0:02

What's up, y'all? Hope all is well. You are tuning into big tech

0:05

energy. My name is Jarrett Albritton. If you don't know me, my whole

0:09

goal in my life right now is increasing diversity in tech

0:13

through education, access to resources, and interviewing

0:17

some of the people in my inner network that are killing it in the tech

0:20

space. Whether they are making a ton of money as tech employees

0:24

or they are changing the world as tech startup founders,

0:28

I'm definitely understanding what is their energy, what is their mindset, what was their

0:32

execution strategy, and what is the advice that they would give you, the listener,

0:35

so that they can replicate the success that they've had. My name is Jared

0:39

Albertan, and welcome to Big Tech Energy.

0:43

I'm not going to steal his thunder. I'm actually going to pass the mic to

0:46

Lander and let you introduce yourself. Yeah, man. Appreciate you having me, man. Jared

0:50

is a beast. We met when Clubhouse first launched, man. Like,

0:53

literally, I think first week, I think it might have took you maybe like,

0:57

a month after that to start those tech rooms. Yeah,

1:01

when we met, I was just doing tech rooms every day, and I went from,

1:04

like, 80 followers to 30,000 in, like it was crazy. Two months, and I've seen

1:08

it, man. It was crazy. So I'm proud of you, bro, for starting the podcast,

1:11

running a tech room, just staying consistent because a lot of people don't do that.

1:15

Appreciate you. No doubt, man, but yeah. I'm Leander Howard II,

1:18

founder of Spark Your Resume, which is an online resume writing company that

1:22

transitioned into a startup. So I co founded a startup along

1:26

with Hans La, Rami, Brandon Mitchell and Ahmed Nath.

1:30

They were running brand resumes at first, so we were actually competitors

1:33

and know, turned into collaborators, which is crazy,

1:37

but right. See is an all in one business solution, helping freelance writers,

1:41

coaches, and teams pretty much streamline and automate their business. And then we're

1:45

also doing something called manage career services. So this is pretty crazy. I think

1:48

this is how we really raised our money. So we're going to job boards and

1:52

saying, okay, you bring in 80 million visitors a month, like a Zip

1:55

recruiter, why don't you offer resume writing services,

1:59

LinkedIn services, cover letter services to your visitors?

2:02

They're like, okay, let's talk more, and I'm, all

2:06

right, cool. So we're like, okay, we spin up our own

2:10

career services, white label for ZipRecruiter. So now ZipRecruiter has

2:13

career services. We take a percentage, and then they keep 70

2:17

30 split, whatever, and then we manage the whole thing because we have the software

2:21

to scale. That's what rights he is. It was built for resume writers and career

2:24

coaches at first, but now we're scaling to more like teams, writing,

2:27

editing teams, staffing agencies, even some lawyers are using rightsy right now,

2:31

so it's a pretty big use case. But that's

2:34

how we really raised our money, because dominating that career services

2:38

market, man, a lot of people need help getting jobs. A lot of people need

2:41

help positioning themselves, marketing themselves better online to

2:45

recruiters using hiring platforms like ZipRecruiters. So

2:48

it was a double use case to like, hey, you can generate more revenue, but

2:52

also improve your client experience because as you know, job

2:55

boards make money off job listings, so they'll make money by Adobe

2:59

coming to ZipRecruiter, right, and coming and paying them X amount of

3:03

dollars to post a job per month. But they weren't monetizing the side of the

3:06

job seekers actually needing to help to put themselves out in the market

3:10

and be a quality candidate. So that's where we come in. Okay, so

3:14

we're definitely going to dive really deep into right sea, not only the business model

3:17

and how you help solve that problem, but also

3:21

the process of putting together the pitch deck and

3:24

finding the investors and then landing the

3:28

investors, and then the strategy of actually putting

3:32

into fruition. But when it comes to your first

3:35

introduction to tech, talk about that, how did

3:39

you break into tech? And one thing that I like about your story is,

3:43

and I try to emphasize a lot of people trying to get into tech is

3:46

that you can get into tech with a non tech role and you

3:50

can understand the tech space but also get

3:54

the benefits of a tech company, especially a top tech company like the one you

3:57

work for. Right? Talk about your break into tech. Yeah. So I

4:00

graduated from Georgia State University in May of 2020 with two degrees, one in marketing

4:04

and finance, had a couple of internships, like at Wells Fargo and Arthur

4:08

Blanks Foundation before graduating. And then I went on

4:12

my senior year looking for jobs and everything like that. And it landed a

4:15

job at Adobe as a financial analyst. February of 2020,

4:19

actually. And then I started August of 2020. But how I got into Adobe, man,

4:23

was really networking, like leveraging LinkedIn, reaching out

4:27

to people on LinkedIn, sending them my resume, following up

4:31

scheduling interviews, being able to articulate my skill sets and

4:34

values from my previous internships to land an offer. So

4:38

actually my third interview at Adobe, they actually flew me out to San Jose

4:42

to see the headquarters and everything, like, know, butter you up and all that. Good,

4:46

right, right. And then I actually brought

4:50

presentation I did at Wells Fargo. So I had like a project

4:54

that I did at Wells Fargo to show like, I was able to create something

4:57

from scratch. And I showed that to Adobe. I brought collateral. And most people

5:01

don't bring collateral. They're just talking about their experience. But it's

5:05

different when you actually show you can actually execute. And I literally got hired on

5:09

the spot, bro. Like before I left, the recruiter told me I had a job.

