Legendary NFL owner to coach - Nobody cares

You remember Bill Parcells? He coached the Giants, the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys football. Bill Parcells, legendary coach. Okay, here, let me get, I think he coached somebody. Okay, but you know Al Davis from the Raiders?

Yeah.

From the Raiders, right? Okay, so I don't know if there's a—

Or Jerry Jones coached the—

Jerry Jones Cowboys.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, so there was a legendary coach, I think it was Bill Parcells, but he went to Al Davis at the time, Raiders, and then he was just like, dude, we're having all these problems with injuries, we're having all these problems with maybe just players in general, right? And then Al Davis was on the phone with this guy. It was just like, nobody cares, Bill, just coach. And that applies directly to business as well. We can talk about all the problems we're having, whatever, but nobody cares at the end of the day. Just go, just do it. So if you're a high performer, high performing leader, if you're working with someone like you're working with the owner, you're working with the founder, like nobody cares, just figure it out. Like, and I think back to the, like, okay, you know, you having multiple businesses, but me working at that one startup back in the day. So, oh, CEO pulls me aside, hey, if you don't hit numbers in the next month, we're gonna have to fire you. And I was like 3 weeks into the job, right? I was like 25 years old.

That was the education startup, no?

Yeah, yeah. And in that scenario, it's like, what am I gonna do, bitch about it? What am I gonna do, cry about it? Like, nobody cares. Just do the job. And those are the people who get paid at the end of the day. I'm not saying I'm amazing or anything, and I've seen that time and time again in my career. The people who figure it out and don't complain and just carry it, those are the people that get everything that they want in their life. They end up starting their own companies, All these things, right? You've seen it time and time again too. Nobody cares, just do the job.

That's why I love my CEO at NP Digital. He doesn't come to me with problems unless he needs my help. And if he comes to me, like, I'm there to help and he can come to me anytime, but he just goes and figures it out. And he brings things to my attention where I can add value versus, or a better way to put it is, In an organization, I hate people, or not hate, that's a strong word.

You hate when people do this.

I hate when people do this.

And that is they come to you with problems and they don't even try to provide any solutions. And if you can't provide any solutions, that's okay. You could say you at least tried or whatever, or you thought about it, but you know it won't work. Because if they give you something, even if the something is, I thought about doing this, but I know that won't work. It allows me to come up, it provides more creativity to me, right? It helps—

You at least get 60, 70% of the idea.

Yes. And it helps like spur more ideas.

Exactly, yeah.

So I love when people come with ideas. And when there are problems like players getting injured and I'm the owner, if I was hypothetically a sports team and there's nothing that could be done about it, just coach, I would just, this is my personality, I would just want to know about it because I would want to have a discussion on, hey, what are potential solutions? Should we trade these people and we can have a better year, or do we call the year a wash and we just cut costs and we try to maximize our profit because we know next year is going to be our year and this year is already too late? And if we trade short-term, it would be great, but long-term for the next 5, 10 years, it'd be terrible for the organization. I'd be like, cool, optimize for profitability.

Yeah. So by the way, you brought up something really important. And so at our organization, so if people are required, if they go to their manager, if you bring a problem, you're supposed to bring, you know, you talk about the problem and then offer a couple solutions, right? 2, 3 solutions or whatever, and then pick the best one. Now, that being said, if that is a requirement, that's not enough. They actually, if they've tried it already and made an honest attempt, that's still fine. They should still bring it to the leader, right? But Sometimes they might not have the solution. That's okay. But like, at least make the leader aware of it and say, hey, like, I obviously tried. That part's important. You can't just expect them to come up with a solution every time. Otherwise it's like, then what are you here for?

Right?

Totally agree. In addition to that, when there is a problem, people should bring it up as quick as possible. And if they haven't thought of a solution or they don't know of one on the spot, they can say, I'm going to work on some potential solutions and come back. And, you know, if you have solutions as well, you could just be like, no, no need. Here's a potential solution. What do you think? But what I found in an organization is, is if you require people to come up with a solution to a problem when they address it to you, a lot of people won't address the problems to you and it starts compounding and it makes things much worse than knowing when a problem is happening right then and there.

