I’ve known Ethan Pierse for many years and finally had a chance to meet him in person a few weeks ago. We spent a half day together and over dinner I turned to him and said, “This is the most interesting conversation I’ve had all year”

Both of us lamented that we should have recorded the coversation … so I did by inviting him on the Marketing Companion podcast. You’re in for a treat!

Ethan is a serial entrepreneur who has become an AI innovation authority. As founder of Borderless Ventures he advises AI startups throughout Europe and Asia.

In this show, we discuss

• The rise of the AI solopreneur
• The ROI of AI and the investment bubble
• Practical AI applications
• The unseen evolution of Web3

… and more

To tune in, simply click on this link:

Click here to enjoy The Marketing Companion Episode 326

And here is a text review of the show’s highlights:

The Rise of the AI Solopreneur

At the heart of Ethan’s current work is his passion for “democratizing opportunity” with AI. Through Borderless Ventures, he invests primarily in generative and agentic AI solutions — tools that power not only creators and solo business owners but also small, nimble teams with global reach.

Pierse

Ethan is also writing a book, The AI Solopreneur Economy, capturing this moment where entrepreneurship is open to more people than ever.

He argues that AI isn’t just for developers or technical founders. Instead, non-technical but entrepreneurial folks can now build tech products without deep coding skills. AI is breaking down traditional barriers and letting more people “create their own future.”

The scale is already astonishing: micro teams — or even individuals — are building seven- to nine-figure businesses, something unimaginable even a decade ago. With AI, a solopreneur can achieve what once took dozens of staff and millions in capital.

No Longer a Game for the Valley Alone

Ethan dismisses the outdated idea that innovation must happen only in places like San Francisco, London, or Tel Aviv. The global pandemic, he notes, accelerated the move to remote work, further eroding geographic boundaries.

Now, founders are building companies from “where they’re at,” whether that’s Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, or their hometowns in France. Borderless Ventures itself is based in Singapore and Estonia, reflecting this new, decentralized reality.

While networking and physical proximity still matter for building relationships, huge opportunities are everywhere, especially since digital and AI-powered startups can scale from anywhere. And the cost to start is lower than ever: Ethan recalls when hard drives cost half a million dollars; now, world-class web hosting and AI credits are free or nearly free for newcomers. The barrier to entry for big ideas is almost nonexistent.

The AI Bubble: Hype or Real?

With so much venture capital sloshing around — companies with ten employees are valued in the billions — a debate rages about whether AI is in a bubble. Ethan’s take? Short-term overvaluations are normal for disruptive tech, but what’s happening now is like a gold rush: not just for today’s productivity gains, but for the possibility of reaching artificial general intelligence (AGI) and even “artificial superintelligence” (ASI).

The tech giants are pouring in trillions to build massive data centers and train ever-larger models. In Ethan’s view, most of this is a race to own the future: whoever reaches ASI first may hold the keys to solving everything from interstellar travel to aging.

But it’s not all sci-fi. Right now, AI is driving real value in automating repetitive, high-value workflows.

Practical AI: Working Smarter, Not (Just) Harder

One crucial point Ethan makes is that extracting value from AI today is less about the tool, and more about learning to “talk” to it — that is, prompt engineering. Those who learn how to properly instruct AI (by, for example, writing detailed product requirements documents or SOPs) will get dramatically better results.

Ethan sees a coming wave where companies won’t fire en masse, but will simply not replace roles that AI can fill. Already, firms like Fiverr and Shopify are saying they won’t rehire unless a position can’t be done by AI. “Our days are numbered,” as one tech CEO put it, making it more important than ever to upskill and learn to collaborate with automated assistants.

The Unseen Evolution of Web3

While the buzz around Web3 and crypto has cooled, Ethan remains bullish on the foundational ideas. The technology stack of Web3 — blockchains, NFTs, and tokenization — matters not because people care about “crypto,” but because it introduces seamless, direct relationships and removes unnecessary intermediaries.

Look past the jargon, Ethan says, and you’ll find real-world use cases—soulbound NFTs verifying Harvard degrees, limited-access smart contracts for music releases, or authenticated logistics chains for wine and luxury goods. What matters is the efficient proof of origin, authenticity, and ownership. As user interfaces improve and blockchain transactions go “invisible,” Web3 will underpin a huge swath of future commerce and digital experiences.

A unique crossover between Web3 and AI? Agentic AIs—digital agents that perform tasks in workflows—can transfer value between themselves using stablecoins (crypto-pegged to dollars or euros). This enables automated micro-transactions at massive scale, with companies like JP Morgan already processing billions internally using their proprietary coins.

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The post The Era of AI Solopreneurship Starts Now appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

SXSW 2024 was a gathering of thought leadership, providing a glimpse of “what’s next” in media, technology, and marketing, among other topics. I’ve been attending SXSW since 2010. It’s expensive, crowded, and — with 500 sessions a day — overwhelming — but I regard it as an essential part of my professional growth.

Each year has its own personality. My first conference in 2010 represented the dawn of social media — unbridled excitement! SXSW 2024 seemed more somber as attendees pondered deep fakes, the existential nature of AI, humanoid robotics, quantum computing, inclusivity, and mental health.

I took pages and pages of notes — this is a serious learning opportunity! But I wanted to pass along at least a few observations. I want to emphasize that my experience is a tiny sliver of the SXSW 2024 reality. I skipped out on the celebrities, the movie debuts, and the glitzy brand activation parties in favor of relevant topics, smaller discussions and intimate dinners.

I attended a workshop on how to be a futurist. The big a-ha for me was approaching various future scenarios through storytelling. Articulating a narrative about the future makes you think through the implications of trends. Very useful.

The first research on Gen Alpha was interesting. Gen Alpha is 0-10 years old so this came through interviews with their Millennial parents. They are projected to be:

• Fiscally conservative, an outfall of parents who are in debt
• Highly aware of brands and brand preferences
• Already influential in family purchase decisions
• The first headset generation. They prefer VR to tablets
• Non-readers of book
• 40% spend at least three hours a day online, and 24% spend at least 7 hours a day on a smartphone (if they have one).

Researchers emphasize the critical value of intuition in the AI Era: “The greatest source of wisdom is in our bodies.”

An interesting idea: Imagine your brand as a character. What would it look like? What would it say? What is its aesthetic?

There has been progress with technology to detect deep fakes but the social media platforms have rejected it because hate and controversy are good for their ad sales. Experts point out that elections are already being disrupted around the world by deep fake content and the US election is going to be a misinformation shit show. Biggest threat in 2024 is voice fakes, in 2025, realistic video avatars. Sora was mentioned as a game-changer.

