Security Unfiltered
Security Unfiltered
Finding Your Niche: How Specialization Drives Success in a Crowded Market
Carlos Corrador shares his journey from aspiring lawyer to founding Condor Agency, a specialized marketing firm for B2B tech services companies. We explore how deep specialization, personal branding, and adapting to AI are critical for survival in today's rapidly changing business landscape.
• Started as a sports journalist in Venezuela before discovering digital marketing through website building
• Moved to Chicago for a master's in digital marketing before founding Condor Agency
• Specializing in a niche is crucial - "the riches are in the niches"
• Marketing effectively requires understanding who your ideal customer is before investing in campaigns
• Personal branding requires focusing on an industry or specific topic where you can provide unique insights
• Content should provide deeper value than what people can get from ChatGPT
• The "crawl, walk, run" approach ensures businesses build proper foundations before scaling marketing efforts
• Paid promotion of specialized content can put you in front of decision-makers who would never find you organically
• With AI disrupting traditional roles, specialists will survive while generalists may struggle
• Focusing on what AI cannot yet do well positions you to thrive during technological disruption
Find Carlos at condoragency.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.
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How's it going, carlos? It's great to get you on the podcast. I think today will be a very interesting discussion. It's a bit of a change for my audience. Recently I had on some ex-CIA spies. I've had on some you know, top hackers in the world that have done things that you know are just insane. They're so out of reach that people can't even believe it, and today we have a marketing specialist. That shifts gears a little bit, but it's very valuable information.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks for having me, Joe. Yeah, I'm glad. I think it's good to you know, maybe like a topic that is not the day-to-day of the podcast, but I'm sure you know, a lot of people are not only, you know, geeking out about cybersecurity, you know, but also how to grow a company, how to get more clients. B2e has its particular, you know, it's interesting and has a particular way long sales cycles and especially cybersecurity. So, yeah, looking forward to the discussion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. So you know, I start everyone off with telling their background right now. It's not an IT background, obviously, but you know what did you get started in? You know what made you kind of go down the marketing path. Was it like an easy, like an easy next step where you know it's kind of like you're you're, you know, in college, you're in university and you know you want to, you know you want to go into the business realm and marketing is kind of just like the easiest route to you know it's kind of like you're you're, you know, in college, you're in university and you know you want to, you know you want to go into the business realm and marketing is kind of just like the easiest route to get in there. And then you stick there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not necessarily. I was actually going to be a lawyer. I grew up in Venezuela but I always, you know, kind of knew that I would end up living in the US. So I decided not to go for law school in Caracas because then, you know, I would have to do 10 years again or whatever in the US, right? So it's like, okay, let's do, you know, let's do communication.
Speaker 2:I like sports a lot, so I started as a sports journalist and then I didn't like journalism that much, but I did like the sports aspect. I started building websites for statistics and really a publisher, trying to be like the espn of venezuela and the baseball is big, you know, in venezuela, so try to build around that. And then, you know, I started learning about digital marketing, right, okay, how do I? How do we drive traffic to these pages? I, I saw the amount of data that was available and that's really how I got into it and I loved it and I loved the amount of data that was available. I moved, moved then to Chicago to get a master's in digital marketing, worked in a couple of agencies there and then I started Condor around eight years ago and, you know, out of coincidence, our first couple of clients were not only in B2B but in tech services, offering a few cybersecurity products. So you know we focus on that niche, you know, and that you know. That's really. That's the story behind how we got into it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting. There's a couple, you know, there's a couple things there that you said right, where you know you followed your passion to some extent. You know, you kind of I really relate to you going to university to actually be a lawyer, right, because I started my university career, I guess, trying to be a doctor, right, and then I figured out, you know, I can't pass chemistry, biology and calculus all at the same time. I kind of have to choose. Oh and physics. I left one out, right, like let's make it as hard as possible in one semester, and of course I'm not going to pass them all.
