#121: Sara Baumann: Breaking The NFT Gender Gap With Entrepreneur Artist and Founder of Women & Weapons

Show Notes

When Sara Baumann, full-time occupational therapist, part-time side business artist, boldly responded to Gary Vaynerchuk’s Tweet asking about up and coming artists who hadn’t sold any NFT artwork yet, she had no idea he would be the first sale of her collection. Nor did she anticipate the sellout frenzy following Vaynerchuk’s purchases. 

In this episode, co-hosts Lori Vajda and Nola Boea talk with the NFT artist, entrepreneur and founder of the wildly successful Women and Weapons collections, Sara Baumann. Listen as Sara shares her journey from side business to full-time NFT and Web3 entrepreneur, the challenges she’s faced, the gender gap in the space, and what’s next for this very creative and talented business woman.

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In This Episode You’ll Learn 

• How artist Sara Baumann uses her creative talent to highlight female strength and power.
• Why artists see blockchain and its decentralized nature as an opportunity to break gender barriers.
• The business side of NFT/Web3 space.
• What’s next for the Women and Weapons project

Key points Lori and Nola are sharing in this episode:

(03:02:87) Why Sara has made it her mission to get more women, minorities, and anyone who is underrepresented into the Web3/NFT space

(07:13:38) The serendipitous tweet and how it solidified Sara’s artistic journey into the NFT space

(13:41:83) The inspiration for Women and Weapons was women of the mid-century era because of how they were not viewed as capable, courageous or brave.

(19:19:19) How to conceptualize the NFT business and brand using Women & Weapons as an example

(26:15:35) Tips for building a global marketplace on Web3/NFT

(30:17:67) The various insights that have helped informed the direction of the business and contributed to making make you a better entrepreneur, particularly in the Web3/NFT space

Resources 

Women and Weapons -https://womenandweapons.io/ 

Instagram -  https://www.instagram.com/womenandweapons/?hl=en 

Opensea Women and Weapons - https://opensea.io/collection/womenandweapons  

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Nola: Does this sound like you? You work as an employee during the day performing an adequate, if not significantly above average job for your employer. But when you're on your own time and in your own space, does your energy and excitement soar as you lose yourself in your creative endeavors? Have you ever wondered what life would be like and what you would be like if your creative outlets served as your primary source of income? Well, wonder no more listener, because today we are talking to a former occupational therapist turned entrepreneur to hear how she turned her art into a multimillion-dollar creative company.

[00:00:36] Lori: Welcome to Sticky Brand Lab podcast, where we bridge the gap between knowledge and action by providing you with helpful information, tips, and tools from entrepreneurs and other experts so you can quickly and easily start your side business. We are your hosts. I'm Lori Vajda and this is my co-host, Nola Boea.

[00:00:56] Nola: That's me. Lori, I have a question for you. How would you define a creative business?

[00:01:03] Lori: You know, if you had asked me that question a few years ago, I would've said it's an art-based business where somebody creates an artistry of sorts. That could be visual art or media. It could be an author, music, anything like that. I would've said that a few years ago. What about you, Nola?

[00:01:21] Nola: Well, much along the same lines. I would think of art, mainly as something to like, observe or admire, or maybe with commercial art it might be useful, but even still, it's something to observe. But the thing is that whole definition, I think, has broadened, is expanded, especially with the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality. Web 3.0 and NFTs for example. They're all really helping to broaden and redefine what it means to be a creator. Not to mention an investor or a collector, and now they've even got a user. And it's also influenced what we now call the creative economy.

[00:01:59] Lori: Which I think is amazing because it opens up entrepreneurial opportunities for a much broader audience, if you will. And our guest today knows a lot about being a creator and a creative entrepreneur. Meet Iranian American artist Sara Baumann, aka to her Legion of fans, Sparky, which we'll get to later. But prior to 2021, she was employed as a full-time occupational therapist who worked in the hospital system most recently during Covid, if you can imagine.

[00:02:33] Nola: Whoa.

[00:02:34] Lori: As a remarkably gifted artist, Sara would work on her creative endeavors on the side. That is, until she courageously replied to a tweet that would change not only the trajectory of her artwork, but it would turn her world upside down.

 As the artist and founder behind the incredibly successful Women and Weapons, a multimillion-dollar art project and brand, Sara is living her entrepreneurial dream. She's also made it her mission to get more women, minorities, and anyone who is underrepresented in the space, to take part in this expanding and exciting new industry. So we're excited to welcome Sara
.
[00:03:15] Sara: Hello ladies. Thank you so having me on. And I feel, uh, quite subpar to y'all's cool last names by the way.

