E63: Vova Sadkov: A Crypto Founder Blueprint for Success

40:22I understand why even investors and VCs and decelerators, they always, like everybody likes successful solo founder if they get successful. But until they got successful, solo founder is a tricky part. Even like based on my previous startups, I always had a founder. I always had a founder. We always say faster alone, further together. And it's completely true. So we are doing something a bit different today. You've built three businesses already. So the goal today is to record what we talked about before, right, which is a Founders Playbook podcast because we want to help other founders out there who are kind of struggling at different stages of their entrepreneurship journey.

41:07So you talked about before already this kind of ideation phase, right? How do you find the business idea? You said, hey, you talk to people, you ask people, and you try to find a problem, right? First thing I think that still, I think that if I would have practiced meditation, I think that ideas will come easier. But look, for somebody who is completely new to any kind of business, to any kind of entrepreneurship, I think that the easiest thing is to sit there and think what really drives you. Passion. What really drives you? What's your passion? Every human being has something. Probably somebody likes to drink coffee.

41:58Make the best coffee store. Make your own coffee bins the best ones. Make anything. You like to play tennis? Amazing. Make yourself a school of tennis for kids. make yourself your tennis equipment, the best one, the best headband for tennis. It's about, we can continue and continue about anything. You just have to have this thing in you. If you're an entrepreneur, you want to, we will move forward to the topic of the risk factor. But still, when you are thinking about starting, forget about the risk. If you already thought that, look, I want to create something, if those guys who are listening to us right now, probably I think that a lot of people want to have their own business or something.

42:52Even not a big business, but something their own. I think that just sit there and be honest with yourself. What really drives you? Not what would be cool to build because, let's say, maybe some people look at us and everybody will say that, look, we want to build in crypto. It's like it's not cool to build something that you think that it's cool to build. And you're not going to laugh at it. You're not going to sustain ups and downs because you don't have the underlying passion that's going to help you last. It's like a lot of examples. Like people are buying flats, apartments in downtown because it's like it's cool to live in downtown.

43:34But then they are living there and it's a real life example. And just my friend tells me, look, I bought at the flat in downtown for a lot of money just because I wanted to show off for people. I live in downtown and everything. But I like grass. I like when it's green outside. And I could save twice as much buying something near the water or near that green area. And be happier. But be happier. Way happier. And it's super correlated with the business ideas. because if you are starting building something because your friend thinks crypto is cool, you will not last at it. But if you are building something for yourself, if you're building something that you think that, okay, it's really cool and I'll be the best at it.

44:24So let's say you found your passion, right? How do you start? So you talked about co-founders before. Yep, so before co-founders. First of all, you find your passion. Second thing, if the problem of the passion that you have is not clear to you, the problem I mean that you can solve with your product or service or company or business or anything. If it's clear, then okay, you now have a product. The product, I mean like the project, product, platform, anything. I will call it the product. If you have the product, then you move to the stage of co-founder. I always do it like this myself. But if the product is not specified for you, go and talk.

45:11Go and talk with tennis players if you chose tennis. Go and talk with coffee drinkers if you chose coffee and all of that stuff. Become a part of the community. If you're not in the community, they like to say that if your company is not in the internet, your company doesn't exist. If you are not into the community, you will not be able to solve the problem of the community. That's the case. nobody's going to use your product if you are thinking that look a lot of people have these insane ideas uh that they just came to their head but they're not going to get used and that's a big problem what can be easier and just more effective in terms of everything from resources to money to everything just then to talk to the people it's free come and talk to people yeah ask them it sounds so simplistic but most people don't do that but it's like it's it's really simple what's really interesting yesterday we had the Nishal the co-founder of I mean he built three mega businesses in India I mean two in India one is a first first business he built 20 million customers second business he built biggest crypto exchange in India 15 million customers hundreds of millions of revenue.

46:28And now he's building Shardium, which is a layer one protocol. And he said these things. You just need to identify a problem and solve it, right? And the way you do that is first you might have the poem yourself and then you go and talk to people to see if other people have this problem. Yes, yes. It's as simple as that, right? And that's usually, but obviously it's a bit less sexy as a crazy founding story, right? Yeah. But that's what works because it's just practical. And at the end of the day, building a business is processes and practical and discipline repeat every day in and out. And then the thing, the 10-year overnight success magically happens, right?

