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Preparing for a Recession – #88

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THE Pizza Recipe

My wife and I were with out-of-town friends last week and the subject of pizza came up. If you know me, you know how important a topic like pizza is.

I then told the shortened story of my Grandma Pulizzi’s famous pizza recipe, imported from Marsala, Sicily.

Our friends didn’t have to leave for the airport until the next afternoon … so … we invited them over to try the recipe for themselves.

It was, of course, amazing. To this point in my life, it’s still the best pizza on the planet.

Now, I’m probably committing some sort of serious Sicilian crime here, but I’ve decided to give you all the recipe to try for yourselves. Much of this description is how I make it, and not from the “old-world” recipe. That said, here you go.

pulizzi family recipe for pizza

Grandma Pulizzi’s Pizza

Sauce
2 Large Cans of Whole Tomatoes
1 Large Can Tomato Sauce
1-2 Tablespoons of Oregano
1/2 Cup Sugar (minimum)
Salt & Pepper to Taste

Other Ingredients
3 Large Onions, Minced
2 Boxes of Original Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix (not in the original recipe)
1 Package Shredded Pizza Cheese
2 Packages of Pepperoni, minced
Parmesan Grated Cheese

Add all the ingredients for the sauce and simmer in a large pot with a lid until thick. During this time use a wire masher to mash up the whole tomatoes. I’d recommend at least two hours to cook the sauce, adding more oregano or sugar if needed.

Cook the minced onions in a skillet until soft (right before browning). The finer you can mince them the better.

Mix the hot roll mix and prepare two pans following instructions for pizza. I recommend putting them in the oven for five minutes (glazed in the olive oil mix as recommended) and then remove before putting on the rest of the toppings.

Then, spread sauce on the dough, then the onions (all of them), then Parmesan cheese, then pepperoni (be sure to mince almost to a paste), and then add the pizza cheese.

Put back in the oven (400-425 degrees) for another 10 to 15 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

If you decide to try this recipe please take pictures and let me know what you think.

30+ Amazing Creator Economy Presentations

Many of you have been asking about getting free access to the Creator Economy Expo (CEX) videos from last month. Well, here they are. Just sign up and you get all the videos for free.

Preparing for a Recession

It feels a bit like whiplash, doesn’t it?

After the COVID-19 market correction in early 2020…when everything just stopped…consumers went on a two-year spending binge. Money was everywhere. Much of that spending was with content creators…from buying online courses and training to creator/brand sponsorship deals.

Now it seems we are heading into a recession…or at minimum, significantly less spending.

A close friend sent me an article a few weeks back on the impending venture capital doom. The TLDR was advice to startups telling them to prepare for the worst.

It says:

“No one can predict how bad the economy will get, but things don’t look good.
The safe move is to plan for the worst.  If the current situation is as bad as the last two economic downturns, the best way to prepare is to cut costs and extend your runway within the next 30 days.”

I’m seeing it everywhere now. Some discussions in The Tilt’s discord group have been talking about preparing for a recession and it seems creators are becoming more concerned as the days go on.

I feel like I’ve been here before. In 2007 I left corporate America to start a content business. At the time it seemed like the worst idea in the world, but for small content creators, this is a huge opportunity. Why? Because much of your competition will stop investing in the areas you are building out. In 2009, during the heart of that recession, we were building an education company around the practice of content marketing. By 2010 we had built a very loyal audience. In 2011, Content Marketing World was launched. I’ve told many, and still believe, that what we did would not have been possible were it not for the recession. Large marketing event and media companies, who should have been creating content marketing education and events, stopped all new projects during the recession, including anything in content marketing. That left us as the only game in town, and a huge success.

If times were good, someone else would have created and succeeded with content marketing.

So, this could be good for you. But here’s some advice to further your runway as a content creator.

Number 1 – Get really focused. Who is your core audience? What is the niche you can dominate at? Make sure you are not distracted from what’s most important.

Number 2 – Diversify revenue streams. It is right now where you will find the revenue pieces that will make the future of your business. This is the time to contact partners with crazy ideas. In 2007 we had two revenue lines, consulting, and advertising. By 2011 we added sponsorship, multiple conferences – including exhibit sponsors and registration revenue, and launched several sponsored research reports. Five years later the event revenues grew to 70 percent of the entire company revenues.

