S5 E51: A Beginner's Guide to NFT Photography

Get the show’s transcript

[INTRODUCTION]

“YD: I do have those moments of doubt that say, "Okay, maybe my work is not good enough." But then I come back to myself, and I look at my work, and I look at my portfolio and all of the things that I’ve done over the years and I say, "No, Yulia, your work is great. And it just needs the right moment. And it just needs to be placed in front of the right person who will connect with it and who will want to collect it.”

[00:00:26] YD: Welcome to the Travel Media Lab podcast. I’m your host, Yulia Densiyuk, an award-winning travel photographer and writer, entrepreneur, community builder and firm believer that every one of us can go after the stories we've always wanted to tell with the right support, encouragement and structure. 

I’m on a mission to help women's storytellers everywhere break into and thrive in the travel media space. If you're ready to ditch your fears to the side, grow your knowledge and confidence, and publish your travel stories, you're in the right place. Let's go.

[EPISODE]

[00:01:02] YD: Before we get started today, I wanted to say a huge, huge thank you to Emily Nathan from Tiny Atlas Magazine, a fellow female photographer in the travel space whose recent stories on Instagram have inspired me to get into the NFT space. When she pointed out how incredibly lopsided male-dominated the space is and how we really need more women participating and engaging with and learning from the NFT space. 

So before I saw her stories on Instagram, I’ve heard about NFTs something. But I felt like I don't belong in that space. And I felt like that space is definitely not for me. And when she posted her stories, I looked into it because I got incredibly riled up. And I started looking into the NFT space and what it's all about. So if it wasn't for Emily and her post on Instagram, I wouldn't have been sitting here today talking to you about NFTs. So thank you so much, Emily. 

Over the course of the last few weeks, I have gotten so many messages on Instagram from fellow women creators, photographers, storytellers, Instagramers, telling me how overwhelmed they are about the NFT space. Overwhelmed, but also curious and wondering. Is it for them? What it's all about? There's so much terminology. There's so many things to learn in the NFT space. So if you feel the same way as well, if you're feeling overwhelmed by the NFT space, yet feeling curious and wondering if you should spend more effort and more time getting into it, then this episode is for you. Let's dig in. 

So what are NFTs? An NFT, which stands for a non-fungible token, is a unique digital asset. Think things like music, videos, images, songs, GIFs, that lives on the cryptocurrency blockchain. And today's episode is not about cryptocurrency blockchain technology. I don't have any knowledge about that technology. Actually, very limited knowledge. You can google cryptocurrency blockchain and learn more about the technology and what it is. But the important thing is that that technology, the blockchain technology, has allowed the creation of the NFTs. 

And the biggest impact, at least the way I see it that the NFTs have created for creators like myself, for photographers, for songwriters, for artists, is that they have assigned a unique, trackable and transparent ownership to every single digital item you create on this technology. So I’m sure many photographers listening right now can relate to this. Where before, somebody might have easily screenshotted your image or right clicked it from your website. And there was no way to prove unless you put your signature all over the image. There's no way to prove that you are the rightful owner of that image. 

Theft in the digital file space is a huge thing, right? We all know this. So before somebody could have screenshotted your image, they could have right-clicked it. And it was difficult for you to track that. And it was difficult, thereby, to sell your work and to demand high prices for your work, because anybody can just go and right click it, right? It's so easily available. 

Now the way the NFTs work is that when you create an NFT of your photography, or of your video, or of your GIF, let's say, or GIF, it adds a unique record on the blockchain technology. Meaning that there is only one owner at a time. One owner at a time that is undisputable. And essentially what an NFT is, is the record of that ownership, right? So you still can share your files. You can still right click your files. But that's almost not relevant anymore. Because for everyone participating on that NFT marketplace, playing on that blockchain technology, everybody can see it, because blockchain is transparent, right? You can see the record of every single blockchain transaction that happens on the blockchain. You can see clearly who is the owner of that NFT. 

And again, the NFT can be an image, a video, a GIF, GIF, a song, any digital asset that you can think of can be an NFT, which also means that it's so much easier now to trade and sell these digital items and also demand higher prices for them. And again, the point that you can still right click an image and save it somewhere becomes almost irrelevant. Because what people who are participating in these uh marketplaces, what they really care for is that record on the blockchain. Who is the owner of that NFT piece according to the record? And that cannot be more than one person or more than one wallet, let's say, at a time, okay? 

And as the creator of that NFT, you maintain copyright and reproduction rights of your work. So let's say I decide to create an NFT from an image that was published in National Geographic, for example. I can absolutely do that. And I maintain copyright and reproduction rights of that file, of that digital file, of the image itself. I can sell it to another magazine perhaps, depending on the contract with Nat Geo. I can print it and gift it to my friend. I can put it up for sale in a gallery as a physical print. I can do whatever I want with it, right? 

