Community Investing: Building a Just Economy with Nicole Middleton Holloway

Highly Sensitive Money with Diana Gisel Yañez

Community Investing: Building a Just Economy with Nicole Middleton Holloway

In this episode of 'Highly Sensitive Money,' host Diana interviews Nicole Middleton Holloway, founder of Strategy Squad, about her unique journey from media and entertainment into finance.

Nicole shares her expertise in private placements, social justice investing, and community investing, emphasizing the importance of leveraging capital for equitable wealth distribution and environmental sustainability. After a transformative experience in Brazil, Nicole pursued a career in finance, focusing on socially responsible and community investing. She explains the concept of community investing, which aims to provide capital to underserved communities and businesses while generating both financial and social returns.

About our Guest:

Nicole is a San Francisco Bay Area-based advisor with Strategy Squad and Natural Investments. Her personal mission is to support conscious investors in making a positive impact with their wealth. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM and a financial activist, Nicole enjoys designing portfolios for clients that incorporate racial, gender and economic justice, and she uses her expertise and position as a business owner to open the door for more women and people of color to work in the financial services industry.

She holds a Master's Degree in Financial Planning from Golden Gate University, and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Southern California. When she is not working, Nicole enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband and two young daughters.

The key moments in this episode are:

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:37 Nicole's Career Journey: From Media to Finance
05:56 Activism and Social Justice in Nicole's Work
08:25 Experiences of Black Women in Brazil and the U.S.
14:03 Financial Background and Family Influence
19:53 Building Strategy Squad and Community Investing
28:11 The Impact of Community Investing
28:41 Comparing Community Investing to the Stock Market
29:15 Regenerative Investing and Wealth Utilization
30:16 Opportunities and Challenges in Community Investing
30:42 The Role of Accredited and Unaccredited Investors
31:05 The Just Transition and Building New Solutions
31:27 Wealth Redistribution vs. Wealth Accumulation
33:29 Balancing Market Returns with Sustainability
35:37 Examples of Community Investments
37:50 Designing Customized Portfolios
45:51 Challenges in Traditional Finance and Staying True to Values
51:57 The Importance of Relational Community Investing
57:24 Encouraging Community Investing and Final Thoughts

Resources:

Strategy Squad
Adasina
allthecolors.net for the Money Archetypes quiz