Self Made Women: Lola Tomorrow On How She Started With Nothing and Created A Million Dollar Business
An Interview With Ming Zhao
Our mindset… society has trained us to speak what we see. If you have $2 in your bank account, you will speak to your reality. We weren’t trained to speak “I have more than enough.” Women have to learn to speak to where they are going.
Advice I would give them: If you go into the gym and do the same exercises every day, over and over again you will develop muscle memory. What you speak and what you believe, the more you speak it and exercise that muscle you will get stronger in it. My advice is to just start. Start in little ways, where you write in a gratitude journal or have a screensaver that speaks to where you’re going and what you want to be.
Some people were born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouth. Even then, becoming a millionaire is still quite an accomplishment. But people who start from nothing, and especially women who start from nothing, who make it to the top to become millionaires, despite the pay inequalities based on gender, the confidence gap, with nothing but grit, hustle, resilience, and “stick-to-itness”, are on a whole new level. We want to share those stories and inspire other women. In this interview series, we’re talking to “Self-Made” women leaders who started with nothing (i.e. started without investors or trust fund or capital or even people believing in them) and went on to create a million dollar business.
As a part of our series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lola Tomorrow.
Lola Tomorrow is rewriting generational wealth to single handedly mint the new class of faith-driven millionaires.
As a global connector, high-profile event strategist, impact philanthropist, and the business mastermind behind the premier Faith Figures mentorship program — Lola’s genius has been featured everywhere — from Grammy stages to the White House.
Her Rolodex and proven industry insights alone weaponize the businesswomen she mentors to skyrocket their income, elevate their impact, and powerfully expand their influence.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory” and how you grew up?
I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, I grew up in the inner city, I went to Chicago public schools in elementary and high school, and I went to Illinois State University for undergrad. I have a Nigerian dad who was very adamant about me being a doctor, lawyer or an accountant and I didn’t have enough courage to tell him, I wasn’t smart enough to be any of those. What I did enjoy though was planning events and that was really when my passion for event planning got ignited. While attending Illinois State University, there was a new major on campus back in 2003 where the department chair found me and told me about majoring in event planning. That literally changed my life. After undergrad, I went straight into working at a nonprofit, PTA (National Parent Teachers association). I planned all their large-scale conferences and events. One day, I got a notice about a week in advance of our annual conferences that first lady Michelle Obama was going to be a part of the upcoming event. Ms. Obama was the keynote speaker for this event, and little did I know that white house staff was watching my every move at this event. After that event, they literally walked up to me and offered me a job. I never applied or thought about applying but two weeks after that I was traveling the world with the first lady Michelle Obama and planning her events. Working with the office of the first lady for seven years, naturally my resume and portfolio went crazy. I did the Grammys, the Oscars, and a lot of major corporate events.
COVID was a very pivotal moment for me and my business because in the world of events, all in person events literally stopped. Every event I was planning, in a matter of 30 days it was cancelled. That was when I was forced to figure out what’s next.
Growing up, what were your early experiences and perspectives about money? Or we could say, what was the “money consciousness” in which you were raised? Can you please give an example of what you mean?
Growing up, we were middle class, not necessarily poor, but there was a mindset of poverty. There was a mindset that there was never enough money. Both my parents worked jobs. My mom was a teacher, and my dad worked at a college. Growing up the mindset was “money doesn’t grow on trees.” There were little sayings that you adapted that unconsciously were poverty mentalities that made you believe money is hard to come by. I didn’t realize any of this until I became an adult and became passionate about being wealthy. That’s when I realized the unconscious training I had as a kid taught me that money was a lack and that I would never have enough. I always had this understanding and mentality that I had to work really hard in order to get money. I saw my parents work nonstop just to have the necessities of life. A home, multiple cars, many different things. Even till this day, my dad, has been working the same job for 41 years and he has only taken off work once. I grew up with parents that were committed to their trade, because they wanted to provide for their family and make sure we had everyday necessities.
