This month we welcome our fifth guest to Behind the SEOs!
He’s the Vice President of Search at SearchLab and a huge movie enthusiast. He is also a father of three, the owner of many pets, and is jazzed about Local SEO, internet marketing, web design, and photography. For this episode, we welcome Greg Gifford to the podcast!
Episode transcription
Mordy Oberstein: This is behind the SEOs with your host Yosef Silver and Mordy Oberstein. Welcome to Behind the SEOs, where we bring SEOs to life. I am your host, Mordy Oberstein. I am joined by Fusion Digital’s own…
Yosef Silver: Yosef Silver
Mordy Oberstein: How’s it going Yosef.
Yosef Silver: It’s good, nice talk to you.
Mordy Oberstein: This is what episode number four? Five? I lose count after three.
Mordy Oberstein: I stopped counting.
Yosef Silver: That’s that’s all school went up to for you? Three?
Mordy Oberstein: Yeah. I’m not good at math.
Yosef Silver: Fair enough. This is four.
Mordy Oberstein: Right. OK, episode number four. So here’s how this works. We talk about. We talk to SEOs, not about SEO. We talk about their lives. Because guess what people. They’re actually real people. Shocking. They have real lives and real interests outside of SEO, except for the freaks who only do and think about SEO 24/7. OK, so you can find the Behind the SEOs at behindtheseos.com, on Stitcher, on Spotify, wherever great and really crappy podcasts are found. You can also subscribe on the website and you can follow us on Twitter at @BehindSEOs. Today we have for your listening and visual pleasure, because now we are recording the video as well, which will be up on YouTube. And I’ve been totally not looking at the camera the entire time because I forgot we’re doing video now. Oh, I’m the best host ever. We have with you. You obviously know who he is because I forgot the video is there. It’s Greg Gifford. I totally botched the whole thing. Hi, Greg.
Greg Gifford: Hey. What’s going on.
Mordy Oberstein: We got to figure that out for next time Yosef. You know, if we were to bring the guest in, have a like…
Yosef Silver: Like bring them in later.
Mordy Oberstein: Yeah. Wow.
Yosef Silver: You do it like a cheesy 1990s PowerPoint where they like come in from the corner.
Mordy Oberstein: Right.
Greg Gifford: What’s cracking me up is every time Mordy leans to the side, the microphone like, cuts away from his face because it keeps like figuring the microphones a background, so it makes half of your face disappear. It’s hilarious.
Mordy Oberstein: I’ve totally thought through all of this beforehand. It’s a cloaking device.
Greg Gifford: Right.
Yosef Silver: I’ve been fixated on which part of Mordy just disappears as he moves his body.
Mordy Oberstein: This is absurd. I like it.
Yosef Silver: Well Greg, welcome.
Mordy Oberstein: So we can talk about a lot of things. But one thing I did not know about you was that you were a cheerleader for SMU or you were the mascot for SMU.
Greg Gifford: SMU Mustangs, baby. That was my first tattoo, for all the tattoo fans out there, that whole faded gross look is a perfect example of why you need to wear sunblock if you have tattoos, because I did not. That thing is let’s see now, that’s a 30 year old tattoo at this point.
Mordy Oberstein: Wow. Wait do you still remember the cheer?
Greg Gifford: Yeah, there’s a bunch of them. But yeah, so I was the mascot, it was really fun. It was back when we still had the Southwest conference, which for any football fans out there would know what that was a whole lot of fun. I was on ESPN commercials for like I mean, while I was there and probably another four or five years after I left, they still had me on little blurbs of stuff related to football in the South because I did crazy, like I almost wasn’t with the cheerleaders because I was so into going and doing stunts. I met all the other mascots at Cheer Camp in the summer and so I would know these people and we would plan these elaborate things where, like, I would go around to the other side of the field and kidnap one of their cheerleaders and bring them back. And then the other mascot would have to come fight me to the death to get the cheerleader back. And so we were all over TV, doing crazy stuff. I’d walk up in the stands. I’d give stuff away like it was a blast. And actually, for my 20-year college reunion. They do a thing at SMU where if it’s a homecoming, any of the cheerleaders can come cheer for the first quarter of the game if you’re an alumni cheerleader. But they especially let you, they kind of like really push it if it’s one of your, like, five year anniversaries or whatever. So they’d never really done anything with the mascot and they started organizing it. And usually the mascot people just kind of get down and cheer with the cheerleaders. And I was like, hey, can I get in the suit? And they were like, do you really want to? And I’m like, heck yes I do. And the crazy thing was so like, I’m up underneath, like putting the suit on and I’m coming out of where the football players come out. I didn’t even make it to the field before. I was like, oh my gosh, I am going to die. It was so much harder than I remembered. And I’m not anywhere near the shape I was in then. But it was so hard to breathe and so hot. I was like, I’m not going to make it through the first quarter. And so I just started in my head, going make it five minutes, get out on the field so that my family can get pictures of my kids, can see me in the suit and then I’m OK. And then I kind of caught my wind out there and I had so much fun. It came to the end of the first quarter where they make the alumni cheerleaders leave and the person that was the mascot was just walking around up in the stands and stuff. And the guy was like, Hey, dude, it’s the end of the first quarter. And I’m like, oh, man. He goes, Dude, if you want to keep going, I’m happy to take this game off. And I’m like, sweet. So I got to do the whole first half of the game and halftime. It was a blast.
