The Crypto PR/Marketing Talent Crunch
“So… Do you know any crypto marketing talent?” [Source: LinkedIn DMs. Daily.]
I’ve been in the PR trade for a bit over 25 years, observing three talent crunch epochs:
The crypto era
The crypto talent crunch is unlike any of the previous ones. There are three reasons why.
First, there’s the learning curve, which dramatically shrinks your talent pool. Grappling the basics of crypto upon first encounter is like peeling an onion using only your pinky fingernails — only the truly dedicated will get anywhere. Success involves not only understanding the technology but, it must be said, achieving a sober and honest perspective of what it can and can’t do despite the hype. Then there are the economic elements, best thought of as an examination of the choices people make rather than financial theories and “numbah go up.” Finally, there are the philosophical precepts: open source, trustlessness, “not your keys, not your coins,” self-custody, and more. Reporters and influencers in previous epochs have often complained that the people who pitch them for mentions or coverage don’t know what they’re talking about. Crypto renders this deficiency even more acute.
Second, there’s the broad misalignment on what “PR/marketing” actually means within crypto, which makes it difficult to find talent with the right balance of aggressiveness (to help a project break drag and gravity) and restraint (doing so without violating commonly understood ethical norms; I mean, we’re talking about money here.) To many within crypto’s favorite watering holes of Twitter, TikTok, Telegram, and Discord, “marketing” is simply defined as “any activity that pumps a coin,” with little regard paid to the long-term view. “Hire me because I have 100,000 Twitter followers” was a lame enough pitch during the social media era. Been there. Done that. This is to say nothing of the rampant payola in this space.
Third, too much of the talent this nascent industry needs to advance and grow — comprising mid-to-senior practitioners in tech and finance — does not want “in.” Too many pearl-clutching stories about “crypto-equals-crime.” This persists, even against the backdrop of news organizations like Bloomberg going on a massive hiring spree for crypto-journalists:
So here we are. At a certain point, it will be inevitable that “crypto” and “finance” will be as meaningless (or, rather, as uninteresting) a distinction as “social media” and “media” is today. Unfortunately, we need to attract the right talent to crypto much earlier.
The Mad Attic Mailbag
MadcapGonzo writes:
I give up. What’s a “Professional Pylocatabasist?”
In various social media profiles, I’ve listed “professional pylocatabasist” as one of the descriptors. It’s a portmanteau of the ancient Greek words for hair (“pylo-“) and “descending gently or saving” (“-katabasis”).
The term comes from a passage in Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum:
“We'll have to see," Belbo said. He rummaged in his drawer and took out some sheets of paper. "Potio-section..." He looked at me, saw my bewilderment. "Potio-section, as everybody knows, of course, is the art of slicing soup. No, no," he said to Diotallevi. "It's not the department, it's a subject, like Mechanical Avunculogratulation or Pylocatabasis. They all under the same heading of Tetrapyloctomy."
"What's tetra...?" I asked.
"The art of splitting hairs four ways. This is the department of useless techniques. Mechanical Avunculogratulation, for example, is how to build machines for greeting uncles. We're not sure, though, if Pylocatabasis belongs, since it's the art of being saved by a hair. Somehow that doesn't seem completely useless."
For most of my career at Edelman, I HALO-jumped into client teams and projects to help handle various issues and crises. On one of those assignments, a colleague said something about getting “saved by a hair.” I flashed back to the above exchange and it’s been a part of my digital identity ever since.
Recommendations & Rejection
HEALTH: “The Death Toll of Delay,” The Atlantic: I’ve always found it strange that the FDA will trumpet “This drug we approved will save 100,000 lives per year!” and very few people ask the question “So did a half-million people really have to die while you took five years to approve this?” Conor Friedersdorf puts it another way: “Like Odysseus and his crew, an effective bureaucracy must be as concerned about Scylla as Charybdis, knowing that death is the consequence of tacking too far in either direction.” (Also, I highly recommend his weekly newsletter, The Best of Journalism. Well worth the $23/year.)
TECH: “The Fakest ‘Whistleblower’ Ever,” Michael Tracey: For better or worse, I will tend to describe as heroic or courageous anyone who gives me more information about any organization — especially the government — that has power over me. While not (yet?) a government, Facebook wields a lot of power, so maybe it’s easy for me to root for whistleblower Frances Haugen. However, Michael Tracey points out two problems with this point of view: 1) it’s difficult to call someone “courageous” in the strictest sense when they risk little worse than fawning media adulation by whistleblowing, and 2) referring to oneself as “whistleblower” is about as bad as when people list “thought leader” or “keynote speaker” on their LinkedIn bios. A lot to think about here.
TECH: “Can Silicon Valley Find Its Way Back?” Michael S. Malone: I’ve often said — and continue to be thankful — that my generation was probably the last to experience Silicon Valley before it became a place where “the best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” Coming from a similar sentiment, longtime tech scribe Michael Malone plaintively asks “How did Silicon Valley shift from wanting to change the world to wanting to run it?” and offers some theories.
Rejection
TV: Dopesick: I’ve gone back and forth on this. This miniseries is based on the non-fiction book of the same name about Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family, and OxyContin. I’m four episodes in. And I want to like it. I really do. But one has to separate a film’s noble subject matter (examining the very real, very tragic opioid epidemic) and stellar cast (Michael Keaton, Rosario Dawson) from the execution of the storytelling and… Well… As is too often the case, the miniseries frequently pulls the handbrake on the narrative flow for the sake of forced, moralizing exposition, which serves to take the viewer out of the experience while the scriptwriter stops to think. Or sometimes it feels like a decidedly adult take on an after-school special. Anyway, Dopesick… We’ve gone back and forth but I ultimately had to file you here. Streaming on Hulu.
Parting Shot
When you take a gig writing for one of the most establishment media properties in the United States, you might want to reflect on exactly what “machine” you’re “raging” against.