Expedition Canada

An Epic Fishing Adventure

Episodes

Introduction

1,400 Miles to Deep Canada Fishing

The Smallmouth King

Squirrel Hunting

The Jerkbait

Twin Falls

Muskie Brothers

• 

  Jason's Canadian Fishing Gear & Lures

  Explore the rods, reels, lures & gear used in this epic fishing adventure.

  Explore

• 

  Cast & Shoot

  Explore more fishing episodes at Lake Lanier in Georgia on the Cast & Shoot show!

  Watch Show

• 

  Explore Fireside Lodge

  Plan your own Canadian wilderness fishing adventure on Little Lake Vermilion.

  Learn More

Meet The Guys

Jason Scott Montoya

Filmmaker, Author, & Muskie Brother

A fifth-generation entrepreneur, author (Path of the Freelancer), and storyteller, Jason is the creative force behind Cast & Shoot. Bringing a strategic narrative vision to the expedition, Jason blends his background in digital media and storytelling to document the raw human dynamics, family legacy, and creative grind of the 14-part series.

Steve Montoya

Retired Entrepreneur, Expedition Catalyst & Smallmouth King

The visionary who initiated the entire Canadian journey, Steve represents the patriarch of the Montoya family. Returning to his roots driving a small aluminum boat—Steve proved to be the undisputed Smallmouth King of the trip, landing more smallmouth bass than anyone on the crew (and quite possibly everyone else combined). Bringing decades of life experience, nostalgia, and steady wisdom to the bush, he serves as the driving force and heart behind this multi-generational expedition.

Austin Gros

World-Renowned Photographer, Morale Engine, & Muskie Brother

An internationally acclaimed destination wedding and editorial photographer based in Nashville, Tennessee, Austin stepped into this expedition, serving as the crew's ultimate engine of morale. Bringing an infectious energy, spontaneous dancing, deep personality, and heart to the group, Austin’s warmth and humor provided the essential levity and joy needed during long, physically demanding stretches in the Canadian bush. 

Connect With Austin

Ryan Lampa

Community Leader & Founder of People Loving Nashville

A former music tour and production manager turned humanitarian, Ryan is the founder of People Loving Nashville and Paradeisos Coffee Company. Having spent over 15 years leading relief and restoration efforts for Nashville's unhoused community, Ryan brings relational depth, quick humor, and an instinctual edge to the crew. As the group’s designated fly fisherman and "forward-facing human sonar," Ryan spent the trip reading the wind, weather, and currents to crack the lake's code and consistently put the guys on top of the fish.

Learn More About PLN

In this episode of Cast of Shoot, my brother-in-law and his sons join us as we try to catch our first fish at Lake Lanier. This episode is filled with his tips and a crazy fly-fishing idea. 

• Explore my list of fishing gear and lures for Lake Lanier here.
• Explore my list of camera gear and accessories for making fishing videos here.

Cast & Shoot YouTube Series

This is a series I'm producing for YouTube, where I'm tracking my journey towards an upcoming Canadian fishing trip. The series dives into my fishing history, preparing to fish for Muskie and Pike in Canada, mastering shore fishing on Lake Lanier, and learning to make great fishing videos for YouTube. Click here to view all episodes of Cast & Shoot.

In this episode of Juniper & Jones, Cait shares what students can expect when she comes to visit their school with her red golden retriever therapy dog, Juniper. Plus, an extended look at Juniper's grooming process.

• Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Video Production Software & Equipment Links

• Riverside Video Editing Platform
• DJI Mini Mic Set
• DJI Osmo Mobile SE, 3-Axis Phone Gimbal
• DJI Action Cam 5

About Juniper & Jones

My wife and I have embarked on an incredible journey to ignite a love for reading and bring comfort to our community's children. I'm documenting the entire journey in a video web series for YouTube!

In this first episode of Tea With Me, I explore a variety of teas until I find one I can love.

And, I found it. Vahdam is now a favorite English Breakfast Tea.

I also talk about my now-favorite spoon (Thanks Jessica Lalley). 

Explore Products

Amazon affiliate links.

