Web3 & the Creator Economy

Honestly, I’ve been talking about how I have become obsessed with all things: web3 Metaverse, crypto, NFT.

Like, I am eating this shit up.

So I have been reaching out to a variety of different people, asking to get more women specifically who are knowledgeable about these areas to come on to this podcast and talk about it.

‘Til I found Shane Everett.

She’s the head of music, business affairs and web3 services at Defy Entertainment which is also known as Defiant. So she co-manages the first ever virtual influencer and recording artist, Chill Pill. She is 21 years old. She is a California native and is working to pave the path for artists, creators, labels, and just like everybody in the entertainment industry within the web3 space.

She was highly recommended to me by somebody that I connect with that works at meta who is focused also in this area. And when he made this recommendation, I was like, “absolutely! Let’s chat!”

We did and I was like, I mean, I thought he was right in the first place.

She is like an inspiration; I frickin wish I was in her shoes at 21. She is in the right place at the right time as the right head on her shoulders and is here today to educate us all about the Metaverse.

Jessy:

Shane, I’m so excited to have you here. First and foremost, welcome. How’s it going?

Shane:

It’s going good. Thank you Jesse so much for having me. I’m so excited to you know, talk about everything that we have kind of docketed out. It’s gonna be fun.

Jessy:

It is gonna be fun. So I know that we’re gonna have fun, and I hope that our audience is ready to just like expand their minds a little bit. And with us, maybe for the next like our ourselves.

Shane:

Hundred percent. Hi guys.

Jessy:

This–what we’re going to be talking about a little bit about like web3, a little bit about… maybe like NFT’s, like Metaverse. Like, this is a been a tiny bit of an obsession for me in the past few weeks. We were recently introduced, and we chatted. And after we did I was like, “I would love to bring you onto our podcast because you geek out about this stuff, too. And I want our audience to learn more about these topics.” Yes, I am so appreciative of you coming today to be on the show. So before we get started, because I have so many questions for you. I’m going to drill you today. I’m therefore–amazing! First just I’d love to hear a little bit about you. I would love for you to just like introduce yourself to those listening and tell us a little bit about your company.

Shane:

So I’m actually a California native. I’m 21 years old, grew up in Southern California and actually went to college to study journalism at ASU Walter Cronkite School. Went into school day one, they had us do a little activity that was, “okay, all 300 of you look underneath there, see and hold up a piece of paper”. And there was only like three kids in my whole lecture hall. And they essentially told us like those three people in the big scheme of things are going to make it in journalism. So I decided I was going to kind of change my path. And so I decided to go into PR and digital audience analysis during my time there as well as taking on a music business degree in the Herberger school, actually under AC as well. And then, you know, had experience in my internships in my upbringing, kind of in my professional career in music, working specifically with independent artists, worked with a couple larger named artists. But then, with everything kind of happening, I ended up where I’m at now, which is Defy Entertainment, which stands for “don’t-ever-fit-in” entertainment. But that slowly evolved into me being an A & R there, which is an artist and repertoire, to co-managing who I co-manage now, which is Chill Pill, a virtual 3d artists. I’m under Atlantic Records. And then also Sydney Swift, who is a great producer, and also our CEO and founder at the company, who I work alongside in my position now, which is head of music, business affairs, and web3 services. So that’s kind of my personal background in a small, I guess, concise form. But what we do at Defy is we create business development–tactics and strategies–for current labels, companies, brands–you name it–to kind of build out their presence in web3 and this unknown space. Three months ago, I had no idea what web3 was. So this is all like new to everyone who you can call a professional even in this space. But turned out that I applied cold to a position I didn’t even know. When I first started in Defy, I ended up where I’m at now. I work with artists, and I build out their NFT projects and pair that with their web 2.0 project. Let’s say an artist has an album coming out, we then bring that to web3. We build out a web3 component, which I can kind of dive into later on what this all means. That’s kind of what I do here.

