How Casey Richardson is bringing access to community, knowledge as well as capital Black female entrepreneurs
Find out about how Casey Richardson used her experience with tech-related funding to create BLAZE Group and empower a group of Black women entrepreneurs.
Two and a half two years ago, Richardson's life looked a lot different. She was from the Bay Area and worked for Bank of America, structuring multimillion-dollar loans for tech companies. She discovered that she was the only Black female member of the team. Even in over ten years of working as a finance professional, she never saw any funding allocated to any Black company.
"It showed me that not only did the information not get there, the capital wasn't being distributed to my communities," Casey recalls.
In October 2020, Casey decided to change her mind.
Based on her experiences in the field of tech financing and business, she left the 9-to-5 grind and started BLAZE Group which is a nonprofit organization that focuses on building leaders and embracing zero Excuses in order to offer information, guidance as well as a sense of community for the historically underserved community of Black women entrepreneurs.
In 2023, BLAZE Group is a company that BLAZE Group offers online courses through the Blaze Knowledge Academy, group coaching courses and an online community an app, on-site retreats, a semiannual virtual summit, and proprietary research, all led by Casey and her global team.
How did she do it in only two years? A combination of providing services that address a particular unmet need, a deliberate audience building, and choosing the appropriate tools and team.
From corporate finance professional to an entrepreneur who can make a difference
Before she became a full-time entrepreneur, Casey was a professional in finance in the field of structuring billion-dollar loans to tech companies. This kept her 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 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 are the most successful segment of entrepreneurs within the United States -- but only 3percent of them own "mature" businesses, and 61% self-fund their startup capital. There's a huge gap in the funding and resources that are available to Black women entrepreneurs compared to the white male entrepreneurs.
In the summer of 2020, Casey was a participant in protests against police violence. Casey found community and strength that were missing from everyday work. "I found myself more inspired and engaged in protests than I had in all of my years of making those sexually explicit deals," she says. "I found myself rubbing shoulders with those who were brave enough and courageous enough to take on issues that really have a bearing on the world."
In October, she had come to terms with the limits of her job in finance at a corporate company- not in spite of the fact that she had been successful, but due to the fact of it. What else could she utilize her expertise? What can she do with her experience in technology and finance to help fellow Black women be successful?
"I'm extremely comfortable inside these four walls. Yet, I'd place money in my own pocket any day and believe I'd take over more space on earth. So I quit."
She took a break from her job, moved to Africa, and started building BLAZE Group, a location-independent firm that empowers Black women around the world to achieve the same thing.
BLAZE Group is specifically targeting entrepreneurs during the initial three years of building their business in what Casey refers to as the "entrepreneurial stage."
"BLAZE exists to really help clients understand how they can lead their organizations to keep the company going. And we do that by providing solutions that are tech-powered, and we're one of them." she adds.
To reach out to this group, Casey had to build real relations with them.
What are the reasons you should create your own email lists (and how to start)
Casey knew that she wanted to design a high-end business online course from the jump however, it was important to build an audience prior to when she launched her first product.
Casey did not want this to occur with the release of BLAZE's initial product. So, she approached her first activities to build an audience with a specific goal in mind that was to create an email database.
Why email subscribers over the social media users? "I was aware that I needed to establish personal relationships," explains Casey.
"On Instagram, you don't control the relationship. It's not clear the email address of their account, and if their handle changes it's best to have a clue as to what the new handle is," Casey says.
"I wanted to own relationships , and get in front of them frequently to increase brand recognition and build trust."
Reaching out to her existing contacts
15 minute discovery calls for her group of customers
1. Contacting her current networks
There's a lot of advice online on how you can expand your following, and many creators think that their initial customers are strangers who discovered them via social media. But when you start your audience from scratch, you're missing out on the most powerful resource of support Friends and family!
Casey approached everyone within her circle to let people know she'd started an entrepreneur newsletter and asked if they'd like to join.
"I began by looking through my most recent text messages, Instagram DMs, Twitter, Facebook... I put a timer on and then did as many of them as I could in five-minute increments," she describes.
Many friends and family were able to take Casey to her offer, and she began building a solid email list leading up to her product launch.
2. 15-minute discovery call with her target audience
One of the most effective ways to meet the people you meet is to talk to them.
Casey shared a post on Facebook, where she announced her plans to create an educational course designed to assist Black women better understand the business world. "If you would like me to talk with you for 15 mins and inquire about anything, let me know," she added.
The people who called to set up a meeting with her were her target group: Black women interested in entrepreneurial endeavors.
Instead of discussing course content or selling her own, Casey asked questions like, "What keeps you up at late at night? What is your biggest fear? In one year, where do you wanna be?" She used the occasion to make women feel seen and understood. She also realized what was the most crucial issue to consider in her course content.
"Just holding space for that and making them feel comfortable it's an important element of the magic."
