Tiffany: GM and welcome to episode seven of probably nothing.
I'm TZ CEO of islands.
And with my cohost Alexis Ohanian, we'll be uncovering how NFTs and web three are changing community commerce and content online by talking directly with the people building in the space.
Our guest today is Betty, the co-founder of the Deadfellaz, NFT project, Deadfellaz minting and launch date was on Friday, August 13th, 2021, and sold out on the same day.
As of recording Deadfellaz sits at a floor price of 1.74 ETH with over 13,800 ETH in total volume traded before jumping into the NFT world, Betty and her husband's Psych worked in the corporate creative production industry since launching Deadfellaz Betty has become a leader in breaking down the barriers for women and a diverse set of people interested in Web3.
We wanted to bring Betty onto the show to discuss more about how Deadfellaz became a success, what it's like to build and work with an anonymous team and what advice Betty has for other creatives looking to launch NFT projects.
And if you've ever wondered what it's like to paint anonymous team, make sure you stay till the end.
Don't forget to give us a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, subscribe and share this on social media to help others learn more about web three.
Feel free to tag me @Tzhongg and @AlexisOhanian.
Our first anonymous guest.
Betty: Oh, really?
Tiffany: Very exciting.
Yes.
Betty: That's surprising.
Goodness me.
Um, so I'm, I'm kind of, I would say semi-anonymous because like who, you know, online is exactly who I am and to be quite honest, it makes sense for something that we're rolling out later.
But yeah, so it's not a forever thing.
Alexis: Is there a scoop?
Betty: There's no scoop just yet.
I'll tell you when there's a scoop.
Tiffany: The scope is next Friday, the 13th on May 13, 2022.
Betty: Yeah.
I, I know that babes.
I got all the Friday, the 13th locked in my brain.
Tiffany: Is that when is that when the next scoop is going to be?
Betty: Uh, that's a long that's like in the next decade.
And then NFT times so no, I'll say there'll be
Alexis: 13 is your lucky number.
So I think we already have enough clues there to get started.
Betty: Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, totally.
Alexis: We'll give us the origin story.
Both you and your husband who got Deadfellaz started.
I want to hear your superhero origins.
Betty: Okay.
My superhero origin story is we, I mean, it comes down to the fact that we were involved in NFTs in the capacity that he was, you know, heavily involved from the start of the year through his art collective Death Corps that he's, he's part of, they were all reaching out.
Like, you know, you should check out these NFTs, blah, blah, blah.
And he didn't need any more convincing.
He threw himself right in.
And he told me about it.
And I was like, immediately, very excited, really like.
Like, wow.
This is like the answer to so many things and it got so hype, but I was scared to engage for a long while.
So I just kind of looked for ages and, you know, absorbed and learned and that sort of thing.
And he kept getting us to do really cool jobs on other people's projects.
And I was like, I mean, we've worked in creative production together on a corporate level for really amazing brands for years.
So the production side of it is something that we do anyway.
And having been involved in the communities and things, I was like, let's just do our own.
The idea for dead fellows just came really organically.
We love horror and we'd been discussing like the.
The fascination with, as on zombies, across pop culture and how it like brings so many people together.
And I think that people love spooky stuff.
You know, they always have this like a it's throughout time.
Everybody loves a bit of spooky.
We've got like the dark fairytales back in the day, and then I'm sure you guys were obsessed with Goosebumps and that sort of thing.
So there's just, yeah, that sort of vibe I want to pick up on.
Yeah.
Alexis: TZ doesn't know what that is because she's a genz.
Tiffany: I don't know what goosebumps is.
Betty: Oh God.
Tiffany: I know what in Ghostbusters is.
Betty: Oh, damn.
Wow.
Alexis: TZ, I'm going to send you some reading material.
It's okay.
Betty.
I'm with you.
I'm with you right here.
It's okay.
I'm sending you a goosebumps book right now.
I'm a geriatric millennial and proud of.
All right.
I'm a boomer compared to TZ.
I liked the elder millennial sounds a lot better than geriatric.
