Learn about the exciting world of NFTs and their potential for creative projects, including writing children’s books, building brands, and growing business with Laura, the creator of the Duck Buddies book series, and Raj Khater, a former VP at the Royal Bank of Canada, entrepreneur, and prolific NFT collector.
Video of Our Talk on Writing Kids Books, NFTs, and More:
00:00 – From Crypto to Writing Kids Books Introduction
• Check out Episode 223 with April Cox for more on how to write, illustrate, publish, and marketing a kids book
• Laura authored and published her first children’s book! Duck Buddies: The Secret Clubhouse (now live on Amazon in Kindle, paperback, hardback, and audiobook)
• Meet our guest, Raj Khater. Laura and Raj met through Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT project, VeeFriends, and decided to use some of Raj’s IP for illustration inspiration in the world of duck buddies.
• Popular NFT projects — including SupDucks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Super Yeti — are inspiration for the art work of this kid’s book and future books
• Find out how NFT ownership grants intellectual property rights for creative use.
04:20 – Welcoming Raj Khater to the Copy That Pops Show
• Origins of Duck Buddies
• How Raj got to where he is today and how he got involved with Duck Buddies World
06:01 – Raj’s Vision Opening Up for Blockchain and Technology
• There’s a lot more to the blockchain and NFTs than just cryptocurrency like Bitcoin
• Intellectual property rights with digital ownership in the literary world and beyond
06:50 – “I could write a kids’ book better than this!”
• Reading kids’ books to our kids, many parents and grandparents want to write a book of their own
• How Raj and Laura teamed up with his IP and her creative storytelling abilities
07:30 – Copyrighting Your Copywriting
• Listen to this past episode: Copyrighting Your Copywriting with Jason Tucker, the Pirate Hunter
07:55 – What is an NFT? What is the blockchain?
• A blockchain is like a large public, digital ledger that can’t be manipulated and is decentralized.
• Underneath ‘blockchain technology’ is crypto currency and NFTs, or non-fungible tokens.
• The benefits of NFTs with examples like the Mona Lisa, a musician, or an author.
• Web 1.0: Downloading information. Web 2.0: We create content, and it’s distributed by major platforms. Web 3.0: You as the creator can now retain the rights and keep the benefits.
11:13 – How can authors benefit from using NFTs in their business?
• Traditional book publishers keep the benefits.
• Duck Buddies was self-published on Amazon and things like illustrators were paid for out of our pocket.
• In the future, we could launch an NFT project around this book or future books, giving benefits out to the early backers of the project.
• How early backers as NFT owners could not only benefit but become promoters and evangelists of your book or project.
• It’s like crowdfunding with on-going rewards and benefits
14:15 – How NFTs Are Still in the Early Days
• Just like the early days of the internet, we aren’t sure exactly where things are going to grow into.
• “Online encyclopedia” and “who’s going to buy a book off the internet?” — we are now in that same spot with crypto, blockchain, and NFTs in the web3 world.
• Your community and customers are becoming aligned.
• We’re still early, and even if we are in a crypto winter, this technology isn’t going away.
16:22 – Background and Origins of Duck Buddies Book and Writing Books for Children
• How Laura wrote her first children’s book, tried to find an illustrator, and connected with Raj for a collaboration on the book with NFT projects as the art inspiration
17:33 – What does is mean to have IP rights to NFT projects?
• Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) — Snoop Dog, Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon, and other celebrities own and hyped these.
• Different levels of IP rights, depending on the NFT project.
• Imagine being able to use Superman on a water bottle product you launched (as an example in ‘real terms’)
19:47 – What have other owners of NFTs used their IP rights for?
• Bored Water, Bored & Hungry (burger joint in LA), Snoop Dog & Eminem (music videos and songs), Seth Green (made a cartoon with his), SupSauce (spicy sauce)
• Make it a mascot, content creation, leverage AI to generate more animated content
• Getting a supportive community that comes along for the business ride
22:22 – Writing the children’s book with humor worked in
• Raj’s background in standup comedy helped Laura tighten up some of the words, lines, jokes, storyline, etc.
• “Scarcity of words” is important in writing well
24:37 – How do you write a book that’s engaging for both kids and the adult readers?
• Learn how Laura kept the vocabulary engaging in her children’s book without dumbing it down. Bonus: “teachable moments”
• Engaging children and adult readers with humor and silliness
• Conveying life lessons through storytelling
26:00 – How to map out the arc of the story when writing a kids’ book
• How to make a story relatable
• Need tension, resolution, and humor in the story
• Promoting inclusivity and friendship as core messages
29:40 – Reasons and Ways to Write a Childrens’ Book
• Brainstorm when you felt a negative emotion
• Build characters around people you know
• Use ChatGPT to help think of ideas or rhyming words
32:30 – To use or not to use curse words at home and silly wordplay in kids’ books
• Utilizing wordplay for humor in the book
• Balancing adult humor with kid-appropriate content in children’s literature
• Laura and Raj discuss embedding playful word choices in the book while maintaining a child-friendly tone
36:23 – Where to Learn More about Laura, Raj, and Duck Buddies Books
• DuckBuddiesWorld.com, ArcayVentures.com, CopyThatPops.com/duckbuddies
37:00 – Future of Duck Buddies
• Expanding the Duck Buddies World project: Get a sneak peek into Laura’s and Raj’s plans for future projects within the Duck Buddies World
• Upcoming characters based on NFT projects (Moonbirds, SupDucks, Super Yeti, Gutter Cat Gang, Bored Ape Yacht Club, etc.)
• Opportunity to create content for kids, adults, and anyone in between
• Recap the key takeaways from the conversation about NFTs and children’s books.
38:58 – Laura’s Outro for the Episode
• Connect with Laura on all social platforms, just search @LaptopLaura
• Learn More About Duck Buddies World: https://duckbuddiesworld.com
• Duck Buddies Book 1 (The Secret Clubhouse): https://copythatpops.com/duckbuddies
Guest on Writing Kids Books: Raj Khater
Also known as @Pedactor.eth, Raj spent 20 years in the banking industry working his way to a VP role at RBC Royal Bank before leaving to start Arcay Ventures.
Always having an entrepreneurial spirit, Raj was able to balance his former full-time career with starting multiple businesses, including real estate development, consulting, e-commerce, and digital marketing.
Prior experience includes working at Hewlett-Packard (Germany) in HR Talent Management and Bosch (Germany) in HR International Policy Development.
Raj previously served on the Board of Directors for the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (a $20 Billion dollar corporation) where he sat on committees including the Investment, Operations & Technology, Human Resources & Compensation, Governance, and Audit Committee.
He holds a Bachelors of Commerce and International Business from the University of Victoria, as well as studies in E.U. Constitutional and Trade Law at the University of Mannheim, Germany.
Learn More: ArcayVentures.com
Find Raj on Twitter/X here
About Arcay Ventures
Arcay Ventures is a future forward private capital firm that looks to bridge current businesses with upcoming trends and technology.
They invest and work with innovators pushing the boundaries in new ventures that help shape the world to come within the Web3 space.
They also continue to provide traditional services in real estate investing, land assembly, development and private equity financing.
Connect Socially and Let’s Talk More About Writing Kids Books:
Host: Laura Petersen
podcast@copythatpops.com
All Copy That Pops Podcast Episodes:
iHeartRadio
iTunes
Radio Public
Sound Cloud
Stitcher
All Podcasts
Please Help Me Grow and Be Found!
If you like the show, please leave me a short review on iTunes! It will help it get found by others too. 🙂
You must be logged in to post a comment.