Why You, Creative or Business Owner, NEED to Give a Sh*t NFTs, Blockchain, and Web3

You’re reading this because you’re either (1) a business owner or (2) a creative (musician, painter, influencer, YouTuber, etc.)

And there’s a big chance someone somewhere has told you about these “NFTs” and “The Blockchain” or “Web3” and how it’s going to REVOLUTIONIZE everything.

And you were like 😐

Then you were:

1. Confused

2. Doubtful

3. Thinking that you’re just now figuring out this social media stuff, and this person is telling you there’s more to this sh*t?

I think that most of my audience is a bit older or a bit younger than me, so some of us remember the early days of the internet, and some of us were Instagram or TikTok babies.

Now we’re adults and have responsibilities. Families to feed, businesses to run, degrees to finish.

So why should we give a shit Sh*t NFTs, Blockchain, and Web3?

This is what I asked myself, and in this essay I’m going to share answers to questions I had.

I’ll talk about businesses, books, creators, and much more.

Part 1: Start With the Problem

The easiest way to think about new technology is to ask ourselves: What problem is this new thing solving?

So this essay will to follow the following structure: Problem → Solution → Future Ramifications Derived From the New Solution

Marketing

If you’re reading this, you likely know that to keep doing what you’re doing, you need to market yourself, your product, or business, etc.

Marketing is, essentially, making your client aware that a solution to their problem exists.

When you think of the easiest way to do it, you realize it’s easier to join a conversation than to start one. It’s about finding where the attention already is, and connecting with your audience there.

From there, you put your product or service in front of them by getting them entertained, educated, intrigued, etc.

Part 2: Points of Solution

I’m pretty skeptical about NFTs and the Blockchain, but I’m curious enough to try to figure it it can do anything for us in the future.

“Luis, can you give me a freaking definition for each of these technologies?”

No, not yet. Problems first, we’ll get there :)

Let’s dive into how these technologies could affect us. By the way, this essay is a compilation of the absolute best insights I got from the book “The Everything Token” by Scott Duke Kominers and Steve Kaczynski, along with conversations with folks who are smarter than me.

#1. Solution For Musicians and Creators

Stay with me on this one: How do NFTs allow us to “Invest in the Creator Economy”? “Digital Music: You belong with NFTs” (p. 157)

1. It’s known that people love to discover artists early. There’s something oddly satisfying about finding the “underdog” and then seeing them hit big.

People feel connected to their favorite artists.

I particularly love the fact that I “discovered” Laufey before she blew up on TikTok, and same for Eloise when she only had one EP. I felt connect to their craft because I found it so “early”.

On a more personal level, I’m friends with Allegra Miles and Kaub and I cannot stop bragging about their music. Same with Zachary Blair, a director and oil painter who was my roommate and became one of my absolute best friends.

People connect with people.

2. Why does that matter?

People ALSO know that being an artist generally comes with money struggles. That’s when the “1,000 True Fans” comes to play, NFTs can solve this problem.

3. Let’s go one step at a time:

Imagine you’re a struggling artist who decided to give this NFT thing a go, you’re creating a little badge that you can sell to your friends.

**As the artist,** you create an “Early True Fan” NFT (”badge”) that you sell to your close friends and supporters for $50 each. If you sell 200 of those, that’s 10k you would’ve never seen.

**As the fan,**

4. What Makes This More Interesting? The Secondary Market

Say I bought Allegra’s NFT today, and in 5 years she went from 500 to 250k monthly listeners on Spotify.

There will be PLENTY of new fans that would absolutely see the value in all of those special benefits, they’d love to hop on video calls with her, get access to special events, early releases, etc.

The secondary market now allows me (the supporter) to SELL my NFT to these new fans…

…which means, when you buy an artist’s NFT, it’s also an INVESTMENT on the artist, which is why I call it “The Investing in the Creator Economy”.

In simple terms: What if you had discovered Taylor Swift before she blew up, and you bought her “Early True Fan” NFT at the time? How much would that be worth now?

Let me stretch even more… Say you see a creator online, in whichever platform is current. They are not “big” yet, but you can tell that it’s just a matter of time…

ooooooh baby, you can buy their NFT, give them the support they need, and now BOTH OF YOU are more inclined to see them succeed. You put REAL SKIN in the game.

Because if they succeed, you also benefit from it (higher valued NFTs can be sold for more, of course).

5. But What if the Creator Just Creates More NFTs?

   Yes… they could. But it’s in THEIR best interest to create things that actually add value, otherwise they’d only be hurting their brand. Economics 101 will tell them Supply and Demand like to walk in opposite directions.

   But, even if they did create more, that FIRST NFT will ALWAYS be the first.

   Gosh, what I would’ve done to have bought the original “Can’t Buy Me Love” NFT from the Beatles.

6. Does this exist?

“The Web3 platform Sound.xyz, for example, was launched to help put out songs as NFTs in numbered editions. The theory is as follows:

Each edition of the NFT is numbered uniquely, so listeners can showcase their early support. Since early editions are considered more valuable than later editions, backers are incentivized to discover new music early. […] Show off the Sound NFTs you’ve collected and prove you were a fan from way back in the day. Can you find the next big sound” (p. 161)

And we’re not even talking about people like Coco Mocoe who’s made a name from “predicting trends and rising stars”.

7. If It’s so GREAT, Why Did I Not Know About It?

The biggest CURRENT problem on all of this: most people haven’t figured out this a thing. The solution? Time. And essays like this one.

