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Roberto Blake
Founder of Awesome Creator Academy. Helping 13,000+ Creators Go Full-time and Earn $10,000/month
Professional Background
Roberto Blake is a distinguished figure in the creator economy, boasting over a decade of experience dedicated to empowering creative professionals, students, and small business owners. With a passion for education and empowerment, Roberto has made significant strides in the digital landscape through his initiatives aimed at enabling individuals to realize their creative goals and generate value.
As the founder of Awesome Creator Academy, Roberto has established a prominent online platform that offers coaching, courses, and a supportive community for both aspiring and established creators. This initiative reflects his commitment to fostering a nurturing environment where creativity can flourish. His role as a YouTube partner and video marketing consultant further underscores his expertise in digital content strategy and audience engagement.
Roberto has become a trusted resource for creators, with a vast library of over 1,500 educational videos on YouTube, amassing more than 600,000 subscribers and an impressive 16 million views. His dedication to coaching has impacted over 600 creators, and he has successfully sold to more than 2,500 customers while collaborating with over 50 brands in the realm of the creator economy.
In addition to his impressive content creation and coaching journey, Roberto is also celebrated as a public speaker and podcast host. He has penned bestselling books focusing on crucial topics such as the creator economy, podcasting, YouTube strategies, content marketing, branding, monetization, and community building. This multi-faceted approach to creating and disseminating knowledge showcases his commitment to enhancing the skills and confidence of those navigating the digital landscape.
Education and Achievements
Roberto Blake pursued his education at Fayetteville Technical Community College, where he honed his skills and founded the baseline for his future endeavors. His educational background has undoubtedly played a pivotal role in shaping his career trajectory within the creative and digital marketing industries.
Throughout his career, Roberto has been associated with various reputable organizations, contributing his expertise as a former book author at Create Awesome Media, LLC. During his tenure there, he also served in multiple capacities, including founder, owner, public speaker, and podcast host, illustrating his versatility and commitment to the creative community.
Roberto's proficiency extends to his role as a contributing writer for notable platforms like How Design, Adobe, and Print Media Centr, where he provided insights into design, marketing, and the creator economy. His work as an online course instructor at HOW Design University further emphasizes his dedication to educating the next generation of creatives.
Achievements
Roberto Blake's impressive portfolio includes significant achievements that highlight his expertise:
- YouTube Success: With over 600,000 subscribers and 16 million views, he has made a remarkable mark on the platform, becoming a recognized figure in content creation.
- Coaching Influence: Having coached more than 600 creators, his mentorship has been vital for new and developing professionals in the creative industry.
- Sales and Partnerships: Roberto has successfully sold to over 2,500 customers and worked with numerous brands, driving impactful collaborations within the creator economy.
- Speaking Engagements: As a public speaker and podcast host, he has shared his knowledge on valuable topics relevant to creators, making him a sought-after voice in the industry.
- Bestselling Author: His books have been recognized within the community, solidifying his status as an authority on various subjects including content marketing and community building.
Roberto's journey reflects a unique combination of creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and educational impact. His genuine dedication to not only creating value for himself but also empowering others to thrive in the creator economy makes Roberto Blake a prominent figure in today’s digital landscape.
Highlights
My actual advice for young people STRUGGLING in this job market and this economy…
You’re not going to like it but this is the BRUTALLY HONEST ADVICE that is going to save you…
But only if you’re willing to stop negotiating with weakness…
It’s RUTHLESS, and not all of you can handle it.
In many cases your answer to looking for work is going to be doing something you don’t particularly like to earn money upfront… 40 hours a week if you can get it…
I recommend labor, hospitality, admin or retail and not going into food service just because it’s abundantly available (I’ll explain the edge this gives you later)
And then in 10-20 hours a week of free time, you need to be developing a body of work, around meaningful work you want to do and plan to do for a 15-25 year career span.
20 hours a week is 1000 hours a year.
That’s a good floor for competency, not mastery but will make you as good or better in most cases than 80% of people if you’re only focused on one thing or skills that stack…
Communication, Visual Arts, Coding, Sales, Marketing, etc.
You need something to show for this, typically a portfolio, or case studies, or some tangible result.
This could be building websites or app, making a product, a podcast or YouTube channel, writing a book, creating short films, growing a newsletter.
You also need a deep enough body of work because the 80/20 rule is real, and only 20% of your results will really carry any weight and be worthwhile beyond the experience they helped you to build or the relationships that came from working on them.
So it’s likely not going to great year one, and you’re screwing yourselves if you don’t lock in and focus either on one thing or something that crosses over and compounds.
Chasing every shiny object means you go a mile wide and an inch deep, and yield nothing for the effort.
Expect 2-4 years before your effort inverts on the 80/20 side, and most of your work is good to great, with 20% being merely acceptable.
This will represent the beginning of your prime… but not your peak.
Here is what to do about the regular job. The job market sucks, but mostly for email jobs that have mid to high status. Low status jobs with reasonable pay are abundant in most areas.
Most of the high status and high paying jobs go to people in network, a LinkedIn study suggest more than 78% of opportunities are actually withheld in network and don’t go to external applicants. (This is going to be important later).
Get a job in retail sales or doing physical labor if possible, oddly enough admin work is usually a worse idea early on in terms of work.
Being uncomfortable is the point, so you don’t get trapped.
The other benefit is you want low cognitive commitment in your day job… so your mental and emotional energy is reserved for working on your own craft 10-20 hours a week, where it is the better investment.
High physical activity, low cognitive cost for your day job.
Your craft will likely be low physical activity with high cognitive cost.
So you want to be able to code switch.
This ironically will help balance what would become burnout.
While you’re in this early phase, this season of hustle, you should highly consider living with roommates that are functional adults, and have a good work ethic and are genuinely fun to be around.
This will curve the adult loneliness problem and will save cost while also providing a support structure.
You also can help each other with networking opportunities mapped towards your goals. 2-3 pairs of eyes and ears are better than one.
Speaking of networking… you’ll want to put yourself in rooms with people in your long term career field at least 2x per month.
People who will value the craft you are developing half time outside your job.
These are the people who thar work will matter to, and who you put it in front of.
You also, in truth, need to pursue a craft that has proven demand and actually pays, it’s not enough for it to be your passion.
FINALLY MORE NUCLEAR!!! 😭😭😭
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.