What is it that Casey Richardson is bringing access to knowledge, community and financial capital Black female entrepreneurs

Discover the strategies Casey Richardson used her experience using tech-related funds to launch BLAZE Group and empower a community of Black women who are entrepreneurs.

A few years ago Casey Richardson's life was entirely different. She hails from the California's Bay Area and worked for Bank of America, structuring huge-scale loans to tech companies. But, she realized that she was never the only Black female on the bank's team. Over the course of her career within finance, she did not see the funding provided to an Black company.

"It taught me that it just wasn't the right way to go however, the money did not reach my community," Casey recalls.

The month of Oct., Casey made the decision to alter her way of working.

The vast knowledge she has gained about the financing of technology as well as business, she left her job of 9-5, and founded BLAZE Group that is a charitable group that's focus is on developing leaders, and is committed to zero excuses to provide support, education as well as an environment of support to previously un-served communities in the form of Black women entrepreneurs.

Then, 2023 is here: BLAZE Group offers online courses by way of The Blaze Knowledge Academy, group coaching as well as an app for community members and individual retreats in person, a biannual summit and research conducted by Casey together with her international group of experts.

How could she have done it in only two years? The key is to provide services that meet a certain, underserved need, intentional development of an audience, and selecting the appropriate tools and team.

From corporate finance professional to the game-changing entrepreneurial

Prior to launching her business fully-time, Casey was a finance expert who arranged massive loans for tech firms. Her job kept her on the top of developments in technologies and she was conscious of the different perspectives within her company and also in the firms they helped fund. "I did not always have the most Black female on the team. The team demonstrated to the world that I had a college education as well as that my abilities and experience did not exist in my local communities."

Black women comprise the majority of entrepreneurs in the United States -- but only 3% own "mature" companies, while many entrepreneurs are self-funded with companies that are capital. There's a huge gap in the amount of funding and other options available for Black female entrepreneurs compared to the white male entrepreneurs.

At the close of the summer 2000 Casey was involved of protests against the violence committed by police. Casey felt a sense belonging and the passion she felt that were missing from her day-to-day work. "I found that I was more motivated and involved in protests than I've felt in all of the process of creating the sexy things," she says. "I enjoyed being able to rub shoulders with those who were brave and strong enough to tackle the issues that matter."

At the end of October, she'd been brought to terms with the finance department of her firm - not due to how effective she was rather because she was. What else could she use her talents for? What else could she do to make use of her expertise regarding finance and technology so that she can assist fellow Black women succeed?

"I'm quite comfortable in the four walls. However, I'd have a bet any day and think I could fill more space on earth. So I quit."

The lady quit her work, relocated to Africa in order to begin the process of establishing BLAZE Group, a location-independent business that allows Black women from all over the world to be able to do the same.

BLAZE Group has a special focus on entrepreneurs within the first three years of development that Casey describes as"the "entrepreneurial stage."

"BLAZE aids clients to understand how they can lead their businesses in order to sustain them. This is done through technology-enabled solutions, being one of the few." She tells us about it.

In order to reach this particular audience, Casey had to build connections with them.

What are some of the primary reasons you should create an email list of your own (and how to begin)

Casey recognized that she wanted to develop a highly business-focused online online training program right from the beginning, and had to build a audience prior to when she even launched the first product.

Casey made a conscious decision to make sure this wouldn't happen before she launched the initial BLAZE product. Therefore, she set out on her initial tasks to create an audience. The goal she set was simple that was to establish an email list.

Why are email subscribers experiencing a a better experience than those using social networks? "I realized that I was required to establish and maintain my own networks," explains Casey.

"On Instagram, you don't manage the relationship. There is no way to know the email address associated with their account. And if the handle of their account changes, then you need to know the present handle is." Casey states.

"I want to make relationships with them, as well as remain visible to them often so that I can build brand recognition and trust."

Reaching out to her existing contacts

The 15-minute discovery is a call to her public

1. Contacting her current networks

There's plenty of online information regarding how you can increase the number of followers you have, but many designers believe that their first clients are those who have not heard of their website via social media. If you're building your own social media community from the ground up, then you're missing out on an enormous source of inspiration: family and friends!

Casey wrote an email to people in her circle to inform them she would soon launch a publication focused on entrepreneurship. She then requested that they be a part of the magazine.

"I began by looking over my latest text messages, Instagram DMs, Twitter and Facebook... I set a timer which I followed with every one of them that I could in five-minute increments," she says.

A lot of family and friends decided to take Casey up on her offer. Then she started to create an email database to use until the date when she made her first appearance.

2. 15-minute call to discover the target audience

One of the most effective ways to reach them is to talk with them.

Casey published a blog post on her social media pages and shared her plans to develop an online class that will assist Black women understand the business context. "If I have the opportunity to talk to you for fifteen minutes , and have questions to ask I'll be sure to know," she added.

The lady was aware of the fact that the persons who made a phone call with her were her intended audience: Black women interested in business ventures.

Instead of discussing the subjects in the class or marketing the program, Casey asked questions like "What keeps you up all late at night? Which is your most stressful thing? If you only had one year to live, what do you wish to become?" She took advantage of this opportunity to ensure that women felt appreciated and heard. Also, she learned the most crucial things to be discussing in the course's contents.

"Just providing them with a helping hand and aiding them in settling is a big element of magic."

"By the time they'd completed the bulk of their calls and they said"Can I have the course today? And what will I require to buy?" Casey recalls. She was working on the course but already had the email addresses of participants, and told them she'd notify them of the launch date.

