Michael Shoe

Michael

  • The Hidden Factor That Determines Career Pay and Growth (It’s Not Passion)

    The Hidden Factor That Determines Career Pay and Growth (It’s Not Passion)

    When I was in my early 20s, I believed that passion was the single most important factor in choosing a career. I thought:

    • If I work in an area I love, I’ll stay motivated.
    • Even if it doesn’t pay well, I’ll figure it out.
    • And if I make it to the “top” of the industry, I’ll be fine.

    My passion was sports. I wasn’t an athlete, but I wanted to work in the sports industry. I was willing to grind it out, even working for free to get experience—just like countless others trying to break in.

    What I didn’t realize back then was that passion alone isn’t enough. There are other forces that shape your career trajectory—forces that are much bigger than your own motivation. Over time, I came to understand three of them: geography, competition, and value creation.

    The Geography Factor

    Where you work matters more than I ever imagined. Certain industries are highly concentrated in just a handful of cities. Sports is one of them—there are only so many teams, league offices, and opportunities.

    And this goes the same for other industries too. Tech has Silicon Valley. Finance has New York and London. These hubs create dense ecosystems of opportunity. I wasn’t in any of those cities—and that alone limited my options, no matter how passionate or capable I was.

    The Competition Factor

    I underestimated the difficulty of making it to the top. Sports attracts young, passionate people who are willing to work for free just for a chance. The supply of labor is endless, and the demand is limited. That imbalance keeps pay low, even for higher-level positions.

    The Value Creation Factor

    This was my biggest realization.

    In sports, the core value is created by athletes. Without NBA players, there is no NBA. That’s why they earn unbelievable salaries. League office staff and executives add value, but they’re not the reason fans buy tickets or tune in to watch. Even top roles at the league office pay a fraction of what you might expect.

    I remember seeing a job posting for a director-level position at the NFL league office. The salary? $100,000–$160,000. Sounds decent, until you compare it with other industries.

    A Palantir engineer intern makes about $120,000.
    A Jane Street engineer intern makes $250,000.

    At first, I thought: that’s just tech and finance vs. sports. Different industries, different economics. But then it hit me: those engineers are part of the core value creation in their companies.

    Palantir is a software company. Without engineers, it doesn’t exist. Jane Street is a quantitative trading firm. Without technologists and quants building the algorithms, there’s no business.

    In other words, engineers in those firms are the equivalent of NFL players. They’re the ones driving the value engine.

    A Story That Stuck With Me

    Dharmesh Shah, CTO and cofounder of HubSpot, once told a story that hammered this point home for me. Early in his career, he worked as a tech in a traditional industry. He quickly became the best at what he did. But a senior colleague told him: “It won’t matter how good you are in this industry because tech isn’t the main value driver here.”

    That was a wake-up call for him—and it became one for me too.

    The Big Lesson

    If you want outsized returns in your career, it’s not enough to be good. You need to be good at something that sits at the core of value creation in your industry.

    • In sports, that’s being an athlete.
    • In tech, that’s being an engineer or founder.
    • In finance, that’s being a trader, quant, or engineer.
    • In healthcare, that’s being a physician or innovator.
    • In entertainment, that’s being the artist or creator.

    Everyone else can still have fulfilling careers, but the leverage—and the money—will always flow to the core.

    Looking Back, Looking Forward

    If I could go back to my 20s, I wouldn’t tell myself to abandon passion. Passion matters. It keeps you going when things get tough. But I would tell myself this:

    “Make sure your passion intersects with value creation. That’s where you’ll find both meaning and upside.”

    That’s the framework I carry with me now—whether I’m evaluating industries, jobs, or even side projects. And it’s the one piece of advice I’d give to anyone just starting out.

  • The Fears We Inherit

    The Fears We Inherit

    Growing up, I was told a lot of things — mostly by adults, mostly my parents.

    They were bound by their own experiences, the experiences that shaped the lives they live today.

    But looking back, I see now that many of these lessons were just fears.
    Their fears reflected onto my life.

    And slowly, I started to believe them.

    • You have to be great at math to work in tech.
    • You can only go so far in another country because you’re not a citizen.

    Maybe some of these statements were true in certain contexts. But I took them as universal truths, without questioning, without research.

    As I grew older, the list of these inherited “truths” kept piling up.

    It wasn’t until I passed the age of 35 that I realized most of them were just mindsets, not realities.

    They’re like tiny shackles on an elephant’s leg — placed there when it was young, so it grew up believing it couldn’t break free.

    Looking back, I can see how many of my decisions—or failures to decide—were shaped by these invisible chains.

    Here’s the truth: they are not real.

    You can find paths in this world that no one has traveled before.
    Whether you actually reach the destination is irrelevant.
    The only thing that matters is that you take the first step… and keep walking.

    That’s all that matters.

