In this podcast episode, Rob Cairns and Ryan Waterbury conduct a comprehensive year-in-review for 2025 while looking ahead to 2026. The hosts discuss the critical importance of customer support systems and the technical challenges of WordPress core updates during the busy holiday retail season. A significant portion of the conversation focuses on artificial intelligence, highlighting its role in streamlining agency processes and commoditizing traditional web development. They also emphasize the necessity of digital visibility and email marketing as essential tools for lead generation in an increasingly noisy online landscape. Finally, the duo explores the need for business backup plans due to recent major cloud service outages and the impact of evolving privacy regulations on data collection.
Episode 616 The Future of Work – Augmenting Humans with Practical AI. Cairns is joined by guest Derek Crager, the founder of Practical AI, to discuss the current state and future of artificial intelligence. The conversation centers on the rapid advancements in AI, such as the release of Gemini 3, and the hosts’ belief that AI is an augmentative tool rather than a replacement for human labor, citing historical technological revolutions like the printing press and the agricultural revolution. Crager explains that Practical AI, his enterprise-level product, is designed to provide practical, instantaneous, and secure knowledge to industrial manufacturing workers, functioning as a "Pocket Mentor" to reduce cognitive load and increase productivity. The discussion also touches upon the high failure rate of corporate AI adoption and the importance of educating the public about AI to diminish fear and skepticism.
Episode 615 Build a Foundation Before You Market is a solo show hosted by Rob Cairns of the SDM Show. Cairns, who is the founder and CEO of Stunning Digital Marketing, emphasizes the critical importance of establishing a solid digital foundation before engaging in any marketing efforts. He stresses that website health is paramount, detailing necessary checks such as ensuring forms work and are spam-protected, maintaining regular backups, updating WordPress, and auditing analytics and content. Cairns concludes that fixing foundational issues must precede marketing to ensure that promotional efforts are directed toward a functional and appealing "house."
The SDM Show, hosted by Rob Cairns, featuring guest Chris Panteli. The conversation centers on the topics of digital Public Relations (PR) and link building, particularly in the context of the growing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs). Panteli, co-founder of the agency Linkify, shares his backstory and expertise in securing high-authority media links for clients through strategies like expert commentary and thought leadership, emphasizing platforms like Help a Reporter Out (HARO). The discussion highlights the value of high-quality backlinks from trusted sources like Forbes and The New York Times for improving SEO and visibility within both Google's algorithm and emerging AI systems like Copilot. Cairns and Panteli also address the importance of consistency, accuracy, and providing a compelling story to successfully engage with modern, time-constrained journalists.
"The SDM Show with your host Rob Cairns," where Cairns interviews guest Cary Prejean, a strategic business and ontological coach. The discussion centers on the challenges faced by entrepreneurs, highlighting the need for business owners to understand their financial statements and the common difficulty of entrepreneurs transitioning from visionary to effective manager. Prejean, who moved from accounting to coaching, explains that the mindset and personality traits that make one a successful entrepreneur often hinder their ability to be good managers. The conversation also explores the importance of clear vision, focused leadership, and established business processes for sustained growth, concluding with practical advice on financial health and personal well-being for business owners.
The provided text is an excerpt from a podcast episode of "The SDM Show," hosted by Rob Cairns, which focuses on business, life, and digital marketing. Cairns is interviewing Alfredo Borodowski, an expert in positivity and resiliency, who shares his compelling personal journey, including his dramatic shift from being a prestigious rabbi who was arrested and diagnosed as bipolar to becoming a social worker and positive psychology expert. Their conversation centers on the practical application of positive psychology, such as identifying one's top five character strengths to foster personal and professional excellence. Borowski also discusses his upcoming book, "The Human Upgrade," which explores the necessity of implementing a "human plan" alongside technological advancements like AI to mitigate the associated increase in anxiety and fear in the workplace, stressing the importance of culture, purpose, and self-care for achieving peak performance.
The source provides excerpts from The SDM Show podcast, hosted by Rob Cairns, featuring a conversation with Jess Frick of Rocket.net about the web hosting industry. The discussion covers the significant financial requirements for running a hosting company, often involving private equity or VC funding, as well as the importance of trust and support in a good hosting partnership. Cairns and Frick specifically address security measures, mentioning the complexities introduced by AI and the value of having comprehensive, non-tiered security, while also touching upon e-commerce scalability and the preference for using dedicated providers for email and domain registration.