[00:03:27] Nola: Oh my.

[00:03:28] Lori: Thank you. Sara. Before we talk about that tweet that changed the direction of your career, can you tell us a little bit about yourself as an artist?

[00:03:38] Sara: So, I have always been passionate about art. That has been something that I have wanted to do my entire life. I think from the moment that I could pick up a crayon, I was working on art. I used to tell my dad or pull him aside and say, dad, we need to get down to some serious coloring at like three or four years old.

[00:03:56] Nola: Whoa.

[00:03:56] Sara: And a lot of my friends were out playing outside. I was inside drawing or painting. And I've delved into basically every possible art form I could get my hands on. I've tried just about everything, but I've really fallen in love with painting. I utilize acrylics oils, gouache, you name it.

[00:04:14] Lori: So Sara, do you have family members that are artistic?

[00:04:17] Sara: Almost all of my family in Iran are artists. Basically, everybody there is either an architect, graphic designer, painter, photographer. I have a long-lost cousin that I actually just got in touch with about a year or so ago, who's an incredible artist, and he's currently in LA. And then on my dad's side, my grandma's a phenomenal artist and painter as well. So it actually comes from both sides of my family.

[00:04:41] Nola: Okay. Well that is amazing. As we mentioned in the introduction, you were working full. and creating your art in your free time.

[00:04:50] Sara: Yes.

[00:04:51] Nola: Now, as a creative and an entrepreneur, how did you balance between producing art and trying to sell it all during your limited free time?

[00:05:01] Sara: Well, I will tell you it's not easy. I have a tendency to be the type of person that likes to be doing something, basically 24/7, I like to constantly be active. So for me, it was going to the hospital during the day and then coming home in the evening. And I would either work on my artwork then, or I would photograph my artwork. And I'm not going to lie, that was pretty hard for content creation because I didn't have like cool lighting back then like I do now. And a lot of my painting happened in the dark. It was dark outside, so I couldn't really get nice photos of my artwork, but it was also my meditation. And it still is my meditation. You get back home from the hospital, it's been a rough day, and that was kind of my way of having an outlet, like a stress outlet, as well.

[00:05:41] Lori: Yeah, like a form of therapy.

[00:05:43] Sara: Very much so. I mean, when people meditate, I think a lot of times they're capable of kind of turning off their thoughts. Turning off like all the negative things that are happening. And for me, that's what art does.

[00:05:52] Lori: So you were working as an occupational therapist, but even now when you talk about art, there's an uptick in your voice. You are very passionate about it. I'm assuming you must have been torn between kind of following this traditional career path versus the artistic career or creator path.

[00:06:12] Sara: Yes, very much so.

[00:06:13] Lori: Did you find that you were constantly battling your responsibility with your desire to continue down the path of passion?

[00:06:22] Sara: Absolutely. You know, my mom is an immigrant. She came to the United States whenever she was 18 or 19 years old, I think. And one of her biggest concerns for me was to always have a career that would offer me stability. And so she was the one who really pushed me into, my mother's voice, "be a doctor or lawyer or engineer," and I was able to come to a consensus with her about occupational therapy. But I will say, don't get me wrong, I am very passionate about science. I love science. One of my favorite things about being an occupational therapist was working with patients who had had brain injuries and strokes, because I find that incredibly fascinating. But first and foremost, my passion was always art. And even now that like full-time, I'm an artist, I'm a founder, I still do like to read up on medical research. You don't have to turn off one side of your brain to enjoy something else at the same time, you can enjoy both things. You don't have to be just one or the other.

[00:07:13] Lori: Switching back a little bit here because I'm wondering if that scientific brain helped you with getting into the NFT space. And particularly, there's a well-known quote attributed to the Roman philosopher Seneca, although I'm not sure that we have actual evidence that he said it. But anyway, the quote is, "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity." Can you tell us about that serendipitous tweet and how it relates to your artistic journey into the NFT space?

[00:07:45] Sara: I feel like that unbelievable tweet was the moment that changed my life, honestly, as an artist. This is a lesson in shooting your shot, everybody in taking risks. Gary Vaynerchuk, who's an incredible business person out of New York, he used to put out tweets, usually on Saturdays, that he was looking for up and coming artists who had unsold artwork, specifically one of one art pieces or individual art pieces. And so at that point, I think I'd been on Web 3.0 Twitter for about like a month, month and a half or so, and I hadn't made any sales yet, and I commented on his post and I said, Gary, I would love it if you were my first collector. I went to work that same day. I had to work at the hospital because if anybody in healthcare knows, you have to work basically holidays, weekends. And I'm in a patient's room and I start getting all these notifications on my watch, get patient safely back into bed, and I run down the stairs and I called my husband and I was like, what is happening right now? I'm getting like a million notifications from Twitter. And he was like, oh my god, Gary Vaynerchuk just bought three of your art pieces and the rest of 'em sold out in 45 seconds.

