Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of Living on Blockchain. Today we are speaking to Victoria. Victoria is from Nigeria.
She is a content creator and she has a community wherein she’s actually teaching the newbies the ropes of the crypto world. Apart from that, she’s also working with OKEX as their marketing partner. I had a really fun chat with her talking about women in the space, content creators, and the latest in the, you know, creators economy that is being built around with all this hype with NFTs and like, it was a really fun conversation.
So let’s deep dive right in. Hi Victoria, how are you doing today? I’m fine and you? I’m doing well, thank you so much for joining us. So for the benefit of our listeners, could you tell me a little about your background please? Okay, just like you said, my name is Victoria Obaka.
I’m from Nigeria and I’m a content writer, also a creative writer, and I have a platform where I teach people. I’ve worked for OKEX Exchange, I’ve worked for Crypto Crunch, I can’t work for them though, and I’ve worked for My Dad’s Investment too, and I’ve done a couple of contents for some persons at the freelance level. And personally, I’ve written a couple of books that I self-published on Amazon and Okada Books, and I simply love to deliver value to people.
And I am in the blockchain space because of how this is very interesting, and I just like the future, the future in the blockchain space, and so many solutions that we’re bringing into the world, especially for a country like my country, they need everything the blockchain has to offer. Your journey has been primarily in the content and sort of getting the message across, which I believe is so important in this day and age for the crypto space. Could you tell us a little more about the books that you have written, because that’s very interesting.
Okay, the name of the book is How to Make Money From What You Know. Now, the reason why I made me write that book is, you know, after I left school, there was no job. Okay, because I was studying, it needed me to get extra certifications, extra degrees, to even get a job.
So I thought about it, we all have, most persons have a smartphone, and there are a lot of things in the smartphone that can easily give access to start having a financial independence, which was very vital to achieving some of your goals. So I looked at it, that if you have a smartphone, you have access to the internet, there’s a lot that you can learn, and there’s a lot that you can do. It connects you to the world.
So I figured it helps me get from where I was to where I am right now. I started to package everything that helped me in the past three years into that book, so people can learn that even if they don’t have the funds now, they’ve got a very big, large scale business, they can start from the comfort of their smartphone, because that’s something that they easily have. And they have the internet, they can learn whatever they want to learn, and they are connected to a wide range of network on the internet and go from there.
Because if that’s something you have easily, and some persons have easy access to data, and the internet. So if that’s if those factors are covered, then why not, you have a greater room to start whatever you want to start. And looking at it now, from like, last year, when the whole pandemic started, you know, it proved to us that we can all connect across the globe without having to travel, travel across the globe.
So many persons built connections, friendships over the internet. So the book is just simply to how you can package what you know, deliver it to your smartphone, and you can also monetize it on your smartphone. It’s a great thing, you’re absolutely right that we’re working in crypto, and somehow everyone can get involved.
And you know, the road to entering it is not really very long, you can easily get into the space, as long as you have access to a smartphone and internet. So on your LinkedIn profile, it says that you’re a marketing partner, contractual partner for OKEx, are you still working with them? Yes, yes, I’m still working with them. Alright, could you tell me a little bit about in what capacity? Okay, currently, I work with OKEx Exchange as a marketing partner, because I have a community that I teach cryptocurrency and the blockchain to, because I figured last year, I figured that a lot of persons didn’t have a background knowledge about the cryptocurrency space, and about the blockchain space, where the blockchain has come to solve everyone.
So I decided to create a community. So from there, that was how I got some, one of the business developers contacted me to be a partner in the sense that I would teach my community how to use the cryptocurrency exchanges. And then this is already something that I do on a normal basis, on a daily basis.
I can just simply market the exchange to my community and provide them the profitable information they can use. So that’s basically what I do for them. And I hold AMA sessions, Ask Me Anything sessions for people, so they can ask their questions and get clarified on the session.
Alright, okay, sounds good. So you’re talking about this feeling of this community, you are teaching a lot of these movies about groups and the cryptocurrency. Is this on television? Or where can we find it? Okay, it’s mostly on WhatsApp.
The WhatsApp group, I have about three WhatsApp groups, so it’s on the internet. It’s on the internet. We haven’t had a physical meeting yet, so everything is virtual.
So we hold Zoom meetings, we hold Zoom classes. I teach classes, and then I have a YouTube channel where I upload some of the videos from the meetings, so that many people don’t meet up with the meeting, so they just go to the YouTube channel and they catch up, watch, ask their questions, and all that. So it’s basically online, where I hold the Zoom meetings.
But the best communities are online. So you’re doing a good job, fantastic job, getting the message across. I believe what you’re doing is very, very important.
