Gm, I’m Mariquita, a conversion copywriter and content strategist for web3 changemakers.

I am curious about how the new internet and frontier tech are shaping the way we relate to each other and the world around us. And I occasionally 😶‍🌫 write about my findings on Paragraph.

Below are some notes from London Web3 Week, specifically, Stellar’s Meridian Conference in Westminster. If real world use cases in crypto are your jam, and you like hearing directly from the builders who make it happen, this piece might be for you. Read on if you'd like to get into the minds of Stellar Development Foundation Chief of Product, Tomer Weller, and Etherfuse CEO, Dave Taylor.

I’ve also sprinkled in some bite-sized takeaways from the Zebu conference and observations from my side of the internet, down below. If that’s more your flavour, scroll through to the end.

Thanks for joining me! If you have thoughts or feel inspired to spark up conversation about any of these topics, drop me a line. I’d love to hear from you.

Mx

Ps. Thanks to a scholarship from SheFi, I’ll be attending DevCon 7 in Bangkok. I’m super excited to reconnect with friends and meet more awesome people doing incredible things onchain. If that’s you, feel free to DM – would be fabulous to connect with you over some Pad Thai.

Without further ado, let’s get into it.

Set against a crisp, autumnal backdrop (with the odd patch of drizzle), Stellar’s 6th flagship annual conference, Meridian, was held in Grade II listed Church House; an architectural and cultural landmark in the heart of Westminster, London. Over three agenda-packed days from October 15th-17th, the event welcomed 700 attendees from diverse disciplines and geographies to (re)connect and share learnings from the frontlines of financial access.

The theme for this year’s Meridian was ‘transformation’; apt given the massive recent upgrade to the protocol layer, with the launch of the Soroban Platform virtual machine and smart contract capabilities, earlier this year.

Conversing over (the, frankly, obscenely delicious) refreshments, and in between sessions, it was clear that some of us were long time Meridian stans. These were the developers and contributors that had witnessed the ecosystem evolve over the years and had the inside scoop on the lore. You could say that, as far as Meridian was concerned, they had ‘got the t-shirt’ (because they literally did. Several of them. And caps to match), and they had now descended on London to continue grounding cross-border collaborations irl.

But some of us, including yours truly, were brand new to the scene – and not even necessarily just to Meridian. Thanks to the generous support of the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), and some Boys Club/SheFi magic, community members were offered partial to full sponsorships to attend or early bird prices. For many of us, Meridian 2024 marked our first foray into the Stellar ecosystem at all.

Let me start off by saying, I was not prepared to come away from the conference this Stellarpilled.

Was it...

• the delectable globally-inspired menu?

• The speaker line-up that featured major names, including Actor, Filmmaker & UN Goodwill Ambassador, Idris Elba?

• The UX that blended the irl with the digital on the Meridian custom-made app?

• How about the range of session formats, including ‘braindates’, the name given to intimate gatherings for like-minds, which were free to propose or attend?

• Or the sumptuous Jubilee gala at Guildhall complete with tours of their iconic private art collection?

I could go on…

Where it came to creating, not just a container for connection and collaborative learning, but also a memorable experience that engaged the senses, Meridian truly delivered.

But what stood out above all is how Stellar has been quietly delivering elsewhere for the past ten years: namely, on its mission to unlock human potential by creating equitable access to the global financial system.

As it stands, the majority of crypto airtime tends to get gobbled up with tales of airdrop farmers, obsession over price action, the proliferation of L2s and block space without the apps to match, and pump.fun memecoins with the longevity of a mayfly (permissionless, offshore casino, anyone?).

Detaching from the hype cycle of 'wen lambo', Stellar is laser focused on the transformation that is already happening on the ground around the world, as well as what is yet to come.

This mission is visible in collaborations with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR) to rapidly distribute bulk payments through Stellar Aid Assist or in the stories of individuals whose lives have been changed – even saved – through disintermediated access to much needed resources.

Tomer Weller

@tomerweller

Product market fit is a massive understatement for this. Please take a couple of minutes to listen to @rickdanielm explain how crypto actually saves lives

Decaf ☕

@Decaf_so

Decaf being used for humanitarian aid!

44

21:18 • 20 Oct 2024

To dig deeper into what’s going on at Stellar, and what we might expect looking ahead, I caught up with SDF Chief Product Officer, Tomer Weller, and Etherfuse CEO, Dave Taylor. I asked both what ‘transformation’ meant to them; Tomer, from his perspective deep in the weeds at the protocol level, and Dave on how Etherfuse is building on Stellar to help spread value fairly by bringing TradFi assets onchain.

“Stellar has always been focused on the idea of equitable access,” Tomer told me. “And, to begin with, this was mostly around cross border payments. This year, with the launch of Soroban, we've added the ability to program your own financial instruments. So, the idea is to open up innovation for the wider ecosystem.”

In her keynote address, SDF CEO and Executive Director, Denelle Dixon, had talked about the localised solutions that can now emerge directly from within the communities they are designed to serve. Who could be better placed to understand the needs and contexts of a given community, but the builders rooted in them?

With Soroban, that embodied perspective is free to translate into a flourishing of bespoke DEXs, lending/borrowing markets, and super custom smart wallets, among other DeFi ecosystem components.

