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3 Game-Changing Life Hacks – #60

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I’m writing this on Wednesday morning, the 19th of May. In three hours, I have a virtual presentation with a local chamber of commerce about my entrepreneurial journey.

I don’t give presentations like this often. Almost all my speeches are about content marketing or Content Inc. But it’s a good change of pace.

The presentation has over 100 slides (I like to keep things moving), but here are three life hacks I pulled out that I either think you’d appreciate or that you may find helpful.

Record – Review – Remove

Probably the best habit I’ve taken on over the years.

In 2008 I read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. From that, I created a goal-setting system that worked really well for me.

The first is record. Basically this means writing down my goals, but doing so in the present or past tense like I’m accomplishing them or already completed the goal.

The second is review. I wake up in the morning and review the goal, and then review it again before I go to sleep for the night.

The third is remove. I constantly look at where I’m inefficient with (or wasting) time and try to get rid of those habits so I can spend more time on goals I want to achieve.

Just after launching the business, I wrote down this little goal: I sold the business in 2015 for $15 million dollars. Unfortunately I didn’t accomplish that goal in 2015. Fortunately, it happened in 2016.

This stuff works.

Here’s a 30 minute presentation of this process that I delivered at Content Marketing World. If you’d like to see the international version, here’s the presentation I gave in Germany at the OMR conference.

Six Category Goals

When I began to become obsessed with goal setting, I found that the majority of my goals focused on the business. Uh, this is not good when you have a family and want to be a well rounded person (sorry Pam).

So, I focused on one or two goals each year in six different categories.

– Financial goals
– Family goals
– Spiritual goals
– Mental goals
– Physical goals
– Philanthropic goals

Using mental goals as an example, this year’s goal looks like this:

I read two non-business books per month in 2021.

Remember, use the past tense if you can. Makes a world of difference.

By using this goal-setting process, hopefully I’m a more well-rounded individual…but you’ll have to ask my family if this is the case or not.

The Best in the World

Okay, ego aside for a minute, this is a real thing.

Before my wife and I launched what ultimately became Content Marketing Institute in 2007, I actually asked myself the question, “what can I be the best (or one of the best) in the world at?”

I know, a very difficult question.

But if you go through the process, you keep narrowing the niche until it’s possible. For example, my brother is an amazing guitar player. Could he be the best guitar player in the world? That seems a stretch. Could he be the best jazz guitar player? Getting closer. Could he be the best jazz funk guitar player? Possibly.

You see the process. Keep working yourself down the rabbit hole until you find something you could be the best in the world at.

Could I be the best publisher in the world? Nope. Could I be the best marketer? Not a chance. Could I be the leading content marketing expert? Maybe…well…that was the goal.

Did I get there? I don’t think so, but I’m in the conversation.

So, find your niche that you can dominate. That becomes your north star. Good luck!

A Creator Coin Strategy – #59

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When thinking about today’s Random newsletter topic, I was going to write about something entirely different. But then I thought – hey, these are my people. This is the group I need to work these thoughts through with.

So, I’m venting here in the hopes that a) you’ll find it somewhat interesting and b) you’ll provide me some honest feedback.

I’ve been struggling with the issue of creator coins over the last few weeks. You can’t see this (of course) but I have scribbled notes littering my desk about how to build a coin strategy. I’ve been obsessed. We are at the bleeding edge of this and I think, if we get it right, we could build a model for future creators to follow.

First…some background.

A few months ago The Tilt (our new company) was one of the first organizations to launch a creator coin on the Rally.io network (I think we were #73). The coin is called $TILT coin and can be found here.

We launched at .29 cents per coin and as of this exact moment (9:13 AM ET on May 5, 2021) the price sits at $9.78 per $TILT coin.

I’m on a mission to show that a community’s entire economy can run on their creator coin. If you don’t believe me, it’s already happening. Allie Strasza, creator of $ALLIE coin, has already created millions of dollars in value through her community (she plays card games on Twitch). People buy Twitch subscriptions with her coin, tip Allie directly with it and also tip other members of the community (when they do something positive).

