Karen Thrower is the Founder and CEO of Kharis Connect, a mobile app that connects black-owned businesses with consumers. Through her app, a business has the space and resources to encourage collaboration among the community.
Karen ignited her passion and drive for connecting her community while working for Noisette, a special events company. At Noisette, she sharpened the analytical and organizational skills that would provide her with the tools to build Kharis Connect.
In this episode…
How do you empower a brand? Is your business aligned and understanding of consumers? Do you want to take the leap, step out into the light, and grow and scale your business?
Karen Thrower knows the value and efficacy of building your brand’s influence and culture by aligning it in the eyes of the consumers. She believes in being and doing better. Karen has poured her passion into creating a framework for black-owned businesses to advertise, connect, and scale their brands through a single digital platform. Are you ready to move forward?
In this episode of Digital Madvertising, Chris Clark talks with Karen Thrower, Founder and CEO of Kharis Connect, about the power of connecting and growing the black-owned business community. Karen shares the inspiring story of scaling her consulting agency, how to remove barriers, and how she is supporting and developing black-owned businesses through advertising.
This Podcast is powered by Digital Ignite and recorded in Charleston, SC. Hosted by Chris Clark and Winnie Teal. Digital Madvertising is edited, produced & scored by the talented Connor Sage. Join us each week as we cover the wild wild west of digital marketing news, trends, and products.
Follow us!
Karen Thrower is the Founder and CEO of Kharis Connect, a mobile app that connects black-owned businesses with consumers. Through her app, a business has the space and resources to encourage collaboration among the community.
Karen ignited her passion and drive for connecting her community while working for Noisette, a special events company. At Noisette, she sharpened the analytical and organizational skills that would provide her with the tools to build Kharis Connect.
In this episode…
How do you empower a brand? Is your business aligned and understanding of consumers? Do you want to take the leap, step out into the light, and grow and scale your business?
Karen Thrower knows the value and efficacy of building your brand’s influence and culture by aligning it in the eyes of the consumers. She believes in being and doing better. Karen has poured her passion into creating a framework for black-owned businesses to advertise, connect, and scale their brands through a single digital platform. Are you ready to move forward?
In this episode of Digital Madvertising, Chris Clark talks with Karen Thrower, Founder and CEO of Kharis Connect, about the power of connecting and growing the black-owned business community. Karen shares the inspiring story of scaling her consulting agency, how to remove barriers, and how she is supporting and developing black-owned businesses through advertising.
This Podcast is powered by Digital Ignite and recorded in Charleston, SC. Hosted by Chris Clark and Winnie Teal. Digital Madvertising is edited, produced & scored by the talented Connor Sage. Join us each week as we cover the wild wild west of digital marketing news, trends, and products.
Follow us!
Intro 0:03
Welcome to Digital Madvertising powered by Digital Ignite. Digital Madvertising covers all things in the digital marketing and technology space. Here we will be interviewing brand managers and C-suite executives from some of the world's biggest brands.
Chris Clark 0:23
Hey everybody, my name is Chris Clark, I'm the CMO of Digital Ignite. Welcome to the Digital Madvertising podcast powered by Digital Ignite. This is episode number six. We are just moving right along with our podcasts and I can't you know thank enough to you all for listening so far and downloading. So thank you. I appreciate the feedback we've gotten so far. It's been it's been a ride and we're not stopping. So thanks so much for the support the little that it's been, we're continuing to grow organically. So please, you know, share, download, pass along the podcast to your friends, share it on your social media channels. Much appreciated. Today's episode, we have an amazing guest, we have Karen Thrower, the CEO of Kharis Connect. Kharis Connect is an app that connects black-owned businesses together in one place. It also helps consumers find businesses around the area that can serve them. Karen is a superhero. She really is in an amazing time discussing her beginnings. How she is a connector. She is a superhero and her superpower is connecting people. She has created this app during COVID. And it has just taken off like a rocket. It started with a handful of businesses and just in this short time since March of 2020. We are now in October of 2021. She has 154 black-owned businesses signed up within her app. You can go find the app in the Apple or Android stores. It's k h a r i s Connect that's k h a r i s Connect. You can also go to kharisconnect.com and to right there, you can click on it, it'll take you right to your app store. You can also learn more about the organization. But again today it was an amazing conversation with Karen, she leaves us with a little treat at the end of the podcast so not gonna tell you what it is we have to stick around. Listen, she's just a very talented individual. So I'm very excited to share this with you all. Please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Karen Thrower of Kharis Connect. Okay, everybody. On today's show, we have a very special guest Karen Thrower. She is the CEO and Founder of Kharis Connect a mobile app that is a directory for black-owned businesses. Their purpose is to create a platform that allows consumers to engage, locate, and most importantly, support the unique goods and services that you business owners have to offer. If you are a black-owned business, this app is a tool to increase your visibility for a nominal investment. You can visit Kharisconnect.com or download the app and the Apple or Android stores. Karen Welcome to the Digital Madvertising podcast. How are you doing?
