That's a fact of life for parents, and the more children you have (I have 4) the more sickness gets spread around.
Stay with me, this connects to my wealth strategy.
See, I found myself often at home, either with sick kids, or on holiday, or (unfortunately) on furlough.
Last year, the Federal Govenment set a *NEW RECORD* π (if you heard that in Mario-Kart language, like me, we can get along just fine) for the longest furlough in history: 43 days.
I Googled it:
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Stay with me! This all connects and its going to blow your mind.
I spent that entire furlough, and my time on parental leave with our new baby, building this newsletter and my website.
I saw that as a wealth-building opportunity.
I had surplus resources: time and talent.
So, I picked an asset (newsletter and website) that fit my surplus time and talent. Bingo, we have a winner.
That's the kind of "cheat code" that I named my website after.
You, also, have an opportunity to identify the cheat code strategy in your life. Begin by thinking about what you have in surplus.
Do you waste a lot of time sitting on the toilet?
Do you waste a lot of time sitting in traffic or waiting for appointments?
Does your job involve a lot of downtime that you spend doom-scrolling on your phone?
Do you sit for HOURS watching youth sports games in the freezing cold (like me) bored out of your mind?
These are signs of time-surplus.
By redirecting your wasted time into income-generating ventures you will separate yourself from the paycheck.
I believe that the future of income is found on the internet.
I know, I know. That's what everyone said in the 2000's. That's not new.
I'm talking about something different.
Today, the internet is EVERYWHERE. No matter where your wasted time is found, you can either connect to the internet or work on a device offline and transfer your work to the internet later.
That is a window of opportunity. Now, let's open it.
In addition to internet accessibility, we now also have the third generation of digital information technology readily at our fingertips: artificial intelligence.
This is what you NEED to know:
Credit: cheatcodewealth.com
A.i. is not some miracle robotic machine that replaces humans. I am an above-average user of a.i. I use dozens of different models every single day. Here is what I have discovered:
The internet made digital information distributable.
The search engine made digital information discoverable.
The Large Language Model (a.i.) made digital information discernable.
This means that its easier than ever to solve problems by quickly using digital information.
And that is available in the palm of your hand. Incredible.
Now, here's the problem:
The LLM (a.i.) is revolutionizing the way people find information.
Go back to my screenshot of Google about furloughs. I got my answer in the first sentence of the search results page, in the a.i. overview section.
STOP.
That's it. I didn't click on the Wikipedia page, or any other pages. I got my answer in about 3 seconds. Before a.i., it would take at least 30 seconds.
This means that people are not searching for information like they used to. And its going to accelerate.
Here are some stats:
Zero-click search rates have risen sharply: over 60% of Google searches in 2026 resulted in NO PAGE CLICKS. This is 10% higher than 2024. π²
The organic click-through-rate on searches with an a.i. overview have declined by about 50% compared to no overview. π³
It is estimated that households have reduced their Google searches by 9-17% in exchange for a.i. platforms.
I am not exaggerating when I say that search will never be the same.
That affects everyone, but it affects owners of digital web assets even more.
I am so focused on this change that I wrote an in-depth series about it:
I have also adapted my content strategy for this new world. As I explain in my articles, this revolution is both challenging for website owners but also an incredible opportunity.
A.i. powered search helps to level the playing field.
Check this out:
Approximately 38% of web page citations by LLMs are for pages that rank on the first page of Google.
Wow! I'm shocked.
A.i. has made it possible to find the best information for your question, not just the highest ranked information.
This is where the opportunity exists.
I am actively working to make my content friendly for a.i. This means semantic wording, structure and schema built for LLM crawlers, and providing answers directly, without gatekeeping or suspense.
The information that LLM crawlers are looking for is slightly different than the information built for people.
The websites that adapt their content to how a.i. likes it will prosper in this new age of search and the websites that fail to adapt will go the way of the dinosaurs.
And SEMRush has been a critical tool for me to adapt.
If you're new to SEMRush, here's the 20 second explainer:
The platform has the best keyword database
It includes tools for tracking a.i. visibility
The software includes a suite of essential tools for monitoring website traffic, competitors, and brand performance.
For years, people have been able to get away with lower cost platforms for keyword research. I don't think that's going to cut it anymore.
The ecosystem is changing so fast that only the leading data platforms will be capable of providing meaningful information.
That's why I am using my SEMRush subscription to the max.
If you are building your digital asset; a website, a social media account, an app, etc., I think you should give SEMRush a try. With my affiliate offer you get a special 14-day free trial. If you do nothing else, get the 14 days and hammer out the most detailed content strategy you can.
Click the image to give SEMRush a try
After the trial you can continue to pay for the plan or downgrade to a free account which gives you limited daily access to data.
(this is an affiliate link, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you)
If you're not sure if you want to build a digital asset or not, go grab this free ebook to help you get started. You can use the free trial of SEMRush to test out content ideas to see if how much potential your business plan offers. I wish I had started using SEMRush at the beginning of building my website, it would have saved a lot of wasted time on the wrong content.
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