Speaker 1: Hi. This is Malayan Vervier and this is Kim Azzarelli.
Speaker 1: We are co authors of the book Fast Forward, How
Speaker 1: Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose, And you're listening to
Speaker 1: Seneca's conversations on power and Purpose. Hey. Everyone, this is
Speaker 1: Kim Azarelli and I am so excited to be hosting
Speaker 1: this special edition Women Rule Web three. Now. The world
Speaker 1: of Web three is moving so fast from the metaverse
Speaker 1: to defy two NFTs. On this show, we'll break it
Speaker 1: down for you through interviews with incredible leaders, experts, and artists. Today,
Speaker 1: I'm speaking with miss Al Simpson. Drawing inspiration from vintage
Speaker 1: movies and fashion magazines, she uses faded glamorous imagery in
Speaker 1: her art. She spans multiple mediums and bridges a punk
Speaker 1: American inspired irl world with a crypto powered URL metaverse.
Speaker 1: I sat down with miss Al Simpson. Here's what she
Speaker 1: had to say. Well, miss Al Simpson, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us. Yeah, thanks thanks for having me. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, I'm so psyched about your piece. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, it's incredible. Thank you, thank you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's it's quite it's quite something. It's
Speaker 1: our first self portrait that I've done, and I think
Speaker 1: it's it's quite a difficult piece for an artist to do.
Speaker 1: I think the you know, as artists, we like to
Speaker 1: kind of project everything out into our art, so actually
Speaker 1: the introspection of looking back inside it's made it quite difficult.
Speaker 1: We are so excited that you are part of the
Speaker 1: Seneca Woman of Quality collection. But your work is really
Speaker 1: unbelievable and your background is extremely interesting. Tell us where
Speaker 1: you're from and in a little bit about your background. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I've been an artist collage artist before I kind
Speaker 1: of started tokenizing in twenty nineteen. I was a colas
Speaker 1: artist for ten years. But before that, way before that,
Speaker 1: I actually went to law school and I was a lawyer,
Speaker 1: and then I had my babies, and then I did
Speaker 1: ran out internet business from home, so trying to bring
Speaker 1: up two young children whiles trying to be a female entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: so all very web two experiences, you know, e commerce
Speaker 1: and all of that. And then as soon as I
Speaker 1: found out about the blockchain, the entrepreneurial part of me
Speaker 1: so this technology is going to be huge. So as
Speaker 1: soon as I could, I applied to superher known origin.
Speaker 1: It was early days. It was July twenty nineteen, and
Speaker 1: to be honest, I've never looked back since. So I
Speaker 1: started just making work and minting like crazy. And you know,
Speaker 1: in early days, so work for really low amounts to
Speaker 1: to kind of build up collector base. But you know,
Speaker 1: in those early days, you know, surviving off those small
Speaker 1: kind of profits, and it just grew really organically, really,
Speaker 1: And how did you find making the transition? I know
Speaker 1: a lot of people are intimidated by Web three, but
Speaker 1: you know you obviously, I think you're based in Scotland,
Speaker 1: right and as you said, you were an attorney, you
Speaker 1: were an entrepreneur, You're obviously a mom, and it feels
Speaker 1: like you might be fearless in general. But how did
Speaker 1: you find making the transition to Web three? Well, I
Speaker 1: suppose the thing that I kind of missed out in
Speaker 1: that storyline was that I've always been a gamer. You know,
Speaker 1: I had one of the first, said X eight to ones,
Speaker 1: one of the first kind of gaming computers. I had
Speaker 1: a Commodore six before I taught myself a little bit
Speaker 1: colding when I was very young. So the constant through
Speaker 1: all of that has been my love of computers and
Speaker 1: love of technology. And I guess I like to think
Speaker 1: of it as I was just waiting for the technology
Speaker 1: like this to happen, So I guess you know all
Speaker 1: those kind of decades of waiting. As soon as it happened,
Speaker 1: I knew that this was the such huge potension show
Speaker 1: for me as a woman. You know, I've I've got
Speaker 1: you know, the children are older now, but like a
Speaker 1: lot of women were balancing bringing up children but wanting
Speaker 1: our own careers and wanting financial independence. So the opportunities
Speaker 1: for with Web three compared to Web two, where I
Speaker 1: just couldn't believe it. I thought, this is going to
Speaker 1: be huge. So I guess, yeah, the gaming part of me,
Speaker 1: that the kind of love of computers has always been there.
