Bullish on Blockchain: Getting Personal with Host Ashley Smith

EPISODE: 
Join us for a rare and intimate bonus episode of "From The Blockchain," as we turn the spotlight inward to our host, Ashley Smith. Dive into a candid conversation where Ashley opens up about recent life challenges and her unwavering dedication to the podcast. Discover the personal convictions driving her to illuminate the forefront of web3 innovation. Ashley also shares some of the latest top news and progress in blockchain technology. In the second half of the episode, Smith steps into the guest seat on "The Quivr Show," a life and business podcast hosted by entrepreneur, Ash Crawford. Prepare for an unguarded Ashley as she reveals her motivations, the causes she champions, and her guilty pleasure confession. 

QUOTE:
“I do think it’s important for good people to get involved in hard things.” - Ashley Smith

EPISODE RESOURCES
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QUICK LINKS:
Find Ashley's interview on "The Quivr Show". 

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Transcript

*NOTE: The transcript below does not include proper time stamps as 2 recordings were put together for this episode. Powered by AI (so may not be 100% accurate).

Ashley Smith (00:05.866)

Hello everybody. Welcome back to From the Blockchain. This is your host Ashley Smith. This is a special bonus episode. I'm excited to be bringing it to you. There are special reasons why it's coming to you today. I'm going to be playing for you a podcast episode in which I was interviewed on a show called The Quiver Show hosted by my friend Ash Crawford, who I'll tell you a little bit more about shortly. But there's a reason why I'm sharing this.

to do a little bit of a deeper dive on me so you can get to know me as your host if you care. And some of the reasons why I'm involved in exploring the Web3 and blockchain space, we dive into that. We do dive into some personal things about me as well. I'm also gonna admit to you that I've had a little bit of some unexpected.

scheduling challenges over the last month, which have impacted my calendar related to the podcast. So, you know, this is a little personal, but about six weeks ago or so, I ended up in the hospital with my one-year-old son, not knowing what was going on. And we ended up staying there for a week. Turns out my one-year-old has type one diabetes, which is, you know, a new adventure for us, not something that was on our radar learning a lot.

So I'm gonna take it as an opportunity to learn and also I'm gonna continue to be grateful for healthcare we have here in Canada and also for the health of my son. He's doing very well. He's recovered from the tough time that we had there for a short while. But it is a tough thing to manage, especially in such a young child. And so I'm a full-time mom, I was before, but mom, life is real right now until we can...

really figure out a way to get some more hands-on support. And so you'll probably notice when that happens. But needless to say, I had to reschedule a number of interviews and luckily I had some in the queue. But this week I'm just having a little grace. Gonna share with you this episode. Give a little shout out to my friend Ash and his podcast as they just released season two. And I think it's a fun, fun show to be following. Little context.

Ashley Smith (02:25.454)

Before you go, if you don't care about all of this, before you go, I'm going to get into a couple of things related to blockchain here before we dive into the episode. Some news, some updates, some things I'm thinking about. Hopefully that's of interest to you. But just a little bit of context about the episode you're going to listen to. I want to outline some key things that have happened. The podcast was recorded, I believe, in August. It was only recently released, maybe a week or two ago.

But several things have changed since that recording. Of course, the journey with my son, I do actually reference the health of my family. But a lot of what I said, actually, I would say everything I've said rings true, if not more so. We talk a bit about gratitude, where we live and being grateful for some of the advantages we might have in our lives. And this, of course, was before

the outbreak of war in the Middle East. So, you know, cultural and global context has changed. And of course, I have since released and started dropping episodes for season two of From the Blockchain. So that's changed. But if you've been listening, you know that. But anyhow, let's move on. I do want to mention the reason I want to bring this to you today is just like, even though I have all this going on in my life, and putting these episodes

a simple task. The reason I'm doing it and why I'm committed to consistently putting out weekly episodes is because I am extremely bullish on blockchain web 3 technology. There have been moments over the last year where I've just, I don't want to say doubted myself, but just had like, am I doing this all in vain? The crypto market certainly has impacted interest and investment in the tech and the sector.

