Making Waves: Gloryah Allen’s Impact on Black Business Visibility

In this compelling episode of the Beyond Normal Podcast, we sit down with Gloryah Allen, the innovative mind behind BlackGoodsAndServices. Gloryah shares her journey from her roots in advertising and experience design to spearheading a pivotal platform that elevates black-owned businesses. Discover how her unique blend of creative talent and strategic thinking is reshaping how black entrepreneurs gain visibility and support.

Join us as Gloryah discusses her latest projects and the transformative impact of her work on the community. She delves into the challenges and triumphs of advocating for black business visibility and the importance of having a dedicated platform where the black dollar is valued and celebrated. Whether you’re a business owner or a supporter of economic equity, this episode offers a deep dive into the ways we can foster a more inclusive business environment.

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Transcript

Kenny: 0:33

Welcome, welcome to another great episode of The Beyond Normal Podcast. I'm your host, Kenny Groom. I have a very special guest who is working on such a timely initiative around black, businesses of directory, where we can all find incredible. Black business owners, they're also in a creative as well, in, in, the ad space. And so I'm really looking forward to this conversation. Without further ado, let's bring, Gloryah Allen to the stage so we can discuss blackgoodsandservices Love the name. How's it going, Gloryah

Gloryah: 1:08

Yay. Thank you so much. It's going good. it's Sunday. It's a great day. It's sunny outside and not too cold.

Kenny: 1:17

Mm-hmm. Yeah, we've been having some crazy weather, really nationwide. And so, things are definitely supposed to heat up, this time of year in terms of weather. And so, we're in the midst of like, this is like the holiday season, right? There's something to do every single month, and so we gotta know where to shop, right? And so, you're working on blackgoodsandservices which I, I definitely think we all are gonna need to tap into, during this season. whether it's, Valentine's Day, what's coming up next, St. Patty's Day, whatever, whatever the, whatever the celebration is, there's a black business out there, with a product for us, right?

Gloryah: 2:00

For sure. For sure. I

Kenny: 2:02

love that. And so let's talk, let's take a step back. What were you doing before working on

Gloryah: 2:08

goods and services?

Kenny: 2:10

blackgoodsandservices I.

Gloryah: 2:27

museums. And before that I had just got my graduate, at, in Richmond, Virginia for advertising. So I, I specialized in experience design, and have just done experience design in different industries so far.

Kenny: 2:42

I love that. Appreciate you giving us that breakdown there, Gloryah around your background in advertising. I don't necess hear too many people, going the route when it comes to getting their degree, it sounds like from an undergrad and a graduate perspective in, advertising. So I'm curious like. Has, has that been something you knew for a long time that you would, you would be getting into? Like did, were there signs of as a teenager that you were gonna be going into the ad space? I'm curious.

Gloryah: 3:14

No, honestly not at all. So it, the idea of me going to advertising kind of started my last year of college. I knew that I, so a little bit about me, I was an economics and an art major, art double major. So I did economics and I did an art major together. So I always knew that my passions were like very oil and vinegar who, who likes to do economics but also likes art in some way. so I always knew that, yeah, the things I wanted to do were a little bit oil and vinegar. And it wasn't until my last year where they actually had an advertising kind of like sprint or workshop class. That you could do for the whole year for two semesters where you compete in an advertising competition and they give you a brand, it's called, I think it's called naac, national Student Advertising Competition. And I got into the class you have to apply to it. Got accepted into the class and realized like, oh, advertising is actually the space where I can be creative and also strategic at the same usually like with economics, those people are gonna be more. M statisticians or, you know, working for the government in the public sector, which is great. And then artists, they're doing, like really high end design or they're going to, you know, pursue that a little bit further. I really liked that. Advertising was somewhere in the middle. You get to be creative, you get to be artistic, but you also get to be strategic and you get to understand why people do the things they do. So from that class, I found out about. My graduate school that had a major or concentration in advertising specifically, experience design. And I was like, oh, that's exactly what I've been looking to do this whole time. Didn't know about it until my last year.

Kenny: 5:04

I love that. it seems like all your passions are meeting into this one, like. Space that you found. And like you said, it was a little bit like, I, I like how you put it, like oil and vinegar.

Gloryah: 5:18

Mm-hmm.

Kenny: 5:18

right? Being like a, like a somewhat of a data nerd, but then like you have some, you, you have some interest in the arts.

Gloryah: 5:27

Right. And so

Kenny: 5:28

I definitely think that AB space is a perfect union of that right now as we see. You think about like, uh, traditional advertising mm-hmm. Meeting like the, the big techs of the world where they're doing like ad tech and stuff like that.

