Best Steven Dickens Podcasts (2024)

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#31 - Payment for Order Flow 33:28

2y ago33:28

33:28

Today's discussion is on payment for order flow. Ever wonder why stock trading on Robinhood and other brokerage platforms is free? They're selling your orders to third parties like Citadel and Virtu. It's free because we're the product. The SEC is proposing new rules that would effectively end the business model as we know it, but the changes intro…

1
#30 - Baby Formula Shortage 34:25

2y ago34:25

34:25

The US faces a crisis level shortage in baby formula. It's a story of good legislative intentions gone wrong. In our haste to subsidize families in need, we distorted the market and created a fragile industry. In retrospect, the only surprise is that it took this long to fail. We explore why the baby formula market is in crisis, what is being done …

1
#29 - Algorithmic Stablecoins, A Terrable Idea 35:17

2y ago35:17

35:17

Terra blew up. Runs followed on other algorithmic stablecoins and many followed suit. Little about their failure was novel. They all implemented models we've seen fail before with fiat. We explore why they failed, how this could have been avoided, and consider the path forward for regulation. ----- Check out this week's letter for the full story. J…

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#29, The After Show - Algorithmic Stablecoins, A Terrable Idea 26:29

2y ago26:29

26:29

Jared rants about fraud in crypto. Steven tries to reign him in. It mostly goes off the rails. ----- Check out this week's letter for the full story. Join the Fat Tailed Thoughts discussion on LinkedIn and the @FatTailThoughts discussion on Twitter with your co-hosts @KleeBeard and @StevenDickens3. For more episodes of Fat Tailed Thoughts, visit fa…

1
#28, The After Show - Buy Now, Pay Later 24:48

2+ y ago24:48

24:48

Welcome to the Fat Tailed Thoughts After Show! This is a more free flowing, less serious discussion of the episode. We discuss Buy Now, Pay Later... mostly. ----- Check out this week's letter for the full story. Join the Fat Tailed Thoughts discussion on LinkedIn and the @FatTailThoughts discussion on Twitter with your co-hosts @KleeBeard and @Stev…

1
#28 - Buy Now, Pay Later for Everything 32:01

2+ y ago32:01

32:01

Today's discussion is on Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL). BNPL is a novel alternative to credit card debt that's grown dramatically in recent years. We discuss how BNPL makes money, the impending regulatory crackdown, and why the enthusiastic reception by consumers and businesses alike begs a lot more attention. Please enjoy this breakdown of buy now, pa…

1
#27 - The Future of Finance is Embedded 34:46

2+ y ago34:46

34:46

Today's discussion is on embedded finance. It embeds the financial product purchasing decision right alongside consumption purchase. We discuss why an embedded and frictionless user experience is a major leap forward for finance, how banks and startups can partner to create experiences better than either one can alone, and the powerful data feedbac…

1
#26 - Netflix Ads and a Tragedy of the Commons 35:50

2+ y ago35:50

35:50

Today's discussion is on Netflix Ads. Netflix lost subscribers for the first time in over a decade. CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings opened the door to an advertising based model alongside the company's subscriptions. It's a bad idea. We discuss why combining advertising and subscriptions creates terrible incentives for Netflix, other business mode…

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#25 - Challenger Approaching, A New Payment Network Has Appeared 37:00

2+ y ago37:00

37:00

Today's discussion is on a revolution in payments. Visa has dominated card payments for 50 years, but cryptocurrency networks pose a real challenge. Services like Strike help businesses transact over the Bitcoin Lightning Network practically for free. We discuss why Visa has been so successful, how crypto can win the coming payments war, and what t…

1
#24 - Bad Money Rising, The Difference Between Starbucks and a Bank 36:30

2+ y ago36:30

36:30

Today's discussion is on bad money, the difference between Starbucks and a bank. Good money is backed by government guarantee or robust regulations. Bad money, like the 100's of billions now held at money services businesses, lacks those protections. It has all the makings of a crisis. We discuss the history of privately issued good money, the rapi…