Yosef Silver: Awesome.
Mordy Oberstein: Can I tell you, like, it sounds awesome, but it would have been hilarious if the mascot passed out. Right in the middle.
Yosef Silver: You said you were on ESPN and stuff. Can we see any of that? Is that on YouTube anywhere?
Greg Gifford: I don’t know. I’d have to go. It was all like little kind of quick, you know, ten second commercials before football. So I don’t know that there’s anything still up, but I’m sure I probably have a video somewhere. I’ve got pictures. I have a photo like I went up in the stands and got a picture with my family. And that was funny because my little girl at the time was really young and she was terrified, even though they were like, that’s daddy in the suit. She was not having anything to do with me. It was really funny. OK, I got kicked out of a press conference one time. There was a press conference going on and I went up to the athletic director and grabbed his head and did a noogie. He wasn’t talking. Someone else talking. But I walked up behind him and grabbed his head like did a noogie. He thought it was funny. But like all the other SMU, like people in the room, we’re like he’s out and they threw me out, pretty funny.
Mordy Oberstein: Yeah but they didn’t know who it was, you had a hat on. Right. They didn’t know who you were.
Greg Gifford: That was one of the things is like it’s tradition, at SMU. And I don’t know if it’s still that way, but for sure, back then, it’s tradition that nobody knows who the mascot is. And so my roommate was a cheerleader and everybody is like your roommate’s a cheerleader. Why don’t you go to football games? I’m like, yeah, I’m just not really into football because it was like, we’d have to get there so early nobody would see me coming. And, you know, I didn’t keep the massive bag of stuff there. So, like, just literally people thought I really wasn’t into football. I had a letter jacket that I couldn’t wear until I graduated from college. And like, when are you going to wear it? Why would you want to wear it then? Right. But yeah, like, I was I was a lettered athlete. I was a collegiate All-American that I couldn’t announce because it was like a really big deal to keep it a secret.
Mordy Oberstein: That’s sad. That’s so sad. That’s tragic.
Greg Gifford: Well, I had to lie and say I had the flu one time. We had a game at Baylor.
Mordy Oberstein: Wait you had a flu game of your own? You’re like the Michael Jordan mascots.
Greg Gifford: The Baylor Stadium is like recessed in the ground. So like it’s a massive college football stadium. But ground level is like halfway up in the stands. So you don’t get any wind because it’s so like dug down into the ground. And that day was probably one hundred-ish degrees. So like down the field it was like 110 and I did not drink enough. And I probably sweat off somewhere between 11 and 12 pounds of water weight in a three hour football game. And I should have gone to the hospital. I was really severely dehydrated and sick and like I was in bed for almost a week because of that. And I was like, yeah, I just got the flu guys.
Mordy Oberstein: You know, you’re like Michael Jordan of mascots. That’s amazing. And I never knew this. I’m like, I’m almost upset you never told me about this.
Greg Gifford: But you’re not that surprised, knowing me, you’re like.
Mordy Oberstein: No, like that makes total sense.
Yosef Silver: I would agree with that. Right. It makes sense.
Greg Gifford: So many things make sense about Greg.
Mordy Oberstein: Absolute sense. Alright. So obviously, we’re going to talk. Wait, wait. So I have a question for you. Do you like movies?
Greg Gifford: Not looking anything in the background or my T-shirt or any of my tattoos, like. Yeah, no, I’m not. I’m not really into movies.
Yosef Silver: Other than all those things .
Mordy Oberstein: I hate being around you because like when I’m around you, I feel like, oh my god, I know nothing. And I’m usually the person who knows about movies and pop culture. But I. I almost feel like I’m not worthy.
Yosef Silver: You know, we were prepping for the conversation today. I was like, you know, I’m just going to let the two of you talk about pop culture and I’ll watch.
Greg Gifford: You know, that’s basically my entire office, here, is pop culture stuff.
Yosef Silver: Very nice office, by the way. Very impressed.
Greg Gifford: So, yeah, I’m like way ridiculously obsessed with movies, obviously. I mean, anybody who’s seen me present or knows me knows it. I’m all about movies. I now have almost 800 in my iTunes library.
Yosef Silver: Oh, wow.
Greg Gifford: Which is nuts considering that that’s probably amassed over just the last few years, even.
Yosef Silver: 70 percent was during lockdown.
Greg Gifford: Probably yeah, not really, because nothing is coming out, it sucks.
Mordy Oberstein: Yeah, it does suck. OK, so wait, I feel like maybe you would get me on this, maybe you won’t get me on this. And it’s a risk. I only watched the Mandalorian like two weeks ago, like season one.
Greg Gifford: Wow.
Mordy Oberstein: OK, and I’m a big sci-fi, Trek, Star Wars fan. I saw The Force Awakens right when it came out and I swore to myself, I will never watch another one of these crappy, shitty ass Star Wars movies ever again.
Greg Gifford: But you frickin love the Mandalorian, don’t you?
Mordy Oberstein: Loved it. It was so good.
