761. The Basics of Investing: Why Women Make Better Investors Than Men with Kiana Danial

Money is just a tool. And people who tell you money is not good don't have any.

It's very, very, very true because it is so powerful. It's a powerful tool.

It's okay to be rich. It's okay to be wealthy. It's okay to be happy. That's why I love your podcast. Don't feel guilty for being happy, for being rich.

Welcome to the Earn your happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, founder of Light Pink, best selling author, three time fit champion, and I'm a crazy, multi passionate entrepreneur. My journey has taken me everywhere. From being a broke waitress, barista, retails associate and personal trainer with massive anxiety and no belief in myself, to later becoming a multimillionaire in love with my life. In 2007, my husband and I lost everything. We found ourselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt at rock bottom. We had no ideas and I had no education to fall back on. This is when I found personal development and learned everything I could about business. Not by choice, but because I realized no one was coming to save me. The conversations on this podcast are going to let you know that you're not.

Alone and that we all feel like we don't know what we're doing.

We're going to give you the tools to help you face your fears, take action, start your business, and grow those massive dreams or keeping you up at night. It's time to create a life that you can't hide from and put so much on the line that your higher self is forced to come out. You're going to stop waiting for someone to approve of you and you're going to anoint yourself. Because I'm obsessed about building businesses that give women a platform. I want to feature you. So if you text the word podcast to 310-496-8363, you can get your questions answered on our Q and A segment along with a shout out. And if you rate, review and subscribe to this podcast, we're choosing someone every month to get coached and featured on our show. It just might be you. So let's get started. Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Kiana Denial. She is the CEO of Invest Diva and she's an award winning, internationally recognized personal investing and wealth management expert. She's reported on the financial markets directly from the floor of Nasdaq and was named the Personal Investment Expert of the Year in 2018 and the Investment Coach of the Year in 2019 by the Investment Fund Awards. An accomplished author, her books include Invest Diva's Guide to making money in Forex and Cryptocurrency. Investing for Dummies. You guys, I literally am ordering her books right now because I'm so incredibly excited about this wealth of knowledge and what this woman's wisdom is going to give to all of us and free us of. So, as the CEO of Invest Diva, Kiana's goal is to empower and educate women to take control of their financial future by investing in stocks and other online assets, even if they're super busy.

Or listen to this.

This was huge for me. Not a math whiz. Kiana provides her Invest Diva students with daily personal finance and investing material via social media, financial education via her free masterclass, and her award winning financial and investing power course. You guys, I loved this chat with Kiana because it really helped me feel empowered and understand all of the different things and avenues that we can start learning about and investing in to open.

Up new opportunities that were not there.

Before we knew about them. So truly, knowledge is so powerful.

So let's get started. Kiana, I'm so excited to have you on the show. Thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you so much for having me.

Oh, you guys, I'm so, I'm really, really thrilled to be talking to you today. And I want to, I just want to tell the listeners real quick just the story about how I came across you is because I, you know, went into the world and there, everybody who's listening hopefully has listened to the podcast before and has been on this journey with me pivoting from a completely different career, more writing and women's events and, you know, coaching. And I came from a fitness background years ago as well. And then we got into helping people pivot into the online space. And what ended up happening is that my. I just started to notice that my purpose felt like it was changing. My calling felt like it was changing. And I knew that I wanted to speak, start a company. I knew I wanted to start a company that supported women. You know, I didn't know what the product was yet. And when the product finally came to me, I ended up having to learn how to raise money because it was a pro. You know, it's a product that required a lot of money. And I found myself in this space of raising money and having to learn about investing, which I knew I hardly knew anything about. My husband and I had invested, but he really helped me through all of that and he understood more of it and he was educating himself. And I found that I was not really paying attention to the Part, you know, to the portion of actually how does this work? I was starting to get interested in it, but I didn't completely understand it. So that is how I found you is I was like, there's gotta be an approachable woman out there who is talking about investing. And I found a ton of women by searching, but I did have to search. So I be, I got really passionate about the fact that, you know, I run in this group of men who, you know, all of my husband's friends who all they do is talk about investing, they make a lot of money investing, they start these different companies. But this conversation wasn't happening in my girlfriend group and they were super successful. Like I have a lot of women in my life who were six, seven, you know, figure earners and it's like very successful women, except they weren't talking about investing either. It was all something where they had to either trade time for money, you know, in terms of that. So I would love today to be able to talk about just what your zone of genius is in investing. And we'll get there in one second because I do want you to share a little bit of your background because you're like one of the most interesting women alive. But how did this get started? Where did the interest in investing come from?

