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It's OK if you think less of me after this!

2023-12-01 · letter vlog · Hank · 9:30 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Projects (also: Economics) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, civic or action cta

Trying to be honest about himself, Hank says that once he no longer needed money he lost motivation for running his companies, and found it instead in giving profit away (John's PIH Sierra Leone goal); he launches Good Store as the landing page for the charity subscriptions, sets a goal of beating Newman's Own, plugs holiday gifts and announces a Founders Club.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank's 2007 Michigan CD, and Sarah sending him her copy

  • ★★ In 2007 Hank burned 50 to 100 CDs with his wife's laptop for a library event with John in Michigan, and sold every one of them. — 00:00:00 · Katherine Green
  • ★★ Last year (2022) Hank wanted a copy and asked the internet; Sarah sent hers without asking for money, only a future favor she hasn't called in yet. — 00:00:34
  • ★★ Hank says the CD is called Several Songs from Hank Green's Pants, and its Nerdfighter skull-and-crossbones image was designed by math YouTuber Vi Hart. — 00:00:34
  • ★ Hank says the CD includes a song by Elle Cordova, recently popular on TikTok and Instagram but a YouTuber back in 2007. — 00:00:34 · TikTok, Instagram

00:01:08 — How the CD led to DFTBA Records; DFTBA today, the Awesome Socks Club and the good.store domain

  • ★★★ Hank says people being willing and excited to buy things he made was new to him, and it led directly to founding DFTBA Records with his friend Alan. — 00:01:08 · DFTBA Records, Alan Lastufka
  • ★★ Hank thinks over 50 people now work full-time for DFTBA, which is 15 years old and has become quite big. (hedged) — 00:01:08 · DFTBA Records
  • ★★ Hank says DFTBA mostly helps creators sell products to their audiences, working with the McElroy brothers, Kurzgesagt and a company called Item Label, and doing the logistics behind Dropout TV. — 00:01:38 · DFTBA Records
  • ★★ Hank says in 2016 they started the first version of the Awesome Socks Club, shipping around 400 pairs a month and donating a lot to charity; the number is different now. — 00:01:38 · Awesome Socks Club
  • ★★ Around then Hank bought the relatively expensive domain good.store and paid for it for years without using it or knowing what it was for. — 00:02:07 · Good Store
  • ★★★ After selling VidCon and a successful book, Hank realized he didn't enjoy a much more expensive lifestyle and didn't need money. — 00:02:07 · VidCon

00:02:14 — Honesty: once he didn't need money Hank struggled for motivation, until John's PIH Sierra Leone goal

  • ★★★ Stressed by hard problems at the companies, Hank wondered about stopping, but people work for and with them and enjoy their products; that felt like it should be enough, yet he struggled to be excited. — 00:02:43 · Complexly, Awesome Socks Club
  • ★★★ Hank says doing work just because you have to is okay and part of life, but he wanted other motivations. — 00:03:15
  • ★★★ Hank says John gave him a motivation: promise to raise $25 million for a hospital in Sierra Leone without knowing how, which excites him in a way making money for himself did not. — 00:03:15 · John Green, Sierra Leone, maternal death
  • ★★ Hank says 1 in 17 women in Sierra Leone die in childbirth. — 00:03:15 · Sierra Leone, maternal death

00:03:45 — Coffee, soap and tea subscriptions in one box: welcome to the Good Store

  • ★★ Looking for other subscriptions, they found ethically sourced coffee and started soaps with Sun Basin Soap, a local private-label maker; more subscriptions such as tea will follow. — 00:03:45 · Awesome Coffee Club, Sun Basin Soap
  • ★★★ Rather than separate boxes for each subscription, things can be sent together in one box: Hank welcomes viewers to the Good Store. — 00:04:14 · Good Store
  • ★★ Hank developed a secret goal while sitting on the domain and shared it with LJ while interviewing her for DFTBA CEO; she said yes. — 00:04:14 · DFTBA Records
  • ★★ Hank says their model was Newman's Own, started by actor Paul Newman, who didn't need the money and gave all the salad-dressing profit to charity: 'let's give it all away'. — 00:04:14

