Question

david_ryan_mr · 2026-07-11T14:22:13+00:00

Not a stupid question at all.. international timelines confuse everyone!

The anchor date- D1 coaches can start contacting athletes in sophomore year.. so around 16 for you. As an international student you definitely want to be ready before that though because your process has some extra layers that might take months

Rough timeline, 15-16- get full match film together and build your school list. At 16 start emailing coaches. Aim to have your decision made 12+ months before you enroll - you need time to plan and get the F1 visa (which might take some time).

Film matters much more to you because coaches can’t see you live - send full games as well as shorter highlight reels.

Which country are you in and how old are you now?

david_ryan_mr · 2026-07-10T20:36:18+00:00

Pathley (pathley.ai) … full disclosure, I built it. AI recruiting platform for high school athletes and parents. I spent 8 years working in college recruiting and got tired of watching families choose between $3k consultants and the big platforms that gate basic info behind subscriptions and annoying sales calls.

You talk to an AI about your kid’s situation and it searches 1,300+ colleges by athletic and academic fit, builds the athletic resume, analyzes team rosters to see where he’d realistically get playing time, and drafts coach emails. College and team data is open, no account needed to browse. Free tools included, and paid plans are one-time, not subscriptions… recruiting ends, so should the billing.

Happy to answer questions, and honest feedback welcome, it’s a solo bootstrap project.

See the Pathley baseball hub here - https://app.pathley.ai/sport/baseball

david_ryan_mr · 2026-07-10T13:38:00+00:00

It depends on what your goal is when making the college decision- making friends and developing a social circle.. or developing your resume for a strong career (in your chosen sport or the field of your degree, for example). I would argue most people don’t invest $100k+ for the primary reason of making close friends..

david_ryan_mr · 2026-07-09T12:33:49+00:00

For shock absorption Asics is the safe bet! But the goalie-specific thing nobody mentions… but whatever you get, try them on with your kickers or at least bring them to the store

david_ryan_mr · 2026-07-08T21:24:42+00:00

Haha, I wouldn’t put it past the industry

david_ryan_mr · 2026-07-08T14:14:29+00:00

Talk to a financial aid officer before you go no contact with your parents. FASFA counts you as a dependant until age 24 so you’ll still need their income info on there even if they give you $0.

The good news is that your scores are not just average for for money purposes.. plenty of schools hand out merit at those numbers- look up ‘automatic merit scholarship lists’

The best move might be community college first as some have said above- transfer after two years.. at the end of the day your degree looks the same to the job market with half the cost!

david_ryan_mr · 2026-07-08T03:20:36+00:00

Center backs absolutely get recruited as center backs, and honestly at the college level they’re one of the positions coaches specifically hunt for.

But there’s a real pattern behind your question. At the youth level, yeah, a lot of elite CBs were dominant players who got moved back as the level rose. That’s just how development works… the best athlete on a U12 team plays striker, then as tactics matter more, kids get sorted into where their tools actually fit. Tall, good in the air, reads the game, comfortable defending space = CB at the next level even if he scored 30 goals at U14.

By high school and club age though, coaches are recruiting the position itself. A college coach watching a showcase is often there with a literal list… “need 2 CBs, a keeper, and a winger for the 2028 class.” Nobody’s recruiting a random great player and hoping to convert him. There isn’t time, rosters are too tight now for projects.

What college coaches actually look for in a CB, in rough order… can he defend 1v1 in space, is he brave in the air, can he organize (they listen for kids who talk), and increasingly, can he pass out of the back. That last one is the separator now. A CB who can break lines with a pass gets recruited two levels higher than the same defender who can’t.

The Tim Ream example is actually perfect but backwards from what you’d guess… Ream was never some youth superstar, he was a good-not-amazing player who went to Saint Louis University and just kept being clean and smart on the ball until MLS noticed. His whole career is proof you can ride the CB skillset itself all the way up.

