Iam80D.com / IamADD.com

I had "known" for many years that I had ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder)... but I didn't start to truly understand it - the negatives AND the positives of how it affects my brain (and my life!) until very recently.  I had always assumed - as I think most people do - that ADD was just difficulty paying attention, getting distracted easily, and being a little scattered, absent-minded, and/or constantly bouncing from one thought/idea to the next... I didn't start to truly understand my ADD until I read these blog posts by an entrepreneur/VC named Mark Suster:
https://bothsidesofthetable.com/how-to-know-if-you-have-add-and-what-to-do-about-it-e8a705765558
https://bothsidesofthetable.com/developing-an-action-plan-for-high-performance-with-add-80e33126840c
https://bothsidesofthetable.com/why-add-might-actually-benefit-startup-entrepreneurs-501b3b323146
COMING SOON: AN OPEN (Thank You!) LETTER to Mark Suster - which (ironically? coincidentally?) has sat on my laptop, 80% DONE, for 6+ months... (full column soon)

#SelfAwareness (ADDitional Epiphanies)

I SUCK at *MANY things! 
[Editor's Note: Think about how important the word "at" is in that sentence!]

I'm GREAT at a FEW things. 
Creating Virality ("Viral Whatever") is one of the few things I'm GREAT at! :)
*But I SUCK at MANAGING everything (projects, tasks, employees, interns, time, money, logistics, follow-up, follow-through, and the stress) that often accompanies my stuff going viral! :(

I've had 40+ things go viral and (collectively) reach more than 475+ Million people. When I've had execution partners to handle the parts I hate and/or suck at, I've been the creator and/or viral/strategy guy for TWO multi-million-dollar startups. When I have NOT had execution partners, well, I will OFTEN get 80% of the way through a project and then lose interest or get distracted, sometimes even AFTER we've gotten viral traction! Feel free to ask me about some of these many ADD-induced Entrepreneurial Embarrassments - such as:

• - the time I put $50,000 into development of an MVP, ran a successful/promising private Beta test, got 500 new/active users in 30-days, but decided to hit the pause button and put in in hibernation mode before launching publicly or spending a single dollar on marketing because I fell "out of love" with the idea. (I did/do intend to re-launch it, just haven't gotten around to it yet). #IamADD
• - the time I successfully sold-out of all inventory (5000 units) of a viral product, put up a "temporarily sold-out" message on a web page but never got around to re-ordering. Then when I finally did re-order (a year later), I was already on to other things so I just put the 10,000 new units in a storage locker and never got around to putting the product back on the market #IamADD
• - the time I created an annual promotion/event that was featured on Good Morning America, the Today Show, ESPN SportsCenter, and more... But, despite the annual event happening on the same day every year (March 9th / National "Get Over It Day"), it somehow always sneaks up on me and and, every year, I end up saying "Damn, it's already March? Well, NEXT year I'll plan ahead and actually take advantage of all the viral buzz and potential." #IamADD
• - the time I recognized a huge new market opportunity (for secondary phone numbers - for dating, business, CraigsList, etc.) so I haphazardly launched ScreenNumber.com back in October, 2005. We had decent traction and viral buzz with no marketing spend - 10,000 users (8000 free users, 2000 premium/paid). On Sept. 25, 2006, a company called Grand Central launched the same service (11 months after us). Admittedly, they did it better. But it still stung a year later when Google bought them for $95 MILLION and it became Google Voice. #IamADD
• - the time I started writing the content for this blog post - with a goal of focusing on all my present/future ventures, for which I am actively looking for execution partners - but I somehow went down a rabbit hole and started writing about all my past ventures instead... ?!? #IamADD

Anyway, rather than continuing to battle my ADD, I decided to (try to) embrace it.  I decided to spend a few months allowing myself to go down every rabbit hole and explore every idea that came into my head -- (ideas for big tech startups, ideas for smaller "Starter Startups", ideas for how to improve upon the ~99% failure rate in the startup world...  ideas for products, services, viral content, social movements... WHATEVER popped into my head). Well, that was back in 2014... and somehow those "few months" turned into A FEW YEARS! Yep... #IamADD

I am now putting it all out there (the exact opposite of "stealth mode"?) with the hopes of attracting some great execution/operations partners... Nobody will love (or even like) them all. But my hope is that some of you will see at least a few that you LOVE - and that make you say "Wow! I want to work with you on THAT!"

Calling All Entrepreneurs! 
PLEASE Contact Us if you're potentially interested in getting involved with any of our stuff! (And, yes, we can obviously elaborate and explain everything much better when we discuss)

Click Here for 365+ Pieces of WHATEVER! (Like any of them? Most are actively "Pitching for Partners" via one of our StartupWhatever.com programs!)

