Event-Based Marketing To Cultivate Community & Culture with @dominiquebroadway - S1:E8

You're listening to creative friction, a podcast for ambitious creatives and agency owners that are looking for honest insights on how to scale their business sustainably and profitably. Each episode we dig into candid conversations about the most pressing topics in our industry, and offer insights and resources to inspire you to take action. From talking about the latest and greatest in AI. It's unpacking how our industry can better represent and reflect our modern world.

We're here to guide you on agency growth, marketing strategies, and how to make a meaningful impact as a creative entrepreneur. Welcome back, everyone to create a friction podcast for creative entrepreneurs navigating the challenges of growing a business while staying true to their creative roots. Each episode is recorded live so guests can join and ask questions that matter to them and their business. I'm Madeline Reeves, and I'm Jeff Mead.

And today we're here to talk about the power of events and experiential marketing as a way to cultivate community with Dominique Broadway of finances demystify, dominate. Bradway is a provocative financial literacy Trailblazer on a mission to make wealth attainable for everyone. As an award winning personal finance experts speaker and the founder of finances demystified, she has a passion for working with young professionals, entrepreneurs and people of all ages to bring their dreams to reality in order to extend the reach of her brand and bolster connections with her community.

Dominique has always had events as a huge part of her business model, and made it her mission to incorporate events into all elements of our brand to create engaged cultures both online and offline. Dominic's edgy and engaging financial advice has been highlighted in time. Next advisor Yahoo, USA Today refinery 29, Baltimore Sun, Black Enterprise Market Watch Ebony Magazine, smart CEO, US News and many other media outlets. Welcome Dominique.

We're so excited to talk to you today. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Yeah, we've we've been excited to get you on the show for a while now.

I would love if you could tell the audience a little bit more about your background as an entrepreneur and what you're working on these days. Yeah, totally. So I have Wow, I've This is actually my 10 year anniversary of leave 10 years of being a of being a full time entrepreneur and specifically owning finances demystified. So I actually started out doing more traditional financial planning and coaching for actually when I first started focusing more on high net worth individuals, so people that had 510 2030 $40 million in investable assets.

But I got really into that, because at the age of 16, I started teaching myself how to trade invest. And so I started teaching myself with my family, ask them for like, hey, I want to learn how to invest. Can you help me? And they were like, honestly, we have some retirement accounts, but we really don't know how they work.

And so my grandfather gave me his TSP, which is a Thrift Savings Plan, which is the retirement plan for the federal government. And he was like, take this and see what you can figure out. So I just dove headfirst learning about trying to reading prospectuses, and you know, or reading the Wall Street Journal and going to the library. There wasn't any, any there wasn't any YouTube back then.

So I was I was really trying to figure it out. He bought me investing for dummies. And that's really what sparked my passion for, for investing. And really honestly just trying to figure out how to make my money work for me at an early age because I was like, this little this little $8.

25 An hour and go cut it right. So. So that's really how I started and like I said, I ended up working at a high a firm behind our worth individuals. And then after a while, I had bought my first house, I bought my first house at 22 before I had graduated college, and my friends were like, hold on, hold on, like how did you move?

There? Like how did you move from your dorm to a condo we all move our dorms back home with our parents and I and I'm like, Wait, you guys aren't like you know, saving investing. And that's when I really realized there was this huge gap in information right? My friends needed financial help and guidance, and I couldn't even help them because they didn't have enough quote unquote money.

And so you know, I decided to quit my job and start my company and I wanted to help people that I you know, I felt like were like me they didn't have millions and millions of dollars, but if they could get access to the information, you know, maybe one day they could they could they could reach those those goals. And my mentor at the time actually told me he was like you'll never make money, helping people that don't have money. And I was like, sailor, Sailor So yeah, that's a little bit a little a little bit of my journey.

Yeah. So So in high school what what inspired you to take that chance or, or really get into financing and investing. I mean, that's such a young age. And at that age, you really don't have any money.

So were there people around you? Who had the job or the role? Like, how did you have the courage to take that step? So I didn't know anyone in this role.

And it was funny, even when I told myself, I mean, I told my parents when I was in my teens, I'm like, I want to be a stockbroker, when I grow up, they're like, what is that? And so, you know, you I was always a very inquisitive kid, I always owned a bunch of businesses. I had actually, around that time, I helped one of my friends start a company called kids interact with data systems. And we were teaching kids how to use computers.

On the weekends and evenings was actually the one I'm really aging myself. But at that time, they weren't really teaching. They weren't teaching like computer and how to use Word and stuff like that in school. And so that was like one of the companies that I had, then I had had little other businesses, you know, selling candy at school, stuff like that, like everyone else.

But it was just really, me realizing, like I said, at $8.95 An hour was not going to cut it, right. And I'm like this, this is like, this can't be all that you get, you know, you work all these hours, and you get $100. And so I'm like, there has to be ways, you know, I lived I grew up in Washington, DC.

And also my mom would take me to this area called Potomac, Maryland, which was outside of DC. And we used to live also in like the rockville Bethesda area, she were riding around, you know, she would say, hey, you know, if, if you work not hard, but if you work smart, you'll be able to live like this and get these types of things as well. And I'm like, then I just got really intrigued. And I'm like, Well, how are they making their money?

Like, you know, how are they making their money? So I started reading magazines, my mom, my mom always said, like Black Enterprise later on the house. And I would read those magazines Entrepreneur Magazine, and my stepfather was also entrepreneur, Mama was entrepreneur. And I realized there was really two ways that people were building wealth, I would say, three, three ways.

One, real estate, to the stock market, three, entrepreneurship. And those were the three things I was already absolutely head over heels in love with. I have already Dibble and dabble with entrepreneurship. But I'm like, I need to learn this, this investing thing, but I didn't have enough money to buy a house.

