CryptoNews Podcast

#73: Mike Germano on Building Bitcoin Magazine

November 11, 2021 cryptonews.com Episode 73
CryptoNews Podcast
#73: Mike Germano on Building Bitcoin Magazine
Show Notes Transcript

Mike Germano is a Publisher at BTC Media Inc, the creators of Bitcoin Magazine and the Bitcoin event series.

Previously, Mike worked for Vice Media as its Chief Digital Officer, after the media house acquired his company, Carrot, regarded as the first-ever social media agency in the world.

In this conversation, we discuss:
- Creating the world's first social media agency
- Working for Vice Media
- Building BTC Media Inc.
- The growth of Bitcoin Conference Series
- Last year's crazy event in Miami
- Bitcoin maxies
- Pressing issues in bitcoin

Bitcoin Magazine
Website: bitcoinmagazine.com
Facebook: @BitcoinMagazine
Twitter: @BitcoinMagazine
Youtube: Bitcoin Magazine

Mike Germano
Twitter: @mikegermano
Instagram: @mikegermano
LinkedIn: Mike Germano

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Matt Zahab:

Ladies and gentlemen, it's your host Matt Zahab. And we have another incredible guest on today's episode in Mike Germano who is a publisher at BTC media, the creators of Bitcoin magazine and the Bitcoin event series. Yes, the massive event held in Miami that you all know about. Previously, Mike worked for Vice media as its chief digital officer, after the Media House acquired his company carrot regarded as the first ever social media agency in the world. I now have Mike to thank for the millions of spam emails I get every single day from agencies who think they can help crypto news grow. Without further ado, I'm very pleased to welcome to the crypto news podcast. Mike Germano, Mike, welcome to the show.

Mike Germano:

Thank you so much for having me, man. I'm excited to be on

Matt Zahab:

site to have you on first not often do I get a guest on who literally took an industry and flipped it upside down? Big fan of what you did with your agency carrots, but I'm not gonna lie. I sorta hate Yeah, because oh man, LinkedIn, Twitter, email, you name it. Everyone has his social media agency. And they're trying to come for business.

Mike Germano:

Yeah, I apologize for all those people. But back in 2005, there was there was nobody there. So that was that was the nice part about it was just me and my business partner who were highschool friends, building websites and community sites all through then Facebook had just started in colleges. And we looked at that we said, that's absolutely going to be the future. And I guess all of our other friends went and did startups that you know, raise tons of money and didn't do anything, might remind you of something. And we were on the side of, well, if we're going to have a job in a company, we got to actually earn money. So let's provide services. So we never raised any money, we just knew how to build and thought that was the future and, and started called ourselves a social media agency, no one else did. And luckily for us, since we were kind of young and new out of school, our age didn't really hurt us in the marketing industry world, because no one even knew what social media was actually helped us. So, you know, we had some of the biggest clients in the world, everyone from the kind of read goals to Netflix's to Rolexes, to Ford. So that part of it was was was exciting to build that. And it all stemmed because we believed in building community sites, and we believed in the power of connecting people, we believe that, you know, I'm a huge big freedom of speech person. So obviously, that was kind of what really drove us and what got us excited about all those platforms back in the day.

Matt Zahab:

I love that what was what was the aha moment for you and your partner, when you guys are like, wow, Facebook's poppin off, it's gonna be the next big thing. And we're gonna take this head on.

Mike Germano:

Yeah, um, I can tell you exactly where I was when I saw Facebook. And it was I went to Quinnipiac University, which is not an Ivy League school. But the Ivy League school next to us is Yale. And I was allowed to take like one class there, I remember sitting in class and talk some other kin, this new thing was out. And I looked at, and I and I just immediately knew that that was it. And we, you know, we got lucky because we were actually emailing with some folks at Facebook saying, This is great. Can we can we can we get this at our school. But it was very quickly, we realized that the way it was connecting, and actually the whole thing that was beautiful. So you could link and you could, it was hyperlinking, you know, whether it was different groups you liked, or you could actually see was not MySpace. And it was funny, because you'd hear everyone else be like, well, you know, MySpace is already there. And this is how it's going to be and you should just do this. What do you think this new startup, you know, can can do something and was very obvious to all of us? That it was and more importantly, we thought, this is the way they that brands are and to try to communicate with with people, we thought that there would be, you know, a business opportunity there. We want to build, you know, and we want we were already building websites. And we actually when the Facebook platform came out, Facebook was nice enough to give us a lot of recommendations to a lot of work because we knew the platform. Well, we were developers, so we were building all the kind of apps initially. So we built for Major League Baseball and built a whole you know, community we built fan pages before they existed. So the the only sad part was when fan pages first came out, Major League Baseball asked us to help one of their players. And it was David Ortiz, and I'm a diehard Yankees fan. So I had to I was for two years. I was actually David Ortiz on a Facebook fan page and it really crushed me. But we used all that money to buy Yankee tickets, so it was worth it.

Matt Zahab:

That's like the Ben Affleck story from Gone Girl. Here. We hear about that? Which one? We'll know the one where he's supposedly delayed for like three days. And wouldn't he delay the whole production for three days? Because I told him to put on a Yankees hat and he's like, Not a chance.

