Community Funding Options for Disadvantaged Business Owners

Plan Better EventsSmart Event TipsLeadership InsightsPodcast

Nov 17

With Guest Sara Razavi, CEO of working solutions

Sara Razavi is the CEO of Working Solutions CDFI, an institution that makes capital and business consulting services available to diverse entrepreneurs. She has 20 years of experience in the social sector, with specific expertise in operations, strategy, small business, and partnership management.

Sara serves on the Board of Directors of the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), the Advisory Council of RDEF Impact Investing Fund, and many other organizations. Before joining Working Solutions, she worked in multiple social sector entities specifically focused on serving under-resourced communities, including immigrant children and low-income families.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

How Sara Razavi’s background in theater informs her role as CEO for Working Solutions
Sara shares her incentive for pursuing social finance
What are CDFIs and how do they address funding disparities?
Working Solutions’ business and community funding efforts
The challenges business owners face when obtaining community funding
Sara’s experience succeeding the founder of Working Solutions

In this episode…

Historically, diverse and underrepresented business owners lack adequate access to the funding they need. So where can you acquire the funds to successfully launch your business?

CDFIs (community development financial institutions) receive funding from various federal, state, public, and private corporations to support disparaged individuals and business owners. When seeking capital from these institutions, social finance expert Sara Razavi advises evaluating the requirements and developing sound business models. Many lenders face risks and liability obligations, so it’s important to exercise patience and understanding during the process. Working Solutions works with these diverse individuals at any stage of their business to determine a funding option suitable for their needs.

In this episode of The Kennedy Events Podcast, Paige Buck welcomes Sara Razavi, CEO of Working Solutions CDFI, to discuss community funding efforts. Sara explains how CDFIs address funding disparities, the challenges business owners face when acquiring community funding, and her experience growing Working Solutions after succeeding the founder.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Kennedy Events.

Kennedy Events creates stress-free conferences and events, providing expert management and design for all your corporate event needs — from in-person to hybrid and virtual events.

To learn more about our services, visit our website at www.kennedyevents.com and schedule a consultation today to find out how we can guide you in making your event successful.

Transcript

Below is an AI-generated transcript, full of all sorts of amusing foibles and mistranslations. Take it with a grain of salt!

Intro 0:00

Yeah. Welcome to the Kennedy Events Podcast where we feature top marketing, communications and future of work leaders and share their biggest takeaways and insights. We love these conversations and hope you will too. Let's get started.

Paige Buck 0:18

Welcome to the Kennedy Events Podcast. I'm your host Paige Buck past guests includes Susan Jacobson of Glavin Jacobson, Russell Benaroya of Stride and Elaine Honig of Studio FourForty. With me today is Sara Razavi. Sara is the CEO of Working Solutions CDFI. A small business lender specializing in micro loans to startup and early stage businesses. Working Solutions serves 19 counties in Northern California, and under Sara's leadership Working Solutions has grown its assets by 240% and expanded its offerings doubled its footprint and funded 2500 Plus businesses. Wow. Today's episode is brought to you by Kennedy Events. Let's face it events are stressful, time consuming and expensive, which can make you feel exhausted and set up for failure before you even begun. Kennedy Events provides expert management and design for all your corporate event needs, freeing you up to focus on your marketing sales enablement and leadership priorities. You can learn more about us at Kennedyevents.com. Hey, Sara. Hi. How's it going? Buddy, we're glad you're here, too. So you you and I both have in common that we started with undergrad degrees in theater, although you were smart enough to double major in sociology. I wasn't how does theater serve you in your role?

Sara Razavi 1:43

Oh, it's constant. It's the training, of course. And, you know, I think not only my undergrad degree, but my graduate degree in business school. There's lots of business programs that are now including improv and theater as a way to set up managers to really take on not just accountability with team building and an opportunity to engage their their teams both in how they communicate, but also how they involve because theater as you know, pages, so many different people coming together to create art, you've got the playwright wrote the piece, you've got the director, you've got the actor, you've got then the crew. And I'm always always so grateful for that training of trusting a team. And no matter what your part is, you could have the smallest part, you could be the lead actor, you could be the director, you're going to be a member of that team. And so that's how I think as a manager, so understanding the team play.

