We were lucky to catch up with Tommy Browning recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tommy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
When I was in my last years living in Arizona, I needed a change in life and fast. I had a spiraling romantic and personal life, my professional life was in its prime and facing new changes at my former firm that I wasn’t too comfortable with for my first stint in corporate leadership, I had a close college friend who died by suicide, and I was also dealing with a personal security matter in my neighborhood. With everything in life hitting me at once, I decided the best course was to start fresh. I had my sites set for Dallas, TX for a while and was hoping for a smooth transition before summer of 2023, but God had other plans in store for me? I took a leap of faith, CTRL + ALT + DEL myself and my life in Arizona, and I suddenly respawned in Dallas. I didn’t realize at first the new challenges and adversity I’d face moving to Texas, but it’s made me Texas tough and I’m proud of the stability I’ve created for myself in a short period of time.
Moving here, I had less than 3 weeks to logistically plan, apartment hunt/lease, and complete my relocation. When I finished the move out here, I had a soft offer from a sister firm of my previous employer, and it fell through. I found myself jobless and having to adjust to a new city’s expenses without an income (which took about 6 months to job hunt, interview, and re-employ). Once I had income stability again, I was able to start crawling out of an embarrassing amount of debt, start healing from and processing the many things in Arizona and life I’d overcame, and started rebuilding.
In my time processing and reflecting, I not only learned to let go, but to take it all in for the present and to look forward to the future. As an entrepreneur, creative, and financial professional, educated, raised from a small town in New Mexico, living in Dallas now; I can’t help but look back and be grateful for all the many things life has thrown my way. It’s been an absolute gift of blessings and lessons – it’s made me who I am today. After going through what felt like a living hell, I’m now exploring my creative and entrepreneurial spirit when I’m not working. I’ve embarked on a recovery journey, focusing on healing and bettering my mind, body, and soul, and it’s certainly been a journey.
My professional life has been a blessing, my creative life has been a gift that keeps on giving, and my entrepreneurial life is laser focused on launching the different initiatives and ventures I’m interested in pursuing authentically and consistently. I say this to say, taking a leap of faith taught me that it’s okay for your life to feel like it’s completely falling apart. That’s the beauty of life, it’s truly what you make of it. In my experience, letting things come undone has allowed me the space to build, grow, heal, rebrand, and prepare myself for my new life that is more authentically me.
Tommy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Three things to know about me and the many hats I wear: 1, I love business and finance; 2, I find a great release and abundance of creativity through writing and music; 3, I truly am a “jack of all trades” which offers me flexibility and a broad scope of professional and creative talent. As someone that finds joy in helping others, all my different ventures and business opportunities reflect this innate skill of empathy and connecting with fellow humans to help them. I can’t go into detail about my daily job; however, I’m happy to share about my creative ventures.
From a young age, I always loved writing but never considered it quality work – more of an untapped hobby. As I’ve aged and gained experience and feedback from others, I realize that writing is an avenue of healing, and the best way to express myself. I’m currently working on a piece, where I write relatable poems and short stories, dubbed “100 Times I Wrote Something.” As I continue editing and completing this work, I look forward to helping others on their healing journey if not in comfort from the loneliness of trauma, as inspiration to keep digging deep, working hard, and allowing yourself the grace to start over. I hope to publish the book, along with other works on topics like self-growth/mental health, navigating personal finances and life events, and how younger generations can find their niche and begin building their legacy.
On the music side of things, I hate calling myself a DJ or producer because it’s still something I’m exploring and having fun with. I had the privilege of befriending many talented aspiring artists from my days in Tempe, AZ and they’re folks I keep in touch with. They’ve inspired me to continue building out sets for house music, exploring mixing and producing music, and most importantly having fun. There is nothing more exhilarating than to show someone your favorite music, maybe even play it for them on a deck, or celebrate your other friends’ music taste and creativity. I hope to one day open a venue that offers a space for creatives to showcase their musical talent, record, and meet other inspiring up-and-coming artists that can collaborate in the music industry together.
On the business side of things, I’m limited to what I can share but I will say this… I love cars. When I graduated high school, I had the lucky pleasure of acquiring “GiGi,” a 2009 Infiniti G37S Convertible that I drove through college and retired to the garage as a project car when I graduated from Arizona State. Right now, I’m currently researching automotive and logistical ventures that offer other gear heads or just simply folks needing wheels that same accessibility. As a man from a low-income state, I realize how much of a luxury it is to have a car and mobility. Whether you need a vehicle for work, daily life needs, fun, or adventure – I hope to offer prospectives a competitive solution for their everyday needs.
