BC MARKETING
Saved by @Alex1Powell

Reading this article, the story sounds pretty wild. But I spent a weird amount of time with Martin Shkreli, and I’m not surprised the journalist fell in love w him

A few years back my team built an app called Blab. It was like clubhouse before clubhouse.

 When he first joined the app I had no idea who he was. I just saw that his live streams instantly had 3-4K viewers. More than anyone on our tiny platform.

I googled him and it came up: “Martin Shkreli, most hated man in America”

I assumed he was bad news
And he was... but also he wasn’t.

He was a douchebag, but he was in on the joke. He was a dick, but he was also very entertaining.

In the mornings he would live stream himself analyzing stocks or walking through drug discovery pathways.
In the afternoon he’d let people call in and debate him live on air. A CNN reporter tried to get him to go on TV, he refused, and said debate me here on Blab, no edits, no tv time limits.

At night he’d host late night convos - and eventually fall asleep on cam
The guy was a pain in the ass but man he drove traffic.

We had big celebs like Tony Robbins, the Jonas brothers etc... he outperformed them all.

At one point he was bringing in 100k users per month directly to his channel. And Bc he was so entertaining, they stuck.
He also attracted a group of hackers who decided to DDOS us like crazy for 2 months because we allowed him on the platform.
He did some wild shit on blab.

One day he had to testify in front of congress.

His fans held a watch party of 4-5k attendees. In congress he just pleaded the 5th, but as soon as he left the courthouse, he called into the blab and started making fun of congressmen
You look at the guy and wonder - why would this journalist who was married fall in love with the pharma bro in prison?

But I saw it everyday. The guy has a weird charm. He was streaming live video on our app 10 hours a day, and people were hooked. So I’m not surprised!
Rip @blab !

More from Shaan Puri

Shaan Puri
Shaan Puri
@ShaanVP
Hmm... something interesting I learned from my buddy @RomeenSheth about McKinsey.

I thought they are just a stale boring consulting co

But he told me they've acquired a ton of software co's & now have a $100M ARR tech portfolio now (!)

I'll let him explain - guest thread!

If you don’t know, McKinsey is a gigantic consulting company:

- $10B+ in revenue
- 80%+ of the F500 as clients
- Hard to get a job there. (<1% of applicants get hired)

Their bread and butter (70% of revenue) used to be “pure strategy” work. That’s now down to just 10% - why?

Clients are demanding “value based” billing. Meaning less "guys in suits talking" and more "show me something tangible"

For example -lets say a client hires McKinsey because they think they are spending too much money on procurement.

So McKinsey acquired Orpheus - a software co that does analytics for procurement.

Instead of advice, they give them a tool (a real solution)

Now Orpheus has been around for 15 years. McKinsey can buy it at a fair price, knowing that it can inject steroids into the business.

Why?
TECH
Shaan Puri
Shaan Puri
@ShaanVP
The ancient struggle was not having enough.

The modern struggle is having too much.

Too much news, too much sugar, too much of everything at your fingertips..There's only 1 way out.

Let's lay it out:

On one side, you have "Team Dopamine":
* 24/7 news cycle, full of clickbait headlines
* Social Media, friend's pics that disappear in 24 hours
* Endless varieties of sugar & porn

going up against your tiny, 3 pound brain running 20,000 yr old software

Even if you are a smart person who tries their best to stay healthy & happy... you are going up against Fox News, TikTok, PornHub, Robinhood, Instagram

These are weapons of mental destruction.

Thousands of our smartest engineers & data scientists work at these companies.

They run constant experiments. Fighting against each other for every moment of your attention. So you open THEIR app.

It's skinner's box, rats pushing buttons for rewards. But you're the lab rat.

So what do we do?

We have everything. More than any species, at any time period in history. It's wonderful...but also deadly.

Food injected with syrup sugar
Painkillers you can't live without
Video games where you can fly and kill
Porn better than any date you'll ever have
TECH , ALL
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Shaan Puri
Shaan Puri
@ShaanVP
Hot take: Everyone is wrong about the Metaverse.

here's my 3 part theory..

Part I - Everyone is wrong

Most people think "the metaverse" is a virtual place.

Like in the movie Ready Player One.

