The Business of Digital Podcast

E181 – 2020 in Review

—

by

daverohrer

The other title for this episode was going to be “What a Sh!t Show” but then most of us already know that about 2020. As Dave says at the start, this will be the last show and if you want to know why, just go give a listen to our show Patterns in Social Media Posting, Podcasting, and Content Scheduling as (for us) listening tends to just tank over the holidays.

As a final show to a crazy year the topics and discussion was a bit all over the place including Dave giving some ideas on using PTO/Vacation time in creative ways.

Favorite Show of 2020

2021 Predictions

We already did this so if you missed it go listen to Virtual Conferences & 2021 Predictions and catch our one big prediction.

Pitching This Podcast

We LOVE having guests but if you ever listen you know that 1 in 4 shows a month has a guest. So when you combine that with the yearly series we do that means we have 16ish guests a year total. That isn’t many really so it is hard to get everyone on. That said if you are interested don’t just email us 20 times and instead go to our Be a Podcast Guest page, read it, watch/listen and then pitch from there.

That form feeds a list that we keep for when we are in a pinch or need a guest for Topic X.

Our past series we have done for those that missed them.

Show Topic Idea?

Head over to our page where you can submit a question or show idea for 2021.

Lastly we thank all that share our shows with family, friends, coworkers, on social media or just listen and enjoy.

May 2021 be great to you and all those you care about! See you next year!

Full Transcript

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00] Welcome to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast, featuring your host, Matt scintilla and Dave roar. Hey guys, we are excited to have you here on another one of these episodes. How’s it going, Dave

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:16] shitty. I mean, if we’re going to Mark this one with Kersey and I’m always, we’ll take advantage of, you know, the ability to curse once or twice or

Matt Siltala: [00:00:23] five, and that gives everybody a.

What are a kind of an insight as to what the show is going to be about today? It’s going to be, what

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:32] did you say? A shit show?

Matt Siltala: [00:00:35] 20. 20? What a, yeah. So there you go.

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:40] That’s what it’s three times. And what the first 30 seconds. Not including an intro.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:45] So just so you

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:46] guys,

Matt Siltala: [00:00:47] we’re going off the cuff here too. Like we have no idea.

What, what direction that this episode is going to just, just to give you that for warning,

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:55] I have a basic, I have a couple of questions

Matt Siltala: [00:00:58] maybe Dave does, but I [00:01:00] don’t

Dave Rohrer: [00:01:01] no go wherever. Uh, this is officially the last show of the year, unless some crazy thing comes up. Um, well, you know, too, that we’ve talked about it in the past about when you create content or podcast or anything, you look and you test things and we’ve tested and you know, this is what fourth year now.

Um,

Matt Siltala: [00:01:24] crazy mode for so long. Yeah, I

Dave Rohrer: [00:01:28] think it’s the third, fourth. I don’t even know

Matt Siltala: [00:01:31] into the fourth year.

Dave Rohrer: [00:01:31] Yeah. Um, well the third holidays, but it just dips. Like we tried going all the way through, because we started the first year and like the normal numbers is a certain level and it just goes, um, for the listening show that listeners over, not Thanksgiving, it dips a little bit,

Matt Siltala: [00:01:52] but then again, this is a different year.

You never know.

Dave Rohrer: [00:01:56] Yeah, that’s true, but too bad.

[00:02:00] Matt Siltala: [00:01:59] We’re not going to do it because we want,

Dave Rohrer: [00:02:02] after this one, you don’t have to hear us two weeks or so. Um, maybe almost two and a half weeks, the, uh, but we’ve tried it and we’ve posted in the holidays. We’ve tried posting in whatever, and it’s like, it just dips so much.

Eh, I’d feel bad having a guest on, I feel bad talking about a topic. That we really want to talk about and, you know, lots of people missing it.

Matt Siltala: [00:02:25] Yeah. Very

Dave Rohrer: [00:02:26] true. And I feel bad tweeting and promoting and throwing it out there and trying to, you know, go, Hey, we did it. We talked about something you might want to know about and, you know, Everyone’s, you know, well, this year everyone’s stuck in their house, probably playing video games or doing whatever.