So I had about 50 bucks. And you know, I just really started reading and researching, like, how do I start investing? And, you know, I hear it's kept saying, like, you know, invest in what, you know, invest in what you own. And my first my first two investments was Jones soda, because I was like completely obsessed with green apple.

Jones. Have you had it? Yeah. Yeah, yes.

Yes. So good. Horrible. And so again, it's such a fun, it's fun branding, to great brand and horrible investment.

Don't don't buy the stock. And the second company was Apple, because you know, I remember the days when you know, I'm not sure if you remember this, but you remember, you had your Walkman. And the you know, you play your song and the song going good. And all of a sudden, the thing that you got to get out request.

And then when I got a little bit older, you know, they had the CDs, but you had to keep all your CDs and the car in the trunk, you know, in the backseat, you gotta call around that thing. Yeah, the your your friend, come get in the car and mess up your CD, and now your CD scratch. And so I was just really excited by the fact that there was technology that helped 1000s of songs on this little things. I remember how hard it used to be right.

So those are the first things that that I invested in. But yeah, that was really how and why I decided to to do those to get into investing and to teach myself nice. I'm curious. And I don't want you to date yourself too much here.

But I think like young people nowadays when they're investing, they're going on Robin Hood and tons of sites. Yeah. How did you make those first investments? What?

What tool are you using? Yeah, all right, Jeff. So you are making Yeah, so the company was in it's not even around. Oh, man.

Okay, so it's actually called Share builder. That was the first company I use share builder. Yeah, remember share builders. Yeah.

Okay, so share builder was acquired by Capital One investing but when I was using it, it was still share builder. So that was the first company I use and then you know, ends up being with Capital One investing and then the next company I started opening an account with was e trade. And that's back then when e trade had those few commercials. A little baby, you remember that?

The best, the best frickin branding and marketing ever, by the way, but yeah, definitely making the A's myself. So I actually want to You set me up perfectly. I want to talk a little bit about your brand journey because like you said, you know, when you started this company, and ventured out on your own, you had been, you know, in this world of kind of high net worth finance and I'm curious to know, how you chose to brand and promote yourself in the beginning of your journey, and how has that evolved and changed over time the money So your question, so when I first so I'm a true ambivert, right?

Introverted extrovert, like when I need to be on, I'm on but other than that, like, just leave me alone, let me be by myself. And that made it because of that it made it really hard, right. And so when I first started, I just wanted to be just finances demystified. And I never forget I had some friends with like, Yo, if you lead with your name and lead with your personality, your story it would go bigger.

And I fought it for a while. So my first branding and I have to have to send you a picture was it was just Dominique Broadway fresh ideas for a brighter financial future. That was the whole tagline. And I use this I didn't want to use my face.

I use a like a drawing like a character art or whatever, of me. Yeah. And at the time, and yeah, at the time, my hair, my signature hair cut with this, like little pixie cut little swoop situation. So anyway, that was the branding, right?

And that was, that little image was everywhere. That was what I use for everything. And then over time, like I said, as people were like, Yo, you this thing will really take off if you use Do you know, you're a pretty girl, etc. But it did, right.

And so when I started, like putting myself out there more, you know, still using the company name, but also over the branding like Dominique Broadway as this personal finance experts. That's when I really started winning tons of like awards and accolades and getting recognized and it was really sue at that time at that, at that time. 10 years ago, now, everybody a mom and say a personal finance expert, but at that time, it wasn't a lot of people. And it definitely wasn't a lot of women and a death outside of Suze Orman, you know, her worst, the worst.

And then there's a and then it was like, you know, Dave Ramsey. And so then I was like, really young, you know, I was I was in my early 20s, and coming out and sharing this financial knowledge. And so that's I started receiving a lot of recognition around that. And then as far as like the branding and marketing, you know, when I when I started, you know, my foot really old on this now, when I started, there wasn't no Instagram, right?

It wasn't Oh, no Instagram ads, Facebook wasn't running ads, you know what I mean? He was still running ads, probably on a radio or something. But I, I was really looking to grow my brand and grow my audience and build my email list. Right.

And so, you know, at that time, I actually use events to do that. And so I didn't really know anyone you know, other than your friends in high school friends from college, I didn't have an audience. I didn't have a list. No one knew who I was.

And so I was living. I'm from the DC area. So I started hosting events. And so when I was thinking about my marketing, I was like, Alright, cool.

Who am I going to market to, I decided the easiest person to market to was me. Because I know me, I know what I like, I know what I don't like, I know where I hang out. I know where I am on the weekends. And also then at that time, I was, you know, I was I was single, I didn't have kids.

So I was marketing to me, young black millennial woman trying to figure out their finances. I know where we go on the weekends, we go to brunch, I know where we go every day at five, we go to happy hour, I know where we shop, we go to Marshall, you know what I mean? Like, go to h&m or whatever, like the time forever 21. And so that's how I started targeting.

So I started hosting these happy hours called finances to this, if I had the hours, I will host them at least once a month. And then I would go on Twitter and I would invite every large young professional group, every millennial group, and I would I would literally at them, and I'm like, Hey, DC, millennials, I'm hosting a happy hour, you're invited and they will retweet it. And if people just aren't retweeting it, re tweeting and retweeting it, I would typically average about four to 500 people that would sign up for my events every month.

And that's how I started going. I will, yeah, I will partner with restaurants and bars, and say, Hey, I'm gonna bring a group of at least 100 people here next Thursday, or you know, a couple of Thursdays, I if you let me do this, I want the space for free, you can sell the drinks, I don't even need a piece of the bar. But I want the drinks discounted at a happy hour. And I want to be able to brand all the cocktails and be financially related, and I want to be able to be able to speak be able to speak.