5:11

So I'm like, oh, that's a bet. That's crazy. But it worked

5:15

out, man. And I would say I'm not technical at

5:19

all. Like, I have a marketing and finance degree. I cannot code

5:23

worth anything. I use all the no code tools right, all the AI

5:26

stuff. But I have no technical background. And I think what people got to understand

5:30

is that if you are working in tech, it's still a

5:33

business. So they have sales, they have marketing, they have Ops, they

5:37

have finance, they have HR, they have legal. All

5:41

businesses have those departments. So you don't need a technical background to work at a

5:44

tech company. The only thing you do need to understand is the actual product to

5:48

sell it. If you're in sales or if you're in marketing, product marketing, that's the

5:51

only thing that's really changed it from the beauty industry to the tech industry is

5:55

the product. So as long as you understand business like you're in tech sales,

5:59

it's most definitely different than retail sales, right? Like

6:02

terminology and things like that. But sales is sales. At the end of the

6:06

day, you either got or you don't. So I think

6:10

when people understand just because you work in tech

6:14

doesn't mean you have to be technically, you don't have to have

6:18

a tech background to work in tech. Yeah, absolutely. And in my story,

6:21

I'm not a tech as well. I wasn't technical. Don't know coding. Right. If you

6:25

ask me to code something or jump off a building, I'm going to hit the

6:28

ground real fast. But yeah, it's about be able to solve business

6:31

problems and also adding to the bottom line and whatever skill set you

6:35

have. And it could be anything. So you were, what, a financial analyst?

6:39

Yes. My bad. Yeah, I was a financial analyst. I worked at Adobe for about

6:43

13 months. Got it. But while you were there,

6:47

you run an entrepreneurial spirit, decided to start a business. And

6:51

I think what you brought up so very

6:55

kind of matter of factly and really quickly, and I don't want people to miss

6:58

over it, is how strategic you were when it came to getting the

7:02

job at Adobe in terms of building a brand

7:06

out on LinkedIn. So when recruiters search

7:10

for somebody like you, you would pop up, utilizing your

7:13

network to get referrals or do informational interviews, for sure.

7:17

So just talk a little bit more about your strategy and then how that motivated

7:21

you to create, spark your resume. True? Most definitely. Thanks for bringing that

7:25

up. So when I was searching for

7:28

jobs, I applied to like 150 plus jobs when my senior year, and I

7:32

thought I had really good experience. Like, I worked at a Wells Fargo, interned at

7:36

Arthur Blanks. Pretty reputable companies, right? But

7:40

it didn't work out that way. I was shocked. I'm like, man, I'm applying all

7:43

these jobs. Why am I not getting any interviews or get any callbacks for full

7:47

time opportunities? And it made me realize that you got

7:50

to be somebody that people want to know, and

7:54

people don't know what you want or who you are unless you tell them.

7:58

Yeah. So that's when I started really vocalizing

8:02

the things I've been through, the things I were doing, just documenting the process just

8:05

publicly. So I'm posting content without a business, having a business on

8:09

LinkedIn. I'm talking about what you can do with your resume, how you can network.

8:12

And I started building the following 60 00, 10,000, things like

8:16

that coming on LinkedIn. I'm like, okay, people actually need this content.

8:19

Okay, cool. And then everybody, if you want to start a business,

8:23

I tell people to focus on getting your first customer. Don't focus on

8:27

the logo domain, all that good stuff. When I first started

8:31

Sparking Resume, bro, I posted about Instagram story, hey, I'm doing

8:34

resumes. Here's my cash app. Like, validating my

8:38

product, right? Will people buy this? And it doesn't have to be expensive.

8:42

My resumes were like, $50, $75 starting

8:45

out. I'm just trying to see, will people pull out their credit

8:49

card to pay me for this service? That should be your first

8:53

goal period when you're starting a business. But when it came

8:57

to getting a job, man, it was more so just networking,

9:01

really reaching out to the right people. So reaching out to people that have the

9:04

same position titles in me. So I was reaching out to financial analysts. I'm reaching

9:08

out to recruiters. I'm trying to find hiring managers. And

9:11

I'm pitching myself all day long like, hey,

9:15

I'm Leander Howard. II. I have a double major in finance and

9:19

marketing. Here are my three main attributes, and here's what I've done over my

9:23

previous experience. My resume is attached to learn more about who I am. Can we

9:27

schedule a call? And most people don't even ask that.

9:30

Your goal should be to schedule a meeting. Point blank, period. I'm not

9:34

asking all these questions in messaging because they can leave you on

9:38

Red. Never really reply. My goal is to get a yes no response. Can we

9:41

meet or can we not meet? And that's it. Once you get on the meeting,

9:45

then you can go into more detail about who you are and what you do,

9:47

and be prepared. Like, have ten, eight to ten

9:51

questions to kind of outline the conversation.

9:55

Like, come in prepared and have a goal of

9:59

meeting these people because everybody busy. No, that's big facts.

