A year ago, opening your inbox and finding a couple of spam emails was just another day. Some might catch your eye, but for the most part, they would end up in the trash.

But with AI email automation, the amount of spam I receive is relentless. And it’s only getting worse.

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Automating email outreach with AI is so easy, and it was inevitable that everyone would do it. You can integrate an AI program with your CRM, schedule an email cadence, and it will do all of the work from there. It will write a “personalized” email and send it over and over again while you sleep.

It’s a no-brainer use-case.

Let me rephrase. It was a no-brainer use-case. Now it’s got to stop.

I once had a tolerance and sometimes curiosity for spam, but now, when I open my inbox and I see an email from a name I don’t recognize and a company that I don’t work with, I delete it. I don’t even open it.

I am also aware that if I do open an email, the automation platform might mark the email it just sent me as ‘opened.’ That will signal me as someone with interest, which leads to more emails. And so I delete, delete, delete (x100).

This might sound funny coming from me, since I run a marketing agency and email outreach is a request we get from our clients. And honestly, I try to dissuade people from doing it as a top-of-funnel (TOF) activation. It really should only be used for nurture, specifically someone who:

1. Knows who you are and has engaged with you in the past

2. Is actively looking for what you’re selling

3. Will actually get something out of hearing from you. The email is useful to them, not just to you

Instead of being focused and strategic, it seems that companies are letting their AI email automation loose. Rather than being nurtured, we’re being bombarded.

I do want to caveat by saying two things:

1. I mentioned this, but to make it clear, email outreach can be impactful. It’s great for bottom of funnel (BOF) when a connection has been established, but not for TOF initial engagement.

2. I am speaking about this from a B2B perspective. Not B2C. While many of my opinions remain the same for B2C, there are more nuances here.

But B2B is relationship-based. It runs on trust, referrals, and being useful over time.

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Perhaps at one time email outreach did feel personal, but with AI in the front seat and with hundreds of emails being sent to me from different people and different companies, it’s anything but. And most of these emails I get sound exactly the same despite being sent from different people at different companies.

Here’s my B2B bet: when AI makes something effortless to produce, the value doesn’t go to whoever produces the most of it. It goes to whoever the recipient actually trusts. Volume will become noise and filtered (let’s get on this Outlook).

So this is a marketer, publicly, asking other marketers to cool it down. It’s great you’re using AI to automate a part of your strategy, but now everyone is, and our Inboxes are bursting at the seams.

So please, take a breath, tell your agent to cool down, and please, for the love of God, take me off your email list.

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In college, I used to have a joke ready whenever someone asked, “What is your major?”

“English,” I’d say. “AKA, I’m preparing to live in a box on the streets.”

It always got a laugh. Mostly because everyone was already thinking it. Approximately half of the people I said this to would comment that it was a “risky major to have.”

My parents were more direct: “Are you sure? There aren’t many jobs for that.”

I was sure. I tried classes in other departments and found them incredibly boring. I loved writing. I always have.

But I understood the concern. This was the era when software engineering was the subject to study. The jobs, the salaries, the future, it was all theirs. “Learn to code” was the universal prescription for career security. Coding bootcamps were booming. The future of work was clear.

And English majors? We were preparing our cardboard boxes.

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This morning, per my routine, I listened to The Daily.

The episode was about how AI is changing what software engineers actually do, specifically at startups. The finding was simple:

Engineers aren’t really coding anymore.

They’re prompting.

Plain language. Describing what they want. Reviewing AI output, iterating, refining. Even more interesting, engineers who are using AI are saying that it’s making them better communicators IRL. The engineers pulling ahead are the ones who can think through a problem out loud and describe it precisely.

The skill that’s winning right now isn’t syntax. It’s clarity.

AKA, it’s what you learn when earning an English degree.

Are writing skills commanding a premium in this new world?

• Communicating ideas clearly

• Knowing what you actually want and being able to articulate it

• Understanding context, nuance, and narrative

• Asking the right questions

Those are writing skills. English major skills. The degree I was told had little to no future.

Here’s what I think:

You cannot predict what technology will make valuable. Not in five years. Not in two. Nobody predicted that “describe what you want in plain English” would become a competitive advantage. Nobody predicted that the people who paid attention in writing class would have a leg up in a world run by AI.

But I think there’s something you can control:

Do what you love.

If you love it, you’ll stay curious about it. You’ll keep getting better at it even as the tools around it change completely. You’ll adapt, not because you have to grind through it, but because you want to.

I became a marketer. I did it because I wanted to be able to write and be creative, while also catering to my very logical brain.

I figured out how to make a humanities mindset useful in a business world. And now, in an AI-first world, the things I’ve always been good at, communicating, storytelling, understanding what people actually mean, are somehow more relevant than they’ve ever been.

“Are English Majors the Next Software Engineers?” is a fun question to ask. And personally, I think the answer to this is no. Having a fundamental understanding of coding and how systems work is definitely a competitive edge. When I tried to dive into it, it took me days to do what a software engineer could have done in hours. You can read about it here.

Yes, it’s getting increasingly hard to get jobs (specifically entry-level) in software engineering, but as long as you're curious and learning, you’re constantly opening new opportunities for yourself.

The better question (but less catchy title) is: what do you love enough to keep getting good at?

Whatever it is, that’s your competitive edge.

Last week, I wrote about building my own AI agent, Saige, and immediately breaking it (and it breaking me). Here’s the update:

Saige has been promoted! 🎉 She is now our household assistant! An impressive promotion and yet perhaps not well deserved.

Originally, her role was to monitor X and the news for relevant updates for one of my clients. It was low stakes, contained, and honestly hard to mess up, or so I thought.

It took me a full day just to get her to reliably send scheduled updates. And another day to realize I had massively over-scoped her research. She was doing way too much and costing me about ~$30/day in the process.

So I pulled things back and simplified her tasks significantly:

• Instead of checking the news 3 times a day → once a day

• Instead of scanning all of X → tracking a specific set of accounts

• Instead of constant updates → one digest I could actually review and forward

• I moved her from Anthropic’s LLM to OpenAI (Codex via OAuth) (thank you, Killian, for that idea!) to bring costs down even more

Once I tightened the scope and switched LLMs, she worked. Not perfectly, but well enough to prove that she could execute.

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And that’s when I made the slightly unhinged decision to promote her.

This is how I promoted Saige to household assistant:

• Gave her access to my calendar and my husband’s calendar

• Created a dedicated household email (moving her over took forever)

• Gave her a contact list with people we communicate with frequently

• Gave her control to edit and add to that contact list when we forward her emails

• Enabled her to check our availability, send invites, and email people on our behalf

This past week she has:

• Coordinated a dinner with a friend and sent a calendar invite once logistics were confirmed (thanks for being our test dummy, Richard!)

• Confirmed plans with family staying with us in a couple of weeks, and sent out an invite

• Emailed friends we haven’t seen in a while to see if they wanted to meet up over the next few months

• Read my emails and surfaced anything that required a response

In theory, this is awesome.

In practice… she tries.

The Saige Learning Curve #1: She Has No Instincts

This one seems obvious, but once you get your AI agent up and running, it’s not.

I have to treat her like she has zero instincts. None. Not even a little.

For example: I had a Ladies’ Happy Hour blocked for 1 hour on my calendar (anyone who uses Resy will know that they send out an hour invite block).

Saige scheduled something immediately after

Now, any human would know that Ladies’ Happy Hour does not take one hour. Not only that, but I cannot simply leave Ladies’ Happy Hour and be at a new location in a minute.

Saige is operationally competent and socially clueless. I need to explicitly tell her, if there is an event scheduled in the evening that does not have a Zoom/Webex/Teams/Google link (the agency life means many platforms), than you cannot schedule another event for that evening.

The Saige Learning Curve #2: She Loves To Spam

She loves sending emails I do not need.

Updates. Status checks. Confirmations of confirmations.

99% of these add zero value, burn more credits, and make me want to fire her. And what’s even more annoying is that I’ve told her when I want her to send emails and how often.

