GRTiQ Podcast: 99 Brian Berman

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Brian Berman (00:00:19):

People love The Graph. There’s, there’s nothing more rewarding than hearing someone’s hackathon idea at The Graph booth, and watching the light bulb go off in their head, when I tell them how they can use The Graph. That “Aha” moment is incredibly, incredibly nice to see, to happen in real time

Nick (00:01:08):

Welcome to the GRTiQ Podcast. Today, I’m speaking with Brian Berman, ecosystem brand and marketing manager at Edge & Node. As you may already know, Edge & Node is one of the core dev teams working on The Graph, and if you’ve ever read a blog post or tweet from The Graph, then you’re already familiar with Brian’s work on the marketing team at Edge & Node. During this interview, Brian shares his amazing backstory and journey into web3, and arriving at The Graph.

(00:01:35):

You may already be familiar with some of Brian’s story, as he recently gave a popular talk onstage at ETH Latam that went viral, and he received a lot of pickup on social media. But during our interview, Brian shares a lot more of his story, including his experience growing up in New York, the son of immigrants from Ukraine, along with why he decided to move from a career in traditional media, into web3.

(00:02:00):

Towards the end of the interview, Brian also introduces a new analogy that he uses, when explaining The Graph to friends and family, that I’m sure will gain some attention within The Graph community. As always, we started the conversation by talking about Brian’s educational background.

Brian Berman (00:02:17):

So I started my education in university, studying international business, with a double minor in marketing and French. And when I started university, my goal was to become a diplomat, and if not that, then maybe work at the United Nations, or a similar organization.

(00:02:35):

Growing up a child of immigrants in Brooklyn, New York, surrounded by other children of immigrants from all over the world. I was always fascinated with the cultures of other countries. I loved learning about the languages of my friends, the food they ate at home, and what made them then.

(00:02:52):

That was a big motivating factor for me, to study all things international, at university. So the diplomat route was going quite well. I received an offer to take a summer job through the Department of State at the US Embassy, in Slovenia, and I applied for my security clearance, and I was really excited to start on this career path.

(00:03:20):

And I waited and I waited, and I waited some more. And by the time the government was getting ready to make a decision on that security clearance, the summer had gone and went. So I thought to myself, “Dang, I don’t feel good about this government red tape.”

(00:03:39):

I really felt that it shouldn’t have taken that long, and it was something that I was really excited about, and I thought, “Well, the public sector just might not be for me.” So I figured, “What else can I do, with my love for international cultures and languages?”

(00:03:56):

And I thought, “Okay, well, I can work in international business.” We live in an age where corporations and businesses operate all over the world, and there is a strong demand to be cognizant and sensitive to local cultures all over the world, and understand their language, and what makes those cultures what they are.

(00:04:18):

So I thought, “Okay, this is a great path. I can go down the private sector, and I’ll still get to do what I love, and I’ll put a little marketing flavor on it.”

Nick (00:04:29):

I want to ask you a follow up about growing up the son of immigrants. Talk to us a little bit about that. You’re a first generation American son of two immigrants from where?

Brian Berman (00:04:38):

So, my parents are from a little border village on the border of Ukraine and Hungary, called [Uzgaran 00:04:46], and they grew up during the Soviet Union era. So I’m the first in my family to be born in the United States, and my family actually had to flee the Soviet Union, because my dad got in trouble with the KGB.

(00:05:05):

So growing up, I always heard these stories of government corruption, and not being able to trust authorities, and also, coupled with the need to make something of my parents’ great risk to leave everything they knew, to start a new life. And then, me having been born in the US, having to take that opportunity. And make the most of it.

(00:05:32):

Ever since I was a little kid, my parents and all their immigrant friends would always call me “Mr. President,” because I was born in the US, and that’s a prerequisite to being a president. So it was always jokingly, but that all that added a bit of pressure, to take all the risks that my parents took, and turn it into something important. So I always have that at the back of my mind.

(00:06:00):

I always think about how my parents had to live through political horrors, way worse than I’ve experienced in my life, and I’m really grateful for everything they did, to give me a different opportunity, and to not have to worry about the same things and impacts the livelihood that they had to worry about, on a daily basis.

Nick (00:06:21):

I’ve had other guests of the podcast on before, as well, that have incredible stories about immigrating to the US, and what that experience was like. I’d like to learn more about what it was like for you, and if you don’t mind, some of the lessons that taught you.

(00:06:34):

I mean, I’m curious about this idea of the American Dream, right? Is it alive? Are you an example within your own family line, of what’s possible in America? How do you think through all that?

Brian Berman (00:06:44):

My parents definitely heard the famous myth when they were over in Soviet Russia, that in America, the streets are paved with gold. And when my parents immigrated to New York, specifically Brooklyn, they definitely had the dream that was sold to them, that if they worked hard enough, they can change their place in the pecking order, they can grow and provide opportunity for their children. That was directly correlated with how hard they worked, and how they set their dreams up.

(00:07:17):

So my parents, after a couple of years, after immigrating, my mom started a business, who was a hair salon. She was also a wig maker, and she was really grateful for the US’s friendliness towards small businesses. Starting this business in the ’90s gave her a lot of opportunity. She learned a lot.

(00:07:39):

It was a different skill set than she had studied for, back in Ukraine. She studied economics, and she had a master’s, but in the US, the credits don’t always transfer. So she took another skill she just happened to have on the side, and she became an entrepreneur.

(00:07:56):

And this idea of, if you set your mind to something, if you turn what you’re good at into a business, you can dictate your own fate. And my parents worked really hard.

(00:08:10):

My dad was working 16-hour days at distribution factories. My mom was working about the same, setting up her own business, and it really paid off for my parents.

(00:08:22):

After several years’ working and saving, they were able to put a down payment on a town home in south Brooklyn. And after that, I was born in Brooklyn, New York, once they had started getting their first taste of the American Dream.

(00:08:40):

So I think it’s a really beautiful story of motivation, of a second chance at life, when you lose all hope in the old country, as they say, and to get a new beginning somewhere else.

Nick (00:08:53):

It’s an incredible story, Brian. So was it, then, a case of your folks moving to the United States, and realizing the full extent of the American Dream?

Brian Berman (00:09:02):

Yeah, so, for almost two decades, it was. For the longest time, my parents did see the fruits of their labor and they felt like they were moving into the middle class, after growing up in a very poor village in Ukraine. So it worked quite well, until the 200-2009 housing collapse.

(00:09:24):

So around this time, this was a global economic crash of the stock market, and housing market, and it affected my parents and my family significantly, to the point where our family had to sell my childhood home, and they were still extremely in debt after that.

