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Podcast Episode Notes: Don’t Make it Weird with Jordan Pories and Esteban Cardona Jiménez
Episode Overview Title: Don’t Make it Weird with Jordan Pories and Esteban Cardona Jiménez Hosts: Alex Center and Kevin Batory Guests: Jordan Pories and Esteban Cardona Jiménez Air Date: [Insert Date] Description: In this episode, award-winning graphic designer Alex Center and co-host Kevin Batory welcome Jordan Pories and Esteban Cardona Jiménez, Associate Creative Directors at Coinbase, to discuss their creative partnership, insights into the crypto world, and their past experiences at Apple.
Key Guests
- Jordan Pories
- Multi-disciplinary creative with a diverse background in film, design, and advertising.
- Notable Achievements: Won Apple's first Film Grand Prix at Cannes, multiple Cannes Lions, D&AD Pencils, and AICP Awards.
- Esteban Cardona Jiménez
- Associate Creative Director at Coinbase.
- Previously part of Apple’s creative team for over five years.
Discussion Highlights
Creative Partnership
- Development of Partnership:
- Jordan and Esteban met during Apple's Orchard program, where they fostered a unique creative chemistry.
- Their working relationship evolved from being roommates to collaborating on various projects.
- Importance of Jealousy:
- They discuss how a healthy dose of jealousy can fuel creativity and drive within a partnership.
- Farm System Concept:
- The Orchard program is likened to a "farm system" developing young talent in the creative field.
Transition from Apple to Coinbase
- Change of Environment:
- Both creatives transitioned from Apple to Coinbase during a tumultuous period for the crypto industry.
- They sought a more daring environment to explore creativity outside of traditional tech branding.
Iconic Campaigns
- Apple Pay Campaign:
- The duo developed the “Text Me the Money” campaign which helped elevate their visibility within Apple.
- They reflected on their approach to less glamorous briefings, finding creative freedom in the less popular projects.
- Escape from the Office:
- They discussed the creation of a notable Apple campaign during COVID-19 that received the Grand Prix award at Cannes.
- The campaign centered around the theme of escaping from oppressive work environments to pursue dreams, resonating with many.
Insights on Cryptocurrency
- Understanding Crypto:
- They define cryptocurrency as a software update to financial systems, emphasizing its utility in facilitating speedy transactions.
- Esteban shares personal experiences of sending money to family in Colombia, illustrating the practical advantages of crypto.
- Current Challenges:
- The stigma attached to cryptocurrency due to its association with wealth speculation and volatility was addressed.
- They highlighted how Coinbase aims to demystify crypto through relatable messaging and branding.
Creative Approaches to Advertising
- Innovative Campaign Concepts:
- The duo emphasizes taking risks in creative campaigns and exploring unconventional narratives that resonate with everyday experiences, such as ordering pizza.
- The Role of Simplicity:
- They stress the importance of simplicity in messaging and how it often leads to more effective advertising.
Cultural Commentary
- Mark Zuckerberg’s Image Evolution:
- The hosts and guests share humorous takes on Zuckerberg’s attempts to reshape his public persona through fitness and fashion.
- They reflect on how perceived authenticity can influence a brand's image.
Key Takeaways
- Power of Partnership:
- A successful creative partnership can stem from shared experiences and mutual support, enhancing overall output.
- Embrace Change:
- Transitioning to new environments can unlock new creative potentials and inspire fresh ideas.
- Simplicity in Messaging:
- Clear and relatable messaging is essential in contemporary advertising, especially within the complex world of cryptocurrency.
- Cultural Relevance:
- Understanding cultural nuances and trends can significantly enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
Conclusion The episode encapsulates the journey of two innovative creatives navigating the dynamic landscape of branding and cryptocurrency, offering insights that resonate with both industry professionals and casual listeners. Their experiences at Apple and current roles at Coinbase illustrate the ongoing evolution of advertising and the importance of authenticity in creative endeavors.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Are there ever any questions like, why is this guy working on his website? You know, maybe he's trying to like, you know, find a new partner. I feel like we talk too much every single day. Who's more likely to get jealous? I don't know. I feel like I get jealous all the time. I feel like that's part of what drives me. That's part of a relationship. You guys are... It's healthy to get jealous of each other. I think there's a difference between the jealous that fuels you and the jealousy that ruins you.
0:28Three, two, one. Kevin. what's up dude i'm getting fucking slaughtered by the sun spring sun is brutal in the office it's gonna be great evening should we do the thing where you and i talk for a really long time and make our guests sit here and just kind of i was kind of hoping you'd bring up a west side gun type beat oh god i think we got somebody in here to freestyle honestly that would be ideal if i just hear watch i don't want to oh yeah yeah yeah sorry jordan i don't know if you know about this but we have a sort of freestyle rap section oh nice yeah yeah please make him rap center in the afternoon uh we have two guests in the house which is a very rare occurrence for us but it's an amazing amazing event two amazing people two friends uh an art director and a copywriter duo uh we'll start with jordan jordan porries is a multi-disciplinary creative based in new york city jordan has written directed films designed album covers animated music videos voice acted commercials and developed launch campaigns for some of the world's most iconic products.
1:26That's good, Jordan. Jordan has been internationally recognized for his craft, having won Apple's very first film, Grand Prix, at Cannes, as well as several Cannes lines, D &D pencils, and all sorts of other awards. His work has been featured at Ad Age, Ad Week, Apple Music, Bloomberg, Complex, Hypebeast, Paper Magazine, Pigeons and Planes, and is a part of the MoMA Permanent Collection. Wait, you're a part of the MoMA Permanent? Our work is. You guys. Yes, our work is part of the MoMo Permit Collection. I am still working on that for myself. I might not get there. What piece is a part of the permanent collection?
1:58There's like a advertising kind of archive. Like, don't get too excited. It's not that good. When you Google that phrase. Yeah, it sounds great. It sounds better. When you Google that phrase, the only thing that comes up is every art director and writer you've never heard of talking about the films that got in at the AICP Awards. Okay. I like that it comes right after Pigeons and Planes, which is like a very small rap blog. The blog era is back. I'm sure we'll get into that. Yeah, of course. We'll have to talk about the blog era. Who could forget not rights? Esteban Cardona Jimenez Duque Sanchez.
2:31Good job, good job. Is that all the names? Yeah. But he goes by Esteban Cardona Jimenez for short. Yeah. I absolutely crush that. He's an associate creative director at Coinbase. Actually, all this is in all caps, so you need to know that I'm saying it with my full chest. Previously, I was at Apple for five plus years. Also, I love that it's in first person. I am. I am Esteban Cardona Jimenez Duque Sanchez. You never know. Yeah. I didn't write that. No, it's true. One of my favorite parts of being a creative is having to write the third person bio. Esteban says, fuck that. I don't like that. Graduated from the Art Center College of Design, based in Brooklyn.