47:16to be honest i think that look one more like one more idea that i want to sit inside this like topic of the ideation and speaking with customers and all that stuff better you not talk with your friends because like better you not share your idea primarily with your friends why because they are going to support you they are going to support you they are going definitely if it's your friends they are going to tell you man this idea is crazy cool go and do it but probably that's not the idea that needs to be solved that sometimes happens and sometimes i got people coming to me and saying that look uh i got this this this this this they told me that this idea is magic and i'm like are those guys your friends yes they are my friends best friends like from from school no that's not the case people that are close to you that care about you they are not going to kill your idea on this like birth stage you have to go to those guys who don't care about you like you are most random person to them probably they will say that no your idea is you have to do like this better you write you note it down go to the next one Note it down.

48:38Note the feedback down. You will basically shape out something from it, definitely, but not to your friends. That's one of the problems that is better to point it out at this stage if somebody is just sitting and writing the steps that he's going now to take or she's now going to take to build the business. This is one of the main steps, not to friends. Random individuals. just so you go to these random individuals you write down everything and you find the thing that these random individuals need what do you next or what they think about your idea or just anything a lot of people may be asking now questions where do you find those random individuals first like easier thing you go to telegram let's say you want to build something for the infrastructure of Dubai you go to telegram you put community by German speaking community by Germans in Dubai Russians in Dubai like Indian founders in Dubai that's all of those communities there are there literally open for anybody to enter playing football 24-7 just keen to read books or anything like any communities out there You can find it on Telegram.

50:01You can find one person that is connected to some of those communities. You just, you, of course, you don't jump straight ahead and say, look, I'm here and I have an idea. Give me your feedback. You just, you get into the connect. You get into the connection. You get into the community and then those people will help you. Those people will help you to maybe even promote this idea or product when it's going to be realized. Then the next step, just always, look, I say that there are two people. There are two types of people. First type of people is the ideation, visualization, leadership. Second type of people, technical people, technical individuals, hard working thinkers.

50:56uh the leadership can be like on the first type of people and second type of people as well probably the technical guys can be as well strong in terms of leadership but every startup have to have these two types of people the sales guy like the ideation guy who will make those seem like other team ill with that idea and in a good way of course and the technical guy who will bring it into life if not himself then just he will know how to deal with people who will bring this idea into life and that's why i always say that it's we are we will go a bit into deep into this topic because i think that's that i always give this uh like even to my little brother i always give this as a advice i will give this as an advice you don't have that's a common like that's a common mistake that people think that you need to have money to start the business you don't need to have any money to start the business literally and people will say like wow it's easy to talk like this when you have some money some budget but literally like you don't have to have anything to start the business you need to have one co-founder that is stronger than you in this technical aspect or sales aspect and how do you find this co-founder is that look uh you've created Let's start with you created the idea, you created the product that will solve the problem and all of that stuff.

52:27You just now need to find one person which will believe in this idea as hard as you believe in it. That's the tricky part. Of course, that's not the part that you will start doing this today and tomorrow it will be done. Absolutely. But then you just... Who is that person? It can be your friend. It can be the guy who is as well keen to build something. It just in like in realities of the world, it might be not even like a guy from your area, from where you are located. Maybe you are located in Dubai and you will find yourself a co-founder from India, which is super like crazy technologically. Maybe you are a technical guy and you will find yourself a super cool United States salesperson who will just scale it as never before.

53:23You just, you have to find it. You have to find it going to the forums, going to the communities again. There are some websites, to be honest with you, I think that it's easy for users to find those websites where you can find actually co-founder. There are websites where you can find co-founder. And then you just, you arrange several calls. you see this idea, you ask what do they think. Maybe they will think, okay, but let's implement this thing into this idea. Maybe let's twist it a bit. So the next main thing, you don't move forward without the co-founder. I think that's interesting.

54:02Your little brother told you, yeah, but it's easy when you have money, right? it's not what he told me but people can tell this okay of course so how do you start a business when you have no money you need to have the idea and the co-founder who believes in it I'm like I'm 100 % into this and so so then okay let's say you have done all that work then there is a big problem which is in every business that starts what we call the chicken and egg problem right How do you build a momentum and narrative to attract everyone's attention? The users, the investors, the employees. You build a product. You start building a product, two of you, or maybe let's say you get yourself a team, small team, let's say like two more guys to build a product.

55:00Maybe it will take you one month, two months, three months, for like a half a year, maybe sometimes even eight months. You build a product. You build a product that you can show to somebody, to investors, to users, to early supporters. People are not likely keen to support. Like big players are not likely keen to support just ideas. It's like a lot of people have ideas. Show me something. Yeah, yeah. Show me something. That's what I got told this thousand times. This idea is cool. This idea is cool. And I think that all founders heard this. Idea is cool. Everything is cool. The visualization that you've created is amazing.

