About ten years ago, Keith Stoeckeler bought a domain on Squarespace and started All That Inspires Me, to simply document things that captured his attention on line. After expanding the site to host writing and posts from other voices and growing an audience, he shut the site down. Recently, he decided the time was right to focus on inspiration again. We talk about inspiration and a bit about our current state of affairs in this upbeat conversation.
You can find the audio on any podcast platform, or here on my Substack. Please consider subscribing. https://specific.substack.com/p/all-that-inspires-keith-stoeckeler
Adam Pierno 0:11
All right, welcome back to another episode of The Strategy Inside Everything. Today’s guest is joining me to throw this topsy turvy world back into a little bit more balanced Keith Stoeckeler who is VP at MKTG Inc. I’m using the official, the official Keith, how are you?
Keith Stoeckeler 0:30
That’s very official. Good. I thought we were talking about cheeseburgers. So now I’m all thrown for a loop. But we’ll we’ll figure it
Adam Pierno 0:36
out. I think cheeseburgers are fine. We can work that in. Absolutely. So we I have known you from Twitter, like most of the guests on this stinking show for a long time, years and years. And when I met you, you had a blog that was I would say pretty influential. I don’t know how you would describe the blog, but why don’t you give people a little background on what it was and why you started early. And then we can we can go from there
Keith Stoeckeler 1:02
Yeah that’s that’s very kind of you
Adam Pierno 1:05
It influenced me
Keith Stoeckeler 1:07
good then as long as they influence somebody then we can say it was influential that is fine. Um so I guess in like 2011 I was working as a junior strategist and I was just trying to keep track of all this stuff I saw an ad something that was interesting something I wanted to go back to and trying to figure out the best way to do it and so I just started a blog it was on Squarespace it it allowed me to search for things and that’s really the whole reason I did it but then I started sharing stuff on Twitter it started getting some decent reaction people liked it shared it thought stuff was interesting. And so then it It left a you know, categorized usage and I and a organizational tool for me and became like an actual blog. Did you did you write in that original blog, or was it mostly correct, like curated collections have things you found around the internet that that you enjoyed or thought were worthy of remembering in some way or commemorating? Yeah, most of that I don’t want to say didn’t write. But sir, I didn’t write long, you know, long form content. I might have written some thoughts or something. But most of it was just things that I found and curated, which sounds very fancy for what I was doing.
Adam Pierno 2:21
You were, you were bookmarking?
Keith Stoeckeler 2:24
That’s it, man. That sounds like I’m running, you know, a museum here. Um, and then I think I had to go out of town for something, I guess it was work and and at that point, I was posting something every day. And so I asked people if they would give me content, and then I scheduled the posts For how many days I was gone. And then that really opened my eyes to this could be interesting if I got people to write guest posts, what’s inspiring them, what’s interesting to them, and so that’s really where it went. And that went on for about three years and then I just kind of shut it down. But last week, or this week, with all It’s been going on it felt like a good time to bring it back and felt like we all needed some positivity. So it is it is back and I’m happy to say
Adam Pierno 3:07
yeah, so the site is all that inspires me.
Keith Stoeckeler 3:12
I lost the URL. I wish I went back thinking I could still get it and I know I should have paid the $8 a year whatever it was, but I know you squatted on it.
Adam Pierno 3:21
Somebody squat it. I was kind of hoping it was you and this would be the big reveal. It’s Elon Musk screaming everybody. Elon Musk joins us now.
Keith Stoeckeler 3:31
Hey, all right. No, it is all that inspires me calm. I lost the.me but that’s
Adam Pierno 3:37
okay. Either way, 10 years ago, we would have said you want the.com no matter what, but in this particular case, the.me would have been was pretty cool when you have it.
Keith Stoeckeler 3:46
It was i was i was ahead of my time.
