 Vince major Head of marketing at ether wallet at my ether wallet and today he'll be speaking on the importance of soft skills soft skills in crypto Vince the floor is yours So I need the names of some projects projects. You love projects. You work for just yell a few out for me bank and splat Okay, give me some more projects garlic coin. Okay. What else? Stable node. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thank you for those. I appreciate that So some of these I know some of these I don't but all of these projects have something in common and that is My mother hates them For and that's not a bad thing because she is my project too for those of you that don't know me My name is Vince major and I am the head of marketing at my ether wallet Now to be clear This talk is not going to be about the mom test Okay, my mother is fairly techno savvy and really only calls me about once a quarter To have a refresher on how to attach a PDF to an email and that's a lie. It's actually once a month But you see it's not the technology that puts her off from crypto And it's also not even the concept of the tech that really makes her confused about the company. I work for Instead, it's the way that our industry communicates and story tells that make her roll her eyes at dinner And you know, I'm sure that this is not something that's unique to me I'm sure you all have had to explain to your friends and your loved ones this industry And there's a good chance that they gave you a face not dissimilar to this And that's a bummer, right? Because if you were anything like me you were amped to be in this industry and just want to tell everyone So today I want to speak to the heart of that and how I believe that we can Overcome these challenges and finally win over this broad Because I believe that our industry focuses on and values the hard skills over the soft skills to our detriment So for the duration of this talk, I want you to think of soft skills as those sort of non-technical skills that people have Think creativity the gift of gab mentorship morale building Basically anything that your project managers cannot assign a unit of time to right? And I want you to also think broadly not just the skills that people have but also people that devote themselves entirely to the soft skills I am one such soft skiller. I have my masters in fine arts and the only programming I know how to do is slash br br, which I think is a return in HTML. I'm still not sure Now there are three key areas in crypto that I believe can be improved by the soft skills and those are communication creativity and Connection if you take away one thing from this talk today, I Wanted to be that words have immense power They have the ability to paint pictures to inspire and create movements that move mountains So now let's look at some of our crypto word shall we? GM shit coin and on LFG huddle Now I'm old enough to have all of these remind me of a word. I used a lot as a kid and that word Was Pone So now for those of you that are not older gamers Pone means next level ownage or to completely dominate someone in gaming At least that's how it was explained to me when I was playing ever quest It's a word that in that bubble in that time. We all used all of the time However, fast forward to now gaming has gone completely mainstream and yet this word has fallen to the wayside The word itself failed to bring new users into gaming and so faded from the mainstream lens Now on the crypto side I think we are using far too much of our insider lingo to try and bring those on the outside in Now I see this so often in marketing and the problem arises that new users Don't know what our crypto words mean So we are imposing a barrier to entry right out of the gate of our own doing You know as an industry we find ourselves using huddle so much that it literally became a major segment on the John Oliver show And yet that mainstream ribbing did very little to bring new users into the space Nor did it cement itself in the minds of others Okay, so to be clear I don't want to get rid of our slang, right? I mean It's part of the fun of being an insider, right? We want to use these words and tell these jokes. It's fun But what I do want to point to is that by improving the language that we use to communicate with those outside of crypto We can only help bring more people into the fold Because right now as new users come into crypto they are being overwhelmed by so many new words and languages and I can only guess it's like being dropped into Columbia and not speaking a word of Spanish Bonjour And this is not just related to copyrighting and marketing. Let's take a look at the word ethereum itself So when it first came into being the word ethereum was weird to a lot of people and you know, it's still weird to some It's also super hard to spell which is why this always makes me giggle like a child However, after years of constant work by so many incredible people the word ethereum has gone mainstream Which is fantastic. I mean, that's probably why most of us are here today And then they came out with ethereum 2.0, which is a Hard-skiller naming convention, but not horrible. I mean at this point Most people understand software versions and get that the software is evolving or leveling up like a Pokemon, right? and then there was consensus layer and I can't help but think that had there been more soft skillers in the room to be like I don't I don't understand what consensus means in this context Could we explain that a bit easier that we could have had a better name and better communication and I don't want you to think that I'm picking on the amazing people that asked me to speak here today I tease because I love and I want to see things get better And believe me. It's not just ethereum that does this at my ether wallet We recently released our new browser extension wallets called encrypt, which is spelled with a K now encrypt services ethereum Polkadot and is built for the multi-chain future. It's out on all stores including