Owning Your Story: Empowering Entrepreneurs and Building Community

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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Transcript

Kenny: 0:00

Hey, everyone. welcome to the beyond normal podcast. I am your host Kenny Groom. As always, I'm thrilled to have you here. this is a special, episode as we are kicking off, 2025. With the theme, we've been spending this entire month as we figure out, you know, how we move forward on the theme of owning your story, leveraging storytelling, and a lot of ways as a superpower today, I want to reflect on how this podcast has evolved from a simple idea. Into a platform that creates a real measurable community impact emphasis on that community there, whether you've been with us from the beginning or you're just now tuning in, for the very first time this episode is, here to, to, to offer up, just some insights around, how we can, leverage storytelling, to offer incredible solutions and products to the world. so, you know, without further ado, I want to dive into, the story behind Beyond Normal Media and the power that storytelling has had on us as we look to drive, incredible change. really across the world, starting out, you know, taking 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 incredible underserved founders, those who often don't get the spotlight that they deserve, especially during the time, where I started 2020, businesses were for the most part. you know, going out of business, in local communities, just given the circstance, the very first few episodes were, were super raw. I didn't have fancy equipment or the clearest vision at the time. I just knew, you know, I wanted to be highlighting the stories of incredible underserved founders. well, Really surprised me was the initial reaction with, you know, I can think back to a couple of people reaching out and just, you know, saying something along the lines of these founder stories really are inspiring to me. And it's got me thinking about starting my own business. I had people in my family, and as folks know, getting family to, your business, even if, you know, at first there's not a monetary element, that's really difficult to do. So I had some really early wins, you know, that let me know, I need to dig into this a little bit more. I need to sink my teeth into the beast. Is what I like to say that I did in that moment, I even had a couple folks, who were guests, well, some of the very first guests come back to me with the feedback that they didn't really, they didn't realize that others were, were having these exact challenges that they were having. 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 in mind, trying to grow their business. via investments and just different avenues. And so, it was, it was really surprising. just to hear the feedback, from all parties involved, whether it was listeners or just some of the founders that we had as guests, next up, I want to, I want to pivot a little bit into this community aspect of storytelling that I just mentioned, right. did. It's a community, right? If our listeners are, are giving us 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, in our case, right? And so fast forwarding to today, how, the podcast has grown into beyond normal media. More than just a podcast, right? We're, we're here to amplify voices, create visibility for Black founders and really spark and continue sparking, important conversations around equity in business, right? That's a broad topic. but there's a lot of meat on the bones there, right. In terms of, what, at the table for, for, those who want to take a gamble and start their business looks like, but then also there's this element of the consumer that, that the, the end party that partakes in the product or solution, being able to really determine, where they can, Put their, put their dollars, put their resources towards to grow the story of others. Like, you know, I think of going to the movies, right? When you spend that, that money on the ticket and then that movie at that, that money at the concessions, like you're really allowing that story that was put together to grow even more. So whether, you know, it's an indie, an indie flick, right. Something where somebody put something together and. They, they bootstrapped it, or it could be something like a big Disney blockbuster, right? All the Marvel movies that, that we saw, the avatars of the world that grow to incredible scale. the people that. Attend these movies and spend their dollars. You're you're giving your resources so that that story can grow. Right. And there's a really great parallel there for for business owners in particular, who are starting out to leverage their story. Right. To give people something that they can put their resources into. That'll grow. You know, here's some ways right when it comes to that community aspect of storytelling to that we can consider. and we'll start out with. You know, for us, it was about connecting the founders to resources and I'll dig a little bit deeper into that now. Right. So guests on our podcast, they've shared, you know, how being featured led to them, having new partnerships. Maybe they listened to another founder that was a guest who had, access to different funding opportunities. And they had. And just ultimately, you know, The chance to kind of share and learn, from others in the process, oftentimes being a founder, you're a team of one. It's a, it's a really lonely activity to go through starting something on your own, you know, Not all of us are lucky enough to have somebody as a co founder or just even have a support system. Right. And so there, there's power in sharing your story and then others chiming in and giving you that feedback. Like I mentioned, we had, we, we had some success early on where the, where the guest, we're, we're, You know, pulling insights from the conversations and then the audience, the, the, the, the end listener, right? Cause, we're in the business of podcasting. Every stream counts. Want to throw that out there. If you, have or have it, we appreciate, any, streams from the past or any future ones. Cause I know if you're listening to this, you're going to be checking out our content. all the content that we have out in the world. The second thing I want to touch on 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 of these, these obstacles that black founders face, and this sparks even further conversation around what the solution should look like. I'll give you an example. one of the, some of the feedback I got from founders that we had as guests was around just the incredible struggle with raising capital for your business. Right. And so upon looking through that, I think at the time. And when I first looked at this stat, it was like maybe 1. 