June 21, 2024 • 33 mins
Lani Dizon has over 30 years of experience in business expertise, notably co-founded Zenza Capital and the pioneering RYO Project, Japan's first Layer-One Blockchain. This Web3 platform includes a digital wallet, a crypto-friendly e-commerce platform, and a Crypto ATM Network, aiming to simplify cryptocurrency adoption for the masses.
Did we lose you? No worries, tune in for an information packed but relatable show on the future of digital currency and why we women should be getting involved.
Connect with Lani:
Like the show? Be sure to Like, Subscribe, Review and Share! Interested in being a part of WEE? Reach out to our group liaison, Kelli@WomenExcellingEverywhere.com
Did we lose you? No worries, tune in for an information packed but relatable show on the future of digital currency and why we women should be getting involved.
Connect with Lani:
Like the show? Be sure to Like, Subscribe, Review and Share! Interested in being a part of WEE? Reach out to our group liaison, Kelli@WomenExcellingEverywhere.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Welcome everyone to the Women Excelling EverywherePodcast. I am Julie Anderson, your
hostess, and I am so happyto be here with another wonderful interview with
a dynamic woman who is on theedge of some amazing things going on across
upon the other way calling in fromJapan, and I am so excited to
(00:31):
have Lonnie des On here. Lonnie, welcome to the Women Expelling Everywhere Podcast.
Thank you so much. It's areal pleasure to be here. I
am. I am really excited.Not only is I'm excited to hear your
story of how you got involved inthe crypto verse and everything that's behind that,
(00:51):
and then just get to know youa little bit better. But first
I'm going to give the audience youryou know, your professional introduction, so
everyone can hear that part of it. You have thirty years more than thirty
years of business expertise, notably cofounded of a Zigna Capital and the pioneering
(01:11):
Rio project, Japan's first layer oneblockchain, and this web three platform includes
a digital wallet, crypto friendly ecommerce platform, and crypto ATM network,
aiming to simplify your cryptocurrency adoption.Adoption for the masses Now, don't everybody
listening, don't just you know,leave because it's all you think, it's
(01:34):
all about cryptocurrency, because it's not. That's just the business that she has
formed. But we're going to getto know how she really just how she
got into this business, because asI mentioned before we started the recording,
this is not the crypto verse,is not necessarily something that is. Let's
just say, men outnumber women quitea bit, so it'll be interesting as
(01:59):
well as just to hear your backgroundover thirty years in the business industry.
So let's just get started once again. Welcome Lonnie to the show, and
tell me about your background and yourexperience, because if I understand correctly,
you actually started in the wellness industry, so what you're doing now is very
(02:21):
different than what you were doing inthe beginning. So tell me about your
experience in the wellness industry and howthat career led you into the real project.
Yeah, so it all started whenI was really twelve years old because
there was a tragedy in my life. My father. He passed away at
(02:43):
the young age of forty three yearsold and I was only twelve at the
time, so that, you know, was such a tragedy in my life
and my family's life, and soit led me to medicine. And so
at the early age of sixteen yearsold, I started going to different medical
(03:05):
trainings and started going to nursing school, and then never thought that I'd be
out of the medical field. Thenit suddenly took a turn and I became
an entrepreneur and I started sharing naturalnutrition, which really changed my life and
I started getting really fulfilled because itwas when I was in the medical field
(03:30):
I noticed that a lot of itwas just based on pharmaceuticals and you couldn't
really do much to help the individual, whereas with natural nutrition, I could
do things to help prevent illness.And so that really changed my life in
many ways through personal development self confidence. I learned to share and not to
(03:53):
sell because I was really anti selling. I never looked at myself as a
as a salesperson. I really dedicatedmy life to empowering and giving to others
because of how the industry had changedmy life. I was focused, of
course on everybody, but with aspecial focus on young the young generation as
(04:15):
well as women. And then Ieventually, with all of that experience that
I gained, created my own companyand started developing my own skin care,
wellness products, nutritional products with scientistsand formulators. And throughout this time I
had learned how to build strong teamsand learned global marketing and consulting, and
(04:41):
created point systems, reward systems,and so my ultimate goal throughout my journey,
initially for my thirty years, wasto help people achieve wellness, mind
and body health. And so whatI did is I encouraged people to look
great, feel great, be greatthrough these platforms that I created, and
(05:04):
to live a life with no limits, which means like to have a healthy
mindset. And that is what Ipersonally lived by every single day. And
so I helped create so many hundredsof thousands of global testimonials where people were
achieving better health, wealth and wellbeing, which was really inspiring for me.
