August 15, 2025 • 12 mins
Episode summary
After recording nearly 80 episodes, I've learned a lot about how I like to teach. So it's time for my next experiment.
I want to try again to make episodes of about 10 minutes. I want it easier for you to find what you're looking for, and catch up on just the parts that are of greatest value to you.
I also want more flexibility, so we are dropping the opening questions, and the call to actions will only happen sometimes.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on our experiment. Thank you for listening!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Super Simple Security Principles, where you learn how to think, not just what to do.
I'm Nick Jackson, here to learn along with you from my good buddy and master guardian, Makani Mason.
Woo!
Let's go.
This is episode 76, our new podcast experiment.
(00:26):
Yes, we're changing things up, and that's all I have for you.
Makani, what do you got for us, bud?
Yeah, well, I know, kind of sprung a, you know, big change on you today.
We've had our opening questions and things in the past, and, you know, we've had a few changes over the, what, year and a half now almost that we've been doing this.
(00:50):
And so, I call this an experiment because kind of each time, I mean, I expect we'll keep it for a while.
I have no idea how long.
We'll see.
What, what, how long this feels like the right format, but this is what we're testing out.
Yeah.
So, you know, it kind of harkens back to what we sort of tried to do in the very beginning, in a way, where we wanted it really short, right?
(01:22):
Right.
And there were a lot of things that I had to learn, you had to learn, we had to experiment with, we've gotten better at it.
And so, that's kind of the thing, I think I'm kind of ready to try kind of our original vision, in a way, again.
Yeah.
And it actually puts me in mind, I don't know, I haven't heard you use this phrase in a while, but if you remember in the early days, you talked about meat and potatoes a lot.
(01:50):
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah, yeah.
And so, that's kind of how I'm thinking about this, when I was thinking about it, from my, you know, my Nick perspective of, it's going to mostly be kind of meat and potatoes, eliminating sort of the filler stuff.
Like, we want to still have fun, keep the humor, but anyway, does that make sense?
(02:13):
Oh, it makes total sense.
It makes total sense.
I mean, this is where I wanted to go with it.
I love that we're here.
You know, we had to experiment a little bit to get here, and yeah.
But you're on board.
I'm on board.
I'm on board.
You know, although you threw me under the bus, or should I say, threw me right into the spotlight, I'm on board.
(02:37):
I love it.
I love it.
Keeping it straight to the meat and potatoes, keeping it, you know, simple and yeah.
Do we get to tell them that we're going to be focusing in on just one little topic?
Yeah.
And that is one of the main things, right, is before I kind of would usually shoot for kind of three main points.
(03:00):
And so, we're going to break it down and just really have one main point.
And part of the idea here, too, is we switched a while back our weekly email with the same kind of perspective.
I called it, renamed it to our one-minute principal email, right?
(03:22):
Yeah.
Because we want that just to be just one tiny thing.
Like, we know security can be really overwhelming to our listeners, technical topics.
So, we tried to shrink that down.
And so, it's that same kind of idea, but applied to the podcast content itself.
Nice.
That's kind of how I'm thinking about it.
(03:42):
I like it.
I like it.
And one of the main reasons for our listeners, one of the main kind of objectives is to have it optimized for referencing it.
Because, unlike some podcasts, like, the way it's kind of developed is, as I've talked to listeners, they like to go back and they like to reread it.
(04:04):
They want to have transcripts of it so they can, I mean, not reread it, re-listen to it.
They want to have transcripts so they can read through it.
And so, we'll get into more of the changes in just a second, but the idea is to kind of make each episode be as kind of a small a unit as possible so it can be standalone and really optimized for that reference and repetition usage, if that makes sense.
(04:33):
Yeah, it makes total sense.
Which, a lot of podcasts, that's not really what they're going for, right?
But we are, at least for now.
Well, and it fits with our title, you know?
Yeah.
Super Simple Security Principles.
Like, we want to keep it simple.
Yeah.
(04:53):
And, again, remember, we're trying to cater this to the users that are like me.
Right.
You know, that this is a foreign language where we're trying to keep it very simple and learn one thing.
Bite-sized step at a time.
I actually like that comparison, too, because it brings me back to mind when I was living in Russia for a couple years and learning Russian.
(05:20):
Yeah.
And when I would hear it for too long, my brain would shut down.
I would fall asleep because it was just so much hard work, right?
So, same kind of idea.
I feel like there can be some benefit to really just having five, ten minutes.