55:44Show me something. Bring me something and we'll make it work. Show me you can execute. Ideas are great, but they're worthless. That's why it's really funny because I see a lot of people, kind of friends of mine who come for many years, I have this amazing business idea. I'm like, okay, what is it? i can't tell you i can't tell you i mean my mind i'm like you're never gonna build it because i know it because otherwise you would talk about it because they don't understand that everything is in execution and the idea doesn't matter and no one will steal your idea and even if someone steals your idea it doesn't matter because it's all in the execution of course yeah i always like to say that look there are minimum 20 teams right now while we are talking with you doing the same what we are doing with EC.

56:35To minimum 20, maybe 100 all around the world. Maybe they are doing exactly the same, even like feature to feature, identically. Maybe they are doing this. We will never know. Because like only 1 % of those guys will be able to make momentum, marketing, really execute. and this like this consists of a lot of things like being able to take the risk being able to just not only of course it's cool when you are starting you feel a drive you feel adrenaline you are into you're entering something new but when this becomes a routine will you execute into routine? That's the question. And just being founder, being founder is cool.

57:32People think. Yeah. People think it's cool, but it's not cool at all. To be honest with you, I still think that it's cool. Okay. But it's hard. It's hard because, look, I'm like out of topic story. I've been to the barber and my barber told me, man, how old are you? I've told 26. And he was like, oh, I'm 28. What are you doing? I've told I'm a founder of IT startup. Oh, so you're sitting in your computer for something like 11 hours per day? I'm like, yeah, maybe sometimes even 14 hours per day. Sometimes when it's hard, even 18 hours per day. Oh, man, don't you feel like you're just wasting your time while you're young?

58:10I'm here cutting for something like three hours per day and just, yeah, then I'm chilling with my friends and all that stuff. And I totally understand that point of view. that's like that's just different I'm not saying that it's bad or it's better or it's worth it's just different you have to have this mindset that you are working now to make your life a movie further down the line

58:42or just as we said before because I found my passion. Yeah, of course. Like I'm not even thinking about, we talk often about that on this podcast, about burnout. People burn out not because they're working too much, but because they work on things that don't matter to them, right? Sure. And Andrew Tate would say a lot of things that people don't agree with, but he actually talks a lot of truth if you kind of like make this effort to listen to what he says. One of the things he says is, if you wake up every morning and you're struggling all day, and you're giving your best, you're going to be happy.

59:20And it doesn't matter if you're successful or not. It doesn't matter if the ultimate thing is going to work or not. It's because you know you're giving your best that you're happy. So your goal might be, I want to make my life a movie. Fine. But if you think even more simply, just the fact that you're vibing when you're sitting 14 hours a day in front of your laptop building your thing, right? And that's why it's your thing, right? And it's all linked to the passion. And that probably is vibing when, probably is not vibing when he's cutting hair. Most of them, some of them probably are, but instead of doing only three hours, probably they would be 10 hours because they're just, that's my thing.

59:58I just love to make people look good, right? Yeah, of course. And to be honest with you, even like when I talk with my friends, like real friends who are just, they root for me and they just, man, don't you feel like a bit tired when you are sitting on the computer like for that long time? I always say, man, I put this for myself in Japan. They call it Ikigai. Yeah, Ikigai, yeah. Yeah, Ikigai. And I always like to those guys who don't really understand it, I always like recommend to read it. It's a thin book. It's a thin book. It's just basically the TLDR is if you will find something that will drive you, you will like it will be just a part of your life.

1:00:45It is like, for me, building a startup, it's not a work. I don't treat it like a work. I'm not waking up thinking, okay, one more day at work. I'm thinking amazing because it's a game for me. I'm today completing one more mission, and it's like, it's cool. It brought me to some, like, for me to, like, it's an adventure. It's a game slash adventure that you meet a lot of cool people, you wipe together you build something you receive tasks you solve those tasks you get benefits from it you just make life of people more interesting you make your life more interesting and you're not working i'm not working i just it's for me when you get like when you put this for yourself like you're working then of course after the work you need to calm down if you are not working when why do you need to calm down if you are just like really vibing if you are doing your thing you just i think that calming down doesn't make sense it doesn't exactly exactly that's yeah and i hear very often kimi should calm down you're not gonna sustain i'm like i'm vibing like sometimes i'm suffering yes sometimes i'm not sleeping enough sometimes i'm complaining a bit because you know complaining a bit gives you some dopamine but like it but i'm not fucking calming down i'm just gonna accelerate even more until no one can follow me anymore this like really covers kind of like the next one which is kind of overcoming the hustle you know building a business is extremely hard consumes you 24 7 for years i mean except for you you had one that lasted nine months but normally that's not normal right that doesn't work you you Because your startup becomes your baby, right?

