Alright, welcome back to another SLG meetup. I hope everybody is doing fantastic today. Your host Alvaro to bring you another interesting guest here on our series for the SLG meetups, where we connect some of the most interesting people in the luxury space. But for that today, we're going to be bringing a different type of guest.
In fact, the first lawyer that we have been bringing to our series, and his name is Andrew Rosso. And aside from being a lawyer, he also is the CEO of AR Media. It's a completely different way of doing media. He's a reporter.
He also does the US News editor for Bing Crypto, writer for NFT Now, and he's doing this combination of anything media related in the crypto space, as well as being a lawyer, which these days we want to make sure we're teaming up with the right people. So very excited about this conversation, and I hope all of you get to enjoy it. There he is, the man himself, Mr. Lawyer, Andrew Rosso, the cyber guy.
How are you my friend? Very good, and yourself. Doing well. So glad you're to be here.
Thank you so much for having me. I love those glasses, man. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. It's very lawyer and very US editor for Bing Crypto. Curious, you could say. I love that summary.
Now, but it's a pleasure having you here today. And I was saying that, you know, out of all these different guests that we bring into the show, you're the first one that is a lawyer. So very interested and very impressive because I think that these days it's important to have always that legal aspect taking care of, and especially the understanding on what it takes to, you know, surround yourself with the right structure. So you've been here today talking about that, but not only that, you're also the CEO of AR Media.
So you're touching on all the different elements on how to create more branding, more exposure, being a reporter for some of the most iconic crypto magazines, you know, being crypto NFT now. So I think that we're going to be covering really exciting topics. And for that, I'm really grateful for having you here today. Well, thank you so much.
And it's a pleasure. And I hope I don't disappoint as the first lawyer to come on here. So I will do my very best. Well, I'm going to tell you something.
You will never disappoint anybody because you're probably one of the most polite people I've ever met. So that's always very pleasant to hear. But no, let's get started with yourself. Like, who are you?
And you know, when I see your handle Cyber Guy, tell us a little bit about your story and what it is that you're doing today. Sure. So I'm 32 years old, but my media career took off when I was 26 back in 2016, having grown up with the birth of the internet, you know, the birth of music streaming, piracy, intellectual property. I was always fascinated by technology and computers and saying, how far you could push tech until it broke without necessarily landing in prison.
So, you know, the file sharing, quaranting, right, in order to understand what file sharing was, what the effect was on different industries, I was in it for a while, right? It was just the thing to do. But over time, my drive to torrent stream and take turned into appreciation for what these artists, what these creators were doing. I apologize for the annoying baby cat.
But passion for technology grew and it led me down a path towards law of helping to protect innovation to better understand creativity and how that works today. And I've been practicing well now for about five years, spent about three of those years in criminal defense, addressing the opioid epidemic out in Ohio. Fentanyl is a huge huge problem in the Midwest. And at the same time, understanding how technology would come into play.
And when Pokemon Go first came out for the smartphone back in 2016, I remember that. The saljic for somebody like me and my generation, because we grew up with it, right? With that kind of entertainment. And while it was nostalgic, it was also very scary and landmark in a lot of ways for what intellectual property meant, what personal injury meant, but also what this future of gaming brought to the everyday entrepreneur and business.
So, a paper of mine that I had written during the first week of the game's launch ended up going viral in the legal community, which threw me into the world of media completely out of place simply because a judge I had a case in front of for a client, his son, Rofelow, and it opened up the doors to me being able to join as a legal contributor at the time of 26 years old to then start writing for Forbes Money and Markets, which you now know as Forbes Crypto. It rebranded very early on. Bell in love with writing. I fell in love with educating, but I did not want to give up my background as a lawyer.
I went to Law School for three painful years. I started hard for four extra painful months. So, my dilemma was how could I do both a respected attorney in my field, but also be a respected writer, reporter, journalist that did not cross the boundaries of ethical violations, privacy violations, and no offense did not want to be a TMZ. And here we are today and I've found it all and I'm blessed.
That's a great combination, you know, and I believe that these days everybody kind of gets into whatever space it is, especially in media and they don't understand the legality behind it. So, obviously you coming up with the background on becoming a lawyer, all that information that you've acquired and practicing law has helped you not only build a successful business like AR Media, but also create an infrastructure that whatever it is that you're doing, it's always going to be backed up in a nice way. Because sometimes, you know, we do things and all this having what surprise we're doing something that is not ethically or legally correct. It keeps you grounded and it certainly keeps me grounded.