There are 100,000 applications that make deep fakes. Nobody stands a chance to discern deep fakes without technological support. We need AI to beat AI.

During a keynote discussion about OpenAI, protesters yelled outside, pleading to protect the jobs of graphic designers. Poignant moment and an uphill battle.

Interesting research on what creates customer immersion (beyond engagement):

1. Awareness – Overcoming distractions and getting their attention. Include them on their terms.
2. Willingness – They decide to participate. Is it worthwhile? Do we have the time? Are there others we know who are involved? Is it safe? Safety is crucial.
3. Connection – Does it meet expectations? What is it offering? Can I contribute? If you don’t make this connection quickly and clearly, you lose people. “I was drawn in, it seemed relevant.” Once they are engaged, is the safety validated? Learning about the norms of the group.
4. Investment – Risking their social capital, giving their attention, an ongoing investment. People want to see an immediate return. Is the community responsive to my needs?
5. Sharing – Earned by a gratifying experience. We want other people to share this experience. Community networks are the key to engagement loops (self-sustaining engagement, collective immersion)

SXSW 2024 was filled with thrilling brand activations like this 3D spatial computer promotion for a Netflix series.

I was encouraged to see a lot of content focused on the importance of word-of-mouth marketing as a “lived brand experience.” I wrote extensively about this in Marketing Rebellion as a key part of the future of marketing. I really think we are moving into a new era of brand marketing!

58% of Gen Z think the more absurd, the cooler it is. 82% say being weird is in. Perhaps discomfort is the future of marketing – breaking taboos.

Commercial humanoid robots are a year away and will be under $50,000. Good at moving things and lifting, nimble physical dexterity. Integration with AI allows more human-like decision-making.

TikTok has established an expectation that brands are defined by co-creation (re-mixing memes) and community instead of “broadcasting.” Co-creation is the language of the platform. You no longer have full control of your brand. Brands have to learn the language of creation. People expect brands to be part of the humor and that might poke fun at a brand.

There has been a lot written about the amount of time people spend scrolling on TikTok but what is not being captured the enormous time spent on creating for TikTok. It really stunned me to realize how many people are devoting their lives to ephemeral content in the hope of their 15 minutes of fame.

Another realization … almost every TikTok viral brand “success story” is a fluke. It wasn’t planned, it wasn’t strategized, it had nothing to do with an intentional creative effort. The famous cranberry juice case study is an example. TikTok’s recommendation for success: Lower your brand standards. Hmmmmm … that is not going to be a popular suggestion.

Growth in the gaming industry is stagnant, and the business is experiencing an upheaval due to consolidations and new platforms. Instead of new titles, growth is expected to come through interactivity and community.

With a history of employee abuse, the game industry is expected to be unionized.

SXSW 2024 was filled with a lot of movie star glitz, but I skipped that part (and the lines!) to focus on educational sessions that will energize me for the rest of the year!

Major marketing industry disruptors disclosed in various sessions:

• Hyper-fragmentation of culture and media. How do we reach them? 250 million creators = 250 million new media channels
• Rapid growth of Discord and other private communities
  Ad-free social media platforms
• No watercooler moments – no shared experiences due to isolation
• Spatial computing
• Immersive and metaverse — headset costs will drop, experiencing products will be transformed
• Data privacy — 2.6 billion data records breached in the last year
• Crackdown on collecting biometric data
• Data wallets. Consumers control the narrative
• Sustainability — Advertising eats up a lot of energy. Times Square could power 160,000 homes
• Neuroscience — EEGs, Eye tracking, wearables, neural links. Meta is working on a tech that can read your mind
• Real-time advertising reactions enabled by AI
• There is a backlash against purpose-driven marketing because too many brands make promises they don’t keep.

Japanese technology used human brainwaves to communicate with a 3d printer and print a functional guitar. The command line is “your thoughts.”

We are in a technology supercycle that will create sustained changes in the economy. The last example was the Internet. Three technologies are driving this cycle: AI, biotech, and interconnected devices.

What if somebody creates an “AI event” with thousands of fake accounts and a variety of real content and reactions? It would take us a long time to figure out it was fake, and by that time, it could trigger a real-life reaction. The end state of AI is not cartoon images; it is a war, stated futurist Amy Webb. You can watch her talk here:

AI is running out of data, so companies are inventing new devices to get more data into their systems. We are about to be surrounded by millions of sensors to not only know what to say next but also what to do next. VR, like Apple Vision Pro, is a face computer that will collect details about your life. It will read your intentions by reading your pupils, which react before your body does. It will know what you will do before you do it. There will be a battle for face supremacy.

If somebody steals your biometric or movement identity, there is no way to get it back or reset it.

The market does not reward safety. It rewards supremacy.

An organoid is a computer grown from human brain cells. This is already happening. Brain-based computing (organoid intelligence) disconnects our need for rare materials and massive energy consumption.

AI will create massive disruption in jobs and the economy. Governments need to create a Department of Transition (create a soft landing for businesses, move people to trades)

Compared to other years, social media, content marketing, and Web3 were down; podcasts, metaverse, influencers, privacy, experiential marketing, community, and storytelling were up. And of course, AI was featured in a thousand sessions!

Well, those are a few takeaways from SXSW 2024. Hope you found something useful here and maybe I’ll see you at SXSW next year?

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post What’s Next? Reflections on #SXSW 2024 appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Note: Today’s post was created by {grow} Community Member David DeLallo

My first interaction with ChatGPT was early last December. At the time, I was McKinsey & Company’s Executive Editor for AI. And with nearly a decade in the AI arena under my belt, I’d witnessed the tides of hype rise and fall. So, I approached ChatGPT with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Here’s how the experience unfolded:

Me (typing): Create a blog post about five ways businesses can use AI to generate new revenues in the style of McKinsey and Company.

ChatGPT: (Spits out 500 coherent and stylistically on-point words. Time elapsed: less than 10 seconds.)

Me:

The piece had its flaws. But I’d seen worse first drafts from humans that likely took many hours to craft.

Awe and existential dread washed over me. Was this technology as revolutionary as it seemed? And what did it mean for my career?

Soon I was busy fast-tracking perspectives on  generative AI and immersing myself in this new world. But fears about my future persisted. Was I going to be replaced by this thing?

Adapting to survive–and thrive

Fast forward to today. I’ve talked to dozens of writers and marketers and find we generally fall into one of three camps.

