IAM1918 – Ecosystem Builder Helps Improve Company Culture Through Creative Innovations

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Liz Brown Teaser 00:00

And what we did was we wanted to see what does the community need our help with and how can we build those solutions because we're also civic hackers.

So we're continuing that journey now where my experience working in nonprofits, the city of Philadelphia, being an urban planner and being a technologist, I'm trying to pull all of it together because there's a lot of fractured ecosystems in every city.

Intro 00:24

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the IAMCEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:49

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the IAMCEO podcast and I appreciate you listening to this episode. If you've been listening this year, you know that we hit 1600 episodes at the beginning of this year. We're doing something a little bit different where we're repurposing our favorite episodes around certain categories, topics, or as I like to call them business pillars that we think are going to be extremely impactful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners, Or what I like to call CB nation architects who are looking to level up their organizations.

This month, we are focused on innovation, disruption, women entrepreneurship, DEI, gig economy, remote economy, even the cannabis industry. Think about these industries and these disruptive technologies that really sometimes aren't as disruptive, but there are people that are just paying attention to what the market needs and they're providing that. So really think about the things that are quote and quote outside of the norm, but really help entrepreneurship to grow and fully develop.

I think it's an extremely exciting time when you're talking about any type of innovation or disruption, because I think that there are so many opportunities and needs that aren't felt that are starting to be filled by different groups, different organizations, or even different industries. So what I want you to do is sit back and enjoy this special episode of the IAMCEO podcast.

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the IAMCEO podcast, and I have a special guest on the show today. I have Liz Brown of BCKG, and I can make sure I got that right. Awesome. Awesome. Liz, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Liz Brown 02:15

Thank you. Awesome to be here.

Gresham Harkless 02:17

No problem. And what I want to do is just read a little bit more about BCKG so you can hear about All the awesome things that they're doing.

BCKG is an agency focused on design thinking, innovation, and technology. They work with their partners from concept to creation of innovative ecosystems, digital solutions, and brand experiences.

Liz, I appreciate your time. Could you tell us a little bit more about what I call like your CEO story and what led you to start your business?

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Liz Brown 02:42

Oh, man. So it's funny because that was a question on the panel we had earlier and my story is all over the place. I think the most immediate thing that happened was I lost my job and I didn't know what to do because no one would hire me at that point. I was overqualified. I had two master's degrees and being a woman of color being overeducated doesn't really help you very much in general. But it really didn't help me because people didn't understand how to connect and align with my experience, my background. They just couldn't see it when they saw me.

So, I was looking at internships, apprenticeships. Actually, I was working as an urban planner, and I got furloughed. I had already started a second master's in design tech, and I was already doing coding as a side gig for years. But I've been coding since I was 15 years old. It was just a fun thing for me. I didn't look at it as a career. I went on to study other things and I wanted to teach other people how to code and how to do design. So I did that master's, then I lost my job in the middle of it, and I was like now I can't do that programming I wanted to do at this organization, I'm going to have to take it somewhere else.

There wasn't anywhere else for me to go, because I wasn't from Philadelphia, and I just had moved there within the past couple of years. So I ended up just looking for jobs. No one would give me anything. And I was like I guess I got to just lean back on this freelance stuff. I was doing gigs off of Craigslist and just paying my bills. It was pretty okay, but I was missing out on bigger opportunities because I didn't have a team.

I met my co-founder through Civic Hacking. Which is also a great match for somebody with a tech and urban planning background.

Gresham Harkless 04:23

Okay. It was a civic match kind of like, what did they have? Those startup founder, like weekends where you do projects like that?

Liz Brown  04:27

Yeah. It's like startup weekend, but really the focus is bringing together designers, technologists, or just business people and pitching ideas and building them within 24 hours or 48 hours competition. So we were building mobile apps and web apps together. And through that, me and my co-founder built a friendship and we were just like building stuff together, so why don't we just like work together, right?

And I stopped looking for jobs and we just launched our own company.

Gresham Harkless 04:59

That's awesome. Yeah. It's funny, I've been laid off myself and I know it's a super difficult time and then trying to find the right position when sometimes that position doesn't even exist. So you end up having to create your own thing yourself.

Liz Brown 05:10

Exactly. And that's the crazy thing is taking me now, cause I think I had that company, I had my previous company for about five years and we split last year. I realized that I was feeling stifled in that position because it fit my expertise, but it didn't fit what I personally wanted to do. So I was like I want to continue to grow and I want to continue to use urban planning and tech and not just tech because we were doing software development and design thinking on it. That was it.

