Ep 134: 1) THE NET GALA debrief 2) Feelings check-in on growth (again)

[00:01] Welcome to the Feelings Check-In, a feelings first look at the news of the week. Takes no one asked for on topics everyone's talking about. I'm Natasha Hoskins. I'm Dina Burke. And this is Boys Club. Wait, is it just Boys Club? It's just Boys Club. The Boys Club podcast? No. [00:19] Just boys club. [00:20] How's it going? Good. How are you? I am good. I am recovered ing, recovered ing from the net gala. The net gala, the first annual net gala was Friday night. Today's Monday. Oh, before we get into it. Okay. This is a podcast called Boys Club. [00:40] myself, Natasha, and Dina... [00:43] Who's also here. [00:46] Hang out. [00:47] and talk about... [00:49] our lives and our work and our feelings. And sometimes we talk about the news and sometimes we talk about crypto. And today we're doing a feelings check in. [00:57] pod. So this is all feelings all the time. Yeah. If you're looking for some like hard hitting news insights, check in later in the week. [01:05] Check in later in the week or check out some other episodes on this feed that are... [01:10] More that speed. This is going to be just feelings... [01:14] Now you're warned. [01:16] Now it's your fault if you don't like it. Because we told you. [01:20] Okay, let's get into it.

[01:50] So what we're going to talk about today is two things. [02:20] and a mic that I hold in a... [02:23] What's it called? A booth? A phone booth. Yeah, you look like you have some foam padding behind you. Exactly. And it's really funny because people see me and they're like, wow, content creator. [02:34] And it's truly a little embarrassing. Okay, we're going to talk about two things today related to our business and our lives. The first half, we're going to talk about a big event that we just did called the Net Gala. Why we did it. [02:46] How we feel... [02:47] post-mortem on the event and the second thing we're going to talk about is our content properties and [02:54] things that we're thinking about in relation to the growth of the business and... [02:58] How they all relate together. The two tie together. So it's not really two different things. It's really one and the same. [03:04] We have had this concept for [03:06] the net gala for I would say a year and year plus we tried to do it last year we couldn't do it we couldn't pull it off and so it was a year in the making and it was on Friday night the concept came from

[03:22] There is a very famous event that happens the... [03:26] first Monday in May. [03:27] that another extremely famous media organization puts on. I am not going to name what it is, because up until this point, we've been successful at not saying the name of this other thing. And it's a charitable endeavor and... A huge fashion moment. Huge fashion moment. It's for hot couture. There's a theme and all the celebrities come out and they stand on very famous steps in New York City in their outfits that are [03:52] one-off designs made for each individual [03:56] Celebrity! [03:57] Huge fashion. Huge fashion moment. And also a huge moment on the internet too where everyone talks about the outfits and they're all like [04:03] In terms of the calendar of the year and the fashion that these celebrities wear, like this is definitely when you go out on a limb. And so it's really fun looks, really out there stuff. One other thing I want to add to the other event that inspired our event. Yes. Is that it's very polished. [04:19] It's Upper East Side. It's very... [04:23] tight. It's not [04:24] subversive or fun or relaxed. It is intense. In any way. In any way. [04:29] So Boy Scope was thinking about doing something around fashion. New York is our home base. Like, how do we what's the what's the play? [04:37] Monty Preston shout out to her came up with the name for the net gala. And this was about a year and a half ago. I think I actually I remember where we were in Austin South by Southwest 2023. We came up with the idea. And [04:51] Our version of the Net Gala is really a celebration of internet culture, true to the Boys Club brand and form, and wanted to make it about fashion and the internet, but also bring in art and music. And I think our take being the Bushwick version.

[05:09] the subversive version, but still having a couple of key elements that called back to the original version. So we had some iconic steps, we have a charitable component that we're gonna talk about in a few, and also had a theme. So our theme for the night. [05:22] was surveillance and I gotta say, [05:25] Everyone... [05:26] Delivered. Delivered. So the intention for us, like, why are it's boys doing it? What's the point of it? Like, why are we spending time and energy and resources doing this type of event? And for us, we talk about this all the time. We see ourselves as. [05:40] bridge builders there's all this crazy cool stuff happening on like the edges of the internet and [05:46] all of the things that we care about fashion, music, art, creative people, content creators, like all of them, [05:54] are maybe not being exposed to it in a way that feels like a home for them. And so how do we [06:00] be the connective tissue between those two worlds sort of. And, [06:05] That means that we need to be bringing new faces into the boys club like ecosystem and world and content as much as possible. And these events are big inflection points for us to be able to do that and for us to make a lot of noise and to get the attention of those types of people who would never care about crypto, honestly, or care about maybe even emerging technology generally. [06:35] areas of influence and communities and people in order to get them there and for them to be like, oh, shit, what's Boys Club? And like, what is this thing? And who are these interesting people? And whatever. They come and they're like, oh, maybe crypto or maybe like tech isn't as cringe as I thought it was. Exactly. Exactly. That's really our ultimate goal is for people to have that feeling. Yeah.

