Investing For Impact With Wendy Diamond

 

Women’s Entrepreneurship Day is on November 19 and that is the day where women get to make an impact. You get to listen to and meet amazing women who are making an impact, especially on Web3. Back then, men had to hunt for women because they were stronger. Now, women and men are equal in the space of Web3 and blockchain. It is time for women to rise up economically and financially. Join Halle Eavelyn as she talks to Wendy Diamond, the CEO/Founder of LDP Ventures and Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO). Learn more about Wendy’s movement with WEDO and why it’s based on financial inclusion. Discover more about Bitcoin and why it’s just starting and will grow over time. As a woman, start creating an impact today!

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Investing For Impact With Wendy Diamond

I am with the delightful, vivacious, and as enthusiastic as I am in this world, Wendy Diamond.

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She is an impact investor, and the Founder of say it for me, Wendy.

I founded Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. It’s an official day in the world proclaimed by the US Congress, the president of Mexico. I always say we are in 144 countries, so it’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization but the official day is November 19th, 2022.

I’m so excited. Wendy and I went and met in IRL. I know that’s crazy. You meet a human being. It’s amazing. Wendy and I met at a wonderful conference. I’m curious if you would share with everybody what an impact investor is. What’s the difference between that and a regular investor?

An impact investor is somebody who cares about the environment, about the world and invests with that in mind. I’m a big animal advocate, the climate change and everything. I invest in projects that are going to make a positive input on this world. I’m an LP in a lot of funds. Many of them are in the crypto space and Web3 space, and I invest in impactful startups.

Startups anywhere from Basepaws, which was the 23andMe for pets. To help pets live longer and healthier lives, looking at the microbiome and DNA to everything from biodiversity, which is disrupting the trillions of dollars of government procurement using artificial intelligence to enable women, minorities, and veterans to get government contracts.

I’m so excited about all of that. I thought you said you were an LP. Was that the phrase that you used?

Yes, I’m a Limited Partner in funds as well.

What led you to get into blockchain investments, crypto investments? What called you to that?

My foundation, Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization, we are in 144 countries. We are huge in Africa. It’s because of that, in 2014, I met a woman who created the Satoshi Center in her one-room hut with a dirt floor. She was a goat farmer, and her son had bad health problems. She was trying to get help. She didn’t have a lot of money and was trying to find help in Africa and Botswana.

Sadly, her son passed away but on that journey, she learned about Bitcoin and created the Satoshi Center in her little hut. Don’t worry. Now she’s advising the government, and Jack Dorsey’s helping her. It’s so cool. She is a phenomenal woman. She basically wanted to educate everyone about Bitcoin in Botswana. That’s why she created it.

That’s how I originally learned about it because my foundation started in 2013 when I learned that 250 million girls were living in poverty. 1 out of 8 women in America live in poverty, and the stats go on and on. When I learned about that, that’s why I decided to officially create Women’s Entrepreneurship Day because I knew if we could educate the world about why it’s so important to empower women economically, we could change the world and help the world.

 

When women earn money, 90% of that money goes to educate their children, provide for their families, and uplift the entire community. When women are empowered in business, they have self-confidence and dignity and don’t allow human rights violations. That was the basis for creating Women’s Entrepreneurship Day and having this be represented and celebrated all over the world.

When I learned about Bitcoin, I do believe it is the highest integrity, deflationary financial instrument ever created in history, and why I believe that is because the founders didn’t care about fame, money or power. Nobody knows their names, so they have no fame. Nobody knows their names, so they don’t have any power, and they’ve never sold or transferred to Bitcoin. That, to me, is high integrity because they did this to enable the two and a half billion people in this world financial inclusion that are unbanked.

That whole mission, which I believe I’ve watched hundreds of hours of so much stuff, to realize that these people are super special. It aligns greatly with our foundation. That’s how I got into Bitcoin. I live in New York City. I’m originally from a little town in Ohio but I live in Ney York City and become part of the whole ecosystem of crypto and blockchain and got involved with the Ethereum ICO. I have been involved in a lot of impactful blockchain projects.

I want to add a couple of things to what you were saying. You said that 90% of every dollar women make goes back to educating their families and local communities and uplifting. The statistics for men are $0.30 to $0.40 for every dollar. It’s a significant difference between men and women.

I don’t like to generalize because we need men. We would have nothing in this world if we didn’t have men.

It would be a little more boring.

