Five hundred episodes in, and the celebration is reading hate mail. Jay Schwedelson cracks open a year's worth of nasty unsubscribes, brutal reviews, and one dagger that reads "no one would miss this if you stopped." Somewhere between the salmon complaints and the "man card" insult, there's an actual point about why turning some people off is the cost of being worth listening to.
ㅤ
Best Moments:
(00:38) Why the early hour-long interviews almost killed the show before it started
(02:04) The exact reply that goes back to every mean unsubscribe
(03:03) Pushing back on the AI environmental damage hate mail
(04:45) The weekly salmon dinner finally gets explained
(05:56) The "man card" insult that earned a permanent place in the hall of fame
(09:07) The case for doing one small thing every single week so you never stop learning
Transcript
Welcome to do this not that the podcast from marketers we share quick tips things
you could do right now and then we add a little bit of chaos at the end of
every episode we also keep it short like this intro let's check it out we are
here for the 500th episode of this ridiculous podcast do this not that oh well
well I want to do on this episode my guy got to do something special I decided on
this episode I was gonna read and I am going to read all the hate mail that I
get but before I get to all the hate mail that I get when I started this
podcast oh I hated doing it because when I started it if you go back to the very
very first episodes they were these long form like you know hour long
interviews with important people in marketing and it was so boring I didn't
even want to listen and I didn't when I was doing the interviews I'm like oh
my god I can this is so terrible and then I decided you know what who cares
that's what you're supposed to do interview people for an hour get their life
story find out about this that or whatever I said I don't want to do that I
want to make short episodes that are weird and useful and mildly I don't know
different so that's what I did I appreciate if you've been here for checking it
out for a while you rock if this is your first episode well well welcome to
really randomness and so normally I'd just give out all these random marketing
tips and stuff and I share stuff with someone on my life but we also get in a
lot of hate mail so I have a form on jswettleson.com where you can click
podcast and there's a form that says ask us anything and people putting
questions that we answer but then they also put in a lot of hate mail and then
people also email me a hate mail and first of all I think haters are losers
and I just so you know what I write back to every single piece of hate mail
that we get every mean unsubscribe that we get from my newsletter I we write
back the same thing we write back smell you later that's it that's all right
back and I don't care I'm a big believer and then I'll read the hate mail that
I have that in order to have people that are into what you're doing you have to
like turn some people off so it doesn't bother me at all and I'm also sharing
this hate mail not just so that way you I don't want you to feel bad for me
we get plenty of nice you know people say oh my god this shows great we love you
all that so don't worry about me but the reason I'm really sharing it is
because we get confused you know we'll get a nasty unsubscribe in an email or
we'll get somebody that leaves a really awful review and then we'll forget
about all the positive stuff that people like your products or services
people say nice things people are enjoying what you're doing and we just
focus on the negative and you know what haters are losers and they're
having a bad day they're just trying to get stuff off their chest whatever and
who cares that's the that's a them problem so here we go I have a bunch of
these that we've that we've gathered from like the last year or so so I'm just
gonna read them and then we'll see how it goes some of these haven't even read
okay here we go in no particular order people like you are why no one takes
marketing seriously okay that's fine I agree I mean why don't they get so
seriously relax okay you keep pushing AI like it's harmless do you just
ignore the environmental damage so first of all I don't know anything
about I had to protect the environment I recycle okay I what else do I do I use
like a mug instead of plastic cup or something but I'm not I don't know a lot
about it and what here's what I do know is that AI is not going anywhere so
me not using it is not going to solve a lot of the world's problems so me
talking about that's also not going to solve the world's problem so I don't
even know what to say about that but I'm sorry don't use AI what do I mean to
tell you anyway Jay you have dating advice on a recent episode can you just
focus on the marketing stuff the rest makes me take you less seriously well
first of all why are you taking me seriously the last thing anyone should do
is take me seriously but listen if you don't humanity is what is going to win
humanity is the algorithm okay if you can't insert some humanity into what
you're doing into your marketing I don't care how boring your brand is I work for
a regulated industry I'm in manufacturing we can't do this that or whatever
yes you can take your camera out do a behind the scenes video of how you do X Y and Z
I guarantee you that post will do better than any of the boring garbage that you put out
and yeah we get in dating advice questions and I answer them because
why not it's part of being a human who cares oh this next one I already see it
nobody cares that you eat salmon listen I don't know why I like sharing the food that I eat
and salmon I eat salmon every Tuesday night we have salmon night my house every
Tuesday night for the last 16 years my my wife didn't want my kids only chicken tenders
here's why I talk about salmon first of all it makes me nauseous every time I eat it
my wife go was it good I'll say yeah it was really good and then and 30 minutes later I'm
nauseous and I'm hungry so I eat it every week but it's a myth and if you don't like me talk
about salmon I don't know what to tell you listen to another show all right next one
you act like everyone should be putting themselves out there some people don't want to do that
