Latest / SILVER / GOLD / $UFD Meme Coin Investing & Global Economics / SPECIAL GUEST: Frankie Lapenna ($UFD + $GYAT)
Transcript
- 0:01Community is everything in meme coins, in cryptocurrency.
- 0:05Today we have a special guest, Frankie Lapena.
- 0:08He's a social media celebrity, almost 10 million followers on
- 0:13YouTube alone. But he's also the founder of a
- 0:17meme coin, GYAT Gyat. First thing I want to ask him is
- 0:21what does that stand for? But Frankie, welcome, welcome to
- 0:25the basement, welcome to the live stream.
- 0:27Thank you so much to for having me here, Ron, I'm honored.
- 0:31You know, you're maybe the most respected person that I can
- 0:34think of in the mean point space.
- 0:36So yacht is the ticker, the name of the coin.
- 0:40And my character online, if you're people are unfamiliar, is
- 0:44a guy with a huge butt and the Gen.
- 0:47Z or I think it's a Gen. Z term that was coined is when
- 0:52you see a huge butt, it's like a yacht.
- 0:55Damn. But if you just say yacht and.
- 0:57You refer. You can refer to the butt as a
- 1:00as a yacht, a good above average.
- 1:03You know, luscious butt is a is a yacht.
- 1:06So in I mean, it's a meme with it with it attached to me or
- 1:10not. We've been I've been bringing on
- 1:13some guests into some marketing for the main point who have
- 1:17amazing yachts. So it's not just just me, you
- 1:21know, to answer your question, that is a great dog.
- 1:25Yeah, I was, I was scratching my head last night trying to think
- 1:28if it was an acronym or what was going on.
- 1:30So thank you, Frankie, for for solving that mystery.
- 1:33And so the GHIAT meme coin launched about four months ago.
- 1:38I know UFD Unicorn fart dust. Our coin launched about six
- 1:42months ago. I imagine you've experienced
- 1:45kind of a similar ride to me, like a lot of unexpected things
- 1:49have happened. But I guess first first question
- 1:52is what what prompted you to start a meme coin?
- 1:55Yeah, so I'm, I make memes of myself for a living.
- 2:00I mean, if you go to any of my social media channels, I'm
- 2:02literally wearing a meme on my shirt right now.
- 2:04Have you seen Fancy Squidward? No, no.
- 2:08I guess that's more that's more in my generation type of meme,
- 2:12but I I've always met a guy who loves making people laugh, also
- 2:16is obsessed with the craft of making videos.
- 2:19And so I've been doing the video stuff for 4/4 and 1/2 years and
- 2:26they're all the videos are meme. So you know, when I got turned
- 2:30on to the meme coin marketplace, I was like, Oh my gosh, This is
- 2:33why am I not here? Why am I not doing this?
- 2:35And did a fair amount of research before launching it.
- 2:39And as you and I have talked before, there's a lot of
- 2:41negative stigma and sentiment around celebrity coin.
- 2:45So I was very careful and approached it with a different
- 2:48mindset of long term, a lot of these celebrity coins will last
- 2:55like a couple hours or two days, maybe a week, not even it's like
- 2:5948 hours or under. And so I kind of view the mean
- 3:02point as a, a lot of influencers would do like merchandise or
- 3:09some default route. And I always thought that was
- 3:11kind of cringe. So the main point, it's kind of
- 3:13my thing. It's like my Ave. that my fans
- 3:17and followers, I'm directing them down and towards and it's
- 3:21part of my brand now as a replacement or I think what
- 3:27would be, I don't know, merge. Yeah.
- 3:32So I I hope that. Yeah, yeah.
- 3:35It it sounds like, you know, obviously you, you built a huge
- 3:39community. I know YouTube is it Instagram,
- 3:42TikTok? Like there's a reason why these
- 3:45people like you and trust you, you know, and I've only met you
- 3:50in person twice here over the last couple weeks, but I can
- 3:53sense why they like you and trust you And they probably
- 3:56over, you know, four years is a long time to build a
- 3:59relationship with all those people out there.
- 4:02And, and the meme coin kind of fits well with your model and,
- 4:08and, and gives people another way to connect with you.
- 4:10Is that is that a good way to say?
- 4:12That, that is also another, another route for sure.
- 4:15That is an accurate description. The yeah, the mean point space
- 4:21in initially I did not think it was going yacht was going to go
- 4:25as big as it did. But when it got the traction I
- 4:29did, it was very evident to me and clear to me.
- 4:33There's something here. There's a lot of interest.
- 4:35I took it my mindset changed and I'm taking it much more
- 4:39seriously and committed to my community and told them, you
- 4:43know, I'm I'm we're all in this and I'm in this for the long
- 4:46haul and have been being more active than ever.
- 4:49You know, maybe not today just meeting you and it is yeah, like
- 4:53like I talked about X faces the other day with you.
- 4:56It is the strongest community that I have anywhere on any of
- 5:02the social platforms on my ex with this coin.
- 5:05And to this point, first people I've ever met IRL in real life
- 5:09from the Internet were my my yacht coin community buddies.
- 5:14Which is never. And that's the proof in the
- 5:16putting right there. Yeah, you know, and I met a few
- 5:21of them when we were in Las Vegas and they were good, nice
- 5:24people and, and that's the same experience I had with the UFD
- 5:29community members that I met in Las Vegas.
- 5:31So I'd never met like these are good, nice people.
- 5:34You know, I think you and I experienced somewhat of a
- 5:37similar thing when we started our meme coins.
- 5:41Like mine was an experiment, really just an experiment,
- 5:45right. I had, no, I had a gold and
- 5:47silver YouTube channel and I still do that has about 50,000
- 5:52maybe. Like what is that .5% of the
- 5:55followers that you have? And I did this as a, as an
- 5:59experiment, but I think we both experienced the same thing.
- 6:02And that is like this unbelievable community on within
- 6:08the meme coin sector. They can develop and develop
- 6:11really quickly and like, it's something real, right?