1:02:34So what happens often is that founders, that happens very often. Founders, they suffer so much that they lose love for what they're building. How do you keep a healthy relationship with your baby? Look, that's unpopular opinion. I'm not saying that that's the fact. but i always say that look if you stop loving what you're building that's done that's done yeah that's done if look if that stops driving you you can't your team will not receive that portion of drive from yourself and startup will slowly slowly slowly die that's the case and i've seen a lot of guys in late 40s and they are still doing the startup that they've started doing in something like 30s and it doesn't give any result but they just can't give up sometimes it's better to give up not like you shouldn't give up naturally but you should feel like something can be changed And this is, I think that's in that case, to lie to yourself that, look, yes, I'm loving it.

1:03:58I'm doing this because I love it. It's a weakness. It's a clear weakness. You have to be stronger. You have to be more honest with yourself. If you stopped loving what you're doing, probably don't give up fundamentally, but give up this idea. Give up this idea or maybe add a twist into it. maybe search for some more like more driving thing now because just to breathe new life into this idea. Yeah, because not only the business is going to die, but you're also going to completely burn out as a person because you don't like what you're doing anymore. And that's the big problem. That's the worst thing ever that can happen, but it happens a lot.

1:04:41In order to prevent this from happening like in the beginning, I think that's the one topic that we wanted to as well cover, the momentum. I think that once you are receiving the positive feedback, whether it's from the community, from the supporters, from investors, from anybody, positive feedback, acceleration, momentum, results, numbers, metrics that are going up, all this charges you, charges you, charges. when you are when you are basically it's a kick every time it's a kick every time you need to kind of look for these kicks to be kind of high most of the time yeah because the high will make that you don't feel all the pain that comes with building this thing right because you kind of numb to it but absolutely you need the small rewards and the small kicks along the way Absolutely otherwise it's not possible.

1:05:37So yeah, basically, product, you just build this product, you start seeding it into people's heads, seeding it into the communities. First, like even without the marketing. Without the marketing, just yourself personally, you go to groups, you go to Discord, you go to forums, you go to like anywhere, you start seeding it. You start looking for early supporters, and then here is where the power of the meaning of the feedback of those people, it will be enough for you to get this additional charging. Always, I think. If you start scaling even more, the more like it's like I tell it to you like this.

1:06:31If you start like surrounding yourselves by supporters and that crowd gets bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. That's like that's where you can get your energy from. those guys will those guys will stand for you if you will suffer if you will experience something just some bad times or something like this even at a smaller scale just having a co-founder is extremely important for that because sometimes you will be a bit down but your co-founder is the one who will be like we're doing the best thing in the world and almost believing more than you at that moment and then it gives you a kick again like oh man there is someone else who believes in that even more than me that's amazing I built the smallest kind of scale of a community, which is two people, me and my co-founder, right?

1:07:19And then it's very important actually because we are all humans, right? And we will have ups and downs. One of the single most important factors to success as a founder is your ability to identify the right people and then build connection with them. The problem is that the people who you need and want to talk to they are above you. And they probably don't have a lot of bandwidth, they don't have a lot of time, and they probably don't necessarily want to talk to you because they don't know you. How do you get in circles of people who are above you so you can elevate yourself to get into the next dimension?

1:08:02Look, two ways. First way, just consistency, consistent outreach. i could send 300 messages per day to get to all of those people both in linkedin twitter telegram everywhere i would source contacts i just i understand that somebody who is looking at us right now who's watching this might say what like did that guy never heard about privacy or something like this fine it's like it's the downside but then how would you if he's true entrepreneur is going to appreciate the hustle yeah for sure for sure but look i always say that uh but how do you achieving things if you are not trying you have to try to achieve things it's like it's even if some like to be honest with you man really some guys blocked me really i can i can say this out loud they some guys blocked me and at the moment like i've just one one time i've told my co-founder i was like those guys they have two possibilities or they are going to answer or they will have to block me that's the thing i love the mindset i love the mindset and i have a very very similar approach which is like you almost take it as a game like you don't want to answer to me i'm gonna freaking piss you off until you react sure which is answering or telling me to fuck off right or just like broking me exactly but as well just you don't have to say hey hey how are you what's up what's up you just you find something to you just start with hey hope you're doing great we are building this thing here uh by see your extensive experience we want to get your feedback silence look we have since the last time we spoke we have uh hired two world-class experts and we at the moment need that advice from somebody like you, it would be great to jump on a call with you.