Speaker 1:But you shifted, you know, you shifted your approach, and I feel like there's a lot of people out there that you know go to the university and they tell people around them, they tell their family, their friends, their close ones, yeah, I'm gonna go be a doctor. You know I'm gonna go be a lawyer, right, and maybe those people believe in them too. I'm going to go be a doctor. You know I'm going to go be a lawyer, right, and maybe those people believe that I'm too, and now they feel stuck, right, and they feel stuck because they don't want to do it anymore, they can't do it Right and they don't want to switch. And so, like I personally know people that you know went to, went to med school, you know, didn't like get a, get a, get a apprenticeship or whatever it is, you know, being a doctor, you know. Or or someone that tried to get into med school three, four, five times and didn't get in and they just couldn't give it up Right. So, being able to, you know, assess and be honest with yourself and shift right, because that's a scary thing, you know, it's something that a lot of people don't, don't really talk about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and for me, more than shifting, let's say, one majors or even career path, is it was really getting into entrepreneurship, right, like you know, having to hire people, right, having to hire agencies. That's really what changed the game for me, because whether you are in marketing or in law, or like, if you, uh, yeah, there's different in mindset, in in the attitude, in the grind, in the not to take no for an answer when you work for a company and when you are really going at it on your own right. So for me, for me, that was crucial. But, yeah, I hear you and there's a lot of things you know.
Speaker 2:For example, I think in marketing a lot of that happens too, right, a lot of, yeah, a lot of people go to college for marketing but a lot of people end up in marketing because, again, you know, they needed to grow the business, right? So, whether you are the founder or whether you are the practice leader, the expert, you know. Ultimately, you know, I always say marketing is easy to learn, relatively easy to learn. Yeah, there's some technicalities and stuff, but, like, ultimately, you know, the important thing is it's way more important to know the industry, the business, your company, your differentiators, your competition and then you know, then it will be relatively easy to adapt that and do good marketing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's interesting that you say it like that, you know, because so I, I started this podcast four and a half years ago. At this point, right, I I didn't really put any money behind it in terms of marketing because I always just thought, over time, it'll grow, it'll develop. You know, I don't have to do anything right. It it'll grow, it'll develop. You know I don't have to do anything right, it'll snowball. And that's true to an extent.
Speaker 1:But at how the internet is nowadays, right as how saturated the space is, you actually need to, you know, put some marketing behind it and whatnot. And recently, you know, when I actually started to do that, I mean, I've, I've seen, I've seen my platform grow, you know, from from a very small amount of subscribers relatively to being very quickly to be one of the top. You know, security podcasts I have the content right, like I feel like the interview quality is there, but the numbers weren't there, right. And so once I shifted and I was like, well, I have nothing to lose, why don't I put a couple hundred bucks towards this thing? And if it doesn't work, what does it matter? And of course, or maybe not of course, but thankfully it's paying off. And now I kind of learned a little bit better, like, oh, okay, I have to, like I actually have to market myself, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love to hear that it worked out. What did you do exactly? What did you do differently?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so there's a few things right. So the mentality behind my podcast is that I am not afraid to change things, you know, try new things right, completely remove them or whatever it might be, because my view is I have nothing to lose. Right, I have nothing to lose. If it works out great, I have. I have everything to gain. If it doesn't work out, I'm in the same spot, so what does it matter? And so I've really shifted my approach to content overall. I bring on people that I'm interested in talking to, that have interesting experiences, a variety of experience.
Speaker 1:Youtube Shorts has been real big for the channel lately, chopping up the longer form podcasts into smaller five, 15 minute content segments. That's helpful and it happens naturally. I'm sure that we just did two, three segments right there and it's going to, you know, work itself out, you know. But also automating that to an extent where you know cause I'm I have a full-time job right, like this isn't my full-time job or anything like that. I have two little kids at home, so it's like I need to kind of like upload this file and have, you know, some magic behind the scenes that does everything for me. So really, I think doing that, getting that content, pipeline down and then adding on the marketing budget for ads and whatnot Google ads, youtube ads which, honestly, until a couple months ago, I didn't even know that that was a thing to be completely honest.