So, yeah. So that’s why, you know, we’ve tested it and it’s like, eh, you know, most agencies shut down. I remember when I was in house, you know, it’s your office becomes when you could go to the office. It’s a ghost town. I would imagine.

Matt Siltala: [00:02:57] I can’t remember. Um, I, [00:03:00] I read an article or I read something somewhere.

Someone was trying to say, look, let’s be real. When are we going to. Officially get off the like week from, you know, like the couple of days before Christmas, all through the day after new year’s, because like really knowing, working from that moment. And so I, I can’t remember what it was, but I saw something about that and I was like, yeah, it’s true.

Dave Rohrer: [00:03:24] I, there was, um, when I worked at consumer guide, I once had in me could carry over the, uh, publications international is a parent company and our parent company, the rule was, I forget exactly, but it was something like, you can carry over some days, but not all of them. And I was at this cusp where I was going to lose a bunch of days if I didn’t take off.

So I looked at the schedule and I was like, what days do most people? And if anyone’s ever. Hires me in the future. I’m totally screwing myself. But, um, what [00:04:00] days do most people take off? You know, or, you know, it’s always a Friday. Everyone takes off Friday or during the holidays, what days do people get sent home?

Early Friday or the day before a holiday, right? Like, Oh, tomorrow is Christmas, but you had to come into work today. Oh, it’s lunchtime go home. Yeah. So in my head, I was like, Why would I use a full PTO day for a day? I know I’m getting sent home early on. Sure. Forget that. So I took off like, um, I think I had enough days where I took off every Monday for like, from Thanksgiving on, I just took off like six Mondays,

Matt Siltala: [00:04:37] you know, there, while we’re talking about all this, it made me think of it made me wonder something.

I dunno. Maybe you could give me your thoughts on it, but. It made me wonder. Okay. So this year everyone’s already been working from home everyone’s home. Mostly. They’re not probably going and getting in big, get togethers, at least most normal people I know are not going to go and try to spread COVID or whatever.

But, uh, [00:05:00] there, I said a customer, I said COVID but, um, so I, I wonder actually, if it’s going to do quite the opposite and there’s going to be more work done around the holidays than if they actually would come to an office because. They’re at home. They got nothing going on. They’re bored. They’re not traveling.

They’re not seeing family. I wonder if actually going to do, you know, I’m thinking about my own company as well. I wonder if there, if like more, more work is actually going to be done by this than, you know, normal, you know, I’m saying,

Dave Rohrer: [00:05:30] I hope they do more around the house.

Matt Siltala: [00:05:32] Yeah, no, no, that’s totally. But it just got me thinking that, you know, Or,

Dave Rohrer: [00:05:37] you know, take a break.

So you’re only playing teacher at home with the children, not trying to work and play teacher depending on your situation. Yeah. I, I took off every Monday and then I would come in the normal days and then I took like a half day on a Wednesday. Cause I, I could use half days. So I come in Tuesday, half a day, [00:06:00] Wednesday, and then all day, Thursday, and then usually be sent home early on Friday.

I was like, okay. It was like two and a half days of work for like four weeks. And then January came and I was like, man, five day work weeks. What is this stuff? Cause I, I basically was getting like three and a half, like, or I took off, maybe I took off Tuesday or something. So I’d have a four day weekend, like every week.

Matt Siltala: [00:06:23] I remember I once a way, way back in the day, worked for the school district. And, um, they were going to a four day week, you know, where you had Friday off. And I was so excited about it until I learned that. Nope, you’re not one of the ones that gets the Friday off sec, but anyway, so

Dave Rohrer: [00:06:44] we’ll probably have some pauses here.

I’m going to have to edit for a change, but one we’d have, well, yeah, as the top of my head, I was thinking about it earlier today when we were, I was like, Oh yeah, we’re going to record that one. When are we going to talk about, um, other than what a shit show 2020 was [00:07:00] for. If you’re, if you’re playing at home playing a drinking game, that’s four, I believe.