Adam Pierno 3:49
I think I contributed I know I contributed an article during that during that run. And you said something kind of funny. You said you made a joke about it. You said if I inspired one person that was good. But don’t you think like that’s how I realistically think. Like I have a few few people listen to this show that we’re recording right now. Every once in a while someone will DM me and say I heard this episode is pretty good. That’s all I need is that I know someone’s I do this so that you and I can talk or like, you know, I have different guests on those. These conversations are personal for me. They’re my way to connect to people, especially right now where we’re all quarantined. So if somebody listened and said, Hey, I learned something or I was entertained. God knows I’m terrifically unfunny except for some B+ dad jokes. it’s enjoyable. So when you say if I influence one person as a joke, I think you probably influenced you had more of an influence and you think
Keith Stoeckeler 4:49
probably I’m terrible at that my own public relations.
Adam Pierno 4:55
You need a hype man.
Keith Stoeckeler 4:57
I do. I’m a hype man for so many people, but no Nobody’s nobody’s wanted to be my well you’re doing a fine job so far I’m working on it my friend jack checks in the mail. Hey, it’s you know, one person a handful of people I get it. We should not get caught up on on the mass quantities. I totally get it.
Adam Pierno 5:15
Why did you stop? You let it lapse for a little while? Why did you stop it just get bored, you got busy?
Keith Stoeckeler 5:22
Probably I think you could probably make that excuse. I think it felt to me like it ran its course I didn’t know what to do with it next. You know, I didn’t have a next evolution of it. It just felt like more of the same. And after three years, I didn’t want to continue to do it. And I guess I just stopped it for all of those reasons. But the fact that I could bring it back years later, especially right now I think is more more special to me than if I had done it the entire time.
Adam Pierno 5:54
What kind of reaction Did you get when you started telling people you either a brought it back or we’re bringing it back on How much I mean, how much planning? Or did you just care? I’m just gonna buy the URL and go back to Squarespace. Put it up, Ruth kind of build it what it looks like before and just see what happens.
Keith Stoeckeler 6:09
That’s pretty much it. I will acknowledge Kim blight who was talking to her about podcasts, and she said, You should make the call that inspires me podcast. And I don’t know, I don’t want to do that. And then I woke up just thinking about the blog. And that’s when I said, All right, let me just put it back up. And maybe I’ll think of a different way I won’t assign days I won’t reach out to people. There’s a submission form on the site. You submit if I like it, I posted it as soon as I can. And that’s it. So there’s no real. I’m trying not to edit anything. I think everyone that’s the most fascinating to me, everyone sends it to me as if I’m an editor like if you have any. If you have any changes or anything, I’m open like I don’t if you have typos if you write however you want to write I’m posting this thing I don’t I don’t want to edit or critique anything.
Adam Pierno 6:56
So do you What’s your standard you read it is it based on the office And kind of like, I know this is a smart person, I’m going to scan this thing. I like this idea it’s going up.
Keith Stoeckeler 7:06
Yes. And most of them are short, I haven’t really given the direction that you should think of it like a tweet. But that’s kind of what I’m thinking. Just to give people an idea, I think a lot of people think it’s such a big task, I have to sit down to write something like just tell me what’s on your mind, or share a link to something or what’s making you smile these days? Or who is making you smile these days. So it shouldn’t be such a big thing. But yeah, I’ll scan it. And then quite honestly, I’ll read it in its entirety once it’s been posted. Because I know there’s not a ton of people hitting the site and I have to fix anything. It’s just, I like to see it in that environment.
Adam Pierno 7:43
Talk to me about the idea of reducing the discipline. It sounds like you were on a bit of a rat wheel. I ran a site like this called hunting the spark for a little while to that was I was writing two posts a week and I was getting guest posts and I was doing I don’t think I had a podcast. Yeah, it was pre before I understood how to do that. But I was doing video interviews and via friggin Skype, if you can believe that they were the worst. The quality of them was just terrible. But I wonder, I stopped doing that specifically because all of a sudden was just like, I don’t want to keep doing it at this pace. And it was for me, it was binary, like, if I’m going to do the site, it has to be this much, which, why I have no idea but in my brain, I felt like that’s how much it had to be. So I just, I’d like that day deleted everything, took the site down and stopped working on it. Is that is that part of your approach now is to make sure mindfully that you’re not, you’re not allowing that.
