From Rapper to Creator Economy Pioneer with Iggy Azalea

In the latest episode of the Business of Creators, Ian speaks with Iggy Azalea about crypto and the creator economy.

Iggy explains Dream Vault, her new crowdfunding platform. They also discuss the launch of her meme coin $MOTHER and the double edged sword of celebrities and crypto.

The Business of Creators is a podcast for content creators and everyone interested in the Creator Economy. On this show Ian Shepherd speaks with the pioneers shaping the industry and digs deeper to get the scoop on new ways to create, distribute and monetize content.

Ian is co-founder of Electrify Video Partners, a company investing $m in established creators to accelerate their growth. Check out electrify.video.

Please go check it out and subscribe to the show for more interviews from industry leaders shaping the Creator Economy.

Transcript

Iggy Azalea  0:00  
Dreams don't happen solo. They take community. And I just really wanted to create a platform where you could harness that thought, Wow. You know, I have this idea about creator economy, but also I could see how this would just apply to the everyday person as well, who may want a crowd fund for things like a baby shower or maybe it's a big birthday trip and it's easier to do it in that regard, like I think that it's a utility a lot of people could use.

Ian Shepherd  0:28  
Hello and welcome to the business of Creators Podcast, the show taking you behind the scenes of the Creator economy. Today, I have the privilege of speaking with a one and only Iggy Azalea, the Australian rapper, singer songwriter and undeniable force in the music industry, but Iggy is much more than a Grammy nominated artist. She's also an entrepreneurial visionary venturing into ambitious new projects in the creative world. In our discussion today, we'll dive into not just one but two fascinating initiatives Iggy has spearheaded. First up is Dream vault, an innovative platform designed to help anyone from artists to everyday people crowdfund and rally communities around achieving their dreams and goals. Iggy shares her deeply personal inspirations behind dream bowl and her vision for how it can empower creators and dreamers everywhere. We'll also explore Iggy's fascinating foray into the world of crypto with her project. Mother, a meme coin, aiming to onboard new users into crypto through a fun, chaotic community. Iggy also shares unique insights into the potential for celebrities to bring authentic value to crypto projects. So get ready for an inside look at Iggy's multi fascinated endeavors beyond music, as we discussed dream vault, mother her takeaways for the crypto space so far and much more, whether you're a die hard Iggy fan or just someone intrigued by forward thinking creators, you won't want to miss this candid conversation before we jump into it. Let me tell you about electrify video partners, a business I co founded that invests millions of dollars into creative businesses such as Veritasium and simple history, we offer large established creators a partner to help them scale the business, or the option to sell up and exit altogether. Check out our new website at electrify adult video, or drop me a message to find out more. Right? Let's get on with the show. So today on the podcast, I'm joined by IDI Azalea, welcome to the show. Thank

Iggy Azalea  2:24  
you for having me. Excellent. So

Ian Shepherd  2:26  
I'm really excited to talk about two new projects you've got on the go, Dream vault, and Mother

Iggy Azalea  2:32  
me too, I've been dying to talk about dream vault for almost a year now, and you're the first person that I get to have a conversation with so I'm really excited.

Ian Shepherd  2:43  
Wow. So tell us, what is Dream ball? Honestly,

Iggy Azalea  2:46  
Dream ball is a website. Well, it's, it's a platform, really, that I created that I think my goal is just for anybody that has a dream. It's a place where they can try to achieve it and create community to help them achieve whatever it is that their goal is.

