March 3, 2025 • 26 mins
Join Kenny Groom on the Beyond Normal Podcast as he shares how storytelling has shaped Beyond Normal Media. Kenny looks back at how the platform has grown, helping founders tell their tales and inspiring many to start their journey.
Hear about the challenges and victories of black entrepreneurs, the fresh solutions they bring, and why community support is vital for their success. Learn how to create a community that lifts and sustains entrepreneurial spirit.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kenny (00:00):
Hey, everyone.
(00:01):
welcome to the beyond normalpodcast.
I am your host Kenny Groom.
As always, I'm thrilled to haveyou here.
this is a special, episode as weare kicking off, 2025.
With the theme, we've beenspending this entire month as we
figure out, you know, how wemove forward on the theme of
(00:23):
owning your story, leveragingstorytelling, and a lot of ways
as a superpower today, I want toreflect on how this podcast has
evolved from a simple idea.
Into a platform that creates areal measurable community impact
emphasis on that communitythere, whether you've been with
(00:44):
us from the beginning or you'rejust now tuning in, for the very
first time this episode is, hereto, to, to offer up, just some
insights around, how we can,leverage storytelling, to offer
incredible solutions andproducts to the world.
(01:08):
so, you know, without furtherado, I want to dive into, the
story behind Beyond Normal Mediaand the power that storytelling
has had on us as we look todrive, incredible change.
really across the world,starting out, you know, taking
(01:28):
everybody back to the beginning,beyond normal media started out,
really with the core of the,the, the podcast as a passion
project of mine.
I wanted to highlight incredibleunderserved founders, those who
often don't get the spotlightthat they deserve, especially
during the time, where I started2020, businesses were for the
(01:52):
most part.
you know, going out of business,in local communities, just given
the circstance, the very firstfew episodes were, were super
raw.
I didn't have fancy equipment orthe clearest vision at the time.
I just knew, you know, I wantedto be highlighting the stories
(02:13):
of incredible underservedfounders.
well, Really surprised me wasthe initial reaction with, you
know, I can think back to acouple of people reaching out
and just, you know, sayingsomething along the lines of
these founder stories really areinspiring to me.
And it's got me thinking aboutstarting my own business.
(02:35):
I had people in my family, andas folks know, getting family
to, your business, even if, youknow, at first there's not a
monetary element, that's reallydifficult to do.
So I had some really early wins,you know, that let me know, I
need to dig into this a littlebit more.
(02:57):
I need to sink my teeth into thebeast.
Is what I like to say that I didin that moment, I even had a
couple folks, who were guests,well, some of the very first
guests come back to me with thefeedback that they didn't
really, they didn't realize thatothers were, were having these
(03:18):
exact challenges that they werehaving.
A black founders at the time.
A lot of them were figuring out,you know, how to keep their
business open.
some folks were actually,thinking ahead, you know, having
their, their, their end goal inmind, trying to grow their
business.
(03:39):
via investments and justdifferent avenues.
And so, it was, it was reallysurprising.
just to hear the feedback, fromall parties involved, whether it
was listeners or just some ofthe founders that we had as
guests, next up, I want to, Iwant to pivot a little bit into
this community aspect ofstorytelling that I just
(04:02):
mentioned, right.
did.
It's a community, right?
If our listeners are, are givingus feedback along with our
guests, who are the founders,right?
There's this, this really,great, like full circle, effect,
right?
That happens in that, in, in, inour case, right?
And so fast forwarding to today,how, the podcast has grown into
(04:26):
beyond normal media.
More than just a podcast, right?
We're, we're here to amplifyvoices, create visibility for
Black founders and really sparkand continue sparking, important
conversations around equity inbusiness, right?
That's a broad topic.
(04:47):
but there's a lot of meat on thebones there, right.
In terms of, what, at the tablefor, for, those who want to take
a gamble and start theirbusiness looks like, but then
also there's this element of theconsumer that, that the, the end
(05:08):
party that partakes in theproduct or solution, being able
to really determine, where theycan, Put their, put their
dollars, put their resourcestowards to grow the story of
others.
Like, you know, I think of goingto the movies, right?
When you spend that, that moneyon the ticket and then that
(05:29):
movie at that, that money at theconcessions, like you're really
allowing that story that was puttogether to grow even more.
So whether, you know, it's anindie, an indie flick, right.
Something where somebody putsomething together and.
They, they bootstrapped it, orit could be something like a big
(05:50):
Disney blockbuster, right?
All the Marvel movies that, thatwe saw, the avatars of the world
that grow to incredible scale.
the people that.
Attend these movies and spendtheir dollars.
You're you're giving yourresources so that that story can
grow.
Right.