Speaker 1:Adding that on right, like that's I think that's what's, you know, completely attributed to it, right. And now I'm now I'm working through or thinking through like a content life cycle, right, so I'm doing all these podcasts. Well, what if someone wants to, you know, read a blog about a topic that we talked about on this show? Right, I'm marketing, or something like that. And, you know, maybe they discovered the blog before the podcast. So here's the link to the podcast and all that sort of stuff, right, so, working through all of that, and that's something completely different from what I'm used to, completely different from what I'm trained on, right. So it's definitely been a learning experience.
Speaker 2:No, and, as you mentioned, you know you need both. Right, because you can do all of that. But if you don't have a good product, if you don't have good content, good guests, good conversations, I mean it won't work Right. But yeah, you can have a good customer. It will definitely take more time to grow organically. You could do it right. But you need a lot more patience.
Speaker 2:A lot of times I think a misconception is like, well, I'm not spending any money. No, you are. I mean here, you know you have to find the guests, right. You have to pre-interview, prepare the episode, then you have to record it, then you have to edit it and publish it and redistribute it. I mean there's a few hours, you know, for one episode, it's a few hours, right?
Speaker 2:So, as you mentioned, if you already I don't know how much you want to put on an hourly basis, you want to put $100, $500, whatever, it might be right. But then I don't know, let's say that it adds to 500, I don't know whatever. Just put a couple hundred extra to go from probably. Multiply it by three, five or even 10x. You know the reach that you have just by increasing, let's call it, the budget by a third, you know. So I think you hit the nail in the head by going with those promotion channels and I think that's again it's something that it's often. Yeah, there's some misconception. You know people, not only with podcasts but in general with content right, used to be all school blog posts but now it's like videos and white papers and interviews and guides and lead magnets and, yeah, it's great content, but then you know they don't go that extra mile right To really X the output.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a really good point. You know, and I kind of want to get your, get your take on on this, right, how do you market yourself If you're just an individual trying to get out there? Right, because in the space right now, you know, really, the market is oversaturated with professionals and there's not enough jobs available for everyone, and so you're constantly in a situation where it's you up against hundreds of other candidates and what can you do, just starting out, maybe with little money or no money, to separate yourself beyond the skills? Right, is it just regular posts? Or, in your opinion, right, Because that's like personal marketing, that's like personal branding, and I feel like everyone needs personal branding to some extent. You know, like they need to be able to. You know, a potential employer needs to be able to look them up and say, oh, they have a GitHub repository, let's go look at their GitHub projects. Or you know, oh, they did this body of of work, you know what? What does that look like?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think the the most important thing is to specialize, to be very niche, right. So, for example, in marketing, you know you cannot talk about all things marketing, especially if you're not the most famous guru of marketing. You know which, even I don't think there is one right like there's some people that are well known, like gary v, for example. He's more like. Even him is more in, like social media, right, and especially like, if, again, you know that's not going to be the case of the people that are listening or the people that you're providing this advice, right. So really focus on either an industry or a topic that that industry and even better if it's both right and then start providing essentially free advice. You know, on LinkedIn, as you mentioned, youtube channel, not dumb it down, but, yeah, tell the story in a way that it's understood.
Speaker 2:I think, in particular tech services, people get into the industry jargon and you know, at the end, you know it's humans that are consuming the information, right? So the more human you are, the more if you talk like a normal person, right, and obviously you provide value in terms of the content that you're sharing. I think that's the most important thing, and especially now with AI and, in particular, people finding their answers in ChatGPT or even when they're going to Google, they're finding their answers in the AI summaries of Google, right? When they go to a human instead of going to ChatGPT or Google summaries, it's because they don't want an encyclopedia out of a human right. Like, you're not going to compete with ChatGipiti, right? You want to bring, like, a strong point of view based on your experience, based on the work that you've done with clients, based on the project that you're working now, what's working exactly? How? Right?