3:12I don't like raisins. I don't like raisins. What's up with raisins? I don't know like texture taste I don't know I'm with you yeah gross they're for old people they have nothing going for them yeah interesting hot take coming out hot Esteban that's all I have honestly I like do you like grapes I'm starting to like them okay there's there's this like cotton candy grapes that I was like it's very American yeah we gotta make things like sweet fruit extra sweeter so I'm getting there and no seeds. So I love it. It's probably not even grapes at that point. Sometimes GMOs get a bad rap, but it's just like customization.
3:53Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. GMOs do get a bad rap. So you guys both work at Coinbase. Creative directors. What's the title? Sorry. It's not in my notes, Kevin. What are your titles? Sorry. Do you have titles? Associate creative directors. Okay, sorry. I gave you guys a promotion. Yeah, thank you for that. I'll take it. Jordan Esteban are two of the most creative and amazing, talented people that I've ever met and I've ever worked with. We first met many years ago, Esteban, and you were just a little Esteban. And you were a precocious kid, but a creative one. And what age was that? When did I meet you?
4:30That was a long time ago. That was like almost 10 years ago. Yeah, I was going to say 2014. Yeah, that was a while ago. So were you living in America at that time? I was in college. Okay. That whole journey, and you helped me stay in this country, so thank you for that. Shout out to me. Yeah, shout out to Alex who wrote a letter for immigration to help me stay, even though he didn't know me. That's right. I was in college. My sister won an award for the Dightline, and that was the conference in Chicago that year. Yep. So I was like, I'd have nothing to do. I'll go with you to Chicago at school.
5:09And I watched your talk. Yep. and I was like and I never do this because I literally don't like to talk to people but I'm here we have that in common but I was like that was sick I'm gonna go say hello ah thank you and then we just kept talking and then I realized you were a big deal and I was like damn thank god I didn't google him before I went to talk to him my talk was only about Kanye West and creative confidence and so I take all of everything I said back yeah I was avoiding saying I was avoiding saying why I was like, oh, that's cool. Let me go say something. Yeah, whatever happened to that guy?
5:45Yeah, no, we don't talk about him. But I don't know. Vultures do. I mean, he posted a fire meme the whole day. Oh my God. He's kind of coming back. But for the sake of this podcast, we'll avoid him. I guess so you two met in a really interesting way. Can we talk about sort of the Young Apples program or what is it called? It's called The Orchard. The Orchard. Sorry, I got it wrong. Yeah, it's a real thing. Yeah. So fast forward a couple of years, Esteban, you go to work for Apple and you get into some, what's it? We met interviewing. Okay. So can we tell that story? When you guys are just little seedlings?
6:22Just little seedlings. Just little seedlings. They had this really interesting thing. I mean, I feel like something, the struggle that anyone in our industry has as you scale, right? I feel like oftentimes you start bringing in senior people. If you're like a high up person jumping into a place, right? especially in-house. You bring in all the senior people under you to kind of fill out these things and you slowly, you build down oftentimes, not up. And the company had found itself at that point with a glut of that incredible senior talent and no kind of back bench of no farm system. There were no young people coming in.
6:54Farm system. Yeah. And so - They traded all the picks. Yeah. They had no one coming in. Salary cap's still way up there. And so they had this program called the orchard that pops up every once in a while that I recommend to any young listener. Is it still around? Yeah, every year. Every year. Okay. And so it's kind of like the G League, you know, kind of like the sort of like the minor leagues of Apple. And so they're just developing young talent, right? Is that kind of the... How many people get into the program? When we started, it was only 10. We were the second class ever. And then I think has grown to like 25.
7:31Are there reunions? Do you guys like all get together? No. No Orchard family reunion. We used to each other around the way. We made some long friends. Our friend Miles just joined us at Coinbase, and we met him through his partner we met in the Orchard. So you guys meet each other. What was the first impressions of each other? Sneakers. Sneakers. We were interviewing at the same time for the same gig, pretty much, and how Apple did it back then. They fly you in, and then you have to sit for eight hours in a room while people come in and interview you. But we were in the waiting room. Okay, I was going to ask.
8:09Like sitting outside, rehearsing your lines. Yeah, totally. And I was like, dude, cool sneakers. And then that was that, honestly. He had much cooler. I don't remember. What sneakers? Oh, I knew this question was going to come up. Yeah, yeah, of course. I don't remember. They were cream. You used to wear them all the time. like this like Sokuni I think they were oh yes those became my junk shoes my whatever whatever shoes yeah nice little sis there yeah these two both very fashionable and how long before you guys started like officially working as Jordan and Esteban do you ever go by Esteban and Jordan or like how did you guys do you fight about that or did you was there a cautious decision about whose name goes first on the billings no I think naturally is easier to start with Jordan.
9:02Okay. And then Jannie. Jannie just was born? Yeah. So when did they put you together and say like you two, you guys both got cool sneakers. Cool sneaker crew. This cool sneaker house. No. So then there was like an email blast being like, congrats, all of you guys made it. It's like the fucking Hunger Games, honestly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I was like, oh my God, I know this name. From Steve Jobs, right? Steve Jobs. Yeah, Steve Jobs himself. It was Tim at that point. Tim emailed us and was like, congrats. But then we were like, I don't know anybody. You don't know anybody. We were like DMing on Instagram.
9:33We were like, you want to be roommates? Because Jordan is an art director too. You introduced him as a writer, but originally we were doing the same thing. Got it. And then we were like, let's be roommates. And then we were roommates. And then we had different partners like writers. We were paired with a writer. Got it. And you were paired with a writer too. Yeah. And every day we'd come home. and we were again competing against all these people that are way more senior, people twice our age, twice our experience and the only way to beat them was to outwork them which is also very unsustainable but that was the deal and we'd come home every day and make some food and talk about the day and then we'd sit down on our laptops to start doing more work and the copy would come in and it was not a match between us and our writers and after a certain amount of time we looked at each other and we're like dude should we just be partners?
10:23This is beautiful. and we went to our creative director at the time and we're like hey we're going to be partners and he was like oh one of you has to write like what's going to happen and i was like i guess i'll be the writer um it's just like they were like these goes against things you know what i mean like it's an art director and a writer team that's the way things are and he's like he can write like what do you mean like this is like when a rod came to the yankees yeah he has to go to third base yeah like derrick jeter was like i'm not giving up shortstop and yeah but we need to make it work and so uh someone had to play third base what'd you say did you tell him what would Steve Jobs do?
10:55So you became a writer at that point because you were a designer. I started freestyling. Yeah. Where did you, where did you grow up? So he can write. We'll get to the rap career. Don't worry. We'll get to Don. Put me on black. Don is dropping soon enough. So yeah. Don is? Is that the album? Don is. Don is. Dropping. Okay. Jordan, where'd you grow up? I grew up in Potomac, Maryland. Okay. And how did you get into like design? How did you start your career? Wow. Well, my mom is from near your neck of the woods in Dix Hills. Oh, shit. Long Island. Stand up. And so classic Long Island, going to put you on blast.