Ian Shepherd  3:07  
I love that, and what was the inspiration behind it? There

Iggy Azalea  3:09  
would be times where my fans would gather together and pay for billboards for me, and all kinds of crazy things that they've done in the name of their campaign, or flyering the streets themselves. And I just always thought to myself, like, wow, this is really cool how people will, of their own free will believe in something so much that they want to help in any which way. And whenever I have seen anybody get up and give an award a speech, and they're always saying thank you to a long list of people, it's, you know, dreams don't happen solo. They take community. And I just really wanted to create a platform where you could harness that, specifically for creators, especially in, you know, the the place that we're in now, where I think that we do have, like, we have platforms and access to fan bases, but it may be hard for somebody to organize them, or to know how to go about that. So I just wanted to simplify that for people. But then also, in a more broader scope, I got to thinking about friends pulling together for group vacations, or even just my son, he has a lot of kids parties that he goes to and they'll have Amazon wish lists or things like that. And I thought, well, you know, I have this idea about creator economy, but also I could see how this would just apply to the everyday person as well, who may want a crowd fund for things like a baby shower or maybe it's a big birthday trip, and it's easier to do it in that regard. Like, I think that it's a utility a lot of people could use beyond creator. So it just really got me thinking about it.

Ian Shepherd  4:45  
Wow. I love the detail there and some of the examples. So in terms of making it different from other crowdfunding or gifting platforms, is it just the simplicity,

Iggy Azalea  4:53  
I think one, ease of access, but also two, I'm really trying to develop real, like social element of. It. The thing that I see with a lot of other gifting platforms and crowdfunding platforms too, quite frankly, is that there's not a lot of like reason for time spent on platform, and there's not a lot of back and forth flow in terms of engagement. It's a lot of the community, you know, funding, but then they don't necessarily have like incentive or way to connect with creator and build in that regard. And so for me with Dream ball, my focus has always been on trying to build out that social element landscape, really like of the project, and be focused on both, both kind of like parallels.

Ian Shepherd  5:39  
Got it, got it. And are there particular creators that you're targeting at the start for the launch?

Iggy Azalea  5:45  
Honestly, the scope is broad, and it's been purposely broad. I really want to not just focus on a particular type of person, because my, you know, kind of ethos is everybody has a dream, right? So I want to make sure that I feel everybody is kind of like thought about in my onboard. I don't want to pigeon hole into a particular type of creator and then people see, like, Oh, it's just for Tiktok influences. You know. I don't want to give it a prejudice in that regard. And I also don't want to scare away, you know, just the average person from understanding how this could be a utility that they could engage with and see themselves, not just as potential community builders, but also people with their own dreams that are valid too, and that they can utilize this for friends and family as well, not just fan bases, but in regard to creator, I really want, you know I want, I want the lifestyle creator that maybe wants To travel and do that crazy trip. I want people that are photographers, that may need equipment or something to be able to expand on what they're doing, or maybe you're developing a script idea, and you need people to pull together and believe in that to get to the next stage. Maybe you want to, you know, maybe you do. You're doing sports or gym type influencing, and maybe you want to build a basketball court for some kids, or do something cool, like, it's just there are so many different ways. Or it could be silly. Dreams can be silly too. Maybe you're just a girl with a lot of fans and you want to get your nails done, and it's that's the dream. Can you help me with that? Like, it could be as silly or as big or as endearing or as charitable, it could be so many different things. And so my kind of, like mission has just been to go out and really find balance in the creators that I on board. Because the message, I believe, is just that everybody has a dream.

Ian Shepherd  7:34  
I love that Well, I'm excited to see what dreams are created. Me too,

Iggy Azalea  7:38  
really interesting ones I do, and we have a dreamer fund where part of some of the fees that, you know, are on the platform, we're taking them and putting them into a fund so that dream bolt can actually pick and select dreams that we believe in personally and fund those. So I'm like, super excited to get to go through, you know, people that maybe don't have a huge spotlight, but have a really interesting dream, and try to make some of those things happen for people,

Ian Shepherd  8:05  
very cool, very cool. And can you describe your role as the creative director? What's that entailed

Iggy Azalea  8:12  
as the creative director? Like, separate from initial concept, obviously, and like the founder elements of it, I kind of go over like web flow, which I put into creative how you navigate the site functionality, what's good, what esthetically looks good, in terms of the page layout and flow, I pick the artists that you know, I use for the illustration and color palettes. What different tokens and emoticons look like, I do the entire and write the entire copy for the website, developing different things like such as, we have a little AI cloud helping tool and just develop different creative concepts that can be integrated into the platform for usage. And, yeah, it's pretty like, broad spanning, to be honest with you, because creativity does bleed into functionality sometimes, and I do think you have to get creative not just about like visual elements, but about functionality for it to work and feel good for users. Got it

Ian Shepherd  9:20  
well, it's great to hear about your input there, and how do you see Dreamville evolving over the next five years?