A virtual world, like Minecraft, Roblox, or like Zuck showed in the facebook demo yesterday.

But what if it's not a place?

Part II - It's Not a Place, It's a Time

A time? wtf?

Yes, a moment in time.

You know in artificial intelligence, there's an idea of "the singularity"?

It's a moment in time where AI becomes smarter than humans. The moment when artificial intelligence > human intelligence

Part III - What it is

The metaverse is the moment in time where our digital life is worth more to us than our phsyical life.

This is not an overnight change. Or an invention by some steve jobs type.

It's a gradual change that's been happening for 20 yrs

Every important part of life is going digital.

Work --> from factories to laptops. boardrooms to zooms.

Friends --> from neighbors to followers. Where do you find like minded people? Twitter. Reddit. etc.

Games --> more kids play fortnite than basketball & football combined.
METAVERSE
Shaan Puri
Shaan Puri
@ShaanVP
If you wanna level up - the fastest hack is to hangout with people who are ALREADY at that level.

The beauty of twitter is that you can hang with anyone.

The problem is ppl follow the wrong accounts. It's noisy as f*ck.

Here's 27 people you should follow (and why)👇

If you hang with smart, interesting, successful people - you will start to think & talk that way too.

We are monkeys that copy what we see. You can fight it, or use that to your advantage by surrounding yourself with people who you want to become more like.

Group 1: Smart, Rich, & Don't Give a F*ck (no filter)

@chamath - was early FB, has big balls, bet early on Bitcoin & SPACs

@rabois - kind of a dick but he's clearly smart

@balajis - this guy is from the future, and has come back in time to tell us what's going to happen

BTW - I'm recommending people who are:

* smart
* say interesting things
* successful (not just talkers)

Plenty of people are 2 of 3.

You need ALL 3 to make the list

Group 2: Business Buyers - they see the $$$s of 100s of businesses a year.

@awilkinson - built a $200M+ empire of internet businesses

@BrentBeshore - same as^, but non internet (unsexy) biz (eg. swimming pool repair, port-a-potty rentals)

@XavierHelgesen - he does both
LIFE , FOLLOW LIST
Shaan Puri
Shaan Puri
@ShaanVP
If you're a college student who wants to pay off all your loans... here's an idea for you:

It takes ~$5k to start and will make ~$30k a year of profit

It won't get you rich, it'll pay for college.

(..and will teach them more about business than they’ll learn in school)

The idea isn’t sexy. But it works:

**Plastic Moving Bin Rentals**

Everyone knows moving sucks. The worst part is being stuck with 400 cardboard boxes at the end of your move.

Instead - @benmlevy told me about Gorilla Bins. They dropoff plastic moving bins, & pickem up later.


Let’s break it down. Our goal is to pay for college (~$30k profit per year).

To do that, I think we’ll need $50k in revenue.

The avg move (a 2 bedroom apartment) is $180

To hit our goal, we need do ~5.5 moves per week

COSTS?

How many bins do we need to buy up front?

5.5 moves a week x 50 bins = you need 275 bins. Let’s round up to 300 to be safe.

Ok let’s hop over to @uline to see how much these bins cost

Bingo. Bins cost about $15 a piece.

$15 x 300 bins = $4,500 initial startup costs.

Time to beg your parents or a rich aunt to lend you money to get the biz rolling (...or just take $5k of student loan money and invest it here…)
FINANCE

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Amanda Goetz
Amanda Goetz
@AmandaMGoetz
Marketing 101: building a personal brand

- what does personal brand mean
- why should you care
- how to distinguish it against the company you work for
- how to do it w/ support from your boss
- how to build yours

A thread 🧵

Personal brand has a negative stigma in some circles.

Personal brand does NOT mean you are a self centered narcissist.

Personal branding is intentional use of your time, voice, channel and platforms.

Why intentionality is important:

How you invest your time = How you will spend your life

Social media can become passive and addicting without true meaning and intention.

Don’t waste your life reading other people’s highlight reel, make your own.

Being a creator > being a consumer

How can you be intentional?

Similar to building a brand strategy: know what you stand for as a person

What lights you up? (Your mission)
What value do you want to bring to the table? (Value props)
How do you deliver it? (Voice and tone)

Reminder on brand strategy 101 ⬇️
MARKETING
Chase Dimond | Email Marketing Nerd \U0001f4e7
Chase Dimond | Email M...
@ecomchasedimond
The 20 Commandments of Email.