(05:27):
It was very self fulfilling for thirtyyears. But wellness it will always
be my passion. But I wasintroduced to bitcoin in twenty eleven and I
became very fascinated. It was veryclear to me that crypto would be the
next evolution of money and blockchain andWeb three would be the next evolution of
(05:53):
the Internet, and that it wouldspawn limitless opportunities and advancements. And I'm
a believer of crypto, but Ialso faced reality that there's so many barriers
to mass adoption. And the biggestchallenges that we see is from a customer
perspective. There's confusing technology, confusingprocesses. When I first got involved,
(06:20):
it was so complicated to get awallet, it was so difficult to buy
cryptocurrency bitcoin, and there was alack of stores that accept crypto. So
there's a lack of day to dayusability and these are all barriers to mass
adoption. So cryptocurrency was supposed tobe a peer to peer digital currency,
(06:44):
but instead it's turned into more ofa digital gold. And so there's so
much talk about the technology which createscomplication, but in reality, people need
convenience, People need ease of use. Just like the Internet over thirty years
ago. It wasn't until hotmail camealong in nineteen ninety six, you know
(07:05):
that people started. You know,it created an easy platform for people to
be able to use email. ThenFacebook came along and then more adapt mass
adoption because it allowed people to geton the Internet and communicate, and from
the young generation to the older generation, people wanted to get on and it
(07:29):
was an easy platform where people couldcould get on communicate and so, you
know, it's all about convenience andnot complication. But the question is,
why are we trying to learn allthis technology? Just like Visa and Venmo
and PayPal, we don't need tounderstand the underlying technology in order to you
(07:51):
know, use Apple products or touse Visa, So why are we trying
to do that with cryptocurrency. Andso what we're doing is we're focusing on
the average person's needs. And sowhat we did is we assembled a dedicated
team. I never thought that Iwould get into cryptocurrency or a blockchain or
the technology field. Again, Ialways thought I was going to be in
(08:15):
the medical field, but we knewhow vast this industry would become. And
so we created this team and startedin Japan with the main foundation of building
this technology but for the average person. This sparked our vision of creating Zenza
(08:37):
Capitals, creation of what we callthe Rio project to take the mystery,
the mystery and complication out of cryptocurrencyand start utilizing it for simple transactions for
day to day life. And sothat's what we've been passionately doing since twenty
seventeen. That's really cool that youwere able to see. So you were
(09:01):
working in your earlier career on bringinghealth to the masses and doing that global
that global growth in that, andyou're using that experience now to bring something
else very very I feel, veryimportant out into I love the idea of
(09:24):
making it more usable because when Italk to even my husband, you know,
when I talk about, oh,you know bitcoin's doing this, or
Ethereum's doing that, or you know, I'll mention a different coin, or
I'll mention the wallet, or I'llmention you know, and he's like,
if anything happens to you, Icertainly hope you're going to leave instructions on
I get to all this because itis it's very very foreign to him,
(09:46):
and it's foreign to a lot ofpeople. There are many people that don't
understand even what a blockchain is,or what bitcoin is, or how it
all works, or why there's somuch potential for a few your investment and
development. So I love the factthat you are developing something through the rio
coin or that project surrounding that thatis going to make that an easier thing
(10:11):
for people to access and to understandbecause there is there's so much confusion and
in reality, there's huge potential forinvestments and using this as part of your
I'm not going to say put allyour eggs in one basket by any needs,
but you know, a financial investmentfor financial security in the future.
(10:31):
And as I mentioned at the beginning, I think it's something that is is
very pertinent, especially for women toI think in general in working with women
and coaching women, a lot ofwomen don't have They have a basic financial
literacy, but they don't get involvedin the investment set as much as their
male counterparts. So I think that'sI think that's very valuable. Now I
(10:58):
understand that you want it to beused for the you know, for the
the masses. Make it easy forpeople to understand what are some of the
challenges that you've come up and inyour entrepreneurial career, whether it was back
when you were in the World Streetor now as you're in the crypto university
building the the real coin or realin general, is it? I keep
(11:24):
calling it a coin, but that'sprobably because of the banner behind you.
Is it an is it a projectthat you call the real project? Real
coin? Was developed as a digitalpayment system, and so Rio is the
cryptocurrency, and then we have thereal project because it's so much bigger than
just a cryptocurrency. We do.We are working on our Layer one blockchain
(11:46):
and we also are the first Webthree payment platform launching from Japan to simplify
the use of crypto through an ecosystemthat's familiar for everyone to use and understand.
So our real ecosystem comprises of aneasy to navigate digital wallet, the
(12:07):
first of its kind crypto friendly globalmall e commerce platform, and the first
Crypto ATM network in Japan, andso it's all designed to be to create
simplicity for people to onboard. Soimagine, you know, you go to
a Crypto ATM and you buy crypto, it goes to your life wallet and
(12:31):
then you immediately go shopping on theGlobal Mall, or you could take any
order you know of that go tothe Global mall first and helps you create
a life wallet, and so itall integrates together very seamlessly. But Rio
is a digital payment system, andwhat we're doing is we're uniting consumers and
(12:52):
merchants and people to be able toparticipate in this crypto new crypto economy would
trust and confident as a legitimate andsafe method of payment and store of value
that is regulator friendly. And wepromote privacy, but not anonymous, but
privacy. And so you mentioned challenges. Some of the challenges that we've been
(13:18):
experiencing is that over the past thirtyyears, you know, we've been building
relationships in Japan and across Asia,and so we've Japan has this wonderful culture
built on respect and honor and consumerdemands protection and a lot of Japan is
(13:43):
about convenience, and so there's alot of consumer demands here in Japan,
consumer and consumer protection. So it'sdifficult operating a business in Japan, whether
it be the wellness industry or thecrypto industry. Just as a foreigner alone,
it's very difficult. And in fact, Japan is one of the few
(14:05):
countries where a lot of people stilldon't speak English. And so it so
thirty years ago when I first cameto Japan, a lot of people didn't
speak English. I had to relyon a lot of translators. And although
I've been here in Japan for overthirty years, I still don't speak Japanese,
which is a pretty remarkable that I'vebeen able to build successful business.
(14:30):
Yeah, so it's very tough tomeet expectations, and that is one of
the biggest challenges that we've come acrossbecause high quality competition, consumer protection laws,
strictest regulations, and so Japan missedthe opportunity for the Internet thirty years
(14:54):
ago, and so now they reallywant to lead away with Web three and
cryptocurrency. They don't want to missthis chance, and so they have taken
a very innovative approach with their regulatoryprocess. The FSA has created a unique
approach by forming this organization kind oflike the DSA you know. In Japan,
(15:18):
it's called the JVCEA, the JapanVirtual Currency Exchange Association, and it's
a board that comprises of top executivesof each exchange here and they implement very
strict requirements and monitoring. So alot of companies have tried to come into
(15:39):
Japan and they can't even pass thefirst step of the screening process. So
that's one of the difficulties. Andan example of Japan's controlled approach is that
there used to be over twenty thousandglobal coins crypto coins. Now it's down
to about fourteen thousand because there's alot of dead and delisted coins out there.
