How Casey Richardson is bringing access to knowledge, community, and money to Black female entrepreneurs
Find out how Casey Richardson used her experience with tech-related funding to create BLAZE Group and empower a group of Black women who are entrepreneurs.
A couple of two years ago, Ariel Richardson's world was differently. She was a resident of California's Bay Area and worked for Bank of America, structuring massive loans for tech companies. But she found that she was the sole Black female on the team -- and throughout her 10 years being in finance, she did not see funding given to any Black company.
"It showed me that not just wasn't the wisdom not getting there, the capital wasn't being distributed to my communities," Casey recalls.
In October 2020, Casey decided to change the way she did things.
Based on her experiences in the field of tech financing and business, she decided to quit her job at 9-5 and created the BLAZE Group"Building leaders and accepting no Excuses -- to provide guidance, education and a community for the historically underserved community of Black women entrepreneurs.
Then, 2023 is here: BLAZE Group offers online courses through Blaze Knowledge Academy, group coaching courses as well as an online community the app, retreats in person as well as a semi-annual summit, and proprietary research, all led by Casey and her global team.
How could she have done it in just two years? A combination of providing services that address a particular unmet need, a deliberate development of audiences, and selecting the right tools and team.
From corporate finance specialist to game-changing entrepreneur
Before becoming an full-time entrepreneur Casey was a finance professional who arranged multibillion-dollar loans to tech companies. She was always on the cutting edge of technological advancements, but she noticed a gap in her team and the businesses they were funding. "I was always the only Black female among the members of the team. It proved to me that my education level, my expertise and my experience were not available in my communities."
Black females are the largest category of entrepreneurs within the United States -- but only 3% have "mature" companies, while 61% self-fund their startup capital. There's a major disparity in the funding and resources available to Black women entrepreneurs compared to the white male entrepreneurs.
As of the summer of 2000, Casey joined the protests against the brutality of police. The community she felt and the strength she found that she had not felt in her day-to-day work. "I found myself more inspired and engaged in protests that I have ever felt during all my years of doing those sexy deals," she says. "I found myself rubbing shoulders with the people who were bold enough and brave enough to take on issues that actually are important."
At the end of October, she was done in the midst of her job in finance at a corporate company- not in spite of how successful she was, but due to the fact of it. What else can she use her talent for? How could she use her knowledge of technology and finance to help other Black women achieve their goals?
"I'm extremely comfortable inside these four walls. But I would place money in my own pocket any day to believe that I'd take over more of the planet. So I quit."
She quit her job, moved to Africa to start creating BLAZE Group, a location-independent business that empowers Black women around the world to do the exact identical thing.
BLAZE The Group is specifically targeting entrepreneurs during their initial 3 years of building their business, which Casey refers to as"the "entrepreneurial phase."
"BLAZE exists to really help them understand how to lead their businesses to keep the company going. And we do that with technology-enabled solutions. We are one of them," she adds.
In order to serve this audience, Casey had to build real relationships with them.
The reasons to build an email list (and what you can do to get started)
Casey was aware that she would like to create a business intensive online course from the jump and it was essential to establish an audience before she even launched her initial product.
Casey didn't want that to occur with the release of BLAZE's first product. Therefore, she began her initial audience-building activities with a goal that was clear: to build an email list.
Why do people choose email subscribers over those on social media? "I was aware that I needed to build personal relationships," explains Casey.
"On Instagram, you don't own the relationship. You're not sure the email address of their account or when their handle changes, you better hope you know what the new handle is," Casey says.
"I was looking to establish relationships and be able to be in front of them regularly to create that brand recognition and build confidence."
Contacting her current network
15-minute discovery call to her intended audience
1. Reaching out to her existing network
There's plenty of information out there about how to expand your following, and many creators think that their first customers would be people who have never heard of their site via social media. If you create with your first audience, you're missing out on the most powerful source of support: Your friends and family!
Casey sent out an email to all who was in her circle to inform them know she was starting an entrepreneur newsletter and asked them to sign up.
"I began by looking over my most recent text messages, Instagram DMs, Twitter and Facebook... I set the timer and made sure to send as many messages as I could, in five-minute segments," she describes.
Many friends and family have taken Casey to her offer She began to build an email database that would last into her product's launch.
2. 15-minute discovery call for her public
One of the most effective ways to meet them is to speak to them.
Casey shared a post on Facebook, where she announced that she had created a course to aid Black women better understand the business world. "If I can talk to you for 15 mins and have questions, please let me know," she added.
The people who called to set up a meeting with her would be her ideal people: Black women interested in entrepreneurship.
Instead of discussing course content or selling herself, Casey asked questions like, "What keeps you up in the night? What's your greatest fear? In one year, where would you like to be?" She used the time to make the women feel heard and valued. In turn, she learned what was most important to include in her class content.
"Just being there for them and making them feel comfortable, that's a huge element that makes the difference."
"By the end of most of the calls, they were asking, "Can I buy the course now?'" Casey remembers. She was still building the course, but she collected their email addresses and said she'd notify them that it would be available when it went live.