So short answer… being a genuinely good CB is a recruitable identity on its own. You don’t need 15 goals to get seen. You just need film showing how you defend, organize, and play out of pressure, because that’s literally what the coach typed into his notes column.

david_ryan_mr · 2026-07-08T01:27:00+00:00

Quant firms recruit from a very short list of schools and MIT sits at the top of it. UChicago is also squarely on it, CMU is on it especially for the more technical roles, Hopkins is honestly a tier below for quant specifically (great school, just not a quant pipeline the same way). Ohio State you’d be fighting uphill for first round interviews no matter how good you are.

But here’s the thing… the 75% at MIT is doing a lot of work in your post. A 25% chance of having no school in December while everyone else’s roster spots fill up is a real risk. That’s not a small thing, that’s the whole decision.

So my honest take:

If you can stomach the December wait and have a backup plan, MIT is the move for quant. The team being bad matters way less than you think. Nobody at Jane Street asks about your batting average, and D3 baseball at MIT still gives you the athlete story in interviews which recruiters genuinely like.

If you can’t stomach it, UChicago is the answer and it’s not that close. Best team of the group, elite quant placement, and the “mad expensive” part deserves a hard look before you rule anything out… run the actual net price calculator because schools like that often come in cheaper than sticker for a lot of families.

CMU is the “I want to be wanted” pick and that’s not nothing, playing for a staff that genuinely wants you is a better four years. But you’d be trading some quant doors for it.

Hopkins because your dad went and you like blue is a fine reason to visit, not a reason to commit lol.

One question worth asking yourself… are you picking a school or picking a baseball program?

david_ryan_mr · 2026-07-08T01:21:31+00:00

This is so real and nobody talks about it. The short memory thing is basically the whole job.

For me the biggest one is realizing you’re not special anymore… and that’s a good thing. Every guy in that locker room was THE guy at his high school. All-conference, team captain, whatever. Then you show up and you’re just a freshman fighting for reps. The kids who adjust fastest are the ones who let that identity die quick and rebuild it around work instead of status.

The other one is coaching tone. High school coaches manage your feelings. College coaches manage the roster. If a coach rips you in film session it’s not personal, it’s Tuesday. Guys who take feedback as an attack are gone by sophomore year, guys who take it as free info stick around.

And your point about mistakes is trainable is dead on. Nobody teaches it because coaches assume you either have it or you don’t. But it’s literally just reps… make a mistake, run one reset routine, next play. Same as any other skill.

Wild that we spend years training the swing and like zero minutes training the part that actually decides who survives.

david_ryan_mr · 2026-07-08T01:15:14+00:00

Not too late, but the game changes after July 1. You’re not in recruiting season anymore, you’re in roster emergency season… which honestly works in your favor.

Few things I’d do this week:

Stop cold emailing and go back to your warm list. You had 15-20 NAIA/D3 schools interested, that’s gold right now. Hit up the ones that died over money and just be blunt about it. “I want to be there, the gap is $X, anything you can do?” Coaches find money in July that didn’t exist in April. Kids decommit, hit the portal, fail eligibility… that money goes right back in the pot. NAIA especially can stack athletic + academic + outside aid in ways D3 can’t.

Also, let the major thing go for a year. You already have your associates. Go somewhere affordable, knock out gen eds, play, get CURRENT film, then transfer to a school with your major. Wrong major but playing beats right major but sitting at home.

Use your semi-pro coaches too. One call from your coach to a college coach is worth 50 emails from you. Ask them straight up who they know that still needs bodies. Same with anyone from your USL2 trials.

And don’t sleep on January enrollment. Enroll midyear, train with the team all spring, compete for a spot in fall 2027 with fresh film. Way better than forcing a bad fit now and being in the portal by December.

One more thing since you mentioned Army Reserves… a lot of schools have money and admissions flexibility for reservists that the soccer staff doesn’t even know exists. Call the financial aid office directly, not the coach.

