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Art & Utility with @EricSpivak
Recorded: Dec. 6, 2022 Duration: 1:21:01Space Recording
Full Transcription
Welcome, welcome. We are just
working on getting our guest in here
and we will begin shortly.
are really excited to talk with motivate today i was saying i was playing some wu-tang i hope
i wasn't muted did you guys hear me playing music the music player i just couldn't hear
say that again i said the music was clear i'm pretty sure for everybody besides me i was the
only one that did not have audio okay and then i was just like oh i don't know east coast west
coast wu-tang i don't know where everybody lies along those lines but i mean cash rules everything
around me is kind of um universal um and it's been a rainy day here in brooklyn so that felt just
you know the mood so i'm very excited to have you here today and lovely seeing all of our friends
who joined and very grateful to nifty kit for hosting this space we're going to be chatting
with motivate today about art and utility um motivate and i connected um as many of us have
connected to him through clubhouse um early days og in the space and he has gone on to create and build
in communities and in the space and in irl and been a champion for utility so i think this is kind of
like one of the most you know perfect people to have to talk about utility um and you've conducted
yourself and executed projects that we'll get more into so i'm delighted that you've joined us today
for this installment of art and utility uh definitely can't wait to talk about your projects
your new venture social currency and your journey in the web 3 space but before we chat about all that
if we have time at the end for questions or comments we'll bring folks up then so if you're
requesting to come up right now hold on to request until the end and we'll get you up if we have time
so with that we're talking with um eric spivak aka motivate today who is an og in the space as i
mentioned and has been working in interesting and what i would consider alternative ways to push
limits of utility in web 3 however firstly uh i just want everybody to take a moment and check out
the pin tweets above you can follow along as we talk today with with eric with motivate and um eric
please feel free to pin anything you feel applicable up top as well as we go along um because i didn't
know kind of what you wanted me to pull from so yeah just feel free with the pin um and yeah so
i wanted to start with a small introduction um eric spivak i don't know if i'm saying your name
correctly and okay good yeah actually i didn't have time but i was like i need to do a deep dive
on where this last name came from um because it is very unique um so aka motivate is an advisor and
key opinion leader in the nft metaverse space and web 3 world specializing in marketing consulting
business development partnerships and experiences he's also been featured in rolling stone gq and decrypt
so eric you've been involved in so many exciting projects somewhere you were at the helm and other
endeavors where you were involved in both helping shape and helping build but for those of us who are
just learning about you i would first love to hear in your own words about your irl background before
you entered web 3 and then a bit about how you arrived in the nft web 3 space and welcome thank
you for being here yeah absolutely just pleasure is online and hopefully you can hear me clearly
because the hotel that i'm at in miami is definitely very loud and uh it just keeps getting louder and
louder so i think the general manager is on this whole red line to you headline thing um but anyways
yeah uh my name is eric or motivate and uh i guess how i got started in this space is uh 2016 i used to
convert bitcoin into cash or sorry cash into bitcoin and back and forth basically in order to make adult
personal ads for a dominatrix that i was dating so uh a pretty untraditional entry into this space of that
but um you know at the end of the day i just looked at cryptocurrency as a transactional tool much like
um exchanging a euro or a pound or a rupee or peso or any other foreign exchange and then i started
seeing that you could purchase things with it you can use it to buy services or products and at the
end of the day i just didn't really think twice of it it wasn't top of mind most people that i knew
didn't really have any or talk about it or really understand it so you know passively i was aware
i was just not proactive in uh i guess the crypto francy side of things but fast forward to uh 2019
2020 i uh was building an international women's music festival for los angeles historic park uh right
outside of downtown la and uh then covid happened so what that ended up doing is it forced me like
everybody else to kind of pivot and backtrack a little bit and reassess what was important to them
and where they were going and where they were at and what they were doing and so i ended up sourcing
ppe gear for hospitals and schools i ended up creating like a 32 page resource guide for people
to sustain through covid um you know i ended up doing a lot of untraditional things in order to
um create a more sustainable and um i guess stress-free environment for people of all walks and then
after that i um i got on the bus and i built the first space for anybody to have conversations
around anything in relation to cryptocurrency blockchain metaverses ar vr xr all of this stuff
and if you build it they will come there was under uh 20 000 users on the platform at the time it was
primarily hbcu grads and conversations that were driven around advocacy and activism and culture and um
um yeah within that there was kind of the people like myself that had the opportunity to create
our own clubs early on and i created essentially what would be a watering hole for all of these
conversations that gave a six-month head start and uh yeah i guess uh that was kind of the start of
it all uh i would say november december 2020 into early 2021 and uh hosting everybody from club render
to people to lady phoenix to uh netflix christie's other bees doja cat hosha thomas shepherd fairy
mike dean justin bura just it was the list is crazy so yeah that's kind of like the start of it
and i don't know where we want to go from here because i can just keep talking and that's not
really good so good question no i i love it that's such a good foundation for what we're going to
talk about today because you have you're firmly planted in a lot of the work that you've been
doing whether it's like philanthropic entertainment experiential and so all of those things you're now
bringing into the space right to foster conversation and that's one of the first things that i recognized
about you in clubhouse that you were fostering conversations and discussions that went on to
kind of like people had spin off you know um communities right and like that is something that's
really important and is ultimately i think going to keep the space afloat and also drive interest into
these irl endeavors as well and um you know keep people in the web 3 space as in addition to that
so um before we get into your current collection which i cannot wait to talk about social currency
i wanted to move back and talk about some of your previous projects and maybe highlight some of the
projects leading up to social currency namely those that you feel moved you forward in your journey in
web 3 specifically your conduit and friendship tech and if if you want to talk about those or if you'd
rather talk about others but those were the two main ones that i sort of knew you from so if you wanted
to um talk a little bit about how those experiences and those projects moved you forward
yeah for sure i mean as far as like web 3 goes before your conduit uh stepped into web 3 um you
know i had nfts.tips so nfts.tips i built on clubhouse at the same time as having your conduit
presents and it was the first and only place pretty much in these live audio chats that you can have
these conversations and in turn there was a lot of daily education we gave them rooms at
8 a.m and going until the wheels fell off sometimes 10 days consecutively or more uh with alexander
nazi and uh this guy named glassy at the time which i don't know if i even want to say either name
since they don't exist anymore in the space but at the end of the day we felt it was important to
provide uh a narrative on you know empowering artists and self-sovereignty and independent creation