Mike Germano:

Yeah, I respect that. That's impressive. Yeah, no, we were just we were just fake David Ortiz, but we always respond to our friends were Red Sox fans, and they thought was pretty funny. So

Matt Zahab:

that's awesome. Mike, you brought up Quinnipiac, one of my best friends. lacrosse player from Toronto went to Quinnipiac, low key underrated one of the best and biggest party schools in the States. Can you confirm?

Mike Germano:

I can confirm and I think there's a reason why my younger brother ended up going there. Because he went up to school there once and no Quinnipiac doesn't have a football team. So we'd like to fly under the radar. And back when social media was actually when I was graduating school, I thought social media would be big, and the school would listen to me. So I've reserved all the Quinnipiac handles are actually mine. So I told them that they're willing to pay me back my tuition, I'll give it back to him. But I have, you know, at Quinnipiac, on Twitter, so they're not really happy about that. But

Matt Zahab:

you still hold you still hold all of them?

Mike Germano:

Yes, I do.

Matt Zahab:

I love it.

Mike Germano:

But that, you know, hey, look, I said, I'm gonna be big, they will listen to me. And now I'm just gonna wait for my tuition reimbursement to give it back to them. But it's a good school, I feel very fortunate, nice thing about it was, it was very entrepreneurial. So we were starting companies while we were in college, which is, you know, something I really care about, but allowed me to really meet some really smart folks who were also on that on that business path, which really helped. And some professors I still talk to this day, who give us advice on how we run our businesses, so I felt like it was worth it. Other parts of it, maybe not as much, but the partying and the entrepreneurial side. Definitely.

Matt Zahab:

I love it. That's the two big things that every school needs baby. Moving forward. After your stint with carrots. You got poached by Vice and yes, that's the vice media that you see all over the internet. I remember growing up in high school I think that's when I first started to see vise you know, late we'll call it 208209 kind of thing. 2010 2011 Uni it was all I saw Facebook, Insta Twitter, you name it even snap absolutely everywhere. They poached you tell me how that conversation went? Was it a? Was it an offer? That was too good to turn down and talk to me about your time advice as well? Because you absolutely

Mike Germano:

yeah,

Matt Zahab:

look at that go,

Mike Germano:

um, well, you know, I like I said, before my business partner, I started a software company right out of college. And you know, you have no money you're building you're growing, our company took off was successful continues to grow. And, you know, we're 29 years old, and there's hundreds of employees walking around, and there's a million dollars, you got to pay out every month. And you realize that there's no fallback plan, you know, it's all on you. If the company goes under, you'll spend the rest of your life like paying debt off to the bank so that those stakes kind of keep building up. A lot of companies try to buy us uniquely because Well, essentially, we had half our team was development, design, development, really building out technology for social platforms. And actually, for a lot of media companies. That was because I love media, I love the ability to tell stories, that they were important going back to being a huge freedom of speech. person, I thought it was very admirable to help these journalists and to get that message out there. So whether we built for Netflix or the onion, you know, we were always finding, you know, unique ways to kind of get content out there. And we also the agency side, we were making a lot of content for brands. So we two sides, were a company, a bunch of other companies trying to bias and kill one side or the other, just be an agency or just be a startup. And what had happened was, I think vice was starting to get mad that we were also based in Brooklyn, and working with all their competitors. So we were building for Buzzfeed. And they asked why they we didn't build for them really was a conversation in a dive bar of all places, that can that got quite heated. And they ended up making us an offer to acquire a company. And, you know, for us as a Brooklyn based company that did have offices in LA and other parts of the world. It seemed like it aligned. But more importantly, in the beginning, you know, vices vision of actually, I think going to where other people wouldn't and being counterculture and telling these important stories. That was really something that seemed not only right at my alley, but worth fighting for. And if we're going to make money, I'd rather have it go to help buy plane tickets for reporters, to go tell these stories. And if we're going to build and help spread content, I'd rather do it for, for that company. So they acquired our whole company. And part of that acquisition, I went on to be the chief to draw server advice. But you know, our company spearheaded a lot of the kind of as we think about sponsored content, and how brands kind of can not only it's not just about putting your ad on something, it's about standing up believing what's being made, and how can you do that in conjunction. So the viewer knows, hey, this was made possible by another company, you should appreciate it. They didn't just try to interrupt you with commercials. And so they took on our whole company, which was which was exciting times. And I went on to be Chief Digital Officer over there, which was was insane.

Matt Zahab:

That's a great story there. And advice, sort of the vice cliche would be reporting offbeat news stories and really going far and wide with a traditional news outlet would never cover any of that kind of stuff because a lot of If it was controversial, whether it was you know, drug politics, you name it anything culture related, the vice team would always sort of go through that gray area. Was that one of the big things that made you say yes, because you wanted true journalism there.

