#127: Why Non-Linear Career Paths Are The Future with Podcast Host & Media Entrepreneur Carly Reilly

Show Notes

Attitudes about work have changed over the last decade and even more significantly since the pandemic, making the non-linear career path, the best path. 

In this episode, co-hosts Lori Vajda and Nola Boea talk with the founder and CEO of Overpriced Media; Carly Reilly is the host of Overpriced JPEGs, a podcast and newsletter about NFTs and the metaverse. She shares her transition from hedge fund analyst to media entrepreneur, and how following a non-linear career track freed her to pursue her passions, interests and start her own company.

Thanks for listening! Let’s stay connected!

If you enjoyed this show, subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen. That way, you’ll never miss an inspiring, motivating episode. 

Want more helpful tools, tips, and inspiration delivered to your inbox? Sign up  for “News You Can Use” at Sticky Brand Lab

We love hearing your feedback! Leave or speak your message here

If you haven’t already, please connect with us on Facebook! 

Would you like to be a featured guest or have your question, comment, or review mentioned? Ask Muse!

Business success strategies are in the works. Come have a listen!
In This Episode You’ll Learn 

• How a non-linear career path is different from job hopping.
• Take the right steps for nonlinear career path success.
• The business side of NFT/Web3 space.
• How the key tenets to follow your curiosity can lead to a new career or side business. 

Key points Lori and Nola are sharing in this episode:

(05:02:66) How following your curiosity can lead you to discover not only a non-linear career path, but work you are excited and passionate about.

(07:13:38) The journey into the NFT space and Crypto currency began years earlier. However, it wasn’t until 2021 and all the misinformation for Carly to make a career change into the industry with the podcast, Overpriced JPEGs   
(10:39:78) The inspiration for Overpriced JPEGs was the lack of understanding. There's a core ideology or kind of ethos to crypto and NFTs, which is around a certain amount of empowerment for creators, as well as empowerment for people.

(12:44:55) If I'm being totally honest, I went and had dinner at Paris Hilton's house. I'm telling you, I think if I was a man, I wouldn't have been invited to that dinner.

(17:26:52) How Carly made the move from NFT podcaster to founder of her own media company and began to diversify its revenue streams.

(30:17:67) Tips for exploring the marketplace on Web3/NFT

Resources 

Overpriced JPEGs podcast - https://jpegs.banklesshq.com/  

Bankless - http://podcast.banklesshq.com/  

Zen Academy - https://zenacademy.com/ 

Twitter - @CarlyPReilly

You can subscribe to Lori and Nola's show (we love you and want to make it easy) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

ConvertKit: Our #1 Favorite Email Marketing Platform   (This is an affiliate link)

Transcript

[00:00:00] Lori: Attitudes about work have changed significantly since the start of the pandemic. As more people started working from home, many have realized they could be more efficient in their jobs. And rather than spend their time commuting to work, they would rather spend their time with significant others, with their kids, or get ahead on chores. As people return to the office, they're bringing with them those new habits and expectations. But that's not the only workforce trend these days. More people are moving away from a linear career path and shifting to work that better aligns with their stage of life or their desire to follow their own curiosity, interests, and passions.

Stay tuned listener, because in this episode, we are interviewing Carly Reilly. Once a hedge fund analyst, then a finance director, and now a media entrepreneur. How did she make the transition? What has she learned that can help you successfully change the course of your career? And where does she see the future of work and technology heading? We'll be covering all that and so much more.

[00:01:05] Nola: Welcome to Sticky Brand Lab, 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 jumpstart your side business. We're your hosts. I'm Nola Boea and this is my co-host, Lori Vajda

[00:01:22] Lori: Hello. And hello, Nola.

[00:01:25] Nola: Hello, Lori. As you just mentioned, a lot of people have come to a reckoning of sorts as a result of experiencing job burnout, followed by the benefits of remote work combined with that need for personal growth and professional development. And with all of those things coming together, things have really changed. More people, they're not only questioning the traditional 40-hour work week; but they're also taking a critical eye to where, how, and what they're getting out of their careers.

