Lani Dizon

Lani Dizon: The Shades of Entrepreneurship - March 15

VIEW RECORDING - 50 mins (No highlights): https://fathom.video/share/jTKPiynXWzN3ioxCzUgJzkszFQyyfnU3

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0:00 - Lei Lani

So here at the end of the week after and I'll tell you meeting is being recorded So as you slowly start to see it's gonna pop up well perfect and love thank you so much I'm really grateful that you you're having me on the show.

0:14 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

So thank you so much All right, so let's let's get going here.

0:19 - Lei Lani

I'm gonna go and hit the record button. We'll get going. Okay Hello everyone and welcome to the shades of entrepreneurship.

0:33 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

This is your host mr. Flores Today, I'm I'm really interested about this call because this entrepreneurship is actually gone in from the pan and What time is it over now?

0:45 - Lei Lani

It's one in the morning.

0:47 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

It is one in the morning So today we have a Rio coin lanny design. I'm really excited about this one This is a crypto. So folks that know me know I do dabble in the crypto, but again, I feel it's something I have no clue what's going on.

1:02 - Lei Lani

Before we get on to that, why don't you give us an introduction? Yeah, sure. I would say I'm pretty much a self-made entrepreneur. I'm one child out of four. I was in the Navy brat. My father, he was in the military, always normally at sea when he was in the Navy. My mother, she had the role of both father and mother because he was always away. Unfortunately, at a very young age, because my father was exposed to a lot of the chemicals in the military, he died of cancer at the age of 43. So that was extremely devastating for me and my family made a profound impact on me because I was only 12 years old. My family was not prepared and I had to grow up very, very quick. I had to be very independent and at that time, you know, I thought that I wanted to become a doctor. I wanted to be in medicine because I wanted to help people. And so, I got into nursing and then I wanted to become a medical doctor. But then, Destiny actually took me to a totally different path. My mom, while I was going to school and working full time, she introduced me to this opportunity, she tried to for three months and I kept denying it, didn't want to attend. then later, she said, you know, you really just have to go. And I wound up going because I was curious, what is my mom getting into here? So, I didn't like sales. This opportunity was about sales. And what changed me, though, is what the speaker had said that day. And just looking around the room and noticing that there was nurses. There was doctors, there was professionals and lawyers, and I said, you know, here I am going to school to become a doctor. Why are all these professionals here? What am I missing? So I listened to him and he basically was talking about becoming an entrepreneur, learning how to build your own business and what it entailed, and I got really intrigued. And although I was in nursing, going to become a doctor, I dove into it and I said, you know what, maybe I should give this a try. And so I did, and I was very shocked at the success that I was getting at such a short amount of time. My first year, I built an organization of over 120,000 people, customers and other entrepreneurs, and that was really incredible back then, because that was pre-internet. I did it all all on pagers and fax machines. So that was it was very incredible, especially the fact that I was 19 years old and I was extremely shy. So you know I was I was very I was very shocked that somebody like me could become successful and so when I made it and of course I had a lot of challenges along the way but when I was surprised that I made it I that's when I dedicated my life to doing this and I I went from wanting to be in medicine to shifting into natural alternatives, natural nutrition. Then after I was exposed to these different companies and gained some success I decided why don't I go ahead and try to make my own product line. So I started working with developers and scientists and I was very passionate. about creating products that did what we say that we're going to do, know, what they're supposed to do. And I was interested in helping people be motivated and have personal development and life enhancement. And so I started all of this in the USA, and then all of a sudden naturally traveled to Japan. And then from Japan, it went to Indonesia and Hong Kong and Thailand and Singapore. And I was really focused on, of course, all women, men of all ages, but I really focused on women's groups, women's organizations, and also the younger generation. And so for the past 30 years, my experience as an entrepreneur has helped me to learn more about business consulting and global marketing and branding and building corporate networks, product development. And all of these things, so I believe in entrepreneurship. I think it's so wonderful because it helps you branch out into so many different things. And all the personal development and health are my passions and always will be. I heard about Bitcoin in 2011. And I remember trying to get a wallet, so complicated. And when I looked into it, I said, you know what, there's a lot of opportunity here, but I also saw a lot of challenges. Cryptocurrency is very difficult for the average person to understand. Very complicated, very, very foreign, but I also understood that for the future, it's going to create a lot of new opportunities, just like the internet, 25 to 30 years ago. And so with my desire to make a greater impact on the global scale, beyond health and wellness, that's... what led me to my path today. And now I'm the founder of Zenza Capital, which is now working on this tremendously great project.