Speaker 1: And even as an entrepreneur, you know, I was making
Speaker 1: all my own artwork. I taught myself photoshop, I don't
Speaker 1: be photoshop, all the tools and that to actually do
Speaker 1: all my own marketing and it actually won awards for
Speaker 1: that back in the Web two days. So so that
Speaker 1: was a kind of preempt before actually became a digital artist. Well,
Speaker 1: you you mentioned a couple of things there, and I
Speaker 1: know we share this deep belief and you're living it
Speaker 1: that Web three has the power for women's financial freedom.
Speaker 1: Tell us about your own snow story and how that's manifested. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I think him. You know, I think, like a lot
Speaker 1: of women, I think you know, I went off to
Speaker 1: university desperate to you know, go out into the world,
Speaker 1: as you say, like strong, fearless, and you know, like
Speaker 1: every woman, I wanted to be financially independent, and you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to make a lot of money. I went
Speaker 1: into corporate law, was very successful at that, but you
Speaker 1: know something was missing with that. You know, I'm very creative,
Speaker 1: so it didn't really take end with those boxes. So
Speaker 1: I did when I got married, I I decided, well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to run a business and do my art together.
Speaker 1: So and I guess, like a lot of women, I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll kind of walk away from that career
Speaker 1: and you know, bring up the children whilst whilst running
Speaker 1: a business. But you know, running a web to business
Speaker 1: as an odd female entrepreneur, as a startup, it was
Speaker 1: very difficult. And I think the culture. I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: in the US, the culture for female entrepreneurship is very strong,
Speaker 1: and it is here in the UK as well. But
Speaker 1: you know, I again and again is that business crew
Speaker 1: and you know, I want awards for that business, and
Speaker 1: I took it to quite a fat you know, quite smar.
Speaker 1: I was in a lot of supermarkets, I was in
Speaker 1: hotel chains, but there was always um as I felt,
Speaker 1: you know, you got to a certain point and it
Speaker 1: always felt like there was always the shadowy middleman, somebody
Speaker 1: We're always making a decision somewhere, and I hate to say,
Speaker 1: but it always did feel like it was always a man.
Speaker 1: Whether it was a supply chain, someone making a decision
Speaker 1: over global supply contracts, whether it was you know, hotel contracts,
Speaker 1: there was always a middleman song And again it's always
Speaker 1: men's suits, isn't it. So you know, I'm very progressive
Speaker 1: and I don't like to think, well, you know, there's
Speaker 1: ingrained sexes in there, but I was feeling it, you know.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I got divorced and you know,
Speaker 1: the laws in Scotland are quite harsh on mothers on divorce.
Speaker 1: And my my business because it required a lot, so
Speaker 1: you know, I kind of floundered and that business kind
Speaker 1: of went to the wayside. But my art kind of
Speaker 1: pelled me up. Although it wasn't you know, big sales.
Speaker 1: You know, I turned to my art, and I'm glad
Speaker 1: I did because that was like, you know, a kind
Speaker 1: of a bit of a savior. But you know, that
Speaker 1: was selling online, so you can imagine the sales were.
Speaker 1: It weren't great, but you know, just about surviving. And
Speaker 1: then as soon as the blockchain happened and I came
Speaker 1: across sites like Non Origin Superer, I just knew that
Speaker 1: it huge potential for me as an artist. And as
Speaker 1: that started to happen and the sales started to come in,
Speaker 1: just that feeling of gradual more and more financial independence
Speaker 1: really rags to riches, to be honest, just it's so empowering.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying I wasn't empowered before. When I
Speaker 1: was kind of financially struggling after a divorce, I was empowered,
Speaker 1: but it was so restrictive, and I was so frustrated
Speaker 1: because I knew I had all this potential and all
Speaker 1: these skills, but you know, the financial duties that you
Speaker 1: have to your family are the first concern. And I
Speaker 1: just think it's huge potential with ways to be for women,
Speaker 1: for mothers, and to really burst through because there's no middleman.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest, two months gone, we'll be back after
Speaker 1: this break. We've been working for a long time in
Speaker 1: the entrepreneurship space and we had sent it go. Women
Speaker 1: have like you know, built a bunch of different women's
Speaker 1: economic empowerment programs and obviously put out a lot of
Speaker 1: thought leadership around it, tried to empower creators wherever we can.