So the work that you used to create your NFT, it continues to belong to you, okay? The only thing that the owner and whoever it purchases your NFT owns is that record, is that NFT, let's say, manifestation of your work that exists in the marketplace. So I think that's also important to understand. Because when I first started looking into it, I was like, "Well, maybe I want to hold on to my images." But that's not the case. So you maintain copyright and you maintain reproduction rights. And you can do whatever you want with the file that you used to create your NFT. 

And probably the most important thing about NFTs and the thing that I got very excited about it when I learned this, is that because ownership can now be extremely tracked, it can be tracked, you know at any given point who owns that digital NFT that you've created. What that means is that every single time your NFT is sold on what is called secondary market, meaning that somebody purchased it from you. You're no longer the owner of the NFT. And then that somebody is now selling it again. And they're usually posting it at higher prices, which is called flipping. It's kind of like flipping a house, right? You sort of buy it at the lower price and then you try to flip it and make a profit. And a lot of people in the NFT space are doing that as well. 

So every time someone else resells the NFT that was originally created by you, you get a royalty. You get a percentage of sales. And usually that's 10% to 15% in perpetuity. In perpetuity, you guys. So every single time that image, that video, that GIF, GIF, that you've created and turn it into an NFT gets resold, you get a royalty. That all comes back to you. Imagine how revolutionary this is. Because before, let's say you printed an image, right? And let's say you sold that image to somebody. A year or five years from now, when that somebody decides to sell that photograph that you've created because they're renovating their house and it no longer fits with their design or whatever, you get nothing, right? You get absolutely nothing. And that's been the case for centuries actually. That, for the most part, artists and creators get nothing when their work gets resold. Now, with NFTs, this is not the case. You get a percentage of sales, 10% to 15% usually, in perpetuity. So that's really huge.

Now a lot of people have asked me in the past several weeks since I’ve been posting on Instagram specifically about my journey of getting into NFTs. A lot of people have asked me, "Should I really get into this space?" And I think that yes you should. I’m a total NFT convert by now. And here is why I think you do.

First of all, what I really got excited about when I started learning about NFTs is that it's truly a new way to showcase your work and to bring your message into the world in a new medium. It's been years. It's honestly been years since I was this excited about sharing my work with other people. And I’m sure you can all relate to this feeling when you post on Instagram, "Wa-wa-wa." You get some likes, right? You get something sometimes. And that's it. And that's really it. And I’m not talking about the monetary aspect here by the way. Although, that's of course huge is by itself, right? Because on Instagram, when we share our images and we share our work, we get nothing. If we're lucky, our work doesn't get reposted without our credit. But basically, we get nothing on Instagram. And here with the NFT world, when you share your work and when your work gets sold, which we're going to talk about it later in the episode about selling your work. But when that happens, you get actual rewards in the form of cryptocurrency, which can then be converted into real money for your work. 

But that's not even why I got so excited about NFT space. Entering the space, and learning about the process, and learning about who participates here, what kind of work people collect, and the infrastructure, everything, everything, I started thinking about my work in a very different way. And I started thinking, "Well, what message do I want to put out in this NFT marketplace? What work do I want to create in the NFT marketplace? How can I take my existing work, the body of work that I’ve created over the past six or so years? And how can I uh give it new, almost like fresh breath into this work?" And as a creator as an artist, that felt really, really exciting to me. Instagram hasn't made me feel this way in a very long time. And RIOS are not exciting to me. I’m sorry to all the RIOS people out there who are listening right now. RIOS are not exciting to me. NFTs are, okay? 

The other reason why I think you should get into this space is that it's an incredible, incredible opportunity right now to connect with people who love your work. And in this marketplace, in this universe, NFTs, they are called collectors. They collect the art. They collect photographs. They support artists. And by the way, there are no middlemen between you. There are no gatekeepers. I don't know that much about the gallery and exhibition world. I’ve only exhibited once several years ago. So I don't have much insight into the traditional gallery world. Now talking about photographers specifically. 

But what I do know is that it's incredibly hard to get into galleries. You have to know people. You have to know the right gatekeepers. And you have to get the approval from the gatekeepers to get into those galleries. And it's an extremely, extremely limited space into which many photographers want to get into, right? And here's why this is special, because now we can all get into this huge gallery, the NFT marketplace gallery, and find people who will love our work and who will want to support us right away, which is so incredible. 

You are in charge of this whole process. You curate your own work. You decide how much you want to prize. You decide how your collections are going to look like. You decide everything. And again, there is no gatekeepers. It's you and the collectors, the people who love your work. And to me, at least what I’ve learned so far, NFTs it's all about finding those people, finding the people who will love your work, finding the collectors who will want to collect from you and getting in front of them. And again, we'll talk about that a little bit later.

