500th Episode!!đŸ”„ HATE Mail! Jay Shares it ALL!! | Ep. 500

1 May 2026 · 12 min · 6 chapters

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In short

Jay Schwedelson’s 500th episode of Do This, Not That, where he reads and responds to hate mail/unsubscribes he receives via jschwedelson.com and email, arguing haters are “losers” and that negative feedback shouldn’t drown out positive results. He also reiterates his marketing philosophy: keep episodes short/weird/useful, and continuously learn by publishing weekly (podcast/newsletter/Slack/social/email).

Guests

No guests. Only Jay reads messages himself.

Key claims

AI won’t “solve” environmental issues by avoiding it; marketing should include humanity (e.g., behind-the-scenes videos) even in regulated industries; sharing personal topics (like salmon or reality TV) is fine; video/speaking advice shouldn’t dismiss anxiety; everyone should have a weekly learning/output habit.

Notable examples

“People like you are why no one takes marketing seriously”; “You keep pushing AI
”; “Focus on the marketing stuff” (dating advice); “Nobody cares that you eat salmon”; “Do you even have a man card?” (reality TV); “You act like everyone should be on video.”

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Journey to 500 Episodes

0:46 to 2:28

Jay reflects on the evolution of the podcast and his initial struggles with long-form interviews.

“they were these long form, like, you know, hour long interviews with important people in marketing.”

The Reality of Hate Mail

2:29 to 3:45

Jay discusses the hate mail received and the importance of focusing on positive feedback.

“You know, we'll get a nasty unsubscribe in an email, or we'll get somebody that leaves a really awful review.”

Responses to Hate Mail

3:46 to 5:16

Jay shares specific examples of hate mail and provides his candid responses to them.

“So me not using it is not going to solve a lot of the world's problems.”

On Being Human in Marketing

5:17 to 7:11

Jay argues the importance of incorporating humanity into marketing strategies.

“And if you don't like me talking about salmon, I don't know what to tell you.”

Navigating Anxiety and Performance

7:12 to 8:02

Jay opens up about dealing with anxiety and how it affects his public persona.

“By the time I get my appetizer, I want to leave.”

The Importance of Continuous Learning

8:03 to 10:16

Jay emphasizes the need for marketers to engage in ongoing learning and share knowledge regularly.

“And me going on video or speaking doesn't help or hurt my anxiety.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:01Welcome 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 here for the 500th episode of this ridiculous podcast, Do This, Not That. Oh, well, what I want to do on this episode, I'm like, I got to do something special. I decided on this episode, I was going to read and I am going to read all the hate mail that I get. But before I get to all the hate mail that I get, when I started this podcast, oh, I hated doing it because when I started it, if you go back to the very, very first episodes, they were these long form, like, you know, hour long interviews with important people in marketing.

0:52And it was so boring. I didn't even want to listen. and I didn't, when I was doing the interviews, I'm like, oh my God, I can't, this is so terrible. And then I decided, you know what? Who cares? That's what you're supposed to do. Interview people for an hour, get their life story, find out about this, that, or whatever. I said, I don't want to do that. I want to make short episodes that are weird and useful and mildly, I don't know, different. So that's what I did. I appreciate if you've been here for checking it out for a while. You rock. If this is your first episode, well, welcome to really randomness.

1:26And so normally I just give out all these random marketing tips and stuff and I share stuff that's going on in my life, but we also get in a lot of hate mail. So I have a form on jschwedelson.com where you can click podcast and there's a form that says, ask us anything. And people put in questions that we answer, but then they also put in a lot of hate mail. And then people also email me a hate mail. And first of all, I think haters are losers. And just so you know what, I write back to every single piece of hate mail that we get, every mean unsubscribed that we get from my newsletter. We write back the same thing.

2:01We write back, smell you later. That's it. That's all we write back. And I don't care. I'm a big believer. And then I'll read the hate mail that I have, that in order to have people that are into what you're doing, you have to turn some people off. so it doesn't bother me at all. And I'm also sharing this hate mail, not just so that way you, I don't want you to feel bad for me. We get plenty of nice, you know, people say, oh my God, this show's great. We love you, all of that. So don't worry about me. But the reason I'm really sharing it is because we get confused. You know, we'll get a nasty unsubscribe in an email, or we'll get somebody that leaves a really awful review.

