*BONUS* /brandnew Feelings Check-In

[00:00] Just for the record, I don't, I don't have herpes on the record. Great, great, great. Put it on the blockchain. [00:07] Welcome to the Feelings Check-In, a feelings first look at the news of the week. Takes no one asked for on topics everyone's talking about. I'm Natasha Hoskins. I'm Dina Burke. And this is Boys Club. Wait, is it just Boys Club? It's just Boys Club. The Boys Club podcast? No, no. [00:24] Just boys club. Hi. Hey. [00:28] Oh my gosh. We are here. [00:31] There's a feelings check-in, a post brand new feelings check-in. And the title of this podcast is Brand New Feelings. Brand New Feelings. Sponsored by my gua sha stone, which I used so aggressively this morning to try and pull myself back to life. You look great. I was just like, get it. Keep moving those toxins through the face. Push them through down the body, out of the body. That's so funny. [01:01] like a zombie thing. [01:03] But Happy Zombie, [01:05] a zombie in her lane, moisturized, thriving in her lane. Totally. I, I, um, in a, in a few, in a few of the debriefs that we've had so far, um, [01:15] I think it was Miranda was talking about this sense of feeling numb. [01:19] Mm-hmm. [01:20] And that's definitely like [01:22] how I feel where it's like you have all this work and all this expectation and all this thought and borderline rumination.

[01:30] around this day in this event. [01:34] And... [01:35] then it is what it is and then afterwards you're like [01:38] Oh. [01:39] I feel like it's sort of like after your wedding, the people say that this happens. I never really got married in that way. So I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I knew you were going to say that. Even as I was saying it, I was like, shut up. She's not going to relate. [01:53] But this wasn't actually my experience with my wedding because I didn't have like a huge wedding. But people who have big weddings, they say like you think about it, you plan, you plan, you plan, and it happens. And like, even if it's perfect, you have this feeling after where you're like, okay, it's over. [02:08] It's over now. And there's relief in that. And especially when it went good, there's joy in that. But there's also a little bit of like, [02:16] I don't know, just like a quietness. A quiet stillness. [02:23] Which is hilarious because we're now, in two weeks, we're in Seoul throwing a party. Three weeks after that, we're back in New York with a huge party. Like, we're in party prison. So we're nowhere near done here with what we're doing. Totally. But there is a little bit of that feeling. Anyway, for those who are just joining us who have no idea what we're fucking talking about, so sorry. Boys Club just threw its first ever conference. It was called Brand New. [02:46] was alongside South by Southwest in Austin. It was on Tuesday, it was at the proper, and it was a hit. [02:53] It was a big hit. And it feels really great to say that because it was months and months and months of work and tireless effort that went into it. And so to see it come together and for it to go pretty perfectly in many ways, there were definitely some learnings and some fuck ups, but small and not easy.

[03:14] The whole story. So that feels great. Although I do, I am excited to talk about some of those moments here on this podcast today. So that's what we're going to be focused on. Not the fuck ups, but we're going to be focused on the feelings and the learnings. So stick around. And. [03:29] And find out. [03:33] Hey, Natasha. So a question we get asked a lot is, what do you look for in a crypto platform? So let's talk about it. Well, Dina, I look for a secure, no fuss platform that I can dive into right away. That's why I love today's sponsor, Kraken. If you're waiting for the right time to get into crypto, Kraken makes it super easy and intuitive to get started. Plus, if you get stuck, they have an award-winning client support team that's available 24-7, along with a bunch of educational guides, articles, and videos to help you along the way. [04:02] I'm going to set the stage for you. [04:25] if you weren't there. [04:26] proper hotel, beautiful hotel, downtown Austin. I think we had all in 325 people. [04:31] That showed up? [04:32] sold out [04:34] Full day of programming talks and keynotes happening on a main stage. Eight, like eight hours. I revisited the number of hours in my mind afterwards. I was like, that was a long time.

