Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Patty Williams-Downs. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Patty, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you find your key vendor or vendors? Maybe you can share the backstory and share some context and the relevant details to help us understand why you chose them, why they chose you, etc.
“Effective networking starts with the people around you, not above you.” Issa Rae, creator of the HBO series ‘Insecure.’
She continues to share that we really should be networking across, not just up. This was my strategy for building a robust pipeline of business.
When I launched my business as a full-time entrepreneur, I created a pipeline and a pathway to secure a range of clients to fulfill my revenue goal. I looked to my left and my right to find a host of ‘true connectors’ who were one degree separated from my audience: executives and institutions that provide capacity building support for executives.
I secured my first individual client and company client through recommendations from amazing friends who also double as incredible professionals. These women are respected professionals with robust networks!
Over the last 2-3 years, I’ve renewed business with both my first individual and the first company I secured a contract with. Half my book of business came from using this strategy.
Issa Rae was right! Looking around me instead of above me was the right move! It paid off!
Patty, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Sure thing! I’m Patty Williams – Founder & CEO of BreakingBounds, an executive coaching and consulting firm that existing to unburden leaders and entrepreneurs from the most vulnerable aspects of their work: building their business, leading others and building their executive identity.
Leadership is lonely. I experienced this loneliness acutely during my first year as an Executive Director of a large education non profit. Financially, culturally and programmatically, we were in a fragile place. I hired an executive coach, my team and I, and all of our supporters, swung for the fences and we won! Five years later, we’d established ourselves in the market and within the organization.
My executive coach was the game changer for me. She coached me through that dark time. She was ‘my person.’ To me, she felt like the only person I could confide in, find solace with, confront my greatest fears with and turn that fear into fuel. And I did! We did! She helped me use my strength and intellect to improve my financial understanding as a profit and loss owner. Her coaching helped me access the courage and genius in me which led me to support my team to redesign our revenue strategy and our culture practices.
Executive coaching helped me lead the chapter to celebrate its 10th birthday; a feat only 3% of all social sector organizations have the privilege of celebrating. With over $2T (yes, 2 trillion dollars) only 38% of social impact organizations make it to see their 2nd birthday. While I’m proud of my team and I hurdled that feat, I knew I wanted to provide the essential service of executive coaching and consulting to other leaders across the globe to sing happy birthday and watch their impact have the good they intended.
BreakingBounds was registered in 2020 but not given full life until June of 2023. Since then we’ve served leaders and entrepreneurs in several industries across the United States. 100% of our clients would recommend our services and are ready to take their learnings to the next level.
We provide 3 services anchored in teaching and learning: coaching, facilitation/workshops and public speaking. In just 6 short months, we’ve accomplished quite a bit:
We provided executive coaching to amazing leaders and entrepreneurs across on each coast of the US
We were invited to keynote with at least 8 companies
We facilitated several leadership convenings for Boards of Directors, leadership teams and groups of leaders.
Including this publication, we’ve been featured in at least 4
And in February of 2024 we’ll be launching a podcast titled ‘Boundary Breakers’! The Boundary Breakers Podcast exists to support leaders across various industries to break the sound barrier and amplify their voices across the globe. The Boundary Breakers podcast will serve as a platform for leaders to experience community and connectedness while building global awareness of their story, mission and impact. Tune in on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Music!
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
I’d love to tell this story! It’s such a happy divine story that felt truly serendipitous for both of us. My business partner’s name is Bradely Hamilton. We met at an inaugural gala, celebrating the success of a friend’s non profit. Neither of us had a plus one and found ourselves hugging the wall a bit when the music came on. We introduced ourselves and shook hands over the gleeful music. We were both leading non-profit businesses in Houston and thought we should connect to discuss synergy: typical networking at events like this. The next moment is where we found ourselves laughing and connecting in ways that felt human. When exchanging information, I shared a QR code from HiHello: an app for networking that helps folks alleviate the need to carry business cards. Bradley was fascinated by this! And asked me how I found the app. I, vulnerably, shared with him that I’d just downloaded the app a week ago at a different event because I felt out of touch with new technology in the networking space. We both cackled over the music at our vulnerability; admitting publicly how out of touch we’d felt and our need to move forward in our own way. Bradley’s way of moving forward quickly was to step away from our conversation while I moved to another conversation to download the app! He came back to the conversation and showed me and we laughed even harder.
“Go hard or go home” was clearly a life mantra we shared. It was also clear that we both enjoyed ingenuity, moving on our instincts to serve others and finding the most creative and strategic ways to do so.
We sort of both knew that together we could live out loud, without pretending to be anything else but ourselves; creating something that didn’t exist yet and would serve others.
About a year after that gala, we entered into an NDA and I shared this BIG project I’d been working on and asked for his help. He was game! And the rest is history…well it’s our present moment while we’re making history.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I often say, “No Money. No Mission.” Oftentimes, leaders who impact the social good are taught brain and brawn and passion and belief without the proper training to inquire skills for business savvy.
An incredible leader once told me, “Patty, know your P&L (profit and loss) data like a poem. Their push led me to study business models in the social sector. This meant I had to understand:
Mission alignment
Sustainability impact
Financial viability
Market demand
Partnerships and networks
Outcomes
Value Proposition
Revenue streams
Revenue acquisition strategies
Investments and innovations
Risk management
I enlisted my board members, our organizations’ finance officers, our funders, and my peers in this education. It was so much fun! And it paid dividends for how I used this education to lead my team and I to transform our vision, assets, scale and results!
The beauty of that history and learning is that I wasn’t starting from scratch regarding my business savvy when I started BreakingBounds. I knew how to ‘build’ something. I knew how to ‘scale’ something. I knew how to build strategy and enlist the necessary resources. I knew how to pitch and secure financial resources. The game wasn’t new to me.
That simple advice, “Know your P&L like a poem” opened my eyes to explore new ways to being and leading.
My current model didn’t require any private equity or start-up capital, or at least, I built the model so that I wouldn’t require it. Some entrepreneurs absolutely need to take this route; I didn’t.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.breakingbounds.com/
- Instagram: breakingbounds_executivecoach/pattydowns_breakingbounds
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/BreakingBoundsLLC/https://www.facebook.com/patriciaalethia
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pwdowns/