Jessy:

Amazing. Okay, so I’ve so many things already to say off the bat. Yeah. Well, I wish that when I was 21. I was like, in the exciting position that you are in currently, like, kudos to you, right? It’s not every 21 year old is in the position that you’re in. It’s certainly not luck, in my opinion. It is like a curiosity and this drive that I’ve sensed from you even since we first began.

Shane:

It’s kind of a funny story. If you want me to go into that, I remember this day vividly. It was like October 8, ninth area. I flew out to LA to meet Sydney, who was my boss, for an artist show that we actually managed to just go to the show and spend the weekend in LA, kind of working on their artist project. I flew out to LA, got to Syd’s house and he goes, we’re going to launch house. I was like, what is launch house? I’m supposed to be going to soundcheck to meet with artists. Like, where am I going? He goes, “do you know what web3 is?” “I don’t know”. He was, “do you own crypto?” Like “no!” He’s like, “do you know what an NFT is?” I’m like, “nah, not at all.” So he’s like, “okay, great. In the car, when we’re driving there. I’ll give you a 10 minute walk rundown.” I’m like, “okay”. So we’re in the car driving to launch house, which is essentially like a TikTok influencer content creation house, if you think of it, but for tech, and startup companies–really cool based in Beverly Hills. We ended up going to this kind of like presentation that was happening and Sydney was like, “listen, network”. Like, “just listen to all the information being tossed around; we’ll talk about it later.” There’s influencers i n the room that are multi-million followers on TikTok and Instagram. And I’m like, “why am I in this room?” And Syd looked at me and my co-workers after and he’s like, “okay, so did you guys get that after the speech?” I was like, “I’m so lost.” I don’t know what web3 is like words, people talking about this so much. Like, “I’m so lost on what’s going on.” But we ended up back at Sydney’s studio, because we were going to just kind of sit in there and brainstorm next moves on the artist side. And these two developers showed up on accident. Like software dev people that I’ve never met showed up to Sydney’s home on accident. He had nominated himself up to host an event for launch house that we ended up canceling because I guess no one could facilitate it. Was there something random that came up where we couldn’t have it? But these two developers were driving to his studio which at his house. They had no service to see that the event was canceled. So they showed up. We were sitting in the studio when they walked in and Sydney chain me so and so and so and so. I was like, “oh, hi! Nice to meet you. I’m currently working on the artist side–the music dev side–but know nothing of web3.” Because I could tell they were gonna say, “are you in web3?” And Syd goes, “shame! What’s wrong with the music industry and entertainment industry?” I kind of thought to myself there’s a lot that isn’t good. I wouldn’t say there’s anything super wrong because I’m new, I’m young, I don’t really know a lot about the world. But I know enough to know that ownership and creative freedom. We kind of went through this whole run of the mock of what’s “wrong”. The developers kind of start talking to each other, and they’re kind of doing that thing, where they’re looking at each other and talking. But not talking to us. But we’re still like, “what they we’re saying?” And they look at us, and they’re like, “well, we can help you do that”. And I was, “what do you mean?” They were like, “we can help you change that with tech in web3”. And I’m like, “oh, gosh, it’s web3 thing again.” And they started explaining to me how there’s tools in this web 3 world that can help entertainment professionals. They can help artists, they can help influencers, they can help creators through like smart contracts and NFT’s, and the tokenization of everything in the Metaverse. Sydney was like, “well, let’s do it.” And so we had already built out a completely virtual artist. We just didn’t know what that meant in the grand scheme of things. And after that day, my job position changed completely. I dove headfirst into web 3. Syd kind of guided me through everything. And then now we’re at where we’re at now. And we have a Metaverse building platform at the company. We can like build out individuals and companies presence completely on the Ethereum, blockchain, which I’ll get into all that too. But it was wild. That was the turning point. And it was, by default, completely on accident. And now, looking where I’m at now, it’s like, I’m so grateful that those two developers walked in when they did. But yeah, that’s kind of how we ended up where we’re at now. I wouldn’t say luck, but it was pretty lucky. It was one of those things where it felt I was in a movie, where that moment could be in history books. Like a year, two years from now, looking back on the evolution of tech and entertainment. So it’s pretty wild.

