The Secret to Winning Millions in Business Grants (What Entrepreneurs Don’t Know) with Stormi Banks

26:14And that's when I'm getting my clients together to say, OK, we're going to focus on this messaging right now because, you know, Trump administration just changed DEI. So now we're shifting. And then I'm trying to also figure out the right perfect budgets and messaging that actually aligns with grant tours consistently. And so when you're creating that formula in your business through that one grant proposal that you create, it starts to become a really easy process to consistently apply and apply with like pretty good accuracy. Is there a time of year that works? I know you spoke about taxes. And so a lot of corporate people in corporate at the end of the year, they're looking for tax incentives.

26:56And so they try to donate or they create grants. Or is it like April or March 15th where it's like, this is the deadline for us to file? Is there a specific time of year or every month is equal? Fourth quarter for corporate grants. First and second quarter for federal state grants. Because new fiscal year budgets is coming out and now they're spending money. So third quarter is still good, but it's a little bit lighter than any other, you know, quarter. Gotcha. So yes, there are times. So you write grants to people, right? Do you recommend like what do you think about people that use that are using artificial intelligence to write the grant?

27:34Yeah, that's a great question. So I think AI is an amazing tool. Like we use it mostly for like deep research purposes because what they're doing right now, as I've seen, like the National Science Foundation, they actually just banned using AI for federal and state level programming. So what they're doing is creating tools. There's a tool like Zero GPT that they're using to say, OK, if you're using AI and it's 80 % of your proposal, we're kicking it out at this point. Because, again, people are coming up with numbers and programming projects that they haven't read through. They don't understand.

28:08And they're like, how are we going to be able to determine that this money is going to be used properly if you're just coming up with anything? Right. So that's one thing they're doing right now. I think that it could be a good tool for grammar, prompting ideas, helping you with messaging, helping you connect and align with funders. But I still think that human writing aspect does change the game in terms of being able to connect with the funder and what they're trying to do. If I use AI to write it, does it come off as fraudulent? Is that a red flag that can follow me throughout that process?

28:38Right. Like if I'm applying for one corporate grant, they might put me in a database like, hey, this guy use AI to help writers. No, it's not going to work like that. Yeah. All the departments are separate. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What's a hack that people might not know that can help their chances of getting a grant? Building relationships. Building relationships is a super duper hack. And I'm talking about literally, you know, you can get involved with your Chamber of Commerce, but also like your your local communities, your local state projects that are funding opportunities, building those relationships with the people who are the treasurers.

29:15the people who are creating the programming, the program developers. And this is like going on Eventbrite and finding community events and then looking on LinkedIn and finding, hey, they so-and-so has a grant that's out right now. How can I connect to the project manager? How can I connect to the treasurer? How can I connect to, you know, the people who are overseeing this grant opportunity, get on a call, build relationships? Because this is what people don't understand. Just because I have a grant that's front facing right now, doesn't mean I don't have other money in the reserves, right? They have full budgets.

29:48They might have a million dollars that they're giving out for the whole year, but right now they're just offering this$100 ,000 grant. So now if you start building those relationships, they're like, oh, we saw that you had that program for the kids. We got some opportunities on the back end for that. Stick around or, hey, I'll save your application. That's really how it works because what they're trying to find too is you have to remember, especially state local programs, they're giving that money from the federal government. So they have to do a certain, you know, they have to also do right with the money.

30:16They have to give it to people and showcase what they've done over the course of the year in order to get funded the next time. So they're looking for reliable relationships that can also help them get funded next year, too. Yeah. One of the things to alleviate that, especially this time of year, is on an individual basis is student loans. Right. And getting grants obviously helps with that. A lot of kids have just gone back to college. Some kids are starting their senior years in high school. What is the advice for them in the process of trying to get grants? Right. Imagine a high school kid trying to figure out how to get money so they don't go into that.

30:52What should they know going into this college applying process? So I focus on grants for businesses and nonprofits on the college side of grants. You know, I'm not in tune with what the college side of grants are even doing at this point in time. My expertise is on the business side. Got you. Got you. So what's a success story that just comes out to you that one of your clients had as far as, you know, working with you and getting funding for a grant? I mean, I have a lot that come up to mind. I think one that was probably sticks out the most over the years is this lady from Houston. She has a child care facility.