1. Nope. You’ve dabbled in ChatGPT with a few basic prompts, found its responses underwhelming, and dismissed it as hype.

2. Panicked. You’ve seen its power, completely freaked out, and ordered the book “What Color Is My Parachute?” to help you choose between nursing school and parlaying your woodworking hobby into a new career in carpentry.

3. Adapting. You’re among the 37% of marketers who’ve adopted generative AI tools at work, but you’re still a little worried about what your future in marketing will look like.

It’s time for us all to migrate toward Adapting. Whether we want this or not, our marketing careers will change. But they will not end — as long as we embrace AI as an invaluable sidekick to amplify our skills, increase our knowledge, and accelerate our work.

I’m so confident in this perspective that I left McKinsey in June to open my own business. With generative AI by my side, I’m providing writing and content marketing services to companies looking to tell their technology stories.

Here’s why I think AI will propel my career … and yours.

A tale of two marketers

Consider the following scenario:

A tech company is launching a new AI-powered product and wants to create a comprehensive marketing campaign. It subscribes to an AI tool that can generate content, analyze data, and suggest marketing strategies.

The Novice Marketer + AI: A young marketer, let’s call him James, is excited to use the AI tool. He inputs basic information about the product and the target audience. The AI spits out a content calendar, some blog post drafts, and even a few social media post suggestions. Thrilled, James pushes the tool no further and approves them with little scrutiny.

Result? The campaign goes live. It’s…meh. The blog posts are informative but the campaign doesn’t resonate with the target audience of tech-savvy professionals, resulting in high bounce rates on posts and mediocre social engagement. The AI tool did a decent job, but it couldn’t master the nuances that come from understanding the industry and the audience.

The Expert Marketer + AI: Now, let’s consider Jen, who has 10 years of experience in tech marketing. She uses the same AI tool for the campaign and receives similar output, but iterates with the tool to get more compelling content and recommendations.

Still, as Jen reviews the AI-generated content, she immediately spots areas for improvement. The blog posts lack common tech industry terminology and includes some unnecessary genderizations. She makes several critical edits and cross-checks everything to confirm accuracy. She adds links to helpful resources she’s relied on in her career.

Jen knows the best campaigns are driven by data. She notices the AI tool’s data-crunching feature and uses it to guide the campaign strategy. She also manually adds a webinar to the content calendar since she knows it’s an effective way to engage the audience in her industry.

Result? The campaign is a smash hit. Tech professionals share the blog posts widely, the social media posts generate meaningful conversations, and the fully-booked webinar pulls valuable leads into the funnel.

The Takeaway: In both scenarios, the AI tool was the same, but the outcomes were drastically different. Jen’s expertise allowed her to use the AI as a lever and she knew where the AI’s capabilities ended and where human expertise needed to take over.

The early data says…

Support for this view goes beyond the anecdotal. It’s in the results of early research on the effects of using generative AI tools–if you dive beneath the headlines.

You may have seen social media posts touting results of studies that indicate AI “levels the playing field” by boosting the capabilities of inexperienced professionals more than experienced ones in tasks like basic business writing and creative writing.

However, it’s important to understand what’s measured and how participants interact with the tools during these experiments.

• No context needed. The researchers in the business writing study, for example, admit that the writing tasks didn’t require special knowledge on the subject participants were writing about, so “the findings might make ChatGPT look more useful than it would be in a real-world situation.” Remember, Jen had knowledge about marketing in tech. James did not.

• Tied hands. Digging into the depths of the creative writing study reveals it also presents an oversimplified conclusion that AI is the great leveler. Not only do the more inherently creative participants still perform the writing exercise better than others–with or without AI assistance–but the researchers also note that participants weren’t allowed to customize prompts or interact with the tool multiple times. Such steps have been shown to significantly improve AI outputs. And, as in the case of Jen, the inherent knowledge helps someone know what to prompt for and how to do it effectively.

I’ve yet to track down a scientific study that gauges ChatGPT-assisted marketing performance specifically. But a McKinsey study on the ways generative AI coding tools aid software developers serves as an interesting corollary since the profession requires specialized knowledge. AI enabled coders to do simple tasks in half the time, but saved them only one minute out of every 10 for more complex tasks. And some tasks took less experienced developers as much as 10 percent LONGER to do WITH generative AI tools.

Learning loops favor experienced marketers

Of course, AI will get better. The underlying technology isn’t called “machine learning” for nothing. As we feed AI tools more data, refine their algorithms, and interact with them more, they’re bound to get smarter. But so will we.

Even if AI can one day do nearly everything the experienced marketer can do, this learning loop favors the advancement and participation of humans–especially those with more career time clocked.

Leveling up. Consider what will happen over time as Jen uses the AI tool. She can ask it to challenge her thinking and increase her knowledge. When she shares her qualitative experience with it, the AI will incorporate the information and provide more nuanced suggestions. These new suggestions will spark new ideas for Jen. This loop of mutual improvement keeps spinning.

Providing moral compass. Even if we program a machine to understand ethics to some extent, the ultimate moral responsibility lies with humans. Jen ensures that the machine’s actions align with our broader ethical and social values.

Eyeing for errors. We haven’t yanked pilots from planes just because autopilot exists. Similarly, no CEO who’s poured years and capital into a business is going to let a machine run the show without human oversight. The stakes might differ, but the principle remains the same.

And how will Jen stay ahead of James?

Using Spidey sense. Jen’s years in the game give her the ability to discern good data and recommendations from bad. She knows when to trust the AI and when to question it, a skill James hasn’t mastered yet.

Structuring questions. She knows what to ask the AI and how to phrase questions to get the best answers faster. James is still learning the ins and outs of marketing, which could slow down decision-making.

Thinking big picture. Jen can synthesize AI’s insights with a broader understanding of business goals, something that comes with experience. James might focus too narrowly, missing the bigger picture.

Evoking emotional intelligence. Finally, let’s not forget about emotional intelligence, which many experts believe could remain standing as the last frontier for AI to conquer for some time, if ever. Jen’s years in the field enable her to add a layer of human understanding to the AI’s outputs that James hasn’t developed yet.

The path forward is (still) continuous learning

At a fundamental level, does AI really present us with a novel career challenge that requires a radically new solution? We’ve faced numerous technology-led paradigm shifts, like marketing digitization and programmatic ad buying, to name a few. The successful response has always been learning and adapting.

So, use the AI tools. Understand their strengths and weaknesses. Learn from them.

But also keep reading books (especially Mark’s ), taking courses, learning from life experience, and collaborating with other humans like we’ve always done.

