NFT Doxxed to Create Trust with Natalie Hereford and the Wunks
Episode Notes
As a CEO and creative force for Blam.io and Wunks NFT, Natalie Hereford brings empathy, drive, and experience to her team. After years of experience as a mother, volunteer, entrepreneur and managerial consultant, Natalie has found her calling within the Web3 space by amalgamating her passion for purpose-driven initiatives, art, and business development. Natalie jokes about having “Big Mom Energy” as she draws strength from caring for others both in the home and professionally. Recognizing Web3’s revolutionary potential, Natalie ardently advocates for equity of access as she builds BLAM.io and Wunks NFT with a mission driven focus and personal touch.
Failed transactions at a cost of 14 ETH
Bug in the code, learning from the 2 lines that derailed the iterating function.
Web 3 contract issues
Angry Discord, legacy partners,
Designed to bring equity to space so they had to fix it, learn the story and how they mitigated this.
Doxxed to be transparent with the community and fix the problem.
Relaunch of the Wunks, viral traction, minted out in 2.5 hours all during the pandemic!
900 airdrops and refunds
Legacy partner relationships, new roadmap created, 35% for women in leadership
Being an artist vs. hobbyist
Crisis management and vulnerability
Honorary Wunks
Welcome to the Summer Series of Culture Factor. I’m Holly Shannon.
When I was speaking and interviewing at NFT NYC I noticed themes that almost every one of my conversations touched.
This new Web3 digital space is made up of artists, collectors and businesses and when we stopped to scratch the surface, these underlying themes all pointed toward our most basic, fundamental, evolutionary need: connection.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to break down the whys, not just the whats, of this new digital space we find ourselves in.
Hello Culture Factor Family, and welcome to the summer series.During my interviews at NFT NYC, a theme that revealed itself underneath the Web3 technology was the different kinds of user experience.
Technology accessibility, fiat (or, real cash money)vs. cryptocurrency, social media, personal expression, community, and education these are all facets of user experience that I’ve noticed directly affect people’s engagement in this space — both literally and metaphorically.
Season 4 of Culture Factor is produced by Avery Rogers' Paleblue Studios
Blam website (no code platform for contracts, NFTs)
Mint Holly Shannon + Culture Factor NFT
Harmony Wine Use Promo Code HOLLYROSE20 for 20% off
Watch Culture Factor and VaynerNFT
Season 4 producer Avery Rogers (Paleblue Studios)
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Transcript
Holly Shannon 0:02
Welcome to the summer series of Culture Factor. I'm Holly Shannon. When I spoke at this year's nfdm yc, I use my downtime to interview the experts about their engagement in the web three space. We've talked on culture factor a lot about what web three is and how it's being used. But I wanted to try and understand why. Almost every person I spoke to had a similar reason for being part of web three, they all wanted to help fulfill our most basic fundamental, evolutionary need connection. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to explore the methods that artists, collectors and businesses use to bring about connection, or break down the lies, not just the watts of this new digital space we find ourselves in today's interview is going to start off a little differently. I want to share with you a post that I did on LinkedIn for Episode Three where we dove into trust, and I think it's quite relevant, actually. And it'll make sense in a little bit. So I did a poll. And I asked people first off, is Bitcoin bogus. And are you annoyed by web three and the metaverse and think it's fake? So the overarching question and the poll that I ran was, do you trust anything about web three? Well, interestingly, my community trusted blockchain above all else in that poll. So I asked about cryptocurrency blockchain creators and NF Ts. And 75% of the responses said blockchain, they had very little trust in crypto and NF T's and even less and creators. But what I'd like to do is I'd like to share with you some of those posts, because it's very interesting. Everybody's perspective. So a shout out to Cory Cachola. He feels that people will continue to call Bitcoin and web three fake, because at the end of the day, they are stories, Fiat, which is like US dollars, gold borders. And banks are also stories that they've been told longer than the stories that we talk about now. So they're accepted by more people. And that has been a conversation that we've had before here on culture factor, that you have to have trust in the system. And that takes time, and it takes people. So these are all new concepts. And so it'll take time, and massive quantities of people to adopt it. So one of the other people who said he only had trust in Bitcoin. He also recommended the Bitcoin standard, for a book for people to take a peek at. Also, there was a gentleman by the name of Alan Hale, and he felt the opposite of Christopher, that Bitcoin was pure speculation and driven by a handful of people like, like Elon Musk, for example. And I get that, I think that it's really hard for people to adopt and trust something that is pretty speculative right now. And we have watched it go up and down, it will continue to go up and down and be a part of our landscape. But I think that we have to adopt everybody's opinions, regardless of what generation they're from, by the way, because everybody brings different knowledge to the table. Another shout out ghost, Andy Greenawalt. And he feels that the metaverse is materially not really different from the matrix that you put on a set of goggles, and you live in this kind of fake world and that it's very elusive. He's really bothered that we distance ourselves further and that technology can also be negative in that it provides a silo for