I was excited to mint one of the TribeX NFT’s on launch. And then the unthinkable happened. 400 ETH stolen from the minting wallet of the founders. I immediately listed my NFT on OpenSea because I just did not have the energy to go through the whole FUD and rug broken record again.
Instead of the founders disappearing, giving up, going dark and/or throwing in the towel, these founders stayed and fought. They were not going gently into the night. They would persevere. They would prevail.
After a series of consistent Discord AMA’s and Twitter Spaces, I delisted my NFT and then relisted it at 1000 ETH. In other words, “I’m not leaving” to quote Leo in the Wolf of Wall Street.
If they’re not leaving…I’M NOT LEAVING!!!
Today at 1pm EDT, I’ll have the Architect on the show to talk about this story and of course the NFT collection. And yes, they’ll be giving away a TribeX NFT and yes, I’ll be doing the drawing for one of Ali Sabet’s NFT’s from last week’s show.
Subscribe to the show at bit.ly/subscribetotheshow and then paste your username in the giveaways channel in my discord at bit.ly/notfamousdiscord. You will need to own 1 $JAFFE coin in order to access the show channels and you can do that at rally.io/creator/JAFFE
Watch full episodes at youtube.com/josephjaffeisnotfamous
Let me be clear. You WILL regret not joining me LIVE at a special time of 9.30pm EDT tonight with the very famous Daniel Pink.
As you may have surmised, we’ll be talking about regret, namely why regret makes us human, why regret makes us better and why regret clarifies what we value.
Daniel’s new book is called “The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward.” Also, he’ll be keynoting at Joe Pulizzi’s inaugural cex (Creator Economy Expo), May 2-4 at the Arizona Grand Resort in Phoenix, AZ.
The event is going to be awesome! Besides just getting together IRL and meeting up with so many people we've only interacted with virtually, the speaker lineup includes the one and only Ann Handley, Alliestrasza, JaMarr John Johnson, Nora Dunn, Jeremiah Owyang, Roberto Blake, Brian Fanzo and many more!
...but wait, there's more: If you register at https://cex.events/ and use code JAFFE or NOTFAMOUS, you’ll get $200 off, PLUS you’ll get a walk-on role on a live taping of my show on site AND private drinks with me (on me!)
I can't wait to meet you and hang out together!!!
Watch full episodes at youtube.com/c/josephjaffeisnotfamous.
MediaPost Online Spin: The New York Social Media Marathon
I failed.
Well, let me clarify. I finished the marathon. Felt great. Sprinted the final mile and completed it with a very respectable (in my opinion) time of five hours, 11 minutes.
Where I failed was in the social media part of the race. My experiment of writing @jaffejuice on my shirt (my fellow Spin writer and co-author of “Z.E.R.O.,” Maarten Albarda, would have approved) unfortunately produced all of zero tweets, Facebook tags and/or Instagram mentions.
Turns out, when it comes to cheering people on -- encouraging, motivating and interacting with them -- it is more about “social” and less about “media.” As I often say in my keynotes: “The phrase ‘social media’ is an oxymoron. Social is what we humans do well when we interact with one another peer-to-peer, be it in the physical, digital or mobile world; ‘media comes from the word medium, meaning neither rare nor well done.’” (Credit the late comedian Ernie Kovacs with that last part.)
So I failed at the social media part of the equation, but I think I succeeded at the “social” part, thanking all the spectators who called me by name (I also wrote “Joseph” on my shirt in old-school Sharpie), and afterwards, shared some pretty cool images and videos on Instagram (@jaffejuice) and Facebook.
Apple was a winner for me in terms of being able to use my family sharing / iCloud functionality so my family could track me pretty accurately throughout. I also credit Tata Consultancy Services, who put out a new TCS NYC Marathon App that had a terrific tracking feature. Several of my friends and family around the world were using it throughout and posting my progress reports on Facebook.
Elsewhere, Asics did a great activation called “Mini Marathoners” which created 3D-printed statues of 500 runners. This is also probably the biggest disappointment for me (personally and professionally) because obviously I wish I had been one of those runners… had I known about it.
