Speaker: Hey, what’s going on? Welcome to “The Doug Show.” My name’s Doug Cunnington, and today it’s a little catch-up episode. I’m gonna talk a little bit about what I’ve been up to, but also because a lot of people do wanna hear about business ideas and things like that, I have a couple ideas that I’ll throw in at the end.
You might notice the audio’s a little different. If you’re watching, you certainly notice the different venue.
Georgie Update Setup
Speaker: I’m sitting upstairs in the living room, which is slightly a mess with some of Georgie, the border collie, uh, her toys, and unfortunately, she is not feeling well. Uh, we think she may have some liver trouble, and she’s quite an old dog.
She’s, like, 13 and a half, maybe 14. We don’t know because she was a rescue, so she was an adult dog by the time we got her. Anyway, she’s not feeling well, and typically I would record downstairs. Sometimes even I’ll s- I would sit on her bed and record down there. Rare, but I would do that.
Recording Gear Breakdown
Speaker: And, uh, she’s not super steady on her feet, so I thought, “Eh, you know what?
I have some things that I could do to be able to record up here.” So I went back to sort of a partial old school audio setup here, but some new school as far as the video. So the setup that I have here is Ecamm Live is the software which I used for livestreams, but I also use it for recording because I like simplicity, and I already know how to use Ecamm, and I’m paying for the software, so it works fine to record.
So I typically record using Ecamm. I’ve actually started using it for some freelance livestreaming gigs. Turns out livestreaming is pretty expensive if you hire someone to do it, so I’ve helped out a few nonprofits to essentially meet their budget point. So I’m not doing it for free. But anyway, Ecamm Live is a great piece of software and works really well for livestreaming specifically, but you can use its other functions to record audio, video, whatever.
So I record all, all, all my podcasts on Ecamm. So I’m using my old ATR2100, and I got this, I don’t know, gosh, I can’t remember, either six or 10 years ago, something like that. I’ve traveled all over the country with it. I– who knows how many states it’s been to? But I’ve thrown it in backpacks. It gets thrown around and all this stuff.
I mean, I’m not dropping it on the, on the concrete or anything, but overall, quite durable. So I’ve plugged into a USB hub, and then the n- sort of newer feature With the video is you could use an iPhone, which I’m sure if you have an Android device, you could probably use it in your own ecosystem out there.
But in this case, I’m able to use my iPhone 14 Pro as the camera, which the video is really good on these new phones these days. So I’m able to just link up. I think it might be via Bluetooth, but you have to be on the same Wi-Fi network, blah, blah, blah. But it works really well. And so I’m using that down here and Georgie is resting next to me.
So hopefully she’ll feel a little better. But like I said, she is very old and we have been bracing ourselves for her decline in health, unfortunately.
Dallas Trip Plans
Speaker: So what have I been up to? I think the last time that I left you, I said that I was probably going to bring my recording gear to Dallas because we had a road trip coming.
I did bring the recording gear. I actually had an idea or two to record with some family down there. I have a couple brother-in-laws that enjoy listening to podcasts and or talking respectively. And I thought, oh, maybe I’ll record something. I was only with the family for about 48 hours and I’ll explain that in a second.
So it was kind of a shorter amount of time and we were so busy. Like we didn’t really have any downtime and to record a podcast, especially they’re not pro podcasters or never been on a podcast or anything. So they would need, I would need to guide them and make sure we have somewhat of an arc through the episode that makes sense.
And anyway, I decided, hey, you know what? I just want to spend time with family. I’m not going to, you know, try to record an episode and get content out of that. Although it could be fun to do, especially if they, you know, enjoy podcasts and they want to be on one. But anyway, decided not to. That was in Dallas.
Purple Stride Recap
Speaker: So we were there for the Purple Stride pancreatic cancer fundraising event. So they hold those all on the same day, all over the country. I can’t remember how many cities they participate in, but most likely there’s a city near you if you’re in the new US that has a Purple Stride event. You walk three miles.
They raise money for pancreatic cancer. And our team actually placed third for the family and friends category. And then there’s companies. So we placed third. So I actually have a little plaque. I forgot to grab it over there. There’s a plaque that we have and then a certificate. I went on stage just for a minute to accept the reward.
The award, and yeah, it was totally surprising. Um, a lot of family kicked in, family and friends rather. A lot of friends kicked in. But then there was also a big chunk of podcast listeners, I think mostly from the “Mile High Fi” podcast, but I don’t know the or- origin, and there’s a decent overlap of the audience out there.
