Imperfect Action
First Guest of Web3 Builder - Sasha
Hello there, fellow thinkers.
The Web3 Builder newsletter's inaugural interview is presented here.
I want to introduce the first guest. This is Sasha. The founder of the UnFungie community, Sasha, is one of the most inspiring people you can meet on Web3. He is creative, always ready to help, full of ideas, and attracts the best talent around him. He represents commitment and hard work at Web3 in the most determined way possible.
The goal of the UnFungie community is to create a launchpad for the best Web3 talent in the world. This community is a place where I've met an awful lot of valuable people. A community where everyone wants to help each other. People who want to give you knowledge and advice. A community where everyone contributes to each other.
I hope you find this interview very useful, as the idea of the newsletter is to put the advice my guests give into action. Let each of their recommendations be checked, tested, and put into practice to produce results.
Disclaimer: NFA: DYOR. This interview is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. It is important to thoroughly research and consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions. Always conduct your own research and due diligence to make informed decisions.
Without further ado, Sasha.👇
1/ Gm, Sasha! Could you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and how you entered the Web3 industry? What was your first experience with Web3?
GM GM.
Not sure where to start so let’s start with the beginning. I was born to Iranian parents in Europe back in the early 80s. We moved to California, USA when I was a kid and spent more than half of my life there. Been living back in Europe (Belgium) since 2016 now.
I started off my career doing translation for Hollywood/Media and that’s how I rolled into some basic level copywriting and eventually marketing. Built up a career in marketing and growth hacking, until in 2020 I decided to bet on myself and went full-time into content creation.
Well, if we want to consider crypto as a subset of Web3 (is it or is it the other way around?) then I first experienced decentralized technologies back in 2017 when I first started buying ETH and BTC. Bought ETH at $250 and BTC at $6K. But all that was fairly ‘passive’.
In 2019, multiple decades of self-victimization, underachieving, and a lack of self-awareness caught up to me and I eventually hit rock bottom. I simply had to re-invent myself and so I went into the rabbit hole of philosophy and self-help. It completely changed my life.
This led to me giving up on my comfortable job in 2020 because I wanted MORE.
I wanted to achieve more, wanted more impact, and I wanted to own more of my time. So I jumped online and started creating content with the idea of sharing my journey with others and documenting all my learnings, my mindset shifts, and all my mistakes.
I created my first newsletter, lead magnets, and attracted my first 1000 followers, and landed coaching clients simply talking about things I was going through…and of course, helping as many people as I could in the DMs and comments.
As I learned more about Twitter and personal branding I started infusing my content with more talk about crypto and financial investment with a focus on helping crypto newbies navigate the crypto space, back in early 2021. That really sparked my Twitter growth and allowed me to create and launch more products/services on crypto/NFT investment.
From 2020 to late 2021 I spent an insane amount of time (and errr…money) in crypto, DeFi and NFTs and made excellent returns. In 2021 I took $7K and turned that into about $110K. But then, like everyone else, I didn’t take enough profits so I only netted a fraction of those profits.
I had successfully launched a monthly membership service in 2021 and with the help of my good friend Fifty Sat we grew that paid community to about 150 paid members and we covered all things Crypto, NFTs, and Web3 Gaming on a daily basis. I still miss that community, but the problem was…I had launched a product that wasn’t ‘bear-market proof’.
In December 2021 and for sure January 2022 it was clear the bear was coming full force and when we were approached by another community to merge, we accepted the offer.
2/ What are you currently working on? What do you hope to accomplish personally and professionally over the upcoming 12 months?
Currently building The UnFungie community, a community of Web3 creators that are obsessed with growth, solving problems, and helping others in the Web3 space.
In addition to that, I’m also building out my one-man business by offering consultation and clarity calls for Web3 creators/brands.
I’m hoping the UnFungie to be a force in the space that houses the best Web3 creators/talent AND hopefully we’ll see the foundational work of some bigger-scale UnFungie projects like the UnFungie media outlet, UnFungie agency, etc. On a personal level, I’m hoping to learn from the mistakes I made back in 2021 and 2022 and scale my business to 10K/month WITHOUT depending on market conditions.
3/ How do you choose your Twitter niche? What would you advise our readers to do if they have fewer than 1,000 followers?
This topic is so over-covered that I’m sure we’ve all heard all the advice before. Let’s start off by saying that we don’t FIND our niche, but you FORGE your niche.
There are no competitors out there for you if you stay true to yourself. Here’s how I would do that:
Figure out what skills you possess that are easy to you but difficult for others.
Also go back to your Google/Youtube searches to see what you were learning and researching 6 months, 12 months, 2 years ago. Why? Odds are your IDEAL reader is a former version of yourself.
Your ‘niche’ = 70% of your content teaching others your one specific skill. 20% talks about the things that you’re passionate about, and 10% could be about something that keeps you healthy/sane/disciplined (productivity, habits, philosophy, etc.)
On Twitter, find 5-10 people active in “your” niche and look at what their followers are asking, saying, talking about in the comments. These patterns and frequently asked questions are your goldmines, and they are also the topics for your content. Make sure to spend some time every day in those comments and leave high-value/helpful replies.