ownership rights and really like a new face to accountability for your direction um and life
financially and creatively and ambitiously as it could be so um your conduit was used for
rooms around marketing branding artist development uh promotions pr the worlds that i come from
event production and then um nfts which was more or less just nfts blockchain by three the whole
toolbox and then after that uh new friendship tech i derived around march of this year because i felt
that there were a lot of things missing and instead of getting angry about it i decided to take action
i think anger is best repurposed as action so um yeah new friendship tech is uh underneath your
conduit agency new friendship tech is technology making new friendships nft is the abbreviation for
new friendship tech and i'm cultivating communities contributing to culture and clear into creatives
all while revolutionizing the way you connect so you know our unique approach converts social
currency into equity through participation um and i want to repeat that so it's just reverberating
social currency into equity through participation and what that means is every attendee every speaker
performer sponsor vendor advocate and affiliate to the ecosystem gets rewarded throughout the
journey of the brand and has the opportunity to help shape the brand and product as it continues to
build scale and transform so every contributor is another building block and brick in the wall
made as a foundation and um the reason it matters and why new friendship tech is really important to me
is you know or one of many reasons is in a world where social media used to bring us closer together
now more than ever it pushes us further apart and we've lost all control and autonomy data and ownership
the moment we hit publish on any platform right so we've also become slaves to algorithms where less
than 10 percent of our total audiences can actually be reached without an ad spend budget
and so i consider that malicious social engineering and i've seen how it also impacts our mental health
our income and monopolizes our time by forced interactions and unnecessary activities as an
attempt to maintain visibility and awareness on these platforms so you know me being very tired of
playing the games and building castles on other people's sand i uh i looked into it more and started
doing some research and realized that you know we don't really get anything out of it it's there's no
no return on investment when the value extraction from these platforms is over 50 billion in annual
ad revenue off of what i just mentioned so you know friends of mine who are like well you bang on
social media so much but you're still here on instagram you're still on snapchat you're still
on tiktok and twitter and facebook and linkedin and say don't like it don't participate but unfortunately
most of us are past the point of no return as we've all created these important digital identities and
accounts and profiles that hold our personal information and reflect our and showcase our
network and abilities knowledge and experience at the cost of forfeiting our rights and intellectual
property so we fall on victim to these platforms that we now require to stay connected to our friends
family and peers and if they get compromised we're really at even a bigger loss than we are of the
time and energy and more so you know they're all connected to so many facets of our lives i thought i
needed to provide something different and um you know i think facebook was very negligent changing
their name to meta so new friendship tech is tied into the social side and social media and it's also
sewn into meeting the algorithm through irl experiences and it's also about giving back and you know
giving before receiving so the last part of this uh is pretty much the solution i came up with is
while i want to say it's the problem i can definitely show how we've successfully made an
impact through our sustainable model and concept launched across several major metropolitan cities
nationwide new friendship tech has reimagined events and profit code and experience connection
network social equity ownership and accessibility all these extremely productions and immersive programs
we feature and highlight the most valuable diverse and authentic voices in the web 2 and web 3 world
and facilitate important conversations utilizing blockchain AFTs cryptocurrency metaverses and more
we've done the homework for you to make it fun to learn easy to digest understand and comprehend
as an all-inclusive master class for the culture from the industry leaders in arts music fashion
tech gaming and attainment and more it's not confusing not complicated no sales no pitching or cost
associated and every event's completely free free free free drinks and where that social equity it's
turned into um something more when i was like social currency turned into equity by way of participation
like we compensate people for attending these events not up front but after they attend and we give them a
multitude of things and they've managed to already get back 350 000 to the ecosystem just in the last six
months when you pinch attack so yeah that's kind of uh mouthful yeah i love this and i wanted to actually
go back and just repeat something you said for anybody that didn't hear this you said anger is best repurposes
action and i couldn't agree with that statement more i think that's a very powerful thing somebody should
clip that i'm definitely going to quote you on that because that's a very revolutionary very activist
oriented comment that you just made and a lot of the reason why people entered the space or what they
hope for in a decentralized space let's say and also reminds me of esther hicks which is the spiritual
like medium teacher where she talks about steps up on the emotional scale and like depression being
like the lowest but like anger and resentment being a step up towards like happiness on the emotional scale
because it puts you into an action oriented place where you begin to move and make waves and start to
become actually physically active with whatever you do so i really appreciate you making that statement
it definitely resonates and since today we're talking about art and utility and you know i wanted to hear
from you how you define utility generally because like you've seen it all like a lot of us in this room like
want to know your definition of utility and then more specifically how you define it in relation
to the projects that you've been working on since you've been in the space
yeah for sure i mean i think at the end of the day um people are and this isn't mutually exclusive to
the nft space but you know we all have problems that need solutions and those problems uh get solved by
asking a few questions right how can we help you what do you want or need who is it for when do you
need it by where is it going and then what's your budget or offer right so when i look at projects i
kind of strip them down to those basic questions like you know how does this help me what do what do
i want or need from it who is it by uh when do i need it by is it urgent do i have to admit today do
i have to sign up for it or can i wait is it going to change uh price point or availability in the future
and then where is it going does it help me intrinsically inherently does it like or does it
collect dust in my wallet and not do anything is it going to come with a physical print um you know and
then how much is it right is it within my budget is it something that i can buy twice and feel
comfortable with so you know i think there's a lot of different types of utility in the space uh
primarily i think it's the uh the boys club that uh we should patent utility around because there's
way too many men in the space i'm just sorry um what no there's just too many tools in the space to use to
build like three no but um i you know i think there's different types of benefits and features
attached to every type of uh place we go and thing we go right you go to a bar the utility of that bar
is potentially entertainment networking uh drinks that you enjoy uh you know the opportunity to
socialize in a different atmosphere and environment maybe the opportunity to even sit down you know that's
the utility of a chair right so i think a lot of people in the space um overlook kind of the basics
because they're trying to be so robust and complex and petty with what they're creating that they kind
of lose in essence um what matters and that's making things digestible making things easily uh palatable
