Primitive / Kyle Shenk
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen (the term is to be voluminously applied),
Welcome to those new to Serendipity. If you are reading this for the first time, the premises of these musings can be found in the provenance email all the way back from August 2023. (In short, it's an honest attempt at helping others that falls woefully short as I am a shallow, self-serving, bottom-feeder of a marketer.)
I saw a $13 jar of spaghetti sauce in the grocery store last week, and it gobsmacked me. Who in their right mind would spend $13 on a jar of over-salted, squished tomatoes? I know what you are thinking - where have I been for the last ten years? Probably even more of you are thinking, I can’t believe that Passenger Princess doesn't even do the grocery shopping. Of course, there is truth to all that, as I am lucky enough to have killer homemade sauce by a New Englander whenever I whine for long enough. But, ignore that and roll with me for a second.
Inflation is out of control, and great marketing is still alive and well.
I remember paying one quid for a jar of Ragu in college. That was the fancy upgrade from the grocery store’s brand, which cost 50p (they would give you store credit to take it off the shelves). Now the current price of Ragu is $4. Are you serious? What are students doing now? Learning to cook or something? Using Mom and Dad’s credit card for groceries? I would like economists to add a jar of Ragu to the economic indicator list.
Then I thought, well, hold on. This sauce was made with the bare hands of Mama Baloni, using a 300-year-old recipe with tomatoes grown from Roman seeds, and jarred using only glass that formed naturally under the Aegean Sea. That’s why it was $13 and now felt like a real bargain. So, of course I grabbed a jar and later, as I dripped the sauce down my white shirt (which led to a violent Tide pen attack by Steph), I closed my eyes, savoured the moment, and thought - damn, this tastes like Ragu.
Scumbag marketers.
PS. I am not looking for any conversations about how Rao’s is so much better sauce - dream on.
Moving on.
This month’s ‘Serendipitous moment’:
This month’s serendipitous moment comes from a response to last month’s email. Being a long-time listener and first-time caller, I reconnected with an old friend whom I hadn’t spoken to in years. Apparently, the line at the bottom of every email where I stated that I was looking at the marketing stats of each email had guilted him into reading each one. Three points to anyone who identified that the role of social context, subjective norms, and vested interest (with a dash of fear appeal and forewarning) in shaping attitudes and behavior is a powerful marketing tool. Since I now feel guilty doing this to people whom I care about, I have decided to make him the feature for this month.
Moving on, on.
Kyle Shenk is a warm hug on a brisk, frosty day. A perfectly poured martini after a week's work in New York City or that delightful first sip of scotch you enjoy at 9 am on a North Sea Oil Rig.
Kyle Shenk
There are a few people who I feel are truly aligned with their job. Whereby the work, the purpose, and personality align like Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. According to LinkedIn, Kyle is the Vice President, Northeast Regional Director at The Conservation Fund. His organization holds a dual mandate to conserve land/environment and develop economic opportunities, which fits so perfectly with Kyle's natural and outdoorsman DNA and his pragmatism in the economy and business.
Kyle negotiates large land deals and ensures that whatever goes on them is good for the future of human beings. He is also busy setting up innovative agricultural funds (just finished in Atlanta) and is looking to replicate the success somewhere closer to his home in the backwoods of PA.
If you are in real estate, green tech, agriculture, or just want to talk about hunting, you should connect with Kyle.
You can connect with him here.
For a special discount, or to ensure your note gets ignored, please use the promo code #heardfromnic.
Finally, thank you again for reading about people who are important to me and are doing incredible things. I know you could be scrolling on the Gram or working or anything important, really, but you made it here. I appreciate you beyond words and will only marginally profit from selling your data.