So great event. I was able to pay for the hotel for all my family. So I had, um, my sister and her family, and my other sister and part of her family, so her husband and one of the daughters came along. The other one is, was in, uh, is in college. I think she was working, not able to join, and my dad flew out as well.
Credit Card Points
Speaker: And, um, one of the reasons I was able to cover is, uh, budgeting, right? So we I could, I could afford it budget-wise. But the other major thing is I got a hotel credit card that had a very large bonus in there. So I think I got 180,000 points or 50,000 points or something like that, and it was IHG, which, you know, there are different, uh, credit card, uh, offers out there.
The sign-up bonus is almost always the best value. The other thing to consider is hotel points, uh, depending on the chain, have different values. So with IHG, a lot of different hotels. A lot of them do allow dogs. Georgie joined us, um, on the road trip, and she loves riding in the car. I shouldn’t even say it too loud.
Um, but she’s having a dream right now. I see her little feet kicking. So basically, with IHG, the points aren’t super valuable. I think it might be, like, half a cent per point or something like that. But if you go to something like Hyatt, then it’s more like one cent or so. That said, you’re getting a, you know, a shitload of points, and a lot of them end up being fairly comparable.
And you need to, you know, potentially move from one hotel chain to another to get the sign-up bonus, and then you cancel the other one, and blah, blah, blah. Always pay it off in full. Not financial advice, but if you’re, if you’re, you know, if you have a business and you’re running through, you know, a decent amount of, like, ad spend or you’re using credit cards to pay for a bunch of shit, then it’s a no-brainer to have a card where you can get a good sign-up bonus.
In this case, it ended up being worth roughly, I think about $1,100, $1,000, something like that. And I think I had to spend It was either $3,000 or $5,000 within three months, and it always varies on the credit card bonus offer. So definitely worth checking out. I did that, uh, last fall, started, um, spending on that card.
Again, always pay it off in full. Don’t, don’t accrue interest or anything like that. That’s a very bad idea. You won’t get your value then. And then, um, so that was in the fall last year, maybe in like February. Um, I think it was Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve had a sign-up bonus that was worth about $1,000.
So I signed up for it. My wife also signed up for it, which is totally valid. Like I wasn’t a user on her card and she wasn’t a user on my card. So totally separate. We just had separate cards. Spent it as normal for our normal, um, whatever, groceries, whatever other kinda stuff we buy, gas, travel, et cetera.
So at that point it’s a no-brainer to be able to spend, you know, $3,000 or $5,000. Again, I can’t remember. Uh, but we each got like $1,000 credit on our card and you could be more creative to try to use those points in another way and get more value. Sometimes that’s kind of a pain in the ass. In fact, I don’t really enjoy that portion of it.
So I’ll just take the thousand bucks. Again, this is just normal spending that we would, would do anyway. So I think probably I have an episode, uh, back in the day where I talked to people that do a little bit more credit card churning and maybe they o-over the course of like four years they made like tens of thousands of dollars from credit card bonus points and offers and all that stuff.
You do have to keep track of this and there are tools out there to do it. It’s not that hard if you just have a spreadsheet. Again, I don’t really enjoy doing all this. In fact, I had a very hard time transferring the points from Chase over to IHG. A lot of it was probably my fault, but at the end of the day it took me, whatever, twice as long as it should have to get the points over there.
When I did the Sapphire Reserved it was only– I mean I– we hit our spending, uh, amount for the sign-up bonus and the points or money was in our account within like a week or something like that. It was super fast. The points from Chase to IHG, I had to call in, I had to send secure messages. It took me like four fucking months to get it over.
Hotel Stay Stories
Speaker: But, uh, used all the points and the moral of the story is I had a vision of like having everyone stay in the same hotel so we could have breakfast in the morning and we could hang out in the hotel lobby, which is not the most fun thing, but it would’ve been very challenging to find a very big house Where everyone had their own space on Airbnb, for example.
A very big house that allows pets, that wasn’t like way out in an area that we w- basically have like an inconvenient time getting to anything that we were trying to get to. So it was a Holiday Inn Express, which is fine. We’re, uh, you know, simple middle-class folks. We don’t need anything too fancy. It wasn’t the most fancy, uh, you know, hotel.