This is in effect the number-one cardinal sin of brands everywhere: the lack of seed and influencer marketing to amplify really great efforts. (Corollary: we do plenty of spray and pray for underwhelming work). Incarnating “Flip the Funnel,” I wonder why Asics limited those statutes to only 500? Why not go for the 50,000 mother lode? Or, bringing in the principles of “Z.E.R.O.,” why not charge for creating the statues? Monetize marketing is the central premise of shifting from a “tenant” (renting media) to a “landlord” (owning assets).
At the end of the day, tentpole events like the New York Marathon are few and far between. While they’re all about active, social presence “in the flesh,” still, organizers and sponsors should pull out all the stops to get maximum bang for their buck. No question that technology innovation will help.
Over time, I do expect innovation to slowly but surely catch up to the pacesetters. Why not have Twitter, Instagram and Facebook integration? With augmented reality, it should be quite easy to identify names of runners as they pass, then capture photos of them and instantly tag them in the process. Yes, this would take away from the official, overpriced photography services, but this is what you call progress.
Incidentally, it also turns out I was using the wrong hashtag the whole time. Instead of #nycmarathon, I should have been using #tcsnycmarathon. Would have helped if someone had communicated that to me.
Of course, I may be nitpicking -- just like the 2.8x surge pricing on Uber afterwards!
P.S.: If anyone knows someone at Asics, I would love a 3D-printed statue if there’s still time. It would complement my Second Life one beautifully -- and I promise I’ll share it via “social” media!
I had the pleasure of beginning my marketing career pre-Internet. Well, I think floppy disks and 4-color VGA monitors existed back in South Africa circa-1992/1993 (we were a little behind the rest of the world), but for the most part “you’ve got mail” was still a phrase reserved for the one job that surely would never be under threat: the mailman.
Today, the pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme, where the word “analog” is essentially verboten and a swear word and the 30-second spot is pretty much dead and buried (but don’t go telling that to those still buying and selling the old dog).
It’s all in my fourth, book, “Z.E.R.O.,” which hits newsstands (assuming they still exist) within the next two weeks.
I believe it’s still available in hardcover, although I’m told it may be one of the last books EVER printed on trees. You may want to grab one as a collector’s item. Soon we’ll all be reading them on our personal Google Glasses, while we pretend to be soooo interested in the conversation with our artificially intelligent bot-date -- or worse still, our IRL spouse!
As someone who has made a career in the “what comes next,” I have digital and its successors to thank for paving a path where “the next big thing” is priced at a premium and good old common sense, best practices and strategory is discounted or considered “value-add.” And while I’m making my acceptance speech, I would like to send mad props to all those delusional executives who continue to push back on progress, evolution and innovation in favor of the elusive retirement package and the belief that big ideas, storytelling and creativity will always trump real data, proof of concept and actual, measurable and tangible results.
Actually I’m a big fan of ideas, storytelling and creativity -- only I don’t feel it absolutely, simply has to be done via television commercials.
Regardless, I’d like to plead the case that I don’t discriminate. I hate everyone equally, which is why I’m here to turn my back on BOTH the “old” and the “new” in favor of… the “old” and the “new.”.
I’m here to offer you a simple 2 x 2 matrix, framework, paradigm or whatever you want to call it when it comes to planning and executing marketing campaigns, commitments, ecosystems, funnel flipping programs or whatever tickles your fancy.
I want you to throw out the worst of the old.
I want you hold on to the best of the old.
I want you to embrace the best of the new.
I want you to reject the worst of the new.
Sound oversimplified? Perhaps. But I think it’s also quite profound, even if I do say so myself.
The fact is, there is a lot wrong with the incumbent model. We all like to beat up on the status quo, but shouldn’t we also give credit to the universal best practices that have stood the test of time?
On the flipside, there is a lot right with the new ways of doing business -- from mobile intimacy to social reciprocity to digital parity. At the same time, there is also a cacophony of absolute crap associated with the get-rich-quick schemes of emerging technology Lotto.
And so the next time you think about constructing a marketing program, I invite you to find your optimal mix of best-old, best-new, worst-old and worst-new to ensure you move forward with the former two and leave behind the latter two. I don’t expect the mix to be even, but my hope is that you will naturally select and optimize your marketing mix -- and in doing so, distance yourself from both the endangered dinosaur and false prophet.