And there's a really greatparallel there for for business
(06:13):
owners in particular, who arestarting out to leverage their
story.
Right.
To give people something thatthey can put their resources
into.
That'll grow.
You know, here's some ways rightwhen it comes to that community
aspect of storytelling to thatwe can consider.
(06:33):
and we'll start out with.
You know, for us, it was aboutconnecting the founders to
resources and I'll dig a littlebit deeper into that now.
Right.
So guests on our podcast,they've shared, you know, how
(06:54):
being featured led to them,having new partnerships.
Maybe they listened to anotherfounder that was a guest who
had, access to different fundingopportunities.
And they had.
And just ultimately, you know,The chance to kind of share and
(07:15):
learn, from others in theprocess, oftentimes being a
founder, you're a team of one.
It's a, it's a really lonelyactivity to go through starting
something on your own, you know,Not all of us are lucky enough
to have somebody as a co founderor just even have a support
system.
Right.
(07:35):
And so there, there's power insharing your story and then
others chiming in and giving youthat feedback.
Like I mentioned, we had, we, wehad some success early on where
the, where the guest, we're,we're, You know, pulling
insights from the conversationsand then the audience, the, the,
(07:55):
the, the end listener, right?
Cause, we're in the business ofpodcasting.
Every stream counts.
Want to throw that out there.
If you, have or have it, weappreciate, any, streams from
the past or any future ones.
Cause I know if you're listeningto this, you're going to be
checking out our content.
all the content that we have outin the world.
(08:19):
The second thing I want to touchon is raising awareness.
So by sharing data and stories,like the ones that, you know, we
continue to share, even in our,most recent newsletter.
we, we shine light on some ofthese, these obstacles that
black founders face, and thissparks even further conversation
(08:42):
around what the solution shouldlook like.
I'll give you an example.
one of the, some of the feedbackI got from founders that we had
as guests was around just theincredible struggle with raising
capital for your business.
Right.
And so upon looking throughthat, I think at the time.
(09:05):
And when I first looked at thisstat, it was like maybe 1.
5 percent of, venture capitalspecifically goes to black
founders.
quick update, that nber is likepretty much at or below, right,
right below 1 percent now.
I'm going to give you an idea ofsome of the challenges for black
founders.
(09:27):
That's that stood out to me issomebody who is a undergrad math
major, somebody who's been inthe business world, and
actually, developed quite a fewproducts around, lending in
particular, that one stood outto me.
And so what that allowed me todo, was reach out to, venture
(09:50):
capitalists.
Luckily at the time, our, keysponsor, knew some VCs in their
space.
And so they were actually ableto line us up a couple of VCs,
one of them being, I think oneof the first ones or the very
first one was Matt McConnell,McConnell, McConnell.
(10:10):
I'll, I'll put the link on belowcause I want to make sure I'm
getting that name right.
but we had several VCs onseveral individuals who may have
been a part of organizations,that are responsible for,
giving, mostly monetaryresources to founders.
(10:31):
And that was a way of us to.
To take part in the founderstory, listen, and then try to
give some, some sort of valueback to them.
Right.
and, and so that's just anexample of how you can raise
that awareness.
And then with the, the marriageof data and storytelling, how,
(10:57):
you know, some really coolengagement, and, and incredible,
Constructive conversations canhappen.
The last thing I want to touchon is inspiring action.
Just overall, our listeners tellus they've taken steps to
launch, their business, joincreative platforms, or, even
(11:19):
invest in a black owned venturesbecause of what they've learned,
through us, you know, theinvestment piece is really
important because we're goingthrough a phase now where, you
Some of the barriers are being,taken down, that in the past
(11:39):
have kept folks from, you know,just, you know, the average
consumer from investing in theirbusiness outside of buying
product.
But if that business doesn't,isn't at a point where it can
scale and have enough productfor people to buy, you know,
that is like a catch 22,scenario where the founder needs
(11:59):
investments, but they, they needthe growth and revenue before
they can get the investment.
It's like, they're, they're justat a weird place.
but crowdfunding, some of thedifferent.
investment paths that someonecould take are really starting
to open up.
I don't I'm not necessarilysure.
(12:20):
I don't have a lot of data as ofnow in terms of whether or not
that that leads to a more like ahigher success rate for black
founders.
Per se.
Yeah.
I think it's still kind ofearly.
but with that being said, it'salways good to see avenues and
(12:43):
channels being, you know, openedup for those who didn't
necessarily have ways for peopleto invest in their business to
now have somebody.
Who can raise their hand.
And even if it's, you know, 50bucks, a hundred dollars, have
somebody invest in theirbusiness.
