Speaker 1: Get ready for your daily dose of marketing strategies and tactics from entrepreneurs with the guile and experience to help you find success in any marketing capacity. You're listening to Marketing School, with your instructors, Neil Patel and Eric Siu.

Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.

Neil Patel: And I'm Neil Patel.

Eric Siu: And today we're going to talk about daily habits shared by the worlds most successful marketers. So, I'll kick it off first. I mean, this goes without saying: You have to continually learn because things change so quickly. I'm looking at ... I have my app Feedly, and I'm just constantly checking the news, or I'm checking Twitter from these marketing lists that I follow, just to make sure I'm on top of things, right? Just the other day, actually, I got the chance to speak with the VP of Growth at Drift, Guillaume, and he was just sharing so many great tactics around how they really use Drift to generate more sales and marketing leads. So that's something, typically, I can't find anywhere else. He was just sharing me the exact tools he uses, the strategies, everything, and it just made complete sense to me.
So just learning all the time, whether it's talking to other people, reading blogs, listening to podcasts, just constantly learning, and not being satisfied. Just because you hit seven figures or even eight figures doesn't mean you're done; the learning constantly continues. And I'm curious, Neil, I mean, you're seen as one of the world's most successful marketers, so what do you do?

Neil Patel: I organize everything in to-do lists, and I break them down into daily tasks, and I just crank through them. I also read a lot, like Eric's mentioning, networking, talking to other people. I learn more probably from events and meetups than anywhere else. Reading is always good as well, but nothing beats events and meetups. As well as, once you get your to-do list done each and every single day, and if you can't, that means your tasks are too big, but the moment you can break them down, you're much more likely to produce better results. Because when you start creating these pie-in-the-sky to-do lists that take 30 days or a few months to complete, you'll find that you miss a lot more deadlines, which means you're much less likely to see results.

Eric Siu: Yeah, and the one thing that I subscribe to is the book called The One Thing, so when I ... My to-do list, I use Evernote for it, and yes, there's a laundry list of things, but I put one thing at the top, where I say, "Hey, if I'm able to get this one thing done for today, I'm good, this day is successful." And then I have all the other stuff, and all the kind of fires that come along with running a company, but if you can focus on that one thing, whether it's that one thing for the day, for the week, for the month, for the year, for five years — just think about it that way — if you can break it all out, then it makes your life a lot easier, because you are focusing on the high-impact things that actually move the needle. And I'm curious, Neil, I mean, we look at tools every single day. What are some tools that you look at every day?

Neil Patel: Google Analytics. I want to see my search traffic to see if it's going up or down, or social, because that's the quickest indicator when algorithms are changing, right? Facebook ended up doing an announcement recently, and their stock price tanked by 5%, because they stated how they're going to feature publisher content quote-unquote "less frequently." Nonetheless, I end up seeing this stuff in my Google Analytics before anything else, because I can see the trends before people are writing articles on, "Hey, Google released an algorithm update," or "Hey, before Facebook changed their algorithm." Google Analytics is important.
I also look at Google Search Console. I look at the impression count more than the clicks. The reason being is, when the impression count goes up or down, it's a leading indicator on what's going to happen with your search traffic. Gmail is another tool I use, but that's how I do all my communication; Skype, another communication tool. I don't really use too many more tools other than that.

Eric Siu: Ahrefs?

Neil Patel: Not daily. I use Ahrefs two, three times a week, SEMrush two, three times a week, but not daily.

Eric Siu: Yup. Daily tools that I use, that I'm looking at every day, so I use Pocket, I mean, I save all my ... The stuff I want to read from Twitter, I just save it for later. Let's say I'm sitting in a line at the airport or something like that, I just don't have time to read it, so Pocket. I think I have gigs of content in there that I haven't read yet, so, you know, I get to it when I have time. And I also ... We use Slack over here, and I actually think one of Neil's companies uses Slack too, but maybe you're not in there.

Neil Patel: I'm not into any of my Slack groups. I know Crazy Egg uses it, Hello Bar uses it, the subscribers team uses it. I know for our ad agency, we use Skype more than anything else, but I don't really use any of these tools, if, like ... I use Skype a lot, but if someone wants to get a hold of me, just call or text me or email me.

