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Welcome to do this not that, the podcast for marketers. We share quick tips, things you can do right now, and then we add a little bit of chaos at the end of every episode. We also keep it short, like this intro. Let's check it out. We are back for Ask Us Anything from the do this not that podcast is our short episode. We're all week long. We get in questions, we get in work questions, we get in super ridiculous questions, and we try to tackle one of each. If you want to submit one, you you be an extremely cool human, just go to jelson.com there's a button that says podcast, another one that says ask us anything. And I love getting the questions because without it, we can't do this show. So let's jump into let's do the Work question. First. We got a question from Kendra From Livingston, N.J. h, I always feel bad for people from New Jersey. New Jersey is an underrated state. And why do I feel bad? Not that you ask Kendra, because it's like. It's like New York's kind of armpit or something. No offense. And the reason I say that is like the New York jets and the New York Giants. The football teams, okay? That's what they're called. The New York Jets, New York Giants. Do you realize they play their games at the same stadium and the stadium is in New Jersey? How insulting is that that you have two NFL teams? There's no NFL team in New Jersey. Let's name New Jersey. But the two ones out of New York play in New Jersey and they're called New York teams. That's a joke. What is going on? Anyway, New Jersey. Here's some love for you all. Anyway. All right, Kendra, what's your question? Jay, we are trying to come up with content that will give us a boost going into the end of year, and we feel stuck. Anything that works particularly well this time of year. Okay, good question. And I got something good for you guys. Been good for everybody. Whether you are a consumer marketer, a nonprofit marketer, a business to business marketer, there is one content type that crushes it more than anything by a landslide, and that is calendar content. Okay, what do I mean by that? Let me first give you the stat on how well it does. So from November 1st through January 15th, this is the number one content type in terms of what drives, downloads, signups, contact, capture, whatever you want to call it. And that is calendar, downloadable calendar formats. So on the business side, okay, this is 300% higher than any other content type during that November through January 15, period. On the consumer side, 200% higher. And for nonprofit, over 160% higher according to World Data Research. Now what do I mean by that? So on the business to business side, this is magic. This is gold. My organization's been putting out the best and worst days to send out email calendar now for over 10 years. It's easily our most downloaded piece of content every year. And this is when we do our heavy push. But for anybody, the easiest thing that you can do to make a calendar content on the business to business side is an industry event calendar. You make a PDF, okay? You go out and find all the industry events, okay, that are key to your industry, whatever they are. And then on the calendar you, you have a special designation for your events. Like put the webinar dates that you're going to have, okay? Put whatever events that you're going to be exhibiting at and you kind of carve it out in a different color on the calendar or whatever other cool stuff you want upon the calendar layered in with all the industry stuff. Oh, this is when a new law goes into effect. This is when a big conference is. This is when something else happened. Who cares? Okay? You make the definitive and make industry events and information calendar for your industry and then you push it crazy hard. Hey, it's available now. It just came out. Just release. Let's go. And if you're not doing this, and you should be doing this annually, people will become excited about it every year. And this is how you can grow your data because everybody loves these calendars. They print them out, they put them on their wall. It is great. Now on the consumer side, you're like, well, I can't do this. Yes, you can. Okay, let's say that you are in, you know, some sort of lifestyle category, like I don't know, nutrition or wellness or whatever. You come out with the 365 day, you know, wellness calendar, the, the 2026 glow up calendar for daily skin care and self care, whatever, your 2026 hydration challenge calendar. I don't care what you sell or what service you provide, you can make this downloadable content piece which will create crush it for your category on the same thing. You know, a lot of the non profit folks are out there like, well, this doesn't apply to us. We can't do that. That's true. You know, the nonprofit world's perfect for this. Okay. You could put in the, the 12 month calendar reminding people of the impact that your nonprofits having each month. Okay. Or all the different ways that you can participate annually. Some days you, you, you give this month. It means this, you know, Some days