[04:45] block of programming. And then we had some workshops, some really incredible workshops that were happening in breakout room. And then a lot of... [04:55] networking and shenanigans happening in a lounge area. Like we basically took over the whole second floor hotel. So we had a great time. And the thesis for the event was looking at consumer content. [05:08] crypto, looking at the application layer of crypto, exploring what a new internet could be, exploring what a new internet means, really looking at crypto in the context of other technologies like AI and other movements like longevity and accelerationism and digital culture and kind of like fitting crypto into that context and also doing it in a place that is natively not crypto. That is... [05:32] Big tech, trad tech, web to culture. That's what happens at Southwest Southwest. It's a music festival to film festival technology companies go there as well and really wanted to be intentional about that because I [05:44] We in Web3 and in crypto have just been living in a bubble. And so it felt important to start to build those bridges with the outside world and bring this summit to success. [05:55] that environment. So that's brand new. Anything I missed in that? Great job. I just want to give a huge shout out to the sponsors of brand new. We care a lot about the details at boys club. We're a luxury experience, which is core to the brand. And we really wanted this to be special. And it was special because all of these incredible people,

[06:19] companies got behind us when it was a very quite nascent idea. So we're just going to give them a shout out here. Kraken, PYUSD, Luxo, Seed Club, Nier, IYK, Uniswap, Zora, Creative People, Console, Serotonin, all of these... [06:36] companies really got behind us they supported us in a very tangible way by making it possible for us to do the summit and we love them [06:45] Yeah, A-listers for sure and [06:48] a lot of people talk about game about [06:51] wanting to support new voices and da da da and these people actually did it and yeah they they did it very tangibly [06:58] by tangible means. So we're really grateful and it literally would not have happened. So thank you to all of them. Thank you also to the folks that came in on our gift bag. Our gift bag was we had a no [07:12] merch policy. We only wanted really incredible things, products that people would use, utility. Basically, our gift bags were us... [07:23] thinking about some of the things we'd like to have for free and then going to those friends and saying, Hey, we're doing something really cool. Do you want to come? And they said, yes. So thank you to face gym, joggy, Kiki, vacation, Stojo, really, really nice stuff. [07:39] Unfortunately, [07:40] Dina nor I got a gift bag, but we hope everybody likes them. Okay. So Dina global feeling, what's your like global takeaway?

[07:51] Global note. [07:52] I mean, grateful for everyone who showed up and everyone that believed in us and came and [07:58] showed up in the various ways that they did either by attending or by speaking or by sponsoring or by working on it like there was a team of people that that worked doggedly to pull this off shout out to year round who is our production partner on this and they are incredible and amazing partners and you should hire them year round you should hire them they're they were really phenomenal and of course the biggest shout out entire the whole podcast is dedicated to [08:28] *laughs* [08:29] who without whom none of this would be possible so she i mean there's not enough there's not enough time in this podcast to talk about how grateful um i know that we both are for her but yeah i think it's funny like everyone at the after party was like so what's next [08:45] And I've been spending a lot of time thinking about that question and what it brings up for me. I think tactically I am thinking a lot about. [08:56] Okay, does this type of event scale? [09:00] Does it scale and mean that means more people or does that mean in what dimension does it scale? I think it's something I've been thinking a lot about. Like when does it happen again and where? And again, these are all sort of tactical things where it's like it felt important to do it in a place that has other conversations going on. Because I have deep conviction, again, that we're like in a bubble and I really, really want to make those inroads to other conversations.

[09:26] things that are happening in our lives and in culture. And so it felt important to do that at someplace where that's happening. I genuinely don't know where in the calendar that is. So I've been thinking a lot just like on that level. And I guess like zooming out, [09:41] and less [09:42] tactically, I feel like we have throughout the bear market been carrying a flag for something that has oftentimes been super cringe and embarrassing. [09:53] And so much so that like, I know you stopped saying at one point that you worked in crypto. And like, I certainly was like more strategic about where I dropped that. [10:03] bomb in a conversation with people that I just met and and we've been here for a while [10:09] pushing this rock up a hill. And I feel like there's a bunch of things that have fallen into place. Definitely the market conditions as well. And then having brand new that I'm like, Oh, maybe there's something, you know what I mean? Like maybe, maybe this is, and you know what, also like we're reading Kara Swisher's book and she wasn't early in her career, but she started this thing called all things digital, which was an event that she threw. And I don't know that it [10:39] certainly for her she didn't need it in her career but like [10:42] I don't know. I'm just, I just, there's a lot of feelings and there's a lot of thoughts, but I guess overall I'm like, I feel like there's something here. I feel like not as embarrassed. I feel not embarrassed reworking in Krypton Web 3, having witnessed the speakers and the energy that was in that room. And yeah.