11:32My parents were like an accountant and a salesman. And they were like, you're not going to film school. You're not doing art. None of that. Which, if you're listening, definitely just don't do any of that. And no, I was doing album covers and music videos for me and my friends and our rapping in middle school and high school. I got it. And I would get grounded every single time you put out another project. But it didn't work. I go to college. I'm doing more of that. And I was always like, a lot of kids come up these days. They're doing video. They're doing editing. They're in Photoshop, Illustrator.
12:02They don't really know what it is. And I figured that art direction and advertising is kind of that multidisciplinary slot. I love this. You got into being a designer and being an art director through rap. And then I became like a full-on writer because, again, it's just rapping. It just doesn't have to rhyme. Dude. There it is. That's like a - I like it when it rhymes, though. cool wasn't little dicky like an advertising yeah he was a writer like that he worked at like could be yeah yeah that's amazing yeah he i heard him talk about this once he was like he like wrapped a report for like doritos or something in his agency and they're like that was really good like we want to make you a copywriter and then he's like in his show yeah like there's that episode where he actually oh that's right he reenacts that scene pretty much pretty much jordan wow he hates that so say it again anytime you're the little dicky my music is very like west side gun rock that's right so let's talk about the rap because so when so we met uh fast forward a couple years uh esteban and you guys are skyrocketing apple uh what was your first big like breakthrough project like what were you working on at the orchard and then like when did you guys have like a sort of a breakthrough i don't know we're still looking for a breakthrough but uh in the orchard i think we were like we were just so hungry like i think just now we've learned to just like slow down a bit and just enjoy the ride because it was just like we gotta fucking overwork and just like go go hustle grind yes which is like so toxic honestly and like it just depleted both of us to the point where it's like what are we doing this is not even fun anymore uh but in the orchard we we proactively came up with this thing for apple pay okay kind of put us on the map in a way like because it became a thing that it was not like a brief there was no money for it they were like this is kind of interesting let's see where this goes the campaign was called text me the money and it was all chat bubbles of people texting each other like oh the groceries blah blah funny conversation let me text you the money and here's a black chat bubble apple pay chat bubble and then since then they just kind of gave us bigger briefs i think launching apple card was the big one that was the one where a lot of people working on it but no one thought it was very cool because it's a credit card and there's iphones coming and um and getting to do that and it's so funny it was one of those things it's not very sexy it's not very it's a credit card right somebody will do stuff like that but figuring out the puzzle of it of how do we make this interesting what is interesting why should people think about money when they don't want to and things like that.
14:36I think that taught us that all our favorite projects we've ever done are related to money. I just realized that. Yeah, the through line is to crypto. Absolutely not. We're killing crypto. You guys are really into tech and money. That's what you guys are about. I think we're really into really boring things. Yeah. Really complicated things. Or honestly, I think what we learned there was let's go where nobody's looking. I think everybody was trying to get the iPhone brief and we were like, you know what, it's not worth fighting against 20 other teams that are 10 times better than us. Give us the thing nobody wants, and then we can play there.
15:13This is a good teachable moment for in-house, because I experienced this as well. This is a real earnest design tip. If you work in-house, there are going to be the big, sexy projects that everyone wants to work on, and then everyone's going to care about and overmanage and micromanage. But then there's going to be projects that are a little bit under the radar, and like those are the ones that are the most fun to work on that was me and powerade because powerade like you know like coca-cola is not the like sexiest brand gatorade dominates the brand and so when i was working in house i got to work on powerade for a little bit and we start to do like really fun things we hired white and kennedy cool we did a bunch of cool things but i would always say the same thing it's like it's the brand that like people aren't paying attention to that much so you can kind of do more creative things and so it sounds like that's something that if you're working in-house maybe that's a good that's a good tip it's like find the things that people are kind of also like the big brands i feel like big brands they're just too big now i don't know and the big products between the big brands is like it gets to a point that is just repetition so like you're just coming in to play into like the formula and it's like i don't know there's not much it makes sense much can we talk about escape from the office how many years so you guys get hired at Apple.
16:28You're there full time. Woo. And then how long, you know, until escape from the office and like, what was that brief if there was one? The brief was we were on a team that didn't make the, like there was a team that owned the underdogs franchise of those four characters in the films they make. Okay. We were not on that team and the franchise and we, or whatever. They're making a lot of them. Everyone knows about the underdogs. What are the underdogs? Kevin, you didn't watch the video? I watched the video. Oh, those four people are the underdogs? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. They had the original film. There was a three-minute film with very little dialogue.
17:00That was them doing it. It was like the best montage ever. Then in work from home in COVID, they did that advertising famous, not real person famous ad about seven-minute film of them all doing this. It was the only commercial that came out during COVID because they made it all through the devices. It's long. It's a long spot. Yeah. That original one. And then you guys were like, we can make a longer one. Yeah. Well, we sat there and we were like, what do we want to do? We were on this treadmill of constant product drops, product drops. They were getting less and less interesting to us. And we were like, what do we want?
17:29Why are we at Apple? What do we want out of our lives? It was like, let's make a big thing. So we literally switched jobs to the team. We interviewed and got hired by the team that does that. We switched teams, yeah. And they already had an idea in pre-production and it died. And the next day we came to the creative directors. Esteban made a slide. The cover slide was a grave. And we were like, so sad, RIP. We heard what happened. And the next slide was like, and we have an idea for the next one. We were already working on the one for the next year. Like that was our whole thing. It's like, let's come to this team.
18:00They were already working on the one for this year, but like, let's just work on the one for next year and get ahead. And that one died. And we're like, okay, let's just fucking do this. Let's just present this, even though it was really bad and undercooked. And our CD then, she was like, yeah, this is not good, but there is a nugget of something interesting. Keep going and see what happens. and just so people at home like at a company like apple which we can't talk too much about the inner workings but like you guys were on different teams so you're saying like at some point you're like on the apple pay squad or you're on like working on credit card or you're working on the phone or you're working on in this case uh business business so you guys are kind of moving around story yeah and so you tell a how long is it eight and a half minutes yeah almost nine nine minute spot about escaping the office, four main characters kind of in COVID, right?
18:57It's like a, it's a story about COVID. I only saw the first two minutes. It's a story. It's too long. Good, good. Yeah, yeah. It's two years old. Don't blame you. They quit their job. They quit their job with their evil boss and started their own business using Apple products. And it started with, well, for me, the inspiration was a really horrible boss I had in my first job as a junior art director in Boston. And he was awful to me. And I know so many people who've had the same stories, right? Of like, there's good people and really bad bosses. And the idea for me - I've never had one, but - Of heroing someone who, screw what the film is about and the commercial of it all.