And you’ve already seen what Portugal The Man (the rock band) has done with their creator coin, which was featured in Rolling Stone magazine. Fans that purchase their coin are able to purchase exclusive fan experiences with their $PTM coin.

Yes, there are a few solid examples, but is it possible to run a business using just creator coin? Here are questions that come to mind:

– Can you fund all aspects of the business with a creator coin?
– Can you use it in replacement of a bank? (I’m seriously asking this question)
– Is this a good idea or are we just kidding ourselves?

So here’s what I’m thinking. Some of these are good, solid ideas. Some may be crazy. Some are missing.

$TILT Coin Phase 1

Currently, subscribers of The Tilt newsletter receive a referral code at the bottom of every email. For every referral the subscriber receives some $TILT coin. We also give away $TILT coin to people who share our content on social media or as a nice surprise for people who support us.

We’ve been doing this since the beginning and now have 200 owners of $TILT coin.

Currently, besides the coin having some cash value, you can’t do anything with it.

Phase 2

We’re looking at a number of ways people can use $TILT coin, including:

Signed copies of Content Inc. – purchase and receive signed copies of Content Inc. by using $TILT coin.

Merchandise – buying shirts, hats, sweatshirts, and other swag.

Discord group levels – The Tilt’s Discord group is in beta (you can join here). We’ll be adding different levels of access from coin-holders to VIP access depending on your level of $TILT ownership.

The TILT 50 – holders of 50 or more $TILT coin will be able to join our editorial advisory board, which includes helping us shape what stories to cover and learn about key decisions we are making for the company. The group will chat on the Discord server. This group can/will be involved in what direction we take the company.

Sponsorship – Individuals and enterprises will be able to sponsor portions of The Tilt and our podcasts, Content Inc. (motivational podcast) and This Old Marketing (news about content and marketing), by purchasing $TILT coin.

Phase 3

In the fall of 2021, The Tilt will be launching a training program and courses for content entrepreneurs. These courses can be purchased with $TILT coin or be available for people at certain $TILT coin levels.

Future concepts

Here are some other ideas that I think might have some utility:

Launch NFTs (non-fungible tokens) as tickets to events, creating different levels of experience. These can be purchased directly at Rally.io. Gary Vaynerchuck just launched his first NFT this week, which is open to people who hold his creator coin.

Fund a Creator Program – One of our big ideas is to create 1000 exits (or some number), which means help 1,000 content creators develop significant content-first businesses. I’m thinking we could do this with $TILT coin and work it like a support network or a grant. Content creators could apply and those that we accept we’d fund with, say, 1000 $TILT coin. Then that group could use the value already created in $TILT coin for their community as well. I’m not sure if this is a great idea or not, but…

Other Coin Holders

I spent the day yesterday reviewing what other creators are doing with their coin. Some ideas include:

– Membership levels and perks depending upon coin ownership level.
– Creators will retweet or promote a link for coin.
– Private Discord group for coin holders.
– Private chats and consultations.
– Limited merchandise offers for coin holders.
– Consulting engagements.

Summary

I don’t quite have it yet, but I’m getting there. It’s a challenge to think outside a centralized process as creator coins are definitely a decentralized idea (currency outside a sovereign entity, like a government). When someone asks, “you have your own currency, how would it work?” is not easily answered.

So what do you think? What am I missing? Good idea? I’d love your feedback.

Oh, and good ideas emailed to me get $5 in $TILT coin. See how I did that. (make sure you get a free account at Rally.io so I can send you some)

Why Print Will Make a Comeback in 2022 (and two other trends) – #58

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Random subscriber Mark Boepple from Next New Customer sent me this Wall Street Journal article called “When to Invest In a Stupid Idea.”
The author, Andy Kessler, summarizes the article like this:

My advice is always to invest in the fog. When everyone else is incredulous, look for scale. Usually, no one else can see it. Squint hard, but don’t make stuff up. If you can see something that everyone dismisses, and that will get cheaper over a long period of time, maybe decades, buy in cheap and go along for the long ride. Others will eventually overpay.

