How To Market Bitcoin And Crypto With Aubrey Strobel, Head of Communications at Lolli
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How To Market Bitcoin And Crypto With Aubrey Strobel, Head of Communications at Lolli
About The Guest
About The Guest
Aubrey Strobel is the Head of Communications at Lolli, a platform where you earn free Bitcoin while shopping online. She discovered crypto in 2016 and worked for a few different blockchain projects shortly after wrapping up her journalism degree.
She is a regular contributor for Coindesk, has had her works featured by NBC, speaks globally on crypto and blockchain, and today, both Lolli and Aubrey are household names within the crypto scene.
Talking Points
02:50 — Aubrey’s origin story.
07:42 — Transitioning from journalism to crypto.
12:36 — Leading the charge in the crypto space.
15:15 — The marketing play for a brand new crypto blockchain project.
24:19 — Lolli’s social media marketing strategy.
28:05 — The responsibility of being an educator in the blockchain space.
36:26 — Navigating a tumultuous market.
39:17 — Lolli’s global expansion plans.
41:22 — Where will Bitcoin be in 10 years from now?
42:50 — Is Aubrey a Bitcoin maximalist?
50:19 — The biggest misconception about Bitcoin?
52:19 — Aubrey’s advice to her younger self.
57:19 — Advice for young entrepreneurs.
Show Links
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Read The Transcript (Machine Generated)
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, bitcoin, Lolli, crypto, blockchain, company, building, payroll, life insurance, feel, meme, money, influencer, career, signups, bank, happening, buying, market, earning
SPEAKERS
Scott, Aubrey
Scott 00:00
Welcome to success story, the most useful podcast in the world. I’m Scott D. Clary, and today I’m sitting down with Aubrey Strobel. She is the head of Communications at Lolli. Now what is Lolli? It is a tool that allows you to collect Bitcoin while you shop online something very novel. I’m very new and Aubrey was responsible for building out their communications and their marketing strategy. Taking this brand new piece of cutting edge bleeding edge consumer technology that’s focused on allowing you to use and adopt Bitcoin in a very easy and consumer friendly way. She built this marketing campaign strategy that allowed it to capture significant market share, and it is now one of the most prevalent consumer applications for Bitcoin. So we’re going to break down Aubrey story, how she got involved in blockchain and Bitcoin. We’re going to speak about the work that she’s done with Lolli and how you create a marketing strategy for a company that has no precedent. And then we’re going to speak about the future of the industry. This show is sponsored by two incredible sponsors gussto, your one stop shop for payroll and ladder the only place you have to go for frictionless life insurance. So both of these sponsors have offers for all success story, podcast listeners, stick around until about halfway and you’ll get those offers. I really hope you enjoy the show.
Scott 01:26
Thanks again for joining me today I’m sitting down with Aubrey Strobel, who is the head of Communications at Lolli platform where you earn free Bitcoin while shopping online. She discovered crypto back in 2016. We’re going to go into her crypto and career origin story. She worked for a few different blockchain projects while wrapping up a journalism degree. She is a regular contributor to coin desk. She has had her work. And if I’m not mistaken, an op ed featured by NBC. She speaks globally on crypto and blockchain and d phi of course, and really Lolli and Aubrey are household names in the crypto space. And Aubrey has done an amazing job of building a community around yourself and Lolli. So thank you for joining me very excited to dive into your origin story how you got involved in blockchain and what you’re doing that Lolli and then we can go into some more relevant industry conversation about it, but thank you for joining me. Great, thanks for having me on. No, no, my pleasure. My pleasure. Um, I’ve seen you all over Twitter. So obviously your you know, your marketing Well, you’re doing your job well. But let’s back it up. And and walk me through how you got involved in Lolli how you got involved in blockchain, just your origin story.
Aubrey 02:50
Yeah, I, you know, blockchain, crypto, all these terms we’re talking about still, I think even in 2021, in this in this bull market, which is maybe tapering off into a bear market now are still kind of confusing to a lot of people. And so I hopefully will keep it relatively like in the lane. But you know, I got into bitcoin in 2016, I had some friends that were actually working on wall street that were buying crypto. And you know, when you have the traditional finance guys buying crypto, you know, who are usually these, like, proponents of ETFs, and stocks and all sorts of things like that. It is sort of a signal as like something’s shifting here. Is there something that I should be paying close attention to? And so I think when I did my own research and looked into crypto, I saw a great need for why why don’t we have 24 seven trading, it’s such an archaic system, a lot of wire banks closed, why don’t people have access to their own capital anytime that they want? And, you know, for me, I think, you know, freedom is, is a value that I hold very near and dear, you know, as an American, and I feel like that has been democratized in terms of the internet, but hasn’t hadn’t really been done in finance. And it was just sort of like why isn’t this happening? And I think that always stems back to there’s there’s too much power in certain certain institutions and people that they don’t they don’t want people have an easy access to capital and so I got into bitcoin bought Bitcoin actually at a Bitcoin ATM down by the Staten Island Ferry, which is sort of a weird way to get involved because most people supply up in exchange but but bought Bitcoin out of a Bitcoin ATM and then just kept buying you know Bitcoin Ethereum other tokens and wasn’t quite sure about like the future which you know, people they get in they say, what should I buy, what should I buy and really, I was just drawn to Bitcoin because of the the foundational elements the scarcity, there will only be 21 million Bitcoin ever created. And that makes it sort of like a digital gold compared to you know, Some other cryptocurrencies that can be mined continuously, like Dogecoin. You know, I’m sure people that watch your show have heard of it or have some awareness of the slick Shiba Inu dog token. But you know, the the reason that crypto is great for Bitcoin is great is because it has that, that scarcity component to it, and that there is no way to create more Bitcoin. So unlike, you know, what’s happening right now in America with inflation and many countries around the world, this is sort of a problem to fix, not only the ease and accessibility to capital, but also hopefully, you know, a hedge against inflation from governments. And so that’s sort of what drew me in from the beginning. Yeah, but I got my started a crypto PR firm. And that’s sort of how I got in in the door and kind of moved there until Wally.
