Hey everybody, i'm so excited about this episode. Nft's the state of the union. We've got tons of great guests with us today, episode number 32. um.

So please keep the conversation going hashtag marketing for the now. Let's go one other quick thing: you're just here avery. We just got you can bring avery on episode number one. We just heard from gary that he is.

Please join us uh. Unfortunately, he is still on a plane that has yet to land, but we're gon na be okay, you're gon na be interviewing paris hilton. I hope that's okay, big surprise, but first up we've got um, so i have avery echonini president of vayner nft. Who is going to kick us off with our conversations and we have lisa mayer joining us.

Lisa is many many things she is an entrepreneur philanthropist and founder and ceo of my social canvas and the boss. Beauties she's got her kick-ass leather jacket, you're going to have to show us both the front and the back. I have a feeling lisa, we're so excited to hear more about the mission that you're on in helping uh support, um young girls and with with all of the work that you're doing as well as how the nft drop has impacted. That so over to the two of you awesome, andrea, thank you so much for introducing us and thank you everyone for tuning in it is my honor to be here today with lisa lisa.

In addition to being an extraordinary entrepreneur, he's a dear friend and just an amazing person, so lisa, thank you so much for joining us avery. Thanks for having me i'm so honored i feel like this is just a coffee chat, almost we're chatting and catching up. So i love it. I know i love it and i think you know it was maybe six months ago when we were doing this and the launch before boss beauty's.

I think you were sitting in that exact same position um, so you started boss beauty. Six months ago so much has happened since then. I would love for you to tell our listeners a little bit around the origin story behind boss, beauties and and why you decided to bring it to life. Yeah, absolutely um.

So you know, box beauties is really an extension of the work that i've been doing for the last decade, um so in the space of nfts, i've been in this space for six months, which feels like a long time, even though it's been less than a year, Um but i've been in the space of mentoring and empowering women for the last 10 years. Um. You know with my previous work: we've mentored women, i've had olympic athletes, we've had ceos, um entrepreneurs, um women in the fashion industry, sit down and really mentor women in college in high school from our community, so mentorship and empowerment is totally my passion. It's my dream.

Job it's. What gets me up every morning, um and wakes me up um, but really i found the nft space about a year ago and was so excited. I actually have to give some credit to gary because who hasn't watched some of his videos looked at some of the content and been inspired. So you know that's part of what inspired me to get into the space actually um.

I have to give him some credit, but you know when i founded boss beauties with anthony my husband um. It would have been a crazy time to start a new company or start a project in the nft space, but i knew that the timing was so right. I knew the timing was perfect. Um.

If i didn't start it, then i would probably never do it. I was actually a new mom. I think i told you that avery when we first got, i had a three-month-old baby. I was in that phase as a mom.

Getting up three or four four times a night with my newborn to feed him just honestly, i was operating on very limited sleep, but that is actually showing how much i believed in the nft space and the future of web 3.. So that's a little bit of my story. I mean again not the perfect timing to start something in the nft space, but i knew the timing was right and i had to jump in at that time. I think that your timing was incredible.

Lisa, you know one with your dual role as a caregiver, that's particularly inspiring, but also just in terms of the nft market maturity. I think you joined - and you created this community at this right time when a lot of women were curious about nfts and i believe for a lot of your community. This might have been their first ever nft. You did multiple education sessions to bring them along totally.

Yeah and you were actually our first nft education session um, we had people that had never been involved in the space at all. They didn't. Even they didn't know what an nft was and avery. I was so grateful that you jumped on and helped educate our community.

So yeah with yam, i remember that was a great thing. I can't believe how recently it was um, but anyway, so just as a lot of your community was new to nfts and we were teaching them the fundamentals. There are a lot of brand leaders um who are watching right now, we're also interested in nfts, but they have no idea how to get involved. What would be your advice for companies who are interested in this space um, but not sure where to start yeah? You know i've thought a lot about this, so i have three things that i'm going to share with if you're working at a brand or maybe you want to jump into the nft space, but you don't know where to start.

So here are my three things number one. My advice is to really immerse yourself in the community in the nft space before launching something or really entering as a brand right um. At the end of the day, business is really about people right and the nft space is no different, so get to know the space get to know the community um you know get into the twitter, but it's it goes so much farther than that. I would say is really to get get to know everyone um and spend time it's not going to happen overnight.

I've seen you know, influencers and companies try to get into the space overnight and you really need to have some patience like get in and learn before. You launch a project um and finally, my third thing is be authentic. You know be authentic and intentional um explore meaningful partnerships right which i know are you could partner with vayner nft and some of the brands that you work with, but really explore ways that you can be authentic and stay true to your values as a brand. When you enter the space, so those are my three things and that's my my piece of advice.