Um, is what show did you love or love doing or think is the awesome show that we did this year off the top of your head

Matt Siltala: [00:07:18] off the top of my head? Um, the one that I, I think that I enjoyed the most

Dave Rohrer: [00:07:24] or one for each of those, cause that’s kind of a random question. Well,

Matt Siltala: [00:07:29] I mean, the one that, that, well funny, not the one that I probably enjoyed the most was the one that we actually just recorded today.

Um, probably because it was with a good friend of mine. Um, but so I really enjoyed that one. And, uh, for anyone listening to this one, they’ve probably already heard it cause we heard it, but it was a, um, session with Kevin or a recording with Kevin mullet.

Dave Rohrer: [00:07:50] Tool time with Kevin.

Matt Siltala: [00:07:51] Yeah. Tool time with Kevin.

But the other one that I probably the one that I found most it’s intriguing would be the, uh, antitrust [00:08:00] one that, uh, you know, the Google antitrust and just with everything’s going on, I’ve been paying attention to those, uh, hearings. It’s been interesting watching Mark and, uh, and, uh, Jack get grilled by members of Congress and also.

You know, I don’t know how they don’t lose it. Sometimes when some of these older members of Congress ask them the dumbest questions or make the stupidest comments about their platforms, but I just have to laugh. It actually made me think about this, Dave,

Dave Rohrer: [00:08:27] excuse me. You’re honorable. So-and-so are you, are you seriously asking that question?

Matt Siltala: [00:08:32] It made me laugh. Cause I’m looking at Mark and I’m looking at a Jack and I’m thinking to myself, they’re testifying before Congress and they probably. The thing. That’s funny that people don’t realize about anyone in our industry. They’re like, I just had an idea and I threw something together. I was in my dorm room or my mom’s basement or my parents’ basement or whatever.

And I threw something out there. I coded something and it just became a hit. And all of a sudden, like everybody’s using my platform and now I’m being [00:09:00] grilled by Congress. Like what the hell? You know? But anyway, that was just something that I was laughing at.

Dave Rohrer: [00:09:08] So that, that one, any other ones, because I’m thinking of my own answers, hoping that you’ll give me another 30 seconds, but once I can match, I can, I can tell them mine are, I think

Matt Siltala: [00:09:18] no, um, you know, that, that one was really good.

Um, the ones that we, you know, anytime I get to, anytime I get to talk about Tom Brady with you and make you have to say his name, um, you know, I really liked that one

Dave Rohrer: [00:09:33] out a way to like, Edit that terrain,

Matt Siltala: [00:09:37] but, but, uh, I’ll give you the, the other one that I really thought that shirts and solid tips, um, was the one that we did, uh, that was the in-house with Kevin indig.

Uh, that was just great SEO information and tips. And, and, uh, so I mean, that was another really good one. Um, those are just a few of the ones that I, you know, that are [00:10:00] off the top of my head. I

Dave Rohrer: [00:10:01] think the most interesting ones, two of them, I think for me, was doing, I have to double check it. This one was even from this year, did we talk to Maureen Ohlhausen this year or last year?

Ooh, I think that was last year. That was

Matt Siltala: [00:10:18] last year. See this year, just the whole from March to now has been a weird blur

Dave Rohrer: [00:10:26] talking with her. And the antitrust, I think are two things that. Impact our job and lives, but not things that we normally would dig into. Yeah. Like that, that the one we did with Ruth almost two years ago now where we talked about just the contracts and bloggers and working with them.

Yeah. So we interviewed, uh, the, the former FTC commissioner. Chairwoman

Matt Siltala: [00:10:51] Marine. Now you’re going to, now you put yourself on the spot. You’re going to have to find a new one.

Dave Rohrer: [00:10:54] I, I, well, but I was also going to say the antitrust one was really interesting. I think [00:11:00] for the same reason is when we talked to Ruth and when we talked to a Marine about the law and that stuff, it’s, it’s just stuff that would impact me, impact my life, impact my livelihood, impact the world, but not something that I.

Dig into or fully understand and study on a regular basis. Yeah. So I think for that, those types are very interesting to me. Um, the other one would be, I really liked our series. Um, and the series that the episode we did with Kevin indig was also interesting and tiny I’ve talked about it, but the leadership series.

