Grey Matters, with Steve Dotto

This is the episode of Grey Matters that every person thinking about starting a business - or succeeding in their existing business - should listen to right now. The alternative may mean months or even years of focusing in the wrong direction.

The age old question for entrepreneurs, "What should my business look like?" is one where the answer - or at least the correct answer - can elude us for far longer than we were hoping or imagining. Business owners are challenged with the need for customers, the desire to become profitable, and doubts about the right way to proceed. 

How do we balance the passions we have with the problems we can solve for customers? How do we identify the right opportunities where our business can be the answer to customer problems? How do we avoid targeting too broadly, or too narrowly, for our ideal audience?

All of these questions are answered by Steve in another helpful episode of the Grey Matters podcast. What are you waiting for? Figure out your business focus - the right one - today. 

Links from this Episode

Why We See Ads Online for Items We Were Just Talking About

Twitter Spaces Comes to Desktop, Not Just Mobile

Now You Can Hide Like Counts on Facebook and Instagram

Got a Graphics Card You Aren't Using? You Might Be Able to Cash In

Epic Games vs. Apple

• Weekly live, free tutorials -  Webinar Wednesday

Grey Matters is made possible through your generous support! Please become a Patron of Grey Matters!

About Us:

Steve Dotto - Host

Canada's favourite geek. 

For over 20 years, as host and executive producer of Dotto Tech, a nationally syndicated TV show, Steve entertained and educated millions of Canadians on all aspects of technology.

After spending 20 years in traditional broadcasting Steve reinvented himself learning the world of social media, online community building and Internet Marketing as he built his YouTube channel into his new career.

His passion is teaching Baby Boomers and GenX how to remain relevant in the digital age, how we can reinvent ourselves and grow side hustles into successful online businesses.

Steve has a gift for making complex concepts easy to understand. Steve takes the world of technology and makes it relevant in your life.

Rachel Moore - Producer

From stage to studio, Rachel has honed her skills as an entertainer, producer, and marketer throughout her 20+ year career. As technology and communication has evolved, so she has carried her skills in writing, graphic design, and production forward into digital marketing, livestreaming, and podcasting. 

In addition to working as a fulltime content marketer, Rachel hosts her own livestream show Social Glue, publishes helpful how-to videos to her YouTube channel, and produces entertaining and insightful podcasts for Really Social as well as Grey Matters. 

Bottom line: if there’s a camera, microphone, and/or stage involved, Rachel can carry the message in a memorable way.  

These week's news updates by Steve and Rachel will really give you something to sink your teeth into (pun intended). In a special episode focused on current events in business, social, and technology, you'll get informed even as you're wondering what exactly this world is coming to today.

First up: Instagram adds a new Drops feature in its Shopping tab, providing a new way to keep shoppers on the forefront of your latest products they can shop for right through the app. (Need to set up your own Shopping feature on Instagram? Check the show Links below for a great how-to.)

Next, Steve takes us back to the earlier days of YouTube to a video which has become today's version of the original Mona Lisa artwork. Whether you're into bitcoin technology or over it already, we dig into how this new type of currency is impacting more than just money.

Want a little light yet meaningful fun? Try out a new online game that lets you battle your way through a series of opt-out dialog boxes and messages to see if you can successfully take your data from the jaws of businesses. 

Lastly, we prepare for the long goodbye to a technology staple if the internet world. But don't worry, it's going to be a whole year before we finally see the sun go down on a browser of old.

Get on the rollercoaster that is this week's Grey Matters podcast episode and ponder with us what it all means for the reality we live in today. 

Links from this Episode

NFTs: Today's Original Art Ownership?

Internet Explorer’s Imminent Demise

Brave browser (what Steve uses)

Instagram adds Drops to Shopping tab

How to Set Up Instagram Shopping for Your Business

Online game pokes fun at how grabby websites (and we) can be about information capturing

• Weekly live, free tutorials -  Webinar Wednesday

Grey Matters is made possible through your generous support! Please become a Patron of Grey Matters!

About Us:

Steve Dotto - Host

Canada's favourite geek. 

For over 20 years, as host and executive producer of Dotto Tech, a nationally syndicated TV show, Steve entertained and educated millions of Canadians on all aspects of technology.