1:10:12Silence. Silence. Just wanted to follow up with you because maybe you get lost in shuffle. Just still would be cool to have your opinion on this thing. Silence. We've just onboarded 100 new people to the community and we at the moment have two customers who are paying and we are scaling a bit. So just maybe right now, it will be cool for you to speak with us. And you just, man, you can constantly find something. Even like, look, we see that you have the photo in Madrid. We have a headquarter in Madrid. Next time when you will be in Madrid, we can meet up in person with our team. But right now, maybe you will have a 15 minutes for a quick call to give your feedback.

1:11:00Your feedback will be very appreciated by our team. Okay, so consistency, that's one. But in that example, you are a taker, right? You're asking for favor. Second example is where you are a giver. But to become a giver, you need to be interesting to those people. I'll give you as well a quick example from my own life. my like friend he uh but he was in the real estate business in kazakhstan uh but he was he was trying to outreach to the big like serious guy in that real estate uh business sphere and uh just it was not successful for him to to out to like to get in contact then he was like but this He knew that this guy is really needed to him.

1:11:53But then he just made one cool thing. And you will understand why I'm telling you about this, because this is a playbook, basically, how you can make it. He's seen that that guy bought a Tesla. He's seen that that guy bought a Tesla, and that my friend thought that, okay, I'll get into the community of that guy by making a Tesla Holders Club. I'll make a Tesla holders club. I will arrange events for those guys. I will make a trip to the mountains on Teslas, like a roadshow, basically. And I will collect all the guys of that level of that status. Of course, I'll be probably the poorest one from those guys.

1:12:43Probably like I'm not the most interesting person in the room. with those guys, but I will just make this to make them benefit from my existence in that community. And it was a success. Of course. It was a success. Of course. That's exactly what I'm doing. I do this podcast and then I do private dinners and mastermind that no one knows about. I mean, people will know about it now, right? And I invite all the biggest guests on this podcast, put them in a room together, make them introduce them to each other and then at some point you become the hub yes when you become contact when you become the hub you went from no one to be almost like fuck what the food like we need this guy we need this guy as an advisor we need this guy as an investor in this guy as a buy and then you can build you have the hub right that's because you have the hub anyway that's you you have the hub and then because you have the hub like you have infinite possibilities to build businesses or things around that.

1:13:43Yep. That's the case. You just, always you can give a value to anyone. You just have to live with this idea. You can give a value now to Elon Musk if you do enough research. I believe in it. You can. If you will be doing the first type of outreach that I was telling about, to the top tier guys, you will not reach like this. To the top tier guys, like top-notch guys you will reach only by making yourself interesting or valuable providing values and when you become the point of contact let's say like you know on your example or an example of that my guy who is in kazakhstan when you get to be a point of contact of all those top tier guys it's like you are not even on that level with those guys you are for some of those guys you're even higher which makes no sense i mean when you think about you're like man these guys they think I'm cool, right?

1:14:42But you are cool. Because like, why? Like, everybody could do this. Yeah. But that's you who did it. Yeah. Like, I like, a lot of people like to say this, but everybody could. Yeah. Everybody could.

1:15:05With a little smile. Yeah. Yeah, everybody could. Could. Dot, dot, dot.

1:15:16So this fits in really well with the next one because you start trying to provide value and you are no one, right? People don't know you. But then if you manage to kind of build this momentum on value creation, people start to kind of take them into their community or you build your own community of these people. This helps you elevate your personal brand, right? Sure. What's your approach to personal branding? I think that's the superpower first. That's a clear superpower to me. Nowadays, if you are not afraid to be doxxed, if you are not afraid to speak out loud, if you are not afraid of your own thoughts, you have to build your personal brand.

1:15:58I know a lot of examples where just startups got successful without the founder building personal brand. But I know a lot more examples where startups got successful because of the personal brand of the founder. And just my approach to personal brand, you have to basically, that's one more. You have several tasks. You have a task like team, maintaining the team, just motivation, maintaining the momentum into the community, maintaining the product, building the product. The personal branding is like one of the tasks of a real builder. I think that I'm pretty sure that it has to be like this. What's interesting is there is some people who understand that personal branding is almost everything, and they take it to the next level.

