March 21, 2022 • 18 mins
Co-Founder and CEO behind SweatPack, Umama Kibria has been honored as one of Forbes 30 under 30 Leaders for her impact on fitness, technology, and community building.
Listen here as she talks about a community before she launched her own fitness brand, SweatPack. She shares the value of exploring customer service programs for businesses, the importance of networking, and best practices to find grants for your business.
Host IG:@itstanyatime
Guest IG: @umamakibria
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey money Movers, Welcome
to another episode of the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood.
(00:23):
We're going to dive right in today and talk to
the CEO and founder of the savvy startups sweat Pack
and the personal fitness brands Small and Strong dot Co.
She's been honored as one of the Forbes thirty thirty
Leaders for her impact on fitness, technology and community building,
Atlanta's Influencer of the Year, and a highly sought after
(00:44):
social media community motivator and marketing consultant. Some of her
clients have included Nike, Adidas, under Armour, Mercedes, Benz Stadium,
and Bumble, just to name a few. Money Moves family,
please welcome the Small and Strong U. Mama Gabria, Hi, then, Hi,
Thank you so much for having me on here today. Tania.
(01:04):
I'm so excited to talk. I'm so excited to have
you here. As in Atlanta native and resident and entrepreneur,
it is a pleasure, pleasure, pleasure to have you on
the podcast today and I look forward to hearing and
understanding more about your journey and what you've been building.
Thank you. I'm so excited to here. You know, you're
from Atlanta, and we have so many great voices that
(01:24):
are really speaking to how much power we have down here. Yes,
Atlanta is an incredible city and so great to build
in and everyone has their own journey. But ou mama,
tell us how did you get your start? You've built
an incredible company in sweat Pack. Where did the idea
for entrepreneurship, especially in the technology and fitness space come from? Yeah,
(01:47):
I think it all kind of traces back to my
roots of my very unique name U mama. The root
of it Uma actually means community, and I'm a first
generation Bengali Muslim America in and watching my dad throw
these huge community events to bring together his family and
really keep his cultural roots alive. Uh, really taught me
(02:10):
the value of community. But I had a very hard
upbringing with my culture and really trying to understand it.
So I used fitness clubs sports as a way of
really trying to find myself and trying to really develop
these entrepreneurial skills that I natively had. So um I
(02:30):
graduated from Georgia State University with a marketing degree. I've
worked at several agencies and startups, but I always knew
I could be that person that puts on the white
hat and could do everything right, that chief everything officer.
But it wasn't until after college, when I started playing
sports and started working out that I recognized I found
(02:52):
this power in me that helped me totally rely on myself,
helped me learn how to be disciplined, committed, and find community.
But as I was playing the sports and working out,
I recognized there was this big gap in the industry
with people that wanted to meet other people, but then
(03:15):
also the hardest part, which is staying committed and consistent
with fitness. So I decided to emerge the best of
both worlds. Take the model from the sports league model
of weekly group activities and being able to try out
different things and bring it into the fitness industry. So
now you don't just join a sports team or a
(03:36):
soccer team football team. You can join a yoga club
that meets up every Sunday with the same six people
for six weeks and um being able to use technology
to really become this pipeline in marketplace opportunity for Jim's
studios as well as for mom. I love that As
someone who is I've always been super into fitness, athletics,
(03:58):
running sports, and any sort of like exercise and fitness programs.
I've actually found that some of my longest friendships have
been formed around sports or training together in this So
there's something so special about that, especially when you be able,
you're able to connect on a marketplace like this like
minded people. So that is such a brilliant idea and
(04:19):
I'm so glad to hear that, And it really sucks
for the non athletic people that were like, I want
to have that community, but I don't have an athletic
vote in my body. So it's a really great way
to just manage the whole team aspect of it, right, communications,
connecting with people, and getting rewarded. So definitely a fun atmosphere.