[00:08:48] Nola: Woo!

[00:08:50] Sara: I pretty much was like, can I quit my job now? And he was like, no, but good step in the direction of that happening. So I was like, incredible. Okay. And so I really feel like that's what kind of set my mark as the opportunity to start delving into the sphere of becoming a full-time artist. And there had been many instances in the past where I had thought, let me try and go down to PRN or part-time; start shooting for my goal of being a full-time artist. But my gut just kept telling me it wasn't the right time, it wasn't the right time, it wasn't the right time. And actually, after Gary's purchase was when my gut was like, you need to jump and you need to jump now. Cool, And that's essentially what I did.

[00:09:29] Nola: How long did it take for you to make that jump from full-time to, okay, here's my resignation notice?

[00:09:34] Sara: Basically, whenever he purchased, I had already started working on the 10,000-piece Women and Weapons collection, but I was working on it slowly. When he purchased, I recognized there was an opportunity for momentum, and so that basically turned into me working like a nine-hour day in the hospital and coming home and working a five to six-hour evening on artwork to get that collection finished. I pumped it out in like a month and a half after his purchase, basically. And that was about the time, once that collection sold out, I talked to my boss and I said, I need to go down to PRN status, which is basically in hospital wards means like as needed. So you can work one day a week, two days a month. And my boss was like, okay, that's fine. And it wasn't until January of 2022 that I finally put in my resignation at the hospital, and I think that was like January 3rd or sixth of 2022 that that happened.

[00:10:25] Lori: Happy anniversary.

[00:10:27] Sara: Thank you. I appreciate it. So it took me like about three months before I put in my full resignation and I was like, I need to do this full-time.

[00:10:35] Nola: But you were able to step down toward that.

[00:10:38] Sara: Yeah, I was definitely able to step down.

[00:10:40] Lori: So here we know you've got the science background, which by the way, did that help in entering the NFT or Web 3.0 in any way?

[00:10:49] Sara: I don't really think so, because I feel like science and tech follow along different paths. And I'm somewhat tech savvy, but I'm not as tech savvy as at the time, like Web 3.0 was really requiring, so God bless my husband, he was extremely patient with me and helping me learn the ropes. And then I also did a lot of my own due diligence about learning the space. And one of the things that many of us in Web 3.0 recommend to people who are wanting to jump in is to spend about 50 hours or more just learning about it, learning how to set it all up and be safe.

[00:11:20] Nola: Oh, that's great.

[00:11:20] Lori: But here's my question. Do you consider yourself an artist who's an entrepreneur or an entrepreneur who's an artist?

[00:11:29] Sara: I think my best answer to that is both. I think being an artist allows me to be a better entrepreneur. I guess the best way that I could answer that.

[00:11:37] Lori: Wow. In what way?

[00:11:39] Sara: In the way that you have to know how to market yourself. You have to know how to run a business. You have to know how to guide sales and get sales happening. You have to start learning the schematics of shipping and production and everything. I mean, there's a lot that goes into being an entrepreneur, and I think the same goes for being an artist. I think being an artist and wanting to sell your artwork requires a skill of entrepreneurship.

[00:12:00] Nola: Fascinating.

[00:12:00] Lori: So one of the things I love is to find quotes, and I have one here. So former French president Francois Miran, speaking about the French film industry. He said, "These are not just commodities, they are creations of the spirit." And even though he was referring to movies, I think the sentiment holds true regardless of the creative product.

[00:12:24] Sara: Yes.

[00:12:24] Lori: I think that there's a relationship between the creator and the consumer that goes beyond a commercial transaction. I mean, we are buying into your story and your journey, and you as the creator, you are making decisions about either what you want to express, or what you want us to feel. And I think that holds true, whether it's in music or writing, like poetry, storytelling and definitely in NFT projects, or at least it can be.

[00:12:54] Sara: Yes.

[00:12:54] Lori: So from an artistic perspective, Sara, could you describe the personal dimension of your work with a particular focus on Women and Weapons?