Exactly. So if someone's a leader, right? And if they let a problem sit there and they don't bring it to me, and by the way, it's even worse when I come in and I start solving the problem for them and they don't like it when I come solve the problem for them, right? Which is ironic because it's like, well, that's a problem you should have solved.

It's the actions.

We want to criticize the actions at the end of the day. It's not necessarily the people. But happens all the time, so.

It just hit me. I actually think ChatGPT is right. You're a Formula 1 driver in a Honda Civic. You need to fix the business and processes and systems, and there's nothing wrong with the Honda Civic. I drive a Honda Odyssey, but I get where it's getting with this. You got a great business, you have a lot of ideas, and if you can build up your team—

Are you just getting the expression now?

No, no, no. Not getting the expression now, When it said it was your business, I'm now actually just thinking about your organization and your products that you have and where you're at. Like I see it, it's actually giving you spot on advice.

It's a very simple calculus. It's, and you're just saying it right now, it's a very simple calculus. It's just how do we continue to upgrade the team? How do we continue to update the systems, right? And you just do it for a very long time. Eventually the car will become a Camry and then we mentioned it would become a Sienna. You have a Sienna, right? And then eventually we'll get it to an F1 car, right? Let me ask you this. What car do you think you're in right now?

Me?

Yeah.

Maybe a cheap Mercedes.

What do you think you need? I like how tough you are on yourself, but I think it's a good Mercedes. I think you have a solid Mercedes, like S-Class.

No.

Yeah. Okay.

I think my management team is an S-Class or a Maybach or a Ferrari. I think I have amazing management team.

S-tier, you mean? S tier.

S tier?

Oh, so S tier, there's A tier, B tier, C tier, S tier, special tier. Special tier is the highest tier. I think that's what you're trying to say, right?

I think my management team is best in class for my space. I think the business is too small for the management team. I have a management team for where the business should be 5, 10 years from now.

Yeah. And that's interesting.

Doesn't mean that they're bad in today's world.

Yeah.

It's, they're used to just doing things at a much bigger scale.

Yeah.

in this environment as well, because we're not a startup, but I hire people for a billion-plus-dollar revenue organization. Yeah, we're not there yet.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you have a couple more notches to go, right? But I think what you're trying to say is your, your management team is maybe the F1 drivers and then you need to upgrade the car, right? Because in F1 you need to have a good driver like a Max Verstappen, but if his car's not good enough, he's still not going to win, right? So we got to upgrade the car.

I think we've done pretty good on the staff end, including management. I think I look at it as not a car in this analogy. I look at it as time. You're a brand new F1 team. Even if you have the best team and all the capital you need, and we don't have unlimited pools of money, you just need time for the team working together, fixing things, working out the kinks and the bugs, getting used to the new car, the technology. And I think our businesses 8 years in, I know they say things really change at the 10-plus year mark, so we need 2 more years, but I don't think that's enough. I think we really need 5 or so years and then we'll be humming on, you know, all wheels.

The way I see this is for us to—

Or all cylinders.

To get to an F1 car, right? It's, you nailed it. I think it's just a matter of time. As long as you're focused, you're moving quickly, and over a long period of time you continue to upgrade your team, you continue to upgrade the car, you're going to be fine, right? And that's why, like, I don't think there's anything wrong with private equity or venture capital, but they're different time horizons, right? If you own a VC firm, sure, you're actually on a 20 to 30 year time horizon 'cause you could just keep making bets. That's the name of the game. But their bet is like, you have an outcome in 5 to 7 years. So it's like the incentives are at odds, right? But if we're playing for, you know, 15, 20, 25, 30 years or so, inevitably it should become an F1 car. Otherwise something's wrong. So.