Accompanying this shift, Tomer anticipates transformation in the broadening, and subsequent adoption, of existing use cases. “There are a lot of products in the ecosystem that have a strong signal for product market fit,” he explains. “Something that we want to see more of is wallets like decaf, beans or the Franklin Templeton Benji app, that people are already using like checking accounts, also venturing out to savings account style wallets.”

Stellar has always been focused on the idea of equitable access. This year, with the launch of Soroban, we've added the ability to program your own financial instruments. So, the idea is to open up innovation for the wider ecosystem - Tomer Weller, SDF

One protocol that is turning this vision into a reality is Mexico-based, Etherfuse. “Our tokens are essentially the closest thing to a savings or checking account as you can get,” CEO, Dave Taylor, tells me as we take in the afternoon air on the balcony of Church House.

For Dave, the past couple of years spent eliminating regulatory and non-technical blocks has positioned Etherfuse as a unique player in the space. The idea beneath it all, he tells me, is to “put the world's currencies onchain and provide collateral-as-a-service to anyone in the world.” He continues, “That’s a transformation we hope to bring to the blockchain.”

Unlike most payments apps on blockchain, Etherfuse’s revenue model doesn’t involve charging users fees. Instead, it takes the yield-bearing assets that underlie stablecoins, and shares the upside with users, simultaneously unlocking an additional revenue stream for developers.

“We'll use Mexican CETES as an example,” Dave gestures, “We share 9% yield with you. So just like it would if you put money in a checking or savings account, it increases in value according to the yield. The difference is there's no banking risk because none of your assets are actually in a bank. They're in a brokerage in bonds, which for a country to default is pretty crazy.”

Etherfuse’s story originated two and a half years ago, when Dave spotted an opportunity to bring legacy financial tools, like bonds, onchain as Real World Assets (RWAs). The inspiration and the drive behind the protocol, he explains, is twofold; “It’s about bridging what we felt are the world's most successful interface to building nations, building wealth and building savings, and democratizing access to it.”

What makes Etherfuse unique though, among other factors, is its diversification beyond US Treasuries.

For Dave, this is central to Etherfuse’s mission to dismantle the grip on resources that has historically been concentrated in the Capitals of the Global North. The CEO breaks down how the protocol works to achieve this, “If you think about the stablecoins now, they pretty much support US corporations and the United States,” he says. “Well, if I'm in Nigeria and I'm creating all this value through commerce in Nigeria, I should have something that improves my community and my network,”

The solution? “I can expose Nigerian bonds so that you can create a Nigerian stablecoin and you earn revenues from those yields. The value that’s generated, as more people use the stablecoin, is then no longer flowing out of the context that’s creating it. It’s staying within the network.”

It’s about bridging what we felt are the world's most successful interface to building nations, building wealth and building savings, and democratizing access to it - Dave Taylor, Etherfuse

From Mexican CETES to UK Gilts, US Treasuries, and the Brazilian and EU bonds that in the pipeline, Etherfuse’s offerings may not appeal to the yield-chasing degen who seeks to exit the system. But at the heart of its vision is the global majority that has been marginalised from the traditional financial system, who lacks the convenience of easy on and off ramps, and wants access to products that prioritise stability.

From SDF’s perspective, Etherfuse's ethos made it a match for the ecosystem. The protocol is now due to launch on Stellar in Q1 of 2025. As Tomer shared with me, “A lot of these use case wallets that we're seeing growing in the ecosystem, like Vibrant, decaf, Beans, and Etherfuse, they're really targeting the non-crypto native folks. It’s about trying to grow the pie rather than get more share of the same pie, which is a lot of what is going on in the crypto ecosystem.”

For a network that has been around for longer than Ethereum, Stellar may not have occupied crypto Twitter mindshare in the same way as some of the more dominant names in web3. But by laying the groundwork for developers around the world to build on Soroban, and through collaborations with the likes of Moneygram, Stripe, and even the Banco Central do Brasil, big moves are being made.

I asked Tomer what’s next for SDF. His response? They’re cooking. “We're helping product launch and grow in the ecosystem because just attracting developers is not enough.” Backing up his claim is a suite of funding streams from the Community Fund that has distributed in excess of USD$26 million worth of XLM to over 400 projects since its inception to the newer Kickstart and Build Awards or marketing grants of up to USD$100k in USDC or XLM.

The creation of an audit bank for SDF-launched projects, as well as recent shifts towards a more collaborative timeline and roadmap, all point towards the thoughtfulness with which the ecosystem is being built out.

The same can be said of how protocols, like Etherfuse, are being nurtured through funding and tailored support.  “There's this obsession in the ecosystem on increasing block space,” Tomer notes. “My hot take is that there's more than enough block space. It's growing and it's getting cheaper and faster and all of that is great, but what are we filling these things with?” He added, “For SDF, it's about bringing through meaningful products and helping them grow.” – a clear indication that Stellar's take on transformation extends beyond the tech to the very fabric of its ecosystem, and impact in the real world. 

On Zebu’s Alpha stage on Thursday 10th, speakers at the ‘Standing Up for Tech’ session debated the role of education in onboarding new users into web3.

