What is 100mpm?

Christopher Mills
June 27, 2022

There are several topics that I wanted to cover on 100mpm and one of those topics relates to personal updates. I created this category on the site because I believe that authenticity is crucial if a person wants to build a community around a digital medium. Not only that, but it's where it all started for me. I'm going to use this post to tell you about 100mpm and give you some more background. Sit back, and let's get to know each other.

I learned to use a computer and write programming code when I was extremely young, literally 5 or 6 years old. My father was an electronic engineer and he built me a computer. He showed me a book he wrote on assembly code and then gave me two books, one on batch files and the other on QBasic. I don't know what all of this was but something caught my attention. I opened the books and started copying the code to see what it would do. This led me to more programming and an extreme interest in all things computers. Let's speed ahead a bit...

Fast-forward to 1997, I took a great interest in building websites. There was something about being able to put information out to the world on a website that made my heart race. I quickly studied everything I could about PHP and MySQL and learned how to build websites with backends and interesting functionality. It was at this point that guestbooks had become really popular, allowing someone from anywhere in the world to leave a comment on a website. Around this time, the term blog started popping up (remember, WordPress was only launched in 2003, so this was well before then), and that blew my mind. I could write something on a regular basis, publish it in a diary-type format and on the world wide web, and someone could comment on it. This changed everything for me.

Let's move ahead to 2001, by this stage I was at university and I was regularly blogging about my life, technology, marketing, and the likes. I was starting to get some traction and I was thoroughly enjoying it. Several years later my blog was receiving a million unique visitors a month and I was being approached by magazines, newsletters, and even Carte Blanche (I turned them down, long story). This was followed by winning back-to-back blog awards (when they still mattered, and before the circle-jerk) and a surge of companies wanting to be on my blog. From Google to Microsoft to Mini Cooper to Audi to Standard Bank and a whole long list of other amazing companies. I was being paid to feature their products, I was being given all sorts of products, I was being included in brand activations and my community was growing so quickly. It was incredible, I look back at those memories and beam inside!

Let's have a bit of a laugh on me, here are some screenshots I dug up to show you what the blog looked like over the years. I remember sitting for hours in the UCT labs writing code to make this all happen. And, you might only see the frontend here (I'm not a designer) but I can tell you, the backend was really slick and I had some epic code that I wrote to assist with SEO.

It's hard to remember completely, but this was one of my first decent attempts at writing blogging software, it appears to be around 2006:

Yes, that's me smoking a blunt on a beanbag 😀

How about this upgrade for 2007:

Self-coded, not WordPress

And 2009...

Affiliate marketing and sponsorships came into effect strongly.

I have so many, let's do a 2010 to end off:

I had moved over to WordPress now.

Ok, seriously, last one:

I remember how stoked I was with that logo!

Moving along...

Micro-blogging came into play and I had to make a call, do I continue blogging or do I find myself a "proper" job (yes, so awfully conditioned, argh). Influencer, as a term, hadn't come into play, it was just blogging and at the time I felt that I would be wiser getting a "proper" job so that's what I did. I worked at a number of agencies, working as a lead developer to operations manager to VP of marketing, and so forth. I worked with some incredible people and some assholes (well, mostly just one), and learned a ton. Fast forward several years and I decided to stop working for people and launch my own company, iMod Digital. iMod Digital has been in existence for just over a decade, even though I was writing code and building websites for money long before that, and it's been an incredible journey with a team of incredible people.

This is where 100mpm comes in. I miss blogging, I miss teaching and I miss having a community. I often think back to the days of iMod, the blog, and wish that it never stopped - because I miss writing and I miss the community. That's been my attitude for so long... sit and remember but something changed in my mind, instead of remembering, why not chase it again? Why not launch something, travel back in time, remember what I did and do it again! This time, though, not about marketing and technology but about something that has become a huge passion in my life.. finances and investing. I won't go into detail about my whole story around finances and investing, but just know that I've spent years learning anything and everything I could about it.. budgeting, saving, income streams, ETFs, unit trusts, Roth IRAs, ISAs, 401k's, tax-free savings accounts.. it didn't matter where in the world the fund or whatever existed, I wanted to understand it and wanted to know how to leverage it. I am doing a lot of research on studying as I feel I may want to study again and broaden my knowledge further but one step at a time right now - I have a family, businesses, investments and an assortment of other things on my plate and I learned to priortise along the way 😉

I want to take my knowledge and combine it with my experience in creating a community and that's why I launched 100mpm. 100mpm is short for 100 Mills per Minute, which is a play on my surname and speed. When I launched iMod, it was short for I modify and I went with that because it was open-ended enough to be applicable to anything, and with 100 Mills per Minute, I'm taking a stab at using my name and something to do with speed, which is a safe bet these days because the world moves so quickly, including the markets. Whatever it takes, if I can inspire people to take the time to understand money and investing, this will all be a success. I want to say even if it's just 1 person but I already know a handful of friends who've been inspired and thanked me, so let's say 100 perhaps?

I'm still finding my feet, there are so many platforms this time, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tiktok, YouTube, Twitter, and a slew of other ones. I've put a lot of effort into Instagram as I believe that's where there's engagement that's a balance between the likes of Tiktok and Facebook, for example. I republish my posts from Instagram to the other networks and so far I feel it's working quite well. I've had a handful of people thank me, which is the fuel that keeps me going on this journey, I want that community again and I'm going to fight to get it.

Why not YouTube?

That's such a tough one. I've got the camera, the lights, the backdrop, the mic, the software, and the studio. I built it all a few years ago but simply couldn't pull it altogether and commit. I'm not completely sure why but something was/is holding me back. It might be putting my face out there but I'm not convinced it's that, it could be the actual video production and performance anxiety around that, or it might be the daunting feeling of writing scripts or post-production. I'm not sure and, unfortunately, nothing will happen in that regard until I figure that out. I kick myself for not starting 3 years ago, I often wonder where I'd be now but coulda shoulda woulda, hey? But watch this space, maybe one day, I'll look back at this and say, "I'm so glad I made the move".

I also turn 40 in exactly one month and I think that might be what pushed me, perhaps that and the pandemic. If I don't do it now, it probably won't happen and then I'll look back with regret. I think that has a big role in all of this. I am very happy that I started and it feels so good to be writing this post!

Join me on the journey, pop me a comment, send me a tweet, connect with me and tell me what you think, share your suggestions or ask me a question, I need your help to build this community!

Thank you for listening (",)

Christopher Mills

I run a successful agency, my other passion is personal finance.

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