Black Tech Symposium Keynote: Making Your Money Work for You with Tonya Edmonds

#### Keynote - "From Paycheck to Portfolio: Making Your Money Work for You"

Many professionals work hard but don’t see their money working as hard for them. In this keynote, I’ll share how to shift from simply earning a paycheck to building assets that create long-term wealth. Drawing from my own journey — balancing a high-level corporate career, entrepreneurship, and single motherhood — I’ll walk the audience through the mindset, strategies, and steps I took to invest confidently and grow a profitable real estate portfolio.
Key takeaways include:

• Wealth Mindset Shift: Moving from earner to investor thinking
• Investment Pathways: How to evaluate different asset classes (stocks, REITs, business ventures, and more)
• Why Real Estate: The factors that made it my top investment choice and how I got started
• Building for Sustainability: Systems, tools, and lessons learned to ensure returns and reduce risk

Attendees will leave with practical ideas for assessing investment opportunities, clear next steps to start building wealth now, and the confidence to take action toward financial independence — no matter where they’re starting.

Best for: Emerging professionals, entrepreneurs, women in business, and anyone ready to take control of their financial future.
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The 2nd Annual DC Metro Black Tech Symposium highlights the success and possibilities of Black technologists and their allies. This learning, networking, and empowerment event is packed with six keynote presenters, 45 learning sessions, 5 evening 2.5 hour workshops, and multiple virtual “speed-networking” sessions.

Three-day attendance passes range from $47.50 to $57.50 for FULL ACCESS. All tickets support our 501(c)3 nonprofit purpose.
https://bit.ly/DCMII-BTS

Session presentations include:
- Starting and succeeding as a consultant with government contracting
- Interviewing at your best
- Resilient leadership
- Model based system engineering
- Breaking into tech
- Getting your first customer
- Influence strategies for tech leaders
- Building applications with no or low code
- AI: embracing agents, mitigating prejudice and crafting effective prompts
- Threat detection using Splunk
- Upskilling as a project manager
- Why Black voices matter in cybersecurity
- Multiplying your success through mentor advocacy