(00:09:45):

And this was a very scary moment for me, in my life, because I was just shy of starting college. So when college rolled around, I literally had 50 bucks in my bank account. I didn’t even entertain the idea of applying to colleges with extremely high tuitions.

(00:10:05):

I ended up applying to a great college in New York, called the City University of New York, specifically, Baruch College. And this was a great school to study business, and it wasn’t in the tens of thousands of dollars for tuition. So I would not have been able to attend school if it wasn’t for FAFSA, and various scholarships that I had applied for.

(00:10:31):

So this was a tough moment, because I was starting school with nothing in my bank, nothing in my pocket. I was working on the side. I’d been working since the financial collapse. I was tutoring English and math to children, and earning maybe, 75-100 bucks a week, depending on how many hours I took on, while balancing school.

(00:10:57):

For most of my college years, I was surviving on 7-11 taquitos and bananas, and the occasional free coffee reward, and just getting free food at the student life organizations on campus. And I just focused on my studies.

(00:11:16):

I thought to myself, “Well, it’s quite unfortunate that the American Dream didn’t fully pan out for my parents, but they’ve made it this far, our family has made it this far. I’m in good health, and I’m not going to squander this opportunity, no matter how dark it gets in my life.”

(00:11:33):

So I really put all my energy towards school. And my career. And filling up as many of the hours of my day as I could, learning, helping others, connecting with student organizations, taking on leadership roles that’s cool. And working on the side.

Nick (00:11:53):

Brian, it’s actually a hard story to hear, and remarkable that we’re speaking today, given all of that.

(00:11:59):

Before we move on and talk a little bit more about your story, I do want to ask the follow-up about your parents. And how the story ended for them. Were they able to rebound, to kind of bounce back? I

Brian Berman (00:12:08):

I think that’s a great question, because it doesn’t get discussed often enough. I think the reality is that most people are still suffering from that financial collapse. The only ones who have really been able to recover, in my opinion, are folks that have had large amounts of wealth before, or people that have worked really hard and created their own businesses.

(00:12:29):

So my mother actually ended up passing away the final semester that I was in college before I graduated, and my father is now retired, on Social Security income. So part of what drives me is knowing how many millions of families like mine there are around the world, who haven’t been able to just rebound, and put entirely behind them.

(00:12:59):

And it’s a big driving force for me, to seize the opportunity as much as they can, and to learn as much as they can, and to prevent similar circumstances from falling upon my future children and my family.

Nick (00:13:16):

Well, I’m sorry to hear that, Brian. Obviously, you always want to hear that the story ends well for everybody. We all want that Hollywood ending.

(00:13:23):

I’m curious, then, what the lessons are here for you. What did you learn, through seeing your parents go through all this, and being the son of immigrants?

Brian Berman (00:13:33):

So in the US, we talk a lot about the immigrant work ethic, and I think that’s very real. I saw it in my parents. I saw how little they slept, and how much they worked, to make sure that their children’s livelihood was taken care of.

(00:13:47):

And I learned many, many lessons from them growing up, that were shaped almost entirely by their experience, having lived one life in a very oppressive regime, and then, living a completely different life in the US. And a lot of these lessons revolved around the immigrant work ethic, and setting goals for yourself, and visualizing how you want to progress your life, and setting habits that get you there every day.

Nick (00:15:40):

Brian, thank you for sharing so much about your backstory here. It’s truly remarkable.

(00:15:44):

You end up, after graduating, deciding to pursue a career in marketing, of all things. So why did you decide to pursue a career in marketing?

Brian Berman (00:15:53):

Sure. So I’ll start with my passion for learning languages. Ever since I was very young, I’ve always been fascinated with language, and especially, the English language.

(00:16:05):

I remember, when I was four years old, just before starting kindergarten, it blew my mind that the word “city” was not pronounced “kitty.” And that fascination followed me all throughout grade school. In third grade, I was reading books for high schoolers.

(00:16:21):

In middle school, I was part of the school’s creative writing program, writing short stories. In high school, my favorite part of English class was studying Latin and Greek root words, and etymology. And this was imprinted upon me from a very young age.

(00:16:38):

I’d always hear my mom repeating a phrase that was common in her village, and it would translate to, “As many languages as you know, that’s how many times you are a person.” And she was able to grow a client base for her salon and wig business, for immigrants from all different countries. And she was able to connect with them on a deeper level.

(00:17:02):

And I always thought that was so magical, when you know somebody’s culture, their background, and you know their language, it’s almost like a secret password, and secret lens into their lives. That, to me, was always such a magical force.

(00:17:19):

To this day, when I can pick up a phrase or a couple of words from a language that a friend that I’ve just befriended speaks, I feel a special connection with that person. Language is the lens through which you interpret the world. So not only did I want to learn multiple languages, I knew, from a very young age, that language was a powerful tool.

(00:17:43):

So in school, when I was studying all things international, and I knew I wanted to go down the private sector, and not governments, the classes that I had the most fun in, and that I was consistently performing well in, were marketing. I also got involved in student life organizations, and I was always put in charge of marketing.

(00:18:08):

In high school, I taught myself how to use Photoshop. Illustrator. InDesign, so I was able to pick up freelance work doing design. So, combine design, copywriting, and a natural love for long-term planning, and you’ve got the ingredients for a marketing career.

Nick (00:18:26):

I love that, Brian. It makes a lot of sense. So talk to us about your journey into marketing. When did you get to work, and what were some of the things you were working on, as you pursued your career?

Brian Berman (00:18:34):

Around the time I realized that I was enjoying marketing. I started applying for jobs around my sophomore year. I worked all throughout my college years, and I wanted to pivot away from my tutoring job, where I was teaching English and math, and take advantage of more of my marketing skills.

(00:18:56):

I found that the media industry was very present in New York City, and coincidentally, hiring for a lot of marketing jobs. I wanted to look for a media organization that cared about international and current affairs, that had offices around the world. And that really informed my search for where I’d work.

(00:19:19):

So I started my marketing career in the media industry, working for a UK-based publisher, called Dennis Publishing. And in the beginning, I worked primarily on two brands, The Week, which is a current events magazine and website covering international news, also known as the week.com, and Mental Floss, which is a fun pop culture brand, also known as mentalfloss.com.

(00:19:46):

So I always joke, in my career, that I went from working in print and Web1, to working in web2, with social media marketing, and then, naturally moving to web3. All throughout my career, I worked on integrated marketing, so I had to be a bit of a generalist, and know how to operate across multiple channels and contexts.

