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Be Curious, Not Judgmental (And Always Think About your Audience) – #93

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Moving from Mailchimp

Not sure exactly when, but this newsletter will be moving from Mailchimp to a new email provider in the next few months. Why you ask?

It seems Mailchimp (owned by financial-services provider Intuit) has a problem with cryptocurrency. A few weeks ago, Mailchimp suspended a group of crypto newsletters without warning. Professional publishers like Decrypt were completely shut out of their accounts.

The company’s Acceptable Use Policy states that “Cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, and any digital assets related to an Initial Coin Offering…we do not allow businesses that offer these types of services, products, or content.”

I understand the uneasiness of companies like Mailchimp (and also Constant Contact) when it comes to crypto. There are indeed a good handful of scams out there. But there are also some amazing content products that serve wonderful communities (like us here at the Random). They are a private company and can serve whoever they want, but I’m horrified by the way they handled it (no warning or communication).

I’m assuming this newsletter has not been blocked because we are simply not big enough (we have 10,000 subscribers). But since I’m actively involved in my own cryptocurrency ($TILT coin), I figure it’s only a matter of time before they’ll shut us down.

So please be patient with me as I figure this thing out.

Be Curious, Not Judgmentalbe curious not judgmental street sign campaign

This phrase (misattributed to Walt Whitman) was made popular recently in a Ted Lasso episode (here’s the exact scene…one of my favorite parts of the AppleTV+ series).

Well, while driving our oldest back to Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania this week we saw multiple sightings of this phrase throughout the city (see picture above). A quick search online netted me absolutely no intelligence about who is behind this.

It seems a group of Erie, PA small business owners have joined forces, uniting in this public showing of “be curious, not judgmental.”

If anyone knows the background information on this, please let me know ASAP.

And…here’s the copy from the Ted Lasso episode where it’s referenced.

Worth the read.

Guys have underestimated me my entire life and for years I never understood why – it used to really bother me. Then one day I was driving my little boy to school, and I saw a quote by Walt Whitman, it was painted on the wall there and it said, ‘Be curious, not judgmental.’ I like that.” (Ted throws a dart.)

So, I get back in my car and I’m driving to work and all of a sudden it hits me – all them fellas that used to belittle me, not a single one of them was curious. You know, they thought they had everything all figured out, so they judged everything, and they judged everyone. And I realized that their underestimating me – who I was had nothing to do with it. Because if they were curious, they would’ve asked questions. Questions like, ‘Have you played a lot of darts, Ted?’” (Ted throws another dart.)

To which I would have answered, ‘Yes sir. Every Sunday afternoon at a sports bar with my father from age ten until I was 16 when he passed away.’ Barbecue sauce.” (Ted throws a double bullseye to win the game.)

Woodstock 1999

My friend JK asked me to watch the Woodstock 1999 Netflix documentary Trainwreck (here’s the trailer). I don’t usually watch anything with multiple episodes (well, except Ted Lasso), but I considered the three episodes to this documentary like a longer movie. I can literally rationalize anything.

It’s been days and this documentary still disturbs me (btw, it’s NSFW).
If you’re not familiar, the organizers of the Woodstock event in 1969 put on the 1999 event, hoping for the same kind of love and peace spirit. Not sure what they were thinking by bringing out acts like Limp Bizkit, Korn and Kid Rock, but…

Anyway, the concert probably went down as the biggest cluster in the history of festivals (even more than Fyre Festival). In the aftermath (where literally everything was burned to the ground), the organizers blamed a few bad apples. Now don’t get me wrong, the kids attending did the damage and the behavior there was inexcusable, but I’m looking at it with the eyes of an event organizer.

The organizers first and number one goal was to make money off of this event. When they outsourced the food, merchandising, security and trash removal to contractors, they didn’t think about what this would do to the attendee experience. By the end of the event, some vendors were charging more than $10 per bottle of water (in 1999) because of the water shortage at the event. Security was a joke. Even after the first day, the entire concert area was a landfill.

When we put on events like Creator Economy Expo, or my former event Content Marketing World, we always asked if a change was going to positively or negatively impact the attendee experience. If we needed to cut a certain area (due to budget) that wouldn’t negatively impact the experience, then we were okay. If it did, we needed to think long and hard about making a decision like that.

But when you make budgetary decisions simply as a numbers game and don’t consider the audience, things always go wrong.

Watch this documentary at your own risk.

The State of the Cleveland Browns

As you know, I’m a life-long Cleveland Browns fan. So is my wife, Pam.
We have been struggling with the signing of their new Quarterback Deshawn Watson. TLDR; Watson was just served an 11-game suspension over sexual misconduct allegations.