Matt Siltala: [00:11:40] Oh yeah. You know,

Dave Rohrer: [00:11:41] specifically the one we did with Amanda Orson was like, That was probably, and it was funny because as we recorded them, we loved each one for different reasons. Um, because Matt and I talked from time to time and, you know, before we would, uh, dig into it, it was [00:12:00] just like, well, that’s really cool, dah, dah, dah.

And then we would do the next one. And we would talk about similar topic, but it would go a completely different way and it would cover completely different stuff. That was really interesting and really awesome.

Matt Siltala: [00:12:14] Well, and I think we have an opportunity to do a follow-up on that in 2021 as well, because there was individuals that we wanted to get on that had said that they could get on.

I know that there was one that you reached out to specifically and myself, then I know that we’ll be on it again or eventually. And so that’d be one that we can go back to and, and check out again. But, but yeah, I’m trying to get it. That was a great one. I am glad that you reminded me of that one again, just.

2020. And it’s like, well, we’ll record

Dave Rohrer: [00:12:43] 45 ish close to now. We probably close do 50, 55 episodes a year.

Matt Siltala: [00:12:50] This is, this is what a, you know what show it’s been this year, because

Dave Rohrer: [00:12:55] I don’t even know what day it is. I know. I actually know what day it

Matt Siltala: [00:12:58] is, but yeah. Well, the fact that [00:13:00] the fact that, uh, yesterday I spent half of my day, not half of my day, like an hour getting.

You know, um, the, the images for each one of these individual episodes done, like I already had, we had, we had enough to take us to the half of next year already, but I went ahead and just did a whole nother year’s worth just because I was bored. That’s what’s kind of gear. It’s been Dave.

Dave Rohrer: [00:13:23] And that’s like, I don’t want to deal with that stuff.

I’m going to go make 50 more of the, uh, the place that the placeholder images that you see with the numbers on it.

Matt Siltala: [00:13:32] I did it. So when you asked me for more, again, I’m going to forget where I saved everything and how I did it. So like that’s, that’s how far in advance we are.

Dave Rohrer: [00:13:41] Yeah, because we already had through 200 times.

So you just did two Oh one through two 50.

Matt Siltala: [00:13:48] Um, mystic about our show

Dave Rohrer: [00:13:50] what’s we already made one prediction. We don’t, we don’t need to make another one. And that was the virtual conferences. One which when would, in that prediction was when [00:14:00] large in person conferences would happen. If you didn’t listen to it, go listen to any, you can hear that prediction.

I’m not going to repeat it. Um,

Matt Siltala: [00:14:07] the only thing, the only thing I would like to say, Dave, um, and this, I guess would be my kind of final thought on this with, uh, with this episode, um, The only thing that I would just maybe encourage anyone listening to us is reach out to us. Like if there’s an episode that you guys want to hear or about, or if there’s, or if there’s a topic sorry that you want to hear about, or if there’s an issue or, or whatever, if you even want to be on it, like there’s ways to, to reach out, but, but definitely give us ideas of what you want to hear.

We, you know, Dave and I do our best to come up with ideas and. And a lot of times, you know, that happens just with what’s going on in the world and what’s going on in the industry. But if there’s something that you want us to dive into specifically, just reach out, let us know, like we’re easily, you know, you could, you could fill out the form that we have on the website.

You could ping us on Twitter, we’re on [00:15:00] anywhere. I mean, we’re not very hard to get ahold of us. And so that would be why one thing that I would say, Dave, just to encourage people, to reach out to us and let us know how we can help them, what we could do. We want to continue to bring you the show and make it better.

So that’s it for me.

Dave Rohrer: [00:15:17] I can say I can, I can curse again. Um, speaking of shit shows most of the pitches we get our shit shows. Um, and, and they clearly don’t read the pitch page, which it doesn’t shock me. Um, but I also will use this time to reiterate. The fact that, um, I said, what we do about 50 shows a year.

Um, and if we take out the, the usual, um, series we do where it’s all interviews all longer form interviews, we on average have a guest one every three or four, I think it’s about four. So 48 shows divided by four. You know, [00:16:00] we have one guest a month. Nice cough.