7:13 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I love it. know, well, I'm going to work with you. That was phenomenal, a phenomenal kind of a summary of your background. And I'm going to kind of try to unpack it all. So first, let's start at the beginning. you mentioned, you talked about really being shy. Jumping into a sales role. What, what did you do? kind of tactics or what kind of advice would you get folks to kind of come? How did you get out of your shell to become a lead sales agent?

7:42 - Lei Lani

Well, it all started with, you know, me not liking sales at all. And I never thought that I could get into sales. In fact, the one thing that made me successful is that is when I shifted away. from taking it with sales. And then I started sharing. And that's what I was taught by my mentor back then who actually became my business partner and actually we're still working together after 30 years. But what he taught me was focus on the people, don't focus on the money. And when you have genuine intentions, that is what's going to help you through. And the better you help people, the more you help people, that's just a report card. The amount of money you make is just a report card of how well you help people. And so I broke out of my shyness by number one believing in the product that I was going to sell. And when I believed in the product, it's almost like just sharing a great movie that you liked or a great restaurant that you liked. And so when I started doing that and started sharing the product, that I was promoting, I took my focus off of the money off of my shyness and I put my focus on my belief and help truly helping people and that was really incredible because you know I thought that I was going to be helping people in the medical field but now helping people with health even before they got ill was really just beyond what I imagined.

9:28 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And you know one of the things you also mentioned is you found yourself at this conference with an individual speaking about entrepreneurship to a bunch of businesses. One tell us little bit more about that and what led you to that?

9:42 - Lei Lani

Well what led me to it was my mother because I was going to nursing school and I was going to school full-time and work full-time and she invited me to go to this meeting and when I went there again I was very negative about it. I thought Who were these people taking my mom's money? That was the only reason why I went. And so that's what really led me there. I didn't expect to be there. I never expected to be out of the medical field. I thought that was my future. I was going to be a medical doctor. In fact, all the things that I have accomplished in my career over the past 30 years, I would have never imagined that I could accomplish what I did. And I owe it all to becoming an entrepreneur at the young age of 19.

10:36 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Now, let's talk about that transition. So you're at 19, you're starting to do your cells. And then you start transitioning again. Talk about that pivot in your career.

10:47 - Lei Lani

So when I was sharing these products and taking the products myself, I really believed in the whole opportunity. entrepreneurship and the products. However, there were some issues, not issues, but I always saw that the products could be better or other things could be better. And I thought, you know, I've learned to be an entrepreneur, I'm learning how to build a business. What happens if I take it a step further? And then that's when I started contacting scientists and formulators and finding out, okay, if I were to create my own product, what would I create? I started asking the scientists and formulators, if I were to make a product so great that you would put your name on it, what would you want? And so I started focusing really on results. Rather than profits, it was about creating products that people want to take, love to take, and can take for a lifetime for the entire family. So that's how I started off, is that's what I was looking for with the product side, and then I had to build a team. So learning, first I had to have the vision, and I had to have the products, and then I had to build the team, and then I knew a little bit more about marketing, so I brought that in, and then it was all about sharing it, and just starting the company, and just growing one customer at a time, I'm one entrepreneur at a time. And yeah, that's how I got my results, just keeping my focus on the task.

12:37 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I love it, I would love to dig into that a little bit more as well, you're talking about product development, and finding the right product to build your team. Talk about your experience going through the product development. What did you do to, you mentioned you reached out to a bunch of networking. What else did you do to kind of, you know, thinking about like the stage gates of a product? What all do you have to do you think about when you do product development?

13:04 - Lei Lani

Well, when you do product development, you have to consider the cost. You have to consider the timelines. You also have to consider when you're making a product for your own, there's the amount of products that you have to make. So, for example, one of my products is antioxidant beverage and I've had this product over the years. It's probably been 20 years since I've had this product. And my goal was to make it multi-function. Multi-function because there's so many products out there. You don't know what to take and a lot of it doesn't taste good or it's very complicated. So even skincare, for example, you've got dry skin and oily skin and combination skin. And so what I try to do is create products. Very slim product line, but that has many products all in one. So a lot of my customers will show me, I used to take all these products and they'll show me like 20 bottles of products and then they'll say, now I only take your one product. And so it's about multifunction, it's about the cost, making sure that it's cost-friendly for the consumer, making sure that it tastes good or, you know, people would want to take it and share it with others and global wise, oh, and also because I ship these products all over the world, they have to be stable for all different kinds of environments. So that's what you look for for product development.