(00:20:06):

So I had to know a bit about event marketing, e-mail marketing, direct mail, partnership marketing, affiliate marketing, mobile marketing, and paid advertising and content marketing, and a couple others that end with marketing.

Nick (00:20:22):

Well, Brian, I’m sure you know, media gets a lot of criticism nowadays, and I’m just curious about that experience that you had. Did you learn anything about that industry, and how it worked?

Brian Berman (00:20:34):

Well, I actually quite loved working in the media industry for the longest time, because it felt like a never ending learning opportunity. In the first half of my time in the media, I worked on current events, I had a finger on the pulse of everything that was happening around the world.

(00:20:48):

In the second half of my media career, I worked in entertainment, and had all the inside scoop for upcoming TV shows, movies, video games. I got to interview childhood pop culture heroes to me, like the voice actor of SpongeBob, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, of X-Files, Keanu Reeves.

(00:21:07):

Later on, I interviewed folks like Dan Harmon and Justin Rowland, the creators of Rick and Marty. So that was really fun, and I enjoyed it until I wasn’t able to do it anymore. COVID rolled around, and I didn’t get to do any interesting interviews, or red carpets. I was stuck at home.

(00:21:27):

So a lot of the negative thoughts that I was exposed to about the media industry started coming out from under the carpet, and I realized two pretty damning things about the industry. Number one, I realized the only thing that matters in digital media, especially, is page views. So the entire media industry is incentivized to keep your attention for as long as possible, so that they can serve you ads. Advertising revenue is the bread and butter of the media industry. And how do you get people to pay more attention?

(00:22:01):

Well, you make things more exciting or infuriating than they really are. You serve people junk food content. You turn journalism into cheap, plentiful dopamine hits.

(00:22:13):

Another thing I realized, number two, a big aspect of the media industry that made me frustrated, was that massive monopolistic conglomerates were owning more and more of everything that you watch, hear, and read.

(00:22:27):

Companies like Comcast, Disney, Warner Brothers, Discovery, Paramount Global, Amazon News Corp, Fox, these companies overwhelmingly own the vast majority of the media that at least folks in the United States are exposed to, but many folks around the world, as well.

(00:22:45):

And in the past few years, you have billionaires buying newspapers, like Jeff Bezos with the Washington Post, and they buy social media too. Elon Musk bought Twitter, as we know. So these two aspects together, the maligned incentives of the media, and its shrinking class of owners, that left a bad taste in my mouth.

Nick (00:23:07):

So all this is going on. You’re working in media, you’re obviously having these observations, but you’re carving out a career/.

(00:23:12):

At some point, you become aware of crypto, however, and I presume that changes the history here of your own life. When was that, and what were the first impressions you had?

Brian Berman (00:23:23):

So I first heard about Bitcoin in 2011, just as I was starting college. I had friends, and friends of friends, who were using Bitcoin to buy special brownies on the dark web. I knew that all sorts of things were happening on the dark web, like stolen credit cards being sold and paid for in Bitcoin.

(00:23:45):

I even remember installing Tor Browser, just to see what this dark web, the headlines were warning me, was really about, and I’m not going to lie. After a couple of minutes I thought, “Yeah, looking at this stuff has got land me in prison.” I saw some pretty scary things, and I figured, “Okay, Bitcoin’s for criminals, and I should stay away.”

(00:24:09):

And I stayed away for many years, up until 2015. That’s when I bought a tiny, insignificant fraction of Bitcoin. I was broke in college, but I needed access to the latest version of Adobe Photoshop, and it was cheaper to pirate it, than pay for it legitimately.

(00:24:27):

And I didn’t pay much attention to crypto again, until the bull run of 2017, and that’s when I really started following the news cycle every couple months, until late 2020, which is when I started reading about crypto on a weekly basis.

Nick (00:24:42):

So you’re learning about crypto, your appetite for what it is and how it works is softening. You’re starting to see that there’s some value here.

(00:24:49):

At the same time, it sounds like you’re becoming disillusioned a little bit with the media industry, and some of the things that you’re seeing happen there. So what happens next?

Brian Berman (00:24:58):

You’re absolutely right. There was a big overlap between learning more about crypto, and becoming quite disillusioned and demoralized with my media industry career.

(00:25:06):

So about a year and a half deep into COVID, I was not feeling good about the work I was doing. I felt really upset, because I saw the media as a vector of power, because it disseminates truth, and therefore, it shapes what we perceive to be true about the world. And that, in turn, informs the decisions we make in life.

(00:25:27):

And it felt wrong to me that the media was becoming increasingly centralized and owned by a few ever-growing giants. So crypto went from being a hobby, and something I checked up on, to more and more, becoming an olive branch, into a new perspective on the world.

Nick (00:25:48):

So what do you do? Start applying for jobs, or researching opportunities for marketing people in crypto? What happens?

Brian Berman (00:25:54):

Yeah, so around this time, I was checking LinkedIn almost every day, and quite often, I saw Tegan Klein, [inaudible 00:26:02], posting about The Graph. Tegan and I actually went to Baruch College together, and we were classmates for a couple of classes, and we often studied with friends at the college library, late into the night.

(00:26:15):

We took all our exams and projects very seriously. I knew Tegan was really driven, uniquely smart, and on the cutting edge of tech. So I thought, “Okay, if Tegan’s talking about this, let me dig a little bit deeper into this Graph thing.”

Nick (00:26:30):

Well, despite crypto being a hobby for you, and something you’re checking out every day, and even kind of looking at articles, I presume at this stage you don’t know a ton about The Graph. You probably don’t know a ton about Edge & Node.

(00:26:42):

So take us back in time here. What were your thoughts about these things, as you encountered them for the first time?

Brian Berman (00:26:48):

Yeah, so I had a cursory knowledge of The Graph in very early 2021. I am pretty sure I saw it on Coinbase. I definitely looked, went on the website, and I’ll be honest, my immediate reaction was, “Well, what is a decentralized open APIs? Who’s making these open APIs? It’s not a company, right?”

(00:27:10):

And I kept latching onto that indexing keyword. And when we now describe The Graph as the indexing and query layer of web3 I think that’s what slowly began to make it click for me.

Nick (00:27:23):

So what’s your takeoff point to going to work in web3, and finding a role at Edge & Node?

Brian Berman (00:27:28):

Yeah, so around May 2021, I see so many posts in my LinkedIn feed about working in web3, working in the crypto industry. I saw a lot of posts from former high school classmates, former college classmates, and I started entertaining the idea of potentially doing a career shift.

