In this conversational podcast episode, Eric Siu and Neil Patel outline seven core habits that distinguish high‑performing marketers. They begin with the foundational habit of maintaining personal health, arguing that physical well‑being underpins sustained productivity. Next, they stress the importance of running, dissecting, and documenting experiments to uncover growth levers and avoid repeat mistakes. Building a strong network is presented as a multiplier, with Eric sharing personal anecdotes about networking dinners and the "net worth is your network" mindset. The duo then highlight the need to adapt and execute rapidly as market complexity rises. They advocate becoming a T‑shaped marketer—deep expertise in one area (e.g., SEO) complemented by broad competence across affiliate, paid media, creative, and analytics—to avoid blind spots. A global perspective is emphasized, noting that modern growth requires understanding international SEO, localization tools, and cultural nuances. Finally, they underscore speed in execution and responsiveness as a hallmark of top marketers, illustrated by Eric’s experience at Treehouse. The episode concludes with a brief plug for Neil’s agency NP Digital and tools like Ubersuggest and AnswerThePublic.
Chapters
Let's talk about the 7 habits of high-performing marketers. Let's do an OG marketing school over here. So number 1, any, not even a high-performing marketer, just a high-performing person in general. I think taking care of your health is number 1. I've worked with a lot of people over the years where they don't, they neglect their health. And in my mind, what the saying is, you know, you have 1,000 problems, you know, when your health is good, but when your health isn't good, you have one problem, right? And in my mind, I'm like, how could you just, Neglect your health, which neglects all your loved ones around you too. And then it also makes it hard to work. You know, there's people that, you know, they get, they get sick a lot, you know, they don't show up to work and like, it's hard to be a high performer if you're not high performing when it comes to your body. And so that's a little outside of the, you know, actual marketing piece, but I genuinely believe that. And, you know, maybe we'll do another episode on the ins and outs of it, but what's number 2, Neil?
Number 2 is you have to be willing to run, dissect, and document your experiments. Marketers who run a lot of experiments are more likely to find different levers that can cause more growth. But running them isn't enough. You need to understand why certain experiments worked and why they didn't. And you got to really dive in because for the ones that didn't, what can you learn from them to avoid those things in the future? For the things Things that are working, if you can dissect the elements that are actually causing lifts, how can you actually do more of that so you can grow faster? And if you're not willing to experiment as a marketer, you're just not going to grow as much. Doing the standard stuff that everyone else is doing is just going to create mediocre results because all marketing channels eventually become saturated and competitive.
Number 3 for me is you have to be very strong at building your network. And I do like the saying that you're, Your net worth is your network. And what I mean by that is Neil will just pick up the phone and call somebody. I will pick up the phone and call somebody if I want someone to teach someone on my team how they do email paid acquisition and they grow big newsletters with millions of people or so. I'll get on the phone and say, hey, can they do a call? And then in return, you know, I might, I might give something back to them or I might meet them in person because it's a quid pro quo, right? It's an equal exchange where I try to make it be. But my point here is if you don't build your network, it's So many opportunities come from just, it's people at the end of the day. And I think the sooner that you realize that, the better. And so the example here is when I was, you know, in my mid-20s or so, I started throwing these networking dinners with other marketers. And these people were, you know, directors and CMOs and things like that. And all I had was, you know, a bag of chips to feed them. But that still worked anyway, right? Because I became the node. And so that's a bonus. If you can become the connector, People will, people actually envy you for your network if you can do that.
Yeah. Number 4? Number 4, the ability to adapt and execute fast based on changes is a necessity. If you can't, you're not going to cut it out in the world of marketing because it's just getting more complex over time versus actually simpler.
Number 5 is you have to become a T-shaped marketer. And what I mean by that is, So I started in SEO originally. So I went, let's say I went really deep in SEO and then that's the, I guess that would be the I of the T, right? And then, you know, going across, I started learning affiliate marketing. I started learning paid media. I started learning what it takes to, you know, create a great creative. I started learning more about analytics, which is interesting to me because over the last 10, 15 years or so, when I look at people and they don't understand analytics or Google Tag Manager, I'm like, this stuff is like, You're supposed to know this stuff learning marketing before. And then now people have decided, oh, I'm just going to be specialized in one area. That's fine, you can do that, but you're not going to become the highest performing marketer that you can become because you can't call BS on other areas and you don't understand other areas. And because of that, that makes you a weaker marketer.
Yep. Another habit of high performing marketers is they try to understand people from all different countries and cultures. The reason this is important is the world is no longer centered around the United States or China or India. The world is all one big melting pot and we're all reliant on each other. And the money to be made is not from the US or China or India or Brazil or the United Kingdom. It's all the countries really do add up. And you got to really think on a global level. So like with SEO, if you don't understand hreflang, you're not going to get as much international traffic. If you can't figure out how to use AI to translate and transcribe your content, you're not going to do as well. And you still may need a human in the loop. If you're not willing to use technology like HeyGen that allows you to go global faster for all your social content, you're not going to do as well. International is pretty much the standard these days. When Eric and I started as an entrepreneur, you would launch a business in just one region and that was it. And that's how you build a successful company. That's no longer the case. Global and globalization needs to be part of your strategy from day one.
All right. So I wanted to take a moment to tell you about my podcast co-host Neil's agency called NP Digital, and they work with a whole host of global companies or global organizations. Also, Neil has SEO tools such as Ubersuggest and AnswerThePublic. All you have to do is go to npdigital.com to learn more, and we'll see you on the other side. Number 7, last but not least, You've got to be really fast. If there's anything that stands out with the marketers, that the best marketers I know of, they're really fast at getting things done. The sooner you can get, like, if I can get something done in half the time, that decreased my cost by half the time, right? If you think, just think about it logically. And they're very responsive. They are often the ones that are coming with new ideas. They're bringing the heat and they're quick to get things done. So when I worked at that startup Treehouse, we would work 4 days a week, a 4-day work week, right? I worked 7 days a week because we had to. And that's not to say I'm great or anything. I just, and when people needed something done, I was really quick to respond. And I also expected that of my team as well. And those that were high performers, they responded very quickly and they just were fast executors. And I think that's something you and I both really appreciate. And yeah, that's what it is. That is it for today, guys. Please don't forget to rate, review, subscribe, and we'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
