DashForce Outreach to International (Women) Entrepreneurs

[Aniinl]

Hi Everyone,

I am Anja, I joined the Dash (Slack) Community in February, and last month (September 2017) I also joined the DashForce team. I will be reporting on my adventures here every month, but I thought I'd first give you a little introduction what/who I'm focusing on and what my goals are.

My target group is international online entrepreneurs - both in Germany and across the globe.

By online entrepreneurs I mean solo-preneurs like coaches, web designers, marketing consultants, writers, nutritionists, business strategists - anyone who runs their business location independently and deals with their customers and suppliers mainly through email, Skype, Paypal, etc. Many of them sell online courses or 1:1 sessions through their website, as well as ebooks, etc.

90% of this target group happens to be female, so I also consider this sort of an outreach to women.

I have been one of them and been hanging out with them since 2010. They have also been my clients, so I know them inside out - their dreams, their hopes, their struggles and worries - and I believe they are the perfect target group for Evolution.

So everything I do in my outreach efforts is with future Evolution users in mind.

I do not just randomly give away Dash to everyone I meet - instead I have lots of deep conversations, talking about my favorite subject: Crypto & Dash. (I drink a lot of coffee with people... )
Basically I spend my time planting lots of seeds and building relationships, which often results in people asking me for help with actually buying Dash or even Masternode shares.

I do NOT “sell” them Dash as an investment. All I want is to expand people's minds about crypto as an alternative to our current money system. They first have to thoroughly understand that, before I can even start about Evolution. But once they *get it* I tell them how Dash is different from the rest and how they could benefit from Evolution in their life and business.

Saving costs in their business, earning interest on their savings, having a hassle free way to pay their virtual assistants in India or the Philippines, having a method to send money home (many of them are expats) or receiving payments from their international clients, AND being part of something that will change the world (and that has an actual business model) THAT’s what piques their interest.

They are all world changers.
They are all craving freedom and self-direction for themselves and others.
They are all used to looking behind the veil and seeing “what else is out there”.
They are all willing to question the status quo and ready to try out new things - even if they are the only one in their circle of friends.
They are also used to looking at their relationship with money and finding new and better ways of dealing with it.

Most of them quit their corporate jobs in order to start their own business - against all the good advice from their families. And while they might make less money now, they feel free and more authentic and aligned with what they do. So they are way more open to embrace new things than the majority of the population.

This target group consists of a lot of leaders and trend setters.

They all have a small or large amount of followers. People who crave freedom just as much as them but have not dared to take the plunge yet, look up to them.

This is why I am focusing on them. Not only will they strengthen the Dash community, but we’ll create a ripple effect because many more people will hear about crypto and Dash through them. Whether it will be just through a subtle “Dash Accepted Here” button on their website, or through actual purposeful outreach efforts. These people have platforms, podcasts, online networks - they are natural sharers who want to make a difference in the world.

Fun fact: The people who have most embraced this so far (by actually investing in masternode shares) are women in their fifties (a freelance writer, a counsellor and a hypnotherapist). And while not all of them are “grandmas” it just shows that Dash is on the right path with, “Will it work for grandma?” as a guiding principle. Dash simply makes sense to them, and if Evolution truly becomes as user friendly and easy to use as intended, we will be able to tap into a huge market there.

September was my first “official” month at DashForce. It might take a couple of months of actively planting seeds, however I hope to create momentum soon and see the ripple effect. I will post my September report below and future ones as well.

This is me online:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjaschuetz/
http://anjaschuetz.net/
http://www.followyourjoy.de/ (German)

I'm so happy and proud to be part of the Dash movement!
Anja
PS - I don't hang out here a lot, but I'm in the Slack channel almost daily.

 

[Aniinl]

Please find a recap of my September activities including lots of photos in this file.

 

[Blake]

Good stuff! As someone who also has lots of conversations about DASH while not always trying to sell it or pitch it- I see what you are doing here. It's a long term plan-and I find myself on the same path. If I can just get the seeds planted I feel I am doing something great. Good work here!