Another reason why I think that, yes, you should absolutely get into this space right now as a creator, is that it's an opportunity to have incredible autonomy, and direction, and change for your career. This is an opportunity for you to potentially, not guaranteed, but potentially drastically change the direction of your career. And this hasn't happened to me yet. Full disclaimer. This hasn't happened. But I’ve met people in the NFT universe who have been able to pay off their loans, pay off their credit cards, quit their jobs, drop everything and move to Bali. Okay, now I’m just kidding about that last one, but who have made an incredible amount of money in the last year, we're talking 2021, from the NFTs, from the space.

So even if you have a very small chance – Because, of course, a lot of people are getting into the space now and the competition is becoming hard. There is a lot of people in the space. Even now as I’m recording this, at the end of February 2022, there's a lot more people entering the space every day. And it's harder for you to stand out. But still, this is a very amazing opportunity for you to drastically change the direction of your career.

On top of that, it's also an opportunity to shape this entire NFT industry. It is such a new space. It is incredibly, incredibly new. And all the people who are participating in it right now are definitely early adopters who are learning as they go and who are setting the direction for this entire space to take. So if that's something that interests you, if it interests you to participate in that and to make an impact on the direction of this whole universe of NFTs, then you should get into it right now. 

And as I said just now, this space is very, very, very early. We are all learning as we go. And, like, the way I see it right now is that there is no limit to what we can create in the NFT universe. Right now, the whole progression of how the NFT space started, it started with pixelated arts, right? It started with things like Board Apes Club, which I’m not even going to get into it that much. It doesn't draw me at all. But if you're interested, you can google Board Apes Yacht Club I think it's called, and see what that's all about. And then somewhere halfway through 2021, the photography came on board. And it's just exploded in 2021. But that was like six months ago. So this is still so new. 

And imagine what else is coming on board in the years to come? I think sound will be next. I think written word will be next. I have some amazing ideas, some interesting ideas on how we can apply all that creativity that we apply in our regular world in that NFT space. And for me, this is really where the fun of this space lies as well.

I’m already thinking about collaborating with publications that have published my work. Collaborating with artists. Doing special projects based on the work I’ve done. There's just no limit, because we are the ones setting the rules. And there is no limit to what we can do with this technology. And that to me is really, really exciting. 

For example, one example I’ll share right now that I’m working on is I have several different stories of different communities around the world that I’ve published in different magazines over the years. And one of the potential applications of this technology that I see is taking the images, let's say, from one of the stories about one of these communities turning them into an NFT collection in a collection. It's just a series of images that you curate into one cohesive theme, and sharing the proceeds of that NFT collection sales with that community. I mean, how exciting is that? 

Right now, that work lives in that magazine, right? Or it lives on a page of that magazine somewhere. And it doesn't do anything. It doesn't do anything. Maybe somebody's reading it still a couple of years after it's been published. But for the most part, it's not doing anything, right? And imagine taking that work and turning this into an NFT collection and turning this into this powerful tool for real change for some of these communities. That's extremely exciting for me.

Now, a lot of messages I’ve received over the past several weeks have also been pointing out the absolutely valid concern of the sustainability of this technology. And in fact, going back to Emily Nathan again, the photographer that shared on the Instagram stories about NFTs with us, and it's the whole reason that I got into the space. Emily also was pointing out that a lot of women that she heard from on her Instagram said that the reason why they haven't gotten into NFTs yet is because of the sustainability concern.

What I want to say here is that, please, don't limit yourself. And don't miss out on the space by thinking that every single NFT platform is unsustainable or for that matter too expensive to mint. And to mint is a terminology that means simply to create an NFT. Because it's not. What I’ve actually learned since diving deep into this universe is that there are many different platforms and marketplaces for NFTs out there that are working on addressing that specific issue. The fact that it takes so much energy and resources to mint, to create these NFTs. 

For example, there is a platform called Palm NFT that is addressing that specifically, that is environmentally – The resources that they take to create an NFT are near zero. Ethereum, which is a platform or a technology that many NFTs use, has a 2.0 system, let's say, coming out, which will also drastically reduce the amount of energy that you would need to create every single NFT. And by the way, I will list all these platforms in the show notes and a whole bunch of other resources as well. So check out all those links. But don't limit yourself by thinking this blanket thought that all NFT creation is unsustainable, because it's not. Because there are really, really smart people who are working on addressing that specific issue. And, already, solutions exist to address that issue. Palm NFT is one of those solutions, for example. 

And then the expensive concern, which is also by the way very valid, it also has solutions. So Foundation, which is another platform that hosts NFTs and is an NFT marketplace, is among the most expensive platforms out there. However, there are other options. For example, OpenSea, and Tezos, Solana. There are several other options for less expensive than foundation. So don't decide to not participate in the space altogether because you have these concerns of sustainability and that is too expensive for you. Do your research. Dip your toes, and you will see that there are many solutions, and that it's actually more doable than you think. 