And our guest today has a firsthand experience on that subject. Meet Carly Reilly. Carly is the founder and CEO of Overpriced Media, a Web 3.0 media brand born out of curiosity: Are these JPEGs overpriced or is there more to this story? Carly hosts Overpriced JPEGs podcast and newsletter about NFTs and the Metaverse. In addition to producing and being co-host of Between Two Layers with Immutable X, which is an NFT minting and trading platform. Prior to this, Carly spent two years as the National Finance Director for Andrew Yang's 2020 presidential campaign, and she's a former co-host of the Yang Speaks podcast. She is a Washington Post contributor and has been featured by Bloomberg News. Welcome, Carly!

[00:02:46] Carly: Thank you guys. So excited to be here.

[00:02:48] Lori: Yes, we are so excited. Before we talk about the twists and turns of the career path you've taken to entrepreneurship, can you tell us a little bit about your podcast, Overpriced JPEGs?

[00:03:00] Carly: Sure. So overpriced JPEGs, maybe what people expect if they've been tracking the NFT industry at all, which is, uh, it's a podcast about NFTs, it's about Web 3.0. In some ways, I would say it, it's covering the creator economy, which I think NFTs are really at the heart of, is this creator empowerment movement that in some ways, I think social media really kicked off.

but we cover really everything that we think is interesting in this Web 3.0 landscape, and it's sort of one component of our business now, which we also have a pretty sizable newsletter that does the same thing by the same name, Overpriced JPEGs. As was mentioned We have another podcast called Between Two Layers, which we do through Immutable X, which is an Ethereum scaling solution. So that's a little bit more deep tech and we focus on some gaming stuff over there. And so it's sort of a broad ranging business now, covering a lot of different aspects of Web 3.0.

[00:03:46] Nola: That's very cool. So, how did your prior job as finance director and even your start working in a hedge fund, how did all that prepare you for what you're doing today? Or did it?

[00:03:58] Carly: As we talk about like the new economy and the way things are changing, I do somewhat subscribe to the idea that the most valuable skill in the economy now is the ability to learn new skills. So even while it may sound like there was a linearity in some way to being at a hedge fund and then being a finance director on a political campaign, they were pretty different jobs.

And I snuck a couple other in there in between, very briefly, where I worked at a production company, which was totally unrelated to either of those two things, right? And so I think leading me up to this moment was definitely just that I had tried a bunch of different things and had to learn to adapt and develop the skills I needed for different jobs. And that is almost more than anything, I feel like the continuity point from each of my careers to now. I'm sure there's others. I mean, look, all of them are sort of in finance for the most part.

The other thing I would say is I think the ability to think critically. Like the hedge fund I was at, definitely sort of followed a Warren Buffet style of investing called value investing. So it's very much like, "be greedy when others are fearful, fearful when others are greedy," which I think has borne a certain contrarianism in me, which I definitely led me to the Yang campaign and which you can see today in that I'm in an industry that I think a lot of people think is just scams or very skeptical of.

I'm drawn to things that I think are misunderstood or that other people are missing something about. So that's been the other, I think, theme that I've learned in each of the different, call it careers that I've had.

[00:05:14] Lori: I like the fact that you put yourself out there. If your curiosity is there and you want to explore it to really weigh the facts and not kind of the fear, focus, how that opens you up to following your curiosity.

So, for people taking that leap of faith and venturing into a new field, or even just seeking out new skills that they feel totally out of their comfort zone. Carly, based on your experience and the people that you've interviewed, what would you say they've typically followed? Has it been the traditional and then what they're doing like in the NFT space is their side business? Or, have they themselves kind of taken that journey, those twists and turns without a clear focus?