 

[Aniinl]

Thanks, Blake!

 

[jimbursch]

I suggest posting the text of your update in the forum, rather than just linking to an external file. Speaking just for myself, I am always reluctant to click on links to external files -- it poses a security risk akin to clicking on links in an email from a stranger. You can include the link in the post, but it would be nice for us paranoids to be able to see your update without having to click on a link.

That being said, I am interested in getting your feedback about the Dash Messaging Network Licensing Program, which might be a good match for what you do:
--

Build a digital asset
Welcome to the Dash Messaging Network Licensing Program.

With a D-MSG network license you can turn your network into a valuable digital asset that can generate revenue and increase in value as it grows. The following is a description of how the program works.

https://d-msg.com/network

 

[Aniinl]

Thanks @jimbursch, I might post the highlights in text form here, but since the report contains all the images and proof of transactions, I'll keep them in there.

 

[Aniinl]

October Recap

This month I had a lot of meetings and communication to plan things that will only take place in November. So I have less transactions (Dash giveaways) to show this month, but if all goes as planned, that will all change in November due the upcoming speaking appointments I arranged for.

Interviews

I got interviewed three times this month, though only one has been published so far: https://medium.com/stayawhile-presents-faces-of-crypto/faces-of-crypto-anja-schuetz-1456c51b2d6d

The second one is a similar one and will appear on https://womenincrypto.blog/

The third one is in German, for a series on "Change" with different speakers covering different angles of change, and I'm speaking on cryptocurrencies as a big change to our money system.

Upcoming activities for November

I will be speaking to digital nomad followers of podcaster Amy Scott of http://www.nomadtopia.com/ on November 9 – promoting Dash as an alternative for international payments and hoping to put more pins on discoverdash.com as a result of this.

On November 11 I will be hosting the Bitcoin girls meetup in Berlin – this time I announced Dash help and giveaway, so maybe more than 2 women will come So far 15 people have signed up, if half of them actually show up, I'll be happy.

On November 18 I will be speaking at the Irish Embassy about cryptocurrencies as an alternative/diversification to pension planning / investment – will add a Dash giveaway (100 participants are expected).

Proof of transactions of Dash giveaways can be found in this file.

Here are some October impressions...

 

[jimbursch]

Excellent! Thank you.

 

[Aniinl]

November Recap

Hi everyone, November was a busy month! (Nice busy )

Interviews & Speaking Engagements with Dash giveaways

• I got interviewed in German for a series on Change, where I spoke about the changes in our money system.

• I was a guest speaker on cryptocurrencies on a webinar with Amy Scott for her Nomadtopia community (only three attended live, but there's about 50 who might watch the replay). The video is not public, this is only a screenshot.

• I spoke at the Irish embassy in Berlin at a business event on cryptocurrencies as an alternative for pension planning. Mentioned Dash a lot in my speech and 140 people listened attentively.
• Gave away Dash to only three afterwards, but at least one of them has also bought Dash in the meantime.

• Gave a workshop on cryptocurrencies and decentralization to a group of coaches - they all asked very specific questions about Dash and two of them left with a clear intention to buy.
• Also hosted the monthly Bitcoin girls meetup where some of them showed genuine interest and actively asked me about Dash with the intention to invest.

I helped 20 people install wallets this month and gave them some Dash. Here are some impressions:

• I also started a free "Crypto-Fitness with Anja" email series on my website, that people can sign up to, where one email is 100% dedicated to Dash and links to Dash School on youtube. This is an ongoing series that people can subscribe to anytime, so they will all get this email in their inbox at some point. So this is marketing for Dash "forever"

These were the highlights of this month.

More details and proof of transactions of Dash giveaways can be found in this file.

 

[Aniinl]

December Recap

Hi everyone, December wasn't as quiet as expected - I reached more people than ever before and gave away Dash and helped install first wallet to 29 people.