- 6:15I mean, it just shocked me. I had no idea when I got into
- 6:18meme coins, Frankie. I thought it was all, you know,
- 6:21fuzzy animals and, and puppy dogs and, you know, and then
- 6:25realized what this is and this, this community aspect of it is,
- 6:30is something that's real. Oh, it's very real.
- 6:33Yeah. I think also Web 3 is just a
- 6:35critical space to be in. And I think that we're early to
- 6:40it. It's only going to keep growing
- 6:42exponentially and getting bigger every day.
- 6:45And so, yeah, Web 2, we're going to look back and 10 or I don't
- 6:52know, 15 years, maybe less. I think that three can be so
- 6:56much bigger. So that's also it's also
- 6:58important to be expanding into what is new, hot, relevant.
- 7:04And but yes, community comes first for for sure.
- 7:08And I know you have a die hard community.
- 7:11I've seen it first hand. How many holders you have?
- 7:1330 something 1000? Yeah, we have like almost.
- 7:16We have 3540 thousand. Yeah.
- 7:19Oh my goodness that's that is top 1% of and I can't think of
- 7:26another a meme point but a face to it that has the high of
- 7:30holders. I don't think I can think of 1.
- 7:32Frankie, I'm the celebrity. You know that joke.
- 7:34I always tell people I'm like, we don't, we don't have any.
- 7:37We don't. We didn't, We didn't.
- 7:38I invested $100 in the Unicorn fart dust.
- 7:42And I joke and say, you know, we didn't have any money and we
- 7:44certainly don't have a celebrity, but we've got a
- 7:47community. And and you do too, you know, I
- 7:50mean, you know what you have? I think you're in a really cool,
- 7:55unique situation. And when I, when I refer to
- 7:58YouTube, can I and and and can I refer to that?
- 8:00Even TikTok is like web 2 is that is that.
- 8:04Yeah, like you've got that there and those people love you,
- 8:08right? Like I watched your videos long
- 8:10before gyat, OK, I always thought you're and I always I
- 8:14believed in the big butt, right? I mean, I was like, that thing
- 8:17is you crack me up. You know, I like Jackass movies
- 8:20when I was in my 20s. Now that I'm an older man in my
- 8:2350s, you know, what you were doing was just great.
- 8:26But you've built this community of people that like you, that
- 8:31you've that you've entertained that you've given value to,
- 8:34right? Like you didn't get to that,
- 8:37that level of success on all those social media platforms
- 8:41without giving people value. And then now what you're talking
- 8:44about doing in my opinion on the Web three platform with Gaat,
- 8:49which I now know what that means, is giving them even more
- 8:52value and going and going in that direction.
- 8:55Yeah, that's going to be my gosh, could be a lifelong goal
- 8:59or accomplishment that I'm trying to do is converting and
- 9:03no one has been able to do this tremendously successful yet
- 9:07converting their Web 2 following into Web three.
- 9:11Especially a mean point because I can tell you first hand, it is
- 9:15so difficult to even to explain or say the word mean point to
- 9:21some of these web two people. It immediately gets dismissed
- 9:24because of all how many negative bad scams were launched by
- 9:28celebrities and they just they immediately dismiss it and have
- 9:32nothing positive going on in their head when they hear it.
- 9:35So reversing that is going to be difficult.
- 9:39But I'm I'm working on that. Maybe that's one of Yat Coin's
- 9:41utilities is this this celebrity influencer guy has this giant
- 9:47webto following and he's slowly and surely trying to, you know,
- 9:53on board people and gain their trust and then bring them into
- 9:56the community and show them that it's not all bad.
- 9:59You're a you're a good example that I'll point to of that.
- 10:03You know, you're 1 of very few good examples that, you know,
- 10:07you can be referenced for these people to see that it isn't all
- 10:11BS. Yeah, you know.
- 10:15So and, and, and, you know, I think, I think we've got 2
- 10:18hurdles #1 just the whole crypto hurdle to get over, right?
- 10:24A lot of people are just no crypto.
- 10:26And then on top of that, yes, what, what, what went on in a
- 10:30portion and maybe a too big of a portion of the mean coin sector.
- 10:35And I think it just takes time, right?
- 10:36Like it like your, your, your success on YouTube or on TikTok
- 10:41probably didn't absolutely happen overnight, right?
- 10:45I mean, it took a lot of work, right?
- 10:47A lot of, I mean, you know, a lot of work.
- 10:49I know what it takes to run a YouTube channel.
- 10:51I know like people watch a, a, a one minute video that you made,
- 10:55but that may take days of or weeks of work to put together,
- 10:59right? And Oh my goodness, yeah.
- 11:02And you know what, Frankie, you didn't come here for advice.
- 11:05I think you're just a few years younger than me.
- 11:07But man, there's something to be said for showing up and being
- 11:11reliable and being trustworthy and being consistent.
- 11:16That pays off in the end. And and I, and I think that I
- 11:20think a lot of people in the mean point sector, you're you
- 11:23and I and there's other great communities too, no doubt.
- 11:26But we are, we are showing up. We're transparent, we're honest
- 11:30and, and it gets people excited. You know, I mean, I mean, there
- 11:34are, I guess the, the, the, the good side to what you were
- 11:37talking about, like us being able to bring more people into
- 11:41meme coin is the fact that like, I think 7% of people own crypto
- 11:46in general. So we've got like a huge runway
- 11:49of new people that we can bring in.
- 11:51And, you know, crypto, crypto seems to be on an upswing in
- 11:55general. Yeah, hopefully there is some
- 11:58more good examples and celebrity influence or coins that have
- 12:05faces inside of them. But hopefully they'll they'll be
- 12:08more of those because for every scam launched coin, the the
- 12:13trust is lost and people see it and it's viral and there's more
- 12:18negative sense of what was Solana at when you launched UFD?
- 12:22Two O 8 I bought. That was my yeah, it was two O 8
- 12:27and Bitcoin was one O 8. Yeah, and that was my that was
- 12:31my first crypto I ever bought in my life.
- 12:33When I when I bought, I bought Solana.
