What is it that Casey Richardson is bringing access to community, knowledge and capital to Black female entrepreneurs
Find out the ways Casey Richardson used her experience with tech-related funding to create BLAZE Group and empower a network of Black women who are entrepreneurs.
A couple of years ago, Casey Richardson's world was different. She lived in California's Bay Area and worked for Bank of America, structuring multimillion-dollar loans for tech companies. However, she discovered that she was always the sole Black female on the team. And throughout her 10 years being within finance, she didn't see the funding provided to an Black business.
"It proved to me that not just wasn't the wisdom not getting there, but that the capital was not reaching my community," Casey recalls.
In October 2020, Casey decided to change the way she did things.
With her extensive experience with tech-related funding as well as business, she quit her 9-to-5 job and founded BLAZE Group which is a nonprofit organization that focuses on building leaders and embracing zero Excuses -- to provide guidance, education as well as a sense of community for the previously under-served communities of Black female entrepreneurs.
Fast forward to 2023: BLAZE Group offers online courses via the Blaze Knowledge Academy, group coaching as well as an online community an app, in-person retreats and a biannual summit, as well as proprietary research conducted by Casey and her team of global experts.
How did she do it in only two years? The answer is a combination of providing resources that meet a specific, underserved need, intentional audience building, and choosing the appropriate tools and team.
From corporate finance professional to the game-changing entrepreneur
Before becoming a full-time entrepreneur, Casey was a finance professional, structuring multibillion-dollar loans for tech companies. This kept her at the forefront of new tech -- but she was also aware of the disparities in her team and the companies they funded. "I was never the only Black female on the team. It showed the world that I had a degree, my knowledge and my experience were not available in my communities."
Black women make up the largest segment of entrepreneurs within the United States -- but just 3% of them have "mature" companies, while the majority of entrepreneurs self-fund startup capital. There's a huge gap regarding the amount of funding and other resources available to Black women entrepreneurs compared to the white male entrepreneurs.
As of the summer of 2000, Casey was a participant in protests against police violence. The community she felt and the strength she found that were missing from her day-to-day work. "I found myself more inspired and engaged in protests that I have ever felt throughout my entire time of doing those sexy deals," she says. "I had the pleasure of rubbing shoulders those who were brave enough and courageous enough to take on issues that really matter."
At the end of October, she had come to terms in the midst of the finance department at her company -and not because of how successful she was, but because that it. What else can she do with that talent? What could she do to use her expertise in tech and finance to assist other Black women be successful?
"I'm extremely comfortable inside the four walls. But I would put money on myself any day to think that I'd take over more space on earth. So I quit."
She took a break from her job, moved to Africa to start developing BLAZE Group, a location-independent business that empowers Black women around the world to accomplish the same thing.
BLAZE Group is specifically targeting entrepreneurs during their first three years of business development that Casey describes as"the "entrepreneurial phase."
"BLAZE is here to help clients understand how they can lead their businesses to keep them around. We do this through tech-enabled solutions, being one of them." she tells us.
In order to serve this audience, Casey had to build real relationships with them.
Why you should build your own email lists (and what you can do to get started)
Casey was aware that she would like to develop a highly business-focused online course right from the beginning and it was important to build an audience before she even launched her initial product.
Casey wanted to ensure that this didn't be the case with the debut of the first BLAZE product. So, she approached her first activities to build an audience with a goal that was clear that was to create an email-list.
Why are email subscribers better than those on social media? "I was aware that I needed to establish as well as maintain my own connections," explains Casey.
"On Instagram, you don't control the relationship. You don't know the email address of their account, and if their handle changes then you should know what the current handle is," Casey says.
"I would like to build relationships , and be in front of them regularly to create that brand awareness and confidence."
Reaching out to her existing contacts
15-minute discovery calls for her public
1. Contacting her current networks
There's plenty of information online on how you can grow your audience, and most creators believe that the first clients are strangers who discovered their site via social media. If you create your audience from scratch You're missing an enormous source of support Friends and family!
Casey sent out an email to all within her circle to let them know she was starting a newsletter about entrepreneurship and asked them to subscribe.
"I began by looking over my most recent text messages, Instagram DMs, Twitter, Facebook... I established a timer, and I did as many of them as I could, in five-minute increments," she describes.
A lot of family and friends were able to take Casey up on the offer She began to build an email database that would last towards her launch.
2. 15-minute discovery call with her target public
One of the most effective ways to connect with them is by talking with them.
Casey posted on her social media accounts, revealing her plans to create an online course that would aid Black women better understand the business world. "If I can talk to you for 15 minutes and ask questions, let me know," she added.
She was aware that those who made a phone call with her were her target people: Black women interested in entrepreneurial endeavors.
Instead of chatting about course content or marketing the course, Casey asked questions like, "What keeps you up in the midnight? What's your greatest anxiety? If you only had one year, what do you wanna be?" She used the time to make the women feel heard and valued. Then, she learned what was most important to address in her course contents.
"Just being there for them and making them feel comfortable is a big element of the magic."