Karen Thrower 3:10
I am awesome. Hey Chris.
Chris Clark 3:12
Hi. Hi. Hi Hi I'm so excited to talk to you this is actually our first time really sitting down and speaking but Karen for our listeners has been working with our company Digital Ignite for gosh it's been almost six plus months now almost six months Yeah. And we have been doing some amazing stuff with Kharis Connect and I wanted to have Karen sit down and talk all about it and a lot of you know that this is a relatively new podcast but I feel this would be one of our premiere episodes because you're doing so much within the community and you have aspirations for so much more yes yeah, I'm so again very very excited. It's a Friday you've got your Starbucks
Karen Thrower 3:55
I'm ready. Yeah, I'm um I'm ready to go. Yeah,
Chris Clark 3:59
well, let's let's dive right into that. Um, I spoke with Julian our sales rep. He's he's told me so much about you and I don't want to go in and and, and just, you know, talk out of my mouth, but tell me, tell me about Karen Thrower or where, where were you born? Tell me about your background, all of that.
Karen Thrower 4:17
Okay. So I was born in St. Petersburg, Florida, not Charleston. Like most people think. And I do not sound like a Charles stone. No. My father was in the Navy. And he served for 29 years. So I'm a brat. And I have five brothers. I am the only girl. So most people would say I'm spoiled. But I say I was privileged to be raised with kings. So I've thoroughly we had a great time growing up. I love my brothers. I spend a lot of time hanging out with guys why cuz that's what I was raised around. Yeah, I'm totally as old as I am still a daddy's girl. And we moved to Charleston. My mom is from from Charleston, this is her home. And we lived in St. Petersburg. We lived in Norfolk. We lived in Orlando, we lived in Jacksonville, but the honor for my, my father to spend the last 13 years of his military service in Charleston, where my mother was from brought us back here, and it was amazing. So in 1983, I believe 83 or 84, we moved back to Charleston. And it's just been wonderful being surrounded by family all that time and not having to do a lot of the moving. My dad was at the mine warfare training unit on the old base. So he went out and found mines in the water, you know, slightly dangerous. Yeah, a little bit. But um,
Chris Clark 5:50
that's amazing. He loved it. Yeah. So what was it like, my mom is actually an army brat. My grandfather was stationed there, and they moved all over. What was it like moving all over as a child? I mean, I almost had to do that because my dad was in the military. But thankfully, we, we didn't have to, but the thought of having to leave friends and so tell me all about that.
Karen Thrower 6:11
I think that's where I gained my love for people. Um, my mother because my dad was gone. My Okay, so this is the story. My father at the age of eight teen was he lived in Fitzgerald, Georgia, where he's from giving backstory, because it makes sense. Yeah. For the question, you just asked me. My dad was a track star. He was running in this little town. This guy's car broke down, and he stopped to help him change his tire. And the guy asked him, Do you want to see the world and my father said yes. And he packed his bag, router and didn't tell my grandpa, my grandparents where he was. So four months, they did not know where he was, he just disappeared and nobody knew. Fast forward, he meets my mom because he came to Charleston. And my grandmother used to have my mom and her sisters. help feed the soldiers. So they got to meet my meet each other. But when my mom when my dad left, he would leave. My mom would keep our house open for me, other kids whose dads were gone. And our house was just the house that everybody came to center of the universe was and so people that revolving door happened all the time, because she always led I mean, literally, when I say our door was revolving, it was because people would come constantly in and out of the house. She was feeding, you know, dinners that still a thing for us. People still show up for dinner. That's amazing. I learned my love of people through the service and the interactions that my parents had over the course of our our life in the Navy. So with the doors opening, and going to new places, it wasn't that difficult because it still felt like home, no matter where we were because our door always stayed open for anybody.
