How to Diversify your Business Revenue

Welcome to the Empowered to Serve Business Accelerator fireside chat series by the Eastern States, a region of American Heart Association. Today's topic is how to diversify your business revenue. My name is Arisha Smith, Chief Revenue Officer Streamlytics, and I am your moderator today. We've got a great panel set up for you guys today. You're going to really enjoy today's conversation. I just know you're going to get some knowledge nuggets from our esteemed guests. But first, we have a welcome

from a previous award recipient from business accelerator, Abigail Kolar. She's co-founder and CEO of ResusciTech. Take it away, Abigail. Hi, I'm Abigail Kohlar, co-founder and CEO of ResusciTech the creators of Smart Certification, an app that trains people and hands only CPR compression with time feedback through your smartphone versus attack. Our mission is to give people the power to save someone's life, enabling them to take action in emergency situations. This past January, I was awarded w

ith a grant to the American Heart Association National Empowered Serve Business Accelerator. Working with organizations like the American Heart Association has helped me to make connections across diverse audiences around the country by leveraging the vast reach of the American Heart Association and their accelerator training. I've been able to make connections, increase our visibility and gain an expertize that have proved to be invaluable no matter what sort of business you're in, if you're a

tech entrepreneur like me, a small business or a faith based institution. Organizations like the American Heart Association and its accelerator programs can help you realize your mission to improve the health of your community and transform lives. I hope you enjoy this latest opportunity to learn. And don't forget to catch the finale for the faith based accelerator on July twenty second. Thank you. With a passion for all things media and empowering young women, Rashan Ali is a formidable and rev

ered personality within the sports and entertainment industries. She believes in doing media differently. With over 20 years of syndicated radio host and television experience, Rashon is not new to revenue diversification. She owns multiple businesses and brands. Kousser, a podcast and apparel, as well as nonprofit supporting Girls Inc. Welcome, Rashan . So glad that you're here today. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. Just to talk about what's been going on in the nonprofit space, how

we've all been able to pivot, or at least what my pivoting looks like and so much more so just excited to be here today. Our second panelist is Leah Lizarondo . She's CEO and co-founder of 412 Food Rescue 412 Food Rescue was founded as a direct response to the disconnect between food, waste, hunger and environmental sustainability. Their model of food recovery and redistribution prevents perfectly good food from entering the waste stream and brings healthy food directly to the people who need

it. Leah, I'm so glad you're able to join us today. Thank you for coming. Well, thank you so much. I am very excited to be here. Covid-19 affected startup business growth across the board. Many entrepreneurs had to reimagine how their monetization strategy was going to be affected during that time period during the quarantine's they needed to find ways to diversify their revenue goals. Rashan I want to ask you, you have multiple businesses. You have very powerful brands. You're an actress, you'

re a television personality. You have a lot of I'll just say, irons in the fire. What did you do with your businesses to ensure that they were profitable? They were still scaling. How did you decide to diversify in order to progress during this time period? Right. Well, I really had no choice when when the pandemic first hit in March of 2020, obviously, all of us were taken aback and many of us thought, OK, it'll be just a couple of months. Our television show, Sister Circle, which I was a part

of, I was one of four co-hosts. We were entering our third season about to enter our third season thinking that we were going to get that season. But shortly thereafter, in April, our show was canceled. So as a multimedia personality, rationally, I think the coach's daughter, that's kind of how I found my my personality outside of who I am. That stopped. That was completely gone. There was no the way that our contracts were set up. We didn't get any type of back pay, nothing. It was over after a

certain amount of time. So I had to figure out what that looked like for me as a multimedia personality. And that is good. I know we're going to talk a lot more about faith and where the church is right now in all of this as well. But I literally get the opportunity to fill in for my old mentor two, what, three days later after I got the news about Sister Circle being canceled because he had a very serious health scare. And so that provided me the opportunity to be on radio, literally. That hap

