The Personal Finance Podcast - NFTs 101: The Complete Beginners Guide With President Of VaynerNFT Avery Akkineni

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Starting point is 00:00:56 Find your advisor at IG Private Wealth.com. On this episode of the personal finance podcast, we're going to talk about NFTs with president of VaynerNFT, Avery Akinini. What's up, everybody, and welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Andrew founder of mastermoney.com. And today on the personal finance podcast, we're going to be talking about NFTs with Avery Acanini. If you have any questions about this episode, hit me up on Instagram or TikTok at Master. Money Co. And follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or whatever podcast player you love listening to this podcast.

Starting point is 00:01:55 And if you want to have out the show, leave a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcast. And don't forget to check us out on YouTube as well at Master Money on YouTube, where we have two videos every single week coming out for you guys with fresh content on YouTube. So today, we are talking to Avery Akinini, who is the president of Vasey. Vayner NFT. And Vayner NFT is Gary V's NFT company. And they work with a bunch of massive companies, as Avery will talk about today. But I wanted to have Avery on so you can get a deeper understanding of NFTs. But we haven't even talked about NFTs on this podcast, but they are really hot right now. An NFT just sold just after the Super Bowl for $24 million. So what I want to find out is what is this whole NFT craze all about. And if you don't know what an NFT is or you've never heard of an NFT, and are curious, this is the perfect episode for you, because Avery is going to explain the basics of NFTs,

Starting point is 00:02:54 and she's going to talk about how NFTs tie in with Web3 in the Metaverse. But in addition, she's also going to give some insight on how NFTs are created as she took part in Gary V's famous NFT project called VFriends. But there were some other things I wanted to learn about as well. And so we talked about where to buy NFTs, how to find NFTs that actually hold long-term value instead of buying an NFT, for example, that is just a short time. term fad. And in addition, Avery shares some amazing insights on how to learn more about NFTs. So if you've

Starting point is 00:03:25 been curious about NFTs, then this episode is for you. So let's get into it. So Avery, welcome to the Personal Finance podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Andrew. It's a pleasure to be here. We are so excited to have you today to talk about NFTs. And I think that one big thing that we want to talk about today is the basics of NFTs. And I think a lot of people who are new to the space are confused as what an NFT is. So if you were talking to someone who was new to NFTs, how would you explain what an NFT is and what does NFT stand for? Yes, NFT, non-fungible token, this essentially represents unique digital asset ownership. So some ways that you can think about NFTs are actually being able to, for the first time ever, own part of your digital experience. We've had digital assets for a very

Starting point is 00:04:11 long time, everything from gaming skins to social media profiles. And that's all been owned by the companies where you're playing these games or where you're interacting with your social network. For the first time ever, NFTs allow you to own a unique digital asset, which represents things that you might care about, whether it's art, it's a sports collectible, it's a utility token, it's a club membership. NFTs are essentially the ability that you can actually own that and verify that ownership on the blockchain. That's amazing. And I think that's the perfect explanation that helps everyone kind of understand that. And you talk about blockchain here. What is the relationship between NFTs and the blockchain? Yeah, so blockchain technology underpins all things NFTs,

Starting point is 00:04:52 meaning that NFTs are essentially securely recorded on a blockchain, which is the same technology that powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, ensuring that the asset is one of a kind. This technology also makes it difficult to counterfeit NFTs. We know in the world of luxury items, fine wine, sports cards, there's a lot of issues with counterfeiting. And one incredible thing that the blockchain does is verify the transaction history of all things on it. So if I'm sending you, Andrew, an NFT, if I'm buying Ethereum, if I'm transferring ETH to my friend, all of this is verifiable on the blockchain. And the blockchain essentially underpins all things Web 3. So you might have heard of different cryptocurrencies. All of those are underpinned by the blockchain as well.

Starting point is 00:05:37 Awesome. And you hear a common objection all the time from people saying things like, well, you can screenshot a picture of an NFT and now I own it, which is obviously not true. But What makes each NFT unique? Yeah, so I think what meets each NFT unique. First is what it is to begin with, right? Is it something that was created by Gary V? Or is it Snoop Dogg's first ever Genesis token? Or is it an incredible artist?