14:50 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

You know, that's a great point and I think that some people might forget about is, you know, the wear and tear that these products go through. Chipping, you know overseas. No, talk about you. You mentioned, you know, once you got your team going, you started marketing, but specifically you talked about global marketing. So can you tell us a little bit more about what your experience is in the global marketing world? And how does that kind of differ from just, you know, social media outreach?

15:18 - Lei Lani

Well, okay, so for global marketing, it actually became very natural for me. And I think the reason why is because I naturally expanded my business to Japan. And to be honest, I've been here for 30 years, over 30 years. I don't speak Japanese, which is very, very difficult to run a business. In this country, it's probably, I would say, it is the most difficult country to have a business in or to deal with, because there's so much strictness and regulations, it's a very homogenous society. But with the global marketing once the reason why I was so interested in Japan is because it because it is strict and because it is Respected all over the world because of quality. I Knew that if I could make it here in Japan then I could make it anywhere else And so when my products were very very well embraced here and people started hearing about it in Indonesia and Hong Kong and Thailand and Just the Philippines and all over Asia Vietnam They caught they were contacting our company just naturally saying wow Are we really want to try your products? so that's when we started branching out into these other other countries You know that's that's interesting.

16:55 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I would love to kind of hear some of your your strategy like when you're tired and true strategies that

17:00 - Lei Lani

you use to globally scale your business? Well, I would say that it has to do with a great team. And having a great team that really believes in the vision and that are dedicated just as much as I am, that share the vision. So I would say that would be probably the number one thing. And also just understanding also when you're building a business, you have to always remember, well, what I've done is I've taught a lot of entrepreneurs what to focus on, like on a daily basis, how to stay focused. And so I kind of broke it down to them in a very simple A, B, C, E, F, G. And D, starting with having a goal. You absolutely have to have a goal. And F, then this is moving backwards. So G is the goal. F is having focus. E is you have a business, so you have to expose that business. And then D would be you have to duplicate yourself. So you have to have a great team that you duplicate yourself with that has the same vision as you. And then C is you have to have tremendous commitment. That no matter what you have endured, I attitude. And then B is you have to have belief in yourself, belief in your company, belief in your product, belief in what you're doing. And then A is you have to have consistent action in what you do. So that is what I always remember every day. That's what I follow. But on top of that, I've always taught my team. And I think that the reason why I've done so well I've well, is because I've because I'm out there with my team all the time. You'll never see me in an office just behind the scenes. I'm always out there with my customers, traveling, meeting them, shaking hands. I love to hear the testimonials that they have, and I'm always there with my team. So they're hand in hand showing them, taking them step by step. And so I've always created a culture of like a family-like culture. So I have people that have worked for me up to 25 years, 28 years just from all over the world that have stuck by my side because it's beyond just a job. But it's actually believing in something.

19:49 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, I'm sure with 30 years of experience doing this, you've had some setbacks, right? How do you turn some of these short-term?

20:00 - Lei Lani

from setbacks into long-term triumphs? Well, setbacks are always going to come. And what I've learned is after falling on my face so many times, know, because I've gone through a lot. And it's very difficult starting a company and being a woman or being in the corporate world and being a woman. There are, you know, a lot of disadvantages. But it's all in the way you turn it into, you know, an advantage and not looking at it as a disadvantage. So that is what I would say is, you know, you have to always understand that you're going to go through challenges. But how fast are you going to get up? How fast are you going to recover and focus on the solution? So whenever there's a challenge involved, what I always do is I look at the solution at the end. And when I look at the solution, I work backwards. And I have my focus set. on that solution. So, one of my, um, one of my slogans is life with no limits. And the reason why is because, you know, when we're young, right, we think that we're invincible. We think that we can do anything. And then as we're getting older, we kind of get beat down because we're told, no, you can't do this. You can't do that. Or, you know, you just go through a lot of negative experiences in your life. And that kind of shapes you. And you kind of, that's when you kind of packaged into this box thinking, wait, you got, you package yourself in all these limitations. And so what I've learned to do is realize when I'm putting myself, when I'm creating a limitation around me, and I break out of that. And that's what I've helped a lot of people do is, is kind of break the barriers to limitations. And, and remember that, you know, there's always going to be challenges. You always have to focus on a solution. You have to always focus on the end result. So it's like being in a race when you're in a marathon, okay? You're always focused on that finish line and you always try to get away from distractions as much as you can and you focus on that finish line. And that's how I owe, that's my mentality now is I always focus on the goal in the end. And that's what I teach my teams to do. And I think that that is what's really helped me and my teams because we're always focused on proactivity and positivity.