What I need to say was something definitive, such as: Permanent change - only send me one email a day, the daily recap email, unless I explicitly ask you to do otherwise.

You need to make sure that the lasting changes you want to see are clearly understood by your agent and added into their backend; otherwise, they go rogue.

The Saige Learning Curve #3: She Dumb, And Kinda Lazy?

The header says it all. She’s a little dumb… for now, I hope

Sometimes she just breaks, and I don’t know why. For example, she once sent me my Daily Briefing with no tweets.

I’m not going to lie, I am hoping this will just go away since I’ve reminded her several times now that she is connected to X (and Gmail, she asked about that one too). It seems to have worked because she brought this up recently.

What’s Next For Saige:

She still needs work. I forwarded her an email thread and asked her to read it and send out a calendar invite for the times/dates mentioned in the email and she couldn’t. She couldn’t even read the email.

I don’t know why, but I need to look into it.

As of now, she is not reliable enough to warrant the title of Household Assistant.

One day she will be. I need to dive in and refine her logic, guardrails, or workflows., but I haven’t, because I’ve been busy, because…

I’m Building Something Else (Send Help!)

I’m now working on a new product using Zapier.

It has taken over my life and opened a whole new set of challenges.

It made Saige feel like the easy project (which is saying something).

More on that soon.

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Final Thoughts

Saige is:

• Helpful

• Chaotic

• Occasionally impressive

• Frequently confusing

• She is not replacing me.

But she is definitely doing things on my behalf. And I do keep adding tasks to her list, which she seems to do quite well.

And all of this feels like the beginning of something big.

Or the beginning of a lot of very weird calendar invites.

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Everyone keeps talking about building their own AI agents.

OpenClaw. Sandbox setups. Agents that can read your email, coordinate your calendar, monitor Twitter, scrape the internet, and basically run parts of your life or business.

And the way people talk about it? It sounds life-changing.

So I figured I need to get ahead of this. I had two things driving me:

1. I run a marketing agency, and I love it. I want to keep doing it 10+ years from now. I can’t let AI leave me behind.

2. How cute would it be to have an agent who could help simplify my life?

I pulled out an old computer, wiped it clean, and opened Terminal (in hindsight, this was the first red flag 🚩).

Then it was me, OpenClaw docs, a YouTube video, Gemini, and ChatGPT trying to build my own agent. I named her Saige.

The goal was simple. I have a client who wanted to boost their Twitter presence. So I was going to make an agent that would do the following:

Every morning, the agent would:

• Report on current events that happened in the last 24 hours that were relevant to my client

• Monitor relevant Twitter accounts for new tweets and high engagement

• For each of the above, come up with interesting takes that my client could use to post/repost

• All of this would be sent to my client via email twice a day

But before I could ever send this to a client, I needed to make sure it actually worked, so I used myself as the test client.

And guess what? It did.

I created Saige. I told her (yes, her) what she needed to do every day.

I connected her to Anthropic, Twitter, the internet, Gmail, and Telegram via API.

I could chat with her on Telegram, she could browse the internet, she could write unique points of view on news articles, she could send emails, and she could read tweets.

It worked. Saige was alive!

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But in reality?

It was the most janky, painful process ever.

It took HOURS.

Things broke constantly, and half the time, I didn’t know why.

I was debugging with AI, plugging code I barely understood, and hoping it would hold together.

It felt like I was duct taping the Titanic.

And guess what I learned. The APIs cost MONEY to use.

• Web search → cost💰

• AI prompts → cost 💵

• Twitter → nausea-inducing cost 🤑

And since now price was a factor, I needed to build a bot that has guardrails around its tasks so it doesn’t:

• Run redundant queries

• Loop unnecessarily

• Burn through credits

Which means more logic. More rules. More things to break. And hours of time.

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But I was determined.

This is the future of marketing, of work, of LIFE.

And I could picture what my client's life would be like with Saige up and running. I could imagine them:

• Waking up to fresh content ideas

• Having a plethora of hot takes

• Viral moments galore!

And I had pictured what it would look like when I made my own agent who would coordinate calendars with my husband, remind me of important things, and quietly take care of all the little logistics that clutter up daily life.

I had names picked out. I had a Mac mini in my shopping cart. I was going to make it work.

And once I started, I could not stop thinking about it. I tried to go to sleep at 11, and ended up getting out of bed to finish Saige because I couldn’t sleep.

I stayed up until 4 am so I could wake up to that ☀️ Morning Briefing email in my inbox.

I kept telling myself (as I listened to LoFi music) that I was “vibe coding,” but let me tell you, this did not feel like vibe coding, unless vibe coding feels like:

• “Why is this breaking?”

• “I thought I fixed that already”

• “No, that didn’t work either”

• “Gemini isn’t fixing it, let’s switch to ChatGPT”

• “Should I close my terminal or wait?”

• “Did I run out of Anthropic tokens AGAIN?” (Yes, I did)

Copy, paste, tweak, retry.

Over and over.

But by the time I went to bed, I had a fully functional Saige.

Or so I thought until 7 am came and went without my ☀️ Morning Briefing email.

Saige had failed me.

That was all last night. I spent most of today fixing the bugs (or so I hope). And then I tried to nap to make up for sleep and ended up writing this. Because during those attempts at a nap, I was able to step back from the Terminal and Telegram, and I realized something.

What I just spent hours figuring out will be incredibly easy soon.

Someone is going to wrap all of this in a clean UI and let you download a sandboxed AI agent and:

• Choose what it has access to with just one click

• Define what your workflow is with just text

No Terminal. No Gemini. No guessing. It’s the same agent I took hours to build, but you made it in 60 seconds.

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That’s the thought that got me up from my “nap” and rage writing. ChatGPT tried to calm me down by saying this:

“You are learning how all of this works:

• how APIs connect

• how agents think

• where things fail

“I don’t think this effort is wasted. If anything, this is probably the best way to understand what’s actually happening under the hood—before it gets abstracted away.”

In some ways, it’s right. I did learn a lot. Not in a “I can now code this from scratch” way, but:

• I (kinda) understand how these systems connect

• I understand what an agent actually needs to function

• I can begin to understand to see why things break

But I think the most important shift was the way I thought about agents. Because I was actually building one and understanding what needs to be done to get it to work.

It forced me to stop thinking of AI in an abstract way, and start thinking of it as, “Oh, this could do this… and this… and this…”

The use cases multiply fast.

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And then another thought struck me that continued to sour my mood.

AI is moving so fast that even if you’re trying to keep up, it still feels like it’s outpacing you.

That’s because it is.

If you follow AI, use it, take courses, and build your own bot, then you’re likely in the top 1% of AI users. You’re supposed to have an edge. And right now, you do.

But that edge likely won’t last for long, because there’s another layer they don’t mention. The 1% of the 1% who can actually build what everyone else will eventually use to create what you just took hours vibe coding.

We’re fighting for a lead in a race, but most of us are on foot, and others are on spaceships. Every “hack” we master today is just tomorrow’s default setting. We are the testers of a product designed to eventually make the specialized knowledge we have worked so hard and so fast to learn obsolete.

I think there is a hard truth to face here.

The real power doesn’t lie with those who can navigate the AI maze; it’s with the ones building the walls.

While we’re busy building an agent through OpenClaw, the 1% of the 1% are building the engine that won’t need one.

I hope I’m wrong. I don’t think I am

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So what’s the point? Yes, the skill of doing this manually is going to become irrelevant.

But the understanding? That’s the part I’m hoping sticks.

You might be surprised to know that I don’t think my late-night endeavor (which is now today’s endeavor) was a waste of time.

I learned a lot.

I actually had a lot of fun.

I was energized and engaged in a way I haven’t been in a long time.

And I now have so many ideas that I want to make. Whether I make it through OpenClaw or wait for someone to turn code into UX is TBD.

Despite all of this, Saige had better send me a ☀️ Morning Briefing email without me having to prompt her on Telegram.