Scott 05:51
So that’s a first of all, that’s a very prolific thought. If you were just so this is you, you were in a journalism degree and and you just went down the rabbit hole, like you, you totally went down the rabbit hole. And and that’s what shaped your entire career. It’s just I always find it interesting how people how their careers form because obviously, I’m assuming when you went into journalism, you did not expect to end up in crypto at all or blockchain, but you just sort of gravitated towards that and built on it. And I appreciate also the the sort of the definition and the explanation because you’re right. crypto blockchain, if you’re in it, it feels like the entire world gets it. But if you’re not in it, it’s still you know, it’s still very foreign. And I think that that’s actually not to go jump into Lolli just yet. But I think that that’s actually, why Lolli is so interesting, because it’s bridging that gap between this complex new concept almost that people have to understand and then something that they can actually use. Versus Yeah, you know, when you go when you when you are in a group of technical people who get blockchain who have bought into crypto early on, those aren’t the those aren’t the average people that you really want to get to adopt. Adopt Bitcoin blockchain, whatever, right. You want to get the moms, the dads, the grandparents to adopt it. But anyway, so I didn’t mean to go off track there. I just thought it was an interesting point you made about how it’s it hasn’t been fully adopted. And that’s that’s something that you that that sort of like brought you into it. So continues continue. Keep going with with your story. So how did you, you know, you started looking into crypto, you got involved in it. You worked for a crypto PR firm you said and that was which one was that?
Aubrey 07:42
Well, I like to get back to the point about you made about getting into journalism. And I think, coming into crypto, a lot of people who go into journalism, sort of going for this like altruism hoping to shed light on broken systems. And so are in justices are trying to be a watchdog for the public is sort of how I least saw journalism and having a degree in that, you know, my parents were teachers. And that was sort of like a service based profession, educating people in a classroom, I wanted to educate people at large. And I had the opportunity to do that I had an offer from Fox and ABC to be a broadcast journalist. And for different reasons, both of them, one of them, I turned down, one didn’t work out. And I I’m actually really grateful I think some of those things that happen early on in your career. You know, you you look at him at the time, and you’re like, Oh, this would have been really great. I wish this would have worked out. And I think it’s really the best thing that could have happened for me. And so I, I got into crypto through talking to my friends. But then I saw an opportunity to work in a PR firm to sort of share the story and educate people about Bitcoin because I did think it was a very large problem, a problem that I could help solve, or be a voice for. So that worked at waksman for over two and a half years working on projects that were just way too early. It was just way too early. Even now, it’s so early. And I think when you’re in the industry, you want to shake people and you’re like, this is the future because of these reasons. And I hope you know, you can see that too. But people ever people right now, you know, they’re just trying in the mainstream group of people, they’re just trying to take care of our kids pay their bills, they they’re not looking out, you know, much more beyond that there’s a lot of Americans that don’t even have more than a few 100 bucks in their account. They don’t even have a savings account in their checking account and so to say the future of finance and and these terms and you know, that we throw around and these d phi and blockchain and all these different terminologies, the new normal person just doesn’t have time to really sit there and figure that out. And that is why while he’s great and you know, when I was introduced to it Alex Edelman, the CEO of Huawei, he pitched me this idea. I said, this is where we’re at in the market. This is where we are at in the cycle, we’re not doing these Icos or initial coin offerings that I was working on, or security token platforms just yet. I think we need to get people comfortable with holding and owning Bitcoin and sort of this idea of being their own bank first. And Lolli allows people to do that in a very easy way not everyone sees themself as an investor they see themselves as a shopper though I think most people have are accustomed to shopping online. And so that that bridges is a easier bridge to get people over. And so however, we can get Bitcoin people’s wallets however we can get people owning Bitcoin is a good thing for me. I don’t care how that takes place. You know, if they’re buying on exchange, it’s the same thing if you’re earning it or if you’re mining it. So, Lolli was like, a project that I thought I could really get people, the moms and dads, aunts and uncles into the door with. But yeah, that I mean, meeting Alex was just like, you know, the most random thing I had a friend who was working at barstool who had a guest heard without his building and said, You got to talk to this guy put us on a text thread. And Alex said, Let’s jump on a call today. jumped on a call pitched him what I would do for Lolli and then sort of the rest of his history. Honestly, he was like, This is what I want to build. I was like, I know what you want to build. Let’s do it. And we’ve been there been at Lolli for two years. Next month. So well, it’s almost next month.
Scott 11:40
So so it’s worked, it’s worked out. So So Lolli seems to be the so your your your your eyes on data like your your the thing that drives you your why it makes a lot of sense lollies is the vehicle to do that. And I guess my question is is are there other platforms that are that you see that are bridging that gap in your opinion? Or do you feel like Lolli is and I know there’s gonna be other other things but like having a true market share market presence like Lolli that are really enabling the average non technical not entrenched person in blockchain to to understand and start to use and just get comfortable with the concept or is Lolli someone leading the way in this because I haven’t seen many that do what Lolli does and like he’s I love how you said that it taps into something that everybody’s already doing anyways.