Jessy:

I don’t I don’t mean to get like all “woo woo”. But I also feel like what we put out into the universe, we get back. So like, maybe it feels lucky. But like, I don’t know, maybe you’re just putting out something that like attracted, you know, certain energy back to you, you know?

Shane:

Yeah. And I think that also, like, at the time, I wasn’t even graduated. Like I graduated in December, like completely with my degree and everything. And it was kind of one of those things where before that moment, I was like, Am I in the right industry? Like, do I actually know what I’m doing? Like, and it was that current, I guess, crisis that I feel like a lot of people postgrad go through, or even just finding yourself and kind of like really being hard, like, this is what I want to do with my life. And that was a moment where I was like, Okay, I’m in the right place. Like, I’ve worked my butt off. Like, this is definitely, you know, supposed to be happening. And I’m glad I sent a cold email to Sydney, telling him that I was the kick ass a&r that he needed on day one. And to end up where I’m at now is like, jaw dropping. But I definitely think that the hustle did come in. And it was really reassuring to have that.

Jessy:

All of the things, and you’re still hustling to the to the day, that’s why you’re there. That’s why you’re there. Right? I love your story. I know people listening also, like, appreciate hearing it. It’s a great context, it’s helpful to know you. Your words are like “three months ago, I don’t even know what the show was, you know…”

Shane:

Definitely. And I think everyone’s still learning to. I am “a professional” in this space. And, yes. I do know a good amount, especially when it comes to entertainment in the influencer realm, and the music artists realm of web3. But everyone’s learning together. That’s the biggest thing in web3. I think in this space, there’s no stupid questions. There’s no one’s behind if you’re even having this conversation right now. And like you’re even listening to our conversation currently. Like, you’re one step ahead. Then a lot of people but you’re also becoming a tool that then they can ask, “what is this mean?” and you can answer.

Jessy:

I agree with that wholeheartedly. That’s been my experience at least as well. When I’m sort of meeting people who list something along Metaverse or web3 or crypto or to you like in their professional bio of some sort, I reached out and I want to learn. And I’m immersing myself in a lot of educational resources, conversations on clubhouse, sorts of stuff. And I find that the community that exists already is very welcoming, but similar to yourself, which is really refreshing and good. What I personally want to see is more women getting in in these conversations as well.

Shane:

I think that’s a big, big thing. I mean, I could go on and on about what the experience just being in entertainment as a woman was like and is still like, but I think having morals that go into it, where you know who you are, and no matter what, tables will be turned where people will be asking you for your professional guidance and consulting on certain, I guess projects or advice on how to build out, you know, their presence in web3. They’re going to be asking you for your knowledge. And as a woman, it’s quite rare. The equal level of respect is automatically there. And I think what’s really cool is that this is a new community. And I think being a woman in web3 is definitely interesting, because we’re all empowering each other. And I’ve actually noticed that this community is so so welcoming no matter what. And I think watching it grow and having women be on the forefront. Our content team who creates all of our digital visuals, and 2d, 3d, all that, they’re all women on my team. And I think that’s what’s really cool too, is that working alongside such incredible women is so inspiring. Building out projects that are focused around like a women is so fun as well. And I have a couple of those I’m currently doing but yeah, it’s super cool.

Jessy:

Yeah, it’s so cool. So look, I’m excited to talk to you about so many things today. So why don’t we start at the beginning a little bit and support those listening, who may even be like intimidated by hearing these new words, this new concept and all that we’ve been talking about for the last time, right? So, I would love for you, Shane, to just start by even just defining some of those like key terms related to web3, NFT, crypto, non-fungible matters. Like ,all the things, if you wouldn’t mind.