And if she doesn’t, I’m opening up the terminal to figure out why.

caffeinate ☕️

Thank you to Claire Vo and Lenny Rachitsky for inspiring this late-night spiral via Lenny’s Podcast.

A peek into my day: A plea for help to Jonah Greenberger

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I’m so excited about web3, and I’m not talking about NFTs.

Yes, NFTs are a part of web3 but they’re a very small part. The amount of press and social chatter around NFTs is not representative of what is actually happening. As many know, there are issues with NFTs, but it’s an evolving concept that has yet to land on its feet.

All the talk around NFTs has overshadowed some of the amazing pieces of technology that are being built in web3.

The technologies being built will enhance user experiences, change the way we build web applications, give the users more control, and so much more. I am lucky enough to be deep enough in this web3 world to see the changes happening before my eyes. It’s exciting, confusing, and inspirational. 

During my journey into web3, I’ve come across awesome projects, companies, and technologies that illustrate the power of blockchain. I want to shed some light on them.

In this article, I will talk about three projects that I personally find exciting and think the world should be talking about. 

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First off, what is web3? 

This is a topic I’ve been wanting to write about for a while, but there is already such great content out there that explains it in a very straightforward way. 

I recommend checking out Whiteboard Crypto’s video. It provides a great overview of what web3 means and what it might look like in the future. It also points out how web3 is a work in progress. In the past few years, a tremendous amount of money has been invested in the space, and now developers are putting that money to work. As a result this space is constantly changing and evolving, which is why it is regarded with such confusion and skepticism. 

Everything has to start somewhere. We are still so early, but that’s one of the reasons why it’s so exciting to be part of it.  

From here on out, I am operating under the assumption that you understand the following terms:

• Web3

• Decentralized

• Blockchain / data chain

Now let’s get into some awesome projects/technologies:

Arweave and Bundlr

Arweave is a data chain that allows users to store their data permanently for a one-time fee. It is also decentralized, so no singular entity is in control of storing our data. 

What does this mean? 

Right now, companies and users pay companies such as Microsoft and Google tons of money to store their data, usually on a centralized cloud system. We trust this provider to ensure that our data is protected, and that they will not revoke our access to our data. 

Using companies that have platforms with centralized authorities and store cloud data in physical data centers has many risks for customers: 

1. Because our data is being stored in a centralized manner, it is possible that it can be hacked, manipulated or compromised. It is very common for companies to face data or website hacks. It’s something we see in the news frequently

2. Since these companies rely on physical data centers to store their cloud data, it is possible that there are outages. If this happens, your website or digital applications that are hosted on these servers would crash. For businesses, this is costly and potentially disastrous. Here is a recent example

3. We are trusting a company to give us access to our data. Although rare, it’s possible for a company to deny access to our accounts or change permissions to make it more difficult to make account changes. Here is a recent example

4. If we do not pay every month for these services, our data can be lost 

Arweave solves all of this. 

1. It is decentralized, therefore it is significantly more resilient to hacks

2. The fact that it’s decentralized also means data is not stored in a singular server or data center. This means there will not be downtimes as a result of physical altercations such as power outages

3. It is not owned by a single entity, therefore there is no singular governing body that can make decisions on your behalf such as blocking you from your account

4. You pay a one-time fee to store your data forever, and you never have to pay again

That last point is pretty cool. Those monthly storage fees you pay to make sure Apple doesn’t delete thousands of photos collected on iCloud? You won’t get those anymore. Once you pay for it to be uploaded, you never have to pay again, and it is stored forever. 

This isn’t a marketing gimmick or sales tactic. This is a scalable business model that is possible because of blockchain’s decentralized nature. It is so effective that companies such as Bundlr are building solutions to make Arweave even better and more accessible.

Bundlr Network is a multi-chain scaling solution (aka: an L2) for Arweave. It offers an easier way to access Arweave that is 4000x faster without sacrificing security. 

This is another reason why web3 is so cool. Companies such as Bundlr can build scaling solutions on blockchains such as Arweave to make it even better. We see this every day with companies such as Polygon, who have built an entire ecosystem of scaling solutions on Ethereum. 

This would be like a start-up building a program that makes Google even faster. In web2, Google would have to either purchase that solution from the startup or acquire the company to integrate it into their platform.

In web3, you just build it and people can use it if they choose to. 

Yield Guild Games (YGG)

I’ve mentioned YGG in a past article where I dive into Axie Infinity, an on-chain play-to-earn game. (Axie is another example of an awesome company doing amazing things.)

YGG is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that invests in NFTs that are used in virtual worlds and blockchain games. They also provide scholarships to gamers to earn in-game yield. The goal is to create the world's biggest virtual economy while being governed by their community. 

Think of it this way. If you ever played an MMORPG you might have been part of a guild. YGG is a guild, however, it runs across multiple games and owns pieces of virtual worlds and blockchain games. This allows them to influence decisions being made at these gaming companies, and create value for their guild members.

As of today, YGG conducts the following activities:

• It is building a global community of play-to-earn gamers 

• It is using a profit-sharing model to give new players scholarships so they can participate and profit from these games (This is another really cool concept that I dive into in my past article)

• It is governed by the community and passes proposals by voting

It’s basically a guild that turned into a profitable company. This is possible because of the nature of blockchain games. It allows players and guilds to earn as they play, and own their assets. 

Blockchain gaming as a whole has the power to disrupt the gaming industry. It is a great example of how web3 is unlocking new possibilities in various industries. 

Polkadot Cross-Consensus Message Format (XCM)

This one is a bit in the weeds but it’s super exciting for anyone who is active in web3. 

Right now web3 is extremely siloed. For example, it is extremely hard to move your assets from the Ethereum blockchain to the Solana blockchain. It would be like trying to use United States Dollars to pay for something in the UK, or running a PC game on a Mac.

It is extremely frustrating for users. To solve this, blockchain platforms that aim to be multi-chain such as Polkadot have emerged. Polkadot aims to facilitate cross-blockchain trainers of any type of data or asset. In order to achieve cross-chain communications, they created XCM. 

XCM is the approach used to facilitate cross-chain communication across blockchains, smart contracts, bridges, and more. XCM cannot actually send messages from one blockchain to another, rather it is a format for how message transfer should be performed. It aims to be the language communicating ideas between consensus systems.1

Using XCM format, a user on Ethereum move their funds to Polkadot or another blockchain. This may sound small, but it’s a big step for web3. It will allow projects on the blockchain to be more interoperable and interactive with each other. It will simplify the user experience. It will break down the silos that web3 users have been enduring for years. 

Projects on Polkadot are in the process of implementing XCM so there can be communication between the parachains. (Don’t know what a parachain is? Take a look at this article)

This is yet another example of how web3 continues to be collaborative and open-source. XCM does not only work for Polkadot, but it was created to be generic and applicable to any interoperable blockchains. It would have been easy for Polkadot to hide what they created and give themselves a competitive advantage in doing so, but they make it open and accessible to everyone. 

It’s one of the many things I love about web3. This collaborative mindset permeates every inch of the space.

Let’s wrap it up

These are just a few of the awesome companies and pieces of technology out there. They give you a glimpse of how web3 can do things that web2 companies just can’t. 

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. This space is growing and changing every single day, and I’m always learning about new projects and companies with a unique vision that can only be achieved by building on blockchain. 

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If there is a company in web3 building something you’re excited about, please let me know! I’d love to learn more about interesting projects. 

For the past few months, web3 and Ethereum communities have been buzzing about this issue. Anyone who has used Ethereum in the past year will have noticed how slow the transactions are, and even more noticeable, how expensive the gas fees are. 

The reason is simple. The number of transactions that are occurring on Ethereum has sharply increased. The Ethereum blockchain is slow, and can only handle ~13 transactions per second. With more people using Ethereum the longer you have to wait for your transaction to be processed and the fees required to facilitate these transactions is extremely high. 

Let’s break it down with an analogy  

Imagine Ethereum is a road and a transaction is a car. In order to access the road, you must pay a toll otherwise known as a gas fee. The price of that toll is contingent on the amount of people who want to use the road, so if it's relatively empty the toll will be inexpensive, but if lots of people are using it, it is expensive. 