Finally, I’ll share this. I’ve never considered myself an “influencer” and if you look on my socials beyond Instagram, you’d likely agree – I’m by no means an “influencer.” However, as someone that did modeling and acting at a young age, engaged politically in my early adult life, and expanded into the world of business; building your brand online is a necessary and crucial tool for getting your work out there. Whether you specialize in one thing, or enjoy showcasing your mix of talents, social media and media is the best free marketing one could ask for. My long-term goal is to build platforms online that offer a respectful and safe space to share thoughts, opinions, ideas, and ignite/inspire the next generation. Whether that’s in the creative or business world, I enjoy sharing my journey to my following and showing the humane side of learning from mistakes, celebrating successes, and sharing more about my personal life for those who are interested in “how I do it.” It’s all about finding balance and not being afraid to put yourself out there.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
When I was at Arizona State I explored a lot of different avenues I could take my life. At first it was overwhelming, as I realized the endless possibilities a college education could offer. I stuck with finance and political science because I knew those were the overarching disciplines that inspired me the most. I was blessed with the opportunity to work for a Business Process Outsourcing firm my junior and senior year. Started as a frontline associate taking calls, expanded to chat and different lines of business, and upon graduating began moving up in leadership. I was in the tech space, and it was very fast-paced, constantly evolving and growing. As I look back, I was gearing up for a long-term and lucrative career in tech and operations, but I was apprehensive about that being my long-term. When life hit the fan, that’s when I had my aha moment of financial services being more meaningful to me. I asked myself this simple question: would I rather help people upgrade or fix their technology, or would I rather help people explore their personal financial landscape and plan for the cash outlays of necessities such as technology, cars, buying a home, getting an education, navigating debt, etc? The answer was too simple for me – I wanted to do more for people.
That said, this is where my move to Texas comes in, as it offered me not only a leap of faith for myself, but an opportunity to directly pivot in my career and get going in finance. To make a long story short, it’s okay to go to school, get a degree, and end up needing to make a change in your career if your current path doesn’t resonate or bring you the same joy you thought it would. At the end of the day, we as human beings don’t know what we don’t know, until we’ve tried it. Obviously, we all want to land into our niche and get going right away; yet we must be mindful of all our possibilities and not be afraid to make a change in direction when life calls us to do so.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
As I’ve shared, when I first moved to Texas, I thought I’d still be working in the tech space. There’s not a lot of people that on a whim move to a new city with an idea of how it’s going to go, suddenly to feel the carpet pulled out from under you. Once I moved to Texas and the offer in tech fell through, at first, I was really upset. It hurt my pride, it hit my personal finances hard, and it made me feel like a number that was not enough despite all the accomplishments and years of hard work I had already put in. Let. It. Go. I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and I’m so thankful it didn’t work out. The job offer with the tech firm falling through forced me to get back to square one, really reflect on how I wanted to build and brand myself for the long term, and it opened the door to the financial and business world I had already been hoping and praying for. It. Was. Scary… especially at first having no income, having to put out resumes and applications, attend interviews weekly, and job hunt for months on end. I have deep empathy for anyone that experiences a moment of job insecurity, because it’s a low blow to not only your professional world but your personal life too. You will recover. You will find the next thing that brings you joy. And as scary as it seemed, it was also a very exciting time in my life to cut the ambivalence and full send into a more meaningful career and life for myself.
Now that I’m here, I have the lucky honor of building my career further, in addition to spreading my wings into my other creative and entrepreneurial pursuits. In the wise words of Winston Churchill: “Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It’s the courage to continue that counts.” The tough lesson I had to learn was the old saying of: “you can’t build Rome in one day.” I’d expand that and say you can’t build Rome in one day, but you sure can turn your life around and devise a fully attainable, realistic, and executable plan in one day. You must remember to put in the work once you do it though. If my blonde, fun, happy-go-lucky self can do it – I promise you can too!
My last note I’ll make on my resilience, which I think is most important: don’t be afraid to seek help. I could not have survived all of these rapid life changes if it wasn’t for my care team, my therapist, my close friends, my new friends I made here in Texas – it truly does take a village. As lonely you may feel when you’re facing adversity, you are absolutely loved and worthy of support from someone, you’re not alone, and there are so many people in this world that you can turn to for help if you can be mindful of setting the pride aside and ask for it. That’s crucial. Being self-aware and having the courage to seek help is the single, most important step that I cannot emphasize enough. Whether it’s personal or professional help – I promise you it’s out there, and that’s what makes human connection and life so beautiful.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @tommybrowning
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommy-browning99
- Other: Email:
[email protected]TikTok:
@tommy.browningSnapchat:
@tommy_browningApple Music:
@hhtyummy
Image Credits
Park Hill Fine Art Portraits