The Crypto Cowboy Provides Education on the Wild West of Cryptocurrency

Dustin Steffey: 0:00

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Jaden Norvell: 0:51

This is the best stop for entrepreneurship and self development talk hosted by the doctor himself Dr. Dustin Steffey co hosted by entrepreneur and sports talk host Jayden rush, Norville. This is

Dustin Steffey: 1:07

chock full low chop nation and welcome to another episode of chopping with fire. You're joined with your host Dustin Steffey today. Today we're going to kick off our second episode of our five episode series of cryptocurrency. We have a very special guest today. He is from Citrus Heights in the California area. He goes by the name of crypto cowboy, John means is on with us today. John, how are you?

John Means: 1:58

I'm great. Dustin, how are you?

Dustin Steffey: 2:00

Doing? Well. I heard you just got back from Alaska. I wish I could have went jealous.

John Means: 2:08

It's a fun place. I think everybody should have at least one experience there.

Dustin Steffey: 2:12

How was the Aurora Borealis when you saw it?

John Means: 2:17

Nice. You have to get up at like one in the morning to see it. Because you only have that small window of opportunity when it's actually dark. But to see it is an amazing experience. And like I said I think everyone should have at least you know it is one of our states. And I think it's you know, I have worked there before but I enjoyed my short period of time there and just feel like part of the nature and and also the sled dogs and you know, just seeing that. Yeah, you gotta be of a different breed to live and survive there.

Dustin Steffey: 2:56

Yeah, I think I saw the pictures on social media. And while it was pretty and you're a decent camera person, I don't think the pictures do it justice at all.

John Means: 3:07

No, no, you got to see you got to see it even anybody can videotape and you can look at videos, but you got to be there to experience it.

Dustin Steffey: 3:15

I definitely agree. It's on my bucket list as well as Nashville as well as Mardi Gras and a couple other fun things but yeah, yeah, you gotta be there. Yeah, you can't just watch a video Burning Man. I've had the pleasure with you to be a part of so yeah, we've done Burning Man. We have done man. So the reason you're on today my friend is you are somewhat of an expert in cryptocurrency I view you as well. My mentor you got me started within it and you've gone nowhere, but we're trying to educate our listeners on cryptocurrency a little bit. I feel like it's still very much in its infancy stage. We had Joey Wallen on a little bit ago, he's he kicked off our first episode and he kind of gave an explanation within cryptocurrency and kind of his take on it. We're just expanding that knowledge because you have more knowledge that you can add to it. So with that being said, How would you define cryptocurrency? You personally,

John Means: 4:22

it's always a hard thing to people don't grasp that they just think it's computers and electronic money. But you gotta think value is like the sense in the eyes of the beholder. And the more people that adopt anything, you know, it could be this, you know, has value if people need it wants it. That what is it? Well, it's my mouth, but digital currency is the same thing. It's a lot of misconceptions about it. But for me, cryptocurrency it's a, it's a decentralized digital money system that allows people to freely barter for goods and services without interference from banks. You can send money to someone without going through the banking system, which causes all kinds of charges, crazy fees and monitor the transactions. Now, certain transactions are here, necessary, you know, if you're buying a house, buying a car or hiring a lawyer, you know, you want receipts and your invoices. But as cryptocurrency becomes more massive, and its adoption, an accepted part of our entire money ecosystem, there's no limit to the possibilities,

Dustin Steffey: 5:53

I think would throw some people off. And you can help me out with this is the fact that everybody is so used to tangible money in front of them, right. So like, if I pulled out my wallet right now, I would have, well, it's very, very empty, but I would have at least $1 bill in there that I can tangibly see. And I think where people get hung up is, is cryptocurrency real, right? Because there's people that are investing in you. And I know that we can use it to pay for certain things. However, the normal person in my mind kind of doesn't grasp it at all, because in my mind, it's a bunch of zeros and ones on the internet. Right? And let's be realistic, it just popped out of thin air.