As a goal, we'll see exactly how it plays out, but short.
(05:41):
So, you can process it better, have more time to digest it and to catch up.
Also, I've heard some people, life gets busy.
They're not listening to it every week necessarily, but they really like to catch up.
Catching up on ten-minute episodes is going to be a lot easier than thirty-minute episodes.
So, right.
Okay.
So, a couple of the format changes we'll specifically address.
(06:04):
One of the things that we have had for a while now is opening questions.
And I still love questions.
We'll definitely have them.
But the idea is really for it to be too short, just like one thing like you talked about.
And so, there will really just be kind of one question.
(06:25):
And so, I'm just kind of putting that into the title.
The title is the one question.
Because you'll see in some of the upcoming episodes that the title is a question.
Sometimes it won't be.
Sometimes it will be.
So, it's just more flexible.
But we don't want to move away from questions because questions are an awesome way to look at teaching and learning and security.
(06:47):
It just won't necessarily be tied to that specific thing.
Because sometimes it lends itself better to a statement than a question, basically.
Yeah.
That makes.
Yeah.
Okay.
The next part is the call to action that we've had very consistently, almost from episode one, really.
(07:10):
Right?
I know.
And we've had a lot of good feedback about that.
Here's my take on that, though.
I still, again, we will absolutely do it sometimes.
And if you want to do it every time, so here's what we're going to do.
I know.
And I haven't even talked with you about this.
But I want more flexibility there so it's not necessarily built in explicitly every time.
(07:30):
Because there will be, especially with the short ones,
I've had problems sometimes finding a reasonable one without putting more content in to prepare them for the call to action.
That makes sense.
So, instead, what I'm going to do is, it's not a requirement, but at the end, the replacement part for the call to action.
So, this will be our new kind of mainstay, the way we end each episode, is you will have a chance and then I will have a chance to just kind of give our summary takeaway.
(08:03):
That we come to, I'm not going to plan them, but as we're listening, we're like, right, what hits us as we come through?
You know, by the end, what's going through our head of what really resonated with us?
What do we think makes sense?
Killing you with the, hey, you inspired this, man.
(08:23):
You inspired this from day one of, as you call it.
I just love how you kept me in the dark this whole time.
Like, you know, maybe some of that information would have been helpful yesterday.
Yeah, but you love it.
You love it.
I do.
(08:44):
I do.
So, that's going to be our approach is we'll, yeah, take away instead of a call to action.
So, but that could easily be and will make sense certainly sometimes for there to be a call to action.
But if there's not, then we don't have to try to shoehorn it in.
We can just say the takeaway is really just a strong lesson, something to remember and learn.
(09:07):
But, yeah, and with those always, you know, the universal call to action when you learn something is share it with somebody, right?
Teach it to somebody else.
So, that's the way I think about that.
All right.
So, then the last thing I think we, sometimes we've talked about previous and next episodes.
(09:29):
And, again, just from a streamlining perspective, we're not going to do that.
Hopefully, because, mostly because it takes away some of the value when you're re-listening to it.
Because at that point, those are just kind of fluff.
And we will have in the show notes, though, we'll always have, like, if you're listening and you feel like maybe there's some missing things that is background for it, we will always reference those in the show notes.
(09:57):
So, you can, hopefully, we'll always try to think, what does this build on?
What are previous episodes that might help you understand this better if it seemed confusing at all?
Does that make sense?
Makes total sense.
Makes total sense.
Yeah.
And I think that's it for today.
(10:19):
I love it.
So, now we just do our standard part, though, is the takeaways.
So, what's your takeaway?
I figured that was covered.
Yeah.
That I got zero prep for.
Yep.
I know.
Okay.
So, the serious side of me, the one sentence is, look, we're going to streamline this.
(10:42):
We're going to keep it meat and potatoes.
And we're doing this so that we could tackle it one small bite-sized step at a time.
I like it.
I'm in.
And I also learned that you're totally willing to just lay it on me in the spur of the moment.
(11:02):
So, love you.
It's going to be awesome.
I'm excited.
Yeah.
And I think my takeaway is, as I've been thinking about what I get from listeners and just as it feels, this theme is, re-listen friendly.
Repetition.
I want to make this, each episode is easy, you know, good to re-listen to as possible.
(11:28):
Excellent.
Okay.
Okay.
That was a good one.
Are you ready to take action and wondering where to start?
Get my Bulletproof My Identity Starter Kit for free.
The seven most vital layers of protection everyone needs.