• Vahdam Tea
• Brodies Famous Edinburgh Tea
• Tiesta Black Tea Sampler
• Mevlana - Pure Ceylon Loose Leaf Tea

Tea With Me

I love tea! In this YouTube series, I try out and share tea. You can check out all episodes related to tea on my YouTube channel here.

In this first episode of Some Like it Hot, I make nachos and make my favorite snack with La Victoria's new Fiery Jalapeno hot sauce, providing a review along the way.  

Explore Products

Amazon affiliate links.

• LA VICTORIA Fiery Jalapeño Sauce
• La Victoria Salsa Brava Hot Sauce, 12 Ounce
• Tapatio Hot Sauce
• Melinda's Habanero Sauce

Some Like It Hot

Some Like It Hot is a series on my YouTube channel where I explore and share spicy things! It's also a play on the old movie, Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis. You can check out all episodes related to spicy things on my YouTube channel here.

Most people think that if they just make better choices, their life will get better.

They focus on fixing their behavior. But what happens when you hit rock bottom? What happens when your identity gets stripped away and you are left wondering, "Who am I, and why am I here?"

Weston spent years wearing a mask. He thought he was just the "party guy" until he flipped his dad's truck on the interstate and ended up locked in a jail cell. It took hearing the raw exhaustion and heartbreak in his mom's voice over a phone call to realize something:

He did not just need to fix my behavior. He needed to become something entirely different.

Are You Living Under This Massive Lie?

In this discussion, Weston flips the script on how real change happens and busts the biggest myths about personal growth and purpose.

• The Identity Trap: Why the world is dead wrong when it says, "You are what you do." Learn why behavior never determines identity—and why identity always drives behavior.
• The Danger of Comfort: Why our modern obsession with pursuing comfort at all costs is creating a generation crippled by anxiety, panic, and a lack of purpose.
• The Mud Burrito Moment: How losing a tarp in a monsoon storm and sleeping in the mud proved that hardship is the only path to building real hope and confidence.

What if the very challenges you are running away from are the exact tools designed to build your character? Are you making the fatal mistake of chasing convenience over true growth? Watch the full interview right now to get the complete truth on finding your identity and stepping into your purpose.

Click here to watch the full inspirational people interview on the Share Life podcast.

P.S. If you are sitting at the bottom looking up today, feel lost, or feel like you are just grinding away playing video games, know this: your past choices do not define you. Your rock bottom might just be the exact starting point for your real story.

• Watch: Click here to watch this discussion on YouTube directly, or click play on the embedded video below to begin streaming the interview. Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
• Listen: Click here to listen on Spotify directly, or click play below to immediately begin streaming. You can also find this discussion on Pocket Casts, iTunes, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts under the name Share Life: Systems and Stories to Live Better & Work Smarter or Jason Scott Montoya.

Thank you, Jessica Lalley, from Voices to Connect, for introducing me to Weston.

Connect With Weston Brann

• Connect with Weston |  LinkedIn
• Explore Narrow Gate Foundation | Website - YouTube - Facebook - Instagram

FAQ

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Podcast Episode Transcript

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If your website is down right now you’re creating a Reputational Blackout. And in 2026, that’s not a neutral move. It’s a loud one.

When we don't offer clarity, people have a tendency to fill the unknown with their own answers. Simply put, if you leave the question unanswered, it can fill with worms.

When Down Becomes a Business Decision

I've recently had conversations with a company whose website was shut down. This wasn't a new company but one that's decades old. They were concerned a site that didn't accurately reflect them was worse than nothing at all.

If you've been around that long and your site is gone, my first thought is that you went out of business. If that is not true, it's now become one of those worms, giving me an answer that is now harming your business reputation.

Perhaps there's a reason to shut down your website or migrate to a new one. I've had Legacy leaders tell me a version of this, sometimes sounding like:

• “Our site is outdated.”
• “It doesn’t reflect who we are today.”
• “We’re rebranding.”
• “We’re embarrassed by it.”

So they do what feels responsible: they pull the plug.

Other times, their site can get hacked. It goes dark.

Whether it's by choice or by someone else's choice, shutting down your website is a risky action to take.

No website. No trace. No awkward relic.

Remember the worms? Without communication (no website) that may be what they're collecting.