For more wisdom from Joseph Jaffe visit www.jaffejuice.com and follow him @jaffejuice.
A word to big brands: Growth requires vision for what might be...
A couple years back, Joseph Jaffe wrote:
“My message to brands is very simple: Don’t be turned off by a startup’s lack of reach. In fact, this should turn you on! You’re dealing with the most fertile real estate, untouched, and unspoiled by the masses…
Founder Institute 2013 Spring Semester Demo Night Recap
On Wednesday night, the Evol8tion team went to support the 2013 Spring Semester Founder Institute graduates and hear their pitches. Evol8tion CEO and Co-Founder, Joseph Jaffe, is a mentor for Founder Institute and we love to see the new crop of startups coming out of the program every semester!
Brian Cohen, Chairman of the New York Angels, kicked off the night with valuable advice on how to get smart funding for your startup. He was joined by panelists Jason Reynolds, Director of Engineering at ff Venture Capital, Jeff Stewart, CEO of Lenddo, and Jeff Wald, Founder of Work Market, to continue the discussion and advise the new startups on how to navigate the challenging investment landscape. Key piece of advice? Know your consumer base in and out. The kiss of death in an investment pitch is to say "That's a good question. I've never thought of that!"
After the panel came the graduate startup pitches! Here were our 3 favorite ideas from the night.
Emozia is "revolutionizing the way we communicate emotion" by creating an algorithm to measure real-time emotion. There are potentially interesting API opportunities to feed this data into popular services like Uber for driver ratings and Netflix for content recommendations.
Inkwell is publishing startup empowers authors to take control of the publishing process — with crowd funding, social tools, and a support network, authors can raise the funds they need to produce their book. Joseph Jaffe just tried this route on Kickstarter for his new book Z.E.R.O coming out this fall—very interesting space to watch!
Pathgather is evolving his idea from last semester's graduation class, Eric Duffy introduced this enterprise learning application that helps employees discover learning content, track their progress, and connect with coworkers around professional development. Organizing thousands of courses from across the web into one single, searchable learning catalogue, employees can get recommendations for learning opportunities based on their interests and job role.
Be sure to follow us @evol8tion as we live tweet from many of the hottest startup events each month!
Mediapost Online Spin: Awarding vs. Rewarding Innovation
Take a read and see what Evol8tion's Co-founder and CEO, Joseph Jaffe, has to say about the latest award to hit the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Be sure to check out jaffejuice.com and follow him @jaffejuice.
Awarding vs. Rewarding Innovation
I’ve spent a fair amount of time talking about failing fast, failing smart, embracing risk and the like as it relates to experimenting, piloting and/or collaborating with startups.
To date, my sense is that the industry “feels” that the bridge between Madison Avenue and Mountain View is either already important or will become increasingly important. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s still early days in the space -- and as a “grizzled old-timer” who has lived (barely) through the rise, fall and resurrection of digital and subsequent déjà vu all over again of social and mobile, I can attest to the fact that the learning and adoption curve is still a fairly steep and arduous one.
I think it’s a safe assumption (sure thing) that the wave of marketing-led innovation through technology is not just a gentle crest, but in fact a tsunami of epic proportions -- and how we get to this point is a lot less clear in terms of path, progression and process.
One of the “signs of life” offering proof that we are heading in the right direction is the cockroach of the advertising profession, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which has just introduced a new award category to recognize innovation and how it leads to the birth of powerful ideas.
Led by Droga5’s David Droga, himself a product of reinvention and evolution in the advertising world, the jury awarded Cinder, an open-source software platform created by Barbarian Group, with the first-ever Grand Prix in this category. Cinder was given this award because, according to one reason given, it was created on an open-source platform and has been used in the development of several additional campaigns that also featured prominently in the Cannes Festival.
Consider Cinder the “Intel Inside” of technology-infused creativity, if you like!