365+ Pieces of WHATEVER -- Products, Services, Viral Content, Social Movements, Charitable Causes, Potentially-Big Tech Startups, Smaller (Lower-Tech) "Starter Startups"-- And ALL are PITCHING FOR PARTNERS! 

StartupWhatever.com (Overview & Objectives)  

Entrepreneurial Epiphanies & Lessons Learned: IamNOTaCEO.com

Thoughts & Theories Pertaining to Problems & Pitfalls: ThoughtsOnStartups.com

Improvement Ideas & Innovation Initiatives: ReThinkingStartups.com

Projects & Programs Pitching for Participants (AND Partners / Program Coordinators)...
CoFounderator.com | theSWANstartup.com | StarterStartups.com | MarketingWhatever.com | ViralWhatever.com | 

StartupsForStudents.com | SummerStartups.com | StartupsForSingles.com / StartupsWithinStartups.com | SaturdaySundayStartups.com | MultipleBasketStartups.com | PitchingForPartners.com | 17Startups.com  

• 12+ ReThinkingWhatever.com Categories: 
• ReThinking: Audio
• ReThinking: Tshirts
• ReThinking: Coins
• ReThinking: "Nothing"
• ReThinking: Stickers
• ReThinking: Temporary Tattoos
• ReThinking: Business Cards
• ReThinking: Pranks
• ReThinking: "Sh*t"
• ReThinking: Internships
• ReThinking: Startups
• ReThinking - (lots of things!)

• AudioWhatever.com - a huge collection of viral Audio Content, much of which originally existed on dial-in Humor Hotline phone numbers that collectively received 475+ MILLION phone calls as part of a successful 7-figure viral content startup that sold off assets and shut down in 2013). But the content is now being re-purposed and re-launched as part of AudioWhatever.com (via StartupWhatever.com programs)...
  
• 12+ FREE Humor Hotlines
  
• 12+ Premium Humor Hotlines
• Custom or Personalized Hotlines (w/ Programmable Voice & SMS Functionality)
• 12+ FREE MP3 Downloads
  
• 12+ Premium MP3 Downloads
  
• 12+ AudioWTF.com Micro-Sites
  
• 12+ AudioWhatever Content/Category Sites (each with 12+ Audio content tracks)
  
• 12+ Audio Embeds used as (hopefully-viral-)marketing for other "Whatever Network" products/sites. 
• All 300+ tracks of "Audio Whatever" content on SoundCloud (organization/optimization needed)
• COMING SOON: All 300+ tracks of "Audio Whatever" content to be made available (via a service like TuneCore) to: iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, etc.
   
• TshirtWhatever.com
  

  NOTE: For the record, NO, we do NOT think a Tshirt Brand is a good startup idea these days! (Saturated market, no barriers to entry, etc.) Wait, what?! Then why are you doing it?? 
  
  HOWEVER... with sites like TeeSpring.com, TeePublic.com, SpreadShirt.com, and Shopify/Printful (which allow you to literally create an online shop and add products in a matter of hours with literally no prior experience), we believe that creating an online tshirt brand/shop is a great starter startup / practice project - as well as a great testing/learning opportunity to A-B test Digital Marketing tactics, Social Media Marketing, and/or any of our MarketingWhatever.com projects and programs.
  

• 12+ Tshirt Brands/Categories (EACH with 12+ Original Shirt Designs - and EACH looking for entrepreneurial partners to run them!)...
  WordyShirty.com ~ LivingTheStartupDream.com ~ WordToYourStartup.com ~ WorstTshirtDesignerEver.com ~ YouHaveSomethingOnYourShirt.com ~ aBarbecueStainOnMyWhiteTshirt.com ~ ConfusingShirts.com ~ SpelingShirts.com ~ MoistShirts.com ~ FillInTheBlankShirts.com ~ theRinshirt.com ~ BibleBlock.com ~ WingDingShirt.com ~ WhatTheHellAreYouLookingAt.com ~ LookMeInTheEyes.com ~ DefinitionShirts.com ~ ShartShirt.com ~ MyShartDontStink.com ~ HashtagHoodie.com ~ WalkoffSeason.com ~ DavidOrtees.com ~  ItLooksLikeaDuck.com ~ ItQuacksLikeaDuck.com ~ ImakePoop.com
• NOTE: For the record, NO, we do NOT think a Tshirt Brand is a good startup idea these days! (Saturated market, no barriers to entry, etc.) The above brands and designs are A) intended to be products-as-content / content-as-marketing and B) intended to be good startup simulation practice projects and/or testing/learning opportunities to A-B test various Digital Marketing tactics, Social Media Marketing strategies, and/or any of our MarketingWhatever.com projects and programs.
• HOWEVER, we DO have several NEW ("ReThinkingWhatever.com") creative spins on the traditional Tshirt model that could have some good viral potential -- be sure to ask about these; we're just not posting these concepts online until they're ready... 
  