19:40Can we pay to have someone tell off their boss in a beautiful monologue and what comes out of that? It's got a pace to it too, that I think is really fascinating. and we'll talk about some of the new stuff you're doing at coinbase but i couldn't help but notice there's a similar pacing i think to some of the stuff that you guys do in terms of just like how fast it happens how quick dialogue comes and it um it's funny i see like the through line from escaping the office to some of the new crypto commercials that are funny people say that yeah like what what is it you got a style i mean it's it's i think it's a good thing yeah it's definitely a good thing yeah and so you make the spot you guys win grand prix at cam and so this is the highest award in the industry and this is like winning best picture at the oscars and uh jordan do you want to tell this story uh because i think it's one of the funniest things ever uh we were here by the way when that happened so we were working together and you guys uh got a call and you're like you gotta go to france you gotta go you gotta go to can and i was like damn this is sick these guys are going and then you guys win i mean i guess they probably knew you were going to win and so you go on stage you get announced and jordan beats esteban to the stage by 30 seconds i'm a speed walker i thought they're right behind me i don't know i feel that just like it speaks to us in a nutshell yeah yeah someone was really excited and someone was like i'll take my time and i well yeah i feel that that's that's it right yeah balance of crazy energy and then i'm like yep here we go yeah yeah yeah oh god i gotta get up and go no collect this award to go on stage so jordan could you tell the story of what happens in the 30 seconds when you get on stage oh man i gotta take my jacket off because it's a it's a great story so i went to boston university and there's not that many people i've gotten to know in advertising to boston university and one of them though was David Lubars of BBDO fame.
21:40I, oof. No one knows. No one knows. David Lubars, advertising legend. I know. Sorry. I got this autograph. Sorry. David Lubars. Whoa. Yeah. And so he's presenting this award and I'm like, oh my goodness. Sorry, David Lubars. Sorry. Everyone knows who you are. He's literally in the Great Hall of Fame at the One Club. Sorry. He's incredible. That's a Hall of Fame? Yeah. Yeah. I'm working towards it. Wow. I'm trying to put my resume together. Okay. Go. Well, not anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. I'm not. Cut that part, Kevin. Okay, cool. David Lubars, an absolute legend of the game from Boston University.
22:10Boston University. I get up on the stage. I'm first. I take the trophy from him. I shake his hand, and I lean in, and I want to tell him. Like, you know, like we went from the same, you know, we cut from a, there's a cloth here. So I tell him. No, what did you say? I said, I went to BU. And I shake his hand, and he doesn't give me the face I wanted. And I thought I said the wrong thing. Did I get the wrong guy? And he looks at me, and he says, I want to be you, too. and I just turn I face the audience and I'm just like fucking it that's when you knew you made it was that into the mic did he say that you can you see it uh because you do like the the the camera because it's filmed yeah it's like you know they announce the awards they they film you they film the crew or they try to find the crowd and they immediately pin onto Jordan because he's halfway to the stage and so i bet this is on capture it definitely is everybody can go check it out online what a polite thing to say yeah i want to be that you know i want to be you too david blue bars um a man to the game class a true reciprocator hall of famer a giver hall of famer that that rules yeah and so you guys come back and uh you know the glory here we we give you the champagne yeah you got us bottles of boob it was really nice you guys return we continue to work on our Apple project, which we won't talk about for fear of being blackballed from Apple again.
23:33We do an amazing campaign called Mac Does That. Tim Cook himself said, the best campaign I've ever seen, right? Right, guys? Yes. There was one text, I think, where I got where it was like, Tim likes it. I was like, that's fucking sick. That's sick. Honestly, that's true. That's super sick. And everything was going great. Everything was cool. I mean, it was a huge moment for the Mac. I don't know. With that. It's the first time they were telling stories. Yeah. If you haven't seen the campaign, these guys created it. I always say that. And then came to our little studio and said, let's make some magic together.
24:12And it was a great summer. Was that two summers ago? It was two summers ago. Which is crazy. Man. What was such a something we talk about all the time when we work with other creatives or other studios and whatnot is people, whether they are afraid of simplicity or not, Some people are afraid to bring almost nothing. And what made us want to work with you besides the fact that we knew who you were, but the thing that did it was... Wow. Yeah, right? Simplicity. Blank slides. So we're thinking nothing is there. But then there's a cursor. You put a cursor next to the Apple logo. Then words. I don't know.
24:49There was thinking. I mean, all of these things go. oh, we bring other potential design studios to be like, who is going to kill this one and make it really good. And we were getting worried because the two others in the running, we were like, oh, no, I don't know. I don't know if this is going to be. It seems like this is tough. And you guys came in, and I was like, thank God. And honestly, I was like, I know this person. Yeah, you've got to vouch for them. He's got this great studio. Then I was like, oh, God. I hope they don't fuck this up and make me look bad. Not maybe, but it's like an Apple or any other big place is like changing who you work with is a whole thing.
25:28Systems to get through, people get uncomfortable, money on the line. And it's like, if your first time trying it out is not great, it's really hard to kind of get another chance. No, that's totally fair. And I've been there on the in-house side where you're like, I'm vouching for these people. And it's like, they're going to kill it. You got to see. And then you're like, oh, God. Sweaty. Yeah, you're like, I hope they kill it. And no, thank you guys. You guys did. You did a great job. It was a really fun one. And I always say that we treated it like it was going to be a Super Bowl commercial, even though it was going on LinkedIn, you know, primarily.
26:00But it wound up kind of getting more airplay and getting more sort of media sort of placements because it didn't necessarily feel like an ad for a web ad or something. This is the part where the sun is just going to kill me. but no it was a really fun one and we want we you know we made a bunch of videos and then we translated them to so many languages and uh yeah i still see them they're everywhere i still get fed i walk past best buy and i see it across all the macbooks and i'm like oh my goodness yeah it still lives has a life of its own yeah it's out there and then you guys decided to bail oh yeah you guys make the decision um to to to leave apple after how many years were you guys there five and a half Five plus.
26:44Five plus. Did you not read the bio, Alex? Thank you, Kevin. Oh, sorry, man. Five plus years. And I think that's a pretty bold move, obviously, as most people dream of working on Apple. You had done it for a while. You were going from the orchard to the farm. We were full Apple at that point. You were a fully formed Apple. And we fell off. You fell off the tree. Yeah. I mean, it was tough. It took a while to make the decision. like I think my mom is still processing probably I think that was that was the hardest thing yeah yeah it's tough on the mothers who are very proud to say like my son works at Apple yeah I experienced that as well yeah now she says he works at Bitcoin but even when Colombia is like Apple is like wow of course now he's like Coinbase what is that like how do you even say that he's like oh god So you guys joined the Coinbase crew and sort of what was your kind of, yeah, just kind of what was your headspace, I guess, at that moment when kind of like going from Apple, obviously a much bigger company, I would imagine.
27:50I don't know how many people are at Coinbase, but I imagine it's a much smaller creative operation over there. We were the first creative team hired by our boss, Michael Tabtabai, who had just got brought in to build a whole, we had gone from an institution in advertising to a place that had run one commercial, the QR code. And that was it. That was fire. That was a great commercial. That's why we were like intrigued. Yeah. These guys take chances. Because that's almost nothing. They spent millions of dollars doing almost nothing. And it was hugely successful. We talked to a lot of different places.