5 percent of, venture capital specifically goes to black founders. quick update, that nber is like pretty much at or below, right, right below 1 percent now. I'm going to give you an idea of some of the challenges for black founders. That's that stood out to me is somebody who is a undergrad math major, somebody who's been in the business world, and actually, developed quite a few products around, lending in particular, that one stood out to me. And so what that allowed me to do, was reach out to, venture capitalists. Luckily at the time, our, key sponsor, knew some VCs in their space. And so they were actually able to line us up a couple of VCs, one of them being, I think one of the first ones or the very first one was Matt McConnell, McConnell, McConnell. I'll, I'll put the link on below cause I want to make sure I'm getting that name right. but we had several VCs on several individuals who may have been a part of organizations, that are responsible for, giving, mostly monetary resources to founders. And that was a way of us to. To take part in the founder story, listen, and then try to give some, some sort of value back to them. Right. and, and so that's just an example of how you can raise that awareness. And then with the, the marriage of data and storytelling, how, you know, some really cool engagement, and, and incredible, Constructive conversations can happen. The last thing I want to touch on is inspiring action. Just overall, our listeners tell us they've taken steps to launch, their business, join creative platforms, or, even invest in a black owned ventures because of what they've learned, through us, you know, the investment piece is really important because we're going through a phase now where, you Some of the barriers are being, taken down, that in the past have kept folks from, you know, just, you know, the average consumer from investing in their business outside of buying product. But if that business doesn't, isn't at a point where it can scale and have enough product for people to buy, you know, that is like a catch 22, scenario where the founder needs investments, but they, they need the growth and revenue before they can get the investment. It's like, they're, they're just at a weird place. but crowdfunding, some of the different. investment paths that someone could take are really starting to open up. I don't I'm not necessarily sure. I don't have a lot of data as of now in terms of whether or not that that leads to a more like a higher success rate for black founders. Per se. Yeah. I think it's still kind of early. but with that being said, it's always good to see avenues and channels being, you know, opened up for those who didn't necessarily have ways for people to invest in their business to now have somebody. Who can raise their hand. And even if it's, you know, 50 bucks, a hundred dollars, have somebody invest in their business. I think one of the, speaking of like success stories, one of the things I'm hearing where we're at the top of 2025 social media, platforms are kind of going through some, Instagrams and even like the tick talks, with tick tock. Kind of sort of being taken away from us for, you know, a couple of hours and then being given back to us, but I think it's showing creatives that, you know, 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 platform gives you the best leverage with your audience and many of the platforms that we all use right now. At the end of the day, they own all the data. They own the channels to you getting to your end audience. There's still value in that for founders who can scale it up. But there's, there's, there's platforms out there. right now, one of the hot ones that's actually black owned is called fan base. They've essentially come up with a way, for, creatives who are on platforms like Instagram and specifically in Tik TOK to migrate all your content over with a few clicks, and then you can start owning your, your audience, Kind of easy, relatively easy, and then starting to grow your subscriber base and having more of a direct, communication with your audience super early, but they've actually gone down a path of just due to the, all the turmoil, with the established social media platforms where they're starting to get some, some, some really incredible, interest via crowdfunding. I was actually able to take part in that, and I've been using, you know, testing out their platform to see how we can incorporate that into all the things we're doing. But that being said, it just goes back to my original point of, you know, you have to continue to explore these platforms to find the right platform for you. There is no uniform answer in that case, but just know that there, there's some really incredible platforms being built currently. Lastly, I want to, I want to touch on, one of the last things I'll touch on is, you know, how people can be a part of the movement that's going on right now that I just mentioned. as we build, out our capabilities to, to highlight more incredible founders in season seven, we're, picking, target markets, really, around the world. We've got a couple here in the United States that we're focusing on, but we do have some global opportunities to expand. there's a couple of ways, right. Just in terms of our story that people can kind of take part in our movement, but I think it's relevant to others who are, who are trying to leverage storytelling, some quick, rules of engagement, right. If we have an audience that's looking to engage, you gotta give your audience some direction. So first up, just sharing your story. If someone's a founder or creative or change maker, you know, we want to make sure they're not, they're in a. The right space to not be afraid to share, their journey. And so if you're a founder, creative, a change maker, we'd love to have a conversation with you. We would love to have you, you know, highlight your story on our platform, but if there's a way that we can support what you're doing. let us know because you, you never know who's going to be listening to your story. like I mentioned at the, towards the beginning, just how, you know, founders were hearing from other founders via our platform and, and, and our listeners were taking gambles on themselves after hearing founders on our platform. Like you never know. even if you're starting out. though, though those starting moments oftentimes are what's going to inspire others to take those leaps of faith on themselves. Second is supporting black owned businesses, right? so whether it's through investment, like I mentioned before, crowdfunding, if you can do that, or even if you're an angel investor, just investing in black owned businesses is really important right now. And mentorship. as well as one area where those of us who are used to being in corporate America and may have functional domain expertise can add a lot of value to a business owners who are businesses of one or businesses of few. Employees who are building things from scratch, right? And so you think about some of the things that operational, you know, big, huge matrix organizations that we all work at, established companies. We have domain expertise, not saying you take whatever that proprietary sauce of your employer is and plop it down. So a small business owner, but you probably have some expertise that you can add to their business. 