I think one of the, speaking oflike success stories, one of the
(13:04):
things I'm hearing where we'reat the top of 2025 social media,
platforms are kind of goingthrough some, Instagrams and
even like the tick talks, withtick tock.
Kind of sort of being taken awayfrom us for, you know, a couple
(13:25):
of hours and then being givenback to us, but I think it's
showing creatives that, youknow, the, they have to continue
to, I'm in this bucket as well.
You have to continue to explore,the different platforms.
So, you know, which platformgives you the best leverage with
your audience and many of theplatforms that we all use right
(13:47):
now.
At the end of the day, they ownall the data.
They own the channels to yougetting to your end audience.
There's still value in that forfounders who can scale it up.
But there's, there's, there'splatforms out there.
right now, one of the hot onesthat's actually black owned is
called fan base.
(14:09):
They've essentially come up witha way, for, creatives who are on
platforms like Instagram andspecifically in Tik TOK to
migrate all your content overwith a few clicks, and then you
can start owning your, youraudience, Kind of easy,
relatively easy, and thenstarting to grow your subscriber
(14:32):
base and having more of adirect, communication with your
audience super early, butthey've actually gone down a
path of just due to the, all theturmoil, with the established
social media platforms wherethey're starting to get some,
some, some really incredible,interest via crowdfunding.
(14:53):
I was actually able to take partin that, and I've been using,
you know, testing out theirplatform to see how we can
incorporate that into all thethings we're doing.
But that being said, it justgoes back to my original point
of, you know, you have tocontinue to explore these
platforms to find the rightplatform for you.
There is no uniform answer inthat case, but just know that
(15:18):
there, there's some reallyincredible platforms being built
currently.
Lastly, I want to, I want totouch on, one of the last things
I'll touch on is, you know, howpeople can be a part of the
movement that's going on rightnow that I just mentioned.
as we build, out ourcapabilities to, to highlight
(15:44):
more incredible founders inseason seven, we're, picking,
target markets, really, aroundthe world.
We've got a couple here in theUnited States that we're
focusing on, but we do have someglobal opportunities to expand.
(16:04):
there's a couple of ways, right.
Just in terms of our story thatpeople can kind of take part in
our movement, but I think it'srelevant to others who are, who
are trying to leveragestorytelling, some quick, rules
of engagement, right.
If we have an audience that'slooking to engage, you gotta
give your audience somedirection.
(16:25):
So first up, just sharing yourstory.
If someone's a founder orcreative or change maker, you
know, we want to make surethey're not, they're in a.
The right space to not be afraidto share, their journey.
And so if you're a founder,creative, a change maker, we'd
love to have a conversation withyou.
(16:46):
We would love to have you, youknow, highlight your story on
our platform, but if there's away that we can support what
you're doing.
let us know because you, younever know who's going to be
listening to your story.
like I mentioned at the, towardsthe beginning, just how, you
(17:06):
know, founders were hearing fromother founders via our platform
and, and, and our listeners weretaking gambles on themselves
after hearing founders on ourplatform.
Like you never know.
even if you're starting out.
though, though those startingmoments oftentimes are what's
going to inspire others to takethose leaps of faith on
(17:29):
themselves.
Second is supporting black ownedbusinesses, right?
so whether it's throughinvestment, like I mentioned
before, crowdfunding, if you cando that, or even if you're an
angel investor, just investingin black owned businesses is
really important right now.
And mentorship.
(17:50):
as well as one area where thoseof us who are used to being in
corporate America and may havefunctional domain expertise can
add a lot of value to a businessowners who are businesses of one
or businesses of few.
Employees who are buildingthings from scratch, right?
(18:13):
And so you think about some ofthe things that operational, you
know, big, huge matrixorganizations that we all work
at, established companies.
We have domain expertise, notsaying you take whatever that
proprietary sauce of youremployer is and plop it down.
So a small business owner, butyou probably have some expertise
(18:35):
that you can add to theirbusiness.
an example of that being for me,I've worked in tech, in
analytics and customer success,in different parts of different
organizations at some reallybig, huge, publicly traded
companies.
And, right now I've taken thatexperience, as I.
(19:01):
build out beyond normal media.
And I actually mentor at techstars, and a couple of other
different programs.
They have tech stars in, in, inso many cities, really
worldwide, but that's just oneexample, right?
Where I can take some of that,expertise, from my corporate
experience and actually giveback to somebody who's building
(19:21):
something from scratch, it isnot.
Easy at all to build somethingfrom scratch.
So that's just one example forus next up.
You know, for those who are, Ithink many, many, many business
owners now are going to have tobe creative.
They're going to have to createcontent when you create that
content.