Lessons from making over $50 Million for clients and building a 7-figure email marketing agency from scratch.

//THREAD//


1) Treat your subs with respect

People didn't sub to your list to be spammed.

People subbed to your list because you have something to offer and they're interested in you.

Keep it that way.

2) Test Everything

-Subject lines
-Email length
-Sending times
-Copy
-Angle
-Preview text

"Never stop testing and your advertising will never stop improving."

-David Ogilvy

3) Have Systems

-Welcome flows
-Purchase flows
-Abandonment flows

These will keep earning money forever.

You need sleep.

Systems don't.

4) Leverage List Segmentation

Never blast your whole list.

That's just asking to land in the Spam folder.

Focus on people who actually open your emails and click on your links.

An engaged list > A huge list.
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Money Theory
Money Theory
@money_theory
The Ballad of Paul O'Neill:

Get a cup of coffee.

Today, I will talk about one of the brilliant management stories I have ever read. Let's get started.


1/

It was the year 1987, where a bunch of analysts and investors have teamed up to meet the new CEO of Alcoa.

Alcoa is one of the largest aluminum manufacturing firms where employees work in a dangerous environment. Millions have invested in the stock.

2/

Recently management has made missteps letting competitors take away profits and market share.

It was a sign of relief when investors heard about a management change.

The new CEO is Paul O Neill, who is a former Govt bureaucrat.

3/

AGM has started. Paul entered the stage. His only emphasis is *worker safety* He aimed to bring down worker injuries to zero.

He talked nothing about firm profits, capital ratios, taxes.

The investors were confused. They thought he is crazy and sold their shares.

4/

But to their surprise, the firm market value has increased from $ 3 billion in 1986 to $ 27.53 billion in 2000 while net income improved from $ 200 million to $ 1.484 billion.

What's more, all the growth occurred while Alcoa becoming one of the safest firms in the world.
MARKETING
Barrett O'Neill
Barrett O'Neill
@barrettjoneill
I've created $10,000,000 in traffic value:

Here's everything you need for a *simple* SEO strategy that works: 🧵

The secret for SEO success is not advanced strategies & cutting edge ideas.

It's a simple plan paired with consistent execution.

To succeed, view SEO through the proper lens -- building equity into online presence.

It takes time & effort.

The 5-Step Simple SEO Strategy:

1. Keyword Research:

Identify the search terms that have a combination of search volume & intent.

Intent = why is this being searched?


Types of Keyword Intent:

Information: Shoes
Brand: Nike Shoes
Purchase: Best basketball shoes

Mix in all 3 -- to drive traffic & conversions.

The further down the funnel, the less volume, but higher purchasing intent.

2. On Page SEO:

Insert keywords into the proper places, so search engines understand site topic and target keywords.

- Page Titles
- Meta Descriptions
- Alt Text
- Content Structure (H1/H2/H3)

These are signals that algorithms use as information to influence rankings.
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Ads Alchemist
Ads Alchemist
@AdsAlchemist
Can't run FB ads on your own profile?

No problem.

Here's how you use a virtual browser to run ads safely on someone else's FB account.

** Thread **

In order for this to work, you need to have permission from someone to use their FB profile.

Whether that's a friend/family of yours or some random guy/gal you pay.

Because you'll need the login information to their FB profile.

Just a heads up.

A virtual browser is the best solution I've found for this.

A remote access tool like Splashtop is an alternative option but the user has to have their computer on if you want to access it.

This can create a bunch of headaches which is why I prefer to use a virtual browser.

It allows you to access the user's computer alongside them so you're able to log on whenever you like no matter if the user is using their computer or not.

I'm sure there are a bunch of options for virtual browsers but I use Multilogin ==> https://t.co/RF6s0Mto8f

99% of you will be fine with the Solo package which is around $100 a month.