Keith Stoeckeler 8:41
Yes. And and that is for sure. Part of the reason that I let it go and was okay with letting it go. It felt like more of a task than you know, a fun thing. And in our space, I read a lot about you know, all these content creators influencers, if you will, who are Mentally taxed with I’ve got to put out content every single day.
Adam Pierno 9:04
They have to feed whatever algorithm they’re serving.
Keith Stoeckeler 9:07
Right? Um, and so that’s not me. I’m nowhere near that. But it did a little bit feel like that I have to get up what is inspiring me? What What have I seen today? The fact is I could go it could go a couple days and not have inspiration and that should be okay. But yes, it felt like a chore
Adam Pierno 9:24
that starts to drain you to be that would start to drain me to be always on the quest for inspiration. Now it’s like, oh, does this inspire me? I’m not sure. But I gotta post something. I’m not sure. How do I feel about this? Like, I just want I just want to walk on the street with my kid and not think about this blog at all. It’s not important right now.
Keith Stoeckeler 9:43
And where’s the bar? It used to be all these things were really interesting to me. And now I’m like, okay, that fits the criteria. I don’t want to get to that point. So, for me, I’m not going to commit to writing anything. And the cool thing about the site now is I’m using to different font colors and two different fonts. So I am the small black. And I’m not stating that but I think as you read it, you can figure out that to me, everyone else is in quotes in the larger font and color. So I’m going to inject myself where I can, but for the most part, it’s going to be people who, you know, want to send me their stuff and what I didn’t plan on. And the unfortunate part is how so many people are dealing with loss of work, loss of income. And when I messaged a few people, I didn’t I haven’t really shared this too broadly, but just Hey, you were you did share some stuff back in, in the day when we had this thing. I would love you to come back and some of them and said, You know, I’m in a really dark place right now. I don’t know if what is inspiring me and that’s a tough, that’s a tough thing. And some of them have have submitted some stuff I’ve yet to really post it. So I’m sort of just looking at it, but um, they’ve commented on how great it was to kind of get out of that headspace. And find something more positive. So, back to if you can inspire or you know, affect one person, I believe I’ve already done that in pulling somebody out of a mental space that they acknowledge themself wasn’t wasn’t all that positive. So this has been a win already. And we’ve I guess I launched it a few days ago. So I’m really happy about it. Glad I could do that for people and want to continue. What are you doing to distract yourself with anything? Nothing really. It’s funny. This also came out of so a few weeks maybe I shouldn’t say weeks. It’s probably longer than that. A few months ago, I posted on Twitter and said with any dads be interested in joining a chat and I just
Adam Pierno 11:41
saw, I saw
Keith Stoeckeler 11:42
Okay, I wanted to get a sense of like, how many people are you interested in So fast forward? It’s me and 12 other guys in a WhatsApp. completely organic, did not plan any of it. It was like Literally the first 12 people who said, I’m interested over Twitter and I sent them the link. What has been interesting about it is two or three of these guys are living outside the US. One or two is separated, and doesn’t have their kids full time. And there are older kids younger kid, like, we’re the whole spectrum. And so there’s a lot of different personalities and opinions and backgrounds. And it’s been really cool. But that chat has now transitioned to, you know, kovat and what are you doing? The guys outside the US are reporting on what’s happening to them. So it’s been kind of interesting, but we’re talking about everything but one of the guys said, you know, we’re getting very personal and I don’t really have a lot of background on you guys. I’m going to spin up a Google doc and just fill in your details. One of them said, you know, your background How old are your kids? Where do you work? What do you what do you really into and then hobbies which I hate because I really have none, and I wrote that I said I don’t have any iPhone. And I certainly enjoy going out to grab a drink or eat food when we’re not quarantined, but I really don’t. And I’m trying to work on that. And maybe maybe it’s my understanding of hobbies, and maybe I set the bar too high, but I really don’t. You know, I’m working from home with the kids. And I’m trying to do little things here and there, but I see all these big initiatives and podcasts and things people are building and I don’t have any of that. I don’t I you know, I’m trying to figure it out.