Awesome! Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Let’s talk about what you are doing now, and how you achieved the success that you currently enjoy. Can you tell our readers about the business you’ve created?
I feel so blessed that I get to wake up every day and do what I absolutely love. The thing that I would do for free, is the thing I get to do every day and I make a lot of money doing it. So now I mentor women of faith in business. There was a moment when I was traveling the world with the first lady while doing an event and I had an ‘ah ha’ moment.. The first lady and Ellen was sending 250 girls to prom and as I’m standing at this event, the first lady and Ellen are on stage where Ellen was being skyped in, the first lady was on stage, and at that moment I got clarity about my direction. I got clarity about why I had been given access to so many tables. The reason why I had been given access is because it was my job to create room at those tables for other women and that’s exactly what I get to do today. I do that through the mold of mentorship and events. My company is called Faith Figures and through Faith Figures I take women in business, and I help them do big business while still honoring their faith and being true to who they are. I also do large corporate events that are ultimately meant to be a training ground for future faith driven millionaires. When we say faith driven millionaires these are people who understand their wealth has an assignment. They aren’t just interested in being wealthy for nice houses, purses and cars but they understand there’s greater work for their resources and money. So every day I get to train women in that regards. What helped me to achieve my success is that I never gave up. Being resilient is a real thing. No, the journey hasn’t been perfect at all. I was bankrupt, six years ago and been homeless, but every time I get the opportunity, I show up and give 110 percent. That’s how I landed a job with the first lady, that’s how I landed the mentors that I have. No matter what environment, I give 1000 percent. Showing up and believing has helped me be successful. During this journey of entrepreneurship, I’ve learned that everybody is not built for entrepreneurship. I think it takes a certain type of grit, consistency, patience, and resilience to build your business and that has been a key component in my success. I do run a mentorship program, but I would not be who I am or where I am if it were not for other women who went ahead of me, mentoring me that have attributed to my success.
What was your vision when you started this business? What’s the WHY behind the work that you do? (Please share a story about this if you can.)
In the beginning of Covid I had to figure out how to pivot really quickly. Part of my pivoting plan was creating this business. I decided to pivot and do virtual experiences. With that virtual experience that I created, I got Kris Jenner, to come and do an event with me. We drew in thousands of women. When I first started this company, I thought that it would be a virtual event company to curate virtual experiences for women all around the world. It has really evolved from just being an event company to now being mentorship, virtual and in person events. These events ultimately train and develop women in business. It has grown to be something that I didn’t expect. The WHY behind the work that I do is because I believe in my heart that we need more women dominating certain areas of business. Not just certain areas of business but certain areas in the world in general. I’m so passionate about this work because I’m passionate about giving everyday women, especially women that look like me, a seat at the table. What I’ve noticed is, a lot of women in business, it’s not that they don’t have the work ethic or business mind, or product, it’s that they haven’t been given access to the funding and major resources that can triple what they are doing currently in a matter of seconds. I’m passionate about that work mostly for that reason.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
When I started this company we had not even hit two years and were a million dollar company. It happened very quickly. I had no idea that would happen. I think one of the most interesting things is when I started this company, people told me “oh why are you going after women of faith, why don’t you have your business just for women in business”…it wasn’t that I wanted my business to be this religious thing, I just wanted women whose faith was important to them, I wanted them to have a place where it was okay for them to come and dream big. A place where faith and core values are the leading guide of their life and they have a desire to make lots of money. When I first started this company, I did not expect for it to do as well as it is doing. The company is doing so well that it has forced me to close every other business. My other business, that I thought would be the one to take off, this company has shown me that it can do five times the amount of any other business that I’ve done and that has been so interesting for me to see. I am very public and very clear about the women of faith that I serve and we have million dollar days in business. That’s been my most interesting part of this journey!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I am a little bit of a perfectionist-, so it took me about 5–6 months to lock Kris Jenner in for one of my events. I remember the day I locked her in, I went with 9 or 10 different designers to get the graphic ready for Kris and this event. I went back and forth with the graphic designers changing what I didn’t like to make the graphic perfect. The event was in March, about 45 days after I locked Kris Jenner in. Once I locked her in, I had the legal rights to publicize the event. It’s funny now that I’m looking back, and doing what I’ve done in business to see sometimes done is better than perfect. Sometimes starting and doing is better than being perfect. I think about all the time how I ate up, almost five months of marketing time. We had about 4,000 women that attended the event even with that short marketing window. Imagine how many women we could of had if I would have started marketing in October. It’s a funny story because I thought I was doing the right thing and I ended up realizing that not only will my perfectionism stop me from producing the results I want to produce but also it holds us back from money. I just always think about how I most likely passed up almost half a of million dollars, just because I wanted something to be perfect and the truth of the matter is that what I was doing was so unique because I had Kris Jenner on a flyer with a pastor that it didn’t matter what the flyer looked like, people were going to click and buy a ticket. That was a lesson I had to learn from that.