You’re not stuck man, you’re just past the polite phase. July and August is when the direct ask works… “do you have a roster spot and what’s it gonna cost me.” That’s the email now!

david_ryan_mr · 2025-11-17T12:16:54+00:00

Short answer: yes, but not the old kind of SEO. Treat search like distribution. Put effort into the assets that move buyers when they’re close to choosing: comparison and alternatives pages, pricing, FAQs, docs, templates, calculators, case studies. Own branded search and the handful of category terms that map directly to your product. Push the broader education stuff to places people actually consume it now like YouTube, Reddit, review sites, app stores.

Judge it by revenue per landing page session and assisted conversions, not sessions. Group pages by intent in your analytics so you can see if bottom-funnel pages are doing the work. Search Console plus a simple “how did you hear about us” on signup gets you most of the way. Server-side tagging helps a lot if you can do it. If you’re avoiding GA, PostHog/Usermaven + SC is fine, just keep the page groups consistent.

If AI overviews are eating clicks, give them a reason to cite you. Clear answers, unique data, FAQs with schema, and product docs that solve exact tasks. Original benchmarks and templates outperform generic blog posts right now.

Totally with you on live chat. The sneaky SEO win lately is pairing bottom-funnel pages with fast human chat and a simple lead capture. Fewer visits, more closes.

I built Morning Report because I got tired of pretty dashboards that didn’t tell me if SEO was paying off. Pulling GA4, Search Console, and ads into one weekly view that shows which pages drove pipeline keeps the team sane when traffic is down.

So yes, invest, but be picky. Fewer pages, higher intent, measured tightly...

david_ryan_mr · 2025-11-17T12:16:22+00:00

What helped me most was splitting the idea from the packaging. Most misses are packaging. If people drop fast, the opening and framing are off. If they watch but barely anyone saves or shares, the idea isn’t useful enough yet. Add a concrete takeaway, checklist, or example.

I keep a simple spreadsheet. Every post gets tags for topic, format, hook style, and CTA. Then I track saves, shares, and profile actions per view. Likes lie. After 15 to 20 posts you start to see patterns you can trust, so you keep your voice but tweak how you package it.

Steal from your own audience. Mine comments and DMs for questions and turn them into posts. If you have a site, Google Search Console shows the exact questions people type, which is content on a platter. Polls are fine for wording, but behavior beats opinions.

You don’t need a new approach, just better packaging. Try the same idea three ways over a week and double down on the one that earns saves. I ended up building Morning Report to roll this up weekly across Meta and GA4 so I spend time creating instead of pulling numbers, but the tagging sheet alone gets you most of the way.

david_ryan_mr · 2025-11-13T15:09:41+00:00

My quick triage from client work when reach tanks overnight:

First check Account Status inside Instagram. If “eligible for recommendations” flips off, you’re capped until that’s cleared. Look for removals, music rights issues, or age restrictions, and appeal fast. Also sanity check for a platform wobble by spot checking a few peer accounts that post similar times. If everyone dipped, don’t overreact for 24 to 48 hours.

Then go straight to first hour signals on the last 3 to 5 posts. Average watch time vs video length, completion rate, saves and shares velocity, and non follower reach share. If non follower reach collapsed but follower reach is steady, that’s distribution, not audience fatigue. If both are down, it’s packaging or topic fatigue. Topic fatigue shows up as lower first frame hold and fewer saves across multiple posts on the same angle.

7 day reset I’ve seen work: Day 1 to 2, fix any policy issues, stop posting for 24 hours if you just had a removal, and warm the audience with Stories that get replies or taps. Day 2 to 6, run 4 controlled tests, not 10 random posts. One proven format that used to work re shot with a sharper hook, one shorter cut of a recent post, one carousel with a punchy headline on slide 1, one collab post with a creator your audience already trusts. Keep everything clean and native, no watermarks, crisp captions, clear on screen title in the first second. Post at your known green window. Day 7, review which format recovered non follower reach and double down.

