You don't need a degree. This is how you learn in 2024.
Nobody will take me seriously if I don't have a degree...
I can't reach my dreams because I don't have a degree...
Nobody will pay for my services if I don't have a degree...
And yet... I got paid over $17,000 for one project I did without one.
I've worked with Etihad Airways without one.
I've gained over 118k followers without one.
You don't need one.
Now, before someone attacks me - yes - I want my doctor to have one.
But if you are (or want to be):
a photographer
videographer
copywriter
Podcaster
YouTuber
entrepreneur
Online teacher...
Nobody cares whether you have a degree or not.
And today, I'd like to teach you the best ways to learn online.
We'll go through both free ways - and paid ones.
And why overall, should you prefer learning online compared to going to school? And the few advantages the traditional school has - and when to go for that.
Let's start, my friends.
Why a degree doesn't matter
If you want to be creative, an entrepreneur, an online teacher... nobody cares whether you have a degree.
By nobody, I mean 99% of people who watch or consume your stuff.
And people who'd buy from you - and who'd want to hire you.
Yes, even companies don't care about your degree.
From my personal experience, no client has ever asked me do I have a degree. No one.
And I have worked with some of the biggest organizations here in Finland.
And with some huge organizations abroad.
But nobody has asked me about a degree.
All companies care about is that you can deliver what they want.
If you can, you're hired.
That's how the creative space works. And entrepreneurship space overall.
When you'd be teaching online, most don't ask do you have a degree.
Sure, in this case, some do.
But you don't need to position yourself as someone with a degree if you don't have one.
You can sell a service or a product saying you DON'T have a degree. Take advantage of that and make yourself more relatable. (You might even have an easier time getting sales than someone WITH a degree.)
When you say you're just someone who is obsessed with learning a lot, and as a result, you've seen major results for yourself. Then, a degree doesn't matter. And you're qualified to share your learnings.
There are people earning MILLIONS without a degree. And of course, some billions.
Focus on how you can get better. Being good is what matters.
But now, how to learn online?
The free ways to learn online
The internet has all the information you ever need.
Yet, people don't use it to their advantage.
I mean this one always baffles my mind.
I want you to really understand this.
There are solutions to ALL of your problems online.
If you don't know what is ISO, Google it.
If you don't know how to start a business, Google it.
If you don't know how to get fit, Google it.
Google has the answers.
Now, the downsides of Googling:
1) Understanding what information is true and what is not.
There's of course a lot of info that is not true. So you need to keep this in mind and, ideally, look from multiple sources.
2) The information will be scattered.
When you want to go from A to B - there's not a clear structure on how to do that online, for free.
Such as:
If you wanted to go from a beginner photographer to a master at it.
Yes, there are a lot of photography tutorials out there. But you need to try to figure out what you need to learn yourself.
Often, we don't know what should we actually learn.
This is where books, courses and mentors come into play later.
They have structure. And will tell you the information you don't know you don't know. (Read that again.)
School vs online
1st of all, learning online is probably much cheaper than going to school - unless you live in Finland or some other country where it is free.
You'll learn stuff that is actually useful - that you're going to use.
Not some random things that you'll never use.
But most importantly, online learning can be much more fun.
I've learned a lot about how to learn the best to maximize the speed to achieve my dreams.
(Did you ever have a class at school about how to learn? Weird you didn't, right? Seems obvious.)
I won't get too much into it now, but having fun is crucial.
I sucked at maths at high school.
Why?
Mainly, because I couldn't think of anything more boring.
When you're bored, everything is much harder to learn.
It's been studied there's a clear link between having fun and learning things.
Online learning I find much more fun.
Especially, as you get to choose your teacher, lol.
There are so many options out there. AND - these teachers have actually tried out information themselves. They aren't just teaching it.
Such as - if you're learning business at school, your teacher might have never ran a business themselves. But online, you'd never pick one like that to learn from.
My 1st "photographer teacher" was Peter McKinnon, when I watched his videos on YouTube.
I loved the videos. Still do.
But if I had tried to learn photography at school... I probably wouldn't have started the entire thing.
Personally, I find learning at school the most boring thing ever.
So online learning works amazingly for me.
This school is available anywhere
When you learn online, you can learn anywhere.
You'll have access to the greatest minds of our time - and of the past - anywhere.
