Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Fintech - All Eyes Turn to Winklevoss Acquisition of Nifty Gateway

In the world of crypto, that is digital currency, Cameron and Tyler Winkleloss are among the movers and shakers.

Their journey from being ridiculed in the film "Social Network" to becoming early adopters of bitcoin is chronicled in the book "Bitcoin Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich.

Currently, their every decision is watched and analyzed for both business and technological implications. The interest isn't only in the category of cryptocurrency.

It extends to the entire growing fintech sector. Recently, BusinessInsider featured the top 10 fintech startups and later stage enterprises. That has become the story in financial matters, ranging from how to select and purchase life insurance to processing internet payments. In that, UX or designing a simple seamless satisfying user experience is the name of the changing game. 

So, the business media, including BusinessInsider, took note when the twins made an acquisition. Their fund Gemini Trust purchased Nifty Gateway. A side story on that, which members of the press seem to enjoy, is that is the acquisition also had been owned by twins - Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster. 

The Nifty platform accepts payments through credit and debit cards instead of a complex crypto transaction - that is a crypto wallet. However, that is tracked on a blockchain ledger. 

What is purchased is the Nifty or NFT. On the Nifty Gateway website, there is the explanatory statement:

"Nifty NFT is a digital good which is stored in a global blockchain instead of a local or centralized database - usually an in-game video game object."

The significance of nifties is this: They are different from other forms of crypto in that they are one of a kind. Therefore, they aren't interchangeable on the blockchain.

It is reported by Upcrypto.org that one motivation for this purchase is that the Winklevoss twins predict that all collectibles, both digital and real-world, will migrate to the blockchain in the form of nifties. 

For the current time, Gemni Trust and Nifty Gateway will operate separately.

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

The Business of Social - What the Rest of Professional Services Already Knows, Law Firms Still Have to Figure Out

The 200 law firms analyzed by Good2BSocial have become more aware of the importance of social networks.

Surprisingly, many of them are even posting on Instagram. One wonders if soon enough they will be on the Chinese import TikTok.

In general, they have left Facebook because of privacy concerns and the fallout from scandals.

As you probably have noticed, they post frequently on LinkedIn. Law firm Sanford Heisler Sharp has mastered how to position and package itself on that particular social network. 

In addition, they have moved beyond organic social to paid social. They are using automated marketing systems such as Hubspot for managing leads.

But, as the 2019 Social Law Firm Index found, the missing piece is in figuring out how to measure ROI. That's because the law firms haven't taken that all-important step in determining what is their business purpose in participating in social. That puts them behind much of the other professional services players which are clear what their objectives are in investing in social.  Here is that 2019 Index.

DLA Piper is number-one in social, overall. Norton Rose leads in leveraging social for thought leadership. And Jones Day stands out for its use of YouTube. 

Yes, social is about being social - that is, engaging. Sure, the law firm can have a track record for connecting, including plenty of likes, shares, and comments. However, its social outreach isn't resulting in an uptick in responses to the Call To Action (CTA). That's what has to be addressed by its in-house marketing team and the outside agencies it contracts with. In addition, how exactly is social influencing branding? Is its use of social effective in recruiting talent, especially laterals with a book of business? 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

TikTok - Will It Kill Off Instagram/Facebook Parent?

As social network communications/marketing experts know, Instagram is the place to be for reaching iGens. And Facebook, the parent of Instagram, for the over-50 crowd.

But that conventional wisdom is being challenged.

As BusinessInsider reports, short-from video platform TikTok  has a growing pull force with both iGens and others.

Regarding the latter, fallen-from-grace television producer Matt Lauer used TikTok to video some dance moves. That could have been an attempt at a comeback. (Later his daughter Romy deleted that when the scandal again caught fire.)

The research by Sensor Tower documents that TikTok has had 1.5 billion downloads on the App Store and Google Play. It is the only app in the top five not owned by Facebook. In response to this new competition, Facebook has launched Lasso and Instagram is testing out Reels. 

Right now, reports The Wall Street Journal, TikTok is attempting to distance its branding from its Chinese roots. The censorship of social networks in China can throw shade on TikTok. 

What will determine the future of the business of Instagram and its parent Facebook is what advertisers and influencers do. Social networks represent a money game, not connecting. 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Reductions in Force (RIFs) - Long Shelf Life for Resentments

Tone.