for a general audience or a mass audience to get the more complicated and confusing of a roadmap or you know
route you're going to people the harder it is for them to bite into what you're creating it's hard
for them to pick up what you're putting down if they have to read verbiage that they don't understand
or they have to jump through 15 hoops of fire in order to manage right so i mean flush it on his head
utility with his uh nft that was actually smokeable and came with a physical uh item that he would smoke and
it was tied to digital art and music components uh boys noise and uh and who else uh and channel
trust both of them did nfts with utilities that allowed you to buy a bunch of stems and those stems
served as features that you could basically repurpose those stems of music and create your own original
music and have them attached to that music whereas typically it'd be very expensive to work with them
and kind of inaccessible and outreach so you know those utilities are great uh logic has a utility
called the plug it uh takes um patience to watch it increase and change and work over time uh and then
you can use it to get discounts at certain spaces in chicago as well as other connections that he has
uh give you benefits and perks for holding it right you're part of a member club in that sense almost like
a triple a or soda house um and then i think dozer cats nft i hosted that you know her nfts allowed
you to have a vip experience round trip all inclusive to go see whatever shows and be backstage in the
green room and meet her so the list goes on and on with these different types of access i think being
like the majority of nfts are really moving people but you know there is no right or wrong way and we all
get to define and redefine and design like what utility means and looks like in the space i with
social currency felt that you know i remember so many moments in my life where i didn't have the money
but i had the time or i had the time that i didn't have the money and then the very few times that i had
both um so i would always have to trade my social currency my network my knowledge my experience uh and
basically do sweat labor or skill shares or trading or bartering in order to get what i needed and what
i wanted and so you know as a dj sometimes you need photographers for events or videographers to
recap events but you know videographers sometimes need music behind their videos and their trailers
so that would be a moment of a skill share or a trade and i think in this space we're always
communicating i think we're almost hyper communicative and always on because we have
these options to talk 24 hours a day seven days a week everybody in this room and everybody listening
has special skills and superpowers that can help other people in this room and other people in this
space at large but you would never know unless you ask questions or they project and share what they're
doing and so i was figuring out what would be a unique utility for myself would be something that people
want something that people need something that people uh can claim on demand and something that
people pay a whole lot of money for at a discount so basically i just opened myself up to putting my time
on chain all right i made a social contract on chain that allows people to buy into my social currency
and so what that is is you know you're buying time with me in the future for a multitude of services of
your choice and looking through my portfolio and background of 15 years of producing events and
djing and rapping and copywriting and voiceovers and audio engineering and event production and uh hosting
conferences and trade shows and summits and you know speaking on panels i could uh put together a 16
bar verse and a hook i can make a song for you and go straight like um there's so many different ways
that i can work from merchandising and apparel to all the other things that i just mentioned and it's
just up to you to figure out what it is that you could use me best for and i'm not phone a friend i'm not
one call and people that understand this you know they they some of them have already redeemed the nft
for an hour of consulting now with my nft being point one my consulting rate is two thousand dollars an
hour point one is not two thousand dollars so um i've had people buy them and then the next morning
ask me if it's too soon for them to redeem it they know what they want to use it for and then next
so you know i'm sitting with them at lunch or on a zoom call and i'm auditing their project and
giving them their creative strategy and consulting and advising and really helping them shape the best
product possible and then kind of keeping tabs on their development and growth of the project that
they're looking to release now if you would hit me through my agent or through my manager or through
my agency of your conduit you would get my rate sheet and you would see two thousand dollars or five
thousand dollars or fifteen thousand dollars for whatever that service is but because you're
invested in me by buying my nft um i'm invested in you and giving you my service at 90 off or 95 off or
85 off and the bigger picture of it is when i win you win the bigger i get the more accolades and
sorry the more accomplishments accomplishments and accolades that i have the more press and pr that i get the
more established that i get and higher i climb um that nft just gains more value because my rates are
going to increase my cost is going to be more inaccessible and unobtainable but that nft stays the
same so yeah i think that's kind of in a nutshell some examples of utility with my quote-unquote utility
token or social token and um i think a very innovative way of putting myself into the blockchain literally
yeah that's a great tldr of the of social currency and you know i was gonna ask you about the genesis
of it but i feel like you've really covered that well and for people who are interested in this because
i feel like this is very you know it's philosophy based but it's like rooted in you doing a lot of
research in the space and things that weren't working that are working that could work you know
looking to the future and i love what you wrote about um specific to this project on your linkedin
and saying you were talking a lot about accessibility and you know having the time having
the money and when you have the money you don't you know that whole thing it's like a it's like a
hamster wheel right so i feel like this is this is such an incredibly interesting project but i'm
curious what you know as you look into the future with social currency what do you hope for the project
and what's your ultimate mission and vision as it moves into the future
that is a good question so um i can't reveal too much in regards to the future of it because
the future is defined by the people that redeem them so i already have proof of concept so to speak
of three people already redeeming them for different utilities and use cases by the end of it all
i'm gonna have 555 different utility and use cases as well as reviews as well as supporters slash fans
slash um you know people that have essentially pre-purchased my services at an extremely discounted
rate and um i think as someone that is very i hate to say visionary but i've definitely been
being like a polymath in a lot of ways i was growing weed before that was legal i started
delivery services before postmates or to ask your weed scrub hub pink tie i um you know i had a
streaming platform it was the world's first and only online open right 24 hours a day seven days a
week you could come on my platform as a rapper or a listener and you can it was basically twitter and
clubhouse uh just almost 20 years ago at this point and even when i was playing everquest and
world of warcraft and starcraft and diablo like i was making more money than my parents combined
through a small little company called paypal um freestyle rapping in these chat rooms that i charge
people to listen to um so i think in the future of things right now we're building for the future
everything is the future of this future of that and i want to have something on chain that allows
people to um know that they can contact me with confidence in the future and get support on
whatever it is that they need um i've always been uh an educator and facilitator and motivator for
curators for gatekeepers for the fighters and underdogs alpha dogs friends and family and i i really
want um to to reinforce people that feel like they're lacking confidence or they might have social