us to live in, and that there's a bigger cost to the world and a lack of real engagement. And he truly believes that we need to be tethered more closely to our real community to our towns. And he to put specifically, he said mobility and technology have a strange dust from our places, and community and towns, which are the atomic unit of a democracy. I think that is very powerful. And I wanted to definitely put that conversation out here on my show. So with all that said, I Want to come back to that little piece that broke my heart that there's so little trust in creators? And that's what makes this interview coming up so important. You'll learn why Natalie and her husband Patrick had to undoxx themselves when their NFT project went south. So let's jump in Hello culture factor family I am with Natalie Hereford today she is one half of the team of wanks the other half being her husband Patrick Hereford. But today, we're just going to talk with Natalie. They also have a tech platform called called blam.io. So I think we're going to be talking a little bit from the artists side, as well as the process side of creation. So hello, and welcome, Natalie,
Natalie Hereford 5:55
thank you so much for having me today. I'm excited to be here and to get to chat. So if anybody hears any screams in the background, that's just my three year old playing great.
Holly Shannon 6:06
That's okay. It's, it's perfectly fine for for my family, because this summer series was launched at NFT. NYC and so they got a lot of background noise. So hopefully, we are all a forgiving group that life intervenes, and we're experiencing each other in it.
Natalie Hereford 6:22
Yes.
Holly Shannon 6:23
So why don't we maybe we should go back a little bit because I'm assuming the NFT collection wanks came after you created blam.io. And that was probably created for a specific reason, or or an avenue. So do you want to take us there?
Natalie Hereford 6:44
Yeah, sure. No, absolutely. So my husband and I, Patrick, we've been involved with crypto and the blockchain for some time, my husband's a technologist, I think he's always loved the technology portion, and the just the revolutionary aspects of what the blockchain can be for people and for society in general. And so he's always kind of dabbled in that. And last summer, he became really interested in actually learning how to write the language to write these contracts. And he was involved in, I think, a couple different forums online with discord. And he was seeing a lot of people at the time being taken advantage of from like, a contract side, there was a lot of, I think, you know, money being thrown around, and people being like having not great contracts written. So he decided that he wanted to learn that code. And that was kind of how I, when I first came into it, I was like, What are you talking about blockchain and NFT for just launching. And I didn't get it. I didn't understand what the big hubbub was. I was like how much for these JPEGs. And then he decided to do a summer project with our kids. So we have three boys, we have a now a 10 year old, a seven year old, and a four year old as of tomorrow. For and he did a little pixel, we all did, actually, it was a it was a family project, a pixel pixel turtle project, two benefits of charity. And he was learning about the coding, the generative art coding aspect of it. And we all made these little art elements together. And when we got into it with the generative art piece, we realized that it can be really complicated to do it to do it well. And the contracts can be complicated to do it well. And at that point in time, there wasn't any platforms that were available to kind of handle that side of it for you the contract and the art generation. And Patrick immediately saw something that was exciting, I think, from a tech side. And then I started to understand it when I started to understand art. And I think the revolutionary aspect when you're talking about royalties for artists, and I've always been really involved with equity issues and equity to access. And that's my, my background, one of my passions, Ken, I came into this from a managerial consulting background as well. So I could really see how it would work from a revolutionary aspect for income or persistente sustainability or for generational wealth building for artists, because I've seen artists and creators time and time again, the left out of that equation. So we started building blab last summer after we had launched our little turtle collection, which generated a little bit of money for charity. And our kids had a blast with it. And then we ended up along the way meeting people and we came into the founding team of works. And so we entered into that as through the tech side initially. And that was how we feel First came into this particular project. Now what happened was bugs was our first big launch like test of glam. And it didn't go. Right. So we ended up we had initially launched one so bunks is a all female profile picture collection 6000 Female punks. So that's the works. And we kind of wanted to flick that crypto, you know punk script on its head and do something a little bit different. And I really loved just that, the timeliness of it and the message about that, I was excited for the collection. And when we initially launched, it was January 2, it was a Sunday evening, it's like burns. I was handling the kids, Patrick was handling the the contract part and our former legacy partners were doing some of the Twitter marketing and discord and things of that nature. And the former artists was a part of that as well. And we launched and there was a bug in my husband's code, it was in the iterator function. And what happened when you would go to MIT is that it would spin spin, spin the gas, and then fail that transaction. So in a matter of, in a matter of just a few minutes, we had numerous failed transactions. And we had burned through about 14 eath of community money. These are small investors, Mrs. Blank, like 4000.