- 12:36I bought half a Solana and I almost didn't do it.
- 12:40But wait, I want to I want to circle back to something you
- 12:42just said. You said cryptos and meme coins
- 12:45with faces attached to them. I want to I want to point out
- 12:48that your crypto has a butt attached to it as well.
- 12:52That's good, yeah. Yeah.
- 12:53Good point. Personality.
- 12:56But yeah, but some people might say ours, my mine has a butt
- 12:59attached to it as well. But yeah, Solana was at 208.
- 13:03It was right after the the Hawktua situation, which was, I
- 13:09think, you know, one of the defining meme coin rugs that
- 13:13that really started to bring attention.
- 13:15And you know, I'll, I'll say this, I don't know the real
- 13:18details of what went on and so don't hold me to this, but I
- 13:21don't think she really knew what was happening.
- 13:23Correct. You know, so anyway.
- 13:26Yeah, an agency with bad actors who are using her fame and
- 13:30internet's attention to profit. And she, she has no idea how to
- 13:37even download an app, how to fund it.
- 13:40I mean, me and you are. It's difficult for us even, you
- 13:43know, but I think that was at 2. So Anna was at 2:20 when we
- 13:50launched. And then immediately it was like
- 13:52that week, it went from the 2 two something way down.
- 13:57And it was funny the the market was just tanking.
- 14:00Yeah, it was just new enough where it was green and still up
- 14:04while everything was red. That was a a hilarious dynamic.
- 14:09And so that's that's what I'm working on now is obviously,
- 14:12like you said, showing up. That's that's the first most
- 14:15important thing. They say that when it comes to
- 14:17exercise, getting to the gym is the hardest part.
- 14:21Like if you can do that, then the rest will will come getting
- 14:25there anyway. So putting in these reps getting
- 14:28got to a new all time high, four months in goodness, that would
- 14:33be revolutionary and very notable if I can accomplish
- 14:39that. So I'm just like, like you said,
- 14:40I'm only four months in, four years into the TikTok, YouTube
- 14:45and Instagram. So why would I?
- 14:47Why would I look at it any differently?
- 14:49Yeah, if some people say that like a month in crypto feels
- 14:53like a year, and I don't know if you've experienced that, but you
- 14:58know, and, and the, and the other thing, Frankie, that I
- 15:00think is important for your community and my community to
- 15:03realize as well. And I had Luke and that's the
- 15:05guy that runs pudgy Penguins on. It's been a couple of months
- 15:09ago, but, but you and I basically, I mean, you, you
- 15:13timed it just right. But I, I was pretty much in the
- 15:16same time you like like we launched our meme coins during
- 15:20like peak levels in the market, right?
- 15:24And then and then now we've got to experience this, this kind of
- 15:28bear market for meme coins. But there's that's actually, and
- 15:32Lucas said this, and I agree with it, as difficult as it is,
- 15:36it's kind of a good thing because during the hard times,
- 15:40you learn who you're like core community members are like the
- 15:44people that are going to stick with you through the hard times.
- 15:48And I'm I'm sure you've experienced this.
- 15:49Some people show up for a week or two and they're your best
- 15:52friend and then you don't ever hear from them again.
- 15:55Right. But the right, you know, but the
- 15:58but, but during the hard times, kind of the silver lining on
- 16:02that is it gives us an opportunity to really galvanized
- 16:05our communities and, and forge them and and and and build this
- 16:10like nucleus from which when things do get better, you know
- 16:16that like, like you've got this major platform from which we can
- 16:20grow. Any any thoughts on that
- 16:21Frankie? Yeah, the let me tell you, the
- 16:26community, I I think people forget, I think you don't that I
- 16:32have I'm almost like fighting a war on 2 fronts, if you will.
- 16:36If you've ever seen The Hobbit, I have all of my web too big.
- 16:41Takisha did Instagram, which is a full time, more than a full
- 16:45time job posting and making videos and doing stunts and I'm
- 16:49limping through the airport that blew out my ankle getting beat
- 16:54up here and in Florida and editing these things.
- 16:58And that is a full time, I think that some people forget.
- 17:02And then also on top of this is, is all this Web 3 stuff and
- 17:06being, and being as active as I can inside of the, the community
- 17:10on Discord and act and doing the mean point related projects and
- 17:15whatnot, 'cause it's, it's kind of two separate worlds.
- 17:19And I'm, you know, early enough where I'm trying to merge them,
- 17:22trying to figure out how to make content that is applicable and
- 17:28appealing for the meme coin that will then also resonate on web
- 17:32two. It's extremely complex because
- 17:35of how how much crap they talk about it and how negative the
- 17:38word meme point is to them. So I think that's one thing I've
- 17:43been kind of talking about telling my community like, hey,
- 17:46if you don't hear from me, it is not because I am giving up or
- 17:52that I've forgotten about you. I'm, I'm working on a million
- 17:56different things all at once, being productive.
- 17:58And I think that's sometimes they get weary.
- 18:01I don't know if you've experienced that.
- 18:03It's like, Oh my goodness, where's Ron?
- 18:04He hasn't sent the message and 20 minutes.
- 18:08Right, right. Yeah, yeah, I know.
- 18:10It's I, I, I relate because, you know, I also have a gold and
- 18:14silver. I was a gold and silver precious
- 18:16metals guy and crypto and and precious metals are like first
- 18:20cousins. They're very, very similar.
- 18:22But I'm still putting out some content on my gold and silver
- 18:25platform and in trying to overlap things, it's it is it is
- 18:31challenging and it is absolutely, you know, crypto is
- 18:37one of the good things about crypto is it's 24 hours a day,
- 18:40seven days a week. But that can also be a challenge
- 18:44for I think somebody who's in our position where you feel like
- 18:47there's always something there that you can do right.
- 18:50You could always have another spaces.
- 18:52You could always make another post on the X.
- 18:55You could always check the price, you know, just it never,
- 18:58it never ends. And I think that I don't think
- 19:00anybody wants you or me to burn out, right?