We’d love to explore the traits that help you achieve your success. What were the mindset obstacles that you had to overcome in order to reach the place of earning a million dollars? Can you tell us what you did to overcome them?
I had to learn there is a mindset of the wealthy and of poverty. Before I could unlearn what I needed to unlearn about poverty, I had to learn the culture of the wealthy. When I say the culture of the wealthy this is what I mean…I’ll never forget I was going out to lunch one day and I had just closed a pretty large business deal. I went to lunch with one of my wealthy mentors who is a third/fourth generation billionaire. I had just closed this big contract and the first thing I did with the money was I went and bought a new car. I pulled up in my new Audi an she pulled up in a Toyota. I remember thinking ‘oh she’s in a Toyota’…as we had lunch she told me “Lola there is nothing wrong with you wanting nice things and having an eye for luxury and going after it but when your most valuable possession is in what you drive and what you wear, you will forever be poor. That is the mentality of someone who comes from poverty. The wealthy understands, yea I can have a nice car, but my car isn’t my most valuable possession. And she was speaking directly to me because at the time that car was the most valued possession I had. I didn’t even own a home. I had nothing at that moment. So having experiences and mentors like that has really helped me along this journey. From there I started doing the mind work, reading and digesting books about money and building my mindset around money and being wealthy. One thing that I tell women that I mentor and women that come into my program is if you are not making the money that you want to make, 100 percent of it is your mindset. Some may say “I haven’t met the right people, or came across the right opportunities, that’s not it, it’s your mindset. Once I realized that for myself, I started getting coaching, reading and digesting information to help me get where I wanted to be. It’s a constant journey and I make sure I am surrounded by people with a wealthy mindset who helped me get to a million. Another piece is your environment. Your friends matter, who’s around you matters. I have a friend who is notorious for making millions in minutes. Before I met her, I had never even had the thought of making a million dollars. It never crossed my mind. It crossed my mind to make a million in a year but not in a day. The moment I met her she unconsciously started planting seeds in my mind and seeds in my heart. Eight months after meeting her, I had my first million dollar day. That’s why I say the power of being in the right relationships and having the right friends matter. It’s not always about checks people can write. Sometimes exposure and proximity has the ability to shift your entire dynamic just because you are connected to the right people, which has been my journey to getting to a million dollars.
What were the external obstacles that you had to overcome in reaching these milestones? And how specifically did you overcome them? (Please share a story or example.)
Physically I don’t like showing up. I’m more of a behind the scenes person. One thing in my business is I have to show up all the time. People want me in person and on camera so I have to show up. I prefer to be low key and behind the scenes. I still get afraid at times where I don’t want to show up but I’ve mastered feeling the fear and showing up anyway. A lot of times people think it just goes away or you finally overcome it but I am still processing through some of the obstacles with myself, self-image and criticizing myself but I feel that fear and I do it anyway. That’s how I’ve overcome obstacles today. Back in the day, the fear would cripple me, I would feel the fear and I wouldn’t do it. But now I don’t let that fear stop me from showing up and being who I was called to be.