But if you have more sophisticated taste or needs, or you have a higher bar, then you maybe wouldn’t have loved it. But I don’t really give a shit and, um, I like to be able to, you know, roll up to any old hotel and be like, “You know what? I’ve stayed in a worse place than this.” It wasn’t that bad. The, the people were super nice and, you know, with a credit card, you usually have status for the hotel.
So in this case, they were like, “Oh, you, you know, you’re checking in.” Um, I had like f- four rooms for each family or whatever, so four rooms, multiple nights. And they were like, “Oh, y- you get… You can get either extra points or you can get like an amenity,” which is a drink and a snack in the, in their little sundries area where they have whatever, m- microwave meals and drinks.
And I, uh, I was like, “Eh, I don’t know what I want, but I’ll… I don’t want the fucking points. Like, g- give me the actual thing that I can consume.” So that was great, and I’m… Hopefully, uh, people know that I’m nice and I’m friendly, especially to employees and workers and all that stuff. So I was very friendly and like if they had…
Th- there was no major issue, but if something was going on, I’m like, “Oh, this is no big deal.” Like, I’m not a demanding customer. Like, y- I’m, I’m happy to be here. So, so they’re nice to me. They’re nice to me, and I’m sure they gave me like extra stuff. I’m like, “Can I get a couple things here?” So I would get like ice cream for the ki- kids, and honestly for, and for me and the other people.
Um, but I’m like, “Can I get a little of that?” So, um, I mean, we like the Holiday Inn Express. Um, you know, the free breakfast, it’s not gonna win any awards out there. But I will say I was, I was happy that the, the eggs, they were probably instant eggs. I mean, they’re not back there cracking like 40 fucking eggs, right?
So I know they’re instant eggs, but the consistency w- was totally fine. Like it worked, and if your expectations are adjusted properly, you’re gonna be really happy with the breakfast. So anyway, everyone was super nice, and I did not have time to record a podcast. Then we continued on. So my family left. Um, we were there for the, the walk.
We had a, a day to hang out, another day.
Food And Road Trip
Speaker: I went to, um… I like food, right? So I was like, “We gotta get barbecue.” And then there’s this pizza place in Deep Ellum called, uh, what was it called? Kane Rossi, Rosso, something like that. And it was on Triple D: Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri. And I watch… I mean, I, I can watch that show 24/7.
Guy’s a really nice dude if you listen to other interviews. He has his, like, camera persona, but he’s just… I mean, he seems like a fun dude to have a beer with and share food with and all that stuff. You all right, Georgie? You doing okay? So anyway, there was a great pizza place that I wanted to try out, so like, I was like, “Everybody’s gonna get in in the morning.
They’re gonna fly in. They’re gonna be hungry. They’re coming from the East Coast, and Dallas is, uh, Central Time Zone.” So I was like, “Y’all are gonna be hungry. I’m gonna buy a bunch of pizza.” So we got pizza and a bunch of apps, and, um, it was great. Really good. We got some barbecue as well. And yeah, it was a good trip.
Hot Springs National Park
Speaker: Anyway, so we got on the road, and we headed out after everybody left, um, and headed to the airport, and we continued on to Arkansas to go to Hot Springs National Park. One of our quests is to visit all the national parks, and I, I think I have 27 that I’ve been to, and Elizabeth has 28. So a little discrepancy.
I went to Denali in Alaska in 2019 for the road trip up there. Georgie actually joined us. Georgie has been to Denali as well. And then Elizabeth has a couple in Utah that I’ve missed. She went on a trip with a friend of hers, and so I still need to get Bryce and Zion. They’re actually just the state over, and I mean, it’s a day’s drive.
I mean, I think I can get over there and not a big deal. Those are very crowded parks, so I think I would want to go, like, during the down season when weather is favorable and not too hot, and so on and so forth. But because they’re so popular, I have not made it a priority to go over there. And I’ve been to a bunch of the…
I mean, they’re great parks. But for a little while, we were, like, going through Arches and Canyonlands and a bunch of other places in Utah, and I’m like, “Uh, it’s all desert and red rocks.” I know there’s other stuff. I know there’s canyons and, I mean, Bryce Canyon. So anyway, those are a couple parks I haven’t been to.
But we made it to Hot Springs. It’s only about four hours from Dallas, so we’ve driven past it, or at least within a five-hour range or so many times because we’re from Atlanta, so if we’re going from, you know, Colorado or the Rockies, we’re driving on 70, heading back to Atlanta out that way. But I mean, Hot Springs is not like right off the highway.
