0:42AHe -- they stressed that you need to get in it. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but when someone says something is coming Yeah, it actually tweaks my brain to say, oh, let me find out what it is, because I was not -- I don’t want to get caught behind it. I want to get caught in front of it.
1:00BYeah, you want to catch the wave.
1:01AYeah, I want to be in front of it.
1:02BYou don’t want to get crushed by it.
1:03AExactly. So I -- and they were having an event here. This was in 2014.
1:14BOkay, you were at the first one.
1:17A2014.
1:18BYeah, that was the first Blockchain Summit.
1:19ANo. Oh really?
1:20BYeah, yeah, it’s -- this is the 7th one. It’s 2024.
1:22AIs that 7 years?
1:23BNo, it’s 2017. You said 2014?
1:25A14.
1:25BOkay, so you read something different.
1:27AI don’t know what it was, but they said Howard University. I thought I had the correct information, said the Black Blockchain Center, but for some reason I, I couldn’t find it. So I was like, oh well. And I was caregiving for my parents. So I just said, well, I’ll -- at some point I’ll get more information and be able to move forward and, and see what this is all about and possibly become a part of it.
1:53BYeah.
1:55ASo some years went by and you hear it here and there, here, here and there. And, um, so I would say about around 19 -- 2019. Um, seems like I saw it on the internet. You don’t start seeing it in the, you know, advertisements. Yeah, yeah, yeah, on the internet. So I was like, okay, and I, I really didn’t do anything. So around 2020, it was more and more. I saw these people making, you know, trading and Talking about it and, you know, making money.
2:39BYeah.
2:40AMaking money. And it was just Bitcoin basically that I was observing. So I started trying to study it, and the more I studied, the more I got into it. Then I realized, you know, there were more stock -- more cryptocurrencies that I can invest in. Than just Bitcoin. Yeah, yeah, than Bitcoin. So once I started, um, You know, observing and watching and doing a little research, not a whole lot because it just, it was just totally foreign.
3:10BMm-hmm.
3:12AAnd then, uh, we’d have the rumors about the fiat dollar was going to be changed into some cryptocurrency for our trading, you know, like gold was changed into the dollar. And so I actually was just interested in, in knowing what it was all about and how I could fit in.
3:37BYeah, that makes sense. And how have you found that you fit in? Because that’s the -- that’s -- I think that’s a very advanced question for crypto. I feel like it’s very easy to be like, you know, like, how can I make money here? And not like, how do I fit in? You know, what’s my role? I think how do I fit in, what’s my role, is a very like poignant question to ask as someone that’s trying to figure out like, how do you Maintaining -- how do you become engaged in the space in a proactive way?
3:58AYeah, and it wasn’t so much about the money, it was more about the technology for me. I, you know, when I see something, I don’t just like, oh, this money I, I got. I have to know. I, I’m, I’m a detailed person. I need to know what, what is this? What is this? What is this doing? So anyway, um, so I was kind of, you know, like taking, you know, getting information, looking into it. Didn’t know many people to talk to about it. I found someone that I knew a long time ago and he was telling me different things and he really was doing -- he wasn’t really doing crypto, he was Trading stocks and his son was mining. That was in 2020. So I said, well, which one could you tell? I need someone’s -- I wanted to collaborate with someone. Didn’t have anybody.
4:54BYou want peers?
4:55AYeah, didn’t have no one, didn’t know anybody except for him. He was tied up, so I just used the internet to actually engage and try and learn. So that I could apply myself to the technology. And it was like very foreign. It was, it was, it was, it was, it was, uh, how was it? It was a serious challenge just to try and figure out where to start.
5:26BYeah.
5:27AThat was a big problem. Where do I start? And then when I started it with this point, then I realized there’s something, there’s another level I have to go to. Then there’s another level. Then I -- and it took me a few years to actually connect the dots.
5:44BYeah. And so what would you say is like your knowledge base now that you operate from?
5:49AWell, um, as far as understand -- I understand, I understand the, the technology. I understand it. I understand trading.
6:01BUh, do you trade?
6:03AUh, some. Just a little bit.
6:05BYou’re trading more than me. I don’t trade.
6:06AWell, I’m wanting -- I’m -- what I’m doing is the more you learn, the more you know, find out you don’t know, you need to learn. So I’m taking my time. I’m taking incy-wincy bits, incy-wincy baby steps, because I don’t want to lose money. You know, you can get in and get into it and become a gambler and lose. And everyone tells you You’re gonna lose a lot of money in the beginning, but you have to have patience. You have to do research. You need to actually have mentorship. You really need mentorship.
6:47BAbsolutely.
6:48AUh, and so the patience I have, and I, I, you know, it took a -- it was challenging to learn all the different, um, nuances of of understanding how the stock market and crypto functions.
7:06BYou mean in relationship to one another, or just overall as 2 separate entities?
