Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the Worst Advice I Ever Got. We're so excited to have you with us today and to have our special
[00:00:10] Speaker B: guest, Gavin Guidry with us.
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Gavin helps create campaigns for billion dollar
[00:00:15] Speaker B: brands like Uber, Sprite and Instagram.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: He's currently a creative director for Spotify and coincidentally, the host of his own podcast, Tools for Time Traveling, which talks about the future of the creative world. Gavin, thanks for being our guest today.
[00:00:30] Speaker C: Yeah, of course. Super excited.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: So with all of our guests, we don't beat around the bush, we jump right into. Just tell us about the worst advice you ever got.
[00:00:40] Speaker C: Lots of candidates there, but I would say the worst advice I ever got was to invest in Ripple.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Oh, okay. So tell us more about Ripple.
[00:00:50] Speaker C: Yeah, okay.
[00:00:50] Speaker D: Dribble competitor?
[00:00:52] Speaker C: No, but very on brand of you as a content creator to think so. It's not Dribble.
No, it's Ripple, which is xrp, which is a cryptocurrency. You can find it, you know, it's like, traded on Coinbase and yeah, it's one of those cryptos, but it was one of those coins, right? Like after Bitcoin blew up and Ethereum blew up and like, you know, all these different coins were blowing up. It was one of these coins, but it was super cheap. So I want to say, you know, it was like a penny or like a dime or something, like per Ripple.
And then at one point in 2017, it went up to like 70 cents or something like that, or like a dollar 30.
And so people were like, oh, my God, I made $100,000.
And so like, when that happened, my friend was like, telling me all about it. He was a coworker of mine, good dude, well intentioned.
And he was like, yeah, man, I have like $100,000. And like, at the time, I was like, oh, my God, like, that's so much fun.
[00:01:57] Speaker D: You're the Queen of England.
[00:02:00] Speaker C: Like, you made it quit. Quit the job and sell it like you're rich.
But he was like, yeah, you know, here's how you do it. At the time, I'd obviously heard of cryptocurrency, but I didn't have a wallet, really had no idea how to go about.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: So you were new to the whole crypto world?
[00:02:16] Speaker C: I was new to the whole entire crypto world.
Really new to. At that point, I hadn't really even done much investing.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:23] Speaker C: Like, you know, actual money, just like savings and things like that. So, you know, this was exciting because it was. It was novel, right? So it's like something new.
And there was like like, this whole, like, you'll. You'll get rich potentially sort of thing. So I was like, all right. You know, I talked to my wife about it. I was like, I think, like, you know, just put, like, let's just put a thousand dollars into it.
And, you know, never seen that. Thousand dollars is not a thousand dollars.
[00:02:52] Speaker E: She gone.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: So you lost it all?
[00:02:54] Speaker C: I didn't lose it all, but I would say, like, that thousand dollars is probably. Probably like, $300.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: And if I take it out, then it's never going to be more than 300. So it's.
That's like $300 now.
And. Yeah. So, Yeah, I mean, didn't lose it all, but definitely was not the best way to invest my money. I'll say.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Painful. I can relate a little bit. I made an investment in the stock market early on. I didn't invest in the crypto market, but I invested in one of my first stocks, put $5,000 into the stock, and it literally went to zero. And I thought my wife was going to divorce me. Like, it was bad news.
So how did. How did this loss. Right. I mean, it was painful.
[00:03:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: How did that affect you?
[00:03:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, part of it is, like, it's a little bit embarrassing to be like, you know, I tried this thing and kind of fell flat on my face.
But I think, you know, I think the worst part of it is I just felt very skittish going forward about investing, just in general. I dipped my toe in. Like, this felt very much like a dipping of the toe.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:07] Speaker C: It's like, okay, cool. Well, you know, I want to see. But if, like, a shark comes up and rips your foot off or something like that, and it's like, I'm not going to. I'm not going to dip my toe. I only got one more foot left.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: No.
[00:04:16] Speaker C: So it definitely made me super cautious, and I just felt like I got burned. Now it feels like I almost have, like, trust issues with investing. It's 2024, and, like, it's all about being, like, the first mover. Right. Like, we learn in school about first movers and things like that. And, like, I don't want to be a first mover anymore. And, you know, I think over the. Over the long term, like, that's probably a good idea. But I also think that there's potential opportunities that I could miss out on when it is something legitimate. The issue with, like, the ripple thing and all these Elon Musk coins that, like, everyone invests in, and they're just Trash coins is that is just burning so many people and they're never, a lot of them are never gonna come back. A lot of them have abandoned their wallets and a lot of them have just abandoned the space. And now anything that comes from that space is garbage when that's not the case.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: You know, that's a great point. I think we draw conclusions on a broader population based upon a singular experience. We have scar tissue.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: And so we relate everything to that. And I totally agree with you. Early stage investing produces incredible returns.