It was a lot and like, I was putting the kids to bed and my husband just wasn't coming out. And I poked, poked my head and I was like, how's it going? It was like, not well, and he didn't know what was wrong. And he did not emerge from the office like the rest of the night. And the next morning, I was like what happened? What's going on? He said, there was a bug in the code, like I spent all night trying to figure out what it was. It was two lines of code, two lines of code with this iterator function. It was actually an error that other large projects had since repeated, he actually helped triage. It's definitely a very web three kind of contract issue. And he, I think he was just devastated. Of course, we had a lot of angry, angry people in our Discord. Our legacy partners, I think, weren't too sure what to do. And Patrick just wanted to make it right. Like we were in this to try to, you know, to bring equities in the space, not cause people to lose money. And a lot of people lost a lot of money. And we did not have 14 ETHERUEM just to simply refund them. We had three eath of our own personal in the ecosystem at the time, and that was far away from 14. And, and he said I, you know, he didn't know what to do, but he wanted to make it right. And I said, Well, we can refund people, but we have to rebind the project, like when we're liquid, we could absolutely refund people but we have to rerun the project means like everybody's angry. You know, how do we do that? And that was when I kind of put my managerial consulting on. I had my like crisis management. Olivia Pope moment, I guess. And, and I had said, Well, the first thing we have to do is Doc's ourselves. So what I didn't mention is at this point in time, we were not doxxed. I was not doxxed. He was not doxxed, our legacy team was not doxxed. And that was very common. At the moment, that was always something that didn't sit well with me with a woman. And as a business professional. I like these fate, I can see your face.
Holly Shannon 13:49
Yeah, no, I'm the same way I will not enter into an undoxx project at all, I won't advise on one. And I won't bring brands into something like that.
Natalie Hereford 14:01
I totally agree. And that like when we first entered the space, that was kind of just the way that it was done. Like that was kind of the way that it was presented to us. And that was and we knew we would have to docs ourselves with the platform, obviously. But when you're talking about a project and saying a project in quotation marks, I think people had a different expectation at that time. There wasn't as much of a call for transparency, and in some of the really large projects that were successful, did not have transparency at the time. So that was just the way that people thought it should be done. And I told Patrick, I said, Well, we have to Doc's ourselves and we have to take responsibility for this. You're a professional, I'm a professional, it was an error. Like let's show them how we can correct it. Let's Doc's yourself so we went to our late our former partners or legacy founders and we said we want to docs ourselves on owing people a bunch of money. I reran the project and they said, good for you. But we if you wanted to do that they supported us in that decision. They did not want to take the risk and docks themselves. But if the project went well, they wanted, obviously, their share of original agreements. And so we talked about it and we said, Okay, we'll take the risk. So we talked ourselves on the mistake, we went into the discord, we spent five days talking to every angry person in there, we came up with a plan, we went to our community, the plan involved. We ended up cutting the collection, it was initially 10,000 Wunks, we went to 6000, based on a community recommendation, we also did a priority refund list of our three E's, so anybody that wanted a refund right away, and to leave. Got that money. So that went out the window, and anybody that stuck with us would get their refund would get any once they had initially transacted successfully, and they would get two additional free books. airdropped once we were liquid enough to do so. And we spent five days just talking to people, and we ended up real and we did a screen share as well. Of us fixing the code, my husband walked through it so people could tell he is a this is his profession, and it was an error. And anybody that knows tech knows that bugs happen, errors happen. Generally, you have a team that helps triage. It's not just one person with all of that weight on them. But it was in this in this case, and, you know, he he was definitely able to demonstrate that he had, you know, the knowledge and capacity to fix that. So we ended up re launching it was five days later on a Friday. Our kids were getting sick with COVID at the time.
Holly Shannon 17:01
Oh my god, it rains it pours.