Just UX design thinking and software, just one app after another. And it didn't feel like I was really utilizing my skills in revitalizing cities, is what I specialized in grad school. So I want to build ecosystems. And now all of a sudden everybody's man is like we need somebody with an urban planning background that has a technology background. It's like the city wasn't at that point when I graduated.

I was way ahead of the curve, which was very unfortunate, but I gained so much and now I have a portfolio where no one else has that. So even if there's another urban planner technologist that comes out like of school, they still don't have the experience that I have with building startups and accelerators and all the stuff that I do now.

Gresham Harkless 06:20

Exactly. Exactly. And I heard you say the word ecosystem a lot. I know when we're offline you talked about ecosystem. Could you tell us a little bit more about what exactly that is and how you're doing that with BCKG.

Liz Brown 06:30

I know it's our initials. So it's our last name initials, Brown Canals King Group. It sounds like a law firm. So we were like, we could come up with a name. So we wanted something simple. But ecosystem building to me is something that I was already doing when I was doing urban planning and something I continued to do in my work as a development company before, because we did a lot of community events. What we did was we wanted to see what does the community need our help with and how can we build those solutions because we're also civic hackers.

So we're continuing that journey now where my experience working in nonprofits, the city of Philadelphia, being an urban planner and being a technologist, I'm trying to pull all of it together because there's a lot of fractured ecosystems in every city, whereas people who work in nonprofits don't know technologists, but they can use their services and support and vice versa for all the other different ecosystems. I'm taking a step back from the technology ecosystem and focusing on just tech, this tech company and moving towards innovation ecosystems which is more inclusive of everything, right? Look at STEM education, including the arts and creative and design.

We all need each other so, my goal is, because I'm a jack of all trades type of person, and I do still go to events in all these different areas, I'm trying to pull that network together. I'm trying to say, hey, I know a non-profit that can help you get funding for your design or tech startup. Or hey, nonprofit, I know a developer that can help you build that app that would help your neighborhood out. So it's really about bridging the different pieces to build one cohesive ecosystem rather than like a bunch of different ones that just have no idea what's going on, but they live in the same city.

It's another reason why I'm down here in DC, because I think that we need to build more bridges between the cities that are within like the Northeast region or the East Coast, and I do a lot of traveling internationally. So my next thing is trying to build out an international accelerator program and see how can I bridge that back to Philly? How can I help bring more companies there and help more companies from Philly branch out internationally as well.

Gresham Harkless 08:49

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And there was a book I think it was by Malcom Gladwell, but he talked about the connector and it sounds like that's exactly what you're talking about. That's your personality. There's somebody that knows everybody. And you just go to them and say, Hey, can I have X, Y, and Z?

And you know that, but you're doing that within that ecosystem framework.

Liz Brown 09:05

It sounds like I want to help other people jump through less hoops than I've had to. And the only way to do that is to build a network, and know what opportunity exist.

If I'm not out there telling people, they'll have no idea because a lot of people don't know what they don't know.

Gresham Harkless 09:20

Exactly. Exactly. Especially when you're starting a company, there are so many different things anyways, you get overwhelmed. But when you're looking for something, you don't even realize the opportunities that are really out there at your disposal.

So it's great to hear that. So I want to ask you for what I call like your secret sauce. This might be what you just touched on, but what do you feel sets you or your organization apart and makes you guys unique?

Liz Brown 09:39

I think for me personally, my last organization, Web Junto, we won the best tech workplace for diversity in Philadelphia. We beat Comcast in their own city on a community vote, which is insane, right? So when I think of that, a lot of people in the past have asked me that same question in context of that, like what made me different in that situation is that I'm a multi-ethnic multiracial gay woman.

So I have a lot of different perspectives just in that than the norm and then the norm. And so I think it's just built into my persona that anything I do I'm always gonna be looking out for other people because I can relate to so many different types of people. Yeah, and I've been that other person so many times so now moving into this new company BCKG and what I do there that's still my same focus.

Like one of my co-founders is a black male. The other one is a Peruvian male. So between the three of us, it's not a normal, typical thing that people would think of when they think of digital solutions and tech and innovation. Like we're out here to cause a scene and we're out here to show that we exist and we can really make dope shit. Like we make dope shit is like our tagline that we have. Cause we're just like, let's just be bold. Just do it.

Gresham Harkless 10:50

Exactly. Exactly. And that's how you start to see change and start to make true innovation is that you just got to make dope shit from time to time. There you go. Yeah, so I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack.

