A finance professional explains how she built her business on eight-figures --
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Dominique Broadway, owner of Finances Demystified and Hero is aware of that from the start. Her thought has always been that she was an entrepreneur, and that is the reason why her email list she started building at a booth some time ago has grown into one of her greatest assets as an entrepreneur. "Because I think of my company as a business, I need to operate in a business-like manner. I do not wish to feel dependent upon Facebook as well as Instagram or TikTok. I would like to be able to email my followers or send out a text immediately and continuously engage my audience."
Read on to learn the tactics and the mindset Dominique utilized to establish a sustainable eight-figure knowledge business independent of social media.
For a quick rendition of this interview, take a look at Dominique's responses to our Rapid-Fire Q & A series below!
Note: The responses are lightly edited for clarity.
Tell us a little bit about the story behind you and how you started your journey in the field of finance.
As a young person I began to figure out how all wealthy people made money and building wealth. The answer was either the stock market or real estate. I decided I would teach myself how to invest in the market, as I didn't have enough money to start purchasing homes. That's really where I got started - I started teaching myself how to invest. I graduated from university and studied banking and finance - fast forward to the point where I was working in a variety of firms, including United Capital, which was purchased from Goldman Sachs. The last company I was employed at, I went to my supervisor and said, "Hey, I think I'd like to leave to do something different." Then he said, "What are you going to do?" And I'm like "I don't know. I'd like to educate people about finances." I needed to find out the best way to accomplish that. I had no clue. The booth I was looking at was For Sisters Only. I called my good acquaintance and asked, "Hey, I got this booth at an event next weekend So I'm in need of you to make me an online landing page where I can get emails. I need some business cards and a banner. Can you do it?" He's saying "Yeah." That's why I'm running this booth and I had around 90 people who signed up to my list of email addresses - this was my initial list-building exercise. It turned out that I had around a third clients, and that's when the process began.
I go back to one year about a year later and I'm dead broke. I'm dead broke. I was hired by a financial literacy nonprofit in the early days, and I realized that I needed to figure out how to increase my income. This is when I made the decision to create my first course, which was the Finances Demystified course. Then, I learned about . The first million dollar month just six months in. We did about $8.5 million in that first year, and we've now made a little over $13 million in the last two years.
What motivates you to take action this?
The interesting part is that this is something that people don't often talk about, the reason about what drives you and how your reason for being. When I started my business, I had no children. There was only me. I just wanted to make some money to help others, so I could go on trips and have food. My current passion is to help others build wealth generationally and transforming their financial paths as well as, with my children, I want to teach them. But for me, it's all about providing financial confidence.
What is it that makes it difficult for individuals to make money by being a creator?
It's difficult for people to make money for numerous reasons. The first thing is I've never considered myself to be a creative person, but I think that sometimes my experience with the "creator syndrome" is very similar to the artist syndrome. What I'm referring to is that as you grow older, you'll are told, "Oh, so and such wants to become an artist." "Oh the man, they're going to be broke for ever." It's just a thing however, that's not always true. It's true that some people adopt that attitude and think, "Oh, I'm a creator. Things are going to be a little bit more difficult for me. There's no real company. This is just something that me doing." It's never been thought of that way. I've always considered my work as a company. I feel like I'm a chief executive first, later a creator, and a talent later. Because of this, the creators (and other artists) don't have a focus on making money; they're not putting any energy and effort into creating the products. Or, into finding out what people actually prefer, and they're not advertising.
Therefore, if you considered your company as more of a business then you'd have the ability to begin monetizing the business better. This means you need an effective marketing plan. It's about knowing the people you want to reach. As of right now, for lot of creators, what they're doing is merely getting on TikTok or other platforms, joining social networks and doing some dancing and shaking, pointing to some stuff but no one is buying any product. There's not a real appeal to action. So people don't even know which direction to take. You don't even know the products you offer.
What is the importance of create a community for your enterprise?
How can you convince the people who follow you on social media to join your community? What will that bridge appear like?
