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NFTs, NIL and the Great Resignation

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Kids Staying at Home Longer

Prof G kids living with a parent chart

Recent Pew Research shows that almost half of all young adults ages 18 to 29 still live with their parents (see above chart). This trend has been rising every decade since the 1950s.

Professor Scott Galloway from NYU breaks down this chart in two minutes here. His rationale? Prof G believes our economy is broken, and that for the first time in US history 30-year-olds are not doing as well financially as their parents did at the same age. It’s worth the two minutes to listen to his take.

The Great Resignation

First off, my wife never watches regular television. But she loves football. So, she was watching an NFL game on CBS that ended, and on came the show 60 Minutes right after. She ended up watching the entire program.

Apparently there was a piece about the Great Resignation that featured Karin Kimbrough, LinkedIn’s chief economist (I didn’t even know they had a position like that). There are some interesting stats in this show, but the one that caught my wife’s eye was this one: Before the pandemic, one in 67 jobs were remote. Today, one is seven jobs are remote.

Name – Image – Likeness

Not sure if you’ve been paying attention, but the Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) rule that the NCAA passed last year is starting to go crazy nuts. Just in case you haven’t been paying attention, NIL means that college athletes are now allowed to sell their name or image to companies. Basically these are sponsorship deals. Like it or not, it’s here to stay.

Last week the Twittersphere went crazy when former Super Bowl Quarterback Charlie Batch offered Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams $1 million dollars to transfer to Eastern Michigan. Batch works with GameAbove Capital, which would be the sponsoring company.

My prediction for 2022 is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s going to be like the movie Johnny Be Good, except it will all be public.

NFTs Here to Stay?

You may have noticed that almost all cryptocurrencies have been down so far in 2022. Well, not NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Here’s an NFT overview if you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about.

In the last 30 days, 23 NFTs have sold for over $1 million dollars. In addition, people are starting to think about what the future of digital life (uh, the metaverse?) holds. Last month one collector paid $450,000 for a plot of digital land next to Snoop Dogg on Sandbox.

My thoughts? I believe they are here to stay, but that about 99 percent of NFT projects will go bust. So do your own homework before you invest in something.

CEX Early-Bird Pricing Ending

The $495 pricing to CEX – Creator Economy Expo ends next Friday (January 21, 2022). That rate is $500 off. I’d love to see you there on May 2, 2022 in beautiful Arizona. And bring your significant other. The Arizona Grand Resort is amazing.

We are featuring about 50 sessions on how to build an audience on the web, grow that audience, make money from that audience, and what opportunities work for content creators in a Web3 world

We are keeping the event small and mandatory vaccination to make it as safe as possible. Once we hit around 500 registrations we’ll be done. We are about 20% of the way there.

We just announced our first round of speakers including Roberto Blake, Ann Handley, Jeremiah Owyang and many more.

$TILT Coin Rides Again

After a brief hiatus, our own $TILT coin returned to the #1 spot on Rally.io’s list of creator coins. We now have over 1,500 coin holders and almost 1,000 people on our discord channel (come join us!). Not bad for nine months (we had a crypto baby!)

As part of Rally’s rewards program, we’ve delivered (get this) over $350,000 in real paper dollars to $TILT coin holders. Many coin holders used these rewards to buy holiday presents and pay off some outstanding bills. Truly amazing. BTW, if you sign up to our email newsletter at The Tilt and finish the signup process, you get $5 in $TILT coin the following Friday.

2021 Year in Review – #76

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What a crazy year it has been.

Crazy, yet extremely insightful. I’m working on things today that I never would have imagined doing just a few months ago. How about you? 

Last year at this time, I wrote down something my son said in my 2020 review, “2021 is going to be as awesome as 2020 was terrible.” I don’t know if I agree, but I think most people would say that 2021 was at least an improvement. 

For me, by improvement I mean crazy different (here’s a quick personal update). 

In March I launched my own social token, $TILT coin. $TILT is the #2 performing coin on the entire Rally.io network, launching at 34 cents on March 4th and now clocking in at $34 per coin. That’s 100x growth if you’re counting. Many of you have been so supportive of $TILT coin and I am eternally grateful for all your help. 

In April, we launched our new company, The Tilt, a newsletter dedicated to helping content creators become content entrepreneurs. We’ve gone from zero to over 12,000 email subscribers in less than nine months.  

In May we launched our Discord discussion group, which now has almost 1,000 people who help and support each other with their content creation tips and examples. Later that month I launched the new version of my book Content Inc. (McGraw-Hill), which spent quite a few weeks as the #1 marketing book on Amazon. 