(00:27:50):

Around that time, I saw a job opening on The Graph’s website for a community manager in The Graph Ecosystem, and made sense to me, because I had spent so many years working on social media marketing, and community engagement and community growth. So I thought this was would be a natural bridge for an industry change for me.

(00:28:14):

I applied to that job, and on that same day, I also sent Tegan a message to talk a little bit more about the role. But in that conversation, I found out that the role was already filled. It just wasn’t taken down the day I applied, and that’s fine. So it wasn’t meant to be at the time.

(00:28:35):

I still kept a close eye on what was happening in The Graph Ecosystem. I was also applying to jobs at other web3 and crypto companies. And a little while later, a marketing role opened up at Edge & Node. I looked at the description, and it really felt up my alley, working on content marketing, and a lot of the integrated marketing.

(00:28:58):

And yeah, I thought, “This sounds great.” So I immediately applied, and what followed was a round of several back to back interviews, over the course of a week.

Nick (00:29:10):

What was that experience like interviewing for a role in web3? You’re learning about crypto, you’re learning about The Graph, Edge & Node, now you’re getting interviewed for a marketing role in this emerging industry. Tell us about that experience.

Brian Berman (00:29:23):

So this was a massive turning point in my life, and a big risk. I was jumping into something that I was unfamiliar with, from a day to day working perspective, and I was entertaining a big industry and career shift. So I wanted to make sure that I had read up as much as possible on what I was getting myself into.

(00:29:47):

I also wanted to confirm that this is where my passions were. Because I’d built this eight-ish year media career in marketing at the time, and I was at the proverbial fork in the road, and I could have continued on, with a senior career in marketing.

(00:30:04):

But here I was, with the idea that I’m just going to start fresh, and work in something way more technical, than I’ve ever been exposed to before. So, reading about The Graph, and learning more about The Graph in this time, it was one of those things that, the more I learned about it, the deeper I wanted to go down the rabbit hole.

(00:30:25):

So, before I even had my first interview at Edge & Node, I was doing tons of research. And everything I read just made me hungrier about web3, and The Graph, and how The Graph service web3. I even compiled a 22-page-long list of notes on how The Graph works, how different dabs and developers use The Graph.

(00:30:49):

I was constantly looking at The Graph’s website, and I was reading how web3 and The Graph could impact the world, by changing things like financial institutions, governance, voting systems, social media, philanthropy. So that really planted a seed in my head, and stuck with me with each interview round.

(00:31:10):

And when I had my final interview with Yaniv, co-founder of The Graph, that seed blossomed, and my mind was blown. His passion for web3 somehow tunneled through my laptop screen, right into my soul.

(00:31:27):

And whatever I thought I knew about web3, whatever I brought up that I said, “Hey, Yaniv, isn’t isn’t like IPFS cool,” and stuff like that? His response was always, an enthusiastic, “Yeah, and that’s just the beginning.”

(00:31:45):

His optimism and hope for how web3 and blockchain technology could impact the future really sealed the deal for me, and made me even more excited to work at Edge & Node.

Nick (00:31:57):

So Brian, we’re talking today, because you accepted that role, and went to work on marketing at Edge & Node. Talk to us a little bit about some of the things you’ve been working on.

Brian Berman (00:32:05):

What I love about working at Edge & Node is, I’ve really been able to use my love of language, and put it to work on a daily basis. And I really love that I’m able to oversee the content production process, and all sorts of content marketing across social media, blogs, e-mail, videos.

(00:32:25):

It was really exciting to me that all the passions that I developed over university, and my media career, I was able to translate to in a completely new context. And as somebody who loves to learn new things, I often learn by taking new things in, and then, writing them out in my own words. I found that immensely helpful for this marketing role.

(00:32:49):

One of the things that I’m really proud of having contributed to Edge & Node was creating a style guide for how the gGraph communicates as a brand. So part of what makes a brand a brand is consistency. You can’t have a brand that’s Gen Z in the morning, saying, “For real, for real,” and then, a Boomer in the evening, complaining about avocado toast.

(00:33:12):

Brands build value, when people can depend on them, and that builds trust. If you’re building a brand, you want some guiding principles, not only for yourself, but also, the future generations that are going to work on that brand. And as The Graph continues to decentralize, I hope some of these core tenets will be improved upon, while preserving that high trust character of The Graph. And that’s something that’s really deeply important to me, and I’m really grateful for having had the opportunity to work on that.

(00:33:44):

And another thing that I’ve been working on is unifying The Graph’s core devs together, to work on marketing initiatives with one another. So The Graph, as a decentralized protocol, is constantly being improved by seven teams. And I think that’s beautiful, because you have so many diverse backgrounds, from so many different companies and teams, that shape how the protocol evolves.

(00:34:11):

You have folks who have talents from a wide range of backgrounds, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, economics, robotics, communications, business development, science. It’s amazing to see all these different talents coming together, to work on a technology that’s changing the world.

Nick (00:34:36):

I’d be curious to know, Brian, how you overcame this constraint, whether it’s perceived or real. I’ll let you decide, but this constraint of only technical people, even marketers, only technical marketers can move into web3, and make an impact?

Brian Berman (00:34:50):

When I started considering the career jump to web3, I saw the same sentiment over and over again on LinkedIn. You don’t need to be a developer, you don’t need to learn how to code, in order to contribute to the internet of the future. web3 needs designers, copywriters, lawyers, videographers, researchers.

(00:35:11):

I saw a lot of those kinds of posts, many coming from Tegan, as well. What really sealed the deal for me was speaking to Noelle, the marketing lead at Edge & Node.

(00:35:23):

In my interview with her, I learned about all the incredible work she was doing to educate people on web3 and The Graph, all without writing a single line of code. What really inspired me was her leading by example, and showing me how you can turn a web2 career into something entirely new, use your existing skills, and continue building upon them, for a brand new technology.

Nick (00:35:47):

Well, I’ve had the opportunity to have Noelle on the podcast before, so I want to encourage listeners to check out that episode, very popular within the community. But in your case here, I’m curious how you leveled up, right?

(00:35:58):

So I’m remembering stories from Noelle, and other guests of the podcast, on how they did make that jump. How did you educate yourself, and level up, so to speak, on your web3 crypto knowledge, so that you could go to work?

Brian Berman (00:36:10):

GRTiQ Podcast, baby. No, but in all honesty, the GRTiQ Podcast. I also watched a ton of YouTube videos. And another thing that helped me was calling close friends, who I knew were involved in crypto for a couple of years. So those folks that I saw from high school and college posting on LinkedIn, I DM’d them, I set up calls with them.

