Specialization Archives

The oldest rum brand in the world, and also the oldest living business in Barbados, is Mount Gay Rum.

The Mount Gay distillery, sitting in the middle of wind-blown sugar-cane fields, dates back to 1703. For hundreds of years now, Mount Gay Rum has been a favorite of the pirates, sailors, and tax evaders who landed in Barbados.

When you look at the oldest businesses in other countries around the world, the picture is similar:

Ireland – Sean’s Bar, founded in the year 900

China – Ma Yu Ching’s Bucket Chicken House, founded in 1153

Ukraine – Drohobych Salt Mine, founded in 1250

Looking at businesses that are still running after a few hundred years or more, you will find lots of small breweries… small inns… small mints… small mills… small mines… and an occasional bell foundry thrown in.

Which led author Ted Gioia, who wrote about this topic recently, to conclude:

“You might assume that the best corporate survival strategy is to get bigger and bigger, but empirical evidence tells a completely different story. These long-term survivors are far more likely to be small, focused companies that do one thing very well, rather than ambitious growth-oriented megacorporations.”

Is Gioia right? I don’t know. But it resonated with me. And so I want to warn you:

A business owner recently tried to motivate me into working with him. “This could be a billion dollar company,” he said, “and you can be a part of it!”

I didn’t say so at the time, but I shuddered at the thought of being part of a billion-dollar company.

Who wants to be a billionaire? My idea of being rich is having more money at the end of each month than I had at the beginning — without scrimping, scrounging, or worrying along the way.

I know that when I don’t work, I get depressed. So I’m more interested in enjoying what I do, and being able to stick with it for the long term, than in making a lot of money and cashing out.

So now that you know that, it’s time to make a decision to avoid my email newsletter or not.

You might be wasting your time by signing up to my newsletter. What’s worse, you might be exposed to dangerous ideas that steer you away from your primary goal, in case that goal is to get very rich.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for enjoyable work, for the long term, and if you’re ok focusing on one thing and doing that very well, then it might make sense to sign up.

Who knows?

Maybe I can give you good ideas so you can run a business that you enjoy.

Or maybe, even so you can build a little legacy. So a hundred years from now, your great-great-grandkids are still running the direct response brewery you start today… while pointing proudly to your picture on the wall.

If you’re interested here’s how to sign up.

Amberly Rothfield ended up homeless at age 18. So she found a job working a phone sex line.

Phone sex paid $15 an hour, three times the minimum wage in Texas at the time.

Still, it didn’t take much math to realize her employers were alienating 95% of her breathy labor into profits for themselves.

But Rothfield is entrepreneurial. She found an online platform that catered to phone sex freelancers.

She set up a profile, and by working on her SEO and thumbnails and specializing as a female dominatrix (“calling guys losers, cuckolding, and blackmail fantasies”), she became the top account on the site.

She was now making between $600 and $900 a day.

But all that was still nothing compared to what was to come.

Because in 2016, OnlyFans launched. It spread like wildfire. Within just a few years, an estimated 10.2 billion women created accounts on the site.

But Rothfield had something better in mind.

She was already a digital sex success. And she realized she could use her experience to help other women get better exposure for their breasts. So she became an OnlyFans marketing consultant.

Result?

Today, Rothfield is booked solid for months in advance, giving advice on topics like positioning, pricing, and sales funnels.

Unsexy? Yes. But she makes about a half million dollars a year.

Take a moment. Let the astronomical significance of that settle in.

Because how many digital marketing consultants are out there? More than the stars in the sky.

And how many of those myriad consultants are booked months in advance and make a half million dollars a year? About as few as the stars you can see above New York City on a typical night.

So what’s the conclusion?

Well, I guess there are many lessons you could draw from the story of Amberly Rothstein.

One possible lesson is the value of specialization.

And if you’ve been itching to find a shortcut to success and specialization seems appealing, then you’ll be glad to know that as I’ve been writing this email, another 100 million OnlyFans accounts have been created, and they all could use some marketing and copywriting help.

Maybe you’re wondering if I’ll also be jumping on this OnlyFans opportunity and creating competition for you.

The answer is no. Not because I have any particular problem with the niche. Or because I am particularly committed to some other niche.

Rather, it’s because the few times I tried consciously specializing during my copywriting career, it all came to naught. And personally, I feel I’ve learned my lesson. If you’re curious about that, then baby, ooooh, we can talk all about that tomorrow… yeah… at just $4.95/minute.

Just kidding. It will be free. But really tomorrow. Sign up here if you don’t want to miss my sexy call.