Aubrey 12:36
Yeah, I would say Lolli is leading the charge is one of the biggest crypto companies in the space. And I think because we’re not after just bitcoiners it’s not just a Bitcoin Club anymore. It’s getting it really is getting every single person possible. And if you look at similar companies like honey, which was acquired by PayPal for $4 billion, very successful company, they have I think it’s 30 million users to their platform that’s more than any crypto company has. I think Coinbase has 30 13 million signups and I don’t know how many active wallets because a lot of people have left their crypto on their exchanges and don’t daily trade or there’s there’s a lot of crypto just sitting that will always set because people forgot about you know, whatever their password is or or just have not downloaded the app forgot about it. But we’re really after people earning every single day and Lolli actually allows you to earn Bitcoin every single day not just even by shopping if we just launched the app, and you can tap this sort of treasure chest loot box and it gives you free Bitcoin you win, you know, it’s a few satoshis satoshis are are the pennies to the dollar. So you know, it’s it’s not convenient, obviously you can’t bitcoins worth around $32,000 right now, it’s not convenient to trade in one bitcoin if you’re thinking about it, you know, so Bitcoin is divisible by many other units. And so you can earn these satoshis or fractions of Bitcoin on Lolli every single day, which makes it more active wallet than Coinbase or perhaps any of these larger exchanges because people are just finding ways to make it a part of their daily behavior accruing money so yeah, I think that’s that’s sort of a way that’s becoming a part of people’s everyday lives that they can track the price of bitcoin, it’s it’s sort of that thing when you get skin in the game, then you want to know what the price is doing. Once you have ownership, then you care and you’re now you’re tracking it. Now you’re talking to your friends about it. And hopefully, that’s what Wally is achieving in some capacity with our app. So
Scott 14:42
ya know that that that makes sense to me. Now, I’m also very curious, you did have you do have a journalism background. You were working in PR to some extent, but you have this founder who wants to take a product to market that realistically has never been done before. Well, I’m curious what the pitch was and what the strategy was to make this successful because you’ve done it well. So, you know, what’s the marketing play for a brand new crypto blockchain project to take it to market?
Aubrey 15:15
I say everyone’s sort of trying to do what we’re doing now, when we launched in 2018, I think that the crypto companies were trying to take themselves very seriously because they, they didn’t have that validity. And no one really tried it. It was sort of like a joke still, you know, crypto was, what silly internet people were doing. And even now, I mean, there’s, there’s, people still probably feel the same way for a large part. So a lot of these crypto companies really trying to dress themselves up act like banks. And that’s exactly what we were trying to get away from. We’re not trying to be banks anymore. We’re trying to have this idea of freedom. And so I think really leaning into what makes you unique, no matter what that may be, is that your personal brand is that your company brands and Lolli just never took itself seriously. I mean, its name is lollies. It’s funny, it should be comfortable, it should feel like approachable, you know, and that we want to be the approachable bag, not the bank that shuts down on you, for Columbus Day for any reason that you can’t access your funds that, you know, tells you you have a withdrawal limit who you know, is a tell you at the teller at the bank that says you know, so are we close your account for some reason that you don’t know, all those reasons, I think make banks not fun is the exact opposite of what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to be the fun bank, you wouldn’t keep your money with Lolli keep it growing, we want to add different incentives like interest accounts and things like that. So I mean, the idea that I pitched was that, you know, this is a product that can get on Good Morning America that can be edgy, you know, your your mom, like we were saying could understand this, you know, my aunt, she buys my cousin’s vitamins off of vitamin world and gets Bitcoin back for my autistic cousin. And that’s like, the impactful thing is to humanity, which I think sort of stemmed from my journalism degrees stemmed from some of the PR stuff that I’ve done in any, any way that you can humanize a brand is impactful no matter what that may be. And just realizing I really just pitched the idea that all all companies are media companies, and they’ve been trying to be but they didn’t realize that they were doing that for quite some time with the content they produce, whatever it is, people people want to talk to the people they don’t want to talk to brands they don’t they don’t they want to feel comfortable, they want to engage they want to you should have your users want to spend money with you and make them feel that way when they’re shopping. So that that’s sort of you know, I think not the exact playbook of how he did it but
Scott 17:51
the the framework the framework, like I think it’s smart I think the frameworks mind and you’re doing it like you go go to go to Arby’s Twitter like go to go to lollies, Twitter, like it’s just fun. And we were speaking before this or saying like you know how to this is not even a blockchain thing. This is just like a marketing in 2021. You mentioned it every company is a media company. My opinion every person should be a media company to and building their own brand. So walk me through like the framework for people like this is just a great marketing lesson. How you market Lolli how you market it on different social channels. I don’t know everything you do, because I just see some of it. But walk me through that. Yeah.