- 19:04But I think it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, an
- 19:07environment that makes burnout very, I mean, it happens all the
- 19:11time. It's, it's very conducive to
- 19:13burnout. And I think, you know, sometimes
- 19:15we got to force ourselves to watch a movie or go out for a
- 19:18walk or whatever the case may be.
- 19:20Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think the the UFD
- 19:25community is is global, right? You got every time zone
- 19:28imaginable. Is they you go to bed with
- 19:32people waking up and vice versa. So how do you, you know, show
- 19:38face or communicate with or do an X spaces that will be
- 19:41convenient for all of the above? It's not easy.
- 19:45How do you weigh that and that and I think there's no
- 19:49blueprint. You know, it's not like they
- 19:52another example, another Ron example you've looked into like,
- 19:55oh, they did 4 spaces staggered at this time throughout the
- 20:00week. No, you got to you got to figure
- 20:02it out. Same with same with social
- 20:04media. I mean, the only thing that
- 20:06keeps these stunts and videos and challenges going for me is
- 20:11the ideas You got to come up with viral, funny, sketchy ideas
- 20:16that. They resonate and people think
- 20:19they're funny. Otherwise it'll you.
- 20:21Know Frankie, that was that that that's that's Unicorn blood I
- 20:25write with those are my notes for our meeting.
- 20:27That was one of my questions. How do you come up with your
- 20:29ideas right. I mean I I make content as well.
- 20:33I mean, you know that that's probably one of the most
- 20:36challenging things I would imagine.
- 20:38Yeah, I don't think that there's, I think people are
- 20:41underwhelmed when I, when I get my answer to this question.
- 20:44There's not like a super impressive methodical way that
- 20:51the ideas are generated. It's constantly thinking every
- 20:55day, all day while I'm eating, showering, I'm driving, I'm a
- 21:01grocery store, you name it, it's, I'm constantly thinking
- 21:06and it's in my head. I, I, I think in terms of an
- 21:09editing timeline and, and with video shots and angles and clips
- 21:14and a lot of times I'm like, not existing in reality.
- 21:19I'll just be staring off in the distance and piercing together
- 21:22some sort of working draft concept in my head on a video I
- 21:27want to do in the future. So it's just constantly non-stop
- 21:31thinking. And I'll, I'll do and scroll
- 21:33through social media occasionally and then see some
- 21:37videos that I think are funny and maybe they'll be inspiration
- 21:40and I'll twist them, alter them into my own sort of concept that
- 21:45I'll rework. And they say that nothing is
- 21:48original anymore. And I think they've been saying
- 21:51that since like 2010 or something.
- 21:54Everything's been done in one way or another.
- 21:57People are you're stealing something from someone, whether
- 21:59you know it or not. An idea which a lot of people
- 22:02say my videos are original. I'd like to think that, but I
- 22:08don't, I don't know. I think there's no such thing as
- 22:13Unicorn fart. I don't think I've ever heard
- 22:18somebody other than that word before.
- 22:20Well, they did. I, I will, I do take credit for
- 22:23I believe inventing good attracts good, which is our
- 22:26mantra. But somebody in the gold and
- 22:28silver community at one point said that that crypto was
- 22:31Unicorn fart dust. And then I grabbed onto it.
- 22:34I don't know who it was. I thought anyway, but yeah, I
- 22:39mean, like really number one, what you said resonates with me.
- 22:43My mind is always thinking about UFD, about content, about
- 22:49different ideas. I'm, I'm obsessively taking
- 22:52notes on my phone, you know, 'cause I've learned that when
- 22:55you get to my age, those ideas go in, you know, they, they
- 22:58float away very, very quickly. But yeah, it's it takes, I think
- 23:03people sometimes probably mistakenly watch one of your one
- 23:07minute videos on YouTube and think or on TikTok or whatever
- 23:11and think, man, it must be great to be Frankie.
- 23:14He just like shoots a one minute video and makes all this money
- 23:17and, you know, right. Yeah, right.
- 23:19And the reality is, it's a lot of work, you know?
- 23:23We've noticed this time and time again when we were out here in
- 23:26Florida doing some collaborations with other
- 23:29influencers in Miami and Orlando, they were complaining
- 23:35and needed to take constant breaks.
- 23:38Meanwhile, me and my team are out there.
- 23:39We're, you know, we're holding in our place, we're starving,
- 23:42we're sweating so bad, we're dehydrated and miserable, but
- 23:46we're it takes hours. It takes, I mean multiple days
- 23:51and not pleasant environments and people see these 10 second
- 23:57clips and I think it just happened.
- 23:58It takes so many logistics and coordination and nonsense and
- 24:06hardship. Injuries cost a lot of money.
- 24:11Oh, my gosh, Like this, these trips or even back home and
- 24:17we're having camera gear break. We're having all sorts of
- 24:20logistical nightmares that cost money.
- 24:24The cost never ends. And yeah, people only see these
- 24:27me having fun for 10 seconds. That is one that is 1% of what
- 24:33goes on, that's 1% of my schedule.
- 24:35And even that it's not fun because I'm getting beat up and
- 24:37hurt. I'm scared and it's scary.
- 24:41But no, I absolutely love, love my job and the challenge
- 24:46challenges that we face because nothing good was ever created
- 24:50from doing something that's easy.
- 24:53Yeah, unless it was accidental. Wisdom from Frankie, right?
- 24:58And that applies to building a meme coin community.
- 25:00That applies to everybody out there.
- 25:02I agree with you 100%. If it's easy, everybody else is
- 25:06going to do it, right? I mean, anything that's good in
- 25:09life, anything, you know, building a building a going
- 25:12through what we've gone through in the last few months with our
- 25:16meme coin communities during this difficult period, right, is
- 25:19hard, but you'll want it to be hard because if it's easy,
- 25:23everybody else would do it, right?
- 25:25Everybody, everybody. But most people quit Frankie,
- 25:28right? I mean, most people give up.
