Subject: Thoughts on 700 new subscribers and Mauldin – from John Mauldin

Bob,

I’ve been meaning to dictate/write this letter to you for some time. I’ve been reading your pieces for at least a few years, and while we are of the same age (more or less as I am almost 68), radically different growing up experiences. I have to apologize to you that you only got 700 new subscribers. I should’ve put a link in and it would have been much higher. Next time I will.

Will the new readers stick? Hard to say… I am not sure that your tribe and my tribe are all that different, but then again I’m not sure who your tribe is. And that’s where your writing speaks to me. You talk about musicians finding listeners and giving them what they want. We think about expanding our investment information junkie tribe and making them feel included, feeding their information needs. We actually hired a person this year whose entire job description is to make new readers, who sign up for my free letter, feel appreciated and wanted. Hopefully they will buy something. Eventually. Like a musician, I appeal to a certain audience/tribe. It’s an interesting business model and not unlike the music business. Really, the investment publishing business has a dozen different genres as different as country music and hip-hop.

If we should ever find ourselves in the same ZIP Code, I think you might be fascinated to sit down and compare the experiences that I go through in Internet marketing investments and newsletters and the music business. I make my marketing team read your letter religiously.

It’s lines like this from today’s letter that inspire me: We don’t need much, but we do need great. Every week when I sit down as I have for soon to be 18 years, I look at a blank screen and say, “dear gods, don’t let the magic stop now.” I started with a few thousand names back in 2000 and the letter just took off. I did a few things right, got lucky on more things.

I read you because you remind me that my focus has to be on the quality of my writing material that I give to my readers in the experience they have. And everyone on my team has to have that same focus. Seven books and five bestsellers and a million readers later I haven’t made a dent in your world, and likely never would or will accept that I do drive traffic when I mention a name. No reason for you to read me or know me.

But mostly, your letter was the reason you got 700 new readers. People far outside the music business intuitively understand that attention is everything. And you seemingly effortlessly just let the words of wisdom roll off your fingers on the screen helping us focus on what we should be focused on which is making sure that we deserve the attention of our readers. And so they searched for your name on Google and subscribed. From my experience, readers who have to work to get to you or your best subscribers. And they become the most loyal. I will likely read that letter on attention once a month for many years.

Frankly, from reading you it sounds like those in the music business are a bunch of whiners. Their business changes over a few decades. They should be in a business where Google changes the search parameters every three years and you go from being the number one to somewhere on page 37. Overnight. And then the same damn thing happens again three years after you claw yourself back up to where you are on page 1 again, meeting their new parameters which are again just changed and so every penny you spent on SEO is down the drain. And bitching to Google does absolutely no good so you just deal with it. Because they’re in the business of trying to improve their customer experience.

And then you find yourself putting in a six-figure budget just for the ability to be able to send out millions of email addresses a week without being flagged as spam. Wasn’t even in the budget line 4 years ago. Now we are spending mid-six figures just growing our list. Five years ago we grew organically. Then Boom, the world changed. One of my main competitors is down 80% on their deliverability and income. And these guys are pros, having been around 30 years. Early Internet pioneers and then everything just changed. And then changed again. My executive team fully expects to have to reinvent the entire business delivery model every 3 to 4 years now.

Getting attention and follow through is much harder today than 15-10-5 or even two years ago. We seem to run harder just to stay in the same place, let alone grow the business.

I know I’ve only got 25,000 followers on Twitter. I find Twitter to be mostly noise as far as revenue production. But you’re right, I will get somebody on my team starting to focus on getting more twitter followers. There’s no reason I shouldn’t have a hundred thousand with some effort. It’s probably good for the branding and all, but still not sure how you make money out of it. We keep trying to figure out how to monetize Facebook. We know we have to do it to stay relevant but damn it’s not easy. It’s like being on CNBC or FOXBusiness or Bloomberg. Its validation but as far as I can tell it does almost nothing for increasing my readership. Honestly? I get more viewers from putting a link in my letter to the segment I was on than they probably have watching it to begin with. Business news aggregators? They are changing even faster.