But we are starting to see not so much a revival, but really things coming to light as to why this technology matters so much and how it's going to impact industries and business. And that's why I'm here. And I want to continue forward with that mission to bring this information to curious minds, folks who are really interested in the next iteration of the internet, the next generation of business. So that's what I'm going to keep putting these out.

Ashley Smith (04:51.126)

One of the key themes that I'm really hoping to be looking at and the thing that's really helped me land with a sense of comfort that all of this matters is really how relevant AI is becoming. A lot of folks look at AI and blockchain technology as two separate things and AI has got a lot of attention, a lot of hype, and a lot of quote unquote

Ashley Smith (05:19.47)

Obviously, AI matters a lot and is going to have a significant, no turning back impact on the way we live our daily lives and conduct our businesses. So there's no question about that. But with questions around artificial intelligence, risk, concerns about data integrity, and a bunch of things of that nature, blockchain is rising back into the spotlight.

a solution to some very new problems. So I've been very much pushing getting involved on LinkedIn, but there's so many good resources. Every day I see things that I'm bookmarking and trying to get to read and trying to stay on top of all of the things that are going on. But yeah, responsibly scaling AI with blockchain is going to be a really big deal. We did have a recent episode...

Ashley Smith (06:20.63)

with Benjamin Yablone. And we talk a bit about this. And I think we're going to continue these types of conversations so folks understand why it matters, why transparency data matters, and how to mitigate risk, especially from a business perspective, related to artificial intelligence. So that's something thinking about. The other things that are top of mind right now are tokenized real world assets.

I'm going to dive deeper into what all of this means in upcoming episodes. Consumer loyalty programs, we did have a really great conversation this season with Adam Brotman. So if you haven't listened to that one, we dive into his thoughts, some of the things he's looking at. And he of course was the person behind the Starbucks loyalty program on chain, the Odyssey experience.

And it's being seen, of course, as the sort of shining star of these loyalty programs and what can really be done. But there's a lot more happening and I want to dive deeper into use cases and case studies for my audience. And hopefully you find it interesting. I also have, frankly, some of my own ideas that I'd like to start exploring. And if I start building any of those out, I'll be certainly sharing them with you. But also, of course, like macro.

industry innovation and disruption. You've probably noticed that I'm going to be leaning a bit into real estate as an example, because it's a sector I'm very, very familiar with. But I want to look at other areas where blockchain and web 3 technology and AI are going to be changing things up. Of course, I have a new special interest in healthcare innovation. So that's something that I'm probably going to dive a little bit deeper into. And actually, I think I have

some guests in the queue, we're going to dive more into that. And again, the episode with Benjamin, we touch on some of that as well if you haven't listened to it yet. Interoperability and cross-chain communications. This is something that I think people don't really understand yet what it's going to mean and how it's going to benefit consumers, users. I'm really thinking about social media innovation from this perspective, just because I find it interesting.

Ashley Smith (08:37.326)

And of course, you know, not so much a blockchain forward thing, but threads, Instagram threads was a good example of just kind of this interoperable social platform that's coming to light. And I think that's going to be the trend moving forward is where you can kind of take your profile, your social media profiles, your potentially your followers or connections and move them around with you to different platforms. And I'm curious to see when we really start looking at that from a

very Web3 perspective. Still want to talk about the challenges to real world applications of some of these things. We're going to be following the stories. There are a few headlines that have really grabbed my attention over the last couple of weeks. So in case you haven't been watching, there's airline issuing tickets as not only NFTs, but now resaleable NFTs. So purchasers of those airline tickets can now...

go and sell their tickets on the secondary market and there's a bunch of neat things happening there. I'm going to try to get folks involved with some of these things on the show. Do please let me know what areas of interest really speak to you because that'll help me navigate what listeners are wanting. Disney recently partnered with Dapper Labs. Dapper Labs is a company that we've actually mentioned quite a few times on the show. I'm really hoping to have them.

on. They happen to be from my neck of the woods here in Vancouver, Canada, which is really, really cool. They're working on chain collectibles. And this is a pretty big deal. Again, this is in sort of a... It's not a hyped up speculative market. I think they're seeing beyond just quick money making. It's more about brand development, building that sort of sentimental relationship between consumers and...

their audience with things that they're able to offer. Global consulting firm, Rollenberger, estimates the value of tokenized assets to reach $11 trillion by 2030. Ferrari greenlit crypto payments for US car purchases. I'm certainly interested in cryptocurrency. It's not my primary area of focus with all this, but it is obviously a big part of the blockchain narrative right now. So it is neat to see these things happening.

