Wiggin Sessions

Session #54

Today's Session:
John Newtson

Addison:

Welcome to The Wiggin Sessions, Episode 54. Today we have John Newtson, who has been running the Financial Marketing Summit. How long now John?

John Newtson:

Oh, since 2014. Yeah, 2014.

Addison:

We're going to talk about that for a bit. I think this is important for me because we spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to communicate with readers. And then readers spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to communicate with us. We have good ideas, we have good products and we know that. So let's discuss it because there's no other way to communicate with each other if we're not using email or websites or Instagram. I now have an Instagram account and I'm like what the frick is that. So let's talk about your perspective on that. And the reason I think it's important for us to talk about this is you have a perspective on how to promote ideas and it could be different than mine, or maybe it's the same as mine, but you have one. So I'd like to hear what you have to say.

John Newtson:

So I think the thing that really grabs me these days is talking to our customer and the customer's communication back and forth.

Addison:

It's pretty important that we break down that barrier.

John Newtson:

Right. I agree. And I think understanding the context of the customer is one of our strengths. Our weaknesses and our strengths intermix because we get very focused on things that we know have worked in the past, especially from a marketing perspective and product perspective and sometimes we miss. We're talking about all these big trends that happened in terms of investment opportunities, but there are these very fundamental trends happening with our customer base right now that I think we don't talk about nearly enough.

Addison:

Yeah, that's actually why, when we were talking last week, it doesn't seem like we've transcended the barrier between the ideas that we have and what customers are willing to pay for. So that might sound like a commercial message, but I don't really feel like it is. How do we communicate with each other? And I know that you specifically have been trying to not just solve that problem, because that sounds too cheap to me, but you've been innovating in that space.

John Newtson:

I appreciate that. Thanks. Yeah. And I think if you look at the first fundamental thing to realize about the individual investor is how much more important they are in capital market structure these days and the implications of that basically. Because now we're in a place where individual households own more of the stock market than they ever have in history, right? I think 35% of the stock market is in the hands of individual households.

Addison:

I think it's more than that actually.

John Newtson:

Is it?

Addison:

I'd say it's in the forties now.

John Newtson:

Yeah. They're trading more often, they're trading more dollar amounts. The pandemic accelerated the trading side of it obviously. But then you have that happening in the context of a period of time where at the end of... What? Where over the last decade, four or $5 trillion, if not more, have moved out of the public markets, into the private markets from the institutional side. And so you have this massive shift happening where individuals are going really strong into public equities and institutions are moving really strongly into private equities. And that's a fundamental shift in the market dynamic. And where the reason everyone's going into the private markets is because they're looking for a higher return.

The trading side of it is very volatile, but then individual investors as a whole, they buy and hold a lot more than other people or institutional investors might. And so you have this weird dynamic happening where the customer that we have is more important to financial services in new ways, but then you parallel that with transformation in digital media and how there's this disruption happening in financial services across the board, not just in their fundamental business models. If you look at investment banks, they're all getting squeezed. Their entire revenue and business model is under threat in so many different aspects. Then you have this increase in people using digital media in marketing as part of their functions in financial services. And you start to get into this weird spot where you have very large financial services companies, new disruptive companies, fund managers and everybody else starting to compete and advertise in ways very similar to our industry, for our customer base.

Addison:

I think the natural question to follow on from that is what do you think about that? How are you positioning your business in that space? And maybe it would probably be a good idea right now for you to describe what your business model is just so that people are aware of what you're saying.

John Newtson:

So we have a few different things actually. I have the Financial Marketing Summit, which has been the networking marketing conference for our industry, bringing the whole ecosystem together. Our first concept was to take the trader education space and the newsletter space and put them together in a room. And then we have all the media companies, everybody else comes. We kind of ended up with this whole kind of space.

Addison:

Can I ask why you think that's important? Actually I've been to a couple summits and you and I have worked together. What is important about getting the people who provide financial advice together? Why is that important?

