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[00:00:00]Kriti: Hey guys, welcome to WhyFI Matters!
As much as I love having grownups on the podcast, just because they have so much wisdom and experience it also love interviewing fellow teenagers who are doing inspiring and impactful things. So I'm super excited to introduce you all to teen entrepreneur and fellow podcaster Benjamin Wong. Ben is the host of YoungTrep with Benjamin Wong, a conversation-based podcast with the world leading experts on entrepreneurship, health and wellness. He is also the co-founder of Rich Kids Global, an online education site dedicated to helping kids become rich in mindset, purpose, and passion. And he's also the founder of Kids CEO media, and the recipient of the communicator award of distinction. With all of these amazing ventures and podcasts he's created, Ben strives to foster his entrepreneurial. Throughout each and every one of his ventures. And in this episode, you can only just see how passionate he is about everything he does. Not only is he passionate about Kids CEO, Rich Kids Global and his podcast, but he's also an NFT nerd or non fungible token nerd.
And it's a super cool concept that I'm sure you've heard NFTs get tossed around in conversation, but I personally don't know much about them. So I can't wait to explore what they are and learn more about what they are from a fellow teenager. I'm with Ben today, Ben has been featured on many media sites, such as ABC and NBC, and I hope you enjoy the interview.
Hi, Ben, thank you so much for coming on WhyFI Matters, today. I am super excited to have you on the show and I'm personally excited to talk to someone who's younger. I've talked to a lot of adults recently and it's great to really understand their insight and amazing to talk to someone who's been there and done that. But I'm super excited to get to know you more, get to know your whole process and why you got into all of this entrepreneurship and being creative and yeah, you're only 15. So yeah, you are very young and you're doing all of these amazing things. So I'm super excited to get to know Benjamin Wong!
[00:02:35]Ben: I'm super excited to be here, especially talking about a bunch of new things going on. Podcasting, which I, which it was your podcast here.
Uh, so lost some good shit experiences there to NFT land, which is a big, new, new thing that I'm trying to educate a lot of people about. But I'm excited.
[00:02:52]Kriti: Yeah. Same. So could you just first off tell us a little bit about yourself?
[00:02:57]Ben: I'm Ben I Benjamin Wong.
I'm from Upland, California, which is a town 30, 40 minutes away from Los Angeles. I'm most ways in the ordinary teen, but I have a love of entrepreneurship. Don't know exactly where it came from, but I've always loved selling things on the street to making a quick buck. To doing things like investing and now all on an empty land I'm homeschooled.
So I spent. Part of my day, part of my week working on business and a bunch of new projects that are broken all the time. And that's a little briefer about me.
[00:03:30]Kriti: Amazing. So, you said that you don't really know how you got into an entrepreneurship. Do you think that you've always had this sort of passion for being creative and not just being a consumer?
Um, you know, obviously we have that. Age like traditional, you know, lemonade stand kid or for me, I was, um, do you know what, um, rainbow loom is? I don't know if you, yes, yes. I would sell those. I also have business called “case tapery”. Duct tape was a huge thing like for like in my school, at least. So we would like make amazing like duct tape, close ducks, like for dolls or like duct tape bags. But that was kind of like my businessy thing. Like, when I was little, that's what I was doing, but I was always wanting to create in that sense. So I was wondering if it's the same thing for you?
[00:04:31]Ben: Oh yeah, totally.
I mean, my first ever, like, I guess major in a way was avocados. It was 2015. That was the year of star wars. When that came out.
[00:04:43]Kriti: Huge fan of star wars. I went to the theater with my dad the day it came out. I still have pictures of us at the theater. I loved force awakened.
[00:04:55]Ben: Yeah. I mean, it was a great movie and I hadn't really heard of star wars before neither the Marvel either. But two of my best friends took me to see the movie and afterwards, like all things, you know, I think that's another potential reason why from entrepreneurship is like curiosity that I've always had.
Got super curious. I saw the movie went and saw all the other movies and all the TV shows and stuff like that. And have you ever heard of the Funko pops?
[00:05:22]Kriti: The, yeah, I have, Hermione Granger.
[00:05:26]Ben: Yes. I always liked those types of things like collecting Funko pops, everything.