You've got to be prepared to lose a lot, though. And I think back to your point, going back to your initial investment, if you had invested in Ripple and say four others, three of them failed, two of them hit home runs, you're like, this is great and I'm all in. But that's not the experience you had. So it sort of created in you
[00:05:46] Speaker C: a more cautious approach to say, yeah, no, 100%.
[00:05:50] Speaker E: It's a ripple effect.
[00:05:51] Speaker D: Oh, see what I did there?
[00:05:53] Speaker C: Why they pay him the big bucks?
[00:05:55] Speaker A: Well, we'll see. We'll see.
[00:05:59] Speaker D: One thing he talks about in the preview that I really liked, how you got to. And you started there is the wallet, you know, is kind of bundling people bundle this crypto with other things that is, that are important.
[00:06:09] Speaker C: Yeah, it's really about the future. Like I was telling you before we started, like, I have my own little podcast and, you know, we talk about the future, the future of creativity mostly.
And the blockchain, even, even now is enabling people to create, like, ownership of the, you know, digital goods in ways that we haven't been able to do before.
And I'm no expert, so I don't know if this is 100% correct, but what I've gathered is to be on chain and to be flexible, movable, nimble, within the chain, you need a wallet and you need crypto and currency to be in that wallet.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:48] Speaker C: And so, you know, to have this creative future, right, where we have like, creators and artists and musicians that don't need labels and they don't need agencies and they don't need, you know, all these different, you know, powers that be, these distribution companies and stuff, like, they can do it on their own and just like be able just be artists and have ownership via the, the blockchain.
Like, we need lots of people on chain who are, who are able to buy and sell and be like proprietors of, of that content of those digital goods.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:25] Speaker C: The issue, when you have these get rich quick schemes of the Ripples and the dogecoins and stuff like that. And when it's like, oh, well, I invested, I don't have a wallet anymore, or my friend invested or whatever and they got burned, why would I sign up and get a wallet? And what we need for this blockchain future to really take off and for artists and creators to be able to sustain themselves, we need a mass of people of the population on, on chain. Like, like, we need like, like jb, like your mom and my mom to like have wallets. And like, we are nowhere close to the point.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: No, no, no.
[00:08:07] Speaker C: Where they're going to have wallets. One, it's too hard. Two, it's like, well, am I going to get hacked? Am I going to get, you know, whatever. Is this just going to flop?
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Fear. Fear and bad advice and bad advice and bad advice. I hear you describing a marketplace.
[00:08:21] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: We don't have the marketplace yet.
[00:08:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: But something very interesting you got burned based upon investing in this one coin yet. You're talking about to have this creative marketplace. We need more people coming in to take some of these risks. So it's an interesting dichotomy, right. It's like we need more risk takers and that's really what our marketplace is built upon.
Entrepreneurial risk takers that have gone out there. And it's about trying to filter through the good ones and the bad ones. Yeah, that's hard to do, but we have to be okay.
Getting hurt, getting back up, going back at it. Right. You're very creative. You're in a creative workplace.
Your job is very creative and you have to take risks. Creative people naturally take risks.
[00:09:13] Speaker C: Totally.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: So it's very interesting to see that you got a little burned investing in something that was new, a creative marketplace, yet it didn't necessarily stop your creative, natural way of approaching things.
[00:09:25] Speaker C: Yeah, well, you know, I think I, and I, and here's where the difference is, right? Like I, when I invested, I don't think I was investing enough in the marketplace. I think I was just investing in like a get rich quick.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:38] Speaker C: Because I was like, I'm gonna dip my toe to get the money. But it took me a while to really understand the viability of not necessarily just cryptocurrency, but that marketplace, like you were saying.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:51] Speaker C: And like, is like, you know, this, this technology, it's not just a get rich quick scheme. And I think like that's the issue. And you know, obviously like, this is America. It's a capitalist society. There's always going to be Some sort of, like, capitalist intention, I guess, to everything.