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#23 - Back to the Futures: London Metal Exchange & Futures Markets 35:32

2+ y ago35:32

35:32

Today's discussion is on futures and the London Metal Exchange. The nickel futures market experienced a massive short squeeze in early March, driving the price up 250% in two days. The exchange responded by reversing trades and halting trading. We discuss futures and forwards markets, why the exchange's explanation for reversing trades is mighty fi…

1
#22 - Saving the World, One Carbon Credit at a Time 34:30

2+ y ago34:30

34:30

Today's discussion is on voluntary carbon credits. The market for voluntary carbon credits has been on a tear for the past year, but it hasn't always been that way. New demand to achieve net zero emissions is driving growth, but there remains a huge amount of work to do. We discuss why the market took over a decade to emerge, what still needs to be…

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#21 - Startup Equity for Employees & Founders: How to Value & Structure 38:55

2+ y ago38:55

38:55

Today's discussion is on startup equity. We explore how founders and employees alike should value and structure equity. We discuss the many varied structures including RSAs, ISOs, NSOs, and RSUs, how taxes work, and what happens when you leave a startup. Please enjoy this breakdown of startup equity. ----- Check out the letter for the full story. J…

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#20 - Watches, Supreme, & Signaling 42:28

2+ y ago42:28

42:28

When price increases, demand for most goods falls. But not all. There's a class of goods where demand rises with price. These "Veblen Goods" lead to businesses unlike any other. We use Veblen Goods to signal - we're rich, we're successful, we have something you can't. Companies like Chanel, Montblanc, Rolex, Rolls-Royce, and Supreme have co-opted o…

1
#19 - SWIFT, Sanctions, and Financial Warfare 57:35

2+ y ago57:35

57:35

Ukraine is under attack. The world is responding with financial warfare. It's a new domain in multi-domain operations. Air. Land. Maritime. Space. Cyber. Finance. We explore how financial warfare happens: how SWIFT works and why Russia's been kicked off, how the US can enforce sanctions all over the globe, and what freezing Russia's central bank re…

1
#18 - The Future of Startup Equity Markets 37:50

2+ y ago37:50

37:50

The theme of this episode is MORE. More funding, more startups, more investors, more everything. Funding for startups has grown 10x in 10 years, an astonishing 26% annual growth rate. Money is flowing in not just from venture capitals, but from new types of investors as well. It's all been helped by an accommodative regulatory environment. Those tr…

1
#17 - Get Cash Without Selling Startup Equity 38:34

2+ y ago38:34

38:34

Selling your startup equity used to be the only option for startup employees to get cash prior to IPO. But as the number of unicorns has ballooned and startups stay private for longer, a new option has emerged. Startup employees can finance their options. An ecosystem of lenders stands ready to lend employees money to exercise their options, take o…

1
#16 - How to Sell Your Startup Equity 34:06

2+ y ago34:06

34:06

The average time for a startup to go public has increased from 7 to 12 years in the past two decades. More and more early employees are left equity rich and cash poor. An ecosystem has emerged to help. Four different secondary markets work with employees and the startups themselves to help employees, investors, and founders sell their startup equit…

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#15 - 100 Years of Stock Market Performance 33:33

2+ y ago33:33

33:33

The US stock market had its worst January since The Great Financial Crisis. But investment returns don't make a lot of sense without more information around "normal" returns and the period over which performance is measured. In this episode, we look at 100 years of stock market performance - how changing the dates over which performance is measured…

1
#14 - Matchmakers vs eHarmony 37:48

2+ y ago37:48

37:48

Market makers and order books are core to how modern financial exchanges work. They're how we ensure there's a buyer for every seller and a seller for every buyer. It's a model that works well in big markets. Jane Street, a premier market maker, traded over $17 trillion in 2020 and generated $1.6 billion in revenue. But the model fails in small mar…

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#13 - What If Debt Collectors Helped Rather Than Abused? 35:41