• “Are these people still in business?”
• “Are they stable?”
• “If they can’t manage a website, can they manage my project?”

That’s the harsh truth: invisibility doesn’t preserve reputation—it erodes it.

And a website that's not ideal, well at least it's something.

The Pivot: The Old Way of Thinking Is Failing Analog Titans

1. Reputation (earned over decades)
2. Relationships (networks that actually work)
3. Reliability (do what you say, ship what you promise)

That playbook still matters.

But it's not automatically perpetuated into the future. Actions today can reinforce that trust or tear it down. A company like Wells Fargo has been around forever, but in the last few decades, my experience of that bank is poor. I'll steer away from that unless it's a last resort. My experience with Chase bank has been the opposite (I love Chase!).

How a company built its success foundation carries them forward. With marketing projecting that foundation, it plays a pivotal role and your website is part of that recipe.

But here’s what changed: your buyer’s first handshake is no longer a handshake. It’s a search.

Even in industries where deals are still done through reps, distributors, and phone calls, the sequence is now predictable:

1. Someone hears your name.
2. They Google you.
3. They judge your competence before anyone returns the call.

So when your site is down, you don’t just lose clicks.

You lose confidence. You lose trust.

If it's a one off short experience for them, they'll probably forget it. Longer than that, and it's probably gonna be a problem.

Confidence is the currency that makes customer relationships possible.

The Challenger Moment: A Website Is Just a Brochure Is a Comfort Lie

Let’s challenge a cozy misconception.

A website is not a brochure.

A brochure is something you hand to someone after they already trust you.

Your website is what a skeptical engineer, contractor, or purchasing manager uses to decide whether you’re worth trusting in the first place.

It’s also what your internal team uses to stop answering the same questions 47 times a week.

And if you’re trying to reposition the business—especially after a rough digital past—then nothing is the worst possible message.

Because nothing doesn’t say we’re improving.

Nothing” says we’re missing.

When you want a business to be there for you (Hey Jake), not being there, online, is a signal that you may not be there when they need it.

Down Isn’t Safer—It’s a Slow Leak

“You’d rather have nothing than something… but that means you’re actively losing search territory and market share every hour you’re invisible.”

That’s the Reputational Blackout in one sentence.

Even if your business runs through relationships and reps, search is still territory.

When you abandon it:

• competitors take your place
• your old pages de-index
• your authority decays
• your we’ve been here 36 years credibility becomes harder to prove

And when you finally relaunch, you’re not returning to the same spot on the map.

You’re trying to claw your way back, just to get back to where you were before things ended.

The Framework That Changes the Game: Search, Showroom, Wizard

Here’s the part most teams miss: a database website isn’t one thing. Connecting people with information is more than that. When you say you want an information hub—spec sheets, product data, compliance documents—you’re really talking about how people get to the information. There are three paths:

• Search: I know what I need. Let me find it fast.
• Showroom: I don’t know exactly what I need. Help me explore options.
• Wizard: I’m lost. Ask me a few questions and guide me to the right answer.

Analog Titans often overbuild the database and underbuild the pathways.

If you have the entirety of the information they need but they don't actually access it, how useful is it?

The pathways are the whole point—especially when your users range from state inspectors to homeowners.

The Takeaway: Don’t Pull the Plug—Start the Stabilization Phase

If you’re rebranding, rebuilding, or modernizing, here’s the move I recommend instead of shutting down your website (and why most companies will live with a old or outdated website over none at all):

Start the Stabilization Phase (before the full rebuild)

The goal is simple: stay visible while you improve.

That can look like:

• a clean one-page site with your updated logo, contact info, and credibility markers
• a message that still answers basic questions and directs them to a follow up pathway.
• a phased rollout where you publish sections as they’re ready
• priority recovery of high-value pages (the ones people actually search for)

You don’t need perfection to stay online. You need continuity. Because in your market, the scariest signal isn’t they’re old. It’s they’re gone.

When I'm building a new website for clients, I'll often recommend we build it live. Create a section or page; and then make it live. The entirety of the website doesn't have to be done for prospects and customers to get value out of it and for you to grow your business while it's being constructed.