That's so smart lisa and i know you also did that before you launched boss beauties you're a collector. You were integrated with some of the artists in the space and the community in the space and that you know, i think, really showed, as you all went through your minting process um. So, on that note, boss, beauties has successfully collaborated with so many amazing brands, and i think you all are really the gold standard when it comes to thinking about crafting the right brand partnerships with nft programs. So i would love to understand um from you a little bit of how these all came to life.

You've done barbie, you've done even marcus. Hugo boss marvel um. These are some incredible brands. How did those sort of come to life and um yeah tell us a little bit more about why these collaborations worked yeah, absolutely um, well, first of all, we're so honored and excited that we've had the chance to partner with incredible brands out there, but really it Goes back into my final point.

As far as advice to brands um, we were really looking to be intentional and explore partnerships with brands that aligned with our values in some way right. So as an example with barbie - and i have to say my five-year-old self - never thought that i would be an entrepreneur and partner with barbie to impact women and give back to women. So that was a dream partnership um we launched an nft together with barbie um. We're exploring a lot of other things um with them, but that i can't quite share just yet but um when building that partnership and the others we were thinking of ways.

We could make it a win for barbie as well as boss, beauties right. So a poor. A hundred percent actually of the proceeds from our nft collaboration went back to the barbie dream gap project which empowers women and girls to dream big um. And then you know that was something that was a win for us to be able to partner with them and and collaborate.

We also partnered with hugo boss, and we launched some merchandise um, the merchandise actually sold out um. I believe in a day on hugo boss's website, they have to restock some of it. Now i wanted to get one, and i couldn't i'm gon na have to get the secret hookup from the theo we'll be able to hook you up. We can totally hook you up, but yeah.

I mean i think, with that. That was a win for us to partner together um we're also funding dream like a boss, which is a mentorship program with support from hugo boss for women and girls. So they'll learn about the fashion industry and and learn about business, but we also, as i said, um drove a lot of you know, marketing for that product collaboration and and worked with them on that. So i think, building very authentic collaborations is what we've been able to do and we're excited to do that in the future too.

That's so amazing lisa. What i'm hearing from you is you. What you're looking for in partners is folks who really share your values and can help take boss, bds to irl or boss, bv's to a more broader base of consumers, and then the value that boss buddies can play is helping these more traditional companies merge into the World of web 3 in a way that they're going to be warmly welcomed and doing something, that's a force for good, totally you've, summed it up so perfectly. I love that avery.

I've got one more question um and i feel like 10 minutes flies by. You often say that boss beauties is a vehicle to empower young women um. Can you share with our watcher our listeners a little bit more about what you're doing to reach women empower them and encourage them to do anything in their life and in their career? I know there's the brand partnership side but um as a holder. I also see all the communication you all are putting out um and it seems like you're doing a lot totally yeah.

No this. This is actually what wakes me up every morning and gets me so excited. Um is our work so um, just this month, we actually awarded. We surprised um 14 students with a ten thousand dollar scholarship um, it's just the start.

There's a lot of other scholarships we'll be awarding soon, but we surprised them for women's history month with a scholarship um, and then we have a mentorship program where they get access to powerhouse women in different industries, like i said, from olympic athletes to ceos women in Fashion and tech, one of the women we mentored last year just landed her dream. Internship at facebook working in computer science um another woman, we've mentored, landed her dream job at disney, anika and she's been a part of our boss, beauty's family for several years um. You know i've attended some of their college graduations um, i mean it's just something that we're really passionate about, so whether it be mentorship or scholarships or just giving them access to amazing mentors and women role models like yourself. That's what we're all about and that's what? How we want to change their career and and support them in their dreams as well.

That's incredible lisa! Thank you so much for taking the time to join us today, um. I hope you have an incredible day and we will catch you very soon. Thank you for having me, i loved it so much fun. Thank you and everybody beauties on twitter and join their discord.

Is that a little plug i have to make a must a must. So next up avery, we welcome rachel weiss and she's got a new incredible title. She is partner of bold corporate venture fund at l'oreal, usa, rachel lives and breathes all things pop culture, beauty and technology and she's been called a futurist, a culture analyst writer operator, community builder and technologist and she's forging the vision for and the future for. L'Oreal welcome.

Rachel rachel, thank you so much for joining us. I agree with all of those accolades and then some and i have to say i love your lipstick necklace very on brand for l'oreal. I think you might be on mute um, but we are so excited that you are joining us here today. Thank you for being here.

Thank you for having me. Can you hear me now perfect perfectly so rachel i'm going to start off by um sharing something a little bit fun about you? You are the proud owner of a blonde crypto punk. Can you tell our uh audience a little bit about how you got into nfts sort of personally and then we'll talk about your role at l'oreal and all the amazing things you're doing there? Well, i started to really get very intrigued. I would say around 2013 what was happening in the world of cryptocurrency and just started to study it as an economy and play.

I mean i've, always as someone who has been working in innovation since the you know, advent of the internet. I always have elements of fomo um and i spent a lot of time during the pandemic. I will tell you listening to clubhouse um talking with uh 2020. clubhouse, 2020 and learning about nfts and just started having a lot of fomo, and there was actually someone.