2:38And then we'll forget about all the positive stuff that people like your products or services. People will say nice things. People are enjoying what you're doing. And we just focus on the negative. And you know what? Haters are losers and they're having a bad day. They're just trying to get stuff off their chest, whatever. And who cares? That's a them problem. So here we go. I have a bunch of these that we've gathered from the last year or so. So I'm just going to read them and then we'll see how it goes. Some of these I haven't even read. Okay, here we go. In no particular order. People like you are why no one takes marketing seriously.

3:14Okay. That's fine. I agree. I mean, why don't take it so seriously? Relax. Okay. You keep pushing AI like it's harmless. Do you just ignore the environmental damage? So first of all, I don't know anything about how to protect the environment. I recycle. Okay. I, um, what else do I do? I use like a mug instead of plastic cup or something, but I'm not, I don't know a lot about it. And what, here's what I do know is that AI is not going anywhere. So me not using it is not going to solve a lot of the world's problems. So me talking about that's also not going to solve the world's problems. So I don't even know what to say about that, but I'm sorry.

3:56Don't use AI. What do you want me to tell you? Anyway, Jay, you have dating advice on a recent episode. Can you just focus on the marketing stuff? The rest makes me take you less seriously? Well, first of all, why are you taking me seriously? The last thing anyone should do is take me seriously. But listen, humanity is what is going to win. Humanity is the algorithm. If you can't insert some humanity into what you're doing, into your marketing, I don't care how boring your brand is. I work for a regulated industry. I'm in manufacturing. We can't do this, that, or whatever. Yes, you can. Take your camera out.

4:34Do a behind-the-scenes video of how you do X, Y, and Z. I guarantee you that post will do better than any of the boring garbage that you put out. And yeah, we get in dating advice questions and I answer them because why not? It's part of being a human. Who cares? Oh, this next one. I already see it. Nobody cares that you eat salmon. Listen, I don't know why I like sharing the food that I eat. And salmon, I eat salmon every Tuesday night. We have salmon night in my house every Tuesday night for the last 16 years because my wife didn't want my kids to only eat chicken tenders. here's why I talk about salmon.

5:07First of all, it makes me nauseous. Every time I eat it, my wife would go, was it good? I'll say, yeah, it was really good. And then 30 minutes later, I'm nauseous and I'm hungry. So I eat it every week, but it's a myth. And if you don't like me talking about salmon, I don't know what to tell you. Listen to another show. All right, next one. You act like everyone should be putting themselves out there. Some people don't want to do that. Listen, believe it or not, I know everyone says it's like, you know, celebrity people, not that I'm a celebrity. Celebrities would be like, I wasn't popular in high school.

5:37I was a nerd, whatever. Okay, whatever. And then, you know, so I'm saying that because in my regular life, I'm a quiet dude. I really am. I sit on my couch and I watch reality TV. I'm just a quiet dude. But in my work life, I don't know. This is what I do. I don't know what the hell to tell you. I don't even know what that means. All right, the next one, you suck. That's fair. I do suck on many days. That's awesome. I do suck. Great. I agree. Double down on that. Double click, whatever you're supposed to say. All right. Jay, you're a grown man talking about reality TV like it's important. That's embarrassing.

6:15Do you even have a man card? What does that even mean? So would you rather me sit here and break down the NBA playoffs and tell you about what I think the Knicks are doing right or wrong. How boring would that be? Okay. I don't, I hope I never even had a man card. I don't know what that means. That is the lamest, dorkiest, pathetic hate mail I've ever gotten. So yeah, I don't take my man card. I don't care. I never had one. Jay, you are negative about socializing with people. Your negativity is bad. Okay. First of all, I don't care what you tell me. Going out with people sucks, okay? Because, and I have to do it all the time, because 95 % of people are annoying.

7:03They're self-absorbed. They're just bragging. They suck. And I want to get out of there. By the time I get my appetizer, I want to leave. So I have a problem. I'm aware of this. I have to force myself to hang out with people. I don't know what that means. I'm working on it. Actually, no, I'm not. Okay. Next one. You act like everyone should be on video or speaking. Some people have real anxiety. First of all, I'm all in on the fact that mental health is an enormous, huge deal. I deal with real anxiety issues. I do. I have to meditate every morning. I have to go on long walks. I do so many different things.