Natalie Hereford 17:04
It was insane. And we ended up getting like word of mouth kind of viral traction. And we just went bananas like the project went bananas and sold out within two and a half hours. Why? It was phonetic. It was like nothing I have ever experienced. And my husband's code performed beautifully. It was like this moment of redemption for him. And you know, we immediately sold out. And it was It wasn't something that we were having a party. It was like people wanted their refund and their airdrops so we did. We did like an online like Google sheet where we manually did we manually did over 900 airdrops to the community, we refunded everyone, we spent the next, you know, two days kind of doing that essentially. And then our former legacy partners wanted their cut and wanted to exit. And that was exactly what they did. And then we were free to then kind of do a roadmap how we wanted to which we ended up taking 35% of our royalties, we have a variable royalty of about 2%. But 35%, we put into a women in leadership funds to help pair funding with our tools, because we blab is a no code NFT generation platform. So we handle art generation, we handle contract deployment, we handle all of those things. So we were pairing our engineering tools with funding to help have new emerging voices come into the space essentially, and have that equity of access. And then we ended up matching those royalties we took part of our own retained mix and matched those royalties into a community fund for our community members, and started a community wallet and have a system there for community initiatives for purchases or holder benefits or whatever the community might need. That's there. And then I ended up taking over the arts. So our artists, you know, initially was part of it and and also had decided not to stay on with the project once it was done. And I what I love about pixel art is that I feel like it is accessible. I always say it's one of those art forms that you I've always said that I was like artsy but it's always been a hobby, not necessarily something I ever thought about doing in a professional capacity. But pixel art is accessible and you look at it and you think I could do that. And I always say you probably can't it's a great way to enter into it. So we ended up you wanted to do on a really once where we were honoring women in the web three space that were actually there doing the work, not just the celebrity Use that we're getting a light, you know, shined on them every single day, we wanted to really honor people that were contributing to the space. And there was a need for art. So I took over the art and started making custom bunks for our honorary. And it's been so much fun and super, super rewarding. And we've gotten a lot of really great traction with our honorary works and our customs, which people really love to so it's been, it's been a really wild journey on, especially with the markets. But it's one that I know our experience, I feel like as both the technical side and the, you know, having a collection as well, that it has been, I think it's informed boast, like, we can see both sides, like both those sides of the space of NFT collections in an entirely different way than a lot of I think folks do. And I've been extremely rewarding. So that's, that's a little bit of our
Holly Shannon 21:09
No, this is an incredible origin story.
Natalie Hereford 21:13
credible, it's not just I'm an artist, or I'm a bit like right now, I feel like I'm a jack of all trades when it comes to our platform and the collection.
Holly Shannon 21:24
So let me Alright, so we heard about all that. So you you essentially, I shouldn't say you were building in public, you were fixing in public, which is really, really cool. And I think like you said, you know, a lot of other companies run into this. It's common. Yeah, so it's really great that you just came out you were transparent, watch us fix this in public kind of thing. Watch us deal with community in public and correct what we did and come out on the other side. So So bravo and brava for, for getting there. What I'd love to dive into is you sort of that the, the inner part, like I know, you use the word rewarding. You also claim to be a hobbyist artist, which usually people tell me they're either not creative, or it's their hobby. And I think we all have this fear of saying that it's also what we do for a living, you know, because people don't see art that way. So as an artist, Natalie won't call you a hobbyist as an artist, especially in the area of pixel art, which you find very fun and accessible. What does that do for you? What is the what do you hope? The buyer, the collector, whoever's minting it, what do you hope they get from it?
