How much Experience is needed to be an Expert?
The truth is, many in our industry claim they are marketing or business experts, yet few truly are. Recent years made it hard not to see some success—especially in construction and remodeling—but that doesn’t mean everyone who thrived has real expertise.
Marketing in our industry is so underdeveloped that even modest efforts are often perceived as significant progress.
The question is, what type of long-term success are you shooting for? And now, more than ever, you need to also be aware of the lethal mixture of short-term survival with the long-term opportunities.
We often hear claims like, ‘My father and grandfather were in construction, so I started a website, software, or social media company.’ That may be true, and some may have found success. But the real question is: would they have succeeded if they’d started in tougher times? And more importantly, can they truly guide others through challenges they’ve never had to face themselves?
The term ‘expert’ is thrown around far too casually. Much of the advice out there was shaped in good times, but true expertise is proven by guiding others through challenges—not just prosperity.
I work with many younger professionals, and some are truly talented. What I appreciate most is when the less experienced are open to learning what they don’t yet know. But we’re entering a new era where many are quick to offer advice—often without realizing it is drawn from speculation or someone else’s suggestion rather than real experience. The challenge now is for them to resist labeling themselves as ‘experts’ before they’ve truly earned it.
Before listening to anyone, you should begin to ask yourself “Is my adviser actually a one-hit wonder or are they an expert?”. In good times you can get away without asking this question, but not in bad.
For those who may be newer to the industry, the term ‘one-hit wonder’ comes from the record business—a singer or group who achieved massive success with a single song but couldn’t follow it with another. The point isn’t to diminish what you’ve accomplished, but to illustrate that many are quick to promote themselves as more experienced than they really are.
Building success beyond initial recognition—whether in music, film, business, or any other field—requires commitment and persistence over time. A younger professional may excel at the latest techniques, but true expertise also comes from navigating challenges, failures, family demands, and adversity like what we face today. This isn’t to question your dedication or ambition, but experience and time are the only ways to fully earn the title of ‘expert.’ Sometimes a client needs that depth, and it simply cannot be rushed.
From my perspective marketing has never been just about a website or any one technology. Too many excel with a particular discipline such as websites, Facebook, Email, etc., and then they claim they are an expert at marketing. That is not the case. It is just like mastering Microsoft Word or Google Docs without admitting you do not know how to write a story. Using Word does not automatically mean you are an author.
I hadn’t really considered it until audience members at speaking events began asking, ‘How do you know so much?’ or ‘What’s your background?’ My response may seem a bit self-focused, but it’s necessary when establishing credibility as an expert. This applies in good times and bad, whether you’re leading a start-up or helping a mature company grow, and it includes navigating marketing through changing times.
I’d like to share a bit of history, carefully selecting what highlights the progression of our experience. While not everything can be included, what is shared should give you a clear sense of our accomplishments. My goal is for you to feel completely confident in working with us as experts—whether you choose to learn through MyOnlineToolbox products or collaborate with us directly in a more personalized way.
Directly out of college I was part of a start up software company. About ten years of street and college hustling experience, but no real business experience, no money and just a desire to dominate the industry. Advertising was mostly print at that time. Happen to remember a Floppy Drive?
Being short on money can sometimes push you into questionable decisions. In our case, we were attending shows without enough to cover booth space, hotels, transportation, a new booth, and advertising. We often felt financially ‘strangled,’ and heard our customers felt the same. So, we created a playful ad that amplified that feeling—and were surprised by how much people loved it. Time and again, we heard, ‘I feel just like that guy!’ The emotional connection made the ad memorable, and all we did was tweak the text over time. We learned firsthand how quickly marketing can succeed when it truly resonates with your audience. Maybe it wasn’t such a silly idea after all.
As time went on, the internet became a powerful tool, but it didn’t always work the way it does today. For instance, most of us now take tabbed browsing for granted, allowing multiple items to be active at once. Between 1990 and 1997, however, people were not accustomed to multitasking online. Our interface didn’t even show tabs—but we found a way to ‘trick the browser’ and positioned ourselves as a multitasking alternative. For a time, no one even compared us to other products. That single feature drove a significant efficiency gain our competitors couldn’t match. While others focused on adding features, we focused on differentiating ourselves.
As the year 2000 approached, some feared a Y2K disaster. For those unfamiliar, the Y2K issue arose because software used two digits for dates—’99’ meant 1999, but ’00’ could be misread as 1900. This meant that new transactions starting January 1, 2000, could be sorted incorrectly on reports. For us, this created roughly two years’ worth of incoming business just from addressing the issue. While many competitors focused on feature lists for their systems, we concentrated on what mattered most: being ready to meet the pressing time constraints. Our edge was preparedness; theirs was features.
As the internet exploded, everyone rushed to bring products to market. We developed our own tools, and people kept urging us to package them, raise huge sums, and launch commercially. But we already knew how to market at trade shows, so we invested a significant amount of our own money into creating a standout booth—complete with custom carpeting—that would draw both customers and investors. It was an expensive gamble, but one that made an impression.
We didn’t want to be just another new face at a show where everyone was spending big to grab attention. Instead, we took advice from one of our customers—a little-known fashion company you might have heard of, Guess—to help us stand out. We needed plenty of hype to create a hip, engaging atmosphere for our target audience: the younger generation of programmers.
My second business led into the creation of the third business Investment Café which had its own marketing challenges. The biggest challenge was targeting a top tier financial crowd. The experiences were unique onto themselves.
After selling my interests in my third business, I launched a new venture called ServusXchange with a product named MyOnlineToolbox, aiming to enter the construction industry. I attended the International Builders Trade Show to study the competition and noticed a recurring pattern: nearly every exhibitor told the same origin story. I also realized the industry was tightly knit, so building credibility externally would be essential. In short, I was carefully analyzing the market to identify whatever competitive differentiator I could find.
My goal was to start building traction for inbound rankings. At the time, I’d say 99% of my competitors had no idea what I was even talking about. So I took the ideas to a small financial magazine—Forbes. Just imagine having one of your first inbound links come from a publication like that.
Then it was off to another little magazine (I am being facetious) called Entrepreneur Magazine and was featured there.
Now it was time to enter the market. I then started with traditional marketing of a website, SEO, Facebook, YouTube, etc. People then went to check us out. We were extremely focused on ensuring there was some high-level external credibility.
Over time we became regular contributors to multiple company newsletters.
We have been guest speakers for prestigious companies.
We are now a frequent guest speaker at many industry events such as JLC and IBS-KBIS.
But most important is to get customer reviews all along which is why we can promote 100+ happy customers today on our website (both written and on video).
Am I an expert at marketing? I guess I will leave that up to you to decide.