The idea of #DreadingSundays was born after a rather frustrating job application process. As someone who had worked in just one agency role, going in-house required an entire set of different language and nuance appreciation.

I could do the work - I had done the work - but how do I interview well?

This is why I had to have Tom Critchlow on the show. Creator of the SEO MBA course, Tom knows a a thing or two about helping others progress in their careers through stakeholder management, leadership and effective communication.

In this episode, Tom explains what the difference between job titles mean, why they're important, and how you can expand your awareness of what is happening in the digital marketing job market through your network.

Having moved to Canada 4 years ago, Kristina Azarenko, as you can tell from her name, is an immigrant. And as an immigrant, there are many challenges to landing a job or earning a living.

Most known for her technical SEO and her free Chrome extension (SEO Pro Extension), Kristina answers my question of what separates a SEO freelancer from a SEO consultant.

In this episode, you'll hear how much I charge as a day rate for SEO consulting and Kristina adds her commentary on why hourly billing as a consultant is a bad idea.

Win Shi Wong is a Malaysian born full-stack digital marketer living and working in Toronto, Canada.

What this means is that they do everything in marketing. This includes working a lot in spreadsheets, SEO, direct email marketing, social media, paid, content strategy, design in Figma, write JIRA tickets – you name it, Win Shi does it.

This episode is one of my favourite chats because we both open up about what it is like being Asian, growing up in a western environment, not seeing ourselves represented on the stage, and the challenges we have faced being Asian in the workforce.

In other words, I don’t hold back.

You can connect with Win Shi via:

• Twitter

• LinkedIn

Read the full summary here - https://www.danielkcheung.com.au/dreading-sundays/win-shi-wong/

After writing 40x 300 word articles per day, Billie got burned out from being a content writer. This spurred her to pursue an SEO track within the agency and she shares what this transition looked and felt like.

Billie is now the Learning & Development Manager at The SALT Agency. Prior to this she was a SEO Manager and before this, she was a project manager and before this, Billie was an obituary writer.

In this episode, we dive into SEO career progression (agency-side) and what different job titles mean and how you can carve out your area of specialism as an individual contributor if you're not necessarily someone who wants to take on a leadership and mentoring role.

When I learned that Jamar is a classically trained writer, I had to ask him to dig deep and provide actionable advice for writers to improve their earning potential.

Jamar Ramos is an agency owner (Crunchy Links). In this episode of #DreadingSundays, he opens up about how he reacted to COVID, losing a ton of clients (read: revenue) and how he turned to alcohol.

He shares how stressful a previous agency role was and how a particular experience propelled him towards starting his own agency with his fellow co-founders.

With her relationship having fallen apart, the pressure was building for single mum Crystal. Even though she had performed well at school, graduated and entered the workforce as a pharmacist, pharmacy wasn't her calling.

In this episode, hear how Crystal overcame her darkest period in her life to now clearing 6-figures in net profit. Hear how she describes the burden she carried and what it felt like every single day so that you too can achieve the same for yourself.

Kevin Indig was the Director of SEO at Shopify prior to their recent round of unexpected layoffs. In this episode of #DreadingSundays, Kevin reveals why he took a lower job on the job title ladder from VP "down" to Director level.

More importantly, in the later half of the episode, we discuss how an individual contributor (IC) can get promoted and earn more without necessarily taking on "management" responsibilities.

We dive into what hiring managers look for in candidates and in particular, Kevin answers a nagging question on who makes the final hiring decision at large enterprise organisations.

Kevin produces his very own podcast called Tech Bound and blogs regularly to keep sharp and grounded in the strategy and execution of SEO.

You can connect with Kevin on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Kevin_Indig

Read the full summary here - https://www.danielkcheung.com.au/dreading-sundays/kevin-indig/

Group Head of SEO, Mercy Janaki shares her SEO journey.

Based in India, she offers us some insight as to why there is a common conception that India has many low-quality link builders.

Not to be missed, I ask Mercy for advice on how you can ask for a promotion or a raise. More importantly, Mercy offers actionable advice on how you can consistently prove your achievements to your team and boss.

Mercy is a member of Women in Tech SEO, a free global group created by Areej AbuAli for women and women-identifying people in digital marketing. She encourages all women to join this free community to find support and mentorship.

You can connect with Mercy on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mercylivingstone/?originalSubdomain=in

Read the full summary here - https://www.danielkcheung.com.au/dreading-sundays/mercy-janaki/

Jacky Chou studied electrical engineering but wanted to make money online. Fast forward 8 years later he has a net worth of in excess of $4 million (USD).

To put things into perspective, Jacky earns more money with his understanding and execution of SEO in a month than I do in an entire year.

Canadian-Taiwanese, Jacky shares his journey into how he ended up in SEO, how he has leveraged his knowledge into "passive income", and he explains his monthly income.

He runs a SEO agency called Indexsy, he buys websites, he earns income from his investment property, he makes a significant amount from Binance affiliate marketing and he sells websites.

FYI, Jacky shares monthly revenue breakdowns on his Twitter. You can follow him at https://twitter.com/indexsy.

Read the full summary here - https://www.danielkcheung.com.au/dreading-sundays/jacky-chou/

Samantha (Sam) Torres is the Chief Digital Officer at Gray Dot Company - a SEO consulting firm she co-owns and co-runs with Tory Gray. I have invited her to share her experience because she has worked in-house as an SEO, worked agency-side and owns her own SEO agency.

In this episode of #DreadingSundays:

• you will hear me make a complete fool of myself and forget the name of this very podcast

• Sam takes us back 13 years to when she found SEO (having started first as a developer)

• Sam talks about how her career progressed and shares a few tips on how to get your next promotion, and

• we give a big shout-out to Areej AbuAli for creating Women in Tech SEO - a safe community for people who identify as women.

You can connect with Sam on Twitter.

Read the full summary here - https://www.danielkcheung.com.au/dreading-sundays/samantha-torres/