#202: What a DAO is and why it might transform business…
Changing The Story with Lana Dingwall
Release Date: 03/28/2022
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...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
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...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
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...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
info_outlineChanging 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...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
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,...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
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...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
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...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
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...
info_outlineWhat 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 having a greater impact) and was enjoying the community centric nature of what I was experiencing. Next thing I know I’m a governor (think board of directors), a contributor (think freelancer), my partner and I were given the power and funding to pick 35 strangers (and 3 people we met in Denver) to bring to Rio, Brazil. Once there those strangers quickly became friends and we helped many of them start their own DAOs and projects (NFTs etc) and helped secure funding for them to launch.
The best part was that no one there knew that I run my own coaching and consulting business (expect my partner Kate of course), but people kept telling me how good I was at coaching and consulting. LOL the power of doing what you love, and knowing you love it no matter what environment you’re in.
It’s one of the reasons I’m excited about the potential of DAOs. For many of us, we love what we do and we never want to be in a position where someone else is telling us what we need to do or how to do it, but we still miss getting to create with others.
DAOs are designed to reward self motivated, innovative, action takers. There is no CEO or ‘person in charge’. There might be leaders and core team members but they are simply people who have more responsibility on whatever goal your DAO is working towards - but that doesn't mean they have more power or authority - it does mean though they can have a greater impact on the project.
Being a serial entrepreneur, I know that some of the ideas and projects I want to bring to life will require me to work with others, but I also know that I don’t want to be a ‘CEO’. I want collaborators, co conspirators, not employees. DAOs are the first time I’ve felt that I could create those larger projects without having to do it alone, and without having to be the bottleneck CEO that is responsible for everything. Working with my amazing business partner for Astrid Park has taught me a lot about how nice it is to have a teammate.
It’s also worth mentioning that people often work in different DAOs, or like me, have whole other businesses that they run. The space is designed for cross pollination, it encourages people to be creative and do their own thing and you choose to work together because you have shared goals, not because you ‘need a job’.
If you’re interested in learning more, have questions (or concerns), as always feel free to hit reply. I also dive into this topic more on this week’s podcast episode. Check it out here.
Entrepreneurship for me has always been about innovation, expression, bringing ideas to life and getting to choose what and how I spend my time. If you’re the same, DAOs might be something fun to look into, even if it’s just to learn.
Keep being awesome my friend!