GM folks welcome to an extraordinary Twitter space. Guys to begin with I just want to talk about how
in the rapidly evolving landscape of digital media, pioneers are continually disrupting the status quo to bring unique experiences to their audiences. And today, we are thrilled to delve into an in-depth conversation with Simon, the founder of the Polymath Experience, which is a listener-owned podcast, which is straight
blazing the path toward decentralized media. So guys, thank you so much for joining us and as we unravel the inspirations, challenges and future aspirations that underpin this revolutionary podcasting platform. To reduce myself, my name is Saloni Chen and I had the content at Dao Struck, which is an all-in-one platform for you.
users to discover, invest and participate in over 10,000 hours. Dowshtrot will be akin to Bloomberg only for Dows. So guys do follow us to remain updated about this entire ecosystem and let's get this entire conversation started with Simon. Welcome aboard Simon. It's a pleasure to have you with us today. How are we doing?
Thank you so much and thanks for the intro. Yeah, it's a pleasure being here as well on this beautiful Friday. Love it's indeed a beautiful Friday. I am right outside sitting in the balcony. I'm actually traveling in the mountains and I think I've never been so much at peace before. All right, so let's begin this. I'm going to talk about your journey. How did you start?
the Polymath experience. What it is all about, let's break it down step by step. Yeah, of course. Yeah, it's, I've always wanted to launch a podcast. It's always been under my mind. I've had amazing conversations where 30 minutes in I thought, "This should have been
recorded because there was so much value in it. And seven, eight months ago, a little bit more than that actually. I think October, I started to broach the subject with Verezza, who's one of the founding members of the podcast as well. And he was like, all right, let's do it.
Let's jump in and then I talked about it with LePuxue who's in the chat here as well and And now two more people have joined the team we started recording in January and took our time with
with our mining where we want to go with marketing and community and started to record and get the post-production system in place. And now here we are, we launched the first episode just a couple of weeks ago, 10 days ago.
and it's amazing. So we're pretty young in this entire market for that matter. I mean, are there any other similar podcasts and I understand that the Polymer experience is a decentralized podcasting, which is, you know, which is owned by its listeners? So first of all, I want to break down the questions to two parts. Are there similar podcasts?
decentralized podcasts, podcasts that have a business model that includes the community. I don't really like to think in terms of competition, especially in this space, but I think a big difference
I think we already have started to take a quite different approach and will continue to do so because, well, it's in the name. It's called the Polymath Experience. Polymaths are people that have a wide array of interest and of knowledge and skills. I don't think there's a limit
to the types of people that we will have. Our first guest was Tara, who is the co-founder of Co-Create Multimolean Company Web 3. But that's already bridging the gap because they're building with Web 3,
non-love-three brands. Another episode was with Lucas, who's a coach for founders. So we talked about personal development. We talked about psychedelics. We also had Alex, the co-founder of Next Decade, who before becoming a
founder in Web 3 was a basically product manager at Louis Vuitton where he spearheaded the development of their first digital goods. So yeah, there's
I don't want to throw myself like to brag or anything, but I have a special set of interest and of skills and I think that that will be one of the key differentiators among others obviously and I forgot
with the second part of the question. Well, that's okay. We have beautifully said that and to begin with what you remember, but you know, the battery is not about competition, solver, community because in the battery, if you look at it from a competition perspective, I think neither of the organization or venture
will thrive as long as people come together and build it together and that is where the community comes in right. And talking about the podcast, of course, I'm sure you have some amazing people, spearheading the entire Polymath experience. And to all my listeners, Polymath, okay, the map, so it's a Greek word, Polymath, Polymath, Polymath, Polymath, Polymath, Polymath, Polymath, Polymath, Polymath#
So like we say Pauli Claude, a person who has money, languages to speak, Pauli met with be something people, you know, who can talk about everything and anything under the sky is that correct? Yes, it is. Lovely, lovely. So, to be totally discussed about anything and everything under the sky.
the sun which basically are talking about that tree is a universe or is there any specific niche that we're trying to target with this platform. So part of being a decentralized podcast is that we want the people in the community to throw
the people that they like to learn from and who they think have a very interesting story to tell, have interesting life experiences. And the one thing that I've kept saying to the people we talk to was
I personally just want to talk to people who are interesting and have an interesting story to tell. And so maybe we'll end up with just random people from all walks of life who just have had a very interesting, I don't know, relationship story or
entrepreneurial failure or success or artists or I don't know scientists and I kind of hope that I will also be surprised in that and so know there's where we're obviously starting with
There are a lot of web-free people obviously because before anything what has brought us together has been Web 3. It has been where huge fans of decentralization, we understand the power decentralization has and that in blockchain has
has in order to implement it, to build decentralized networks and business models. So a lot of the people that we're having on the show are community founders, builders, and then we'll see where it goes from here.