It's everything.

And the tone of WeWork's legalese letters to laid off employees is perceived by some as "heavy handed."

The point is that there has been no indication that the former employees were violating the terms and conditions of the employment contract they had agreed to. That kind of contract covers can't-dos for the 12 months following termination. The provisions include no-compete clauses and not disclosing confidential information. Here are more details from BusinessInsider.

This tone-deaf move can further tarnish WeWork's brand. Incidentally, a layoff of about 4,000 more employees at WeWork is due.

As those in the loop of outplacement should have down cold, how terminated employees "are treated" can have long term effects.

Top-of-the-line outplacement firms educate employers about this critical phase of a reduction in force. 

To begin with, the morale of the survivors can go into the dumpster. They can be appalled at any sign of disrespect. Of course, their fear is: Hey, despite loyal service and extraordinary performance I can also wind up being positioned and packaged as, well, the "enemy."

Next the door opens wide to lawsuits. Former employees find their way to legal consultations. Currently, players in the legal sector seem sympathetic to former WeWork employees.

Recruiting talent for the developing needs of business becomes problematic. Who doesn't read Glassdoor when hunting for a job or a contract assignment?

Also, as is happening right now, shabby treatment becomes a story the members of the media will run with. Negative news sells and this is negative news.

In communications assignments with organizations conducting reductions in force I have found that the best overall guidance comes from a full-service outplacement provider such as RiseSmart.

The outplacement service has to be end-to-end, ranging from issues such as are there alternatives to a layoff to channels created for the terminated to be rehired as "boomerang" contract workers. 

RiseSmart's vice president of marketing Karin Bootsma makes it a mission to ensure organizations are aware of what might be called the "long shelf life" of resentments triggered among those laid off. 

Full Disclosure: When I was laid off from a food corporation the outplacement package equipped with the resources to start my own business. The parent company became a client for five years. 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

Drudge Report - What Conservatism?

The Drudge Report launched as a gossipy digital site in 1995.

Quickly it become a brandname in conservative media by breaking "the intern" story. For those who remember, it was Matt Drudge who let the world in on the alleged hanky-panky in the White House.

That was then.

Now, the Drudge Report has become equally aggressive in outing what it assesses should be covered in the impeachment process overwhelming the Trump Administration. 

For example, this morning, on the left hand side of the Drudge Report, there are six links to news about what generally might be called "the implosion" of all things Trump. The headline in the center reads "Book: Aides Tried To 'Save Country' from Trump."

At his core, Matt seems to be a businesspeople, not an ideologue.

While many digital sites have gone out of business, been sold for peanuts, or are struggling financially and in terms of traffic, the Drudge Report continues to scale.

Its influence also keeps growing. The results of the polls it conducts on its site become headline news. When I post on them on my own syndicated sites, there is plenty of traffic and that is sustained.

Meanwhile, the liberal media site launched to counteract the Drudge Report - HuffPost - is reportedly up for sale. It never had the news business sense of the Drudge Report. Here is coverage from TechCrunch.

Takeway: Business before politics.

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

Yes, Those Silicon Valley Folk Still Use Snail Mail

The three lawsuits have all the bizarre twists and dramatic turns of a James Patterson mystery.

The most recent is "McKellar v. Mithril Capital."

Filed by the venture capital firm's former general counsel Crystal McKellar it is a response to two earlier lawsuits against her filed by Mithril. 

Essentially, the former employer is alleging McKellar conducted whisper outreach contending financial fraud by the firm's leadership. The company had been co-founded by the Peter Thiel.

Among the contentions was that the value of the portfolio companies was overstated to investors. That campaign included handwritten letters sent snail mail.

McKellar was fingered by Mithril leadership as the chief suspect for the letter-writing.

The fact is that she did file a whistleblower complaint with the FBI and the SEC.

Mithril's two lawsuits also claim McKellar breached confidentiality and was in the process of setting up a competing firm.

Mithril invests in late stage enterprises such as Reddit.

McKellar was fired. According to her employer it was for cause.

In response she filed what would be the third lawsuit in this saga that could be reducing the equity in Thiel's powerful brand.

She contends her termination was a result of the whistleblowing. She is asking $30 million in lost compensation and $30 million in damages.