While most speakers were focused on what kind of approach to education might be most effective – making sure that you’re hitting the right people or adapting messaging for more localised contexts – tech OG, Alan Boyd, posited that education will become a natural but secondary process to adoption once web3 finds its ‘killer app’; you know, the one that will make people’s lives significantly better or easier.

Alan drew on comparisons with the evolution of television, which became commercially available in 1929 but didn’t see mainstream adoption until the broadcasting of Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in the 1950s. In a similar way, the former Microsoft Product guru and (super) early AI investor, places blockchain firmly within the ‘pre-acceptance’ phase.

On the same stage, a couple of hours earlier, Dr. Nick Almond had argued that, by “levelling up actual existing communities” through access to shared funds and governance tools, we may have already found web3’s killer app: The DAO.

According to the FactoryDAO CEO, not only are DAOs “highly adjacent” to how people already connect and collaborate, but they could have an ever more important role to play in establishing trust in an internet increasingly overrun with AI agents.

What do you think? Have we landed on web3's killer app yet or will it comes from leftfield, in the form of something we haven’t been able to dream up yet?

Marketing received a decent amount of coverage at Zebu (love to see it), with plenty of insight, practical takeaways, and spicy takes shared. Marketer and copywriter, Dayana Aleksandrova, was on point during her panel ‘From Idea to Impact: Scaling Web3 Brands’ when she said, “for the love of ETH, stop calling yourself a web3 ‘project’.”

Perception is important, and so, if, as an industry, we want to instil confidence, longevity, stability and scalability, we should own that in how we speak about our companies, businesses or brands. Preach, girl!

From the serious to the satirical, the role of memes was discussed in some depth on the Alpha stage’s closing panel, ‘The State of Crypto Marketing’. Recommended reading comes from Hype Partner’s X space AMA and accompanying thread on ‘Meme Marketing and Being Funny’.

Cookie3 CMO, Krystyna Kozac-Kornacka, shared a framework she had learned from the AMA and adapted for her team: Anytime a trending meme format or narrative is identified in the wild, it gets shared within a dedicated slack channel. The team is then given 30 minutes to riff off the submission. The slogan deemed the strongest gets posted.

Finally – on a completely different note – murmurings on the increasingly important role of localisation in content and UX, made me think about something that crossed my FYP from almost 10,000km away, in La Paz, Bolivia.

Bolivia Tok’s viralisation of a 2000s Huayño-Cumbia track, ‘Amor x Internet’ (Love on the Internet) provides a glimpse into the feedback loop between culture and technology. Originally released in 2010, the indigenous-inspired chicha ballad, sung in high-pitch tones by traditionally-dressed cholitas, blends the Andean melody of the traditional charango with the syncopated beats of Yamaha synthesizer keyboards.

The Huayño-Cumbia genre, sitting at the intersection of indigenous culture with modern electronics and themes, represents the capacity of Quechua and Aymara communities to put a twist on ancestral influences and, as a form of resistance to the homogenising tendencies of globalisation, reassert cultural identity.

Recalling a time when, for the majority of Bolivians, internet access was restricted to the opening hours and fixed locations of specially designated kiosks, ‘Amor x Internet’ was brought back into mass consciousness for the smart phone generation when La Paz-based fashion influencer and Vogue model, Haniel Dueri, used the audio in a Tik Tok video.

Besides exploding as a viral trend on the clock app, the song made it onto several national television programmes, and became the anthem for a gathering of La Paz’s most high profile influencers at a Sopocachi antro (the kind of bar where you may want to play it easy on the homemade gin).

Building on some of the points from Hype Partner’s Meme Marketing AMA, the takeaway is that top performing content emerges from deep within a shared context. By avoiding trying to speak to ‘everyone’ (and ending up speaking to no-one), creators can instil that magical feeling of being seen and identification that is the foundation of spreadable content.

That's what I have for you for now. A huge thank you if you've read this far. How was this as a come back after some months away? Did I do OK? What kind of angles, topics or formats would you like to see more of? I'd love to know!

If you like what you've read, consider collecting this piece. And if, like me, you also enjoy nerding out about all things culture x web3 x copywriting x content, OR you're a mission-aligned web3 brand looking to build community through user journeys and storytelling, feel free to follow up at mariquita@web3writer.net. I'd love to chat!

Gn 🎃

Little did SheFi founder-to-be, Maggie Love, know that a casual trip to the Consensys offices in 2020 was to sow the seeds for what was to become the web3 canon experience for women and femmes that we know today.

While the conversation in the offices that day enthused over the life-changing gains to be made in DeFi – at the time, platforms like Compound were offering 10% returns for users – Maggie noted the near total absence of women and femmes.

Her response? To ensure that non-binary people and women would have a stake in the future of finance by building a safe container in which to explore the space – all while raising funds for women in STEM.

Four years later, and on the cusp of its tenth season, the platform has blossomed into one of the most recognisable brands in blockchain education. Serving over 2,000 women and femmes across 90+ countries, SheFi continues to innovate in its mission to bridge the gender gap in web3 and frontier tech.

In a context where only 7% of female-led start-ups have been granted VC funding – and just 13% of founding teams feature any women at all – the need to address web3’s sexism problem remains critical.

