The WAY to WOW Shows
Career Moats
March 11, 2026
Automatically generated from YouTube captions; names and wording may contain errors.

[0:00] Who [music] are you? And where are you going?

[0:06] >> [music]

[0:08] >> What do you want?

[0:15] >> Hello and welcome to people making money. I'm your host Kevin Bemmel and I'm here every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about job hunting, starting and running a business, and building wealth. So, the whole financial side of our life. And today, as has been my plan for this year, I'm I've been rotating through those three subjects. So, I'm going to be talking about um the the sort of job hunting and and job retention uh aspect uh from a you know,

[0:51] for our professional lives. However, as I was reviewing my notes a little earlier, I realized this applies equally to to you know, people like like me who have who have a professional practice. And so, in many ways, uh you know, we're not literally an employee for other people, but indeed

[1:17] >> [snorts]

[1:17] >> um because we work directly, typically, for other people or even in my case, you know, trusts and probates, there's people involved. And so, how to deal with this talk today's topic is is as applicable, I think, to small businesses, certainly, as it is to people those of you who are employees and and looking to maintain your position or, in fact, better your position. So, the the topic du jour, as the French might say, is [snorts] what what I what I call career moats.

[1:54] Now, that's m o a t s. You know, for those of you who um are are keeping track of such things. And it really refers to uh um building skills uh that are hard to replace and um hopefully also easier to monetize. So, if you think of a castle, right? The classic castle from, you know, medieval times, we see, you know, there there's the castle and it's it's built of stone and

[2:30] it's ramparts and all of that. And surrounding it is a moat, right? Uh and and if you saw the uh the the the social media posts for for today's episode, you you might have seen uh there was a the there was a kind of a picture of a castle with a moat around it. Uh in this case though, the moat had no water in it. Like we always think of moats as having water in them. And then the drawbridge lowers down and you can get into the castle, right? But the idea is that moat protects the castle from from invasion, from

[3:06] being uh taken over, from being knocked down, right? And so, that's what we want to do, if at all possible, with our professional lives. And as I've been thinking about again, thinking about today's episode, I realized that very early on in my professional life, when I was in my probably mid-20s,

[3:31] >> [snorts]

[3:31] >> there was a man uh who who I I think he was the head of an investment bank called Lazard Frères, uh named Felix Rohatyn. And I don't know where I found this, but uh he was quoted as saying, and I'm paraphrasing it now, this isn't an exact quote, but essentially make yourself indispensable to your clients or make make yourself so indispensable that your clients won't make an important decision without consulting

[4:08] with you first. Hey, so Roy Hatton was was an investment banker. That's Lazard Frères was an investment banking firm. And

[4:19] >> [clears throat]

[4:20] >> that that idea has stuck with me for all the decades that I've been in business. Now, you know, four four decades basically or pretty pretty close to it. And I [clears throat] think that that's really the key concept to building a career moat. And it's as it's as true it was as true back then as it is now. I think we we tend to to have this idea that, oh, you know, things have never been worse or things

[4:56] have never been better. No, look, technology new technology comes about. We have to adapt to it. We have to figure out how it's going to work. When the internet came along, we had to do that. We had to deal with that. Before that, there was like what? Email. And before that, there was, you know, fax machines and cell phones. And before that, there were pagers. I mean, I I lived through all of that in my career. And and I'm not saying that there was any more change necessarily or any more disruptive change during the last 40 years, but I

[5:32] mean, it does it does seem like it seems like the changes come more quickly. But but perhaps not. It it may just be again this this sort of bias people have to thinking, oh, you know, this is always the most difficult thing. So, today, of course, the potential disruptors are automation, large language models, kind of grouped together as, you know, artificial intelligence, AI. And and and they definitely are a challenge that we need to meet head-on. We can't, you know, be the proverbial

[6:09] ostrich with our head in the sand. We have to figure out how how are we going to handle this, right? And and so, we're going to need, you know, if if we have just generic skills, okay, we're we're exposed. Whereas, if we developed specialized combinations, we're much better protected. And that's really at the heart of what it is to build a career mode. Okay? So, I I remember, um, when I first got off of active duty with