Ashley Smith (10:58.81)

Big brands like Marvel, Louboutin, Adidas have recently unveiled new NFTs collections. NFTs were featured in case you missed it. NFTs were featured on this year's Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, their annual and always much-awaited Halloween special. As an elder millennial, I can truly appreciate how fun this is. It's something that I used to make sure I watched every year and this is a neat one to see, even if they're poking fun at the...

It brings it into the culture and the Simpsons kind of has a tendency to do that. And even if they're poking fun, it usually means that it matters in some way. Also a ton going on in the crypto space. As it appears to be picking up the pieces of the Black Swan events of last year, seeing value increases, which is bringing more attention to the space again, of course, as people are looking at making some profits.

There's been some promising regulatory moves, interesting company acquisitions, and some big capital raises that are starting to happen. So anyways, these are all signals to me that the tech matters, but I think that it's certainly maturing and folks are really starting to focus on what this technology can do and the value it can add. So I hope that insight adds a little value, extra value to this conversation you're about to listen to, which is a bit more about me.

But again, this is an opportunity for anyone who's new to the show to get to know a little bit more about me as the host or get to know about like how I'm looking at Web3 and why. And this is the podcast is called The Quiver Show. I'll link it in the show notes. It's hosted by Ash Crawford, who does happen to be a friend, but one I've made in the Web3 space. It's not a Web3 focused podcast.

but he does, they really explore things like family, life, business, and the pursuit of balance. Ash engages in candid discussions with his guests about various aspects of life and reveals practical tools for the pursuit of our best selves. Ash is a really, really cool multifaceted guy. He's an actor, a model, and a very fit entrepreneur. I would recommend you checkin' out his social channels. I guess he's.

Ashley Smith (13:16.47)

does a lot of impressive things. He is a founder. He's the founder of a company called Quiver, coffee and tea company. It's really neat. They're doing some cool stuff. Also Princess Water. They also run a cafe, him and his brother, and natural wine bar together, which is really cool. But yeah, Ash also just happens to be a phenomenal communicator and user of social media. He's definitely an influencer in the real world.

respect. He's a paid influencer and does a lot of cool things. So, you know, he also happens to have a really a lot of neat connections. And yeah, I hope you check it out. I am going to take this quick opportunity to invite you all to our key social media channels here from the blockchain. Make sure you check the show notes.

We are now showing all of our episodes on video on YouTube. We're starting to post some YouTube shorts, which I think is really fun. I'm hoping to improve these as we move along. Really starting to use threads, Instagram threads, as a text-based platform. I'm curious to see where Meta takes it. It's fun to be on there. So if you're looking for a neat way to learn about...

the newer social media channels and also see like when we're dropping new episodes, we're going to be there. The links are going to be in the show notes. I'm not going to outline the names here, but we're also on LinkedIn. And that's a place where I'm finding so much value. So myself and the show are on LinkedIn. And I am going to get a little bit ahead of myself and invite you to watch for a new Facebook page. I know Facebook is old school.

But I do think that a lot of folks that are in the target audience for this podcast are actually on Facebook. And I am curious to see just generally where Meta goes as a company. So I want to have a little bit of a presence there. I also think it's a neat way we might be able to start opening up like areas for suggestions, question and answer. I do want to find a Web3 solution for some of this stuff. But I'll let you know when I've decided what I want that to look like. So in the meantime...

Ashley Smith (15:24.79)

Do check that out. Basically, wherever you spend your time, find from the blockchain. You can also find myself, Ashley Smith. My handle on most things is Ashley Smith now to keep it super simple. I'll also ask you to subscribe to this show. Please leave a review. It really helps me get great guests and can you continue forward. And it also helps, of course, the show perform as best it can. And I appreciate that support. So anyhow.

I hope you listen and enjoy this episode of my interview with Ash Crawford on the Quiver Show and I invite you back to this show next week. And you know, I won't be offended if you don't care about learning more about me. That's all good. All right, everybody. Thank you for being here. Enjoy the episode.