These days, SheFi is still about cultivating an accessible and collaborative approach to DeFi – but it also goes far beyond that. Seeking to ‘empower professional women to reinvent their careers in web3’, the programme delivers in a myriad of ways.

Considering the carefully crafted, live modules that start with blockchain 101, and weave through some of the space’s most cutting-edge applications (on-chain governance, consumer crypto, or AI, anyone?) to extra-curricular guest seminars and a bounty of digital and irl opportunities to connect with peers; this is where I could easily start reeling off some of my personal Cohort 9 highlights as well as many of the achievements I’ve witnessed and celebrated in others.

Instead, I’d like to hand the mic over to three previous cohort members who are killing it in web3 – DevRel Jamie Steinberg, RARI Foundation Head of Strategy, Jana Bertram and Head of Growth and GTM lead Linda Albright – as they share their SheFi success stories. Let’s dig in:

Jamie Steinberg, DevRel at Reservoir. Cohort 7, Chicago

"What I really love about the web3 space is, because it's fast paced and it's constantly changing, it allows me to learn about new things and push myself personally."

“Before SheFi, I was a teacher in public education, and web3 was a hobby of mine; something that I was interested in and learned about on my own, outside of work time,” Jamie tells me over video call. “SheFi allowed me to turn a hobby and an interest of mine into a career."

When she discovered SheFi, Jamie had already made quite the pivot from music teacher to computer scientist and web developer. But swapping out music’s chords and notes for coding’s functions and loops wasn’t quite working out in the way she had envisioned. "I was looking for jobs in the web2 space and doing a little freelancing, but it was difficult to break through," she says.

Over the course of Cohort 7, the former music teacher learned Solidity, grew her connections, was promoted to SheFi’s City Lead for the Chicago area, and landed a dream job with Reservoir - a role that she holds to this day.

The secret to her web3 glow-up? A willingness to learn and a global network of peers collectively oriented around pulling each other up.

A timely conversation with a connection and friend, Talent Advisor, Rachel Kraska, provided the insight that helped Jamie reframe her previous experience, matching it with her current passions and the demands of the market. “She was able to point me in the direction of developer relations because DevRel combines teaching, educating people, helping them with integration,” Jamie explains, “But it also uses my new skills in programming while testing my knowledge and pushing me further in my learning."

If preparation and opportunity are the secret ingredients for ‘overnight success’, Jamie made sure she had the former on lock so she would be available for the latter. And so, when Reservoir started looking for a DevRel superstar to join the team, she was well-placed to make a move. “Maggie made an intro for my current role at Reservoir, and that’s how I was able to land this wonderful job. I started in November 2022 and I've been here ever since. I really enjoy it.”

Nearly three cohorts on, Jamie remains connected with the community. New and current members may be lucky enough to connect with her on Intros, the AI-assisted platform that algorithmically matches members according to their interests. “I used to do it every week. Now I do it once to twice a month and I still find it very helpful.”

When I ask if there’s anything else Jamie would like to add to the conversation, she brings it back to community. “Don't be afraid to reach out to other SheFi members, regardless of where they're located in the world or what season they were in. I find that SheFi members are really receptive and helpful to anyone who is genuine and is honest with how they approach them and their questions.”

After a pause, she adds “SheFi is what you make of it. If you want to be super active, there's ample opportunity for that. You can learn, grow your networks, and build meaningful connections or casual acquaintances. But I would also say, if you're a busy professional, you're not going to be able to do every single task and every quest and every meeting and every side event. And that's okay. It's totally cool to have SheFi as a resource. You can be as much of a lurker or be as involved as you like. There's literally no pressure."

Jana Bertram, Head of Strategy at Rari Foundation. Cohort 7, New York

"The fact that you have this platform full of women that are open to connecting, to helping, to co-creating. Again, thinking about the Columbia parallel, it's your alumni, right? And your alumni is a powerful network. "

When I catch up with Jana, she is just a week from giving birth. As I am soon to learn, she takes being a badass in her stride.  "I wrapped up the cohort, went to ETHDenver, got a job," she tells me. “That’s the job with RARI Foundation that I have to this day.”

Jana was no stranger to crypto when she joined SheFi’s Cohort 7. With her partner deep into on-chain governance, and various friends either building on or experimenting with web3 rails, the brand marketing lead wanted to understand the fundamentals behind the new Internet. “I also just wanted to be able to translate to my family what my husband’s company actually does,” she tells me as she breaks into a smile.

But there was more. With twelve years of experience in advertising and marketing, and brand names like WeTransfer and Klarna on her resume, Jana was craving new challenges. “I wanted to be part of something that is exciting and growing; where everybody is growing the pie rather than trying to get from somebody else's plate,” she tells me. "I was really into the idea of building something collaboratively. And I think that's the creative part of me, but also the entrepreneurial part of me. Crypto really gave me that release and that outlet.”

Jana enrolled in Cohort 7 after having met and bonded with Maggie over SheFi-branded cropped tops on sale at DAO NYC in 2021. “I don't know what her organizational skills are like, but they must be out of this world because she actually thought to ping me on WhatsApp to say the subscriptions are open.”

