How Casey Richardson is bringing access to knowledge, community, as well as capital Black female entrepreneurs

Discover the ways Casey Richardson used her experience with tech-related funding to create BLAZE Group and empower a group made up of Black female entrepreneurs.

A couple of years ago, Casey Richardson's world was different. She was from California's Bay Area and worked for Bank of America, structuring large-scale loans to tech firms. But she found that she was always the only Black woman on the team -- and throughout her 10 years being as a finance professional, she did not see funding given to an Black company.

"It taught me that not just did the information not get there, but that the capital was not getting to my communities," Casey recalls.

In October 2020, Casey decided to change her mind.

With her extensive experience in tech funding and business, she decided to quit the 9-to-5 grind and started the BLAZE Group -- Building Leaders & Accepting Zero Excuses -- to provide guidance, education as well as a sense of community for the previously under-served communities of Black women entrepreneurs.

In 2023, BLAZE Group is a company that BLAZE Group offers online courses through Blaze Knowledge Academy, group coaching courses as well as an online community an app, on-site retreats, a semiannual virtual summit and exclusive research that is led by Casey as well as her international team.

How could she have done it in only two years? A combination of providing resources that meet a specific needs that are not being met, deliberate creation of an audience, and choosing the right tools and team.

From finance expert in corporate to game-changing entrepreneur

Prior to becoming a full-time entrepreneur, Casey was a finance professional who arranged multibillion-dollar loans for tech companies. She was always on the cutting edge of technological advancements, but she was also aware of the disparities between her colleagues and the companies they funded. "I was never the only Black woman in the group. It proved to me that my education level, my expertise and my experience were not accessible in my community."

Black females are the largest category of entrepreneurs within the United States -- but only 3% have "mature" businesses, and 61% self-fund their startup capital. There's a significant gap regarding the amount of funding and other resources accessible to Black female entrepreneurs as compared to the white male entrepreneurs.

As of the summer of 2020 Casey was a participant in protests against police brutality. The community she felt and the strength she found which were lacking in 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 lead things which actually are important."

By October, she had come to terms in the midst 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 that it. What else could she do with that talent? What can she do with her expertise in tech and finance to assist other Black women be successful?

"I'm very comfortable within these four walls. But I would put money on myself any day to believe that I'd take over more of the planet. So I quit."

She left her job, relocated to Africa and began building BLAZE Group, a location-independent company that is empowering Black women from all over the world to do the exact identical thing.

BLAZE Group is specifically targeting entrepreneurs during their first three years of business building that Casey refers to as"the "entrepreneurial phase."

"BLAZE is here to help people understand how to manage their businesses in ways that keep them around. We do this with technology-enabled solutions. We are one of them," she adds.

To serve that audience, Casey had to build genuine connections with them.

Why you should build an email list (and what you can do to get started)

Casey knew that she wanted to design a high-end business online course right from the beginning however, it was important to build an crowd before she launched her first product.

Casey did not want this to happen with the launch of BLAZE's first product. So, she approached her initial audience-building activities with a specific goal in mind: to build an email database.

Why do people choose email subscribers over social media followers? "I knew I wanted to be able to get as well as maintain my own connections," explains Casey.

"On Instagram, you don't own the relationship. It's not clear which email address they have, and when their handle changes, you better hope you are aware of what their name of the new handle," Casey says.

"I wanted to own relationships , and be in front of them frequently to increase brand recognition and build confidence."

Contacting her current network

15-minute discovery call to her intended public

1. Contacting her current contacts

There's a lot of advice online on how you can grow your audience, and most creators believe that their first customers will be strangers who found their site via social media. If you create your audience from scratch, you're missing out on a huge potential sources of help this includes your family and friends!

Casey sent out an email to all within her circle to let people know she'd started the publication of a monthly newsletter on entrepreneurship, and asked them to sign up.

"I started by going through the most recent texts, Instagram DMs, Twitter and Facebook... I set the timer and sent as many as I could within five minute segments," she describes.

Numerous family members and friends took Casey to her offer as she started to create an impressive email list prior to the build into her product's launch.

2. 15-minute discovery call for her group of customers

One of the most effective ways to connect with them is by talking with them.

Casey published a tweet on social media, sharing that she was building an online course that would help Black women learn about business management. "If I can talk to you for 15 minutes , and ask questions, do let me know," she added.

She knew that people who called to set up a meeting with her would be her ideal group: Black women interested in entrepreneurship.

Instead of discussing course content or marketing herself, Casey asked questions like, "What keeps you up at midnight? What's your most feared worry? If you only had one year, what do you wanna become?" She used the occasion to make women feel heard and valued. Then, she learned what was most important to address in her course contents.

"Just holding space for that and making them feel safe it's an important part in the magic."

"By the time they had finished most of those calls, they were asking, "Can I now purchase the course What do I need to buy?" Casey remembers. The course was in the process of being developed. course, but she collected their email addresses , and said she'd notify them that it would be available when it went live.