I will not name names, got a call from gary and said: do you know these crypto punks and he called me - and he said you know about this nft stuff? What do you know about crypto punks? I said i don't really know anything, but i'm going to see if i can get one. So that's that's that's it. That is how it happened. Um, it's a lot of element of fomo and um spending, a lot of off hours studying and talking with strangers over the internet.

Doing your own research. You were hearing about it. You were listening, you were reading. You were talking to your friends who were also sort of leaders in this space, and you thought: okay, i'm in for listeners who and what viewers who might not be familiar.

What is a crypto punk and what's special about the project, i mean, i think it was one of the first early projects i saw that was really about like owning a piece of it. It was just such a vibrant community of people yeah who were like early in this space um. I was just very curious about it. I didn't even really know what was special about it.

I was really drawn by the community of people who were just getting involved, which sometimes, for me, is enough of it of a dangling um object for me to want to try something and see what's out there, amazing, okay, rachel. So, let's pivot and talk a little bit about your story, congratulations on the new role l'oreal. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're up to and how you got here? Yeah i mean i, you know i. I have worked at l'oreal for 15 years.

Um really as a very early digital employee of the company um. At a time when i came to l'oreal web 2 was was very new to the business um. It was an emerging platform and really worked to talk about and educate and grow. How social media could be a part of growth for for a big beauty company, and you know, built early programs with youtube and snap and pinterest, and i argue that some of the largest beauty platforms that we take for granted today, beauty is a very fundamental part Of growth of those platforms and being at l'oreal as the part, as you know, at the foundation and beginning of that has been very exciting.

You know my new role is very much about investing and what the next you know, decade and 20 years looks like which we all know is on this. Who's on this podcast is rapidly changing and to be able to be an investor in that space. Um, aside from being an operator, is very exciting for me, as we can empower new economies, you know more diverse entrepreneurs, which has always been at my heart and really educate around what these new opportunities look like for the world's largest beauty, company, yeah, absolutely and rachel. It's incredible: you mentioned a lot of the sort of leaders within the web 2 world like youtube and snapchat.

From your perspective, do you see any parallels between what happened 10 years ago with web 2 and what's happening today with web3? Well, i'm going to age myself because i was also at the forefront of web one. So well, it's all those amazing. You know beauty, products and personal care products like i, you couldn't tell a bit but but i do feel like i'm actually feel much more now like i did when i first started my career in the 90s about like what's happening here, something revolutionary and radical is Happening and i don't totally understand it, but it's going to change how we communicate technology is changing, it's changing how we operate and our identity um on the internet. So i think, as someone who's gen x, what i love about what's happening in web 3.

It's taking us back more to that chaotic um, authentic identity, where no one knows really what they're doing or talking about in a way. That's very raw, and i think web 2 evolves so much to be packaged and to be about putting a certain image forward and - and i find myself re. What i found myself really excited about, what's happening in in philosophically right now. Is that it's kind of going back to that feeling of we're all on even playing field um and what happens next? I love that, and i remember i actually was living in san francisco um and i moved there to work at google in in 2012, and i was feeling like this crazy, like what's happening.

Things are moving so quickly and um. You know all my friends who were normal thought. I was crazy for doing it. Then it became normal and now i'm in miami in 2022, and it's the same thing where it feels like this chaotic, like energy and excitement, but we're sort of building the plane as we're flying it.

So i echo that sentiment and i love that. I think that's so exciting, it's so exciting and fun. Um and l'oreal has also been an early pioneer of sort of early days in this space. So can you tell us a little bit about how l'oreal has dipped its? You know fingernails um into the world of nfts.

Well, going back to our conversation, we just said about digital identity and beauty, building some of the largest platforms. You know l'oreal has been a very early adopter in augmented reality and if you really think about, and communities and fans right, like i don't think of our brands having you know communities as communities as consumers, they're fans, we have fans of our brands and fans of Our advocacy - and i really think about i thought about like what does it look like for us to start to dip our toes in you know over a course, during the days on clubhouse, i met lady phoenix, who is a very early um advocate for talking about What the economy around um nfts can be. We work together to sponsor, with our brand next cosmetics, um, the metagala and in combination with um mimi choi and rebecca minkoff. We've created a very unique um ar filter that you could wear to the gala and you would have as a token for participating.

So it was a really early space around the concept that augmented reality meets nfts meets. Digital expression could be something that could really be the future of what beauty, what would a value and beauty could be for in the nft web 3 space? I love that and i i also love that l'oreal has done an incredible job of galvanizing. Your brand fans and your communities and bringing along others like into this space as well. You just talked about the partnership with metagala and with rebecca minkoff what your company did with reds of worth and a number of nft native artists.

