Joey Womack | Co-Founder of Amplify4Good

The first Hack-A-Thon was not until

another two months, so I still had

never done a Hack-a-thon before.

All I knew was, I want to have a thousand

Of them in the first 5 years. and then be

able to help a billion people in the next

25.

[Music]

-"Amaro, What's up with you man?"

-"I'm good, man, I'm good. Like life is--"

"--Life feels like it's getting back

on track right now."

-"that's what's up, that's what's up. uh

I would say things are definitely hectic

on my end. Trying to uh, trying to keep

my head uh, above water, but you know,

I'm just glad to be here with you and

with, uh, with the , with the listeners

And sharing another great uh, entrepreneural story."

-"Yeah man, and uh, I hear some sniffles

and you know I'm planning a trip up to

your area soon so you need to get that

cleared up before, before I come up to uh

to uh, visit."

-"Yea man, this thing just hit me out of

nowhere. Uh, as the winter's wrapping up,

that's when I finally, you know, catch a

cold." [both laugh]

-"What are the odds, right?"

-"Just my luck.. But uhm, yea but I'm over

here trying to fight this thing and you

know, plenty of fluids and much rest."

-"ah man, well- I hope you get better soon

then."

-"Appreciate it, Appreciate it.

Today's episode, we're going to be talking

to Joey Womack, co-founder of Amplified

For Good, and Goodie Nation. You know,

this guy, he's based out of Atlanta, Ga.

-"Yup. He's doing some awesome work.

Goodie nation is an awesome company in

the non-profit, social impact space where

he just brings a lot of creative minds

together to figure out ways for the

community to solve problems because he has

this thesis where, like, a lot of the

resources to solve some of the world's

biggest problems are already embedded

with- within the community. It's just

improving the efficiencies between these

organizations. So that's Goodie Nation,

the good work he's doing there.

And to amplify for good is just the flip

side where he was like

"Oh! For profit companies just

wanna get some of this innovation love

too, so you know, let me go out and train

these folks on how to, how to get that

start up culture within their

organizations.

-"Yea and you know, some of these

companies he's worked with such as google,

coca cola, ford

You know, a lot of great companies and he

actually shares, you know, some of

different ane- some of these anecdotes

Of how he actually acquired some of these

very large companies, as uhm, customers.

Uh, one of the things we also go into

within this episode is just a variety

of different topics pertaining to, uh ,

ideation, product development, customer
discovery, uhm,

hack-a thons-process improvement.."

-"So it's basically like, if you, so learn,

gleam at the ology because that's every
thing that's going to be covered

within in this, steps within your minimal
viable product to get that up and running

the way of making your process scalable,
uh to where it saves you time and energy

and where you're not always just working,
in the business, you actually can be

strategic within your business instead."

-"yea yea, uhm, social impact as well too
is that the nonaligning thesis fits with

everything too, because that's something
joey's been passionate about and he talks

about that intricacies about making
that happen."

-"Yea so before we get into it, please
please please go ahead and hit the

Subscribe button whether you're listening
on iTunes, uh Google play, uh, stitcher,

Hit subscribe right now. Not later, but
right now."

[Laughter] "You're starting to sound like
an infomercial, I love it though because

it's clear. One action- Subscribe!
Everybody happy, I love it, I love it."

[Laughter] -"Cool, cool, cool, let's go
ahead and get into it Ivan.

[Hip Hop Music]

"Joey, I just want to thank you again for
joining us. Uh, You know, we- we, this is

actually our second time trying to record
this podcast with Joey.

The first time, uh, me and Amal have
to admit we fumbled it.

We had some technical difficulties with
the applications that we were using.

But uh, Joey, you know graciously decided
come back on and let us, uh, get this

recorded podcast done. So thank you,
thank you Joey for joining us again."

-"Not a problem, No problem."

"Im happy to have you on the show because
our listeners man.. you're doing some

amazing work and it just the impact of
your work isn't just specifically to the

Atlanta, Georgia area, I'm just, I'm sure
its spread out across that states, uhm.

there's some highlights about you in the
press.

McDonalds did a spotlight on you for Black
History Month. The Huffington post

recognized you as one of the top 20
innovators with in the Atlantic start up

community. Uh, I mean hippopotamus in
atlanta has done many write ups about you

Uh, and the community, similarily the
Root, Vice mag, I mean you're doing your

thing and in the industry, your space of
of innovators, social entrepreneurship,

and entrepreneurships in general.

ands just helping people find a way to carve

out a path with in this tech space. and so
I'm just like super excited about you and

I remember learning about your first
company Amplified For Good, uhm

when I was living in Atlanta Georgia and
how- seeing how that's grown from again-

like Amplified For Good is -for the
Listeners - They're a for profit of your

arm where its focused on helping owners
create social impact and then you have

the whole Goodie Nation portion which is
the more non for profit sides about

empowering people to solve their own
problems within their communities.

So there's just a lot of gems and we're
gonna break down like-that's the intent,

break down amd cover that story of how you
were able to build both of those companies

and have all the success you are having
today.

But before, before we do that, You may
already know this- we ask one particular

question before we dive into all those
details-

[Laughter] yup you already know."

