news

The FTX Mess and the Gambling You’ve Never Heard Of – #99

Published: | Last Updated:

I had a dream last night.

My wife and I were at a Lizzo concert. We had good seats – front row, left side. As Lizzo came out for her finale, she played one song (About Damn Time). Before the next song, she walked over to me and asked me if I wanted to be a part of the show.

I said “heck yes” of course.

She took my hand and led me over to a batting cage of some sort, where celebrity figures started to throw objects at me. If I caught them without hitting the ground, I received a point. I remember President Clinton and President Bush throwing at me. Clinton tried to throw a curve ball. Bush kept dancing around.

The board and the announcer said I caught seven, but I only remember catching three.

Then I woke up.

Someone tell me what this means please.

The FTX Mess

Joe pulizzi with camel in cabo, mexico

Last week my wife and I went on a cruise to Mexico where we stopped in Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada. We rode camels (see picture above), went to a cheese cellar and drank all the drinks. It was one of the few vacations we’ve taken, just the two of us, since our honeymoon. It was everything I dreamed it would be.

During this blissful week, I saw the headlines regarding the fallout at cryptocurrency exchange FTX. You can read all the up-to-date details here. The tl;dr is that FTX collapsed like Lehman Brothers did in 2008. In just a few days FTX went from crypto-leader to bankrupt. From $32 billion in value to nothing.

I feel so bad for all those people who lost money. And, it’s not over yet. There were so many major players who had invested in FTX, we have only seen the start of this wave. Bitcoin and Ethereum have both been hit hard, down over 20 percent in just days. Many firms, like Genesis, have halted withdrawals. Scary times.

Some takeaways:

  • If you bought Bitcoin or other tokens on an exchange like FTX or Coinbase, move access to your coins from the exchange to something you can control, like a Ledger cold wallet (here’s some instructions). I’ve moved most of my crypto holdings and our more valuable NFTs to my Ledger (a Ledger looks like a USB where you can hold your private keys offline).
  • Good or bad, regulations are coming. They are needed. I hope they keep the spirit of capitalism alive when they happen.
  • I’ve been into crypto since 2016 and this is as bad as I’ve seen it. To make a comparison to the financial fallout from 2008 is not overstated. That said, I’m still bullish on Bitcoin and ETH and certain NFTs with a solid use case or collectability. I still believe in tokenization as a business model. We need to remind ourselves how early we are with this technology. I call it the “alta vista” period of crypto.
  • All in all, I feel we have more downward pressure to go, but long-term my thoughts haven’t changed.

My Current Projects of Interest

I wrote an article about the present and future of the creator economy on Hubspot. Take a read here.

Tomorrow is the last day for the lowest possible price ($495) at Creator Economy Expo (May 1-3, 2023 in Cleveland, Ohio). I hope you join me. I’m finishing up the agenda and it is amazing for both beginners and advanced creators. Check out the agenda here and register here.

The site Discourse (they buy and sell businesses) asked me to write an article about how an entrepreneur who sells and receives a windfall should invest their money. Here’s the article.

My 10k Creator Podcast series with Daren Smith (from Craftsman Creative) has been amazingly successful. We are currently on episode eight (of 10). The show is about how a content creator can get to 10,000 subscribers and $10,000 in revenue per month. You can listen to and watch all the episodes here. We’ve had amazing guests the last three episodes: Jay Clouse (Creator Science), Daphne Gomez (Teacher Career Coach) and Lexi Grant (They Got Acquired).

The Gambling You’ve Never Heard Of

My friend Stephen Davis sends me interesting articles and videos almost every week. Many of these Robert Rose and I feature on our This Old Marketing podcast.

Last week Stephen sent me this video about Valve’s gambling problem. Valve is the company behind Steam, an online game distribution platform with 120 million active users per month and 50,000 games. If you have teenagers, they are most likely using it.

The video uncovers the teen gambling problem that is not only happening, but growing on games such as CS:GO (36 million players last month). On this game, you can buy what’s called skins, which are weapon and wearable accessories for the player.

I knew all that. But what I didn’t know is that many users gamble their skins to get more valuable skins. You have to watch the video to believe it. According to the program, billions are being wagered on CS:GO alone, almost exclusively by teenagers 13-18. This type of activity is causing long-term damage to children and making them prone to more serious gambling issues in the future.