Mike Germano:

I mean, yeah, I really can't deny that i The point was, I was a fan of vice, I had vise magazines. You know, I thought that was always fascinating. I liked that. They were unapologetic, I like that, you know, they were willing to by being counterculture, I think you open yourselves up to taking a look at life a little bit differently, and not just listening to what, you know, the mainstream media says and what you know, your government tells you what to do, and what the pharma companies tell you to do, you're willing to explore on your own. And, and to be very blunt, the people advice were the best you had. These people want to work hard, who are exciting, who are curious, right. And it was, it was really an exciting group of people to work with that high ambitions. Vice is a global and you know, had been when I was there, but even more so global company. So you had, you know, entrepreneurial passion, people from all around the world, you know, city traveled to, you know, we had to do a lot of traveling for whether that's with clients or for media growth. And, you know, every city you were in, there was almost a vise office and some of the best people you want to meet with. So that part of it was made it a really good decision for us. But it was something that I at that, you know, at the time was very supportive of, of the content they were covering. And to be honest, you know, they were covering Bitcoin, way before anyone else, for different reasons, right? Because they were, you know, they were they were the ones, you know, talking about the Silk Road, and they were talking about what to do with Bitcoin, because you know, that these people had a finger, the reporters there lived in the environments that they were reporting on. So they knew what was coming up. They knew, you know, it's one thing to just know, and the Joker always be like, we knew the hottest indie band that was coming up, right, but like, they were the ones that knew, honestly, that this thing Bitcoin was happening, or, you know, we found unique ways to get into stories whether, you know, my favorite, obviously was always how we got into North Korea by bringing Dennis Rodman and the Harlem Globetrotters, you know, and it's like, you know, some hipster sitting next to you who was like, you know, in charge of, like, you know, getting a video camera and going North Korea's seen, I think was like the vice comput device company spent more time talking to North Korean government officials than any US politician in four years. So it was that that part was kind of fascinating and, and they didn't give a shit what people said about them, and at the time, you know, they were, they were willing to be risky and and try new things. And that's, that's a place that you want to be.

Matt Zahab:

And you took some of that ethos with you when you started BTC media, which is again, the parent company of Bitcoin magazine, and the Bitcoin event series, I read the mag all the time, go on your website, and of course, the event, no explanation needed. But tell me about your story of getting orange. Sure, when was your Oh, shit, I gotta go all as well.

Mike Germano:

So obviously lucky, fortunate enough to because that buys once again, some of the reporting and talking about how you can maybe buy mushrooms on the Silk Road is a way that I know a lot of people maybe got into into some form of digital currency. But with that, with that said, at the time actually being a fan of media magazines, Bitcoin and taking a look what Bitcoin magazine was doing. I think it was 2017 I was advised we were obviously growing audience and partner with other companies and started a conversation with David Bailey, who's the CEO of BTC Inc, and, and the founder of it who, who owned who acquired Bitcoin magazine. And we were discussing ways to grow together. Long story short, I ended up leaving a vise at the time and the deal with advice and Bitcoin magazine didn't happen and obviously always kept in touch with those guys and, and took some time off and traveled around with family. And the problem is the more that things were getting crazier, the more I was going down the Bitcoin rabbit hole. I've always been a supporter. But you know, when you're and you think you have your financial life in check, you think you've done all the right things and then you look at it more and more you realize how bad things are, and I just couldn't, I couldn't get away from it. And I was pouring in so much content and reading everything that I could out there. And And essentially, David had wanted me to join the company for a long time. But it was one of those things where I finally came and said, Okay, I'm willing to do this now because you know, I'd built a lot of media companies done a lot of big things. You know, Bitcoin magazine is obviously not the size of vice and people like why would you come join that well, because this mission means more than anything else. And that part of it is exciting for me. I know how that I went through my orange pill process and part of its political you know, I thought so the political ramifications and and You know, I'm a pretty self sovereign. I like think I'm a self sovereign individual. And just looking at, I think, where the government was going in terms of, I think seizing things and more importantly, just censoring censorship kind of got me really scared and I just had no trust in, you know, in the traditional banking system to begin with. So all those things just led to me happily being orange pilled. And then obviously, my outlet finally joining a company that I've always liked, and bring that energy over there to to help grow and grow globally Bitcoin, Bitcoin magazine, a movement that, you know, the folks like Rizzo and CK, who, who really kind of put some new lifeblood into bitcoin magazine, obviously, they know the they know our readers better than anyone else. They're connected to the whole industry. But you know, on the on the business side, I'm excited to come in and really grow up because I believe it's the first global language, obviously, math is the first global language but the beautiful thing about Bitcoin unlike, you know, whether vice we have to translate in so many languages, you know, counterculture, had a certain, you know, there was always a counterculture in every country. But the beautiful thing about Bitcoin is it has that same environment, you know, I mean, it's really the community that I've been building communities like said, first social media, see, I built communities my whole life. I love that part of it. I love bringing whether bringing baseball fans together, or whether it's bringing, you know, fans of Star Wars together doesn't matter. But yet, when you look at Bitcoin, you're like, Oh, this is a great community, and what the best thing is, nowadays, people share similar values. But even when you have a different viewpoint than them the most part, they're going to respect it, you know, they're not going to try to, you know, you're not, they're not gonna kick out the Democratic Party, because you, you know, you have a different viewpoint on things, they're gonna be like, Well, we think you're wrong, but whatever, you know, you have a right to have that. So it was quite refreshing community. And that's why I couldn't help but join, we obviously doing I think, some very exciting things, you made some small, exciting announcements and things that we have going on. And in the month, we're going to have some news that no one in the media world has ever done before. So I wish I could leak it to you, but I can't but you know, we're a month away from making announcement that something that no one else will ever, ever do. And I think I think it will, will push how people think about us as a media company us as not just sharing stories about Bitcoin, but but but really sharing important news and information.

