The creator economy, crypto, and the metaverse have been probably the buzziest concepts of this year (or in tech at least), and Kyla Scanlon straddles all three of these worlds on a visceral level. She is a content creator who focuses on financial education, which entails explaining to people hard to grasp concepts like crypto and other vehicles for decentralization. And by being a creator, she naturally occupies a majority of her life in the online world, aka, the Metaverse. As a GenZ (or as she’d like to say, a Cusper, which are are GenZ folks on the cusp of being a Millennial) and an online creator, she has forged a livelihood online through her work, and as a result, has made many rich relationships with people online, even more so than offline. In her own words, she is a prototype for the concepts that she creates content around.
This is what made my conversation with her so interesting and meta. Foremost as an educator, Kyla explains and unbundles difficult web3 concepts such DAOs, NFTs, Social Tokens and Defi. From her creator perspective, she explores how these emergent concepts directly impact her life and her work. Finally, as a GenZ, she muses about why these concepts (especially this desire for decentralization) are emerging for her generation and what it might be a cultural reaction to. We explore some real issues for GenZ such as the growing sense of loneliness, the dark and exhausting elements of creator culture, and the repercussions of growing up with information overlap and no room for processing and introspection.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Kyla Scanlon is a popular financial content creator and educator. She started options trading in high school, previously worked at Capital Group and was a participant in the TAP program. She is now building a financial education company to onboard people to the world of investing. You can subscribe to her financial content on substack, Youtube, TikTok or wherever you like to consume your content.
SHOW NOTES
[3:55] The power and influence of creators
[8:30] DAOs as a community organizing vehicle
[13:50] NFTs, digital ownership, and how they can serve creators
[20:40] Social Tokens and the idea of monetizing every aspect of yourself as a creator
[23:55] The loneliness of being a creator
[25:40] Living life more online than offline
[27:40] The Metaverse as a solution to information overload
[30:20] Loneliness
[32:35] How to create the right education framework for younger generations
[34:35] Defi and the future of finance
[36:10] Why decentralization matters for GenZ
[38:00] The Debt Ceiling, economic collapse, the Fall of Rome
