Meet The Women Leading The Blockchain Revolution: “Be feminine, don’t adopt a male persona” With Nicole Jolie
The first thing I would share is be feminine. The world has enough dick, we could use some ladies in our arena. Not just women, but ladies. I feel we’ve adopted a male persona to counteract and contradict the societal encumbrance of femininity. As if it’s a bad thing. I am working on my feminine self because I’ve had to adopt this unnatural male dominant ‘fight’ stance that has created a lot more stress and negativity for me. I know I need to change my attitude to being more feminine and less masculine. Being a lady in business is so much more appealing. Because you’re bringing the female perspective which is more than just standing up for yourself. My goal for my persona is to behave with an attitude of self-awareness and femininity. I think we’ve adopted too many male attitudes as women and it’s become difficult to discern who we are as a gender and it’s why we’re suffering with equality in the first place. We’ve given up on our femininity.
I had the pleasure to interview Nicole Jolie. Nicole is the Founder of OnTheBlock and the author of Smart Woman’s Guide to Blockchain
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share with us the story of how you decided to pursue this career path?
I didn’t choose to follow a career. I hustled.
I quit school at the age of 13. Started my own cookie company. And sold my cookies from my bicycle. It was called Coup de Grace all natural fresh baked coffee cookies.
This was when the Panikin was just setting itself up on the scene in La Jolla. When J. David Dominelli was leading the pack at The La Valencia as the first “Wolf of Wall Street”, only later to be indicted and sent to prison.
Instead of a path, it was an adventure race to forge a path to knowledge and understanding of my quest to become my own boss, and I didn’t even know I wanted to become my own boss, but I did. That was when I first saw Tony Robbins speak at some podunk motel and when I first learned of Jim Rohn.
I left California at 17 and venturing off to NYC with $50, becoming a Series 7 licensed broker, and getting my first job with the now defunct DLJ and getting into Fordham University without a GED. It’s been 35 years of hustle.
This hustle has spanned to writing a book about Women and Blockchain so that I understand it better. I’m working on Version 2 that’s going to be much more in-depth about STO’s, tokenization and consensus algorithms 101.
I’ve breakin’ my own stride for years, much to my chagrin and on multiple different runs, this being one of them, and I don’t consider myself successful, but success is measured differently by everyone.
Blockchain is the epitome of hustle, which is why I like it so much.
What lessons can others learn from your story?
Nothing. I don’t think anyone learns lessons from someone else’s story. I believe that people, inherently have to live their own story to learn their own lessons.
We can emulate but, we can’t live someone else’s story or learn the lesson they did. Which is why advice, albeit free, is so powerful, yet, it’s not something we understand, nor do we value, until we apply it, live it, and learn it.
Each of us is here to learn our own lessons. Some of us have a harder time of it, some of us put ourselves out there-in the public eye “there” where the critics abound-too much so as to cause our identity to be associated with “risk taker” which inevitably becomes our drug, and ultimately becomes our pimp.
My story is rife with homelessness, bankruptcy, negative bank accounts, lack, insecurity and debt. It’s filled with the never ending feeling of not being good enough.
On the flip side of that, my outside persona is full of confidence. This is honestly just a mask of insecurity, defensiveness and feeling I need to prove myself. #TBH
It’s all memes and cool quotes for Cinderella who bought her own castle, but when it comes down to it, the hustle and grind is forever the hardest part, and the most painful. It’s not Gary Vee sexy.
Can you tell me about the most interesting projects you are working on now?
Right now I’m doing a Smart Women in Blockchain workshop at Texas Bitcoin Conference on Saturday the 27th. I’m also working with the Telos community, a fork off the EOSIO, to share what the difference is between Dpos and PoW and how staking your tokens is the best way to keep them, in addition to general education digital assets and valuation. I hope I can get all that in in 20 minutes.
To make money, and help small business owners — who h8 talking to me and wear garlic when I approach them with how I can help increase their ROI -I build loyalty wallets that integrate with Apple and Android wallets on your mobile phone that actively works in Facebook Messenger, a platform that is fast becoming an integral part of people’s daily lives.
The loyalty wallet doesn’t require downloads or texting, it’s integrated with the lifestyle of the customer. The Messenger platform has more than 1.4 billion active monthly users and sends over 8 billion messages a day — only the true business visionaries will see this, and will hop on now to get ahead of the curve.
Being a visionary is the difference between buying a job, and truly being an entrepreneur in the most organic sense of the word.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I’ve had a lot of help along the way, some in kind words, some in monetary help, and a lot of non-believers who have spurred on my need to prove myself — albeit, this has backfired like a cartoon cannon in my face.
There are multiple people to thank for monetary help and emotional support. I don’t go a day without giving gratitude to them.
I share my gratitudes each day with the Heavenly Spirit above and work on my attitude, each and every day, to better myself, and become the woman I admire and appreciate. My faith is my beacon. I fail. I fall. Yet, I believe with the help of the Holy Spirit, I fall with a lot more grace now than I used to.
There are too many stories to list, but I can say that if you are CONVINCED and determined, of your path, even if you don’t have it all mapped out pretty like a nice Instagram page, people will notice.
I am passionate about what I believe in. I am dedicated to being an influencer, inspiration and specifically a woman of integrity and achievement.