And yeah, that's really how it started. So basically, because the event was free, I will have four to 500 people that would sign up every month, people were sharing it out, Hey, there's this free event, blah, blah, blah, they're talking about finances, blah, blah, blah. And then about a third of them will usually show up, which is fine because I didn't you know, either. Now I have an audience that's there that's interested in like what I'm doing when I'm selling, which was financial coaching.

And then I also was growing my list, right? Because my list started out with like 30 people. And now you know, now we have you know, a little over a quarter million people on the list. So yeah, that was that was literally how it started and I didn't have any money.

I didn't really have a lot of money right? So that was also a way for me to grow my business with really not having to pay for anything out of pocket outside of sometimes I would get some signage or little things like that. But yeah, so walk us through that first event because I'm sure people listening are saying, Wow, that sounds like a great idea. Just reach out to people just like reach out to my target market.

But what happened at that first event, what did you learn what was unexpected? Walk us through that. Yeah, so my first event was at the park. I'm not sure if you guys ever been to DC this is spot called the park and 14 the park or 14 I used to.

It was okay, so you so you know the park? Yeah, everyone, everyone's there. So it wasn't a hard sell to get people there because everyone loves their their jerk wings and back. So everyone came, we had maybe about 70 people or so that came.

And it was really interesting. From that first event, I learned a lot, I learned that one people actually really didn't want to talk about money. They just didn't feel like there was a safe space to do it. I never forget one of those stories that stuck out to me when I realized I was truly on the right track was two friends came together to this event.

They had been friends for a long time. And they said we had these note cards on the table. So like really like conversation starters. And the girl was there she comes to me and she was like in tears.

And she was like, thank you so much for doing this event. She was like, I've been struggling with this one financial problem. She was like we were doing the conversation started activity issues, like my friend that I rode with, was able to solve my problem just like that. But we had never had the conversation because it never came up.

And because people don't just naturally talk about money. And so I was like, Okay, I think I want to I think I want this something. And so yeah, that was one of the big like things like, you know, sometimes all you need is one hearing one success story or one person say this, this was what I needed. So yeah, I so I want to I want to dovetail off this kind of like knowing that you're on to something.

Like to me, I think there's a lot of people who you know, have have a passion or have a mission that they want to share. But they feel like marketing is scary and putting themselves out there is scary and that it doesn't really come naturally or organically for them. How did you How do you feel like you develop these instincts to like, you know, understand your audience. Did you do self education?

Did you you know, take a course online? Like how did you kind of build up your your marketing skill set? Yeah, I think I do think that some marketing stuff is just like natural, right? I feel like some of you are some people are just natural marketers.

I've always really loved marketing. I didn't major in it. I majored in banking and finance and I wanted to minor in marketing, but they told me, it would take me an extra semester. And I was like, their mom did and like I found so but interesting, actually, when I was in college, because I was always just really really into marketing.

I did one in the summers I would intern at investment firms. But throughout the year, I worked at exponential exponential marketing company at the time was called passage events. And so I started out you know, as a as an alcohol girl just giving out free alcohol to clubs, you know, things like that. And then I had that job.

I had that job, yeah, walk this walk of the people and buy them drinks like oh, by the drink this cup of RCA and then ended up running the exponential marketing campaigns for Starbucks. And so working for that company. And then so I was like literally in charge, like the big Starbucks fan, going and buying like 15 gallons of milk and hiring the team that I was running the virtual office part from my from my dorm, and running these exponential marketing campaigns. And so that was like my first kind of like real job in that space.

But outside of that over time, I just started you know, like everything else reading books, and like I had a lot of natural marketing instincts. But there were certain things that I wanted to learn more about, like how do you truly develop a target audience right, like how do you find them? What messaging copywriters like I don't know what the hell a copywriter was, like, realizing that copy is important. And it coming down to brand colors, you know, there's certain colors like, you know, red, like you guys have red here for creative friction, but that's not a good color when it comes to money right?

It's negative, it's bad. So if you if my money if my website's about money you come in, it's already like you want it to feel like welcoming and so that's why I just started reading I never actually never really took any courses on marketing. But really just start but I really just dove head into reading books and things like that on it over time and also love you know, Simon Sinek you know the why with the video the infamous video on YouTube and I always go back to that when I think about my marketing right so like, Why the hell am I doing this?

Why do I Why do I want people to join my course and how can I help them fulfill their why with my product or service and that's how I try to what I try to base my marketing around. I'm just curious about you know, just how you differentiate yourself now. You know, before you were you are it right you were new people didn't see anyone that looked like you but now people have seen your style and they're like oh, there's money to be made there. So how do you continue to differentiate yourself from your competition?

Yeah, you know it's interesting it's it's funny because like even one of my one of my good friends who owns one of our courses very similar to my like, we're really good friends, people I got friends. Yeah, hang out together. These are the houses everything. And, you know, I really feel like there is competition, but also like there's not competition and when I say that, not just I'm not like super cocky.

anything, I just feel like, people sign up for different products and services based on how they connect with that brand, right? So I feel like like even my friend, she teaches she has an investing and trading course as well. And she's actually amazing. I've sent some people to her.

I'm like, y'all would connect better than over here. But I think that just being you, honestly, I think that when it comes to your brand, your product in really infusing a lot of who you are, I will say over time, you know, now, you know, when I was I was in my 20s when I really first started doing this right now I'm 38. So I'm 38 I got two kids, and I'm divorced. Right, so now I got a whole nother market that I'm talking to, right.

So I may not be able to connect with a 22 year old as much as I used to. But there's definitely a lot of single moms with toddlers that you know, may have been recently separated or whatever that can totally relate. So I'm constantly taking people along with with me on my journey. And that helps you continue to create, and cultivate and grow that community of people who are like, Oh, I love you, because I like your curly hair, like people like you for random things, right.