You want to go on a trip? You can continue learning.
You want to move abroad? You don't need to change your teacher.
Online makes learning so much easier...
But yes, there are 2 advantages to traditional school I can think of...
The advantage of traditional school
1) Discipline.
Do you have that?
If not, then the traditional school could be better for you.
They'll hold you accountable. And punish you if you don't do everything.
Of course, you can get a mentor when learning online. They'll hold you accountable too.
And I'd argue, that if you need to go to school that someone forces you to learn something, you shouldn't learn it.
Again, it comes back to the fun part.
We want to have fun. It's best for learning - but also for life.
Why would you want to spend years learning whilst hating your daily life? Hoping one day it'll get more fun?
That doesn't make sense. You never know will you achieve the destination.
Learn something you love, most of the time.
Sometimes you need to learn stuff you don't want. That's life. But make sure it's not most of it.
2) Networks
Now this is an actual advantage I see school having, at times.
Before I committed to the photography route, I was considering becoming a movie director. (Maybe one day I'll revisit this.)
Can you learn filmmaking online? You absolutely can.
But there's something it doesn't offer...
The same networks and possibilities.
As a movie director student, I'd have got to visit and work on some sets - gaining the networks I'd need to make my own movies.
If you just learn on YouTube... you can't get that.
And networks are everything. Truly.
(Learn more on networking here.)
You need to have connections to make some stuff happen.
So, I would rather go to a traditional school to become a movie director than learn online. Because it is EASIER to make it that way.
However, again, individual learning can get you there too. Such as Christopher Nolan, the director of Oppenheimer, The Dark Knight & Inception, never went to film school.
And now he's one of the best directors out there.
The Mentors - and other paid ways to fasten your learning
When you pay for courses, mentors and so on online, you're paying for speed.
They'll save you time. A lot of it.
That's why I have spent an insane amount of money the last 3-4 years to learning online.
I don't know how much exactly - but I'd say definitely at least 5,000€-10,000€.
Many think what's "the secret" to getting "so good" at 20 years old?
It's that I'm learning from others.
When I have money, I invest in someone teaching me.
I know money is something I can make back. But time isn't.
So, I look for things to invest in all the time.
Just a few weeks ago I invested in Tom Noske's Time to Build Cohort 6. That was around 1400€.
"But Hugo... aren't you already big and successful on social media?"
One could say so. But I'm nowhere near where I want (especially financially) - although I'm stoked with my progress so far.
I knew I had to learn from someone to figure this out the fastest.
Especially, the monetisation part and how to scale my business.
So, I got it, and have loved it so far.
Now, let's go through some ways you can pay for speed.
Books...
are something I invest a lot into.
This is not necessarily an online thing. But you can buy e-books... which is one. :)
I kinda copied Ali Abdaal's "rule" when it comes to buying books (that are from €1-30€).
I see a book, I buy a book, lol. I don't budget it.
Yes, I'm grateful I don't need to budget books and that I am in that position.
But why I invest in books is, that I know I'll gain SO MUCH more back.
Think about it. Someone has put their lives' work into a book - and in a STRUCTURED way - and you can get access to it for less than 30€??
Like... why wouldn't you get that information? And download it all to your brain?
But anyway, books are an amazing source to learn from. Especially, if you don't have a large budget.
Shortform...
is a platform I love.
If you want to, again, pay more for speed, this is for you.
Here you have the world's best book summaries.
I thought all book summaries were bad. But this one is actually great.
Not only that, but they actually question the advice in the books.
When you normally get a book, an author will "just" tell you what's right and so on.
But here, Shortform questions the information in the books - and compares it to what other authors have written.
I think that's so cool. And you'll see multiple perspectives on the same thing.
I'm their affiliate because I'm a big fan of what they do.
If you wanna check them out, here's a link for you.
If you buy through it, I'll receive a commission. :)
You get a free trial and discount through the link too.
Click here for a Free Trial and 20% off
Presets, for photography
Now, I had to include this here as some of you are thinking of it.
Presets are great - although many professionals especially, are against them.
Sure, often it's not literally one-click edit to get a good edit.
But what's best about them, is that you get to see what exact changes has your favourite photographer made.
That's 1 reason why I bought Peter McKinnon's presets at the start. I wanted some stuff from his editing style to my images, but I didn't know how he achieved that all.
