How to Balance Family Life with NFT Life with TropoFarmer

Spotify Podcast Episode: How to Balance Family Life with NFT Life with TropoFarmer

In episode 10 of Freedom with NFT’s, our guest TropoFarmer shares with us how to balance family life with NFT life.

In this episode of Freedom with NFT’s TropoFarmer shares with us:

• Why he pivoted into the NFT space
• His experience with balancing family life and the NFT world
• 3 goals in the NFT space
• What has been life for you when you left your job and went all in in the NFT
• Genuine relationship you can build in the digital world
• What Future Proof Media is
• What he is looking forward to at NFT NYC

About TropoFarmer: Tropo Farmer is a Senior NFT Strategist and one of the founders of Future Proof Media. In the NFT community he is a pioneer and leader in the space.

[00:00:00] Lauren Turton: Welcome to freedom with NFTs. I’m very excited for today’s episode, we have a TropoFarmer who is going to be dropping in sharing all about what he’s working on, what he’s excited about. But before we get into this interview, I’m curious to know a little bit about you share with us about your background is.

[00:00:21] TropoFarmer: So I’m a software engineer for 20 years.

Ever since I was like young, I’ve been very involved with technology like my dad had theaters and our trailer when I was like four. So just grew up around technology was like one of the first people in our town to get internet. And just with college for web development, computer science, but I’ve always been like a fan of technology, which is a weird thing to say. Earlier this year in February, I was putting my a two year old the bed.

He like woken up and it was like midnight or something. I don’t even know how I found out about it, but it was like I was looking at top shot and I’m sure a lot of folks know what top shot is, but that was my first publisher to NFS. I didn’t even know what it was. So I was like, so this top 10 list seems so cool.

It’s like an intersection of all these things that I’m interested in and passionate about, like sports and collectibles and technology. And buying and selling, like flipping and also investing. And it’s like the kind of investing that like, you know, everyone says NFTS aren’t investment, blah, blah. Like, I think you’d have to say that because if you want to give financial advice to people.

But like, I believe they truly are investments, the right ones. And that’s like an obvious, but what’s played out this year. So I was like, it’s so cool. And texting, my brother is like, your going to get some of the top shot. Its going to be big. And it just hit me right away. Like this felt like a massive innovation and all those different areas.

And then didn’t know like what the technology was behind it. I just knew like how I felt about it. I stayed up on the floor. So like 4:00 AM just like in the discord. And seeing everyone’s excitement about it. And that was the first time I’d been a part of a discord server that was like massive. I had one with my friends, it was like five people.

And this is like tens of thousands. And like just the energy was just so cool. And it wasn’t like at that point, not even about the money about it. I think people were just jazzed about what it was like the product. It was so well done. It was like the NBA. It was like, make a partnershipa and just seemed like so innovative, they stayed up like a couple hours was wheeling and dealing on a discord, like buying with like PayPal and Venmo, random people.

I think I spent like maybe like a thousand bucks at night, just like random people on discord who were selling their moments that they’d gotten a little bit earlier. And yeah, it’s like so sweet. And I was involved in top shot but like, And then I just happened upon another discord server that was more, it was broader.

It was about like NFTs and crypto. And I never like gotten into crypto a whole lot just because it didn’t excite me. And once I found out like, Hey, there are other NFT projects. This technology really is like, I learned more about what Top shot was built on. And I was familiar with like blockchain, what that offered, but I didn’t know the ins and outs of like what an actual NFT was.

And then February, March, we just started meeting more people and learning about more projects and just slowly realizing that, that was something that I just wanted to be a part of full time for the foreseeable future. And in March, I was like, can I do this full time.

Like, it seemed like I could, like, I’ve got a family and like two kids and like I job like a nice like software engineering job, really enjoyed my day job. But like once I discovered this space and the people in the projects, it like, I couldn’t do that job anymore. It was like so weird.

[00:04:18] Lauren Turton: I love that you’re sharing this because I know so many people who are in the space, they’re feeling this and they’re like, oh my gosh, my life before I can’t, what, no, no one’s using acronyms. No one knows what I’m talking about. And I think that’s really important for the audience of freedom with NFTs to hear, because there’s this major transition that takes place in life.

There’s life pre NFTs. And then there’s the transition of, wait a minute. I want to go into this full time. And so I appreciate you sharing that. So continue with your journey.

[00:04:55] TropoFarmer: So I’ve been kind of involved during that period. Like the spring periods, summer period. I was like, I was just kind of consumed with it.