[10:59] That's energizing, you know. [11:12] feel like there was a few weeks ago [11:16] where... [11:17] I had a moment lying in bed for many nights, lying in bed thinking, wow, our entire reputation is on the line with this thing. [11:27] And... [11:29] every part of it matters to me and every part of it feels like, [11:34] the stakes are high and like some of that's true and some of that's not true some of that's like middle of the night fears [11:40] But, yeah. [11:41] I finished out the day. [11:44] after the longest day of my life, having drink and only a diet Coke, that's what I had to eat and drink on Tuesday. And I got to the end of the day and I was just like, [11:54] The genuine feeling I had was like, we did it. We did what we wanted to do. We did it with the caliber of excellence that we wanted to bring to the table and the type of environment that feels really important to us where it feels like we hosted a party for 325 people or an event for those people and they... [12:13] from what I've heard so far, and maybe they just won't tell me to my face, had an incredible experience and it felt elevated and it felt so boys club, like it was so fun and funny. And it felt like all these people could connect with each other and we're so happy to be in the same room. And it also felt really smart and really thoughtful and really optimistic about the future and felt like an embodiment of the brand while also doing the thing that we set out to do, which was to show this more optimistic, right?

[12:40] side of the new internet and a container for a lot of the things that were interested showcased on that stage by a lot of very, very smart people. And I felt really proud of that. And [12:51] so i finished out the day and that's what i was left with and [12:54] I... [12:56] made a conscious effort to... [12:58] sit in that and be excited about that and not think about like, [13:02] okay, I would do this differently. And of course you have those things and you should have those things. And, [13:06] but we tend to ruminate on those and not be able to move on from them. And I, I, [13:11] feel like we didn't do that, which I also feel good about. So I definitely think a lot, I'm thinking a lot about what's next. I'm thinking a lot about... [13:19] What this does for boys club like what does it actually do? Where does it move the needle? Where does it grow the pie? But I share the feeling with you. I think for two years we've been saying that [13:34] There's this whole new thing that's possible. There's this whole new internet that's possible. There's all these new rails for X, Y, or Z. And it matters to real people and real consumers. And, and, [13:45] There has been... [13:46] many moments in the last two years where I've been like, just kidding. [13:50] Yeah, totally. This is propaganda. I'm spreading propaganda. Nevermind. Nevermind. MVM. Um, [13:58] and I did not feel that way on Tuesday I was yeah I didn't either [14:03] These ideas, these... [14:05] what's possible... [14:07] the builders who are thinking about it, it was deeply inspiring and

[14:12] gave me a lot of conviction for [14:15] our industry. And that was really, really nice because there's been a lot of moments. And mostly when I go to conferences, my feeling is, fuck, this is not real. And or this is just too technical. Like, this isn't for me. And I was like, Oh, this is for me. And this is for a lot of the people in my life. And that felt really, really nice. So yeah, those are my global feelings. I think we should give some backstage. [14:35] just like fodder for goss, some goss. I think we should get into some goss for people. Great. Hold the curtain back a little bit. Great. Great. Great. Great. What we experienced. So I'm going to get really vulnerable and personal and share with everybody something that happened to me. So we are at the venue. We're headed to the venue Monday night. [14:55] They've loaded out a... [14:56] insane installation in the ballroom that we're going into and we're starting to set up and I'm like we got a long night ahead of us. We have a very long night and we start setting up. [15:07] I go to the bathroom. [15:08] And I'm like, my lip hurts. [15:10] My lip like really hurts and I'm like, what's going on? I have never had a cold sore in my life. [15:14] ever, not one time in my life. And I was like, Oh my God, am I getting a cold sore the day before this conference where I'm going to be everywhere? And my face is going to be plastered everywhere. My first thought was what the fuck was happening? What am I going to do? My second thought was how and when and why did I contract herpes in the last 24 hours? And I have a full blown freak out. Every single person I see, I'm like, do you see something on my lip? Do you see something on my lip? And everybody's like, no. Oh,