After spending 20 years in traditional broadcasting Steve reinvented himself learning the world of social media, online community building and Internet Marketing as he built his YouTube channel into his new career.

His passion is teaching Baby Boomers and GenX how to remain relevant in the digital age, how we can reinvent ourselves and grow side hustles into successful online businesses.

Steve has a gift for making complex concepts easy to understand. Steve takes the world of technology and makes it relevant in your life.

Rachel Moore - Producer

From stage to studio, Rachel has honed her skills as an entertainer, producer, and marketer throughout her 20+ year career. As technology and communication has evolved, so she has carried her skills in writing, graphic design, and production forward into digital marketing, livestreaming, and podcasting. 

In addition to working as a fulltime content marketer, Rachel hosts her own livestream show Social Glue, publishes helpful how-to videos to her YouTube channel, and produces entertaining and insightful podcasts for Really Social as well as Grey Matters. 

Bottom line: if there’s a camera, microphone, and/or stage involved, Rachel can carry the message in a memorable way.  

Apps come and go, and our daily needs constantly evolve. There are probably a few apps you use on a daily basis that, while you may have never heard of them a year ago, you couldn't imagine living without today. 

In this episode of the Grey Matters podcast, Steve Dotto shares five apps that are his new "daily drivers:" tools that support his goals for health, productivity, finance, e-commerce, and creativity. 

Listen to Steve share his experiences with Restream for multistreaming his video broadcasts, Quardio for recording and tracking his blood pressure, Wise for managing financial transactions, ThriveCart for consolidating his business shopping carts, and Ayoa for crucial mind-mapping. 

Chances are you have your own personal and professional list of daily drivers; once you listen to this episode, come on over to the Grey Zone Facebook group to share what yours are! 

Links from this Episode

LinkedIn Sales Navigator adds Champions List capability

Twitter Blue for $2.99/month

• Weekly live, free tutorials -  Webinar Wednesday

Grey Matters is made possible through your generous support! Please become a Patron of Grey Matters!

About Us:

Steve Dotto - Host

Canada's favourite geek. 

For over 20 years, as host and executive producer of Dotto Tech, a nationally syndicated TV show, Steve entertained and educated millions of Canadians on all aspects of technology.

After spending 20 years in traditional broadcasting Steve reinvented himself learning the world of social media, online community building and Internet Marketing as he built his YouTube channel into his new career.

His passion is teaching Baby Boomers and GenX how to remain relevant in the digital age, how we can reinvent ourselves and grow side hustles into successful online businesses.

Steve has a gift for making complex concepts easy to understand. Steve takes the world of technology and makes it relevant in your life.

Rachel Moore - Producer

From stage to studio, Rachel has honed her skills as an entertainer, producer, and marketer throughout her 20+ year career. As technology and communication has evolved, so she has carried her skills in writing, graphic design, and production forward into digital marketing, livestreaming, and podcasting. 

In addition to working as a fulltime content marketer, Rachel hosts her own livestream show Social Glue, publishes helpful how-to videos to her YouTube channel, and produces entertaining and insightful podcasts for Really Social as well as Grey Matters. 

Bottom line: if there’s a camera, microphone, and/or stage involved, Rachel can carry the message in a memorable way.  

What does the guy who lives and breathes productivity do to adapt focus when a pandemic hits? You're about to find out, and possibly feel better about the challenges and solutions you've experienced as the world turned topsy-turvy. 

In this episode of the Grey Matters podcast, Steve welcomes Mike Vardy, founder of Productivityist and author of The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want, The Productivityist Playbook, and TimeCrafting: A Better Way to Get the Right Things Done (coming soon!). 

The pandemic caused a seismic shift in all of our lives, as well as a shift in what has worked for us focus our time on being productive. Steve and Mike chat about misconceptions about how we all assumed we could focus more, how we all thought we'd spend our time, and how we plan to focus in the future.

You'll recognize the phrases and sayings we've all been hearing for the last 12+ months, which Mike and Steve have some rather particular reactions to as the realities of time management have been anything but simple. 

Your challenge? Focus on this podcast and let us know what you get out of it and how you're crafting your time today!

Links from this Episode

Twitter introduces the Tip Jar

Bitcoin worthless? So says the Bank of England. 

