Ohnahji U Syllabus for November 26, 2022 (NFTs for the Holidays)

🎼 “Make the money, don’t let the money make you / Change the game, don’t let the game change you / I’ll forever remain faithful / Stay true, stay true”🎶

Welcome welcome welcome! I had to hit you with the church mother greeting because you’re at home here at Ohnahji U! I see that you’ve made your way to the Study Hall to get yourself caught up on our educational Twitter space. Though we often get deep into the weeds about the art on campus, we don’t often delve into it in the spaces. That’s where our ONJU Student Body rep Zion enters the scene! A virtuosic art major, they’re here to guide us on the ins and outs of the art conversation from this past space. Let’s jump on in — we covered a lot!

This space took place live on 11/26/22 at noon PST and was hosted by Ohnahji University Founder Ohnahji B and co-hosted by Dean of Communications moi 😁. I hope all of you are getting a good start to your holiday season, don’t forget that Ohnahji makes great holiday gifts to onboard your friends and family with.

OHNAHJI IN THE SPOTLIGHT

The conversation opened with Speaker Crypto Zay who joined the Ohnahji space for the first time, sharing that he was taking the opportunity to find out more about projects that are close to him. Being that we are in the midst of this bear market, now is the time to learn and explore larger parts of the space.

Dean of HR Rica shared that she’s been in spaces where the collection has come up in conversation and she’s heard nothing but big love! Since many people are now all about slow-minting projects for the ability they provide, she’s never heard anything bad about Ohnahji when taking a back seat and listening to others' observations. Papa Yamzz co-signed that same observation and shared the love with anyone who may be struggling during the holiday season and needs a safe space to connect with others. Ohnahji B then underscored the importance of having spaces like the Ohnahji campus where anyone can find respite from the rigors of Web3, they are much needed.

Crypto Zay believes that many don’t know how to manage emotions and deal with the space's stress and has yet to see a large emphasis on mental health and development. To him, finding professionals who work in personal development and others the opportunity to take advantage of those offerings is just as important as learning about “the ones and zeros.” Ohnahji U partnering with mental health and personal development pros for seminars was a recommendation.

A moment was taken to spotlight Ohnahji Deans Kang and Rica’s space that emphasizes mental health in Web3 in relation to artists. At publishing, the space has already run, but you can catch the replay here.

ART TALK

Turning the conversation to the title of the space, Speaker EyeSeeThru mentioned that the holidays are the highest-grossing time of the year for art sales. People are looking for art and now is the time for many artists to capitalize. Sales don’t end on Black Friday, so EST says to jump on it! Society6, Redbubble, and many other sites help artists to sell their work quickly and easily. If you need any help with setup, EST generously offered his help — come find him on the Ohnahji campus in the #pixel-poets social club!

Zay asked the question “Why don’t NFT artists sell physical art?” Rica responded that she has incorporated selling fine art pieces but many folks from the Web3 space are apprehensive about sharing personal information. She finds that artists are beginning to add physical options to their NFT projects and are consistently trying to find ways to get the physical pieces to them. Doxxing, safety and the security of their info are crucial to many customers who buy her pieces.

Zay doesn’t understand why users of blockchain tech are so secretive here when they often aren’t in real life. He suggests artists make a separate website to sell physical art outside of NFTs and market to where people are at in the medium they are most comfortable in using.

Grabbing the mic, Jade Katz highlighted the concerns many people have about providing their personal information. In her opinion, the tech space is not secure as it’s not mature enough to have good security protocols in place. In that same thinking, we should all be aware of who we share our financial and identifying info with; we should question everything. Instead of only focusing on the NFT bubble for customers and collectors, consider adding branded material like sticker packs and other goodies and perhaps add the NFT into that. Maybe a token-gated website (Shopify & Wix were two she recommended) where shoppers could redeem a matching NFT with the purchase of the physical art. Doing so could develop an avenue for onboarding physical art collectors into the digital space.

EyeSeeThru understands the forces that push users toward being anonymous. In highlighting the difference between a customer and a collector, you don’t have to woo a collector like you would a customer, so understand where your energy is best served. Artists don’t have to separate web2 from web3. Offer an NFT with the physical art and flip the way you think about getting them the physical art with the NFT instead of the other way around.

For Zay, before blockchain tech, art was already a viable market so the avenues to selling were already established, so NFTs and the technology should be incorporated into that. We could onboard more people if they understood the process behind it, not the money to gain as a result. Consider setting up a marketplace between the customers that buy your art, collect the fees from the transactions and develop an ecosystem of your own doing. The lack of business knowledge and how to scale it is lost on many people since the majority of the space is built using one function of the technology.

It’s the understanding of Ohnahji B that artists have tried that avenue to questionable results, citing that as the reason why third-party websites exist to help artists get their creations out quickly. EST gives a counterpoint that we often underestimate how many people are interested in going that far with what they create. Like him, many artists use those opportunities as they often understand how to play the game. The communities that were built around crypto emphasized making money, which drew artists to the space. There is a lot of value to be gained by learning the business side, EyeSeeThru states, “A lot of people are new to this…they’re not business artisans, they are people who are creative.”