My cell phone is ___-___-____ and you are welcome to call. I am writing a book on how the world will change over the next 20 years I would love to pick your brain.

All the best and good luck on the health front!

With warm regards,

John Mauldin
President

Mauldin Companies
2900 McKinnon, 1708
Dallas, TX  75201
www.mauldineconomics.com

P.S.: ALL 700 NEW SUBSCRIBERS STUCK!

The buzz comes AFTER!

We were searching the Netflix/Amazon files for something to watch. Primarily new, one of their series, something we could sink our teeth into while we await “House of Cards” and “Bloodline.”

Not that I used to employ Netflix this way. I used to assume everything was on there, now that’s not the case, now it’s HBO with a whole hell of a lot more product all available instantly, but we’ll get to that feature later.

And after dissecting the offerings, I take my watching time seriously, we delved into “Dear White People,” which was a mistake, not because of the subject matter, that intrigued me, but because it instantly became soap opera sophomoric with modern details thrown in. I mean I’m better off watching “Atlanta,” which I’ve never seen, but is now unavailable. What’s with these filmed entertainment people, haven’t they learned any lessons from music? I’m paying for all these services already, I’m certainly not gonna buy it.

So we dug into “13 Reasons Why.”

Now I pulled up “Dear White People” because of the reviews, which were all positive. But the even more favorable reviews scared me away from “13 Reasons Why,” since they all pegged it as “Young Adult,” but at this point I was just looking for something good, I could see Felice’s mind wander during “Dear White People.”

And “13 Reasons Why” IS good. Good enough to watch, which is more than I can say about “Orange Is The New Black,” but it’s certainly no “Transparent,” no HOC, no “Narcos”…but we got hooked.

And what bugs me about the show is it’s supposed to be about high school and everybody looks like they’re in college, and I know high school was supposedly done better in “Freaks and Geeks,” which I’ll get around to some day, but the darkness in “13 Reasons Why” appealed to me.

We’re not finished, we’re seven in with five left.

But now I feel part of a tribe, part of the juggernaut, you see “13 Reasons Why” is building a head of steam.

Now the movie business still functions on the old paradigm. Teasers a year in advance, trailers a few months in advance and then bombardment with spots and billboards the week before, all imploring you to go on Friday night. But the truth is, if something’s good you’ll find out about it, and if it’s bad, you might find out about it even sooner. So all that money is spent to what effect?

Whereas on Netflix… There’s almost no advance buzz. They announce shows, but they’re not in the superhero genre that dominates movies and they’re voluminous in number so they can’t be promoted as Tiffany-quality as they do on HBO, they’ve just got to come out.

And make it or fail.

And most do fail. Because they’re just not good enough.

But the winners…

Gain viewers over time, become water cooler conversation even months later, when you’ve forgotten whether you’ve seen the big summer release or not, the one about as nutritious as a Coke.

Now this is not TV. It’s not even HBO, where they dribble out the episodes over a period of time, where if you don’t get in early you give up, you don’t even bother to participate. I saw an episode of “Big Little Lies,” I liked it, wanted to watch more, but was on the road and didn’t have the time. Then everybody’s talking about the finale, the reveal, and not only am I not gonna watch that, I’m never gonna watch the rest of the series, I feel left out.

But finding a Netflix series is like stepping on a land mine. To mix metaphors, you go down the rabbit hole, in darkness, alone, it’s a private journey but you link up with like-minded viewers on the other side.

It’s not too late for you to check out “13 Reasons Why.” You can begin tonight and still feel a member of the club. No one watches all 13 episodes in a day, it’s not a race, just a matter of making the commitment.

And once you do…

You notice the continuing press.

Put out a movie or a record and you don’t hear another thing about it after the week of release. Have a hit Netflix show and it permeates the culture for months. I know, I know, Netflix is loving the backlash, the inane parents saying “13 Reasons Why” CAUSES teen suicide. But when you’re in the marketplace you can get lucky, others can give your story to you, promote your product.