Shane:

Yeah, 100%. I know, it’s honestly a lot. So I will try my best to kind of break it down. And I think the best way to do that is kind of explaining how did we get to this point? Like, how did Facebook change its name to Meta. Andlike how everything’s evolving into web3. So I’ll go back to what web one is. Web one, you can think of this 1990s to 2000s time where you have AOL, Google, Yahoo, Bing started the foundation of the internet. And at the time, I guess, equity is being funneled towards the founders of these companies. So you see individuals who are the group of individuals that are sitting at the top of these companies that are seeking benefits. You know, a little extra payout when a company’s successful. And then the transition of web two comes in with the social media boom, what we’re currently kind of in and transitioning out of. You have Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, all of these platforms being integrated for artists. Because I talk to music artists all the time, I always talk about these streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music. These are now the transition of the internet. And with that being said, the equity kind of shifted there as well. So now the employees out these companies are reaping benefits. Let’s say, x company is successful. And so people are kind of starting to notice how important their employees are to the success of a company. Without them, you wouldn’t have a company. So after this transition of into the social media boom, you then see the transition to web3, which is intimidating where world of the metaverse. And the metaverse is really just like a virtual reality world that lives completely on the Ethereum blockchain, or whatever said blockchain. It is. And with that being said, the transfer of equity is also there. So a lot of the individuals who are kind of at the forefront of this web3 movement were really emphasizing what would a company do if they didn’t have the consumers, the users. For artists and musicians, I always say it’s the fans or influencers, it’s their followers, their audiences. Why aren’t those individuals reaping benefits? And so that’s what this equity transfer and web3 is. It’s giving back to those who are driving a project and driving a person success or company success. That’s kind of what web3 is. It’s really just the decentralization of ownership and expanding that to the broad masses of who supports that individual or company and makes it successful. An artist wouldn’t be a music artist without its fans and influencers wouldn’t be influencing anyone or anything without their followers. And so it’s kind of giving back to that community. So hopefully, that kind of breaks down this transition of web one to web3, in simple terms, but that’s really what web3 is. and looking at these other intimidating words like NFT’s, which is a non-fungible token, that’s just a component of web3. Meaning it’s an asset that has utility. So it has purpose on with it. That’s kind of what web3 is in simple terms, and kind of all the components that go into it.

Jessy:

That’s very helpful. I’ve heard someone describe it as like decentralization, and I’ve heard someone essentially equate it to, you know, like, all of these companies have CEOs and people who are sort of like running the show and have their own agendas. And this new web3 is sort of breaking down those barriers so that there’s quality and opportunity. Would you agree with that assessment?

Shane:

I definitely think that’s accurate. I think also a component that simplifies what you kind of just said, Jessy, is uniting a community and having this community driven factor. And I think that’s kind of breaking the barriers of this governing board per se, where it’s more so having a community drive a project. Having a community make a decision artistically, or what partnerships a certain project should go forth with. It’s having a group, a large group of individuals passionate about the mission of a project unite together to make those decisions, rather than having one or two people make those decisions for the community.

Jessy:

Totally. It’s a concept where it’s about the people.

Shane:

Exactly. And, you know, something I always say to is creating passive followers or passive fans into active fans and active followers and really playing a large part in a project or in a company. Because there’s a lot of companies now that are completely web3, and having community driven projects is way more empowering, because that’s your niche. That’s who’s driving the success. That’s who’s spreading the word of mouth. So yeah, it’s really making them activated in the space.

Jessy:

I want to dig more into that, because I think people’s ears are starting to perk up a little bit because of what that sounds like. There’s certainly some synergies there between everything you’ve been saying in the Creator economy. And when I talk about influencers, that and especially like influencer marketing, in which they’re trying to sell products and brands or services, or what have you, or just like, have us engage their community more like now all of it is based on engagement. And so to be able to create an environment in which the audience is enabled, able, it’s possible to engage more and become more involved. Like that’s a really, really powerful thing, right? Yeah.

