In The Hot Seat w/ Gigi | Founder of CryptoTechWomen & W3 Learn Academy

Welcome back to another episode of NFT catcher podcast. We'd like to remind everybody that nothing on the show is meant as financial advice and to please do your own research. Thank you and enjoy the show. Now the subject is NFT. They're known as non-fungible tokens or NFT. These are floating in popularity. This is a technology that will help ever change the way people interact. So it is happening whether you understand it and like it or not. You have now joined Jenny from the blockchain and Michael Keane on the NFT catcher podcast. What's up everyone and welcome back to another episode of the NFT catcher podcast with me, Jenny from the blockchain and my co-host Michael Keane. For today's interview we have Gigi joining us. She is a software engineer and founder of Crypto Tech Women and W3 Learn Academy and I'm super excited to jump into this interview with you. I have seen you so many times at events. We definitely have to talk about events and yeah I think we first met over a year ago at a Smilesverse party and then I've just run into you at every single event ever since. Probably see you as much as I see CryptoStorm at this point so. Yeah but it's great to have you on. Thank you for joining us Gigi and welcome to the show. No thank you so much for having me and yeah I definitely saw you at Smilesverse your day or little content but I actually I was telling my friends of like I listened to NFT catcher podcast. I think it was like when they do you guys start and I'm pretty sure it's late 21 when I first heard of it when I was like August 2021 yeah that we we've been out here. That's awesome. Yeah and I was even because you know what's crazy is you had or whoever ran the Crypto Tech Women Twitter account had messaging back in December of 2021 and I did a Twitter space with you guys like and I totally had kind of forgotten about that and then I was like oh my god that's right like we did a Twitter space together really early on. Yeah now I remember that we were we were super excited because I think there's a lot of podcasts that were on at that time and I love the way that you got to capture the show and the people you brought on sounds like yeah let's get them in. Hey thank you yeah it's been it's been fun journey with this podcast. Michael have you been it's been a while since we've recorded. I know it feels like it's been a little bit I've been great everything's good had a nice vacation with the family Jersey Shore Philadelphia Jersey Shore yeah that's where I was last time when we talked. Oh okay Jersey Shore now I'm back in Florida back in the office. Nice. Oh we're in Florida. I'm I mean I just moved to Miami. Yeah I saw you're in Miami. I'm in Broward. I'm in Parkland. We'll have to do an FTV year. That would be awesome. The fight for folks that are left. Heck yeah. Well do you know do you know Monica Rojas like yeah Monica is we've had a wrong she's a mute she's a genius friend but a mutual friend now yeah she sends out a a little like text message every week with all the different crypto events in Miami. I'm gonna have to sign up to that. I'm looking to build a community. Yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna DM you after we're done because that's I get that text message. There's all kinds of cool events. Yeah that's it. All right so I would love to hear about how you got into NFTs. Yeah oh my god what a journey it's in. So for NFTs I actually got into crypto back in 2017 through some of my friends they were already buying all sort of coins kind of forced me to go to this convention in Vegas. We were all there for Christmas. Don't ask me why and they're like well there's this event happening like you just have to go with us because we're all going. It's like great and that was the first time I started hearing about you know differences between stock like points and you know for me was okay they're doing really well so I'm just gonna trust the process and these are people that have bought and hold for 10 years right and they're doing really really well with that strategy and I was like okay I'll buy some but I I wasn't really deep into it. I'm a coder since I was 16 years old and that's always been my love and my passion. Just coding later on in 2020 I believe or 2021 as I was working for my previous company forethought. We did a little retreat it's looking themic. We got a house in Vegas somehow Vegas is a recurrence thing and we were just all there kind of like building things together for some clients that we have and I remember it's the the said Ron was popping at that time it was going crazy and I was just kind of making jokes with the team like oh we should build like and then FT and you know and I don't know that's that was kind of like me going into the that of decrease but really it was Gary Vee. Gary Vee did a podcast I feel like he's always ahead of his his times like he always knows what's gonna pop because like you have to learn about this technology and the first proposition was to release something that I cared about which was the flexing like you can flex right you can you can say you're the only owner of this and it's verified on chain and I'm not much of a flexer so it's like how sounds interesting I know of a certain demographic that would enjoy that I'm from Venezuela like we literally go on the streets you know because I'm on my stele like I'm not but I thought it was really cool and I just kept reading about it eventually one of my friends who I told about like I was like you got to go into this energy thing he came back to me at some point and was like hey you need to learn solidity and help rebuild plates earned game and I had no idea what solidity was but he did play he did say like hey we're gonna make a challenge let's see who can learn first and I am highly competitive so once it was proposition that way I kind of just went all in into learning solidity just to beat him I fell in love with the technology and the potential that he had outside of just flexing things and you know I think the technology itself especially being cold with something that really attracted me into learning more about it and kind of building something that could do good through the power of the kind of like ERC 21 like contracts and I think crypto as a whole you know has so much potential to do so much good and it's all about how we're using it and that was back in 21 there's like summer 21 fell in love and it came into this world that's amazing and I'm so you got