Week 8 – Desiree Dupuis

Meeting with Desiree Dupuis from Three Sixty Financial Group

I was invited out to a Meet-Up in the spring of 2011 by a friend of mine.  It was a probably the most social business meet-up that I ever been to.  The organizers are the owners of  Three Sixty Financial Group, Desiree Dupuis and Kelly Strongitharm.  Over the last year, I got to get to know them and I thought that they would be ideal for this project.  I met with Desiree at what I thought was going to be a quiet Caffe Divano.  Boy was I wrong.

Who is Desiree Dupuis? 

“I grew up in Aldergrove BC.  We were just a small town loving family.  My parents are still together.  I have one younger brother.  And we were just a really happy family.  I was the only girl on my mom’s side of the family.”  Desiree credits her parents still being married and the fact that there is no divorce on her mother’s side of the family to the strong love that is in her family.  Because of that, she feels she has all the love and support around her that she could take on the world.

“I had an epiphany when I was 28 and saw where my life was going and I, for the first time, thought about where I’d want my life to be if I ever did have kids.  I wanted to be able to offer that same environment i had when I was growing up.  If I was working in the corporate world for 50 or 60 hours per week for someone else, I would never have the opportunity to be home by 3:00 or to take the time off that I wanted to, to be with my kids, so entrepreneurship and starting my own business was the best thing for me to do.”

Desiree and her best friend Kelly started Three Sixty Financial Group in 2008.

On to the questions…

Raj Thandhi of Fronte and Sentre Communications asks.

Q:   What is the one must read book for someone just starting their business?

A:   “Ok.  So there’s tons of books.  But I had to pick one so my number one book would be ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill.  It’s a phenomenal book.  I think of it as a bible.  You need to keep going back and reading it.  There are so many good stories about drive and determination and persistence and writing out your goals and visualizing things and all that kind of stuff.”

Sandra Parsons of  REMAX MABRE REALTY asks

Q:   What form of marketing did you do when you started and do you still do it?

A:   “All word of mouth.  I joined a couple business referral groups.  Mainly BNI, which 40% of our business came from direct referrals through members in the group.  And then tons of Social Media marketing.   I did tons of coffees and lunches and meet-ups and really hitting the pavement and getting out there.

I asked her if she still does the same marketing.  “I do the same, it’s just elevated.  I just wrote a little mini-blog for somebody about visibility.  Now I keep being asked to do things like this.  Like being interviewed by you, writing for other people, to be a guest blogger, or a guest speaker.  I think that it’s all the grass roots work that I’ve done.  Being so active with networking, social media and starting up our meet-up group has really done a lot of P.R. for our business.

Q:   What is one characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?

A:   “I think transparency.  I think a leader needs to be completely transparent.  Admit when they’ve been wrong and be completely open as to what their agenda is.  You can’t follow somebody unless you believe in them and you trust in them and where they are going.  So I guess transparency would be the number one thing.”

I asked Desiree  “When you think of a good business leader, who comes to mind.”

“Well I listen to a lot of John Maxwell and Brian Tracy, so I think those guys for sure.  In our own community, I would think of (business coach and author of the social media book, “Sociable”) Stephen Jagger, who lives inVancouver.  I just really admire his drive and his business sense.  He’s definitely pretty open and transparent.

In Conclusion…

We have all heard the saying, “you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.”  If you look at Desiree, you see a young blonde woman.  But if you take the time to sit down and talk to her, you quickly realize that she is a very intelligent, driven business leader.  If you have any financial planning needs. I highly recommend you talk to Desiree or Kelly at Three Sixty Financial Group.  You won’t be disappointed.  Good luck Desiree and thank you.