Gloryah: 5:43

Mm-hmm. And

Kenny: 5:43

so you're in a great space. So I'm curious now that you're, you've been in advertising, for, for, you know, for, for quite some time now, a few years. Like how has it been? How has your experience been? wit working with brands that focus on minorities? Yeah. Like, have you had that experience in the ad space yet?

Gloryah: 6:16

For myself, I fortunately have, I actually just finished a project last year called, partnered with Advil. It was called Believe My Pain, and we're actually, I'm doing part two of it too, but, it was called Advil, believe My Pain, which, Strives to address pain bias, inequity in the healthcare space. So a lot of the times people, black people who are going into the hospital or going to the doctors, a lot of time they're just not heard and their pain isn't addressed. That there used to be a statistic still is, but we know that it's wrong, is that black people didn't feel as much pain when it came to, whatever was wrong with them or their ailments. So if you were telling a doctor, you or me, were telling a doctor that, you know, something's wrong. They just didn't believe you as much. And also too, I think just the history with our country, there is a lot of bias, towards black people. And the healthcare space isn't, isn't one that isn't ignored when it comes to the bias. So we made this website and it's an entire initiative. There's a lot of creative with it. They did an entire round table where they spoke with Dr. Uche Blackstock, who was a black doctor, black women doctor, and four or five people, told their stories of the pain inequity that they experienced in the healthcare space. So a lot of, black women are more, susceptible to like, fibroids, and the pain that comes with that, you know, they just tell you, oh, it's just cramps or something. And then you find out you have like these masses that are, Building up in you and you need, they need to be addressed. Another man talked about like, I think it was like with heart, some chest issues, heart issues, that, that just kind of went ignored until it becomes so serious that they can't ignore it. So it's like, how can we give people, like me as a patient or and or doctors to address that bias in the healthcare space and it's in partnership with Advil.

Kenny: 8:26

I love that. I love that story. There, there, there's a couple things there that you touched on. the first thing is around like the black consumer, um, like. like. like For, for, for big enterprises, right? Like you mentioned Advil, which is a really big, company. They're part of a conglomerate.

Gloryah: 8:51

Mm-hmm.

Kenny: 8:51

Like. the, the, their black consumer base is a business within itself, right? Mm-hmm. And so there needs to be specific stories told, just a specific kind of like value that's displayed for that, that black consumer

Gloryah: 9:09

for sure.

Kenny: 9:10

And so I'm curious, like how, now that you're working blackgoodsandservices let's pivot a little bit, like mm-hmm. what, what are, what are you pulling into building this like that, those experiences that you have for campaigns for like a Advil and bigger brands, like what are you able to pull from those bigger brand, experiences into what you're building now with blackgoodsandservices

Gloryah: 9:37

That's a great question. I think right now, at least what I've been able to focus on is the network of black people and also the. I guess three things. One, the network that comes with black people, the, messaging that comes with us. Like, you know, it's a black McDonald's, a when you see it, like there's a certain way that, advertising, talk to us. but then also I think about, or something that I wanna focus on is the black dollar. Like no one else is gonna pull us out of whatever oppression they've put us in. It's up to us. Unfortunately, but it, it's up to us and we have the power to do so. There's like a, I think for in the next five years or so, the black dollar is gonna be worth$1 trillion just in the US economy, meaning like we spend our mon, our dollar circulates 1 trillion times,$1, 1 trillion times within our economy. So how can I, with black goods and services. Make sure that dollar that's being cycled is then going back into, or circulating back into black businesses and black families and black households. Mm-hmm. And things like that. So, yeah, that's, those are the things I really wanna focus on is how can we decentralize ourself from the, the, the idea that, we can only support ourselves with other people when we can do it ourselves too.

Kenny: 11:16

I love that. I love that. I'm, I'm curious, a, as you've worked with bigger brand, is there, is there something that black business owners, is is there something that we, we often overlook in in terms of our story? um, that bigger brands, like in Advil and some of the companies that you've worked with, they, they, they leverage. You know, a little bit more effectively, or they, they just bring it to the table? Like versus, you know, black business owners, we're, we're oftentimes a team of one or a team of few. Like, is there something we overlook in our story that we should maybe be highlighting a little bit more from your perspective?