I'll send you one step at a time and help you if you get stuck.
(11:50):
Just go to bulletproofmyid.com and enter your name and email and I will send you the first step.
Again, that's bulletproofmyid.com.
Welcome to Super Simple Security Principles, where you learn how to think, not just what to do.
I'm Nick Jackson, here to learn along with you from my good buddy and master guardian, Makani Mason.
Woo!
Let's go.
This is episode 76, our new podcast experiment.
(00:26):
Yes, we're changing things up, and that's all I have for you.
Makani, what do you got for us, bud?
Yeah, well, I know, kind of sprung a, you know, big change on you today.
We've had our opening questions and things in the past, and, you know, we've had a few changes over the, what, year and a half now almost that we've been doing this.
(00:50):
And so, I call this an experiment because kind of each time, I mean, I expect we'll keep it for a while.
I have no idea how long.
We'll see.
What, what, how long this feels like the right format, but this is what we're testing out.
Yeah.
So, you know, it kind of harkens back to what we sort of tried to do in the very beginning, in a way, where we wanted it really short, right?
(01:22):
Right.
And there were a lot of things that I had to learn, you had to learn, we had to experiment with, we've gotten better at it.
And so, that's kind of the thing, I think I'm kind of ready to try kind of our original vision, in a way, again.
Yeah.
And it actually puts me in mind, I don't know, I haven't heard you use this phrase in a while, but if you remember in the early days, you talked about meat and potatoes a lot.
(01:50):
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah, yeah.
And so, that's kind of how I'm thinking about this, when I was thinking about it, from my, you know, my Nick perspective of, it's going to mostly be kind of meat and potatoes, eliminating sort of the filler stuff.
Like, we want to still have fun, keep the humor, but anyway, does that make sense?
(02:13):
Oh, it makes total sense.
It makes total sense.
I mean, this is where I wanted to go with it.
I love that we're here.
You know, we had to experiment a little bit to get here, and yeah.
But you're on board.
I'm on board.
I'm on board.
You know, although you threw me under the bus, or should I say, threw me right into the spotlight, I'm on board.
(02:37):
I love it.
I love it.
Keeping it straight to the meat and potatoes, keeping it, you know, simple and yeah.
Do we get to tell them that we're going to be focusing in on just one little topic?
Yeah.
And that is one of the main things, right, is before I kind of would usually shoot for kind of three main points.
(03:00):
And so, we're going to break it down and just really have one main point.
And part of the idea here, too, is we switched a while back our weekly email with the same kind of perspective.
I called it, renamed it to our one-minute principal email, right?
(03:22):
Yeah.
Because we want that just to be just one tiny thing.
Like, we know security can be really overwhelming to our listeners, technical topics.
So, we tried to shrink that down.
And so, it's that same kind of idea, but applied to the podcast content itself.
Nice.
That's kind of how I'm thinking about it.
(03:42):
I like it.
I like it.
And one of the main reasons for our listeners, one of the main kind of objectives is to have it optimized for referencing it.
Because, unlike some podcasts, like, the way it's kind of developed is, as I've talked to listeners, they like to go back and they like to reread it.
(04:04):
They want to have transcripts of it so they can, I mean, not reread it, re-listen to it.
They want to have transcripts so they can read through it.
And so, we'll get into more of the changes in just a second, but the idea is to kind of make each episode be as kind of a small a unit as possible so it can be standalone and really optimized for that reference and repetition usage, if that makes sense.
(04:33):
Yeah, it makes total sense.
Which, a lot of podcasts, that's not really what they're going for, right?
But we are, at least for now.
Well, and it fits with our title, you know?
Yeah.
Super Simple Security Principles.
Like, we want to keep it simple.
Yeah.
(04:53):
And, again, remember, we're trying to cater this to the users that are like me.
Right.
You know, that this is a foreign language where we're trying to keep it very simple and learn one thing.
Bite-sized step at a time.
I actually like that comparison, too, because it brings me back to mind when I was living in Russia for a couple years and learning Russian.
(05:20):
Yeah.
And when I would hear it for too long, my brain would shut down.
I would fall asleep because it was just so much hard work, right?
So, same kind of idea.
I feel like there can be some benefit to really just having five, ten minutes.
As a goal, we'll see exactly how it plays out, but short.
(05:41):
So, you can process it better, have more time to digest it and to catch up.
Also, I've heard some people, life gets busy.
They're not listening to it every week necessarily, but they really like to catch up.