- 25:29And I'm sure, you know, I know that when I started my YouTube
- 25:33channel, I said I would make a, a, a, a, a piece of content
- 25:37every day for a year. And I knew after six weeks it
- 25:40would be hard and I would want to quit, right.
- 25:42And sure enough, after six weeks, it was hard and I wanted
- 25:45to quit. It was, you know, and, and
- 25:47that's when you got to just stick with stuff and, and, you
- 25:52know, and grid it out and, and keep a good attitude and
- 25:55realize, you know, on the other side of that is where success is
- 25:59and where and we're helping people.
- 26:01And you know, I'm like, what you're doing, right?
- 26:03At the end of the day, you're giving people value.
- 26:05You gave me value before I even had a meme coin, right?
- 26:09I smiled. I loved your video, you know it
- 26:11was awesome. Yeah, I got to, I got to make
- 26:15sure I'm careful with these. My luck's going to run out one
- 26:17of these videos. And what I'm telling you, I got
- 26:20to be careful with the stunts, a lot of them, a lot of them.
- 26:23There's no danger element. But that is, in my opinion, a
- 26:27good video is when something horribly wrong could take place.
- 26:30And it's, it's got the potential, it is sketchy and it
- 26:33has the potential for serious injury.
- 26:36And then it's, you know, there's, there's something on
- 26:38the line. Yeah.
- 26:39Your your bodily arm. Well, I was going to ask you, I
- 26:43wanted to ask you Frankie, because like, I mean, I, I saw
- 26:46you, I saw one where you were like skateboarding down a
- 26:49massive hill and you were flying man.
- 26:52And I'm like, and then, and then, and then you fell off the
- 26:54skateboard and you landed on your butt, thankfully.
- 26:57And I was going to ask you did your, does your big butt save
- 27:00your butt? Because I'm like, if I fell off
- 27:01and did that, I wouldn't be walking.
- 27:03I wouldn't be walking for three weeks.
- 27:06Yeah, I think it's I am really good at falling.
- 27:10I've fallen so many times. So I grew up, I grew up
- 27:13skateboarding from literally every day from the ages of like
- 27:188 to 17 and still have it. I've goodness over over 10,000
- 27:25falls on a skateboard easily, easily.
- 27:27So there's nothing not of the ordinary to fall off in the
- 27:31skateboard. And that house may have learned
- 27:33that that's helped me be a better faller elsewhere, which
- 27:36is such a preposterous thing to line of work to be in.
- 27:40I guess I got funny enough, got denied disability insurance four
- 27:45times from 4 different agencies because they they did one Google
- 27:51search and like, absolutely not. We're not insuring you.
- 27:54You know, it's like this guy's going to die next week.
- 27:58Which is. Hilarious, but.
- 27:59Yeah, that was. If I, if I get destroyed, I'm,
- 28:01I'm toast. My my community will save me,
- 28:04right? Your community will save.
- 28:06Well, you know, and I wanted to point out, isn't one of your
- 28:07most popular videos 1 where you did this tug of war with like a
- 28:13bunch of eight-year old kids? That was a recent one.
- 28:17A recent one was viral. It did well on on YouTube
- 28:20shorts, uploaded it last week and said like freaking
- 28:2311,000,000 yeah, news on YouTube shorts and whatnot.
- 28:27So but the most part on YouTube is is a video of me jumping into
- 28:31a pool that has 680 million views last time I checked.
- 28:35I'm going to pull your I'm going to pull your channel up so
- 28:38people can see it your YouTube channel.
- 28:40OK, guys, if you want to, for those of you if you're not part
- 28:44of the almost 10 million, this is the make sure I got the right
- 28:48screen up here. Yep, that's the profile.
- 28:51Yeah, this is the Frankie Lapena YouTube channel now.
- 28:55You also have a Frankie Lapena vlogs channel as well.
- 28:58Is that correct? Frankie Lapena vlogs.
- 29:00That's where my long form videos are.
- 29:03OK, gotcha. Which it's hard to get those
- 29:06views. You're good at it.
- 29:07I'm still working at it. That's my that's my bread and
- 29:11butter. But here let me, let me.
- 29:13Here's your latest and. Oh you can like sort it by most
- 29:17viewed or something or most. Popular hold on videos?
- 29:20That's right. I'm supposed to be a YouTube.
- 29:23There we go. Oh yeah, that's videos.
- 29:25Hold on. Sorry, short and.
- 29:27You have to click on the profile, Frankie, the kind of
- 29:31the oh your name right there. I got to go to your channel.
- 29:35Thanks, Frankie. Yeah.
- 29:37And then? And then I'll go.
- 29:38Short I I delete all of it is I only got 1 full length video but
- 29:42there you go popular. In popular, yeah, yeah.
- 29:47So these are. Yeah.
- 29:48But one of you jumping in the pool select 680 million views.
- 29:54I don't get that. Yeah, it's not that good of a
- 29:57video. Yeah, well, if you ever
- 29:59experienced that, I, I, I experienced that a lot during my
- 30:02content creation journey. Was this idea get you back on
- 30:09screen there that, you know, I would make a video and think,
- 30:12oh, this is going to be a great one and nobody would watch it.
- 30:15And then I would do one that I put effort into, but I thought
- 30:18nobody's going to like this. And it winds up being my most
- 30:20popular video, so. That were blocked or they didn't
- 30:31perform the way I wanted them to.
- 30:33And that's just the reality of the game situation.
- 30:37It's you can only speculate how people are going to respond to a
- 30:40video. You can have some ideas and
- 30:43hunches, but as you said, it's going to be up to the Internet
- 30:49to decide. Yeah, yeah.
- 30:51Yeah, well put all. Your eggs in one basket.
- 30:54No. And and before I forget,
- 30:56Frankie, you were very kind when we were in Las Vegas.
- 30:59Let me show our one. I want to show the viewers our
- 31:02picture. And then I want to say thank
- 31:04you. But Frankie was, you know, I
- 31:06think for me and I'd be curious to get your thoughts because
- 31:09Frankie and I were both at the Bitcoin conference.
- 31:14And for me, one of the highlights was this, right?