[6:44] the Navy, I I was coaching service members who were doing the same thing and and entering civilian life. And one of the things they would tell me when I spoke to them initial often initially is, oh, I'm getting, you know, this this certification and that certification and, you know, etc. etc. etc. And I said, well, I mean, I guess that's fine, but at the point where a particular skill has has become something that one can get a a certification for,

[7:20] it's become pretty generic, right? Because anybody really can take a class and complete the class and get the certification. And now, okay, it's certified that they have that skill. And now what? You know, [snorts] so what I encouraged military people to do back then was to look at how they could take their knowledge, skills, and experience and position it in a way that it made them competitive in the civilian job market

[7:55] over and above whatever certifications they might have or over and above the people who were getting all the certifications, but perhaps didn't have demonstrated leadership ability, didn't have demonstrated ability to work in teams and units, that sort of thing. There is no certification for those kinds of what we might call soft skills. Okay? And yet in today's world, those skills are probably more valuable than anything

[8:30] else simply because automation and AI can do so much of the so-called hard skills, right? Now, AI and and and automation and such, it's not going to replace all hard skills, so I had a a viewer on watching last week and he he mentioned he was in blue-collar work, he was looking to get into white-collar work and I think white-collar work will be harder to put a moat around than

[9:07] blue-collar work. Because until we can build robots who can do plumbing and electrical work and auto auto repair and air conditioning repair and you know, those sorts of things we need people who can do that. And when you think about the high level of dexterity that it takes to do that that kind of work, that kind of I mean, we used to call it, you know, trade labor. That makes it sound, you know, not very desirable, but quite to

[9:43] the contrary. In today's world, that those abilities are, I think, much more valuable than, you know, being a paralegal, for example. Okay? And and I I would be willing to bet that going forward, people like, again, electricians, plumbers, HVAC repairmen, auto mechanics are going to make more money than paralegals will. Okay? Because it's because paralegal is based primarily on

[10:19] hard skills, but but hard sort of um like like um what's the word I'm looking for? You know, hard skills related to moving and preparing documents as opposed to working with stuff, working with machinery, working with automobiles, working with pipes and wires and such. Okay? So, that that's kind of the core uh message, if you will, that that I'm bringing here. So, a moat, it first of all, it protects your pricing power. So, if you think of

[10:56] the salary that you get, that's that's your price, right? That's what you're charging your employer to have you work there, right? So, the the the stronger the moat you can put around yourself, the greater the pricing power you have. Now, here's where it also applies to, especially um professionals like like me, like maybe like you. The the the more the stronger the moat that we can build around our professional practices, again, the greater pricing power will

[11:32] have.

[11:33] >> [snorts]

[11:33] >> It also increases our negotiating leverage. Those are fair somewhat similar, but not necessarily similar in the sense that uh pricing power is is maybe a little more abstract. It's our negotiating leverage that allows us to extract the higher price for our labor. Okay? So, this is this is this is how we want to think about the moat is all right, uh if you know, if if there's only a

[12:10] handful of people that have the combination of knowledge, skills, and experience that I have, so then I can negotiate more toughly. And and that's that's what gives me the greater pricing power. Okay? So, optionality all it also having a unique combinations of knowledge, skills, and experience gives us greater optionality. You've heard me use that word quite often in the last couple of weeks in in not just not just on this show, but on

[12:45] uh on all my shows, and that's because I think this is going to emerge as a key factor in the value that we bring as as employees, as professionals, as business owners. So, if we have a unique or or or or maybe not literally unique, but if we have a specialized combination of knowledge, skills, and experience, one that few other people have, not only are are are we building a moat

[13:22] around us as an employee, making it very, very difficult for our the company for which we work to, you know, let us go or replace us. But, we're also building for ourselves uh the opportunity to potentially do some consulting. And we may make ourselves so valuable that that we we were able to negotiate equity in a company uh because the company want, you know, it it's so strong on retaining us, okay? So,

[13:58] the goal then is to become difficult to substitute, not just competent. Competence alone won't do it in today's job market anymore. Right? There's lots of competent people, and the ability to become competent today, in many ways, I think is broader than it's ever been, because there is so much information. You can go on YouTube and find videos on how to do virtually anything. I I don't think I've ever gone on YouTube and wanting to know how to do something and

[14:34] not found multiple videos explaining it. Now, some are better than others, of course, right? Some people are better at explaining things than others. Uh but but nonetheless, the opportunity to learn things is much greater than it's ever been before. We don't necessarily have to go to college. You don't necessarily have to go to technical schools. I have a friend, a close friend, I've mentioned him many times on my shows, who is a self-taught data scientist. He did not go to college to become a data scientist. He taught

[15:09] himself, and he's at the top of his field. And he's made himself virtually irreplaceable for to the company for which he works. Okay? And and this is someone who again never went to college and basically hated high school, right? So, he did it through just different I mean well I'm not going to get into his his learning path but but he did it purely through resources that were available outside of what we might call traditional education.

