Rules / JD Carlson
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen (the term is to be lightly applied),
Welcome to those new to Serendipity. As always, the premises of these essays can be found in the provenance email. (In short, it's a monthly musing that borders on a spam email but can’t be blocked because I know where you live and I will just send you a letter instead.)
Given that my ADHD memory is like a steel trap, it was no surprise to me to learn that this issue marks the one-year anniversary of Serendipity. Therefore, I thought it was a great time to share some of the endeavor's incredible learnings and accomplishments over the last 12 months.
82 people were added to the list
A couple of the people thanked me
Moving on.
In all seriousness, I recently received a text from a close friend who candidly said, “I love reading those emails, but what’s their bloody point?”
I was immediately torn on how to respond. I wanted to explain that my noble and virtuous ambition of helping connect people should be obvious, and if he couldn't see that then he has the IQ and EQ of a muppet. Instead, I thought about it a bit longer; maybe there isn’t a point. I just enjoy doing it, and since I have written thousands of marketing emails in my career and this has a higher open rate than anything I have done before, I can only conclude that some people like reading them, too, perhaps for no reason at all.
Moving on again.
Wars, riots, assassinations, and the fact that they couldn't get Kevin Costner to finish out the story in Yellowstone mean that the fourth turning is upon us. According to the generational theory developed by Strauss and Howe (summary here), The Millennial mindset is set for a showdown with the Boomer way of life. The Xers will pragmatically lead this transition, and Gen Z will witness the upheaval while creating what they believe to be art about it.
Therefore, I can't wait to enact some new societal rules. As a geriatric millennial, I am obviously going to ascend to some sort of royal or oligarch-like authority during this transition. So please prepare your inauguration gifts now. I like dark chocolate, French wine, and male grooming products from L'Occitane.
Reading that back, I think I have been spending far too much time on Twitter (temporarily known as X).
Really moving on this time.
That hallucinative rambling sets up the introduction of a man with frankly otherworldly talents who I am awe of because he has nailed the authentic expression of one’s self by breaking all the rules. If you type the words “what does a financial services content anomaly look and sound like” into ChatGPT, you will return an image of JD Carlson. He sort of answers the question, “What would happen if Kurt Cobain was in charge of the future of Retirement Administration?”
JD Carlson
JD and his brother Brandon own and operate a very serious and successful Third Party Administration shop in California. However, it is their marketing work which started as live shows years ago that has developed into a revolutionary cult livestream where heavyweight financial commentators dive deep on retirement industry matters in a candid manner. When I say candid, I mean with tequila and f-bombs.
The Retireholics is a group of retirement industry experts who parade as misfits and renegades to deliver the most entertaining, educational, and revolutionary advertainment I have ever seen. They manage to get fiduciaries and actuaries to share expansive opinions, technical insights, and true thought leadership. You often feel like you have stumbled across a business conference that was offering free accounting credits, except it’s 2 am at Buffalo Wild Wings, and in between detailed financial topics, there is also beer and baseball. If you work in finance anywhere in the world and you ask yourself the question, “How do I stand out in a crowded market of commoditized providers?” Retireholics is the absolute gold standard.
You learn lots, but you laugh more, and that's why these chaps have become the most recognizable faces in the industry. This has led them to the covers of magazines, to headline conferences, and to prove that counterculture can be used to disrupt any industry.
We all know that bro culture is bad in finance, however, JD and his tens of thousands of followers and fans prove that dude culture will always be cool!
I urge you to tune into a show here to marvel at the production value and uniqueness of their approach or if you think you can hang with the guys from a knowledge plus beer standpoint, connect with JD here.
Lastly, thank you so much for reading Serendipity and to all the people who have connected to the person in focus, stalked them on LinkedIn, or even bought their books. I truly believe serendipitous moments can amount to life-changing events.
Thank you for spending five semi-pointless minutes a month with me.