Speaker 2:Chagipiti doesn't have access to, necessarily to that information, so it's going one layer deeper, right, and really be the thought leader and hopefully have some even original research, original data, right, even if it's, for example, in this case, your podcast. Right, if you do a white paper based on a hundred interviews with IT executives, that's your original research, right, and then you know, perhaps even ChagiPT will cite you, as opposed to just saying, okay, why is cybersecurity important? Those type of questions, those are being answered by Chagipiti. But, like, okay, cybersecurity for digital marketing agencies of this size that are dealing with clients that are HIPAA compliant? Okay, now you got my attention and me, if I'm a digital marketing agent that work. You know that I'm interested in that. I'm going to follow that person, right, I'm going to follow that person and I'm going to really look up to him as the expert in that, because there's probably no other person that is branding themselves like that and when I need that, I'm so. I mean, I think that would be a good place to start.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense, you know, and when you break it down like that, it almost sounds too easy, too common sense, right, and I'll say it because you know, I heard someone tell me recently, right, that you know he wanted to do something unique, something that you know hasn't been done before. Why waste my time, you know, on something that there's 1000 other companies for and whatnot? You know, and I had to explain it to him like this like, look, you know, you could spend 40, 50, 60 years creating something brand new, right? You absolutely could, or you could, take a template from other people, take that template and tweak it, make it your own and build off of that, right, there's two different ways about it, you know. And he was kind of, you know, thrown off, right, because I immediately gave him the example you know. So, like I have, you know, obviously, the South Security Consulting LLC and I actually provide some consulting services to different companies, large and small, not a marketing gig. But I gave him that example where, hey, I'm a one-person company, I have a specialty in this area, I do it really well, it's proven, right, companies have paid me to do it for them and whatnot.
Speaker 1:Why would I start that LLC with that same mindset? Because I mean there's a big four, right PwC, deloitte, I mean KPMG, ey, right. Why am I going to be chosen above and beyond them? And there's differentiators for sure. I mean you're not spending $500 an hour with me. If my time gets that valuable, that would be something really impressive, but it is not that valuable. But you have to not be afraid of doing the same thing a little different, making it your own and growing and building it out. I have a friend that did the exact same thing. He actually started his company right around the same time that I started mine and he's built it out to a pretty good size managed services provider and I mean he has a lot of customers, a lot of clients. I mean we started at the same time. He just approached it differently and he had different backing and whatnot. And I'm learning as I go. Right, he had more experience in that area than me. Still, we both have value in the marketplace.
Speaker 2:No, totally, and that's one of the things that I, you know, coming from a different country, I moved to the US in my 20s and obviously, you know, I knew, or I thought I knew, what I was getting into in terms of, ok, this is the biggest economy in the world and the opportunities, but also, you know, everything is invented. You could think, right, it's like, as you mentioned, right, you want to get into an industry. Yeah, there's a lot of people that have been doing services in that industry for years, but there's a space, you know, and that's what I realized when I was working in the other agencies in Chicago. They were serving enterprise customers and I saw the type of work that we would do for mid-market companies and they're like yeah, you know they're unimportant, right?
Speaker 2:If they're not, you know, fortune 1000 companies, it's like we don't really care. And I understand, right, because they have so big, the big whales is Fortune 1000. So percentage-wise in their revenue, in their growth, it doesn't mean much, but for me it would have meant a lot. You know, a $30,000 project for me would have meant a lot. Yeah, you know. So that's you know then, okay, I'm not competing, you know, to go with Fortune 1000 companies.
Speaker 2:I'm positioning to add value to mid-market right, which you know, not to say that I'm the only agency doing that, but there's room, right, especially when you bring certain experience and you can say that you've worked with enterprise before. So every person, they have to find that unique experience and positioning to add value to that niche. And yeah, I listened to one of the podcasts that they helped you find a vertical. It's called deep specialization and you know they always say the riches are in the niches. You know you cannot be everything for everybody, but if you find the right niche with the right knowledge to provide them and the way to add value, you know you could really grow, you know your business, just by focusing on the right again and the right niche.
