Transcript 0:00 [electronic music] Ooh. Oh, what's this? Hello, there. How's it going, friend? Look what I just found. That's right, fam. Just found this. 0:17 Should we try it out? Oh, wow. Less than five ingredients with a scan me for a free airdrop. [plastic crinkles] Here's the magic part, fam. Got it right here. Give it a go. [exhales] That was amazing. Refreshing. 0:36 All the salts you need in your electrolyte premix. Definitely check out CryptoRush now. It even has a bonus of creatine. That's right, gotta build those strong muscles. Help with all that muscle recovery. 0:50 CryptoRush, mm, gives you the rush that you need to propel yourself throughout the day. Crypto Fam Radio, and your host Mountain Dew. Let's go. Get some CryptoRush now. 1:02 [laughs] Thank you so much for joining me, Will. How are you today? Happy Monday. I'm good, Dew. Happy Monday to you, too. Awesome, bro. I love it. You're looking good. Thank you. I did shave, um, yesterday. 1:20 Okay. [laughs] So I was like, I was on TikTok Live with Jen from One Love Art DAO, so you know, I had to represent- Sure... I had to kinda, you know, shave that big old beard from ETHDenver. 1:28 But I'm glad I'm here with you, Will. [laughs] Yes, sir. And you know, since we, since we finally met for the first time at ETHDenver, that was an experience, right? I think we should start there. 1:38 How did you feel like ETHDenver went for you and your business, and were you able to do what you were set out, uh, to want to do at the conference? 1:46 Yeah, you know, that's, that's the thing about when you go to these events, you go to these experiences, you go to these, you know, industry-level, um, meetups, I would say. 1:57 I'd, I, I would say it was kinda like a meetup on steroids this year, right? [laughs] Really? Um- Have you been to ETHDenver before? No. Or, or was this your first time? This is my fifth. This is my fifth ETHDenver. 2:08 Oh, fifth. Oh, wow. Fifth, yeah. 'Cause a lot of people said it wasn't as big as it usually is. So what, what did you think? Well, well, that's true to a certain extent- Mm-hmm... 2:16 but it all depends on your perspective, right? Mm. So, uh, one, my first ETHDenver I had no idea what to expect, right? Then as I attended more and more and I'm like, "Okay, we're gonna go into this with a game plan." 2:29 So as far as with KF Media and what we do with KF Media, we went into it with a game plan. Play- game plan was doing business development and finding fundraising opportunities, right? Mm. 2:42 From that perspective, all the boxes checked. Because now we've got a pitch deck that's been... 2:48 Or I w- I would say sponsorship deck that's being circulated now through the, through the circles of financiers, um, to where that can bring in some serious capital for what we do at KF Media, right? 3:00 Yes, lower attended than in years past, but if you look, if you look, still the eighth most attended ETH-based event in history since ETH-based events were a thing, right? Sure. So you've got that behind you, too. 3:15 And I feel with it being a little bit more intimate of an experience, the value of the conversations leveled up- Mm... because people weren't always in a rush, like, "Oh, I gotta get to the next person in my booth. 3:26 I gotta get to the next person in my booth. I gotta get to the next person in my booth." They're really able to take the time out and have these very valuable, robust conversations- Mm... 3:35 that, um, really can add a lot of meaning to the overall r- relationship that's built. You know, you know, you've probably been to these similar events before. The first interaction is, "Hey, do we like each other?" 3:47 Then- Right... right? Then it's all in the follow-ups, and it's, like, the meetings afterwards, and, and, "Let's get some work done. Let's have some serious conversations," so. 3:56 I love that, and that's kinda why we're here today, Will. You know, you're like, "Hey, what about a podcast?" Mm-hmm. I just launched One11 Podcast, and I was like, "You know what? I do need more guests." Woo. 4:05 And so why not interview Will, get to know about KFM a little bit more, about what you guys do, and, and how did it all get started? 4:14 Because, you know, we love talking about the projects, but it's more about the people behind the projects, right? So maybe introduce yourself a little bit. 4:21 Like, what's your background before you got into crypto, and then how did you get to where you are now with K- KFM Talks? Yeah, no worries. Um, so, huh, where do we start? 4:33 [laughs] Okay, so life, life before blockchain- Yes... let's put it that way. I love that. [laughs] Uh, 20, 26-year business veteran. Okay. Right? 4:42 All different aspects of business, uh, seven different industries, um, from retail mom and pops to Fortune... Actually, one of the companies that I worked for was a Fortune 6 company. Mm. Right? 4:56 Everybody says, "Fortune 500." No, they were Fortune 6. They were number six on the list. Anyways, so left that c- left that life behind. Took a leap of faith based on the advice of my mentor. Mm. 5:07 Started an LLC, became an entrepreneur, took on his company as my sole client, and boom, away we go. Wow. Right? So this was in 2020, March of 2020- Okay... uh, when all this happened. 5:20 Uh, my first task from him was to research the, uh, markets inside the blockchain ecosystem to s- draw a corollary between the, uh, cryptocurrency markets and the traditional equity stock market. So- Mm... 5:36 that's how I got started. Now, where we've been since, I mean, it's been a long journey. Uh, I will say to keep it short and, you know, s- condensed in time, um, in 2022 I did my conference tour. 5:50 I went to eight conferences in the span of a year. Wow. Some of those were speaking on stages. Some were moderating panels on stages. Mm. 5:59 A lot of it was having conversations in spaces, X spaces- With traditional educators, online educators, ed tech educators, homeschoolers, right? Mm. 6:10 Because I really wanted to figure out how blockchain could s- could solve the systemic challenges with the traditional education system. Mm. 6:19 So it's through that course of the hundreds and hundreds of hours of interviews that I kinda got a little inspired, and in the fall of 2022, I became an education maxine. I said, "Look, we can do better. 6:30 We can do better with blockchain technology. We can do better for the people," right? We can do better to level up humanity and society from a social impact perspective. So that led us to launching, uh, KF Media. 6:47 Uh, a original company name, Kingfishers Media LLC, formally. The KF Media came to us through a community brand voice exercise. It works better conversationally. It's more truncated, right? 6:59 It's short, sweet, boom, boom, to the point. Yep. And, uh, yes, we launched in, uh, we launched in the spring of 2023. 7:08 Uh, here we are almost three years later, and we're on an amazing journey and trajectory of social impact and flipping the paradigm on the traditional education system to where learners that tap in with us are encouraged that they no longer have to create debt or make a financial decision about their education. 7:26 Mm, absolutely love that, and well put, by the way. Well put. I wanna go back to something you said earlier about events, that you, you were- Mm... making your tour. 7:36 And so were these all crypto events, or what kind of events? Just entrepreneurial events? Could you break that down for me? Oh, they're all, they're all blockchain, uh- Okay... oh, if I interrupted you. 7:45 No, no, they're all blockchain, uh, related events. Oh, all blockchain- So, um- Okay, and you spoke and you were a panel and you were moderator as well during all of that? Or, like, how did you get involved? 7:54 Uh, during various events, yeah, it just depend. Like, the first event I attended was in the Phoenix, uh, greater area right after East Denver that year. So actually the... Back up. Rewind. The first- [laughs]... 8:06 first event was East Denver 2022. Uh-huh. Okay? Okay. That was my first East Denver. Wow. I had no idea what to expect. It was spread out across six city blocks in Denver in the art district. Mm. 8:18 I'm like, "Okay, let's kinda figure out what the schedule's like and form a game plan around that." But then of course, when you get boots on the ground, you don't necessarily stick to that schedule, right? 8:27 So from there, um... Give me a second. I need some water. No, you're totally fine. Yeah. [laughs] Okay. Well, um- Drink of water. It, uh, it helps. Oh, yeah. Well, you know- [laughs]... 8:40 being down here in Mexico, you gotta have a bottle of water. Yes. I could say that in Florida it was actually almost, I think, oh, it's almost 70 already in sunny Florida, and it's just a little- Mm... 8:51 after 9:00 here, Central Time Zone. So yeah. Sure. I totally get you. I totally get you. But anyway, back to your events, whenever you're ready. [laughs] Okay, so back, back to events. So East Denver 2022. Yeah. 9:01 First event. Didn't know what to expect. Yeah. Tried to form a game plan. Didn't stick to it. Just went and had fun. Mm. Then after that, flew out to Arizona, to the Phoenix, uh, greater area. 9:12 Um, attended an event there, um, that was a, a conference, like a three-day conference, right? And my first assignment there was to be the moderator for the crowd Q&A and the online Q&A, and throw them up to the stage. 9:30 Cool. Right? Cool. I was like- That sounds fun... "Oh, that's pretty cool." Yeah. [laughs] It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. Yeah. Um, so yeah, so that was pretty cool. Cool. 9:38 And then from there, uh, went to Atlanta. Mm. Spoke at a conference in Atlanta. Um, uh, then after that went back to, or went to Austin in June for another, uh, conference that, well, which I spoke on two panels. 9:56 I spoke on one panel about, uh, Web3 social impact, and the other panel I spoke on was mental wellness- Mm... inside of Web3. How do we maintain our sanity, basically. Mm. Right? 10:07 And this is in 2022 we're talking about these things, right? Wow. So anyways, anyways- Three years ago. Almost four years now, yeah. Al- almost four years ago. Crazy. Almost four years ago now. That's crazy. 10:16 So then, uh, on the heels of that, a friend of mine who I'd met in Atlanta, colleague- Mm-hmm... he was working for Coindesk, so he got me a pass for Consensus. Wow, nice. 10:27 So I said, "Hey, let me stick around a few other days in Austin." Nice. "Let's go to Consensus, see that." 10:32 Well, at the time, the company I was consulting for, which was a Web2 company in the payment solution space, uh, the reason why I was able to go to so many conferences that year, because I was doing BD for them, business development. 10:46 Mm. Okay. So doing the business development for them, finding them partners inside of Web3 so that they could eventually transition into Web3 with the solution they were creating- Mm... and I was helping co-create. 10:57 Um, anyways, so then from Atlanta, uh, I mean from Austin, sorry- Mm-hmm... uh, in June, uh, was supposed to go to Nashville in September. Mm-hmm. That conference ended up not popping off. No. 11:12 So then went to Miami, Miami in, uh, right before Art Basel. Mm-hmm. And I was actually supposed to go to Art Basel, but then some s- personal family matter circumstance happened where I had to fly back. Mm. 11:24 But that was the conference where I spoke on two panels and then moderated another one against anything else but crypto regulations. What? Oh, no. Yes. 11:34 Yes, we were talking about crypto regulations and what that framework could look like, right? Makes sense. Um, and then to top it off, uh, come back from Miami and then attend East Denver 2023, so. Wow. 11:48 That was my conference tour. So you did the circuit. So I spoke on... Yeah, I did the circuit. I, I spoke- Awesome... on, uh, four panels. I moderated another panel, uh, that helped me... 11:57 And then also too, I didn't mention this, while we were at the conference in Austin, I was also the, uh, space's production manager- So we had a live Spaces that we were doing as a community- Ooh... 12:09 which was a marathon space. Cool. And we wanted to give people the context from the conference, 'cause it wasn't being streamed out, right? Mm. 12:17 But we wanted to give them that experience, like what were the conversations, what was being talked about. 12:22 So I was actually the Spaces production manager to make sure the space stayed live, to make sure the audio was dialed in, everybody could hear okay. Nice. Everything like that, so yeah. That's amazing. It was a fun year. 12:36 It was a fun year. I bet. I bet. So tell me a little more about how did you get involved to be a speaker and moderator, um, for the rest of the audience too that listens, how can they get involved- Yeah... 12:47 if they want to become, let's say, a speaker or moderator at these events, at these conferences? What, what's the best way to go about that? Yeah, exactly. 