28:20It was just like more of the same type of thing. Like we could do that. But it's like, it just feels like I'm not like too scared. I don't know. And then Jordan reached out on LinkedIn. It's a cold message. Wow. I like that. Cold message. You're like, hey. Well, every job we've ever gotten, this is something I got friends looking at jobs right now, and I'm always doing crazy. They look at the job listings, and they're such a victim to the job listings. And every job we've had either was from a message or a cold DM, or they had one role, a senior role, and they split it into two junior roles, which is what happened at Coinbase.
28:53It always goes down in the DMs. That's a good lesson, though. It goes down in the DMs. I think people need to know that. If you're just going to wait for that job to come to you, it's not going to happen. Especially the dream job. Like you can maybe sometimes land a job, but if you want a job that you're excited about doing and something that's going to really inspire you, like you're going to have to go out and track that thing down. Yeah. So that's a cool part of the story. Yeah. That Super Bowl commercial with the QR code just bouncing around. I remember watching the game and being like, I don't know who has the balls to do this, but whoever does is genius.
29:26And then at the very, very end, it was just like quick Coinbase logo, I think. Yeah. And it's just like, wow, that's courageous because those commercials cost a lot of money and they're not putting their brand on it. And it just was kind of like the Sopranos ending. You're just like, why is the screen black? It kind of gives you that same kind of jarring. Because it also had no sound or it had very minimal sound, if I remember. It was very lo-fi. Elevator music. It felt like the whole game and commercials, which are also loud, just kind of stopped. And you're like, okay, cool. Yeah, it totally cut through.
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29:57Yeah, we've been trying to chase it ever since. It's like, give me something like that QR code, the bouncing QR code. But yeah, that was like the North Star for us was we need to go somewhere where there's one tension. I feel like we're tension chasers. Tension. Some people chase attention. We chase the attention. Oh, bars. Bars. Bars. Boom. Yeah, because I feel like that's where the best word comes from. You got to be pushing against something, a challenger brand for a better, like a better word. just like somebody who's trying to get attention and like neither of us were crypto i was gonna ask how much did you know about crypto yeah what when did you join too because i feel like you guys kind of joined at a very interesting point in crypto in the in the saga we signed the offer letter get this thanksgiving is coming up and you leave your job at apple to go work for crypto and then literally two days later ftx goes down and coinbase was down for a day and there was a big question of what happened uh we got a note from our boss thank god who was like don't worry your jobs are safe like we're excited to have you everything's good um that was a rough thanksgiving but then we came out like a cannon again this company is is is fearless and it was like we're making we're going back on the airwaves we're getting our ceo out there and we got to work with chivo um so it's it was it was a it was hard tension it was hard yeah it was like what have we done there's there's still time to turn around we just put our two weeks in like we can still say like no way just kidding sleepless nights like yeah the stock price went so low i kept checking i was like this is this gonna go down like what what have we done people at apple like thought we were joking a lot of people didn't really and then we like were gone and they were like oh my god they weren't kidding yeah and the offer letter came in i was already planning to move to new york it might have been it for old jordan and esteban um uh because i was done with sf i went to move to New York, I was sitting in my vacant apartment.
31:56My new lease had been signed. The movers had already come and taken my things away. And I'm sitting there and I get the job offer in that night. And then I go to the airport. So it really all came down to the wire. And they're like, one Bitcoin each. Do you guys get paid in real money or do you guys get paid in crypto? What do you mean real money? What is real money? We get paid in the dollar and we're building the future. That's a very disrespectful question. Sorry, I'm disrespectful about the Bitcoin offer too. Sorry, three Bitcoins each. It's not one Bitcoin offer. Honestly, you can choose to get paid on crypto if you want.
32:30Really? Yeah. That's something that's possible. Did you make that decision or no? You said, we'll take it. Not yet. Still working out the kinks. But you can choose. So say there were someone out there listening and they're just like, this Bitcoin thing, this cryptocurrency, I still don't fully get it. You know, say there was someone out there. How do you guys explain it? layman's terms to dummies like just say someone like me out there that's like I got Bitcoin, I got my wallet and I put away my $400 in 2017. How do you sell it? Sell us on the future of crypto. I think the biggest flaw is the name cryptocurrency because that just minimizes it and the head goes immediately to very simplistically just money.
33:23But a way to understanding is a software update to financial rails. Bitcoin is just an expression of data, which is the first one, but then there's just different... It's the software update. And I'll tell you, I'll bring it down to earth. Esteban sends money to his parents in Colombia quite often. And you can send a WhatsApp in a blink of an eye. and why does it still take three to five business days to get money there and that's when you're like oh like things like venmo or like these little domestic masks it's still like they're settling it on the back end they're fronting you money right now crypto is just money that moves like a dm um and for real yeah no i think that's how it works dude i think it's funny because i remember when you guys first took jobs and then a commercial came out that you guys i don't believe were a part of but maybe it was right before like it was like yeah right before you joined yeah and i think that's probably the best explanation of crypto for someone that's like you know i always think like how does this relate to people like how do people understand it and it's just like it's a better way to send money and spend money that doesn't require you to wait three to five days or sort of like get killed with a whole bunch of fees and you know all the it corrects a lot of the things that are sort of wrong about our current currency that's been around for a long time yeah I think it's a really smart way to try to get people to understand.
34:46It's like, you don't need to know how to blockchain works. Yeah. It's just the same with the internet. You don't know what is happening, but you're like using the internet. We'll get there. But like one thing we learned, the cool thing about this is that this personally like learned so much of like, I'm like, this is, there's no way I would have gotten this deep if I wasn't working here. That is like cool to just keep learning kind of random things. but just the code running the financial global financial system is from 1959 which i'm like how how and why it's like when you go to the airport and you're in this lovely new terminal la guardia right now everything's oh i feel like i'm in the jetsons yeah and then good job you get you lean over the counter and you see what's on the screen yeah and it it is dos it is black it is green and black technology um people don't realize that money is something that needs an update.
35:40And I think, again, that's that tension. It's like, oh, we're not just selling you a new tech product you have 15 other versions of. We're selling you a completely new paradigm, which sounds very crypto to say. No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want to call you guys crypto boys, but you guys are the boys of crypto. But I agree with you. I'll take it one step further. It's like, I don't know how a microwave works. You know what I mean? But I know that it heats up my food fast. And so it's like, I like that part of it. And I like that I can reheat something and eat it quickly. So it's like, you can just send people money and they get it and you don't have to sort of go through the sort of banking system, which I think we all know, like, everyone has banking, like apps and different, they're all the same.