Up until that point, Jana had channelled most of her time into highly demanding career roles. Suddenly, she found herself contributing to communities, hacking, and building side projects in her spare time. Getting serious about web3 required a mindset shift; one that paid off in new friendships and collaborators, as well as cutting-edge insight, and opportunities.

"There’s no MBA in blockchain, right? SheFi is as close as you get to that. In the traditional world, you can say ‘I went to Columbia University’ and people will immediately stop questioning your capacity. I feel like that's what SheFi did for me. It immediately took down the objection of ‘what do you know about web3? You’ve never worked in web3 before’. SheFi provides you with those credentials. People know the programme.”

Remember how Jana landed her role at RARI Foundation shortly after Cohort 7 and a trip to ETHDenver? Well, as it turned out, there was more to that story...

Here, according to Jana, is the tea on how to approach jobs in web3 – and a sneak peek into the kind of top-tier peer-to-peer mentoring that Jamie talked about, and that abounds in SheFi – “I was originally turned down for the role I have now. But I followed up, showed understanding, and pitched them my own version of the role – and that's what I ended up doing,” Jana says. “A lot of the time, teams are advertising for a role that has never been filled, for a project that didn't exist before,” she continues, “Embrace the fact that web3 is flexible. Pitch the role you want to do, that you feel equipped to do, and that you will be passionate about. Because once you do that, you'll do a fantastic job."

Linda Albright, Marketing Director, Cohort 7, Connecticut

What's so exciting about SheFi is Maggie got in, she saw it, and she's actively building a movement.

“Professionally, I’m an early adopter,” Linda says, standing in front of a whiteboard sprinkled with post-it notes and diagrams. “When I joined SheFi, I had already been part of two major tech revolutions: The dot com craze and then Internet marketing when it started about ten, twelve years ago.” In other words, the Marketing Director has been serving tech companies with impactful Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies across the Internet’s entire read-write-own character arc.

And she has some strong feelings about this particular moment in tech’s evolution. “In both of those inflexion points [the dot com boom and Internet marketing], women were not at the forefront. There just were no freaking women,” Linda exclaims with a frustrated tone.  “But this – and I get goosebumps saying this – is the biggest evolution that we're ever going to see. And Maggie is putting women at the forefront. And you and I, and everybody, knows that if this world is going to succeed, women must become empowered and be in leadership positions.”

The founder of Women’s Wealth Revolution, Linda has long been invested in helping women get ahead in tech – not only for the benefit of women themselves but for society at large. “The stats still show that female founders aren't getting funded as much as male founders. But they also show that companies with either a female founder or female on the exec teams do better than companies without.”

In our conversation, Linda seamlessly shifts between bigger-picture thinking and her own personal insight – “blockchain architecture is feminine because you can't get away with anything, not even one block,” she tells me, comparing the technology to the feminine urge to use peer-to-peer communication as a strategy of collective care (hello, mums at the playground).

But it is in her own experience that these tendencies of mutual support and celebration most vividly come to light – from being connected with new opportunities and receiving practical help during a career pivot to being coached through how to set up a wallet and get paid for the first time in crypto. “My life changed because there was a welcoming, female community to take me by the hand and teach me what's coming down the pike,” Linda says. “The female community is priceless. I mean, it always has been (🔫). You just can't buy that kind of support.”

“I decided to fold up my web2 business and go find a web3 job – at my age. I am on the senior side. And I hadn't looked for a job in twenty years. And had I not had the energy and support of SheFi to tap into, there's no way I would have gotten into it. I landed not one but two jobs at the same time. I converted one into a consulting gig, and I took the other full-time.”

Cohort 7 may have wrapped up over a year and a half ago, but the friendships – and networks of collusion – that were forged in previous seasons very much live on. “Jamie's in Chicago and she's kicking ass, and it’s just so exciting and fulfilling to see each other succeed, because that's the feminine way, right? When you succeed, we all succeed. Let's go!”

SheFi Season 10 kicks off on March 4th with applications closing on March 3rd. Entrants and existing members alike can expect all the camaraderie and expert insight of previous cohorts plus a more gamified and community-first experience than ever before. See you in Discord the café, a summit or a local meet-up near you.

Unsurprisingly, as the ways we collaborate and communicate continue to evolve, so does our approach to work: How we do it, where we do it from, and how we view and measure our contributions are all up for renegotiation in ways that would have been unthinkable just a couple of generations ago.

What if, in the midst of such upheaval, we – as freelancers – got to define how we work based on the value we create? What if, rather than tying our livelihood to our (limited and non-refundable) time, there was another way?

These are exactly the questions that Chris Mason, dad, serial entrepreneur and songwriter, has been grappling with since 2015, when he traded in the golden handcuffs of Corporate America for a life designed on his own terms.

Chris’ ‘profit-sharing’ model of freelancing provides a compelling invitation to explore new avenues of collaborative work and wealth distribution – a vision that chimes with the aligned incentives of the Web3 community.

With “global on-chain identity”, and the “common database” of blockchain opening up more precise means of attribution – as well as more equitable mechanisms for rewarding contributors – it has perhaps never been a more promising time to explore profit-sharing (or, as Direct Response legend, Brian Kurtz, would like to have called it, ‘lifetime value collaboration’).