Oh my gosh, yes. Thank you so much for first of all having me on. And I'm super excited and the struggle is real in the male dominated field. And I totally get you. And it is, first of all, it's interesting that this so called male dominated field, you might be surprised, but it's more of a western problem.

Interesting.

So I was born and raised in Iran. You know Iran, that place that is supposedly like oppressing women and like everybody's view about Iran is like oppression right now. I was Jewish and so I was also subjected to more oppression and stuff like that. But the one thing that I had never heard of in my life growing up was that math or finance or engineering is a voice thing.

Interesting.

Never in my life. So I actually. So interestingly enough, I'm actually not that good at math and I'm like much better at writing and presenting myself. But regardless, I found myself going to college to study computer science even though I wasn't that good at math because I was like, okay, I'm going to do computer science. It's a sexy thing to do. Like mind blown if you think about it from an American point of view. And when I went to college, 50% of my class were girls. And like I never thought Anything about it. I'm like, okay, I'm doing computer science. Let's see if I like it. And you know, I kind of liked it. I wasn't the best at it, but it was cool. And I actually even like, my goal was to become an astronaut. So I decided to go and study engineering in Japan.

Wow.

And then I went to Japan and guess what happened? I was the only girl in my class. The only girl in my class. And I'm like, okay, what's happening here? I was looked down on as a girl, well, as. And as a foreigner. And it became so intimidating that I did not want to study anymore. Like, I was just turned off immediately. Instantly I was like, okay, that's not for me. Like, look at this guy. He's doing so much better. Like, it just became a girl versus boys thing. I did not want to do it anymore. Then I became interested in financing and accidentally not knowing again, finance as a male dominated field, even though I was in Japan. So 2008 happened. I'm going to tell you the story in a little bit, but I do want to mention this, that I was like, okay, investing is super cool. I accidentally made some money during the crash. I'm like, oh my God, this is so cool. I want to get into investing. I want to learn about this. So I decided to come to America first time went on Wall Street. Oh my God, this is so cool. Wall street was like Hollywood for me because like, in the Wall Street Journal, like, all the sexy things that I had heard and I went on, I got a job, and again, I was the only girl on the team.

Oh my gosh.

And I eventually got fired. And I was like, this is like, what? The America that I saw in movies and in Hollywood kind of looked different because in the movies, women are a little bit more empowered, I feel like. And I was absolutely shocked. I decided to educate myself and learn about all these things. And I found out that women are actually better at investing than men. And I'm like, why don't more women know about this? Because if they do, it's all about what you think of yourself. It really is. Yeah. And here we are. I'm now running. I'm helping more women and men alike. I mean, I'm not prejudiced about men, but my goal is to just enlighten women. You can do it. Like, this is literally not. Even if it was rocket science, it's not, first of all, rocket science. And it is not a male, female, genetic thing. It just is not.

Do you, do you like, have Any thoughts around why that happens here? Like what? Through the conversations or. I'd love to hear your take because it's fascinating to me to have somebody, like, essentially an outsider come in and have that perspective.

Absolutely. I was kind of looking for reasons for that for a while. And now becoming a mom, I can see it. I can see it. So there are a bunch of things that happen. So in Iran, first of all, the schools are segregated, so I didn't go to school with boys. Girls were girls, boys were poor schools. So we were just studying math, whatever. It was like not thinking, oh, boys or girls, what are everybody doing? So I think that may have helped. But the thing that I'm seeing with my own daughter, who's three right now, I go to buy her toys. I grew up playing Lego. I grew up playing, you know, rocket ships out of lego. Now I go and buy her, try to buy her Legos. All the girl Legos are princesses and Barbies. All the boys Legos are rocket ships and trucks. So from the beginning, they're instilling in kids here in America. It's the marketing. Yeah. They are marketing all these things to boys. And they're from 2 years old. My daughter, I'm buying her trucks. I don't care. But, you know, you're a mom. You don't know any better. Like, if you don't know this, you go on Amazon and say, you know, toys for girl toddlers. And the list that comes up is the stuff that has nothing to do with math or engineering or all these things. And, you know, most people, like, if you don't know, you don't know. You don't go and think about it. Okay, so this is not a boys thing. And not. I'm not saying, like, moms are doing a bad thing at the marketing. The products are the problem. The girls are pink, boys are blue. That's the problem. And now I am in marketing. I understand why they did. Why they did that, because they can. They get to sell more products. I understand the intentions. Good for the business, but I think it's time to change. They may even sell more.

So do you feel like, you know, with just even buying, like, does your. Does your daughter, like, gravitate more towards the feminine things? Or is it like, she actually, like, if you don't bring it into her sphere. You said daughter, right? Correct. Yes. Yeah. If you don't bring it into her, you know, attention is. Do you notice that she just gravitates towards whatever is there?

