Welcome to the Sword of Sure podcast. Where doubt looms, fear whispers, and the only way forward is through. I'm Samar Carbo, and if you've ever felt like you're just sort of sure about what you're doing, you're not alone. This is where we face the uncertainty. Push past the hesitation, and keep going anyway way. So take a breath, step in, and let's move forward together.

Foreign.

Welcome to the Sword of Sure podcast. As always, and as said in the intro, I'm Samar Carbo and I just want to run a few things by you. Somebody recently asked me what it takes to start a podcast and I just read this Reddit post on R podcasting. If you want to check it out, it was by user where we go next. It was posted by that person. I think it's quoted, but I'll read it for you anyway. 90% of podcasts don't get past three episodes. That's 1.8 million who quit. Of the 200,000 left, 90% will quit after 20 episodes. That's another 180,000 gone. To be in the top 1% of podcasts in the world, you only need to publish 21 episodes of your podcast. Your competition is not the 2 million podcasts, it's the 20,000 podcasters who didn't quit. Now, what's that mean? What I take that to mean is that we have not enough people in the podcasting space who have staying power. We have not a lot of people in the world who have staying power. But I'm sure there are a ton of these people who want to start a podcast and don't know if they belong in the space, don't know if they're really sure. We, those who are listening to this podcast and who come on this podcast are in the business of starting when we're sort of sure. If I've been trying to teach you anything over these past 11 episodes, it's that we don't need to be a hundred percent sure to start. Get a little more than halfway there, be more sure than you are not, and do it anyway. Make sure you're passionate about it. And one thing that is really important, Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite authors. He works right now, says do something you love the minutia of. He says it probably differently. I can't think of it, and I didn't look it up, but he said, do something you love the work of. So he's a writer. He loves editing his work. I get that. And I like editing my work when it's good. And here we are on episode 12 of the Sword of Shur podcast and I am loving it. And I am telling you that it is worth it to try, even if you don't think you'll make it past episode three. Because at least we'll have some hint of your spark out there in the world and you will be able to say, I've done it. So go ahead, pad your resume just a little bit. I won't tell anyone for today, the first of the extra birthday episodes on this Monday, Cinco de Mayo for those who celebrate, I have a conversation with Drew Simon of the Crypto Altruism podcast. I'll have a show in the show Notes, in case you're wondering. I'll also have a little bit on Brandon Sanderson down there, just in case you're wondering as well. I had a great conversation with him. You may be a little intimidated if you're not into crypto or anything, but please just stick with it. He does a great job of describing what's really going on and he has a huge breadth of knowledge around this topic. Even I was able to follow what he was talking about and I know next to nothing about crypto. So this is a awesome conversation and he has some great tips for those who haven't gotten into it yet and want to. So please stick around and well, happy birthday to me. Let's have a listen.

My name is Drew Simons. I'm the founder of cryptoaltrus and so what that is. This is a content platform dedicated to showcasing the positive social and environmental impact use cases of Web3 technology. So crypto, blockchain, all the kind of rails within that technology and also looking at other kind of next gen technologies like artificial intelligence as well. And it really stemmed from my background in the nonprofit sector, working with different nonprofits in various roles and seeing a gap between this opportunity with this technology to be really beneficial to these organizations and to really impact builders all over the world. But at the same time a lack of kind of education, knowledge tooling to really help them take advantage of it. I mean the space is at times and still is very intimidating for folks that don't understand the technology. There's a lot of buzzwords, there's a lot of barriers to entry. It was my mission to really kind of help break down those barriers and put together some content to help nonprofits a understand what the technology is, how it can be beneficial to them, to help them grow their impact and then how they can do it from there. And Giving them some tools to actually really put it into practice. And that comes to our toolkit that we're building that's going to be coming out soon. For nonprofits, that includes basic intros to the technology, a course on the different use cases, a tool to help them build a, you know, Web3 plan, case studies, the resource library, all those different things. And so that's kind of, in a nutshell, what we're doing here at Crypto Ultra. We founded it in, I want to say, May or June 2021.

Okay, so you've been moving for a little bit.

Yeah.

Have you been just kind of. Did you grow into knowledge as it was coming out, or did you have to educate yourself later like a lot of old people?