But that, to me, I feel like, is kind of what's almost. It's funny because it's almost staying in the way of the marketplace, because.
[00:10:15] Speaker D: Definitely is.
[00:10:15] Speaker C: Yeah. Because. Because you're. You're basically saying this coin is so you can get rich rather than this coin is so that we can build this sort future marketplace where you can, like, buy and sell the same way you do with a debit card. But, you know, and. But it's decentralized and all of this stuff. But the. The Get Rich Quick and all the documentaries that they're making about, like, Crypto Bros. And. And all that stuff is now what's standing in the way. Because it's like, you know, this.
I was telling JB this. It's like we, like. It's like, okay, this crypto is a new thing. And it's like Morpheus from the Matrix is like, we have red pill and the blue pill. Like, you can either, like, use this to, like, decentralize banking and, like, have financial freedom and, like, give the control to people, or you can make a lot of money. And, like, everyone was like, give me the money.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Give me the money. I'll take the blue pill.
[00:11:10] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:11:10] Speaker C: I'll take the blue pill.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:12] Speaker C: And so it's weird because that's sort of like, what's standing in the way, I think, of, like, a little bit more flourishing in the future.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: I think a lot of the stories are on the gains and the losses. This coin gained this, this coin lost this. And we're all focused on the individual performance versus, to you. To your point, the viability of the entire network, the viability of the marketplace.
And if. If we come together in the context of trying to build a marketplace that can be successful, yeah, maybe. Maybe we have a better shot. But people unfortunately approach it with, hey, what can I turn this into? What kind of return can I get out of this?
[00:11:56] Speaker D: The only thought they have.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:57] Speaker D: This is crypto. Crypto's great. Rich Quick. And that's the only thing I should think about. That's the only thing. It's the only reason it's there. And when it doesn't work and people get bad advice like Gavin got, it's a ripple effect.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Well, and huge.
[00:12:11] Speaker C: He's really trying to make. Ripple effect.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Goodness gracious.
You know, it's interesting. I can relate a lot to what you're talking about here with that loss and how it affected you.
I've kind of gotten back on the horse again. So to speak. Do you ever see yourself going back in and investing maybe in an individual business or an individual coin, or has this sort of prevented you from ever wanting to take that step?
[00:12:33] Speaker C: Yeah, I definitely see myself getting back into Web3 and the blockchain in some sort of way.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:46] Speaker C: I don't know if it'll be like I was saying before, sometimes you have to invest in a coin in order to be.
To have like any sort of like, mobility on chain, you know, so. So there's definitely the possibility that I'll invest there. But, you know, I think one of the best things I did was just like linked up with a financial advisor. And so I would definitely recommend folks to like, seek expert opinions because they like, I was able to get just like a full view of money. Cash flow, savings, liability has a big part to do with money that people don't think about.
And that makes it so, like, okay, well, I'm not just like, you know, wishing on a star here with, with this and like, hoping something sticks. No, I have like an actual strategy. So, like, like you were saying, you know, if I, if I, you know, I know how much. Okay. I can put this here if this is a little bit risky because I'm doing all of these other things that are not risky now. I think because I have a more holistic view of my finances and things like that and feel a lot more confident I can do some riskier things and actually invest because I have other investments that are less risky.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:02] Speaker C: And so, yeah, so I definitely invest now not in the crypto space.
You know, let's say there's an opportunity to invest in something, like you were saying, like a business or invest in some sort of new technology.
I think now, you know, learning from. Learning from getting burned in the past as well as, you know, just gaining that sort of like, that expert confidence, like through work, like working with an advisor.
You know, I'd be more likely to take that sort of step, that sort of jump.
[00:14:36] Speaker D: Yeah, but you wouldn't go into a.
Another coin if someone's like, hey, you can make it $10,000 tomorrow.
[00:14:43] Speaker C: Oh, no, no, no, no. That's never. And that's never the way.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: Well, that's that whole get. I mean, frankly, it's the get rich quick kind of thing. Right.
[00:14:51] Speaker D: You know, there's any rich quick gabbit is out.
[00:14:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I don't know if there is. I don't know if get rich quick is. Is real or not.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. I don't know a lot of people that have gotten rich quick. I know a lot of people who have tried to get rich quick and lost big. And so that is a truly, truly high risk potential, high reward scenario with, with real extremes.
The financial advisory piece.
I really appreciate that. Since we're financial advisors. That was a nice little.