Adam Pierno 13:33
Well, is it his hobbies, like, there’s a reason I live in Arizona, and so golf is normally huge here. Not at the moment. But whenever I talk to someone from out of town, they go, Oh, you must golf a lot. I don’t golf. Never have never, never swung a club. Because I don’t want I watch people who golf, and they leave the course like talking about the one great shot they made and the two shots that we’re doing. is close to being good, but God damn it if they couldn’t just get their act together and pull their elbow in or whatever. And I’m like, I don’t need another thing to be substandard at that I’m like always thinking about how much I suck and if I could just improve my handicap. And that’s how I think that’s how I’ve always thought of hobbies. Like, I don’t want to, I don’t need another thing I suck at in my life. I’ve got enough, I’ve got enough things. But recently, a couple months ago, I went back and I always played the drums, but I haven’t for a while. I bought a drum kit and now I’m just playing just for fun. And I’ll just go out and bang on the drums for a little while and, you know, give myself lessons. YouTube is an amazing place to find people to give you lessons and learn different rudiments and different tricks. And that’s all I’m doing. I don’t have to try to be like, I’m not going to try to join rush. I’m just going to play the drums and have fun and and do it but even my mind said even then it’s like I should go. I’ll get the practice pad out and I’ll just play I’ll just work for an hour, it’s like what am I doing? Why am I doing this? I don’t need to I don’t need to take it that seriously like I just trying to keep it fun and light and moving along when I have time to do it.
Keith Stoeckeler 15:10
I think that’s the thing like if you start practicing a lot does does it become less of a hobby? Is it still a hobby? I am a drummer. I haven’t done it in a long time. I’ve actually been contemplating getting those electric drum kits. I think those are pretty interesting but I had I had
Adam Pierno 15:27
a kid I had a rolling kit A long time ago and I lived in an apartment Believe it or not, and it was perfect. It’s perfect for that now I have a small space in my garage which is good seven months of the year in the summertime is pretty gross but we’ll find out how that goes.
Keith Stoeckeler 15:43
Yeah, we’re not there yet. No. I get it now I get it I probably golf once or twice a year. So I mean, I don’t know do I put that down as a hobby I mean, maybe it’s it’s a it’s a time thing for me like how often you do something and I don’t do Anyone thing often enough that I that I just shut down and say, I don’t have a lot of hobbies, but I guess if we talk about it, I think I’m into stuff. I just don’t do it enough.
Adam Pierno 16:09
I kind of think back to when I was growing up that people in my neighborhood would work on cars, they might say that was their hobby, or my uncle had a workbench and he was always like, tinkering around with putting stuff together and taking stuff apart. I don’t think the world is so much in one or two devices now that it’s hard to know what’s I, you know, especially as I’ve been working from home this week. It’s like, Okay, well, I’m home. But I’m still working because I’m still checking my computer. We have a big project that to do. I’m not, you know, I don’t know where one ends and one’s big one begins because there really is no clear separation. And don’t do not send me tips from working from home about creating separation. I understand the rules. If you’re listening, and it’s hard,
Keith Stoeckeler 16:57
it’s hard. I saw somebody tweet the other day Day I desperately miss the ride from work to home. Like just having those little things. Yeah, you’re right. You’re totally right.
Adam Pierno 17:09
I don’t know who said it, but those those 20 minutes or however long it is where you’re just transitioning from one space to the other space. Now is is a very critical time. I should probably when I’m done working, if I if I was able to say this is it for sure. I’m not going to check email again. You know, go walk around the block or something with headphones on just to Yeah, just to stretch the legs.