2+ y ago35:41

35:41

Headlines run every day with advice on "How to Win at Retirement Savings" and "10 Tips to Save Money." What most people don't know is that 89 million Americans have debt in collections. Collections is industry built on abusing consumers. Over 870,000 complaints are filed every year. But it doesn't have to be that way. Startups are proving that trea…

1
#12 - Sex Sells But You Can't Finance It 38:14

2+ y ago38:14

38:14

The adult industry is bigger than Hollywood yet it largely lacks access to basic financial services. Cutoff from banking, payments, and venture capital, it is remarkable the industry exists at all. Some sub-segments have earned their reputations as high-risk. But sexual wellness has not. It's a $10B+ industry cutoff from financial services despite …

1
#11 - Slow Revolutions in Financial Services 36:45

2+ y ago36:45

36:45

Decades long technology revolutions can be multibillion dollar opportunities for those paying attention. Yesterday's hype can take years to become mainstream. Even longer if you're a highly regulated financial services company. We explore why only 8% of banking tasks have been moved to the cloud and how even these first steps have unlocked slow rev…

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#10 - Top 10 2022 Predictions: metaverse, regulations, and more 38:37

2+ y ago38:37

38:37

Happy New Year! We're kicking off with our top 10 predictions for 2022! Our top 10: 1. metaverse, 2. inflation, 3. globalization, 4. semi conductors, 5. nuclear energy, 6. payment rails, 7. digitization of paper, 8. NFTs, 9. regulation in crypto markets, and 10. central bank digital currencies. One host bets on change - innovation accelerating acro…

1
#9 - Hyped Inflation: forecasts, expectations, and coin-flipping monkeys 35:43

2+ y ago35:43

35:43

Hyperinflation is real - prices increasing at least 40% per month. Our recent bout of inflation isn't anywhere in the ballpark. What we're dealing with isn't hyperinflation. It's hyped inflation. But inflation expectations can become self-fulfilling prophecies. We explore why a coin flipping monkey is preferable to inflation forecasters, complex ad…

1
#8 - WTF is CPI: inflation calculations & alternative measures 36:17

2+ y ago36:17

36:17

Prices are going up, but by how much? Is the government squashing the truth? We unpack the methodology behind the government reported Consumer Price Index (CPI) and explore sources of error including incentives for squashing the reported numbers. We explore why there are surprisingly few alternative inflation measures and analyze why some of the mo…

1
#7 - OCR Part 2: the multibillion dollar opportunity for startups digitizing data 35:55

2+ y ago35:55

35:55

The next multibillion dollar opportunity. Digitize data trapped on paper and build a business around the data. We explore the three billion dollar opportunities for OCR startups digitizing data: sell analytics to existing customers, sell analytics to new customers, and expand into automating near-adjacent steps in the business workflows. Or build a…

1
#6 - OCR Part 1: teaching digital machines to read paper documents 33:52

2+ y ago33:52

33:52

Bank statements, credit card statements, and tax forms all contain valuable data, but it's trapped on paper and in PDFs. We humans recognize the ink patters them as letters, but they contain no instructions for the computer. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is how machines learn to read. We explore the mechanics of OCR - the scale of the paper p…

1
#5 - Crypto Growth Benchmarked: historical comparison against oil, gold, and stocks 37:11

2+ y ago37:11

37:11

Pundits on TV and cryptocurrency maximalists across the world regularly tout Bitcoin and crypto as "the fastest growing financial product in history." But is that actually true? We benchmark oil, gold, stocks, and crypto to GDP and look at how they changed throughout history. From the 1901 oil strike in Texas to the gold rush of 1849, we look at bo…

1
#4 - ETFs Part 2: The Bitcoin ETF and hidden, long-tailed risks 36:05

3y ago36:05

36:05

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) part two. We discuss the hidden risks of concentrated ETF holdings in Apple and Microsoft and the exclusive club of authorized participants, most of whom had to be bailed out in the Financial Crisis. We look at the exciting new bitcoin futures ETF and explore why that succeed where previous attempts had failed, how the …