Another extension of that that really brings more people in and this sort of sense of inclusivity that i think, is core to how l'oreal communicates yeah. I think yeah. No, absolutely so! All right, you all know what you're doing we've got rachel at the helm now helping shape this bold ventures. What would be your advice and your guidance um to some of the the brands who are looking to get involved with this nft space? What it? What's the you know, rachel white's take on what they should do.

Well, i think one thing i've learned along the way and along with my partners and and and in the company, is that it's think beyond just a campaign really learn the infrastructure of how this works. We took a step back after that first campaign to really think about what does secondary markets look like? How do we build this? Like there's a lot? It's not just a drop and campaign. There is infrastructure attached to it, and learning about that and educating your organization is extremely important. The second thing is, you know, think about.

What's next, if you are going to get your toes dip and you're getting all this excitement and your pr headline, your community wants to know like all right now what you know, i think the difference between web 2 and web 3 is that people really want to Participate in your brand and your story, an ongoing way versus just a one-off. What's a one-off drop right and don't disappear um! You know those are really my my three learnings that i've learned this year, don't and don't think of your humans who participate, as consumers really think about them as your fans. I love that. Don't ghost think about them as your fans.

I think that's such good advice. I know i got into the space because i'm a fan, i'm a fan of brands, i'm a fan of beauty, i'm a fan of technology, i'm a fan of startups right, like you know, and i've always my success i attribute is to the community around me who Cared about the same things and it's been hard, but now, like the infrastructure that that community, you can really. You can connect with all kinds of people and i think that's super super exciting yeah rachel. I also just want to commend you like one of the leading female executives who's a proud owner of some of the you know, best nfts and best parts of collection.

So i think it's really inspirational how you are personally in the community yourself, and that puts you in such a great place to advise and guide. You know others in your company and some of your investments. So thank you so much for joining us today. Very much appreciate it and we will catch you very shortly.

Thank you so much for having me it's great to see you. Thank you rachel. Next up, we welcome the team from bear paint. Company we've got jody allen, who's, the global cmo and andy lopez.

The vp of brand marketing they have made quite the team as they made their first nft drop at south by southwest welcome jody and andy. Thank you. Thank you excited to be here, awesome, jody and andy. Thank you all.

So much for taking the time to join us um, i love the backgrounds and the colors behind it. Um. You know you all have been incredible partners very recently with vayner on doing your first activation um into the world of web 3. um.

You made your first dive into the nft space at south by southwest partnering with the doodles project, so i would love to understand and share a little bit more with our audience on how this all came to life great well, i'll. Take that one um! So, thank you, avery. We're really excited to be here, and you know, as i think, about the partnership. Uh color really has always been very integral to the bear brand, and so you know, as we really thought through this, we were really looking for a partner in the metaverse who is just as colorful as we feel we are, and we're really looking for a partner That would be a perfect match for our brand, and you know, as we explored with you and the teams, you know we had such.

I felt like a unique and creative opportunity where bear was able to come in and help doodles create this real-life experience at south by southwest and then doodles really did an amazing job of introducing bear to a new, innovative colorful, a very fun community that, i would Say we probably hadn't been fully reaching before and um. You know. We really felt like this. Partnership was super authentic and uh.

We're really excited about uh how everything really worked out so far. Amazing it was a match made in color heaven. So, let's go back in time a little bit um. I think we started talking about this in december when the doodles project had very recently launched.

I want to hear your honest take when we were first like yes, fair executives, you should do a partnership with the doodles. What was your honest take on the project? Yeah um, you know, i i think we actually heard from doodles from from you guys. You know working with you guys coming up with some um, exciting innovation. We came to you, we said hey, we want to kind of get in the space, but you know i think what the theme of this has been really that authenticity um and i think when we heard about doodles, i mean our first instinct was hey.

Let's kind of look up this brand a little bit more. We at that point um, which is hard to believe just a few months ago. We were still in that early phase of trying to understand how brands played a role in the nft world. So you know, after you mentioned about doodles, and we looked them up and we saw again that colorful palette that they had and just those iconic colors.

It just felt natural uh, like a natural partnership that we just had to be a part of, and after learning about you know their story specifically around the founders. After learning a little bit more about their community. Just learning about the impact that they've made in the nft space um, you know in the important role that color played. We were super excited about it and - and i think we just wanted to figure out - and we were super eager.

As you know, you know avery helped us through those these last couple months to just get started and make something happen with them as soon as possible, and then it really you know authentic and big way, amazing and andy for the folks who are not familiar with Exactly what we did at south by um yeah, our now iconic paint, can maybe um. You can tell us a little bit about like why the partnership was a perfect fit for bear and then also how it actually came to life um at south by which is in many ways like the center of creativity and culture, making um for this progressive new Community yeah exactly um, and you know, as jody mentioned at the beginning, it's really all around this idea of color. You know color is the best way for our brand to really inspire and motivate and truly show like what that transformation is uh for our products and what they can do. And so, when you combine that you know with leveraging those doodles iconic colors, it creates such an authentic partnership and the only you know it felt so natural to be able to launch that in real life and - and you know, bring their uh world into uh south By southwest um and at south by southwest, where we have these innovators and these creators of these entrepreneurs - and you know, i think, to be able to immerse yourself into that palette and really you know, gain that experience and understand the different colors i mean it was So fun to pick their colors that match so closely with the doodles palette, so that you know people can go out and buy those colors and paint their rooms and really live and breathe on the doodle experience uh every single day, because that community is so special Um, so that was fun to be able to kind of immerse yourself into into that, and then you know.