31:30She had one facility and it was 24 hours. And she just was like super passionate when she was talking to me over the call about her messaging. And we ended up getting her a$300 ,000 grant that Houston was giving out through the state because they wanted more child care facilities. She has seven locations now and she's killing it. And she's debt free. and she owns 100 percent and it's all because she was able to get into that program um through houston and so it's just the legacy that it creates the the freedom that it creates for her and just the possibility that it creates in people's mind and it's the validation that happens that says like my business is worth it my business is worthy my idea was good enough for somebody to see it and not you know want to actually invest and not have to take a part of what i'm doing to say yes.

32:16The location obviously is important in terms of grants. Oh, I'm assuming it's important. You talked about Houston. I know you're doing stuff in the Atlanta region. The municipality obviously plays a role in the grants because how much money the state can. Talk about the location process when you're doing grants. 100%. So of course, because they're state local grants, where you're registered, where your business is registered matters. This is why like on a higher level when you're really going for grants consistently, you know, you want to create those foreign entities in other states to be able to access that grant funding opportunity.

32:52Of course, you've got to know like all the implications that come with that, but that becomes a higher level strategy that you can utilize. But major cities are going to have the most grants, right? Major cities are getting the most funding. New York, Georgia, Illinois, like Chicago areas, all those states are getting the most funding because they have the most population. So they have the most taxpayer dollars so it just makes sense but you know any state any no matter where you're located you can get grant opportunities because remember there's still like corporate grants too so even if your state isn't heavy on giving grants for businesses you still got corporate grants and corporate grants is typically u.s and canada based is there i mean obviously new york makes sense in my mind florida makes sense texas california but then you said should people actually like when i'm listening to you talk now, I'm thinking like, let me figure out where some of these corporate headquarters are, because this might be an opportunity for me as well.

33:45Should people do deep dives and be really intentional about that type of research? Where they're building their relationships at? 100%. 100%. Like I said before, if you know who's over the funding and who's over the budgets, it becomes a point where you don't even have to apply for a grant. One of my grants, Ash Jubert, she just got connected. She got connected this year with with Invest Atlanta. Right. And I don't know if you guys know that that project, but she got it. She got it in tune with them and she was able to win a ten thousand dollar a month grant for the next 12, 12 months. Right. So now she has a guaranteed hundred and twenty thousand coming into her business to be able to help her do all the things that she has to do consistently.

34:30And that was based on relationship that wasn't based on applying to the grant. so and and like you said earlier um you know we talk about funding a lot of times it's like venture capital people go after venture capital or they go after angel investors or they try to get a loan from the bank um why do you think that grant funding is not as popular as those other forms of funding because you have to wait everybody wants the the instant go on the line okay you put your information in and it pops up you're pre-approved right or 24 hours you've been approved for x amount of dollars grants is not like that right grants is going to be a longer process from start to finish you might be looking at 30 to 60 days until funds in the bank account so when you're looking at a lot of times business owners hardly have a plan for how they're going to start their business a business plan months before i tell people my clients you need to be whatever programming you're looking to do, you need to be going for grants the quarter before.

35:30Like we're not doing this a month before and then we're trying to get the funds and now we're rushing through the processes. We're trying to plan a whole three months in advance, six months in advance. So I think the reason why people go for loans is because it's quicker. A lot of times people are in those tight situations because they're failing to plan, you know, where their business is going the next year, next two years. So should the business be operating for a few months before we try to apply for a grant? Like we shouldn't come out the gate applying for the grant. You can apply immediately for grants.

35:58Okay. Immediately. Cause in terms of the numbers, I would be, I would think that I need to show some proof that the business is up and running. We're making money. Here's where our projections are. But you're saying like, I can have those things as estimates as future guidance of where I'm headed. The thing is to grant isn't based on revenue. So you can also show traction in other ways. Do you have a wait list? Do you have people who are interested in what you're doing? Did you do a beta test to see, you know this works right i could show traction in multiple other ways more than just revenue so it's important to know like even if you're like okay i'm ready to start this business can you three months ahead of time can we open up a email list where we can get 300 subscribers to show that people want what you have to offer and now when we're going for the grant we're using that as the traction instead of having revenue what businesses are most likely to get grant funding In terms of industry?