[00:15:23] Speaker C: I honestly didn't do that.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: No, I know you did perfect, but I can't let that pass. No, the point is you've created in your mind a diversified portfolio. Right. I'll do some things that are riskier, but I'll do some things that are more concrete, safe, secure, and that's very smart. And it allows you then to take some risks. And you know what, If I lose it, that's okay.
And if it hits a little bit bigger, that's okay. And when I was describing earlier, I've gotten back in and made a few investments like that. It's somewhat. Because I've created that similar framework that you're talking about. And I work with a financial advisor at Smith and Howard Wealth Management for that very purpose.
[00:16:02] Speaker C: 100%. Yeah. I mean that's one of the, that's the best advice I've ever gotten. Like, we were talking about the worst advice I've ever got. Like, that's the best advice I've ever got is just like, like work with a, work with a financial advisor and like build up. I mean it makes it so much easier to like maneuver in other spaces, I think.
[00:16:20] Speaker D: Feel confident about your moves.
[00:16:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:23] Speaker D: What, what message would you give to somebody who received similar advice?
[00:16:28] Speaker C: So I would say if you've heard advice like, you know, invest in this coin or invest in this company, invest in the stock. You'll, you're going to make 100 bucks. Like, did you see what's happening on Reddit? Like there to, to me, and I think maybe a shared understanding is like, there's no such thing as get rich quick. Right? Like, it's like if you, if you do happen to get rich quick, you're probably gonna get poor, poor quick. You're probably gonna lose, you lose that money real quick.
And you know, there's no, like, it's, it's really about like a, it's really about a long term strategy. Like it's, I think, you know, it's fun. Like they just put out that, that dumb money movie.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: I watched that. I literally flew back from Vegas this weekend and I watched that. The whole GameStop Robin Hood environment and the squeeze. I mean, fascinating.
[00:17:18] Speaker C: I mean fascinating. But like, and I haven't seen the movie. I actually didn't. I just heard it when it was happening and people were like, oh, I'm buying GameStop stock. But, like, did any of that last? Like, I actually don't know, but I feel like the answer is probably not really. And those people.
Are there people in jail? Like, I don't know.
[00:17:38] Speaker D: Definitely not.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: I don't want to go to jail. It was very artificial versus concrete. Right. And so, you know, when you're investing in something, I think you have to get a better understanding of the core of what you're investing in, especially if you're going all in with a business or with a concept. Right. Or with a coin.
[00:17:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: And it takes a little more due diligence. It takes a little more work. You can't just say, oh, that's great, let me grab that and go with it.
[00:18:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: And that's where I think, look, I'm all for capitalism and entrepreneurialism and taking risks. Thank God we have people that did that. Our own firm was founded based upon two guys that left a very established place to start something from scratch. And the first few years were very lean. Right.
So we need that.
But I think when you're looking to invest in something like that, you better get a core understanding of what. Who's behind it? What's behind it?
Does it have a chance before you just say, oh, yeah, based on your general advice, I'll throw a thousand bucks at that.
[00:18:46] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah. No, that's such a great point. Yeah. Definitely do the research. Because even I think what I learned after investing in the coin was that all of these coins technically are supposed to have some sort of use. Yeah. Like, that's why they were made. Like, they're not just money. Even the ones that do make money, like, they are supposed to have some sort of use.
And I don't. I don't. I didn't understand that use. Like, I invested and then read up on it. Instead of reading up on it first. Like, there's also like, oh, well, there's now laws against this coin. Or there's. And that. And that has a lot to do with the volatility. It's like, oh, well, the SEC is. It is investigating it now, so it's going to plunge. Yeah. And it's like, oh, well, now it's not under investigation, so it's going to go. And so, like, it's good to know about the histories, the uses, who's behind it.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:36] Speaker C: And yeah, so I would say that's great advice.
[00:19:38] Speaker D: Why is this the Advice you said in the beginning, I have a lot. Why is this the one that stuck out to you?
[00:19:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that this advice is the worst advice, or at least the advice that stuck out to me, because I just think it has a lot of implications.
And, you know, I just think that there's so much opportunity in new technologies that are happening, and I think it would just be a shame for people to abandon it or, you know, sort of, like push it away just because of what they've heard. Like, there's a lot of bad hype around crypto, which affects blockchain as a whole and Web three as a whole. But there's a lot of viability in that. There's a lot of opportunity in that. And I just, I think, like it.
