in

it okay so those were the four ladders

of wealth creation according to Nathan

Barry's blog post which I mostly agree

with and I think it's just a really nice

map of okay cool these are all the

different ways I could make money and

these are the different skills I

potentially need to learn on Route and

if some of this stuff seems completely

foreign or alien to you you can check

out the blog post I'll link it down

below and over time as you become more

familiar with this entrepreneurship

space you'll start to appreciate all of

these things and they'll start to seem a

lot more like second nature even if

right now they might seem kind of

overwhelming like whoo I didn't know

subscription software with Consulting

Services was even a thing like what even

is a service based all all this sort of

stuff the more you consume content and

actually try this stuff out the more the

language will start to make sense and

then it becomes a lot easier to actually

effectively make a plan for how you want

to get to Financial Freedom now it is

absolutely okay to skip steps if you

want like you don't have to go from

ladder 1 to two to 3 to four but it's

worth recognizing that if you jump for

example from ladder 1 to ladder number

four you are missing out on a lot of the

skills that you would have learned if

you instead had built a service based

business or some kind of product I

Service Agency upfront you'd miss out on

the skills of talking to customers and

being able to sell something directly

and in fact mostly software where people

who go straight to building software

struggle with sales they struggle with

distribution they struggle with talking

to customers they like building the

thing and they don't like selling the

thing and that's why every second time

founder focuses instead on spending

loads of time talking to customers and

on distribution which would be the sort

of skills that you would pick up if you

tried to have a service based business

the other way of course of learning

these skills is to surround yourself

with a community or even content of

people teaching the skills like these

days because of all of the content

that's out there about how to build a

software startup with you know why

combinator start school and you know all

the podcasts around every software

company founder that I know is so

plugged in to the ecosystem of content

around how to build software that even

firsttime Founders are increasingly just

they just know it's really obvious that

you should spend loads of time talking

to customers but if you're not plugged

into the content ecosystem around this

stuff you will make all of the mistakes

and I think one of the things around

this whole journey to Financial Freedom

is that every year it actually becomes

easier because people who have done it

are then writing books I mean this is

not a money book but yeah I'm just

holding it up cuz it's my book you

should check it out people who have done

it are literally writing books about it

they're recording loads of podcasts

about it they're making YouTube videos

about it and now you have so much

content like this stuff would have been

like a black box in the past where only

with experience would you have even

known that a lot of these things exist

but now there's like the the map is out

there people have figured the stuff out

you can absolutely stand on the

shoulders of the Giants who've come

before us in fact I did a video U which

is honest advice to people who want

Financial Freedom which kind of speaks a

lot to this and that video will be

linked right over over here that video

will give you a significant boost up if

you are currently feeling a little bit

lost in this space this journey to

Financial Freedom so check out that

video over there thank you so much for

watching I'll see you in the next one

bye-bye