So, when the movie came round, onto one at that Chewbacca and tradition, Funko pop or whatever. And so in order to get that money, most kids either have two avenues. You either go with parents. Ask your parents yet, or use like allowance money or find another way to get up by yourself. So one day my two best friends were over and we were like, Hey, you guys want to go out and pick some avocados and we'll buy this, this cuts, it was called Smuggler's bounty. Like this mystery box. Uh, And so there's a chair. And so we literally got ladders in the garage and out a few avocado trees in my front yard. And so we climbed up the ladder kind of bladders and pick down, you know, 30, 50 avocados, and then took them to the street corner and wave people down and trying to get them to buy it.
And the, that was my first major thing. And, and then after that, it was a bunch of small things until I got into investing into the podcast world. And then now
[00:06:32]Kriti: Amazing. I think what your story shows is that how entrepreneurs have that affinity or the capacity to like problem solve their way out of situations. Oftentimes we would go ask for help, but I guess what you did was you tried to figure out an alternative path such as selling your avocado. And think that's really amazing. Um, and, uh, foreshadows everything that you've kind of been doing recently. So you are definitely a serial entrepreneur.
You are doing a lot of different things such as you started Kids CEO, Rich Kids Global YoungTrep, and you're also a podcaster. So can you tell us a little bit more about what inspired you to really start these things? And tell us a little bit about the story behind each of those different ventures.
[00:07:27]Ben: So I'll start with CEO. This was my 11th birthday. So this was four years back. On my 11th birthday. My dad decided to open me up a stock trading account, so very smart. And so on that 11th birthday, I had a stock account with like a hundred dollars in it.
And so I really loved the whole stock trading. I think it just goes down to the one, the ownership part of it. I would go around and telling my friends that I own Disney and things like that. And so it's a one that part. And then two also the making money from it, I made some pretty savvy moves. Early on, you know, AMD stock immense market devices at like $17.
And then I sold it for like 40, 49 or so. And I only bought two shares, so I didn't make that much money, but it was at that. And I would go around bragging to my grandparents, like about how much money I made and how how's the next Warren buffet. Uh, and so that's, that's how I got my foray into, into stock investing or trading or like, And then from there I being kid would go back around about these things.
I own Disney, I, in the next Warren Buffett, you know, I I'm so much money from the stocks. Right. And so, so naturally my friends got interested into these types of things and they would ask me about a stock investing or how they can create their own accounts. Oh, how their parents want them to do it.
And their tips. So around, was it 2019? Uh, late 2019, I think October. So we're on this time 2019, my mom convinced me to put it into a podcast. And then I hadn't listened to podcasts before. So it was still at a new thing, especially back in 2018. There were really no major kids podcasts. Rolled a podcasting was, was pretty amateur at the time.
So I decided to create a podcast. Uh, I did, you know, three or four episodes. You can go listen to them. Now I Kid CEO you from, from two, three years back. And I took a little break for school and it was really. March of 2020 with COVID I had the opportunity to.
[00:09:36]Kriti: Same. Well, I, I started WhyFI Matters and April 2020 when I released my first few episodes, because I took advantage of being remote. It's interesting because you, you decide to go into a space that you were unfamiliar with. Whereas I, on the other hand, I've been listening to podcasts for a very long time. I listened to podcasts all the time and I, it was something that I was like, I want to do that too, but I think it's interesting how you'd ventured into something that was different. Um, but yeah, that's pretty cool how your friends were interested in stocks? Um, cause honestly I don't see. I didn't see that. I wasn't interested when I was 11.
So good job for you getting that started like four years ago. Um, so yeah, you also have Rich Kids Global and YoungTreps. So can you tell us a little bit more about that?
[00:10:34]Ben: Yeah. So I guess I'll start with Rich Kids Global. Uh, and both go back to a summit I had in February of 2021. So earlier this year, I, throughout my time with the kids, you have built up a kind of community of kids. So I decided to create a summit, a virtual conference, where I was able to bring all these kids together. During a we had a pitch competition.
And during that competition, one of Oregon's two of the pitchers where their names were Luke and Alex, and they pitched an idea for a kid's education company. And then on the other hand with young chap, it was raising powered kids, the amazing team, uh, with Adam and Matthew Turin over there. And there were sponsors.