Natalie Hereford 23:02
I feel like they're, I feel like with pixel art, especially with wax, that there's this really wonderful way of representing yourself, where it's not a lot of the, it's a different way of representing yourself with a PFP versus some of the other collections that maybe have traits that are can be very exaggerated, or overly feminized, or maybe pixel artists, one of those that it's kind of neutral, I don't know. But in that this really wonderful way where you're, you're actually taking an interpretation of somebody and breaking it down into squares, which is sorry, I have a little frog in my throat or take a sip of coffee here. But that's one thing that I feel like it's so appealing to people because I can have a representation of myself and a representation of you as well from the same base model with the little one, you know, a one pixel nose and lips and eyes, but somehow you can kind of capture the essence of that person and the person sees themselves in that. So for the custom wants, especially for the honorary wives, I often have like we've been really trying to work one on one with the people that we choose for an honorary and I have a picture of them. And I do several and kind of let the person choose which one represents them more I think my art style, and I'm trying to own that, that moniker of artists, more definitely, but my art style because I have a lot of hair. It's very curly. So I'm very focused on styles of hair and that can be that can be challenging when you're talking about pixels like capturing texture, color or things of that nature. So the the honorary works I generally spend a lot of time trying to get I try to capture those things in kind of this rudimentary form. But it's wonderful because I've had people of all different races and ages and backgrounds that they can identify with a pixel PFP of themselves, maybe more so than they could something that has some of those. Some of the, there's some typical traits that I think we've seen in a lot of PFP collections. Styled now that there are some similarities there, but it can be very useful, overly youthful, I would say as well, if I was being critic critical, but not in a pejorative way. But it can be very useful, it can be very overly feminized, or, and I think sometimes it's harder for people to see themselves especially as you get older, or depending on, you know, your, your particular background, it might be harder to see yourself within those pictures, but with a pixel picture, it's just people automatically see it as an interpretation. It's I love that.
Holly Shannon 26:09
Yeah, I love that, too. Natalie, I think what's so interesting is, you know, for forever, women have been objectified in, in art, and have have their image only a certain way. And now that we use social media to create content, there are all sorts of filters to help us continue that to continue the carrying on that trend of the super perky little nose, the contour makeup, the, you know, changing the usefulness. And look, I have fun playing with those filters, too. You know, it's for fun that I use it for, you know, I don't use it for my like day to day cuz it's just not realistic. Like, I don't go up on stage to speak and say, oh, wait a minute, can you add this filter look like that would happen? Right? I think we have to be realistic and I love that the pixelated are allows people to be playful, without taking it all the way. Look at me when I was 20. And maybe they're 50 whatever you'd like. I think that's so cool.
Natalie Hereford 27:25
Yeah, well, I mean, I think we've honored women from from 21 to in their 50s and they can see they all have something that they see within the pixel art that speaks speaks to them. And that's such a to me, there's just so much power within that too. And I like I did a custom for myself and for some of the team members as well. And then I recently started I was having some customers to benefit our reproductive rights charity that they were trying to do at online space to to gather some funds for Planned Parenthood and I said, Hey, anybody that donated I would happily make them a custom and we could AirDrop them to that and or AirDrop them that and I really enjoy it. I really do. I love the interaction with other people. I think I love giving back as well. Like it's something that I feel like just enhances the community nature of the space and I love seeing I love seeing the pink or pink walks out there. It's great. I love it. So I really see you know, it wasn't this is not what I expected. But I feel like I'm right where I need to be.
Holly Shannon 28:37
I love that you say it that way. Okay, culture factor family, I have been enjoying rosé over this very hot summer. And harmony wine has been my newest addiction. My friend Matt Harmon has not only created this delicious Rose from Provence, but it has these beautiful notes of strawberry and floral, and it's dry and super yummy. And he put it in the prettiest of cans that you can take to your picnic or a barbecue mat and I agree that the best rosé comes from the south of France that's probably why we're friends. And he is going to be giving you my culture factor family 20% off your Harmony Wine link is in the show notes.
So you went into nfts for a very different reason. And you've come out on the other side what without using the word rewarding because like that's how you feel but like what would be three things you would say that it gave you?
Natalie Hereford 29:46
Well, so this has allowed me to kind of bridge all the different parts of myself. And I didn't I don't know I might be going more than three. I'm not just listing it's alright, that's alright. I have fun energize I am not I'm not succinctly listing three things but but like I have the part of me that I think I love the, you know the equity of access that community organizing piece of it, it's allowed me to tap into that to give back, whether it's the Women in Leadership Fund, or I was a speaker at the blockchain or social good and helped to get that conference off the ground, what's allowed me to bridge into those avenues, as well as this professional side. So prior to this, I've been home with my kids, I shelved my career, when my oldest was about 14 months, and we knew we would be expanding our family. And I've always had that itch to go back. But we've been in the thick of things. And this has allowed me to bring back that professional side that I didn't know if I would have a chance to do because I'm a woman of my certain of a certain age, and I've had this gap time in my resume. And often women are sidelined with with that, because it's considered that you know, you haven't grown as a professional or your you know, your skills might be rusty, or whatever of the 1000s of things that women are subjected to all the time in our professional lives. I didn't know if I would ever be able to have that part of me back. And it's allowed me actually to excel in that realm. And then it's allowed me also to express this whole creative part, which I would say probably has been undermined in my in my life. Like I think as a woman, like I do a lot of things in our house with our kids and projects and painting. But it's always people call it crafty, which I feel like that can be that jority of word like there's not there's not any acknowledgement of skill or artistry. It's kind of its degraded with that I don't if that makes any
Holly Shannon 31:55
Oh, no, I, I'm right there with you of it. Because I was a jewelry designer and before and you know, an entrepreneur, so most people, even even good friends of mine have categorized it as, you know, a hobby versus not a business. So it's very interesting it my jewelry business was a six figure business, but apparently it was a hobby to some people.