1:16:47For example, we just released the Luke Belmar, who understood that he hired a CEO for his business and he's full-time on personal branding now because it's a mega job in itself to build a real personal brand and be online, being seen by everywhere, building this content machine. But then he knows that's what's going to attract a hundred, a thousand times more business because of the personal brand. But if you don't have this key figure, almost cult-like personality, which in crypto is also very important, right? If you don't have that, people will not care whereas if you have that people will care and will be we want to get involved one way or another and so some people they they just say i'm going to the next level i'm the face of this company or this project i'm going to do that full time i'm going to hire a ceo to replace me for all the day-to-day tasks sure i think that uh first of all it's like it's super valuable for you because people feel like they know you people feel it's always look i've talked like again example i've talked with the ceo of a big company he like we have a lot of advisors in easy and we just i i'm not afraid to ask i'm not afraid to get an advice i think that's like that's what will give you a boost like x 10x boost just and one time i got told that look it's always easier for people to support you when they feel like they know you if it's just if it's just the cool logo uh it can be like the most stylish logo ever but people people are following founders a lot of people are following founders but not a lot of people are following brands absolutely you want to for someone you can identify with it's normal It's just normal.

1:18:41You want somebody that you can identify yourself with, that you can relate yourself with. You fell in love with the personality. I think that, again, there are different ways of building your personal brand. You can build your personal brand like you are a role player, role model. You're a role model. You are heroes, all the success stories and all that stuff. When I build my personal brand, I'm about transparency. I'm always about transparency. I think that transparency is the key. It's a bit long-term road. It's not that powerful in terms of like with the success story, you can become star in one day.

1:19:22With the transparency, people need to taste you. People need to see that, look, okay, this guy shows something that I can relate myself with and all that stuff. But again, as well, one interesting thing about the personal branding is that you have to show your path, basically. And I call this for myself the path of a hero. All people like a path of the hero. and the journey of the hero is showed in movies, in blockbusters, in super top-sold books, in sometimes even some aspects of a journey of a hero can be seen in religion. People like to see how you handle tasks. Hero will have its difficult times.

1:20:16Hero will have its downsides. it's fuck ups, shit situations, but hero is hero, and hero will win, and this is what people like, basically, they like to root for you, maybe, some of them, some people will like to laugh when you fuck up, but people like the journey of the hero, nobody likes when it's super common and boring, That's why everything, just everything and everybody has a way of the hero, a journey of the hero. And that's basically, I think that it's the most useful methodology on which you can build your personal brand. Just showing a way, showing your journey, continuing your journey, showing everything transparent.

1:21:08If you fuck up, show that you fuck up. Just if you succeed, show that you succeed. It's like the way of the hero, I think. So you're documenting your journey, basically. Yes. You told me the biggest struggle of everyone is wanting the best for themselves short term. But by definition, this goes against the great benefits of looking long term, obviously. How can someone develop low time preference and a deep understanding of the power of delay gratification? Look, until you will try it yourself, you will not understand it, I think. But you just, of course, you can always count on different examples on how that guy did it or how this happened here.

1:21:53But until you try it yourself, you will not understand it. I think that, look, for myself, I just, I think that it's always, you just, you have to listen to yourself. if for example one day i will wake up and i will tell myself let's look uh let's create something uh like a event or something like this that can give a short-term boost right now right here i will do this probably this will be needed at that time in my life but right now i'm i think that consistency long-term vision just uh every day making what you are what you love that's the thing uh but it's like it's the i'll tell you again probably in on my side it's like this because i solve a lot of tasks i'll solve a lot of different tasks right now in our team of course we have the marketing lead we have the my cto which is co-founder we have like the guys who deal with the community But in overall, I'm the CEO.

1:23:05I'm the chief investment officer. I'm the HR. I'm on the top of the marketing. I'm the CBDO, having all those calls. And as well, I'm trying to build my personal brand. So in order to just maximize in something, I would need to sacrifice other parts to build my personal brand. I'm not ready right now to sacrifice because I'm a builder in first place. And then only if it's going to stick, like if the personal brand is going to stick, of course, I'm putting the effort into it. I just in something like three months, I've really boosted my social media presence in Twitter. I'm into those communities.

1:23:46I just I try to get insights on how to build personal brand even better and all that stuff. But I'm not going to say that I'm an expert in this right now. I can say that I'm an expert in how to lead the team. I can say that I'm an expert in how to build a community and all that stuff, but I will need me some time to become an expert in a personal brand. And that's basically my vision on this. Probably one of the best ways to build your personal brand is understanding authenticity, right? And I really want to talk about that because it's very important and it's something that we both share. But I want to do it in a very different fashion.

1:24:27So I just will use a few quotes and let you comment them. The first one is, authenticity starts in the heart.

1:24:40I agree. You just have to listen to your gut. That's the thing. Be honest with yourself. Be transparent. That's the authenticity, I think.