So spending time on discord and Twitter kind of just make some money. Like I had a couple of goals. Back in the spring, and one of them was to make 10,000 bucks. So I could go on a trip to Disney and that was my financial goal. And then another goal was to launch a project just so I could learn what creators and project founders had to deal with and experience when they launch a project, that was another goal.

And then the third one was just being employed full-time in this industry. I really didn’t have a lot of money. Like it started with 500 bucks, the only actual money I’ve ever put in. And that was in late February and I just minted this project and I ended up like, kinda killing myself over it. It was the project where like, if you it’s based on street fighter, so you would get these cards when you mint it was an order.

So like first mint got number one and they had the system where you could like combine your tokens and burn one tokens, like power up the other one. And then if he did that first, he would get the number one cereal. I was like all hyped up for this launch. I want to get these cereals. Cause I knew like if I got number one based on, you know, from my experience, the top shot, I was like, it’s going to be valuable.

And I ended up like burning and hardcore and like got pretty lucky. And I got like a lot of these nice cereals and I sold them like that weekend, the next week. And that like gave me a little bit of bank role. It’s actually like start looking at other projects. Just that experience of like being in NFT is like so deeply only for a few weeks.

It was a shift from what I was used to, because I would go to work and, you know, that’s stuff and then like stuff computer and like be disconnected for the most part. But with NFTS is like having a job and a family, like you had to be on top of that, like all the time, like it just pays especially then to pay attention and to be connected and to just be like, observing as much as you can and taking it as much as you can.

And like, it was very overwhelming, just like the amount of information and having to keep up with, I mean is still is, it’s like even worse now. Got accustomed to it pretty quickly. That first couple of weeks, it was just like so crazy. And then like that, launch happened. And then that was the morning that like moon cats were rediscovered.

So there was like crazy minting around that. And like my blood pressure, something like my adrenal glands or some shifts were just like going nuts. Like the next morning, I almost like passed out just from like weird exhaustion. And like my heart rate was like really high. And I felt really weird and woozy and like dizzy.

And I just like laid down. I was like, I was contemplating going to like urgent care, but like, you just need to lay down. So I just did that. It was the first time where I got feedback from my body that like, that was going kind of ham and it hasn’t really let up since then I’ve gotten customed to it.

[00:08:17] Lauren Turton: I appreciate you sharing those details because it’s important for people to understand when you’re entering this space, how quick it moves, how much information you’re taking in.

And like you said, you need to be attention and be connected in this space. And that takes time. That takes energy. So really caring for yourself and making sure that you’re setting some boundaries and taking time for self care.

So you don’t end up in the ER, thank God you didn’t. And that’s good that situation happened to you early on, so you could really see what your body’s responding and reacting to and then make the appropriate changes needed. So that now you’re in the space at, a capacity that’s much bigger, which I’m excited to hear about. So continue with your journey. What happened after that stage in your NFT journey?

[00:09:15] TropoFarmer: Kind of started the grow my post, I guess, and like post more on Twitter and just make more friends and connections and kind of slowly accumulated JPEGs.

Like that was kinda, my goal is to, I would say the financial goal earning $10,000. And I didn’t get there until pretty late like I think it was July or August. I actually did attain that goal, but the reason it took me so long, it’s just cause I wanted to actually get involved with other projects or reinvest or collect was most of it.

Like I didn’t even know that I was a fan of collecting art until like NFTs and just the exposure to all these different artists and the value that you can get, like, especially on picking a nuke on Tezos like that platform was like, so cool. I found that in early March and just was amazed at how far a dollar would go there.

It’s crazy. So I would like take some profits from Ethereum sales and move it over to Tezos and buy stuff on hand because I actually found the artists I like, collecting. And I liked just the vibe of that platform and the ability for me to take some profits and invest them in people and kind of like make a difference in their lives.

Cause that platform particularly, and that blockchain catered towards, you know,it had a vibe amongst established artists, but it also had a vibe of like people who won’t able to mint in Ethereum because of the fees and the cost associated. So like, there’s a really nice, like feeling of being supportive of people who like just had a lot of talent, but didn’t have the exposure without NFTs to actually like make a living off of it.

So did that for a few months and then got picked up with my friend, Hunter. Hunter and just kind of always want to do start something together. And like, it just kind of took awhile. We just had this similar vibe. We wouldn’t have these on this wood flame NFT photograph. And it cost us like four eth each.

And like, that was like, literally all these I had, but like I knew the piece was really cool and I wanted to like go together with them on it. So I sent them like this four eth. You can do like trustless things. Like you can have a multisig wallet. I was like, I’ll just send you the eth, because I trusted them and he bought the piece and like, it kind of exploded in value.