Scott 18:34
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Aubrey 20:56
Well, I’d like to say for people who are watching this, and they may not know how to guide their company, or it may be even just your personal brand, I would say, you know, just start today, because there’s, you might feel like it’s too late. Some people feel kind of intimidated by these platforms that maybe that they couldn’t have a voice there. I think just start today and be consistent with your content. Number one, Lolli on Twitter, really, we’ve we’ve made a huge meme play. And I think people undervalue that, and in a way and people companies for a while would say that interns were running social media channels. And if they have no idea what they’re talking about, would you put your entire brand voice in the hands of a no, I’m not saying a 2021 22 year old kid couldn’t run a great brand for you know, someone, but I’m just saying that it doesn’t know the brand voice somebody who doesn’t know the brand voice. That’s what you don’t want. Exactly. It’s not just an it’s not just a summer job, or someone we’ve give someone to do, because it’s not important. It’s so important. It needs to be treated that way. And people you know, make jokes about names. But there is mean advertising like hidden messages within meme, like activations that happens like a new strategy is going on. And so even people even argue they’ll be chief meme officers in the future because that kind of content is important for companies to relate and it’s easy engagement. So we’ve we’ve made our Instagrams sort of a meme account, or Twitter account puts out memes, but it sort of just trends with topics that are happening. So it’s just being really really in tune with the internet, it’s voice but we also have other channels where we offer you know, the best Bitcoin back deals that you can get online but that’s more of a deals focus social media account, you can go there for that. But if you’re going to the Lolli account you’re going there to be entertained, to hopefully learn something about Bitcoin because I do feel like another part of our strategy that I thought was really imperative that we had to had to get right was educating people, we can’t just bring them in and and not educate them. You know, like, once you own a coin, we want to hopefully explain to you why it’s a better money than people have already. And, and how to take care of that money because Bitcoin while it is, in some ways, very simple, it can be very complicated. And we want to lower those barriers to entry for people who, you know, maybe they want to take their Bitcoin off of Lolli and put it onto a cold storage wallet or a wallet that’s not connected to any devices, it’s just named for that sort of wallet. So we want to be a resource for people we’re trying to help them in every way possible. So I think the educational aspect of that creating educational content we’ve been doing that on YouTube, we’ve been doing that on Tick Tock YouTube shorts has just come out so we’ve been trying to utilize that it’s a little clunky right now but the platform but we’re trying to utilize those channels and then you know obviously Instagram reels and really any way we can just meet our user we’ve been doing so much education and just sort of a Bitcoin 1/62 guide tell you how to tell you what blockchain to tell you what Bitcoin is tell you, you know tips things that you can learn about in the crypto space and yeah, it’s it’s been successful so far, but I think it’s just really heavy on the content side
Scott 24:19
Yeah, so so that I think this is just so I think content marketing you’re nailing if people are listening watching this go check out go check out lollies social channels for some practical advice and some and just some some best practices like we you know, I look at the companies that do it well meme accounts do well why is that shareable? It’s funny, it’s things that people want, you know, there’s, there’s How do you win content, you make stuff that people want to share educational, funny, things like that, that people want to share with their friends, family, whatever. So you just apply that to business and also, you know, but you you’ve also put yourself out. So that’s another thing that you do that’s a little bit different than not, not everybody does that. I’m a big fan of putting yourself out out there and building your own brand you said even, I don’t know if it’s a video of, I think you put out videos of yourself as well, you said you put out a video once a week. So you’ve assumed this personality, that that’s now associated with the brand. That’s also something so walk me through why you decided to do that as well, because not everybody does that other people morning brew, for example, they do a lot of Twitter stuff. And now you have the the guy that runs the morning brew account Toby, if I’m not mistaken, he has a little bit more of a profile, but it’s still it’s it’s very heavy on the you know, the faceless, funny content on Twitter, but you’re doing a little bit more. So walk me through that.
Aubrey 25:38
Yeah, I mean, it’s some of that stuff people may not want to do a traditional head of comms is not usually making product speeches at conferences, and walking through those things. I feel like at a startup, you kind of make yourself accessible in any way you can. And I, you know, I had that background in broadcast journalism. And there’s just skills that you can find and parts of your career that you can apply later on. And so being on camera is something I feel very comfortable familiar with doing. So we created Lolli T, we created Lolli TV, which is this weekly Friday show where we run through the Bitcoin news of the week, we do like a meme review, we give you the best Bitcoin back deals, and then we do a giveaway at the end. So there’s all something in there for everyone. And we keep it about a three minute show. So hopefully, people are being educated on what’s going on in the market, and in a fun way. And it’s not intimidating, but it’s also being told in the right way, because the mainstream media can obviously change the narrative. And, you know, we all know how the news cycle can be it’s not always like the most accurate portrayal of what’s actually happening. And so that’s strategy. You know, YouTube is the largest search of the second largest search engine, and people kind of forget about that, you know, Google there, everyone’s trying to rank for SEO on Google. Why not YouTube? Why not become this source that people want to go to, to learn about Bitcoin on YouTube, there’s a lot of people that are already doing that. But hopefully, we do it in a more digestible way. People think about SEO strictly, as you know, Google, but YouTube has one of the largest search engines. And so if you can get early into its not all industries, obviously, the crypto space is a little bit more nascent. So getting in there. And while people haven’t totally taken over YouTube is a good opportunity. So that’s sort of what we’re trying to do over Lolli. Get that content out there and try to educate people as best as we can. And hopefully, that will keep them in the space for the long term. And we’re really just trying to convert people, not just this, I know people hear about these tokens that are like these short term, get Quick, get rich, quick scams, that’s not what we’re trying to do. We’re really trying to promote a revolution or a financial shift for people. So hopefully, that’s that’s the, you know, the goal, hopefully, and you know, Lolli rings high when that’s all said and done as a resource to people looking to learn and earn Bitcoin.