Yes, “13 Reasons Why” is about the suicide of a high school girl, but I’m giving away nothing, ruining the show not at all, because that’s the set-up, that comes right up front. I don’t need any spoiler alerts. Watching this show is like living life. It’s less about the facts than the experience.

So, how can Netflix get it so right and everybody else get it so wrong?

Maybe, because the rest of the media outlets were born before the internet era. Cable has still not figured out the future. I mean the cable systems have, they’re all about the internet, but the channels? Did you see Charter just kicked MTV up to a pricier tier, one a lot of people don’t want to buy? That’s a death knell.

But who needs MTV anyway?

We don’t need much, but we do need great.

And when something is great it takes a while to percolate in the marketplace. You hope to get traction MONTHS down the line. Don’t tell me about the new releases, tell me about the records everybody’s talking about six months from now, the wisdom of the crowd, abhorred by purveyors but loved by consumers. After all, we check the reviews on Amazon, we don’t want to waste either our money or are time.

So maybe you’ve already finished “13 Reasons Why,” you’re gonna e-mail me your take.

Or maybe you’ve been thinking about watching it.

Or maybe you’ve never even heard of it.

But one thing’s for sure, you’re gonna check it out now.

Because that’s the life we lead. Where we want a peek at what is creating the buzz, we want to get inside, marinate and then render an opinion, whether it’s thumbs up or thumbs down, we want to belong.

This is the culture you want to tap into. You want to create a haven, a hive, that draws honeybees to it. And it all comes down to the work, hype doesn’t matter. The only hype that counts is that which comes AFTER you’re on the road to success, that trumpets the bandwagon, that features in-depth stories about these people who were previously nobodies. You trickle out the info and fans eat it up.

I’m eating everything up about “13 Reasons Why.”

Does not turn out the way you planned it.

Assuming you planned it at all.

Some of us come from pushy parents, with visions of our futures. We jump through preordained hoops and we get to a threshold, a fork in the road, and we’re clueless as to how to move forward.

Others grow up ignored. Or with values focused on belonging as opposed to achievement. And it’s hard if no one cares, but the truth is you’ve got to figure life out for yourself, and it’s better if you do. It’s just that you’ve got to avoid the potholes, the drugs, the diversions, the bad people who will lead you into backwaters that you may never recover from.

And the truth is it’s all internal, external pressures don’t ultimately work. Unless it’s to put a roof over your head and food on the table and sometimes I think it would be better if we were not coddled, if we were all challenged, because it builds character and survival instincts, to learn that even if someone is looking out for you, that does not mean you can make it, in business, in life, that you can navigate the 24 hours 365 days a year that seem alternately long and short, depending upon whether you are happy.

And you won’t always be, happy that is. There will be moments, completely unexpected. You’ll be driving with the radio on, standing on a cliff, and everything will come together, you’ll have a smile on your face, you’ll be thrilled you are living. Then there are milestones that should thrill you that don’t, like graduating, from college, even high school. It’s kind of scary, because you don’t know where you’re going, but even more you’re expecting to feel something you don’t. Life is all about expectations that go unfulfilled. And I’m not talking about winning and losing so much as people telling you such and such is a big deal and it turns out it is not.

When I graduated from college no one got a straight job. Now college is a preparatory institution wherein you shine up your bona fides so you can enter the workforce, one leg up from the rest, on your way to success. But you wake up one day and wonder if this is the road you want to be on. And that’s the scary thing about life, it’s hard to jump the track, once you reach a certain age you are who you are, you can buy a self-help book telling you how easy it is to switch careers but it’s not, especially if you’ve got obligations.

And society wants to tie you up, with a spouse and children and a mortgage and a car payment, and then you’re a slave to the grind. But if you opt out, you’re no longer a member of the tribe, you’re the other, on you own path, and sometimes the stars align and your choice is exalted, like in the hippy-dippy sixties, but usually this isn’t so. So if you’re going to take the road less traveled, you’ve got to be secure, no one is gonna hold your hand, you’re going against the grain and those who are with it are not going to to encourage and support you.

