Ep. 82 | Digital Wealth Building in Emerging Markets - Juan Kong

Jack sits down in Panama City with Juan Kong, the co-founder and CEO of Marian Exchange, an investment app built to help Latinos generate long-term wealth by tokenizing real assets and connecting local banking rails with crypto infrastructure. He traces how organizing one of Panama’s first crypto conferences and seeing how many people remain unbanked, pushed him to design tools that make investing accessible. The conversation dives into his personal story of growing up Chinese in Panama and the U.S., never fully fitting in, battling depression, and realizing his superpower was connecting people across cultures. The two unpack, leaving a comfortable corporate job, launching a failed ticketing startup, and ultimately finding a better fit at the edge of Web3, where constant change matches his curiosity. They close on the inner game of entrepreneurship, habits, boundaries, imposter syndrome, meditation, even ayahuasca, and the core message that aligning your work with your true purpose and following your gut matters more than any external playbook.

https://www.mariex.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juankong/

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Transcript

0:00

Welcome to Shakin Hands, where we provide the platform for entrepreneurs and thought leaders to share their stories in order to hopefully influence others to get out of the rat race and chase their own dreams. If you have any recommendations for guests or questions that you want to be asked, please don't hesitate to reach out. Anyways, if you enjoy the podcast, please like, comment, subscribe and share in order to keep the podcast growing. Otherwise, I'm your host, Jack Moran and this is Shakin Hands. What do you do for business? A tech entrepreneur. So everything anything related to data, products. Like, for example, I'm creating now a protocol Seneca, which is, a stock market product, like a Robinhood or for Latinos. But underneath it, we use blockchain technology. So we're tokenizing the assets so that people can invest in it. Easier. So like through local banking and also through crypto. So like you actu ASIC, I'm not sure. Have you heard of those? Are you into crypto now? Okay, cool. But I'm waiting for it. Right. And, make the case to me though, because the only reason why I'm not participating in it is just because I don't know enough about it. So, I mean, feel free to convince me. Yeah. So the way I learned it was back in 2016, I remember, actually, an American guy called IRA miller. He hired me to create the first Bitcoin or blockchain conference here in Panama. And and that was when I started learning about all of these concepts like blockchain was it's hash, mining Bitcoin, everything was so new to me. Like it took me, I don't know, at least like 3 to 6 months just trying to understand all these things that were talking. It was like they were living in the future and they were even talking about like like if I mentioned like dollar, like getting paid in dollars, they'll get mad, like, no, you have to start thinking in Bitcoin because that's the future. And in the future, if you were going to start using bitcoin as a means of like exchanging value, you know, like paying, each other. And that was back before, the boom in 2017, when it hit almost 20 K. And that's when a lot of people came into the ecosystem because they wanted to invest and get quick money, basically. The ones that really stayed in the ecosystem were because they had a different perspective and they learned it from more of, technology standpoint and different use cases within the blockchain. And that's where I learned that from. So in 2017, I created one of the first crypto communities here in Panama called the Blockchain Space. And we're now 500 members strong. It's a small community still, but I feel that now in 2025, we are at the right time to start talking more about this, type of technology, because back then, in 2016, 2017, it was so new. I mean, in Panama, people don't even have a bank account, or a credit card. So it's like, why are you even talking about Bitcoin if people don't even have a bank account, for example? So that was my story. And that's how I started getting into this tech world. I actually come from a engineering and marketing background. I didn't know what to do in college. I just knew. I just knew that I wanted to make a lot of money. So back then, when I was studying in, in Miami, I was very lost. I actually wanted to be a psychologist to at one point, but then my brothers call me and they're like, no, if you go that route and if you ever go back to Panama, I was like 12 years ago, you're not going to make any money if you go to a psychologist. In Panama, people think you're crazy. So that's not gonna that's not going to work out for you very well. So you have to think ahead. And I just decided to take marketing and somehow, after I graduated from from college, that wasn't working out too well for me. I was living in Miami still. And I remember one of my first jobs was, at a watch company. I was getting paid very little because it was like entry level position, and I knew I had to do something different. So I was like, I don't want to do what everyone else is doing because they don't know what to do, right? Like they'll either go into business administration or marketing. And I said, let me try, becoming like an engineer. But I didn't have an engineer background. So in, in college they had this, special type of hybrid, program, which was like a combination or a mix of, like, business and engineering and told me if I pass, the GMA, which was like an engineering type of test or like people that wanted to get into this type of fields and I score above x amount of, level, you can get into this program. So I studied really hard for like three months, and I passed it for the first