This next reason for why you should get into the NFT space honestly really surprised me. And that reason is the Web3 community. So I’ve been on twitter now for four weeks. And why Twitter? Because, by the way, twitter is where the NFT community lives. It's Twitter and Discord. Discord is a whole other topic. We're not going to get into Discord in this episode. But Twitter is really where the NFT community lives. And I’ve been on the Twitter platform for maybe six, seven years, but I never done anything with it. I stuck to Instagram. I was a die-hard Instagram creator. And for the past four weeks, I’ve been on twitter learning, interacting with people, making connections, speaking in the rooms, spaces. etc. And oh my God! The community of people who are all learning together, who are all supporting each other, who are resharing each other's work, who are mentioning other people's work in front of collectors is incredible. I was shocked to learn that. 

And trust me when I say, that does not exist on Instagram. That absolutely does not exist on Instagram. That level of support, that level of engagement in the best possible term of the word, that level of community does not exist on Instagram anymore. It did at the beginning, for sure. We all remember the golden years of Instagram. But it does not anymore. And I found it on Twitter with the Web3/NFT community. And it's just been so incredible for me to get into that. 

And finally, one other reason for why I think that all of us needs to get into NFTs right now is because this space needs you and needs your voice. And especially if you're listening to this as a woman creator or a female identifying creator, this space needs you drastically. You guys, I can't even describe to you how frustrating it's been. Like I said, I’ve been sort of active on Twitter for the past several weeks. And I started showing up in Spaces. And Spaces, for those of you familiar with Clubhouse, another app from last year. On Clubhouse, there were these audio rooms, right? You could get into rooms with people and you could talk. You can get on stage. You'd have speakers. You would have hosts and co-hosts and everyone else is listening. So Twitter has the same thing, but they call it spaces, right, instead of rooms? 

So I started showing up in Spaces recently. And I can't tell you how incredibly frustrating it's been for me to see that, without exception, the rooms, the spaces that I’ve been showing up in are overwhelmingly male, overwhelmingly. And it's frustrating, because this space, the NFT universe, the NFT space right now, I believe that it's at a pivotal stage in its development. It's, again, the stage where we can shape the direction to which it goes. We can shape how inclusive, how communal, how welcoming it is. And the more – I believe, the more women creators participate in the space, the better the space will be. So yes, if you are curious about the space, if you have, let's say aspirations to create something in the NFT space, then you absolutely, I believe, should get into it, okay? 

So I want to dedicate the rest of this episode sharing with you what I’ve learned so far from this journey. And here's a huge caveat that I don't know a lot. And actually, a lot of people who are in the NFT space right now will tell you, "I don't know a lot. I don't know that much." For one, like I said at the beginning, I actually don't have a really good understanding of how the technology works. How the cryptocurrency blockchain technology works. I mean, I understand sort of on a very general level, but I don't understand technology deeply. So if you're looking for that understanding, I will not be able to give you that. I think you would probably need to do your own research and Google. There's a lot of articles out there about it. But what I do want to share with you is what I’ve learned so far, some of the mistakes that I’ve made, some of the observations that I have about the space, and hopefully they will help you as you're sort of deciding if you want to get into the space or not. 

Okay, so here we go. First, I want to tell you that there is a really, really, really steep learning curve. It's really huge, you guys. The learning curve is crazy. But don't let it stop you, okay? Don't let it stop you. When I started in the NFT space, it felt like I am taking steps without fully understanding what I’m doing. I have to register ens, like, .ens domain. I have to create a wallet. I have to watch gas fees. I have to transfer cryptocurrency from Coinbase to my wallet. I have to validate. I have to sign this. Like, I was following the steps based on the article that, again, Emily Nathan shared on her Instagram, which sort of outlined the process of how to get started. And we'll link to this article in the show notes as well. 

So I was following the steps. But it was like I have no idea what I’m doing right now. And that was only four to five weeks ago, you guys. Only four to five weeks ago, I had no idea what I’m doing. Now look at me, I’m recording the podcast about NFTs and sharing with you what I’ve learned. So in these four to five weeks, I’ve actually learned a lot. And it feels – The NFT space right now feels like you're sort of drinking from a fire hose. There's a lot of information coming at you. There's a lot of things happening every single day in NFT space. And the learning curve is really huge. So you have to be ready for that. 

Well, actually you don't have to be ready for that. I wasn't ready for that. I had no idea what I’m getting into, right? But I sort of uh conquered the learning curve. And here I am today. But just know that the learning curve is really huge. But you can figure it out. You've done much harder things than figuring out NFTs. I think the most important thing is to start and to follow the process, follow some of these articles that I’m going to share in the show notes. And at the beginning, it's going to sound like this doesn't make any sense. But trust me. After some time with it, after even a few days with it, you will know what you're doing already. 