Paige Buck 2:51

That is such a good note about collaboration. I think you also touched on improv. And I don't know about you, but like the number of times you hear someone in business, say like, let's use a yes and mentality. And you're like, Yeah, I've been doing that for 20 years.

Sara Razavi 3:04

Yeah, yeah. Yes. And it's such a, I mean, they do trainings in Yes. And with managers, my business school didn't have that. But the other thing I draw on Paige is debate, did a lot of speech and debate. And just being able to capture trying to hone in as a communicator, which all leaders are honing in on, what is the argument the other person is trying to make? What's their and being curious about? Like, what is their end goal? The other thing, you know, we were talking offline about this about, but just anytime you are growing in your professional in your career, and frankly, as a newer parent, as a parent to this constant, like did I thought I knew that but maybe I didn't. Maybe I didn't say the opportunity to feel comfortable asking, you know, is that what you meant? You know, just that clarification. That was a key part of speech and debate. Just being curious about your opponent position. My speech, innovative experience was definitely more on what's called the interpretive categories, which are more acting. For those Speech and Debate geeks out there, you couldn't compete at certain levels without having a certain number of points. And being a debater always helped Garner up those points. Oh, my God, I

Paige Buck 4:29

envy that. I think I did that. I can't remember what is it called the like, extemporaneous or category for a hot minute in high school. And we had a nascent team. So it was very lightweight. And man I wish I had when I hear people talk about that. I think that would have been a really good formative experience.

Sara Razavi 4:48

It really was. I mean, I draw on it so often. And so now whatever high school or junior high or I need, I'm always like, hey, no, no way. Oh one, embrace the inner nerd in you totally, totally. I think others do mock trial or, I mean, there's some such formative things. And I'm always, again, as a new parent, just baffled by how informative those early years not only, you know, elementary, but up to 18 really begin to shape what you step into what you're attracted to in college after college as a career. So I think getting a little bit out of your comfort zone,

Paige Buck 5:30

then you're making me wish that there was like adult intramural, you know, like the way like pickup soccer or pickleball. I want adult intramural Speech and Debate or intramural Model UN. Something, because if you missed it the first round I you know, it's not too late, but I have to find that thing. You, you mentioned your MBA you focused on social finance. How did you know what that was? Like? What is it and what made you want to pursue it?

Sara Razavi 6:00

Yeah, yeah, not every not every school has, it certainly didn't at the time. And I think at USF, I had to create my own track. Because thankfully, USF and the reason I chose to go there University of San Francisco, was because they had a very deep social or nonprofit awareness in their business school. So plenty of management schools have siloed track of m&a, managed nonprofit administration. But while USF had that as well, their MBA is the San Francisco based school is really rooted in social awareness. They have a great law school there as well also deeply rooted in that. So it's actually why I decided to go there. And this the social finance piece was really you have to You're required in every MBA program. No matter how its, you know, officially structured, you're required to take a certain number of finance classes, similarly, analytics classes, similarly, you know, management's in, and then you get to decide what you want to deepen. And I had originally thought, well, finance, I'm just going to dip in and dip out whatever I need to know. But during that, while having had a social sector background, and for those unfamiliar, that's how I refer to the nonprofit space, because I don't think profit or nonprofit, that's your business model. That's not the sector you're in. Using. It's good. Yeah, everybody,

Paige Buck 7:35

like you mean, to have 00.