John Newtson:

Well, from a business perspective, there's an enormous amount of cross promotional opportunity, but there's also a lot of cross-pollination of ideas because the marketing worlds at the educators versus the newsletter publishers lived were very different and there's a lot of crossover. So when we started, for instance, that backend launch model wasn't being used by newsletters. And we didn't innovate it by any means, but the trader education space had been using it for quite a while, going back to 2001. And it wasn't until there was starting to be a lot more cross-pollination between those two worlds that it moved over into the core companies. And if you look at that one piece, how much revenue is that worth when it is connected through. And I'm not saying that we're responsible for that, but we were starting to have those conversations at the time that it happened.

And I know that some of the early copywriters who started having wins with it on the newsletter side had experience across both worlds. And then vice versa, the trade education space, they didn't understand the media buy-in and also the depth of product development that the newsletter side had. And so there's a lot of business benefits to putting people together. But a lot of the traders were buying both sides and now the spaces are very, I'd say, mixed. They're not entirely separate industries. There are some businesses that are more one than the other, but the ecosystems themselves are very, very intertwined now in a way that they weren't before. And because of that, the media companies that are selling traffic were able to grow pretty dramatically because their customers were able to. They were expanding customers, their customers were getting better at marketing.

And so we went from a place where you had very few niche media operators who were able to drive traffic to a slew of companies now who are very successful and really good at driving traffic for a lot of things. And that happened at a period of time when our industry, as a whole, providing information to the self directed investor and trader was growing. And it continues to grow. We're still in this huge macro generational transformation of our customer base becoming bigger, and I think more active. So I feel we're moving from this niche industry to a mainstream industry, and that trajectory has been pretty solid.

Addison:

Yeah. Do you? I don't like that. I'm just going to be honest.

John Newtson:

I know.

Addison:

I don't want to be mainstream.

John Newtson:

I know. That's the thing.

Addison:

Because when we express our opinions, we can say what we want and that's what I want to be able to do. So that's a troubling directive for me.

John Newtson:

Yeah, I think there's always going to be niche communities and niche businesses and niche. But the idea of providing investment news or investment education, stock picks, things that the genie's definitely out of the bottle. It's part of this huge transformation.

Addison:

Yeah, why?

John Newtson:

Creating messaging problems like crazy for people. And it already has started.

Addison:

Why is the genie out of the bottle?

John Newtson:

Take the next generation investors out. Take millennials out, right? You already had this trend happening where boomers were becoming much more self-directed and getting used to searching for information online. And so they tipped way over to more than half of that generation being self-directed. And by self-directed, there's a lot of variations. Some are just picking their own mutual funds and some are actually stock picking and other things. So you had that transformation that happened basically again from the internet provider becoming our primary source of information and being able to go out and find answers to stuff.

Addison:

Yeah, which you weren't able to get before.

John Newtson:

Right, Yeah. There's stuff you can find out now that it would have been nearly impossible to access at will. And now you add the fact that we have a generation of millennials who just this year hit 40, the largest generation in human history. They're digital natives. They grew up finding answers online for everything.

Addison:

Yeah. They grew up without us.

John Newtson:

Right. And they started investing and trading earlier than almost anybody else has because of accessibility, the move from traditional stock brokers to E-Trades of the world and things like that, and then now with Robinhood lowering commissions, we saw that bump up. Options trading has become a hobby for anybody I know who's below 40, in their thirties. I don't care what industry they're in, they all trade a little bit, it seems like. And so you have a generation that's very comfortable with the idea of trading and comfortable with the idea of searching for information and expertise. And they're just hitting their prime investing years. They're not even there yet.

Like I said, the top edge is 40, but they're already changing the space. And they're more active. They're much more comfortable with super active trading. And so when I say it's out of the bottle like that, there's going to be people servicing very large customer bases, very unsophisticated investors who are just hobbyists. And then all of the subcategories, I feel like are going to expand because you're just going to have a much larger pool of people that are looking for information.