22:35 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Focus on that ABCD-E-FG. really like that. It's really good working backwards.

22:41 - Lei Lani

Thank you.

22:42 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Now, one of the things I do want to point out, don't think people know this. This is not folks. not trying to get this. I really want to ask these questions to kind of hurt. how do individuals do that?

23:02 - Lei Lani

How do you encourage entrepreneurs to do that? Cause I'm all about generational wealth. So I'm also interested. How do we do it?

23:12 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Say that.

23:13 - Lei Lani

Okay. Cause, um, you know, to me, in the end, uh, money to me, it doesn't mean much of anything anymore. It's just, you know, the more money you make, the more challenges you can have if you don't have the right mindset. And so, you know, I just, what I do is I just focus on my task. I just focus on, on trying to do more, uh, for the, for society, for people, for the world. And that's what I put my focus on. And I think that that's, that's, that's why I'm blessed. Because I feel like the more, the more you, you have genuine intention to end you. you put yourself out there and not expect anything in return and in helping people the more blessings you get back and so that's really how I do it I mean it's really not much more than that.

24:14 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah and I think you know one thing I always constantly tell folks is it's about habits right creating habits to continue to be successful what would you say are three habits that had led you to your financial success.

24:26 - Lei Lani

I would say as far as habits are concerned always just like you have to exercise your body and you have to feed your health you know your health you have to exercise your mind so mindset to me is the most important thing because if you have the right mindset no matter what challenges you go through your mindset will get you through your absolutely anything and then number two is I try. to avoid negativity because think about it like in during COVID, right? They said that it's the most dangerous virus in the world. But to me, negativity is the most negative and dangerous virus in the world because you could be on the other side of the world speaking to somebody and your attitude can actually affect somebody else without even being right next to them. You could just, you know, affect how somebody feels. So negativity and, you know, for example, a lot of people, or most people, if they look at their bank account and they see that it's negative, what is the first thing that they're going to do? They're going to panic and they're saying, oh my gosh, I'm going to make my bank account positive, right? But in reality, What most of us do day to day because of the challenges that we go through and that we face is we don't do that same thing with our mind. We could be negative, hold that negativity constantly for long periods of time. But how much more are minds that we should shift to positive than our own bank accounts. So that would be the second and then third is just trying to have some kind of balance because when I was younger, I was a workaholic. I mean, I would just work, work, work and not take time for myself. And so I learned to have a little bit more balance through my my dog.

26:52 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I don't have any kids.

26:56 - Lei Lani

you know, my my my dog is my son. and so he helps me. So I try to take walks with him and just break away and just try to be one with the world, one with the earth. And so that is what makes me happy, you know, when I kind of try to have a little bit more balance. still am a workaholic, but you know, I try. I definitely try as well.

27:27 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

You know, and I think you're right in regards. I really like your statement the bad energy, right? To kind of exclude bad energy in your life. And I think that's so Nick Saban, the former Alabama coach, college football, he talks about that too. know, every day you wake up, you have an opportunity to change somebody else's day, either for a good or bad, just buy your reactions and your interactions with that one person. So for example, you go to Starbucks and then you're kind of an to that barista.

27:54 - Lei Lani

They're probably going to have a bad right? Exactly.

27:58 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

if you go in there with a smile and you think, And you tip them and you're like, hey, I appreciate it.