She just gravitates towards Whatever is there.

Interesting.

If I give her a Barbie, she's playing with a Barbie and it's okay to play with a Barbie. If I give her, we've got her an electrical engineering kit and we do it together and she loves it. It makes a buzz sound and she loves it. Next minute she's doing fashion design for her other dolls. Like whatever is in front of her. I'm not trying to. And then you know what, if she wants to be in fashion, that's fine. It's no shame. There is no shame for guys to be in fashion either. These are not genetic. These are literally not genetic. And in fact, I do want to bring something else on to our attention as well. So we are actually doing so many women, so much damage. So one of the most brilliant minds in math in current history is a woman who died recently at 40. So she was a mom. She is the only woman who have won one of the most noble math prizes.

Ever.

And she's an Iranian woman.

Wow.

Maryam Mirza Khani. And I'm not saying Iranians are geniuses. It's just because, same as me, she went to math and then she ended up being really good at it.

Wow.

We are not giving women that opportunity to even tap into their potential hidden talents by this marketing, which is something that I'm very passionate about changing.

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Yeah, I, you know, you're really making me think just about. Even when I started getting interested in learning about investing, it wasn't that I wasn't ever interested because it always kind of piqued my curiosity just the, the thought of it and the concept and you know, I had heard some people who I looked up to, did it or talked about it. It's because the conversation wasn't accessible to me. So I would have been learning it if people that I knew or was around had been talking about it. And as soon as I tuned into it and started getting really intentional about it, that's when I started. You know, I actually completely changed who I hung around. I changed the conversations I was having. I changed the Podcast I was consuming. I changed the books that I was reading and I was like, wait, I'm actually so interested in this. And even though it felt like a foreign language in the beginning, I was like, okay, sit tight. Because you remember the learning process, it feels super hard and you don't understand it at first, but I just kept trying to, like, go back to it and see if I could remember what I learned or try to make it entertaining or find people who did it in an entertaining way. Thus you come into the picture and we have to remember that a lot of times the things that we want to learn, even though they're challenging, like if you just hang in there, it's gonna, one day it's gonna collect. Like it's going to open up. And then all of a sudden you have possibility. Like, this opens a whole world of possibility for people around, you know, especially empowering women around what they can. They don't. They have so many more options. So for you, what are your zones of genius and investing that you really like to focus on, that you like to help people with?

First of all, kudos to you for not giving up because it's really, really hard. And so my zone of genius, I'm not really genius when it comes to investing. The funny thing about investing itself, it has actually nothing to do with math, which is a misconception that is out there. So as I said, I'm not actually good at math.

I love that because I'm not either.

I know, but I mean, some people are, I'm not. And investing in particular has nothing to do with math. Investing has more to do with discipline and emotional management. And now the reason why women are better at investing is something that might interest you because that very thing that women are accused of being super emotional, we're actually our emotion, our type of emotion is very good for investing because we are looking more at the long term. Whereas men, they have emotions too, by the way. Testosterone is a hormone and it brings out emotions that are actually very helpful, hurtful when it comes to investing. So men in general focus more on the shorter term wins, and they sometimes are in it to just impress someone or be the winner or be the king. Whereas women are looking at the more longer term win perspective. And when it comes to investing, long term is better.

Yeah, that's it.

My genius is that I'm patient with my investments, do the research, that's all.

Yeah, no, that's so empowering to hear because I do think that, that if I, when, if I'm really thinking about all of the things that women said back to me when I would start having the conversation about investing is like, oh, well, you know, I'd have my husband on because I'm just not good at math and I need to understand this. And I was like, I'm not good at math. And it's not necessarily what, what you need to know and what we're even going to talk about. So that is really, really powerful. I think it will give people just, you know, what they need to at least keep going to not worry about. Well, I've never been good at math. Do I have to learn this new skill? No, you don't. Like, if I can, you know, invest and raise money for a company, trust me, you can too. So what are the things that you like to help women with around investing?

