Josh Levine

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Next up on Embracing Erosion? Alex Pattis, the General Partner of Riverside Ventures and founding team member of Hampton. Alex is also the co-founder of Last Money In Media, a leading VC newsletter that delves into Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) within the Venture Capital ecosystem. Alex has become a leading voice advocating for the SPV investment format versus the traditional VC fund model. So it won’t surprise you got super deep and into the weeds on all things investing, but we touched on plenty of other topics such as: 🚀 How to scale a company from concept to 9-figure exit 🔄 How to break away from the traditional consulting model and apply product approaches ⏩ Why it’s important to iterate quickly and often with messaging 💸📈What signals are important to pay attention to when investing in startups Give it a listen 👉 https://lnkd.in/gEKv5ghE The Compete Network

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Brit Morin, Jessica E. Lessin, Sam Lessin and Dave Morin had a really interesting conversation on a podcast this week about media businesses, the tribulations of the The Washington Post and how it's losing piles of money and subs. The discussion dipped into something Chris Anderson coined 20 years ago, perhaps before their time, called "long tail" content. Essentially his thesis called on creators to hyper-focus only on their niche, becoming the expert in hacking heat pumps or the best practices of dog grooming. Now, I'm one of those always looking to appeal to the broadest audience possible so naturally I've pushed against this framework, considering it too limiting. Then I met and worked under Robert Allbritton at POLITICO, where in spite of many in the company not on board with the philosophy, he talked about starting the company to deliver value to a sliver of the audience: those most powerful in the halls of government and soup of politics (and charge significant money for it). Needless to say it was a winning approach, because it's unlikely Axel Springer paid a billion dollars a few years ago for the ad-supported general news side of the house - as terrific as that content is. It was the subscription "Pro" product that overdelivered to that wonky sliver. And while the chatters on the pod did not say so, a similar strategy could well work for the Post: Turn 80% of the operation toward finding a little white space in the "political and policy makers" space, and become an absolute authority there ... and then, of course, license all that to the LLMs ;-) (But that's a story for another post.)

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Thanks netinfluence for the article today on my client Creators Buddy. The key take away for me is that in the highly competitive world of you tube, investing in media as a creator isn't a bad thing it just shows you are being intentional. We can also help w brand deal performance, subscriber growth and a host of other things. Hope you enjoy. https://lnkd.in/gD2CxqPV

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What is the purpose of your brand story? Recently I chatted with Reme Mancera and her podcast "Who Cares About My Story". You might be surprised that audience growth and brand awareness aren't even part of the conversation. Whether you're a service provider or you sell a product, you are building a community. And you are building something that will change and evolve as you change and evolve. Your brand story is the thing that holds it all together. Many businesses make the mistake of creating a core brand story and then repeat the message on autopilot. This defeats the purpose and power of storytelling. Watch the full conversation on how my approach to story telling has collapsed time in the client journey, allowed me to see new ways to serve clients, and strengthen my ability to be a powerful spokesperson for my own company. #media #tv #pr #brandstory #marketing #entrepreneur https://lnkd.in/e46GXP4U

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Let your company's money do the talking - an inspired pilot project in #PortlandOregon attempts to redirect corporate spending in a purposeful way. Hat's off to Rebecca Dray of Purchasing with Purpose, Sarah Holdeman and Rebecca Goldcrump of The Impact Collective PDX for spearheading this novel initiative. This and more in the current issues of my newsletter, Godspeed. #supplychain #procurement #purpose #socialimpact #environmentalimpact #sustainability #CSR