[15:44] Okay? And and any one of us can do that. Okay? So again, we want to become difficult to substitute not just competent. That's that's that's the key. Okay? So, um what we how do we then become difficult to substitute? Well, what we do is we stack skills. Okay? We don't just chase titles. Titles don't mean anything like what they used to. Okay? Um every I I was joking with someone the other day. Everybody's a banker now. And what I mean by that is if you if if you've ever

[16:20] noticed

[16:21] >> [snorts]

[16:22] >> it seems like uh at least on the business banking side, almost everybody is at least an assistant vice president. I noticed this early on in my business career. It's like I was just starting out in business and and and many times the people with whom I was dealing at a bank because I was a new business owner, they were very junior people just like me and that they all had titles, assistant vice president, in some cases even vice president. Well, vice president of you know, City National Bank. I'm like, "How long have you been there?" "Oh, I've been there about a year." I'm like,

[16:58] "Wow, vice president after a year?" Means nothing. It was just the way banks operated. They gave titles to their employees to increase the prestige or to to be give the appearance of increased prestige to to you know, to their employees. But in terms of it of of someone's actual standing in the bank, someone's actual level of competence, it meant nothing cuz everybody had these titles. And in you know, in the world today, I you know, I mean, I call myself president of my company. Who cares,

[17:33] right? It means it means nothing. What matters is how I've stacked my skills because in the end, that's my value to my clients. And that's the same as true for you. Your value to your employer, your value to your clients is that stack of skills that you get. And the more unique the combination, the better. Okay? As as long as they're they're not so unique that they're completely esoteric and nobody wants them, right? I'm reminded of um in my

[18:08] book where I talk about your unique value proposition. And it's it's three overlapping circles that create kind of a triangle in the middle. And the circles are the skills and experience that you have, the things that you like to do, and what the market is demanding. Those are the three issues with which each of us needs to deal to find our unique value proposition, our UVP. Now, the the stronger our UVP, I don't want to

[18:44] say the more unique our UVP, but the stronger our UVP, the the the the more uh the the the stronger our moat, we'll put it that way to you to use the metaphor we're using for this show, okay? So, if you, for example, have a high level of technical skill, okay? So, maybe you've been a a software programmer for many, many years. You're very good at developing software, debugging it, um you know, finding ways to apply it

[19:20] practically. Okay, if you can take that skill and stack on top of it a very strong very strong communication skills, okay? You now have a a a rare combination that makes you that that builds your career mode career moat, sorry, not career mode, career moat. Okay? Because the reality is a lot of software developers don't have good communication skills. So, if you do

[19:56] and you can effectively lead a team or you can you can lead a team more effectively than most other software developers, so then you're far less likely to be let go when you know, when when I mean AI is already being used with with vibe coding and these sort of things to replace more junior software developers. So, how do you avoid you know, getting replaced by an AI? Well, build a set of communication I mean set of build a set

[20:32] of skills that an AI really just can't replace. And one of those is the is the ability to effectively lead teams, which is a which relates a lot to your ability to effectively communicate. Okay? So, that's one that's one skill staff that you might consider. Okay? Let's say that you have a lot of knowledge about finance. You know a lot about lending or or stocks and bonds investments, real estate. Okay? So, you have a lot of knowledge about a particular sector or

[21:08] even a broader sector of finance and investments. Okay? Well, that's fine. But but candidly, as someone who's in that world, uh it's it's pretty easy actually to get that knowledge. You know, you can read I can give you a stack of I don't know, four or five books to read, and and you will have maybe 80% of what you need to know in terms of the technical skills related to finance. Okay? And the rest you would get by by working in the industry. But, if you combine that with uh having a a a