Chris Clark 8:18
That's an amazing perspective, especially for a kid and growing up now. Your father how what was like some of the longest he was away from home? From the family.
Karen Thrower 8:29
Oh my gosh. So I think that I could actually remember maybe a year okay, yeah, nine months to a year. And that wasn't so bad. You can actually calculate how long my dad left based off of when we were born.
Chris Clark 8:46
Gotcha. Gotcha. Maya, my grandparents did the same with with to my aunt, my aunt and uncle. My grandfather was in Vietnam. And when he came back from r&r, you can do the math as well. Yeah. So there was there's six siblings total, right? Yes,
Karen Thrower 9:00
there's some siblings total.
Chris Clark 9:01
Alright, so we have to get into having five brothers. I mean, and I know, you know, you were saying to daddy's girl, but what what was it like growing up with five brothers? I mean, how did they treat you? Were they very protective of their sister? Or was it more of they would pick on you? Or was it like you had your favorite? How is that so
Karen Thrower 9:19
my two older brothers, my half brothers. So we really didn't grow up together, but we knew them and we hung out with them. Okay. We don't say half because we're all the same. My younger brother, I'm the oldest. So I have three under me. I have Artie, Jonathan and David Jonathan. Jonathan is our giant because he's almost 6867 and the rest of us are shorties. David's 511 already is about five, eight. And then you got me I'm rocking in at the five five. So um, it was the best thing ever. Like, I used to want a sister. But then I just really I enjoyed them. I Artie is my best friend to this very day because it was the two of us work together for a very long time. It still is and I love my two older brothers Jeffrey and Reggie still talk to them all the time shout out to Jeff and Reggie. But they just you know, they were the light of my day. And I just loved being there to watch them grow up to become the amazing men that they are right now. And it's just been a it's been a privilege for me to be a sister. And I'm their big sis Yeah, even though they act like they run me I remind him all the time Listen, I'm older than y'all
Chris Clark 10:45
Yeah. Now did any of them jump into the service or no okay yeah, yeah, that was kind of like my my perspective is like growing up in a military background I'm so glad my mom was into advertising because that was the route that I went into it was close of course going down that army route but thankfully I'm where I'm at now but that's that's amazing. So having five brothers I mean you there's literally like a you guys could go out and have a basketball team basically. I mean, you've got you got five people. Really though those that's that's amazing. So you all traveled around the country your dad finally settled here in Charleston. So with you being set in Charleston you've Was there any gap from today from you leaving or if you've been here since I've been
Karen Thrower 11:31
here since but I travel Yeah, so I you know, with everything that I've done I've been everywhere I've been to California Greensburg, Kansas. I mean I've just been all over the place I love to get up and go I've been to Italy London, Spain. I just I like to travel so Charleston's always home I like to have that base that foundation. It's beautiful here. And so I tell people all the time, why would I want to leave some place? Absolutely gorgeous. And I can still get on a plane and go wherever I want to
Chris Clark 12:07
and thankfully the airport's given us some better flights out of here to recently so that's been awesome. Yeah. So you you settle in Charleston and you've been here for a while now. Um, let's let's start talking about Kharis Connect. So what led you you know, and even if you want to dive into even before Kharis Connect, but what led you to Kharis Connect? What Give me the background of Kharis. Can I get the name but yeah, what what what at least got you from your your start, at least into Charleston, and and to now
Karen Thrower 12:40
All right, so I had the best job ever. I don't know how many people get to say this. But I have the best job ever working for the noisette company. Okay. We were the sustainable redevelopment project on the old naval base, led by our CEO at the time, john, not our vice president art tightest, who was my boss, and I absolutely love art. I had some of the best co workers ever. I literally got up every day, excited to go to work. Yeah. I was sad when I couldn't go to work. We were really doing some amazing things. And even now, I go out to Riverfront Park when people are having concerts, and I walk along the deck that I helped purchase the lights for. And when I see people under the amphitheater, and I remember the whole design process for it, I go through parks circle, I was involved in the creation of all of those wonderful things working for noisette. I was the head of the urban Alliance, where I manage 15, fortune 500 manufacturers who all provided sustainable building products. So I got to engage with some really amazing minds in marketing and design and advertising, being able to go to events with the Whirlpool