How Casey Richardson is bringing access to information, community and capital to Black female entrepreneurs

Find out the ways Casey Richardson used her experience of tech financing to establish BLAZE Group and empower a network composed of Black women who are entrepreneurs.

Two and a half year ago, Ariel Richardson's world was different. She was a resident of the Bay Area and worked for Bank of America, structuring multimillion-dollar loans for tech companies. But she found that she was the only Black woman on the team. Even during her ten years being in finance, she did not see any funding allocated to an Black business.

"It taught me that not only wasn't the wisdom not getting there, but the knowledge wasn't reaching my community," Casey recalls.

In October of 2020, Casey decided to change that.

With her extensive experience in the field of tech financing and business, she decided to quit the 9-to-5 grind and started the BLAZE Group -- Building Leaders & Accepting Zero Excuses which aims to bring knowledge, mentorship and a community for the historically underserved community of Black female 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 the app, retreats in person, a semiannual virtual summit, and proprietary research conducted by Casey as well as her international team.

How did she do it in only two years? A combination of providing resources that meet a specific needs that are not being met, deliberate development of audiences, and selecting the appropriate tools and team.

From corporate finance specialist to game-changing entrepreneur

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur full-time, Casey worked as a financial professional in the field of structuring billion-dollar loan agreements for tech firms. She was always up-to-date with technological advancements, but she also saw disparity between her colleagues and the companies they were financing. "I was always the only Black female in the group. It showed me that my education, my knowledge as well as my experiences were not accessible in my community."

Black women make up the fastest-growing category of entrepreneurs within the United States -- but only 3percent of them own "mature" enterprises, and the majority of entrepreneurs self-fund startup capital. There's a significant gap regarding the amount of funding and other resources accessible to Black female entrepreneurs as compared to their white male counterparts.

The summer of 2020, Casey took part in the demonstrations against police violence. The community she felt and the strength she found which were lacking in the routine of her job. "I felt more alive protesting that I have ever felt during all my years in the sexy business," she says. "I was rubbing shoulders with the people who were bold enough and brave enough to make decisions that really have a bearing on the world."

By October, she had come to terms at the end of the road for the finance department at her company -and not because of the fact that she had been successful and was, but due to the fact because of that. What else could she utilize her expertise? What could she do to use her expertise in tech and finance to assist other Black women succeed?

"I'm extremely comfortable inside these four walls. Yet, I'd place money in my own pocket any day to think that I'd be able to take up more space in the world. So I quit."

She quit her job, moved to Africa and began building BLAZE Group, a location-independent firm that empowers Black women from all over the world to do the exact identical thing.

BLAZE Grupo is specifically targeting entrepreneurs during their first three years of business building that Casey calls"the "entrepreneurial stage."

"BLAZE exists to really help clients understand how they can lead their businesses with a way that keeps the company going. This is done with technology-enabled solutions. We are one of them," she adds.

In order to serve this audience, Casey had to build genuine relationships with them.

What are the reasons you should create your own email lists (and the best way to begin)

Casey was aware that she would like to design a high-end business online course from the jump -- but it was crucial to create an following before she launched her first 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 specific goal in mind that was to create an email list.

Why are email subscribers better than those on social media? "I knew I wanted to build as well as maintain my own connections," explains Casey.

"On Instagram, you don't own the relationship. You don't know what their email address is or if their handle changes it's best to have a clue as to what the current handle is," Casey says.

"I wanted to own relationships , and get in front of them often to build that brand awareness and confidence."

Reaching out to her existing network

15-minute discovery calls with her target group of customers

1. Reaching out to her existing contacts

There's lots of guidance out there about how to expand your following, and many creators think that their initial customers would be people who have never heard of their site via social media. If you create the process from scratch it's missing a huge potential source of support this includes your family and friends!

Casey approached everyone in her circle, letting them know she was starting a newsletter about entrepreneurship and asking if they'd like to sign up.

"I started by going through the most recent texts, Instagram DMs, Twitter Facebook... I put a timer on and then did as many of them as I could, in five-minute intervals," she describes.

Many friends and family have taken Casey and her idea as she started to create an email database that would last up to her product launch.

2. 15-minute discovery calls to her intended public

And the best way to connect with the people you meet is to talk to them.

Casey posted on social media, sharing that she had created an online course that would help Black women learn about business management. "If I can talk to you for 15 minutes , and inquire about anything, do let me know," she added.

She was aware that those who made a phone call with her were her target group: Black women interested in entrepreneurial endeavors.

Instead of discussing course content or marketing herself, Casey asked questions like, "What keeps you up all late at night? What is your biggest fear? Within a year, where you want to become?" She used the opportunity to help women feel valued and respected. She also realized what was the most crucial issue to address in her course material.