Sara Razavi 7:40

Yeah, exactly. If you actually did that, you wouldn't survive. So Right? So anyway, it was, you know, this, the social sector lens, and I kept getting pigeonholed. Like a couple of other MBAs, there's like a handful of us who've done that kind of work of like, oh, well, you're going to be a consultant for nonprofits, or you're just kind of like knowing shift, I need the fifth. But the other and what frustrated me about finance or finance, is that it was so it rarely talked about the local, it was very much on a national international level. And so I started looking personally. And so I was introduced to Working Solutions, the organization I am now the proud, you know, leader of the, like, I just kind of stumbled on that, because I do really think it's such a team effort. But I'm grateful to be the CEO and proud to be the CEO. So yeah, so I ran into the founding CEO at an event. And I started, I just kind of finished a core set of finance classes. And I was just like, Emily, I cannot believe we don't learn more about local finance, and local investment and local lending, and how we stand up our communities in that way. And she's like, well, you can come in volunteer, my organization. And I thought, all day. Right, exactly. And at the time Working Solutions, you know, she had begun it when she had just come out of college. She was just a few years older than me. And so the organization really was still even though she'd been working at it. But given her own career trajectory, the organization was very much in its early stages. I mean, it had been around at that point for over 10 years, but would have still been considered an early stage five persons, primarily otherwise volunteer run, so they weren't used to someone jumping in and so I really took full advantage of being an MBA intern, and then growing into the opportunity that was afforded me at during grad school, and and so i

Paige Buck 10:02

Wow. And so when you notice this gap in like the learning you were being offered, is this a gap? What the This role that Working Solutions plays as a local lender? Is it a gap that is exists in many other places? Like it's not taught? Because we're not doing it very well?

Sara Razavi 10:22

Yeah, I mean, a couple of things. Finance is multiple tools, its debt is one, and equity is the other. And then the multiple facilities that come out of those are, again, for clarification that refers to different products that are that a financial institution may have. And so oftentimes, in business school and graduate programs, they lean really heavy on the equity side. So impact, and we know that most equity poised organizations or businesses are at a much different scale growth plan, often, as some of your listeners might know, a certain demographic of who can actually even think about ever being VC funded, tends to be white tends to be male tends to be of a certain age. That's what's your

Paige Buck 11:13

way of phrasing it. overwhelmingly white male. Yeah,

Sara Razavi 11:18

yeah. Yeah. And so it in and, you know, unintentionally leaves out such a huge segment of the population, because, frankly, most bankers will have CPA accounting, that kind of background, they definitely do start to get into business school and management degrees, but after a certain period in the industry, so they kind of grow in their roles. Anyway, all to say, you can go into business school, hoping to have a social mindset, but just the way it's set up a tense to position you for these larger organizations, and to think about giving back in a way that's not direct. So CDFIs, which is one that I run community development, financial institutions were born, you know, long time ago, as communities have felt for a very long time. And when I say long time ago, I'm talking about 1800s. grown out of this need of like, feeling, hey, I'm not getting supported by the community bank, because I don't look like that banker, because so much of banking, even before our modern sense of banking, was about relationships, and who are you going to believe is going to pay you back. And it tended to be someone who looked like you whose story you understood. So CDFIs started popping up CDFIs in their history, were supported actually, by religious groups, Catholic, primarily, who really knew that communities needed some other line of support, they have since graduated and grown, to get a different capitalization model. They get their funding from federal, state, private and public, and private corporations as well. All of that to serve a lot of layers of institutionalized and systematic racism, and sexism and the isms that you want to layer. So the Bay Area, where we are based in Northern California, is thankfully a very rich ecosystem of CDFIs. And you will find that in a lot of Metro metro areas, New York, New York, Metro DC, Metro, Boston, excetera, you'll find that but we have found as an industry, there's still lots of gaps in rural excetera. So there's still a lot of opportunity to to do more in our industry. But yes, to your URL to your specific question. Falling into working solutions opened up my eyes to an industry that is, frankly, pretty invisible until you begin to notice it, and then you're like, oh, yeah, so got funded by a CDFI. Yeah,