I was invited to hold a webinar for a group of people in the UK, and introduce them to Dash. It was organized by someone I brought into Dash months ago. Now she's such a fan that she organised this call for a number of her contacts.

Also the Bitcoin girls group of Berlin keeps growing fast - I had about 20 participants this month, but only 2 or 3 had previously joined (and received Dash) so this was a whole new group. I only gave away Dash to the new ones, however I heard from a number of people that they did buy Dash after I had introduced them to it "because they understood it much better when I explained it in person, rather than studying it on the internet". That was nice feedback and shows me that what I do is working.

I also helped an artist from Steemit download a wallet and send him some Dash, and instead of sending me a photo with his wallet, I asked him to come up with a Christmassy sketch about Dash. This is what he made. I think he depicted the difference (well, one) between Dash and Bitcoin pretty well and lots of people shared in on Twitter on Christmas. (If anyone would like to send him some tip to his barcode on the image, that would make me very happy )

I also gave some Dash away to some of the commenters on his Steemit post.

I also had several 1:1 sessions, wallet installations and giveaways, as usual.

More details and proof of transactions of Dash giveaways can be found in this file.

Happy dashy New Year, everyone!
Anja

 

[Zuka]

Sounds great!) Its a dream job, to have so many meetings and drinking coffe with different people

 

[Aniinl]

Absolutely! I consider myself a professional coffee drinker

 

[Aniinl]

Hi everyone, after a busy November and December, I had less Dash giveaways this month, and focused heavily on outreach instead.


Outreach to bloggers, podcasters and journalists

I connected with people from Holland, Belgium, Thailand, Berlin and the U.S. about interviews and reaching their audiences.

• I subscribed to a list of reporters and bloggers looking for sources, and started responding to every query related to cryptocurrencies.
• I also joined lots of Facebook groups where bloggers and podcasters look for interview guests, and approach them re crypto related topics.

Of course it’s hit and miss and I only get 1 reply for every ten emails I send, but this Vice article was one result for example: https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/3k5yz3/wall-street-meets-pepe-cryptocurrency-is-a-bros-world

I got quoted in there a couple of times in regards to women in crypto. Sadly they cut out most of the Dash stuff :/ but at least they mentioned it as “the rising altcoin”

Another result was this podcast that I got interviewed on: https://secondbreaks.com/podcast/anja-schuetz-cryptocurrency/

This was a great one for beginners I believe - many people from "way back when" contacted me afterwards and I also got additional interview requests as a result. I got to mention Dash a few times in there and also sent the interviewer some Dash.

Dash Giveaways and wallet installations

Only a few this month (in terms of people, but in terms of Dash I sent more than ever, see photo on the right but okay, that's my brother...). I'm pretty sure 4 out of those 5 will go and buy Dash soon. These were all more-than-1-hour conversations. They were truly interested in crypto and how Dash is different from the rest, and asked really good questions.

Proof of transactions can be found here in this file.
From previous Dash giveaways last month, I know that at least two people bought Dash, since they contacted me for help with it.


Other than that, random social media comments here and there in all kinds of groups and forums, as usual, like this on Steemit:

 

[Aniinl]

This was a good month! I reached more people than ever before.

As you may remember, I focus mainly on location independent online entrepreneurs with international clients. I believe they are interested and attracted to crypto and specifically Dash faster than most other target groups because,

• they are used to taking responsibility for their own money, income and financial future
• they are very open for new things, they want to actively change the world, and they are used to living a different life and doing things differently than the rest of their family and friends
• they need global payment methods that enable them to move money across borders without losing too much on conversion and transaction fees for themselves and their clients - so they won’t see crypto only a speculation tool, but as something they will actually practically use as soon as possible

So this is why I decided to spend a month in Chiang Mai in February, which is a hub for these “Digital Nomads” and see if I could connect with some of them.

