Back to Miami & Under Water

Had an eventful past 7 days in NYC, it seemed like one long day as the action never stopped. To my surprise, beautiful weather daily…only to return to flash floods in Miami. Had to go ankle deep in water yesterday to get to my car when I left the office. It’s not often you go from NYC to Miami and get worse weather. Well- as we all know, anything is possible.

The above collage was created by ChatGPT. Not perfect by any means, but usable. Took seconds. Just uploaded 4 images of diff dimensions to ChatGPT and in seconds, got back a collage that resized the images for the purpose of including a snapshot in this week’s newsletter. Like I said, not ideal graphic design here, but I didn’t have to bother my design team for this trivial task. Not bad, not bad.

Here’s my eventful NYC recap:

- spoke at the FounderMade DTC Exec Summit

- met some killer up-and-coming brands at FounderMade Innovation Summit

- met up with our TikTok Ads & Shop reps at TikTok HQ

- hosted the Avenue Z DTC x Tech event at the Rally Museum w/ Fermat Commerce

- Recorded 2 podcasts w/ Rabah Rahil featuring 2 of the brightest under-the-radar DTC minds Fei Wang (CEO of Source Medium) & Mike True (CEO of Prescient AI) ... stay tuned for these to drop! 👀

- went to a Post Exit Founder (PEF) meetup... PEFs are cut from a different cloth. Blown away by the IQ in that room. Many of these ppl never need to work again, but they're right back in the saddle.

I don't miss living in NYC, but I do miss the energy and action...wakes you up a bit!

That being said, I’m pumped to be back in my office in Miami, working on-the-go is not my cup of tea.

1. Apple’s Big iOS18 Reveal

A few days ago, Apple held its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). It announced the updates that are coming with iOS18 (likely to roll out to users between July and September) and there’s been some excitement around a few of the new features rolling out.

Here’s what I’m particularly excited for:

• Message Scheduling: FINALLY. I’ve been calling for this feature to roll out for years. I’m an early riser and a bunch of things pop in my head that I need to communicate to people… this has led to a lot of 6am texts from me. My phonebook will thank Apple for this feature. Here’s how it’ll appear in the UI:

  

  iOS 18 brings Scheduled Send feature to iPhones.

• Apple Intelligence: what’s an update in 2024 without AI somehow being involved? Apple Intelligence is easily the biggest update to hit iOS devices. You’ll need an iPhone 15 to gain access or a Mac w/ the M1 chipset.

  • Language: AI (Apple Intelligence) will be able to rewrite your copy to make it sound how you want or proofread it altogether.

  • Images: You’ll be able to generate images from scratch, edit photos you’ve taken to remove anyone in the background, or even generate new emojis based on a person’s looks or just from a text prompt. They’re calling this Genmoji. This is a really cool update.

  • Siri Updates: Siri will now be your actual assistant and can leverage context from your iPhone’s activity log to complete tasks for you. You can command Siri with text now too, not just voice. Example: “Siri, send me that link my Wife sent me this past week.”

  • ChatGPT integration: for advanced tasks, Apple has partnered with ChatGPT to fulfill certain prompts.

• Passwords app: Bye bye password storage apps, Apple is now offering this for free as your centralized place for password storage. Win.

• Lock and Hide apps: You’ll now be able to lock and hide apps on your iPhone. Particularly useful if you get your phone stolen while your phone is unlocked. Some are saying this will empower cheaters since they’ll be able to lock apps from their significant other and can only be accessed with Face ID. If you’re worried about this, you shouldn’t be in a relationship.

2. Inflation Subsiding? 📉

Yesterday, June 12, was a big day for the economy. CPI inflation report came out and the Fed meeting took place (which signals the odds of rate cuts happening and whether they’re feeling dovish or bearish on policy).

• May inflation report came out which indicated that CPI inflation rate fell to 3.3% YoY (lower than the 3.4% expectation) and Core CPI inflation fell to 3.4% YoY (below the 3.5% expectation). This is the first month that CPI inflation was flat MoM since August 2022.

This was a highly encouraging report. The main fear in the past few months was that the Fed would cut interest rates at all (or potentially even increase them). Yesterday, they revealed that they forecast 1 interest rate cut in 2024, a drop in the last projection of 3 cuts.

The rate cut odds of at least one happening in 2024 have risen to 75%, where in previous months it was less certain due to sticky inflation.

Here’s how the market reacted to the news this week:

We’re not in the clear yet, but progress is progress.

3. Meta to Enable 3-P Attribution Algo Optimization

Last week, Meta held its Performance Summit in California. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend since I was in NYC last week. The main rumbling that came out of it was that they would allow advertisers to use 3rd parties’ attribution/events (think Google Analytics, Northbeam, and Triple Whale) in the optimization of Meta’s algorithm.

This is huge news. I’ve always been skeptical of the impact of 3rd party attribution tools if they never fed back to Meta to optimize performance.

This changes the tune a bit and should bring even more confidence to Meta for advertisers. If brands trust 3rd party attribution softwares more than platform attribution, they should feel confident that their ad performance should now improve by feeding the algo the right signals.

Meta has been THE most transparent and confident platform in its ad products.

Being Successful: Natural Ability or Work Ethic?

Watch this video. One of the best videos I’ve ever seen, spoken by the greatest athlete of our generation. The age old debate: skill or effort? Which prevails? Obviously natural ability gives you a higher platform on which to build.

BUT, consistency, determination, and willing to put in the work are the 3 traits as the GOAT himself listed as the recipe for success.

You DON’T have to be special. You just need to be what most people are NOT: consistent, determined, and willing to work.

Could not agree more. Some of the most naturally talented people I know have not achieved even close to the success of many less talented people I know.

Watch the video and you’ll understand why competing as an athlete when you’re young is a competitive advantage later in life. As an adolescent, you develop thick skin and face adversity every time you step on the field. It’s critically important to go through those experiences to develop into the person that can be what most people are not.

TOM BRADY: 🐐

What I’m Listening to 🎧

Beats of the Week: AFRO HOUSE MIX 2024 - Thursday Club Podcast #467 By Krap Noise

Krap Noise’s Thursday Club Podcast never disappoints. Listened to this mix 3x since my last newsletter dropped so this needs to make it to this week’s edition. Words won’t describe how good this is, so give it a listen yourself.

Until next week!

I welcome all feedback. Good, bad, everything in between.

Hit reply, and let’s hear it! 👂

📧 Share your thoughts or what you want me to cover next!