Why Trust Us

Monika Proffitt

Monika is a social entrepreneur, speaker and writer working at the nexus of FinTech, real estate, and social impact. She is the founder of Rise Markets, a real estate company that leverages blockchain technology to create access to equity for everyday investors while bringing liquidity to real estate asset owners. A practicing artist for many years, she formerly served as the Founding Executive Director of Starry Night Programs, providing a creative retreat center for artists and writers, in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Through this company, she was able to bring over a million dollars in investment to the economically depressed region of Sierra County, New Mexico. Monika has spoken at numerous universities and conferences in the US, Europe and Asia on topics ranging from sustainable business and social impact, to blockchain for social good, to the value of cultural capital in the appreciation of real estate. She has exhibited the artwork of hundreds of emerging artists, as well as her own, at international art fairs including: Art Basel Miami, the Venice Biennale, Worldwide Los Angeles, and Frieze New York. Her new book, Blockchain 101: Fundamentals of a New Economy, is now available on Amazon.

Tracy Hazzard

Tracy is an Inc. Innovation Columnist and the co-host of three other top-ranked podcasts: Feed Your Brand – listed as one of CIO’s Top 26 Entrepreneur Podcasts to listen to in 2018; Product Launch Hazzards - for big product brand builders; and WTFFF?! – the 3D Print innovation start point featured as one of the exclusive live podcasts at SXSW 2018. In addition to writing over 200 articles for Inc., Tracy has been featured in CIO, Forbes, Thrive Global, Wired, Fortune Small Business, and CNN Money. The Harvard Business Review teaches a MBA program case study in 26 universities around the world on her handling of intellectual property as an entrepreneur resulting in a viral PR campaign before social media even existed. With a constant stream of content and products from her authority platform, reaching over 100,000 listeners and viewers each month, Tracy influences, designs and casts branded content and $2 Billion worth of consumer products and innovation around the world. Tracy is the co-founder of Podetize, a full production Brandcasting platform exploring a blockchain incentive program and the first and only podcast hosting platform to take cryptocurrency.