#57 - NFT Business: What Women Need To Know Before Getting Started In The Blockchain Space

Show Notes

In this episode, Lori Vajda and Nola Boea explore the business side of the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) marketplace with entrepreneur, NFT Mini Monkey Mafia co-founder and graphic artist, Christine Gu. 
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Come hear as Christine shares her experience, lessons learned and recommendations for women who are interested in launching their own business in the NFT metaverse. Representation is important for women in the blockchain and Crypto NFT space. We hope this episode inspires you to get involved in a Discord community or launch your own business.

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In This Episode You’ll Learn 

• How the NFT marketplace provides business possibilities for creatives and entrepreneurs. 
• Why now is the ideal time for women to learn, explore and get involved in the NFT space. 
• Terminology basics to build your confidence and help you overcome your fear of blockchain and how it works.
• Learn how women can safely get involved and start their own businesses in the NFT space.

Key points Nola and Lori are sharing in this episode:

• (3:24:79) Learn basic terminology used within the NFT space, including metaverse, blockchain, and how to engage.  
• (6:07.79) How to find, buy and sell NFTs on platforms like OpenSea and other Ethereum platforms.
• (7:26.45) Step-by-step guide to making purchases using Ethereum, gas fees, fluctuations, digital wallets and Metamask. 
• (12:47.68) How ownership/transactions of art, contracts, content, and other products works and why more entrepreneurs will start businesses on the blockchain.
• (21:20:35) Christening explains the operations of starting and running a female co-founded business in the NFT space. 
• (32:09:85) Unique business ideas for those wanting to explore the NFT space and how to get started.

Resources 

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.

Links: 

• Christine's personal portfolio: https://christinegu.com/ 
• Christine's Twitter: https://twitter.com/chr15tine_gu 
• Mini Monkey Mafia OpenSea link: https://opensea.io/collection/minimonkeymafia 
• Mini Monkey Mafia website: https://monkeymafia.co/ 
• Click here for a list of NFT links mentioned in this episode
• ConvertKit: Our #1 Favorite Email Marketing Platform  (This is an affiliate link)​​

Transcript

[00:00:00] Nola: The market for non-fungible tokens. AKA NFTs seems to have exploded recently, especially in the art, music and collectible markets. However, NFTs are not just for crypto art, memorabilia or celebrities. In fact, there are a lot of possible applications for NFTs across a variety of industries. And, as with any new or emerging marketplace, there's a learning curve that comes along with those opportunities. Stick around listeners because this episode we'll be discussing what you need to know before using NFT technology to launch your business idea.

[00:00:35] Announcer: You're listening to the Sticky Brand Lab podcast, where time strapped professionals, like you learn how to create a business you love in as little as three hours a week.

[00:00:45] Lori: Welcome back to part two of our interview with subject matter expert NFT entrepreneur and artist, Christine Gu. If you're just tuning in and haven't listened to part one, you may want to listen to that episode first, as we cover a lot of foundational information regarding the NFT metaverse. However, it's not essential to understanding what we'll be talking about here today, which has a lot to do with the practical applications of running a business in the NFT marketplace.
But before Christine shares her experiences, lessons learned and recommendations for anyone interested in launching a business in this new and exciting paradigm, welcome back to Sticky Brand Lab, the podcast where we share essential entrepreneurial tools, shortcuts, and advice from leading entrepreneurs, industry experts, and our own real-world experience, so professional women, like you can mindfully launch your side business quickly and without breaking the bank or feeling overwhelmed. Because the only thing more empowering than knowledge is being able to take confident, decisive action.

[00:01:53] Nola: Have you ever considered what happens to your digital storefront, movie, or music you purchase through your digital platform or streaming service? That's the question that often comes up when you stop paying monthly subscription fees. And the bigger question might be. Did you really own it to begin with? Although you were paying for digital goods and services, you don't really own them. The big tech platform does, and it's this type of frustration that has people looking elsewhere, particularly the world of blockchain. While no system is perfect NFTs, make ownership clear, and it's not just for memorabilia, music, content, and art. NFTs can also be videos, contracts, coupons, certificates of authenticity, ID files, health records, and more. And they involve all of the supportive businesses that surround them from industries like healthcare, legal, finance and marketing to name just a few. And today we're talking about the business aspects of NFTs with our returning guest, Christine Gu.
Welcome back Christine.

[00:02:57] Christine: Thank you, I'm so glad to be back.