(16:03):
Listen on the Global Exchange those scoins exactly exactly. But with Japan's
stringent regulations, there's only three dozenabout three dozen coins in Japan that are
approved and listed on exchange in exchanges, and so this highlights Japan's commitment to
fostering a very responsible environment. Andso some of the milestones that we have
(16:30):
achieved here in Japan with the Rioproject is successfully navigating through Japan's stringent regulations
and so that that has equipped uswith the resilience and ensuring long term stability
as we expand globally. Also,we have created the first of its kind
(16:52):
ecosystem with what I mentioned with thelife while at the Global Mall, the
crypto ATM network at all seamlessly,you know, work together. Another feat
that we've created is that you know, across the world there's over sixty thousand
crypto ATMs, but here in Japanthere isn't any. And so we we
(17:17):
through our exchange partner, Exchange,have the first license to build out a
crypto ATM network and so that isa very unique approach to crypto awareness.
And so you know, here inJapan. It's going to be very simple
because ATMs are available everywhere, onevery single block, in every post office,
(17:41):
in every convenience store, and sopeople are going to be able to
just go to crypto ATM and purchaseand so what. And so through the
FSA, they have honored that withlimited KYC. We've got around some certain
regulations through a lot of innovations thatwe've done here in Japan, and so
(18:04):
that's going to really help with,you know, building out this community.
And another feat that we've done iswe've take very took a very different approach
in explaining cryptocurrency and blockchain in avery simplified way. What I did is
(18:26):
I took my entrepreneurial experience, andI took the best elements of face to
face interaction and conducted educational seminars acrossJapan. And so we have really helped
over one hundred thousand people here inJapan, men, women of all ages
(18:47):
and professions and backgrounds to understand theimportance of cryptocurrency and blockchain and how it's
going to benefit people. And oneof the hardest demographics is the elder community,
right from the middle age suit theelderly community, but we have actually
tackled that and so when you lookat our website, you'll see that we've
(19:11):
got a lot of middle age anda lot of elderly that are involved and
that have attended these educational seminars,so that as well as uh, you
know, people are now embracing thisproject. We we this project has actually
been very confidential for the past sevenyears as we were building it. It
(19:32):
wasn't until the beginning of this yearthat we were told by our advisors,
our governmental advisors here in Japan,it's fine to go in and start really
you know, leaking some of thisproject from the global market, all English.
And so yeah, we've been we'vebeen a big secret in the crystal
(19:53):
space. So with this, withyour journey, because obviously you've done a
lot of research, you have builtyour team and you, I mean,
you can tell you're a powerful leader. How has how has this helped women
specifically, you know, keeping inthe in the topic of women excelling everywhere?
(20:14):
How is this particular project or yourjourney helping going to help women globally?
And what advice do you have forwomen entrepreneurs that are listening to you?
Going Wow, that's like, that'sso much like I could never even
I but you've done it and yourproof you know, your proof of work,
(20:36):
right is there? So what whatadvice would you give to women,
not just not necessarily on cryptocurrency specificallyor how to get involved with cryptocurrency specifically,
but as entrepreneurs, as entrepreneurs,you know, what advice would you
give female entrepreneurs to have the tenacitythat you did to push through you know?
(21:00):
Yeah, So on the first partof the question about how my entrepreneur
journey has helped women is over thepast thirty years, you know, I
have been really focused on women's groupsand providing women opportunity, extra support.
(21:21):
We've been empowering each other, especiallyin Japan over thirty years ago. Right,
I mean this is a this isa country where way back decades ago,
women walked behind the men, youknow. And so yeah, so
we, especially here in Japan,women really needed that support. And so
(21:41):
I've created platforms for entrepreneurial success,and actually my entrepreneurial platforms as a majority
has really helped women tremendously. Nowon the crypto side, the normal demographic
in crypto is usually younger, majorityyounger generation, majority males, but through
(22:07):
our education we've made an impact onall generations, but especially the mid the
mid to elderly groups, especially womenwho want to be part of their children's
future, their grandchildren's future, andfuture generations. And so I'm I'm very
passionate about about everybody, but especiallywomen, the unbanked, the underbanked,
(22:34):
and I'm very much an advocate forwomen in crypto. Women are very much
a major part part of our project, and being a part of something really
helps to magnify their identity. Thewomen that are involved with us are very
inspired, They feel a great senseof worth, and many of them see
(22:59):
this as second chance in life actuallybecause a lot of them are fifty and
above. And it's been a veryfun atmosphere where people are getting together and
becoming confident and independent in the cryptospace. So my advice the second part
of the question. As far asmy advice, I would say, the
(23:19):
fundamentals to my success has been tohave a healthy mindset, to embrace a
life with no limits and stay intruth to authenticity, So I would I
would my advice would be the samething for entrepreneurs women entrepreneurs is maintain a
(23:40):
healthy mindset. It's important that youstay resilient. There's going to be roadblocks
in whatever you do, whether it'san entrepreneur, the crypto industry, whatever
industry you're in, whatever you doin your daily life, there's going to
be roadblocks. So with any challenge, there is a solution. So you
owe always have to look past achallenge with forward thinking and you'll always find
(24:03):
a solution. And when you findthat solution, work backwards. It's important
to have the right attitude and thatwill help you to navigate rather than to
dwell on the past and dwell onfuture doubts and fears. So stay away
from that and stay away from negativity, which I feel I've always said is
(24:27):
that the biggest virus in the worldis negativity because it doesn't matter where you
know. You don't have to bein front of somebody. You could be
across the world and spread that negativitythrough just a phone call and they tell
you yeah. And So another thingis living a life with no limits.