As long as we keep these practices up, AI won’t end our marketing careers; it will simply propel them to new heights of interest and success.

David DeLallo is a B2B content leader with over a decade of tech expertise earned at industry juggernauts like IBM and McKinsey. With technology now serving as the backbone of every modern business, he decided to open his own content shop, David Loren. The agency helps clients create relatable narratives and educational content about tech to build their credibility, win business, and sustain customer trust.

The post AI Won’t Kill the Experienced Marketer’s Career. It Will Propel It. appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Whatever happened to Web3?

Not long ago, every conference was stuffed with speakers pontificating about NFTs, tokenized economies, and digital wallets. We were promised that

• Web3 is ownership.
• Web3 is freedom.
• Decentralization is the future.

In 2022, Web3 was the dominant topic at the SXSW annual gathering of thought leaders. In 2023, there was barely a mention. When was the last time you used a Web3 function? That’s what I thought.

The rapid disinterest in Web3 is reflected in these Google Trend charts:

NFTs

Web3

Metaverse

We can’t overlook the fact that millions of dollars were invested in these ideas and those investments aren’t going to fade into the night. Will there be a time for Web3? Should marketers still pay attention?

I think so, and today I’ll tell you why.

First let’s look at the challenges facing Web3 development and adoption (at least from my point of view). The following points are GENERALIZATIONS. There are exceptions, of course, so don’t beat me up.

1. Disconnected from business value

Let’s start with the fact that too much focus has been on the sizzle without the steak.

An example. My biggest Web3 annoyance has been POAPs (Proof of Attendance Protocol). This is a simple NFT that is generally a memento from an event. A symbol that you attended something.

In my own community, every time we had an event, somebody was sure to suggest that I create a POAP. The conversation would go like this:

Web3 fan: “This event was great. You should create a POAP.”

Me: “Why?”

“Because we can.”

“But why?”

“Because we should.”

“But why?”

“It would be a nice memory.”

“But it takes work to mint this, and then it sits on a server somewhere burning energy forever. I don’t wanna.”

To me, a POAP is like the cheap pen or sticker you pick up at a trade show, and then you throw it out when you clean out your desk. Except you can’t throw out a POAP.

My point is, that many Web3 ideas are irrational products disconnected from real business cases. Too often, it is cool technology in search of a problem.

2. It’s not user-friendly

I was early to dabble in NFTs because I wanted to experiment and experience what it was all about. I set up a digital wallet, figured out what this eth “gas” was all about, and finally put it all together over two days to actually make a purchase. It was a pain in the ass. Still is.

It has been difficult to “on-board” to Web3, which has depressed consumer adoption.

3. Disconnected from the real world

The breakthrough for the success of the “Web2” internet was the user interface.

If you wanted to save a file, you dragged it to a “folder.”

If you wanted to get rid of a file, you put it in an icon of a trash can.

Every Web2 action was tethered to something you could understand from the real world.

Web3 introduced us to altcoins, defi, degens, hodlers, and other concepts that don’t intersect the real world. In a way, that’s what made it fun for the early adopters. Speaking this cryptographic language made you one of the cool kids and kept others out. But that’s also why Web3 has not been widely adopted.

4. Tarnished reputation

Let’s say I was selling a new sports car. We’ll call it the Mark500. It’s a visionary, futuristic vehicle with a retro vibe, so the most passionate automotive fans rushed to buy one. This created scarcity, and the value of my car soared as favorable press coverage documented that the Mark500 was a great investment! 

Oh happy day! Mark is getting rich. I can buy a Taylor Swift ticket!

But there’s one little problem. Everybody can copy my car. I have no meaningful intellectual property to protect my product. Thousands of low-quality Mark500 rip-offs enter the market. It’s confusing to know which car is real.

And then owners discover a big problem. The brakes on the Mark500 don’t work. Every day there seems to be another story of the Mark500 crashing into a tree or driving off a cliff. At first, the early Mark500 owners deny the problems. They are irrationally in love with the technology and want to protect their investments.

But soon, it’s undeniable. The press is reporting brake failures everywhere. Even after I repair my product, there is so much negative publicity that my brand will never fully recover.

The parable of the Mark500 is a story about NFTs. There was so much corruption, so many “rug pulls” and broken promises that most people could not trust the NFT “brand” any more. Sure, a few people held on to their Mark500, hoping for a turnaround. But the general public has moved on.

5. It’s not really decentralized

One of the things I could never understand about Web3 is why people were so in love with “decentralization.” Communities would become democratized and decisions would be made by shareholders, based on how many NFTs or tokens were held. That is almost always a lousy way to make decisions.

Decentralization meant a shift toward a more personalized internet, where data is controlled and owned by the individual. It also meant that owning the rights to your data and owning the rights to a community or product meant that everyone had a say, and everyone could be properly compensated for their time and data.

In a decentralized organization, the shareholders rule.

Occasionally, a democratic process is a good way to make decisions, like an election. But it is usually a terrible way to make most business decisions. That’s a story for another day, but suffice to say that touting “decentralization” as a goal is not really a business advantage in many cases when you need speed, expertise, and decisiveness to win the day.

We may not be happy that companies own our data, but most people are resigned to that reality in exchange for a personalized and free web experience. “Data ownership” is simply not a burning problem for the general population.

Further, as reality played out, it turns out that these Web3 platforms weren’t really decentralized at all. Jack Dorsey famously said:

You don’t own web3. The VCs and their LPs (limited partners) do. It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity with a different label.

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know that in 2021 I launched a creator cryptocurrency through a platform called Rally. It was a way for people to own a “share” of me. But in the end, Rally was just another VC investment that made stupid decisions and ignored its stakeholders. You can read the story of the rise and fall of my crypto token here.

And yet …

There are aspects of Web3 that I loved. My crypto token helped me build a wonderful, caring RISE  community. I could use the token to thank people and reward loyalty. It opened up new business models for monetization. Looking past the silliness of POAPs, NFTs represent a proof of ownership and authenticity, an elegant new way to create contracts, enable new business models, and reward loyalty.

There is SO MUCH POTENTIAL.

But clearly, problems have to be solved.

Web3 must be focused on true business value and grounded best practices tethered to reality. Obstacles to mass adoption like digital wallets and ridiculous “gas fees” have to go away or at least become invisible in the consumer journey.

And, we’ll probably have to stop using tarnished words like NFT or Web3, just like the doomed Mark500 would have to be reimagined and re-branded to be trusted again.

Now, here is the good news.

