Monday Musings (7/15/19)

Hey everybody, 

Over the weekend, I published an article with my friend Nik Sharma. 

We wrote about Amazon and the Direct-to-Consumer commerce boom. In the article, we outline the playbook for Direct-to-Consumer brands who want to work with Amazon.

The piece is geared towards industry insiders, but anybody who is interested in the future of commerce will enjoy it. We suggest that working with Amazon is a delicate balance. On the positive side, working with Amazon brings instant sales and reduces overhead. But too many brands become dependent on Amazon. Those who do, don’t build the infrastructure required to create a sustainable DTC business. That’s why working with Amazon is such a delicate balance. 

You can read the full article here.

Some statistics that caught my eye: 

1. Amazon launched 66 private label brands in 2018.

2. Amazon has ~ 100 million square feet of distribution center space across the United States.

3. Amazon now controls more than 550 brands, and 68% of them are apparel-focused.

4. Amazon’s advertising business promises product discovery for consumers and new product introductions for sellers. It’s already an $8 billion annual business.

Fresh Ideas

[Flashback] North Star Podcast: Eugene Wei

Over the weekend, I had lunch with Eugene Wei who is one of my favorite podcast guests.

He’s worked at some of the world’s top technology companies, such as Amazon, Hulu and Facebook. I can’t think of anybody who understands the intersection of status, culture and technology better than Eugene. 

We talked about: 

• Life-long learning

• Jeff Bezos’ principles of communication 

• Cultural differences between Hollywood and Silicon Valley

Listen to the podcast: Website | ITunes | Spotify

Video: Creative Process Introduction

On July 1, I hosted a workshop in Brooklyn with Tiago Forte. 

The workshop was called The Creative Process. In it, we outlined a fresh approach to writing and idea generation. In the keynote, we summarized the high-level ideas from our courses (Write of Passage and Building a Second Brain). 

We filmed the 11 minute keynote and you can watch it here. Some photos from the event below:

Coolest Things I Learned This Week

Famous People in History

Here’s how far away you are from famous people in history. 

1 generation = 25 years

Eye-Opening Quotes

1. ”Humor is the spiciest condiment in the feast of existence. Laugh at your mistakes but learn from them, joke over your troubles but gather strength from them, make a jest