Pathways with Amber Stitt

Unleashing Blockchain, Web3, & Cryptos to Build Better Communities: Onchained with Rachel Brissenden

• Amber Stitt • Season 3 • Episode 14

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🤿 Welcome to a special edition of Pathways with Amber Stitt—Pathways Unleashed, where we dive deep with thought leaders, changemakers, and innovators designing life on their own terms. 

📖 In this episode, Amber sits down with Rachel Brissenden, blockchain advocate, entrepreneur, and co-author of the bestselling book "Impact Entrepreneur." 

🛫 Rachel shares her journey from overcoming personal loss to building a global impact through blockchain, business development, and community—traveling everywhere from California to Japan and Dubai. 

🎙️ Together, they break down what blockchain and crypto really mean, discuss the power of borderless communities, and look at the emerging creator economy, including new platforms like Zora and Farcaster. 

💻 Plus, they give a glimpse into events in the metaverse and the future of real world assets onchain via NFTs.

📡 Tune in for an inspiring conversation about innovation, legacy, and how blockchain technology is unlocking new pathways for empowerment and connection—locally and globally.

🧑‍💻 Plus, hear about Rachel’s upcoming travels, her work with leading crypto organizations like Decent Labs, Base, and Coinbase, and her passion for making a global impact through technology and education.

📱 If you’re curious about Web3, looking to make meaningful connections, or simply love stories of people designing life on their own terms—this episode is for you!

📽️ To watch this episode: https://youtu.be/oCdsNQzbJyg

🔗 Stay connected: 

🔗 Follow Rachel on X, Instagram, and LinkedIn: @RachelOnchain

💡 Check out the onchain apps that Rachel mentioned:

📲 Farcaster: https://farcaster.xyz

📲 Zora: https://zora.co

📲 Base: https://www.base.org

📲 Revolve: https://www.revolvetoken.com

📲 RWA, Real World Tokenized Assets: https://app.rwa.xyz

🦉 Special thanks to Owwll for hosting this episode! 

🦉 Download the Owwll app to start connecting with real people and expanding your network.

#blockchain #crypto #web3 #creatoreconomy #womenintech #pathwayswithamberstitt #rachelbrissenden #rachelonchain #nft #metaverse

📻 Thank you for tuning in to Pathways!

🔗 Connect with Amber on Social Media:

📲 Be sure to visit Amber's website:

www.AmberStitt.com

🎬 And remember, let's take action today!!!

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Rachel Brissenden [00:00:00]:
Just to rewind and kind of give a holistic overview of the blockchain space. So what crypto is, what blockchain technology does for people, is it gives you a solution to truly own your money in a permissionless way. So, for instance, when you entrust a bank, a big centralized bank with your assets, it's not really yours. The bank typically has this money spent. And with crypto, when you own your assets in a wallet, you are the custodian of those funds. You truly have ownership of it.

Amber Stitt [00:00:32]:
Hello and welcome to Pathways Unleashed, a special edition of Pathways with Amber Stitt. The Pathways Unleashed podcasts were recorded with special guests and the authors of "The Unleashed Entrepreneur" and "The Biohacking Entrepreneur", who were celebrating the book launches at the Unleash Your Superpower conference in Delray Beach, Florida, in April 2025. Let's join the conversation.

Amber Stitt [00:00:56]:
Awesome. Okay, so you're still not a local Floridian.

Rachel Brissenden [00:01:01]:
No, I am not. Californian.

Amber Stitt [00:01:03]:
So we're in the West.

Rachel Brissenden [00:01:05]:
Originally from New York, then I moved to California.

Amber Stitt [00:01:08]:
Now, your mom was with you last trip? I met her.

Rachel Brissenden [00:01:11]:
Yeah, my mom was with me.

Amber Stitt [00:01:13]:
She's not here this time.

Rachel Brissenden [00:01:14]:
No.

Amber Stitt [00:01:15]:
Okay.

Rachel Brissenden [00:01:15]:
I'm here to support you all and one of my best friends, Jawna.

Amber Stitt [00:01:19]:
Okay. This is where it's kind of like we had...it was this one.

Rachel Brissenden [00:01:23]:
Yep. "Impact Entrepreneur".

Amber Stitt [00:01:26]:
So this is where I met Rachel last year, and it was so tough because I kind of geek out. I'm a wannabe Web3 person. So when I hear that you're involved into that it's like, "Oh!"

Amber Stitt [00:01:37]:
But it's kind of like a hard thing to shake out. A lot of people can tune it out and not understand it. So we're gonna get to a little bit of that, I think, today maybe.

Rachel Brissenden [00:01:45]:
Yeah, let's dive in.