Was there ever a point where you wanted to give up on your journey to creating a million dollar business? How did you work through that panic point? Please share a story.
I’ve always been the one with a high credit score, bills paid on time and I took honor in being a good steward. Six years ago I filed for bankruptcy. During that time it was a very rough season, where I felt I made so many mistakes and I literally felt worthless. I felt like I was supposed to be helping so many people so going through that was just too much. I felt like everything I kept trying to do, nothing would take off or it wasn’t getting the traction I anticipated it to have. I told myself, I’m going to go get a 9–5 and call it a day. I had pretty much given up. The way that I worked through those hard times was going to therapy. I’ve been going for 5 years now and it has been a game changer for me. I believe that every trailblazing entrepreneur needs a therapist. Therapy created a place for me to express myself. In entrepreneurship we take so many beatings, for things not working right and problems coming left and right that we need therapeutic places. Also during these times I really learned to dive into my faith. It’s beyond religion for me. It’s finding the place that brings me peace and reassurance that it will all work out. Therapy and faith kept me from giving up. I was depressed and suicidal at one point in my life. My mental and physical health is now my number one priority. Going through that season I had to tell myself I will not inspire the world while secretly being suicidal.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
One of my very close friends was my first investor. A few years ago he gave me a call and told me he wanted to invest in whatever was next for me. He wrote a check for well over six figures to help me launch my business. I’ve always said “relationships are currency”. My friend and now business partner has been very important to my success and journey. Weve been knowing each other since high school. He built his wealth before me, and the first thing he did when he got his wealth was invest in me so I can experience the same level of wealth and financial freedom that he was experiencing.
What were the most important resources, tools, affirmations, mindset strategies or practices that you used to build your business to where it is today?
I am the affirmation queen! I started every single day speaking to where I’m going. Every day that I open my eyes, I have a saying on my wall that reads “Billionaire Lola, you a going to change the world and impact millions.” I’ve been doing this for years because I am learning that words create worlds. If you have the ability to consistently say the right words, you will create the world that you want to create. I am a living witness. I consume audio books, podcast and any business or mindset information every day. I really believe that those consistencies of what I speak and digest have been a game changer for me.
What do you think is the greatest challenge for women and creating wealth/abundance? What advice would you have for someone that is feeling blocked by that obstacle?
Our mindset… society has trained us to speak what we see. If you have $2 in your bank account, you will speak to your reality. We weren’t trained to speak “I have more than enough.” Women have to learn to speak to where they are going.
Advice I would give them: If you go into the gym and do the same exercises every day, over and over again you will develop muscle memory. What you speak and what you believe, the more you speak it and exercise that muscle you will get stronger in it. My advice is to just start. Start in little ways, where you write in a gratitude journal or have a screensaver that speaks to where you’re going and what you want to be.
Great! Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
Learning how to appreciate the journey of NOW
Understanding the purpose of Relational currency
Everybody who starts with you will not finish with you and that’s ok
The importance of leadership development
The need to consistently choose me first at all times
We are sure that you are not done. What comes next? What’s your next big goal and why? What plan have you put in place to achieve it? Why is it a stretch for you? What will achieving it represent for you and for others?
I am on a mission to impact more women. I measure my success by how many people we can help transform, shift their mindset and shift their financial state so they can provide for their families and introduce their families to financial freedom. My next big goal is to have 1,500 women at my conference next year. I want to be the largest go to event for women in faith in business. I want to pack out arenas where women come and their faith and business is welcomed at the same time. The things I’ve learned along this journey will allow me do all of that and that is very exciting. This goal could be a stretch because I don’t enjoy being public. I like to be behind the scenes but achieving this will help people stop putting limits on themselves and help them understand we all feel the fear but we do it anyway.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
People can follow this work at faithfigures.com or lolatomorrow on all social media platforms.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us and our readers. We know that it will make a tremendous difference and impact thousands of lives. We are excited to connect further and we wish you so much joy in your next success.