Matt Zahab:

I know you're not going to give me any leak here. But can you at least like give me something? Are you guys gonna throw the 2023 conference on the moon or something? Like, is this gonna be some aliens?

Mike Germano:

Maybe part of that is right. Maybe part of that part of that is right. But I will say, you know, if you look at what's what's exciting that's happening is we just announced, you know, opening up our global offices and reporting bureaus. So we announced Ukraine, which obviously has some, some exciting developments in terms of how the country itself looks at cryptocurrency. But you know, you have Kazakhstan right next to it, which has taken on a lot of mining. And you you know, you have the that general region, kind of the Russian Ukrainian speaking region, kind of Eastern Europe. So we're headquartered we're headquartered in our offices in Kiev, in Ukraine, you know, we're in the middle of hiring, growing that up, which is very exciting. So, you know, we're taking a lot of our content, translating it, to Ukrainian and Russian. And just, immediately, we saw how excited people were that our organization thought of this as important. It's a huge market. So we'll be announcing our partners soon, I think the opening office parties in November. So that's excited. Maybe if you're out in Ukraine, let us know. You know, so we're going to be opening up some more international offices. This way, not only we're just taking the content, we have translated but but we're also doing reporting and finding out what's happening there. And there'll be firsthand reporting, because as you as you know, sometimes some of the reporting on Bitcoin is just, you know, some some CNBC journalist flying into El Salvador for 12 hours, and, you know, and flying out and not even realizing what's important. And then second, the magazine, you know, we just launched our new we're going to return back to our roots and have a quarterly publication. So this is the first time letter of subscription, we announced the print of our El Salvador issue. And if you can tell, you know, there's a little bit of a difference I think more of the not just talking about Bitcoin, but the culture of Bitcoin and everything else that goes along with it, you know, I think we have a certain responsibility to tell the stories, not just the Bitcoin, but tell the stories of the people who are making, you know, all this possible. So we're really proud of that, that's going to be being delivered to people's homes end of October that are subscribing it'll be in Barnes and Nobles, bookstores all around North America, mid November. You know, those are two things. And obviously, we have some exciting announcements happening in in November. And then And like you said earlier, the conference itself, which is not going to be in the moon in 2023, but we'll be back in Miami and I think the people who did go had not only had a good time, but I think we're gonna be will be taxing that so I think people be very excited to see what we'll be doing there.

Matt Zahab:

I do want to talk about the conference. But I will wait for that I want to touch on a couple points in regards to Bitcoin magazine growth. Now, you talked about building community, one of the things that you in the team have done at Bitcoin magazine is you didn't just grow the Bitcoin magazine and the BTC media and the Bitcoin event conglomerate, but you actually helped grow Bitcoin as a whole, like the whole enchilada. That is what gets me very curious, because that is the future of publishing in a lot of different ways about creating that greater good cause, creating that massive community, that doesn't just give a shit about your own stuff, it gives a shit about your overall motive. And I again, such difficult question, but what's the secret sauce there? Like? How did you guys like, what were the KPIs and other metrics that you guys measured to make sure that that happened?

Mike Germano:

Yeah, I think asking important questions. And, you know, I've been, I've been advice, which historically raised billions of dollars. And as you can see, if you read the news lost a lot of money. You know, they had different KP, I've been to a lot of media companies, a lot of good my friends run media companies, and what's unfortunately unique is, you know, they take on a lot of venture fueling venture funds to grow and run that company, and they have to make money they have to try sell for, you know, a certain multiple, and the business element of that always gets in the way the of the media in some way, shape or form, whether you have advertisers now you can't tell stories or whether you have to cut staff for reporting that actually matters. But you know, it's not getting enough clicks. And the sad thing about that is, obviously, money impacts the way the media the media operates. When it came to Bitcoin magazine, obviously, were much smaller than a handful these others, but the difference is the founders of the company, who believed in Bitcoin from, you know, very early on, right, and who not just have a media company and a conference, but you know, supportive Bitcoin itself, it's the reverse, we don't have to build up a large media company to sell it someday. Right? So it's almost like they have already believed in it, and the and the more that we can help hyper Bitcoin isation the more that we can help people have financial freedom, we can help people that are unbanked, the more valuable that we know bitcoins going to become for just doing the right thing. Well, all of a sudden, people you know, it's almost like owning stock in a company that you work at, you don't have to, and that you can sell at any point, you're not going to be locked up into something. So people have made their own personal investment into Bitcoin. And and now we don't have that same stress as other media companies that, hey, we have to just chase this money over here. Or we can't tell important stories, because it's too much of an investment, and we're not going to get the return that we want. The thing that got me most excited about being part of this company was knowing to tie in everything but you're asking, what's the secret sauce? Well, the secret sauce is we're fortunate that there's people that believe in Bitcoin, and they love it. And they have been really encouraging what we're trying to do, you know, I'm, like I said, I'm a big freedom of speech person, I don't knock other organizations, other media organizations, I think the more content the better, and people should be able to, you know, decide what content they want to take in. But you know, a lot of other media companies and like yourself, you cover if you cover off crypto, you have to cover a lot of other coins, you have to cover a lot of other things. And you have to break news, but you also have to talk about price, we have a luxury of Bitcoin magazine, is that we only talk about Bitcoin, right? And so we have, you know, we have everything ranging from you know, we have the hype, you know, it's there's a like a felt feels very much like a loyalty test, obviously to Bitcoin. And you know, they want to make sure your your Bitcoin Maxy and there's a difference in being in Bitcoin magazine, not trashing other coins. Yes. So I think I'm a little bit I think, a little bit on, on I would say, on that side, I know what I support what I would tell my family to invest in. But what that allows us to do is we having the luxury to not cover anything else gives us a luxury talk more about the culture, Bitcoin, the people involved in it. You know, dream big, exciting, right? big, exciting articles of what Bitcoin can become. How does this really impact financial freedom has impact personal freedom. So while other crypto news outlets have so much to report on because if you think about the extent of all the coins that are out there, by only focusing on one, we get to go really deep, and we get to go really wide with that coverage, that allows us to tell different types of stories that other companies don't. So now all of a sudden, I think that's where we build up some of our stronger community. That's why people really resonate with us. I mean, we're lucky we get a call ourselves Bitcoin magazine. I mean, that's like the greatest life hack in the world or you get ourselves you know, you know, we get a course of Bitcoin, you know, great, terrific. And so I think that as a company A couple years back doubling down on on just Bitcoin, which is what our roots are, was it was was a was the right business move? I'm sure you know, but yet I've been in tons of meetings where people want us to promote or other companies that are not Bitcoin companies want us to sponsor our content, and there's millions of dollars pouring in. And each time we've said, you know, we've said thank you, but no thanks. And you know, so if this was purely a greedy money thing, this company could be making a lot more money, but it's not. And hopefully our readers understand that we are in, and now he's supportive of this mission excited about this mission. But we have a balance of not just being hype boys, and saying, you know, Bitcoins, great at everything, you know, we have to balance the proper reporting, you know, informing people what's actually happening, giving them information to decide, but also, you know, still celebrating something that we believe is going to be very important for the world.

