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    Invest Fest 2026 wrapped its sixth year in Atlanta with more than 31,000 attendees, its largest turnout yet.

    The Georgia World Congress Center became a three-day hub for conversations on wealth, investing, entrepreneurship, ownership, entertainment and culture.

    Earn Your Leisure co-founders Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings built Invest Fest with Matt “The Mortgage Guy” Garland. The event has grown far beyond a traditional financial conference. It now functions as a marketplace for ideas, businesses, capital and connections. This year’s programming covered investing, stocks, real estate, taxes, cryptocurrency, insurance, estate planning, AI and content creation.

    Invest Fest 2026 delivered a string of moments that kept trending long after the stages closed. A historic Serena Williams appearance headlined the weekend. Earn Your Leisure and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens worked through a public reconciliation. Two entrepreneurs walked away with six-figure investments.

    Beauty and business also took center stage. Porsha Williams joined beauty mogul Jesseca Harris-Dupart and celebrity hairstylist Sierra Glamshop for “Building Wealth Beyond the Chair,” a conversation on turning technical skill into scalable wealth. Williams traced her hair brand, Go Naked Hair, back to her own reinvention after divorce. “I work best when I’m being authentically myself. I cannot sell you anything that I don’t believe in,” she told the crowd.

    Serena Williams makes history as Invest Fest’s first female headliner 

    Serena Williams became the first woman to headline Invest Fest, bringing one of the weekend’s biggest conversations to the stage as the champion athlete, entrepreneur and investor spoke about the focus, sacrifice and mindset required to reach the highest level.

    Related Post: 10 Black Women in Venture Capital Making an Impact

    One of Williams’ most circulated comments from the weekend was her message that “you do have to be selfish in order to be the best,” sparking online conversation around ambition, discipline and what greatness requires.

    Her appearance also underscored Invest Fest’s continued expansion from financial literacy into venture capital, entrepreneurship, business ownership and investing, areas Williams has increasingly become known for beyond sports. PEOPLE featured Williams from the event under the fitting headline “She Means Business.”

    From controversy to “build bridges, not walls”

    One of the biggest stories surrounding Invest Fest began before the doors even opened.

    Following Earn Your Leisure’s appearance on The Breakfast Club, where Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings publicly questioned the level of support Invest Fest had received from Atlanta despite holding the event in the city for six years, the comments ignited debate across radio, social media and local press. Mayor Andre Dickens publicly responded, creating one of the most talked-about storylines leading into the festival.

    By Saturday, the conversation had moved from social media to the Invest Fest stage.

    Mayor Dickens joined Earn Your Leisure in front of the Invest Fest audience, speaking about Atlanta’s importance, investment in the city and the possibility of continuing to build together moving forward, including conversations surrounding Invest Fest 2027.

    Earn Your Leisure later summed up the moment with a message that captured the shift in tone: “Build Bridges not Walls.”

    The moment turned what could have remained a public dispute into a larger conversation about Black entrepreneurship, city support, economic impact, and what partnership between major cultural events and host cities can look like. 

    Invest Fest 2026 continues through Sunday evening at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. The sixth annual event brings together leaders across finance, business, entertainment, technology, entrepreneurship, investing and culture, with programming spanning stocks, real estate, cryptocurrency, taxes, artificial intelligence, estate planning and content creation.

    Serena Williams at Invest Fest 2026:  Image: Courtesy of MCM-PR

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    The post Invest Fest 2026 Draws Record Crowd as Serena Williams Takes the Stage appeared first on UrbanGeekz.

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