As we mentioned, we have the uh the paint cans, which was a nice experience where you could um there's a poep on it, where you could scan it, and you know it's kind of our first entry into that space as well uh, which was super exciting and Then you know another nice little touch was we had colorful m, ms, that matched the colors of the doodle. So again, it's it's an authentic way to do it, but still a surprising delight for the consumers that were attending the event and then just as exciting for people that were following you know, on the social space and be available to um, see it and kind of Lift through it virtually as well, that is so tremendous. I think there were many instagramable moments and one of my favorites was part of the bear um activation at the doodles uh event was this spray paint? Can that said bear on it? You could basically, like you, know virtually spray paint, this digital wall, and it was really fun and cool, especially as you guys play with it, and actually people played with it. Who is the you know most valuable, living nft artist, which was pretty cool, and i saw that post go viral on twitter.

So it's nice to to see the community really engaging and loving the experience um that was so so carefully designed and just to like the earlier points of lisa who's, a creator in this space. I think it felt so authentic and natural and and that's what really made it work um. So you know jody i'd, love to ask you in. In what ways did this sort of initial foray allow you all to connect with the nft community, and and were you expecting this kind of a response like you're a cmo and a paint? This you know world is, is very fast ever changing.

So i'd love to hear from you on this absolutely, i would say it definitely exceeded our expectations. Um, you know, as you mentioned, you know we really started working together on this back in december and i i feel, like you know, together what we were able to accomplish and then just to see the reaction of the nft community and this partnership in real time Was was amazing and um super engagement, and you know i what i really felt like was. There was a great connection of our brand to the community and then you know, as i looked at kind of the momentum that was building really leading up as well as during the south by southwest activation and then after um. I would say you know: we've seen incredible at really incredible engagement um throughout, so it was interesting because i you know, as i learned more about doodles throughout this entire process.

You know i really you know. Doodles obviously has a really large footprint and an ft community with a lot of really positive following um, but they really did a great job of helping kind of bridge us um into that community in such a unique and fun way. Um, like i said with with the engagement that uh more than we could have ever expected. Amazing andy.

I know we've got just one minute left here, so maybe give us a little alpha. Give us a little tease. Where do you think this partnership with doodles could go in the future yeah? You know i'll just say you know when it comes to color the possibilities are really endless. Um, i think we're all just finding a new and innovative innovative ways to really bridge that in real life experience with the metaverse, so you know, i would say south by southwest was just you know, laying the foundation of an ongoing partnership between barren, doodles and really Excited to work with them and see what more we can do together.

Amazing, i love it well. Thank you both so much for taking the time to join us. Um appreciate it and look forward to hearing more about what's next with bear and nft space awesome. Thank you for having me team love that background all right.

Next up, we welcome pepsi's cmo todd kaplan todd oversees all marketing for the pepsi brand at pepsico north america. He has taken an unapologetic and culture forward approach as he has re-energized the pepsi brand, delivering its first positive sales growth in more than 10 plus years um, including 15 consecutive quarters of positive sales growth and increased brand equity across the board. Gary asked me to apologize todd that he wasn't able to join and lead this conversation today, but he's stuck on a plane, but miss avery is gon na lead the way oh good. I love avery and i love gary as well, but uh all good how's.

It going avery good todd. Thank you so much for making the time in your schedule to join us um. I know our viewers want to hear from the king of pepsi on all the amazing things that you all have cooking um. Your track record speaks for itself and all the cool stuff that you've done all the culture forward moments and i think the world is still buzzing recovering from the halftime show.

But for today let's focus on nfts, so todd um pepsi launched one of the most um successful nft programs to date from any brand um with pepsi mic drop program. Can you tell us a little bit about how this side this sort of nft journey began and a little bit of the inspiration behind the mic drop yeah sure we knew we uh um, you know to get into the space since it's been kind of uh. You know developing at a very early stage, and we know we wanted to get in uh in a way that was authentic to the pepsi brand and pepsi has always been this brand. That's steeped in music and culture uh, like you said with the pep super halftime, show all the way back to michael jackson, britney spears, you know, beyonce music is such a deep part of its heritage and we thought the mic drop is just such a fun way.

Tapping into the whole generative art kind of trend, that's you know there in nfts, but doing it in a way. That's very pepsi. You know there's only uh 1 893 of them, which is the year that pepsi was born 1893. uh.