into coding at 16 I am also very curious what got you into coding you know that that's not like a typical career path for women and like that's like I mean that's amazing that you you got into coding at such a young age what got you interested in that like was there somebody that introduced you a family member like how did you kind of you know decide that you wanted to be a software developed software engineer or developer I don't know is it the same thing as software engineer developer yeah they you can use that for you on so at dot h I became independent from my family actually at 16 I got emancipated and I wanted to build this life that I had envisioned and to do that I knew I had too many like step away from the nest so at 16 I got emancipated I'm kind of always researching so researching has been a part of my life of like researching what are the highest-paid jobs that you can get and software engineers obviously one of them like it's been on the list and it's forever and I would just go through the entire list and like look for jobs and kind of like research but what's happening in the background it's Google is selling my data right and it's selling like companies hey this person is interested in it so eventually I got an ad from co academy and it was like learning how to build an app and it was a gamified way of learning how to build on JavaScript and I love I love that that was that was it I just got on it it felt really powerful to be able to build something imagine that like six-year-olds on building websites there was so much ownership and autonomy that I I just fell in love I just felt really powerful being able to build things online so you never went to school for it like you were just self-taught I started self-thought so eventually ones and by the way I didn't even know this was a career I kind of knew about it I didn't know how could I get into it I had no idea so eventually I moved to LA in 2017 and when I moved to LA was when I started seeing all of these ads like you could this is actually a job and you can go to a bootcamp and I had no idea I was living in Puerto Rico before that so once I learned about that I filtered with a few friends got into a bootcamp it's like a high intensity six months make it or break it type of bootcamp 20 thousand dollars so your light kind of committed at that point so did that bootcamp and right as I graduated I got a job as a founding friends and engineer for a company joined us an eighth employee left with I think it was like 200 of us by the time I left last last year and it was a crazy like amazing burdeny that I definitely recommend to anyone out there who's kind of thinking about boot camps I'd like to just do it do it don't even think about it you're such an action taker like and that just that story but I mean everything I know about you like just I love it I love everything that you've done you've done so much in the web 3 space too we haven't even started talking about that yet but okay so after you know you do that bootcamp what's kind of the next step in your journey as a software engineer yeah and then how do you tie into and then when you kind of decide you want to create your own project crypto tech women yeah so okay I'll make it short so basically I do the bootcamp I know I need a job I'm applying to jobs it's really rough out there applying to jobs especially at that time because boot camps were so new where now boot camps are more acceptable because kind of the people from boot camps have been embedded and now they know oh if you come from a boot camp you you got it still like if you put the time in you got it at that time it was so new so it was doing interviews but honestly I think it was it was a great process so then an interview blew to San Francisco to do one for the my first company called more thought fell in love with the team it's pretty cool was the first women engineer in there for a while I was like we need more ladies here we kept trying to to improve the pipeline but it was pretty fast growth so I came in my job was to get our MVP recreated and to react which was my expertise and it just kind of like love from there I think I had a lot of knowledge from like management as well that I did before even becoming a software engineer so it kind of tied up to put me in a great place where I was able to help build pipelines and processes within the company eventually mentor a bunch of engineers and I never saw myself leaving which is the the crazy part so three years in I told my boss I'm like hey there's this thing in FD they hate NFTs right like tech people they're like NFTs yeah don't do it but I'm so passionate I'm learning I'm really excited and something about me some really passionate about something I'm gonna do it and I told them hey I want to do something that I haven't seen and there's not a lot of inclusivity in the space the few projects that I've seen which was world of women boss beauties first generation was out there world of women bus beauties and cryptic chicks were the only ones like even those are like the second one of cryptic chicks have invented at that point as like I've seen these projects but none of them really tap into the technical part of of representation at webs3 it's a lot of inclusivity for all project for women but I wanted to create something a little bit more niche and Michael was just doing something in education helping bridge the gaps for people that wanted to come into web3 and something that I so really really early on is that in webs3 people were paying more than they were paying in normal traditional tech companies because there was the last demand of people looking for jobs in this area so I'm like okay so if someone may not really have like a bath floor or a bath or but they have the passion they have the interest they have to drive they can get a better job than they can get in web2 and you know I'm a minority from Venezuela my goal was I want to help bridge that gap for people and and bring them here so I think because of the nature of what I wanted to build my company was super supportive and excited I told them hey I want to build an educational platform that's the ultimate goal to be able to bridge skills in my boss just like super supportive they're like yeah you got this so I never saw myself leaving but after the event it was really obvious you know building a company is a lot of work I guess I really never saw it as building a company I was like I'm building a community and thing for good but after like postman the responsibility it's