I would write 2 tweets a day myself so that gives me 14 tweets/week. 9-10 of those are actionable advice, 2 to show some personality, and 2 to entertain. From 0-1000 I’d really limit the number of threads…but if you want to practice writing I’d say 1 per week. The ROI of leaving valuable comments and genuinely helping others is a LOT higher than writing threads when you’re starting off.
Understand your niche (or rather your content) needs to solve ONE specific problem. Don’t be “the Web3 marketing guy”, but be the guy that helps DeFi protocols on AVAX generate more users by building engaged communities. Specific and useful. I know you’ll feel like you’re missing out on all the other eyeballs in the space, but spend 70% of your content on this and give yourself that other 30% to talk about other stuff.
Whatever you do, give yourself permission to make mistakes. No one cares if you pivot after 3 months, or if you change your niche/the problem you solve at 1K or even 10K followers. It’s ALL part of your journey.
4/ What's the most important lesson you've learned since becoming a builder yourself that a new builder needs to know if we want to grow the Web3 community?
Singular focus makes things so much easier. When you create content consistently, and you’ve built a bit of an audience you’re going to attract so much ‘attention’. That’s obviously something to be grateful for.
It also presents most people (myself included) with additional distractions and stress. Why? Because I genuinely want to help everyone. I genuinely want to build awesome projects/communities with people I jump on zoom calls with.
Unfortunately, that’s the fastest way to burn-out.
Singular focus.
If you’re building that means picking ONE project that you go all in on.
If you’re creating content that means you pick ONE problem to solve, you create ONE solution, and you pick ONE audience to serve.
5/ Which book has had the greatest impact on your life in the past year?
The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant.
BTW, as someone that used to be addicted to reading books… I don’t believe in reading 20 books per month anymore. I believe in reading 1 book per month and ACTUALLY implementing its lessons into your life.
6/ Which of your previous investments produced the highest ROI (return on investment)? It could be anything—a course, a book, or a project.
Course: Kieran Drew’s Viral Lab
Book: I know it’s kinda cringe but because it was the spark to stop my financial illiteracy: Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
Project: My Pet Hooligan (6x from mint), Mekaverse (20x from mint), but obviously just DCA’ing into Bitcoin and ETH since 2017 has had the ROI.
7/ What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out in the "Web3 space"? What should they not listen to?
Focus on solving problems, and always jump in when you feel 50-60% ready, NOT 90%. That is Imperfect Action, the core mantra I live my life by. Understand that ‘failures’ and mistakes are still actionable data you can use to get closer to your big win or your big breakthrough.
What NOT to listen to?
Any advice that your friends/family give you.
They have no clue and they just want you to stay safe and comfortable in a lifestyle that ideally resembles theirs.
8/ What do you do if you spend a lot of time on Twitter and start to feel overwhelmed or unfocused?
I journal every day (well, a VERY basic form of it) so I do a thought download before I go to bed, and before I set my priorities for the next day.
I also do a weekly check-in on my 1-year vision and my 5-year vision.
These ‘exercises’ usually show me if I’m just stuck doing busy work that makes my mind believe that I’m being productive OR if I’m REALLY doing the 2-3 things every day that push me closer to my goals.
9/ Give us 1-3 excellent Web3 communities as examples. What do you think is essential for any good Community?
My Pet Hooligan (a bit biased but their level of execution on community-building, marketing AND product is unparalleled imho)
NFTGod’s 1% Better is one to keep an eye on. Not sure what it will become but given NFTGods track record, it should be great.
It’s essential for communities to have a common narrative to rally behind. To do some lore-building that brings people’s individual agendas together for the greater good. If you can combine that with a founder that’s VERY present and who communicates often/clearly, then you’re already on the path to success.
10/ How do you see the Web3 space 10 years from now on?
I think blockchain technology will transform almost every single thing we do on an everyday basis. I think 90% of our daily economic activities will happen on-chain so the demand for Web3 experts (which will obviously just be called ‘business’ experts in 10 years as 100% of business will be on-chain) is going to explode these next 5 years.
Last:
If one of your tweets/threads could reach everyone, which tweet/thread would you choose?
It probably won’t apply to EVERYONE that reads it but I think my pinned tweet is a good eye-opener for most to see what’s possible by just tweeting a bit :-)
After all this amazing information Sasha shared with us, I want to thank him. It exceeded even my wildest expectations for the interview. It was a pleasure to have you as a speaker in my newsletter.
I hope this first edition met your expectations and you found value in it. If not, I hope you'll forgive my rookie mistakes.
And please give me feedback on Twitter. Which one of the bullets above is your favorite? What do you wish for more or less of? Other recommendations? Please let me know. Just send a tweet/DM to @N3tyan.
Wishing everyone a fantastic weekend.
Warmest regards to you and yours,
N3tyan
If I didn’t already know this was a first post I would have thought you already had 100 other articles down.
I admire the consideration from Sasha of ROI for content building with replies and tweets, rather than threads, which I believe a lot of people (including me) possibly spend too much time worrying about.
Properly enjoyed this looking forward to the next!! 😊