[00:03:01] Lori: We're so glad you're here. You shared so much information about your experience in episode one and helped us understand some of the technology and some of the terminology that is sometimes overwhelming, especially in this new paradigm. So we're excited today to look at it from the business component. But before we go into operations and some other pertinent information, it would be great if you could explain some of the things related to the NFT metaverse.

[00:03:35] Christine: I would say the metaverse is kind of like a platform in this internet space where all of these people are suddenly together and they're able to interact with each other. So it's finding ways to connect people together from all over the world, from all walks of life that are beyond like your small social circles or small social communities. And you're able to connect them in a way where you guys are building a community together.
And I think this is what differs the metaverse from regular social media. So the regular social media, you have interactions here and there with people that you might not know as well, or like maybe a little outside of your industry, but there's nothing that binds you together like a community. And I think the metaverse just introduces that community aspect of we're all here for a specific reason, whether it's because we bought into a certain artist's work, all like a certain thing in the space, whether it be like a hobby or a shared interest or so forth.

So that's how I interpret the metaverse. But currently, as fast as what there's growing along with this crypto and blockchain space, I also want to say, like the idea and description of the metaverse is going to be very different based on who you talk to and the time period in which it is defined because this place is still being expanded and reshaped every single day

[00:04:50] Nola: So it's constantly evolving, and that is the definition at this particular point in time. Yes.

[00:04:57] Lori: Right. And I like that, you kind of come in understanding there's an expectation to participate. You can come in as a voyeur in the beginning, but you're not going to make connections and achieve your goal.
If you're just observing, you have to participate. So from the metaverse being the overarching component, when you get into an NFT community, that also has its own set of rules, if you will, or guidelines, and you call that what?

[00:05:34] Christine: They're known as like NFT communities, but I think for each one they have a certain name for their community or at least some of them, like for us, we just call ours The Mafia because it's Mini Monkey Mafia, and they have certain language or certain words that kind of tie things together. And I think that's kind of what solidifies the community it's like bringing in a group of people and creating a culture around what they do. And as each entity community evolves, that community is also going to evolve with it along with like their culture, their brand, how people view them and so forth.

[00:06:07] Nola: Well that's fascinating. What is a marketplace and how do those work?

[00:06:13] Christine: I believe the marketplace that you're referring to would be like where you can actually, find, sell and buy NFTs. So it's kind of just like the place that you trade and sell. Most cases you're able to buy and sell NFTs on OpenSea using Ethereum and most NFTs are built on top of Ethereum, which is the blockchain platform where you're actually able to build using this one code base called Solidity. Or the dollar sign E T H is the currency in which you're able to buy and trade. With that being said, when it comes to the marketplace, I think the maturity of these NFTs are bought and sold on a platform called OpenSea. But then there are other areas that do support the marketplace. I believe like Showtime is a way. They say it's Instagram for NFTs and, or the new Instagram and what you're able to view other artists and NFTs, but I'm not sure whether I can buy and sell them. I think our Zora is also coming out with something very, very similar, but I'm also not familiar whether or not you're able to buy and sell on our Zora. So there are other platforms for you're able to view the artist's work. But the one that I know the most is OpenSea where you're explicitly able to buy and sell.

[00:07:26] Lori: Great. So just to clarify, in order to make a purchase, there are a few things the buyer needs to know or have, and in that case, the whole idea around currency looks a lot different than it does here. And the requirements for making a purchase look a lot different. Would you take a minute and explain that?

[00:07:50] Christine: One thing that really, really separates these purchases or two things in particular, one is it Ethereum and then two is gas fees. That makes a big difference. I think the way that I would describe Ethereum is kind of going to a different country where you can have to exchange your US Dollars for another type of currency. In this case, you're going to be exchanging your US Dollars for Ethereum. And using Ethereum, you can buy things that are built on the Ethereum blockchain, such as NFTs and other assets or things that give you access to utility.

So think of it as introducing yourself to a completely different space. A completely new territory or environment. The other part of that is so you'll use Ethereum to buy trade and sell on OpenSea or anything that exists on the Ethereum blockchain.

[00:08:39] Nola: Question.

[00:08:40] Christine: Yes.

[00:08:41] Nola: Do you purchase from US Dollars to Ethereum on OpenSea?

[00:08:44] Christine: I make most of my purchases and transactions between US Dollars and Ethereum them either on, most of mine are on Coinbase and I transfer it to Metamask. Basically, when you're transferring over your Bitcoin or your Ethereum, there might also be a small transaction fee, but just to keep those as a heads up, but you're able to exchange US Dollars for Ethereum, and then you're able to buy these NFTs on OpenSea using Ethereum.