Here's a question for you. Speaking of private equity, you said you had some charts to show.

Oh yeah.

Was that related to private equity? You wanna pull 'em up?

It was. Yeah, I'll, I'll pull 'em up, but I, I do, here, I'll give you a topic to chew on while I pull this up.

Okay.

So Jason Lemkin tweets this, I wake up, have some coffee, answer a few emails, and then I fire up Replit and we just pick up right where we were yesterday. No complaints, no arguments, no forgetting, no sick days, no BS, no drama, no pretending, no quitting. The reality is this is the way we all want to work now or will soon. We'd rather work with an AI agent that is easy to work with than a human that isn't. If an AI agent can do it, we'll prefer it. Even if it's not great as a great sales exec, marketer, developer, et cetera. A B AI SDR over a B+ human with a lot of drama, an easy call for the AI SDR. It's not enough of a delta. What do you think as I pull the private ideas?

I agree from B to B+, but I think the real delta you get is from hiring A players and you have to go and find those people. And I think that's what makes a business or organization amazing. It requires work. It's not easy, but it's worth finding those A players. And I think the combo is, is you give those A-players AI and then your business is really going to start growing.

Yep. So, okay, here's, here's what I got for you. I have 2 things I saved this week on private equity. So this guy on Twitter, his name is PE Operator, Private Equity Operator. Okay.

He wants to be anonymous, I'm assuming.

He's anonymous actually.

Yeah.

So good call. So he tweets this. This is not the charts. I'm trying to find a chart still, but he says private equity is the doctors and lawyers of 30 years ago. High achievers looking for the highest floor path. And then this guy says, my prediction is LMM and what's long-term management? Is that what LLM? Not LLM, LMM.

I don't know, dude.

So my prediction is LMM will succeed and megas will succeed.

LMN?

Yeah, I think he probably means lower middle market. There we go. Lower middle market. There you go. See, private equity operator over here. So his prediction is lower middle market private equity will succeed and megas will succeed, which is what you're talking about. The largest firms that we know will continue to win, but all of the ones, like just like all these VC firms that just spun up out of nowhere in these last couple years, they're going to be in trouble.

So he's saying the lower middle market is what's going to do really well and the big masses won't.

And the megas, yeah.

Yeah, because the masses won't focus on lower middle market.

Correct, yeah. And so—

and you gobble them up, you combine them, and then you sell them to the massive ones.

Yeah, and you just, but it's like a, you just keep like packaging these things, sell it to the next one and sell it to the next one. And then like private equity, like I was talking to, I hung out with a private equity guy on Monday for lunch and it's a big firm around here. And he was like, dude, you're in the agency world.

Oh my God, I see a lot of trash all the time, right?

He's like, dude, all these private equity firms are just trying to gobble up agencies. And I was like, so where do you think that game goes? He's like, oh, they're going to move on to another game soon. But it's like they just keep finding a game to play.

I think they already have. Not too many private equity companies are buying agencies anymore from what I've seen.

Yeah, so he looked, they come across his desk, but he doesn't even look at them really. He looks at like other, like, you know, technology companies and things like that.

So here's the problem with most marketing agencies. They don't understand what is happening with the world of AI. With my agency Single Grain, we think about agentic workflows. We think about creating agents for the future. When we think about SEO, we think about creating different products such as internal linking products or content consolidation products. And on the other side of things, we think about building products such as Kare. We just think about making marketing easier overall. If you want to stay at the cutting edge of marketing and at the same time leverage the power of AI, go to singlegrain.com and we'll see you on the other side.

Is SEO still a relevant career? In this new world?

Yeah, I think it's actually a very booming career in this world as long as you adapt. I was at an event in Denver a few days ago. I think, what day is today?

Friday, Thursday?

Yeah, Friday.