Starting point is 00:06:00 So there's an element of like creativity behind what makes each NFT unique. And you'll see a number of different mechanics as it relates to NFTs, everything from sort of more standard profile picture projects. It might have 10,000 pieces to one-of-one pieces of art to like limit. run collectibles. But I think that the reason that NFTs really matter and why you can't just like screenshot and own it is really that provenance, the ownership and the traceability that's brought to you by blockchain. So yes, you might be able to take a screenshot of my world of women profile picture, but that doesn't mean you can go sell it on the open market. That doesn't mean

Starting point is 00:06:36 that you can use it to verify your role in Discord. It doesn't mean you can use it to get into their events or to getirdrop some of their perks. You know, you can go and take a picture of them and Lisa, if you go at the Louvre, that doesn't mean you actually own it. So I think as consumer adoption takes off in the world of blockchain, as Web3 starts to become more mainstream, that concept of provenance and ownership, improveability will matter more and more as consumers digital wallets become really a format of self-expression for who they are and the things that matters to them. And that's one of the cool things about NFTs is you can invest in art pieces that you like. And there's so many different things you can do with your individuality

Starting point is 00:07:14 with NFTs. That's very, very cool. So you mentioned Web 3, and NFTs and Web 3 go hand in hand, and I've heard you talk about how Web 3 is the future in the past. Can you explain what Web 3 is to someone who has never heard of it? Absolutely. This is something that I'm paraphrasing from a lot of Twitter sentiment, but Web 1 essentially enabled people to have access to information digitally for the first time. Think about Google, right? I started working Google in 2011. And back in those days, it was like a startup that my parents were like, wow, what's this search engine thing? And I was like, yeah, you can find coffee shops and buy a mattress online. They're like, nobody's ever going to do that.

Starting point is 00:07:49 And fast forward, just like over 10 years. And that idea of being able to find information online and consume that information is such a part of daily life that it's even a verb, like people Google everything. But in Web 1, you were basically able to read information online. Then along comes Web 2, which is really the era of social media, of interconnected communication powered by the Internet, right? So you can go and message your friends. You can create content.

Starting point is 00:08:15 You can essentially write as well. So you can read and find information. You can also write and create information. And now a couple years later, along comes Web 3, where you can read information and find anything you want. You can create and communicate and write information. And now you can actually own part of this ecosystem as this sort of next iteration of Web 3. And that's the perfect explanation.

Starting point is 00:08:39 I think that's the easiest way to understand it. There's going to be a lot more ownership transfer in Web 3. and I think that's the biggest power that comes with it. Yeah, I think so too. And, you know, Web 3 is a word that's tossed around a lot within the sort of like crypto community. I think the way that mainstream folks often think about it is more like Metaverse. I hear that from a lot of, you know, my brand partners and a lot of my friends in normal

Starting point is 00:09:00 worlds who are not so deep into crypto. So I'm not sure if the term Web 3 or Metaverse will be more common. But to us, this is really an evolution of the Internet and kind of a natural progression. So as we learn more about NFTs here, Avery, one thing that we focus on a lot is investing on this podcast. So when we're looking at NFTs, and if somebody wants to invest in an NFT, how does an NFT actually hold value? Yeah. So not financial advice because I'm not an investment professional, but I will say that a lot of, you know, NFT projects that I've invested in over the past year or so have majorly

Starting point is 00:09:32 appreciated. And I'm not an NFT flipper. But it's been incredible to see these NFTs sort of build up over time. And anyone who's, you know, an investor can also look at some of the returns on some of these flips, some of which have been pretty major. You know, if you bought a board eight for $300,000, a couple months later, it's a pretty damn good return. And I think the way that NFTs hold value is interesting. A lot of the value is derived by the creator themselves, so almost like betting on the jockey, who is that person who's the project founder or that team. So it's a little bit of the project founder. It's a lot about the community. The community really is the biggest variable to the success or failure of an NFT project. If you have an engaged community who's helping