The source is an excerpt from "The SDM Show," hosted by Rob Cairns, featuring guest Tim Nash, a security expert. The discussion centers on various cybersecurity topics, including recent security incidents like an AWS outage and a vulnerability used in airport PA systems, as well as the risks of using end-of-life operating systems like Windows 10. A primary focus is the "circle of trust" in the WordPress ecosystem, where they examine the security of popular form plugins like Contact Form 7 and Gravity Forms and the challenges of trusting third-party vendors and individual developers. Finally, they discuss the controversial timing and potential issues of the upcoming WordPress 6.9 feature release during the busy retail season, advocating for separate streams for security and feature updates.
The SDM Show hosted by Rob Cairns, featuring guest Dave Burnett, a fellow Torontonian and expert in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The conversation primarily focuses on the evolving relationship between AI and SEO, with Burnett sharing his background in both fields, from owning a promotional products company during the Great Recession to becoming an OpenAI beta tester. Cairns and Burnett discuss common anxieties about AI, emphasizing that it is simply reshaping work processes and requires users to master prompt engineering to avoid receiving "average" content. The experts also explore the enduring relevance of SEO, particularly for local search, and discuss strategies for businesses to build online authority and integrate AI effectively into their marketing and business models, concluding that success requires consistent effort and time rather than quick fixes.
The SDM Show, hosted by Rob Cairns, which focuses on various business and marketing topics. In this segment, Cairns and guest Bridget Willard discuss the critical importance of holiday marketing preparation, specifically addressing the year-end buying season that includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday. They debate whether it is already "too late" to plan for holiday sales and analyze the logistical and strategic pitfalls of offering deep discounts, especially for small businesses and the WordPress industry. The conversation also touches on the need for technical readiness for increased web traffic and the fundamental necessity of tracking marketing analytics for effective business growth.
This episode of The SDM Show Podcast, hosted by Rob Cairns, which features a conversation with guest Al Schuster, the founder and owner of Polaris Brand Promotions. The discussion centers on the role of brand ambassador agencies in providing experiential marketing services, such as in-store product demonstrations, trade show staffing, and event activations, for various consumer goods, particularly alcoholic beverages and packaged snacks. Cairns and Schuster explore how these promotions drive brand awareness and sales, emphasizing the importance of planning for peak retail seasons like October, November, and December (OMD), while also touching on the complexities of regulation and effective strategies for client engagement.
The is a conversation between Rob Cairns and Adam McLaughlin, focusing on McLaughlin's new business venture, pieceofcakevideos.com, which provides easy, subscription-based social media video content for small and medium businesses. They discuss the challenges of creating consistent video content and how McLarin's service simplifies the process by recording a conversation with the client, then using AI and manual editing to chop the footage into short, engaging, evergreen clips for platforms like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. The speakers emphasize the importance of authentic, unscripted content for building trust with an audience, contrasting short-form video as a "Costco sample" that funnels viewers to longer-form content. They also address the role of AI in their workflow, noting that it assists with efficiency but does not complete more than 60% of the final product, with human oversight necessary for quality and timely content monitoring.
The source is an excerpt from a podcast discussion between Rob Cairns and Ryan Waterbury on an episode of "agency chat," focusing on the challenges and strategies of managing and growing a business. The conversation centers on the crucial role of mindset for business owners and the difficulty of delegating tasks and letting go of control, especially when hiring others. Both speakers emphasize the importance of working on the business (strategic development, systems, and processes) rather than just working in the business (day-to-day tasks), advocating for scheduled time to focus on growth. They also discuss the need to re-evaluate and update systems, including contracts, client onboarding, and toolsets, suggesting that AI can now automate certain tasks to save time and reduce the need for manual work or new hires.
The source material consists of excerpts from an episode of The SDM Show, hosted by Rob Cairns, featuring guest Caleb Mattingly. This podcast conversation primarily focuses on the multifaceted field of cyber security, covering topics such as personal experiences entering the industry, the importance of user awareness and education, and challenges related to password management and keeping software up to date. Key security concepts are explored, including the necessity of disaster recovery and offsite backups, adhering to the principle of least privilege for user access, and addressing modern threats like business email compromise and increasingly sophisticated phishing scams—including those augmented by AI. The discussion also touches upon enterprise security, cloud environments (like AWS), and the risks associated with inadequate security protocols in both large and small organizations.