You know, as we've talked about before, my law license follows me everywhere, whether I'm writing, whether I'm consulting, whether, you know, I'm teaching or practicing. It just follows me everywhere I go as an incentive to make sure that everything that I do is always by the book and the advice and the relationships I build are always by the books as it should be today because we're in a time where creativity is almost seamless and never-ending, which is fantastic, but there are those out there that look to exploit ignorance and run of a new space, which we've started to see and it's good. You can trust in those capacities. So, a lot of people these days, you don't even know what to trust anymore when they read a new article and you're obviously running this media company, AR, like what differentiates you from any other media company?
Sure. So, a lot of these media companies out there have established themselves in two ways. One, in a traditional public relations capacity, traditional PR sense, as well as just trying to bring visibility to the projects I'm working on and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just the fact of in a time where we face instances and movements where voices are silenced, people are silenced.
We live in a cancel culture where narratives are often misconstrued and misunderstood. I wanted to create a mechanism or a platform for people to be heard in Spain and wait for the North to win it. Yeah, it's your big, you know, your big tech media, your bigger outlets that are always looking for the guys with the most money or the most amount of funding or the game changing idea. What about the smaller guys?
What about a startup that has a great idea that has the great potential that still has a willingness to be something? You know, why shouldn't their story be told? And what I want to do with AR media is be a platform to help the Everyday Entrepreneur, the Everyday Project, give them a voice of, here's what we're doing. By it matters, can I guarantee the success of the project?
Of course not, but giving a platform for these individuals to be heard in ways where they normally aren't allowed or aren't able to have those resources. So bringing in my experience and knowledge as an attorney, but also my experience in media as both an editor, but also a writer where I've also had to answer two editors above me and follow criteria. Being able to bring that to the table is something that you don't see very often with a lot of these media companies. No, I think that's wonderful, you know, and it's very inspiring to see that these companies like yourselves helping the, you know, the startups and those up-rising entrepreneurs to share their story because some of the stories out there are so beautiful, but they're unheard.
Like there is no platform that really helps them raise their voice because the main media outlets, they only care about, you know, the things that are already happening, the big projects already that took place are the big companies. So this is something that is very interesting to hear. And aside from that, I see that you are also specializing more on the Web3 blockchain, the whole new trend. Right?
So tell me a bit about that. So Web3, it's, you know, that's one of the disadvantages of media is the way Web3 has been portrayed, right? Remember back to the Birth of the Internet, the .com era where, you know, people didn't understand, you know, I was born in 89, right? I came into that age, right, as it was starting.
So growing up with it, it just kind of clicked and made sense. But for those, you know, significantly older, that previous generation didn't understand it, didn't know what it was, didn't know the effect it was going to have. A lot of people laughed at the thought of, you know, that first Apple computer coming out, or what is this? WWW World Wide Web?
It's never going to be anything. Why would I ever want to invest? Well, you know, who's laughing now is, you know, you don't know what you don't know. And Web3 is a second chance.
Web3 is the time to do things differently the second go around. It is that new shift, that new birth of the Internet. But in this case, it's the next transformation of the Internet as we've known it. We've known the Internet to be a two-dimensional experience where you click a link and it takes you to a standalone page.
You've never really been immersed in your browsing and your experience from being at home on the couch. And Web3 brings in all of these new technologies, you know, Vintech, your blockchain, your cryptocurrency, digital money, now your NFTs, where it's not necessarily the NFTs of the crypto itself. That's going to be revolutionaries. How these technologies are being used across different industries and at what moment is the application of that particular technology, the most appropriate application doesn't even require blockchain.
Is cryptocurrency or tokenization even necessary at this juncture? It may not be for the next five or six years, but that doesn't mean it doesn't apply. And I think there's a common misconception, at least across media, of blockchain, everything, tokenize everything, everything has to be when in reality, no, it doesn't. You know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality, but at the same time, understanding the technology itself so you can say we're not ready for it or we understand its utility even early on, we're just not there yet.
And there's a difference between that type of conversation, then simply trying to just force it down, everyone's throats or that's covering covering it. Right, I love that. I love that. And you know, that gives a piece of mind for a lot of people that they're trying to figure out, okay, how do I get myself into that space?
And sometimes, you know, that specific industry is not ready for it yet. And it creates, you know, that momentum going and right now, what are your thoughts on it? You know, with crypto plunging like Bitcoin, it's like under 30k now. And you know, Ethereum also super low, like, what are your thoughts on it?
Well, that's crypto. That's the stock market, right? It's a new market where it's not guaranteed. And for those that are so deeply immersed in it, but equally get upset at these types of drops, they should understand that right?
