This episode of VAULT3D, selected from the archives, stitches together a tapestry of tales from Brayden's leap into a career fueled by passion, his backpacking odyssey through South America, and the deep dive into the unpredictable yet alluring waters of NFTs and cryptocurrency.
Brayden unravels the narrative of his climb from snapping weekend hikes around Vancouver to becoming a trailblazer in the travel photography realm. We discuss the delicate act of preserving authenticity while meeting market demands, and Brayden lays out the map for navigating the economic landscapes of one-of-one pieces and limited editions in the digital art market.
As the episode winds down, we don't just share photographs; we share reflections on the shifting currents of the past year's market tumult. We cast our gaze towards the horizon of the NFT space, speculating on the rise of Web3 gaming as a beacon for future engagement. Drawing from the collective wisdom of our experiences, we underscore the importance of consistency in creation, the evolution of collector dynamics, and the enduring power of artistry amidst the ebb and flow of digital tides. Join us as we discuss the transformative potential of the digital frontier.
Brayden Links:
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/braybraywoowoo
Website: https://www.braydenhall.com/
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/braybraywoowoo
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/braybraywoowoo/
SHILLR:
Website: https://www.shillr.xyz
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/shillrxyz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shillrxyz
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shillrxyz
Music by 800DB
Twitter: https://twitter.com/800dbmusic
This episode of VAULT3D, selected from the archives, stitches together a tapestry of tales from Brayden's leap into a career fueled by passion, his backpacking odyssey through South America, and the deep dive into the unpredictable yet alluring waters of NFTs and cryptocurrency.
Brayden unravels the narrative of his climb from snapping weekend hikes around Vancouver to becoming a trailblazer in the travel photography realm. We discuss the delicate act of preserving authenticity while meeting market demands, and Brayden lays out the map for navigating the economic landscapes of one-of-one pieces and limited editions in the digital art market.
As the episode winds down, we don't just share photographs; we share reflections on the shifting currents of the past year's market tumult. We cast our gaze towards the horizon of the NFT space, speculating on the rise of Web3 gaming as a beacon for future engagement. Drawing from the collective wisdom of our experiences, we underscore the importance of consistency in creation, the evolution of collector dynamics, and the enduring power of artistry amidst the ebb and flow of digital tides. Join us as we discuss the transformative potential of the digital frontier.
Brayden Links:
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/braybraywoowoo
Website: https://www.braydenhall.com/
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/braybraywoowoo
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/braybraywoowoo/
SHILLR:
Website: https://www.shillr.xyz
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/shillrxyz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shillrxyz
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shillrxyz
Music by 800DB
Twitter: https://twitter.com/800dbmusic
GM, this is Boone and you're listening to Vaulted, a Web3 podcast series from the Schiller Archives. This episode was originally recorded on September 19th 2022 and features Braiden Hall, a full-time adventure and travel photographer based out of the Pacific Northwest and is most known for blending landscapes with outdoor lifestyle. In this episode, we explore how he diversifies income, balances his time between multiple gigs, the challenges of marketing in Web3, and much more. As always, this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied upon for financial advice. Boone and guest man NFTs discussed. Now it's time to grab some coffee and dive into this conversation with Braiden. Gm. Braiden, how are you.
Speaker 1:Good man, how you doing. I'm doing good. We are having a nice cool front here in Texas. It's about 90 degrees. Yeah, dude, it's full bro. It's been a hundred For the past three months. It's been 100. We just got our first rainstorm in two months, like two days ago.
Speaker 2:Damn. We've been having a heat wave in Seattle, so it's been like 80 something to 90 for the past week and it just sucks, but it's hot for me. I'm from Vancouver, canada, so it's like.
Speaker 1:I'm used to the West so I know like I've gotten to know you decently, like. So, for those who are like living under a rock, who are you man? What do you do? Like, let's do it.
Speaker 2:Just so you're warned, I have a non COVID cold at the moment. I'm like sniffling and all fucking gross and shit. I'm surprised. So my name is Braiden Hall. I'm a professional photographer. I have been a professional photographer for about I all. I'm so bad with time, dude. I think like seven years now.
Speaker 2:So I basically graduated high school, got accepted into film school and I used to do short films all the time so it was kind of creative back then. But then I just like lost my passion for it. So I was like I want to go to film school so I just never went. And then I got a job at five guys burgers and fries and I just fucking slung patties there and fucking cook some fries and shit. We had like this whole like empire where we would trade burgers at the back of the fucking door for reading and like burgers. So like all the all the restaurants around us, we're like, oh, we want some Chinese food tonight, like we just bring a bunch of like five guys burgers over and all these meals and shit. But I ended up breaking my leg and fucking left there. And then I got into this like part time office job for the holidays and excel at that somehow, and I don't know how I so I'm telling you that you know, you remind me very similarly of Kath.
Speaker 1:Like of Kat, like when Kat told me she worked in an office job, I'm like there's no fucking way that cast some are visited as in like working in an office. So the fact that you excelled in it, like Mazel toman.
Speaker 2:I love cats, I've known her since well before the end of two days, which is funny, yeah. But yeah, I was at the office and I just kept getting promoted and just kept working my way up Like accidentally. I fucking hated my job, I didn't want to be there, so I basically just convinced each already get let me go on a six month sabbatical and went backpacking in South America. And then that's kind of where that whole cliche bullshit, where, like, travel changed my life, happened and I just fucking went crazy, dude, like flew in a Rio for New Years, traveled all around South America, went to some of the most beautiful places on the fucking planet, but didn't have a camera. Like I'll never forget, like you know, patagonia right Like cast six at all the time. Like you know, there's like this mountain called Fitzroy in Patagonia and I'll never forget this mallet and I've told on Twitter spaces a few times. But it's just like this moment I think back to because I was hiking with my best friend and like walking towards the mountain which is Mount Fitzroy in Patagonia. It's like we have like one cookie a day and like this tile shoestring budget that we had to like basically put across six months.
Speaker 2:But when I got back from that trip to my office job, I was like fuck this dude, like I fucking hate this, I can't be here. And basically I would just Google all the time while working of like how to make money by traveling. And that's when I was obsessed with it. I was like how the fuck can I make money by traveling? And I was just trying to figure this out, trying to figure this out, and I was like you know what? I'm bored. I'm going to start going hiking all the time because I need to do something. So we're looking at Vancouver, canada, we have an awesome backyard and I was like every weekend go. And then I started like documenting my adventures and like taking photos with my phone and shit and like, oh, here we go. Green world, chad, holketh, torkelson.
Speaker 1:I first learned of Chad at NFT NYC with oh, no, no, no, no. It was actually when he fractionalized one of his pieces with yeah, and that's like when I first met him on stage, and that was actually one of the catalyst, because I wasn't planning on going to NFT NYC. I didn't go the year before just because, like I was like getting a little momentum but I didn't really have relationships built, like I was having a lot of success with people on and so, yeah, like that Chad was like one of the main catalysts and he was like launching this, like when he was in fucking Iceland and like doing all this shit. I'm just like you're like who is this guy? And how have I never heard of Chad?
Speaker 2:Like working with him for the Cobbstone Gallery and we're helping a bunch of shit, and he's like do you think you're going to make this happen in two weeks? I'm like two fucking weeks, we're going to make this happen, dude. And then the thing we he made he made it happen. Chad made it happen with the help from some friends, but he fucking crushed that and that was fun, that was awesome.