Number 3 – Stay the course and don’t stop. I know this is obvious, but most of your competition will quit over the next few years if we do go into a recession. If you simply find a way to keep going you will come out on the other side in amazing position. Cut costs where it makes sense. My wife calls 2007-2010 the ramen noodle years for us…we cut back expenses significantly. Went to one car. Held back on the pricey vacations, for us to just keep going. So, while you are heavily investing in your audience and your content and your audience building, looking to diversify revenue along the way, you may be cutting back on your streaming subscriptions and other non-essentials.

My final advice…it’s difficult, but this could be an amazing time for you. Do what it takes now to stay in the game.

Fans First Approach to Business – #87

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About Self-Efficacy

I’m in the middle of reading “Fans First” by Jesse Cole, the founder of the Savannah Bananas independent baseball team.

The story is truly unbelievable…how he turned an idea that everyone thought was terrible into what ESPN calls “the greatest show in baseball.” From the Banana Nanas (their senior citizen dance team) to throwing out the first banana (instead of the first pitch) to all-you-can-eat tickets (all tickets are the same price and they all include food/drinks).

The Bananas have more social media followers than many Major League Baseball teams. They also just announced a new special series on ESPN+. Here’s a video of their players dancing during the game to give you an idea of their antics.

I became a fan a few years ago. My wife and I have looked into going to a game. Tickets are very hard to come by (they’ve sold out every game since 2016).

I could talk forever about what they are doing, but just read the book. So far it’s amazing and I’m learning quite a bit.

But mostly, I’m learning about self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is someone’s belief that they can accomplish something. Noom, the weight-loss company, says that self-efficacy is the number one reason why people will or will not accomplish their goals. They promote this concept in a ton of their marketing.

Jesse accomplished his goal because he believed he and his team could do it. Everything else is in the details.

I’m working on some new things myself. Here is how I’m breaking it down to find success.

First, I’m writing down the big goal. Before we sold our company in 2016, I wrote down how much I was going to sell for and by when. I reviewed this goal every day.

Then create small daily habits. For example, I’m trying to lose a few pounds and get in shape. I track how much water I drink per day and how many times I run per week. For you, this will be whatever daily habits get you to your larger goal.

Track everything. If you set a large goal that can’t be tracked, you’re going to have a difficult time. Make sure whatever you do can be measured. If you want to be a successful content entrepreneur, what does that mean for you? Is that the number of subscribers? Or perhaps a revenue or profit goal per month? Then mark it down and track it like crazy.

Get feedback. Now, I don’t mean you have to share what you are doing with the world every minute on social media, but having a few mentors and supporters is critical. They will keep you accountable and give you honest feedback during your journey.

So, keep it simple.

Create the goal and write it down.

Develop small daily habits that define the goal’s success.

Track your progress every day.

Create a feedback team to keep you accountable and to help adjust your goals as you learn more.

Let’s make 2022 an amazing year of positive change for all of us.

Buying a Round of Cheer

My wife and I went to see Top Gun: Maverick this week. We loved it. The perfect sequel.

In the movie there is a Navy bar called The Hard Deck, which is based on a real bar…the I-Bar. The I-Bar has several traditions, but they all seem to revolve around customers buying a round of drinks for the house.

I-bar house rules sign

The one featured in the movie (see image above) is if you leave your phone on the bar, you buy a round of drinks. When it happens, a bell is wrung by the bartender and the wrong doer must pay up. Everyone cheers.

Oh, how I want this rule at every establishment.

The point of all this? Beside the fact that people are on their phones WAY too much and missing what is happening IN FRONT of them, this one little thing differentiates the I-Bar.

My cousin Ben Pruitt runs a restaurant in Sandusky, Ohio called Zuppaman. I’ve never asked him directly, but I know his differentiation area – he puts an entire meal inside a sandwich. Want Spaghetti and Meatballs? You can have it in a sandwich? How about an Asian Chicken Salad? You can have that in a sandwich as well.

These sandwiches are HUGE and delicious (yes, I’m biased but it’s true).

Here’s the question. What is your differentiation area? This could be in your business, for how you work, for who you are?

When I first started in business, everything was about fitting in and towing the line.

The Bananas. I-Bar. Zuppaman. They all have something that differentiates…that stands apart.

Today, success is built on differentiation.

Much Needed Thanks and NFT News – #86

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CEX a Success!

For those of you who couldn’t make it, the first-annual Creator Economy Expo was a hit. Over 350 content creators attended CEX at the Arizona Grand Resort in Phoenix. I’m thankful the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive.

Because of a generous donation from book publisher Lulu, we can give away all the videos from the event FOR FREE. You can sign up here to get access to them.

We haven’t set next year’s date or location yet, but it will be around the same time. I’m already working on the programming for next year. That’s right…I have major issues.