Paige Buck 14:14

fascinating. And so how do you most small businesses, find Working Solutions,

Sara Razavi 14:19

you know, it tends to be timing, referral, we certainly try to engage in as many, you know, PR and public relations opportunities as possible, including this opportunity to speak with you and making sure that our partners to refer to us but usually, a small business tends to ask for debt or any investment first from their banker there. You know, you're a small business entrepreneur or you're an entrepreneur, you haven't started your business yet, and you're just kind of trying to figure out well, how do I get that startup capital? You know, depending on your demographics, you might be able to reach into your community or you Friends and Family Network. But some may not have that access, not only might you be limited in your access to capital, but your network might be limited in your access to capital. So it tends to be a, you know, I have a personal consumer account with you. I'm thinking about having a business banker, what what could what could you offer me. And the reality is most bankers Can't you need, they don't fund startups, they will refer you to, you know, depending on their savviness. But one of our hopes is that they refer to us. So we get a lot of referrals from our bank partners. And we get a lot of referrals from training centers where a small business owner may go, to start to think about how to farm their business plan or their idea. So SBDCs, small business development centers are also a huge part for us.

Paige Buck 15:57

Fascinating. And are there ways that in networking solutions, in particular are with the broader network, you've mentioned, that are like rich in our metro area, that you hope to make that love that gap between an idea and an understanding of how to help fund that idea, like faster and more accessible,

Sara Razavi 16:18

that's the hope is that it's an industry that's been around for a long time. But it's an industry that I think, has opportunity to scale in a way that it hasn't. And what do I mean by that, most of the CDFIs have very specific products. And so it's, it does happen, unfortunately, where you'll knock on a door, and say, we can't serve you, you fit all of our demographics and target, but you're looking for less than we usually get, or you're looking for, you know, a commercial loan for real estate and not a business loan, slightly different. You're looking for, you know, a consumer loan, rather than a business loan, etc. So because we all specialize in slightly different and there are larger CDFIs. But do you know all sorts of lending, but still, their niche might be something different, they might, it creates the problem of point of entry, in that you might knock on a CDFIs door. And unfortunately, unintentionally, they also cannot support you not because they don't have the mission to but because they don't have the right product offering for you. So in our case, for example, if you are looking for anything above 100,000, we would argue that you should still start with us, because we will likely get to that yes, faster, we will give you the opportunity to build out your credit history. As a business owner, most people who come to us don't have business credit, yet, they might have personal credit, we report to both the three personal business, three personal credit bureaus like TransUnion, Equifax, etc, and then also to the to Business Bureaus so that you're simultaneously building this credit. So the next time you're in front of your banker, they go, Oh, you're still maybe not profitable, but I see you've got a really strong payment history, we're very interested in supporting you, or whatever the case might be. So our hope is that that continuing, may start with us. But you either can return to your business banker, because there's enough history there now, or go on to another CDFI, who offers larger loans above 100,000.

Paige Buck 18:33

And so that's where you were talking about, I was hoping you might come back to a little bit more the opportunity opportunities you see for scale. And and I'll add and reach like, Yeah,

Sara Razavi 18:45

I think I think, you know, as with any business, you start to think like, how do I serve my clients best? And if, if my client needs more capital than I can provide, where if my client needs more capital than I can afford to risk, you know, that I've my balance sheet just can't afford that, that risk profile? You know, I think it gives an opportunity to think about Well, who else in this sphere can I partner up, either very formally with in a merger or informally in a shared Alliance, that, you know, the client may not experience the past but once they're at a certain stage, now they are yours? That's our ultimate, you know, because we see cloud small businesses come to us who primarily are at that startup and we've defined startup as less than a year in business. Pre revenue is fine ideation idea point at the point of ideation is fine. But you know, we do need you to have your, your your business structure in place when you when you get to us and a couple of other elements that are outlined on our website. But say you come to us and you are of the mindset that this thing is going to blow up, and it's going to grow like crazy. And in three years time, frankly, even if my loan with us five years, I gotta pay you off and get more capital on we work with you with that plan, you might also come to us and you know, have a bodega have a an industry line of assuming a lifestyle line that you really have planned for at most, maybe I think two more jobs, in addition to your own, not intended to be this massive operation. But knowing that gives us a sense of how long we can be of service here, versus, you know, you really will be set up. The saddest experience we have as a lender is, you know, with all good plans, still not being able to get that business up to the next echelon of support. Yeah,

Paige Buck 20:52

I hear that. Where do you think, aside from like, fit of like, of loan size and having your basic business structure in place? Where do you think businesses struggle and, and maybe have the most, like misunderstanding of what, what they could expect from you like, an ore from like, the broader community lending opportunities out there?