(19:42):
you want people to subscribe,leave a review of possible of
whatever your, your end productis and share, right?
So for us as beyond normal, wehave our podcast.
We appreciate anybody whosubscribes, leaves a review,
listens to an episode, shares a,you know, shares an episode with
their network.
It helps amplify the, you know,the stories of the people we're
(20:05):
highlighting.
But then also for us as abusiness, right?
You take these experiences and.
It enhances the value you cancharge anybody right in terms of
the solution you bring.
So in the case of our podcast,the more listeners we have, we
can go to sponsors.
We can go to, other businessesthat are looking to have ad
(20:29):
space, right?
We can go to the most recentlythis year.
We, we.
We put in our bid, on a coupleof applications at some
conferences to be mediapartners.
And so that all builds the casefor whatever you're building,
right?
when people, you know, supportyour product in the different
(20:49):
ways they can, obviously the endgoal is to, you know, the,
probably the most valuable thingto do is really to buy product
from somebody, buy somebodyservice.
But in those cases where youcan't, there's still things you
can do.
out there in a lot of businessowners right now are being
creative.
They're putting out content.
That is a really great way.
(21:12):
as we look to, navigate a 2025for folks to, to support us, but
those other creative individualsout there.
And next up is exploring newplatforms.
I touched on this a little bitearlier with the fan base
example in our newsletter, we'rehighlighting, What others are
(21:34):
working on, right?
And so it could be somebodywho's compiling thousands of
black business owners, or itcould be the fan base app, or it
could be somebody who has agrant program, for somebody who
needs additional resources fortheir business.
Like it doesn't all have to endup be some, you know, be
something that is on ourplatform at the end of the day.
(21:57):
If.
Feeds those individuals withinour network, within our
ecosystem.
And so I got to make sure I'mputting it out there from, if
I'm finding these, theseresources, I got to put it out
there to see if our users canleverage it.
but let's just.
You know, all of this is reallyto build that community, that I
(22:19):
touched on at the towards thebeginning of the call as well,
where we all thrive.
Like, that's going to be a keytheme where, you get a pool, you
get, you get a group ofbusinesses that really figure
out how they can support eachother.
Those dollars start, You know,flowing and circulating in the,
you know, it creates like theselocal economy effects that,
(22:41):
that, that are, I think, aresuper powerful and, you know,
those local economies start toscale up easily, easier and
allows everybody involved to,have a, have a, A good piece,
their piece, significant pieceof the pie that's out there, you
know, so in closing, I justwanted to leave you all with
(23:04):
this, this, thought,storytelling is really one of
the most powerful tools we have.
It builds bridges.
it inspires action.
It creates opportunity.
just think about this, you know,when you go back, go to the
movies, the story that resonatedwith you the most in the actions
(23:27):
that followed.
once you saw that movie, that'show I like to, position it.
You know, every time we chooseour own story, we're
contributing to a largermovement of empowerment and
equity, specifically blackfounders, who are taking a
gamble on themselves.
I think there's like a, maybelike three to 400, 000, black
(23:51):
businesses here in the States.
Each of those businesses isreally, you know, setting,
setting in motion, drivingvalue.
Unlocking value in our communitythat we all know that we
desperately need right now.
(24:11):
most black businesses, right?
They're not, at a point where,they think like, they can, the
nbers is like less than, It'slike 40 percent or less of black
businesses, have like a hundredthousand in revenue or more than
(24:33):
the nbers right around there interms of the percentages.
so 60 percent of the businesses,right, if I said that correctly,
don't have revenue anywhere nearthat for the most part, right?
If you look at it, if you thinkabout averages.
And so there's so manybusinesses out there where
they're, they're in a mode ofexploring how to unlock value.
(24:57):
you know, all the things that Imentioned around how you can
support and engage with folksright now, there's really
important to support and engagewith these businesses that are
out here, right?
60 percent that are there inthis mode of exploring, you
(25:19):
Figuring out, you know, whattheir story is, they're in the
midst of it, they're, they'regoing through, you know,
probably some real shit and theygot to, you know, the, the
feedback, the conversations thatthey're having are really vital
to, you know, them getting tothe point in the story, right.
(25:39):
That we all want to see them inthe climax, the rev, the, the,
the point in the story wherethere's revelations being made.
So just, just keep that in mind.
You know, thank you all thosehad that have, stuck with me
through this conversation as I'mthinking through this, we're
starting out, 2025, justfocusing on owning your story,
(26:04):
for those who are creatives.
Business owners, you know, folkswho are really taking a gamble
on themselves.
this support for those who arelistening, it means everything
to me.
I'm excited about what we gotahead.
if this episode resonates withyou, share it with somebody,
leave us a comment.