John Means: 6:41

It seems that way. That's why it takes we have to educate ourselves. Who is investing in Bitcoin? Who's in us in the crypto world? And do they have credibility. And so it takes some education, just to write it off, it's like, well, that's just that electronic money. But that without further investigation, I mean, look at it in this sense, when you're dealing online with your bank, you don't actually see the money, you're just dealing with your keyboard. And what you're dealing with, when you're on the internet, you're dealing with all zeros and ones, that's just digital. So it takes some getting used to that fact, because we've just conditioned to certain ways of working with our banks. But once we become more familiar with it, you can try it in little little steps, like doing little transactions back and forth. So that worked. And then you develop that that confidence, okay, but it takes some education, it also helps to understand the history of money, the turret that like the current system that we're on right now, the fiat system, which no country has ever survived, with the fiat system, which is a currency. Without any backing. We were taken off the gold standard 1971 in this country by President Nixon at the time, we've taken off the gold standard. And then then we were on Petro dollars. But now we're not even on Petro dollars. They're just printing money is paper paper, what's the real bad, we love it? You know? So, in 2008, after this, after the crash, the housing bubble crash stock market, people started looking for alternatives. You know, we've always felt that gold and silver were tangible. Yes, you can hold a gold or silver bar, but you can't go into the 711 and buy a cup of coffee. Well, good, but you don't want to. And so, to me, digital currency is just an alternative that you can carry on here. And as long as being accepted, you can exchange that for a cup of coffee and a doughnut. Now you have a tangible, something of tangible value that's value to you in your hand and the the store the convenience store, they accepted that okay. So now you have something about so if digital currency can be exchanged for currency, regular money, which it can be done, then you know if that makes you feel better to do it that way, then okay, well, that didn't work. And so then as you try a little bit more and a little bit more than you realize, yeah, there is some value here at some point. Have you have enough cryptocurrency in Bitcoin? You could buy a house, you could buy a car. Not that I'm saying you could do that. You could. The alternative to buying or using your Bitcoin. Your cryptocurrency to buy a house or take a loan against stuff. And there are lenders out there who will actually lend you actual money against your Bitcoin and you can buy a house, you can buy a farm, and you just pay that loan back. Like if you have a job, paychecks your, your fiat currency that you are accumulating as you get paid. And you can pay back your loans with that, at some point, perhaps, if you can get bitcoin as part of your paycheck, and you don't have to make that transition from one to the other, you simply are able to use the Bitcoin and that's where I see things will be at some point, you know, we're still in the infant stages, you know, to your point, that's what you've said, Yes, we're still in the infant. Stages,

Dustin Steffey: 10:46

I'd like to remind everyone that's listening to that fiat currency, so our money that we're depositing into a bank, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, John, but the money that we deposit in the bank, we don't know, what the bank does with it, when it sits into that banking account, they could be using that money to grow something elsewhere. And we just know that that's the amount of money we have in our account, but we're giving it to these banking systems to do with whatever they please. Whereas with cryptocurrency, from what I understand, I have the keys to the castle with cryptocurrency, where

John Means: 11:25

you're having to trust the banks, with their money, you have them your money, they have it, and you're trusting them with it. And so why is that because we develop that trust from the nerdy age. Okay, so we've just aren't conditioned to trusting that these guys know what they're doing. And, and they're going to just do the best thing possible with our money. And we hope it's there the next time to go to make an ATM withdrawal, you put it in there for your $100 and you count it 123 Okay, so now your trust has been reinforced. So we'll do it again. And again, and again. Which is okay, but how do we know, the fiat currency? Has? Right now we're going through inflationary period, you know, talk about inflation, constantly headed toward a recession? And, you know, that's scary. That's another reason why we went through that in 2008. Okay, what are my alternatives? Okay. And that's at the same same time when Bitcoin came along. So yeah, it can be scary initially, because we just don't understand it. Just take some time to educate ourselves. And the more we've worked with it, we we are, yeah, like, not brainwashing. Like, we have that with our current fiat currency system, but we become more comfortable. And then as we learn more about it, then we come to trust, it

