Bear Markets are a great time to evaluate the market, give you time to do more research, and get caught up on everything happening in this space to be prepared for the next bull run!
Listen to our post 2022 VeeCon Episode HERE
Be sure to Follow the Tomorrow Today Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss a new episode.
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Duke McKenzie
Kyle Kaplanis
Duke McKenzie
LinkedIn - Duke McKenzie
Kyle Kaplanis
LinkedIn - Kyle Kaplanis
TikTok - @theweb3guy
IG - @kyle_kaplanis
YT - The Web3 Guy
Bear Markets are a great time to evaluate the market, give you time to do more research, and get caught up on everything happening in this space to be prepared for the next bull run!
Listen to our post 2022 VeeCon Episode HERE
Be sure to Follow the Tomorrow Today Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss a new episode.
Follow us on Social Media
Duke McKenzie
Kyle Kaplanis
Duke McKenzie
LinkedIn - Duke McKenzie
Kyle Kaplanis
LinkedIn - Kyle Kaplanis
TikTok - @theweb3guy
IG - @kyle_kaplanis
YT - The Web3 Guy
All right, everybody. Welcome to the Tomorrow Today Podcast. You got myself. I'm your host. Duke McKenzie. And my co-host
Kyle Kaplanis:Kyle Kaplanis. What's up everybody.
Duke McKenzie:What's up, Kyle? Good to see you, brother. So today we got a very special episode today. We've been having some really cool conversations and wanted to share them with you. Especially since the world's changing so fast. So one of the things that we wanted to talk about is that if you've been following this podcast and you've been following us on social and you've been seeing the things that we've been doing and everything in our day to day lives, which we spend most of our time talking to and working with and being a part of creators, right? Born on TikTok, creators, YouTubers, some Instagramers, but we've made a heavy bet on short form and with born on TikTok creators. Now, the reason why that is interesting is that most of the creators that we work with are all gen Z, right? TikTok is a gen Z phenomenon, and they're all gen Z. And what they all had in common is that. Really played a key role for me. And I don't know for view call bringing us into everything web three. So everything like blockchain, crypto, spending a lot of time on NFTs and how that would change the game. Yep. We spent a lot of the beginning parts of the spring and the winter and everything really diving really deep and head first into all things, web three, Kyle, you even changed and started a new TikTok handle call the web three guy. Right. You even did that. Right. Right. And so one of the things that happened as we were on this journey of web three was that web three winter happened. NFTs crashed. Cryptos crashed. Even things in the metaverse, which we're exploring or whatever. Everyone just taking a big pause. And I wanted for us to check in we're about two months into the crypto winter and the web three winter and all those things I want to check into you on just sort of like, where are you at? What are your thoughts and whatever, cuz you are the web three guy and leading. And I think that the audience will find that interesting as. What are our thoughts during this time on web three during this bit of a downturn or slowdown.
Kyle Kaplanis:During the bear market is a great time to really evaluate and it slows things down enough to where you can catch up with your research because when it was peak, things were moving so fast, I felt like I was outta touch with so many things. Whereas right now, with the bear market, I'm able to do a lot more research to plan for the future of when it becomes a bull market again and be in the mix. In my local town, we've been doing some web three meetups and it was interesting to see the decline in, people showing up. But there was people that continuously did. And so you got to see who was actually here to stay or really found it more passionate versus it being a fad. And it's making me rethink a lot of things.
Duke McKenzie:Like what? What has been making you, rethink and how are you thinking 60 days ago versus how are you thinking right now?
Kyle Kaplanis:60 days ago I was thinking I was late yeah, literally I thought I was late.
Duke McKenzie:The craziest thing, isn't it. The craziest thing. Oh my God. We're behind. We're behind on this brand new technology,
Kyle Kaplanis:right? Yeah. But really we're so early that this bear market is slowed things down, but that made me realize, okay, shit, I'm not behind at all. In fact, I'm extremely early because I believe in this a hundred percent, because there's just too much technology that there's no way this won't move forward. Um, you know, in the next 10 years we'll be looking back at this episode and laughing and saying, yeah, we were early. But it changed my mindset and got me even more excited. I realized, okay. I have a little bit more time to understand this process, this, and be fully prepared for the next bull run. And what I like about this bear market is it stopped all the bullshit. There was too many projects going out that were just nothing and now because it's slowed down, people are putting a lot more pressure and saying, Uhuh, we don't want this crap anymore. We want really good things that will move the needle in the positive direction.