100 Hole Marathon

Orange Effect Foundation fundraiser 100 holes of golf

A special thank you to those who supported me in golfing 100 holes earlier this week. We were able to raise well over $40,000 that goes directly to children who can’t afford speech therapy.

There’s still time to support our cause. You can do so here.

Our next event, The 16th Annual Orange Effect Foundation Golf for Autism, is August 1st. If you’d like to golf or support the cause, please do so here. We need AM and PM golfers.

Don’t Get NFTs? Watch this

Adam Mosseri is CEO of Instagram and gave a powerful speech on where social media and content creation is going. You can watch the whole thing here…it’s 13 minutes.

Although I have some issue about how he defines “creators,” he does advise that content creators should not be dependent on platforms they do not control. He also talks about Instagram and the future of Web3.

The part that really hits home is how he believes that, in the very near future, creators will have direct financial relationships with their audience (not needing the likes of YouTube, Substack, Patreon, etc.).

The guy doesn’t sound like he’s the CEO of Instagram. I wish they weren’t part of Meta.

Give it a watch. You won’t regret it.

Why NFT Ownership Is Actually Different

On episode 312 of the Content Inc. podcast I talked about NFTs as NETs, or never-ending tickets. My belief was that an event could pre-fund a conference by selling a lifetime ticket to attendees. This ticket would be at a higher price than a standard ticket and give the owner the ability to help invest in the future success of the event.

Of course, since, to my knowledge, it had never been done before, it was all a big theory.

Now we have some data. Let’s discuss.

Leading up to Creator Economy Expo we sold 34 of 100 Never-Ending Tickets to CEX (as NFTs). Basically, those that purchased the ticket were betting on me…at least I suppose they were. I mean, there was no product yet. CEX did not exist. How could I even promise that there would be a second or third event when there wasn’t a first one?

About 25 of the 34 were able to attend CEX. The day before the event we gathered for a roundtable discussion where we were all able to meet each other and talk about what we’d like to see, for the conference and for each other. Then, each NET owner was able to attend the speaker’s party as a VIP member.

During the event, two NET holders, Brian and Gina, introduced keynote speakers. I only asked them to introduce the speaker, but both went on in detail about why they purchased a Never-Ending Ticket. Frankly, it was magical. Then, right before lunch, I was on my way to send everyone to break when I received a text from NET owner #8 Brian Piper. Brian said this:

“I’m sure your already planning this, but you should mention to everyone that if they bought a ticket this year, that money is gone. Well spent, but gone. If they upgrade to an NET, they get to come next year… and they can resell that NFT anytime. It makes their fee an investment not an expense.”

I read this from the stage.

By the time the event was over, we had over 20 additional people sign up for the NETs.

So now we are working with individuals who attended the conference, helping them set up their digital wallets and transferring the NET NFTs over to them.

Some details – To break this down, the event owner (me) gets funding up front in the form of these NFTs. At the same time, the attendees get lifetime access to the event, lifetime VIP access, and the ability to sell their NFT on the secondary market (Opensea in this case) if they ever tire of holding the ticket. And as the owner, we get 5 percent of the sale price, which is written into the smart contract.

You could say these people are my, or our, superfans, but it’s more than that.

They are now my friends. I rely on them for feedback. I talk regularly with over 10 of the NET owners and they give me valuable guidance on the event and on The Tilt.

I’ve been in the media industry for over 20 years and I’ve never, ever seen anything like this. If this is what a community is, I’m in love with it. It’s incredible. They feel vested in our business model and, frankly, I don’t want to let them down.

More to come as I continue to try and figure this thing out. LMK if you have any questions.

If you like what we are doing and would like to get in on this, just go to mint.cex.events or just email me and let’s see if we can get you one of the 40 remaining never-ending tickets before they’re gone. I hope to hear from you.

Be Present

Pam (my wife for those newer readers) and I watched the movie Rumor Has It… with Jennifer Anniston and Kevin Costner. It’s about the real story behind the book and movie, The Graduate.

To be honest, it’s not worth seeing. But…there was one scene that stuck with me.

Kevin Costner (playing the real-life Dustin Hoffman) said that he was disappointed with life for so long, until he started to live by a new mantra: be present in every moment.

I don’t do that enough. Too many times I’m thinking about something in the future or something I could have done differently, and not truly appreciating the moment. If you aren’t present in the moment, isn’t that the most disrespectful thing you could do to the people around you? Who love you?

I’m working to be more present in each moment, and even after just a few days I already feel like life is that much sweeter.

Pivot to Advertising (and Reaction to the Elon Musk/Twitter News) – #85

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First off, a disclaimer.