"By the time they had finished most of the calls, they were like, 'Can I purchase the course right now What do I need to buy?" Casey remembers. She was still building the course but had already collected the email addresses of those who signed up and said she'd notify them when it launched.
After the course was complete, she tweeted it to the email list that she had created using these two strategies. "There was already this excitement from everyone. They were eager to sign up."
The results? 80percent of women she spoke with on those initial calls converted to customers.
More than two years later, Casey still offers free discovery calls in her sales and marketing process. If potential clients have questions about this Blaze Business Intensive, they can arrange a free perfect Fit call to talk with Casey.
"On average, you need five follow-ups to close a deal. There aren't enough entrepreneurs who know that," says Casey. "I utilize these calls to seal the deal."
How working with the right resources and individuals can help Casey expand her company
In the present, BLAZE offers online courses and masterclasses and group coaching programmes, an online community, webinars as well as the TablexTribe mobile application and a biannual online summit (a 2022 Webby Awards honoree to be recognized for its excellence in business and Finance), and proprietary research.
How can she handle all of those things with such a high level of intention and compassion?
Casey has put together an international team of professionals who help her grow different aspects of her enterprise, which includes:
Blogger and content marketer with a base in Nigeria
A junior consultant located in London
A production and brand manager (her fiancé!) 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 documents across industries. He also assists BLAZE find new consulting clients
A production assistant to the semi-annual Blaze Virtual Summit
She doesn't just hire individuals to join her team -- she hires tools as well.
"I use tools that I hire with rapidity," Casey laughs. "And I like it because there's an amount of scale."
A rise in revenues doesn't necessarily indicate that your business has grown, particularly when you're working harder or are spending more money for that increase.
"The increase in revenue should not be the primary goal," explains Casey. "If your costs are rising by the same amount as your revenues increase, your bottom line doesn't alter."
"Scale is when you are able to boost revenue but your expenses and the time that you invest barely change."
The experience she had in technology has taught Casey how effective no-code instruments, integrations, and automations are. When she created BLAZE Group, she leveraged the low-cost and no-code options like and Zapier to keep everything running smoothly.
What Casey uses for her courses Community, downloads, and community
" was the first application I made use of to provide services in a large scale" Casey shares.
Techniques such as these allow Casey "more time to complete intentional things," such as the one-on-one meetings she makes with potential clients.
Casey built her first digital product, called the Blaze Business Intensive online course. It includes . It's a six-week, self-paced course covering "Business Building, Business Management and business Excellence for Today's Black Woman."
"It was completely no-code. It was actually designed by me back in the time of 14-day trial for free," Casey remembers. "I built all of the course in this timeframe and then started selling it prior to the expiration date in order to make it immediately profitable."
(Want to follow in Casey's footsteps? Sign up for an initial free trial and take the time you'll need to finish getting your course's content installed, and then upgrade once you're ready to start selling.)
The course is part of the Blaze Knowledge Academy , a collection of resources for business education Casey developed on her site. The Academy is also home to:
Numerous entrepreneurship masterclasses. Many of which she gives to participants for no cost.
Her online community, the Blaze Women's Network , with nearly 7,000 members
"People can join to the Blaze Women's Network absolutely free," Casey explains. Virtual coworking is what we do and I also host webinars and then that funnels users to the paid courses."
As well as introducing consumers to useful products, Casey's community gives members a friendly and supportive place to connect with other founders.
"It used to be that 'content was king,' but now things are shifting to 'community is king. Many are looking for community-centric programs... as well as ones that aren't perceived as spam come across as genuine."
The experience she had with the tool has provided Casey an idea of what to look for in the tool for creating no-code. "You have an extremely flexible system that allows me to create end-to-end solutions on your platform" the author explains. "And I've used the same scorecard when I assess tools because I want to expand with it."
"It truly is gorgeous to utilize solutions like to impact the entire world with ways that are affordable and very accessible to people who have been marginalized in the past."
Try not to tackle everything simultaneously
With all the accomplishments Casey has achieved in the span of just two years of running BLAZE, her advice to novice creators could come as a a surprise: Do less -- at least when you first get established.
"Keep the primary thing in mind, the main thing," she advises. The Hustle culture informs entrepreneurs who are just starting out that there's never enough work done or content created. But Casey encourages other creators to remember "There's only the amount you have to do regardless of how great you may be."
"You shouldn't be doing every single thing right from the beginning, and it's going to be really, really hard to get everything perfect simultaneously when you're only beginning."
She suggests starting by choosing a signature course before building up on that. "I began by taking an initial course called the Blaze Intensive, my first course, and that remains my favorite course. Entrepreneurs need to figure out what their unique service should consist of, their goals for being famous for, prior to adding a whole bunch of things."
There's a lot to navigate at first: your messaging, target audience, marketing, technology, the customer's satisfaction. But once you do? Then you are able to open the doors to explore a lot more.
"I am convinced that we have the capacity to accomplish many things. In 200 years, maybe. Since Blaze will be there. It doesn't mean that it has to take place today."
We're thrilled to be an integral part of Casey's story and can't wait to find out what's to come for Casey and BLAZE Group in the coming year, 200 years down the road and every day between.