anxiety or they might be a little awkward or they might not pay attention to detail or might be
distracted like i want to be a tool and resource and service for them without them having to find
like i'm just a wallet of names attached to reviews that might be more expensive and not have their
best interest at heart so you know this this project is is really it's it's a expedited entry to me and
everything that i've done and if you look at my website and you look at whoever formed the club
work with um it's you're you're literally getting access to any of those people that i have good
relationship and rapport with stilly so if you want me to pitch something to somebody as a redemption
of your thing that's that's it so i think it's really it's it's not a use it or lose it situation i think
it's it's the opposite it's like hold on to it and see where this kid goes and if he's continuing to
break ceilings and break records then that's even better for me because when i see he's in the room
with the people that i want to pitch a project to and i've been holding on to that project forever
he can take my redemption of this thing that i got for 100 bucks or 125 bucks and i can shoot my shot
at someone that i typically want to be able to you know and i i think that's kind of like the future
of things i think if you're building in this space looking at the future and the trajectory and how
things are going it's a format change and it's a format change as much as cash to wire transfers and
credit of debit cards to electronic transfers like benbo cash app paypal um you know digital wallets
we're starting to see them pop up with fbi fbic insured companies and banking systems that are
adopting blockchain technology so as much as a format change it is in the future of finance it's also
format change in every industry we're seeing um ai shape the world right now we're seeing music where
people are owning their masters and making more money from one record than they would in a 15-year
career in the music industry so um there's just a lot of really exciting conversations that all
go to this is the direction that things are going and you can be at the forefront of a movement or you
can be left behind but at the end of the day i think what this does is it also holds me accountable
to being attached to the space it holds me um almost captive if you will to the people that
that you know believed in me and i don't want to let them so i think that in a nutshell is kind of
what that what that is or what that looks like for me i think this is a format change and anybody
doing anything in this space um you know it shouldn't be a fly by night temporary thing it
shouldn't be a bang-up job it should be something that is with some form of foundation and structure
and leadership and the idea that it's not going to be gone tomorrow and that it is permanent and it is
immutable and it will be here forever so leave a legacy with building a legacy brand with yourself
after age 25 like a legacy branch 25 years so if you're entering the chain for the first time and
you're minting something for the first time think about how it will look 15 20 30 years i'd love to
look back and be like this project allowed for me to connect with 555 people from all over the world
from all walks of life um and bring them into an ecosystem that did something to impact their life
well you know we love it we love a doc no no this is great i love a doc's creator
and i also wonder like do you know what you're doing by opening pandora's box of all these people
having access to you that's i'm slightly concerned but i'm also really excited and you've covered a lot
in what you've already shared and i want to just kind of go back and recap for for you know everyone
that's here today just the role utility is going to play specifically in social currency just maybe
some bullet points if you will um or plans that you have as well as anything with other projects where
you have you know executed any drop can drop um uh mechanics in terms of utility so like what are
those main ones that we're going to look forward to with social currency
yeah i mean i have a follow-up to this that's coming out soon uh which are tokens of appreciation
those tokens will be dropped to all the holders of social currency and both of those things combined
will give access to a wealth of resources and tools that will help anybody literally
anybody uh have an advantage in life because at the end of the day we go through life just picking up
tools along the way uh we take advice from others we watch videos and tutorials and you know every
single client that i'm consulting for and every project i'm advising for i notice the lack of tools i
i notice like a lot of things that just aren't there people are used to like uh trello or asana
or nail chimp or constant contact but do they use streak and or boomerang or superhuman or monday like
do they know when people are opening their emails do they have any automation attached to their pipelines or
funnels do they know how to set up pixels and heat maps to see who's visiting their websites and from there
do they even have a website and do they know a shortcut of making one outside of going to work for us
with square space you know these are all different fundamental tools that every creator should have
as well as curators and collectors there's different things i can expedite the way that we move through
life so you know i'm looking at my my niche has always been providing the opportunity and accessibility
and availability assisting anyone anywhere to get anything at any time within reason i've always been
going to go for this go for that so you know these the the future of these things is basically
creating this giant resource pot and pool that will be a missing piece to the puzzle of your dreams it
will help you fill in the blank dot the i cross the t and and be a support system and it will be a direct
entry into the new friendship tech ecosystem which i am turning into a conference so new friendship tech's
this ecosystem uh those that have their social tokens in their wallet from social currency they're
going to have special benefits first and access to things they might end up with the three four
thousand dollar vip tickets that they're going to be attached to the conference or one of the 30 or
40 after parties that i'm doing and the fact of the matter is that if you look at my history just in the
last six months new friendship tech i've produced events in chicago la new york miami and dergas
five major metropolitan cities in the united states uh all of those events have been completely free
free entry free drinks free food free education free entertainment um all the video capture from all of
those is living on chain in a metaverse all of the people that have been in attendance that have given their
wallet address they will get access to that in other words so they can get this educational
information and content free unobstructed uncensored and with no advertisements no risk of platform
shutdown or my account being closed but the goal for me is accessibility and availability to all of
this stuff on demand when you go to these conferences that are fifteen hundred dollars three thousand
dollar ticket fees that's not accessible and so the way i'm building my conference as well is
general admission being completely free vip will have its cost and i'll make my money in other ways
and then by all the level of addresses that i'm getting through this event i can redistribute wealth
to all of those people taking a portion of the net profits of the event and redistributing that to the
attendees after we do the lpm and that's all tied into this whole model so even by supporting social
currency um you're also supporting new friendship tech and by supporting new friendship tech you're
also supporting social currency because that's directly correlated to me and my personal career
for development and success in the space so it's it's really just like a healthy mutually beneficial
cycle that i've created here and i've put in the work to make sure that there isn't an agency in the world
with equal or better offerings and credibility i'm building an easy button for obtaining and achieving
anything with booze paid and skinning again and i can prove it there's no one-size-fits-all
blanket solutions here and we're understanding that more and more as we try to chip away at this
iceberg or glacier to figure things out and make better solutions to uh worse problems and you know