10:03

So you got Adobe as a financial analyst. I know you weren't

10:07

there for that long because your business went off, but what were

10:10

some of the things that you took away from being

10:14

at a tech company and things that might be helpful for the

10:18

listeners? Yeah, man. So I was actually running spark your resume

10:22

before I got to Adobe. So I started at April 2020. I started

10:25

Adobe August of 2020. So I was running for about three, four months before

10:29

I actually got there. But when I got there, Adobe is a billion dollar

10:33

company. I literally have access to everything they have.

10:36

I'm studying the chart. Who's the CEO,

10:40

what's his exec team look like? Who's underneath them? What

10:44

are the roles? What are the job titles? I still got those written down in

10:47

my Google Docs. You know what I mean? Because I'm trying to get there. We're

10:50

trying to build a billion dollar tech company. So why not use the blueprint in

10:53

front of me? And they're a billion dollar tech company right

10:56

now. Everybody knows what not everybody, probably. But most people know what Adobe is. Yeah,

11:00

most people do, right? So I'm studying the game because

11:04

I literally have access that other people don't have. I know what the

11:08

SDRs are doing. I know how many emails the

11:11

CEO may send out, how many town hall meetings, what's the outline of the town

11:15

hall meetings? Why are we having them? What's the cadence? Right? What are

11:19

people getting out of this? How many meetings my managers might have with me every

11:23

quarter or monthly, whatever. Because now I'm a manager. I got a team

11:26

now. How do I want them to execute?

11:30

Right? And some things they might have did right, some things they might have did

11:33

wrong. But I'm taking both and running with it. So I'm learning from the

11:37

failures Adobe had and the wins and seeing, okay, don't make these

11:40

mistakes when you're building a tech company, do this instead, because they

11:44

already tried it and it didn't work. So that's really what I learned by

11:48

working at Adobe, Bro, is, like, how to run a billion dollar company, if I'm

11:51

being honest. Yeah, you're just entrepreneur 100%.

11:56

I'm in all the resources, bro, trainings, development, seeing what

12:00

benefits they offer, how they offering it, what companies they're using, all of that.

12:03

Yeah. And the reason why I call this show big Tech Energy, besides obvious play

12:07

on Words, is I'm really about when it comes to

12:10

my network. The people I surround myself with, they have, like, an elite level

12:13

mindset, elite level work ethic, for sure, and

12:17

elite level curiosity when it comes to research. So, like, everything

12:21

you just said, I could feel your energy, your conviction,

12:25

how excited you were to learn about this stuff and how you're like, man, I'm

12:28

going to take this and I'm going to apply it. I'm not playing no fact.

12:32

And I love the fact that you said that you had, like, 150 interviews. Because

12:36

I need people to understand, like, you're going to deal with a lot of rejections.

12:39

Yes. You're going to deal with a lot of learning curves and experiences when it

12:43

comes to how to reach out, how to position your resume, your LinkedIn, how

12:46

to network your way in. But it's about persistence, and it's also about

12:50

leading with value, which I think you always try to do. That's

12:53

key, and that's major. That's key. Now, I will say, man,

12:58

the nose just leads you to more yeses. So the quicker you can get them,

13:02

the quicker you'll get to your yes man. So try to get to those no's

13:06

as quick as possible. I've been rejected a thousand times, bro.

13:09

1000, probably more than that, but the yeses

13:12

outweigh the nose, man, so just keep hustling. All right? That's what's up.

13:16

So I really want to get into right seat, but before we do, I want

13:20

to drop some gems for the folks. Since you created a business about

13:23

resumes, what is some of the key things

13:27

that you would outline in terms of how to make your resume

13:31

super successful to get the most opportunities? Yeah,

13:35

most definitely. I think making it succinct to the point

13:38

is most definitely key format too, right? Because people

13:42

see before they hear. Right. So if your resume just looks

13:46

sloppy, I probably will never read it or not interested in reading

13:49

more. So make sure it looks presentable, especially because recruiters and hiring managers

13:53

look at it for how long? Like maybe a couple of seconds, 7 seconds max.

13:56

Yeah, I mean, that's anything though, if I see a pretty

14:00

girl on the street, right, I might double take after I see

14:04

she attractive. The same rule applies. It's all marketing. So

14:07

just like ads. You see an ad, you look at it for 7 seconds, probably

14:12

not even that before you skip it or you're interested. Same

14:15

rule applies. So make it attractive. Make it to where somebody can

14:19

easily understand what you're trying to the message you're trying to convey. And then when

14:23

it comes to the content, of course, first name, last name, that

14:27

should be the biggest thing on the paper. It's about you and only you, right?

14:31

People should know who they're reading about, contact information, have a

14:35

valid email address, phone number, so people can contact you. Hyperlink your LinkedIn

14:38

URL. Have an about paragraph that tells people who you are, what you do, and

14:41

how you plan on bringing value to the organization. Highlight the top

14:45

15 hard skills. I like to say hard skills more than soft skills,

14:48

because at the end of the day, I'm hiring you to do a job. I

14:51

can learn about your soft skills more during the interview. Anybody can say they're good

14:55

at leadership. That's kind of irrelevant on the resume. I want to

14:58

know, do you have the technical acumen to do the job you're applying to in

15:02

the discussion? And then when it comes to your experience, highlight

15:06

your accomplishments. Right? So start off with a strong action verb. Identify the task or

15:09

project completed, and then highlight the achievement or outcome of that task or project.