Speaker 1:So, right, yeah, it's interesting that you said that, because you know, I talked to someone last week that he is slash, was a malware researcher, right, and we're both in security. We're both in the same field technically, right, but we have two very different specialties. And he told me straight up he's like if a client came to me and said that I needed cloud security services or a cloud security assessment, I'd be directed on to you. I'm not taking on that. My specialty is on breaking down, you know malware, reverse engineering it, knowing it inside and out, providing fixes for it. You know all that sort of stuff, right, and those are two very different niches.
Speaker 1:And this is actually why I love cybersecurity, because there's so many different specialties that you could go into that that have completely different skill sets. I mean the tools that he uses. I know of the tools and everything right. The last time I used any of those tools were in 2017, 2018, when I was getting my master's degree, and they kind of give you that, you know, 100 foot view of the domain, right, but I haven't fired that stuff up since then, I haven't touched it. I've thought about doing it, but then I'm like man, I actually know how much work that goes into that. I'm not doing it right's a whole niche, that's a whole specialty, you know, and I feel like everyone has one, and it can be the same, you know, as other people. You just have to. You have to approach it differently yeah, no, that's a great example.
Speaker 2:And then people, they will see you as the authority, right, it's like when I, when I I was telling you I started as a journalist and as a sports journalist. And let's say you do that today, right, do you think you're going to get somewhere tweeting? Oh, the Yankees won. You know this guy, they had a great start with this guy. They're pitching well. Their starting pitchers are great or not. You know pitchers are great or not. You know that's what thousands of comments are already saying.
Speaker 2:But let's say you focus on elbow injuries right, for pitchers, and really understand that, right, and really write about that. And then the other riders that have been there for years when there is an injury and they want to know exactly how much time the pitcher is going to be at, they're going to look for you, right, they're going to follow you and they're going to cite you and they're going to see you as the expert. But you cannot be wasting your time talking about home runs and who are the favorites to win the division and trades and budgets. No, you need to focus and then focus on not only injuries elbow injuries for pitchers, for example, or maybe injuries, I don't know. I think each person will get to decide what's niche enough, but usually you know when in doubt err on the side, you know even more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you said two things there that I want to touch on, right. So one, you know it's interesting, you brought up the sports. You know journalism part One, you know it's interesting, you brought up the sports, you know journalism part, right, because that's 100% correct. There's a thousand people out there that are saying the Yankees won, this happened, there's an injury, whatever, right. And then you go and look at Adam Schefter and his posts, right, he has that inside the locker room, feel. This guy is talking to the trainer that's diagnosing this guy. He's talking to the doctor that's going to perform the surgery. He's talking to the coaches and you know everyone, right, he's talking to all of them. So there's a thousand different people, millions probably just saying the basic stuff. And then then you have Adam Schefter, who's the authority, right, who goes on ESPN, who goes on Pat McAfee show, who goes on all these these you know different platforms, and gives the literal, you know truth, right, of exactly what it is and what you can expect when he can expect to come back. What's he doing in the offseason to rehab and everything. I mean, like that insight, you know, is invaluable to a superfan. You know, like I'm telling you right now, I'm a huge, huge Bears fan, right, something happens to Caleb Williams which I hope never happens, right? I want to know, I want to know every day, right, what's he doing today? You know what's he eating to get better, right? Like did he doing today? You know what's he eating to get better, right. Like, did he stretch today? Was he a little tight today? You know, I want to hear all that stuff, right, but that's, it's really fascinating.
Speaker 1:And then you know the other part, right, is becoming that authority source or that authoritative source on that topic, on that topic. And I remember, I remember when I was starting my LLC and there was a lot of people around me that were saying why would like, why would anyone take your opinion over another industry perspective? Everything that you're going to tell them or say to them, they can Google, they can find themselves, they can do it themselves. You know all that sort of stuff, they can find themselves, they can do it themselves. You know all that sort of stuff. How are you going to make your voice, you know, be heard in a way that people will take it as an authoritative, you know voice, right? Are you going to, like, go talk at conferences or something? And I haven't talked at a conference yet. I hopefully will within the next couple of years. I got to get the PhD done first.