Dustin Steffey: 12:55

was one thing that you brought up that I related with you with, which was the fact that we are conditioned as a society to buy in to certain practices. I brought it up a bazillion times on the podcast, whether it be with self development topics, such as college in the education system, for even conditioning as growing up. But the key word here that I want everybody to focus on is we're conditioned to think one way but that does not mean that we can't break that to learn something different that might actually benefit us. So that right there is what I want people to think about and have an open mind with as we dive into this. Which leads me to another thing that you brought up, which was the word scary, it could be scary. With that being said, How do you assess risk tolerance, because scary to me is risk and tolerance to it? And what is your current tolerance within cryptocurrency

John Means: 13:57

risk tolerance. It's right in simple terms, low, medium, high. And anyone who has a workplace 401 K IRA, you've done investments in the stock market yourself that you have a financial advisor, you're familiar with that terminology to one degree or another. And then, so you're familiar, you know, everybody's vaguely familiar with what their own risk tolerances. Think younger, younger people tend to be more low risk. I mean, high risk, high reward, whereas older people tend to be more conservative. You know, they've worked hard all their lives, and they don't want to take that risk of losing that they they've worked hard for them to have a low risk but little reward. And we just become more conservative. You know, as we as we age, and it's totally understandable. I think it's natural. Younger people are more Learn to dive into Kryptos. Whereas older people might just want to dip their toe in to test

Dustin Steffey: 15:06

your urine anomaly to me though, like, you're an anomaly to me, because while your risk tolerance is on the conservative side, it's not at the same time, because you dove into this at your age, and you're doing fairly well, buddy. And I don't know many people that are like you, that would dive in like you did. But you in, in your own respect, you did educate yourself first, before diving in which that is a key piece of this puzzle, I get it. But still, nonetheless, you do not see many people that are investing the same as you. I'm a

John Means: 15:47

conservative investor, okay? For myself, I mean, you know, one thing I like sleeping at night, and, but I'm diversified. I have to, I have investments in real estate, commercial property. I have some precious metals, and I have, you know, my IRAs and whatever. But then I also have a certain amount, cryptocurrency least enough, that I didn't just unload everything and jumped in that boat, okay. And, you know, it is still volatile. enact, you expect that right now. And so we are in the early stages. But, you know, I have like 10% of my, of my investments

Dustin Steffey: 16:33

pull in and to compare and contrast, right? So compare you and I together, right? I have about 30% of my investments into crypto. But in all actuality, when I started, I started out less than you I started out at about one to 2% because I wasn't sure

John Means: 16:52

the perfect example, you know, dipped your toe in the water tested a little bit, tweaked it, educated yourself. So then you became more confident, more confident. And then as you're seeing what's going on with our economy, you're saying, Whoa, you know, this actually, lives looks to be more solid, then, you know, we have we have food supply issues, which is going to be driving up prices on everyday items, if those prices continued to, to increase? Or if the food or say the food or food or supplies. What if something gets cut off? What if a factory burns up? Oh, wait a minute, we just had like, how many 1415 of food processing plants around the country burning at the same time? Although that happened. So yeah. So when we start seeing that kind of uncertainty, you know, then we we look for something that may be more solid. And then and then as we get more and more secure with perhaps cryptocurrency, as an example, then we're willing to put more into it. Okay, and maybe I'll go from 10%, maybe I will go to a 20% Maybe more to 30% Now beat you up for you.

Dustin Steffey: 18:10

I'm not saying that it's the best call. But I mean, everybody has, everybody has a different risk tolerance, right. So mine, mine is different from yours,

John Means: 18:19

different from wherever, but that's something we need to appreciate each other for and not to judge others for, you know, their risk tolerance or lack of risk tolerance. It's a lot of things, a lot of factors involved. And so we are where we are, but I still recommend, if nothing else, people at least educate themselves, you know, do why or do your own research.