It’s happening. These problems are being solved. There is an undercurrent of Web3 successes bubbling up in mainstream businesses.

One example of this is an idea called “Open Loyalty” being pioneered by brainiacs like Mathew Sweezey. Mathew was a co-founder of the Salesforce Web3 Studio and is now on his own, helping brands apply Web3 in a rational way. Web3 is being reimagined!

To learn what Open Loyalty is all about and glimpse how Web3 is evolving into a truly customer-friendly experience, please listen to what Mathew has to say in the latest episode of The Marketing Companion podcast. I predict you’ll agree with me — Web3 is not over yet. It may be just beginning.

All you have to do is click here to hear the show:

Click here to listen to episode 274

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

The post Whatever happened to Web3? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I founded a community of marketing geeks called RISE and we just unleashed something wild and wonderful. In fact, it is astonishing, unique, surprising, and, well … amazing! It is The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever.

Before I PROVE to you that this is the most amazing marketing book, let me tell you how we got here. It’s an amazing story in itself!

The seed of amazing

The RISE community is dedicated to learning about the future of marketing and it’s populated by many global subject matter experts.  Anything you want to know, there is probably somebody in the community who has an answer — podcasting, advertising, strategy, video, social media … we have it covered by people out there in the world doing the work.

Within the community, an idea was floated to co-create a book together. This was intriguing, but it was also pretty scary, to be honest. Could I rely on dozens of busy people from 15 different time zones to come together and create a book that will be part of my brand? This could be great, or it could become a disaster.

But ultimately, I loved the idea of helping people in my community realize a dream of becoming the co-author of a book. I’m a teacher, and it energized me to think of all these friends coming along on a journey to be an author. Seemed like a worthy legacy, so I sponsored the project. And I was right. It was a bit scary, but it was also one of the most inspiring projects I’ve ever participated in.

We created something extraordinary. We created something brave. And maybe it’s even a little crazy!

Yes, it is amazing

Amazing is something that makes you go WOW. This is why I think this book is a wow:

As far as I know, this is the first book created entirely by a Web3 community. The RISE community was brought together by a tokenized cryptocurrency, held together with NFTs, coordinated over Discord, and created by a decentralized global team that is benefiting equally from the success of their work. Even the book cover was created, in part, with generative artificial intelligence. So you’re witnessing a new era in book writing!

Second, the people who contributed to this book have more than 750 years of accumulated marketing experience. That’s a wow, right?

Third, this book breaks content barriers. Unfortunately, most business books these days are nothing more than a blog post with 240 pages of fluff. Not this one!

Every page is filled with original and helpful ideas from passionate professionals. I challenged my community friends to create insights, not just rehashed information you can find in a blog post somewhere. They delivered.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a small business owner trying to establish your first marketing strategy, get out your highlight marker. You’ll find some new ideas here! And it’s 100% human content. No ChatGPT or other AI was used to create the content of this book.

Finally, this is a book made with heart. There are many reasons to write a book. An author might want to make money, seek fame, or achieve a personal dream. This book is a celebration of the spirit of our community.

A fun book for every marketer …

There is so much knowledge jammed into this little book, you’re sure to find great ideas no matter where you are in your career. Here are a few of the nuggets you can discover in the Amazing book:

• Why you need to focus on the first hour after posting content on LinkedIn
• The importance of trigger-based lead nurturing
• Why the highest customer lifetime value might be associated with direct to consumer marketing
• The reason using words like “check out our deal” repels consumers.
• How obsession with metrics can actually undermine your business
• Why Google loves 2,000-word blog posts.
• How “purpose” can make or break a podcast
• The ideal length of videos for every social media channel
• The best formula for copywriting
• How to build a future-proof social media strategy
• TikTok’s most common recording errors
• The unexpected power of Twitter threads
• The traditional marketing channel that consistently delivers an ROI of 112%
• How word of mouth marketing is driven by 10% of the population
• How brands are already integrating into metaverse games and experiences
• Basic steps to integrate AI into your everyday marketing tasks.

That’s just a taste of the interesting morsels in the book. You’ll want to read it cover to cover!

But there’s more …

Not only did the community write and edit the book, they recorded a narrated chapter for an audiobook. My audio editor proclaimed that this was the most ambitious project she had ever tackled. 36 narrators? Insane.

But it worked! The result is singularly unique. Be prepared for a chapter from Ireland, Italy, Australia, and more. Each chapter is like the proverbial box of chocolates — you never know what you’re going to get!

This is not another book created by one voice, one mind. This is 36 people giving you their best effort and most unique ideas. Here are the authors and subjects covered:

• Marion Abrams (Podcasting)
• Lisa Apolinski (Customer experience)
• Larry Aronson (SEO)
• Victoria Bennion (Blogging)
• Joeri Billast (Web3 and NFTs)
• David Bisek (Branding)
• Richard Bliss (LinkedIn)
• Al Boyle (Copywriting)
• Julia Bramble (Twitter)
• Anna Bravington (Experiential Marketing)
• PepperBrooks (Inclusive Marketing)
• Marci Cornett (Marketing Research)
• Mandy Edwards (Facebook Strategy)
• Laura Vendeland Doman (YouTube and video)
• Robbie Fitzwater (eMail Marketing)
• Giuseppe Fratoni (Copywriting)
• M Valentina Escobar-Gonzalez, MBA (Instagram)
• Ian Anderson Gray (Livestreaming)
• Kami Huyse (Social Media Strategy)
• Mary Kathryn Johnson (Artificial Intelligence)
• Rob LeLacheur (Traditional advertising)
• Fiona Lucas (Community Building)
• Jules Morris (Digital Advertising)
• Scott Murray (Consumer Behavior)
• Daniel Nestle (Strategic Communications)
• Chad Parizman (Podcasting)
• Brian Piper (Metaverse)
• Frank Prendergast (Marketing Research)
• Sandee Rodriguez (Promotional Products)
• Mark Schaefer (Personal Branding)
• Bruce Scheer (Marketing Measurement)
• Zack Seipert (Influencer Marketing)
• Samantha Stone, (Marketing Strategy)
• Jeff Tarran (Direct Mail)
• Joanne Taylor (TikTok)

… like I said, something for everyone!

But it gets better

I guarantee this is one of the most useful and unusual books you will ever own!

I am extraordinarily proud of this book. I think it represents a breakthrough in community productivity and publishing. And please check out the RISE community. We have many other exciting projects and activities going on. Maybe you’ll be the star of our next event or project!