12:56 I mean, you see a conference that you wanna attend, and most of them have speakers, right? Right. 'Cause that's the beauty of the event. [laughs] Sure. That's like the cornerstone, right, are these conversations- Right. 13:07 [laughs]... these thought-provoking conversations. Right. So if you have an opinion and you wanna be heard, just apply to speak. Mm. That's it. So there's, there's always an application within the website- Oh... 13:16 that you can always go to? In most cases there are. Okay. Yeah, in most cases are. Okay. 13:19 Like right now I've been seeing in some of my Telegram groups that they're looking for speakers for ECC, which is in May, I believe, in Paris. Oh. 13:28 So, uh, if anybody wants that information, I can get the form, because, uh- Sure, sign me up. [laughs] Yeah? Yeah? Yeah. I actually applied- Okay, I gotta tell you-... 13:37 to be speaker for the Futurist blockchain, uh, in Toronto, uh, I think it's end of July is their- Mm-hmm... is their conference, the Futurist. Did you go to Futurist Miami last November? Were you there? No. No, I wasn't. 13:49 No, you missed that one. Yeah, so that was the first conference that I had been to, Will, and I was just blown away by the panels- Nice... the speakers, everything. It inspired me. I was like, "Hey, I could do this. 14:00 That's not that hard. [laughs] I do this in Spaces every day." No. I'm like, "What's the difference," right? Exactly. Well, may- but- Stagecraft, but, you know. [laughs] Yeah. Well, maybe we should rewind and say- Mm. 14:10 Mm... practice on Spaces to get your- There you go... you know, get your persona out there- Right... get your voice out there. Communication skills. Get the nerves out of your system, right? Right. 14:19 [laughs] But then mo- yeah, most conferences, most events, they have speaker panels. So you just- Yeah... look at the event you wanna attend, you look at the speaker registration. Um, you may get selected, you may not. 14:30 It depends on how big the event is. Right. Right? Oh, that makes sense. And it depends on your application. So you gotta- Right... your application's gonna be like your resume, right? Mm. 14:39 So you wanna make sure you're standing out from everyone else- Right... that's applying. Because like ETHDenver, they get, you know, over 1,000 speaker requests every single year. I bet. Right? I bet. 14:49 But, but only how many get picked? Maybe a couple hundred, if that. If that, yeah. Maybe 100, maybe 10%. So you gotta really make yourself shine and stand out, so. That makes sense. 14:58 But- I did apply for ETHDenver as well as a speaker on a panel. And? I didn't get it. I didn't get it, but they, they said- They don't know you... "Sorry, maybe next time." See, that's the thing. They don't know you. 15:06 Not yet. Not yet. But they did for sure this year. Consistency's key, right? Consistency's key, right? Well, that and just getting out there. 15:11 Keep applying, keep applying, keep applying, keep applying, keep applying and get your name out there. Yeah. Yeah. So I did that with the- Get that exposure... right, I did that with the Futurist as well. 15:20 And so that's why, you know, since I've been to the conference, I was like, "All right, I think I can apply to be a speaker for Futurist. 15:25 I'm gonna go for it," and then I saw the applications opened up I think a few weeks ago they started with the Futurist. So I did apply. I haven't heard back yet. 15:33 I, I haven't heard yes or no, so I guess they're still going through their applications. Sure. But I, I, I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna be a speaker. I'm gonna be a mo- You know, I, I'll do anything you guys want. 15:42 Just put me up on stage. I want people to see me, you know?" [laughs] So I was like... [laughs] I don't know. We'll see. I, I, I'll keep trying, though. I'll keep trying. Uh, the next events we're gonna be at is Vegas. 15:51 I, I was gonna ask you, have you been to any Vegas events, Crypto Vegas events? What were your experiences on those? I have not. Okay. So in 2022- Oh, interesting... I was supposed to go to a Vegas event. Okay. Um, 16:04 I'm trying to think what time of year it was. I think it was like October, November, whatever. Okay. Anyways, it didn't work out for me. Mm. There were some events where it didn't work out for me to go. Gotcha. Um. 16:15 Gotcha. 'Cause it's very- I was, yeah, I was supposed to. 16:16 But, uh, the only thing I can say perspective on Vegas is before I got into blockchain, I did attend an industry event for, uh, the company I was working with at the time, um, which was like a, a software developer conference, whatever, in Vegas. 16:34 So Vegas is always a great time. Um- I know. Yeah... you know, more and more it's changing, right? They're, they're trying to make, like- I've heard... 16:42 every, every resort is an actual resort, and when you come to Vegas, you're gonna stay at the resort, and we're gonna do everything we can to keep you at the resort the whole time. Oh, is that how they're doing it? 16:51 [laughs] That's how they're doing it now, yeah. That's how they get the most money from you. We even want you to stay in one place. That's right. Oh, I see. 16:57 We don't want you going down the street to the, you know, whatever. The other resort, right, right. We want you to stay at our resort. Exactly. We want you staying here. So they're competing. 17:03 They're competing like- Yeah... "We have a better show. We'll give you free tickets to attend our show," you know? Right. With the- Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I haven't been to Vegas since 20... 17:12 I wanna say '17, I think, 2016, 2017. Okay. I went down with a buddy of mine. This was before I got into crypto. So we were... Um, it was a college buddy of mine, we were celebrating our birthdays. 17:23 We're actually born on the same day of the same month- Oh, nice... of the same year, Will. Imagine that. What? We're like literally twins. How? However, he was born in Russia and I was actually born in Alabama. 17:35 Opposite sides of the globe, but we were- Technically still born on the same day. I don't know. Um, we're both Pisces. You know, we have a lot in common. Right, right. 17:43 We're both, you know, very, um, go-getters kind of deal. But he's still up in Alaska. I actually reconnected with him recently. But to say all that, our adventures in Vegas was lit, 'cause I had never been before. Mm. 17:54 This was my first experience, and he was, like, just letting loose. He had a bunch of money. He was like, "Bro, you get me there, I'll pay for all the shows, you know. 18:03 I'll, I'll, I'll, we'll, we'll stay at the Pyramid, you know, and, like, we'll, you know, we'll, we'll just, we'll have a lot of fun," right? So we did that. We saw all the amazing shows. 18:11 Cirque du Soleil, Michael Jackson, David Copperfield. You know, all the, all the cool stuff. Blue Man Group. Right. And on top of that, you know, I got, uh, uh... 18:18 And this was before crypto, so I was a big professional photographer, and I was doing this personal photo project- Mm... 18:24 of taking a space suit, an actual replica model Apollo 11 space suit, and trying to put in different parts of the world and photograph it, basically, right? So it was almost like- Nice... 18:33 this Where's Waldo thing, but, like, with- Right... a space suit instead, but in a just completely random landscape. So I was like, "Oh, my gosh, this is so cool," because Vegas has, like, the, the, what is it? 18:43 The Fire State Park, whatever. They have so many beautiful national parks there with the big red rocks- Oh, yeah... and everything. So I was like, "We've gotta put the space suit here. 18:51 We gotta, we gotta connect with these influencers," and this was, like, all pre-crypto Mountain Dew, you know. This was still, like, Don Barrington Photography. This- [laughs] This... 18:59 I, so I was still on fire about art, right? Obviously, I've always been loving NFTs and art. But it was like from that interaction alone I could see the potential of content creation, right? 19:09 And that was basically- Sure... the next question, the one I wanna come to. Influencers, content creators, live streamers, however you wanna talk about it, talk to me about your experience. 19:18 Because, you know, you've had that experience as a speaker, as a communicator. You have, you know, this confidence that a lotta people don't have when they get up on stage, right? 19:27 And so maybe walk me through, you know, how to be a better speaker and communicator so you can be a better influencer in the world, because at the end of the day, you know, we're all influencers. 19:36 We're all influencing people- Sure... every single day when we jump online- Mm-hmm... when we post content. 19:41 And so talk to me a little more about your experience, I guess, in content creation and live streaming, and also as a public speaker. And what advice would you give, let's say, the next wave of content creators? 19:52 Oh, that's awesome. That's a great prompt. Um- Thank you [laughs] So one, [laughs] one, one, um, do your research, right? Mm. We say it on the outside. Anything worth saying, do your research, okay? 20:08 What does that mean to you? That's number one. Break it down. Break down DIYOL. Okay. I will break it down. I will- How does- I will break it down. [laughs] Find, find people- Mm-hmm... right? 20:16 And they don't necessarily have to be in your network now, but find people you want in your network- Mm... who have already broken through, who have already paved a pathway, that can mentor you, right? Mm. 20:28 Mentor you and coach you along. 20:30 Uh, case in point, 2022, I was coming out of my own community, coming out of that little bubble, whatever, t- as an exploratory journey to see what else was out there in the blockchain universe. 20:41 So I'd say, this has gotta be more than just my community, right? Of course. 20:45 So I went on this journey, and I started connecting and joining these spaces, and then getting up on stage and getting to know the people that are running the space. And a lot of them were- Mm... uh, publicists, right? 21:00 A lot of them were brand, uh, asset managers. Mm. So a lot of them were also, like, uh, real world company business professionals in the content creation. 21:11 So as far as content creation, really learn the industry and what it takes to make yourself have the tools and the assets in your corner to be able to do that, right? Like, understand what a media kit is. 21:27 Understand what the value of a media kit is. Understand if you're creating a brand, what does that brand look like? Are you gonna have to trademark it? What are the trademarking requirements in your jurisdiction? 21:37 You're gonna have to create a logo design around it, because logos stand out. Logos pop. 21:40 Especially now in this environment that we're in, in the virtual, uh, conversations we have on the social media platforms, your logo can be your PFP, right? Mm. And then the more you travel around those circles, right, 21:55 the logo now becomes recognizable, and then that creates curiosity, right? Mm. I would say from the public speaking standpoint, um, that is one of the greatest fears, right? Mm. It's public speaking, at least in America. 22:09 Mm-hmm. Uh, I don't know if that's globally or not. I- I feel like it is [laughs]. I, I feel like it is. I feel like... But if you're nervous about it, if you have this, uh, apprehension with public- Mm... speaking, 22:22 okay, cool. You know what you do? Yeah. You take your phone. Most everyone's got one of these, right? Right. Most everyone's got one of these, these devices right here. We live by them. They're attached to our hip. 22:32 They're surgically implanted on our arm sometimes. Mm-hmm. Take this, turn on your camera, turn on record- Mm... and just start talking. Start speaking from the heart. Start speaking what you're passionate about, right? 22:47 Mm. You can put it in the mirror so you can kinda see- [laughs]... your, uh, facial expressions as you're talking through it, but just take your phone, put it on record, and just start talking. 22:56 Like you're dictating, like you're dictating a novel, like you're dictating your life story. Mm. Right? And just start speaking to your passion. Speak from the heart. And, uh, that will build up your confidence. 23:06 And then when you get involved, I mean, you don't have to come on social media, right, to have these conversations, right? Mm. Um, but maybe you attend, say, like, a, I don't know, a community event, right? Mm. 23:19 So make it familiar. Make it like you're talking to your neighbors, right? If, if you do talk to your neighbors. I don't know. That's kind of a lost [laughs] in society now that we don't have- I know, right [laughs]... 