Episode 130: Making social impact through business — with Kuda Biza

Kuda Biza is a serial entrepreneur who started his first company when he was 9 years old in Zimbabwe. Over the course of 10 years he has successfully launched 6 businesses. Currently, he is the co-founder & CMO of Nunbelievable, a socially-conscious baked goods company that donates meals for every box of cookies sold. He is also the co-founder of #ThisIsMyEra, a personal development brand, and Signables, a sports collectibles brand.

Kuda also founded the Amani Hope Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a mission to empower underprivileged children by providing scholarships.

During this episode, you will hear Kuda talk about:

• How a desire for an ice cream as a child led him to fall in love with entrepreneurship
• How he picks the focus areas for his businesses
• Why it’s important for entrepreneurs to make mistakes they can learn from and take conscious risks every day
• How his non-profit organization aligns with the goals of his socially conscious businesses

Learn more about Kuda at his website www.SPEARMethod.com and follow him on Instagram @kudabiza.

Special offer: Use the code BEYOND6SECONDS to get 20% off your cookie purchase at nunbelievable.com! For every box of cookies you purchase, Nunbelievable will donate a meal to someone in need.

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The episode transcript is below.

Carolyn Kiel: Hello, and welcome to the beyond six seconds podcast. I’m your host, Carolyn Kiel and today I am very pleased to be here with my guest Kuda Biza. Kuda is a serial entrepreneur who started his first company when he was nine years old in Zimbabwe. Over the course of 10 years, he successfully launched six businesses and currently he’s the co-founder and CMO of Nunbelievable, a socially conscious baked goods company that donates meals for every box of cookies sold.

He’s also the co-founder of #ThisIsMyEra, a personal development brand, and Signables, a sports collectibles brand. Kuda believes in being a force of good and founded the Amani hope foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a mission to empower underprivileged children by providing scholarships.

Kuda, welcome to the podcast.

Kuda Biza: Thank you so much. I’m happy to be here, Carolyn.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, really happy to have you here today. So, you know, you have such a great story about all of your entrepreneurial ventures, but why don’t we start out by learning a little more about kind of, how did you get started as an entrepreneur?

Kuda Biza: I guess it started by accident, to be honest. It was really just me as a kid, trying to figure out how I could control my own ice cream destiny. What had happened was my mom had refused to give me a dollar to get an ice cream because I’d been naughty that morning. And I was kinda like somewhat frustrated because I was like, how can one person like, just control, like, you know, if, if I have ice cream or not? Right. And at that time I figured like if I had my own money, then I wouldn’t have to then kind of like rely on my mom. So in kind of like the heat of the moment, I saw that my neighbor’s windows were dirty. And an idea just struck me and I was just like, let me just go for it.

I got nothing to lose, right? If I go there and ask to clean the windows, and if she says, yes, I make some money. If she says no, then it is what it is. So I ran into the house, I took the bucket and some of my mother’s cleaning supplies and I went over to my neighbor’s house and I was like, Hey, your windows are dirty.

I’ll clean your windows. Five bucks. Would you let me do it? So I don’t know if I was a good sales person or if she really just felt pity for this nine year old, but she said yes. And I cleaned the windows. And next thing I know I have five bucks and the next day the ice cream truck rolled by and I didn’t have to ask mom anymore.

I was a big boy now. So I bought my own ice cream. And, you know, once you have the first taste of that first dollar you earn, you’re hooked. Right? So I then just started going to all of the houses in my neighborhood. I recruited two of my friends and they ended up doing the cleaning. I did the sales and we had the little enterprise going on the whole summer.

So that’s how I started my first business. And we used to call clean machine services.

Carolyn Kiel: That’s cool. And that’s when you were nine years old.

Kuda Biza: Yes. Yes, yes. This, this was when I was nine and I was in Harare Zimbabwe. So, so that’s how I started. And then when I came to the U S as a, as a college student, I started my second business in the, in my dorm room with $150.