Yeah, absolutely. So the areas that I like to help women with, first of all, is personal finances. Because people are so intimidated by the word math or finance, they don't. They sometimes kind of block out even wanting to know about their own finances. And I totally identify with this. It's silly, but if you think it's hard, you're not going to even look into it. So, for example, when I came to America, I was terrified. I still am actually from going to the post office because the mailing system, like, you know, how you put the address and then in an envelope, you know, where you put the to and the from is different than how you do it in Iran and how you do it in Japan. And I kept forgetting how people do it in America. And every time I went to post office, I felt like, super embarrassed for not knowing about it. So I completely, like, post office is my, like, oh, my God. I always get my husband to go to the post office and, like, do the, you know, stamps and everything, because I don't know where to put it. And I'm just intimidated by it. And I think I'm done at it. Right. And that literally is what investing in personal finance is, that you think you're not good at it. Like, I think I'm not that dumb to like, not, not learn where to put the stamp. But my own belief about myself was preventing me and is actually so I have to get it. It's good to have my husband help me with that. But. But that, like, I realized suddenly, oh, my gosh, is my own believe that I don't know. And I think I feel embarrassed. So it's a hurdle. It's a hurdle. You have to first of all, believe. And it is important to see Other people, like, if I had seen somebody else who came from Iran and went to Japan and then came to America, like at age 26, go to the post office and like, oh, okay, she did it. Maybe I can do it too.

I love that you're sharing this because I can honestly say that that was my default response. That was my default feeling was embarrassment. Like, you know. Cause I did hundreds of calls for investors, and the first 20, I probably felt more embarrassed than I can remember feeling in all of my life because I knew I wouldn't have the answers to all of their questions. And I think my best friend became my best friend phrase was, I don't have that answer yet, but I'm going to learn it and get it for you as soon as I can. And that was one of the most powerful things that I could give to myself, was it's okay to not have the answers. So everybody listening, like, oh, my gosh, she's saying, it's so okay to not have the answers. Like, maybe you create a cheat sheet, like for when you go to the post office that says to and from and stamp and you look at that. And that's what I did. I had a cheat sheet literally next to me of my script of what I say and trying to remember the answer to the main questions that people are asking. I got these key questions that I started to pick up on. Okay, every single person asked this question. Here's my answer. Like, so it was so interesting, the learning process. But I just wanna really highlight that that this is. It's more about feeling stupid and stopping. Because it's like, you know nothing about investing, but you expect people, when you're talking about it, to know everything about investing when it's not a conversation that's actually normal, like giving ourselves grace. Right? Like, I think that's the first thing. That's why I love what you're saying. Like giving yourself grace to just like, let it be okay that you're not good at math or you don't know yet and you're not going to know everything. Okay, so go on, carry on. Continue with your.

I love what you just said. Because you know what? Actually not knowing the answer and saying, I'm going to get the answer for you is way better than, Excuse me, but some guys who just make up the answer so that they look smart.

And it's not the right answer.

No, Right.

Oh, my goodness. I actually had a couple people say that to me. They're like, I felt more confident investing in you because you were vulnerable Enough to tell me you didn't know the answer, but you went and you got it. And that showed me that you would work really hard to make sure that you were learning everything and you weren't going to try to cover up looking good all the. Or try to look good all the time, which is not good for a company to just try to look good all the time. It doesn't help you grow, it doesn't help you learn. So, yeah, I would love to know from your women that, that you, you've helped. What are some of the places where they, they felt stuck? Like, what were some of the things that you helped work them through?

Yeah, absolutely. So it has been. So first, I start out with the personal finance side of things because you need to be on top of your finances before you start investing. You need to know where your money is being held at. Because I've seen some women who are so intimidated to even log into their bank account.

Yes.

Know what their net worth is whether they're married or not. Especially if they're married. Not knowing your net worth can be very harmful. Women live longer than men. And I'm not trying to vilify men. I love my husband. My husband is amazing. We have a lot of amazing men in our community too. But girl, you gotta be on top of this. You gotta know where your money is at. You got to know what your situation is and what your goals are. So the first thing that I help them with is understanding their risk tolerance and how we do that is knowing their ability and their willingness to take a risk. And then we walk them through actually creating their financial goals because you want to know where you're going to go. And then once they have their financial goals figured out, then we talk about, all right, so these are all the tools that you can use to reach your financial goals at these specific time frames. And some people have shorter term goals, longer term goals, medium term goals. And then the investment process is just kind of allocating your portfolio to assets that can meet, potentially meet your short term, medium term and long term goals. And that's about it. I want to actually talk a little bit about asset picking as well, because that is like, oh my gosh, I have to go through financial records and like this and that and go through. And again the math thing comes around, which is so annoying. It has nothing to do with math. You should not like knowing about what a company did in their previous quarterly earnings as an investor has a lot less to do with identifying this as a good value or growth asset. Than let's say who is a management, what are they helping people with? You know, how you go shopping, how you choose a husband. Like, what are the things that you look at? You look at their personality, you look at their potential. But sometimes we're like, okay, this guy's broke right now, but he's studying to become a doctor. He has good potential. Right. So these are the stuff that we actually are good at as women. Understanding the core value. So that is what I teach women, like the actual things to look at when they're selecting their assets and naturally good at it. So it's actually super fun. It's like going shopping.