[21:46] a very strong knowledge of psychology, of how people behave, of how they make decisions, of of how to deal with people effectively when there's turmoil in the markets, okay? Then, you now have a skill stack again that's rare and that puts you a cut above others, right? So, I have a um [clears throat] a a former business associate who uh he got a psychology degree when he was in college. And out of college he became

[22:22] a a uh probate off- not not probate, sorry. Um

[22:28] >> [laughter]

[22:29] >> Gosh, I can I can hear the word in the back of my head. Um probation officer. He became a probation officer. Probate, probation, right? Pretty close. And and the fact of the matter is he thought he would be doing this great work and it's sort of it's sort of like, you know, that that that that [snorts] line out of the Big Chill for those of you who remember that wonderful movie from decades ago, right? I just didn't think my clients would be that guilty. I think that was, you know, one of his challenges, right? He ended up going into the real estate business and he became one of the most successful residential real estate brokers here in

[23:05] the greater Los Angeles area. And I'm convinced it's because he had a strong understanding of the psychology of people and then he stacked that on top of he really learned the real estate, you know, really learning the real estate business, right? So those two together helped him be much more successful than the typical real estate agent, right? And so finance and investment and and psychology, another rare skill stack. Another one could be um

[23:43] military leadership and business execution. Legal knowledge and operations, right? It's one thing to know the law, it's another thing to be able to operate a business, right? So

[23:57] >> [clears throat]

[23:58] >> when we when we skill stack, okay? We create differentiation between us and others. Okay, sorry. When we skill stack,

[24:16] >> [clears throat]

[24:17] >> we create differ- differentiation between ourselves and others, okay? We don't need to be the top person, the world-class person in one thing. Our strength is that we're very strong in these two or three different skill sets that most that most people are not. And that's where we get our advantage. That's how we build our moat. So if you're looking at at how do I protect my position in how in my you know, my

[24:53] current industry, the question you should ask yourself is what do I know that most people in my industry don't know? Or an alternative question because maybe the answer to that is nothing. Maybe you're relatively genius in your industry and there's a lot of people who have been there a lot longer who know a lot more than you know. Okay. So ask yourself this question. What can I learn that's useful to my industry

[25:28] that other people won't learn? Okay? I wouldn't say can't learn because most people can learn it if they put their minds to it. But the fact of the matter is if you're starting out, you're younger in an industry a lot of people my age they don't want to deal with learning how to use AI. I know that cuz I talk to my peers. And some are embracing it and others, you know, less so. They're I I I I think in some cases they're afraid of it and some cases they're they're kind of taking the attitude, "Ugh, you know, by the time I learn I learn it I want to be

[26:04] retired anyway." Or whatever whatever the reason is, makes no difference. But for those of you who are younger you know, your whole career is going to be spent dealing with this new technology and then whatever else comes, right, as a result. So [snorts] you really if you were to stack uh how to use AI effectively in your industry on top of the skills that are necessary just to the technical skills necessary to be in the industry you have built your career mode. Okay,

[26:39] you've got a specialized combination that will protect you much better than most, okay? All right, so stack skills but don't chase titles. All right, let's take a quick break. Wait. life brings unexpected changes, managing inherited property shouldn't add to your stress. Magnum Properties specializes in probate and trust real estate management. We handle the complexities while you focus on what matters most. From property maintenance to tenant relations, from

[27:14] legal compliance to maximizing value, we're your trusted partner through every step. Magnum Properties Inc., turning property challenges into peace of mind. Call us today at 213-264-4396 or visit magnumprops.com. Okay. Let's look at uh three other ways or three other ideas for building a career mode. Okay, next. Build assets, not just abilities. Okay?

