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Continued Danger in Social Platforms – #75

Published: December 17, 2021 | Last Updated: December 17, 2021

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.

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 12^th 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!

CEX – 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

Published: December 3, 2021 | Last Updated: December 3, 2021

On Friday, December 3, 2021 Robert Rose and I release our 300^th 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

Published: November 18, 2021 | Last Updated: November 18, 2021

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.

Yo Digital Props – #72

Published: November 4, 2021 | Last Updated: November 18, 2021

Last issue of The Random I discussed what I believe is a new business model for content creators…basically…the tokenization of everything.

This issue, I’d like to take you further down the rabbit hole.

Hey Meta

Facebook’s decision to rename their company as Meta has everyone talking about the metaverse. If you’re not familiar, the term metaverse comes from Neil Stephenson’s book Snow Crash, a science fiction novel in the same category as Ready Player One. I highly recommend the read, not only for enjoyment but for training purposes.

Why? In the book there are two kinds of property: one for the real world and one for the digital world (metaverse). I believe this is what’s to come (and that right soon).

So yes, you will own a house and a car and all the things you see around you (the NFTs of the real world). This is the world where property rights are things we can see and touch.

And then you will own your digital property. This goes for digital money like Bitcoin and Ethereum and now a whole new world of digital property made possible with NFTs.

I’ve become obsessed with this concept. I believe it unleashes possibilities for content and creative entrepreneurs that we’ve never thought possible.

Web 1.0 to Web 3

Just like the first wave of the internet, we are just seeing NFTs today as digital replicas of what already exists. For example, when Web 1.0 first came online, websites were pretty much just digital magazines or digital classifieds. Same exact thing as in the real world, just accessible via the web.

Today we are seeing art, but instead of going to a gallery, we can purchase it digitally as an NFT. We know what memberships looks like today, but now you can package them in an NFT or as community tokens (like we do at The Tilt).

Maybe we aren’t at Web 3 yet…how about Web 2.5? Let’s say instead of selling my book on Amazon, I can sell it as an NFT to, say, 300 people…what I might consider my true fans. I can make more money on the NFT version if people are willing to spend more, which a few people will, and also make money off every resale…which is impossible today (I do not make money when a used bookstore sells my book).

If you are a content creator, that’s where I’d be spending my thinking time. What intellectual property do I have and can create, and how do I develop it as digital property that people would want access to?

Think of a musician today. I have a few in my family. They make their living by doing in-person gigs or recording for people. Many people in the middle take their cut. Musicians almost never directly receive compensation from fans. They get what’s left over.

But if I’m starting out in music today, I’m building a small audience of fans. That musician can probably survive off a couple hundred or a thousand true fans, creating custom in-person and digital experiences, music, merchandise and more just for those people who are willing to pay a little more because of the scarcity and because they want to be a part of that musician’s journey.

It’s a game changer for every creative. And, if things work out, I can see more millionaire musicians than ever before. Just think of what just happened with writers on Substack. So many of them went from working for media companies to making millions on Substack the next year. THAT is going to be possible for every creative out there in the next three years because creators now control their own supply chain.

I don’t know where this is going to lead. I actually do think that people will “plug in” to the metaverse to experience life in a different way. When they get there, they’ll want all kinds of experiences, including ones you can offer (as part of their digital property).

Tokenization

Why all this now? Packy McCormick says it well. “Web 3 is the Internet “owned” by builders and users, motivated by tokens.” The tokenization of everything makes this thing possible.

Think about this…in Web 2 everyone was a content creator but only a few companies made all the money (Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, etc.). Almost all the content creation value from millions of creators went to just a few companies.

Web 3 can change everything because the creators won’t have to monetize through the platforms. Sure, creators will still use Facebook and YouTube, but they will drive super fans to purchase unique experiences and merchandise (digital property/NFTs) and won’t have to make money ON the platform.

Facebook (Meta) and company won’t go down without a fight. That’s why the change to Meta. They want to be THE PLACE that people buy all these things (think IOI in Ready Player One) and they want to take a cut. I’m hoping these interactions will happen outside of a centralized network (I’m betting it will).

So, you’ll have your physical property and you’ll have your digital property. As the years go on, we’ll be spending more time in the virtual world experiencing our digital property.

And get this? There are only about 10 million digital wallets right now in the entire world (your Apple wallet doesn’t count…think of a Metamask wallet). 10 million out of 7 billion people. I can’t imagine how big this thing is going to be. This is what the internet was built for.

Here are some great resources if you want more information:

This Tim Ferriss podcast with Chris Dixon and Naval is amazing. It’s two hours long, and worth almost every minute. They talk extensively about digital property rights.