They're immersed in it so much it's going to go up and down just because it goes down doesn't mean it's the end of the road, doesn't mean that we're saying you should pull everything out. It just doesn't, it's just it's the market flow, it's not stable. But I think having an understanding of why you would want to invest in crypto or the why getting to the why rather than what my friends are doing and they're making millions of dollars, I have friends that have been blessed and make that kind of money. But I also have a lot of friends that don't do that that are simply just learning it.
And that's okay too. It's just asking yourself the why, asking yourself, why am I doing this? What, you know, what effect is it going to be for for me, my business, my family, my lifestyle, I want to live. And blockchain, I think, is powerful.
Already we've seen it, right? The real estate industry, the intellectual property landscape across entertainment, right? I think blockchain, blockchain is here to say it is not going anywhere. Anyone who questions that is missing out on the point and is a fool, it's just they just are you have to read on it, you have to understand you may not be able to apply it or want to apply it, but you need to understand it.
Because if you don't, you're impacting your own customer base, you're impacting your own, you know, utility and potential revenue stream down the line. And it's an eat or be eaten market right now. It just is with NFTs, we're very early on, it may seem like we're so far into it, we haven't even scratched the surface. We've had a few of the early starters and the ones that are the most successful and have the money behind it.
You know, of course, they're going to do a great job. It's just what are they going to continue to do for the landscape, for the community itself, based off the funding they have, based off the endorsements and partnerships that they have, right? You have very successful projects right now and they're not perfect, but they're doing their best. That doesn't mean the space is closed off.
It doesn't mean there's no room for anyone else. It's just a matter of figuring out where you're full. So I think the NFT space, we're so very early on, there's a lot to learn about it and from it. It's just knowing the type of information you're looking for.
Are you looking for the cool projects that have cool artwork and you don't really care much about them, but you get to wrap up a profile picture or you looking for a project that have a long-term value, that forces the community to wait and to be a part of something and to really immerse themselves and give their time. It's not just how much money can I throw in. It's how much of my time am I willing to invest in this because time is a form of a valuable form of currency. People overlook that.
So to answer your question, I think web three, we are headed there. We are not in web three. We are building towards it. To get to web three, we need the individuals and powers that be to embrace it, to understand that you say, I'm willing to build on top of what we have to get closer and until we get to that point where people start to build and understand and apply, we will never truly be in web three.
And that is a major discrepancy here as people are saying, well, now that we're in web three, we're not in it. We are building towards it. No, that's wonderful. It's well said and very profound.
So I think that's a good way to summarize it and to lead to my next question, which is something that I always ask to all our guests. And the word luxury, it comes in so many different shapes and forms. So for you, what is it? It's a mindset.
It is a mentality. It is not tangible. We've grown up in a society where what somebody can see, hold and feel, that's what others can see and perceive as value, but luxury is a mindset. Something of immense value and meaning to the beholder, to the person wearing, to the person holding, seeing, talking, something you may consider luxurious or extremely valuable may be the exact opposite for me.
It could be your suit or your blazer that you're wearing that means everything to you. That is something that reflects who you are, reflects the trials and tribulations you've taken on in whatever form in your life and you're wearing that blue blazer every time you jump on an Instagram live, it's part of your brand, may be a luxurious aspect to you. And who am I to say no, but that may not be the same for me. It may be something entirely different.
So to answer your question, luxury is a mindset and beauty is in the eye of the boulder, whatever that is old, old, you know, phrasing and it's still very true. Well said and thank you for sharing your insights. So look, I know you have a lot of things to wrap up before you head to South Florida, so just wanted to make sure that everybody that is tuning in now or later on will watch this video or listen to the podcast to make sure to follow our friend Andrew at Cyber Guy-esque. It's going to be all amazing things about himself and also check what he's up to and if they need to reach out to you, what will be the best way to do it?
Sure, Instagram is very easy. I do my very best answer any DMs that comes through, but of course email, my email is Andrew at armediaconsult.com. I'm very accessible. I do my very best to to keep doors open.
I hate when people ignore attempt find me for the years. I'm sorry to stay away from this, but I love everything that you and super luxury group are doing. It is a pleasure to be here and I just want to say thank you. Well, the pleasure of ours.
So thank you so much, Andrew again, for being here today. I look forward to seeing you soon in Miami or somewhere else and keep on doing what you're doing because seeing those are the companies and the foundation of really taking on helping others live themselves and live some amazing projects through your voice. So thank you so much for doing it. Thank you for being here today and until the next time.
Thank you, my friend. And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it. I remember Embrace it's beautiful success in life.
My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time.