36:24And they're all pretty weirdly strange. Like they have things that we just take, you know, we just, you know, sort of have to deal with, whether it's like fees, or just like, random things where you're like, it will be there in three to five days, or, you know, pay someone and you're like it's it's in a wire and it's in this sort of ether and yeah you'll get it soon and it's but it and they charge you and so it's like all these things that are just like actually just human pain points of of money that don't have to be there adobe felt like this unmovable rock and then figma happened yeah these things happen all the time i'm not i mean it is complicated still i'm not gonna lie there's a lot of crazy things happening not gonna lie just like early days of the internet like just people which are using something for like abusing shit like you know what i mean and the system whatever but i think there's a lot of good uh and like just i don't know pain points that i've experienced personally oh how my family is still in colombia like countries where uh the currencies are not super strong compared to like the dollar forever Like inflation here is bad, but like in Argentina is like 80%.
37:35I don't know. Colombia is like double digits, like 30%. You go to the store every day, the prices are different. It's crazy. So like you can save now in like digital dollars, which is a very common thing down there, which is like your money is growing. It's like it's access to like. You're able to get the same 5 % interest rate you can get in America because the dollar is accessible because it's digital. And that's something that is just not possible without crypto. Bars. In terms of, you know, like that bad rap of like Bitcoin, crypto kind of like sort of people trying to get rich, I think is probably the biggest problem that it's like it's got that sort of reputation of like I'm trying to like it turns into stocks and gambling and sort of just like it's one step away from sort of like, you know, DraftKings.
38:29which it's not no it's i was i was reading that great book by uh the founder of frog design about um uh david lubars david lubars about uh uh his early work with steve jobs in like the pre next before johnny ive like back when it was like all this stuff is everything the computers were complicated and steve was like i have a vision but i can't get there and all this stuff reminds me of like how in early computer days the people developing the technology were so enthralled by the technology that they were really missed the point of like yeah but it's really scary and really expensive and really difficult like what's the how do you get people on this and coinbase feels like the one right now in the industry that is focused on like how can we make people almost forget the technology and just build the easy experience that you don't even think about it can we talk about some of the things you guys are doing currently and with like mba promos you guys Is it like all-star activations?
39:21You guys have a new commercial. Can you talk about some of the sort of things you're doing? I mean, playoffs happening right now. Like lots of Coinbase commercials you're going to see there. And it's, again, I think our jobs coming in as outsiders is like, how do we tell this story in terms that people would first care about and to like understand something. So nobody wants to talk about money. Nobody wants to talk about crypto. And no one likes ads. We hate watching ads on the TV. But people like pizza. Yeah. Damn right. So lean there. That's our genius idea. At the campaign. I think I want to slice the pie.
39:58Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a metaphor for money. But I think, I just watch a spot. So it starts out with someone like orders pizza, but then it gets sliced in the sort of middle, which is that great thing that people expose on TikTok where people are taking the middle out of a pizza before you even get it, which is like straight to hell. Or prison, really, actually, is what it should be. and then people take like little bites out of it and people are constantly like I think it's the idea of like if money if anything else worked like money like we wouldn't be okay with it and it's just like picturing the process of ordering a pizza and it going through like a very outdated complicated system like money does while everybody's taking a bite of your money and then you get a pizza full of bites like you really want that yeah it's a really great spot and it does have a little bit of that energy of escape from the office and some of that fast paid stuff and it's because Jordan talks so fast right That's what the general sort of vibe is.
40:49Can I slow down, dude? Yeah, we get really bored. He likes to cram a lot of words into it in a very short amount of time. That's why all of our spots are 15 seconds, but like, you know, sort of multiple, multiple sort of paragraphs. For all this shit I talk about, people like Lil Dicky, it is just like white guy raps fast. You know what I mean? All right, let's go to rapping. So Don Barron is your rap alter ego. And Jordan, you know, when I met you, you know uh i immediately uh i liked you i immediately was like this you know this is someone i want to spend time with he's very low creative smart uh sort of just has a catch just has a way about him that is like you know you could sell me anything and the way you know you get you're passionate and i love that so much and so we're working together for a while and then it comes out that you have a rap alter ego named don baron and my first thought was oh no I really don't want to listen to this.
41:47That's how everyone says that. I really, really don't want this because it's going to change everything in my - Well, and the funny thing is you didn't say that to me. No, I didn't. So how could you? I couldn't say that to you. So I fired up the old YouTubes and I put on a Don Baron music video. And you can spit, man. You're a good rapper and you bring your sort of art director kind of sensibilities and it's about money. as well. A lot of your raps are about the system, and it's got a New York energy. So talk about sort of like your side project of Don Baron for a second. Wow. Well, look, the two of us are very compelled.
42:25This is your platform, you know? Jay-Z, Drake. Yeah, that's why you came on to promote your new album. That's what I thought. Fellas, it took too long to get here. I got three Rock Nation people just at the camera that were telling me what to say. Your agent's here, yeah. Now, the two of us are very compelled by systems. I feel like I rebuilt my whole concept of what an art director is working with Esteban and kind of understanding what makes something good versus what makes something a thing. And for years, as a guy who rapped but didn't really write, it's like an artist concept. It's like a brand of like, who am I?
42:58What is the artist project? What is this? And it took a long time to figure out how to square, honestly, my Bernie Sanders voting record with gold chains and rapping about rolls royces and yet i had you know and it finally clicked with me that like maybe the character is the villain i am the enemy yeah and anti-hero it felt like a great release and um so i have a new song coming out in a couple months it's called the necessary cost of doing business damn right this rules and it's all about i i mean god seychelles types dudes you know yeah no it's really good and so i was like honestly the feeling when i watch a video and listen to I was like, it was relief.
43:37I was like, oh, God, thank God. This is actually good. And you have sort of a rapper voice in a way. You kind of have a slightly different sort of sounding tone to your voice. And it's legitimately good. And I know you're a big hip-hop fan. Streaming in all of the platforms right now. Yeah, streaming. That's bottom line. Yeah. Listen to the discretion. What's your side project? Yeah. No side projects. Nice. DJ career coming up. He's got two cats. Yeah. two cats they're pretty cute i looked at them thank you that's the kind of research sisters yeah yeah we check out your cats yeah they're the best yeah but it's a it's it's an amazing kind of thing and like i said you guys both have like really good websites check them out and uh i feel like you guys kind of like i was looking at both of them as one yours is is pretty new and it's uh it's it's got a lot of uh it's got a lot to it and it's really cool it's really well done thank you yeah you can like click and drag everything it's very interactive it's very interesting yeah it's it's it's sick so um coinbase nba why nba just out of curiosity just kind of feel like that's kind of the right audience that you guys are trying to get or is that do you have any sort of feelings of like why the nba is kind of basketball just makes sense for uh coinbase we inherited the whole team we started formed right again quite suit just before we got there and they inherited this deal that was signed uh during like the peak of the crypto bull run It's funny how these things go.
45:03And at first it was like this liability coming out of this crypto crash. Oh my goodness. Why are we on a world stage? Maybe we shouldn't be. And then we realized, oh wait, no, this is our ticket to make sure every other quarter we have a big campaign we have to make. And go figure, right? A year and a half later, now it's the perfect thing for us. Yeah. They even sponsor some of the back sort of safety boards or whatever the hell they call those things. Yeah. You guys are on the court. Yeah. And on the court. I mean, we're like Knicks partners. I think he's like NBA official crypto partner and then Knicks and Bulls.