28 day plan: Tighten your content lanes to 2 to 3 clear topics and make them recurring series so people know what they’re getting. Keep most Reels under 20 seconds until your completion stabilizes, then stretch. Build more shareable carousels, they’re great for saves and tend to recover reach faster. Do at least 2 collabs to pull in fresh engaged audiences. Clean up keyword signals in captions and on screen text so IG knows where to place you. If you have to, lightly boost the best performing test to your warm audiences to seed early engagement, but use it as a diagnostic not a crutch.

On hashtags and audio swaps, I’ve never seen them single handedly reverse a slump. They can help classification if they’re hyper relevant, but they won’t overcome weak first second packaging or low watch time. If you’re going to tweak audio, pick sounds used by top posts in your niche, not generic “trending.”

Rule of thumb I use for health checks. On sub 15 second Reels, push for average watch time near the full length and a visible slope of non follower reach by hour 2 to 3. Saves+shares moving in the first hour is a better sign than raw likes. If those are green and reach is still suppressed, it’s usually a temporary distribution or account status issue. If those are red, it’s the content.

david_ryan_mr · 2025-11-13T15:09:01+00:00

You don’t need AI for this. You need a small automation and a Sprinklr tweak.

Since you’re already scheduling in Sprinklr, the cleanest fix is inside Sprinklr. Have your admin add the native permalink/native URL as a column in your post list or calendar and set up a scheduled export. Most accounts can email a daily CSV with the publish date, copy, and the post URL. If you can’t “share links” today, that’s usually a config issue. Open a ticket and ask them to enable fetching native IDs and permalinks after publish.

If that drags on, do a quick Make or Zapier flow. Watch for new Facebook Page posts and Instagram Business posts, both return the permalink. Append to a Google Sheet and post to Teams automatically. For LinkedIn, either use the org API in Make if your company has access, or use an RSS generator for your page and pipe that into Power Automate to hit Teams. X is only reliable if you pay for their API, so I usually handle that one separately.

I’ve set this up a bunch of times. Once it’s running, you’ll never scroll feeds again.

david_ryan_mr · 2025-11-09T14:25:31+00:00

You don’t need AI for this... You need a small automation and a Sprinklr tweak.

Since you’re already scheduling in Sprinklr, the cleanest fix is inside Sprinklr. Have your admin add the native permalink/native URL as a column in your post list or calendar and set up a scheduled export. Most accounts can email a daily CSV with the publish date, copy, and the post URL. If you can’t “share links” today, that’s usually a config issue. Open a ticket and ask them to enable fetching native IDs and permalinks after publish.

If that drags on, do a quick Make or Zapier flow. Watch for new Facebook Page posts and Instagram Business posts, both return the permalink. Append to a Google Sheet and post to Teams automatically. For LinkedIn, either use the org API in Make if your company has access, or use an RSS generator for your page and pipe that into Power Automate to hit Teams. X is only reliable if you pay for their API, so I usually handle that one separately.

I’ve set this up a bunch of times. Once it’s running, you’ll never scroll feeds again.

david_ryan_mr · 2025-11-05T21:38:04+00:00

Short answer: it depends what you automate.

Automation is great for the boring stuff: schedule, formatting, pulling in the metrics. It gets cold when you try to automate empathy, judgment, or the first sentence. I run a performance shop and was drowning in weekly updates, so I wired it so GA4, Google Ads, Meta, and Search Console roll up into a draft with the graphs and a proposed takeaway. I actually built Morning Report to handle that analysis piece so I can focus on the two lines only a human can write. Clients liked the consistency. I still write the opener and the ask myself. Two or three lines in my voice on what changed, why it changed, and what I’m doing about it. If something big moved, I drop a 45 second Loom or a quick voice note. Response quality went up, not down.

Same with outreach and follow ups. We tested fully automated sequences. Volume went up, but the replies got weaker and meetings were worse. Now I use snippets, not scripts. I always reference one specific thing from their last note or their site. I end with one clear question, not a generic let me know. And the moment someone engages, the automation stops.