You go past it, but like I said, it’s four or five hours to get over there. So if we were going to, you know, make that side quest at any point, I mean, that’s gonna be a, a day and a half, something like that, if you wanna go hang out. So one of the cool things with Hot Springs is it’s a national park that’s, that has a city around it.
Basically, a little history lesson. Hot Springs was protected in 1832, but the National Park Service wasn’t established yet. So the federal government said, “Hey, th- these springs are protected. We don’t want people to, um, uh, like own this land.” But essentially, a city grew up around it because there was no mechanism.
The Park Service was not yet established until 1872. We went on a tour with a ranger, so that’s why I know these dates and specifics. So basically, there was no mechanism, no way to implement the protection, and there was no funding for it. So the, uh, area was protected, but a city sprung up around it, and commerce and all that stuff.
So this national park happens to be, um, pretty unique in that way, and it’s because it predated the Park Service. They are extremely dog-friendly because of that. Most national parks are not. But I mean, I think dogs were, like, inside restaurants and stuff. So one of their claims to fame is there, there’s a brewery within the national park that is in an old bathhouse.
Now, if you haven’t been to Hot Springs before, a lot of times the way they’re set up is like big pools, like a swimming pool, but it’s hot spring water, and it kind of, uh, you know, flows in one side, flows out the other, and they have a, a temperature gradient essentially, and it might be 100 degrees. And, and there’s different temperatures, right?
So one pool might be like 103, 105. They have smaller hot tubs that might be like 106. I’ve been in one that was like 109, which kind of burns. It’s a little hot. And I think they have hotter ones if you are willing to do it. Sounds dangerous, though.
Bathhouse Brewery Visit
Speaker: Anyway, this one, th- this, you know, Hot Springs National Park is around, uh, bathhouses.
So there’s only two active bathhouses. One is more traditional, and one is more like a spa. So we went to the traditional one, and it was a little weird. It was a little creepy. Um- I mean, it’s set up how it was like 100 years ago, and you kinda… I mean, you’re in a big bathtub that they, you know, they put the hot spring water in there and they, you know, they blend the hot and cold.
So I think mine was maybe like 102, 103. It’s like a hot tub, basically. So you soak in there for a little while. You go to like a little steam container where your head’s out, and then they fill it with steam, and then you do a hot towel wrap, and then, um, they actually accidentally gave me a massage. They weren’t supposed to.
I think it, it was whatever package we had. Th- I wasn’t supposed to get a massage, but I, I didn’t know what I had. I was just like, “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.” I’m like going to these different places. They’re like, “Oh, come back in 10 minutes and get you out of the tub. I’ll get you out of the steam thing in five minutes.”
And then they’re like, “You ready for your massage?” And I’m like, “Sure. Let’s do it.” So I got a massage, and the funny thing is my wife… A- and it’s like m- men on one side, women on the other side. So it’s like I was over here. We’re separated. So my wife finished, and she was like, “Um, I, I made it out before, um, Doug did.”
And then she went to the gift shop, and she was like, “Ah, it’s been like half an hour. Like, what the fuck is this guy doing?” So she was gonna go and check on me and say like, “Hey, is Doug okay? Did he like pass out back there? What happened?” And, uh, I walked out the door right then, so I was like, “Yeah, I got a massage.”
And she was like, “What? What are you talking about?” So anyway, there’s a brewery in one of the old bath houses, and it’s a restaurant, and they use the hot spring water to make the, the beer, which is kinda cool. I believe for the few beer nerds out there, they said the hot spring water comes out at about 143 degrees, which is a little cool for your mash temp, but you would only have to bump it up just a little bit.
Now, I don’t know if they treat it and they give the, you know, on one of the plaques in town near the water fountains, ’cause you could go and like fill up, and it’s hot. You know, it’s probably… It’s not the 140, but it’s probably like 120 degrees. It felt pretty warm to me. And, um, they give the mineral makeup of the water.
It looked pretty soft to me overall, so not sulfury or anything like that, like many other hot springs. It’s not volcanic in nature. But interesting park. Glad we went to it. Extremely dog-friendly. We had like a pretty awesome Airbnb, so we could walk downtown. We could walk to those bath houses in the, you know, main area in town.
But we could also walk to some trails where, again, dogs are allowed, so I would walk Georgie on her normal three-mile walk in the morning, and she had a nice time. No one was out there. I, I mean, I… We passed, like, one or two people. No dogs that I remember. So I would just let her off leash, which she’s off-leash trained, and she did a good job out there.