After the class had ended She tweeted the class to an email list she'd created using two strategies. "There was already excitement among the students. Everyone was keen to join."

The results? Most of the women she spoke to during those first calls were converted into customers.

After more than two years, Casey still offers free call-ins to discuss her process for marketing and sales. For potential customers who have queries regarding this Business intensive and wish to arrange an free perfect Fit telephone call to talk with Casey.

"On average, you'll need five follow-ups to close a deal. The majority of entrepreneurs don't know this," claims Casey. "I take these calls in order for closing the transaction."

Working with the appropriate sources and people can help Casey develop her business

In the present, BLAZE offers online courses including masterclasses, group-coaching programmes and an online community. webinars as well as TablexTribe The TablexTribe mobile app and the biannual summit online (a 2022 Webby Award winner which will be recognized for excellence in business as well as finance) as well as custom research.

How is she able to manage her life by ensuring an incredible amount of compassion and intention?

Casey has created an international group of professionals who help her grow various aspects of her business . These include:

Content marketer and blogger with the basis of Nigeria

A junior consultant based in London

A brand and production manager (her fiancé!) who grew the BLAZE BLAZE Group Instagram by 1300 users in the month of May 2022. Then, more than 70,000 by the time it was launched in 2023.

A executive assistant of Kenya

Analyst in research, who creates research papers in a variety of industries. He also assists BLAZE in identifying new customers for its consulting services.

Production assistant to the Semi-Annual Blaze Virtual Summit

It's not just about recruiting people to join one of her teams. She hires equipment as well.

"I employ tools I hire quickly," Casey laughs. "And I love it since the scale is huge."

The increase in your revenue doesn't necessarily mean that your business has grown especially if you're working harder or are paying more to cover the increase.

"The increase in revenue is not the primary objective," explains Casey. "If the expenses of your business are increasing similarly to the profits are increasing, your bottom line doesn't alter."

"Scale is the term used to describe when you're successful in increasing your revenue while your costs and time which you spend are not significantly affected."

Her experience working in the area of technology has taught Casey that no-code devices are extremely effective in conjunction with integrations as well as automated systems are. When she started BLAZE Group, she leveraged free, low-cost alternatives like Zapier, for example, to make sure everything ran seamlessly.

What Casey utilizes for her classes are downloads, Community, and Community

" was the first application I tried for providing services on a large scale" Casey shares.

These methods give Casey "more space to finish important tasks" like the one-on-one meeting she has with prospective clients.

Casey built her first digital product, dubbed"the Blaze Business Intensive Online Course. It comes with . It's a six week, self-paced class that covers "Business Building, Business Management and business excellence for today's Black Woman."

"It was completely no-code. The course was developed by me within the time of a 14-day free trial free," Casey remembers. "I created the entire course in this timeframe before launching it prior to the date of expiration in order to make it quickly profitable."

(Want to replicate Casey's successes? Start by signing up for an initial free trial and then take the time to get the course's materials installed, and then upgrade once you're ready to begin selling.)

The course is part the Blaze Knowledge Academy An educational resource collection for business education Casey created on her website. This Academy is also the home of:

Numerous entrepreneurship masterclasses. A majority of these, are offered to the participants at absolutely no cost.

The online community she has created, referred to as the Blaze Women's Network includes more than 7,000 members

"People are able to choose signing up to the Blaze Women's Network absolutely free," Casey explains. Virtual coworking is how we offer and I hold webinars. It leads users to paid classes."

In addition to introducing people which are beneficial as well, the Casey's Community gives members the opportunity to be an inclusive and welcoming community to meet fellow founders.

"It was once the case that content was the top priority, but things have changed into a world where community is the the king. There are many looking for community-oriented software... in addition, software that isn't viewed as spam, they appear to be genuine."

The experiences she has had using the tool is providing Casey with an insight into the features to look at in the application to develop non-code solutions. "You offer a very adaptable software that allows me to create complete-cycle solutions using your software" the writer states. "And I've also used your scorecard when evaluating different tools, because I want to extend it."

"It really is beautiful to use solutions that revolutionize the world using strategies that are affordable and readily accessible to anyone who have been marginalized previously."

Do not try to deal with everything at the simultaneously.

Given the many accomplishments Casey has achieved in only two years with BLAZE her advice to beginners could be a unexpected one: Try to do little -- at most, once you're getting established.

"Keep the primary thing in your mind, which is the primary element," she advises. The Hustle culture educates entrepreneurs just getting started that there's no time, effort or money to be put into their work. But, Casey advises creators to remember "There's only the quantity that you're required to accomplish, regardless of how good you are."

"You aren't required to perform every single thing right starting from scratch, and it's going to be difficult to do all the right decisions at once, especially when you're only starting out."

The author suggests that you start by picking the course that is most well-known before working up on that. "I first started by enrolling into an initial course named The Blaze Intensive, my first class. It is still my most preferred course. Entrepreneurs have to figure out the specifics of their unique service to be comprised of, as well as their goals in establishing their brand as a company and then add many things."

There's lots to take into consideration at first, including your message, target audience, the technology you use, marketing, and your client's experience. But once you do? The doors will open for exploring more.

"I think we've got the ability to do many things. Maybe in the next 200 years. Because Blaze remains present. It doesn't mean that it needs to happen today."

We're delighted to be an important part of the story of Casey and are eager to see what's going to come for Casey along with BLAZE Group in the coming year and 200 years down the road and in the years between.

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