This week's guest is Erica Molett. Erica holds several titles, including CEO of Kandake Tech, a firm looking to improve the education to gaming industry pipeline through programs like Banneky. Erica talks about her motivations, including her passion for education and the interests of her two sons. She also tells us about how kids are already in the Metaverse (darn them for being so ahead of the curve) and provides guidance for parents of gamers.

Episode Resources:

http://banneky.com/

Welcome to the meta woman podcast we address the

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Hello, and welcome to the metal woman podcast part

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thank you so much for supporting the show, please be sure to

leave a five star rating and review. It really helps people

find the show that's super important to us. And for our new

listeners. Welcome. I hope you enjoy this episode, for which we

have an awesome guest. I'm so excited to introduce Erica

Molot, CEO of edtech and entertainment company panda K.

Did I say that correctly? Come back. Come back a tech which I

also did a little bit of research on your name has an

awesome has awesome roots with some Nubian queens and very

cool, really, really cool etymology. So Cadac a tech.

Erica, welcome to the show. To start please feel free to

introduce yourself give us a couple sentences of background

and a little bit of Erica Mollet story.

Hi, yes Erica let so happy to be here.

cut me off earlier and say that

you want to do your intro over?

No, we're gonna stick with it because I think

it's important to recognize you can make mistakes and bounce

back but Erica volet

Well, I appreciate that.

Can you talk a little bit about what motivated you to start this

program? I know your kids were huge motivation. But what were

you not seeing in the space for your kids? Or what were you

wanting to add to this space? That was kind of new and

different?

Yeah, so I would definitely have to say that I'm

being the mom of a very avid athlete, as my older son Kyle

is, and an avid gamer as my younger son Tyler is, I realized

that there's something magical about watching your kids pursue

their passions. And as parents, we love that. But oftentimes, if

your kid is a gamer, or your kids into anime, or your kid is

if wants to be a YouTuber, it's harder for parents of teenagers

to understand how to support their kids in those ways. And so

what it turns into is, get off the game, it's ruining your

mind, or what is anime, you shouldn't be watching that, or

YouTuber, you know, it's just not safe out there on the World

Wide Web, I don't want your face and your likeness out there. But

what I started to realize with my younger son, is that watching

YouTube and being a gamer really inspired him to want to learn to

build gaming PCs, and to be more vocal about his opinion on

things and to build a community around himself that was actually

global, even though it wasn't IRL. You know, they were friends

in Canada or Louisiana and other places. These were real people.

And you know, there's a toxicity of course that you know, exists

in gaming or exist in the social media space, but there's

toxicity in the real world too. So I really had to come through

and realize all the positives that come through a curated

experience online that supported their passions and really helped

our teams to start to be forward thinkers and realize how they

could be the next innovators in these multibillion dollar

spaces, as well as help parents to be able to see the same and

so I to answer your question, what I saw missing in edtech was

that it's very siloed You know, you got your ABC Mouse and those

that are really targeted at elementary school students in a

very fun and light hearted way. But when you got to middle

school in high school, oftentimes ed tech content was

very uninspiring. And so your kids often had to rely on

YouTube and Tik Tok and things for the things that they

actually wanted to learn, and to see it delivered in a way that

was cool to them. And so I wanted to say, how can I make

sure my kid is learning and leaning into their passion? But

how can I also make sure that it's safe and curated?

That's super cool, because I think it's almost like

every couple months, there's some story about a parent being

upset with the gaming industry, which there's, as you've pointed

out, there's plenty of things to be upset about. But there's also

been dozens of studies and things that have found, well,

you know, the collaboration, you learn the communication, you

learn, it can be very similar to a lot of other programs, and it

can be so helpful, right? So I'm glad to hear that that was kind

of the part that you focused on. Because there are so many skills

from soft skills to hard skills, like coding and software

development, or even interest in sound design or graphic design,

or there's a billion different ways to get involved. You're

totally right. And there's so much bad news. It's really

disappointing. It's like, oh, there was actually not too long

ago and Illinois state senator that introduced legislation that

said that Grand Theft Auto GTA five was leading to a bunch of

looting in the city, it was like, come on,

what was the excuse before GTA, you know, these

adults don't always act like we've been acting up ourselves.

And we're not even talking video games. So clearly, it's not the

games themselves, or you know, the industries themselves.

There's just, you know, there's some societal things that can

address that. I

totally agree with you. And that's such a great way

of saying it. So I really appreciate that perspective.