The other thing that you have to look out for is gas prices. Think of it as something added on kind of like a shipping and handling fee. So for example, when you buy anything online, it has to get shipped to you, if you're doing delivery. I think though for gas prices, it's something that constantly fluctuates based on how hot the market is.

So usually for most companies, when you buy it in US Dollars and you're buying it off of Amazon, express shipping might be like $5.99. For OpenSea, and other Ethereum transactions, that same amount is going to fluctuate based on how popular and how in demand Ethereum is. So for example, if there's a big mint or big NFT project going on and a lot of people are buying, gas prices are expected to skyrocket. So, in the morning it could have been only $30. Right now, compared to $5 99, $30 is a lot more expensive, but $30 is pretty cheap on the Ethereum blockchain. It might have been $30 in the morning. But let's just say another NFT project dropped, everyone's getting their Ethereum and everyone's buying an NFT using Ethereum. That gas price can easily go up to 200, 300 or even a thousand dollars as you've seen in the last few weeks.

[00:10:22] Nola: Can you explain what a digital wallet is and how a person actually makes a purchase?

[00:10:28] Christine: Oh man. I can explain it to the best of my ability. Just a disclaimer. I set up my own digital wallet, which is Metamask, asking my friends. I literally was sharing my screen the entire time. And I had to put in my secret code and I was like, all right, stop screen share, write down the code, go back to screen share. The only way I was able to like understand that completely was he sent me three bucks and that three bucks has grown to like 10 bucks over time. Even then I was just like scrambling to understand what the entire thing was. But, I can explain a little bit of it.
So I use Metamask. It's a Google extension or Chrome plugin,

[00:11:05] Nola: Metamask? Meta Mask?

[00:11:07] Christine: Metamask. So, M E T A M A S K.

[00:11:10] Nola: Okay.

[00:11:11] Christine: If you go to your Google extensions or the Chrome plugins, you just have to search Metamask and it should have this fox logo. Essentially, you go through the entire sign-up process and within the signup process, they'll give you, I think like a 16-word code. No matter what, do not lose that or else you're gonna lose all access to your Ethereum if anything happens. And then from there on, you're basically using that wallet. You can import, or you can transfer over money from your Coinbase accounts, which is like another app to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, all these other cryptocurrencies. You could transfer them over to your Metamask. And the way that you do that is every single Metamask has a public address. All you do is you copy that public address and all of these interfaces they'll ask what public address do you want to send XYZ amounts of Ethereum to? So it's pretty easy once you get to that point, but it's just setting it up, understanding that's a Chrome plugin and then adding that to your computer.

[00:12:14] Nola: Wow. That's a lot more than I knew a minute ago. That sounds doable actually.

[00:12:22] Lori: Yeah. Yeah, it does. And it also helps people who may establish businesses understand how transactions work and what their customers are going to have to do in order to make those purchases. So, I think that's really important, which also then lends itself to understanding how ownership works and what that looks like for non-fungible tokens. So can you explain how ownership actually works and how that's different than in the physical world?

[00:12:53] Christine: Yes. So for every single transaction on the blockchain, for this case, it would be the Ethereum blockchain, there's an address associated with it. And even when you go on to OpenSea, every single NFT has a history of how it got moved through the blockchain. It would say like on this date it was owned by this person, on this state it was sold to this address or this domain. On this date it was bought by this domain. So there's always a way to track it on this digital marketplace. And that's actually how the artist retains his or her rights to his or her art. Because in this case, if I have an address that's constantly tied to my piece of art, no matter who it is transferred to, that address is always going to trace back to me. And that's how I have ownership at all times.

Also, if you know Solidity or you're able to code something into the art itself, I could have rights over what I make every single time that piece of art is bought and sold. So I know for some artists they code in like a 5% commission rates. So even if I sold the art to you and you sold it again, every single time that art is re-sold, I can make 5% back. So there's all ways for me to retain my ownership. And this is different from the physical world, because for example, if I sell my piece of art to you, that transaction is done. It's very difficult for me to constantly be able to go back and track down where that piece of art is and who exactly made the art in the first place. Now on the OpenSea marketplace or on the blockchain, every single time it trades, you can always trace it back to the artist.

[00:14:33] Nola: Wow. So not only do you retain credit for this being your creative masterpiece, but it also can set you up, should you choose, for passive income perpetually.