Adam reached out to me, years ago and I always had him in the back pocket. And so, you know, when it came around to create the assignment, I would shout if you want to just tell the sponsor. And so after everything was over, they approached me about creating or being the host of their new podcast called.
Uh, and then I guess going back to the rich kids global afterwards, they, they, again reached out to me asking if I wanted to be a partner at their new project. And so like most things I said yes. And that's where we are now.
[00:11:54]Kriti: Amazing. So, um, kids, CEO is basically white. Um, you created, and can you tell us a little bit more about what you do on the podcast, um, who you interview?
Um, yeah.
[00:12:08]Ben: Yeah. So I think the role of kids, CEO, uh, the themes in content have changed a ton. I think that's something very consistent with me is being inconsistent, in a good way. I think.
[00:12:19]Kriti: I really loved that. I was just a butt in right here, but I really loved that because I started WhyFI Matters off. Um, and you know, I wanted it to focus on financial literacy because AI, I want to improve my own financial literacy, but I also love talking about so many different things and that I have a platform that I'm able to access people. And, kind of have mixed a few of my own little episodes and into the podcast.
I'm just adding a little flavor. Which I think if, when you're an entrepreneur, you're able, you give yourself the opportunity to do that. Um, but yeah, I was like, yeah, I I'm super, I love what you said, how the best part about what I'm doing is. It's ever changing because I'm always changing. So yeah.
[00:13:05]Ben: Yeah.
I used to always get really upset with myself. Like why can I stick to something? But then over time I just realized that I'm changing a lot. My interests change all the time. You know, one time really. Interested in sports cards and other time I love comic books. Another time I NFTS. That was a cool part of Kid CEO in that and everything here, you can go, listen, I haven't deleted anything.
You can go back, could see you. And it's like season one, or maybe not even been diseasing and you can see how I've changed. Even my voice. You can see how it's changed. I'd go back and listen to episode one. My voice is like this high. I think now it's a great thing that I changed so much and able to finalize what I was successful at doing, which was interviewing amazing entrepreneurs and philanthropists did it looked up to, and I started that in September. And from there every single week for. Oh, wow. At least every single week until like December, I think I released new episodes interviewing a ton of amazing people.
[00:14:07]Kriti: Amazing. So, can you tell us about what you're doing now?
Cause obviously, are you, are you still making the episodes for your podcasts or, uh, you're doing something completely.
[00:14:21]Ben: So I'm doing a few things now, I guess I'll start with a YoungTrep. YoungTrep is still going and our new sites out every week, right? There's one out yesterday with Chloe Thompson.
Uh, so that that's still running and then kids CEO, is coming back. Uh, it's still early. So I'm working on a few things in the background, but I'm going to be, you know, making a ton of huge announcements come December. Uh, and then also working on a few new things now, including a weekly talk with, uh, LaFontaine is also known as a crypto coin kid, a Bitcoin cryptocurrency enthusiast. He's like what 12. And so you got started when he was nine. Um, and so I that's, that's one thing I'm working on is we do a weekly discussion type thing about cryptocurrency and NTS, and it's all simple talk, uh, um, Exactly. So the kids can come and even do explainers every episode. So, you know what you're talking about in very, very simple forms and as a way to keep kids involved and engaged and up-to-date with the whole, the ever changing crypto world.
And then I'm also working on potentially starting a every single day, a daily news. Uh, do the news briefer for could CEO's I might call it seven. I dunno. Something like that. Uh, and every single day, just keeping kids up to date with the world and that's something cool to something that is unique because I'm homeschooled. I have the ability to do that. Luckily.
Those are just two things I'm working on come . If you queue up today with me, we're going to have a ton of huge announcements, early December, but that's a little sneak peek of what's going on
[00:16:13]Kriti: I am looking forward to all of that. But, you've done a lot of different things and your entrepreneurial career already. I want to dive deep into something that you are very, very passionate about currently, which are nonrefundable token or NFTs. I'm willing to be completely transparent with you. Yes. I've heard about Bitcoin and Ethereum? But I very very, very small idea about what is going on.
And the thing is, I want to know what's going on, but anytime NFTs or Bitcoin is like me reading like a fricking paper on like Aristotle. Like I don't even know what's going on basically. It's just very confusing. So I want you to explain to me, very simple terms obviously, but, so I'm really excited that it's coming from a fellow teenager.