Sara Razavi 21:18

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of times, plainly, if you're asking anybody for money, either the lender to you in the form of a debt, or, or a note, with some interest rates, etc, or you know, that you are going to sell a portion of your company even informally, like, you know, for 200,000 400,000. With this commitment of maybe, maybe buy back at some point that you own, our habit, say, in our operations, we tend to see is a lot of those fast decisions early on in a business's life that you just haven't thought through the ramifications of, you know, signing off on a yeah, you and I will be co partners, but not knowing the liability around that. So similarly, when someone comes to us, one of the biggest complaints, and I think this goes for any lender, I have heard it from different sized lenders, is, you know, the frustration with the amount of due diligence that the lender may have. Now, I will say there are some lenders but go too far, for the amount that they're offering. You know, it's like, come on, it's a $5,000 loan, you don't need to pay so long as it fits a certain parameter. And that's inside baseball for a lender, like figure out your credit profile, get through that decision making process real quickly, so that you don't take on the kind of risk you're uncomfortable with, but you get speed to capital. But regardless, you know, I think anybody who's taken on any sized loan, student loan, home loan, you know, a mortgage or whatever, or even a credit card credit card is, actually I think, what's tainted everybody's expectation is it's really not fast decision unless you have the highest credit score, right, you know, cosigner, who just basically is saying, yes, like, give this person money, if they falter, I'll pay on their behalf. As a lender of any size, you're gonna want to do your due diligence. And that takes time. So to your question, many times we find business owners surprised or frustrated by and first one business owner, it's like three questions that gets them over, like, What Why are you asking me this? And another one, it might be, you know, 50. But the I think at the crux of it is just recognizing, you're asking someone to have to take a leap of faith in your business and your idea. So being patient through that process is highly important.

Paige Buck 23:50

I love that patients. And it sounds like you said that about credit cards, I think like ready access to credit cards, mortgage lending over the last 15 however many years plus Silicon Valley, where like, we're so accustomed, imagine we're surrounded by like, I had an idea and people threw millions at me, and then I lost it all. I've still look amazing.

Sara Razavi 24:13

And that goes back to who are we talking about? Yeah, that person who had that idea who, you know, whether they lost or not, it's really not as as important dress followed comes from a certain network certain demographic that allows for that flow of capital. Where as you know, I think just kind of putting into perspective that who we're talking about, wouldn't qualify for even that credit card. If you know if you were applying many of the businesses at startup unless they take on and this is the usual way you can either go to friends and family or take on purse or pay it through personal savings. And then the next layer is personal debt, which you as you know, depending on how savvy you are, how committed you are to this Unless you eventually decouple. But if you don't have, if you don't have the right credit history, and the right there is actually a formula, right? That's because it's a number system. If you don't fall within those higher numbers, you're not going to be offered that pre approved loan. It might have the marketing might say you would, but you won't be. And if you are, it won't be at the rate that they say, because they have that fine print. So I think there's this reality of what actually people have access to, and what is believed that they have access to which, frankly, came into fruition with COVID, we saw so many businesses suddenly find themselves Wait, I'm supposed to have a bank relationship, I can't, I don't know who my banker is, I'm not gonna be able to apply for this PPP, or idle or whatever the case might be that was being provided through the SBA. So I think it's just even self recognition of these, these rates and opportunities, unfortunately, are targeted to a certain population. And, and unless you check a lot of those boxes, you're not going to, you're either not going to get the offer at all, or you're going to get a different offer. And so people often ask us what our rates are, and I say, and then suddenly, they might hear, I mean, in COVID, our rates have to be responsive. But micro lenders tend to be in the two digit percentage. So for us, it's, you know, nine to 11%. Is our interest rate, sometimes, like what I could get a zero perspective, please do, please go ahead and try to get sorry to

Paige Buck 26:42

be the bearer of bad news.