Matt Siltala: [00:16:04] Oh, did it, did you? I muted it. That’s weird. It

Dave Rohrer: [00:16:07] picked it up.

I’m going to leave it in because that’s just, you know,

Matt Siltala: [00:16:11] not it’s like the Andrew Hopkins interview or that miracle catchy did the other day. He coughed and he’s like, I don’t got COVID. No, COVID anyway. Sorry.

Dave Rohrer: [00:16:23] But, um,

Matt Siltala: [00:16:24] it’s a crap show 2020.

Dave Rohrer: [00:16:25] Well, no, it just like, we, we get so many pitches, which I think is really cool.

Um, that so many people want to be on it. Um, so many of them are from companies trying to get people on shows and they’re not very good, but like, we literally have 10 to 12 guests a year other than the series. So, so often it’s like, we want to have people on any of the timing doesn’t work or something.

It’s okay. Very few opportunities because we’re not guest driven. Cause we do well, normally [00:17:00] our, I think our show is more valuable than today’s, but, um, I just, it’s so hard to get all the people on,

Matt Siltala: [00:17:07] which is why it’s a valuable show. Oh, today’s show is valuable. Come on.

Dave Rohrer: [00:17:12] Really valuable. Uh, it’s one. I don’t even know what number it is.

Um, but I think, yeah, it’s just, it’s tough. And I think that’s part of the reason why I think I started wanting to do this series. Was because we don’t do longer interviews because, you know, I thought it was cool. The first time we did with the, you know, we picked what was, you know, Greg talking to SEO, Debra talking link-building we had Jim banks on talking and, you know, we did the four or five episodes just digging in to stuff we don’t otherwise do.

But also that’s like half a year of interviews for us. Yeah. Like having four or five people, it’s about as many people as we talk about and talk with and, you know, Q3 and Q4 every year

Matt Siltala: [00:17:55] and see, this will be another thing that we could talk about another episode in 2021, um, [00:18:00] how difficult it is to get a diverse, different types of people, whether it be, um, you know, men, women, people of color, everything, um, you know, when you’re trying to coordinate that and, and, and get all that put together, that’s, that’s a whole nother topic that we need to have for another day.

Dave Rohrer: [00:18:16] Yes. Um, yeah. I don’t know if there’s anything else. Other than, uh, if you do have ideas of topics for shows, please DM us, email us, uh, shortly spamming us with them, but, um, throw them on there. Um, I forget if there’s a form on the site and there might be, um, but feel free to contact us however you can or want.

Um, if you search either of our names, you find an insane number of ways to get ahold of us. Yep. Um, yeah. If there’s a guest that you really want throw it to us. Um, we have an insanely long list of guests for topics. So if there is a topic that we don’t know about or, um, don’t know someone in the [00:19:00] industry, or don’t already have someone that’s pitched, you know, um, that’s what really, it’s literally a list of probably close to a hundred people at this point.

I haven’t looked in the last month or so, but yeah, it’s a long list of people that have pitched and. On any topic that we were to talk about, if we don’t know somebody that’s what that list is for. And we’ve used it a couple of times. Um, probably not as often as people would wish for, but again, we only have, you know, 12 guests on a year, so

Matt Siltala: [00:19:34] well, and here’s my final thought and prayer for everyone.

Uh, I hope that 2021 is a much better year for, for everyone. And I hope that, uh, 20, 21. Men’s us as a world and country in so many different ways and just mine. So that’s my final thoughts guys. And, uh, you good?

Dave Rohrer: [00:19:55] And if you did have a good 20, 20, I hope 20, 20 one’s better.

Matt Siltala: [00:19:58] Yeah. Amen. [00:20:00] So, well for Dave Roth, North side metrics, I met solo with avalanche meeting media signing off

Dave Rohrer: [00:20:05] for the year.

You can’t even see your own company’s name. Perfect.

Matt Siltala: [00:20:09] Perfect. That is perfect. 2020 ending, right. Make sure. And you go and anywhere that you find us go and give us a five-star rating and we’ll continue to bring these to you. Thanks guys. Bye bye.