But I think just being very transparent and open about just where you are. And that has helped to differentiate me because there's some people who like I like listening to you, and, and using, you know, or taking advice from you on these topics because you're a mom like I am, and we can relate and we have similar goals versus maybe someone else, they're like, Oh, well, she doesn't have children or whatever. So maybe we're not at the same point in life. And so maybe the advice that she offers isn't isn't as relevant.

And so I plan just to kind of keep my people with me as I'm transitioning through, you know, life and I hit the 40 stone, and they'll follow me there and the 50s and the 60s and know all the cute together and 100 on on a yacht or something. But yeah, just just understanding that, you know, my target market that I had 10 years ago may not be my target market right now, because I'm at a different point in my life. Right? Mm hmm.

Like, I want to ask a follow up there. Did you ever feel on your journey, you know, pressure to position yourself differently? Like did were there outside forces or influences? It?

Because I've got a you know, I'm making an assumption here. I've never been a black woman, but to be one of the one of the first you know, really kind of raising the collet building the community that you were was, did you ever feel a pressure to fit in or fit a certain mold? And if so, what did you do to protect against that? Yeah, that's a good question.

I definitely did, especially in the beginning. Now, I don't really care. I'm like, you don't get me Have I come. But that's okay.

And a lot of confidence right over time. And some about when you turn 30 You will, you'll hear about people saying anyway, like whatever. But I will say when I first started, I felt like I needed to be super perfect. Like I would not show up anywhere beyond anybody's camo anything without being 100% Polish, like, always had to have a suit on be very, very, very professional because I was trying to I felt like I needed to look like the best investing white man.

Right? But that's how I needed to look. And so and it wasn't necessarily always me, like, you know, you have those moments. And I realized over time, especially now I look back at someone else at home, I cringe and I'm just like, but that perfectionism was it slow me down.

It didn't allow me to be who I really was, you know, and I was I was trying to fit into a box. I felt like in order to be successful in this finance space that I needed to be like a Dave Ramsey, I needed to be like a Suze Orman or a ric, Ric Edelman, or, you know, someone of that nature. And I realized that like I said, once I really started being myself, that's when things took off for me because people didn't need any more than they needed me and my perspective and a lot of times that's raw sometimes that can be on foot, you know what I mean?

But it's but it's real. Because I don't have and I don't share the life experiences of of any of them honestly. Right and so but yeah, I definitely felt that way in the beginning but yeah, if you if you look at some old domine Brawley stuff, you'd be like, Girl I'm like with my little my little suits on from expressing NY info you wondering hmm, should I be professional? So I love I love that piece, though about because I think I think that especially if people are building brands where like they're at the center of it, I think that that's where people often misstep is that they don't embrace who they are authentically, then.

And then they're just kind of doing this carbon copy of someone else. And then they don't stand out from the crowd. And they don't really, they don't really connect with their people either. And so what I admire most about your brand, is there is so clearly a community that you've built both online and offline.

And I don't know if when you got started, you know, was that something you were setting out to do? Or did that just start to happen and then what have you done to really build because like, there's so clearly like a culture around around your whole entire business that carries through in terms of your audience and things like that. So share with us a little bit about how that came into being. Yeah, it was very organic.

That wasn't ever my goal or intention, right. I would say also because I've been in this for so long I feel like community building and and creating a following is I think those are like new are buzzwords over the past like three to five years, right. But when you first started your that wasn't a goal, like no one was cared about followers, we didn't even have accounts to have followers on. You know what I mean?

Like, if you think about it, 10 years ago, there was nowhere for people to follow you like and if someone was following you, it's like call nine one. So no, that was never the goal. So even now, you know, when people are like, wow, you know, we I remember we will I was working on my book proposal. And we were gathering our numbers and like, oh, we have this email list of this and this monthly reach of a few million and, and I'm like, wow, this is like a real thing.

Right? There's more than just my mom, you know, reading my newsletter now. But no, it really wasn't, it wasn't intentional at all, which is probably also why I will say, our community even isn't as big as maybe others who have started in the past three to five years, because when they started that was their focus. Right.

Versus that wasn't that wasn't my focus, I was really focused on just building the business. But now, it happened organically, but there wasn't as much intention behind it as maybe as it's been honestly, probably even within the past two years. So yeah, yeah. That's interesting to, you know, really focus on community because I think about what was happening around the country two years ago, right, like, we're coming out of a pandemic.

And, and so, you know, lots of people are trying to build community online. How are you now trying to build it offline? Now that we can be around each other again? Oh, what do you do on there?

Listen, people are ready to get back outside. Okay. I know I am. I do.

I do love being outside. So I would say definitely, like we actually just had a retreat in Mexico a few weeks ago. So that's one way like just getting people back out getting the bag traveling. I did just purchase a events company, we actually hosted a three about 3000 person event, a 3000.

Person event. Last year in Miami, we'll be announcing our city this year, we're estimating about five to 6000 people for that one. So just really helping to either put on or help cultivate these experiences. But when we're doing these experiences, what my goal is, I don't want people to come out and just be like, oh, yeah, I'm so motivated.

And this is so good, and then go home and don't do a damn thing, right? I really want to create more experiences. And that's also with the retreat that we just did, where you're coming and you're actually taking action. And I feel like that's one of the big things that people don't do.

There's a lot of motivational speakers. We've all been through a lot of stuff the last few years, I get it, I totally get it. But everyone's just motivating everyone and no one's really getting action, like go do this, go do that, right. And that's what I really want.

