Back in June, I gave a speech at the Crypto Shit Show in Denver. Until about a day before that show, I wasn’t sure what I was going to talk about. I finally figured it out when I flew in the night before the event. The speech ended up being titled “Crossing the Cryptos Space Line”.
This article will cover the main theme of that speech (I’ll post the video soon). That being how naïve I was about becoming a recognized voice in the Space and some of what I learned since starting this trek. Here are some of the things I’ve learned. 1- learning to program from scratch takes focus, dedication, time, and patients. Which I possess in varying degrees, I’ve learned. Last October November I foolishly thought I could learn Solidity in just 3 months, lol & SMH. To be honest, I don’t know why I thought I could get it in just 3 months. Especially, since I didn’t have a programming background. Mike Belou (the person who recommended I look into being a smart contract dev) did warn me, it would take a while. Even though I’m not where I thought I’d be. I know more than I did 6 months ago when it comes to programming. And I’m still thankful to Mike for pointing me in that direction.
I remember hearing someone say HODLing isn’t a good strategy for lasting in the Space. This is a lesson I had to learn the hard way. Thank goodness for M-day orders (basically going in and doing stuff for the national guard). I had to off ramp when the markets were a sea of red. So, stuff that was looking great last year meant not much now. This is what I help term “force hands” (its when you have to sell whatever you have to pay bills. Technically Nathen Hauk came up with the term after I asked the question on twitter). Point being is HODLing isn’t a good economic plan for staying in the Space, unless you already had a bunch of BTC or ETH. I did/do not have much of anything. I realized I had to bring in another source of income. My stake and drill/M-day pay weren’t cutting it for sure.
This brought me to the lesson on what it would really take to become a recognized voice in the Space. It’s not just making comments on people’s YT videos or posting things in forums. I had to actually get my face out there and talk to people directly while learning to navigate the social media landscape. At first, I signed up for all the techie platforms. Within a month or two I realized a few things. 1- there were way too many platforms to manage. Even with the aid of feeder sights like Hootsuite. 2- some stuff I just wasn’t ready for like GitHub and Patreon. So now twitter is what I use to make day comments and reference my videos and articles. Medium is for my op-ed pieces. Steem blockchain namely Steemit & DLive, I use to post videos and do live streams. 3 even though YT & FB can be argued as necessary evils in the Space for getting your name out there. You don’t have to you them. People will more than likely find out about me slower. But I know when someone likes, thumbs up, hearts, claps, or follows me. I know that they’re actually interested in what I have to say. For the most part but there are bots after all, lol. 5- even though I’ve been in the Space since 2012. There was a good amount I didn’t know, or should I say understand. That was because as a HODLer I didn’t care about what was going on with miners and trading wasn’t my thing. I never looked at market cap sites but once in a blue. Like a squirrel, I was just gathering my nuts, lol. I didn’t start going to meetups until about 2015. I was thinking small back then, even with watching Andreas and Amanda B Johnson. I was just looking at what I thought would bring me money. I’ve grown since then.
This brings me to the point of starting the company. At some point I realized even though I didn’t know everything about the Space. I still knew a lot more than people just coming in after 2016. And I sounded like a genius to people not (yet) in the Space. But the issue was how do I monetize what I know. I had to figure out a few things like what I know and what I’d do related to the cryptos and blockchain that people would be willing to pay a convenience fee for. I say convenience because the info is out there for free but most people don’t have the time to do all the research or the patience to learn it in detail, and some are just are lazy too. That took me down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out my lane in the Space. For now, I feel that education with be a big part of it. But another 2 to 5 years from now it will be something different. The Space will have grown much more by then and mass adoption will have increased. For now, the education track has forced me to beef up on my technical knowledge of the Space. I’ve even written a few reports tailored to client’s interest. The research takes time, but it makes me a better educator and consultant in the long run.
Networking and collaborating with others is a big thing for sure. If you ever looked at my Daily Talk vids (link here on Steemit), I’m always talking about networking. I truly believe there is always an opportunity to network (or at least 9/10 times). Networking helped me get people for my first panel discussion. Collaborating got me into co-hosting “Last Week in Crypto, Tonight”. Much thanks to Kenn, Maak, Kevin, and Rice for bringing me on board. Once you start getting out there. You start seeing how small the space is of the who’s who.
The more I understand about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. The more I comprehend why blockchain everything is unrealistic, for now. Looking back now I see how little I understood about the tech and what it takes to implement it. I do consider myself a blockchain enthusiast and even created a title of Crypto Resource Officer for my company. However I get that for where we are now with ideas and concepts, the technology isn’t. In less than a year I’ve learned so many little lessons, gained new levels of comprehension, and matured in perspectives. I’m really excited to see where I’ll be a year and more from now.
Ok, my last point about how short sighted I was thinking back in the start of all of this. I can’t remember who it was that first brought up the idea of me doing interviews, but I’ve heard it more than once since that first person. At the time I was totally against the idea. I felt there were already a ton of content creators doing enough interviews of the who’s who. And I was at a lost on what I could bring to the table if or a nobody like me could even get an interview with Erick vorees or Jimmy Sue. I didn’t have the numbers (followers) for worthwhile PR. More importantly, what could I talk about with them that they haven’t already said. But like I said earlier, there are many things you can do in the Space. You just have to figure out what it is and more than likely it will take some time and more than one try to figure it out. Through my travels, conversations, and networking; I do believe I’ve figured out at least one of the things I’ll do for a while. It’s a series called “Trekken Cryptos 2 Connect”, but that will be for another article.
Crossing the Crypto Space line has been an interesting process thus far. I’ve had to check myself at various times. I’ve met some interesting people from various walks of life (one of the things I love about the Space). This has allowed me to expand my thought process in ways that I would’ve never come to on my own; if I just stayed on the other side. I will admit and strongly warn others; this life isn’t for everyone. Leaving the world of a steady W2 paycheck with X number of cryptos in your wallet, and a 10-page plan is not guarantee for success. Technically, even with what I have done over the last 6 months, I still can’t say I’ve actually been successful. But catch me a few years from now; I promise the answer will be different.