Gloryah: 11:57

Yeah. I definitely think there is, and I will caveat and say, like, as you mentioned, sometimes we're a team of one, so the critique isn't because your, your brand is bad or something. It. sometimes we're only one person and can only do so much and focus on one thing at a time, while also taking care of ourselves and our families and whichever. so it's more of like a, a objective criticism versus, overall, but I think something that us as black business owners can work more on is our brand and storytelling. So brand meaning, hey, our logos, our, The colors that we choose, the maybe fonts, like having a more cohesive brand, visual so to speak. And then also brand storytelling. I definitely wanna emphasize the importance of brand storytelling. You may, your friends may know you and like the people around you that, that are buying from you a lot, but if I've never met you before, I need to be able to feel that same way that your friends do. I. Within five minutes or five seconds. Honestly, if I'm looking at your Instagram, I need to be able to get that story the same way that your loved ones do in a pretty, quick turnaround, so to speak. So I think if we took a step back and took a little bit of time to just get a template for our brand and also focus on our brand story, that goes so much further in terms of. the outreach you get from others. And I think now we're in a space where there's so many great tools or easy tools to do that. Like I'm a huge, it's not black owned, but Canva is amazing. Like, again, I'm a designer. I've, I mean, worked in advertising. I've, I know Photoshop, I know Illustrator, I know all the, all the design programs, but. I still UI use Canva, like I love her. I'm going to use her, for a pretty long time.'cause it's just so efficient. Again, you can get your brand colors, you can get your fonts, you have them there. If you have a team, even a small team of people, you can have that on there. But, there's a lot more tools nowadays that helps you build that brand and brand storytelling a lot faster. So use them.

Kenny: 14:27

Mm-hmm. I love that. I know we talked a little bit, before this call and I was, I I felt good saying that, hearing that you use Canva,'cause I am not the most, uh, graphically lead. inclined, I guess. And So for me it's just like a quick tool. Like you said, I can have all my brand assets in one place. and it's, I can see. I can see somebody getting, you know, overwhelmed by some of the more advanced tools that are out there. And it's really cool that you have the complete perspective of using, all these tools that are at, you know, a lot of people's disposal in the graphic design space. Mm-hmm. But then you, like you're saying, like some of the most basic, simple tools you get a lot of value from specifically for small business owners.

Gloryah: 15:17

Oh, for sure. Yeah. I am never gonna be like. Oh God, yeah. You need to use the highest version of, illustrator or anything like that, or the best 3D program. I, I think I've even learned for myself as a designer, I can tend to be a little bit more of a perfectionist because I'm like, it has to be pixel perfect. But no, I, I've had to, learn like, Hey, you need to get rid of that idea, that things need to be perfect and it just needs to be done. It needs to get out there and you can mm-hmm. You can sharpen it and hone it over time. That's something I was like, okay. Yeah. That's, that's the way to go is get something out there. It may not be perfect, but sharpen it as you go.

Kenny: 16:02

I love that. I love, I love that for sure. It definitely, that's something I had to deal with.

Gloryah: 16:10

Mm-hmm.

Kenny: 16:11

sure. around content specifically.'cause I would, I essentially started following like people with like several hundred thousand followers, right. And I'm like, oh, I want, I want my myself to look like that. Mm-hmm. But then it is like, if you're starting from day one, these people have like maybe a three, five, maybe even 10, 20 year head start.'cause they've been working on this.

Gloryah: 16:35

Mm-hmm.

Kenny: 16:35

My stuff ain't gonna look like this. No. And I gotta, you gotta accept that.

Gloryah: 16:40

And they may have a team. That's what I, what I, I don't think people realize either is like a lot of design work. I mean, working in an advertising agency, these brands. it's still, I think, very recent say like in the past 20 years that there's now like these in-house brand teams.'cause a lot of the time before that, if it's a big, big brand, an advertising agency was doing that work or a design agency. Was doing all the work, designing it, and then that agency was then giving it back to the brand. So even for these big brands, they have been outsourcing for more time than they've had these in, in-house brand teams. So that's kind of like the, the smoke and mirrors that people think like, oh my God, they just, they just have all their time in the world or all the resources or within their own team? No, they're outsourcing. For the most part.

Kenny: 17:37

Hmm,

Gloryah: 17:37

Mm. And then come, and then that makes sense. Giving it over.'cause that's literally my job, at an ad agency Yeah. Is to do it for the Yeah, that makes sense. Do it for the brand and we give it back to them and they post it or do whatever with it.

Kenny: 17:50

Got it. How do you, I'm curious, like in your work within an ad agency, like how do you, do you find yourself struggling to like, disconnect from the work and then move to the next product? Or the, or the next project.

