NFT Marketing Lessons from Top Projects

Sometimes when I think about the portfolio, you can do things just for fun. So I might just buy things for fun because they look cool. But, you know, for the things that I'm seriously like investing in, it's the frameworks that I talked about initially, right? Like what historical significance is there? What roadmap is there? Do I believe in the founders? Today we are going to talk about my crypto portfolio, more specifically my NFT portfolio that contains Cool NFTs such as CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, VeeFriends, World of Women, and way more. So I'm going to show you what I have in here and I'm going to walk through how I think about these and what these NFTs have actually done for you. So then you'll have some frameworks that you can use as well. And hopefully you'll get some nugget or two from this. But before we do, my name is Eric Siu, creator of the Leveling Up Heroes NFT project, which is a personal growth NFT here to help level up the world. Don't forget to hit the like and subscribe button to help this video grow so we can grow you too. All right, or grow others. So let's take a look at my screen over here. So this is one of the wallets that I have. And it includes at the bottom right, this is a CryptoPunk. A CryptoPunk, these are kind of seen as the very first blue chips of NFTs. And so the thinking behind this one is, when you look at a project like this, and as of this recording, this is worth a few hundred grand, my friends have told me this is so ugly, like, what's the point of doing this? This is stupid. And there's 10,000 of these. And if NFTs are going to become a thing long term, this is the very first blue chip. There's historical relevance to this. And I do believe that this will continue to appreciate in value. I'll put it that way. And this is one of the few NFTs that actually kind of looks like me. So if you can see on the video, I'm obviously I'm Asian, but this kind of looks Asian. I used to wear glasses a long time ago. Do I have an earring? No. But this kind of looks like me a little bit. Right. And so I think there's historical relevance there. So that's how I thought about this when I invested. And Larva Labs, I mean, they're kind of the creators of this. So Yeah, I think it's fascinating. And this, this actually historical relevance to when I was trying to talk to a friend about potentially buying other companies at the very end of the conversation, he was like, hey, like, are you into NFTs? And he ended up talking about CryptoPunks and he actually happens to own like over 25 CryptoPunks. So he does well. Now on the left side, this is the Bored Ape Yacht Club. So this is known as kind of the first blue chip community for NFTs. And as of this recording, this is actually worth more than this punk over here. And the reason I like this ape over here, I should say, is it reminds me a lot about kind of what my values are, right? So, you know, in life you have to be resilient. You have to keep soldiering on. So he's wearing a soldier hat, right? Or like a helmet. He looks really intense as well. And the turtleneck kind of reminds me of Steve Jobs a little bit too, right? I'm not saying I'm Steve Jobs, but there's just certain elements. I mean, people like to buy things that have some type of story, right? So that's the kind of story that I'm telling myself. And orange kind of has the colors that are one of the 2 colors that are tied to leveling up. So it's actually orange and purple. And so, you know, I think when I take a look at this one, it's interesting to me because through this ape, I actually was able to join a couple of different alpha groups. And I was able to meet a lot of amazing people who actually happen to own apes too. Without the ape, I wouldn't have gotten access to these other types of groups. And I've built some relationships that I think will be lifelong and some people that are doing some really amazing things. And, you know, when you think about life in general, when you think about networking and relationships in general, it's really about these serendipitous interactions. And so I look to create serendipitous opportunities by being in the right place at the right time, right? And having access is usually worth it. And usually what happens, I mean, when you think about the millionaires and the billionaires that are out there, they think about buying the access, right? So when they think about donating to charity or, you know, instead of paying, you know, $500 for a conference ticket, Why don't they just donate $10,000, $25,000 or so, so they can get to be in a room with other people that are doing interesting things? And so that's how you might think about these, right, in terms of these community-driven NFT projects. And Bored Ape, I mean, they've done a lot more. I've been to events that they've hosted as well. And it's just got, you know, interesting vibes. Do I think it's like the sexiest looking art? Not necessarily. But, you know, this— I think this one, this ape speaks to me. And plus, I like to— I do like the number 7, my favorite. 2 is my second favorite. 8 is a good number for Chinese people. And, you know, 6 is just 6. So that's that. But hopefully now you're getting a sense for how I'm thinking about these, right? So the art is one component to it. There's historical relevance with the Punks. And then on the left of that with the ape, I've gotten access that I've met really amazing people. And to get into some allowlists for other projects, sometimes you could just use the ape to get in. And so I do believe getting into certain groups in the future, it's going to require kind of certain NFTs and you're going to have this access that's And so that's what's exciting to me. By the way, like how I'm thinking about these two is, you know, down the road, what can you do with these? Can you collateralize these NFTs somehow? Right. So that's that. Now in the top right, actually in these two over here, this hustling hamster and the respectful raccoon. So now let's use another framework. These are known as VeeFriends NFTs. And this is from the entrepreneur Gary Vee. And Gary, I followed him over the years. I appreciate his work ethic. I like how he thinks about things and I just think he's a good person in general. And so for me, when I look at this, I'm