45:37Oh, cool. Listen, the powers that be want to put crypto in court. We put crypto on the court. Like for All Star? Of course. Yeah. Adam Silver is a big crypto guy, right? That's what I've read. A lot of NBA players. Kevin Durant had a strong affiliation with Coinbase in the early days. I think it's just mainstream. like we just want it to be where people are at and just like be normal crypto is as normal as wifi be normal don't make it weird yeah don't make it weird moonshot was the thing you guys did at the all-star game talk to me about that sort of concept it's all trying to infuse some sort of benefit and it just came out from speed and just like how can we make people feel that without like preaching and the whole idea was just like can you score as far as crypto and we partnered with an amazing like spatial studio design studio they're called hovercraft they do all of the work for like nike and jordan all of those stores well they had told us we have a 40 by 40 foot space at like the uh nba they call it the crossover which is like the convention that happens during the day during the whole weekend because people go to all-star weekend they have nothing to do outside of the night events yeah um and so that's what it is and every brand shows up they do big things jordan has this big basketball court and state farm had the state farm zone and like whatever and so yeah we were like how do we a have fun and not just be a lame brand and then b still make it make sense enough to do with crypto and so this idea of um of scoring as fast as crypto and uh this concept of of space and going out of this world and like moon and all that language kind of came together in this great kind of quasi video game and we did a lot of like nft type on chain stuff without people realizing they were doing it like we're just trying to enable like you just use crypto like and it wasn't scary or hard like hundreds of people minted nfts to unlock their merch and they had no idea that it was nfts and i thought that was pretty cool before we get you guys out here because it's been great and uh we got to talk about one of the most pressing issues of this year and this time.
47:55And we almost talked about it last year or last week. Last year. Wow. We actually have been talking about it since last year. Yeah. So and that is Mark Zuckerberg. Mark Zuckerberg is someone that we this show is used to be our avatar on Instagram. That's right. We just he gets into wild and crazy things like he's constantly doing side quests. He's constantly like out here being Zuck. Yeah. He's just sucking it up all over the place. And so we, we find it endlessly funny. We always kind of make fun of him. Remember he put like all the sort of sunscreen on his nose. He's just being safe. He's just being Zuck out there.
48:35And, uh, I think the latest Zuck incarnation is possibly my most, uh, intriguing to me, which is he's known as a guy that dresses in a uniform. He only wears sort of sort of gray sweatshirts and blue shirts. And most recently, he's been looking buff because he's been doing UFC training, and he also seems to have gotten a stylist. Yeah, UCLA jacket. Yeah. More than a stylist. Yeah, he's got... You think he's got a squad? I think it's one of the most excellent CEO... Okay, founders are in, right? Yes. Founders are in. we're seeing all these founder-driven companies with strong or strong CEO persona leaders.
49:23And that is often driving, like the whole stock market is being propped up by like seven stocks in those companies, maybe aside from Apple, has a very strong public personality at the top. And with Zuck, right, he was losing on a lot of fronts. The meta thing did not work. The headset thing, it was just not as great as the Vision Pro. And the AI thing, he didn't get the jump on but what he did get the jump on is becoming the cool guy fits ceo pr 101 it was amazing and they've been trying to make him likable for so long they're like look at him normal yeah he just just be normal he's doing little selfie videos holding the lavalier mic yeah he's on the couch yeah i think muscles helped like 100 yeah yeah working out and yeah yeah because it's like he was remember he was barbecuing and he was like i'm normal i eat meat and we're just like okay dude like yeah smoking meats like it just it just wasn't clicking but little chain big shirt cool guy era suck i think this is working i'm with you jordan like i think this is the path it's just like stylist get him some oversized shirts get him some cool looking pants get him a cool jacket i also feel like he lay low for a bit and then elon came in and he's insane and then you just have a villain and then all of a sudden he can come out being like you see i wasn't that bad honestly threads no one talks about it but like threads which no one uses anymore too threads did it when threads came out oh he was the normal guy yeah for like three weeks we were all threading we were threadheads remember kevin yeah yeah you were yeah big time and i haven't even looked at it since but uh no you're right it's it's partly because he's like, you know, the bar's so low that like Bezos and Musk are like, those guys just are going to do weird and terrible things that no one can relate to.
51:16And just they're going to wear cowboy hats and like try to get to the moon. The worst. Zuck wearing a Sherling coat and going to a UFC fight. We're like, that's our guy. Yeah. Like, and the other thing, which maybe I can't tell how much of this is being yourself versus being this crafted image they come up. But it gives this vibe of he's finally like, yeah, I got these macadamia trees for my cows. Like these are, I'm not trying to fit into other people's interests. These are my interests. Yeah. And I'm really, really rich. That honestly, but like you can, his whole, your whole posture changes when you start.
51:47He's like, no, it's scared anymore or something. Yeah. He's like, he can blink now. And I'll say this is maybe we were talking about our breakthrough way back then is, is when we decided to, to, to make the work that feels like us versus feels like what our creative director wants. that changed everything. And I think, I think Mark took that lesson from us. That's the best advice though for creatives is like do the stuff that you actually want to do and do stuff that you would be excited by. Because people get excited around it. It'll be better than anything else you do and like people will realize you have a style you didn't even know you had.
52:17That's right. But I think the beard too, like he didn't even come up with that beard. Someone gave that beard to him and like people are saying he looks hot. People are saying they suck Fox. That's what they're saying. He looks good. I believe it. Yeah. But then he replied on Instagram stories. He just posted like a Gillette, like a razor. Yeah. Answering to that meme. He's like, his team is so good. Yeah. He's becoming self-aware. I wonder if someone on the team who wanted him to do that. He's getting so good if they just snuck that on the internet to try and sell that. I have a sneaking suspicion that he is not able to grow a beard.
52:52I can relate. I don't think I can. There's nothing wrong with it. I wish he could. He'd look great. He would look better, clearly. It's been proven. I'm sneaking Rick Ross into the conversation. Rick Ross dropped last night the music video to his diss track against Drake, Champagne Moments. And you get a lot of very crispy shots of his face. And he's using the treatments. That is not real beard. Yeah, that beard is fucking manicured. That beard is printed on his face. And I swear Zuck could do the same thing. That's an AI beard. Zuck could definitely buy the best beard ever. He could buy a good beard.
53:24Yeah, I wanted to be a fly on the wall where someone was like, okay, Zuck, we got a way to rehab your image. I know you've been kind of struggling and this, and we're thinking, Sherling jacket, little chain, and just grow out the hair a little bit. And he's like, let's do it. And it's honestly, fits. Get fits off, and people will respect you. You guys are fitsmen and also tech guys. So I think this is the way. Is the new swaggy tech guy? Is that a thing? Because I have heard that people in Silicon Valley now are like getting in on the sort of like they're all training. It's trying to be both like, you know, sort of smart, successful, rich and also buff.