And this was my first socially conscious business, actually, because growing up in Africa, I had witnessed firsthand how other children didn’t have access to education because unlike, you know, first world countries like the US where public education is free, in Africa, it’s not, right? So, you know, if you’re one of the families that’s living on $2 a day, You know, that is only enough to provide shelter and food and, and, and, and education becomes more kind of like a nice to have.

Right. So I would see a lot of kids my age, not going to school. And I felt so blessed to have been able to get a scholarship, to come to the U S and I wanted to do something about it. So the only way I knew how was through entrepreneurship, but, you know, I was like, okay, what I decide to do with the profits is what’s important.

So we decided to donate 20% of the profits, but the way I started that particular business was actually quite interesting because like I said, I only had 150 bucks in my bank account. And for me to get inventory to start this business, I needed $3,000. So I went over to the manufacturer and I basically showed him my plan.

I was like, Hey, if I was to get goods from you, this is how I will sell them. This is how I will, you know, monetize on it and generate profit, but I don’t have the money. So are you open to the idea of giving me 30 day payment terms? So you manufacture the product for me and I’ll pay you in 30 days. This is where I go to school.

I live on campus, you know, you can go check and whatnot and you know, we can change lives together because I’m going to donate 20%. Again, I’m not sure if I was a good sales person or he felt pity for this college kid, but, you know, they said yes. And they gave me the, the, the, the produce, the inventory, and they gave me the inventory. On day 28,

I was back at that factory and I paid him that full amount and that’s how we launched the business.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. And which business was this that you started at?

Kuda Biza: This is AFR clothing. So it’s a, it’s an apparel line. And like I said, we would you know, make apparel and, and, you know, socially conscious Afrocentric themed clothes.

And, you know, we were, we were doing it to educate kids in Africa. That’s business has actually sent over a hundred children to school in Africa, and we actually have some of our initial cohorts actually graduating a university now.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. That is really cool. So, you know, you’ve started a whole host of different businesses from your, your first business in your early days of window washing to clothing.

And then in your bio, we talked about your socially conscious baked goods and sports collectibles and personal branding. How do you choose which topics to start a business on?

Kuda Biza: I own truths, but say the topic I identify problems that I believe I can solve. And I think that’s what that’s the definition of an entrepreneur.

An entrepreneur is a problem solver, right. And I think if you approach it from that prospective way of looking at it, saying like, Hey, what problem can I solve in the marketplace? What value can I give in the marketplace? I think. You, you have a much better footing to, to succeed. So, you know, let’s look into the cookie company, for example, the load, honestly, doesn’t need another cookie company.

If you’re going to a grocery store and you just look at the options you have just in the cookie aisle in one grocery store, it’s a dime a dozen, right? Go on Amazon, just type in the word cookie more than 7,000 results show up on Amazon when you type cookie. So for us, we obviously had to identify what is the problem we’re trying to solve.

And once we identified the problem, the product just becomes more of like the vehicle that you’re using to, to, to solve it. So, like, let’s say with, with the cookie company, we identify that, Hey, there wasn’t really a baked goods company that has a social issue that they’re being solving. Right. You have Bombas socks, right? It’s a sock company. They do one for one. So they’re kind of like solving that in apparel. Tom shoes was doing it in footwear. And do you have Warby Parker doing it in eyewear. So for us it was like, Hmm, we have an opportunity where we could really kind of like go into the baked goods space and, and and really attack it.

And, you know, everybody loves cookies, right. And cookies became the vehicle. But for us, the key problem we’re solving is connecting customers that really want to give back and make a difference. Through our brand, you know, you know, so, so, so people then get to, you know, buy cookies that they would normally buy, but now they they’re willing to do it with us because we’re solving a problem.

And in this case, it’s making their dollar actually have more impact than going to another brand.

