Speaker 1: And we won her three hundred and eleven thousand dollars
and we've won more money than that, but her story
specifically was just so inspiring for our whole team. They
still bring it up to this day of just the
changes that it made for her life. Now she has
five different facilities in the area that are twenty four
hour service and she's just making an impact where she's at.
So that was a pretty cool win for us.
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Speaker 1: Ed.
Speaker 3: Welcome you are listening to and watching the Financial Survival Network.
I'm your host, Carrie Lutz. Hey, you know that I'm
a huge, huge proponent of going into business, of becoming
an entrepreneur, of entrepreneurship in America, and I think I've
found somebody who's even a bigger proponent than myself. Not
only is your proponent, but she's actually helping you get
grants get funding to start your business or name is
Stormy Banks. Stormy, it's really an honor to have you
on the show. Hey, obviously, I would venture to say,
and we didn't talk about this pre call. You probably
got yourself a grant and then it dawned on you
that hey, I figured out how to do it, but
there's so many of you out there that have no clue.
I can make a business helping you get grants. Do
I have that story right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: For the most part, it was kind of like during
COVID when everyone was needing money and businesses were failing
left and right. We were in the same boat, right,
and we were like, how can we get some money
fast without having all the qualifications of traditional lending.
Speaker 4: But it honestly just started as a free education.
Speaker 1: We were on zooms and on Instagram lives and just
telling people where to go and how to get it,
and then ended up people were like, well, can you
do the work for us? And we're like, hey, maybe
we should make this a business because we're getting so
many people that are in need. And that's kind of
how the whole grant writing agency you know, became alive.
Speaker 3: That's really cool, and hey, how many people have you
worked with in the past, and how long have you
been doing it? I guess I should ask.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so right now, we launched in March of twenty
twenty one, so we're coming up on four years in
twenty twenty five, and so far we have had ten
thousand clients that we have served in help throughout this process.
We actually just got a notification from our CRM system
that said, congratulations, you've hit a ten thousand mile mark.
Speaker 4: So that's cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's remarkable. What kind of fees do people pay you?
Speaker 4: So it depends on what they're coming for.
Speaker 1: We do still have our educational services, so we teach
you know the full process and then also we have
our full service to end grant writing options that start
at seven hundred and go to thirty five hundred.
Speaker 3: All right, tell us your biggest success story to date.
You don't have the name names, just tell us the industry.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it's actually she's she has a child care facility
out in Houston and she had never won a grant
before or gotten the loan. She was She had one small,
like in home child care facility, and she had these
big dreams of being twenty four hours and having transportation
and making a change in her area. We found this
grant that was available in her a local area that
was given monies to remove your in home based child
care facility to an actual commercial space, and we won
her three hundred and eleven thousand dollars and we won
more money than that, but her story specifically was just
so inspiring for our whole team. They still bring it
up to this day of just the changes that it
made for her life. Now she has five different facilities
in the area that are twenty four hour service and
she's just making an impact where she's at. So that
was a pretty cool win for us.
Speaker 3: He that's amazing. That's really amazing that you could do that.
And the Hey, I'm sure your rip your files are
full of success stories.
Speaker 1: Huh, absolutely, which is such a blessing, right. We don't
take those for granted.
Speaker 3: Hey, And it seems like for the amount of money
you're charging, this is like the deal of the century.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because a lot of people grant writers, they're charging
a lot more than what we charge.
Speaker 4: But we really wanted to hone in.
Speaker 1: On the fact that we know that people are small
businesses and so they're needing the grant money because they
need money, right, So we didn't want to charge exponential
prices to make the entry, the barrier to entry super
duper hard. So we focused on what could be something
that would not only serve our expertise because we're all
certified grant writers, but also give access to the people
who have been under served for historical you know, time periods,
all right.
Speaker 3: So if somebody comes to you and they're a budding
entrepreneur but not a lot of experience, not a lot
of work experience, what the top three pieces of advice
that you would give that person?