So first off, what exactly is like cryptocurrency and NFTs ?
[00:17:16]Ben: So I guess to start with blockchain, is basically a set of records that detailed transactions that are going on and verify they're real. And then cryptocurrency, it's essentially the currency that you use on blockchain transactions.
Exactly because you can use a dollar bill to give to someone in an Ireland. Right? And so you use cryptocurrency, which is decentralized, meaning there's no one in charge of it and no government or no entity really there's no bank that are, that are running this. And so it's completely transparent. And so with we're NFTs comes in is a form of digital ownership. So I got this out. It's a sports card. I've been doing sports cards ever since like August or so. And I don't know if you know who that is. This is a Ken Griffey, 1989 rookie card.
[00:18:09]Kriti: So, all I know about baseball is that the Cubs won the world series in 2016. And I went to their festival.
[00:18:17]Ben: I have no idea about baseball whatsoever on the big football. But Ken Griffey, that's more of an investment play with Ken Griffey, but basically essentially where the NFT is as to where right now I own, I guess, say I own this card. I bought it myself. I haven't. And NFTs is a form of digital ownership.
Right. So it was, I guess this is ownership. I have the card physically. I own it by having it in my hand. Whereas digital ownership is where there's a digital item, whether it's a video, whether it's a selfie, whether it's a this interview and making it available to be owned online. Right? So hypothetically, I could you take a selfie of me and you, and I could go list that as the NFT, it cannot be recreated. There's only one out there it's minted it's out in the world and people can buy it if they want to.
[00:19:16]Kriti: I don't know why they would want it. That's interesting.
Yeah, no, you bring up a very good point cause I know, digital art is a really, really big deal.
Could you like talk a little bit about digital art?
[00:19:31]Ben: Yes. So digital art, I think it's a start of the whole NFT evolution. Because ART, like our selfie or a drawing that I make, that's kind of the start of it. Because art is something that hasn't really been affected by the internet too much.
And now. And now this is making it so that you don't need the auction house. You don't need a huge following to go auction off a piece of artwork. You can just do it from your house and you can use the iPad or take a picture of his art and the mint it for free. And then you can get some purchases.
I read an article about a 14 year old, who made like $40 million on an NFT, 14 million. But, basically. Digital art is the start of the energy revolution. I think though, we're going to see an even greater impact through utility. For example, the Gary V V friends and utility is how a token can be used other than just being able to see it.
So, you know, a selfie of menu, you can see it and you can hang it up on your wall. If you want to. You can, in some cases, Put on a t-shirt a solid t-shirt. But utility is where the self you mean, you grants, you access to be on the show, whenever you want grants, you access to come on here and ask your guest question
[00:20:56]Kriti: ticket, like a
[00:20:58]Ben: ticket in a way. And it can be used for so many things like this. NFT could give you a discount at McDonald's. That's where I see an even greater use of it, because there's still going to be not a huge amount of digital artists and people are eventually not going to want to buy everything.
And especially because there's such high supply, anyone can do it. I can do it. You can do it. I probably, at some point we both will do it in our lives. And so there's such high supply. Digital art only a few, you know, 98% will fail, but there will be a few that become a millionaire. But in terms of utility, utilities are based on a lot more than just how people perceive it.
A piece of art is deemed valuable based on how people deem it. But in terms of utility entities, if this is a NMT that gives you a hypothetically stock in the company, that's a one way, if it gives you a ticket to the X conference, which is this huge celebrity event and the event is terrible and own goes, then that case, the NMT plummets, it's not just like people think of it.
Its value has gone down. If the event is really good, then the value of its can you go up as well? And also utility NFTs in my view are just a lot more fun and interesting, because of, uh, it allows people like me and you to discuss. Um,
[00:22:26]Kriti: right. So, like it's like a coupon in a sense.