Carolyn Kiel:  That’s great. So you’re really solving multiple problems at the same time. It’s like, you know, I make a purchase as a customer. I, I get my cookies and I’m also, as you said, my dollars are making a larger impact for social good.

Kuda Biza: So yeah, like what we’ve realized is that, you know, as human beings we have functional needs, emotional needs and social needs, right? So the functional need is like, Hey I’m hungry or I need a dessert. I’m creating a cookie, whatever it’s functional. Right. You eat it. And you know, that craving is solved, but then there’s the emotional need of like, you know what?

I want to make sure that my purchases make a difference. I want to give back. I want to make a difference. So that’s an emotional need that we’re solving for, for a customer and also for us from a social perspective, people want to maybe look good to their kids, to their family, their spouse, that they care about the world.

So we’re ticking all three boxes with one brand. Whereas with the other brands, for example, maybe they solve the functional piece, but they feel guilty that they didn’t make a difference or they’re not sustainable or whatever. So, so for us, we were able to really think about the customer holistically. And then come to them with, you know, a product that they know they love they’re used to, but now with ticking, more boxes than, than, than, than the other competitors in the market.

Carolyn Kiel: Right. Yeah. That’s fantastic. So do all of the businesses that you’ve started or, or most of them have that component of giving back and supporting social good or social causes?

Kuda Biza: It’s starting to be a trend, but before it wasn’t. So I spent over a decade in corporate America. So before I started Nunbelievable, I spent about 12 years at Newell brands.

So Newell Brands, it’s a big fortune 500 company. They own brands like Sharpie, Yankee Candle,, Mister coffee. Crock-Pot Calphalon. And I was actually part of their innovation team and we were responsible for building and creating new businesses. So one of the businesses that I created while I was, there was a line of slow cooker meals under the Crock-Pot brand that was called Crock-Pot cuisine.

We also created another business with Anheuser-Busch, which was a at home tap home system. So I’ve created and built multiple businesses. That didn’t really have a social aspect to it. But for me, it’s, it’s tends to be kind of like what I love to gravitate to, because I think about business, not just from the point of view of like, Oh, let’s create something that generates profit.

I, I think of it as like, you know, can we create profits, make an impact, make a difference in the world because you know, there’s this whole conversation where like, Oh, you need to like make passive income and all that stuff. I’m thinking about, can you make passive impact, right? When you’re changing lives while you’re sleeping.

Right. For me, that’s, that’s more powerful and that’s the type of legacy that I want to live. So going forward I, I want to do, to be in businesses that have that type of impact, but if we can not have a direct correlation between the business and impact. I have a 501(c)3 that I’ve created with my wife, the Amani hope foundation.

So we still continue to use that vehicle to still make a difference as well.

Carolyn Kiel: That’s fabulous. I think a lot of people, especially these days really feel like they want to make a difference and maybe they don’t know how, or they just feel like problems in the world are so big. It’s where do you start? But you know, businesses like yours, it sounds like is a very

quote unquote, easy way for a consumer to give back and, and have that extra impact with their, with their dollars to really support different causes. Absolutely.

Kuda Biza: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think that’s the way we need to think about it. And I think 2020 gave us a crash course and how things can change quickly.

Right? You might be thinking like, Oh, life is comfortable and then a pandemic hits and then life changes. So I think as, as, as society, we always need to be thinking about how we can help others because maybe it could happen to you, but more importantly if, if, if everybody rises, we all rise.

So, so I think it’s important as brands too, to be thinking about how could we help, even if it’s at a local level, right? You, you could, you could just be helping within the community that you’re in. What’s important is that you’re helping. So, so I think it’s something that we all need to think about.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned the 2020 and the, and the pandemic and, you know, you as a serial entrepreneur, having many businesses running, have you had to pivot some of your businesses significantly during that time and kind of, how has, how have things changed since we all went into lockdown here?