1:24:53Authenticity is magnetic. that's that's right that's like 100 right uh but i don't know how this look i didn't really know how to explain this but there are people who are just attracting not because they're like doing something special but because they have something that makes them not uh similar to others like in in it can be in any way maybe because they are built different in different things maybe because they are just uh i think that look uh it really it really attracts i can say it like this when you are authentic it attracts people it attracts supporters it attracts everybody why do you think that's the case do you think it's because a lot of people would want to be authentic but because there may be insecure they want to please or be seen as I don't know they're cool they're not able to be their authentic selves and they admire people who just don't give a fuck basically look just I think that that's the authenticity the real authenticity is the is a hard topic I'll tell you why because people might think that okay i'm being authentic but you are being like this because you've seen something and you think that people will think that it's cool but just when you are trying to be authentic you're already not it's not something that you will try to do it's something like you can't say oh i'm authentic people will say to you it's like it's something that you will never say that okay I think that I'm clever.

1:26:38That's if you think that you're clever, you're stupid. People will tell, okay, that guy is clever, that guy is wise. And this is something, again, with authenticity. I think that if when people start saying that, okay, that guy is authentic, or just even it's like the big evidence of authenticity is when those guys will say this when you're not around. What is it? Yeah. Yes. if you're authentic you can escape competition because there's only one new right right totally on the same page about this just it's like authentic people like real authentic people they have supporters they have people who will go on the wire for them that's the thing and of course you will win any competition because you have supporters who will just if they will think that somebody disagrees with you or doesn't like you they will just they will uh stand there for you they will just and this is like people users community if you got them you want the competition because everything that we are building we are building it not for ourselves why would you build a product for yourself you're building a product or doing anything even if you're doing the personal brand even the personal brand if the personal brand is your main thing that you're doing you're doing this for the community we talked about meditation in the beginning meditation helps people understand themselves and aristotle said knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom why is it why is self-awareness so important in entrepreneurship

1:28:25self-awareness helps you to understand your superpowers and based on those superpowers you can start building start becoming the best version of entrepreneur that you can be only when you understand your superpowers if i would think that i'm the wisest technical brain not understanding a lot technical things i've lost what's the moment you realized oh man i need to work on yourself for anything i'm not really good at it uh i think that it wasn't very particular moment i think that i tried to read a lot i try to read a lot and i think that look uh in several books that i read uh just i think that there were like practices of building self-awareness and just based on some of those practices you start understanding that look you didn't think about it you just maybe you're well in self-awareness but you just didn't think about it and when it's just like it goes how it goes i will not think about it that's not the case about myself i'm the type of the person that okay if there is something like this i will try to be like be good at it if i think that it's like it catches my attention basically this is a crypto podcast and in crypto people you know most people are in crypto for one reason make money and so for that they like to hear the builders in the space talk about you know sort of alpha and what their favorite projects are so i know you haven't been in crypto for super long but you're building every day you've been you're building an amazing project and you're probably also aware of what's happening around you what are your favorite two or three other projects in the space and why oh i'll tell it you like this i will not specify projects but i think that i can specify the narratives i think that the i think it's like it's a popular opinion but still i super believe in this opinion what will move crypto forward is RWAs.

1:30:50And not in the... Real world assets. Yes, real world assets. I think that as soon as other people will understand that, look, just I'll put it like this, but just I'll be a bit distinct from the question itself, but I'll tell you like this. I think that the blockchain is a technology. People outside crypto, they think that crypto is a blockchain. Crypto is not blockchain. Basically, crypto is one of the use cases of blockchain. And people outside of crypto, they think that outside of, let's say, blockchain. People outside of the blockchain, they think, okay, those guys are just playing around with some internet money.

1:31:36Which is the case for other people. Yes. Let's say it like this. Let's be honest. But people outside of the blockchain think that, okay, crypto is the only use case, crypto is scam because of the cryptocurrency. A lot of scams happen because of people showing that you can use this technology only as an instant key, like the money button, basically. And blockchain is not about it. That's the case. Blockchain is an instrument, very powerful instrument. And I think that the next thing that will show people that blockchain is very powerful is real world assets, tokenized real world assets, any just any wisely done usage of tokenized real world assets.

1:32:26RWAs as a, I won't even say narrative because it's like narrative is it's here and then there is different narrative. It's basically, I'd say as a sphere, as a sphere RWAs will be moving forward. i'd say the blockchain even and i know a lot of guys who are building super cool projects right now in real world assets in real world assets yeah in real world assets and but some of those projects are not even live yet some of those projects are just in beta testing and it takes fortunately right now it takes a lot of legal stuff and it takes a lot of just uh paperwork work i'll start like this but i think that that's the next uh the next use case for like for wise individuals for uh even on the government level i'll tell it like this but as well i'm super bullish on the of things that will bring new audience of retailers and mass audience to the crypto and i think that what guys are doing in gaming sector gamefi uh is as well super bullish because I think that those are the guys who didn't stop when everybody stopped.