(00:36:38):

I think it’s extremely valuable to hear what web3 and crypto is, from folks who have been in it for a couple of years, and then, to try to summarize that back to them, in your own words, and seeing how your comprehension of it lines up. In the weeks before I interviewed at Edge & Node, I was genuinely listening to the GRTiQ Podcast, about three hours a night.

(00:37:02):

I was like, “Wow, this teenager makes a really good podcast, I’m learning so much.” And I was loading up some other podcasts and videos, and taking notes like a madman, and like I said, 22 pages of notes.

Nick (00:37:21):

Well, Brian, I don’t know how to feel about that whole teenager bit there. I’m raising a couple of teenagers, and in some ways, that’s both ironic, and a little painful, potentially.

(00:37:29):

But I do want to ask this question about the differences in marketing in web2, and what you were doing when you were working in media, and what you’ve been doing at Edge & Node in web3. How are those experiences different?

Brian Berman (00:37:44):

Sure. The marketing work at Edge & Node is a thousand percent more organic, and significantly less of an arbitrary numbers game. It’s way more of an impact game. Working on marketing at Edge & Node, I’ve connected with people on a deeper level.

(00:38:00):

I spent way more time in producing content, editing content, and in engaging community members, attending events and teaching people. It’s way less about throwing the right amount of money onto a Facebook ad campaign, with the right targeting, than it is about making a craft out of language, and educating the world. It’s a stark contrast to web2 media.

(00:38:25):

One big problem I had with web2 media was SEO Farming. In web2, you have content farms that write entire articles, that are informed by trending Google search terms, often for nonsense.

(00:38:41):

I’ll give you one example in the entertainment industry. I recently saw this dark comedy called The Menu, and I, like many others, I’m sure, right after the credits started rolling, I Googled, “Does the menu have a post=credit scene?” And I saw thousands and thousands of articles, 500 to a thousand words, maybe more, all taking way too many sentences to give you the answer, which is, “No.” So, hundreds or thousands of words for a question that can be answered in one.

(00:39:17):

And that’s because Google and other search engines, or centralized authorities, can decide what makes an article trustworthy, or worthy of being indexed and shown in the results page. And it seems to me the sweet spot, at least right now, in the algorithm, is articles that are at least 500 words long.

(00:39:34):

So you have people bending over backwards to stretch the word “No” into a really long article, in hopes that you might click on that article, and get served an ad. And they get paid for that.

(00:39:45):

With web3, it’s not about impressions and page views. In web3 unlike web2, people aren’t just entries on a spreadsheet. In web3, they’re human beings. Their goals and their dreams matter. And I think about this quote from Paul Graham quite a lot, about doing things that don’t scale. And I think that’s really true in web3 marketing.

(00:40:10):

I think, when you speak to the people that are building sun-Ggraphs, building on The Graph, working in web3, and you get a deeper understanding of what makes them tick, what their passions are, how they want to improve the world, that’s so much more meaningful than just finding out the right copy and clickbait-y image, to get somebody to click on your page.

(00:40:33):

Marketing in web3 is way more about connecting the people using the tech, rather than trying to exploit them.

Nick (00:40:40):

Speaking of this move you made from web2 media, to web3, Brian, you recently gave a talk at ETH Latam, and it got a ton of pickup. There’s a video online, where listeners can go on and watch it.

(00:40:51):

But you got a lot of accolades and interest in your story, and the way that you talked about your move into web3. I’m curious what the main message of that presentation was, for listeners who haven’t seen it or heard it yet?

Brian Berman (00:41:04):

So presumably, you’re listening to this, because you’re either working in web3, or trying to get deeper into it, get a better understanding of it. My main takeaway from that talk would be, follow what’s important to you, and figure out how you can use web3 to get there.

(00:41:18):

In my case, sharing truth was important to me in the media industry, but I learned the media industry was not the best vehicle to do that. So I turned to blockchains, public ledgers of transparent data, which was better, but not quite good enough yet. The data was messy, hard to understand, hard to read by humans.

(00:41:39):

So then, I discovered The Graph, and I saw that anyone could use The Graph to present this transparent data, in a way that meant something to people, and not machines. So my advice on top of that, is talk about your passions in The Graph community.

(00:41:55):

The people in this community, in this space are super helpful, always willing to brainstorm, and you might find a really motivated and intelligent person, or group of people, that really connect with your vision and dream, and help you find a way to build it, with new, decentralized technology like The Graph.

Nick (00:42:14):

I want to double click on that. You’re a marketing guy, you’ve written a lot of copy in your life, and done some advertising work, all of these things.

(00:42:21):

Let’s hear how you then pitch or describe The Graph, to friends or family who may not be familiar with web3, or what The Graph is?

Brian Berman (00:42:29):

Yeah, so I really love sharing with my friends and family what The Graph does, what it’s about. I tend to start with the fact that we’re living in the Information Age, we’re accessing, organizing and analyzing data is extremely important, in almost everything that we do.

(00:42:46):

Let’s say, with this explanation, we’re assuming that the starting point is, we know that blockchains are public ledgers of transaction data. They’ve existed for about 14 years, and they’re not going away. They’re just generating more data.

(00:43:00):

In fact, in the past five seconds you’ve been listening, all the active blockchains in the world just recorded tens of thousands of transactions. That’s a lot of data. But there’s also another important thing to remember here.

(00:43:11):

The data on blockchains is completely unsorted, other than happening at a certain place in time. So if you wanted to get anything meaningful out of that data, it’d be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

(00:43:26):

Blockchains are read optimized, not write optimized, and that’s where The Graph comes in. The Graph, through open source APIs called subgraphs, organizes blockchain data, so you can find exactly what you need from blockchains. And everyone needs data, if they want to build meaningful applications on top of blockchains.

(00:43:48):

The Graph organizes that data, so that people can display it, so people like you and me could actually browse and understand blockchain data, across tens of thousands of applications in this new era of the decentralized internet. To better explain how The Graph does it, imagine you have a massive swimming pool that was somehow constantly getting deeper.

(00:44:12):

Now imagine that every minute, a truck comes and dumps a truckload of M&Ns into that pool, or you might call them Smarties in other countries, and that pool is constantly filling up. That’s what blockchains look like. They’re like expanding pools, because more data can infinitely be added to them.

(00:44:29):

So the M&Ms represent data that is added every time a block is validated by the network of a blockchain. And let’s say you’ve been tasked with the job to fish out all the orange M&Ms in this pool. Let’s say those orange M&Ms represent DeFi data.