What was it like for you launching a business during the

height of COVID? Because the end of 2020, that's quite a time to

launch?

Yeah, it was, you know, I would say that COVID In the

pandemic, and all of the social injustices that were constantly

on our television screens, created their own emotional toll

on all of us. And then those were, those were the bad things.

Those were things were really, really bad about that time as an

entrepreneur who also owns other companies, the good things that

came from that same period, were because, you know, I had I had

business that just kind of went away, right at the time that the

NBA shut down. And you know, we've all been to see Oh, holy

moly, this pan, this COVID-19 thing, this Coronavirus thing

that we keep hearing about the peripheral, it's real, it's

here, and it's happening. You know, so scary from a business

perspective. But then once I got past that moment, and realize

that there were going to be, you know, idle loans and a PPP loans

and all of those other things to help me, I looked up and

realized that I had nothing but time and space, to take some of

those ideas off the shelf that I never really had time to

cultivate. And so whereas we started ideating on Banchi, I

don't think benek even had a name until we got into the

pandemic, honestly, but just really saying, How can I go

ahead and use this time now that I know that will at least be

able to keep the lights on you know, my husband, he works for

Amazon, so we were going to be fine. But I now had time to

really just innovate. And that space, that space of the

pandemic really helped me to a see some of the gaps when it

came to our kids emotional development. So it created a

sense of urgency emotionally. But it also meant that all of

the people in the world whether they are from Nike or

Playstation or Faze clan or Riot Games, or Epic Games, and NBA

and others, everyone was at home too. So they had nothing but

time to answer my LinkedIn DMS. And so I just started going

around and selling the dream of what I wanted to build and how I

wanted to impact our communities. And so you know,

the pandemic was, that downtime was good for me because I was

able to cultivate a vision and start putting strategy and time

behind it, and also get a lot of other people who wanted to lean

in and fill in that gap for our kids, as well as from a social

injustice perspective and looking at everything that had

been happening with with you know, with George Floyd and

attacking Jeffrey, as well as my Adrien all the others. So many

companies will making it a priority to give back and to be

a part of the solution. And so we were able to, to kind of

accelerate the growth of this idea you know, we're still

bootstrap we're still moving at a pace that makes sense for us.

We looked to accelerate that this year. But that you know,

that's that's what it was for me building during the pandemic it

was a great time to innovate and to build an army of support

around us.

Wow Irving serving yeah? Sure, so I'll talk about some of the

things we've done in the past, and some of the things that are

still in development that we're not able to announce just yet,

but I will say that some of the bigger partnerships and you

know, for me, for our companies, you know, our initial ask was

never just hey, can you give us money? It has always been Can

you give us time? Can you give us advice? Can you donate your

intellect to this generation. And so we've been able to do

some really cool things with as it relates exclusively to ban a

key we've worked with Microsoft and Microsoft, Xbox, as well as

Warner Brothers, FaZe Clan, Representative from Riot Games

as well as exit. And we did an event during the summer as Space

Jam as the Space Jam movie was going to be launched, because

Microsoft created a really cool coding program focused on are

themed by the Space Jam movie. And so I reached out to their

group to Margaret Price and say, Hey, I think it's really cool.

Let's talk about some ways that maybe we can we can I get this

out to the world because it's a really cool perspective. And so

we came together and during the summer, we did a live stream

event, we streamed from Faze clan, and it was called find

your seat and tech gaming and entertainment. And so we had

folks like skeptic and face Blaze and face swag. And as I

mentioned, Riot Games exit Microsoft, Xbox FaZe Clan, lots

of other people, helping students over 1100 kids around

the world. Learn about all of the careers behind the cool

things that they love. They also had a gaming tournament and they

got to play against some folks from exit. And they had lots of

prizes that Microsoft provided. So then we use the theme and the

you know, the hype of of the Space Jam movie, which was

really focused not just on LeBron James son wanting to play

basketball it was it was the opposite LeBron James son wanted

to be a game where he wants to design games. And so there was

this really cool almost Metaverse type of experience in

the movie actually. And so being able to see that dynamic

changing in the world, where someone like LeBron James is

validating, gaming and cinema things. So that's what we were

able to do. We've also are have done some really cool community

work with Microsoft, Microsoft, Xbox, and others. In fact, we'll

be doing some things for the students in Cleveland here soon

during All Star Weekend. And and yeah, there's just a lot more we

work. You know much of what vandyk is building right now is

focused on masterclasses that blend both live experiences with

project based learning so a kid can learn from someone in the

industry right now. We're working with Sergio Guate Rama

who's a well known couture fashion designer. Yep. And and

he's going to be designing he's designing a couture gown from

upcycled materials with our students. And and so yes, we'll

be doing more in that lane and building gaming PCs and all

kinds of things with some really great people.