Iggy Azalea  9:27  
I have so many iterations of it already. To be honest with you, the thing that I immediately would like to build out would be right now on launch, we have a built build up. You either have a builder profile or you have a dreamer profile, I'd like to develop the functionality of those things more and have it flow both ways, more so that creators can, you know, give to to builders, or can give back more on the platform. And I'd like to see the social element of the platform develop more. Um, because I just really. Like, community is such a big part in success. It's such a big part in getting people to believe in your dream is community. And so I'd love, in five years, if this had a lot more robust social element to it.

Ian Shepherd  10:16  
Well, I'm excited to see where it goes. And if you weren't busy enough, you're also investing into crypto, and I'm really excited. I've loved to learn about that project as well. So can you give us an overview of what Mother is and what inspired you to create it?

Iggy Azalea  10:34  
Yeah, I mean, mother is, mother is a meme coin. Essentially, it's a meme coin project in the crypto space. It's a Solana project, and mother is a meme token, and it's really it's a community of people where what I think our ethos is is that we're here to disrupt and kind of create a bit of chaos and fun. We are all about trying to onboard people into the crypto community, whether it be people that want to get into investing or joining different projects and understanding how to trade them and how it all works, or whether it's that you're a celebrity or a notable person that wants to enter the space and just teaching them how to do it in a way that's, you know, not directly, just taking liquid out of a community and not really integrating into it properly. I think there's a lot of lack of knowledge in that element of it, particularly so we're kind of like, I don't know. I think we're sort of like a godmother in a way, and then also just that crazy, cool mom that everybody wants to go to their house and eat all the food that they cook. Both things,

Ian Shepherd  11:42  
what a great brand. And what have you learned from venturing into the world of crypto

Iggy Azalea  11:48  
so much very quickly, to be honest with you, it's been hard and fast as a ride, but I think for me, the thing that I've learned the most about is the different projects you know, and what they represent, and how much community really plays the part of it. I've always heard about crypto or casually watched trading or meme projects and things like that, but because I was never really like in the telegram chats or in the community directly, I never really understood that element of it, even hearing back in 2021 when NFT projects were so hot and trying to create utility for them, I got it, but I never it never really clicked for me. Like, why? Because the community element of it never fully I didn't fully understand that until I was in it. And now that I am, I can say, like, community is the number one driver of all of these product, products, sorry, projects in the crypto community, and it's just being dumped in the deep end of it has given me like, you could never write this down on paper and truly understand that. And I would say that same thing to anybody that's listening, you know, like, even with my project, yes, I mean my butt. Sometimes it's funny, but you could easily go out in the media and say, well, she posted a meme of her butt, and now people are buying it. And it's like, it's buzzy, but it's a little misleading, because I think it's really discounts the community that's created. And if I wish more people could understand that and just get in it and hot check it out for themselves, whether it's mother or somebody else's project that interests you like, have a look and check out these communities. They're very similar to, I would say, almost like a music fandom. And I think that it's something that would probably interest more people more than they would realize if they would not have it oversimplified in media.

Ian Shepherd  13:42  
Got it. Got it. And have you got a favorite mother? Me?

Iggy Azalea  13:47  
Oh, my God, it's hard to pick. Honestly, fuck. There's so many good ones. It's crazy to see just how funny everybody is. Actually. I think that's the joy of the internet. For me has always been that even though there's crazy like negativity or, you know, shit like that on it, it's ultimately so funny. That's what that's the joy I find in the internet. And so if memes, God, it's hard, there are a lot of funny ones that I like where there's one in particular that's, they're like, mother is coming, and he it's a little SpongeBob laying there, and it's just a shadow of, like a butt shape, like he's so happy about it. Um, but I like all that, those kind of, like the subcategories, I guess, of the memes that run off. But my favorite subcategory of Mother memes are the ones where all of a sudden I'm not in the meme, but it's just a butt shadow in different ways. Those are funny to me.