Instagram adds caption stickers to Stories and (soon) Reels

U.S. taxes YouTube creators from afar

• Weekly live, free tutorials -  Webinar Wednesday

Grey Matters is made possible through your generous support! Please become a Patron of Grey Matters!

About Us:

Steve Dotto - Host

Canada's favourite geek. 

For over 20 years, as host and executive producer of Dotto Tech, a nationally syndicated TV show, Steve entertained and educated millions of Canadians on all aspects of technology.

After spending 20 years in traditional broadcasting Steve reinvented himself learning the world of social media, online community building and Internet Marketing as he built his YouTube channel into his new career.

His passion is teaching Baby Boomers and GenX how to remain relevant in the digital age, how we can reinvent ourselves and grow side hustles into successful online businesses.

Steve has a gift for making complex concepts easy to understand. Steve takes the world of technology and makes it relevant in your life.

Rachel Moore - Producer

From stage to studio, Rachel has honed her skills as an entertainer, producer, and marketer throughout her 20+ year career. As technology and communication has evolved, so she has carried her skills in writing, graphic design, and production forward into digital marketing, livestreaming, and podcasting. 

In addition to working as a fulltime content marketer, Rachel hosts her own livestream show Social Glue, publishes helpful how-to videos to her YouTube channel, and produces entertaining and insightful podcasts for Really Social as well as Grey Matters. 

Bottom line: if there’s a camera, microphone, and/or stage involved, Rachel can carry the message in a memorable way.  

If you're heard the term "passive income," you've probably also imagined yourself relaxing on a private beach while dollar signs float dreamlike above your head. It sounds amazing, but is passive income realistic? In this episode of the Grey Matters podcast, Steve Dotto challenges our perceptions of passive income, which may range all the way from thinking of it as a pipe dream or a promised land for our online business.

Passive income has been on the same level as the Holy Grail or Aladdin's Lamp for years now. As entrepreneurs build our businesses, we repeatedly see assurances and promises online from soothsayers who guarantee they have the secret for how we can also achieve passive income. But it's important to define exactly what passive income is, and specifically what work must be done to try to succeed at. 

Because passive income isn't all there is for us. There are several ways and means to make money with your business, and if we focus on passive income we may count ourselves out of other, more reliable methods to earn money through what we know or do. 

By the end of this episode, you'll be able to define several ways you can earn income, and they aren't pipe dreams. With the right approach and effort, your income can get you a bit closer to that promised land of entrepreneurial success. 

Links from this Episode

They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan

Steve's Evernote content at DottoTech.com

Steve's News Stories for the week:

First YouTube video in 2005

The deep fakes that keep Steve up at night

Rachel's News Stories for the week:

EU sues Apple for violating antitrust laws

Tech helps seniors with medication and health

• Weekly live, free tutorials -  Webinar Wednesday

Grey Matters is made possible through your generous support! Please become a Patron of Grey Matters!

About Us:

Steve Dotto - Host

Canada's favourite geek. 

For over 20 years, as host and executive producer of Dotto Tech, a nationally syndicated TV show, Steve entertained and educated millions of Canadians on all aspects of technology.

After spending 20 years in traditional broadcasting Steve reinvented himself learning the world of social media, online community building and Internet Marketing as he built his YouTube channel into his new career.

His passion is teaching Baby Boomers and GenX how to remain relevant in the digital age, how we can reinvent ourselves and grow side hustles into successful online businesses.

Steve has a gift for making complex concepts easy to understand. Steve takes the world of technology and makes it relevant in your life.

Rachel Moore - Producer

From stage to studio, Rachel has honed her skills as an entertainer, producer, and marketer throughout her 20+ year career. As technology and communication has evolved, so she has carried her skills in writing, graphic design, and production forward into digital marketing, livestreaming, and podcasting. 

In addition to working as a fulltime content marketer, Rachel hosts her own livestream show Social Glue, publishes helpful how-to videos to her YouTube channel, and produces entertaining and insightful podcasts for Really Social as well as Grey Matters. 

Bottom line: if there’s a camera, microphone, and/or stage involved, Rachel can carry the message in a memorable way.  

Ever imagine how you look and then see a picture which jars you back into reality? How we spend our time - or think we're spending it - often works the same way: our perception can be way off from reality. In this episode of Grey Matters, Steve shares how you can honestly learn how you're spending or misspending your time and, more importantly, how to get it back!