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We all go to a LOT of conferences. So, what makes a powerful panel? Hats off to #StreamingNYC ( Evan Shapīro and Streaming Media Magazine ) for disrupting the "usual" panel style of talking heads by incorporating a debate style approach -- clanging cowbell for overtime and all. A couple of perfect examples: Cynthia Nelson moderated a debate on #AI pros and fears, with Robert Tercek strongly on the pro side, but 17-year old wunderkind Braden Blacker explaining his digital native use of it... (both of whom I grabbed for an ad hoc interview for this week's two-part episode coming from my #InsiderInterviews podcast.) Another? Michele Fino of Crackle, and Pam Zucker - a "ringer" from the IAB strategy side - were pro- #performance marketing, hotly contested by the #brand awareness promoter side of Laura Sandoval Uber Advertising and Lauren Denowitz, of ‘Witz About Her’. I'll have more about that in an article soon. Guess who won? Spoiler alert: BOTH SIDES! And on the KEYNOTE approach, you want strong POVs, and "point/counterpoint", which we got from Steve Ellis Paramount Advertising Chief, and brilliant thought leader/moderator, Evan Shapīro. A snippet of their convo at last week’s event: Steve Ellis: "The narrative which I would love to see change is about 'broadcast is this' and 'cable is that,' aging and declining, and 'streaming is over here'. We do not sell that way. We are unified and organized and our clients want to buy the audience they want across the footprint. And by the way, we now have full capabilities of targeting video within the footprint we have...and full measurement options beyond just one." Evan Shapiro: "And now you've made performance capabilities free of charge?" Steve Ellis: "Yes, for anyone who buys advertising with us. As the previous panel [with Fino, Zucker and others] said, 'We're all in the marketing business now'. You can't do Awareness OR Performance. You've got to do it all to be effective, depending on your product." Amen. NOTE: Stay tuned for #InsiderInterviews with ESHAP and and others on #AI and creators/influence. Jam packed with insights, so had to break it into two parts!

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The Neighborhood Studios team spent the last few days thinking about our new idea pipeline and its output. Tons of thoughts on this after being in a venture studio for 2 years. Here are some summary stats... - 1,750 new (raw) ideas considered per year. - 110 of those are given a second glance. - 66 of those are seriously considered. - 10 of those become experiments...real products in the hands of customers. - 2 of those are spun-out into studio companies. What the studio team has been discussing over the past few days is that 66 number. That's the number of ideas that 3 people on the team can dig into every year. Venture studios can be perceived as a "startup factory"...an engine to launch startups. The reality is that venture studios are a machine to invalidate ideas. We invalidate many more ideas than we validate. We touch 1,750 ideas per year, seriously dive into 66 of them, build experiments for 10 of them and only launch 2 of them. All that work turns into 2 studio companies per year that have a way higher success rate than the average startup in the wild. Said another way...startups are hard. Talk with Tapan Patel Gabe Hart Whit Anderson IV Jonathan Brinson if you wanna talk about this. They are world class.

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Directories are a space to watch (and invest)... I was listening to Greg Isenberg chat about directories with John Rush... What is a directory? A list of things on the web - could be people, products, restaurants, etc. There are almost an infinite number of "things" out there, and people want them narrowed down to a few so they can make a choice. That's the value that directories provide. Directories are an awesome way to add value where there isn't any - using keywords to find things people are searching for, that no good directories exist for, and then quickly make them. That's what John and Greg were chatting about. They have downstream revenue potential - through affiliate deals, advertising, etc, and upstream revenue potential in selling spots on the list. And upstream, things are going to get more valuable as we market more to LLMs and less to humans. This is prime content for the LLM to devour and pay to play directories are going to become a critical part of brand marketing in what's next. But, for humans, directories are also a great way to monetize reputation. Think paid lists, and also value that can be delivered as part of memberships, community, etc. Not to mention the traditional endorsement style revenue streams. Think about Sam Parr's new venture "Sam's List", a list of accountants that made $25k in its first full month. This is a paid list based on reputation. I also think there’s a huge opportunity to combine these two approaches... build sticky, search driven, AI optimized lists and partner with a creator. What's next in commerce is Personality Led Growth + AI. For every trend and opportunity, we should be looking at how one of those can be leveraged. Directories are super interesting because they have the potential to leverage both. What are some other spaces where these trends intersect? #AI #Creatoreconomy #marketing #seo

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Big news rocked my industry last week. SXSW announced a new event in London. This follows a previous expansion in Sydney. Scalability has been the number one issue preventing every CMO or CEO from investing more in events. Not anymore, and the trend is evident. Higher margins, AI, and improved efficiencies are making events more scalable. In every industry, events are expanding beyond their geographic location. A similar pattern is showing in our industry: - IBTM announced Asia Pacific for 2025 - Northstar just launched a show in Singapore - Informa pushing the growth of the Connect brand, traditionally multi-city. What does this mean? Brands like SXSW are now exporting a template of experience that other attendees want to attend worldwide. What are they exporting exactly? - A unique way to select speakers (Panel picker) - A unique event design (distributed) - A deep presence in the destination  - A mix of audiences (tech, business, creative) This is the product of 'experience brands.' Will SXSW be able to create the same Austin experience in London?