1
#3 - ETFs: how innovation and an underdog success story created a $6.5 trillion industry 38:02

3y ago38:02

38:02

Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). We discuss their remarkable history: from the innovations in mutual funds, through the initial flop of a launch, to their wild success as a $6.5 trillion industry. We explore how they actually work and why those innovations are key to their success. Check out this week's letter for the full story. Follow @FatTailThought…

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#2 - The Great Wealth Transfer: $68T on the move, the haves and have-nots, & millennial finances 32:55

3y ago32:55

32:55

The Great Wealth Transfer. We discuss the 5+ living generations, how their wildly different macro experiences have led to divergent wealth, and how the wealth-inheriting generations invest and spend differently than the older generations. But not all are set to see an inheritance. We analyze how the tax structure facilitates dynastic wealth and exp…

1
#1 - Overdraft Fees: breakdown, legislation, & free market solutions 33:39

3y ago33:39

33:39

Overdraft fees. We discuss the four different fee types, their magnitudes, and how some bad banks are almost entirely reliant on overdrafts for profitability. We turn our attention to legislative action and the appropriate role for regulators, taking into consideration recent research showing that overdraft services can increase access to banking f…

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Fat Tailed Thoughts Trailer 2:02

3y ago2:02

2:02

Welcome to the Fat Tailed Thoughts podcast! Each week, we dive into the mechanics and workings of finance, money, and cryptocurrencies with your hosts Jared Klee and Steven Dickens. Subscribe to the Fat Tailed Thoughts letter and follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn for more.

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Starting a Successful Employee Advocacy Program with Kelly Shelton 30:57

6y ago30:57

30:57

Over the last four years, Boostability has developed and refined an employee advocacy program that has transformed their culture and business. In this session from the 2018 AMPlify conference, Kelly Shelton VP of Marketing with Boostability will share his findings, mistakes, and successes on how to engage, motivate and reward genuine employee advoc…

1
Starting a Successful Employee Advocacy Program with Karin Aviles 29:53

6y ago29:53

29:53

Marketing is increasingly recognized as a strategic partner in driving leads for B2B organizations. One way to effectively generate leads is through employee advocacy, but for an employee advocacy program to succeed, three things need to be true: 1. Start at the Top! Leadership must buy in and participate 2. Content must have a purpose and address …

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Benefits of Being Advocates with Steven Dickens 33:28

6y ago33:28

33:28

Clients are increasingly growing weary of how social channels are becoming push-based marketing mechanisms, where they are seen as adding the same value as billboard advertising. In an overcrowded Twittersphere people are gravitating towards subject matter experts as a trusted source of knowledge and experience and are keen to here from their fount…

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EP34: Benefits of Being Advocates with Sameena Kluck 30:34

6y ago30:34

30:34

The old world of law firms establishing decades-long relationships with clients who pay whatever invoice is sent and send repeat business to their long-trusted outside counsel is over. Today, competition for corporations’ work is stiffer than ever with long-time counsel fighting many entrants on the market. Additionally, the path to partnership is …

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Making an Internal Change In Your Organization with Donald Jones 30:51

6y ago30:51

30:51

At Booz Allen, everything begins and ends with employees. They needed them to feel connected to a collective purpose and share the company story. This was easier said than done. The majority of their employees work within the Department of Defense or the Intelligence Community – making them highly risk-averse, difficult to reach during business hou…

1
EP32: Making an Internal Change In Your Organization with Henry Bruce 27:57

6y ago27:57

27:57

Company rebrands and product launches are notoriously complex and lengthy projects that consume marketing and company resources. Success depends on achieving company-wide participation, buy-in, adoption, and flawless execution across all market facing departmental functions. At the 2018 AMPlify Conference, Henry Bruce, Contently’s SVP of marketing,…

