Over The Bull

Send us Fan Mail Fifteen years ago I got handed a diagnosis, a stack of prescriptions and a shrug about getting older. Six months later I’d reversed all of it, and not because I had better information than my doctors. I just wouldn’t accept that the question was closed. In this episode I dig into the real danger behind a lot of bad decisions, which is manufactured certainty. That’s the confident a...

Send us Fan Mail Say your lease says no pets and you get a dog anyway. For eight months nobody notices, and somewhere in there you stop thinking of it as a rule you're breaking. Then one neighbor makes one phone call and you've got thirty days. That's the internet right now. Your Google listing, your Facebook page, your reviews, whatever books your appointments, whatever sends your...

Send us Fan Mail Six words: how do I show up in AI search. The answer looked great. Bullet points, bold headers, links. It also couldn't tell what the question meant, built its advice out of marketing blogs and LinkedIn posts, and ran sponsored ads for two companies selling the exact service it just said you needed. Thirty years in this business and Ken sat there genuinely unable to tell whic...

Send us Fan Mail Ken got back with a stack of messages... and a good chunk of them were people asking him to Google things for them. Not strategy. Just look-it-up-for-me. That absurd little moment opens a bigger question: what happens to a business when its people stop thinking for themselves? This week on Over the Bull, Ken digs into cognitive offloading ... the habit of handing every mental task...

Send us Fan Mail One business watched its Google reviews drop from 4,651 to 63 overnight. Terrifying... until you understand what's actually happening. On this episode of Over the Bull, Ken Carroll connects two stories the local SEO world is treating as separate: Google's June 24 spam update and the wave of disappearing reviews and review responses. They're not two stories. They&apo...

Send us Fan Mail For years, the internet let you follow people. Tag a visitor on your site, chase them across Facebook and Google, and close the sale later. That playbook is dying, and most business owners haven't noticed yet. Third-party cookies, the tracking tags that made retargeting possible, are getting phased out. Not all at once. Not evenly. Depending on where your customers live and w...

Send us Fan Mail Cheap vendors have always cut corners. What's changed is the disguise. Now they're using AI to churn out website content and HTML in a weekend, and it looks polished enough to fool business owners who don't know what to look for. In this episode, Ken breaks down why the real problem isn't the price tag, it's what's happening underneath the hull. He wa...

Send us Fan Mail There's a quiet line a lot of business owners are crossing right now without noticing it: letting AI build things they couldn't rebuild, repair, or even explain on their own. It feels like leverage. Ken thinks it's a liability waiting to go off—what he calls "the big burst." In this episode, he gets into how he spent two weeks fine-tuning the way he actual...

Send us Fan Mail Every business owner has had the moment: wait, why are we paying for two phone systems? That's a Frankenstack ... the pile of overlapping tools you end up with when tech moves so fast nobody stops to turn the old one off. In this one we get into why it happens (every platform now wants to do every job ... your CRM does payments, your payment tool does texting), and why the re...

Send us Fan Mail Everybody's got an AI take right now — it's coming for your job, or it's the second coming. Ken thinks both camps are wrong, and the truth is more boring and a lot more useful than either one. This one's off the cuff: from the blacksmiths who didn't disappear (they evolved) to the calculator that was "cheating" in the '80s and required by th...

Send us Fan Mail Most business owners think hiring a marketing agency is a one-way transaction — you pay, they deliver. But the truth is, the client side of the relationship matters just as much, and there are two behaviors that quietly sabotage results every time. In this episode, Ken walks through two real stories: the client who couldn't stop chasing the next shiny idea, and the one who on...

Send us Fan Mail Artificial Intelligence is an incredible tool… but a lot of people are using it in ways that are actually making them worse at business. In this episode of Shooting the Bull, we talk about the growing problem with AI-generated overload: massive punch lists, bloated emails, surface-level analysis, and the endless stream of “smart sounding” content that often creates more confusion...

