We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Coby Williams a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Coby, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

New Reach Community Consulting is proudly a B Corp certified business. New Reach earned this international distinction that independently verifies it meets rigorous social and environmental performance standards, accountability, and transparency. It’s the first public affairs consulting business to obtain this internal distinction in Ohio and one of approximately less than 20 Black-owned B Corps in the United States. The B Corp network consists of businesses committed to putting people and the planet before profits. Most businesses, even much larger ones, can’t accomplish this designation during their first attempt, if at all. But New Reach did both. I pursued the designation to hold my small business accountable to the communities and other stakeholders who ultimately benefit from its work.

But New Reach’s identity doesn’t solely hinge on this designation. It’s just an extension of its preexisting ideology. The certification aligns with the criteria for the projects New Reach gets involved with. For example, it made sense to me, considering most of New Reach’s work is funded by public and philanthropic dollars. New Reach is an ethical and effective steward of those dollars. Also, many other businesses in this field focus on activities and outputs, which is what they have accomplished for themselves. But New Reach focuses on outcomes and impact, which center on how communities benefit from the work. That unto itself is a paradigm shift. New Reach was founded to make a difference, so being a B Corp is more so validation of doing what it says in that regard. I’m also an activist and organizer at the core, and I think we’re society’s early adopters of social change and dislike a harmful status quo.

Coby, 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’ve been active in the community in some way since I was about 12 years old, so I’m into my fourth decade of community work, much of it as a super volunteer who got asked to do more and more, which ranged from organizing community clean-ups early on to serving on committees and boards later. I’m from a neighborhood called Westwood, one of Cincinnati’s most socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods. I lived in those conditions for 20 years. You name it, I’ve probably seen it or experienced it or know someone who has. These circumstances greatly influenced my current work. But I’m incredibly proud to be from there and still involved in various ways to help make a difference. Every environment has pros and cons; some aspects get highlighted more than others, depending on who lives in those communities. Westwood taught me grit and tenacity, resourcefulness, honor, and community. I’ve been a full-time consultant for about 10 years now. My background includes being a classically trained grassroots community organizer and lobbyist, so my work has taken me from various challenged communities to the highest levels of government. I’m also a technologist and worked in the IT field for several years. That background helped hone my systems thinking ability, which I’m naturally anyway. I considered IT my day job and did my community work aside from that, with occasional overlap. I have a well-rounded background, deep knowledge, and, more importantly, sincere empathy to provide public affairs consulting services to help organizations advance important social causes.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

You and your brand won’t be everyone’s cup of tea anyway; having a distinguishable brand helps pre-label your tea. Lean into your niche; what you can do, enjoy doing, and are good at doing are three critical things to know the difference about.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

“Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business” aligns with my ideology of being a solopreneur by design and desire.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.newreachcommunity.com
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/cobycwilliams