a lot at that point I was like I need to take a step back and just focus on one yeah I mean it is a lot of work you know having your projects I've at all the founders always all stressed out there's so much expectations and pressure and you know just a lot that goes into it especially when something is so volatile it's just you know whenever money gets involved emotions are high uh Michael I wanted to hit over to you yeah it's all good let's continue on the project a little bit because I was looking I was doing my research going through all your your uh with the link tree and all that um so the project came out like February 2022 it sounds like you were doing like Twitter space is building that community like you said uh tell us kind of what it was like how it all kind of went down for you if you do anything different um because you mentioned you were a little surprised like oh yeah now I have a business that I have to run and there's people like asking me to do things so yeah give us that story I'd love to hear it yeah so the way that it went down was pretty much though it was August 21 when I decided I'm gonna do this and I had for me was always clear the angle was to build a an educational uh academy um geared towards Web 3 that the holders would have this too so that was always the the angle for it and going through it it was pretty soft built out a community of Web 2 before um also a tech community that's what I used to do previously with my platform on Instagram though it was pretty clear because you have to build a community you have new express value I actually did not um bridge my previous um following I think decided to create something new for the the niche market that is Web 3 and I was doing it all I was doing the marketing I was doing the community management I was doing it all because it was my passion it was something really fun I created the whole art direction for what I wanted the art to look like I paid up front to an artist um and an agency pretty much to build the art for me so that was an upfront cost it was like over 30 thousand dollars but I was that confident and committed about what I was building as a software engineer I built my own website I also built those smart contracts and I hired to uh let it be developers to come with me and advise me and you know make sure that what I'm doing is writing correct and that was kind of the process from August to December so by this time we're after building this community people want to manage um it's it's real at this point and I think there was a little bit of fear with the men's process as I kept you know like the lenient I'm like it's fine let's continue to build a community but by February there's 20,000 people on the discord it's a like it's a hype meant um I have no idea I kind of I think this building and community and doing it right it was well brought a lot of people to want to support this and then invent this and by by February my community was like do you like it's been like six months we either meant this or you know there's so many other projects dropping like like bring this to life so at that point there were so many men's happening um because of um like women's history month so I decided in February 26 we'll do our men we'll do a pre-sell that that's pretty much how the story went I I think for me the part that was the most surprising post meant it was the the bigger feeling of responsibility like Jennifer said like you you have you know pre-men there's responsibility still but there's no funds right there's no funds involved um I think wines the funds were involved there is a lot of the community shift the what are things happening and why is it happening yesterday uh you're building a platform like that should be built in two days and not really understanding like how um like the work that it takes to run a company on like build procedures build the the educational kind of like correct ones we were doing it was a lot and I come from web to rights of web to you have kind of more time to build things and may take a month may take two months it's totally understandable in web three especially at that point I think we've evolved as a community to this point it went through at that point it's like if you have a man they expect the utility to borrow and it's not because they're they're viled that way right it's because other companies maybe have have like done them wrong and now they feel scary they're like what's gonna happen after man so I think it was just that and also with my company I had a lot of responsibilities because I was meeting our product so you know it's like I'm working 12 15 hours in my in my in my job and now I'm also working 12 hours with um crypto tech women and at some point I just hit a wall of being burnt out because I was really I would wake up at six or five fifty go to the gym six two eight eight to seven I would be working on like my my previous company and then within that I would take like my work rate which would be to work on C-TW and then about seven eight to two a.m. I'm on C-TW so my sleep time is like three four hours a night it was not scalable at all well that's interesting I went down in the timing was pretty wild because you got you literally were like right at the end of the bull market it was literally like that was like March 8th or May is when everything collapsed our mint our mint and night before it went I'm so happy our mint is happening the next day the the community is so excited like the discourse is full of like really exciting messages that I'm on the phone with someone and then that person tells me hey did you just see that like what they're like yeah like Russia does fire a missile to Ukraine yeah I was like what and he's like yeah check check Twitter and I check Twitter and it's chaos and out the biford scale they're like push the man you should have been these should been all like literally wasn't even it was maybe eight hours and nine hours before the mint it was struggle it was real but I'm so happy that we still push through it and it happened but the timing was just that is pretty wild yeah I know because and that war is kind of what started the whole financial downturn all around that's really crazy that they didn't right before that that's wild yeah I'm not it was crazy exciting and you keep mentioning the companies to work for was is it for thought let me go back yeah for thought AI everyone laughs because they're like you we've done generative AI 2018 they're like so you went from generative AI to so that's crazy I'm like