Invest Fest 2025 Recap

Atlanta pulsed with energy this past weekend as Invest Fest 2025 >Earn Your Leisure founders Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings—as a global movement reshaping the way communities view wealth, entrepreneurship, and legacy building.

The weekend began with a bang at VIP Night at Guardian Works, where music and culture collided with entrepreneurial energy. Keyshia Cole electrified the audience with a performance that had fans belting out every lyric, while panels brought together voices like Jayda Cheaves, Terrence J, Pinky Cole, Pretty Vee, Gloria Govan, and Dr. Cheyenne Bryant. Attendees toasted with cocktails made from A$AP Rocky’s Mercer + Prince Blended Canadian Whiskey and Issa Rae’s Terrence J, Dr. Cheyenne Bryant, Gloria Govan, and Pretty Bee at Invest Fest’s VIP night.

From there, the main conference delivered on its promise of “edutainment,” uniting household names with forward-thinking entrepreneurs. Magic Johnson, Issa Rae, Jack Dorsey, Ian Dunlap, Tabitha Brown, Fawn Weaver, Charlamagne tha God, Matt “The Mortgage Guy,” and Steve Harvey were among the marquee speakers. Their conversations spanned topics from financial literacy to brand ownership, each panel infused with the urgency of preparing for generational wealth. Johnson’s phrase, “You build now, they live later,” resonated so deeply that it trended across social media within hours.

One of the weekend’s most viral moments came during a fireside chat between Steve Harvey and Charlamagne tha God. The two media titans spoke candidly about legacy, cultural accountability, and the responsibility that comes with wealth. Their conversation struck a chord with attendees and quickly spread across platforms, positioning it as one of the defining highlights of the festival.

The pitch competition brought startup dreams to center stage, blending Shark Tank- decoding="async" src="https://www.essence.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Invest-Fest-2025-Sunday-11-scaled.jpg" alt="Invest Fest 2025 Recap" width="400" height="397" />Jaylen Brown, Angela Simmons, Kendra G, and 2 Chainz at Invest Fest 2025.

True to Earn Your Leisure’s mission, youth empowerment remained central. Forty Bronx students from the Roads to Success program received an all-expense-paid trip to attend the festival. Their arrival—captured on camera as they entered the arena with wide eyes and open notebooks—quickly went viral. It was more than a feel-good moment; it was a living example of the power of access, exposure, and possibility.

Throughout the weekend, the economic impact was undeniable. More than $275,000 in direct capital was awarded through pitch funding, scholarships, and a $25,000 grant in partnership with Bevel. But the ripple effect went far beyond numbers. From Rae’s poignant words—“We ARE rich”—to Keyshia Cole’s unforgettable opening performance, Invest Fest proved once again that financial empowerment doesn’t have to be dry or inaccessible. Instead, it can be stylish, celebratory, and deeply rooted in culture.

Since its launch in 2019, Invest Fest has scaled from 5,000 attendees in year one to a sold-out global platform that fuses celebrity influence with actionable financial education. With this year’s festival, Bilal and Millings reaffirmed that the movement isn’t just about money—it’s about mindset. By merging culture and commerce, they’ve created a paradigm shift that makes financial literacy not only approachable, but aspirational.

In the end, Invest Fest 2025 was more than a conference. It was a declaration that wealth belongs to everyone willing to learn, build, and pass it forward.

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