Metaverse and NFTs - The Future for Businesses with Andre Kay: An EOFire Classic from 2022

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom, shake the room, Fire Nation, JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. And on today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down Metaverse and NFTs, the future for business. And to drop these value bombs, I brought to Andrew Kay into EO Fire Studios. Andrew is a husband, father of three boys, author, investor, and successful entrepreneur. He is the founder of Socially Buzz and Best Date Ever. He is also the co-founder of Met AI Block and Kids Maker your lab. And today we talk about how metaverse NFTs are new ways to connect with audiences and monetize how the metaverse is shaping the future, embrace it, learn it and start testing now and oh so much more.

0:38John Lee Dumas:And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Andre and our sponsors. Today's show is sponsored by strawberry.me. If you're feeling stuck or like you're ready to get to the next level in your career, then finding the right coach can help. Go to strawberry.me slash fire and get 50 % off your first coaching session. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support. Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com.

1:21Highlevelfire.com.

1:23John Lee Dumas:Andre, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hello, Fire Nation. Happy to be here. But one of the things I've always thought about is you don't have to be an a** to be successful, right? You just don't. Fire Nation, take it from Andre K. And this guy knows the future. He knows metaverse. He knows NFTs. He knows the future for businesses. So I want to get right down to business, Andre. Will the metaverse and NFTs really change businesses forever? It will. It will. Absolutely. Right. Because as businesses strive to find new ways to engage with customers and create memorable experiences, many are going to be turned into emergent technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, and metaverses and NFTs as new ways to be able to connect with their audiences and new ways, of course, to drive, to monetize and drive more revenues for their business.

2:29John Lee Dumas:So I guess we might've put the chicken before the egg here because I'd love your definition of the metaverse and then I'd love your definition of NFTs. Break those down for us. For the metaverse itself, think about it this way, right? So it's like an essential network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection, gaming, and immersive experiences. It's a virtual world that exists parallel to the real world. So that's why it's going to be an important thing and how we scale businesses for the metaverse because that's what it is. It's, okay, we have a location here. How can I get 10 more locations for this business?

3:10Great, we can scale it in the virtual world. So that's what it is. And with the metaverse, the metaverse comes with different access points, right? And access points to the metaverse includes virtual headsets like Oculus, computers, smartphones, augmented reality, mixed reality, and other different type of extended reality devices. but i think one of the biggest thing with the metaverse really it what people see with the metaverse right now when we're talking about roblox you see a lot of people building stuff on roblox or they're building stuff on maybe sandbox from a decentralized standpoint the real metaverse actually in the future is going to truly be an immersive experience right this is where john we're we're actually you're where you are i'm where i'm at and we meet up in the metaverse where I could see you I could engage with you we could go play some basketball in the metaverse we could play some soccer in the metaverse it's that's what it's going to be where it's real people you and I and we're engaging and connecting on a different level right that's what the metaverse is and that's what it's going to be NFT uh for anyone I don't know is short for non-fungible tokens and it's just a digital asset um created or minted that represent both tangible and intangible items, right?

4:27So NFTs are tokens that we can use to represent ownership of unique items. For example, let's say we want to tokenize art. We want to tokenize collectibles, images, music, in-game items, or just any type of virtual goods. That's what NFTs are. And the great thing about NFTs is that they can only have one official owner at a time and then the blockchain secures them. So no one can modify that record of ownership or copy and paste a new NFT existence.

5:00John Lee Dumas:That was a fantastic breakdown of metaverse and NFTs. So let's keep charging forward on this topic because I want to know from your vantage points, what are the opportunities for branding and marketing in this space? I mean, if Fire Nation is listening right now and they're like, this sounds interesting. This sounds like something that I may want to look into, you may want to get into. I need a change in my life. I want to try to be on the forefront of what's coming next. What are those opportunities? There's a lot, right? And just like anything else, the metaverse is completely new, right? Think about social media or think about the internet, the first year, the second year when the internet was out, right?

5:37And you can see how many years now we are and people are still understanding the internet. Think about the metaverse as we're super early, right? So some of the opportunities at this point is businesses need to stay competitive, right? So being present both in the physical and the virtual world is going to be an amazing opportunity for them to build a present, for them to market within the metaverse, for them to monetize within the metaverse as well, and being able to connect with their audiences on a whole different level because from the dawn of time um us humans we crave connections we crave um really communicating with each other let's go all the way back from i'm not sure you're gonna remember this john from pen pals right we used to write letters and send them across to the different countries right or different cities used to write pen pals um they would move from pen pals we went to um email or writing letters or and then we go went to emails and we went to social media, all these things was a way for us to connect with each other and starting from a human to human standpoint.

6:46And then businesses were able to say, okay, how can I utilize emails to connect with my audience? How can I use social media to connect with my audience? How can I use snail mail to connect with my audience? Now, how can I use the metaverse to connect with my audience? How can I use NFTs to connect with my audience? How can I use the blockchain to connect with my audience. So there's a lot of different opportunities that's going to be available for businesses to be able to, like I said, monetize, create immersive experiences that's going to help them to build a trusted and safe virtual ecosystem for their brand and for their customers.