In the past, there were only a few cars being driven down the road, so it was relatively quick and the tolls were inexpensive. However, this past year the number of people using Ethereum has sharply increased. Now, there is almost always a traffic jam to get onto the road. 

As a result, the tolls are extremely expensive, and you have to wait for the cars in the line ahead of you to get onto the road first. This can take a while. 

It’s frustrating, especially since the tolls can easily be over $100. As a result, users are moving to other blockchains or roads that are faster and less expensive. 

However there are solutions to solve for this, specifically scaling solutions.

Scaling solutions use different methods to facilitate network transactions off of the Ethereum blockchain and in doing so, alleviate network congestion. 

Scaling solutions provide additional lanes parallel to the main road where cars can access and drive much more quickly for much less money while still getting to where they need to go. Scaling solutions will process the transaction and afterwards move the completed transaction back on Ethereum. 

Basically, the car can drive on one of these expedited side lanes, and then move back onto the main road, bypassing all of the traffic in the process. 

In order to access these new roads, the company who has built on Ethereum must move their transactions from the main road, to the side lanes. You as a driver can’t choose to use a scaling solution, but you can use a company that provides access to scaling solutions such as Binance and CoinBase. 

Companies like Polygon create these scaling solutions for Ethereum.

They currently work with established companies, start-ups, and developers who are building on Ethereum. For example, one of Polygon’s clients is DraftKings, the largest fantasy sports service in the United States.

DraftKings launched their NFT marketplace in August 2021. They have scheduled NFT drops customers can bid on and purchase such as collectable cards, digital signatures from famous celebrities, and more. 

Since they have decided to use a scaling solution rather to process transactions, they will have a number of benefits such as: 

• When a user buys and NFT, they will receive it in a matter of seconds

• If there is a popular drop, let’s say a one-of-a-kind Tom Brady autograph, and there are a lot of users on the site, it will still be able to handle all of the transactions very quickly 

• The transaction fees will be negligible 

So yes, Ethereum is facing many challenges as a result of the increase of transactions, however, there are many solutions that developers can use to address this problem. If all of the programs built on Ethereum moved to a scaling solution, we wouldn’t have to worry about high gas fees or slow transaction speeds. 

So if you’re looking to do a transaction on Ethereum, first see if it’s possible to do that transaction through a company that uses a scaling solution.

You’ll thank me when you see how low the gas fees are.

I say “kind of” because I’m not directly buying the US Constitution. I am one of many contributors pooling money together to raise enough to win the upcoming auction at Sotheby’s. If we win, I will be part of the governing body that will make decisions regarding this copy of the US Constitution.

Is this not making any sense? 

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Let’s start from the beginning. 

Today, November 18, 2021 at 6:30 pm EST, Sotheby’s is putting up one of the original US Constitutions for auction. There are only 13 remaining in the world, and this is the first time in 33 years that one has been put up for auction. The proceeds will be donated to a charity the current owner has established. 

It is expected to be sold at around $15M to $20M. A high price the vast majority of people cannot afford.

Until now. 

Enter ConstitutionDAO

ConstitutionDAO is raising money from the masses to bid, and hopefully win, the auction. 

To understand what this means, we need to break down what a DAO is. 

A DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization. That means there is no one person or central group of people in charge. The members of the DAO are the ones that make decisions. 

Additionally, the rules of a DAO are open and transparent, as are its transactions.

What does this look like?

ConstitutionDAO is a great example. You can become a member of the DAO by contributing money to the purchase of the US Constitution. If the auction is won, everyone who contributed will receive governing tokens that correlates the amount of money they donated. 

We don’t know exactly what this structure is like for ConstitutionDAO just yet but as an illustrative let’s say ConstitutionDAO raised $100 for the auction and used all of this money to place a winning bid of $100. If you contributed $1, you would receive 1% of the tokens. That’s because you contributed 1% of the money used to purchase the US Constitution. 

You would use these tokens to vote on what happens to the US Constitution. For example, if there were two options presented with where to put it:

1. Put it in New York History Museum 

2. Store it in a vault 

Since you own 1% of the tokens, your vote would count for 1% of the overall outcome. Any decision that would be made regarding the US Constitution, you, and everyone else who is a member of the DAO, would have input.

ConstitutionDAO puts it nicely: 

“Decentralization and cryptocurrency (web3) have created structures that allow people to self-govern with unparalleled levels of autonomy and freedom. It’s fitting that we use this technology to honor and protect the greatest historical tool for human governance: the U.S. Constitution.”

Basically, the decisions are made by the people. 

Pretty fitting, wouldn’t you say? 

If I contribute, will I own part of the Constitution? 

Unfortunately, no. While this was the original intent, there are security laws that disrupted this plan. However, the governance token ($PEOPLE) that I described above will give you a voice on all of the decisions made in regards to the US Constitution if the auction is won. 

How much has been raised? 

As of right now, over $40M.

Yes, you read that right, $40 million dollars.

And it’s not stopping there. In fact, the contribution pool is only increasing. We won’t know the final amount until the last moment of the auction, but as of right now, it’s predicted that ConstitutionDAO will win.

This is cool!

Yes this is cool but this is also a sign of something bigger. It shows the power of web3 and the crypto community. It’s also incredible to watch a group of people come together to make history. 

If you watch the comments people are posting when contributing the project, it’s really quite moving. People are finding meaning in this project. The idea of partly “owning” the US Constitution is powerful.

It’s also an awesome opportunity to try out web3 if you haven’t already. But if you want to contribute, you need to do it NOW. 

Interested? This is what you need to do ASAP:

1. Make a crypto wallet. I use MetaMask

2. Add funds to your wallet. If you don’t own ETH, you’ll need to buy some by doing the steps below:

   1. Make a Coinbase account and link your bank account 

   2. Put money from your bank account into Ethereum (Here is a step-by-step video) 

3. Send the funds from your ETH account on Coinbase to your MetaMask or other digital wallet (Here is a step-by-step video) 

4. Go to https://www.constitutiondao.com/

5. Click “contribute” and allow your wallet to connect

6. Contribute whatever amount you feel comfortable with but LOOK OUT FOR GAS FEES! They can be very expensive so be sure to watch out.

And now, we wait. We wait to see if we win the US Constitution and then we vote with the rest of the community to determine what we do with it.

Pretty exciting stuff!

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or challenges at caylinmay51@gmail.com

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Everydays: The First 5000 Days, created by Mike Winkelmann

You’ve probably heard about NFTs in the news. Since Mike Winkelmann’s (aka Beeple) sold his digital piece for $68M on Christie’s auction house to crypto investor, MetaKovan, NFTs have captured the world’s attention and interest.

NFTs aren’t new. They’ve been around for a few years. One of the first uses was CryptoKitties, where users would trade and sell virtual kittens. And the sale of Beeple’s digital piece that mainstream media is buzzing about isn’t the only big purchase that has happened in the past few weeks.

Just last week, Dylan Field, CEO of Figma, sold CryptoPunk #7804 for $7.5M. A record sale for the CryptoPunk digital collection.

CryptoPunks, created by Larva Labs, are 10,000 uniquely generated characters, displayed in 24x24 pixel art images. At one point, they were given away for free, and today, they are being sold for millions.

But what most people find interesting and confusing, is that the new owners of these pieces won’t be receiving a physical piece art, but a digital token called an NFT. 

What is this digital token? And why would someone spend $65M on it? 

In this article, I will explain what an NFT is, why some people find value in them, and why you should care. 

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So what exactly is an NFT? 

An NFT, or a non-fungible token, is a unique, digital asset that can be bought and sold. This asset is verified by blockchain, giving the owner proof of authenticity and ownership.

Basically, everyone knows that the NFT holder owns this digital asset. 

Now there are several key words I want to pull from this definition and explain individually. This will help you fully understand what it is:

• NFTs are digital only: This means that they will never take on a tangible form. You’ll never be able to hold an NFT or hang an NFT on the wall. It will remain in your digital wallet as proof that you own it.
  