Yeah, it's so interesting. So if somebody is listening to this for the first time, thinking about investing and maybe they're like, oh, maybe I'll follow some of our programs or I want to go take care of their personal finance first. Where would be a good spot for them to go to first start learning about investing with you.

Right. So I have put together a 90 minute training to basically go through all the steps, like all of these things that I just talked about, understanding your risk tolerance. I actually give you my risk management toolkit so that you can like just go and play out and play around with it and then how to actually start your portfolio and brokerage and everything. So this one is free and it's on our website, invest diva.com if you want to be like specific, you can go to learn.invest diva.com yes, it's on demand. Training is going on all day long and just listen to it. Tune in. And we have support team over there. I'm sometimes in the chat box as well just to answer your questions, just to help you get started.

Oh, I love that. Okay, so next step. So we've taken care of some of the personal finance. So then after that, if we are interested in actually looking at assets to invest in, are there certain amounts that women need to be thinking about or is that what you do with the assessment? Or let's just say you want to start learning and you kind of want to start dabbling, does it matter? Or how do you assess what amounts to start at?

Oh my God. Excellent question. So another myth when it comes to investing is that, oh my gosh. And we're talking about investing in stocks, not like raising money for companies, which is a completely different beast. Kudos to you for doing that. But investing in stocks, you can start out with only 50 bucks. It really just comes down. The amount that you invest again comes down to your personal finance. You need to know where you stand financially. What is your net worth? Do you have an emergency fund? And then calculating not only your ability to take a risk, which is your finances, but also your willingness to take a risk, that one is more emotional. And then combine it together and then you can basically put in as much money as you're comfortable with. It's so personal. Personal finance is personal.

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So tell me a little bit more about investing in stocks. Like, do you. What makes you really passionate about it? And yeah, I think what got you started in that particular arena?

Right, So I actually didn't get started with stocks. I got the 2008 market crash. You guys remember?

Oh, yeah, we lost everything. And that was great.

I didn't even have anything at that time. I was just. I was still in Japan. I was on a tv. I had a TV show going on for me over there. You know, foreigners in Japan always are celebrities, whatever. So I was getting some money and I had no idea about finance. Like they said, markets are crashing. Like, what are the markets? What is the market? What are you talking about? Are you talking about the meat market? No. And I'm like, oh, so what's happening? So the one thing that I identified with at the time, because I was in Japan, so I had Japanese yen, I was getting paid in Japanese yen. And I knew that at some point I want to go to America. That was always my kind of goal. I heard from one of my buddies on the tv, so they were talking about the market crash. And they're like, so the US dollar is getting cheaper versus the Japanese yen. I'm like, that is something that a lot of people may not identify with. I don't like, oh, the US dollar is getting cheaper, so I should go buy a US Dollar.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

And then every day was getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper because the markets were just going down. And I was just talking about, okay, how can I automate this? Can I tell my bank to exchange it once it hits lowest price on the sale? That was my kind of thinking. And then one of my friends was like, oh, you can actually trade it. I didn't know what trading means. What brokerage? I didn't know anything. He's like, let me do something for you. I'm like, okay. So I got into a brokerage account. I passed along $10,000 worth of Japanese yen, and we shorted the dollar yen pair. I had no idea what I did shorted means. I Sold the Japanese yen versus Japanese versus the US Dollar. Sending a limit order. You don't have to know any of that. I didn't know anything about that. I took a risk which I do not recommend people taking. But I got lucky. I doubled my money within a week. Oh, my God, this is so cool.

You were like, wait a minute, what just happened?

I made money when everybody else is, like, going bankrupt. Yeah, like, this is so cool. There is clearly opportunity in these things. And I started learning about it, but again, I was super intimidated to actually doing it myself. My friends starting telling me about, like, oh, so there was a recession and that now the governments are printing money, and that means the value of the US dollar is going to go down, like, printing money. So I was learning all about these things. So I was like, okay, so what does this mean? What should I do? They're like, okay, the best thing to do is to invest in other assets so that your money doesn't get devalued. I'm like, okay, I don't know how to invest. I just got lucky. And so what did I do? Oh, I'm going to get a money manager to do it for me. I guess this logical thing to do. So I got a money manager and I started feeding into their fund, and I blindly signed the agreement that, okay, you should never blindly sign an agreement. Mistakes, learn from your mistakes. But every fund manager, the thing that I didn't realize is that, okay, my money is going to get locked up in that, and if I want to ever take it out, I have to pay a penalty. And long story short, I still was passionate about finance, Decided to come to Wall street, got fired. Now I couldn't pay rent. And I'm like, oh, wait a minute, I have some money in that fund. Let me get the money out so I can pay for my rent. And the guy says, yeah, you can take it out. But, yeah, you sign this thing, it says you got to pay 75% penalty if you take it out prematurely.

