Interesting couple of months here, but things are now back to normal! All new releases were put on hold as I negotiated an offer from a large investment group to merge musclematt.com with an Artificial Intelligence company.   I have been approach many times over the years with all kinds of offers, but this one was interesting.

Always Looking for New Ideas: I am always looking at creative ideas and opportunities to grow The Muscle Mafia. I have plans for the future, but those plans take money. Reinvesting and muscle fund donations have been a big help here and will continue to be.   However for some of my ideas we need a large infusion of cash, I thought these capital investors might be the right ones to make it all happen.  This is why new releases were delayed, I hated it, but had to see it through.

Here’s The Story:  These investors along with its principles wanted to get in on what I created here.  It turns out that one of the owners is apparently a big fan, and approached me first in email.

Talks Were On: Negotiations began in late April of this year, thins reach a level where attorneys were involved.  Documents protecting these negotiations were signed but there were a few concessions I needed to make and agree to.  1: I could still film and produce content, (which I have been doing all along)  2: I had to hold off on any new releases for a specified period of time; I agreed. That shows you how close the deal was.  3: I would, of course, maintain full creative control of the site, content, crew etc. however they would bring their “Ai” technology to make digital replicas of myself, Matt and the rest of the crew.  That was an interesting concept for about a minute.  The content could be endless, at first that seemed to be a blessing.

Goose Bumps: I really didn’t understand much about Artificial Intelligence but got a crash course. (see the VIP Video blog soon to be released)  We did a test and created a digital replica of myself, Carlo,  it was pretty scary. Frankly, it was enough to raise goose bumps on my arms and make the hair on the back of my neck stand up, it freaked me out.   

Web Series / VIP Blog: I will eventually be going into more detail on the VIP Video blog talking directly to you, I will let you know when that is release.  For now, immediately I just wanted this communication out there asap.

Being Human is What We Do: Anyway, after seeing the “test replica” and speaking to Matt and the other guys, along with a couple sleepless nights thinking and long days back and forth  (Attorneys drag everything out) I declined their very lucrative offer. I couldn’t do it. I would lose sleep over thinking what that meant to my guys and what this “moratorium on new releases” meant to you the members. While we could use all the financial help we can get and while it was an attractive offer I was not comfortable with artificial intelligence or the prolonged delay in releases.  What we do here is authentic, always was, always will be.  I felt it would loose it’s human touch, it’s reality, it’s raw spontaneous unscripted brand.  Anything artificial is not us, so if being human doesn’t sell anymore, that is when we call it a day here.  We don’t mass produce, we don’t come up with cheesey story lines no one believes, we just film what’s real and hope it inspires you. So in early July I officially walked away from negotiations and said I have to get back to Muscle Mafia business, let’s not fix what ain’t broken, thanks for the offer, thanks but no thanks.

I talk Directly to You:  There is way too much detail for a blog post, but the video of me speaking directly to you (comimg to VIP) tells the complete story and my dilemma with the temptation of cash vs the integrity of our films.  It was exhausting but a necessary distraction to really take a good look at their offer.  So, we keep doing what we are doing, taking muscle fund donations, selling memberships and films, updates to the site and servers, and looking for the next offer that might be a good fit.

The Deal Is Over: I am now able to resume business as usual and can begin dropping new releases.  I am right now (July 25th) working on the new line up.  Next, up first is  #218 a very daring film appropriately titled “UnMasked” That is all I will say about that.

So what do you think?  Did I make the right decision, your opinion has always mattered and has driven many of my own decisions.  Please comment or write me Carlo@musclematt.com