Todd Kaplan

To those who are meticulously planning every detailed step of your career trajectory….I have some bad news for you…

Things most likely won’t work out exactly as you planned - and that’s okay!! Because after all - you make the role, the role doesn’t make you! 👇

I’ve seen people transform roles nobody wanted into amazing experiences, and I’ve seen people swing and miss in their ‘dream job’. The truth is, there is no such thing as a career-making role - careers are made by the people within the roles, not the roles themselves!

And quite often, the most fulfilling and valuable learning experiences come out of the roles you never thought you’d want. So instead of worrying about your next four moves, focus on the one you are in today and find a way to crush it. 🔥

After all - no matter where your career takes you, the most consistent thing across every one of your roles is YOU. 👀

#Careers #CareerAdvice #Leadership

Most marketers today undervalue the role of earned media and organic social media in their marketing plans. Let me explain 👇

Think about the breadth of content you consume in a typical day - TV shows, articles, texts, social feeds, streaming, videos, etc. Now what percent of all that content is actually paid media / ads? And when you do encounter those few paid moments, do you tune out or even skip (if afforded the oppty) since it isn’t what you are trying to engage with?

Yet somehow most marketers spend 90% of their time building creative, media plans, and executions that only play in this small sliver of a consumers actual time. And I get it - the creative agencies, media buying mechanisms, and measurement tools are all built around that exact same sliver. But in order to truly resonate in culture, brands need to approach idea development from a different lens - build creative ideas that invite consumers to participate where they are already spending their time - something they would organically post about to their feed, text to a friend, read about in an article.

While I know it can be a lot tougher to measure impact across earned and social vs paid, my experience has been that a healthy balance of all three usually nets out with a positive impact - that drives the business while giving the brand a shot at connecting with culture. And if nothing else, the creative ideas are usually stronger when the earned and social filters are brought in earlier in the process.

Just my $.02: Don’t interrupt your consumers regularly scheduled programming. Let them ‘find you’ where they are already spending their time, with ideas that encourage them to opt in and engage.

#marketing #media #earnedmedia #socialmedia

For those who think NFTs are just some sort of collectible fad like Beanie Babies - you are completely missing the point. Let me explain…👇

Just because their has been a boom (and a splat) around the application of NFT’s as digital collectibles, that doesn’t have anything to do with the disruptive role this technology will play in shaping our future…

Think about some of the first webpages when the internet was initially invented. Dial up modems making it difficult to load. No video streaming. No social media. No E-Commerce. It was just a webpage with some static images and information on it that you could access through a desktop computer. Not terribly useful at that time. And a lot of people frankly didn’t get what all the fuss was about.

Now fast forward to NFTs - sure there are a bunch of fun collectibles out there today, and some may even have utility. But in the coming years, this technology will be the secure digital building blocks behind a number of elements within your daily lives. Your medical records. The deed to your house. Your sporting event tickets. Your art. Your home videos. Your passport. Your digital wallet will become more important (and accessible) than the one tucked away in your back pocket. And an unlimited array of new virtual goods (that you didn’t even know you needed) will become available as people spend more and more time in digital experiences.

So try not to roll your eyes at the next headline that is only looking at the surface level of what is here before us today. The real game changer is actually all the tech that’s under the hood. It’s early in Web 3 - so plan for the long game to understand what it can mean for you and your company. Put in the time now to learn more about this exciting new blockchain technology, smart contracts, the metaverse, and all other things Web 3. That way when the tidal wave of supporting innovation comes along, you will be ready…

#Web3 #NFTs #Technology