PPPPackaged to Perfection (Four P's #196)
Personal Branding, Solo Travel, Decreasing Crime Rates, Twitter, and Tokens
Writing this newsletter every other week is exhausting.
Posting meaningful content on LinkedIn several times per week requires effort.
Being amazing on Twitter over 42,000 times is no easy feat.
Creating and curating FOMO-inducing content on Instagram to make your friends think you're still cool? That's an always-on, 24/7 way of life.
And to what end? The answer to that question differs for each of us -- validation, acceptance, ego, altruism, financial gain, etc. No matter the motivation, the amount of energy and emotional investment required to build, maintain, adapt, and disseminate one's personal brand can be overwhelming. Executives nowadays spend as much time prioritizing thought leadership, speaking at conferences, and thinking about where and how to share ideas. Here’s a little known secret: they increasingly outsource their LinkedIn and Twitter content to PR agencies. What you’re about to read is alllll mine.
SOMETHING PRACTICAL: Managing Your Personal Brand
According to the New York Times, building a personal brand can be rewarding and lucrative, but it also has its drawbacks: specifically burnout. With the rise of social media, more and more people can showcase their brand to their friends and followers. But these trends have also given rise to "shamsparency," a term I made up for misrepresentative transparency.
When we move ahead in our careers or put ourselves out there on blogs or social media, it often pushes us outside of an established comfort zone. This can be scary. But it is also when you learn the most and grow the most. But sometimes when we are faced with new situations or people, we retreat to what is familiar to us instead of trying something new. Or we try to be something too far away from the most honest version of ourselves.
Our identities are always on display. It has become an important part of leadership to carefully craft a persona that is public for everyone to see, which can be difficult when it conflicts with our private sense of self.
Being authentic is the best way to be a leader. But if you only think about it simply, it can stop you from getting better and limit how much you can help people. When we do things that we're not used to, it can make us feel like we're not good enough. So we usually just stick with what's comfortable instead. But most jobs don't let us do that for very long. And it's even harder when we move up in our careers or when things around us change.
Leaders today struggle with authenticity for several reasons. First, we make more-frequent and more-radical changes in the kinds of work we do. As we strive to improve our game, a clear and firm sense of self is a compass that helps us navigate choices and progress toward our goals. But when we’re looking to change our game, a too-rigid self-concept becomes an anchor that keeps us from sailing forth.
In an increasingly global business, many of us work with people who don’t share our cultural norms and have different expectations for how we should behave. I talk to French, English, German, and Canadian colleagues daily. It can often seem as if we have to choose between what is expected (and therefore effective) and what feels authentic.
There's a great article in the Harvard Business Review from six or seven years ago called the "Authenticity Paradox." Read it. Know it. Live it.
SOMETHING PERSONAL: Table For One
As I prepare to head off to Europe this week on my 11th (and not final) business trip of the year, I've certainly made up for lost time. Mix in a few family vacations, and I'll have a pretty sweet Delta Sky Miles status heading into next year.
Traveling alone is a totally different experience than traveling with family. It can be fun. Work conferences and events usually mean getting to see and catch up with industry friends). Ever since going abroad as a teenager, I found that traveling alone gives me a chance to really get to think about... things. When you're constantly surrounded by other people, it can be easy to lose sight of the big picture. But when you're on your own on an airplane, sitting by yourself at a restaurant, or alone in a hotel room late at night, all of those external distractions fall away and you're left with nothing but your own thoughts and feelings. This is a great opportunity for some introspection and self-discovery.
But ever since having kids, there's a part of traveling without them that triggers homesickness that I'd never before experienced in my life. And it hasn't gotten easier even as they've gotten older. It happens any time I'm away for more than two nights. So the key is to plan ahead and schedule "distractions."
For the first time in as long as I can remember, I'll have one full day away and to myself this weekend while in London after my conference. And I'm still not sure how to spend it. I certainly won't waste it holed up in a hotel room watching TV, and I likely won't be able to sleep later than usual. Unfortunately no Premier League game, the weather isn't going to be great, and I've done most of the "touristy" things. So... anyone around to grab a meal, hit a museum or just help me stay out of trouble? I hear there is a new King AND a new Prime Minister. You guys up?
SOMETHING POLITICAL: The Truth About Crime
This is the last Four P's before Election Day, and I've been notably quiet about these midterm elections, the stakes have never been higher (It feels like I say this every year, every election. We live in a divided house, and both houses of Congress are at risk of falling. We also have gubernatorial races in 36 states, including Florida, New York, and Texas... and very tight races in Arizona, Kansas, Nevada, Oregon, and Wisconsin.