7:10AWell, they actually aren’t too separate, but they engage -- they, uh, feed off -- one feeds off the other. So like Bitcoin, Bitcoin go down, the stock market’s gonna go down because in I don’t know how it really connects. I can’t explain it. I’ll say I kind of know, but they all interact together. It’s currency. Yeah, it’s dealing with data and currency. It’s just different, um, different sectors. You have different sectors. Uh, yeah, yeah, we have different -- all these different platforms.
7:45BAnd so what do you think is most interesting now about the technology, now that you kind of -- you said you’re trying to figure out like what was your --
7:51Alike how did you get --
7:52Bwhat did you say exactly?
7:54AWell, what I think is more interesting now is that you can make money. You can be financially more literate.
8:09BMm-hmm.
8:13AYou are more secure. I feel you could be more secure. I really do, for as far as what they are saying about the economy.
8:20BMm-hmm.
8:21AAnd how it’s gonna change and, and how it will affect us. So I feel a little more financially secure because I can see the transition and also the, um, the merging of the, that technology into our economic mainstream for trading.
8:39BMm-hmm.
8:40AOpposed to using, um, the, you know, the, uh, fiat dollar. I’m a terrible interviewer.
8:47BSay what?
8:48AI said I’m a terrible interviewer.
8:50BNo, you’re perfect.
8:51AIt’s not --
8:51BI guess it’s not even a formal interview, you know.
8:53AOkay, you’re just gonna look at it. You might take some snips and stuff and --
8:56BYeah, I mean, I might post the whole thing, you know, as like an NFT. Um, maybe they’re going -- maybe I’ll probably show my great aunt. But it’s just like, you know, it’s important. It’s representation, you know. I guess, yes, people like, who’s in that space? Like, they think of white dudes and, you know, so it’s like, you know, you’re not a white dude. No, you’re not a white dude.
9:11AIt’s not. I mean, I learned from No, I learned from -- I learned from young people, 20s. The first person that was impressed, most impressive to me, he was at the time, it was in 2021, he was 30. He was 30.
9:26BMm-hmm.
9:27AHe was a retired school teacher, looked like a little kid, but he was so knowledgeable, you know, he presented so professionally and accurately, and he, he was, he was eager For to teach and share what he had, what he knew with everyone. He even has a university. He created a university online, and I joined his Discord for -- I paid like $5 a month, and I could study and learn. I learned a lot from him. Don’t go there in that space. And he had --
9:58BHe was leading the classes? He was talking?
10:00AHe gave a whole, a presentation, uh, training on how to trade crypto.
10:06BOh, that’s awesome.
10:07AFrom A to Z. And so, I mean, it’s a little more, but the basics that you need to know to actually get started. But it was in-depth. It really was.
10:20BYeah.
10:20ANow, it’s for high -- for me to be a little older. So it was like, so I went on and did it, you know, and life happened. I got off for a bit, but I’ve been back on and I, I’m with the group. Uh, yeah, and I follow young people now. I really do. I follow them up. Most of them are younger. There’s a few older ones, but the younger ones, they’re, they’re more laid back. They’re not so business-minded, you know. They, they just want you to learn. There are a few of them and very few in between, and I’ve just been blessed to have been able to find them because there’s so many people on the internet.
10:59BYeah.
10:59AAnd, um, and I followed them and I joined their Discord and I, I joined their I listen to all of this, you know, when they post something, it pops up, I check it out. I attend their weekly webinar twice a week with one of them. The first one I was telling about, twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, we get together from 9 until about 10:30, until 11, and we’re trading. He’s trading, he’s showing us. Everything. And, and he’s like a mentor. He’s like 30 -- now he’s 33, I think. And, but he’s so -- I’ve watched him mature, grow, and develop, making like a lot of money. Very modest person, you know. And he wants us to know, he wants us to know what it is to trade crypto and stocks.
11:54BMm-hmm.
11:55AThey talk about stocks as well. So you get a good lesson. I, I went to Charles Schwab, and I, I follow them, take classes with them online.
12:05BMm-hmm.
12:06AVery good classes. The whole issue is we weren’t -- we haven’t been taught. It’s an -- it’s almost like going to kindergarten and grad -- and from grade to grade to grade. That’s what it’s like. It’s really not that simple unless some people can catch on very fast. They have the time. They’re not distracted and they could just whiz into it. But not -- and, and I don’t -- I wouldn’t say it’s quite that easy. If you’re very astute and fast learner and all, you still gonna take time.
12:39BYeah.
12:40AIt will take time. And, um, yeah, so I, I don’t even know that many older people. I brought 4 people here today.
12:47BYou brought 4 people?
12:49AThe lady I was talking with, that I heard, and, uh, 2 people that left, and there’s one more still in there. And like, one of them, she might be maybe older than me, then one of them around my age. That girl is 30, and the one in there is like 50-something. So, you know.