[00:22:31]Ben: Yeah. Those are some uses of it. I'll with, with granted access. That's what I'm most educated on. I do a lot of research into those types of tokens, but I know there are a lot of things that you can do with NFT., State farm is running, event, this tomorrow until the seventh where you can go around like Pokemon go and collect the boss and the winners of it. I get NFTs. And that's still more of ART NFT, but what if that art NFT. 20% off state farm, hypothetically. Uh, and so there's, there's so many things you can do with NFTs and they all kind of also evolve around smart contracts, which are basically contracts and code a hybrid. It's basically a set of rules or if then statements that belonged to NFT. So , if Ben goes to a McDonald's and this Vertifi is then give them this and it makes it into a code and then smart contracts, it's completely different question as well, because there's so much you can do there. But with entities that just there's endless possibility.
[00:23:34]Kriti: I see. And so how can we get into an EFT, there's like a teenager in that sense.
[00:23:42]Ben: I think there's really just like the internet. Like how can you get involved with the internet?
[00:23:47]Kriti: So there's no there isn't an like age limit, like when you want to invest, like you all, like now it's hard.
You can't invest as a teen unless you have a parent had to monitor your stuff. Right. So there's nothing like that, that prohibits teams from going into NFTs right now. Cause it, cause it's, decentral.
[00:24:07]Ben: I'm sure because a lot of the transactions happen on things like Coin base and I'm sure there are restrictions because they are online sites. But there's, but with the restrictions, you know, oftentimes just have your parent create you an account so that it's not, you know, there's always maintenance.
There are really so many ways kids can get involved. If you're a coder, you can create your own project. If you're artists, you can create your own piece of art, a coder, you can do more with like regenerative or generative art, like words like this picture, but it randomizes shirt and his hat. And so that's a coding thing. So if you're a coder and you have an idea for something like that, you can do that. If you're an artist, like my sister, just something like that. If you are a celebrity, then you could create a project to help people engage with you. And you can invest if you're, if you want to make some money off it and invest in blue chip projects that you think are going to be doing really well in five years.
So it's just like the internet. I can't pinpoint a few ways to do it. There's really so many possibilities. Just learn a lot about it at first. So you're educated because there's going to be a time when NFTs don't do so well. And a lot of people are going to get burned. So, so educate yourself first about what this whole thing's about.
What is right for you and then get involved.
[00:25:31]Kriti: Yeah. And so then, how are like, Bitcoin and Ethereum, where do they play into this?
[00:25:38]Ben: So I'll touch more on Ethereum. Ethereum is a blockchain that's generally considered the main blockchain because it's the most stable at the moment. Now, there are a lot of concerns about gas fees. If you're basically whatever you buy Ethereum or sell, Ethereum buy or sell NFTs.. Do any sort of transaction, you need to pay a gas fee. And that basically goes to the people who are verifying each inductions to basically putting each induction into the blockchain and it pays them for doing the work.
And so right now, because NFTs is so popular, those fees are getting really high because there's limited this low supply for how much transactions can be fit into each a note, I think it's called. And there's a, there's a huge demand for it. So it's like, it costs like a hundred to $200 to mint NFTs even if the entity is only worth $5, you know, it costs $15. To buy Ethereum even if that you're only buying $30 for the fifth year. Yum. And so that's what the problems are happening right now. And that's why a lot of tokens like Polygon or Solana are really going up in value and becoming a lot more useful because they don't have huge gas fees and they're quick and they're. Okay.
Bitcoin is more of a currency. Whereas Ethereum, it's more focused on the blockchain and the NFTs, part of it, because you can only buy it. NMT is with Ethereum or ETH. Whereas Bitcoin is more looking to be the new US dollar, that you can actually spend and maybe even gold in some aspects. Those are the two differences, at least in my point of view. Bitcoin is more of a currency versus Ethereum, which is more geared towards being a blockchain, being the platform that people can build energy projects. And then ETH, which is the coin of diamond. That's how you actually do things on Ethereum, blockchain.
[00:27:35]Kriti: Okay.
It's very complicated the whole system, but it's very interesting. So where do you kind of see this going in our future? I, I mean, based on what you've said and what I've heard in the news, I think it's going to be a big part of our, at least gen Z's future. Um, and the generations to come after us.
Where do you, where where's the industry going in the next few years?