safari, which is pretty cool now with encrypt I Was stone-cold new to the polkadot ecosystems why to do a lot of reading and as I was doing all this research There was a word that stuck out to me like a sore thumb in so much of the public-facing information and that word Was as existential now when I hear this word or see this word I think of the fact that I am going to die my loved ones are going to die and Eventually the last person to remember my name will also die You know an existential crisis at night when the tears come. I mean we've all been there Now what's bananas to me is that in polkadot? They are constantly referring to an existential deposit, which means the amount of that a wallet must have to exist Now this to me clearly shows a hardskiller naming convention at work Now it might be clear to that hardskiller on the back end It might be clear to other hardskillers, but to the rest of us existential deposit makes little to no sense so if we apply the power of soft skills to this something like Minimum balance comes to mind right because it's something that we Immediately understand it uses language that is familiar and of course doesn't conjure up feelings of existential dread All of this is to say that by developing more soft skills around communication and more employees Around can vision will only help bring more people into the fold Because the clearer we are with our messaging and communication the easier it is for everyone else to get on our same page Which brings me to creativity in? Crypto we are creating Things out of thin air through code like it is an absolute magic trick for me to watch developers work However, while some might think naming something 2.0 is creative. It's not it's iteration Now to iterate is to make products great iteration is a hardskiller in their finest form They continue to improve upon that prior base getting better each time again and again and again until we reach Immortality I guess I I can only think immortality is the goal and is why we pay developers so much more But the problem is is when iteration Replaces creativity in our space see because when you iterate you were only refining the boundaries rather than pushing them and Then when iteration starts to cross pollinates you get a lot of noise Now I feel like I saw all of this noise in the most recent NFT run If you search the word board on any NFT marketplace You are going to get a million results, right? And of course you're going to get the board apes yacht club But then you're going to get the board kitty cats club and the board bad boys club And then eventually you'll start to get things like the indifferent hamsters Subaru society Now this is where iteration becomes knockoff Becomes scam and rug pull All of these lines begin to blur in the minds of not only crypto natives But those outside of the space as well and this creates confusion for users and even worse could create connections or implied connections where they do not exist in That case we can experience one bad actor or project Bringing down several because a loose connection in the mind of the other For instance, it's very easy for the media or for people outside of crypto to see that one dog themed crypto project is a scam Therefore all dog themed crypto projects are a scam or be unable to tell the difference at all And think they are all one big project rolled in together much like your parents probably called all video game consoles a Nintendo growing up at least that's how it was for me and Of course my ether wallet is intensely familiar with this iteration problem from others to this day We continue to see products called my blank wallet and this does make our brand management difficult the Did I lose my mic nope there I am the wallet space in general has also iterated itself into a Whereas so many developers are being forced to create their products with a specific Wallet in mind and the reason is because the current model is winner take all Now we're hoping to correct this unintended monopoly through creativity REE 5749 will give users the choice of the wallet They have installed rather than defaulting to the first injected this restores Creativity to the wallet space and will also give developers more freedom when designing a user experience Don't have to D to one specific Am I coming back in and out? You know and so I encourage you to check looking for feedback and Do I should I swap all right? We'll swap perfect. Can you hear me now? Hey, there we go I'm back So I hope you check that out because I think creativity like this EIP can solve any problem that we have because a creative Idea or vision can help set your projects north star They can put you on a path that you never thought possible Brand confusion that goes out the window the moment you are creative and wildly different from the rest of the noise It can give new users a fresh and interesting way to understand web 3 and help bring them in The pitfalls of iteration can also be applied to hiring which is why I encourage you to not iterate but create Foster and build a team of unconventional skill sets bring in those creative thinkers who will help drive the storytelling of your brand Or who can think of a new user journey or even a new product feature out of left field? because when you were able to spark creativity and Effectively communicate what makes you special to others that is when we see true innovation and adoption in the space Which brings me to my favorite of the soft skills we need more of in crypto connection Now humans by our very nature are looking to connect with things We want to connect with other humans from person to person, but we also want to connect to ideas so frequently in crypto we talk about use cases and roadmaps But what we don't do is craft the story behind our projects We are letting others Like the media tell our story for us Frequently to our detriment or we have to lean on hard skillers to do the storytelling for us This results in project descriptions like this an intent driven