Matt Zahab:

And, folks, if you think any of what Mike just said, is false. Mike and I are competitors, technically. And we still love Bitcoin magazine, because it's true, they stick to Bitcoin, they're great at it, and, and they don't have around with other stuff, they stick to what they know, and they absolutely dominate it. And you gotta love that.

Mike Germano:

I appreciate that. And, you know, yeah, we can be competitors. But we know where this movements going, we know how important it is. And so we want to encourage, you know, we love encouraging what other folks are doing, I mean, if you see we do sponsor a lot of other Bitcoin conferences, you know, we do help a lot of other Bitcoin media companies, you know, if you guys want to cover you know, content on Bitcoin, we're there to help and we're hoping to really turn Bitcoin magazine, the media side into more of a platform. So whether we're coming out documentaries, or whether we're gonna come out with books, you know, like, we really want to make sure that we're a platform for for anyone who's really trying to push what we believe to be the most important which is Bitcoin, but also we want to support everyone else because we think that kind of overall all roads do lead to Bitcoin

Matt Zahab:

on the content side. One thing that I've wanted for such a long time now and I don't watch a lot of TV I'll watch the odd sports game if I have some money on or if I'm just you know, craving a sports game last night watch the trauma a police home opener, big trauma police guide, love my hockey born raised in Toronto, but where, where and when are we going to get a lovely series whether it's a good classic hour and a half, two hour long movie or series on Bitcoin or crypto, like think about you know, that guy who has a couple 1000 Bitcoin on a on a private key or sorry, on a cold storage wallet in a dumpster somewhere in the States or Europe wherever it was, but like, there's so many different stories, you could even do individual half an hour episodes. And I would love to see that and Mike and I are going to talk about this in one minute. But first I want to give a huge shout out to our friends at prime x BT these guys have been partners in crypto news.com For years, I love them. Our team loves them. We're always excited about the products they have to offer. And personally I'm using prime x BT for the last couple months and absolutely love it as they offer a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders doesn't matter if you're a rookie or a vet, you can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit your trading style. One of the best parts is prime expertise running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the crypto news pod after making your first deposit 50% That is five 0% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. This promotion is available for a month after activation. That is promo code crypto news five, zero that is crypto news 50. All one word to take advantage of this offer. And now back to the show with Mike. Mike Yoon, the team better get your ducks in a row and fire off that documentary or series. But before we get into that, the Bitcoin Conference, I've never had the fortune to go I just joined I got you know, I went headfirst into crypto industry this year, got into it last year and was always you know, aware of it. But really started working in the industry this year. I had a media pass to the conference in Wynwood in May, but I couldn't go because then I'm Canadian. Only allowed six months out of the country per year have plans coming up over the next couple of months. And I left January 1 Of The Month in Costa Rica the rest of the time I was in Florida had a great time very grateful to go to the cold and COVID in Canada, which was not fun. But I couldn't go to the conference because again, I already have things planned for November December. I will 100% Viet the next one. How did you guys create such a mega event? And did you ever think that it would be the event that people are scheduling years in advance? My coworker Richard, VP of sales, booked his ticket on the way home from the last event. Like did you guys ever think you'd create something this big?

