My Day at Hispanicize Texas

My article on Hispanicize Texas is part of a sponsored collaboration with Prudential and DiMe Media. However, all opinions expressed are my own.

Last week at this time I spent the day at Hispanicize Texas, as a speaker, art vendor, and ambassador for Prudential. It was everything I love rolled into a tightly-packed eight hours! This has to be one of my favorite parts about the way I make my living. Being able to travel, learn, teach and connect with other like-minded people.

As I give you my wrap-up of my day, I’m going to apply all the financial tips I learned to fit each section. As a Prudential ambassador, that was one of my main jobs while attending. It’s funny how once you dial into a specific perspective, a wealth of info will come your way on that topic!

As creative professionals, it’s always smart to incorporate ways to build and make them most of your income. Not only for you and your future but to benefit your family as well.

Here is the official wrap video so you can check out the vibe!

I spoke on two panels:

1. Go Live or Go Home: How to Livestream. In this session, I joined the fabulous Dawniel Winningham in sharing how livestreaming can put dollars in your bank account! She said to look at livestreaming as your own commercial for your business products that you want to sell. It’s FREE and it’s right from your phone. I suggested launching your own weekly show and finding sponsors for it. Dawniel livestreams every day to support her online classes about building wealth.

TIPS: Make sure you have a strong wifi signal. Have a good title for your session, stay on point with the topic, engage with your followers. Offers takeaways, discounts, freebies to lead them to your site. Be consistent, be authentic – you want to be professional, but you don’t want to look like a perfect robot! Embrace your space, find a spot with good lighting, invite guests to join you and cross promote. If you don’t know what to livestream about, do a livestream and ask your followers what they would like to see! Make a plan of something you can sell and promote via livestreaming. Keep in mind that when you livestream on IG, Fb or YT, it will help your channel/feed as a whole do better in the algorithm.

2. How to Get That Book Deal. In this session, I joined Gaby Natale to talk about publishing fiction and non-fiction books as a way to support your brand platform. You can go through a traditional publishing angle which is more difficult and takes longer, but comes with editorial support and distribution – or you can self-publish and be in control of the entire process. The latter will involve a lot of work but may yield bigger profits, especially if it is a book based on your top blog content that you know people will want. Authoring a book can lead to revenue avenues through speaking, workshops and more.

TIPS: For Fiction – Start with a one-sentence plot description, then outline the book with a beginning, a middle and an end. Know that your character has to start at one place in their life and by the end of the book, have a totally new perspective. Write your manuscript without editing. Then once it’s done, go in and do your edits, trims, and reshaping. Once the entire book is done, then you can pursue representation or publishing. For non-fiction, come up with a book idea and research to come up with a book proposal. Gaby used a lot of visuals for her book proposal and broke away from the expected outline. It helped her stand out and land a book deal.

      3. Refine Your Pitch. This was a mentoring track I led. It was all about making a great first impression. I shared how you have to know what your brand is about, what problem does it solve? Describe that in five words. Don’t be broad, be specific. In addition, you want your web site to match that sentence. Make sure you have your social buttons and contact info and name on the upper fold of your site. All of these things are quick actions that will make or break you. Not just with brands but with followers. You always want to serve them, make your content, services and messaging easy to access – and interesting! You want them to be able to remember you a week later, come back, and tell their friends. You want to look like the money you want to charge. Make sure your site looks fresh, update it at least once a week and interact with your guests!

Whether you are an accountant, a writer or a performer, you deserve to make a living doing what you love! #HispzTx #Prupárate #ad pic.twitter.com/fi6zWoRoml

— Kathy Cano-Murillo, The Crafty Chica (@CraftyChica) July 29, 2017

I spent a lot of time in the Prudential booth. They had an area where you could make a collage and write down what you wanted to do in your future, and then how to make a financial plan to afford that goal. Of course, I dived in! In addition to all I do, I spend at least an hour each night working on my new novel. I’m almost there, only a few thousand more words to go! I’ve been working on it for sooo long, I’m excited to finish it and hopefully have it published!

One thing that inspired me – the #IOwnMyFuture frame of mind. We do own our future, it’s all in decision making and how we choose our time.

Checking out the @Prudential space at #HispzTX! #Prupárate #Ad pic.twitter.com/wCWM3bafuJ

— Kathy Cano-Murillo, The Crafty Chica (@CraftyChica) July 29, 2017

And I even did a Facebook Live from the event!

Here are some tips from the Prudential sessions at Hispanicize Texas

1. Make a financial plan. Even if you don’t think you have any extra income, change your thought process. Force yourself out of the victim “I’m tired of being broke” mode,” and put it all on paper. Make a plan to bring in extra income: Open an eBay store, sell collage kits from your excess supplies, offer services like copyediting. If those don’t work, try new ways to market to new audiences. Look for an online job to do at night, etc.

          2. Always keep two budgets, one for business and one for personal. Sometimes creatives don’t take their business seriously and keep all those sales blended together. Get right with it, and create those two budgets. If you are going to vend at a show, make a list of all the costs involved. Then make a list of what you intend to sell to make a profit after you cover your costs. Don’t just wing it. Know your numbers! For your personal budget, keep track of how much you eat out, utilities, cable, etc. Pay attention to every dollar and make them work in your favor to create an abundant life for you and your family.

         3. Life insurance. I’ll admit, I don’t have this. But I will this week. I never realized the importance of it. My parents never stressed it to me, and I never fully researched. After hearing the session at HispxTX, I felt like crying. What a missed opportunity! But it’s never too late, I’m going to sign up for a plan ASAP. This protects your family in case anything should happen to you.

             4. Talk to a financial advisor. Don’t be shy! It’s free and they will give you the truth talk you need to hear. Better yet, they’ll give you a checklist of how to stay on track.

Make 2 budgets: One for business & one for personal. @Prudential #Prupárate #ad #HispzTX pic.twitter.com/vYqkwfDgnR

— Kathy Cano-Murillo, The Crafty Chica (@CraftyChica) July 29, 2017

Here are some helpful articles I found on the Prudential site:

How to juggle today’s bills and still plan for the future

The Basics of Creating a Financial Strategy

Life Insurance 101

Hanging out with friends is always one of the BEST things about these events! Here I am with  Elena from SewBonita, Vianney from SweetLifeBake, Chantilly from Chantilly Patino, and Cristina from VeryThat!

RELATED: How Financial fitness is a form of self-love

Thank you so much to the Hispanicize team and Prudential for this opportunity! Okay, to all of you reading this, what your best finance tips for small business owners? Please share so we can all learn together!