Zebu Live, Web3 Communities and New Podcast Episode!
Hi there Rebels!
Not sure about you but for me last week was full of events, emotions and reality checks…
Will try to summarise parts that I can share with you here and hope that you’ll find it useful. This issue may be a bit unstructured so please bear with me :)
Zebu Live
On October 5-6 I was at Zebu Live here in London. If you’ve spoken to me about web3/crypto events before you may know that I think most of them are not that great and there are very few good quality ones. Zebu Live is one of them. I’ve been speaking there for the 3rd year in a row.
Here are few thoughts I had during the event:
Online interactions are great and I am “chronically online” these days, but nothing replaces meeting people in real life. There is some magic about it that gets lost in the “online” setup unfortunately. So it was great to see the faces behind the cartoon avatars for a change.
Feels like I was not alone: everyone had missed IRL events and were happy to meet again + get the chance to meet new people
In bear market most of the people you meet IRL events are mostly those who truly care about the space, who build and who don’t care only about the money. So it was easier to meet the real ones compared to the events which took place during the hype cycle.
Being yourself online is so important! When you meet people who are not real online you either get disappointed talking to them IRL or simply imagined them in a different way.
“You’re exactly the same” “hey meet Ani, she’s from the real ones”, etc. were the best compliments I’ve got.
When you’re yourself online you don’t need to play a role and it is so much easier to carry on:)
It was so nice to have such a diverse crowd covering all areas of web3 (DeFi, NFTs, marketing, legal, tech, etc.). As a result no echo-chambers, fresh perspectives and thought-provoking conversations that I enjoyed.
Life is not ideal, so there were few douchebags I met too… but that’s fine. That too is part of the “diverse” :)
Our Panel
Our panel was about something that by now probably most of you know I am truly passionate about: communities.
Robin, Ingi, Mila and Omri were great and I was honoured to be discussing the topic with them.
I’ll share the recording when it’s out, but below is my try to summarise the main points we’ve covered below:
NFTUK is one of best web3 communities in the UK. It has grown organically and Mila is one of the best community builders out there.
She spoke about the importance of the IRL events since that’s the fastest way to build trust. And trust is at the heart of the community building and engagement.
Ingi spoke about the importance of content for community engagement as well as about what I truly believe in and am passionate about: storytelling and co-creating with your community
Omri will be on the Non-Fungible Rebels podcast next week so you will have a whole hour to hear his thoughts. I was surprised to see a crypto lawyer advocate communities - so had to invite him over!
"Community" is the most overused and misused term in web3 and most if the projects are doing it completely wrong. Putting bunch of people into a Discord server does not make it a community. A group of speculators who came for the money and will leave as soon as there is no longer money to be made is not a community either.
The community should be united around your "why" and "pupose/mission" NOT around money. I truly believe that communities will make or break your project and they are way more powerful than you think.
You should engage with your community and take them to the "building" journey with you so by the time your product launches they have the sense of belonging and ownership and are emotionally invested.
If you build a product detached from a community you may end up realising that you're the only one excited about it and no one needs your product.
You should focus on the right numbers - NOT the number of people in your community but rather the quality of the relationship and your emotional connection with them.
Saying that the “quality” of the emotional connection is important too. There is a different between communities and unhealthy personality based cults (happening often these days)
Non-Fungible Rebels Podcast
In this episode I spoke to Jon Briggs: the owner of Food Fight Studios.
Make sure you check out their substack here.
You can listen to the audio version here.
We discussed:
how did the build a genuine community
benefits of the bear market (and why it’s not such a horrible thing)
human nature and its role in crypto/web3
the importance of storytelling (how to integrate it in your project and how to make stories stick)
the Stoner Cats
how to make this space better
Join the Non-Fungible Rebels
Website: www.anialexander.com