Hidden Gems: Meet Deshon Thomas-Bruner of Deshon Building Wealth

Today we’d like to introduce you to Deshon Thomas-Bruner.

Hi Deshon, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My story starts with the influence at home; growing up where I had the freedom to pursue what I wanted out of life and really make an attempt to be great at it. I found a love for music early as my parents played records, but I discovered music creation after visiting a friend’s house in my neighborhood. I began taking it serious enough to where I wanted to learn the business and release music correctly. So I shifted to learning about accounting and business-themed courses in college. While learning the ins and outs of business in school, I had to work a 9-5 and ended up doing that for what turned into ten years. I somehow shifted from wanting to pursue my dreams of music and business to running the rat race trying to “climb the corporate ladder, “ and was well on my way. Once I realized this, I told myself I’m going to still chase my dreams I just don’t know how yet. Soon I was introduced to what would become my vehicle to accumulating wealth. A man by the name of Patrick Gonzalez walked into the gas station I managed in my neighborhood at the time and it was a real smooth exchange. It wasn’t my first exposure to network marketing but was the most successful attempt to get me involved.

Just like that, I had my first product to offer to people in my community that was meaningful and disruptive. My first taste at real business was offering legal services to my friends and family by leveraging my own franchise of attorneys I paid a small fee for. That gave me my first taste of passive income because I got my mom involved and a couple of friends and that in turn got me paid a passive income by my partner company of $300 paid direct deposit on top of the sales commission I received, which I needed at the time. Even after that memorable experience, I eventually allowed my 9-5 to become an excuse to somewhat abandon my business and growth that I was beginning to achieve. There was a time I became disconnected from the people I was accelerating with, and I became depressed and right back where I was before mentally, In the rat race. I was literally on the brink of giving up really on everything I was in pursuit of & maybe going back to Alaska where I spent seven years of my life right after high school and I wondered why I felt that way. I had a paradigm shift, I said I’m going to start pursuing what I wanted out of life because why should I stop and what’s stopping me? I went to the Malcom X Library in my neighborhood and found a copy of a book by Robert Kiyosaki “Why the Rich are Getting Richer” and became pretty much obsessed with the information I was reading.

After all the years in school and life experiences, I wasn’t taught some of the lessons this book was going over; and It had it all, personal development lessons but more importantly lessons on financial literacy. It was during this study period though that I discovered how important reading and seeking information was to myself and my entrepreneurial journey. I realized I had to change my perceptions about pretty much everything, something my business partner would later tell me. I needed a plan and this particular one I made covered all my bases. I eventually had a job I actually enjoyed and began to excel and get promoted, this time all the while I’m working on personal development still reading and accumulating knowledge but seeing the results. I was back around my network marketing family anytime I wasn’t at work, and eventually I got a phone call from my older sister Rochelle who said she had just franchised a financial literacy based company and wanted to partner with me since she found a strategy that was working and thought she could make it a family thing. I hesitated for about a month because I was swamped with trying to learn the skills of running my business, my music production and my 9-5. One day I called her back, fired up after another great reading session at this point, I’m reading almost everyday and I have this moment where I realized I can take this to another level and LLC my business and go after this new venture with my sister. We begin and it’s a success, I added what we offered to my services which was financial literacy products. I used what I learned from my experiences before and got my friends and family involved immediately by sharing what we offered and I knew again building a business was the name of the game & becoming an investor was next on my list. This time I knew that I had to make an impact in order to grow my business but I couldn’t do it alone so I had to meet new people and continue to network. Obtaining multiple streams of income was the ticket to wealth and I knew I had learned skills that would change the trajectory of my life. I met more 6 and 7 figure earners on my journey and I continually worked on my craft in music.