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 really big, huge, publicly traded companies. And, right now I've taken that experience, as I. build out beyond normal media. And I actually mentor at tech stars, and a couple of other different programs. They have tech stars in, in, in so many cities, really worldwide, but that's just one example, right? Where I can take some of that, expertise, from my corporate experience and actually give back to somebody who's building something from scratch, it is not. Easy at all to build something from scratch. So that's just one example for us next up. You know, for those who are, I think many, many, many business owners now are going to have to be creative. They're going to have to create content when you create that content. you want people to subscribe, leave a review of possible of whatever your, your end product is and share, right? So for us as beyond normal, we have our podcast. We appreciate anybody who subscribes, 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 highlighting. But then also for us as a business, right? You take these experiences and. It enhances the value you can charge 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 businesses that are looking to have ad space, right? We can go to the most recently this year. We, we. We put in our bid, on a couple of applications at some conferences to be media partners. And so that all builds the case for whatever you're building, right? when people, you know, support your product in the different ways they can, obviously the end goal is to, you know, the, probably the most valuable thing to do is really to buy product from somebody, buy somebody service. But in those cases where you can't, there's still things you can do. out there in a lot of business owners right now are being creative. They're putting out content. That is a really great way. as we look to, navigate a 2025 for folks to, to support us, but those other creative individuals out there. And next up is exploring new platforms. I touched on this a little bit earlier with the fan base example in our newsletter, we're highlighting, What others are working on, right? And so it could be somebody who's compiling thousands of black business owners, or it could be the fan base app, or it could be somebody who has a grant program, for somebody who needs additional resources for their business. Like it doesn't all have to end up be some, you know, be something that is on our platform at the end of the day. If. Feeds those individuals within our network, within our ecosystem. And so I got to make sure I'm putting it out there from, if I'm finding these, these resources, I got to put it out there to see if our users can leverage it. but let's just. You know, all of this is really to build that community, that I touched on at the towards the beginning of the call as well, where we all thrive. Like, that's going to be a key theme where, you get a pool, you get, you get a group of businesses that really figure out how they can support each other. Those dollars start, You know, flowing and circulating in the, you know, it creates like these local economy effects that, that, that are, I think, are super powerful and, you know, those local economies start to scale up easily, easier and allows everybody involved to, have a, have a, A good piece, their piece, significant piece of the pie that's out there, you know, so in closing, I just wanted to leave you all with 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 resonated with you the most in the actions that followed. once you saw that movie, that's how I like to, position it. You know, every time we choose our own story, we're contributing to a larger movement of empowerment and equity, specifically black founders, who are taking a gamble on themselves. I think there's like a, maybe like three to 400, 000, black businesses here in the States. Each of those businesses is really, you know, setting, setting in motion, driving value. Unlocking value in our community that we all know that we desperately need right now. most black businesses, right? They're not, at a point where, they think like, they can, the nbers is like less than, It's like 40 percent or less of black businesses, have like a hundred thousand in revenue or more than the nbers right around there in terms of the percentages. so 60 percent of the businesses, right, if I said that correctly, don't have revenue anywhere near that for the most part, right? If you look at it, if you think about averages. And so there's so many businesses out there where they're, they're in a mode of exploring how to unlock value. you know, all the things that I mentioned around how you can support and engage with folks right now, there's really important to support and engage with these businesses that are out here, right? 60 percent that are there in this mode of exploring, you Figuring out, you know, what their story is, they're in the midst of it, they're, they're going through, you know, probably some real shit and they got to, you know, the, the feedback, the conversations that they're having are really vital to, you know, them getting to the point in the story, right. That we all want to see them in the climax, the rev, the, the, the point in the story where there's revelations being made. So just, just keep that in mind. You know, thank you all those had that have, stuck with me through this conversation as I'm thinking through this, we're starting out, 2025, just focusing on owning your story, for those who are creatives. Business owners, you know, folks who are really taking a gamble on themselves. this support for those who are listening, it means everything to me. I'm excited about what we got ahead. if this episode resonates with you, share it with somebody, leave us a comment. Let me know what I can improve on. I'm always looking for feedback. I appreciate the feedback until next time. keep owning your story and remember, there's nothing normal about what we're doing. By creating businesses, we're being beyond the norms.