Amber Stitt [00:01:47]:
But the reason I brought up your mom and you putting together a chapter of a bestselling book, you talked about your father, and that was something that I remember. We were on a panel, and we were talking about putting things into motion for him, on his behalf. And so I think there's bringing some legacy to our conversation in celebrating your book. But then also it's kind of like legacy, and then you're also going to the future more than most people understand and doing some really cool things for the world. So not to give you just a dropped bomb, but I've been doing that to a lot of people today.

Amber Stitt [00:02:20]:
But you've done some really cool things, and I think that the space that we're going to kick up with your episode and then also with Jawna is you guys are in unchartered territory going into this new world, but trying to make the world a better place. It's not just about entrepreneurship. It's beyond that. It's community. We talk a lot about community. So let's talk about what you've been up to because you can find your story here. But this is just, I think, the beginning.

Rachel Brissenden [00:02:45]:
That's the building blocks. So I actually, I skimmed through your chapter before this, and I realized that you and I have a lot of parallels in our journey, in our style of writing, and both really staying rooted in our "Why" and using some of the challenges through our life to help catapult us towards more success, being more driven, wanting to make an impact and shout out to you for being a mother and doing everything you do. Just so much respect for you, Amber. So I guess to begin, on that panel I really was reflecting on the serendipitous nature of all of this coming together. Everyone that came together to co-author "Impact Entrepreneur", connecting with Suzaita. So I guess I can start at the beginning of the story.

Amber Stitt [00:03:23]:
You know Suzaita too?

Rachel Brissenden [00:03:25]:
Yeah. So, USC...So, I've been in the blockchain industry for several years and I've had the opportunity to do educational workshops at some universities and colleges. So I was doing one at USC. And this is a month after my father passed away, and I was trying to just stay active in my career, continue pushing to do what I was doing. And Suzaita, I saw she was coming to the event and she needed help with a videographer. So...and this is just serendipity...you know those little moments that lead to things you would have no idea at the time.

Rachel Brissenden [00:03:56]:
So I connected her with my videographer. My go-to videographer. Shout out to Adrian. I work with him on like all my creative projects. Former Nike, just all-star creative human being. So I connected her with him. And I had no idea that that tiny decision just helping...I didn't know Suzaita.

Rachel Brissenden [00:04:12]:
We were just in the circuit of this event at USC together, connected her with my videographer, she approached me, I think, after I gave my workshop at USC. And she was like, "Rachel, I think you'd be perfect for this book. I think there's one more spot left. I need to connect you to my mentor. Her name is Wendi. Do you want to become a published author?" And I'm sitting here just blown away because this is a month after my father passed away, Amber.

Rachel Brissenden [00:04:34]:
And his lifelong dream was to become a published author. I'm getting chills. I always get chills when I tell this story.

Amber Stitt [00:04:39]:
I was like, "Can I just talk to you about the hard stuff first? Let me drum up..."

Rachel Brissenden [00:04:42]:
Yeah, we'll get to what I've been doing for the past year. But just to lay the foundation of what this book means to me. Also the community.

Amber Stitt [00:04:49]:
And strategic partnerships aren't always about money.

Rachel Brissenden [00:04:52]:
Exactly.

Amber Stitt [00:04:53]:
It can be.

Rachel Brissenden [00:04:53]:
Legacy fulfillment, too, is a big thing. My dad had this lifelong dream and he wrote multiple books. He was the creative person, always firing off the ideas. But when it came to publishing, getting it out...

Amber Stitt [00:05:05]:
The execution. That's us now, right?

Rachel Brissenden [00:05:08]:
Because he was the creative, bleeding heart artist. You know what I mean? So I actually have his books and one of my life goals now is I would love to get those books published for him and also embark on my own solo book journey, as well. So doing this was really giving me a glimpse into what's possible. And also, when you're writing a book, the deadlines are important. Working with a group helps to motivate you. And that really was important for me. So shout out to Wendi and Patricia for the whole program they put together. It's brilliant.

Rachel Brissenden [00:05:35]:
So, yeah, it really was a life changing, big milestone in life. I was having a tea ceremony with the CEO, the US CEO of LBank, a couple weeks ago. And I told him about this. He was like, "Rachel, what you've done, this is like some people never do this in their life."

Amber Stitt [00:05:49]:
A tea ceremony. So it's great. I want to picture this.

Rachel Brissenden [00:05:52]:
Yeah. So hot tea.

Amber Stitt [00:05:54]:
Okay. I'm guessing it's all natural and yummy, good.