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

The post This is the Most Amazing Marketing Book. And I can prove it. appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I’ve been accused of being obsessed with Gen Z! And why not? This is a demographic that is punching above its weight when it comes to culture, lifestyle, and fashion. As marketers, we better pay attention.

Gen Z is beginning to flex its muscle. They’re not kids any longer — here in America, we just had our first member of Gen Z elected to Congress! They are ready to make an impact on the world.

This is by far the most-studied generation in history, and with good reason. They are about to become a massive group of consumers.

On the latest episode of The Marketing Companion podcast, I had help de-coding the brands that are best interacting with Gen Z. Sara Wilson has been studying how the best brands are engaging with this generation and if there could be a common formula for success.

Meeting Gen Z on their terms

In the latest podcast episode, we cover a LOT of ground, including these 12 ways brands are flexing to meet Gen Z on their terms:

1. Media-first brands. Not just content for marketing, content becomes the brand.
2. True community serves as the “crux of commerce”
3. Relevance to cultural moments created in niche online communities
4. An “unhinged” or “un-finished” aesthetic. Undone is the new authentic
5. Consumer products are the new “fashion flex”
6. Tight integration with influencer culture
7. Nostalgia marketing, even beyond their life experiences. Faux-stalgia!
8. Small and intimate is the new defining feature of the GenZ internet
9. Entertainment and education are the primary ways to connect to GenZ in their closed-off spaces
10. The influencer/creator is driving the marketing ROI, including creator-led brands
11. The product is the content, designed to be shared.
12. Reactive social listening. Jumping on memes quickly, as they are happening

Sarah is the co-author of a research report that dissects specific Gen Z brand strategies. You can find The Brand Yearbook here.

This is a big, big show bursting with new ideas. Ready? All you have to do is click here:

Listen to AMAZING episode 268

Other ways to enjoy our podcast

• Try this! “Alexa, play the latest episode of The Marketing Companion.”
• Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe on iTunes
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• Find the podcast on Stitcher
• Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide

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The post 12 Ways Brands are Flexing to Meet Gen Z on Their Terms appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

The other day a friend told me how she was planning to fight the encroachment of artificial intelligence tools replacing writing, graphic design, and other human creator skills. “It’s taking the heart and soul out of our work,” she proclaimed. “This is nothing less than an existential crisis presented by AI.”

It took me an hour to talk her off her cliff.

But perhaps you’re feeling some of this anxiety and sadness, too. I’ve thought about this a lot. HUMAN skills are being effortlessly replaced by AI. If you’re a creator, you’d have to be a sponge-like creature at the bottom of the Mariana Trench NOT to have an emotional reaction to what’s going in.

So let me share some calming thoughts with you today. Yes, there is an existential crisis presented by AI. Let’s deal with it in a rational and productive way and come out stronger on the other side. Today I will put our challenge in the context of three lessons … and provide a solution at the end.

Lesson one: The story of the calculator.

I’m old enough to remember the profound controversy that erupted when low-cost personal calculators became adopted in the 1980s. Suddenly, any person could solve complex math problems, even if they were terrible at math.

The educational system was the first battleground for this new threat. Teachers asked questions like:

• Is it fair to let students use this technology on homework? In the classroom? On tests?
• If we assign a project, how will we know if students are “cheating” by using the calculator?
• Do students still need to learn math?

Those questions probably sound familiar because they are the same questions posed about technologies like ChatGPT and DALL-E today.

So what happened with the calculators? They took over the math scene.

1. Everyone became a competent mathematician.
2. Calculating technology has become integrated into our daily lives. We don’t even need calculators. The math is done for us on websites and spreadsheets.
3. In a way, calculators became a second brain for us. Instead of math, we could spend that time doing something more productive. I haven’t done long-form math to solve a problem in more than 20 years. I am perfectly happy with that.

Lesson one: Content-generating AI is here to stay … and it’s going to become exponentially better. It’s incredibly useful. It’s already being integrated into everything. You have no choice but to embrace it and use it to your advantage.

Lesson two: An industry disrupted.

When ChatGPT was released, I immediately called my friend Shelly Palmer, an acclaimed tech analyst.

I published our discussion as a podcast episode and blog post, and he explained how this development paralleled disruption in the music industry. Before 1986, recording music required a band, singers, and perhaps an orchestra. Within a year of the advent of digital music production, half of all professional musicians lost their jobs.

“People claim this AI development isn’t like that,” he said. “No, it’s EXACTLY like that. This will replace a lot of content creator jobs.”

But there’s also a lesson about personal survival here.

In Shelly’s example, the “commodity” studio musicians lost their jobs. But the most-respected songwriters, producers, and technicians thrived. So did the elite musicians whose improvisational talent and technical acuity were always in demand.

If you’re providing “information” in your job, you will probably be replaced. If you’re providing valuable “insight” and improvisation like those star musicians, you’ll still have a bright future.

Information loses. Insights win.

Lesson three: Everybody writes. Literally.

I recently reviewed Ann Handley’s wonderful new edition of her book “Everybody Writes.” Ann launched this just days before ChatGPT took over the world (two million subscribers in 10 days!). She probably had no idea that with AI, literally everybody writes!

Just as the calculator made everybody competent at math, artificial intelligence makes everybody competent — perhaps even excellent — at writing, art, and video production. One friend posted online: “I don’t have a creative bone in my body. Now I’m creating fantastic art.” He is selling his art as an NFT collection.

Similarly, a busy friend who never had time to write now finds her thoughts are being expressed beautifully through ChatGPT in mere seconds. “I am going to write a blog post every day!” she said. “I’m going to write a book!”

Creativity has been unleashed everywhere. This is life-changing stuff.

And then … there is me. I worked for decades to become an excellent writer. I was a journalism major, a communications professional, a blogger since 2009, an author of 10 books. I put in the work to be an effective and respected writer.

Then came the shock of my career: I asked ChatGPT to write a specific essay that would have been appropriate for my new book Belonging to the Brand, complete with academic references. And, oh yeah, write it in the voice of Mark Schaefer.

The darn thing did it. It did it very well. In five seconds.

I felt depressed thinking about the months I spent writing that new book. While the bot could not have come up with the vision and insights that form the book’s thesis, and it can’t pepper the narrative with meaningful childhood stories, ChatGPT could have done much of the heavy lifting and saved me weeks of time — weeks of my life!

Sure, people will find dumb AI mistakes, create funny posts about it, and we’ll all have a laugh. They probably laughed about the first cars and telephones, too. But let’s not lose sight that ChatGPT is damn near miraculous in its ability to create effective content (and so much more!)