And, you know, he was holding like six figures worth of my money basically. It was just like insane. Like I never had that kind of much money.. And he could have just taken it and rug pulled me, but like, that’s, what’s so cool about NFTs and like, everything is built on reputation, which is kind of weird because things are like supposed to be so trustless.

But I think when things are like, you know, all these transactions and marketplaces are trustless, but I think it just accentuates the people who are in it for the good reasons and you know, he’s one of them, for sure. So I felt like absolutely no apprehension about him possessing, like literally most of my net worth JPEG and, yeah, it’s like a fun story.

We actually like sold it. We sold it the day after I quit my job. So this was in late August. I just, like I had earned enough from flipping and investing to have like basically six months of salary or six months of expenses. And, you know, at that point, I felt comfortable and my wife felt comfortable enough with me quitting, you know, if I was single and didn’t have any like expenses, I would have done it back in the spring and just slummed it if I had to, to make it.

But yeah, I had earn enough and I was like putting my resignation, which is like so difficult to do because I like my job for sure. But like, I couldn’t do it any longer. Like I was, I felt like I was like literally stealing from the company, which I was getting paid, but I wasn’t doing any work, just wouldn’t focus on it.

You couldn’t concentrate like, and I had a desk job and I worked at home so I could like, I could get away with it, if I wanted to, but it just didn’t like, feel good and just didn’t have any interest in it. And it was draining to like, not only have two jobs, but like kind of pretend to work kind of one of those jobs. I was still working, but I wasn’t like doing a good job. I will put it that way.

[00:14:06] Lauren Turton: And there’s the other aspect of it is that when you make big moves like that, quiting your job, where you were comfortable at and you enjoyed,, it’s also like a death. It’s a part of your identity that’s dying. And now you’re entering this new space, a hundred percent all in that translates into conversations with people who are not in the NFT community.

They ask, what are you doing now? And then you have to explain what you’re doing now. And they think that you’ve lost it and you’ve gone off the deep end. So there’s a lot of things that go into what you went through in regards to quitting your job. I appreciate you sharing the intimate details of that. So what has life been like for you since you have left your job and you went all in on the NFT space?

[00:14:56] TropoFarmer: It is been petty cool. Actually, it’s been like, first week,I kinda like, it felt like a vacation, like I would get up whenever and I would just like play games for like a few hours. And like just work out and hang out and kind of catch up. And it’s still kind of like that just because the hours or whenever, like I tend to work the typical hours I did before, like eat nine to five and my oldest son just started kindergarten this year.

So like, what’s been really nice is like, I can just walk them to the bus stop every day, you know, not have to like consider if I have a meeting or being anywhere at any time. So that’s been really nice and like same thing when he gets off of school, go and walk and pick him up and then keep working a little bit.

And then after my youngest gets home, like from five to bedtime, it’s like, try not to do anything related to anything else because it’s been difficult, like the summer just, having kind of two jobs simultaneously and trying to focus like some time on my kids, it was difficult. Like I always have my phone with me.

Right. But it’s like, you needed stay connected, but what’s happening. Or at least you think you do, one of my kids see, you know, and they just kind of see me not paying attention, you know, to them and like talking about it now, obviously it’s just painful because I feel like they felt neglected.

At least like my oldest kid, my youngest he’s probably like go with things he like too. But I noticed, he was like, like he was like punching me in of course friendly way, but like, it took me a while to realize it was like, he was just trying to get my attention by like literally hitting me.

So then, like, I didn’t want to sacrifice my time with them too much, but like I also knew that the more time I spent in the space at that point, like the more likely they would be through have a better future. And I made a tweet about it and I got some really good advice from people. Like one piece in particular was to just take some time and don’t do anything else, but just spend it with the people who were with you.

So like, that’s why when they get out of school and the bedtime. Unless we’re like, oh, watching, like, you know, something before bed. Like that at that point in time, I would try to see what’s up but like to just try to stay disconnected and have a portion of your day where you’re not totally consumed with what else is going on

in NFTs. Cause it’s like, it’s going to happen regardless of whether you’re paying attention or not and you can always catch up. Yeah, you might miss something, but something else will come along. And it was, it was a good lesson to learn from. So trying to balance does things.

[00:17:58] Lauren Turton: Thank you for sharing that I know for so many who are listening right now, this will really hit home because they’re balancing so many things and to learn from your experience that having these boundaries and limitations for when we are paying attention and being connected in the NFT space, to being grounded and in the present of where you actually are physically, especially with loved ones, they’re the ones who will be with us.

There are ride or dies. So we should make sure that we’re caring for them in the physical as well. So I’m curious to know what projects are you excited about right now?