Starting point is 00:10:14 you almost promote it and develop it over time, posting it on their social handle, promoting it to their friends, encouraging other people to join, helping you broker partnership deals, I think the community is incredibly important. And it's a good thing to assess as you're looking into which projects you're interested in. And then the third thing is, what are the utility angles and incentives that projects or artists are developing for their holders? It might be something like AirDrops, might be something like events. So AirDrops is an example of something that the World of Women team has done very successfully, something like events, which is what the V-Friends team has done very successfully. It might be giving you early access to subsequent drops, which is another

Starting point is 00:10:53 mechanic that's been very popular. So I think I would boil that down to founding team or the team behind it, the utility, the community, and then also some element of subjective cool, which I know is the hardest thing to sort of put your finger on, but the types of NFT programs that have really penetrated culture, the way that Bored Apes has done. It's hard to put your finger on exactly what drives that, but those projects that make their way into the mainstream, starting as an NFT program and bridging into the broader world and ecosystem beyond just the world of Web3, I think are three ways that really help projects hold value. And some of the cool things about that is you can see things like a Cryptopunk, which was free early on, and now people are selling them

Starting point is 00:11:33 for, I'd know one just sold for $24 million around the sequel time. But it's so amazing to watch that appreciation of some of these items. And it's really crazy to see. I don't think we've seen anything like that before. So if someone's interested in something like this, if they want to go out and test the waters and buy an NFT, where is a good place to go buy an NFT? Is it in the Discord communities? Is it around the community place? Or is there some other central place that they should be looking? Yes. So if you're ready to buy an NFT, I would recommend making sure that you're following projects that you're very interested in on Twitter and Discord. Do not click on any Discord links. Do not click on any websites that you don't know. Like if they're the legit ones,

Starting point is 00:12:10 I would recommend buying them. If you're a beginner, start on a marketplace. Start with something like an OpenC or a Nifty Gateway or a rarable where you know it's a legitimate website. You know that it's a legitimate project. They have a little verification that will be a blue check. Make sure you're actually buying the official, what they call it the official link. So you don't get scammed out of anything. If you see anything that looks too good to be true, it definitely is. But if you're a new to NFT collector, I think starting on a marketplace and researching a project you like, seeing if there any traits that really resonate with you is a great place to start. And if you're more of an intermediate to advance, you can also look into projects that are

Starting point is 00:12:46 launching for the first time and you can mint them. So to mint means to buy something as the primary sale. And I think that's a really fun experience. If you haven't ever mentioned an NFT, getting in on that primary experience is really fun. Oftentimes, in NFT world, if you mint something, you know, it will not be revealed until a slightly later date. And when you reveal it, it's like opening your Christmas resin, you see what you got, which is a little bit fun too if you're a little bit more advanced. And there's a project that you've been following, a person that you're following, who's dropping something, you click on that official link and then you have the opportunity actually minted. And I love the idea of buying the minted NFTs because you're getting in early and you're

Starting point is 00:13:24 also just part of that project. And it's something. something that you could be part of that community, and that's a tight-knit community that goes through that process. Yes, you're day one. You're an OG. Exactly. You're an OG for sure. I remember when I needed to hire someone fast, but finding the right person quickly

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Starting point is 00:16:41 You were a major part in developing Gary's V friends, and I think it's really cool if we go through the process of exactly how an NFT is created, because I think that helps a lot of people understand, how this process works. So how is an NFT created? Yeah. So VFriends is very much Gary's project. And Andy Krenick is the person who runs the show on that from an operational perspective. But VFriends was a huge learning experience for a lot of the Vayner team because whenever we get very into something, the best way we learn is getting hands on and really putting our money where our mouth is to understand whether it's testing TikTok for the first time. We started with Gary. Testing NFTs for the