[06:55] Yeah, it's not all birds and... SPF. Totally. And now Boys Club is in this interesting position where because we've been around for two and a half years and like we have a really solid community on... [07:06] the crypto side of things, we know we can fill a room. It's more like, okay, if the intention of this event is to reach out and bring people that have never been exposed to Boys Club before into the room, that's work that you have to do. That doesn't happen accidentally. That doesn't happen. You don't fall ass backwards into that. And at the same time, [07:23] Farcon was the same weekend. [07:26] which means a lot of our community was there. A lot of our core community, people who are super engaged, who are working crypto all the time, were in LA. And... [07:36] that put us in a position [07:38] I think in a really positive way to like have to do the work of what the actual intention for this event was and go out and have a strategy around how we get fun, [07:48] different faces in the room. So for me personally, I feel like we really succeeded in that. And there were a ton of people in the room that I didn't know. I met a bunch of new people and also people that didn't work in tech, that don't work in crypto, that were creatives, that were excited about this event, that thought the... [08:05] art installations were cool or came because they love Odalis or because they wanted to have a fun night out in Bushwick and they thought the concept was interesting. So I feel like for me, when people are like, what was your highlight? That is definitely the highlight for me that like [08:18] The thing that we intended for it to do for the business, I think was a success. But I'm curious what you think. Yeah, I'd say I'd say half the room I didn't know.

[08:26] Which is great. [08:27] Which was ideal. [08:28] So I'd say just to wrap up the net gala of it all, we had incredible art installations by Heno and Nostalgic. The event was, of course, in partnership with Luxo. There was a kid super activation that was powered by Luxo, which was awesome. We had a confessional booth, which I cannot wait to see the results from. And we had Aura photography, and it was in support of the Lower East Side Girls Club. [08:58] days, which will also 100% of those proceeds will go towards the Lower East Side Girls Club. Lower East Side Girls Club is an incredible organization in New York that is catered towards young women and people of color, gives them free programming throughout the year, like everything from a rooftop gardening to media classes to all sorts of leadership training, leadership training, all sorts of really incredible things. And the dollars have really immediate [09:25] impact because it's like a local charity and a local organization and everything goes towards the impact that they're doing on the ground and and just feels really values and mission aligned with us so happy to support them this is actually the second time that we're supporting the lower sight girls club and we will do it again yeah amazing so [09:41] That's the Net Gala of it all. [09:44] One last thing I want to say. Men. [09:46] People looked different. [09:48] amazing. Yes, go to our Instagram page and look at some of the fits. [09:52] incredible oh i was so happy incredible looks and what i loved about it is even though it's a bunch of new people there was still the boys club spirit where you were walking around and everybody was just stopping each other being like i love your fit where's that oh my gosh i love your eyeliner oh your hair is like everybody was so warm and complimentary to each other and it was just like game recognizing game like people were like okay you showed up i showed up like we're in our fits

[10:22] - I understood the assignment. - Dina's husband came, Dave, and Dave is an introvert. [10:26] And this poor man. [10:28] This poor man worked so hard that night. He's worked harder than anybody you've ever seen. [10:34] meeting all these people who were like oh my gosh so nice to meet you and he was like so nice to meet you i was like man we got we we did our um [10:43] a ritual, which is a post-event ritual. [10:46] Late night meal. [10:47] Where we debrief on the night. Uh-huh. And he was just shell-shocked. He was fully nonverbal at that point. He was nonverbal. [10:54] Ha ha. [10:55] Oh, so good job, Dave, if you're listening. I don't know the next time he's going to come to one, but he... [11:02] He did good. He did good for that. [11:32] and trade crypto anywhere near instantly. See what crypto can be at kraken.com backslash boys club. Non-investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss. Transfers to a third party are not available on Kraken. Cryptocurrency services are provided to U.S. and U.S. territory customers by Payward Ventures, Inc., PBI, DBA, Kraken. View PBI's disclosures at kraken.com backslash legal backslash disclosures.

[11:58] Okay, so I think one thing that the Net Gala has... [12:03] brought up for us as a business is and you have heard us talk about this before it's this idea of reaching new people [12:12] And... [12:13] The Net Gala was like the IRL, like the event version of something that we're trying to do with our media properties, with our podcast and with our newsletter, which is like, how do we... [12:23] continue to nurture and love our existing community, [12:27] And also find new people to bring into the fold. Because without... [12:32] that [12:33] Without bringing new people in. [12:34] like as a media company, [12:36] Doesn't really work. That's our job. That's the business that we're in now. Yeah. Like that's it for us to do our job well for our partners and for ourselves. [12:46] That's what we have to be doing. - And also for the mission of what I think what we want to do, which is like, how do we make emerging technology [12:52] I don't want to say how do we make it cool because that's a tall order, but how do we make it approachable? How do we [12:59] showcase the finest work, the most exciting work? How do we make it seem like a place that creative people can show up and do good work and create a future? [13:10] of the internet that I think is more exciting and more creative and more fun, which is what we ultimately want to do. And I think like in order to do that, we need to [13:18] be reaching new people. So that's top of mind pretty much every day for us. And I think the net gala was a event event. [13:27] specific