The more I find out about online gambling (see this newsletter issue) and the incredible growth of the sports betting industry, I’m inclined to think that gambling may be one of our society’s biggest hurdles in the next decade.

Anyway, if you are like me who has bought multiple Steam cards for your kids, this is something to be very aware of.

What Would You Like to Hear About?

Next edition of The Random is my 100th newsletter. Always a special number. What would you like to hear about? Please reply to this email and let me know. I’ll make it a special read for everyone.

Thanks so much for reading. It is SO much appreciated.

Practicing with AI Tools – #98

Published: | Last Updated:

Practicing with Artificial Intelligence

WARNING: This is a very long section on me practicing with AI tools. I’ve become fascinated with this and thought I’d share some results with you.

A little over a year ago, my friend and Marketing AI Institute founder Paul Roetzer told me about a new artificial intelligence design tool that would be coming out soon.

It was called DALL-E 2. The idea would be to describe the image you wanted in text and, using an AI algorithm, DALL-E would create an original image for you.

I was, as always, skeptical. That said, I was super curious.

AI Art

I signed up for the beta trial and finally gained access (right now, anyone can get access at OpenAI.com). I decided to test it with our podcast art for the This Old Marketing podcast.

After each episode, I go out and try to find a royalty-free image that I could use for the current episode based on the podcast topic. This generally would take me about 15 minutes. It wasn’t time consuming, but it was not something I enjoyed doing.

Some background: At times we’ve used a graphic designer (human being) to create these. The problem is that Robert Rose and I would often record our podcasts late at night on Thursday (distribution is Friday morning at 4 AM EST) so asking a designer to do this was often impossible. So…it was up to me.

I thought this would be a perfect case to use DALL-E to generate our podcast images. I started three weeks ago, so we have three solid examples to look at. The creation of each one has taken me about one minute: 30 seconds to come up with the phrase, 10 seconds (or so) for DALL-E to render the image, with the remainder left to download into the podcast template. Done and done.

Here are the images from the last three episodes:

I thought the images were nice enough and relevant to each episode, but the feedback tells me this is working. I’ve received a number of compliments from listeners over the past few weeks on the upgraded image design (although there has been no impact on listener-ship that I can tell).

The key to success is generating very specific textual descriptions and including the style you want it in. For example, the image for this issue of The Random came from DALL-E. This was the description I used: boxing match between two artificially generated humans, style of salvador dali

It gave me four options and this is the one I chose. If you like one but it’s not quite there, you can choose one of the four examples and get more variations of that particular image.

There are many AI-art generators out there now. Here’s a handy list.

BTW, my friend Brian Fanzo of the NFT365 podcast, has been generating AI-driven art for months and selling his AI/Human creations as NFTs. Each one has sold out in minutes.

AI Writing

I recently heard about an AI-writing tool called Jasper. Jasper claims that they can create quality blog posts (and other writing outputs) with just a few prompts.

Again, my skepticism was high.

I signed up for a trial version of Jasper and got to work.

I took one minute and inputted the following:

Title: How to Gain Newsletter Subscribers
Audience Target: Content Creators, Newsletter Writers, Entrepreneurs
Voice: Professional

In 30 seconds here is what I received:

—–

Blog Title: How to Gain Newsletter Subscribers

Blog Introduction: If you’re reading this, chances are you’re looking for ways to grow your newsletter subscriber list. And rightfully so! A newsletter is a great way to keep your audience informed about your latest content, products, or services. But if you don’t have any subscribers, then your newsletter will never see the light of day. So how do you gain newsletter subscribers? Keep reading to find out!

Blog Body:
1. Use a CTA in Your Blog Posts
If you have a blog (which you should!), then make sure to include a CTA (call-to-action) at the end of each post inviting your readers to subscribe to your newsletter. You can also include a CTA in the side bar of your blog or in the header or footer. Basically, you want to make it as easy as possible for your readers to subscribe.

2. Leverage Social Media
Social media is a great way to promote your content and grow your audience. So why not use it to promote your newsletter too? Every time you post something new on social media, be sure to include a link to your newsletter sign-up page. You can also run ads on social media specifically for your newsletter.