• NFTs are mostly limited: This is important. Let’s say an artist created a digital NFT and then made an infinite number of copies of them on the blockchain. It wouldn’t be worth anything because anyone could own it. The limited number is what makes an NFT unique and valuable. It could be one of a kind, or one of 100, but there must be a limited number otherwise it’s worthless. 

This is why NFTs are attractive to digital artists. Because it gives them ownership of what they’ve created, and the ability to sell that ownership to another person or, if they were to sell multiple NFTs of that piece, multiple people. 

So NFTs is a kind of digital art?

It can be art, but it doesn’t have to be. An NFT can be anything that is digital and ownable, such as a collectable, a domain name, a digital card, a video, and more.

Right now, mainstream media is focused on NFTs in the art world such as GIFs, songs, videos, and digital art, but there is a whole other world of NFTs out there.

NFTs in simple terms are validated ownership of something.

Any digital asset can be an NFT if the creator decides to make it unique or limited. 

A great example of an NFT outside of digital art is the company Sorare, which was founded by Nicolas Julia.

Sorare is a platform for creating and trading soccer (or football for the non-American folks) NFTs. Sorare works with soccer clubs to create licensed trading cards that are also digital collectibles. There are three tiers rare, super-rare, and unique. 

They sell a limited number of cards per tier. For each player per season there are 100 rare cards, 10 super rare cards, and 1 unique card that are created and sold. Players can buy and sell their cards in the form of NFTs. 

There is also a fantasy component, where owners can play their cards in different leagues. The teams are ranked based on the performance of their players in the real-world games they play that week. Each team is ranked, and the top winners are given rewards in the form of Ethereum and random trading cards. 

This is not the only online marketplace for sports. NBA Top Shot is another great example.

Founded by Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs, NBA Top Shot allows users to buy, sell, and trade NBA highlights. For example, someone recently sold a clip LeBron James dunking on Nemanja Bjelica.

It was purchased for $208k.

Why would I want something that’s not tangible?

This is something many struggle with but the answer is quite simple. Aside from the things that you need to survive (food, shelter, etc.) what do you buy? Another way to phrase this question is, what do you value? 

Some people value fashion and are willing to pay $20,000 for a Birkin bag. Others will shell out $700 for an original Pokemon card. Or $3.21M on a rare comic book. 

Enough people in our world have decided that these items are worth that price tag and are willing to pay for it. The same goes for NFTs. 

And let’s not discount the emotional attachment many people have to their NFTs. For many owners, selling their NFTs can be an emotional process. They feel connected to their NFT despite the fact that it's a digital asset. 

Listen to Dylan Field’s statement on his sale of CryptoPunk #7804.

You can hear the emotion behind his words. To him it held tremendous value and giving it up was hard.

And many NFT owners share this sentiment. To them, it means something.

That’s value. 

I still don’t get it. What’s the point of having something if I can’t use it?

At first it’s a bit of a strange concept to own something without being able to touch it or use it. But it’s not that strange if you think about the things people collect and spend a tremendous amount of money on, but never use.

Do you think that someone would open that mint condition action figure? Or wear a pair of rare Air Jordans? Maybe, but probably not. For most, it’s an investment. The owner hopes that in the future, this product will be worth even more. 

Additionally, buying things that are digital only is actually quite common. 

If you enjoy video games you might have made a digital purchase that didn’t influence the outcome of the game, but enhanced your experience of it. For example, buying character skins.  

League of Legends sells champion skins for up to $25 dollars. They don’t give players an advantage or change the game in any way other than the appearance. Riot Games makes millions from selling skins, and to those who buy them, it’s worth it. 

I’m still not interested in buying an NFT

And that’s okay. Not everything will have value to everyone. You won’t find me waiting in line all night in hopes of buying the latest pair of Air Jordans, because I don’t find value in them. And yet it is still a multi-million dollar industry that millions of people are extremely passionate about. 

You don’t have to buy an NFT if it doesn’t have value to you. 

However, you do have to recognize that there are many people who are excited by this new digital world, where ownership is clear, and the number of copies are tracked. 

Sure you could make a copy of the digital file, but that doesn’t make you the owner. But the copy you made has no value because the owner can be easily verified. It’s like creating a forgery of the Mona Lisa. It’s worthless. 

The future of NFTs

Our digital world is growing. We are spending more and more of our time online, and NFTs may be a sign of what is yet to come. 

Companies are already thinking about bringing in a physical aspect to NFTs.

Can you imagine if this were to expand? If Sorare could one day begin offering discounts on match tickets, what would come next? What if owning a rare card could unlock exclusive merchandise? Or events? Or opportunities? Or experiences?

The possibilities are endless.

Many believe NFTs are only the beginning of how we use blockchain and cryptocurrency. Some people are starting wonder what else blockchain will have an impact on in the future.

And if you really think about it, it could fundamentally change how our world works. What would that look like?

That’s what I want to explore in my upcoming articles. Over the next few months, I will be speaking with various blockchain and NFT enthusiasts and experts to help paint a picture of the future, and what is yet to come.

If you or someone you know are working on something interesting in NFTs, please mention it in the comment section

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———

Damn, you read this far? Here’s how you can start buying NFTs

First, you’ll need a digital wallet such as:

• MetaMask

• Trust Wallet

Now you can go shopping.

The main Ethereum NFT marketplaces are:

• OpenSea

• Rarible

• Mintable

Interested in digital art? Take a look at:

• SuperRare

• Foundation.app

• Nifty Gateway

Into sports?

• Sorare

• NBA Top Shot

And if you want to explore more, just start researching. There are so many interviews being conducted with NFT experts and enthusiasts. More information is coming out everyday as the hype around NFTs continues to grow. It’s easy to learn more.

It’s probably the most common request from companies, especially founders. And it makes sense. A company positioning allows you to articulate who you are, why you’re different, and why customers should care. And, for many, the website is the face of the brand. 

But many founders don’t understand how to begin this process or what goes into building these elements.

I want to demystify the process.

In this article I hope to shed some insight into how one creates a company positioning and a website, as well as provide frameworks to consider before starting this project.

Please note that the information is very generic, and will need to be tailored to your business, industry, and goals. What I am providing is a starting point and context that will help you on your journey. 

Now let’s start from the top.

Traditionally, the positioning and website building process is done in three steps:

If you would like a PDF of this template or the ones below, please email: caylinmay51@gmail.com

If you were to request an RFP from a marketing agency or consultant, this is approximately what you would receive back.

But what does it mean?

Let’s dive in starting with 01: Discovery & Interviews

After you’ve conducted these three steps, you should have a very in-depth understanding of your industry, competitors, and the perceptions of your company.

Pull your notes together and extract 5-8 big insights. Highlight things that really resonated with you or even surprised you. Areas that you think can shed some light on the next step, which is defining who you are, why you’re different, and why customers should buy from you.

I’m not going to lie, this step is hard.

Many times you’ll have three different positioning statements and will need to work with a team to select and refine one. If this process takes you a day, you’re doing it wrong. It should be frustrating, challenging, and difficult to align on. 

In contrast, the next step can be fun, especially when working with a great designer.

When building a website, I find that most founders have an understanding of what they like but they have trouble articulate it.

The tools below will help you better understand the kind of website your company needs and what it should look like. 

At this point, you should have a good sense of what you want your website to look like. Not the specifics, but the general look and feel, color pallete, animations, etc.

The next step is deciding how you’re going to bring that website to life.

Picking your partner is very important.

Clear communication and trust is essential since it’s very easy for these websites to get out of hand in terms of timelines and budget. I guarantee that there will be last minute changes, and copy and design requests. These tweaks, while they may seem small can significantly impact the budget and the timeline.  

Another important thing to remember is that there is a cost to every custom detail you pick.

Here are some of the most common traps I’ve seen:

• The desire for custom art or photography:
  Are you going to pay for a custom art or a photoshoot? Are you willing to use stock images to decrease the budget? If you decide to use stock photos, are you okay seeing that image on other websites? 
  

