To Reach Women, Bitcoiners Must Change Their Approach

This is an opinion editorial from Tally Lindbergh, co-founder of Free Market Kids, a company focused on financial literacy and bitcoin education.

Author’s Note: This is a politically incorrect article because I am going to make gross generalizations about men and women. If you get annoyed easily, you probably shouldn’t keep reading.

When I first entered the bitcoin space, I met a woman who asked me if I was interested in starting a women’s bitcoin meetup.

“I wish there was one,” she said.

At the time, I was a little hurt by the idea.

“Bitcoin is already a small space, why would we want to separate men and women?” I wondered.

Since then, I have had a change of heart.

Having attended several bitcoin events in different cities and states, I’ve noticed that the women always outnumber the men… by a lot! I estimate that 80% to 90% of the people I’ve met in the bitcoin space are men.

This is a problem.

Women have the power to shape the future leaders of this world through the close relationship they have with their children. A child born this year could be entering adulthood in a world where fiat currency is a thing of the past, and bitcoin is the global, digital currency.

However, this timeline would not have been possible without the buy-in of more women.

In this article, I’ll discuss what I’ve observed and make some recommendations on how to effectively introduce bitcoin to more women.

Facts Vs. stories

If you asked my husband what he thought about the state of the economy, he would immediately point to the fact that how our market is not free and how the government picks winners and losers. He’ll talk about zombie companies, bad investing, how much the Federal Reserve inflates the money supply and how the president manipulates interest rates, and more.

If you ask me the same question, on the other hand, I’ll talk about some of my elderly neighbors, and go into great detail about a recent conversation I had with a retired grandmother: In the scorching sun next to the chickens Standing there as they pecked loudly and aggressively at their food, we discussed the challenges of protecting our chickens from predators and growing a garden, even though neither of us had a passion for farming.

(I can feel some of you getting impatient with me as I read this. Coming to the point, why not? What does this have to do with the question? Well, wait, I’m getting there!)

We had long talks about price hikes and how having chickens and growing gardens were our ways of hedge against the crazy price hikes at the grocery store. Then I will tell you that she and her husband are on a fixed income and about her concern that the way things are going, one day soon she will not be able to buy enough groceries to avoid hunger.

To my mind, that’s what “the state of our economy” means – people’s stories. And in the presence of men, despite them being friendly, welcoming, and very encouraging, I still feel pressure to cut to the details and “get to the point.” On the other hand, in the presence of women, telling people’s stories often feels natural and easy because that’s how many women hash out important topics.

This is a big difference between men and women: Men usually access facts, and women tell stories.

Cigars and Whiskey Vs. tea and biscuits

My husband and I are on a mission to bring bitcoin education to homeschoolers. In all the conversations we’ve had, our experience has been that 90% of women say the same thing: “I don’t understand bitcoin, I don’t think I can figure it out. My husband handles the finance and investment decisions.” .

Why would women, who are as educated and intelligent as their spouses, leave this important knowledge to the care of only men? Dare I say it’s because bitcoin educational materials and learning environments lean heavily towards the way men communicate?

Maybe we need a female-to-female approach. Please do not misunderstand me; I am not saying that women are incapable of understanding technical and factual information like men. Both sexes are equally capable. However, in our pursuit of equality, we must not lose sight of the fact that men and women differ not only biologically but also in the way they view and interact with the world.

When men get together, they can often exchange quick pleasantries and get straight to business. Everyone feels satisfied at the end of such a union. However, most women will not feel satisfied in similar scenarios. We need to meet first, ask about each other’s week, how the kids are doing and what challenges we’ve faced during the week. We exchange stories and empathize to show that we care. To quote the famous sales guru Zig Ziglar“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Aren’t we all salespeople trying to sell us the idea of ​​bitcoin? Maybe we can take a page out of Zieglar’s book.

Why Vs. What

When I first tried reading up on bitcoin due to my husband’s urging, I found it extraordinarily frustrating. There are many books on the market, many podcasts and a plethora of YouTube videos explaining bitcoin. However, until I understood why bitcoin was important to me personally, I wanted to do something else with my precious free time.

Charts and graphs and angry rants about the political scene or the corrupt system won’t convince me. Although these issues bother me, I mostly chalk them up to things I can’t do anything about. My schedule is already way too full to do more than I have time to do them. However, if you tell me a human story about someone who is facing hardships and dire consequences because of the fallacies of our monetary system, my anger at the injustice will inspire me to do the necessary research and find out how bitcoin is an alternative currency, not just a risky guess or possibly a wild gamble.

To reach women en masse, we need to focus on telling good stories about the “why” of bitcoin.

I do not intend to suggest that male and female bitcoiners cannot benefit from the same meetings or education materials. Our society is currently obsessed with labeling everyone with some vague name that separates them from each other. I don’t want to play that game. I am suggesting that if we are conscious of the audience we are trying to reach, perhaps we can frame our message differently to get our point across more successfully.

Here’s an example of how women view men talking about bitcoin – my niece created the following comic strip to highlight what she learned after listening to a bitcoin podcast:

I wonder how different the comic strip would have looked if the two women had done the podcast, even if they discussed exactly the same topics and reached the same conclusions as the hosts of the podcast, which my niece listened to.

Here are some tips based on my personal experiences in reaching out to preconcern women:

A: Wrath Mama Bear!

Tell personal stories to share Why of bitcoin. Following the story I shared earlier in this article about elderly retirees, most people would sympathize with working day after day in the hot sun to grow their own food. But if you explained to a young mother who lovingly and securely held her newborn child to her chest that the coming hyperinflation meant that her child would grow up to be in the same position as literally laboring in the fields for food, Then you will have unleashed the most powerful force on earth: a mother’s instinct to protect her children. Now you have a motivated individual who is willing to do whatever it takes to learn about this crazy thing called bitcoin.

Two: Host Women’s Events

remember that bookmen are from mars, women are from venus,

We need to embrace who we are. Being different is good, just as expertise is a positive force in being truly independent. Market. Marketing a new and mysterious idea like bitcoin can only be effective with messaging and delivery methods adapted to reach different target audiences.

Recognize that women and men socialize differently and feel comfortable in different environments. When women talk to women, we have more freedom to express ourselves that simply isn’t available in a co-ed gathering. This isn’t to say that men and women can’t talk to each other, but simply that some conversation may make a man feel more comfortable with a woman.

three: less is more

Don’t vomit facts and charts and numbers on a female precoiner. You can’t “argue” women into bitcoin. You have to emotionally persuade women into bitcoin. Ask questions about their lives and concerns and allow them enough time to share fully.

Talking less is actually more motivating than talking more. Let the conversation develop naturally to the point where they ask the first questions. Only then you know that the destination is yours. Share in small pieces. Have a low time-preference mindset.

I hope this article helps male bitcoiners to communicate more effectively with women and finds its way to female bitcoiners who are willing to work together to reach other women that only we can do. Can: Female to female.

This is a guest post by Tali Lindbergh. The opinions expressed are solely his own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.