Regardless of what you feel about the justice of this, the Browns’ front office knew about this situation in advance, and still decided to give Watson the largest guaranteed contract in the history of the NFL.

We have been season ticket holders for over 15 years. We attended Sunday’s preseason game against the Eagles. And it was exactly as I expected. Most fans are still in shock about the entire situation. But also, there were some Browns’ fans showing support for Watson in drastically inappropriate and harmful ways (one went viral).

I’m incredibly saddened by this whole issue, but my wife said it best. With her permission, below is her LinkedIn post stating her feelings about the situation.

I’m struggling with walking into First Energy Stadium today. I’m usually so excited, jumping out of bed like a kid at Christmas. But today, I’m just feeling kind of meh.

This spring, when my beloved Cleveland Browns made a decision to hire, and pay the largest salary in the world, to a morally controversial player, my enthusiasm started to waiver. I tried to get through it, ignore it even. Josh Cribbs said on a morning show that “business is business.” Okay yes, let’s look at it that way I thought. But then I couldn’t just look at the business, because the business has no respect for me, my girlfriends, our moms and daughters.

Many said, if he helps win a Super Bowl all will be forgiven. Probably true, but still with a disclaimer that we had to deal with the devil to get there.

I did love Baker by the way. But that all went wrong last season anyway. That’s for another day. I’m not upset he was replaced (maybe the how it happened was awful) but trades are something I can handle.

I tried to find ways that I thought I could get through this. I won’t buy concessions at the stadium for example. That way they don’t get any more of my money. (We had renewed our tickets paid in full before this acquisition). I roll my eyes even at myself because I am sure that $30 over 8 or 9 home games is going to break the management.

Overall though, the organization that has brought me joy over the last many years has now decided that I don’t matter. They have essentially said that it’s okay if people get hurt along the way. I know they aren’t the first team to do this, but they are my team, and as of today, they have ruined for me what is usually a really exciting time.

So I’ll be there. But my heart won’t.

Gambling and Taxes (and the Best Marketing Demo I Have Seen) – #92

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The IRS Can’t Keep Up

It looks like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is short on workers just like Qantas Airlines (Quantas is so short on baggage handlers that they’ve asked their executive team [gasp] to carry bags for three months).

The TL;DR

In February I helped a friend of mine do his taxes. I didn’t have the required information to submit it electronically, so we mailed it in. Good news…it was a refund.

Problem? Six months later and no refund check yet.

So…like a good friend I go to IRS.gov to find out the problem. Here’s what I found:

“As of July 29, 2022, we had 10.2 million unprocessed individual tax year 2021 returns. Of these, 1.8 million returns require error correction or other special handling, and 8.4 million are paper returns waiting to be reviewed and processed.”

Amazing, right?

In our case, the refund was just processed…a full six months after we submitted. I’m not complaining here…just another proof point that most companies in literally every industry is short on workers.

Also, make sure you electronically file your taxes.

So…despite the US going two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth (generally points to a recession), the fact that we still have so many job openings and are still growing jobs at a staggering rate says no recession (July jobs in the US increased by over 500,000).

The Online Gambling Fallout

Unfortunately, this is your warning for bad things to come.

Let me explain.

A few years ago, my youngest son started watching Twitch streamers gamble online. Some of his favorite streamers would bet thousands of dollars at one time.

For example, Roshstein, a Twitch slots streamer since 2016, has over a million followers on Twitch and regular gets 500,000+ views of an online gambling stream (that lasts five hours or more). Roshstein regularly bets thousands of euros per spin. Online betting sites like Stake.com and Roobet pay streamers like Roshstein to bet. If the streamer loses big (which they do most of the time), it’s okay because the betting company is funding them.

Now, before I go on, it’s not all bad. I’ve read articles from recovering gamblers that watching online gambling is therapeutic. Also, if someone enjoys watching a person bet big on slots and doesn’t go blow their life savings themselves, then it’s just entertainment.

But…

It’s the latest move of content creators that’s the problem IMO.

I had a long discussion with my youngest about this yesterday. A few years ago, online slots/online betting was a niche topic on Twitch. You basically had a handful of people doing this as their full-time job, only focusing on slots or online betting. If someone wanted to watch, they found an online betting streamer and watched.

Now this niche topic is going mainstream.

xQc, one of the top streamers in the world, became popular by streaming the games like Overwatch. Recently, xQc has been streaming slots on an ongoing basis since 2021.

Just this week xQc revealed that he has wagered $685 million dollars since he started gambling online. xQc is funded and sponsored (in the tens of millions) by Stake.com. Stake is also the official betting partner of the UFC (which is a head scratcher since most of UFC’s audience is in the United States, but yet those people can’t bet 😉).