Greg Gifford: I saw a really funny meme the other day where it was a dude completely covered in bandages, like old school movie where like his arms are out and he’s like a complete, solid, full body cast. And all you saw was two little eyes and it was labeled: It’s Jon Favreau. And he broke his body because he had to carry the entire Star Wars franchise on his back.
Mordy Oberstein: Oh, wait, wait. So for our listeners who are not familiar with this or Yosef was maybe not familiar with this,
Yosef Silver: This one I’m actually familiar with.
Mordy Oberstein: OK, fine, see good. I feel like Star Wars is amazing. It’s so good. Until they came out, in my opinion, with the new trilogy, even the prequels, I can live with that. Like I get that. Alright. A little bit.
Greg Gifford:I think 10 years from now you’ll be like, you know what? They weren’t great, but they weren’t as bad as I thought they were.
Mordy Oberstein: As a kid. I loved Luke Skywalker. I just loved him. I loved everything about him.
Greg Gifford: And they completely… can I say the “s” word?
Mordy Oberstein: And I waited so long, so long.
Greg Gifford: They completely crapped on Luke Skywalker and they crapped on the entire setup of the entire Star Wars story.
Mordy Oberstein: And I’m waiting all this time to see what the hell happened to Luke.
Greg Gifford: But you haven’t seen the second season of Mandalorian?
Mordy Oberstein: I did. I watched. Oh, no, dude. I saw the first season and the second I was done with that I’m like we’re watching season two right now.
Greg Gifford: That last episode of season two is like one of the greatest Star Wars moments ever.
Mordy Oberstein: All time. All time. And I knew it was coming because. So that’s why I watched the Mandalorian, because, like, I, I couldn’t I couldn’t escape the spoilers. I saw what happened, like, OK, I will now watch this.
Greg Gifford: Yep.
Mordy Oberstein: And I knew it was coming and it was…
Greg Gifford: And it’s still awesome.
Mordy Oberstein: Amazing. Even though I knew it was coming.
Greg Gifford: Yep.
Mordy Oberstein: And now I’m upset that I have to wit. We have to wait like two years for the next one, something like that?
Greg Gifford: Something like that.It’s crazy. No, no, it’s next Christmas.
Mordy Oberstein: OK.
Greg Gifford: It’s next Christmas.
Yosef Silver: 2021?
Greg Gifford: Yeah yeah. It’s Christmas 2021 because they’re doing the Ahsoka Tano series and they’re doing the Rangers of the New Republic series.
Mordy Oberstein: And then it’s Obi Wan
Greg Gifford: But Obi Wan won’t cross over. Obi Wan is going to be on. But that’s a limited series of it’s just one season. but Ahsoka Tano it is going to be ongoing. Raiders of the New Republic is the X wing pilots that we’re on a couple of episodes. So it’s those two shows are separate shows and they will all crossover either right at the beginning to set up the next season of the Mandalorian or Mandalorian will start. But all three of those shows are going to have a crossover episode with all the characters again. So, yeah, it’s going to be awesome.
Mordy Oberstein: Absolutely awesome. OK, so not to jump to a completely different topic. Star Trek Discovery. Are you a Star Trek person?
Greg Gifford: Dude, I got Khan on the shelf. Like where, right there is Khan. I’ll bring him closer.
Mordy Oberstein: Please bring Khan. Yosef do you know who Khan is? Ok, Khan is like. OK, so back in the 1960s. Yes. Khaaaaan, I’m not crazy.
Greg Gifford: So yeah, I’m a big Star Trek fan. Not as much as Star Wars, but still a pretty massive Star Trek fan. I really didn’t get into Discovery.
Mordy Oberstein: See, same thing this last season wasn’t as bad. But again, like so I grew up on Star Trek, like my grandparents, like the wholesome thing we did. The one wholesome thing my family ever did was watch Star Trek.
Yosef Silver: The one thing?
Mordy Oberstein: No, literally, I think the one wholesome thing.
Yosef Silver: Maybe, we should talk about that for a minute.
Mordy Oberstein: You want me to lay down on the couch?
Yosef Silver: We can’t see the couch because of your weird background.
Mordy Oberstein: By the way, if we do this, I want a full hour. No. Forty five minute crap.
Yosef Silver: Sure, sure.
Mordy Oberstein: OK
Yosef Silver: We can bill by the hour. SEO therapy.
Mordy Oberstein: No, but like, seriously. We grew up, like my grandparents. The original series in the next generation, like all that stuff and the reboot, even the reboot, like even the J.J. Abrams reboot didn’t do it for me.
Greg Gifford: Oh really? I loved it. I thought it was awesome.
Mordy Oberstein: The first one. The first one was really good. The second, the one with Khan. Like please, like you cannot do Khan. For the audience at home. In case you don’t know, you’ve been under a rock for the last, what, 50 years. Khan was from the original Star Trek series like the iconic Villains, he’s also the main villain in Star Trek 2 the original Star Trek 2 not the reboot Star Trek 2. And then they did him again in the. JJ Abrams reboot in like 2010, whatever it was, 2013, probably, I don’t know, like when they did Khan it kind of lost me.
Greg Gifford: Yeah, I mean, nobody’s going to touch Ricardo Montalban. I mean.
Mordy Oberstein: Ricardo Montalban.