Keith Stoeckeler 17:33
I like that. I think I might institute that next next week. Like, what’s the time that I would normally leave work go out, take a walk for the time or close to it that it would take me to drive home and then walk back into the house. I like that a lot. I’m gonna try that. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Adam Pierno 17:51
I like it. I like it a lot. I think there’s too much. There’s too much trade off for me going back and forth on. I know I wish I had the discipline to come back and Okay, that’s it. I’m not gonna check email or I’m officially done with work, but I just don’t. I don’t think I’ll do.
Keith Stoeckeler 18:06
It’s hard to do. I’ve always been somebody that as soon as I get hungry for dinner, I guess it’s mentally I just turn that switch. And so I can answer a few emails after or certainly after I put the kids to bed, but I’m not working. I don’t feel like that’s working. That’s just me communicating. But I’ll get up super early and do it. It’s just me. I can’t I can’t continue to do it once it’s dinner. That’s kind of like my shut off time.
Adam Pierno 18:28
Yeah, I don’t I also don’t know where the line is now. Because, you know, even we’re recording this. It’s a Saturday. I don’t know. There’s I have a couple of episodes queued up that have been recorded, edited, ready to go. And I reached out to the guests and I said, Hey, if you don’t feel like you want this episode out there right at the moment, because you’re not comfortable during what’s happening. Just let me know. No worries, I don’t care. And a couple people said, Yeah, let’s just this is hold it I’m not sure If it’s okay, I’m not sure if it’s appropriate. I’m not sure if it’s gonna come off as tone deaf even though the conversations have nothing to do with. They’re not related to what we’re dealing with. I think a lot of it seems like Netflix is safe. We’re allowed to talk about Netflix, we’re allowed to talk about Spotify still seems okay, making fun of celebrities always in vogue. But if you’re, uh, you know, I see a lot of marketing thought leaders still spouting the same inspiral content. And I’m like, What are you doing? That’s what are you doing right now? So I’m trying to figure out where’s the line?
Keith Stoeckeler 19:42
It’s hard. I think we’re all trying to figure it out. I think a lot of brands are paralyzed, for lack of a better word, and I don’t blame them. And I don’t think I would advise them any differently. I think the the joke has been, you know, every brand that was joining the news social network would want to then publicize about it. Now it’s of course, we have to send the covert email. And I’m thinking you really don’t.
Adam Pierno 20:08
You really don’t. Nobody’s waiting for you to weigh in on this. Yeah.
Keith Stoeckeler 20:14
And it’s been a nice, I mean, Black Friday, the holidays are typically a good time for me to unsubscribe this past week. I think I’ve been more. It’s the vets in New York that I haven’t been to in years, all these brands that still have your email address saying I want to make you understand what we’re doing about Covidien. It’s like, that’s great. But then none of them are really updating social. They’re not updating their website. I saw a tweet earlier today about how important that is because people are looking you up on social to see if you are open, what are your new policies, and if there’s no information, in the case of this person, they went to a competitor or they went somewhere else and so You have to communicate, but you don’t necessarily have to send the same blanket email that’s going out. from everybody these days.
Adam Pierno 21:08
There’s a way to share information without doing jazz hands and coming across as an idiot. But you’re right if you’re especially if you’re a retailer and you’re like, Hey, I actually have toilet paper. What’s a way that is reasonable for me to say that so people who are who are nearby that need this right now know that they can come get it? But yeah, I don’t think my old web hosting service needs to send me an update uncovered. 90 precautions are taken. I don’t give a shit. Yeah, because that doesn’t change that. Not that it’s particularly
Keith Stoeckeler 21:45
a big deal unless you make a lot of revenue from podcasts. But you know, back to the whole commuting and tying that back off on on podcast. I was wondering if we’re going to see a sharp decrease in podcasts listens because people are not commuting. I could just tell you from my experience, I have a backlog of stuff I haven’t listened to because I’m not in the car, I’m not going to work. I’m not leaving work. And I’m trying to figure that out, too. I mean, maybe they’ll start doing something in the new week of let me work on something that I don’t have to completely focus on. And let me put a podcast on in the background, but I have to think people are just consuming less, at least of that medium and the things that they used to do when they were commuting.