That’s another thing about life. You need money. Absolutely. More than ever. Don’t delude yourself that you do not. And more money brings more happiness and then it does not. Rich people are attractive, they have freedom, but then they start to believe their own hype become all about lifestyle and are then intolerable. Life is about your job, if you ain’t got one, you’re not very attractive. The pay isn’t important, it can even be voluntary, just as long as you show up every day and do the work, treat those surrounding you with respect.

So you don’t know when to jump off the cliff. When and if to get married and have kids.

Let me tell you, everybody else is flummoxed too. If you’re waiting for that inner voice to say yes, to say this is the path, you’re screwed. Everybody is unsure. But one thing’s for sure, some are more comfortable with risk than others.

And actions have consequences. You can’t extract yourself without pain. Divorce has a cost, primarily emotional. And you can abandon your children, but the guilt will haunt you forever. Which is why life is about character. Not that those with the best character get rich and survive, but they fit in best, and life is about fitting in. Isn’t that amazing. No one wants to be alone, they all want to be accepted and understood, have friends. Find those like-minded and be loyal to them, they’re all you’ve got, they’ll get you through.

And you’ll get fired and the industry will change and you’ll get sick and there will be wrenching transitions. If you haven’t been through them yet, just know they’re coming. You’re married for twenty years and then suddenly your spouse wants a divorce. Or the company moves to China, or suddenly there’s no need for the company at all. Watcha gonna do? I’m not sure, you’ve got to figure it out for yourself, good luck.

And then suddenly you’re old. Your parents told you about this. You look in the mirror and you don’t recognize that person and you don’t want to go back but you want to put the brakes on going forward. You can’t do what you once did, remember everything you did do, and so many expectations have gone unfulfilled.

This is your life.

Be thankful you get to live it.

It’s neither a race nor a competition. Rather a free-form art project. That’s right, grow older and all the STEM courses become irrelevant and the liberal arts ones shine. Because life is about experiencing the world and thinking about it, putting the pieces together. How are you gonna do this? It’s not just about getting up every day and doing what you should, that’s emotional death.

And that’s what you’re avoiding, emotional death.

So listen to your elders and ignore them. Study history and discard it. Read the maps but bushwhack, create your own path. Information is key but it won’t deliver anywhere near the answers you need. Be an individual but rely on others. And know when you get to the end, you’ll be stunned at the choices you made, but realize they were inevitable, that you couldn’t do it any other way.

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together try to love one another
Right now
Right now
RIGHT NOW!

“Get Together”
The Youngbloods

And the press said not to be afraid of Donald Trump, that he was ineffectual, and Paul Ryan was a small thinker, that they could nominate Supreme Court Justices but not break the government…

WRONG!

This is what I hate about today’s America, you’ve got no idea what’s going on. The elites were unaware of the working or out-of-work class and the right wing has its megaphone and is not listening to the left and everybody’s blaming fake news when the problem is real news, and people living in echo chambers, unaware of what the other guy is saying.

Didn’t used to be this way.

Not because of the Fairness Doctrine, not because of fewer media outlets, but because of the makeup of our society.

Remember “Peace and Love”? Seems like the only person still saying that is Ringo, and the days of listening to your rock star to tell you which way the wind blows died when MTV made performers richer than their wildest dreams and then the techies came along and ate their lunch, literally with Napster and figuratively as in how much richer the coders can be.

So we’re sitting in the mud, listening to the Airplane, playing air guitar to Hendrix, sharing our food, looking out for one another, Max Yasgur tells us how amazing it is that we can all get together for three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music and then Reagan goes and blows a hole in the whole damn thing.

I just took a huge risk there in case you don’t know. By mentioning the exalted one’s name. You might think he was a dementia-ridden, astrology-abiding, grandfatherly nitwit, but to a whole swath of Americans he’s god. He single-handedly stopped Communism and he denigrated the government and gave the power and the money back to the people and harmony reigned forever more, until that black guy became President and ruined it, which is kind of amazing if you think about it, since that black guy was a centrist and he didn’t control Congress for most of his tenure and you might think this is about racism but this is really about a redefining of what America’s about, which is I’m gonna grab mine, SCREW YOU!

