Makers & Movers: BuildingBread
In this edition of Makers & Movers, we’re highlighting Kevin Matthews II, founder of BuildingBread. With a passion for simplifying investing, Kevin has built a platform focused on making financial education more accessible. Let’s learn more about his journey and the lessons he’s picked up along the way.
1. Introductory Insight
What is your name?
Kevin Matthews II, founder and CEO of BuildingBread.
What is your side hustle or business?
I run a financial education company.
How long have you been operating your business?
I’ve been on a mission to help make investing in the stock market simple since 2010.
2. Business Journey
What inspired you to start your business?
I started my business out of frustration. I took an internship on Wall Street and found that the language of the stock market was too complex when it didn’t need to be. It was intimidating, and I found out that I wasn’t the only one.
How did you transition from idea to execution?
I initially started blogging and giving seminars in dorm rooms on campus, teaching the basics of the stock market, credit, and budgeting. However, the main issue at the time was that we were all still broke college students.
What were the initial challenges you faced?
There were some strategic decisions that I would need to make if I wanted things to pay off. In 2014, I wrote my first book and became a full-time financial advisor. This move gave me more credibility on the economic front because I began managing money not as a hobby but as a day job at the time, and the book was a way for people to connect with me and my story. In the years that followed, I transitioned away from the advisor role and began creating videos and courses while continuing to write books.
3. Strategic Moves
What does a typical day look like for you?
I have daily blocks, for example, Sundays are my content planning days where I sit down and plot out what’s going to be recorded and when. Wednesdays are for email and analytics. This helps me be more organized and achieve repeatable results.
How do you manage and prioritize tasks?
I aim for tasks that either A) will generate the most revenue and have a deadline or B) will make tomorrow easier. Time is an asset, and I do not want to waste it doing things that “look busy” rather than the items on my list that will move me closer to my goals.
4. Financial Insights
What was your initial investment?
My initial investment was relatively low, around $300. It was just getting an LLC and starting a website, but as my business grew, I invested in more tools and resources, such as an email service. I also plan to hire experts like attorneys, editors, or graphic designers to save time when needed.
How has your revenue grown over time?
My revenue started very slowly in the beginning, less than $5,000 in the first few years. I started slow because I treated it as a side hustle rather than a business. When I made money, I didn’t reinvest any of those profits back into my business to improve it. It wasn’t until I hired a business coach in 2017-18 that I started to see a significant jump in revenue, from about $25,000 to my first $100,000 in 2020.
How do you manage cash flow and profitability?
I manage my cash flow by paying myself twice per month on the 10th and 25th, which helps smooth things out as well.
5. Growth & Outreach
What marketing channels have been most effective for your business?
Social media has been most effective for me, specifically video, on YouTube and Instagram. I also use email as a critical marketing tool. I don’t do as much paid advertising as I used to, but that was a crucial tool in my arsenal at one point in time.
6. Challenges & Lessons Learned
What significant challenges have you encountered?
A challenge and a lesson for me, which I am still learning, is that networking is a valuable skill that needs to be nurtured. I am a natural introvert and don’t warm up to people unless I’ve known them for a while, which means that I don’t cold call or pitch or go to a conference and “work the room” like others might. That has slowed me down at times, and I’ve learned to manage it and find other ways of connecting and networking when needed, but it’s undoubtedly still a weak spot for me.
7. Future Plans
What are your short-term and long-term goals?
In the short term, I am looking to relaunch my free webinar, the Six Figure Investing plan, which was a significant portion of my business that allowed me to scale. It should be up and ready to go within the next two weeks. In the long term, I plan to launch my next book. Details on that one soon.
8. Personal Insights
How do you balance work and personal life?
I can’t truly balance the two in the traditional sense. Yes, I have tools and automations in place to help me take time off here and there to be a present husband and father, but talking about money and personal finance is a part of my identity. It is in my DNA as someone born and raised on Black Wall Street.
If you could have dinner with any entrepreneur, who would it be and why?
If I could have dinner with any entrepreneur, it would be Mark Cuban. He has an interesting way of viewing business, and he would be a valuable person to have in my orbit and vice versa.
9. Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
My advice for someone starting out is to break everything down into manageable microsteps and work on each one slowly. It will feel overwhelming to try and tackle it all at once or look at an overwhelming to-do list, but taking it piece by piece will start to add up faster than you think.
What do you wish you knew before starting your business?
I wish I knew that just having a passion for a topic does not make doing the work any easier. I think that when things get tough, we’re frustrated because we assume that the passion is supposed to make it easy and frictionless. That’s not the case at all.
How can one stay resilient during tough times?
Don’t wait for perfection, just aim for improvement. I think that has been my secret sauce. I am not the one with the most viral videos, but I have been the one who has been able to outlast most other creators in this space. I haven’t gotten burned out because I wasn’t trying to hit some impossible bar; I just wanted to improve by 1% over what I was the previous day. That approach is what has gotten me into the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, and more.
10. Fun Rapid-Fire Round
What’s your favorite productivity hack?
I am a big fan of 15-30 minute focus sprints. I will set a timer, turn off notifications, and focus on completing as much of the task as possible within that time before taking a short break. You’d be shocked at how much you can get done in that uninterrupted time.
How can people follow your business?
People can follow me on all things social media @BuildingBread