[00:13:04] Sara: And I do want to state, there's a broad gradient of art forms. Like you said, communication, like poetry, filmmaking, like music, and all of it is kind of a way for us to get across our spirit, our soul, our thoughts. I have a tendency to be the type of person who thinks in pictures. I am really, really, really poor at getting my thoughts out on paper, in words. Because my thoughts tend to be very jumbled. So it's kind of hard for me to like, organize everything. But whenever it comes to art, I have noticed with myself that a lot of times whenever I create something that I want to say how I'm feeling, it's the best way for me to get it across.

And so with Women and Weapons, it was very much inspired by the women of the mid-century era, women who were often put down, who were not viewed as capable or courageous or brave. And I wanted to portray them as that with the utilization of the weapons, as the weapons that they carry into their day-to day. And I'll be honest, I have a lot of additional layers and undertones to my artwork with Women and Weapons. I want it to spark conversation because I think conversation is oftentimes what allows us to create cultural change. But I also want to not divulge too, too much because I do like the viewer to develop their own understanding of the artwork or their own story of the artwork. But there was a lot of factors I think that went into my making of these pieces.

Also heavily, I feel like it's the reflection of myself in these pieces. I'm a woman who likes to dirt bike, who likes hard rock, who's also really small and petite and likes to sometimes wear dresses. I'm quite the dichotomy of traditional norms of what a woman is, and I feel like Women and Weapons is a bit of that as well. They are these pieces that have a very dialectic nature and story to them as well, and I think that was a big part of why I created this collection, is because I wanted people to gather their own thoughts from that.

[00:14:56] Nola: I love that.

[00:14:56] Lori: Can I ask? I do too, and that's kind of made me think. It sounds like you have a very close connection to your family and even your extended family.

[00:15:04] Sara: Yes.

[00:15:05] Lori: And you have a strong connection to your culture and your heritage. Your relationships all across the board. Did that in any way influence the time period that you set Women and Weapons in?

[00:15:19] Sara: Actually, yes. I think we all know what's happening in Iran right now. It's been incredibly rough. People there have faced a lot of hardship for a long time now, especially women. And these are things that I've watched firsthand since I was little. I used to go to Iran every two years. And what I always watched were women who were requiring permission to go places. To have jobs. Had to cover their hair and cover their bodies and so on. And a lot of freedoms were taken away from women there.

But unfortunately, I feel like that's something that was kind of parallel to the time period of also the mid-century era here in these more westernized countries, right? Where women were oftentimes not allowed those freedoms. If we're looking at the timeline of history, it wasn't until fairly recent that women were given the opportunities to vote to earn an education.

[00:16:06] Nola: Hold a bank account.

[00:16:07] Sara: Yeah, hold a bank account. Yeah, exactly. And so I think that the experiences that I've had with my culture in Iran, very much set the precedent for the art pieces that I wanted to create with Women and Weapons. Albeit it's a different culture, it's a different time period. It still very much mirrors the experiences that I think a lot of women are experiencing in Iran right now. So yes, very much I think influenced the collection.

[00:16:32] Nola: Fascinating parallels.

[00:16:34] Sara: Yes.

[00:16:35] Nola: I'm going to shift gears a little bit. I understand that you and your husband Jake are co-founders of Women and Weapons. Now I love a good love story and I hear that the two of you have one.

[00:16:49] Sara: Yeah.

[00:16:49] Nola: Could you please tell us about that?

[00:16:52] Sara: We're an anomaly. I think regularly look at ourselves and we're just like, we're bonkers, like our story. So I am 31 right now and Jake and I actually met when we were 12 years old. So funny story, and I don't think that I've actually told this story on an interview yet, so y'all are the first to hear this.

[00:17:09] Nola: Okay.

[00:17:10] Sara: It was my first year in public school. I had previously been in charter schools and I was like, oh, woohoo. This is living the dream. Oh my God, there's boys in school. This is great. Love it. And I saw Jake in my literature class and I was like, he's really hot. Popular hockey guy, and I'm the nerdy art girl. This is never going to happen. And one of the days that I was in PE and he was in outdoor Ed., which if nobody's familiar with outdoor education, it is something that we have here in Texas where people get to learn how to hunt and fish.

[00:17:38] Lori: I had no idea.

[00:17:40] Sara: Yeah, that's a thing. I have been apparently spunky since day one because I made a deal with my PE coach that if I could log roll around the entire running track outdoors, that I wouldn't have to run the rest of the year because I don't like to run unless somebody's chasing you with a weapon. And so he was outside doing archery and he sees me and my friend log rolling around the track and like everybody else had gone inside at this point, and my coach is holding us up to our end of the deal. And I think he pretty much made up his mind at that point too, that I think I need to date that girl. So, I think

[00:18:14] Nola: You made an impression.