So let's talk about what it's like to build a
(04:41):
company and take the leap into entrepreneurship here in Atlanta
in particular. Um, So you had this great idea, you
knew that it had sort of worked for you and
you can envision it. What were the steps that you
took to really get this product off the ground and
get it in front of people and customers. Yeah. So
the number one advice I give people, which is when
(05:03):
you're building an m v P, a minimal viable products
to start with the most free option, which is building
a community using social media as your customer discovery platform.
So for me, when I first came up with idea
in two thousand and fifteen, platforms like class pass and
peerfit still didn't really exist, so there wasn't really any
(05:26):
big first movers in the fitness tech industry. Those are
all building. I knew that the market needed this sweatpack
model at some point, but it wasn't quite ready yet.
So I did this first by starting a marketing agency,
building the trust on the B two B side, picking
up these brands first with managing their brands, hosting their events,
(05:49):
managing their influencers, and showing them that I knew how
to build these repetitive communities that came back and help
them increase that retention rate. On the flip side, I
was building the community in the consumer market with posting events,
creating content, showing them all these gyms. One cool fact
(06:11):
about me is something I did for myself personally was
I worked at it over four hundred and fifty seven
gyms across the world, so totally selfish. At first, I
was doing it because I had just gotten laid off,
I had just gotten broken up with, and I was
trying to figure out a place to live. So I
(06:32):
had all these different factors just like changing in my life,
and I knew if I could go into a new
environment like a gym with this disciplined mindset and then
the backbone of my community, that I could do anything. Wow.
I always recommend people date yourself, figure out what's that
(06:53):
once a week activity that you can do that you
can really dive into the background business of build that network,
to build that m v P, which is the community
and content. And then three joint accelerator programs at all
the amazing free resources in at Wlanta. I cannot tell
(07:13):
you I would not be here where I am today
without Atlanta Tech Village, without Goody Nation, without the G
s U E and I program. All of these programs
gave me the foundation, the investments, non diluted to get
started and amplify what I was doing. Oh, I love
to hear you say that, because oftentimes we'll have so
(07:34):
many people in the Money Means audience. So many people
just who are listening in and trying to figure out
how do I start my business? And what you gave
just such tangible tips here join an accelerator program because
no matter what city you are in, no mautter, how
big tech is or how small, or even if you're online,
there's so many different access points for education UM where
(07:57):
you can really start better fitting your business. And you
said something that was really interesting to me, Mama. You
talked about customer discovery, and I wanted can you tell
us like what customer discovery is and some of the
knowledge that you learned about your own customer base as
you were building Sweatpack, because I think this is really
important for people to understand and learn from the steps
(08:19):
that you've made along the way. Yeah. So customer discovery,
and my simple definition is figuring out what problem is
actually wrong with your customers and solving for that. So
I went through UM both the A T d C
Customer Discovery Program as well as Atlanta Tech Villages Customer
Discovery Program, and I learned that it's about going out
(08:42):
and actually talking to your customers, figuring out what are
our let's say three to five things that we are
guessing is the problem um and then our our hypothesis,
and then testing those hypothesis by actually talking to people.
What it recognized with a lot of tech founders UM
(09:03):
and failed founder stories is they go right to this
is my problem. I'm going to build a product. Customers
will come no, no, no. We have way too many
resources to help us now to actually test if the
product is needed and if our certain solution is the
one that people want and that we can iterate on
(09:23):
right right. Oh, thank you for sharing that, because I
feel like that is a huge obstacle for a lot
of early stage founders because they've got this idea and
they think their idea is the idea. But the key
is to figure out is your idea something that people
will pay for? Is it? You know, a pain point
for so many others and that helps to inform your
market etcetera and so much more, and it's really best
(09:45):
to find that early and that again, like you mentioned,
actually informs you on what your m v P is exactly.
And there's so many tools out there. If you're not
comfortable maybe one on one interviews, use these. Polling feature
is on LinkedIn on Twitter, on Instagram and collect all
that data and use that to actually build and iterate.