23:29 community, right? But if you talk to your neighbors- Yeah... 23:32 make it, you know, when you're, when you're doing these and having these conversations, make it natural, and make it like you're having a conversation with your neighbor. Right? You don't have to be- Love that... 23:42 the loudest person in the room. You don't have to be the attention grabber or the attention seeker, whatever. You just have to speak from your heart, and that, and that's actually one of the, uh, best advice that I got. 23:53 'Cause the first time I came on stage that evening- Mm-hmm... with a mentor of mine at the time, who did a lot of public speaking back in the early '90s. Mm-hmm. 24:02 And he was talking about the age of the internet and how it was gonna be adopted and it was the next big thing, and everybody was saying he's crazy. Kinda sounds familiar, right, with blockchain? Oh, you guys- Yeah... 24:11 are a bunch of crazies. I said, "So how do I do?" [laughs] He's like, "You know what? I'm gonna tell you one thing, and I want you to remember this for the rest of your life." Mm. "Always speak from your heart." Mm. 24:22 "And if people don't like it, that's not your problem." There you go. Absolutely love that. Where's the applause? Like, seriously, that's huge. Yeah. I love that advice, Will. 24:32 Seriously, I need the applause sound effects here. It's so- I feel like I'm in Spaces with you. No, this is great. [laughs] No, this is not. [laughs] I love that. 24:40 I think everyone needs to hear that, seriously, and I hope so many more people resonate with that message. Just putting your phone- Yeah... 24:47 on record and, like, mirroring yourself and talking to yourself, I think that is huge. Because that is what I had to do on TikTok Live, because you're forced to kinda look at yourself. Like, you're literally- Right... 24:59 having to force to look at yourself, and then also look at the chats. But you're always looking at yourself, and you're always, like, critiquing yourself. You're like, "Oh, I should be doing- Yeah... more of this. 25:07 I should be not saying this word so much." You know? You're almost editing yourself in real time, and that's what you're doing when you're just practicing over and over and over again, your communication skill. 25:20 And this is a skill. A lot of people don't realize communication- Yeah... is a skill, and you can become better at it. Right? You can- No, 100%... become better at it when you practice, right? Practice equals permanence. 25:31 And as you practice, you start to realize that what you're doing is communicating with others, but first- Mm-hmm... you need to communicate with yourself, right? You need to have that self-talk. Yeah. 25:43 And I think this is huge. A lot of people say it's crazy to talk to yourself, but I don't think so. No, it's not. I think it's required. Yeah, especially this day and age. Right? Right? 25:54 Like- E- especially with all the social conditioning we've been through our lives, right? Right. 25:58 It's like, it's like a mental health respite to be able to talk to yourself and work through things mentally out loud- Mm... so you can hear yourself. Like, "Hm. Oh, man, yeah." Um, rewind it a little bit. Sure. 26:12 So you were saying about editing in real time, right? Mm-hmm. As the saying goes, we're our own worst critics. Right. Right? So we are gonna be critiquing ourselves. We are gonna be looking for improvements. 26:21 Another bit of advice from when I first started, uh, l- I call it live broadcasting, but Space hosting- Mm... same thing, 26:29 is I actually interviewed a professional podcaster at the time who had, like, 11 years experience under her belt. Oh, wow. And yeah. And that was like- Was that intimidating? [laughs] No, not really. Okay. Okay. 26:41 I mean, I mean, let it be intimidating. Sure. Right? But that was about, like, five months into my, uh, broadcasting career. Oh. So I interviewed her. 26:49 I said, "What is the best advice you can give somebody who, who, uh, is looking to get started and wants to become a more developed professional?" Mm-hmm. And she says, "Listen. If you have guests, listen to your guests. 27:05 Focus on what they're saying. Prompt them with probing questions afterwards, um, based on the conversation, and then let the conversation take a natural path." Right? 27:16 She also said, "If you're unsure about, um, your content and the value it's gonna have, go back and re-listen to it. And also listen to your natural pauses, if you're using filler words," right? 27:32 You know about filler words? Yeah. "Um, um." A lot of people, they, they speak with that cadence, right? Right. 27:37 But try to do your best to kinda naturally sift those filler words out of it, so then the conversation- Mm... becomes more natural, it becomes more pointed, and you can have a great time. I mean, have fun. 27:49 That, at the end of the day- Mm... it's about having fun. I love that. Right. That's a great value everyone should have. Just have fun. Just have fun. Yeah. Just have fun. I love that. We're having fun here. 27:57 I'm having a great, I'm having a grand time. Um- I'm having a blast. Aw, thank you so much, Will. No, I appreciate you. No problem. 28:03 And I know being a Monday, the whole Monday motivation thing, I know it's hard to do things on Monday. So I was almost kinda hesitant, I'm like, "Oh, man. I know Will's gonna follow through, obviously." 28:12 [laughs] "But I don't know his mood, his attitude," you know? Like, there's a lot of shit going on in the world right now. Like, we don't have to get into all that. Mm. But it's like, it's heavy, man. 28:22 I've g- I've had so many texts- Heavy... from so many different people of like, "Oh, did you hear what's going on? And Iran, blah, blah, blah." I'm like- Yeah... "It's out of our control." 28:31 As much as I wanna talk about that and hear about that and be top of mind, I have to be present. All right? I gotta do this- Exactly... interview. I have business calls. That's right. I'm running a business. 28:40 What am I gonna do with that information, you know? As a journalist myself, I'm like, you know, half of that's propaganda anyway, you know? So it's like, what is true and what's false anyway, right? 28:48 It's freaking fake news blowing everything up in proportion. Uh, real quick, I just wanna throw this out. 28:54 On my timeline on crypto Twitter, I saw several people that lived in Dubai, and they were saying how the news was saying, "Oh, all these missiles are hitting Dubai, United Emirates right now. Take cover, take shelter." 29:06 They didn't see one missile in the sky. Not one missile, and the media was literally- I think, I think there was-... blowing everything out of proportion... video footage of, like, one- One... little- One... drone. 29:16 You would think- One little drone that hit one building. Yeah, yeah. A- and they were talking about, like- Yeah... the thousands of drone missiles were g- were hitting Dubai. Right. Yeah. 29:23 Like, they're blowing it all out of proportion. I'm like, fake news. Like, come on, guys, lighten up. They're, they're just- Well, that's like-... they want your clicks, they want your views. 29:30 [laughs] The media's out to make your money. Well, that's like after... Right. Well, that's like after you, Denver, you know I traveled down- Mm-hmm... to New Mexico. Right. And everybody's like, "Is it safe? Is it safe? 29:39 Is it safe?" Because of everything going on. Right. And so- Yeah, that's right... where I'm traveling to is- Yeah... completely opposite side of the country of where all that heavy stuff- Mm... is going on. 29:49 And within one day, the federal government had most of those roadblocks and stuff cleared to the degree of 95%, right? But I did my due diligence. I checked with friends, I checked with locals. Mm-hmm. 30:00 I checked with a friend who actually works with Interpol- Mm-hmm... and said, "Is it safe?" You know what he told me? 30:05 He said, "If I was working at the US Embassy, Monterrey would be the only city I'd be able to walk around in public. Every other city in Mexico, I'd have to shelter in place." Wow. I said, "Well then, it's safe. 30:17 It's safe." [laughs] It's safe. I'm going. Well, the, the... Yeah, Monterrey's safe. I'm fearless anyways. I'm fearless- [laughs]... anyways. But, you know, I'm also former military, so we used to travel- Oh... 30:28 in the military, so, so- Wow... and that's very, during a very tense time in the Mediterranean, Middle East anyways. Mm-hmm. 30:35 I, I mean, it's always been a tense time there for millennia, but, um, that was during a very tense time during that period, too. So it's always, you keep your head on your swivel, you're aware of your surroundings. 30:45 Mm-hmm. If you travel at night, you're traveling in groups, you know. So it's just having this sense of awareness of what's going on around you and keeping yourself safe. 30:54 And that's like when you travel anywhere in the world, I think you should have that sense of awareness. Yeah. That's, that's huge. That you always have to have awareness, awareness, awareness. 31:04 That actually brings up a great book, one of my favorites, called Awareness by Anthony DeMaio. Highly recommend it- Oh, nice... if you haven't read it yet, Will. But yeah, it's, it's a very small book. It's short. 31:14 It was recommended to me on a podcast, actually, Tim Ferriss. Okay. 31:17 I don't know if you listen to Tim Ferriss at all, but he's very kind of aligned with a lot of my vision, with self-development, self-productivity, you know, being a better version of- Sure... 31:25 yourself than you were yesterday. But, uh- Yeah... he, he swears by the book. He was like, "This will change your life." And so I was like, "All right." Went on Amazon, went and buy. But yes, it's totally accurate. 31:35 Awareness is, is huge, it's key. And I wanna go back, I didn't know you were prior military. Thank you for your service. I appreciate that. Would you mind- You're welcome... 31:42 expounding a little bit about your military experience? How you learned- Yeah... a lot of what, I guess, what you apply for today. Because I, I find that fascinating- I mean-... 31:50 because I'm a military brat myself, so- Okay... [laughs] I've kinda gotta go- I totally-... through a lot of the military regiment growing up, you could say. [laughs] Sure. Sure, sure, sure. 31:59 So, um, I, I will say the benefits for me out of the military was being able to have, um, a strong attention to detail- Mm... 32:09 having strong discipline, and then just, uh, having strong integrity and, and high character, right? Mm. So that being said, um, military for me was an opportunity to go to college, originally. 32:24 That was the thought process behind it. Mm. So I talked to the recruiter, I signed up. I was a minor at the time. My mom signed off on it, and she's like, "Yeah, you know, um, you're only gonna go to basic. 32:35 You're gonna go to- Mm... a little bit of training, then you're gonna come back home and go to college." Yeah, that was the original plan. [laughs] But you know what I like to say? 32:44 Life is what happens when you make plans. Mm-hmm. Because then, a week and a half from coming home, the, uh, the young lady, I will say, that I was dating at the time- Oh... so I had just graduated high school. 32:57 She was a sophomore. Yeah. She writes me a Dear John letter. Mm-hmm. "Oh, now you're a worldly man. My parents think you're too mature for me," da, da, da, da, da, da, da. No. I said, "Yeah. I said, 'Okay.'" 33:09 She was letting you down slowly, huh? Yeah. So I said- [laughs]... "Okay." I went back to my recruiter. I said, "You know what? 33:17 Um, I was really looking forward to going home and see my girlfriend when I got outta here, but now that's not an option for me." I said, "What full-time opportunities do you have?" And she's like, her eyes, eyes lit up. 33:28 She's like... It was like the best day of her, of her year, right, when I said that. So she's like, "Okay, let's get you signed up." 33:35 So then, instead of only being, um, active reserve, which is basically a, a weekend commitment and two weeks a year, right? I went full active duty. 33:45 And I said, "Okay, let me get into a good job that I'm gonna like, that I'm gonna have fun doing." Mm. 33:51 Um, it doesn't have to be mechanical, it doesn't have to be technical, um, but it's gonna be a, a good job field for me in the military. Mm. So, um, did that. 34:03 Then I, I got my permanent duty, uh, orders and I went to, uh, Mayport Florida. Was my only duty station. I only had one duty station my entire career. 34:13 I was in for five years, and that was the USS Saratoga CV-60, which is one of the last of the conventional carriers to be decommissioned back in '95, I think they decommissioned it. 34:25 So anyways, um, so this was like '89 to '94 era. Um, Desert Shield, Desert Storm became a thing- Mm... right, a year later, right? We deployed over there. 