[00:18:15] Sara: So it made an impression.

[00:18:17] Nola: A positive one.

Yes.

Apparently, somehow.

[00:18:19] Sara: And so, I don't remember how it happened, but I ended up asking one of my girlfriends if I could get Jake's number out of her phone. And she said yes. So I called him and I was like, I like you. What do you think? And he was like, let's go on a date. So, uh, at 12 years old, my mother drove us to our first date at the movies where she was walking around the mall while we were in the movie theater. As you can imagine, it was extremely romantic, totally material for a romcom. And by that, absolutely joking. But, yeah, it's uh, quite the intriguing origin story. And now we've been together for almost 20 years and I don't think I could do life with anybody else.

[00:19:01] Nola: Aw.

[00:19:02] Lori: That is so romantic.

[00:19:04] Nola: Yes.

[00:19:05] Sara: Ish.

[00:19:07] Lori: I think it's a romantic story, but one of the things that's clear is that there's a trust that the two of you have.

[00:19:13] Sara: Yes.

[00:19:13] Lori: So, I'm going to switch us back now to the business aspect of your partnership. Can you talk about how the two of you conceptualized your business and your brand?

[00:19:25] Sara: So I've always had a little bit of a strain of entrepreneurship in me, whether it was being a little kid and trying to start a dog washing business, or operating my own art company.

[00:19:34] Nola: That's great.

[00:19:34] Sara: Jake has always also had a very, very, very strong knack for entrepreneurship and business as well. And so the two of us, it really ended up being a perfect fit. What tends to be a weakness for me, often is a strength for him and vice versa. And so we've run a variety of different businesses in the past. We actually operated an Airbnb business together that did quite well. And I think we really identified and recognized that we work very well, kind of having two different mindsets and also very interesting and different ideas that we can really bounce things off of one another. And it's worked out quite well, I would say. Yeah. You know, it's certainly not for everybody to go into business with your spouse. But it has worked fantastically for the two of us.

[00:20:17] Lori: So did the two of you come up with the idea for Women and Weapons?

[00:20:22] Sara: Yeah, so I originally painted those 10 gouache-painted pieces. I was trying to sell them online as prints and Jake was the first one who got into the NFT space and he very clearly identified that this is an advantageous area, especially for artists. And so he really is the one that nudged, nudged me and was like, you need to look into NFTs, you need to get into NFTs, you need to research about it. And that's whenever I did start researching about it. And he was the one who helped me get those pieces onto the blockchain, and he was also the one who really urged me to start working on my pieces in this 10,000-piece collection. And we recognized that we had strength in the Women and Weapons IP and that there was strength in building it out into a brand.

[00:21:02] Nola: That's great.

[00:21:03] Lori: Yeah. That is.

[00:21:05] Nola: Now speaking of your business model, how are you and your business generating revenue, both with selling to previous customers again and again versus getting new customers in that kind of space? Also, it would be great if you could include both your current and your future plans.
[00:21:25] Sara: Absolutely. So there are of course extractive methods, which are like primary sales, secondary sales, and so on. But there's also non extractive methods, right? And so this is kind of going into our current and our future plans. In regards to non-extractive, those things might be brand partnerships, myself making independent artwork, also myself being commissioned by brands to create artwork. And then our most recent avenue, which is really what we're focusing on for the future, is Nova, who is basically one of our characters that we've brought to life. We've essentially plucked her from the Women and Weapons universe and sphere to kind of tell her own story, and so she's a very non extractive source of revenue for us.

So essentially what she can do is, one, she can contain basically monetization from creator funds. Two, she can operate her own brand partnerships and bring income from that. And three, she might also have physical products that she releases in the future that can also be non-extractive sources of income as well.

[00:22:24] Lori: So it sounds like multiple streams of income.

[00:22:27] Sara: We are very, very big fans of multiple streams of income. That's pretty much something that Jake and I have been doing since day one, basically. I mean, even before I ever went to college, while I was still in high school, I had multiple streams of income. It was almost always me working a job and then me having something on the side that was like, entrepreneurial. I think for both of us, multiple streams of income has kind of been a way of life. And now that we're married and now that we have a business, we've recognized that's something that bodes well for our business as well.

[00:22:56] Lori: That's great. You're like our ideal audience,

[00:22:58] Sara: I need to listen more!

[00:23:04] Nola: Absolutely.

[00:23:04] Lori: Well, you're actually helping a lot of people who will be tuning in to listen to really think about entrepreneurship, especially creative entrepreneurship in a very different way. Which led me to this question. You have a very large digital footprint. How do you track your marketing efforts, particularly as across the digital platforms, and not just in Discord? Do you know which channels convert the best for you?