The source provides excerpts from "Episode 603 Building the Changelog WP Service With Ryan Logan and Derek Ashauer" of the SDM Show, hosted by Rob Cairns and focused on topics like business, digital marketing, and WordPress. In this episode, Cairns interviews guests Ryan Logan and Derek Ashauer about their collaborative project, Change Log WP, a service designed to notify WordPress users when the change logs for their monitored plugins are updated, helping them stay informed about features, fixes, and security vulnerabilities. The discussion covers the project's development, its current status (pulling all plugins from WordPress.org and being free), future plans for monetization and expanding to premium plugins and themes, and the technical aspects of building a scalable service. The hosts and guests emphasize the value of Change Log WP for both agencies and do-it-yourself website owners, noting its utility for competitive analysis and crucial security updates.
The source provides excerpts from Episode 602 Essential SEO Mistakes to Avoid Now With Warren Laine-Naida of the SDM Show, hosted by Rob Cairns and featuring Warren Laine-Naida, where the discussion centers on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices. Specifically, the segment addresses what not to do in SEO, with Laine-Naida offering several reminders about outdated or harmful tactics. Key topics covered include avoiding practices such as buying links, keyword stuffing, making basic on-page SEO mistakes (like poor heading structure or duplicate content), ignoring the importance of internal linking, and using bloated website design. Additionally, the discussion touches on the need for appropriate off-page SEO engagement, focusing on technical SEO audits, the distinction between PPC and organic keywords, and the strategic use of landing pages.
The source provides excerpts from "Episode 601-a.mp3" of The SDM Show, hosted by Rob Cairns of Stunning Digital Marketing. The discussion features Cairns and guest Chris Hallberg, the founder of the software go expand, focusing on topics like business, productivity, and digital marketing. A central theme is the importance of mindset and having a structured operating system—such as the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)—to achieve business success, which Hallberg complements with his background in military leadership and his new software that integrates people tools and Agentive AI. The conversation also touches on the practicalities of Hallberg's software, including its cost, security, and emphasis on data-driven decisions over subjective feelings to improve team performance and company culture.
The source material consists of excerpts from Episode 600 of "The SDM Show," hosted by Rob Cairns from Toronto, Ontario, which focuses on various business, life, and digital marketing topics, particularly concerning WordPress. This landmark episode celebrates the achievement of 600 podcast episodes, which began in 2010. The episode features Cairns thanking his regular co-hosts, guests, and listeners, and includes numerous congratulatory messages from community members and friends recognizing the milestone, dedication, and quality of the show. Cairns concludes the episode by thanking his inspiration, Tiz Marrone, for helping him through a serious illness, and dedicating the show to his late father, Bruce Cairns, and his mother, Anne.
The source is a transcript from The SDM Show, hosted by Rob Cairns of Stunning Digital Marketing, featuring guest Ricky Blacker from WP Engine. The central topic of their discussion is WordPress accessibility, specifically promoting the upcoming WP Accessibility Day on October 15th and 16th, which is a free, 24-hour global event. Cairns and Blacker discuss the crucial importance of designing websites to be accessible to everyone, not only for ethical and user experience reasons but also to avoid potential legal and financial issues such as class-action lawsuits. Blacker shares his journey into the WordPress space and emphasizes that accessibility should be a foundational consideration in website development rather than an afterthought, advocating for simple best practices like proper alt tags and contrasting colors. The conversation concludes with details about the conference's structure, which involves pre-recorded talks and live Q&A sessions using the Zoom platform.
The source is a transcript from "The SDM show" podcast, hosted by Rob Cairnss, featuring guest Matt Putra, discussing e-commerce, digital marketing, and business strategy. The main topic revolves around the importance of early planning for Black Friday and the Christmas retail season, emphasizing that preparation should begin in July or August. Putra outlines a "guidance system" for e-commerce brands, which includes creating a long-term financial plan (July through next spring) and mapping a daily profit tracker and conversion funnel to monitor performance and react quickly to opportunities or problems. The conversation also touches on the necessity of a conversion-optimized website before running ads and the need for high-volume, specific creative content in advertising campaigns.