9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The first Hack-A-Thon was not until

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
another two months, so I still had

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
never done a Hack-a-thon before.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
All I knew was, I want to have a thousand

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Of them in the first 5 years. and then be

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
able to help a billion people in the next

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
25.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Music]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"Amaro, What's up with you man?"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"I'm good, man, I'm good. Like life is--"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"--Life feels like it's getting back

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
on track right now."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"that's what's up, that's what's up. uh

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I would say things are definitely hectic

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
on my end. Trying to uh, trying to keep

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
my head uh, above water, but you know,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'm just glad to be here with you and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with, uh, with the , with the listeners

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And sharing another great uh, entrepreneural story."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"Yeah man, and uh, I hear some sniffles

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and you know I'm planning a trip up to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
your area soon so you need to get that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
cleared up before, before I come up to uh

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to uh, visit."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"Yea man, this thing just hit me out of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
nowhere. Uh, as the winter's wrapping up,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that's when I finally, you know, catch a

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
cold." [both laugh]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"What are the odds, right?"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"Just my luck.. But uhm, yea but I'm over

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
here trying to fight this thing and you

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
know, plenty of fluids and much rest."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"ah man, well- I hope you get better soon

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
then."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"Appreciate it, Appreciate it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Today's episode, we're going to be talking

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to Joey Womack, co-founder of Amplified

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
For Good, and Goodie Nation. You know,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this guy, he's based out of Atlanta, Ga.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"Yup. He's doing some awesome work.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Goodie nation is an awesome company in

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the non-profit, social impact space where

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
he just brings a lot of creative minds

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
together to figure out ways for the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
community to solve problems because he has

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this thesis where, like, a lot of the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
resources to solve some of the world's

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
biggest problems are already embedded

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with- within the community. It's just

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
improving the efficiencies between these

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
organizations. So that's Goodie Nation,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the good work he's doing there.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And to amplify for good is just the flip

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
side where he was like

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Oh! For profit companies just

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
wanna get some of this innovation love

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
too, so you know, let me go out and train

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
these folks on how to, how to get that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
start up culture within their

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
organizations.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"Yea and you know, some of these

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
companies he's worked with such as google,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
coca cola, ford

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You know, a lot of great companies and he

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
actually shares, you know, some of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
different ane- some of these anecdotes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Of how he actually acquired some of these

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
very large companies, as uhm, customers.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Uh, one of the things we also go into[br]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
within this episode is just a variety

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of different topics pertaining to, uh ,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
ideation, product development, customer[br]discovery, uhm,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
hack-a thons-process improvement.."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"So it's basically like, if you, so learn,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
gleam at the ology because that's every[br]thing that's going to be covered

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
within in this, steps within your minimal [br]viable product to get that up and running

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the way of making your process scalable,[br]uh to where it saves you time and energy

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and where you're not always just working, [br]in the business, you actually can be

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
strategic within your business instead."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"yea yea, uhm, social impact as well too[br]is that the nonaligning thesis fits with

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
everything too, because that's something [br]joey's been passionate about and he talks

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
about that intricacies about making [br]that happen."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"Yea so before we get into it, please [br]please please go ahead and hit the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Subscribe button whether you're listening [br]on iTunes, uh Google play, uh, stitcher,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Hit subscribe right now. Not later, but [br]right now."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Laughter] "You're starting to sound like [br]an infomercial, I love it though because

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it's clear. One action- Subscribe! [br]Everybody happy, I love it, I love it."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Laughter] -"Cool, cool, cool, let's go [br]ahead and get into it Ivan.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Hip Hop Music]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Joey, I just want to thank you again for[br]joining us. Uh, You know, we- we, this is

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
actually our second time trying to record [br]this podcast with Joey.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The first time, uh, me and Amal have[br]to admit we fumbled it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We had some technical difficulties with [br]the applications that we were using.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But uh, Joey, you know graciously decided [br]come back on and let us, uh, get this

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
recorded podcast done. So thank you, [br]thank you Joey for joining us again."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"Not a problem, No problem."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Im happy to have you on the show because [br]our listeners man.. you're doing some

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
amazing work and it just the impact of [br]your work isn't just specifically to the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Atlanta, Georgia area, I'm just, I'm sure[br]its spread out across that states, uhm.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
there's some highlights about you in the [br]press.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
McDonalds did a spotlight on you for Black[br]History Month. The Huffington post

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
recognized you as one of the top 20 [br]innovators with in the Atlantic start up

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
community. Uh, I mean hippopotamus in [br]atlanta has done many write ups about you

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Uh, and the community, similarily the[br]Root, Vice mag, I mean you're doing your

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
thing and in the industry, your space of[br]of innovators, social entrepreneurship, [br]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and entrepreneurships in general.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
ands just helping people find a way to carve

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
out a path with in this tech space. and so[br]I'm just like super excited about you and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I remember learning about your first [br]company Amplified For Good, uhm

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when I was living in Atlanta Georgia and [br]how- seeing how that's grown from again-

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
like Amplified For Good is -for the [br]Listeners - They're a for profit of your

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
arm where its focused on helping owners[br]create social impact and then you have

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the whole Goodie Nation portion which is[br]the more non for profit sides about

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
empowering people to solve their own [br]problems within their communities.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So there's just a lot of gems and we're [br]gonna break down like-that's the intent,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
break down amd cover that story of how you[br]were able to build both of those companies

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and have all the success you are having[br]today.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But before, before we do that, You may [br]already know this- we ask one particular

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
question before we dive into all those [br]details-

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Laughter] yup you already know."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Yea, I think, I think we had gotten to [br]this part on the last one so I think