In June we introduced our original research on the State of the Content Entrepreneur (it’s free, get it here). The report was based on the findings from over 1,400 content creators who are trying to build full-time businesses from content and audience building. 

In October we launched our merch store (if you love Ted Lasso you’ll love this “Create” shirt) and in early December we launched our training program, Content Entrepreneurship 101. We’ve already had dozens of students pass through the course and the feedback has been tremendous. 

And, last but not least, a few weeks ago we announced CEX – Creator Economy Expo, an in-person event for content creators, by content creators that will take place May 2-4, 2022 at the Arizona Grand Resort. To be honest, the event was not on the 2022 roadmap, but we believe there is a big need here and we wanted to be the ones that filled it. 

Oh, and on a personal note, my wife and I sent two off to college this year. We are now also experts in the benefits and expenses of assisted living complexes (all good now though). 

I’d love to hear how your 2021 was and what you plan to accomplish in 2022.  

14 Must-Read Stories from 2021

 For this issue of The Random, I decided to go back through all the articles we featured over the past 12 months and pull out the most impactful. So, let’s do this. 

Social Media Warnings 

The social media news in January set the tone for the year. By mid-January, Facebook kicked former President Trump off its platform, while Amazon kicked off social app Parler.  

We learned two things. First, the big tech platforms like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft are now more powerful than literally all other entities on the planet. They can, and will, do whatever they want. Second, we (as users of social media) have no rights. 

This is especially true for content creators. While we can and probably should leverage social platforms, we must always have a strategy to build direct relationships with our audience (through email and now crypto). 

In February Facebook dropped all news media providers from their platform in Australia. By August, creator platform OnlyFans banned NSFW content from their platform (that’s a huge part of their model) and then reversed the decision shortly after. Just last week Amazon’s Twitch banned Hasan Piker, one of their top streamers, for saying the word “cracker.” 

I’m not saying these decisions are right or wrong. I’m saying that we ALL see the writing on the wall when it comes to users’ rights on these platforms. If you get banned or the rules change or they take away access to your followers and fans, you know the risks. 

Crypto Crazy 

Where do we start? 

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continued their rise at the start of the year due to, in large part, governments around the world, including the US, printing unlimited amounts of money. The US money supply grew by over 35 percent, an increase of over $5 trillion dollars between December 2019 and August 2021.

Inflation is now tracking at over five percent on the year, with some projections actually much higher. This seems like it will be an ongoing problem as more dollars continue to be created (out of thin air), which brings down the value of every dollar we have in our pockets. 

Since every dollar we don’t spend is worth significantly less in a year, investors are looking for new types of assets. One of those asset types, the NFT or non-fungible token, hit the mainstream in March when Beeple sold a collection of NFTs for $69 million at a Christie’s auction. By late March, things got crazy, with some Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club and NBA Tops Shots selling for hundreds of thousands (even into the millions). 

In May, Gary Vaynerchuck sold 10,000 VeeFriends NFTs, which gave access to his new conference VeeCon, in 12 days. By summer, Opensea, the largest NFT-trading platform, was doing $1 billion in total volume. In November, that number was $10 billion. By the end of the year we saw the rise of DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) and the amazing ConstitutionDao example.  

Could we be in an NFT/token bubble? Perhaps…but NFTs, social tokens and crypto are here to stay, and they provide a real way for creators to build a business and provide a piece of ownership to fans at the same time. For more on using tokens as a business model, be sure to check out Random #71.  

For more on Bitcoin, here’s an amazing article on why Bitcoin is an answer. 

For more on social tokens (fungible tokens or FTs), check out issue number 59. 

Looking Back at What It Means 

It’s difficult to say at this point, but I believe that 2021 will go down as the year the content creator business model changed forever. Since the dawn of the internet, creators have been looking for something to truly harness the power of connecting with fans anywhere at anytime. That power may finally be in the form of the token (NFTs, social tokens, DAOs, etc.). 

The token is the thing that can be developed by the creator and owned by the audience. As my friend and co-host on the This Old Marketing podcast Robert Rose says, Web 3 is about co-creation. Creators and fans can build and grow something of value together, where both sides retain value and grow a piece of the business. 

This hasn’t been possible, until now.  

It will be interesting to see what 2022 will bring.

 

Get IN on This!

A few weeks ago I launched my first NFT program, CEX Never-Ending Tickets (NETs) – see image above for sample. They are limited to 100 and will help us fund the in-person event (Creator Economy Expo) in May, 2022 in Phoenix.