- 31:17We, we got, we had a, we got the, this is our first meeting.
- 31:19We were comparing butts and Frankie definitely beat me.
- 31:24But you know, overall, if people ask me about the, the Bitcoin
- 31:28conference, like what the highlights were, did what did I
- 31:31learn? It was a great experience.
- 31:32But at the end of the day, to me, what it, what the best, the
- 31:36best part about it were the people that I got to meet and,
- 31:40and the people like you, I mean, really like you, honestly.
- 31:43And I met Keith Grossman from mood pay and you know, like some
- 31:46people that, that just to, to get to meet them in person.
- 31:51And to me, I think that comes back to what we're doing with
- 31:53our mean points like relationships and people that we
- 31:57meet in connections are really some of the most valuable things
- 32:01we have in the world. And you know, when people say,
- 32:05what's the value in a meme coin, it's like, well, it's the value
- 32:08of the community, the sense of belonging, the connections, the,
- 32:12you know, the fun that people have together.
- 32:15Yeah, I mean, when somebody's dying on their deathbed, they're
- 32:18not they're not asking to see or hold their trophies or physical
- 32:24items one last time. They're asking for friends and
- 32:27family to be around them. So same requires that there's
- 32:31community efforts here. You know, they're not dying that
- 32:36that scenario is just a good analogy.
- 32:38But that is, it's an analogy that's chosen through family and
- 32:43friends are more important than material objects, you know, and
- 32:49everything else. So yeah, I think that you're
- 32:52doing an excellent job. I'm just you're, you're my
- 32:55inspiration and motivation to aim towards Ron and sort of what
- 32:59a successful community and coin looks like.
- 33:02And I think that this market, it's starting to, I keep seeing
- 33:06people talk, people always talk, but they're saying that June,
- 33:10like mid June is when we've been just parabolic exponential
- 33:15volume and market cap increasing and crypto on just a huge upward
- 33:21trend. So and Solana getting back into
- 33:24the two hundreds, maybe, you know, and then all these mean
- 33:27points will start running, right.
- 33:29And so if we didn't survive and have survived till then, there's
- 33:35no telling or what's going to happen.
- 33:37I mean, these, these charts are, they're young.
- 33:41Yeah, survived and built Frankie, right.
- 33:43Like you're building, I'm building, right.
- 33:45Like we said, we're building this like super solid
- 33:48foundation. And I hope that our, it seems
- 33:51like our communities get along really well with each other.
- 33:54I saw some comments when before we went live and you know, and
- 33:58the people that I met from your community, like I said, when I
- 34:01was in Las Vegas, they were really just nice guys.
- 34:04If your cameraman, I won't say his names, maybe doesn't want to
- 34:07be, but you know, like you guys like really good, nice people.
- 34:10So I what I hope is that, you know, the good, good attracts
- 34:14good and that the good people stick together and that, you
- 34:18know, who knows how our communities, I mean, these
- 34:21communities most all the great things that have happened for
- 34:24UFD. You know, we had a billboard
- 34:27truck in Vegas. We've got a DJ Frankie, you got
- 34:29to come Friday night to our DJ are we have a DJ dance party.
- 34:34I'm going to ask him DJ Litmus to get you up there.
- 34:37I mean, it's like really cool. Thousands of people come to
- 34:39this. It's cool.
- 34:42Yeah, it's pretty neat. It's a UFD event.
- 34:44Yeah, it's every Friday night. It's a guy's name is DJ Litmus.
- 34:48I call him DJ Litmus. Then he says that's OK, but he's
- 34:52from Detroit, he's a pro DJ and he has it's on X and we've met
- 34:58as many. We usually lately we get two to
- 35:00three times. It's a virtual like rave dance
- 35:06party. But he like has a, he has a
- 35:08background where I sent him a picture of my basement like this
- 35:12picture without me in it. So he'll be down.
- 35:14He does all these different scenes and he he could get you
- 35:18dancing on the screen like a, like a virtual Frankie dancing
- 35:23on the screen. You know, if you're.
- 35:24If you're show me the details of you said Friday at every Friday
- 35:30at when? Pretty much every Friday night
- 35:32at like 8:00 or 9:00 Eastern. And I'll tell you what.
- 35:36I'll tell you what, Frankie, you know, look, you and I, we aren't
- 35:39like old friends from years and years, but but I, I, I, I have a
- 35:43very strong gut feeling and some in person experience that you're
- 35:48a good guy. DJ Litmus is a really, he's not
- 35:51only is he a good DJ, but he's just the nicest guy as well.
- 35:54So anyway. Yeah, I got to check it out
- 36:01regardless if I'm if I'm twerking in there or not to
- 36:05TuneIn. I think, I think, I think you
- 36:08get to twerk it. It's pretty cool.
- 36:10I'll send you a replay of like last weeks and you can zip
- 36:13through it and take a look. And I think our communities can
- 36:16work together, right. I mean, what I, where I was
- 36:18going and, and I know we're running short on time, but where
- 36:22I was going with all that was all the great things that have
- 36:25happened in UFD, the, the DJ, we've had a big just all kinds
- 36:30of stuff that's gone on NFT projects, all this stuff.
- 36:34None of it was my idea, OK. I mean, none of it was my idea,
- 36:38Frankie. So like the communities actually
- 36:41take on a life of their own. And I think that our communities
- 36:44can work together. I mean, I give my thumbs up to
- 36:47that because I'm sorry, unless I'm just really stupid, I just
- 36:52believe that you're a good a good person with good intentions
- 36:55with a long term view, with a long term view, right.
- 36:59And and I and I am convinced. Do you know what the Duster is?
- 37:02Our promo car. Have you seen the Duster?
- 37:06The Unicorn car? Yeah, I'm, I'm going to get
- 37:08that. But it's a small car.
- 37:11But I'm thinking that if we maybe Lube you up on the sides,
- 37:14we can squeeze the butt and get you in the Duster.
- 37:17Or maybe we'll leave one bun out the window.