Kuda Biza: Yeah, I have yet to hear of a business that did not pivot because of 2020. I think every business had to pivot in one way or another, but I think the biggest way is like, obviously we all have to start working from home. Right. That was the biggest pivot, unless if you’re already a remote company already, but for us, you know, we, we, we had it all, right?

In terms of challenges. So the sports brand, for example, you talk about Signables.. We launched in January 2020. Wow. And, you know, once we went live six weeks later or whatever, lockdown started happening and, you know, we have a lot of licenses with the soccer teams in Europe and you know, games weren’t showing, and fans, obviously weren’t able to really kind of like connect with, with, with the sport. So, so it’s impacted us obviously because you know, the games weren’t there to help us drive the velocity. From a non-viewable perspective, you know, we, we couldn’t bake at our bakeries because you know, there was lockdown and, you know we couldn’t get ingredients. And so we had to really think through like supply chain logistically.

So some of the things that we had to do is, we had to now manufacture many batches. We, we had to be very proactive in talking to our consumers, letting them know that there are going to be delays. But for us, the biggest thing that we had to figure out how to pivot around was the growth that we weren’t expecting.

We were growing at 300% month over month. And this was way beyond our projection. So now, you know you were thinking like, oh we’re going to grow 20, 25% month over month, and now we’re growing 300% month over month, you know, it’s, it’s exciting, but you have to forecast for it, and you have to think about it. So we, we have to be nimble.

We have to be flexible and we had to think outside the box, but for me, those are the things that really get me excited because whenever you’re pushed outside of your comfort zone, you grow. Right? So, so I think as a business, as an entrepreneur, as a leader, I grew significantly during, during that period.

And I think about the words of Winston Churchill, when he said never waste a good crisis. So, so I think in our perspective although, w you know, we, we were obviously not happy about the pandemic or people who died or suffered or lost their jobs or furloughed but. It was good in the sense that we were able to really grow as, as a business and as a leader in, in navigating through some of these challenges that we faced.

And I think now I can be smarter and a little bit stronger. And you know, I I’m I’m, I think there’s, there’s, there’s, there’s good that you can take out of the pandemic in the midst of the challenges that came through it.

Carolyn Kiel: Absolutely. And, and you’re right. I I’ve talked to so many business people and entrepreneurs on the show and 2020 has definitely been opportunities for, for them to pivot.

And in some cases, change their businesses, grow their businesses in different ways, or even starting new businesses during this time. Just kind of, as you said, seeing what those problems are out in the world and finding different ways to solve them. No, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So you’ve started and run so many different types of businesses in different industries.

What are maybe some of the lessons you’ve learned maybe in your early days when you’re just starting out with entrepreneurship that you’ve been able to apply to your other businesses as you start new ones?

Kuda Biza: I think the biggest one is dream big. Right? I came to America with $40 in my pocket. You know that’s all I had.

And one of the things that I’ve learned is that ideas don’t work unless you do. And, you know, I’m a very creative person and I come up with so many ideas. And what I’ve realized is that unless if you do the work, you know, those ideas can be good ideas, but it will never manifest anything. So if you dream big, I think that the next thing that you’re supposed to then do is you’re supposed to align that big dream and take action.

So there’s a quote from Mark Twain that says the two most important days in life are the day you’re born and the day you find out why. But I actually like to add on to that to say there are three important days in life, the day you’re born, the day you find out why, and each day you act on your why. So some of the lessons I’ve learned that I’ve applied into other businesses is Is that number one, it takes a village, right?

So in all of these businesses, the reason why I’m able to have multiple businesses going on is because I have other team members that are subject matter experts in certain areas that can come in and step in and take that vision and really turn it into, into a reality. So what are the growth areas for me is it’s growing my own self-awareness and understanding my role, what I’m good at and making sure that I bring in the people who are good in the other areas that I needed in the business, but more importantly, empower them to, to, to make a decisions and, and, and operate in their zone of genius. So, so that we all achieve that collective goal that we’re trying to achieve. So, so I think that would be, you know, the, the common lesson I can say that I’ve really gained from, from, from this experience is growing and, and building businesses and different ecosystems.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, that’s powerful. It really is about not just having the idea because, you know, we can, we can have ideas all day long, but then how do you, how do you put that into action? And even if it’s just taking small steps, because I think a lot of people get stuck with, they have this great idea that they want to do, or they kind of have this big dream, but they don’t get started for a whole variety of different reasons.