3. Host a Contest
People love free stuff! Hosting a contest is a great way to entice people to sign up for your newsletter. Make sure the prize is something that would be of interest to your target audience. And be sure to promote the contest across all of your channels—social media, email, blog, etc.—to get as many people as possible to enter.

4. Provide an Incentive
In addition to running contests, you can also provide an incentive for people who sign up for your newsletter such as a discount code, free shipping, or early access to new products or content. This is a great way to sweeten the deal and encourage people to subscribe.

Conclusion:
There are lots of ways that you can gain newsletter subscribers. By using CTAs on your website and promoting them on social media, you can give potential subscribers an easy way to sign up for your newsletter. You can also host contests and provide incentives as additional motivation for people to subscribe. So what are you waiting for? Start growing your subscriber list today!

—–

Okay, not amazing but not horrible. There is real potential here to take base content written by AI and do something incredible with it.

My next question was this: could AI write my next mystery novel?

I started doing some searching and found this article on how to switch Jasper to “Boss Mode” so I could have it create long-form content (like a book).

After making the settings changes, I gave it a prompt. That prompt was the first five paragraphs of my novel The Will to Die.

NOTE: you can scroll through some of this…I’m just trying to give you an idea of what it can do.

Here’s the first five paragraphs…my writing:

—–

Everything seemed to be in place. The desk was to Abe’s right. How many meetings had he taken behind that old mahogany desk? Must have been thousands. He could see the legs of his desk chair and scanned down to the wheels that clung to the plastic roller mat, which was in dire need of replacement. The cracks in the mat were visible. It now made sense to Abe why the desk chair didn’t glide from side to side the way it once did.

The lower half of the office door was open a crack, with the light from an exit sign shining in from the outside. That seemed normal. It was late. He was the only living person at the funeral home at this hour. The lone sound was a passing car every ten seconds or so driving on the main street, probably a few feet away from the adequately lit Pollitt Funeral Home sign.

Abe could see the lower pane of the office window and then looked down to where the drapes came in contact with the ground. He was in shock of how filthy the bottoms of the drapes were.

Abe shifted his eyes to his left and noticed a congregation of dust bunnies underneath the coffee table. He realized he’d never once in forty years looked under that table. He tried to sweep the dust particles away with his left hand, but nothing happened.

That’s odd. Then he tried to blow them away, but he couldn’t turn his head to make it happen. It was then Abe realized he was lying on the floor. How did he get here? He thought he knew but couldn’t remember. He tried to turn over to push himself off the ground. Nothing happened.

—–

And here’s how Jasper continued on with the story…

—–

He tried to yell for help, but no sound came out. Abe could feel the panic rising inside of him like a geyser about to erupt. He was paralyzed!

Abe lay on the floor, trying to move and make some noise, but he was completely helpless. He looked around the room, trying to see if there was anything that could help him, but he was completely alone. The only sound was the occasional car driving by outside.

He knew he wasn’t dead—he could still think and feel—but he had no idea what had happened to him. Was this some kind of prank? Or had someone actually done something to him? He didn’t know how long he lay there before he finally managed to drift off into an uneasy sleep.

He was awoken by the sound of footsteps outside the office door. Someone was coming! Abe tried to call out, but he still couldn’t make a sound. The footsteps got closer, and then the door opened.

Abe’s heart sank as he saw who it was. He would have preferred anyone else in the world at that moment, but it was his boss, Mr. Pollitt, who stood there looking down at him with a cold, unforgiving expression.

“I’m sorry, Abe,” Mr. Pollitt said. “But you’re fired.”

Again, not perfect by any means, but I was simply amazed by how this can help writers (not necessarily create all the content). If I’m a writer and I’m completely stuck, I could see Jasper assisting me to get to the next section, or come up with a new direction for the novel.

Editors are still needed here, but I can see the possibilities for a tool like this. For a human being that can understand how to prompt the AI-engine correctly, it could be a game changer.

And I say all this while I’m not quite sure this is a “good” thing.

Thanks for subscribing and, if you made it this far, shoot me an email and let me know what you think of AI solutions like this.