Betty: I'm willing to provide you a goosebumps education.
Um, yeah, nineties, nineties children's but yeah, I really wanted to touch on that vibe and that energy and, uh, also kind of lean into, um, like streetwear and all kinds of different things.
So.
Yeah, we just went for it.
I didn't think about the name.
It came to me straight away.
The concept came straight away.
It was like a bit of a brain zap, you know, when you have those ideas.
And I was just like, oh, we have to do this.
And it was a bit of a risk to be honest, because we were in a position where we were at this convergence of like a housing crisis and obviously an economic crisis over here with COVID and.
All of us, like we'd lost so many jobs over the last few years because all of everyone's like huge events and things were being canceled.
And, um, so we were not in a good spot and it was like, you know, we either throw ourselves into this and it works or it doesn't work.
And so that was like the fire.
Obviously we have three children, it had to work and the more we just sat down, it was.
It is going to be amazing.
This is amazing.
I was so, so excited when we came to the final design of like the, the little core character that you see today.
Just so cool.
I'll share that little guy one day is a cutie..
Tiffany: How did you assess the risk when given the circumstances of your business and having three young children?
And just diving into NFTs, like, how did you think about risk reward and all of that, or going in, you knew that this was going to work no matter what.
Betty: People ask me that.
And I think that at that time, it sounds like such a long time ago.
It was, I mean, it was when we were in the, the really just getting ready to launch, it was July.
And then we launched August the 13th.
But when we were in that process, to me, it didn't feel.
Risky.
It felt like it was, it just, I knew that we had all of the makings of something very, very special.
And as I said, we were just in this really bad spot.
So it was like, if it doesn't work, are we really much worse off, you know, we're screwed anyway.
So let's just do this and see what happens.
And, um, and it just took off in the most amazing way.
I remember the, uh, I knew it was going to sell out, but I didn't know it was going to sell out so quickly.
It was just, uh, I don't know, humbling.
And I felt like, you know, that scene in Jaws where the cameras pan in, you probably don't know cause you're a baby, but you know where, you know where there is like a terrified and the camera kind of pans in and zooms out at the same time like that.
Yeah.
It was like that.
Watching the supply go down so quickly, watching the men happen, it was just.
It didn't sink in for a long time.
And we worked straight for days and days and days after that, I know anyone that launched the project will know the work begins after you sell out.
But yeah.
In terms of risk-
Tiffany: We discussed that on our last podcast with, with Bobby hundreds, exactly where it's like as your project or collection sells out, that is when your work really starts.
It's not the end of your work.
Betty: People that say it's easy money.
It is the furthest thing.
If you want something that's sustainable and all of the makings of something that will last, you know, the test of time and bring value.
It's like the work is astronomical.
Luckily we love it so much.
So it's like a real joy to be able to do this, but yeah, in terms of risk, I'm, I'm a fairly risky person I'm calculated.
I know what I'm doing, but I do tend to do things that are out of the box anyway.
And Psych kind of just trusts me and comes along for the ride, which is a cool relationship.
Uh, yeah.
It's amazing.
Yeah.
He's the voice in time.
Alexis: How does the anonymity factor into it?
I used to always get on people because they'd be like Reddit as anonymous and I'd say, no, technically it's pseudonymous and they'd be like, the hell is that word?
And it's like, no, it's like, you have a username is just a fake name.
Uh, or at least it can't be.
What have been some of the advantages to being able to operate that way?
Betty: Well, so my name is actually Betty.
That's what I've been called.
It's it's not my legal name, but it's what I've been called since I was tiny.
Uh, by everyone in my life.
So that was natural for me, just to be myself in terms of being anonymous.
The decision initially was just the creative freedom because of, uh, corporate jobs, because we didn't know what was going to happen, obviously in clients or clients, anyone that works with corporate clients knows that it can be a bit difficult and confusing for them to separate things.
In terms of what you're doing is the reason why Psych has an artist's name because people kept finding his artwork and being like, what is this?
And, you know, getting very confused.
So that was that.
There's also safety.