You know, whether it’s fear or just not knowing what to do or not feeling like you’re ready. And I think your, your, what you’ve learned really underscores that it’s important to make those steps and get started, even if you’re just taking like one little step a day and just trying to get it off the ground.

Kuda Biza: Yeah. And then the other thing too, I’ll point out is that, you know, you have to be comfortable with making mistakes and failing, right. Because you know, people talk about, you know, let’s say the businesses that I’ve started and you know, all this stuff, but sometimes what’s lost in the conversation is maybe some of the businesses that have failed.

Right. That’s, you know, don’t make it into the bio. You know, or within the businesses that are out there, some of the things that we’ve tried and failed along the way. So I think as, as a, as a, as a leader, as a business person, as an entrepreneur, you know, you should, you should embrace, you know, making mistakes.

You should actually be happy because what I’ve seen is that the, the, the times that I’ve grown the most is the times when we’ve made mistakes, because then you figure out what not to do. You know, as you’re operating and you quickly figure out what to do The other thing too, is that it keeps you humble.

Right. And, and it’s, it keeps everything in check. And I think it’s super important as you’re building and growing to just always stay grounded because if you start making decisions, especially with, you know, with a, with an ego. I think it’s, it’s easy for you to actually then make mistakes at that point in time.

So I think you know, just, just embrace failure and, and make sure that you, you take it in stride and you view it not as failure, but as a learning experience and the more you fail, the more you learn and, you know, successful entrepreneurs. You know, you can see, or you can tell by looking at the number of arrows they have in their back, meaning that, you know, they’ve failed so many times where they have all these arrows of wounds in their back, but then when they find that one thing that, that works you know, They, they, they, they, they take it to the next level and it reminds me of the Spartan creed, which says, you know, sweat more in training so that you can bleed less in war.

So, so I think that’s, for me, the biggest mindset that I have is like, Hey, as we’re building this, let’s learn let’s make mistakes and whatnot right now. So that when we really get to, to the big stage, We’ve we’ve failed all we can, we’ve optimized the business and now it’s just nothing, but you know, success going forward.

Carolyn Kiel: Absolutely. So those failures actually prepare you for your future successes because they’re always learning something. And you’re also taking those risks so that, you know, when you take risks, there’s obviously a risk of failure, but you need to stretch yourself. And as you said, dream big so that you can kind of move forward and, and build the strongest businesses ultimately that you can.

Kuda Biza: Yeah. And one thing I’ll add to it is that I give a Ted talk, a TEDx talk recently, and I was talking about what I call conscious risk-taking. And this is something that I do every single day, which is I take a conscious risk where I literally say like, Hey, I’m going to do this. I know it’s risky, but I’m going to do it nonetheless.

And the reason why I do that is because it takes me outside of my comfort zone and. When, when you, when you take risks where, you know, like, Hey, I’m taking a risk, it enables you to then make sure like when, when, when you actually now really face like a real risk, you built that muscle of handling pressure.

Right. And that’s really, what you want to do is, is every single day. You know, do one or two things that really get you outside of your comfort zone, where, you know, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re taking a risk so that when that big moment comes and you know, this is kind of like an act of God or a pandemic or whatever, you, you, you can face that real risk.

