A finance professional explains how she built her business with eight figures -
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Dominique Broadway, owner of Finances Decoded and Hero is aware of that from the start. Her thought has always been of herself as an entrepreneur at heart, which is why the email list she started building at a booth several years ago is now one of her greatest assets as a creator. "Because I think of my company as a business, I need to operate it as such. I never would like to be dependent upon Facebook or Instagram and TikTok. I want to be able to send out an email or send out a text in real time and always engage with my audience."
Read on to learn the tactics and the mindset Dominique employed to build an efficient and sustainable knowledge-based business of eight figures outside 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 way you came to the field of finance.
At the age of my youth I began to understand how wealthy people made fortunes and building wealth. It was pretty much either the stock market or real estate. I decided I was going to teach myself how to invest in the market for stocks because I wasn't able to come up with enough funds to go out and begin purchasing houses. That's really where I got began - I taught myself how to invest. I attended university and studied finance and banking. Fast forward, and I'd worked at a few firms such as United Capital, which was bought from Goldman Sachs. In the previous firm I worked at I went to my supervisor and said, "Hey, I think I want to quit and start a new job." And he's like, "What are you going to do?" and I'm thinking "I don't have any idea. I'd like to educate people about finances." I had to figure out how to do this. I had no clue. The booth I was looking at was For Sisters Only. I called my dear acquaintance and asked, "Hey, I got the booth during an event coming up next week and I'm looking for you to design me the landing page I need so that I can get emails. I'm looking for business cards and a banner. Can you do it?" And he's like "Yeah." This is why I'm having this booth and I had around 90 people that signed up for my mailing list. It was my first list-building activity. I was able to make around a third clientsand that's how things began to take off.
When I check back about a year or so later, and I'm broken. I'm dead broke. I got a job at an organization that teaches financial literacy and at the time, I realized I had to determine how I could increase my income. It was then that I decided to create my first course and it was the Finances Demystified course. In the end, I was introduced to . We had our first million dollar month just six months later. It was $8.5 million that initial year. We've now earned just over $13 million over the past two years.
What motivates you to take action what you do now?
I think the interesting thing is that this is something people do not often talk about, the reason that drives you and your why can change. When I began my company, I had no children. It was just me. I was just trying to earn money and help people, in order to travel and eat. Now my why is helping others build wealth generationally and transforming their financial paths, and now with my kids, I want to teach my children to be financially confident. However, for myself, it's about providing financial confidence.
What is it that makes it difficult for individuals to earn money as a creator?
I think it's hard for people to make income due to a variety of reasons. One of them is that I've never considered myself to be a creative person, but I think that sometimes I experience the "creator" syndrome. It is quite similar to artist syndrome. What I'm referring to is that as you grow older, you'll are told, "Oh, so and such wants to become the next artist." "Oh the man, they're going to break all the time." This is just the way it goes however, that's not always true. It's true that some people get that mentality and think, "Oh, I'm a creator. Things are going to be somewhat more complicated for me. There's no real company. This is just something that I'm doing." It's never been thought of that way. I've always considered my company as a company. I feel like I am a CEO first and then a creator and a talent later. This is why the creators (and other artists) do not focus on the monetization aspect; they're spending any time or effort into the development of the items. Or, into figuring out what products the customers actually want, and they're not advertising.
So I think if you think of your venture as more of a business and you could be able to begin to monetize your business more effectively. It is a matter of having the right marketing strategy. That means understanding the people you want to reach. Because right now for a many creators, what they're doing is merely getting on TikTok or other platforms, joining social networks, doing a little dancing and shaking while pointing out some items that nobody is purchasing any product. Well, there's no true appeal to action. So the people aren't sure which direction to take. The people don't know even what you sell.
How important is it to create a community for your company?
What can you do to get the people who follow you on social media to sign up to your social media community? What will that bridge appear to you?