If you’re an Analog Titan facing a rebuild

If your team is debating whether to take the site down, ask one question:

What is it costing us to be invisible—per hour?

If you don’t know the answer, that’s your first project.

Then stabilize.

Then modernize.

And when you do launch the new thing, you won’t be starting from a reputational hole you dug yourself.

And if you need someone to help with any three of these steps, let's talk.

When a company tells me they need an informational website, I ask a different question:

• How do your users actually discover what they need?

There are only three core modes by which a site connects data to its users.

When entrepreneurs look around, they hear that they need a website. But often they get fixated on the website as the destination and forget that it's actually a vehicle to get their business somewhere.

Imagine buying a Ferrari and just hanging out in it while it's parked in your garage, never driving it to your destination. This is how business leaders can think about their website.

A website is a vehicle to get your prospect or customer to a desired outcome. And there are three ways this happens: search, browsing, and with guidance.

Type 1) Search: “I know what I want.”

This is the engineer with a part number. The contractor who already knows the spec. The rep who’s trying to answer a client question on a job site.

They don’t want marketing.

They want speed. Your site allows them to quickly get to where they know they want to go (or at least is should).

Make it fast and easy.

Make it direct.

When constructing your search, consider the following requirements:

• strong internal search (with filters that actually match how people think),
• clean product (or service) pages with the right files and specs,
• predictable structure (so pages don’t feel like a scavenger hunt).

Type 2) Showroom: “I want to explore.”

This is the buyer who knows the category, not the exact model. Think bookstore, not filing cabinet.

They want to explore and browse, to look around and kick the tires.

I've been tracking my journey for an upcoming fishing trip to Canada. I need a lot of stuff. Categorically, I've got some ideas of some of what I need, but I've need a space to see my options and explore them further.

If you're a moviegoer, you want to watch something, but you don't know what you want to watch. You need experience to see and explore your options.

When building a showroom experience, you'll want to include the following elements:

• category pathways that make sense to outsiders,
• comparison views,
• related products and common applications that guide exploration,
• visual cues that don’t insult the user’s intelligence.

Type 3) Wizard: “I need a guide.”

This is the person who doesn’t even know what to ask. They need help, but they don't even know why or where to start.

Homeowners. New contractors. People crossing over from a different system. Procurement folks who don’t speak technical fluently. This is where consultative design (and AI) starts to matter.

They need someone to hold their hand and find what they're looking for, even when they don't know what it is.

For most of my fishing experiences in the past, it was plug and play. We hire a guide, and they provide everything we need and curate the experience. This upcoming trip to Canada is a do-it-yourself experience. We bring our own fishing gear, and they simply provide a boat and point us in the right direction. Unfortunately, I don't know what I'm doing, so I need a guide. I need to know what to bring and what will work best. With the help of Gemini (AI) and various YouTubers, I was able to be guided towards what I needed.

If you're building a wizard experience, here are some elements required:

• guided flows (“Answer 3 questions and we’ll point you to the right system”),
• interactive selectors,
• decision trees that match real-world use cases,
• a pathway that reduces uncertainty, not adds to it.

With generative AI (large language models), this can simply be an interactive chat experience. If you want to supercharge it, you contextualize, drive, and optimize this wizard experience.

Why This Framework Matters for Analog Titans

Legacy companies (Analog Titans), in technical, longstanding industries, usually have a mixed audience:

• the good old boy pro who wants it simple,
• the regulator who wants documentation,
• the engineer who wants precision,
• the new buyer who wants to understand what this even is.

Here’s the mistake: you pick one experience and force everyone into it.

That’s how you end up with a technically accurate site… and practically useless.

The Search / Showroom / Wizard architecture gives you a way to serve all three groups without turning the site into chaos.

And it does something else that matters just as much:

• It signals competence.

Not with flashy motion graphics.

With clarity.

It's wild how many of the analog titans that have had massive success and been around for so long seem to be operating their website and marketing with a mindset and system that is decades old (or longer). Moving them into the modern era is possible, but it often requires a mental shift more than simply a technological one.

Become the Architect of Discovery

If you’re leading a legacy company, your website shouldn’t be a vanity project. It should be an operational asset. It should know who the audience is and what value it needs to provide to them.

