Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alicia Richardson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Alicia, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
Black Create Connect initially started as a WhatsApp Group, in July 2020, as a result of Alicia’s frustration with the limited number of black professionals available or being captured by LinkedIn recruiter searches when she was sourcing new roles.
Alicia has also had first-hand experience with racism and discrimination in the workplace, as well as experiencing being constantly overlooked for promotional opportunities. Based on her own experiences, and experiences shared with her through her network, Alicia wanted to created a safe space and a support group for black professionals to share experiences and learn from each other.
Through Alicia’s network, community and years of hiring experience, she knows and is aware of the large volumes of black professionals at all levels, but they weren’t being picked up in candidate searches when sourcing for diverse hires or more senior roles. Alicia was determined to change this narrative and took action by launching a LinkedIn campaign targeting black professionals, encouraging them to add the hashtag “#blacktalent” to their profiles, to help boost their search rankings, enabling their profiles to stand out and be found through keyword searches. In addition she started reaching out to individuals to connect and join her WhatsApp group, a community where she and other hiring professionals and enterprise leaders could provide black talent with the much needed support, and wider access to jobs, professional and personal development opportunities.
Within a year, the WhatsApp group members grew organically at an exceptional rate, due to the demand for a progessive space where black professionals could feel included, meet people with common interests or challenges. Today, the group has been successful in its mission to create an inclusive community that supports the growth of black talent, spot lights black leaders and Enterprise, who are actively engaged, share creative and tech insights, exchange valuable knowledge and experiences.
Alicia is passionate about black talent rising to senior positions specifically within marketing, creative and tech companies. Her ambition is for Black Create Connect to bridge the gap between both companies and black talent, helping to change the biased perceptions and treatment of black talent within the organisations.
Alicia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I describe my story here if you would prefer to hear an audio version – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-1-black-create-connect-the-founders-intro/id1623917898?i=1000560875019
I landed inrecruitment initially in 2017, I was working in a sales role, and I was interviewing with a recruitment agency for a new sales role and they asked if I’d be open to working with them internally doing recruitment instead, even though I already had a job offer. The company was called Aspire, and they gave me an opportunity to create my own hiring ‘desk’, so I started hiring for digital marketing contract and perm roles, building my own list of clients and candidates.
Within this role, I noticed hiring biases continually. For example a hiring manager may love a candidate’s profile, and then meet them, give vague feedback on why they’re a no, and usually the candidate was from an underrepresented background. Another scenario which was common was when clients would ask me to secretly hire someone to replace a current staff member who often had a disability / was from an ethnic minority background.
I then discovered that it wasn’t useful to hire diverse candidates into non-inclusive company cultures that were not treating them fairly, so I moved into an embedded talent consultancy so I can have more of an influence on the companies I am hiring for. I then began to experience discrimination and racism at the talent consultancy which had an impact on how I performed, and how I contributed to work, and decided to leave and go to a diversity and inclusion talent consultancy.
When I worked at the diversity and inclusion talent consultancy, I simultaneously worked with Bami Kuteyi on diversity consulting and training and over the last 3 years I have managed to have an impact on how companies are hiring and retaining diverse talent, some of the companies I worked with included Analog Folk, Mirum, Looping Group, Media Cause, Depop, and House 337 (Formally Engine Group).
The problem I am solving :
– Helping companies connect more authentically with black professionals, build long-lasting relationships, and understand the black professional journey better through the Job board, events, Podcast and social media content
– Connecting black professionals and giving them access to career opportunities and new networks
What sets us apart:
– We have many different touch points with the community, highly engaged – in social networking events, Podcast, WhatsApp chat, Slack Community, Social media,
– The community is super supportive, whatever you need as a community member someone will help you
– We’re educating companies on how to best retain and respect black talent
– We are requesting for companies to say why they want to hire black talent and what they do to retain black talent once hired
– We’re a fun relatable professional platform – usually professional platforms are super serious, we’re down to earth and encourage black professionals bringing their full self to work
– We provide online resources for all members to support with their career profession
– Our networking events are unique and fun – watch the last event here – https://youtu.be/1aCOEtXfreM
– We are the first to launch job content creation campaigns – where we connect with black content creators to create content for companies promoting their jobs.
Most Proud of:
Growth of Black Create Connect in 2022- Podcast and having some note worthy guests including Slider Cuts, Franklin Boetang and Shocka Music, 4 sold out events, Sponsorships from established companies, Four Communications, Analog Folk, Futureheads, Ravio, and more
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Within the space of a year, we have built a substantial following on Instagram and a consistent listening list for Podcasting.
Here are some of the Tips I learnt:
– Hire a social media freelancer, they can free up time, and do all the day-to-day management for you, at first I was
– Create a social media content plan; what content is going to be valuable to your audience, and what will be entertaining and engaging – we decided to stick to job posting, podcast posting, posting about events before and after, and sharing funny content
– We engage with our followers, respond to posts and repost their content
– We utilize the content we have across all platforms IG, Tik Tok, Linked In
– Start with one channel first master that channel and expand on other platforms
– Design recognizable social media templates
– Ask community members to report content
– Be consistent with content posting, we do 3 times a week Mon, Weds, Fri
– Have varied types of content, video, pictures, writing, reels etc
– The content doesn’t need to be perfect, be human
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I don’t need to do everything at once and alone.
I’ve learnt to break down tasks, and tackle one thing at a time, and utilise support around me.
At the start of the year 2022, I was doing everything alone, recording and editing podcasting, creating and posting social media content, managing emails, trying to create and design the website alone and it was a mare ! I was making mistakes, not doing things to a great quality and wasting time.
Today I have:
– Someone managing partnerships and emails
– 3 interns – one for data management, admin, another for content creation, and another for digital marketing strategy
– Social media Manager
– Video Editor
– Website designer
– Website developer and manager
– Social media and brand designer
Having freelancers to support me has helped me focus on developing the community and client relationships, every since I’ve handed over responsibilities, my working life has been easier ever since handing over smaller specialised tasks.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://blackcreateconnect.co.uk/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accounts/login/?next=%2Fblackcreateconnect%2F&source=omni_redirect
- Facebook: Black Create Connect – page
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-create-connect/?viewAsMember=true
- Twitter: n/a
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWBjnCLoSUHe6Xpg_-I7mKg
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/black-create-connect-podcast/id1623917898
Image Credits
GiftedMediaUk