[27:52] So, abilities will earn you income, at least for a while, right? But assets actually compound your income or or sort of they they can generate income without necessarily having your direct involvement. So, take take your skills stack, okay? You're that that rare combination that you've created or that you're creating. You don't necessarily have to perfect it. First of all, you're never going to perfect it. But take you know,

[28:27] take start once you've started on your journey of creating that rare combination, of building that skill stack, okay? And turn it into maybe some kind of intellectual property. Okay? You could you could um do some kind of content. Like like a show, like like I do, okay? You know, they say what um uh it's the sincerest form of flattery. Copying is somebody is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Uh so it to use the example of um the viewer that

[29:05] that was that it was uh watching last week, I I guess I don't think I finished uh this example. I've talked about him a couple of times since then because I think he he's he's so iconic, right? He wanted to He was in blue-collar work. Uh he wanted to get into white-collar work, and my advice to him was don't get into white-collar work. It it's more open to um to the uh it it it's it's more vulnerable, I should say, to AI than blue-collar work. What I suggested to him was figure out how to use AI to increase

[29:41] your productivity within the blue-collar field in which you are already. Okay? So, let's say you choose to do that. Look I I I I always like the idea of a plumber uh cuz it's just there's it's interesting working with pipes to me. Um and I used to do plumbing with my dad. So, let's say you're a plumber. How can you use AI to work more efficiently, more productively as a plumber? And maybe do a show about that. Okay? Uh I don't know, the plumber's AI show or whatever you would call it. Okay? And you can do a podcast, you could do

[30:19] uh a blog about it, uh you could do articles about it. There's got to be um you know, magazines that plumbers read. There's magazines for you know, there's magazines for every you know, profession, every trade that you can possibly think of, right? And if you're if you are the one who is sort of the the pathfinder uh in that regard, right? Well, so you may have the opportunity to, you know, start doing training seminars. Maybe um there's, you know, one of the maybe the plumbers union will

[30:54] want you to come in and do training for other plumbers on how to do it. Now, you say, "Well, wait, why would I want to do that? That's my competitive advantage." Well, that's true. However, uh if you're the one training it, okay? The fact of the matter is, people almost always will prefer the trainer over the trainee. Okay? I I I noticed that in my when I had my real estate company back before I joined the Navy. I did a lot of training in real estate appraising and real estate in general. And what I found was when I would talk

[31:31] to a prospective client, the fact that I was one of a only a few people that was credentialed to teach appraisal standards and ethics, that put me a cut above the competition, right? And they would rather have me who was teaching it than another appraiser who had to sit and learn it from me. Right? So,

[31:53] >> [clears throat]

[31:54] >> sharing your knowledge it doesn't it doesn't necessarily put you at a competitive disadvantage. The other thing I would say is whenever you're teaching something, I found I learned as much from being a teacher as I ever did being a student. Because I had to be thinking about how do I convey these ideas to others? Where [clears throat] does where do these current ideas lead me to new possibilities? That That for me, that's part of the teaching process. And so, you'll be on the forefront of innovation if you're teaching others.

[32:29] They'll ask you questions that will give you food for thought, etc. Okay? You may turn your skills into being able to set up some kind of system or process for doing things. So, I was talking with my friend Bill yesterday driving back from a meeting. That's something he's looking into. How can AI be used in the real estate in the real estate brokerage business to help agents be more productive, to [clears throat] help them deal with volumes of data better, to help them deal with regulatory

[33:05] compliance more effectively. So, he's he's he's experimenting with that. And I think I think Bill is right to do that. Most agents are using AIs, you know, to do their social media posts and such. Well, that's fine. I'm there's there's nothing wrong with that. But, I think the real benefit of AI is in how it can make how it can help, not make, but how it can help a real estate agents serve their clients more effectively. Because in the end, that is the crucial

[33:41] skill, if you will, that real estate agents have. Okay? And finally, perhaps you can turn your skills into an equity position within your company or start a side business, a consulting business or something like that in which you own the business and therefore you have the equity. So, these are ways to build assets based on the rare combination of skills that you have, based on the skill stack that you're creating or have created. Okay? So,

[34:14] >> [clears throat]

[34:15] >> you might think of it as as a sort of a professional progression. So, you go from being a practitioner in whatever you're doing, it doesn't matter, to an advisor, to an authority, to an owner. And And it doesn't necessarily Again, it It have to necessarily be an owner of a business per se, but an owner of some kind of asset or assets in which you're building value. Okay.