One More Push

In less than two weeks I’m participating in Silence for Speech 2022. For 12 hours (yes, 12 hours) yours truly WILL NOT BE SPEAKING to raise money (and awareness) for kids who desperately need speech therapy and can’t afford it.

Thank you SO much for those who already donated. It is truly appreciated.

Anything you can do would be great. Please support me here. And fyi…$100 covers two hours of speech therapy and everything you give goes directly to the kids.

 

Presenting Lessons and Laser Focus – #97

Published: | Last Updated:

Support Me Helping Kids Who Need Speech Therapy

Next month I’m participating in Silence for Speech 2022. For 12 hours (yes, 12 hours) yours truly WILL NOT BE SPEAKING to raise money (and awareness) for kids who desperately need speech therapy and can’t afford it.

My wife is very excited about this 12 hour period.

Anything you can do would be great. Please support me here. And fyi…$100 covers two hours of speech therapy and everything you give goes directly to the kids.

NOTE: We are looking for companies to sign up this year. Maybe your company? If so, shoot me a response and I can answer any questions.

Oops I Won’t Do that Again!

As you know, I’ve been doing more speaking this year. MUCH more. From September to the end of the year I’ll have over 10 in-person speaking engagements. That’s 9 more than last year during the same time frame and (as you know) 2020 was a big ZERO for in-person speaking engagements.

Last week I presented a few times on the Web3 business model. For one of them I needed to update the presentation. Upon arriving for the keynote I asked if they received my latest presentation. They said they did and it was all ready to go. “Would you like to check?” someone asked.

Now let’s stop right here. I ALWAYS check my presentation. Event teams have lots to do. Handling multiple versions of presentations is just one of them. Many things can go wrong…so checking the presentation is always the right play.

But for some reason, I said I was good. I felt confident they had the right presentation.

Well, you know what comes next.

I’m on stage and then I hit slide six. Slide six was where I added and changed the next 20 slides of the presentation. I knew it was the wrong presentation immediately and paused.

Should I stop the presentation? Should I continue on?

Well, I decided to continue on, fiddle my way through it and try not to show how upset I was.

A few people in the audience talked to me after the presentation and asked me what happened. Apparently I didn’t hide the fact that I was unhappy. Plus, I came off stage and probably looked miserable as well. I could have handled it better.

Hindsight being what it is, I would have stopped the presentation and asked for the event team to put on the correct presentation. Who knows if that would have been the right move.

Was this my fault? Maybe not, but I’m putting the onus on me. I should have checked it. If I would have taken three minutes, none of this would have happened.

So this was my little reminder for my content. Take the extra few minutes and check the presentation, proof the blog post, double check the title of the podcast.

Getting to Laser Focus

I was talking to a close friend of mine last week via Zoom. It was half catch up, half coaching session.

This person is super brilliant. An amazing speaker and marketer, but has never quite had the career success they’ve wanted. But…I had an idea.

During the call, for some odd reason, I used an analogy about light and laser beams (stick with me here).

According to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory:

Light moves in waves. Ordinary visible light, from a household light bulb or a flashlight, comprises multiple wavelengths, or colors, and are incoherent, meaning the crests and troughs of the light waves are moving at different wavelengths and in different directions.

Sidebar here – my thesis is that almost all content creators display normal visible light. Multiple wavelengths, incoherent and all over the place in different directions. While there is nothing wrong with this, and they are giving light to many people, they never truly make a huge impact on, well, anything.

Back to the definition…

In a laser beam, the light waves are “coherent,” meaning the beam of photons is moving in the same direction at the same wavelength. Yes, it’s focused, but all the photons are moving in the same direction and speed.

Two photons become four, four become eight and so on until the photons are amplified enough and moving in perfect unison. Think of them as synchronized members of a marching band in the Rose Bowl Parade. And that unison gives the laser its power. Laser beams can stay sharply focused over vast distances, even to the moon and back.

Still with me?

So my friend has all kinds of content niches and platforms. It’s really impressive actually, but none are focused. There is no power there. It’s just light. Again, nothing wrong with just light, but it’s impossible to create a laser. Real impact. Real change.

