What is it that Casey Richardson is bringing access to community, knowledge as well as capital Black female entrepreneurs
Learn the ways Casey Richardson used her experience in tech funding to found BLAZE Group and empower a network made up of Black women entrepreneurs.
Two and a half year ago, Richardson's lifestyle was different. She lived in California's Bay Area and worked for Bank of America, structuring large-scale loans to tech firms. She discovered that she was the only Black female on the team. And throughout her 10 years working within finance, she did not see the funding provided to a Black business.
"It taught me that not only wasn't the wisdom not getting there, but the knowledge wasn't getting to my communities," Casey recalls.
In October 2020, Casey decided to change that.
Based on her experiences in tech funding and business, she decided to quit the 9-to-5 grind and started the BLAZE Group which is a nonprofit organization that focuses on building Leaders & Accepting Zero Excuses in order to offer information, guidance, and community to the traditionally underserved group of Black women who are entrepreneurs.
In 2023, BLAZE Group is a company that BLAZE Group offers online courses through the Blaze Knowledge Academy, group coaching as well as an online community an app, in-person retreats and a biannual summit, and proprietary research, all led by Casey and her team of global experts.
What did she accomplish in only two years? It was a result of providing the services that address a particular, underserved need, intentional audience building, and choosing the appropriate tools and team.
From finance expert in corporate to an entrepreneur who can make a difference
Prior to becoming an full-time entrepreneur Casey was a professional in finance, structuring multibillion-dollar loan agreements for tech firms. She was always at the forefront of technological advancements, but she was also aware of the disparities between her colleagues and the companies they were financing. "I was the sole Black woman among the members of the team. It proved to me that my education level, my expertise as well as my experiences were not accessible in my community."
Black females are the most successful segment of entrepreneurs within the United States -- but only 3% have "mature" businesses, and 61% of them self-fund their start-up capital. There's a significant gap in the funding and resources that are available to Black female entrepreneurs as compared to those of white men.
As of the summer of 2020, Casey was a participant in protests against police brutality. She found strength and community that she had not felt in her day-to-day work. "I was more alive when I protested more than I did during all my years in the sexy business," she says. "I was rubbing shoulders with those who were brave enough and courageous enough to lead things that actually have a bearing on the world."
At the end of October, she was done in the midst of her corporate finance job -and not because of how successful she was however, but because because of that. What else was she able to use her talent for? What could she do to use her knowledge of technology and finance to assist other Black women be successful?
"I'm extremely comfortable inside these four walls. But I would place money in my own pocket any day to believe that I could take up even 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 accomplish the similar thing.
BLAZE Grupo is specifically targeting entrepreneurs during the initial three years of business building, which Casey describes as the "entrepreneurial phase."
"BLAZE is here to help people understand how to manage their organizations to keep their businesses going. We do this with technology-enabled solutions. We are one of them." she says.
To reach out to this group, Casey had to build genuine relationships with them.
Why you should build an email list (and the best way to begin)
Casey was aware that she would like to develop a highly business-focused online course from the jump and it was crucial to create an audience prior to when she even launched her initial product.
Casey wanted to ensure that this didn't be the case with the debut of BLAZE's first product. Thus, she approached her initial audience-building activities with a goal that was clear: to build an email list.
Why are email subscribers better than those on social media? "I knew I wanted to be able to get and own relationships," explains Casey.
"On Instagram, you don't own the relationship. You're not sure the email address of their account or if their handle changes, you better hope you have a clue as to what the new handle is," Casey says.
"I wanted to own relationships and be able to get in front of them often to build that reputation and establish trust."
Inquiring about her existing contacts
15-minute discovery calls to her intended group of customers
1. Reaching out to her existing networks
There's lots of guidance out there about how to expand your following, and the majority of creators assume that their first customers are strangers who discovered them on social media. If you create the process from scratch, you're missing out on an enormous sources of help Friends and family!
Casey sent out an email to all in her circle, letting them know she was starting a newsletter about entrepreneurship and asked if they'd like to join.
"I began by looking through my recent text messages, Instagram DMs, Twitter Facebook... I set the timer and sent as many as I could within five minute increments," she describes.
A lot of family and friends have taken Casey and her idea, and she began building an impressive email list prior to the build towards her launch.
2. 15-minute discovery calls with her target audience
And the best way to connect with them is to speak to them.
Casey published a tweet on her social media accounts, revealing her plans to create a course to aid Black women understand business management. "If you would like me to talk with you for 15 minutes and inquire about anything, do let me know," she added.
She knew that people who set up a call to her were her primary people: Black women interested in entrepreneurship.
Instead of chatting about course content or selling herself, Casey asked questions like, "What keeps you up in the midnight? What's your most feared fear? Within a year, where would you like to become?" She used the time to make the women feel valued and respected. Then, she realized what was the most crucial issue to include in her class contents.
"Just making space and making them feel safe it's an important element in the magic."
"By the time they had finished most of these calls, people were like, 'Can I buy the course now?'" Casey remembers. She was still building the course but had already collected the email addresses of those who signed up and promised to let them know the day it was launched.