Corporation. My mentor who is no longer with us, Dave Herbert just kind of took me under his wings. He worked for Whirlpool for over 20 years and just help groom me. And one of the things that I became was the walking ask Karen. So a lot, they call me the human GPS. A lot of the builders, designers, everybody will come through and they'd be like, Listen, I need to stay here. Karen, can you connect me? Or they will call me can you plan this trip for me, Karen. And so what what ended up happening was I became the go to person for everybody. It didn't matter and then they would start referring me out to people. After a while Dave used to joke and he would say if you could figure out how to make money, connecting people you would be a wealthy woman, Karen And I, we joke about it and laugh. And so after that, it just kept it became natural for me. So I started doing promotion, I'm a singer. And I started stepping out and developing concerts doing a little bit more promotional stuff. And again, I go into different cities, I connect with bands, I connect with background vocalists. I bring artists into certain hotels, their managers would call me and they'd be like, hey, do you remember the hotel we stayed in? Send me that information. Wait a minute. I need a bass player. Hey, Karen, do you know a really good bass player? Or I need a BGP? Can you can you connect me, so it was starting to happen again. So I went from noisette doing that to Kharis's consulting services and people still calling and asking me to connect them. So during the when Walter Scott was killed, everybody started really focusing on the importance of the black dollar. And I began to see the value and the lack of value as a black-owned business. So I purchased the domain, our black dollar matters, because I was going to create a directory and it was going to go online, and people were going to be able to find black on businesses, and this is how I was going to do my part. But of course, that didn't happen. I got distracted, my business started growing and I put that down. I'm still on domain. Yeah.
Um, and then the pandemic hit. Yeah. And right before the pandemic, I literally had somebody call me and say, Hey, Karen, can you connect? I was like, oh, my goodness, this is just so stressful. And then I said to myself, does it really have to be though, and I was, there was a moment where I was just sitting in the room, and I'm gonna get you and everybody else that's listening, and I want you to close your eyes. Okay? What do you see? It's dark. That's how black-owned businesses feel in the marketplace, because we cannot be seen. So when we we are literally trying to figure out most of us, the best way to be visible. There's nothing out there to help give us the visibility that we need. People say that they're there to help us be visible, but the reality is, our eyes are still closed. There's nothing out there. As a black-owned business owner. This is how I feel, or getting up and walking out every day to do business. I feel like I'm walking in the dark. I decided to create Kharis Connect as an eye opening moment for everybody powerful. That's That's why I created Kharis Connect. Because this was our time to be seen. It was our time to be found. And that's why I wanted to have something. The key to who we are when I say Kharis Connect is a mobile directory that allows consumers to discover, support and share the unique goods and services that black-owned businesses have to offer. That's the space that it comes from. It comes from invisibility I'm a big superhero person. I've lived and breathed Marvel. I love the ability for Dr. Strange to put his cloak on and be invisible because invisibility is our superpower. You may not know that we're there but when we uncloak and you see us Guess what? We're powerful almost kind of be like a little Star Star Trek ish like the cling on you know I'm sorry I go that's what happens when you have brothers comic books and watch that fight.
Chris Clark 18:55
Did though so I you mentioned dr. strange usership is that your superhero? Or who would your superhero be?
Karen Thrower 19:02
Captain America?
Chris Clark 19:02
Yeah, I hear Yeah, yeah. Okay, my
Karen Thrower 19:04
cap girl.
Chris Clark 19:05
Okay. All right. So this this is incredible. And what you just said was, was super powerful and especially with with our country over the last few years now, this this app, you You started it in the midst of a pandemic, on top of everything else that is going on in our country? What was what was the immediate reaction to the app? And and what were some of the, I guess maybe hiccups to getting it started to to where, you know, it is now a hiccup
Karen Thrower 19:33
the App Store getting myself set up to be in the app store that was such a struggle Why
Chris Clark 19:40
don't you that's actually a good point. So in you know, listeners out there that are, you know, have a company or looking to start an app and listen to anybody that is listening. If you deal with Apple or anything Google or anything like that there's such a mega corporation that they don't care about us, unfortunately, and it takes forever. So tell us a little bit about your pain.