So we're hoping that with these new events that we're that we're creating and cultivating that the events are interactive, and you're walking away with a sop, you're walking away with the marketing plan, you're walking away with the automation, you're walking away with how to hire your first employee, you're walking away with a contract that you can fill in easily or you know, that's that's that's the goal. So that's what I'm hoping to do. And it's just nice to be back outside right?

Everyone smile again, for like everyone got veneers while they were under their mask. But other than that everybody has perfect teeth now is great. But you know, yeah, it's it is good to be back outside. I've got to be honest, I hate big banks.

I hate what they do with our money and all the insane fees, they charge us for basically no reason. So when it came time to pick a business banking platform, I knew I needed to find one that actually cared about small businesses and aligned with my core values. That is why I chose relay relay as a no fee online business banking and money management platform that helps small businesses take control of their cash flow and get crystal clear on what they're earning spending and saving.

What most small businesses don't consider is how big of an impact money management can have on their day to day financial clarity. With really, business owners can bank with no account overdraft fees, with no minimum balance required. issue up to 50 virtual or physical Visa debit cards, send payments and deposits via ACH and wire in degrade banking with accounting software like QuickBooks Online and Xero, and so much more. As the CEO of a small business, I love how dedicated really is to helping small business owners like me understand exactly how much they're earning, spending and saving.

And consider them one of the keys to helping fearless foundry grow and manage our money with ease. You can check out relay by visiting creativefriction.com slash relay, and apply for an account in less than 10 minutes. Well, I gotta say, congratulations, because you just snuck in there.

Yeah, I bought a business and then kept going. So congratulations on that. Yes, that's huge. That's huge.

I'm curious. You know, you're doing tons of events. Why did you want to buy a business instead of building one from the ground up? Since it seems like you're so proficient at reading events?

Well, you know, because with my business with finances, mystified, we haven't done any live any in person events in years, right. And definitely never to that capacity with this organization that I purchase. So right now, I'm not trying to build nothing from scratch, okay, I'm tired. I got two kids, I'm 38.

I've got time. So right now or I'm alive, I don't want to build anything else from scratch, if I can find something and help amplify it, that's the way to go. Because as you guys know, building stuff from scratch is too much work, it's hard. But if you can find something that's already running, that already has an audience already has a community and you could add some, some additional business expertise or whatever to it, or just even restructured the team.

That's one of the things too, with a business I bought, I was able to bring in a new CEO, hire a new chief marketing officer, you know, things like that. And now, I created a dream team there, I don't even have to run it. Right. I'm just on the board.

I'm just on the board. And so that that's my angle. So right now with my biggest focus now, like I said, I'm 38, I have two kids, I'm single, my focus is really just increasing and building my wealth. So that if I'm like, Hey, I don't want to work for a couple months that I can do that.

And it's not you know, it's not it's not a big deal, or a year or whatever, right. But I want to have a lot of different things working for me, I don't want to just be 100% focus in the financial education tech space, which is where I am with my educational products, and also have a SaaS product company as well. But really just looking to diversify. I think that that's, that's how you start to build wealth, right?

I think you you start your first business or start that first thing, you maybe grow it to six, seven or eight figures or more, and then take that and diversify because you never want to have all your eggs in one basket. Right? So that's, that's why I decided to buy instead of build. Hmm, that's it.

I love this. And I also think it was a pretty bold move, given that like, you know, the pandemic was still was still I don't know that we can say we're really out of it. But like you said, you know, we're outside, but it was still happening, you know, when you made this decision. And I think it was also smart, because I think you were looking out in the future and knowing that, you know, there was going to be this market that was more eager than ever before, to be back in person and doing these really actionable events and activities.

But I think that most people do not understand at all the time, energy and money that goes into producing incredible events, and you just dropped like, Okay, we did something for a couple 1000 last year. I'm just curious. I was I was joking with somebody last week, it's like, the bigger the event you produce, the more potential things are to go wrong. And I'm curious, you know, for the for our audience that's listening, you know, maybe hoping to, to launch something or do some sort of activity in person.

It what are some of the big most important lessons that you and that team that you've built have learned along the way over the past couple of years? Yeah, I mean, I feel like I mean, events are essentially organized chaos, right? Like, that's really all it is. And one of the one of the things that I am good at is remaining very calm.

And I think that's one of my superpowers. Even when I married my husband, we got married in three weeks, we had a very luxury wedding in three weeks. And people were like, how did you do some three weeks I'm like, just an event, like a good event is really just a nice venue alcohol and music. And then you fill in the blanks.

And so I think with all things is like a stopping point, one of our superpowers is being patient and keeping it really simple. And so and then finding people who are experts like in their space to make it happen. And yeah, it's really just organized chaos. I think that if you just remain calm and honestly when it comes to events, focusing on what you can control, I think a lot of times people spend too much time focusing on stuff that they can't control.

So it's like, Hey, this is going wrong. Okay, so of this situation, what can we control? We can't control the rain. Can't control that, but we can come troll, creating a space so that people aren't getting wet.

So let's put our energy there, right people will cry about the fact that it's going to rain and we're going to call Jesus and be like, stop the rain, we can't do that. So let's figure out a thing to do. And I think that when it when it comes to these events, you know, it is going to be organized chaos, but the people that are there can't know that chaos is happening. And just focus on what we can control and just try to maintain a high quality experience.

And that's, that's really, really all it's about. And there's stuff that even got went wrong in our event, people would never know, right? And we knew that the ceiling was down and falling out. And we're like, Oh, my God, this is this is falling apart.

And everyone's like, out there. Like, this is so great. I'm like, that's all that matters. As we're putting out fires everywhere, you know, so So, so what I'm loving that I hear, you know, you have all these different things going on.

It's like the epitome of diversity. Right, really diversifying your business. And then you mentioned a little while ago that you are put together a book proposal. Can you talk through like, what's this book about?