listen no one cared about it wasn't that crazy what was that like what did you guys do there honestly it was so fun so we built solutions for customers in the customer support space so it's a mixture of everything from chatbots so if someone has to use up work you'd use their chat system so that's a product I work with which is like the chatbots we built internal products for agents so we use AI to kind of make agents their own site cake with AI where we're able to index like they have for the companies and then serve it up to the agents to kind of make their life easier when they're answering any customer question is a whole suite of products that are all geared towards making agents more efficient and making response times more efficient for big companies that handle a lot of customer queries and in any type of product like that we've had like gusto of work and a bunch of big companies I don't know which ones are public but yeah it was a it was a really fun fun time I I love working with them and in their team and everything was this great yeah it looks looks pretty cool they're still going obviously oh yes they're doing great are they cool that's awesome now what AI do you use in your like personal workflow personal workflow so I'm I'm a big fan of AI obviously and chat GPT great one definitely get that upgraded plans so you get the upgraded models bar I also use Google bar I use both I think they both have different ways that they kind of communicate and I kind of just input into both and get a workflow but I I know a lot of people that are not pro AI but I think as a founder and as someone that's still does marketing as someone that has like my own personal brand it's really it can help you a lot it can help you with brainstorming it can help you even in in terms of work and understanding like how can you be better at what you're doing and how can you make other people's likes or each year but it's all about how you prompt engineer those prompts you know and and really add context so it can understand it's going on cool yeah I need to use Google bar a little more I've only been doing chat GPT I use it every day but I do need to check out because I'm one free Google bar yeah yeah yeah cool yeah Michael's a huge fan of AI he's always he's always talking about it I'm majoring I'm doing an art all the time yeah yeah so I'm I'm kind of curious what you're what your current focus is right now like what are you kind of working on I know you text me and you said that crypto tech women you kind of are going through a bit of a rebranding so I'd love to kind of hear what's what's going on these days yeah yeah and so so there's so a lot going on so through throughout the bear market you know we've we stayed at it like we're still building we've seen a lot of companies that kind of like came in and left and for us that's not even an option right like our mission still still here it doesn't matter what type of market we're on which I think a lot of people forget about like the mentality that you came in with and just just think true to that vision and mission so with crypto tech women we had an amazing year since it's launched like over a year and we got to a place where we launched the project we you know we continue to do our weekly educational spaces we've got them to amazing guests that we've had we launch our educational platform doubly it's we learn academy and whether you can find a lot of short form masterclass this we also launched a previous letter that's still out there for anyone to call 30 path to wax three that x white knee and that's a free 30 they need a letter to get you imported from zero to to like you know what you probably need to have a wallet maybe fill your own collection or create your art we've done all of these initiatives and now looking at what we wanted to on how can we impact even more people we kind of came to the conclusion we need to branch out of having a web app and building it up so instead of having what we currently have we want something that's on the app so worth to have major distribution for anyone and everyone out there right it's going to be a complete upgrade in terms of the way that we were teaching right now it's masterclass so it's short form video we have a quiz at the end you're able to reading your on-chain certification and which in the background is it all about token and this is being great but what I've keen to learn looking through like data points is education has changed in the way that people learn has changed with that and one of them the most efficient ways to engage users to not just sit on a computer but come back to this and continue to learn is gamifying education so that's that's one of the many things that's changing so we we do want to update the name we love the name for detect women and if you currently are listening to this you can find those but we do want to have a name that is even true to the mission because at the core our mission is to create accessible ways for everyone especially minorities to learn about web3 or emerging technologies and curb detect women in a way may not really communicate what the app is doing right so we want to kind of just make it into an app have a name that is for the community that is for the product so the naming is right now oh my god we were we just did like a two hour session like trying to like we're going through all the names it's been three days we've been talking about like all of the other characteristics it's been a process right now kind of like rebranding if anyone has gone through that but the goal of the rebrand is to just have one name that it's the same for the community and for the product which is different from what we have now right now we have one name for the product one for the community which can end up into building two different communities right there's a lot of confusion and complexities there and so having one concise name that is able to communicate what we're doing is something easy um real software song and then from there we have our ctwpfeason right now this is all being done with the community we have weekly community huddles we have feedback um we're now going to ramp up to three goals a week with the community in terms of you know we want to make sure that whatever we do it's aligned with with what they want and something that excites them because at the end like our community is our biggest distribution method right like they are the people that love what we do they're the people that stick to us they're the people that are still