I have three young children and we were entering a space that, you know, was there's a lot of money in there and there's a lot of people and, you know, that sort of thing.
So there was that.
I am 100% myself, you know, everyone in my Discord and people that know me through my community, know a lot about me down to the car that I drive.
And it, at this point, the anonymity is only maintained, as I said before, just to.
Benefit rollout of things that we've got going on because I'm using my PFP, which is based on me.
So there's also that, but I'm using my PFP as a use case to show people how you can build a personal brand around your PFP, which I think I've done very successfully.
So I'm using that to show people how to do it in a way that makes sense.
And yeah, the things that we're rolling out will kind of break the anonymity down and obviously I'm going to be at events and on stages.
It's really just the fact that we haven't been able to travel that I haven't so far.
So, yeah.
I love anonymity though.
And I think that it maintains safety for people too.
Tiffany: Yes, I think it's the future people having pseudonyms because it's I, and I'm also seeing a lot of very talented friends who let run service based companies and they have clients, or they're working at an, at a company and they have to be like pseudonyms on Twitter because it's like the second identity, this alter ego.
They can't have their colleagues or clients knowing about, and I'm seeing this happen more and more as people want to spend more time in web three.
And they're trying to go from web two to web three without like having done the full jump.
Yeah.
It's like a gradual shift.
So that's what I've been seeing.
Betty: Yeah, totally.
And then, you know, you have the people that don't have the same experiences using that IRL identity.
So they change their way through identity in order to kind of shed those disadvantages and comment things because of the unfairness of the playing field.
They then come at it.
They can be anyone they want and their work can be received for their work rather than for perceptions that come with their identities.
So I think that that is a major thing.
And I got really annoyed, you know, when there were, when there was the scandal with the fame lady squad and the Russian guys and people calling out for founders to be, um, completely doxed.
And I just didn't agree with that because it's marginalized people, mostly that need that safety at the moment.
And it is just completely unfair.
Alexis: I want to double down on that because it is so important for web3to, to reach as many people as possible because so much of the, you know, empowering qualities of it are going to help level the playing field that historically institutions, gatekeepers, whatever you want to call them, have been of a certain ilk.
A lot of folks who look like me, who have made decisions around culture and all industries, what are things that we could be doing to, to further accelerate, how widely web three NFTs, et cetera, it can be done.
Betty: So I think that when I think about my own experience, the initial barrier for me was the culture that I saw happening.
And a lot of the Discords and in a lot of the Twitter threads and the conversations that surround the whole industry, it felt to me like, and it still feels to me a lot, like going back in time a little bit, like, I feel like it's as, as progressive as it is in technology.
And as welcoming as it is in community and that sort of thing, I feel like it is actually quite regressed in terms of equality and feminism and, and that sort of thing, because I think that because of the, the imbalance of the people that are represented in the community, you know, we hear that it's about 75% men.
People are not being represented just because they're naturally not there, but also because no one's challenging anything as much as they do in real life because the, I guess the accountability just isn't there.
So I think when you see things that are not okay, challenge them, don't be afraid to challenge them.
And because we're working together to build something.
And so we all have that responsibility, it shouldn't just be me and, you know, and full of other women and gender diverse people and people of color and indigenous people fighting for themselves.
You know, it needs to be everyone and that's 75% guys.
So I would like that too, to be part of the culture, because I think that it's people that enter kind of, they want to fit in don't they, so they just kind of act how everyone else is acting.
And so we need to say examples.
I know my Twitter threads with tags just by the way by women's work, you know?
Alexis: Fair enough.
That's not enough.
Tiffany: Who are your favorite women, artists or women based projects that we want to get listeners to buy or invest in participant in?
Betty: There are so many that I love Lorraina is one of my favorite people.
Tiffany: I was just looking at boys yesterday.
I really want one.
I want a, one of one.
I want the one Dom Hoffman had.
Betty: I've got this so magical.
I love them too.
So Lorraina is one of my favorite people and what she does is amazing.
There's lots of projects.
I think that, um, in terms of the projects that people categorize as women's projects, you know, Typically fem avatars.