I don’t want to generalize because there are some incredible men out there supporting women and so forth but the statistics are drastically different. The reason why I started learning about these is that I ended up why I created our foundation called Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization. We, Women Entrepreneurs, do make a difference. We created this foundation after I ended up in Honduras on vacation, not realizing it was the murder capital of the world. I ended up volunteering for an organization that gives microloans to poor women.

That was eye-opening because I saw what this $100 microloan would do, and I met a 72-year-old woman who had three little kids. She lived in a 1-room hut with a dirt floor and 1 window and received a $100 microloan from an organization called Adelante that provides these microloans. She opened up the window and was selling Cokes and toothpaste and was able to put those kids through school and pay a dollar a month for those kids to go to school.

When you look at these projects, and you see this, to me, why it’s so important to recognize this is because you want systematic change in this world, and you see all these. We launched in 2013 when very few people were talking about women entrepreneurs or women in business. No companies had what you see now about all the women’s initiatives. When we launched, I knew that people would start learning, and the conversation would start becoming because when you create a day in the world, you create the conversation.

By celebrating this and having ambassadors in 144 countries, around the United States, and all over the world, their whole mission and our mission is to bring governments, business leaders, civil society, investors, and entrepreneurs together to collaborate, find solutions, and uplift women economically. The goal for that would be to alleviate poverty. We all talk about systematic change these days. If you want to create systematic change, it’s got to be from the ground up. You’ve got to embrace everybody. You’ve got to bring everybody along with you to create this change.

If you want to create systematic change, it needs to be from the ground up. You have to bring everybody along to create this change. Click To Tweet

That’s what our movement’s about. It’s not top-down. It’s bottom-up. Everybody thinks TED Talks but instead, WED Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. Instead of people talking about themselves and ideas, we bring all these parties together to find solutions and create a summit that day, then we all have an impact. We are having a big event at the United Nations, and that day, we have some of the most incredible people in the world attending. It’s all about Web3 and impact. That day, we will also fund a thousand impoverished women with microloans so that they can start their journey.

I’ve done microloans as well. What’s another beautiful thing is that there’s such a high rate of repayment with them.

They pay back at a 98% rate. What’s cool is that it’s about giving a hand up, not a handout. This is like teaching them to fish.

I completely understand that. Where do you consider crypto as part of that journey?

I wouldn’t call it crypto but I would call this more being part of this whole ecosystem of Web3 and blockchain. All this whole movement is based on financial inclusion, helping the two and a half billion people unbanked opportunity, and now they can easily do this on their phones. They don’t need a bank account. Also, all the opportunities of owning your own data and being paid personally for your data instead of Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, and so forth.

I am excited about everything that you are doing. There are 148 countries. How many countries are there in total? You are in all of them.

Some of our ambassadors want you, and then they don’t. Sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less but pretty much we have been celebrated in 144 countries. Everywhere from Mongolia to Zimbabwe.

You said about what impact women are making, and I always talk about the Dalai Lama quote, “the world will be saved by the Western woman.” They are talking about all of us. I used to think of Western women as a collective, and I don’t think that anymore. It’s Wendy and Halle, and each of us chooses where we are going to make our impact and what we are going to choose and focus on that. There are so many issues. For example, one of the biggest issues is human trafficking in every single country in the world.

I know that there are women involved in human trafficking but I don’t think women are involved in human trafficking because of wanting to exploit other women or wanting to exploit children. There are a lot of control issues. I feel like when women are financially free, they are not going to then turn around and say, “This is something I want to participate in.” There’s a lot of keeping women down in that way. The more women have that financial freedom, the more they are expanding beyond the limitations of what we have all been told we are capable of.

That’s important. I want to ask for your own because this is Goddess of Crypto. My questions are, do you have any regrets about any of what has been going on? 2022 has been hard for crypto. A lot of things have gone down the tubes. It’s still the Wild West. Do you have any advice for women who are nervous about taking that plunge?

I love when people say this because it cracks me up. First of all, if you are in it to make money, shame on you. You should be in it to create and be part of this movement. That’s one of the most impactful in history. Remember, Bitcoin is the mother ship. The mother ship is very high integrity. When you look at this space, we are thirteen years old. We are in puberty. We are finding our space. I look at people and I’m like, “I have been in it a long time. I have been up, down, all around, high, low. It’s the way it works.”

Bitcoin is only 13 years old. They are still in puberty and finding their space in this world. Click To Tweet

First of all, no time in history has a currency been so exponential. Thirteen years? Do you know how long it took for the dollar? I put a smile on my face and especially if you are looking for that fast money and when you look at Luna, and you were staking. You are making all this stuff. Let’s say Luna. It didn’t make sense. You are going to invest in Luna, and they are a stablecoin and buying Bitcoin. Why don’t you buy Bitcoin? Why do you need Luna? Why are you giving a little money to that Luna guy that ran off and disappeared?