Yeah, thank you. So as a content creator, and a person who’s trying to sort of train people in getting the right information forward, apart from your community, are there any other content creators that you would recommend that our listeners should follow to get the right kind of information on the blockchain as well? Okay, you mean like other communities in my area that they can join, platforms? Yes, yeah. Okay, I’m part of Women in Blockchain on Telegram.
We have a community on Telegram too. So there’s a lot of women there that they can ask their questions, join, even a lot of job opportunities, because I found that there are tons of job opportunities for people in this space, because of the fact that there are new tech companies coming out in the blockchain space. So there are tons of women to connect with and tons of information to learn from, and then many job opportunities to get.
So I would recommend Women in Blockchain space on Telegram, that Telegram community. And there are a couple of other communities here in Africa that you can join, especially in Nigeria, to learn 1802. And I’m also part of a community for writers, but mostly for young writers who are still in school, opposition of Nigeria to their authors.
So professors who are into creative writing, like poetry, short stories, and all that, they can also participate in that kind of community to learn 1802 about creative writing. There’s more though. Those are really, really good recommendations.
And it gives people a headway to sort of jump right in. Would you like to recommend a good book for people who are just getting into this space, like in the blockchain and crypto space? Okay, so one or two books. Okay, our friend, our friend Alice Sam, she’s also from the Women in Blockchain space.
She wrote a book on stablecoin. The book is a very good read. It’s a very good read, stablecoin economy.
Very good read. So I would recommend that. I think it’s available on Amazon.
It’s available on Amazon. Or if you want, I have a PDF version. So with her permission, I can also give out the book if anyone wants it.
So I would recommend that. Very, very good read. And there are one or two.
I think this book was written by, I can’t remember the name, Mastering Bitcoin and Mastering Ethereum. That’s also a very good book to read. That’s why I’m coming to this space.
So I believe that the foundation is very important. The foundation is very important. Most people just come into this space, but they don’t know where everything all started from.
And they just want to start from the middle. And then when we do all the whole volatility and disruptions in the market, they are checking out because they don’t actually understand what the space is offering. So I would recommend those, these three books to them.
You can start with them. Right. Yeah.
Those are really good recommendations. I think Mastering Bitcoin is a wonderful book that you recommended for people who are just starting off. So, you know, if say, you know, we are in your community and there’s somebody who’s, this is their day one.
Okay. And they have just joined to sort of get nuances with Bitcoin and crypto. What is like the top five things that you would like to perhaps tell them, you know, as they are starting out their journey in the crypto and blockchain space? All right.
Okay. Here’s my advice to anyone who’s just joining the crypto and blockchain space. The first thing is that education is very important.
You know, somehow you need to make more money faster because this is a way of giving you an opportunity to earn more than you would have on a regular job or a regular daily job. And then you, most people just come in for the profit. And when they come in without proper education on the risk management or portfolio management and then the accountability in the market, they, it affects them, you know, and they sort of just simply write the space off.
And I’ve come to understand that, like I always tell my community, education first. You have to understand that what the blockchain space is offering, of course, is beyond the whole quick money scheme that some people have on the back of your mind. If you understand that, of course, because it’s still evolving, if you understand that it’s going further than the way it is right now, and it’s still evolving and the potential of the blockchain space, they’ll be more, they’ll make better decisions because I believe in making informed decisions from information.
Information will always help you make better decisions. And also, they should know that this space is not a get-rich-quick scheme space. It’s a space that can take you further than this.
There are a lot of potentials in this space. Like, personally, I have some jobs, some critical jobs. Even if you’re not actively involved in the trading or the investment path, you can build your portfolio, you can build your job portfolio.
You can offer your skills and get paid for it. There are a lot of values you can get from this space. There are different jobs you can do, whether you’re a tech person or you’re not a tech person.
There are opportunities for you inside this space. And even if you’re investing, you shouldn’t go all-in with all the funds you have. You shouldn’t go all-in with all the funds you have.
Sometimes it’s just because when you make a lot of profit, they think that, oh, if I put in more funds, I’ll make more. But the funny thing is, the volatility markets will just take you off your feet. And then you see yourself losing some funds, and you start panicking.
So there’s a particular rule from, I think, that should be from one of Buffett’s quotes, where he says, be greedy when the market is, be fearful when the market is greedy. And then be greedy when the market is fearful. So the point of this is, when everywhere is red, and everybody’s afraid, that’s when you should buy into the market.
And when everybody is all happy about the market, and everybody’s so green, that’s when you should actually take your profits. But then most businesses don’t actually follow this trend, because people are scared to buy when the market is down. And then when the market’s all green, they want to buy.
And then at the end of it, they end up buying their stocks. So it’s good to be part of, have a good mentor that could teach you. You could even ask questions, or join our community, a community that you can easily exchange information, clarify, because we’re going to move on.