Lovely and you know it's the stories that we humans actually live for to probably look for maybe an inspiration or maybe connect with and kind of feel the same road or probably going down the same lane. Something podcasting is yet another form of creative content which can actually connect the users help build a community. You know this entire
When I was first actually researching about the polymer experience, I never only came across like a decentralized media. So if you were to explain the concept of decentralized media to someone who's unfamiliar with it, how would you actually put it as by the term as decentralized and also with
that being people owned. I mean, of course, we do talk about understanding what people want to listen to, but then just probably explaining more on a decentralized front, perhaps. Absolutely. So first off, I think that we're doing a little bit of trailblazing here because there's, I think this
subcategory is yet to be defined and so our definition may not be the definition and I'm pretty sure that other people would maybe disagree or maybe venture another definition that something may or may not be as decentralized as what they have in mind. So there's obviously a lot that needs to be
taken with the green of salt. But with all media, let's call it a business, with all media businesses, there's decision making power and there's creative power and and what content is created, how it is distributed, who does what and what
We are doing the first steps that we're putting together is inviting our community, the people who are already listening to the to the podcast to
put their own stuff in what we're in the content that we're producing. So right now our platforms are mainly so there's a podcast and there's Twitter and we're putting together the basically short form video content platforms as well and we're inviting people in the community
to tell us what they loved about the conversation, like what moment really triggered their senses and what they would like to learn more of and we're slowly going to invite them to write content with us and if one day some
someone says, "Alright, I love your values and I love your vibe and I think you should launch a blog or I think you should launch another YouTube channel under the Polymath Experience Friends and I want to take care of that. Then we want to invite them to do so and we will
build a business model around this, allowing for people to participate in this and to operate in a way that is not well just us, the founding team, making all the decisions, creating all the content and deciding on the direction that we're taking.
Now, I mean, decentralized or audience feedback, community feedbacks actually plays a pivotal role in shaping the journey of a venture or an organization for that matter. So in your point of view, Simon, how has decentralization actually impacted the growth and dynamics of the
Let's talk about numbers from right from the start when the inception happened in January up till we're in the June which is about six months into this year already. How has been the experience? What do you think has the decentralization as a role made its impact the numbers and everything? Yeah, I'm going to take it actually
back from before. We launched the first episode of a couple of weeks last week. But before that, we built this in a decentralized manner. Decentralization doesn't just mean community. It also means the team. What we are trying to do is
especially what I am trying to do as the host and the initial founder is making sure the directions that we're taking even in the team are "decentralize" meaning that if there is something that I personally don't feel
or see very strongly without someone else does to give this room to grow. And so this is a, this is I think for me a very, very important component because it all starts with the team. And yeah, when, for example, right now what we have
going on is there will be a membership that will be obviously in the form of an NFT because it's the most powerful way to incentivize people to join a community and then maybe you're not going to be a fan of this podcast for the next six years because that's how things go that's how life is maybe you're going to
Really enjoy this for the next 18 months or three years and then maybe one day you want to get out but you participated and you contributed into something maybe you helped this grow from a Podcast that has 50 listeners to a podcast that has 15,000 listeners and you want to benefit from
from this and you don't want this to have just been a cause for you. And so you're going to buy a membership and you're going to be able to resell this membership and the benefits that go with it. And right now we're inviting the community to participate in the creation of the visual for this NFC, for this membership.
And that's a step towards decentralization too, because we've set up basically the guideline, the direction that we thought would best represent the podcasts and the values that we share. And hopefully it will be a community created visual that wins the podcast.