[00:18:37] TropoFarmer: I’m excited about Future Proof, a media a company that we started a couple of weeks ago, about four weeks ago.

[00:18:45] Lauren Turton: Tell me more about that.

[00:18:47] TropoFarmer: Yeah, it’s just a bunch of folks like hunter and his brother, Dylan.

And we’ve got about 15 founders and contributors. I think something around there more, just very passionate about educating and entertaining folks, you know, doing songs in a kind of a wholesome, but informative and entertaining way.

There’s so many people that are going to get involved in this space and there needs to be people who are looking out for them and making sure that either, you know, projects are being executed in the right way where it’s not, you know, non-cash crabs, like there’s something in it for the community and the people who are buying and investing in those projects and making sure people are informed when they interact with their money so they don’t get scammed. I’m more interested in like entertaining people.

Cause I’m not good at informing so llike my joy is being involved in spaces on Twitter, or like interviews with this or doing like streaming and just kind of engaging with, you know, my friends and then people who are coming into this space.

[00:19:52] Lauren Turton: Well, I do want to inform you that you are very good at educating because throughout this recording so far, you’ve dropped so many golden nuggets. You’ve dropped a lot of one-liners that I don’t think you’ve realized are so valuable and pulled so much weight. I’ve been taking notes, which I’ll share in the show notes as well.

So tell us more about this media company. What can we expect in the future?

[00:20:16] TropoFarmer: So, definitely like at NFT NYC, we’ll have a big presence. I initially I was going there to just kind of hangout and meet people and party, and I’ll probably still do that. But you know, on Sunday night, there’s the port API club party, which is going to be insane. Monday like I’m not actually going to the actual conference.

Like I don’t even have a ticket. I know Hunter’s speaking who is going to be on a panel at some point, but maybe I can get in for that. So he’s going to be involved with speaking. Tuesday, we’re having a future-proof hosted happy hour. That isTuesday night and that we’re throwing a little events at this place called the paradise club 8 7 and 9 and just socialize.

Hunter and I are going to be doing a little stage chat. We have a show that we used to do called burning gas on Friday nights. We will bring it back as part of our future proof programming. And that was just us like talking like after the week of NFT craziness. Like it was just fun on Friday nights, drink or get high and just talk about whatever the hell happened and have some special guests occasionally.

So we’ll be doing that Tuesday. There’s some secret events happening in the morning. And then I was invited to, it was just kinda cool. My wife was like, it was like a celebrity thing. And when I told her who it was which I can’t tell you, cause like I was sworn to secrecy, but I didn’t tell my wife. She was like mad.

I think she was mad at me cause like she couldn’t go and she like loves this person so much. I’m trying not to rub it face, but like, it kind of wants to, it’s one of those things where you, it’s hard to convince people that what you’re doing is valuable. Like, not that you need to do that, but like, especially with your partner or your family, like they should be bought into what you’re pursuing.

So that was like a really tricky thing to do at first. I was like, I just sold this JPEG for like thousand dollars. She’s like, well, is that it’s kind of like fake money to her. Cause it’s like, not, it’s not in the bank account, but it’s like real. Like you can convert it and its just like so strange for people to accept that a like what an NFT is, it’s just somewhat difficult thing for people to grasp, even though it’s like, when you put it into things that they know about, when you can relate to it, like, you know, if you rent a movie, like Amazon prime, that is kind of a form of an NFT.

If you buy like a digital camera on like call of duty, that’s an NFT. But then you put on top of that, like the amount of money that’s being invested and earned and being pumped into this space for building and the stakes that are putting like, just people think it’s either a scam or fake or money laundering.

So then when you actually like produce some gains, there’s still like a disconnect. Do you actually have this money? It is a real? Like, can we use it to buy food so ways that I can demonstrate that what I’ve pursued and kind of dedicated our lives to is valid. I’m going to like rub it in her face, like, but like in a good way.

So if they’re like, oh, this person who I know and respect is in line and all in on this NFTs, then that has just like a little bit more prudence to my decision and my passion about this.

[00:23:52] Lauren Turton: I agree. And I definitely think the in real life events help as well. I know for my partner, it was really helpful for him to see me speak at an NFT event, two nights ago in LA and for him to go there and meet people in the space and hear about their projects and what they’re involved in, results they’ve gotten, it helped him a lot realize that this is real, this is happening even though we are in the process of launching an NFT project for the restaurant that we own, it still has been this mystical thing looming on the internet that I’m up to. Whereas the physical aspect of it is what grounded it into.

