We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Deonte Finch a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Deonte, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Success takes consistency, luck and hustle. One has to be consistent in producing quality product. Practice makes perfect, constantly putting out a good product makes it better. The hustle is finding a way to generate customers. Staying hyper vigilant to recognize opportunities is staying in hustle mode. Luck is when all your consistency put you in position to be prepared to successfully take advantage of an opportunity.
Deonte, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I, Deonte Finch was born to a single mother when she was just 14 years old and raised in Flint, MI. My mother taught me good work ethics and the importance of staying consistent. I am the father to nine children, currently married and living in Las Vegas, NV. After relocating to Arizona briefly in 2014, I then moved to Compton, CA. Later that year where I meet my wife, Kristal. Working in the telecommunications industry as a field engineer is how I made a living in CA. My family moved to Las Vegas in 2018. I was able to transfer my job and also began working as a Realtor. In 2019, I joined the electrical union IBEW 357 where I am still a member of. In 2021, on a trip to Atlanta, I had a conversation with an actress that got me curious about the acting industry. The actress, Thelma C Brown, was telling me that she knew directors that moved to Las Vegas, Bobby and Renee Peoples. After returning to Las Vegas, I looked the directors up. I learned that Renee was having a remote acting class. I signed up for the class where I learned a lot. Renee told that I had potential so I stayed the course and started auditioning for roles. I started to land several small speaking roles and gigs as an extra. Six months after starting my acting journey, I was cast on the BattleBots live theater show. I was a part of the original cast and departed after show 317. I have now been a part of 45 different projects and counting. I have four films streaming with more being released soon. I have also appeared in a few television shows and two Super Bowl commercials. I am grateful and proud of my progress in the industry so far. I look forward to putting in more work into getting better at my craft.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
This year I had to take a pivot in both my life and career. My wife made the decision to run for office to become a judge. This is the first time my wife has ran for office. We did not have the funds to hire a campaign manager. Even though I did not have any experience in managing a political campaign, I founded D. Finch consulting and became Kristal’s campaign manager. This pivot was a short amount of time and a steep learning curve I had to overcome. With so much more on my plate, I took a step back from working in other industries as much to make the time to be a campaign manager and attend the political events to be affective. I learned a lot and enjoyed the process. We was successful and Kristal was elected as a Justice Court Judge in Las Vegas. I will continue to take on new clients and manage campaigns.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I think a big part of building my reputation in the industry was my professionalism. Some gigs I got was due to referrals. I made an impressions on directors and producers where I feel they put their names on the line by refereeing me. It has also been times where I showed up on set to be an extra and was offered a speaking role. I believe your persona on set dictates if you are invited to be on future sets. Within such a small industry where you work with people several times, your reputation do follow you. This also allows you to redeem yourself from a bad first impression or lock in that reputation. From my experience, I think people believe they are in good company once they get to know me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dfinch-consulting.com
- Instagram: deonte_finch
- Facebook: deonte.finch
- Youtube: @deontefinch771
- Other: linktree: @deonte.finch