Let me know what I can improveon.
(26:25):
I'm always looking for feedback.
I appreciate the feedback untilnext time.
keep owning your story andremember, there's nothing normal
about what we're doing.
By creating businesses, we'rebeing beyond the norms.
Hey, everyone.
(00:01):
welcome to the beyond normalpodcast.
I am your host Kenny Groom.
As always, I'm thrilled to haveyou here.
this is a special, episode as weare kicking off, 2025.
With the theme, we've beenspending this entire month as we
figure out, you know, how wemove forward on the theme of
(00:23):
owning your story, leveragingstorytelling, and a lot of ways
as a superpower today, I want toreflect on how this podcast has
evolved from a simple idea.
Into a platform that creates areal measurable community impact
emphasis on that communitythere, whether you've been with
(00:44):
us from the beginning or you'rejust now tuning in, for the very
first time this episode is, hereto, to, to offer up, just some
insights around, how we can,leverage storytelling, to offer
incredible solutions andproducts to the world.
(01:08):
so, you know, without furtherado, I want to dive into, the
story behind Beyond Normal Mediaand the power that storytelling
has had on us as we look todrive, incredible change.
really across the world,starting out, you know, taking
(01:28):
everybody back to the beginning,beyond normal media started out,
really with the core of the,the, the podcast as a passion
project of mine.
I wanted to highlight incredibleunderserved founders, those who
often don't get the spotlightthat they deserve, especially
during the time, where I started2020, businesses were for the
(01:52):
most part.
you know, going out of business,in local communities, just given
the circstance, the very firstfew episodes were, were super
raw.
I didn't have fancy equipment orthe clearest vision at the time.
I just knew, you know, I wantedto be highlighting the stories
(02:13):
of incredible underservedfounders.
well, Really surprised me wasthe initial reaction with, you
know, I can think back to acouple of people reaching out
and just, you know, sayingsomething along the lines of
these founder stories really areinspiring to me.
And it's got me thinking aboutstarting my own business.
(02:35):
I had people in my family, andas folks know, getting family
to, your business, even if, youknow, at first there's not a
monetary element, that's reallydifficult to do.
So I had some really early wins,you know, that let me know, I
need to dig into this a littlebit more.
(02:57):
I need to sink my teeth into thebeast.
Is what I like to say that I didin that moment, I even had a
couple folks, who were guests,well, some of the very first
guests come back to me with thefeedback that they didn't
really, they didn't realize thatothers were, were having these
(03:18):
exact challenges that they werehaving.
A black founders at the time.
A lot of them were figuring out,you know, how to keep their
business open.
some folks were actually,thinking ahead, you know, having
their, their, their end goal inmind, trying to grow their
business.
(03:39):
via investments and justdifferent avenues.
And so, it was, it was reallysurprising.
just to hear the feedback, fromall parties involved, whether it
was listeners or just some ofthe founders that we had as
guests, next up, I want to, Iwant to pivot a little bit into
this community aspect ofstorytelling that I just
(04:02):
mentioned, right.
did.
It's a community, right?
If our listeners are, are givingus feedback along with our
guests, who are the founders,right?
There's this, this really,great, like full circle, effect,
right?
That happens in that, in, in, inour case, right?
And so fast forwarding to today,how, the podcast has grown into
(04:26):
beyond normal media.
More than just a podcast, right?
We're, we're here to amplifyvoices, create visibility for
Black founders and really sparkand continue sparking, important
conversations around equity inbusiness, right?
That's a broad topic.
(04:47):
but there's a lot of meat on thebones there, right.
In terms of, what, at the tablefor, for, those who want to take
a gamble and start theirbusiness looks like, but then
also there's this element of theconsumer that, that the, the end
(05:08):
party that partakes in theproduct or solution, being able
to really determine, where theycan, Put their, put their
dollars, put their resourcestowards to grow the story of
others.
Like, you know, I think of goingto the movies, right?
When you spend that, that moneyon the ticket and then that
(05:29):
movie at that, that money at theconcessions, like you're really
allowing that story that was puttogether to grow even more.
So whether, you know, it's anindie, an indie flick, right.
Something where somebody putsomething together and.
They, they bootstrapped it, orit could be something like a big
(05:50):
Disney blockbuster, right?
All the Marvel movies that, thatwe saw, the avatars of the world
that grow to incredible scale.
the people that.
Attend these movies and spendtheir dollars.
You're you're giving yourresources so that that story can
grow.
Right.
And there's a really greatparallel there for for business
(06:13):
owners in particular, who arestarting out to leverage their
story.
Right.
To give people something thatthey can put their resources
into.
That'll grow.