[00:06:00] Carly: I think it totally varies, right? Everyone's journey and experience is a little bit different. I mean, you said it and it's something that has always really resonated for me since I heard it some number of years ago. I think it's Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote, Eat, Pray, Love, which was like, follow your curiosity. You know, I spent a lot of time when I was younger, trying to be like, oh my gosh, what is my passion? I've never found that to be a very helpful question. And again, Elizabeth Gilbert said this really well, right? Which is, if you had a passion that was just, you were born with it, one particular passion, you wouldn't need to be told to follow it because it's your passion. You would just be following it. Like most of us were not born, like I absolutely must be a pop star. You know, we're not Taylor Swift or Tiger Woods who just like at three years old know exactly what we want to be. That's a very, very, very tiny fraction of the population. And so follow your passion is sort of this very, in my opinion, dumb advice. And we're starting to, I think people are, are giving it less, because I think there's like a broader recognition that that's sort of useless advice, but the much more interesting piece of advice, and this is always what's resonated is follow your curiosity. And so that's really, I think how I've ended up on my journey is just really listening to anything in my heart or my head that's like, oh, that's kind of interesting. And it doesn't have to be something that I'm the least bit passionate about, but if I think it's kind of interesting, I start chasing down that rabbit hole.

So that was really the case for me with NFTs and with crypto at the hedge fund, however, many years ago, five, six years ago now. I learned a little bit about crypto, learned a little bit about Ethereum. I was like, oh, that's kind of interesting. And I was interested in it back then, I didn't fully follow that rabbit hole. I ended up going down other rabbit holes, right? But, uh, it's planted that seed such that when it came back around in early 2021 and a lot was happening in this ecosystem again, that curiosity was re peaked. And then it just so happened that here I am. And it all has been step by step like, oh, I'm kind of interested in this. Okay, I think I want to work in this industry. Okay, I'll quit my job to go be in that industry. And then this podcast opportunity came up and now I have an entire business built around that in a way that I could have never really predicted. And it wasn't because I was like, this is my passion. It was like, oh, this is interesting. Like I want to see where this takes me. So I think that's a huge thing, is just stay attuned to that in yourself. Like what is striking you?

[00:08:07] Lori: Being an early adopter comes with so many naysayers. So many people who, without knowing themselves, the facts of the space, just automatically are so uncomfortable with doing something in a totally different way that they push back negatively. How have you managed to be so curious, I want to explore this. I want, to even start my entrepreneurship really going full-fledged forward in here. How do you overcome those barriers?

[00:08:39] Carly: I kind of take pride. I don't mind having a lot of naysayers about something. To an extent. I think there's an element of kind of get proud of that. Decide that it's fun to go against the pack, right? Decide that it's fun and it can be kind of a part of your identity that you don't just sort of follow along with what everyone else thinks or says or does. That's always been a little bit how I am, which isn't to say like I don't go out of my way. I'm not trying to say outlandish things to get a reaction, but I usually kind of more privately like observed what everyone else is saying and kind of natural instinct is to say like, what might be wrong about this thing that everybody around me seems to think is true, or what might be the piece of context that's missing here?

And then that's just allowed me to feel comfortable when I go and take a path that other people are disagreeing with because I didn't, I don't want to sound like I didn't respect their opinion to begin with. That is way too strong to state it. I just didn't put too much stock in their opinion to begin with because I always wanted to be a little bit independently in that way.

So I think it's getting comfortable with that. Life is short. Be happy. You may be interested in something that doesn't go against the grain or that doesn't make you an early adopter and great, go follow that curiosity then. I just think that it's cliche, but there really is a lot of truth to the kind of life I wanted. It has always felt kind of apparent to me that if I worry too much about what other people are thinking, there's just no way I'm going to have the life I want to have because it's going to push me. in a direction that I think is going to feel unfulfilling to me.

[00:09:52] Nola: What was it exactly about getting into the Web 3.0 space that really captured your interest enough to get you involved as much as you are?

[00:10:02] Lori: Or like starting a podcast?

[00:10:03] Carly: I don't know. It touches on a number of things that just strike my curiosity, even when it was really popular, it was kind of clear to me that it was popular for, in some cases, the wrong reasons. People think NFTs are dead now, right? Because prices have fallen so tremendously and volume has fallen so tremendously. But when it was alive, people kind of thought it was alive because you had pieces of artwork selling for $69 million, which to me, all of that was always a misunderstanding of the fundamental value proposition here. Clearly those prices, that was a bubble and that was unsustainable. But there was something deeper to this technology. We're kind of rewriting the internet along new lines. And there's a core ideology or kind of ethos to crypto and NFTs, which is around a certain amount of empowerment for creators, but just empowerment for people. It's about autonomy in some ways, both financial autonomy and creative autonomy. And so there was a certain value system there at its core that again, I think gets lost a lot of times in the speculation and in all the financialization of it. But there's a core set of values there that I, uh, tend to resonate with.