Well, I can only wish all to very best with the vision that you have for your assignment. So, you know, what is more intriguing here is that I want to talk, you know, kind of remind backward to your journey in the sense that has your background been something similar in your, you know, past before which led you to become or rather
you know start on the polymath experience or what is something over you already a part of that treatment? How did it actually happen? What's the background been like? And yeah, I mean that's pretty much the question. Yeah, of course. Yeah, so I trained as a lawyer but hated law so I was looking to
get out of it as quickly as they could. So, but I learned a lot from it and public speaking is obviously one of them. And I launched a company and that's about when I discovered Web 3 actually in 2017. And throughout that company and throughout I
trained as a yoga teacher. So I have been talking to people, talking with people. I've also been, let's call it a personal development coach. And so I've always loved to one, hear people's story and to react to people's stories. And
help them dig deeper and in that process of digging deeper to extract whatever value there is to be extracted to share with the world so that we can elevate our consciousness and people's consciousness who listen to it.
There's every, it feels like everything that I've done in my life has gotten me to to this point to being a Web 3 founder because we're building a Web 3 ecosystem myself and actually Cosmos who's here in the books who's a part of it and who's a part of it and Mo6 who's a part of it.
of it as well. And so it all just fits absolutely perfectly because I care extremely deeply about decentralization and about the fair sharing of value and I know that there is a lot of
There's a lot of teaching that needs to be done in showing why organizations, human organizations that actively share value fairly among their members will be more sustainable and will actually be anti-fragile.
and have a chance to outlast the people who have founded them. And so launching that ecosystem and now launching the podcast that goes with it that will be able to highlight those values are very natural and organic and will succeed together.
beautiful. So Simon, you're actually a master of many trades. Of course, I mean look at your background and see the way jumping into the sea of Web 3. I mean that's that's beautiful. And of course, I mean today's audience, the community essentially looks at what value they derive from, you know,
to something or reading something or while they're talking to people and unless they are value to them, I think that's only can take people and organizations to places. So talking about the fact that you have a law you've been a lawyer in your family or in your past. So in case
of disagreements or differing opinions among listeners and owners, what are your plans to kind of, how do you plan to manage it? Communication always. Actually, that's the sense, right? Sorry, go ahead.
No worries. Actually, when you're building a decentralized ecosystem, you know that there are going to be disagreements because that's just part of human experience. We all have our subjective perspective.
And at some point, our subjective perspectives are going to clash with someone else's. Not because I'm right and you're wrong or you're right and I'm wrong, just because that's how life is and because sometimes I have to learn sometimes you have to learn sometimes we both have to learn.
Putting together a ground for people to better communicate, to come together and to add up subjective perspectives and to create an objective one will be is one of the things that is always in my mind in the way we want to build conflict
resolution systems? You know, I mean life is of course very subjective because your perception may be my truth and at the end of the day to each is own. So I mean best better you know the dichotomy kind of enters it. Um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um#
in case of a decentralized organization or a decentralized media. I think if it could happen in North, I just find it too very conflicting to either go by what the audience have to say or what we as creators, that kind of binds in the creativity part in sense that
you know if my audience wants something but my creativity tells me to do something else. I think there's a fair share of issue out here don't you think you're something. Yeah of course there is. But it's always productive in the end. I mean yeah of course it's about the value and I'm sure even if two opinions clear something better comes out.
So obviously the sale of memberships will be a part of it.
And then because we're creating a media, there will be attention. We're going to have amazing guests and because we plan on building a very organic foundation of content and also invite the same type of content.
types of the same types of people, we're going to have a very good and organic community. And we, the business model will be a lot around doing sponsored, sponsorship deals with brands, with companies and businesses that are aligned with our values.
And the way we have structured this is right now. So a percentage of the revenue will go back to the members. And then the rest will be the two major parts will be one will go into a community pool where basically
people doing tasks that are bringing value to the podcast, to the media, will be able to be paid for them. And a percentage will go to the team to be split and so that we can grow and so that we can keep doing amazing work and conducting creating amazing content.