Addison:

All right. So put this in perspective of your relationship with me. We've been working together for a couple of years and we're trying to figure out how to provide independent information for people that want to make their own decisions. You're after the same goal that I am. What do you think about that?

John Newtson:

Oh, well, I think you have all these different ecosystems.

Addison:

Well, you can't use the word ecosystem because that confuses me.

John Newtson:

Okay. Well, you have all these different niche communities in. You think about public and private markets. As private markets expand and become more accessible and some of the regulatory changes that happen, you have a lot more interest in private market stuff. Shark Tank was cool and all, but now you have all the private placement newsletters, the Reg A and crowdfunding. Those are expanding, but those business models, from a subscription standpoint, are the most at risk. If you think of the industry from a five forces perspective, they're most at risk from a threat of substitution, because there's already angel groups that are basically advertising and building lists and they're super credible and they're not charging you for their picks. They're out there basically going for quality picks and you can put your money in. You have people who are trying to go after that space.

Addison:

Let's talk about that for a second. I'm just going to stop you for a second, if you don't mind.

John Newtson:

Sure.

Addison:

When you say we're going to go after them, you're talking like a marketer, and that's what I do as well. So we're going after them as a marketer. But at the same time, we're offering products that can actually help people manage their own money. How do you perceive that? And I know we've done this. We've already been to the Financial Marketing Summit a couple of times. We know how to do this. But the product that we offer is a good one. We're doing the work. I don't know. I'm going to just be pedantic about this, but a dentist is not going to do, or a doctor is not going to do, a lawyer is not going to do, we do that work? I guess I'm asking the question, how do you approach that?

John Newtson:

Well, I think that's what I was trying to get to you with the separating the private from the public, in that the private market side.

Addison:

It’s a big deal.

John Newtson:

But the private market side, you have other people who are also doing good work in a different revenue model. Somebody like Jason Calacanis is a perfect example. He's a very well-known VC. He's a venture model. They're very much analyzing companies, generating deal flow, and bringing people in. So now, there's a competing business model over there that could have a competing marketing model with us if you're just going after the private market.

Addison:

Maybe.

John Newtson:

Right. Well, not the entire marketing model. I would say that they can compete in the same media channels. You can see that. Not full marketing model, but you'll see, you'll see them competing in the same media channels for spend. On the other part of that is, as the Reg A and crowdfunding world has exploded, and it's really exploded, and obviously the changes in how much you can raise and the fact that people who can raise $50 to $75 million in a Reg A can spend, I think, something like 20 or 25% of that on their marketing, you're seeing all this dramatic increase in public companies spending money directly on advertising in email networks, Facebook, Google display ads, targeting investors. And so now we have a whole nother category of media competitors who are bidding on the same traffic as we are. And that's going to continue, unless there's some huge regulatory thing that shuts it down, kind of like the way that the crypto world got shut down.

Addison:

I don't really see it that way personally, because I think that there's a debate between the government and what people can say.

John Newtson:

Yeah. I know companies that are spending, and this is an individual company doing a Reg A that is spending $20,000 a day on just Facebook ads for their rates. That's not too common yet, but it's one of those things that you have to watch from just the bidding for clicks on the side of the business. And a lot of the media buyers I know, the secondary threat to that is that if you look at our media expertise in the industry, it's externalized from most of the publishers. Just over the last decade, most freelance copywriters got moved into an internal model. Most of our media buyers internally are basically managing third-party affiliates and third-party media buyers.

Addison:

Yeah. It's a gig economy, right?

John Newtson:

Right. And so now that other universe of marketing budget. For the longest time, there wasn't a lot of marketing budget for those particular media groups outside of our industry. There were the small players and then there were the big players like you guys, and those guys are all competing for the same handful of clients. And now you have these groups where you have a single company who's raising $20 million, and they'll spend as much in a year on their advertising spend online as you might. And in that context, now you have these media buyers who were just going for the highest dollar value. And some of the best ones in this space, I'm seeing it all over the place, they're starting to get approached, they're starting to get connected. And so that's now, if you look, again, from a five forces perspective, the vendor bargaining power changes fundamentally because our customer acquisition is coming through vendors. So it's a choke point on our customer acquisition. And now you have competition directly with those media companies.