Dustin Steffey: 18:47

You can of educating yourself. The next question will be purely educational for everyone, which is where how do you invest in crypto and with that? How does one protect themselves from being hacked or losing crypto because it is all digital? And we do know that there is such thing as hackers and stuff. Walk me through kind of how you invest what platforms you use, and then how you protect yourself.

John Means: 19:12

There's lots of you know, there's lots of ways I mean, you can start out simple you get yourself like you have a soccer wallet. That's a for those who are not familiar, it's just like an exchange. But to keep yourself from being packed of when you're in the crypto. I mean, we're, we've already kind of jumped ahead there, assuming that you know, people are already ready. Okay, let's do it. What do I do next? How do you protect yourself? Well, for one, many of the exchanges out there you want to get yourself one that's more secure, that's reputable. Again, you do your research, and you may be paying higher fees. Okay, but it's worth it for that extra that extra security. istalif so many cryptocurrencies to choose from have hundreds of exchanges available, and it can be intimidating. So with the right preparation and research, you can confidently dip your toes into the crypto pool. Just do your homework. Okay, it might be worth paying a little, like I said a little more in fees for a well established exchange with top notch security practices. So first of all, you get yourself a digital wallet. There's lots of choose from get advice from someone who's already done it. Two different types of wallets, you get a hot storage wallet calls on hot storage. It's it's easy to use to connect to the internet in some way. And like your phone app, desktop software program. Unfortunately, this internet connection also makes hot storage coins susceptible to online theft and security risks. Okay, anyone that's ever been on the internet or should be familiar with like, fishy, there are scams not. And when I say the word scam, crypto itself is not a scam, but you could be scammed out of your crypto just as you can be scammed out of your eBay, gift cards or your, your your regular money. Okay, it happens. Cold storage. On the other hand, it can be on an encrypted device like a thumb drive. So, you know, it's something like this. And they can range anywhere from 50 to $100, or $200. But since they're stored offline, they're considered more secure. Now, there are several, several wallets that you can load and get, you also get rewarded when you signed up for signing people up. So that's free money. That's a good deal. I get to set up a wallet that requires a 12 word phrase. Okay. And and you don't ever tell anyone what that phrase is. My preferred storage device is on a crypto only laptop, which is right here. And it's used for nothing else. I don't shop on eBay or Amazon, I don't surf the net with it. It's just strictly my bank. It's Kryptos only. So I may download I may buy some cryptocurrency on my phone, on off of an exchange such as Coinbase or Gemini. And there are others as well my bite initially. However, as soon as I can, I transfer it onto my crypto only laptop. And with a wallet on there that is secured the twill were phrase that only I know. And I do keep a copy of it. But it's in a sick

Dustin Steffey: 22:50

crypto wallet that you're using the same as what I use, which is called Exodus Exodus,

John Means: 22:55

I do use the Exodus wallet, but it's stored with a 12 word phrase on that computer. It's nothing that I would use. I don't use it for anything else. Okay. That's the key. Because you never know someone can get into your so many different ways to be hacked. And anyone who's ever had a computer and everybody has, you know, it's so easy to get. So that's how I go that extra measure of security.

Dustin Steffey: 23:21

I learned that from you. The only thing that I don't have is a crypto only computer. But I do have Exodus. I do use that. And it's a nice wallet that no one else controls other than me.

John Means: 23:35

Right? If no one gets your keys, then your, your Kryptos are our architecture.

Dustin Steffey: 23:44

Perfect. So we touched base on that. One thing that I think people want to understand is we've brought up a couple of times now within this interview, educating yourself upscaling yourself understanding how to invest. So how do you educate yourself in crypto to be a smart investor?