Eric Siu: Yup. And then, I mean, we're not going to list off too many tools, but from a project management standpoint, at whatever company that I'm working with, we use Asana, so Asana is ... You know, looking at all the project management tools I've used over the years, it just makes life a lot easier, and then with the Slack integration, I can just add whatever tasks come to mind, and it's just really easy to kind of follow up with people on deadlines, assign things to people, and just move the company along. Neil?

Neil Patel: I also use Trello a lot. I see that every day, and funny enough, I have it pulled up right now, my guys that are redeveloping a tool called Ubersuggest, which I ended up buying out last year, and it just shows me, like, all right, what's the progress, where they're at, and how are things going.

Eric Siu: Great, yeah, so those are just ... I mean, those are a couple of habits and tools that we use. I'm trying to think of what else I do on a daily basis. I think learning is important, having to-dos, and then also, I think Neil and I probably have ... Well, not "probably." For sure, we have different morning routines, but this is a habit I actually see a lot of not just marketers, but entrepreneurs doing. Daily meditation is in there, journaling is in there, an act of gratitude is in there, and exercise in the morning. Like, this is all the stuff to kind of pack you to move you ahead of everyone else, because other people aren't willing to wake up in the morning, or take care of their body, right? That stuff's all important to executing a good campaign, or not losing your mind when something's not working well, so I think that stuff's all important. I'm curious to get your daily habits.

Neil Patel: My daily habits is I wake up around 5:00 a.m. I tend to work out; I do a mixture of cycling and CROssfit, so it's a 30-minute workout class, or 34 minutes, or something like that, in which one minute, you're on the cycle pedaling hard, one minute, you are doing some sort of CROssfit exercise, and then there's, of course, 10-second breaks in between. And I do that straight, then I eat breakfast, I work throughout the day, I work throughout the night, I do meetings throughout the day. I also am on a ketosis diet in which I don't eat things like gluten or carbs. I've found that it makes my mind much more clear, helps me have more energy. It took around 30 days to kick in, but that was pretty effective for me.

Eric Siu: Yeah, I think the more you can optimize your life, the better, right? So, you know, thinking about ... This might sound like we're being douchey, but if you have the means to ... If you can have someone come over, or you can have food delivered to you, where it's healthy, and then you can just go back to working. You know, you think about Elon Musk. He thinks eating is a chore, that's why he scarfs everything down in like five minutes, and if he ... He said if he didn't have to eat, he wouldn't. I think for workaholics like Neil and myself, it's just about trying to drive as much efficiency as possible, and eliminate the things that are a distraction.

Neil Patel: Yeah, I also try to walk every single day. It helps clear my mind. I also, when I'm on the phone, funny enough, whether it's in the office or in my home, I always walk around when I'm on the phone. It helps me think. I don't know why, it's just really random and strange. And usually at night, every single day, I take like a 30-minute walk that helps clear my mind and make sure I know what I'm doing over the next few days.

Eric Siu: Yeah, you know, what's interesting, I've talked to a couple people, and one of the questions I asked is, "What's one new tool that you've added in the last year that's added a lot of value?" And a lot of people have said the Peloton bike, which is basically like having a cycle, or like a SoulCycle in your house, and then you're just taking a class right there, and everyone loves it. And I think the other thing I have is the-

Neil Patel: Has Edward Norton on the TV commercials.

Eric Siu: It does?

Neil Patel: That's his voice.

Eric Siu: Really?

Neil Patel: I love the Peloton. When I travel, I try to stay at Westin hotels-

Eric Siu: Because they have it?

Neil Patel: ... because they usually all have Pelotons.

Eric Siu: I didn't know that. That's cool.

Neil Patel: Uh-huh (affirmative).

Eric Siu: See, there you go. And then the other thing is you can buy yourself ... If you don't want a Peloton, and you want to walk around like Neil, but maybe you don't have the space, you can buy a walking standing desk. Those are, I think they're cheaper now, maybe like 500 to 800 bucks or so, and you can go from there, but ... Anything else?

Neil Patel: No, that's it, and for our daily giveaway, check out singlegrain.com/giveaway.

Eric Siu: Giveaway. All right, see you tomorrow.

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