Episode 60

Sophi - Simplifying Bitcoin for the Everyday Person - FUN SEXY COOL! - part 1

Check out Sophi's cover of: "Rich Men North of Richmond" https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=shared&v=riHhD687Idg

Sophi's background: Miami native, Venezuelan roots, and her journey into the Bitcoin world. Sophi's fiance, introduced and convinced her of Bitcoin's importance.

Sophi's involvement in Simply Bitcoin and her creative efforts to make Bitcoin more appealing and understandable.

The challenge of shifting the general population's mindset from fiat to Bitcoin.

Discussing the effectiveness of quick, entertaining content for educating about complex topics.

Bicultural upbringing: How being raised in an American-Venezuelan family influenced Sophi's monetary perspectives.

Sophi's revelation about the parallels between Venezuela's economic issues and potential problems in the U.S.

Sophi's contact info:

Twitter: @internetsophi

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SimplyBitcoin

To learn more about Bitcoin: Join the Orange Hatter Women's Reading Club. Visit https://www.meetup.com/womensbitcoinreadingclubwithorangehatter

Please email questions/comments to Tali@orangehatter.com

HODL UP is available at www.freemarketkids.com.

Remember: Knowledge is empowerment! 🍊🎩

Mentioned in this episode:

Aleia Free Market Kids Sponsorship FULL

Get your HODL UP ("The best bitcoin game ever!") at www.freemarketkids.com.

Transcript
Tali:

Hi everyone.

Tali:

Welcome to Orange Hatter.

Tali:

Today you're listening to a conversation I had with Sophi.

Tali:

Hi, Sophi.

Tali:

It's so wonderful to have you on Orange Hatter.

Tali:

Thank you so much for joining us today.

Sophi:

Thank you so much for having me, Tali.

Sophi:

I'm excited to be here.

Tali:

Yeah.

Tali:

So many questions for you.

Tali:

I've, I've visited your, your Twitter account and I just, first

Tali:

of all, I love, love, love the piece of music that you shared, "the

Tali:

Richmen from North of Richmond."

Tali:

So powerful.

Tali:

So powerful.

Tali:

Why don't we jump right in and just if you could tell us a little bit about

Tali:

your background for our audience.

Sophi:

Yeah, absolutely.

Sophi:

So I am a Miami native, born and raised.

Sophi:

My parents are Venezuelan, so I'm also a Latina.

Sophi:

And I got into Bitcoin because I was orange pilled by Nico

Sophi:

Moran, who's my fiance.

Sophi:

He started telling me about Bitcoin in 2016, and of course I was very skeptical.

Sophi:

I didn't believe that, you know, this could really be a thing.

Sophi:

I was like, ah, this is just like the next, you know, money grab

Sophi:

scheme of, you know, the decade.

Sophi:

I didn't really understand it.

Sophi:

I just lumped it in with all of the other cryptos, the way that most people

Sophi:

do, and I figured, you know, I, I just don't understand this, and why, why

Sophi:

would this be better than the dollar?

Sophi:

I just had so many questions that it actually took him two years to finally,

Sophi:

you know, get through to me and for me to understand the implications of how

Sophi:

important this technology actually is and the ramifications that it has, not

Sophi:

only on the economy, but on politics, culture, and every aspect of life.

Sophi:

You know, there's a reason that people say Bitcoin fixes this and it's because

Sophi:

how far and wide those implications reach almost every facet of our daily lives.

Sophi:

So he, he orange pilled me on that and I basically decided to hop on board

Sophi:

and then he started Simply Bitcoin and I decided to help him kind of do the

Sophi:

bookings and you know, I was helping here and there in the background, also

Sophi:

giving him a lot of moral support.

Sophi:

Now I am working on their short form content, which has been a blast.

Sophi:

I get to do skits and make Bitcoin as, as we say, in, in our, in simply Bitcoin.

Sophi:

Now we are trying to make Bitcoin fun, sexy, cool.

Sophi:

I'm trying to do that with the skits, with the cover that I just did.

Sophi:

I wanted to make it a little bit more pop so that it could reach some people

Sophi:

who maybe, you know, aren't into country.

Sophi:

We're also dropping merch.

Sophi:

So, you know, we're trying to just kind of populate the, the culture a little bit

Sophi:

with Bitcoin so that the Normies can also understand how great of a technology this

Sophi:

is and how this could affect their lives.