Because you’ve practiced how to handle pressure and how to deal with, you know, making these types of decisions. So, so those are some of the things that I do, you know, every single day is, is consciously you take the risk. You know, obviously you, you, you have to gauge your risk and make sure that, you know, it’s, it’s, you know, you’re not like betting the business in Vegas or anything like that, but you’re, you’re doing it in a manner that it is risky, you get to grow, but what you then learn from that will ultimately deliver a much, much greater ROI for you in the long run than if you had stayed in your comfort zone.

Carolyn Kiel: Absolutely. So, you know, we talk so much about failure and taking risks and I feel like it’s so critical in order to have that success as an entrepreneur to embrace both failure and risk-taking or, or conscious and thoughtful, calculated risk-taking. But I still feel it’s, it’s still difficult for whatever reason, if it’s a, you know, the, the culture that we grow up in here or, or just the mindset that we have about really being able to accept failure and kind of get past that fear. So do you have any maybe examples that you’d like to share about either something that you tried that failed, but kind of what you learned from that and how that helped you going forward in other businesses?

Kuda Biza: Yeah. Before I share the example, I just want to even shed light why that is the dynamic. Our brain, right, which is a 2 million old 2 million year old brain is really set for us for survival. Right? If you think about it. So w whenever your brain sees the situation that, you know, is, is threatening your survival.

It’s thoughts, you know, activating into, you know, its own processes to make you survive, whatever situation you’re going through, but if you want to thrive, right? So there’s a different between just surviving and thriving. You need to make sure that you train yourself and your brain to, to be able to take control of those situations.

And you know, don’t go to the default settings or whatever your brain is telling you to do, which is operating out of fear. But as a matter of fact, you really just think through, okay, what’s, what’s the right thing to do here. And then, and then, and then we’ll thrive. To, to give you an example. I mean, there, there are plenty examples that I can share around things that have happened or not happened.

But, but I’ll share, I’ll share a couple. So when we started AFR clothing when I was still in college, right. One of the things that we attempted to do and it wasn’t the right time for us. Was we wanted to expand globally, right? Because we are growing so much and we’re getting like emails and, and, and, and things from people are all over the world and we started signing these, ah distribution agreements with like all these different people across the world. We signed a distribution agreement with someone in in Tanzania, we signed a distribution agreement with someone in Bermuda and so forth and so forth.

What we didn’t do correctly is we didn’t do the due diligence to really learn and understand more about the individuals and their capability to actually move and sell product. So now we, we had these contractual agreements where we had given them the rights to manage these territories, but the volumes weren’t coming in.

And we had now at the people reaching out saying like, Hey, we want to take your brand and blow it up. And this is a much bigger opportunity, but we now have these contractual obligations that, that we had to figure out how to navigate through. So, so I think that sometimes as an entrepreneur you, when, when an opportunity comes about and, you know, some people are really good at selling, right?

I think you need to be able to really cut through the fluff and, and really do your due diligence and understanding the, the real facts. Right? Show me the data, can I talk to some of your references and I, you know, and just do a little bit of more work. We, we really rushed through into it and we didn’t really take the time in in, in understanding

the, the, the customer, sorry, the, the, the, the potential partners that we’re working with, and we just signed the deal, but, you know, we’re college students and we were excited. But for me, I think what I’ve learned is that sometimes taking that extra step or, you know, waiting a little bit and really assessing the opportunity will, will, will help you a little bit in the long run, rather than just speeding through things and not just you know, Following a process with due diligence and just taking the shortcut.

So that’s one lesson I can share right now off of the time where I make made a mistake and I learned from it.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. And that’s powerful. And I think, you know, a lot of people think that, you know, having really high growth early on in, in a business, or just way above expectations is like always a great, amazing positive thing, but it brings other challenges, like one of the ones that you, you were just describing, it’s just you know, you know, and it’s always a learning experience, especially when you are doing something that you haven’t really done before, but yeah, that’s, that’s fantastic that you’re able to, you know, learn from it and apply it to future businesses and get those future successes.