time. I was like amazed on myself because I, I was really bad at in school and I started taking school more seriously once, I went into my masters and after that, I never really executed all my masters. Like I ended up in technology, I did engineering management, and now I'm in technology. So life took me to like, so many different paths. And just now I think that, learning where is my purpose and what I'm good at is like, when I was growing up, I was this kid. That was I always felt very that I didn't fit in anywhere because I'm Chinese, right? My my parents are Chinese, and I was born in a Latino country here in Panama. So growing up here, you know, you get the racism, you get all these things while growing up because you're not really from here or you look different. Right. And then when I moved to the States when I was 12, I was this Chinese looking kid that spoke Spanish, right? And it was trying to hang out with the American kids. And that was fine, but, like, I never really fit in, right? I went to school, a private school, in Florida. And with the Latinos, I was like, the the cool Chinese guy that spoke Spanish with the Chinese people. I was like, you look Chinese, but you're not really Chinese. You're not really one of us. Like, you don't act like us. You're different. And and I was I was scared. I was kind of like, I never really fit in anywhere, right? Because I was so different from anyone else. But I will get along with everyone, right? Because, like, I could speak Spanish, I could speak Chinese and I could speak English. And so I remember back in high school, we had this like Chinese poker game and had all types of groups of friends, like Chinese people and the Asian group. That was one crew and, and the Latino crew and then the Americans and then in, in, in lunch time. I wanted to play with all of them. This, this Chinese poker game that that was really fun. So we got all I got all of them together in one table and we all started playing together. Right. So I knew when when I was like 14, 15 that there was something special that I had within me. Like I could get people together, connect people from different backgrounds. So how did you not let those seemingly negative thoughts and experiences define you, and how did you use them to your advantage? Oh man, when I was when I was growing up, that was very tough because like changing cultures, so drastically, like my parents and me, when I was like 11 to to Miami, would I even me having a choice, basically just happened because we had some family problems here in Panama and that was very tough for me because I felt kind of like abandoned. You know, I grew up when my older brother, since I was like 11, but you don't really get to have your parents there with you, so you have no type of guidance. He was trying to make it in the world too. So as I was growing up, I had a lot of like liberties. And I was trying to like, find myself because I felt like my family had abandoned me and I had to develop this type of personality where I was like, friendly towards everyone because like, to me, my friends were like my family and and that's how I became this type of person, where I kind of had to be liked by everyone. But then obviously as you grow up, you know that that's not going to happen. You know, you start finding your cliques and you start developing more of a personality, what you like and what you don't like. And it affected me a lot because when when I felt abandoned, like all you wanted to do is find some type of like community or like place in the world or something, you know, not to get philosophical or anything. And for me it was very hard. So I was very depressed when I was a kid. Maybe I always had a smile on my face, but inside I was sad. And when I went to college, that started changing because I was very, very shy. I always been very, very shy. And I said, like, if I don't change something about myself, like, for example, if someone didn't talk to me, I will talk to them, like in class. I was very, very quiet and that's when I started. Like some I don't know what, what I saw, what I read, but something made a clique within me that I told myself. Like, if I don't start getting out of my shell or my comfort zone, if I don't start like speaking to people, then I won't like accomplish much in life. So I started getting out of the shell and started developing more of, outgoing personality. I still consider myself an introvert, someone that's kind of shy, but someone that has learned the skills to be social and like, be able to be more of an extrovert. There's a lot of people that deal with that challenge, you know, I don't know what the exact numbers are, but if I had to guess, probably half the people are introverted and out for extroverted. But I think that's a major fear for introverted people is starting a business. Because when you're early in a business, there's a lot of selling yourself and putting yourself out there. That's required. That can be difficult for someone that's introverted. So I'm curious to understand from you what was your process and methodology to going from being this shy, introverted person to developing the habits to be able to effectively interface with people and put yourself out there? They said. I was so shy that I could even order something like, Applebee's. Like I had to tell my brother to, to to order for me. And he was like, just tell her. Tell the waitress what you want. And, I knew something had to change. And so, like, I started, like, joining this clubs, like Chess club and all this, like, extracurricular activities, in high school and college. And that's how I started, like, developing more friendships and and started hanging out more and more with different types of people of all backgrounds and cultures. And the more I would like, learn and absorb from different perspectives and different people, I was sort of like start