Shane:

And that’s, I think where this NFT conversation kind of comes in. So, you know, like I said, NFT’s are non fungible tokens. So a lot of the times looking at NFT’s, that’s how you have people purchasing these NFT’s, which are really just digital assets that are being sold on the internet. But you purchase these with crypto. And by purchasing one of these little tokens, you’re getting access to now making decisions. You’re holding a role in the project, and you’re also being incentivized. I mean, every successful NFT project, and NFT drop is what the lingo is, but has utility so these holders are reaping benefits while they have these NFT’s whether that’s, you know, I’m gonna just go out on a limb and say, like, influencers, I noticed a lot of the time, you know, it’s the selling of merch and you know, their brand and really advocating for, like, who they are and what they stand for. But if you’re able to almost gift out little pieces, whether that be merch or exclusive content, or maybe meet and greets with the holdings of these NF T’s that activates an incentive to then drive up I guess, the reasoning like why should someone purchase one of these, why should they play a role in this community? Well, it’s to give back and to give them you know, exclusive merch drops, you know, meet and greets, all of that can go into the back end of these NFT projects. So by purchasing in and purchasing one of these tokens by using crypto, it’s a way that influencers can have one a stream of revenue to it can also be something that gives an exclusive club component or you know, a founders club component to where you are the VIPs of this influencers following you have like bought into their brand you have your holding that almost as like a trophy saying like I am part of this community and I’m one of them. to certain limited amount of purchasers that, you know, has this granted access to these exclusive items or exclusive events. So it’s really a cool way that you can activate, you know, and get people excited to buy into a project or buy into a brand through these NFT’s.

Jessy:

And I appreciate that you’re laying out like real-use cases, real scenarios. Because so many people hear the term NF T. Yeah. And they don’t know what it is, but they just immediately associated with art. And while that is certainly another use case, and there are some influencers who are like giving out those Yeah, it can be all of the other things that you mentioned.

Shane:

I mean, there can be the cool thing about web3 is that with it being one such a new space, and to it being such a growing space, you know, sky’s the limit, and that sounds so fucking cliche, and I’m like, every time someone’s like talking to me, I feel a bit corny saying Oh, sky’s the limit shoot high. But it’s true, because, you know, there can be in real life people always say IRL in web3, but it’s like the IRL utility, whether that’s a physical hoodie or an actual ticket to a meet and greet event or a convention where you’re meeting a ton of influencers. Those can be utility behind this digital component, but there can also be digital utility, which is in the metaverse, so that’s where this whole like Sims but heighten it to, I guess like 100 levels up but it’s almost like real life Sims where you can be totally in the metaverse, but it’s really just in real life but digital, so you can have your avatars in the metaverse be wearing that influencers merch you can have. Yeah, it’s like, I could go on and on about, I guess, the potential here. But that’s kind of the transition. It’s really what we have now but escalating it, and it gives creative freedom to to the influencers, and to those who are using it.

Jessy:

I also feel like from the influencers perspective, a lot of influencers that I hear these days feel a little stuck in that they’re like brand partnerships have historically been the majority of their bread and butter. And I’m sure you’ve possibly experienced that in terms of like music artists and things like that. And so just knowing that, like, oh my god, there’s all of a sudden now, all these additional doors have just opened. And the cool thing about why I want to start having more of these conversations now like yeah, now like what because this is not new. None of this is new at all, actually. Yeah. Like this is like people always reference like, you know, the Sims like you just did or like Grand Theft Auto, you know, like, these are like tears. Oh, if you want to experience it, like that’s what it and that those are so old. Has it been around for such a long time? I’m most excited about it now is because I’m interacting with people who would not be your typical, enthusiastic person about any of this stuff. And they’re getting intrigued. And they’re like, “oh, maybe I should get some crypto in my wallet.” And like, “oh, maybe I should get an Oculus.” They’re intrigued. And so this stuff is definitely taking off. We can go on about like “why that is?”. I do think that the pandemic and stuff did play a major part in that. But beyond that, it’s really picking up and this isn’t like theoretical. It’s certainly not small niche groups… so much anymore. More mainstream, which is pretty freakin cool to see.