- 37:21That'd be a spectacle for sure. Yeah, I got a we.
- 37:25We do have to plan some sort of community takeover or some sort
- 37:29of event, whether it be virtual or because when I when I hit 10
- 37:33million subscribers, I'm trying to have a huge party and I'll
- 37:37have it partially that coin themed too, which I don't know
- 37:42if that would be the. Well, we'll see once I get more
- 37:45towards it, I can start figuring out specifics of it.
- 37:47But yeah, I would love, I'm sure the community is they'll have
- 37:52all sorts of good and bad ideas when it comes to UFC yacht
- 37:58collaborations. Everybody thinks some funny
- 38:00speculation and and concepts and we, yeah, we did our our video
- 38:04in Vegas and you had the cool little feature inside of the,
- 38:07the people running behind me. And if you want those original
- 38:10clips, let me know. I can send those over to you
- 38:11because there's more on them. It's funny.
- 38:13You're looking at the chart that shot.
- 38:15We had to as, as you know, we were turning down so many things
- 38:19to the video we wanted to use because we were trying to make
- 38:21it under 30 seconds. No.
- 38:24And I and I. Fans to tell you.
- 38:26And that's on my list is I want to, you know, for all the
- 38:29viewers to hear as well. Like you were very generous
- 38:32including us in one of your videos.
- 38:35I mean, that's, you know, we appreciate that and it did not
- 38:38go unnoticed. So thank you.
- 38:41Yeah, if anything, you're doing me a favor.
- 38:43You're the You're the legend in the web free space, Ron.
- 38:48Yeah, right. World, we're just living in
- 38:49that. All right, what else?
- 38:52You know what not, and I'll tell you.
- 38:54I won't say it to you again, but if you want ideas for
- 38:57interesting videos, you do need to check out the City Museum
- 39:01here in Saint Louis, because I'm telling you the the big butt in
- 39:05in some of these things at the City Museum and seeing if you
- 39:08could fit through. I don't know.
- 39:09I I that's, that's I know as you're thinking of ideas, always
- 39:14keep that one in the back of your mind.
- 39:16Yeah, the the The thing is with with the museums or things of
- 39:22that nature are usually there's something going wrong, like
- 39:25tremendously wrong in my video that I'm falling through,
- 39:29crashing, I'm getting chased by cops.
- 39:31I'm right, great. Something's breaking or yeah,
- 39:37the first thing that comes to mind, the museum video is like
- 39:39an artifact. It's more of an amusement park.
- 39:45It's a like a it's like the world's biggest steampunk
- 39:50playground that was built by an artist, but it's for it's like,
- 39:53God, it's crazy. If you look, just look at it
- 39:56sometime and you'll you'll see what I mean.
- 40:02You know, the other thing that comes to mind for me, Frankie,
- 40:04when I think of your coin and going we, we got to find some
- 40:08connection between your butt and the moon, right, like a moon,
- 40:12like, you know, when you moon somebody like Frankie's yes,
- 40:14going to the moon. I'm trying.
- 40:16I'll, I'll, I'm trying to pull that one together in my mind.
- 40:20Yeah, I mean, there was one video that came to mind when we
- 40:24said that where I I was at like an airport lookout type area and
- 40:28the sun was setting just on the horizon.
- 40:31And we framed the video in a way where the camera zoomed in a
- 40:34bunch and then my butt looked like an eclipse eclipsing the
- 40:39sun. It could be like that but a a
- 40:42funny animation or a nighttime moon version.
- 40:47Somehow light the video in all that darkness and ask you a
- 40:51perfectly clear sky in a full moon.
- 40:53But. Yeah, well.
- 40:55That's yeah, I got to, I got to make it out to that because
- 40:59you're you live near the OR you're in Missouri also, you
- 41:02said, or Saint Louis. Yeah, Saint Louis.
- 41:04Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we could.
- 41:06I'll, I'll come up with some fun ideas, Frankie, OK.
- 41:09Yeah, if I have a bunch more time with you then we can make
- 41:12some serious videos. Oh, yeah, quick.
- 41:15We could make there's there's a there's some cool stuff in Saint
- 41:18Louis. You got time.
- 41:20I know you've been very generous with your time.
- 41:23You have time for one. I have a very hard question for
- 41:26you, but it may be a short, It may be a short answer.
- 41:31Is your is your mom still alive, Frankie?
- 41:34Correct. Yes.
- 41:35She is OK, so I want you to brag for a second.
- 41:39Let's say, let's say your mom's at lunch with her friends and
- 41:42all the mothers are bragging about their children.
- 41:46What would what would Frankie's mom say about Frankie?
- 41:50I think. I think she might already brag
- 41:54about me to her. Well, she tells me her friends
- 41:56always were saying to her how much they see the videos, love
- 41:59the videos, how big of a deal the videos are with.
- 42:04Maybe she'd brag about some of the celebrity collaborations
- 42:08that I've done with John Cena and Hulk Hogan.
- 42:12Or there's the big DJ Marshmallow, Jason Derülo, David
- 42:18Dobrik. I don't think she knows where
- 42:19that is. Who's, like the younger.
- 42:21It's a big deal to be to the younger people.
- 42:23Yeah, she'd probably brag and say how much money that I've
- 42:28made off of the video strap from doing the the paid partnerships
- 42:34with big corporations like the NFL.
- 42:38She would say he can't go out. He's he's like literally famous
- 42:44because he can't go out in public without people coming up
- 42:47to him and admiring him and taking pictures with him and
- 42:50saying how much they they love the videos.
- 42:52I think some of the videos do really help tell people and make
- 42:55them laugh and put them in a better mood or get them out of a
- 42:58crappy mood, you know, which is if that alone is enough to
- 43:04justify keeping it going, you know, she would say, I don't
- 43:12know. I tried to say as me, I don't
- 43:18think she would. She would say how I mean she she
- 43:25herself, she can give me input on each video when it comes out
- 43:28and say how much she liked it, what could have been better,
- 43:31what I could have altered to package it.