[00:14:47] Christine: Yes,

[00:14:48] Nola: That's really motivating.

[00:14:52] Lori: You can also do trading on here and it still works the same way. It's still tied back to the original owner. Right? So if I were a chef and I had a cookbook coming out and I had some original recipes and I shared some of those recipes in order to build momentum for my book, anybody using those recipes or sharing those recipes or passing them along, it still always comes back to me. And I am identified as the original owner.
[00:15:21] Christine: Exactly.

[00:15:22] Nola: So those are advantages as a creator of an NFT. What are some advantages of being a buyer or purchaser and having an NFT?

[00:15:33] Christine: On the buyer side, it's really gonna come down to what type of NFTs they bought into. Because the utility and the benefits are different for each one. So for example, it's very, very community specific. In our case, you're not only able to make money off of every single sale that you made. We also are coding something that gives back. We have a 50/50 split. So, for the Mini Monkey Mafia, we make 5% on every single secondary sale that's made. And then we're giving 50% of it back to the community. So you're also able to enjoy those perks.
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Another aspect of it is, on the community side, you're actually able to be introduced to a ton of different communities and a ton of different people from all walks of life. And so, even if from the smallest level of just meeting a few friends that can add a lot of value to someone's life, but on the larger scale, if you're in a much bigger Solidify community, you can actually meet up with a ton of people that have a lot of connections into the spaces that you might want to go to in the future.

I think another perk that many NFT communities are able to get access to is exclusivity. So, if there's an NFT that comes out, and they offer a certain type of utility, that utility may be only open to NFT holders. One thing that we did was we had a partnership with another app called Sonar. It's basically a voice chat app where everyone goes on their dot and you can actually move around your dots. And depending on how close your dot is to another person, that's how clearly you can hear their voice. So if my dot was right next to yours, I can hear crystal clear. But for example, let's just say you didn't want to talk to you anymore. You moved your dot, like five spaces away. You want to be able to hear me anymore. So the partnership that we're doing with them is, you would actually be able to go to exclusive Mini Monkey Mafia rooms that are only open to Mini Monkey Mafia holders. And you're able to interact a bit more in real time with people there. So those are some of the utilities and perks that are specific to holders of the NFT community.

[00:17:40] Nola: Does an NFT appreciate like traditional art would, or is it something that's just valuable during a trend?

[00:17:48] Christine: Yeah. So the appreciation depreciation, I believe is a bit more volatile. Because I think a traditional arts it's more of the art ages and there's other factors such as, uh, celebrities, might be giving a little bit more publicity a certain time, or it's sort of the museum. And once it goes into the museum, the value's kind of solidified,

I think, at the NFT space because the community and the developers, along with artists are so tied in with the value of this, individuals have a lot more power over how much this entity is worth. For example, there's something called delisting campaigns. Once you have an NFT, you can sell it again, and list it for a certain price. But delisting it means I'm not selling this NFT anymore, no matter what. And so the delisting campaign is you either tell everyone to delist their NFT and take it off of the marketplace, or you can tell them to list it for a much higher price. So originally, they might have listed for .0001 $ETH, which could be around 33 or $30. So they need to do the calculations. But if you tell them to list it again for 1 $ETH, that value automatically goes up to $3,000 or $4,000. So the individual now has a lot more power over how valuable this entire collection is.

[00:19:10] Lori: Speaking of collection and using Mini Monkey Mafia as the example, when I make a purchase, where is my purchase stored?

[00:19:20] Christine: The images are stored on either Arweave or IPFS and then the data is stored and OpenSea. So when you make those purchases, you can see who bought and sold them and then the NFT itself is going to appear in your wallet. So it's also stored there.

[00:19:37] Lori: That's awesome. And that makes sense for my asset. Now I want to share my asset. I want Nola to be able to see it. If she came to my house, she would see my art on my wall. But now that I have a piece of art here or any kind of product, so to speak, is it OpenSea that I end up sharing or letting Nola view it, but that's open to everybody. So do I have a little gallery room? Can you explain a little bit more on that?

[00:20:07] Christine: in terms of a private collection, in like a private viewing, I'm not too familiar with any platforms in which you're able to close off the public and say only these amount of people can see it, unless it's a situation in which an NFT founder or collector specifically makes a closed off access. But in most cases, a lot of the data is actually public. And in that case, if I wants to show Nola my collection, I can easily send her my OpenSea link to my profile and she could see all my NFTs. I can also set up my profile on other platforms such as Showtime, , where you can just post your NFTs and showcase all of them there.