John Means: 24:06

Oh, I just started out. Out of curiosity, I just started looking up YouTube channels, I mean, YouTube, so much information to get to get off to YouTube. You can you can take entire MIT courses, okay. And there's a lot about crypto on just on my T courses. But there's channels available if you're not really don't want to go back to college. But you still want to learn you know, most of us we want to know what to know. So there's YouTube channels that you can take and even get certified in cryptocurrency. I've got two certifications myself, one in Bitcoin and then the other in blockchain and oh no, I have three they wanted in a theory. You have encoded some YouTube channels I could recommend like as just saying and tossing some out there but the ones that I've come have to appreciate what I enjoy more like Lark Davis on YouTube, he has some excellent tutorials on how to use finance, which is an exchange where you can do your day trading. I'm talking about if you want to be an investor. Okay, it teaches you how to be a trader. And then also Ivan on tech. It's a YouTube, which also teaches you to take courses, that happens to be the academy that I've signed up for, and I did get certified. Now, that's for investing. If you want to do day trading, if you're going to be checking the computer for pricing, buy low, sell high, that kind of thing. Okay, it's great. Other investors however, like myself, okay, I prefer the Hodel approach, H O D, L, which just stands for hold on for dear life, I buy it and leave it. Okay. And it's a roller coaster sometimes, but because, you know, I checked it, but I don't jump every time it goes, starts. Because you can do you can do some crazy things, it starts to go starts to go high, and it's all crave. This is great. I'm gonna buy some more. Okay. Now you probably should have waited for what do we call it? The dip? The then you buy at the dip, buy low, sell high, but then you're becoming a trader? Yeah, I just prefer to buy on a regular schedule and leave it because my confidence is that even though there's current volatility, the overall trend is going forward. Okay. And so that's what I'm banking on, so to speak.

Dustin Steffey: 26:45

And I'm a blend of you, right. So I like to do a little bit of trading on top of buying on a normal schedule. So for Yeah, so for, for me, I'm educated enough to buy on the dips. And then when I when I see an increase, I'm disciplined enough to sell my profit and reinvest it into something else, where I'm not taking everything that I initially started with. I'm just taking the profit, kind of like when you gamble, and putting it into something else to keep making more of a profit.

John Means: 27:20

But you see, Justin, you and I, you're outside of Reno, I was in Vegas, I was at Reno, you know, 25 years. So we know, you know, it's called playing with house money. Right? You've made some money at the table, whatever. So now, you take your initial investment back to debt, but you're now you're playing with house money. So at least you're not going to lose because you've already made that additional investment. And that's very, very smart. You know, but again, I strongly suggest that people study tutorials don't just don't just wing it. But you know, get yourself some education from some successful traders can save yourself some time, money and embarrassment.

Dustin Steffey: 28:08

In full disclaimer, we're not financial analysts, both John and I are not financial analysts. But what we are given is information that we have learned within our own adventures, to be able to understand crypto a little more now John's a little bit better than me in the sense that he has a business that he runs helping other like Pete like minded people to invest in understand cryptocurrency, so he's a little bit ahead of me. Whereas I'm just a doctor in business. And so I have logic, I have strategy behind me. And yes, John is right. I live in Nevada, we know how to gamble, which means I know how to play with the house money,

John Means: 28:48

right. Now, as far as my business goes, I keep it very simple. I just teach people how to set up a wallet, I can give suggestions on different ones can suggest like which coins to buy, maybe which ones you want to experiment with things like that. This is a get rich quick, I do it for stability. Like I said diversification and I'm looking at long term so that my business basically consists of that I'm just giving some basic education and teaching people how to set up wallets. I'm not going to teach you how to run you know, nodes, Master nodes, I don't teach you how to do how to code so but I'm here for like for beginners. Okay, and and that works out just fine for me.

Dustin Steffey: 29:40

For the advanced tactics, we will have someone on here to talk about crypto mining and a couple other things that's way advanced tactics way out of my wheelhouse. I'm not I'm not the crypto minor nor do I want to 500 plus dollar energy bill but hey,

John Means: 29:58

yes It is expensive, and people do that. But we are happy to, if someone is interested, they want to know about mining, we can refer you to people who do that.