(10:07):
I've learned from my investors, in my mentors that that's
actually what got them to trust me from the beginning,
because they knew I was obsessed with my customers because
they were genuinely my friends, and I was out to
solve their problem. Oh. I love that too, because Sweatpack
is heavily rooted in people gathering together, in forming communities.
And I love the way you sort of viewed it
(10:28):
because you were like, I'm gonna go out, I'm going
to survey people and I'm going to bring them together,
and you you looked at it that that as like
marketing and marketing and targeting your customers. So that understanding
I think has served you really well. But can you
talk about the pandemic has put a serious stamper on
the ability for people to gather safely. How have you
(10:49):
managed to pivot your business to maintain success during this
really trying time. Yeah, and I'm gonna give it to
you straight, Daniel, Um. The pandemic was rough. A lot
of my startup founder friends have shut down, have had
to totally pivot their business models, and even Sweatpack had
(11:10):
to pivot a lot. What I'm grateful for is number one,
my co founder and I have a trusted relationship that's
rooted in solving the problem. So, as you know, Sweatpack
is all about bringing people together in person. So last
March we really had to sit down and first my
co founder and I, Marvin, had to ask, what is
(11:32):
it that we're actually solving for. Is it we are
solving to help people connect in person? Or is it
we're actually just trying to help people get connected and
be consistent And do we need to be in person
to be able to do that. No, So we took
a one month break to just first check in on
(11:53):
ourselves because I think it's really important as founders to
first remember you are the heart and soul of the business,
and if you are not taken care of financially and personally,
you will not be able to continue forward with the
momentum you need. So we took that break to internalize
it too. We got back to our customers, back into
that customer discovery mode. What do you guys need right
(12:15):
now from us and our teams and are amazing community
of over five thousand people reached out and they were like,
we still need these groups more than ever. We need assistance,
but more than ever, we need solutions for working out.
So we quickly shifted to the Sweatpacks Olympics model. Olympics
(12:35):
are supposed to happened last year, so we kind of
played on that. And what happened was we doubled and revenue,
doubled memberships and grew to over twenty five cities during
the pandemic. So it was it was amazing. And I'm
not going to say that that momentum is still alive
(12:56):
and well right now because we are going through another
pivot right now bringing in our B two B line.
But you know what what I've learned is it comes
down to that co founders relationship and staying connected with
the community for their actual needs. Um. The other thing
we discovered was that our gyms and our trainers more
than ever needed us, so we fueled more of that
(13:19):
B two B pipeline um and doing more of the
marketing activations for them and building the technology that they
actually needed to get online to get customers. So as
you evolve and iterate, you figure out what problems are
new and how solve them. Oh, this is so great,
and there's so many questions that I could ask, but
let's go back to you know, you're an early you're
(13:40):
an early stage founder. Um, did you guys raise money
for this or did you bootstrap all on your own
to get to the point where you are now? We bootstraps. Um.
We have been a revenue generating since day one, So
definitely grateful for that. UM. We I definitely took out
a personal loan through Cabbage. Shout out to Cabbage for
(14:01):
helping me be able another Atlanta unicorn company, another female founder. Yes,
so it definitely took advantage of that. UM. But also
we received a lot of grants, over fifty dollars in
non diluted so you know, once again, it comes down
to the opportunities that are available out there and if
(14:24):
you're willing to do the work and willing to network
enough to be known for those opportunities. Oh my gosh, Mama,
if this was a TikTok, I wish there was like
the ability to caption all the great things you're saying,
because number one, you know you're the first thing I
want everyone to understand, especially from the standpoint of an investor,
is the best money you can get is revenue. It's
(14:45):
not investment money. Revenue is the best money and testimony
to the future success of your company because if people
are willing to pay for your idea, you have something.