I love the collaboration with Sergio Quadra

as as when I think back on my high school days and being able

to I mean, that was a huge project runway watcher it was it

was definitely a huge passion of mine. So that I can just imagine

the excitement of the students working on that that project and

how cool that must be And I love the sustainability aspect of it

to really cool to bring that in. Absolutely. Absolutely. Very

neat. I wanted to ask you a little bit about your background

as well, because you have done, as you mentioned, you're an

entrepreneur, you've opened a couple different businesses now

in a lot of different areas. And I would love to hear about how

your background in that and government and economics, first

of all, what that background is, and secondly, how it's helped

start this program and what you've been doing with Banchi.

And, and your other companies now.

Sure. So yes, I am a serial entrepreneur. And I would

dare to say most serial entrepreneurs don't get in. It's

because we're because we're gluttons for punishment, is

because it just, it just happens. And you know, when

you're innovating, and you feel like what you're creating is

needed in the world, you can't wait five years and you know,

put it on the shelf, it's got to change the world today.

Otherwise, what's the point? And so, side, my original company is

called expansion solutions. We do workforce and economic

development consulting. And so we work with clients, school

districts, cities, colleges, companies around the country,

and helping primarily to build innovative and diverse talent

pipelines, starting with bringing companies like Nike, or

Xbox and others into the classroom, whether it's in rural

North Carolina, or in Dallas, or New York, etc. So that students

are learning for example, all of the Koreans behind the sneaker

and they're able to design their own sneaker and create their own

distribution plan and things like that, so that they're

starting to learn STEM or STEAM based careers. And talent

pipelines expansion Solutions does a lot more than just that

we also help cities really understand how to build cohesive

economic development plans that incorporates in recognizes the

interdependency of a come a company that you've attracted to

your city, that may be bringing High Net Worth jobs. Well, if

they can't find the talent pipeline that can keep up with

their the growth of their industry, then you're going to

lose that company. And if you lose that company, then the

economics in your city are going to be impacted, you won't have

that tax revenues, but for infrastructure, or to elevate

and parks and recs, etc. But if a school district doesn't

understand the growing needs of companies to inform curriculum,

how can they prepare those talent pipelines. So we really

helped them to create cohesive strategies, whether it is in

tech and gaming, or it's in the medical field, or if it's in

manufacturing and engineering, or you name it, we work in a lot

of different ways, our lanes, to help companies and cities and

regions to grow together and bring their residents along with

them so that their positive impacts of gentrification can be

seen versus the negative. And so yeah, so that's what we do. I

also have a nonprofit called Beyond the ball. And it was

inspired by my older son, where Banchi was inspired by my

younger son, Kyle loves basketball, he's pretty, he was

pretty passionate about that from 10 until recently 15. You

know, that was his path. And I saw that so many boys of color,

often float through their K through 12, on the guaranteed

aspiration, that they will become a pro player, but they

don't realize and even if they hear that they have less than 2%

chance of accomplishing that goal. Most of them still believe

there'll be a part of that 2%. And it's not until they get to

high school, they graduate high school that they realize it's

not going to happen. And there's just so much unmet unmet

potential, because they didn't take such a strong focus on

their math class and other science classes or academics, or

they didn't have other goals to fall back on, and mom and dad

community, etc. Then you're going to the NBA, John, and

John's like, that's great. I don't need algebra, you know,

and so Johnny gets all the way in his senior year. And lead, he

can step off a curb and hurt his ankle or he's injured in a game

or he doesn't make the D one scholarship. And now you know, a

kid who could have been a sports medicine doctor, or stadium

architect, etc. Had he only been told about those things and

inspired. He's kind of living a life well beneath his potential.

And so beyond the ball exposes students to the math and science

behind the sports they love and all the innovative careers they

can have beyond the court field or the track. And so we've done

that really well with companies of many of the companies that

I've already mentioned, and we'll be doing a lot more of

that this year.