Okay. This is reality. This is real. There are other people you’re talking to. It’s not just some weird picture, an animal on twitter.

[00:24:43] TropoFarmer: Yeah but like, those relationships seem much more genuine, even though it’s like a lot of it’s based in profit and like these digital possessions, I can still seem like the friendship that I’ve formed and I could be wrong in some cases I probably am.

But like, it seems like they’re much more genuine than ones that I have in person. I think that’s all I’ve been my whole life though, is, you know, being involved in internet so early and going on IRC, back when I was like 13 or 14 and meeting people in there, just having like connections. Like I met friends in IRC and we, you know, told us discord, that’s how I found out about college and they were going to this college and I found out about that.

And that that’s the school that I went to. And it was like in upstate New York and I’ve never would have known about it, but it turns out it was the place that had this track, like this basically web development, like that didn’t exist as a main, when I was going to college, you know, it was either like hardcore computer science or art school.

And there wasn’t anything in between. And this place had a fully developed program and I met them and went to school there and like, you know, they’re friends like we chat all the time. Like we’ve chatted last 20 years and it’s almost entirely digital, like through this chat room, through discord now it’s been IRC and then like AOL. and maybe ICQ at some point and Hangouts and now discord, but it’s like the digital relationship has outlasted the technology.

And that’s why I think NFTs are, one of the reasons why it’s so cool. It’s like, it’s relationship is kind of with the technology. It’s is not going to last it because it is built to last, the specs of NFTs and the blockchain are durable and we’re going to have other chains like mapping.

We already do have like multi chain experiences. And I think there’s going to be a lot of coalescence of chains in particular marketplaces, but the actual tokens itself, you know, they will persist, as well these relationships. And I think it’s just kind of cool that they’re both intertwined.

[00:26:56] Lauren Turton: I agree. Definitely, it’s such a interesting and fun journey to be on. And before we wrap this episode, Is there anything else that you want to share about future proof?

[00:27:10] TropoFarmer: Subscribe, mash that subscribe button @futureproofxyz. futureproof.xyzis the website. There is a great newsletter. Have a casual interest in NFTs.

We have a newsletter that’s at the top of our Twitter profile and also on the site. Then it will give you like a recap of the articles and important tweets of the week. We are going to be doing regular spaces. So definitely follow futureproof xyz on Twitter and just get like involved. My advice to new people, like if you’re interested in this space and you’re listening to this, like you’re doing what I would recommend is just like to consume, find trusted sources of information and entertainment, which is what I’m hoping that future proof is and becomes for a lot of people.

But then there are obviously a lot of other great sources, like your show as well, five people to follow, five people to chat with, engage in spaces, find discords that you vibe with, really don’t like spend any money until you get familiar with what is happening especially with projects, everyone says like, don’t spend money you can’t afford to lose, obviously that is insanely true here, but even if you can’t afford to lose it. Don’t spend it until you really have spent some time learning about this space and that doesn’t need to be months. It can be like a week in NFT is basically a month to two months in like, outside of it, in terms of how fast things move.

Try not to get overwhelmed, like it is overwhelming, but generally people are extremely helpful. So ask questions, like join Twitter spaces and come up on stage and just ask for help if you need it. There’s a lot of support with whatever pursuit you in NFT is like, if you want to create content, if you were an artist, there’s like tons of great support.

If you’re a content creator, if you’re just a collector or if you just are just interested, just hang out and meet people and chat. And like either you will realize that it’s not for you very quickly, or you will be consumed with it and will spend more and more of your time.

[00:29:30] Lauren Turton: And quitting your job like you did.

[00:29:33] TropoFarmer: Yeah, so far it works out.

[00:29:37] Lauren Turton: Good. Well, thank you so much for your time today. And before we wrap this episode of freedom with NFTs up, how can we stay in touch with you? What’s your Twitter handle?

[00:29:47] TropoFarmer: That’s @tropofarmer and @futureproofxyz.

[00:29:53] Lauren Turton: Awesome. Well, again, thank you so much for your time. That’s all for this episode of freedom with NFTs. I’m your host Lauren Turton.

And I have a favor to ask of you. If you’re listening to this episode, please like subscribe, rate this episode and take it a step further and share it with your audience. Because my objective when creating freedom with NFTs was to share NFTs with the masses. And in order to do that, I need your help. So that’s all for today’s episode.

We’ll see you on the next one.

Connect with TropoFarmer:

Website: https://www.futureproof.xyz/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tropoFarmer

Connect with your host, Lauren Turton:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LaurenTurton_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelaurenturton

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenturton/

Website: https://freedomwithnfts.com