"Yea, I think, I think we had gotten to
this part on the last one so I think

he already knows the question."
But, Go ahead-"

"You're not ready for the other question-
I know you're ready for this one-

What is that one Hip Hop song that gets
you hyped up in the zone before your major

pitch or important meeting?"
- "Aww man, man, man, man man..you know,

it changes man. [Laughter] You know what
I'm sayin? shoot-things can mean--

In earlier days I was listening to Dave
Chappelle stand up, you know what

I'm sayin? At the very the end he's
talking about tribe and stuff like that.."

-"Yea I gotta catch that. I gotta catch
Man, I'm so looking forward to that new

Dave Chapelle show."

"Yea, It's a good look, man. But Im saying
this man. So, uh, recently- It's not, uh,

it's not a recent song, but uh, I say
A Tribe Called Quest: The space program."

"hmm, I been sleeping on A Tribe Called
Quest. I won't lie, I have, but I gotta

check it out."
-"Yea, so that's been my kick recently,

We may do this in two weeks, I may have
another one, you know?"

[laughter]
-"So, lets get right into it. Uh, you know

I think Amal did a good job of really
laying out what you've been doing the last

couple of years and some of the accolades
in media mentions as well just within the

last couple of weeks, right? Cause Black
History Month was last month, so that was

definitely very recent, Congratulations on
that as well. You know, one of the things

we definitely really want to get into is,
you know, helping on our ends to really

understand because you have two different
companies you're currently working on

right now -that we at least know of-Right?
two big companies you're working on right

now. But one thing we definitely want to
get into is understanding between uh,

Amplified For Good and Goodie Nation-

you hyped up for that

It changes man. You know,

what I'm saying?

So, uh, recently

It's not a recent song, I'd say

That's been my kick

So, you know let's get right into it,

you know,

Black History Month was last month.

That was definitely

because you have two different companies

that you're currently working on

which one did you start working on first?

Okay, well

What were the

Yeah, so, as I kinda alluded to

After I graduated and did it full time.

Yada, Yada, Yada.

Long story shirt: in the process of

How to raise money, so on and so forth

How to be better by using these philosophies

Trying to like, I realize

I didn't know what I was going to do

Eventually I landed on

people in underserved areas all around

the country.

All this amazing stuff that was free.

Cause I read so much.

And I needed a better way to distribute

the content that I was reading all the

A lot of like

Was there a common thing that they kept

asking

The major thing was funding

That wasn't my wheelhouse.

Or take care of the same expenses

so again, you're going to raise money

to spend

If you're going to spend it on something

Well, I'll I'll tell you

So, at the same time I was putting this

Facebook group together.

Honestly, they let me do the events

and then they're like

Why don't you just do these events for us?

Yada Yada Yada

Free alcohol, free food, free admission,

free celebrity dj.

And that's the first time the group had

And I saw all the

Across multiple generations

Wow. What if we used this type of

environment to raise money for the

You kind of take their talent

So that was really one of my first

My ability to pull together really

talented people.

You just provided a clear

but, I mean, but from that

what I was actually trying to pitch.

Finding out what people really care about

I learned a lot.

and applying them in a non-tech way.

But, yeah, it's proved to be real

successful

Aw, man.

To make a long story short

they often say, some people believe in God

Was calling to use this facebook group

for good, right?

figure out how I'm gonna help out

Cause I got a great opportunity.

It wasn't until October

That would bring more people of color

into the ecosystem.

One of which was for

And so at that point.

But I had this idea

it's a great way to

I did it. The first one was on March

It wasn't like a throw down the

My first thought was

Then my second thought was

I took it as a challenge and

Why should they get involved

What happens there that makes

If I do like a hashtag of myself

I would put

So when you come to our stuff

More like a house party.

20 or 30 people there.

Good up tempo music.

It's just not people of color.

To help out people who need it the most

Very talented people with a very fun

Yeah, that definitely sounds like a

I was just gonna say

If you think back to college or high

school or something like that.

You bs, you wait

Just imagine you never even talk

You might have

And then you gotta present it in front

of every

You throw people together for 2 days

maybe 3 days

That sounded like

I drink a lot of energy drinks

It was fun, though.

We have weekend

We have demo days

It's all

When did you start knowing that you could

How did you identify

We first started

Our thesis

It's just that whole ecosystem of change

Change was going unmade

Instead of creating new non-profits.

It was just one day

Anybody would even come out.

More work needed to be done, outside of

just the

Okay, so maybe we'll do

And then we give everyone the teams

So that's the one that we had at google

This team still did not

The events are cool, great energy.

And so now, to make a long story short

Coming up with an innovative idea

Ideas or solutions

The second event is

Then volunteer marketers

They come up with

About a month after that

So, basically within the span of six months.

Build a product.

Hype around it

Move it better

Right there that's

Even the business motto.

Is it the final presentation

pitching their ideas

I mean, yeah...you have some investors

So a lot of investors don't really know

Yeah, yeah. It's a tough deal.

And we're learning , we're learning still.

Just pitching it was definitely

In that, we start to have

Have you seen that sort of support from

I'll be interested to see

Yeah, people are still figuring out

People our generation