7:21John Lee Dumas:So what if people in Fire Nation right now have businesses and they want to get involved? If they're currently running a business that has nothing to do with the metaverse or nothing to do with NFTs right now, but they want to adapt to do so, what would they do? How would they do it? Great question. So first question I would ask them is, what are the goals, right? If the goals is, I want to be able to buy land, right? I want to have actual virtual land inside the metaverse, or I want to be able to monetize today. And in a sense, then I'll say, okay, well, you need to go on these platforms from a decentralized standpoint, which are sandbox and decentral land, right?

8:01But if you just want to get your feet wet and kind of understand more of an immersive experience, I would say to start with Facebook Horizon Worlds inside of their Oculus. And that would be an easy way for them to create some type of experience inside the metaverse. And that could be simple stuff of something that's gamified, right? So I'll give a perfect example. So we created a virtual world in Horizon Worlds called the Franchise Funverse, right? And when you go inside the franchise fund verse, it's really about how do you create this stickiness for people to want to stay and you want them to come back.

8:36You want to tell more people about it, right? So how do you create this stickiness and what does that stickiness look like? So within that, we were able to say, okay, let's create a hamburger basketball. And every time you shoot the hamburger in the basketball, you're going to get a coupon code for something, right or let's play sushi golf every time you hit the the sushi golf in the hole oh for one you get some type of um experiment or experience that you can actually utilize in the real world right so there's a lot of really cool ways that they could really activate their brand within the metaverse even just to test it out to see how their brand could fit within the metaverse fire

9:17John Lee Dumas:Nation, a lot of good opportunities here. This is the future in some way, shape, or form. We don't quite know what that's going to look like, how that's going to play out, but it is something that is exciting and coming your way. We're going to be talking about a lot when we get back from taking our sponsors. Today's show is sponsored by strawberry.me. I've interviewed over 5 ,000 successful entrepreneurs, and one thing they all have in common, they've enlisted mentors, coaches, and people along the way to help guide them. But where do you find the right coach or mentor? Great question. And that's where strawberry.me career coaching comes in.

9:53John Lee Dumas:I speak from personal experience when I say that coaching and mentorship has helped me get to where I am today. In fact, you might not even be listening to Entrepreneurs on Fire if it weren't for my first coach and mentor, Jamie Masters. I knew that in order to produce the best podcast, I needed to find someone who was where I wanted to be. Here we are nearly 14 years later, and I'd say I made a fantastic investment. So if you're feeling stuck, facing an important career decision, or ready to make your next big move, the right coach can help. Go to strawberry.me slash fire and get 50 % off your first coaching session.

10:29John Lee Dumas:That's strawberry.me slash fire. Fire Nation, if you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. That is why High Level is Entrepreneur on Fire's featured partner. High Level gives you a website builder and hosting, funnels and landing pages, email marketing, appointment scheduling, payment processing, course and membership hosting, and so much more. Everything you need to succeed, all under one roof. No duct tape, no juggling five platforms, just one clean system for your business. And their award-winning 24-7 support has your back when you need it most. When you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you also get my exclusive bonus stack.

11:08John Lee Dumas:a 30-day free trial, a private 15-minute call with me, JLD, access to my weekly live office hours, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something Execution Roadmap, and more. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Andre, let's talk about trust. Trust is a huge issue. Can we trust NFTs? Can we trust the metaverse? depends who you ask today and who's tracking the market right um but yes and and it really comes down to what do you believe in when it comes to nfts or what do you use nfts for right because we see a lot of rug pull um what we call those projects right now especially nfts and everyone knows this i'm probably going to echo what everybody everyone else is thinking that 90 or even more current nft projects are going to disappear um within the next few years right So who do you trust, what you believe in?

12:07It really comes down to, when it comes to trust, the type of brands that you're going to work with or the brands or the people you're going to get your NFTs from. For example, if Starbucks comes up with an NFT, it's a high chance you're going to trust them because they have a name to protect. But if Joe Schmo pops up with an NFT that you have no idea who they are, I would say to be wary of that. So the way we are looking at it is we're working with the brands that you already trust. So the trust is going to be easier on that standpoint. So imagine within the metaverse, we have a coffee shop in the metaverse or we have a pizza shop.

12:47where within the metaverse, you're able to say, hey, I'm in the metaverse. I'm playing basketball with Andre. We're doing some fun stuff. You're where you are. I am where I'm at. And hey, guys, I'm hungry, right? Let's order some pizza. I order pizza while I'm in the metaverse, while we're talking, you order something else. And within 20 minutes, that thing shows up at your door and my thing shows up my door, right? We don't get to, we get that. Then we come back and we don't have to go anywhere, right? So those are opportunities there. And that's how we're going to build trust. And trust might take a while based on what we're talking about here, right?

