What's it about Casey Richardson is bringing access to the community, information, as well as the capital Black female entrepreneurs

Find out how Casey Richardson used her experience of tech financing to establish BLAZE Group and empower a community of Black female entrepreneurs.

About two and a half years ago, Richardson's lifestyle was different. She was a resident of California's Bay Area and worked for Bank of America, structuring massive loans for tech companies. Then she realized it was her one Black female member of the team. Through her entire time working within the finance department, she didn't consider the financial support given to the Black company.

"It showed me that not only wasn't the wisdom not being absorbed however, the information wasn't getting to my communities," Casey recalls.

In October 2020, Casey decided to change her mind.

After her own experiences with the field of tech-related funding and in business, she made the decision to end her 9-to-5 routine and created the BLAZE Group which is a non-profit organization that focuses on building leaders and accepting no Excuses for the purpose of providing advice, information as well as a sense of community for those traditionally unserved groups of Black women who are entrepreneurs.

2023 is the year that BLAZE Group is a company which BLAZE Group offers online courses via the Blaze Knowledge Academy, group coaching and an online community application, in-person retreats and a biannual summit, and custom research that is led by Casey along with her international team of experts.

What did she accomplish within just two years? The reason was offering services to meet the needs of a specific, unmet need, intentional audience building, and choosing the appropriate tools and team.

From corporate finance expert to an entrepreneur who has the ability to create a positive impact

Before becoming a full-time entrepreneur Casey was a professional in finance. She drafted multi-billion dollar loan agreements for tech firms. She was always at the cutting edge of technology However, she was conscious of the dissimilarities between her coworkers and the firms they were financing. "I was the only Black woman among the members in the group. I was able to see that my level of education, my expertise along with my knowledge were not accessible in my neighborhood."

Black females are the most profitable category of entrepreneurs within the United States -- but only 3percent of them own "mature" businesses as well as 61% of them self-fund their initial capital. There's a significant gap in the funding and resources that are available to Black female entrepreneurs when contrasted to white men.

In the summer of 2020 Casey participated at protests against police brutality. She found strength and community that she had not felt during her normal work routine. "I felt more at ease in protest than my entire time being in the business of sexiness," she says. "I found myself in a position to be with people who were courageous enough and brave enough to do events that had an impact upon the entire world."

In October, at the close of, she was done at the end of October in the corporate finance position - and it wasn't because of how effective her career was the fact is that she was terminated due to due to that. What else was she able to use her talent to help others? What can she do to utilize her experience in technology and finance to help other Black women be successful?

"I'm extremely comfortable inside these four walls. Yet, I'd rather put money in my own pocket every day in order to believe I can take on more of the world. So I quit."

She quit her job, moved to Africa and began to create BLAZE Group, a location-independent business that empowers Black women from all over the world to do the same.

BLAZE Grupo is specifically targeting entrepreneurs in the first three years of business building, which Casey calls"the "entrepreneurial stage."

"BLAZE is here to help users understand how to run the organizations they work for to ensure that their business is running. This is accomplished through technology-based solutions. We are one of them." she says.

In order to reach out to this particular group of people, Casey had to build real relationships with them.

The reasons to build an email-list (and the best way to start)

Casey knew she wanted to develop a highly business-focused online course straight from the start and it was crucial to establish a target community prior to when she would even launch her initial product.

Casey was determined to make sure that this wouldn't be the case in the launch of BLAZE's first product. Therefore, she approached her initial audience-building activities with an objective that was simple that was to create an email-list.

How can email subscribers be more successful than users of social media? "I realized that I had to build personal relationships," explains Casey.

"On Instagram, you don't own the relationship. There's no way to determine that they have an email address for their account or if their handle changes, you should be sure you have a clue about what their new handle is," Casey says.

"I would like to build relationships and be able to get in front of them frequently to establish that reputation and establish trust."

Inquiring about her existing contacts

15 minute discovery calls are made to her targeted group of clients

1. Inquiring about her existing networks

There's a lot of advice available on how to grow your audience, and many creators think that their initial clients are people who have never heard of them through social media. If you design the method by hand, you'll miss out on an enormous sources of help Friends and family!

Casey posted an email to the members of her circle to let them know she was starting an entrepreneur newsletter and asked if they'd like to sign up.

"I started by going through my recent text messages, Instagram DMs, Twitter Facebook... I set a timer, and then sent out as many messages as I could in five-minute increments," she describes.

Numerous family members as well as friends have been awed by Casey and her concept seriously and she has begun to build an impressive list of email addresses prior to the development toward her debut.

2. 15 minute discovery calls for her audience

The best method to reach them is to talk to them.

Casey posted a tweet to her social media accounts in which she announced that she plans to develop a program to aid Black women understand business management. "If you would like me to talk to you for 15 minutes or ask any questions that you would like me to discuss, please let me know," she added.

She was aware that the people who were able to make a contact with her were her primary people: Black women who were interested in starting their own business.

Instead of talking about course content or selling herself, Casey asked questions like, "What keeps you up in the midnight? What is your biggest anxiety? Within a year, where would you like to grow to?" She utilized the opportunity to help women feel loved and appreciated. After that, she realized what was the most crucial issue to be included in the content of her class.

"Just creating space and making the people feel safe is an important element in the magical."