[00:23:32] Sara: That is certainly not my area of expertise. We do have a team that analyzes engagement and kind of sees what's going on across those social media platforms and allows us to convert that into sales and also identify where we should spend our time.

[00:23:45] Nola: Oh, that's great.

[00:23:46] Lori: Wonderful.

Nol: Because if you don't know it, you can always outsource it, right?

[00:23:49] Sara: Yeah, exactly. That's the thing that I think people need to realize is you don't have to be amazing at absolutely everything, but what you can be amazing at is building a team of individuals who can support the areas that you have weaknesses in.

[00:24:03] Lori: Speaking of business, again here. Although NFTs first appeared in 2014, which until I was looking for numbers to actually put behind this question, I didn't realize that. I thought it was even more recent than that. The vast majority of Americans, one stat that I found said that 70% of Americans have no idea what an NFT is. And of the 30% who do or are familiar with it, the majority of purchasers are Gen Y millennials. They're also much more heavily leaning towards men than female, like three times more likely to be a man than a woman. Not only that, but another one that blew me away was of the nations across the board with the highest NFT adoption rates by both men and women, and that doesn't mean that they're equal, it just means when you look at the numbers for men who have purchased and women who have purchased, the top three are India, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. The United States is well below that. So yeah. Have you been able to profile your audience and your buyers to know, not only who your ideal customer is, but where they're located?

[00:25:20] Sara: Yeah. So, ish, here and there, yes. And I think what we've identified is we have a lot of, and this is specific to holders, this isn't global to the NFT space. But we've identified, we have a lot of holders that are in the UK, in the United States, in Australia, in Vietnam, in India. Those are the greatest number of holders, I want to say. But it's really, really interesting to see, and one thing that I think is cool about this being such a global marketplace, is the fact that it does bring people together from all across the world and allows them a talking point and something that they can be excited about together. And I culturally, what's exciting about that is, it helps blur those cultural lines and allow us to get to know our neighbor. And so from a social aspect, I think that's really exciting and cool about the technology.

[00:26:06] Nola: Absolutely.

[00:26:07] Lori: Has that in any way impacted the way you do your branding, your marketing, or maybe not?

[00:26:15] Sara: Yes, of course the branding and the marketing is always going to have to be something that has a very specific identity to our brand. You know, it's got to have our voice, right? First and foremost. And I think a lot of our holders buy into our community because they appreciate our voice and they appreciate what the brand stands for. So in that regard, not as much. However, whenever it comes to thinking about marketing, I think one of the things that I can say is whenever you're considering the fact that you do have a global audience, you need to put out marketing materials in more than one time zone, in more than one language, and with more than one cultural reflection as well.

So one of the things that you'll notice with Women and Weapons and with a lot of my artwork as well, is that I try to have a diverse array of women who are represented within my artwork. So not just women of a specific cultural heritage, but global women. Another thing is that you really need to be agnostic and diverse whenever it comes to your marketing. So, not just tweeting, not just Discord, but also putting out videos for different time zones. Sending out newsletters and so on. Just because your United States based audience sees whatever you're posting at 10:00 AM C S T does not mean that your audience that's in Australia or Vietnam is going to see what you're posting at 10:00 AM C S T. However, they may wake up and check their email inbox and find a newsletter or an email from you that allows them to get that information or get that content, even if they missed it on social media. Because as we know, the algorithm screws with us quite a lot.

[00:27:42] Nola: I love that global perspective. That's really insightful.

[00:27:45] Lori: Yeah, me too.

[00:27:45] Nola: And with technology, more and more, your audience is going to be global. Well, we understand that you're expanding your business. You've told us about Nova, but are you expanding your business dreams beyond the Women and Weapons collection?

[00:28:01] Sara: So essentially, I guess the best way that I can respond to that is we're working on building Women and Weapons into a brand. We want Women and Weapons to be a household name, something that's well known to people as more than just an NFT collection or more than just an art collection, but rather, brand or a lifestyle brand. And so that's a big part of why we're developing Nova is because we recognize that Nova can reach people outside of just our NFT and Web 3.0 sphere. She can reach people on multiple different social media and vertical media platforms to gain an audience that's not just of our echo chamber or our bubble that we are currently in.

[00:28:35] Lori: Yeah. And speaking of Nova, so you've described Nova as a digital influencer. And typically, when we as consumers hear influencer, we tend to associate that with popular names. A person. Tell us about you and Nova and how the two of you work together.