[00:20:48] Lori: So this kind of explains then how some new industries are coming in to support this community. Because if you wanted a gallery or you wanted a space to show it off, or you wanted to bring it to life, like my husband did in taking something that he had as a purchase and printing it onto a t-shirt so that he could then get more interest in the community. Specifically, it was the Mini Monkey Mafia.

[00:21:19] Christine: It's amazing.

[00:21:20] Lori: And when we show listeners, when you see some of the images that have been created, for a Mini Monkey Mafia. They're so adorable. You can see that there's potential in using them in ways that go beyond just I made the purchase. I own the NFT, but what else can I do with it? And those industries aren't yet established. So there's more opportunity beyond just the art here.

[00:21:49] Christine: Absolutely.

[00:21:50] Nola: Which exactly thank you. Lori, leads me to my next question. This NF T space for you, it's really a business. And as we had talked about in the previous episode, one of the reasons many women are hesitant to get started in the NFT space is because they don't know other women in this space. They haven't seen anybody with a business idea like theirs, so they wouldn't know that it even applies in the NFT space, and they don't even know anybody who might be doing business in the crypto world. With that in mind and knowing that you're relatively new as well, and still was able to take it as far as you have gone, can you describe some of your day-to-day responsibilities in the NFT space?

[00:22:35] Christine: Although I was originally on as a designer, my responsibilities have expanded quite a bit. So my day-to-day is, I design still for Mini Monkey Mafia, whether that be making promotions, posters, and so forth for future marketing purposes or even for future projects. So we're currently coming out with the baby monkeys. I'm designing the interfaces for the websites, the front end, and also all the baby monkeys.

On top of that, I also have to spend a pretty good amount of time interacting with individuals on the Discord to make sure that if there's any problems or if there's any concerns, there's someone always on board to answer them. I've also started something called Speakeasy Sundays and NFT & Coffee Tuesdays, where I'm able to hop onto Twitter spaces, and I talk with the community there.

I also have been taking over a lot more of the social media as well. So in terms of that, it's finding content to post every single day on Twitter, replying to any potential partners or people that want to work with us.
We are currently in a state of expansion, so that means a lot more talks with my co-founder and figuring out how our roles are divided as we move into newer projects. So one of the biggest challenges of going into this NFT space, but also gives everyone a lot more freedom is, honestly, I don't think anyone knows what they're doing, in an emerging industry. It's not something that's been around for 50, 60 years, this is brand new. And so for us, we want to empower people in our community to help build an NFT space. It's finding ways where we can facilitate that, whether it be my co-founder and I talk about what worked for us and what didn't. Or for us to create communities of support. But even with that, it's us going back on our own experiences, seeing what worked and what didn't.

And then finally, when it comes to our external all relations, my co-founder and I split up. It's mainly figuring out how do we get more people into this space with a smooth transition. And also on top of that, how do we make sure that we're able to successfully collaborate with them?

So, although it started off as like a very small team with very defined roles, as the community expanded and as Mini Monkey Mafia expanded, it became a ton of other responsibilities from a day-to-day basis.

[00:24:48] Lori: And I think that's a lot of what it's like launching your own side business. Right? You are every team. You're the marketing team, the branding team, the sales team,

[00:24:57] Nola: customer relations, community management partnerships. Yeah,

[00:25:02] Christine: exactly.

[00:25:03] Lori: It's the same thing, but in a different. I kind of think about this, going back to that foreign country component is the things that we do in the United States. The way we interact in the United States are not the same way that you would do it in a different country. And the further away that you get, the more that becomes apparent. So reason for this next question, which is, what is it like being a female entrepreneur, a female artist in a community, in a new paradigm, that's so new and there are so few women in it.

[00:25:42] Christine: Yeah. I think one of the biggest things that I've personally discovered for myself is, learning how to set very, very clear and definite boundaries of what I'm okay with and what I'm not. And I've also had to figure out like, is this a action that I don't like based off of someone's malice, or is it something that they just don't know about? And the role that I've set for myself is, if someone didn't know how to treat me and they didn't treat me in a way that I wanted them to, if I didn't lay clear that boundary, then that is more on me. Because they just didn't know, it's out of ignorance. But if I explicitly told them, do not talk to me this way and they're still talking to me that way, then we have an issue because I made that crystal clear. And so I think that's how I've been able to navigate the space. And it starts off with like really good communication from your core team.