I love them all.
I think they're all doing a really amazing job.
I think Boss Beauties is great.
It's headed by people that know what they're doing and they are.
Using the project to kind of drive an initiative that was already alive in the world and empowering women and girls.
So I think that's great, but honestly, they're all great.
You know, there's crypto Stacey's honeys and there's photographers.
There's like Priyanka and Amy Woodward and I just, and then there's gender diverse, um, folks like what fat babies doing is always really innovative and cool.
Theres just so many things to, um, discover.
So I would encourage people to do their research.
Cause it's, that's fun in itself.
Isn't it.
Tiffany: 100%.
Were there any early NFTs that you bought that helped you learn more about the space?
Betty: Oh, God, no, I had no ETH.
I'm going to be quite honest with you.
I had no money and no ETH, so I didn't buy anything until after we sold out, um, Psych did buy a few cause he was obviously selling his art prior to this and he was like putting it back in.
So he had things like, oh, what did he have?
Like the aliens, the.
Is it the galactic agency or the galactic society that they were, they were a long time.
They were like early this year.
Barring Bananas was a-
Tiffany: A long time.
Then earlier this year,
Betty: Way back when, um, Barring Bananas, the project was all around, um, like connecting people and we did actually find a developer, one of our developers in they're Discord.
He was in there.
So that was really cool.
Uh, but my first NFT was actually a ghosts, which I love, it was a Taurus, uh, Zodiac, and I love it.
And it was really special.
I love ghosts.
Tiffany: It checks out, it checks out with Deadfellaz.
Betty: Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, I'm addicted to NFTs though.
I have to control myself.
Alexis: Yeah, my wife catches me on my phone and she's like, are you, are you shopping for NFTs right now?
Tiffany: You just bought like so many NFTs yesterday, Alexis, you got like so many Crypto Covens
Alexis: That's on my public address, but yes, I have private ones too.
I've got multiple wallets cause I, you know, I docs myself once with a bunch of punks and apes and stuff.
And then it's like, okay, well, I don't want to.
Yeah.
I think I also really believe, you know, I, I love the way that you described the projects you're obsessed with because you're starting with the creators and the founders and the vibes and the intention.
And it actually, it's wild.
I have a bigger tweet storm that I'm not going to monologue y'all to death with, but everyone in a way is becoming an early stage VC.
And, and so much of what I've done the last 10 years has been based on, you know, when there's no product when the market maybe doesn't even exist.
The only way, the only way I seed Coinbase in 2012 is because of the vibes and the potential of Brian Armstrong and this nascent Bitcoin community on Reddit.
Like that was it.
And I look at these projects and it's the vibes of the creators.
It's their intention, their thoughtfulness, certainly the art and the thoughtfulness of the product.
But then it's and then it's the community.
And it's in who here has the sort of minimum viable community to do something that I think will be special in 10 years, not in two months or 10 hours, but a decade.
And I think this is it's wild because many, many more people are going to be coming into this with every passing month.
And I'm excited by the prospect of this, because there are a lot of amazing people who are going to get to do this for a living.
Who never could.
I mean, there was just no pathway to turn.
How could Deadfellaz have existed in a pre-web three world.
Right.
And that is absolutely it.
Betty: No, it could not.
It's truly amazing that the power has been shifted so much, um, that we no longer have to ask for permission to explore our ideas and to innovate.
And to really, I think that convergence of technology and, you know, community driven projects that are backed by thousands of people.
And then you've got artists and creative thinkers, all working together to make what everyone wants.
It's like the perfect, perfect melting pot for magic to happen.
So I love it so much.
I think it's interesting watching the community kind of mature.
The year, because obviously we haven't grown as a whole and at the, you know, NFTs in general, just over the last few months, it hasn't fully exploded.
Has it?
It's quite, it's quite insular still.
And I think that those people in maturing.
And learning and buying differently.
It's interesting to watch those buying patterns shift.
So I am, I'm excited to see what happens then when you know, adoption comes and more people enter, which is what's going to happen real soon with the big players entering now.