  
• 12 CheapFunWhatever.com "Re-Purposed, Re-Imagined, Re-Marketed" Products (each with some corresponding new social movement / context / reason - for HOW and WHY to use/share/etc.) 
• LifeFouls.com
• ConfusingStuff.com
• GoodLuckStuff.com
• TheZikaZapper.com
• JustTheTipJar.com
• YouGotCarded.com
• Motivacelets.com / Inspiracelets.com
• SoManyRedFlags.com
• MotivationMarks.com
• (Note to self - add later: Midfing, Coins, Timely, BBB? ONSK? - and more)
• 12 DollarWhatever.com $1.00 items
  
  
• CardWhatever.com:
  12+ CardWhatever.com Categories/Collections (YouGotCarded.com, ConfusingCards.com, CauseCards.org, etc.), 12+ individual CardWhatever.com micro-sites (ConfessionCard.com, ShoeHornCard.com, RejectionCard.com, etc.), all resulting in 100+ varieties of cards/designs: funny / fyi messages / motivation/perspective / etc.
  
  
• 12 CharityWhatever.com Viral Fundraisers and/or 12 MonthlyMovements.com Social Movements (possibly overlapping - but all using our ViralWhatever.com experience/expertise for Social Good!)
• RandomJobsOfKindness.com
• [TBA: Make-A-Wish Foundation concept] (2)
• [TBA: Multiple Cancer Charities]
• March of Dimes fundraiser concept: AprilOfDimes.com?
• Kindness project (multiple)
• (Multiple Causes project)
• FreeUmbrellas.org
• 60SecondsThatWillSaveLives.com
• ColorAmerica.org / ColorUSA.org
• CauseCards.org
• CharityWhatever.com / MonthlyMovements.com
• (Jeff - add the rest later - causes, cards, coins, etc.)
  
  
• 12 PhoneWhatever.com Services
• CallMyLostPhone.com
• ChristmasDialer.com
• ReminderDialer.com
• WakeupDialer.com
• ReminderDialer.com
• HumorHotlines.com / RejectionHotline.com / SorryWrongNumber.com
  
  
• Note to Twilio/Plivo developers (or someone who wants to manage a freelance Twilio/Plivo developer) - Among our many phone-related ideas/domains, we also have: announcementcalls.com, betherightcallerandwin.com, breakupdialer.com, callforluck.com, callsofkindness.com, calltoconfess.com, comedydialer.com, commenthotline.com, commentnumber.com, hogwartshotline.com, humorcalls.com, humorhotlines.com, interventioncalls.com, interventionhotline.com, invitecalls.com, maybenumber.com, musicdialer.com, newscalls.com, randomcalls.com, randomcallsofkindness.com, randomhotlines.com, randomtextsofkindness.com, rejectionhotline.com, screennumber.com, sorrywrongnumber.com, spoofdialer.com, textdialer.com, textmessageroulette.com, textmycellphone.com, textroulette.com, textsofkindness.com, thankyoucalls.com, therejectionhotline.com, trumphotline.com, venthotline.com, voicemaildialer.com, 555alternative.com  

• ImageWhatever.com
  12+ Useful / Life Hack Images
  12+ Joke/Prank/Humor-Related Images
  12+ Images to accompany other "Whatever Network" ventures (MyResponseIs.com, DefinitionsDelivered.com, many shirts/cards content as images, etc.)
  
  
• 12+ Immature or R-Rated concepts (from my younger days that I'm not super-proud of anymore and kinda want to just sell off to someone else and disassociate myself from - including the original RejectionHotline.com)
  
  
• 12 ViralWhatever.com Themes/Challenges (Money as Motivation, The Dollar Store, Pennies, Nothing, Sh*t, Tats, Tributes to Past Viral Phenomena, etc.)
  