Speaker 1:Dude, that really was man. Yeah, I, I, especially one of that gallery we'll. So I'll tell you before I'm going to interrupt you one more time in your spiel.
Speaker 1:But it's like I'll probably interrupt you more times than that. I'm going to lie and say one more time Is that like I remember when I first got there? Because, again, I spent money I didn't have and it was like a month on advance, so I was paying a premium for everything that I was like, you know, for everything, for like airfare, hotel, like everything, and I'm like I had like and I and I booked like an extra two to three days just because if I'm going to go to New York, I'm going to go to New York, right, like I'm going to like be a tourist after all the shit and NFT NYC dies down, and then I remember getting there. I'm like this is a mistake. Like this is a mistake. Like I'm just like, like I'm regretting at the entire time.
Speaker 1:But literally when I went to the all ships event and then the Cobbstone Studio event, that was like I'm like literally the first day I was like, okay, this is, this is like completely worth it. I'll figure out a way to like make this work for the rest of the week. Like this is fucking awesome, dude, like getting to getting to have those in person moments of people that you talked with online or just vibe with on Twitter and shit posted and done all the stuff with like dude.
Speaker 2:That was like man yeah that was funny, like talking to someone like we have we met before and like, oh, we told you, twitter space is a lot, but I don't think we've actually met.
Speaker 1:I'm like oh, okay okay, so John, so John Knot, we had literally recorded an episode two weeks before the, before the before the trip, and I go up to him and he actually doesn't know me. I'm just like, I'm like yo John was talking and you could tell he like had the defenses up right, Like because he was just being bombarded from everybody, and so he kind of had a wall up, and then it took. I posted a picture with Kath on social media and he's like that was you. He's like you need to wear a fucking shirt with your blue dog. I was like I didn't know that was like wait what?
Speaker 2:I don't think he's a random guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, 100%. All right, keep going the the traveling Patagonia.
Speaker 2:I traveled around South America. I fucking get back to Canada, hate my job. I'm googling everywhere trying to figure out how to make traveling a living. So what am I? Downtime? I would like do weekend warrior type shit where, like every weekend, I go hiking, explore different shit around Vancouver, bc, and I started taking pictures with my son and from there I would just like share that to Instagram and like document my adventures.
Speaker 2:And at that time not many people were doing that kind of shit. So I started showing all of my old travel photos to Instagram and I was like Holy shit, we're starting to follow me. This is weird. Like this is like just a personal account of people, like this travel stuff. So I was like I'm gonna keep doing this and keep working on my shooting job to go on a weekend. And eventually I was like I really want to fucking drone. So I bought a drone and got that before I ever had a camera and started doing aerial videos and aerial fucking photography. And like no one in Vancouver was doing any of that shit at that time and no one thought I guess no one fucking thought to get drones. They're like big, they're like they weren't too expensive, but they're just annoying.
Speaker 1:So it wasn't the old.
Speaker 2:Phantom three pro. So I was like I cannot think up a fucking mountains and shit and like doing all these videos. And they started going like viral and I started getting hired by all these weird little like magazines and stuff and got these weird like all these little jobs make viral videos of like different activities. And from there I bought a camera, started taking photos with that, started posting photos on Instagram and then there were there. I was not very good like a free shit at that time and I was like doing it. But then I got my first paid job and I was like, okay, I just made money off of photography and I've been making money off of these little videos. This might be a thing. So I was like I basically was like I need to get good at this, and I don't just need to get good at photography, I need to figure out how to pitch clients and talk to different brands and make these brands yeah, business brands that I've always wanted like well, I didn't always want to work with them, but these brands that I use all the time that, instead of just using them, I could take photos of them and make money by doing that. So basically, before I was even good at photography. I learned how to write pitches and like make pitch decks and like media kits and like learn how to negotiate with brands. And I was getting like bigger paid jobs and people who are way more talented than me, just because then you had to make myself look good through a fucking email and on a phone call. But then I like basically planned.
Speaker 2:This was like the most pivotal point in my career was I planned this trip to Alaska and we like bought a van, it was like four or five photographer friends and we made like all these pitches and we basically got like destination British Columbia the tourism would have BC to work with us. Travel Yukon, the tourism board of Yukon to work with us. Backcountrycom sky, the sorry spy optics, like the sunglasses, and we got this speaker brand called Ultimate Ears and we ended up getting like enough money to basically just cover the trip. And at the time we're like holy fuck, we're making so much money. But it was like we're like fucking $15,000 probably max for five people for a three month trip to Alaska, which doesn't really go very far. What is between five? No, but we thought we were the kings of the fucking world at that point.
Speaker 2:And basically, though, that trip was when I was like I need to get fucking good, I need to get really good photography, because I know how to get brands to work with me, but now, if I can actually show them how fucking good I am, then they're all going to want to work with me. So I just pushed myself on that trip, shot every single day, and I got good, I got pretty good, and then I took my method of pitching, for it was like two month process to get all these brands together, and I condensed it down into, basically like I could do it a week, I could get, and I and instead of getting $15,000 from a five brand, I could do it a week and get $50,000 for one brand. And basically I was like, just kind of use that method, roll with it for the next five, six years. And here we are today.
Speaker 1:That's bro, I like I like how you understood, like it's funny that it wasn't like super premeditated, but I think it's. It's funny how you just like not funny, but just follow your nose and that's how you found shit that worked like that. And I think people like I say that because I'm it's a different journey of how I got to where I am, but it's the same shit Like, I just like I'm super curious and I followed my nose. I'm like that's dope, I'm going to do that Like that, like that's cool, so I'm going to do that. No one else is doing that. Well, I'm gonna fucking do it, you know. So I think it's super impressive. And so, when it came to you like getting good at photography, I want to unpack like what that? Like what that means, like did you start when it? When you say you're good, did that start with like just the photos itself, or any of the edits afterwards? Or like what? Where did you like start with that? Like what does that exactly mean? Awesome question.
Speaker 2:It would have been the editing style for the most part, obviously like the compositions and the focus, and getting more creative with something that I started working on like throughout the years. But like I was doing like mainly landscape photography at this point, like I wouldn't shoot too many people, I never fucking ever thought I would shoot a portrait or, you know, shoot lifestyle scenes, but I was shooting predominantly like landscape and adventure. So, like you know, little person, big fucking mountains, like people in these landscapes, but not much else. But I was going to really, really beautiful places and I was taking some pretty fucking awesome photos, but I did not know how to edit the worst shit. So, if you like, go back in my Instagram feed.
Speaker 2:Like it would look like you know, it would be like this beautiful scene when the lake is just so fucking saturated blue because I cranked the sliders up and didn't know what I was doing, or like I did not use tone curve in lightroom, so like everything was flat and didn't, like it didn't pop, I didn't have any depth and like I taught myself not only to on that trip to Alaska, not only to kind of branch out of just shooting landscapes and with little people in them, but to like get a little bit more creative and try and make some scenes like you know people cooking fucking food out of a fire, or like people like a moment, like a bus coming out of the van. That looked authentic. But you know, you know what I'm saying. I'm like lost in my thoughts.
Speaker 2:But not only to be able to do these creative shots, but to also edit them in a way where it didn't look like shit, where, like my dreams, look like puke and everything was too dark or blasted or like the sky was you know how a little bit of pastels in it, but I made it look like fucking fluorescent, nuclear, fucking like purple smile, like dude, like I gotta learn how to edit my fucking photos. And when I went out of my photos, I got a lot of praise from the photography community on Instagram being like holy shit, this guy's actually pretty good. And I just kept trucking and I I just my account kept growing and I kept getting brands and I was reaching out to brands and now, yeah, it's basically that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude to me, I actually have to cut me off a little bit, because I forgot what the original question was at this point.