listen I'm believe it or not I know everyone says it's like you know celebrity people not
that I'm a celebrity celebrity celebrity be like I wasn't popular in high school I was a nerd
okay whatever and then you know when I so I'm saying that because in my regular life I'm a quiet
dude I really am I sit on my couch and I watch reality TV I'm just a quiet dude and but in my work
life I don't know this is what I do I don't know what the hell to tell you I don't even know what
that means all right the next one you suck that's fair I do suck on many days that's awesome I do
suck great you agree I agree double down on that double click whatever you're supposed to say
all right Jay you're a grown man talking about reality TV like it's important that's embarrassing
do you even have a man card what what is that even mean so would you be would you rather me sit here
and break down the NBA playoffs and tell you about what I think the nicks are doing right or
wrong how boring would that be okay I don't I don't hope I never even had a man card I don't know
what that means that is the lamest dorkiest pathetic hate man I've ever gotten so yeah I don't take
my man card I don't care I never had one um Jay you are negative about socializing with people
your negativity is bad okay first of all I don't care what you tell me going out with people sucks
okay because and I have to do it all the time because 95% of people are annoying
they're self-absorbed they they're just dragging they they suck and I want to get out of there
by the time I get my appetizer I want to leave so I have a problem I'm aware of this I have
to force myself to hang out with people I don't know what that means I'm working on it actually
know I'm not okay next one you act like everyone should be on video or speaking some people have
real anxiety first of all I am I'm all in on the fact that mental health is is an enormous
huge deal I deal with real anxiety issues I do I have to meditate every morning I have to go on
long walks I do so many different things I do cryotherapy I I do all I can't even tell you I've
done cupping I've done acupuncture recently I do so much stuff trying to trying to manage my
anxiety so I feel for you um and uh me going on video or speaking doesn't help or hurt my anxiety
I'm not saying it's for all people and I never want to minimize anxiety be and by the way anybody
that you think has their act together that they have it all together that they don't have stress
that they don't have anxiety they are full of it they are the ones who are just lying to themselves
because everybody is dealing with real deal stuff you never know what somebody is dealing with
and you got to be cool with everybody okay Jay you seem very entertained by yourself no one else is
why do you listen why are you subscribed to my newsletter it doesn't make any sense you nerd
all right uh what should we call it and the last one no one would miss this if you stopped
ooh that's a that's a that's a dagger um well screw you number one let's start with that
number two I will tell you I've learned a lot about doing this podcast because um one of the things
I believe and and you don't need to have a podcast you don't need to have a newsletter um but you
need to have something even if you send out a slack message to your team that you work with every
week and say here are three new trends that are going on in the industry even if you send out an
email to let's say the 10 people on your team in your company and saying here's the article I found
most interesting every week and you do this every week I believe you need to do something everybody
I don't care if you are starting out in your career if you're a CEO of a company whatever you're
whatever doesn't matter what industry you're in I believe every single person needs to do something
every single week that they never stop that allows them continuously to learn right this podcast
and my newsletter because I put it out every week it forces my hand to look stuff up to read certain
things to try to understand new stuff that's going on so that way I can talk about the podcasts
or put it in my newsletter if I didn't have something that forced me every single week to do that
then the only way I would learn would be just doing the regular work that I do every day
and there's no way for me to really learn a lot more I would just learn the little bits here and
there so whatever you are doing in your life I believe you need to have something a little thing
that forces you to learn in whatever industry that you are in and putting yourself out there
slightly it could be a slack message to a team it could be an email message to a team it could
be a podcast it could be a social post that you do every week it doesn't matter if you get zero
likes right we're saying this is new stuff this week that I just learned about and you do it every
week and you never ever ever ever ever stop so that's why I do the podcast I hope you find it
useful if you do find it useful amazing on the 500th episode you want to leave a review amazing
if you want to leave me hate mail you could do that too and go to jswettleson.com let's work
together we'll see you at the thousand episode yeah if you really get there that'll be wild later
wait I have two huge things to share with you first I have a book coming out stupider people
have done it it's coming out the first week of June and all net author proceeds are going to
the v foundation for cancer research this book might be terrible but who cares when you buy this
thing on amazon or anywhere else you are going to be helping to kick cancers but let's do that
together the second thing is you can go to jswettleson.com on the upper right hand corner of this
thing that says partner my agency wants to help you if you're a business marketer consume marketer
doesn't make a difference I want to help you drive net new sales registrations growth change
the design all the stuff that you are doing hit me up there also if you want to brand collabs
I want to know about your brand I want to help you amplify that message go to jswettleson.com
click on partner let's do stuff together and the last thing is leave this show review if it wasn't
the absolute worst podcast you've ever heard and you're awesome for being here later
More from Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson