Curation for Longevity 🧬🛍 5 - Longevity Branding, Translating potential, and the look of it with MYKIGAI.
Hello 👋 and welcome to Curation for Longevity by Laura Minquini. I am the founder of MYKIGAI - a new type of community to experience longevity.
In this newsletter, I look into what could help make longevity the next big DTC (Direct To Consumer) category. 🚀
Hello! My back-to-school newsletter is more like back to winter…so much has happened in the world of longevity. The industry is getting more funding than ever. -Yay! More headlines promising immortality and forever young. – Nay!
Longevity Branding - Translating potential
It’s a difficult task sitting between the world of maximalists and the real world. I have friends on both sides, and not that I have ever been the diplomatic Swiss-type, but I get their opposite points of view. I understand the fervor and candor of those who want to see scientific breakthroughs within their lifetime, or their careers, or those who want longevity more than anything because of the fear of death. I also understand people in their 50s who are healthier than ever and think “why the hell if there are so many of us, with so much purchasing power, must we be made to feel sorry for ourselves because of aging”. Especially women.
Look outside your bubble and there is a revolution afoot, the way we perceive aging will change in the next 30 years as we head to more people being over 65 than under 15. The influencer accounts in this movement have a combined following in the hundreds of thousands if not millions (pro-aging, loving midlife, say no to anti-aging, type of messaging). Meanwhile, in the maximalist world, some are proclaiming “aging is the biggest problem humanity faces” and that’s how we need to approach convincing others of why longevity should matter to them. Yeah…no.
I get schooled about these things on Twitter all the time, somewhat I think trying to put my intellect in question (lol); by challenging me to read philosophical writings of the merits of “fighting aging”, and showing charts and equations of estimated deaths, or suggesting “consumer” or “direct-to-consumer” are dirty words beyond academia or science, or they think I am trying to sell something.
For the record, I have not sold anything to anyone. More on that later.
I spent the majority of my career in the “exclusive” world of fashion, luxury, and design which was based on making sure everything is not “commercial”. How ironic that now I find myself saying - we need to make preventive health a mass consumer lifestyle experience.
Why?
1) Because the best to truly change or “disrupt aging” as AARP coined the term, is with longevity - matching our health-span to our lifespan. First with a preventive-health lifestyle practice, and hopefully one day with actual regenerative medicine.
I also believe that this is also a very practical way to avoid the:
The economy of preventive health makes so much sense, but that is a whole different post.
2) Because no matter how you slice or dice it, and for all the candor of those who love it, “aging” still breeds ageism and perceived negative connotations. Even the biggest activist of them all, the anti-every-ism of everything is still very OK with ageism, he willingly did it on himself. We are a long way from collectively changing the neuroplasticity of how we perceive the process of aging.
3) Because we need to take the care out of healthcare and make it something we proactively practice as a lifestyle. We need to pull a DeBeers PR slogan movement. Diamonds have zero intrinsic value, they are not like gold, not even like crypto. But the merchants needed you to buy into them so “A diamond is forever” was coined. It is so embedded in our collective psyche men are still buying those useless polished carbon rocks to profess everlasting love. Want a rock? Get an emerald, sapphire, or ruby, be a Diana.
The 200-year life might happen (someday in the future), but imagine living the 90 to 100-year life (in your lifetime) at home, independent, and with your brain and body still functioning well.
This life would involve:
Fewer health costs, less need of caregivers, more time doing what you want, more time to have multiple careers. More QUALITY OF LIFE.
One less person saying Immortality = 10 more people into longevity
I love science fiction, one of my favorite movies of all time - Blade Runner - is centered on the concept of bioengineered beings who in achieving self-consciousness - start fighting for their own longevity, but this is not about me, or my fancies. Not everyone is a futurist, an early adopter, or into technology.
We need enthusiasts to make the future happen, but longevity can be for those who are not interested in living forever but see the value of living longer with health. For those who are already into aging healthy, but don’t need to hear the anti-aging message. For those who are being sold castor oil+oils to cure themselves - No joke, this exists - they need to know science is also well-being and can be holistic.
These days “holistic” is a blanket statement and being used a lot to sell a lot of snake oil, and on the reverse science is something seen as undemocratic and for the elites, or simply wrong.
It does not help that a big announcement of big investments like the news of Altos Labs become fodder for clickbait and “immortality” becomes the word de jour associated with longevity.
Read the comments on the scores of mainstream articles about the announcement, it makes the general public even more averse to the field, and its potential to improve our health gets buried in “billionaires wanting to live forever” messaging. Between hating on the bunch of rich people devoid of understating the problems most people face, and the look of the industry being more Rasputin and Dumbeldore 🔮than Madame Curie and Einstein 🔬, the lack of comms strategy and meeting people where they are, is, in my opinion a huge failure of communication and missed opportunities.