13:05BYeah, that’s my friend I brought. He’s 31.
13:08AYeah, and you want to -- I wish I could bring everyone. Yeah, but you know, when they’re ready, they’ll, they’ll come.
13:16BWell, that’s why, you know, the videos make their way to them. They don’t have to make their way to us.
13:20AYes.
13:20BThat’s kind of my goal. It really is to be helping Black people become first adopters of this technology.
13:24AYes.
13:25BAnd like you’re saying, somebody on the last panel, he said, you know, crypto is -- blockchain is revolutionary technology, is like, uh, you know, presented as a casino. And I’m like, yeah, you know, like people do focus a lot on like all the money, but there’s like insane like infrastructure which is innovative and disruptive to like the systems that oppress us every day.
13:41AYeah.
13:41BYou know, right here, our governance in America is not transparent. You know, we’re talking about election fraud and we have tools literally, yeah, to solve the problem. We’re not using it.
13:49AYou’re right.
13:50BAnd we’re just arguing, right?
13:51AAnd they’re trying to prevent it. They don’t want it to be used because they know there’s more transparency there.
13:56BYeah. And then all of a sudden politics is more transparent, politics is less easy to monopolize.
14:00AExactly.
14:01BYeah. So, you know, I think this is such an awesome space. I’m so excited to meet you and see you again. Your full name one more time?
14:06AWanda.
14:07BWanda?
14:07AYes.
14:08BAnd I’m curious, like, what’s your professional background? Like, like, what has your, um,
14:11ASales and marketing. I started as a salesperson. I was about 4 years old. My grandmother had a store in DC, and she would carry -- she’d come take me with her. Then she had a vending stand at the market in DC, 6th Street Market. I was a little kid there. Um, I started my first business, which was a vending business, which was the first vending business on the streets of this DC.
14:43BReally?
14:44AI’ve been mostly an entrepreneur.
14:46BYeah.
14:46AMostly I’ve done marketing, sales. I went into the theater. I went into the theater for a while as I was kind of developing myself, my children, and my business. Went into cosmetology. Uh, teacher on down ownership, um, real estate.
15:15BThat’s incredible.
15:16AIt’s been a journey.
15:18BYeah, it sounds like you’ve had a lot of different chapters, a lot of different lives.
15:22AYes, I have. And I took off some years to take care of my parents.
15:25BI did hear that. I heard you mention that.
15:26AAnd that was, um, after it was over. I had not realized what I had done. I took a portion of my life and just Dedicated to them and sacrificed myself and a lot of things that I didn’t do during that period of years, but I would never change it for the world. I’m so happy I was able to do it. I mean, it’s something that is very humbling, but I, I, I, I wouldn’t change it for the world. So I’ve done the whole gamut. Children, grandchildren, parents, took care of them all. Now it’s all about me.
16:05BAs it should be. It’s your time to shine.
16:07ASo I’m enjoying myself. I really am. So I’m actually in my second life. This is my -- not my second, I’ve had several lives, but one of those lives that’s, um, yeah.
16:19BYou’re in a new chapter.
16:20AYou could say that. You can say a new chapter. And I’m gonna write my book too.
16:24BOh yeah?
16:25AI am one.
16:26BIt’s gonna be a memoir or something different?
16:29ANo, probably, um, probably a memoir and then other books.
16:34BAnd I thought you are a writer.
16:36AI can. I have enough of a content.
16:40BSo you do write?
16:41AI can write. I’ve written before. I write things down, but not necessarily, uh, for other people. Yeah, no, I’ve done it before. I’ve written. I used to write a little bit and people, I saw your post. Oh, that was fantastic. You know, but I don’t do a lot of it, but I plan to at some point.
17:04BMm-hmm.
17:05AYeah, I have to practice, get my -- get everything together and then I can go for it. But yeah, I really encourage all, and that’s another thing. I may -- I’m probably going to be teaching it.
17:22BTeaching what?
17:23AThe stocks and crypto.
17:25BOkay.
17:25AI’ll be teaching, yeah, from a basic level.
17:28BYou gonna start teaching it?
17:29AI will eventually, yeah. Anything I know, I always teach people. I, I don’t keep it to myself. I have to teach it. So right now I’m involved --
17:37Bsome --
17:38AI’ve got myself involved in a community center that’s developing.
17:42BHere in DC?
17:43AYeah.
17:43BOkay, what’s that called?
17:45AI’m not sure.
17:46BOkay.
17:47ABecause I just developed it. I’ve been volunteering. That young lady, she, she would know. I don’t think -- I’m not sure if they named it yet, but it’s in Southeast Washington.
17:56BOkay.