Duke McKenzie:So I have taken this time since then. And I've been blessed with, Working on it and we've worked on together, like it's really diving into tokenized gaming, right? Mm-hmm , one of our creators, that we work with Michael Le, co-founded a tokenized gaming, platform called Joystick one, a Joysticks mission is to say, okay, we're trying to make it so that as many people as possible can earn a living, being a creator. And part of that, a key component of that is doing it in the gaming space. Right. What Michael Le, you could call it luck or brilliance or whatever it is. But what Michael Le did, was he ended up launching that company after the crash. So it allowed them to take their time and to really build in the stuff that they're building is amazing. One of the key things that has happened to me over the last, I would say two months watching the downturn is that, you mentioned that you realized how early you were. I feel a lot more comfortable coming in here now, cuz I'm heavily into web three. Believe in all of those things, believe in NFTs to believe in decentralization, believe in tokenized gaming and all of those things. It's just when it was going so fast. I don't want to use the word late. I would use the word I felt. Behind. Do you know what I mean? I felt uncomfortable saying that I was behind and learning, cuz I'm like, wow guys, you gotta catch up. And right now two things I'm finding is I'm not the smartest guy in the room, but I don't feel behind. And then number two, at one point when the market was red, red, hot, and especially in the NFT space, right. Where everyone was making quote unquote money, was the appreciation of the assets. So like, You had a project. Oh, well, it's gonna great. Cuz I'll sell this JPEG for $500 and then next month I'll sell one for$10,000 or whatever it is, right. It was the appreciation of these digital assets. Whereas our skillset of working with creators, our skillset of selling brand advertising, trying to find alternative ways to use these assets. Alternative ways to use NFTs. Alternative ways to use the blockchain. people are much more open and willing to hear that and experiment with that now because we're here now we gotta build. And I find that quite refreshing and I'm taking a lot of time and advantage of doing that.
Kyle Kaplanis:Exactly. Something I learned during this time as well was that I was really focused so much on trying to educate people on what the hell a blockchain is and all these terminologies and somebody shared, a piece of content. And it really got me thinking and they said, nobody needs to know that stuff. And their example was when you think of banking, You don't think of how that transaction process just happens.
Duke McKenzie:I agree.
Kyle Kaplanis:What got me thinking was my mindset was more of educating people versus being too technical mm-hmm was changing it more to like layman term things that we're just gonna know, because eventually people will be using web through technology and they don't even know it. Right. It's just gonna be , just like the internet is, it's just gonna be a thing. Right. And, when I saw that it was like, holy shit, duh, this just makes sense.
Duke McKenzie:No one knows how their cell works.
Kyle Kaplanis:Exactly.
Duke McKenzie:We all use the internet. Nobody knows how the internet works. You don't you like how Kyle, how does the internet work? I don't know. You're on the internet all day, right? No one knows how the internet works. That makes sense. The only thing I would say is that the reason why I remember I've been reading articles and I've been going back to first principles and figuring, okay, what's blockchain, what is the letter? But it's more because I wanna build. I wanna try and understand the technology and everything that's going on to try and create things. So I'm just trying to look at things in a different lens, you know? Which is taking, a step and learning is important in that step, but when you're building something it's not important for everybody to know how this works. The interesting thing about the internet. The internet that we know of it today is basically has broken out because of something that no one could have predicted, which was the invention of the smartphone. Yeah. The invention of the smartphone revolutionized the internet because the big revelation was that the internet is always on in your pocket everywhere you go. Everywhere you go , any place, versus when it first started, it was on a computer that you had to dial in. It wasn't always on.. That invention that I think it happened in 2009 or whatever it was, but that invention was what made the modern day internet happen as the way that we see it right now. Right? The thing is when we are looking at the blockchain, we are looking at all of these things. Someone has to invent the iPhone of the blockchain of web three, right. To make those things all work. It's not missing. I'm not gonna use the word missing. It just goes with early. We cannot even imagine all of the things that are coming with these new technologies yet. Just like we couldn't imagine that we would be walking around with a computer in a pocket that would make it so you could summon at a car and get a car, get food, get anything in 10 minutes. Exactly. Wherever you are in the world.