And I did! There are 2-3 crypto related meetups per week here, and I’ve attended pretty much all of them. In one of the earlier ones, which was about “Finding a job in Crypto” I took the mic for a minute and spoke about how I started working for Dash (at 15:15min in the clip below).

Since then people knew me as the Dash lady and approached me at following meetups to learn more about it. I know of three specific cases where people re-considered looking at Dash after we spoke.

Outreach to bloggers, podcasters and journalists

I connected with a few people here who were interested in interviewing me, but since there are many people here into passive income “no matter what”, I’m not sure if I actually want to be interviewed by them, or if they are involved in MLM’s, scams, etc.
I need to do a little more research on them before I put Dash’s reputation at stake.

Events taken place

I got interviewed by a friend for her youtube channel, and while I loved the interview, we found out later that the audio was not aligned with the video, and the quality was really bad, so we ended up not publishing it. What a pity. I gave a live demonstration on how to install a Jaxx wallet and send Dash from one wallet to another.

Here is the unlisted link just to show how often there is time invested in invisible work.

The good thing that came out of this failed recording, is that we decided to do it again - this time with an audience.

We gave a “My first Crypto” workshop last Sunday and almost 40 people showed up.

We got loads of great feedback after the event.

There was a girl, who didn’t want to take any Dash from me the first time I met her and introduced her to crypto. She was scared to even install a wallet.

Then she attended our event, learned about the WHY and the WHAT of crypto, learned from all the questions the others were asking and she told me how “safe” she felt in the environment and that this was one of the best events she had attended in Chiang Mai. She’s now super happy with her first Dash and wants to accept crypto in her business.

I also had two people approach me about the Dashforce Meetup program, one from Seattle, who teaches kids and teenagers about crypto and finance, and another who would like to continue this in Chiang Mai after I have left (and in the rest of Asia). I have shared the appropriate links with them.

We also received questions on "how to buy more Dash" from people I had given the Dash conversation & Give away a week earlier.

The event was fantastic and inspired me to try this out in Berlin as well, when I’m back. We had more women than men, which is unusual (and great), but we also heavily promoted it in digital nomad women forums.

There were 40 people there and 32 queued up to receive Dash. The few who didn’t stand in the queue were people who already got Dash from me earlier or who told me they already were happy owners of Dash.

DASH in Brussels

I invited @roxane to our Dash Community and Discord, a very motivated and determined crypto enthusiast who practically built the whole French speaking community on Steemit. She also has successfully built several other Facebook communities with more than 1,000 members each.

She is seriously interested in Dash and promoting it in Brussels and in her French speaking online community. She already successfully runs local crypto meetups in Brussels, so I hope she will get all the support she needs from us.

Gave away 0.34 DASH to 42 people this month

More first wallet pics here:
https://twitter.com/ConnectEconomy/status/966352302960361472
https://twitter.com/ConnectEconomy/status/965536769406980098
https://twitter.com/ConnectEconomy/status/964891947641987074
https://twitter.com/ConnectEconomy/status/963281267755122690

 

[ayo_brezzy]

@Aniinl -

Just wow! Amazing work. I’m hoping to begin a campaign targeting HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) and I could really use some tips on best practices.... could you use an intern/roadie/girl-Friday or anything will work for knowledge

 

[Aniinl]

Thank you @ayo-brezzy!

The good thing about decentralization is that each of us can serve the target group we know best, can easily connect with, and who's language we speak. For me that's international online entrepreneurs, for you it's the students (or teachers? or employees?) in those colleges, for someone else it might be forklift drivers or musicians.

I wouldn't be able to tell you how to approach students of those colleges because that's not my expertise. I guess you picked them because you've been to such a college or university? Then you know their dreams and goals as well as their worries and frustrations because you are/have been one of them. And you can authentically speak about how they can benefit from cryptocurrencies or blockchain in general, and from Dash in particular. And *why*. Just as I can authentically speak to my target group because I am one of them, too.

