Episode 20: Why you should specialize

Sebastian: You're also fed up with scammy online marketing gurus who promise you superficial hype strategies as a way to success?

Niels: As independent online marketers who call the daily grind their absolute comfort zone, we have made it our mission to expose the online marketing bullshit. With us you get the unfiltered truth about the current state of the online marketing world and which strategies really work.

Sebastian: Your hosts Niels Stuck and Sebastian Vogg will present new online marketing topics in each episode, such as SEO, Facebook Ads, Content and much more to take your online marketing success to the next level.

Niels: All right, folks. Welcome, welcome to a new episode of the No Bullshit Online Marketing Podcast with Sebastian Vogg. Hello Sebastian. (Sebastian: Yes. Hello Niels Struck.) Yes, and exactly, the aforementioned Niels Struck. What a wonderful topic we have before us today.

Sebastian: After the last episode on the topic of flexing, today we're once again focusing on, yes, even more business-oriented, and a bit of personal growth, I think, is also an important topic. But the topic of expertise and specializing in a topic or skill set is also extremely important in online marketing. And how to-, so what's our opinion on this? Because you're an SEO guy. I'm a performance advertising guy. So Facebook ads and stuff like that. And why we're not both doing the same thing now. Like this. So why don't we both do SEO and Facebook advertising now, but why are you more into that and I'm more into that and what are the advantages of that?

Niels: And the origin. So now for this topic idea was also: I often get the question from my circle of friends and from my circle in general, or I often hear how people who have just finished their A-levels or are studying and don't really know what to do. And then there are - well, the well-trodden, well-worn paths. The classics. Let's become a teacher, join the army, join the police force or study business administration. And yes, in this context I always think or recommend to people that they should actually just look for one single thing (?) that they enjoy. What they want to do. And they should resolve to be the best at it.

Because it almost doesn't matter what you do. If you do it exceptionally well, then people are willing to pay for it. If you do it really exceptionally well, they'll pay a lot. And we were able to replicate and see that a little bit in our journey. I mean, you've also had a lot of Facebook activity. From one job or another to, okay, being regularly invited as a speaker. The hourly rates go up accordingly with the expertise. And so people can replicate it for any topic. If you just open LinkedIn, you'll see people in every conceivable topic who position themselves there as experts and collect corresponding amounts for it. How do you see that, Sebastian?

Sebastian: Yes, I can only confirm this from our own story. So if you're enthusiastic about a topic and enjoy doing it and then input the work, then it's very likely that the thing will work and that you can build something up. I think you might have to make a bit of a distinction in the industry now. So if you're an actor, a musician and so on, that's really tough business. So if you are, for example. That's why this worn-out: You can do anything and all that nonsense. Yes.

If you're really good, it'll bring you a halt. I know it from the music scene, for example, because I used to be in it a bit. Just being good doesn't get you that much in that case. There are always a few more things involved than just being good at something. So just being smart and having completely mastered a subject doesn't automatically make you sucessful and doesn't necessarily make you rich. Or earn a lot of money. But it does - if you have the right mindset. But if the basics are right and you still have a good work ethic and then continue to develop your subject properly, then I think that's the best way to be successful. Because it's extremely difficult to be good at everything and to want to please everyone (?at the same time), to somehow offer everything. And it's also difficult to keep the quality high. So focusing on one topic or one area of expertise is, I think, definitely the way to learn more and develop yourself a little further, to find out what you might like even better.

Niels: Exactly. Because I think even nowadays you can acquire a basic knowledge of various topics quite quickly. Be it simply through Google, YouTube videos, online courses, on Udemy for 20 euros. You can quickly acquire a basic knowledge of topics. And that also lowers the value of this basic knowledge to a certain extent. If the customer you want to offer your service to can teach themselves in, well, a weekend. And accordingly, specialization is also necessary to a certain extent.

Especially when you buy a service, you naturally want high quality. And actually, no matter what the price, even if you have a lower price in mind, you always want the best. And that's why I think that's very important. Nevertheless, what you said was an important point, you have to think about whether it's a sensible direction that has a future. And that there is a need for it. If you are now the absolute expert in cutting English artificial turf, I don't know how well it will sell and how high the demand will be than if you are a pro in Articifical Intelligence or (?pipe programming), where everyone is screaming for at the moment.