Speaker 1: But I think what you're describing is why we're so
Speaker 1: excited about the potential of what the blockchain can do, because,
Speaker 1: as you said, with no middleman, you know, you don't
Speaker 1: have to ask for permission. And we've spent a lot
Speaker 1: of our lives trying to convince people to understand the
Speaker 1: business case for kind of the first chapter of our
Speaker 1: book is why Women, Why Now? And we're always making
Speaker 1: the case, always making the case for why the economic
Speaker 1: power of women is so important and it is. But
Speaker 1: now to your point with the black chain, like women times,
Speaker 1: the black chain is like pretty unbelievable, and I think
Speaker 1: it kind of brings me to your piece. So this
Speaker 1: whole collection is about envision ego quality and you did
Speaker 1: something really really interesting. Can you tell us about your piece? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So with my piece, I wanted to make it a
Speaker 1: self portrait because I feel that my story and you know,
Speaker 1: and there's lots of different parts from my story, but
Speaker 1: from from going from basically having very little money to
Speaker 1: the financial success that I now have, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: telling that story through the self portrait is really important
Speaker 1: for other women to hear that because I think there's
Speaker 1: a lot of talk in this arena of tech pros,
Speaker 1: and it's all guys and kind of thumping their chests
Speaker 1: about you know, different PfP projects and so on. But
Speaker 1: it's very important the voices like mine, and there's lots
Speaker 1: of us, it's lots of other females that are are
Speaker 1: very successful in this arena. It's very important that our
Speaker 1: voices are not drowned out and we shout even louder
Speaker 1: because you know, other women need to hear it. And
Speaker 1: it's not just with our I mean, I'm sure there's
Speaker 1: huge opportunities with web free for so many different ways.
Speaker 1: It's only just to start to be honest, and women
Speaker 1: are very, very hard working, they're very entrepreneurial, so you know,
Speaker 1: get out there and get involved and let's see what's
Speaker 1: going to happen. And the thing is, you know, as
Speaker 1: you say, trying to convince others that you know, natural
Speaker 1: equality for women. It's not a female issue. Well that's
Speaker 1: gone now because actually we're out there doing it. You know,
Speaker 1: if you're there making the money and paying your taxis
Speaker 1: you're contributing to the bottom line of your country full stop. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So what more do you need to convince? You know,
Speaker 1: it's so interesting because the research shows over many years
Speaker 1: that when women earn, they reinvest back into their communities,
Speaker 1: and they reinvest back into there obviously, as you just said,
Speaker 1: into their economies. And so actually, you know, we call
Speaker 1: it the double dividend where women have both they kind
Speaker 1: of accelerate economic growth and they accelerate social impact and
Speaker 1: so actually it's the multiplier effect, and it's it's even
Speaker 1: more powerful when you have a dollar in the hand
Speaker 1: of a woman. So I think what you're saying is
Speaker 1: so important, and I'm really excited about what you just
Speaker 1: said to other women entrepreneurs, which is, you know, I
Speaker 1: think we all are on this steep learning curve, but
Speaker 1: the whole world is on a learning curve. So I
Speaker 1: don't think you know, it used to be that like
Speaker 1: you'd have to go to school for twenty years and
Speaker 1: then you know, I don't know, work in one area
Speaker 1: for twenty years. But the world is changing so fast.
Speaker 1: What advice can you give to women about how to
Speaker 1: get comfortable being uncomfortable? And I think you there's so
Speaker 1: much information about a web fee and a bit block team.
Speaker 1: I think you know, you can do your research, but
Speaker 1: you know, like anything, do your research, but like anything,
Speaker 1: you've got to start to execute, you've got to jump in.
Speaker 1: You've got to take action and have confidence, you know,
Speaker 1: get you know, use Twitter. It's a great tool for
Speaker 1: building your brand and have confidence to do that because
Speaker 1: I think as women, you know, it was so used
Speaker 1: to kind of or you know, asking for permission, but
Speaker 1: we now have a permission list network. That's that's literally
Speaker 1: what the blockchain built on. You know, the Bitcoin paper
Speaker 1: is all about that and there is no permission needed.
Speaker 1: So I think it's a it's a green flag for
Speaker 1: women to just go for it, because as you say,
Speaker 1: you know, I think what we're seeing just now with
Speaker 1: cryptour is there's female There's going to be more and
Speaker 1: more female collectors. So as women like me, you know,
Speaker 1: first and foremost we have to financial look after our family.
Speaker 1: But once we get to a certain point, obviously we're
Speaker 1: going to be reinvesting that back in two more building
Speaker 1: collections ourselves and if not, I think we're starting to
Speaker 1: see that. But once that wave starts to hit as well,
Speaker 1: it's it's amazing what's going to happen. So I would
Speaker 1: say just get involved. Well, as you know, that is
Speaker 1: exactly why we're staring the Seneca Women a quality collection,
Speaker 1: and we want to bring the Seneca Women community as
Speaker 1: fast as we can into Web three. And I think
Speaker 1: your piece is so inspiring and I think it's going
Speaker 1: to motivate a lot of people. I think I have
Speaker 1: probably not been as bullish on anything as what the
Speaker 1: potential of a blockchain can do for women. And I've
Speaker 1: been working at this for a solid twenty years. Well,
Speaker 1: so I think this is a unique moment and I'm
Speaker 1: just so glad our paths are crossed, and I'm so
Speaker 1: excited for the Seneca Women community to hear this episode,
Speaker 1: see your piece. And then of course you just wrote
Speaker 1: a great article and you know, I just thank you
Speaker 1: for everything you're doing. Yeah, yeah, thanks. I mean I
Speaker 1: just see from the piece I put in some of
Speaker 1: the main points from an artical but the main point
Speaker 1: is equality is decentralized. You know, the thing that we've
Speaker 1: been searching for and fighting for for all these years,
Speaker 1: me and lots of other women. You know, it's here.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't get anything more equal than decentralization.