Pricing. Pricing is a really, really important conversation in the NFT space. And honestly, pricing deserves a whole episode to itself. And maybe I will do an episode on pricing in the following weeks. Don't worry. This podcast is not going to be taken over by NFTs completely. But for me, right now, NFTs are top of mind, because I’m active in this space. I’m trying to learn as much as I can, okay? But pricing in the space is really, really important. You have an opportunity. When you create an NFT, when you create your collection of images, let's say, you have an opportunity to set a price under which your NFT cannot go below, right? So you basically say, "This is the lowest price that I will accept for this NFT. You can go higher, but you cannot go lower." 

And there are nuances to this because different platforms, different NFT marketplaces, of which there are several. And again, there is a link to all of them, so many of them, in the show notes. Different marketplaces approach pricing differently. For example, Foundation, which is a marketplace I’m on. Shout out to my friend, Tony [inaudible 00:29:58], for hooking me up with an invite to Foundation. Foundation approaches pricing as an auction. So you say here's my NFT. And let's say I want to – I won't accept anything less than one. Eth is Ethereum. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency. I won't accept less than one for this work. And then if somebody likes your work, they can bid on it and they'll say, "Okay, I will buy it for one." And then someone else can come in and say, "Oh, I like this, too. I bid 1.2." And then the first person says 1.5. And so on and so forth. It's like an auction system. But they can't bid anything lower than the price that you originally put, okay? 

Other platforms like OpenSea, for example, don't have an auction process. There, you just set the price. And this is the price that a collector pays, which is pretty straightforward. When you're thinking about pricing, you really have to do your research on other photographers in your space, right? What are they pricing? Are they successful? How are different collection priced? How do you best represent your work? Do all of this research before putting a collection and before setting the prices that you have. And in general, the advice that I’ve heard so far in the NFT space is that, especially with your first collection, you really want to, let's say, thread carefully and to do a bit of a pricing research with your work. Meaning that you don't really know how much somebody is willing to pay for your work. You have no idea. 

Like, when we all get into the space at first, we have no idea, right? We see people selling their work for you know 10 Ethereum, which is by the way $30,000, let's say. We see other people selling their work for 0.0005 Ethereum, which is like $20. So the range is really huge. You have to decide what is your work worth. What will you not price below, right? If you want to signal some sort of quality to collectors. But you also have to do some price research with your work and see, "Okay, if I price my collection at, let's say, 0.25 Ethereum, will it gets any sales?" Or, "If I price my work at 5 Ethereum, will it get any sales?" So it's a bit of a nuanced approach. But you do have to do your research. You have to think about how you want to value your work and what kind of signal you want to put out in space that says something about your work, right? Because pricing says something about our work. So you have to think a lot about what you price.

Now, if you've sort of been hanging out in the NFT spaces, you will hear this a lot. Gas fees. Gas fees. Gas fees. So what are gas fees? Gas fees are actually a, let's say, service fee that you pay not to these platforms where you sell your NFTs, not to these marketplaces, but to the people who power the whole blockchain structure, right? So when we talk about how energy-intensive the blockchain is, what we actually mean by that is that there are a lot of individual people's computers and servers around the world, and now mobile phones, too, by the way, that are giving their computing energy to the blockchain platform. They are the ones who power this up. And they power it up not for free. But they're getting money for the service that they're providing. 

So when we say gas fees, that's what those are. We're paying those gas fees to people who are supporting, who are powering up the whole blockchain technology through their computers, their service, their mobile phones. And those gas fees, they fluctuate a lot. They fluctuate so much. When I first got in to the space, again, four or five weeks ago, I decided right away that I was following the process in one of those articles. And one of the steps was that you have to register your .ens domain name. Meaning that your crypto wallet, which a wallet is where you keep all your currency. Usually, that crypto wallet is like a string of letters and numbers. And it's not really legible for normal human beings. Like we cannot read it, right? It's like a computer-generated string of words and of digits and letters. 

And if you want to convert it to something that's legible to a human, then you have to register your .ens domain on the blockchain. So for me, long story short, I did that with my crypto wallet. So now my crypto wallet, instead of having that sort of string of digits and numbers, it's called insearchofperfect.eth. So that's my wallet. So when I had to register my wallet, I had to pay those fees, the gas fees, to the people who power up the whole network and the whole blockchain. 

And when I like clicked the button to submit, I saw that the fee to do that was $400. Like, a lot of money, to just register a domain name, a wallet domain name. So I rejected that. I said, "No, no, no. I’m not going to do that." I waited maybe a few minutes, if that, and it went down to $200 in a matter of minutes. Still wasn't good enough for me. So I waited a little bit more. And it went down to $100, let's say, or 120. I don't remember now how much. So in a matter of minutes, that fee to do something on the blockchain technology fluctuated a lot.