(00:44:46):

So you could dive into that pool of M&Ms, and get totally lost, and probably get a sugar high, and fail at even getting close to retrieving all those M&Ms. But imagine you had a magic net that was so powerful, all you had to do was take one scoop at the pool, and it’d pick up all the orange M&Ms, and filter everything else out.

(00:45:08):

That’s The Graph. The graph is a magic filter for helping you find exactly what you need on the blockchain.

Nick (00:45:45):

Brian, I’ve had a lot of guests on the podcast that have come up with great analogies to explain what The Graph is, and I’m now certain that a new one has emerged here, with the swim pool idea here.

(00:45:54):

It’s brilliant, and it really captures the essence of what’s going on. I want to know about your experience at attending so many different events.

(00:46:01):

So in your role at Edge & Node, you have been at different events. We mentioned your talk at ETH Latam. You’ve been all over the world.

(00:46:09):

What have you learned about The Graph, people using The Graph, or people curious about The Graph, by going to all these different events?

Brian Berman (00:46:16):

So one of the first things I noticed was how optimistic and full of energy this industry is. It’s a breath of fresh air from the doom and gloom I was constantly hearing about in my old media career.

(00:46:28):

There’s so many people that work on problems that are important to them, like reducing our carbon footprint, or creating resources and content that can’t be censored by governments or large corporations. And there are people that are incredibly intelligent. That are developing technologies for use cases that don’t even exist yet.

(00:46:50):

And another thing I’ve learned at all these events is that people love The Graph. There’s nothing more rewarding than hearing someone’s hackathon idea at The Graph booth, and watching the light bulb go off in their head, when I tell them how they can use The Graph.

(00:47:06):

That “Aha” moment is incredibly, incredibly nice to see, to happen in real time. And if they already know about The Graph, wonderful, I love hearing what they’re building with it.

(00:47:18):

If they don’t know about it yet, it’s really inspiring to see how motivating it is for them, once they learn about it.

Nick (00:47:25):

Brian, one thing I’ve learned in interviews like this, is that the industry’s moving very quickly. It’s certainly true at The Graph. How have things changed at The Graph, since you accepted that marketing role over a year ago?

Brian Berman (00:47:37):

What I love to see these days is the amount of energy going towards improving The Graph’s decentralized network, and the amount of interests from projects building across all sorts of chains, that want to use sun-Graphs on a decentralized network, indexed by hundreds of Indexers around the world.

(00:47:58):

Even at hackathons, people come up to me and say, “Hey, when is this chain going to be supported?” To me, that represents a really nice narrative shift from all the things that were changing in The Graph Ecosystem, to a more unified, common goal, enabling decentralized indexing and querying for the multi-chain feature.

(00:48:18):

So I would say, that’s probably the biggest theme that has changed since the beginning, and it’s really inspiring to see people want to use decentralized infrastructure, beyond the connotations that come with just saying “decentralized,” but also for the reasons that are enabled by decentralization, making their applications more robust, more reliable, more secure, using APIs, that don’t have centralized points of failures.

(00:48:48):

It’s a big departure from APIs that the internet got used to in the web2 era, or even through centralized indexing services that exist now.

Nick (00:49:00):

As I think about the questions that listeners would probably want to ask someone like yourself, someone involved in the marketing, and doing a lot of these different announcements and initiatives, that we either read about on Twitter, or in the Discord, I imagine the question they’d want to know is, how do you stay on top of everything?

(00:49:17):

It seems like within The Graph Ecosystem, there’s always an new announcement, a new initiative, all this great news coming out of the community. But in addition to that, the industry is moving at top speed.

(00:49:28):

You go to sleep and wake up, and there’s new announcements at the industry level, from partners, different networks, so much going on. So how do you, as somebody kind of working right at the front line of all of this, how do you stay organized, oriented on everything that’s going on at such a fast pace?

Brian Berman (00:49:45):

I think it’s important for everyone to think about where they invest in limited time, when learning about and getting updates for any topic that is important to them. And that can come in many forms.

(00:49:59):

It’s your choice how much time you want to spend, leisure scrolling on Instagram, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I do it all the time. I’m also on top of the Dankus memes, so DM me and I’ll send you some.

(00:50:12):

But when it comes to web3 and The Graph Ecosystem, I think about which channels in Discord, which topics on Twitter I can follow? How can I impact my personal Twitter algorithm, by following and un-following certain accounts, or engaging certain things that are suggested to my feed? So that’s one example.

(00:50:32):

But think about the news aggregators that are useful to you out there. Reddit is a great one. Think about specific industry-wide accounts on Twitter, like Messari, or Ethereum Daily is a great one for the Ethereum ecosystem. So try to tailor the things that you invest your time in, to correspond with the things that you care about.

Nick (00:50:58):

So Brian, you’ve been in the space for a while now. You made the big move out of media into web3. What makes you optimistic about the future of web3?

Brian Berman (00:51:07):

Number one, it’s the people who are working on it. So you know the old saying, “You are the average of your five closest friends?” Well, if you average web3’s most active participants and contributors, you get a really awesome, well-rounded person, who just wants the best for the world, and everyone around them.

(00:51:25):

And the people I get to work with every day at Edge & Edge, and The Graph Foundation, and the people who use subgraphs for their projects? I mean, it’s just completely surrounded by optimism, and hope for a better future that’s enabled by this technology.

(00:51:41):

And the premise that everyone’s operating upon isn’t that, “Oh, the world is going to end very soon, and the world is over by 2050,” or something like that. The reality is that everyone thinks that this is a new, positive beginning for society, and that optimism is contagious.

(00:52:02):

Everyone is working on things that previously could not be solved by centralized technology. The opportunity enabled by blockchain tech, and by decentralized applications and decentralized governances, it opens up a whole new world of opportunity and transparency, which … We’ve seen the opposite of those things, opaque, closed door decision making, being deeply disturbing for our society, and having terrible consequences, in countries all over the world.

(00:52:35):

So I think this beautiful, borderless technology opens up a new era for people, and allows us to collaborate at scale that goes beyond cultural background, national background, religious background. It allows people to contribute ideas, without having to put their identities first. And I think that’s something really beautiful, enabled by web3.

Nick (00:53:03):

Brian, you have an interesting perspective on The Graph. You handle a lot of the marketing at Edge & Node, so you’re touching a lot of different things, and you get to meet a lot of the community, as you travel around to different events.

(00:53:14):

What makes you optimistic about The Graph itself, or the community, or the ecosystem? What do you see, from your perspective, about the people working and building in The Graph?

Brian Berman (00:53:24):

When I speak to people in The Graph Ecosystem, it’s a stark contrast from a lot of the conversations I had in my old career. The people in The Graph Ecosystem are solutions-oriented. They’re not defeatists. They’re Not focused on the negatives.