This Bankless podcast featuring Chris Dixon talks about what the world will be like in Web 3. This will blow your mind.

Love this post from Doug Kessler on why B2B marketers need to care about Web 3. Great for beginners if you still don’t get this stuff.

Here is Your Next Business Model – #71

Published: October 22, 2021 | Last Updated: November 17, 2021

Recently my wife and I stumbled upon an establishment called the Sugar Factory. Upon approaching, we gazed at the giant menu outside the store…more than 50 sugary drinks in huge fishbowls of every color imaginable. The majority cost a whopping $39.

I wasn’t into it, but my wife sure was.

We sat down at a table overlooking the ocean and ordered up our drinks. We ordered a Strawberry Hustle (see picture), a concoction of vodka, rum, triple sec, a pound of sugar, strawberry gummies and sugary fruit slices.

First, the wait staff placed the huge glass in front of us, just ice filled to the brim covered in candy. Five minutes later, another person came over to pour in the drink. Pouring a drink, I’ve learned, is an event.

She asked me if I wanted to record it (which I did) and as the liquid was transferred from her cup to ours, the bubbles and smoke engulfed the table. It was amazing.

My wife and I were committed to finishing it, and we did in about a half hour (followed later by a nap).

The whole experience was magical. Everyone was taking pictures and eyeing all the amazing creations from table to table. There was a birthday party on the other side of the room where a few of the kids drank from a giant mug made of chocolate cake larger than their heads.

The Sugar Factory has locations in Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, New York and more. They’ve created a one-of-a-kind experience that you can’t get anywhere else. Everything on the menu is laced with heaping mounds of sugar, from the cheeseburgers with sugary buns to their World-Famous Sugar Factory King Kong Sundae that feeds 12 for $99.

Why am I mentioning this?

Each one of us, in order to build an audience, needs to create a one-of-a-kind experience. That means being the leading expert in our industry niche, serving up content in a totally original way, fulfilling audience pain points no one else can do, or just leaning so far into what makes you…well…you that building an audience takes only time and consistency.

The Sugar Factory has a content tilt. It’s working for them (new stores are popping up all over the world).

If you are struggling with building an audience, maybe you need to lean a little more in one direction and commit to your content tilt. Or, better said, go big or go home.

The Audience Will Choose

Last week I penned an article on how community coins (also called creator coins or social tokens) could be the next great business model for content creators. Please check it out here and let me know what you think.

To be honest, I’ve been struggling with what Web3 (the next evolution of the Internet) means for content creators. I think this new technology gets us closer (very close in fact) to the ultimate in business models…that the creator (owner) and the audience (community) share in the financial success.

Community tokens are one way to do this. NFTs are another. We are also seeing new business structures, called DAOs, that, in my opinion, will became a major form of business construction in the next year. As you’ve read in this newsletter, being part of a DAO means shared ownership and shared decision making (like a collective).

One big driver behind this change is that humans can now own things on the web, and sometimes those things can increase in value. Chris Dixon of a16z penned an article on tokenization (h/t to @Michael_ in The Tilt’s Discord group) and stated that tokens give users property rights and the ability to own a piece of the Internet.

Picture this. Let’s say you spend most of your time on sites like Facebook. Facebook takes all the data you create and then uses it to advertise to you. You become the product. You get nothing but targeted ads in exchange for your data. But today, you have a choice to spend your time on Facebook, or you can spend it as part of community (like The Tilt) where you can earn tokens for helping to grow the community. You are still giving up your data, but in one scenario you can’t own that as property and in another you can.

That’s where we are going. We will be given more choices about where we can spend our time online. In some places we can actually create and earn assets. In others, large centralized companies will monetize you.

I know this is deep, but I’m really diving down the rabbit hole here. I think this is going to be dimensions bigger than anything we’ve seen on the web so far.

This week, two podcasts helped me wrap my arms around what’s happening. The first is Tom Bilyeu’s interview with Robert Breedlove on the history of money and why Bitcoin is a thing. Even if you don’t care anything about crypto, please listen to the first part to understand why what the Federal Reserve is doing right now is morally wrong and further increasing the wealth divide.

The second podcast is Raoul Pal’s interview with Yat Siu on the importance of NFTs as digital property and what we should expect from the Internet in the next 12-18 months. Warning: this episode will blow your mind. Also, I think Real Vision forces you to sign up with an email. It’s free, but still, it’s worth it in my opinion.

And…if you signed up for that, make sure you check out my interview re: $TILT coin on Real Vision. Super fun.

NFTs as Game Changer

If you still don’t get that tokens and NFTs are a game changer, read this Coindesk article. A lot of people think of NFTs and immediately believe an NFT is the JPG. It’s not. The NFT is the proof of digital rights. That’s the difference.