Greg Gifford: But yeah, I mean, I didn’t mind. I enjoyed the reboot. I was kind of bummed that they couldn’t make another one happen.
Mordy Oberstein: Yeah.
Greg Gifford: I thought they did well, kind of recasting it. And I like the set up of the kind of multiverse Star Trek thing. So I thought that was a cool set up. Kind of like Marvel’s going now. I’m interested to see how Marvel’s going to pull off the multiverse.
Mordy Oberstein: I’m really curious about that because it seems like they hit that peak and, you know, it exploded in awesomeness. And what do you do now? Like, I feel like a climax.
Greg Gifford: Well, do you see DC going in the same direction and they’re really going all in on their multiverse?
Mordy Oberstein: Yes. Yes.
Greg Gifford: So they’re going to have like multiple Batman’s.
Mordy Oberstein: Right, I know.
Greg Gifford: And the new Flash movie to set that up. And so now they’re going back. And apparently, Keaton might be making more Batman movies as Batman.
Mordy Oberstein: I saw that. That would be amazing. Yosef is like, what the hell are you guys talking about?
Yosef Silver: You should see my second screen and what I’m Googling. I feel like this is what you felt like Mordy when Areej and I we’re talking about, like baking and the royal family.
Mordy Oberstein: Yeah.
Yosef Silver: This is what this episode was for you.
Mordy Oberstein: Or cream and jelly, whatever it was.
Yosef Silver: I’m not having this conversation ever again, no. Veto.
Mordy Oberstein: You know, like OK, so maybe it’s like me, like maybe I’m crazy. But when English people talk about jam and cream or is it do I have it right Yosef?
Yosef Silver: Sure. Scone, cream, jam.
Mordy Oberstein: They talk about like what, what do you do first. You put the cream on first or do you put the jelly on to the cream afterwards. And as an American cream to me was always like, do you take cream in your coffee?
Greg Gifford: Right.
Mordy Oberstein: Right. And I’m thinking like why the hell are you putting jelly in milk?
Yosef Silver: Now Greg, when you’ve been in Brighton for BrightonSEO, have you explored, like, afternoon tea scones, jam, like have you had that experience?
Greg Gifford: Yeah, totally.
Yosef Silver: Mordy have you been to BrightoSEO?
Mordy Oberstein: Yeah, I love BrightonSEO, it’s a great conference.
Greg Gifford: I usually get to the UK, I mean the last few years, even outside of Brighton, I’d go a couple of times. So like I was in the UK five or six times in 2019 and I’ve got. I mean I even tweeted the other day that like of all the conferences out there, I mean we’re not supposed to talk at SEO but like I really miss Brighton the most because I have so many friends in the UK now. And so, you know, I would always extend my trip through the weekend and go back to London and hang out with people and do stuff in London. And like, I just I love the UK and it just sucks not getting to go any more. Man, I can’t wait to go.
Yosef Silver: I have never made it to BrightonSEO, but Brighton’s my hometown. So any time people go and they like they have Brighton questions, I’m like, oh yeah. Like but it’s my luck with BrightonSEO is I’m always in Brighton the week before or after for a family thing or something. I’ve never made it to BrightonSEO.
Mordy Oberstein: I’ve only been once.
Yosef Silver: I was going. I wanted to make it this year and then, well last year and then you know everything. The 2020 happened.
Mordy Oberstein: Yep. Yeah. My fondest memory of BrightonSEO was being drunk by two o’clock in the afternoon.
Greg Gifford: Right.
Mordy Oberstein: Yep. That’s amazing. Probably earlier, I just don’t remember.
Greg Gifford: Yeah that’s fair.
Yosef Silver: But so, Mordy how did you go to a conference in England and not have afternoon tea with jelly and jam.
Mordy Oberstein: Because despite the fact I no longer live in America. I’m like the most American person possible. I know that sounds insane, but it’s like I don’t know like, What the hell it is between your queen. The only thing I understand is your music.
Yosef Silver: Fair enough. I mean, that’s valid.
Mordy Oberstein: I don’t get the royalty. I don’t get like the tea thing. Why drink tea when there’s coffee.
Greg Gifford: See I’m not a cofee coffeedrinker. So that was never really a big deal for me.
Yosef Silver: Yeah.
Mordy Oberstein: Also the warm beer thing. Can someone explain that to me. Why would you drink the beer warm.
Yosef Silver: Yeah. That I don’t understand.
Mordy Oberstein: See.
Greg Gifford: But that doesn’t really happen that often.
Mordy Oberstein: Right. That’s true.
Greg Gifford: That’s one of those more cliché things.
Mordy Oberstein: That’s true. That’s a cliche thing. Every beer I’ve ever had in England was was cold. Right. That’s true. That’s fair. Thank you for calling me out on that.
Yosef Silver: I’m worried that no one is going to listen to us because they just know that you’re going to bring up the cream and jelly thing. Why would I subscribe? Mordy is just going to gripe about scones.
Greg Gifford: And you’re only like, what? This is like four episodes and maybe?
Mordy Oberstein: Right.
Yosef Silver: Yeah.
Greg Gifford: You should figure out a way to work in the cream and jam thing into every single one moving forward, just as an inside joke that nobody’s going to get except the people that watch this episode.
Mordy Oberstein: Exactly.
