Win by "Doing Business Backwards"

Read the full interview recap on Frontline's blog →

Listen to the interview →

I just wrapped up a fascinating conversation with Bill Kasko, founder of Frontline Source Group, who's spent two decades proving that doing the exact opposite of your industry can be the smartest business strategy imaginable.

His origin story? A Seinfeld episode where George Costanza does everything opposite and it works. Bill applied this to staffing—and 21 years later, he's still disrupting an industry of 7,000+ competitors.

But here's what really caught my attention: Bill's front-row view of how search has completely fragmented, and how AI is creating problems nobody saw coming.

"We Don't Google. We TikTok."

Bill was having dinner with family when his niece (early 20s) started laughing at him. He'd mentioned "Googling" something.

"We don't Google," she said. "We TikTok."

That moment crystallized what many of us in SEO are wrestling with: the search landscape has shattered into dozens of platforms. YouTube is the #2 search engine. Reddit dominates 60% of queries in Google. Instagram results appear in Google SERPs.

As Bill puts it: "There's no longer like one or two places when you're building a company, building a website, that you need to be in Google, Yahoo, MSN. Now it's like you got to be in all of them."

If you're still optimizing like it's 2015, you're already behind.

The AI Fake Candidate Crisis Nobody's Talking About

Here's where things get dark: "The number of fake individuals looking for work is unbelievable what we're at. We are fighting through to identify if these people are real people or not real people."

Bill's team is battling:

• Candidates using LLMs as undetectable interview teleprompters during video calls

• Fake resumes with fully manufactured social media histories

• AI-powered "reference calls" where the person on the other end isn't human

Frontline now tracks IP addresses for reference checks. They recently flagged one IP that had completed 27 reference checks in a single week.

Think about the implications for your business, your hiring, your verification processes. This isn't coming—it's here.

Why Radical Honesty Converts Better Than Overselling

Bill shared a Saturday call (yes, they work Saturdays—more on that in a sec) where a prospect had already talked to three competitors. All three immediately promised: "Yeah, absolutely. We can fill this. There's not a problem."

Bill's approach? "Yeah, it's not going to be so simple. That's not the situation... Can I tell you we can do it in a week? No. It's not the way it works."

The prospect hired Frontline. Why? "Because we don't like to fail."

In an age of AI-generated everything and overpromising competitors, being the honest one is becoming a legitimate competitive advantage.

The Costanza Principle: Three "Opposite" Strategies That Still Work

1. He inverted the staffing model: Instead of 20 salespeople and 10 recruiters (industry standard), Frontline runs 1 salesperson and 20 recruiters. His logic? "The one with the best candidate was the one who got hired, not the person who had all the job orders."

2. He published pricing: After 21 years, Bill discovered no one in his industry has a pricing page. Out of 7,000+ competitors, he couldn't find a single one. So he created one. It's now a major traffic driver.

3. He offers 24/7 scheduling: While competitors operate Monday-Friday 8-5, Frontline takes calls on weekends. "Why is it that companies in our space, especially service business, you only take phone calls during Monday through Friday from like eight to five? Because it's convenient for me?"

His advice for any service business owner? Call your competitor and try to purchase. You'll find every flaw in their system instantly.

What This Means For Your SEO & Content Strategy

The fragmentation of search isn't just a technical challenge—it's forcing us to rethink how we build visibility. You can't just optimize for Google anymore. You need:

• Video content optimized for YouTube search

• Short-form content strategies for TikTok discovery

• Reddit community participation (or at least monitoring)

• Instagram content that can surface in Google

• Traditional SEO that accounts for AI overviews

And underneath all of it? The same principle Bill built his business on: make it convenient for your customer, not for yourself.

Want the Full Story?

I barely scratched the surface here. In the full conversation, Bill and I dig into:

• The complete evolution of customer service tech (from his online chat in 2003 to why he's removing chatbots now)

• Why he thinks remote work will return in 5 years

• How AI makes us "lazy" and what that means for cognitive decline

• The pricing page strategy in detail

• His thoughts on employment trends and what white-collar workers aren't prepared for

Read the full interview recap on Frontline's blog →

Listen to the complete episode →

Bill's not some guru selling a course. He's a guy who stumbled onto "stupid things" (his words) over 21 years that actually work. Sometimes the best business advice comes from people who aren't trying to sound smart.

Worth your time.

Jeremy Rivera
SEO Arcade

P.S. - Bill's final piece of advice? "I'm not that smart of a guy, Jeremy. I'm just not. These are just stupid things that I have stumbled on over 21 years and realized that business people sometimes are stupid."

Maybe the smartest thing any of us can do is question why we do things "the way they've always been done."