So we had, we had a nice time. All right, I’ll move on. I didn’t realize I had so much to say about travels. That was part of the origin of this show, too. I called it “The Doug Show” ’cause I knew I wasn’t always gonna talk about affiliate marketing and SEO. Sometimes we just told stories, and I guess I could do a whole half hour on that kind of stuff.
Back To Business Ideas
Speaker: I will transition, actually quickly, ’cause, uh, Georgie is, she’s awakened from her nap, and I probably need to check on her here. So there’s a couple things related to marketing and such that I do wanna talk about. Couple business ideas. I just had Kyle Roof on. Great guy. I really like Kyle. I– You know what?
I don’t- we’ve never met in person, but ran in the same circles for many years, and there’s a lot of, uh… I don’t… There’s fly-by-night folks in the marketing and SEO world especially. And Kyle’s been around for a long time. He seems like a really good dude, and sometimes our, uh… I mean, sometime in the future, maybe our paths will cross.
He did invite me a couple years ago to speak at the SEO, um, Estonia SEO conference that he is a co-founder and runner of. Uh, schedule didn’t work out kind of thing. Sounded like a great opportunity. Bummed that I did not get to go. And, uh, I feel like I’m separated a little bit from the SEO world, which, you know, I said as much in the interview.
I mean, I just haven’t been doing it.
KGR Site Case Study
Speaker: I was surprised that Kyle was like, “Yo, man, I… Like, there’s great affiliate opportunities out there.” And it, it does make sense to me, since the bottom dropped out and so many people just quit. So I can imagine. People quit, and then not people… Or, and then people are not starting new sites.
So, like, some saturation level that was around before has dropped. People are not talking about it. And it was surprising and shocking even to hear Kyle mention that KGR is doing awesome, better than it used to. I will point you in the direction of the previous, some previous episode that I recorded with Kyle where he was like, “KGR is awesome.
Here’s how I would change it,” or, “Here’s the 2.0 version.” And he talks about, you know, the strength of the site and, and how that makes a big difference, which 100%. He ties it into avalanche, um, theory and using that approach. And, I mean, the guy knows what he’s talking about. He has data to back it up. So from a business idea, I mean, I think it would be super interesting for someone To start a new site, I mean, it sounds like you could probably use the same or similar approach, um, as we were using in the past.
I suspect that it might not have as, you know, fast growth or potential, but I could be totally wrong. More people are using, you know, AI tools and AI search results within Google. So if you were able to get traction in that way, then maybe it could be faster, but I don’t know. And I think using KGR, ’cause it’s a good name, right?
Using the keyword golden ratio, it could be a great way to do, like, a case study, and I would probably rope in… If I was doing it. Now, I don’t have this kind of energy or motivation anymore. But if I was doing it, I would also start a YouTube channel alongside. And this is one thing I never spent time on.
That is KGR for YouTube, and I have thought, like, hey, that would be a cool, fun little project to work on. But again, I don’t have the drive or motivation, and it could be a fun little project, but I’m like, “Ah, I don’t know if it’s worth my time right now to do it.” And it does make me think of, you know, recent conversation with Matt Giovanisci, where it’s like, oh, we have hobbies, and I guess in a light way, SEO and creating, you know, this show, it’s a hobby.
You know, I’m not making money at it, and it’s okay. It, like, Matt said he has a thing where he basically tries to turn a business… He tries to take a hobby and turn it into a business, and that kinda ruins the fun. Not for everybody. You could do it for a little while, but at some point, you’re, you’re creating work, and you’re doing work.
And I am looking, uh, you know, time is so precious, and I’m like, “Okay, is this a good use of my time?” If I’ve, if I’ve built sites in the past and I’m like, “Ah, had… We had some good times. We had some laughs. We built some sites. We sold some sites.” And then I’m like, “Ah, is it, am I gonna fucking do that again?
Is that the same thing that I was doing 10 years ago? Have I evolved to do different things?” No, um, you know, if you are doing that, that is 100% valid. I’m not judging you. But for me, personally, I’m like, “Okay, I’m not getting the same kind of joy or novelty from it.” If you are That is 100% valid. I, again, I’m not placing the judgments which I have on myself, on you or anyone else.