In 2010 I owned three different companies. One was Junta42, a content marketing matching site. One was Socialtract, a blogging service for heating and air conditioning companies. One was Content Marketing Institute.

About that time I had a call with my mentor, who basically told me that I’d never make an impact, a true impact, dividing focus among three companies. If I wanted to change the world, I’d have to choose, and start moving all my energy in the same direction.

I chose Content Marketing Institute. The rest is history. About two years later we were a multi-million dollar company.

I told my friend there is nothing wrong with giving their talent to everything. This person has made a tremendous impact on the world in many ways. But, if they wanted to become the best, the leading expert in a particular niche, they’d have to choose a niche and an audience. They’d have to kill off so many other things so that the protons would all start moving in the same direction. After a while, the light emitted everywhere would become a laser.

What do you need to stop doing to make a bigger impact? What decisions can you make now so that you can be the leading expert in a niche?

More Celebs Buy Media Companies

Just in case you’ve been in a shell lately, Kanye West announced that he was buying the right-wing social media site Parler this week.

And, of course, Elon Musk finally “decided” to purchase Twitter last week (after finding out he was going to lose the lawsuit against him).

So I’ve been thinking that this is just the start of uber-wealthy celebs buying media companies. I’m thinking Kim Kardashian would be in the mix. How about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson? Ryan Reynolds is almost a sure thing.

Just don’t be surprised when there is a run on legacy media companies in the next two years…led by the next generation of celebrities.

What do you think?

 

Unconventional Publishing Strategies – #96

Published: | Last Updated:

Where Am I?

It’s been a crazy travel week for the Pulizzi’s.

As you know from my last newsletter, we attended Jim McDermott’s funeral and life celebration last week in North Carolina. On Saturday we headed to Minneapolis to meet some close friends at Valleyfair amusement park. Our oldest (a huge roller coaster fan) met us there from Erie, PA. We even had time to hit the Mall of America, where we found another five roller coasters to add to the oldest’s running list of coasters. While there, I found my favorite ride (see picture above). I’m a HUGE Avatar fan. Not Avatar the movie coming out again … Avatar: The Last Airbender. Best animated series ever created in my opinion (and worst movie ever made).

The next day we left on the first flight out to Atlanta to see our first Cleveland Browns away game in person (EVER). It was pretty amazing. After arriving in Atlanta, we took the MARTA (their subway) to Mercedes-Benz Stadium where the Falcons play. Armed with backpacks and suitcases, we found our way from the subway to a huge parking lot by the stadium where thousands of Browns fans were tailgating. In the middle of the chaos, we found our friends, who quickly handed us a beer and an amazing plate of pulled pork.

The stadium was, how should I say this, perfect. Not a bad seat in the house. The weather was incredible, but if for some reason it wasn’t, the retractable roof closes in less than 20 minutes. Even the domestic beers were only $8 dollars. They may sound like a lot, but they are $11 at Browns stadium. After seeing a football game in a stadium like that, I have hope that the Browns could do this someday as well.

Our day was almost ruined by the Browns loss. So…we drowned our sorrows back in the parking lot for some post tailgating.

With no time to waste, we hopped on the 8pm flight to New Orleans where I present this week at a conference called Digital Now for Association Executives. My topic is on unconventional publishing strategies. Exciting, right?

After a quick stop in Cleveland, Pam and I will get on a plane immediately after the Browns/San Diego Chargers game on Sunday to go (get this) to San Diego for the Crypto Business Conference. If you are planning on going, please reply to this email so we can get together. I’ll be speaking on the Social Token Business Model.

Content Creator Opportunities

For my presentation at Digital Now, my thesis is that content creators (of all types) need to be more aggressive with their publishing strategies. Basically, we need to be taking more risks. Calculated risks. Here are my key points.

Big M&A to come. Larger companies need to be researching content creators and media companies to buy. Problem is that most content marketers don’t understand the process of acquiring content and media companies. They also don’t know how to find money internally to fund these buys. I believe understanding the acquisition process is the most important skill to know for content marketers in the next two-to-three years.

For small creators, there has never been a better time to sell (if you are looking to sell), but also, even small companies should be looking into buying small content sites and email lists relevant to their content mission. I believe not looking into these opportunities is a missed opportunity.