This is the issue that concerns my youngest (and me). Of his 10 million plus followers, one-third are between the ages of 15 and 17. These are kids that initially came for the gaming and have now been introduced to online gambling.

This is going to be train wreck.

screenshot of stake gambling website

But you ask, how can kids (or anyone) in the United States gamble online when it’s “mostly” illegal? For example, see the image above from me going to Stake.com. I can’t even play.

I’ve learned it’s pretty easy. Just go to a free VPN (virtual private network) site and a website (like Stake.com) doesn’t know where you live. Then bet with cryptocurrency and you are on your way.

And it’s just getting started.

For those who know me, I’m not against gambling. I love going to Vegas, and enjoy slots and blackjack. The first time I gambled was in my late 20s. I had a job and had “some” sense of what I was spending on this entertainment.

I’m not sure 15-year-olds do. I’m also not sure how to fix this issue as gambling regulations (specifically online betting) are relaxing around the world. It will soon be everywhere and easier than ever. Just look at Premier League Football. I think every team has an online betting partner.

I’d like to be positive about it, but my mind goes to the scene of “Biff’s” in Back to the Future II.

How do we avoid it?

Ryan Reynolds Is a Marketing God

Do yourself a favor and watch this four-minute MNTN ad produced by Ryan Reynolds. It’s hilarious.

Yes, it’s an advertisement. I don’t think I’ve ever watched a marketing demo all the way through until now. Enjoy!

 

NOTE: There is no “random thing” feature in today’s newsletter. I decided to take the rest of the day off and go kayaking with my wife. Go spend some time with your family. Best, Joe

Tokenomics and the SEC – #91

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What I’m Reading…

I’m on a reading roll now. Thanks in large part to this community, I’ve read three amazing books in a row. First it was Where the Crawdads Sing. My wife and I were ready to go see this at the movies, but we couldn’t get beyond the 34 percent approval on Rotten Tomatoes.

Next it was Swan Song, which is a perfect Robert McCammon book (thank you to Random subscriber Joe Waters for recommending). And now? Upgrade by Blake Crouch. Crouch is one of my favorite authors and his new book does not disappoint. A mixture of today’s problems with science’s solution for the future, and you have a non-stop sci-fi thriller fest. Highly recommend.

Oh…and I’m halfway through A Life in Parts by actor Bryan Cranston (from Breaking Bad). Thanks to Random subscriber Jeff Korhan for sending this one to me. I’m loving it…and rethinking how I approach my content because of it. Regardless, truly entertaining autobiography.

The Future in Tokenomics

Remember last year when everyone was buzzing about Web3 and tokenization? Well, now you can hear a pin drop. Crypto winter has arrived (along with most tech stocks).

Regardless, the opportunity hasn’t gone away. It may be stronger than ever now that the buzz has died down.

Financial expert Jim Bianco has an amazing take on where we are going with tokens (go to the last eight minutes of this interview with Jim on The Breakdown podcast). Some highlights:

— The worst performing stock sector of the S&P since 2007 are the financials. Inside the financials the worst performers are the banks. Jim believes that is a signal that investors believe the banks cannot thrive in a digital economy.

— The process of moving money from one country to another through banks is criminal. Crypto is the disruptor that is set up to make digital transactions faster and cheaper. Banks can’t do this.

— Tokenomics (or tokenization) is critical for creators to extract value out of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube who take almost ALL the value for themselves.

— Jim believes the current system is broken and tokens can be the answer, whether that be social tokens and NFTs for creators or crypto for currency issues.

BUT (this is a big but), the system will and is fighting back.

Last week the SEC filed suit against a former Coinbase employee regarding insider trading. As part of that suit, the SEC framed nine tokens as securities, including our own Rally token ($TILT coin is a sub-token of Rally).

Many in the crypto community lashed out at the SEC, saying that the Securities and Exchange Commission is overreaching and making random decisions about what is and is not a security (great 19-minute podcast on that here). The CFTC, which is the governing body that handles commodities, publicly complained about the SEC’s move, saying that they are trying to regulate through enforcement, and not working together on writing workable regulations.

In addition, the management team at Coinbase fought back with their post “Coinbase does not list securities. End of story.” Well, the SEC didn’t like that very much. A few days ago, the SEC launched a formal probe into whether Coinbase is offering unregistered securities. Coinbase’s stock plunged 13 percent after the news broke.