It’s being logical and real because, at the end of the day, it’s thirteen years old, number one. It’s finding its footing. It’s finding its space in this world. Years from now, we will be back to normal. We will be more steady. BlackRock announced that they now have a Bitcoin. There’s a lot happening behind the scenes that you don’t hear about. That’s building up the flooring for what’s to come.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody say anything more apt. We are in puberty. I hope I can say that to people from now on because that’s so freaking brilliant. I can’t wait until 2023. We can say, “We are teenagers,” which is even worse than being in puberty. It’s scary timing all the way around.

My favorite thing is naysayers when they talk to me. I have a big smile on my face and I’m like, “We are in puberty. Are you questioning Larry Fink? Are you Paul Tudor Jones? Some of the smartest minds in the world. Bill Ackman, no one talks about him but he’s a huge Bitcoin enthusiast. There are some of the smartest minds in finance are getting into it. I’m not a finance mind.

I’m an impact person. My whole life, I have been an impact. I stumbled into this whole space by learning about a goat farmer in Botswana. I’m a realist. I have been an entrepreneur my whole life. I know what it takes to build. To create, for instance, a trillion-dollar business, there’s only one in the world. What is it, Amazon?

I know they are. I didn’t know there was only one.

If you think about this whole ecosystem, it’s incredible. Also, think about this. People have been growing up with phones from day one now. They don’t care about archaic financial markets and all that stuff. Gen Z and Millennials want to be part of Web3. They don’t care about traditional finance. They want traceability. They want transparency. They want to understand why this is valued at that. This is what the whole ecosystem was meant to be. Again, you are going to always have bad people in life. Not every day do you meet great people.

 

I did two episodes of crypto scams and rug poles because I don’t always interview somebody. Every other episode, I’m interviewing a guest, and then every other one, I’m talking about my own crypto experiences and what I’m seeing. I said that very thing that there are those people out there. I find social scams to be interesting because all they are doing is they’ve moved into the crypto space but it’s no different from calling up old ladies and stealing their Social Security or whatever.

I remember they were talking about like, “All the departments access crypto.” I’m like, “Are you crazy? The dollar is the most used for nefarious X in the world by a thousand X.” The fact, it’s a threat to a lot of institutions. There are people scared. I have a spirit of a twenty-year-old. All I want to do is learn. I never give up on my inner child. I want to learn everything and I’m like, “Let’s do it.” That’s the key. Be open and not be a naysayer. Do your homework. Go on YouTube.

That’s what I did, and you hear a weird word like DAO. Find out what it is. You don’t understand staking or whatever it might be. Watch five highly rated videos on YouTube or something and learn about them. It’s all about ignorance. If you don’t know something, you are going to automatically poo it but if you know more about it, you understand what it’s about, you will be more apt to embrace it.

If you research on things you don't understand, you'll be more apt to embrace it. Click To Tweet

I’ve had many discussions with people who are in finance poo-poo it. I’m dear friends with somebody who is in finance and who is constantly sending me things saying how horrible crypto is. He reads my blogs to the extent that I don’t know if he reads to every word but he’s following the Grams and stuff. He’s like, “Here’s something that totally disproves what you are saying.” I’m like, “Here’s something that totally proves what I’m saying,” but I will listen to all of his stuff, and he’s not listening to all of mine because he already thinks he knows everything about the financial world. He does. He knows about today’s financial world. He doesn’t know about tomorrow’s financial world.

It’s happening now. It’s crazy what’s going on. I’m involved.

It’s developing every five minutes. What I see with women is that we have a tendency to hang back. My last guest was saying how she wasn’t an expert and how she had learned everything on YouTube. I was saying to her, listening to her, “But you’ve reached that expert status.” The way she explained things, it was obvious she had such a comprehensive understanding but didn’t believe that she had. Again, turning to statistics here. If an HR company put out this statistic saying that if a woman didn’t feel that she was at least 90% qualified for a particular job, she wouldn’t even put in her application. Men were putting their applications in at 50%. I found that fascinating.

That’s why I created Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. It was like, “We must bring awareness to all these issues. You have to start from the ground up. When these girls are young, let them realize that they can become scientists. They can get into Web3 and do all this stuff and build self-confidence. A thousand years ago, we needed men. We needed their strength to build and move things and explore.