THE QUIVR SHOW 

00:00:07:06 - 00:00:23:03 

Speaker 1 

I do think that it's important for good people to get involved in hard things, even things that may not be popular or they will be judged because it's those good people who are going to positively impact the world. 

00:00:23:16 - 00:00:47:12 

Speaker 2 

Hey, everybody. Welcome to The Quiver Show. This is our audio journal about family life business and the search for our best selves. We hope you enjoy. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Quiver Show. I am your host, Ash Crawford. Today you will meet Ashley Smith, a.k.a. Bored Becky. Ashley has a unique blend of expertise in both real estate and web3 technologies. 

00:00:47:21 - 00:01:11:19 

Speaker 2 

She currently hosts from the Blockchain podcast, which bridges the gap between these worlds, offering valuable insights into the future of business and real estate in the digital age. I hope you enjoy. All right, let's dive in. So this is season two of the Quiver Show, where I'm just going to sort of rapid fire questions, rapid fire answers, whatever comes to your mind. 

00:01:13:12 - 00:01:21:16 

Speaker 2 

And so we'll just dive in. So how do you like to describe what you do? 

00:01:22:19 - 00:01:51:02 

Speaker 1 

Well, that's a good question, Ash, because the answer is I'm still figuring that out. You know, I've shifted gears over the last couple of years professionally. And so I really had to take a look at my personal brand. And it was a little confusing, I think, for a while and still probably is. But what I'm trying to do is not put myself in a box too much, but what do I do? 

00:01:51:05 - 00:02:20:05 

Speaker 1 

That's probably more the question you're asking me. I'm a real estate professional. At least that's my background. I've been a realtor for six years based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. And early on in my career as quite a young person, actually, I got really involved in the leadership and governance side of the profession and ended up getting involved in board work, which I quickly learned that I love. 

00:02:20:06 - 00:02:52:02 

Speaker 1 

So I to some people I will refer to myself as a governance nerd, to other people they may not know. I'm involved in that at all. But over the last several years, I went down the Web three rabbit hole. In fact, that is how you and I got to meet. And it was really my interest in the real estate sector and the fact that that industry has been running really in a status quo environment for a long time. 

00:02:53:06 - 00:03:20:13 

Speaker 1 

Surprisingly hasn't been as disrupted as one might expect, especially given the amount of money that people can potentially make in that industry, even from an enterprise perspective. And so I felt that blockchain technology might impact the sector, and I really wanted to keep my finger on the pulse. And then I went down the one three rabbit hole, which started out as a way for me to learn about the technology. 

00:03:20:13 - 00:03:46:13 

Speaker 1 

And then admittedly, I did become a bit of a degenerate for a couple of years. I'm careful about who I share that with, but you know, I became an NFT collector and in fact took over the SMART contract for an NFT collection, as you know. And that really pushed me into a very new world. And so I took a step back from my business. 

00:03:47:08 - 00:04:22:07 

Speaker 1 

I continued on with some of my board work, and now I'm really just figuring out what it all means and how to define myself within those two worlds. And yeah, I'm working on it. I do have a podcast, as you mentioned, called from the blockchain. We also, at this time of the recording, I'm about to launch season two and really looking to explore our how smart contract and blockchain technology and emerging technologies, how they might impact business from an innovation perspective and also from a disruption perspective. 

00:04:22:20 - 00:04:51:15 

Speaker 1 

I know I'm going on and on here, Ash, and this is my problem. I haven't been able to necessarily give my give an elevator pitch. A 32nd elevator pitch is still difficult, but I'm trying. And so I think the short version is really interested in curious about emerging technology and how it may impact business and how I might be able to insert myself in that conversation and hopefully bring some value to the world through those conversations. 

00:04:52:13 - 00:05:01:01 

Speaker 1 

I'm also an imam, so on top of all that, there's that. I'm sure I miss things, but that kind of gives you a bit of context about who I am. 