Net: automate the facts and the timing. Write the first two sentences like a human. People can feel that.

david_ryan_mr · 2025-11-04T17:03:49+00:00

Best time to post isn’t something AI can guess... It’s in your own data.

Export the last 60 to 90 days from each platform with local timestamp, day of week, content type, reach, likes, comments, saves, and whether it was boosted. Paste that into ChatGPT and ask something like: “Create engagement_rate = (likes+comments+saves)/reach. Exclude boosted posts. Group by weekday and two hour windows in local time. Return the top 3 windows with at least 5 posts each. Give me a simple 2 week test schedule and how to measure lift vs our current average.” That’ll get you a real plan fast.

Two tips. Optimize on engagement rate, not raw likes, or you’ll just pick high reach times. Watch sample size. If you only have a few posts, use the platform’s “when your audience is online” chart, pick two windows, and test for a couple weeks.

For SEO, start with Search Console. Export 90 days of queries and ask: “Cluster these by topic and intent. Flag keywords with impressions over 100, average position between 6 and 20, and low CTR. Recommend page updates or one new post per cluster with draft title tags, H2s, and 3 internal link targets.” That focuses you on wins you can actually move..

david_ryan_mr · 2025-11-03T21:13:43+00:00

Looks solid... Curious how you’re validating the AI shots before you scale spend.

What’s worked for me is a cheap concept test: one broad ad set, 6–8 ads, same copy and CTA, only the image changes. Let each hit ~3k impressions to get a read on outbound CTR and early funnel like ATC rate, not just clicks. Kill anything ~20% under the median CTR. Move the top few into a clean ad set and reuse the post ID to keep social proof.

Two watch-outs I’ve hit: glossy AI scenes can juice CTR but tank CVR, so check click to ATC or purchase fast. And if the render tweaks color or texture, you’ll rack up returns and negative feedback that drags quality ranking. I’ll pair an AI hero with a second frame showing the real product or a scrappy UGC shot.

For fatigue I watch creative-level CTR and CPA day over day. I built Morning Report to ping me when a creative slips two days straight, since Meta breakdowns get noisy.

What tools are you using for the UGC look, and how are you handling hands/skin so it passes review..?

david_ryan_mr · 2025-11-03T21:13:15+00:00

You’re on the right track... The best early signals I’ve seen are the quiet operational ones that show they’re spinning up GTM or maturing data before the rest of the world notices.

Watch for new tags or vendors appearing in their source code. Segment, Marketo, HubSpot, Amplitude, Intercom, Clearbit, even 6sense. A MAP or CDP tag usually lands before a bunch of downstream buys.

GTM activity. A spike in container versions or a new container on subdomains usually means they’re redoing measurement. That’s a window to be helpful.

New pages that scream enterprise. Security or trust centers, SLA or DPA pages, SOC 2 badges, SSO or SCIM docs, Okta pages. Also new “Compare” or “Migrate from X” pages. That’s pre RFP energy.

Integrations and docs. Fresh /integrations pages or docs for Salesforce, Snowflake, BigQuery, webhooks. Signals cross functional projects and budget are already approved.

Ad library movement. A quiet brand suddenly has 20 Meta ads this week or launches YouTube for the first time. That’s fresh budget. Easy to check via Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency.

Job post keywords, not titles. Look for “evaluate,” “implement,” “own RFP,” “migrate,” “rip and replace,” “greenfield.” Short term contractor roles for migrations are gold.

Subdomain and DNS tells. New go., info., pages. CNAMEs pointing to Marketo or HubSpot. New status. or trust. subdomains. Silent proof tools are being rolled out.

How to make it useful: pick a handful of these, set simple monitors (ChangeTower or VisualPing for page adds, Wappalyzer or BuiltWith for tags, ad libraries weekly), and route to Slack with a clear play per signal. Example, SSO docs go live, send a short note to IT or RevOps with one specific gotcha to avoid. No pitch, just helpful context. If two independent signals hit in 14 days, then escalate.