These bits of litigation drama have gone high profile not only because Thiel is in the loop. It is also because of McKellar's background.

She had been a child star on "The Wonder Years." Then, instead of imploding like too many child stars who reach adulthood, she got herself an elite education. Undergraduate she did Yale. It was there she met Ajay Royar who still heads Mithril. Next stop was Harvard Law School. She had practiced law for more than a decade before being hired at Mithril.

Meanwhile, Saint Peter (Thiel) whose litigation funding helped save the world from mean-spirited digital tabloid Gawker could be excommunicado (term from film "John Wick 3"). That would be from his top perch in venture capital heaven. Also, his best-selling guide for entrepreneurs "Zero to One" could be attacked. 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

Antisemitism, from Suspected Fires in Boston to Hostile Interrogation in SW Arizona

From the balcony of the law firm in "Boston Legal," the city seems just the right setting for that bunch of flawed but likable geniuses. 

It's easy to feel right at the Bruins game with Jon's friends on "A Million Little Things."

You bet, popular television programming has made Boston seem totally cool. 

So, it can come as a surprise that the quarter of a million Jews in Boston have become potential targets for hate crimes. As Michael Damiano reports in Boston Magazine, in 2018, there had been 144 of those kinds of incidents. In recent years, the number of them has increased more than 130%. 

Among the victims might have been Rabbi Avi Bukiet and his family. Twice his home, which also provides space for the congregation to worship, had been set on fire. Both times his three children were inside. Of course, the Bukiets have their guard up for future antisemitic activities.

This is occurring at a period in the history of Boston when institutional barriers against Jews essentially have disappeared. No longer do they need their own designated facilities, ranging from hospitals to country clubs. 

The uptick in antisemitism could be resulting from a confluence of factors.

Those include:

•  The divided politics of America
•  Social network's ability to build mass support for an ideology which then can be motivated to take action.
•  Copycatting. The attack on Pittsburgh Jews was fatal and high profile. So, why not go for even bigger kinds of hate-filled drama. Or, at least get in on the action in a more minor way. For instance, leave Nazi graffiti in the Jewish neighborhood.

With my heavy New York accent, Eastern European body type (my mother's maiden name was "Miksza"), and dark skin, I often have been taken for Jewish. Mostly folks were curious about my background.

But, in southwestern Arizona in 2014, the interest turned hostile. Call it antisemitism lite. Neighbors interrogated me about bizarre topics such as how my family reared me, why do I and all Jews work all the time, and since I was smart why wasn't I a medical doctor. Weary of the undertow of abuse, I left within 27 months. 

My experience only involved disrespect. 

That was then.

Currently, I wonder if there would be property damage and more.

Full Disclosure: Dark-skinned, I was bullied by the light-skilled Irish kids in the New York Metro area in the 1950s. As with my hair, aging has lightened my skin. 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

Gawker (including 2.0) - Jinxed?

Ever since wrestling celebrity Hulk Hogan filed a lawsuit against digital tabloid Gawker, it's been plagued with life-and-death struggles. Superlawyer who also helps out Melania Trump Charles Harder won a $141 million verdict. And what helped out some was the litigation funding of venture capitalist Peter Thiel.

After Gawker went bankrupt because of the jury decision, eventually Bustle Media Group bought what was left of it. Could there be a jinx on Gawker 2.0?

As the New York Post reports, the second coming of the gossipy site hasn't happened as yet. And those associated with it have suffered.

Back in the summer the whole staff got axed.

The two brandname writers who had resigned in protest of Carson Griffith's whatever can't find full-time work. They are Maya Kosoff and Anna Breslaw. In the media space, writers continue to find they can't find the kind of cool jobs they used to have. That will only get worse as more journalism outlets shutter. 

The whole Gawker saga sends a message: Beware how much you push the envelope. Provocative? Controversial? Whistle-blowing? Yes, all that brings traffic. But it can also drive away advertisers and trigger lawsuits.  Media properties have to balance the extreme need for attention with the ability to stay in business.

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

DLA Piper - Now Its Story Is Being Shaped by Media (and mostly beyond its control)

Increasingly, BigLaw is going public in the management of litigation against it - and the fallout in the court of public opinion. 

In "Tolton, et al. v. Jones Day," for example, the defendant posted on this lawsuit on its website. That was atypical for a large law firm whose organizational culture's signature is being secret. That ethos is referred to as a "black box."