00:04:20 — Hank's secret goal: beat Newman's Own at giving profit away

  • ★★★ Hank's goal, though he doesn't know if they'll ever reach it, is to beat Newman's Own, as companies compete for market share and profit. — 00:04:55 · Good Store
  • ★★ Hank says Newman's Own is, as far as he knows, the only big consumer brand that gives all its profit away, except maybe Good Store. (hedged) — 00:04:55 · Good Store
  • ★★ Hank says Newman's Own has given away more than $600 million to charity; Good Store would need hundreds of years at current levels to match it. — 00:04:55 · Good Store
  • ★★★ Hank says the goal excites and inspires him the way making more and more money inspires other people; he is just not like them. — 00:05:24
  • ★★ Copying Newman's Own, Good Store is now the landing page for all the products, with a small internal DFTBA team seeking new ethically sourced, high-quality products. — 00:05:24 · Good Store, DFTBA Records

00:05:30 — Good Store as landing page, its team, and holiday gifts and shipping deadline

  • ★★★ Hank says the store is full of holiday specials and bundles, his cancer socks, bath boxes and coffee boxes, which make great gifts for loved ones or yourself. — 00:05:53 · Hank's Cancer Socks, Sun Basin Soap, Awesome Coffee Club, Good Store
  • ★★ Hank says to receive orders by December 24 viewers must order by December 8, the last day shipping is guaranteed for Christmas Eve. — 00:05:53
  • ★ Hank says on current trends the holiday items will probably sell out before December 8, and they will probably order more in the new year. (hedged) — 00:05:53

00:06:22 — Why an all-profit-to-charity business must go slower and needs a community foundation

  • ★★ Hank says businesses work the traditional way partly by habit but also for reasons; giving profit away can't follow the usual path, since no venture capital funds such a model. — 00:06:22
  • ★★ Hank says such a business must go slower and be self-funded: their sock subscription began in 2016 and it's almost 2024, while venture-backed startups blitz the market. — 00:06:51 · Awesome Socks Club

00:07:21 — The Founders Club and the Good.Store newsletter

  • ★★★ Hank says such a business also needs a foundation, as Newman's Own had: Good Store's success wouldn't be possible without this community, though it is already bigger. — 00:07:21 · Good Store, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ To recognize Nerdfighteria's role, Good Store will have a Founders Club, not ready yet, for contributing ideas, early access, testing and discounts, built over the next few months. — 00:07:21 · Good Store, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ Hank asks those interested in the Founders Club to sign up for the Good.Store newsletter linked at the top of the description; they'll be in touch early next year (2024). — 00:07:50 · Good Store
  • ★★ Being honest, Hank says he usually doesn't know what he's doing and often wishes he were different; he has tried to change, but that only goes so far. — 00:07:50

00:08:12 — Not knowing what he's doing, thanks to Sarah, pride in what the community built; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says what this community can do together differs from a normal business, with different limitations and advantages, and using that to do things differently excites him. — 00:08:17 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Holding the CD, the seed from which all of this grew, is really special to Hank, and he thanks Sarah. — 00:08:47
  • ★★ Hank says what he feels isn't impostor syndrome, since he isn't pretending, but not knowing what he's doing or whether it's right, and being okay with that. — 00:08:47
  • ★★ Hank is proud of what the community and everyone who worked for VidCon, DFTBA, Complexly and their other projects have built. — 00:08:47 · Nerdfighteria, VidCon, DFTBA Records, Complexly
  • ★★ Hank is excited for what he thinks is a big new chapter, though maybe this is as big as it gets; regardless it is already big and doing good. (hedged) — 00:08:47

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says Hank wishes money affected his motivation less: he was more motivated by making money up to a point than he thought. — video description
  • ★★ The description says Hank is pretty certain he is one of the luckiest people on earth, which he says is not hyperbole. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: DFTBA Records · Good Store · Hank's first album · Newman's Own

Also: People: Alan Lastufka · Katherine Green · LJ · Paul Newman · Sarah (person, mentioned from 2023)

Projects: Awesome Coffee Club · Awesome Socks Club · Complexly · Sun Basin Soap · VidCon

Works: Hank's Cancer Socks

Organizations: Dropout · Instagram · Item Label · Kurzgesagt · TikTok

Groups: McElroy brothers

Concepts: impostor syndrome · maternal death · venture capital

Places: Michigan · Sierra Leone

Events: Christmas Eve

Only in the description or credits: Elle Cordova · Partners In Health · Vi Hart

Also centred on Hank's first album: From the Airport: And some Nerdfighterlike

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