emulating, because because you're the one if, depending on who you surround yourself with. And I was surrounding myself with like all everyone like from different cultures, like Latinos, Rican people, Asian people. So like, I had this like very sort of like hybrid type of personality where, like I had to adapt a little bit, like my core essence was the same, but like, I had to adapt and change my mentality depending on what group I was hanging with and even like speaking a different language will like change the way you think and how you communicate and and your perspective in life. So that's how I started. So this most recent venture that you're doing is sounds like it's not the first business that you've had described to me, kind of your entrepreneurial journey. Oh man. That in itself has been very tough. And. When I first got back to Panama in 2015, I knew one thing for sure I didn't wanted to be an employee. Like my last job as an employee was, in Caterpillar in Miami, and I was there for like two, three years. And I was earning, you know, as a 25 year old kid, pretty good income. And I had this nice apartment in Miami. I had, like, the bachelor lifestyle, but I was so depressed in the sense that I was earning good money. But I couldn't wait for the weekend to go out with my friends and and drink and and go out to eat and hang out because I didn't really like what I was doing. So the money wasn't really something that was making me happy. Like, or at least not at that time. Right? And when I came to Panama for family reasons, I knew that I didn't wanted to go back to that corporate world. It was so everything was very, hierarchy based. Like, even if you had no freedom, you had to ask the boss of your boss if any of you wanted to do, like, a change, like a small change or something, you know, like autonomy. And so I knew that I wanted to be like a digital nomad. I think I wanted to work remotely because I experienced that already, like a hybrid mode, with caterpillar. And I knew I didn't wanted to work for anyone else, but I didn't know anything about, like, distance. I didn't know how high I was going to be and all the challenges. And the one of the first businesses that I tried to make here in Panama was, a ticketing platform for people that wanted to go to the countryside and like an e-commerce ticketing platform, and that didn't really work out. I even won like some awards from, Senate seat, which is like a governmental entity that gives like grants for like entrepreneurs and later I found out it was like a lot of, like, red tape in how things work in certain countries that stop you from doing what you want to do, even if you have a good intention to help the country and develop something that nobody else is doing, you find out the hard way along the way because there's forces outside of your control, like people know they don't want you to implement a system, for example, because they use cash and they want to keep it that way because the laundering money, you know, in a way, and this type of things made me realize immediately, like, you can't like an idea. It's not enough. You have to really, like, see it at a local level. High works and and it's not just about the idea, it's about first finding out if people want it. Right. Because I will do a lot of, like, research with, like, customers or like potential customers. And they're like, no, we won't use this because we already used to going to the terminal and just buy the ticket there and wait in line for like, I don't know, 30 minutes and whatnot every day. So yeah, sometimes the idea is, is is good, but like the people are not ready to use it. And also like there's other forces external to what you're trying to do that would stop you from doing it. So that was like my my first sort of like realization that I was like, man, this is not going to be easy. And after that, that's when I started getting into Bitcoin when I got hired for, for, the creation, for the organization of the, first, crypto conference here in Panama. And once I started delving into that world, I realized how much I love technology. Like, that was my passion since I was a kid. And and I been in so many different industries like e-commerce, maritime services, engineering background. Right. Business administration and marketing background as well. And the one thing about like Web3 and crypto is that it's always there's always something new, something exciting in it. And it's very so least in, in, in, in my part, I'm always at the edge of everything of the technology part. So that's what I always keeps me like interested is, I guess I'm a guy that gets bored really easily, and for me, it's like the only thing that has kept me there on my feet has been crypto, specifically, you know, Web3 and bitcoin. So you said in the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey, you were faced with some challenges that come with being an entrepreneur that you were unaware of. What do you think are the biggest challenges that every entrepreneur has to go through and has to face? That's someone that's outside of that world isn't aware of? Oh man, I think habits and consistency and like taking care of yourself, like, like an entrepreneur is sort of like an athlete. And like if you don't have your shit together. Like for me, for example, at the beginning, I will get pulled so many ways because I, people wanted to work with me like, hey, Juan, why you're enjoying this project? I had this amazing idea and I had this obligation. Like, since I was, I was surrounded by so many people and I was connecting with so many people, creating this opportunities for myself. Right. I will always get pulled towards other projects. So at one point I found myself like juggling between like eight different projects and my own fatigue as well. So I was like, this is not going to work out. Like I don't have enough time to develop any of