Two remarks from the jury struck me with particular interest about entries that didn’t win (versus the ones that did):
1. They were in the wrong category and/or could have been in any category.
2. They were “too premature.”
I kind of think that’s the whole point, though. Innovation should not necessarily be bucketed into a siloed vertical category, but in fact should be ever-present in each and every category. Put differently, innovation entries that have horizontal applicability should be elevated, not relegated.
Secondly, I believe strongly in early-stage startups, and would give an award to a big, disruptive idea scribbled almost illegibly on a Starbucks napkin. We are after all in the ideas business, are we not?
While I wasn’t there, I’d certainly like to throw my hat in the jury ring to help evolve this emerging category in the years to come. As the author of “Life after the 30-second spot,” I believe I’m on the Cannes Most Wanted List, but hopefully innovation will help provide me with an official pardon.
When it comes to embracing startups, New York City is more like Gotham City overrun by a schizophrenic Joker.
On the one hand, the city of New York, led by a mayor with a proven track record of entrepreneurial success, pushes the startup agenda with a bold agenda of building on its #2 status in the U.S. and possibly overtaking Silicon Valley as the hot bed of startup success.
Last month, John Battelle and Brian Monahan’s OpenCo. Initiative rolled out in the city, with Robert K. Steel, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, espousing NYC’s startup surge and Rachel Sterne Hoat, the City’s Chief Digital Officer, doing likewise.
However as the one hand giveth, the other taketh away, with a judge ruling two weeks ago that airbnb violates NYC’s “hotel law.” This ruling is the third in quick succession, joining the likes of RelayRides and Sidecar on the sharing “sidelines.” These rulings continue to throw obstacles in the path of startups whose time has come. Treating hosts as common criminals and scaring off potential visitors is not exactly the best way to say, "I Heart NY," is it?
There’s a hashtag to voice disapproval with @mikebloomberg to stand up and #defendsharing.
So what is going on here?
Let’s start with the “micro” part of the discussion. New York might be the greatest city in the world, but it is also grounded in so many legacy and incumbent processes, many of which are broken; ingrained and traditional unions and associations; and archaic systems that cannot be serviced by the tenured organizations that watch over them.
All this dysfunction effectively translates into fear of the unknown, of the new and exciting startups that are turning traditional business models on their head, disrupting the status quo and rewriting the rules as they go along. That’s beyond scary to the establishment, but it shouldn’t mean pushing back and delaying the inevitable.
And it certainly doesn’t mean fining Airbnb hosts $2,400 and making them feel like common criminals -- or at the very minimum, Napster users.
Or take Uber, the incredible connection engine between commuters, car services and cabs, which is undergoing similar pushback from the city. A month ago, no doubt influenced by -- surprise, surprise -- the Taxi & Limousine Commission, a judge blocked an order that would have allowed Uber, temporarily suspended, to once again do business in the city. In other words, you're back at square one when you can’t find a yellow taxi when you need one!
Make up your mind, NYC. If startups are welcome in the Big Apple, then you have to be prepared to support their ability to do business -- otherwise, what’s the point?
The very nature of the startup is to challenge an inefficient business model, solve a problem or address an unmet need. Oftentimes, the solution might sting a little. The truth hurts, but as we’ve learnt the hard way too many times now with businesses and business models crumbling due to lack of innovation, progress and evolution, it’s better to deal with it now, compared to denying it altogether, hoping it goes away or delaying the inevitable.
The second implication is that startups may look elsewhere for their “home” if the city does not support them beyond tax breaks, shared workspaces and less red tape. Charity begins at home. IF the city extends a hand, but then slaps us across the face with it, our welcome seems short-lived and far from authentic.
On the macro level, this is bigger than New York City. There’s a story about the sharing economy and the natural level of discomfort that it brings to the table. It is extremely unique and highly disruptive. And of course the common thread of the old guard pushing back until eventually the sea of change becomes a crushing tidal wave.
None of this needs to happen. To use one more popular saying, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” I for one welcome the day where I can actually catch a cab at 4 p.m., avoid paying $800 for a matchbox at the W Hotel, or get from A to B without worrying about alternate-side-of-the-street parking!
Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201955/when-it-comes-to-startups-nyc-is-more-like-gotham.html#ixzz2VSkO6aZq
