What Invest Fest Reminded Me About Wealth, Wellness and Community

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend and be a vendor at, Invest Fest, and I'm still processing just how incredible the experience was.

If you've never heard of Invest Fest, it's a massive financial literacy and entrepreneurship festival created for the black community by the founders of Earn Your Leisure, Troy Millings and Rashad Bilal. It brings together entrepreneurs, investors, creators, financial experts and some of the biggest names in business and culture for conversations about investing, entrepreneurship, real estate, ownership and building generational wealth.

But what makes Invest Fest especially meaningful is who it was created to reach. Earn Your Leisure was built to make financial education accessible and culturally relevant, particularly for Black audiences and communities that have historically been excluded from many of the conversations, resources and opportunities surrounding wealth building.

So imagine thousands of Black people gathered in one place, not just to be entertained, but to talk about ownership, investing, entrepreneurship, legacy and wealth. The energy was different.

I went to Invest Fest expecting to learn about business, money and building wealth. And I absolutely did. But one of my biggest takeaways had very little to do with numbers.

Community is currency

There is something incredibly powerful about being surrounded by people who are building something. People starting businesses. People scaling businesses. People learning how to invest. People creating brands. People exchanging ideas, resources and opportunities. And people genuinely wanting to see one another win.

It reminded me that sometimes the person you need to meet isn't sitting behind a computer screen or waiting in your DMs. Sometimes you have to get in the room.

Wellness belongs in the wealth conversation

Being there also made me think about my own place in the conversation. We talk a lot about financial wealth, and we should. But I believe health is part of wealth too.

As a holistic nutritionist, plant-based chef and wellness entrepreneur, so much of my work centers around helping people build lives that actually feel good to live. Because what good is building wealth if we don't have the health and vitality to enjoy it?

Wellness is what we eat, but it's also how we nourish ourselves. It's movement. It's rest. It's managing our stress. It's creating rituals that help us come back to ourselves. It's community. It's joy. It's having enough energy to actually live the life we're working so hard to create.

Standing in a space centered around Black wealth and Black entrepreneurship reminded me why wellness deserves to be part of that conversation. We deserve to build wealth and be well enough to enjoy it.

I brought something new with me

Invest Fest was also the first time I introduced something I've been quietly creating, a collab booth with Soul Tribe Retreats featuring three small-batch herbal tea blends from Prosper Apothecary.

Morning Ritual, an herbal blend created to support energy, hydration and vitality as you begin your day.

Calm & Centered, a soothing blend for moments when you want to slow down, settle in and create a little more calm.

Evening Exhale, an evening blend created to become part of your wind-down ritual and support rest.

There was something full circle about introducing them in that particular space, because Prosper Apothecary is another extension of what I've always believed about prosperity. Prosperity isn't only financial. It's having the resources to take care of yourself. It's having ownership over your health. It's creating a life that nourishes you instead of constantly draining you.

Seeing people experience something I've created for the first time was special, and it reminded me that Eat Plants & Prosper was never meant to be about just one thing. Yes, I love a good juice. But wellness can also look like herbs steeping on the counter, a nourishing meal, movement, rest, community, travel, joy, taking care of your nervous system, creating rituals that make you feel more connected to yourself. It's all wellness.

I'll be sharing much more about Prosper Apothecary soon, including when the blends will be available online. For now, I'm grateful that Invest Fest got to be where they made their debut.

And yes, I learned how to double dutch

Somewhere between the panels, conversations, networking and building my business, I also learned how to double dutch. And honestly, that was a lesson too.

Because building a life you love can't only be about working harder, making more money and accomplishing the next thing. There has to be room to play. Room to meet people. Room to try something you've never done before. Room to laugh. Room to actually live.

I left Invest Fest inspired by the information, absolutely. But I think I was even more inspired by the people. The conversations. The connections. And the reminder of what can happen when we intentionally create spaces where Black people can learn, build, collaborate and imagine bigger for ourselves and our communities.

Community is currency. Wellness is wealth. And prosperity is so much bigger than money.

Here's to building all three.

With love,
Whitney Eat Plants & Prosper