[13:28] iteration of that. But we're thinking about that a lot with our podcast properties and to a lesser extent with our newsletters. But yeah, it's like we have this podcast in particular, which is as niche as it could be, I think. [13:42] Pretty niche. Pretty, pretty niche. And one thing I just want to level set on or like give the listener some context for is that we think about the business in properties, in media properties. Events are one channel of properties. The newsletter is additional channel properties. Podcasts are another property and social social channels are, I guess, another one. And so [14:06] We've talked about [14:08] doing the work of [14:09] bringing people in on the event front. And I think we've been thinking a lot about how we do that specifically for the podcast properties. So I just wanted to give that. [14:20] context [14:21] Yeah, and I think... [14:23] We've got a niche podcast here and I think lately we've been wondering [14:29] Is it too niche? [14:30] We've been wondering. [14:33] I think this podcast is really down funnel. It's the bottom of the funnel in terms of like engagement in Boys Club. Further up the funnel is our other podcast too online. [14:44] which is internet culture, [14:46] more generally and then blake has her podcast with sotheby's which is about digital art and i would say the [14:52] approach that we've had thus far to all of these [14:54] the podcast properties is let's go really niche. [14:58] And let's build a community around that.

[15:00] And [15:01] And expand outwards from there. Like build a niche, establish a niche, and then expand outwards. [15:05] Exactly. Yeah. And so this podcast is super niche to online is a little less, but still very much like you need to be super into internet culture or at least want to learn about internet culture or understand TikTok. Like, I think there's two types of people who listen to that people who listen to it because they're not. [15:21] they are so deep in it and they are on the same internet as us and they [15:26] want like to laugh about it with people who get it and then there's other people like my sister who literally [15:31] Does not. [15:32] She's learning. It's anthropological. And she wants to be informed. She wants to be in on the joke. But she, like, needs a helping hand to do it. And she's my sister. So she loves me. She's listening. But that's been our strategy. That's been our approach. And I think one of the things that we're thinking a lot about is... [15:50] Is it time? [15:51] in the stage of this business, which is we're sort of in this toddler stage, to have a show that is mass- [15:59] market. That is not niche. That is not... [16:03] Just... [16:04] talking about very specific things on the internet or very specific things in tech or very specific things in digital art, but something that anyone, anywhere are sex in the city. [16:14] not like actually that format show, but like, [16:16] Anybody can watch that. [16:19] or are... [16:20] office like what is something that like anybody anywhere anytime probably any woman [16:26] would listen to. And I think that that's a question we're asking ourselves.

[16:30] And is that... [16:32] a deviation, [16:33] of [16:34] the core strategy of this business? Or have we hit this point where it makes sense to [16:39] Do that. [16:40] Or is it like what we have to do? [16:41] Right. So we're thinking a lot about that. And the other thing that we're thinking about is just format for this show and listeners. [16:47] We have a little survey if you want to fill it out and tell us what you think. Podcasts are a black box. They grow steadily. I mean, I guess ours grows steadily, but like you're not getting a lot of feedback. And so it's helpful for people who tuned in and listen to let us know what they like, what they don't like, or what they want more of. I think a big existential question for us in this podcast is like an open question that I have. And I'm very curious everyone's thoughts. So the format that we do most shows is we have a news piece. [17:17] wider tech news. [17:19] Sometimes with an expert, sometimes just with ourselves. And then we pair it with a feelings check-in, which is us just talking about our feelings. And so a big open question that I have is like, is it because we're putting these two things together? Is it neither fish nor fowl? Where it's not tech news? [17:33] enough to be tech news where like you finish an episode and you feel comfortable sharing it with [17:38] people who also would enjoy tech news or, and with the feelings check in, like if that's the part you like about this podcast is the tech news getting in the way. And then you're like, you don't feel like you can share it because you're like, Oh, well they spend the first half talking about some cryptos thing that my friends won't care about. So I guess it's like, what would cause you to share this podcast more? I think is the, [17:57] is the question. Those are the feelings. The feelings are really proud of NetGala and feel like it was a success in terms of reaching people.

[18:04] on the [18:06] new fresh faces on the event property. And, [18:09] side of the business. [18:10] and wondering how we do that for the podcast side of the business in a more like week-to-week way [18:16] So, [18:17] Thanks for listening. Thank you. Link in show notes if you... [18:20] Want to give us some feedback? We'd really appreciate it. [18:23] Okay, bye. Bye.