And secondly, you're like I had to take out a
person alone, I had to bootstrap, but you really focused
on growing revenue, which is really really amazing. And the
second part there the grants, because I also think there's
(15:06):
this narrative out there where people think there's no money,
there's no capital, and women can't get capital. Well now
more than ever, it's out there, and if you have
a business that's thriving, that has revenue, like grab it,
grab it exactly. And I think sometimes what the problem
is is people don't know how to find these grants
and resources. So my recommendation is to create a profile
(15:31):
on five Yes f SX at S six it's weird, Yeah,
create a profile there. Just subscribe to newsletters, right like
um unsubscribed to Atlanta, tach Village and Goody Nation, which
always is sending out opportunities. UM you know the Ambition Fund.
I know you guys did a lot of really great
(15:52):
work collaborating with A three C and UM a lot
of pitch competitions, So get out there. I know it's
a virtual world now, so even more it's easier to
get access to well, that's what I love. I think
it's kind of democratized, you know, being able to pitch
and even meet investors. Because once upon a time you
had to get on the plane, you had to go
(16:13):
to the valley Da da da da dah where your
prefer vest acts that act. But now you can do
it through a zoom and there's so many more people
who are looking for capital and looking for great business
to invest in. So it's created a lot more opportunity
I think exactly. My number one advice to be able
to get in front of these people even quicker and
(16:33):
let them know who you are first is to start
developing a personal brand. A lot of people don't recognize
that the personal brand is a key access to your
sales fund. I'm not saying become an influencer. I'm saying,
become a thought leader in your space so people know
who you are before you even reach out to them,
(16:53):
because they can see exactly what your momentum is, what
your knowledge in the spaces, and then people can refer
you easily to opportunity. Absolutely, people pay attention to what
you put out, and especially if you're passionate about or
you have some sort of detailed knowledge base like, people
will come back more and more to be like, Okay, Mama,
(17:14):
I know she's building community, she's into fits, and they
come back to and pay attention to what you're saying. Mama,
seems like you have a lot to offer by way
of advice, and would you mind sticking around with us
for our deep dive to try and offer some more
of that wisdom to our Money Moves audience. Of course,
how can I help you? Guys? Alright, family, make sure
you stay tuned to the Money Moves Podcast powered by
(17:36):
Greenwood for some more amazing advice from Mama coming up next.
Thank you so much for tuning in Money Moves audience.
If you want more or a recap of this episode,
please go to the bank Greenwood dot com and check
out the Money Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an
I heart radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by
(17:59):
sun Wise Media, Inc. For more podcasts on I heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts from
Hey money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey money Movers, Welcome
to another episode of the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood.
(00:23):
We're going to dive right in today and talk to
the CEO and founder of the savvy startups sweat Pack
and the personal fitness brands Small and Strong dot Co.
She's been honored as one of the Forbes thirty thirty
Leaders for her impact on fitness, technology and community building,
Atlanta's Influencer of the Year, and a highly sought after
(00:44):
social media community motivator and marketing consultant. Some of her
clients have included Nike, Adidas, under Armour, Mercedes, Benz Stadium,
and Bumble, just to name a few. Money Moves family,
please welcome the Small and Strong U. Mama Gabria, Hi, then, Hi,
Thank you so much for having me on here today. Tania.
(01:04):
I'm so excited to talk. I'm so excited to have
you here. As in Atlanta native and resident and entrepreneur,
it is a pleasure, pleasure, pleasure to have you on
the podcast today and I look forward to hearing and
understanding more about your journey and what you've been building.
Thank you. I'm so excited to here. You know, you're
from Atlanta, and we have so many great voices that
(01:24):
are really speaking to how much power we have down here. Yes,
Atlanta is an incredible city and so great to build
in and everyone has their own journey. But ou mama,
tell us how did you get your start? You've built
an incredible company in sweat Pack. Where did the idea
for entrepreneurship, especially in the technology and fitness space come from? Yeah,
(01:47):
I think it all kind of traces back to my
roots of my very unique name U mama. The root
of it Uma actually means community, and I'm a first
generation Bengali Muslim America in and watching my dad throw
these huge community events to bring together his family and
really keep his cultural roots alive. Uh, really taught me
(02:10):
the value of community. But I had a very hard
upbringing with my culture and really trying to understand it.