It's something that I would doubt say we've done well in bringing these people on Instagram into your email list. One of the biggest things is that I remind my team constantly, "I don't care how my followers are on social the email list I have must be larger than." As of right now, on my social media, I'm thinking I may have 125,000 followers. This is quite a bit. Everybody has a million followers now, but our email lists are over a quarter of one million. This is more important to me.
How do you get them there? Use different calls to actions. You have various intentional activities that draw them in. So I'm like, "Hey, we need to have at least one IG daily story that tells people to come to our masterclass." Also, get them into the texting community. Sometimes, we'll even offer events where I'll place a few thousand dollars on the Starbucks card. For instance, "Hey guys, there's free coffee, just text in and you get the coupon." Having that little link in your bio that leads them into my website, or directs them to my phone number -- that's how you do the gap. However, most don't offer their users a method to enter another house. They're in this [social media] home, but I'd like you to be in the house and join this party as well. And that to me has been the easiest way to do it. It sounds simple, but it is important to provide people with the opportunity to make a decision but the majority of people do not make that happen.
What makes having your email list be bigger than your following so important?
My reason for aiming is always to have a bigger email list as compared to my own is because I want to own the information. I am obsessed with making certain that I control all of my contacts and information. I'd like to control every single piece of information including the demographics, and the phone numbers. If any of these platforms go down, or decide to shut down or something else, I'll have the contacts. I always think about MySpace. There were some people who created their entire business through MySpace but then an instant MySpace has gone away, and their company is also gone. Since I view my business as one and I have to run the way it is. It is not my intention to ever be dependent on Facebook as well as Instagram as well as TikTok. I'd like to be able to mail an email or even text direct and speak to my audience. That's why I'm focusing on building my email database, and now the big focus is text.
How would you advise the smaller-scale artists using social media to connect with their fans?
What I'd say to creators that are only using social networks is to get off of them. Social media is wonderful however it shouldn't be your only lead stream or lead generator. When you think about your business, you should think about it literally as the heart. I always say is the heart, it's what I'm trying to bring everyone to. I think about all the blood flow. Where is it coming from? It can't be coming from only one location. If it's only coming from one place then you're dead. If you're only getting leads from one source, it's not going to succeed. Focus on getting people to join your world. It's not your responsibility to control the users who use social media sites. You have to get the users into your business] universe to be able to monetize them because it's very, very hard to monetize on social media platforms. Your job is to create, but you're not just being a creator. You are an entrepreneur.
Some creators believe that brands and affiliate partnerships are the only means to earn profits. What would you suggest to them to start in terms of the vehicle for monetization?
Brand deals and affiliates are my source of income part-time for me, but what I love about my business is, it's not just a once-off hit. It's still a good thing, particularly as we've moved to this membership community, the focus is now MRR (or monthly recurring revenue). It's my goal to have money come into my account even when I decide I'd rather wake up early and go to the beach. With brand deals and affiliates usually, they're going to only last for a little bit. Then, every month, you'll have to come up with a solution again and again. Put more effort and effort into developing an item that pays you consistently and create more consistent income streams for your business.
What role does play in helping you maintain control over the direction you take as an artist?
It is actually the center of company. I feel like everything kind is flowing through it. And as far as being the one in charge of my life I'm thinking it's that central hub. I can gain a better understanding of what the company is running through the use of analytics. I'm able see how my email list is growing. For me, as I think about my future everyone wants to feel in control. It's not like we're in charge, but we want to believe that we're in control. some degree of control. This is that is what I'm feeling. I'm able log on to the platform and I can see exactly what's going on. I'm able to see what the company is performing in the current month or even this month, or last month. And so for me, this gives me a little bit of control in an uncontrollable world, to be in a position to feel as though I'm taking control of my life.
The lesson Take control of your audience
Social media platforms call the shots. However, you can still control your business's destiny by taking steps to ensure you have your own audience, in a way that isn't social media-related.
If you feel like the conventional creation economy isn't working for you, sign up for the Creator Challenge, and launch your company with the help of creators and entrepreneurs who have made the current economy of creators function for them.
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