Speaker 1:No, it was, it was. It was. It was like when you said you got good at photography, like what did that? Like what did that mean? We're essentially unpacking that. You know so because, like I'm in the I'm in the collective strangers discord. You know that was like because I'm like, first and foremost, I just I can't like I got to support Eric like I love what he does, like he's just like one of my favorite people here and so.
Speaker 1:But one thing that, like I'm actually trying to get better at is, you know, like the camera that I have right here that I'm recording, is a, is a Sony mirrorless and I'm just like, okay, well, what would happen if I like took this off and like went around and fuck around and shot some photos and I'm like learning some of the like the exposure triangle and the and the and all these different techniques that I had no clue like that much went into a good photo, like until I started like actually understanding you know the different types of lens and what the numbers mean and how to like like I'm still not at the point where I can fully explain what to do or like that I actually know what the fuck I'm doing, but like it.
Speaker 1:What?
Speaker 1:When I said the point is I'm trying to make it, is that when I started, like you know, I've like just to pat to pat myself on the back, like I've always had really good taste in just everything, like I tend to like find the best and everyone are the best and everything.
Speaker 1:I just have a nose. I've always had a nose for it and so, like I've always known good photography, just by the way, it makes me feel right, like I feel like that's good art is, like good art makes you feel something and I'll, I'll, that's, and that's really all I needed to know at the time and that's what made this space so easy is that when I scrolled across Twitter and I saw a piece of art, I'm like, oh cool, I felt something. Or I stopped for three seconds versus 0.5 seconds, you know. But now that I'm starting to get into, like the rule of thirds and like the framing and this, and like not all those need to be followed, but, like I noticed, when people do that right, like it's, it's cool to actually see that technique that goes into all of them, more than just clicking a button.
Speaker 2:There's a that people I suppose with landscape photography. There's like this weird narrative that started with fucking landscape photography, where I was like, oh, they just go to pretty places and click a fucking button and I'm like, all right, walk out of your fucking little fucking row home and fucking New York city, leave it for once in your life. Go find a pretty place that you haven't seen before and take a good photo of it, and if you can fucking do that and it doesn't look like shit, then I'll give a little bit of credit. But I don't think you could.
Speaker 1:Right, right, yeah, dude, I mean no, that's, and I'll be honest, brad, and like before I came here, like because I just didn't know shit about anything about photography, that's what.
Speaker 2:I thought, Right.
Speaker 1:So it's like until I started talking to photographers, like understanding the story and the journey and the process and the this, and like that's really what started to make it all click, and I'm like damn, like I looked at it in an entirely new light because I had never heard the stories of people who did who did this, not only the people who took these photos, but like the amount of shit that y'all have had to go through before this space came to right.
Speaker 2:I'm like you know what I mean Places look a hell of a lot fucking better through your eyeballs and then when you shoot it on your camera in raw, it looks like shit a lot of the time. Like I'm good looking raw every once in a while, but they're flat Like there's not much dynamic that's the word I'm using on the ass. There's not much like substance to the actual raw file. So like you need to basically make that file look like what you just saw, and that's hard to do a lot of times.
Speaker 1:So and I think honestly with me that's the fear of taking a photo, is that it's not going to look as good as it was when I saw, with eyeballs, right, like that. Like that's honestly what has stopped me from taking a lot of photos. And I'm just like you know, I'm just going to be here in the moment Because, like number one, I don't, I wasn't motivated to learn before, but you know, I'm one of those people just likes to be in the moment and look at it and like cool and the people that can like bring it to life. I like the way you put that, like seeing it exactly through your eyeballs, because I look at your photos. You know, like that's exactly what I feel and it didn't hit me until you actually said that what I try to do.
Speaker 2:I try to not manipulate the locations. I shoot too much and not like almost everything I've shot. I'd say almost, because I've gotten kind of funny and crazy with a couple photos, but almost every single thing I photograph it's Very close to how it would have looked in my mind and in my, through my eyes. I try to make it natural but also, you know, make it punchy and catch people's eyes. So there's a stop right in there it's also it. It's pretty real to where, to how things looked.
Speaker 1:So I got to ask and this is coming from someone who, like, before I got sober, I dabbled in a lot of psychedelics I could say it's. I say it's a lot more than dabble. I did a lot of psychedelics before I got sober. Uh, does that play like, does that have an influence? Does that play like a major role in like how the photos turn out, or like does?
Speaker 2:it. I'm weird with psychedelics. Man Like I, I like how I've wanted psychedelics to affect me on a grander scale, but almost every single time I do them it's more just like holy fuck that now it's breathing. Like holy shit. Chelsea has like 12 arms, like I don't have any knees. I just like I like walk around. I'm like this shit's fucking Crazy dude. But like the only time I channeled my creativity on psychedelics was when uh, it's actually with chad, alex Mack and Chelsea, and we did a two, three day, two night backpacking trip down the Kala Lao trail on kawai I do, the napoli coast, and it's like one of the fucking craziest places on earth and we basically hiked 11 miles straight in and I think it was like 18,000 miles and 800 and something foot elevation gain. So it's like up, down, up, down, up down.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's that's gotta be.
Speaker 2:That's gotta be fucking horrible for your right dude, like absolutely demolished the trails like never easy, like there's nothing relaxing. It's like if it's flat, then you're walking through needy mud. They just sliding through palm fronds like Fucking. Literally landslides are happening around as like it was a shit show. But we made it there. We set up camp and we camp for two nights at like the one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, and the second day we fucking did acid and we tripped like our balls off and it was fucking awesome.
Speaker 2:But I what, I'm coming up, I'm like coming up and I'm like, no, I'm not gonna be able to shoot photos. Man, like I would have even swapped off my ass and I'm in the most beautiful place ever and I'm not gonna be able to actually capture it. Like I'm gonna experience it, I'm in good time, but I'm not gonna like, I'm not gonna go back. I don't want to fucking ever do that. Hikig, yeah, like, I'm not gonna go back there. I, I and I was like freaking out and I was like like, oh no, I don't have to be able to shoot.
Speaker 2:And then Chelsea was like in full on creative mode and Basically like forced me to pick up my camera. She had like we were running around with, like her 3d film camera, her film camera, my film camera, both of our digital cameras, and we just fucking went crazy, dude, and we shot this place and I was like, wow, it looks so good, but I can't tell if it actually fucking looks good or I'm just high off my ass. So I'm like these are either really really great photos or it's all gonna look like shit tomorrow and like, basically, I photographed it and got some, oh some, of my favorite photos. We've got a long time. But if that check using psychedelics and channeling psychedelics for creativity, I don't know. I think I just put the trip at bay. It was able. I can actually Do photography and not just stare at the fucking mountains. That wouldn't stop breathing, and the fact that every time Chelsea went like this, she had like 12 arms.
Speaker 1:So Yep, yeah, dude, I. I, because I'm always curious, right, Like it's like obviously this space, like a lot of people do psychedelics here, and like I've always been curious to know that because some people Like tell stories about channeling their, channeling creativity through that. But I know when I did that there was no creativity.
