Personal Archives - Page 2 of 5

Hustle Culture vs. Chill Work

A few weeks ago, Wil Reynolds and I were on a video call together. I think I joined in a couple minutes after him, and the discussion was already starting: Someone on the call: “… just hustling”Rand: “Ugh, I hate hustle culture.” Wil: “Yo, Fish*, can you define hustle?”Rand: “Easy one. Hustling is working hard to work hard. It’s valuing…

Personal Psychology Seattle February 17, 2021

The Secret Is… There Is No Secret.

By Rand Fishkin

This is a blog post about spaghetti alla carbonara. It is also a blog post about the perfection of simple things. And about the remarkable effort required to perfect a craft, even a very simple one. And, finally, it’s about all that is wrong with the phrase: “The secret to great X is…“ Those six words have a terrible, seductive…

Events Personal November 30, 2020

The Best Damn Food & Drink Gift Guide on the Web

By Rand Fishkin

What’s in this guide that makes it so good? 37 small, privately-owned, high-quality businesses you’ll actually want to support, 75+ delicious food and beverage gifts that your friends and family will love to receive, and 0 slideshows, 0 ads, 0 affiliate links, and $0 dollars biasing the editorial recommendations. In short: everything you’d want in a food+beverage gift guide, nothing…

Data Marketing Personal November 23, 2020

I Blogged Every Night for a Week. It Went Terribly.

By Rand Fishkin

Friends, I want you to look at a Google Analytics traffic graph with me. It’s not pretty, but sometimes we can learn more from failures than from success. You see that, too, right? In the week of November 15-21, SparkToro’s website saw a slight decline in traffic that, for most of this year, only happens when we don’t publish anything…

Book Hiring Moz Personal October 10, 2020

I’m Ending My Tenure on Moz’s Board & Welcoming Tara Reed and Asia Orangio

By Rand Fishkin

The short, short version: After stepping down as CEO in 2014 and leaving the company in 2018, as of a signature earlier today, I’m officially off Moz’s board of directors. The incredibly impressive CEO & founder of DemandMaven, Asia (Matos) Orangio accepted my offer to fill the chairperson seat. Simultaneously, I nominated Apps Without Code‘s extraordinary founder and CEO, Tara…

Personal Psychology January 2, 2019

The Tyranny of Optimizing for Amplification

By Rand Fishkin

Every day, when I log into Twitter, open up LinkedIn, read my email, browse Trending or HN or Pocket, I’m in a perpetual statement of harsh, unrelenting judgement. To amplify or not to amplify? That is the question. Is it better to consume the content, extract my own value, and then move on, or is this article/tweet/picture/idea/quote worthy of sharing……

Personal Psychology Startups May 29, 2018

Pushing Back Against Shame and Failure (plus a story about D&D)

By Rand Fishkin

Recently, I had a series of epiphanies about my experiences as a founder. Please forgive the length of the post, and stick with me, I’ll do my best to make the journey worthwhile. I was eleven years old, maybe twelve, and my family lived way out in the middle of nowhere, in unincorporated King County. We were a 15 minute…

Moz Personal Startups February 27, 2018

My Last Day at Moz. My First Day at SparkToro.

By Rand Fishkin

17 years ago, I dropped out of college to work with my mom, Gillian, on the business that became Moz. For 7 years (from 2007-2014), I was that company’s CEO. For the last 4, I’ve been in a variety of individual contributor roles. And today, for me, that journey ends. On a scale of 0-10, where 0 is “fired and…

Moz Personal December 25, 2015

My Complicated Relationship with No Longer Being CEO

By Rand Fishkin

It’s been 22 months since I stepped down as the CEO of Moz and turned over the role to my longtime Chief Operating Officer and close friend, Sarah Bird. Since then I’ve recovered from depression, traveled to and keynoted dozens of events, started (and now nearly completed) a new product with a small team at Moz, and kept up my…

Personal Startups January 12, 2015

The False Narratives We Tell Ourselves

By Rand Fishkin

I carry a story around in my head. It’s not a true story. But it’s a story that’s hard to escape. It goes something like this: I started a company with my Mom when I was in my early twenties. We made lots of mistakes and went deeply into debt. We didn’t tell my Dad about that debt, so we…

Category: Personal

Hustle Culture vs. Chill Work

The Secret Is… There Is No Secret.

The Best Damn Food & Drink Gift Guide on the Web

I Blogged Every Night for a Week. It Went Terribly.

I’m Ending My Tenure on Moz’s Board & Welcoming Tara Reed and Asia Orangio

The Tyranny of Optimizing for Amplification

Pushing Back Against Shame and Failure (plus a story about D&D)

My Last Day at Moz. My First Day at SparkToro.

My Complicated Relationship with No Longer Being CEO

The False Narratives We Tell Ourselves

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