I'm feeling a little bit attacked because I

thought I was going to be the first woman player in the NBA

when I was growing up. I was determined after seeing Welcome

basketball, and I did play in college and it was great.

Yeah. Right, you can relax

salutely. And you're totally right. And I like

this, I like this hands on approach of fostering any any,

you know, really fostering the interests of the students pick

up along the way. I do think that really often people get

really stuck, especially when it gets to college. In choosing a

major choosing a career path, or even even if you don't choose to

go to college, like when you graduate high school, you kind

of lose a lot of resources that you once had. So it's good to

start young and have people start figuring out kind of what

their passions are, and exploring that whole field

rather than, like you said, just trying to become the NBA player.

So that's, that's really cool. And it's something that I've

been thinking a lot about lately, as my nieces and nephews

get to college age. And, you know, you graduated high school

and, and you're kind of done for a second. We just throw young

adults out into the world and it kind of like, wow, yeah.

Exactly. Yeah, you're right. And it's in it is when

you get in, if you're, if you're blessed enough to make it to

college sports, oftentimes, at your college experience is

nothing like the average student, because you're so busy,

you know, from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep,

so you miss out on that period of youthfulness. Because you

don't get to have that experience. I mean, you have a

whole nother experience, which you know, is sometimes even

better, but you miss some of those components. But even then,

you know, going from college to pro, I would dare say even

especially as a girl, they're very, they're even fewer big

opportunities for you. Yeah. And so and now your family's like

you graduated from college, you got to play all the way through

now, what are you gonna do with your life? Like? Who prepared me

for anything else? When did I have time to cultivate anything

else? And you know, I gotta figure that out for myself now.

But athletes bring such a unique value to the world, that the

person who never played sports doesn't bring like me, I can't

run a mile without stopping. And I will tell myself, I'm just I'm

proud of myself, I made half a mile and my group was like,

Don't you give up on you see, if I've been an athlete, I would

never have given up until the model was done, right. And

there's so many social skills that athletes have. So I've

never been one to say, don't let your kid play sports. Just let

your kids go to science camp. Because you know, there's

socialization skills, there's this hunger to win, and to never

give up. And you're competitive as heck. And when you but you

know how to rally a team, you know how to lose together, and

they keep going. Those are skills that come from sports,

but oftentimes, the world doesn't prepare athletes for

what's next. And so, you know, so I think you figure it out,

because athletes are just resilient, and they don't give

up. But we wanted to make sure to be on the ball that they were

prepared to say, hey, basketballs over, that's okay.

I'm just gonna be a rocket scientist. Now, you know,

I love that I think that there's the deeper

because I grew up heavy and athletics, very similar to your

older son. But I will say the more I've spent time in the

gaming community, the more of those same values, I definitely

can see. So I think it's cool that you're doing both talking

about persistence, I've watched gamers play the same level of

something 1000s of times to get it right, like that is some real

persistence and determination. So I definitely think that

there's so much overlap in those communities. So I think it's

really neat that you're doing similar things in both, as

someone who kind of has a foothold. And both was

definitely more on the athletic side, for sure. It's really cool

to hear those things be translated into both industries.

I wanted to push a little bit more about that and talk about

what other educational orgs can do, not only to promote

diversity and inclusion, but to to do what you've been talking

about in kind of cultivating interests and building out

future plans for the people and the kids that they're trying to

serve. What are some of the things that either you've

learned, or you've implemented and in these orgs that you think

would help other educational orgs push themselves further and

better serve some of the students that you're trying to

serve?

Yeah, so the first thing that I'll say is a point

of clarification that often gets lost because I am a minority. I

am a woman I am a mom of black boys is often assumed that what

I'm building is only for minority children. You know, we

are a broad marketplace. option for every family, regardless of

their socio economic background, or gender, or race, social,

sexual preference, etc. This is for kids, period. But what I

will say is that from a diversity, equity and inclusion,

oftentimes people just say D and I, but it's Dei, without equity

in the middle for women and for minorities, then you can bring

us all to the table. But if we make, you know, half of what you

make, and we have no opportunity to elevate, then you still

haven't done anything, you haven't moved the needle. So

what I would say about diversity, equity and inclusion

is dei should be synonymous with ROI, you know, we are as a

family, the Gillette we have the healthy incomes that it

requires, for me to be able to afford to buy all of these

computer parts that Tyler needs all the time, you know, if

anyone knows how much a 30 at cost, then you know, what I'm

dealing with financially over here.