This made me think of a few things.

Over five years ago (when I was at Content Marketing Institute) we were preaching about the impending move back to email as platform. Right about that time we saw Morning Brew launch. And then The Hustle. And then Substack. Right now, email is HOTT! (yes, with two t’s.)

At the beginning of 2019, Bitcoin hit approximately $3,000 per coin. Everyone was hating on it. It’s now at over $50,000 per coin.

Okay…I was long email and Bitcoin and those things worked out. But where are the opportunities in the fog right now?

Here are a few things I scratched out that I think will be big opportunities in the very near future. Please email me if you think I’m wrong (or right). Or just email me to say hi.

Print to Bounce in 2023
I’m not going to do it, but I really want to start a print magazine right now. With print magazines down to their lowest level in (maybe) ever, consumers are desperate for quality print communications that don’t look like a T-Mobile post card or someone scamming your business through an unemployment claim.

Also, the push back in social media. People are looking to disconnect from their devices.

We’ve hit a print magazine low. I feel we are in for a dead-cat bounce in the next few months. Watch for a number of large brands to launch targeted print magazines…probably quarterly in nature. Also look for a number of luxury brands to create some thick monthly magazines in partnership with traditional publishers. If you have the means, thinking print may be an opportunity.

Good Advertising Making a Comeback
Outside of Google, Facebook and Amazon, advertising has been sucking wind for a decade. Many outlets are predicting an advertising comeback in 2021. I think this will happen, but larger than most expect. Corporations just have too much money sitting around right now, and they need to spend it (and they stink at content marketing).

Long term I think consistent advertising in print magazines and reliable digital venues will see a solid three-to-five year run. The key to success will be consistency. One ad doesn’t do anything. To make an impact, advertise for at least nine months in a row with one particular property.

It’s a Buyer’s Market in Podcasts. So Buy.
I’ve been chatting it up with a few podcasters recently. They all love what they do, and their numbers are growing, but not one of them said they wouldn’t sell their podcast. Most would keep producing their podcast on a monthly retainer if some brand came along to buy it for a pair of Air Jordan’s.

If I’m you I’m making a list of some niche podcasts in your industry. Then make friendly with them. Odds are they’d sell to you if you promise not to destroy it. Might save you three years of organic growth time. Give it some thought.

Now, all that said, here are some things that are “bubbling” that I feel still have legs.

– Bitcoin and Ethereum both double from here in the next 12 months (Bitcoin is at $55,000 and Ether is $2,150 as I type this). This does not construe as financial advice. Do your homework.

– Creator coins, although way too hot, have legs. I truly feel content creators can and will build their own mini-economies with tokens. If you’d like to support our little community, buy some $TILT coin today.

– While everyone is paying attention to the craziness of NFTs and art, we are going to see some amazing innovation in other industries. In the next two years, you’ll see everything from sports tickets to insurance contracts become NFTs.

Do you have any unloved trends? Reply to this email and let me know. Maybe I’ll include them in the next issue.

Collectibles Are Going Bananas

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Like many, I left Topps, the trading card company, for dead. I mean, who collects baseball cards anymore? By the way, I have about a thousand Albert Belle cards for sale if you want them.

Well, I was wrong. Incredibly wrong.

The collectibles market is as hot as I’ve ever seen it (and not just NFTs). Topps sales rose 23 percent in 2020, and now they plan to go public via a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) valued at $1.3 billion dollars.

This morning I saw that the first comic book with Superman (born in Cleveland, Ohio btw) just sold for $3.25 million dollars. This specifically caught my eye because my friend owns one in near-mint condition. He’s made like 30x on that investment in a very short period of time.

So I’ve been thinking – Why is the collectibles market hot? And NFTs? And Bitcoin? And oil? And the stock market? And real estate? And everything else that is not a bond or money market?