So if you dig it and you still enjoy it, keep doing it. I mean, I know, I know people that still enjoy it in the same way. They get the same kind of joy. They find the keywords, they do the stuff. Um, but I would, I would look at that, um, as kind of a cool pro- I mean, you could write a blog about it. You could publish in different formats.
Um, the cool thing that I am still seeing, so I, I mean, I talk a little bit about SEO, but I have a good legacy. I have a good background that I’ve built with affiliate marketing and SEO. I have a podcast. I publish this stuff. Uh, externally, uh, it looks decent. There’s 100 some odd thousand YouTube subscribers, but you fine listener, I mean, the folks that have stuck around and are seeing and watching this, you know that I ran ads to get many of those subscribers.
Build In Public Model
Speaker: However, there are marketing companies out there that really want to be in front of the audience which I’ve built, though it may be small and not reflective of the numbers out there. Which, I mean, the thing is, like, y- you could… It’s public, right? You can go on the YouTube side and see how many people have viewed videos recently versus, you know, whatever, 10 years ago, five years ago, and dramatically different.
There’s way fewer people watching. However, people need to, uh, sorry, companies need to get out in front, and they have a marketing budget to get out in front and, like, have me demo their tools. So I think there’s a super valid argument to this business model. I mean, if someone wanted to, they totally could, you know, build an affiliate site.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be in, in public like, um, Alex Cooper, WPEagle did for, like, uh, Best Roof Box and stuff like that. People love the public shit, but, you know, there are bad actors out there that will fuck up, uh, your project that you’re trying to work on. So I would say, you know, if you did it semi, um, semi-private where, like, maybe you didn’t reveal the site, but you share the metrics old school way, you know, we don’t, you know, you don’t reveal the site until much later, um, if at all.
And I think it’s valid to keep it private because the barrier to entry is so low and it’s so easy to mess with someone’s project. I would start a site. I would publish. You could use content tools. You could use a tool like PageOptimizer Pro, POP, which is Kyle’s tool And you could use, um, Search Atlas, right?
That was a tool that I did a demo on recently. And there, there are plenty of others, right? There are plenty of tools that you could use, and you could build an audience around that. And not many people are saying, “Hey, go build an affiliate site.” I mean, I probably said in the last six months, like, “Oh, I would not advise you to do that.
That’s not a good use of time.” Maybe it’s a great use of time if you frame it in the right way. You could use, um, Ecamm Pro to record videos and then put it out there on YouTube and say, “Hey, here’s how I’m doing all this stuff,” and just kind of build in public and build a following that way. So, I mean, another side portion of this, if you were following in those kind of footsteps, you could analyze sites that are out there.
I did this, uh, I think I did site teardowns. Those are extremely popular. You could do public sites that are out there, just find them, analyze them, and share information. You know, you could use the tools, again, like Search Atlas to go and, um, analyze them, or Semrush, for example, another great tool. I think the one other area that I would maybe look at…
Now, this is more on the video side. And like all of us, I’m thinking of myself quite a bit. Okay, George, you can get up if you want to.
LinkedIn Video Rant
Speaker: Basically, I think LinkedIn is a very interesting platform because when I went over there, I mean, I’m in there, uh, maybe once or twice a week, and I’ll take a quick look for some reason.
Usually, I’m, like, researching a person, so I, like, go check out their profile, see what they’re working on and that sort of thing. And I have noticed that there’s so much garbage over there. I mean, it, it’s set up like a social media platform, and half of my, um, contacts are from my old corporate world, so that’s, you know, over 10 years old, uh, like 10 to 20 years old, basically.
And then the other half is marketers and stuff that I’ve done in the last decade. The marketer side, um, I mean, they’re, they’re over there trying to build business. So I see a lot of marketing messages. “You won’t believe how I did X, um, because of these challenges. I thought I couldn’t do it, but I overcame it.”
I mean, it’s filled with all that bullshit. It might not be written by AI, but it’s also extremely formulaic. So if it’s not written by AI, I sure don’t wanna fucking read it anyway. I mean, like, it, it’s still, like, following the marketing script, and they may as well have, like, blinking, highlighted yellow text or whatever.
So pretty rough over there. I know they’re pushing more video and even, like, short-form video, and I think When I go through there, my idea was, well, everyone– I mean, people are selling stuff, right? So people, like, and the marketers are doing stuff, and if they do video, I mean, it, it probably does a little better because it’s a little harder to do video.