Natalie Hereford 32:22
Yes, absolutely. I figure that's, I feel like that's something that women particularly have to traverse time and time again. So I have been able to kind of tap into all of these different parts of myself. I think, as a woman, a human being a professional, an artist, I've been able to
Holly Shannon 32:44
do it all on it now.
Natalie Hereford 32:46
I am I'm doing that now. Someone was like, well, you are an NF T artist. And I was like I Yes, I am.
Holly Shannon 32:52
Yes, I am. Yes, she is.
Natalie Hereford 32:56
Yeah. But I, I love that it's been able to also, I've been able to work with my husband, I think he and I work incredibly well together, too. And so that's brought this just richness to our marriage and our lives and our partnership together. And I also feel like, you know, beyond that rewarding, it's been, I feel like I've had a chance to have some significance. Like it's really been, like the we ended up actually funding one of the first project women in leadership project that we funded, we gave three ace to a group of women that we're launching, it's a profile picture collection. But it was to benefit, the creation of a course of control and domestic violence courses for both like private and police. And one of the women that's at the head of it is a PhD in criminal psychology out of Australia. And the moment that we could bring something like that new, like we took them from funding to Genesis collection, and now they're minting their generative like that was that projects, like we helped get them there, like we were helped part of their journey. And it was just this moment of incredible, just like you felt significance within that and helping somebody else, you know, realize their dream. And this is a team that is you know, worldwide there in Romania and Australia and the United States. And we were a small part of their journey. And that is something that I never thought I would be able to have that type of impact so soon, and we were able to, I think we funded them on March 1. So that was what less than two months after we meant it, that we were able to go from our mitt to making a difference in somebody else's life like that. And that was just, it was a powerful moment for me. And I really Love these types of connections, like even sitting here and talking with you today. This is not the type of conversation I've had for the last eight years, it's been a lot of like, you know, Mommy has to potty now or you're talking about myself and like, it's just been a different and I, I have loved the I have met so many women here, especially women that have been, you know, so intelligent, and so collaborative, and all really looking to build something that is truly, truly different. And there's a desire for that. It's been so refreshing, like, it's been one of the most refreshing experiences coming, especially from a corporate background. I've never seen this level of collaboration and camaraderie and odd like honesty as well. And we're all tapping into our own strengths and not trying to necessarily reinvent the wheel. And that's I've always said, We're, you're better together, you're better, you're stronger together. And I, it's been a lot of work. Has it always been the easiest? I think, especially with the market market conditions as it is now you have to, you know, deal with criticism and kind of ride that wave and write it out. But it's been, I wouldn't, I wouldn't change it. From the mistake to now I feel like it was kind of meant to unfold the way it did.
Holly Shannon 36:33
Well, I think having that mistake, flatten you, and then being able to rebuild yourself, first of all toxic of your resilience and your resilience as a couple and being very transparent about it very forward about it. But still plowing through, I think people probably find you more accessible, because you're not talking bro language, you're not talking rocket ship, and you know, you know, floor price and Scylla. You know, like, you're not talking that talk. You're saying, Hey, this is how it gets built. We fucked it up the first time, we figured out how to fix it. And actually, I think it's better to partner with us, because we know how to manage a crisis. Whereas a lot of people don't know how to do that women inherently are very good at that. So I I'm really excited for you, like I think I think you've tapped into something like you, your clients must see that vulnerability like they see themselves in you because maybe they're raising families or they're on a venture, you know, a business venture with, you know, family member, and you put like, your heart out on your sleeve. Like I think people admire that. Yeah.