[00:28:57] Sara: Nova is very much a personality of her own. She is her own character, essentially. I am very much separate from Nova, with the exception of my body is the body inside of the suit, and my voice is the voice of Nova. But I'm essentially personifying who she is. She's building out her own character. She's building out her own story, and I think she's going to be a lot of fun. She's got quite the quirky and sassy personality.

[00:29:23] Nola: And she's an animated character, a piece of art, as opposed to these new AI influencers that people don't even realize are not a real person. This is definitely animated, right?

[00:29:34] Sara: Yeah. So, she's fully rigged, 3D animated character. We're starting to see more and more of that here and there, a lot of brands. Think like the Geico Gecko, for example. That is a 3D, fully rigged, animated character. And Nova is as well, essentially for our brand. But she's also kind of standalone. And she's building out her story. She's telling her story. She's going to be able to partner with brands in a way that she can bring in her own non extractive income. So she's something that we're super excited about that we've been really enjoying building. We've been working on her five or six months now, and she's an absolute blast.

[00:30:09] Nola: It sounds like it. So for those who may be interested in taking their art to the metaverse, what insights have you gained that have helped you creatively and as an entrepreneur, particularly in the Web 3.0 space, and how have those insights informed the direction of your business?

[00:30:27] Sara: So I think some of the biggest lessons that we've learned is that community building is extremely important. Whenever you're jumping into, I think just about any space, but especially in the Web 3.0 space.

I think also what's important is creating a strong brand. And when I say creating a strong brand, part of what I mean is that it's important to create something that's different. That sets you apart from other things that are in the space because things are becoming saturated and you need to be different whenever you're coming in.

Also, one of the things that I think it's allowed us to learn and improve upon is our marketing skills. With building a strong brand, you also build strong marketing skills and like I mentioned earlier, that you need to kind of think about your global audience and like having information out there for them through multiple time zones, multiple languages, multiple mediums, that, a lot of that learning has come from what we've done thus far.

Also communicating our values and clearly is extremely important whenever we're building and forming the direction of our business. One of the things that I think we've really tried to push for and state frequently is that kindness and positivity is extremely important to the Women and Weapons ecosystem as well. One of the things that I do is I try to jump in Discord just about every day, if not every other day. And my sign off to the community is always, "Stay kind to one another" because we quite literally have the kindest community of human beings. And that's part of why I say stay kind to one another because they are good humans. But you know, it is something that's really become a little bit of a voice in our brand.

[00:31:54] Nola: Can you talk about that from a personal and business point of view?

[00:31:57] Sara: Yeah, I mean, I just don't see a space in which being unkind to people is ever beneficial. So I think whenever I'm conducting myself in business or whenever I'm building a brand, I really want to communicate the importance of kindness. And more than just kindness, but being a good human kind of globally. I just can't really think of any time where somebody being unkind to me has changed my mind or made me want to work with them or made me want to do something for them. Kindness does. And so even the slightest bit of our brand displaying that value or me displaying that value can allow somebody else to recognize that kindness is something that's extremely important in conducting yourself independently as a human and socially, and also in business, then I'll be happy that I've made that little bit of a mark on the world.

[00:32:45] Lori: Everything you said is best practice in business per se, but it's not something that traditional business models have followed. And it's essential, as you've pointed out, in Web 3.0.

[00:32:58] Sara: Yes.

[00:32:58] Lori: So kudos for taking that and jumping into it and creating a kind community and being attentive to them as often as conceivably possible. It's in real time when it's happening. It's not like I posted something and then I have to wait for somebody to respond. These things are happening in the moment.

[00:33:21] Sara: Yes. Yeah, a lot of the time it's fast moving. It's a very fast-paced industry.

[00:33:25] Nola: And I can't help but think but this be kind to one another gets connected to the fact that social consciousness is important to you. And you have incorporated that perspective into your business. Your company supports the Malala Foundation?

[00:33:41] Sara: Yes. Uh, the Malala Fund, which is headed up by Malala. I'm not going to try and say her last name right now because my tongue is too tied, but it's headed up by Malala, who's an incredible human being. If you haven't heard about her, I highly, highly recommend reading about her and her story. But one of her big missions is to continue to help girls in underserved countries around the world gain the opportunity to get an education. Because one of the things that a lot of statistics have shown and a lot of studies have shown is that when women have the opportunity to even gain a little bit of an education, they have a greater opportunity for gaining independence and being safe, getting a career, you name it. And so we've actually donated 5% of our primary sales for Women and Weapons, as well as 5% of our secondary sales from Women and Weapons to the Malala Fund. And it's a hundred thousand plus dollars thus far that we've been able to donate. And if that's going to help allow girls across the world that otherwise maybe wouldn't have that assistance, get the opportunity to get an education, then I am so happy that we spent the money that way.