Starting point is 00:17:16 first time, we started with Gary. And I think that process, Gary had a very clear vision on exactly what wanted to do. A lot of other projects were going in this direction of hiring an artist, designing an adjective animal project, and, you know, doing some 10,000 piece mint with a flat price. Gary wanted to go about it in a different way where it was all of the attributes are tied to things he talks about in his content. So there's a very strategic approach of, you know, talking about empathy, kindness, sincerity, ambition, tying those all to characters that Gary actually hand drew himself, which adds this whole layer of like, you know, signature Gary's style to the project. And as a very advanced collector, Gary is also super familiar with

Starting point is 00:17:57 how different rarities work and different levels works. We baked a lot of that into the project in different like core, rare, spectacular bubble gum, lava, just some like fun stuff that drove up that collectibility. And rather than doing it as a sort of flat mint, Gary wanted to do it as a Dutch auction meaning declining prices over time, which was also not a very common mechanic to use. There's a school of thought that thinks it's a much more fair mechanic, though, because instead of driving prices up and potentially making people spend more than they're attending to, you're actually drive the price down. So that was a bit of a different thing. And the process of creating, it starts with the idea, right? It starts with the concept, which was all about characters that are

Starting point is 00:18:37 aligned to the core values that Gary talks about as content. Then you get into adding the gamification elements, adding the rarities, adding the fun surprises, adding special access tokens, which essentially allow holders to get exclusive access to Gary because as a super busy person, the most valuable resource he has is his time. So to a lot of, you know, his fans and people whose lives Gary's changed, getting to go to a courtside game, basketball game with Gary is like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. So he tokenized that. He tokenized face times with himself. All of these kind of like fun access tokens sort of building upon the core idea into the mechanics. Then you get into doing the art. So Gary had to take off a week and actually draw everything.

Starting point is 00:19:18 Then we had to go work with a developer partner. And folks, Jimmy and his team at Nameless were incredible technical partners in helping pull this off. Gary wanted to work with someone who was incredibly well respected in the NFT space in a true OG to make sure the smart contract was like second to none. So you go and do that. And then you have to market it. So once you've got a great concept, the mechanics, the art, the tech, now you have to go market it. And selling 13,000 NFTs is actually a lot of work. So going into marketing that and appealing to your own.

Starting point is 00:19:48 audience and educating your audience on how to get a vet a mask and how to purchase an NFT and how to secure it is also its own whole thing. And then the mint ended, sold out, which was great. And then the real work began, which was developing this program to be a 45-year expression of who Gary is and how we can get back to his community and fans. And I love that. I love the way that Gary did it. The exclusivity he gave with some of that, I know he has events coming up where that's your ticket to the event and some of the stuff where you can have one-on-one conversations with him. I know he did some FaceTime things as well. But that is part of the cool thing that you can do with NFTs. And I think that's a really cool way that businesses can utilize

Starting point is 00:20:23 that as well. Absolutely. And VCon is coming up May of 2022 in Minneapolis. So if any of your listeners are looking, we will be releasing a way to get tickets soon. Right now, tickets are only available to sort of Genesis holders, but more information on that coming soon. Awesome. And when that information comes out, we'll leave that link in the show notes as well. So you guys can check that out because I think that's a really cool event to be able to go to for sure. Now, at VaynerNFT, you guys have a really valuable outlook on NFTs because you believe that most NFT projects on the market are short term, but VaynerNFT actually focuses on long-term projects.

Starting point is 00:20:57 So tell us a little more about that and how do you ensure that an NFT project is a long-term project? Yeah, there's two ways to think about NFT projects. There's a drop and there's a program. And at VaynerNFT, we are very focused on building long-term programs. And the end of the day, we're a consultancy. So we work with different IP owners, whether that's a sports league or a brand or, you know, an entertainment owner. We work with them to develop a roadmap and a program that they can build upon in perpetuity. Because a lot of these IP owners, they have a lot to give.

Starting point is 00:21:28 They have, you know, incredible access, a rich heritage, such a devoted community already. So they've got a lot that they can bring into their holders. And we try to work with them to understand this is not a get rich quick scheme. This is not a make $5 million and never be seen or hurt from again. And when you're a recognized IP owner, you really can't do that because you just get super slammed. So I think that working with them to help develop these roadmaps and even from the get-go, like explaining that to their communities, like, this is a long-term project. This is something that we're in for the long-term. You're going to get perks and you're going to get experiences and you're going to be part of our community that as we navigate the world of Web3 is very much how we communicate.