Here’s my take. Cryptocurrency and tokens fill an important need, both for creators and for markets. The problem is that the US Government (the SEC and the CFTC) cannot develop workable regulations for the industry. Anyone who’s in crypto simply wants to know the rules of the game.

All the SEC stuff makes me laugh (and cry). The DOJ and the SEC are going after a couple kids who worked at Coinbase and made less than $2 million. Yes, I know that “sounds” like a lot, but normally the DOJ and SEC will do releases and go after billions, not millions. This whole thing is all about positioning. The SEC wants to control crypto (or see it go away). The CFTC wants to own it as a commodity. In the meantime, not one person can put together reasonable legislation so we can see this technology thrive and grow. Give me a break.

I’m a bull on tokens. This technology is here to stay. Token-gated content will become the rule and not the exception in the next decade, but the government needs to set down some reasonable investor protections and then get out of the way.

 

OEF Golf for Autism this Monday

Our 16th Annual golf outing supporting kids who need speech therapy happens this Monday, August 1st. Over 160 golfers will make their way to Elyria, Ohio to support the cause. If you’d like to support us from wherever you are at, you can make a donation here. Thank you and pray for no rain.

A reminder… I’m giving out $20 in $TILT coin for a new review of my podcast Content Inc. or This Old Marketing. Just reply to this email with proof of the review and your Rally ID and $20 is yours.

Updating Old Content a Quick Win – #90

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It’s Cheap in Europe

I remember traveling with the family to London in 2016. It was right after we officially sold Content Marketing Institute. We left on Father’s Day that year, which was the exact same day as Game 7 of the NBA Finals (Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors).

My son Adam and I listened to the end of the game while in mid-air (about 3 AM London time). When Cleveland won, we couldn’t believe it. It was Cleveland’s first major sports championship since 1948 (Cleveland Indians). One of the flight attendants was from Cleveland and the three of us hugged it out while everyone else slept.

London seemed expensive at the time. We were paying about 20 to 25 percent more for everything because of the dollar/euro exchange rate.

Well, this week the US dollar and the euro are now worth the same. They are at parity for the first time in 20 years (chart above courtesy of Factset).

COVID variants aside, it’s a great time to travel to Europe. We are looking into going to Athens. If you’ve been there, let me know what you thought.

Old Content…Not New

About nine months ago I received an email from someone who just purchased my book, Epic Content Marketing. They were saying how much they liked the book, which was great, but I was really bothered by the email.

You see, I wrote that book in 2012, published in 2013. In my opinion, the book was seriously out of date (Google plus, now deceased, had a major role in the book).

A few weeks later I was in an online chat room promoting the new release of Content Inc. During the chat, Brian Piper, who I’d met through Content Marketing World years back, asked me why I hadn’t updated Epic. I had no good excuse.

I basically told him (in that chat) that if he wanted to update it, he could take it on with me.

Well, this week Brian and I delivered the final manuscript for the brand new Epic Content Marketing to McGraw-Hill Education. It will be published and available in January, 2023.

As content creators, we always focus on creating new content, when many times we should be updating the old content. I recorded a four-minute podcast on a simple strategy to do just that (you can listen here).

My suggestion? Start with your most popular content first. Take your top 50 web pages make sure the content and calls-to-action are correct. Check your keywords as well. One of the best search engine optimization strategies (to get found on Google) is to update old content.

BTW, it’s not just for web content. You can update your top videos and podcasts as well. Make it a priority to create a plan in the next couple weeks and get a process started.

Crawdads

Just read “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens. What an amazing story. I highly recommend it and I’m very much looking forward to the movie. I can’t believe this was Owens’ first novel.

Subscriber Joe Waters recommended “Swan Song” by Robert McCammon. I’m halfway through and I can’t put it down. If you are a fan of science fiction, apocalypse stories and a little gore, it’s a doozy. Thanks for the recommendation, Joe!

I’m Reading…

I thought this article about how Netflix should/could have their own theme park is fascinating.

Spotify just bought Heardle. In other words, they bought 41 million visits per month. As a tie-in, they are letting players stream each day’s song for free. Great integration.

Everyone, except Twitter, knew the Elon buying Twitter thing WAS NOT going to happen. Now Twitter is suing.

Neiman Lab reports that 33 percent of news subscribers cancel in the first 24 hours. Presumably, they are buying access to one or two articles, then cancel. There has to be a better way.

Oh…if you made it this far, I’m giving out $20 in $TILT coin for a new review of my podcast Content Inc. or This Old Marketing. Just send me an email with proof of the review and your Rally ID and $20 is yours.

Getting Out of a Funk and the Release of New Creator Economy Research – #89

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The Summer Blues

I figure venting to you about it is a lot cheaper than going to a therapist.