Speaker 1:But you know, in hearing that, it's funny, right, when I hear the critiques, when I hear the but, what, ifs, or all these you know, rebuttals, they kind of like go in one ear and out the other. For me, personally, I guess I'm like a bit more on the like entrepreneur side, because to me I'm just like well, what do I have to lose? You know like, tell A bit more on the entrepreneur side, because to me I'm just like well, what do I have to lose? Tell me what I have to lose. I have nothing to lose, okay, well, I'm not going to make an idiot out of podcasts when you're, you know, talking at events for companies that are launching products and they want you, you know, to be the keynote speaker of it, right, something I've done. All of those things build off of one another and they give you that authoritative voice in the field, in your specialty, you know, and it adds to that personal brand.
Speaker 2:No, totally, and I think today I'm not going to say it's easy, because obviously it's not easy you have to put the effort and you have to, again, you know, have the expertise, putting the time, but it's definitely possible. Something you know 20 years ago it wasn't like that. You know, 20 years ago it wasn't like that. You know, even podcasts didn't even exist, right, and not anyone could have a radio show, right, not anyone could be on TV, right, twitter didn't exist, whatever right. So, like now, with social media in particular, you can, especially if you're smart about it, as you mentioned right, for example. You know you can, especially if you're smart about it, as you mentioned right, for example, you know you can. The malware example right, you put a great, you well thought research piece on that, right, put it on LinkedIn and then put 200 bucks right To promote it between the folks in the US, in the industry that you talked about, that have malware in there about us that are directors and above right. So with 500 bucks, right, you are obviously assuming again to what we were saying before. It has to be good content, right, it has to be. You need to be adding value, right. But if you do that right, you're suddenly in front of the top 200 folks that you could never imagine that would be looking at your content, and now, perhaps a few of them already follow you, right, and then you'll be in their faces, right, and then, after you recognize them, with a smart remarketing campaign.
Speaker 2:Every single post doesn't have to be a long-form research piece, but now, every update, every post, every 30-second video, right, you're constantly in front of them, right. So that is possible today. Yeah, if your content is not good, yeah, they're not going to see you, they're going to block you If you don't know. Again, you know those little tricks, you know. Yeah, you might just put it on your blog and good luck. You know somebody finding it. But again, you know, if you're smart on how to go about it, you can, and there's definitely. You definitely have a shot. You know you're in the. You're playing the game. Right, it's not pay to play anymore Like anyone can play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's a really good point. You know, is there any part of that that you would change, take out or add in for small and medium businesses, when you're consulting for clients that are in the cybersecurity space that maybe specialize in different areas?
Speaker 2:Or, you know, like my friend's company who is essentially a managed services provider, that adds, you know, enhanced value with the experts he brings to the table yeah, you mean in terms of, uh, what advice would I give them right on how to, perhaps, you know, let's say, shifting gears, not only now thinking as a maybe a solo person, but like as now, as a company? Yeah, I always. I mean, we refer to a lot of times the crawl, walk, run approach, right, and I think obviously you know it's self-explanatory in a way. But what I mean with that is that you need to have your base covered first. You need to know really your industry, your niche In marketing we call something ICP your ideal customer profile, right, you're going to be selling everything to everybody and after you have that right, like you need to know who you're talking to and what to tell to that person. For example, we're talking about the malware example, right, okay, we are focusing on malware.
Speaker 2:Okay, who buys malware right, protection, or exactly the consulting or the services that I'm providing? Okay, is it really like? Where's my experience? Right? Is it for financial companies? Their, their, their, their problems are probably different than as, like, banks problems are probably different than, for example, e-commerce, retail, right and retail. So, like you know, once you choose that right, you really know, not only saying, ah, if you have a problem. No, find me. No, you, if you're talking to a bank, now you're saying, okay, if you have, you know, and then you define the problem that let's say, even if it's regional bankers and not Bank of America, bank of America, they probably have their own right.
