Changing The Story With Lana Dingwall

I believe that ​​our education systems and how our society is structured traps us. We are taught to fit within a mold so that we are ‘employable’ and can hopefully find a job that allows us enough pay to live comfortably and gives us a few weeks off a year. ⁣   ⁣ Yet inflation is skyrocketing, the cost of living is outrageous and people feel disconnected from things that genuinely make them come alive. ⁣ ⁣ We need change. ⁣   I know for many of you reading this, you feel that way too as entrepreneurship is about taking a step away from all of that.  ⁣ For almost a year now I have been exploring blockchain technology (crypto) and web3. ⁣ ⁣ There are many things that overlap with my passions and curiosities. Entrepreneurship, sovereignty, community care, innovation, philosophy, and more. ⁣ ⁣ Like every sector there are people in the space whose only real objective is making money with little regard for others.⁣ ⁣ However there's also an emergence of concepts and ways of creating that previously could only work

Have you ever found yourself anxiously anticipating something? Maybe it’s small like a task you need to complete or maybe it’s a large goal that requires you to push big-time out of your comfort zone. No matter the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, anxiety, fear, doubt, all exist primarily in the anticipation of something- not the act of it. Why is that? It’s mostly because when we’re in the act of doing something we’re present and in action mode - which leaves little cognitive space for fear and anxiety to show up. This means that when we’re doing hard things that can bring about big rewards for ourselves, we’re not actually thinking about how hard it is - we’re simply doing it. This perspective and reminder can help us make progress on our biggest goals and dreams because it reminds us that often the most anxiety shows up in the anticipation of doing something big - not while actually doing it. This is what we explore in more detail in this weeks podcast episode. I remind myself of thi

If you’re on social media and work in the space of  entrepreneurship and/or spirituality you’ve most likely heard the term self sovereign over the past few years.    I wanted to dive a little deeper into what I feel it means and why it is directly connected to community care - because sometimes when I hear people use it, it just comes off as inherently selfish and not empowering at all.    Self sovereignty and community care are highly interconnected. The more empowering and expansive a community is, the more sovereign you become. Why is this? It’s because they teach you to use the tools and resources within you over telling you you need them (the community) and must conform to their rules and boxes to fit in.    Being sovereign is less about doing everything yourself and it's more about interacting with the world in a way that's fully you. Sometimes that means having full responsibility over yourself to help protect and ensure your freedom AND sometimes it's allowing others to do what they're great at (and l

I believe that ​​our education systems and how our society is structured traps us. We are taught to fit within a mold so that we are ‘employable’ and can hopefully find a job that allows us enough pay to live comfortably and gives us a few weeks off a year. ⁣   ⁣ Yet inflation is skyrocketing, the cost of living is outrageous and people feel disconnected from things that genuinely make them come alive. ⁣ ⁣ We need change. ⁣   I know for many of you reading this, you feel that way too as entrepreneurship is about taking a step away from all of that.  ⁣ For almost a year now I have been exploring blockchain technology (crypto) and web3. ⁣ ⁣ There are many things that overlap with my passions and curiosities. Entrepreneurship, sovereignty, community care, innovation, philosophy, and more. ⁣ ⁣ Like every sector there are people in the space whose only real objective is making money with little regard for others.⁣ ⁣ However there's also an emergence of concepts and ways of creating that previously could only work

I am getting a lot of people in my dms saying they are very interested in learning more about web3 - blockchain - nfts - crypto, but have no idea where to start.  They are telling me they grasp that there is potential in this emerging space but truly do not understand most of it.  If you fall into this category, that is totally okay and let me tell you why. You do not need to understand on a fundamental level how this technology works, you only need to know how to use it.  Most of you are probably reading this email on your phone. If you listen to my podcast or follow me online, these forms of interacting with me are while using your phone. I am a big apple user - so I use an iphone. The smartphone was invented by apple and do you know what made it not only crush their competition in the cell phone industry, but also ushered in a whole new era of technology….. iOS.  Do you know how iOS works? I absolutely do not. I just know that without it everything we do on our phones would not be possible. Apps are built