Yosef Silver: That’s funny, I like that idea.
Mordy Oberstein: Because they’re like dude it’s come every time. It’s come up every time Wait so like is this…
Yosef Silver: Every time we talk, actually, every time. He’ll just text me midweek. Seriously jam in your cream?
Mordy Oberstein: I’m a sarcastic son of a bitch. And like, I know I can push your buttons with it.
Yosef Silver: Yeah.
Mordy Oberstein: That’s why it happened. So is this the longest period of time you’ve ever been home since like, I don’t know, like the last 20 years?
Greg Gifford: Trying to think the other day. This is the longest. For sure, it’s been at least 13 years that I’ve been at home for this long of a stretch.
Mordy Oberstein: Right.
Greg Gifford: And since, it’s really been the last seven years-ish that I really started speaking a lot. So for sure, seven years. But like, I started speaking 13 years ago.
Mordy Oberstein: Right.
Greg Gifford: And that was one or two a year. Not a lot, but for sure, I started doing a lot. Like at this point I think I’ve been doing Brighton for six years, twice a year. And that was really where I got more international exposure to get all the other conferences and stuff. So, you know, the last five or six years is when I really started doing multiple trips out of the out of the States. And, you know, 2019 was the most. I did 140,000 miles of flying in 2019.
Yosef Silver: Wow.
Greg Gifford: But I went to Australia. Australia is like a third of that or something.
Yosef Silver: That’s fair.
Mordy Oberstein: That’s totally true.
Yosef Silver: Where was the last place you flew?
Greg Gifford: I went to Chicago in October for a planning meeting for work.
Mordy Oberstein: You have to go into Chicago? That’s cool. I mean, or not cool.
Greg Gifford: Yeah. So I went to Chicago in October. I went to Chicago in the beginning of July. So July and October for quarterly planning meetings. And the last conference I went to was SMX West.
Mordy Oberstein: Dude that’s where I saw you last.
Greg Gifford: Yeah, in San Jose. That was the last time I went to.
Mordy Oberstein: That’s the last place I’d been to.
Greg Gifford: The last international place I went to. I’d have to go back and think, but that probably would have been BrightonSEO or no, SearchLove London at the end of 2019 was the last conference.
Yosef Silver: That’s crazy it’s been over a year.
Mordy Oberstein: Yeah. So like Murphy’s Law, I always end up on the west coast of the US. I’m always trying to I’m ironically trying to get US gigs because like I want to go back home.
Greg Gifford: Right.
Mordy Oberstein: Right. And I always end up on the West Coast and I stop by New York on the way back and I finally like found something in New York. Oh, yes. I’ll see my family. It’ll be great. Wonderful. And then covered it.
Greg Gifford: Right.
Mordy Oberstein: And then it got canceled.
Yosef Silver: It was the universe saying Mordy can’t go.
Mordy Oberstein: Mordy can’t go home.
Greg Gifford: I had so much cool stuff lined up last year. I had like Dubai, Singapore, Australia, Moscow, Kiev. I don’t even remember what else, but like really like there was one that I was doing in Kiev where they were going to do a speaker outing like some of the smaller conferences do like they’ll take all the speakers and their spouses somewhere. We were going to go on a tour of Chernobyl and like that was going to be wicked awesome.
Yosef Silver: Seriously?
Mordy Oberstein: That’s awesome.
Greg Gifford: Right? And no, it got shut down.
Greg Gifford: Hopefully they said they’ll still do it. Oh, there was going to be one. I was doing one that was going to be a conference at Disney World or Disneyland in Paris.
Yosef Silver: Nice.
Greg Gifford: Which I love I’ve been to before. It’s awesome. But it would have been cool to do a conference there and have an excuse to go to Disney Paris because, hey, it’s for work.
Mordy Oberstein: Wait, wait. Was a conference at Chernobyl like, live from reactor four?
Greg Gifford: Yeah, no, it was, it was in Kiev, but they were going to do like a day trip to Chernobyl to like take everybody out
Yosef Silver: Break the ice.
Mordy Oberstein: Let’s do that, let’s organize a conference at Chernobyl.
Greg Gifford: So you’ve got the whole city is deserted and like taken back over by like nature. But you also have that abandoned amusement park that never even opened because it was set to open like a week after the disaster. So it was like never opened. So it’s like, so many. I’ve started taking my camera. I was a photography minor in college. I was a wedding photographer for a while, did my own little photography deal. And like, I started taking my camera on like cooler trips to get good pictures. And that was going to be the best pictures ever.
Yosef Silver: I have really mixed feelings. Like on the one hand, Chernobyl’s on my bucket list of places I really want to visit. On the other hand, there’s a reason it’s deserted and I don’t know if I want to go there.
Greg Gifford: Well, yeah, but apparently, like the tours, they have Geiger counters and like, it’s safe. Like you wouldn’t want to live there, but it’s not a high enough level of radiation that spending a couple hours there does anything. But they also have the person going through with you so that if there’s random pockets for whatever reason and if it’s still a hotter area and if that Geiger counter starts going off, then you leave.
Yosef Silver: Yeah.
Mordy Oberstein: Right. Because they know where most of those are to avoid them. So yeah.