This might be like an app, book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Liz Brown 11:07

So I'm a very creative person and I'm like a creative mess. It's like that mad scientist professor that you have that has like crap all over their desk. That's always been how I've been. But I was in the military. I was in the Air Force when I was younger. So it helped me. It helped me to be more organized. It helped me to realize that I needed structure in my life. I think a lot of other creative people who become CEOs, or maybe they don't even see themselves becoming a CEO because they're creative and they're all over the place. But you can get your stuff together if you just learn how to organize.

So my biggest hack is learning how to be organized and really just scheduling things out. I go to bed every night between 9 and 10. I wake up every morning between 5 and 6 and it took me years to get to that point, but it's also another thing I learned in the military. You go to bed early, you wake up early and you get so much more stuff done when you give yourself that time by yourself nice and early.

I knock out a lot of work before I have any interruptions and I used to be like a night owl type person but what I realized is like the morning is the new night for me as an older.

Gresham Harkless 12:17

No, that makes sense. I can relate to that. I can see myself sometimes as a creative message you say, because I feel like you have that creativity, but I also started to see that when you look at businesses, you look at organizations, there's a lot of structure within that.

And sometimes when you have that structure of those schedules. It allows you to be even more creative because you don't have to worry about stuff.

Liz Brown 12:34

And you have the time. So that's exactly what it is. That's exactly what it is for me. Because I give myself all that extra time by getting stuff done, I then can have way more time to be my creative self and just get all that energy out.

A lot of people will say Oh, this is an idea person. She has a lot of ideas until she doesn't. And it's yeah, like the time when I don't is when my stuff's not organized and I've lost time or someone's pulled me to a different direction and messed up my flow.

Gresham Harkless 13:01

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I love it. Now I want to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. This is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Sometimes I'll say, if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Liz Brown 13:13

I would tell myself that it's okay to ask for help. It's okay to ask for help because if you don't ask, you won't receive and that's one of the biggest things that I see people making a mistake on is they wait too long to ask for help or say what you are trying to achieve.

So when I wanted to start doing public speaking, I just started throwing it out there yeah, I really want to do public speaking. And then guess what? I started getting invited to do public speaking. So until people know what you're trying to achieve, or you're trying to do with your business. No one can help you. No one can help you with that advice. I do coffee dates all the time. Why? Because people ask for them. And if you don't ask, you ain't going to get it.

Gresham Harkless 13:49

You never get what you don't ask for. So I definitely agree with that. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote and quote CEOs on the show and looking at CEO entrepreneurship and business and seeing exactly what that is and what that looks like.

So what does being a CEO mean to you?

Liz Brown 14:05

Being a CEO to me means it's all about leadership and it's all about being able to see the big picture. Personally am a very high-touch person when it comes to my team. I think it's important to let people know that you're accessible and you're willing to sit down and learn what other people in your business are doing and help them be their best selves too.

It's not about me because I wouldn't be where I am without my team behind me and the community behind me. So I make a lot of time to listen and be an active listener and work with other people. I feel like anyone who wants to call themselves a CEO, that doesn't care about the people who put them in that position, then I don't know what they're doing with their life. It was like, you have to be thankful.

Gresham Harkless 14:51

Yeah, exactly. You got to realize that wherever you're at, there are people that help pay that way. Team members, other people, mentors, whatever. So it's important to understand that. Liz, I appreciate your time.

I wanted to see and ask you a little bit more. I know we're connecting at PurpleCon. How did the event go? How did the panel go?

Liz Brown 15:06

The panel was awesome. We opened up the day. It was really fun, insightful. I'm also pretty new to the VC community, so it was interesting to hear other people working in venture capital and what their perspectives are. I really enjoyed that. And also, I love the color purple, which I didn't know was, there were so many women who liked the color purple. Yeah, I heard that at the intro yesterday.

I was like, that is so crazy, because she said, is that your favorite? How many people said your favorite color? Purple's always been my favorite color, but I've never thought of it as like a woman's favorite color. Yeah, it's like a unity thing. That's crazy. That was interesting.

Gresham Harkless 15:41

There you go. Cool. I appreciate your time again. For people who want to reach out to you and connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that?

Liz Brown 15:48

Best way to reach me is Twitter, Instagram at Liz Brown says.

Gresham Harkless 15:52

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. We'll have those links in the show notes as well. So thank you Liz. I appreciate your time and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Liz Brown 15:58

Thanks. You too.

Outro 15:59

Thank you for listening to the IAMCEO podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. IAMCEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and everywhere you listen to podcasts, subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. Grab CEO Gear at www.ceogear.Co. This has been the IAMCEO podcast, Gresham Harless. Thank you listening.

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