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.  

Retirement. Whether it looms toward us or beckons to us (or a mix of both), we want to control it as much as possible. But what happens when it's more of a coerced departure?

This week's Grey Matters with Steve Dotto and guest Janice Sanders explores the complexities of calling it a day when it comes to your career. Any number of conditions can determine if your retirement is a positive or negative experience, and the results of your retirement are just as complex. 

Will you find enough to do after you retire? Will you wind up doing too much? Are your former colleagues missing you as much as you miss them? Are you fulfilled with the legacy you're leaving, or is there more for you to do? Do you now live with regret, or are you able to leave regret in the dust?

These are just a handful of questions we should each be asking ourselves before retirement creeps any closer (or saunters beside us, however you want to look at it). Janice Sanders of I Just Retired... Now What? joins Steve in a very transparent and thoughtful sharing of her experience and learnings that can help you take control of your retirement instead of retirement controlling you.

Links from this Episode

Visit Janice's website for helpful resources to start creating your intentional retirement:

ijustretirednowwhat.com/

Steve's News Stories for the week:

Facebook's AR/VR Wearables

Be careful which apps you trust

Rachel's News Stories for the week:

When Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp went down

Twitter testing YouTube videos playing natively in the feed

• 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.  

Wondering if working while traveling for months at a time is possible? Learn from two digital nomads featured on this week's Grey Matters podcast who made it happen. 

When we think about a job that allows you to travel, often we imagine a role in sales or event planning. Yet as technology has evolved - as connectivity becomes cheaper and computers become more portable - traveling while working spans across many more diverse roles and industries. 

This episode of Grey Matters introduces us to two digital nomads - Amanda Robinson and Lisa Jenkins - who share their experiences of leaving the permanent and living the temporary, adventurous, sometimes arduous, often rewarding lifestyle of roaming the globe while earning a living. 

Listen for the points that prompt excitement and the pains that bring you pause as you consider if there might be a day in your future when you decide to try becoming a digital nomad. 

Links from this Episode

Thinking of living and working as a digital nomad? Here are helpful resources from this week's guests:

iOverlander

LandLopers

Seat61

Skyroam 

Steve's News Stories for the week:

New options with Cameo celebrity greetings

Get on the Neeva browser waitlist

Rachel's News Stories for the week:

Twitter Spaces adding "tip the host" capability

Remote workers making permanent moves

• 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.  

Learn from a Boomer why Boomers should be on LinkedIn in this latest episode of Grey Matters! Steve welcomes Joyce Feustel to share her valuable insights about coaching her generation to see LinkedIn in a new light.

Why do Boomers tend to have a tougher time wielding LinkedIn for building their business? It could be generational or even based on gender as it's a primary platform for self-promotion, which doesn't come as naturally to many people.

Take a listen to all the reasons that Steve and Joyce give for how Boomers and even GenXers can use LinkedIn today:

• Reconnecting with people in your network

This week also catches you up on the latest in marketing and business news you can use as you build your brand online. 

Links from this Episode

Joyce Feustel | Boomers Social Media Tutor

Steve's News Stories for the week:

Google following in Apple's advertising footsteps?

Google's Blog: Charting a course toward a more privacy-first web

The Top 6 Social Media Trends of 2021 (Infographic by Social Media Today)

Rachel's News Stories for the week:

Facebook's "Good Ideas Deserve to Be Found" Initiative for Small Businesses

Other States Adopting Data Privacy Laws like California's CCPA

• 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.  

As we Boomers and GenXers build our businesses today, we must shift from the "build and deploy" mentality of then and shift to the "seed and grow" approach in the now. 

This episode of Grey Matters takes a brief trip down memory lane as we look back at what all used to go into building a business. Remember how making and collecting payments was all done via paper or hand-to-hand exchanges? How about marketing and advertising when everything was in print or broadcast and cost a fortune? And would you ever start a business without spending weeks on developing a business plan?

So much has changed in how businesses are built and maintained today. And it can be difficult for us to adapt to all the new - dare we say better? - approaches to business building when we've had decades to rely on what was available in the past. 

Shift forward with us as Steve helps address our blind spots of how we can adapt business practices of then to work in our business building now.

Also take a listen to the news stories in marketing that captured Steve and Rachel's attention this last week!

Links from this Episode

Steve's News Stories for the week:

Clubhouse taking it on the chin

Misinformation on Clubhouse

Celebrities and Hollywood taking to podcasting

Rachel's News Stories for the week:

LinkedIn adds Marketplace for freelancers

Twitter Patterns after Facebook and Patreon

• Weekly live, free tutorials -  Webinar Wednesday

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

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's on your to-do list for tomorrow? Prospecting calls, laundry, prep your newsletter, review your blog draft, and what else? Let's go ahead and add podcasting to your agenda!

In this episode of Grey Matters, we get into the specifics of planning a podcast for your business. Since we're pretty much reading your mind, here's what we know going in about why you haven't yet gotten your own podcast off the ground:

• You're afraid of small subscriber or listener numbers

These are all reasonable reservations to have, but that's why you really need to listen to this episode so we can dispel your fears and prove the point, purpose, and sheer power of podcasting for your business and brand. 

We talk shop about podcasts, too: formats, tech, tools, gear, and even goals. Once you're done, you'll get why there has really never been a better time to get started with your own podcast.

Links from this Episode

AnswerthePublic.com for finding topics people are interested in 

Pat Flynn's Podcasting Guide

Riverside.fm for easy cloud recording

• 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.  

In the infamous words of Aladdin in Disney's movie of the same name, "Do you trust me?"

Jasmine's reaction is a very uncertain "yes," and that pretty much sums up this week's discussion in the Grey Matters podcast. Whether you're venturing into a chat room or listening to this podcast religiously (we certainly hope you are!) or connecting with your business customers, trust these days is at the heart of every interaction we have. 

And it's no wonder. According to Edelman's Trust Barometer (polling respondents in 28 countries), we have been in a trust bankruptcy of late which has thrown the world for a loop. Who can you trust? Who should you trust? And, more to the point, who are you trusting - or mistrusting - right now?

In this episode, Steve and Rachel chat about:

• the shiny new penny that is Clubhouse on iOS devices

It's a great episode. You can take our word for it. 

Links from this Episode

Clubhouse - Apple Store for iOS

Edelman's Trust Barometer report

• 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's the difference between the "gig economy" and having a "side hustle?" We define these two aspects of Work 2.0 in this episode of Grey Matters.

It's easy to confuse phrases we hear today describing work that isn't mainstream or full-time. We hear about the "gig economy" (on-demand talent and skill) and the "side hustle" (work geared for upward growth), and both sound appealing when we're faced with unemployment or underemployment. 

• Is either a gig or a side hustle a viable solution for a work force that is being aged out of mainstream employment?

• 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.