Tiffany: So, interesting thing is with everyone now becoming a collector or curator, being a good curator is now going to be one of the most valuable skills.
Good moving forward for this next decade.
And so it's going to be really interesting to see based on what Alexis was saying on how we are all investors now and curators and early stage VCs is now becoming more democratizing in web three, where we're all investing in the projects we care about.
And it's really a matter of like, not just the art, not just the community, but really the creators as well.
And seeing if they're in it for the long.
That's an important thing that I think is increasingly difficult to suss out in maybe a more pseudonymous world, because you can't really like do research on the person as much.
You have to go off of what they're saying on Twitter, but it is interesting.
Like if you're able to crack that.
And you're able to read people through their tweets, through their Twitter spaces, their interviews, and understand if they're a short term thinker or a long-term thinker.
That's powerful skill to have.
Betty: It is.
And it's a difficult thing, as you said to crack because you know, success and accolade in the real world and in web two does not translate automatically to success and accolade in web three.
Like it's, you know, just cause you've made it in one area, it doesn't mean that you will in another.
And I think that's where a lot of people come in thinking that there's going to be this automatic success.
And it's just not like that.
So it is its own beast.
And, um, it's very interesting.
It's it's going to be hit and miss, obviously trying to work out with the anonymous and the pseudonymous thing, but I don't know.
I enjoy it.
I enjoy the ride.
Tiffany: Do you have lots of friends who are like under pseudonyms or anonymous people on the internet?
Betty: So many, all the people in our discourse, a lot of people are doxed, but have been doxed like over time.
Cause they're now very good friends that talk every day.
But yeah, I know people by their Discard usernames and their Twitter handles and that's how it will stay.
I can not call people like, you know, Jenny and Mark after this, like I'm going to be calling them like the hilarious usernames that you see.
Cause that's how I know them, but I do love that.
I love that.
Cause you getting to know the person, aren't you like when you talk to people like on that level, these are real friendships and real connections that are people that people are making.
That's a utility in itself.
Even if you don't own NFTs, you can gain from that in Discords and on Twitter.
So I think that's really cool too.
Tiffany: Yeah.
I now remember people buy their.
Twitter PFPs and their Twitter usernames and like, not even their names, but it's like, those are the only two things I need to know because it's when you're DM-ing someone or you're tagging someone in a tweet it's just their handle.
And so that's the new identity.
It's like usernames, whatever you want your identity to be.
And you're just crafting it as you go.
Betty: It's a really valuable thing to see that.
Digital identity and the shift in how we perceive others professionally and personally is a huge shift with this, this whole industry.
And I think it's so cool.
And that's why I'm utilizing my PFP as, as I am doing, because I, I want to be like a use case for that for people moving forward.
Tiffany: It makes sense.
So I'm also just very curious on how you spend your days and weeks.
And how you manage your time across all of these different, many different things that you have to manage.
Betty: Yeah, it's, it's a lot, but it's also not a lot, like we've changed our lives quite a fair bit to fit things that we need in.
And I prioritize my time fairly well.
We always have had to anyway with children's.
Cause we've worked from home forever.
So it's like, you have to have some sort of semblance of a schedule, otherwise you can't live your life normally.
So my kids are my priority and the same with Psych.
So we, we made sure that they're taken care of and work just fits around that.
So any parents in NFT will tell you that a lot of work gets done on a night.
That's just how it is.
So I retired my mom.
She was working a really terrible job and well, not a terrible job.
She had a good job, but you know, very high stress and I was pleased to get her out of there.
So she helps with-
Alexis: I love that phrase, "You retired her."
Betty: I did.
Yeah.
I mean, that's, that's what happened, you know, like she was not going to be able to retire otherwise for a long, long time.
So it was one of the first things that we did.
And so she now gets to hang out with.
My kids now and again, so I can get a lot of meetings and work done.
And, um, yeah, we just work on a night mostly.
And it's, it is what it is.
We have to have things have slowed down in terms of light.
We're able to sleep more.
I wasn't sleeping very well in the beginning and there's a lot of.