Speaker 2:No, I don't know how to do it. Like I need to talk to someone to bull them these or something and see how they're doing it. Because, like I don't know how, like I even did ayahuasca one time and like the next day I was like I was sick, like it was crazy, but Same same guy. Nothing changed. Like I've done heavy doses of mushrooms gone into it with a intent of something happening. Same guy was a little scared when I didn't know what my own fucking arm was while I was tripping my balls off after eating Eight grams of mushrooms from my first trip ever. But next day, same guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, super carrot. Yeah, no, I, I see that and I'm always curious because, like I had a One of the one people I had, victor mosquero on, and we were actually talking about this, and we were talking about like he wanted his art to be able to Make you feel something like you were on psychedelics, but without having to ever ingest it, right, and so it's like that was like that's like one of the main purposes of his art. It's like make you feel that liberating feeling, like when you are on psychedelics, like, and you feel that freedom and you feel that intuition, you feel the, the vibe, like. Because I'll say like, when I, when I did those, like you know, I was one of the few who never had like bad experiences on it because we just I just laughed for like 13 hours straight like to my stomach, like I like I felt like I did a core workout. You know, every time I did it because, like every time my abs feel sore, like I just yeah, the gym. Um, I want to backtrack a little bit.
Speaker 2:I went off on a tangent, just because that's part of my own curiosity, man like I'm also getting hot from this fucking heat wave and I need to.
Speaker 1:Take this jacket off. So, like when it taught, when you talk about like photographing, like different like you were, you had mentioned you wanted to like just photograph a bunch of shit Like you want to like not just like little people right places and in this net, so what's been like the hardest thing you've had to shoot like for a brand.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's a couple different like times. I thought that were pretty hard, like one time I was working for South Dakota tourism in the winter and it was like a frozen, fuck it. Hellscape and I was like, how the hell am I gonna make this place look good? So I had to try and make like a place that I was frozen on and really uncomfortable, look like a place that people would want to travel to. And don't get me wrong, south Dakota is beautiful and I found those very, very, very beautiful places in that state that I didn't know um Existed. But it was hard to Like make that place look good in the winter when it was like negative fucking I think it was like negative 18 or negative 19 Fahrenheit and like it was just so cold and I didn't want to be there but I had to take photos to make other people go. So that was pretty hard but it I ended up. It ended up not being that hard because there were a lot of beautiful places to photograph.
Speaker 2:But I guess like another one would be um, I've had like weird jobs where I've worked for like little hydration packets and shit. These like Like what were the things like this? Like little small packages. That it's like is the main, like this needs to be the main objective of the image, but like it's fucking tiny and like how do I make that look good? So, creatively, making something like this look good is pretty challenging for me. Like, I figured it out and they were really happy with it and they loved it.
Speaker 1:So let's, let's jump to your web 3 journey. Man, like, so you, you've been, you've been doing this for seven years. Like, like or give or take. Seven years, when did you like come into web 3 and like how did you? How did you come?
Speaker 2:in, because that's always what I'm curious, and I think it's when that whole people Fucking fiasco went down, and I'm like wow, what the fuck is an nft man? And like everyone's fucking putting instagram stories like how do I get on foundation? Does anyone have advice to foundation? I'm like what the fuck is foundation dude? Like I don't know what the fuck is an ft is like.
Speaker 2:I dabbled a little bit, I'm not even sure, though, but I fucking like lost a shit ton of money by buying stupid shit coins that my friends told me to buy. I was like fuck all this dump bullshit, like hate this, but I like pursued this nft thing because I was like wait a second, like this could be really fucking cool to be able to sell like some of my images that were like print worthy, that weren't like really like one said, I would license to a brand, like Basically, photos that were my best work that I never sell because they don't have a home in, like Like I don't know for like fucking travel brands. Like half the time they don't have a budget, my things will be worth, and like all this stuff. Or like like prints, like I don't make money off prints, like in my, does it rub off prints, I would be fucking dead like. So like, basically Take my photos that I wanted to sell.
Speaker 2:Well, I would have sold those prints, but figure out how to do that in a different way. So I kind of like went down like the rabbit hole thing like I myself on men mask and just kind of watched and ran up on a bunch of nft stuff and there wasn't much Going on in terms of photography and almost every single person I talked to about like minting a photo as an nft said Well, it doesn't really make sense because it's not moving. Like it doesn't really make sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember that conversation as something that would ever have a home there. I go on twitter. In january so like more and more nft talks started talking on twitter between the photographer crowd, but still like Not too much. But then there's this eye that I know from like Sri Lanka and he makes these crazy like parallax, fucking infinite loop type things that look like they're 3d but they're not and like I don't fucking understand them. They almost look like a little miniature world but he makes them out of like landscape photographer's photography and he had been hitting me up for like Two years to try and get me to make one of these things with him. And then I was like wait a fucking minute, like, and I talked to Chelsea and he actually, I think, hit up Chelsea too to do one with her photos and I was like what if we like collaborate with crete and we use our images, and Like we finally work with this guy because he's been helping us for years, and we finally work with this guy, and we minted as like our genesis nft and Chelsea was like that's fucking a good idea, like I don't remember whose idea it was, if it was hers or mine, but it was kind of like a collective thing where we came up with. And then I go, I went talk to crete. He's like, yeah, let's do it. And he made like a couple different ones that have some or photos Didn't really work out. And then Chelsea had the idea of what if we used this photo of A cabin that we say that that took one photo in the daytime and, like she took one photo at night, or I took, I took one, she took one, I don't remember. We both yeah, we actually we set up the tripod to there. She's over there helping me out with my home story. But we set up the tripod together, like put our camera on it and framed up this composition of this cabin with, like mount Shostain the background in california. It's like we we had these photos that we didn't know what to do with them because we took a nighttime photo and a daytime photo and we talked to create and Chelsea's idea was to do an infinite loop where it went from day to night, which is a little bit different than his normal work, and he was like I think I can do that.
Speaker 2:So basically we took almost months like it was months of planning to like even get this idea, to work back and forth with create and um, I think it ended up being like almost a four month fucking ordeal by the time we actually finally had the images and then the way we wanted it and she created this infinite parallax loop with like the right sounds that made it look the way we want it. And then like, hell, yeah, we're done, we're minting our first fucking NFT baby. Let's go, and we like minting our Genesis NFT. Literally every single mother fucking person that we know, every single fucking person in the NFT space at the time, said it was the coolest fucking thing they've ever seen. It went all around it like. Everyone reshared it. It was like everyone's favorite fucking thing. I'm like this is so crazy. And we were like, yeah, I'm fucking sick.
Speaker 2:To this day, that thing has not sold To big day. So that's why I always feel like I'm fucking sold out, like whenever I'm sold out on. Feel like I'm sold out like hell. Yeah, I don't like, except for this little motherfucker that's still sitting there like, and it's not like, it's not like the thing is. It's because it's fucking awesome and it's like a really fucking cool piece. No one had ever minted a parallax before we did that. We were the first parallax ever minted that I know of other people, that we know how many to paralyze is after, but that I know that we know of first one. There might be others. Don't fucking not, not like they're mad, I've been, wouldn't admit it, but we don't, you don't know, won't know. You can hunt down and try and find a fucking time stamp For when I was into before and maybe go. He's fucking wrong, fucking.
Speaker 1:We got going on that one.