Then after getting the presets, I learned this.
It saved me time. A lot of time.
(I'm currently working on my own presets. Join the waitlist here.)
Courses
I love courses. There's a lot of them out there.
I've learned a ton through them. Such as most of my Photoshop skills I have.
Lightroom I've mostly learned with trial and error, YouTube and Presets.
But if I would've had a course on it... I would've saved a lot of time. :D
But what's the downside with courses?
They aren't personalized for you.
They're general, trying to fit many different people.
At times, they work well, yes. Such as when you want to learn software from the beginning, like Photoshop.
But you'll need to figure out yourself, what applies to your situation, and what not. And how it applies.
And courses could have all the information you need. Or feel you need. But when you take mentoring from someone, they personalize that information for you. AND point out where you need to improve.
So, you save more time, have information that is much more likely to work for you - and you'll have someone answering all questions you have.
Mentoring and 1-1 coaching
This is the most expensive option, but if you're serious about improving as fast as possible, consider this.
This will save you years of learning.
Some of the smartest people I look up to are spending an insane amount of money on mentors every year.
Everyone is learning from someone.
What I can quickly recall, somehow accurately:
Dakota Robertson, who's a writer and makes $30,000-50,000 per month, said that he spent over $100,000 on mentors in 2023.
This gets him to make even more money. And save thousands of dollars in mistakes.
You don't need to spend $100,000 on mentors to see progress.
Any amount invested in mentors will move you forward.
Mentors are an incredible investment.
They're there to support you so you aren't alone figuring it all out.
They personalize the information.
They'll hold you accountable.
I've been learning more and more how amazing way this is to learn. And I want to invest more in this, as my income grows more.
But for YouTube videos, for example, I took 1-1 coaching from one of my favourite photographers out there; Mads Peter Iversen.
I love his videos.
So what I did, was I sent him an email saying I'd like to get coaching. And if he offers it, how much is it for 2 hours?
And then we struck the deal and he taught me his best information about YouTube in 2 hours. And answered all the questions I had.
And the best part, he gave feedback for a photography vlog of mine. And he completely roasted the video, lol!
But I learned a ton. That money was so well spent.
Now if I was starting out, I'd invest in a smaller amount of mentoring first. Such as getting an hour or so with a photographer I look up to.
And then they can do all that for you:
personalize the information
give you answers to your problems faster
give direct feedback so you can progress the fastest
Once I got feedback from a few photographers I really admired, and still do, my photos got SO much better.
You can see an immediate change in my photos.
It hurt them saying some parts of my photos were terrible, lol.
But that's the price to improve. You need to be open to feedback.
And yes, I do offer 1-1 coaching and feedback sessions.
If you're interested in learning photography - or anything else directly from me, answer this email with MENTOR, and let's chat about how I can help you.
When it comes to social media, there's so much information on how to make it there. But most of it, honestly, is terrible advice. Such as "niche down".
I've now done Social Media coaching for a while. And my students have loved it.
If you want to apply for my program, you can apply here:
Summary
I hope you found this Letter helpful.
I hope you now see learning nearly anything online is possible.
I hope you see it is even better than traditional schools in some ways.
I hope you understand you don't need a degree or certificate for all jobs out there.
And hopefully, this overall inspired you to learn more. :)
Online learning is something many don't understand. Or take it seriously yet. But it's gonna keep growing.
And especially, as some stuff can't be taught in traditional schools - such as social media platforms. Because they're constantly changing.
So you need to keep educating yourself online to keep up.
You can start for free. Hop on YouTube, Podcast platforms, Instagram and learn stuff.
But once you can, if I were you, I'd start investing in getting where I want the fastest.
We, after all, don't know how much time we have left. So, rather get where you want faster than later, right?
If your budget is small, start with books (or Shortform.)
Then look into courses or coaching.
That'd be my advice. :)
If you haven’t subscribed to receive these Letters yet, you can do so here:
Here's still the link to Shortform to start your Free Trial:
Click here for a Free Trial and 20% off
Here's the application for my social media coaching program:
And - if you want to learn anything else from me, you can book a 1-hour coaching session here.
(If you have questions on it, or want a package, send me a DM to my Instagram @hugoraphy.)
Thank you legends, till next Saturday,
Hugo
(P.s. I have new adventures starting next week. More info to come on IG.)