  • Should You Noindex Archive Pages in GeoDirectory? (Thin Content & SEO Tips)

    Should You Noindex Archive Pages in GeoDirectory? (Thin Content & SEO Tips)

    Intro

    While working on my TutorLounge project, I started worrying about archive pages with thin content in GeoDirectory.

    For example:

    • Category archives like /student-levels/early-childhood/
    • City archives like /new-york/white-plains/

    Some of these pages had very little content, and I wasn’t sure if they might hurt my SEO.

    So I asked GeoDirectory support: “Should I set certain archive pages as noindex, or just leave them?”

    Here’s what I learned.

    Problem

    GeoDirectory generates a lot of location and category archive pages. But not every city or category has enough listings to justify its own page.

    Result: you end up with thin pages (basically empty archives). The big question:

    • Do thin pages hurt SEO?
    • Should I noindex them?

    Solution

    The answer depends on your setup.

    1. Use an SEO Plugin (Yoast or Rank Math)

    Both Yoast and Rank Math let you easily control indexing:

    • You can noindex specific categories, tags, or CPT archives.
    • Or you can go page by page and mark thin archives as noindex.

    2. How Google Sees Thin Pages

    According to GeoDirectory support:

    • A few thin pages among strong ones are usually ignored by Google.
    • Having too many thin pages may hurt overall site quality.
    • If you’re unsure, it’s safer to noindex thin or low-value pages.

    3. Decide What to Keep Indexed

    • Keep indexed: important cities, strong categories with good listings.
    • Set noindex: small cities or categories with little/no content.

    Extra Notes

    • Sometimes Google automatically doesn’t rank thin pages — so you don’t always need to panic.
    • But manually setting noindex gives you more control and keeps your sitemap cleaner.
    • If you later add more listings to those thin pages, you can always remove the noindex tag.

    Conclusion

    Thin archive pages are common in GeoDirectory sites, but they don’t have to ruin your SEO.

    👉 Rule of thumb:

    • Keep high-value archives indexed.
    • Noindex thin/empty ones using Yoast or Rank Math.

    This way, you keep Google focused on your best content while still building out your site’s structure.

  • Fixing Sticky Columns on Mobile in GeoDirectory (Blockstrap)

    Fixing Sticky Columns on Mobile in GeoDirectory (Blockstrap)

    Intro

    After setting up my sticky sidebar column in GeoDirectory, it looked great on desktop.

    But when I checked on mobile, things broke — instead of stacking nicely under the main content, the sidebar turned into a slim, squished column.

    Here’s how I fixed it.

    Problem

    On desktop: sidebar = 25% width, content = 75%.
    On mobile: sidebar stayed at 25%, instead of expanding to 100%. This caused an ugly layout.

    Solution

    The trick is to use Blockstrap’s responsive column widths.

    1. Select the parent columns in Blockstrap editor.
    2. In Column Width settings:
      1. On Desktop:
        1. Left content column = 3/12 (25%).
        2. Right sidebar column = 9/12 (75%).
      2. On Mobile:
      3. Both columns = 12/12 (full width).
    3. For the child sticky column inside, always keep it at 12/12 (100% of parent).

    Use the device selector in the column width settings to apply different widths per device.

    Extra Notes

    • This is one of those small Blockstrap features I didn’t realize existed — you can toggle between desktop, tablet, and mobile column widths right in the editor.
    • Once I set them, the sticky sidebar stacked perfectly under the content on mobile.

    Conclusion

    Sticky sidebars don’t have to break your responsive layout. Just set column widths per device (desktop vs. mobile) in Blockstrap, and your design will look great everywhere.

  • How to Make a Sticky Sidebar Column in GeoDirectory (Blockstrap)

    How to Make a Sticky Sidebar Column in GeoDirectory (Blockstrap)

    Intro

    When I was customizing my GeoDirectory search results page, I wanted the right-hand sidebar (with filters) to stay fixed while scrolling — basically a sticky column.

    It’s not obvious how to do this in the Blockstrap editor, but GeoDirectory support showed me the trick.

    Problem

    By default, columns just scroll away with the page. I needed the search filters column to remain visible while the listing results scrolled.

    Solution

    Here’s the simple way to make a column sticky:

    1. In the Blockstrap editor, wrap the sidebar column inside a new BS > Container (col).
      1. Example: Right column → wrap it in its own parent container.
    2. Select that new parent container.
    3. In the Block settings (right panel):
      1. Set Position → sticky-top.
      2. Adjust Sticky offset (in pixels) to control how far from the top it “sticks” when scrolling.

    This keeps the sidebar fixed in place while the main content scrolls.

    Extra Notes

    • In my case, the “old column” was the one containing the GD > Search template part and the GD > Locations widget.
    • The offset is useful if you have a fixed header (so the sticky column doesn’t overlap it).

    Conclusion

    That’s it! Just wrap your sidebar column, set it to sticky-top, and you’ve got yourself a sticky filter column in GeoDirectory.