So I used fitness clubs sports as a way of
really trying to find myself and trying to really develop
these entrepreneurial skills that I natively had. So um I
(02:30):
graduated from Georgia State University with a marketing degree. I've
worked at several agencies and startups, but I always knew
I could be that person that puts on the white
hat and could do everything right, that chief everything officer.
But it wasn't until after college, when I started playing
sports and started working out that I recognized I found
(02:52):
this power in me that helped me totally rely on myself,
helped me learn how to be disciplined, committed, and find community.
But as I was playing the sports and working out,
I recognized there was this big gap in the industry
with people that wanted to meet other people, but then
(03:15):
also the hardest part, which is staying committed and consistent
with fitness. So I decided to emerge the best of
both worlds. Take the model from the sports league model
of weekly group activities and being able to try out
different things and bring it into the fitness industry. So
now you don't just join a sports team or a
(03:36):
soccer team football team. You can join a yoga club
that meets up every Sunday with the same six people
for six weeks and um being able to use technology
to really become this pipeline in marketplace opportunity for Jim's
studios as well as for mom. I love that As
someone who is I've always been super into fitness, athletics,
(03:58):
running sports, and any sort of like exercise and fitness programs.
I've actually found that some of my longest friendships have
been formed around sports or training together in this So
there's something so special about that, especially when you be able,
you're able to connect on a marketplace like this like
minded people. So that is such a brilliant idea and
(04:19):
I'm so glad to hear that, And it really sucks
for the non athletic people that were like, I want
to have that community, but I don't have an athletic
vote in my body. So it's a really great way
to just manage the whole team aspect of it, right, communications,
connecting with people, and getting rewarded. So definitely a fun atmosphere.
So let's talk about what it's like to build a
(04:41):
company and take the leap into entrepreneurship here in Atlanta
in particular. Um, So you had this great idea, you
knew that it had sort of worked for you and
you can envision it. What were the steps that you
took to really get this product off the ground and
get it in front of people and customers. Yeah. So
the number one advice I give people, which is when
(05:03):
you're building an m v P, a minimal viable products
to start with the most free option, which is building
a community using social media as your customer discovery platform.
So for me, when I first came up with idea
in two thousand and fifteen, platforms like class pass and
peerfit still didn't really exist, so there wasn't really any
(05:26):
big first movers in the fitness tech industry. Those are
all building. I knew that the market needed this sweatpack
model at some point, but it wasn't quite ready yet.
So I did this first by starting a marketing agency,
building the trust on the B two B side, picking
up these brands first with managing their brands, hosting their events,
(05:49):
managing their influencers, and showing them that I knew how
to build these repetitive communities that came back and help
them increase that retention rate. On the flip side, I
was building the community in the consumer market with posting events,
creating content, showing them all these gyms. One cool fact
(06:11):
about me is something I did for myself personally was
I worked at it over four hundred and fifty seven
gyms across the world, so totally selfish. At first, I
was doing it because I had just gotten laid off,
I had just gotten broken up with, and I was
trying to figure out a place to live. So I
(06:32):
had all these different factors just like changing in my life,
and I knew if I could go into a new
environment like a gym with this disciplined mindset and then
the backbone of my community, that I could do anything. Wow.
I always recommend people date yourself, figure out what's that
(06:53):
once a week activity that you can do that you
can really dive into the background business of build that network,
to build that m v P, which is the community
and content. And then three joint accelerator programs at all
the amazing free resources in at Wlanta. I cannot tell
(07:13):
you I would not be here where I am today
without Atlanta Tech Village, without Goody Nation, without the G
s U E and I program. All of these programs
gave me the foundation, the investments, non diluted to get
started and amplify what I was doing. Oh, I love
to hear you say that, because oftentimes we'll have so
(07:34):
many people in the Money Means audience. So many people
just who are listening in and trying to figure out
how do I start my business? And what you gave
just such tangible tips here join an accelerator program because
no matter what city you are in, no mautter, how
big tech is or how small, or even if you're online,
there's so many different access points for education UM where
(07:57):
you can really start better fitting your business. And you
said something that was really interesting to me, Mama. You
talked about customer discovery, and I wanted can you tell
us like what customer discovery is and some of the
knowledge that you learned about your own customer base as
you were building Sweatpack, because I think this is really
important for people to understand and learn from the steps
(08:19):
that you've made along the way. Yeah. So customer discovery,
and my simple definition is figuring out what problem is
actually wrong with your customers and solving for that. So
I went through UM both the A T d C
Customer Discovery Program as well as Atlanta Tech Villages Customer
Discovery Program, and I learned that it's about going out
(08:42):
and actually talking to your customers, figuring out what are
our let's say three to five things that we are
guessing is the problem um and then our our hypothesis,
and then testing those hypothesis by actually talking to people.