Both, for sure. Both. You know, I think that, like, since the space is moving so quickly and, you know, people in this space often say, like, you know, a year feels like five years or something like that. Like, there's just so much development happens, so many new technologies and ideas and mechanisms and experiments happening in the space, that I'm constantly having to, like, you know, keep myself up to speed, which, you know, is definitely challenging. I try to put a good amount of time into making sure I'm aware of what's happening in the ecosystem, you know, what's going on, any new developments. But at the same time, I spent a lot of time really early on kind of educating myself about the technology as well. I got interested in it first. Just kind of. I heard about, you know, Bitcoin and Ethereum and these sorts of things. I was more, like, curious, like, what is this? What is this concept? I started kind of digging into it. At first I was like, I don't know, you know, it's probably just another way to. For folks to make money. But then I really started exploring Ethereum and kind of this idea of programmable money and smart contracts. And that's got what got me really excited about it. But I still really didn't know much. My background's not in technology. It's always been an interest of mine, but, you know, not my expertise. So I really started kind of digging in and learning about the basics of the technology, seeing some of these use cases, and then that's kind of when the spark hit me, I'd say. And then I really started to kind of get excited and say, okay, I might not have that tech background, but I do have that background in the social impact space, you know, and that's storytelling. And I can bring those together and have an impact here without having to be, you know, a computer programmer.

So I've come across many people. Of course, the Web3 situation comes up a lot. Whether people call it that or they just say crypto or what have you, it comes up in a lot of conversations. But so many people get kind of stopped, blocked from learning more. It just seems overwhelming. What would you say is different about you that made you want to learn more?

Yeah, that's a great question. I think, you know, I understand, first of all, why people are hesitant. There's a lot of misconceptions and truth about some of the challenges in the space. There have been a lot of scams. There have been a lot of folks that have lost a lot of money because of bad actors. The technology is still young. There's a lot of projects that don't take off, that have a great idea, but maybe the timing's not right. So there's a lot in this space for folks to be hesitant about, and I get that. And also, it is complicated still. It doesn't have the best. In web 3, we still have challenges around user interface and experience and onboarding, which is getting a lot better. But I think for me, what really got me excited is I've always been interested in technological tools to help nonprofits deliver on their impact, and also technological tools for education, as I also have before I work in the nonprofit sector. I worked in higher education here in Canada. But I've always been interested in technology. And I really started to kind of see some of the use cases as I was doing my initial exploration around things like crypto, philanthropy, you know, decentralized governance. And, you know, it really just clicked for me. I saw some really cool opportunities that this technology enabled that to me. I, you know, at first I thought it was just, like I said, just, you know, a gamble, you know, a way to kind of make some money, those sorts of things. A bunch of, you know, computer scientists who are really excited about the technology, but not everyone else. And, you know, I saw, like, a unique opportunity to kind of bring together my skillset here. And so I think that what really got me excited and got me to look past all those kind of barriers and hesitations was just seeing some of the early use cases of this technology and seeing nonprofits, case studies of nonprofits successfully raising funds or using blockchain to track things or to track their impact or those sorts of things. So I think I was lucky to come across those use cases early on, as opposed to only seeing the negative. Right. So I think a little bit of it was Just luck as well.

Okay, that's really well worded. Thank you.

So I'm, I'm also, I'm hearing that. And you've got the, you know, basically you built up information to be sort.

Of beat past the self doubt, which.

Is a really good way to get past that. But what would you say to the people who are now looking at it and saying, the people who know already know and I'm just too far behind now to learn?