I'm sorry,

exactly. But how often are companies that sell these

computer parts, or companies that sell gaming headsets, etc,

really advertising to minorities, and, and young

people in the same way they do other markets. So that means

that you're leaving money on the ground, when you are not

investing your time and efforts into these other communities.

When you think Dei, perhaps you shouldn't just think, let's

create some type of special program for for girls, or this

special small program for poor black children and suburban

community up in urban communities. Maybe you should

think there's a whole group of people, millions of them, that

we're not even asking for money. But then when you go back and

say, how do we ask for money if we haven't built a relationship?

So then if you really care about that money, then the first thing

you're going to do is say how do we make sure we hire people

internally, that reflect the voice and reality of these

groups that we're trying to serve, so that we can build the

relationships and build marketing strategies that won't

come off as cheesy or out of touch, that will make them feel

welcome to be our consumer. So they must be your employees so

that they can help you create that authentic voice and

perspective, and then they can become your consumer. So I

think, you know, from a DI perspective, if companies that

really are even if you're only about the dollars, and you are a

closet, racist or sexist, if you only focus on the fact that a

company of for profit company can't grow to that it can grow

to even greater levels, if you really just engage more

audiences. I think that's one of the ways to look at Dei, if I'm

a CEO of a major company. Another way is to say your

company can't grow without the talent. And there are lots of

people and we know, they're always talent shortfalls.

There's always a workforce gap, especially in medicine, or in

technology, and all these other areas. There are kids out here

who are freaking brilliant, they just need to be nurtured. And

they need to be publicly invited to the table. And so from a dei

perspective, starting to pump the pump and make them aware of

these cool jobs, giving them the tools to be able to be prepared.

And this generation, I always say Gen Z kids are just built

different. They're far more brilliant than Gen X's. And

they're far more brilliant than the millennials, because they

have the power of YouTube and tick tock to learn anything they

want to learn. And they're bold enough to know that they can

actually be the expert in the room just by opening up their

own YouTube account, you know, and so they're not your age,

share their opinion, they're not they don't have to wait for

their school system to teach them anything. Tyler learned how

to build gaming PCs from watching obsessive amounts of

YouTube videos, and I didn't even know that until I overheard

and tells me maybe we should just build our own gaming PC.

And I was like, I love this and the first one, and I suddenly

find someone to teach it was like, I don't need you to find

someone to teach me I've already learned on YouTube. And so who

wouldn't want a kid like Tyler on their team? And so you know,

for Dei, looking at it from a talent pipeline and an ROI

perspective, should be enough value proposition for it to be a

priority.

I love the line D I should be synonymous with ROI.

That's awesome. And I will say as someone who hosts the better

woman podcast, I It's come up several times that I feel the

same way where Like, we are starting with women here, it's

an easy point to start with. But there's so many other groups of

people that can relate, I think, to this content, I think

practically everyone can it's not. I feel the same way. It's

it's not, we're not, you know, you're not just there to support

minorities, you're there to support everyone. And by

supporting everyone, you're only welcoming, you know, more

voices, more consumers more interest, you're only widening

the community that's possible for you to reach. So there's no

reason to not support that. One of my one of my dream papers to

write is the economic case for including women in gaming,

really backing that up with tons of data and presenting it and

basically saying, See, I told you guys

exactly. Love with you there.

I know, we've talked a lot about how panicky

supports gamers and you have started to touch on this quite a

bit. But I like that you're really focusing on the passions

of the Gen Z audience. So can you talk about the things

outside of gaming that you guys are working with? Or even things

that Jason, I know you've mentioned animais, you've

mentioned fashion design, a lot of music? A lot of these things

are extremely adjacent, if not included in the gaming industry.

But can you tell me more about some of those more tangential

projects you have going on?