00:05:01:17 - 00:05:29:06 

Speaker 2 

Yeah, no, definitely. I like to ask that question because likewise I do a lot of different things and I have a lot of interests and passions and things I'm learning about and also growing into professions or work. So it's like, what do I do? And it's a different answer for who I'm speaking to a lot of the time, like you alluded to, like you wear your governance hat, your your real estate hat and and all the others. 

00:05:29:06 - 00:05:30:02 

Speaker 2 

So. Mm hmm. 

00:05:30:10 - 00:05:50:07 

Speaker 1 

I will say I will say, just to add, it's a bit pretentious, but someone used the word multihyphenate when describing me and they created a bio for me. And I'm like, I like that word. It definitely sounds like I'm a bit full of myself, but I still. I feel like Multihyphenate captures the complexities of my life right now. 

00:05:50:13 - 00:06:13:19 

Speaker 1 

And, you know, I do call myself an entrepreneur. I think the challenge for entrepreneurs generally might be that that doesn't always equate to successful business or earning the kind of income you hope to be earning. But I have found the older I've gotten that I tend to follow my passions and I tend to follow my interests and figure out what can I do with it? 

00:06:13:19 - 00:06:21:15 

Speaker 1 

What? How, you know, how might I be able to create something out of this and create a professional opportunity for myself. 

00:06:22:05 - 00:06:37:02 

Speaker 2 

Right? Mm hmm. That makes total, total sense. And a great sort of segway to my next question. So you're doing all of these things. You're you're a new mother. What is the change that you want to see in the world? 

00:06:38:11 - 00:07:11:02 

Speaker 1 

You know, I'm I really I really put a lot of weight on a curious mindset and I think that I've gained a lot personally and professionally about leaning into curiosity. I think I wish people would be more curious, and I think that that might help a lot of the things all of the things that are going on all around the world. 

00:07:12:03 - 00:07:42:22 

Speaker 1 

I think being curious can help enable people to find opportunities they didn't know they might have. You know, when you speak about career paths and professional opportunities, but I also think about just treating one another with kindness, or at least not jumping to assumptions. And I think curiosity in and of itself is something that I hope to encourage more people to have. 

00:07:42:22 - 00:08:08:13 

Speaker 1 

And it's something that when I see it, I take note of it and I try to learn from it as well from other people. So I know that's a bit out there, but I think it captures a lot of things, good things that can happen in, you know, whether you're thinking about the environment, whether you're thinking about government, whether you're thinking about capitalism, even like I think being curious can help bring a lot of value. 

00:08:08:14 - 00:08:11:02 

Speaker 1 

No matter what your priorities are. 

00:08:11:22 - 00:08:31:13 

Speaker 2 

Right. I think that you said that it's a little out there, but I think that it's it's spot on. I mean, spot on the money for where the world is at right now. And and just thinking about it for a moment, if you're curious or if I'm curious about something, it means that I'm not stuck in my way or my opinion about a certain thing. 

00:08:31:23 - 00:08:44:07 

Speaker 2 

So it sort of means I'm open to change. I'm open to other people's perspective. And I think that I agree with you that that's that's a really important thing. If we could foster and bring more into the world. Mm hmm. 

00:08:44:13 - 00:09:11:14 

Speaker 1 

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I will say that professionally, you know, I got involved in some leadership stuff early on, and part of it was just about putting my hand up, you know, perhaps when others weren't like, at a time. I'm. I'm getting there now. I'm I'll be 39 next month. But, um, for many years I was often the youngest person in, you know, in the room or at the board table. 

00:09:11:14 - 00:09:38:16 

Speaker 1 

And I think just being curious about what how I might be able to bring value and not going in with assumptions about how things ought to work and really being open, as you say. I think that's another key thing is being open and being curious I think are two different things. But they they matter and add a lot of value together and that's really what brought me to this Web three rabbit hole. 

00:09:38:16 - 00:09:53:08 

Speaker 1 

And I'm still very excited about, you know, when I look back in ten years that this will have been a very interesting and pivotal time. But still, I'm open and curious still because I don't know where it's all going to end up. 

00:09:54:13 - 00:10:05:20 

Speaker 2 

All right. No, I love that. And I guess this would just be a short follow on to that. How do you feel like you're working to help bring that into the world? 