[00:28:00]Ben: Oh, I mean, everything is going to be NFTs. There's really not going to be at any aspect of life that isn't effected by NFTS, is you could go away in the blockchain. You probably know about FaceBook with Meta and everything or with the metaverse. I've been preaching about metaverse for awhile. There's a friend of mine who I do a lot of like volunteering and stuff with. And I talked to him all the time, you know, months ago. But why everything's going to be a metaverse and then he always talks about why that's like, it's crazy.
And then two weeks ago, we're in the car with him and I said, Hey, his name is Josh. Hey, Josh, remember when I was telling you about the metatarsal here it is. Alright. I love it because even like Facebook, I never was really into Instagram. Uh, but even Instagram and Twitter, I think Twitter is, I like Twitter because of the quick pace, but, but they are all kind of becoming a little bit boring.
Now people are getting a little tired and the metaverse is the future. Uh, and, and with the metaverse, which I have a positive opinion of to answer the question. Everything is just going to be added on top Facebook or likely introduce their own currency or we'll go from Bitcoin or Ethereum. Right. But I think metaverse good, a good, a big indication that kind of caught everyone by surprise. A big announcement. That's kind of moving the entire, uh, the entire movement forward a huge step rather than the baby steps we've been taking. And to go back to the original question with how it's going to change the world. I think a lot of industries are going to be gone that the record industry is no longer needed.
You know, when Billy island. Yeah. I mean, this produces her entire album on the garage band on a Mac book. Why would she she forfeit all her royalties to a company I've done not doing anything for her, other than give her a from cash. Instead, what she could do is use social media and become big through Instagram, which I think she did.
And then. And then go to this NFT project, where you can raise $10,000, which is more than enough to get started. And it benefits everyone, the people who bought into your, you know, imagine if you could buy Billie Eilish, his original album, and there's only 100 out there and you're one of, 100 owners who own her op. That's going to be worth money, even if he bought it for a hundred.
Well, if you bought a $100 dollars, she has $10,000 in the bank right off the bat too. She has huge awareness in addition to what she has on social media. Three, when you go and you want to go to college and you need the money, you can sell that for $20,000. When you get a mentor too, she gets a world. Oh, the $20,000, she gets $2,000, which is just coming randomly.
She didn't do anything. And it takes the record label, all in profits away. And it just takes that person out. And then that's just one example with the finance. People are already loaning each other money through smart contracts and through Eve, uh, and I could go on and on all day. In Disney, state farm, they're all doing their own NFTs.
State farm. I loved their concept. But the energies are gonna change everything in my sisters, personal story. They, I always, talk little mentions, uh, during the dinner table or whatever, and they're always a little bit in disbelief of it. Um, I think there's going to be at least in the next two months, maybe even one month, there's going to be a big figure.
Whether it's Olivia Rodrigo or, or Charli D'Amelio a big figure in gen Z and it's gonna, it's gonna launch something like NMT project. And then everyone, every team in the world will
[00:31:43]Kriti: start talking and doing NFTs
[00:31:47]Ben: since every team is going to have their wallets set up in a night. Like
I told my sisters that right now I'm like super enthusiastic about this and they don't, they don't care a bit. But once
[00:32:00]Kriti: Charli's done Lao. Yeah. They're going to start sharing.
[00:32:04]Ben: They're going to be talking to me about it more than me. And so I think that's also a little bit harmful because when all the teens get involved, I think they're going to get involved overnight without
[00:32:19]Kriti: doing right, without doing the research.
It's kind of like what happened with Robin hood a little bit,
[00:32:26]Ben: just being. Like I've done hours of research. I've watched every single possible thing about this. I spend an hour a day. I spend two hours a week, one hour talking to someone about this, another hour researching for I call hours every week, watching every YouTube video, every guide, every news article about it.
I post about it. Like I've done the research. I know what I'm getting into I'd routine. Who's coming in here. I guess Charli' D'Amelio, this is a brand new project hasn't done that. They're going to watch five minutes. I would tell you to Charli D'Amelio saying, set up your Meta Verse account, go here, and they're going to do that.
And then everyone else, every other celebrity is going to do the same thing. So all of a sudden, everyone is given the celebrities all your money on a bunch of projects that
[00:33:11]Kriti: have.