Adam Pierno 22:26
Yeah, audio was on an extreme upward trajectory audio everything audio books, streaming, music streaming, you know, Spotify, and all the competitive services and podcasts. Were all off the charts and this is probably stunting them. That does definitely um, that’s my experience as well as the commute both ways. I can’t go to the gym. So even if I am doing any kind of exercises at home, so that’s the time it takes us cut in half. The effects are also cut probably enjoy way down. But yeah, I think that’s true for a lot of people. Unless there’s people taking their dogs for extra extra long walks, which I salute you people.
Keith Stoeckeler 23:10
They probably are. I’ve heard about a lot of people going into the office or going somewhere in isolation just to get out of the house. And I don’t think it’s a change of scenery. I think there’s other things going on. You know, I joked and when I shared the tweet with my wife of 88 couples are out of quarantine in China, and we filed for divorce. And then I realized there’s all the domestic violence overtones of that too, which I’d neglected to think about. So it’s, it’s getting real on on many levels.
Adam Pierno 23:39
Yeah, the the, the weird 10 gentle or the knock on effects that all that will see from this kind of social experiment that we’re in right now. There’ll be a baby, boom, there’ll be a divorce, boom. Both in some cases. I mean, it’s okay, who knows?
Keith Stoeckeler 23:59
I said that Somebody other day what what’s your bet is it more babies are more divorces and they said hands down divorces like man that is that is so sad.
Adam Pierno 24:08
That’s a bleak, bleak, bleak outlook.
Keith Stoeckeler 24:12
Yeah, thank you. So back to all that inspires me.
I really appreciate you running an ad for this blog and not knowing what we’re gonna get and what we’re gonna do with it. I love it.
Adam Pierno 24:23
That’s okay. I think it’s interesting that your the timing of the launch is interesting to me that the the reason you’re launching it is because you were seeking stuff right now at a time when people need to be inspired people need something positive to look at. We got the news is just a terrible. I mean, every going back for four or five years, every year has been the worst news years ever. And now it’s like maybe this is really the worst. Maybe this is really, really the worst. And every day I’m like, Oh, no, I got worse. Yeah, go worse again. So
Keith Stoeckeler 24:59
I think if we take 2019 back here.
Adam Pierno 25:04
Did they make those kind of trades? Can we do that?
Keith Stoeckeler 25:07
I don’t know, somebody somebody was talking to me about we’re gonna have to deal with this stuff probably once every decade. I mean, it’s just I don’t know if that’s, you know, climate change or whatever is going on. But it’s Yeah, I stuff is feeling more frequent. And I certainly think it will stay that way, unfortunately. But I’m no economist and I work in advertising. So I can say all that and not have to pay any of it off, but I do believe
Adam Pierno 25:36
it was right. Yeah. It feels right. feels right. I don’t have any data, but it feels nuts.
Keith Stoeckeler 25:42
How have you, how have you seen universities? I mean, you know, when they get into what you’ve got going on, but like, are we finding that schools are prepared for this, not necessarily this exact situation, but learning online and learning away from in person in the classroom. I mean, Were we prepared or we’re kind of spinning stuff up? Now because of the need,
Adam Pierno 26:07
you know, there’s been so much advancement in online learning at a higher ed level that universities low, ASU is definitely ready to do this. So going back to I can’t remember if it was January or February, I was in a, in a leadership meeting where someone said when we you know, if this goes the way it looks like it’s going to go we are going to send an announcement and change on a dime and we’re getting the systems ready to do that. And it’s been technologically it has been flawless or near flawless. I think there’s emotions at play for students who maybe if your final semester senior, and you’re told like, No, no, you’re gonna have to do this through a laptop and you’re not going to get to have the experience of being a final semester senior. You know, across the country. If you’re at a you know, you chose that school. You’re with your friends, you’re getting ready to walk down the aisle and get your diploma. That’s got to be an emotional time. And then for, for anybody that was an immersion student, an on campus student and not an A online student, that changing direction is like, well, I actually signed up for this version. And now I’m getting the same to understand I’m getting the education but what does that mean to me that that’s, that’s emotionally jarring. And so I think we’re ready for the, the teaching part for the basics of the teaching part are there, the infrastructure is built, I’ve been doing zoom chats all week and sort of you and taking courses and taking trainings as I’m supposed to do, and I’m sure you and most of the listeners have, on some level done the same thing. Students are doing that too. But there’s the emotional side of it, the interpersonal side of it as part of learning that I don’t know how much that changes. So I know the universities are are for the most part really prepared for the learning to continue. But I don’t know how you replace the the interaction with people.