00:10:06:23 - 00:10:54:06 

Speaker 1 

Well, there's a couple of things. I mean, the podcast in and of itself, I'm hoping serves that a bit. I'm really hoping to reach an audience of folks who maybe don't see themselves as experts in emerging tech as an example, and trying to create a narrative that's easily digestible, that doesn't scare people, that doesn't make people feel like impostors for just trying to learn, because I think that is a challenge, especially, you know, from from my perspective, I think it's really important for women and girls to feel like they have access to information that resonates with them and can help them open their minds and their worlds and opportunities. 

00:10:54:06 - 00:11:23:10 

Speaker 1 

So I'm hoping in a little way that the podcast is serving that. And I also think that leading by example matters. You know, there's been a few times in my life where I've been in a place from like, I don't know how I got here, but I'm super happy and proud that I'm here and I hope that people see me and think, Oh, if Ashley, you know, can achieve this accomplishment or be in this position and maybe I can do that. 

00:11:23:10 - 00:11:36:03 

Speaker 1 

And I think sometimes just living to your word can help serve in that way to in less tangible ways. 

00:11:36:10 - 00:11:57:01 

Speaker 2 

So if you had to give one practical tip or is there something that you've seen either for curiosity in general, or you could be more specific on understanding blockchain technology in general, Is that one thing that if if I was curious to be like, Hey, I do, I don't know where to start, what would that be? 

00:11:58:06 - 00:12:26:08 

Speaker 1 

Oh my goodness. I mean, at least from the tech perspective, I think resources are becoming more widely available. You do have to be careful about, you know, where what information you look at. And I think that's part of it, too, is I think, you know, today you can certainly Google things and search things like if there's something that piques your interest, there's there's ways to go down that rabbit hole and and try to unpack it all. 

00:12:26:23 - 00:12:55:12 

Speaker 1 

I think having a, you know, very reasonable sense of caution, but also curiosity and recognizing that, you know, where you're getting information from, there might be bias, there might be assumptions being made. But I think if there's interest just kind of continuing down the path of learning and trying to piece things together because it is all a puzzle still. 

00:12:56:11 - 00:13:35:11 

Speaker 1 

And I think that when you're looking at new realms like spaces where there's not necessarily a lot of history or, you know, the rules aren't written yet, I do believe that there's so much room to learn and become a thought leader early on. And I do implore people to, you know, if you see that opportunity and it interests you like take it, because you may very well be able to find yourself in a position that in a year or two you'd be amazed. 

00:13:35:18 - 00:13:48:13 

Speaker 1 

So I, I just think that not being afraid, not being afraid to ask questions, not being afraid to ask the dumb questions, it really can help empower people. 

00:13:49:14 - 00:14:07:04 

Speaker 2 

That's awesome. I actually read a quote by Kevin Kelly the other day. That was some advice. Just saying ask the question, even if you think it sounds silly because 99% of people are thinking the same question but are too embarrassed to ask it. Mm hmm. And this. 

00:14:07:14 - 00:14:22:23 

Speaker 1 

Yeah, this is where those old rules apply and will continue to apply and will continue to matter, because I think I've heard that in a variety of context through my life and it won't change. So sometimes we just need to be reminded. 

00:14:23:12 - 00:14:34:19 

Speaker 2 

Right. All right. Let's switch gears a little bit. You've got a lot going on. Yes. What do you do to unwind? Or a guilty pleasure of yours? 

00:14:35:07 - 00:15:01:01 

Speaker 1 

Oh, I was going to say, I'm not really sure, but I. A guilty pleasure makes it easier. I binge watch the office over and over and over again. I don't watch TV. I hardly watch movies. And when I say I watch the office, it doesn't mean I'm committed to watching it as I'm watching it. But I have probably watched that series like 100 times in the background constantly. 

00:15:01:09 - 00:15:04:17 

Speaker 1 

And I love it and I will forever love it and it never gets old. 

00:15:05:18 - 00:15:14:05 

Speaker 2 

That is amazing. When or where do you find your greatest sense of belonging? 

00:15:15:18 - 00:15:36:12 

Speaker 1 

Oh, that's a good question. I don't know. I think I'm still trying to figure that out a little. I've been very fortunate and I don't know how this happened, but I think since early days I've always kind of and it's cliche, but march to the beat of my own drum. And like I was always very comfortable with that. 