here so we want to make sure that we are doing this with them because at the end this is also for them um and then in terms of the pfp there we are going to be upgrading to a mascot so we want something that's really cute like a ball and please say um genderless anyone and everyone can relate to it and something that shills up and not so there are all of these elements being worked on but at the end when you think about emerging technologies and for us we're focusing on AI and walking there is a big gap in terms of knowledge through opportunity and we want to be able to bridge that in a way that you know it doesn't matter where you are you're in Spain and yeah maybe you don't know about what freakus you're not on computer you go on the app store there aren't really a lot of solutions that are fun and engaging for people to learn about this technologies and the reality is if you're not learning about AI and walk chain you're going to be left behind right because even big companies right now are paying their employees to use chat gpt plus so they can make their job easier so they can be more efficient at their job and that lead there's a lot of minority groups gender groups that don't have the access to learn about this and you know they are not going to go to you it might be too complicated to like just watch a video for five hours and they might not do that they might not be reading papers they might not even know how to read like proper papers or like search for them so we want to create a user experience that's just super easy to digest it's fun it's engaging they're being rewarded by your learning and we're tapping into their core emotions that's humans that we need of wanting to feel rewarded wanting to feel progress feeling like you have a community to kind of like lean in beyond just having the app and with the new mascot also being able to create a lot of content that communicates to the new era which is reals, take, talk, and see so that it's a big process but we're trying to do it as fast as possible to you know have something really cool to show that's great and honestly yeah you guys are doing so much it reminds you of the saying like build and they will come right it's like you guys are just building building building and I actually have a crypto tech woman uh which if you guys want to look at the collection you can you know check this out in open sea or or any other um uh eth marketplace but crypto tech women uh look it up pretty good entry point too like especially with the amount of stuff that you have you're doing like you know that's amazing for it to be super easy and accessible and and a good entry like that's that to me is is one of the best things about the bear market is like because prices have come down on a lot of these projects it's so much easier and and more affordable to get into the projects that you've been eyeing or you know support builders in this space without really having to to shell out a lot of money so that's great so um one of the things you said was you know you were changing the art over to like the mascot type thing so is my crypto tech women going is the metadata gonna change that gives it gonna am I is my the image gonna be a different image now or how does how does that work yeah so this has been a process where we're that like those are all the things that we're chatting with the community about whether it's uh it's unburning mechanism where you have to burn your your cpw but in in that process there are people that are very attached to it right like they don't want to they don't want to burn it they love their cpw they feel like they they meant to go right one so we're we're kind of walking through and and negotiating what could be a good claim mechanism I think the the burning could be something really really memorable right um but we'll we'll see this are all working progress we would not change the metadata at any point because I think that kind of you know I know there's some collections doing it I personally I would love to think that it's immutable and you know there's no metadata changes where I would rather do a claim for for the new mascot but it's gonna be really exciting because I though the thing about the mascot is that I am so excited to create something that um you know anyone can identify with and it's just cute and I think that's something that there are so many cute collections out there then like oh my god this is so cute but at the end of the day I'm currently rocking my own profile picture right on my social medias because I think there is power of being docs like I'm so docs you can find me a late thing and there is power to that uh but eventually I would love to to wear something that that maybe it's mine and that I'll think it's like really cute so uh but no there's no metadata changes uh there will be a claiming period so you'll I'll keep you updated okay sweet yeah I mean I love how you do it too like with your your profile picture it's like it's your face but also you know in the in the photo as well you have a bunch of your NFTs you have your doodle you have your you know CTW you have your azuki bean your your Pudgy Penguin so you kind of I like that you did it like that and um yeah I uh one of the things you're saying oh I'm excited for the cuteness factor reminds me of speaking of Pudgy Penguins we had Lucas Nets on and he was saying like you know the the cute cute nice factor goes a long way with NFTs like people love like you know cute NFTs and stuff so I'm excited to see what what the art looks like and you know to to continue falling along with your guys's journey seeing what you're under 100% I think that's the thing about web series like whether you are in it for the utility or not because that that is also a reality we have all of this utility and for a lot of people they bought because they support the mission they bought because they support me um they bought because maybe you want to then look like them they bought these other daughters kind of like it because we also have a lot of nails in the collection and or like owning the collection but I think once you top into a genderless timeless IP it's so much easier for other people or like anyone and everyone to relate to it based on on different trees but um in terms of entry points I I will say 100% one of the things about accessible entry points if we've had initiatives that are not ours they were kind of community done um where we've had one collector who's been buying them and giving them to schools in Africa so they can