[00:34:40] Nola: It's really significant and powerful.

[00:34:42] Sara: Yeah. And education can be your weapon.

[00:34:44] Nola: That's right. That's so true.

[00:34:47] Lori: That's great. So, what would you say are the top challenges female founders face as both creators and businesswomen in Web 3.0 and the NFT space, particularly?

[00:35:03] Sara: If we're speaking particularly, and I do feel like some of this does go globally, but I think one, being underestimated. I think two, not being taken seriously as though like this is something that we truly are passionate about, that we're wanting to build and so on. It's not happened to me personally, but I do know that there have been female founders who have been harassed. And who have been treated harshly, spoken to harshly and so on. And also, I think there's a lot of times that we don't receive the same recognition that maybe our male counterparts would receive. And if there's one thing that's true for me, it's that this really fuels my passion to prove people wrong and prove to other women that it is possible to build, to grow, to be a business person, to be an entrepreneur, to be a successful artist, or to be successful in whatever endeavor it may be that you enjoy. It just takes really going for your goals. And one of the quotes that I think has really changed my outlook on things is that "It's a risk to not take risks." And that's really, really, really changed the way that I look at things and I recognize that I may be afraid to do something, but me not taking that step could have lost me an opportunity. So I'd rather take a shot and fail and learn from those failures then not take the shot at all.

[00:36:14] Lori: I think you're a walking example. You walk the walk; you talk the talk. It's a wonderful thing. And part of that is, for Nola and myself, we are also in a minority doing podcasting.

[00:36:27] Sara: Yes.

[00:36:28] Lori: Because it's also heavily dominated and we know that entrepreneurs are typically more risk takers, and those risk takers tend to be more male. So for us, wanting to help more women step into this is really important. And then we use our podcast as a way to educate, inform, give them tips, tools, and all of that. From your experience, do you have any suggestions that you could offer for overcoming particularly some of the challenges that you hit on or pointed out?

[00:37:00] Sara: Well, first and foremost, it's not easy. I think a lot of it takes reframing your brain and reframing how you take in criticism. I think for me, I'm very well aware that these things are happening, right? I'm very, very well aware of it. However, it does not deter me from seeking my goals and achieving my goals. So just because people say that you can't or you're not going to be able to do it, or you're just a girl or whatever, does not deter me from wanting to achieve those goals and go forward. And even though it may hurt and even though it may suck and so on, doesn't mean that you should give up. Some of it, you can take it as criticism that maybe you can use as constructive criticism to evolve and build, but you shouldn't let it stop you.

[00:37:43] Nola: That's great.

[00:37:44] Lori: That's perfect. Thank you, Sara, for being our guest. You've been an inspiration and we hope it encourages more women to explore not only art and the creative entrepreneurship, but the NFT space as well. If listeners want to learn more about you, about Women and Weapons, about Nova, how can they do that? Where can they go to connect with you?

[00:38:06] Sara: First and foremost, a lot of our social links are on our website, which is WomenandWeapons.io across pretty much all social channels our handle is Women and Weapons. Myself, across pretty much every social channel is NFT Sara, s a r a b a u m a n n, and then Nova is either The Rise of Nova or Rise of Nova on social media platforms. And I certainly invite people to reach out to me if they have any questions. Feel free to connect on LinkedIn. I'm an avid fan of LinkedIn. But yeah, that's where you guys can find me. Thank you for asking that.

[00:38:40] Lori: You're welcome. And listeners, we'll be sure to put all those links in our show notes as well. Remember, like with most major decisions, starting a business comes with its own set of challenges, so take time to determine if the risks are right for you. Just don't let your analysis become your paralysis. And be sure to stick around to the very end of this podcast for a fun little surprise.

[00:39:04] Nola: If you found the information helpful and want more tools, tips, and inspiration delivered to your inbox, sign up for our News You Can Use at stickybrandlab.com.

[00:39:14] Lori: Be sure to come back next Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative, inspiring, and motivating episode. And remember, actions create results. So tap into your desire to create a business and brand you love by taking 1% action every day. Small steps, big effects.

[OUT-TAKE]

[00:39:35] Nola: Well wonder, no more listener, because today we are talking to a former occupational therapist.  take again. Retake
[00:39:43] Lori: Furapurse.
[00:39:43] Nola: I know. purapurst.
[00:39:46] Sara: That was a good Thur.
[00:39:47] Nola: it was really good. Yeah.