  
• 12 DoesThisAlreadyExist.com / ConsultingWithoutContracts.com / PitchingForPartners.com ideas/concepts

--------------------
(Essays/Blogs) Written Content:

• 12+ StartupWhatever.com Entrepreneurial Epiphanies & Lessons Learned: IamNOTaCEO.com
• 12+ StartupWhatever.com Thoughts & Theories Pertaining to Problems & Pitfalls: ThoughtsOnStartups.com
• 12+ StartupWhatever.com Improvement Ideas & Innovation Initiatives: ReThinkingStartups.com
• 12 StartupWhatever.com+ Projects & Programs Pitching for Participants (AND Partners / Program Coordinators)...
• CoFounderator.com | theSWANstartup.com | StarterStartups.com | MarketingWhatever.com | ViralWhatever.com | StartupsForStudents.com | SummerStartups.com | StartupsForSingles.com / StartupsWithinStartups.com | SaturdaySundayStartups.com | MultipleBasketStartups.com | PitchingForPartners.com | 17Startups.com 

StartupWhatever.com (Overview & Objectives)  

12+ Entrepreneurial Epiphanies & Lessons Learned: IamNOTaCEO.com

12+ Thoughts & Theories Pertaining to Problems & Pitfalls: ThoughtsOnStartups.com

12+ Improvement Ideas & Innovation Initiatives: ReThinkingStartups.com

12+ Projects & Programs - Pitching for Participants (AND Partners / Program Coordinators)...
CoFounderator.com | theSWANstartup.com | StarterStartups.com | MarketingWhatever.com | ViralWhatever.com | 

StartupsForStudents.com | SummerStartups.com | StartupsForSingles.com / StartupsWithinStartups.com | SaturdaySundayStartups.com | MultipleBasketStartups.com | PitchingForPartners.com | 17Startups.com  

• 12+ ReThinkingWhatever.com Categories:

 

• 12 ViralWhatever.com Essays (Prior to teaching the classes/workshops, these 12 essays/blogs will have to do for now)
• 12 Rationales for this whole "Whatever Network" plan
• 12 Things I Really Suck At
• 12 People (Types of People) I'd love to have working for us - even just nights/weekends and/or as little as  ~5 hours/week!)
• 12 Open Letter Experiment Letters
• 12 MarketingWhatever.com Tactics / Channels / Programs
• 12 Projects/Tasks I'd love someone to waltz in my office and just take care of
• 12 StartupsWithinStartups.com 50-50 Profit-Split Projects to Pitch
• 12 Iam80d.com / IamADD.com ("WTF is all this") explanation essays

NOTE (TO SELF?) - I really hope nobody is actually reading all this... this page kinda just turned into my A.D.D. roadmap / content list... definitely incomplete, disorganized, etc. ... If anyone is actually here, you can click here to go back to StartupWhatever.com

Random / Notes to Self:

POTENTIAL 4-STAR EVALUATION / ORGANIZATION SYSTEM:
1-Star: Individual Pieces of Content 
(Ex: 250+ AudioWhatever.com MP3s, 250+ HumorHotlines.com Phone Numbers, 250+ TshirtWhatever.com Shirt Designs, 250+ CardWhatever.com Card Designs)
2-Star: Categories/Collections of (multiple pieces) of Content and/or Micro-sites (Domains) for Individual 1-Star Content Concepts 
  2.5-Star: Our Secondary (not Top-12) XxxxxxxWhatever.com Parent Sites
3-Star: Potentially-Big IDEA+++ Concepts (the ones that ViralWhatever.com has determined to have 10x better-than-average potential to go viral and/or generate 6-figure revenue)
  3.5-Star: Our Primary (Top-12) Top-Level XxxxxxxWhatever.com Parent Sites
4-Star: More Traditional Tech Startups / Likely to require funding and/or specialized skills and/or more than a part-time team.
  4.5-Star: Already-Viral and/or Fully-Functional and/or new partners have already come on board so additional negotiations will likely be necessary.
5-Star: The entire "Whatever Network" - I'd be crazy not to at least listen to anyone who wanted to run (or acquire?) it all!

EXAMPLE:  AudioWhatever.com...

AudioWhatever.com Content: 300+ individual audio tracks (MP3s and/or Humor Hotlines)

AudioWhatever.com Categories:  AudioHaHa.com, AudioAwesome.com, HolidayHaHa.com, JustThoughtYouShouldKnow.com, AudioHonesty.com, FYImessage.com, AudioComments.com, AudioTimers.com.com, (MyResponseIs.com - Audio + Video + Images)... OTHER: RejectionHotline.com, HumorHotlines.com, AudioWTF.com microsites

AudioWhatever.com Micro-Sites: (Samples / not all are up yet)  60SecondsThatWillSaveLives.com | AdviceBeforeDates.com | BreakingUpIsEasyToDo.com (BreakupBitch.com? BreakupButler.com?) | HogwartsAdmissions.com | DailyLifeCheck.com | DrunkAlex.com ItCouldAlwaysSuckMore.com | ListenForLuck.com | PissedOffPoet.com |