(24:48):
And what that means to me islooking beyond perceived limitations, understanding the barriers,
the blockages that are that are stoppingyou from moving forward, and when
you do find what you want todo, never give up. Remember the
(25:08):
core reason that motivated you to dowhat you're doing now, that is your
why, and stay true to that, you know, no matter what.
And unless you find out that you'renot happy doing with what you're doing,
you know, and you need toshift to something that really does fulfill you,
really stick to it, you know, and don't and don't try to
(25:32):
look at when you look at yourtarget. Don't try to look at it
like oh my gosh, and beoverwhelmed. What matters is consistency doing things
step by step. And as you'redoing things, you've got to believe in
yourself. You've got to believe inyour mission and believe in your your product,
whatever product it is that you have, Know your strengths, know your
(25:55):
talents, and stay focused on thattarget. And I always say it's like
a marathon, you know, whenyou're in the Olympics and you're running that
marathon, you've got to stay focusedon that target, on that finish line,
you know, and try to avoidthe distractions that come in between.
So, and the other thing,like I mentioned, is genuine intentions.
(26:18):
You know, stay true to genuineintentions in everything that you do. What
the biggest thing that helped me throughoutmy entrepreneurial career is taking the focus off
of money. Money doesn't mean anythingto me anymore. It's all about helping
people. And because the amount ofmoney that you make is a report card
(26:44):
of how well you've helped people.And so that is how I've always looked
at at it is focus on thepeople first. The money will follow.
And the last part of the advicethat I would say is enjoy the process.
And I offense exactly and as women, listen to your intuition, stay
(27:07):
tued to your core, do whatmakes you happy, do what makes what
feels right to you, and enjoythe process. I love it. I
love it. Okay, we arerunning out of time. Tell us how
people can stay connected with you andor get involved if they want to know
more about the real project or thereal coin. How can they stay connected
(27:30):
with you, Lonnie? Yeah,okay. And so it is Zensa Capital,
and so Zensa Capital it has createdthis real coin project. And so
what we are doing is we're reallypreparing passionately for a global exchange offering that's
going to be coming up, andwe're going to be at making more announcements
(27:52):
about that. But in the meantime, we've created the world's first cryptoconvertible bond
with that is SEC compliant and sopeople can get involved with this cryptoconvertible bond
and it allows you to obtain RIOat the lowest available price and to and
when, and with this convertible bond, you get either Rio tokens or equity
(28:18):
during at the conversion event and youcan also earn a two percent interest in
the meantime. But so people canget involved with that by going to Rio
bond dot com. That's r YOb o n d dot com. But
also we are going to be participatingin the largest crypto and blockchain conference in
(28:42):
Toronto and it's called the Blockchain FuturistConference, and so that's on August thirteen
and fourteen, and we're going tobe the official title sponsor. So we'd
love for you know, people tojoin us there. It's going to be
a very fun and informative event.And one thing I didn't want to mention
is you know, regarding women.Uh this is this is such a important
(29:06):
platform for people for for women tobe involved with in the crypto industry and
there is a lot of onboarding uhhappening with women across the world. The
engagement is is very quickly increasing.So I encourage women, you know,
to get involved in in cryptocurrency becauseit does help us with independence, uh
(29:32):
and and financial empowerment. But howto get a hold of us is I'd
love for people to go to ourwebsite realcoin dot com. That's r y
O C O I N dot com. Also on Twitter and Telegram, our
handle is at real Digital and we'realso on YouTube, so you could just
(29:56):
look up official Reo Digital on thereand then just stay aware and subscribe to
us. Because as we roll outwith all the parts of our ecosystem,
our life wallet, our global mall, which is gonna help not only Japan,
but people from around the world,people in America, Asia, Europe.
You know, as we roll upwith this information, you'll you'll be
(30:18):
the first to find out, youknow, about about what we're doing.
So on our website, what I'dlove you for everyone to do is go
to realcoin dot com and at thevery top there's a there's a video,
and this video is just a veryshort three and a half minute, three
and a half minute video that explainseverything that we're doing in this project,
(30:41):
and you'll see that it's so simpleif you feel intimidated about crypto. With
the real Coin project, we're allabout bringing it to the masses and make
it so making it so simple,so you don't have to think about crypto.
You can use it as simple asyou do Visa and MasterCard. Nice.
I like it. I like it. We will definitely for everyone listening
(31:04):
or watching, we will put allof those links in the show notes and
so everyone can go check that outand stay in touch with all of the
exciting things happening with Lonnie and hercompany moving forward. So thank you so
much Lennie for bringing this in bringingthis topic to the Women Excelling Everywhere program,
(31:26):
I think it's something like I saidin the beginning, it's definitely cryptocurrency
is something that women need to startpaying a little bit more attention to.
I think there's a lot of alot of future there. So thank you
again for being here and for allof those awesome and for all of those
watching and listening stay in touch withWomen Excelling Everywhere. Our website is now
(31:48):
completely revaunped. We have the WomenExcelling Everywhere dot com. You can become
a member in the membership directory andcross link over to your website or wherever
you want to cross to by beinga member featured on the site, and
that gives you all kinds of perks. All that information is on the site
for a very small amount every year, lots of different things that you can
(32:08):
get involved with and benefits you canhave. You can also join our Women
Excelling Everywhere private community, which isall about helping you excel wherever you are
at. That's our whole goal.You may be starting in an entrepreneurial endeavor,
you may be twenty years into anentrepreneurial endeavor. Either way, you
(32:29):
might need that extra support. Youmay not be an entrepreneur at all.
You may be a mom just raisingkids and need a little bit extra support
and advice. We cover all kindsof topics from talk self improvement, goal
setting and achieving, how to dealwith difficult people, mindset, brain healths,
a brain lady, you know I'mgoing to bring that in, and
then of course entrepreneurial topics in thereas well, and career development topics.