34:37 Uh, a- another thing talking about the media, so they're all descending on us. I mean, we got CNN, ABC, NBC- Mm... CBS, you know, any news outlet you could think of, Fox- Sure... 34:47 right, descending on us, on us as we're deploying. And of course- Yeah... they give us a script. We have to stick to the script. We have to say, "Okay, this is why we are," which was not far from the truth. Because, 34:59 uh, what a lot of people don't know about military deployments is, especially after a ship comes out of a, a, a shipyard maintenance, right? Mm. Their deployments are scheduled way far out in advance. 35:10 We're talking like 18 to 24-month cycles, right? Mm. Mm-hmm. So it had already been pre-scheduled. It was, um, interesting the way it lined up with the way Kuwait got invaded. A week later we're deploying. 35:24 All this media's descending on us. We have to deflect, and then boom, away we go, right? 35:30 And so we didn't actually know, we didn't actually know our purpose until the last aircraft hit the aircraft carrier, that we picked them up off the coast of Virginia. Wow. 35:41 And then our captain came on and gave us our orders, and it was, you know, to deploy to, uh, to go help out over there. So, um, enjoyed a illustrious five-year career. 35:52 That was also during the time the military was doing a big drawdown on the forces, so if you didn't make rank within a certain period of time in service- Mm-hmm... then you were discharged, so. Mm-hmm. 36:01 Um, but I had my son, um, out of the military- Wow... which is a beautiful thing. I actually extended my time so he could be born while I was still in the military, 'cause that was- Mm-hmm... a big benefit- Right... 36:13 um, to have children in the military, especially from a cost savings perspective, right? Definitely. And, um, yeah, that was it. I was an aircraft director, and so I was part of the aircraft handling crew. 36:23 So if you ever see in any movies or whatever the people that are walking on, along the side of the aircraft by the, by the tires, right? Mm-hmm. Um, I was part of that crew. 36:34 So I started off as a blue shirt, which was, uh, wing walking. Um, then tr- uh, graduated from there up to a tractor driver, and then from there an aircraft director, so. Beautiful. 36:46 And I, I don't know if you mentioned the branch. Is this Air Force or Army or? Oh, I'm sorry, it was US Navy. I, I mentioned the ship. Oh, Navy. 36:52 [laughs] I mentioned the ship thinking people would get the inference that it was- No... the Navy, but no... worries. For sure. It was the US Navy. Okay. US Navy. Navy. Hi, there. Navy. Yeah, because- Yeah... 37:02 depending on the branch is definitely will determine how different your experience has been. Well, it could have been the Navy or the Marines, to be fair. Oh, wow. 37:09 Yeah, I heard Marines is the way to go if you really wanna tough it out. [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] That's what they say anyway. If you really wanna take yourself seriously, you join the Marines. 37:17 But no, I, I definitely respect all branches of the military. My dad was previously Army, served for 20 plus years. Nice. Retired, you know. He's all about houses now and whatever. 37:27 But even before that, he was in investments, and he was self-employed. Mm-hmm. He was a financial advisor. You know, he got out about eight and a half years. He had me, had most of the kids, you know. 37:36 Helped the military pay for all the kids' stuff, right? When- Yep... and then after that, you know, he was like, "All right, I'm just get, gonna get out, start my own business." Having children's expensive. It is. 37:45 But luckily it's a lot easier- Yeah... when you do it through the military, right? They pay for a lot of- It is that... that stuff. So that, he took advantage of that. 90% of the cost reduction. Yes. 37:52 90% cost reduction, yes. Definitely. Definitely took advantage of that. He was a smart man, still is. 37:57 And he got into financial planning, did that for about 13 and a half years and then, you know, the recession hit in '08, '09, decided to get back into the military. No, and blockchain was born. Right? 38:07 And then blockchain was born. He didn't, he ended up- [laughs]... not getting into blockchain, unfortunately. I wasn't even into blockchain that much. Oh, man. 38:13 But I know, just imagine if I would've started investing in Bitcoin in 2008, 2009. Isn't that when Bitcoin started, the inception? 2009, yeah. 2009. Yeah, Bitcoin. 38:23 2009 is when Bitcoin became, Bitcoin network became publicly accessible. Publicly. Right after the white- So you could actually... Where could you buy Bitcoin, though, in 2009? Did you have to go- I don't know. 38:32 I don't even know. Oh. All I remember about that era is I was working a, I was working, uh, for a company. Yeah. And I saw online they were talking about it, and I saw the Time Magazine article. Mm. 38:44 And the Time Magazine article had this character on the face with, you know, like that, um, the, the mask they use in, like, um, in, like, drama plays or whatever that's, like, the, the unknown character mask, right? Mm. 38:59 Mm-hmm. I just see, like, this picture of this character on there with this mask, and it's talking about Bitcoin, and it says- Hmm... "Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?" Or something like that, something to that effect. 39:11 I don't know, I'm not saying that's a direct quote from the Time- [laughs]... Magazine article. [laughs] But basically that's what it was. They were trying to figure out what Bitcoin was all about. Right. Yeah. 39:20 And do we still, do we know who Satoshi is? Like, I, I, I still don't know. Anonymous. Anonymous is his name. Still anonymous. Identity's never been revealed. Really? 39:27 People are debating to this day whether that person is actually still alive or not. Right, right. There's a lot of speculation that they've passed away- Mm... 39:35 but they got all this wallet holding all this Bitcoin from the original, like, the original epoch of Bitcoin that's sitting out there that's never moved. Oh, hey. Right? [laughs] I don't know. We'll see. 39:48 I don't know either. We'll see. Um- I mean, a lot of people have stepped forward and say, "I am Satoshi Nakamoto. I am Satoshi Nakamoto." Right. But it's not. Right. There was a documentary. 39:57 Wasn't there a documentary about Satoshi, like, a year ago? Yeah, there was a documentary, but I- People were talking about it... yeah, but I- On crypto. I remember people... I think that was proven false. Um- Yeah... 40:03 one of the best ones that I saw was this meme- Mm... that said Satoshi was the first two letters from Sam- Samsung. Oh. Right? Okay. First two letters from Toshiba, right? Okay. So- Toshi, and then Hitachi. 40:19 So it's, like, all these Southeast Asian companies. Mm-hmm. Take the first two letters of each of their names it, uh, all end up to Satoshi. I think it was Samsung- It, it-... Toshiba, and Hitachi... could be. Okay. 40:31 I could see that. Could be. I could... But it could also be a coincidence. I think different companies are in it. I don't know. Huh? I, I said it could also be a coincidence. You know, a lot of Japanese names- Yeah. 40:41 I think it is. Of course. I think it is. Yeah, yeah... are kind of very closely, loosely- Mm-hmm... kind of based on the same... Like, I, I- Yeah... don't know the language personally. I would love to learn Japanese. 40:49 I honestly, I'm planning- Me too. I know, seriously. I'm planning- My cousin, my cousin was fluent. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And that brings me up to another great question. 40:58 I'm planning to be in Japan later this year with my partner, hopefully moving there full time. What would you recommend, let's say, for people that want to escape the US, what countries have you been to? 41:11 I feel like you've been to quite a few countries. You're already in Mexico. 41:14 What, what other countries outside of the US do you think that you would, I don't know, that you would like to go to, that, or that you have been already? 41:22 And kinda what advice would you give maybe the next wave of digital nomads wanting to do this- Sure... kind of lifestyle? Sure. 'Cause, you know, a lot of people in crypto want that lifestyle, so kinda break that down. 41:32 Right. Exactly. Exactly. So I will say traveling abroad nowadays- Mm... is a lot different than what it was- Mm... say, 35 years ago. Mm. Right? When I was traveling abroad in the military, right? 41:44 It's a lot different landscape. Um, so recently... I've only been to Mexico. Um, this is my second time in Mexico. The first time I was in Mexico in 2024- 41:55 To speak at a conference in Tulum called Tulum Crypto Fest, which is a really cool conference setting, because- I wanna go. [laughs] Imagine a conference, imagine conference at the beach. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's fun. 42:07 I wanna go so bad. I wanted to go so badly. Yeah. You gave me FOMO. [laughs] Yeah. I don't know if they're... I don't know when they're gonna do it again, but, uh- Well, let me know. Let me know. 42:13 It's a- I wanna speak there. [laughs] Yeah, yeah. I wanna know if I can speak. If you can find a, if you can find an industry event at the beach, I mean- Yeah... that's your best bet. In a tropical area, you know. 42:21 Sign me up. [laughs] Um, so what advice can I give? Well, one, make sure, you know, you manage your finances, right? Mm-hmm. Because depending on where you go, depending on the city you are- Yeah... 42:32 um, it, it could be relatively similar to the environment you're coming from, right? Mm. Also, I'll also say as a word of encouragement is once you get outside of your domiciled area, so say you live in the US- Mm... 42:46 uh, or say like in Europe, uh, those places and those airports, because of the, uh, taxes that they generate revenue on airline tickets, right? Right. Uh, it can be pretty costly. 42:59 But find deals, uh, look for deals online. Yeah. Uh, once you get outside of the country, it's fairly easy and fairly budget-friendly to be able to travel to most places you wanna go. Mm-hmm. 43:12 Um, so that's a bit of advice to starting the digital nomad life. Yeah. But make sure you're well-funded. 43:17 If you're not well-funded, make sure you're setting yourself up for like remote opportunities that you can do while you're traveling, right? Right. 43:25 There's a lot of them out there, especially for content creators, especially in the creator economy. If you're monetizing yourself outside of the social media construct, right? Mm. 43:34 That's another great way to supplement that and, and make sure that you're well-funded, because the last thing you wanna do is you travel abroad and, or you're living the digital nomad life, and then you run out of money, right? 43:46 And then you're like, "Ah, help." What do I, what do I do? Help me. But also- I'm stuck. [laughs] Also I would say, yeah, also I'd say lean into your network. Mm. 43:55 Because your network, especially if you have digital nomads in your network, they're probably gonna be your best resource for advice. Mm. 44:01 They're gonna give you travel tips, they're gonna give you, um, just all kinds of different things that you can tap into. Yeah. And then depending on your network and the complexity of the humans in your network, 44:14 sometimes they'll host you, right? And they'll be like, "Hey, just come here. I'll host you. I'll, I'll take care of you. 44:20 I'll make sure your, you know, your needs are met, your basic needs are met, and, uh, we're gonna have a good time." Right? Oh, that's helpful. So, yeah, just that. 44:28 Countries I wanna go to, I haven't seen, I mean, there's a big expansive world that I haven't seen. I've only been to Southern Europe, a little bit of the Middle East- Okay... 44:37 um, a little bit of Northern Africa, and now- Okay... Latin America. Yeah. So there's a whole wide world out there to explore, uh- Definitely... with South America, because I love the culture, right? Mm. 44:50 Like, like the first time I was ever in Mexico, which is way back when I was still in, in the Navy- Mm-hmm... um, I just fell in love with the culture, right? Mm-hmm. 45:00 And then I started doing research on the heritage of the culture, and just absolutely just was enamored by it, right? Um, but also Africa, I definitely want to make a trip to the African continent at some point. 45:12 And because of the network connectivity we have right now with Cave Media and the programs that we have, we have that connectivity to where I could go to Africa, I know I'd be safe, right? 45:24 I know people would take care of me, and I know that, um, my best, my best interests, uh, as far as basic needs would be put forward, so. 45:33 That's amazing, and it's great to have that, you know, safety and security when you're traveling- Yeah. Like-... and knowing. 45:39 [laughs] 'Cause when you don't know, oh my gosh, you have fear, you have anxiety, what am I gonna do? You have no plan, right? And you always need to have a plan, especially when you're traveling. Exactly. Seriously. 