36:49Yeah. You know, I think it's trendy. It depends on the trends. It depends on the season. Right now, I've been seeing anybody who's focused on bettering their operational support through tech initiatives have been winning pretty consistently. But any business can do that. So and I say it like that to say a lot of times people will set themselves out because they're like, oh, this is a grant for, you know, podcasting. I don't own a podcast. And it's like, well, do you have a message that can be delivered through podcasting that would help generate revenue for your business? Create the messaging for it.

37:28Right. Create the alignment for it. Don't just go for grants because it's industry based. Go for grants because your business could utilize whatever that grant is giving as a tool to grow. Have you seen increase obviously we've been doing this and you've seen some administration changes right from the president from the federal side obviously from the local side and the state side as well. Have you seen a swing as we saw some programs could close more people coming into the space or has it has it swayed in a different direction. Yeah, you know, with with Trump's administration being in office, he canceled a lot of grant programs, you know, based on whatever reasons.

38:05And then he also killed a lot of the budgets because he was like, we were spending a lot of money on things that he felt were a waste or whatever he felt like it was. Yeah. He was like, you know what? No, we ain't doing that no more. So there has been shifts, but there's still a lot of funding out there. A lot of people were reading the headlines. They're like, there's going to be no more grants. there's millions of dollars of grants still on the table, 100%. So as far as you, right, your company helps people streamline the process. Like, do you actually file the grant for them? We do the whole end-to-end process from finding to writing to applying.

38:42So basically, we want to take this off your hand because we want you to be able to do this consistently. And if you're not doing grants consistently, it's going to be hard to really win. And then the compensation, do you get compensated regardless? Do you get a piece of the grant if they get it? How does that work? Yeah. So as a certified grant writer, it's unethical to do any like percentages. Typically what people do when they do percentages, they write themselves into the grant as like an employee or something like that. That's seen as unethical. So we take just a flat upfront fee for the process that it takes us to write and research and apply and find.

39:16But we have a pretty high percentage rate. So we're pretty confident in what we can do. Of course, we can't guarantee that we're going to win you every single grant, but we have happy clients. I mean, I'm just imagining how important the storytelling part of the business is. Right. If I'm listening or I'm reading a bunch of applicants as a funder, I want to make sure that I have the most compelling, the most endearing story. How much of that do you guys implement inside of the people that you're working with? And again, how important is that to people who are trying to get into this? I would say that's probably 60 percent of it is the connection, the story connection, because especially right now with AI being so popular and a lot of people being able to generate, you know, proposals pretty quickly.

40:03What's being lost is the authenticity. What's being lost is the story of the founder and the connection. So a lot of funders are wanting to really connect deeply to what's your story. Why did you start this coffee company? How are you using this to propel your your community? How are you connected to this in a deeper way? Like how sustainable will this be long term? Because if you're giving somebody money, the goal is that you see them three years from now and they've grown and you can be a part of their whole journey. Right. And that's how you get that consistent yearly annual funding from funders is being able to showcase sustainability.

40:35So I think that the storytelling part of it is is really the big piece is really the connection. And now, like I was telling before, they're coming up with, you know, different AI bots and tools to be able to kick different applications out off the rip. They're like, OK, didn't follow the rules, didn't apply on time, don't have this uploaded, use the AI, out of here. OK, now we're down to 10 percent of the applications. So what makes it quicker for them? So the best way to do is do it right. If I win a grant, right, let's say that the grant is for 10, 20 ,000 for the year, 12 months is up. am I eligible to apply for that grant again?

41:11Like how often can I apply for the same grant, even if I win? Yeah, you can. So, but, so that would be basically what's called either a rolling, a rolling grant, which means there's really no deadline. And typically with rolling grants, you can reapply. Now they may not choose you every single month for it, but you can reapply to a rolling grant opportunity. Or if there's a grant, they'll let you know, right? The grant, it'll shift depending on, on who it is and who it's coming from. But yes, you can reapply to a grant opportunity for sure. Is there a thing that you can have but so many grants at one time?