(32:53):
So be sure to take a lookat that. All of that information is
at Women Excelling Everywhere dot com ortwo, follow us, join us on
Instagram, join us on our website, and as I like to, we
will wrap up this program now,as I like to remind everyone to take
a nice deep breath in, rollthose shoulders back, go out there and
(33:15):
simply enjoy every moment until next time.
Welcome everyone to the Women Excelling EverywherePodcast. I am Julie Anderson, your
hostess, and I am so happyto be here with another wonderful interview with
a dynamic woman who is on theedge of some amazing things going on across
upon the other way calling in fromJapan, and I am so excited to
(00:31):
have Lonnie des On here. Lonnie, welcome to the Women Expelling Everywhere Podcast.
Thank you so much. It's areal pleasure to be here. I
am. I am really excited.Not only is I'm excited to hear your
story of how you got involved inthe crypto verse and everything that's behind that,
(00:51):
and then just get to know youa little bit better. But first
I'm going to give the audience youryou know, your professional introduction, so
everyone can hear that part of it. You have thirty years more than thirty
years of business expertise, notably cofounded of a Zigna Capital and the pioneering
(01:11):
Rio project, Japan's first layer oneblockchain, and this web three platform includes
a digital wallet, crypto friendly ecommerce platform, and crypto ATM network,
aiming to simplify your cryptocurrency adoption.Adoption for the masses Now, don't everybody
listening, don't just you know,leave because it's all you think, it's
(01:34):
all about cryptocurrency, because it's not. That's just the business that she has
formed. But we're going to getto know how she really just how she
got into this business, because asI mentioned before we started the recording,
this is not the crypto verse,is not necessarily something that is. Let's
just say, men outnumber women quitea bit, so it'll be interesting as
(01:59):
well as just to hear your backgroundover thirty years in the business industry.
So let's just get started once again. Welcome Lonnie to the show, and
tell me about your background and yourexperience, because if I understand correctly,
you actually started in the wellness industry, so what you're doing now is very
(02:21):
different than what you were doing inthe beginning. So tell me about your
experience in the wellness industry and howthat career led you into the real project.
Yeah, so it all started whenI was really twelve years old because
there was a tragedy in my life. My father. He passed away at
(02:43):
the young age of forty three yearsold and I was only twelve at the
time, so that, you know, was such a tragedy in my life
and my family's life, and soit led me to medicine. And so
at the early age of sixteen yearsold, I started going to different medical
(03:05):
trainings and started going to nursing school, and then never thought that I'd be
out of the medical field. Thenit suddenly took a turn and I became
an entrepreneur and I started sharing naturalnutrition, which really changed my life and
I started getting really fulfilled because itwas when I was in the medical field
(03:30):
I noticed that a lot of itwas just based on pharmaceuticals and you couldn't
really do much to help the individual, whereas with natural nutrition, I could
do things to help prevent illness.And so that really changed my life in
many ways through personal development self confidence. I learned to share and not to
(03:53):
sell because I was really anti selling. I never looked at myself as a
as a salesperson. I really dedicatedmy life to empowering and giving to others
because of how the industry had changedmy life. I was focused, of
course on everybody, but with aspecial focus on young the young generation as
(04:15):
well as women. And then Ieventually, with all of that experience that
I gained, created my own companyand started developing my own skin care,
wellness products, nutritional products with scientistsand formulators. And throughout this time I
had learned how to build strong teamsand learned global marketing and consulting, and
(04:41):
created point systems, reward systems,and so my ultimate goal throughout my journey,
initially for my thirty years, wasto help people achieve wellness, mind
and body health. And so whatI did is I encouraged people to look
great, feel great, be greatthrough these platforms that I created, and
(05:04):
to live a life with no limits, which means like to have a healthy
mindset. And that is what Ipersonally lived by every single day. And
so I helped create so many hundredsof thousands of global testimonials where people were
achieving better health, wealth and wellbeing, which was really inspiring for me.