Scott 28:05
And you knew, I think that’s one of the main things, you have this responsibility to be an educator, because you are that consumer product. And there is so much there is so much bullshit in the industry. And that’s what that’s what’s really important that the people that, you know, the entry points in the industry, are the good actors. And I think that that’s something that you’re doing, you’re doing quite well. So even like, you know, you can you can brag a bit like, what has lollies growth been like over the past? I guess two years since you’ve been running their comms? And by comms is that, is it a stretch to say VP marketing? Are you running everything? Are you just running columns, you have a team, what’s your
Aubrey 28:43
so columns is marketing as well. And mostly the brand side and influencer sides just because you need to Lolli that way. First of all, we’re up to 300,000 over 300,000 users when we started, I think we were at 20,000 users. So it’s been quite a jump. We’ve seen crazy month over month growth during the past six months. And it’s just an exciting time to obviously be building you know, in this space, but just generally. And with Lolli you know, we have a lot of influencers. We just raised 5 million at a pre series A and we just actually closed our a so we’ll be announcing that soon. But the pre series A we had input Thank you very much. We had influencers sort of be a part of these rounds. So usually we have a VC leave around and then have other people creators actually come in and invest in Lolli because we do feel like those influencer activations are kind of better than like any like I was saying how they have skin in the game, minor or just you know, equity in a company. They’re more likely to promote something that they hope succeeds. And so we have people like Michelle Phan, we had to turn a William Invest in the last round and Alexis ohanian led the round. So, you know, people that can promote on their channels is almost a better tactic than just traditional PR because the engagement and the reach that some of these people had like Cody Ko, for example put out a 32nd ad for us to add read on his one of his channels. And we saw a crazy jump in signups to Lolli after that and it’s the really the power of these creators to influence their audience and get them to understand Bitcoin and projects that they’re invested in and that they’re excited about is on unreal and not even fully tapped into I know influencer marketing feels like it’s, you know, everyone’s doing it and has been play a lot of people aren’t. And so I would, I would, you know, I guess pose the question to a lot of these traditional companies, you know, PR is not the total comp strategy, or a lot of that is influencer. And so we have more influencers that are coming around in the in the A, so there’ll be announced to and they can drive, you know, signups on their own channels. And that really stretches stone so far, compared to maybe just having Molly mentioned in the CNBC article, which is still has value, it’s still good. But who reads all the way down to the end of an article? You know, some people are listening to podcasts, they’ll hear that ad, or you know, who’s watching someone’s YouTube channel? And will they’ll see Wally there for sure. So it’s just an interesting way and of how people are consuming content. I think we’re moving away from traditional aspects of Finance. We’re moving away from traditional finance, of marketing of PR, and there is a huge shift that’s happening, AI has been happening for a while, but I think has been really, I would consider people to take a look at that. I mean, it has been happening since basically the pandemic, but it’s been sped up now. And people are reevaluating a lot of the systems that they used to want to trust. And that’s reading our news articles, that’s their banks. Everything.
Scott 32:09
There is Yeah, so like mad, you know, massive shift in in many institutions like it, obviously, you’re dealing and disrupting finance, and financial institutions, but also, like you nailed it. Like everything has changed the way we market the way we sell the way ever the way we communicate over the past two years has been like a, like a digital transformation on steroids in live like forced on every industry, which I think is also very interesting. So you know, it’s just great to see like how Yeah, you’re working in leading edge blockchain, that’s great. But it’s not just that. It’s also you’re leading the way in marketing and influencer marketing and how you communicate with your customers and how you present information and how you how you bring people in and build a community around the people that you want to use Lolli to try long. I’m curious when when you’re dealing because normally, if you have a company, of course, maybe if markets are if if you’re in a bull market or a bear market in a traditional in a traditional sense, it would of course affect some companies but when you’re dealing with, you know, Lolli that is blockchain and Bitcoin adjacent, does the shifting markets impact signups? You know, customer acquisition? Or does it seem to not have an impact at all?
Scott 33:33
I just want to take a second and thank the sponsor of today’s episode ladder, a little bit of context before I speak about ladder ladder offers life insurance. But the reason why I wanted to work with them is because I am personally I’m a huge advocate of life insurance. And the reason being the past few years with COVID, a lot of people have lost loved ones. Fortunately, not. I haven’t lost anybody in the past two years, but I have lost people, friends far before their time, you know, years ago. And it usually happens then when somebody younger passes away when they’re just starting their life or they’re just starting their family. They aren’t properly set up, they don’t have coverage. And when they pass, all the costs are passed on to their family. And I’ve seen that stress that falls on two loved ones spouses family. It’s just a horrible time and the added financial stress is not worth it. And it’s not something that I would ever wish on anybody who’s already dealing with the loss of a loved one. And it just so happens that when it happens unexpectedly for a younger individual, there’s a better chance that they haven’t looked into life insurance yet. So I’m a big advocate of life insurance in general but I’m very happy with what ladder is doing because they are basically removing any friction in how you can apply and get life insurance. So they are all digital. So no doctors, no needles, no signup, no paperwork, you go online, you submit your information, you can get approved, they have an algorithm that will approve you for up to $3 million with a Speaking to anybody, if you want to speak to somebody, you can have that option. But this is meant to be as frictionless as possible. And they also make it very user friendly, consumer friendly. So the fee, they call you, that’s the fee, no fees cancel anytime, of course, with life insurance, the earlier you sign up, the cheaper is going to be, and you can carry that rate through until forever. So they’ve really done it well. And they’ve modernized the process of purchasing life insurance. So I would recommend that everybody, you know, they set up a link for everybody who’s listening to this podcast, I would recommend an advocate that everybody goes and checks out ladder, they’re a great sponsor, but I am just an advocate for having life insurance. So I think that this is something that you should, you know, it behooves you to start to look into it. If you want to get a quote, go to ladder.com slash success story. So that is ladder.com slash success story. And you can get instantly approved, if you just want to start to investigate, I think that’s a great idea. If you want to purchase, you can also, like I said, get approved purchase for up to $3 million online in about three minutes. They’re talking to anybody. So I would definitely recommend you go check them out. And do yourself and do your family a favor and set yourself up. God forbid something happens. You just don’t want to have that stress and that burden on your family. All right, let’s get back to the show.