I popped in quickly to express that though there are avenues for selling in Web2, the opportunity to come into Web3 can be a greater benefit in making sure the information can be accessed by those who are looking for it. The reason the space is so focused on getting rich quick is that there are no other examples of other ways to achieve financial success for longer. From my perspective, it’s imperative to make sure we have the information, as we say so much but don’t give access to it so that others can learn.

EyeSeeThru gave us an overview of the conversation as a whole. NFT artists don’t need to limit themselves to only NFT, your art is your art and there’s value in both.

“A lot of times we talk about things in this space in a way that is not necessarily realistic. Everybody can't make a market place, everybody can't be a coder, everybody can’t be a project leader, some people are just customers. So while we can talk about the opportunity to do that, I think we should be careful to not make it sound like if you're not doing that you're slacking or something, and I think we should also kind of direct what were saying to people in that mindset. Everybody can't do those things, some people aren’t equipped, some people don’t want to.”

Rica has been advocating that artists diversify where they sell and market themselves for a long time. Before NFTs, many folks were not selling their art, so they only know the avenues where others are also successful.

Rica’s 💎: Use other social media! Depending on what part of the world you are in, social media provides accessibility many artists may not have locally, stretch your talents to other places!

Changing the subject to mass adoption, Crypto Zay doesn't think that the space is moving toward mass adoption. It’s clear to him that the current market is hibernating and people have their heads down building. It underscores the importance of education — what this space is and how it works so that people can use it to make money. The blockchain is the basis of the technology and most folks aren’t aware of how it works and get rekt in the process. His advice? Make your own plan. Figure out the space and don’t follow behind others on word-of-mouth speculation. You’ll thank yourself when the bull market comes.

Lanze.theRevolutionary grabbed the mic to cosign Zay’s sentiments and to remind us of the difference between web2 and web3 which is also its greatest benefit, ownership. He is currently developing a project that will allow users to buy and sell Handshake name domains on-chain. Keep an eye out for his project in the future!

EST ON ONBOARDING ARTISTS

Toward the end of the space, in a final conversation about bringing artists into Web3, Speaker EyeSeeThru shared some amazing tips on onboarding artists. I hope to have him on an upcoming Commons space to expound on these, but the information he shared was much too good to pass up!

• Let people know the good and the bad and the ugly: The space expects artists who sell their work to market in certain ways. New artists can choose to follow that or not, but the expectation will remain.
• Know Marketing expectations: In speaking of the expectations above, marketing via Twitter looks like: tweeting, retweeting, commenting on accounts, socializing, being present, and speaking in spaces.
• Be aware of all avenues in the space: All art doesn't have to be sold as 1/1s, editions are great also. Pay attention to tezos and how units move. Sometimes editions at a lower price can move faster than 1/1s at higher prices
• Put on your business mind: Are you trying to make money? Are you trying to share art for sharing sake? Uplift others? Keeping this in mind can help make the path clear for an artist’s next step.

Multimedia pieces from EyeSeeThru

SHOUTOUTS

Much of the home team is building and making great headway in the space, including:

• Wakanomy and its service-based marketplace. Their genesis NFT is still minting with a name-your-price model, which gives the holder one year of the Wakanomy marketplace services for free!
• Ohnahji fam Technoking is working on a DAO structure that utilizes smart contracts
• Jade Katz and Brittany Pierre will drop their project Myles and Luna on 11/28, following a trumpet-playing Corgi and an artistic Aussie on their adventures through the Imagineverse.
• Our family over at Tha Audit will soon run their space breaking down the info behind HNS (Handshake Name Service, which we spoke about earlier. In the past, they’ve audited Unstoppable domains, as well as marketplaces like OpenSea and Objkt, and many other stand-alone projects
• Terrell Jones had a fantastic drop on Manifold.xyz. His open edition drop of 1139 mints sold out in one day, moving a total of 170 ETH in volume. Success like his proves there still is so much opportunity present in the NFT space.
• Our Healing Hub is calling for artists to come to participate in their artist spotlight space to auction their work. They hope to pay artists to come and participate as well, so please tap in if you are interested.
• Our homegrown Ohnahji fam continues to raise the bar with their artistic endeavors including Trippy Eyes from Dean JT, Dean Rica and her hyperrealist art, and RA EyeSeeThru and his multimedia pieces.

Ohnahji tokens are still minting as well! Though the mint 3 get 1 free sale has ended, we are currently minted up to 4468 tokens, and are still minting new tokens at 0.01 eth!

Ohnahji B’s 💎: Visit revoke.cash and disconnect your wallets!

That’s it for this week! Our Ohnahji spaces usually run right at an hour, but I often feel like there’s so much more packed in our short spaces than other ones that go on and on and on…maybe I’m biased though! 😆 Nonetheless, Ohnahji University is here for you! Our Twitter, website, and campus, are always friendly and welcoming! Tap into any of those avenues and you’ll find a community of people always willing to help you start your Web3 journey or answer any question you have along the way.

I’ll see you in the next one!