As soon as I started learning the laws of attraction through study, I attracted two very important business partners one is my girlfriend Milan Stokes of Los Angeles, CA and another is known in San Diego and Los Angeles as MASSV. Milan was involved in the financial literacy business and became like a mentor as she had been involved longer. I learned so much combined with Rochelle and our leaders in the field. MassV called me one day thanks to my mutual friends in our neighborhood and said he was working with Aftermath and Dr. Dre in LA & needed some music and for me to come into the studio. I saw this as an opportunity as my dreams were starting to come to life right in the middle of a pandemic. I moved to LA at the height of the pandemic and really leaned into offering financial literacy mainly credit improvement products and the entity start up service (LLC creation) as well as the network marketing portion of the business even more. At this point, I walked away from my job and started bringing in a sufficient amount of sales and began working on my music full time. Milan introduced me to the other company she was partnered with and I introduced her to my legal services I offered and we both benefitted from this. She started her company Modern Day Feminism using the services and was awarded the same bonus I received of $300 for getting her family involved with the legal services. She introduced me to the investment company she was involved with and her mentors and I again became obsessed with this new information. It was in line with everything I had been studying from Robert Kiyosaki to Napoleon Hill. This investment Academy was education-based so Learning forex and crypto and NFTs was the last piece to my puzzle. Before this, I didn’t know how I would become an investor, I thought I needed tons of money and for my business’s to be on top of the world, but I found out it was already in my hands. For one and a half years everyday I studied with the academy and a man by the name of Curtis Branch introduced to me NFTs and I went on to study on my own how I could add this technology to what I know and how could I make an impact with it. My partner actually is the granddaughter of some major players in the music and fashion industry in LA so I decided to make an alliance with them and showed them my value.

Through this alliance, I created my first ever music publishing company SM247 where I can have complete or majority ownership of the music I put out, and I partnered with Milan to create a new company Crypto Cabana where we offer peer to peer education about crypto and NFTs. We’re planning NFT drops involving all of our services and education modules of skills we picked up. It became our vision to eternalize her grandmother’s LSO Designs by Linda Stokes on the blockchain and fulfill her dream of everyone owning a piece of her design in their closet. March 22nd, 2022 we will launch the vip list to our NFT collab with Linda then April 4 2022 the derivative launch happens 11 custom NFTs curated by the Cabana. I’ll of course be able to drop music through our NFT platform and just add to the value I can provide to this world. This April 9th, 2022 Me and Milan will be on panel at San Diego’s first-ever NFT CON to spread information about the Work we’re doing in the space and provide a chance for people to learn the network marketing business and how to become investors. All of this is just the beginning, my music career is just at the beginning, I have some songs with legends in my computer now and I plan to use my influence to help spread the word how I empowered myself, and what happens when you stick to what you desire and follow Gods natural callings. Michael Stokes the guy I grew up sampling all his records while learning my craft is now my music/business partner and I look to help bring him more success and business through music and NFTs as well. Everything for me now is about giving back and how much can I give because every time I was in that state of mind, I’ve received everything I asked for in business, etc. It hasn’t stopped since I made the decision to be better than I was before everyday.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The road was not smooth, there’s so many times where I wanted to give up and almost did. I kept persevering, I kept asking the right questions. I wasn’t asking the right questions before, I wasn’t taking action on things like I began to do later on. I got rid of fear, doesn’t mean I don’t still battle with these things now but I’ve just had so much growth that you just don’t go back as easily anymore to old ways So I guess it does smooth out . Keep in mind Your family and friends don’t support you until you’ve already gotten results a lot of times. Also You’re going to have a resistance happening between your old habits and the new ones your form it’s hard realizing that the problem is actually you.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Deshon Building Wealth is the brand I’m building and it’s based off services I offer but I market myself. They’re all financial literacy and investment related. Network marketing mentorship is available I’ll introduce you to my network and a potential income earning opportunity. I’ve helped many dozens improve their credit scores and empower themselves with knowledge that they can pass on with my consultations.

Now I offer education-based products with subjects ranging from Ads (Facebook) workshops to Introduction to Bitcoin through a series called Newbie Notebook even Artificial Intelligence Art courses.

Right now, DBW is focused on the business building aspect of my music business. I am an artist and a producer but beyond the music, we have to have something that we can build wealth for our family with and that’s where my brand comes and the philosophy is that any normal person can acquire these skills and knowledge. My beats can be licensed via NFT passes or traditional contract. Pairing up with Milan for our Crypto Cabana Brand is the new focus right now. You can join our NFT community and learn how we leverage it.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
My advice is become aware of what you want out of life and your business and put a focus on that. Pair it with self-development and determine who has what you want and get around them as much as possible.

Image Credits:
Photo by HoodVish