What it recognized with a lot of tech founders UM
(09:03):
and failed founder stories is they go right to this
is my problem. I'm going to build a product. Customers
will come no, no, no. We have way too many
resources to help us now to actually test if the
product is needed and if our certain solution is the
one that people want and that we can iterate on
(09:23):
right right. Oh, thank you for sharing that, because I
feel like that is a huge obstacle for a lot
of early stage founders because they've got this idea and
they think their idea is the idea. But the key
is to figure out is your idea something that people
will pay for? Is it? You know, a pain point
for so many others and that helps to inform your
market etcetera and so much more, and it's really best
(09:45):
to find that early and that again, like you mentioned,
actually informs you on what your m v P is exactly.
And there's so many tools out there. If you're not
comfortable maybe one on one interviews, use these. Polling feature
is on LinkedIn on Twitter, on Instagram and collect all
that data and use that to actually build and iterate.
(10:07):
I've learned from my investors, in my mentors that that's
actually what got them to trust me from the beginning,
because they knew I was obsessed with my customers because
they were genuinely my friends, and I was out to
solve their problem. Oh. I love that too, because Sweatpack
is heavily rooted in people gathering together, in forming communities.
And I love the way you sort of viewed it
(10:28):
because you were like, I'm gonna go out, I'm going
to survey people and I'm going to bring them together,
and you you looked at it that that as like
marketing and marketing and targeting your customers. So that understanding
I think has served you really well. But can you
talk about the pandemic has put a serious stamper on
the ability for people to gather safely. How have you
(10:49):
managed to pivot your business to maintain success during this
really trying time. Yeah, and I'm gonna give it to
you straight, Daniel, Um. The pandemic was rough. A lot
of my startup founder friends have shut down, have had
to totally pivot their business models, and even Sweatpack had
(11:10):
to pivot a lot. What I'm grateful for is number one,
my co founder and I have a trusted relationship that's
rooted in solving the problem. So, as you know, Sweatpack
is all about bringing people together in person. So last
March we really had to sit down and first my
co founder and I, Marvin, had to ask, what is
(11:32):
it that we're actually solving for. Is it we are
solving to help people connect in person? Or is it
we're actually just trying to help people get connected and
be consistent And do we need to be in person
to be able to do that. No, So we took
a one month break to just first check in on
(11:53):
ourselves because I think it's really important as founders to
first remember you are the heart and soul of the business,
and if you are not taken care of financially and personally,
you will not be able to continue forward with the
momentum you need. So we took that break to internalize
it too. We got back to our customers, back into
that customer discovery mode. What do you guys need right
(12:15):
now from us and our teams and are amazing community
of over five thousand people reached out and they were like,
we still need these groups more than ever. We need assistance,
but more than ever, we need solutions for working out.
So we quickly shifted to the Sweatpacks Olympics model. Olympics
(12:35):
are supposed to happened last year, so we kind of
played on that. And what happened was we doubled and revenue,
doubled memberships and grew to over twenty five cities during
the pandemic. So it was it was amazing. And I'm
not going to say that that momentum is still alive
(12:56):
and well right now because we are going through another
pivot right now bringing in our B two B line.