Speaker 2:Regional banks usually have these malware issues and these are the solutions. Now you're you know, and after you have that position, you need to start there with your positioning and then after that, okay, your website needs to reflect that, right. Only after you have a website that reflects that look modern, then you can say, okay, let me try some paid media around this, right, what am I getting at? What do I want to get out of it? So it's like, again, you know, it's really important to understand what do you need as the base before you go crazy spending thousands of dollars in paid media If you're not even sure who you're talking to, what you're offering or what content business is going to send them next. You know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a really good point. It's this whole area, right is? It's interesting to me because it's something, you know, totally different, that I've never had to think about before. You know, and now I feel like now more than ever, I definitely have to, you know, consider it and think about the marketing and the personal branding side of things. And I heard a quote. I heard a quote recently, right, where one income is like you're standing in a bad storm on one leg.
Speaker 1:It doesn't make any sense for people nowadays, especially with layoffs on the rise. I mean, what was it? Intel said that they're going to lay off 20,000 people. I mean that's insane to think, because just 15 years ago, 10 years ago, I mean, they were the market leader, like they were the one. If you were in that kind of specialty, I mean you wanted to work at Intel. You know, and now, not that people don't want to work at Intel, necessarily, but they're letting all those people go. You know, and a lot of those people built their entire careers and lives on being at Intel and they've never taken the time to do any sort of side work, to develop a personal brand, to do anything else and maybe in a situation they have to like, partially reinvent themselves, even to an extent.
Speaker 2:And I think the good part about what we were talking earlier about focusing but only yeah, even from, let's say, from a personal branding perspective focusing on a niche, on a technology, on an industry, right Is that, whether it's to grow your personal brand and potentially your own business, also to add value to potential employers. You know, because, especially now with ai, you know you need, you know, you know generalists those are the first ones, right, they're gonna, they're gonna get caught, they're gonna and have a hard time finding another job. Right, whereas if you are the best, or you, you know there's companies that are going to look, obviously try to look for specializations that are in high demand and growing, you know, but if you're one of those, you know I think you'll always have, you'll always be able to find a company that you can add value to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. No, it's a crazy time that we're living in right now, you know, because it's like all the market data that you see coming out. Friend who thankfully just landed another job. But he's been laid off for almost a year, you know, and he's experienced in the field. You know, he's been a director and everything. He's been in the weeds and tools and domains and whatnot and worked his way up and it took him almost a year to find a job. I mean, how many people really have a year's worth of income saved up, you know, just ready to go, not a lot of people you know not very many.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2:I think, I mean, I think obviously that's mostly because of the AI wave. I mean, I think obviously that's mostly because of the AI wave. I think there's still time, you know, to ride the wave and not let it run over you. But I think the clock is definitely ticking. But again, you know, I think there's time Again and if you specialize, you know also, like, even like, how to use ai in your niche, in your industry.
Speaker 2:Right, like the owners of the companies, you know they're, they're, they don't have the time they're looking for that talent, they won't, they won't learn it themselves. I mean some, yet some might, you know, especially younger founders and business owners or younger executives, but, like usually companies, they just want to find somebody, somebody that knows how to do that. And again, even today, especially big companies, they move really slow. So if you start, if you train, you do a project, they will hire you and they will pay you three times more than you were earning, just because you know you can implement that practice for that company. So, again, I do think still, we're still early enough where you can see it as an opportunity. But yeah, but you, you need to get, get, get going and get moving, start moving, you know what are?
Speaker 1:what are some things that you would recommend to people to kind of get ahead of this ai boom, slash bubble, right, like I feel like in the economy it's a bubble, but in the real world it's a boom where you know people that aren't constantly evolving, constantly changing how they approach things and specialties and whatnot, they're going to be first ones to go right. What would you recommend for people to you know, maybe adjust and beat the AI to still remain marketable, you know, in the marketplace and this goes for you know companies, small and medium enterprises or businesses to just the individual.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll talk about marketing because I think you know I want to provide concrete examples, right, I think it's going to be, and then people can see how they apply that to their fields. One of the things, for example, is that you need to really break down. What are people getting paid for, right, for example, in marketing? Right? Let's say, five years ago, before AI not to go too far behind, but only four or five years ago people would get paid to, for example, create a website, right, and then write the copy that would go on the website, right, and they would get paid to set up an email campaign, select the audience that email is going to go there, design the email, send the email, see how many people opened that email and clicked, and when they click all of that, people would get paid to do that right. So, okay. So now, what can AI do today and what will AI be able to do probably in the next years? Okay, ai, you know they could design a website actually, you know, and they could even write what you do Interesting, okay, but can they, for example, write it in a way that it differentiates you? So maybe you specialize in copywriting for that niche, and then you need to leverage LGBT, right, but like the final touches to AI copy, that truly makes it unique, right? So that's something that AI won't be able to do for at least a few years.