• The desire for video:
  A similar challenge to the bullet above. Will you shoot this video yourself or will you purchase the rights? This can get very expensive very quickly
  

• The desire for infographics:
  This will increase the price of your website and you will play a big role in mapping out what the infographic will say and how it should say it

In order to help you pick the right partner, I created the chart below outlining the three different ways you can have your website created.

Remember the more complicated the website, the more support (and budget!) you will need. 

Note: these are approximate costs for 03: Design & Website only. Not for the 01: Discovery & Interviews, or 02: Positioning & Messaging

As you can see the price for a website can change drastically depending on what you need. But remember, that not everyone needs a grand website that stands out from the rest. Take a look at your persona. What are they looking for? Is it to be shocked and awed? Or simply to get a little more information? 

Let the upfront work you did speak for itself and guide your decision as you move forward in this process.

And while it may seem intimidating, this work can actually be a lot of fun if you want it to be.

Walk into it with curiosity and the desire to learn more about your company.

You’ll walk away with insights you never knew you needed to know.

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Please email caylinmay51@gmail.com for the templates used in this article

Brands have had 10+ years to identify the importance of having a purpose and act accordingly, and honestly, the world has moved on. Brand purpose is now table stakes. 

Let’s back up. What is a brand purpose? Simply put it is the reason why a company exists beyond simply making money. A brand purpose is usually articulated in a single sentence and supported with charitable initiatives and/or powerful messaging that is meant to prove to the world that the organization genuinely wants to make a positive impact - whether that be on its customers, the environment, etc. 

One of the trailblazers of brand purpose was Dove with the launch of its initiative, Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. 

The purpose of the Campaign for Real Beauty was to build confidence in women and children. This initiative was supported by several powerful videos and ads.

Since the launch of this campaign, many brands have followed suit, searching for a meaningful mission that they could credibly own and would resonate with stakeholders. The company would then spend several thousands, if not, millions of dollars to ensure that everyone knew the good that it had done. Every investor presentation or annual report would begin with a mention of this purpose and a reminder of what an incredible impact they have had on the world. 

I’m being a little facetious, but even I have to admit, at the time it was moving to watch these big brands stand for something more. Purpose was something Millennials demanded as the generation became spenders in the market, but now, the game has changed. Gen Z is now entering the field, and for them, purpose is table stakes -- they’re demanding authenticity. 

You can see this in the brands and influencers they love. With over 10M followers JoJo Siwa is adored by her followers because of her glittery style and big personality. But most importantly, she is always being unapologetically herself 

Known for her big bows and even bigger personality, Siwa is a Gen Z icon

“This is my life. There is no other secret. There is no other person. I literally am JoJo. I wear the bright clothes every day. I wear the sparkly hair bows. I wear the high-top shoes. I sing the fun music. I talk really loud. I talk fast, and I talk a lot. This is who I am.’”

And it’s not just the people/influencers they admire, it’s also the brands they buy from. 

If you have a teenager, you might be familiar with Starface Hydro-Stars. A spot treatment that is effective, adorable, and insta-worthy. Who knew that showing off your acne on social media would be considered cool? Rather than hide imperfections, Gen Z embraces it.

It’s fun to watch companies be authentic and to celebrate the imperfections of their customers rather than hide them. But it can also be intimidating for many. We’re very comfortable in a world that insists acne must be covered, stomachs must be sucked in, and personality must be limited. We were always told off stretch marks, scars, and fat rolls were not an option, but we now have a generation not only asking for it, but encouraging us to embrace it. 

So how can a company be perceived as authentic? Every authentic brand is based off of a purpose, so if you’ve invested in developing a brand purpose, you’re halfway there. But now it’s time to get bold. And for many traditional incumbents, this means being uncomfortable 

The best way to understand how the two are linked, is by understanding how they are different: 

Let’s take a look at an example: CHNGE and Everlane. Two brands in the fashion industry with similar missions:

• Transparency

• Sustainability

• Ethical practices

But CHNGE is authentic and Everlane is purpose driven. And despite the two brands having a similar mission in writing, the difference between the two is stark.

Do you see the difference between a brand that lives and breathes its purpose vs. one that uses its purpose to attract customers? The difference is palpable in every touchpoint - from the website, to social media.  

So how can you use your brand purpose to become an authentic brand?

1. Identify ways your purpose can become the forefront of every touchpoint

   

   Patagonia has always brought its mission to life, internally and externally. It offers a recycling program for customers, a famous employee culture, and have progressive environmental goals. It has even run campaigns asking buyers to not purchase Patagonia products that it doesn’t need.

2. Ensure your images and language align with your purpose 

   

   In addition to believing that everyone should have comfortable underwear, MeUndies also believes that people “should feel free to be the truest version of themselves—despite what societal “norms” dictate.” This purpose is prevalent not just in look/feel of its products, but in the photos the models it use on social media.

3. Make sure your purpose plays a role in places consumers won’t necessarily see, such as the internal practices

   

   Gravity Payments CEO, Dan Price was once ridiculed for cutting his own salary to ensure all employees were paid at least $70,000. When profits soared, criticism turned into praise.

4. Be accountable and don’t be afraid to admit when you’re wrong 

   

   I wouldn’t call Peloton an authentic brand, but when customer’s failed to receive their bikes after months of backorder, Peloton did what it had to do by investing $100M into the supply chain and flying bikes to customers. For every bike flown, Peloton lost revenue, but will improve its members’ experience.

5. Be bold and have fun with it- you’ll never be remembered if you’re boring 

   

   Traditional branding will never get you noticed, which is something Ugly took to heart. “Channeling the unconventional spirit of the founders and the no-nonsense approach of the product, we created an irreverent brand that doesn’t hide behind marketing hype—delivering what we call ‘The Ugly Truth.’” This bold messaging is bound to catch eyes and perhaps even a laugh or two

An authentic brand needs to be perceived as being real, and in order to accomplish that, there needs to be tangible actions that are consistent throughout the entire brand experience.

However, infusing a brand purpose into every touchpoint in a tangible, impactful way can be uncomfortable and even risky. But with Gen Z only growing in purchasing power, there is no better time to be bold, especially since many incumbents have yet to start. Take risks, get creative, and be genuine. 

Gen Z will notice.

But let’s go back to the beginning. 

Individual investors from Reddit began to drive up the price of GameStop’s stock, which had been shorted by institutional investors. The Reddit investors were able to push the share price up to incredibly high levels, causing catastrophic losses for short-sellers. They continued their endeavor by pushing up other shorted stocks such as AMC and Blackberry. This resulted in severe losses for institutional investors such as Citadel, D1, and Melvin Capital.

Robinhood, a brokerage app that built its brand on “democratizing finance for all,” was one of the companies at the center of this dynamic, as it enabled individual investors to conduct these stock purchases. However, in what customers believed to be a betrayal of its mission, Robinhood announced soon after that it was “restricting transactions for certain securities to position closing only, including $AMC and $GME.”

This announcement was followed by outrage. Users accused Robinhood of protecting institutional investors, who had lost a significant amount of money. By restricting transactions, Robinhood betrayed the very foundation on which the company was created. And when it was time for the company to address the public and explain its actions, it undermined everything it once stood for.

Below are two quotes from the email Robinhood sent to customers in an attempt to explain its actions:

“As a brokerage firm, we have many financial requirements, including SEC net capital obligations and clearinghouse deposits. Some of these requirements fluctuate based on volatility in the markets and can be substantial in the current environment. These requirements exist to protect investors and the markets and we take our responsibilities to comply with them seriously, including through the measures we have taken today.”

“The past year in particular has shown us that the financial markets are for everyone—not just institutional investors and hedge funds. We’ve seen a new generation enter the market, and they’re sparking conversations about what it means to be an investor. We stand in support of you, our customers. Democratizing finance for all means giving more people access, not less.”

This is where everything went wrong:

Robinhood failed to answer the basic question customers were asking, “Why can’t I invest in GameStop and other companies such as AMC and Blackberry?” Instead it resorted to “corporate speak” and further ostracized its customer base.  

