Gabe Roszak is an entreprneur, crypto expert and PR Strategist. For the last 11 years he has been working as a PR strategist for UHNW clients around the world. His job was to increase and cultivate their influence across targeted areas. That network gave him access to unique knowledge and opportunities. As of last year, he focused his business efforts on the rising NFT industry which he saw as a game changer not only for the Art World but also for everything that requires the authentication of assets. Gabe spoke about how NFT's will change the world, how beginners can start capitalizing on this new industry and much more.
-How did you first get introduced to NFT's?
NFTs are big business now, but I was introduced to the idea a few years before, when it wasn't more than a side project of a few artists and technologists together.
I was working with influencers and we had problems with the content being repeatedly stolen, copied and used without paying the creators anything. We were looking for a technology that could help us track the content. That's how we found a blockchain-backed means of asserting ownership over an original digital work solution called 'monetized graphics' created by Anil Dash and Kevin McCoy which later evolved into the NFT and I became a huge evangelist, way before it gained any popularity.
-What was your initial reaction to this new technology/industry?
I knew immediately that the technology that enables artists to control ownership and royalties of their work, more strongly protect against others appropriating it without permission will also help more easily sell it.
In the influencer marketing there was always this gray area of the content ownership. When the client is paying for the post, many times it is uncertain who actually is the owner of the content created and used. NFT appeared to be a problem solver. We wanted useful technical solutions to track the ownership, what we got is a current gold rush, sometimes very speculative. However in the longer perspective what is happening now is the foundation of the future economy. We need to be aware that the NFT means much more than a bubble, and selling JPGs for hundreds of thousands dollars. These JPGs will grow in value, not because of their value itself, but because of the potential of the NFTs as an asset type.
We are creating history now. It’s important to remember that these are extremely early days. A lot will be possible with NFT assets that we haven’t seen or even dreamed of yet, so by getting in early, you’re guaranteeing yourself a piece of what develops down the line.
-when did you start working with artists to sell NFT's and how was that experience?
It would be impossible without my previous experience with the influencers and high net worth clients. Because I was advocating this technology for a while, when the hype started certain people knew that I have knowledge and started asking me for advice first and for help with sourcing the assets later.
First more serious transaction I facilitated was sourcing one of the early Crypto Punks for my client. I’m trying not to act only as a broker. I always offer advice, consulting and later, management of the assets.The key in these deals is provide valuable information to the clients for investment purposes. Majority of my work is to be sure that the buyer can feel “safe” buying NFT. It can be risky to buy NFT without a deep knowledge and analysis of the industry. No one likes to burn money, and when we are speaking about NFT where the prices aren’t affordable to everybody, people should ask experts before showing the wallet.
To be successful in the NFT business you need to be deeply informed about the market. The last lots sold on auction, the artists increasing and decreasing in value, the trends, the new marketplaces, everything must be known. Being focused is the key here. This focus and deep knowledge in the area of the market will make it possible to achieve the best profits.
-How do you see NFT's changing the economy in the future
I think it's very, very early and the market clearly is volatile. But it is not only about buying and selling single digital art assets and storing them in your wallet. What we are experiencing now is just a humble beginning of something huge coming. If you watched the movie 'Ready Player One' then you know what I mean.
What is coming is an open ecosystem that anyone will be able to build for. You shouldn't think about buying today's NFTs as connected only to the existing platforms, just hoping that they build a better way to display the work you’ve collected.
There's a big opportunity for entrepreneurs to build new products and services around this. The number of potential use cases for NFT continues to grow rapidly with time, and ever more innovative examples will be appearing regularly. And in the future, there'll be a much bigger user base as well.
With NFTs, any digital asset (inside the game, virtual reality, augmented reality, on any marketplace or platform), you buy is actually yours. Each asset is uniquely identifiable and can have only a provable limited number of copies. Even better, it can also be transferred between the platforms (from a game to the marketplace or to another game or application, etc).
In short, NFTs replicate the physical world, where one will purchase any item or asset that one will then be able to use or resell. For now we are buying and selling mostly art, soon we'll be buying and selling tools, gear, equipment, fashion, luxury items, attributes of our avatars or a space for advertising in the virtual world.
-Do you think NFT's are a bubble that will pop?
Yes and no. For example NFT created by Logan Paul may not have a lot of artistic and timeless value as an art. However, by a single fact that they were one of the first NFTs ever created and sold to the early collectors they may grow in value significantly over time.
If you will have a closer look at the single, individual assets, especially the ones that were bought without much research, during the peak of the current hype. You may see these assets to decrease their value. Even significantly. No mention many scams, fake assets, or just assets completely worthless from the beginning. I have heard comparisons of what is going on with the NFTs to Tulipmania from the 17 th century. Let's use this example. Of course we all know that the price of a tulip, known as "the Viceroy", risen up enormously within a few months of 1636-1637 and then declined by 99.99% which is known as the first financial bubble. However if you will have a wider look and the history of the financial markets, history of assets and investment instruments, even at the history of (I'm joking) the horticultural industry. You will see that none of these sectors collapsed.
The bubble will pop, some assets will lose the value, some will definitely not. But the industry itself will remain and will grow to the shape that we can not even imagine today. We already have NFT millionaires, we will have NFT billionaires soon.
-Where do you see your self in the next 10 years?
I'm committed to the mission of popularising NFTs as a class of assets. 10 years from now we will be living in a different epoch. I can imagine that the market will be multiple times bigger than now. Most institutional and corporate investors will enter the NFT world with their deep pockets. Investing in the digital assets will become normalised and professionalised. Lawyers, consultants and analysts will have their hands full of work inside this new digital/ virtual reality.
Combining deep experience and specialized skills across all NFT related industries and business functions I want my company '7S NFT' to become a global professional services company. I want to be an 'Accenture for NFT' that provides a range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, investment advisory, technology, marketing and operations.
-From the beginning of your career to this moment, what are the 3 most important things you learned?
Be human. My background is SEO and technical marketing. I'm rather an introvert, a bit nerdy and shy. I'm a techie guy. What I like are charts, metrics and numbers. But I realized that one can't really succeed as a brand without turning interests to the channels based on human relationships. Emotions trump data. People feel before they think. Communication trumps technology. Communication is the leading factor for product/service success. People trump products. People care about people, not products.
Come early. Always look for areas where you could become an early adopter and stick with that until you will start benefiting by being more experienced than the others. The first ones in social media have built empires, first ones in mobile apps achieved spectacular valuations ,first ones in crypto are now billionaires, first ones in the influencer marketing decide what is trending. NFT is now that kind of thing that you cannot miss, no matter what your background is.
All eyes on you. Create a career for yourself that only you could build. The uniqueness and personal brand are as important as business building skills. Your story, the ability to attract the attention and to build a loyal community around your project is no less important than technical precision and infrastructural foundations of your business.
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https://www.instagram.com/7s_nft/
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Gabe Rozak scammed me with a page of NFTs that he was going to do, we even signed a contract with his company 7S NFT in February 2021 and to this day he has not complied and no matter how much I ask him to return my money, he does not even do it anymore he doesn't answer my calls or wassap messages...be very careful with Gabe Rozak who is a scammer