As of me writing this, there are 82 NETs remaining. I would like any member of this community who wants one to get one. If you are interested, you can mint your NFT here or email me (just reply to this email) and I can walk you through it.

The minting price is .75 ETH (that’s currently about $2,800). When you buy one, you get:
– A ticket to every CEX event for life (as long as we produce the event) – $995 per year value
– VIP access at CEX (including exclusive parties and seating at events) – $1,000 per year value
– Private Discord group with myself and Brian Clark – priceless 😉
– Special opportunity (depending on which NET you get) to introduce a keynote from the main stage, meet a keynote backstage, have lunch with Joe and Brian or receive exclusive event swag.

To purchase a NET, you need to have a digital wallet (i.e., Metamask) and fund it with $ETH. If you don’t have a digital wallet and would still like to purchase one, we can get you one the old fashioned way and invoice you. Just let me know.

Remember, if for any reason you don’t want your NET anymore (gasp), you can always re-sell it on Opensea.

Continued Danger in Social Platforms – #75

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If you haven’t been paying attention, there were a couple of very disturbing developments in social media lately.

The first example is from Instagram.social media can change the rules at any time so make sure not to build on rented land.

In 2012, Australian artist Thea-Mai Baumann created the account @metaverse on Instagram. She’s used the site for almost a decade to promote her design and fashion prowess.

On November 2, 2021, her account was blocked.

Interesting development, right? Especially since just days before Facebook (owner of Instagram) announced their name change to Meta and a new focus on the metaverse.

It took an inquiry from the New York Times to have her account restored. An Instagram spokesperson said the account had been “incorrectly removed for impersonation” and that they were sorry. As of this newsletter the account has been back up for two weeks.

Hmmmm.

My second example comes courtesy of Twitch, Amazon’s streaming channel for (mostly) gamers.

Hasan Piker has the 12th most popular Twitch stream in history. According to Twitch’s metrics, his channel has been watched for almost six million cumulative hours. Amazing.

On Monday, they banned Hasan from Twitch. If you go to Hasan’s page, Twitch says it is currently unavailable.

What happened?

Hasan used the word “cracker” on his stream (not the Ritz kind). Allegedly, this violates Twitch’s terms of service related to “hateful conduct and harassment.” As I’m writing this, Twitch has not informed Hasan if that was the reason or not. It’s been radio silence.

I’m not arguing that you should be a Hasan Piker fan or not. He’s a left-wing political commentator and you may not agree with his politics. He also uses foul language. You may not like that either.

The point is, it’s Twitch’s channel and they can do whatever they want. Content creators have NO rights on social platforms like Twitch.

Let’s go back to Instagram.  Could Meta (Facebook) take the @metaverse account back at some point? Absolutely. Users have no rights. Platforms own everything. We own nothing.

In August I talked about creator platform OnlyFans doing something similar to their creator community.

My take? By all means, use social media for whatever your purpose. But know that you have absolutely no rights on those platforms and they can (and will) change the rules on a whim.

My big concern is these examples seem to be escalating as the social platforms try to tighten their grip on creators.

Be careful.

Success Strategies for 2022

Last year, about this time, I shared a “Success Strategies for 2021.” It was very popular (if I go by the emails I received from subscribers like you).

So, once again, here are a number of things that I’m thinking about to make the world a better place in 2022. Of course, some involve others, but most of this is for YOU getting your life in order so you have the time and the focus to make a difference.

1. Decide on Your Goals
Most people do not set goals. If they do, they certainly don’t write them down. To be successful, you need to be doing both. Here’s a Content Inc. podcast episode where I break down the six-step goal-setting process.

2. Review Your Goals Every Morning
Part of my personal success formula is writing down and then reviewing what I want to accomplish every morning of every day. Seriously…just take five minutes out of every day and it will change your stars.

3. Donate Something Every Week
We all have too much stuff. Let’s change that in 2022. Let’s start de-cluttering now and then, every week, donate one thing to charity (some place like Goodwill) or to a friend in need. We know a couple of senior citizens who are doing that right now. I am amazed how purging old things can free up the mind and the spirit. It’s like a weight has been lifted.

4. Track Your Habits
If you completed your goal-setting, you’ll start to identify habits. Do you have a health goal in 2022? Then you probably have an exercise, running or eating habit you are determined to learn. Use an app like HabitBull to keep track of your habits, and it will remind you when you need a kick in the pants.

5. Set a Book Goal
The most curious and interesting people I know read A LOT of books. I have a prejudice against people that do not read on a regular basis (sorry). Goodreads is a fantastic place to set your reading goal for 2022 (and be sure to mix up a little fiction with nonfiction). If you need a Goodreads friend just follow me here.