And I have all the stuff, right? I mean, I got the, the microphones and the studio, and I, I mean, I could even set it up like this. But people are talking business, and people are talking about, like, getting farther in their career. They’re like, “Oh, my company did X or Y,” or something like that. And, uh, I don’t give a shit about that, right?
I’m not trying to get a job. I’m not networking. I don’t– I really don’t give a fuck. And you don’t get that on LinkedIn at all. You don’t get the anti-corporate sentiment that I have, and it would be very interesting to, I mean, just put content out where I’m like, “Here’s how to do less work. Here’s a story…”
Actually, this is a good one.
Delegation Layoff Story
Speaker: Here’s a story about how I got laid off, and then there’s a couple layers to it. The quick summary is, like, I had a team of 10 people. I delegated everything that I possibly could because my team was really good. It was one of those classic scenarios where the, uh, the client laid off a bunch of people and then hired them back as contractors.
And then there were people working for me. I mean, I was like, whatever, 35, 40. Um, no, it was only th- 35. I was, like, 30 to 35 or so. And basically, um, I had people that were 50 or 60 working for me, and they obviously had more experience in– I mean, they had worked at the company for longer. So they were qualified.
So me delegating to someone who’s, like, way more qualified than me, not a stretch. Hell, the people that were younger than me were also very sharp and good. I’m not that great. Um, anyway, I delegated everything, and it was fucking awesome. So I led a couple meetings, uh, and then that was pretty much it.
That’s a fun story. I could go tell that story like, “Hey, if you have a good qualified team, you may as well delegate everything.” Like, do you need to do everything? Do you need to make yourself indispensable? That’s dumb. Like, if someone, especially, like, the people that were younger than me, they needed to have examples of them working outside of their normal position at the level above.
That’s where they wanted to get promoted to. So, I mean, I, I was like, “Hey, if, you know, if you wanna do extra stuff, I have this task that I’ve been doing for a little while. By the way, on your performance review,” which I, um, will write or put together, um, have you, you know, we’ll work on it together. Your performance review You’ll be able to say that you took a task from me, and that you did it, and you improved it in these ways.
And I could say like, “Hey, here’s how I would improve it.” But again, I’m lazy, folks, so say, “Hey, this is what I would do.” You know, fucking go nuts. Like, you do it. And then, um, you know, for me, I was like, “Hey, I empowered my team, and they made these improvements, and it actually turned out great, and I didn’t have to do it.”
So everybody wins. Um, at the end of the day, though, it’s, it’s like when I go on vacation, and they’re like, “Yeah, everything’s running fine. Like, do we even need Doug?” The answer’s no. I made myself– I eliminated the need for my job. They replaced me with someone else, of course. Um, but it was easy because I had trained, like, three people to be my fucking backup while I was gone.
So it was easy for me to take all the vacation time I wanted. It was great. Anyway, stories like that could do really well on LinkedIn ’cause it’s against the grain, and it also would be kind of interesting for my old corporate peers to, um, observe, like, “Doug has a podcast? That’s weird. He retired a few years ago?
That guy was such a slacker. Didn’t he get laid off? Like, what is the, what is the story? Like, nothing adds up.” And then I have, um, yeah, some, maybe even some peers from the col-college years, and it’s like, “Doug wasn’t that good. Like, he actually struggles quite a bit.” So those are fun stories, and I’m like, that’d be a fun thing to, to test over on LinkedIn.
But again, I’m like, is that a good use of time to just, like, see if I could perform for an algorithm? And the answer is no, not really. I may test it out ’cause I am slightly curious, um, but there’s no specific goal other than, like, “Oh, I wonder, I wonder if I could do that.” There’s way better things for me to spend my time on.
Wrap Up And Contact
Speaker: So anyway, those are a couple ideas from me. If you have questions, thoughts, or comments, you can send me an email, [email protected]. And if you have any examples in the last couple years of using the keyword golden ratio on a site or even a YouTube channel or wherever, let me know. I think in the last year, a couple people have emailed me, but it was very clear that they were promoting some product or something like that, so I didn’t actually trust that they did it.
And if that’s you out there, I’m sorry, but however that pitch came through, it was like, “Hey, KGR is great. By the way, can I try to sell something on your podcast?” And I was like, “Eh, I don’t love that. I don’t love that.” So anyway, KGR examples, thoughts, comments, whatever, let me know. And I need to tend to, um, Miss Georgie here.
So thanks a lot. We’ll catch you on the next episode.