this. So I had to like, come to a point and a realization that I needed to be a bit more selfish and start seeing more no's. And just instead of people pulling me to them, I'll pull them to me. But I didn't believe in myself. So I think that that was one of the first things, like developing good habits and taking care of myself and also believing on myself. It was the big thing. Like I still struggle with it on to this day. Like that. Imposter syndrome. And I didn't know about that since, like, recently. Like, there's something called imposter syndrome, you know, and and that was probably like the key thing for me. Like realizing that whatever I wanted to develop, it was also important and that I had to say no to everything else to make time for myself and take care of myself first and what I wanted to do. What are the habits that you've adopted within your own daily life that have been the foundation of your success and your piece? Oh man, I think being very conscious of your thoughts, that's the first thing. Like, but that didn't come like right away. Like I had to like do a lot of work, like inner work, like meditation, spirituality, even ayahuasca. And so for me, it's like watching my thoughts like, how do I think like how do I speak to myself? I think that's super important. And how do I feel also like on a daily basis? Because it is, is is a thought I'm feeling as well. Right. Like how do you feel and what are you thinking? And for me it was like developing better ways or frameworks to like help myself, think better or have a better mindset and also like eating healthy, just the regular stuff, you know, like working out. I'm not working out right now, but it's something that, you know, I need to implement. But it's a process, right? Because it is not perfect. You say to yourself, like, oh yeah, I'm going to start eating healthy. And then six months down the road like something happens and and I think it's fine, you know, because it's a constant process of like becoming better. But if you look back like 5 or 10 years, you're like a totally different person, I think then you done a good job. So you also spoke about like as a kid and even in college, dealing with a lot of depression. What has been the key to having more happiness in your life? The key to having more happiness in my life, I think doing what I like, because I was this type of kid that would relate to so many people, I would always listen to what other people had to say and not really listen to myself. And so I will. I will always throw like like I mentioned, get pulled to their projects and to their vision and to their world. But I wasn't really like listening to what I wanted. And what I wanted, was to connect with people. Like, I felt like that was my purpose. And so during that path, like, you might think that whatever you're doing is what you want, but sometimes it's not really what you want is what other people told you that you want, that you made it, or that you made it something into what you want. You know? You know what I'm saying? Like, and so like that takes time to like, really get to know yourself and and diving deep into, like asking the important questions and enjoying yourself to a level that you like. Okay, this is it. Trusting that gut feeling, I think I think that's one key thing that made me realize that it wasn't really what I wanted, and I was kind of like my brain was kind of like confused. Because sometimes whenever you listen to podcasts or different people that you admire, you think that, those thoughts are yours or they become part of yours, but they're not really yours, you know? So you have to really do a deep dive into yourself and getting to know yourself at a very deep level. I saw something recently and it went like, you will never get over your depression if you don't understand that the root of that depression is your conscious becoming tired from constantly pretending to be somebody that you're not. And it's that disillusionment in your reality, that incongruence that are putting all those negative forces within your within your life. Yeah. And like, right now, I think I'm at a point in my life where, where I'm 40 years old, right now and no way I would have never gone. Yeah, yeah. And and I really think that things are starting to work out for me and, and and it just happens like magic when, when you start doing the inner work, the right people start aligning with, with you and everything just happens for like, magically. To be honest, I don't know how to explain it, but when are you following that purpose or what you think is your true purpose? Because sometimes it could change right along the way. Things starting starts to align and I think like once you align that with, with your business, like, what's your talent? That's when everything starts making sense and, and and you start like living in more peace and gratitude. And once you have that frequency within yourself, that's like with Juan said, that's when the magic starts happening and everything starts coming together. Final question. Through your entrepreneurial journey and all the experiences that you've had, what would be the single piece of advice that you would give to new entrepreneurs? Follow your gut feeling. That was my key. Sort of like self reflection, self insight. That gut feeling is I think, the most important thing because you know, something is not wrong. Like your body can feel it and don't get like, corrupted by you. Sometimes you have thoughts in your brain. So that gut feeling I think is very important. So really good advice. If people are interested in connecting with you or interested in your business or, your services, where can they find you? One ex-con colleague. I'm on Instagram and, well, TikTok. I'm not using too much. It says so. Just Instagram for now. Fantastic. I appreciate you coming on now. Thank you for for your time. For sure. Nice.