15:13

You want to paint a clear picture. I call it like the XYZ formula. Paint

15:17

a clear picture to the recruiter or hiring manager on how you plan on bringing

15:21

value to the company based on your previous experience. Once you do

15:24

that, man, I think you'll see a lot more success when it comes to getting

15:27

more interviews. And then also take the next step in connecting with those people on

15:31

LinkedIn if you do have their information or find the people at the company that

15:34

you can connect with, recruiters, hiring managers and the people that are in the

15:38

position you want to work in. So if I'm looking to apply for a financial

15:41

analyst role, I'm looking up people that are financial analysts at that company I'm

15:45

applying to and sending them connection requests. Hey, I'm interested in this

15:49

financial analyst position. I see you're, a financial analyst, would love to learn more about

15:53

what you do and who you are and how you got into this role. Would

15:56

you be open to scheduling a 15 minutes call, boom,

15:59

done. And run the play? Yeah. And then when it

16:03

comes to LinkedIn, what is advice you have for LinkedIn? Man, LinkedIn is I think

16:07

it's more important than the resume. Absolutely. Honestly and truly. It's where you

16:10

can actually connect with people. Right. Your resume is only seen if you apply to

16:13

a job, but your LinkedIn profile is working for you 24/7, because it's a search

16:17

engine. So I have access to LinkedIn recruiter now, bro. I see

16:21

it like it's over 100 million people open to work on LinkedIn.

16:25

Literally. It's crazy. And that's how

16:28

recruiters are finding people that are open to work, right? They're using LinkedIn recruiter to

16:32

find these people. So optimize your profile, make sure it's keyword. Optimized based on

16:36

the positions you're looking for. I mean, the job description is giving you free game

16:39

on what keywords are looking for, what activities or

16:42

what responsibilities they're looking to fulfill for

16:46

this role. A job posting is literally just a cry for help.

16:51

That's it. I need help. I need somebody that can do XYZ.

16:54

How can I optimize my profile to fit that description on

16:58

LinkedIn? So when people do come to your profile, you have a nice headline, you're

17:01

telling people who you are, what you do, and how you can help

17:04

them build their organization. And then you want to make sure your

17:08

title is in there because people like recruiters use title, so

17:12

it can be a little ambiguous, like

17:16

Senior Software Engineer versus just software engineer, things like

17:19

that. So I would say make sure you have the main keywords so,

17:23

like Software Engineer in your headline

17:27

to get recognized on LinkedIn and then skills

17:30

endorsements. Your about paragraph is key because I think you can have like

17:34

2600 characters for your about paragraph. So make it about you,

17:37

but also include your skills. And one hack I will say is

17:41

put your skills in your about section, at least your top ten,

17:45

because your skill section is at the bottom of your LinkedIn

17:48

profile. So I won't really see them until I scroll all the way down to

17:52

the bottom. So I would say highlight at least the top ten skills and that

17:55

way it's searchable as well. Got you. Yeah. And have a good profile,

17:59

headshot. Yeah, definitely. How many followers you got on LinkedIn right

18:02

now? 27,000. Okay, cool. So

18:06

I brought that up because how important is it to build a personal brand

18:09

beyond what you're known for at your job? No,

18:13

most definitely important, man. You can lose your job today

18:17

and they'll probably find somebody to replace you in the next 30 days. Right. So

18:21

don't think you are your job title, think more

18:25

of what do I want to be known as? So for myself, for example, I

18:28

want to be known as one of the best marketers in the world. That's my

18:31

goal. Right. So I'm striving every day to make that happen.

18:35

Now, marketing is very broad, right. So I could even niche

18:39

that down to where I want to be the best lead generation person you go

18:41

to on how to find your ideal customer and get

18:45

them to capture their attention and get them to pay for your product or service.

18:48

Right? That's what I want to be known for. But I think everybody needs to

18:51

think that way, whether you're working a nine to five or you're a founder or

18:55

whatever, because your job title can change. You might

18:58

stop the company, right. You might sell the company, but who are

19:02

you at the end of the day? What are people going to know you for?

19:06

Right, so that's your personal brand. How do people talk about you

19:10

when they see your face and you're not around or how they're promoting you to

19:13

other people? That's your personal brand when you're not in the room. Exactly. And it's

19:17

important, man, because people are going to talk regardless. It's word of mouth marketing.

19:21

So you want to make sure they're saying good things and it aligns with what

19:24

the brand you are actually building. And if it doesn't, then

19:28

that's your brand, not what you think it is. Your brand is what people say

19:31

about you, not what you think it is. Yeah. Now I'm super grateful

19:35

that the Pandemic forced me into building

19:39

a personal brand. No, man, for real. But just like you, it's

19:42

like I didn't care about what I was

19:46

known as. I really cared about how many people I could impact, for sure.

19:50

But you're doing the exact same thing in the sense of like, you're showing people

19:53

how to do it, but also you're providing a service that changes

19:57

people's lives as well. And it's an even exchange when it comes to the resumes

20:00

and the LinkedIn and all that for sure. So I would just say to the

20:03

people listening this really focus on how can you add value to the most

20:07

people and what can you

20:11

share that you're passionate about? Because people will feel that passion

20:15

that will add value to people's lives. And if you got that, you're in good

20:19

shape and niche down too. You

20:22

can't be the jack of all trades so for me,

20:26

I could be trying to help everybody in tech, but now I want to help

20:29

black people get into tech, you know what I'm saying?