And the projects
[00:33:17]Ben: and they might be really good. The projects might be really good. I hope they are. Do good. Do good, because I think there are some great examples and blueprints for how to do good projects like of Charli D'Amelio did utility token totally. If Charli D'Amelio goes out and take a selfie and then released to a hundred thousand people and she sells out in minutes, have a selfie of her with no value whatsoever. People are going to get burned. If, and if other people are going to copy her and say, if Charli D'Amelio did it , I'm going to do the same thing. Here's a selfie of me with my dog,
because it doesn't mean anything. People are buying it for the hype, and then everyone's going to do this. Everyone's going to keep buying until they realized, now all of a sudden there's literally no value because no one wants to buy this selfie of Charlie D'Amelio. Right now for anything. And so they're going to lose money, but at the end of the day, there's still going to be a few projects. I hope my projects are going to be the top. Right. And, and there's going to be a few projects, but just like the internet boom, where there was what like a 150,000 public companies in 2000, and there's only 400. And at the end of 2003. There's going to be a huge amount of NFT projects, but only if you will actually do good well.
[00:34:32]Kriti: So, that's amazing. There's a lot to unpack as well. So I think one of the biggest things I took away from what you've said is this is going to be the future, but in order to do it properly, we obviously have to educate ourselves. But before we like get sucked into the hype of it all. So we just have to educate ourselves because it is going to be important for a futures. And as teenagers, we should start experimenting at least learning what it is right now, so that when we're older, It clicks for us.
Um, but yeah. Do you have anything else to add on an NFTs? I think that was very interesting analogies you gave with like the whole Billie Eilish record label and obviously the baseball card, which definitely helped me understand what it was going on better.
[00:35:21]Ben: Yeah. That's mainly yet. I've said this now twice. The weekly Kid CEO podcasts. So that's something you might want to check out, everyone listening. Be ready because NFTs are going to take over the world, meta versus going to take over the world. But in the meantime, there's going to be a lot of turbulence and a lot of people people are going to get burned by buying Charli D'Amelio selfies.
[00:35:42]Kriti: When you say get burned, you mean financially it won't be good for them or they make a big mistake.
[00:35:48]Ben: Yeah. I mean, I don't know if people are going to put their life savings, into Charli D'Amelio selfies, um especially teens, but they are going to get burdened with it. They're going to be so excited about this and they get really disappointed because they haven't done. What's the entire thing is, and people who are trying to flip NFTs and there's room for people to flip NFTs.
Like you could buy each other to me that you NFTs, if it's super limited and then flip to the next day for, and make some money there. Which is a possibility, I don't know that how much I agree with the morals behind it, but there's possibility to make money and guess. But for the vast majority of people who are buying NFT, because they'd love Charli D'Amelio there, they're going to get really disappointed. And this is excluding the project to do really well. And it performed really well and that they actually have utility to them. There's like Charli D'Amelio them tradition, selfies there grant you access to go to her house and spend a day with her. There's other ones that you go out to dinner with her, you know, that might be a cool, cool.
I don't think they're going to get burned because the value it's an experience. But if she's just posting a selfie of her and expects a hundred thousand people to buy it, which is a possibility, and she'll make a ton of money, but everyone who bought it is going to get really disappointed when they bought it into all this hype without realizing what it actually is super disappointed when they realized that none of it is worth any of it.
[00:37:14]Kriti: So, and in order to prevent that from happening, cause you want people to be interested in NFTs, don't want them to be like, bummed about this one experience. So we should educate ourselves before.
So I guess like going back and kind of wrapping up things up a little bit. Obviously you are an entrepreneur; you're doing a lot of different things. Can you tell us, like, how has your team been able to really help you navigate this? Especially as a young person who is, juggling so many different things.
[00:37:45]Ben: My family has been a huge help. A lot of times I'll be up at 9:30 working with my mom. She is also an entrepreneur. So I'll be dancing ideas off of her, for every night, every morning or during the day. And my family has been super supportive of what I do. Uh, and then I'm super fortunate for that because they know that even in the internet stage and now I think it's gotten better, but there's, there's a lot of reluctance because what I'm talking about, you know, isn't established there, isn't a huge consensus that NFTs are good or bad, and it's literal, unknown. And I've intuition, my gut feeling. I love NPS and that, and emotionally, they're going to be a huge things I'm going to follow through on it. I'm just super fortunate to have parents who first listen, and then to actually understand what I'm saying and then objectively, support me in that.