Karen Thrower 19:57
I'm just being new I'm not as big of a tech head, I'm more of a marketing girl. I'm a storyteller. So not having somebody there to actually walk me along the process was really difficult. It caused me to just say, you know, I'm going back to my old school ways of, of high school where I've just read everything. And I had to just overly consume as much as I possibly could read blogs, send emails, send emails, send emails, and whenever I found somebody that was willing to listen and help me, oh, man, I kept them on the phone until they got me where I needed to go. And it took me what, almost 10 weeks just to get myself like that up. And at one point, we were going back and forth. Do you need a DUNS number? I mean, they were just going through all of this stuff for me. And I'm just like, I don't, I'm not in commerce yet. So they wanted me to list myself list my app under Karen Thrower, and I was like, No, I'm not doing that. I'm listing this, okay, we're gonna do this as under my parent company, because I can't take this anymore. So it was it was Oh, it was just a learning process, all of the requirements they had when they realized that I wasn't this big corporation, and then they were taking such a huge amount of, I think, what is it 30%. But they've now changed it to 15% literally
Chris Clark 21:26
changed like their model. And that's the thing with Facebook, and unfortunately, even Facebook, Apple anything with these, these sores, and if you are an emerging company, or you're looking to get an app, it is true, they they, they're so mega now that it is robots that are talking to you. And to Karen's point, you will be dragging along and it's 15 minutes here, 20 minutes there, no response. Like I've I've even reached out internally for Digital Ignite for some of our AdWords. And we as an agency spend a lot of money with Google in general, because a lot of our clients are on it. It takes a week to even hear back from them. But I guess to the point of some of these, these hiccups, that is where and I'm glad that we're we're connected now with Digital Ignite and Kharis Connect. Because if you are a new and emerging brand, and I'm not just promoting Digital Ignite, but you need to find yourself, somebody that has familiarity with the apple, the app stores, the androids, the Facebook's, because this will take off that burden from you, because it is such a pain, we're able to kind of speak that lingo, or at least have some experts that can kind of go in there. And yes, that worked for you.
Karen Thrower 22:27
And it is an amazing thing. So I don't know where our time is. But I have to tell the digital good, the Digital Ignite story, and then we'll come back to whatever. But I'm in the process of creating Kharis Connect, I had a vision board. So my bedroom looks like a crazy person. Because I literally saw those big three m sticky sheets of paper that you have for presentation beautiful mind, that is what's all over my bedroom, and it's still up there. Because in the middle of the night, whenever I had a thought I would get up and I would write it and so my business plan still sits on my walls because every day, I get up looking at it because it is a constant reminder to me of where I'm going and what my purpose is. And I was listening to a friend of mine, Eric Thomas, and he had at the hip hop preacher, big ups to him, he has a saying i can i will i must love it. And I literally have that written up on my wall following it. And I wrote September 21 2020 i can i will i must launch this app, and nothing was gonna stop me and keep me away from my purpose. along the way. I created a vision wall and I had Digital Ignite when I put marketing companies had Digital Ignite, I cut out your little logo, I stuck it up on my vision board. I had because I had done my research on you guys and I saw what you're doing and I was like, I think this is a place. This is a company I would love to work with that I had you guys I had Kirkman broadcasting station I had radio stations a shout out Ladonna and yeah, Ladonna my my girl. And I had all of this stuff like posted up of people I really wanted to work with that could help me move in the right direction with Kharis Connect. And one day Ladonna and I were sitting down, and I was just showing her my vision board and showing her my walls. She was like, okay, and I was like that's okay, that's it. Oh, all right, my vision board let me catch barrels, I'm gonna walk away like, my vision board was not that great to her. And she didn't she wasn't feeling it. So then she calls me like a week later and she's like, Hey, we have an appointment. I need you to come with me. And I was like, all right, where are we going? She was like, just just here's the address. Just show up. And I'm like, Okay, I get here. Mike is waving at me. And I'm like, LaDonna literally has told me this. Yeah. And I'm just like, all right, and then she messaged me, I'm gonna be late. I was like, Okay, so I'm really coming in blind, all the way blind. And when I walked in here, and the screens weren't on, oh, no. So I'm just like, man.