Mike Germano:

Well, I would say that if you ask anyone in the company, I think that they absolutely would believe that they would have created something like this. And it's it's easy to look at the Miami event and look how successful that is. But you know, no one talks about how 2020 had to be canceled, and how much was lost their 2019 It was, it was a great was a great event, a couple 1000 people, no one talked about, you know, 2017 when they were trying to run events and just trying to convince some people to piggyback another conference and have it in, you know, a college university dorm room, you know, so this is, you know, this is your classic like, 10 year overnight success story, but really was because it was the focused on, I think it was because it was the focus on Bitcoin. And, you know, this was started with real believers and real community. And, you know, I think some of our competitors, were supposed to have conferences two weeks earlier, and they did it all digital, they did all remote. And what I find to be very refreshing is our CEO, David Bailey, you know, he, he was gonna, like, we're gonna fuck it, we'll do a live, you know, we're gonna do this and do this in person. You know, I know that there was a, obviously COVID is going on, which is, which is serious, but people should be able to make their own decisions on what they do with their, you know, their body and their time. And, and we gave people that opportunity. And I think part of the excitement was, people just missed each other. I know, like, people just missed seeing other people. And essentially, what our job is Bitcoin magazine. Bitcoin magazine is the media platform, Bitcoin 2021 conference, 22 conference, that's an actual platform where people are going to go on stage, but we're bringing people together, we bring it together through the stories that we tell, and you know, having come facilitating conversations on Twitter, or, or, or Twitch, but we also bring people together in person. And, you know, I was there, it was so beautiful to see, because, especially over the last year and a half, especially during COVID, the people that were in Bitcoin, but then really got into it, you know, and saw this as something refreshing. And, you know, with all the doom and gloom that everyone's gonna try to peddle you, this is, you know, there's feels like there's something you can do about it when you get involved in Bitcoin, and you want to be connected those people. So you could just see the excitement for people who had met each other online. And they knew that this was real. And also, for a lot of people looking at the go, I'm not alone, I think the best thing the conference, let you do is go, Hey, I'm not alone. And the difference was yours. You know, I sat there and talk to everybody, I could go to tables for lunch, and people never met each other all introducing, and it's, you know, unlike other tech conferences, and I've been to them all, where it's the company that, you know, if it's CES, it's everyone who's in the industry, right? And they'll all either have their own duckhams Sure, there was people in Bitcoin industry, then there was like an insurance agent who's like, oh, I bought Bitcoin years ago. I've just like really loved Bitcoin, I want to be connected to other people. It has nothing to do with, you know, like how the Bitcoin industry works, but we just wanted to be there. And look, the nice thing is Miami's a party town, right, Florida made a brilliant decision by saying, listen, we're not going to, you know, lock up, I'm, you know, I'm from New York, right? Where they're like, Okay, let's destroy all of our economic livelihood here. And you know, to do what, you know, all the data doesn't show like they've resulted in what they thought they could they could do. But Florida all of a sudden, is want to open up Miami, and the government there was willing to, I think really work with us. And once again, that was another huge risk. The reason why I paid off is the founders of BTC, Inc. And that company took tremendous amount of risk to put this on. And we just threaded that needle, it was actually it was perfectly during the low point of COVID. And of course, I think it was like, actually, my alma mater vise did a shitty article, where they were like, oh, there's, you know, it's a it's a super spreader. Venom's. I see people tweeted that said, they got it. I know three unvaccinated people. And they're like, yeah, no one. That's such bullshit. And once again, they wanted to say that because and I was in the media room, let me tell them that single reporter had a mask on, they did not care was walking around. And after the fact, of course, you know, they're kind of lying and saying, Oh, this is gonna, that didn't happen. And there's not a single person. You know, the good news was, you know, we had, what, 12,000 people the place was packed up, right? It got so big that we had to move it to a larger facility. You know, I mean, we're going to be having over 25,000 people at this next one. I mean, people will and I'm happy to hear you know, your people you work with our new reserve their, their flights and and tickets. This is going to be we're proud to put this on every year. I think this is important. This feels like a pilgrimage for all the Bitcoiners. And that's what gets me that's honestly what gets me excited that people were looking forward to it, the amount of events that we're going to be pulling off because it's not just a celebration. It's not just connecting with people, but it's also about carpets about education. Remember, we our main room was packed. And I think I took a picture and there's a bunch of younger people who couldn't even get in. And it was a discussion about inflation. I was like, there's a bunch of 20 something year olds in Miami that are standing up to listen to someone talk about inflation, right, like when does that ever happen? Right? So you just had curious, excited passionate people. So of course it was going to be a place that people want to be the vibes were perfect. That's of course the templates were go out Go back to that. And so you know, the folks in our industry, we're still trying to grow. We obviously people who sponsor booths and events at the conference are helpful, we try to keep our ticket price as low as we can. For our missions have people included in their, their, you know, the conferences rolling out so many exciting new things this year, and the most important part is it's, we're still an independently owned company, no one's gonna tell us what to do. Yeah. And the visions of the founders, they want to make this something big and exciting. This is exactly what you want. This is very, you know, very well, Willy Wonka esque, almost like, probably wouldn't make sense to make that bunch of investment. But they want to do that they want to create this experience for fellow Bitcoiners. And that's the part where you should, you know, it's not only feels good to support it, but I think the end result comes out in the product that that everyone thought it was like one hell of a one hell of a time.