We gave them out for free uh to consumers, so we didn't want to charge a minting fee or we, you know, and all consumers have actually through secondary sales, uh made over 10 million dollars in secondary sales. That's 100 gone to the consumers for it. Uh we've offset the carbon, you know footprint and in making them and just doing it in our own way and uh. You know they've been wildly successful.

I think one even sold for a hundred thousand dollars. We saw the other day. So it's been, it's been moving. So uh we're feeling great the market is the market as uh as we like to say, and the market is hot for pepsi mic drops so todd um.

I think that pepsi's connection to music is so um. It's so ubiquitous and you all have done so much cool stuff with music. Are there any famous collectors of the mic drop that we might want to share with the broader community? Yeah there's there's a bunch of you know. I know snoop's got a mic drop.

I think he tweeted his during like right after the super bowl halftime show and viral. If i'm not wrong, i think he dropped the mic after he dropped the mic. Go figure um. You know liam payne uh, there's a number of people.

You know uh that are, you know, continuing to get this and i think, just as you look at our role in music and culture, the pepsi's always had a rich connection. You know to kind of a lot of these, these musicians and and whatnot, and we have a a really great road map built. You know for the mic drop and a very ambitious and bold plan around it. I think right now what you're seeing is we're just really pacing ourselves as uh, and we can talk about this too, is a lot of big companies.

You know we have to kind of make sure we're bringing the rest of our organizations along, as you think, about our legal teams finance a lot of other implications, as we uh continue to get deeper into space. We want to also make sure we're doing it responsibly and for the long haul. So we don't get the rug pulled. Absolutely i think, that's that's so smart taught and maybe for uh other brands who are listening.

What is some of you know? You work for a huge company um. How are you able to galvanize all of the appropriate folks across pepsico um, to align on the strategic approach to pull this off and, like you said, do so in in a pretty differentiated way? And then it was a free mint that was had incredible demand. Obviously i was part of it and i remember the site was like crashing and like it's, it was under like a second, when you know 893 people had registered and um you're, just a really a testament to the amount of demands. So how are you able to get everybody aligned and what would be your guidance for any other brands who are looking to explore this yeah? It's it's tricky, and this reminds me.

I know the big parallel everyone says is remember when web 2 happened and some of you don't uh. I unfortunately do as a as an old man here right now that i am but the um, but listen. It is a lot of just the education. You know it's different when one thing like when ticktop pops up out of thin air one year and everyone's like.

Oh, how does it work, there's general principles of web 2 that are understood, so it's just a different execution of some of the same things. You know connectivity video. All of that. As you look at web 3, the whole infrastructure is different.

You know the digital contracts nfts. What is the metaverse? How does all this stuff work, and so uh cryptocurrency, is very scary from finance people. So, as you look at all these things from a company's lens, there's a lot of education involved as you think of a lot of teams and, frankly, because it's so new much like when web 2 started you're even seeing it continue to get regulated in the web. 2, around privacy and all that web 3, as it relates to securities as it relates to money laundering.

There's all these kind of things that could be watchouts, as you think, about nfts in the world of nfts. Big companies need to be responsible in taking the right steps and so we're doing a lot of education. You know i'm doing a lot of internal discussions and trainings and immersions, and and all of that to really get everybody on the same page with what we're trying to do so that as we move forward and again, we have big bold plans to do really great Stuff in the space moving forward, not just on pepsi, but i would imagine across a number of our brands uh. We want to make sure we're uh we're taking the right steps and setting up something for the long, haul, awesome and todd.

I think one of the reasons that you really have that long-term vision to build this road map and build this multi-year plan for the mic drops and - and you know, subsequent ways you can include your fans in this experience and and really tap into the future of Fandom is that you yourself are an nft collector. How did you sort of get into this space and you know any tips and tricks of how you've educated yourself, because i think you really being that that practitioner yourself gives you a really clear vision around? What's appealing totally, you know, listen a lot of people in my seat or in a lot of other companies. You know i would say, may not want to get get their hands dirty or might just say, hey. Send me a white paper, an email or, let me read a couple articles like this space does not work that way you got to get in it.

You got to get dirty. You got to get scammed on discord. You got to get your crypto stuff going. You got there's so many layers, and you know - and i've said this before right now - um the nft experience for consumers as a marketer.

It pains me because it is a horrible consumer journey. You know you got to give all this personal information to get your digital wallet. You got to then buy your ethereum, then you, you know and figure out that on coinbase or wherever you're going, then you got to figure out your nft, which project you know. How are you going to do it? You know you got to pay gas, you got to then go into the discord like it's very layered, and i equate it a lot to um.

You know when the internet was just starting and web 2 was just starting. You know the experience wasn't what it was today. Remember: web pages used to load like bit by bit right and the the concept of the internet was not matching the execution of the internet back then. Similarly, when video started, you know streaming bandwidth all the stuff you're.

