About
Derek Moneyberg.

My first clients were my neighbors.

I started working young. I knocked on doors and asked my neighbors what needed to be done. I raked leaves, cut grass, painted fences, and shoveled snow. Winter meant a different set of jobs, not a reason to stop looking for work.

I also delivered newspapers. As my route grew, I brought friends in to help. I paid them a share of the delivery money and kept a share for organizing the team. It was an early experience of building something that could grow beyond the hours I personally put into it.

Those jobs were small, but the questions were real. What did someone need? Would they pay me to do it? Could I make sure the work got done? I was learning entrepreneurship before I had a classroom name for it.

My childhood was not ideal, working gave me a way to change my circumstances. I wanted more control over my future, and I was willing to start with the opportunities within walking distance.

Books opened up a bigger world.

Even when I struggled with school, I kept reading. Books and documentaries held my attention when a classroom didn't. Business, investing, history, and psychology gave me new ways to think about the world and the kind of life I wanted.

I did not finish high school on the usual schedule. My route back to education came later. Before that, I spent time thinking seriously about where I was headed and what I would have to change.

I wanted to turn what I was learning into experience. Reading about an organization was one thing. Working inside one would give me a chance to see the decisions, personalities, and responsibilities up close.

A stockroom, a store, and a mentor named Frank.

I joined Walmart on the third shift, unloading trucks and stocking shelves. I came in early, stayed late, and paid attention to more than the tasks in my job description. I wanted to understand how the whole store worked.

I watched the people making decisions and looked for ways to be useful to them. The job taught me how to communicate with different personalities, solve practical problems, and take responsibility for the results of my work.

That was where I met Frank, a manager who became my first mentor. I asked him specific questions about what he would do in my situation. He gave me direct guidance on communication, store operations, and leadership.

After my first promotion, I took responsibility for the housekeeping and chemicals department. Managing people who were much older than I was gave me a different set of problems to solve each day. Frank helped me learn how to handle that responsibility.

I spent about sixteen months at Walmart. I left with management experience and lessons I would use in my own businesses. That experience still shapes how I think about a job: learn what the organization can teach you, earn more responsibility, and align with the people you can learn from.

I went back to school with a purpose.

I left Walmart at nineteen and took my GED. That opened the door to community college, where I earned an associate's degree. My education was moving forward again, this time with a clearer idea of why I wanted it.

I continued at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. The entrepreneurship program appealed to me, and a scholarship helped make the decision possible. Being nearby also let me spend time with my grandfather toward the end of his life.

At Bradley, I earned a Bachelor of Business Administration, majoring in entrepreneurship with minors in psychology and philosophy. I wanted to understand both how businesses operate and how people think. I stayed in undergraduate education longer than I needed to because I wanted to keep learning.

After Bradley, I pursued an MBA at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. I wanted the knowledge and relationships that a business school could offer. I continued maintaining my businesses while studying, so the academic learning and the real-world work experience happened alongside one another.

My education continues to be the most valuable investment I've ever made in my life. Formal study was part of it, but so were mentors, self-directed learning, and the people I met. I did not see graduation as the end of that process.

Building businesses became my working life.

After my MBA, I continued building businesses, investing, and consulting. I preferred working on my own ventures to taking a permanent management role inside somebody else's company.

Consulting gave me opportunities to help other people work through business problems. I could contribute to a particular project, learn from the people involved, and then return to my own projects.

Entrepreneurship, financial markets, and real estate became the main areas I focused on. In my biography, I describe how business experience helped me think about companies and how investing became another part of my life.

The personal reason behind all that work was a desire to earn my freedom. I wanted more choice about how I spent my time, where I went, and who I spent time with. That theme runs through my story, my courses, and many of the conversations I have today.

The work took me around the world.

Travel became a large part of my life. I coached, worked on my businesses, and spent time in different cities. The travel photographs in my original biography are pieces of that period, including my visit to Paris in April 2014.

I began coaching in personal and social development before focusing my public teaching on wealth and business.

In my late thirties, I developed a strong interest in public speaking. Traveling and speaking gave me more opportunities to meet people with different backgrounds, ambitions, and problems to solve.

Over time, the questions changed. People asked how to negotiate a raise, choose a college, start in real estate, or build a business. They wanted to talk about subjects beyond the coaching they had originally come for. I kept hearing those questions until I realized my teaching needed to evolve.

Why I chose the Moneyberg name.

I created Derek Moneyberg to attract ambitious people and to teach them the subjects they care about. Derek Moneyberg is my most passionate hobby. I started the brand to be a beacon I could send out into the world and attract other smart, ambitious, success-oriented individuals to be part of my network.

The name seemed a bit ridiculous when we first considered it. I liked its humor. Taking the work seriously does not mean I need to remove humor from the way I present myself.

I want to meet people who are serious about what they are building. I want to meet people willing to think for themselves. Moneyberg gives them somewhere to start: a talk, an interview, or a question they wanted to explore further.

That is also what I want this website to do. My biography explains where I came from. The articles give individual ideas more room. The podcast lets a conversation unfold without reducing it to a short clip.

There is always more to learn.

I host The Derek Moneyberg Podcast and join other hosts for longer discussions. My appearances include Entrepreneurs on Fire with John Lee Dumas, Dropping Bombs with Brad Lea, and the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly.

I enjoy learning how another person arrived at a different perspective. I want to understand what other people have learned from their work.

This site brings those conversations together with my personal stories. You can start with an article, follow a subject into the podcast archive, or read about a particular conversation. Each is another way to get to know my work.