Yeah, it's. It's. It's. It's. It's definitely top of mind for this time because, you know, we're. It just feels like a watershed moment. And technology and creativity and anything that could help, you know, individual creators and can. Can help, you know, decentralize and all of that good stuff, you know, I think, you know, should. Should be invested in.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: I think it's great because I think there's a lot of people out there who got burned.
[00:20:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:00] Speaker A: The same way you did on some of these, you know, investments. And you didn't walk away from it, from the environment, from promoting it, from the viability of it, even though you were burned, which I don't think is the natural reaction for most people. I think they would say, I'm never going there again.
You're basically saying, hey, wait a minute. This has legs. This has viability, and don't let yourself be dismayed completely from the marketplace that we need to create simply because you got hurt.
[00:21:32] Speaker C: Yeah, totally. I mean, I'm passionate about this stuff. I mean, you know, JB knows, like, anybody who knows me just knows I'm very passionate about creativity. So even though I've been burned by that, I think, like, it makes you a better version of yourself.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: Right.
[00:21:46] Speaker C: Like, you need to, like, in order to have that, you need to have something that you're sort of striving towards. For me, it's like a better creative future and, like, empowering creative people. I think that there are ways to do that. And, you know, I just. I don't want, like, my experience and experiences other people have had with this sort of, like, get rich crypto, bro thing to stand in the way of that. I feel too passionately.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: You know, I think at the end of the day, when we get bad advice many times. Yeah, the ripple effect, Boom. I took that.
I wasn't going to let you have this one all to yourself. The ripple effect of bad advice is a better you in the future. And I think what you're describing to me is I'm better off having had that experience now because it has me approach things in a smarter way.
And hopefully that's what really, each of these episodes helps our listeners understand is the worst advice we ever receive sometimes makes us the best version of us that we can possibly be. So I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your story because it's very applicable, and I think we. We gained a lot from it. So.
[00:22:55] Speaker C: Yeah, well, no, thank you. Thank you for the space and the advice.
[00:22:58] Speaker A: Thank you, Gavin. Really appreciate you being with us today.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: JB the obvious version of the story is that Gavin put a thousand dollars in a ripple, watch most of it disappear, and learn not to chase the next get rich investment. You know, that's all true, but I don't think losing the money is actually what made this the worst advice he ever got.
[00:23:14] Speaker E: Right. You know, a bad investment costing you $700, sure, that's not great, but it's not exactly like a financial crisis. What made stand out to him as the worst advice he ever got was it made him suspicious of, like, all the technology around this entire new ecosystem.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:23:30] Speaker D: He.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: He didn't just lose confidence in one cryptocurrency. He started questioning the entire ethos behind it.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: Right.
[00:23:36] Speaker B: The marketplace and all the creative possibilities that could. Could come with it were just dismissed as, you know, that's got to be another scheme. One bad experience became evidence for everything being bad.
[00:23:47] Speaker E: Yeah. It's a really interesting point on how, like, a little piece of advice, which is kind of what we talk about on the show, can affect how you feel about a much bigger thing and maybe you don't even realize it. Yeah.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: And I think we all do some version of that or have some of that in our head. We take the scar tissue from the last decision into the next opportunity, even when the people or the circumstances or the risks are completely different.
[00:24:09] Speaker E: Yeah, right. It's like eating escargot and then deciding you don't like food. You know, like, yeah, definitely got burned by a get rich quick pitch. But that doesn't mean that every use of, like, blockchain or web3 or new technology is the same kind of thing. You know, I'd be suspicious, obviously, if anybody says the words to me, basically, guaranteed, but that's a whole nother thing.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: Also, what I appreciate about Gavin was that he didn't pretend. The skepticism just disappeared. Right. It's still there. But the difference is that now he's trying to use that experience to ask better questions instead of letting it answer every question for him. Right. What are we actually investing in? What does it do? Who's behind it? Is there a real strategy? Are we just hoping to make money quick because somebody else already did? That's the lesson here. Your previous experience should inform the next decision, but it shouldn't automatically make that decision for you.
[00:24:58] Speaker E: Yes, right. Learn from the $1,000, or in his case, $700 that he lost. Just don't let that become your full time financial advisor.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Well, that's a good place to leave it. Thanks again to Gavin Guidry for joining us. And thank you to Smith and Howard for bringing us these conversations about how bad advice can shape much more than one bad decision.
Come back next week wherever you get your podcast for another episode of the Worst Advice I Ever Got.