Kyle Kaplanis:Exactly. You know, what's funny. I read an article recently and it was the founder of Ethereum and he said that mark Zuckerberg needs to slow down because he's spending billions of dollars on products. He doesn't even know if consumers want yet. Right. Because that's how early we are. We don't even know what people even want from this technology as of yet. Right. And that got me thinking too, we're early, you know what else? Another thing is when I was getting my user for TikTok and it was available. I was like, I'm early because that
Duke McKenzie:yeah, that's a good name. Like sort of like, yeah. From there. It's that is funny. Yeah, that, that is that, that, that is funny. So let me ask you a question. Over these last 60 days, how has your perspective changed since you were at VeeCon we did an episode, by the way we're gonna hit our 20th episode soon. I don't know when but the question is we did an episode right after VeeCon. And I think one of the key takeaways from that episode, and we'll put in the show notes, what that episode was, right after VeeCon, one of our key takeaways from that was That was the first time that I saw, a real world example that's what I was looking for for NFTs, right? Yes. Even from the use of my tickets, I see how he plans to make the toys and do all of that type of stuff. It was just oh, this is a real world use case yes. Of how you could use NFTs. And that was a big awakening for me. Right. Like not awakening sort of like, an aha moment for me. I'm just curious as to, what have you learned or what has changed since you went to VeeCon or do you even look at VeeCon differently now than you did now that you have these 60 days under your belt?
Kyle Kaplanis:My takeaway, and how I look at things is almost similar to yours because the ticket aspect to me alone was just so cool. And now it's funny because I go into situations and I'm like, dang, that could have been a really cool . NFT ticket versus some of the ways that they do things now it doesn't work very well or you miss something or a ticket is duplicated twice. So since that VeeCon, I do think that technology was amazing and it worked really, really well. Mm-hmm but my favorite thing about it was at the end when Gary Vee announced the whoever had a ticket will get Some sort of airdrop from Snoop dog collaboration. And, it, wasn't the Snoop dog thing that got me excited, even though that's amazing. right. But what he mentioned was that this is the first time ever that a ticket can be traced back in 10 years time, like he can do a 10 year,
Duke McKenzie:decade, 10 year. You could do a 10 year anniversary. See who the heck was there you do. Right. Right, right, right,
Kyle Kaplanis:Like in NFL, what if you were fan of like, I'm wearing rape now. Right? What if I went to a game 10 years, later and I've been a fan that whole time. And they were able to reward me in some capacity. That to me is insane.
Duke McKenzie:Right? No, you're right. You're right. And that goes back to what we were talking about, about how we cannot imagine, We go to NFT's. NFT's are getting their ass kicked and they should, because I remember I was never a major collector. I did buy and a few. And the one that I used the most is StepIn the shoe. Yeah. That you got me on. And we did a episode on that too, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, but the thing is, when people would ask me why, cuz I'm pro web three, I'm pro NFTs and a lot of our talent are really into it. My problem was is I didn't understand why this JPEG was worth more than this JPEG. Right? Right. I get it. Like I'm not a hater I'm, you know, whatever it is. I just don't understand. Well, it's the team it's just like, okay. Really? But every team now is been out for the same period of time, you know? Yeah. I never understood. But the thing is, is that I understand that. If I went to the same super bowl. And then for the 50th, you hung onto that ticket and for super bowl 50, I got a special airdrop from whatever, or, one of my favorite bands in the world was Public Enemy. Okay. I went and I went to the first public enemy on their first tour and I got the t-shirt, but I got the ticket. And now this is 40 years later and they do the 40th tour. But the people who have from their ticket, from their first thing, get a special air drop. But that is interesting even as a collector, right? even if it's not worth hundreds of thousand dollars, like the apes as a collector that has value to me. Absolutely. Right. And that's an very interesting use case that I never thought of
Kyle Kaplanis:a hundred percent. Exactly. And, go back to what made projects better was really who had the most money to market. Right, right.
