I am a digital netizen, raised in the 80s and born at the perfect time to grow with the internet in the 90s. I started my internet journey on metacrawlers, BBS, telnet, and ICQ. I typed A/S/L to random strangers more times than I’d like to admit on AIM. I posted college drama on the early blogging platform Xanga and built my own digital avatar and first digital ‘home’ on Cyworld. Then came Friendster, Myspace, Facebook and mobile social. I’ve used Patreon, Medium, Substack, Wordpress, Slack, Discord, and more. X, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn. All locked in. I’m syndicated to over 20 podcast platforms…

• Where is my online “home?” - With data and content all over the interwebs, is it possible to have a central home?

• Where are my “people?” - The fractured nature of many walled-gardens makes it impossible to centralize them all.

• How can I “provide value or help” those I meet? - Everyone is using different platforms.

• Is my desire to help greater than the friction created by 30+ non-integrate-able content platforms? - YES.

A solution has been found.

TL;DR - I created a Discord. Join us for free and let your homies know.

On My Love for Experiments

For those who have followed for a while, you know I love experiments. From 90-day experiments, to ones that take a year+. I’m willing to learn. I love learning.

All of my social experiments have created islands of engagement on those platforms. I’d like to do a new one. I want to bring people from all walks of life together. People who love languages, art, software, product development, investing, startups, leadership, marketing, and more. There are certainly even more categories of people than that, but the opportunity is unique!

I have some very intelligent people within my network. I’d love to get them together.

• How can I facilitate or provide this?

• How can I create a safe place for emergence?

• What value could be created?

• Could lives be impacted and changed?

• Can great products and services emerge?

How can I help many while also encouraging growth and personal success?

On Creating Communities Around the World

Since 2004, I have created digital communities around the world. By the numbers:

• X - 83K, 12K, 2K, 2K - an epic fail in terms of reach (and shadowbanning) but deep in terms of Paid Subscribers (1900+) for personal help. I DM more in Twitter than I’d like.

• YouTube - 435K (cars), 62K (bitcoin mining), 30K (experiments), 23K (personal), 2K (racing), 2K (personal) - I bet you didn’t know I had so many channels with different content on it! :) - Zero monetization.

• Podcasting - 20+ platforms syndicated. I’m a Top 1% podcast at 40K+ listens/mo.

• Instagram - 16K, 2.5K, 2.5K - I kinda quit doing this. I only use one account to support an investment I’m in.

• TikTok - 120K, 12K, 8K, 1K - TikTok has been an interesting experiment. While no monetization, we are the #1 karting channel on there. :)

• Newsletter - 73K, 92K, 14K - I serve multiple user personas. More on this later.

• LinkedIn - 8K - But LinkedIn will be dead in the next years. RIP.

• I can include others like Pinterest, Facebook (tactical for startups), and Telegram/WhatsApp/Discord/Slack… but those metrics are different.

Numbers aren’t exact, but I’m doing (across all platforms):

• ~15-20M+ views per month

• ~120-180M+ impressions per month

Where can we put all of these people? Fractured social!

On Creating Content on Various Topics

I create content around multiple areas of competence. While this may seem unruly, I enjoy talking about what I’m learning and how I’m using what I’m learning:

• Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining

• Web3 tech, decentralized finance, and AI

• Startups and venture capital

• Agile, Scrum, and product development

• Personal experiments, family, and racing

This is why I have so many different channels on content platforms. 25 years ago I began putting my content online with videos. I won’t stop now.

How can I serve such disparate and fundamentally different marketplaces? Fractured value focus!

I Serve 3 Distinct User Personas

It’s taken me the entirety of 2024 to finally figure out the solution to my 3 primary User Personas that I serve:

1. Corporate and business coaching, consulting, and certified Scrum training. - Transactional & lite relational***

2. Entrepreneurs, operators, and business builders. - Time-boxed transactional & tactical relational

3. Investors (VC, PE, Family Office, HNW) and startup investing. - Long-cycle time & strategic relational

While all 3 of these User Personas can bleed into higher/lower ranges of relationships, you’ll notice that the User Personas very distinct. There isn’t much industry glue that would keep (all 3) of these Personas in (one) community. My struggle has always been how to serve all 3 well (and) combine them all. I aim to try!