  A few weeks ago IG announced it was beta testing integrating NFTs onto its platform and so far things are going well.  Youtube, Meta (aka facebook), Amazon, Shopify, Stripe and other content hosting platforms and commerce based businesses now officially all have web3 teams who are using, building, and integrating blockchain technology.    What the heck does this mean?!   It means that many of the platforms, applications and tools we use in our businesses are taking web3 seriously - which means that we should too.    This doesn’t mean drop everything and go deep dive (unless you want to of course), but it does mean that starting to get curious and learn more about them is important.    If we look back on even just the last 5 years, a lot of social media platforms have shifted, content creation looks different, technology is more advanced and we can do cooler things and it's easier than ever to get paid online doing something you love.    It’s safe to say that the same will be true 5 years from now.    Web3 i

It is very common for us to view ourselves as 3 separate people. There is our past self, our current self, and our future self. The reality though is there is only one us.    This isn’t to say we stay the same, we know we are constantly changing. What I mean though, is that without changing something today, nothing will change in the future - except that time itself has passed.    Sometimes by thinking our future self will somehow be more equipped, more motivated, more responsible than our current, self tricks us into forgetting who we are right now has to make the shifts needed for that to actually transpire.    I will not be able to retire in the future, if I don’t start saving today.    Right now inflation is at an all time high, stocks and crypto are crashing, housing prices (in Canada) are insanely high and outpacing people’s average income levels. These are stressful times - they are also times of opportunity.    What small things can be done today, to help set you up tomorrow?    How can delaying our d

Many of us can feel as though we’re in a race to reach ‘the finish line’ in our business and lives. We look to those around us to determine if we’re ahead or behind and this can create a sense of urgency. The reality is that we aren’t actually in a race, we will most likely never feel like we ‘crossed the finish line’ and we aren’t competing with anyone either.    When this feeling is used in a healthy way to motivate us it can be motivating, however many of us use it to stress ourselves out.    There are so many different ways to build out and get to where we want in life. Rushing through everything because we feel we’re behind or that someone else is going to get there before us leads us away from not only enjoying ourselves, but potentially not getting as much out of everything as we can.    When we slow down we’re able to make better decisions. When we give ourselves time for sweat equity we can often do incredible things at a fraction of the cost. We are able to explore new ways of creating and going abo

Have you ever found yourself working countless hours on something only to realize that you want to throw it away? Not because you don’t love the overarching thing you created, but because you feel so burnt out by the process and the idea of doing it again makes your heart sink. Sometimes how we build something affects our ability to do it long term. One of the most important things we can do, that most people struggle with, is creating systems that align with who we are and how we thrive vs what we think we’re supposed to do. How can one know what will work without first trying different things? The reality is we can’t fully know until we try. Which is why when you’re in those first few years of business you want to avoid putting all your eggs into one basket. I have seen so many entrepreneurs burnt out, wanting to throw in the towel because they are spinning their wheels going nowhere. The reason they’re stuck is because they are in the wrong gear and need to adjust. As an example I am someone who thrives w

What if you could build out your content and business in a way that rewarded you AND your audience economically? With blockchain technology you can.   Technology has always had a huge impact on how businesses interacted with their audiences. Email, social media, youtube etc have all shifted the relationship between us and our customers over the last 15 years. Believe it or not, there was a time when people did not understand why they would need a website, or email address and why they would interact with their customers in that way.    Social tokens and NFTs could bring about a new shift in how we create and build our business. In 5 years it’s possible that they will be as common as email. NFTs can be used as coupons, tickets to VIP events, a membership pass to your community and more. Social tokens can be used to ‘cash in’ on certain things only available to holders (think mid way and how you would win tokens and cash them in for a prize), used to vote on what cities you host events in, what topics they want

How many times have you spent countless hours of your life stressing out about social media and having to learn something new, yet again, in order to keep up with its changing rules of engagement?   Since starting my coaching business about 6 years ago I feel like I have whiplash from having to learn something, create a new strategy around it, only to have it need to change within 6 months.    The reality is that running a successful business using social media requires us to be very agile.    That seems acceptable if the ONLY thing we had to worry about was in fact social media. But the reality is that most render services, or offer products that have NOTHING to do with social media. That means that we end up spending more time trying to figure out how to market ourselves than we do actually doing the things that have the biggest impact.    The reality is that social media platforms need content creators more than we need them. Social media is a tool, and has made running a business easier in a lot of ways,