1:33:35It was a moment on the crypto market when I was raising. I was fundraising and people told me, look, do you really think that you need blockchain into this? We hear that so much. Yeah, there is no money in this. And I won't say that everybody stopped, but a lot of people stopped building what they were building. A lot of people stopped doing what they were doing in this sphere. But I've seen a lot of teams who were doing gaming projects and they didn't stop because they understand that, look, in gaming, that's really easy to mask that it's using blockchain. But then when users will deep dive, they will understand that they are using blockchain.

1:34:20Yeah. Because I'm not the most familiar with the gaming sector. So if you had to tell me, hey, look at this team. They're doing something interesting, and this is why. You can just start two examples. First thing, you can check Godzilla. Second thing, you can check Godzilla. And you can check Shrapnel. Two, I won't say that they're the only ones, but those guys are a good example of teams that are really building. They are really building. It's like they are doing something good. I'm not even like, let's say, I'm in touch with the Shrapnel team, but I'm not even in touch with the Godzilla team.

1:34:57But I know that those guys are building. I can see this. Those guys are true builders. They are ill with those ideas. And it's cool. It's just beautiful to look at it. And I think that the guys like those ones, maybe not even these two examples, but guys like this, they will bring additional, let's say, minimum 10 million people into crypto as well. 100%. And in the real world asset sector, I have a friend of mine actually, he's building a platform where you can collateralize watches and then obviously the goal is to go further than watches. It's called Open Chrono. It's very interesting. I think that I've heard about this one.

1:35:40Is there another application? Because real world asset is very wide, right? That you are really interested by because you think it makes more sense and that specific team is actually tackling that project there are there are various ones i just i think that uh several several examples guys at 4k do an amazing job uh but watches.io as well those guys are finding and found a good use case for the blockchain with real world assets uh there are several others the cattle finance cool guys the colony uh on polygon guys super super like uh early into the process into into the process but they're as well doing the cool marketplace for anything dealing with tokenized reward assets we are as well dealing with we are gamified marketplace for of course digital assets tokens but as well for tokenized rare w's so we are just we are we will be trying our best to bring additional demand to the sector so that's what we are doing and a lot more a lot more even to be honest with you you can't name all of those guys a lot of cool teams are sitting and building right now while we are speaking with you what's your key takeaway from today's podcast uh so one thing that i'm going to write myself down into the notes and i will practice is meditation a lot of people change your life like literally i think that i think that's the i think that's the game that will be a game changer for myself because look i'll i feel this i feel this and a lot of people told this to me uh but just i think that it's i even thought about this like yesterday that's the case and now we're speaking about this with you and this was like literally the first thing that you've told me and i was like okay i've just i actually even like we were talking with you i had this idea in my backlog, like meditation, okay, I'll put it here.

1:37:39I'll unpack it when I'll get back to my apartment. What's your message to people who, because you just said, okay, you kind of convinced me. I mean, you don't need to be convinced, but like, I'll do it, right? A lot of people, they really struggle to do things, to do the thing, right? Which makes the whole difference. what's your kind of as a takeaway today and wrap up for this amazing session what's your message to people who know what they should do but don't do it for one reason or another just do it it's like okay it's it would be easy if I say it like this but then search for cool you like search for cool success stories get motivated get like if look i always say it like this and just it will be insightful in two different ways i'll tell you like this if you have built a product and you can get one person to use it it's there is no unique person in the whole world all person like everybody in the world they follow several patterns of behavior if you've tapped into one person who bought your product or is using your product at least it will be like a million same type of person you can just you need to search for this type of person but then again if you search for somebody who is successful in something what you want to do it's not like no unique person like you will be successful as well just do something so so because the the fact of let's say i want to start something or i want to do something meditating gym a business change my career whatever it's hard right we all kind of it's easy to get stuck depends on your personality but more people get stuck so instead of looking at the task i need to meditate every day which some days i'm not going to want to i'm too tired i'll try to find excuses or start working on something new or going to gym every day or before you start understand why you're doing it and if you understand why like the bigger picture that's your goal right what is your goal and if you're if you know what the goal is and there is something that's concretely useful for you as a person to make you wealthier or happier or healthier then you'll go through the thing because you know that everything is a process and to get there actually it's just repeating every day the same thing over and over again when it goes well good when it doesn't go well I still do it and so on and so forth amazing