00:15:36:12 - 00:15:57:21 

Speaker 1 

So depending on what's going on, like I find my place, if that makes sense, and find where I fit and if I'm alone. I mean, I was surprised through the pandemic to learn that I actually love. I'm more of an introvert than I knew because I am. I'm social. I'm a very social person. I always describe myself as an extrovert. 

00:15:59:14 - 00:16:30:05 

Speaker 1 

But I like being alone. And I think that's where I get into my brain and my mind and my ideas and where I go down these rabbit holes and, you know, yeah, there are other answers, I suppose. I have a group of friends who I don't see nearly enough that are musicians. And, you know, early on when I first moved to Vancouver, I was in my mid-twenties trying to build my real estate career, and here I am in, you know, a blazer and heels and walking out the door and trying to look the part. 

00:16:30:05 - 00:16:51:03 

Speaker 1 

And then I'd go home to my friends who, you know, are basically couch surfers and just playing guitar and singing songs and, you know, having a good time and had no structure in their lives. And I'm just like this, I love this. So, you know, I run the range a little bit and I try to put myself in that place from time to time. 

00:16:51:03 - 00:16:56:13 

Speaker 1 

It's harder now, but I like it a lot also. Yeah. 

00:16:57:01 - 00:17:03:03 

Speaker 2 

Oh. Ashley What are you currently grateful for? 

00:17:03:06 - 00:17:29:22 

Speaker 1 

I'm grateful for a lot of things. There's some of the easy things. I'm grateful for my son, who, by the way, I did not plan on having that might be over sharing to your audience. But, you know, I was 38, found out I was pregnant with my partner, but we had thought maybe we were the type that didn't want to have kids and I ended up pregnant and, you know, had an easy pregnancy, obviously had no problem getting pregnant. 

00:17:29:22 - 00:17:56:10 

Speaker 1 

And a lot of my counterparts that are my age or maybe early forties who are going through a lot of trying times to plan their families, it's like, okay, this came easy. Pregnancy was fairly comfortable. My baby's been healthy. And I think that puts all there's a lot of perspective in that, like what matters and I enjoy the moments I have with him, clearly. 

00:17:56:10 - 00:18:24:10 

Speaker 1 

And you know, my family, they're healthy. I do think about that quite a bit. You know, I'm grateful to be Canadian. That seems very silly. But like, I think we all forget how good many of us have it where we live, even when we're struggling. You can look around the world and find places where, you know, people are having much tougher times and I also, I hate to say, like it's such a toxic word now privilege. 

00:18:24:10 - 00:18:52:14 

Speaker 1 

Like, I've always felt privileged. I've always known I was privileged and I'm you know, while I hate that there's people who have harder times in their lives because they lack that privilege, I'm still grateful for it. It allows me to do things I want to do. And I think appreciating that is is important. And so anyways, again, that that was a word that became so controversial all of a sudden. 

00:18:52:14 - 00:19:02:04 

Speaker 1 

And I always thought that was very funny but grateful for a lot of the, a lot of the things, a lot of the easy day to day human things, healthy, happy family. 

00:19:02:23 - 00:19:15:09 

Speaker 2 

Yeah, I love that. I love that. So there's a lot of things going on in the world varying. You alluded to them earlier. How and why are you optimistic about the future? 

00:19:16:14 - 00:19:40:05 

Speaker 1 

There are moments when I'm scared. There's little you know, especially now that I have a little one. And I think about his future. I do believe there are many people who are trying really hard to make the world a better place. You know, clearly the environment and the impact of climate change is significant. And that's something we're seeing this summer everywhere. 

00:19:40:06 - 00:20:14:03 

Speaker 1 

We're seeing it in our backyard. We're seeing it in places where you wouldn't necessarily expect challenges. And, you know, I think that when we're looking at emerging technologies as an example, I think there's a lot of narrative around the greed and the the why. Like, why are people working on these things? Why are they building them? What are they trying to get? 