Gloryah: 18:10

you're saying like disconnect from like my every day or just in between one project to another? In

Kenny: 18:17

between the projects. Like is there, has there been a project where you were so invested and then when it came time to hand it over? Like, maybe you were still thinking about it afterwards, like, Hey, maybe I could have did a little bit more. I'm curious. Like, or do you, yeah. Are you just like, Hey, this is the assignment for this period next 30 days? Is this like, I'm curious. Like

Gloryah: 18:40

I think I've done a good job of, I don't wanna say disassociating, but Yeah, like separating myself from each project. It can be a little hard sometimes to manage like what we've talked about, say like last week or like, you know, progress check-ins. If you have three projects at the same time, you're like, what did we talk about at the last one? But that's why I write a lot of notes, like write things down. My brain is only gonna, I have about two gigabytes left of face in my brain to remember anything. So I write everything down that I need to, and then when we get to the next meeting, it's like, okay, here's our progress and what we wanna do next. But in terms of projects that I was like, I just can't get over. I, I honestly, I think the Advil one was really, really special to me. I think because I am the target audience for that. Like I, yeah, I am a black woman who, has health issues and would have, has trouble, you know, finding the right mix of doctors or healthcare provider, stuff like that. Got it. So I think that was definitely one. It was like, oh man, now I'm, it's like you finished a project and then there's gonna be a day where you're done with the project, and then you move on to the next one. You're like. Oh man. I wish I could be more integrated, but you have to move on to the next project until it's time for you to come in again.

Kenny: 20:01

Got it. So let's talk a little bit blackgoodsandservices on your Instagram, right? Mm-hmm. You have a, a line in the, the bio section that says, this is a network of black blackgoodsandservices for the rest of time. That last piece, stood out the most to me. but we, we saw a couple years ago, you know, with the, the pandemic mm-hmm. the initiatives that were, were, released, right. There was like a real big buzz around like businesses, putting resources into them, making sure we have a way to track that. Yeah. And then a couple years pass. And now it is not, it's not the the sexy thing to do. So I'm curious, like, for you, like. Like, how do you see this Going, Like you said, for the rest of time? Like, what's the progression of you building this out? Like, like what's your vi your, your, your vision for it?

Gloryah: 21:05

Yeah. Well, first I wanna address that, like, yeah, I want this to be something that lives on after I do. because clearly with these larger brands, they're. They're tit for tat with it. It's like, oh yeah, we'll do it for a little bit and then we fall and then, and then they'll see that so timely as it's happening right now, they'll see like it's happening right now. Oh, they're serious. Mm-hmm. They're the sales are gonna go down. They're gonna be like, okay, my bad, my bad. Let's, yeah, we're gonna integrate some things in here again. Not anymore. Not in, at least not for me. This was it. So. It's gonna be my initiative for the rest of time to be able to, support black businesses in my everyday life. as long as I'm here and then this will live on for after that. In terms of my vision of how I see, like, see this going on in the future, or at least the near future, I would love to have, a retail store or some sort of marketplace. Mm-hmm. where it's kind of like Target or something, but it's all black owned businesses. We don't have to, I don't wanna say worry or have to do as much research. Everything in here is black owned, buy it and you can use it for your every day. So I'd love to have maybe start off with an online marketplace or a popup, or like even at farmer's markets or something, but have a marketplace in a retail store of sorts where we can just buy all the products that I have, on the directory or just make it easier for all of us to, Circulator black dollar.

Kenny: 22:43

Hmm. I love that. I love that. definitely, I definitely see there you know, push for like in person.

Gloryah: 22:51

Mm-hmm. So

Kenny: 22:51

like you said, doing the popups and things like that. Sprinkling, sprinkling those in. Mm-hmm is just good to have that, you know, go to the, the spot where you can get that locally sourced product. It means a lot. Exactly.

Gloryah: 23:04

Exactly.

Kenny: 23:05

So right now you have 5,000 plus. Mm-hmm. via the latest information. I think people oftentimes, they, they don't realize, think as of like the most recent stats, there's right around like 200,000 black owned businesses

Gloryah: 23:21

Yes. Here in the

Kenny: 23:21

states. And so, like, talk about, I'm curious, like, you're gonna definitely be growing this platform. Like, how can somebody get their business added to the directory?

Gloryah: 23:30

Yeah. They can message me

Kenny: 23:32

blackgoodsandservices

Gloryah: 23:33

Instagram. so if they have a business, just send me a dm. And I'll be sure to add you. always moving, always busy, but I will respond. It may take a while, but I promise I will respond and add you on there eventually. I'd love to have a system where it's just kind of automated where you put it in, I can review it, and then it's added into the directory. but for now, by all means send me a DM and we'll get you added.

