The daily bombardment of alerts dinging, beeping, and ringing from all those applications we use is enough to drive someone completely crazy. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, we allow ourselves to be interrupted by Slack in a way we wouldn’t from any other platform. Even though it seems completely counterintuitive, and despite the sheer amount of daily notifications (because we still can get a bunch of notifications from Slack alone), we love and use Slack—a lot. It’s no wonder it’s the most

I was contacted to write a series of articles to support the work of a certified woman-owned business, Wheelhouse Graphix. The first in the series was for a local-to-Michigan market/restaurant, Carnival Markets.

More than ever, you must up your organic content game. Up until now, the saying was “Content is King”. Truth is, your content and its context is going to be your entire Kingdom. Businesses that put up a basic website, secured their social handles, and then didn’t do much with them? Well, they are either going to have to start pushing a budget into their online marketing efforts or simply fade away. For the foreseeable future, every audience imaginable will be searching for you online. We were headed toward a complete online culture prior to the pandemic, and that seal has been removed. We’re there, all in.

Signs hang lopsided in shop windows, the colors dulling from the sunlight. The owners have been trying for so long, but to no avail. There have been no bites. The jobs remain open, and the sign fades until the letters become illegible. The talk around town is that there’s a shortage of skilled laborers. Maybe it’s because shop class isn’t being offered in many high schools anymore. Or maybe it’s because of the stigma associated with the trades. Or, just maybe, students aren’t being given all th

This article has been on page one of Google since it was written and for all the targeted keywords having to do with trade school. ____________________________________________________________ It has been drilled into students' heads for ages—whether from parents, teachers or grandparents—that traditional college is an absolute must. Make the family proud: Go to a four-year university. But, is a bachelor’s degree THAT important? Is it the end-all in education? Sure, everyone needs a skill to support themselves and their families, but do those skills need to come from training at expensive four-year universities (see: )? Not to mention, not everyone interested in four years of school.

In fact, it can be downright soul-crushing. It’s not just specific to the industry I work in, digital marketing, either. It’s across the board. It seems there’s a common misconception about the Gen Xers (the generation born between 1965–1981): We’ve “aged out.” We aren’t quick to learn, nor are we knowledgeable enough to even pick up on the whole technology thing. We’re burned out or will become so at any given moment. Age bias/discrimination is just as destructive as the more commonly talke

Clogged drains. Flooded basements. Busted pipes. All potential disasters, reminding us why plumbers play such an important role in our lives. When you call the plumber to plead for them to fix what’s broken, their appointment books are overflowing. Because hey, guess what? There’s a significant shortage of skilled and qualified plumber in the United States. The lack of plumbers, combined with the aging workforce, is only going to create a giant spike in employment opportunities. Good plumbers ar