Rachel Brissenden [00:05:56]:
All natural, yeah. We went to this spot, it was really just lucky to find a hole in the wall in Berkeley. And it really had all this different Chinese decorate like this painting on the table of the Confucius period. And yeah, they went really deep into the different teas. And I will say, because of the industry I'm in, I have had a lot more exposure to the APAC regions. And I didn't tell you this, but I lived in Japan for a little bit last year.

Amber Stitt [00:06:23]:
Oh, no. So I think there's some of that...you've been study different walks of life for a while.

Rachel Brissenden [00:06:28]:
I would say that I have been showing up consistently in our industry and that has brought me to different places where I've had the pleasure of experiencing these different cultures. Japan, Thailand. I'm going to Dubai this Friday.

Amber Stitt [00:06:41]:
It is all because of blockchain use cases in different countries, right? And that's where people don't...so maybe we break it down and talk a little bit about Web3?

Rachel Brissenden [00:06:50]:
I would love that. I mean I could talk all day...

Amber Stitt [00:06:53]:
They are scared about it. So if you can like book for dummy it because we got to lean into it just like AI and I think sometimes people go, "Oh, that's just.." It's here.

Rachel Brissenden [00:07:01]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:07:01]:
And it's amazing. So I want to know about Japan is one of those countries that so many of my friends have traveled to in this last 12 months. Everyone's like, "That is my favorite country."

Rachel Brissenden [00:07:10]:
Yeah. There's like some paperwork I filled out coming in, it asked favorite food. I put Japanese cause the...

Amber Stitt [00:07:15]:
Well, I marked Chinese first and I was like, "Oh no, there's Japanese, too"

Rachel Brissenden [00:07:17]:
Yeah, the food, the cuisine in Japan is just...it kind of spoils you. And then you come back to the US...

Amber Stitt [00:07:24]:
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Rachel Brissenden [00:07:47]:
But yeah, so you mentioned community and something with the blockchain space and crypto industry that I really love is the community. It's like this global, borderless, kind of financial collaborative revolution. And it's like anywhere I go there are people who are working on things that I'm working on, or have the same beliefs and values that I have. So it's kind of created this cool experience of global travel and having my people there and knowing people where I go. And I'm going to Dubai this weekend. I'm going for TOKEN2049. My company, I'm leading business development at Decent Labs and we're sponsoring some activations and we're sponsoring 1001 Crypto Nights with LBank.

Rachel Brissenden [00:08:28]:
We're doing a conference called CoinFriends running in parallel to the main conference and we're doing another one as well where I'm speaking called ETHDubai. So yeah, I guess I'm getting a little into what's currently happening.

Rachel Brissenden [00:08:41]:
So I guess just to rewind and kind of give a holistic overview of the blockchain space. So what crypto is, what blockchain technology does for people is it gives you a solution to truly own your money in a permissionless way. So, for instance, when you entrust a bank, a big centralized bank with your assets, it's not really yours. The bank typically has this money spent. And with crypto, when you own your assets in a wallet, you are the custodian of those funds. You truly have ownership of it. And the idea of that has always fascinated me because the US dollar is a deflationary asset.

Rachel Brissenden [00:09:17]:
It goes down in value over time. What I love about bitcoin is that it's not. So it's has gone up significantly in value over time. I think right now we're at over $90,000 and we hit a major milestone this year and broke past $100,000. So Bitcoin has reached all time highs recently. And I'm more of the mindset of focusing on the impact in the industry over the price and charts. There are people who really watch the charts and are looking for price action.

Rachel Brissenden [00:09:43]:
I think if we all lock in and focus on the innovation and the impact that stuff comes.

Amber Stitt [00:09:48]:
Or it could be something as simple as somebody in another country. We don't think about this, that in another country you could have money in your hand and you can't open a bank account.

Rachel Brissenden [00:09:56]:
Yep.

Amber Stitt [00:09:57]:
And that is the most simple way of saying you think that these people...or if they do have money in the bank, the government can take it at any time.

Rachel Brissenden [00:10:03]:
And we've saw all the bank failures in recent years. The Silicon Valley Bank.

Amber Stitt [00:10:08]:
It's like people don't realize this is happening in other countries. People work their butts off.

Rachel Brissenden [00:10:11]:
In Ghana I did a workshop, if you look on YouTube, I did a workshop with the Head of Innovation and Fintech at the Bank of Ghana. And there are massive areas in Ghana, these rural regions where people do not have access to open their own bank account. Also, you asked what my favorite charity was. I wrote Sierra Leone Rising because I've also done some work with Sierra Leone, as well. With Princess Sarah Culberson.

Amber Stitt [00:10:33]:
Yep.