That makes perfect sense.

[00:11:04] Lori: It does. So based on your experience as well as being a host and doing interviews with other professionals who have taken their creative work and turned it into a business, what are some of the top challenges that you've seen in general and in particular as it relates to female founders?

[00:11:26] Carly: This might be a controversial take, but I think in some ways it's the expectation that you're going to have a lot more obstacles as a female founder. I think we hold ourselves back sometimes, and again, I don't know, I'm quoting Elizabeth Gilbert so much in this episode, I don't even listen to her that much, but she wrote a book called Big Magic about like living creatively that I thought was really awesome. She is a writer, she has so many women who want to be writers who come up to her and she's like, we feel like we need a permission slip for things. Like, I think so often women in particular. And because there, there's so much that's on our shoulders in terms of caring for a family and for so many things, right? But we kind of more often feel like we need to be told you can do this. Like, it's okay. You have permission to go and do what you want to do or follow your dreams. And I think that's a big piece of crypto too, is I sometimes worry about the narrative that I think often stems from a good place, but that, oh, it's hard to be a woman in tech. Or, oh, it's hard to be a woman in, in crypto. Or, oh, there's so many men here. Oh, there's so few women here. Because I worry, it ends up having a counterproductive effect where I think the kind of goal people who are saying that usually want there to be more women, but I worry that women hear that and then are like, well I don't want to go do that. It sounds like it's a bunch of dudes. It sounds like it sucks. And so I really try to be somebody who's like, I've had a really lovely experience as a woman in crypto. And honestly, in some ways I think I've had certain advantages. Because I think there are a lot of really well-meaning people, men and women, who want more women around. And so who give me opportunities that I maybe wouldn't have if I was a man.

But if I'm being totally honest, I went and had dinner at Paris Hilton's house. I'm telling you; I think if I was a man, I wouldn't have been invited to that dinner. So there's obviously things you have to contend with, which is they're going to be, can I curse on this? There're going to be jerks online, let's say, right? There are jerks online who are usually anonymous. Who might say jerkish things to you on Twitter, if you're having an opinion as a woman. There's going to be jerks everywhere and there's going to be naive people everywhere who are going to have some disadvantages. But I think if you lean into and look for the ways in which it's positive, you can really find them too. So I would say that that's one thing.

On the other hand, there's just a ton of obstacles for anyone in this space. The user experience, user interfaces for getting into crypto are absolutely awful. like is like, well, this is a nascent industry, but that's also why there's opportunity here, right? Because there are barriers to entry, right? The industries where there's really no barriers to entry, there's just a lot more competition in it. My podcast, getting invited to have dinner at Paris Hilton's, right? Like that's because I'm in an industry where there's just fewer people here because of those barriers to entry, which means there's less competition. And so if you're willing to put in a little bit of that work to overcome some of those obstacles when it comes to UI, UX, weird terms, you know, there's like terminology you have to learn, the rewards are outsized for that because there's a lot of people who don't want to put in that work and don't want to kind of overcome those obstacles.

[00:13:57] Nola: So are you saying that you have not, or have you experienced what many women say is that intimidation factor of talking tech in a male dominated area?

[00:14:07] Carly: It's such a weird question to answer. Cause like the truth is I haven't had that, but I, I never want to like undermine somebody else's experience. Right. Or say, I think any woman who says she's had that intimidation factor Yeah, it's totally valid. And that's coming from somewhere valid. I think I haven't had too much of that. I really am somebody who believes in like what you feed grows and where you look is what you'll see more of. Because I've been interested in this, like I've always just been committed to looking at the positives. And then I see a lot of the positives. I feel weird answering that sometimes. Cause I, I haven't felt very held back by being a woman at all. It is the total truth. And I felt almost like there's more advantages to it than there are disadvantages. But I worry about saying that. And then other women, you know, feeling misrepresented because of that in some way.

