Why I started the POAP Book Club
Also known as FOMO Anonymous.
2021 was a crazy year for many. For most, the stress came from political turmoil the USA (and world) was seeing, the economic roller coaster we witnessed (oh those gas prices), and the overbearing fears that came from living in a worldwide COVID-filled pandemic.
For me, personally, the year was full of additional stress and craziness. I was involved in the launch of a new company and saw my firstborn enter college (in Alaska!). Those were the highlights. I’ll spare readers the weekly stresses (often major road blocks) that comes along with being a contractor/freelance breadwinner during unsure times. I know there are many, many people that can relate and empathise.
FOMO Loading In Progress…
Everyone leads crazy lives. It doesn’t make excuses for not handling what matters most to you. While I was able to take care of my personal and family needs, I wasn’t able to do much more. For me, personally, that meant that I missed out on two major opportunities last year.
1 I didn’t read as many books as I wanted
I had a goal of reading 12 good books. The only requirement being that they were educational about something I was passionate about at the moment. In my opinion, books are fuel that the brain needs in order to grow. Each book being an opportunity to learn and grow from the author’s lifetime of experiences. I believe I was only able to read 3 books in 2021, just 25% of my goal. I missed out on a lot of growth.
2 I didn’t jump on latest technology trends
Normally, when a trend gets hot I tend to jump on the bandwagon right away. Well, early 2021 is when Web3, and in particular NFTs, became a hot item. This is 100% something I would have been involved with early had I taken the opportunity to do my homework and not just skim headlines. I don’t feel this is an excuse: through the first 10 months of 2021, I was at capacity dealing with the life needs of my family, my clients, and myself. I didn’t have room for anything extra. I was slugging through life and I’m so grateful I came out with my head above water (this isn’t just a metaphor).
But as such, I missed out on a lot of opportunity. In particular, the VeeFriends movement and the launch of Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book Twelve and a Half: Leveraging the Emotional Ingredients Necessary for Business Success.
Of all the years to mentally check out and bypass what Gary V was doing, 2021 was not the one to miss. (I do laugh at myself now.)
With the launch of the book, Gary Vaynerchuk also launched Book Games: a reward mechanism that Gary included when users pre-ordered multiple copies of his book. For every 12 books a person pre-ordered, they would get an NFT reward. This is almost a guaranteed ROI for the individual, considering that 12 books at $20 shelf price (I’m assuming, as that is the current retail price) means that you were guaranteed a Gary Vaynerchuk reward for $240. We all know that all current Gary Vaynerchuk issued NFTs are exchanged in the tens of thousands of dollars, with ceilings in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don’t judge anyone for making (what now feels like) a smart bet.
Now, the whole idea behind Book Games is that those who pre-ordered dozens of copies of books (and yes, there were plenty of people who pre-ordered hundreds of copies) would then become ambassadors to Gary’s brand and give away the book however they deemed fit. Some gave away the book through twitter and discord giveways, and some gave it away as a prize to their community. Either way, this put his new book in a lot of hands and got people into Gary’s brand funnel.
The second phase of Book Games has yet to be revealed. All we know is that the NFTs will be part of trading and collectible game on the Immutable X blockchain (an Etherum Layer 2 blockchain).
FOMO LOADING COMPLETE
I missed out on not just VeeFriends, but BookGames as well. It’s ridiculous the emotions you can experience when you want to be involved in a community so badly but are late to the game and locked out due to timing or economics. My current obstacle are financial means. Seeing that the floor price of a VeeFriend is around $50K, I just don’t see that as immediately obtainable without a lot of hard work. (Which I will be doing. It’s a not just a goal, but key to my investment strategies for 2022).
Currently, the reward NFTs for Book Games have not yet entered the market. The NFTs will be handed out to users who pre-ordered the books soon, and I’m sure that the users with multiple NFTs will be quick to put some on the secondary market to regain some losses / make a profit. It is my hope that the entry point is low enough I can buy in… but honestly, the $240 or whatever the original cost was would have probably been the lowest priced opportunity to participate in Book Games.
Turns out I’m not the only one.
While VeeFriends and Book Games had plenty of build-up and hype, the majority of buyers were limited to within the walls of Gary’s community. I’m not talking about his total reach, as in users who hear a podcast clip, attend a keynote, see a youtube video or even someone who has read one of his books. I fit within that reach, as do millions of other people. And I still missed out.
I’m talking about his zealots. The community who religiously hangs on to every word he says (and if you have studied Gary, you know that he understands the weight the responsibility of leading such a community). These were the users who bought his first series VeeFriends NFT without hesitation. And when he announced the book, they bought dozens on pre-order. No questions asked. These were not your ordinary everyday people. (A proclamation they should be proud of by the way).
Your ordinary business people, such as myself, missed the ride. Or worse, they too quickly denounced it (guilty) as bad art that can be copy and pasted on any device. We lacked understanding.
Thankfully, late in 2021, we saw a tipping point of Web3 acceptance and adoption. This was due in a large part due to the continual education and empathy that Gary and industry thought-leaders (I personally credit Kevin Rose and Tim Ferris as well). There was a wave of new users, along with their capital, that flooded the market and pushed for mainstream adoption of NFTs and Web3 technologies. We may have missed the first wave, but we’re here now. And we’re told that it’s still pretty early (I’m banking on this).
A Place For The Rest Of Us
I admit, it is difficult participating in the VeeFriends discord without holding a VeeFriends OR Book Games NFT. Call it FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Because that’s exactly what it is. I feel like I am missing out. I still try to participate. I can also tell there are lot more without NFTs than there are with.
Also, in the back of my head, I’m wondering who has actually read the book? I’ve skimmed my copy when I got it, but it went straight to my “To Read” pile.
Why should we read it? I’ve listened to dozens of interviews during the book launch and feel this is immensely important information for the business world! I can see why Gary wanted to do everything he could to get it into as many hands as possible. Now the challenge is getting us to actually read the book.
This, and the fact that I missed my personal 2021 reading goals, is why I created the POAP Book Club.
POAP Book Club is a club that is free to join, and free to participate. We’ll be giving out free weekly attendance rewards during our Twitter Spaces and ClubHouse events in the form of POAPs (a form of NFT technology I’ll be discussing in a future article). A POAP is basically a proof-of-attendance badge on the blockchain. We might do more with the POAPs in the future, but for right now I want to make this accessible to as many people as possible.
This is open to anyone, regardless if you have participated in book games or not. And we’ll be getting involved in other authors’ communities as well.
Read. Show up. Discuss. Make friends and network with like minded people. Get a free badge.
It’s that easy!