1
EP31: Making an Internal Change In Your Organization with Brent Korte 32:11

6y ago32:11

32:11

More than ever marketing organizations are taking on the responsibility to help companies innovate. Often, that requires transformation of capabilities within their organizations. From the digital imperative to mining deep insights and analytics, marketing teams are working hard to move through the change curve the industry is experiencing. However…

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EP30: Incorporating Employee Advocacy in Your Content Marketing Strategy with Michelle LeBlanc 24:55

6y ago24:55

24:55

In a recent survey, 91% of respondents indicated that they were doing content marketing, but 53 percent of teams were small or one-person operations. How can brands keep up with content demands? Turning to a free resource that already knows, and maybe even loves, your brand is a no brainer. Employees are authentic, they are intrinsically motivated,…

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EP29: Incorporating Employee Advocacy in Your Content Marketing Strategy with Casey Hall 30:12

6y ago30:12

30:12

While much of the discussion around employee advocacy best practices rightly focuses on program roll-out and adoption, it is equally important to focus on what content you will distribute through your employee channels – ensuring that relevant and personalized messages are being provided to the right people at the right time. This is exactly what C…

1
EP28: Developing a Global Amplification Strategy that Embraces Regional Differences 33:44

6y ago33:44

33:44

The more globally distributed a company is, the more disjointed their social media efforts threaten to become. How do you develop an effective, streamlined social media and employee advocacy strategy when your employees and audience are spread across continents and time zones? How do you craft culturally impactful social messages when every region …

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EP27: Make It Easy for Employees to Share and Promote Their Stories 24:47

6y ago24:47

24:47

On this episode of AMPlify, we pull from the archives of our sister podcast, AMPUP Your Digital Marketing. Host Glenn Gaudet sat down with Bernie Borges. Bernie is the Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Vengreso having previously been the CEO at Find and Covert. He also currently hosts the Social Business Engine podcast. In their discussion,…

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EP26: Best Practices for Involving Employees in Social Media 24:23

6y ago24:23

24:23

On this episode of AMPlify, we pull from the archives of our sister podcast, AMPUP Your Digital Marketing. Host Glenn Gaudet sat down with Tara Zoumer, who at the time was PR coordinator and Social Media Manager for TriNet, and who now works as an Independent contractor in PR Strategy and implementation. Tara stresses the importance of communicatio…

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EP25: What is Holding Your Team Back from Being Your Biggest Advocates 22:33

6y ago22:33

22:33

LinkedIn reports “In an average company, only 3% of employees share company-related content but they are responsible for driving a 30% increase in the content’s total likes, shares, and comments.” Our guest today, Samantha Stone founder of The Marketing Advisory Network, wanted to find out what’s holding employees back, and more importantly, what c…

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AMPlify 2018: Past Attendees Discuss The Biggest Lessons Learned

6+ y ago

—

On a special episode of AMPlify, this week host Glenn Gaudet is joined by Sally Anne Kaminski and Karin Aviles. As past attendees and speakers at the AMPlify Conference, both Sally Anne and Karin have insider knowledge as to why AMPlify is the can’t miss event of the year. They share their experiences, lessons they learned… based on their copious n…

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EP23: Finding Passion and Purpose as an Employee with Employee Advocacy 22:46

6+ y ago22:46

22:46

You might be wondering if an employee advocacy program is right for you. What if your company doesn’t allow employees to use social media? Or even invest time in it for promotional purposes? Our guest today encountered both of these road blocks at his company. Donald Jones, Lead Associate and Lead Digital Strategist at Booz Allen Hamilton had an up…

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EP22: A Fresh Perspective on Employee Advocacy 23:08

6+ y ago23:08

23:08

Every good marketing strategy needs a little bit of everything, knit together with purpose. Employee advocacy is just one of those tools that can bring new purpose and drive to your companies marketing efforts. Kelsey Kruzel, Social Media Manager at CDK Global, took her experience in tying together strategy and creativity to bring employee advocacy…

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