Elderly, Enemies & Ecomm

Gotta address the elephant in the room this week. And it’s not good.

As a lot of you know, I recently moved into a new apartment in New York City after months of the homeless/nomadic life. It’s been a long time coming & it was supposed to be perfect.

I found a nice, safe, beautiful building in a quiet neighborhood. I consciously moved out of the craziness of downtown Manhattan & dove headfirst into the family-oriented, calmness of the upper west side. No fresh out of college kids blasting house music. No late night parties. No drunk people screaming on the streets. Instead, sidewalks littered with baby strollers & dog walkers. My goal was & is to always have the option for peace & quiet, and early nights to bed. Oh, and a place I can take a bubble bath.

Lame? I don’t care. Sleep & bubble baths rules.

Unfortunately, to much of my horror, I may have hit the other extreme…

I’ve found myself with some thinner than expected walls, & a very much older neighbor (who is most likely a bit hard of hearing) that LOVES watching the news.

Like all the time. Day & night. Nonstop. Very loud. Does she have a freaking sound bar?! It’s BORDERING the wall to my bed..

The only thing worse than drunk people sporadicly screaming is the constant, vibrating murmurs of MSNBC. I am honestly not sure how to handle this. I’ve never dealt with the elderly before where I was the complainer. And let me just say, this is NOT something I’m going to be able to simply “drown out” or “get used to.” I sleep like a goddamn princess. I’d notice if there were a singular pea under my mattress. If so much as a door clicks, I wake up.

So, with all that being said… I need advice on how to handle this. So far, we’ve communicated with the building management & they’ve “logged it in the system,” (?) but shocker, that hasn’t worked. We’ve knocked on her door & rung her doorbell to have an amicable chat, but she doesn’t answer (or can’t hear it). So, I’m thinking I just pretend to be a maintenance guy & go in and just break the shit outta her TV. I don’t really see another option… Her television must be destroyed.

Let me know what you think? It is currently the bane of my existence.

Welcome to week 19 of Trust Fun. I can’t believe I already have a new arch rival.

Turning Lemons Into Lemonade

Sure I haven’t slept in a few days, but I can now thank my elderly neighbor for giving me something to write about. I suppose we’re even now?

Dealing with this type of severe & seemingly insurmountable levels of adversity (an old lady with a loud TV) has really made me think about turning lemons into lemonade, especially as it relates to creating content. Ya know, playing the cards you’ve been dealt & catalyzing your authentic experiences into cohesive & authentic content.

I mean, this is exactly what I’m doing right now, right? Using something that I’ve experienced (good or bad) & repurposing it for you to consume. It’s probably the easiest & most organic way to create content.

All brands right now should be doing the same thing when it comes to advertising & building creative. Show the real life experiences. Showcase actual users. Share the goods. But also share the bads. What was broken? How did you fix it? Dumb it down. Make it crystal clear.

Then test. Iterate. New headlines. New hooks. New value props. Use data.

I will not underestimate this enough… Your creative is everything. EVERYTHING.

How do you unlock new channels? Better creative.

How do you increase ROAS? Better creative.

How do you decrease CAC? Better creative.

Good creative is the answer to all your problems.

Barstool Sports, love ‘em or hate ‘em, is the best in the world at creative. And though you may know Barstool Sports from it’s pizza reviews, podcasts & overall social footprint, the real super hero is their presence on Shopify as an e-commerce store. Their e-commerce store alone is a bigger, more robust business than you could possibly imagine (between u & me… it’s probs a 9 fig ecomm biz 🤯).

And Coast Digital is the genius behind it ALL.

I worked with Coast Digital hand & hand while I was at Barstool for that magical year (most of ‘23) before I was (amicably) canned. And let me just say… they’re damn good at what they do. And now, I’m honored to announce, exclusively on Trust Fun, that Coast Digital is FINALLY opening their doors & looking to add a few other brands to their roster.

Coast Digital’s ability to build top-notch, world-class creative for Meta & TikTok is truly next level. They also use more data than I’ve ever seen. Ya, believe it or not, Barstool’s paid ads partner uses actual data. Lol.

Even if you think you have the “best creative in the world”… You probs don’t (no offense)… Buttttt if you talk to Coast Digital… you just might.

Or just respond to this email & I’ll make an intro to their A+ team.

Anyways that’s it for today. I may be ordering this on Amazon. To be continued…

Happy Monday, friends (and enemies).