Starting point is 00:22:05 And if a partner wants to do a drop that isn't meant to be a sort of full-on program, we try to do that in a way that's super NFT native and is very much like benefiting, you know, a charity or an artist or something like that that gets their toes into, it without over-promising, you know, a long-term program. But we view the success of sort of store-of-value NFTs are going to be coming more in those long-term programs that can continue to evolve and build over time versus sort of these, you know, one-off drops. And that's so on brand with Gary's belief system as well, because if you hear anything that he talks about, he always says, he's in this thing forever, whatever he does.

Starting point is 00:22:41 So it's one of those things that we talk about as well. When we invest our money here, we always talk about doing things for the long term because there's no get rich, quick schemes. And NFTs are the same way. You can see a lot of people making a lot of money right now. But if you do this with a long-term and focus on projects that are focusing for a long-term investment return, then that's something that you can definitely take part in it. And it would be beneficial to everybody out there. So how can investors actually target NFT projects that hold value in the long run? And are the things that investors can look for so that they're not in something that may crash really quickly?

Starting point is 00:23:12 Yeah. So I'll see this from the perspective of collector, right? Because not financial advice, but I think collecting, if you're a person who's, collects things in general, like you understand there's a certain irrationality around collecting, whether it's a burkin bag or a expensive bottle of wine, right? If you are a person who, or a silver spoon or a trading card, whatever it is, you understand that there's a certain element of, like, traits, of rarity, of, you know, exclusives, of scarcity. So I think if you understand those, that actually translates very well to investing because you know that if you go the more rare

Starting point is 00:23:43 ones, there's fewer of them. Hence, you know, if the project hits, those tend to do very well. So I think what to collect is a super personal decision, whether it's gaming or collectibles or art or virtual land or sports or photography or music. I will say that I think chains matter. Right now, Ethereum runs the game in terms of the sort of gold standard of NFT programs. That could change in the future. But to date, if you look at like the top 10 most valuable NFT programs, I think nine of them are on Ethereum.

Starting point is 00:24:11 So I would definitely look there, you know, if you want to fish where the fish are. And I also think picking something that is an industry. that you're actually interested in, right? Like if you're a big gamer, looking into some of these more interesting gaming NFTs, because you'll have a better inherent sense of which play to earn games are really going to win, versus if you are more of a person who's interested in art,

Starting point is 00:24:32 you've invested in art, you might have a better sense of, like, which NFT artists are going to be more in the portfolio that you want to have. And developing that, like, personal connection between what you're buying, I also think helps soften the blow when things don't pan out and it helps make it that much sweeter when things do.

Starting point is 00:24:48 Absolutely. I love that idea of focusing in areas that are in your circle of competence or areas that you like in areas that are, you know, things, hobbies or anything else around there, just because it's something that you're going to know. You're going to know what's going on in that situation. Can you give examples of companies that you're working with now or what companies, and you can be as broad or as specific as you want to be, but what companies is Vayner and FT working with now? Yeah, we're working with a ton of folks on a consulting basis. I'll talk about a couple of recent programs that we've developed. and hinted a few others coming. We work with Anheiser-Busch or founding client, which is the world's largest beer company. We work with PepsiCo.

Starting point is 00:25:27 We work with retailers and fashion brands. We work with Coinbase NFT, which is officially launching in a couple of weeks, which will be very, very exciting. We worked with sports events like the U.S. Open and, you know, major auto manufacturers and a lot more kind of coming. But we've done stuff across the spectrum,

Starting point is 00:25:44 everything from entertainment to brand building, to more influencer-based activations to even platform advisory. So we're really working across the gamut as a consultant to help folks figure out the world of Web3 and how to take their brand into this whole new world. That's amazing. And it's so cool to see these huge companies investing your dollars into Web3 and getting into that space. I think it's such a cool, cool thing to see right now. I think so too.

