Crazy Stupid Tech, Quiet Gold and Silly Comedians Leading The Blistering Creative Economy – Sunday Reads And Listens

Good morning…

I am east coast working for a few days…Naples today and Memphis tomorrow.

Another storm is expected to hit the Florida coast starting Wednesday so I can hopefully fly out in the early am.

My United flights were a mess yesterday with mechanical problems making for a 17 hour travel day.

My friend Lewis Johnson who I came to see, got me up on four hours sleep to take me to the keys for a shot at catching a tarpon which has eluded me for years on my trips here. We had a short early AM weather window and as luck would have it I hooked and landed a 40 pound tarpon. It was a magical 40 minute fight on 10 pound test line.

Onward…

Now I am back the hotel working.

I have been putting together all the content for Stocktoberfest which is right around the corner. The schedule and speakers are here on the website (scroll down). I generally do NOT prepare for hosting our conferences, but this year is different. We have so many trends to discuss from AI to fintech to degeneracy, the creator economy, fashology, culture and real estate. I have so many people from my go to trusted network joining me for fireside chats.

One of thefireside chats is with my good friend, the awesome Om Malik in which we will be discussing the future of technology. Om just announced a new editorial project focused on innovation and new technologies called ‘Crazy Stupid Tech’. Om is an incredible technology thinker, former venture capitalist (True Ventures) and also an LP in our Social Leverage funds.

Ben Hunt is also joining for a fireside chat and I love our conversations about ‘narratives’, media and the markets. Ben Hunt had a great post this week titled ‘AI Is A Resurrection Machine’ that we will definitely discuss.

My good friend Lewis Johnson is coming to firesaide chat with me as well. Lewis is my go to on all things commodities. Gold is at all-time highs and very quietly ticking higher. Lewis is extremely bullish on the price of the yellow metal and he and I will be discussing not just gold but the boom he expects in oil prices and everything that follows from rising gold prices. I talk to Lewis because he manages over $3 billion and he has spent three decades covering commodities and knows every key person on every desk around the world. He was a regular on my Panic With Friends podcast and made many incredible calls.

One more for today on the subject of the creator economy and collectibles.

My friend Darren Rovell a creators creator will be joining me for a fireside chat on building a media company in 2024. Darren is probably the biggest, widest, deepest collector of interesting memorabilia and has the best stories on how we goes about obtaining and valuing these items. He recently founded Cllct to build the premier collector media site.

I have been very focused investing in the creator economy since 2021. Goldman Sachs is predicting it reaches half-a-trillion dollars by 2027.

Along with personal investing and now wealthtech (wealth management) that have been the focus of my investing strategy the last 15 years, I live in the creator economy and have been investing in it consistently since 2021. I live in the creator economy myself publishing daily on Beehiiv, Stocktwits and Twitter the last 17 years. I am down the YouTube rabbit hole the last few years and loving it. YouTube and Beehiiv are still day one.

Our firm Social Leverage has invested in two creator economy platforms that are growing insanely fast – Beehiv and Punchup.live. Punchup is just a year old and almost every amazing stand-up comedian is using the platform and loving it.

While I love making podcasts and guesting on them, I listen to very few. Comedy is my brain YOGA. I choose silly in a world of noise and confusion.

There is nobody sillier than Conan O’Brien and this week he hosted John Stewart who was forced to go silly as well. It was so entertining. Within the silliness though their knowledge of media and entertainment and culture shines through and it only reinforced my belief in platforms like Beehiiv and Punchup.

Finally, each week Riley curates the best of the posts on ‘Trends With Friends’ website. Here is this weeks list.

Enough for today.

Have a great Sunday.