28:02 - Lei Lani

Even though you spelt my name wrong, this cop is amazing, right? Absolutely. And, you know, there's a lot of times when when you meet somebody and they have a pretty bad attitude, but then if you just sprinkle some kindness, you know, on that person and you let them know, you know, are you having a bad day or are you okay? And then they automatically shift, you know, it's a positive because what do you to lose? got 50, 50 chance of, you know, helping them shift. And so, yeah, I think that especially around the world, you know, a lot of disconnect that we're having around the world, it's needed nowadays.

28:43 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, it's very much needed. And, you know, it's a just that statement to, you know, that I think there's that quote that where the average of the 10 people we hang out with the most. And so if you're finding yourself in a rut pretty consistently, look around the people that you're with.

28:58 - Lei Lani

And if those are

29:00 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

are trying to continue to push you up to succeed and be a better person every day. You might want to look for some other people. I'm not saying that you have to disassociate yourself with your best friends, not at all. I'm just saying, get out there and network, because there is a group of people that want to see you succeed in whatever you do. One of things you talked about as well was, we're always asked to stop doing some things, right? As we're younger, like for example, was out of meaning last night, this award show, talking about how it's frustrating sometimes when kids are asked to, hey, stop goofing around, stop drawing, tinkering. I'm like, no, continue to do it, because that's how it endures, right?

29:40 - Lei Lani

You're right.

29:41 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Let it run wild. I want to see all the crazy, fancy ideas that you guys come up with. In fact, I want to talk about one crazy, fancy idea. Let's talk about real coin.

29:51 - Lei Lani

How would that be a digital currency? Let's talk about it. Okay, well, when I first, when I was... first introduced to Bitcoin, you know, like I mentioned, it was extremely difficult. And so I said, we need to have me and my partner, you know, and our teams, we said, we need to create a coin that is simple and is usable. And how do we do that? Well, nowadays, even down to Bitcoin, yeah, you could buy some things with Bitcoin. quite honestly, nobody wants to use their Bitcoin right now to purchase anything, you know, because because the shift in, you know, the rise in the value. And but there's no other real way for day to day use that it could be, that it could be used. And so what we did is we created this ecosystem. And in this ecosystem, we created the most simple digital wallet that can be used. who's by anybody. And this digital wallet doesn't have the long, you know, wallet IDs like normal. It's almost like Venmo, you know, where you can chat with somebody in the wallet and then you could say, hey, happy birthday. And in a few simple steps, you send them real and as well as other cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum in the wallet. Then with that digital wallet, we also created a global mall. This e-commerce global mall allows it unites merchants and customers together that it that accepts real as payment. And so that was really important because there is no certain one location where you can actually just, you know, use cryptocurrency to buy. And then on top of that, here in Japan, there's no crypto ATMs, but outside of Japan there's over what 60,000 crypto ATMs just in America alone. So there's no ATMs here. So we were able to fortify this ecosystem with a crypto ATM network. The first license ever created, ever given in Japan. So what does that do is you have a simple wallet, a simple e-commerce system, and a crypto ATM network all comprising of very familiar platforms that people already understand and know how to use. And then that will allow people to go to the ATM, they could buy crypto by Rio Bitcoin or Ethereum in the crypto ATM, and then it goes to their wallet, and then from their wallet they can go to the mall and shop. So with the global mall merchants that we're going to be having here in Japan, they're all waiting for this to launch. We don't just onboard high ticket items like a lot of the other cryptocurrencies, a lot of the items that are sold are high ticket items like Ferrari, for example. What we do is we are going down to the day-to-day merchants that sell fruits and vegetables and shoes and other things. And so, again, it's everything that we're doing has never been done before. And that's what we feel that we're going to make a tremendous impact. Our goal is to make it simple, easy to use, because that is what's going to help with global adoption. Just like the internet 30 years ago, where the internet was too difficult. to understand, it wasn't until Hotmail came along that had it made it very simple. It wasn't until Facebook came along that made it, you know, people wanted to get on Facebook and even down to the older generation are getting on Facebook, right? So now everybody around the world is on the internet is is coming along with all this new technology from cryptocurrency to blockchain. And so we also have the first layer one blockchain that is that we've created that's coming out of Japan as well. So it's a it's a tremendous project. It was very very difficult. We've been building this over the past seven years. And the reason another reason why we know that this is the right timing is even since Bitcoin has been around. It's almost been 15 years. Still to this day, it's not usable on a day-to-day basis. can't go and buy a coffee. You can't go and buy a hot dog with it. And so it was, it's very needed to bring it to the masses. also, one other thing is cryptocurrencies now, like Bitcoin, were supposed to be used peer-to-peer. It was used to be supposed to be a digital currency. But it's not really being used as a digital currency. Bitcoin is now more of a digital goal. And so that's the reason why we needed, there's a need for Rio. There's a need for ecosystem to bring it to the average people. And our goal is we don't want people to be talking about technology, right? Because do we think about the back-end technology of Visa? Or how paid how? a works or Venmo works? No, we don't. We just want the convenience to be able to use that payment system, but for some reason with cryptocurrency, it's just become so complicated and everybody's talking about all the different technologies. so we don't want our people to do that. We want people to be able to just use it on a day-to-day basis. one thing that's different with what we've done here in Japan is we have created educational seminars over the past six years. We've traveled all across Japan and we've taught people about the coming of cryptocurrency actually from even seven years ago. We taught people about the benefits of cryptocurrency and blockchain and what it's going to do for the world and the limitless opportunities that it's going to create. And so we don't have just tech people. We have the younger generation, we have the middle generation and we have the older generation that are coming to these seminars which is amazing because this is not happening anywhere else and the older generation are so interested in this because they saw the internet boom and so they want to see wow what is next you know for for my kids and for for the my grandchildren so yeah that's that's our goal is mass usability.