And I think a lot of founders struggle with that because I've accidentally found myself in a bit of a role with everyone where people will, you know, project founders will message me kind of having a bit of a vent.
Cause I think that's a little bit of an unspoken thing.
Like a lot of people struggle with that because for every person that's.
You know, when this, or when that, or, you know, whatever, there's thousands of other people and just one person to receive it all.
So it's, that can be a bit intense, but I manage that fairly well I would say, and I have a very thick skin, so I'm fairly okay with that.
Tiffany: I think you have to have a thick skin to survive the early innings of web three.
Betty: You really have to, you really have to, a lot of people can be scared.
It is, Twitter can be scary and, and Discord can be terrifying as well.
And you know, when slow modes and acted and, and you're answering to so many people and yeah, I think a lot of people don't anticipate that sort of thing.
Cause it's, it seems like a bit of an ideal thing to launch a project, but you don't realize that all of a sudden then you're thrown into being responsible for just so many people because they have invested in what you're doing.
That can feel huge.
And I don't think that everyone is cut out to run that sort of thing.
So, yeah, that's something that I don't think a lot of people consider and it comes as a bit of a shock, but for us, it's something that we're used to managing anyway with, uh, our history.
So yeah, we're doing fine.
We have fun.
We laugh a lot.
It's great.
Alexis: I love it.
Tiffany: What other advice would you give to people who are interested in launching their own.
And a few projects.
Betty: Uh, just identify early on what you want.
Yeah.
Just identify what you want.
I think that, for me, part of the success of Deadfellaz, was because we created something, not with what other people wanted in mind, but because I wanted it, like I wanted gender diversity and I wanted to see, you know, traits with everyone represented.
I wanted like a horror themed, but accessible horror, you know, not to glory collection.
I wanted to see that.
So we made that.
When you make something that you yourself want to be an existence, as more chance of it being successful.
In my opinion, there's more of you invested in it.
It's more authentic.
People can relate more.
And then there's what, what you actually want.
Like, do you want to do just an art project, which is fine.
It's so fine to just do that, just have those expectations right away.
And then you don't end up in a situation where all of a sudden people.
I'm asking when and more and this and, and that, um, there's different avenues to go down.
You don't have to be, you know, you don't have to like promise a video game and this, that, and the other, you could, you could have, you could be like charity driven or you could be mental health focused.
There's lots of different things.
Don't try and be everything.
Try and be what you yourself are passionate about is my advice.
Tiffany: This.
This is the way.
Betty: Yeah.
And I love learning from other people as well.
I would ex I would recommend getting involved in Discords of projects that you admire, even if you can't access them, if you can't afford them and just learn from them and absorb what's going on in the community and how the founders approach things and, and just become involved.
Cause it's, uh, it is, you know, as.
Things that need to be changed and the barriers and a lot of issues like that, it is just such a beautiful, encouraging, collaborative place to be in general, the NFT community.
So, you know, driven by hope.
I just love it.
Tiffany: Is there anything that you wish you would've done differently?
Looking back in how you guys launched your project, how you manage expectations with the community?
Um, figuring out the roadmap, any of that?
Betty: No, honestly, I'm really, I'm a firm believer of mistakes have to be made in order to learn and to grow.
I don't think that anything can be done perfectly.
And if it is, something's going to go wrong down the line, you know, like that's just the nature of life.
So, but I believe we've made.
The right decisions for what we've done.
And I don't regret anything.
The only thing is the presale that we did cause we, we wanted our collection to be very accessible.
So we had a 0.025 to launch and we did, I believe one of the first pre-sale.
In the sphere where we had people sign up to this presale list and they got to mint between one and five Deadfellaz and we paid for the gas and everything.
They just had to cover the cost of their NFT.
And, but we did it all manually.
We did it by hand.
It was like such a long process.
Yeah.
It was so long.
And, you know, Didn't end up perishing and gas was, which was really cool, but it did take a long time.
So that was I, yeah.
If we had found a way to automate that, I think what is later on, did it really well?