that's what i'm looking to do with new friendship tech being the leading conference in the blockchain world
as well as fixing some social economic and geopolitical issues utilizing this revolutionary
technology digital renaissance geez well i love that these these are all interconnected which i find
fascinating i think it's like something that as creators in the space should think about that
you know daisy chaining our projects if you will so people can kind of keep up i mean i hope people are
taking notes because if you're like me i've just turned into that meme of that woman doing all the
calculations and the trigonometry so i think it's important to kind of like step back and reevaluate
what it is we're doing in the space and how we can like expand and think about our future so i really
appreciate you kind of giving us like a little mini master class and like behind sort of the trajectory of
the project and like where you want to take it and my my question here is i mean we're we're gonna wrap
up pretty soon but how are you gonna reconcile your schedule and your time now now that you're just kind
of you know taking on this really what i would consider large endeavor yeah i mean to run an agency and to
also be on-air talent um to be i guess a mover and shaker if you will or whatever it is like
you have to be able to delegate you have to be able to project manage you have to be able to move
efficiently and effectively to make the most out of every situation that you're in so for example even
in miami i hosted the central con on the 28th and 29th right after hosting the central con i ended up
rapping and djing at night and also producing events every night so you know i'm booked three
times a day seven days a week and i'm still in miami right now because i chose to extend my stay
which means that things in la that we do today as far as in person goes had to be turned into zoom
calls and google hangouts and phone calls but it's all about efficiency and and you know being pragmatic
and methodical with your planning and also not overthinking so i know a lot of people will think
themselves into not doing anything and that's it's really unfortunate to see because you know if
you're afraid of the unknown that fear uh let fuck everything and run or false evidence appearing real
that fear prevents so many people from moving forward and going off to their goals and dreams
and i think that once again around accountability like this project forces me to hold myself accountable
to being available for these people that are holding these things and also kind of figuring out how i
can constantly challenge myself to create new opportunities for people's beautiful thoughts
and ideas to be translated and brought to life it's literally all i'm doing i'm listening to people
and then i'm thinking about what is the most effective and efficient and impactful way with minimal cost that i can
help them reach their goals that level of being a practitioner that's something that tony robbins
does that's something that gary vander chuck does that's something that some of my coaches and mentors
that i've seen in life do and it's really incredible and you know it only becomes easier as you get bigger
and have more support and more resources and you know i've been very blessed and lucky in life to have a lot of that at this point
when i dropped out of high school at 16 i failed my first three businesses failed because of
business partners with bad integrity ethics and me not knowing how to protect myself legally
so now i have legal right so it's just it's really a matter of that leadership that structure of
foundation patience humility acceptance strength and you know having purpose and passion and the potential
to change the world living in your mind and heart knowing that you know we understand humility comes
before honor and um it's very honorable to create things that uh you have no intention other than
the best interest of the person that you want to go with so yeah time management that's that's it time
management efficiency and the greater good of like can i actually do this for this person and if i can't
what are the new professions well please remember to hydrate and everybody in the room because get some
sleep hydrate if you want to be on the level that erica motivate is on because i'm on three iv you
should see me right now i look like i'm about to go in a chirogenic chamber with three ivs and
i'm also downing alcohol at the same time as the iv drip so it's really you know well minus the alcohol
the the other the other modalities you have chose really do keep people alive and people keep people on the
go so definitely check out that um that's for another space but i did want to bring some folks
up since we're kind of nearing towards the top of the hour so if anybody would like to request to come
up now and has a question or comment please feel free to do so now if not forever hold that request
to yourself um you know while we're bringing some friends up um there's a question that i've been asking
to our last few guests and um i want to we're bringing some one up but i i do want to ask this
last question to you do you consider yourself a trailblazer and with that a role model and and if
so how do you feel about that i mean i've never really enjoyed labels or tags um i feel like they
give a narrative or an impression that somebody is better than somebody else um when realistically
like the person that could be making paintings their whole life could have been a top 10 billboard
credit music artist and the top 10 billboard music artist could also be like an award-winning composer
so i i really think that like like i don't even call my interns interns i call my interns assistants
and then after that after maybe a week of them working as my quote-unquote assistant i call them
partners because i don't like assistants you know and then i call them business partners because
technically they're partners to my business and my business is myself right eric's bibic llc your
conduit llc new friendship tech llc whatever it may be in the same way as you have diddy sean
combs puff daddy yay easy all all these different examples of multiple monikers and names that are
their own entities and i think at the end of the day um if you start listening to what people are
saying about who you are then you start to think that you are that and that's not necessarily the
best way to go in my opinion um i look at myself as a good person doing good things for good people
i have people way way vastly more quote-unquote successful uh and i guess however we define success
being different but you know seven figure earners celebrities athletes musicians diplomats that are
at the top of the world um telling me that i've made it and me telling them i'm nowhere close to where
i want to be and then they try to reinforce that i'm there and i'm like i'm really not like i'm not
where i want to be so until i'm where i want to be no label or tag is going to put me into a box and
define uh who i am or what i do and why i do it and i think that's that's kind of why i i really
i pride myself and just being humble and being real and being honest and being able to also show
show some skin and vulnerability and really you know i've had a near fatal car accident in 2016 i was
on the bed rest for two two and a half years give or take uh light surgery hip surgery heart surgery
health rib cage is fractured addicted to painkillers eight hundred thousand dollars worth of medical
surgery from cedar side my hospital in los angeles by the best hospitals in the nation i lost
fucking everything um including my business at that time um all of my money everything and then i've
also been to jail like three times in the same month for something i didn't do and had proof that i
didn't do it and i can't sue los angeles police department so you know it's just life hits you with
these different curveballs and be out there well with the punches and let them dodge and you know
understand that um your current reality is only temporary whatever you're going through as far
as obstruction and adversity like this too will pass and there's always someone who can do something
better or worse than you and you can always say that you've done more for less you can always say
that about any situation if you're questioning doing something like ask yourself the question like
have i done anything like this before for less and more than likely you have and so yeah love it so