So, marketers and artists, it might be a tad early still…

”(…), when Reddit launched their digital avatar NFTs to their community of forum posters, they were facing an almost entirely non-NFT-native audience. Knowing that the avatars’ purpose was to help users further define and reinforce their identities within the Reddit Community, the platform launched a series of NFT avatars that sold at fixed costs ranging from $9.99 to $49.99 - and, as we noted earlier, with most of the underlying NFT technology obscured” (p. 189)

What should we learn from this? Maybe selling an entry-level NFT and explaining what it does it the way to start out.

#2. Solution For Marketers: The NFT-holder Retargeting Marketing Strategy

Say you own a restaurant and you want to give a discount for all of your Miami Heat fans because they just won the NBA…

“NFTs make it possible for people to find their tribes everywhere” (130) and I am SURE it’s only a matter of time until marketers figure out how to retarget that, if they haven’t already.

We’ve done it on Google, Meta, and we all know we’ll continue to find ways.

”Oh Luís but spam” - Damn right:

“(if you read that and were concerned about unsolicited contact or receiving unwanted NFTs, there are already solutions in place, which will continue to improve over time. Direct contact through and NFT-gated chat channel would require a person to opt in and connect, just like any other current chat medium. Meanwhile, if a person or company wants to send you an unsolicited NFT, there are hidden folders where they land, much like with email spam filters. So, chances are, if someone manages to contact you via NFT, it’s a person or entity you’d actually like to hear from.)” (p. 132)

#3. Some Other Scenarios:

1. Airdrops & Access (p. 83-86)

   Think of the musician’s NFT example with Allegra Miles: “it’s possible to see who (or rather, which account) owns a given NFT, and send them something additional” (p. 83)

   Maybe she’ll be part of a festival and she was able to manage 100 tickets for free that she decided to give out to her first 100 supporters.

   She’ll find them because of the early supporter NFT.

   “As a business, you can take advantage of these opportunities in both ways, seeing the value of your NFTs increase as other companies offer perks to your NFT holders and providing benefits to holders of other NFTs that fit your ideal customer.” (p. 92)

2. Communities (p. 99)

   1. Buying an “all-access pass to Star Wars news” (p. 99) could give you access to essentially every piece of news out there, given that the creator of the NFT has deal with every news thing (smart contracts) or something like this.

   2. “… many top Target fans have similarities to one another - for example, quite a few of them have school-age children. It’s quite possible that Target NFT holders’ chat would become a source for community commentary about products, or possible even advice on various aspects of child-rearing. (”Any recommendations for summer camps in the Northeast?” “What do I need for my kid’s first dorm room?”) Target already has a simple “Parenting Guide” series on their website, but this could lead to a much more dynamic, personalized, and powerful version of that product” (p. 150)

3. Licensing: NFTs in the creator economy

   Much like Bored Apes, you could find space for licensing products and ideas, think like being able to sell star wars versions of your own product because you have this NFT license.

4. Airline Miles Programs (p. 63)

   “Instead of having one’s membership on file with the company, a consumer can own it. Imagine all the status and reward points you’ve built up residing in your personal digital wallet.”

   Example: You have status with Delta Airlines, and because of some partnership they have with Marriott, as you’re checking into Marriot you’ll get a free upgrade”

5. Universities:

The book calls this “Activating Alumni” (p. 165), here are some quick insights: 1. Digital Diplomas (Nontransferable NFTs). Your diploma is now attached to your wallet. No need to go talk to the Admissions office or whatever to retrieve that again.

Part 3: Unsolved Problems:

If you got this far, you likely agree with me that this is pretty interesting, but you might still have some questions:

1. Are we going to see some centralization like the one we saw with Web 2? There’s a chance….

   The internet was, for the most part, nobody’s land. Today, however, most of us are on Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), TikTok, and YouTube.

   So there has definitely been a centralization aspect to it.

   Now, one of the biggest selling points about Web3 is that no one owns it. But could the same happen to Web3?

   Maybe it would even come from those Web2 giants. There’s more to be discussed here and I’d love input from more knowledgeable folks.

2. What about the Metaverse? Is it dead?

   The book makes a great argument: It’s already here.

   We care about follower count. That blue checkmark is status. We are already on our phones a lot.

   ”Francisco Alarcon, digital artist and futurist, said: “to us, the “metaverse” comprises of all the various digital spaces people build around themselves.” (p. 204-205)

   So, uhm… social media? I guess we’re already sort of there.

3. Social Media managers, you know how annoying it is to have to optimize a post for each platform?

”(…) Ready Player Me, for example, produces software that makes an NFT asset from one digital environment realizable in other platforms automatically, without having to directly adapt the asset at the software level.”

Beautiful.

Questions I’ll let linger a lot longer:

1. Are NFT specialists the next big boom? NFT CMOs, NFT lawyers, NFT Artists, NFT community managers…?

“In the early Web 1 days, the tile social media manager sounded ridiculous, but now many company have entire department full of social media professionals” (p. 137)

2. Should you consider specializing in becoming an NFT manager for artists?

Final Thoughts:

Much like you, I’m trying to figure all of this out, so take this essay as a space to start the conversation. I’m in no way an expert, but I also believe more people should be exposed to the ideas here, hence the posting of this short essay.

Thank you for hanging out with me here.

Wishing you the best,
Luis Pollon