And what people are saying and what I’m also seeing is that it seems to me that those gas fees are the lowest at night and early in the morning when there are fewer people on the network. Because these gas fees, why did they fluctuate? They fluctuate because it's like the supply and demand situation, right? So the more people are on the network, the more people are doing transactions, the more expensive the fees become. And the less people are on the platform, the less expensive the fees become, okay? So we sort of have to watch out for those gas fees. 

And again, some platforms are more expensive than others. Like I mentioned, Foundation is more expensive. OpenSea and some other ones are less expensive. So we have to watch out for those gas fees. The other thing that I’ve learned entering the NFT space is that we don't have to – Actually, we cannot rush. We cannot rush. And I didn't listen to my own advice. I totally rushed. I was so excited to get into the space. I was so excited to get into the Foundation platform that I minted, I created, my first NFT collection right away. I had an idea in my mind right away about what I wanted to create a collection on. I went for it. And here it is. 

I wish, what I would have done instead, I wish that I would have listened and learned more and participated in some of these discussions on twitter in rooms with people who have been doing it for months now or a year before creating my first collection. I would have had a much better understanding of the dynamics in the space, of pricing, of what other people are doing. But I didn't. I went for it right away. And if I listened, if I waited and listened and learned more, what I would also learned is that a lot of smart photographers are doing almost like a launch strategy with their collections. So they come into the space. They build relationships. They learn. They perhaps announce that they're going to come up with a collection in the future. But they're not creating anything yet. They're just entering the space, right, as a participant. 

And then once they sort of build a network of people, once they introduced themselves to this universe, to this community, they announced that, let's say, on March 8th, 2022, I have my first ever NFT collection launching on Foundation. And they announced that two months before. And they start building the anticipation and the excitement. So when the collection finally is here, on March 8th, 2022, people are so excited. And everybody who's been following them and their journey is so excited. And they're supporting them. And they're retweeting their collection. And they get this momentum with their first collection that is really, really important. Now, I didn't do any of that, okay? Like I said, I just created my first collection right away. I turned it on Foundation. And it sat there. And there's crickets. And there's still crickets, by the way. As I’m as I’m recording this, I still haven't sold anything in my first collection. And, of course, I understand now what I did wrong in that launch. Because when I when I first got into the space, I had nobody who knew me in the NFT community. Nobody knew who Yulia was. Nobody knew what she's all about, what her work is all about. So of course, nobody paid attention. I don't know why I expected to just create my NFT collection and immediately get sales or immediately get eyes on it, right? It's actually very unrealistic. But, oh, well, that was a newbie mistake that I made. So learn from me. And don't make that mistake. 

And it's been kind of challenging, honestly, for me to now see how my collection just sits there and nobody's seeing it, and I’m not getting any sales. So it's challenging for me to think now, "Well, did I make a mistake?" Or maybe my work is really not good enough. Maybe nobody wants it. Maybe it's horrible. It's so easy to get into those thoughts right away, especially when you see left and right. You guys, this space is so hot right now. You cannot imagine how hot the space is. People are making sales left and right of me. I see my fellow photographers, female, male, travel photographers, wildlife photographers, nature photographers, cityscapes, street photographers. I see people making sales, okay? And some of them are selling for very low and some of them are selling for some really good money. And of course, when you see that all around you, and your own work is kind of just sitting there, it's so easy to get into this negative space of doubt and wondering if you made a mistake. 

But at the same time, again, what excites me about the NFT space is that, at least for me, it caused me, it made me look at my work through completely new lens. It made me look at my work and really think hard about what is the value of my work to me as a creator, but also to other people who might potentially want to collect it? And that is an exercise that I think is really useful for all of us creators. I don't think we do that. At least in my world, coming from a publishing world, coming from travel media world where I work with publications, etc., I don't think about that, right? Because the value of your work is actually assigned by a publication, right? They are the ones who will tell, "Okay, I can pay you this much for this work, or that much." Again, I mentioned that earlier. That's why I think this is so exciting here. You are the one who is calling all the shots. And you are the one who is saying, "No, my work is worth this much." So I think it's a really great exercise for all of us to go through.

So my collection, which is still sitting there collecting dust, although, now a little bit more people are looking at it because I’m active now on Twitter. I do have those moments of doubt that say, "Okay, maybe my work is not good enough." But then I come back to myself and I look at my work and I look at my portfolio and all of the things that I’ve done over the years and I say, "No, Yulia, your work is great. And it just needs the right moment. And it just needs to be placed in front of the right person who will connect with it and who will want to collect it. Okay?" 

So again, don't rush as me. Think about it more strategically. Listen, and learn, and participate, and develop community before you launch your first collection. That's probably the most important piece of advice you will hear on this podcast today. 