(00:53:40):

We as a species have a lot that we have to fix. Our society isn’t perfect, but I think it’s important to be able to both acknowledge that, and work on ways to improve things.

(00:53:53):

Because if you’re just complaining about how doom and gloom things are, and how you think that maybe the world is going to end in a couple of decades, decades, that approach doesn’t spark optimism or hope. You see a stark contrast with people working in The Graph Ecosystem.

(00:54:13):

The projects that they’re building, the causes that are important to them, they truly believe that we’re working with the technology that can get us to accomplish the things that we’ve been blocked on, for so many hundreds of years as a species. To hear their journeys, and to hear their stories of why they work so hard, and why these things are so important to them, it’s a contagious sense of optimism.

(00:54:40):

So I’m grateful with everyone I get to speak to in The Graph Ecosystem, be it the people I work directly with at Edge & Node, or the people that are using subgraphs to build their projects. The common thread I find is that they think we can make the world better, with this technology.

Nick (00:54:58):

So I want to build on that a little bit. Brian, you probably know, whenever I have a guest that’s migrated from one industry into web3, I always like to ask them this question about, when they look back on their prior industry, do they see areas where, blockchain, web3, The Graph, whatever it is, would make an impact, or improve what they were working on?

(00:55:17):

In your case, you were working in media. When you apply that blockchain web3 lens to traditional media, how would things be made better?

Brian Berman (00:55:27):

I definitely think there are ways web3 can make media better. I also think there is plenty of room for improvement. So let’s start with the better.

(00:55:36):

We have decentralized publishing protocols, like [mar.xyz 00:55:41], and social protocols like Orbis, and these allow you to disseminate information without the overreach of centralized entities. You could publish things that could potentially be problematic in some jurisdictions around the world.

(00:55:56):

Let’s say you want to expose corruption of your local government, or let’s say your government has outlawed abortion, and you want to share abortion resources for people in need. You could share these ideas anonymously.

(00:56:08):

But outside of the types of things you could publish, there’s another element here, in which that you own the content that you publish. So in the traditional media landscape, whatever you publish is owned by the person you work for, the company you work for, or an all too powerful book publisher, or distributor.

(00:56:30):

When you have web3 media, you flatten the distribution channels. And now the people who create the content are also the people responsible for disseminating it, and reaping the rewards for that content.

(00:56:44):

That gives you a lot of more freedom, because if you’re not happy with, let’s say, the interface you’re using to publish this content, you can verifiably take everything you’ve written as public record on the blockchain, and move that to another interface that you’re happier with. It removes vendor lock-in, which is a big problem in traditional web2 media, whether it be social media, or traditional media.

(00:57:11):

So I think it unlocks a lot of opportunity for the types of things you want to publish, how what you publish is tied to what you earn from what you publish, and your recognition for what you publish. I think it’s also going to enable use cases that we haven’t even thought of yet.

(00:57:30):

But I also want to touch upon what’s worse for now. So we don’t quite yet have a good curation system. We don’t have a really good system of bring your own algorithm, although I think that is a big opportunity that we can improve upon.

(00:57:45):

As I said earlier, web2 media quite often has the incentive of ad revenue, and that fuels shock value, and emotional content. But how do we incentivize publishing useful knowledge that can help people, educate people?

(00:58:01):

Another issue that we have is web3 Media interfaces aren’t the most user-friendly right now. But that’s why I have high hopes for projects like Geo, that organize information, without needing to have a high level of crypto knowledge.

(00:58:17):

I’d be really curious to see web3 interfaces and protocols that are powered entirely by decentralized infrastructure, but don’t require a high level of knowledge of how to operate with wallets, or interact in what’s traditionally thought of more high-tech settings, but for a lower tech and purpose.

Nick (00:58:37):

Brian, I just have a couple of final questions for you before I ask you the GRTiQ 10. So the first question I want to ask you, as we come to an end here, is about being a digital nomad.

(00:58:47):

In preparing for this interview, we talked a little bit about your background, and some of the things you’ve been doing, traveling. I don’t think a lot of listeners know what a digital nomad is. So can you share what that is, and then what it is you’ve been up to?

Brian Berman (00:58:59):

Yeah, of course. So a digital nomad is somebody whose job is able to be done 100% remotely, that isn’t entirely dependent on being physically in the same area as your colleagues, or even in the same time zone. If your work can get done on a computer, somewhere in the world, as long as you have a reliable and fast WiFi connection, you can be a digital nomad.

(00:59:23):

In my experience, I’m extremely blessed that my fiance and I have been able to be digital nomads for a year. So far this year, we’ve worked out of 12 countries. and counting. It’s an amazing point in human history, where you can be productive, without having to occupy the same physical space, or even time zone as the people you work with.

(00:59:45):

So I feel extremely fortunate, to have been able to do this, and I think going down the digital nomad path is something extremely eye-opening and amazing learning opportunity for people who, like myself. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, and I’ve been in New York my entire life. So prior to this digital nomad adventure, outside of the occasional trip or vacation, I wasn’t really exposed to the different lifestyles around the world. And I learned a lot about the various cultures from the countries that I worked out of.

(01:00:22):

I saw firsthand people’s relationship with work, with their communities, and I think it’s extremely important to step out of your comfort zone. Even if you love your home, and you love your country. I think it’s important to witness different walks of life firsthand, beyond the context of, “Oh, I’m on a vacation, and I’m going to selectively choose the things that bring me the most joy and pleasure.”

(01:00:48):

I think it’s an amazing opportunity to actually live like a local. You have your time to work, but you also have your time to do grocery shopping, to see a local show, or to explore a park nearby, and get to know people who have lived their entire lives.

(01:01:05):

So I think it’s an incredible thing we can do on this modern day and age. And what better industry to do it in, than web3? Which, quite often, remote is the first option.

Nick (01:01:17):

So 12 countries, and counting. I got to ask, and I ask this sometimes on the podcast, for anyone that wants to travel and see the world/.

(01:01:23):

Of the 12 countries you visited so far, what’s the one every listener needs to make sure they go see?

Brian Berman (01:01:29):

So everyone listening to this podcast needs to visit Buenos Aires, in Argentina. It is an amazing case study om the willpower of a people who’ve lost faith in the government, but took things into their own hands, and even operating parallel economies in crypto, all the while preserving a beautiful, friendly, welcoming culture. I have not felt as welcome anywhere else in the world than I have in Buenos Aires.