Sophi:

So that's a little bit about me.

Tali:

Yeah, so I was watching some of your skits, and I think that my kids

Tali:

will really find them interesting and entertaining because they're

Tali:

always showing me YouTube shorts.

Tali:

They're like, Mom, look at this.

Tali:

This is really funny.

Tali:

And then they will pop it on TV, and it's the similar style.

Tali:

So I feel like it would really speak to their generation.

Tali:

My kids are in in college, it would really reach the, that generation and like you

Tali:

said, it'll be like a really cool thing for them to share with each other, versus

Tali:

more of the traditional Bitcoin talk, which is more like really super serious.

Tali:

Sometimes listening to Bitcoin discussions can be really depressing.

Sophi:

Yeah.

Sophi:

And they're very serious.

Sophi:

And I think that they're meant for people who are already orange pilled, right?

Sophi:

And people who are already orange pilled, we're there.

Sophi:

We like, you know, you don't need to convince us, you just need to

Sophi:

supplement us with more information.

Sophi:

And that's where we get into debates and how to make this

Sophi:

better and more efficient.

Sophi:

And, you know, not how to change it necessarily because

Sophi:

you don't change Bitcoin.

Sophi:

Bitcoin changes you.

Sophi:

But it's, it's about like, you know, deepening your knowledge and

Sophi:

understanding, whereas what I'm trying to do is break out of the echo chamber.

Sophi:

I think it's, I mean, it's awesome to go into deeper understanding,

Sophi:

but that's not my talent.

Sophi:

It's not what I'm good at.

Sophi:

I'm not a very technical person at all, but I do have a lot of creativity.

Sophi:

I have a lot of ideas.

Sophi:

I think that I'm an effective communicator when it comes to taking an idea that's

Sophi:

very complex and translating it in a way where most people will understand it.

Sophi:

And I think that this is something that is both so important, but

Sophi:

also so difficult to get people to actually buy into, because it's money.

Sophi:

What is, you know, I mean, aside from family and your marriage, what is

Sophi:

more important than money, really?

Sophi:

And to get people to change their paradigm and shift in from a fiat

Sophi:

mindset to a Bitcoin mindset.

Sophi:

Is probably one of the biggest challenges that we're gonna face as a society.

Sophi:

So how do we take something that is so complex?

Sophi:

I mean, the average person barely even knows where our money comes from.

Sophi:

They don't know what the Fed is.

Sophi:

They don't know that fiat is not backed by gold anymore,

Sophi:

and it hasn't been since 1971.

Sophi:

So how do you get people to shift the way that they are thinking about something

Sophi:

that they, you know, have been thinking about for so long and change it to this

Sophi:

Bitcoin thing, especially when the space is muddled with so much garbage, like

Sophi:

all of the crypto stuff and the scammers and the NFTs and all of these things

Sophi:

that have nothing to do with crypto, but they all get lumped in because we, you

Sophi:

know, we as a society have a difficult time understanding nuance, so, that's,

Sophi:

that's where I think that I can make a difference in Bitcoin and I can actually

Sophi:

step in and be like, okay, this is how we're gonna teach the next generation.

Sophi:

This is how we're gonna teach even the older generation how, how to

Sophi:

shift their paradigm on money.

Sophi:

This is how we're going to translate it and chew it up so

Sophi:

that it is easier to digest.

Tali:

Yeah, that is definitely sorely needed.

Tali:

And if you make it something that is easily shareable, like

Tali:

entertaining, shareable, then it has a chance to go viral, you know?

Tali:

And I think that's, that's so cool.

Tali:

And I can't wait to tell my girls to check you out.

Tali:

'Cause uh, I think they would get a real kick out of the, the information out

Tali:

there and they'll learn something and they can share it with your friends.

Tali:

That's one of the things that I was really just trying to figure out how

Tali:

to do is, you know, I, as I mentioned before, my husband created a board game

Tali:

and I brought the game actually onto campus to try to get kids involved.

Tali:

But I feel like your content would be, easier to share actually,

Tali:

you know, 'cause it's, it's short and it's, it's to the point.

Tali:

And then if they get curious, the game can maybe help them understand the

Tali:

nuances of the technical side of it.

Tali:

But man, just to get them interested, that is really, really key.

Sophi:

Yeah.

Sophi:

I think that if you can make somebody laugh, or understand something in

Sophi:

less than a minute, then you've, you've, you've done something great.