Ian Shepherd  14:48  
I'll have to check it out. You know, celebrity involvement in crypto can be a bit of a double edged sword. How have you found that? What's your view on that?

Iggy Azalea  14:56  
Oh my gosh. I mean, I think saying it's a double edged sword is. Such an understatement to be honest with you, I I kind of feel like I might be one of the only people that have actually come in and do it properly so far. And I think it's really unfortunate to be honest with you, because I think that there are a lot of ways other celebrities could come in and give real utility to their coin and have a project that's lasting and valuable to them in ways that aren't even necessarily directly monetary revenues, like I hate the way that a lot of celebrities have come in the space and just thought about it as $1 amount and what they can suck out quickly. I think it's actually a lot more valuable to celebrities and could be utilized as a way to create a bigger platform of engagement for themselves, how to create a more solid community, which would lead them, probably, to having less up and down moments in their career when they have people engaged like that. And also, you know, if they had tokens, they could do all kinds of things with utility. You could have a whole tour and engage a whole nother world of, you know, community where maybe they could buy tickets to your concert using this token, or maybe they could get special Meet and Greet opportunities. Like, there are so many different ways that I think, like music or entertainment industry type celebrities could engage in this, in beneficial ways for them. And I just hate the short sightedness of it, and I hope that I can kind of hand hold a little bit into the space and share some of my ideas with those sorts of influential people, so that it can be something that's enjoyable. Because celebrities, ultimately, especially when we're talking about meme coins, have endless amounts of content that can be created into memes. And that's the beauty, I think, of somebody already well known coming into the space, but I think it's also just teaching them, you know, about ways that can be of value that maybe they haven't thought about yet.

Ian Shepherd  16:57  
Well, it's fascinating to hear about your experience. Honestly, I'm sure, I'm sure. Before we wrap up, I just love to ask you a couple of questions regarding social media. I mean, you've got a long career. What's your favorite social media platform?

Iggy Azalea  17:15  
It will always be Twitter. Twitter is the OG. Like, if I didn't have Twitter, I would not have a career, and that's just that. The whole reason that my career ever even went the way that it did was because I, I posted a video of a little music video I'd made, and, yeah, I posted on YouTube, but it blew up because of Twitter, and it went everywhere. And, you know, the fan base I have had over the years, is created and maintained on Twitter with mother and meme coins. That whole thing has is, is Twitter is the foundation for all of these things. And although I enjoy other platforms, I don't owe my career to them, but I do owe my career to Twitter, even to this day

Ian Shepherd  17:59  
I see I see very loyal there.

But yeah, I was going to ask just to wrap up, do you have any words of wisdom or advice for emerging creators as they're thinking about growing a career?

Iggy Azalea  18:17  
I would just say, keep it as authentic as you can that's really all that it is. I think we all have, like, an idea of what we think a creator should or shouldn't do, or what they are or how they're perceived, and when you get wrapped up into the idea of that, you just gonna mess it up for yourself. Like, there's probably a lot of people that think, like, what is a celebrity doing on Telegram, just chatting shit with people every night. You shouldn't be doing that. You're bigger than that. And it's like, just be yourself and do whatever authentically you would do. Don't keep a gate between you and your community. Don't rope yourself off in the VIP section of the club. You know, metaphorically speaking, like connect and be yourself and do what feels right to you. There is no road map, and you'll always be okay. That's all that it is.

Ian Shepherd  19:07  
I love it. You will always be okay. Thank you, Iggy, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been, it's been, it's been great to hear about these new projects, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they progress. Chaos to come. Lots

Iggy Azalea  19:18  
of chaos to come. I'm very excited.

Ian Shepherd  19:22  
That was the business of creators. Thank you for listening and making it this far. I have some exciting guests lined up in the next few episodes, so please hit subscribe and watch out for the next show you.