45:50 And I absolutely love that you have connections in Africa. I've never been to Africa before. I'll have to hit you up next time I go. Um- Yeah... I've been forming a lot of them over the years. 45:57 [laughs] But I'm also, what I wanna say, that's synergistic that you're gonna be in Japan later this year, because- That's the plan... I'm also looking at being in Japan. Oh, no way. Been before. For a conference, or? 46:08 Yeah. Okay. Which one? ETH Tokyo. Yes. Yes. In September, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's the one I'm looking at as well. 46:17 I'm thinking about, I'm gonna do the visa tourist one for three months, or up to three months, get that visa. Yeah. And just do we're thinking August, September, October, or maybe September, October, November. 46:28 We're not sure yet. Right. So me and my partner- Well, there's also-... are still trying to assess. But Japan's lovely. I've been to Japan, and this will be my second time going technically, so. Okay. 46:36 I wanna hit that conference. I've never been, um, but I did, um, connect to somebody at ETHDenver at a side event who is actually having a two-week residency program immediately following ETH Tokyo, so. 46:49 Oh, like a, like a artist- Yeah. I'll get the info. Like an artist residency, or what kind of residency? Um, I think it's more just like a developer residency. Oh. Okay. Yeah. So you have to like know code and stuff? 46:59 I don't know. Yeah, which I don't. [laughs] I don't either. I, that's what I'm saying. It's third gen. It's like what kind of residency? Because I love artist residencies. I've been looking into them. Yeah. 47:08 Content creation residencies. Yes. I'm sure that's a thing. By the way, do we w- yeah. Well, it is a thing, right? Because we're part of a- Yeah... upcoming cohort. Yes. Right? We are. We are. Yeah, absolutely love that. 47:20 On Chain Media. Yes. Yeah. On Chain Media, the, the creators program, which I'm still excited to hear from Rachel. I know she's trying to catch up, right? Everyone's trying to catch up after ETHDenver. Sure. 47:30 But I'm excited to see how it unfolds and to see how- Yeah... everything kinda plays out, because I've been following Rachel for a while. Actually, that's a great segue into On Chain Media. 47:39 We can talk about them a little bit, because I feel like they have a very, very high interest in what creators are doing on the blockchain, specifically on Base, right? They're very focused on the Base chain. Yeah. 47:52 Interviewing. I know Rachel runs a podcast, and she also- Mm-hmm... does the Spaces, and I don't think she does too much TikTok Live, but mostly I've seen her on X and then also, um, doing her podcast. 48:03 And she's been highlighted through NBC, MSNBC. Like she's, she's won all these awards and everything, and I was like, "Whoa, I need to interview her." 48:10 And she was actually one of my guests that I was supposed to interview at the Podcast Lounge, Will, but she canceled on me last minute- Oh. Oh, gee... 48:18 because she said she had podcast issues with herself with her own podcast that she was trying to record next to the unicorn.eth booth. Right. I don't know if you saw that. She was trying to do her own thing with Bridget. 48:28 Yeah, yeah. So I guess, I don't know, she had some technical hiccups. Anyway, she had to cancel on me last minute, and I was like I was so bummed out. I was like, "I really wanted to interview you, Rachel." 48:38 Don't feel bad, don't feel bad. I- So you see this banner behind me, right? I do. Right? Yes. I had her booked for a session twice on Camp M Talks, and it still has not happened yet. Oh, okay. She- She's just busy... 48:49 I don't know. She's just busy. I don't know, man, because I feel like it's, like, priorities, too. Maybe she doesn't like to be interviewed. Like... [laughs] Well, this has given her a platform to speak- I know... 48:59 about what she's passionate about for 10 minutes. Right? Right? Oh my God, I don't know. I don't know. I just need 10 minutes of your time, Rachel. Can you carve out 10 minutes for me? She's, she's a hustler, though. 49:09 She- But- Always... but talking about her career- Hmm... as a media personality- Yeah... and a broadcaster, and a podcaster, I mean- She's very good at it... I first met her back in 2023, right? Really? 49:20 And back then- Doing what? On Spaces or what? Where did you meet her? No, she was not... Well, at East Denver. Oh, at the conference. And- Okay, okay, cool... 49:26 and that's back when she was working for Opulous, so she didn't have any aspirations. And I tried to pull her away and say- Interesting... 49:32 "Hey, let's shoot a quick video," whatever, and then she's like, she's like, "No, I'm too busy, I gotta take care of all these people," da-da-da. Sure. She's like, "How about this? I'll catch up with you later." 49:40 So I c- saw her in passing, and I said, "Hey Rachel, how about that video?" She's like, "Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it." Yeah. So did you, did you do it? Yeah, we did it. How did it go? It's in the archives of X. 49:53 It went great. Oh my gosh. You have to tag me- I mean, it was just a short little- I wanna see it... like, 10-second video. I'll have to- Okay... find it, 'cause it's actually pretty- Find it for me. I wanna see it... 50:01 I don't know if it's still on platform. I might have it in my archives 'cause I download my- I gotta... I wanna see it... 50:06 I do that, like, frequently, so- 'Cause I've never seen her actually being interviewed for anything. She's always a person interviewing others. Sure, sure. 50:13 So this is why I'm so interested in kind of how- Nah, here, I'm spilling all the tea without her permission. She's gonna get mad at me now. [laughs] That's okay. Don't worry about it. It's cool. 50:22 She'll be like, "Will- It's fine... Will, you're fired as a friend." No, she'll be like, "Oh, it's Crypto Fam Radio." All right, it's cool. It's cool. He's a cool guy. I bet. [laughs] No, no. I'm just playing. 50:31 It's all right. 50:32 But no, same, you know, with work colleagues, yeah, I think I told you before, the two most highly eff- influential people that I have met in Spaces is Rachel being one, and then Crypto Empress being the other one. 50:43 These two ladies have- Oh... highly influenced me in trying to be better in the form of educating people, inspiring them, and also entertaining them, right? With... That's how- Mm-hmm... 50:53 Crypto Fam Radio was formed, and I've just learned so many... Like, they've both been mentors in my life. 50:57 So it's, like, to see you, or to hear you say that about Rachel, that, that just warms my heart, that you were able to kinda just nab her for 10 seconds. But regardless, regardless, like, I wanna see that- Yeah... 51:09 because, like I said, I do not see too many interviews of Rachel, um, Alba- Right... even Crypto Empress. And I'm like, "Crypto Empress, why don't you get interviewed more?" And she's like, "Uh, you know"- Right... 51:18 "She, she, she, she throws something at me that's kind of like, uh, whatever. Like, I'm not that interesting," blah, blah. I'm like, "Girl, you're way interesting. People wanna hear your story." 51:28 And she actually opened up to me in private about some issues that she had to work through in her life, and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, this is huge, Crypto Empress. Just imagine if people heard this side of you, this story." 51:39 And she's like, "I know"- Mm-hmm... "but it's just, like, I don't... You know, I don't wanna talk about that." And I'm like, "Okay, okay." Right. "We can talk about whatever you wanna talk about." You're like... 51:47 And, and I was actually, full, full disclosure, I was supposed to interview her for the podcast as well at the podcast launch at East Denver, but she had to cancel as well last minute 'cause she was running late- Oh my goodness... 51:57 on a business meet. So it just... I'm just saying, as much as I love both of these ladies, and they've been [laughs] wonderful, they both canceled on me, all right? And this is facts, all right? I'm not... 52:07 This isn't opinion. I still love them both to death, you know. They're still mentors in my life, but I'm like, come on, you know? But I'm just so glad I got Jenna X to show up, you know? 52:16 And I actually met her at the XRP event- Oh, there you go... and she's like... 52:19 Oh my gosh, like, when we connected at this XRP event, at this F1 arcade or whatever, I don't know if you went to that side event or not, the XRP event. No. No, I didn't. Oh. Oh, man, it was huge. I love XRP events. 52:32 Was it? They are amazing, Will. If you try to... If you get a chance next time for the next conference, go to an XRP side event 'cause they treat you good, Will. They treat you good. Right. They have the best swag. 52:43 They had a freaking ice sculpture of, of the X sign, right? Wow. They had, like, this AI robotic arm. They took a photo of you, and then this AI basically created an image of you right there on a piece of paper, Will. 52:55 And then you were, you were handed that image. They had, like, another station where you basically etched your name on these little, um, these little, um, scarfs that they were giving out that was XRP. Oh, K- Kingfish. 53:07 Oh, okay. [laughs] You just left me, bro. Wow, didn't even call. Dude. All right, all right. Should I keep talking? Should I be patient? I'll, I'll just wait 'cause I don't know if you're... 53:18 [laughs] You know this is pre-taped, Will. I'm not gonna cut this out. [laughs] It must have been a very important call. I'm gonna grab some water real quick. One second. 53:40 Yeah, we're totally gonna cut this out. Yep. Must've been an important call. You have it? Oh, are you back? No. Not yet. Yeah, I'm back. Am I back? I don't see you. Video. Okay, there we go. 53:54 It must have been an important call. I said mute. [laughs] Uh, no, it was, uh, it was an important biological break. How about that? I got you. No worries. You don't have to go into detail. TMI, TMI. 54:03 Um, but basically- Okay, anyways... [laughs] basically... Oh, man, I, I forgot my train of thought now. You lost my train of thought. What, what were we talking about? I'm so sorry. 54:13 Uh, you were talking about Rachel, you were talking about Jenna, you were talking about Crypto Empress. Oh, Jenna X. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, in the- And Jenna X, and XRP events... XRP event. 54:20 We were talking about XRP events. That's right. They had the base- the best food, the best swag, and honestly, the best people in a lot of ways. Like, they're a close-knit community, you know? 54:28 They've been around for a long time, XRP. Before Ethereum started- Long enough... yeah, before Ethereum start- I'll come there... right, before Ethereum started, it was XRP. Ripple. Yeah, it was Ripple. Yeah. 54:37 Yeah, it was two years before E- well, before Ethereum launched So I was like- Yeah... you know they've got great events. There's Bitcoin, then there was XRP. I think Litecoin was mixed in there somewhere too. Oh, yeah. 54:47 Before Ethereum also. That's right. There's like- Litecoin came around the same time... Bitcoin, there was like Litecoin, there was XRP, then there, I think there was Ethereum. Right. Right. Yeah. 54:56 So actually, this is a great segue too. Why don't you walk me through your blockchain experiences? What chains did you start getting involved in first? Yeah, sure. Um, what did you get in later? 55:06 Tell me about your blockchain experience, yeah. [laughs] Yeah. So, um, first and foremost, like I said earlier, uh, when I first came in, blockchain research, or not necessarily blockchain researcher, I would say cryp- 55:21 excuse me, crypto market researcher, right? Mm-hmm. So we had, we had some pre-formed information that came out of a, um, that came out of a, a newsletter subscription that my mentor, 55:34 because he was a big finance guy, he found value in these newsletter subscriptions, the information it contained. So he got one related to cryptocurrencies, started doing the research. Mm-hmm. Uh, Chainlink, uh, Cardano. 55:47 Um, I don't know if you attended the BankerBot 0x Protocol event. No. But, um, 0x Protocol used to have a, 55:55 a, uh, coin back in the day called ZRX, uh, which is now their governance token 'cause it has no monetary value, uh, 'cause somebody stripped out all the liquidity from it. Who knows what happened there. Um, so- Wow... 56:07 it was ones like that. I was really looking at ones that added, and we were looking at ones that added real world value at the time. Mm-hmm. And now we're talking about RWAs and RWIs, right? 56:17 So real world assets- Mm-hmm... making real world impact, right? So we're still talking about that to this day and it's still relevant. Mm-hmm. 56:23 So early on, it was kind of like vetting out the ones that were small micro caps that had a chance to pop and run in the next bull cycle, right? Because we were just coming off the Black Swan event- Mm-hmm... 56:34 on the financial drawdown because of the, uh, pandemic that occurred. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, C-19 as I call it. Um, but from there, everything was just starting to percolate back up. Mm-hmm. 56:49 You know, upward trajectory, right? Uh, the first network that I actually connected with, that I actually did ac- activity on was Ethereum network. Um- Mm-hmm... 57:00 did a little bit of activity on Polygon, uh, not a whole lot. Mm-hmm. 57:04 Um, but now, you know, it's being chain agnostic, fast-forward to today, um, we have at KF Media, I mean, we have our education passports on like 10 different chains. 57:15 Uh, most of them are based on the EVM modeling and the EVM ecosystem, so the Ethereum virtual machine, right? But- Mm-hmm... you know, being chain agnostic. 57:25 And the way we analyze chains and the work that we do on a chain and what we release on a chain is, "What purpose does this serve us to be on this chain?" Right? Mm-hmm. That's the first question we ask ourselves. 57:36 If we say, "If we're gonna deploy on this chain, what purpose does this serve us to be on this chain? What is the benefits of being on this chain?" Mm-hmm. 57:44 "And putting product on this chain or, you know, deploying code?" We don't have a dev shop yet, but we have aspirations to have one. So if we push code, what's gonna be the value add to us first of being on this chain? 57:56 Uh, what does the network connectivity look like? And then what's the value add to the chain of what we can produce, right? Mm-hmm. Um, so that's our initial analysis that we look at. 58:06 Um, a lot of it, um, with our last mid cycle, um, with the education passports, um, came through like, "Oh yeah, we wanna be on this chain because it does this," right? 58:17 Because maybe it does a certain type of privacy, right? So we want people to kind of tap into that narrative. Uh, because at the end of the day, we're putting forth, you know, education, right? Right. 58:29 So we want people to learn about those different aspects. Uh, it could have been, hey, a community member or a, a colleague recommended it because they're on that chain. 58:39 So we're like, "Okay, we're gonna cater to you and put maybe a smaller amount of product on a, on your chain that you can socialize in your community to get people to get excited about what we're doing," right? Mm-hmm. 58:48 So, um, we've kind of drifted away from that, and that's why we're so prevalent. I mean, on chain agnostic anyways. Right. 58:56 I believe in, I believe, you know, in the, the network aspect of it, the value of the network, uh, over the value of the financial implications, right? Right. Um, and believe in the long-term value. So, um, 59:11 right now we've kind of trimmed it down to two primary chains that we're producing activity on. Base, like you said, uh, because of the support for content creators, one. Mm-hmm. 59:22 Uh, we have this program, like I said, behind me, another shameless plug for KFM Talks. Yes. Um. Where does it say streamlines course creation, right? Is that what it says? Yeah. 59:32 Streamlines course- Streamlines course creation, yeah... a- and why don't you get more into that? Let's pursue- Yeah, get into more of that- Yeah, we'll, we'll do that... what you guys are doing. 59:38 So right now, primarily- Yeah. [laughs] Yeah. Primarily we're on Base- Okay... and we're on Celo. Celo. The reason why we're on Celo, because there's a lot of... So Celo was a layer one- Okay... 59:49 that became a layer two and part of the super chain ecosystem. Okay? Hmm. So a lot of the public goods funding, so, comes through being on Celo. So there's great value on being on Celo. 1:00:01 Um, and because we're in the public goods ecosystem, the company itself is not a public good, but we have programs that are considered public goods, right? Mm-hmm. 1:00:10 So being in the regenerative community, being in the regenerative, um, 1:00:16 um, you know, mindset and, and basically operating a community that delivers on public goods, um, there's a lot of funding opportunities out there for us. 1:00:26 And, and we're just coming off a grants program right now that was done for, for Gitcoin Grants 24 for the public goods, uh, tooling development pilot pool, right? 1:00:37 So we're getting, uh, some funding coming from that that's gonna help us to, uh, really ramp up that program. Awesome. But you said, "Hey, why don't I talk about KFM Talks?" So let me do a real quick plug for that. 1:00:47 Yeah, do that real quick, and I've got a great follow-up question about Celo, but- Sure... yeah, go for it. Okay, no worries. So, um, KFM Talks, what is it? What does it do for people that tap into it? 1:00:59 This is our primary, um, our primary program that we're promoting through the end of this month. Mm. Right? Uh, we have a flyer out there. Uh, we're calling it Winter Edition, right? Of KFM Talks. 1:01:12 This is our third wave since we launched the program back last summer. 1:01:17 Um, what it is, it's bringing TEDx-style talks, not officially endorsed by the TEDx organization, but TEDx-style talks, in the same spirit and intent as TEDx Talks, into the Web3 ecosystem- Cool... 1:01:31 using 100% Web3 tools through and through. 1:01:35 So there's not a point in the process of the curation of the talent, of the curation of the content, of the recording of the content, of the rewards that we're distributing back to the content creators. 1:01:48 There's not a point in this program that is not, uh, that, that you'll find a tool that's not Web3, right? 1:01:55 So that's the provability aspect of it, is that we have enough tools to launch and manage and create these types of programs using nothing but Web3 tooling. 1:02:05 We don't need to be reliant on Web2 tooling if we don't want to, right? Um, so that's the thing. Winter Edition, we have an alumni group of 22. Actually, Rachel's one of those alums, um, as we spoke about earlier. 1:02:17 Um, so we have an alumni group of 22. Uh, we've got five of them that have already, uh, recorded, and we've published their content. Um, so all it is for them, they come into the studio, we record a session. 1:02:32 We take it from there, right? Mm. We give them the raw, we give them the final. Then they can repurpose it however they wanna do. 1:02:42 Then we push it out onto our marketplace on highlight.xyz, and we protect the content, right? 1:02:50 So we put a Creative Commons license on it, uh, the most stringent out there, so this way, if it needs to be relicensed, we can relicense it on a lower license to protect the content creator's content so that it cannot be manipulated for usage that it's not intended to. 1:03:06 But these talks are designed to be inspiring, um, maybe motivational, impactful talks where content creators, like we were talking about speaking, my best advice for speaking, speak from your passion, speak from your heart. 1:03:19 That's exactly what they're doing. So they're coming into a comfortable, safe setting. They're speaking from their heart. They're speaking what they're passionate about. We take care of everything after the recording. 1:03:29 We do a, a, you know, three to five, uh, three to five-day run-up until the launch of their talk. We take a s- a short-form media. 1:03:39 We take, like, the best, you know, 60 seconds, best 90 seconds, best two minutes, whatever. Uh, we use that in our promotion. Um, but we also, to go one step further, we also put it out on Base App, right? 1:03:51 So we put out that, that little teaser video on Base App, and then we take, when that is created on Base App, uh, 90% of those coins that are created on that original post, we give that back to the content creator, right? 1:04:07 Mm. And then as they're generating revenue, as we're getting sell-through on their talks, they're gonna get, uh, 80% or better of the royalties coming off of that. Wow. That's huge. That's beautiful. I love it. 1:04:21 So y- is it a program, or do creators have to apply somehow? It's a program. How do you get involved? Okay. Okay. Oh, yeah. It's a program. 1:04:27 Uh, we've got a flyer out there right now on our X account, on KF Media's X account. Uh- Okay... and it, it says KFM Talks Winter Edition. Okay. Three pieces of information, right? 1:04:37 We all know how, like, big corporates, "Data mining, data mining. We're gonna take all your data. We're gonna manipulate it for our benefit," right? Right. Right. 1:04:46 Only three pieces of information, and not all of it has to be, like, accurate. Mm-hmm. Some of it could be anon. So name, which can be anon. What cannot be anon is your 0x wallet address, and then an email. Okay. 1:05:00 An email so we can keep in touch with you. That's it. Not very extractive at all, not very invasive at all. Right. 1:05:06 And then, um, and then in the, on the, uh, on the event page that, where it says location, that link will be a direct link into the Telegram group that's already been established for this program. 1:05:20 So you can meet your other cohorts that are part of this program. Very cool. I may just have to apply. Yeah. 1:05:26 So when you're doing these talks, how long are the talks usually, and do you have them, like, with a prompt to get them started? Between seven to 15 minutes. Okay. No. I just let them freeflow. 1:05:35 They're, they're the content creator, right? Mm-hmm. They're, they've got full, um, freedom to talk about whatever they want. Now, the one thing that we don't wanna do, so I do wanna set the tone for this. Sure. 1:05:48 We don't want it to be a promotional video, right? See, that's what I was getting at. Yeah. I was like, how- Yeah... yeah. Yeah, yeah. So that's the one caveat to it. Mm-hmm. 1:05:56 We want it to be to where people are gonna be inspired by what you have to say. That's really the spirit and intent behind the program. Got you. 1:06:05 So it's more about the person, maybe their trials and tribulations that they've gone in through their, in their own life that they- Yeah... talk about to get them to- Yeah... where they're at now or something like that. 1:06:16 Well, you met Jimmy. Yes. You met Jimmy at the dinner. Yes, I did. Okay. So we have a talk out there that Jimmy did. Okay. And he, and his, uh, his passion that he wanted to talk about on his recorded talk- Mm... 1:06:28 was how to unlock unstoppable motivation. Mm. And maximize your personal impact. Yeah. That's cool. So stuff like that. We had another one. Um, like Drew Simon came on from Crypto Altruism- Mm-hmm... Podcast. 1:06:44 I don't know if you've ever heard th- his podcast or not. No, I haven't. But he came on, and he was talking about how decentralization did not start with blockchains, right? That's interesting. Yeah. That is interesting. 1:06:56 Yeah. I'd like to know. [laughs] Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's a pro- That, that's, that's a nice, yeah, that's a nice question. I'm like, "Okay- Yeah... I wanna know the answer. 1:07:03 I wanna hear his talk now," you know? So no- Right... that's, that's great. I love that. 1:07:07 So yeah, uh, for those who want more information about how to get involved with, uh, what Will is doing, I absolutely love that initiative that you've started. And, and how long has this been going on 1:07:18 that the- It's been going on since last June is when we launched the program. Last June. And how long... Like, is this program indefinitely, or do you have a cutoff? 1:07:27 Like, how long or- Yeah, no, I, no, I, I mean, I mean- Is it gonna go-... we, we cut... Yeah, we cut it off for the curation of the talent phase. Mm. Okay. 1:07:35 Um, but then it, and we try to get them booked in the studio in a timely fashion. Uh, but we all know we're busy. We all have busy schedules out here, right? Mm. Yeah. In the ecosystem. 1:07:45 So we all are balancing different aspects of our daily- Right... lives in the ecosystem, so we're pretty understanding with that. Um, so yeah, this cohort will cut off on the 14th of March. Got you. 1:07:56 Uh, so in about 12 days that form will close. We won't take any more open interest- Oh... for the program, but then we'll work in the background to get everybody's schedule and get them recorded. 