TL;DR
Hey there! My name is Ornella, aka OrnellaWeb3. For almost two years, I’ve been contributing and diving deep into decentralized work. This has been part of a life-changing process that started during the times were we were prived of our freedom. I’m a proud grantee of DAOpunks Cohort_3, and in this first series of weekly Mirror posts, I aim to document and share with you the details, feelings, and insights of a new phase in my personal transition to a free self-sovereign life - my own content creation journey. Join me as I navigate through this transformative experience. This is more than just a transition; it's a story of growth and empowerment. Thanks for joining me on this adventure, and I promise to make it worth your while with valuable insights and inspiration.
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What is DAOpunks?
Before we dig into what I’ll be working on during the following weeks. Let’s learn more about DAOpunks by checking out their manifesto:
DAOpunks’ mission is to enable humans to liberate themselves from the soul-sucking drudgery of default world work and lead them to the rewarding, expansive freedom found in meaningful DAO work. DAOpunks blaze new trails, leading others to fertile promised lands, where they find opportunity, meaningful work, community, and untold abundance. We build bridges. We blaze the trails. With openness, we invite others to join us. Together we go further. A better world awaits. DAOpunks lead the way.
Goosebumps. That’s what I felt when I read it, I hope you got them too.
These are the kind of manifestos that we need to capture the attention of amazing humans who are in search of a new way of living life.
I got to know about DAOpunks at the beginning of my BanklessDAO days, back in October 2021. I was fascinated by the idea of decentralized work, and by the ability to contribute with your superpowers to a community that had the same mission or purpose. Missions with real positive world impact. Today, I contribute as Marketing and Community Lead for Bankless Academy, a web3 education ecosystem for the self-sovereign individual. I can’t be more proud than being able to focus my time and energy on projects and things that really matter. Seeing this in others brings me immense joy as well. I am a strong believer that every human can earn a living through purposeful contributions — a core value of the DAOpunks ethos and one of the reasons I'm here today.
Every few months, the DAOpunks community offers an experimental grants program built and fully governed by its members. It is intended to provide individuals with the initial resources that are needed to take the leap and go full-time DAO. After almost two years of following, voting for, and celebrating other grantees, I decided it was time to make the leap myself.
Beating Blockers
My goal for this cohort and beyond is to finally unblock myself from doing content creation. The transformative processes that I’m living are worth being told, and shared, as they can serve as inspiration for others who are just starting their path. I’m eternally thankful for the brave humans who did so first, as I was inspired by them in many ways. Their experiences touched my heart deeply, and I have to say, that their energy plus the commitment and consistency I’ve put in these past 500 days, have led me to where I am today.
My background is within the marketing and communications field. I’m a connector, a people person, a feeler. I try to transmit this through my writing despite English not being my first language. In my native country, Chile, I did copywriting and communications for many different brands. I started with a science TV show and passed through some small startups and local businesses until I got to work with one of my passions, music. For more than 10 years I tried to transmit feelings on behalf of different music-related brands, venues, artists, and more. This same ability has helped me find my way in web3.
Despite being able to write for others, I’ve never really tried to ‘market’ or apply what I know about communications to my own content. This is one of the first steps in trying to beat that blocker. There is no growth if we remain in our comfort zone, so this is an effort to step out of it and move forward. I’m thankful to the DAOpunks community for believing in me.
The Plan
The final outcome and goal of the cohort for me, is to create a project around content creation. The process consists of four mini-phases, with six weeks of preparation prior to launch.
PHASE I: PLANNING
Week of July 24: Phase Planning and Strategy
Week of July 31: Content Calendar Creation / Design & Branding
PHASE II: CONTENT PRODUCTION
Week of August 7: Recording/Selection of Episodes
Week of August 14: Editing/Production Process of Episodes
PHASE III: MARKETING & COLLABS
Week of August 21: Marketing Campaign / Collaborations
Week of August 28: Copywriting / Scheduling Content
PHASE IV: OFFICIAL LAUNCH
Friday, September 1st: Official Public Launch of Content Creation 🚀
Content can be audio or video depending on what I'm able to create in better quality. I aim to do video first, but sometimes I am not very secure on camera (a bit camera-shy), so it might be a good idea to do audio first. I'm unsure at the moment, but this is one of the things I'll discover in my transition process.
Unwinding the Mind
Where to start? How to define the next steps? What do I want to share and why? Week 1 of this process has taken me to meditate a lot and make those hard questions. I’ve taken daily walks in nature to actually put my thoughts in order, and I have to say, nature does do wonders. During these sessions, I’ve brainstormed around the following aspects:
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Name and meaning of the project - good branding, self-explanatory.
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Clarification of my message and objectives - what is the main takeaway?
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My readers/listeners/viewers - who am I speaking to?
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Choosing content formats - which are the most suitable?
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Planning a content calendar - how often should content be published?
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Collabs and partners - how can I get my message to other communities?
Even though it was a lot, I’m happy and relieved that I was able to - through several trains of thought - define and find answers to all previous questions. Through the following posts, I will be disclosing and sharing with you some key aspects of the project but I will also be mindful of leaving some secrecy and emotion to build momentum towards the official launch.
Can’t wait until September? That’s OK, as an honorable reader of this first blog post, here’s some alpha for you 😉
My main focus will be on shedding light on DAO contributors and their stories. I love founder stories, they are very inspiring, but I feel it’s time to go deeper into what we are sharing with the world about web3.
We, humans, connect when we can relate. The more we can spark the curiosity of the new era that we are living in, the more awareness for humanity we can create.
There are so many stories to be told, and this is just the first step ✨
Subscribe and join me on this one, it’s going to be a fun ride.
Last Thoughts
Music is a strong part of my life, and as I wrote this entire piece I couldn’t help thinking about a masterpiece track with some very special lyrics. I guess it is in fact the perfect time to share it.
Listen, enjoy, and make your transition.
Lyrics
There will come a time in your life when you will ask yourself a series of questions…
Am I happy with who I am?
Am I happy with the people around me?
Am I happy with what I'm doing?
Am I happy with the way my life is going?
Do I have a life or am I just living?
Do not let these questions restrain or trouble you.
Just point yourself in the direction of your dreams.
Find your strength in the sound and make your transition.
Do not spend too much time thinking and not enough doing.
Did I try the hardest at any of my dreams?
Did I purposely let others discourage me when I knew I could?
Will I die never knowing what I could have been or could have done? Do not let these doubts restrain or trouble you.
Just point yourself in the direction of your dreams.
Find your strength in the sound and make your transition.
There will be people who say you can't - you will.
There will be people who say you don’t mix this with that and you will say "watch me".
There will be people who will say play it safe, that's too risky - you will take that chance and have no fear.
You won’t let these questions restrain or trouble you.
You will point yourself in the direction of your dreams.
You will find the strength in the sound and make your transition. For those who know it’s time to leave the house and go back to the field.
Find your strength in the sound and make your transition.
If you’ve found value in my writing, and the feelings and thoughts shared, you can support my work by minting this one of the 10 limited editions of this article for 0.01 ETH or subscribe free of cost.
Thanks for the vibes 😉
With love,
Ornella
🌎 🌿 💜