(05:27):
It was very self fulfilling for thirtyyears. But wellness it will always
be my passion. But I wasintroduced to bitcoin in twenty eleven and I
became very fascinated. It was veryclear to me that crypto would be the
next evolution of money and blockchain andWeb three would be the next evolution of
(05:53):
the Internet, and that it wouldspawn limitless opportunities and advancements. And I'm
a believer of crypto, but Ialso faced reality that there's so many barriers
to mass adoption. And the biggestchallenges that we see is from a customer
perspective. There's confusing technology, confusingprocesses. When I first got involved,
(06:20):
it was so complicated to get awallet, it was so difficult to buy
cryptocurrency bitcoin, and there was alack of stores that accept crypto. So
there's a lack of day to dayusability and these are all barriers to mass
adoption. So cryptocurrency was supposed tobe a peer to peer digital currency,
(06:44):
but instead it's turned into more ofa digital gold. And so there's so
much talk about the technology which createscomplication, but in reality, people need
convenience, People need ease of use. Just like the Internet over thirty years
ago. It wasn't until hotmail camealong in nineteen ninety six, you know
(07:05):
that people started. You know,it created an easy platform for people to
be able to use email. ThenFacebook came along and then more adapt mass
adoption because it allowed people to geton the Internet and communicate, and from
the young generation to the older generation, people wanted to get on and it
(07:29):
was an easy platform where people couldcould get on communicate and so, you
know, it's all about convenience andnot complication. But the question is,
why are we trying to learn allthis technology? Just like Visa and Venmo
and PayPal, we don't need tounderstand the underlying technology in order to you
(07:51):
know, use Apple products or touse Visa, So why are we trying
to do that with cryptocurrency. Andso what we're doing is we're focusing on
the average person's needs. And sowhat we did is we assembled a dedicated
team. I never thought that Iwould get into cryptocurrency or a blockchain or
the technology field. Again, Ialways thought I was going to be in
(08:15):
the medical field, but we knewhow vast this industry would become. And
so we created this team and startedin Japan with the main foundation of building
this technology but for the average person. This sparked our vision of creating Zenza
(08:37):
Capitals, creation of what we callthe Rio project to take the mystery,
the mystery and complication out of cryptocurrencyand start utilizing it for simple transactions for
day to day life. And sothat's what we've been passionately doing since twenty
seventeen. That's really cool that youwere able to see. So you were
(09:01):
working in your earlier career on bringinghealth to the masses and doing that global
that global growth in that, andyou're using that experience now to bring something
else very very I feel, veryimportant out into I love the idea of
(09:24):
making it more usable because when Italk to even my husband, you know,
when I talk about, oh,you know bitcoin's doing this, or
Ethereum's doing that, or you know, I'll mention a different coin, or
I'll mention the wallet, or I'llmention you know, and he's like,
if anything happens to you, Icertainly hope you're going to leave instructions on
I get to all this because itis it's very very foreign to him,
(09:46):
and it's foreign to a lot ofpeople. There are many people that don't
understand even what a blockchain is,or what bitcoin is, or how it
all works, or why there's somuch potential for a few your investment and
development. So I love the factthat you are developing something through the rio
coin or that project surrounding that thatis going to make that an easier thing
(10:11):
for people to access and to understandbecause there is there's so much confusion and
in reality, there's huge potential forinvestments and using this as part of your
I'm not going to say put allyour eggs in one basket by any needs,
but you know, a financial investmentfor financial security in the future.
(10:31):
And as I mentioned at the beginning, I think it's something that is is
very pertinent, especially for women toI think in general in working with women
and coaching women, a lot ofwomen don't have They have a basic financial
literacy, but they don't get involvedin the investment set as much as their
male counterparts. So I think that'sI think that's very valuable. Now I
(10:58):
understand that you want it to beused for the you know, for the
the masses. Make it easy forpeople to understand what are some of the
challenges that you've come up and inyour entrepreneurial career, whether it was back
when you were in the World Streetor now as you're in the crypto university
building the the real coin or realin general, is it? I keep
(11:24):
calling it a coin, but that'sprobably because of the banner behind you.
Is it an is it a projectthat you call the real project? Real
coin? Was developed as a digitalpayment system, and so Rio is the
cryptocurrency, and then we have thereal project because it's so much bigger than
just a cryptocurrency. We do.We are working on our Layer one blockchain
(11:46):
and we also are the first Webthree payment platform launching from Japan to simplify
the use of crypto through an ecosystemthat's familiar for everyone to use and understand.
So our real ecosystem comprises of aneasy to navigate digital wallet, the
(12:07):
first of its kind crypto friendly globalmall e commerce platform, and the first
Crypto ATM network in Japan, andso it's all designed to be to create
simplicity for people to onboard. Soimagine, you know, you go to
a Crypto ATM and you buy crypto, it goes to your life wallet and
(12:31):
then you immediately go shopping on theGlobal Mall, or you could take any
order you know of that go tothe Global mall first and helps you create
a life wallet, and so itall integrates together very seamlessly. But Rio
is a digital payment system, andwhat we're doing is we're uniting consumers and
(12:52):
merchants and people to be able toparticipate in this crypto new crypto economy would
trust and confident as a legitimate andsafe method of payment and store of value
that is regulator friendly. And wepromote privacy, but not anonymous, but
privacy. And so you mentioned challenges. Some of the challenges that we've been
(13:18):
experiencing is that over the past thirtyyears, you know, we've been building
relationships in Japan and across Asia,and so we've Japan has this wonderful culture
built on respect and honor and consumerdemands protection and a lot of Japan is
(13:43):
about convenience, and so there's alot of consumer demands here in Japan,
consumer and consumer protection. So it'sdifficult operating a business in Japan, whether
it be the wellness industry or thecrypto industry. Just as a foreigner alone,
it's very difficult. And in fact, Japan is one of the few
(14:05):
countries where a lot of people stilldon't speak English. And so it so
thirty years ago when I first cameto Japan, a lot of people didn't
speak English. I had to relyon a lot of translators. And although
I've been here in Japan for overthirty years, I still don't speak Japanese,
which is a pretty remarkable that I'vebeen able to build successful business.
(14:30):
Yeah, so it's very tough tomeet expectations, and that is one of
the biggest challenges that we've come acrossbecause high quality competition, consumer protection laws,
strictest regulations, and so Japan missedthe opportunity for the Internet thirty years
(14:54):
ago, and so now they reallywant to lead away with Web three and
cryptocurrency. They don't want to missthis chance, and so they have taken
a very innovative approach with their regulatoryprocess. The FSA has created a unique
approach by forming this organization kind oflike the DSA you know. In Japan,
(15:18):
it's called the JVCEA, the JapanVirtual Currency Exchange Association, and it's
a board that comprises of top executivesof each exchange here and they implement very
strict requirements and monitoring. So alot of companies have tried to come into
(15:39):
Japan and they can't even pass thefirst step of the screening process. So
that's one of the difficulties. Andan example of Japan's controlled approach is that
there used to be over twenty thousandglobal coins crypto coins. Now it's down
to about fourteen thousand because there's alot of dead and delisted coins out there.