Oh.

And on top of that, I looked at the account, and by that point I knew, like, the market average, like, scales, and they hadn't actually done much with the money compared to the growth that we saw after the 2008 market crash. I'm like, wait a minute. So not only you didn't really do much with my money, didn't really grow. It's my money you're locking up. If I want to access my money, I have to pay you a penalty. What the heck, right? And I did more research. I found Out. Yeah. Money managers actually do underperform the market average. And you're just like, why not just invest on your own? And I dug more into it. I became obsessed at this point. I was just obsessed. I had nothing better to do. I was fired. I didn't even have a job. So I'm like, okay, you know what? I'm going to just educate myself, right? It was a blessing because otherwise I wouldn't have probably like, really stuck with it if I had a job, right? So I started studying for the CFP program. You know, certified financial planning. Certified financially, like, sea levels, intimidating stuff like, oh, my gosh, am I. Is my brain going to be able to handle it? And as I dug into it, I'm like, this is actually not that intimidating. Like, the money manager made it sound way more intimidating. And then it clicked for me. Oh, so he had to make it intimidating for me so that I don't do it on my own so that he has a job.

Interesting.

And as I was studying for the CFP program, I realized that is like, kind of the way they were trying to leading for people who wanted to become certified financial advisors to make it more intimidating, like, give the clients just enough to hook them, but not enough to do it on their own so that they have a business. Right? And then I had a choice. Do I want to become a money manager or teach people how to do it on their own and become their own money managers? And at this point, I actually had some offers online. I could have gone on Wall street and actually got a job as a money manager because I had studied these things, but I decided not to. So that's when I decided to start my own business. This is 2012. And make investing accessible. So I started feminine. And the amount of hate that I get at the beginning is unbelievable because nobody was taking me seriously. Like, okay, who's this girl who's dancing? And like, this is way before TikTok, right? And like, my sister is like, are you out of your mind? No. I wouldn't want to take advice from a girl who's dancing. Like, this is financial advice. This is like serious stuff, right? So anyways, finally, finally, I think it was 2020 who. Things kind of started to change for better or for worse, that suddenly women actually became interested in this. So that's my story.

Oh, I love that so much. I even love that you've been dancing with it since 2012 because that was the goal for you. It was like, wait, this was. That's your story? That it was, you know, Kind of pitched you as very, very intimidating. And you were like, what's the least intimidating thing I can do to get people interested? And I do think 2020 was, you know, as challenging as it was for everybody. It really was a gift to open us up to. Wow. We really need to make sure we have other opportunities on the table. And also, it really opened up a lot of opportunity for people like you who were trying to teach on it. And now, like, okay, let's really, really look at it, and let's not make it intimidating. So when people come to you, do you notice? Is there anything that you do to kind of, like, break down that wall? Because I'm sure they come to you still embarrassed, like, what do I. Oh, my gosh. Like, where do I even start? And it's hard to get people to say where they're actually at, so you know where to start without, like, them trying to, like, pretend like they know more. That's a big thing, too. So what are some things that you do to kind of, like, break down that wall of not, you know, not. Not worrying about where you're starting from?

So the biggest thing that people come to me and I ask them, okay, what is the thing that has got you stuck is fear? The biggest thing that they answer me is that fear and not knowing where to get started and fear of losing all of my money. All of it is fear. And the only way to combat fear is education. So I just educate. I educate the best way that I can. I make fun of myself so that they know that I'm not, like, this genius sitting here, like, you know, I'm just a mom trying to take care of my toddlers, throwing tantrums all the time. And she's in the background, and I'm here. I'm trying to say, hey, know where your personal finances at? And that's what I've been doing. And I've been saying, oh, my gosh, our community is just growing. I'm super proud. Like, if I'm proud of anything besides my daughter is our community. Like, our women in our community are rocking it. Like, they've been here. They, like some of them, they just come in within two months, and they have their account set up and they're investing and their portfolio is up and they know what to do, and they're now, like, flourishing other areas, and that now they're invested so much, they're like, okay, I need more money to invest, that they're getting into entrepreneurship. So it's just opening up all sorts of possibilities. And it's just so good to see that. I'm like, oh, after 10 years, I'm so glad I didn't give up, because it's finally paying off. And I can see the shift. I can totally see the shift.

