Joeri: 0:00

Hello everyone and welcome to the Web3 CMO Stories podcast. My name is Joeri Billast and normally I am your podcast host, but today is something special. Actually, I was recently invited to Cryptopolitan Crypto podcast to talk about some of the exciting projects I'm working on, including Sintra Synergies, Secrets Vault, RYO Chan, Web3 CMO Stories podcast itself. The original interview was published on their YouTube channel, but I repurposed it here so you, my audience, can enjoy it too. Let's dive in Hi everybody, let's dive in.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 1:06

Joeri Billast, like you said, the Web3 CMO of the Web3 CMO Stories podcast, and exactly to be a guest. It's fun to switch seats sometimes, I guess, so why don't we dive right in? Tell us, tell us about you and then, what are you working on?

Joeri: 1:16

Yeah, working on different exciting things, like I moved to I'm a Belgian guy and then I moved to Portugal in August last year and then I moved to Portugal in August last year and actually I'm now launching here a Web3 AI retreat called Sintra Synergies, where Web3 AI founders come together not only to network, to do workshops, but also to get some wellness, to get away from the daily grind, to go on a hike and so on, to really connect with each other.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 1:42

That's fantastic. Actually, it's funny that this question that's coming up usually is what do you do for fun when you're not in front of the computer? And a lot of the Web3 guys go, we're always in front of the computer and sometimes it's good to get away right. So your retreat, your taking a walk, is important. You need that time apart. There's balance, right.

Joeri: 1:58

Absolutely, and that's why I've started it right, because we're all busy, always online, always in front of the computer and also on the other side. Some people like to go to conferences, but conferences can be really noisy. You make a lot of connections and it's also overwhelming for a lot of people. But going on a place like Sintra in Portugal a lot of nature, just good food, nice weather a good place to to connect, because people lack community. They want to find their community and that's what I'm building. That's actually my superpower networking and putting people together I like it.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 2:31

It's almost like an anti-conference. It's the opposite. So that's really cool.

Joeri: 2:35

It's the opposite, and so next to the retreat, what I'm really passionate about, I have my web 3 cmo stories podcast, where I'm I'm supported by coindesk and by Rio. Rio is an interesting project from Japan. They do RYOCoin. They have their wallet. They are launching a meme coin, the RYOChan, which has real utility, so interesting to find out about them. And another project I am advising at the moment is SecretsFold, and they have a solution to protect a seed phrase with an image, because things can happen People lose their seed phrase. This is cryptography and it's, I think, a really unique solution. So those are actually, in a nutshell, some of the things I'm doing. I love to connect people and to advise them and to create content, like we are doing right now.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 3:24

Those are fascinating projects. So, as the Web3 CMO, what are you seeing like in the industry now? Like, what are people heading towards? Is it still the same old, where people build like community and Telegram and Discord, or are you seeing some different shifts happening in what you're looking at? Because traditional Web3 marketing was always just okay, let's run a Twitter space, let's put our announcements out, let's build a community, let's let the community promote it. So what are you seeing? That's a shift or something in the Web3 space? As the Web3 CMO, what patterns are you seeing that are new and coming up?

Joeri: 3:59

Yeah, from my side. That's the reason why I am organizing this retreat right now, because there is a need for people to meet other people in real life. We see the trend of AI, web reconverging. People use a lot of AI to automate and the human touch is a bit lacking, and I see a need for people to meet others in real life. Yes, and next to the Twitter spaces and so on is still going on. It should be a good mix of both, I would say online and offline, like we used to do also in web 2.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 4:32

Yeah, it makes sense, just meeting people online is a good thing, right, and, but in person is also just as important, so that's cool Absolutely, and I think the human connection becomes more important than ever because of AI.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 4:48

The other thing is that people are really looking for that human connection, right. This is why we do this podcast, right? We do this podcast to find out what everyone's working on and it's nice. But then that human connection piece right, which is a good segue. You're talking about walks. You're talking about disconnecting. You're talking about nature. You're talking about walks. You're talking about disconnecting. You're talking about nature. You're talking about community and person stuff, right. What do you do when you're not running your podcast? What do you do when you're not doing these things? What do you do for fun? What do you do for connection? What do you do for your personal gratification? I'm interested.