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When you decide to fire 80% of your top producers and then your ARR drops by 20% year-over-year, you may want to give your growth strategy a second thought. https://lnkd.in/eKMHeamz

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Talk about an earworm!

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Jon Farah grew his consultancy, pblcmedia.com, from $0 to $12k/mo in just over a year without any prior client base or case studies from past success. His approach was all about building partnerships. By building genuine connections right here on LinkedIn, offering a compelling referral incentive, and driving value for his partners and clients, he was able to create strong and sustainable growth for his business... Starting completely from scratch. Check out the full case study in our newsletter (linked below). It's a must read for founders who are just starting out or looking to build a new, organic revenue channel for their business. https://lnkd.in/eqXWnx4V

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I'm sure you have heard that Meta (the parent company of Facebook & Instagram) removed all Christian and religious targeting options from their ad system. So, for faith-based businesses, charities, ministries, and organizations that don’t have a significant history of successful campaigns, Facebook is as good as dead when it comes to Christian advertising UNLESS you have an existing history of your own past ad campaigns, OR IF YOU HIRE SOMEONE WHO DOES HAVE PAST CAMPAIGNS, then you can still be successful. If you don’t have your own past ad campaigns to work from, then YOU NEED US! Let us manage your Facebook & Instagram ad campaign using our history of very successful campaigns. In the Facebook A.D. (after death) era, Christian brands need to find and be using alternatives to Facebook ads to reach and engage their target audience. Here are our top 5 recommendations for advertising in Facebook A.D. ⤵️ ✨Social-Adjacent Marketing Solutions like Influencer marketing ✨Google Ads ✨Programatic Ads ✨Twitter Ads ✨Gab Ads ✨Traditional Digital Marketing Although Meta has removed all religious targeting options from their platform, it’s definitely not the end for faith-based brands. Now is the time to find new opportunities for advertising to Faith-based and Family audiences. Read more marketing tips here: https://lnkd.in/gMVnQHg #christianpublishing #christianauthors #christianauthor #christianwriters #causemarketing #socialimpact #digitalmarketing #socialmediamarketing #onlinefundraising #charitysupport #nonprofitleader #nonprofitmarketing #nonprofit #nonprofitorganization #nonprofitlife #marketingagencies #socialmarketing #socialmediamarketing #marketing #digitalmarketing #pr #publicrelationsagency #publicrelations #moviemarketing #filmmarketing #filmpromotion #adagency #advertising #advertisingagency

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May 2022… My eyes were dry as I pulled out my laptop after another day of teaching. I came across an ad from a copywriter to who promised an ethical side to marketing with her copywriting course. I brushed it aside. But the algorithm did its thing and it kept coming back on my feed, until I finally clicked on it. That was the beginning to my new career. How did she convince me? ✅She was genuine. ✅She gave a non pushy vibe. ✅She showed me exactly what I’d expect if I chose to take her course. I was hooked! I tried it. Practiced. Got feedback. Repeat. Then I started reaching out to clients — a pattern emerged… Many chose to work with me not only because of the skills I brought to the table, but because of the vibes I gave. This copywriting path made me realize that it doesn’t matter what you sell if you don’t treat people like what they are — ✨people. ✨ On this journey I’ve been proud in producing great copy, but I’ve been even prouder of how I make people feel. This ripple effect has led to magazine interviews. I truly believe it comes from building genuine relationships. What a great feeling to wake up to #sdvoyagermagazine letting me know my story was published! See what they asked me below. 👇🏽 —————————————————————————————- My name is Mayra - soy Mayra - and I help product and service based business owners grow and SCALE with authentic and genuine launch and sales copy. Let me give you a hand. 🫶🏽 DM me and I’ll help ya out on your marketing journey. Why? Because offers don’t sell themselves. RELATIONSHIPS do. Aka - making people feel seen and heard. Building relationships is free - be aware of those around you - in person and online. ➕ Follow @culturalvisionaries for more copy tips 💟 Save this post for later - it’ll be helpful for you and your business! 👥 Share it with a friend you know is ready to BUILD UP themselves, their business, and their community. #launchcopy #formerteacher #latina #businessowner #emailcopywriting #marketingstrategist #ecommerce #bipoc #inclusive #coaching #program #beauty #education #finance #wellness #sdvoyager https://lnkd.in/gKJ42PUg