Speaker 2:So but like another thing with that piece too, as people would always tell us like it's price too high, like five meters too crazy, like it's not, because it's like nothing was ever fucking like that. And we minted that thing before. Foundation Even had a split feature and it's a split between three different artists for five. That's not that crazy. And then you know, fast forward a year and a half and I saw my super agenda says for 5.2, ease, and I'm like all right, so now it's not that fucking crazy anymore, is it like so I don't know right, this, that piece will. Then we'll find a whole one day and it will be a legendary event for Chelsea and I and I'm sure for a lot of other people, because every time we tweak it it's like wait, that thing isn't sold yet. I'm like no, that fucking thing has not sold yet. Dude.
Speaker 1:Dude, I think all of twitter is gonna know I'm not gonna watch it?
Speaker 2:No, but it's fine. We're very patient with that piece and and when it does find home it's gonna be fucking awesome. But right now it's just you know something that lives there and it will find a home when it finds a home, but we will continue like our journeys around it, but you, but you also never know.
Speaker 1:Trends have a way of repeating themselves and like, like attention, and like like current, like. Things have a way of like. Even you look at fashion, like fashion goes in cycles of like. People are, you know, starting to wear the same thing they did like 20 years ago, the same thing they wore like six or seven years ago, or listening to the same style of music or you know what. So everything like comes in cycles and like that, to me, is pretty cool because it's like it may not be like quote-unquote what people are looking for, but there inevitably will be a time where people are looking for something like that or like. The way I see this is that and again I'm looking at this from a complete outsiders perspective is that there might be a cool thing that comes in this space later when you can plug right in and it will really allow that experience to be whatever it's supposed to be right.
Speaker 2:So we're talking about before. I got very heated about that.
Speaker 1:I don't know man. No, it was your journey into way three.
Speaker 1:That was, that was the start, man. So after that, so I Like, I got to see, like, because I've seen your work, like you know, you have your open-sea collection. You have your super like obviously just missed out your your super rare Genesis collections. Um, you have some found foundation and I know, we know that pieces on foundation, like that's where that, that's where that it lives on Chelsea's foundation, lives on Chelsea's foundation. Okay, got it, got it, yeah, dude. So One thing I did notice this is just like in the when I was like looking up some of your work, like I saw that you're you only have, I believe, one set of additions, one, just one addition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one addition man. So Chad and I got into this conversation, like when, when I had him on, and it was about like the economics of, like how you and one price your work, the frequency of what you drop your work additions, not additions. So I see something. I see the, the people that, like I see where this is working the best for um is like additions for If your work is already a little bit more established, and, like you want to give people a lower entry point. But I see what I do see, though, and it pains me to see is that people just pumping additions harder than their own one-of-one work Like that's. That's one thing that I see. I'm just like. That doesn't give off the right.
Speaker 2:I mean, I agree too, and it's like also, like, yeah, I did one addition and I'm probably just I don't even know if I'll do another for a year or so because it's like. But like, like, the main reason I did it was I. I wanted to prove to people that, um, your addition should be a fucking banger. It should be something that you would mint as your best work. And that's everyone was like wow, this looks like it should be a one-on-one. I was like, no fucking shit, it should look like it should be a one-on-one. Why would you use a photo for an addition? That shouldn't be a one-on-one?
Speaker 2:So I was like one thing I did with that and, um, okay, I'm not fucking gonna pass away on this podcast for my night I'll be cold, um, but uh, I had like a lower supply and like a pretty like Chill entry point, like point oh, six, nine, and it sold out an hour, which was cool, and I had no expectations for it, but I wouldn't pump them out. I think it could hurt you as an artist if you're doing too many additions and it's kind of like Cash grabby, especially if you're one of ones aren't selling and you're just like all right, these aren't selling, so fuck it. I'm just gonna, you know, throw my addition on the entire photography community, because it's the photographer is buying, not the actual collectors. I get it Like people gotta eat, people gotta survive, but also like there should be more intention, I guess, with additions Like I don't know, it's just my yeah, but also I don't give a fuck what anyone does.
Speaker 2:I think what uh, post-wok's doing is pretty cool. She's doing like she was doing multiple additions with very low supply, so like the first edition would sell out almost instantly and she'd do another one, wouldn't raise her prices. I wouldn't get too like she didn't get cocky, she never raised the prices up, it was the same prices, one before, just a different piece, and then that would work out. And then people wouldn't be like, oh fuck, like these things are getting snatched out. There's demand for these additions and that's a really cool way of doing it. I like I really actually respect that way of doing it. I think I would honestly try it, maybe soon, but but.
Speaker 1:But? So the but also to shine some light on that is that there was already demand for her one of ones. Yes, like her one of ones, we're flying. Like her one of one, and we talk about intention here is that, like her, one of ones are doing. Well, it's like being aware, being aware, and like reading the room of like what the market wants. You know, like I remember, um, dave Kregman actually I won't sidetrack on that behead I listened to a podcast of his where he actually had the same, he actually had the same talk of like how he knows, like when to release collections and when to and when to like, or when to like release work and when not to right. I mean, um, but there was already demand for her one-of-one work. So it's like that gave people like, obviously the market wanted her work and wanted her product. So, in addition, instantly is going to sell out, and it may not have been as instant she thought it was going to be, but it, it turned out that way.
Speaker 2:It was like in like second to first edition and, like, I think, others, other one was pretty fast too, so like, if anything, her additions helped her one of ones too, because it was like it was just like a holy shit, this is moving and now she's, she can't stop and she's doing her collection now, which is similar style of release, which first one filled out instantly, second was sold out in like half an hour, like so I'm yeah.
Speaker 1:And then now you look at all of her one-of-ones in a recent collection sold out in the hours.
Speaker 2:I think it was like one hour for her phase two. I have both phases.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see, like I, I actually liquidated two pfps to like get the the.
Speaker 2:I think I honestly think that I can make a quick buck off my good friend post work. I Love when people make money off of my photos and she had been saying the same thing, like I would hope people could make money off of my work and I think once all four of those phases are out and they're all sold out and that collection is now done, being release, I think that thing is going to so.
Speaker 1:For real, I mean. But the the whole point I was making is that, like, when I saw, like, I looked at the history of your editions, they sold out for 0.069. Now, now, the the cheapest edition you can get is 0.3. Right like, it's cool to see that. You know that curve go up on on the open sea chart. Right Like, and I and I think that's a true testament a lot of it's supply and demand and I think a lot of people at least from my observations is it like.
Speaker 1:You know, it depends on what your like endgame is. Yeah, everyone's got to eat, everyone's got to do this, but at the same time, like, read your own, read your own skill set, read the room, read the awareness. Like, read where you're at. Like, if you need to have another job to supplement income, while you can do this Authentically, that's what you need to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, like with me, with this podcast, I don't make fucking shit on this. Right like I may like, this is all a labor of love. So I naturally find work and like, find skill sets from my job. I try to find jobs that give me the skill sets to get me better at this and vice versa. Right, right, like it's like it's okay to like not be full time and not do this, and like it's it is okay to work A job and like build skill sets to like get you to this point. I think you mentioned that like if you hadn't had some of your corporate jobs Like you wouldn't like like there's some skill sets that you learn there that were like valuable and crucial to like what you do, what you're doing today, and if they basically tell me how to talk to customer or to clients and write emails, but that's almost something I've been.
Speaker 1:But that's so fucking valuable that people like minimize I learned how to write a team at five guys.
Speaker 2:I fucking like it sounds like a fucking joke working at five guys, but I was the manager there and I ran a whole fucking team and ran a whole diner. So it's like I learned how to be a leader there. I learned how to be a leader and be office to the around my teams there too and talk to clients and write emails and boom.