It's an area that I'd certainly not claim to have mastered, getting those people from Instagram on your list of email addresses. One of the biggest things is that I remind my team constantly, "I don't care how many followers I have on Instagram but my email list needs to be higher than." So right now on my social media, I'm thinking I might have 125,000 or more followers. This is quite a bit. Everyone has one million followers, however our email list is over one quarter of a million. It's more important for me.
How do you reach them? There are a variety of calls and actions. There are a variety of intentional actions which bring them to. Therefore, I'm saying, "Hey, we need to have at least one IG daily story that invites people to attend the masterclass." Also, invite them to join the text community. We will even do little events where I'll place some thousand dollars onto the Starbucks card. Like, "Hey guys, there's complimentary coffee. Text in and you get the discount code." Having that little link in your bio which directs them directly to the landing page or directs them to my phone number is the way to bridge the gap. However, most don't offer their audiences a way to get into the other house. They're in this [social media] home, but I'd like for you to join me in the house and join this celebration as well. And that to me was the most effective way to do it. Although it sounds easy, you must provide them with the opportunity to make a decision, and most people don't do that.
Why should your email list be bigger than the ones you follow?
The reason I aim is to always have more email addresses than my following is that I would like to control the information. I am obsessed with making certain that I control all of my clients and information. I'd like to control every single piece of information including the demographicsand phone numbers. If any of these other platforms shut down or decide to shut down or whatever, I'll still be able to access my contacts. I always think about MySpace. There were some people who created their entire business on MySpace and then all of suddenly MySpace has gone away, and their company is also gone. As I see my company as a business, I need to operate the way it is. I don't want to feel like I'm dependent upon Facebook and Instagram and TikTok. I'd like to email my followers or text message in person and engage with my audience. So that's the reason I'm focusing on building my email list, and now the big goal is text.
What would you suggest to the smaller-scale artists who use social media in order to communicate to their followers?
The advice I'd give those who are solely using social media platforms is to quit. Social media is wonderful but it's not the sole lead source or lead generator. If you are thinking about your business, you should think about it as the heart. The one I often refer to is the heart. It's the place I'm trying to bring everyone to. I think about all the blood flowing. What's the source? The source of the issue isn't the same place. If leads are coming from one location, you're dying. If leads are only coming from one source It's unlikely to succeed. Concentrate on bringing people into your universe. There is no ownership of the individuals on social media platforms. It is your responsibility to bring the people into your own [businessspace in order to make money from them because it's very, challenging to make money from these [social] platforms. Your job is to create however, you're more than a creator. You are an entrepreneur.
A lot of creators believe that brand and affiliate deals is the best way to make cash. Which is the best place for that they should start from the perspective of the vehicle for monetization?
Brand deals and affiliates are part-time income for me, but what I love about my business is, it's not one-time-hit. Even now, especially as we've moved to this membership community, our new focus now is MRR (or monthly recurring revenue). It's my goal to have money come in even if I decide I'd rather wake up and be on the beach. With brand deals and affiliates typically, they're just going to be around for a short time. Then, every month, you'll have to work it out and again. Put more effort and focus into creating an item that pays you consistently and create regular revenues for your company.
What is the role of aiding you in retaining control of the direction you take as Creator?
This is the core of the company. It seems like everything sort flowed through the place. As far as feeling in control of my destiny I believe it's the central hub. I'm able gain a better understanding of how the business is doing through analytics. I'm able see how my email lists are growing. And for me, when I think about my future, we all want to feel in control. We're not in control however we would like to feel as though we've got a little bit of control. This is that for me. I'm able to log into the website and know exactly what's happening. I'm able to see what the business is doing this month, or the previous month. For me, that allows me to feel a little piece of control in the uncontrollable world, to be confident that I'm in control of my destiny.
The message: Own your audience
Social media platforms are the ones calling the shots. However, you can still control your destiny as an entrepreneur by taking steps to ensure you own your audience in a way that isn't social media-related.
If you feel like the traditional economic model of the creator isn't serving you, sign up for the Creator Challenge, and launch your company with the help of the entrepreneurs and creators who have made today's creator economy be more effective for their businesses.
Participate in to the creator Challenge!
Begin your online business with the assistance of experienced entrepreneurs. Keep my place
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