(16:03):
Listen on the Global Exchange those scoins exactly exactly. But with Japan's
stringent regulations, there's only three dozenabout three dozen coins in Japan that are
approved and listed on exchange in exchanges, and so this highlights Japan's commitment to
fostering a very responsible environment. Andso some of the milestones that we have
(16:30):
achieved here in Japan with the Rioproject is successfully navigating through Japan's stringent regulations
and so that that has equipped uswith the resilience and ensuring long term stability
as we expand globally. Also,we have created the first of its kind
(16:52):
ecosystem with what I mentioned with thelife while at the Global Mall, the
crypto ATM network at all seamlessly,you know, work together. Another feat
that we've created is that you know, across the world there's over sixty thousand
crypto ATMs, but here in Japanthere isn't any. And so we we
(17:17):
through our exchange partner, Exchange,have the first license to build out a
crypto ATM network and so that isa very unique approach to crypto awareness.
And so you know, here inJapan. It's going to be very simple
because ATMs are available everywhere, onevery single block, in every post office,
(17:41):
in every convenience store, and sopeople are going to be able to
just go to crypto ATM and purchaseand so what. And so through the
FSA, they have honored that withlimited KYC. We've got around some certain
regulations through a lot of innovations thatwe've done here in Japan, and so
(18:04):
that's going to really help with,you know, building out this community.
And another feat that we've done iswe've take very took a very different approach
in explaining cryptocurrency and blockchain in avery simplified way. What I did is
(18:26):
I took my entrepreneurial experience, andI took the best elements of face to
face interaction and conducted educational seminars acrossJapan. And so we have really helped
over one hundred thousand people here inJapan, men, women of all ages
(18:47):
and professions and backgrounds to understand theimportance of cryptocurrency and blockchain and how it's
going to benefit people. And oneof the hardest demographics is the elder community,
right from the middle age suit theelderly community, but we have actually
tackled that and so when you lookat our website, you'll see that we've
(19:11):
got a lot of middle age anda lot of elderly that are involved and
that have attended these educational seminars,so that as well as uh, you
know, people are now embracing thisproject. We we this project has actually
been very confidential for the past sevenyears as we were building it. It
(19:32):
wasn't until the beginning of this yearthat we were told by our advisors,
our governmental advisors here in Japan,it's fine to go in and start really
you know, leaking some of thisproject from the global market, all English.
And so yeah, we've been we'vebeen a big secret in the crystal
(19:53):
space. So with this, withyour journey, because obviously you've done a
lot of research, you have builtyour team and you, I mean,
you can tell you're a powerful leader. How has how has this helped women
specifically, you know, keeping inthe in the topic of women excelling everywhere?
(20:14):
How is this particular project or yourjourney helping going to help women globally?
And what advice do you have forwomen entrepreneurs that are listening to you?
Going Wow, that's like, that'sso much like I could never even
I but you've done it and yourproof you know, your proof of work,
(20:36):
right is there? So what whatadvice would you give to women,
not just not necessarily on cryptocurrency specificallyor how to get involved with cryptocurrency specifically,
but as entrepreneurs, as entrepreneurs,you know, what advice would you
give female entrepreneurs to have the tenacitythat you did to push through you know?
(21:00):
Yeah, So on the first partof the question about how my entrepreneur
journey has helped women is over thepast thirty years, you know, I
have been really focused on women's groupsand providing women opportunity, extra support.
(21:21):
We've been empowering each other, especiallyin Japan over thirty years ago. Right,
I mean this is a this isa country where way back decades ago,
women walked behind the men, youknow. And so yeah, so
we, especially here in Japan,women really needed that support. And so
(21:41):
I've created platforms for entrepreneurial success,and actually my entrepreneurial platforms as a majority
has really helped women tremendously. Nowon the crypto side, the normal demographic
in crypto is usually younger, majorityyounger generation, majority males, but through
(22:07):
our education we've made an impact onall generations, but especially the mid the
mid to elderly groups, especially womenwho want to be part of their children's
future, their grandchildren's future, andfuture generations. And so I'm I'm very
passionate about about everybody, but especiallywomen, the unbanked, the underbanked,
(22:34):
and I'm very much an advocate forwomen in crypto. Women are very much
a major part part of our project, and being a part of something really
helps to magnify their identity. Thewomen that are involved with us are very
inspired, They feel a great senseof worth, and many of them see
(22:59):
this as second chance in life actuallybecause a lot of them are fifty and
above. And it's been a veryfun atmosphere where people are getting together and
becoming confident and independent in the cryptospace. So my advice the second part
of the question. As far asmy advice, I would say, the
(23:19):
fundamentals to my success has been tohave a healthy mindset, to embrace a
life with no limits and stay intruth to authenticity, So I would I
would my advice would be the samething for entrepreneurs women entrepreneurs is maintain a
(23:40):
healthy mindset. It's important that youstay resilient. There's going to be roadblocks
in whatever you do, whether it'san entrepreneur, the crypto industry, whatever
industry you're in, whatever you doin your daily life, there's going to
be roadblocks. So with any challenge, there is a solution. So you
owe always have to look past achallenge with forward thinking and you'll always find
(24:03):
a solution. And when you findthat solution, work backwards. It's important
to have the right attitude and thatwill help you to navigate rather than to
dwell on the past and dwell onfuture doubts and fears. So stay away
from that and stay away from negativity, which I feel I've always said is
(24:27):
that the biggest virus in the worldis negativity because it doesn't matter where you
know. You don't have to bein front of somebody. You could be
across the world and spread that negativitythrough just a phone call and they tell
you yeah. And So another thingis living a life with no limits.
(24:48):
And what that means to me islooking beyond perceived limitations, understanding the barriers,
the blockages that are that are stoppingyou from moving forward, and when
you do find what you want todo, never give up. Remember the
(25:08):
core reason that motivated you to dowhat you're doing now, that is your
why, and stay true to that, you know, no matter what.