Theyautomated it and did it in a, in a way that made more sense, but, you know, we were trying something new at the time and it works, but it could have been.
Fine tune a bit and we will do that.
And we, we figured the outfit for Dead Friends.
The next thing.
Tiffany: So what's Dead Friends,
Betty: Dead Friends is the comparison collection.
Yeah.
Dead friends is the companion collection to Deadfellaz.
So we have a lot of storytelling around our collection.
So this story is that Betty and Psych, they were on a raid and they found in a, in a lab in dead zone 13.
All of these animals that were under the same situation that they were, where they had survived this infection and because of this antidote, but it turned them into these stead friends and we release them.
And that is the collection that we will see.
We were supposed to be launching in December, but we have just so many amazing core things that need to be tied off.
To kind of make the environment that we launch into as strong as it can be, because I'm so excited about what's coming for us.
And I wish.
Tell you more about that, but I can't, but yeah, Dead Friends is going to be fun.
We're designing it in a way where it allows you to be part of Deadfellaz.
Just as much as anyone else.
It's a they're PFP ready, and there's going to be lots of utility with them.
You're going to be able to get.
It's decentralized and into all of the verified things that we do and yeah, it's going to be fun.
And I also just really love the designs.
It just gets me so, um, to be able to release more Deadfellaz art into the world.
Tiffany: So that type of storytelling and creative ideas.
Is it still you in psych, mostly working on it, or do you have other folks who are helping brainstorm and work with you guys on the, all of the ideas?
Betty: The ideas come from us because it's how we build the collection, but we could, I mean, the nature of how we've grown is we've had to bring on a big team.
So we have lots of people working with us.
Now, primarily on this storytelling, we have our narrative designer, India who has worked on many amazing things in her career.
She's fantastic.
She's working closely with Leanna comic artist and Psych and where.
Throwing ideas around and building this world together to says there's a lot coming that requires that to be completely fleshed out so that, you know, we've always had the general story, but getting into the nitty gritty and character design and, you know, social issues.
And there's so many cool things that you can put into these stories that further, the way that we relate to the TFPs on a more personal level.
I think it's very fun.
Tiffany: How big is the team?
Betty: Oh, gosh, it was 24 last week.
It's 26 this week.
It grows quickly.
Yeah.
We have 3d artists, copywriters, project managers, narrative designers.
We have decentralized developers and yeah, there's a lot of people.
Tiffany: Are they all full-time?
Betty: Um, no, everyone's on their own different path because we have different needs from different people, but it's.
Obviously as well, there's so many people that are anonymous.
That's another thing that you navigate, you know, people buying into projects that with anonymous founders, and then we have all these anonymous people that work for us, but there's such a level of trust there.
You know, I may never see some of our mods, but I've worked closely with them since the start of our project and, and trust them very much.
It's a strange thing to try and explain to people that working in traditional industry, isn't it, but it works.
Tiffany: I mean, even in web three, like it's still pretty near to be hiring and working with anonymous people.
So I'm so curious about this from logistics to like working with them, just the whole nine yards.
Alexis: It's like the boring parts of like work life.
It's just, you just get used to people having zoom with the camera off?
Tiffany: Like, you're just communicating on Discord?
Betty: And yeah, we talk to them without knowing their identity.
Tiffany: It's just a wallet address and you just pay them?
Like, I have a lot of questions.
Betty: Yeah.
Like the trust is there from the work that people have produced and the validation of their association with other people that, so like our, our decentral land team, we've never met them.
We've never seen.
But they work with decentral land and the things that they do are magic.
Like they are just so incredible.
The things that they, we can just ask them, you know, is this possible?
And they say, oh yeah, why not?
And then they go away for a week and come back and they've invented something that has never been done.
So I don't think that identity is really that important in that instance.
It's, I mean, it is for some people, so we have.
Yeah, the mods that we have are all doxed to me.
And we have, you know, there's certain things that we have to have like NDAs for certain levels of production and that sort of thing.
But in terms of other parts, it's just being flexible and moving with the space, which means embracing anonymity to some degree.