 In the previous episode that I explained, even when it came to the art, if one small thing bothered either of us, we would bring it up. And that goes for all aspects of how we operate our business and how we've navigated the space. If one small aspect of how someone is treating us or talking to us bothers us even a bit, we bring it up. And we also discussed that through. And that's how I've been able to maintain my peace and composure in this space. Because I think if you just let things build up behind the scenes, it's not going to go well for anyone.

 I think another thing is finding ways to put yourself first. And this is something that I've recently come to terms with because a lot of the times when you do have a presence and everyone in our Discord likes to joke about like the quote-unquote, sims. When Christine comes along there's a lot of people coming in and flooding into the Discord, but when it's just like a regular dude, not a lot of people show up. I think when you're trying to drive up interactions, it's most practical for me to be on there. But at the same time, I am very, very introverted. I like keeping my personal life to myself. I don't need a lot of people knowing who I'm talking to, who I'm hanging out with on a day-to-day basis. All my friends are kept private, because that's their life. Those are the boundaries that they've set.
And so for me, I could only be on for so long, but after that, I'm maxed out. And if I can't be giving myself my time and my peace, there's no way I can be able to give to other people. So, it's really about understanding yourself more and then setting boundaries in order to create environments that you best work in.

[00:28:07] Nola: That was advice that was so relevant, no matter what business or what industry. And for women thinking about starting a business or getting into the NFT space like you have, what suggestions can you offer?

[00:28:21] Christine: Because this is such a new space, one of the assets that you have now is freedom. And this is coming from someone that has worked in more traditional jobs and has worked in this Web 3.0 space. And freedom is the biggest thing because in most places there is a clear-cut idea of what you should be. So most people said like, you should go to SEO marketing, you should have your ads here, you should follow this path. Whereas in this whole crypto space, everyone's still trying to figure it out. And so that means you can pretty much test out any ideas you want and go full force into it.

That's the second part I believe like, unless you're not afraid to lose, but at the same time, put in your all for every single project that you launch, whether it be big or small, you're able to learn completely from the experience. And then from there on you're able to kind of navigate and test what works and what does not. And so take freedom to your full advantage. And that means along with all the success that you have, you're also going to have times where something that you test out didn't work out as well. But the good thing about that is the space also moves so fast. So whatever happened yesterday, most people aren't going to forget it within the next. Six hours. Like, no, one's going to remember anything. Some new drop is always going to be coming out. Some new NFT is going to have something going on, so don't be afraid to fail. It's going to happen.

[00:29:45] Lori: You know what, in listening to you talk about this, one of the ideas that came to me is in the physical world, we think of networking as going to a place, meeting new people and talking and finding out what our shared interests are. Here, the community sounds like your opportunity for networking.

[00:30:06] Christine: Yes.

[00:30:06] Lori: Thinking about it from a business kind of standpoint. Your meeting people. If you're involved in a community, for example, if I understood you correctly, if you had opportunities within the community, they're a known source to you. You're going to reach out there for maybe supportive services or to get people involved. So it's not just networking to sell, it's networking to build relationships, to ask for help. And those that interact with you and rise above are the ones that you're likely to reach out to for something specific. And that's how it works in networking in the physical world. Kind of thinking about it from that standpoint, as the business opportunities open up as technology expands, counterfeiting is one of the foundational pieces. And so I relate the counterfeiting and intellectual property kind of on that same idea. One of the things that happens in the physical world is, business owners are hesitant to share their ideas because they don't want somebody else stealing them. That's not what people are thinking in your communities. Right? There's a lot of sharing.

[00:31:24] Christine: A ton of sharing. Yeah. I think one thing that really struck me and I think the widespread of this idea of building in public. People aren't connected to the products per se, but they're connected to stories. As, so as you're building in public, people can see what you're testing out while you're building certain things, everything from the ups to the downs. And I think something similar is happening in this NFT space where you're so close to the founders. And a lot of times they also give you some leverage to start your own derivative projects based off the NFT itself. And everyone's sharing what they're doing. And so you're actually able to see how this storyline of this NFT evolves over time.

[00:32:05] Nola: Yeah. It's so much more positive than your traditional competitive marketplace.