Yosef Silver: I’ve watched some YouTubers who are travel bloggers. I’ve watched their tours of Chernobyl. Because that deserted, especially that amusement park, all those apartment buildings, all of it just like time froze. Right.
Mordy Oberstein: Wasn’t there a thing that people were trying to move back in a couple of years ago?
Yosef Silver: There’s a handful of people that did.
Mordy Oberstein: Yeah.
Yosef Silver: There’s a handful of people that live there.
Mordy Oberstein: I just want to know, like, what makes you, like, wake up in the morning? You know where I really want to move to? Chernobyl.
Yosef Silver: You know, if it was your childhood home or your grandparent’s home and you just want that connection.
Greg Gifford: You’ve got family history there. And if you kind of want to roll the dice and figure that the part that you’re in doesn’t have enough radiation, or maybe they’ve done testing and know that certain parts aren’t that bad, you probably have your pick of like I want that entire building for my home. It’s empty. You know, nobody’s going to fight on it.
Mordy Oberstein: Squatter’s rights. Amazing.
Yosef Silver: Fascinating to me. I really enjoyed the HBO series.
Mordy Oberstein: That was very good.
Yosef Silver: That HBO series was very well done.
Mordy Oberstein: Really, really good. I remember sitting there like, holy crap, because you know the story, but you don’t actually understand, like, how ridiculous it is.
Greg Gifford: Yeah.
Mordy Oberstein: Unbelievable. Unbelievable. OK, so we have this thing called Rapid Fire questions. They’re basically, like generally speaking, they’re like me, free associating and asking the most outlandish question I could possibly think of.
Greg Gifford: Do I have to answer quickly to or?
Mordy Oberstein: Don’t think just answer.
Yosef Silver: Yeah it’s rapid. Just first thing that comes into your head.
Greg Gifford: Yeah I have to quick answer, but like how much do I extrapolate on that answer?Is it like?
Mordy Oberstein: You can do whatever you want, like there’s no real rules here?
Greg Gifford: Like you ask a question, I answer quick so you can ask another question, like back and forth.
Mordy Oberstein: Or we can have a conversation.
Yosef Silver: It’s funny like that. It is good like that.
Mordy Oberstein: Like also, oh like that’s a crazy ass question. I would love to talk about this and we’ll talk about that.
Greg Gifford: Okay, whatever.
Mordy Oberstein: Listen, there are no rules.
Greg Gifford: Let’s do it.
Mordy Oberstein: Alright, so first question. Chew gum or kick ass?
Greg Gifford: Oh kick ass.
Mordy Oberstein: Kick ass. Yosef’s like where’s that from. It’s from a movie.
Greg Gifford: Because no bubble gum.
Mordy Oberstein: No bubble gum, because you’re all out of gum?
Greg Gifford: Yeah.
Mordy Oberstein: Oh then it’s ass kicking time.
Greg Gifford: You know I had that right.
Mordy Oberstein: Yes. That’s why I’m asking the thing.
Greg Gifford: OK.
Mordy Oberstein: OK. Best cyborg?
Greg Gifford: Oh.
Mordy Oberstein: I got him.
Greg Gifford: That’s tought, that goes so deep.
Mordy Oberstein: Take your time. Ponder it.
Greg Gifford: I mean I could get really nerdy and say Locutus but nobody would know what that is.
Mordy Oberstein: Locutus, that is a great cyborg.
Greg Gifford: But, I would probably have to go with Robocop.
Mordy Oberstein: Oh I was going, I was thinking like Terminator but Robocop. Yeah. That’s a good answer.
Greg Gifford: Yeah. Original Robocop, not remake Robocop.
Mordy Oberstein: True. I feel like Robocop doesn’t get the cyborg-ness he deserves.
Greg Gifford: Yeah. And it’s you know, it’s one of those properties from the 80s that is still ridiculously badass, but it kind of doesn’t get the love that a lot of the other kind of 80s kitschy pop culture stuff.
Mordy Oberstein: True. Hey, I’ll buy that for a dollar.
Yosef Silver: That’s fair.
Mordy Oberstein: Worst Star Wars, but best Star Trek.
Greg Gifford: Oh, God. Worst Star Wars would be whatever the piece of crap was that was the second of the new series.
Mordy Oberstein: Right. Yeah. So, by the way, that movie is the best thing to happen to Jar Jar Binks ever.
Greg Gifford: Yeah. So I think that the second one, whatever the second one of the newest I think Force Awakens, the no.
Mordy Oberstein: No. The last Jedi.
Greg Gifford: Last Jedi. Yeah. Last Jedi, piece of crap. Best Star Trek by far. Rath of Khan.
Mordy Oberstein: So good.
Greg Gifford: One of the best movies ever made.
Mordy Oberstein: Ever made. By the way, can I ask you a question like can you. Like what are your feelings on the first one. Star Trek, the motion picture?
Greg Gifford: I don’t mind it. I like it.
Mordy Oberstein: It’s a great movie.
Greg Gifford: Yeah.
Mordy Oberstein: People crap on that.
Greg Gifford: I don’t think they really got bad till it got to about Undiscovered Country. And then it was kind of eh.
Mordy Oberstein: I like Undiscovered Country. I thought was a great movie. But when it came out in the theaters, I watched it like five times in the theater.
Greg Gifford: Oh really?