Send us Fan Mail Most business owners don’t have a data problem—they have a clarity problem. In this episode of Shooting the Bull, we’re talking about why more tracking, more reports, and more “insight” isn’t actually helping you make better decisions… and in a lot of cases, it’s doing the opposite. If you’ve ever looked at your marketing reports and still had no idea what’s working—or worse, felt...

Send us Fan Mail This week, we’re switching things up and just shooting the bull. No script, no fluff—just real, off-the-cuff conversations about the stuff small business owners actually deal with every day. From burnout and hiring to marketing mistakes and pricing struggles, we’re tackling real questions with honest answers. If you’ve ever felt like you’re figuring it out as you go… you’re not al...

Send us Fan Mail Most businesses have no idea where their phone calls are actually coming from—and it’s costing them more than they realize. In this episode, we break down the difference between static numbers and dynamic call tracking (DNI), why guessing your marketing results is a dangerous game, and how improper tracking quietly drains your budget. We also cover: •How to actually track calls fr...

Send us Fan Mail If your website isn’t bringing you leads, it’s not because you need better design. It’s because your website isn’t doing its job. In this episode, we break down the real reasons most small business websites fail—from vague messaging and weak structure to missing trust and no clear path for customers to take action. We also call out a major issue: too many businesses are copying bi...

Send us Fan Mail AI-generated images are everywhere right now—and depending on who you ask, they’re either a game-changing tool or a risky shortcut. In this episode of Over The Bull, we break down what’s actually true. We cover the real-world pros and limitations of AI images, including where they work, where they fall apart, and why many design and sign companies are pushing back. We also get int...

Send us Fan Mail RESOURCES: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/using-gen-ai-content https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-e-e-a-t-how-to-demonstrate-first-hand-experience/474446/ https://searchengineland.com/demonstrate-e-...

Send us Fan Mail Here’s the reality most business owners eventually face: The system favors scale. Large companies are not built on fairness. They’re built on optimization — for margin, protection, and legal defensibility. And when you enter into agreements with entities that have more capital, more legal infrastructure, and more time than you, you are not operating on equal ground. In this episod...

Send us Fan Mail What worked in January might already be dead. The half-life of strategy is shrinking. AI tools evolve monthly. Search behavior shifts. Paid ads tighten. Privacy rules expand. Algorithms adjust. And most businesses are still running last quarter’s playbook. In this episode, we break down hard data on: • Google Ads decay and why generic landing pages burn money • The real relationsh...

Send us Fan Mail Legacy media isn’t collapsing because digital exists. It’s struggling because it’s trying to sell digital services it wasn’t built to deliver. Newsrooms are shrinking. Journalists are being laid off. Entire sections are disappearing. At the same time, many historic media brands are expanding into SEO, website development, social media management, and digital advertising. The quest...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is designed to cut through Google Business Profile (GBP) folklore by deferring authority directly to Google’s published documentation. Where Google is silent, we clearly label recommendations as risk-based, experience-driven guidance—not official policy. Google’s Stance: - The business name must reflect real-world usage and branding. - Legal registration alone is not...

Send us Fan Mail This episode wasn’t recorded lightly. We talk about the words that show up when business relationships break down—and how those words often carry more weight than the facts behind them. From “hijacked” to “held hostage,” we unpack where these phrases come from, when they’re legitimate, and when they do more harm than good. Support the show This show breaks down the unglamorous mar...

Send us Fan Mail Artificial intelligence is moving fast. Faster than most businesses are ready for. In this episode of Over the Bull, Ken Carroll digs into what it really means to operate in a transhuman business world—where AI tools and human judgment now overlap. Sparked by a frustrating spam-style outreach email, this conversation cuts through the noise around automation, “AI marketing,” and sh...

Send us Fan Mail Lately, it feels like everything is getting more expensive, more complicated, and harder to trust. Insurance companies are pulling back. Marketing platforms keep changing the rules. Vendors promise protection, optimization, or “peace of mind,” but struggle to explain what they’re actually doing—or why it’s working. In this episode of Over The Bull, we step back from the noise and...