[34:40] >> [clears throat]

[34:41] >> So, number three, build assets, not just abilities. Number four, uh control scarcity. So, again, specialization versus adaptability. So, here here's the reality, and this is what I alluded to a little bit earlier. Over-specialization can trap you. Right? You become so niche, okay, that if the market shifts a little bit, or if some new technology comes on comes along, you're now outmoded, okay? But, under-specialization

[35:16] makes you replaceable. Right? And so, what you what we want to do is find that that sweet spot between over- and under-specialization. And I think the way we do that is we specialize in a in dealing with a problem, not a tool. So, I I remember um this this is going back to when I was doing my coaching of people coming out of the military, I would see on their resumes, you know, they need they knew how to use Excel and Word and, you know, all these tools. I I think today,

[35:54] that's just pretty much assumed. There's, you know, we get no points for knowing those how to use those kind of tools, okay? What we what we get what what really helps us build that career mode is that we know how to solve a problem. So, I'll use myself an example. The problem that I solve for people is what to do when your relative dies and has no estate plan. Okay? And now you're in probate, maybe the potential heirs, the potential beneficiaries are fighting, okay? And

[36:29] along I come and I say, "Hey, I'm a professional at this. This is what I do. I help solve these problems, okay? So, if you want to get it get through this more efficiently and and have more money left over to be distributed to you, that that's the problem that I solve, okay? And and I mean I I solve a couple of other problems like, okay, what what do you do with with this money that you've inherited so that you retain it and and it and you don't lose it through, you know, bad investments or

[37:06] spendthrift habits, etc., etc., okay? So, those are the two things, those are the two situations that I solve, okay? Now, if you were to look at the whole range of of of my um uh competitors, you could call them, uh other people in California who have a professional fiduciaries license, what you would see is what I do is fairly rare, okay? A huge number of my co-licensees or my fellow licensees

[37:41] don't deal with the financial side of being a professional fiduciary. They deal with things like conservatorships and guardianships and such where they're taking care of the person, but not necessarily the person's uh money. And then there's the other part who they kind of do what I do, but they don't do it in disputes, right? Disputes take a cause a lot of brain damage, believe me, okay? If if you've if you've I was I was probably an inch taller when I started doing trusts and estates weekly 4 years ago, right? Just from the pounding from dealing with all the litigation, right?

[38:16] That that, you know, all the court court appearances and such, right? They don't want to deal with that. Okay? What I've developed over the last several years or last couple of years, whatever, is not just the the skills the skill stack to deal with these contentious situations, but also the relationships with other professionals who can help me as part of a team to deal with these things. So, many of the

[38:51] of the lawyers I know in the trust and and estate administration space and and in the estate planning space, they they deal with these contentious situations. Now, it's interesting because um I'm in a situation right now where uh unfortunately, the lawyer uh is not particularly skilled in that. Um and and it didn't become apparent until there was uh an a another dispute that arose. And and at

[39:27] that point, you know, basically I had to step in and and kind of be my own lawyer to get it resolved. All right, well, that, you know, look, that's how it is, but uh in general, okay? The people I deal with and and the the how I can how I control my scarcity is by dealing with these contentious situations, okay? As opposed to just being sort of a general fiduciary, okay? So, the the economic logic behind building scarcity is is that it drives premium

[40:03] pricing, okay? And it reduces competition. That's what That's what gives me, again, going back to the beginning, the negotiating leverage in order to get the premium pricing. Okay? Uh now so so the questions we want to ask ourselves periodically are which of my skills are becoming commoditized? Meaning anybody can get them. So the license that I have it is it is the most expensive license

[40:40] to get in California. And uh it it also it it one has to take a lot of like like qualifying pre pre-license education and such. You have to take continuing education. But the when the when all is said and done almost anybody can do that. And if you're reasonably good at taking a test you can get a professional fiduciary's license as long as you want to pay the enormous licensing fee. So the license itself is a commodity. Okay? Maybe not as much a commodity as a real estate license where there's

[41:16] tens or hundreds of thousands of licensed real estate licensees in California. In the case of professional fiduciary licenses, there's only I think around a thousand, maybe 1,200, something like that. Okay? But licenses are a commodity. Okay? Don't kid yourself. Okay? So what skills do you have over and above those the minimum skills to get a license, for example that aren't commodities? Or uh going back I've been in kind of

[41:52] the the professionals realm but into your business. Okay, so you know how to use a bunch of different kinds of computer software. Okay, but these days there's certification programs that will teach people how to use them and give them a certificate they can put on the wall of their cubicle, right? Those are just commodity skills these days. They don't bring any value in the job marketplace. So, look at your full range of skills. Okay, do a a a skills inventory. And

[42:27] uh I I you know, shameless plug here for a minute for myself. Go to amazon.com and get a copy of the book I wrote to help people find a high-paying job called The Eight Deadly Sins of Job Hunting. Okay? I know there's only seven deadly sins, so the book was written for people in the military and in the military we have to do things better than everybody else. So, we have to have eight deadly sins. That's where the title comes from. Okay? And you'll One of the One of the chapters in there is on how to do a skills inventory. Okay?