Speaker 1:Oh, but people, but people choose to like to not see the skill set that they're learning. Like when you're working at a job, you are building a fucking resume. Like you are, you are building marketable skills, whether you're marketing it to the, to the next company that you're working for or for your own. Or for your own well-being.
Speaker 2:Right or and like another thing I've been preaching, like almost exactly what you said earlier. Like this whole time I've been doing NFTs is like you got to trust the process. Like it took me years to get to where I was as a photographer Years. And the people entering the space who are still learning, like it's very obvious that you're still a learning artist, which is okay, like everyone was there. Don't entitle to beyond super rare and be a top seller when you have a lot of work to do. I have a lot of work to do myself.
Speaker 2:I and I've been a photographer, like professional photographers, for seven years. But like there's people who made their first money in NFTs and they instantly think that that is now their job, it's now their career and they just try so hard to make that a thing and it's like you've got a trusted process. Like this shit takes years. Like me as myself being professional photographer. I've been a professor how many years I always forget. Now I'm getting heated up again. Seven years of some shit. But I got into NFTs and that was like starting all over again and I still had my job as a photographer outside of NFTs. If I was just doing NFTs I would be fucking dead. I'd be poor dude like I have no money. So you got to diversify your incomes. Like the only reason I'm able to spend so much time doing the NFTs that's because it goes hand-in-hand with my actual photography career. But I take away my actual photography career and give me just the sales of the making for NFTs.
Speaker 1:Up until very recently I wasn't making much money so I find it like really cool that you're Finding way to do this in a bear market where people are and where the iron is not so hot compared to like when you first came in here. August, september, you know, october, november were just literally blurs of fucking months.
Speaker 2:Right Like I don't even know, that's what I was like wasn't making sales, I was like everyone else was and I'm like, like I had a really weird Dirty for the last year and a half than NFTs and it felt. It felt pretty gatekeeping in some ways of like almost being gate kept as like a big Instagram photographer coming into NFTs, just a cash grab. I'm like, bro, I was fucking cash grab. What the fuck am I still here? Like I'm using up so much of my time fucking in these Twitter spaces and trying to make this space a better place. Like why would I be here if I'm a cash grab? There's no point I make way more money as a Photographer. Like I'm not just trying to grab cast at an empty like I want.
Speaker 1:I just want to make this space a better, a better place, and that's like and you I'm gonna highlight what you just said there because, like, I think that's a really important for people to understand. It's like, if you don't have conviction in the space and you are purely here just as another medium to sell your work, without trying to at least attempt to understand what the bigger picture is, you know, like, that's those, like those are the people who are trying to push the space forward, like, understand that when they push the space forwards, that pushes themselves for right. Like, and people need to understand that. It's like, when you come in here and you want to extract liquidity, if you want to extract value, like, make sure that you are Actually doing something meaningful for the entire. Yeah, I like, and that's an easy way to tell there's the right thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're not, it's like this base has a lot of promise. I think it's really fucking awesome, but I think there's a lot of flaws, a lot of fucking flaws that drive me nuts every day. But, like, I think artists should have a lot more say about things. Work, and that is just a lot. There's a lot. I could go on for hours. Well, that's not a one-way, but I basically just want to help.
Speaker 1:Do you think that that has to do with just some of the like imposter syndrome of artists? Because I know, like as myself, like the imposter syndrome I had coming in here was massive, like it was, it was crippling like and it's See, it's almost taken it, even though I was podcasting for two years, or close to two years, up to that point, like I just remember thinking the entire time like who the fuck am I to have these people on? Like I don't know anything about this. I came in here with a massive amount of debt. Like I'm not like a finance guy. I didn't know shit about crypto.
Speaker 1:I knew enough to like read ether scan, I knew how to like, I knew what a blockchain was, I knew what proof of, I knew what, I knew what the things were, but no one turned to me for guidance or like the alpha or like anything like that. So, like, I say all that because, like you say, artists should have more of a say. So it's like, what is it that? How does that happen? Like, how does that like? Like, how, like? What lever do we have to pull to like, to like make that wall? You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think. Okay, let me think about this because our, as of right now, a lot of what's happening is it's almost like Collectors are deciding who's good by where they're putting their money and Like I find like obviously you know, if things are good, you should be buying that. But I think there's a lot of good artists where the money isn't going and there's also a lot of Fucking, say it bad artists where the money is going and it's like do you have fucking eyeballs and see what you literally just want? Because that is a pile of hot trash and shouldn't have even sold for point. Oh, six, nine, eight. Yet you bought it for five plus each.
Speaker 2:With the fuck are you doing? And it's like now all these other collectors and other people who are Buying work or like all this is a great artist, that's why they're work, and it's like what the fuck are you doing? Holy shit, I think, drives me crazy. So I'm not trying to put down other artists, but I'm trying to be like, like artists. Artists know what art's best and they did a egg the target. Which photos are good photos? Like artists know what art's best. So I just think they're not say of what's good and what's not, and what should have a chance Should be more in the power of artists hands and artists shouldn't just be these like eat hungry Monsters that fucking flock onto a collector every single time.
Speaker 2:They tweet something like and like obviously I fall in person bullshit before and like I've like, oh god, that was cringe. I just can't believe I was fucking did that. And then I thought you like went Rock, hated myself like three days old, fuck Like. But like right now it's weird, it's like it's like a feast and famine type shit going on, like where it's like they can. Everyone's staring up at these like people, like they're gods, and Because they said one thing, it means it's true, which is like there needs to be a shift. Does that make sense? Is anything?
Speaker 1:I'm saying, does I'll have, to like, ask myself, I'm like, okay, I like that post, but why did I like that? Say that I like it just because it was the person who said it. Yeah, and and sometimes, yeah, that's not alright, I'm like I've done it a lot, like why I'm like you know, but other people will see that I like this. What message does that? Yeah, say like, and did I even fucking read what they actually?
Speaker 1:said like Was it just because they put it up them like oh shit, I got a, like I'm like I'm saying all this stuff, like I'm not part of the problem, but like I am.
Speaker 2:I Think I've caught myself a million times on share. I'm like God, what did I do that? But like I'm sorry. Like I think you stop putting people up on pedestals and we still start trusting our gut on what good art is and what is in, and Once there's more good art coming into this space, you're really gonna be able to tell what's good, what's not.
Speaker 1:Right and I'll tell you what. What's helped me do that brain like outside of the oh it may, like it makes me feel something. That was my starting point and I think like, I think like it, just like if that's your starting point and that's your starting point, like it's like them follow, like, follow your nose of like what's good and what's not, like what makes an emotional reaction and you what doesn't. But I'll tell you what's. What's been able to help is number one, doing like some photography courses Just to like you know that things that I suck at like right, so it's like okay, like this is insane, like I'm horrible at this, but then I also get to see like pictures from a completely perspective also, I've been a huge fan of Great art explain the great art explain YouTube channel, like that thing.
Speaker 1:I've just been obsessed with it and like, look it explains like some of the like the biggest paintings in the world, some of the biggest artists in the world from like all of it condensed like people's life stories and specific Pieces in like 15 to 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:That's been. That's been like evolving my perspective of like what good art is and like what, like what not good art is right or like. And I'll be honest, though, I haven't even got to the point of like not good art, like, I don't think I have the stones to say that quite yet, but I know what good.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's good that I think, before the community decides the artists of the next generation, by how much money is getting put into specific artists? There needs to be an understanding of why are they fucking good or why are they not good? Yeah, like I'm not perfect, I'm learning. Like I'm still learning. I mean, I'm a professional in my craft and I've been doing this for many years, but I'm still a lot to learn and I'm constantly trying to push myself better. But like it's just.