Sebastian: Yeah, I think that's where it-. For example, there's this-, there's this cool story about Gary Vee, about this guy who's a Dragon Ball Z fan, who's really cool. And he really wanted to do something with Dragon Ball Z. So he just collected Dragon Ball Z cards and set up his own blog on the subject of Dragon Ball Z. And then he built up the theme so that he had a store. And the thing exploded. Just a little bit. And that's exactly-. If you find something really cool, then of course you can somehow manage to monetize it. If you're smart about it. I don't think just finding something cool is the easiest method. But if you're really clear about it: How can I turn this topic into money?

Then you're actually already there. Because lots of people do lots of things. And are interested in lots of things. But they don't manage to monetize it. And then, of course, there's that thing again. So just knowing that is just a thirst for knowledge. A thirst for knowledge or something. But you still sometimes lack the monetary idea behind it. I've experienced that too, for example. But-.

Niels: Yes, I can think of that and then-, there are just so many options nowadays. You can do anything to a certain extent. Especially online. If you have an affinity for it. There are so many opportunities to somehow put your bread on the table. And one of the guys I work with comes to mind: Alex. Enormously intelligent. Enormously intelligent. It feels like he comes up with five ideas every day on how he can earn money on the Internet. But that's also the problem. He never concentrates on one thing. He somehow concentrates his energy and puts the time into it. And he's always so erratic. And I think outside of the online world, a lot of people are like that. You're bombarded with things to do all the time. Things you can focus your energy on.

And then you don't get to simply concentrate on one thing for a period of weeks, months and, in the best case, years - it doesn't have to be many years, it wasn't many for us either, but it was enough to take a good step. To concentrate on one thing. If you now only hear remotely: What is SEO? What is Facebook advertising? Then you think to yourself: Yes okay, I'll write a few meta titles here, my page should load quickly. What is Facebook advertising? I'll put a few fancy pictures in here. A few emojis in the description. And then it'll pull. No. Once you start to deal with a topic, you realize how profound and complex it actually is. I would never believe that I could become a pro in three major marketing topics in the next ten years. That's why, when you get deep into a topic, you only realize how many thousands of hours of work are actually involved in being so good at it that you're in the top 10 percent. It takes a while. And you should definitely keep that in mind for many other things that you set out to do.

Sebastian: Well, I can say from my own experience that fortunately this has never made me hesitate. I'm not the kind of person who just wants to start something new every time. So again and again. Some people just jump straight from one thing to the next. But luckily I somehow-. I don't know what it is. But I just had a focus on Facebook advertising. That's what I wanted to do. And that's why I've been working in it for three years now, pretty focused. I have no idea. Somehow I never hesitated to look into it and do something else here and so on. I'm already keen to do several things in the business sector. But it's all more in the direction of building on the expertise that I've built up. Because otherwise you just can't keep up. So how do you want to do that?

Niels: Yes, I agree. So you should always keep your eyes open. And of course don't just focus rigidly on one thing. Like this. You should be aware of what's going on around you. Even in other topics, roughly speaking. But when I think about it now, it's similar to you. I've always been the type to focus on one thing. Regardless of the subject area, I've always concentrated on one thing hardcore. Regardless of whether it used to be gambling. I was the motherfucker who played for 16 hours. And really went in with Pain to get to the top of the leaderboard. Or fitness somehow. So, all right, man. I'm going seven days a week now. And I'm going down to three percent body fat. Always completely stupidly exaggerated. (Sebastian: Always extreme.) Yes, exactly. But always extreme one thing. And that's how I've handled the SEO in my case. I don't know, that's probably seven years now? Working on it every day. In the beginning, I spent every waking hour dealing with the topic. And I believe that if you approach things with this mindset, then it's very likely that it will work. And then somehow lead to success in the end. And so-.

Sebastian: No. So I can only agree with that. And I think the most important thing in the area where we are now is that when you deal with a topic like this so much, you naturally develop a slight arrogance at some point. Because you know (BI: Yes hello.) your thing works. Wow, my thing works and all that. I think it's still important that if you're good at something and if you know a lot and can do a lot and simply have a hard skill, then you should still have a certain-. Okay, I can still take a step back and I can still accept other opinions. And I'm not so obsessed with always knowing everything and so on. So I think there are sometimes a few things - if you're extremely involved in an area, then you also have an opinion that is of course already well-founded. But I think that's my experience - (Niels: Absolutely.) you have to take a step back a bit and accept other opinions and so on.