Dustin Steffey: 30:11

Absolutely. With that being said, let's have a little bit of fun. You talk about diversifying your portfolio. And I am a fan of it too. I have alternate coins, I have a diverse portfolio. My top five coins are in this order, particularly your Aetherium first, Bitcoin second, and I'll talk about the logic behind that in a second. My third would be Solana my fourth Bitcoin right now is polka dot, and then my fifth one is Cardano. So those are my top five, I have 10 Total coins that I'm diversified in. The reason why I like Aetherium over bitcoin is I think, and again, I am not a financial analyst, I feel that you Aetherium is going to pop ahead of Bitcoin at some point. And it offers a lot more within the blockchain in a lot more support than I've seen in a while with any coin other than Bitcoin, right? So I can see Aetherium popping up to 60,000 100,000, whatever coin, at some point in time, I don't know when, and it is an educated guess, kind of like stock market. But that's why I put your theory in first, what are your top five?

John Means: 31:38

Well, I started out in Bitcoin, but that's all I knew. And it's still actually the largest part of my portfolio that's about 40% down. And like you, Ethereum, because there's so many applications that rely on a theory. Whereas Bitcoin to me, I just think of it as like a gold bar. Okay? And you can, if you want to spin Bitcoin, that's fine, just like shaving off some parts of your a gold bar, you know, but for long term value, I still see that as instability. And so where's the theory of picks up where the shortcomings that bitcoin does not? Certain things that you can't do with Bitcoin? Like with Aetherium? You can, you can have smart contracts. And you can do things with a theory that you can't do with Bitcoin. So it has some practical usages. And then it's a platform upon which several other of the altcoins as ever develop their own usage and have grown from So the theory is that by second, okay, so I'm about that 4020 coin, which is like Bitcoin, but it's a faster transaction, and they can actually use and it's not as expensive to use as a Bitcoin transaction called Litecoin. So there's a lot of usage for Litecoin. So I think there's a lot of potential for that in the future as well. And then also, like you have Solana. And then there's always the coin of the week, or of the month, you know, you know, I'm talking about, you know, the sheep herds and the doge

Dustin Steffey: 33:23

minus Sheba emu,

John Means: 33:26

and you go, so I have, like 10% in those alt coins, just to see, because you can see how they can go up like that, then they can draw. So, but it's enough to pique interest, and you never know what of that might just be the one that goes to the moon, and then your entire portfolio changes. But I prefer to stick with the big more solid ones that have less volatility. And again, like you, you say, sometimes you will, you don't sell your crypto, but what you do you exchange some crypto that you have for another one, okay? Which is perfectly fine. And that's why you also see a lot of volatility in the market is people who've already invest into crypto, but they're just moving their investments round, doesn't mean that Bitcoin has taken a big hit one day, it's just that a lot of people have taken their Bitcoin and then they've moved into some other pillars. So that's another thing to be aware of. You can you can kind of track that also online, you know where to go.

Dustin Steffey: 34:31

We touch base a little more on volatility. I know that's the elephant in the room that people are scared of is volatility. Mind you, you and I are smart and knowing that there's a lot more things that are volatile, like my 401 K is pretty volatile. I'm earning fiat currency in my mind, pretty volatile. So like there is volatility in this world. I just think that we're conditioned not to see it as much as we do. And When crypto so can we touch base on that