you have these volunteering events you layered in there. Whatever industry you're in now is that moment you make a calendar. This might take you an hour to make the calendar. And then you ride this content for the next two months. It will crush it for you. This is a no brainer. All right, let's get into the ridiculous question. We got a question from Jared from Sacramento. All right, what do you got? Jared? Jay, do you think re gifting gifts to other people is bad? Well, okay, so I have something about this. But in general, here's the problem with regifting. I'm not against it at all, okay? But generally speaking, if you're re gifting it because you think the gift is horrendous, then that's not cool because then you're giving somebody else a pile of garbage. Now, if you're re gifting something because you already have the thing, right? Okay. And you really like it, great, that's fine. But the problem with re gifting is the whole return policy thing and all of that. I'll never forget my. One of my relatives re gifted something to another one of my relatives. And when they did it, they were like, dude, we, we're the family that gave this to you. That was so awkward. It was amazing. I love all things about that. But here's what happened the other day, and I want to know everyone's take on this. So I would. We went to some sort of a party thing, right? And we brought this little gift for the people that are having the party, me and my wife. And we came in and we gave the gift and it was in a gift bag, okay? And I went to hand it to this dude who's having the party, whatever, and I gave it to him. And he goes, hey, did you re re gift the gift bag? I said, what? And he's like, this gift bag is this one that, like, you got and whatever. And by the way, it was, who cares? And I'm like, yeah, we reuse gift bags. Like, what's your deal? He's like, oh, I don't know. It's a little weird. That's what he says to me. A little weird. I was like, what are you talking about? First of all, anybody who thinks that reusing a gift bag is weird is a loser. And I hope that dude is listening to because you're a loser. I don't care if you're listening. I, I listen. I don't even want to. I didn't want to be there to begin with. Sorry. Don't care. It was horrendous party. That's what I have to say about that. Yeah, I'm okay with that. Please uninvite me, disinvite me. I don't care. But if anybody out there shames anybody else for reusing a gift bag, I don't. What? What do you do? You get it and then you take it out and then you throw out the gift bag. Who does that? I don't even think if you're like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk and you have a gabillion dollars you would do that. That's just not what a human being does. And if somebody calls somebody else on is a giant, epic loser, tool, nerd, dweeb, geek, horrendous human. I don't know what I'm talking about. There you go. I said it. All right, what do we get out today? We got to make a calendar. That's important. We have re. Gifting is fine if the gift is not terrible and anybody that shames you on using a gift bag is unfriend material. And if this wasn't the worst podcast you ever listened to, I don't leave it a review. That would be awesome. You'd be my best friend. And we'll. We'll check in the next one later. You did it. You made it to the end. But wait, the party is not over. Listen, I want to keep hanging out. Subscribe to this podcast and if it wasn't the worst podcast you've ever listened to, give it a five star review. Why not? But you know what? I want to do even more with you. Go to gurumediahub.com and we can partner there. You can find out about all of our free events, all of our stuff, and if you're epically bored, go to jschweddelson.com and we could stay connected. You could find my newsletter and everything else I got going on. Thanks for being here and hope you subscribe.
Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson
Host: GURU Media Hub
Episode 442 – November 5, 2025
This episode centers around a fast-paced, Q&A-style exploration of practical end-of-year marketing tactics—with Jay fielding both a work-related question about Q4 content that drives results, and a lighthearted question about the ethics of regifting (plus a passionate rant about reusing gift bags). Expect actionable insights for marketers alongside Jay’s signature wit and directness.
(Work Question from Kendra, Livingston, NJ — 01:14)
Statistical Proof:
Jay opens by highlighting a data-driven “cheat code” for end-of-year marketing: downloadable calendar content outperforms all other content types from November 1st through January 15th.
How to Execute Calendar Content:
For B2B:
For B2C:
For Nonprofits:
Why This Works:
(Ridiculous Question from Jared, Sacramento — 07:00)
(Gift Bag Story — 08:29)
Reusing Gift Bags is NOT Weird:
Jay’s Bottom Line:
For Marketers:
For Gift-Givers:
Jay mixes sharp marketing insights with humor and everyday social commentary, leaving listeners both better equipped for Q4 and entertained as they go. If you want straightforward advice—and the occasional rant—this is an episode not to miss.