A solid look at Business Disruption ahead...

I had never heard of Patrick Bet David before I bookmarked this a day or two ago.  This guy's an entrepreneur, he's obviously involved in today's rapidly changing, tech enabled world, and he makes A LOT of sense.  I don't agree with everything, but that's the point.  He's making me think about  change that I haven't dreamed of... and I think about these types of things continuously.

As I've written before in this blog, I think we're in an 80 year (or so) period where our new technology is disrupting every business model, and every aspect of society.  I call this The Big Transition.  This video, which is a year old, challenges us to consider major disruption in 10 industries and one other area.  Here are the industries he sees changing and/or disappearing:
Restaurants, Movie theaters, Telecommunications, Wallets, Personal cars, Retailers, Insurance, Traditional journalists, College sports, Gas stations.  Bonus: Politics.

I don't agree with everything, and he's coming at this from a completely upscale financial viewpoint.  There are more poor people than ever, there will be millions more in the future, and they 1) need many of these things at some level (like Walmart and cheap restaurants), and 2) millions of late adapters and the financially left behind people slow "progress" down dramatically.  That said, he makes a lot of valid arguments worth considering, especially if you're involved in these areas.

Things have changed dramatically in the last 30-40 years, and more things will change faster in the next 20 or so years.  In any case, employee or business owner, these ideas are worth the time to listen to and mull over.  

The Small Business Revolution documentary

I watched (OK, mostly listened) to this a few days ago.  It's a really good, and inspiring, in my opinion, look at small business in America today. 

Three years ago, I was living in a toxic environment, not getting calls back for any "real jobs" I applied for, and need to find some way to start earning a living again.  I started with literally no money, just a few art supplies and a really crappy, refurbished, laptop.  It was still running Windows XP in late 2015, that's how ancient my computer was.  I think Fred Flintstone had traded it in. 

Back then, I started focusing on making money with my unusual and unique Sharpie artwork, the only thing that made me a little money now and then.  It's been a wild ride, and I never started making a decent living off my artwork.  But I did sell around 100 original drawings in three years, starting at like $20 each, and I used Facebook, my blog, and other social media to promote myself.  I created a ton of content, anyone can see nearly all of my drawings on the internet and about 4 other platforms.  I got really good at a thing called "content creation."  Other than people adding outside drama to my life, my main issue was that my artwork isn't profitable enough to make a drawing that takes a week to draw, and then sell it, and have the money to pay everything I need to.

So after surviving a really rough, crazy winter, in a new city, I did some soul searching.  I realized that very few small businesses do much in the way of content creation, even though it's free.  It just takes some time to create.  Many things don't take that much time.  You can snap a quick, cool pic in your business, and upload it to 3 or 4 places, in a couple of minutes or so.  So I realized I can keep drawing, but on a less intense level, and take my internet and social media ideas and skills and help small businesses implement them.  So that's where I'm headed, again starting a really low financial level.  But I now have a body of work, both my artwork, and the online content I've created, to show that I know what I'm doing in these areas.

With this pivot in my work, I'll be blogging a lot more about small business ideas I have, stories of small businesses I've worked at, and creative things we did at those, and I'll be sharing things I find along these lines.  This is a good one to start with.  At 27 minutes, it's along watch for most of your busy lives, but easy to listen to while doing other tasks.  Plus the last blog post took me two days to write, and I've got an offline project taking most of my time at the moment.  I need a quick post today.  So enjoy this documentary for now.

Great interview with Jeff Bezos

I just listened to this interview while working on my current drawing.  He comes off a lot more down-to-Earth than I expected.  Few think about it now, but I remember the Dot Com hype days of the late 90's and early 2000's when business TV networks and mainstream news continuously made fun of Amazon.com and their stupid idea for selling books online.  Shows what they knew. 

I give Mr. Bezos huge props for discovering the nuances of homelessness, and working with the "Transient homeless," which is an area we, as a society, should put a lot more effort into.

While space is fascinating, I don't agree with his whole premise of working to help human kind move into space over the next 200 or 300 years.  Our society will never last that long.  There will be humans then, hopefully, but not our kind.  But hey, it's his money. 

Really great interview on his ideas about entrepreneurship, business, and taking care of your customers.

Building a Creative small business 3/11/2018

Since I'm working on turning my art (and writing) into a small business, I've been on a Gary Vaynerchuk kick the last few days, listening to a bunch of his talks and interviews.  Gary, like many of the wines he used to sell, is an acquired taste.  When you first hear him, it's easy to say, "This guy's a big-talking asshole who cusses to fucking much."  If you get past that stage, and some don't, you'll realize that he really knows his stuff on the internet, tech savvy business, promotion, story telling, community building, marketing, and sales in the connected, information age that we now live in.  And he puts out TONS of content these days. 

But Gary's advice is geared mostly to people already in the tech world, or very tech friendly areas.  He's ahead of the curve because he goes to great lengths to keep a feel for the pulse of our rapidly changing, connected world.  So that's why I like listening to him, especially as I work to get my own biz going. 

But one blind spot of his in the millions upon millions of people, and huge areas of our country, that "don't do tech," or are just don't see the need to learn all this new crap getting invented.  He's knows this world is out there, but he's to busy to focus on it. 

