Are you ready for the Web 3.0 and Metaverse takeover? (feat Nichol Bradford)

Jun 28, 2022

Ready or not, web 3.0 is upon us. With it brings a new network of virtual worlds focused on social connection.

So, how will this change the way we do business and how can we, as leaders, prepare ourselves?

Nichol Bradford is co-founder and executive director of Transformative Tech, the largest and most respected authority on well-being technologies. Her organization spans 72 countries, 450 cities, and their events attract thousands of attendees. They are committed to reducing depression, burnout and anxiety, that so many feel with the rise of technology in our lives. Nichol speaks extensively on human transformation, transformative tech, the future of health work and human excellence.

In this episode, Nichol guides us through what executives and entrepreneurs need to know about the metaverse and the web 3.0 as they become more prominent in our lives.

Nichol believes that to build deep tech, we have to be deeply human. The best tech meets us where we are and helps us move forward and rise to the daily challenges. To create that kind of tech, Nicole believes we need to let go of the egos that drive us and instead rediscover our deeply human skills. Included among those are adaptability, emotional and social intelligence, and creating safe environments where people are willing to take risks. Bringing all these traits to the table when building tech will create the kind of software and programs that benefit humanity vs. worsening the human condition.

Deep tech can only be created when we are deeply human.

The Power of Twinning: Build Your Brand and Test Your Market Capabilities

Nichol talks about the concept of “the stack” to understand the Metaverse:

The physical layer

Where real products and services reside and are created in our physical world. Real human input is given. Nichol describes it as where all the molecules are. A helpful analogy is comparing this first physical layer to your heartbeat is the physical level.

The transformative, augmented layer

This layer builds upon the first. It takes those physical elements and translates them into a digital language. Continuing with the analogy: if you have a heart rate monitor on, this layer is taking your physical heartbeat and turning it into a digital signal that you see on the screen.

The fully digital layer

This final layer completes the stack. This is where your physical products, once transformed, arrive in the metaverse. They have become the digital twin of the physical product. Nichol uses the example of 23andme DNA samples. If that is something you’ve done, you have a digital twin in the metaverse. You are absolutely you, but there is a digital twin of your genetic material in the 23andme database.

“The Stack” in action

Anheuser Busch uses digital twinning to model changes in production technique: everything from how the wheat and barley grow, to harvesting, to when the trucks go to brew facilities, to the fermentation process, all the way through bottling and distribution. This model can take you from the harvest in the ground to product purchasing and provide data points along the way. This happens all without you needing to physically be present, because the twin – the data – resides in the metaverse.

Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear

Nichol warns us how easy it is to miss what’s happening right before us. “What leaders are missing is how quickly these things are happening because it seems far away . . . until it kicks in and then when it kicks in, the changes happen almost overnight.”

“I think one of the things that’s really challenging about innovation is it’s really hard, in most cases, to stand at the trailhead and know what will happen.” – Nichol Bradford