pened on a Thursday. And we got a phone. We found out about this Thursday. And then on that following Monday, I was back on local radio. So, yeah, right. Right. Just I'm like, oh, OK. So I did something out of the way for the bigger lesson. For the big lesson. And I got to do that literally right here where I'm speaking to you. I got to do radio from this this this chair. And because I had such a great background, I will say an Atlanta radio, I just stepped right in and people welcomed me with o

pen arms. But then that circle, not being there, just allowed the floodgates to open moderating events, hosting events literally from my seat. And I was like, wow, look how everything opened up. Then I got an opportunity to audition now. And now I can really say to my ex agent, send me more stuff because I am available now to do that. And landed a role on Tyler Perry's sisters for season two. I was in one episode and then I got I was what an opportunity to be on a new show that's coming out in A

ugust called All the Queen's Men, which stars Eva Marcel. And so I'm excited about it. Thank you. Yeah. So that's going to be on the plus and and all of these amazing opportunities. We're able to be presented to me, one, because I never lost my faith. I never I never had a human moment. Now, let me get to be honest with the transparency I gave myself. 24 hours and you know this all too well. One of my line sisters was here. I just I just was able to cry and listen to her, sometimes things don't

go your way, but she uses another word and I just let it all out and literally got the phone call about Ryan Cameron not doing so well on that Saturday. And I was on the radio that next Monday, but opportunities just started to flood and I base it on being open one, but also being very kind and being giving. Giving is the rent we pay for living in through my nonprofit Sporty Girls and just being an open and loving person. All of that has a residual effect on how you are able to continue to navig

ate. So that is the Rashan Ali said, the multimedia personality and all those opportunities are continuing to flow me just allowing myself to be able to partner with amazing brands. And and I also I'm very careful about brand alignment. I don't say yes to everything because I think that's very important just because it has a chick attached to it or you feel like, oh, maybe I should and there's nothing else going on. It doesn't mean that you should do it. It has to make sense for your brand. And

much is the case with the Kousser podcast. While I kind of listen my episodes a little bit, I wanted to do a bigger I went full throttle on the brand, on the apparel side of it. And so I partnered with a company, Legacy History Pride, who is already doing great work in that space for ABC News and the and their apparel and getting their licensing with certain historically black colleges and universities. And I came to them with this idea, the cool store brand, because we cater to each of our orga

nizations. I'm like, let's do some. They have quality products and quality. I have I have the hoodie. I have to say it is excellent. Quality is very well made. The colors are vibrant. You can throw out of the wash, throw it in the dryer. So I love with what you said about being mindful of who you align your your brand with and then your business brands with as well. Just because there is a check or there is an opportunity, it's not necessarily in your best interest to partner with everybody or t

o work with everybody. Next question. While retail E and restaurant businesses received ebbs and flows as it pertains to their revenue models, community impact businesses received a different type of effect. Since both of you run companies or nonprofits that have a direct impact on the local community, describe how your organization navigates these uncertain times. Leah, I'll go to you first. The way our organization navigated the uncertain times is that we charged ourselves to become very respo

nsive, very adaptable, very nimble and really, truly understand what is needed right in the moment. So, for example, there were two programs that we introduced right at the beginning of the pandemic when everything locked out. The first was all of the restaurants that were supporting us. We're closing down and were themselves challenged. So what we did was we instituted a program called Community Takeout. And what that was, was we we signed up the restaurants that used to donate to us and said,