We need to be intellectually honest, swallow our pride, use this tool boldly, and then leverage the new time savings to build new greatness for our businesses.

While there is an existential crisis presented by AI to professional writers like me, I’m not too worried. There is hope for you and me …

This is what saves us.

As far as I can tell, there are three strategies to help us survive the existential crisis presented by AI.

1. The personal brand is everything.

For nearly a decade, I’ve been screaming from the rooftops that you need to be working on your personal brand.

I’m not worried about my place in the changing world because I have an emotional connection with you. You read this blog because you presumably know me, trust me, and like my ideas. Some of you have been reading this blog for more than a decade and will continue to do so no matter what happens with our robotic overlords.

My personal brand will save me. It will save you too. In fact, I think it is the ONLY thing that can protect you in an environment where important life skills are commoditized.

If you have not taken your personal brand seriously, you must. As you may know, I have a popular course that can get you started in the right direction. It’s the best course of its kind anywhere:

2. Pivot now.

I talked to a guy the other day trying to start a new career as a corporate blogger. In fact, he spent quite a bit of time and $10,000 on some course promising to teach him how to become a professional blogger (whatever that is). He is unknown in his profession and has no special expertise.

I gave him a demonstration of ChatGPT by creating a post on a topic of his choice — in five seconds. Of course he was amazed. I then had to explain to him that he was probably unemployable. That was really, really hard to do. I’ve never said those words to anybody before in my life.

His next question was, “but where can I get a job?”

He’s not accepting reality. He needs to pivot into something else. Maybe you do, too.

Even if this fellow is an excellent writer, most companies don’t need excellent writers. They need Google-sufficient writers. ChatGPT is Google-sufficient.

I know, I know. Corporate storytelling, epic content, and blah blah blah. Sure, we need some of that. But 95 percent of corporate content is simply Google-sufficient.

I urge you to have a clear-eyed view of what is happening. If you think the emerging AI tools will not impact your career (for better or worse), you’re wrong. Learn enough to know what you need to do next.

A resource to help you would be the book Cumulative Advantage, which discusses strategies to become newly relevant against all odds.

3. Own it.

I’m guessing there were thousands of people in calculator denial in the 1980s. They embarked on a Sisyphean struggle to hold the line on long-form math. Resistance was futile. Or, maybe it’s still happening on a Reddit thread somewhere!

The point is, the people and institutions that integrated mathematical automation into their business were so far ahead of the resisters.

For the first time, AI has poked its head out of secretive laboratories and made a home in our lives. It’s fun and easy. With a little practice and creativity, you can develop exciting new ideas. I talked a lot about writing in this post, but ChatGPT can help unclog marketing bottlenecks in customer service, research, data analysis, engagement, and planning, to name a few areas.

Resource that can help — This site catalogs unexpected and amazing uses of ChatGPT. You’ll learn something new here and maybe reimagine how you create content and tackle everyday marketing tasks!

And here is a very short and basic tutorial on Dall-E image generation.

BTW, the image at the top of the post today was created using the prompt: “friendly robot helping a smiling black woman who is working on a laptop computer, style of disney.”

I really like the image on this post and AI has helped me make this content more fun and interesting for you. In 10 seconds!

Final thoughts: The existential crisis presented by AI

I do not have all the answers to the existential crisis presented by AI. I have a feeling this is going to be a topic on this blog for a long time. As always, I may not be an expert, but I will take you along on my learning journey.

You might have noticed a new tag I used on the blog today that says “100% Human Content.” I’m trying it out as an assurance that everything on this blog was written by me. If I use AI, I will be transparent about it. I’ll eventually integrate AI content into my work (taking my own medicine!) once I get over the guilt of employing a machine to do my work.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration generated by MidJourney

The post How to deal with the existential crisis presented by AI appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

In the latest episode of The Marketing Companion, Mark Schaefer and Mathew Sweezey of Salesforce select the most impactful marketing moments of 2022 and peer into what’s ahead for 2023.

Highlights include:

• The best commercial of the year
• What the crypto collapse means to marketing
• Will AR overwhelm VR as the metaverse champion?
• The phenomenal impact of having 2 million people on ChatGPT
• The best interactive experiences of the year
• Why social media will be reimagined in 2023

Join the fun!

Click on this link to listen to hear Episode 262

Other ways to enjoy our podcast

• Try this! “Alexa, play the latest episode of The Marketing Companion.”
• Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe on iTunes
• Listen to us on iHeart Radio
• Find us on Google Play
• Find the podcast on Stitcher
• Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide

Illustration generated by AI through MidJourney

The post Big Marketing Ideas for 2023 and Beyond appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

About a year ago (or was it ten?), I launched a crypto-backed creator token called $RISE, an exciting foray into the new world of Web3. A few months after launch, my creator community was one of the most valuable in the world, with a valuation over $1 million. Today the project has been abandoned, people lost a bunch of money, and the coin is gone.

I learned that Web3 still has a long way to go. This is my story.

Act 1: The rise of $RISE

In the summer of 2021, I was invited to launch a creator token through a start-up platform called Rally. I hired a crypto analyst to vet the company and help me discern if this was a good bet. Rally was founded by a Silicon Valley star, had $100 million in backing from Andreeson Horowitz, and had an impressive management team. I was aware of the risks, but I decided to give it a try. I saw these benefits:

• As a teacher and consultant, I must remain relevant, and this was a way for me to get first-hand experience in this emerging web culture.
• I saw this as a way to build a community, something I had not been successful with in the past. And, I was writing a book about community, so this fit well.
• Industry peers I admired like Jay Baer, Joe Pulizzi, Ann Handley, Joseph Jaffe, and Scott Monty had already taken the leap and launched coins. I wanted to be in the “club.”
• Early creators were making money on the platform. I did not count on this, but it was a possibility.

I called my coin $RISE, as in RISE above the noise.

How a creator token works

When the coin launched, I honestly had no idea what I was doing. But this didn’t bother me. My career has been a continuous set of experiments. I didn’t know what I was doing when I wrote my first book, hosted my first conference, or taught my first college class, so this was no different.

My coin was backed by a publicly-traded cryptocurrency called Rally ($RLY). Each of my coins was paired with a $RLY coin, which was traded on the crypto exchanges. My coin was only traded inside of Rally, but it could be exchanged for $RLY and cashed-ou at any time, so $RISE was worth real money.

Theoretically, I could increase the value of my coin by using it to grow my community, allowing fans to trade it for my goods and services, and using it as a “currency” to reward people in my community. In reality, that did not work. My token price was almost completely determined by the rise and fall of the crypto market. You probably see where this is heading.