with respect to motivates time we have some people on stage really quickly remember this is not a chill
zone unless you are the guest and that guest is motivate so feel free to raise your hand um but
please wait to be called on and be polite and respectful of the space and our guests and again keep it short and
sweet want to be respectful of um our guests time and also just really quick though motivate you know
there's a lot of women in the space right now as i'm looking down and you mentioned a lot of
entrepreneurs and men is there a woman in particular that has motivated you or inspired you and is just
kicking ass right now oh come on that that is an unfair question because they're just a few one a few
i mean anyone you know you put hey hey you said gary you said gary you said this guy you said that guy
you gotta gotta give us a few chicks oh i love queen latifah i love aoc i love uh i mean there's venus and
serena i love shade i love witnessing peggy goo's journey uh you know venus x she's a floss i was
grateful to have her on stage with guys of empire records uh talking about all of this stuff you know
there's john lee there's katrina there's art jedi there's uh sarah there's claire there's all the
women in the room i mean literally i have so much love and appreciation and respect for so many of the
women in this space uh because they are already facing an uphill battle and going against the odds
and i hear a lot of the negative side of like having to navigate the space that you are the
minority and i've always fought for minority groups in my marginalized communities you know
one of the reasons that i started a women's collective called daughters the showcase for
today's women of tomorrow was because i was managing female talent and i was developing female artists
and these girls were not getting the same rate of pay as them and it was pissing me off because
of a lot of reasons outside of gender inequality but you know again instead of getting angry i took
action and i built daughters la and uh that showcase for today's women of tomorrow changed the lives of
over 150 women like two of them got to play coachella one of them got signed to a crazy record deal
like one's uh book release turned into an amazon and new york times bestseller and like i just i can't
say enough positive things even like shepherd perry's uh wife um got uh them to sponsor one of the
events with obey women's and i threw like a 1500 person women's rave and uh all-female lineup in
downtown los angeles like i look at these lineups for music festivals and i look at these stages and
these panels and i like in my head reprogram them for what i think would be true diversity and inclusion
and so at the end of the day like my mom is my greatest motivator i saw her work her ass off
nights weekends holidays and essentially like leaving me to raise myself in a lot of ways and
you know i don't want to see that like being a norm and unfortunately it is so i'm all about you know
women's rights and empowerment and i'll always be an advocate and an activist and an artist that's pushing
for that like if you don't like women youth elderly animals or disabled people then i'm definitely not
somebody that uses support or get behind whatsoever because that's where my money is redistributed too
so yeah love it thank you for answering that okay so we've got uh the first person who had their hand
up was droves i believe and then i believe it was uh jeremy and then we have kaz and k-a-z and then our
jedi so let's go in that order please friends go ahead what's up what's up motivate what's up jessica
shout out to jessica and nifty kit for making things easier for creators like me to
do it ourselves and um my question for motivate is um is the when it comes to nft projects and nft art
is art ever the utility
art is art you know art art should art should be what it is right why why should we expect more
out of the art than what it is does it inspire you does it make them smile does it tell you a story
does it uh warm your heart to see uh does it add to your environment or atmosphere does it cheer you
up does it make you run faster or jump higher like what more do we want out of the art other than it
being authentic and real and moving and pleasing to the heart and soul right i think we put a lot of
pressure on artists for no reason to go above and beyond when it should just be you know it's kind of like
fashion um if you overthink it and you do too much it looks bad and if you don't do enough then you're
not stylish you're suddenly bland or boring and then you get typecast as not being like something else
but you get to define that that's that's the beauty of art and i think art that lacks heart is temporary
and fabricated and just for profit you know but art that has heart in it and soul in it you can feel
and those vibrations are real and i surround myself with art and artists and creators and creativity
at all times and i don't expect or hold them to some standard of having their work roll up into a
ball and set itself on fire and transform into a dragon and take you away into a land that you've never
seen so yeah i think that i think the art is good enough as it is just let it be you know
beautiful thanks thanks for that jeremy what's up hey thanks jessica great talk thank you for hosting
shout out to nifty kid what's up eric good to see you um yeah a lot of gems here as as you know i'm a big
fan i'm into the project since i heard about it i'm looking forward to that uh that collaboration i i wanted to
just ask you a question about creatives who struggle with the administrative side the management side
that's always been a pitfall for me and um if the if the answer to sort of get over those hurdles is
hiring like what are some do's and don'ts that you've seen work for artists as they're trying to like
level up their their throughput and their their consistency throughout their artistic process which
is generally a little chaotic yeah absolutely so one thing that's really helped me is looking at
the reality that everything that you do leaves a fingerprint or a footprint or a template behind
everything you do and if you want to learn anything in the world it's it's that model it's that pattern
and template that you can follow so it's kind of like a tracing paper technique in school
you uh you learn to draw a turkey by tracing your hand eventually you don't need your hand to draw
that turkey if you want to teach somebody how to rap you know tell them to learn the lyrics of a song
that they really like and an artist that they really like and then once those lyrics are memorized
sing or sorry wrap that song over the lyrics of that artist so then you learn tempo you learn voice
inflection you learn rhyme schemes and patterns innately your voice is different from their voice but you're
going to pick this up as you go and eventually you can move their lyrics from the screen because you
have them memorized and you don't need them anymore and then eventually you can get rid of their voice
and just wrap it over the instrumental and then after that you can change the instrumental and challenge
yourself to adopt different beats and different instrumentals without those same lyrics that somebody
else wrote that's going to teach you the it's going to train you to become better and more flexible and
streamline with delivering that so i use that kind of technique to to grow pack people in a lot of
ways in a lot of industries and i think looking at what you're looking to accomplish and what you've done
previously or looking at accomplishing something new and how somebody else got there you can break that
down into a template and and really reverse engineer their products for their project and then see how you can
improve and streamline that process to a point that you can give it to someone else the less hand
holding and training wheels and helicopter doubting that you have to do the better so i like to i like
to look at it like the 80 20 rule and focus on the 20 percent and with this situation of like really enabling
people to be able to take the ball and run with it let them shadow you one time or let them look at your
process one time or two times and then see how far along that process from 20 to 80 or 100 that they
can get in order to do it and eventually they'll be able to do the whole thing on their own and then
you can get more people to train in that manner and then if that process of training works you can also
take that template and then you can delegate and give that template to other people which is what