***Also note that this is why most agile/scrum/project management/kanban/lean/etc industry specific communities don’t thrive: They are transactional in nature. This can only be overcome if there is relational-value and personal-growth value included!

Where can I serve all three of these User Personas? Fractured personal alignment?

The Solution

• Vision - To be accessible to people and serve better.

• Mission - A central place to help people launch - Learn. Grow. Prosper.

• Options - Home grown, substack, X, LMS, ghost, php, slack, discord, wordpress, paid or open source… none perfect. All come with compromises and capabilities.

• Features - Voice and Video, Tiers and Permissions, Async Communication, Ability to drop in content, Community can grow on it's own, Ideas can emerge, Help can be given by the community, Webinars and live events, Personalized help, and Money can be made.

The compromises were real, and there is one distinct solution that has just enough to make it work and I’d love to see you there: Discord.

Join my Discord Community here.

The Future State

I need help building this future state. The User Personas that will benefit the most from my Community Discord are the following:

• If you’re working at a company or business that needs improvement.

• If you’re interested in Agile, Scrum, or any other product frameworks.

• If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or have a product idea.

• In management, product development, marketing, sales, or IT.

• If you’re a management consultant, coach, facilitator, or trainer.

• If you’re an investor or want to network with other Family Offices, investors, and VCs. - Working on how to make this available since *Accredited Investor constraints…

• If you’re looking for a professional community of self-learners.

I NEED HELP

Currently I have several things that need to be modified and transferred over:

• I just finished my 13th Personal Product Camp Cohort (PPCC) since 2017! - A 6-week workshop on personal branding. I’ll be revamping this workshop, and relaunch either later this year or start of 2025. Please hit the emoji icon in the Discord Thread #ppcc-14 to show me you’re interested. - Not sure if I should continue to make this a 1-off paid workshop or build into Mastermind (below)…

• 2-Day Build a Product Bootcamp - I have run this 6 times since 2021 with private clients. I’m currently re-building this workshop to include Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) certification! - This will be a major benefit to any product manager, product developer, leader, or manager of products to learn how to build any product from the ground up. Please hit the emoji icon in the Discord Thread #cspo-bootcamp to show me you’re interested. *CSM or prior agile/scrum experience greatly advised before taking. - Let’s make this public access!

• Mastermind Group - I have 1900+ people in my OG Mastermind group started on Twitter years ago for business builders and investors. This is primarily monthly topical webinars and the BTS (behind-the-scenes) of how I build startups and invest in startups. The amount of advice/help/coaching I’ve given there is incalculable. It’s time to make all of it accessible to a greater audience. I’m not 100% sure of how to transfer (all) of this over to Discord since it’s a [subscription group], but it must be done. I’ll lose revenue for sure during transfer, but X has just become unusable. Please join me in Discord Thread #mastermind-group to help me figure out how to make this next evolution of monthly webinars and value. I’m open to all ideas.

• Monthly Webinars - I want to do monthly (free) webinars with speakers. I’ve been doing paid for over 3 years with the Mastermind group. Find the #webinars-summit Discord Thread if you want to be a speaker or know of a good speaker. Would be great to have experts come in and share! - I need help here!

• Yearly Digital Summit - I’m really keen on having an online digital summit/conference with great speakers. If you know of anyone who enjoys building these types of experiences, send them my way. I need help!

• Opinions - Full transparency: I have about 30 people who pay me monthly ($5/mo) for my opinions on very contentious topics. The monthly fee serves as a perfect balance for this (very niche) audience: I’m ignorant on politics and social, but I’ll be willing to share my thoughts (usually very data-centric) to a small audience that (really) cares. I enjoy it enough I may leave it where it is, hidden and out-of-sight. My ignorance isn’t worth sharing to the world unless you’re willing to pay to hear it. You tell me differently. ;)

We All Need Community

In a world that is becoming even more lonely, it’s imperative we connect ourselves to real people. People who are DOing. People who are SEEKing. People who are GROWing.

(I) may not be able to help you with your specific problem or issue, but I can promise you that someone (in) my community can.

All the best,
ps

#Mastermind OGs - If you are part of my current Mastermind group and want the discounted link to transfer over, click here for 80% off (limited time). All proceeds go to supporting our first digital conference (as we talked about)! Thanks for your support! Let’s build something awesome!~ [Substack pledges can use too :)]