I think that's going to be a bit of a barrier for people coming in from web to and from traditional industry, especially the big brands.
It might be something that they need to learn.
Tiffany: How do you pay anonymous people?
Betty: Yeah, just the same way that by an NFT.
Yeah.
You just with a wallet?
Tiffany: No, no doxxing, no doxxing.
Alexis
Alexis: No but you have their info?
Tiffany: No, I don't think she does.
Betty: I do.
I have most people at say about 70% of people and the rest.
Uh, just, yeah, the names and wallets..
But we talked to them
Tiffany: Usernames and wallet.
Alexis: This is the future you living in the future.
Betty: Yeah.
Yeah, I do think, and I think that leaning into those web three quirks, a part of what's going to bring longevity for our projects because we really trust in the world that we're building in.
We're not, you know, in here building a web to brand and slapping a web three label on it.
Like we intrinsically web three.
And so that's just what we're doing.
Yeah.
Tiffany: Where do you imagine Deadfellaz to be in five years time?
Like, what does success look like for you in five years for Deadfellaz?
Betty: I want the original hold is the own, the original collections to be empowered and to have had their lives changed.
I want dead fellows to be a household name.
I want it to have cemented itself in pop culture and, and that social consciousness, I want it to just be there and it will be, I know it will be, I trust in my own abilities, not in a way that's like, I'm so good.
I'm so good.
But I just, I know that I'm good at my job and I know that Sykes good at his job.
And I know that our team is amazing and I know that our projects is its own thing.
You know, we've cornered a niche in a new world.
Hasn't been cornered apart from us.
And I think that our attitude towards collaboration and bringing the community up with us, I just I've, I've really, really fun.
Visions of what's to come in the future.
Because what's happened already.
And just a few weeks is honestly mind blowing.
Sometimes I wake up and I'm like, how am I dreaming?
What's going on?
You know, I check my Twitter, DMS and emails, and it's just, it's craziness to me, what's going on, but it's real life it's happening.
So yeah, just along for the ride and I'm going to keep pushing as hard as I can cause I think that really special things will happen if we do.
I love
Tiffany: that answer.
And I'm very excited to see the future of dead fellows and all of the amazing things you guys are rolling out.
Betty: Thank you very much.
Tiffany: Last question.
Before we wrap this up, if you're stranded on an island, which NFT would you bring?
It can be your collection or any NFT in the world.
I have a feeling.
I know what the answer is going to be, but let's hear it.
Betty: Do you really, I love to know what you think.
Let me have a little think.
I'm so interested as well.
Just let me-
Tiffany: Just like, I presume with her love of her off her PFP, that it would be her current PFP.
Betty: Yeah.
But that's me though.
That's the thing, that's the thing.
Tiffany: You want to bring you to your island?
Betty: Well, babes I am me.
So it would be like, I'd have to create.
Yeah, I'd have to create like a, um, so I'm already there.
That's a given Betty's there.
I would have to create like a team then with someone else.
I think, I think I would bring Psych.
Alexis: Not everyone would say that about their partners,
Betty: So, yeah, but I just think, no, we make a good team.
We make a good team.
It would be cool to be stranded on an island with, with him.
And his BFB.
Although I did consider for a while that my Cool Cat, just because she's cute.
I love my coat too.
I was actually just looking at Cool Cats before.
Tiffany: Me too.
Need more cool cats.
Alexis: Always a good time to get a Cool Cat.
Betty: It is.
Is it is.
I was like, what can I sell to buy more Cool Cats?
But it's hard.
I can't let go.
I'm terrible.
People are like, can you give me tips on trading?
I'm like, no, I never sell anything.
I just, I'm just this like crazy old lady diamond hands.
Sitting on my NFTs.
Like now I'll never sell
Tiffany: Same, same makes the three of us.
Betty: Yeah.
Perfect.
Love it.
We should make a band.
Tiffany: Well, thank you so much for the time today, Betty.
This was a lot of fun and I loved hearing about your story.
Betty: Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you.
It's been a pleasure.
Thanks for having me.