As if the rich aren’t rich enough.

That’s the problem in America today, income inequality, but if you say that the right wing claims CLASS WARFARE! But why should that scare you, aren’t classes just divisions amongst ourselves?

And the point here is by mentioning Reagan and “class warfare” my inbox will go berserk with people telling me how wrong I am and I have no respect. Used to be the African-Americans would tolerate no taunt, now it’s the white right wing. And if you think about it, Huey and the Panthers did a lot to give their community respect. And now Trump is enabling everybody on the other side, who just want the foreigners to go home and the ethnicities to shut up, so they can all go home and shoot opioids and revel in their freedom.

Not that the left doesn’t push it too far. Did you see that story in the “Times” about vocal coaching for transgendered people? I’m all for transgender rights, vocal coaching is cool with me, but when you’re losing the World Series you don’t start worrying about your bench, making sure the hitters far down the line are ready, YOU FOCUS ON THOSE WHO ARE GONNA PLAY! As in the left wing just does not know how to prioritize, doesn’t know how to subordinate the little stuff to focus on the big stuff. Furthermore, the left is myopic, they’ve got no idea how anybody other than themselves live, and they’re contemptuous of others.

Everybody in America has got contempt for everybody else. And we can’t agree on the facts. It’s as if in that aforementioned World Series the National League team believes it’s winning by 3-2 and the American believes it’s winning by 2-1, how do you even start, how do you even play the game?

As for the rules, even Congress just changed those. Which is how Gorsuch got his seat. A guy who wasted no time in making his views known, swaying decisions 5-4.

So I’m pretty depressed.

We don’t listen to the same music, we don’t go to the same schools, Betsy DeVos is about vouchers when the latest statistics say they actually cause scores to go DOWN and the truth is it’s all about religious education, getting the government to pay for it, and now we’re not even studying the same stuff.

And the President just stands up and lies. After all, he’s an entertainer, and they lie for a living.

And no one can lose their job, everybody wants to protect what they have, and there’s no cohesiveness whatsoever.

I’d love to tell you how it all works out, but I’m clueless. I can document the change, how we got here, but I feel powerless and there are no leaders on the left and like I said, the news outlets keep telling us not to worry, it can’t happen her, BUT THEN IT DOES!

Ryan can’t get his bill passed.

But he does.

Well now it can’t get through the Senate.

WANNA BET?

And this doesn’t even apply to me. I pay beaucoup bucks for a PPO with a multiple four grand deductible because of preexisting conditions but I want this level of service. The thought that I’m paying five figures a year and therefore everybody else should be screwed never crosses my mind. I’m worried about the disadvantaged, those who’ve lost their jobs, been the victims of unforeseen health problems and yes, maybe that single mother shouldn’t have had that kid, but we’re gonna throw the baby out with the bathwater, is that what we Americans do?

I know, I know, we can’t get everything we want, we have to compromise.

But the joke is on the left. I voted for Barry and I’m down with him, but let’s not forget that on his watch the Democrats lost control of both houses of Congress and all those governorships. I live in California, but the rest of the country is pretty damn red. Good luck having that union look out for you, the union is DEAD!

Because the unions are the problem.

The tort lawyers are the problem.

The government is the problem.

No, we are the problem. We’re every one of those people. Just like every family has a gay member, we’ve all got relatives all over the place, in all walks of life, working for the man or being an entrepreneur, advantaged or less so.

The problem is us.

And we’re gonna have to metabolize the effects of President Trump and his cronies ourselves. The media ain’t gonna save us. Hell, half the people benefiting from the programs Trump wants to cut don’t even know it. How many years is it gonna take them to realize this and get their voices heard, and what will be lost along the way?

And all these marches, they don’t seem to be making a difference, they’re too vague, whereas a town hall where you complain, make an elected official worry about his gig, those seem to have an effect, so maybe we need more targeted protest.

Or maybe whatever we do makes no difference.

The truth is we’re all in it together.

But no one in America believes that anymore.

America is a great place if you’re rich.

And if you ain’t?

Not so much.