"By the time they'd concluded the majority of these conversations, the participants were asking"Can I purchase this course Do you have a discount?" Casey remembers. She was in the process of creating the course, but had already taken email addresses from those who registered and assured them of when it would be to be launched.

Once the course was finished She tweeted the course on the list of subscribers to email that she'd created with the two methods above. "There already was a sense of anticipation from all the people who had signed up. The people were eager to sign up."

What did they find? The 80 percent of women she talked to in those initial phone conversations became customers.

More than two years later, Casey still offers free consultation calls as part of her sales procedure. If potential customers have questions about the Blaze Business Intensive, Blaze Business Intensive, they can make the no-cost perfect-fit phone call to discuss the issue to Casey.

"On average, you need five follow-ups before closing a deal. The majority of entrepreneurs don't are aware of this," says Casey. "I use those calls to really close the deal."

A method of utilizing the best tools and people aids Casey grow her business

Presently, BLAZE offers online courses and masterclasses, as well as group coaching programs as well as an online community. webinars as well as the TablexTribe mobile application along with a semi-annual Digital Summit (a 2022 Webby Awards winner for Business Excellence and Finance), and exclusive research.

How does she manage to deal with all of these issues with such an impressive level of intention and care?

Casey is putting together an international group of experts to help her expand the various aspects of her business, including:

Blogger and content marketer located in Nigeria

A junior consultant located in London

A brand and production manager (her fiance!) who grew the BLAZE Group Instagram from 1,300 users in May 2022 to 70,000+ at the start in 2023.

An executive assistant in Kenya

An analyst in research who composes a research papers across industries, helping BLAZE identify new clients via the process of consulting

Production assistants to help with the bi-annual Blaze Virtual Summit

Her method isn't just employing new staff members. She hires equipment as well.

"I use tools that I hire with speed," Casey laughs. "And I love it since it's the size."

An increase in revenue doesn't necessarily indicate that your business is growing, but it does mean that you're working harder or spending more for that increase.

"The increase in revenue should not be your primary objective," explains Casey. "If you're increasing the cost of your business in the same way that your increase in revenue, then your bottom line doesn't change."

"Scale is when you are in a position to boost revenue and your expenses and the amount of time you spend do not change."

Her experience working in the field of technology taught Casey that no-code instruments are extremely effective. Integrations, automations, as well as integrations, are. In the process of establishing BLAZE Group, she leveraged no-cost, low-cost options like and Zapier to make sure that the process worked seamlessly.

What is the way Casey makes use of her class, her community and the downloads

" was the initial software I ever used to provide services on a huge dimension" Casey shares.

Tools like give Casey "more the time she needs to do essential things" like the one-on-one meeting with prospective clients.

Casey has created her very first product online, the Blaze Business Intensive online course , which includes . It's self-paced, 6-week course that covers "Business Building, Business Management and Business Excellence to today's Black Woman."

"It was completely non-code. I created it while conducting the free 14-day trial," Casey remembers. "I constructed the entire course within the timeframe, and I then began selling it once the trial ended so that I was able to be successful immediately."

(Want to emulate Casey's success? Start a free trial during which you'll need to have your course material installed, then upgrade after you're ready to sell.)

The course is part of the Blaze Knowledge Academy  which is a set of tools to help business educators Casey created on her website. The Academy also includes:

Numerous entrepreneurship masterclasses. Some of these are provided for free

Her online community, known as Blaze Women's Network includes more than 7,000 members

"People can choose to becoming a member of Blaze Women's Network. Blaze Women's Network absolutely free," Casey explains. Virtual coworking is what we provide, where I run webinars, which then lead users to the paid courses."

As well as introducing clients to valuable products as well as providing users with a friendly and supportive platform to network with fellow founders.

"It used to be content was the top priority But, the situation has changed to 'community is king.' The people are seeking communities-focused programmes... as well because communities that aren't a source of spam appear to be authentic."

The results of her experience using it has given Casey some guidelines on the qualities to consider when selecting an application that does not require programming. "You have an extremely adaptable system that lets me create all-inclusive solutions directly from the platform," she says. "And I've used the identical scorecard in assessing software because I'm hoping to grow using the system."

"It really is an incredible thing to implement solutions like that can transform our world through methods that are both cost effective and accessible to people who are marginalized today."

Don't try to handle everything at the same time

With all the accomplishments Casey has achieved in the span of just two years as CEO of BLAZE her advice to new creators could come as a surprise: 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 advises. The hustle culture is a great way to teach new entrepreneurs that there's never enough work to be done or content made. However, Casey serves as a reminder to fellow creators "There's only one limitation to the things you can do regardless of how great you are."

"You don't have to do everything out of the bag, however it's going to be quite challenging to master an array of different things at once when you're only getting started."

She suggests starting with a specific offering, before building on that. "I am starting with Blaze Intensive, my first course. It is now my primary course. Entrepreneurs need to figure out what their distinct services should be, their objectives for getting recognized for before adding a whole bunch of things."

There's plenty to consider in the beginning, including your message to your target audience, technology marketing, customer satisfaction. But once you do? There is a chance to explore a lot more.

"I believe we've got the capability to do a million things. Maybe in the next 200 years. because Blaze will be there. But that doesn't need to take place today."

We're proud to have been an integral part of Casey's story, and we can't wait to find out what's to come for her as well as the BLAZE Group in the coming year. 200 years from now and in the years between.

This post was posted on here