We live in an age of constant distractions. Think about all of the things vying for your attention: website tabs, notifications on your computer, notifications and calls on your smartphone, notifications on your wearables, deliveries, loved ones. And we haven't even mentioned that all of this can be aggravated by everyone being home more due to lockdowns and quarantines! Today it's tougher than ever before to stay focused and get in our flow, which is when we can accomplish the best work. 

That's one thing Steve wants to help you with this week as he challenges you to an exercise that will show you where your time is going each day. Whether your goal is to get more work done or better work done - or a combination of both - this episode will get you on the road to reclaimed time and productivity. 

Links from this Episode

Steve's link for the RescueTime app

Here's a visual of an Eisenhower Matrix (easy to create as a table in Excel or Word):

Steve's News Stories for the week:

AirTags and the new iMacs (both via Apple)

Rachel's News Stories for the week:

Amazon adds email marketing feature to brands

Paying with your palm at Whole Foods

• Weekly live, free tutorials -  Webinar Wednesday

Grey Matters is made possible through your generous support! Please become a Patron of Grey Matters!

About Us:

Steve Dotto - Host

Canada's favourite geek. 

For over 20 years, as host and executive producer of Dotto Tech, a nationally syndicated TV show, Steve entertained and educated millions of Canadians on all aspects of technology.

After spending 20 years in traditional broadcasting Steve reinvented himself learning the world of social media, online community building and Internet Marketing as he built his YouTube channel into his new career.

His passion is teaching Baby Boomers and GenX how to remain relevant in the digital age, how we can reinvent ourselves and grow side hustles into successful online businesses.

Steve has a gift for making complex concepts easy to understand. Steve takes the world of technology and makes it relevant in your life.

Rachel Moore - Producer

From stage to studio, Rachel has honed her skills as an entertainer, producer, and marketer throughout her 20+ year career. As technology and communication has evolved, so she has carried her skills in writing, graphic design, and production forward into digital marketing, livestreaming, and podcasting. 

In addition to working as a fulltime content marketer, Rachel hosts her own livestream show Social Glue, publishes helpful how-to videos to her YouTube channel, and produces entertaining and insightful podcasts for Really Social as well as Grey Matters. 

Bottom line: if there’s a camera, microphone, and/or stage involved, Rachel can carry the message in a memorable way.  

Staring contest between you and a blank page... Ready? Set? GO! 

None of us enjoy the feeling of knowing we have something to share yet being unable to put what's in our brain into words on a page. Whatever our personal obstacles are, this episode of Grey Matters will reset your thinking and help you believe that writing whatever is inside you is possible. 

Often we get stuck on believing that writing something as intensive and, well, as big as a book should be something that just comes out ready for the world. Yet we wouldn't think that way about baking a cake or raising a child, would we? The best things take time, effort, work, and (when possible) tweaking all along the way. 

Steve talks to guest Vicki McLeod - award-winning writer, coach, and entrepreneur - all about how she breaks writing down into three main areas, and then into three main themes, and then into three main topics... You get a bit of an idea of how she tackles writing major projects, and thus how you can make your writing possible a bit more digestible than daunting. 

Get in your mind the writing project you've been putting off for far too long and get ready to "break the log jam" with this episode of the Grey Matters podcast!

Links from this Episode

Steve's News Stories for the week:

Pew research on social media app use is eye-opening

EU is (thankfully) looking at putting the brakes on AI

Rachel's News Stories for the week:

Facebook's latest attempt to support small businesses: News Feed items

Facebook creating/copying for a new audio mashup of Instagram Live and Clubhouse: Hotline

• Weekly live, free tutorials -  Webinar Wednesday

Grey Matters is made possible through your generous support! Please become a Patron of Grey Matters!

About Us:

Steve Dotto - Host

Canada's favourite geek. 

For over 20 years, as host and executive producer of Dotto Tech, a nationally syndicated TV show, Steve entertained and educated millions of Canadians on all aspects of technology.

After spending 20 years in traditional broadcasting Steve reinvented himself learning the world of social media, online community building and Internet Marketing as he built his YouTube channel into his new career.

His passion is teaching Baby Boomers and GenX how to remain relevant in the digital age, how we can reinvent ourselves and grow side hustles into successful online businesses.

