Fastlane Founders and Legacy with Jason Barnard: Personal Branding, AI Strategies, and SEO Insights for Visionary CEOs
Entrepreneurial insights from CEOs on fast success, enduring impact, and building long-lasting companies. “Fastlane Founders and Legacy” hosted by Jason Barnard, CEO of Kalicube, explores the delicate balance between rapid growth and enduring success in the business world. This podcast features insightful conversations with entrepreneurs, CEOs and executives who have mastered the art of building lasting legacies while navigating the fast-paced demands of modern business. Each episode uncovers a blend of agile tactics for immediate impact and strategic thinking for long-term sustainability. Listeners will gain valuable insights into how these leaders accelerate progress without sacrificing future stability, and how they transform innovative ideas into companies built to stand the test of time. Join us to learn how today’s most influential business figures harmonize quick wins with lasting achievements, creating both rapid success and enduring impact.
Tactics for Organic Traffic Growth (Lukasz Zelezny with Jason Barnard)
Apr 27, 2019
Show notes Lukasz is a drum and bass DJ… so we discuss how many SEOs were once musicians / in the arts. I discover that Lukasz loves stories and adores metaphors - through which he shares super tips for pushing your SEO (reasonably) easily. Lukasz finds a lovely balance between digging dep, and doing simple things that bring quick results that keep your clients happy. The Snapshot method. Gap Analysis. Lukasz shares his favourite Wordpress plugins. I share Wordlift with him and he goes off to investigate. We both get excited about reducing flowery content - be honest, direct, straight to the answer. And we end with a big fat smiley agree-fest !
Link Building and Outreach (Joshua Hardwick with Jason Barnard)
Apr 25, 2019
Show notes Starts by gamely answering a question about Javascript. Then suggests how we can get guest blogging opportunities (starting in Bali, of all places!). Network a lot (in real life, not just online), be honest, be frank, be yourself... then once you get the guestblogging flywheel going, you'll be all set. But, despite networking in person and trying too hard to be way too charming, I completely fail to get a link from Joshua... there is a lesson there somewhere (if only I can find it). Are mentions worth chasing without links? Not if you want to rank for anything worthwhile, it seems. Hrefs did a study last year - almost a billion pages - and found a straight correlation between links and ranking. Joshua hopes to rerun the study to see if that correlation is less strong a year on. I end with a very stupid question : what is your favourite topic for blog posting.
SEO Without Traffic: The World of Voice Search, Knowledge Graph and Brand (Hannah Thorpe With Jason Barnard)
Apr 23, 2019
Show notes Google is a discovery engine that is increasingly pushing out answers. It has 20 years of historical query data to use to be able to predict what we will ask for before we ask. Hannah kindly tells me my horizontal vs vertical theory is a really cool idea. Then expands to a dual algorithm theory and backs it up with lots of solid arguments, including PACRR (a rather boring acronym that is actually REALLY interesting). Stop thinking about algorithms since machine learning means the algorithmic path changes at every execution, and there is therefore no specific set of tasks to do since the path is never predictable. She then explains what authority and relevancy are, and how brands can approach a search / discovery world where they are key. Entity as a ranking factor and how to make the most of that insight (clue: much more than SEO). WELL worth listening to. Mind blowing.
Learning from our mistakes (Steven van Vessum with Jason Barnard)
Apr 22, 2019
Show notes Brno is the Eindhoven of the Netherlands... or perhaps Steven is getting mixed up... the Czech Republic. Steven's personal site doesn't have any pictures of unicorns but Steven still manages to give it a positive spin. Teaching SEO comes down to providing the basic pieces and then sending the pupil off into the world to master SEO by: doing, trying, making mistakes and learning from them. Steven's advice: Be a critical thinker and you'll pick up the pieces of the SEO puzzle along the way, and each individual should put those pieces together in the way that suits them and thus build their own unique "SEO puzzle" in their minds. BUT, after that great start, Steven gets carried away: SEO is like pancakes and SEOs are like children... And some well-known SEOs talk rubbish (no names are mentioned, though - with no editing required :)
Making it Internationally (Gianluca Fiorelli with Jason Barnard)
Apr 21, 2019
Show notes Gianluca gives me my first sing back. Building an international digital strategy starts with understanding your own business. We are not so much doing digital marketing, more marketing in a digital world. Prioritise your territories, then expand your international step by step (territory by territory). Think multi-country, multi-lingual and multi-cultural. Different cultures will often need different content, not just translations. Think about which tourist destinations are popular in Italy vs Spain vs UK, and therefore those that will give the best traction - different for each. Think localisation of a global brand or product, not simply globalisation. It is phenomenally important to take into consideration applicable laws and regulations - Schengen is a great example of this. We get overexcited about href lang in Spanish countries, French countries and Switzerland, and I end up deciding to take my automobile to Paris for some reason.