The Robinhood brand was built on creating a platform the average consumer could navigate and understand. Its communication and messaging has always been straightforward and easy to digest. However, in this situation, Robinhood shifted tone and shrouded its reasoning behind phrases the average customer doesn’t understand, such as “SEC new capital obligations and clearinghouse deposits.” It stuck to this language and justification in interviews as well, despite being called out for it.

This kind of talk consumers expect from Wall Street, lawyers, and politicians — not from a brand that promises access and the democratization of finance. This corporate language only enhanced the new perception users had about the company — Robinhood is simply another corrupt entity that exists to serve Wall Street.

Robinhood concluded its emailed statement with the line “we stand in support of you, our customers,” but at this point, the consumer still doesn’t have a clear answer to their only question: “Why can’t I invest in GameStop and other companies such as AMC and Blackberry?” So why should they believe this?

This is what Robinhood should have done:

1. Authentically acknowledge what is happening 

2. Provide regular updates to keep the public consistently updated

Let’s dive deeper.

Authentically acknowledge what is happening 

In a crisis there are many flames to put out, so being vague at first is okay. A company can simply acknowledge what is happening and promise a speedy update. This allows for time to align on the best path forward. 

The next step is essential. The company must continue to stay on brand. In Robinhood’s case that meant being transparent and using simple language that everyone can understand. It failed to do either of these things. 

Now, the explanation for why it restricted certain stocks is actually quite easy: Robinhood simply couldn’t afford the numerous transactions occurring on its platform.

Perhaps this explanation would have caused some skepticism towards the organization, but it would have also protected the brand and prevented the high number of users pulling their money from the platform. 

Robinhood’s comms were so bad, that people on Twitter, such as Sheel Mohnot, wrote their own version of the press release. And most of them were significantly better.

Provide regular updates to keep the public consistently updated

This is PR 101. If you don’t control the narrative, the news and social media will do it for you. Because of the lack of narrative, Robinhood now has several challenges it has to face:

• A class action suit claiming Robinhood rigged the market

• A furious customer base whose perception of the company will forever be tarnished 

• Powerful figures who are demanding answers 

If the company had taken control from the beginning and provided regular, authentic updates to its customers, many of these concerns would have been addressed. Perhaps there would have been some speculation and finger pointing, but not nearly to the level that Robinhood is currently facing.

Let’s look at Public who also had to announce the same restrictions to its customers:

Public took an empathetic, transparent approach that reassured customers that it is on their side and is doing what it can to resolve the issue. It followed up with updates to ensure that its customers were kept in the loop and were aware of what was happening. 

And now Public is profiting from Robinhood’s loss. With Robinhood users pulling their money and deleting the app, Public has been quick to roll out new incentives for users to join its platform. 

Today, claiming to have a purpose is simply not enough. Customers demand action and authenticity, especially in a time of crisis. Robinhood failed at this. Rather than responding to the crisis authentically and transparently, it resorted to “corporate speak” which only left customers feeling angry and betrayed. And when a brand, especially one targeted towards younger audiences such as Robinhood, betrays that trust, it is not easily forgiven, and it is never forgotten.

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Hayley Paige Gutman recently announced her resignation from her parent company, JLM Couture. According to a video posted by Gutman, she claims that while in the middle of contract negotiations, JLM issued a restraining order that banned her from using her social media accounts, @misshayleypaige, and from using her name in business. While JLM Couture claims that the account was made to promote the company brand, Gutman claims that they were her personal accounts. 

What has now resulted in a heated legal battle has also raises some interesting questions: 

• At what point, if ever, does a personal brand become a company brand? 

• If a company helps an employee create their personal brand, who owns it? The company? Or the individual? 

• Should companies be allowed to influence their employees' personal brands? 

• Should employee contacts be rethought to include a clear delineation between personal social media vs. company social media? A personal brand vs. the company brand?     

With the continued rise of influencers and the desire many companies have to create influencers, this question of, ‘who owns the personal brand,’ will continue to be raised. Personally, I believe that a personal brand is owned by the individual. Regardless of the amount of money a company has poured into supporting that individual, humans are not products and should not be owned by a corporation. 

In this regard, I believe that companies should always consider the following before investing in an employee’s personal brand:

• If this individual were to leave, how much of an effect would it have on our company?

• If this individual were to do something that conflicts with the company’s brand, could we distance ourselves enough so it wouldn't have a negative effect on the company? 

• Is there something that a personal brand can do, that our company brand cannot? If yes, is there something we’re wrong as an organization that is hindering our growth? 

This lawsuit will set a precedent of where the line between a personal brand and a company brand starts and ends. As influencers continue to grow in social media, this distinction will only grow in importance, and these questions will continue to be raised. 

It is important that this trial, and all future lawsuits that question the ownership of an individual's name and brand, keep in consideration the effect it will have on thousands of entrepreneurs and influencers, as they work to build their name and brand.

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• The foundations of a successful brand require deep knowledge of your target audience, competitors, and industry

• To understand this, D2C companies should create/conduct the following:

  • Customer personas

  • Competitive audit

  • Stakeholder interviews (current and past customers, investors, employees, industry experts) 

Whenever I hear the question, why does a D2C company need a powerful brand? I follow up with my own question: why would someone buy a product from a D2C company rather than Amazon?

On paper, it makes more sense to buy from Amazon. Amazon likely has a very similar product that is cheaper and has faster shipping times. The experience is probably more seamless, and you have just as many options (if not more). So why would anyone make a more expensive, more complex purchase from a D2C brand?  

The answer is simple. D2C companies are marketing companies and brand gurus. They would not ordinarily be able to compete with Amazon and industry incumbents, so they must have a unique angle - their brand. 

So how does a D2C company create a powerful brand? It starts with fully understanding the industry, your competitors, your target audience, and what makes you different. In order to uncover these insights you need to create/conduct the following: 

• Customer personas

• Competitive audit

• Stakeholder interviews 

Let’s break it down

Target audience: 

You need to understand who will be purchasing your product/service. There are many D2C companies with very similar products and missions, but their target audience is different, whether that be by age, geography, socioeconomic status, etc. As a result they have very different brands.

 Take a look at two D2C companies that both sell high-end business clothes for women: M.M.LaFleur and Argent.

They both have similar price points, similar styles, and a similar target audience, but they vary on one key element. While M.M.LaFleur targets women working in more conservative industries such as consulting and finance, Argent targets women working in more liberal industries such as tech. 

This difference in target has resulted in two very different brands, with M.M.LaFleur having more subdued, classic styles, while Argent has bright and bold outfits that are guaranteed to catch eyes.  

In order to deeply understand your target audience, you need to create multiple personas, even if they differ just slightly. Each persona should have a name and illustrate the following: 

• Demographics: Median age of your target, median income of your target, job & education, family/relationship status 

• Goals: What are they hoping to achieve in an area that relates to your product/service? What challenges are they facing that will hinder them from getting there? 

• Favorite brands: These brands do not have to be competitors, but a sampling of brands they are loyal to

• Bio: A paragraph that describes the key information gathered above as it pertains to your product/service. Through this description the reader should inherently understand why this persona is a good target

While this is a standard persona, each company has different needs, so feel free to add more information if you believe it is needed to fully understand your audience. 

Competitive audit:

Conducting an in-depth competitive audit is essential to creating a powerful brand. In order to understand what makes you different, you need to understand what your competitors are doing/saying. Start by identifying 4-5 competitors who have a similar product and are targeting the same or a similar target audience. 

For each of these competitors you need to answer the following questions by reading their website, presentations/press releases, social media, interacting with their customer service, etc. 

• What are your competitors saying, and how are they saying it? 

  • What are they focusing on? 

  • Are they focusing on too many things? 

  • Do they have a distinct personality/tone? 

  • Is it consistent across all channels? 

  • Is this strategy resonating with their audience? 

  • Can you describe in one sentence, who they are and why someone should buy from them? (If you can’t, it suggests that their messaging isn’t clear)

  • What makes them different from you? 