By the way, my book goal was to read 25 books for 2021 and as of this moment I’m at 14. Just terrible. I’ll do better in 2022. To my only defense, I’ve read five of Robert McCammon’s Matthew Corbett series and they are LONG. Highly recommend them as well.

6. Recurring Expenses Cut
A few years ago, my wife and I went through our recurring expenses (like Netflix and news subscriptions) and we were shocked by the results. At the end of the process, we ended up cancelling quite a few services we really didn’t need (we only subscribe to Live TV during football season, for example).

7. Password Maintenance
I have believed for quite some time that the biggest threat to our personal financial existence is someone hacking our accounts. The threat is real. Protect yourself by using a service such as Dashlane to create super strong passwords (and ones that you don’t have to remember).

8. Update Your Will or Trust
Every two years my wife and I update our will. You’d be surprised how things change in just a short time.

If you have a will or trust, get it updated. If you don’t, get one pronto. You’ll sleep better at night.

9. Time to Update Your Financials
2021 has been another crazy year for investing. Stocks, bonds and cryptocurrency have been all over the place this year.

All this means that your financial allocations are probably out of whack and you need to re-diversify. You may want to do this before the end of the year depending on your tax situation.

When you do this, pick allocations that help you sleep at night. Don’t do anything that will make you want to check your stocks every day.

Good luck!

 

Creator Economy Expo - event for creators by creatorsCEX – Creator Economy Expo

Brian Clark (founder of Copyblogger) and I formally announced CEX last week. Limited to 500+ content creators. If you are interested in going, early-bird tickets are on sale at a $500 discount. The event will be May 2 – 4, 2022 at the Arizona Grand Resort in Phoenix. We will cover audience building, revenue generation, content operations and Web3 for content entrepreneurs.

At the same time, we launched our NFT program for CEX (called Never-Ending Tickets) where you can purchase a lifetime pass plus VIP access to all CEX events…forever.  Check it out here.

Inflation and Monetary Debasement – #74

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On Friday, December 3, 2021  Robert Rose and I release our 300th episode of the This Old Marketing podcast. We launched on November 20, 2013, taking only a short hiatus during my 2018 sabbatical.

You can get access here (make sure you subscribe). It was a super fun episode that included a surprise introduction.

Inflation Run Amuck

Are you spending more for food, household goods, travel? Well, you are not alone.

The US Labor Department published the Consumer Price Index a few weeks ago and said inflation was up 6.2 percent over last October. For context, the US is running HOT HOT HOT.

This is the highest number in over 30 years. That’s 3-0 years.

If you are a regular reader of this newsletter, you are not surprised. We’ve been expecting this. Why?

You may think it’s because of COVID or supply chain issues, but the real reason is something called monetary debasement.

Debasement happens when the value of a currency is lowered. It means the currency is worth less. How does that happen?

monetary debasement and inflation

According to the Wall Street Journal, between December 2019 and August 2021, the US increased the money supply by $5.5 trillion. That’s a 36 percent increase in just 18 months. More than one-third of the total dollars in existence were created (out of thin air) inside two year’s time (see chart above).

One of the key values of money is scarcity. When a currency becomes less scarce, it’s worth less.

Okay…so…six percent inflation rate. The Federal Reserve just came out and said that this is not temporary, even though previously they did. Plus, it’s not really six percent. It’s something much higher…probably more than 10 percent.

Some thoughts…

If you have your money in cash, and it’s just sitting in a checking or savings account, your 100 dollars will have 90 dollars of buying power in 12 months.

If you have any investments (stocks or bonds), they need to make about 10 percent just to keep up with inflation. Stocks could keep up, but bonds definitely cannot. The current rate of the US 10-year bond is 1.5 percent. Using the smaller six percent inflation number, bonds are losing more than four percent per year.

Let’s take this a step further.

Let’s say the average portfolio has about 40 percent in bonds. Smart investors, including large pension and hedge funds, are going to have to go further out on the risk curve to make up for inflation. That means they are moving out of bonds. But to where?

More stocks? They can’t have too much stock exposure.

Junk bonds with high yield? That’s a lot of risk.

Gold? Gold has had a negative overall return since 1980.

Annuities? Investment planners will make up all kinds of crazy financial instruments to stay in the game.

I AM biased on this point, but my common sense tells me that much of the money leaving bonds and out of cash will go into Bitcoin. Now a $1 trillion dollar asset, Bitcoin is big enough for family offices to invest in (some have a minimum of $1 trillion in asset value in which they can invest).