OK, well, we will buy food from you. Now that there are so many that are food insecure, we will buy food from you and that we give you revenue and then use that food to distribute to households that are in need. So it was kind of a program that had two impacts. The first was it allowed the restaurants that we work with, whether what was called the red phase, then when everything was in complete lockdown, the second was it allowed us to source food at the height of when people didn't know what to

do, when there was so much that was closed down, schools were closed down and the need just escalated. So we were able to continue feeding people and we were also able to support the restaurant partners that used to donate to us later. That was an excellent point. Really great food for thought. Now, Rashon, how how would you address this question again, since you have a nonprofit, describe how it affected your business differently and what you guys did when you run nonprofits, especially as a f

ounder. And I'm a creative, I'm a personality. And so you have people, you have boards and board presidents and and people that are trying to help you with your goal. And, you know, that changes over time and people change over time. And you have people who transition off and all of that. And I think that when the pandemic hit, I needed that time to take back my organization, to take back what it truly meant to me, to take back and really refocus on what is the vision here? Where are we going? W

here do you want to go beyond you need to make sure you kind of minimize the programing a little bit, still make sure the brand is out there. What do you what are you going to do? And so they were these two young women that kept emailing me about, hey, we really want to represent sporty girls and we have this PR plan. I got on the phone with these young women and I just love them instantly. And so I hired a PR firm during the pandemic to help me keep sporty girls relevant. They were going out on

faith. Yes, it is. And prayerfully and thankfully, I've had some amazing investors, people that have really just kind of poured into the organization, namely Stephanie Ingram, who has really just really been a huge supporter of sporty girls, which allowed me to then hire a PR company to be able to keep the keep it going. We had we literally had a fireside chat last night. We had a couple of events where we've had women in sports come on just to talk about where they are and what they're doing a

nd how they're navigating. And we had young young student athletes all within the mission of sporty girls, but we made sure we stayed relevant and most people kept saying our name. And then when we had a we had a real social media plan. Well, what's your athlete doing today during the pandemic? You can still do these things as a student athlete, really just continuing to make sure the brand was still very relevant. We didn't go silent when the pandemic hit. And now we're going to have our first

in-person event in August. But we set ourselves up properly. And I'm glad I took that leap of faith to hire a PR company knowing I'm like, oh, my God, I'm looking at the sporty girls budget. I'm like, can we afford it? Yes, you can afford it because on the back end of it, you're going to be rewarded for the work that you did when you took that leap of faith. And so I'm excited about that event coming up in August. And that's just kind of how I've been moving and shaken. Is it hard? Absolutely. D

o I have moments where I'm like, what am I doing? Absolutely. Absolutely. That's normal. If you didn't feel that way, then you're not doing something. Right, right, right, right. But now that I'm talking about it and really being able to sit back and hear myself talk about some of those gains, I'm grateful. You know, that is really, really important. With that being said, let's talk a little bit about houses of faith. During this time period, they often had to pivot a little bit or figure out th

e ways in which they're going to continue to serve the community and make a difference in a way where they everybody couldn't come together and fellowship. So while they had to move to streaming houses of faith moved to streaming, which was fantastic, they got them some additional reach and people were able to come in contact with House of Faith if they even if they weren't able to go there physically. But let's talk a little bit about other ways that you may have seen in your local city or in y

our state how you notice they had to pivot a little bit, whether it's OK. Well, at this point, we can't really package up food or give to the homeless, but we're going to create a shelter where people can just come in and help themselves of all of us. I have also seen some of the houses of faith help with hot spots or wi fi. They had some some opportunities to give those to other parents or parishioners in their homes for those who couldn't afford wi fi to stay connected with school at home and

things of that nature. So tell us a little bit about how you've seen them differentiate in in Atlanta, in the Southeast, and then what you heard about how it benefited? Yeah, I think that, you know, they had to pivot in a way that was unprecedented because church is where you come together and you're able to touch and agree. We have for those of us who we raised in the church, that is what it's all about. And going to Sunday school and going to Children's Church and all of those things. And so w

hen we had to hit this pause, nobody has ever experienced this. The last time this has happened in 1918. So we all had to figure it out. And watching them figure it out was really fascinating because many of them, especially you think about some of the older churches who never really had a streaming service or never even really had to do that because everybody just came to church on Sunday. They had to figure it out and had to really just kind of expand their reach, like you mentioned. And peopl

e were experiencing church in a different type of way from the comfort of their homes. I mean, that's that's a ministry. That's right. That's got a new minister, got a whole new name just because, you know, churches had to resort to that. But then again, they also became the safe haven because for people who did not have food, they were food. There and I saw a lot of that happening and just really people trying to reach out, you saw the charge being used or what it was intended to be used for at

this time in a greater way because people did not know how they were going to survive. You think about the spiritual part of the pandemic and how it hit. It hit so many people in different ways. And the church really saved so many lives, I think even more than prior to because people need it and needed to figure out how they were going to get out of this and try to get out of this thing alive, literally alive. So you saw pastors and you saw people getting together in a different type of way. So