What are you going to be sharing in that book? Yeah, so this is this is my, my truth. I call this my third baby is writing a book, like a lot of work. No one told me.

Um, yeah, so this book is called the wealth decision. And so a few years ago, that's the story I tell a lot. But just the short of it, you know, starting my business, went completely broke, right, completely broke, car got repossessed house went into foreclosure, you know, all the normal entrepreneur story, and went into debt, etc, etc. And I was able to build back, you know, from from that to now, you know, being a multimillionaire.

And so, just talking about how I was able to do that. And the first reason, the first way I was the first step was making the decision to be wealthy. You know, I spent a lot of time harping about the fact that I was broke, and disappointed in myself for being in that situation, and also hiding it. Because the way my family was raised, everything was always perfect.

And then no one ever had any problems, and everything was great. So when I ran into this heart, fell into this hard time, I didn't want to tell anyone, because I was embarrassed and ashamed and thinking I was gonna disappoint everyone. And so with that, I just made this decision that No, I have to be honest, and address where I am in my life. And I know that I can never get out of this hole, if I'm out here trying to act like everything's perfect, and it's not.

And then just finally, having that conversation, even with my family and sharing. This is what I did. That's how I messed up. And thinking that they're gonna judge me and like, Oh, my God, you do you know how much we sacrifice for you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And they're like, No, we have financial hard times, we've got this, we've gone through that. And then we almost being like, Well, Dad, why no one didn't tell me like, I would have felt more open to talk about it, if I had known. And so that's really what the book is about. And so I'm actually sharing all my business about how growth our how horrible things was, and how I turned it around.

So it was really just those 10 simple steps that anyone can pick up and read no matter if they're trying to, you know, already already the wealth building set stage or if they're trying to get out of debt, or if they're still struggling with paycheck to paycheck, or, honestly, they're still just struggling with a poor money mindset. So it's literally addressing all of that. So it will actually be released. May 30.

It is actually available for presale I actually have my book on I don't have it right now. But it is available for presale. So it's called the wealth decision. We'll definitely put it in the show notes.

That's exciting. Yeah, please, please, please. Can I want to go deeper on the book question here, because you and I have had a conversation behind the scenes about this, about how important it was for you to have your face on the book. And, and from a visibility perspective, and also the the process, you know, you and I were a part of a pretty powerful conversation last year, that really blew the doors off of kind of the gatekeeping that is kind of this whole book, proposal world and, and how biased a lot of this still is.

And so I'm wondering if you can share a little bit in terms of what you've learned and how you've had to stand up for yourself to ensure that the book is what you've envisioned it to be and that it is really representative for those who don't normally see themselves in this space or see themselves on a cover of a book like this. Yeah, you know, the whole book process was like a dream of mine, like young domine she would sit and write like, you know, I love just writing books.

Like I love writing books. I was like the little student the students got like the students know that the student with the Children's contributor to like the Kids Corner for our neighborhood newsletter, like I loved writing Harry Potter and you know, goosebumps and stuff like that. So I love love reading. And so it was always a goal of mine to have a book.

But I have been dragging my feet on it for a while. And like I said, I do have two kids. I've been pregnant last few years and so it just kept getting put on the backburner actually got interviewed on a podcast and at the end of the podcast, my my friend, Maxie, she said, Have you ever considered writing a book your story's like really interesting and I'm like, Yeah, I thought about I just don't have the time and she was like, I can help you put this proposal together. She's Like this message needs to be shared and it needs to come from you, you need to do an app, like, girl got time.

And so she working to get the proposal together, she actually introduced me to her literary agent. And her literary agent is one of the top literary agents in the in the country with the United talent agency. And soon as she got the proposal, like two hours later, she emails us like, I want to meet Dominique, like, ASAP. Two weeks later, my book goes to auction.

I had three publishers bid on the book, and I ended up signing with Simon and Schuster. And they're new. They're under their new arms time and element. And I was just like, sitting there, like, Is this really happening?

Like this was literally a goal of mine. And you know, even when it came time to pick the cover, they were like, what, what do you what do you want? Like, do you want to do this or do that. And I'm like, I want to be on the cover of the book.

And I'm like, I want to be on the cover of the book. Because it's very rare to see, it's very rare to see a woman. And then it's also very rare to see a black woman with my natural hair on the book. And I wanted to just really be record represent women in general, but also women that look like me and being in their most most authentic self.

And just talking about how we can make decisions and that wealth is literally just you're literally one decision away. Originally, the title of the book was actually one decision well, because I feel like I really still feel in my heart just like you make that one decision to become wealthy. And that's it, right. And one of my favorite, one of my favorite quotes is if you believe you can you can, if you believe you can't, you can't.

And I literally truly believe that that anything I say I can do, I can do. And then when I say I can't do it, I usually can't do it, right. And so I want everyone to realize, like, everything that I've done, like, you can do it too. It's just the only the only difference is I decided to do it.

Right. That's it. And there's some people that just haven't made that decision. So, you know, that's why it was really important to me.

And so I'm excited that people will be able to go inside Barnes and Nobles and target and like see my book and see me. You know, sitting on the, you know, on the bookshelf, so that's awesome. Yeah. So so what what are some roadblocks that came up?

It seems you just you painted a picture. That seemed easy. So but what were some of the roadblocks that came up as he was going through the process? Yeah, I would say, you know, it went.

It's like one of those processes. It goes like really, really fast. And it really, really, really, really slow. Right?

And so even once we signed the book deal, you know, I think some of the Roblox was definitely just after we wrote the book, it was interesting. Like, even sometimes my editor would come back and say, Well, what does this mean? And how do you Why are you saying it this way? And then I'm like, this is how this is this is I'm saying it this way, because this is how I want it to be stated.