All right. Very good. So, you know, we talked a little bit about your nonprofit organization, the Amani hope foundation. So at what point did you start that? And I know you mentioned it was to kind of supplement and and give back even more to to scholarships. Kind of at what point did you start that and how does that kind of align with your other socially conscious businesses?

Kuda Biza: Yeah. So we started the Amani hope foundation when we had started AFR clothing. So obviously I told you that when we started the mission was for us to be able to donate, right? So at first we would, we were donating through you know, nonprofits that existed. So for example, our first donation, we did it with a nonprofit in South Africa, but one of the things we learned was we couldn’t really track, have full transparency on how the money was being used, because we will cut the check and we would give it to, you know, the orphanage or whatever. And although that money was intended for education, they could have used the money for something else. And there was no way for us to track it. Right. And we felt in order for us to have a little bit more control

around you know, that transparency and how the dollars were being used us for us to actually form a non-profit. So having been born in Zimbabwe I had the unique advantage of having both US and Zimbabwe when for the nonprofit. And we then decided to focus on Zimbabwe as a region to actually do our nonprofit work.

So, you know, the way it would work is that AFR clothing became focused on selling as many t-shirts as possible, right? Because the more t-shirts we would sell, the more money we could donate to the non-profit and then the nonprofit became focused on making the most impact as possible. Right. How many, how can we educate as many kids as possible?

So now having the two separate entities, we kind of like separated church from state type of thing. With, you know, all the, the nonprofit had its own executive director was on the ground, you know, she’s still on the ground and she had a small little team and volunteers, but because we were a registered nonprofit in Zimbabwe, we actually had access to work with the government directly to, to, to, to understand the needs are within the country to identify, you know, regions and also children that we could actually, we could actually work, but more importantly, the advantage it gave us was that whenever we would go to events with AFR clothing the t-shirt company, people would be like, Hey, I bought a t-shirt. It’s great, but I want to do more. Can I donate? So now with the 501(c)3 where the opportunity where people can then say like, Oh, I bought your t-shirt.

I love it. But I also want to donate a hundred bucks. So then said like, Hey, just donate to the nonprofit. And through some of the relationships I had, when I went into the corporate world, we were able to get some brands to donate to us. So like for example, Mr. Coffee give a donation and so forth and so forth.

So, so it really enabled us to actually scale our impact by having the for- profit business and the non-profit does the full profit business that focus on selling its products. And then the nonprofit could then capture donations that people would want to give us, and it enabled us to scale. And then when, when my wife and I, you know, got married, And we were thinking about how do we also want to make a legacy and how can we make a contribution?

We then just decided to use our own personal funds to also donate to the nonprofit. So we, we also do that as well. So, so, you know, it’s, it’s good to, to, to, to, to help others and, and see some of the, you know, children that we’ve helped now also making a difference, getting jobs and contributing to society.

So we’re really pleased by the work that we’ve done through the foundation.

Carolyn Kiel: That’s fantastic. And it’s great that you are able to establish it so that you can see exactly where the money is going and you can track it. And, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s important and, and rewarding in a lot of ways to be able to see the direct impact that you can have.

Is that something that you can, or, or do maybe somehow share with customers or donors in terms of like, here are the, you know, here are the children that we’ve given scholarships to, and here’s the progress that they’re making or how do you kind of close that communication loop or, or, or kind of share back the impact?

Kuda Biza: Yeah. So from an AFR clothing perspective, yes. It’s something that we would do. We would show the Amani hope scholars, you know, would create video content with them. And, you know, each term, in America it’s a semester. So each semester we would go and meet the kids and, and get all the pictures and whatnot created and we would you know, send email updates to our customers.

They would see it on social media and things like that. So it’s something that we would definitely be do for sure. You know, with, with, with the business, because there’s, there’s always that you know, requirement and more or less an expectation from customers where they really want to see the work that you’re doing.