I produced this newsletter a week ago before I headed out to Creator Economy Expo in Phoenix. If my timing seems a bit off (depending on what happened in the world), now you know.

Elon’s Gangsta Move

I woke up last Tuesday to Elon Musk buying Twitter.

Joe was sad.

First off, I truly didn’t think it would happen. I said for weeks on This Old Marketing that someone else, not Elon, would buy Twitter. I figured some big hedge fund or VC would come to the table and purchase the social media company, and I really believed that Elon just wanted the attention. Anyway, the deal is expected to close in October.

I keep learning that one of the things I’m best at is getting things wrong.

I think my youngest child said it best – “Nothing like our billionaire overlords controlling one of the main platforms of speech.”

Dramatic? Possibly…but my Tweet wasn’t that far off.

“I’m so happy about Elon buying Twitter. We absolutely needed yet another billionaire controlling a global media company.”

Over the past two years I’ve been praising the benefits of Web3 as a possible new decentralized internet …one that gives control back to the users…that doesn’t lend itself to power residing with just a few.

And yet, we have Elon Musk (Twitter). Mark Zuckerberg (Meta). Rupert Murdoch (News Corp). Jeff Bezos (The Washington Post/Twitch/Prime). Michael Bloomberg (Bloomberg). John Henry (The Boston Globe). Warren Buffett (dozens of regional newspapers).

If global media had an owner persona, it would be a white billionaire. And almost exclusively male.

Unfortunately, this trend will continue. I would assume most billionaires are smart people who know how to make money and influence people. How do you influence large groups of people? Not through advertising. You do so by building or buying audiences.

So many were cheering on Elon to buy and save the Twitter business model. Right now those people need to be very careful what they wished for. Twitter has 217 million active users. Twitter has become, perhaps, the most important source of news for the world. And soon, it will be owned by the richest person in the world. How can one feel good about that?

Not to be a downer, but Tesla’s stocked dropped over 10 percent on the news. Why? Shareholders are concerned that Elon won’t be as focused on his core business now that he has a new side project. That might say it all. Twitter is a side project, a toy, for a billionaire.

Final thought – what if Elon really bought Twitter so they could never kick him off the platform? He has 86 million followers on Twitter…so…he paid about $500 per follower so he could stay on the platform.

I’m Pivoting to Advertising

If you haven’t listened to my April 25th podcast on advertising, please take five minutes and listen to it here.

For many years I’ve been talking up the idea of paid subscriptions as a model that content entrepreneurs needed to aggressively consider. Paid newsletters, paid memberships, paid training, etc.

But even before the fatal collapse of CNN+ (if you could even call it that), I’ve been feeling the shifting sands of consumer behavior. For me, it seemed,  sometime in 2021 most consumers hit their limit of paid subscriptions.

Media company Axios suggested that US consumers have a limit of about four services at a time for about $10 per ($40 total). It really doesn’t matter. The point is that most people are exhausted with paid subscriptions. Pay walls, pay gates, article limits, view limits, enough already.

At the same time, company coffers are full. And they are in full spend mode, even though many are calling for a major economic slowdown. Corporations are spending on advertising for podcasts, for newsletters, for sponsored influencer programs, etc. You name it, they are buying.

I don’t see this as a short-term trend. This will continue to grow. And large companies are starting to become more comfortable supporting small creators.

So while so many of my peers are going the paid route, you’ll see that we are going the opposite direction with The Tilt. Just to note, I do believe in paid subscriptions as a valuable model, but it just seems that most everyone was going in that direction at once. And when everyone is zigging…

And a final thought…Morning Brew is all the rage today…their product, their growth. An advertising model made this possible. Now watch as they diversify into paid programs (like live events) to protect themselves when advertising is not as bright and shiny in a few years.

GenZ’s New App (and not mine)

A few weeks ago I found out about this new app for the younger folk called BeReal. It went from pretty much nothing last year to over 2 million app downloads in March alone. It was one of the top five app downloads (of all apps) in the first quarter.

Here’s how it works. Once you set it up and find your friends, BeReal will message you saying it’s time to post. It does this once a day at random. You have no idea when it’s going to ping you. Then it takes a picture of you and where you are at, wherever you are, and only sends it to your direct connections. You don’t have to do it “as it happens” but if you don’t your connections will know.

Get it? Be Real? It’s supposed to be social media that isn’t staged and gets you to post “in the moment.”

I liked the idea. It’s definitely different. Although, what if someone is in school or crossing the street? All hell could break loose. But I digress.