John Means: 35:02

currency started in 2008. So in terms of history of our country, I mean, that's relatively new, it's only been around 14 years. So it behaves very much like the stock market, in a sense, because it is new, and people are just becoming more familiar with it. So a lot of it is emotionally driven. When you buy a portion of Bitcoin, you, you'd have that Bitcoin, okay? And just because the price goes down, you still have that same amount of grip. Okay, it's just the price that you're watching is on this stock exchange, but you got to remember the stocks are emotional, and they respond to it responds to the news, like one word or two from a billionaire such as Elon Musk. Michael sailor from from mod, Michael, from MicroStrategy, or even the government may come up with some kind of regulation or some kind of investigation or something that they can send them it can either send the market to the moon, or it can send it spiraling, you know, in a day. So until adoption reaches larger, larger segments of the population, and not just here, but around the world. And a lot of countries are now starting to adopt cryptocurrency, as an official currency. El Salvador, African countries, I think, you Opia India is the accepting bitcoin, from what I understand, you know, liberal research is something I heard just recently. But we can expect that volatility to continue, but the range will eventually be at less degrees, but the overall trend going upward, keeping in mind 2010, if you'd bought $10 with a Bitcoin $10. Today, that $10 with the $400,000. So you might say, well, what can I do with $100,000 worth of it's typically, what can I do with 400,000? Bitcoin? It's not 400,000 bitcoins $400,000 worth of bitcoin? Well, you can sell it on the exchange for cash, just like anything else, you can trade it, and you can actually have cash and said, I wouldn't do that. No, I would take a loan against that by something tangible if I wanted to whatever wouldn't sell it. So if we went from $10, or $100,000, in that 14 year period, then the next five years, they're saying you can go to the next buy even this year, if you go to $100,000 in the next five to 10 years, a Bitcoin could go to a million dollars. All right. So that's an upward trend. So we don't worry about the little waves along the little ripples along the way to think long term. So that's my take on volatility. Don't get all caught up in what's happening today are the latest news or what did he like Mel say? Or what Michael Sandler say? What did the government say? Just confidence that in the long term, this is the way a lot of currencies are going to go and not just here, but around the world?

Dustin Steffey: 38:37

Well, I think we touched upon this a little bit. We touched upon who do you turn to for advice in crypto? And I think the answer that I saw was, you turn to everyone, you do your own research, and you kind of make decisions based off of the research. But for the sake of the question, do you have a mentor?

John Means: 38:59

I have a couple. Well, I'm a member of a group called the founders club, started by a guy on the internet and find them on YouTube. Bitcoin been started out as an ex truck driver, had a very, it just started out. It was like a comedian, driving a truck. But then he got into Bitcoin, and then did a lot of research. Now he has given speeches around the world on the subject, and huge investor himself. He's got his own crypto business, and it's helping other people develop crypto businesses, and very, very successful and he has good ties with the people around him. And so I consider him someone that I trust. So yeah, I follow Bitcoin Ben. You can find him on YouTube. It's a daily broadcast, and then you can join the membership club, because there's lots of plans for the future. That's like, think of it like this back in the Gold Rush days yeah, there was gold to be found. But you know who really made the money during the gold rush with the guys who selling the shovels? Okay, so if you're interested in doing something, then instead of just investing but you say you want to start your own business, and cryptocurrency did you want to be just the guy out there? Mining, but you want to be the person selling the shovels and there's several different kinds of companies you can operate you can help businesses adopt Bitcoin into part of their their transactions. Okay, there's a lot of Axiom younger people out there, they say, Well, I will prefer just buy everything with Bitcoin. You know, whether it's Convenience stores are mom and pop gas stations, tobacco stores, I've seen that. So you could be someone who helped set up a vendor with a cash register that actually accepts Bitcoin. There's several kinds of businesses like that there's something called crypto world, which is like the 711 Kryptos. You can buy a franchise. And so, so yeah, I have I have few mentors. But I think someone that I know, personally, that I would say would be like, maintain, I

Dustin Steffey: 41:30

appreciate that. Um, another good question. Where do you see crypto heading? Like, give me give me like the five year 10 year plan? Like where are you see it heading in your expert opinion,