This is still an evolving space. And of course, like I said earlier, personal education is super, really important. Proper risk management is very important.
And also, your security. Security, this is a space that is prone to, not the blockchain itself, because blockchain itself cannot be hacked. But those third parties, like exchanges and wallets and all that, can be hacked easily.
So this is where you have to be security conscious. So you have to know what level of security that you can add to your platforms, your exchanges, so that your funds will not be hacked easily. And you don’t lose your funds just to anyone, just to anybody that just hacked you and all that.
So first things first, get relevant education, join a good community, put proper risk management, proper portfolio management. The education is actually more important than any skills you’re trying to pursue, because without the education, you can’t manage the skills that you could actually achieve from the security space. And then you don’t have opportunities to.
Yeah, no, this is like, these are very good suggestions I gave, that, you know, for anybody who’s starting out, and have the long game in mind. Do not just think about it like, you know, get really quick sort of a scheme. It’s about the technology.
It’s about the vision. And you need to have like some like mentors, who are going to push you, you know, into that phase of learning. Because once you get into crypto or blockchain, what I realized is that everybody seems to learn a lot very quickly, right? Because these are all new things.
The technology is so dynamic. But what your suggestion, absolutely, I mean, bang on. So now, you know, now onto like a little bit of a fun segment.
This would be like a rapid thing. You know, I’m just going to like say one word. And for example, I’d say Bitcoin, and you will say the first thing that pops into your head.
So this will be more like a rapid association sort of line of questions. Okay. So let’s start with Ethereum.
Centralized. Okay. Doggy coin.
NEM. NFT. Don’t want to go.
DeFi space. For now. Okay, all right.
What about XRP? Cross-border payment. Okay. What about Monero? Privacy.
Cryptocurrency. Okay. I’m just kidding.
Cryptocurrency. Okay. All right, okay.
This has been fun. But, you know, now onto the next thing. Which women would you think of as role models in this space? And, you know, this podcast aims to sort of shed more light on the women that are working in this space because the gender gap is immense.
Which women leaders do you follow a lot in the blockchain and crypto space? I would look beyond the women in blockchain space. There are some really great women that are working in blockchain companies. I have Alice Sam, like I mentioned earlier, about her book.
Then there is Tessie Marine. There is also Lavinia Osborne. These are women that I have seen that have actively offered value, like, in this blockchain space.
The women in blockchain space, they consistently teach people and they consistently offer more opportunities to women in this space. So I look up to them. Alice Sam, too.
Alice Sam is one woman that is very strong. She’s a woman that I’ve gone to a lot. But then she, you know, blockchain, the blockchain space is one space I gave her because it’s something that she could easily do without, I think she was a house.
And then she had a series of challenges and then she had to, the blockchain came and offered opportunities to, you know, still express herself and still offer a lot of value. So she’s in a lot in the blockchain space. And we all have two women, too.
That’s Tessie Marine, who is also part of our thinking policy. Lavinia Osborne, who manages the women in blockchain international. So there are really cool women that I look up to.
Right. Okay. Yeah, there are like a lot of women that are doing really good work in this space.
Yeah. I believe that there are so many of them. Yeah.
Yeah, there are so many. It’s just that the number is a little, you know, as compared to the number of men, it’s a little less. And that is why, you know, it gets noticed a little less as well.
And obviously there is some inherent patriarchy in the way the media kind of portrays deep technology anyway. Yeah, that’s true. When you compare the ratio of men to women that are in this space, men are more.
And then, well, I feel it’s more women. Generally, when it comes to the tech space, women are learning to get into the tech space. No matter how much we have more women in tech space, it’s not up to the men, mostly because you find some women that are not, it’s not easy for them to just get into something that’s not so close to them.
Like they like things that are cutting, they like to be sure what they’re getting into and all that. But then, you know, the men are the ones that they can jump right into stuff without thinking much about it at all. But then we need more women in this space because a lot of women are very smart that can handle a lot of stuff on the tech side.
The non-tech side have some women already there. But the tech side, like the development part of it and all that, we have some women that are getting into that, but then we need more women. I think communities or more collaboration or more education for women, that this is something they can actually do, will go a long way because it’s sustainable.
They can do it, they have a lot of value to offer the blockchain space. Because one very good quality about women is they can multi-task a lot. Women have this intrinsic ability to multi-task, which is one quality that will go a long way in this space.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. We’re running a little over time here, but this conversation has been so interesting and you’ve had such great insights. So I’ve come down to my last two questions.
One is that in case somebody wants to get into the content creator, so the creator economy, right? We talk a lot about the creator economy in the crypto space, especially with all the activity that is happening in the NFT area. If somebody wants to become like a content creator in the blockchain and crypto space, what would be your two cents for them? Oh, well, okay. For my own end, the content creating part, I’ve had to have direct contact with, it’s not like the content writing part or the video creation part.