[00:14:44] Lori: So what I like about what you are saying is it comes with the territory, but if you're following in either your curiosity or your passion for doing something, you see this as part of moving forward. You see this as part of fulfilling your destiny, your passion, and not as. Much of a limitation or an obstacle to getting there.

[00:15:05] Carly: Yeah, absolutely. And again, I think as much as there are people out there who are sexist or jerks, there's a lot of men and women out there who aren't. It is the truth, right? And we are just more aware as people than we were a decade ago, two decades ago, three decades ago.

I've joked to some of my friends before, I'm like, girl dads are the secret. Like the number of older men who are in positions of power or authority, who have been really helpful to me in very uncreepy ways, who also have daughters, is really striking. Like I think there's a lot of men now who have daughters and are really excited to have their daughters grow up in a different world and be empowered, who have been great champions for me and for the show and for what, what I'm doing. So there's a lot of good with the bad as well that I think it's so important to be aware of if you're diving in.

[00:15:48] Nola: You had mentioned that sometimes women just feel like they need, I think you quoted a permission slip to participate in something that may be a little unconventional, but do you feel that a lot of the women in this space that you've interviewed have that permission slip or some particular type of boldness that makes them succeed in this space? What do you think makes them different?

[00:16:10] Carly: Yeah. By virtue of the fact that they're here, they've decided that they had permission to be here for some reason or another, right? Whether they inherently had it internally, they just like gave themselves permission or somebody else said, yes, you're good at this, come do it.

I mean, I think even of myself, and I'm like a pretty bold person, but the reality is like I had been interested in having an NFT podcast before I had one, and it was really Bankless (Bankless is a company that my podcast was sort of initially through, and now it's sort of independent) but the Bankless founders had come to me and said, Hey, would you start a show with us? And that was sort of, you could think of as almost the permission slip that I needed to come get into this somebody else sort of telling me, you'd be good at this, why don't you do it? Right? You know, this is not to say that I'm not one of those women who sometimes needs to be told that I have permission.

I think it's a combination of the women I've interviewed in this space. Some probably just being like super bold and brazen on their own in, in all the most amazing ways, being like, yeah, this is what I'm interested in. I'm going to go do it. And maybe others who, and I haven't talked to them about this necessarily, but who had somebody else in their life give them that permission slip in one way or another, say like, Hey, you should come do this. Hey, you should go do that. But I mean, the women in this space are amazing. They say it's like hard to make friends as an adult. And I've made you know, a number of who I hope to be really lifelong friends from women I've met in crypto who are just like fantastic people. So fun, so smart. So yeah. So there's something about maybe being here as a woman that you know, you end up bonding in a certain way, perhaps.

[00:17:26] Lori: Speaking of, you were asked to do the podcast, it started off in one direction and it's really evolved into this whole media company. Can you talk about how you did that? What was that journey like for you?

[00:17:38] Carly: Yeah, it felt both gradual and fast. You know what I mean? like, I feel like I kind of looked up at the end of last year, and so just to give people some color into this, the podcast had started through this company called Bankless in November of 2021. The way that had worked, I always owned the IP, like the intellectual property for the show, which was important to me, but Bankless handled sponsor management, production of the show, like some of the logistical things, and then we had a rev share agreement, where we just kind of shared on the revenue of the podcast.

And then at the end of last year, when I was looking at the size of our newsletter, we knew we wanted to do a series of live events for a variety of reasons. I had been approached by this company, Immutable X, to do a podcast for them. So we had this branded podcast I would say arm of the business that's maybe exaggerating it. It's one other podcast, right? But you know this other part of the business, and it was like this rev share agreement just didn't really fit all of these things that we had going on anymore. And so Bankless has been awesome and they totally agreed with that as well. And they ended up making a seed investment in the company. We wanted to stay aligned with one another and for a variety of reasons. I mean, we were entangled in all these ways that to fully untangle would've been kind of painful for both of us if we weren't aligned together. So they made a small seed investment in the company at the end of last year and we sort of operationally separated starting sort of end of last year really into this year where I then hired up my own team to handle production, to handle some of the sponsor side stuff, which that's been a challenge. It's so funny. We're like, we separated it the like they passed off the sponsor management to me, right? As companies were like, cool, we're not spending any money anymore. Great. So we're an ad supported business in a time when it's never been harder to get advertisers, or in the last 10 years, it probably hasn't been harder to get advertisers.