After the course was completed, she marketed it to her email list she built with the two methods above. "There was already this anticipation among all those who had signed up. They were eager to sign up."

The results? 80percent of women she talked to in the initial call converted to customers.

More than two years later, Casey still offers free discovery calls in her sales procedure. Should potential customers have any questions about the Blaze Business Intensive, they are able to make an Free Perfect Fit call to talk with Casey.

"On average, it takes five follow-ups in order to conclude a deal. I don't think enough entrepreneurs know that," says Casey. "I make these calls to seal the deal."

How working with the right equipment and the right people can help Casey grow her business

Today, BLAZE offers online courses and masterclasses as well as group coaching as well as an online community. webinars, the TablexTribe mobile app  and a biannual online summit (a 2022 Webby Awards winner for the Best in Business and Finance), and proprietary research.

How does she manage these things all with so much intentionality and love?

Casey is putting together an international team of professionals who help her expand different areas of her company, such as:

A blogger and content marketer based in Nigeria

A junior consultant based in London

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

A executive assistant from Kenya

An analyst in research who writes research papers across industries, helping BLAZE discover new clients through consulting

Production assistant to the semi-annual Blaze Virtual Summit

Her approach isn't simply hiring individuals to join her team She also hires equipment, too.

"I hire tools with a rapidity," Casey laughs. "And I love that because it's the scale."

The growth in revenues does not necessarily indicate that your business is scaling, especially if you're doing more work or spending more money to achieve that growth.

"The rise in revenue must not be the primary goal," explains Casey. "If you're increasing costs in the same way as your revenues increase, your bottom line doesn't alter."

"Scale happens when you can raise revenue while the cost and amount of time you spend are not affected."

The experience she had in technology has taught Casey how effective no-code instruments Integrations, automations, and integrations can be. When she created BLAZE Group, she leveraged the low-cost and no-code options such as and Zapier to make sure everything was running smoothly.

What Casey utilizes her classes, community, and downloads

" was the first application I made use of to provide services at scale," Casey shares.

Tools like give Casey "more space to focus on intentional things," such as the one-on-one meetings she makes with potential clients.

Casey developed her first online product, the Blaze Business Intensive online course that includes . It's a six-week, self-paced class on "Business Building, Business Management and business Excellence for the Modern Black Woman."

"It was completely non-code. I actually built it back in the time of 14-day trial for free," Casey remembers. "I created the entire course within that window and started selling it before that expired in order to make it immediately profitably."

(Want to emulate Casey's success? Register for a free plan , take all the time it takes to finish getting your course's content setup, then you can upgrade when you're ready to sell.)

The course is part the Blaze Knowledge Academy  an assortment of educational resources for businesses Casey developed on her site. The Academy also includes:

Numerous entrepreneurship masterclasses. Many of which she gives at no cost

Her online community, known as the Blaze Women's Network , with nearly 7,000 members

"People are able to join in the Blaze Women's Network absolutely free," Casey explains. We do virtual coworking sessions and I also host webinars which then lead people into the paid courses."

Alongside introducing clients to useful products and services, the Casey's Community provides members with a an inviting and welcoming space to meet other founders.

"It was once that "content was the most important thing,' but now things are shifting to the notion that 'community is King. Many are looking for community-centric programs... and communities that don't feel like spam come across as genuine."

The results of her experience with it have given Casey the guidelines for what to look for in an application that doesn't require code. "You have a very agile system that's allowed me to create end-to-end solutions on your platform," Casey explains. "And I've taken that same scorecard when I assess software because I'm hoping to expand using the system."

"It truly is an amazing thing to implement methods that can transform the world in ways that are cost-effective and accessible to those who have been marginalized in the past."

Do not try to accomplish everything all at once

Given all of Casey's accomplishments in just over two years as the CEO of BLAZE and BLAZE, her tips for novice creators could come as a surprising: Try to do less -- at the very least, when getting established.

"Keep what's important that is the most important thing" she says. Hustle culture tells new entrepreneurs that there's never enough work done or material made. But Casey is a reminder to fellow creators "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 master a variety of things simultaneously when you're only beginning."

She recommends starting with a signature offering before building up on that. "I began with the Blaze Intensive, my first course, and that is my main course. Entrepreneurs need to figure out what their distinctive offering needs to be, their goals for being known for, before adding many other things."

There's lots to think about at first: your messaging targeting audience, your technologies, marketing, customer satisfaction. Once you've mastered it? Then you are able to open the doors to explore a lot more.

"I am convinced that we have the capability to achieve millions of things. Maybe in 200 years. Because Blaze is still around. But that doesn't need to happen today."

We're thrilled to be being a part of the journey of Casey and can't wait to see what's next for Casey as well as the BLAZE Group in the coming year, in 200 years down the road as well as all the time between.