"By the conclusion of the majority of the calls, they were like, 'Can I now purchase the course What do I need to buy?" Casey remembers. She was still building the course but had already collected their email addresses , and assured them that she would inform them the day it was launched.
When the course was finally ready, she promoted it to the email list she built with the two methods above. "There was already this anticipation from all of those people. They were all set to join."
The result? 80percent of women she talked to during those first calls turned into customers.
Two years on, Casey still offers free discovery calls in her sales process. If potential clients have questions regarding Blaze Business Intensive, Blaze Business Intensive, they can arrange a Free Fit Call. Fit Call in with Casey.
"On average, it requires five follow-ups in order to conclude the deal. It's a shame that not enough business owners are aware of this," says Casey. "I make these calls to really close the deal."
Working with the appropriate equipment and the right people can help Casey expand her company
Today, BLAZE offers online courses and masterclasses, group coaching programs as well as an online community. webinars as well as the TablexTribe mobile application as well as a semi-annual virtual gathering (a 2022 Webby Awards winner for Best in Business and Finance), and proprietary research.
How is she able to manage these things all without a lot of effort and care?
Casey is putting together an international team of professionals who help her grow different aspects of her business, including:
A blogger and content marketer with a base in Nigeria
A junior consultant located in London
A production and brand 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
Research analyst that publishes research papers across industries. He also assists BLAZE discover new clients through consulting
Production assistant for the semiannual Blaze Virtual Summit
Her approach isn't simply hiring people to join her team and hires the tools as well.
"I employ tools with quickness," Casey laughs. "And I love that because it's the size."
The growth in revenues does not always mean your business is scaling, especially if you're doing more work or investing more funds in order to reach that growth.
"The rise in revenue must not be the primary goal," explains Casey. "If you're increasing costs by the same amount the revenue is growing then your bottom line does not alter."
"Scale occurs when you increase revenue, and the cost and amount of time you spend do not change much."
Previous experience in tech taught Casey the power of no-code tools, integrations, and automations can be. As she built BLAZE Group, she leveraged tools that were low-code and without code like and Zapier to make sure everything was running smoothly.
What Casey utilizes her classes Community, downloads, and community
" was the first application I had to use for offering things at scale," Casey shares.
Tools like give Casey "more the time she needs to focus on important things" such as the one-on-one discovery calls she offers potential clients.
Casey built her first digital product, the Blaze Business Intensive online course that includes . It's a self-paced six-week course on "Business Building, Business Management and the Business Excellence for today's Black Woman."
"It was made with no code. It was actually designed by me back when was doing the 14-day trial for free," Casey remembers. "I built all of the course in this timeframe and then started selling it after the trial expired in order to make it immediately successful."
(Want to follow in Casey's footsteps? Register for a free plan , take the time you'll need to have your course material installed, and then upgrade when you're ready to begin selling.)
The course is part the Blaze Knowledge Academy which is a set of educational resources for businesses Casey created on her website. The Academy additionally includes:
Many entrepreneurship masterclasses, many of which she offers to participants for no cost.
Her online community, known as the Blaze Women's Network , with nearly 7,000 members
"People are able to join the Blaze Women's Network absolutely free," Casey explains. We hold virtual coworking meetings, I host webinars, which then lead users to the paid courses."
Alongside introducing clients to helpful products and services, the Casey's Community provides members with a a friendly and supportive place to network with fellow founders.
"It used to be that "content was the most important thing,' however, now the trend is shifting to the notion that 'community is King. The people are searching for communities-focused 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 the guidelines for what to look for in an application that doesn't require code. "You have an extremely flexible platform that has allowed me to develop end-to end solutions, right on the system," Casey explains. "And I've taken that same scorecard when I assess tools because I want to be able to scale using it."
"It truly is gorgeous to utilize methods that can change the world's entire environment through ways that are efficient and accessible to those who are marginalized today."
Try not to tackle everything at the same time
With all the accomplishments Casey has achieved within just two years of running BLAZE and BLAZE, her tips for new creators might come as a surprise: Do less than you do now, at the very minimum, at the time you get into the game.
"Keep the primary thing in mind that is the most important thing" she suggests. Hustle culture teaches new entrepreneurs that it's impossible to finish all the work or content created. But Casey encourages other creators to remember "There's only the amount you have to do regardless of how talented you might be."
"You shouldn't be doing everything right out of the gate but it will be extremely difficult to master a variety of things at once when you're just starting."
She recommends starting with an initial signature offer before building up on that. "I started by taking my Blaze Intensive, my first course, and that is my main course. Entrepreneurs should spend time figuring out what their distinctive offering needs to be, their goals for being known for, prior to adding many other things."
There's plenty to consider at first: your messaging and target audience, technologies, marketing, the customer's satisfaction. Once you've mastered it? You open up the potential for so much more.
"I am convinced that we have the potential to do many things. Maybe in 200 years. because Blaze will be there. It doesn't mean that it has to happen 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 down the road and every day in between.