I was given an initial cache of tokens (worth about $20,000) that I could use to start my community. My community could benefit from creator tokens in three ways:

• Exclusive commerce – Many creators offer art, music, crafts, and services that can only be acquired with tokens. My site offered training, consulting, and special events that could be acquired through an exchange of $RISE tokens.
• Emotional reward – Fans may buy tokens simply to support a creator because they love them or believe in their work. When I surveyed my community, 98 percent said they held the coin to support me and learn about Web3.
• Financial gain – Tokens in high demand could possibly increase in value.

This last part caused me the most stress. Rally had a frictionless exchange system. There was essentially no tax or penalty for buying or selling coins. So speculators could buy tens of thousands of dollars in coins and sell them a day later if the coin value went up in value, even by a penny.

And, they did.

For months I struggled to keep my community progressing as it was being jerked around by speculators. On two occasions, I invested my own money to make up for dramatic declines caused by these people we called “whales.”

I was determined to lead my coin community in an ethical and business-like manner, but the whales were a source of constant stress — and even one anxiety attack — as my community was jeopardized by strangers looking to make a quick buck.

The early days were very, very difficult and took a lot of my time.

Act 2: Success and momentum

Within a few months, I was figuring things out, and my creator token rapidly rose in value. $RISE eclipsed nearly every other community in terms of size and value. For example, at its peak, I had a mind-blowing 1.7 million $RISE coins in circulation, more than ten times more than most other creators. I attribute this success to:

1. Complete focus on community. The purpose of $RISE was to build a learning community, not for my personal gain. Everything I did was to create new value and learning opportunities for others. I gave away more than $50,000 in coins to let anybody access the community if they wanted to join and learn.
2. A rational business approach. I had more business experience than most other creators on the platform. For example. many musicians and artists on Rally struggled to understand the token economics, which was insanely complex. I was not swayed by hype or emotion. I just stuck to the business plan and communicated about it transparently.

Eventually, nearly 2,000 people owned my coin. Although I never ran promotions or asked people to invest their money, many did because they believed in our mission. The impressive community success was proof that we were headed in the right direction.

Six months after launching the coin, the value of my own personal holdings was about $250,000.

Act 3: Exposing the creator token flaws

In any start-up environment, you’ll face unexpected problems. I knew Rally was an experiment, so I was patient with the company’s frequent missteps and technical glitches. However, there were some fatal flaws embedded in the creator token system:

1. It was difficult for creators like me to take money out of Rally. Even though the project was taking a lot of time, I wasn’t being compensated for it. Long story short, the algorithm penalized the whole community if a creator took money out. Perhaps Rally designed it that way — they wanted to keep the money in the system, after all. Many creators bailed for this reason, and a few ruined their reputations by putting themselves ahead of their communities and cashing out everything in the middle of the night.
2. Too much of the community value was impacted by the crypto market. My hard work seemed fruitless when the token value was largely determined by outside forces.
3. In the “real world,” I charge for my time. That’s how I feed my family. The key to creator token economics is that a coin holder receives some valuable new access to me or my work. But why would I do that? I can charge real money for my time. Why would I give away valuable bonuses in exchange for tokens when I can’t easily take money out of the Rally system? In an effort to play the game, many creators made terrible decisions selling services for tokens they could not easily redeem for money. I did not do that.
4. Rally was mis-managed. By the spring of 2022 it was apparent that Rally was in trouble. It had just announced its third CEO in nine months. I won’t get into the ugly details, but this was one of the worst-managed enterprises I have ever witnessed. And I’ve been around awhile. At least in part, poor leaders fumbled away the opportunity.

The Meltdown

Just as another new management team was coming on board, crypto winter set in. All the cryptocurrencies melted in a matter of days, and this of course hastened Rally’s decline. The company dramatically cut staff, stopped launching new creator tokens, curtailed development, and — unbelievably — suspended all communications with their 350 creators.

Rally had been in business for a year and a half. In that time, the value of its $RLY cryptocurrency plummeted from $1.45 to $0.01.

A series of mysterious “technical problems” kept creators and our community members from exchanging tokens or cashing out during the meltdown. Finally, Rally sent us a notice giving us a one-time 10-day window to cash out whatever we had left. We had to sign a document agreeing not to sue them.

For my year of effort, I realized a net profit of about $5,000.

And yet, I am happy …

Act 4: RISERS RISE

Perhaps this seems strange, but the whole Rally mess was an awesome experience.

I learned so much. Being on the cutting edge of Web3 was an incredible opportunity. Many of my fellow creators became close friends through this trial by fire.

I often feel alone in my career. I spend most of my time in my office in the woods — writing, thinking, and helping customers. A self-imposed solitary life. But my world is different now. The end result of the Rally rollercoaster is a supremely cool RISE community.

The coin is gone, but RISE remains — a friend-driven machine moving toward bigger opportunities and collaborations. It has grown far beyond the creator coin idea that first brought us together.

In fact, we don’t need the coin at all.

Every day, we gather on Discord to teach each other and debate the future of marketing. It is my most valuable network of friends. It has become my university.

We’re doing experiments in the metaverse together. We’re solving problems. We’re attending free webinars with global thought leaders. We’re writing a book together (look for The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever next summer!). We’ve been gathering for live events. I’ve made more new close friends in six months than in the last six years.

On most days, I check in every few hours to see what juicy new ideas are circulating in the RISE community. These are my friends. They are challenging me, teaching me, and pulling me in new directions. As a curious person, I can’t think of anything more fun or energizing.

I still spend most of my time in my office on the hill, but I’m no longer alone. I belong to a community.

Mission accomplished.

Onward

What’s next?

Some of my fellow creators are moving from Rally on to other platforms or creating their own solo coin efforts on a blockchain. I am not doing that for now, primarily because I’m concerned about how these coins might be impacted by upcoming SEC regulations. I might change my mind, but let’s see how things play out.

Despite the painful experience, I think tokenized economies will work, especially for creators who are artists and musicians. “Selling stock” in themselves can fund new creative efforts and launch a virtuous cycle of promotion from people who want them to succeed. Tokens will also find a place in corporate loyalty programs.

The dust is still settling from the Rally creator token demise, but my community is growing in exciting new ways. If you would like to be part of RISE, you can learn more here. It’s free to join, and all are welcome.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Image generated by AI through MidJourney.

The post The rise and fall of my Web3 creator token. A drama in four acts appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.