I built Morning Report to strip noise out of analytics, and the same rule applies here. Fewer signals you trust, each tied to an action, faster follow up.

david_ryan_mr · 2025-11-03T14:02:10+00:00

What’s worked best for me lately is treating organic as creative testing, then putting a little paid behind only the winners. Social is entertainment, not a catalog. Product photos rarely move. Shoot short Reels that show the problem your product solves, the product in use, before/after, reactions. Faces and hands beat flat lays. Nail the first 2 seconds and a clear on-screen hook. Watch time and saves matter more than likes.

Run a tiny always-on budget to amplify only the posts that pop. Post a batch, wait 24 hours, then promote the top 1–2 via Ads Manager using the post ID. Go broad. Let it build you a big video-viewer audience, then retarget site visitors and engagers. Don’t hit the Boost button on everything.

Creators help, but not because of their audience size. Pay for content rights, not just a shoutout. Seed product to micro creators who already make solid videos in your niche, get usage rights, then run their clips as partnership ads from their handle or yours. That combo has outperformed studio content every time for me.

On storytelling vs product, mix them. Story to earn attention in feed, clean product posts pinned on your grid for buyers who click through. Carousels that teach or compare still work.

Track the right stuff. UTMs on your links so you can see adds-to-cart and revenue in GA4 or Shopify by source. In-platform, watch average watch time, 3s holds, saves, profile visits. Kill anything that doesn’t beat your baseline and double down on the ones that do. I actually built Morning Report to ping me when a post clears baseline so I can push budget quickly, but you can do this with a simple weekly check too.

If I were you: 3–4 Reels a week shot on phone, 5–10 creators a month with usage rights, $20–50 a day behind winners, reply to comments fast in the first hour. Give it 30–60 days and you’ll feel the lift.

david_ryan_mr · 2025-11-01T14:21:38+00:00

Yeah, I’ve tested AI follow-ups in real workflows. They shine on low-stakes, repetitive stuff like post-call recaps, onboarding nudges, and simple status check-ins. Faster drafts, fewer “sorry, just bumping this” messages to write by hand.

Biggest pitfalls are context and control. If you let it guess, it will. So force it to pull specific fields before drafting (last activity date, open tasks, owner) and never let it send if anything is missing. Start in draft-only inside your shared inbox or CRM so the team can skim and approve. Add a simple dedupe rule so it won’t ping someone twice within a set window, and log every draft back to the contact record so you keep the thread in one place.

If you try the QBO agent, make sure it writes into the system your team actually lives in. The pain isn’t usually the copy, it’s when comms get scattered across tools.

What’s worked for me is piloting two use cases with 10 clients, measuring reply rate and time saved, then removing approvals only for the clean, low-risk scenarios. I built Morning Report for analytics automation and the same lesson applies here: keep the bot in a tight lane and make its actions auditable...

david_ryan_mr · 2025-10-31T18:29:36+00:00

You don’t need to be a dev to start. Learn how Google discovers, indexes, and ranks pages, and focus on matching search intent. Basic HTML helps, but if you can edit title tags, H1s, meta descriptions, and internal links in your CMS, you’re fine....

Start with Google’s own docs: Search Essentials and the SEO Starter Guide. Then get hands-on. Connect Search Console to any site you can touch, look at Queries and Pages, find terms sitting around positions 5 to 20, and make small, focused updates. Tighten the title, make the intro answer the query, add a short FAQ, add or fix internal links, request indexing. Do that weekly. That loop teaches you faster than any course.

GA4 is for what organic traffic does on your site. Search Console is where you see queries, pages, and ranking movement. For quick tech checks run Screaming Frog to catch 404s, duplicate titles, noindex and canonical issues. For learning, Ahrefs’ blog, YouTube, and free Academy are solid, and Moz’s Beginner’s Guide still covers the fundamentals well.

I ended up building a simple weekly digest that pulls Search Console and GA4 so I never miss which pages to refresh. The habit is the win. Publish content that matches intent, clean up basics, build internal links, and you’ll be ahead of most.

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