More Revenue Levers. Content marketers and creators need to be driving more different kinds of revenue. If you are a content marketer and you measure your success in, say, one way…lead generation or social mentions…you’ve got a problem. You need to investigate driving direct revenue, such as sponsorships or training or events. A content marketing department that breaks even versus costs, or becomes profitable, will never be cut.

Email focus. With social networks changing their algorithms and caring nothing about their user base, email is more king than ever before. If you bet big on social networks, be sure you have a conversion process to an email offer.

Less is more. I’m making a case that you don’t need to be everywhere your customers are at online. I think you should only be in places where you are publishing valuable, helpful and consistent content…and building an audience or community. Focus on a couple core platforms and get rid of everything else.

Leasing space. Instead of launching a “new” thing…a new blog or new podcast, I believe a better strategy is to launch on someone else’s property first. For example, instead of launching a new podcast altogether, Daren Smith partnered with my Content Inc. podcast to launch his new podcast. The result? Three quick sponsors and thousands of immediate downloads. The origin story is here if you want to see the journey.

Here’s the full presentation if you’d like to see it.

Big Album Release

Some of you may know this, but my brother Tony Pulizzi has a new album coming out in November. He’s kicking it off with a concert in Los Angeles on November 4th. You can check out all the details here.

This is Tony’s first album in a long time. Why you ask? Well, for most of his career, Tony has played guitar for some amazing artists and organizations. He was lead guitar the first few seasons of American Idol. Then he went on the road as Natalie Cole’s lead guitarist until her untimely passing. Today, he’s doing Dancing with the Stars (among other things).

If you like jazz/funk music (with a little pop thrown in), you’ll love his music.

Two Announcements

First, my new podcast with Daren Smith, The 10k Creator Podcast, is now live. You can listen/watch the first two episodes here. The 10k Creator will be 10 episodes where we go through the journey of a content creator getting to 10,000 email subscribers and $10,000 in revenue per month. We are getting some great reviews, so thanks for the support.

Second, call for speakers for Creator Economy Expo (in Cleveland, Ohio May 1-3, 2023) ends October 15th. If you want to speak or nominate someone, please complete this form (deadline for submission: October 15, 2022)

Reflections from the Road

As I’m sitting in my hotel room typing this up, I was trying to think about how I could deliver you some real value this week. I know most of you aren’t traveling quite yet, or maybe not as crazy as what we are doing, so I thought I’d start there.

In no particular order, here are some of the things I’ve noticed while on the road, either through personal experience or by talking to more than a few people.

The staffing shortage is a thing. Literally everywhere we’ve gone to eat, every jetway visited and every store perused…each one is light service people. That said, most customers are patient and understanding. But everything takes longer.

Staff training is a problem. Due to the shortage, some people are rushing people into roles when they need more (let’s say) seasoning. I literally rented a car last week where they had no record of me taking the car. Someone didn’t scan the right things when we checked out. I was nice and returned the car, but I’m pretty sure I could have just kept it.

Food shortages. Restaurants are not serving full menus, generally because they don’t have their regular food items. Starbucks is an interesting case study. We’ve been to five different Starbucks around the country and each one only had a couple food options. They “show” ALL the food options, but if you squint real hard, you’ll see that most say “unavailable” or “sold out.”

Leisure travel is up. Hotels next to consumer attractions are full. People are traveling to amusement parks, college and pro football games, and special consumer events in droves. It’s truly post-covid and people are flying around like it’s 2019. Every plane we’ve been on has been packed…mostly with leisure travelers.

Oh…and if you are wondering, about five percent use masks on planes now.

Business travel is down. In New Orleans we are staying in a Hyatt Regency downtown. It’s in the business area. VERY business-travel oriented. We found out that Sunday’s occupancy was nine percent. That’s 9. Unbelievable. On Monday it was 24 percent. Workers said they expect a high of 40 percent with two small conferences at the hotel this week. I don’t think this is a coincidence. Business travelers are becoming choosier on when and why they want to travel. At the same time, business travel budgets have not come back. I’m not sure when they will. Business travel just isn’t a necessity anymore. The good news is that I had the hotel gym to myself for a whole hour.