Seeing right now with you know, netflix and real time streaming, you know, zoom would not be possible when web 2 first started right, so infrastructure has to catch up. You know other apps developers and companies are going to be the big things in this space that we've never even heard of, haven't been invented yet today and there are going to be known, entities that are we're going to be like oh yeah, remember them, like the The blockbuster kind of type stuff as well - and so it is at that point where it's early, which is great to kind of immerse yourself kind of feel the vibe of the space get involved with some projects. You know, try some stuff and uh. That's basically what i've been focusing on doing uh, while we're kind of building this as a brand and our strategy knowing hey the rules, are gon na change 50 times in the next handful of years.

As we march towards this, you know eventual metaverse years and years down the road uh, that's that's kind of how we're approaching it. I love it you're thinking about really that long game - and i mean pepsi - has been around for centuries. So it's hardly a a web. 2 brand right we've got a long road ahead and sort of building um the future of pepsi's uh experiences in the meadowverse.

So a little bit about what's coming next um and some of the cool stuff that you might have planned any irl tie-ins potentially coming in the future yeah well. Well, i can't tell you the full. You know you know thing that we got planned obviously, but we do have a lot of really exciting things planned, as we think about the pepsi mic drop for the long term, as we think about building our road map, even in terms of our web3 strategy is Around the pepsi brand, you know um, it's a really interesting thought as a marketer to think about. You know, how do you take a brand or a business that is so irl right? This is a product you put inside your body, you drink it, it's something and when you think of like how does that work, if people are going to be spending all this time in a virtual world right and what are the things beyond kind of the cola? But as you think about the brand and our role in music and you think about our role in culture and a lot of other things, and so it's a really fun process to think about and as we're starting to dream up and look at potential partnerships.

Look at other ways in look at ways to kind of build. You know from real life to the metaverse, to you know everything in between broadcast and how all these kind of areas really connect together. Um. I just think it's an exciting time and um.

You know. I'm excited to hopefully share a lot more as we uh continue on the journey incredible todd. Thank you so much for taking the time everyone follow along pepsi on twitter needs. No further introduction appreciate you all right all right.

Next up, we welcome the paris hilton. She is chairwoman and ceo of 111 media paris is a pioneer in tv, podcasting and nfts, and an innovator in building businesses, social media and celebrity branding since starring in the simple life. Paris has built a global empire as a businesswoman she's. Also, an influencer activist dj designer investor, recording artist, philanthropist host actress, chef model and author, we're so excited to have you today, paris and uh, deep apologies from gary who's stuck on a plane and wants to have a follow-up conversation later on.

Thank you amazing, to be here, paris. Thank you so much for joining us and i'll first start off by saying that i'm a huge admirer of your work and your trailblazing all over i'm in different industries, but particularly in web 3 and a lot of times. People ask me which celebrities get it and paris hilton is always my first response, so i'm super honored to be here with you today. Thank you so much to me all right so from starting your own media company to launching your own nft collection.

You seem to always be ahead of what's next um in culture and in technology. So can you share with us a little bit about how you became interested in all things web 3 and how your journey got you here? Well, i've always been an undercover nerd and i've always been obsessed with technology and um. I got involved into the crypto space back in 2016, when i had dinner with the founders of ethereum, and i just just having this dinner. I was just so fascinated by what they were talking about, and you know it was also new to me.

I obviously didn't know all the technicalities of it, but i knew i wanted to learn more. I knew this was the future and then getting involved into the nft space. That was back in 2019, when i was approached to do my first nft for charity, and this was benefiting the fires in australia and um. Ever since then, i've just been just going more and more into the space and i'm loving it investing into it and building in my metaverse, and it's just been just the best time of my life and it's just getting started.

So you said you started investing in crypto in 2016, so pretty early on vitalik is a legend for anyone who um is not familiar with him check him out uh his you know. Content is one incredibly inspirational and two incredibly entertaining and three incredibly educational. So, paris, you know you've invested in a lot of crypto startups as well um. Can you tell us a little bit more about that and what you look for when you're investing in some of these startups? I really look into founders, who have a vision, people that i really believe in people who, i think, are good kind people who want to give back to the community and are doing things that are innovative and interesting.

And that's why i was really drawn to origin protocol right from the beginning. I was going on clubhouse, basically every single night during the pandemic and just meeting so many different people in the community, and i started talking with them with josh and matt, and i was just blown away by what they were doing and i invested into them. And i am their chief inspiration officer as well, so i just i love people who really want to give back to the creator. I think that's so important and also investing into genies, because i love avatars.

I love the metaverse and so many other different projects. So it's just, i really yeah. I just want to really work with people that i believe are trying to bring good to the space, because, unfortunately, in these spaces there are certain people that come in and they're being greedy and they're only thinking of themselves - and i don't want to be associated with Those type of people i want to really just be a part of things and share my platform and my voice with those that are doing good for the world. That's so inspiring, so everybody check out genies and origin protocol and paris.