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TikTok has 270 ( or is it 269 days ) to sell or it's out in the US... Today is Creator Upload Podcast's SuperBowl. Joshua Cohen and I have been doing this podcast for four years and the last few episodes have been killer. Last week's with Jordan Matter on why he's all in on longform and this week where we discussed the potential ban and its ramifications have all gone to the next level and it's not just because of us! Kaya Yurieff, Matt Bilinsky and Liz Perle all took the time to come on and give us their thoughts. In addition to Jessie Whittington owner of Country Lather Soap Works, Paul Tran co-founder of Love & Pebble, Tiffany Krumins owner (and Shark Tank contestant ) of Opu Probiotics, Jackson Gosnell  a politics- and news-focused creator, Brandon the Plant Guy, who uses TikTok to market his horticulture business plus Brian Nelson at The Network Effect. As long as Tiktok is owned by our number one foreign adversary I believe that it cannot exist in this country. As much as I empathize with Creators and small businesses who rely on it for their livelihoods that cannot trump our national security interests. I know many disagree with me, but I'd argue those people need to spend more time thinking about global geopolitcs (super fun, right??). This legislation passed with what has become incredibly unusual bipartisan support. I don't think it's going anywhere. What do you think? Link to the episode in the comments. P.S. This ep was a bear to put together so I want to take a minute to thank all of the folks above plus our producer Adam Conner, our editor Jason Kang and James Hale at Tubefilter.

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Wanna see what behind scenes at Pisgah Peaks Ventures ? I see more & more folks going out on there own & wanted to share more about our growth and some lessons. Inspired by Nick Lafferty and his public build. Backstory: I founded PPV after leaving Franny's Farmacy in early 2020 right at beg of COVID lockdowns My wife thought I was nuts I started it with few grand & a laptop. I found one client on Upwork & did some cheap work for a friend who had started a SaaS product. I got testimonials Used those to get a paying client Then another Etc I made literally no money for first 18 ish months. Few hundred bucks here & there My wife had a job with benefits and we made some $ selling a house in a hot market so was able to afford it. I could not have done it without this. Pure facts. Lessons: 1) Don’t niche down right away. You’ll narrow focus too soon & miss out on opportunities IMHO. Learn what you can deliver & how you can make $ doing it 2) Network every day. I used to take ANY (and I mean any lol) networkint call. I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours on random calls. It increases your surface area for luck early on. Take a lot of shots. Most will miss. 3) Don’t over invest in fancy website / logo / CRM / mar tech etc early on. If you’re selling B2B services; people buy YOU not a site. I’ve seen folks close 5-6 fig deals with a google doc. I haven’t updated my site in years 4) Open a biz checking account quickly and expenses everything you can to claim a loss while you can. I see folks co mingling their personal & biz expenses. That’s messy and will cause issues later. 5) Have a cash runway. If you are expecting to replace your income from your old job in first few quarters you’ll most likely be disappointed. You now are paying FICA tax (14.5%) and all other taxes (state & fed). You’re getting no benefits or retirement either. Just assume 50 - 60 cents for every dollar you earn will be not end up in your pocket 6) Grind every day but not all day. Don’t expect to take 2-3 week vacations and maintain momentum. It’s not like the gurus make it seem in their ads or posts. You won’t be posted up on a beach 🏖️ but also remember to give yourself grace and don’t burn yourself out too quickly. 7) Keep notes & build systems once you know your path. I didn’t do this early & am working backwards now. 8) Don’t measure weekly trends or monthly trends. Focus on quarters. You’ll get discouraged if you over analyze. It likely won’t go as fast as you want it to. I’m going on 5 years and last month I netted more than I netted my entire 2nd year doing this biz. We’re on a 7 fig run rate currently 🚀🤯 Keep at it. HMU if you need help

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How big can the Creator Economy get? Well, Forbes has partnered with Walmart’s Creator Platform for its inaugural Creator Upfronts scheduled for Oct. 28-29 in Los Angeles. Forbes Creator Upfront will not only connect brands with influential creators, and help marketers identify social commerce opportunities. Take a look at the post below from Walmart CMO William White - and be sure to read the article from Jessica Deyo in Marketing Dive:

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