Natalie Hereford 38:05
Well, I vulnerability, I think is vulnerability is one of the keywords I felt like there was a moment where I was living like a Brene Brown TED Talk like my, my cell, like it was like, straight out of her book. But, you know, for for our platform, the people that are coming to us. We're not, it's my husband and I that are mostly running everything. Right now. We are a nimble team, we are a small team, we are not VC backed like it is its costs. And we don't really have an interest in building a web two monolith and a web three space, we really want to do things I think differently from the contract side. So the people that we're working with, they want to have that face to face contact, they want to feel like that they have it's their contract that they're owning, but they want to feel like there's some at least partnership or trust that's there. So a lot of a lot of the people that we've been working with, with blam have really gravitated towards the fact that we're, you have kind of this boutique, personalized experience with us, it's different and many people come to us with no custom requests, so they have a vision for their project or whatever that might be. But we can really understand understand that and I know one of the skills for me that's come out is like my husband, definitely the technologist but I have a very good understanding of the technology and I often like translate like I can put it into like artists terms or business terms in a way that I think you know, I came into this as kind of that layman that I was like No What What's the meant and what happened with with this and your wallet and it just you know, it was I had to kind of learn that vernacular and then apply it to my knowledge base. So So we work really well as a team like that, but Um, for the last, for the last two months want to buy two quarters, I should say, you know, our platform has been exclusive to our wealth holders, that's been part of our utility while we were in our beta phase. And we're now kind of growing out of that and have been looking for other we really want it to be purpose led, because we have, we kind of have to give back to our community fund from our from our bland fees that are only postponement, and we're starting a nonprofit to house both our Women in Leadership Fund and the community fund as well, I don't think I think a lot of people don't understand all of the legal and like accounting nuances that can go into things like funds and Dows. And there's a lot of terminology that is thrown around, and a lot of projects and collections that launch that don't necessarily have that scaffolding behind it. And it's been such a fast moving space that especially when you're talking about these larger collections, they're definitely businesses. Yeah,
Holly Shannon 41:07
no, I don't disagree. And I think a lot of people, and I love the way you said it builds the scaffolding in that you've done that, I think a lot of projects don't do that. They just talk about their utilities, they just talk about the roadmap, and they have some pretty shiny presentations and documents they make on Canva, which I can make today if I wanted to. And they you know, make those documents available to people to create the facade of of what's happening. But they're not. It's a house of cards, right? Like, that's why you keep hearing about rug polls, and, and things like that, because it's, there is no scaffolding, it is just pretty pictures, or conversation and unboxed. You know, avatars and people I think in the beginning, kind of bought into that, like, wow, this is just something really, you know, different almost felt like so gamified like, they were in the middle of the game, and nobody stopped to think of, you know, well what happens when that, like House of Cards falls, and it does, it's done. It's done it a lot. So I, I love that you have taken a very thoughtful approach to what you're building and you're helping other people realize that and, and you're able to explain it to them in a different language than your husband might share it. You know, cuz it's hard. The the technical side is hard. If that's not, you know, your daily speak. You know, I had an interesting couple on my show. In season three, Elizabeth and Jason Franklin, who created the NFTS Dreamy Geeks, and they had a social good aspect to it, but also a husband and wife team, which I think you would find interesting a marriage of code and art. And they helped me We collaborated on my project for culture factor. So, you know, she helped with the ART helped with the code, we, you know, realize the different traits, like you were talking about hair and, you know, that type of thing. And it is a big process. I wanted to go through it for my show, because I felt like I talked all season about an education in NF T's and blockchain technology, but I felt like going through it, you know, was really important too. And there's it's very rare. You guys are rare, you know, they are as are you and your husband, Patrick. Like it's very rare to me. Couples that build together come to the table with very different skill sets and are are still married.
Natalie Hereford 44:12
I think we complement each other well, like that's what I we challenged each other in a good way, like where you want to grow together. But we also complement each other. Well, so that's something that I'm very well that the Dean if you hear that in the back of that was actually him checking in on me to me as he's as he's in Boston for work, but yes, so that's, we're definitely I feel, I feel very fortunate actually to have that partnership.
Holly Shannon 44:42
That is nice. Let me ask you one other question, and then I'll let you go to your baby. I saw a video on Twitter of you videotaping Your Time Square experience you are up on the Billboard Words of Time Square, which is, you know, a breathtaking experience and a taking away of the breath. Not just for the people out there that are looking around at it. What What did that feel like for you, Natalie?