I think that they have are better for it. I would hope that they're better for in the spiritual realm. I'm not really sure financially. I know many people were it was easier to give because it's right on the click the button right here and you'll have your own like there was no barriers towards entry so that expedite it. Right. And it made and made some of our seasoned seasoned parents and then the elderly and made them a little bit more savvy. And I'm going to church. We started 11. I got to g

et off the phone and my mom taught Sunday school right from her home, right on Zoom and every fourth Sunday. And she was very excited about that. I think they got a lot out of the class today. So that technology allowed a lot of a lot of people to be able to get better at it and and get a little bit more savvy. And I think moving forward, we'll see we'll see the advantages that have come from this time for a lot of churches and how they'll be able to really get to the people. I know even in soro

rity life. I just I'm not sure if we're going to go back to the overhead of meeting in person. Like that's the part that's in the facility all day. Yes, exactly. Definitely. You definitely find different ways and definitely taught nonprofits for sure. Yes, there is a way to cut the fat in the overhead and increase your impact to the people you're actually supposed to be serving. And you cut the creature comforts and you brought up an excellent point, the component about bringing our more seasone

d members into more technological advantages when it comes to, if anything, paying for things. So while they were tired, they were becoming more accustomed to doing that. Think about the impact that could have for the volunteers in the houses of faith moving forward. You think about increasing your awareness of technology in the workplace, but even within houses of faith at this point, they're like, oh no, we can all but we can all pull in the money for this field trip with of our class. But eve

rybody send a Venmo, you know, everybody do Cashapp, we're going to do this for like it just makes things at this point more streamlined in your business that the houses of faith are set to do. So. That's an excellent testimony. Leah. How about you? Have you seen these types of things impact your nonprofit? Yes. So our business model, just like many organizations, changed radically during covid-19. I can count many ways. So the first way is because we are sort of the door dash of food recovery a

nd the door dash for those who are food insecure. We had to first establish no contact protocols. So to keep everyone safe in the donation cycle. So our donors had to set the food donation out. Our nonprofit partners that we're distributing the food had to designate a space where the driver can drop off the food. And because all of our drivers are volunteers, we had to request those who are most vulnerable to stay home. And unfortunately, a lot of people who wanted to help had to stay home. And

the second way that our business model radically changed, too, is that knowing that so many people who are in need of food are stuck at home because they are elderly, because they are immunocompromised, we had to launch home delivery and whereas before we only delivered to other non-profits and charities, we started doing direct home delivery during covid. Wow. Now that is a story Leah that was really good information. Thank you for sharing that. I'm sure that many of the entrepreneurs watching

, you know, were able to pick up on that and learn something really quickly. So now moving over into our third question, our final question, we've listened to both of you describe how you successfully grew your businesses during the pandemic and in uncertain times overall, we don't necessarily have to refer to the pandemic, but when you are when you own your own brand, when you are an entrepreneur, times it ebbs and flows is up and down when it comes to you'll be in harvest and then sometimes yo

u'll be in want. And so the point of this conversation is, while we are saying diversifying revenue streams, diversification across the board, whether it's your staff, whether it's the type of people that you're partnering with, whether it's your vendors and again, ways in which you're optimizing, how you're getting funds coming in for your business, what tips would you offer entrepreneurs that they could take, digest and run with it? So what I like to call this is a rapid fire round. So I'm goi