Your website becomes a Product Knowledge Machine that:

• reduces friction for buyers,
• reduces manual support load for your team,
• protects (and rebuilds) reputation,
• positions you as modern without pretending you’re a Silicon Valley startup.

If you’re rebuilding your site, don’t start with “What pages do we need?”

Start with:

• Who is trying to find what?
• Are they searching, exploring, or lost?
• What architecture helps them win quickly?

Because a database is only as good as the navigation. And in your market, discovery is reputation.

If you want a practical next step

Take your top 25 most requested items (spec sheets, install docs, product categories, compliance info) and ask:

• Can someone find this in two clicks?
• Can they find it with a search, even if they misspell it?
• If they don’t know what it’s called, do you offer a showroom path or a wizard path?

That one exercise will tell you whether your next website is a facelift… or a real upgrade.

And if you need either, send me a message.

Ever feel like the world is just waiting to burn you?

We’ve all been there. You hire a contractor, they tell you a story that sounds just a little too good to be true, and before you know it—poof. Your money is gone, their phone is disconnected, and the website you trusted was just an AI-generated spoof.

It’s the silent bullet theory. In combat, if you get killed by a silent bullet, you never saw it or heard it coming. Today’s scammers are the same way. They rely on your shame, your greed, or your need for speed to pin you down and take what’s yours.

Dale Cardwell spent over 30 years analyzing exactly how people get burned. As a six-time Emmy award-winning consumer investigator, he has seen the same seven mistakes repeated over and over.

In my latest Share Life podcast interview, I’m pulling back the curtain on how to identify the good guys and stop being the underdog.

Inside this conversation, we’re diving into:

• The Safe Word Strategy: A simple, 5-second trick to stop AI voice-cloning scammers in their tracks (before they trick you into wiring thousands).
• The 20-Reference Rule: Why the standard 3 references are a total myth and how to actually vet a company so you don't end up with a disaster.
• The Georgia Untouchables: The dirty secret about why the justice system won't put non-violent scammers in prison—and what you must do to protect yourself instead.

Dale even shares the embarrassing story of how he got scammed out of $40,000. If it can happen to a professional investigator, it can happen to you.

Stop playing defense with a shotgun at the front door while the robber is climbing through the back window. Don't let them catch you off guard.

Click here to watch the full inspirational people interview on the Share Life podcast.

P.S. If you're currently struggling with a business dispute that feels like a total scam, remember: good people expect goodness from others. Don't let a bad experience turn you cynical—just turn you into a person who trusts, but verifies.

• Watch: Click here to watch this discussion on YouTube directly, or click play on the embedded video below to begin streaming the interview. Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
• Listen: Click here to listen on Spotify directly, or click play below to immediately begin streaming. You can also find this discussion on Pocket Casts, iTunes, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts under the name Share Life: Systems and Stories to Live Better & Work Smarter or Jason Scott Montoya.

Thank you, Jessica Lalley, from Voices to Connect, for introducing me to Dale.

Connect With Dale Cardwell

• Connect with Dale |  LinkedIn
• Follow TrustDALE | Website - YouTube - Facebook - TikTok - Instagram - X
• Buy Dale's Book (Amazon affiliate link) Don't Get Scammed, Get Smart!: Seven Steps to Outsmart Today's Most Dangerous Post-COVID Scams

FAQ

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Podcast Episode Transcript

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In a world of ever-expanding noise, the most dangerous thing an expert can do is try to do it ALL (or to do the opposite, NOTHING). If you’ve spent 20 years building your expertise in your field, you shouldn't have to spend 20 hours a week pretending to be a content creator. And if you've got that much wisdom to share, you don't want to keep it locked up in your mind so no one knows about it.

Marketing for experts isn't about being loud or silent—it’s about choosing a Posture (disposition) that matches your business goals. It's about doing the activities that will drive the outcomes you want for your business.

Clarity on your business context and goals will inform your posture.

The Three Postures of the Modern Expert

As you think about sharing and communicating your expertise, you must decide which of these three goals you are actually aiming for right now. Understand them and choose the one that best fits. And realize, you'll likely start at the first stage, and want to move into the final of the three stages.

