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Building a healthy life with Ewane Masango
114 Plays3 years ago
In this episode, we meet with Ewane Masango to talk about his new startup Society.io. The Society aims to answer the question "what does a healthy society look like." Join us as we learn about their mission, how you can get involved, and their plans for the future!
Follow Ewane Masango at https://lnkfi.re/ewane-masango
Visit The Society at https://society.io
Follow ChangemakerZ at https://go.changemakerz.org/follow
Episode's page https://podcast.changemakerz.org/ewane-masango
Produced by Vasilis Skarleas
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Transcript
Introduction to Changemaker-Z
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello everyone, I'm Kennedy. And I'm Vassilis. We run Changemaker-Z, a student-run initiative that aims to empower, educate, and connect engineers interested in entrepreneurship. We interview teenagers with impactful projects and create resources to help you change the world. If they can't do it, so can he.
00:00:23
Speaker
On this podcast, we discuss the logistics of creating different types of projects with Gen Zers who have already done it. We will leave our social media and website information in the description.
Elaine's Journey and Vision
00:00:44
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Gen Zers to Rise. Today, we are with the CEO and founder of the society.
00:00:52
Speaker
for the past 10 years of building the society, the recognizing value of social networks comes from the content users create. Their platform provides the tools to turn expertise and experience into income. Elaine, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Tell us what sparked the creation of the society 10 years ago. Probably just the
00:01:20
Speaker
I think what was going on around me and my friends was we were trying to do things in a new and original way. And that just kind of, it just kind of chose us. Like people wanted to hang out with us and we started doing little get togethers and events. And then we had people doing music and film and, you know, just everyone, what kind of brought everybody together was just like the love everyone had for one another. So now all those people are, you know, deeper in that
00:01:46
Speaker
that world for me is just I focus mostly on like technology and health and so that's that's where I'm at that's my role. We have covered partially what is the society's mission but what is the society?
Innovative Health Solutions
00:02:01
Speaker
So we were really creating a system for people to be able to upgrade their lives like kind of like how we upgrade our iPhones right like just really be able to look at
00:02:12
Speaker
what usually happens in like the health world, which most of my family is in health. So like I got to see it from the inside all these years. And I see that like the model seems to be broken where it's like the people who are, you know, giving us all this health stuff don't necessarily seem that healthy themselves. So it was like, how do we, how do we create a, you know, a system for everyone to be healthy with one another? And so that's why we're working on making it fun because right now,
00:02:40
Speaker
It's not that fun to be healthy. So, but obviously with this time period we're going through now, it's a really important time period to do that. And specifically because there was a moment that I had at like a thing I got invited to, like a leadership thing. And it was, they had like these like computers, kind of like the iPhone where it like scans your body, but this one was more for health.
00:03:16
Speaker
there started to be kind of an issue with the system. And the reason is because some of these systems that are created right now have biases in them based off of what's been put in them. So they hadn't dealt with something that had my skin tone before. And so that was actually more of an opportunity or a possibility to be able to provide that to that group of people. So that's what we're working on.
00:03:36
Speaker
And so whenever I stepped up, right, the
00:03:41
Speaker
That's amazing. And like, I keep finding out more and more things where it's like, things weren't built for black people. Like, I don't know if you heard of the hand sanitizer or something like that. They just don't recognize black skin tones. And that's really worrying, first of all, as a black woman. I always notice when people don't have lotion in their bathrooms. I'm like, well, I'm washing my hands afterwards. Like, I need some lotion. If you don't have lotion, I know that Charlie used to have no black people around.
00:04:10
Speaker
Oh my God, that is so true. And you, I wanted to, you were talking, you were talking a little bit about health.
Holistic Health and Technology
00:04:17
Speaker
Is your, is a society focused just on physical health or do you tap into the mental side too? Yeah, holistic, like so mental, so yeah, so physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Those are like the four like pillars that we focus on as far as like,
00:04:35
Speaker
And then everything in between. So like more like a circle model. So somebody who's comes in and you analyze everything, not just like one thing or the other. Yeah, that's amazing. I love that. Being able to do it on your phone. Yeah. Being able to do it on your phone where you can just do it like for yourself. Yeah.