You know, here's some ways rightwhen it comes to that community
aspect of storytelling to thatwe can consider.
(06:33):
and we'll start out with.
You know, for us, it was aboutconnecting the founders to
resources and I'll dig a littlebit deeper into that now.
Right.
So guests on our podcast,they've shared, you know, how
(06:54):
being featured led to them,having new partnerships.
Maybe they listened to anotherfounder that was a guest who
had, access to different fundingopportunities.
And they had.
And just ultimately, you know,The chance to kind of share and
(07:15):
learn, from others in theprocess, oftentimes being a
founder, you're a team of one.
It's a, it's a really lonelyactivity to go through starting
something on your own, you know,Not all of us are lucky enough
to have somebody as a co founderor just even have a support
system.
Right.
(07:35):
And so there, there's power insharing your story and then
others chiming in and giving youthat feedback.
Like I mentioned, we had, we, wehad some success early on where
the, where the guest, we're,we're, You know, pulling
insights from the conversationsand then the audience, the, the,
(07:55):
the, the end listener, right?
Cause, we're in the business ofpodcasting.
Every stream counts.
Want to throw that out there.
If you, have or have it, weappreciate, any, streams from
the past or any future ones.
Cause I know if you're listeningto this, you're going to be
checking out our content.
all the content that we have outin the world.
(08:19):
The second thing I want to touchon is raising awareness.
So by sharing data and stories,like the ones that, you know, we
continue to share, even in our,most recent newsletter.
we, we shine light on some ofthese, these obstacles that
black founders face, and thissparks even further conversation
(08:42):
around what the solution shouldlook like.
I'll give you an example.
one of the, some of the feedbackI got from founders that we had
as guests was around just theincredible struggle with raising
capital for your business.
Right.
And so upon looking throughthat, I think at the time.
(09:05):
And when I first looked at thisstat, it was like maybe 1.
5 percent of, venture capitalspecifically goes to black
founders.
quick update, that nber is likepretty much at or below, right,
right below 1 percent now.
I'm going to give you an idea ofsome of the challenges for black
founders.
(09:27):
That's that stood out to me issomebody who is a undergrad math
major, somebody who's been inthe business world, and
actually, developed quite a fewproducts around, lending in
particular, that one stood outto me.
And so what that allowed me todo, was reach out to, venture
(09:50):
capitalists.
Luckily at the time, our, keysponsor, knew some VCs in their
space.
And so they were actually ableto line us up a couple of VCs,
one of them being, I think oneof the first ones or the very
first one was Matt McConnell,McConnell, McConnell.
(10:10):
I'll, I'll put the link on belowcause I want to make sure I'm
getting that name right.
but we had several VCs onseveral individuals who may have
been a part of organizations,that are responsible for,
giving, mostly monetaryresources to founders.
(10:31):
And that was a way of us to.
To take part in the founderstory, listen, and then try to
give some, some sort of valueback to them.
Right.
and, and so that's just anexample of how you can raise
that awareness.
And then with the, the marriageof data and storytelling, how,
(10:57):
you know, some really coolengagement, and, and incredible,
Constructive conversations canhappen.
The last thing I want to touchon is inspiring action.
Just overall, our listeners tellus they've taken steps to
launch, their business, joincreative platforms, or, even
(11:19):
invest in a black owned venturesbecause of what they've learned,
through us, you know, theinvestment piece is really
important because we're goingthrough a phase now where, you
Some of the barriers are being,taken down, that in the past
(11:39):
have kept folks from, you know,just, you know, the average
consumer from investing in theirbusiness outside of buying
product.
But if that business doesn't,isn't at a point where it can
scale and have enough productfor people to buy, you know,
that is like a catch 22,scenario where the founder needs
(11:59):
investments, but they, they needthe growth and revenue before
they can get the investment.
It's like, they're, they're justat a weird place.
but crowdfunding, some of thedifferent.
investment paths that someonecould take are really starting
to open up.
I don't I'm not necessarilysure.
(12:20):
I don't have a lot of data as ofnow in terms of whether or not
that that leads to a more like ahigher success rate for black
founders.
Per se.
Yeah.
I think it's still kind ofearly.
but with that being said, it'salways good to see avenues and
(12:43):
channels being, you know, openedup for those who didn't
necessarily have ways for peopleto invest in their business to
now have somebody.
Who can raise their hand.
And even if it's, you know, 50bucks, a hundred dollars, have
somebody invest in theirbusiness.
I think one of the, speaking oflike success stories, one of the
(13:04):
things I'm hearing where we'reat the top of 2025 social media,
platforms are kind of goingthrough some, Instagrams and
even like the tick talks, withtick tock.