Mordy Oberstein: Yeah.
Greg Gifford: Eh, okay. I thought Generations was really good.
Mordy Oberstein: That was very good. That was very good. First Contact, I also liked. OK, Nightrider or A Team.
Greg Gifford: Oh God, you suck. Dude. Oh that’s tough. I’d have to go Nightrider on that.
Mordy Oberstein: Yes, thank you.
Greg Gifford: I was a huge Nightrider fan.
Mordy Oberstein: So when I was a kid I had, I have this giant K.I.T.T. Car. Like it had pedals and like you press. Yeah. And like the light moved back and forth. Kick ass. Alf or E.T.?
Greg Gifford: Oh God, man.
Mordy Oberstein: Nice, I did not remember you had that.
Greg Gifford: You may not have seen that. That’s my newest.
Mordy Oberstein: OK cool. Yes I did not remember that, because it wasn’t there. That’s awesome. That’s an amazing tattoo.
Greg Gifford: Yeah. I’ve got a couple of E.T. ones.
Yosef Silver: Can we see it again.
Greg Gifford: Yeah. Yeah.
Yosef Silver: That’s really cool.
Mordy Oberstein: That is so good.
Yosef Silver: Really cool.
Mordy Oberstein: For our audio listeners.
Greg Gifford: It’s really well done.
Yosef Silver: For our audio listeners go to YouTube.
Mordy Oberstein: Go to YouTube, because you just missed out.
Greg Gifford: Yeah, all the people that are listening are like see what? What the hell? I’m about to do my fingers. And we were going to do my fingers. And I was like, I don’t know if I like the gap of going from sleeve to empty hand to fingers. So.
Mordy Oberstein: Nice.
Greg Gifford: Let’s go ahead and do this. And so, you know, we were trying to figure out what to do and my guy only does black and gray now, even though he did the color stuff up here, he only does black and gray. So we’re trying to figure out what we could do that wouldn’t clash with the rest of it. And I just one day it was a light bulb and I’m like, what about this? He’s like, oh my God, dude we have to do it
Mordy Oberstein: That’s brilliant, that’s brilliant.
Greg Gifford: Then as soon as he finished, he put the tattoo machine down and he said, congratulations. Now you officially can’t get a job in corporate America. And I laughed at that because, like, I’m not really worried about job security and tattoos affecting that. But you know, it’s pretty funny.
Mordy Oberstein: That’s awesome. Movie most in need of a reboot or franchise most in need of a reboot. That’s a hard question, actually, I think that’s a real thinking man’s question.
Greg Gifford: Yeah, I mean, that’s tough.
Mordy Oberstein: That’s not a good rapid-fire question.
Yosef Silver: It isn’t, but it’s a good question.
Greg Gifford:
Yeah. Like, jeez, I’d love to see them redo Robocop. I think that would be great. They tried it sucks. It didn’t go over well. Jeez man. I don’t know. Yeah, that’s tough.
Mordy Oberstein: That’s a hard question. I don’t have an answer either.
Greg Gifford: I can’t do a rapid fire on that.
Mordy Oberstein: That’s not a rapid fire kind of question. OK, now I’m going to ask the back of, the flip side of that. Movie that should never have been rebooted. I’m going to say The Matrix when they redo The Matrix. I predicted it’s going to be an enormous flop.
Yosef Silver: Oh, the sequels?
Greg Gifford: But it’s not a redo. It’s a continuation.
Mordy Oberstein: Ok, fine.
Greg Gifford: I’m excited for that.
Yosef Silver: Hold on are they remaking The Matrix?
Greg Gifford: No, they’re not remaking.
Mordy Oberstein: Right, it’s the fourth one. Yeah.
Yosef Silver: Really?
Mordy Oberstein: I don’t know. I’m like a little bit.
Yosef Silver: Matrix, like the first movie was excellent. And then they should have stopped.
Mordy Oberstein: Possibly.
Yosef Silver: In my humble opinion.
Greg Gifford: That’s a tough one too, man. I’d really have to think about that. Well, I think the Marky Mark planet of the Apes was a pretty giant pile of dog turd. And I’m a really big fan of the original Planet of the Apes. And I really like what they did with the newer like Rise, War, Dawn.
Mordy Oberstein: Yeah, those were good.
Greg Gifford: But the Marky Mark one was pretty bad.
Mordy Oberstein: OK, that’s good. Worst decade for music. I mean, you don’t have to go back to the 1800s. I mean like modern times like 70s, 80s, now.
Greg Gifford: I would say there’s some pretty decent stuff out now though. I don’t think there’s a worse if I had to pick a worse.
Mordy Oberstein: That’s what makes it hard.
Greg Gifford: I would. I’m not a fan of much that came out in the 60s. 50s has some has some really cool stuff. 40s has some cool stuff. 60s not so great. 70s, man, that’s my childhood. Killer stuff from the 70s.
Mordy Oberstein: That is great. 80s is amazing.
Greg Gifford: I finally got to see Chicago perform live a couple of years ago.
Mordy Oberstein: Oh, really?
Greg Gifford: Blew my mind.
Mordy Oberstein: Love Chicago.
Greg Gifford: So that was great. 80s obviously that’s like the best of everything. 90s had some decent stuff.