Posture 1: Presence (The Defensive Moat)

The Goal: Verify my reputation.

If you already get 90% of your business from referrals, you don't need a funnel. You need a Moat.

In 2026, when a prospect hears your name, they will do two things: Google you and ask an AI (like Claude or Gemini) about you. If your digital house is empty, you are creating friction in a deal you’ve already earned.

• The Strategy: Passive verification.
• The Check: If someone looks you up, do they see a current, credible expert, or a ghost town from 2019?
• The Value: Presence is Generative Engine Insurance. It ensures you pass the Google Test without forcing you to become a full-time influencer.

In my early years of freelancing, this presence approach with something that worked really well for me. I was more active, regularly, when I first started, but as I got more clients, I throttled back that activity because I had less time to create and publish that content.

Eventually, over the years, I shifted into the pipeline mode of content creation and promotion, publishing while having many other things going on in my business and on the side. Building financial margin in my freelancing work was one way I made room for doing more creation work steadily.

Posture 2: Pipeline (The Active Acquisition)

The Goal: Control lead flow.

At some point, relying purely on referrals becomes a risk. You start to experience the Roller Coaster Effect I talk about in Path of the Freelancer. If you want to move from a defensive crouch to an active hunt, you need a Pipeline.

• The Strategy: Active capture.
• The Shift: You stop asking people to read your thoughts and start asking them to join your room.
• The Value: This is about Control. By moving rented attention (LinkedIn/Facebook) into an owned asset (Email), you kill the referral reliance and start winning predictably.

With so many articles on my website, I've created a content pipeline engine for lead generation. Regularly, I'm getting people contacting me about working together. Sometimes it's based on a technical expertise like Joomla, while other times it's my worldview and philosophy. My library of content acts as a salesperson telling the world about me. Those people migrate to my email list and, over time, become clients. Many have received those emails for years, before finally biting the bullet and working with me.

Posture 3: Dominance (The Market Gravity)

The Goal: Become the category default.

This is for the expert who is no longer just looking for the next client, but for Legacy. You want your frameworks to be the standard. You want your brand to have so much mass that the market is pulled toward you.

• The Strategy: Algorithmic omnipresence.
• The Shift: You use your entire Legacy Vault—past books, talks, and webinars—to saturate the market across text, audio, and video.
• The Value: This is about Monopoly. When you reach Dominance, you stop competing on price because there is no one else in your category.

This is the big shift I made from 2023 to 2025, as my content creation and publishing reached their highest level. This involved creating content here, podcasting, YouTubing, and posting consistently on social media. I've spent time regularly showing up across domains that matter. Having a vast library makes this stage of saturation much more realistic to accomplish and stems from my mission to create so much foundational content that I'd have depth to draw on for decades.

The Self-Diagnostic: Where are you standing?

Do I want the market to verify my reputation, control my lead flow, or monopolize my industry (or topic of focus)?

• If you’re losing deals you should have won, it's time to Fix your Presence.
• If you’re tired of the referral roller coaster, it's time to Build your Pipeline.
• If you want to define how the next 10 years of your industry look, Aim for Dominance.

When you're ready to act on this, contact me and let's talk about working together.

If you’re a small business owner and you’re trying to figure out how to get more leads (or sales) from Google and from the new wave of AI search tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, etc.), you’re in the right place.

I’m Jason Scott Montoya, and I work directly with business owners who want their website to become a real growth asset — not just an online brochure.

If you’re looking for a freelance SEO specialist, you can read this and quickly decide if we should talk.

The Big Picture: SEO Isn’t Dead — It’s Getting Filtered

More and more people are asking AI their questions instead of searching the old-fashioned way.

That doesn’t eliminate SEO.

It raises the bar.

Generic, copycat content is getting gobbled up by AI answers. The opportunity now is:

• Specific rich content for specific audiences.

If you can publish content that’s based on real experience, real point of view, real stories, and real clarity — you’re not competing with the internet. You’re expanding the edge of it.

And when you pair that kind of content with smart on-page optimization (especially title tags), you give both Google and AI systems clear signals about what your pages are actually about.