You know, that's a great question. I'm really glad you asked that. And I actually talk about this very regularly with folks in the podcast or folks that are new to the spaces that you know, it's so new. So nobody's really truly an expert and I think maybe the original kind of folks that have been around for 10 plus years, but we're all really just kind of learning it as we go, right? And new people enter this space every day and there's still time to kind of like shape it, you know, the cement is still drying, so to speak. And, you know, it's a great time for anyone to start to get involved, right? I mean, I'd say that those that are involved right now are still considered like early adopters, right? Given that the technology really hasn't got to that point yet where it is that seamless onboarding and user experience. But we're getting there, right? So, you know, it is still young, there's still lots of opportunity to get involved. There's so many great resources. And this is the benefit too, of like, you know, being a little a bit later to get involved is that there are a lot more resources and educational content available now than there were before. So it's easier also than ever to get involved in the space and to, you know, start engaging. It can be as simple as just like, you know, following some folks on social media and listening along, joining some Discord servers or something like that, and starting to engage, watching from all the. There's so many incredible free pieces of content, educational resources online. Listen to our podcast to start learning about the use cases. And for me it's important to really try to break it down and to share these concepts and stories in a way that is accessible to folks that don't have that tech background, that aren't really up to speed on the lingo of Web3, but really just helping them kind of see how this technology can be a game changer for social environmental impact. So those that are hesitant because they feel like they're too late, you know, I think a lot of People have that hesitation around like, oh, I'm too late from an investment point of view, then I don't often talk about like an investing and you know, prices and stuff like that of cryptocurrencies and market movements. That's not something I'm into. I'm more interested into the technological use cases for impact. And for that I'd say you are certainly not right. If anything, you're early.

So what would you say?

And you know, overarching. It could be with the Web3, it could be with the fundraising, whatever your experience to someone who's been in the throes of self doubt, imposter syndrome, blocking them from moving forward and they just.

Don'T see how they could get to.

Say where you are and you just seem like a machine to them.

Well, thank you. I, you know, it's funny because like I have imposter syndrome and I think everyone does. And you know, for me when you say things like, oh, you're a machine, I want to be like, nope, no I'm not, you know, but I'll just say thank you first of all. And you know, I have so much self doubt and you know, especially early on I think I, you know, something that I kind of did on a whim, starting the podcast, starting the blog, you know, starting crypto altruism now crypto altruists in general, you know, I had a lot of hesitation, I just decided to go for it. And early on it like, you know, and I see a lot of podcasters really struggle with this. You hear something like, like 99% of podcasters don't make it up with 10 or something like that because it's hard, it is a grind. You know, you put out those first couple episodes in the world and you see just a couple of listings trickle in and you're like, oh, am I really doing something meaningful here? But it takes a long time to like build that up, to build that community. So you know, it's. Yeah, I think that although I've gotten more confident, I think in my ability to do this over time, the imposter syndrome still always there. Especially in a space that's moving so quickly where it's hard to keep up with everything. Right. And you know, on the podcast I've interviewed everyone from new founders who are working on some really interesting experiment that's really in the early stages to, you know, folks that have founded multi billion dollar ecosystems here in Web3. And you know, it's funny, when I'm chatting with them, I don't See a lot of, like, differences in how they, like, kind of communicate. There's that same passion, there's that same, you know, excitement and fire, you know, and at first I was like, oh, if I'm chatting with these people that are super successful creating all these incredible projects in Web3 that, you know, I'm not worthy of this, right? But I found very early on that, you know, everyone is kind of in it together. We're all learning as we go. You know, we're all just happy to be here and support each other and collaborate. And so I found that, you know, in chatting with this diversity of founders from all over the world, it's just, you know, it's just been a lot of fun. Everyone's just kind of, you know, here hoping each other succeeds, and, you know, has been so supportive and, you know, wanting to help me as well throughout. And so we. Yeah, I'd say that, like, you know, although I certainly have that imposter syndrome. And at first I was really hesitant, didn't think I was, you know, worthy to be interviewing these folks or to be telling their stories because, like, who am I, right? I think early on I found that really, you know, there's a spot here in Web3 for everyone. There's space for everyone. And, you know, when it comes to things like podcasting as well, I do think that it is still growing. I think recently I saw something come out that for the first time I think ever, like 50% of Americans now listen to podcasts, at least monthly. So it is still something that has a lot of opportunity to grow as well. And I think that when people think of podcasting, they think of the massive podcasts out there that are getting millions of downloads, whereas the average podcast, I think, only gets about 30 downloads an episode or something like that. So folks will kind of see those numbers and think that they're failing. But really, there can be a lot of value in building a podcast that maybe has a couple hundred downloads for each episode or something like that, but provides a ton of value to those individuals versus being that one that has millions of downloads. So not every podcast has to be that mega, huge podcast. There's many that thrive, kind of being smaller, middle podcasts, but offering something very valuable and beneficial to those that they support. So I think it's really about that. There's no one size fits all approach to it as well. You know, we all are here helping each other, wanting each other to succeed. And, you know, although it might feel like I might not be worthy of doing this, or telling these stories, you know, you are. And I think that you'll find as you start chatting with people, they're happy to be there and they're happy to be a part of the experience with you. And yeah, I think that my barriers or my guard started to go down a lot after the first couple episodes, and I started to engage more and build my confidence.