And then in terms of team members. I don't have too many team members now. I really only work with other teens who have cool talents, especially in editing. Cause I am not a really good editor. More of the technical stuff. Definitely. I talk in the podcast, but it's not the easiest for me to edit it. And also at the best use of my time. Or things like website development, everything like that, but it's all, it's all been great. I'm just really fortunate to grow up and be doing what i am doing in such a supportive environment.
[00:39:05]Kriti: so where do you see yourself in five years and where, how are you going to like, take everything that you've built up as a teenager, um, with you as you move forward?
[00:39:14]Ben: I mean five years, that's a while. So I graduate, uh, conventionally. I should graduate in 2024. So we're talking 2025. Um, I don't know exactly if I'm going to go to college or not. I know for sure. I'll always be entrepreneurial. I know I will have a business, some sort I'll be working on something and I would say 90%, the it's NFT related and or crypto or metaverse related. And then five years I will be in the business world, somehow. I'll still be the curious person that I am. I'll still be sharing, giving information and inspiration to anyone out there.
[00:39:58]Kriti: Speaking of sharing and giving information what advice do you have for teenagers and tweens who are aspiring entrepreneurs?
[00:40:08]Ben: In terms of business advice? I would say, take opportunities or make opportunities. Uh, there are always so many.
Avenues in front of you to, to be that they can all be huge for you, but it's really important to be one open to it. So you're not constantly missing opportunities. And then, two being able to actually grasp them properly with the plan and, and successfully execute on those opportunities. And then if you don't have too many opportunities, make your own.
Everyone has the ability now to create an Instagram account or a blog, podcast. Yeah. Instagram is the easiest thing. You literally just get your phone and record a video, right? So, one take opportunities that come in front of you. If you're at school and a guy shows up saying, Hey, uh, we want to look for some teens who are really interested in intern interning or a new mattress company.
That might be a good opportunity to message it and then execute it. If it seems good. Make your opportunities. If there's no guy coming to your school, offering you an internship, then go create a social media account, talking about frogs and why frogs need to be. And I know a guy, I know a guy was like a nine year old loves Fox, right?
She lives in Carlsbad and he has, and he wants to make sure that they don't go extinct. He bought 40 acres, the 400 acres that he was raised money to buy 400 acres of land to help frogs. So, so like take opportunities and then make opportunities. And then in terms of life advice, just to be happy, right. Don't start a company and don't start a podcast. If that doesn't make you happy. Right. You know, don't force yourself to go try and be an Instagram influencer. If you don't really like being on a camera and go create a podcast. I don't force yourself to speak on a podcast for hours every week. If you don't like talking right. Write a blog
is perfect for you. Do what makes you. Oh, well, this isn't about the money. I stopped caring about money while ago and happiness is what I'm learning for every day. Running a business makes me happy. And so I encourage all of you to follow that same mindset and philosophy.
[00:42:31]Kriti: Well, this was amazing. Thank you so much, Ben, for coming on the podcast, I'll have your links to your website and everything in the episode description.
But yeah, I love talking to you. And I look forward to seeing where you go in the future. And I'm definitely very, very much going to research more into NFTs right now.
Um, and I think you made it, you talked about it in a way that was very relatable. So it definitely, it's definitely making me want to go into this. So thank you so much.
[00:43:07]Ben: Of course, and I encourage everyone else who's listening, if you feel a bit of excitement, you know, like I do, I, do some research to they're just searchingwhat are NFTs. So just do the research, and do it all be happy.
[00:43:20]Kriti: So that's the end of the interview and it was definitely fun getting to know Ben a little bit more and his passion really shine through. And even to the point where I am definitely going to look into having guests talk about digital art, boom, and also a little more into NFTs and also like the cryptocurrency side of this as well. I think, especially it's going to be the future and I want to get in into it right now. To learn more about what he does and to even listen to his podcast. I have the links in the episode description, as well as his website and Instagram and everything else in that. Also make sure to email us or even leave us a comment on Instagram. That's probably the best way to reach us telling us what topics you'd like to learn about on WhyFI matters. Thanks for listening. And I can't wait to talk to you next time.
Link to Benjamin Wong: https://benjaminwong.co/
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