[15:42] Looks a little, kind of looks swollen. Maybe, oh, I kind of see it now. And I'm like... [15:48] Where is there a 24 hour med right that can fix this? I literally told Dina, I was like, I'm not going tomorrow if there's a cold sore in my face. I literally am not going. And you were like, I totally understand. It's going to be fine. You were like, I don't think it's a cold sore. I think it's a zit. And you were like, what if it's just a zit? [16:05] And I was like, it's a stress-induced cold sore for the first time in my life. [16:10] I'm happy to report it was not a cold sore. I actually, I don't know what it was. It was, it was stress. It was anxiety manifesting in my lower lip being swollen. And that's it like genuinely. And, uh, but I was mostly shocked by the fact that stress can. [16:28] bring on your first ever herpes outbreak. So that was, that was really took up a lot of mental space for me. I gotta be honest. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was really there in the room for us all. Like the AV guy. I was like, have you ever had herpes? [16:45] He's like, "Please step away from me." I'm trying to set up his projector. Anyway. I felt like I was kind of witnessing it. [16:54] Someone's viraling out and there's nothing you could do except for just bear witness to it. [17:00] you know full phone spiral full phone spiral just for the record i don't i don't have herpes on the record great great put it on the blockchain come on you've got to have one back behind the scenes story it's cheesy but i cried when i i got went into the conference i mean that's not that that's earnest but

[17:18] When I went in and I saw the level of... [17:21] everything I was like I started crying I was like [17:24] This is... [17:26] Real. Yeah. [17:28] And... [17:29] I have been working for many years and [17:33] Don't know. I it felt like a really I was really proud if and I [17:38] It was overwhelming. That was that. That was one moment. Okay. Well, Dina's story was earnest and sweet. And mine was like a psychopath on a rampage running to CVS. Like, is the pharmacy open? I have a conference tomorrow. [17:54] They were like, ma'am, this is a Wendy's. [18:24] you can send, receive, and trade crypto anywhere near instantly. See what crypto can be at kraken.com backslash boys club. Non-investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss. Transfers to a third party are not available on Kraken. Cryptocurrency services are provided to US and US territory customers by Payward Ventures, Inc. PVI, DBA, Kraken. View PVI's disclosures at kraken.com backslash legal backslash disclosures. Let's talk about the content. The content was amazing. We had many hours of programming.

[18:54] That would honestly be learning number one for me. Totally. Too much programming. Too much, too much programming. [19:00] Yeah. So I think when we're thinking about this again, I think it's like a few days and there's a mix of programming and socializing because like everybody wants to hang out. [19:08] And be together. Everyone wants to hang out. Everyone wants to hang out. And also longer blocks for... [19:13] I was thinking one of my favorite panels from the day was Jane Lippincott from A16C Crypto, Chase Chapman from Uniswap, and Ted from Farkaster. And the three of them on stage, first of all, it was a delight. Three of them individually are wonderful and wonderful. [19:30] Charming. [19:31] and extremely smart women and together it was like a power band like a power power band you know what like rush where they pulled all the best musicians from each like rock band put them all together on stage it's incredible to see them there and i could have listened to them for an hour [19:48] And the panel is like 20 or 25 minutes. And I think that was the first one, which is for the record, they were talking about from user generated content to user generated markets. And it was so interesting to think about what happens when you empower people with tools to create. [20:04] actual financial markets to create new content through different tools so anyway just for context yeah thank you for that context and um that's where the trad wife token meme was born and [20:16] Yeah, it's like a balance between... [20:18] wanting to really leave space for conversation. And I think we were over in doing the programming for the day, we were in our TikTok addled brains like, oh, we're going to move, move, move, move. And we were trying to push a lot in. Every minute was programmed because we wanted everyone on stage, basically. There was just so many amazing people that we wanted to give time and real estate to. And so I think next time it's like...