The other thing that I’ve learned is that you really need to think long term when you're entering the NFT space. This is absolutely not a short term get rich quick project. Although, again, it's hard not to buy into the hype. Because if you've been following the NFT space like I have, you hear all these stories again. For example, the most famous story from last year was about Beeple, this creator who, I think, it was Sotheby's auction. His NFT was sold for, I think, two or three million. Something like that. I will find that article and I will put it in the show notes so you can check the facts yourself. Maybe it was not two or three million. But it was some huge, incredibly huge amount of money, that this artist's NFT was sold at an auction. It was either Christie's or Sotheby's, which basically legitimized the whole thing. And that's when the first rush of NFTs happened. And that's when a lot of people came into the space, right? 

So when you hear stories like that – Or, for example, there's another story about a female photographer from Chicago who, for years, has been struggling, hasn't been able to sort of pay her rent or pay her bills on time, entered NFT space and literally like got herself out of poverty. Paid off all her debts, etc., etc. And now really thriving in the space. So when you hear stories like that, it's so easy to get into the hype of this being like an overnight get rich quick, or even forget about get rich quick, but overnight success, let's say. It's a really, really dangerous path to follow. Because, yes, there are people who are able to enter the space and right away get going like that. Those are more exceptions, not the rule. Because there were probably some factors at work here such as luck, such as being in the right place in the right time, etc., etc., right? And for a lot of us those factors are not going to be there.

Again, my own story I’ve been in this place for four to five weeks now. And so far I haven't seen much traction with my work, because I haven't yet been in the right place at the right time. But again, this is a long-term project. The NFT space, the Web3 space is here to stay. I don't think it's going away anytime soon. I think, if anything, more and more of our, let's say, digital, traditional digital applications, that are called Web2 right now, more and more of those are going to be migrating into Web3. That's my personal opinion, of course. It can change. It might be completely off. So like many people in the NFT space are saying right now, don't take this as financial advice. These are all sort of our own predictions and our own thoughts and opinions. But that's what I think.

So the question to ask here is where do you see yourself in the NFT universe in two or three years from now? Where do you see yourself in five years from now in the NFT space? I think that it will evolve a lot. And there will be a lot more application to this technology and to what we can do as creators with this technology. And for me, at least, the fun part is that you can evolve with this platform, with this space, and you can participate in it, and you can grow as a creator with it as well.

You have to think long term, and you have to take your time. Because like I said, the sales of your NFTs probably are not going to happen overnight. And again, I had this unrealistic expectation that I’m going to come into the space, I’m going to mint my NFTs. And overnight I’m going to get some sales. And of course, I was proven very wrong, which is okay. But it's really important to understand that in order to be successful in the NFT space – And this is what I’m seeing so far, what I’m learning so far, is that you really – As a creator, as an artist who is going to create NFTs, you really, really, really need to build relationships. You need to develop a community in the space. And in that way, this isn't really any different from any other projects we take or endeavors we pursue, right? 

If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you know that I always talk about how important relationships are when it comes to pitching editors, and growing your portfolio, and getting more work. Why would this space be any different? It's exactly the same. You need to build relationships. You need to connect to people. You need to connect to potential collectors. You need to connect to other artists, other photographers. You need to be an entity. And maybe entity is not even the right word. You need to be a person that other people know in this space in order to be successful.

And what I’m also learning is that this will require some serious effort and serious time on your end. Really serious. One of the ways – Actually, probably the most effective way in which you can build relationships and community in the NFT universe is by getting into those Twitter spaces that I’ve mentioned. Which are, again, like audio rooms where you enter those rooms, spaces, and you can request to come up to the speaker's stage, you can introduce yourself, you introduce your story, get to know other people, etc., etc. This is where most of – At least to my knowledge right now, this is where most of that relationship building and community building is happening. This is where people are getting to know other people's work. This is where sales happen as well. 

Like, today, for example, before recording this podcast, I spent 10 hours waiting to speak at a space, you guys. 10 freaking hours. I entered that space around 7 in the morning. And I finally got a chance to speak at 5pm. So it took me 10 hours and the problem is why is it so time and effort intensive? Is that when you're participating in those spaces, it's not like you can multitask for the most part. Because if you are participating, if you're speaking, you cannot do anything else at that point, or at least I can't. I have to be fully engaged in that um. 

So for these 10 hours, I was listening to all these other people who are also coming to speak, who are interacting. And in the matter of those 10 hours, we had I think five or six sales. So people, photographers like me, artists, came to the space to speak, to introduce themselves. Collectors were in the room. They saw their art. They loved it. They bought it on the spot, okay? So again, at least what I’m learning right now is this is how sales happen. For those of us who are new to the space, who don't have huge networks, huge community here in the NFT world, this is how we put our work in front of more people's eyes. But it is so intensive. So time and effort intensive. So be ready for that. Be prepared for that. 