Keith Stoeckeler 28:08
Yeah, the emotion is I think everyone’s figuring it out. I think that’s why we’re seeing virtual happy hours. And we’re just trying to go back to the stuff that was tried and true to me. And we knew, but maybe those are helping. But yeah, I don’t know if you can and how best to replicate the emotional aspect of it.
Adam Pierno 28:26
Yeah. And that’s, I think that is part of what we’re learning overall, is how social our people Mm hmm. We’re figuring that out on our own right now. While we’re you know, we’ve been joking for a long time that we’re all isolating ourselves and communicating through tiny glass screens, but now is true. Yeah, I mean, I
Keith Stoeckeler 28:51
I don’t I don’t I was just gonna say I don’t know how it is over there in Arizona, but you know, here in Connecticut, and I’ll call it the tri state mostly Have the restaurants and things, even liquor stores, everything’s like curbside pickup. You don’t to go in, I took my dog to the vet and I, I didn’t think I had to I call to just say like, I’m sure you’re doing more urgent needs at this time, but like I just wanted to talk you through and if you think I need to bring her in, I’ll bring her in. And then they sent me an email that said, Yeah, you you park in the parking lot you call us, we’ll come out and then we’ll call you when they’re done. You come back and pick them up. And so I wondered, late later yesterday afternoon, I actually think I tweeted about this too, because most of the stuff that’s in my head has to go through Twitter. And the only way you know it was a real fungus. Yeah, I can’t just let it sit in my head. I mean, God forbid. But that’s super convenient. And how much of that is going to stay once this is all over? Because I think a lot of people wanted it. A lot of people are going to get used to it. And I don’t think a lot of people are going to want to part with it. I mean, this has been pretty cool. And I say that You know, understanding that these businesses are doing these things to stay afloat. I that’s not lost on me. But the convenience is pretty great. And I do hope it stays.
Adam Pierno 30:11
Yeah, there’s some things that change when there’s a like a kind of an epoch shift. And once you know, when the internet first came, we thought it was going to be one thing, but it really wasn’t that thing until social media came, we thought it was going to be what it is roughly today, video chats and all that stuff that didn’t happen until oh five says was way delayed from the late 90s. But now, there was a lot of talk a lot of trend in the restaurant world and in a retail world about people want less interaction they want they want more convenience, less friction, and now it’s like, Hey, we were figuring that out right now because we have to do just to keep things going. I mean, watch drive thru COPPA testing, where there’s just lines of cars, you stick your tongue out of the window, they swap it. Take care Information and then you drive on. That’s an insane level of efficiency that is terrifying on one level. And then I’m like, Yeah, but like, that’s pretty amazing that somebody figured out like, no, this is how we’ll engineer it will snake line this way. So it works in this parking lot that already exists. You know, it’s a, whatever it is. Why would we go back to some of the old ways like, I don’t want to go in and small talk with my vet. Someone will come out and get the dog great.
Keith Stoeckeler 31:27
No kidding. obby the waiting area, I don’t have to wonder what big dogs and they come in. And now we got a problem. Like they everything’s been, you know, one on one and Wait just a second. We have somebody coming in now. And it’s all in the interest of keeping people separate, but I love it. Quite frankly. days.