access our courses through them um it's like a little region so that's been really cool chief been sweeping so many of them to give them access to the courses we have one in Haiti that he is super enthusiastic to one give them out but also maybe start a chapter there and have maybe study groups so I think the the low entry point has really made it accessible for people that again would normally not access to a course that may cost you a thousand two thousand dollars but within with the NFD it's a tree right and even with the app IDSO the app IDL also enables us to create better business models that you know at the end of the day longevity as a company is your number one goal you don't want to be here for two years you want to be here for ten or more right and eventually maybe get acquired or or IPO like that that is the goal that if you're starting a business that's the one thing you should be really really focused on it's grow so with the app IDIA our holders will still have priority in terms of the things that we're doing versus not being a holder and that that's something that I'm really excited to kind of like map out and be able to show that there is power in owning a digital collectible and it can grant you access in many ways there are reasons why yes you could do this in web to technologies but there are so many ways that within within web to technologies things can be like spruce or tricked and I think still like betting on on NFDs and still the moves probably not an speculative asset right but they're they're spot for people building real companies and definitely put your penguins this is one of them with everything they're doing yes and gg is a founder I can get behind support good builders in this face gg is definitely one of those people and and you're always speaking at events too I mean yeah saying I run into you at a lot of events but you're also speaking a lot of events NFT and my C most recently you spoke at you I mean all over your your Twitter page you got you're you're speaking at a ton of events how has that like how has that speaking and also like kind of the power of networking and going to events been beneficial for you you know as a as a builder in this space I mean I think even even beyond this space like when I wanted to be a software engineer the first thing I do is I would be so weird and I would go to all the networking events and I would feel so uncomfortable because I would probably I'm not probably I 100% felt so unqualified to be at those networking events and I definitely did not feel like an imposter because I was in the fooling anyone yet but I was like oh my god I can feel like more experience than me I'm gonna sound like a dumbass probably with something else say but I would still do it because showing up is literally 80% of it showing up showing up and not being afraid to look like a fool I didn't say the wrong thing because you know saying the wrong thing will eventually lead you to learning the right thing because all will correct you so I um I did that before and I did the same thing in Web 3 my first Web 3 event was G Monies Medaversa event in Puerto Rico in December 21 is actually the day before my birthday I went there I met the best people in the space like I met and that day I met like the Berturli who still a good friend but Truba like great-mine such a genius and everything he thought and then like the founder oh there was just all these people which again I felt I was building my community there are so many things I didn't know and that was one of the best things that I did was go to that event I connected with so many grilling minds that eventually ended up helping me through thinking through problems helping me learn about the space lore um we ended up partnerships eventually together I mean networking I think is 100% something that you should do and even if you don't have the opportunity to go to real events go to Twitter spaces Twitter spaces is almost the same it all depends what Twitter spaces you're joining right but for me networking online or IRL is number one like it's the best way for you to meet people is the best way for you to make friends is the best way for you to scout for partnerships because at the end of the day you don't have this type of connection where maybe you met or maybe chat it or when you send them a DM they're likely out of me being able to send a cold DM and landing something it's not that good it's not that good if you're like a brother in your ship it's rough I think like building building that relationship and it doesn't have to be that you are building a partnership or or anything it just has to be done if you're in this space you want friends this space is it's rough as it is that technical space there are so many neat things to learn and you're not gonna learn them by yourself you're gonna learn them by talking to people by going to Twitter spaces and and learning about what they're talking about you're gonna learn it by going to in real life events and introducing yourself and maybe that person is not someone who can help you and whatever you're doing but the person they know is and the power of human connection and networking is truly one that I 100% recommend anyone to do and kind of step out of that bubble of feeling insecure and feeling afraid because I felt 100% afraid and I used to not even be able to think about speaking in public in actually in 2020 I have a photo on my phone before the pandemic I found the place to they do public speaking classes in San Francisco and at that time oops I wanted to to speak about coding and I took a photo I was I was like I'm gonna go and speak in 20 conference in the next three years and talk about coding and then the pandemic happened so then I never did that class and then I eventually ended up doing all the stages because I knew that I had something to tell I'm my speaking presentations are usually onboarding people into what through projects like teaching them about how to build one or why you should be interested in this technology and education I think there's there's a lot of lack in this space though making up my mind that that is something I want to go and teach others because for me it's really important that you're not keeping information with what made me step out of that bubble or that fear is the same with spaces spaces was Twitter spaces for anyone out there seem really scary at the same time but it's fine everyone's been there you'll get to run yeah we've done a couple spaces together as well and you have your own show