Speaker 1: If they're a budding entrepreneur without a lot of experience,
top three pieces of advice that I would give them
is you need to start reading, like asap. You know,
a lot of the things that you need to know
in business are written down in books. People have cataloged
their processes, they've cataloged their experiences. I'm a huge advocate
for audible. I listen to you know, at least two
books a week at minimum, and I've just gotten so
much insight from those books to help me grow and
develop new systems and become a better leader. Second piece
of advice is get someone on your team. Will those
good with money? You need someone who can raise capital
and who can manage capital really really well. Your finances
are going to be so important to the vital success
of your business, and if you're not good with it,
you need to hire someone who is. And then third
piece of advice is become a good leader. You know,
any business that scales, you have to be focused on
building people who want to also serve the mission and
the vision that you have. And the better you can
articulate that to people and serve what they want to
do in their lives and help them develop and sustain
what they want as well, the more people you'll have
on your team to kind of grow what you're doing.
So leadership is a big important piece for me.
Speaker 3: All right. So obviously you get a lot of people
coming through because people are thinking free money. It's so easy.
You just send out a letter and they send you
a check, right, But it's not that easy. What are
the biggest obstacles to you to your clients from getting grants.
Speaker 1: I think the biggest obstacle is honestly that it is
a competition.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: A lot of people do have that notation that Okay,
I can just fill out a grand and I'll get
the money. But you're going up against other people, and
some people have not been taught in the skill of war.
This is like a war for us, you know, writing wars.
You are trying to articulate yourself in the best way
possible in order to be seen or deemed as the
obvious choice for the grand tour. And so figuring out
what makes you different in your industry or doing something
that others haven't done before will set you apart. And
right now, technology is so big that you can add
a tech component to what you're doing and really revolutionize
your industry. To get grants for that, I think that's
one of the biggest things in just having a really
good plan.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: People want the money, but when you don't know what
you're gonna do with the money, and it's hard for
you to express that to someone else thoroughly, then you
find yourself constantly getting denied and then end up being
defeated by the process of grants. So I think those
are the biggest two difficulties in what we do.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, life is full of obstacles, but with
every obstacle comes an opportunity, right, Yes, So what was
The biggest obstacle when you started your grant writing service,
your education service.
Speaker 4: The logistics.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, it was the logistics of just managing
client expectations and managing the process. We've redeveloped and reimagined
our process so many times to enhance the customer experience
that now we have it really down to a formula
and a science. But getting started with it is just
how do we maintain our expertise and the way that
we like to work, but also making sure that we're
just having good communication educating our clients through the process,
because a lot of people who come to us, they're
new to this, they don't understand what's going on, and
they're really depending on us to not only offer the
service but educate them. And so those two things were
joining those two things together were probably the most difficult
part of when we got started.
Speaker 3: All Right, well, I love what you're doing. I wish
it was around when I was doing this, but hey,
you know it's here now. That's the important thing. And AI,
really you're saying before it makes a big impact on
what you're doing, Stormy. How do we connect with you,
How do we find out more about what you do?
And perhaps employ you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: So I'm on all social platforms at Stormy Banks with
one underscore with that Stormy Banks with an I. Or
you can also look up our company. It's called pink
Print Firm and that's Overall Socials and that's also our
website as well.
Speaker 3: All right, and the links in the show. That's to
this interview on Financial Survival Network dot com. Please got
a question for Stormy or myself, shoot me an email
kl at Carrie LUTs dot com. While you're on the site,
please sign up for your free newsletter if you information
like this, a lot of info you just can't find,
very difficult to find. Information really is the key to
success in business. Stormy, it looks like you've really mastered it.
Appreciate you coming on. We'll talk to you again.
Speaker 4: Thanks so much. This was awesome.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network, your
solution to today's trying times. For the latest, go to
Financial Survivalnetwork dot com. Financial Survival Network now more than
ever