Sure. Yeah. So Banchi is really focused on as I

mentioned, artists, gamers and entertainers slash content

creators. And the reason we focus on those three audiences

is because, you know, it's easy for parents and society to get

behind supporting student athletes, we understand sports,

you can sit on the sideline, and you can share your baby on you

can be a part of the moment. But if your kids a gamer, they're

not gonna let you put on a headset, or join their court,

their discord channel, you have no idea what's going on. And so

there's really no way. So it's just like, Look, Mom supporting

me means getting a good Wi Fi and leaving me alone for the

next 12 hours. And a parent is hard for parents to set to say

yes to that. I don't, I don't say yesterday, I make my kid

come out of the room sometime. But you know, for kids who love

anime, or kids who want to be YouTubers, as well, we as

parents, often a, we as parents don't often understand how to

support them. Therefore, we admonish our kids for those

passions, especially when they become teenagers. So then we

widen the divide between us as their parent and then feeling

ashamed of their passions, just because we don't get it. And

because we do know, there are dangers that can exist. Again,

dangers are everywhere, but you know, if we can support it, then

we can help curate it. And secondly, our kids, often

gamers, their friends aren't the kids in their neighborhood,

their friends are the kids that they play with on these games.

And so and the same with anime, you know, these things are often

just you looking into a camera, you and I have said you and just

your little bubble, and those kids needs to be validated. And

so Banchi really does focus on leading, it's all of those

industries, whether it is the fashion industry, or it's anime,

or it's working with, you know, filmmakers and content creators,

or techies, so that kids can start learning about all of the

things that they can do, as you mentioned, a little earlier, you

know, graphic graphic design, music, choreography, dance,

choreography, animation, storytelling, there's so many

different things that go into not just creating a movie, but

also into gaming these days, as well as, and I know, we're gonna

talk about the metaverse here soon, but there are just so many

real careers that really do exist, that mom and kids don't

know about. And so Banchi really exists to serve all of those

different areas. And guess what, in three years, those interests

will change for the next generation. And so we'll have to

shift with them. And, but as, as of now, these are the interests

of these kids. And so we really got to lean into it. And I

think, you know, Banchi has a great opportunity as a for

profit company, to to fill a gap in edtech in a way that's

authentic, because we have what's called our Banchi squad.

And these are kids who are eating were from sixth grade

through 12th grade. They're, you know, we are intentionally very

diverse from a cultural perspective, gender perspective,

age and interest perspective, so that we are really understanding

the pulse of what's happening. And we're not just limiting it

to my perspective as a mom of Pilar Pilar, and so yeah, so

that so that's what we're doing. We're always open to more

support and more industry leaders coming to the table to

to help us groom these kids.

Very cool. I think you've already touched on the

metaverse a bit and one of the the cool things I think that

you've brought up is that the kids that you're working with

are kind of already in it. they can pull up YouTube and learn

anything. They are connecting with people around the world and

through a whole bunch of different platforms that maybe

aren't as popular with millennial or Gen X audiences.

But can you speak a little bit more about the role that you see

ad tech playing in shaping the metaverse? And what that's gonna

look like? Whoa, well, you know, the metaverse.

Anyone that speaks on the metaverse is making it up as

they go along. Because you know, it's you, right? Yes, I'm gonna

make it up. Now. I would say that, you know, one thing that I

decided early on, like, I was very a very late adopter of

Facebook. And like, I didn't even have a MySpace account, I

don't think or I got it right before No one, no one was on

there anymore. And I decided at that time, but I would never be

late to the party again, especially when it was very

clear that there were enough powers that be that we're going

to make it happen. And when you look at you look at Mark

Zuckerberg, you look at Tim Sweeney, and you look at others

who are really forcing the metaverse to exist.

Bless you. Sorry.