privacy-centric protocol designed to enhance discovery and settlements now I wrote this down I Memorized it and I just had to read it off this just now Because it just feels like a string of words mushed together and I work in this industry I can only imagine what someone outside of the space takes away from a description like that Okay, yeah that that tracks and This is certainly a place where we can use soft skills to storytell when explaining it to our mothers Because as it stands right now that description is simply telling you what that product does They don't show you the superpowers that it gives you Think how much easier that description could be to understand if we Hypothetically say okay, we're gonna start with a privacy problem, right because everyone understands the big tech is invading us and From there we'll probably Highlight it connects to people quickly and then exchanges assets without having to wait a long time like with a bank so in essence we could go from story from Jargon do something like our project without invading your privacy through something like a credit check or Verifying your identity Find someone that has the asset or ask that you want it then connects you Exchanges that and you don't have to wait for five days for it to settle like with the bank Now obviously this is a bit wordier and a bit rough because I am not the storyteller for that brand But you can see how this story gives you something to latch on to and starts to paint a picture in your mind And it's not just related to Projects where we need storytelling. I think it's in moments like this where we put ourselves in the public eye It's why everything I am saying here has been scripted. It's been refined edited and rehearsed Nothing here is off the cuff all of this is a crafted story Except for the bike change that was on the fly Because ultimately I want you all to connect with me Vince Not only as a brand but as a human and also to the ideas that I have Storytelling also applies off the stage on a peer-to-peer basis. I tend to go to a lot of crypto conferences and at them I will go to booths and I will stand there and I will look at the collateral I will look at the screen. I will look at the banner. I will look at the swag and I will look the person in the eye and Nothing happens. They don't engage with me and I ultimately leave and That's alarming, right? I mean it happened to me here multiple times Because if we can't connect with each other inside our crypto bubble, how can we be expected to connect with those outside of it? This is why when we staff our booths. I always try and pair up a softskiller with a hardskiller I Try to actively deploy my staff in a way that makes tactical sense this way I have that softskiller there to start the conversation and communicate and then they have that hardskiller there to turn to When needed the reverse holds true as well if that hardskiller is hitting a wall trying to communicate They can always tap in that softskiller for an assist because their skill sets compliment each other I Also tell everyone that I don't know is a valid answer Because I want to empower everyone to not be afraid of hitting a wall of not knowing the answer Look, I mean you all know this this tech is hard and we are on the bleeding edge here and I would rather someone leave with a positive personal connection then leave not having engaged with anyone at all Because this tech will change day over day hour over hour like if I'm honest But then memory of that someone that you chatted with at the new booth will hopefully live with you for years Now the idea of storytelling weaves through all of my points that I'm making today The story of increasing the amount of soft skills you employ around communication creating instead of iterating and of course connecting with others Now there's a chance you might be sitting there being like Vince what what what is all this? Are you just saying we should hire you? Absolutely, here is my Twitter my DMs are open best offers only I'm getting coastal at Brian. Please don't fire me What I am saying is that I want you to look to the soft skills for the challenges your product faces Question if those challenges have a solve from communication creativity or connection I hope that you'll also look to those team members You have that have a spark of a soft skill and help them to grow and foster that at the same time with subsequent hires Look to their soft skills instead of just the number of PRs. They can submit in a given week In crypto we are taking risks all the time on moonshots And I want you to think of the soft skills as an investment in you and your project Because sure you might not see an immediate return on that investment. I mean hell you might get that investment wrong however On the flip side if that soft skill turns into a force multiplier That ultimately on boards the next zillion users and my mother into crypto that it only benefits us all At the start of this I said that words have power and I truly believe that They just have to be the right words at the right time to make a difference and they don't have to be a lot My favorite example of this is when King Philip the second of Macadam was Conquering Greek city-states in 300 BC. He was just left right instead of conquering He sent a message to Sparta And this message read if I invade Laconia, you will be destroyed Never to rise again and the Spartan response was simple if like So many ideas and thoughts and inspiration and words packed into a single two-letter word in crypto We always say oh You know we're gonna bring more crypto users more users more moms into crypto and we we put it out of ways Right we were like oh, it's in the future This is the internet and now is 1996 right and mass adoption is a ways away. I disagree I Think the time to develop the teams that are creative and inventive who will ultimately on board the next billion users into crypto quickly Is now But only if we invest in the intangibles of the soft skills. Thank you so much everyone