Friends news: peanut butter allergies 🥜

Published over 1 year ago • 4 min read

Hello Reader, from your friend Nick, author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party (paperback or Kindle or Audible).

In this issue: reducing allergies on babies with peanut butter, my Vancouver trip, trade show booth ideas, a $1M library challenge, airline perks for sale, how my friend got millions of TikTok views, and more.

Why you’re getting this: I'm Nick Gray and this is my Friends Newsletter. I send this every month to interesting people I’ve connected with and friends I want to keep in touch with. You can un-subscríbe any time and I won't be mad. I won't even be notified!

Random Links

👶🏻 BBC: Give babies peanut butter to cut allergy by 77%, study says​

"PSA: feed your baby peanut butter! & eat Bamba! In Israel, there is a popular snack Bamba that are like cheese puffs but with peanut powder instead of cheese. Jewish kids in Israel have 10x lower incidence of peanut allergies comp'd to US Jewish kids." via Sheel Mohnot of Taco Bell Meta Wedding fame

🌋 Resurrect an ancient library from the ashes of a volcano. $1M Challenge​

"The Vesuvius Challenge is a machine learning and computer vision competition to read the Herculaneum Papyri." Very inspiring bounty and tech challenge!

📣 Lion King - Circle of Life, by the United States Navy Band​

Fun, family-friendly video on YouTube of the Navy Band recorded at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., as part of the U.S. Navy Band's 2019 Concert on the Avenue series. I forget who shared this to me!

📈 Hampton: Private network for tech founders​

My friend Sam Parr just launched Hampton - a membership community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs w/over $1M revenue or $3M VC or a prior exit over $5M. If you like business peer groups, check it out.

📱 We ran a Phone Check at a YCombinator event in SF​

I liked this post! Doing things that don’t scale, talking to customers, and writing about it. via Josh Mohrer

▶️ YouTube: Tom Scott's Videos​

Informative, a bit geeky, and fun. This is one of my favorite channels. He's covered things like: monorails, treadmill cranes, neat things in London, New Zealand, geysers, railroads, and more. Each video is only about 5 minutes long and they are well-produced.

✈️ Airline Perks For Less​

For flight nerds: This company resells corporate benefits packages allowing you to purchase Delta Platinum Medallion status for $400/yr, Southwest A-List for $400/yr, and Hawaiian Airlines Pualani Platinum (incl 2 first-class upgrades) for $400/yr. Each one has a setup fee. Not sponsored, just looks neat, via Amit Gupta. Also: buddy passes! If you know someone who can help me get an airline buddy or spouse pass, please email me back! I lost mine when a friend left the industry.

🔈 Why Most Parties Suck - Nir and Far​

Podcast with my friend Nir where we talk about why most parties and gatherings are not good, especially for introverts.

✊ Company Happy Hours: Best Practices and Tips​

I wrote some tips and tricks on how to host a good company happy hour. Like: do it on a weeknight, use name tags, do a quick round of icebreakers, etc.

🍹 Sarah’s Party in Saudi Arabia: Mixing Business with Pleasure​

See her photos! This woman in Saudi Arabia used my book to host a party. No alcohol and it was still a big success.

and here's a meme I liked:

7 Small Trade Show Booth Ideas for 2023

OK, I am a nerd because I love trade shows. I get excited by all the new connections and sales opportunities that they create. I get this from my father.

But exhibiting at a trade show costs thousands of dollars in random fees. So how do you design a good small trade show booth that gets results?

In this article on my blog, I'll show you a few ideas in this article that you can use to design your own small trade show booth. You’ll see:

  • Four small 10’ x 10’ trade show booths
  • Seven photos of trade show signage
  • A few other ideas, including a great table wrap

My Experiments with Short Videos

I've been experimenting with short 30-second videos on my TikTok account, my Instagram account, Facebook, and even my YouTube account. But I noticed something strange...

Here's what is interesting: When I was in NYC a few weeks ago, my TikTok clips were going viral nearly immediately. Over 400k views! My Instagram Reels got added lift, too.

But as soon as I landed back in Austin, and I posted some drafts, they died. Zero lift, zero engagement, perhaps only 500-1000 views.

So I can confirm that TikTok prioritizes what you post based on your local audience and where your cell phone pings to. You can't use a VPN either: I believe they're geo-locating me via my cell tower pings or other location data.

What does this mean? If you're making location-based content, such as "Top Tips in Las Vegas," make sure you post it when you're in Las Vegas! Don't wait until you get home.

But I'm an amateur at this. My friend Nat Eliason wrote a great article about what he learned on TikTok to get millions of views:

📈 Kickstarting TikTok: 55,500 Followers & 7M views in 6 Weeks​

Nat said: "My videos have been viewed 7 million times. And I have seen a clear and significant impact in the off-TikTok action I was trying to drive: book sales."

The End

Thanks for reading my Friends Newsletter. I'm traveling for the next week! Here's where I'll be:

  • Las Vegas, NV on April 7 & 8 (I'm here now!)
  • Los Angeles, CA on April 9
  • Victoria, BC on April 12 for a workshop
  • Vancouver, BC on April 14

🤠 Nick Gray

p.s. Here's the About Me on my website if you forgot who I am. We met [HOWWEMET GOES HERE].

An investor, entrepreneur, and author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party. I started and sold two successful companies: Flight Display Systems and Museum Hack. Join 20,000 CEOs, investors, and founders and receive business tips, productivity tools, and other resources from me.