Twitter spaces show the hot seat so anyone wants to tune in to some good Twitter spaces check out gds twitter we'll definitely link it Michael do you have any more questions for gdd yeah I have one more I wanted to bring up everybody to listen to the podcast knows how much I'd love to travel and I've actually told this story before but in the summer of 99 I spent the whole summer in Venezuela all over the country where are you from in Venezuela I am from Puerto La Cruz you know Puerto La Cruz I think so is that the port that's just across from the island of margarita yeah my my yeah my dad is from margarita okay I spent time in both yeah I went to poor Lamar Juan Grego on the island I loved Juan Grego with the sunsets and just the chill little beach like loved it there and I was actually believe it or not in Plaza de Bolivar the day Hugo Chavez was elected which is like world history I know yeah didn't think that's so good did not fun fun fact my my last name which I just used my my person technically Minnesota is just one name Gianni Nascadna I guess in the U.S. it's name and middle but my last name is actually what you are oh wow okay okay we'll see moan Bolivar I love it I love it are you related or who knows probably probably a million probably there's probably some some some some mine down there yeah I loved it though I we had the most amazing time that summer such a beautiful country amazing people amazing food I went over to Medida in the mountains that was probably my favorite with the Telefetico and no that I love we had such a great time kicked off my love for travel I've now been all over South America all over Central America almost every country in South America that's amazing I personally loved to travel I yeah I use to travel way more before becoming a founder but now I travel for web three company uh web three events okay exactly exactly you take what you can get love it how long uh how long if you when did you leave in as well I love been a still a pretty early on so we officially left in 2002 which is when about when it started getting really bad and I continue to visit up until 2011 but after that it was really it's really tough to visit and still to the state so lots of my family is there except for my mom and brothers and my my real dad and you know it's rough because I love my family so much I want to be there with them and that is rough you know it's tough um so for anyone out there who's in my shoes I'm with you it's really rough like being outside in a different country by yourself but you know it just makes it so much more possible for me to help them by being out here and you know doing my thing here so it balances out interesting interesting good to hear your story there yeah no I mean it's it's really a shame I've heard things have gotten a little bit better I but no not from what you heard that's no where I watch like people travel there some of like that YouTube travel people but they probably don't give the full story and um yeah and they're I mean also just like the level of security that you have to travel with right um to be able to be safe like I I have friends that are from Minnesota still have to flock then look like you know Venezuelans because for my family they're like you're blonde like you need to dye your hair brown and you need to you know there's a lot of steps taken I know people's from there that you know have gotten into situations including my family so it's not good I wanted to be better one day will be better yeah one day well sweet okay so let's go into our our final segment here which is our gas wars rapid fire question segment or Michael and I are gonna ask five questions each not necessarily related to you know the web space and yeah you'll just answer them and like ascendance or less if you can sounds sounds so fun I'm so ready all right see I guess I'll go first here uh what's something you've always wanted to do but haven't done yet I died oh I once got having actually I would recommend it I'm so scared that I want to do it one day I think it will pass out but we'll see oh my god I'm willing to try I'm willing to try yeah uh what's your favorite thing to cook ooh favorite thing to cook it has to be my breakfast basic it's turkey bacon eggs and I just put it in a tortilla and I make that a little wrap nice ooh you've been so full love it uh where was the one I was in the ass oh yeah this one ironically ties in with um Michael's butt what is your favorite restaurant well my favorite restaurant wow I mean I have to say it is very that basic LA but I really love catch LA because it has really great through really great vibe really great on the end and I that's usually where I go celebrate things when I'm excited nice nice what was your first job oh my first real job was working on the clothing on the dressing room department at T.J. Maxx in New Jersey in Chicago sorry in Cape Pala that's it's uh I used to always like T.J. Maxx I was like where I was chopping us like a teenager always what was your favorite TV show as a kid that's seven show okay we have to go little kid or how old were you I said no I said let it get no I said let it get it was fairly Pokemon or Dragon Ball Pokemon I'm a nerd okay nice nice apes or punks oh that's what everybody's been answering I know everyone is always been punks though it's always been ponds for me I like the Providence that's what Gary Vee always said too you mentioned Gary Vee earlier he always said punks is the one that's gonna last yeah like the Providence you know yeah man or not to execute yeah they're just art what's what's one book that's changed your life one broke that changed my life is called choice theory by William Glasser definitely recommend to anyone out there I literally recommend it yesterday because all I know I was like change my life you have to read it and I gave it to give us a little synopsis yeah so choice theories really amazing it literally is about choice theory so I think in like a lot of us react and we take actions we take reaction and we think we're thinking by no one's actually thinking but when you take a step back when things happen to you even before you react thinking about all of the possibilities in terms of inviting this what you know what do I think will happen and seeing all of the ways that your actions can change the outcome of of anything that's happening so it's really powerful still is definitely recommend it to anyone out there I love that we'll have to get that choice theory I like throwing things like that into chess pt and