I don't believe in free content

If it has value, you should pay for it

An author who lives very close to me taught me a lesson years ago about free content vs paid content.

This man had written a couple books and, as an avid philanthropist, liked to give them as gifts.

After years of doing this, he told I group that I was in - “I never give away free books anymore.”

We all knew him as a generous man who loved spreading his knowledge, so this was surprising. When we pressed him about why he said - “People don’t use what they get for free.”

“I’ve given away hundreds of books. I give them to avid readers and personal friends who all looked forward to reading my new book with enthusiasm. When I would follow up on whether they enjoyed the book, they almost all admitted they hadn’t read it.”

“Thinking about human nature, I started asking people to give a small donation to my church and I would give them a ‘free’ book. Months later, they had almost all read the book.”

His lesson was simple - we only use what we pay for.

Of course, this isn’t a new concept. It’s known as the sunk cost fallacy in economics. We attach value to things we pay for whether we should or not.

And that brings me to this newsletter.

I don’t really have any subscriber goals here. I’m just looking for a low-cost entry point for anyone who is SERIOUSLY interested in PropTech. And I define seriously simply as - you are willing to pay for quality content.

Serious investors can join my angel group, but that’s $200/month. Major corporations, HNWs, and Qualified Purchasers can invest in PropTech funds, but you’d need to commit at least $50k per year for that (and usually more).

So what is the young, hungry, or financially strapped PropTech enthusiast to do to stay on the “inside” of the PropTech world?

This newsletter is my answer to that.

As far as I can tell, this is the lowest cost access point to insider knowledge in PropTech on the planet. (If you know otherwise, tell me.)

And why not make it free? See above.

You won’t pay attention to it if you don’t pay for it.

So, back to my goals for this content, if I can create an enthusiastic group of just ten people like me who care about the latest trends in PropTech, that’s great. Others can go after ten thousand subscribers.

I like small, enthusiast-filled communities.

Not huge, loose affiliations of tons of people. They are unwieldy in my experience and not particularly valuable.

So maybe this is a sort of call to arms.

I’m looking for a handful of the most enthusiastic PropTech zealots on the planet. The price of admission is $7 per month and I genuinely look forward to seeing what we learn.