Well folks, this is good ole’ asset inflation. Big time.

Governments around the world (not just the US) are pumping money into their economies. Last year, 23 percent of ALL dollars in the US were created in 2020. And that doesn’t count the massive stimulus we’ve already had this year.

More dollars in circulation and the less the dollar is worth. It’s simple math.

Because of that, investors are trying to figure out where to put their money so they don’t lose it like a melting ice cube (that’s what I call the dollar).

I feel this trend will continue. Collectibles are a good place to be right now. Oh where were you in 1986?

Random Idea – Freeze Your Credit

I received a letter the other day that someone used our business name to apply for unemployment. Of course, it was a fraudulent claim.

A lot of this is going around lately. And it seems to be getting worse.

One thing we did that makes me sleep better at night is freezing our credit. I went to the three major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – and froze my credit report from being accessed. It took about 30 minutes to complete all the forms online. Here’s a link to how you can do it.

With a frozen credit report, it’s nearly impossible for someone to get a credit card or apply for a loan in your name (it’s not perfect, but it’s something).

And it’s super easy to undo this if you actually need someone to access your credit reports.

Good luck!

Run Away from Facebook’s Creator Program

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Earlier this week, Sara Fischer from Axios reported that Facebook will soon begin testing on a new, paid platform for independent writers.

What does this mean?

According to Fischer, the platform includes tools for journalists to build actual websites, in addition to newsletters. She also says that Facebook will underwrite some writers to help get them off the ground.

The publishing platform, which has yet to be named, will be free-to-use, and will integrate with Facebook Pages.

Of course, this is not new. Facebook began doing this with news media companies years ago. Twitter’s in as well. Twitter’s purchase of Revue, a newsletter platform for writers and publishers, is similar to Substack, a self-serve newsletter service that integrates payment and helps, in some cases, with distribution and promotion. LinkedIn is also said to be launching their own version of a creator program.

I think all three companies are smart for doing this, and it also scares me to death.

This is extremely seductive. Writers and content creators can skip over some of the more challenging work of building a platform with the help of something like Facebook. In addition, Facebook plugs into immediate distribution. This is great for Facebook…by doing this content creators will keep people on Facebook. The evil empire will be happy to share a very small percentage of the advertising billions they bring in.

So, let’s say that’s what the content creator does. Heads to Facebook, or LinkedIn or anything else. Builds up their platform on that channel.

Then, you are stuck. The audience you built is not your audience, it’s their audience. You are just renting it and getting paid to do it. Definitely seductive. It’s a drug for sure. You become addicted…and when you do, Facebook has you and they can do anything they want.

And then, let’s say you want to leave the platform…you’ll have to start over, and the withdrawal pains will be intense.

Here’s my advice, which you can take or leave – Stay away from them.

Spend a little more time building your platform. WordPress and email programs and other tech integrations take time but work well. And you can control them. Yes, you’ll have to spend a little more time on marketing, but at the end of the day, you’ll be able to choose when and how to communicate with your audience. And as a content creator, I wouldn’t trade that for any shortcut on the planet.

You Need to Know about Discord

I’ll be honest. Six months ago I barely knew about Discord. Sure, my kids were on it, but why did that affect me?

Today, I’m a part of multiple Discord groups and now (on Tuesday) it was announced that Microsoft is trying to buy Discord for $10 Billion (with a b) dollars.

It sounds like Amazon and Epic Games were also in the hunt, but that Microsoft won out.

First, this is another amazing purchase for MSFT (remember when they bought Minecraft?). Microsoft has been trying to become the leader in gaming for years, and Discord is the home for just about every major conversation between gamers.

Don’t know Discord? It’s like a discussion group on steroids. It has 140 million users and does about $130 million in revenue per year.

Hard to believe but $10 billion is a steal. Discord is evolving into the conversation platform for everything cool…like Reddit but private and can be invitation only.

My recommendation? Find a Discord group you like and start figuring it out.