Aubrey 36:26
Yeah, I mean, when people when the markets up, and it’s crazy hot like it was I think the peak of Bitcoin in this last run, and we’ll see where it ends up this year, was around the Coinbase IPO. So I think that was end of April. And, you know, we’ve had definitely say signups. But I think I think what has happened in the past two years is a change that is not going to be completely undone. Yes, I think, you know, there’s obviously more signups when bitcoins at an all time high than when it’s not an all time high. But I think the behaviors and the changes and what we’ve seen how we’ve seen people, approach finance has changed drastically. And that’s talking about people who are on Robin Hood, buying, you know, the mean stocks or doing whatever the I think there was a shift in traditional finance a shift into crypto, all these institutions are adopting it in some capacity. So while Yeah, it’s obviously more advantageous when the markets hot. With Lolli, it’s actually better to be, you know, earning Bitcoin at lower prices. And so that’s where the educational aspect comes in. Because if you’re earning Bitcoin at 60,000, that’s great. But right now, you could be earning it at 32. And hopefully, you know, when those rewards, those rewards lock in, and then a few months, you could have paid off for the item that you bought. So that’s the sort of mindset and the way that people are, should be thinking about their money, you should always be getting a kickback for anything that you’re purchasing. So that whether that be credit card points, whatever reward points, the the system is so gamified now you should really be taking like full full advantage of it. So you could be buying things on Lolli getting Bitcoin back at low prices during when you want to call it a bear market or whatever. And getting credit card points to so it’s thinking about, you know, your finances in that way. And under that lens. I think that’s sort of our job to just educating people, and how they can be saving the most money earning the most money setting themselves up for the best future possible.
Scott 38:45
And yeah, that’s the now now, I think that this is one of those tools to be able to do that one of one of the many tools that are now being you know, you mentioned, there’s the roadmap for Lolli, and you’re looking at potential interest products. You’re looking I think you said you were building an app at one point, I don’t know what that app does. But this is sort of like the first step in creating that that reward focus on that customer focus product that’s tapping into a completely new market. So what is just curious what what is on the roadmap for Lolli what’s what’s next?
Aubrey 39:17
Yeah, so obviously Bitcoin is global. And we want to be a global company right now we are only us focus and the idea behind Bitcoin and the philosophy of you know, Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin was to have Bitcoin reach all parts of the world. And it does that right now you can only earn in the US. So we’re, we’re we have us merchants, that’s how our partnerships are set up. But expanding internationally to other countries so that people around the world have the opportunity to be earning with Lolli. Everyone has Lolli on there. He just launched the app for iOS. We’re coming out with the app for Android, hopefully, very, very soon. It’s almost done. We’re gonna try to get to our Android to users. And then yeah, we’re gonna add basically offers different sort of products that make it more intuitive. I think what’s really great about Lolli and are they kind of be UX UI that we have is that it is so seamless where people shouldn’t feel like they’re using blockchain technology because your everyday people are not going to be crypto experts. They don’t want to be you know, they don’t they’re not interested in defy, they just want some sort of store of value, some sort of way to to hold on to their wealth. And so I feel like that’s sort of more of the lane that we’re we’re trying to achieve nothing complicated. You can sign up in 30 seconds you can get going, but you are using Bitcoin, you are owning Bitcoin. So it’s like the seamlessness of IT people don’t need to know the nuances like the internet, you don’t need to know how the internet works to use the internet. So why would you? Yep, same thing applies to Bitcoin and crypto.
Scott 41:00
And then I guess just, you know, I’m gonna draw out some career insights from you just like some rapid fire questions at the end. But this is probably a question that every every podcast or interview with would ask you, but I have to ask, because on this show, so future of Bitcoin, future of blockchain, but also, you know, like, Where’s Bitcoin going to be in 10 years from now?
Aubrey 41:22
10 years, so bitcoins only been around for about 12. So that feels like a crazy jump. I’ve been in the space for half the time bitcoins been around. And it feels slow, and it feels fast. While at the same time I would say that you see developments like El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as legal tender in their country, which is great. I think it’ll sort of start with countries who need their their currency their Fiat’s hyperinflated they need another and then hopefully expand out from there. I think it’s not going to come without a fight. I think anytime that there is power, people don’t give away power freely. You look at history, history of time, just even in our country and how America was founded, it’s not something that’s going to come easily. And so I think there’ll be some bumps in the road in terms of pricing, and things like that, but the internet currency, it’ll be a internet currency that everyone has access to. And the applications that are built on Bitcoin and the companies building around it will be a lot more simple than it is right now. You won’t even really think about it as cryptocurrency you’ll just think about it as money and hopefully it will make for more level playing field for people all around the world to transact which is is your dream the goal
Scott 42:50
definition of a Bitcoin maximalist does that mean that it will completely replace entrenched institutions eventually? Is that what that definition is? I hear it a lot. I was gonna ask you if you are one, but I need to get the definition right first. So what is that? What does it mean exactly? Bitcoin maximalist? Yeah.
Aubrey 43:12
maximalist is someone who just believes in Bitcoin and only holds Bitcoin. So they see it as the future. They’re Pro, Bitcoin and Bitcoin only, they don’t hold alternative coins or all coins such as aetherium, or sort of other protocols. So they they’re very much a purist, if that makes sense in the crypto space. Yeah.
43:38
I want to
Aubrey 43:40
own other coins, because I think it’s fear. There’s applications like Ethereum that allow for defy. And I think you can build upon it. It’s very interesting. I don’t know, you know, where my space is going. But I think there is, you know, the applications that are being built and the smart contracts are being utilized on defy are game changing in the same way that the way that you know, Bitcoin is changing the bank situation, you can do lending. for a lot of reasons, you don’t need lawyers to operate some of these deals that are happening on device. So there’s obviously a market for that to happen. And you can get a great instead of having to deal with lawyers and you know, other institutions telling you, you know, what rates you’re borrowing and lending at, you can figure that out on your own. So there is a future there’s a path there. But in terms of store value, and coins that are going to make it a long term, Bitcoin is the answer. And this is not financial advice.
Scott 44:46
Yeah, no, no, that’s that’s the caveat. And, and then I guess I’m just curious, what are some other you know, consumer applications in blockchain that people may not know about? that people should go check out.
Aubrey 45:02
Yeah. Great, great question. I think block phi is great. I think you can, you know, we don’t have an interest earning right now. But you can, I guess it’s not super consumer, but it’s what
45:13
it is consumer. Yeah.