Rachel Brissenden [00:10:33]:
And yeah, it's actually quite interesting to see on the global stage how many people don't have access to basic financial liberties. And I would say even human rights to custody your own assets.

Amber Stitt [00:10:45]:
I feel like, yeah, not that we're having a civil rights, human rights conversation, but there's so many things that we see in the US and don't understand is not available, even like safe transportation in different countries. So some of the work that you're doing, blockchain, you're doing community work, though. It's like a function of fintech, but also caring about other communities. And you've built some of that in the past.

Rachel Brissenden [00:11:06]:
Yeah, I've worked on, gosh, I've been in the space now I'm going on five years. So I've done a lot of business development and BD often, for my roles at least, have overlapped with community, with events. I started doing grassroots meetups in Southern California that led me to have a real passion and really appreciate gathering in person and building community. So I've gone on to do business development for one of the biggest Layer 1 protocols back in 2021. Then, more of an HR tech project, helping people to earn in a legal and compliant way, especially in the US because crypto was kind of under attack by the government for several years.

Amber Stitt [00:11:40]:
But that's the funny thing is that to have legitimate contracts on the blockchain, you can't have people messing with them. It's legit. No one could create fraud on the blockchain code.

Rachel Brissenden [00:11:51]:
It's permanent, immutable, and it's forever.

Amber Stitt [00:11:54]:
I wonder why it's getting under attack. It's kind of interesting, but we won't go on that aspect.

Rachel Brissenden [00:11:58]:
Well, that's...we could do an entire other podcast episode on that. But I think that the trajectory that our industry is going in is really positive right now. We're seeing a lot more...a lot of companies were leaving the US to go innovate overseas. Hence, we threw a big conference. I worked on the Ethereum Developers Conference in Tokyo, and all these conferences and big events started popping up in the APAC regions. More innovation was going overseas. And I think that right now there's a more favorable climate emerging around cryptocurrency, which has been very positive for awareness.

Amber Stitt [00:12:31]:
All right, so you're going to Dubai, you live in California, but you talked about borderless. It's like literally reframe your brain to think we can go anywhere and work and really create an impact anywhere.

Amber Stitt [00:12:44]:
We can do that.

Amber Stitt [00:12:45]:
And I think that's really what we've been seeing all day today with the different episodes is trusting yourself, getting back to the core. I think you talk about really doing what you love and then giving that, creating the impact with it. So community, we're calling it, but it's not just friendship and networking. It's literally changing lives.

Rachel Brissenden [00:13:01]:
It's building, too. And when I talk about this borderless community, it's also a new global economy emerging, the global onchain economy. And it's really fascinating to see. I mentioned a little bit earlier that I'm working with Base and Coinbase, as well. And today actually after this, I'm doing a live stream on their Build on Base account. So one of the things we focus on for this is empowering creators, too. A lot of the beliefs and philosophies behind what Base and Coinbase are doing is that the Internet is broken, the creator economy is broken, incentives for creators that are making content is broken. And there are platforms that have emerged recently that are really gaining traction, like Zora, Farcaster, these new social media and content creation platforms where you're actually incentivized for your creations as a creator and as someone that does podcasting,

Rachel Brissenden [00:13:50]:
I create video content, I have a media company, that's something that makes me really hopeful for just better incentive alignment for creators.

Amber Stitt [00:13:57]:
You're listening to Pathways with Amber Stitt. For more episodes like this, plus so much more, check out the podcast page at: AmberStitt.com Let's take action together! Now let's get back to our episode.

Amber Stitt [00:14:11]:
Is some of this worry about the creator economy because of AI?

Rachel Brissenden [00:14:14]:
That's one worry, yeah, but I would say there are larger, more Web2 social media platforms where you...

Amber Stitt [00:14:22]:
What's that? What's Web2? Canva?

Rachel Brissenden [00:14:24]:
I would say anything that's not onchain. And I actually do see a viable use for platforms like Instagram, TikTok. I use those platforms to create content because I want to make sure we're not siloing ourselves in blockchain and not continuing to educate the masses and bring more education, awareness, and onboarding to folks that are still operating primarily in Web2. So what I would say is I still see the importance of using platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and others, but through using Farcaster, Zora, and these onchain platforms where I take a JPEG and a picture, I post it on Zora, it becomes a coin. And that week I get creator rewards for it. So it's like creating more onchain content is currently, I mean, we're seeing it unfold in real time in the blockchain space. More opportunities. Vitalik Buterin himself is even on Warpcast now using Farcaster.

Rachel Brissenden [00:15:15]:
So yeah, there's just a lot more people going in that direction of celebrating onchain content.