Sara Razavi 26:43

Yeah, we tend to be, you know, when you actually go unpacking that, you know, the offers that are available to many of the individuals we tend to serve tend to be, you know, at best a, a rate with your credit card, that's upwards of 20 to 30%. And then similarly, there might be cash advance opportunities, or, you know, online opportunities that have really opaque interest rates, you don't really know what the rates going to be. So it

Paige Buck 27:15

sounds like besides doing a lot of education about what the real due diligence looks like and and cautioning for patients are requesting patients, something else you said earlier makes it sound like you hope to meet your ideal client early enough that they haven't made a bunch of decisions that are going to like further hinder them taking on a lot of personal debt partnered up with somebody, they don't have a great relationship with giving away equity to friends that they're now kicking themselves over. Like, don't do any of those things before you.

Sara Razavi 27:54

I mean, but the reality is, you meet people where they are, yeah, you meet people where they are. And what I have always found is, anybody who steps into business with that entrepreneur frame is a is can do, and problem solving individual. So whatever decisions they've made, solved a problem. And so you know, whether they have the available information to know that it might solve this problem, but it's going to create to other problems down the line. As an organization, as a leader, I approach individuals with humility, that there is no you know, there's a right way to do it. But I'm certain the reason you have you had your reasons for why you are where you are. And let's make sure we support you moving forward. I

Paige Buck 28:43

love that. I love that. And so that's great. Let me bring it back around to your leadership Z you came on after your internship, you were hired on as the CEO in 2013. Realize how much time has passed here. And you succeeded. Emily, the founding CEO in 2018. What was it like succeeding a founder, finding your own footing and then growing from there,

Sara Razavi 29:08

Trumpy trip is like it's got its bit some strokes. But you know, I think there there are folks who begin businesses and and ventures, and there are folks who grow them. And there are folks who sustain them. I think there's a like a general business cycle. I always knew I was not a starter. I am just not that person. And sometimes I scratch my head that I'm in this business because, you know, I tend to be around people who vigor, that excitement. And oftentimes, you know, I think there can probably be a formula for who comes after a founder and who comes after that person. But at different stages of the business's lifecycle. You're gonna need different types of leaders. Shere Khan, unless you, as the founder, are willing to change your, you know, central self to grow, which is totally doable into these other phases. The same thing that excited you as a founder is not going to be what excites you as the next. So for me, it was very much about stabilizing, formalizing, and making sure we had the systems for scale, the less about the the immediate vision of there's a need to be addressed. It's like, okay, well, we know who the target market is, but how do we continue to improve upon it. And I think, you know, having a founder who recognize that in herself that, you know, this was not exciting me in the same way it was, that was key, because there are plenty of founders who may not see that or see that a little later. So I'm very grateful to have had a founder who was ready to step aside, who actually took time, a grace period after as well, Emily is now on our board, but we both agreed would be a period that she wasn't. And I have found that decisions like that are so important, and that personality profile of not only I'm ready to leave, but I'm ready to trust this to somebody else is really key. I think what why is it you know, it's tricky and trippy is you're not just dealing with the two of you, you're dealing with a board or another or, you know, depending on how your structure is with your leadership team, with the staff. And so, and depending again, on how largest shadow that founder cast, your comfort with living with legacy like that is highly important. But as

Paige Buck 31:51

his, like, deeply carved expectations and ways of doing things, and everything's got to like, pull up out of that and ship. Yeah, yeah. Which is why

Sara Razavi 31:59

I think it's always like nice to, you know, if you had a very specific profile as the founder to, you know, in your candidate pool to try to find someone who's quite different than their idea of problem solving in their approach. And even in their demographics, because that person may have spoken, the founder may have spoken to a vast majority of people, but still they represented a certain optics. So, you know, you can you can even set this person up for success by if it was a guy leading it, when you got tried to try to search for the next woman leader. And already, there might be a little shift

Paige Buck 32:38

dynamics. Yeah, for sure. All right, I'm gonna give us like a lightning round and bring it home here. All right, my proudest moment so far in your time at Working Solutions. Ah,

Sara Razavi 32:47

that's not even I don't even know I just I'm so impressed with the way our, you know, a lot of times we have, we hear integrity, and we do have integrity. I think a big part of that is I, we believe as a leadership team, in the small strategic decisions are as important if not more than these large plants. You need to have a large plan as a North Star, but the day to day strategic decisions are important.

