BP is here in Blacksburg this week and we need to identify what we want from him.
Here is my assessment:
1) he cannot create new content only poorly repackage content provided by others
2) he hires other people to manage social media
3) he has brought in great talent with Max & Friends and this talent I want to keep.
4) he cannot produce a website
Here are some changes that are going on:
1) Social Media is being moved to Adam Earnest & Team
2) Website is being moved to me + cass + Adam
3) Max is producing and marketing BitShares.tv
4) I am starting a blog to talk about things and set vision/goals/etc.
5) Agent86 is producing more technical papers / educational material
Brian's primary strength has been organizing our presence at conferences and getting us interviews there.
The challenge that Brian faces is that he found other people to do his work. He hasn't produced news articles, nor driven media to our website. He hasn't gotten press in or communicated our idea.
The nullstreet crowd is busy showing Brian what he should have been doing/organizing this whole time.
Brian is in sales but he doesn't know what to sell nor what BitShares is. Every time we talk he asks me "what is BitShares?" in an attempt to get me to explain it for the Nth time.
Something has to change. Brian needs to bring measurable results to the table. We will figure this out this week.
I just want everyone to know that I share your frustration.
The source of my frustration has never been so much that he wasn't doing anything (at least for a long time it wasn't). What concerned me was his lack of outreach to investors. The willingness of yourself, and Invictus in general, to be candid and open with the community was one of the largest selling points to me and gave me a level of trust that is rare for any crypto project to deserve. In fact it drove me to want to help our community grow even more.
I feel like Brian has ignored this philosophy to his own peril. Though I agree with bitmarket that we should be thankful for Brian helping find him, I didn't even know Brian found him until just a few weeks ago though! This fundamental lack of communication from him is severely detrimental to people's perception of his value to the community...and it isn't like he doesn't have ample opportunity and resources through which to communicate!
Now with that said, I have nothing against Brian personally, but I can't defend him against the community's frustration because in my mind he should have seen this coming from a mile away. The fact that he didn't makes me worry that he either A) he doesn't understand people (bad for marketing) or B) He doesnt care.
It is hard to fault BM and the team though because they largely really seem like they are very trustworthy...and perhaps because they are so trustworthy they themselves project their own trustworthiness onto others when it is not exactly deserved.
I would like to use this opportunity, however, to appeal to people to drop the pitchforks and consider the message of this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmyZMtPVodoMy takeaway: "Charlie Kim of a company called "Next Jump"...he makes the point that, if you had hard times in your family, would you ever consider laying off one of your children?.. We would never do it--then why do we consider laying off people inside our organization? Charlie implemented a policy in his organization of lifetime employment. If you get a job at Next Jump, you cannot get fired for performance issues. In fact, if you have issues, they will Coach you and give you support. Just like we would do with one of our children who comes home with a C from school."
I personally have had to learn a great deal in my experiences in this community...and I am glad to have learned these lessons. You have all become a second family to me. And that includes Brian. I just feel like Brian does not want to be part of the family. Maybe I will try again to reach out to him...because I don't want Brian hurt. I don't want him to not be trusted. I want to believe that we can show him how to best lead us...and I want to believe he will listen. Please consider watching the video above if you have not already. I think there is a great deal to be appreciated in its message--and a reminder that this can be an opportunity for all of us to strengthen our community and Brian's role in it as opposed to pushing him away out of fear. Trust me, I am one of the first who should heed this lesson so I only ask it of others because it seemed to help me so much the last time I was upset with Brian.