17:57ADC. And, um, I’ve already been supporting them in different ways, like volunteering time and little resources. And bringing people to them that can support what they’re doing as well. And I find a lot of the people already know the director, and they didn’t even -- just a couple people didn’t know he was doing it. So a few people were on the panel. So yeah, yeah, I mean, I still have another whole chapter to go. A few chapters. I’m not gonna say one.
18:34BA few more chapters.
18:35AYeah, sure.
18:37BYou should. Yes, thank you.
18:40AExcuse me.
18:42BIt’s okay.
18:43AJust some lemon, some, um, cordyceps mushrooms, and some ginseng and lime.
18:51BOkay, staying healthy.
18:52AWell water -- no, not well, spring water from the rocks.
18:56BNot recycled from, from plastic.
18:58AYeah, yeah, I go down way somewhere and get my -- take my bottles and Stick it up under this pipe where all the spring water comes down.
19:05BThat’s cool. My mom does that sometimes in Philly. At least she used to. I don’t know if she still does.
19:08AOh really? Yeah, best water.
19:10BBut I think that’s incredible, you know. I, I don’t think that I’ve told you completely about my project, but, you know, I was sharing that my commitment is really to promoting grassroots adoption of blockchain technology in Black communities such that we can be first adopters, not just, you know, consumers of this tech, but really like people using it to design our own futures as opposed to having our futures, you know, designed for us, which is normally the case. And I’m really excited to be coming to this conference. This is, as far as I know, the only Black organized conference in the crypto space in North America.
19:38AYeah.
19:38BAnd I’ve gone to 10+ different crypto conferences. I’m like very engaged. And with my podcast, I’ve actually done 60+ different interviews and more than 40 with different Black people in the crypto space, mostly men. So I’m trying to get more balance there. So I’m excited to have you on my podcast.
19:52AOh, I’m, I’m happy that you Actually, I hope it, you know, turns out well and people can grasp something from it.
20:00BYeah, I think it’s just about having touch points, you know. Like, I want people to look at crypto and see people that they trust. I want them to look at people and hear their stories and not just see like, oh, like, stories of I made money, but this is what I learned, this is what excited me, these people would help me on my journey. Because it is intimidating, like you said. It’s like, where do I even start, you know? Like, I wouldn’t have gotten in this space if it weren’t for my roommate at the time who was like Deep in it after the after the pandemic, you know. He’s coming in to be my roommate and being like, “Oh, I’ve been looking at all this crypto stuff. My finance internship was trash compared to this.” And I’m like, “Okay, like you in it.” He’s up sixty thousand dollars. Said, “Oh, how you up sixty thousand dollars?” Oh, he’s up sixty.
20:35AOh, I think they lost.
20:36BYeah. Tell me everything.
20:38ARight, right, right, right.
20:39BI had to graduate school at the end of this year, and I won sixty K. That’s right, that’s right.
20:45AAnd if you it’s consistent. Consistency and getting with the right, you know, people, mentors, and people that you, you can learn from people on the internet.
20:56BAbsolutely.
20:57AYou know, if you join them.
20:58BYeah, and I was going to ask, I guess, what -- like, it’s kind of to close out the conversation -- like, what is -- what has been like your favorite part of this last year looking at the crypto space or tech space? Like, what’s standing out to you? Like, what do you -- what’s your next thing you want to learn about, the next thing you want to be involved with?
21:14AWell, I want to do more, um, Skyping. Scalping. I said Skyping. Scalping.
21:22BWhat does that mean?
21:23AThat means that you’re doing trades within a day. Like, you, you’re putting in a trade, you’re putting a timer on it, stop at loss, and you win or you, you know, you win or you, you, uh, trade, continue to trade, and you can stop loss.
21:41BYeah, you gotta join our Discord too.
21:43AOh yeah, what is your Discord doing?
21:46BUh, I mean, so like we’re a community of people kind of thinking about how we can be building We Them Media as a DAO, but also You know, like, as I’m documenting Black people in the crypto space, uh, really just aspiring to be building like a nexus, you know, a place people can connect, be in conversation, discover each other, play positive-sum games, you know, wherever.
22:05AGames?
22:05BPositive-sum games, you know, so like doing something that’s mutually beneficial, like, yes, connecting with those with whom you can, you know, play mutually beneficial games essentially, or, you know, initiatives.
22:14AYeah.
22:15BAnd so that’s kind of the premise, just like building community and getting people Connected. Like you said, when we were together in conversation, we could learn together.
22:21ALike, yes.
22:22BSo even if people don’t know what I’m up to or how it makes sense, they can come and ask questions, and you can hear from 6 people who have different answers to your question, as opposed to maybe just asking me as an individual on the street.
22:30AOh, okay.
22:31BAnd so it’s supposed to be like a space to be in community, other Black people in the space around the world.
22:36AYeah, sharing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
22:38BHolding space.
22:39AYeah, a holding space.
22:41BYeah, we are holding space for one another.
22:43AYes, yes, yes, yes.