To demystify profit-sharing and turn it into an actionable framework, Chris has launched the Profit Partner Implementation Sprint; a six-week live learning experience that equips consultants with the systems, tools and know-how that he used to go from clocking in to revving up revenue engines and becoming a freelance business partner.

Find out more about the Profit Partner Implementation Sprint Chris is hosting alongside Brian Kurtz here. But move fast! – the sprint is already a week in, and, while there’s still time to catch up, you want to get in before the second session kicks off and doors close on ❤Wednesday February 14th❤.

Inspired by the overlap, and echoes, with Web3’s distributed ownership economy, I caught up with Chris to find out more about his journey and how he made freelancing work for him through profit-sharing. Enjoy!

Thank you so much for sharing your insights with us today, Chris. I'd love to dive into your journey and how you got started with profit-sharing. Can you tell us a bit about your background and what made you start exploring this alternative approach to freelancing?

So, I'm a songwriter. It’s what I started doing right after college, and still do to this day. That gave me my first insight into this profit-sharing kind of model. Because, when you write a song, and then you have somebody cover or cut it, you earn royalties on that.

Fast forward a few years, and I realised that the music industry – as a full-time thing – wasn't for me. And so, at that point, I went into the corporate world.

Not long after, around 2012, I discovered copywriting. Copywriting clicked for me because I had this deep interest in psychology and persuasion. And I found there were fascinating parallels between writing sales copy and crafting song lyrics - either way, you're always on the lookout for those emotional hooks.

The main difference is, with a song, you've got a limited amount of space, whereas, with copywriting, I was like, ‘oh, I've got a lot of room to explore’. I loved it.

During my corporate job, I learned about kind of a similar royalty structure for copywriters.

If you were with one of the big publishers, you could get paid on how sales performed, or on the number of times that they mailed your promotion.

At the time, I was working with smaller publishers. So, it didn't apply to me but I was paying attention to what else was going on and seeing that it was possible to do deals that were also tied to performance.

It was then I figured out that I could charge a monthly retainer or a one-time fee as a freelancer. But I could also structure some kind of deal where, if I hit certain numbers in sales, I could participate in the upside of what I helped produce.

After that, it was a case of working up the courage to present that idea to a client.

And it didn’t happen overnight. I had to learn the ropes and build my skills.

So, I stepped out on my own and started working with clients on nights and weekends while holding down my day job. And those were all just straight ‘fee for service’ deals.

Eventually, I realised that - I had a family - and if I was serious about figuring out how to make this online business thing work, I needed to no longer be beholden to selling time for money. That's what I had been doing in the corporate job.

So, I started presenting these structures to clients. And what I found was that, if you position yourself as a partner, and make it clear that you understand their concerns as a business owner, you can get to a place where you’re exploring some pretty exciting opportunities together. It completely shifts the dynamic.

Was there a moment when you realized you could extend this model to benefit other freelancers and business owners?

The realisation came after I got involved in mentoring other freelancers through the Titans Xcelerator Group – which is one of the products that I launched with Brian Kurtz.

That experience put me in a new position of having some responsibility for contributing and helping other freelancers and business owners. It tunes your mind to, ‘Well, these are now my customers. How can I serve them and help them grow their businesses?’

Reflecting on my own experiences since 2015, I saw an opportunity to empower freelancers by providing a roadmap for negotiating profit-based deals with clients.

I wanted to develop a way to encourage freelancers to shift their mindset towards value creation and ownership.

Mine is not the only roadmap, but it's at least a starting point for somebody who wants to know how you actually reach out to past clients, or start the conversation and set expectations with new clients.

It’s really about a mindset shift towards being compensated for the value that you bring and not just the time that you put in.

It's inspiring to hear how you've evolved from implementing profit sharing for yourself to empowering others to do the same. Let's delve into the concept of "win-win models". Could you unpack this idea and how it aligns with the profit-sharing framework?

At the heart of it, it’s about starting off with what is going to make the client really excited to do this kind of deal and not have them feel like ‘oh, this is somebody that's just trying to skim off the top and make claims on revenue that they didn't actually contribute to.’

So, one thing we cover at the start of the sprint is how important it is to talk about ‘profit’ and not ‘revenue’, because that’s the number that business owners care about.

That kind of thinking shows them that you’re attuned to which metrics matter to them; that's the number you want to help grow for them. And then, if you can do that, can you have some extra incentive to continue growing that number?

This way, you get your financial incentives in line and, suddenly, you’re not just another glorified employee.

And so, I'm thinking in terms of ‘revenue engines’, and these are offerings that we can continue to grow and build on over time. That’s going to be a win for the client.

I’m coming in and offering to create new revenue that didn't exist before - and that's really important to me – I want to be able to point to something and say, ‘this exists because I came into your world and made this exist, and it created revenue.’ I feel really good about that.

Creating brand new revenue could come in the form of a new product, or it could be adding something to an existing funnel. And then you're just saying, ‘hey, I don't need to share in all the revenue you're already generating. I just want to participate in this new revenue that I'm helping create.’ It's a fair way to approach it, I think.