When people are around passion and passionate people it fuels their desire. So, the only “advice” I would give is be grateful. Someone once told me his hack to getting over a really tough time, losing millions of dollars, was, and is, gratitude.
Write in a journal daily of how grateful you are for the people who have given you help, who continually stand behind you, even though they’re doubtful at times, just share that gratitude because the energy in that pen will overflow to your life.
What are the 5 things that most excite you about blockchain and crypto? Why?
For the Block, the most exciting is the opportunity for women to create:
1) a lasting change by owning their rights,
2) Owning and keeping their identity,
3) Owning and building their communities,
4) Owning and keeping their land,
5) And learning how to create their own smart contracts to do all this so they aren’t bullied, questioned or threatened.
Crypto and digital assets are exciting, but not as exciting as The Block. They’re pretty linear, whereas the block is malleable because of what you can do with it, as opposed to how you can trade it.
Why is this exciting?
It allows someone like me, a 51-year old single woman, who’s never been married, has no family or children to be an influencer, which gives me a glimmer of hope and encouragement, because we have so much opportunity to build it to suit our needs as opposed to the needs we’re told we have.
What gives me a sense of accomplishment? The ability to share my knowledge with other women so they learn how to build out their smart contracts, so they can understand the basics on how to keep their identity and get started “OnTheBlock” which is the name of my IGTV show, that I’m currently working on.
What are the 5 things worry you about blockchain and crypto? Why?
I worry that women will be edged out and will be forced to start their own gender specific arenas, which is not what The Block is about. It’s not meant to divide.
Like Morgen Peck says
“Think about that for a second: a group of strangers working together to secure a global currency and payment system without the authority of any formal institution. That’s technologically astounding.”
I am concerned about the Ego and government regulations. I am also concerned about the marketing and the lack of integrity — like you saw with the ICO’s.
The misconceptions of what belongs on blockchain and what should be decentralized and what that means precludes education, not institutionalization.
STO’s (security token offerings) are probably going to be a bigger deal because they’ll bring in that educational aspect to a lacklustre commodity that no one understands, but will inevitably want to be a part of, what concerns me is that women won’t take notice and will once again be left on the roadside hitch hiking to the next event.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share a story?
I’m a connector, I connect people to ideas.
Yet in the same way, I’m also a pilgrim and I get shot at a lot. My success is not success to me, I don’t feel successful YET.
I’ve helped people with words of encouragement, words of love, drive and determination. I think the most profound stories are those that we don’t know of, where we’ve helped people and we remain etched in their memory as something that we never see of ourselves. I have yet to see my success, yet maybe I’ve touched someone and they have, so that’s truly success. When you influence the lives of the people you never knew.
As you know there are not that many women in your industry. Can you share 3 things that you would you advise to other women in the blockchain space to thrive?
Feel positive and proactive because anything is possible and not just in some Instagram meme way.
The first thing I would share is be feminine. The world has enough dick, we could use some ladies in our arena. Not just women, but ladies. I feel we’ve adopted a male persona to counteract and contradict the societal encumbrance of femininity. As if it’s a bad thing.
I am working on my feminine self because I’ve had to adopt this unnatural male dominant ‘fight’ stance that has created a lot more stress and negativity for me. I know I need to change my attitude to being more feminine and less masculine.
Being a lady in business is so much more appealing. Because you’re bringing the female perspective which is more than just standing up for yourself.
My goal for my persona is to behave with an attitude of self-awareness and femininity. I think we’ve adopted too many male attitudes as women and it’s become difficult to discern who we are as a gender and it’s why we’re suffering with equality in the first place. We’ve given up on our femininity.
Can you advise what is needed to engage more women into the blockchain industry?
Education and true interest in the subject. If we want to be accepted, admired, and achieved, we have to put ourselves out there.
Sometimes I ask the dumbest questions to the BP’s and Dapps (Block Producers and Development application developers), but I shrug it off and listen. I learn, I saturate and I regurgitate. I just get in. I don’t think about it. I just do it.
This is not a time to be scared. It’s a time to be viciously vulnerable with your fears, and like Brene Brown says, “Dare Greatly” to get in the arena. “F” it if you have questions. Ask. In the end, they’re not paying your bills. You are. But, do it with class, sass and sophistication because you’ll be remembered for your behavior and you’ll be revered for your can do it attitude.
What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that had relevance to your own life?
I have many, but these two stand out, one by the famous Maya Angelou.
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
And one by Teddy Roosevelt:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
If I could get paid to do this. I would start the OnTheBlock show for women, sharing how to use the block for their lives, their daily lives. So it is more accessible.
I would incorporate a movement, not another conference, but a movement. I would create a space where women would learn how to use the block for things they want to keep safe and secure.
I want to inspire not just women, but PEOPLE to be better, do better, and care more. The attitude they wear on their t-shirts of “Ask someone who cares” would be eradicated and replaced with “Dare Greatly Because You Care” Yea. I like that. That’s my slogan for OnTheBlock.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
My website: http://nicolejolie.com
My Facebook Page: https://facebook.com/NicoleJolieOfficial
My Twitter Page: http://twitter.com/InvestInTheCoin
My Instagram Page: http://Instagram.com/IAmNicoleJolie
And LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/nicolejolie
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Thank you. I’m inspired just writing this!!