Catching up on ten-minute episodes is going to be a lot easier than thirty-minute episodes.
So, right.
Okay.
So, a couple of the format changes we'll specifically address.
(06:04):
One of the things that we have had for a while now is opening questions.
And I still love questions.
We'll definitely have them.
But the idea is really for it to be too short, just like one thing like you talked about.
And so, there will really just be kind of one question.
(06:25):
And so, I'm just kind of putting that into the title.
The title is the one question.
Because you'll see in some of the upcoming episodes that the title is a question.
Sometimes it won't be.
Sometimes it will be.
So, it's just more flexible.
But we don't want to move away from questions because questions are an awesome way to look at teaching and learning and security.
(06:47):
It just won't necessarily be tied to that specific thing.
Because sometimes it lends itself better to a statement than a question, basically.
Yeah.
That makes.
Yeah.
Okay.
The next part is the call to action that we've had very consistently, almost from episode one, really.
(07:10):
Right?
I know.
And we've had a lot of good feedback about that.
Here's my take on that, though.
I still, again, we will absolutely do it sometimes.
And if you want to do it every time, so here's what we're going to do.
I know.
And I haven't even talked with you about this.
But I want more flexibility there so it's not necessarily built in explicitly every time.
(07:30):
Because there will be, especially with the short ones,
I've had problems sometimes finding a reasonable one without putting more content in to prepare them for the call to action.
That makes sense.
So, instead, what I'm going to do is, it's not a requirement, but at the end, the replacement part for the call to action.
So, this will be our new kind of mainstay, the way we end each episode, is you will have a chance and then I will have a chance to just kind of give our summary takeaway.
(08:03):
That we come to, I'm not going to plan them, but as we're listening, we're like, right, what hits us as we come through?
You know, by the end, what's going through our head of what really resonated with us?
What do we think makes sense?
Killing you with the, hey, you inspired this, man.
(08:23):
You inspired this from day one of, as you call it.
I just love how you kept me in the dark this whole time.
Like, you know, maybe some of that information would have been helpful yesterday.
Yeah, but you love it.
You love it.
I do.
(08:44):
I do.
So, that's going to be our approach is we'll, yeah, take away instead of a call to action.
So, but that could easily be and will make sense certainly sometimes for there to be a call to action.
But if there's not, then we don't have to try to shoehorn it in.
We can just say the takeaway is really just a strong lesson, something to remember and learn.
(09:07):
But, yeah, and with those always, you know, the universal call to action when you learn something is share it with somebody, right?
Teach it to somebody else.
So, that's the way I think about that.
All right.
So, then the last thing I think we, sometimes we've talked about previous and next episodes.
(09:29):
And, again, just from a streamlining perspective, we're not going to do that.
Hopefully, because, mostly because it takes away some of the value when you're re-listening to it.
Because at that point, those are just kind of fluff.
And we will have in the show notes, though, we'll always have, like, if you're listening and you feel like maybe there's some missing things that is background for it, we will always reference those in the show notes.
(09:57):
So, you can, hopefully, we'll always try to think, what does this build on?
What are previous episodes that might help you understand this better if it seemed confusing at all?
Does that make sense?
Makes total sense.
Makes total sense.
Yeah.
And I think that's it for today.
(10:19):
I love it.
So, now we just do our standard part, though, is the takeaways.
So, what's your takeaway?
I figured that was covered.
Yeah.
That I got zero prep for.
Yep.
I know.
Okay.
So, the serious side of me, the one sentence is, look, we're going to streamline this.
(10:42):
We're going to keep it meat and potatoes.
And we're doing this so that we could tackle it one small bite-sized step at a time.
I like it.
I'm in.
And I also learned that you're totally willing to just lay it on me in the spur of the moment.
(11:02):
So, love you.
It's going to be awesome.
I'm excited.
Yeah.
And I think my takeaway is, as I've been thinking about what I get from listeners and just as it feels, this theme is, re-listen friendly.
Repetition.
I want to make this, each episode is easy, you know, good to re-listen to as possible.
(11:28):
Excellent.
Okay.
Okay.
That was a good one.
Are you ready to take action and wondering where to start?
Get my Bulletproof My Identity Starter Kit for free.
The seven most vital layers of protection everyone needs.
I'll send you one step at a time and help you if you get stuck.
(11:50):
Just go to bulletproofmyid.com and enter your name and email and I will send you the first step.
Again, that's bulletproofmyid.com.
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