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
he already knows the question."[br]But, Go ahead-"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"You're not ready for the other question-[br]I know you're ready for this one-

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What is that one Hip Hop song that gets[br]you hyped up in the zone before your major

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
pitch or important meeting?" [br]- "Aww man, man, man, man man..you know,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it changes man. [Laughter] You know what[br]I'm sayin? shoot-things can mean--

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In earlier days I was listening to Dave[br]Chappelle stand up, you know what

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'm sayin? At the very the end he's [br]talking about tribe and stuff like that.."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
-"Yea I gotta catch that. I gotta catch [br]Man, I'm so looking forward to that new

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Dave Chapelle show."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Yea, It's a good look, man. But Im saying[br]this man. So, uh, recently- It's not, uh,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it's not a recent song, but uh, I say [br]A Tribe Called Quest: The space program."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"hmm, I been sleeping on A Tribe Called [br]Quest. I won't lie, I have, but I gotta

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
check it out."[br]-"Yea, so that's been my kick recently,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We may do this in two weeks, I may have[br]another one, you know?"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[laughter] [br]-"So, lets get right into it. Uh, you know

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I think Amal did a good job of really [br]laying out what you've been doing the last

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
couple of years and some of the accolades[br]in media mentions as well just within the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
last couple of weeks, right? Cause Black [br]History Month was last month, so that was

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
definitely very recent, Congratulations on[br]that as well. You know, one of the things

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we definitely really want to get into is, [br]you know, helping on our ends to really

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
understand because you have two different [br]companies you're currently working on

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
right now -that we at least know of-Right?[br]two big companies you're working on right

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
now. But one thing we definitely want to [br]get into is understanding between uh,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Amplified For Good and Goodie Nation-

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you hyped up for that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It changes man. You know,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
what I'm saying?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, uh, recently

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's not a recent song, I'd say

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That's been my kick

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, you know let's get right into it,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you know,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Black History Month was last month.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That was definitely

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because you have two different companies

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that you're currently working on

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which one did you start working on first?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Okay, well

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What were the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Yeah, so, as I kinda alluded to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
After I graduated and did it full time.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Yada, Yada, Yada.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Long story shirt: in the process of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How to raise money, so on and so forth

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How to be better by using these philosophies

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Trying to like, I realize

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I didn't know what I was going to do

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Eventually I landed on

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
people in underserved areas all around

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the country.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
All this amazing stuff that was free.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Cause I read so much.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And I needed a better way to distribute

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the content that I was reading all the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A lot of like

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Was there a common thing that they kept

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
asking

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The major thing was funding

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That wasn't my wheelhouse.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Or take care of the same expenses

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so again, you're going to raise money

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to spend

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
If you're going to spend it on something

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Well, I'll I'll tell you

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, at the same time I was putting this

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Facebook group together.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Honestly, they let me do the events

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and then they're like

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Why don't you just do these events for us?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Yada Yada Yada

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Free alcohol, free food, free admission,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
free celebrity dj.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And that's the first time the group had

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And I saw all the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Across multiple generations

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Wow. What if we used this type of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
environment to raise money for the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You kind of take their talent

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So that was really one of my first

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
My ability to pull together really

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
talented people.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You just provided a clear

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but, I mean, but from that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
what I was actually trying to pitch.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Finding out what people really care about

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I learned a lot.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and applying them in a non-tech way.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But, yeah, it's proved to be real

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
successful

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Aw, man.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
To make a long story short

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they often say, some people believe in God

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Was calling to use this facebook group

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for good, right?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
figure out how I'm gonna help out

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Cause I got a great opportunity.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It wasn't until October

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That would bring more people of color

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
into the ecosystem.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
One of which was for

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And so at that point.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But I had this idea

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it's a great way to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I did it. The first one was on March

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It wasn't like a throw down the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
My first thought was

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Then my second thought was

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I took it as a challenge and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Why should they get involved

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What happens there that makes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
If I do like a hashtag of myself

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I would put

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So when you come to our stuff

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
More like a house party.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
20 or 30 people there.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Good up tempo music.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's just not people of color.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
To help out people who need it the most

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Very talented people with a very fun

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Yeah, that definitely sounds like a

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I was just gonna say

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
If you think back to college or high

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
school or something like that.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You bs, you wait

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Just imagine you never even talk

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You might have

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And then you gotta present it in front

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of every

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You throw people together for 2 days

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
maybe 3 days

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That sounded like

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I drink a lot of energy drinks

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was fun, though.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We have weekend

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We have demo days

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's all

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When did you start knowing that you could

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How did you identify

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We first started

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Our thesis

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's just that whole ecosystem of change

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Change was going unmade

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Instead of creating new non-profits.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was just one day

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Anybody would even come out.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
More work needed to be done, outside of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
just the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Okay, so maybe we'll do

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And then we give everyone the teams

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So that's the one that we had at google

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This team still did not

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The events are cool, great energy.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And so now, to make a long story short

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Coming up with an innovative idea

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Ideas or solutions

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The second event is

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Then volunteer marketers

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They come up with

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
About a month after that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, basically within the span of six months.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Build a product.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Hype around it

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Move it better

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Right there that's

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Even the business motto.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Is it the final presentation

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
pitching their ideas

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I mean, yeah...you have some investors

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So a lot of investors don't really know

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Yeah, yeah. It's a tough deal.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And we're learning , we're learning still.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Just pitching it was definitely

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In that, we start to have

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Have you seen that sort of support from

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'll be interested to see

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Yeah, people are still figuring out

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
People our generation

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000