It's so empowering. Like, I have goosebumps thinking about it, because it is empowering. You just create. It creates opportunity, endless opportunities that you never even thought were out there. And I think that's one of the biggest things this last year that I saw is people just didn't know what. They didn't know what to do, and they thought they didn't have options. And it's like, when you educate yourself, you get options. And it doesn't have to be some crazy education. You know, you're putting on masterclasses. You're doing these things that it sounds like you can get fairly quickly to have enough info to start dabbling and learning and, you know, trial and error, and is it gonna be like a.

Big payoff right away?

For some people, maybe. Some people, not at all. And you just keep learning and you keep growing, you know? So I love that you're empowering people in that way. And I'm noticing. I'm remembering you had written the book. You wrote the book, Cryptocurrency Investing, Correct. Okay. Just because so many people are talking about it. And I know whenever I talk to some of my girlfriends, they're like, I don't even understand it. Like, I don't understand how it works. It feels so foreign to me. I hear them talking about it. It sounds like they're talking about a video game or something crazy. Can you give us just a tiny breakdown on, number one, why did you write that book? Number two, what is it? And is it something you think is worth looking into?

Oh, my gosh, I'm so glad that you brought it up. And yet cryptocurrency is the other intimidating thing that people, I myself included, was scared of getting into. So in 2011, somebody, one of my friends on Wall street, actually told me to invest in Bitcoin. I'm like, no way. I'm not going to invest in that. I don't know anything about it. So I didn't. And 2016, some company in the UK asked me to do research and analysis for them about cryptocurrency. I'm like, I don't know anything about it. They're like, well, we have a presence. Can you please do some? And I'm like, I started looking into it again, educating myself, and I started looking into bitcoin and the underlying technology behind it, which is blockchain. And I found out that blockchain is basically Internet 2.0. And what we're seeing at the time, 2016, with a lot of attention was going to. Cryptocurrency is kind of like the dot com bubble back in 2000. And I was like, all right, so there's going to be opportunity, there's going to be a lot of hit and miss, there's going to be scam, just exactly like the dot com bubble that like a lot of. So we have now the Amazons and the Googles and the Facebooks because of that. But a lot of the companies at the dot com bubble went bust. So I could see that potentially we're going to see something like that. And I continued to, you know, just, I didn't really invest. I was just doing the research analysis for that company as a side hustle. And then bitcoin prices started going up the first time around. That got a ton of media attention. And then I was getting questions left and right from my 9 year old nephew, from my friend who had never ever invested in anything. Should I buy bitcoin? And I'm like, if you don't, do you know what bitcoin is? And she's like, not. I'm like, if you don't know about it, then you probably shouldn't. And I saw it going up and then I saw it crashing down and I saw a lot of people investing in it just because of the hype and they're losing all the money. Then they got scared and then they sold it. I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to do something about it. So at that time it was exactly so I gave birth and the market scratched. And then I was like, okay, great. So I was just. The amount of emails I was getting about people just like begging me for some information. Like, I lost all my money in bitcoin. I'm like, don't sell it just because. So anyways, long story short, the opportunity came. Wiley, the dummy series. For dummy series, they asked me, hey, can you write Cryptocurrency Investing from dummies? And I'm like, all right, I'm on maternity leave, but okay, I don't want. I knew that bitcoin is going to go up again. And I knew that this is just something that people need to get educated on. And instead of just answering everybody's emails, I was like, you know what, I'm going to sit down and write the book. And that's what I did. So cryptocurrency, investing for dummies. Basically, I educate what is cryptocurrency? Which is we can get into it. But the way that I go about it, it's very similar to how I invest in stocks. You need to know where you're putting your money in. You need to, first of all, understand what blockchain is. And you don't have to understand how to code. You just have to understand, okay, it's a ledger and everything is decentralized, which means, especially bitcoin, there is no centralized entity who is trying to monitor it. And that is very powerful to me. It's not a government. We talked about how when the recession happens, the U.S. government or any other government, they print money that devalues your money. Bitcoin, you can't do that with bitcoin because there's only a certain amount of bitcoin ever, ever, that is going to be there. So it's kind of like gold, but better because we don't know if there's going to be more gold out there. If there's an asteroid hitting the earth and there's just going to be all gold. Bitcoin is just like that certain amount, right? So supply and demand. Its value is only going up and is backed by blockchain. So it was very powerful to me for other reasons too. Because I'm Iranian and sanctions, you can't really transfer money from, let's say, Iran to the US but with bitcoin, you can just send anybody money. There are a lot of empowering things about it. But you have to understand, if not sending money to Iran is something that you're passionate about, then you probably shouldn't be investing in bitcoin because you actually have a say by investing in anything, you're supporting that thing. So you want to just learn about it before you invest.