- 43:34Neither. I mean my biggest supporters are
- 43:39my parents and never at any point along like along the way.
- 43:43So what the heck you in stop that.
- 43:45It's silly. We were, we were on board all
- 43:50the time, which is huge because imagine, imagine if that was not
- 43:54the case and my own parents would tell me to stop that.
- 43:58And, and you know, I'm I want to throw in there as well.
- 44:01I'm in the same. I'm 55 years old, Frankie.
- 44:04OK, probably maybe old enough to be your dad.
- 44:06But anyway, my parents are in their 80s and you know, they're
- 44:13the same way. They're very cool.
- 44:15They're wonderful parents, but and I don't want to start
- 44:17crying. I'm a crier by the ways.
- 44:19I'm not going to cry everybody. But like they are very
- 44:22supportive, you know, and like their son, I was on the front
- 44:26page of the Saint Louis paper with Unicorn fart dust, you
- 44:29know, and I'm going to be, I'm driving around in a in a pink
- 44:32Unicorn car. And then they are 100%
- 44:36supportive, right? And that does make a difference.
- 44:38You know, that does that does that does make a difference.
- 44:42And I got a feeling that you're the product of some very good
- 44:45parents. So.
- 44:47Oh yeah, yeah, my dad's the greatest guy ever.
- 44:49I mean, when I was, it wasn't like I, I had picked up a camera
- 44:53for the first time and started making videos four years ago.
- 44:59I've been doing it since like 7th grade, 8th grade.
- 45:02So I was really young. So this social media journey
- 45:06wasn't concerning them nearly as much, probably because they had
- 45:09seen me obsessed with the camera and obsessed with the editing
- 45:13timeline and audio and lights and and everything in between
- 45:18for a long time. So it was like, you know, I just
- 45:21think maybe it was it was going to happen eventually, sooner or
- 45:25later, me getting into the social media realm, web 2 and
- 45:30making the fun silly videos. And yeah, yeah, my mom bought
- 45:34some of the yeah, she's been buying Gad coin.
- 45:36I set her up a a wallet and phantom and I think she's got
- 45:43she might have like one point something million tokens and she
- 45:47checks it. It's it's hilarious.
- 45:49She's my dad's 73, my parents are old.
- 45:54She's she's 60. She's she's a boomer with the
- 45:58with the main coin. Yeah, I'm going to have her buy
- 46:01UFD next. Yeah, that's right.
- 46:03Come on, Missus Lapina, we would love to have you in our
- 46:06community, but don't get rid of any.
- 46:08Don't get rid of any yet. And John Cena, right?
- 46:12We, we, he's very popular in our community and he actually
- 46:15followed some of our people. And what a great guy.
- 46:18What a great guy. Yeah, but he's a great guy,
- 46:22isn't? He he is the number one most
- 46:29make a wish, kids. What do you call that?
- 46:35Yeah, Donator. Number one, most make a wish
- 46:39like freaking hundreds or I think thousands of of kids and
- 46:43he's went and visited and spent time on his schedule to do which
- 46:47is, I mean, right there. So that's that's crazy.
- 46:51So he was, he's following some of the UFD.
- 46:55Yeah, he was. Interacting with.
- 46:57Them a little bit yeah, I don't want to overplay it but I think
- 46:59he followed me and then he followed some of the UFD
- 47:02community and everybody got all excited you know and I I
- 47:07honestly I guess I'm too out of it that I I had to research who
- 47:11he was and then when I researched and learned like what
- 47:14you said that this guy's like a super good quality generous
- 47:18person we got we got real excited so thanks.
- 47:23Frankie Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, do you have any closing
- 47:28thoughts? I don't know how I don't have to
- 47:29do the streams. This is it, we're done.
- 47:32You got a flight to catch. I want to, I want to say on
- 47:34behalf of our viewers, because we've got right now almost 1000
- 47:39people watching us live, but this will get watched thousands
- 47:42of times on replay mode. Thank you.
- 47:45OK, I forgot to say that earlier.
- 47:47Not just me, but there's always that 3rd, 4th and five
- 47:51thousandth, 50 thousandth person that's watching.
- 47:54I think, you know, you've been very generous, some great
- 47:57insights. It's been a lot of fun to have
- 47:59you on here. Did I forget to ask you anything
- 48:02you want to plug any of your socials or anything like that?
- 48:05Frankie, go ahead. Covered everything.
- 48:08I don't. I don't need to plug any of the
- 48:09socials. I got too many.
- 48:11I already have too many, I don't need any more followers except
- 48:14for X Maybe follow me on X Frankie under score Lapenna,
- 48:18Frankie under score LAPENNA Which is I should probably
- 48:24change that to Yat coin. It would have to be under review
- 48:29for like days. If you try to change the
- 48:32username it's the whole thing. But I guess I guess it is still
- 48:35me, my face and butt tied to it. But then the enter of the act
- 48:40page is yat coin, so maybe it's confusing.
- 48:43I was, I I was just thinking you may have the most recognizable
- 48:47butt in the world, Frankie. Amongst other.
- 48:50Amongst other. Yeah.
- 48:51Well, the Kardashians. Oh, right, I'm sure.
- 48:55But they don't have like a, they don't wear one outfit.
- 48:58You know what I mean? It's like I've read that khaki
- 49:00outfit where it's there's no way to misidentify it.
- 49:03Every time it's like the Superman case or Batman outfit.
- 49:07It's every time it's he appears he's insane.
- 49:12Which, Speaking of, I need to buy more of them.
- 49:14So yours you're you are, you're the most recognizable butt in
- 49:18the world. So make make sure misses Lapena
- 49:21knows that when she's bragging about you next time, according
- 49:24to according to Ron's basement. All right, brother, I look
- 49:28forward to seeing you again in person and continued, you know,
- 49:32collaboration, working together, friendship, whatever between our
- 49:36between our coming. You're coming on my stream next
- 49:40I'll I'll I'll coordinate it with you.
- 49:42Thank you. All right, buddy.
- 49:43See you later, Frankie. See you later.
- 49:45Thank you.