ng to kind of go back and forth between you, Rashon and Leah. I want to hear from you both. Just when I come to you, I want you to say whatever your tip is and then we'll go to the next one. So Rashan give me off the top of your head, give me one tip and then we're going to cut to Leah. I want to hear, how do you think entrepreneurs could benefit from some of the some of the stories that you've told me? Now, give me a tip. Absolutely. And I will go with what I said in the very beginning. Outsour

cing. Do not be afraid to outsource. If you know that you can afford it, please do yourself a favor and outsource. Excellent as a great point, Leah, what about you, the number one tip that I would give entrepreneurs is that in times of crisis, instead of looking at it as a challenge, look at it as an opportunity, look at the look what opportunities are out there for you that you yourself are specifically fit to respond to. So for us, it was home delivery because we do have thousands of drivers e

verywhere. We were the only nonprofit that was already equipped to deliver food to the doors of those who are the most isolated and the most food insecure. So we took that opportunity. We transformed our work and made sure that we not only delivered the charities that we were able to deliver to homes next to. You talked about outsourcing. What would you recommend as another to. I would say never stray away from who you are, benefit and know who your beneficiary is, who is the person that you're

serving, if you keep that top of mind, you will never go astray. I love it. Excellent point, true to the heart, true to your character, Leah, what about you? What is your second tip for entrepreneurs today? Tip number two is don't be scared to do something totally different from your model. So when I say this, maybe it's not totally different. So typically we sourced food from food donors. We source surplus food. But during the pandemic, as things especially in the beginning when things just clo

sed down, food donations were all over the place. We had increases in food donations in some places like workplaces as people were ordered to work from home. But then we also had dips in some of our donors, such as restaurants, which were ordered to close. So what we did was we looked at what is at the actual need out there, and we realized that not only are people hungry, but also our donors, which were the restaurant community, were also in need. And we could help two of the stakeholders that

we work with at the same time. So we bought food for the first time in our model. We never buy food. But in this instance, that calling was important because it was able to provide food at the time in need. It was also able to support our most valued partners. Rashan Third, to make it a good one, if you operate from a space of gratitude and love and also hopes that one kindness kind what you do, you see a guy I gotcha love and gratitude. Right? OK, right. So I think that those three things are s

omething that I really, really embraced throughout this time, knowing that all you have or whatever it is that you need to go to, the next level is already there. If you stand and gratitude and love and really operate from a place of kindness, that is the only way for me that I've been able to literally continue to thrive in everything that I had. So I'm telling you, be grateful when you wake up, be grateful when you go to sleep and when you can be grateful for the little things than the abundan

ce is continuing to come your way. That sums us up, I'm speechless after that, you have covered the top, the bottom and every other piece, Leah, I don't know if you can top that. What's the third tip for entrepreneurs today? Tip three is the thing that made our organization shine during this pandemic and made our organization perform to its best is that everyone in the team trusted each other. We all knew that we were facing something that no one has ever faced before, and then we were about to

respond to it without seeing each other. We were all remote and so there had to be major trust and absolute trust with each other to understand that everyone was working towards the same goal. And once we trusted each other, then everything went as smoothly as we could possibly imagine. We achieved more than we imagined. And even now, post pandemic or stronger team than when we even started. I'd like to thank our guests, Rash an and Leah for join us today. I know our audience really enjoyed the

lessons, the messages that you had to share. Next up, please be sure to join us for the American Heart Association's First EmPowered To Serve business accelerator Faith Based on July 22nd, these six contestants will compete for over one hundred and five thousand dollars in grants. Word of Life International in New York, New York, Shiloh Community Development Corporation in Trenton, New Jersey. Bible Center Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Center for Transformation, Brooklyn, Maryland. Kin

gdom Care, Inc. Odenton, Maryland. Salvation and Social Justice, Woodbury, New Jersey. Please follow American Heart Association on all social media platforms. For more details, visit EmPowered to serve dot org.