Sophi:

I think that's the reason why Twitter is such a popular platform and such

Sophi:

an effective way of communicating where, you know, at first it used to

Sophi:

be only 180 characters and people would be able to get huge ideas across and

Sophi:

jokes and just like powerful messages in these very short characters.

Sophi:

Whereas before you would have to write essays and long speeches and books

Sophi:

and this very long format and like all of that content for Bitcoin exists.

Sophi:

And I give it up to the people who have made it because, man, Bitcoin

Sophi:

is not an easy thing to explain, and there is so much depth and technicality

Sophi:

that my hat goes off to all of them.

Sophi:

But like I said, I, I think most people, especially in today's day and age, where

Sophi:

people are used to instant gratification, instant access to knowledge, instant...

Sophi:

like you, you wanna know something, you Google it.

Sophi:

If I can explain to someone what Bitcoin is in less than a minute, if

Sophi:

I can orange pill someone with five points and, and get them to at least

Sophi:

start turning the wheels and thinking about their monetary situation, then

Sophi:

I feel like I've done my job because I, I also like, then I leave it to the

Sophi:

experts who are good at deepening the knowledge and explaining all of the rest.

Sophi:

But my job is like, you know when you go to a club and like there's a

Sophi:

promoter at the door and the promoter's job is to like get girls and, and

Sophi:

people to come inside of the club and they're like, we have the best tables.

Sophi:

We're gonna have the best DJ we're gonna have.

Sophi:

That's, that's me.

Sophi:

And then we leave it to all, like ... is like the DJ, you know what I mean?

Sophi:

Like he'll like really like pull you into like the experience that is Bitcoin.

Sophi:

But you know, I just see myself as kind of the promoter and, and the

Sophi:

person who's gonna get you in the door.

Tali:

I love that analogy.

Tali:

That is so perfect.

Tali:

That's, I feel like I'm standing outside the club with you and I'm, I'm the

Tali:

one who's passing out the pamphlets.

Tali:

You know.

Sophi:

That's so funny.

Tali:

I, I'm like, you know, in baggy clothes and like, hey,

Tali:

would you like a, a, a pamphlet?

Tali:

I have some information for you.

Tali:

And then you'll be, you'll be like the sales person.

Tali:

And then once they get in, all the rest of the people can talk tech.

Sophi:

Exactly.

Tali:

I'm just the one who passes out the pamphlets.

Sophi:

Exactly.

Sophi:

No, we're we're passing out the wristbands.

Sophi:

We're like, here, you get a discount, you get SATs.

Sophi:

You get SATs.

Sophi:

You get SATs.

Tali:

I love that.

Tali:

I wanna ask you some questions about your upbringing because you mentioned that your

Tali:

parents are originally from Venezuela.

Tali:

Has being in sort of a bicultural family, you know, American and

Tali:

Venezuelan, did that influence how you perceive your sort of monetary

Tali:

interactions in day-to-day life?

Sophi:

At first, it didn't, at first, I, I'm gonna be honest with you, I just

Sophi:

never thought about money, because I, I mean, except for like, in the way

Sophi:

that most people would think about it.

Sophi:

Do we have it?

Sophi:

Do we not?

Sophi:

Are we gonna live like the next day?

Sophi:

But I never really thought about where money came from.

Sophi:

Even as the inflation crisis was hitting Venezuela, I just didn't

Sophi:

understand what that actually meant.

Sophi:

In my mind, I was like, well, an evil dictator has taken over the country, so

Sophi:

of course the economy is gonna do badly.

Sophi:

But I didn't understand the bridge between A and B.

Sophi:

I didn't understand what it was that the government was doing and what

Sophi:

nationalization was doing to our country to make the currency inflate.

Sophi:

And you know, to make basically corruption devalue our, our currency.

Sophi:

So I never really thought about it from that point of view until

Sophi:

I understood what Bitcoin was.

Sophi:

And when I understood Bitcoin, I started going back to my upbringing.

Sophi:

I started, I started understanding, wow, okay.

Sophi:

So they started printing more money to pay off more people to, 'cause it

Sophi:

was a corrupt government and the more people they paid off, the more dollars

Sophi:

they stole from other reserves because the, the ... was backed by the dollar.

Sophi:

And then, you know, when they ran out of dollars, they had to print

Sophi:

more money so that the dollars would be worth more ... then I understood,

Sophi:

wow, they're doing something very similar in the United States.