Duke McKenzie:right. And, and all of those things. On your channel, when you're talking about web three, what are the things that you are talking about now versus, when you first started.
Kyle Kaplanis:My channel's starting to evolve a little bit talking about web two as well. It's bringing web two concepts, but leading them into why it's important for web three. So I talked to random people and ask them their knowledge of this space right now, as it is. And I think that's interesting to do as well, for future going back and listening and following up with those. Cause can you imagine in 10 years when I can go back and find those content and reshare 'em. Right. Will be really, really cool. So I'm looking at it more like that as a long-term play versus short-term wins. I'm taking like all this content to be able to share it in five years, 10 years. That's what I'm sharing over there. And it's going back
Duke McKenzie:to your 10 year plan, 10 year plan. Kyle's got a 10 year plan, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, but I hear you. Me too.
Kyle Kaplanis:Cause it'll be really, really interesting to share that stuff in 10 years time of asking people what's an NFT and then people in 10 years time, everybody's gonna understand what that means. So they're gonna think that's so funny asking people questions that will be instilled into us as an everyday life. And looking back, just like I shared a video recently about the internet and, it was on the today show and they didn't even know what the, a symbol was. They were like, what
Duke McKenzie:that is that, is that crazy? Like, what is the internet? You're a hundred percent correct. People are gonna be like, what is this web three? And like making funny things about it and all that type of stuff. You're right. It's gonna seem just as ridiculous. It. This internet thing, the worldwide web. Yeah.
Kyle Kaplanis:Yeah. Yeah. I love watching those videos now because it just makes me, realizes where I'm at right now. People are making fun of it because they don't understand it, but eventually it will become everything. And then looking back, they're gonna be like, that was hilarious that I thought that way.
Duke McKenzie:Yeah, no, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. So Mr. Web three guy what's your prediction, as in, what do you think the next we'll probably hop on and do this episode again in another two months, yeah. What do you think the next two, three months are gonna look like? What are you expecting?
Kyle Kaplanis:I still think we're gonna be in a bear market a hundred percent. What I predict is that there might be some interesting things come out of this maybe utility wise, but for people listening that are what is some advice maybe you can gimme in these next few months is do a lot of research and look at the last six months and see what was happening what peaked out, what is dropped off and why, and figuring out where, the next shift could be with technology or the next projects that are coming out and seeing if these new projects that are coming out, do they have more utility than the others? That's what I've been paying attention to and seeing if things have changed. And there's definitely a lot of changes within that. There's a lot of people putting pressure now they want more than just a profile picture. Nobody cares. They want something with it. Yeah. They want community,
Duke McKenzie:right? They want community and that's why I'm all in, on tokenized gaming and learning about it. Yeah. And building communities around that. Yeah. Two things that hit me is that gaming is massive, but it still hasn't cracked the mainstream yet. It just hasn't cracked the mainstream social consciousness yet. And it will. Yeah. And then number two, There should be other forms in the creator universe, and especially in gaming, it makes sense that the more you play something, you could get different types of rewards. If it's type of compensation, versus just points and spending it in. And you can make a bunch. Interesting and more creative world that way. Right? Like, so those two things make a lot of sense to me. I'm gonna spend the next 60 days, just really grinding and trying to learn more on that stuff. I love that and we should catch up. We should catch up on that after this.
Kyle Kaplanis:That'd be fun.
Duke McKenzie:All right, ladies and gentlemen, this episode is a wrap. Kyle, take it away, tell him to subscribe and all that fun stuff.
Kyle Kaplanis:make sure you guys like follow and subscribe to our podcast. Be sure if you have any questions at all on where you can find us on social media, our links are in this show note, so you can come follow Duke and I on our personal socials as well. See what we're up to in the creator economy in the web three space and yeah, let's keep. Let's keep
Duke McKenzie:going. That's wrap. Talk to y'all. Thanks a lot for listening.