[43:02] And do that and then look at those skills and and figure out, okay, which of these are just commodity skills and which of these are specialized skills that I can develop into a specialization in handling a certain type of problem or a certain group of problems. Okay? So, and then the next question is, out of the skills In addition to the skills that I have, what sort of adjacent skills can I

[43:38] develop that will it will be difficult for them to become commoditized? Okay? This is things like communication skills, the ability to develop relationships. Those are not skills that can be commoditized. And once you have those relationships, to use this one as an example, you become valuable because of the relationships. Okay? The your company cannot just plug someone else in there and expect those relationships to be of the same quality

[44:15] because you built them. They're personal. Okay, I know you say, "Well, it's business." Yes, it's business. All relationships are personal. Okay? Th- th- Th- they they just are. If you don't believe it, just just trust me on this. And as you as you build very strong business relationships, you're going to find that that they're they they do become personal. You start learning about people's families. You ask about them. Okay? And by the way, it can happen very quickly. To digress for just a minute cuz this is so important. Uh I was recently referred to somebody who can help me with

[44:52] uh an estate that I'm administrating and very very nice woman. Um super well-spoken. And you know, we were talking about something one day and um and and she she started out this conversation by saying, "How how you doing?" or something like that. And and you know, I when people ask me a question, I assume they really want an answer, right? So, I said, "Well, it's actually it's been kind of a tough day. Uh you know, I'm a little bit frazzled. And so, you know, sorry if I you know, I'm not as focused in our

[45:27] conversation as as might be optimal or something like that." And she said, "Hey, I know what you mean. I'm actually at the hospital with my mother right now." I'm like, "Oh my gosh." You know, I said, "Is how is you know, what what is going on? Is your mother okay?" You know, and she shared a little bit about it with me. Um and you know, thank thank God her mother was was okay. Um it was kind of a scare whatever. Um she's got some convalescence. And so, you know, since then every time we we've talked, it's been a few times. And I you know, look, I I ask about her mother because it's important. I'm sorry.

[46:04] The health of of someone's mother is more important than any business thing that we have to deal with. And I think people appreciate that. That's a real relationship. Right? And at one point I told her, I said, you know, if if if if you wouldn't mind sharing your mother's name with me, I I I would like to keep her in my prayers, you know, for a for a complete recovery. And again, I I meant that sincerely. I pray three times a day. This part of being, you know, a Jew who wears a yarmulke like this, right? Um but I think that she appreciates that and and and I think it also signaled to her that

[46:39] aside from the, you know, the the business side of it that we're working on that that when I say I I want to have relationships with the people with whom I do business, I'm I'm sincere in that because I do think that's important. Okay? It's very hard to separate our business and personal lives. And if if I've if I'm working with someone in business and they've got something difficult going on in their personal life, I I I would rather know that. Okay? Because if something happens, okay, I get it, you know? You were you were troubled by, you know, a personal issue. We all are. How

[47:16] do I support you and help you through that and and still, you know, so we can get this done and we can work together on these things. But that's a relationship and that's fundamentally personal, okay? So, so that's another way to control scarcity. Become become someone who can build really strong relationships. Okay. So, um what is the monetization pathway then from skills to income stream or to maintaining income streams, right? Because that's that's the idea of of creating a career mode. It's it's it's

[47:53] making our income impregnable, right? So, there there first of all there's there's direct monetization, okay? So, there's salaries salary and having leverage to maintain and increase our salary. There's being able to get consulting fees because we have this rare combination of of skills uh that that, you know, that that we use to build our career mode. There's fees for projects, one-off projects, that sort of thing, okay? So, that's direct monetization. Okay? But, there's also indirect