[20:41] slightly longer panels. [20:43] or or keynotes or whatever it is and um less of them and longer breaks in between them to give people some mental [20:52] Rejuvenation time. [20:54] I don't know, multi-day. You just said multi-day and that kind of... [20:58] was alarming but i think i think that is how you solve for that [21:02] Possibly. I also think there's just people want to network and you need to give people like tools to do that ways to do that. Like, okay, now we're going to do a seated meal that's assigned or we're going to do a workout class. Like people want to meet each other, but it's strange to be in a room. [21:19] It's hard to be in a room and go up to someone random and say, hey, I'm so-and-so. But the caliber of people in that room were exceptional. And many of them wanted to get to know each other. So I think leaving space for some of that is a learning for me. One of my... So two keynotes, three keynotes that I just want to... Actually, there were so many keynotes that I loved. You're like, actually, seven keynotes that I want to highlight here. But yeah, who was your favorite? Who were some of your favorites? Some of my favorites. Not to play favorites. And everyone... I do want to say everyone was exceptional. But just... [21:48] Who spoke to your heart? A few that spoke to my heart. Ryan from IYK. [21:53] He was so good. He was so good. And IYK is a company that's basically putting chips and products and really thinking about this connection between URL to IRL. Like how do our online lives translate to better experiences in the real world and their products and...

[22:12] It was just so... [22:14] Much an encapsulation of wanting to highlight well-intentioned, really talented builders. [22:21] doing something that felt [22:22] Very consumer. And it was all of those. And fresh also. Very fresh. Yeah. So I thought he did a great job. I also thought D. Goins from Zora was, [22:32] I like, [22:34] understood minting for the first time. [22:38] Like why you would mint something. For years I've been like, I'm not a collector. Like I'm not a speculator. I'm not a collector. And... [22:45] It was so good. And the deck was cool and just really brought together a lot of the themes that we think about a lot around internet culture and people's behavior online and content creators behavior online and how that relates to... [23:01] monetization and [23:03] collecting and new novel ways to engage with creativity on the internet. And I think it was entitled internet convergence and how all of these things are happening now. And it was really well done. So I really enjoyed that talk. I loved Amanda Cassette's keynote. She basically talked about accelerationism 101. [23:25] but it was like basically what she did is mapped the history of the world like the history of the last [23:33] several hundred years. [23:35] and philosophical [23:37] philosophers philosophers and historians and

[23:45] mapped that to the technological age of our time and what's possible and what experimentation people are doing right now from impregnating horses to like changing genetic mutation like it was wild it was an out there there was like at one point it was just a blank deck with like a little horse on it and it was so good and so funny and it was great so I really enjoyed that there was a ton of other stuff but those are the first three that like come to mind for me [24:11] We are going to be putting the decks. D's in particular will be up for minting on Zora. So keep an eye out for that. One of my favorites was we had a panel that was Carrie Buse- [24:25] from Mattel. [24:26] On it. [24:27] She is... [24:29] I dream a dream that woman a dream come true she's been working at Mattel for 20 years I think she said she's not crazy that's what she said right yeah yeah yeah I've been working at Mattel for 20 years she works on there um [24:43] Future Lab works with a lot of emerging tech at Mattel. And obviously Mattel has Barbie as their main... [24:51] thing, but they also have Hot Wheels as well. And I understood from the panel that they've done a lot of [24:59] Web3 or more Web3 experimentation with the Hot Wheels stuff. But what I loved hearing from her and also Dina Fierro from Shiseido and Jamie Bonningfield from PayPal, who runs the sort of blockchain network. [25:11] thing there and samuel from coindes who was moderating it was incredible moderator he was an incredible moderator and just the three of those women are so deeply experienced and as a result like had a really sort of balanced view on how they all were sort of stewards of these legacy

[25:30] Brands like these. [25:31] real world like trad or web to brands, whether it's PayPal or Mattel or Shiseido and how you balance like experimenting with new and emerging technology with being a steward and responsible steward for these heritage brands. And that's a really interesting, [25:49] delicate dance. And I think Carrie in particular, yeah, she was just like super level headed about it and is like, look, I'm only interested in this tech insofar as it provides a new surface area for people to have experiences with Mattel that are make their lives better or more or richer in some way. Like it's all about the experience for Mattel. And I don't care at all about the tech unless it's in service of that. And that was actually a theme. [26:16] through the day. Yeah. I'd say. [26:18] and felt like a healthy theme to have in the room because I feel like often you go to other crypto conferences and people are building these like huge freeways 10 car infrastructure and they're not at all thinking oh how are we going to get [26:31] cars on the road and these people are able would be able to do that and that felt [26:37] like an important thing, an important note that felt [26:40] different here in this room than I've seen elsewhere. I totally agree. And then I think another highlight for me, obviously, which was just. [26:48] incredible and sort of out of body was Nadia from Pussy Riot and Yana closing out the day headliner. Yana interviewed Nadia and has [26:57] And it was just really heavy. Honestly, it was like a heavy conversation about the state of activism and art and technology and...