00:04:53
Speaker
so accessible to. Okay. And so, you know, just a little disclaimer for our listeners, this is not an affiliation, but an interesting project instead. How can users connect directly with the influencers and experts they value by purchasing video calls or joining in exciting events taking place around the world? So, man, I mean, it's just really one of those things that now with the pandemic, you know, I was in situations where
00:05:22
Speaker
You know, it was like, okay, like, like I said, most of my family is in healthcare, but like everything is still very like, um, like fax machines and like all kinds of like, it's just like, man, like we're way past that. Like you could just make some apps and it just worked. We'll work a lot easier. Um, and so that's, that's what I've been focused on. Just going full force at that is like showing people that is an easier way.
00:05:49
Speaker
to do these things. And so that's really what we're going for. E is for ease, I tell people sometimes. That's why my friends call me E. I'm like, okay, E is for ease, because I'm trying to do it the easy way. Chill on a beach in California or something, just relax. Or maybe Florida. And you said you have a rewards program. Could you explain to us how you reward your users for their valuable contributions? Yeah, so it has to do with the engagement.
00:06:19
Speaker
We're really looking to base all the tracking off of like just like the energy itself. So like the amount of output that somebody puts, you can kind of see by somebody's like health scan, like how much. So because a lot of the times people get into issues where it's like, oh, this person did more, this person, it's hard to be able to track it.
00:06:36
Speaker
for health reasons and so you know it's becoming easier to be able to do that so that's so that is is how we like incentivize people by giving them rewards to do the actions that are invest for their their health at that particular moment because we are like we always have choices like these like these crossroads of like
00:06:56
Speaker
Okay, like I could do it this way or I could do it this way and we're gonna like put those together Where it's like, you know tastes like it tastes great. It feels great. It also is healthy at the same time So to do that, that's like the engagement, you know events and things of this nature concerts festivals where people can like be part of The the network this is you know and create their own networks and systems and things that nature we're not really looking to necessarily like
00:07:25
Speaker
Like the laws will change. People will update them over time. That's amazing. Yeah. And so who is eligible to join? Everyone. Everyone is. Yeah, that's the thing about health care. It's actually everyone. So merging that with social equity, as we like to call it, is what we're looking to do. So yeah.
00:07:54
Speaker
At this stage even, I think anyone can be able to sign up for the beta. I can't wait to test it out. So do you plan to extend your media and conference type calls as well, or even to host major events?
Future Developments and Unique Focus
00:08:12
Speaker
Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. So as far as the media and conference type calls, right now we're building one-to-one calls, and then the next stage is group calls. Because one, it lowers the amount for everyone when a group of people does it. But also, essentially, the cool thing is that the technology, we're looking to just get, have people own their own little record of what they did. So all of that can be used eventually for it not to have to be actual trainers.
00:08:41
Speaker
but just more of like an AI interaction, you know, like an avatar that you're kind of like speaking with that like is, and it's like more like a game, right? Like that's really what we're looking to do is we're in the virtual world of like, you know, now with the iPhones with like all the cool little things you can do with it and like make changes into the, to the images and stuff like that is fun. And it goes, you know, in all ages. And then also the ability to kind of like,
00:09:07
Speaker
to be active, right? Like kind of like what Pokemon Go was where you're, you know, like things are, you know, you might have something here that like is different over here depending on the location that you're at. Okay. So what makes your initiate your, I'm sorry. Okay. What makes your initiative different? Like, for example, why should we do society instead of Skillshare, for example?
00:09:33
Speaker
Okay, yeah, I'd say that the biggest thing is just the fact that we are
00:09:39
Speaker
We're not aiming for people to necessarily be anything with what they're, like their personal relationship with what they're learning is all we're really concerned about, right? Like there's a lot of other type of education platforms and things that people do. You know, this is more of like a self-learning thing, which I feel like is most represented by like, you know, the arts and like sports and arts and things of this nature.