13:22So same thing, Absila, with the metaverse. If Apple comes out, which they will, comes out with a metaverse, I think Apple is going to be a great opportunity for people to trust more because people trust Apple already. So it all depends on the brand and the businesses and the technologies that's be empowering these things and who's behind them that i'll say yes i'll absolutely trust it but be wary of just buying off buying or investing in in just random nfts or just random metaverses

13:52John Lee Dumas:now you mentioned apple and apple was a leader in the podcast world they were really at the forefront but it seems like they're way behind in the metaverse space can they catch up to facebook which aka is now called meta because they're so much into the metaverse i'm actually curious myself to see what Apple releases within the next six to 12 months. Apple is an amazing company, but I don't believe they have released anything new or revolutionary since the great late Steve Jobs, right? But what I do believe is Apple will add to the adaption and the growth of the metaverse, right? So think about this.

14:29You know how Apple accesses a scanner or face to unlock our phones, right? If you have an iPhone, imagine they use that same technology or an enhanced version of that technology to scan your entire body to make a clone of you in the metaverse right and people do it for apple because they trust apple more than they might trust meta at the moment right so that will only fuel meta's horizon world and other truly immersive metaverses so i believe apple will be able to catch up but i'd love to see what what they come up come out with within the next in the near future and how people would adapt to that from apple but one thing i i see with Apple is Apple is a closed gate, right?

15:11You could understand from their app store, right? Where the app store is closed. But with the metaverse and with NFTs, it can't be closed. It has to be open, especially how we vision the metaverse where if Apple comes up with an Appleverse or whatever they call it, right? And I'm in the Appleverse with my avatar and my enjoying some game with my friends. And I decided to say, you know what? I want to jump over to Horizon Worlds now. I don't want to have to take off my Apple headset and then put on my Oculus headset. I want to be able to jump from one place to the next place seamlessly. And that's the opportunities.

15:50And Apple will need to open up their world gate to be able to do that.

15:53John Lee Dumas:I want to talk about size. How big is the total addressable market for the metaverse? I mean, what are we talking it's currently projected to be between the eight to trillion dollar trillion dollar market within the next five years and that's on projections right now but i i anticipate that being a lot bigger as more people adapt to it um as well and even currently right now there are over 800 million monthly users across the metaverse such as like I guess, Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, Horizon World, Sandbox, and Decentraland. So it's huge, right? And one of the things I'm excited about too, John, is Gartner predicted that 25 by 2026, yeah, 2026, 25 % of the world population will spend at least one hour a day in the metaverse.

16:46And that's more than your favorite social media network and streaming service combined, right? And I know 25 % of my son, that's cool. But 25 % of the world's population is 2 billion people. So just to put that into context.

17:03John Lee Dumas:Wow, that is a massive addressable market. And Andre, you've talked about a lot today. We've talked about metaverse and NFTs and how they're going to change business forever. We talked about the opportunity for branding and marketing and how we can adapt our businesses for the metaverse. And basically, can we trust these things and so much more? give us the one big takeaway take the mic talk to us about the one thing you really want to make sure fire nation gets from everything that we talked about here today including all this jazz and then we'll say goodbye just like with anything else you test it you want to you you you want to be at the forefront of it but you also want to make sure you're testing it you want to be in it you want to experience it you you don't want to be left behind right so when i talk about being left behind, think about it this way, right?

17:50Would you rather be Netflix or Blockbuster right now? Would you rather be Apple or Blackberry? Would you rather be the internet or the fax machine, right? Think about it that way. You don't want to be left behind, especially when you have top brands like Nike, Gucci, Coca-Cola, Chipotle, Wendy's, and all these different brands are already using it. It's a thing that you must believe in. It's a thing that is going to power the future. I haven't been more excited than something I've done with since social media, right? So I'm excited for what comes with the metaverse. And I would love for people to embrace it, learn it, check it out, see how you could implement this for your own business as well.

18:33John Lee Dumas:And how, Andre, can we connect with you? If we want to learn more about you, any call to action you have for Fire Nation, share that now. You could connect with us a few ways. So Metaiblock, which is M-E-T-A-I-B-L-O-C-K, which stands for Metaverse Artificial Intelligence on Blockchain. And John, you're going to be surprised. I've owned Social E-Buzz, which is a marketing company, for 14 years. I've done amazing stuff for clients like Domino's Pizza, Jamba Juice, TJ Fridays, name it. And I've never had my own personal Twitter until this year. So especially being in the NFT world, in the metaverse world, there's a lot of things happening on Twitter.

19:17So I'd love for you guys to follow me on Twitter, which is MRAndreK, which is MrAndreK on Twitter.

19:23John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, you're the average. of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with AK and JLD today, so keep up that heat. Head over to eofire.com, type Andre, A-N-D-R-E, in the search bar. His show notes page will pop up with everything we've talked about here today. Make sure you check out Met AI Block, Mr. Andre K on Twitter. And Andre, thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge, value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you, John. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Andre. And Fire Nation, are you ready to rock your very own podcast?

20:02John Lee Dumas:Check out our free podcasting course where I will teach you how to create and launch your podcast for free. Freepodcastcourse.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Today's show is sponsored by strawberry.me. If you're feeling stuck or like you're ready to get to the next level in your career, then finding the right coach can help. Go to strawberry.me slash fire and get 50 % off your first coaching session. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support.

20:42John Lee Dumas:Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com. highlevelfire.com.