Aubrey 45:17
I think it’s a great way for people to get on, like just on boarded that, you know, want to even just make extra extra money on their Bitcoin as if it’s not making enough money already. And then there’s, I would say, like, it just depends sort of what you’re interested in, if it’s more Bitcoin focused, or if you’re more into these other currencies, you know, I would lead you a different way. I’m really excited about the NFT space, I think that’s really cool for creators and consumers to. So places like open sea marketplace, it’s a great way to sort of start using Ethereum and like figuring out how NF T’s work, and creating your own art selling your own art, I think that’s great. There’s so many different creators that are, didn’t have a place to sell, didn’t feel like crypto was for them. And now they’re selling their artwork on these platforms. So that’s really interesting as well.
Scott 46:16
That’s a whole other episode. All I saw, that was what you wrote your up. That was the piece that you wrote, I think for one of one of the pieces you wrote for NBC or CNBC, I can’t remember which one it was. But that was what it was about, about scarcity and NF T’s and whatnot on that. Oh, my God, this whole other thing that I’d love to go into?
Aubrey 46:34
Yeah, Paul, the artists scarcity, it was like, talking about people’s NFT that went for, you know, quite a bit of money. And so just how are perceived notions about value are formed because value as a concept, and this can be a whole episode two is totally changed. What has value what doesn’t have value?
Scott 46:57
That’s, that’s that that is the whole conversation. score from the from, that’s what that’s what people speak about when it comes to Bitcoin and where it gets its value from and then what actually is value? And how do we actually apply value to certain items? And it’s very, it’s a very interesting conversation. Okay, so let’s do some, let’s do some rapid fire career insights. You’ve had an incredible career, you’re working in a bleeding edge space, you’re killing it, you grew Lolli, obviously, with the help of incredible team, but also you’re raising a series A so you know, credit to where credit’s due. And you’ve done a really good job with that. So people want to learn from you. Okay, biggest challenge in your career? How did you overcome it? Whoa, sorry, it’s not as rapid as I know, know what, by rapid, I just mean, like, I know, you want to like, it’s like, Friday, when recording this, you don’t want to spend like another, like 45 minutes going through some career questions. So I just like take as much time as you need, but they’re there, you don’t have to go to too in depth.
Aubrey 47:59
Okay. I think it was sort of knowing when to leave a company, when the end of the road is, you know, you’ve done all you can do and now you’re ready for the next beginning, I think that when you’re younger, you feel like you need to stay or be in a company for a long period of time to validate yourself. And I don’t think that’s totally true. I think I wish I would have trusted my gut earlier when I first knew, you know, I’m ready to for a new challenge and and move on to something else. Because I just think if there’s something it’s hard to trust your gut early on your career, and you feel like you need to do all these things. But I really just feel like there’s no rules anymore. And you can really go out and make and do whatever you want. This is my whole pitch on the on the shift from traditionalism to modern day.
Scott 48:49
It’s good advice. And I think that that’s something that yes, it’s difficult earlier on in your career, but it’s more important to be okay with that now than ever, when nothing is for sure. And that’s something that you know, the past two years have definitely told us no job, doesn’t matter what it is, is secure. Because you can be gone tomorrow. Exactly. If things don’t work out. So set yourself up for success future proof yourself.
Aubrey 49:14
Yeah. And yeah, I think that there, the traditional shift from your parents used to work at companies for 2030 years out of this loyalty and companies are businesses, it was fun to grow something I want people, young people, especially to know that is the company couldn’t pay tomorrow, they would fire your faith today, they would fire you. And it’s important to see your company as a team, as a family. And I think a lot of maybe smart startup places feel that way. You will go and work for like a hedge fund or big bank or something like that. You get more of the traditional aspect of it. It’s seen as just a job but I think it’s always important to know that you have just as much say in the relationship between yourself and the company, as they do so.
Scott 50:02
Very good advice. Okay, so the biggest misconception that you had about Bitcoin blockchain, whatever, when you went into the industry, and how has that perception changed over your career?
Aubrey 50:19
misconception is that it was being used for money laundering and only criminal use criminals use crypto. And I would say that it’s actually easier to trace transactions on a blockchain than it is to get out of an ATM and then do some dirty dealings with money. Gosh, yeah, you get 20? No, I mean, bills are obviously they are their marks, but like, you could hide money under a mattress, you get money can go anywhere, you never find it again, you’ll never know where it is, after it’s gone. And crypto is a ledger. There are a lot of these cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin is on a ledger, unless it’s a strict privacy coin, pretty much track all transactions. And so people used to like to throw that at the community to try to say that it wasn’t here for good reasons, or was just being used for illicit purposes. And it’s totally not being used for that. You know, I’m sure in every single industry, there is corruption of some sorts, inter people are always gonna find a way to make something bad. If it’s good, you can make it bad. But yeah, that’s just not true. No, that’s
Scott 51:31
fair. And I’ve heard that I’ve heard that before. But you’re the I think that the community has evolved. And I think that that stems from a lack of really understanding of what it was more than anything, but
Aubrey 51:43
I’m not gonna lie, there was the Silk Road for a period of time, people were using it for bad. But that’s not what it is now. But people are always using a cache and all sorts of gold and diamonds, whatever you want to some acid has always been used in a bad way. If it can do it, it will be using that way.
Scott 52:05
If you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be?
Aubrey 52:17
That harder on yourself, I would say, and I’m under the belief that there’s no passion. There’s a quote from Nelson Mandela that, you know, there’s no passion in life by playing small or living a life that you’re less capable of living. And I think that in most circumstances, I’ve gone for raising my hand making the jumps that I could have. But I think if I could have done it even more, or just pushed myself a little bit harder in different circumstances, it definitely would have paid off. But yeah, I’m pretty happy with where I’m at right now. I just think that it’s always hard to be sure of yourself when you’re so young. I’m sure of everything all the time.