20:34

And that's what it is. And I have that niche. That's my focus.

20:38

People know me as that, right? So if there's an opportunity for black people to

20:41

get into tech, I should be probably one of the top five people they think

20:44

about because of the consistency, for sure.

20:48

Create that personal brand, man. And then once I get my 100

20:51

podcasts in, I'll be known as the guy at the podcast, you know what I'm

20:55

saying? The black tech version of Eyl.

20:59

Okay, I like that. So anyways, I got to speak it in

21:02

existence. By the way. One of the mindset things is abundant

21:06

mindset, obviously, but speak and think about the things that you want to

21:09

happen. So I'm sure while you're at Adobe, you're at Sparky

21:13

resume, you spoke this Right Sea into existence.

21:17

So before we get into Right Sea, just want to talk about Sparky resume,

21:22

what was the growth like and what were the things that you

21:26

did that helped grow it to a place where

21:30

Right Sea eventually became a thing? Yeah, man,

21:34

that's a good question. So sparked your resume. Man, how I

21:37

really grew it, we served over a thousand. We had

21:41

1000 customers in two and a half years, which is crazy,

21:45

but what I will say is cold email, man.

21:49

I wasn't trying to spend money on ads. I was trying

21:53

to get customer acquisition costs as low as possible. Right? So

21:57

I figured out a way to scrape emails from LinkedIn

22:00

and find job seekers and get their personal email

22:04

and code email them. And I'm talking about bro. We'll get

22:07

2030 replies a day. Like, yes, I'm interested. Yes, I'm

22:11

job searching. I'm looking for a new opportunity, blah, blah, blah. And it will. Schedule

22:15

a meeting, schedule a meeting, get them to convert. We close

22:18

three out of ten people that we talk to. So 30% conversion rate,

22:22

70% show up rate. So that's how I do like my numbers. So you

22:25

got booked appointments. Seven out of ten people show up. Out of those, seven out

22:29

of ten, two buy, two or three buy, which

22:33

is pretty solid, like industry average, probably a little bit

22:36

above, but that's really how we grew, man. It

22:40

was cold. Email and LinkedIn, I think that's really all you need

22:44

to really grow a business, bro, because LinkedIn is the number one B, two B

22:47

platform. And email is everybody got

22:50

email. So if I want to get to somebody

22:54

directly, I'm using email and LinkedIn to build social authority.

22:58

So my LinkedIn profile is optimized. So they'll come to my profile, see who I

23:01

am, and then now they see me in the email. And if I did run

23:04

ads, they'll see me retargeting on Facebook and Instagram as well, which I

23:08

did at one point in time. And it worked. People were booking

23:12

appointments, people were replying to emails, people were connecting with us on

23:15

LinkedIn and purchasing packages. And then from there,

23:19

we just seen a bigger opportunity, man, like I said, for managed career services. And

23:23

that's how kind of right see came about. Like, we're about to build 1000

23:26

Sparky resumes with job boards, right? So now it's like, okay,

23:30

they got the traffic. Like I said, I ain't want to spend money on ads.

23:33

Job boards already got the traffic, but they're not offering the services or they don't

23:36

have the domain expertise to offer services. We built pretty

23:40

decent resume writing and career coaching businesses over the past three

23:44

years. Kind of know what we're doing. So now we go to the

23:48

job boards. Hey, 70 30 split. 80 20

23:51

split. You all do no work, we spin up the whole

23:54

services. You all get paid every month off the traffic you

23:58

already bringing that you're not monetizing off of. Kind of illegal,

24:02

ain't going to lie, but

24:06

it's dope, man. Everything

24:09

I built with Spark, your resume is literally transferring

24:13

over to right sea. Like all the marketing strategies I

24:17

have, cold emailing, lead generation. That's how we booking demos for

24:21

the SaaS side enterprise deals, we reaching out to job

24:24

boards. All of that stuff is just coming together, man.

24:29

And it was hard to close Sparky resume, you know what I'm saying? It was

24:31

like, man, first business, my baby, you know what I mean? The end of

24:35

the day, man, had to check my ego and really think about, why am I

24:38

here? Why am I doing this? What are my goals? Yeah, man, I'm trying to

24:41

be worth 20 mil by the time I'm 35. That's the goal. Yeah.

24:45

And I think honestly, it'd be worth more, bro. You know what I mean? For

24:48

the people that don't know, how old are you currently? 25. 25? I got ten

24:52

years. Got ten years. Nah, man, you're going to get that in about half that.

24:55

I hope so. That's the goal. By really 30, I say 35 or 30.

24:59

Yeah. We trying to

25:02

build the business to where it's scalable. It's attracted to

25:06

somebody that want to come and acquire us. We own

25:10

a mission, you know what I mean? It's clear as day, the whole team know

25:13

it. There's no secrets. We most definitely trying to get acquired.