Natalie Hereford 45:17
It. It was incredible. I think it was one of those moments where I mean that the woman that was videotaping me was this wonderful woman named Chrissy that I met at V con, and we become fast friends, and she loves the space. And then we were up on the Billboard because of Farah and just mash. And that was lovely. And I was meeting and they've been just incredible. And then I was also meeting like, right next to me was Rena from gala girls. And that was one of the projects that we had funded. So there's all it was like this moment where we are seeing art from our collection up in Times Square, with 1000s of people around. And it was just this pure, just like joy, like adulation, I was just excited to be and I felt so grateful. Like there was just this like humbled like gratitude with joy, because I would have never dreamed especially during COVID that's been rocking, everybody's grilled for the last two years. But if you if you said to me last summer that I would have been cut to a year in Time Square with these new incredible people in my life that you know, I think I bonded with and invested in a totally different way. Like we've formed me goosebumps. It, but it was like, it was just this moment where I was when I was in New York, I there were several moments that I got, I became just very overwhelmed like emotionally when you realize how fortunate I was to be there and to be in those rooms with those people and experiencing that, that this moment in time where you have art and technology. And it was I felt just so utterly grateful. Like it was just, and my husband was at home with our three kids, like, letting me have this honor to like, be my partner in that too. That was the longest I've ever been away from my children. So there were just all of these these things that I was very elements that I was so just a wit, like highly aware of these pieces coming into place for this particular moment to like happen and it just, it was all of the emotions.
Holly Shannon 47:40
I got well, I will tell you, you you gave me goosebumps and my eyes watered while you were talking. You're such a beautiful person Natalie and I I think, you know, as difficult as COVID has been and I won't be belittle it in any way. A lot of innovation has been spurned from it. And I too, have innovated through it I was lucky enough to be able to do that and I every day find it very humbling to say that I was on stages speaking and if Tmic I wouldn't have thought that a year ago either. I didn't get to see your art up on the ticker there in in Time Square. I got to see it afterwards when everybody was posting and I'm sad that we didn't meet when we were there. But I am so happy that Farah brought us together because I feel like we are not done together you
Natalie Hereford 48:43
know absolutely not fair. And Farah has been just this incredible light and supporter i It's I'm she amazes me she's an enigma wrapped in a mystery of just wonderfulness.
Holly Shannon 48:58
Oh my god, I'm so glad you said that because I'm like, I have been begging her to come on the show and she brought me a bounty of people to interview and she did not click the shiny red button to make a date for the two of us to talk. She is an enigma that is like perfectly set up. I keep sending her messages. So when are you booking yours? She's not going to she is an enigma
Natalie Hereford 49:21
that that is and yeah, she she is going to be named one of our honorary bunks and I always do like the whole write up, you know, like a like a blurb, not a bio. And she's like, I don't know. And I was like, we can just put secret. It was Jason. I like that and I said that's fine. You can you don't whatever you want to disclose is completely fine with me. So she is she's just a force she's. We were calling when I when I met her and we're calling her the F F force F factor. I love that. She is just this incredible support and connect her and she has As you have such amazing eye for artists, and she's an artist herself, and her work is breathtaking. Yeah, yeah, it's incredible. So I feel so fortunate to have people like that come into my worlds and like, it's
Holly Shannon 50:17
amazing. It really is such amazing. I'm really happy that we met and I don't even want to end this interview. But I know you have kids that are waiting for you in the other room. So we will put all of the links in the show notes. But if you want to tell everybody how to reach you and what the mint address is for Wanke so maybe they can go check it out. That'd be great.
Natalie Hereford 50:44
Well bunks is available like an open sea or several of the other because it's it's you know sold out but once dot XYZ is our is the website, and wanks NF T is our Twitter handle. So that would be and then Blam, which is BL a m dot i O is the platform is our no code generation platform for all of your contract needs
Holly Shannon 51:13
now, so that's perfect. So people who are listening to this if you want to build your own, you can use that platform to get you from your idea to open see, right. Yeah, absolutely. So great. Thank you, Natalie. Thanks for coming on culture will
Natalie Hereford 51:30
definitely please be in please be in touch. So I'm so glad we spent the time together. Me too.
Holly Shannon 51:40
So what do you think? I'm on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Wherever you leave a message know that I'll engage with you and others will too. I may even share your thoughts on the show. This summer is coming in hot. Please share this episode of culture factor now and listen with your friends. It's always more fun that way. And don't forget the harmony wine Rosae. Season Four of culture factor is produced by pale blue studios