What is it that Casey Richardson is bringing access to knowledge, community, as well as capital Black female entrepreneurs

Find out the ways Casey Richardson used her experience in tech funding to found BLAZE Group and empower a group composed of Black women who are entrepreneurs.

Two and a half year ago, Richardson's world was differently. She lived in the Bay Area and worked for Bank of America, structuring large-scale loans to tech firms. But she found that she was often the sole Black female member of the team -- and in over ten years of being within finance, she never saw funding given to any Black business.

"It proved to me that not only was the knowledge not getting there, but that the capital was not being distributed to my communities," Casey recalls.

In October 2020, Casey decided to change that.

Based on her experiences in tech funding and business, she left the 9-to-5 grind and started the BLAZE Group which is a nonprofit organization that focuses on building leaders and embracing zero Excuses -- to provide information, guidance, and community to the previously under-served communities of Black women who are entrepreneurs.

Then, 2023 is here: BLAZE Group offers online courses via the Blaze Knowledge Academy, group coaching and an online community an app, on-site retreats, a semiannual virtual summit and exclusive research, all led by Casey and her team of global experts.

How could she have done it in only two years? A combination of providing tools that satisfy a certain unmet need, a deliberate development of audiences, and selecting the appropriate tools and team.

From corporate finance professional to the game-changing entrepreneur

Prior to becoming a full-time entrepreneur, Casey was a finance professional, structuring multibillion-dollar loans for tech companies. It kept her on the cutting edge of technological advancements, but she also saw disparity between her colleagues and the companies they funded. "I was always the only Black female among the members of the team. It showed the world that I had a degree level, my expertise and my experience were unavailable in my local communities."

Black women make up the largest category of entrepreneurs within the United States -- but just 3% of them have "mature" businesses, and 61% of them self-fund their start-up capital. There's a huge gap between the resources and funding available to Black women entrepreneurs compared to their white male counterparts.

In the summer of 2020 Casey took part in the demonstrations against police brutality. The community she felt and the strength she found that she had not felt in everyday work. "I found myself more inspired and engaged in protests than I had during all my years of doing those sexy deals," she says. "I was rubbing shoulders with the people who were bold enough and brave enough to lead things which actually matter."

At the end of October, she was done at the end of the road for the finance department at her company -- not in spite of how successful she was and was, but due to the fact because of that. What else could she utilize her expertise? How could she use her experience in technology and finance to help other Black women be successful?

"I'm really good inside of the four walls. However, I'd be willing to put money on myself any day and believe I could take up even more space on earth. So I quit."

She left her job, relocated to Africa and began developing BLAZE Group, a location-independent firm that empowers Black women across the globe to achieve the similar thing.

BLAZE The Group specifically targets entrepreneurs in their first three years of building their business that Casey describes as the "entrepreneurial stage."

"BLAZE is here to help clients understand how they can lead their businesses with a way that keeps their businesses going. We do this by providing solutions that are tech-powered, and we're one of them." she says.

To serve that audience, Casey had to build authentic relationships with them.

What are the reasons you should create an email list (and the best way to begin)

Casey knew that she wanted to develop a highly business-focused online course straight from the start however, it was crucial to create an audience before she launched her first product.

Casey wanted to ensure that this didn't be the case with the debut of BLAZE's initial product. Thus, she approached her first activities to build an audience with a goal that was clear of building an email list.

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

"On Instagram, you don't have the right to manage your relationship. You're not sure what their email address is, and when their handle changes, you better hope you have a clue as to what the new handle is," Casey says.

"I wanted to own relations and get in front of them regularly to create that reputation and establish trust."

Inquiring about her existing networks

15 minute discovery calls with her target audience

1. Contacting her current network

There's plenty of information online on how you can expand your following, and most creators believe that their first customers would be people who have never heard of them on 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 approached everyone within her circle to let people know she'd started an entrepreneur newsletter and asked if they'd like to sign up.

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

A lot of family and friends took Casey and her idea, and she began building an email database that would last towards her launch.

2. 15 minute discovery calls with her target public

The best method to connect with the people you meet is to talk to them.

Casey posted on Facebook, where she announced her plans to create a course to help Black women understand business management. "If you'd like me to speak to you for 15 minutes and ask questions, let me know," she added.

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

Instead of chatting about course content or selling her own, Casey asked questions like, "What keeps you up in the midnight? What's your most feared anxiety? In one year, where do you wanna have to be?" She used the opportunity to help women feel valued and respected. She also learned what was most important to address in her course material.