So as the marketing person I’m supposed to be I downloaded to app to see what’s what. Upon signing up it goes through all your contacts to see who’s using the app. Guess what? Only one person (the daughter of one of my friends) was on the app. One? Are you kidding me?

I felt old. And then deleted the app.

What I am Reading, Watching and Listening to – #84

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It’s been a crazy couple of weeks getting ready for Creator Economy Expo. My days tend to look like this:

Monday: Why did you start another event?

Tuesday: Starting an event was an amazing idea. You are brilliant Joe.

Wednesday: You are an idiot.

Thursday: I need ice cream. Or beer. Let’s do both.

Friday: What is that look my wife is giving me?

Seriously, it’s all coming together, but I actually thought going through the event process the second time was going to be easier. It isn’t. The good news is that the event will be amazing (I really believe that) and I’m super excited about CEX (pronounced C-E-X…get your mind out of the gutter).

I’ll also be happy on Thursday, May 5th when it’s over.

What I’m…

I was on a podcast recently that asked me what I’m reading, watching or listening to (aka podcasts). I get questions like this a lot so I thought I’d share these answers with you. I’d love to hear your recommendations. Just reply to this email and let me know.

What I’m reading…

I read both Gentleman in Moscow and the newer The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. Towles’ writing is breathtaking. After reading just a few lines from Gentleman in Moscow I realized how much work I have to do as an author.

Both books are remarkable works, but I still think about many parts of Gentleman. It’s an impactful book. It’s also very long, so be prepared.

Andy Weir’s (from The Martian fame) new book Project Hail Mary was one of the best science fiction books I’ve ever read. Highly recommend.

I spent two months reading the entire Matthew Corbett series from Robert McCammon. I’m still sad that I ran out of books to read, but fortunately there is a new one coming out soon. It’s a mystery/thriller series that takes place in and around New York City in the late 1600s/early 1700s. Once you read the first, you’ll be hooked.

Here’s my Goodreads list if you’d like to follow me.

What I’m watching…

The Tender Bar starring Ben Affleck is a new Amazon Prime drama about a young writer growing up without a father in Long Island. Ben Affleck plays the supporting uncle to Tye Sheridan’s character (from Ready Player One fame).

This is not the perfect movie but I loved it none-the-less. If you are a writer, you’ll definitely feel something toward the end of this movie.

The Hero starring Sam Elliott is like a western non-western drama (I know that doesn’t make sense). Mostly, it’s about dealing with aging and still feeling valuable to society. This is not a feel-good movie, but it really made me ponder some things about life, especially as our extended family is dealing with several health issues.

What I’m listening to…

I listen to almost every Breakdown with NLW podcast on the news of Bitcoin and macroeconomics.

My favorite podcast is the Prof G (Scott Galloway) podcast, which covers tech, finance and even dives into family and personal issues. The latest podcast with guest Noam Bardin, the former CEO of Waze, was so powerful I forwarded it to my youngest child. It seems I always get something business related out of it, but more importantly I receive something of value about being a father.

I finished compiling the music playlist for Creator Economy Expo. Here it is (via Apple) if you’d like to share in my compilation. You’ll see my taste is odd, but hopefully uplifting. I have something from almost every decade. I told our event manager for CEX that it’s the greatest playlist that has ever been created. You be the judge.

Did You Know?

I believe the US highway system is one of our modern miracles, but did you know that there is a numbering system? Of course, you know that the major interstates that run North/South are odd numbered, and those that run East/West are even numbered. But, there’s more.

There is actually a number-ordering system. For example, Highway 5 starts in California. Then each additional interstate adds 10 until you get to Highway 95 on the East coast. Highway 10 runs from Florida to California, which is the furthest southern highway, while highway 90 is the furthest North (this one runs right by my house in Cleveland).

See the image above. Mind blowing, right?

Here’s more on the US highway system if you’d like to read up on it.

Tech News

Netflix lost subscribers for the first time (200,000 subs) and expects to lose 2 million more. Why you ask? Simple. Competition. Who doesn’t have a streaming service these days? Here comes the great streaming consolidation.

TikTok tripled its revenue to $11 billion and now generates more sales than Snap and Twitter combined. They’ve created the best mousetrap for attention. Messages and forwards from my friends that used to come from Facebook, Twitter or Instagram now come almost exclusively from TikTok. Amazing.

Here’s a great interview from They Got Acquired on how Sam Parr sold The Hustle to Hubspot for eight figures.

In our latest This Old Marketing podcast, Robert and I cover why CNN + is really CNN minus. Uh oh.