Addison:

I think this is just leading me in this direction, because how do you build your business?

John Newtson:

Well, so I'm not a direct financial publisher. I'm a B2B publisher consultant network. We are all B2B companies.

Addison:

You and Jamie, right?

John Newtson:

Yeah. So we have three companies and they're all business to business. And so we are basically the glue in between a lot of different players in the industry. And then on our Pendry Canon side, I'm in direct contact with other areas of financial services and looking for opportunities and ways that we can work with other groups. And so my business is very much about understanding. And I think that's why I have a different perspective. I spend almost all my time thinking about the industry rather than about the individual business.

Addison:

Yeah. That makes sense to me.

John Newtson:

Yeah. And so for me, I'm looking at, well, who are the new ecosystems that are trying to compete with some aspect of the media side? Who are the people in the industry that are actually growing and competing? Because if you look at our competition in this space, what do we really compete for? Because we cross-promote each other so much in terms of publishing. What's the point of competition? It's usually on buying media and talent, really. Whether it's copywriters or publishers or whatever, or editors, most of our competition seems to be for talent than it is for the customer, because we know the customers are willing to buy. And so the way that I'm looking at it is who's competing for the talent? Where's the talent going? Where is it leaving? Where is it coming from? Because it dictates where you're going to see additional spend and opportunities. I have somehow gotten in a space where a lot of the people who are trying to buy companies in our space or in a space right next to us are just coming to me as the first stop because I'm at the center. And so I see a lot of interest popping up for trader educators in financial publishers, smaller ones, people trying to see how they could explore buying into this space.

Addison:

How does that conversation go?

John Newtson:

Well, it depends on the group. Usually, it's mostly me educating them on our industry. And the biggest thing is no one understands the thing is no one understands the thing called the publisher's exemption. And so when they come in, we’re explaining that. You're not buying a financial services company, it's a publishing business.

Addison:

Yeah. I think a lot of people don't get that.

John Newtson:

Even internally to the industry they don't get that.

Addison:

It's weird.

John Newtson:

Yeah. And so for me, my role has always been, generating a viewpoint on the industry, and what the trends internally in industry are, and how we're intersecting the other sides, and then also relationships. And so if people are interested in the private market side, we can open up the door to all the investment banks who have the deals and that kind of stuff, but also other possible gurus and things like that. But then also on the public company side, if you think about it, most of our newsletters are covering small cap stocks. Most of the small caps would love to be covered, but there isn't really any way for you guys to communicate normally.

It's like a little bit of outreach here and there, but it isn't like a platform that brings the two together in a way that's not like an IR company kind of trying to promote a company. And so we've been trying to put that together. It's been a little bit spotty in terms of figuring out a monetization model that pays for its work. But we've had some of those events where we bring in public companies and we're just trying to target the right size companies.

Addison:

All right, so I have two more questions. One is we worked together like 10 years ago. And then you went off and did the Financial Marketing Summit, which has been successful. I'm just curious because I've never asked you, why did you do that?

John Newtson:

Originally, or where we kept it going?

Addison:

Originally, what was your idea?

John Newtson:

Originally I was a copywriter.

Addison:

Yeah, I know that.

John Newtson:

And I was in my specialty at the time was writing those big launches, the hotlist launches. And I couldn't convince anybody. I remember coming in and talking to Joe and he's like, oh, these are great, but just write me a sales letter. And I'm like, I haven't written a pure sales letter in years. It's always been within the whole thing. And so I struggled with that and I was like, I'm sucking all of a sudden. I went from having all these winners to being nothing, like losers and mediocre promos because I had tried to switch the model for how I wrote. And so I was like, I'm going to have to have just a bunch of small clients right now until I can spend a year getting back to writing a sales letter.

Addison:

But did you actually make that decision?