Steve has a gift for making complex concepts easy to understand. Steve takes the world of technology and makes it relevant in your life.

Rachel Moore - Producer

From stage to studio, Rachel has honed her skills as an entertainer, producer, and marketer throughout her 20+ year career. As technology and communication has evolved, so she has carried her skills in writing, graphic design, and production forward into digital marketing, livestreaming, and podcasting. 

In addition to working as a fulltime content marketer, Rachel hosts her own livestream show Social Glue, publishes helpful how-to videos to her YouTube channel, and produces entertaining and insightful podcasts for Really Social as well as Grey Matters. 

Bottom line: if there’s a camera, microphone, and/or stage involved, Rachel can carry the message in a memorable way.  

"Make money online," they said. "It'll be easy!" they said. Sure, but to make money online you need to know how to handle money online. Listen in to this episode of the Grey Matters podcast to learn what you need to manage online transactions for your business!

Think about the last time you wrote or received a check. Even depositing a check these days can be done by taking pictures with your smartphone and conducting the transaction online with your bank. Things today are far different from how they used to be, and while the traditional methods of sending and receiving payments do still work, online payment methods work better. Faster. More conveniently. 

If only someone would take the time to walk you through the options... but wait! Steve does just that in this episode of Grey Matters. Pop in your earbuds to learn more about options like PayPal, Stripe, and Square, plus Steve's favorite discovery for online and international banking, Wise. From exchange rates to actual pocket change, you'll get what you need to start managing online transactions for your business instead of them managing you. 

Links from this Episode

Steve's News Stories for the week:

Growth of Crypto and the changing nature of cash

Discord moves in on audio features to compete with Clubhouse

Rachel's News Stories for the week:

Facebook 2019 data breach drops 533 million people's data in 2021

Amazon working on Sidewalk, a crowdsourcing way to connect Echo and Ring devices in private residences

• Weekly live, free tutorials -  Webinar Wednesday

Grey Matters is made possible through your generous support! Please become a Patron of Grey Matters!

About Us:

Steve Dotto - Host

Canada's favourite geek. 

For over 20 years, as host and executive producer of Dotto Tech, a nationally syndicated TV show, Steve entertained and educated millions of Canadians on all aspects of technology.

After spending 20 years in traditional broadcasting Steve reinvented himself learning the world of social media, online community building and Internet Marketing as he built his YouTube channel into his new career.

His passion is teaching Baby Boomers and GenX how to remain relevant in the digital age, how we can reinvent ourselves and grow side hustles into successful online businesses.

Steve has a gift for making complex concepts easy to understand. Steve takes the world of technology and makes it relevant in your life.

Rachel Moore - Producer

From stage to studio, Rachel has honed her skills as an entertainer, producer, and marketer throughout her 20+ year career. As technology and communication has evolved, so she has carried her skills in writing, graphic design, and production forward into digital marketing, livestreaming, and podcasting. 

In addition to working as a fulltime content marketer, Rachel hosts her own livestream show Social Glue, publishes helpful how-to videos to her YouTube channel, and produces entertaining and insightful podcasts for Really Social as well as Grey Matters. 

Bottom line: if there’s a camera, microphone, and/or stage involved, Rachel can carry the message in a memorable way.  

Ever start something without a clear goal or outcome in mind and it winds up being fabulous? This week's episode features a podcaster who took an idea and grew it into a vehicle that's driving full speed ahead... even if the destination is unknown!

In this episode of Grey Matters, Steve interviews Tod Maffin - a podcast producer who heralds back to the early days of podcasting and currently hosts a daily (you read that right) podcast called Today in Digital. What started as a bit of a copycat idea and noticing a void in the podcast universe has evolved into a powerful podcast which has a lot of pull in the digital marketing community.

In the spirit of "seed and grow" business building, Tod shares how he monetizes and promotes his podcast, and where it might lead him in the future. If you're planning and/or producing your own podcast, listen in to this week's Grey Matters to get insights for your own show!

Links from this Episode

Programmatic podcast advertising with Red Circle

Steve's News Stories for the week:

Facebook takes away Analytics in push to Facebook Business tools

YouTube loosens advertising rules for channels using profanity and sexual/violent content

Rachel's News Stories for the week:

Discord and LinkedIn are in copycat mode of Clubhouse

MLB Opening Day includes Twitch in programming lineup

• Weekly live, free tutorials -  Webinar Wednesday

Grey Matters is made possible through your generous support! Please become a Patron of Grey Matters!