That's awesome.

I love that. And I just want to pinpoint a couple of things that you mentioned it was. Or I get the sense, and you can tell me that I'm wrong, that you were saying we're really all just people when you're talking about these titans of industry and realize where you are when you're talking about the podcast space, because the numbers are a lot lower than you think they are. Which. Which helped me a lot when I was getting into them on episode 10.

So I'm still kind of getting into it. Well, you made it. You're better. You made it further than 99% of people.

Yeah, I did. You know, we're pushing, you know, lifetime over 100 listens, so we're picking up.

Just a touch and that's it.

You just got to stick with it when it feels like it's not doing anything because it could offer value. I really love.

Yeah, for sure. And Slow and Steady can win the race in this space as well. It takes a while to build trust. Things like building up the podcast SEO so that you get recognized. That all takes time. That isn't something that happens overnight. It takes months, sometimes years, depending on, you know, the type of podcasting content you're putting out there, how crowded the space is, you know, those sorts of things. So it can also very quickly go from like, you know, a couple listens an episode to do a lot more in a relatively short period of time as well, once things really get moving. But it takes a while to, like, lay that foundation. I'd say more than anything, when it comes to web3 in particular, when it comes to podcasting, you know, all these things, there's a lot of kind of perceptions out there around, you know, what it is. But I say, like, look past the perceptions, and I'll say for Web3, for example, you know, a lot of perceptions, that it's bunch of shadowy supercoders, you know, doing ransomware attacks, doing criminal things, laundering money. There's this perception that it's, you know, that crypto is only aligned with one side of the political spectrum, you know, but when you get involved in this space, you'll see there's so many different communities, like there is really in any space. Right. They're interested in a diversity of topics. And for those that are interested in getting involved with Web3, I'd say, like, think about what your interests are, and if you're an impact organization or a nonprofit, you know what your impact area is, and then go find someone in the space that's already kind of focused on that, or find a community that's already addressing that or engaged in that interest that you have, and I guarantee that it exists. Like, there's so much happening in this space. There's so many different communities that you can be a part of, and it can seem overwhelming, but I just encourage people to kind of like, think past the perceptions or the stereotypes that they hear, you know, out there around what the space is and actually just start to engage. And I think you'll be really surprised because, like, you know, one of the biggest barriers for folks is just that initial just taking that step to start exploring and engaging. And there's so many great communities that will support you and help onboard you along the way. So, you know, I think whether it's podcasting, whether it's getting involved in Web3, whatever it is, you know, I think just closing that first step can be really the initial barrier, you know, and if it's not for you, it's not for you. Right. But take that first step. Keep an open mind. And, you know, that's what I did, and it led me here now three, and that's four years later down the road where I have over 200 episodes. And actually putting out the 200th episode of our podcast today right after this interview. And also I've put out hundreds of pieces of content and also been able to make a successful business out of it. And so that's something I never thought I'd be doing. But I took that first step despite being very nervous and hesitant, and it worked out in the end, and here I am. And so you can do that, too. Just take the first step, have an open mind and. Yeah.

Well, that is fantastic. Thank you so much for being on the sort of. Sure.

Podcast.

It has been a distinct pleasure.

Yeah, exactly. Well, thank you so much. Awesome. Thank you so much. Have a great day. Bye.

What a great conversation. I thoroughly enjoy it. I'm sure now you see why the initial conversation we had was relevant to the interview. I want to leave you with two thoughts as we close this one out on a Monday. The first thought is I was sitting in a show over the weekend. It was called Hadestown. Many of you may have seen it. And I have a history on the stage. I have history of acting. I do a lot of public speaking. And I always get inspired when I watch things like this, but more so this time than ever before. And so I've decided something stage worthy is coming down the pike. So look forward to that. That's gonna be cool. And number two is really just a thought. If you're gonna use your imagination to come up with reasons to keep you from starting anything, please choose things that are solvable and disregard that which you can't control. You don't need that negativity in your life. That's it from me. Until soon. Later days.