Well, I love that you have the book. So if that piqued anybody's curiosity, because thank you for explaining that so gracefully, the beginning of it. But now we have the book, so you can go and check that out as well. It's so interesting to me because my husband has been talking about it more and more, especially with what are the new ones or NFTs? And now I'm like, what is this? What is happening? And you guys, I can't even explain to you what that is yet, but I will maybe on another one be able to explain it a little more gracefully. So we're gonna be wrapping up here in just a minute. But what Are some things that you want women to know. Like if you could only let people know three messages. Like you had three post it notes and that's all you could leave behind. Of everything that you've learned about empowering people around this, what are those three things that you'd love to. Those three messages?

That is so hard. I need to go to my quotes book. I have to think about this. Actually, only three messages. Oh, my goodness. I know.

It's the worst question ever, but it's fun.

I had to think about this. Oh my gosh. I'm getting a mind block over all good.

This is literally how everyone responds. So.

Okay, first of all, investing in yourself is the only sort of investment that has a guaranteed return. No matter where the markets go, if it goes up, down, sideways, nobody's going to be able to take your knowledge away from you. So good. Invest in yourself often. So that is one thing. Because that. Yeah, that is either invest your time or money. At the beginning, if you don't have.

Money, you have to invest your time.

And then eventually you gotta invest money anyways. So that's one thing. Wow. So good. Number two, patience. Patience is a profitable virtue. So be patient with yourself when you're learning, ask questions and just move forward. And with your investments, also, don't be in it basically for the quick win. So patience is a profitable virtue is my second favorite quote. That is beautiful.

And wow, am I using that right now?

No, I mean, and women. I mean, it's interesting because, like, you know, we. Anyways, I'm not going to get into that again. But women are so patient. It's good to be patient. Not too patient, but it's good. Like number three. Oh, man. All right, I'm done. Tap into my Instagram. Do it, do it. I'm going to see because I have like, every time I have a like good thought, I just put it. Money is just a tool. Money is just a tool. And people who tell you money is not good don't have any.

It's very, very, very true. Because it is so powerful. It's powerful tool.

It's okay to be rich. It's okay to be wealthy. It's okay to be happy. That's why I love your podcast. Don't feel guilty for being happy for being rich. You got it. It's okay. It's okay. Money is just a tool.

So good. Well, I'm glad I put you on the spot with those, because those are gold. So that was so good. I'm so grateful for you. I'm really, really grateful for what you do, because I know that it hasn't been easy. And I love that you share that so vulnerably that, hey, I'm not saying this is gonna be easy. I'm making it approachable. We're gonna be patient with ourselves, and we're gonna have new opportunities for our life. And I think, you know, that's probably the coolest thing that I love when I meet people who create opportunities for people, because I just think it's the most beautiful thing that you have dedicated your life to doing that. So is there any last thing that you'd like to share with everyone? Anything that maybe we didn't chat about that's coming up for you?

Well, it's my birthday today, so happy birthday.

I feel so lucky. Oh, my God, I feel so lucky I got to spend it with you. That's amazing.

No, I think my PR person actually put you specifically on my birthday because he knew how much I'm going to enjoy talking with you. He was like, you are my birthday gift. Oh, my gosh. So thanks for having me on. It's making me emotional.

That's so sweet. Wow. Okay.

Well, happy birthday.

This year is going to be one of your best years yet. It's just going to keep getting better because you have all of the amazing tools that just make you feel more just confident. Right. And complete and all of those things. So I'm so excited for you for celebrating today. I hope that you have something in place where you get to really sit and reflect and celebrate on all of the great things that you've done, because they are pretty freaking great.

You guys.

You guys heard the bio in the beginning. Okay, where can we find you? Follow you. I know that you have some great stuff. Stuff on your website.

Yeah. Thank you so much. And so the best place to go isactually invest diva.com I am all over social media, but just be aware of impersonators. I'm verified on most social media, so look for that blue check. But I'm at Invest Diva on Instagram, Yanadaniel on Facebook. I canna Danielle on TikTok and I cannot Danielle on Twitter. I need to. Oh, okay. I need to. So just. I think Googling would be better so that you don't fall for the paid impersonators. I'm sorry.

Well, it's just because you're talking about so many great things. So, yes, you guys definitely look for that blue check mark. And as always, the biggest gift that we can give Kiana is to let her know what your biggest takeaway was like, if she opened something up for you. If you're really curious, if you're interested about investing now because of her or the info that she shared, make sure that you tag her on Instagram on stories and let us know what your biggest takeaway was from this podcast. It's always the way that we can just see the impact that this podcast made in your life. So you guys, we're so grateful for you. Definitely go check her out. Check out her book if you're interested. She's got three books, you guys. And until next time, earn your happy. Bye, everyone. Fun.