Remembering Our Mentors – #95

Published: | Last Updated:

Twitch Bans Online Gambling

In edition #92 of this newsletter I talked about the very large problem of online gambling content on streaming service Twitch (owned by Amazon).

Well, this week Twitch made the decision to ban unlicensed online gambling content. Why now? It seems popular streamer Sliker (who did not create content around gambling) scammed other content creators and fans out of more than $200,000 to fund a gambling habit.

This led many popular streamers to announce that they were boycotting Twitch unless they did something about the gambling content, which they believed was partially to blame.

Who knows how long Twitch will keep this in place. Normally, I’m not for a company like Twitch banning certain kinds of content, but in this case I support it (read this issue if you want my take).

CEX 2023


Last week we announced that Creator Economy Expo 2023 (produced by our company The Tilt) will be held in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio on May 1 – 3, 2023. I’m beyond excited to bring the event to The Land.

CEX is the event for anyone serious about content creation as a business, specifically for bloggers, newsletter writers, YouTubers, authors, speakers, coaches, podcasters and more.

I hope to see you in person at CEX next year. Prices are heavily discounted until mid-November.

Funny enough, last week my old company, Content Marketing Institute, announced that they were moving Content Marketing World from Cleveland to Washington DC next year.

In Memoriam…

Sunday night just didn’t feel right.

I’m normally a cold baby. For those of you who know me, my hands get cold in seventy degrees, and my feet go numb at the slightest cool breeze.

But on Sunday, I was burning up from the inside out. It wasn’t a fever or a sickness, just an intense, uncomfortable heat.

By two o’clock in the morning, I moved to the couch to give my wife respite from my tossing and turning. Two hours later I could hear her talking on the phone in the bedroom. It was her mother.

I knew what happened immediately. Her stepfather, and my friend, had just passed on.

I’ve met all sorts of amazing people in my day. More than most I’d say. I’ve been blessed.

I remember talking with William Shatner on the stage at Content Marketing World. It was just the two of us prepping before his speech. He made us feel like old friends. I cherish that moment.

Mark Hamill had a kind heart. You could sense it immediately. The immediate impact on others was palpable.

Don Schultz, the father of integrated marketing, became a good friend and mentor to me over the years. He was always good for a pep talk when the calling of marketing seemed to betray me.

I’m sure you can recall some special people in your life who’ve helped shape who you are.

But as I think of it at this moment, we all only get a handful of opportunities to meet truly extraordinary people. The kind of person that takes the dull clay that is you and helps sharpen the edges into who you ultimately become. Your full potential as they say.

For me, that person was Jim McDermott (pictured above).

I first met Jim in 1994. He paid the amount of attention necessary to me, only because I was getting married to his wife’s daughter. For the first few years, we chatted a handful of times. Mostly about the unimportant, as family situations go during the holidays.

Jim, from what I knew, was a successful business publisher. What I learned about Jim came mostly from other people. He rarely talked about himself.

In 1999 I was busy working internal communications at a Cleveland-based insurance company. Over my three years there I became adept at developing databases. I’m not sure how, but Jim got wind of it. As I later learned, he could always read the room.

Apparently one of his “custom media” projects needed a proprietary database. He asked if I’d be interested in helping them with a freelance project.

I was shocked. And honored. And scared to screw it up. But I was all in for the chance. I developed a detailed proposal for database services. Although the project never came through for Jim’s team, apparently, he was impressed with my work. Two months later there was a job opening at his company, Penton Media. It was a project management role in Penton’s Custom Media department.

Although Jim didn’t make the final decision, I’m sure he was persuasive in getting me the job.

So, in February of 2000, I began my career learning the art and science of what we all know today as content marketing.

From that day forward, Jim taught me the publishing business, and more importantly, how we (Penton) were going to teach and assist non-media companies in telling their own stories and developing their own audiences.

NOTE: This was truly innovative at the time. Almost no companies were doing this kind of work. Especially business media companies.

From Jim …

I learned how to sell … listen and ask questions.

I learned about editorial … talk to the readers every day and ask them their pain points.

I learned about management … give clear objectives and get out of the way. Give your employees a chance to succeed and fail on their own terms.