Speaker 1: So that's why I really kind of BLOSSI that in
Speaker 1: this piece, you know, and I use a lot of
Speaker 1: fund inwards anyway, in my in my work book. You know,
Speaker 1: as you say, it's feed if other women see that
Speaker 1: and go, well, what does that mean? You know, how
Speaker 1: is that going to impact me? I want to find
Speaker 1: it more to bouts it exactly. Well, you know, I
Speaker 1: think it is interesting because we've been pushing so hard
Speaker 1: for so many years, and to your point earlier, there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of obstacles even you know, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes you what is that expression you're you know, you
Speaker 1: hit your head against the wall sometimes so hard at
Speaker 1: a certain point you've become unconscious. But I think as
Speaker 1: a collective group, women are just I think we're not
Speaker 1: really giving up on this idea of economic equality. And
Speaker 1: to your point, that equality is decentralized. It's just such
Speaker 1: a beautiful way to encapsulate what's happening. And so if
Speaker 1: we can get more women educated, more women jumping in,
Speaker 1: I mean I think for myself at least, what I
Speaker 1: feel is that you know, everybody's learning right now and
Speaker 1: so there's no reason why you can't too, And so
Speaker 1: there's nobody's an expert. You know, it's changing so much,
Speaker 1: and by the time we have this conversation next year,
Speaker 1: it'll be a whole other thing. I think that's what
Speaker 1: we've learned to the pen amic, which is life is
Speaker 1: not going to remain static. It's going to change, and
Speaker 1: the acceleration of change is increasing. And one of the
Speaker 1: things that we had talked about and fast Forward again,
Speaker 1: which is a book we wrote seven years ago, is
Speaker 1: how technology would be the great accelerator that you know,
Speaker 1: women in the economy have the potential to transform the world,
Speaker 1: women's economic power has a potential to transform the world,
Speaker 1: but technology could be the great accelerator. And as you
Speaker 1: just so well said, it's here so like I think,
Speaker 1: I hope this conversation encourages everybody to get smarter and
Speaker 1: get involved than be part of this community and support
Speaker 1: women artists like yourself because the work is so incredible,
Speaker 1: and it's also you know, this is the first time
Speaker 1: that we can transfer value in this way with web three,
Speaker 1: So yeah, I just I'm just so excited that you're
Speaker 1: part of the collection and we're really grateful. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think the technology is definitely a women's
Speaker 1: based frame and this idea of all it's just take
Speaker 1: those as a pile of nonsense. You know, I've achieved
Speaker 1: all of this while working from home looking after my children,
Speaker 1: and there's no reason why any other women can't do
Speaker 1: that in the world. You know. We just get a
Speaker 1: computer and teach yourself. Go on YouTube, teach yourself as
Speaker 1: much as possible and watch what happens. Yeah, anybody listening
Speaker 1: who needs help become to Seneate women dot com. We're
Speaker 1: going to definitely try to bring more experts to the
Speaker 1: table and make this as painless as possible for everybody. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. We can't wait
Speaker 1: for the world to see your peace and yeah, and
Speaker 1: you know we'll be following and supporting and thank you
Speaker 1: for doing everything you're doing. That's great. Thank you. Give
Speaker 1: state to you. Equality is decentralization. I love talking to
Speaker 1: miss al Simpson and her work is so incredible. Go
Speaker 1: to Seneca Women dot com to see her work and
Speaker 1: the other artists in the Seneca Women Equality Collection and
Speaker 1: join us tomorrow for another Women Rule Web three conversation.
Speaker 1: Have a great day. You're listening to Seneca Women Conversation
Speaker 1: on power and Purpose, brought to you by the Seneca
Speaker 1: Women Podcast Network and iHeartRadio with support from founding partner
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Speaker 1: Seneca Women Network, go to Seneca Women dot com. There
Speaker 1: you'll get access to exclusive events and workshops, plus updates
Speaker 1: on new podcasts and other opportunities to get involved.