Gen Z

Really interesting to see how everything is lagging behind ecom in real time They’re years ahead of tech when it comes to marketing. Culturally, most of these guys are bootstrapped so they must be creative with marketing or their product will fail. Find the best bang for their buck, find ways to accelerate winning creative, etc. They’re stressing every day about how to make it work with the little money they have in their pockets Trybe has been up for the past year in the ecom scene but it’s a fresh concept for most of the tech world I think a good amount of them lag behind in marketing because founders raise a ton, not worried about being profitable their first year and focused on product over distribution. The comfort of the raise let’s them sleep at night Entertainment is usually last. For example, I was recently at a massive record label for a meeting and they’re still running meme pages for their artists trying to break them. They’ll commit to UGC within the next year or so Imagine if 2hollis had UGC campaigns running behind him

Zander is easily one of the greatest guys I know and incredibly hard working He helped scale one of the fastest growing CPG companies in the country, creating their whole in-house creator ecosystem and is now building one of the most electric CPG brands himself, Sunday Markets Great person to know. His journey is the definition of “greatness is the capacity to take pain” and I wouldn’t bet against him

Got my hands on some sick physical ads today in Brooklyn 1971 Yamaha ad from National Geographic 1972 Kool ad from Playboy Post WW2, motorcycles in America were seen as one way tickets to your grave and meant for thugs. Honda and Yamaha did aggressive campaigns to change the culture around bikes in America during the 70s. Motorcycle registrations went from 200,000 in 1945 to 5M in 1974 Kool’s ad is a great contrast. Takes a beautiful waterfall to describe a cigarette Neither ad is selling the product. Cinema.

She made $140,000+ in six months Gained over 300K followers Just from storytelling Moments like these never get old. Incubators has the fastest personal brand accelerator and creators are getting paid comfortably to grow their online presence I love the internet. I love business. I love creating.

Ripped a 5AM 10 mile run with @Ckatsikaris1 today in New York. Can confirm he has the best in-house UGC program at FOMO rn, better than most agencies in the space Also found out he rips 20 mile+ runs for fun. Legend.

Sometimes I ask myself "Why do people help me?" Whether it's an intro, an idea, investment or perspective. There's been so many sick individuals that've helped me for zero gain. I tell them I'll find a way to return the favor and 10/10 their response is so humble I feel embarrassed for even asking. I want to be like them. Incubators got its first M on the year and we're now turning on funnels, onboarding a bigger cohort of creators and building something that came from an idea in my head. Nuts. But then I think, none of this would happen without the giants that decided to help. I am eternally grateful. Eventually get to the point where I can provide as much value for others as they've provided for me and then some

Any good coworking spaces in nyc besides verci to work out of?

Flow state achieved on this fine Saturday

Final days in Costa Rica before back to concrete of NYC but a major finding Waking up then immediately working is better than gym before work Slam that black coffee, clap your hands and say “alright Jarvis, let’s do this” then get to trenching Once coffee wears off around noon, eat, then immediately workout to avoid any mid day crash. Energy is regained. Back to work around 2PM-7PM Night is for ideation and creative things. Text back friends and fam then do it all over again the next day

Character positioning in videos is arguably more important for conversions than a CTA If the viewer doesn't align/desire/like the person who's carrying the pain points... GG's. Why should we buy from a person saying "You're fat because you're not tracking your calories on the chubby app" in a smug tone This video I made for Daisy ($400 headphones) increased their waitlist, aided in sales and their following. All because of character positioning I made the founder sound desirable. He was analogue driven, kept a wad of cash on him, didn't like his phone and hated AI. Don't we all aspire to be as offline as this guy? Showed off the product for a bit shortly after but the conversions came much before the CTA. Watch here: tiktok.com/@creatingthecode/…

I'll never forget my first company retreat with Incubators internal team We were in Costa Rica and workshopped like mad men. Arguing about the product and understanding each other personally (highly recommend) One of the questions was "What fuels you?" I told the squad, I'm not sure why but I carry tons of rage in my heart. What contributes to this? Still figuring it out. This fuel is abundant and I love it. From my earliest memories on my PS2, playing NBA Street Vol.2 (the best installment), my older cousin would destroy me. Gamebreakers, blowouts, the whole nine yards. I would put my controller down, go somewhere nobody else could watch and cry. I hate(d) losing. So, I'd challenge my cousin again and again and again until I won. Never did. His gameplay was flawless. "Get at me when you're older, LL" Eventually, I'd crush him in every 2K installment years down the line but those wins never felt good. All I could think of when I was shooting w Kobe on 2K10 was the feeling of that gamebreaker my cousin used that sent me into tears years ago

Been in the jungle of Costa Rica for the past few days working on Incubators and decided to surf today Watched a few TikTok's of dudes ripping massive waves and thought how hard could this be? Found a local who would teach me. The embodiment of Big Z and I felt like Cody Maverick. But I lied and said I was an intermediate so we could skip the white water waves and go for 5ft+ bangers Big Z gave me an 8ft board, said some things in Spanish I couldn't understand and nodded like I did, lol. Paddled out, deep water, semi-strong current and a lineup of surfers that made me feel like the smallest person in the water (I'm 6'4). But it was too late to turn back now... Big Z screams "vamanos amigo!" and I knew it was my time Turned my board towards the beach and began paddling to catch the upcoming wave. At first, I thought Z was pushing me then I realized this wave added a V6 to my surfboard... I dropped down the wave for one second, stood on the board for another and wiped out. Felt like I was underwater for fucking ever. Once my head popped up, Z yelled in broken English "fuck yeah bro!" rolling the r. We went again and again, each time him saying "sigue fallando!" or something like that until I caught my first wave hours later Will never forget that feeling. We get back to the beach and I asked him what he was saying in google translate. "Keep failing bro, keep failing. That's how you catch bigger waves" - Big Z