This time around we are talking to Michelle McCormack — founder and creative director at Fierce Studios. Michelle started her career as a fashion photographer working for to fashion brands in NYC, she pivoted, learned to code, and became a top digital marketing working for such brands as Uber and Red Bull. In 2017 she began speaking on panels about cryptocurrency, writing crypto articles for the NY Observe, and launched Casting Coin, an online booking platform that connects brands directly with fashion models.
Chris: Fierce Models will rule the metaverse this March. What were the first ideas that led you to develop these models as an NFT collection?
Michelle: I wrote a white paper in 2017 called Casting Coin that tokenized the booking experience for fashion models. Realizing I was too early, I pivoted and built a centralized platform for booking talent. Currently, we have thousands of models and when NFTs became popular I saw a great opportunity for our models to leverage NFTs for exposure and revenue.
Chris: Fierce comprises an all-women team. How did you guys come together? Also, please introduce the team and how they have contributed to fabricating Fierce NFTs?
Michelle: Michelle McCormack and Peg Samuel are the founders of Fierce Studios. They met back in 2017 because they were both deeply involved in the crypto space. Michelle brings her creative vision including an eye for fashion and her experience as a community builder and business owner. Peg brings her decades of experience working in the tech industry and her experience as a writer and business owner. She is also highly influential in the social media space.
Chris: On the other hand, you have been working on the token for quite sometime before the official release. Please share some of the marketing initiatives taken by the team to make this token well known in the NFT space.
Michelle: Building brand partnerships was our main marketing focus pre-launch and continue post launch. After launch, we began growing our Discord and Twitter communities - both of which are very strong and passionate right now. We are speaking at all of the most prestigious conferences including VeeCon, ETH Denver, and NFT NYC.
Chris: There are 10K NFTs designed from 10 models. What are the distinct traits that make each NFT unique?
Michelle: Cutting edge fashion is the overall aesthetic. A small % of the collection have "easter eggs" styles that nod to iconic Hollywood and fashion. Every trait was poured over to be highly stylized all on its own which makes the random generations, a success. Not one mint happens that do not love.
Chris: Again, the minting process has quite a few physical giveaways. What all are those?
Michelle: "Trait Giveaways" are a big part of our utility. We partners with major brands to create challenges and giveaways to our holders based on traits. For example, in February the global flower service FDT partnered with us to offer 3 holders with NFTs with roses in the afros 2 dozen roses delivered to their door. We have at least 2 such trait giveaways per month.
Chris: So, when do the tokens go live for sale? What will be the minting cost of one Fierce NFT including gas?
Michelle: Minting is live! Cost is 0.07. We have the cheapest gas around - everyones says it. Our dev Golden X is a genius and optimized our smart contracts to be much more efficient. Gas is usually around $8. That's why it is cheaper to mint a Fierce than buy on Opensea since gas is much higher on OS.
Chris: Finally, what are your plans for the future? How will Fierce NFTs evolve after the public sale?
Michelle: We have big plans for the metaverse. We already built a photo studio and signed a lease to move into Indie Village and exclusive neighborhood in Decentraland where our neighbors will be famous music venues and celebrities. We are already throwing weekly day parties is Cryptovoxels. We have even designed 5 wearables based on our traits that we have dropped to our holders. We are forging major brand partnerships with our wearables as well as more trait giveaways. We are speaking at VeeCon, Miami NFT Week, and NFT NYC. We are throwing in person events at the conferences and inviting our Fierce models