John Newtson:

No, no, no. I was talking to Jami Stout because she was the affiliate manager for my launches, and we both quit this client and decided that we needed to market ourselves. And we were like, well, what's the best way to actually market yourself? Either go to an event, but there wasn’t an event for our space where there should be one. So we should just do that and see if we can generate some business. And that was the genesis of the first event. And then I switched. It worked so well and created so many additional opportunities that I pretty much stopped writing copy pretty fast after that. So that's how we got it going. It was a lead magnet that turned into a business basically.

Addison:

And how's it going?

John Newtson:

Great, we're getting acquisition offers on it and things like that, which is fun to see.

Addison:

Oh, interesting. I have another question then, the most recent event that you held, you were trying to explore the SPAC.

John Newtson:

Special Purpose acquisition company?

Addison:

You were trying to explore that and get people involved in discussing that. How did that go?

John Newtson:

Well, we didn't talk just about SPACs there. I was talking more about the fact that we do have all these other areas of financial services that want some aspects of a relationship with our industry. SPAC is just one of them. They want what everyone in the public company world wants, which is distribution. And they look at our industry as retail distribution.

Addison:

A vehicle.

John Newtson:

Yeah. But then the other side of that is, if you look at what we do as an industry, we have perspective on financial markets, which is a big deal, I think.

Addison:

That's all I've ever done.

John Newtson:

Right. But if you look at the way that a lot of the disruption that's been going on in financial services, it's to people creating platforms with no perspective, like marketplaces. They're all trying to be another internet version of an exchange. And then they get stuck in these spaces where they can pull things together, but it doesn't quite work because they don't have people with perspective. An exchange has hundreds, if not thousands of people with a lot of money and very strong perspectives who were training.

And so I think that if you take our industry and separate it out into servicing our customers, and then the skill sets that we have, and you think about having a strong perspective, being able to edify and build up the credibility of somebody, and then engage investors on those ideas, that skillset translates beyond just selling subscriptions. Subscriptions is a fantastic business and there's a huge amount of money there, obviously. But it's the same skills that everyone in the fund world needs to have. And if they're going to move into digital models, because where they're engaging with investors online, trying to find them, acquire them, and convert them to an investment, and that skillset is that.

Addison:

Yeah. I don't really want to interrupt you, but that's a tough model, getting subscriptions and getting people to agree to stick around for whatever you come up with next. That's tough.

John Newtson:

Very tough.

Addison:

I guess maybe another question I would have for you is, how do we build the industry? I'm a little bit confused because it's been difficult for me. But when we met in London, we were trying to figure out how to get more people involved because it's an interesting business and this subscription model is a very good one.

John Newtson:

Yeah.

Addison:

So I wonder maybe it's just a question, what's your guess?

John Newtson:

I don't know. I think there's going to be pools of people if you're trying to. Are you trying to pull people in, or are people going to naturally come in? You look for all the influencers, and there hasn't really been a huge rise of influencers in our industry, outside of our space. There's a few of them here and there, some on the trading side, but we don't use social in the same way, so it's not that big of a deal for us right now.

But I think there's going to be more and more people who are going to be trying to take those positions of, I'm an influencer in this area of finance, or investing in these things. And so we're going to have a lot more credible people, because again, if you look at like the generation of millennials hitting 40, a lot of our great editorial teams, they're either great writers or you have a lot of these traders or people with a lot of credibility, who've come into the space from financial, other fund management, or other things, and we're also really good.

Addison :

Yeah I think it happens both ways. We get great traders and we get great writers.

John Newtson:

Yeah.

Addison:

But to be one of those things, it takes a lifetime.

John Newtson:

Right. Exactly. But that's my point. There's a lot of people in financial services, like fund managers, you have a lot of people who are in private equity. A lot of people who are in very traditional financial services groups, as that younger generation starts to hit their forties, and they start to think about, you know what, I'm going to go out on my own and do something else. That’s their natural instinct.

Addison:

Which is what happens.

John Newtson:

Right. Exactly.

Addison:

Literally.