So that sounds fair, giving back to the community and yet sustaining the event, it's very important. And it should go hand in hand. Lovely. So while this entire door to the port of the Polymouth experience is happening and even to date, what have been though, maybe a couple of challenges that you've faced so far?
and our facing and for the challenges that you faced how did you overcome them and what are the current challenges that you're facing? Wow there was too much of challenges and faces. Lots of challenges. Yeah yeah yeah yeah I think one of the bigger challenges that we faced in the first
few phases was that a lot of people are burned out right now in this space. And we obviously wanted to create something that came out of Web 3 with people who truly believe in the values of Web 3. And so we had, there was
an initial team and a couple of people had to drop out because their personal situation changed a lot because the bear market really affected them as well because that's what it does when you're in the bull market you're all excited, you're spreading your attention very thin
you get completely dopamine deprived and then when the bear market hits you know that you need to be doing the work to prepare for the next positive phases but you're exhausted and it's hard to focus and it's hard to do things and so burnout really was a thing in the team and with the people of
around us because the community that we had in our projects before kind of, you know, dipped out for a bit, went back into life and went back to other things to restore their energy levels. So that was a big one. And so to bring this to fruition,
was not an easy task and so I'm extremely grateful for what he had to go do something else but Lee Pooksy who was in here has been a rock in the past six or seven months and he's been with me and
has helped take this off the ground. And yeah, and right now I think because we're the challenge, the current challenges, because we're a Web 3 based podcast, the fact that we're in this fair market, the fact that
And the fact that people right now are more looking for shorter term opportunities. So you have the builders who are very busy and who are doing their own things. And I know that you can relate to that. And then you have the people who are trying to kind of exploit this
ecosystem and this market and not a lot of people in between. And so it's hard to capture and maintain the attention of people. So you have to keep building and keep doing your thing and trust that you will prevail.
team for holding on the foot when things start crumbling down. And with the challenges of course is where we actually pen to pen understanding or have the experience of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel they say. Because that's what makes us better, that's what makes more experience and we know how to kind of maneuver away through it.
So sure and absolutely I do relate to the point that it's becoming very difficult to kind of figure out the place people to kind of talk to and make the audience aware about what they're doing because they're busy doing it some are exploiting some are simply not interested some to not really understand the value of kind of sharing the way
or I mean it's just a plethora of challenges for that matter. It's totally relatable of course. Hoping on to the next question here, Si, when you, you know, do you want to talk about that exceptional moment where you felt very proud of having started the podcast, the polymer experience?
Yeah, I'm just going to mention the past two weeks because and more specifically the past two weeks and with this team of putting out the first episode and getting the first
pieces of feedback. People are getting, people are excited, people are giving us kudos on the quality of the post-production, on the quality of the conversation.
The guests are enjoying it, the listeners are enjoying it. I know that the team is having a lot of fun, the energy is actually so positive and we're all so aligned in what we're doing.
a constant state of pride for the past two weeks. Well again, I couldn't say much could do the entire team. So since the fact that it's been two weeks ever since the first episode that launched, how has been the viewership been like?
The what? Sorry. The audience. The audience been like, I mean, in terms of their interest in terms of the number of plays or views. Yeah, it's been, it's been good. I mean, it's hard to know when you don't have a reference point, but we
We have, I think we had a couple of hundred views on each episode on YouTube and then the episodes have been downloaded, I think 20 or 30 times each on the podcast platforms as well.
It's not like mind-boggling, but it's good. And people have come back to us told us that they love the conversations, which is what matters. And so we know that we're on to something, and now we're also working
working on how do we hack this? How do we hack the growth of this? How do we put ourselves in front of more people? But we all understand that everything comes in time.
Sure, so I'm gonna trust me whenever you discover this hug please pass it along because we're trying to do absolutely the same thing Yeah, the challenges are plenty. There's so much but of course all of us are just trying to kind of get ahead try to get at the best value to the people for the people and by the people I mean that's the basic then as a democracy just kind of putting into a deep
decentralization firms. Okay, getting ahead, go for all my audience guys, if you have any question regarding the decentralized media or to Simon about the polymath experience, feel free to raise your hand and I will put you up on the spotlight towards the end of the session. So talking about the metrics
your Simon, what do you think are the probable metrics one should look at when they're looking at I mean I'm talking about the success matrix for a decentralized podcast what what are your metrics to evaluate what went well besides having a reference point of course yeah of course yeah the bigger one of the bigger metrics that were looking
right now is contributions from the community and the first step was obviously identifying the best contributions that we can get and now watching them week over week and seeing how they grow and obviously the other one will be
Who is listening? How many people are listening and are they staying? That will be the main, the two main metrics that we'll be watching.