After the course was complete, she tweeted it on the list of email subscribers that she had created using the two methods above. "There was already an anticipation among all those who had signed up. They were ready to enroll."
What did they find? 80percent of women she spoke to on those initial calls converted to customers.
More than two years later, Casey still offers free discovery calls in her sales procedure. For potential clients who have concerns about Blaze Business Intensive, Blaze Business Intensive, they can make a complimentary perfect Fit phone call to talk with Casey.
"On average, you need five follow-ups before closing a deal. There aren't enough entrepreneurs who realize that," says Casey. "I use those calls to really seal the deal."
The way that using the best tools and people helps Casey grow her business
Presently, BLAZE offers online courses and masterclasses, group coaching programs as well as an online community. webinars as well as the TablexTribe mobile app as well as a semi-annual digital summit (a 2022 Webby Awards winner for Best in Business and Finance), and proprietary research.
How is she able to manage all of those things with such a high level of intention and care?
Casey has put together an international team of professionals who help her grow different aspects of her business, including:
A blogger and content marketer located in Nigeria
A junior consultant based in London
A brand and production manager (her fiance!) who grew the BLAZE Group Instagram from 1,300 followers in May 2022 to 70,000+ at the start of 2023
An executive assistant in Kenya
An analyst in research who writes research paper across industries, helping BLAZE discover new clients through consulting
Production assistant to assist with the semi-annual Blaze Virtual Summit
Her approach isn't simply hiring new employees She also hires equipment as well.
"I use tools that I hire with speed," Casey laughs. "And I like it because it's the size."
A rise in revenues doesn't necessarily mean that your company is growing, particularly if you're putting in more effort or are spending more money for that increase.
"The rise in revenue must not be the primary goal," explains Casey. "If you're increasing your expenses by the same amount the revenue is growing, your bottom line doesn't change."
"Scale is when you are able to increase revenue, and your expenses and the time that you invest are not affected."
The experience she had in technology has taught Casey how effective no-code instruments Integrations, automations, and integrations are. As she built BLAZE Group, she leveraged the low-cost and no-code options like and Zapier to ensure that everything ran smoothly.
How Casey makes use of her course her community and downloads
" was the very first program I used to offer things in a large scale" Casey shares.
Tools like give Casey "more the time she needs to do important things" such as the one-on-one discovery calls she offers potential clients.
Casey created her first digital product, the Blaze Business Intensive online course that includes . It's a self-paced, six-week program covering "Business Building, Business Management and the Business Excellence for today's Black Woman."
"It was completely non-code. I built it when was doing the 14-day free trial," Casey remembers. "I built the entire course within this timeframe and then started selling it after the trial expired so I could be immediately successful."
(Want to emulate Casey's success? Join an initial free trial for the time you'll need to have your course material installed, and then upgrade once you're ready to start selling.)
This course is part of the Blaze Knowledge Academy , a collection of resources for business education Casey created on her website. The Academy also includes:
Numerous entrepreneurship masterclasses. Many of which are offered for free
Her online community, known as the Blaze Women's Network has nearly 7,000 members
"People have the option of joining to the Blaze Women's Network absolutely free," Casey explains. Virtual coworking is what we do, I host webinars, which then lead users to the paid courses."
Alongside introducing clients to useful products as well, Casey's community provides users with a friendly and supportive place to connect with other founders.
"It used to be content was the king of the hill, However, things have changed to 'community is king.' People are looking for communities-focused programs... as well as communities that aren't a source of spam appear to be genuine."
The results of her experience with it have given Casey the guidelines for what you should look for when choosing an application that doesn't require code. "You have an extremely flexible system that allows me to develop end-to end solutions right from the platform," she describes. "And I've taken that same scorecard when I assess software because I'm hoping to grow using the system."
"It truly is an amazing thing to implement solutions like to transform the world in ways that are cost-effective and very accessible to people who are marginalized today."
Try not to tackle everything at the same time
Given all of Casey's accomplishments in just over two years as the CEO of BLAZE Her advice for novice creators could come as a surprising: Try to do less in the beginning, at minimum, at the time you get started.
"Keep the primary thing in mind that is the most important thing" she says. Hustle culture teaches new entrepreneurs that there's never enough work to be done or content made. But Casey is a reminder to fellow creators "There's only one limit to what you can accomplish, no matter how amazing you may be."
"You shouldn't be doing everything right out of the box but it will be extremely, very difficult to master a variety of things simultaneously when you're only getting started."
She suggests starting with a signature offering and then build upon that. "I began with my Blaze Intensive, my first course, and that is my main course. Entrepreneurs should spend time figuring out what their distinctive service should consist of, their goals for being recognized for before adding a whole bunch of things."
There's plenty to consider in the beginning: your messages, target audience, technologies, marketing, customers' satisfaction. But once you do? You open up the potential to explore a lot more.
"I know we have the capacity to accomplish a million things. Perhaps in the next 200 years. because Blaze will still be around. But that doesn't need to happen today."
We're thrilled to have been a part of Casey's journey, and we can't wait to see what's next for her and BLAZE Group -- this year, 200 years down the road, and all the time between.