The Google Cookbook – Making Content Easy to Digest (Alexandra Tachalova with Jason Barnard)
Apr 20, 2019
Show notes Google's food is information. It needs to identify, collect, chew, swallow and digest in order to be able to give the answers to users. We look at leveraging Schema.org markup, Dom extraction, semantic triples, tables and lists to prepare Google's food. We meander through a lot of questions and come up with some interesting explanations. Schema markup is like recipes and food items (that analogy doesn't fly for very long). When you rebuild your site, start with thinking about structured data (thanks Dave Ojeda), since that encourages us to better organise categories, pages, and even Fraggles. I realise that I have been saying that I am a double bass. Alex gives me a taste of my own medicine by asking a question I wasn't ready for. I wriggle through by quoting Jono Alderson and Cindy Krum - chunks, blocks and Fraggles. I cite so many people, it is starting to feel that I don't have much to say for myself. Conclusion is "Help the Google Beast / Pet" and it will help you.
Making Your Twitter Truly Social (Viktoria Mamatova with Jason Barnard)
Apr 19, 2019
Show notes Learn how to make the most of your Twitter presence. Animated GIFs are old hat that has got a new shine (and they are a lot of fun). Viktoria is capable of sustaining entire conversations with just a series of animated GIFs. Tweeting is like throwing rocks into the sea and expecting to build a mountain. If you want some quick-n-easy visibility, get on some Twitter lists. Spend more time than is healthy in Twitter Chats - apparently that time is an investment, and not a waste of time (oops for me !). Fundamentally : stay true to yourself, be enthusiastic and stay relevant … and everything will work out fine.
Chasing Quality over Quality Score (Navah Hopkins with Jason Barnard)
Apr 18, 2019
Show notes Google Ads - the mistakes not to make. Most of which I made. Quality Score is a health indicator and not a KPI. Bid-to-budget ratios, The importance of isolating branded campaigns. Be the best in industry. Big brands are rubbish - they send dumb money at the problem - and there is your opportunity. Navah also sets me straight on Dynamic Search Ads (which I now realise I got over-enthusiastic about). And NEVER let a Border Collie take control of your DSA campaigns cos you will lose money (most border collies ain't so smart). I get over-enthusiastic about DSA, confused about pipes, and yet (somehow) I strike gold. Lastly, Navah tells us about the three A's... Automation, audiences and attribution - the key to the future. Then, to cap it all, I get Navah's name wrong !
Bad Promotion Kills your Content It doesn’t need to (Alexandra Tachalova with Jason Barnard)
Apr 16, 2019
Show notes Write less, promote more... build organic traffic, get links, avoid the spike of hope. I learned how i can MUCH better promoting the #SEOisAEO podcast, which is rather cool :p) Outreach is the future (and Alex offers some advice about tools to use). Linkbuilding is and will remain fundamental, but too often overlooked. Watch out Neil Patel, Alex is coming up fast on your shoulder! In terms of content, think about ongoing content - a guide with chapters, for example. Or a podcast ! Also a bit of cheeky back scratching goes on and I beg for a link from Digital Olympus. I stop the conversation the moment Alex agrees with my analysis of the situation...
Creating a Killer Digital Strategy (Judith Lewis with Jason Barnard)
Apr 14, 2019
Show notes Judith condenses 10 years of experience in agencies into 20 minutes. Reach, Act, Convert, Engage - touching our customers before, during and after (purchase). The customer is always right, except when they are wrong… and that gives us as an opportunity to helpfully upsell more of our services and make money. Be inspired by others, then do it better! Concrete goals, broad aspirations and KPIs. I look behind the curtain at the Wizard of Oz. Do tech first, then content, then linkbuilding last. Judith gets enthusiastic about Amazon, and tells me that we are not selling traffic, selling visibility. Bob's Polo Shirt Emporium gets a special mention and Judith analyses their performance in search. So if you are listening, Bob, just listen to the end to get some free advice.
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