And unless you find out that you'renot happy doing with what you're doing,
you know, and you need toshift to something that really does fulfill you,
really stick to it, you know, and don't and don't try to
(25:32):
look at when you look at yourtarget. Don't try to look at it
like oh my gosh, and beoverwhelmed. What matters is consistency doing things
step by step. And as you'redoing things, you've got to believe in
yourself. You've got to believe inyour mission and believe in your your product,
whatever product it is that you have, Know your strengths, know your
(25:55):
talents, and stay focused on thattarget. And I always say it's like
a marathon, you know, whenyou're in the Olympics and you're running that
marathon, you've got to stay focusedon that target, on that finish line,
you know, and try to avoidthe distractions that come in between.
So, and the other thing,like I mentioned, is genuine intentions.
(26:18):
You know, stay true to genuineintentions in everything that you do. What
the biggest thing that helped me throughoutmy entrepreneurial career is taking the focus off
of money. Money doesn't mean anythingto me anymore. It's all about helping
people. And because the amount ofmoney that you make is a report card
(26:44):
of how well you've helped people.And so that is how I've always looked
at at it is focus on thepeople first. The money will follow.
And the last part of the advicethat I would say is enjoy the process.
And I offense exactly and as women, listen to your intuition, stay
(27:07):
tued to your core, do whatmakes you happy, do what makes what
feels right to you, and enjoythe process. I love it. I
love it. Okay, we arerunning out of time. Tell us how
people can stay connected with you andor get involved if they want to know
more about the real project or thereal coin. How can they stay connected
(27:30):
with you, Lonnie? Yeah,okay. And so it is Zensa Capital,
and so Zensa Capital it has createdthis real coin project. And so
what we are doing is we're reallypreparing passionately for a global exchange offering that's
going to be coming up, andwe're going to be at making more announcements
(27:52):
about that. But in the meantime, we've created the world's first cryptoconvertible bond
with that is SEC compliant and sopeople can get involved with this cryptoconvertible bond
and it allows you to obtain RIOat the lowest available price and to and
when, and with this convertible bond, you get either Rio tokens or equity
(28:18):
during at the conversion event and youcan also earn a two percent interest in
the meantime. But so people canget involved with that by going to Rio
bond dot com. That's r YOb o n d dot com. But
also we are going to be participatingin the largest crypto and blockchain conference in
(28:42):
Toronto and it's called the Blockchain FuturistConference, and so that's on August thirteen
and fourteen, and we're going tobe the official title sponsor. So we'd
love for you know, people tojoin us there. It's going to be
a very fun and informative event.And one thing I didn't want to mention
is you know, regarding women.Uh this is this is such a important
(29:06):
platform for people for for women tobe involved with in the crypto industry and
there is a lot of onboarding uhhappening with women across the world. The
engagement is is very quickly increasing.So I encourage women, you know,
to get involved in in cryptocurrency becauseit does help us with independence, uh
(29:32):
and and financial empowerment. But howto get a hold of us is I'd
love for people to go to ourwebsite realcoin dot com. That's r y
O C O I N dot com. Also on Twitter and Telegram, our
handle is at real Digital and we'realso on YouTube, so you could just
(29:56):
look up official Reo Digital on thereand then just stay aware and subscribe to
us. Because as we roll outwith all the parts of our ecosystem,
our life wallet, our global mall, which is gonna help not only Japan,
but people from around the world,people in America, Asia, Europe.
You know, as we roll upwith this information, you'll you'll be
(30:18):
the first to find out, youknow, about about what we're doing.
So on our website, what I'dlove you for everyone to do is go
to realcoin dot com and at thevery top there's a there's a video,
and this video is just a veryshort three and a half minute, three
and a half minute video that explainseverything that we're doing in this project,
(30:41):
and you'll see that it's so simpleif you feel intimidated about crypto. With
the real Coin project, we're allabout bringing it to the masses and make
it so making it so simple,so you don't have to think about crypto.
You can use it as simple asyou do Visa and MasterCard. Nice.
I like it. I like it. We will definitely for everyone listening
(31:04):
or watching, we will put allof those links in the show notes and
so everyone can go check that outand stay in touch with all of the
exciting things happening with Lonnie and hercompany moving forward. So thank you so
much Lennie for bringing this in bringingthis topic to the Women Excelling Everywhere program,
(31:26):
I think it's something like I saidin the beginning, it's definitely cryptocurrency
is something that women need to startpaying a little bit more attention to.
I think there's a lot of alot of future there. So thank you
again for being here and for allof those awesome and for all of those
watching and listening stay in touch withWomen Excelling Everywhere. Our website is now
(31:48):
completely revaunped. We have the WomenExcelling Everywhere dot com. You can become
a member in the membership directory andcross link over to your website or wherever
you want to cross to by beinga member featured on the site, and
that gives you all kinds of perks. All that information is on the site
for a very small amount every year, lots of different things that you can
(32:08):
get involved with and benefits you canhave. You can also join our Women
Excelling Everywhere private community, which isall about helping you excel wherever you are
at. That's our whole goal.You may be starting in an entrepreneurial endeavor,
you may be twenty years into anentrepreneurial endeavor. Either way, you
(32:29):
might need that extra support. Youmay not be an entrepreneur at all.
You may be a mom just raisingkids and need a little bit extra support
and advice. We cover all kindsof topics from talk self improvement, goal
setting and achieving, how to dealwith difficult people, mindset, brain healths,
a brain lady, you know I'mgoing to bring that in, and
then of course entrepreneurial topics in thereas well, and career development topics.
(32:53):
So be sure to take a lookat that. All of that information is
at Women Excelling Everywhere dot com ortwo, follow us, join us on
Instagram, join us on our website, and as I like to, we
will wrap up this program now,as I like to remind everyone to take
a nice deep breath in, rollthose shoulders back, go out there and
(33:15):
simply enjoy every moment until next time.
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