54:05So Zuck is trendsetting. Coming on here was a devastating move for my dating life. This is dangerous. But it's thrilling. I can't wait to see what he does next. Honestly, like I don't know like where it goes from here. But I think it's working for him. Make a product, buddy. I don't know. I got a related question. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not going to call you guys tech guys. I don't think you guys are tech guys. Thank you. Tech bros, tech bros. Oh, no. No, no, no. You guys have been around the tech bros and SF, and I've heard the culture there is a little bit washed. Okay. My question is that, do you think the recent downfall of Allbirds is due to the recent tech layoffs that have been going on throughout the industry?
54:45This is a hard-hitting question. Do you think they correlate? I think the rise of Allbirds was not because they had a huge customer base, but because their customer base was the VCs. All the VCs invested because they were like, I love these shoes. And I think that's a big lesson in tech is are you pleasing regular, normal people or are you pleasing the powerful people in your circle? So a lot of Allbirds at Apple? Yeah. I don't remember. I think they just went down when Zuck also got hot and he's like, okay, looking good is important. where they're like, dishes are actually ugly. You can be comfortable and look good at the same time.
55:19You don't have to just wear pajamas outside. Yeah. Kevin, I just got to the end of your document. The best question it says, are we feeling bullish on Bored Apes? Are we? I don't know. I feel like they're poised to make a comeback. You buy them low, so on, right? Should we hold on our Bored Apes? No comment. How are we feeling about NFTs? Is that part of the crypto sort of like, you know, we got to try to distance ourselves? I think I'm bullish. I think it's it's it comes back to its first thing was like yeah jpegs or whatever but now it's like it's the thing behind it like I think they're gonna come back into like give you access to things like your rewards in your stores are gonna be there your tickets your concert is gonna be technically an nft your boarding pass etc like yeah I feel like it's just it's gonna come back in a different shape or form it's we're right on the verge of someone building a great if you're an artist especially like a burgeoning indie artist and and uh suppose you want to really identify who your super fans are the people who are first in line to buy every ticket or buying one of each of your there's no way to track that information all this is is nft is just putting an object and information together um it's the ultimate way to manage a fan base and the fans again people like us we shouldn't be saying the phrase nft it should just be how travis is giving me the special insider code to get the merch before the general public do because i'm a super fan that That was always the coolest part about it.
56:40Travis Scott. No, it was always about sort of the fan club part or the community part. And Liquid Death does this really well. They have like a sort of NFT-like community. Death hits. They get like insider-inclusive deals and stuff like that. Like that part was always cool. For me, the Bored Ape part was always the part that was like, this part feels really not cool. And I'm looking at the cheapest Ape you can get right now is$44 ,000. I'm in. So, Kevin, you and I split it. I mean, I do think it is good that we are past the point in the crypto wave that all the pumping up shit's done. All the posers are kind of gone.
57:15It's kind of real now. There's actually practical uses for this technology. That's good to shine a light on instead of fucking bored apes and all that shit. Yeah, I think that's what's hard. It's just like that's the baggage that comes with those two words, crypto and NFTs. That's tension. You guys are tension seekers. I tell people at work that, again, if I can be on a date with someone and say I work in crypto and it's not a red flag, that's how we know we do our job. That's progress. You ever just say, I work in finance? Sometimes it's even worse. Oh. I work in digital finance. I say, I'm unemployed.
57:56What do you have going on? The only thing worse you could say is, I'm a podcaster. Yeah. Should that be the show? Wow. Thank you guys so much for coming in. you're amazing such fans of both of you guys and long overdue time flu but thank you guys do you want to plug something? do you want to say like watch our videos coinbase.com new album coming soon if you're in New York City and you're listening to this we're doing something in Washington Square on Bitcoin Pizza Day and I'm not going to say another word about it but I know two things like on May 22nd yeah so this will be out before then May 22nd and then June 1st Coinbase Pizza Month in New York also ordering pizza ordering pizza on Slice on the Slice app just get the Slice app it's the New York's best pizza delivery app and that's all we'll say it's the pizza cafe you might win something yeah there's prizes that's all you guys are you guys figured this out you're like how do we get people to care about crypto you're like we're trying pizza pizza I mean listen it's undeniable but no seriously thank you guys for coming on appreciate you we got in the rap beef uh drake kendrick ai snoop dog you know what are we uh who do we got i think i think in i think in a few years we're gonna look at drake in a very different way than we do now and i think he's had it coming for a very long time whoa don baron coming soon
59:26investment advisors have different agendas have money in real estate in stock Who got hurt? Everybody got hurt. Everybody won. Who invested in anything. Today, big time damage control for Latrell Sprewell.
59:54What do you like about gambling? Well, winning. People talk about you just like the action. No, I like the money, actually. Former NFL superstar has filed for bankruptcy. I lost$20 million to a corrupt financial advisor. Pull the lever and the price move. You better put yourself inside the right room. Caviar, cream cheese, non-grain toast. My lawyers got your lawyers on ropes. I got the marble in the foyer plus a bit on a boat. Gotta swim till you sink or you float. A little bit of mink on my shoulder. You look at it and you blink, and you're older Trenches get dug for my soldiers Linens on sofas, champagne flutes and roadsters No litigation for the month of October Black Cadillac with the chauffeur Racks in the back behind the frozen floor Listen when I'm coaching you, decisions being made Overswayed, unapproachable Why you think you're wearing the suits?
1:00:50Bank statements don't account for IOUs I was involved in a lot of real estate projects The banks went really hard after the money Seven or eight banks that we had loans with And it just went bad My name is on the back Or the bottom of the poster Rock the cloak, all the boat, off the coast Check the clock, hit the spliff, eat the roast on the sofa Mahogany imported from my goal here Modern mid-century, Subaru legacy I heard a rumor that your droolah lacks integrity Long money ain't always longevity There was debt run up by a family member One line of emails, associates filling in the details, family fed, the trust free will.
1:01:31$75 ,000 loan, yes, it's$575 ,000. $500 ,000 MSL. One line of emails, associates filling in the details, family fed, the trust free will. Did we tell you what the interest rate was on the loan? It was 85%. 85%. 85%, yeah. One line of emails, associates filling in the details, family fed, the trust free will.
1:01:59How many times do you think you've lost a million dollars in a single day? At least ten. At least ten.
1:02:17It's the beginning of a financial nightmare.
1:02:23Thank you.
From the publisher
This week we welcome Jordan Pories and Esteban Cardona Jiménez to the show! Jordan and Esteban are Associate Creative Directors at Coinbase and previously spent 5+ years at Apple where they won Apple's very first Film Grand Prix at Cannes, as well as several Cannes Lions, D&AD Pencils, and AICP Awards. The two are extremely talented creatives who have grown together since pairing themselves in Apples first Orchard residency program. They are still going strong after all of these years! Listen to learn the secrets of a fruitful creative partnership, get the low down on crypto, hear Jordan's BARS, and more!