So Wednesday, Wednesday I spoke in Denver. And when I was in Denver, someone asked me a question because I was talking about AI SEO or GEO or SEO, whatever you want to call it, but that, you know, doing it for ChatGPT. And they're like, I have a question for you. Isn't it the same? And I responded with 2 different things or 2 points. So first point was, I said, how was SEO 15, 20 years ago? Put in some junk keywords on a page. You write copy, you know, that isn't the best. You build some links from high PR sites and you rank much better. Call it 15+ years ago, maybe 20. And he's like, yeah.

And then I'm like, over time it evolved.

You had to start writing good content for humans. You got to update the content.

Can't spam as much anymore. Yeah.

Can't have duplicate content. Like can't have 5 pages on the same topic. They want you to merge and prune your content. Schema markup starts mattering and a lot of other things. And I'm like, it evolved, right? And they're like, yeah.

And I'm like, and now it's evolving all over again.

You're creating content for humans, but packaging it for AI.

Links matter, but Brand mentions matter just as much and you don't always need people linking to your site.

Well, with SEO, brand mentions didn't help you as much.

And I'm like, there's a lot of nuances and differences, right?

And he's like, yeah.

So I'm like, SEO is just evolving over time, just like how it has been.

And you can call it SEO if you still want to. So that was my first point.

And he agreed with that. The second point was, if your customers are all calling it AEO or AI SEO or GEO, I'm like, it doesn't matter what you want to call it. If your customers want to call it something else and you don't want to adapt to them, you're probably not going to get the business. So I'm like, I'm not disagreeing with you that it should still be called SEO, but I'm like, but if my customers want to call it something else and I'm trying to pitch them and generate revenue, I will adapt to whatever my client wants to call it. I wouldn't deceive them and tell them that I'm going to do this new thing that you've never heard about before. Right? I would not be unethical or anything like that. It's more so I'm willing to change my vernaculars for the customer. And I may even tell them like, yeah, some people call it still SEO, it's just adapting. But sure, let's call it AI SEO for this conversation or geo or whatever you want to call it. Because at the end of the day, the customer is always right. I know that's a saying and they're not always really right, but You got to adapt with the customers. It's just like when everyone in corporate America years ago was like, oh, we need a growth hacker. And you remember the debate being like, this is just a normal marketing exec, CMO, or whatever. People don't really say we need a growth hacker anymore. You agree with that, right? But back then, if you didn't adapt and you were trying to work for a startup, you were less likely to get a job. Do you agree with this?

Yep.

So you kind of had to adapt or else you're going to be—

You became a growth marketer.

Yeah.

Now they're called growth marketers today.

Yeah. So you kind of had to adapt and if you're not willing to adapt, then you're going to be displaced.

The way I see this, is SEO still a relevant career in this new world? Yeah. I mean, here's what I'll say. Like the SEOs that adapt or the business owners who adapt, it's no different than anything. You just have to adapt. Yeah. Like, by the way, what SEO worked back in the day? Oh, Yellow Pages. Oh, how did you game it? Oh, AAA. The more A's you had, the more you showed up number 1, right? That's how you— that's how SEO was done with the Yellow Pages. People don't know what the Yellow Pages are today. And then eventually, oh, what happened? You started spamming excite, Lycos, you started spamming a bunch of keywords, you know, maybe you hide it in the, you know, the background text, right? And now it's gotten more sophisticated. Now LLMs are multimodal, they're looking at a bunch of things.

Yeah.

And, you know, I'm not— I think it's— there's no sacred cows when it comes to, you know, having a successful career. You just— the most important thing is that you're curious. The most important thing is that you're adaptable. And the SEOs who complain, the people that you see on X complaining all the time, these are people who haven't adapted. Oh, we should, you know, we should go after Google for this. Oh, they're being unfair to us, this and that. Like, that is no different than people in the world who complain all the time about not getting what they want, right? Because everyone wants to win. Nobody wants to prepare. So as long as you adapt, as long as you prepare, as long as you are curious, you will win. It's still a relevant career. I think more relevant than ever today, if you really look at it. So that is it for today. And we'll see you tomorrow.