"Just holding space for that and helping them feel secure is a big component of the magic."

"By the conclusion of the majority of those calls, they asked, "Can I buy the course now Do you have a discount on the course?" Casey remembers. She was still building the course but had already collected their email addresses and promised to let them know the day it was launched.

After the course was completed, she marketed it to the email list that she had created using these two strategies. "There was already an anticipation from everyone. They were eager to sign up."

The results? 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 may schedule an Free Fit Call. Fit phone call with Casey.

"On average, it takes five follow-ups to close a deal. I don't think enough entrepreneurs realize that," says Casey. "I use those calls to close the deal."

How working with the right tools and people helps Casey expand her company

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

How is she able to manage everything with so much intentionality and compassion?

Casey has set up an international team that helps her scale different parts of her enterprise, which includes:

A content marketer and blogger located 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

An executive assistant in Kenya

A research analyst who publishes research paper across industries, helping BLAZE find new consulting clients

A production assistant for the semiannual Blaze Virtual Summit

She does not just recruit new employees She also hires equipment, too.

"I hire tools with a quickness," Casey laughs. "And I like it because it's the size."

A rise in revenues doesn't necessarily indicate that your business has grown, particularly when you're working harder or spending more money to achieve that growth.

"The rise in revenue must not be your primary objective," explains Casey. "If your costs are rising in the same way that your revenue increases then your bottom line does not alter."

"Scale is when you are able to boost revenue but your expenses and the time that you invest barely change."

Experience in the tech industry provided Casey how effective no-code instruments as well as integrations and automations are. As she built BLAZE Group, she leveraged the low-cost and no-code options such as and Zapier to ensure that everything ran efficiently.

How Casey uses for her courses, community, and downloads

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

Techniques such as these allow Casey "more space to complete deliberate things" for example, the one-on one meeting with prospective clients.

Casey created her first digital product, called the Blaze Business Intensive online course, with . It's a six-week, self-paced class that focuses on "Business Building, Business Management and the Business Excellence for Today's Black Woman."

"It was completely no-code. I actually built it back during the 14-day free trial," Casey remembers. "I constructed the whole 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 the free plan  and take the time you'll need to get your course content setup, then you can upgrade once you're ready to start selling.)

This course is part of the Blaze Knowledge Academy , a collection of resources for business education Casey developed on her site. The Academy additionally includes:

Numerous entrepreneurship masterclasses. Many of which she gives to participants for no cost.

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

"People can join in the Blaze Women's Network absolutely free," Casey explains. We do virtual coworking sessions, I host webinars, after which we funnel users to the paid courses."

In addition to introducing customers to useful products and services, the Casey's Community provides members with a an inviting and welcoming space to connect with other founders.

"It used to be that  content was the king of the hill, however, now the trend is shifting to 'community is king. The people are searching for programs that are centered around community... and the communities that aren't a source of spam come across as genuine."

The experience she had with the tool has provided Casey an idea of the qualities to be looking for in the tool for creating no-code. "You have an extremely flexible system that's allowed me to develop end-to end solutions on your system," she describes. "And I've taken that similar scorecard when assessing the tools I use because I want them to grow using the system."

"It truly is gorgeous to utilize solutions like to impact the entire world with ways that are affordable and accessible to those who are marginalized today."

Don't try to do everything all at once

Given all of Casey's accomplishments within just two years of running BLAZE, her advice to new creators might come as a surprise: Do less -- at minimum, at the time you get started.

"Keep the primary thing in mind, the main thing," she says. Hustle culture teaches new entrepreneurs that it's impossible to finish all the work or material created. But Casey is a reminder to fellow creators "There's only the amount you have to do regardless of how talented you may be."

"You don't have to do everything right out of the box, and it's going to be extremely, very difficult to master a variety of things simultaneously when you're only getting started."

She recommends starting with a signature offering, then building on that. "I first started with my Blaze Intensive, my first course. It remains my favorite course. Entrepreneurs must 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 plenty to consider at first: your messaging and target audience, technology, marketing, and the customer's satisfaction. Once you've mastered it? It opens the door to do so much more.

"I am convinced that we have the capacity to accomplish millions of things. Perhaps in the next 200 years. Because Blaze will be there. It doesn't mean that it has to happen today."

We're thrilled to have been a part of Casey's journey We can't get enough to see what's next for Casey and the BLAZE Group -- in this year, 200 years down the road, and all the time in between.