Just start having conversations about it everywhere you go, and look for people (students, teachers or employees) who could give you an entry and an audience to speak to. In my case that's very well connected entrepreneurs with an audience - whether that is a large mailing list or a podcast with a large following of my target group. Of course I have to start with the "low hanging fruits" - the people I already know and who trust me, and through that gain more and more exposure and momentum, so the "big ones" will also want to speak to me one day. Maybe you can find an equivalent to that in your world.

It helps having lots of 1:1 conversations and giving people some Dash and getting them excited. Once they are excited, they will share it with others. This is what I have done for the past 6 months as part of Dashforce, and actually for 6 months before that, without getting paid. I had to *become* a Dash person first and feel confident enough that I a) can really provide value to the Dash network and b) want to build and do this long term. It does take time to build, but maybe your target group will be much easier and faster than mine.

I do consider mine pretty open to new things in general, and especially when it comes to money, but I still encounter women who actually do NOT want a wallet and free money when I first meet them. I have to talk to them two or three times before they are ready. They are scared. They have a lot of misconceptions about crypto, based on their previous conditioning, and it takes time to break that.

I met a woman last week, who said "I'll think about it" after I offered her free Dash and had just talked with her about crypto for an hour. I was quite surprised about that. When I met her the second time at an event, I asked her about it and she told me that she's scared if she decides on a wallet, she will be stuck with it forever. And since she doesn't have enough knowledge yet, she was scared to take that decision. It was only at our third meeting (when she attended our workshop) that she finally installed a wallet and accepted Dash from me. By this time she had heard the same info basically three times, and now it had sunk in, and she was actually so excited about it, that she wants to accept crypto in her business from now on (Dash, hopefully )

So, sometimes a LOT of time and effort and patience goes into this (and it sucks for Dashforce, who pays me, because all of this is invisible to them and they have to trust me a lot, while they would much prefer to measure my success by how many wallets I install and how much Dash I give away, after all this is something you can actually count. How do you measure all the other work that goes into that?? So I'm super grateful for their support and trust over the past half year.)

But it does pay off over time, and I'm beginning to have people line up audiences for me now (whether it is small webinars as in previous months, or this workshop in February). All this is a result of all the "invisible" efforts in previous months. So you may have "bad" months in terms of new wallets, but all the invisible outreach work during those months will bear fruits and in really good months later.

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll help if I can. We need to reach more people fast!
Anja

 

[demo]

@amanda_b_johnson (correctly) said:

Dear cryptocurrency: You're still far too young an industry to begin playing gender politics. Those kinds of divisions are for crumbling regimes. In contrast, the cryptosphere still very much depends on other things, like contributed skill and intellect. Sincerely, Amanda

Please do not expose the faces of the women. Protect their anonymity.

Additionaly, you should invite women in closed door cryptoparty meetings, and let them create dash wallets and proove their individuality while remain anonymous.

 

[Sberfond]

Good luck in business!

 

[Aniinl]

Hi everyone,
in German we have a saying, "When you're most successful, it's time to leave".

I'm sad to say that my time with Dashforce has come to an end. While I have been utterly grateful for their trust and support of my work over the past six months, I found out recently that I had been "docked" since January. Apparently they were not happy with my "performance" of January, though sadly nobody communicated that to me until mid March when it suddenly came up in a conversation and it transpired that we had a huge misunderstanding and they had a totally different agreement with me, than I had with them.

All good things must come to an end. I will continue my work just like I did before I received the support from Dashforce, though it is sad that I can't give any free Dash away anymore.

If anyone DOES believe in my approach and trusts me enough to support me, please do get in touch.

With Dashforce's help I have been able to *thoroughly educate* 163 people and give away a total of 2 Dash over the past 6 months. For that I am really grateful.

 

[yocko]

Well, it is a very sexist campaign you are running, Imagine the backlash if this was in reverse. lol