For me, it's eating into my other time, right? I’ve already noticed that it's eating into my time working on all the other projects that I have going on. And believe me, I’m a busy person. I have this podcast. I have our Travel Media Lab community. I have our membership. My class is launching soon. I have speaker engagements. I have articles that are due. The deadlines for articles coming up. I have trips that I am planning. So many things, right? And this effort right now is eating into my other time. 

But I decided that, for me, it is worth it because of all the reasons that I’ve outlined to you so far of why I think the space is worth getting into why I think it has incredible potential. For me, the effort and the time investment is worth it. But I want you to be aware that that's what it's going to take. And I’ve learned this the hard way, again. Because, again, I came into the space, I was like, "Okay, here I am. So now let's see." And nothing had happened. Until I started engaging with the community. And it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work.

And just one last thing about Twitter. Twitter is really where the action is here. Don't waste your time sharing your work of NFTs on Instagram and expecting sales there. It's not going to happen, you guys. It's absolutely not going to happen. Instagram is not the place to be. Twitter is the place to be. So if you don't have a Twitter account, look into it. Start following people in the NFT world. And very quickly you will see what I’m talking about. The community over there is just incredible. It's bubbling. It's bubbling and it's very supportive for the most part. And it's a really exciting space to be right now. And I can't believe that I just said that Twitter is an exciting space to be. Because for the past 10 years, I’ve been ignoring Twitter completely. I had an account. And I never did anything with it. And here I am now saying that Twitter is exciting. So there you go.

And finally, what I’ve also learned from this journey so far is that getting into the NFT universe right now is an opportunity to do something really, really special as women in the space. And you've heard me touch on this earlier. But again, it's just so frustrating and so crazy for me to see how few women there are in this space. And you can really make your mark. And you can really have your story be heard. And you can share your work. And you can make an impact on some other human being by being in the space. And that's is really exciting to me. 

I actually decided – When I got into the space, I immediately decided that this is going to be a huge focus of mine, is supporting other women in the NFT space. There is a hashtag. I’ll put it in the show notes as well. It's #WomenInNFTs. And if you go to that hashtag, you will see some incredible women doing incredible projects and sharing their amazing work and art. And what I told myself is that, as soon as I can, I want to support these women as well, and I want to collect their work. And by the way, a couple of days ago, I became a collector. I became a collector. I collected one woman's art, NFT art, that I’m now a proud owner of. And I haven't made any sales yet in the NFT space. But when I saw her work, I wanted to support her. And I collected her art. And in fact, she shared later on that this was the first ever purchase or the first ever sale that she made. And she was so thrilled by it and so excited by it that she had been painting non-stop since then because of that NFT purchase that I made of her art. And she's an artist in Iran. A really amazing artist. Her art really connected with me. So I was very happy to support her and to collect her first NFT. And I made an impact on her without even knowing that I would. This is what she shared with me later, that because of what I did, she has been painting non-stop. And she's been so excited about her work. So you just never know how you can touch people in this space as well, which is very exciting to me.

And yeah, if you're a woman creator, you can really come into the space and make something special in the space right now. And in the show notes I’m also going to link to a selection of women photographers in the NFT space that I’m watching and that I am inspired by. So check those out as well. And hopefully you'll be inspired by their work as well. 

And that is it for today, you guys. I know that this was a departure from our usual topics and usual things that we cover on this podcast. But I thought that it would be really important to cover NFTs not only because it's been super top of mind for me, but also because, since I’ve shared my NFT journey on Instagram, I have gotten so many messages from you, from people who are in my network, in my community, who wanted to know more and who were curious but, again, maybe perhaps overwhelmed or confused by it. So hopefully, in this episode, a bit of that confusion and a bit of that overwhelm went away. 

And I would really love it if you could connect with me and drop me a message, whether on Instagram, or email, or Twitter. Connect with me and please let me know if you want to see more on the subject of NFTs from me. If you want to hear more about this subject from me, please let me know. Seriously, I’m not just saying that. Please take a minute and send me a message, whether it's on Instagram, whether it's an email, whatever is easiest for you. But please send me a message. 

If I hear from enough people, I will put together a workshop, a proper workshop on NFTs, where I can walk you through the process of setting up your wallet, of minting, of creating your collection. There is a lot to learn in this space. There is a lot. There really is. But I will put together a workshop where we can get into more detail where I can share with you more practical steps of entering into the space. But I need to hear from you, right? 

If I don't hear from anyone, I will assume that nobody's interested in that. So I’m not going to put my time and my effort into creating a workshop on NFTs. If I hear from enough of you, if this is something that you're interested in, please let me know, and we will see what we can do about it. 

All right, thank you so much for listening to this episode today. And I will see you next week when I am going to share with you a workshop from our recent travel media boot camp in Waco, Texas. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope it was helpful to you. And I hope you learned something new today. Thank you so much for listening. And I will see you next week.

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