having them give me some points yeah wow that's typically my move did I survive yeah I have two more and you have one more oh sure really okay right yeah best concert you've ever been to oh I mean I'm letting me know bad bunny baby let's go bad bunny has some bangers I've been to all his concerts then really fun fact so in Puerto Rico I was a VIP manager for a club this is like 26 2016 and that was one of his first shows there when he wasn't even famous wow I was like I was like oh you're singing here oh nice to meet you have like the photo yeah after that I've been to all he's he's so great wow all of his show that's amazing so you traveled just to see him it's been so I've seen like all of his shows in terms of like for the album he's done so I've seen all of the one in Puerto Rico and then because you know Puerto Rico's like I'm connected with a lot of people there and everyone's kind of connected in some ways in such a little island I was in San Francisco my friend was like hey he's having a show here's some tickets you should go see him like yes and then when I go to Puerto Rico sometimes yeah like I'm just meeting but the whole show but it's always so fun I love like the happiness in the music yeah yeah it's it's a good thing I'm like I'm like I know some Spanish but I'm not like fluent so for me I kind of like that I like don't know what he's saying like I kind of like when I don't know I think it's better to yeah and it's just like I can just vibe and then my mom was like wait do you even know what that's saying like I was like listening to this one Spanish like rap song and she's like oh she likes to explore I'm like mom I don't want to know what what they're saying yeah you should not I can I can pick up little things here and there but okay my last question what's something that you want to get better at something that I want to get better at there are so many things that I want I get better at I think right now because we are looking to build an app one of the things I want to get better at is kind of like a quoting language that's specific to that and so I would love to build you know build some of it myself I probably won't be able to build all of it but I love coding so I want to get better at that but I think also probably yeah I would say that um get better at having a real life outside of digital that would be the little one I spent too much time just working in my you know apartment or something and I do not spend too much time with friends or doing things without my phone so that's something I would love to get better at like I think the most I've been without my phone in this past year it's probably one hour one hour I guess when you're sleeping eight hours maybe yeah besides that connected monthly right yeah yeah it's it it is really nice to to go out in nature too and just kind of you know just be present in the moment and and just be able to enjoy the beauty and and really take everything in like that's something I've been trying to get a lot better at too I'm grateful for my friends that haven't unfriended me but I went to Puerto Rico I went to Puerto Rico recently and I was on a I was at a discord stage I'm like chatting with my friend them I'm for literally just took it she says please let her leave I really want to be with her she's visiting me and I was like oh my god let me get out of this but like let me just say they're just in case it's bad oh my gosh it's addicting and my final one is what is your favorite travel destination oh my favorite travel destination that I've been to I've traveled a lot that's a fun fact before getting into web series I've had more than 45 countries wow what the heck yeah and I think the favorite one still is Italy and I I really like like how I want and it like looking at islands ball is really nice but I think Italy has community and that's something that reminds me of Venezuela before like you go to the streets people are making friends people are talking to each other it's a very friendly and I'm I'm a little positive like I love being positive I love friendliness I love having fun so I think Italy just spoke to my soul and I love the carbs and the food and the bread is it perfect amazing you survived now I'm survived I was made it through yeah that was great um and yeah that was a lot of fun gg actually added your book to that was by use books on thrift books shout out thrift books and um I'm always like adding books to my card and because I read books pretty quickly I like to speak and so I'm choice theory four bucks about to get it fifth year four bucks and if you get the three month retrial on audio ball you can get it for free that's the you get the physical book for free or just the audio book just audio book I don't I don't like audio book I like to actually read like I don't know there's something about for me like being able to like touch a book and actually like read the words like I I know it's kind of old fashioned but I'm like I just love that that part of it I agree I think I think audiobooks that are great if you're able to jump on you know if you work out I used to just work out for the audio ball on and just I'm sorry but it doesn't think the same because I I sometimes get lost in my thoughts and then I miss out a whole chapter yeah I started distracted yeah true yeah I mean you can get distracted while reading too like you know I sometimes sometimes happens but anyway not about books and not about reading books thank you so much you need for joining us on the show and shout out to everybody who tuned in to this episode we appreciate you and we'll catch you in the next episode peace thank you for tuning in to the NFT catcher podcast we hope you enjoyed today's episode and learned something new about the exciting world of NFTs if you enjoyed today's episode please take a moment to subscribe to our podcast on Apple Spotify for wherever you listen to your podcast and if you really love what you're hearing please leave us a rating and review on your favorite platform if you want to stay up to date with the latest news and insights from the NFT space be sure to follow us on all the socials at NFT catcher pop you can follow Jennifer at Jennifer underscore studio and Michael at NFTicket I'm your producer Andy and I'm at AJC 254 our theme songs by it's just loose we always appreciate your feedback and support which helps us reach more people and bring you informative and engaging content about NFTs we look forward to bring you more great NFT content in future episodes thanks for listening peace