1:08:06 This is a cyclical, uh, seasonal, uh, event that we're doing. Okay. Now, we're not always gonna be forward focused on promoting this as our primary promotional piece- Sure... 1:08:16 of our marketing strategy, but it's always gonna be there. It's quarterly. We run it quarterly. We take one month, uh, typically. Now, this, this cohort we got started a little bit late. Mm. 1:08:27 We usually take one month for the open interest, one month to book the recordings, and then one month to, to promote and publish the recordings. Got you. Got you. 1:08:38 So, and it's all to highlight these creators doing amazing work in just blockchain or any kind of- Well, we publish them through Highlight. We publish them through- Through Highlight. Okay. Okay. Got you. 1:08:47 Through highlight.xyz. Highlight.xyz. Are you familiar? I'm not. Would you mind sharing a little more about Highlight? Yeah. 1:08:53 So the value, so I actually learned about this in the Creator Fight cohort that I was in that Rachel Wilkins hosted that was funded by BASE. So shout out to you, Rachel Wilkins. I love you, girl. [laughs] Uh-huh. 1:09:03 Anyways, uh, Tony Hawk came in- Ooh... and he introduced us to highlight.xyz. Cool. Highlight.xyz is a no-code smart contract deployer that you can deploy on several different chains. We choose BASE- Mm... 1:09:18 for the deployment of this. Um, you do have to keep your video size under 50 megs, but if it is over, you can get, uh, you know, there's video compressors out there that don't degrade the, the content, right? Right. 1:09:30 Or the quality of the content. Right. 1:09:32 So you have to make sure that it's compressed down to 50 megs, but the value add is instead of it writing to IPFS, right, it writes Arweave, which A- Arweave arguably is a more secure storage solution on the blockchain, especially for content creators. 1:09:48 Mm. I didn't know that. Arweave. I, I have heard the word, but I was like, I didn't know specifically what- Yeah. I can explain... use case was. Yeah, I will. 1:09:56 I, I'd love to know- Well, most cases, IPFS had a problem before where, like, the actual content, content itself- Yeah... was stored on an AWS server. Oh, yeah. So. Yeah. Everything kind of starts on AWS, I feel. 1:10:09 Um, but I wanna go back to Celo. I know that we've- Yeah, Celo... been talking. It's Celo. Sorry. Um, so I'm, I'm not- No, that's the one... familiar with the blockchain, um, that one specifically. Sure. 1:10:18 Would you mind talking more about Celo and why you're so integrated on that blockchain specifically, why you're so bullish on it? Yeah, no problem. So Celo, um, I don't know, like, the early beginnings of Celo. 1:10:31 I don't know the origin story per se. Right. But because we participate in a lot of conversations that are centered around public goods- Mm-hmm... what are public goods? 1:10:42 Public goods are usually goods and services that traditionally have been provided by governments, right? Mm. That are non-rivalrous. Um, there's an unlimited supply of them, and they're inclusive, right? 1:10:55 But as we've seen in our, uh, current society, the way governments have not been in support of, of their constituents as they should have been- Mm-hmm... 1:11:04 um, now we have independent public goods organizations developing, right? Mm-hmm. 1:11:09 So basically they create something that's for the good, general good of the public, that's non-rivalrous, that's inclusive, and that has an unlimited supply. So when you think about clean water, right? 1:11:21 That's an example of a public good, having clean water. So when you have these people working on these clean water projects, right? Right. Water purification, things like that. There you go. Desalination. Um, you know. 1:11:32 It's a public good. That, yeah, that is basically a public good. Uh, education is a public good, right? Right. Right. Education is a public good. It is. Yeah. 1:11:41 Um, so with that being said, as we're traveling through this, we started learning more and more about Celo. 1:11:47 Now, in the history of blockchains, uh, there was this blockchain that was spun up called PGN, or Public Goods Network. Mm-hmm. 1:11:54 And that ended up being unattainable and non-sustainable after several months of trying to operate it, right? Mm-hmm. So then they took it down. 1:12:04 Uh, you know, you were able to get all your assets if you had assets on there off that blockchain. 1:12:09 And then Celo came to the forefront as being, like, the most supportive blockchain for public goods, projects and organizations. 1:12:17 So that's the rationale between, behind why we're using Celo because we're expanding that footprint, uh, on Celo because we're so heavily involved in those conversations. Because ultimately it's gonna lead to what? 1:12:31 Better network connectivity, higher levels of funding, um, more recognition for the work that we're doing from a, uh, merit, meritri- uh, boy. Words are- Words. It's Monday [laughs] Meritocratous. It's Monday. 1:12:46 [laughs] Meritocratous. How about that? Meritocratous. Meritocratous perspective. Okay. Right? Okay. Don't know if that's a word. [laughs] So when, and those are a lot of the communities... It is a word. Okay. 1:12:55 Those are a lot of the communities that we participate in on a weekly basis- Okay... are ones, ones that are valuing- The merit of our participation. Oh, okay. That's what meritocrat is, yeah. Merit. Okay. 1:13:08 I think it's pronounced meritocracy. Mer- I think. Is that what you're saying? Okay, meritocracy. 'Cause that sounds better. That sounds more familiar. But- Okay... which is- Sure... okay, that makes sense. Okay. 1:13:19 Awesome. I love that. I love that But they're meritocratous in nature. Meritocratous in nature. So that's like a, that's like a adverb or ad- adjective to describe them, right? Adve- A meritocracy. That's right. 1:13:29 They, right, so they, they basically help you with funding, the Chain Celo. Helps you with funding, helps you getting the word out with social good. Um, they, they do have some funding programs. 1:13:36 Yeah, they do have- Okay... some funding programs. Um, they do have some programs that are specific to the blockchain. Okay. Um- As long as it has to do with public goods, basically. Mm-hmm. 1:13:46 Any type of public good they're interested in. Yeah. When it comes to education, resources, anything to do with, you know, helping- Right... the greater ecosystem, let's say Treegens. Sure. Right? 1:13:58 I'm sure Treegens- Yeah... is on Celo as well. Exactly. And what he's doing of- Yeah... of planting a billion trees or whatever in the Amazon or whatever. 1:14:05 So it's like that's what it- No, I mean, he, he, I mean, he could, yeah. I mean, yeah, he could, he could look at funding from Celo if he wanted to. For Cel- if he wanted to. Oh, oh, I thought he was already there. 1:14:13 [laughs] No, he's on Base. Oh. Treegens is on Base. Okay. Okay, they have him on Base. Okay. Treegens i- is on Base, and they're doubling down on, uh, they're doubling down on Farcaster for the, uh, social buy aspect. 1:14:25 Oh, interesting. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of people have been telling me about Farcaster, especially Eddie Denver. Denver. I need to look more into it. It's built on Base- Yeah... right, Farcaster? Is that correct? It is. 1:14:34 Okay, that's what I thought. Yeah. That's where I- It's got a blockchain behind it That's... Oh, another blockchain or, or more than one? 1:14:40 No, I mean, Far- Farcas- yeah, Farcaster has its own blockchain behind if you open up the hood. It's got a blockchain behind it. Oh. I didn't know that. 1:14:49 This is why you're able, this is why you're able to trade posts- Mm... through the Base app that's connected back to Farcaster, right? Mm-hmm. That's why you're able to do all that because there's a blockchain behind it. 1:15:00 So it's just not Base it's on, it's on its own separate blockchain you're saying. Yes, correct. Yes. Okay. That makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah. What blockchain is it? Just called Farcaster Blockchain? 1:15:09 Or- I, I, I'll have to check with one of my colleagues- Okay... finish that information later. Interesting. Um, they mentioned it. It didn't stick in my brain. Right. It's okay. 1:15:17 [laughs] But, um, I, I just know, I just know they have their own blockchain behind it, Farcaster. We can't remember everything we hear. I wish we could. Yeah. I wish I had that- Right... 1:15:24 like automatic, what is it called? Uh- Only partially photographic. That's it There we go. Partially photographic memory. See, this is why I became a professional photographer in another life, you know- Yeah... 1:15:33 to try to remember these moments. 'Cause I used to always forget too, you know? It's part of the lore of my history. Sure. But I absolutely love that. 1:15:39 I absolutely love that your mission is about public goods, and I want to go back to one of the first topics that you talked about, which we haven't really spent a lot of time, so I guess we're kind of making our way full circle here. 1:15:50 Sure. Educ- education, right? Yeah. I don't feel like we talk about education enough, or maybe we do in crypto. 1:15:57 I, I'd love to hear your perspective on just education in the US since, you know, you're from the US, what your experiences have been when you're in, you know, the vibe of trying to educate people more, just not into crypto, but also maybe in self-development and motivation. 1:16:13 Right. 'Cause I feel like you kind of target a lot of different categories, a lot of niches within your public speaking kind of, you know- Well, we, we do. Mm-hmm. 1:16:20 Yeah, we do, but we kind of distill it down to two primary curriculum tracks, right? Mm. So emerging technologies. Okay. Right? Yeah. 1:16:28 So that's all-encompassing of any emerging technology out there, blockchain, AI, IoT, which is Internet of Things, uh, quantum computing, robotics, drone piloting, whatever, right? Mm-hmm. 1:16:40 So that's all, uh, one core curriculum. The other core curriculum is because my personal passion is to improve the quality of life of people who maybe have not had an equitable opportunity to do so themselves. Mm. 1:16:54 So then we add in the layer of life skills, right? So when we're talking about financial literacy, we're talking about- Mm... emotional intelligence. We're talking about cooking skills. Mm. 1:17:03 We're talking about art if they want to tap in on art. We're talking about music. I mean, public speaking, that could be a course, right? We could do a whole course on public speaking. Really good. 1:17:13 [laughs] Give people some tips on that. We could bring you in. We could bring you in. I love it. I love it. Sign me up. Like I- We could write a course on podcasting, right? I could do a whole web- And then-... 1:17:23 or a webinar, right? [laughs] Yeah, you could do a whole webinar. You could do an eight-part masterclass. Okay. What is a podcast and why should I care, right? And why should everyone have their own? 1:17:33 [laughs] Yeah, if they want to. If they- If they want, if they're ambitious enough... I, I think they should. I think they sh- regardless, I think everyone should have their own podcast. 1:17:40 If you're a creator, you should have your own podcast. If you don't have enough time to edit it and post it and publish, you know, sign up, uh, Get Crypto Fam Media LLC to do it for you. I'm, I'm just saying. 1:17:51 I'm just saying. [laughs] Distribution. Distribution is key. I'm sure there's some costs associated with that too, though. Most content creators, you know, the, the systemic challenge right now- Mm... 1:18:01 is content creators becoming monetized. Yes. Right? Yes. That's the problem. So a lot of them don't have that startup budget. Yes. They don't have that startup budget- Where do I start?... you know, to do that, right? 1:18:12 Yeah. To hire somebody that can consult with them and advise with them. So but that's the beauty about Web3- Mm... 1:18:18 is if you build enough solid relationships, most people just offer up their time and say, "Hey, I wanna help you out." Yeah. I think that's the big reason we're doing this podcast. 1:18:26 We're helping a lot of people out just talking to each other. Just- Amen. Amen... giving so much advice. Like, I've learned so much from you already- Yeah... Will, and I'm sure- Mm... 1:18:34 you know, vice versa, and we're just kind of building on each other, right- Yeah... with these questions about what I'm learning from you, what you're learning from me, these takeaways, doing the follow-ups. 1:18:43 And back to education, if you weren't... And this is a great question I love asking for people. If you couldn't- Good... do crypto, if you couldn't do blockchain, if it didn't exist, what would you be doing today? Wow. 1:18:58 Um, I'd probably still be in corporate America. Oh, man. That sounds horrible. Working the 9:00 to 5:00 as a W2 employee. Oh my God, that sounds depressing, bro. Yeah. [laughs] It does, doesn't it? Doesn't it? 1:19:10 No, you so... [laughs] I, I wasn't expecting that answer, honestly. I, I was hoping for, like, maybe teacher. I don't know. Like, teaching something that you're passionate- I mean-... about the subject. 1:19:19 Because I feel like- Yeah, but that's-... you're a teacher. You know? You're an educator. Well, naturally. Yeah. Naturally, yes. Yeah. I would say. 1:19:25 But being an independent educator is not the same thing as being a formal education, educator. Mm. As, especially by society's standards, you still have to have that credentialing- Right... right, to support it, right? 