AudioWhatever.com - Program Projects:

• Pick, Promote, imProve (Presentation), Plan, Prioritize, Present, and Profit from 1 of:
• 12+ FREE Humor Hotlines 
• 12+ Premium Humor Hotlines 
• 12+ FREE MP3 Downloads 
• 12+ Premium MP3 Downloads 
• 12+ AudioWTF.com Micro-Sites 
• 12+ AudioWhatever Content/Category Sites

Similar Outlines (content, categories, micro-sites, cross-promotional opportunities, etc.) will exist for MOST XxxxxxxWhatever.com categories:

AudioWhatever.com, CheapFunWhatever.com, CardWhatever.com, CoinWhatever.com, CharityWhatever.com,  DollarWhatever.com, ImageWhatever.com, VideoWhatever.com, PhoneWhatever.com, RelationshipWhatever.com, TshirtWhatever.com, ReThinkingWhatever.com, ViralWhatever.com, MarketingWhatever.com, PrankWhatever.com / HumorWhatever.com, MiscellaneousWhatever.com, SportsWhatever.com, StartupWhatever.com, MonthlyWhatever.com, TheWhateverNetwork.com 

 

What IS a "startup"?
"Rejection Hotline"? - The Product? The Brand? The Content?
"Humor Hotlines"? - The collection of many products/brands?
"Audio Whatever"? - The bigger collection/category of multiple collections?
"The WHATEVER Network"? - The parent company that owns/operates many different categories of collections of products/services/content/brands/etc.? 

Spoiler Alert: It doesn't matter! A startup could be any of these, all of these, or none of these! Words and labels and organizational structure shouldn't necessarily imply of limit anything more or less than you want it to... 

What IS a "startup"?
"The Lucky Penny"?
"Coin Whatever"?
"Cheap Fun Whatever"?
"The WHATEVER Network"?

What IS a "startup"?
"SoManyRedFlags.com"?  
"RelationshipWhatever.com"? / "ReThinkingWhatever.com"?
"The WHATEVER Network"?

What IS a "startup"?
"WingDingShirt.com"?
"ConfusingShirts.com"?
"ConfusingStuff.com"?
"CheapFunWhatever.com"?
"The WHATEVER Network.com"?

----

 

- What if we think of "Startups as Products" and "Products as Content" and "Content as Marketing"?

- What if we use Profits As Perks (All employees have a set of brands/products/designs that they personally get 50% of profits from? Selected via Fantasy Sports-style draft?)

PROFIT-SHARING IDEAS FOR DISCUSSION/NEGOTIATION:

- All team members will begin with equal profit-sharing (so a team of 4 will split profits 25% each)?
- ONE of your team's profit-sharing partners is [StartupWhatever.com / ViralWhatever.com / Jeff G.]?
[[Optionally - We may decide to give half of the SW/VW/JG shares to a pool shared by all program participants in that session so there is a community incentive to share resources and help each other because you will all get a share of the profits from the top-performing teams!)

- Profits run for the duration of the program plus 30 days after the program's conclusion. HOWEVER, all participants will be given the opportunity to negotiate to continue participation (and profit-sharing) beyond the end of the program!

---

[EXAMPLE - In regard to size of projects to give various partners based on abilities - i.e. experienced entrepreneurs vs. inexperienced interns?]

• CardWhatever.com: The entire network of "ReThinking Cards" Content & Concepts???
• Categories/Collections within the CardWhatever.com network (YouGotCarded.com, ConfusingCards.com, CauseCards.org, etc.)???
• Individual Card Micro-sites (ConfessionCard.com, ShoeHornCard.com, RejectionCard.com, etc.)???
• Individual Card Concepts (100+ varieties: funny? fyi messages? motivation/perspective? etc.) to market individually via Social Media (with or without promo/discount codes?)??

--

~10 years ago, I made a big entrepreneurial epiphany - and bought the explanatory domain name IamNOTaCEO.com - I fired myself as CEO of my own company and within a year, we were a 7-figure company.  It's now 10 years later, and I believe another set of epiphanies will lead me to another level of entrepreneurial success... this time I bought the explanatory domain name IamADD.com. I believe I might be the most ADD Entrepreneur in the world - but I'll settle for the the most ADD Entrepreneur in Atlanta. Why would I be boasting about that? Well, because I think ADD gets a bad wrap. And, while at times I have thought of my ADD as a curse, I truly believe that IF I can harnass it properly, that it can be a blessing, rather than a curse...

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