Amber Stitt [00:15:20]:
Okay. So are we going to have events in the Metaverse then?

Rachel Brissenden [00:15:24]:
I am actually emceeing for a Metaverse conference next month. Shout out to Clankercon to the Clankercon team. There is a group called TheCreators who are building on base and they are throwing a massive Metaverse conference. There will be booths, there's going to be performances. One of my best friends too, the CEO of Own The Doge. Her company stewards the Doge IP, so they actually own the IP rights to Doge. She's going to be there. I think we're having a panel on the moon and Mars.

Amber Stitt [00:15:50]:
In the Metaverse, to get the best experience, I need my glasses for this, I think.

Rachel Brissenden [00:15:53]:
Yeah, your VR glasses.

Rachel Brissenden [00:15:55]:
Amber, we got to get you in there and, I think honestly, they would welcome you in with open arms. They want to bring more creators into this space. So we would love to have you at Clankercon.

Amber Stitt [00:16:04]:
I even know some business people that they meet people for conferences in the Metaverse to make it fun. They're gonna play ping-pong and go meet on a jet. Certain things that just make the conversation that could be hard, a little more interesting. But that's really the extent of my knowledge. But it sounds like I do need to get the glasses.

Rachel Brissenden [00:16:18]:
We'll get you into con. Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:16:20]:
Now, are you owning real estate, yet, in the Metaverse?

Rachel Brissenden [00:16:23]:
No, I'm more focused, I mean, that's a real world asset that I'd rather have tangibly in real life.

Amber Stitt [00:16:29]:
Okay. But that's what's interesting is that you can have the two and the three and have a combination of things and that could be important because, I mean, obviously we're not going to just be floating around all day.

Rachel Brissenden [00:16:38]:
Yeah, exactly. We live in this physical reality. And something I was thinking of recently is I'm starting to talk to a project called Revolve and they're brokering real estate and selling properties and they also have an NFT to symbolize the property that's onchain.

Rachel Brissenden [00:16:53]:
So, yeah, I actually, I am talking to a...they're called RWA, Real World Asset Projects, that are bringing real world assets onchain. So that is an interesting space that's emerging and gaining some traction.

Amber Stitt [00:17:04]:
Yeah, I think I'd have FOMO if I was missing out and not completely thinking about that. But I'm going to let you help me kind of see like what would be cool and hip to kind of just sidestep me into it.

Rachel Brissenden [00:17:14]:
But I think that's so cool and hip already. There's nothing to help you there.

Amber Stitt [00:17:18]:
Okay, so there's a lot going on. How do people connect with you and find you? Because it sounds like it's going to be hard to find you all over the world, but how would you want to connect with people?

Rachel Brissenden [00:17:29]:
Well, you can connect with me on LinkedIn. Rachel Brissenden, you can connect with me on any of my socials. I made it easy. It's all @RachelOnchain. I'm primarily active on Twitter, on Instagram, as well. So yeah, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are where I'm most active. And also some of these new onchain platforms like Farcaster and Zora, I'm also on, as well.

Amber Stitt [00:17:48]:
Okay, so I feel like that's what I need to put in the show notes because people that might want to tiptoe into that. Yeah, we need to show them what's up.

Rachel Brissenden [00:17:54]:
If you're interested in getting more into the onchain space, the new creator economy, kind of understand understanding blockchain culture, I think those are places where things are happening right now.

Amber Stitt [00:18:03]:
Is there anything else you want to share before we wrap up and go hang out for our couple days? Sounds like you're jet setting out of here pretty quick.

Rachel Brissenden [00:18:10]:
I have to go on Friday. I just want to say I'm so grateful for you having me on today. I came out here to support you all, to support one of my best friends, Jawna, who is here and co-authoring this book with you. It's been a life changing experience and we're all connected for life here. This book brought us all together and yeah, just going through your chapter, I think it's awesome how many parallels we have in our story and I would love to collaborate with you.

Amber Stitt [00:18:32]:
We talked about that. We just have to execute now because it's been a year we've been saying that.

Rachel Brissenden [00:18:36]:
And you are just, you're on fire. The whole thing you put together here today is super impressive and I'm super proud of you.

Amber Stitt [00:18:42]:
Thanks for the shout outs. Thanks to Owwll for letting us hang out and be here all day. Shout out to Owwll and we'll see you soon, honey. Thank you.

Rachel Brissenden [00:18:49]:
Thank you.

Amber Stitt [00:18:51]:
Thank you for joining us for this special edition of Pathways Unleashed recorded at Owwll headquarters here in Delray Beach, Florida. Join us for more powerful conversations with real people who dare to design life on their own terms. Until next time, keep taking action on your unique path.