Paige Buck 33:14

Nice, where do you go to learn and get advice and share?

Sara Razavi 33:18

Um, you know, someone told me your mentors change over time, you're never going to have the same set of mentors. So your mentors are going to reflect the problems you're having. So you seek out those kinds of thought partners. But honestly, I diversify my podcast listening, because I think it's important to just be aware of different thinkers.

Paige Buck 33:41

Favorite Podcasts can be Wow,

Sara Razavi 33:43

I love I love. I love Terry Gross on a lot. I could listen to hours and hours of fresh air. The intro was that for sure. You know, all she interviews, world leaders, she interviews, entertainment, and lots of thinkers. And then most recently, the Ezra Klein show. Also a really great set of thinkers. So I tend to I used to have a wide spread, I tend to now do two to three and then move on. But those are my top two right now.

Paige Buck 34:17

Amazing, then those are some star lens for sure. For sure. Everybody's an Ezra fan, and I need to get in there more. To hear him. He's fantastic. All right. Best last last question. Before I ask where people can find you. Best piece of business advice you've picked up or life advice you've picked up recently,

Sara Razavi 34:36

I think, stay curious and own up to it. I think a lot of times and you know whether it's called impostor syndrome, or what we limit ourselves in feeling comfortable and just saying, you know, I know this really well, but I don't know what you just said about that. qualify you as a leader to just own up to not knowing that piece of information, a lot easier said than done. But I highly encourage women and communities of color and thinking about generational gaps, issues. You are where you are, you are in the room that you're in. And, you know, allowing yourself a question. If they're gonna think less of you, they've already thought less of you before you even opened your mouth. I got I got tingles

Paige Buck 35:27

there. I have this little thing up over next to my camera that says I have more to learn than I have to teach. Just that reminder to me to like, shut up and ask the ask questions and then shut up and listen. Yeah, yeah.

Sara Razavi 35:39

I love Stay curious. Stay curious and her and be a be be very transparent about that curiosity.

Paige Buck 35:44

Yes. I love that. All right, we've been talking to Sara Razavi, CEO of Working Solutions CDFI Sara. Where can people find you and working?

Sara Razavi 35:52

Thank you so much. Please look at our website workingsolutions.org. And otherwise, you know, if you're looking in the Bay Area, you should be able to find us. If you're looking for CDFIs, community development, financial institutions, but our website we have our presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, under our name Working Solutions. Hope to find you online. Thank you.

Paige Buck 36:21

Awesome. Thank you.

Outro 36:24

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The KE team excels at incorporating opportunities to delight at every stage of the event planning process. With a clear roadmap to event success, we champion our knowledge, resources, and connections to ensure your event goes off without a hitch. Whether you’re planning a live, in-person event, something in the virtual realm, or a hybrid with virtual components, our event experts are here to guide you. Schedule a 30-minute consultation with us today.

PAIGE BUCK

Paige Buck is the co-owner of Kennedy Events, a large-scale event management company based in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. Our team creates stress-free conferences and events with a positive impact, which allows our clients to resonate with their audience. Kennedy Events specializes in producing flawless product launches, award ceremonies, fundraisers, and multi-day conferences while keeping our eye on retention and engagement goals.

About Kennedy Events

Kennedy Events began with one goal in mind—to produce high-level corporate events with just as much strategy as style. Maggie founded the company in 2000, found her match in Paige, and in 2011 the two became official partners. Since then, these two resourceful and brilliant creatives have pooled their strengths to build one one of the most the most sought after corporate event companies in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.