What I Actually Do (In Plain English)

When business owners hire me, I help them:

1. Create a plan (so we’re not guessing)
2. Prioritize what matters (so we move the needle)
3. Execute the high-impact work (so results show up in traffic, leads, and revenue)

Most small businesses don’t need every SEO thing.

They need the right SEO things, in the right order.

The 3 SEO Levers You Can Control (And the Ones I Focus On)

If you want more Google traffic, it comes down to three main actions you can control:

1. Publish rich content
2. Update that content over time
3. Optimize your title tags

If you do those three things well, you’ll get a massive portion of the results most people want. Then we can layer on more advanced SEO if and when it makes sense.

The Most Effective SEO Task (And Why I Lead With It)

If you already have a content library on your site — blog posts, service pages, landing pages — the fastest low-hanging fruit I’ve found (over and over) is this:

Update your title tags.

I call it title tag defibrillation.

Because a good title tag can shock a stagnant page back to life.

It’s high-impact and low-effort. And it’s often the first thing I do when I step into an existing website.

Why title tags matter (even in the age of AI)

Title tags are one of the strongest signals you can send about what a page is.

They help:

• Google understands the page and ranks it
• Humans decide whether to click
• AI systems orient themselves when they summarize or cite your page

I’ve led title tag projects where the result was 36% growth in Google organic traffic year over year — and that was largely from title changes paired with already-rich content.

Two Ways We Can Work Together

Every business is different, but most of my work falls into one of these two paths:

1) Targeted, iterative projects (fast wins)

This is the let’s move right now approach.

We identify high-impact, low-effort opportunities and execute them in small batches.

Examples:

• Title tag audit + updates on key pages
• Fixing the most damaging technical issues
• Refreshing content that’s already getting impressions but not clicks
• Identifying what content you should create next (based on real search demand)

This is ideal if you want momentum, visibility, and results without signing up for a massive long-term engagement.

2) Full strategic plan (big picture clarity)

If you want to take SEO seriously and build a durable advantage, we can do a deeper discovery process.

This typically includes:

• Evaluating your content library quality and gaps
• Mapping your highest-value services/products to search intent
• Building a multi-month or multi-year SEO plan
• Setting a sustainable publishing + optimization cadence

This is ideal if you have larger goals (and you want SEO to become a real growth engine inside the business).

A Note on Content Merging (One of My Favorite Levers)

Sometimes the best SEO move isn’t to publish something new. It’s to take what you already have and make it richer.

Merging multiple weak or overlapping blog posts into one strong, authoritative page can create an exponential effect — like content fusion.

I’ve led consolidation projects where we merged hundreds of posts into a smaller library that was far richer, and it generated more search traffic dramatically.

And when you pair a good merge with a strong title tag update, you can supercharge the results.

How We Interface (And How I Charge)

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Toxic empathy.

That’s the name of Allie Beth Stuckey's recent book and the topic of a fascinating discussion between her and David French. I very much appreciate that the two of them made this conversation happen; these types of rival discussions are an emerging pattern I’d like to see continue.

I'm writing this post because, watching their debate as it related to toxic empathy, I realized that French failed to land the plane, and Stuckey failed to see the runway he was aiming for. I wanted clarity on the core issue, for myself, regardless of whether they ever get there.

To rewind for a moment, this topic came up in my conversation with Pastor Steve Thomason. Here's a clip:

"What [those that use "toxic empathy"] are trying to say is that our generosity, grace and empathy can be used to manipulate us. It would be healthier if they just said that."

That gets right to my point: Stuckey's book should have been called Toxic Responses to Empathy. If she had named her book that, I would not have an issue with her title or rhetoric. My alternative title accurately describes what the book is about and reflects an author who wants to convey truth clearly.

But that's not what her book is named, and my issue isn't with her underlying thesis or how she makes it. My issue is with how she packaged it—and more deeply, that she chose to package it using the type of weaponized language she critiques her opponents for using.

Who Is My Neighbor Enemy?

To understand why someone would intentionally weaponize a word like empathy, we have to understand who they think they are fighting. Before diving into the linguistic specifics, it helps to look at the core dynamic between Stuckey and French, and where they locate the source of the problem.

Stuckey is acting as an outward-facing apologist, while French is acting as an inward-facing prophet.