Given the economic headwinds that are being tied to Democratic leadership the legislative and executive branches, I have a very bad feeling about races at all levels. And those results will lead to further restrictions on civil liberties and protections and climate action while putting common sense gun law progress right in the crosshairs. The extremist Republican candidates are hyping up increases in crime, but it's time to share some FACTS.
Crime is DOWN nationwide by over 60% since 1980. Violent crime is down 70% in NY and NJ. Property crimes are down 80% in NY. The murder rate was 6x higher in the 1990s than it is today. Yes, crime rates have increased since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Why?
Poverty: A lack of opportunities for the poor. As the economy has struggled, crime rates have increased in 171 countries.
Lax gun laws: 75% of murders since 2020 were committed with a firearm -- the highest levels in history.
COVID: Pandemic-related increases in mental health, domestic violence, burglaries, opioid, and alcohol-related issues.
Bail Reform? Not so much. Not one independent study has shown that New York's recent bail reform has played a significant role in the recent increase in crime. Crime has increased at the same rates as the other 49 states that did not enact any bail reform.
SOMETHING PROFESSIONAL:
It's been impossible to avoid the chirping that led up to, and has resulted since, the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk over the past few weeks. Personally, I've had mixed feelings on the topic that span personal and professional interests. I've made it no secret that Twitter has been, my favorite social media platform for over a decade. While I rarely think about Twitter as a business tool anymore (and with the debates about free speech and moderation, I'm not the only one), it is the first app I open each morning and usually the app that remains open as I doze off as night.
As a blockchain enthusiast, a crypto investor, and a Web3 marketing professional, I'm less interested in the role that Elon Musk will play than I am in the impact that Binance, a massive Web3 exchange + marketplace, will have as part of its $500MM contribution to the Twitter acquisition. Specifically: the integration of blockchain into the Twitter ecosystem. And they're not alone.
While it may be impossible to predict with complete certainty where this is going, Musk and Binance’s Twitter will include blockchain. Twitter has already announced plans to enable the sale/purchase of NFTs within tweets (something that Mint proposed back in June), and that may just be the beginning. Binance joining as an equity investor indicated that they will aim to play a role in bringing social media and Web3 together. And under most circumstances, I'm all for it. Platforms that increase accessibility, remove barriers to entry, and incentivize on-ramping into the right kind of blockchain experiences are favorable developments.
A few weeks ago, we learned about the surprising volume and impact of Reddit's partnership with Polygon Technology. The seamless integration of blockchain technology within the social platform led to the creation of 3 million crypto wallets by Redditors. These NFT avatars are insanely popular and secondary market sales are significant. Mint's mission is similar, albeit on a more focused scale: Democratization for branded, owned-and-operated token ecosystems that are more Web 2.5 than Web3. Twitter has the potential to be THE Web3 social platform, and it's already the platform where Web3 is most openly and widely discussed.
At least he's not tempted by metaverse ridiculousness. No matter how many times I say that most brands aren't ready to build metaverse experiences, you get a Hillshire Farm doing this and a Philips Norelco creating ‘Shavetopia’ on Roblox. Of course, never count out an absurd right turn. That's what has Twitter lovers so anxious. I'd just like to see Twitter fix the Conservative bias.
Everyone's favorite Twitter personality and recent COVID survivor, Brand Innovators' Chief Content Officer David Teicher, tweeted on Friday:
If ConstitutionDAO was able to raise $47 Million to try and buy the Constitution, why couldn’t we raise $44 Billion to buy Twitter?
I love the DAO operating model to establish and build new projects and businesses, but not in this context. DAOs to take over established, existing companies could never work. DAOs are practical and useful in the short term, but their longevity is difficult to maintain. When a disparate group of investors/owners with conflicting agendas and interests come together, it can be messier and more time-consuming than even current models of ownership. This is why a "Pop-up" DAO idea should be more than just a thought experiment.
Speaking of Web3, since you asked, I'd be remiss if I didn't share two incredible pieces of work -- both from the Media Monks agency. Having been around so many legacy marketers the past two weeks touting their traditional ways of thinking as if they're innovative because they use the work purpose or put a minority in a television commercial, I give you new ways of thinking: This and this.
I’ll send you a postcard from London, and be back with another Four P’s just in time for Thanksgiving!