Kenny: 24:01

I love that. I love that. What didn't we touch on blackgoodsandservices So this month we're in now is obviously one of the most, where we're supposed to see, supposed to see like quite a significant, amount of of sales of black, black businesses being that we're in and we're in, black History Month. But I'm curious, what, What do do you see? I'm trying to think how to word this. What do you see in terms of like what do black businesses need to do To make their brand stick out? I guess like year round? Like what are some of the things from your ad brain? That visit black businesses can do to put their business in the position to, to have the most eyeballs or just have the most awareness at any given time so that people know what their product is and how they can buy it. Like, I'm curious, what, what your thoughts are on that?

Gloryah: 25:11

Oh gosh, that's such a hard one.'cause I feel like I'm also now a black business and I would have to then take my advice and be like,'cause one thing that at least comes to mind for me is one, putting your face out there, which I'm. I'm so like bad at doing, or I'm resistant to do it. So I'm, I'm truly a hypocrite. But one, putting your face out there and just giving your message like, Hey, this is what, this is who we are. This is why we started, here's the problem that we're solving. Simple questions that, I think that's three good ones. Who you are, why you started, what's the problem that you're solving? or what, how is this a solution? How is this product a solution for us? and also I think just having like a good contact information. How do I find you is probably the fourth one. Then how so the third one being like, okay, you've, this is how we've solved the problem. Here's how to find us and like have a schedule. Got it. I think if this one, I mean it's a lot of places, but there's like the best taco place here in the Northern Virginia area, but. Every, every time that they have a new location, they're very adamant. Like they have their calendar, they're posting and they're consistently posting, here's our schedule, here's where, where, excuse me, here's where we will be. mm-hmm. So I think that's, if, if you don't have those things, I think that's where you can start. Is it Tell your story. I love it. I love it.

Kenny: 26:44

love that.

Gloryah: 26:45

Yeah. I was gonna say, tell your story, give your solution, and where they can find you. If it's online, if it's in store, if it's at a farmer's market, let them know and be consistent. And I'll take my own advice. I need to do the same. Those are questions.

Kenny: 27:01

Oh, I was gonna say, I probably gotta go. I'm gonna take note of those questions and I'm actually and I'm gonna go back and make sure we're answering them for beyond normal media because they seem so simple. Right. But then when you start to think about it, to your point, Gloryah Gloryah, like, am I really doing this?

Gloryah: 27:15

Mm-hmm.

Kenny: 27:16

in the the most effective way for our audience. All All right. So, all all right. Appreciate for sharing so so much. on this call with your background with you're building with black kids and services. I'm looking forward to shopping it myself. I've checked out the platform a couple times already and I already have been able to highlight a couple businesses that I can definitely make sure they get my dollars moving forward.

Gloryah: 27:42

Awesome.

Kenny: 27:43

you know, I want to pass it to you in closing, let folks know. what's the preferred method for them to tap in blackgoodsandservices and then just your lasting thought that you want our listeners to lead this conversation with?

Gloryah: 27:58

Yeah. Well, in terms of, well, one, I wanna say thank you so much for the platform. This is extremely new for me. I'm so glad that you reached out and I'm continuously building this as I go. So we're, we're. We're all moving at the same spot, building the plane as we fly it. so I wanna say thank you for having this platform for me to do this. the next question, I already forgot it. That you had

Kenny: 28:25

Oh, so the, yeah, yeah, the back, the, the, the last question is what do you want Is that lasting thought for those listening in here?

Gloryah: 28:33

Yes. And you had said how best to reach out. Best to reach out is at, is

Kenny: 28:39

blackgoodsandservices

Gloryah: 28:41

all those words, all the letters at Black Goods and services on Instagram. Feel free to DM me. Feel free to comment. I'd love to create more conversation. And the lasting, words that I'd love to, have for you guys is, and again, I'm taking my, I need to take my own advice, is to stay consistent. someone is watching, clearly. I had just built this, I've had this idea for a long time. and I finally, at the beginning of 2025, I was like, I just need to put something out there, and that's how I found you. So definitely stay consistent, clearly tell your story, use the tools that are out there to do it, and sharpen them as they go. And I would love to, again, like I said, partner with anyone that, is interested or has questions or anything. I'm an open book, so thank you.

Kenny: 29:41

Appreciate Gloryah way to way to close things out, for those that have been listening in. Thanks for tuning into another great episode of The Beyond Normal Podcast. Peace.

Gloryah: 29:52

Bye.