Starting point is 00:26:09 And you would be amazed how many companies are so curious about this. They're like, how do we get in here? What can we do? How can we add value? And first and foremost, we always start with you have to learn and you have to understand what this ecosystem is all about. We are always pushing for these institutions to be able to take crypto, which also helps drive up the whole market. I think as there's interest from these larger corporations, we also see a validation of the whole market. And they bring their fan bases in.

Starting point is 00:26:35 And it's something that's pretty cool to see. And celebrity adoption has obviously been really important to the sort of general market awareness of NFT. So that's another thing we're committed to helping with. That is awesome. And I think one of the cool things that I've been seeing, you know, with NFTs is the proof of attendance. And I went to a bunch of recent NFL games for the playoff games and things like that. And after the game was over, the NFL actually sent us an NFT. And one of them, which was kind of cool, was Tom Brady's last game, the one of them that I went to, which is actually pretty interesting. So how do you see the market growing in the future, specifically with proof of

Starting point is 00:27:08 attendance? Yeah, there's a really interesting free tool. And it's called proof of attendance protocol that Patricio and his team have built. That's an awesome tool for anyone who's, like, interested in checking out NFTs in a free way. Basically, what POAP does is allow you to prove that you are at different events. You might see them on Twitter spaces. You might see them. I was at the All-Star game this weekend in Cleveland,

Starting point is 00:27:28 saw a bunch of POAPs there, which is a fun way to sort of prove that you are somewhere. And essentially allow your digital wallet to be like your digital passport. We know the NFL is leaning into this. We know NBA is also looking into this. And I think we're going to start to see more of sort of commensate, Memorative NFTs for key events and key moments that almost prove that you were there. Like, you know, people save ticket stops from Super Bowl games they've been to, concerts they've been to.

Starting point is 00:27:52 And they like to, you know, maybe keep them in a scrapbook, maybe frame them, maybe just sort of keep them and remember the moment. People start to see a lot of that coming into a digital ecosystem because nobody wants another towel or cup. Having something on your phone that's like an easy, digital, you know, bookmark of your life is something I think we'll start to see a lot of. And then the next step to that is I think we'll also see a lot of ticketing moving into the world of NFTs as well as both an entrance mechanism and a collectible after the fact. I think that's going to be so cool. And I think, you know, even alongside the concert side and everything else, if you think about when someone has an experience, what they do is they show you the photos on their phone or something digital. So having that additional digital token is something that I think it would be really cool in the future. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:28:36 And I think some of these, it'll be interesting to see if this drives up like value of secondary trading after the first. or it's like purely a collectible, a lot of the market in NFTs right now is based on sort of secondary trading. And we see some of the po-ups, especially those that are designed by a specific artist or, you know, signed by a celebrity or something like that. Maybe your Tom Brady last game won. Those also begin to have a life of their own in terms of secondary trading volume. Absolutely. And that is pretty cool, too. It's going to be interesting to watch the market and what happens with those as well. So as you're looking at NFTs and you're thinking about the future of NFTs. Where do you see the future of NFTs going? And do you see the future of NFTs going? And do you see,

Starting point is 00:29:11 Do we see NFTs being anything different than as we see them now? Definitely. I think that you know that market adoption cycle curve that we all learned about in marketing. We are still at the innovator, not even to the early adopter point, because there is still a tiny community of people who are really actively engaged in NFTs today. We've got increasing awareness of what NFTs are, but very few people actually own an NFT now. We look at the total monthly active users, monthly active wallets on OpenC that's selling a single-digit millions, which is very small.

Starting point is 00:29:40 So I think what we've seen is just scratching the surface of the potential for NFTs. I think in order for us to see the full potential and future of where we're going with NFTs, we need broad market adoption, which is going to be driven by a couple of things, driven by technology simplifying, driven by pricing decreasing substantially because a lot of the most popular projects are very out of reach for your normal retail buyer and fan. Then you're also going to see a totally huge number of new entrants into this space. So I think companies like meta and Coinbase NFT and Twitter are, and all of these have been very public on their aspirations in this world, they're going to bring their hundreds of millions of users into this space, make it more democratized and make it something that users can easily collect these experiences and the digital assets that matter to them and display them in a way that really matters. Because right now there's a bit of a gap in the market of having an easy way to show off all of your awesome NFT assets.