Right? So I realized there was a little bit of a, as we said, creative friction sometimes, where, you know, honestly, her you know, I would say even matter as Swedish, she's absolutely amazing. But you know, she's a little bit older than me. And so we come from a different generation, you know, she's a white woman.

So she's like, What does this mean? I'm just like, it has to say, this way, it has to stay this way. And it created a lot of back and forth, it started to get really frustrating. Like I remember, you know, hitting Maxine on my girl, you need to get her because a bra, like this is how it's going to be stated.

And they're just, you know, and so I realized a lot of times, they were just trying to change certain things around to be more accepted or more like a Dave Ramsey. And it started to get very frustrating. But we were able to push through and they realize I'm like, I wrote this this way, because it's how I want it to be stated. And this is this is an experience that I went through.

And, you know, she's like, well, I don't understand this. And I don't understand that and like, well, you know, anyway, so but it was it was it was those roadblocks that I felt like, would I be questioned? If I look differently, you know what I mean? And that's, that's where even even there was times where even you know, that's why I really appreciate Maxi who she's, you know, she's a white woman, she would come be like, No, this is this is how Dominique wants it done.

And this is how we're going to do it. And so it's also great to have a lot of times other people who are willing to stick up for you and say, No, this is how she wants it represented. This is how she's going to do it, because it's how her audience will understand it. Certain words, or certain maybe even things that way, I say and it's like, oh, she said, just like no one knows what the hell that means.

Say it the way I said it. You know what I mean? And so I really, I really wanted the book to be like you're picking it up and like me, you just have in the top right and so even last week, was a very exciting time for me. I got to do the audio recording for my for my book.

And I was Yeah, I was really excited. And because of the the producer, I guess he was like, this is going to do so good. He's like the way that you're saying it. They're going to feel like their girlfriend is just talking to them.

Right? And that's what I wanted. And that's why I like I pushed so hard to make sure that this voice was completely I mean that this book was completely in my voice and not trying to be fit into this specific personal finance book category. Yeah, that's awesome.

And And what about the, when you made the decision to put your photo on the book? What was some of the conversations that happened around that? You know, that actually, there was no issues with that at all. Um, you know, they, they there were there were no issues with that.

And they totally agree. They felt like, they felt like it was needed, you know, and that's why they bought the book, right? My publisher was like, We need this book. And we're where we want to buy this book.

And they, you know, outbid other publishers, because they knew that there believe it or not still a still a gap in this space, which is kind of weird, right? We're in 2023, I would say the other big, big woman of color that wrote a finance book was Tiffany, the budget nista. And actually had her her Rachael Rogers. So Sophie, Rachael Rogers, and oh, gosh, Jenna Kutcher wrote the recommendations for the back of my book.

But I would say Tiffany was probably the last person who wrote a personal finance book. And obviously, Rachael Rogers, who wrote, we should all be millionaires. But those are probably the only two really big, financially somewhat related books that are that are out. So there's still a big space and a big a big gap.

So yeah, I'm really, I'm really glad to hear that there wasn't pushed back. And I also love the ways in which you throughout your brain work have have tapped in pulled in these other women to say, like, no, there's, there's so much room for us all. And I think that part of your power and your ability to do that comes from the fact that you're already coming to the publisher with a platform, and I just want to talk about that a little bit. Because I think even 10 years ago, you know, there would be a feeling as if, oh, I'm just lucky to get the book deal.

I'll do whatever you guys tell me to do, you know better than me. But like you said, you already have this established audience. And if you were to put out a book that doesn't read as if it's coming from you, there would be a total disconnect, because you already created so much content that your audience knows what you speak and talk like, and they are attracted to you because of how relatable you are. And so I'm curious to know, like, how how for your brand has it so been so powerful and important to build a platform?

And for folks that are just starting out? You know, what advice would you offer in terms of creating content as a way to really grow your reach and grow your network and build that platform to have that kind of power that you got to enter in those rooms? With? Yeah, you know, that?

That's a good question. Um, you know, I don't know, I really feel like, I think I kind of mentioned this earlier, but just being being real, right? I feel like people just still aren't really being real. And I think that a lot of people and I feel like I see this more with women, just women in general, that we do try not to show up and be like, absolutely perfect, and, and do all these things.

And because of that we're not necessarily creating the content at the frequency that we need to be creating it. We're constantly second guessing ourselves, you know, we have a lot of extra things that we have to, you know, deal with, right that men don't, you know, someone was telling me the other day who somebody and they were like, you know, there was I was saying something about man, this is this is so much work, but you know, being a CEO, being a mom of all these businesses, and they're like, yeah, it's harder.

And he was like, you know, even men, even if there's, you know, obviously being a part of their children's life or whatever, but it's still different when you're a mom, right? It's a different level of responsibility, that you have to really just constantly tackle and constantly navigate through, especially after even if you've had the children or not, or whatever. But I would say just honestly, just just being real, really just just being real, being being your most authentic self.

And I think, you know, there's like even exercises where you can sit down and say, you know, what, is it that I love? Right? What is it that I love? What makes me happy?

What is my why, you know, I always go back to my why. And when you start really sharing that why people are going to be drawn to you because of that. People like communities and they like people that they can relate to, even if you can just relate to them for the fact that you live in the same city, or you know, you can relate because you we both were we all we're all three of us wear glasses and wear the glasses crew, like whatever. And we can share tips on like, when our glasses go foggy when we enter you know, you know, whatever, we are one of those masks that like, you see exactly right.

So there's commonality, we could probably sit for the next 10 minutes and talk about glass glasses struggles and contact struggles. And so I think that if you can create community and create content that people can relate to, and it can literally be the littlest things like I've had students who come to us and like, I was scrolling through Facebook or Instagram and I saw your your hair. And I was like, oh, what hair products you use. And then I realized that you actually teach investing in our in your course.