25:20

Membership in black and HR means community and being a part of a

25:24

culture of like minded individuals. You have a

25:27

culture within a culture, especially in the black community. And

25:31

Black and HR is that professional culture. We have fun, we

25:35

laugh and joke about things that are related to us in the workplace,

25:39

but we also have serious aspects as well, where we help each other

25:42

grow. And it's just one of those places where I can go

25:46

to any time of the day, pose a question, and

25:49

I'm going to get all type of answers. But. I'm going to get support.

25:53

And we all work together to give advice, to give

25:56

insight, to share tips. The networking is

26:00

amazing. The people that I've spoken to have allowed me

26:04

to learn things about myself that I didn't know. So what does

26:08

that do? When I go to my next interview, I have that confidence

26:11

when I walk in to be able to explain and speak on what I've

26:15

done in the past and prove that I am the person for the

26:18

job. Yeah, for sure. Microsoft

26:22

LinkedIn. Hey, Microsoft LinkedIn. You know what I mean? My people.

26:27

Keep your eye on Ricey. Man, we better turn up. For real. Yeah.

26:32

So a lot of startup founders are going to be like watching this, and they're

26:35

going to be like, what were the steps

26:38

to write C, acquiring

26:42

funding. So just talk about that journey of saying

26:45

like, spark your resume and your former

26:49

competitors coming together. How did this

26:53

idea come about? And then how long was the process and what was the

26:56

process of building the pitch deck and

27:00

taking these meetings and doing what you need to do? Yeah, man, it was crazy,

27:04

man. So Brandon Mitchell is the founder and CEO, and then

27:07

Hansla Rami is our co founder as well, but he's the CTO. And then

27:11

Ahmed At, this is a co founder as well. He's the VP of Sales. Director

27:14

of sales. So those three guys were running Brand

27:18

that's that was another resume writing company. And then I was running Sparky

27:22

resume. I met Brandon because he was on eyl, so he had an

27:26

episode on eyl. One of my homies hit me up. I remember this day like

27:29

it was yesterday. I was at La Fitness, I'm on the treadmill. My homie called

27:32

me. He was like, yeah, I know. You started sparky resume. Listen to this guy,

27:35

Brandon, man, he made like two hundred and fifty k first year.

27:39

Okay, Bet Say less, send me the episode. Listened to him.

27:43

Love the episode, bro. Was a genius. Hit him up on

27:47

Instagram, connected with him, told him I was starting to spark your

27:50

resume. Took me under his wing, told me everything to do. Get on LinkedIn

27:54

ProFinder, which is like a marketplace, to send us leads for resume

27:58

services and things like that. Do this, get

28:01

this CRM, do this. This is how

28:05

you attract customers. Here's some proposal templates, here's a contract

28:08

template. Just give me the game. And knowing

28:12

I'm competing with him, pretty much, I respected that because a lot of people

28:16

wouldn't do that, you know what I mean? And then from there, bro,

28:19

I'm giving them game. Yo, I got the CRM. You might need

28:23

to help with marketing. He watching me doing my thing with Sparky

28:27

resume. I think the first year I was working at

28:30

Adobe, I'm going to make like eighty five K at Adobe. So I made

28:34

85K my first year at Sparky resume. Second year, probably we

28:37

doubled that. I was like, okay, this might be something I can do on the

28:41

side or make it full time. He just saw the growth.

28:45

Year over year, we growing, and I ain't really got a big team. I had,

28:49

like, admins, a resume writer, maybe somebody in sales,

28:53

but doing like three hundred and fifty K a year. So

28:57

I'm like, okay. He's like, okay, we need you for Gracie. I'm building this tech

29:00

platform. It's coming out in six months, and

29:04

I want you to come be our chief marketing officer. I had

29:08

to think about it, man. I was like, Man, I can't even do it. And

29:11

I said that probably, like, three times. I can't even do it, bro. I got

29:14

my own business. I got to keep doing this. He was pissed. Yeah.

29:18

Fired a couple of people already. So it was crazy, man.

29:22

But everything happens for a reason, man. And then, like, three months after

29:26

that, we finally signed a deal. I flew out to New Jersey, went to Bayon

29:29

to meet him and Hansland in person, signed some papers, close the

29:33

deal, all that good stuff, and got to work in March, man. And then

29:37

that's when we started fundraising, because he had me there to kind of know,

29:41

book appointments for us, do some sales calls, things like that. So he was mainly

29:44

doing the fundraising. I helped out with a little bit, like the pitch decks and

29:46

things like that. But what I will say, it took us nine months to

29:50

raise the capital. We probably took

29:55

upward 200 meetings,

29:58

easy, if not more, bro. To be

30:02

honest, I think we might have reached out to maybe,

30:05

like 50 to 60 VCs.

30:09

Collab was the first one. I called it, too. I told Brandon, I said, Bro,

30:12

Collab is going to invest in us. I said that from, like, I think three

30:16

months before they even invested. I said, Collab is going to invest in us. And

30:19

they were in Atlanta. Justin went to my car. Me and Justin went to the

30:23

same school. Both went to Georgia State. He got his degree in marketing as

30:27

well. When you say Justin. Justin. Justin Dawkins. My bad. Okay. Justin Dawkins.