John Newtson:

And so what's going to happen then with that group, they're going to try and be an immediate influencer because that's like the first, most natural thing for them to think about, because that's how their whole world has been built over the last 20 years. Everyone's posting online. And so I think we're going to see a ton of new potential editors and gurus, starting to come online and try to do their own thing. And they're doing what everyone does, which is they're going to try. They're going to try for a year to realize that they can't handle the marketing piece, and they're going to go looking for people to help them.

Addison:

Do you feel like that's what you did?

John Newtson:

To a degree, yeah. I was writing copy and then I became completely unemployable. My personality, I just have to chase whatever thing interests me today. It's part of my ADHD so-

Addison:

I can identify with that. I'm completely unemployable as well. I went to St John's.

John Newtson:

I was a dropout, but I was the only school that I wanted.

Addison:

I was a dropout too.

John Newtson:

Were you?

Addison:

Yeah. I dropped out of high school in 11th grade. Then I went to this stupid sports school in Maine. And then I went to St. John's.

John Newtson:

Awesome.

Addison:

I'm literally not employable.

John Newtson:

St John's was my only choice and I couldn't afford to get in there. I did a little bit of philosophy.

Addison:

Here's the thing about St. John's though. You get in, it's just hard to stay.

John Newtson:

Yeah.

Addison:

It's easy to get in.

John Newtson:

Yeah. But financially, it was just not going to happen.

Addison:

It is expensive.

John Newtson:

Yeah.

Addison:

You know how I paid for it?

John Newtson:

How?

Addison:

Writing copy for Agora.

John Newtson:

I didn't hear copy until I was 28.

Addison:

I didn't even know what copy was.

John Newtson:

Yeah.

Addison:

I just needed a job. But That's how I managed that whole situation.

John Newtson:

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. The customers are going to be coming, but choosing where in the conversation to be is going to be, I think.

Addison:

Do you feel confident? Do you feel like the conferences are going to work?

John Newtson:

Well, we're evolving into different models. The conference is probably our smallest thing at this point.

Addison:

No, okay. All right, that's good to hear.

John Newtson:

Yeah, there's so much opportunity right now. But I do think that from the publishing perspective, finding what are those new fields of narrative stories that really engage people? Yeah, facts are really exciting obviously, but that's not necessarily the same thing as talking about the bigger picture of what's going on in the markets, it's just a vehicle.

Addison:

Yeah. All right, so let's go there. What do you think is going on in the markets? I think commodities are probably coming up. What do you think?

John Newtson:

I will preface this with, I'm not a great financial analyst by any means, or investment analyst.

Addison:

Yeah, but you have to be to do what you do, so you could just give me your opinion.

John Newtson:

Yeah. No, I know. I do think that. At some point obviously, commodities are going to have to come back pretty hard. I can see a lot of people getting really excited about commodities in the early fundraising world, capital raise world right now. And that's usually a pretty good sign that it leads. And I hate the whole concept, because there's so much around ESG. But within what's broadly called ESG, there are some sectors that are going to be, I think, interesting, like carbon streaming and stuff like that. And the carbon credit markets. Yeah, private markets are going to continue to be a really strong part of, or a strong attraction to money going forward. I've heard some traders that I know and stuff, they think of the public market as almost a mutual fund at this point. You have so much pension money and other things, and then individual investors, and mutual funds and ETFs that own it, that it's not as decisive.

Addison:

Say you're on stage at the financial marketing summit. How do you express that? You probably just introduce other people that have ideas about how it's going to play out, right?

John Newtson:

Yeah, and no. I'm not the guru, I just know all the gurus. And so, yeah. But for me, the trends that are really most exciting have specifically to do with things like the disruption in financial services, and alternate uses of our content and marketing models, and how we interact with different aspects of things. Again, talking about macro trends.

Addison:

Yeah, I'm always interested in macro trends. So it's good to hear your point of view.