So, and it's time that you have a video podcast in YouTube is that correct Simon? It is. Do we have also plans to you know, put up the audio podcast on Spotify Apple Premium and other podcasting platforms? It's already there. Yes, so we're doing both. We're doing both. So,
So, what are the specific, the Gated Communities, the NFT Gated Communities?
already out in the market or we're still working on it. So it's not technically gated right now. We're letting people join and letting them contribute and the contributors will be rewarded and and be able to to mince the first memberships when they come out.
Sure. Okay. So, you know, experience or in your vision, how do you see the polymer experience influencing the broadcasting industry or the media at large? Yeah. I think I would put it on par with
with how decentralization is going to work in general. I think that by putting decision-making power and revenue making possibilities in the hands of the people who are important to
the networks will eventually make all of these business models more sustainable and more anti-friile. And so I really do believe that by creating amazing content and by allowing the
people who are listening to the content, who are fan of the content and letting them participate in deciding where it's going to go, what content is going to be used, and how this business evolves,
I think that eventually, or like a lot of podcasts, a lot of media, as in most business models, will have their strongest contenders be decentralized versions.
So, you know, I can't promote journalism background Simon and more often the North in my previous experience have seen that people, you know, enjoy content which are which is kind of, you know, when it's sensationalized, what do you call now putting up, spicing it up essentially. Yeah. Those kind of content have a lot of
and people really like engaging with it. On the other side, when there's a value-based content, the quantity of course declines with this quality for sure. So how exactly do we try to kind of balance the spiced up content vis-à-vis
the value given content because if you go on Twitter, you will see that any Twitter account which has good memes will get a plethora of likes, but there are free tweets. But then if you kind of just start talking about the value part that you know say instance, how can you start a podcast?
They do not really garner so much attention. So at one point in time, I mean the audience really wants value, but they also want something new, which is sensationalism. I mean, that's really again a very kind of conflicting issue here. So how do you plan to kind of navigate that conundrum?
Yeah, I like that you raise this. Yeah, I think so the first answer that comes to mind is that because we're going to be pretty open and because there's open in the in the in the guest that we're going to invite, we're we're we're likely going to
have very interesting guests who maybe don't naturally bring value that you can apply to benefit your own life. But people who have a very interesting story to tell, people who have something that will inspire others or that will trigger them or maybe, and that's the second thing that you made me think of, maybe we should start to
bring in comedians as well. It is a very interesting and delicate time that we're in where the attention spans of people are getting shorter and shorter and so what do you do do you subject
yourself to creating shorter content that has less value but that is more prone to catching eyes and ears. I know that is not my thing and I'm pretty sure that it's not the thing of the people surrounding me right now. So yeah, we'll see how this plays out.
Yeah, of course, because at the end of the day, anyone who steps out of the market comes from a business point of view, value of course is very important. I mean, these valid hooks, they say that, you know, once because it's the fact that like you rightly said, that the attention span, it's just about
5 to 10 seconds and it is up to the content creators or other creators who kind of capture the audience interest and that's why they have these viral hooks you know 10 steps to do better or 10 trips to kind of make a podcast better but then even if you click on it it
it ends up being a clickbait. And yet when people understand it, they still keep going back at it. I mean, that's just the proper human psychology, maybe. But okay, sure. So, since we're talking about decentralized podcasting, I just wanted to get an opinion on what
What do you think that the decentralized media or other media platforms, which disseminate news and information to the people can actually benefit from adopting a decentralized approach or a centralized approach will actually be the way forward for the general media?
I don't know. I'm not too sure to be honest. I don't think centralized companies and media will disappear because there are just some that are not made for it and decentralization opens you to
to difficulties. So I'm not sure I have a very good answer for that. Well that's okay, no worries about it. So what are you understanding? You're a person who actually
focus more towards value driven content, people who made an impact in their society or in their life or in their life journey or professional journey. I'm talking about it. What are the core values which guide the polymer experience?