7:51I do cryotherapy. I can't even tell you I've done cupping. I've done acupuncture recently. I do so much stuff trying to manage my anxiety so I feel for you. And me going on video or speaking doesn't help or hurt my anxiety. I'm not saying it's for all people. And I never want to minimize anxiety. And by the way, anybody that you think has their act together, that they have it all together, that they don't have stress, that they don't have anxiety, they are full of it. They are the ones who are just lying to themselves because everybody is dealing with real deal stuff. You never know what somebody is dealing with and you got to be cool with everybody.

8:31Okay. Jay, you seem very entertained by yourself. No one else is. Why do you listen? Why are you subscribed to my newsletter? It doesn't make any sense, you nerd. All right. What should we call it? And the last one, no one would miss this if you stopped. Ooh, that's a dagger. Well, screw you, number one. Let's start with that. Number two, I will tell you I've learned a lot about doing this podcast because one of the things I believe, and you don't need to have a podcast, you don't need to have a newsletter, but you need to have something. Even if you send out a Slack message to your team that you work with every week and say, here are three new trends that are going on in the industry.

9:19Even if you send out an email to, let's say, the 10 people on your team in your company and saying, here's the article I found most interesting every week, and you do this every week, I believe you need to do something Everybody, I don't care if you are starting out in your career, if you're a CEO of a company, whatever, it doesn't matter what industry you're in, I believe every single person needs to do something every single week that they never stop that allows them continuously to learn, right? This podcast and my newsletter, because I put it out every week, it forces my hand to look stuff up, to read certain things, to try to understand new stuff that's going on.

10:01So that way I could talk about the podcast or put it in my newsletter. If I didn't have something that forced me every single week to do that, then the only way I would learn would be just doing the regular work that I do every day. And there's no way for me to really learn a lot more. I would just learn the little bits here and there. So whatever you are doing in your life, I believe you need to have something, a little thing that forces you to learn in whatever industry that you are in and putting yourself out there slightly. It could be a Slack message to a team. It could be an email message to a team.

10:34It could be a podcast. It could be a social post that you do every week. It doesn't matter if you get zero likes, right? We're saying this is new stuff this week that I just learned about and you do it every week and you never, ever, ever, ever stop. So that's why I do the podcast. I hope you find it useful. If you do find it useful, amazing on the 500th episode. You want to leave a review. Amazing. If you want to leave me hate mail, you could do that too. And go to jschwedelson.com. Let's work together. We'll see you at the thousandth episode. Yeah, if we really get there, that'd be wild. Later.

11:08Wait, I have two huge things to share with you. First, I have a book coming out. Stupider People Have Done It. It's coming out the first week of June and all net author proceeds are going to the V Foundation for Cancer Research. This book might be terrible, but who cares? When you buy this thing on Amazon or anywhere else, you are gonna be helping to kick cancer's butt. Let's do that together. The second thing is you can go to jschwedelson.com. On the upper right-hand corner, there's this thing that says partner. My agency wants to help you. If you're a business marketer, consumer marketer, it doesn't make a difference.

11:45I wanna help you drive net new sales, registrations, growth, change the design, all the stuff that you are doing, hit me up there. Also, if you want to do brand collabs, I want to know about your brand. I want to help you amplify that message. Go to jschwedelson.com, click on partner. Let's do stuff together. And the last thing is leave this show a review if it wasn't the absolute worst podcast you've ever heard. And you're awesome for being here. Later.

From the publisher

Partner with Jay! https://www.jayschwedelson.com/contact

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Pre-order Jay Schwedelson’s new book, Stupider People Have Done It (out June 9, 2026). All net proceeds are donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research—let’s kick cancer’s butt: https://www.amazon.com/Stupider-People-Have-Done-Marketing/dp/1637635206

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Check out Jay’s YOUTUBE Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelson

Check out Jay’s TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@schwedelson

Check Out Jay's INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/

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Five hundred episodes in, and the celebration is reading hate mail. Jay Schwedelson cracks open a year's worth of nasty unsubscribes, brutal reviews, and one dagger that reads "no one would miss this if you stopped." Somewhere between the salmon complaints and the "man card" insult, there's an actual point about why turning some people off is the cost of being worth listening to.

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Best Moments:

(00:38) Why the early hour-long interviews almost killed the show before it started

(02:04) The exact reply that goes back to every mean unsubscribe

(03:03) Pushing back on the AI environmental damage hate mail

(04:45) The weekly salmon dinner finally gets explained

(05:56) The "man card" insult that earned a permanent place in the hall of fame

(09:07) The case for doing one small thing every single week so you never stop learning

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