Scott 53:06
Like that. That was that was a that was a powerful line bet harder on yourself. That’s, that’s good, that’s quotable. I like that. Quote. Yeah. One person who had an incredible impact on your life, who was it? And how did they impact you, they teach you something, cetera.
Aubrey 53:27
He’s such great questions, I love them. I have to say, my mom really impacted me. And every time on a personal level, or someone that I know, it would have to be my mom. She’s just unlike any person I’ve ever met in terms of just a truly good person. But she taught me to have empathy in a way that I think helped me develop my interpersonal can read humans well, which is added to my career in a way where I can understand situations, I’m in read a room really well. And it may just be me, so self aware. Now, I don’t know if I have it as a child. But I just remember this instance, when we had gotten done with a hike it off of this mountain by ASU and I was growing up in Arizona, and there was a woman that was just wrapped in this blanket, and it was the middle of summer. And I was sort of an observant child, but I asked my mom about those the about that. And so this person’s homeless, you know, they might need food, would you like to get food for them? And I was like, Yeah, I would love to do that. And so that was one of my earliest memories of my mom, also, encouraging kindness and encouraging. It’s not just the awareness that you have for other people in the room. It’s like, how can I help them? And how can I you know, what are the needs that they have put myself in their shoes, what could I possibly learn from this person or what they’re going through, and she’s just a really beautiful person. Anytime you pass a car, we were meant to go this way because we were meant to pray for these people and hopefully that you know, they’re an accident and it’s just a different mindset of like thinking about other people. And I don’t have I think like if I didn’t have my my mom was a mother, I would have definitely been a shittier first and she’s like the best for me just makes you have so much empathy for other people. And I learned it all from
Scott 55:28
her. Amazing Can you recommend a book podcast audible something that somebody should go check out? Their current focus or just general? Anything know anything that you anything that you’ve read that has had an impact on your life? Doesn’t matter? Does not the Bitcoin focus?
Aubrey 55:48
I’ll give one bitcoin focus. And then when the Bitcoin standard, it doesn’t talk about Bitcoin the whole time, it really is just an evolution of money and how we’ve gotten to where we are today. And I think that actually makes people understand Bitcoin more not just learning about Bitcoin, it’s how is how is our systems failed us in the past? And how governments failed us how banks failed us? And how have we gotten to this point where we need an alternative. So that’s my recommendation for big one. And then I think, a book that I’ve returned to at different periods of my life, I think, is always a great to reread, because art, literature, movies, all these things, they can have different meanings in different parts of your life. I think as a young person, you know, when you’re sort of in your working years, and then when you’re older is Tuesdays by more Tuesdays with maurey by Mitch Albom. It’s a really good book about life’s lessons, as someone’s sort of dying from ALS. So it’s an interesting, it’s just an interesting read.
Scott 56:55
perspective. Yeah, that’s those are those are two, two new ones to watch. You know, like I said, I haven’t had a lot of people that are as into Bitcoin blockchain as you are. So I expected the Bitcoin standard, or something like similar like that, but never never that other ones. So that’s a good, that’s a good recommendation for sure. I love when people bring in like non business books, because there’s a lot of business books that I keep, you know, they come up again and again and again. And I like learning from half the reason why I started the show is to learn from people that are prospective, that’s just not the carbon copy of every other business perspective out there. So I think it’s, that’s, that’s a good place to learn from.
Aubrey 57:34
Yeah, I just liked the book, because it’s like, a lot of life lessons also can be applied to business. I think you don’t have to read a business or a self help book to find parallels into different parts of your life.
Scott 57:45
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Okay. And then last question, what does success mean to you?
Aubrey 57:59
success, hopefully, would be helping someone else breathe easier. And someone’s alleviate some stress from people’s lives. And hopefully, I will try to do this at a large scale. I have had a few conversations about this recently. And I think success sometimes just feels like fame, or notoriety or all those things. But there’s also success in this way, where I was talking to actually Aleksey of Wally about just the impact that you can be remembered for just the smallest things. And there’s this woman that I used to go to this restaurant was called Louise, Arizona, and she would always give me you know, as a little kid, she was given this flower from her hair. And it was just this kindness. She just worked a normal job at a diner but I remember her point years later, and it’s like these small gestures that you can do for someone that that is remembered for 20 years I sort of hope that whatever I do if that’s helping get people into bitcoin 20 years from now that they’re like you know, I remember this one girl just told me about Bitcoin now I have set my I have a retirement account or something like that, that hopefully that that is success. I also would love to have a family one day and a beach house in Jersey so I would love a storehouse if that’s why
Scott 59:24
I’m sorry. No, it’s good. Well, listen, you know what I think you’re I think you’re you’re you’re you’re living you’re living some of the some of the personality traits of your of your mom more than you know, just with that answer. That’s at least that’s what I see. that’s a that’s a very nice that’s a very nice definition of success ever. varla The beach house aside, that’s it. That’s a good
Aubrey 59:49
I want to help people but I also if I have a beach house at some point in my life and like okay, if I’m by the beach, that’s all I need, probably by the
Scott 59:59
feel that I feel Listen, that’s why that’s why I’m in Florida right now. You’re in the wrong city. Yeah your city. I am Okay, okay, let’s see. Where do people go to connect with you? website social whatever you want to get.
Aubrey 1:00:18
twitter.com @AubreyStrobel follow Lolli sign up for Lolli Lolli.com and then @tryLolli that’s Twitter’s my main channels and then you know we have all our social channels linked on our website you so you can follow us along there but definitely sign up start earning free Bitcoin with Lolli that’s that’s the that’s my pitch.