onboarding and orientation is in a lot of new jobs right they give you a training manual they have
you watch a video they give you a tour of the campus or the workspace or whatever they sit you
with somebody else for a few days that does a job that you're trying to do and then you learn from
them different ways of doing it maybe faster or better or you have your own way but at the end of
the day you're following another people's footsteps if it's something that's already been done and if it
isn't something that's already been done before just document every step of the way into sections and break
it down and make it digestible and duplicatable that way you can have others take it off
really great stuff thanks thank you for your question
and the the other part uh as far as hiring goes and finding those people and sourcing those people
um i used to literally make like 30 40 craigslist posts in multiple cities and have all of those inbound
uh interests go into a brand new inbox and then i would go through them i'd bring all those people
together into a zoom call or a google hangout and do a group interview so to speak because they
wouldn't respond if they weren't interested in the first place but giving them that full like
transparency of like what you're looking to do when you're looking to do it by why you're looking to do
it what your personal why is and what your rate or budget is for them or if there's an alternative
situation that they can be compensated for whether that's experience whether that's uh network whether
that's uh disability awareness whatever that trade is but at the end of the day like cast a wider net
and think about you know increased impact decrease in print and there's so many hungry and talented
individuals out there that just need a shot and just need an opportunity so there's a good chance
that whatever you're looking to hire for or whatever industry that it is there's a bunch of
other people with similar ideas that would be more than happy to work with you and building yours before
building theirs because a lot of people have fail starts or fail to start because of like obstruction
to take that first step so if you take that first step there's a good chance you'll have other
people following behind you and interested in helping you take 10 more love it thank you so we have kaz
and then we have um art jedi hi thanks for having me on great to be here i want to say eric um the new
friendship tech la in march was the first irel event i went to i've just gotten into web3 and that was big
for me like it was insane i met doc peace and uh lauren turton and i've been going to their spaces since
then i spit a pitch at the harmony one pitch and got some some harmony out of that i didn't know how to
get it out of my account so i still have it but yeah it was an amazing event and i i wanted to
ask you because one of the things that i have really worked on understanding and struggled with
in my web3 journey is the fact that i have autism and for me it really is very heavy with sensory impact
and social navigation and crowds um so there were some things at even at a you know new friendship tech
even though it was much less impactful and less crowded than a full nft la would have been
that were just overwhelming for me and i'm curious if you would be down to plan a an onboarding event
that's specifically geared towards neurodivergent people and towards individuals that have disabilities
and sensory needs or physical needs that normal venues might not be able to handle that having
you know the dj with the pumping music might be too overwhelming and i'm really down to help with
this i've got about 13 years back to back and then another two to three years scattered after that
experience and education and event planning so i'm more than happy to give my personal experience and
knowledge as an autistic person um with helping make that event happen but just you know i'm curious
if you're down to to make some magic even though i don't have the the spiv bucks quite yet
no a hundred percent i mean i think we as consumers need to be conscious of our decision making and if we are
supporting things that we are being just as um mindful when we're supporting them as we are when
we are creating them so that level of self-awareness comes down to the experience design right if your
event does not have ramps for people in wheelchairs to get up like that's a problem for me if you have
inaccessible places that only specific types of people can be in that's inaccessibility to me if
it is too loud and you have no way for people to get the information inside uh from outside that's a
problem for me um so you know i'm absolutely about that i've worked with a handful of people with autism
and uh neuro i mean i'm pretty neurodivergent myself if you watch me move but at the end of the day like
there's all these different forms of social anxiety and introversion and just a lot of different like
mental and physical conditions that need to be catered to in these events that's why we have ada
that's why we have um you know people doing sign language at the sides of stage that's why we do
um silent discos and that's why we do sound baths and uh different types of techniques to help people
focus on different parts of their life that you know enhance their experiences where otherwise they could
be diluted or or basically just ignored so yeah i'm i'm all about that and um i i ball for it like
i don't know how else to say it like um and i do like i said my my focus with these events is like
helping women youth elderly animals disabled like that's what my entire life has been on it's fashion
projects with focus and leading the philanthropy and giving back and uh social impact first and you
know i think the space can do a tremendous amount of good for people in those communities and groups
that i just mentioned as well as fix some um really really sad and rough uh humanitarian things happening
in the world so yeah beautiful thank you eric um i'll i'll send you a a dm and we can talk more because
i you know i'm in la and whenever you get back i know you're a busy man but my schedule is my calendar
is open i'm here on twitter and i'm doing the work of making the art and trying to build my own network
in my own company so whenever you got the time i'm down to chop it up have some coffee get a sandwich
whatever we can just you know talk about it like real people yep it's all good i mean my i'm definitely
way more accessible than i should be and i don't know if my social currency tokens had even more
accessibility to me but at the end of the day like that's the point this for me is a fun social
experiment as well like this is me seeing if i can bat 10 for 10 or shoot 100 for 100 from the
half court with my eyes closed and one hand behind my back like i'm i'm really gas gas pedal all gas
no brakes um pushing the idea of giving my time to others in a multitude of ways and seeing if that's
a sustainable thing and for most people it isn't but for someone like me like i'm constantly
firefighting i literally wake up in the morning clear my cure phone calls and text messages whatsapp
telegram discord social and then i start my day sometimes but most of the time i don't even touch
any of that until i've like meditated and made a conscious effort to knock out my routine before
dealing with any of the firefighting and i think it's it's important for everybody to have their space
and have their time but i also think it's important for people to allow themselves to be accessible
uh and open to hearing other people's thoughts concerns criticism as well as like their compliments
and their feedback and their positive reinforcement so you have to be able to take it all in the good
the bad the ugly and everything in between love it well thank you for your question because we're
going to move to art jedi and then we're going to close it out with aaron
hey i kind of forgot what i wanted to say but i wanted to come and say hello there's so many
things have been said and i kind of have a comment on everything but first of all i met eric gave me a
big big hug about twice in fact uh once at the brunch across the bridge and once at beyond basel
where my art was curated by trippy labs which was amazing um eric is so good to see you finally after two
years and i am one of the currency token holder so i think it just goes to i've lost my voice guys
sorry but if you can't hear me or if i sound too sexy