What is going on here? And then when I walked into the conference room, and I saw the Digital Ignite sign, oh, listen, the way I had to catch myself, I asked to go to the bathroom. And I literally had to compose myself because I wanted to cry. Simply because people talk about manifesting. And if you're a Christian, you talk about walking in your purpose, the things that God divinely ordained for you to do in your life. I literally was walking into a moment that God ordained for me, it wasn't the LaDonna wasn't doing the, like, it was a bad thing. She knew my vision, and she knew that she could connect me to the people to make that happen. She saw my the desire of my heart, I never spoke it. I just said, I just thought to myself, I don't know how I'm gonna get to them. But one day I am and here they are on my board. And she helped me get here. And so it was, for me, that was a moment that really solidified to me that I needed to continue to move forward and forge my way and not be discouraged. Is that same i can i will i must, nothing was going to keep me No no, that was placed in front of me was going to be enough to stop me from fulfilling what I knew I needed to do. And that was to open the eyes of everyone around me as it related to black-owned businesses. If you had a bad experience with one guess what, we have bad experiences with all kinds of businesses, you go to chick fil a, and get your order wrong, you still get another one might say my pleasure to know you walk into moles, and they no longer say welcome. You know, and it's just like that, you know, everybody has an experience. And so it's up to us to work towards changing that. Raising the Bar on how we engage. But the reality is that we we can no longer just say I'm only going to do business with somebody because they're white, they're black, they're Hispanic, whatever, we're in a marketplace now where we should have choices. Yeah, we should be able to diversify because you never know what you're going to get until you actually step out and do it
Chris Clark 27:48
that you have a need your podcast, we'll talk about that afterwards. But you know what you've just said you know, and from I think anybody that's listening that that having sticky notes on your wall or there's there's a book I've read, I think it was by Tim Ferriss and he mentioned there's you know, putting a sticky note on your mirror and walking in and being able to just read your goals or see your goals every day and then manifesting those dreams to come true. You know, that's a very powerful skill and it's I mean, it's it sounds cliche, but that stuff works you know, being able to repeat that in your mind or if you're if you're feeling like the world's collapsing around, you're you might not be able to get that that goal achieved to be able to go back to that mantra is so powerful. So I think if anybody can, you know, take take anything from from that, you know, that's a very powerful, powerful skill. So with Kharis Connect, and this is incredible, um, what have been in the short period of time with with the app, what have been some of the big milestones with the app and where do you see you know, we're almost through the year. What what's what's the future looking like?
Karen Thrower 28:56
Oh, so let's talk about milestone. I started with two businesses. I've started with Geechee Grooming Barbershop. That's my brother Artie my bestie who always supports me rods and rocks with me. And then Maurice Ray at Park Circle Creamery. You guys
Chris Clark 29:13
are amazing, guys. Okay, so Alright, we'll start there. So Park Circle, Park Circle Creamery. We'll give them a shout out. Karen brought us ice cream two weeks ago, and it's amazing actually a pint of the oh my gosh, what was the pecan? Yeah, oh my gosh, I ate all of that. Literally a week ago. Now I'm your brother's shopper shop.
Karen Thrower 29:33
GeeChee Grooming
Chris Clark 29:34
Now where is this located thing?
Karen Thrower 29:36
goose Creek.