And for us, it’s important to do, because we want people to know that, Hey, We say we do what we say we’re going to do. So, so that was one of the components. And sometimes when you work with other organizations, you’re now kind of like dependent on them, right. If they don’t do the photo shoot, if they don’t send you the content, then you don’t have anything to share, but you’ve already sent that check.

So, so by having the non-profit, it enables us to have a little bit more control around that process. Because you know, we, we, we control that process. We know why it’s important. So we prioritize those tasks and we’re able to then share it with, with, with our customers.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, I, I think that’s great.

It’s it’s always great to be able to see it, to see the impact and you know, whatever, whatever you can share with people. I’m sure they’re definitely appreciative that, and that is really cool. Wow. So, well, Kuda, thank you so much for being on my podcast. How can people get in touch with you if they want to learn more about your businesses or the work that your nonprofit does?

Kuda Biza: Yeah, they can come to my house. I’ll give you my home address. I’m just joking.

Carolyn Kiel: (laughter)

Maybe after, maybe after lockdown is over.

Kuda Biza: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They can get in touch with me two ways. They can go to my website, SpearMethod.com. I’m a published author and the name of my book is the spear method, five simple steps to success and fulfillment. So if they just go to them to that website, there’s a contact me like form and they can reach out to me directly right there.

And also they can just go on Instagram. Kuda Biza K U D A B I Z A so they can just hit me up on Instagram and we can chop it up. So, so I think those are the two easy ways to, to get ahold of me. So yeah, that’s how, you know, people can get in touch.

Carolyn Kiel: Awesome. You know, as we close out, is there anything else that you’d like our listeners to know or anything else that they can do to help or support you?

Kuda Biza: Yeah. You know, for me, I am always thinking about how we can do more together. And right now it’s really fighting hunger, right? So, you know, pre pandemic feeding America was reporting that, you know, close to 40 million Americans were food insecure, meaning that they didn’t know where their next meal was going to come from.

But right now they just recently published a report that said that number has gone from. You know, slightly below 40 million to 54 million. So if you think about it, there are more hungry people in America than there are people in Canada. Canada’s population is maybe about 35 million. And here we’re saying that 54 million Americans don’t know where their next meal is going to come from.

So one way you can support is by buying a box of Nunbelievable cookies, you know, And you can buy a box and ship it directly to your house. And we have a one for one model. So for every cookie that we sell, we donate a meal to someone in need. So if you buy the 12 pack, a box, you’re feeding 12 people.

And we’re able to do that by partnering with partners like feeding America and world vision and they’re able to, to, to have very efficient Food ah programs because of the way they get their food. So the cost per meal is, is, is, is quite affordable. So as a people were to go to Nunbelievable.com and just type BEYOND6SECONDS they will get 20% off for a box of cookies.

So that’s one way that they can support us. So it’s beyond and six, the number six. Seconds. It’s, it’s kind of like a long you know, code, but I wanted to do something that they connect with and remember with your podcast. So, so they can then get a 20% discount on our website.

Carolyn Kiel: Fantastic. Thank you so much. That is awesome. Yeah, I’ll put all of that information in the show notes so people can read it as well. Links to your websites and you know, I’ll talk about the code as well. Is the code all one word or is it with spaces?

Kuda Biza: It’s all one word and I’ll email it to you as well, so that you can copy and paste it. So BEYOND6SECONDS and they’ll get 20% off.

Carolyn Kiel: Well, thank you. That’s fantastic. I appreciate that so much. So yeah. Thank you so much, Kuda for sharing your story on my show and for your for your, for your offer of 20%. That is amazing. And yeah. Thank you so much. You’ve shared so much knowledge today and I really appreciate you being on my show.

Kuda Biza: Thank you so much.

Carolyn Kiel: Thanks for listening to Beyond 6 Seconds. Please help us spread the word about this podcast. Share it with a friend. Give us a shoutout on your social media or write a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. You can find all of our episodes on our website and sign up for our free newsletter at www.beyond6seconds.com. Until next time.