"Just making space and making them feel safe is a big part that makes the difference."

"By the end of most of these calls, people asked, "Can I purchase the course right now What do I need to buy?" Casey remembers. It was still in the development phase of the course, but she collected their email addresses and promised to let them know the day it was launched.

Once the course was ready, she promoted it to her email list that she had created using these two strategies. "There was already this excitement among all those who had signed up. They were ready to enroll."

The result? 80% of the women she talked to on those initial calls converted into customers.

After more than two years, Casey still offers free discovery calls in her sales and marketing process. If potential clients have questions about this Blaze Business Intensive, they are able to arrange the free Perfect Fit call to talk with Casey.

"On average, it requires five follow-ups before closing a deal. I don't think enough entrepreneurs are aware of this," says Casey. "I utilize these calls to really close the deal."

Working with the appropriate equipment and the right people can help Casey grow her business

Presently, BLAZE offers online courses and masterclasses and group coaching programmes and an online community. webinars and the TablexTribe mobile application  as well as a semi-annual online summit (a 2022 Webby Award honoree 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 love?

Casey is putting together an international team that helps her expand different areas of her company, such as:

Blogger and content marketer located in Nigeria

A junior consultant with a base in London

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

A executive assistant from Kenya

A research analyst who publishes research papers across various industries. She also helps BLAZE find new consulting clients

Production assistant to the semi-annual Blaze Virtual Summit

She does not just recruit new employees She also hires equipment as well.

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

The growth in revenues does not necessarily indicate that your business is growing, particularly if you're doing more work or 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 that your revenue increases, your bottom line doesn't change."

"Scale is when you are able to increase revenue, and your expenses and the time that you invest do not change much."

Previous experience in tech taught Casey how powerful no-code tools as well as integrations and automations are. When she created BLAZE Group, she leveraged low- and no-code solutions such as Zapier to make sure everything was running efficiently.

How Casey uses for her courses her community and downloads

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

Techniques such as these allow Casey "more time to focus on 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, with . It's a self-paced, six-week program that focuses on "Business Building, Business Management and business Excellence for Today's Black Woman."

"It was completely no-code. It was actually designed by me back when was doing the 14-day free trials," Casey remembers. "I created the whole course within this timeframe and then started selling it after the trial expired so I could be immediately profitable."

(Want to emulate Casey's success? Sign up for the free plan  for all the time it takes to get your course content installed, and then upgrade when you're ready to sell.)

The course is part the Blaze Knowledge Academy  an assortment of business education resources Casey created on her website. The Academy is also home to:

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

Her community on the internet, called the Blaze Women's Network  has nearly 7,000 members

"People have the option of joining in the Blaze Women's Network absolutely free," Casey explains. Virtual coworking is what we do as well as host webinars and then that funnels people into the paid courses."

Alongside introducing clients to useful products, Casey's community gives members a friendly and supportive place to network with fellow founders.

"It used to be that  content was the king of the hill, however, now the trend is shifting to the notion that 'community is King. Many are looking for community-centric programs... and the ones that aren't perceived as spam appear to be genuine."

The experience she had with the tool has provided Casey the guidelines for what you should look for when choosing a no-code creator tool. "You are a highly flexible system that's allowed me to do some end-to-end solutions on your platform," Casey explains. "And I've used the similar scorecard when assessing tools because I want to grow to the system."

"It truly is an amazing thing to implement strategies that transform the world with ways that are affordable and easily accessible to the people that are disadvantaged today."

Do not try to accomplish everything all at once

With all the accomplishments Casey has achieved 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 least when you first get started.

"Keep the primary thing in mind that is the most important thing" she says. The Hustle culture informs entrepreneurs who are just starting out that there's never enough work to be done or content made. But Casey encourages other creators to remember "There's only one limit to what you can accomplish regardless of how great you may be."

"You aren't required to master every single thing right from the beginning It's going to be really, really hard to get everything perfect simultaneously when you're only starting."

She suggests starting with an initial signature offer before building up upon that. "I first started by taking my Blaze Intensive, my first course, and that is still my signature course. Entrepreneurs need to figure out what their distinctive offering needs to be, the things they would like to be known for, before adding an array of other offerings."

There's a lot to navigate initially: your message and target audience, technologies, marketing, customer satisfaction. What happens once you've done it? You open up the potential to do so much more.

"I am convinced that we have the capability to achieve a million things. In 200 years, maybe. Since Blaze will still be around. But that doesn't need to take place today."

We're so glad to be an integral part of Casey's story, and we can't wait to see what's next for Casey and BLAZE Group -- this year, 200 years from now and every day between.