On Building Community in web3
The web3 community builder rileybeans shares her story
I wanted to write this article to detail just a bit of my journey so far in the web3 space as a whole but also dig deeper into who I am as a person. A lot of you reading this have likely had a chance to get to know me over the past 54 days. I ended my web2 career on 3/14 and began my full-time web3 career on 3/21. I will not look back. I also didn’t want to make this too long so please feel free to reach out to me any time with any additional questions and I’ll get back to you when I can.
Most of you know me as rileybeans on both Twitter and Discord platforms, my name is Riley Blackwell, my pronouns are she/her, I am a trans woman in her early 30s and this is the story of how I went from NFT-curious to Community Coordinator for BFF.
I think it is important to begin this story with a bit of history on my career progression thus far to give you an idea of how I came to this point. I won’t lay out every boring detail but just some high-level information. I began what I consider to be my Biggest Hits at Lowe’s (2014–2019) with multiple roles, Windows Administrator, Network Engineer, and High Priority Incident Manager…all at once. I then moved on to a security role at Bank of America (2019–2021) and later to HR IT at Wells Fargo (2021–2022). In each role mentioned I took on additional responsibilities training, educating, and growing the careers of as many peers as possible along the way.
I began learning a little about crypto a few years ago but consider my first real deep dive into web3 to be in 2021 when I started learning as much as possible about decentralization, cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens seemingly all at once and from all sorts of angles. I first started watching YouTube videos, then progressed to reading whitepapers and Clubhouse rooms, then on to immersing myself into a layer1 protocol. Most of this learning happened before I ever opened up web3 Twitter or joined a single NFT discord server.
My journey into web3 Twitter and Discord platforms began the night I watched the BFF Minted event on YouTube. It was that night I finally deleted my normie Twitter account and decided to create an account dedicated to my web3 identity. The BFF Minted event was the most engaging, educational, memorable material I had seen available specifically created for women and non-binary individuals. If I’m honest what solidified my love for BFF immediately wasn’t just the content but the clear and loud inclusion of LGBTQ+ folks in the video and team. The impact of that diversity and the very intentional ethos, values, and trajectory of BFF are why I am so involved with this community and why I will continue to give my whole soul to every one of you reading this.
Here are some tips I’ve learned along the way:
Find your people.
Identify a group of people who you can connect with on a fairly frequent basis. This is a very selective process and is unique to each individual so you have to do the legwork here. This circle of people will grow and evolve. The huge tip is this — have a circle of friends but have an inner circle that you trust with only the most intimate details. Identifying those people in your innermost circle is just one key to success.
Other keys to success.
The keys to success outside your inner circle are as follows: connections, communication, knowledge, kindness, effort, and patience. Not a single one of these keys is easy to master and very few in this industry have tackled all of them successfully.
Creativity and innovation are powerful tools.
In web3 a great deal is made about what value you can provide that no one else currently is competing with. What are you doing right that no one has even thought of yet?
Don’t ever be afraid to shoot your shot.
All the relationships I’ve built have been from first creating a rapport with someone and then eventually making the leap into their DMs. I promise you web3 is so inviting and if you take that leap your life can very well change forever. Don’t be afraid. Granted, you won’t get an answer every time and you certainly won’t usually get the answer you want. You never know what can happen until it happens.
Building a community on Discord (and Twitter)
Building community on web3 communication platforms isn’t easy. I won’t ever tell someone it is because that would be a flat-out lie. It's laborious, it takes a lot of hours of deep laser-focused work to build a presence on both Discord and Twitter — especially in an emerging and ever-evolving industry.
One of the most important pieces I’ve employed along the way is being in as many spaces (growing your Twitter following and Discord community presence) at once as possible. How do I manage to do this? Honestly, I haven’t figured that out quite yet. At the end of most nights, my eyes are so tired from reading so much text and my ears are so deeply exhausted from listening to so many Spaces that I simply run on iced coffee and take-out, just as most of the rest of web3. I do however now take Sundays off to be with myself and recommend everyone take time for themselves every day.
I often get asked, “How can I be part of this community”? My response every time is “You are already a part of this community simply by being here, no further action necessary” — if you create a community where people feel welcomed, included, safe, and build trust, the members of your space will continue to tell their friends who go on to tell their friends all about the culture you’ve created. I’ve seen it countless times, BFFs tell their children, friends, partners, parents, employers about what we have helped shape together and it is both humbling and a source of deep love every time I hear their stories.
I have big ambitions for this space and will continue my promise of promoting kindness, well-being, growth, and taking as many of you on my shoulders as possible along the way.
This journey I’ve taken myself on through the past 54 days would not be possible without several people. I also want to thank every person who spent hours upon hours on calls with me through Zoom and Discord, I appreciate you all. While this list is far from exhaustive these are just a handful of people who have helped to lift me along the way, I will never forget a single one of you for the rest of my days:
Winx, Christine Theriot, Brit Morin, Jaime Schmidt, Renae, Xarlen, Data, Pili Yarusi, Jilly, Crystal Groves, Plum, Lia, Debbie Soon, Lori, 0xLaChiquita, Diana/Willow and Azele