Speaker 2:I just think the people buying the work should know Very well the difference between good and bad and like obviously art subjective and all that fucking bullshit. But there is a very big difference between a good photo and a shit photo. Those do exist. You can't just go, oh well, you know, is it bad because of love a little blonde? Like no, it's fucking shit, bro Trash. So I Don't know, I'm not trying to put anyone down and not gonna be negative, but I just think there's a couple kinks that need to be worked out in this space and I want to. I don't know, I want to only be part of everything and make it better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but, but that's but again that that goes back to our the initial point of like wanting to push the space forward.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of the, the current there's. So there, you know, as necessary as web 2 it was to like be where we're at today, like it's, it's turned into something that it wasn't intended to turn into, right, but one of the things that I notice I'm always looking at it from the people perspective, like just from the psychology perspective of like Okay in. So in web 2 we were conditioned to show the best versions of ourselves, not not ourselves, right, and it doesn't mean that in web 3, like we, we authentate, we just like spill the beans and let everyone know every little nook and cranny of our life. But the office, the authenticity here, is what the is like one of the main things that drove me here, it's what's kept me here, like the people that stick around and the people that are like genuine it's so it's so easy to tell who's genuine and right not. But I think something that needs to be undone is like this like only fishing for positive praise.
Speaker 2:A friend sends me a photo and they go what do you think about this? I will never just like yes, good, I'll be like I'll. If it's good, I'll tell them it's good. If there's something that I would change, I would give my creative criticism to them. I'd be like you know what, maybe this just isn't a great photo and you can do better, because I know you work straight and it's just it's not like stuff like that.
Speaker 2:So like I mean, the worst thing that you could ever do is tell someone something's good when it's not, because they're never gonna fucking imprint like I like my friend dude, we were fucking dickheads to each other, but like like we would send each other's like our photos in group chats. But what do you think of my friend? Like that's a fucking trash photo. Man, you can do better. I'm like you know what you're right. Or like this is long skies blowing out like lakes to blue, like this trees in the way. Like and we would just pick each Other's art apart until it got better, and like that's the best thing. That never fucking happened to me, because it was just Didn't.
Speaker 1:That's literally how you get better. Yeah, so like.
Speaker 2:I said go in spaces when people are like, wag me, man, wag me, and I'd be like we're not all gonna fucking make it Bro. There's zero way that we're all gonna wait, make it, that's, and they're already making it. For making friends, I'm like yeah, but like I guess it depends of your version of making it. But I think a lot of these people's versions of making it is being rich off of selling their art through NFTs and I'm like that is literally impossible for us to all fucking wag me dude, and that needs to be just thrown in the trash and I think it is kind of gone now, which is awesome and I love not hearing that anymore. But like the toxic positivity type stuff is Not great for anything.
Speaker 1:No, it's not. It was funny. I was actually in a space last night before I joined Deez's, like late lit and lindy, which, by the way, that was like that felt like straight up August September vibes of last year. It was so much fun, I needed that.
Speaker 2:I was before.
Speaker 1:I Didn't plan on it cuz I was exhausted, but before that, like I went into this space, it was like to it with two of my friends and they were. They were going off the deep end on like just crypto in general and like nerves about the merge and like nerves about all this other Shit and a lot of the things that are wrong with it currently and I'm just like damn. This feels like when I first learned about NFTs, but through a bear market lens, right Like through a, through through a bearish lens, I'm like that. I'm fucking this president. This is this is horrible to hear, you know, but it was really good for me to do that, please. I was like damn, like I, like I knew, I knew I needed to hear it, but I'm like I can't end the night on that.
Speaker 1:You know I can't get that, can't end it on that right, like, but it was, it was, and I told them that because I was like, look, I'm glad I sat as painful as it was, I'm glad I sat through this, because I'm not gonna go research all of this shit on my own right, like I I interview artists, I like buying art and like pushing this forward and I'm not gonna willingly go learn it like purposely put myself through pain. So I'm going to listen to the painful commentary from people I genuinely trust that actually know what the fuck we're talking about more than I do.
Speaker 1:You know. So I was like thank you for that, but I do have to know it out because I'm fucking sad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, dude. But but I also like I, the the Wydenby vibes were, were fun for a little bit, like it was, it was fun, and the people that stick around or the people who really are going to make it right, like the thing that and I'm sure you'll preach on this as much as well as it like it's not about like how good whatever it is you're doing is. Like consistency is the most undervalued like trait, like it's one of the hardest things to do, right, but like the reality is that you don't have to worry about getting better if you just consistently show up, at least in my spirit.
Speaker 2:I mean it works in different ways too. Or it's like I mean, not not every photo you're taking is going to be a grail. It's not going to be an absolute banger. It's not going to be like a great photo, but like some photos are still good photos that are amazing and you should still share those photos if you like those photos. Just like maybe having a good duration of what you're actually f**king minting, but like I mean, if you're still going out and taking those OK photos every day, like you're going to eventually get a f**king grail. So like, be consistent in that it's an art, it's in showing up here in the space, it's in everything, almost everything you do. Just like consistency matters, and it was like that in Web two and it's like that Web three.
Speaker 1:So it's like yeah, man, I want to want to ask you a question before we start. I want to start wrapping it up here. What's probably the biggest takeaway that you did learn from the shenanigans last year? That's going to better prepare you for the next full run.
Speaker 2:Oh well, I feel like in the PFP trains I, you know, chelsea and I would joke about how we almost got rich like six times there were six times we were almost rich. We were almost rich Right, like photography. I like I obviously learned a lot about selling art and how to like now navigate through the space and stuff. But I feel like off the bear market has been better for photos. I don't know if I'm crazy, but it's been better for for the art market than the than the bull run. But when I'll take from my training like the collectibles and sh**t was take some f**king profits bro, I'll never forget watching the Onis go into the f**king stratosphere.
Speaker 2:Back to f**king zero. I'll never f**king forget when that f**king cool cat oh my God the cool cat 15 E Back down to five. Oh, you know, I'll sell next and back up the E TV to show bullshit. Now milk's coming out. Now that little f**king cute, adorable blue f**king cat is bleeding out, bro, in my f**king hardware wall and I'm like I'm not selling my little f**ker until it's an absolute zero or it's back up to 10. I don't give a sh**. I'm telling him it's going to bleed out and die.
Speaker 2:But I didn't take profits then, I didn't sell them, I just I round tripped them. And the same thing happened with council houses and with f**king Asuna. Dude Asuna, or working Lord and savior, the f**king sexy anime, oh, like f**king Asuna went to like 3.8 f**king ETH pre reveal and Chelsea and I were like nah, so what the f**k? There's a bunch of times, man, that almost got rich but just did it. So next time, like I'm going to sell that because I could have made like $100,000 that day and decided to make zero. Actually, I think I love we lost money on OD, so that's what I'm going to sell.
Speaker 2:I'm going to sell that. I'm going to sell that. I'm going to sell that. I'm going to sell that. I'm going to sell that. I'm going to sell that. I'm going to sell that. I'm going to sell that. That's what I took away from that is, I'm going to f**king sell everything. F**k these f**king things. They're gone. I'm going to play the game but I'm going to f**king sell them. But I don't know, man, like I don't know, what's going on with that market.