Matt Zahab:

Well, everyone's hooked on the event. And one of my favorite parts to I was again, I don't get FOMO often, that was probably the first time I've had FOMO. In a couple of years. I was really rattled, I couldn't be there. But the one thing that where I was like all thank goodness is all of my friends and peers in the industry who were posting on Twitter and sending me DMS and text messages and telegram messages of how bad their hangover was. They were waffled for like a week after the event. And I saw the parties like I had Shane Mullen, who works from block phi on the pod right before the conference. You know, he hooked me up with tickets cutting over the party. They had like caviar floats, champagne, floats, fondue, you name it, the parties were bananas to like, who doesn't want to be at a place like that, you know, it's crazy.

Mike Germano:

And and here's the good thing the party's you know, yes. Well, I guess I didn't make a lot of caviar champagne. Things, I'm more of a dive bar guy. And I will say this, the party at the dive bar, the dive bars were just as good. So like, there was some like, big party known to get in and mean a couple folks like let's just go the dive bar. And people were dancing on the table to it, I was like this, this sounds like so the nice thing is look Miami's a great place to have that, you know that they encourage that self expression, when woods a beautiful place. You know, there's a lot of beautiful street art. So it's very, you can tell the vibes are about expression. And they really value that and the city was happy to have it. So there's gonna be lots of the parties, I think are going to be pretty crazy, I would prepare everyone to do proper training before the conference, you know, start start, start working out. And also, you know, I guess take whatever vitamins so that your liver can can can handle it. But that's that part of the celebrations, a lot of people's hard work and dedication to try to push this industry and try to really bring this movement forward. This felt like a little bit of a release for everyone that they could could share that with other people who understood them. And I think that's what made that's really what made it special is that it gives a chance for all these people to connect and do that.

Matt Zahab:

You and the team are moving the conference to the Miami Beach Convention Center this year, which is going to be an absolute banger. Tell me one absolute banana lands crazy thing or event that we can look forward to this year.

Mike Germano:

Oh, geez, I don't know what I'm allowed to leak. I will say that. While we did enjoy where we had the last time, obviously, because we had so many people, you know, you needed like more rooms for bathrooms and you know, you need more electrical outlets. And so obviously going to a conference center itself, which is more equipped for that. There'll be a little bit more the amenities that everyone needed. I think that the I think the the teaser could be like, and I feel like we'll see some interesting things volcanoes. Obviously, as we all get excited about volcanic Bitcoin mining down in El Salvador, I think volcanoes will play play a fun and unique role. I'm trying to think what else I should be, I can teach without getting in trouble.

Matt Zahab:

How are you going to like, bring a volcano to Miami?

Mike Germano:

Well, that seems like the least of our problems. I feel like we can do that. I feel the good news of the energy in the team is like yeah, we can do that. You know, there's gonna be a lot of things you're gonna be want to be involved with. And I think also the, you're gonna hear announcements for some of the most exciting parties that that have ever happened in the space. So I don't know if I can leak out any any information I should have got a better briefing from from the team. But you know, just seeing the excitement and watching them all run around and, and the amount of like large companies that want to be involved in, you know, I think we look at them like, Well, you got to give us something crazy to do. That kind of attitude is excited. I think, you know, we took my favorite part at the last conferences, we got a dumpster of Venezuelan dollars to show how cash is trash. So he filled a dumpster, you know, with all these Venezuelan dollars just to show like, you know what can happen governments kind of overprint I wish there was a little bit more dumpster diving and money. So that was kind of like a I guess, commie Scrooge McDuck type thing there but um, you're gonna see, I think you're gonna see a lot more just absurd stuff crazy people. Walk around the conference floors. I mean, like, look, that's the best thing about Bitcoin is like, you know what, it is crazy, right? And people want to do crazy things and express themselves in any way and I feel a little bit, I feel a little bit more the vibes of like a comic con that kind of come in, you know, it's not just, you know, ces where everyone's in ties, you know, there was just people walking around flip flops and crushing beers that just, you know, want to be there like, you know, hear more about Bitcoin so that that part of it is, I think, I think people be more excited about the group of people come and have and, and I think the uniqueness and creativity is what people are gonna remember.

Matt Zahab:

Mike, I totally forgot to ask you about the video aspect. I know you hinted that you and the team are cooking up something awesome. I'd love to see a Netflix doc or maybe you know, throw something on Apple video or Amazon Prime and other making moves to knowing you guys, it'll probably be fully in house, you're probably gonna have your own Bitcoin Netflix coming out. But I'd love if you could tell me what you and the team are cooking up on the backburner?

Mike Germano:

Yeah, I mean, I think obviously, one of the best formats for telling stories is video. And I think it's really lacking, unfortunately, our space. And that's because we have so much data and so much information that we we seem to heavily rely on regular digital articles, or tweets and podcasts obviously, are have been hugely important in this space. But the video element of it is sometimes difficult, because companies don't have resources globally to tell those stories, you know, the stories don't just happen in one spot. And so by, you know, you'll I think you'll you'll see quite quickly, you know, it's pretty obvious from my background, and some of our passions that we're going to be getting large investment into, into video and telling those stories, because we think it's a it's a format that not a lot of people have tackled, and we are positioned to do that the magazine itself, you know, the the original photography that we're doing with the magazine, we're we're having reporters go all over the world, our reporter, Aaron, for our Bitcoin magazine, lived in El Salvador for two and a half months, he didn't just fly in and fly out, right. So you know, we are in a position to have the right reporters content, capture that content, video content takes a longer time to build that library get started. But we've we've already begun doing that. And we're excited start rolling that out. And, you know, in terms of what platforms we put that on, obviously, one of the interesting things happening right now in our industry is a tremendous amount of censoring that continues to happen. You know, you see someone like pomp, get his show canceled, you know, because he's saying something dangerous, which is, you know, I think what may be telling people that they should take responsibility for their own financial future, or whatever dangerous thing he said. And, you know, we're seeing such a crackdown from all these platform companies that will find it, they disagree with you, they will find a way to, you know, censor you and kick you off and shame you. And so, one of the luxuries at Bitcoin magazine, number one, you you can't send our magazine unless you go, you know, to everyone's house and start burning books. And we'll definitely everyone know what you're on the bad side. But you know, we have our.com platform. Twitter has been a huge place for us. But you know, unfortunately, a lot of us don't want to be involved with YouTube, because they're gonna start shadow banning, you know, a lot of a lot of your a lot of your content. I mean, Facebook is kind of is not good at this at all. I mean, we get lumped into, you know, we're constantly seeing extremely underperforming content on on some of these other platforms, we're having to, you know, have high level meetings with these folks being like, what why is this happening? You know, why do we get grouped in with with everyone else? Why aren't you know, why are is why when we have content or five, getting five views, we have 100,000 followers, there's just something not right there. So that really hasn't allowed I think a lot of companies make the commitment to video because why would you do that if a platform which is utilized platforms, the number one ways to access that video are just going to censor you. So I think we have two fights ahead of us. One. Obviously, if you're Bitcoin I think you the last thing you you want to see is censorship. So I think we have a huge fight on the media side, to fight against the censorship that's currently happening for Bitcoin in particular, and censoring the voices that are on it. And then to once we kind of had that fight, we can start having the platforms where we can start putting video or if you know, luckily for us, we built a subscription model through a magazine or deep dive which is our you know, Dylan, who covers kind of the markets does a great job with that. We might be doing video content that goes directly to consumer to make sure we don't get censored. But you know, this seems like a big fight a worthy fight one that everyone had Bitcoin magazines kind of even more excited about or at least I know I am. So fight against the censorship that's happening to us for the Bitcoin side and for and the censorship in general for freedom of speech. And if part of that the outcome will be some really great content and some great video to whether that's actually Suppose it or tell more of these stories you know we're excited to take to take that dive into really use it as a format that we invest in.

Matt Zahab:

Can I just print the papers right now that Bitcoin magazine is coming out with Bitcoin TV and it's just gonna be a 24 hour live stream of real world in your face true news. I print the papers

Mike Germano:

well that will get out yes that seems I think I think our editor Rizzo will kill me if I say that I think that's where we're going to get to but you know, we should probably come up but I think I think I think Swan Bitcoin has Bitcoin TV so we got it, we got it, we got to work on that maybe we could, we'll find we'll find a way. Or maybe go back to like, you know, some since we're Bitcoin magazine, your thing about maybe Bitcoin records or using some other outdated form of media to be connected to so Bitcoin microfiche or something, but stay tuned, look, hold, hold us to it, and, and we want to, we want to support other people, we're making great content in the space, you know, look, the rise of Bitcoin, and the rise of when people start understanding financial, the financial freedom that they have, you know, this is going to be a global community. This is a global community, but we're gonna want to, you know, I know we have these big bull markets happening, well, guess what, when the bear market hits, it's not like we're gonna stop believing this, right? When the bear market hits, we're gonna even need to be more connected even more so. So the type of content, the type to show the people who believe and know what we're fighting for, it's not just you know, obviously, there's a run up in price everyone gets excited and has new people in it. But the people been fighting for this. We also need content and then investment in community. So we need to take steps to make sure that even during a bear market, that we have good content, connecting people telling stories and hope and making sure that they realize that their investment, their time and energy into something like the movement of Bitcoin is worth it. So yeah, we'll say Well, I hope to get to that point when we do. We'll be partying Miami and celebrating we'll watch the movie we make or yeah, I hope you'll be there. Hope.

Matt Zahab:

All right of that. Perfect folks get your popcorn ready a couple years down the road when you walk through JFK International, or Heathrow or any of the bigger airports in the world you're no longer going to see CNN and Fox News. It is going to be Bitcoin records by the Bitcoin magazine crew you can have crypto News TV up there and you'll have ESPN all will be good. And life will go back to normal. Mike incredible episode had so much fun and learned a ton really appreciate you jumping on hopefully I'll meet you in person, what, eight months, 678 months down the road. That'll be an absolute banger. But I appreciate you and the team. You guys do great work, even though we're competitors. We love you guys and hope definitely to have you on for round two shortly. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

Mike Germano:

Thank you, Matt. Thanks for having us.

Matt Zahab:

Folks. This was the crypto news podcast with Mike Germano from Bitcoin magazine. Incredible man, great company. Absolutely love chatting with him. I can't wait to meet his team as well in Miami. I hope you'll be there. As always, I will include absolutely everything in the show notes. Everything you could ever imagine it will all be there. Really appreciate you listening. Stay safe out there. Keep growing your bags. Hopefully I'll meet you guys in Miami bye for now and talk soon.