Joeri: 5:18

Yeah, so actually the things I'm doing for the retreat is going on the walk in my free time. That's what I'm doing too right. So when I'm not in front of the computer, I like to go hiking in the woods, in the nature of sindra, going here to the beaches, going out and meeting people and going to an event. But it's for me actually I'm one of those entrepreneurs that I'm passionate about what I'm doing. So if I go to an event in the evening and it's networking, I like that early. It's not like, for me it's work, right. So my girlfriend always say are you talking about work? Oh no, I really love what I'm doing. I love to be on a stage and to be a speaker. It doesn't feel like work. So that's something I also do. I'm speaking at different events as a keynote speaker, as a moderator, and I'm not in front of my computer. But yeah, I'm just, I just like it. You're there in the people, right?

Joeri: 6:08

that's really I like it I like to be with people and that's yeah, and I see some people are more introverted on those are extroverted. I have energy. I get energy from talking, by talking to people actually fantastic.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 6:21

I'm actually naturally an introvert. My background is computer science. I'm coding by myself, usually right. But then I switched. One day One of my mentors said hey, you'd be really good at this, and that's like the opposite, right, like the number one fear in the world is public speaking. So I got over it. But I'm trained to do it now. So I like what you say. You go to meet the people, you go speak on stage. It's fun, right. And then you get that different experience. It's almost like I'm a hybrid. I do both now. Some days I want to be by myself, Some days I want to see and talk to everybody.

Joeri: 6:48

I like to talk. As you see, on my background, I've written a few books. One was a bestseller on Amazon and the other one were with Belno marketers about Web3, about metaverse and so on. So writing is something that's. It takes my energy and therefore I like to talk, and now, with everything that exists, you can transform voice into writing. So it's absolutely.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 7:13

I've been training my ai for what? Almost a year and a half now and it's starting to write better than it writes like me, better than me on a bad day. So it's interesting. So if I'm having a bad day, the ai writes and it sounds like me right, so it's pretty cool absolutely.

Joeri: 7:29

The fact is that if you don't have the patience to write a long email and you just give it, like the input, and it knows your voice, it can indeed help you go faster.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 7:39

Yeah so cool. And then you like taking the walks. I don't know if you saw there was a study done where they did brain scans and they were doing the brain scans when the guys are sitting at the desk and then they do the brain scan when the person is taking a walk in nature and it's like night and day, right. So it's interesting how the brain needs it, right, you start with sitting at the desk coming up with the idea, and then you go for a walk, shake hand, meet people, get out there into nature and it's funny how that fills the other side.

Joeri: 8:06

Your brain is working differently, right? Indeed, that's what you were saying. So what I used to do, I'm still doing. I need inspiration, or I have a problem to solve or maybe a proposal to write. I go on a walk instead of staying in front of my PC and, instead of staying three hours thinking what to do and having no inspiration, go for a one-hour walk and come back with fresh insights. It always works for me.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 8:31

Absolutely. Now I do the best of both worlds. I go for the walk. While I'm going on the walk I just tell notes into my phone and then the phone has all the notes, and then I take the notes and then I feed it to AI and I go hey, throw me some more ideas. And so you get the best of both worlds right. You get the best of sitting down and you get the best of taking a walk. Makes it more interesting.

Joeri: 8:49

That's a good tip, Earl. That's every doing that too. That I was with like a problem in my head.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 8:54

It was not really clear no-transcript, the thought process and then the slides. You stick them in order and it starts to make sense. So that's great, fantastic. The next piece really is just what are you looking to build? Like, what kind of communities are you looking to build and where are you looking to build these communities? So tell us how to get ahold of you and then like, where do we see your project list? Where do we see what you're working on? How do we find you?

Joeri: 9:38

I am quite present online, as I have my background in social media marketing. So I have my website, my personal website, where you find my blog, all the projects I'm working on Web3.net, which is actually Web3, but then in Dutch. That's my website. My podcast is the Web3 CMO Stories podcast. You can find it on Google, but also on Apple's own app, spotify and everywhere. And then I love to connect with everyone. My main channel is LinkedIn, but you will also find me on X and on other social media channels, so reach out to me. I really love to connect Fantastic.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 10:16

And so, if we're wrapping it up, what kind of parting words of wisdom, what have you got right? What have you got for the audience? Something, a message that you really want them to audience, something, a message that you really want them to hear, a message that you really want to relay. What kind of words of wisdom can you lay on the audience in terms of web3, cmo, anything that you want as?