Mordy Oberstein: There’s a lot in the 90s.
Greg Gifford: Early 2000s, pretty OK. 2010s, yeah. And now like there’s, I like a lot of stuff that’s out now. So I’ll go 60s.
Mordy Oberstein: See, I like the 60s. You had The Doors and the Stones. Mamas and the Papas
Mordy Oberstein: Mamas and the Papas. Beach Boys. Alright. Yeah, that’s fine.
Greg Gifford: But if I had to pick I would say that’s probably my least favorite.
Mordy Oberstein: By the way, that’s a hot take because like the 60s are like, the 60s in music, it’s like revolutionary. And you just crapped all over it.
Greg Gifford: Yeah. But I mean.
Mordy Oberstein: You can crap all over it.
Greg Gifford: If you’re making me pick.
Mordy Oberstein: I’m making you pick, I know it’s really my fault.
Greg Gifford: I’m going to go with the 60s.
Mordy Oberstein: OK, so let’s get a little personal here. Best number of kids to have?
Greg Gifford: Three.
Mordy Oberstein: Three. Worst number of kids to have? You know, you have to say if you have three kids like, you’re just going to say three.
Greg Gifford: And my wife wanted to keep going and thank goodness we had a little girl for our third, so I was able to say, no. We got boys and girls, we’re done. If we had another boy, we probably would have kept going.
Mordy Oberstein: And so that’s what happened.
Greg Gifford: If you get more. That’s like new house, new car. And man, I’m old. Like, I don’t want to have a kid and be like 70 when that kid’s graduating from high school. So yeah. No. Three. Three’s a good number. Don’t ask me the number of pets because clearly I don’t know the answer to how many pets is too many. It’s way out of control at my house now.
Mordy Oberstein: That’s hilarious. Worst place for a tattoo?
Greg Gifford: Worse because of pain or worse because of how it looks?
Mordy Oberstein: However you want to interpret.
Yosef Silver: You’re the boss.
Greg Gifford: Most painful place, for sure, is kneecap. That’s just so dumb. It’s the worst thing ever. Closely followed by back of the knee, worst place for a tattoo. I just don’t think face tattoos are attractive on anybody. I don’t I just don’t think I used to hate neck tattoos. I don’t mind them if they’re well done, I would never do them. But I mean, hell 20 years ago I would have never had a tattoo on the back of my hand, too. So who knows what’s going to happen. But for sure, I don’t think face tattoos look good.
Mordy Oberstein: Fair enough.
Yosef Silver: What was your first? Oh your first was the stallion.
Greg Gifford: My first was the little shoulder one. I did that when I was eighteen so, yeah.
Mordy Oberstein: And to wrap this off and to camp this off. Do you read minds?
Greg Gifford: No, but it’s something I wish I could do sometimes, but no, unfortunately I do not.
Mordy Oberstein: Little Zoolander reference for everybody listening. I totally screwed this up. I didn’t throw any Lebowski stuff in there. I always throw Lebowski things in there, man.
Yosef Silver: You’ll have to come back.
Greg Gifford: You know, you’re going to hate me. I’m not a Big Lebowski.
Mordy Oberstein: I know we spoke about this before. We spoke about this before.
Greg Gifford: I appreciate it more now. But still, it just overall, I just, I get that it’s got some memorable stuff and people dig it. But just personally, it’s just not my jam.
Mordy Oberstein: So like I personally for me, it’s been very helpful. It’s like when I tell people like, can you do a meeting on Saturday? I’m like, no, I don’t roll on Shabbos. Oh, you don’t roll on Shabbos. I get that perfect.
Greg Gifford: Right.
Mordy Oberstein: And for me. I find it very helpful. I guess, we’ll just sign off now. Good job podcast hosting Mordy. Where can people find you Greg.
Greg Gifford: Twitter is my social platform of choice. It’s just @GregGifford:. LinkedIn. I’m a lot more active there now than I used to be. It’s just.
Mordy Oberstein: Yeah. The videos now.
Greg Gifford: Yeah. GregGifford: again, all one word. Don’t send me Facebook friend requests. I hate that. How people see you speak at a conference and you get Facebook friend request and then they get butt hurt when you deny it. But like Facebook is. I don’t really use Facebook that much, but Facebook is where, like, all of my family connects and I’ve got pictures. Like my Instagram’s private, too, because, like, that’s pictures of my kids and like just because you saw me speak at a conference doesn’t mean we need to connect there, you know, and I’m not trying to be, like, holier than thou, but like, you got to separate personal life from professional life sometimes, you know.
Yosef Silver: Twitter is a great platform for connecting with people who, you know, want to ask a question who you’re not real life friends with.
Greg Gifford: Yeah, it’s great.
Mordy Oberstein: Yeah. That’s how I met you, Yosef, on Twitter.
Yosef Silver: It is. It is.
Mordy Oberstein: That makes sense.
Mordy Oberstein: Alright well, thank you for watching and or listening to Behind the SEOs. We’re back at you next month with another great episode of Behind the SEOs. Look for us at BehindtheSEOs.com on Twitter @BehindSEOs, on Sticher, on Spotify, and SoundCloud. Wherever great podcasts are found. Thank you to Greg. Thank you to Yosef.
Yosef Silver: Thank you for joining us.