um i wanted to say a couple of things about art and utility being an artist for pretty much all my life
but dedicated artist for 15 years in the traditional art world and for two years here in web three and
i've seen um how things have evolved and how it's taking shape and the struggle of artists not just from
not just from artists perspective also from collectors perspective because i am one um
art is the utility artist journey is the utility it's people who believe in artists
it's very different from the these pfp collections and all of the mega collections of thousands of
people coming together and believing in something an artist needs to kind of carve their way and it's much
harder but at the same time what people forget and kind of bundle it up with the same thing as utility
is building those relationships with your collectors as somebody who's taken my time to put my work out
there um and now has like i think about less than a hundred collectors because i just have very few
works in the blockchain at the moment but somebody who's working towards gaining thousands of collectors
or millions of collectors or my dream is to have my art in the billions of people and my name to be a household
in the best loved and respected way um it's a hard work and you have to build your relationships with
those collectors and that's very different from utility how people are bundling up so maybe we need
to think about these things if somebody's bought your work for ten dollars or twenty dollars or a hundred
or a thousand or ten thousand or a hundred thousand it doesn't matter someone put ten dollars on you
there's they deserve just as much respect as somebody who's spent thousands of dollars on you so you
need to think about these things as an artist um and and and i think these conversations are really useful
um i don't know i i think as some somebody else um talked about like as a woman in the space and
somebody who's lost a lot in a in life and gained my way back to life i admire people like motivate people
like logic um i'm at logic as well at my which is great and mike mungo um jessica didn't get to see
you but anyway just wanted to come in and hello and yeah share my love
always appreciate you art jedi and no i did not get to see you that was an absolutely crazy trip
next time hopefully in new york or east denver i don't know where you're going to be next but always
appreciate you supporting and coming in and and always adding value um with respect to motivates
time let's just take one more person we got aaron up here um a lot of pressure on you aaron this
better be good uh i'm just kidding well thank you so much for having me um eric i was just wondering
what's been bringing you joy lately amongst all of this pressure of you know continuing to create
every day and continuing to put work out there and you know just continuing this continuing this path
uh so uh you know what may look like so effortless from the outside but uh what brings you joy in these times
that is a good question and honestly if you asked it to me a few months back when i did that interview
for good um i would be curious if it fits different um but i also would love to hear that interview now to
see how consistent my responses have been to things i uh you know i find joy and happiness in helping
others i i live to serve i absolutely positively um love watching people win and being a part of that
process and that journey and that path so you know i take pride in throwing events where i'm putting
talent on stages that are getting discovered and then signing life-changing opportunity deals you
know i love being the first person to do something and then get recognized for that with a certificate of
award but on the same token like no pun intended i also take pride and enjoy and find happiness and
just being you know i i really any room that i'm in any city that i'm in i really admire so much of the
beauty that is in my surroundings at all times from the aesthetic of the decor and design and the
thoughtfulness that's put into building the hotel that i'm in right now or the restaurant that i came
from last night or the details of different things like i really just i love life uh and all parts of
it i've faced death already um i've lost everything already multiple times over um so i don't really have
anything to lose i have everything to gain and i have nothing to prove and everything to share so it
it just makes me feel really good and warm inside to know that a lot of what i share typically has
a positive result that's visible and tangible and i might not hear about it the day of or the
week from now or months from now but somehow some way it always manages to come back to me and i really
like to lead by example and showcasing that even if you don't have anything to gain from doing something
good somehow some way it's going to come back to you and i i'm a firm believer of that so i like to
reinforce uh the ideas of faith and hope um not attached to or contingent with any narrative of
any religious or spiritual entity but just in life itself having hope and faith that you know tomorrow
is a new day and there's always room for improvement there's always room for growth there's always
opportunities to better ourselves and those around us and you know if you're a good person doing good
things for good people it should be reflective in the company you keep and the environment you're
in and your journey through life it's it's not that difficult it's not that hard to be a good person
and too many people out here trying to be hard when they need to focus on being solid and that's what
i like around me and that's what i try to uh not even try i don't even like using that word um that's
that's what i do you know i'm solid and reliable and accountable and here so
that is a beautiful sentiment to add on but i see art jedi you have your hand up
real quickly and we're going to close it out because you've gone over please yeah real quick
sure just want to come back because i did hear motivate unmute and then i don't know conversation
kind of move on but i want to ask first of all to my point um like how do you how do you uh
advise artists to build relationships with their collectors in your experience like what's the best
way ask questions ask questions to get answers find out what they want to know why they bought the
work what excites them about it why the why is everything right so asking questions to get answers
will help you figure out direction and that direction will automatically and organically
create momentum and that momentum will start building that bond and relationship and rapport
that ideally can last a lifetime if it makes sense to and if it doesn't that's okay too some people
buy things that are temporary and rent things because they don't want to own them you know and then
some people hold on to things forever my mom is somebody like that where she'll buy
a book for two sentences in that book and hold on forever to that book for those two sentences as
opposed to clipping them from the book and throwing the book aside or giving it to somebody else but we
all have our motives and we all have uh reasons why my daughter is like that
my daughter yeah she's she's a whore as well
thank you and thank you jessica so much love to everybody in this room
thank you and thank you for the questions everybody and everybody who
you know came and participated and i hope you guys took notes um very excited to have you in the space
today and appreciate you taking the time to be with us so thanks everybody for joining us and thank
you to nifty kit for hosting as always please follow motivate follow nifty kit and check out the pinned
tweet above to learn more about motivate's project and the nifty kit creator pass that's now available
the creator pass unlocks the tools to help you launch your next nft project and join us tomorrow
12 p.m pacific standard time 3 p.m eastern standard time for our wednesday no code smart contract ama with
the nifty kit team and with that i'm going to play us out have a great day everyone thank you so much
for being here and we'll see you tomorrow
we'll see you tomorrow
i don't know
i guess that's the time when i'm not depressed but i'm still depressed and i ask what's your work
ready to give up so i see the old earth who explain what can harm may help you maintain
learn to overcome the heart aches and veins you got to speak up kids you're up cops and black rocks
space out all of them rock the stains and i leave it up to me while i be living room to keep control to the
young black youth