A Roadmap 🚘
The Look of Longevity
People need to be inspired. Imagine a world where people actively work on their longevity, not because they are afraid of aging but because they understand that investing in their health is a compound effect like investing in wealth.
It’s coming, in 2022 and beyond, more celebrities are going to start promoting more direct-to-consumer, and health optimization products and this is a good thing.
Humans are not incentivized with charts or logic, but with aspirational messages and images, with things that appeal to our emotional side. Beauty, sex, power. We buy into things because of how they make us feel, as my favorite marketing professor, Scott Galloway, said about why we buy Apple phones, “An iPhone is saying to the opposite sex, or a potential mate, ‘I have good genes. You should mate with me.’”. A bit of a quote-me oversimplification here but what “call-to-war” ever got the armies going with logic? Remember Trump?
LaaS - Longevity as a Service
This is the future! When the first true regenerative breakthrough happens everyone is going to want a part of it. Like in every other industry there will be a range of services, it is a big world, and longevity is not a zero-sum game. From your celebrity doctors charging 100k for personalized treatments to apps measuring your rate of aging, and much more in between, we are at the start.
My personal mission in all of this is to help bring forth a vision of longevity that gets people excited about its potential, and as I keep saying, making it a consumer lifestyle experience.
Think queen of lifestyle, Martha Stewart, who got the masses into the art of entertaining, something usually taught at private Swiss finishing schools.
So how do I make this happen? I am not a scientist, I am not an MD, and I am not a “public personality”, my favorite Instagram title…I have usually been a behind-the-scenes person. Having started my career as an editor and trend forecaster, I learned to look at subjects co-existing with various disciples. I connect the dots and curate, bring things together. So I present to you MYKIGAI - MY IKIGAI (Japanese concept encompassing sense of purpose) 👉🏼
MYKIGAI - The Supreme of Longevity
No, we are not an apparel limited edition company, but I am borrowing some concepts (the drops 🧬💧), and the counter-culture vibe.
I want to do something to change the current paradigm of aging into longevity, but I want to make it a lifestyle and easy, something that is driven by a different type of community than the hardcore enthusiast, scientist, or early adopters. More women, more curious people, more “I want to age healthy but don’t talk anti-aging ”, the “I don’t know where to start but I want to” types.
What is MYKIGAI? A membership-based service built on community and dedicated to defining how we experience preventive health, connect with others, and share our journey.
What does MYKIGAI offer? Community, Education, an Interactive experience. We have also done our research, chosen evidence-based brands around the world to secure promotions and always-on discounts for our members. You can try for the first companies that you are curious about, as well as learn about what science is involved. Over our various “Longevity drop” promotions you will save hundreds of dollars, more importantly, you can share your longevity journey.
Why join? You’ll be invited to a private messaging platform where communication is instant and organized between our team and our members. Our channels cover everything from AMAs with a Gerontologist, and experts, shock-drops (surprise promotions), exchanging service with other members, exclusive member’s events and so much more. We build our communities in cohorts, to maximize the feeling of community and help you make genuine connections. It’s also not about measuring, but about sharing. Drop in when you can, when you want.
There’s so much free educational content and discount codes out there, why should I pay? We are not an influencer, or running a media company. Our role is to bring forth the experts and separate the snake oil from evidence-based. We are building a vetted social experience in preventive health. Our revenue will not come from creating content, selling a service, or commissions on product sales. Your membership will help us keep objective research and curation, research, and finding experts for you to learn from.
For the last 6 months, my two co-founders, and a small dedicated team of amazing interns, and I, have worked in promoting longevity for free. To build more and make the concept bigger, we need to grow. Until we don’t go DAO and tokenize things (we will do it!) we need to start a membership.
Why you, or your team? Over the next weeks, we will be introducing you to each of our amazing team members, advisers, and supporters. We have an A-class group of people.
How can you support our mission to make longevity something everyone wants? Become a MYKIGAI member!
Let’s Do This! 🧬🚀🙏🏼
I am a believer - Founding membership. Only available until October 2nd, quantities are limited.
Sign me up!
👉🏼 $100 USD / Year instead of $25 USD dollars a month
👉🏼 $125 CAD / Year instead of $30 CDN dollars a month
You will receive an onboarding link and access to the community on Saturday, October 2nd when the community goes live!
What am I paying for? 🎟
Discover part of our fall program 📆 here.
First Longevity Drops 🧬💧 are in the next 10!
Roll Out 🛼
Join us for the the kick off launch tour on Clubhouse, this Saturday, October 2nd, at 11 ET. Friends, advisers, supporters, and others to discuss longevity as a lifestyle experience. 💙
What happened to the Longevity Challenge?
It’s still happening, just differently! Join us to experience many mini-challenges in community and something bigger and more exciting in early 2022.
Love you but I want to test.
You can always join and try our subscription for 25 dollars a month (available as of Saturday, October 2nd), and get a refund within 30 days if not happy. Our newsletter and some of our programming will still be free! Or…
Share the potential! #thelookoflongevity
