I have been working in the entertainment business for the past 20 years ranging from documentaries to graphic novels to feature films to community building. Currently I am writing for Marvel Comics while producing projects with my creative partner, Taboo, under our SkyView Way Studios banner. We have projects currently set up with Cartoon Network and Gaumont. 

I am also heavily involved in the blockchain space, using NFTs as storytelling nodes for both community and world-building. The current project I am running and creating is called Chiwawows (www.chiwawows.com) which is built on the Solana Blockchain. I have two other story-driven NFT projects in development called Realms of Avalon and Angryfoot.

My focus is to create multi-media experiences in entertainment using new and emerging technologies that engage communities into creative activity. 

Having founded the largest comic book club in LA in 2008 called COMIC BOOK SUNDAY! (CBS!), with members around the globe, my finger is on the pulse of what is trending across the board and my access to those creators is unparalleled. 

Specialties: Writing, Producing, Event Production, Community Building, Film/TV, Comic Books/Graphic Novels, VR Storytelling, Video Games, Film Editing, Product Management, Team Building, Web Content Development.

B. Earl

It’s a very misty morning here in the woods. The walks are cold and the winds are crisp. By the end of the month I’ll be back in LA’s sunshine to catch some of the errant rays before returning to this hibernation. 

In many ways I feel the Hermit card (one of my favorites) is most appropriate to this time of my life. I had to leave Hollywood to rediscover my love for stories. So often we feel that a constant pursuit, even when feeling fruitless, is the only course forward. Stubbornness can only get you so far.

I find this often appearing in my spreads and today in the three cards I drew from my Wirth deck I saw the first peaks of a springtime to come. The Ones and court beginnings are those ideas that start to take shape. Not just some seat-of-the-pants let’s do it just because, but real direction that has been brewing for some time. The Wand is the pointer of our intention. 

That all said, I do miss giving readings so for any that are interested I’ll be offering 10 free slots to those who most need it…or to the first ten who respond across my social media platforms.

Ping me in the DM’s if you’re interested and would like to have a mirror held to see what this New Year might bring 🙏🏼✨❤️.

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For all my esoteric folks and for everyone who uses money…here’s the Substack connecting these dots through the Count Cagliostro! Cagliostro was quite the colorful figure and would have fit in quite well on Epstein Island…but he also had another side that was not as devious. 

Anyway, it’s an interesting dive into the realm of money and power and all the insanity that our fragile egos bring to the party. Yarvin is a fool. Not The Fool…just one of many. What they would like to believe is that they can control the Egregore.

Matt Maher is a Futurist, Speaker and Founder of M7 Innovations. He has guided executive teams at Fortune 500 companies through the ever-changing media and technological landscapes - conceptualizing, presenting and executing on innovative solutions. Matt's thought leadership and award winning work has been featured in Forbes, Quartz, Men’s Journal, Retail Touchpoints and Adweek. He specializes in artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual realities, and voice technology.

Matt formerly served as VP of Innovation at Assembly, AdAge’s 2018 Agency of the Year. He has given keynote presentations on innovation at CES, SXSW, industry panels and private client events.

Matt Maher

The #CES2026 Brief is here!

While the technology is usually the highlight, the best part of CES for me was the people. 

Cheers to my inside crew who I got to intellectually spar with… Khartoon Weiss Leah Meranus Caroline Wilson Michelle Zoni Preston Waller Nevin Vages Frances Callaghan Parker Bohlen Jessica Merrell Kris Magel

Founder, M7 Innovations | Tech Leader | Speaker | Advisory Board: CHANEL, Glimpse Group (NASDAQ:VRAR) | Featured in Vogue Business, Barron's, Forbes, Quartz, Digiday, Adweek+

Move over Amazon, Roku & Pinterest are out-innovating you in shoppable CTV.

A new series, "Bring my Pinterest to Life" launches on Roku soon. It’s a bold experiment that combines Roku’s OS + hardware, Pinterest’s visual discovery platform + data, and major retail brands like Wayfair and Michaels Stores. 

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬:  It’s a scrappy, strategic innovation in a space dominated by giants (Amazon/Google/Apple/Netflix). But, if Roku pulls this off, expect the streaming and retail giants to copy the playbook ASAP. 

Kudos to a few of my connections and colleagues at both platforms that are driving this change! 

Roku: Frances Callaghan | Charlie Collier | Jonathan Kriner
Pinterest: Paul Tapscott | Megan Cheah | John Farrar

#ShoppableTV | #Innovation | #BrandedEntertainment

The traditional, authentic Instagram feed is dead. CEO Adam Mosseri is waving the white synthetic flag on the future of content (and media). 

An important story, reported from the #CES2026 floor! 

#SocialMedia | #GenAI | #SyntheticMedia

Did Google just call checkmate in the AI arms race? ♟️

The name "Universal Commerce Protocol" sounds boring. But the implications are massive.

Announced at NRF, Google announced the infrastructure that lets AI agents actually do the shopping, not just browse. Discovery. One-click purchase. Support. All handled by Gemini.

The bigger piece is they aren’t doing this alone. They launched with 20 heavy hitters including Walmart, Target, Shopify, and Wayfair.

Combine this with the announcements on Gemini powering Apple's Siri, and Google's personalized AI ads, and the B2C AI arms race feels over. 

I break down exactly what UCP is and why this story has legs for months to come in the video below. 👇

#GoogleUCP | #NRF | #Ecommerce

Ads in ChatGPT: exciting or existential threat for OpenAI?

They're starting with $60 CPMs, a very high premium for an unproven ad product, but the same starting point as Netflix in 2022 (according to Ad Age). 

Netflix waited 15 years and accrued $4.5B in yearly profit before running ads. OpenAI is doing it while bleeding cash and on the hook for $1.3TN in spending.

Oh, and advertisements don't work at scale inside a 1:1 LLM experience, I've learned this working alongside Perplexity to help develop their charter advertising product over a year ago. 

I break down the implications in below's clip from our Innovation Brief series.

You can subscribe to get the full Innovation Brief here: https://lnkd.in/eexPUXFX 

 #OpenAI | #Advertising | #InnovationBrief

The AI war isn't about the model anymore. It’s about the memory.

Google just flipped the switch on a feature I've been wishing (and talking about) for a couple years. It's called "Personal Intelligence." 

Has anyone else gotten the below prompt in Gemini that can automatically ingest 20-30 years of your digital life?! One click to activate your…

📥 Gmail archives
📸 Google Photos
🔍 Search Logs
📺 YouTube Watch History

This is the ultimate moat.

ChatGPT, Anthropic, DeepSeek, and Mistral are all fighting an uphill battle. They have to ask you to build a "memory" from scratch, one prompt at a time. They are meeting you today for the first time.

But Google?! Google has watched us grow, knows what we were searching for during our formidable age (and that awkward punk rock phase). It knows your trips, your receipts, your favorite videos from 2010, and your deepest questions.

While we were distracted comparing speed and image generation benchmarks, Google was preparing to leverage three decades of user data.

I'll be making this the topic on this week's Innovation Brief this Thursday! 

#Gemini | #AIArmsRace | #LLMs

Surge pricing for… groceries?! 🍏📈😡

Instacart just learned a hard lesson: Efficiency without empathy is a brand killer.

They recently shuddered their AI dynamic pricing test after severe backlash. The model was simple: demand goes up, prices go up. On a spreadsheet, it looks like margin expansion. In reality, it felt like price gouging.

This is the unintended consequences of AI implementation. Companies are getting so good at optimizing for the algorithm that they are forgetting to optimize for the human relationship. My take below from the floor of #CES2026...

#AI | #CustomerExperience | #Instacart

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