30:31

He's a partner at Collab. Yeah. So he went to Georgia State

30:34

with me, got the same degree. So we chopping it up, walking the same stumping,

30:38

grounds building rapport. But I was like, Man, Collab is going

30:42

to invest in us. And they invested in us, I think, like 30 to

30:46

45 days after the first initial meeting. That was our first lead because

30:49

we had, like, visible hands, expert dozo, which are like the accelerators,

30:53

100K there, 25K here, things like that, but

30:57

not a lead investor. Collab came in. I think this was

31:01

May or like, June. They came in and

31:05

then a Tensor Capital. Brandon had went to, like, Tulsa with

31:08

visible hands, and that's when he got introduced to a Tenso Capital, which is the

31:12

investor in Tulsa. They gave us one meal and they went

31:16

out there, he built rapport with them, came back, we had a couple of follow

31:19

up meetings, and the pitch deck, we switched the pitch deck from talking about the

31:23

SaaS to more so unlocking revenue for job boards.

31:27

And when we said that done. Yeah, people,

31:31

everybody wanted in. Everybody wanted in. They're like, oh yeah, this is

31:34

genius because it makes sense. And that's why I said it feel illegal.

31:38

They got auto traffic, but not monetizing. And it's going to improve the

31:41

client experience because now they're getting better resumes submitted on their job

31:45

board. So now companies are happy because now they have quality talent. They can hire

31:49

from job boards. Happy because they're making more money and they're improving

31:53

their client experience. For both parties, a marketplace, they got a buyer and a

31:56

seller. The buyer right now is the job. I mean the companies,

32:00

right? Well, no, the buyer will be the job seekers.

32:03

The seller will be the companies. Yeah, that's

32:07

fire. That's fire. Fire. So now that everybody

32:11

wants in, you got to be smart for sure. About

32:15

how much money you take. For sure. And all that good stuff. For sure.

32:19

But you guys are pretty lean. Pretty lean, for sure. Man.

32:23

I think we're like 15 deep max. And it's

32:27

summer contractors too, so I think FTE full time employees

32:31

are like 910 people. Yeah, but other than that,

32:34

man, we run this pretty lean team. Yeah.

32:38

So we talked about Tulsa earlier. How does

32:41

Tulsa fit into your strategy? Yeah, so a part of our

32:45

deal with a tento, since they're headquartered out there, we have to move to Tulsa,

32:48

I think for at least a year. And Tulsa is doing some amazing things right

32:51

now. I was just out there for about twelve days

32:54

and I thought it was going to be like dead.

32:58

It's actually pretty straight in my opinion.

33:01

Of course it's not like in Atlanta or Miami, but I could see it being

33:05

the next Austin, Texas within the next 510 years. Man, real

33:08

estate is very cheap out there. I'm trying to buy a crib. You're not finding

33:12

nothing for $250,000.05 minutes from the city, I don't think

33:15

anywhere else for real that has a thriving city like it's people

33:19

out there. Nightlife was led black. Wall street is

33:23

out there. They're trying to put more black people in Tulsa,

33:27

get more people to move out there. They have a program called Tulsa Remote. So

33:30

anybody working remote that sees this, you can go to think it's Tulsa

33:33

Remote. You'll get $10,000 to move out to Tulsa,

33:37

which is probably a year's worth of rent in Tulsa right now, which

33:41

is crazy for a one bedroom. Yeah, but yeah, man. Tulsa,

33:44

I think, is going to be a phenomenal place for us to just really focus.

33:48

Atlanta has a lot of distractions. New York has a lot of distractions. So

33:52

us being there and then everybody there want to see us win. You know what

33:55

I mean? The energy is just crazy, bro. Like ricey boys in town. You know

33:59

what, that's how that's the energy right now,

34:03

man. You're walking with the drip. They know what it is,

34:08

man. But yeah, man, tulsa is a good

34:11

vibe. Everybody want to see us win, man. And it's just a part of our

34:15

deal that we got to move out there. So we're looking forward to it, man.

34:18

And just building a tech startup. Awesome, man. So when it comes to the

34:21

next steps of the tech startup ride, what are you most excited about? Yeah, man.

34:25

Launching these deal with managed career services. So we got our first deal launching actually

34:29

by the end of February. So I got a lot of work to do in

34:31

next two weeks. But yeah man. First deal. Launching Managed

34:35

Career Services. So we partnered with a job board. Not can't disclose the job board

34:38

or anything like that, but yeah, we got a big job board that we partner

34:41

with and they're looking to go crazy, man. So

34:45

looking to launch that and testing out the waters and making sure that we can

34:48

deliver on the things we promise to our investors. But we got the team in

34:52

place, everybody in place, everybody doing a thing. So

34:55

I'm very excited to see it go crazy. Yeah, man. So there's so much

34:59

that we could talk about. We could talk for another two or 3 hours. We're

35:02

going to have to probably do this over again. But like I said,

35:06

mindset is something that I really want people to understand that you didn't get here

35:09

by mistake. And you've said a lot of the things throughout this interview. But when

35:13

it comes to startup founders, specifically,

35:17

what is some of the biggest advice you can give people in terms of

35:21

how you show up and then how you execute? Yeah, man. I think

35:24

just being a man of your word I think is very key. And

35:28

then having a story at the end of the

35:32

day, investors are people. Everybody buys in the stories, man.

35:35

Of course, people make decisions off emotions, then back it up with logic.