Protect us.

From all the crazies, and they are still crazies here, but now, it’s our mind. We are on an equal playing ground. Women can do whatever men can do in this realm of Web3, blockchain, and all this stuff. You see it. There are some cool things happening founded by women. Again, bringing awareness to great women that are making and creating these companies. For instance, at our event at the United Nations this November 2022. We have some of the most incredible women in history.

We’ve got the woman that founded Cloudflare. It’s a $25 billion company on NASDAQ. It’s the first time in history that a woman is a cofounder. We have the woman that is the founder of Automation Anywhere, a robotics company, $7 billion but you don’t ever hear about these people. We all know Elon Musk, and certainly, they are a lot richer but we all know these other names. That’s why it’s so important to celebrate, support, and empower women economically.

Women are learning this slowly but there’s still a sense of reticence. There’s still a sense of hanging back and being concerned that her voice isn’t as important as other voices. It’s not as educated. It’s not as powerful. It’s not as important. It’s not as valued. I am working every day, whether it’s my mindset coaching or my wealth coaching, or this work.

I’m working every day to make sure to change that for all the women that I encounter because every woman’s voice has so much value and is very important. To me, mindset is the very first thing. When you believe that what you have to share will impact and be valued by people, then you are willing to share it more. It’s supporting other women as well as you are doing with every breath, it sounds like. That’s amazing.

I have a lot of energy. I love it.

If women want to get involved with Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, what do they do? Where do they go?

They go to WomensEDay.org or they could go to ChooseWomen.org. If they go there and can look to whatever country they are, they could see our ambassador, connect with them on LinkedIn or social media or they could participate in any way or celebrate an incredible woman entrepreneur in their life and share it.

Do you recommend the company that you mentioned for microloans? I would love to offer women a place that you trust where they can put their money, even if it’s a little bit of money, because those microloans can make such a big impact.

Even on our website, by the way, we are in all volunteer movements. We don’t take any money. It goes direct to the women. They could do it there. I don’t like to promote things but there’s Opportunity International. There’s Grameen. If you are going to donate to microloan companies, make sure it’s a low-interest rate for those women to pay back because a lot of people are scamming these people too. There are scammers everywhere.

Do your due diligence. If I get involved in something, I make sure I know it, and that’s why I think I’m happy because I know what I’m helping and doing. One thing for women I can say is there are a few things I can suggest. One being OpenGrants.io. It is an amazing platform. It makes it a seamless and easy marketplace to help anyone get non-diluted funding. If you are starting a new business, if you are a doctor looking for an NIH grant or a small business grant, whatever that might be, that’s your one-stop shop.

 

Even I’m taking note of that. Thank you very much.

That’s one of them that I’m involved with. Another one is to go to Giftchain, which is a Web3 charity platform to enable everyone to be able to have transparency and traceability for all giving. Everyone could participate in that. The 2% goes to the ecosystem, and the rest goes directly to the charities. They could find amazing charities from everything from helping climate change with the Global Alliance for a Sustainable Planet or helping homeless animals or impoverished women.

If you are reading this, please remember, DYOR, Do Your Own Research. That’s true of the places that Wendy is suggesting. That’s true of where you are going to put your money and anything that you invest in. Even Bitcoin, make sure that it’s in alignment with your financial goals and your desires. Anything that Wendy mentioned throughout the entire show, you can see those on the platform that you are on. It would be best to go to GoddessOfCrypto.me. Wendy, you mention so many places. I always ask at the end of every show, what is one more thing that you would like all the women reading to know?

Adopt. There are millions of dogs and cats up for adoption.

Adopt, adopt, and adopt a million dogs and cats up for adoption. Click To Tweet

What kind is yours? Do you know?

He’s a rescued kiton. He’s super cute.

It’s a multi-poo or something.

That’s what I would adopt.

I agree with you. I know there are so many shelter dogs that need homes. If you can’t adopt foster, adopt for a short time because that’s also desperately needed. That’s so beautiful. Wendy, I want to thank you so much for being here.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

This has been amazing. If you like this episode, please like, comment, and share it. Share with your girlfriends, your friends, families, moms, daughters, wives, partners, and all the women that are in your life. I will see you next time on Goddess of Crypto.

 

Important Links

• Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization
• Basepaws
• 23andMe
• Adelante
• BlackRock
• Cloudflare
• Automation Anywhere
• ChooseWomen.org
• Opportunity International
• Grameen
• OpenGrants.io
• Giftchain
• GoddessOfCrypto.me