Swimming with Sharks
Hi friends,
Greetings from New York City and welcome to all of the new Crashing Up community members who’ve joined since last Monday. Excited to have you on board!
Here’s what I have to share this week:
My podcast interview with Mindy Zemrak is now live everywhere you listen to podcasts. Mindy is the Emmy nominated Supervising Casting Producer for the 4 time Emmy Award winning ABC series Shark Tank. She’s been part of Shark Tank since season one and oversees the entire casting process, searching for the best entrepreneurs from around the country. We discussed her career in casting, how to land a spot on the show, behind-the-scenes secrets, and shark lessons to make you a better entrepreneur.
Last week I wrote a blog post sharing my take on vision boarding and a better way to practice visualization, the K(no)w Board. In short, the K(no)w Board can help you set clear goals and make decisions quicker.
Now for the fun stuff. Here’s a weekly collection of things that I’ve been learning from or enjoying recently.
📕What I’ve Been Reading:
If you’ve been on Facebook or YouTube recently, there’s a high chance you’ve watched an ad or twenty for MasterClass. MasterClass is one of the few successes in the ever-challenging edtech space, pulling in an estimated ~$200m+ of revenue in 2020. In Why MasterClass Isn’t Really About Mastery, Adam Keesling breaks down the company’s focus on “edutainment” and highlights the main differentiators between MC and the millions of unsuccessful massive online open courses (MOOCs) on the internet. When you dig a bit deeper it’s clear that MasterClass’ true strength lies in marketing, not education.
📺What I’ve Been Watching:
Over 50% of Generation Z want to be influencers, but few have the hustle and wit to break through the noise. Driving organic growth is nearly impossible without a creative, growth-hacky approach. Josh Richards, now one of the most forward thinking and entrepreneurial content creators, shared some stories from his early days on Ian Borthwick’s The Business Side Podcast. Brilliant.
🚢Nightmare at the Port:
U.S. imports are skyrocketing and operations executives are waking up in cold sweats. Between limited availability of dockworkers and truck drivers, a severe container shortage, and a rise in stimulus fueled spending, the global supply chain can’t keep up. Take look at this stat (h/t Ryan Petersen):
While these numbers are compared to a 2020 March low (around the start of the virus), they are still up 40% compared to March 2019. With another stimulus check on the way, the demand isn’t expected to let up anytime soon.
✍️Write For Them, Not You:
Next time you write a blog post, email, or advertisement for your business, keep this checklist handy. Humans are naturally self absorbed. It’s hardwired into our DNA, no matter how hard we try to act otherwise. The only thing that your customers (or readers) care about is how you can benefit their lives. Make sure you’re catering to that in everything you write and do.
…and as someone whose Mom is their editor-in-chief, I’m only partially offended.
🧰Tool of the Week:
Screenshots are one of most underutilized forms of digital media. They’re used to capture important memories and information, but we rarely refer back to them. This mostly stems from the inability to store, organize, or tag these images anywhere outside of our native camera apps. This is a problem that startups like Pager are beginning to tackle, but as of now is still uncracked.
Here’s a cool productivity hack to save full articles as screenshots for later reference. Definitely one of those “I was today years old when…” moments.
That’s it for this week. I welcome any feedback you have and would appreciate if you clicked one of the links below to let me know how you felt about today’s issue. If you enjoyed it, I encourage you to pass it along to your most curious business minded friends.
Until next time,
Randy