About Us:

Steve Dotto - Host

Canada's favourite geek. 

For over 20 years, as host and executive producer of Dotto Tech, a nationally syndicated TV show, Steve entertained and educated millions of Canadians on all aspects of technology.

After spending 20 years in traditional broadcasting Steve reinvented himself learning the world of social media, online community building and Internet Marketing as he built his YouTube channel into his new career.

His passion is teaching Baby Boomers and GenX how to remain relevant in the digital age, how we can reinvent ourselves and grow side hustles into successful online businesses.

Steve has a gift for making complex concepts easy to understand. Steve takes the world of technology and makes it relevant in your life.

Rachel Moore - Producer

From stage to studio, Rachel has honed her skills as an entertainer, producer, and marketer throughout her 20+ year career. As technology and communication has evolved, so she has carried her skills in writing, graphic design, and production forward into digital marketing, livestreaming, and podcasting. 

In addition to working as a fulltime content marketer, Rachel hosts her own livestream show Social Glue, publishes helpful how-to videos to her YouTube channel, and produces entertaining and insightful podcasts for Really Social as well as Grey Matters. 

Bottom line: if there’s a camera, microphone, and/or stage involved, Rachel can carry the message in a memorable way.  

One year. That's the milestone we just hit to mark a full year of life with a global pandemic. Did any of us foresee that we'd still be coping with the upheaval brought to us by COVID-19? In this episode of Grey Matters, we reflect on what's changed - temporarily or permanently - and how we're handling the transformation.

The "New Normal" is a phrase we've often heard to reference all of the new ways we live life today: face masks and social distancing are the most obvious evidence, but consider all of the other outcomes of trying day after day to survive a pandemic.

For one thing, how have our freedoms been impacted as far as travel? While in the past we could fairly affordably and easily hop on any mode of transportation to get around, the future may look very different and impact smaller communities as well as business mobility.

On another topic, how has our home and work life balance had to adjust? More and more workers are finding their work space is in their home space for the long term. Cities and towns are experiencing change to their traffic trends - some for the better and some not so much.

And frontline workers? In addition to healthcare and grocery employees, food service, janitorial, and delivery teams may be seen differently now that they've been on the forefront of a pandemic as their jobs put them in a position of risk so that we can all feel just a tiny bit more normal. What changes does the future hold for them?

Listen in this week and ponder the possibilities with us. Who knows, maybe one of our listeners will come up with the perfect name for the COVID-19 generation!

Links from this Episode

Steve's News Stories for the week:

YouTube may scan your videos for products to serve up more options

Apple smartwatches may be able to check your blood glucose levels

Rachel's News Stories for the week:

Your Under-13 Kids May Get Their Own Instagram App

Google develops Memory: an upgrade to Google Assistant

• Weekly live, free tutorials -  Webinar Wednesday

Grey Matters is made possible through your generous support! Please become a Patron of Grey Matters!

About Us:

Steve Dotto - Host

Canada's favourite geek. 

For over 20 years, as host and executive producer of Dotto Tech, a nationally syndicated TV show, Steve entertained and educated millions of Canadians on all aspects of technology.

After spending 20 years in traditional broadcasting Steve reinvented himself learning the world of social media, online community building and Internet Marketing as he built his YouTube channel into his new career.

His passion is teaching Baby Boomers and GenX how to remain relevant in the digital age, how we can reinvent ourselves and grow side hustles into successful online businesses.

Steve has a gift for making complex concepts easy to understand. Steve takes the world of technology and makes it relevant in your life.

Rachel Moore - Producer

From stage to studio, Rachel has honed her skills as an entertainer, producer, and marketer throughout her 20+ year career. As technology and communication has evolved, so she has carried her skills in writing, graphic design, and production forward into digital marketing, livestreaming, and podcasting. 

In addition to working as a fulltime content marketer, Rachel hosts her own livestream show Social Glue, publishes helpful how-to videos to her YouTube channel, and produces entertaining and insightful podcasts for Really Social as well as Grey Matters. 

Bottom line: if there’s a camera, microphone, and/or stage involved, Rachel can carry the message in a memorable way.