[00:32:09] Lori: Exactly. So kind of thinking about it from that standpoint, and you kind of talked about that in derivatives that come off of this main focus. So there's opportunities, for example, for creating promotional assets like coupons or events, tickets, or BOGO deals, where in the physical world, counterfeiting can happen so you can lose control as a business owner of the coupons that you've given out because they can be replicated and faked. But here that limited number really stays as a limited number. So there are other possibilities. Thinking about like loyalty programs. So you could have a loyalty card that is established in the NFT space. Maybe that's a QR code. You show that you get perks in your community might network that way. There have been charitable causes. Nonprofits that have used NFTs to raise money for charitable causes some other possibilities in communities or related businesses, they might do a scavenger hunt. So the ideas that people haven't thought of, or that can open up. Really happen when people participate in the community and tell you how they're using one NFT or developing something as an idea off of that. So from that standpoint, not just women for anybody who wants to start a business, but they don't have a creative team or they don't have a technical background. What would you recommend that they do to explore this opportunity?

[00:33:50] Christine: If you don't have certain skillsets, you're going to have to find other people that do. And I think my advice would go more into how do you build up that team?

I think one of the things that I would advise a lot and one thing that I've also been learning a lot myself, is be patient and be very selective. So a bad hire is worse than no hire and no hire is worse than a good hire, but a bad hire is the worst thing. And so what you did to be able to do is sit down with yourself and understand these are my strengths, these are when weaknesses, this is why I need to have covered. But another aspect of that is, do I want to work with this person for potentially 24 hours a day? And I think that's one aspect that a lot of people don't really consider. Especially in a small team, you're going to have a lot more communication between all the team members, because everyone kind of has an idea of what's going on.

And then another side of that is understanding as you expand your team, what types of personalities work well together? So if I add this person to my team, can all these other people that I've added already work well with them?

I think creating this team dynamics are essential. And then on the other hand is really understanding what can I cover and what is my expertise in it? And is that scalable? So for example, if it's the art, if I need to be focusing on other things, I might need to outsource that art to another artist. And because the art is not as scalable as per se, like me going out, making a ton of connections, emailing a ton of people, and then going on to calls with them for 10 minutes at a time. And so in that case, if I'm going to be outsourcing my own abilities, I need to make sure that I have clear cut standards that say, if we're hiring you, you have to be able to meet this skill level.

I think the last thing that I would say is, the way to run a really solid business, is to create really great systems in place because you can't assume that everyone has common sense. You really have to break down everything from the top down. And I think that's one thing along with all the other aspects of time that can get into later on about the NFT space that is kind of breaking apart some of the business models and things that we've really had to fix, because how strong your business is, is going to be determined by how strong our systems are. So when you hire someone new, how do you lay out all the instructions for how they do certain things? Because you can't expect everyone who you hire on board to know everything you want them to do. So you really have to lay down the systems from the top down to the smallest detail and then implement those in a way that everyone understands.

[00:36:29] Lori: You know, so much of what you're sharing is so much of what is necessary in business. And it's just good practice. It sounds like the difference though, between doing business outside of a blockchain or an NFT space and doing business inside is that it moves faster. It's changing, it's evolving. And so you have to really be involved and you have to also roll with the flow if you will, because you may make a mistake in a hire or in a system or in an operations. But as you said, the community is going to forget about it really quickly because either something new came on or it evolved into a better product or a better foundation, a better platform. So. You're in a good space. If you make a mistake, it's an okay thing. Just kind of roll with it.

One last question. Before we shift gears, is there any other recommendations that you would have based on your experience that you, we haven't covered, that you would think is pertinent to share.

[00:37:36] Christine: Yeah, absolutely. I also want to clarify one thing about the mistakes is like, don't go in thinking that you could do whatever you want and then you could just make all the mess ups. I think every single time we've made a mistake or something didn't go as planned. We try to be as transparent as possible. And we also try to find ways to better that mistake so we don't make it again. But that being said, I think, as new people going into the NFT space now, I think my biggest two pieces of advice is understand yourself, but at the same time, give yourself time to grow and then also plan for the long term.

So even if that long-term plan, doesn't work out the way that you expected it to, at least you have that mindset in place that this project might be going on for quite some time. It's not just, we sell out and we're gone. That's kind of wrong in the NFT by the way. Not a great thing. That shouldn't be a mistake that you make because it's purposeful. So don't go into it thinking that you're basically just taking other people's money and running with it. I think that's really messed up. So go into it with a long-term mindset and give yourself the space to grow and evolve and understand yourself more. And when I say about that, I think when you're going into this space, you don't know that much about yourself as a business owner, unless you've been in this space of like creating new businesses for a long time.