That makes a lot of sense. It's about fostering a collaborative mindset and establishing clear expectations to ensure everyone benefits from the partnership. Speaking of mindset, could you elaborate on the mindset shift required for freelancers transitioning from the traditional time-for-money model to profit sharing?

Just to be explicit, my whole thing is not to say ‘don't do time for money freelancing’, or to make it seem like there's anything wrong with that. There isn’t. It's more like, ‘if you're interested in this other way to earn and be compensated, then I just want to share that with you and share what's worked for me.’

But, yeah, the mindset around leverage and taking ownership back, for me, is all tied into wanting to exit a system where, because you’re working with multiple clients, it can suddenly feel like you have multiple bosses.

Personally, I found myself getting looped into different meetings or processes that didn’t pertain to the work that I was doing. I didn't really feel like I was in a position to say ‘no’ because they were the client. It felt like they had all the leverage and all the power over me.

Maybe that’s me projecting. I suppose you could say, ‘Chris, you could do some internal work, and come to a place where you have different judgments about that’, and that would be a fair critique.

But for me, it changed everything when I could say, ‘You're not paying me to do ‘work’, you're paying me to achieve this specific result.’ And I got there by tying part, or even all, of my pay to achieving that result.

In terms of mindset, that's the shift that I needed. And this was the framework that helped me get there. Thinking in terms of ownership of time, energy management and looking for leverage points.

What does it take to make that leap, in your opinion?

Shifting from a ‘time-for-money’ mindset to one focused on value creation and ownership requires a few key adjustments.

Firstly, you need to define boundaries and expectations with clients to avoid becoming beholden to their demands.

Secondly, freelancers must cultivate clarity and confidence in their ability to deliver results.

By tying compensation to specific outcomes rather than hours worked, freelancers gain autonomy and agency in their client relationships.

Lastly, embracing a mindset of continuous improvement and innovation enables freelancers to identify new opportunities for growth and collaboration.

Love that, Chris! Finally, for those interested in learning more or joining your Profit-Sharing Implementation Sprint, how can they get involved?

The implementation sprint is a six-week experience designed to guide freelancers through the process of implementing profit-sharing models in their businesses.

The sprint has already begun, but if interested individuals want to jump on board before our next session on February 14th, there’s still time to catch up!

Otherwise, there are three, what I call, ‘dead simple’ profit-sharing opportunities that you can check out through my website – chrismason.net.

On February 1st 2024, just over two weeks from the time of writing, Google and Yahoo will usher in the most significant changes to email deliverability yet. Why does this matter in the decentralised world of Web3?

Because Google and Yahoo represent almost a third of all inboxes globally.

So, if you want to meet your audience where they are, and you don’t want to see your email deliverability fall off a cliff, you’ll want to take note of these changes and make sure you’re ready for them when they take effect in just a few weeks. Let’s get into how to do that and why.

Google’s new spam rules: Why do they matter for Web3?

Web3, or the newest iteration of the Internet, is shaking up what we think we know about marketing. At the heart of this generational shift is the introduction of a trustless internet-native layer for value exchange that is redrawing how people connect and collaborate.

By aligning incentives between brands, investors, and users, long-standing distinctions are collapsing, and the passive definition of the ‘consumer’ no longer seems to fit. Elsewhere, automation through smart contracts, cross-platform interoperability and data sovereignty for users are reshaping the online experience (with real-world consequences) through decentralisation.

Web3 communications apps like wallet-to-wallet and decentralised email messaging continue to improve and proliferate. Meanwhile, Web3’s user base (to say nothing of its UX) remains limited. Data from 2022 suggests that there are over 84 million wallets across crypto; a figure dwarfed by Google’s 1.8 billion email accounts alone.

The fact remains that, for many brands, an omnichannel marketing strategy that ‘meets your audience where they are’ includes landing in their Gmail inboxes.

Amanda Cassatt, CEO of marketing agency, Serotonin, and Web3’s first marketer, underscored the value of email marketing for crypto natives in her book, ‘Web3 Marketing: A Handbook for the Next Internet Revolution’. In it, she writes, "There's nothing more dependable than a spreadsheet with the addresses of audience members who have agreed to receive emails,” adding, “Email is one of the few channels a project can truly own, and it can become an excellent way to distribute content".

Testament to this thesis is Hubspot’s 2023 report in which email marketing is described as “an unmatched investment for connecting with customers.” According to its authors, brands receive an average $36 return on every $1 spent on email.

In a nutshell, brands that incorporate email into their omnichannel marketing stack stand to reap benefits such as:

• Unparalleled reach: At 92% penetration, practically anyone who logs onto the Internet is also on email. This compares with the 10% of adults who own crypto globally.

• Seamless functionality: Pithy remarks about Web3’s less-than-ideal UX have become a common refrain on Crypto Twitter. And for valid reasons. Web 2.0 Email Service Providers (ESPs) like Klaviyo and Hubspot still tend to do many of email marketing’s most powerful features best, including segmentation, bulk sending, and automation.

• High ROI and ownership: Cost-effective and personalisable, email continues to stand out in Web 2.0 as a valuable way to build relationships, as well as to convert and retain users. Furthermore, unlike on X, with email, your email list belongs to you. Unless you’re Messari and you’re building your subscriber list on Mailchimp. But that’s another story. 