But you know what what I've learned is it comes
down to that co founders relationship and staying connected with
the community for their actual needs. Um. The other thing
we discovered was that our gyms and our trainers more
than ever needed us, so we fueled more of that
(13:19):
B two B pipeline um and doing more of the
marketing activations for them and building the technology that they
actually needed to get online to get customers. So as
you evolve and iterate, you figure out what problems are
new and how solve them. Oh, this is so great,
and there's so many questions that I could ask, but
let's go back to you know, you're an early you're
(13:40):
an early stage founder. Um, did you guys raise money
for this or did you bootstrap all on your own
to get to the point where you are now? We bootstraps. Um.
We have been a revenue generating since day one, So
definitely grateful for that. UM. We I definitely took out
a personal loan through Cabbage. Shout out to Cabbage for
(14:01):
helping me be able another Atlanta unicorn company, another female founder. Yes,
so it definitely took advantage of that. UM. But also
we received a lot of grants, over fifty dollars in
non diluted so you know, once again, it comes down
to the opportunities that are available out there and if
(14:24):
you're willing to do the work and willing to network
enough to be known for those opportunities. Oh my gosh, Mama,
if this was a TikTok, I wish there was like
the ability to caption all the great things you're saying,
because number one, you know you're the first thing I
want everyone to understand, especially from the standpoint of an investor,
is the best money you can get is revenue. It's
(14:45):
not investment money. Revenue is the best money and testimony
to the future success of your company because if people
are willing to pay for your idea, you have something.
And secondly, you're like I had to take out a
person alone, I had to bootstrap, but you really focused
on growing revenue, which is really really amazing. And the
second part there the grants, because I also think there's
(15:06):
this narrative out there where people think there's no money,
there's no capital, and women can't get capital. Well now
more than ever, it's out there, and if you have
a business that's thriving, that has revenue, like grab it,
grab it exactly. And I think sometimes what the problem
is is people don't know how to find these grants
and resources. So my recommendation is to create a profile
(15:31):
on five Yes f SX at S six it's weird, Yeah,
create a profile there. Just subscribe to newsletters, right like
um unsubscribed to Atlanta, tach Village and Goody Nation, which
always is sending out opportunities. UM you know the Ambition Fund.
I know you guys did a lot of really great
(15:52):
work collaborating with A three C and UM a lot
of pitch competitions, So get out there. I know it's
a virtual world now, so even more it's easier to
get access to well, that's what I love. I think
it's kind of democratized, you know, being able to pitch
and even meet investors. Because once upon a time you
had to get on the plane, you had to go
(16:13):
to the valley Da da da da dah where your
prefer vest acts that act. But now you can do
it through a zoom and there's so many more people
who are looking for capital and looking for great business
to invest in. So it's created a lot more opportunity
I think exactly. My number one advice to be able
to get in front of these people even quicker and
(16:33):
let them know who you are first is to start
developing a personal brand. A lot of people don't recognize
that the personal brand is a key access to your
sales fund. I'm not saying become an influencer. I'm saying,
become a thought leader in your space so people know
who you are before you even reach out to them,
(16:53):
because they can see exactly what your momentum is, what
your knowledge in the spaces, and then people can refer
you easily to opportunity. Absolutely, people pay attention to what
you put out, and especially if you're passionate about or
you have some sort of detailed knowledge base like, people
will come back more and more to be like, Okay, Mama,
(17:14):
I know she's building community, she's into fits, and they
come back to and pay attention to what you're saying. Mama,
seems like you have a lot to offer by way
of advice, and would you mind sticking around with us
for our deep dive to try and offer some more
of that wisdom to our Money Moves audience. Of course,
how can I help you? Guys? Alright, family, make sure
you stay tuned to the Money Moves Podcast powered by
(17:36):
Greenwood for some more amazing advice from Mama coming up next.
Thank you so much for tuning in Money Moves audience.
If you want more or a recap of this episode,
please go to the bank Greenwood dot com and check
out the Money Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an
I heart radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by
(17:59):
sun Wise Media, Inc. For more podcasts on I heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
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