Niels: Yes, so I think I only learned this at a certain point. And I think that if you go one step further in terms of personal development, I'm going to say that once you reach a certain level of expertise, you realize: Okay, the way I do it works. But it also works in many other ways. The way others do it. And many roads lead to Rome. Mine is one. But there are a hundred others. And I think you can only recognize that at a certain point. Once you've gained a bit of a bird's eye view of your niche, of your topic. So I believe that it also goes hand in hand with more expertise. And, of course, a personality that is not quite so ... #00:13:56#.

Sebastian: Yes, no. Definitely. But if you recapitulate that now, then I think focusing on a topic for a certain period of time - two years, three years, however long you want to spend on it - and a certain curiosity is, I think, the best prerequisite for getting into this - it doesn't have to mean self-employment. But I think that you definitely have a good period of time and are then relatively confident in a subject. So.

Niels: Yes, and if you think about it again. It always sounds so hard and so tedious when you say: Okay, take on one thing and get really good at it. You don't have to play the violin for 20 years. Well, you might have to with music. But if you choose an appropriate subject, such as various online topics, you can be very good at it after one, two or three years if you get to grips with it. And there's also this saying, something you've probably read a lot on Instagram: You greatly overestimate what you can achieve in a year. No: you overestimate what you can achieve in a year, you greatly underestimate what you can achieve in five. In other words: after one year, you might not become Mark Zuckerberg's foster son in Facebook Advertising. But after five years, you've probably already achieved a lot. And if we now look at the topic of Facebook, in your direction, it happened comparatively very, very quickly. (Sebastian: Yes. Definitely.) And now you speak regularly, give regular workshops. And what's a year or two of investment in any topic for the result?

Sebastian: Above all at our age.

Niels: Above all. A lot is still possible.

Sebastian: Well, actually, if you think about it, I'm now also on this course with Felix and so on. That I'm one of 14 Facebook Marketing Insultants and so on. But it's all based on that. I also thought about it continously (?video) every day: How can I get even better at this? To position myself better, to learn more. And I mean, just the coaching with Flo and the collaboration with you has really (?skyrocked) me. It's like that. And that's the thing: to keep developing, to keep working on it. Not being 100 percent satisfied with the status quo. And that's actually what it is. But I don't think the path is always that hard or that rocky. So it is hard, yes. And there are also times when it's not so great. But I can't really look back on the last two or three years and say: That was really shit. But it was a (?bright) journey.

Niels: Yeah man. (Journey, bro. (Journey. Exactly. And exactly, that's why you can also-, if it-, if you haven't specialized in one thing or haven't chosen a path yet, it may sound overwhelming and a lot. But go for it first, Brother. Or Sister. Like this. It won't be an impossibility.

Sebastian: I'm also impatient as fuck. Really impatient as fuck. I can really say that. But nevertheless, somehow, yes, somehow I managed to keep it up. I also had two interns here. 16 years old. Hey, you have fucking time. Well, at least you have as much time as you need. When I compare it to myself: That's a six-year difference. That's crazy. Six years. Six years. Damned. So what you can learn in six years if you sit down now and really put your foot down. Fuck. That's-.

Niels: That's completely crazy. And if you think about it: You could -. So if you develop at that pace and focus on one thing at that pace, you can change course five times if you have to. It doesn't matter if it's not the one thing in the end. You still have time for ten, the one thing. And of course only if you do it properly and not so half-assed on the side. Yes, man.

Sebastian: No, definitely, man. So I think that's-. You can also close the podcast with that. If you're in your mid-20s and you haven't found what you want to do yet, then you still have enough time, at least on the clock, if you look at how long you have. And then it's just a matter of finding what you want to do. To really step on the gas. And that all sounds like so-. It sounds like phrases that are kind of worn out. But that's just the way it is in the end.

Niels: I think, in summary, to all 16 to 25-year-old guys and girls: don't get so super distracted by a hundred different things. Try to find a focus for something. For all over 25-year-olds who are struggling: Don't beat yourselves up. Like this. You can also change your studies. Whatever. There's still plenty of time. But that doesn't mean you should feel good about wasting time. So always keep your eyes open. But the house isn't on fire yet.

Sebastian: Yes, no. That's right. That's the way it is. I think that's a healthy attitude. At least that's what I can say about it at the age of 23.

Niels: Yes. Soon 23. (Sebastian: Yes. Okay.) That's it. I think. Short, crisp episode today. We're releasing you back into your everyday lives. Guys, we're closing the episode. And say: Peace out. See you next time.