Adam Pierno 31:48
Yeah, I think there’s a way that it can be. A lot of this stuff will be adopted. It’ll be interesting to see which bits day in which bits go and it’ll be interesting to say which which businesses build on it. Everything’s always in evolution, you know, there’s no final state. So what does? What does this? The next iteration of this look like for the businesses that really go Oh, now that we understand like your liquor store? reference now that we understand we can do curbside? How about ABC? Like, what if we set up a kiosk right there, you know, like a valet Park situation where someone just pulls up and we take an order on a tablet and someone else is running back and forth. Yeah, yeah. more optimized forever.
Keith Stoeckeler 32:31
It’s, it’s been cool to see I mean, the liquor store in particular, got to sandwich boards, nice print, you know, they really rush this thing you could tell he didn’t have it in advance based on the material that’s on the sign. But I picked up this here and there in a small shopping center. So I got an email from them that they were doing delivery, they’re also doing curbside pickup and then the next email I got from them is they’re partnering with some of the businesses in the Shopping Center. So there’s like a place where you can pick up fresh made pasta, for instance, you can get the pasta and any liquor you want delivered by the liquor store. I think that’s fantastic. So I think and hope that some of these businesses don’t lose that and say, Look, we had to come together in this time, and we’re gonna stay coming together and figure out how we can do more business together.
Adam Pierno 33:22
Yeah, and for that positive place, that’s probably the best competitive hedge they have against things like doordash and grubhub. That were eating their lunch. Yeah, for sure.
Keith Stoeckeler 33:32
I’m also curious. I mean, that’s interesting. You bring that up that they’ve all dropped their delivery fees and stuff to like, zero. how’s that gonna go? And we’re out of the woods. And everyone’s like, oh, by the way, we’re gonna take that 30% again, I mean, this is gonna be hard.
Adam Pierno 33:46
Yeah, there’s gonna be a lot of turbulence coming back out of this. All these that’s another knock on effect. It’s like everybody’s trying to do the right thing now and then we go, Well, if it was the right thing, then why isn’t it the right thing now like, why? A small Thai place around the corner from my house getting pulverized by you just because you have the scale to charge your mat fee.
Pretty greedy. Yeah,
Keith Stoeckeler 34:11
it’s gonna be interesting. Yeah, I’m sure you know you, me and whoever listens to this and 8% of the population is really thinking.
This is what stays on my mind. I’m sorry.
Adam Pierno 34:26
Yeah, I hope anybody listening understands we are we are trying to distract ourselves as best we can. And we’re trying to distract you and I hope it is working.
Keith Stoeckeler 34:36
I hope it helped if it didn’t send all your hate mail to Adam.
Adam Pierno 34:39
Yeah, that’s right. You could send it right to me on Twitter. A peer now you can send right to me. I’ll take it. My dams are open. That’s nice. Keith, where can people find you online?
Keith Stoeckeler 34:52
Twitter man, if I say anything else I I’d be just going against the brand. So I’m
s on Twitter. I’m easily found.
Adam Pierno 35:01
Alright, that’s awesome. Thank you for joining me. I appreciate your willingness to distract me, like I said for about an hour and it was time well spent for me.
Keith Stoeckeler 35:12
Good. I mean, I’m gonna listen as a hobby. Now on Saturdays I joined impromptu podcast so
Adam Pierno 35:19
I think we found my hobby at the this is this has really been the outcome. I’m very thankful for this. If you’re listening, Keith, it’s available for you next Saturday at 3pm. Eastern he will be standing by with a microphone. He’s got a nice setup going so he’s ready for you.
Keith Stoeckeler 35:34
I’m not gonna leave
I don’t know any other different work and home is the same. It’s all blending. You said it was Saturday. I quite frankly thought it was Sunday. So here we are.
Adam Pierno 35:45
Oh, yeah, it’s all good. So cute. They’ll just be sitting there in a zoo waiting for someone to pipe in and enjoy them and turn it into a podcast.
Keith Stoeckeler 35:53
I have the screen that says waiting for attendees so anyone can pop in.
Adam Pierno 35:59
Alright, and this has been Great, thank you so much for making time. I appreciate it.
Keith Stoeckeler 36:19
Appreciate it.