Good. The reality is, it's coming regardless. And it's

a natural for those who are, who play fortnight and you know,

things like that, and like VR, and all that good stuff. This is

a natural progression. Um, you know, lots of people in my

generation, like, it's gonna ruin the world, everyone's gonna

be very inward, and they're not going to, you know, we're going

to lose specialization and things like that. I don't, you

know, but they also said that about cars, they also said that

about, you know, alcohol, they also said that

WordPress, yeah, bugs

is that, you know, the world is going to evolve period,

because that's what we as humans do. And so as it relates to the

metaverse, you know, I think there are, it's just gonna be

interesting. I don't have an opinion on whether it's good or

bad. I just know that it's going to be and as it relates to

EdTech, and its role inside the metaverse, I believe that for

education, the more experiential education is, the more it

sticks. And it can only be good for curated safe, quality

education to exist on the metaverse because for a kid to

volunteer to be immersed in this type of world. If it's done

well, they then kids can learn just imagine a kid learning math

experientially or learning science experientially or being

able to be in this, this they're rated curated virtual world with

other kids around the globe, and they're all on this learning

journey together. How you do it, what it's gonna look like, you

know, we were working on some things internally for that

space. But you know, I, it's gonna be what it's gonna be,

it's, you know, it's kind of like social media, we thought it

was gonna be the worst thing in the world for everyone to be

able to, to post whatever they want to post say what they want

to say. And you know, we're still here. Half the time, we're

all having these treatments, that we're still here. And

there's lots of stuff that comes from it. My grandma is on social

media, you know, and that's good. She can see your grandkids

and great grandkids. But yeah, I think, you know, I don't I won't

dare say I'm an expert, or that I have anything figured out,

I'll just say that I'm gonna figure it out what the rest of

the world and make sure that I'm an early adopter on interjecting

positive opportunities for our kids.

That's such a great point of view. And this

has been a fun interview for me, because basically, I agree with

every single thing that you've said. I can't emphasize enough

that I absolutely agree with you. And it's just like you

said, with any anything, any technological advancement,

there's always good mix with bad. We don't even know what

this looks like yet. So why shoot down anything before

something really cool could potentially happen. We don't

know. What are the things I wanted to ask you about? And

you've? You've definitely addressed kind of how kids are

already incorporating the metaverse idea. But do you have

any fun predictions or things that your kids have talked

about? Or things that you've seen with some of the Banchi

kids about what you think how they're going to incorporate the

metaverse how they're going to what things are going to change

and how we live play or work or what they're already doing or

like what are the kids up to these days?

You know, I will tell you that kids in general, from

the kids I've spoken to, they have no idea what this Metaverse

where it is, you know their, their generation isn't really

talking about it. But they're absolutely already experiencing

it. You know, as we mentioned, fortnight is a very high level

example of you know, a Metaverse type of experience. You know,

I've had this conversation with a good friend at Epic Games, you

know, kids being able to come into this. And when fortnight

came up people like, Oh my God, my kid is in their headset

talking to other people what in the world? Right? And so I would

just say that I think my predictions is gonna be crazy

when you look at all of the quote unquote, real estate and I

say, quote, unquote, real estate because I just don't get that

how I'm buying virtual space, but I'm not going to be an old

fogy about it. But you look at the digital artwork. And you

know, the the value of something is always connected to the

perspective of the buyer period. And if the world decides we want

to value digital art, we want to value virtual real estate, we

want to be able to create worlds that have never been created

before in a virtual space, and then invite others to enjoy it.

You know what, I spend lots of time in an Oculus, so that I can

be in a Metaverse world. I can't tell the future for about

myself. You know, I can't claim my own future in that regard.

But I can't I just can't see it yet. Honestly, I can't see

myself existing in that space. Maybe there are other components

of the metaverse that I just don't get yet. But I definitely

see myself and conduct a tech our parent company building

Metaverse experiences for the generation who finds that to be

normal, and to be just a part of the way they do life. And as

with everything, you know, something that's here today may

evolve and be you know, if a kid is spending way too much time in

their Oculus today, eventually that will become old and they

will come back out and socialize with the real world. I will say

that the thing that we have to be cautious about, I imagine if

I can tell from my own self is anytime our kids are adults,

anytime we spend so much time inward. And in these fantasy

worlds or in these boxes. Those are times when you're not

cultivating real relationships. And if your internet goes down

in your community for a week, holy cow, what are you gonna do

with yourself, you know, where the real cherish relationships

and you know, I've seen that happen to kids, whether it's

they were avid gamers, I had so many friends, but then all of a

sudden their PC is broken for a month and they're sitting

around, they're depressed because they don't have any real

friends anymore because all the real friends that weren't gamers

have moved on. And you know, it's so we'll have to find a

way. And this is, you know, probably doesn't even exist yet,

at least for the metaverse find a way to make sure that we're

still keeping the real human connections with those who

aren't at the metaverse.

I think you're absolutely right on that as

well. Before we get into our last little segment, I want to

summarize a couple of things we've been talking about. One is

that kids need better edtech to get into the gaming space.

There's not a lot that helps kids cultivate content creation,

gaming, artistry. Banchi is doing that. And it's doing a

good job of it. But we need more of that. More things for middle

and high school kids in gaming beyond just the kind of Hooked

on Phonics type stuff for younger kids. One of the things

I think is so cool that you do as you work to establish

established talent pipelines within an industry, zoom, start

with the school age kids and try to get them involved in steam

programs and things that can actually help them cultivate a

talent and build up an industry that might be within the

community already. So not only is the community supportive, but

that person is supported. They're able to find a passion

when they're young and pursue it in a way that's sustainable and

healthy. And not just every kid dreaming of going to the NBA.