So my two cents to anyone who wants to create content, maybe within content, is that if something that is very doable, because I’ve encountered people who, they feel that writing is simply something that is so hard to do. But then I always tell them that if you can express yourself in English, this is an era where people are not really, people want to get things broken down to the simplest terms for them. If not, their attention span is really, really short and they will just simply, if it’s too complicated, they want to shy away from it.
Or a few of them might want to give it a little bit more time to get it better. So if you’re in this, if you want to get into the content writing part of the content creation space, you should think about, you should just pick an area. Like you mentioned, the NFT space now, which is, you know, trending now.
You should pick an area and talk about it a lot more. There’s a platform where you can simply express yourself. If it’s the writing part, you can just, you can write a lot on Medium.
There’s a lot of information out there that you can use and explore, you know, or ask people that are already in the space, get their knowledge about it, get their understanding of it, or do your own research and release some relevant information out there. Because most people are looking for where to get more information, more of this about the space. So this can actually be like a middleman between the person that’s speaking for content and then, you know, and the content itself.
So they can actually do it, can actually do it. If you listen to this, they want to be a content creator, even video content, because some patients watch videos, you know, about how things are done, how things are made, how things are created. So they can also do, focus on video creation and, you know, pass on the information that people need on whatever area.
It’s always best to focus, you know, start from one area instead of being like everywhere. You know, if you focus on a particular focus area, like the NFC, and you try to get people to start using it, it’s just relevant, it’s always your value. But that’s one thing I believe a lot.
If you’re not giving value, it’s not going to make a lot of sense. It’s more like going to be like you wasted your time and you wasted a lot of people’s time too. So as long as the content you are creating is going to offer value to the next person, if there’s something that someone can learn from and easily apply, that easily does it.
That’s like the same step. All right. Okay.
So, you know, that kind of brings me to my last question. Again, this kind of touches upon how to get into the space. Somebody is, you know, trying to get into crypto and they would like to perhaps join you on this journey.
What would be like a best way to reach out to you and to, you know, become a part of your journey as well? You can contact me directly on either LinkedIn or check me out on, because I’ve had some people coming to me directly through my YouTube channel, which is Valley Coast. They can, you can even Google me. If you Google me, you get ways to access me.
I’m accessible via my inboxes on Facebook, LinkedIn, or even my WhatsApp or Telegram. So I’m very much accessible. So if they come in and just say, I’m interested in this, I want to get more knowledge on this, I want to learn more about this, I will always know how to guide them and then take them through the journey.
All right. Okay. Well, that’s really good to know that, you know, you guys are so accessible and people can join right in.
I believe that, you know, everybody in the crypto space has been extremely helpful as well. So, you know, people are always more than ready to help you out. And I strongly believe that, you know, with women like you in the space that are actively creating content, the kind of misnomer or notion is there that, you know, decoders and developers in the bar of the space that can go more far to you and what you are doing.
I really admired it. And I hope to work with you. Yeah, I look forward to that too.
Thank you so much. Any last thoughts? Okay. Yeah.
I always encourage people to, you know, every one of us is unique. No one should intimidate you into not going all out to who you can be. Like what I like about the blockchain space is that it gives everyone, it gives everyone the room to be who they can be.
Whatever you have is value enough that you can offer to the space. So, no matter what you think or how far you think someone else has gone, you can also, from where you are, you can also start your own journey and you can also grow. I believe in process a lot.
So, don’t allow anyone to intimidate you into not being, into not giving it your shot. It’s better to try than not to try at all. Because the way you try, you actually know how strong you are and how far you can go.
And then, don’t, this space has a lot to offer you. This blockchain space has a lot to offer. Especially if you are too scared to start into the investment or whatever, the investor part or the trading part.
You cannot simply offer your skill. There are lots of companies out there that would, that will have you on their team. Either as an intern or working for them full time or anything.
I feel like offering your skill to them in whatever capacity that you can. Every single day, there’s one company out there that needs someone that could either write or do something or manage a community or something. But it’s something that you have that you can offer.
So, I’m encouraging you to go out there. There’s a world that needs you. That needs that little thing that you have.
There’s a world out there that needs you. So, go out there and give it your best shot. Yeah, no, this is wonderful.
Thank you so much for the passion that you bring to your work and your passion is absolutely visible when you speak about it. I’m so glad that you, as I said, that the WOM Women are getting the space and we are carving a path for so many other women because representation is so important. So, thank you so much once again for being here with me.
It’s been a lovely chat. Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you very much.
It’s been awesome. Thank you. Thank you.