(01:01:55):

The people are extremely warm, I would say, in Buenos Aires, most [Spanish language 01:02:01] are optimistic, even if they’re a little cynical, and I think it just adds to the culture, and it’s a wonderful thing to see that optimism, in spite of difficulty with the government.

(01:02:11):

If you go, I have a list of things you have to eat, and they include bife de chorizo, provoleta, alfajores, and [Spanish language 01:02:19]. And of course, you have to drink the local vermouth.

Nick (01:02:24):

Brian, the final question I want to ask is about this multifaceted, multi-talented approach. You have to just about everything, right?

(01:02:30):

You’ve learned a whole bunch of different languages, you have a love for international culture, for food, you have a lot of hobbies, like what is your favorite hobby? Which one of these things do you derive the most excitement or joy from?

Brian Berman (01:02:43):

I would say my favorite hobby is learning language. And to call back to that quote I brought up earlier. “As many languages as you know, that’s how many times you are a person.” I think there’s so much truth in that.

(01:02:55):

I love learning language, because it gives me a new perspective on life each time. Even something as simple as the verb tenses. In Western languages, in many Western languages, you have conjugations and verbs to indicate tense. So the form of the verb will change.

(01:03:18):

Something interesting, in many Chinese dialects, let’s say Mandarin, for example, the verb remains the same, but you might add context. So it’s a highly contextual language, that doesn’t change the verb, but adds in maybe a word, and the listener can gather when that happened, or will happen. This completely changes your perspective on how you view the world.

(01:03:43):

If you have a wealth of words to describe what happened in the past, or precisely what might happen in the future, you might plan every day differently, you might plan for your retirement differently, and that’s very much reflected. I would even put the US and China as an example.

(01:04:02):

In the US, folks tend to save less for their retirement, whereas in China, the savings rate for retirement is significantly higher. And there was very likely a wealth of reasons that contribute to that culturally, beyond language. But one of them, in my opinion at least, is the perception of how close tomorrow is.

(01:04:27):

If your way of describing tomorrow depends on context, that it could be literally tomorrow or many years from now, you might prepare for the future a little bit differently, that if you have a very distinct way to say something will have happened by now. So language, for sure, is one of the most interesting things that keeps me occupied, and sends me down Wikipedia rabbit holes.

Nick (01:04:51):

What language is next, then? You know a bunch. Which ones are you going to learn next?

Brian Berman (01:04:55):

Does GraphQL count? I’m looking at Hebrew and Japanese, most likely. I do want to step out of my comfort zone with Romance and Slavic languages, so I’m looking at those.

Nick (01:05:08):

Well, Brian, now I’m going to ask you the GRTiQ 10. These are 10 questions I ask each guest of the podcast every week, to help listeners learn something new, try something different, or achieve more. So are you ready for the GRTiQ 10?

Brian Berman (01:05:21):

Let’s do it.

Nick (01:05:33):

Brian, What book or articles had the most impact on your life?

Brian Berman (01:05:35):

I’ll give you two. Book? Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari, and not exactly an article, but a web comic. Check out Supernormal Stimuli, by Stuart McMillen.

Nick (01:05:47):

Is there a movie or a TV show that you think every human should be required to watch?

Brian Berman (01:05:51):

Everyone should watch Devs. It’s a limited series, sci-fi, on Hulu. I’m not going to spoil it, but I’d say, right now is the perfect time in history to watch it.

Nick (01:06:01):

If you could only listen to one music album for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?

Brian Berman (01:06:05):

I’d say In Rainbows, by Radiohead, such a raw, emotional album, so much display of musical talent and skill, and just a beautiful range of genres.

Nick (01:06:15):

What’s the best advice someone’s ever given to you?

Brian Berman (01:06:17):

Say yes to the opportunities that scare the hell out of you.

Nick (01:06:21):

What’s one thing you’ve learned in your life, that you don’t think most other people have learned, or know yet?

Brian Berman (01:06:26):

This is a fun one. I can tell you’re messaging me on Slack on your phone, if you send me multiple messages, and they all start with a capital letter.

Nick (01:06:34):

What’s the best life hack you’ve discovered for yourself?

Brian Berman (01:06:37):

At work, what I found to make me significantly more productive is using a Kanban-style tracker, to track my tasks, and things that I have to get done. I would recommend sorting your tasks by priority, and how long it’ll take you to complete that task, and then, dragging it from left to right, from Just Getting Started, to In Progress, to Complete.

(01:06:58):

Another little trick here is, if at the end of the year, you usually have to do some self-reflection, let’s say, for a review, and you want to talk about some of your biggest accomplishments, what you could do is drag those completed projects that you’re most proud of into an Accomplishments column, and that’ll help you at the end of the year.

Nick (01:07:15):

Based on your own life experiences and observations, what’s the one habit or characteristic that you think best explains why people find success in life?

Brian Berman (01:07:24):

I would say, a never-ending hunger to learn. I think it’s so important, all throughout your life, well into old age, to consistently be learning. Not only is it healthy for your brain, but it also enriches the full spectrum of human experience you can have in one life.

Nick (01:07:40):

Finally, Brian, the last three questions are “Complete the sentence” type questions. The first one is, “Cmoplete this sentence. The thing that most excites me about web3 is …”

Brian Berman (01:07:49):

Its potential to change governing systems around the world, and redefine what it means to be a sovereign state.

Nick (01:07:54):

And how about this one? “If you’re on Twitter, you should be following …”

Brian Berman (01:07:58):

GRTiQ, and visualize value.

Nick (01:08:02):

And finally, “I’m happiest when …”

Brian Berman (01:08:05):

I’m cooking a delicious meal with my fiance, that we’re about to serve to our guests.

Nick (01:08:18):

Brian Berman, you’ve been so gracious with your time, and you’ve shared a lot of great information that I think listeners will not only find super interesting, but motivational as well.

(01:08:26):

If listeners want to stay in touch with you, follow some of the things you’re working on, what’s the best way for them to do it?

Brian Berman (01:08:32):

Yeah, please follow me on Twitter @Berm Chain. That’s B-E-R-M, Chain, and you can find me in The Graph’s discord on the mod list, under Brian Graffman.

(01:08:42):

And for some web3 profiles, I mean, my ENS is Bermz, with a Z, berms.eth. I also have berms.lens. I mean, we’ll see what comes out next, but it’ll probably be some variation of that.

(01:08:55):

And yeah, feel free to DM me on Twitter or Discord, if you have any questions on how to get started in The Graph Ecosystem, or you can talk about a couple of things that you’ve heard on this podcast.

(01:09:04):

I’m always happy to chat with people. I’m always happy to learn, but equally happy to share my knowledge, and teach people, as well.