Chris Clark 29:36
Alright, in goose Creek. It's a GeeChee boy grooming where check that out. Alright, so started with to
Karen Thrower 29:40
start it with two. And in January. I mean, oh, man, I was going and knocking on doors. I say God, how am I gonna get these businesses on here? And who's gonna pay attention to me with two businesses in here? So I had a conversation with this wonderful gentleman Eric. Do Bergen, Eric said to me, he said, you have to decide what your critical mass looks like Karen. And I was like, hmm, that was a deep comment to me. I was just like, oh, what does my critical mass look like? He just dropped that on me. So I took our conversation that we had and I really focused and honed in on it so by March we had 50 businesses
Chris Clark 30:27
Holy moly, talk about critical mass this is this is just you right? This is just me. Oh my god, this is
Karen Thrower 30:34
me going and knocking on doors hearing people tell me no showing it up at folks business. Hi, I'm Karen Thrower. And they are looking at me like what the
Chris Clark 30:43
ultimate grassroots you know, play with this and knocking on doors. That's amazing. You have an
Karen Thrower 30:47
app. Oh, get out of here. And that's what I would always hear is where, and I'm like the Google Play Store. And then they open it. And they'd be like, Oh, so you do have an aha, Yes, I do. Oh, well, what's the catch? And then I tell them, and they'd be like, Oh, are you serious? And I was like, yeah, I'm serious. And I just had people that you know, every day I prayed, again, the sticky note on my wall. I set my goals there of how many people I want to go to and I literally get in the car. I start my day, I pick a street that I'm going down and I mean, Ashley phosphate I hit it rivers Avenue, I hit it Dorchester road, I hit it. And I'm just going and going and going or I'm on Instagram and I'm finding businesses and I'm dming them and I'm just all in there and I'm just like, okay, so March we hit a milestone. That 50 I was like, Yes, we're shifting. Now. My goal was 100 for the year okay. As of today, we have 150 for business Kharis Connect Oh my
Chris Clark 31:50
goodness. Now is that all within the Charleston DMA? Are we expanded we're all
Karen Thrower 31:57
in charge. Okay all Charlie Moly Yes, this is all Charles that's incredible parents so I and the people the business owners who are in Kharis Connect, have just really they are so amazing. They inspire me. And I love it so when the when Digital Ignite came in. We weren't at 100 yet. I think we were probably floating at that 75 mark in May. And we kicked off our campaign June 16. So you can see what's happened since digital the connection that Ladonna made with us so we've doubled what we had from the time that I met you guys let's go we're only scratching the surface. Yeah, we're just we're just scratching the surface. So let's talk about future. My baby brother David, big ups to DJ Chuck T the carry the Carolina King everybody. Yes. You know, sissy. I love it. Um, David is a huge mixtape DJ, okay. And Charlotte. He works with independent artists. He is everywhere. Right? David has a partnership with the Charlotte Hornets. Okay. He does music industry night with the NBA so he has a music industry conference that takes off that takes place on October the 31st and March the third of 2022 we are launching Kharis connect and Charlotte's go. What better way to do it, than to partner with my brother who has a very established brand in Charlotte. He has huge credibility. He works with recording artists. Any business owner that's looking to understand themselves in the market, he helps you with trademarking getting your LLC, just getting your setup everything partnering with David for something like this is a is an amazing opportunity.
Chris Clark 33:58
Charlotte I mean, just think of the up I mean, Charleston is amazing too, but think of the opportunity the entertainment values. The business is Charlotte has been just booming. Yes. That's incredible. Congratulations. So
Karen Thrower 34:09
that's what's next that October 31. Right We are we are in Charlotte. We're there for the music industry conference with Def Jam, Interscope Records, Empire records, they'll all be their producers, folks coming in management to just for any genre of music. If you are a musician, that's a place for you to be you purchase a ticket, you get the opportunity to perform for the pre show. That day That evening, and I think the team is the Portland Trailblazers that are playing that night and
Chris Clark 34:44
Lord let's go he's a rapper. Yeah, we need to tell him to come over Yeah. It'll be in the mail to tag you. Hey, Danny, let's go That's incredible. Yeah,
Karen Thrower 34:53
so that's that's that the Charlotte launch. Okay. And then we are launching we have launched the Ubora awards to Digital Ignite for the beautiful boss logo that you guys created for. So ubora means excellence in Swahili, okay. And on January 22, at the Trident technical conference center, Technical College conference center, we will celebrate the excellence in the black-owned business community love it. I believe that this is the first of its kind where the consumers actually get to go and nominate businesses, we are in our first round, we have 11 categories. And from now until October 22, people can go on, they can nominate a business, you have to be 51% of black-owned, you have to at least operate in Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester County, operate and live for the owner, you also have to at least be open for a year. Gotcha. And those 11 categories, those nominations are open now people are, they're constantly I'm getting notified and they go find it. They can go on kharisconnect.com, awesome backslash ubora, you can hit that ubora tab, it'll take you right there, the nomination process is really simple. We're really excited about that round two will come, we'll take the top five, not out of the top five nominees for each category, then voting will begin in round two. And then the final round, we will take the top three out of each category. And that will be the final group. So big announcements soon. I can't tell you yet. But I can tell you that we're going to have an amazing keynote speaker for that evening. Okay, that will be a game changer. And I'm trying not to look at my phone because I'm waiting on the contract to come through. But I'm super excited.