Small price to pay, if this is the only option you have to run ads.
MARKETING

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'Tera mera rishta kya, hindu, hindu,hindutva' is a clear take on 'tera mera rishta kya,la ilaha illallah'. As much as Hindutva hates the monotheistic religions especially Islam, there's a strange wistfulness and subliminal need at display now, to BE that they hate. 1


Charlie Hebdo doesn’t come up as a cautionary tale now but rather 'why cant we be like that'?
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Or he was loyal, admirable and when he cleaved his chest, you saw both Ram and Sita. Now we have a lot of “Angry Hanuman” stickers. Why is a cute childlike God angry? We don’t know. It's a convenient blank space where to paint all the angst of Hindu Khatre mein hain narrative. 3


The other strange thing that has started happening is pictures of Ram appearing sans Sita. “Jai Siya Ram” has become “Jai Shri Ram”. Some people disingenuously explain it as being the same thing - because Shri is a name of Lakshmi. Not really. Siya is an apbhransh of Sita. 4


Shri is a prefix of respect in this case. Hinduism is being militarised. A woman/Sita has no place in it. Even the militaristic Goddess that is Durga has no place in this conception of neo-Hindu divinity, as evidenced by Dilip Mandal wondering where Durga came from. 5
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A thread 🧵

1) Learn Anything - Search tools for knowledge discovery that helps you understand any topic through the most efficient

2) Grad Speeches - Discover the best commencement speeches.

This website is made by me

3) What does the Internet Think - Find out what the internet thinks about anything

4) https://t.co/vuhT6jVItx - Send notes that will self-destruct after being read.
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SRI KALAHASTI KSHETRAM, CHITTOOR (AP)
#bharatmandir

Panchbhootasthalam representing vayu element, also called Dakshin Kailasha.
As per Shiva’s boon, Vayu is incarnated here as Shiva and worshipped as Kalahasteeswara.
The kshetram is also associated with Rahu and Ketu.


The Kshetram is named after 3 devotees of Shiva- a snake, spider and elephant who worshipped a lingam in the forest. Elephant did jal abhishek with water from its trunk, spider protected it from dust by weaving a web on it and snake adorned it with his jewel.
@GunduHuDuGa


Once, the web and jewel got washed away when elephant sprayed water on the lingam. Angered snake entered elephant’s trunk and bit him but died in the process. The agitated elephant trampled the spider accidentally. Shiva gave moksha to all three.


Hence the name-Sri for Spider, kaal for snake n hasti for elephant.

Shiv bhakt Kanappa is said to have plucked his own eye to put it on the lingam here when he saw blood oozing from the eye on the lingam
This place is the ultimate location for Rahu Kethu Sarpa Dosha Nivarana.
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Cherthala Karthyayani Kshetram
#Alappuzha, Kerala
#KeralaTemples 🚩

Cherthala Karthyayani Temple Prathishta was done by Vilwamangalam Swamy. Chertala Pooram is very famous. Devi is Mangalya Dayini here removes obstacles relating to marriages. Sthala Puranam says that, once 👇


Vilwamangalam Swamiyar was passing this area after Prathista of Padmananbhaswamy Temple, he felt Devi chaitanyam and recognized as Karthyayani Devi. But Devi seeing Vilwamangalam went inside the pond. Swamy searched for Devi continously for 6 days and on 7th day Vilwamangalam


got hold of Devi's hair. Thus only Devi's head is Prathishta here. Devotees do Kozhi parathal ( offering cock) here as an offering to Karthyayani Devi.

Karthyayaniamme Sharanam
🙏🕉🙏
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...are going to be expecting a story about black people trying to safely navigate the country (real history) and instead will get a white savior film. Like folks went to see Detroit thinking it was about the riots...

Anywhoo, I know Mahershela is fantastic in it. He was the best thing about the trailer. As rich as the history behind the creation of ‘The Green Book’ is/was, as amazing as Dr. Don Shirley’s story is, WHY is this film about a random, racist driver and his family?

This feeds into the ignorant anti-Black American stereotype of “Black Americans don’t have any culture/history/mythology” or whatever. That our stories are still both being used while simultaneously erased in 2018 is wild to me. It’s gonna clean up come award season. 🤦🏾‍♀️

And now, if black filmmakers WANTED to make a film about The Greenbook, guess what it can’t be called🙃. Just like if someone wanted to make a film about the actual Detroit riots, guess what it can’t be called? Then those filmmakers would run into...
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