Speaker 2:Right, because I guarantee you that you know they're not thinking about specializing in that industry, for example, or in email marketing, right, okay, yeah, ai, they can create workflows where they do all. They're not thinking about specializing in that industry, for example, or in email marketing, right, okay, yeah, ai, they can create workflows where they do all of that, but the orchestrator, yeah, they're not there. Right. So if you can be the one that creates the workflows, right, and orchestrate it and connect CRM tools with email marketing and call email and then with the website and the forms, right, and if you can generate those workflows, you're going to be ahead. Right, because you know the tools are not there yet, right, so you need to be thinking, you know, a couple of years ahead of what AI is not able to do, right, and then become the expert at that today. That would be my advice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're in a fascinating time, right, where things aren't necessarily changing right now, right, but they're very quickly able to change very rapidly as AI gets better and smarter and is more capable, which is it puts us into, puts the world itself into, you know no man's land, where we've never been before, where probably countries are going to have to figure out, like, a universal basic income, you know, just for people to like stay, you know, above water, right, like because there's going to be such a major shift that it's going to affect everything such a major shift that it's going to affect everything.
Speaker 2:I know it's, yeah, it's threatening, it's scary to think about it. I think, in general, the world is progressing and the quality of life is improving every time more, even if, obviously, there's differences from countries and even from social classes in a particular country. But I do let's say, I'm a positivist in general that overall things are improving. But, yeah, as you mentioned, right, that doesn't mean that it's not scary to think that. You know, yeah, I've been working in this field for 20 years. Potentially, I could be out of a job and then earning basic income and, okay, yeah, I'll have what to eat and I'll survive.
Speaker 2:But, like, how? About a purpose in life? Right, that's also very important, right, what is my purpose going to be? But at least you know again, you know it's a type of problem that you have time to think about and you can reposition yourself and you can figure it out, right, and it's definitely a better problem to have than, oh, I was killed in World War I or by a disease that there was no cure for, which was the case 50, 100, and 200 years ago. I don't know. That's at least what makes me feel a little bit better about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. I guess it's something to look forward to out of it all you know.
Speaker 2:It's something to look forward to out of it all. You know no-transcript, but again, I think there's still time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's really good point. Well, Carlos, you know we're unfortunately at the top of our time here. It was a great conversation overall. I really appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 2:Thanks, joe. I agree, I enjoyed it a lot and I think it goes better when you know you don't do so much prep. You know, I think that you know natural conversations. You know, I think people feel when they're natural, uh, not too much prepared. I like, I like to like, I have, I also have podcasts it's about marketing and I also don't do any much prep. You know, and you know, just make sure that we're discussing topics where the guests are experienced and in particularly passionate about and that's really all that matters.
Speaker 1:But yeah, but thanks for me, joe, I really enjoyed it and glad to be here, yeah absolutely Well, Carlos, before I let you go, how about you tell my audience where they could find you if they wanted to connect with you personally, and then where they could find your company if they wanted to learn more? And maybe you know, reach out to get some help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the name of the agency, my agency, it's Condor, like the bird, so condoragencycom. Again, we're focused on tech services, particularly in the market B2B, so definitely check out the site. My email is myfirstlastname at condoragencycom, so carloscorridor at Condor Agency. So feel free to reach out LinkedIn. I'm relatively active on LinkedIn as well, so if you put Carlos Corridor Condor you'll find me there. So, yeah, by all means, you know, feel free to reach out if you need any advice, any help, you know, with your marketing.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, thanks everyone. I hope you enjoyed this episode.