Starting point is 00:30:39 I think we're going to see in the next few months to years a way to really do that digital flex that builds, you know, an easy pathway for self-expression in a digital sense. Absolutely. I saw, you know, Twitter just released where you can have your profile picture as an NFT now, which was pretty cool because you see all these people with some crazy NFTs that you would never think would actually have. Yeah, exactly. It's pretty interesting. But I think that's one cool way that we've seen just as of recent and we're going to see that kind of grow more here in the future as well. So do you have any resources. If people want to learn more about NFTs, they listen to us talking today and they want to

Starting point is 00:31:10 learn more about NFTs and maybe get into this space. Are there any resources that you would have them look at or is there any books or anything like that? Absolutely. I don't know if any books are keeping up as fast as the internet. So I will recommend digital resources. We have a lot of great educational content that's been made by the V-Friends team. So if you check out Vee Friends on YouTube, we've created all these different videos for very step-by-step, educating users on how to get your Coinbase, how to get your MetaMask, how to purchase an NFT, how to set up your hardware wallet. So you've got a lot of awesome content there, a lot of awesome content on VaynerNFT,

Starting point is 00:31:43 which is my consulting firm. We put out a lot of great stuff. And also like to have on special guests where people can talk, whether they're creators or their developers or, you know, their sort of voices in the space. And then lastly, I will recommend a couple of publications. 137 p.m. has great NFT content that's, you know, very digestible because it's on platforms like Instagram and Twitter and Discord. and NFT now are good friends.

Starting point is 00:32:08 They are doing an excellent job of putting out almost like NFT news, but also educational content for folks who are interested in, one, learning like what's happening in NFT marketing. Two, what are some of the up-and-coming projects? I think they do a great job of highlighting some creators that are maybe worth a look before they become huge. That's amazing. And we'll link those resources in the show notes as well,

Starting point is 00:32:29 because some of those I haven't even heard of. So I'm going to check some of those out as well. That's fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing those. So if you were talking to someone and they said it was too late to get into NFTs, what would you say to them? I would say it's too early for a lot of people. You are incredibly early if you are listening to this podcast and if you are looking to buy your first NFT. So few people even, if we had this podcast a year ago, I don't even think the vast majority of your listeners would have heard of what this acronym means, right?

Starting point is 00:32:55 Because I think people $69 million sale made everyone say like, whoa, what the hell? Like this is a real thing. So I think you're very early. The NFT market is very young. There's a lot of promise. There's a lot of potential, but there are still so few users in this space. Just because you missed out, missed out, I'm going to use air quotes there. On the board apes or V-Friends doesn't mean that you've missed out in the world of NFTs.

Starting point is 00:33:19 I think it's still the infancy days of what this space is going to be as an investment vehicle, as a collector, as just an individual user looking to build a digital identity that you're proud of. I think it's super early. And the best time to start was yesterday. And the second best time is today. Absolutely. I completely agree as well. It's so early on. We'll get at the very early development of Web 3 and blockchain and everything else.

Starting point is 00:33:41 So it's something that we could definitely look at investing for the long term. So Avery, thank you so much for coming on today. This was truly informative for myself and the audience. We truly appreciate you coming on. Where can we find more about you and Vayner and FTE? Yeah, I'm Avery Ackini on Twitter, on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on all the social platforms. And you can learn about VaynerNFT on our Twitter, our Instagram, our website. And if you are a creator and you're interested in working this, you're an intellectual property

Starting point is 00:34:10 owner, you're interested in working with us. We've got a form on there. And if we can't help, we'll point you in the direction of someone who can. But yeah, we're really excited about building this new world of Web 3 and collaboration with incredible folks like you and your team, Andrew, and so many others who are on the ground floor of this. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Avery.

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The Personal Finance Podcast - NFTs 101: The Complete Beginners Guide With President Of VaynerNFT Avery Akkineni

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