1:19:36 Whereas here in, in Web3, in the blockchain ecosystem, I have the freedom to do whatever I want, you know, as long as it remains above board, right? Right. 1:19:44 So as long as I keep my reputation above board, we're good to go there. But what I will say- Mm... too about the education system, about- Yeah... it systemically being broken, we wanna do better. Mm. 1:19:55 We wanna create mechanisms and pathways for people, especially in developing countries in the Global South, where they can get quality education, they can learn about something new, they can be rewarded as a result of it, and they don't have to make a major financial decision about it. 1:20:15 I mean, that's the model, right? How many people- That's the model... how many people are actually adhering to that model, though? You mean, like, are implementing- Yeah, implementing... programs like we are? Yeah, yeah. 1:20:26 Operating like we are? Yeah. Not many. See? We need more people. But hey, we're breaking ground. We're breaking ground. We're becoming the example. Mm. We've used the model. 1:20:35 When a traditional educational institution says, "What are you guys doing different than we are?" Then we'll explain it to them and we'll say, "Okay, this is our model. 1:20:44 Now you can come alongside of us and support us, or you can try and go do it on your own. We're further along in the process than you are. 1:20:53 We have, you know, a lot of knowledge that we can share, a lot of wisdom and experience we've gained along the way that we can share with you. 1:20:58 So it would behoove you to come alongside of us and support us, and then we can co-work and co-create and co-collaborate together." Right. Right? Yeah. Let's go far, you know? I, I don't wanna go fast. Yeah. 1:21:12 I wanna go far, and you can only do that- Yeah... with co-collaborators, a team, right? Yeah. And I absolutely love that mindset. That's why when we set out, we, you know... 1:21:19 That's why when we set out, we set out to build this on a 20-year roadmap. Mm. JF Media itself, the company- Yeah... 20-year roadmap. Wow. What year are you on? And we're not even three years in. Okay. 1:21:32 I was gonna ask you. Yeah, yeah. So we're coming up on year three. Oh, coming up, okay, on year three. 20 years. That's... 1:21:39 Man, that makes me bullish right there that you have 20 years just mapped out, and you're just following your roadmap- Yep... each year. Yeah. 1:21:46 You know, checking it off, getting on, because it's never the destination, it's the journey, right? The process- Amen. Amen... of getting there. And once you get to those 20 years, 1:21:55 I'm gonna be like, "Oh, let's go for another 20." You know? Why not, you know? I'm having this much fun. Right. I'm having- Well-... this much fun, you know? 1:22:02 [laughs] To me, the proposition of building in the blockchain ecosystem, ar- especially around your passions- Mm... is a legacy building event, right? Mm. Um, I have seven grandchildren. Wow. Congrats. 1:22:14 I want their future- [laughs] Thank you. Thank you. And I don't even look like it. A lot of people are like, "You got seven grandchildren? You don't even look like it." Yeah. I'm like, "Yeah. Well, that's okay." 1:22:23 Um, but anyways- Good genes... that's, I, I want their legacy, I want their future- Mm... to be secured. Mm. Right? Whatever that looks like for them. Right. Right? I want their future to be secure. 1:22:34 I don't want it to be up in the air without question- Mm... 1:22:37 of like what is gonna be the pathway for them when they get old enough to start learning about these concepts outside of the traditional f- uh, educational construct. Mm. 1:22:48 I absolutely love that, and giving them the freedom to do what they want. Like- Mm... the real freedom. That's huge. Right. Without financial responsibility. Right. You're already set up. Just do what you guys love. 1:22:59 Solve those problems of tomorrow. Yeah. [laughs] Yeah. 'Cause there's always it, right? And that's the number one thing with- Solve the-... entrepreneurship... solve the challenges of tomorrow, today. There you go. 1:23:08 Right? I feel like I've heard that somewhere. Isn't that what we're doing? Yeah. I feel like that's like a slogan- I, I've heard it somewhere... some political slogan. I don't know. I don't wanna get into that. 1:23:16 [laughs] That's amazing. Um, lastly- Well-... we're kind of winding down here. I just have a few more questions- Yeah... Will, and I've had an incredible time- Got another community meeting... with you. Awesome, awesome. 1:23:25 No, I've had an incredible time too. Aw, thanks, Will. I appreciate you. But I wanna- Any time... finally kind of close with social impact, because you said that- Yeah... early on of like that's- Sure... 1:23:35 currently your, your mission, your vision with your- Yeah... your, your company, and why you built it because of the social impact. Why don't you talk to me- Yes... 1:23:43 more about social impact, specifically how you're impacting the next generation of builders in crypto? Sure. Well, I don't know necessarily we're impacting the next generation of builders. 1:23:54 We're definitely gonna be impacting the next generation of learners- Mm... about this technology. I like that. Yeah. Talk to me more about that. Right. 1:24:00 So as people get curious, as people get curious about the technology and they wanna learn more about the technology, I mean, I hear devs all the time, you know. 1:24:09 In order to get to adoption, we need to obfuscate, which means make ch- make not apparent the technology behind it. We just need to make it familiar- Mm... for people to buy into the narrative. 1:24:21 And then if they're curious about the tech, they do, right? Mm. But the technology and the participation in the technology has a lot of value. 1:24:28 So by empowering the next generation or future learners of the technology, we offer the resources, the mechanisms, and the support structure for them to accomplish that. 1:24:40 Um, as our curriculum, uh, develops, uh, and becomes more robust financially, and we are foundationally, not financially, more robust foundationally, and we have a more, um, we have a, a wider catalog of offerings, then people will be able to come into our learning center. 1:25:00 They'll be able to start thinking about career pathing, right? What do I wanna learn about? Well, I don't know much about blockchain, so I wanna do a blockchain basics course, right? Mm-hmm. And maybe I want to-... 1:25:10 become, uh, a financial advisor in this new wave of finance. So now I'm gonna take a decentralized finance course, right? Mm-hmm. And now, um... Oh, wait, uh, let me back up here a minute. 1:25:22 I didn't get my, uh, I didn't get my... Man, I missed a prerequisite. I need to go take a financial literacy course, right? Mm-hmm. So now they have all these building blocks for success, and now 1:25:35 our next iteration of our learning center will be fully on chain, right? That's part of what we're fundraising for right now is to have a fully on-chain learning center. 1:25:43 So now that's gonna be like they graduate from the basics, now they've got intermediate and advanced level instruction, right? And now they can start thinking about a career path. 1:25:53 Well, the career path then becomes very interesting because now, because we've already paved the way for them, because we have such great network connectivity, we can partner up with a mentor who's already carved that path for them so they don't have to go through all the trials and tribulations. 1:26:06 And they can learn from the mentor, and the mentor will be like, "Do this, A, B, C, D, X, Y, Z, and boom. And then from there, you know, let me know if you need any help or let me know if you need any advice." Mm-hmm. 1:26:18 Or, "I don't want you falling down," or as they call it, failing forward, although sometimes it's necessary, right? Mm-hmm. 1:26:25 But the mentor can be a guide for them to help them on a good career path, on a good income-producing journey. And then, you know, they can always come back to home base. Yeah, on base chain. [laughs] Base chain. 1:26:39 On base chain. I love that. I love that. Oh, man. Thank you so much. Yeah. Will, where can people find you- Yeah... if they would like to know more- Yeah... about what you do and how to get plugged in? Yeah. 1:26:51 So on, um, on X, me personally, my personal account is @willtsbu-. So Sierra Bravo Uniform Delta Alpha Oscar, okay? Uh, that's on X. 1:27:07 Uh, you can also find me on arena.social under the same handle. I just set up a personal Farcaster account for my own personal interest- Ooh... I'm publishing some photography out there. Ooh. 1:27:17 So that's, uh, on Farcaster, Will T of Web3. And then for the company and community, uh, you can find us @km- wait, kmllcw3 1:27:32 on X, uh, Kingfisher's Media on Farcaster, also on arena.social. That's a lot, Will. I'll, I'll definitely, uh- I know, it's a lot... my AI taking notes. Um [laughs] Good. Good. 1:27:44 Um, who, who is your- I'm gonna spell phonetically a little bit more for your AI. [laughs] Kilo Mike Lima Lima Whiskey 3. Oh, wait, I forgot the Charlie in there. Damn it. 1:27:54 I was going to throw you some quick marketing advice, Will, but you probably already know. You gotta keep things short and swi- simple and sweet and to the point, right? So you may have to just like- I do my best... 1:28:03 acronym it more- I do my best... or something. I don't know. Like, make it just five words so people will remember. [laughs] 'Cause I don't remember any of that. 1:28:10 But you know, AI did, so we're definitely gonna have all that transcripts for you- Well, and, and, and I'm all around a lot of the spaces, a lot of the time. Oh, okay. Cool. So it's pretty easy to find me too. Awesome. 1:28:19 I absolutely love that. Yeah. And then mention your website again, where people can go to. The actual website. What's the domain? Well, that's under construction right now. Oh, that's right. 1:28:27 Yeah, the website is under construction. That's right. You're still working on it. Yeah. We have a web- Gotta get that back online ASAP. [laughs] So here's the beauty of it. 1:28:32 Well, we're working with a web developer- Yeah... who's, uh, crafting his skill set for web development- Mm... who's a university student in Nigeria. Oh. Interesting. Yeah. Cool. Love that. I love that. Yeah. 1:28:45 Giving back. I love that. Sweet. Yeah. And then- Awesome. That's amazing. Well, thank you so much, Will. I had a blast. Um, really appreciate you, bud. Thank you too. I appreciate it. Yeah. Well- It's awesome, dude... 1:28:55 well, thank you, man. Um, I'm definitely going to reach out to you about those TED Talk style talks, what- Yeah... you got going on. Love to be a part of that- Yeah, definitely... program. 1:29:04 I feel like, um, I have a few inspiring words that I could share with everyone. Yeah. And, um, you know, everyone's got a story to tell at the end of the day, so. Of course. Yeah. 1:29:14 Um, I think a- anyone should try to get on board before it closes, the application process before, so. But, um- Absolutely... regardless, I love our talk today. Um, appreciate you showing up. 1:29:26 Oh, and by the way- Oh, what's up?... if I can- Yeah, totally. One more, one more plug. Sure. Go for it. So we have a s- [laughs] We have a space this Wednesday- Okay... at 1:30 Eastern- Okay... 1:29:36 called Voices of KF Media. Okay. It's gonna be a KFM Talks AMA. Okay, cool. 1:29:42 So basically you can show up to the space, you can come in, you can ask all your questions that you want about the program, how it works, how we're monetizing creator, what are the rewards programs we have set up in the background, how we're gonna be fundraising against this program so we can provide the content creators that are part of this cohort with a higher level monetization through grants or other fundraising activities. 1:30:05 So yeah, Voices of KF Media on X Spaces, uh, Firehouse and Arena Social, Wednesday at 1:30 Eastern. 1:30 Eastern. Or, yeah, we're in the same time zone, so 12:30, uh, Central. That's right. Perfect. 1:30:22 That's a half an hour before my space starts. [laughs] Well, there you go. You can show up for the first half hour. I know, right? There you go. There you go. You know, and, and honestly- Yeah. 1:30:32 [laughs] Mine's always ones, by the way. 1 PM, 111, 1:11. I really like ones. I don't know if you've caught that. That's why you have 1:11 Podcast. That's right. Yeah. You see, you're getting it. Got it. Numerology. 1:30:42 I got it. Yeah, you're connecting the dots. Well, all my spaces are at 1:00, so... EST, by the way. Nice. So I absolutely love that. 1:30:49 Definitely check out what he's, what Will is doing with KFM Talks, uh, Wednesday, this Wednesday at 12:30 PM EST, fam. 1:30:58 And, uh, yes, Will, thank you again to being an amazing host for 1:11 Podcast, and we will talk to you soon, my friend. Thank you.