You also have your you know. Most recent nft collection, paris past lives, new beginnings in collaboration with super plastic. I'd love to learn a little bit more about how this collection came to be, and also the symbolic meaning behind it. Well past lives.

New beginnings is symbolic of just my past two decades. In the media, and especially in the early 2000s, when myself and many others were just really treated unfairly and i feel like i was always underestimated, and now i've really taken back my power and going to washington dc and becoming an advocate and fighting for change. To stop the abuse of children, and i really believe by telling my story and what i went through, that you know the truth will set you free and those were just symbols of those pieces. And then i also did my polygon piece, which i set.

The price point at 11.11 cents, because i wanted it to be accessible to others and to my fans, and when we did the research after we saw that 65 of the buyers of the 25 000 of those had never had a wallet before this was their first Nft, so it was just really exciting to bring new people into the space. And now my next drop is with the legend pack, which i'm so excited for ash metamorphosis, 2, and that drop is happening on march 28th and i'm just so proud to be a part of it. So many incredibly talented artists and it's just very exciting. I love that accessible price point, because i think for many new to nft consumers or crypto curious folks, it can be a little intimidating to be paying.

You know an ether mint or something so it's you know generous and also so strategic to do something that brings in more of your community and have that be their first nft and first introduction into web three. So where can we check out your next drop? Where will it be dropping um that will be? If they go onto pax twitter, they can go onto the link there and um. Everything is up there, but march 28th is the drop amazing, follow pack and, of course, paris, stay tuned for march 28th. Okay, so you also are in the metaverse, paris, and you have created paris world on roblox um would love to learn a little bit more about your virtual world, your future, the metaverse and the epic new year's eve virtual party that you have at the platform.

Well, i've been obsessed with the metaverse even before there was a name with it for it. Um. Back in 2018, i released my documentary, the american meme, where i was already getting myself mapped out into an avatar, because i had thought of this whole world called paris world where people could come and they can hang out with each other, and they could just be. What any avatar they want to be, and they could watch me dj, and it could just be this kind of virtual place where people could go hang out um, but the technology wasn't available that many years ago.

So now to see it coming to life is so exciting and uh with dash radio. I developed paris world inside of roblox and we did the first ever new year's eve party and we had twice as many people there as in new york times square on new year's eve. So that was just amazing and we also just did the first fashion week in the metaverse, because new york fashion week was happening, and i was like, let's just bring that to paris world too, because i really want to bring as many in real life things to The metaverse as well, because not everybody, gets to experience certain types of experiences, so i really love just bringing my world into the metaverse and um. Now i was just at south by southwest um for sandbox and i dj'd their event there, and now we are going to be building a paris world inside of there, so um yeah.

I just feel like with web 3. The possibilities are truly endless and it's so much fun that we're able to create these amazing worlds and experiences and art. And it's just it's just such what i'm about so um, yes, yeah the south by one was the talk of the town in austin um and it's amazing to see paris world now coming to sandbox as well um and what you've done in central land in roblox. So many amazing places paris world takes over the metaverse, so paris, what is next for you on any front, whether it's nfts or the metaverse, or something beyond i'm just going to continue investing into the space.

Also, empowering female artists, especially lifting other artists, up sharing my platform, also digital wearables um, designing a fashion brand for the metaverse right now and just collaborating with artists that i really love and um. Just there's, there's so much happening. It's just and oh yeah. The one thing i'm very excited about which i just did this weekend is i'm doing a whole like crypto web 3 based ep for my next album, and i have my first song and it's called to the moon with like mike and dimitri vegas, and it's a Crypto based nft, like we talk about basically everything the metaverse crypto nfts, all of that in the song, and i'm really excited for everyone to hear the song and also see the music video and perform it at tomorrowland.

The biggest music festival in the world this summer. To the moon is the perfect ending for this parent. Thank you so much for your time, um yeah for all of your work, leading the way into space. Thank you.

It's my honor and pleasure. I love this space. I love the community and tell gary. I said what up i love him so inspired by him, i'm listening to all of his podcasts he's just so brilliant and yeah so happy to be on here and you guys have an awesome team thanks, paris, fantastic! Thank you, paris! Next, we welcome alexandra ford english.

She is the global brand merchandising director at ford motor company alexander, was elected to be to the board of directors at ford last year and is responsible for driving growth through an expanded collection of lifestyle, merchandise. Previously alexandra led markets and operations for ford's autonomous vehicle. Welcome alexandra, thank you, i'm thrilled to be here alexandra. Thank you so much for making the time you are.

You know such an amazing person and you've done such incredible work with ford. We're grateful to have you on this show um. So thank you for being here with us this afternoon. Thank you for having me i'm thrilled to be here, amazing, so alexandra.

I would love to hear your perspective on you know. You've got a very deep and entrenched relationship with ford i'd love for you to tell our audience a little bit about yourself and a little bit about how you are building the ford fan base in new ways into the future. Great um. Yes, i do have a quite the background of ford motor company um.