More recently, DLA Piper has been caught up in a high-profile #MeToo allegation.

That was kicked off when partner Vanina Guerrero filed a complaint with the EEOC. She contended sexual misconduct by rainmaker partner Louis Lehot and requested to be released from the firm's mandatory arbitration policy to resolve this matter in the court of law.

Like Jones Day, the law firm has pushed back in a very public way.

At the end of October, DLA Piper filed a formal report with the EEOC. It contains what the law firm contends it discovered about Guerrero during an internal investigation. Her legal team at Wigdor call all that a smear campaign.

Well, what is in the EEOC filing by DLA Piper certainly could be damaging to Guerrero. Presented is an email she wrote to herself in a sort of stream of consciousness about her strategy in managing a relationship with Lehot. The tone and content seem Machiavellian. She explicitly discusses how through "control" she can have the powerful rainmaker Lehot advance her career. In a sense, he seems like a victim of, yes, female scheming. The legal world is puzzled why a seasoned lawyer would put this sort of thing in writing and on her law firm's email system. Any first semester IL knows never ever to do that.

But, the undertow in this ongoing soap opera is this: What are the risks and rewards of DLA Piper's moving this internal dispute beyond legalities to the court of public opinion?

As any crisis management expert knows, the risks are extraordinary. Crisis, even a minor one and this is not longer minor, puts the organization under the microscope.

Once the step is taken into the court of public opinion, there is going back. And the members of the media, not necessarily the supposed facts, shape the narrative. Some believe that media, not the law, not government, not the wealthy is the most powerful institution in the world.

Well, it's the stories media outlets put out there which constituencies, ranging from lawyers considering a lateral to DLA Piper to prospective clients, consume. 

Given that this story has legs, aspects of it will be played out over and over again, on a regular basis. DLA Piper has lost control. Members of the media determine what angles to take.

The rewards aren't many. As a large law firm DLA Piper has the resources to, from the get-go, manage this whole ball of wax in a private way. Its silence in the court of public opinion could have motivated constituencies to begin to question Guerrero. 

It could have simply taken action, as is expected in a crisis. And that it did. Good start. It parted ways with Lehot and put Guerrero on paid leave.

Then, it could have pulled back to focus on the legalities. Meanwhile, it is retaining its mandatory arbitration policy, which a growing number of law firms have dropped.

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

The Forgiveness Meme v. Extreme Psychic Benefits of Revenge (that is, if you wait & serve it cold)

The current meme is forgiveness. Do that, goes that line of spiritual thinking, and you are liberated from the preoccupation with a wrong done you.

But, the reality, as usual, is very different from what has become a platitude.

As lawyers know, revenge is the common response to what the spiritually evolved instruct you to forgive. That might range from infidelity to being terminated for a job.

Of course, enacting revenge might be positioned and packaged as the pursuit of justice. For those with the resources that could take the form of a long legal battle. For example, X who has been axed from employment might have a brandname lawyer file a lawsuit for retaliation for such-and-such a wrong. In addition, a major public relations firm is hired to create a persuasive narrative in the court of public opinion. 

However, a recent study published in the Journal of Social Psychology found that there is frequently a delay in enacting revenge. Yes, that plays out the adage that revenge is most sweet when served cold.

In the research co-headed by Maartye Elshout at Tilburg University, it was found that only one in 10 took revenge immediately. Those might include the spouses who stumble upon evidence of infidelity and immediately murder the alleged miscreant and/or the lover.

More typical is waiting. In time, that can take the form of damaging a car, revealing secrets, scheming to get someone fired, spreading gossip (true or false), or being married and having a fling. 

The motivation for revenge, the research also turned up, is not only to punish the perceived bad guys and girls.

Equally important is restoring a sense of self esteem and one's personal power. Those are strong motivators to, yes, take revenge. Since revenge brings such profound psychic benefits perhaps that's why many human beings decide to wait it out and plan it carefully. Here are more details from the media.

Full Disclosure: Essentially, I held off half a century before sharing my experience as a freshman at a then all-women's Roman Catholic College. Here is that article "Pedophile Nuns and the Fat Girl from Jersey City." Only after publishing that have I been able to take the leap into self-love. Forgiveness can be a self-defeating ideology.

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.