Speaker 1:It's been weird to watch, so the sentiment, at least my take, coming from the world I came from. I came from gaming. I'm a gamer at heart, like I f**king love video games, but the market obviously doesn't want PFPs anymore. Like it's, like it's. The market is like OK, this is not innovative anymore, this is not, we're not confident in this anymore. Like it's not people that are meant, people that are doing projects right now, the way they were doing projects in August, september of last year, just going to work, and I think the market understands that. But we're in this lull of like, ok, what does the market want Right? Like what? Like what is going to bring retail in? And it's my take that video games are going to be like Web through gaming is going to be the next thing that brings in the massive wave of retail.
Speaker 1:Because I'll tell you why you have, just from the social perspective, you have people like Ryan Wyatt. He goes by Fizz on Twitter, but he was early to. He created, like the gaming you know, mlg, the gaming network. Back in, you know, back in the 2006, seven, eight days, like early days, he revolutionized YouTube gaming. He is now the CEO of Polygon Studios and he has respect from both sides, like he's respected the Web three community, but he also commands a massive amount of respect in the current like Web two gaming world which, as you like, whether you do or don't know like that is a.
Speaker 1:That is a rare breed. Like like game. Like traditional gamers fucking hate NFTs right, right, like. So that's a whole other podcast, but I do love that art is flying Like and I do love to see that, like when I was making a bet on artists back last year, like interviewing artists, interviewing photographer, interviewing everyone that, like, I was actually in the right doing that because, guess what, the people that I've had on are still fucking making art and they're still doing very well and most of the projects are in there and you got her and you know, what'd be really cool is to see um, I don't ever want art to be like how PFPs were flipped, where I was like buying it to make a fuck, but like if people were making or able to resell art on the secondary market in a better way, in a more consistent way, that would be really fucking awesome to see.
Speaker 2:And I've seen some secondary sales happening here and there and I think we might be on the cusp of something like that, which would be amazing. But I just what scares me about that is, like you know, like fucking assholes would like if a PFP project didn't go off, they would just fucking undercut the floor and just get rid of shit. Like I would hate to see that happen to an artist because they didn't do well instantly and oh no, like oh, this fucking guy's not good, he didn't make me the money I was supposed to make, and feel as undercut the artist floor and just destroy it. So it's like that's the scary side of that side.
Speaker 1:I think you're right, I think that's the same feeling from that, and I've noticed that we've had two major events where you've seen the PFP side, or like the collectible side, and art clash when it comes to cultures, like it's like this, to the two sub genres within NFTs, like and it first happened with the word utility, like I remember, like when Drift launches open edition, right, like it was, like people were like mad that it didn't move and I'm like bro, it's an open fucking edition, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:You know what you're buying.
Speaker 1:You bought a fucking photo because you like the photo, like right right, right, but at this you know it's an interesting choice of like what utility is in the collectible side because, again, like where these people are coming from, most of these people that like through fits when it came to them buying art and didn't go to the moon, is that they have been burned a gazillion times and like it was very fair that they came in, like it was understandable that they came in with that mindset. But that's where the first clash happened. And then the second clash is, like everyone in these collectible markets demanding CC zero.
Speaker 2:Oh, dude Whoa.
Speaker 1:Like yo, and now royalties.
Speaker 2:It's like you know we're royalties. I saw that whole thing on the time. I'm like what the fuck is going on now.
Speaker 2:Like okay this bullshit, like if you give this shit, like I don't know, like thing is and I think this is something people should look into with artists is find the artists that were doing this before they're doing it now and if this all fucking dies, they're still going to be doing it. Like I can't not be a photographer, like that's who I am and that's what I was doing, that's what I am doing, that's what I will be doing.
Speaker 1:Right, and it's like the but, but at the same time, though, like right now, collectibles, because we're like I hate to say this and I'm going to say it, but like we are still incredibly early and like the like, paps and collectibles are like, that's like the first use case of like, like real liquidity coming into the space to be dumped into the market Right, and like big collectors like these, like you, he'll admit it public it's like he flips collectibles to buy art Right, and so, like, I think, like, like collectible people need to understand that utility isn't the same in art as it is in collectibles and are seen understand that, like you know, paps and collectibles are necessary because that brings in a lot more liquidity than you have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's what I'm kind of been not even really understanding lately is how, how the fuck is there still an art market without anyone selling PAPs, like, is it that people still making flips every once in a while, like where's this ETH coming from? That's what like confusing me and that's why I'm like is it just all going to dry up really soon because this whole collectible market is?
Speaker 1:done as far as we see. To me, though, it could be an influx of USD, because ETH is down Right Also thinking.
Speaker 2:I'm so like I don't. I'm not going to fucking ask people like yo where's money from bro? Right, I got you my report and all this shit, but I do on your way. I don't know enough about this to know how the fuck this art market is still surviving right now. So, but it also that's just gonna die because the one that he used but you also look at it like in my.
Speaker 1:The way I look at it is that, like, big collectors are making like a hedge on, like they're using art as a hedge, which is art has always been used as a hedge in since the history of art, right? So that's the way I look at it is that art's always been a good hedge against any like, against anything, because culture and art never dies, regardless of what markets do, regardless of like that that has always been consistent throughout history of, regardless of what it said like. So that's my take of like what I see people doing. Like people have, like you know, like some of these people have thousands and thousands and thousands of ETH that, like they've been collecting for a long time and like this could be a dump on some of those to the best, like to the people they're making biggest bets on that are going to be doing things in the future. Cool Right.
Speaker 2:Super dope. This might also be the sniffliest podcast ever.
Speaker 1:We're going to keep the sniffles in because the content's good enough. So you know, the content overrides the sniffles. Because I have good. I'll tell you, dude, I have good headphones on. I have not been noticing.
Speaker 2:I'm just like over yourself conscious in the fucking corner.
Speaker 1:I was about to say this is all. This is all about you, braden. So it's like like that's all about you. So. So, speaking of things all about you, it'll be a perfect segue to wrap it up, man. Like, where do people? Like, where do you want people to go to find your work? Work in like, where are you the most accessible, most?
Speaker 2:accessible would be in my Twitter fucking bio. I have a link tree and that link tree has literally everything that you would ever need to see on for my work. So then also, my Instagram is one of my main platforms I use. So Twitter and Instagram are like my two platforms I use to share my art and, to you know, talk to my community and my friends and stuff. I'm bray bray woo woo. I'm both of those. I don't know why that's my fucking handle. I don't want to answer that question anymore. I made it in fucking high school. Don't know why. There's no, there's no, this is what it is. But yeah, at bray bray, woo woo on Twitter and Instagram and then in my link tree and both of those bios you can find, like, my super rare foundation on Chelsea's and my collection with 1000 miles out from when we got stranded on an island for six months and my addition had the clouds and I think that's everything.
Speaker 1:Well, dude, this has been good. Yeah, it's been awesome. Thank you for listening to the Schiller vaulted podcast. We hope you enjoyed the conversation. As we close out today's episode, don't forget to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite audio platform and leave a five star review to ensure you never miss an episode and to help others discover the vaulted podcast as well. To stay updated on upcoming episodes, as well as our weekly Twitter space schedule, be sure to follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at Schiller XYZ. Once again, thank you for tuning in and remember if you're looking for it art is everywhere and it's up to us to appreciate and explore the emotions it brings to our lives. Until next time, this is Boone signing off.