After the course was ready, she promoted it to her email list that she had created using the two methods above. "There was already an anticipation from all of those people. They were ready to enroll."
What did they find? The majority of the women she spoke to on those initial calls converted to clients.
After more than two years, Casey still offers free discovery calls as part of her sales and marketing process. For potential clients who have concerns regarding Blaze Business Intensive, Blaze Business Intensive, they can arrange an Free perfect Fit Call with Casey.
"On average, you need five follow-ups to close the deal. It's a shame that not enough business owners know that," says Casey. "I utilize these calls to really seal the deal."
Working with the appropriate tools and people helps Casey grow her business
Today, BLAZE offers online courses and masterclasses and group coaching programmes as well as an online community. webinars and the TablexTribe mobile application , a semiannual digital summit (a 2022 Webby Award honoree for Best in Business and Finance), and proprietary research.
How can she handle these things all with so much intentionality and care?
Casey is putting together an international team that helps her expand different areas of her business, including:
A blogger and content marketer with a base in Nigeria
A junior consultant based in London
A brand and production manager (her fiancé!) who grew the BLAZE Group Instagram from 1,300 followers in May 2022 to 70,000+ at the start of 2023
Executive assistants in Kenya
An analyst in research who writes research paper across industries, helping BLAZE to find new clients for consulting
Production assistant to the semi-annual Blaze Virtual Summit
Her approach isn't simply hiring individuals to join her team She also hires equipment, too.
"I hire tools with a quickness," Casey laughs. "And I like it because it's the an amount of scale."
An increase in revenue doesn't necessarily mean that your company is scaling, especially if you're working harder or spending more money for that increase.
"The increase in revenue should not be the primary goal," explains Casey. "If you're increasing your expenses at the same rate the revenue is growing, your bottom line doesn't change."
"Scale happens when you can increase revenue, and the cost and amount of time you spend do not change much."
The experience she had in technology has taught Casey how powerful no-code tools, integrations, and automations are. In the process of establishing BLAZE Group, she leveraged low- and no-code solutions like and Zapier to ensure that everything ran seamlessly.
What Casey uses for her courses Community, downloads, and community
" was the first application I used to offer things in a large scale" Casey shares.
Instruments like these give Casey "more the time she needs to focus on deliberate things" such as the one-on-one meeting with prospective clients.
Casey developed her first online product, called the Blaze Business Intensive online course that includes . It's a six-week, self-paced program on "Business Building, Business Management and business Excellence for the Modern Black Woman."
"It was completely non-code. I actually built it back when was doing the 14-day trial for free," Casey remembers. "I built the entire course within this timeframe and then started selling it prior to the expiration date to be profitable."
(Want to emulate Casey's success? Sign up for a free plan , take all the time it takes to have your course material set up, then upgrade once you're ready to start selling.)
The course is part of the Blaze Knowledge Academy , a collection of educational resources for businesses Casey developed on her site. The Academy additionally includes:
Several entrepreneurship masterclasses, many of which she offers for free
Her community on the internet, called the Blaze Women's Network boasts nearly 7,000 members.
"People have the option of joining the Blaze Women's Network absolutely free," Casey explains. We hold virtual coworking meetings and I also host webinars which then lead participants into paid classes."
Alongside introducing clients to useful products and services, the Casey's Community provides members with a a friendly and supportive place to meet other founders.
"It used to be that content was the king of the hill, but now things are shifting towards a culture where community is the king. Many are looking for communities-focused programs... and ones that aren't perceived as spam appear to be genuine."
The results of her experience with it have given Casey an idea of the qualities to be looking for in the tool for creating no-code. "You have a very agile platform that has allowed me to develop end-to end solutions right from the platform," Casey explains. "And I've used the exact scorecard in evaluating tools because I want to be able to scale with it."
"It truly is beautiful to use solutions like to transform the world in ways that are cost-effective and accessible to those who have been marginalized in the past."
Do not try to accomplish everything simultaneously
Given all of Casey's accomplishments in just over two years of running BLAZE, her advice to new creators might come as an unexpected surprise: Make fewer mistakes in the beginning, at minimum, at the time you get into the game.
"Keep what's important primary, which is what you should be doing," she advises. The Hustle culture informs entrepreneurs who are just starting out that it's impossible to finish all the work or content created. But Casey reminds fellow creators "There's only one limit to what you can accomplish, no matter how amazing you might be."
"You don't have to do all of the things outta the box but it will be extremely difficult to perfect several things in one go when you're just beginning."
She recommends starting with a signature offering and then build from there. "I began with the Blaze Intensive, my first course, and that remains my favorite course. Entrepreneurs should spend time figuring out what their signature offering needs to be, what they want to be known for, before adding an array of other offerings."
There's plenty to consider initially: your message targeting audience, your technologies, marketing, customer satisfaction. What happens once you've done it? You open up the potential to explore a lot more.
"I am convinced that we have the potential to do millions of things. Perhaps in the next 200 years. because Blaze will still be around. However, that shouldn't have to be happening today."
We're thrilled to have been being a part of the journey of Casey, and we can't wait to see what's next for her as well as the BLAZE Group -- in this year, 200 years from now as well as all the time between.