What if there was a way to retain the autonomy, creativity, freedom and innovation of entrepreneurship, but also have the community, structure and support of others that we sometimes miss when running a business by ourselves?   This is what has me so intrigued with DAOs - decentralized, autonomous, organizations. Think of a startup business meeting a community driven project, meeting a bunch of self motivated people coming together to share resources to make money and achieve a goal.    They aren’t a new concept, in fact they first popped up in the 80s but because of limitations in banking, trusting each other with money and location limits they didn’t really catch fire. Enter blockchain technology, the internet, and things like zoom and now we have an opportunity to reshape how we work with each other, get paid and create change in whatever area interests us.    I sort of fell into working as a contributor with a DAO (Blu3DAO) simply because its mission aligned with mine (helping people make more money while

The very first thing I need to make clear when talking about the metaverse, is that it is NOT owned by Facebook, nor are people that interested in what Facebook is building. Why?  Because most people in the web3 space, myself included, are most interested in decentralization. Meaning no one person, government, entity or company has full control or ownership.  The other reality is that we already live in the metaverse. I am writing this while in Rio, Brazil, and you will read it wherever you are. I host many workshops, Lighthouse Collective calls and sessions with clients via zoom. I take photos and videos of what's happening around me, post them on social media and you are able to see those regardless of where you are. The metaverse isn’t this official place you go to, it's simply the integration of technology into our lives, and that is already here.  On this week's episode I dive more into this, as well as why it's okay to resist and not want to partake, and also some reasons why I hope you remain curious. 

Many people (myself included) pursue the illusion of power, because under the surface what we desire is freedom and we think this is the only way to get it.    The only way I can be free is to have so much power, that no one can have authority (ie control) over me. Because we live in a world of haves and have nots, I need more power, money, status and things than other people to ensure I am one of the ‘haves’, someone at the top of the pecking order. *(having power and being empowered are not the same thing)   I am happy to say that years ago I gave up that ideology and way of relating with the world and others - but I'd be lying if I said it still doesn't creep up on me from time to time.    I believe that true freedom means freedom for all. This doesn’t mean getting to do whatever we want, whenever we want, without any regard for others and without consequences. We are so vastly interconnected in ways we can’t even comprehend, that we need to respect each other and part of that means understanding that I wi

There is so much (and this seems common unfortunately) going on in the world right now that can make us feel overwhelmed.    I’ve been in many conversations with people asking ‘is there any hope of changing these systems’ and while all I have is my own opinion, I believe decentralization (which is KEY) and blockchain technology has the power to change the world.    I recently got back from ETHdenver, which is a conference dedicated to ecosystem of blockchain technologies that align with the values of ethereum (decentralized, open sourced, community oriented, giving power back to everyday people, creating systems not limited by geopolitical location, gender, race, age, work status, social economic status, even langage).    I listened to people speaking about reforestation efforts that utilize blockchain technology to cut through all the bureaucracy allowing them to plant trees 100x, sometimes 1000x faster than current systems.    I learnt about efforts to restistbute wealth and create basic income for people o

I understand the resistance to learning new things. Which is why I want to sprinkle in little bits of here and there, because it adds up over time.    I truly feel this space of crypto/nft/web3 is going to change the world faster (but still over the course of a decade +) than anything else in modern history. We’re still so early in its creation, which is why I want more good hearted, visionary people inside of it.    As entrepreneurs, it’s an easier bridge over into this new territory as we’re already used to learning new things, taking risks, and seeing the potential in things that aren’t fully formed yet.    I wanted to interview someone who has immersed themselves in the crypto/nft/web3 ecosystem, that has a background in traditional product/service based businesses, to come on and share their experience and passion for the space.    Meet Sierra Renee, a serial entrepreneur (runs + created product and service based businesses) who has extended her savviness into the web3 world.    In this week's podcast ep

We live in a world that is constantly grasping for our time, attention, energy, money and resources. This means that more than ever, we need to know how to support ourselves, regulate our emotions and practice mindfulness in our daily lives.   There are a lot of shoulda, woulda, coulda moments that could have been avoided if we had slowed down, and brought awareness to what we were experiencing, thinking and feeling and how this was impacting our decisions.    I don’t know about you, but I have absolutely bought things that weren’t going to help me because I got caught up in the moment. I’ve lost a whole day, my mood and my energy to doom scrolling and comparing myself to others online.    Being mindful of these situations and how they affect me, allow me to support myself through them, instead of getting swept out to sea by them.    This is why creating a mindfulness practice for yourself and bringing it into how we operate our business can not only have a positive impact on our work, but our lives as well.