Joeri: 10:33

insight. Just one thing that now comes up in my mind when you're saying this, because I started a podcast like this. You have your podcast. Everyone starts from zero, but you know what I say bring your message, even if you think that no one is listening. There is always someone listening. We get value from your message and you never know.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 10:53

But that message that you bring to them, yeah, we'll have us a as an impact in the future and it's funny because, like, even if you're shouting into the void, right, you feel like there's no one watching about your mother, right? The funny thing is, the internet never forgets. So as you start to build these content pieces, like I've had people watch a video I made eight years ago and they go oh, I just watched your video. And I go which one? And then they go this one. I'm like, oh, my God, that's eight years ago.

Joeri: 11:20

And then they want to work with us and it's a long game and it's building up on each other, because you have different pieces and you also build real estate, like you say, online, and it's crazy what you still can find on the internet.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 11:38

I like that term. We coined it, I think, like digital real estate, and you go and you claim your digital real estate, whether it's on social media, whether it's an organic SEO, whether it's on whatever media you want to put it on, and as long as you put it out there and you continually put it out there, people will find you eventually and, like you said, people want to find their tribe.

Joeri: 11:55

They want. And if you have different ways of communicating, like we are now recording this video podcast, but if you have a blog or you post on social media, you go speak on stage or you write a book, all these different pieces, you know, are a reason or maybe a channel for people to hear about you or to reach out to you Absolutely.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 12:16

What would you say to people who are aspiring authors? Would you recommend that they push forward and write the book? What kind of advice would you have for people?

Joeri: 12:22

My first book. It took two years. I was stuck. And then someone said to me but you're better in speaking, why don't you just speak your book? And then I said, okay, start to speak, to talk to my phone. And then the book was there like three weeks later because a copywriter all of my it was before AI, before the chat shippity moment. Then my book was there. So it's just write it, just start writing the book and, yeah, you will get stuck, but then it's an adventure on itself and by speaking to other people about the book and creating some accountability to have someone coaching you, that really helps. And now you see it on the background. It works. I love it yeah.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 13:01

So actually it's funny, I did the same thing right. So you're telling us let me turn off my background for a quick second. You can see it behind me. I have a book too. It's in the shelf over there, and I spoke it. Like you said, I spoke it into existence. You talk your way through, because some people are better at speaking than writing I'm the same. So I, rather, would talk my way through it and, like you said, I spent a couple of days talking to my phone by myself. I look like I'm crazy a little bit, and then you transcribe it and then you edit it and bam, it's a book. So that's how that happens. That's really good advice. It's really good advice. Cool, any other parting words of wisdom before we call, before we wrap it up.

Joeri: 13:36

If people are scared to do something, I would say, just do it, or just ask. If you say oh, I won't, they will say no, you just ask something like for my podcast myself I just ask people to come on or people, or I just did it because I'm Belgian. English is not my native language and what I started it like why would I do this in English? Because Dutch, french, that's my my language, I speak best said no, just do this. And now, because of my Belgian accent English I go to the US. I was at consensus in Austin. People recognize my accent oh, that's the guy from the podcast because of my accent. So you see, you never know what is your strength and weakness that you think is a weakness can then become a strength. So that's my advice Just do it, just ask, and yeah, and don't worry too much.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 14:24

I love it. You know, just publish, right, don't wait.

Earl (Cryptopolitan Host): 14:27

I think there's a one. I wrote an article called perfection is the lowest standard. If you wait till it's perfect, it's never going to release, so just do it. I agree, fantastic, okay. Thank you so much for being on the show, appreciate your wisdom, appreciate your insight. I'm gonna go check out what your projects are and connect with you online, and this ought to be fun. I'm gonna I'm actually gonna go find you on linkedin, so this ought to be amazing. So, thank you so much for being on the show, y Joeri, and yeah, looking forward to seeing what you're up to. Thanks so much, earl. It was a pleasure.

Joeri: 14:54

I hope you enjoyed this repurposed conversation from the Cryptopolitan podcast. If you are curious about anything I mentioned, from the Sinterra Synergy Retreat to Rio, sigrid's Vault or my podcast, feel free to connect with me on linkedin. And, yeah, send me a message. And remember, sometimes the best way to build your brand is to just start, even if it's not perfect. Thank you so much for listening. Like I always say, if this episode is useful for people around you, be sure to share this episode with them. If you are not yet following the show, this is a really good moment to do this. I need a subscribe button if you haven't given me a review yet. These five stars would help me reach an even bigger audience, and I hope to see you back next time. And then I have another amazing guest, see you.