John Newtson:

Well for me, when I think about macro trends right now, it's these generational shifts. And you think about the digital entrepreneurs. For me, this is one of the biggest things that has me excited. Because you have this whole generation of businesses that were completely started online, and most of them are about 10 years old. Somewhere between eight and 12 years, 15 years old. And that whole generation of entrepreneurs who were bootstrapped. I'm not talking about the VC funded startups, I'm not talking about that side. Operators who've built a good $5, $10, $20, $50 million, $100 million dollar business. Their businesses are mature enough that they're now interested in capital markets. They're interested in mergers and acquisitions, exits, buying or selling their business, buying other businesses.

Addison:

Well, how would you describe the lower market in a different way? It's the middle market, right?

John Newtson:

Yeah. Yeah, it's the middle market. But the middle market can go up too].

Addison:

With investment funds.

John Newtson:

Yeah, I'd say lower middle market. But there's nothing out there that provides them with the connections, and education, and knowledge and direct opportunity that you would if you were trying to be a VC-funded startup, right?

Addison:

Yeah.

John Newtson:

You can go to Techstars, and go to Y Combinator. But there isn't anything like that for the lower middle market operator, somebody who's actually built a business. I feel like VCs have had some of the best marketing in the world, because everyone believes the VC route is the path to building a successful business. But that comes with a huge amount of problems. But there hasn't been anything for people. The customers who come to the summit, who've built a great business. They've got a $25 million company, and they're not looking to be a 300, 400, $500 million company necessarily, but they want to see what their opportunities are to exit. Or, they want to understand capital markets in ways that they can raise money without necessarily giving up complete control.

Addison:

Yeah, it's crazy to me. Because we built ours pretty big.

John Newtson:

You guys have built an amazing company. That's the thing.

Addison:

A company like that is not easy, and is not easy to keep.

John Newtson:

Yeah.

Addison:

So, we've done that.

John Newtson:

Yeah. And so what we've been working on, or I've been working on is, we'll be launching it shortly is a publishing and event asset that is connecting those operators and entrepreneurs into relationships.

Addison:

Can you get back to Europe? I want to go.

John Newtson:

I need to.

Addison:

So far, I haven't been able to.

John Newtson:

we're looking at The Bahamas. I just signed an agreement with a group that started a new pan-Caribbean stock exchange. And so I made an agreement with them to help start.

Addison:

Cool, that sounds fun.

John Newtson:

And they're going to host our accelerator or one of our events down there in the winter. So I'll definitely keep you in the loop on that one.

Addison:

Okay. Yeah, I'd like to go.

John Newtson:

Yeah, that's a cool group too, because he has access to not just all these investment opportunities that are international, that come near shore to the US. But they also have an enormous amount of real estate investment opportunities, with commercial, development and residential throughout the Caribbean. Lots of deal flow.

Addison:

Yeah, there's a lot going on.

John Newtson:

Yeah. And so a really interesting group. That's what I tend to try and do. Find people who can bring different types of deal flow and put them in the room together and see what happens.

Addison:

Okay, so let's wrap this up. I always like talking to you, and we've done some events together. Anyone who's watching this, where would you want them to go?

John Newtson:

Well, if you're in the industry, then obviously a financial marketing summit.

Addison:

Yeah, that would be really good.

John Newtson:

Yeah, financialmarrketingsummit.com. It is where you get the whole industry together, and so there's tons of opportunities there. And then if it's somebody who's outside the industry but they think that there's some opportunities with the industry or people in the industry, that's pendrycannon.com. And that's where most of my consulting and stuff goes at this point.

Addison:

Yeah, that's good. I really enjoyed this conversation, and it's very different from most of the ones I have, because we're talking about the back office.

John Newtson:

I know. I love this industry, and I love talking about it. I had probably 1,000 questions for you, just in general about things that you guys have done over the years, just because I'm a complete geek on how our industry operates.

Addison:

I am too, it's just weird.

John Newtson:

Yeah.

Addison:

Okay, we'll continue them.

John Newtson:

Yeah. I appreciate taking the time. This was cool.

Addison:

Oh yeah. It was fun.