Confession time: I’ve grown up as a highly-privileged middle class cisgender white woman and money has been one of my biggest pain points. I’ll save getting deep on the how and why for another time – today’s post is about something that’s helped me take huge steps in fixing the problem, and I’ll share how you can have a slice for yourself.
This isn’t a post on how to make 5, 6 or 7-figure months from your bedroom by sharing links on your Instagram Stories or flogging meaningless digital tokens. It’s about a genuine community which aims to help women to genuinely believe in themselves and make decisions which are right for them and where they are in their journey.
I have doctor, author and all-round badass Liz O’Riordan to thank first. I’m not a Podcast Person at all, and I tend to force myself to listen to one or two episodes per year (my relationship with yoga is the same), get what I need, and go back to my usual non-auditory learning ways. At the end of 2021, Liz featured Davinia Tomlinson of Rainchq on her “Don’t Ignore the Elephant” podcast and the raw honesty of the episode floored me. I won’t spoil it for you, because my jaw was on the floor at how openly Liz shared her money journey, and how chilled out Dav was about the whole thing.
When the episode ended, I cried for two reasons: I wasn’t alone; I had found someone whose help was well within reach.
Dav ran a free mini-course at the start of 2022 and I don’t think we were all the way through the first session before I knew I wanted to sign up to the full Rainmakers’ Academy. It’s a six-month programme, but unlike a lot of other courses I’ve seen, the content is well-managed and hasn’t felt overwhelming. I’ll break it down…
What you get
Each month has a theme (such as investing), and for each of the first three weeks of the month, there’s a video class available to play on demand via Dav’s learning portal. It’s easy to sign up for, straightforward to track your progress, and the classes are between 20 and 40-minutes long. During each of those weeks, there’s a weekly live drop-in session one weekday lunchtime, which it’s optional to attend, but does give you a chance to meet others on the course and ask any quick questions you have.
During the fourth week of the month – and, even better, the dates are all given at the start of the course so that you can have them in your diary well ahead of time – there’s an evening live session to close the module. We all get to ask much more detailed questions, chat about how we’ve found the module, cheer each other on, and also talk about anything else that’s on our minds (political activism; “nude” underwear; being confused about NFTs or afraid of crypto… the list goes on).
If you do have to miss the lives, they’re stored on the portal to watch when you like. All of the content remains available to you, so if something happens and you find that you can’t keep up, it’s all still there. There’s the obligatory workbook each month, but these are Dav’s workbooks, so they come with a sprinkling of sass and are guides you can usefully revisit to ensure that your personal financial planning is on track.
What’s special about it
Rainchq founder, Dav, has created an incredible community. She’s upfront about her own background as a Black woman in the finance sector. She’s an independent Mum of two daughters, who also chose to move herself and them to the Caribbean and enjoy island life whilst continuing to change the world for women who are lacking confidence about finance.
She’s an unashamed supporter of women, and is open and welcoming. She doesn’t care how much money you have, or how it comes to you, but she absolutely cares about how you protect and nurture it, and that you use it to enjoy your life as well as to ensure your future. There is truly no such thing as a stupid question, and if the answer isn’t immediately available, it soon will be.
Dav also recognises that things can and do change rapidly – from pandemics to petroldemics to politicians, she keeps a keen eye on world events and how they impact her Rainmakers and their assets. Because that’s what she’s done – helped me to believe that wealth is something I have, that investing isn’t just for White guys called Charlie who live in Tyrwhitt shirts, and that where I’m at isn’t just good enough, it’s exactly the right place to be.
The journey continues…
I’m going to miss Dav’s Academy content, but fortunately we’ll still have social media and her weekly newsletter (which is brilliant – if you’d like some free content, give her a follow on your platform of choice, and absolutely sign up to her newsletter; as with podcasts, I read very few of them, but Dav’s is one I look forward to).
As my business grows and my life continues to develop, I’m in a much better position to make decisions, move my money in different directions, and prepare further for the future whilst enjoying what I have today. I still have fears and uncomfortable feelings – such as the fact that although I’m well on my way to saving to buy a property, it feels like it gets less affordable by the day; locking money away in a pension continues to be a terrifying prospect as I’m 35 going on 23; and I still can’t quite get my head around shares or crypto – but much as I once learned how to read and digest scientific papers, I now don’t just freak out when I see a load of small print, numbers and percentage signs. I know how to take a deep breath, pour a glass of something useful, and puzzle it out.
Dav, Liz – thank you. When I eventually meet you both face to face, there’s an Investment In Your Enjoyment* on me.
*drink