Kind of sort of being taken awayfrom us for, you know, a couple
(13:25):
of hours and then being givenback to us, but I think it's
showing creatives that, youknow, the, they have to continue
to, I'm in this bucket as well.
You have to continue to explore,the different platforms.
So, you know, which platformgives you the best leverage with
your audience and many of theplatforms that we all use right
(13:47):
now.
At the end of the day, they ownall the data.
They own the channels to yougetting to your end audience.
There's still value in that forfounders who can scale it up.
But there's, there's, there'splatforms out there.
right now, one of the hot onesthat's actually black owned is
called fan base.
(14:09):
They've essentially come up witha way, for, creatives who are on
platforms like Instagram andspecifically in Tik TOK to
migrate all your content overwith a few clicks, and then you
can start owning your, youraudience, Kind of easy,
relatively easy, and thenstarting to grow your subscriber
(14:32):
base and having more of adirect, communication with your
audience super early, butthey've actually gone down a
path of just due to the, all theturmoil, with the established
social media platforms wherethey're starting to get some,
some, some really incredible,interest via crowdfunding.
(14:53):
I was actually able to take partin that, and I've been using,
you know, testing out theirplatform to see how we can
incorporate that into all thethings we're doing.
But that being said, it justgoes back to my original point
of, you know, you have tocontinue to explore these
platforms to find the rightplatform for you.
There is no uniform answer inthat case, but just know that
(15:18):
there, there's some reallyincredible platforms being built
currently.
Lastly, I want to, I want totouch on, one of the last things
I'll touch on is, you know, howpeople can be a part of the
movement that's going on rightnow that I just mentioned.
as we build, out ourcapabilities to, to highlight
(15:44):
more incredible founders inseason seven, we're, picking,
target markets, really, aroundthe world.
We've got a couple here in theUnited States that we're
focusing on, but we do have someglobal opportunities to expand.
(16:04):
there's a couple of ways, right.
Just in terms of our story thatpeople can kind of take part in
our movement, but I think it'srelevant to others who are, who
are trying to leveragestorytelling, some quick, rules
of engagement, right.
If we have an audience that'slooking to engage, you gotta
give your audience somedirection.
(16:25):
So first up, just sharing yourstory.
If someone's a founder orcreative or change maker, you
know, we want to make surethey're not, they're in a.
The right space to not be afraidto share, their journey.
And so if you're a founder,creative, a change maker, we'd
love to have a conversation withyou.
(16:46):
We would love to have you, youknow, highlight your story on
our platform, but if there's away that we can support what
you're doing.
let us know because you, younever know who's going to be
listening to your story.
like I mentioned at the, towardsthe beginning, just how, you
(17:06):
know, founders were hearing fromother founders via our platform
and, and, and our listeners weretaking gambles on themselves
after hearing founders on ourplatform.
Like you never know.
even if you're starting out.
though, though those startingmoments oftentimes are what's
going to inspire others to takethose leaps of faith on
(17:29):
themselves.
Second is supporting black ownedbusinesses, right?
so whether it's throughinvestment, like I mentioned
before, crowdfunding, if you cando that, or even if you're an
angel investor, just investingin black owned businesses is
really important right now.
And mentorship.
(17:50):
as well as one area where thoseof us who are used to being in
corporate America and may havefunctional domain expertise can
add a lot of value to a businessowners who are businesses of one
or businesses of few.
Employees who are buildingthings from scratch, right?
(18:13):
And so you think about some ofthe things that operational, you
know, big, huge matrixorganizations that we all work
at, established companies.
We have domain expertise, notsaying you take whatever that
proprietary sauce of youremployer is and plop it down.
So a small business owner, butyou probably have some expertise
(18:35):
that you can add to theirbusiness.
an example of that being for me,I've worked in tech, in
analytics and customer success,in different parts of different
organizations at some reallybig, huge, publicly traded
companies.
And, right now I've taken thatexperience, as I.
(19:01):
build out beyond normal media.
And I actually mentor at techstars, and a couple of other
different programs.
They have tech stars in, in, inso many cities, really
worldwide, but that's just oneexample, right?
Where I can take some of that,expertise, from my corporate
experience and actually giveback to somebody who's building
(19:21):
something from scratch, it isnot.
Easy at all to build somethingfrom scratch.
So that's just one example forus next up.
You know, for those who are, Ithink many, many, many business
owners now are going to have tobe creative.
They're going to have to createcontent when you create that
content.
(19:42):
you want people to subscribe,leave a review of possible of
whatever your, your end productis and share, right?
So for us as beyond normal, wehave our podcast.
We appreciate anybody whosubscribes, leaves a review,
listens to an episode, shares a,you know, shares an episode with
their network.