35:39

Right. So that's where you put the story first in the pitch deck and

35:43

then you got the forecasted and revenue at the end. Right.

35:47

It's all marketing at the end of the day. Like, how can you draw

35:51

somebody in? I probably won't get your attention unless I put

35:54

in a story format. I got to make you feel away

35:58

first. I got to get you, I got to wrap you in.

36:01

And once I do that, then I can go down to what

36:05

the business is, how we generate revenue, what's the forecasting,

36:09

projections. But first you got to care about it. If you don't care about

36:12

it, it's not going to work. So focus on crafting that story,

36:16

mastering your craft with your story. As a founder co founder, whatever the case may

36:20

be, have a good pitch deck, don't make it too long,

36:24

get to the point. Everybody's time is limited

36:27

and people don't like to read no more anyway, right? So

36:31

make it to the point. Share your numbers, share your

36:35

traction, tell them where you're going, why should they invest in you? Talk about the

36:38

team. Because at the end of the day, business is people, systems and

36:42

processes and that's the three components that all investors are

36:45

looking at when they're looking at your business. So dial in

36:49

your people because those people are going to be building the systems and documenting the

36:53

processes to help you all build a billion dollar empire. That's a mic

36:56

drop right there boy. You feel me? All right. Yes, sir. Well

37:00

man, that's that big tech energy, bro. You're electric? Yes, sir,

37:04

man. I feel it, brother. I'm excited for you, bro. I'm excited for you.

37:08

And your team are good people too. At the end of the

37:11

day, surround yourself with good people. The fact that your competitor was willing

37:15

to give you the keys to his success and vice versa,

37:19

facts. The fact you all collaborating now and you all going to make life changing

37:22

money, it makes sense. So before we go, I want people to know

37:26

how they can get in touch with you and then also share more about

37:29

rightsy and how your potential clients can

37:33

get in touch with you with that. Most definitely. So yeah, connect with me on

37:36

LinkedIn. Just leander Howard II, so it's leanderhoward

37:39

and then

37:43

two eyes. So the suffix is two eyes and then instagram is leanderhardt

37:47

II as well. Right. C can go to rightc.com. It's

37:50

writesea.com and we're all

37:54

in one business solution for freelance writers, coaches and teams. So we do have a

37:58

SaaS component as well. So we have a customer relationship management tool.

38:01

So think of everything, sales marketing, email marketing, text message

38:05

marketing, hosting your courses, building a website,

38:09

landing pages, funnels, all that good stuff. And then we also have an

38:12

order management system so you can manage your customers once they

38:16

purchase. So we integrate with stripe. So you have like custom checkout

38:19

links, you can upload download documents, we got a chat

38:22

feature, contracts, embedded,

38:25

questionnaires are in there, forms, all that good stuff. And

38:29

it's white label so nobody will ever know using rightsy, which is pretty dope nice.

38:33

But yeah, check us out and follow us on Instagram at I think it's the

38:37

rightsy. And then connect with us on LinkedIn. All right,

38:41

I appreciate you brother. No doubt, man. And thank you to all the listeners that

38:45

have been tuning in today. Again, this is big tech energy, all

38:48

right? And one thing that I'm partnered with is a company called

38:51

Blackhire.com. So I want to make sure that Black freelancers have an

38:55

abundance and overwhelming amount of opportunities to make significant

38:59

money in the freelance space. So if you are a freelancer, put your

39:03

profile on Blackhire.com. And if you are someone looking

39:06

for talent and especially looking to support black freelancers, go to

39:10

Upwork, go to Fiver, but throw your stuff on Blackhire.com.

39:14

You're going to have a lot of quality talent out there and you can increase

39:17

the diversity on your team. Also, if you want to connect with

39:21

me on social media, you can go to

39:26

BigTech Energy and where you can find my LinkedIn, my Twitter,

39:29

my TikTok, my Instagram, and definitely make sure

39:33

you subscribe to the YouTube like comment share.

39:37

And yeah, Big tech Energy website

39:41

coming soon too. Put in the email, get a free ebook. But I'll have all

39:44

that information in the caption and Spotify, Apple. Please subscribe

39:48

as well. So with that being said, I appreciate Leander,

39:52

I appreciate you, the listener. Definitely share this

39:56

podcast with your people. Let them know that we got some real inspiration and

39:59

more importantly, real tactical knowledge to provide on

40:03

this podcast and we will see you in the next episode. Big tech

40:07

standard energy. We're out. Let's get it.

40:13

Membership in Black and HR means community and being a part of a

40:17

culture of like minded individuals, you have a

40:20

culture within a culture, especially in the black community. And

40:24

black and HR is that professional culture. We have fun, we

40:28

laugh and joke about things that are related to us in the workplace,

40:31

but we also have serious aspects as well, where we help each other

40:35

grow. And it's just one of those places where I can go

40:38

to any time of the day, pose a question, and

40:42

I'm going to get all type of answers, but I'm going to get support.

40:46

And we all work together to give advice, to give

40:49

insight, to share tips. The networking

40:52

is amazing. The people that I've spoken to have

40:56

allowed me to learn things about myself that I didn't know. So

41:00

what does that do? When I go to my next interview, I have that

41:03

confidence when I walk in to be able to explain and

41:07

speak on what I've done in the past and prove that I am the

41:11

person for the job.