37:29 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I love it you know it's kind of funny you mentioned a hot mill and I'm sure a lot of people listening started thinking of their old AOA or AOL a little older. You got mail. I'm telling you we're dating ourselves now folks but you know I you know I really do think that there is a need for diversification and the financial structure and I think you know cryptocurrency does give you that there is it is a volatile you know market so folks I'm not a investment crypto but I would encourage you to continue to educate yourself. in different financial regions. It's always good to diversify your portfolio whether that's a CD or IRA or 401K or whatever it is, whatever avenues you have including crypto or even just a general savings account or cash into your bed right. The end of the goal is to create generational wealth right and this is these are just avenues that you can use to help yourself build that generational wealth.

38:22 - Lei Lani

Now where do you see Rio you know let's look five years down the line where are we at five well I see Rio definitely global because right now we're we've been building this infrastructure this ecosystem in Japan and you know ATMs are so nor so widely used here in Japan they're in post offices they're in every single convenience store and there's a convenience store almost on every single block for 7-Elevens on almost every block and so we feel that it's going to be at the ATMs, with the wallet, with the global mall, and we're going to be expanding that. So we're creating trust here in Japan, and our goal is to expand right away into other countries. five years down the road, I do see it used for purchasing even the smaller items, even down to a coffee globally.

39:30 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And that's, I'm excited for you guys to see it, because I think, again, folks, I truly do believe cryptocurrency has a place in this world, and it's still fine. this world, it's still an infancy. It's only been around for, like you mentioned, 15, 20 years. I'm older than For some up-and-coming entrepreneurs, what advice would you get?

40:00 - Lei Lani

give them for those that are just starting out. I would say that you have to, you know, again, like with the ABCDEF, you just have to, you know, have your goal, you have to focus, you have to educate yourself and expose your business, duplicate yourself, committed, have that belief, take that action, and you have to always remember, what I would always do is I would remember when I'm creating the new business, why am I doing this? Why am I creating this business? Because that why, if you're so passionate about that why, no matter what challenges you're going to go through, that why is going to help you always remember and stay grounded as to, you know, just stay grounded and focused on the task. So that's what I would say is just, and And be genuine, be genuine with what you're doing and with whatever product that you have, and just have fun at it too. And if you ever have any fears or you have any doubts, again, I mentioned before, just have the right mindset, always try to stay positive, try to stay proactive, and that's pretty much, I can, there's a lot of things, but the mindset to me is the most important thing.

41:36 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, I completely agree. one of the things you mentioned earlier in this episode as well is the importance of like focusing on the consumer and what's valuable to them, that is what's going to drive your profits.

41:47 - Lei Lani

Exactly.

41:47 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

I'm in the health care world folks as well, and so the way I look at it, if we do right by our patients, it's going to do our bottom line will improve, right?

41:55 - Lei Lani

Exactly.

41:56 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And we might do a great quality pair.