  • What would you do or say differently?

• Next you’ll want to look at competitors from a visual lens: 

  • Are they digital first? 

  • What colors are they using and why? 

  • Are they colors traditional in the industry? 

  • What images are they using? Photos? Drawings? Of who? 

  • How are they simplifying information? 

  • How are they standing out from incumbents? 

  • Does the design match the tone of their website?

After conducting this audit, you should have a very clear understanding of what you’re up against, but more importantly, you should have a better understanding of what makes you special. What you can do better than them and why customers should care. 

Stakeholder interviews 

You need to understand what a diverse group of people think about your company, your brand, the industry, your competitors, and the challenges they believe you’re up against. Many believe that they already have these answers, but it’s essential that you get a fresh perspective. It’s so easy to slip into group think, and this is the best way to break out of that mindset.

The way to achieve this is by conducting interviews with employees, investors, customers, and industry experts. Perhaps adding in even a couple of people who are not fans of your company. Investors who passed on investing, or customers who never made a second purchase. You want to understand all perception -- good and bad. You may even consider having an impartial individual conduct these interviews, so no one feels pressured to give a ‘right’ or ‘positive’ response. 

Once you’ve identified a group of stakeholders to interview, you should ask questions that interrogate the following: 

• Industry: 

  • What are customers looking for in the industry? 

  • Is there an opportunity for disruption? If yes, are we poised to disrupt? 

  • What are the biggest pain points for customers in this industry? Do we address them? 

  • Will we be relevant in 5 years? If not, what do we have to say or do in order to stay relevant? 

• Competitors: 

  • Who are the biggest threats? 

  • What are they doing better or worse than us? 

  • What makes us different/unique? 

• Brand: 

  • How would you describe our company to a friend? 

  • If our company were a character, either fictional or real, who would we be and why? 

  • What do you like most about our company? 

  • Where are the areas that need to improve?

  • Do you believe that we have a unique story that we should tell the market? 

• Audience: 

  • Describe to us our ideal customer

  • What about us would resonate the most with them? 

  • How can we move from awareness into the consideration set? 

  • What are the most important touchpoints for our audience? 

  • What channels are the most important for engagement? 

Once again, feel free to adjust these questions and make them more relevant to your company’s needs. Perhaps you need to interrogate the existing company culture, or the sales process. These are broad so they can apply to multiple industries, but they are meant to be curated to address the pressing questions you need to answer

Wrap up

Once you’ve created the audience persona, conducted a competitive audit, and interrogated stakeholders, you should have a very clear understanding of who you are, why you are different, and why customers should make a purchase from you. You can now take the next step and create a brand that is:

• Different from competitors 

• Focused on what makes you different 

• Tells people why they should buy from you

Still wondering how to actually put the brand together? Subscribe for Part 2, which will outline how to create a brand, or email me at caylinmay51@gmail.com.

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1. Low barrier to entry: There are many emerging D2C brands, cluttering an already cluttered environment. With every new brand that enters the market, the overall market share gets smaller.

2. Competing with incumbents: You are competing with giant companies, incumbents who have dominated the industry for years (and Amazon!). They may be slow moving, but they have a big budget, manpower, and important relationships that will help them maintain a powerful position in the industry.

3. Customer acquisition is expensive: Customer acquisition costs (CAC) are high and always increasing. It costs roughly $11 to capture one customer, a budget many can’t spare. While digital advertising is great in many ways, we live in a very cluttered digital world. A consumer needs to see your ad over and over again before clicking on it, and then several more times afterwards before making a purchase. 

So with the odds stacked against newcomers, what can a D2C company do to ensure their best chance at success? What common traits do successful D2C companies have? 

There are three things that set winning D2C companies apart from the rest: 

1. They have meaningful relationships with customers
   
   This one may seem basic, but it’s amazing how many companies lack this fundamental element. Customers are key and they need to be able to relate with the brand, whether that’s through engaging social media that captures the attention of your target audience, or appealing to something that they believe in and want to support.

   Look at the language and visuals your favorite D2C brand uses. Doesn’t it feel like it was curated just for you? They understand their audience so well that they can make them laugh, engage, and buy. They take risks with their messaging and design, and in doing so, stand out.

   

   Shinesty is a vintage clothing brand with an outrageous selection of designs for many occasions. Their brand is perfectly tailored to their audience:

   • Bold and bright visuals that immediately capture attention

   • Unapologetic tone that will definitely ostracize some, but their target audience loves it. 

   • Consistency across all customer touchpoints

   Additionally, customers want to feel like their voice matters, which can be achieved by excellent customer service. Just look at the relationships the top D2C brands have with their customers - seamless, personal, and human. You can go on their website and chat with a human in a mere minutes, or send an email that is guaranteed to be answered within 24 hours. Don’t like the product you received? Not a problem! Returns are easy and always free.
   

   

   Bonobos is a men's clothing store that started online but now has brick-and-mortar locations. They are a great example of a brand built on customer service.

   • They were one of the first companies that provided easy, free returns

   • They offer 1-on-1 consultations for all customers to help find the perfect look and fit

   • Everything customers try on is catalogued in a curated profile that saves customers’ sizes/measurements and the styles they liked, making future purchases a breeze
     

2. They identified a key, and overlooked, customer need
   
   This can be an insight regarding a broad spectrum of people, or a niche. Many start-ups think that they’ve accomplished this, but most have not. Instead they uncovered something they THINK the world needs, however, many times a similar product/service already exists with an engaged audience, or the world isn’t willing to pay for it.

   In order to be successful, a D2C company must uncover a key insight that the incumbents missed and, most importantly, has not yet been acted on (or has already acted upon but poorly). This insight will give you an edge that can help your company navigate a crowded industry.

   

   MeUndies is an e-commerce company that sells underwear, loungewear, and other apparel. It identified several key insights regarding the struggle consumers had while purchasing underwear:

   • The buying process for underwear is awkward and cumbersome with too many choices, leaving customers overwhelmed and not getting exactly what they wanted

   • Most underwear is boring

   • At the end of the day, people just want comfortable underwear that reflect their personality
     

   MeUndies created a business that directly addressed these insights:

   • They simplified the decision making process by creating a questionnaire that would narrow down results for customers and only offer a limited number of cuts

   • They created fun prints with bold colors and characters their target audience love

   • They ensured that every cut they offer is comfortable and created with soft fabric that customers rave about.

   Look at the insights other successful D2C brands had:

   • Jot: Casual coffee drinkers want a simple coffee making experience that is versatile and still tastes delicious

   • BarkBox: Pet owners want to spoil their pets and are willing to pay to do so

   • Otherland: Organic soy candle lovers want their candle experience to last from purchase to unboxing to tossing

   Beyond, "‘customers want a less expensive product with the same level of quality’ (which was the insight for many successful D2C brands), this key insight is hard to find. But if you do find one, you may be on your way to creating the next multi-million dollar D2C company.

3. They have a powerful brand

   Honestly, having a brand that resonates with your target audience is tablestakes. All D2C brands that stand a chance at surviving must have the following:

   • A beautiful a visual identity, a seamless digital experience

   • Engaging messaging that resonates with your target audience

   • A seamless digital experience

   Your brand, in many ways, is more important than the product you sell. It is what sets you apart from the incumbents and Amazon. It is usually what incumbents pay for when they acquire a D2C company. Many times, they already have a comparable product (e.g.: Schick acquired Harry’s), but what they’re missing is a brand built off an actionable, key insight that has a loyal, engaged customer base.

   In many ways, D2C’s are marketing companies and brand gurus. They take a product that is usually already in the market and add a twist to it, whether that be the price, the way it looks, the experience in which you receive it, the list goes on. That twist, that brand and marketing strategy, is what really makes them pop.
   

While it may look easy on the outside, building a D2C company is risky and difficult. Without the right strategies and insights in place, a D2C can easily fail to resonate with consumers and fall flat. However, when created with the right foundation, they can disrupt multi-billion dollar industries and change the world as we know it.