41:41Like, can you have 10 grants running simultaneously? Yep, you can. But this is what I also tell people is don't get grant happy, right? Because grants are debt free, but they're not tax free. So grants goes on your taxes as additional income. And so you have to be able to uphold the standard of how to utilize the actual grant. So if you're like, okay, cool, Stormy said one grant a day, we balling. Now, are you reporting back? Are you, you know, handling the funds how you said you would on the application? It takes a really organized, you know, operation to be able to handle that many grants at a time.

42:14Is there any oversight to see, OK, you asked for a grant because you said you needed a truck. You have to like do they check to see if you actually purchased the truck? Depends on the funding source. Of course, you should always do what you said you're going to do on a grant opportunity. But federal, state, local grants. Yeah, they're going to be checking. now you know let's just say that you you budgeted 30 ,000 in a truck into being 25 you can you know talk to them let them know hey we have this overage of 5 ,000 we're going to reallocate it to these areas is that money taxed at the is it taxed as additional income right if i made 100 ,000 i got a grant for 100 ,000 i've made 200 correct okay good to know yeah so that's interesting because i wouldn't even think about the tax implication definitely have a cpa oh yeah involved in this But see, this is when you're doing it on a high level, this is when the real strategy really comes into play, right?

43:04Because A, now you have a$200 ,000 business, right, on a for-profit side. So one thing that I always tell my clients is like every for-profit should have a nonprofit foundation, right? Because now we can be able to take 30 % of what our for-profit is making and put it over into our for-profit side. And now we're creating that tax-free money that we got from that grant funding. So it's really important to just I'm not I'm not a CPA, but it's really important to understand the implications of grants. And it's important to be able to have strategy when you're going for grants, because you can get in trouble.

43:42And I've seen a client, you know, get tax dollars taken back because they didn't do what they were supposed to do with the funding. They didn't report on time. They told them that they were going to do, you know, help 500 people. And at the deadline mark, they helped 50. Right. So there are definitely times where they can be like, oh, taking that back are you in a database of like grants so it's like okay this person already has three open grants so they might not need the money like if somebody else is going to give you a grant they see how many grants you already have or were given in the past and that might make the decision like okay they might not be in dire need because they already have a grant yeah the departments are pretty separated but what they will do is they'll make you um you know tell them yeah they'll make you say like what funding sources have you gotten all year but sometimes that can also be a help right especially on the non-profit side of grant opportunities non-profits give their money to um people that can showcase they have other ways of funding like they don't want to be the only funder on the non-profit side they're like do you have anybody else willing to help do you have anything else going on so they'll make you tell them on the application in terms of you from a personal standpoint ping print is the brand yeah congratulations thank you um i guess we should get the origin story of the name and all that but when you're building this team do they all have to go through the certification process talk to us about how print print was formed and where it stands internally yeah so absolutely we all go through the same certification process for sure but then we also have our internal you know methodology that we utilize in our own internal formula so then of course they're trained on what we do that makes us different in our information more proprietary.

45:18So it's a couple of weeks of training. Typically, they can get it done in like three, four weeks. How many people on the team? 17 right now. 17. 17. Those are all reps that work with people individually? So there's different departments. So you have your grant writing department, you have your grant application specialist department, and then we have just our like operations and stuff. So how have you been able to market your company? Market it through our Get Grant Ready summits. So our summits are really where a lot of people find us, because at the basis of being a grant writer, I think we're it started off as education first.

45:54Right. And that's kind of where we keep it for the most part. it's like, hey, even if you don't hire us, we want you to know that this is possible. We want you to know that you're eligible and how it works. And we want you to go and do it and be excellent, regardless whether it's us or not. So when we educate people, we do like three-day, five-day virtual summits to educate people on literally the full process of like the mindset you need, where to find grants, how to write the proposal, how to apply to it, and then also how to scale with the tax code, because that's a really important part of it too.

46:22Yeah. How liberating is this process for you? I know a lot of times we run into people and they're like, you changed my life, you changed my life. I wonder as you're going through this journey yourself, how has that been when people understand this is something that can really elevate their business, number one, but also from a personal standpoint, help them in their journey when it comes to financial education and debt? At first, it was really scary because like when it comes to money, it's like people really look at you like they lifeline. And at first I was like, hold on now, hold on now. And, you know, As time has gone on.