[48:29] monetization. So, if if we are able to become a a leader in our field because of our our skill stack, our, you know, rare skill stack. So, then we might, for example, be asked to join a board of directors for an organization that values the kind of knowledge, skills, and experience that we have. Okay? And and now we're we're getting paid what what it depends, but you they're board fees, sometimes board members get uh you know, stock options or or stock grants, that sort of thing,

[49:06] or some kind of uh interest in the company. Okay? So, that's that's one indirect monetization. Another is opportunities to speak and write and and appear on, you know, podcasts and such. Okay? And you may not necessarily get paid for these things, but because they help us build our reputation, okay? So, they tend to enhance our influence, enhance things like our negotiating leverage, our pricing power, okay? So, that's an indirect monetization of our career mode.

[49:43] Okay? Next, we might be able to enter in some strategic partnerships. Okay? And and and in so doing develop some equity participations. Maybe in the company for which we work, maybe in another company assuming it's not a conflict of interest with our current employer. Okay? I know for me give you know, based on what my skill stack is, I periodically get opportunities to partner with people in entrepreneurial ventures. Sometimes I take them, sometimes I don't. Sometimes they work

[50:19] well, sometimes they don't, right? Um but I I don't I don't have to go out fishing for them. Um at this point they they tend to come to me, okay? So the long-term play is really knowledge, skills, experience, reputation, access, deal flow. Okay? And and you don't have to have been in the professional world for 40 years like me for that long-term play to come to fruition. It can happen relatively quickly. Maybe not

[50:56] in you know, 6 months or a year, but certainly in a couple of years if you're focused, okay? If you're diligent about building that rare skill stack. Okay? The the ultimate moat, and this goes back to where I started with what the the the great investment banker at Lazard Freres Felix Rohatyn said. Trusted judgment under uncertainty. That's what we're looking to build. Okay? We want to build ourselves to the point where our clients won't make a

[51:31] decision without consulting us. Now, in the case of an employee, your client is the company for which you work. Okay? And and it's it's the same thing. You make you just have one client in that in that case as opposed to a business that will have multiple clients. But you want to be that trusted judgement in uncertainty or during uncertainty, right? And in that case, you've built your career mode very effectively and they're not going to let you go, okay?

[52:03] >> [snorts]

[52:03] >> So, uh you know, the the the path to wealth, so it isn't just capital accumulation. It's income It's income durability and it's optionality, which I talked about last week or the week before, okay? And so, looking at building career moats, you could even call them a a business moat if you're a business person like me, a businessman like me, okay? We want to We want to build uh durability and optionality. And that's what having that rare skill

[52:41] stack will do for you. And that And once you have your career moat, now you're But you're going to have to be defending it on a regular basis, continuing to ask those core questions. Which of my skills has been commoditized and which can I develop that will make me more valuable? What adjacent skills should I be developing that will make me Well, that will help me be more valuable, okay? What do I know

[53:17] in my What do I know that most people in my industry don't know? Or what am I willing to learn that most people in my industry won't learn? If you ask If you give yourself good answers to those questions, you'll build your career moat and you'll have durable income. You will survive. So, I thank you very much for joining me today. If you have any questions, comments, uh criticisms, links to social media and my email address are in the show notes where where you can watch this episode

[53:53] on YouTube, Apple Podcast and Spotify. I welcome your input and your questions. And if you know someone who you is struggling with this issue, okay? Do them a favor and suggest that they watch this episode. That maybe it'll help them out. And you'd be doing me a a very good favor because I'm I'm always looking to have the opportunity to get new viewers. So, you know, that that I would appreciate you doing that. And so, that just let's see.

[54:28] Um, remember my every other Thursday show, Jiggers is place at 5:00 p.m. Pacific time, okay? That's this is my you know, I was talking about this yesterday. That's my vanity show. I just do it for fun. We have a cocktail and a schmooze, okay? Um, and then next week full slate of shows 10:00 a.m. Pacific time Monday Trusts and Estates weekly, 10:00 a.m. Tuesday Pacific time, uh, business lessons from the military and 10:00 a.m. Wednesdays Pacific time, all Pacific time, uh, the next episode of people making money. So, thanks again for joining me.

[55:05] Wishing you a wonderful rest of the day. Signing off as I always do. Marie darling, you are my bell. Courage at all times, my friend.