Chris Clark 36:53
Oh, this is incredible. Well, what we'll have to do is definitely we'll have you back on for at least our podcasts and I'm going to talk to you about a couple things. We got some ideas out the wazoo for you, and I'm sure with with Digital Ignite, you know, again, with the Charlotte growth and the awards, there's some amazing stuff that that Julian and the team's gonna be, you know, constructing for you. Okay, well, we are almost done with everything. Before we wrap up. I always like to kind of go into any shoutouts that you want to give. And we've we've given some amazing shout outs but give us some
Karen Thrower 37:27
Yeah, um, big ups to my parents. Awesome. Artis and Joyce Thrower, the way I love my mama and my daddy. And my auntie Iris and Auntie saundra Sandra, my uncle Leon my auntie Gail, am I missing somebody fonder? And I think I got all of my it. All right. And let's see. Oh, man, I've got an amazing team that I'm grooming and big ups to them. Big ups to Prince Louis Carleton. Dr. Carlton Bird. They are my adopted big brothers who look after me. My best friend Michael polite. Thank you, Tim. Because this journey you have to have support and doing something like this hearing knows all the time. Because every every moment isn't a yes. And I prepare my day for the no Yeah, I don't prepare my day for the Yes. And everybody's like what I said I prepare my day for the no I prepare to have to meet an obstacle in some way shape or form. When I prepare in my mind what that obstacle is going to be and I know it's going to be no, that allows me to figure out how am I going to deal with that? How am I going to receive that? No. What do I turn that no into? I can turn that no into a yes. But I have to be prepared for it. Because if you believe that every single day is about a yes. then guess what you are you're setting yourself up for failure, complete failure. My goal is not to fail. My goal is to be better. I have to strive to be better. So that no makes me better. And I have to ask myself every day How am I going to be better and that's what I prepped myself for. So I I'm very thankful for the people that helped me prepare for the nose. And those are you know, Michael is very instrumental in that. Buddy Carlton bird is interest instrumental in that princes. They're out there my you should have cheerleaders now. I know what to call it but that's my that's my tribe. Those are my guys. named my sister's Tiffany and Val. Love them and shell and Kesha they like really keep me going but I tell you who really keeps me going my nieces and nephew There we go. And they they make my life such a better, better, fuller place. I look forward to them they remind me every day that I am special
Chris Clark 40:05
I love it this is amazing and every every single person that we've mentioned in every Kharis Connect client Y'all better share this bit seriously we're growing at the Digital Madvertising podcast I'm going to make sure that we have Karen on but um, you know, again, Karen, thank you so much. This has been I've goosebumps and it really you are a phenomenal person and what you're doing in the community and expanding countrywide, like that's Digital Ignite is here to help you grow. That's exactly what you know, I'm excited about from, you know, the ground up. You know, your success is our success. We're here to help you out. But thank you so much for your time. And this will definitely not be that the last time you're on
Karen Thrower 40:45
I'm quite sure won't be the last time I'm looking forward to us doing this again. And so I probably want to let me close out doing this. Okay. Okay, this is my story. This is my song, praising my say if you're all the day long, this is my story. This is my song, praising my savior all the day long. I sing that song every day. Because this is my story. I am living my story and sharing it.
Chris Clark 41:33
I can't even I love it. Thank you so much, Karen. You're welcome, Chris. Wow, what an amazing treat. That was I hope all of you enjoyed my conversation with Karen Thrower truly amazing individual and amazing what she's accomplishing with her app Kharis Connect. Again, it is k h a r i s Connect k h a r i s Connect, you can go find that in the Google and Apple stores. So please go download the app now. Go give her some love. She's growing. So please spread the word and Charlotte and TBD for some other opportunities that are out there. We will keep you all up to date on that at Digital Ignite as well. Thank you all for listening. Please go subscribe. Please share the podcast with your friends, your family, anywhere on social media, let them know you can download this anywhere you get your podcasts. And as always, please leave us any feedback. We want to get better. If you have guest suggestions within whether it's the Charleston community or beyond in, you know, the United States. We cover everywhere. Um, my name is Chris Clark, and this is the Digital Madvertising podcast and until next time, thanks.
Outro 42:46
Thanks for listening to Digital Madvertising. As always, please feel free to leave us some feedback and be sure to click and subscribe for future episodes. See you next time.