It’s also the only financial instrument with predictable inflation (1.77 percent) and a math-based capped monetary policy (will never have more than 21 million…ever).

I am not a financial analyst and please don’t take this as financial advice. I’m only trying to use common sense. Two percent in every portfolio should be table stakes at this moment in time (again, not financial advice).

Oh…and currently, people of the world are adopting Bitcoin at a faster rate than the Internet or the mobile phone. At this rate, Bitcoin will reach one billion users by 2025.

Disney Waiting

Okay…this is for the geeks out there. Want to know how DisneyWorld has evolved their strategy about dealing with long lines and wait times over the years? Here’s an amazing video that takes you step-by-step from the beginning through to FastPass.

Buying the US Constitution – #73

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If you’ve been following along on The Random, I’ve been writing quite a bit about DAOs (check out this issue) and digital property rights (from last issue).

Most of the DAO (decentralized autonomous organizations) examples I’ve been sharing are for media companies and crypto projects. Well, here’s one that really got me thinking.

Earlier this week, investor Packy McCormick (and friends) launched ConstitutionDAO. Their goal? To buy the actual constitution.

Let me digress.

Auction house Sotheby’s is auctioning off one of the official versions of the United States Constitution this Thursday. The estimated price is to go between $15 and $20 million dollars.

ConstitutionDAO’s goal is to purchase this version. They say:

“We’re buying the US Constitution.

For the first time in thirty-three years, one of thirteen surviving copies of the Official Edition from the Constitutional Convention will be publicly auctioned by Sotheby’s. It is the only copy that is still owned by private collectors. The proceeds from the auction will be given to a charity that has been established by the current owner.”

They have all kinds of plans for it, including giving this version to the Smithsonian Institute and then working out a plan to buy more US artifacts.

As I type this, they’ve raised well over $5 million dollars (UPDATE – as of 3:58PM ET on 11/17 they’ve now raised $25 million dollars), with some individuals giving just a few dollars while others are giving tens of thousands. For their giving, they all own part of the new entity.

Crazy, right?

Just a few days ago this would have been impossible, but now because of the blockchain and the token, groups of people can easily come together into a real business and govern themselves.

Will this work? Looks like they have the money depending on how high the bids go. I did give a little bit myself to support the effort.

If they pull this off it will be the largest group purchase in history (according to Sotheby’s) and the most expensive one item in history.

I joined their discord group, which has added over 10,000 members in just a few days.

Why am I telling you all this?

Start thinking of the applications.

Want to keep a historical structure in your town? Start a DAO.
Want to buy a minor league baseball team? Start a DAO.
Want to buy a bar with all your friends? Start a DAO.

Word of warning. There are all kinds of legal landmines here because, well, we know nothing about this new legal formation.

That said, THIS is what the internet was built for. Now groups of people can more easily pool resources, own things, and self-govern.

Thank you Mrs. Token!

FYI, here’s a short podcast on ConstitutionDAO from The Breakdown with NLW.

Speaking of tokens, I found a couple interesting articles around the same topic.

First, Disney seems to have big plans around the metaverse (of course they do). Read more here.

Second, Harvard Business Review did a pretty good overview of the good and bad about NFTs. Read more on that here.

You Don’t Know Stress

My oldest sent me another great video this week…this time about stress.

Here’s a very interesting (and helpful) 13-minute video from psychologist Kelly McGonigal on how we really know nothing about stress.

My takeaways?

Stress itself isn’t good or bad, it’s how you perceive the stress. For example, if you are feeling stress and belief that it’s making you sick, it is. On the other hand, if you believe stress is preparing you for great things, then it is. Stress, with the right attitude, gives your body the same chemical properties as courage.

This reminds me of the quote in the movie Bull Durham.

“If you believe you’re playing well because you’re getting laid or because you’re not getting laid or because you wear women’s underwear, then you are. And you should know that!”

Also, the more you care about other people, the more your body will be resilient against bad stress. Love more, live longer? I think so.

How Are Your Stock Market Gains?

I’m a free subscriber to the Pomp Letter from Anthony Pompliano. In his last newsletter, he questioned this year’s stock market gains.

Since the pandemic started, stock market gains have been crazy good. Or have they?

Well, it depends on what you measure them against.

If you use the highly inflated US dollar, gains look great. BUT, if you look at those gains against, say, Bitcoin, the gains are terrible.

In the last 12 months, S&P 500 gains are 29 percent if US dollars is the denominator. If you use Bitcoin, returns are negative (see chart).

I’m only telling you this because sometimes we need to change our perspective.

Disclaimer: I own S&P stocks and Bitcoin.