So, you know, I'm now having to think about, all right, what, how can we diversify our revenue sources, for example? So we have been an entirely ad supported. Well, we just launched a paid component to our newsletter. So now we have, uh, you know, something that'll come out weekly that'll be only for paid subscribers, a little bit more deep dive research, data-driven sort of look and analysis of the industry.

And that's allowing us to diversify our revenue outside of just like being dependent on advertisers and you know, starting to get some other revenue. So anyway, it's been like, I feel like everything with my career, which is like one step at a time, you know, like you look at the immediate need in front of you. Like I was looking at sort of what we had going on in the business was looking at, okay, you know, this sort of original agreement we had didn't make sense. Even getting to this point in the business was sort of gradual of like, okay, well now Immutable X has approached me and said that they want to do a thing. So I guess we're going to start doing a podcast here and, and then you look up and you're like, I guess I have a media business.

[00:19:55] Lori: I want to take a step back for just a second to kind of paint this big picture from how you grew up in your family. Was it supported to be this curious to go on a path that's unknown and follow it? Or is there an expectation that someday, Carly, you're going to have to settle down and follow this traditional roadmap? Is your way of thinking about work and the way you spend your time and even the future of retirement, is that aligned with your family? Is that aligned with something different?

[00:20:28] Carly: This is why I feel so lucky and I'm so sympathetic to people who don't want to take a riskier path. Because I did have a lot of support from my parents. I mean, I joke and they, I think they joke about this, like I do think I pretty early on, like beat them into submission. Like I was like at a pretty young age. I was very much, I'm going to go do what I want to do, love you guys. But this is the plan. Like as much as not the, I had a specific roadmap, but I was just very clearly kind of independent in that way. And you know, their whole thing was, if you're not asking us for money and you're not doing things that are illegal or drugs, great. You know what I mean? We support your happiness. As long as we don't have to support you, you know, once you hit a certain age. So, I think the fact that I've always made my rent has made them be like, all right, you know, she can go do what she wants to do. Like she's paying her own way. When I think though about my childhood, so again, I have amazing parents who have been incredibly supportive of me growing up, and this is no longer true because both the political parties have changed a lot. But growing up my dad was a Republican and my mom was a Democrat. And I actually think that shaped me a lot in that way when I talk about being an independent thinker or being kind of a contrarian or looking at what the group is saying and kind of disagreeing. I think part of that stems from an early age, having two people, the two people that I loved and respected most. Right? The two people that you looked to as your examples of adults not agreeing about politics. And it made me realize like you can have different opinions and both have valid perspectives. And so when I would see everybody just have one perspective, and I grew up in Vermont, which is obviously a very liberal state. So most of my classmates and peers were all Democrats. And I remember really young being this man that I really like, my dad, doesn't agree with these people, and I think he's really smart. There must be something else going on here. But yeah, I think that was really formative for me. And so I think it's good in a lot of really positive ways.

[00:21:59] Lori: So do you have any tips or suggestions for women in particular, who really are thinking about following their curiosity and maybe taking a non-linear approach to career, for people who are wanting to get their feet wet and try out what this whole Web 3.0 and NFT space is like, and they don't really know enough about it and they feel uncertain. Do you have any tips for those people based on your experience or the professionals that you've interviewed who are really making a name for themselves in this space?

[00:22:33] Carly: I'm not going to pretend this is like a thing you can learn in a day. It's a slow burn of living it, probably a couple hours a week, you know, over time to really start to familiarize yourself with the language. I mean, I've been doing this podcast now. I still feel like a year in I would have these, Hey, I really get it now. Moments, which shows like, it really takes time to really grasp this stuff.