Sophi:

How could that be?

Sophi:

We don't have a corrupt government or, so I thought, and then that,

Sophi:

that all started making sense.

Sophi:

But at first my upbringing didn't really clue me in to any of this stuff because

Sophi:

I was just, I was living in a bubble.

Sophi:

I didn't know what was going on, and I was very, I just didn't know.

Tali:

What about your parents living in America and being able to see

Tali:

what's going on here just on the edge of what Venezuela has gone through?

Tali:

Do they talk to you about their experience and give you some like recommendations

Tali:

or are they just watching it and thinking there's nothing they can do about it?

Sophi:

Well, So there's a couple of things there.

Sophi:

My parents came to this country in the eighties when the United States

Sophi:

was at the peak of its economic performance, and so they had no idea

Sophi:

that that, you know what, what has happened in the last 20 years happened.

Sophi:

Even today, they're very much in denial that the dollar could collapse or

Sophi:

that the government is corrupt because they've seen it in such an extreme

Sophi:

version in their country that they cannot fathom that it would happen here.

Sophi:

Even though, you know, people, people are people and people make mistakes and,

Sophi:

and nobody is immune to sin, you know.

Sophi:

So, and power corrupts, you know, everybody.

Sophi:

So for them it was very difficult to, and now I've orange pilled them a lot

Sophi:

and they're coming to terms with it.

Sophi:

But for them it was very, very difficult to accept that this

Sophi:

was happening here as well.

Sophi:

And, and they still believe in the institutions.

Sophi:

They, they, they grew up in, in the height of it.

Sophi:

Again, it's what I was mentioning before, it's hard to shift someone's

Sophi:

perspective when they've grown up knowing one thing their whole life and

Sophi:

they were, they grew up thinking that the United States was the greatest

Sophi:

country in the world, and it still is.

Sophi:

And because it's the greatest country in the world, they thought it was

Sophi:

immune to what's happening now with all of the money printing and the

Sophi:

corruption at a government level.

Sophi:

So it was, it's difficult for them.

Sophi:

I have to constantly kind of provide proof of what's happening.

Sophi:

I have to tell them about bricks.

Sophi:

I have to tell them about the CDBCs and FedNow, and everything that's happening,

Sophi:

they just, they, they don't believe it.

Sophi:

It's difficult for them to come to terms with it because they already had to

Sophi:

come to terms with it in their country, and so for them to have worked so hard

Sophi:

to come to the United States, it's hard to go through that trauma again.

Tali:

Thanks for joining us today and learning with us today.

Tali:

If the discussion with our guest resonated with you and you would

Tali:

like to dive deeper into the world of Bitcoin, don't miss out on joining the

Tali:

Orange Hatter Women's Reading Club.

Tali:

The meetup link is in the show notes.

Tali:

Also, if there are women in your life whom you think would both enjoy and

Tali:

benefit from learning more about Bitcoin, please share Orange Hatter with them.

About the Podcast

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About your host

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Tali Lindberg

"Hello everyone, I'm Tali! If you had met me a few years back, you'd have found me in the thick of homeschooling my four incredible kids. That was my world for two decades, filled with lesson plans, school projects, and a whole lot of beautiful chaos. But once they all graduated, a new and unexpected journey began for me - in the world of Bitcoin.

The spark was lit by my husband, nudging me towards this peculiar thing known as Bitcoin. At first, I resisted. After all, the complexity of Bitcoin was intimidating and my plate was already quite full. But he persisted, and even went as far as creating a bitcoin-mining board game, HODL UP, to teach me what it was. Before I knew it, I was orange-pilled, and my curiosity was piqued. What started as a casual dip of my toes soon turned into a fascinating dive into Bitcoin. Like my homeschooling journey, I took it slow, one baby step at a time, learning and adapting as I delved deeper.

Fast-forward to today, I am absolutely thrilled to share my Bitcoin adventures with all you amazing and busy women out there through this podcast. I've made sure the episodes are bite-sized and easy to follow, perfect for your coffee breaks or while running errands. My goal? To share my experiences and the experiences of other women in Bitcoin in an engaging, easily digestible way. Don't let time constraints or technical jargon stop you from diving into Bitcoin. As your friendly guide, I hope to provide a grounded, relatable perspective to help you navigate the Bitcoin rabbit hole. So, here's to us exploring this thrilling digital frontier together!