41:58 - Lei Lani

Exactly.

42:00 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And it goes in, it goes a long way, you know, and networking goes a long way building up these relationships long way. Like I mentioned, where the average of the 10 people hang out the most. So find some great people to associate with because again, there is a cohort of individuals that want to see you succeed.

42:17 - Lei Lani

They truly. Exactly. Yes, it's, it's, it's all over all about being around like-minded people. And that, that I think helped me tremendously too, because at a very young age, a lot of times, I, felt, I didn't belong, you know, in high school or even in college. I felt, you know, I felt I was different. But when I started getting, becoming an entrepreneur, and I was around like-minded people that, you know, had the goals and wanted to achieve the same similar things as me, then it helped all of us to stay grounded. And, you know, I have to say that when I was, when I was in high school, I wasn't sure, you know, what path to path I was going to take. I knew that I was going to be in medicine, but I didn't know what university to go to, or I just needed some guidance. So I was told go see your high school counselor. And when I went to see my counselor, I met her for five minutes. And why did I still don't know to this day, but I asked her for guidance and she said, dear, all I have to tell you is, why did you just go to a junior college because you're not going to amount to anything anyway? And she told me that. And I don't know why she said that to me. And it makes me think how many other kids are told this, know, that are suppressed and told that you just can't do it. You can't make it. And so that's why I'm really focused on the younger generation and future generations because they are our future. And so we need to teach them, and I believe in them becoming entrepreneurs. mean, it's, me, the greatest profession.

44:12 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yeah, and then, you know, I will admit I had the same experience in high school where my counselor kind of said, you know, don't take these certain math classes because you're not going to code a college.

44:20 - Lei Lani

And to be honest, I was like, you know what, I think you're probably right.

44:23 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

And, you know, what the sad part about it is sometimes it takes somebody else to believe in you before you believe in yourself.

44:30 - Lei Lani

so I think I should give her a shot every once in a while, former director.

44:34 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

She's the one that kind of whipped my in the shape and really hadn't go back to school. And because of that, I went to Portland State, I went to Syracuse, you know, I got my master's degree. I'm here interviewing some phenomenal people, giving you guys some great education about entrepreneurship, all because somebody else believed in me more than I believed in myself. Right?

44:51 - Lei Lani

And that's, that's what I say about my partner is because my partner of 30 years, you know, I've gone. through a lot of ups and downs, but even me being a woman too, he's really supported me and been there for me and was my mentor and really, you know, just taught me the basics of just the fundamentals, not just of business, but of how to be your character, your attitude, being genuine. And so I would say that helps anybody, no matter who you are, what you do, what business you create, if you have those fundamentals, then it'll help you along the way.

45:42 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yes, I completely agree. folks, you probably hear me say this often as well. I've never fell the day in my life, either learn or succeed. That's how we go. mean, you've got to dust yourself off and keep going. Entrepreneurship is not easy. Sometimes it's sad. Sometimes it's lonely. Sometimes you cry a little bit.

45:59 - Lei Lani

I've done that for you. Sometimes it's basement but you keep going.

46:02 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

You keep going.

46:03 - Lei Lani

Right?

46:03 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Yes. Now is there any little lines words you want to say before we leave?

46:07 - Lei Lani

I just want to say that in the next few years, I or in the next couple of years, I hope that I could expand Rio coin outside of Japan and to the world. I expect that actually by the end of this year, we'll more or find out more, please go to Rio coin.com.

46:34 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

Perfect. And again, folks, this is a great time to shamelessly plug the shades of entrepreneurship newsletter where this information will be available the week before the episode airs, the week the episode airs and the week after the episode airs. So please visit the shades of e.com to subscribe to that. You can also follow us on the social channels. This episode will be on YouTube. So you can also see reels on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and you can follow us on business. page on LinkedIn if you feel so neat or you can follow me connect with me personally mr. Gabriel Flores on LinkedIn I'm always looking forward to connecting networking with folks. Lanny. Thank you so much. This was a really really good conversation I'm really excited. My my digital wall is waiting for some real Available now I'll definitely get some I will and thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it Of course now again get some sleep. It's two in the morning over there.

47:29 - Lei Lani

I will I will everybody else.

47:32 - Gabriel Flores (The Shades of Entrepreneurship)

you and have a great night