Stuckey sees the primary problem as external. The enemy is secular progressivism assailing Christians. She is trying to bunker down, foster protectionism, and give her tribe the resources to stand their ground.

French is looking at his fellow Christians, seeing moral decay, and expressing deep concern. While Stuckey is criticizing progressives for being secular and sinful, French is trying to get her to see how secular and sinful their own group has become. To him, internal rot will do far more damage than any external rival.

Simply put...

• Stuckey keeps saying, "Look at how deceptive the other side is! I'm just trying to keep our side from falling for their lies."
• French keeps saying, "Look at how cruel our side is becoming! Your phrase is giving them an excuse to be meaner."

This brings us to the "Motte and Bailey" fallacy. In her debate with French, we see how Stuckey defends herself. She creates a highly aggressive, easily weaponized cultural catchphrase (the Bailey). But when challenged on the real-world damage the phrase causes, she retreats to the highly nuanced, easily defensible paragraphs hidden inside her book (the Motte).

In the end, neither side can win the debate because they are arguing from two completely different primary fears: French is terrified of a church consumed by cruelty, while Stuckey is terrified of a church consumed by deception. Because they lack a shared premise, the debate remains broken.

Definitions & Moral Relativity

When we are terrified of an enemy—whether that enemy is cruelty or deception—we often bend our language to fight them. One of the problems with moral relativism is that we all tend to become relativists when we get cornered. We twist words to avoid the harsh edge of truth. Defining toxic empathy as a toxic response to empathy seems to me like early-stage moral relativism.

Let me walk through it, as it relates to empathy. Here is the Merriam-Webster definition of the word:

"the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another"

Stuckey doesn't actually take issue with this definition. In her book (which I have not read), she describes it as standing in another's shoes. There isn't anything toxic about doing this, according to her (based on her discussion with French). The toxicity she describes is the response to the empathy, not the empathy itself.

So, what would actual toxic empathy be if we were to describe it accurately? How might we come up with a definition that is accurate?

Based on the definition above, and simply adding the word toxic (harmful or dangerous), it would be the act of misunderstanding another person. If I have a malformed view of how you see things, that is toxic empathy. If people are trained to think that empathy itself is toxic, they may opt for a distorted understanding rather than the real thing. This leads to distorted responses. That is a problematic dynamic as well.

Practically speaking, if you want the best outcomes in life, you want an accurate and precise understanding of others, even when you disagree with them. That's something I suspect Stuckey and I would agree on.

Conflation, Segmenting, Letting Go

Because our society is a mess and the national debate is broken, it is up to us to untangle the terms they are blurring together.

• Empathy is one thing.
• How we respond is another.

When they get conflated, Stuckey and I would agree: it can get toxic. But when we focus exclusively on empathy being the toxic element, it just gives us a convenient excuse to be cruel.

Stuckey wants the benefits of a viral catchphrase—book sales, podcast clicks, cultural traction—without taking responsibility for the predictable way that catchphrase behaves in the real world. 

Stepping back, we should care about toxic empathy as I defined it above (misunderstanding others), as well as toxic responses in Stuckey's explanation. We need to understand and clarify the differences and address them accordingly. If having a misinformed understanding of someone's perspective is toxic empathy, then many people have engaged in it, according to Stuckey's argument. At the same time, she poisoned the water by using an inaccurate and inflammatory phrase (toxic empathy) to describe something she's attempting to address (toxic responses to empathy).

In an issue like this, it's important to recognize our limits.

Writing (or reading) this blog post won't solve the national problem of people lacking empathy, but it may help me (and you) understand that problem better and make some local changes around the edges. We can be incredibly precise with our language, deeply empathetic to human suffering, and fiercely committed to the truth—all at the same time.

But we also need to recognize that while we are fighting our rivals, we can become the very problem we are fighting against. While rightist Christians call leftists secular and pagan, we also fail to realize that we are often just as barbaric as the other side. 

And when trying to reform our own groups, we can fail to recognize that our deepest problems cannot be resolved simply by appealing to shared virtues we no longer possess. Power structures constantly push us to act more barbarically, all while we continue calling ourselves Christians. And the sin underneath it, that fundamentally wreaks the havoc.