00:10:04
Speaker
It's like these people are very focused on their own craft and their own whatever. And so we kind of believe that people can heal themselves. You're just on a process. You learn it as you go along. If you're focused on your body and everything else and having everything in alignment, then it's easy. Like I said, we're looking for it to be easy, more like, yeah, easy.
00:10:32
Speaker
nothing wrong with being easy. And like, I kind of like, you know how the main focus of a lot of these programs is like to sell you something. And I like that you are just kind of focused on like doing it on your own, you know, because you can. And when you started building the society, what was your background and what did you want to accomplish with this creation? I think you kind of touched on this a little bit.
00:11:00
Speaker
Yeah, for the most part, it had been in sports, sports and just like competitions all the way around like science fairs and, you know, like running for like eighth grade class president. Like there was a lot of like little things that I feel like was kind of like, OK, when I looked at people as like a whole and then like certain other people came around me who are also like had all their own like that same perspective from like a different vantage point.
00:11:30
Speaker
And so that's really what just, we were like, okay, well, if we just came together in a more like tribal sense, because I think that, you know, my family is super tribal, like gang, gang, kind of like, not really gang, gang, but like, they act that way, right? They're very protective of one another, or we are very protective of one another. So I think that's cool. You know, I think that's cool as long as it's done in a healthy way. And that's what we're looking to do as a society.
00:11:59
Speaker
That's really cool.
Engagement and Future Plans
00:12:00
Speaker
So what does the future look like for the society and its goals? OK. Oh, OK. So yeah, right now we're focusing on live video. So the live video is what's going to be like picking up on people's, you know, like a mirror of themselves. And then they now have a record on their phone of like where they were at that day, like again, like holistically.
00:12:23
Speaker
And, um, you know, and then they can, again, they can improve themselves over time because they have their own numbers. Most of the time people would improve their numbers if they had them, right? Like it's just, most of the time we're not, we're not really aware of what's going on. And then as far as goals, we're, we're running a crowdfunding campaign. So like.
00:12:41
Speaker
kind of like Kickstarter IndieGoGo campaign for people to be able to be part of this, right? Like have like a membership. So that's coming soon as well. That's the next goal is to raise capital that way so that we involve like a whole crowd of people as opposed to like necessarily like going and trying to get money from like someone who
00:13:08
Speaker
is more, you know, has maybe a lot more money. So again, like I said, we're focusing on a certain type of demographic for sure, like our avatar, we call it Ebony, but it's like private stuff right now because we're trying to like build it to where, you know, we have a certain amount of protection around what we're doing specifically, right? Because there's a lot of other people aiming at other populations.
00:13:38
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, so that's what makes it unique. That's what we have to stick to, regardless. Somebody called it, somebody of the day, this guy who was investing, they called it Wakanda, but I told him that it was a society, so. Wakanda.
Final Thoughts and Motivation
00:13:59
Speaker
Um, I mean, I'm, that's really exciting. And I kind of like, you know, I don't know if you have like an Apple watch or whatever, but it's like so fun to fill out those rings, you know, for the day. So it's like, gives you like a little bit of motivation. Right. Exactly. That's all, that's all we need is a little bit of motivation and inspiration. Motivation. Um,
00:14:24
Speaker
Well, you know, I think today's episode came to an end. Thank you so much for coming to speak with us today. We were informed about the society's mission and its means while exploring the importance of having a deep and meaningful contact with people that you feel like are your mentors. Thank you so much, A1A, for being with us today. Thank you. Thank you all for inviting me. It's actually been super awesome.
00:14:51
Speaker
That's all, let's all keep having, I guess, as much zeal for life as I feel like people have now, because this is all good stuff, ideas and stuff. I mean, we're the ones that are going to create all these things. All right, until next time, don't forget to change the world.
00:15:16
Speaker
Thank you guys for listening. We hope you enjoyed the conversation. We had such a great time. Make sure to leave us a review. If you want more Changemakers content, you can follow us on Instagram at JinsearsToRise and on Facebook at ChangemakersE.