Obviously, I'll plug my own podcast Overpriced JPEGs. I mean, at this stage we're probably, if you were to just like try and hop into one of our episodes right now and you knew, nothing, it would be hard to follow. I'm not going to pretend. But there are a lot of podcasts out there for people who are newer. Bankless, a company that launched us, has some really awesome resources for just getting started in crypto. Oh, oh my gosh. I'll shout out Zen Academy. He's my favorite. So Zen Academy, ZenAca's amazing quote unquote influencer creator in this space. And I think if you go to the Zen Academy website, just Google Zen Academy, they have something now where basically they'll send you like a tip in your inbox. I think it's like once a day for like two weeks. And it's kind of like slow onboarding of things and like, here's a first little three-minute module that you can learn. And so really trying to step by step get you onboarded into the space. So Zen Academy would be where I would say go.

But if you're not getting it day one, day two, day three, day 30, day 60, that is not necessarily because you're stupid or you're not cut out for it. Everyone struggles with it in the beginning and it takes time for everyone to get there. If you're at all interested in it, don't give up because you feel like you're not quote unquote good at enough at it out the gate. Just stay with it. I just want to validate for people that if you're finding it confusing, if you don't understand it, that's very normal. There's nothing wrong with you.

[00:24:02] Nola: This has been a fascinating if not inspiring show today. I've loved this conversation. And wrapping it up. I do have a final question. How would you describe a vibrant life and career?

[00:24:18] Carly: Mm. Okay. Well, pulling on some of the themes of conversation. I would say, curiosity driven, I would say, unexpected, for me, for sure. I have, I think, a consistent theme for my career, and it doesn't look like that when you hear hedge fund, but I won't get into why this has been true, but like it has actually been to put myself in positions where there's unexpected upside, you know, like if I, I'm in an organization and I can look up and know exactly what the track is going to be, that's never been really interesting to me. Like I joined a very small hedge fund where there were interesting upside potential, and then I joined Andrew Yang's presidential campaign very early where nobody thought that was going to do anything interesting, but there was clearly unexpected upside potential there. So I think curiosity driven, unexpected, and then of course, like full of love and laughter and insert all the corny platitudes here that are true

[00:25:04] Lori: Yeah,

[00:25:04] Nola: Absolutely.

[00:25:05] Lori: It's kind of like, don't wait, enjoy the journey,

[00:25:07] Carly: Absolutely.

[00:25:08] Lori: is what I'm hearing you say, and I love that. Thank you, Carly, for being our guest. You've been such an inspiration. We hope it inspires more people and women in particular to look at starting their own business as well as to get into the NFT industry and to think about the benefits or the upside to a non-linear career path. If a listener wanted to learn more about you, your podcast, overpriced JPEGs, or to find out more about your newsletter and what else is happening in this, where can they go to connect with you?

[00:25:39] Carly: Yes, you can follow me on Twitter, which is where I'm most active, @CarlyPReilly, r e i l l y. I'm assuming you guys will put the links below so folks don't have to memorize the spelling there. And then Overpriced JPEGs, you can also follow that on Twitter. You can go to JPEGs.BanklessHQ.com and yeah, if you google us, Overpriced JPEG, you can find the podcast, the newsletter, all the pieces.

[00:26:00] Lori: We'll absolutely put the links to all the websites that you've shared here today in our show notes as well as on our website.

And remember, listener, starting a business comes with its own set of challenges. So take time to determine if the risks as well as the rewards 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.

[00:26:25] Nola: If you found the information we've shared, helpful and want more tools, tips, and inspiration delivered to your inbox, sign up for News You Can Use, over on our website, stickybrandlab.com.

[00:26:36] 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]

[00:26:58] Carly: Yeah, I think I planned on having a,

[00:27:00] Nola: Oh, sorry. I, I was taking notes and there was a cue and I was like totally oblivious. I forgot that I had a part to say in that. Right, Nola? Oops, sorry.

[00:27:16] Lori: Nevermind. I like the fact that, Carly, thank you very much for like having my back.

[00:27:22] Carly: Don't worry. Often, I'm ready to ad lib whatever y'all need.
​
[00:27:25] Lori: You're the best. I'm going to do that one line again, Nola, just so that you can add your commentary, that kinda sets it up for you. That's too funny though. I get it. Okay.