Shane:

Yeah, I think it’s definitely like, looking at it from the COVID perspective also, I’ve worked with a lot of artists that have lost out on the live shows and for influencers. I mean, a lot of times I know they do tours as well, where it’s, you know, meeting in person or being able to go to events on a partnership, if a, you know, a partner saying you need to come to this event, and kind of advocate for it, then, you know, that was all lost. And I think that was a big, everyone had a big Ono moment where we realize that when everything kind of shuts down, like what do you do now? And that’s kind of I think, where this Metaverse element really kind of took off. And I could go on and on like you were saying about kind of why now but I think it’s really just adding this empowering movement behind the Creator economy and giving back ownership to individuals brands, but kind of having this empowering, you can do it without very large partnerships. You can have people believe in you and believe in a project and take it to the next level by it. This just opens the door I guess for individuals in the Creator space where you don’t have to rely on a major corporation to be bringing you in revenue. You know. You can just be activating yourself into this place, have three worlds. And that’s where that’s where successful projects are. It’s the authenticity, you know, being real, not having a phony upfront presentation of something you don’t really believe in. I think that’s what’s really, really interesting about web3 is it allows people to be confident in who they are and what they believe in, whether that be mental health awareness, whether that be you know, eating disorders, whether that be drawing attention to substance abuse, there has been projects that look like they’re just art, it looks like just an NFT drop. But if you really dive in and start looking into what a lot of these web3 projects are at, you know, providing something way bigger, and influencers have such such big potential and bringing in, I guess, advocacy for certain projects that they’re passionate about, and certain, I guess, not talked about topics that they could really be bringing forth. And that’s the power of web3. It’s like, the sky’s the limit. There I go, again, being corny and shit, but that’s it. It’s, you can do whatever you want to do in web3, and no one’s gonna stop you. I think that’s the biggest part. And that’s what’s the coolest part about all of this.

Jessy:

So cool, man. You’re like, it is cheesy yet it’s exciting. It is what it is, and it’s all true. It all been true. You’re seeing people like Ariana Grande, who teamed up with Fortnite to put on shows in the metaverse. I mean, there were I think 200 million members (this is a stat!). 45.8 million people watched Travis Scott’s performance in Fortnite in July 2021.

Shane:

There’s a good example. There’s this one NFT project that called board API club, almost every person who steps into the NFT space, if you Google, like NFT projects, board APR clubs gonna come up. It is like the most well known. And it’s because… think about this, there was an NFT drop, I think there was about 6000, like actual purchasers of NFT’s. They are now a $500 million company. That’s insane. Like thinking of that, as it doesn’t take 15 million Tik Tok followers, it doesn’t take over 3 million followers on Instagram to be successful. You can activate yourself and create a monumental stride by just doing something that makes sense to the average consumer. And if you do it authentically, and you commit to and kind of admitting that you don’t know everything about web3, but I’m starting, you’re going to gain the trust also of the web3 community. They want to help projects. They’re not going to be like, “oh, no, you’re new here. Please go away.” No, they want people to go web3. They want to make this aware to the average everyday person. That’s the coolest thing about all of this–that everyone is working together to empower everyone. But the potential is huge. I mean, the potential is—

Jessy:

–insane. And, we’re gonna keep saying that, because it really is worth noting. It’s also interesting. You’ll start to also see a lot of content about like… making quick cash?

Shane:

Yeah, that’s what I guess what we do at the company I’m at now. DeFi focuses on long term. I think that’s where a lot of the scary projects starts. Everyone, kind of, has their own goal going into the space. And whether that be a quick cash grab, that’s not what we’re about. And, that’s not how I actually think about what web3 is. I think that’s where a lot of people who don’t understand it kind of hesitate. They think there’s no long term success. They think there’s no longevity behind projects, or how can this last for however long, you know, you want it to last. And I think that’s where web3 will take over is some people are in it for a quick cash grab upfront off of first sales of NF T’s and they don’t care about the rest. But if you actually are one of those people that rely on your following so I think influencers are really you know, they have a lot of power in this space to be one of the first like one of the first groups in industries that kind of forefront web3 is because their followers and their audience, empower them and that’s how they become so successful and that’s what makes them you know, a good influencer and someone to look up to is having a following that’s dedicated Well, you want to take care of them as much as you can. And I think that’s where this long term project goals come in is, you don’t want to just have a quick cash grab for yourself up front. Because then you lose the trust of your followers, you, you lose the trust of web3 community people also. And so it’s looking at it more long term. And that’s what we do at defy is we really take to heart like, the least amount of time that we’ll look into is a year to two years of a project. Like we’re looking to do this for the long term, and, you know, help companies build out their components also, to make it last, I guess, till the next web ever, evolution comes in, which is terrifying to think about. But it’s looking at the long term and not just for the quick cash grab.

Jessy:

Totally. And it sort of feels a little bit of like, I don’t know, like when social media started really taking off because again, like, when that happened, social media wasn’t new. It just started taking off and really getting traction. This isn’t new, but it’s like it’s starting to take traction. So for someone who’s listening, who is either a creator, like an influencer themselves, or just like an entrepreneur, yeah, you know, business person, whatever, who like wants to get started wants to get started. Yeah, like, what would you tell them? Like, how to get started? Like, what are some opportunities to look into this? broad question.

Shane:

I definitely think, to start just research, research, research research, look into, you know, there’s a good chunk of YouTube videos actually that break down like what an NF t actually is in five minutes, but they do a great job. So I’d look up like any question that pops in your head, Google it, I guarantee you there’s an article or a YouTube video that breaks it down in some way, shape, or form. I also think that you know, following projects that are really really interesting to you get on Twitter, if you’re not already on Twitter, Twitter’s a huge, huge NFT crypto web3 space I think also if you don’t have a discord already, get a discord account jump into servers, you can find a lot of the invites in the bios of you know, certain projects on Twitter, Instagram, Jesse I shared with you also like the virtual artists and influencer, we created who was the first ever like decentralized, fully virtual, I guess influencer ever. So you know, jump into my team’s project. Also, we are more than welcome to kind of like, we would love to teach you whatever you want to know, I would definitely jump into Twitter spaces. If people are talking about certain projects, jump in, be curious, do the research. I think definitely staying up to date on what projects fail, and what projects are successful and why that was something I did in the beginning to kind of understand what it means to be a web3 project and, you know, ask questions, no questions are stupid at all. And I mean, you guys are more than welcome to jump in my DMs and I’ll try my best to answer everyone. But I think that’s it, it’s just really just researching, you know, I would be more than help happy to, you know, answer any questions I can when I can. But I think that’s really it’s just following influential people.

Jessy:

Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And those are some really good suggestions. You’re so generous with your time too. Absolutely. You know, like, Discord seems to be a place where people are sort of flocking on building communities for like discussions and information sharing. And for anybody who doesn’t know what Discord is, it’s essentially slack. It’s very similar to slack. It’s been like, or no, it’s been, like, widely used in like the gaming community. And like, way beyond that. And so you know, it’s interesting, I’m part of a couple discord servers about that as well. So I can attest to that Twitter spaces seems to also be a really good place. Wow. Similarly, and I’m even on LinkedIn, they just launched I’m beta testing actually linked in audio rooms. Okay, I just started beta testing at this week. And I’m, and I’m amongst this test group, and I’m noticing that like a lot of the LinkedIn creators, that’s what they’re talking about. So it’s a lot of like, audio spaces, which is interesting and cool. And I’m sure there are podcasts. You can find stuff on YouTube, though. Yeah, well, for sure. But I’m gonna I’m gonna challenge you for a second because last night, there are some people listening who they’re like, alright, alright. Like, I feel like I’m doing the research, like I’ve educated myself. So like, what’s the next step?

