Redefining Financial Freedom: The Story of Denzel Rodriguez, Founder of Builder to Contributor
As a professional business plan writer, I work with clients who cover a broad cross-section of industries and are at various stages in their business. When I met my client Denzel Rodriguez, founder of Builder to Contributor, he was looking to make a big impact with people wanting to get on the road to financial freedom.
It was through his start in the world of sales that Denzel first began to understand the power of communication.
“I came from sales. I used to sell Cutco knives to mothers. I did door-to-door cold calls and made deals the old school way. Sales are one of the best forms of communication, and I was able to master it at such a young age. After the knives, I sold anything and everything — acne products, watches, creams, whatever. I was just really into being social with people and providing a service.”
Denzel had found himself at a point where learning about financial health had started to become a necessity because he felt like he just wasn’t getting ahead. Through the conversations he was having with his sales clients, he discovered that there were countless people who felt the same way.
After losing his job as a licensed Life Insurance Agent unexpectedly in 2018, (which also meant his main source of income was gone), Denzel decided that it was time to try something completely new — becoming an entrepreneur.
Breaking the Chains of a Debt-Driven Society
Having worked in both the financial and insurance industries, Denzel was more convinced than ever that people who are willing to do the work and dig deep could actually find the answers they were seeking inside themselves. What they really needed was someone to guide them on their journey.
“I started to think about how people can break this chain when there’s no one to teach them. And that’s when I was convinced that when people look inside and bring what they want out into the universe and ask for it, they’d be so surprised by the type of resources that start coming their way.”
With this newfound passion for helping others achieve financial wellness, Denzel decided that it was time to move ahead with his vision and begin to make it a reality.
“I primarily focus on helping people master their personal finances by establishing a kingdom for their household that will last forever. The concepts that I teach are velocity, banking, infinite banking, and kingdom authority. There are three strategies. These are financial, spiritual, and mental strategies to help any individual with paying off debt, increasing cash flow, building their credit score, increasing capital, and starting to create assets for themselves.”
To get started, Denzel decided to approach his mother about becoming his first client so he could test out his strategies. He knew that if he could show his mother everything he knew, and how that knowledge could be applied, that he had a viable business idea where he could repeat the process for each client.
Letting Go of What You Think You Know
Once his mother was successfully following the strategies, the next step was to put himself out there and start talking to other people. And it was through these conversations that he discovered so much more than he ever expected.
“People are searching for more than just financial advice. People truly want more. When I first started out, I used to just say I’m an insurance agent, or I’m a financial consultant, or I do this or that, but it just wasn’t enough for people. Even if I delivered that product or that service to them ethically, and responsibly showed them my ideas, they still weren’t taking action.”
The key to Denzel’s business being successful was going to help people let go of whatever they already thought they knew about money and surrender to an entirely new approach.
His first step was to start building an audience, so he began recording himself talking about financial freedom and sharing his videos on YouTube.
“I focused on how to go from negative to positive. I was 30 grand in debt. My credit was going down the tubes, and then I was cash flow negative with no job. That’s a really big deal, and people could see that I too, had been at the bottom. They could relate to what I was saying.”
By putting content out there and letting people know he was there to help and giving them insight into his process, he quickly gained a following. Before he knew it, he was running one of the fastest-growing finance channels on YouTube. In one year, he attracted over 5,000 subscribers with 500,000+ views.
With the support of his family and friends, Denzel knew it was time to be all in — Builder to Contributor LLC was officially in business.
Change Your Mindset, Change Your Financial Future
When you’re running a business focused on financial freedom, your clientele can be pretty diverse.
“I started with this compelling feeling to just want to serve mothers. It stemmed out from there, and now I help more than just mothers. I’ve helped young people and old people. Age is irrelevant. I’ve helped people that are almost triple my age, and I’m forever amazed and grateful that any of these people trust me on that level with their finances.”
While his initial idea was to help people work on their individual or family finances, Denzel quickly realized that entrepreneurs — including aspiring entrepreneurs — could also benefit from the strategies he was teaching.
Based on his own experience with his business, Denzel could offer a unique perspective on not only the financial health aspect of a business but also in areas like content and marketing. By providing tangible data showing his own success building an audience on YouTube, other entrepreneurs could see what was possible for them for client growth.
When working with entrepreneurs, Denzel didn’t just focus on finances; he also worked with his clients on their mindset. By understanding that common advice like “don’t spend more than you make” isn’t enough for people, Denzel looked to provide his clients with strategies to dig deeper.
“One of the things that I always tell my clients when they start working with me is that I need them to drop everything they think they know about money. We’re going to work together to download something into their brain that’s just going to be totally foreign. If they contaminate it with their current data, they’re going to miss the message and also miss the mark.”
Starting with concepts like the 10X Rule by Grant Cardone, Denzel encouraged his clients to be communicators — not salespeople. Instead of thinking about how they could hustle, his approach focused on how to be smart and provide serious, immense, incredibly irresistible offers to people.
Along with the work on mindset, looking at strategies like velocity banking enabled Denzel’s clients to expand their options and thinking about what could be possible for their financial future — despite living in a debt-driven society.
Looking Towards the Future of Builder to Contributor
As Denzel looks at his journey into the world of entrepreneurship, one thing that often comes up is his “overnight success,” and as any entrepreneur knows, it’s never that easy.
“People see what I have now, but it’s like they don’t see the four years that I put in when I didn’t know what I wanted. I was working hard the whole time. So my overnight success is really four years in the making. This is the manifestation I dreamed of for so many years, and now after my hard work, the blessings are falling in my lap.”
Now, just over a year after losing his job, Denzel has built a business that exceeded all his expectations — including hitting his six-figure goal. Having brought in nearly a quarter of a million dollars in revenue with no sign of growth slowing down, Denzel is taking some time to reflect on what has transpired in the past year.
Not only does Denzel want to focus on continued revenue growth to eventually reach the one million dollar mark, but he also plans to continue doing his own mindset work to fully embrace his accomplishments. As a successful young business owner, there can often be many mixed feelings that arise — especially when you can see your competition hot on your heels.
To help move through this, Denzel is doing exactly what he coaches his clients to do: enlist the help of an expert. He knows better than most that having a fresh perspective and new strategies to implement can help create the change you want to achieve for both your financial future and your mindset.
“I don’t come from a lot, so battling those feelings is so tough. I know how to live on like one or two thousand dollars a month, but now I’ll have $20,000 just sitting around not going anywhere. It’s a lot to digest and lots to process. Having people like you and others to bounce these ideas off of lets me know that there are people out there that have been there, done that, and they can share how they handled it.”
In addition to revenue growth and ongoing mindset work, Denzel is looking for more opportunities to expand his reach by finding new collaborations, making some podcast guest appearances, and of course, continuing with his ultra-popular YouTube videos.
With so many opportunities coming his way, the sky’s the limit for Builder to Contributor LLC!
Originally published at https://writtensuccess.co on September 27, 2019.