I'm getting going in a mid-sized city that has done a lot of work to encourage a biotech/science scene to grow here.  But the vast majority of everyday people here are stuck in the "get a job, and if you can't find one just keep trying" mentality.  There's not a big entrepreneurial spirit here... These people I see around town are often masters of Candy Crush, but don't think of their phones and laptops and tablets as business tools.  This area of North Carolina was built on tobacco and textiles, with lots of farming and factory jobs that have mostly gone away.  It's like huge parts of the U.S. these days.  The idea of starting your own business is not widespread.  But as I've said before, looking hard at where we're headed (being an amateur futurist is my geek zone), I think we're going to need literally MILLIONS of new small businesses to get this country jamming financially again.  That's a very unusual, minority opinion right now.  I'm fine with that.  I've been a pioneer in other things before, and I'm used to everyone thinking I'm an idiot until an a new idea becomes cool.  I've seen that happen many times. 

Listening to Gary Vee rant on You Tube the last few days, I've decided to narrow the focus of this blog quite a bit.  I'm going to spend most of my time writing about what I'm doing to get my own little creative business going, and all the different things that entails, from the mindset and attitude needed to practical stuff I do day to day.  I'll also be sharing all the stuff I find along these lines for the other artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people building businesses.  I'll still tell the occasional old school BMX freestyle tale, since that's what a lot of you know me from, and I may throw in some of my crazy taxi driver or homeless guy stories, if they tie into that basic theme. 

And I'll try not to write lame ass blog posts like this one that have six paragraphs when I could have said this in two sentences.  I need to work on that.  Alright, back to work for me, and for you, go do something cool.  Later.

The answers to the questions you'll ask when you're broke in two years: Gary Vee lets loose

If you're not interested in using the web and new tech to promote yourself or your business, then you'll probably think Gary Vaynerchuk is an arrogant prick who cusses too damn much.  That's understandable.  But he's not.  He's been a businessman since childhood, and he knows just how amazing today's technology is when it comes to letting everyone into the game of business.

When I came to North Carolina in November 2008, after a  year on the streets of Southern California, I started surfing the web for the first time in my life.  That was years after most everyone else started wandering around in the online world.  I was way behind the curve on the internet and new tech.  But I wanted to figure something out.  I wanted to learn what it took to be a writer in today's world.  I've been going to the Google State University and You Tube College and self-educating ever since.  I started blogging, and have since had three blogs that were #1 in their little niches, in the world (FREESTYLIN' Mag Tales, Freestyle BMX Tales, and Make Money Panhandling; all have been taken down since).  They didn't make money.  But I DID learn that these days you're a media company first, like Gary says in this talk, and then you're whatever you THINK you do for a living.

I live in a fucking tent right now.  But I'm doing what I love.  I'm creating drawings that real people want to put on their walls.  I worked two years to get to that point, after ten years of developing my unique style.  I'm writing about things that I really am interested in and care about.  I'm not worried about the raccoons I share the woods with getting in my tent.  I can deal with them.  They 're actually better neighbors than many 2-legged creatures I've met. I'm not worried about that because I spent many years searching for the reason that I, personally, am here on Earth.  I found the answers I was looking for that ring true on a really deep level to me.  That simple understanding let me get out of my own way, and get much, much more productive.

Some people like what I draw, I'm starting to make money consistently with that.  The writing and blogging will lead to other types of income in time.  I go to sleep happier in a beat up, old, musty tent in the woods than most of you do in a big, awesome (or not so awesome) bed in your nice warm house.  I'm doing what I think matters, and it's starting to pay off.  That's because I've been learning from people like Gary Vee (and Seth Godin, Mitch Joel, etc) for the last 9 1/2 years, and I've been trying different things, finding my voice, and learning what does and doesn't work for me.  What I've sent out into the world, both online and off, is starting to come back in a positive way.  I've been meeting talented and motivated people with similar interests, and many have helped me one way or another.  So even if it's a cold, rainy morning, and my tent zipper won't zip closed, and I start cussing like a taxi driver (or Gary Vee), I'm still stoked on what the day ahead of me will bring.  With that going for me, dealing with the day to day crap doesn't phase me that much. 

As a homeless entrepreneur at the moment, I know that something really bad could happen on any given night.  It's possible I won't live to see the next day.  But more than likely, I'll be able to work my way out of homelessness (again).  At that point, the sketchy tent living will become a funny anecdote to tell to people who think it's impossible to start their own business. 

For a while now, I've been saying we'll be heading to another recession before too awful long.  Like Gary, I did some research on the whole student loan crisis, and realized that it will collapse, probably in this next recession, and it will cause hard times for millions of people.  It could be another 2008 mess all over again, and we'll see well known colleges and universities struggle, and some will collapse.  It's another big part of the shake down as the old Industrial Age fades, and the Information Age continues to take shape.  I don't say this to be a doomsayer or bum everyone out.  I see it as a financial weather report.  There's a big storm coming in the economy, we get one every decade, and I believe putting some thought into it ahead of time will help me, and all of you, deal with it better.  Gary Vaynerchuk is the first successful business person I've heard talk about the student loan crisis turning into a Great Recession-type mess. 

But there's another side to financial hard times.  Lame businesses go under, and there are all kinds of opportunities for people who have good ideas and are willing to work hard.  I don't care who you are, it's worth the time to listen to Gary's speech above.  I know most of you won't watch it.  So if you're reading this, come back to this post and listen to it a year or so from now when things look really sketchy.  You'll be ready for what Gary's talking about then. 

Put in the work...

Gary fuckin' Vaynerchuk cusses a lot.  Or "curses" a lot, if  you grew up in this part of the country.  He also understands today's connected world like very few do, and he works his ass off.  Just listen.

Small batches from small companies: Skate industry in 2017

Trying to get an idea of where the bike and skate industries are right now, I ran into this Sean Mortimer article on small companies in the skateboard business.  If you're in the business of any action sports, this is worth a read. 

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