Shane:

Hit up my info at to find.co email because you’re going to need someone to help you build it. So that’s where I’m gonna, you know, self-promote here is we are a web3 agency, we build out projects from start to finish, whether that be the NFT design to the back end development. It takes a team who’s dedicated to do it and so that’s why we do what we do at defiant and I don’t want to quote myself on this, but I kind of do. I’m not 100% Sure, but I think we’re like one of the only ones in the entertainment space. that actually are a full service and it like web3 agency. But I think that would be a good step is hitting up our, our website linked email. But also I think, you know, if you don’t really think that you’re ready to kind of get involved in an agency relationship, I think, what is your purpose, you know, outside of being just an influencer and outside of representing a brand? What is that hard hitting mission, for example, or I am chill pill project, which is a virtual influencer, I was referencing, you know, ours is advocating for mental health awareness. And that, right, there is like opening a door to a whole different group of audience that you didn’t have before. Maybe what is something that you’re so passionate about that, you know, without a doubt you could create a project around. That could be this extra utility behind yourself in this space. I think understanding your mission and understanding your purpose is going to be the most beneficial, because then from there, it’s really just figuring out the digital art component, what do you want the NFT’s to look like, or if you’re going to do an NFT drop, or if you’re stepping into the metaverse. Hit me up. And check out our website because we do offer a Metaverse building platform called Augie. So super cool things turning on on this space. But I think to get started, really figure out your purpose, figure out your mission. Get together with some friends and start a project there. You know, collaboration projects are the best way to go. Because then you got a whole team on that into driving towards the same idea.

Jessy:

Totally. And one thing I’ve heard from people is if you want to build something in the metaverse, there is no difference between what you’ve built in your professional life and what you can build in the metaverse. That only means to use that expertise. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel here now. Somebody recently launched a golf course. They buy land and they put a billboard on it and they know a lot about advertising. And so they have that. There’s so many. It’s like anything that’s possible in your real life, and what you’ve done. IRL, like he said.

Shane:

Yeah, and I think that’s the biggest thing too. It’s like, “there we go again, I’m gonna be fucking corny.” But you know, sky is the limit. And like, if there’s something that you couldn’t do IRL, you can 120% fuckin do it in the metaverse. That’s all I can say. Because now you have creators and developers building out your idea means no one said you can’t do certain things in the metaverse. So that’s where sky’s the limit comes in. And that’s where you get creative. If there’s something you have had an idea to do in real life, and you just haven’t been able to do it, now’s your time, because you now have another platform that you can do it in.

Jessy:

I’m so excited to talk about this for so long. I know why appreciate you jumping on today. Please take Shane up on her offer she sent her like all the information that you shared will absolutely be in the show notes. I will be sharing that out with everybody. She was recommended to me as somebody to connect with. And as soon as we did, I was like, I love everything that you’re doing. I love your curiosity. I love that you’re humble. I love that you’re learning just like the rest of us. And that you’re, you know, you’re generous to share what you’ve learned. I appreciate and I hope everybody listening, appreciate the two. And I really encourage you guys to reach out to Shane. So for those of us who are super excited about all things, web3, again, check out our show notes. We will absolutely list all of that here. Any like final thoughts before we we close today.

Shane:

All I can say is thank you so much, Jessy for having me. And thank you so much for giving me a place where I can advocate for web3 and advocate for what’s kind of going on in this space. And like she said, Everyone, please hit me up because the invitation is there to do so. And I love helping people get started and know spreading the word. I think that’s the biggest part is like we’re learning together. I thank Jesse. You having this conversation with me today, you are on the forefront. Let’s get you into web3. Let’s get you into the metaverse. Let’s do it. But I’m really excited to continue the conversation. Thank you so much again, and thank you everyone who listened.

Jessy:

Thank you guys so so much. There’s so much opportunity whether it’s creator, influencer brands, entrepreneurs, anything. Everyone, you are the boss. I really appreciate you coming on today and we’ll see you guys listening next week. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, we got to have you back. Check out our website for more ways to get involved including all the information you need about joining our collective Did you can check out all the information at iamwiim.com. And if you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review or rating but the most important thing that we can ask you to do is to share this podcast. See you next week. Thanks for listening. Tune in next week.