I'm still in favor of those dreams, too. Yeah. And one of

the other things that we talked about was that D AI should be

synonymous with ROI. I think that should be a bumper sticker.

Basically this point, bringing more voices to the table only

widens the community. It brings on the best talent. It helps you

bring more consumers in all of that good stuff. And the final

point I want to summarize real quick is that we're not going to

be old fogies in 2022. We might not know what the metaverse

looks like, but we can certainly work to build cool programs and

bringing cool things to support the people that are interested

in the metaverse concept and keep finding ways to interact

both online and offline in our communities. Which this has been

such a fun episode. It's been so great having you on the for the

very last segment, I like to ask every guest to do a moment of

reflection. Think this is just a chance for you to give any

advice to people out there maybe looking to be entrepreneurs,

maybe looking to be better parents to their kids, or maybe

just art interested in you and your story? The What is one

thing you would like to tell your younger self about getting

into the gaming industry and be successful?

Well, and if you allow me I will kind of, can I replace

gaming industry with entrepreneurships? And

absolutely, I'm not so immersed in gaming that, you know, I

don't want the gaming pose, but he's not really OG in gaming. So

she doesn't do the show, right? We want people who

are also a little bit on the outside, maybe so that's good.

Okay. So I would say that, as an entrepreneur, I've

never found more satisfaction and happiness, than when I

shaped my entrepreneurship, around the realities that I was

seeing in life. You know, being in my early to mid 40s, right

now, you know, one could say, oh, your mom and your you know,

you, you, you, your your mid 40s, you shouldn't be thinking

about starting in entrepreneurship right now.

That's a young man's game. That's the young lady's game.

But I would say that it's all every stage of life has its own

purview to this, the problems and solutions that our world is

having at that moment. And so whatever stage you are currently

in, in your life, you have a unique front row seat to

problems that your peers are having your peers may be other

moms of teens, your peers, maybe other young women and men in

their early 20s, who are you know, transitioning from

college, into the real world into the real world. Your your

lens might be a 12 year old, who understands what's going on in

gaming, whatever stage you're in, you are perfectly qualified

to innovate. And you don't have to wait to have it all figured

out. If the value proposition of your goal makes enough sense,

and truly shows impact for others, then you can find people

that will gravitate towards your mission, I was telling someone,

maybe an hour or so ago, most of the partnerships that I have

right now, they all came from one LinkedIn DM, a 20 minute

call, no PowerPoint, and no product to show. It was simply

the fact that I was very passionate about what needs to

happen in the world. And I don't know how we're going to do it.

We'll find people to help. But if your mission and what you're

trying to build, all you have to start with is your vision. Of

course, you got to do some research, market research,

competitive analysis, we all owe the business basic still matter

my degrees in finance. So I'm still you know, believing those

things. But innovators are crazy. And we just got to jump

right in and change the world. And so I would tell my younger

self, to always be looking for the problems and always be

willing to be a part of the solution. And don't worry about

having it all figured out before you get started. The world will

gravitate towards you if you have a good heart, and the

mission you are trying to solve will truly change the world.

I love that. That's such a perfect place to

end. If people want to find you. Where can they find you if you

if you want to be found as well. I want to be

found. Yes. Okay, good. So you can find me on Bandcamp

calm BA in eky.com You can find me on LinkedIn, I am notorious

for responding to my LinkedIn DMS. So feel free. It's Erica

milette mo L E TT. And so yeah, I would say those are two of the

easiest ways to find me. You know, I'm, again, I'm Gen X so I

you know, I can't give me my instagram handle and all that

other good stuff that I That's my weakness. Honestly, I need a

young person. Hopefully there's young people watching who are

like amazing at social media that want to help me. But but

those are some great ways to find me.

I can't thank you enough for coming on. It's been

such a pleasure. For all of our listeners. Be sure to reach out

to Erica, send her your questions. You're really into

social media reach out to her for sure. And also, don't forget

to leave those five star ratings and reviews for me. And then

check out our other holodeck media podcasts, including metal

business for all the metaverse finance stories you could ever

want, and business of esports for interviews with industry

leaders. You can catch me Wednesday nights on the business

of esports live after show and you can catch this podcast and

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