I learned about corporate politics … no one cares about you or what you do. You must show them why your department matters and do it consistently over time.

When I first started noodling around with the term “content marketing,” it was Jim who suggested using the term in sales meetings and see how it resonated (this strategy obviously worked).

When I first thought about starting a business on my own, it was Jim who helped give me the courage and support to take the risk.

Jim spent 37 years at Penton Media. No one was more important at Penton for turning the company into the largest independent business publisher in North America.

Most people aren’t aware of that.

Jim never played the political game. If he thought something was wrong, he told people at the highest levels. Most executives didn’t like Jim. Those executives didn’t understand how valuable he was.

After Jim left, Penton fell on hard times. If they only would have listened to Jim … I truly believe that.

But everyone Jim worked with was in awe of his energy, his passion, and his strategic mind. Penton employees from all over the globe would gush about Jim’s concepts and execution plans.

Where would I be without Jim? There would certainly be no Content Marketing Institute. Or Content Marketing World. There would be no content marketing books, podcasts … no content marketing speeches. Hundreds of thousands of marketers and creators were impacted about this new marketing philosophy because of Jim McDermott.

He never got any credit for that either …

A few days before he passed, I was able to chat with Jim about his favorite topic: publishing. We talked for an hour about Penton, what it takes to be a great publisher and even what future communications would look like. Oh, and a little bit of golf (his second favorite subject). It was the Jim I will always remember.

Thank you, Jim. Thank you for taking a young kid who knew nothing under your wing and teaching him without expecting anything in return. Thank you for your generosity and support. But mostly, thank you for your friendship. You will be missed.

Jim McDermott went to a better golf course on September 19th, 2022. Below is his formal obituary.

James McDermott (1935 – 2022)

James Patrick “Jim” McDermott, loving husband, father, grandfather and friend, left this world after a short battle with cancer on September 19, 2022 at the age of 87. Jim died peacefully at home in West End, North Carolina.

He was born to George and Katherine (Chiccone) McDermott on June 24, 1935. After graduating high school, Jim proudly served his country in the United States Navy, honorably discharged in 1962.

His writing and editing skills led him to the publishing industry, where he spent 37 years working for Penton Media, Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio. During his time at Penton, he helped transform the company into the largest business-to-business publisher in North America. Jim spent 27 of those years in the heating and air conditioning industry as publisher of Contracting Business, the leading HVACR contractor publication, and Heating/Piping/Air Conditioning, the top engineering publication in the market.

Jim was instrumental in what became known as the Dialogue Meetings with the Air Conditioning Contractors of America and led the task force that established a formal training program for HVAC contractors. By the end of his career, every manufacturing executive in the HVAC industry knew and respected Jim; his was a household name that stood for service, progress, and a relentless work ethic. In 1987, he was the first non-contractor awarded the ACCA’s Spirit of Independence award, the organization’s highest honor given to individuals who have made profound, lasting changes in the industry. Jim was further honored when eight of the biggest organizations in the HVAC industry came together to declare December 15, 2020 as ‘Jim McDermott Day’ in recognition of his tireless work in moving the industry forward for both contractors and manufacturers.

Before retiring from Penton Media in 2002, Jim led Penton’s internal training programs and helped launch Penton’s Custom Media operation, which became Penton’s fastest growing business area in the early 2000s. Upon retirement, Jim moved to the Pinehurst area in North Carolina, continuing to advise publishers and entrepreneurial startups while working on his golf game, actively assisting the Beacon Ridge Golf Club, and on April 18th, 2008, he celebrated his first and only hole-in-one.

Jim is survived by his loving wife Sandra, his children Stephen, John, Patrick, Thomas, Michael, Jeanne, and Robert, stepdaughter Pamela (Pulizzi), sister Jeanne (Curran), countless grandchildren, and an undeniable legacy of a life well lived.

Services will take place on Friday, September 30th at 11 AM at Our Lady of the Americas Church, 298 Farmers Market Road, Biscoe, North Carolina. Luncheon to follow. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Orange Effect Foundation (speech therapy for children) at theorangeeffect.org.

Thank you for making it this far in The Random. This edition was obviously special to me. I hope you received some value from it.