John Means: 41:42

crypto just opens up another avenue to secure your finances to you in the future, that of your family, if you have kids that mentioned this early, but it's like the new gold rush, we have this opportunity now this time that we are in, which is an amazing time to see what's going on in the world around us. But for those who pick up their shovels and their pans, now, this is the opportunity to get involved in an amazing I wouldn't say an experiment because I think we're past experience now that adoption is taking place. And I see that growing more and more. You can see videos, you can go to YouTube, you can see where there's plans for whole cities to be built on the blockchain. Okay, so it's a decentralized form of currency, decentralized out of the hands of the government, but within the blockchain with the people themselves are in control. And I can see that in the maybe not so distant future. And so the possibilities are endless, or what's what's available, without being controlled by people who have no real interest in our personal finances, other than what how it's like to help them. So with this type of currency, there's nothing else out there. Like it. If someone could come up with something, let me know. Because I'm the guy that will be happy to get involved right now, where we are this time. This is our Gold Rush and our opportunity to do what our forefathers did back, those who came California, move west, what they did back in the 1800s, I think this is like the new opportunity for us to do replicate what they did, because there's so many amazing things that can be done on the blockchain in the crypto world.

Dustin Steffey: 43:49

I appreciate all the information that you've provided to us, I wanted to just extend my thank you to you because not only are you a crypto investor and helping others to invest in crypto with your business, but you are an entrepreneur. And you do embody a lot of the core values that I I want to bring to our listeners, which is self development entrepreneurship. So not only do you invest in crypto, but I know from experience and seeing you and having you as my mentor you are you're an excellent Elvis and Johnny Cash impersonator. And you do very well at it and that is one of your businesses and has been for a long time. So you're definitely an entrepreneur. You're a good friend, and you definitely have changed me for the better in a lot of things. So I just wanted to say thank you.

John Means: 44:44

No, thank you. I've always said I've had a job. I always had a job because I wanted that security for my family. But I was never satisfied with just a job. I'm just eight by nine to find whatever you're like, I needed to do more. So I always had that entrepreneurial spirit. Okay. But eventually I worked myself out of a job. And now I just do the things that I like to do, rather than the things I have to do

Dustin Steffey: 45:21

to encompass what I believe in which one of the big quotes that I use, which it's not trademarked yet, so if you steal it, it's okay. It's Chase your own dreams, not someone else's. Because at the end of the day, we've been conditioned to chase other people's dreams and work for the man. When, when actually when in actuality, in reality, we can do this ourselves. We were founded on a lot of things, but one of the things we were founded on was entrepreneurship. So the American Dream is strong, and we can do it.

John Means: 45:56

Totally agree. And that's how we get our freedom. That's what we're about. We're freedom fighters. Yeah, I'm all about that.

Dustin Steffey: 46:03

Me too. With that being said, how can people get a hold of you?

John Means: 46:09

You can find me on the interweb WWW dot California, crypto cowboy.com. California, crypto capitalist.com. And my email links and everything is right. Excellent. And

Dustin Steffey: 46:31

then for people that have our social media profiles and our website we will have John's profile linked to this episode. So you can get a hold of him because he has submitted his information to us as well too. So he will be linked to this episode. If you all want to get a hold of him. Ask him lots of questions. Invite him to a wedding to do Elvis or Johnny Cash whatever the case may be.

John Means: 46:59

Barry, I'm an ordained minister so I can marry you and sing to you and get you hooked up with a crypto wallet.

Dustin Steffey: 47:09

The only thing that he can't do for all my Nevada folks is process a divorce but other than that he's good.

John Means: 47:17

Now that you mentioned it maybe that's up No, I I want I want to marry when I'm married people I want it to be forever.

Dustin Steffey: 47:24

Yeah, that's that's a whole nother can of worms and a whole nother topic. John, thank you. I appreciate you. I think the knowledge and wealth that you provided today is a goldmine and I hope our listeners enjoy it. So thank you. You're welcome. Thank you Hey, chop nation Dustin Steffey here. Are you tired of the same old boring gym routine that has yielded no results? If so, look no further because Inferno performance is your one stop shop to transform your body, health, life and overall well being with multiple locations in the Phoenix area. There is no better time than now to drop in and see what Inferno performance has to offer to their clients. Inferno performance is owned and operated by retired NFL linebacker, Dante Mo who offers personalized coaching to help anyone reach their goals. This gym truly is a one stop shop offering supplements, meal plans, apparel, and custom training at affordable pricing. If you haven't done so already, please drop it into one of the multiple locations and check them out