Yeah, so as I talked before, fair share of value, the fair sharing of value is a big value that has stuck with me personally and obviously with the people around me as well because we're still here today and that's understanding that
when $100 is created, so if a brand comes to us and says, "Alright, we have $100 to spend and we would like to use it with you to open ourselves to your audience," that not all of it should go to the people who have the power and the
this organization, which is us, the team. Because we have the power, it doesn't mean we should get 80% and just give away the crumbs to the rest. And I think that's the main one. Obviously there are others where we're empaths, we love people.
people and we care about people, every person who comes to the show feels it. If you have told me already, they really feel seen and heard and we're actually having conversations about them, about their story, about their experiences of human being, about what they've learned and other people can learn.
So yeah, fair distribution of value and empathy would probably be two of the bigger ones. That's beautiful. I think it's never really worth I'm going to say that the core value is empathy and besides value of course because I'm dealing with the tape unless I don't empathize I don't think your human at all. I mean probably that's a harsh way to say but then I think
empathy becomes the core of every living being. So empathy guides us, empathy is something which kind of makes us connect with people, understand people and yeah it's just a beautiful term and a feeling itself. And so if you had to start the polymorphic speed and solver against Simon, is there something you would
would want to do differently. I mean of course it's a journey which you kind of keep experimenting, keep changing, but the initial start, the inception, was there something you wanted to do differently if at all? Yeah I think the one thing would be to start earlier and start faster and with
without waiting. You know there's a perfectionism that comes with all of this and I think a lot of us are because there's you know ego in launching a business. There is how we are going to be perceived and you want to you want this perception to be the best possible and so you're delaying the start because you're hoping
that by doing so you're going to come at it stronger from a position of strength and with something that's more polished. And so maybe if I were to start over again, I would just start interviewing people and push out
the content and yeah a little bit more organically. Other than that I'm actually very happy with the way we've done this and it's still very organic even if we've waited quite a while to have a better launch.
You know, it was as if my, my inner spirit was channeling your energy and guiding me to tell me that, you know what, you're going to start already, you're going to start doing that, you know, start writing the piece of quantity of all you wanted to or other start talking to people, do that YouTube or be logging thing. But I think the only verb I do is
action is to think and not surely act upon it but I think it's hype that people should not just think of action as a thought but rather act upon it because that's the actual world we're looking at. So Simon I'm throwing my final question to you in a single sentence how would you encapsulate the essence
of the polymorphic experience. I mean we've talked about everything under the sun talking about you know the values what drives you, the passion, the vision, the people, the community but then had you if you were to put it in a single sentence I know it's a big ask but yeah what would be the major how do you encourage
Absolutely the sense of it. Yeah. One sentence I came to mind was beautiful conversations with beautiful people and I think I'd add shared with more beautiful people because that's essentially what we want to do. We want to be, you know, a beacon of light
a beacon of positivity and empathy and interesting stories shared by interesting people. I think that's I think I'd be happy with that. Lolly, that sounds really nice. I'm really glad to say this
This entire conversation although I short but then it is again like to say about the quality of what you've been given and what you've been talking about. Madam, Matt is much more than the kind of the amount of time you spend talking. So I think, fortunately, this entire conversation has been mind-blowing, phenomenal and so many values and
What do you call learnings and lessons to be taken away with it? So I thank you so much for the bottom of my heart and on behalf of the master Simon to yeah, to accept the speaker invitation and to all the audience out there I hope that today's conversation with Simon has provided you all with also
unique insights and the potential of decentralized media. So guys as we conclude this enlightening session, I really hope that it has sparked your curiosity and interest in the ever-evolving landscape of digital media and podcasting because podcasting is just not about content but it's about connecting with people.
And having said that, the polymath experience stands as a testament to the power of collective ownership in participation and underscores the infinite possibilities when audiences aren't just passive recipients, but actually active contributors to the narrative. So guys, let's kind of
continue to explore, engage and evolve together in the rapidly changing world of Meteor, always ready for new experiences, conversations and insights. Thank you again Simon, I think it's been beautiful. I'm going to enjoy this entire conversation all over again and to
all my listeners until our next deep dive into another innovative universe. Keep questioning, keep drawing and always take curious. Have a ball for night guys and take care. Talk to you guys very soon. Thank you so much Simon. It was an absolute pleasure. Take care. Bye bye. Same here. Bye. Bye.