Hey guys,

I want you guys to know where I’m at. After phone calls with other Founders, and Job Employers, there’s a very real sense of ‘out there’ getting closer but it’s still too far to get a sense of what it is ‘in here’. There are leadership-themed magazine covers on my desk which I used to inhale, and you guys know how fast I read. I can’t read them. They all say pretty much the same thing: To ‘act’ brave for your employees. For one, I knew when acting was acting and for me, it was in a singular hour on a singular day of the week but that I loved it as a class. There’s no way I ever linked it to how I live. Authenticity is not a behavior Zuck. And dude, do you remember our #suckitzuck campaign. It was literally at least five years ago. We always had his number guys. And I’m still … me. And I cannot put on a mask, a guise, or whatever to be me. And I talk the same to everyone still. But for some reason, I can only get what I feel is a pulse when that conversation happens offline.

You guys know what it has to feel like to always be transparent, and then see ‘transparency’ as a behavior I can target, and then feel silenced when you realize you’re targeting both the good guy and the bad guy and that I’ve been sitting on “How do I filter out The Bad Guy?” The Bad Guy has always wanted to tear us down but have we not had the chance to work for and with some really cool people? Yes. Haven’t we always fought for that being ourselves and nobody else? Hell yes.

Here’s the good news: The bad guy is desperate right now. And when have I ever said ‘I know this is true?” I can tell you: Never. But how many times have I said ‘”We’re going all out before I ever give up and here’s what we have to do so I can sleep at night?” A million times or more. So much I’m sick of hearing my own voice guys. And sorry, but you’re going to keep weeding out feminists (that are dudes too) that think I’m being sexist by saying ‘dudes’ because they are singular in thought and worse, want everyone to be too. Outrage culture is nothing new. It’s just weird when all of a sudden, the most open-minded person in your group becomes the very close-minded. On paper, I guess they look open-minded. But dude, have we ever trusted anything? No. Have I always questioned it All? Hell yes. Were the things that I hate always filed under ‘Normal’ and now…#normcore? F yes. And did I just have to adapt and use that word to make it simple? Yes. Do I hate myself for it? No. Do I feel gross for having to go There? Yes. So much so that I get it. On an individual level. But the problem is not The Bad Person. The problem is that The Bad Person has the microphone and he’s housed under #jobcreation but his very singular act (I’ve also found it more productive to talk about just one thing at a time but I’ll always think a million things at a time 🙂 of holding up assistance checks to put his signature on it is where we just need to stop talking and thinking about Him, no matter what the party lines, colors, etc. Before we let him enter our minds (and into our homes) we cared about those who were sick, and I’ve told Sam and Kelsie and now I’ll tell you too, that as a Gen X’er, that first month made me sick because at that time, people were dying of something really weird, and it was the smartest group I knew then (and bravest). The gays. Yes, I said it. I know you can believe it. But believe me, when you had everyone older than you trying to tell you that they were made and not born you knew that it didn’t even matter. All that mattered was that they existed and that I loved them as individuals and that my mind files everything under ‘What Is a Pattern.’ I just remember the very real and tangible voices (but hushed) of me going ‘Do you feel okay?’ and the very real voice inside me saying ‘They don’t even know you yet.’

Guys the irony is this: Those assistance checks I support. You guys know I’m not making anyone go into the office if they feel their life could be at risk. It’s not even a topic and you know it’s weird when someone thinks so differently I can sleep at night because we said ‘Later!’ But were we ever evil? Did we ever want that person to fail? No. We were just confused and dude, we will always take it personally because we’ve always worked our asses off. But to wish them harm was to let them in your head when they were not paying any rent. F them and F that.

The assistance checks are good, but they are the unknown that is felt by everyone providing a job right now. We just know that we have to make up for it on the back end. And we haven’t looked at it dead in the eyes. Because if we could you know I’d do it Right Now. I don’t care if they try to scare me because they won’t.

Yes, life is only in the extremes right now but I won’t let you guys not know my temperature. I can’t take for granted that you know anything right now. Just know this: We, as in job creators and employers, are the most human of them all. And when we talk, rest assured we are doing anything but hating. We are all literally feeling the very real weight of what it feels like to feed people and insure them with health. And we’ve only gotten to where we’re at by not framing ourselves as a victim. We are doers, not talkers. But right now we are talking … a lot. Nothing resonates unless it’s 1:1. And everything ‘out there’ is still way ‘out there’ and not close enough ‘in here’ which is why you see all our leads immensely higher in quality and yet, those same leads – because they are so much higher in quality – will not close until … <I’m sick of saying this over and over and over>, but it all happens In One Day. And file that under what I’ve always said and only remember what you’ve witnessed. And right now the truth is in what everyone is not saying: I’ve never put us, Rock Candy Media, up for sale. If anything, the jaw-dropping when I just won’t take out the fat check from someone in my gut tells me is probably doing something bad and he’s not getting that even economically the plan does not make sense, for us. We have always been long-haul and that’s the only channel I’ve ever opted into. So please, trust me, we will be more than okay. The problem is that what is good as a person we (the business community) are down with. The problem is that the same very thing is what all made us say ‘Whoa. Everything we thought was an asset may be a risk.’ To you guys. That’s what’s keeping me up at night. That person that can do the most harm probably looked like the good guy before. So we job creators are not that right now. We are human beings grappling with the very weight of responsibility we had a choice in feeling or not. Well, it’s still me guys. When have I ever said ‘I give up?’ Never. You’ve seen me take a few days off and know that I’m down. But you’ve never worried about me risking it all so we can do what we do because what we do is more than digital art, it’s visual communication, and it’s design thinking, and it’s creativity which can know no bounds, and that it is our art that speaks to people we want to work with but by existing on its very own filters out ‘The Bad.’ What you guys do is hard and that’s why I respect you guys. That’s also why I can’t sleep. It takes mad talent to make someone feel something so much that they take one click and a second one to opt-in. Did you know that? I do. And guess what? You will know that because you see me bragging about what we all Do, at Rock Candy Media, and f*ck we haven’t had time to re-brand ourselves because we’re still The Anti-Template in thought, The Anti-Template in real life, The Anti-Template at home, The Anti-Template at the office and we don’t do lifestyle branding because we live the life everyone sees.

Kids, it’s going to not just be All Right. It’s going to be Air Tight.

Later, I’ll get on Discord after I finish paying Zuck. Just don’t go for the bait. Who gave the person that was never scary to being with the microphone? Yes, go there. It’s gonna suck for a while but if I trust anyone to start ugly inside in the face it’s you guys. Because we already know the very real hiring rule and probably illegal rule of what I will never allow because it is My Dime and My Dime is a right I Earned alongside You All and it is: We shall not let the Double-Ugly in. And it just became really simple. We’ve always been on the same side. That’s why it’s weird right now. But guys, this is nothing new. We are going to be fine. What’s keeping me up at night is my very real will to shorten This Chapter because I will not let it be any kind of Book. Especially not a book about us. F that and F them.

YOLO.

 

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