like, okay, well, uh, what word does he say a lot? He says humble quite a bit. He says, um, so humility is, is a thing for him. Uh, patience is the thing for him as well. Unfortunately, I didn't get those, but you know, he's trying to create his own version of Disney long-term. And I do believe he's going to work on this and he's going to work hard on this. And the fact that he spent the time to draw these, it's not that the art is beautiful or ugly, right? What matters more is that he actually drew it himself. And so there's significant— there's historical significance with that, too. The fact that he hand-drew these and there's only 10,000 of these available for the very first season. So he does talk about hustle, right? So if he's going to develop these characters long term, Hustling Hamster, do I think this is going to eventually become a cute character? Yes. And the fact that it hustles, that's also a bonus, too. So that's what I'm betting on long term here. Respectful Raccoon. He talks a lot about respect as well. And by the way, you look at this project, 43,000 in ETH that's been driven, right? So if you do the math on that as of this recording, 43.5 times ETH as of this recording is about $2,700 or so. So $117 million in volume driven and he takes about 10% of that, right? That's not even including the initial drop that he did. So that's $11 million as of this recording that he's collected on royalties as well. That's just a little interesting side note. But VeeFriends, do I believe in him long term? Do I, do I think these are going to have long term value? Yes. And in addition to that, these also have utility. There's— I have access to his conference for the next 3 years too. And so, you know, I'm going to be going to that this year. And so that's interesting to me. World of Women on the very left side over here, they actually just incorporated and they're, you know, they're going full time on it and, you know, they've released IP. So for me, I can do what I want with this, this, this woman and probably just going to hold on to it because it's to me, from what I understand, it's the very first women-driven community in the NFT world. So there's historical significance here. So you have, this is like the first kind of entrepreneur that created something where he's trying to create the next version of Disney. This one is the first woman-led NFTs. Um, this is— these are the kind of the very first blue-chip NFTs. And then this is the first community-driven NFT. So you can see where I'm going with this. There is historical significance with this, but also there's an element of community too. I've met some of the World of Women people and they're great. They're very nice people. Um, so that's that. I'm going to continue to go up a little more and I'm not going to go through every single thing, but these— these— this is Tom Bilyeu right here. This is his Impact Theory Founder's Key. And for him, he founded Quest Nutrition, which is over, you know, worth over a billion. And, you know, if you've had the Quest Bars before, they're pretty good. But I believe in him as an entrepreneur. I think he's gonna put in the work. He's got a roadmap. And, you know, I'm bullish on it long-term. It's down right now, but I don't care because I invest and I think about investing in decades. And I think about betting on the jockey because there's not a lot to go off of on these, right? There's like the art, but like, how do you value art, right? Yeah. But I know when it comes to angel investments, betting on the jockey and betting on what they're trying to do, that's something that's a little more tangible to me. So that's that. Now, couple more things here. I mean, some of these things I just do for fun, right? Like this one's for fun, this one's for fun over here. I needed this one to get access to my friend's app over here called Floor, which is a great app. This is another wallet over here, but for this one, I mean, these are just cool looking. Like I just, sometimes when I think about the portfolio, you can do things just for fun. So I might just buy things for fun 'cause they look cool. But you know, for the things that I'm seriously like investing in, it's the frameworks that I talked about initially, right? Like, what historical significance is there? What roadmap is there? Do I believe in the founders? And even up here, you can see like these 3 over here, these Cameo passes. This is from the founder of Cameo, and I just believe in him. This one over here, this is Steve Aoki. And, um, you know, do I believe in him? Absolutely. So these 2 over here, and then this was another founder, uh, Illuminati. Like, I met him by going to one of the Ape dinners, and we became friends. And I also had him on the podcast. Alex Tell. Some of these other ones not as relevant. Like I bought something and then just like for to get access to a party that I didn't even go to. This Playboy one. So that's that. And then I was just supporting a friend over here. Someone brought this up in one of the alpha groups I'm in. This is Farouk right here. These, these are kind of the rugs that he has. And then there's just other stuff too. Rug Radio, Cool Cats has a nice community too. And then this is one of our leveling up heroes. This is called the Shaper. By the way, it's like animated so you can see what it does. Right. And then some of these other ones were just like for fun. Right. YPO is a community that I'm in. It's an entrepreneur group. Azuki is obviously something I support being like an Asian founder. This is one of our other NFTs over here. And then this one I bought just for fun to check out. This is pretty cool. It's like Homer Simpson and Pikachu and Time magazine. So I met Keith Grossman during my Clubhouse days and great guy as well. So, you know, ultimately I just want to invest into, into people. This is Wine Rob's So he's another guy I met from one of the alpha groups I'm in. So largely you see I'm supporting people, and these are all builders, by the way. They're all building something. So I actually just realized that right now, like, I am still continuing to bet on the founders. I'm just kind of holding these, you know, for myself. So let me know what you think in comments. Don't forget again to hit the subscribe and the bell button. Hope you enjoyed this, and we'll catch you later.