[27:07] the impact that these things have in the world and how they matter. And it was so good. [27:14] And so thoughtful. And the two of them just... [27:18] have the same pace and energy and the whole room was just like there, like quiet, pin drop, just like listening to these two women talk about something that's really important. And [27:29] I think we're all at the edges of our seat. We're all like, what is next from these two beautiful women? Yeah, that was so, so true. [27:39] It was really great. And I loved that... [27:43] Yana at the end was like, as we're thinking about building the new internet, as we're thinking about the next era of the internet, these are the things to be thinking about. [27:50] And these are the people to be building around. And it was just a really perfect way to end the day. And then we had a great party and people had a great time and everybody was just loving on each other. Yeah, I felt like the ending on that was, in one way, it was like by... [28:07] many, many degrees the most serious and somber conversation of the day. [28:12] That was dealing with the heaviest subject matter. Nadia from Pussy Riot, of course, has spent time in Russian prison for being outspoken about Vladimir Putin and is a lifelong activist. On Russia's most wanted list. [28:26] on russians on russia's most wanted list and is it also a performance artist and uses her platform to be outspoken about these things that put her life in danger and have caused material like a much very material impact for like like she had to leave russia and so of course like we're talking about consumer crypto and whatever and then that is nothing compared to what

[28:51] she has done in her journey. And so in one way, I was like, man, that was that was some whiplash. But also it felt like, to your point, all of the new internet, we have an opportunity to have that be in service of... [29:04] a new set of values that's reflected in Nadia and her work. And also for her activism and for her performance art, she uses [29:12] web through tooling and technology and blockchain technology so like now fundraising yeah totally can like speak to all of these things she understands them she [29:22] is thinking a lot about emerging innovation for her work. And so there's that through line, of course. I thought it just landed the plane for like a new set of values that's possible that was embodied by her. And so I felt that really honored to have her in the room and to spend time with her and to like be witness to what it is that she has to say. And I would listen to her talk anytime. Just in the last couple of minutes here, any, what is the biggest lesson? Timing, programming, all that aside, any, anything else or biggest surprise of the day? Every minute that [29:52] doesn't happen on accident. [29:54] you can't get up there and have a really [29:57] thoughtful keynote unless you've put the time in you can't [30:00] have an experience that people love and that feels memorable and distinct without putting the time in. And it's, [30:07] It's a really great reminder for me because I think we do a lot of work and I wonder like, is this the right work to be doing? Like, is there a different way to approach this? Like... [30:15] And we're all perfectionists and we're all type A and we're all so fucking intense. And it's sometimes like, is this necessary?

[30:26] And I think it was just a reminder of like, yeah, keep on, keep on keeping on. [30:31] That's the way you want to be in the world. And so that I think was really validating, I think, around the way that we all approach. [30:38] The work. [30:39] Yeah. What about you? I just want to give a quick shout out to anyone who traveled to come to Brand New. I know there was a lot of people that traveled a very long way to come and hang out and experience it and many are podcast listeners. So I just want to say if that was you, incredible. [30:54] Thank you so much. It wouldn't have been anything without you. [30:57] nothing without you and seriously, I mean that very genuinely and I [31:02] There was a lot of people that... [31:04] I didn't get a chance to like personally spend any time with and get FaceTime with and have a conversation with. And also if that is you and you traveled and you came and that happened, I want, I can't wait till the next opportunity that we can do that. Uh, there was just not never enough time. And so I felt like, [31:23] there was i kind of woke up the next morning or when i got back to nashville and i was like oh man there's like people that [31:28] I didn't get to see. So I just want to say that here publicly, put it on chain and just thank you to everyone. [31:35] It was a, it was team effort. For sure. And yeah, we'll see what happens next. We have a lot more in store, so keep tuning in. [31:53] Okay. Bye. [31:55] *outro music*