And you'd be like, what? Wow, that's so random, right? So it also may say, Oh, I saw your Warby Parker glasses, and I started glasses, I clicked on your picture to see who they're made for. And now I'm in your course.

And that's and that's a funnel that you cannot play an out. So it's really interesting. But that's why I think coming back to just being real, being authentic, is really what to create that that community. And also, I would say, if I was starting from scratch, like right now, right, if I was starting to scratch today, I would go back to that old model of doing those in person events.

Because as I say, right now, people are lonely as hell, they are missing community, they want to get off line, they want to get back outside and have a drink with someone and look them in the eyes. They want to hug someone you know, we couldn't even hug people for years, right? They want to be able to just like fist pump, or fist bump, rub shoulders, or whatever. And so I if I was starting from scratch, and if I like I would literally start back hosting monthly financial happy hours again, because people want to get back together.

It's even I will tell you too, I live in Miami. And there's a there's a group, because there's like not a lot of black women. Miami, so we have a group called Black girl magic Miami, right black girl, Miami. And literally, it's a WhatsApp group with like three 400 women, right?

And we're all just sharing things because we're all seeking what community with like minded people in one area. And that's why I'm like, This is what people want. Like, this is literally what they want. So if I was starting from scratch today, that's literally what I would probably do.

That's great advice. I know we're getting close to the end here. What's what's next? You have so many things going on now?

What's what's next? What's coming down? What is your roadmap look like? Oh, oh, no, I'm trying to figure that out myself.

Um, life has changed. Life has changed a lot. Right? So I can be 100% honest, my say I'm not 100% Sure.

And I'm okay saying that I know a lot of people are like, Oh, they got it all mapped out. I don't even know I'm gonna be in two months, I have no clue, but just want to be alive. I would say the biggest thing right now, honestly, is definitely the book. So the book is coming out on May 30.

We are gearing up for that goals and coming to your time bestseller, I will become a New York Times bestseller. And then after that gearing up for my other company's big big event, which I think will be taking place Labor Day weekend, which we'll be announcing soon. And that's it really just trying to end out the year strong. Sell a bunch of books and help a lot of people.

And that's that's that's really all I have met right now. Mm hmm. I love it. Well, I as you gear up for those big, big events, I'm curious to know if there's any last kind of key key thoughts that you would you would offer just based off of you know, like you said, You've been doing this for more than 10 years now.

You know, what, what is? What is the biggest rewards? You know, what is the best thing that is that has come to you personally from from having this amazing model that connects with people, you know, in all of these different experiential sort of ways? What What would you share with folks who are like, Man, I want to try it, I don't know, if events everything for me or not, what would you what would you share?

I would say just start you know, I'm, I'm an action taker. I'm also one of those people who would they say jumps off the plane and builds and builds whatever on the way down type of thing. Like that's, that's, that's me. I will tell you one of the one of the events that I did years and years and years ago, just for anyone that scared, I didn't have tons of money to host the event.

So I launched the event, and said, it's gonna be in Washington, DC, and I picked the date. And that was it. And I was like, if I can sell at least 30 tickets, then I'll do this. And if I can't, I'll just refund everyone.

And that's always really been my philosophy. Um, build it, see if they come No, don't build it, launch it, see if they come and then build it. And so if you're scared, do it that way. It literally cost me nothing.

Right to put up the website, and you put up the one landing page, launch it. And then I did. So I sold, I think maybe 3040 tickets. I said, okay, cool.

That's enough for me to lock in a venue. And then I went and locked in the venue, we end up selling more tickets after we announced the venue. And so I would just say to any of you who's who's scared. Fear Faith can't reside in the same heart, the same home or the same business, but you need to pick one.

So I went all in on faith. That's the only reason why I'm here. So if you want to do something, and you feel like this is what you need to do, it's itching for you to do it, do it. If you fail, who cares?

You don't fail. And the only way the only way you really fail is if you like, don't take the lesson from whatever happened. So if you're walking around failing, failing and not learning anything, and you're definitely failing, you are a failure. But if you're getting lessons from those experiences, you'll be fine and just just do something take action.

Things don't need to be perfect to start but just Are and I will say one more thing. Whatever it is that you're looking to launch someone needs it. Right. And so that's one of the things that I realized that a lot of the things I've been procrastinating on, it's not about me anymore, right?

There's someone who needs to hear what I have to say or someone that needs to be in this room. And if I'm not doing it, I'm not launching it. I am doing a disservice to God for my purpose. I'm also doing a disservice to my to my people, and I'm not helping the people that I'm supposed to be.

So if you think about it that way, maybe a pillow fire you to launch whatever it is that you want to launch. That's great. It's so motivational to it's really not about you. It's about the people you want to serve.

I love it. Yeah, none of this about is about us. So yeah. Wonderful.

Maddy, any last words? I just I just want to say thank you, Dominique. It's It's so beautiful. I'm so glad to know you and just even over the past year getting to see the trajectory you've been on.

It's really inspirational. I'm so grateful you took the time out to connect with our audience and strongly encourage y'all if you want some very relatable content, My favorites are when you're like you do those reels where you're like, Oh man, just trying to muster the energy to get through bath and bedtime. I relate to this so much. But Tony, thank you so much for being here with us today.

And thank you so much for having me. Take care everybody. You just listened to create a friction. Please leave us a rating and review if you enjoyed the show.

And if you want to learn more about fearless foundry or the main company, go to our website at Creative friction.com all audio and video recordings are owned by Madeline Reeves and Jeff need and are recorded live every other Friday on LinkedIn and released once a month.