It helps amplify the, you know,the stories of the people we're
(20:05):
highlighting.
But then also for us as abusiness, right?
You take these experiences and.
It enhances the value you cancharge anybody right in terms of
the solution you bring.
So in the case of our podcast,the more listeners we have, we
can go to sponsors.
We can go to, other businessesthat are looking to have ad
(20:29):
space, right?
We can go to the most recentlythis year.
We, we.
We put in our bid, on a coupleof applications at some
conferences to be mediapartners.
And so that all builds the casefor whatever you're building,
right?
when people, you know, supportyour product in the different
(20:49):
ways they can, obviously the endgoal is to, you know, the,
probably the most valuable thingto do is really to buy product
from somebody, buy somebodyservice.
But in those cases where youcan't, there's still things you
can do.
out there in a lot of businessowners right now are being
creative.
They're putting out content.
That is a really great way.
(21:12):
as we look to, navigate a 2025for folks to, to support us, but
those other creative individualsout there.
And next up is exploring newplatforms.
I touched on this a little bitearlier with the fan base
example in our newsletter, we'rehighlighting, What others are
(21:34):
working on, right?
And so it could be somebodywho's compiling thousands of
black business owners, or itcould be the fan base app, or it
could be somebody who has agrant program, for somebody who
needs additional resources fortheir business.
Like it doesn't all have to endup be some, you know, be
something that is on ourplatform at the end of the day.
(21:57):
If.
Feeds those individuals withinour network, within our
ecosystem.
And so I got to make sure I'mputting it out there from, if
I'm finding these, theseresources, I got to put it out
there to see if our users canleverage it.
but let's just.
You know, all of this is reallyto build that community, that I
(22:19):
touched on at the towards thebeginning of the call as well,
where we all thrive.
Like, that's going to be a keytheme where, you get a pool, you
get, you get a group ofbusinesses that really figure
out how they can support eachother.
Those dollars start, You know,flowing and circulating in the,
you know, it creates like theselocal economy effects that,
(22:41):
that, that are, I think, aresuper powerful and, you know,
those local economies start toscale up easily, easier and
allows everybody involved to,have a, have a, A good piece,
their piece, significant pieceof the pie that's out there, you
know, so in closing, I justwanted to leave you all with
(23:04):
this, this, thought,storytelling is really one of
the most powerful tools we have.
It builds bridges.
it inspires action.
It creates opportunity.
just think about this, you know,when you go back, go to the
movies, the story that resonatedwith you the most in the actions
(23:27):
that followed.
once you saw that movie, that'show I like to, position it.
You know, every time we chooseour own story, we're
contributing to a largermovement of empowerment and
equity, specifically blackfounders, who are taking a
gamble on themselves.
I think there's like a, maybelike three to 400, 000, black
(23:51):
businesses here in the States.
Each of those businesses isreally, you know, setting,
setting in motion, drivingvalue.
Unlocking value in our communitythat we all know that we
desperately need right now.
(24:11):
most black businesses, right?
They're not, at a point where,they think like, they can, the
nbers is like less than, It'slike 40 percent or less of black
businesses, have like a hundredthousand in revenue or more than
(24:33):
the nbers right around there interms of the percentages.
so 60 percent of the businesses,right, if I said that correctly,
don't have revenue anywhere nearthat for the most part, right?
If you look at it, if you thinkabout averages.
And so there's so manybusinesses out there where
they're, they're in a mode ofexploring how to unlock value.
(24:57):
you know, all the things that Imentioned around how you can
support and engage with folksright now, there's really
important to support and engagewith these businesses that are
out here, right?
60 percent that are there inthis mode of exploring, you
(25:19):
Figuring out, you know, whattheir story is, they're in the
midst of it, they're, they'regoing through, you know,
probably some real shit and theygot to, you know, the, the
feedback, the conversations thatthey're having are really vital
to, you know, them getting tothe point in the story, right.
(25:39):
That we all want to see them inthe climax, the rev, the, the,
the point in the story wherethere's revelations being made.
So just, just keep that in mind.
You know, thank you all thosehad that have, stuck with me
through this conversation as I'mthinking through this, we're
starting out, 2025, justfocusing on owning your story,
(26:04):
for those who are creatives.
Business owners, you know, folkswho are really taking a gamble
on themselves.
this support for those who arelistening, it means everything
to me.
I'm excited about what we gotahead.
if this episode resonates withyou, share it with somebody,
leave us a comment.
Let me know what I can improveon.
(26:25):
I'm always looking for feedback.
I appreciate the feedback untilnext time.
keep owning your story andremember, there's nothing normal
about what we're doing.
By creating businesses, we'rebeing beyond the norms.
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