And I think even for myself, I've been able to grow and learn a lot more about how I work best and who I work best with. And so understanding that all of those pieces of tension or all those mistakes that you make, or even areas where you're not as comfortable, really reflect on yourself and understand what that means for you as a business owner, as in, is this a mistake or is this a mess up that I couldn't really control? Like I can't control the gas prices and all of a sudden, our prices are going down because of that. I can't control that. That's not really on me. I could do the best I can to avoid that from a community. That's not really on me as opposed to something to that, make it on time. All right. What could I have done better on my end? What can my partner have done better on my end? It will cause my co-founder has done better on my end. And what could we do better to make it more accommodating for the way that we work next time?

[00:39:49] Nola: I'm so glad you asked that question, Lori, because that is profound advice, actually. Switching gears a little before we wrap up the show, we like to ask fun questions really just about you so that our audience can get to know you and just a little bit personal level. And so we have this question for you. If you were to wake up tomorrow and have gained one quality or ability, what would that be?

[00:40:15] Christine: I think it's not like a special talent or anything per se, but I think just the ability to like, turn off my thoughts for a second.
Cause like I have a friend that like has gotten me into meditation recently but, even with meditation, I realized like my thoughts in the morning get really loud. So I have Headspace it's like a dollar a month. I think even at times when it's like guided meditation, which I prefer because you have someone always telling you to circle back your thoughts. There are days where my thoughts get like so loud that I forget someone is speaking. And then the room is dead silent. So I think for me, like just having that ability to completely turn off my thoughts for even a couple minutes a time and just like, not think, I think that is an ability I would love to have.

[00:41:06] Lori: Yeah, that's great. I like, I had not ever heard somebody yet say that for the ability and it, you said it and I could see Nola's face and we're like, oh my God. Yes, that would be so great. Like you, I do mindful meditation. I use 10% Happier App.

[00:41:23] Nola: I use Insight Timer app.

[00:41:24] Lori: I like the guided for the same reason that you do. But I also like that they have some talks on there. It's like having a, a five-minute coaching topic that makes a huge, huge impact that supports that mindful meditation and quieting those thoughts and doing all of that stuff so important. That was awesome.

[00:41:44] Nola: And I can so relate to having thoughts so loud that I will just like very intentionally silence them. And then I'm amazed at how profoundly quiet the space is around me. It's like, oh wow. I can hear the leaves rustling. Things that I just totally was clueless about because my thoughts were such a cacophony going on in my head.

[00:42:04] Lori: Thank you, Christine, for being our guest. If someone wants to learn more about you, your artwork or Mini Monkey Mafia, or any other resource that you might suggest, where should listeners go and how can they connect with you?

[00:42:19] Christine: If people want to learn more about Mini Monkey Mafia, we are most active on Twitter. And you can find it @minimonkeymafia on Twitter. There's no spaces, no underscores. It's just @minimonkeymafia. And there you'll be able to find the links to our Discord are OpenSea and our website. If they want to connect with you personally, they're able to go to ChristineGu.com, which is my design portfolio. I'm originally a UX designer also on the hunt for jobs, so if you guys are recruiting, hit me up. They can go to ChristineGu.com or if they want to connect with me online, I'm most active on Twitter. So that's Christine underscore G U. But I S in my name is replaced with a 15. So it's spelled C H R one five T I N E underscore, G U. That is@Chr15tine_Gu. And that's pretty much the main places where they can find me.

[00:43:20] Lori: And also, listeners we'll be putting all of the information that Christine has provided on our website. So if you're out and about, and you can't remember everything, just go to our website, StickyBrandLab.com And you can find them in our show notes. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope it makes all the difference in you getting started on your side business so you can create your best and most exciting life.

Not sure how to turn your idea into a profitable side business? Contact us at stickybrandlab.com/contact. We'd be happy to help you. If you found the information shared here today helpful, let us know by posting where you're listening or on our Facebook page. That way we can learn more about your business goals and ideas, as well as send you love, encouragement, and congratulate you on the amazing and courageous decision you've made.

[00:44:11] Nola: Be sure to come back next Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative, inspiring and motivating episode. And remember: action creates 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]

[00:44:29] Lori: Do you have questions about creating a personal brand, side hustle or small business? Sign up for one of our clarity sessions. For more information, contact us at stickybrandlab.com/contact.
So to get started. You shared actually, I just said all that.
I wanted to phrase it and it's like, there it is.