00:20:14:12 - 00:20:40:02 

Speaker 1 

But on the flip side, there are so many people who, despite a challenging narrative, get involved anyways. They where they they take the heat on, you know, as an example cryptocurrency like I'm not a big crypto Maxy I like to put that out there. Like, I think it's an interesting part of where things are going to go. You know, decentralized money, whatever. 

00:20:41:06 - 00:21:13:09 

Speaker 1 

But Etherium, as an example, you know, last year in 2022, we saw Ethereum move from proof of work to proof of stake, which, you know, a lot of the controversy around Ethereum transactions was related to its environmental impact because it did it took a lot of computing power was not good. It was not good for the world. However, there were a lot of people working towards making that better, streamlining it, making it more efficient and once it was able, they were able to make that shift. 

00:21:13:09 - 00:21:45:21 

Speaker 1 

It decreased the environmental impact by over 99%. And that's crazy. And so I do think that it's important for good people to get involved in hard things, even things that may not be popular or where they will be judged, because it's those good people who are going to positively impact the world. And I know that's just like a single example, but I do try to fill some of my time with good news stories as much as I can. 

00:21:45:21 - 00:22:09:21 

Speaker 1 

I think you have to do that proactively these days. It's easy to get sucked into the negative and the polarizing news and all of that and and reminding yourself that there's good people. I think it's inspiring. I think it makes us all feel like maybe the little things I do will help rather than feeling like it's not worth it. 

00:22:09:21 - 00:22:11:19 

Speaker 1 

So I hope that answers your question. 

00:22:12:15 - 00:22:26:08 

Speaker 2 

Absolutely. Well, I think that's that's a good place to probably leave it for today for those people listening, where can they find what you're currently working on? Where's the best place for them to go find you? 

00:22:26:15 - 00:22:57:22 

Speaker 1 

Yes. Well, speaking of me trying to figure out how I put myself out there in the world, I recently changed all my social media handles to something a little more agnostic because it used to be more directly related to my real estate profession. So now you can search Ashley Smith. Now on Twitter, on Instagram, on Tik Tok and LinkedIn, you know, LinkedIn dot com slash Ashley Smith. 

00:22:57:22 - 00:23:20:18 

Speaker 1 

Now. And so I'm excited about that. But I have frankly made my life a lot easier. And of course, please do check out from the blockchain on the podcast if you're interested in learning a bit more about business and the intersection of blockchain technology and business. So that is, you can also go to from the blockchain dot org to learn more. 

00:23:20:19 - 00:23:22:23 

Speaker 1 

You can find it on all streaming platforms and YouTube. 

00:23:23:22 - 00:23:35:08 

Speaker 2 

I love that and we will link to most of those in the show notes and on the blog. And Ashley shouldn't be too hard to find out there on the interwebs. 

00:23:36:08 - 00:23:42:17 

Speaker 1 

I had to do. My name is so common, so it actually does make it a little tough, but I think I finally figured it out. 

00:23:43:05 - 00:23:48:15 

Speaker 2 

I love you. It's not Ashley Smith in the past. It's not Ashley Smith in the future. It's right. 

00:23:48:15 - 00:23:51:20 

Speaker 1 

Now. It's right now. And it's easy to say and easy to spell. 

00:23:53:00 - 00:23:59:21 

Speaker 2 

Awesome. Well, thank you for taking the time out of your busy, busy day. And it's always really, really nice to chat. 

00:24:00:11 - 00:24:02:16 

Speaker 1 

It is. I love chatting with you. Thank you so much, Ash. 

00:24:03:02 - 00:24:03:10 

Speaker 2 

All right. 

00:24:03:16 - 00:24:04:17 

Speaker 1 

Bye bye. 

00:24:06:05 - 00:24:24:07 

Speaker 2 

Hey, Ash here again. Just wanted to say a special thank you for listening to the show, but also tell you about the Quiver Club. We created a Patreon for our Quiver community where we offer the largest discount ever on quiver products, as well as discounts from our favorite partners who support us in our search for our best selves. 

00:24:24:18 - 00:24:50:20 

Speaker 2 

By joining you gain access to heaps of discounts, show notes, extra content and a bunch of other perks. So if you're interested, you could head to Patriot Intercom for slash quiver and join as an early supporter. This is a discounted rate available for the first 100 listeners. Thanks again and hope to see you there.