For brands and creators that are already onboard with email marketing, here is your heads-up that monumental changes are on the horizon.

In the next sections, we'll get into what the changes are, why they are being put into place and what you can do to avoid your content and outreach being unjustly labelled as spam.

Why Are These Changes Happening? Why Now?

The amount of spam being sent across the Internet is increasing by the day. The “industry first” measures being introduced by Google and Yahoo take aim at the slew of unwanted mail that is hitting their ML pipeline.

According to the Tech giant, Google’s AI filters already identify and block almost 15 billion unsolicited and inappropriate emails each day. But as the use of AI becomes more widespread, and the tools themselves become more sophisticated, there’s growing unease that the filters will not be able to keep pace with the ever-evolving tactics at spam senders’ disposal.

Who will be affected?

Google have stated that anyone who sends more than 5,000 bulk emails daily will have to comply with the new requirements.

However, Scott Hartley, the founder of Masterplan4Success offers the following words of caution: "These rules technically apply to EVERYONE no matter the volume of email they send.  Yahoo refuses to reveal what they consider a bulk sender, even though Google sets the bar at 5,000.  Yahoo could be at 100 emails a day."

While marketers may be in the dark about the exact numbers that will trigger these upcoming requirements, one thing is for certain: Regardless of the ESP that you use, if you have Gmail or Yahoo addresses on your list (and who doesn’t?) these changes will impact you.

What are the February 1st requirements?

To comply with the upcoming anti-spam policy changes, you need to get the following in order:

• Full domain authentication: Google wants to know that you are who you say you are, meaning that you will need to authenticate your identity using DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), DMARC and SPF configurations (ikr😩). You’ll also need to configure your accounts across each platform you use to send emails from.

• Curate your list for quality over quantity: Measured in open rates and click-through rates (CTRs), subscribers who sit on your list but aren’t engaging with your messaging are damaging your reputation - and could get your content unjustly flagged as spam. In addition, the bar for spam complaints has been lowered to just 0.3% of emails. Creators who exceed this threshold will see their deliverability plummet. 📉 

• Make it easy for subscribers to self-select: As well as being intentional about how you procure your list, subscribers will need to be given a clear and accessible means of opting out of correspondence with your brand. There will be no getting away with burying the unsubscribe button in tiny text at the bottom of your emails under these new measures.

According to Google these requirements “should be considered basic email hygiene.” Although that makes implementation sound straightforward enough, according to Hartley, 94% of businesses sending emails from marketing automation platforms like Mailchimp, fail the configuration test. Furthermore, 86% of users have no clue how to identify how engaged their subscribers are.

So, what can brands that include email in their marketing mix do to avoid getting caught out? 

How to not get busted and enjoy privileged access to your community.

Although placing the burden of reducing spam on marketers who provide value for their followers might not seem fair, this situation does come with some upside – for those who are proactive about compliance.

With more emails inevitably being screened out after February 1st (hello, 94% of non-configured accounts?), your messaging has a greater chance of getting in front of the engaged subscribers and fans most likely to sign up for your webinar, or download your beta, or take whatever action you’re looking for them to take.

Your list may take a bit of a hit by following these requirements, but with relevant content and a targeted approach, your conversions shouldn’t.

As ever, the first step in solving any problem is realising that there is one, to begin with. Masterplan4Success offer a free authentication check that will allow you to see under the hood and spot what needs fixing.

As Google itself has shared, “This is not a one-time exercise.” Marketing teams that either lack the time – or don’t want to risk getting lost in the technical weeds can work with Scott Hartley and the team at Masterplan4Success or other email deliverability experts. With all the recent bullish signals we’ve been seeing, this is not the time to risk having your email campaigns get stuck behind spam filters.

To wrap up…

The countdown is on before Google and Yahoo activate their anti-spam crackdown. Those who act ahead of the February 1st deadline will be at an advantage - and the sooner brands move, the better. 

The fact that the second largest email provider in the world is struggling to keep up with ever-more sophisticated AI output serves as a reminder of why the Internet is due a makeover. With Web3-native email providers, like Mailchain, we're moving towards a world in which decentralised reputation systems and cryptographic signatures provide blockchain-native layers of security against spam and phishing attempts.

But until Web3 onboards its next billion users, marketers within the space will do best to adopt a Web 2.5 approach - complying with Big Tech companies like Google when ‘meeting your audience where they hang out’ requires it, while at the same time developing a presence on decentralised platforms.

Regardless of the platform, in the age of AI, there will be an ever-greater need for differentiation by holding the bar high on curating lists and delivering relevant, engaging content.

Best of luck out there! If you are looking to generate goodwill so you can retarget or retain your audience by delivering value straight to their inboxes - or you want to spin up a compelling yet digestible sequence to onboard new community members - drop me a message. I work with mission-aligned Web3 brands and would love to chat about your content needs, and craft an email marketing strategy that lands.

CORRECTION: In an earlier version, I mentioned that these changes will affect anyone who sends over 5,000 emails per day. This has since been updated to reflect the fact that Yahoo have not publicly stated what their limit will be. Thanks to Scott Hartley for pointing out the original inaccuracy.