It’s weird. Everything is going along just fine and then one small thing happens and I’m in a funk for two days.

Then I look at every little aspect of life like it’s the end of the world.

I was in a good flow with reading books for a few months. I read two amazing books by Amor Towles (Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway) and two more incredible books from Madeline Miller (The Song of Achilles and Circe). But for the last month I can’t get hooked. I’ve picked up a dozen books and stopped after a couple chapters on each one.

My literary world is crumbling…

My golfing has been incredibly…average. No matter how I start a round, I’ll end up with between a 41 and 43 (for nine holes). This has happened for 10 weeks now. Average, average, average. Part of me wants to see what a 49 feels like because Lord knows a 38 is impossible.

I am humbled by the golf gods…

A month ago, I started working on losing a few pounds. I’ve been weighing myself every morning, watching all my calories and I work out almost every day. And guess what? This morning I weighed the EXACT same as I did 30 days ago. What the heck?

I didn’t want to wear those short shorts anyway…

This has extended to my writing. Last week I wrote an article on portfolio diversification for an outside publication. It took about an hour to write. Once I was done, I hated it, pitched it and haven’t been able to start again.

And don’t even talk to me about the market. One of my past times was watching particular stocks and crypto, and for major health reasons I’ve stopped looking at the prices (at least not every minute of the day).

Oh, and I can’t see anything on my phone so I had to increase the font size to “elderly” so I can actually read the emails. But I REFUSE to get bifocals or progressives. And I say that knowing full well that I will be doing just that in the next few months.

Oh geez, that reminds me…taxes! I just love getting all those extra emails from my accountant that I owe even more taxes than we projected.

I’m not even going to talk about the rat that crawled up our toilet. Nope…not talking about that one bit (the plumber is actually here at this exact moment).

I realize that (most of) these are all very much first-world problems. That’s what is so disturbing when I get into a funk. I know how blessed I am, and yet…

It happens. In the past, I used to get in these funks every February. I mean EVERY February. It would be brutal. My wife and I knew it was coming and she’d prepare a lot of nights out with people that did not include me (the party pooper).

But then my wife made February more of a “month of fun” where we would travel, and I would actually get to see the bright orb in the sky (Cleveland averages three days of sun in February).

But then, as soon as we tricked February, it moved to June. Can you believe the gall of February to move into one of my favorite months?

So I’m going to let this bad attitude stay with me for exactly one more day. Starting July 1st, I’m going to tell this funk where to stick it.

Do you ever get in a funk? If so, how do you get out of it?

What Makes a Successful Creator

The Tilt just released their 2nd annual creator economy research findings on what a successful content creator looks like. It’s completely free and NO SIGN UP FORM. YAY. Download it here.

creator economy research shows creators have no regrets about choosing to become one

Some interesting findings include  –

Just 1% regret their decision to become content creators. This group is overwhelmingly satisfied with their decision to become creators – and this finding holds true regardless of the number of years since they’ve launched their business and the amount of money they earn.

Full-time creators need roughly 17 months to earn enough income to support at least one person. And they tend to bring on outside help at the 25-month mark. It takes about six and a half months to generated dollar one.

The top motivator for full-time creators is independence – the desire to set their own schedule, goals, and career path. 90% say they chose to launch content businesses to seek out “financial freedom on their own terms.”

Couple thoughts –

From my own experience, once you leave the corporate environment, you’ll never go back if you don’t have to. The freedom and independence is addicting. So, as much as this is about content creators, it’s also about entrepreneurs.

Some in the industry have remarked that the 17-month number is too optimistic. When my wife and I launched Content Marketing Institute it was over two years. That said, we were also generating revenue immediately (just not making money).

In looking at many of the individual comments, almost no one was in it to become a millionaire. They simply wanted enough to support themselves, their family and their style of living.

Maybe we need to redefine wealthy, not in terms of money but in terms of independence. Maybe content creators are actually time millionaires.

If you get a chance, let me know what you think of the research and where we could have done better.

Random Idea – Saying Yes

I’m a big “saying no” kind of guy. I’ve written many times on staying focused, becoming an expert in one thing, and saying no to things that distract you.

Yesterday I was producing a podcast. My oldest entered my office and asked me if I wanted to go for a walk.

I’d been working on the podcast for a while. I needed 20 more minutes. I almost told them I couldn’t. I actually thought about saying no for a second (shame on me).

BTW, all this thinking happened in a split second. I immediately (to them at least) followed them downstairs and went on the walk. It was amazing.

The podcast, the article, the work, the meeting. Those things can wait. Say yes to the things that matter.