46:54Hold on, say that again. Hold on now. You're still from Brooklyn. But that was Georgia. Come on. Hold on now. You're still from Brooklyn.

47:02As I've built my confidence and really seen that a proof of concept more and more over the years, of course, I've just gotten more comfortable with understanding we can change people's lives. We really do have access, information, and skill set to do that. 13 of you guys' vendors were there because they won Pink Print Grants working with us. and I was going around. I was like, oh my God. It was like, yeah, the grant that we won to 15 ,000 we got. We paid for our booth. We here. We rebranded. I got it. Like selling out. You know what I'm saying? So it's like seeing it in real life, like real business owners staying debt-free, building their business, expanding, getting these different opportunities because of grant funding, whether they came to a class or whether they work with us for their grant writing.

47:43It's just, it is. It's surreal. It really is. It's humbling. That's crazy. We got to get that number up. We do. So 13 people at InvestFest Vendors, worked with your company. You knew that because you just ran into them or they had reached out to you beforehand? Yeah, when I had said I was coming, they were like DMing me like, stop by my booth, stop by my booth. And then I know my clients too. You know, if I'm walking around, I'll be like, oh, what's going on? How are you? How's the gram been going? Nice. So what is the mindset? You mentioned mindset. What is the mindset that somebody needs to have?

48:13It's the shift. It's the shift in the process, right? Because like we talked about before, loans is quick. Credit is quick. I'll say it like this. A lot of people, they'll upload, you know, 50 resumes to different employers in order to be able to get a job that's going to pay them a set amount of hourly wage. But when you tell them that there's grants out there, they're not willing to do the same process. Create a proposal, a resume, find grantors, employers, and submit that grant application or that grant proposal in order to get amount of money that can actually build their legacy. The mindset shift that has to change is genuinely the feeling like you're worthy what you're worth is because if you're willing to sit down and apply for fifteen dollars an hour thirty dollars an hour fifty dollars an hour Why aren't you willing to sit down and apply for fifty thousand that could actually keep you debt free and build your business and create your legacy that you saw fit in your own vision So that's really the shift that needs to happen is the worth We talked about shift we talked about scale of businesses prior to starting this I wonder when you look at it, the businesses that are applying for grants, how many are in the tech space?

49:26We talk about growth and we can see where the economy is headed. We see what the market looks like in terms of what is actually moving the market. We know what it is, obviously what we do from an investment standpoint, but we need creators. We need people that are innovating. How many people or how much do you stress that we're looking for businesses in the technology sector? from a as us as a company right we don't really stress what industries that we you know try to work for um in particular we more so you know help who's in need but i will say that like for instance web3 they just won a five million dollar grant um you know a blockchain grant and i keep telling people that if you're not utilizing artificial intelligence to increase your operations or, you know, creating employees or to decrease the amount of overhead that you have in your company, you're definitely going to be behind.

50:19And there's a lot of grants that are out right now for innovation, especially sustainability and environmental innovation, that they're wanting you to get this money. They're wanting you to get these grant funds because they need more businesses that are in that space, 100%. So what's some of the challenges that you had as far as scaling up your business? challenges that i had was talent right talent is always a thing people come to that interview bright-eyed bushy-tailed ready to work and two months in you're like hold on what's going on here you know so talent acquisition has always been something because what we do is very technical um and you have to just be excellent at it period so that's been something that has always been a struggle with with growing our company so have you used i know you said that you don't really encourage people to use AI to write to write the proposal but inside of your business are you using AI we do we have we've created literal bots for customer service right phones people always try to call and ask a thousand questions so we have you know AI that does that then we also have AI that we use for like I said on the grant writing side deep research alignment understanding funders from different standpoints that's really how we're using it for the most part now I use it I was just telling Troy, I'm like, I'm ready to write a book.

51:38He's like, man, I can write that book. Like, you know, so it's, it's, we're using it daily. Yeah. One of the things you said, what the challenges is, is having a talent, retaining the talent, I'm sure is an issue when you have it. I want to know, like from a competitive standpoint, I'm sure there's people in your industry who are watching what you're doing and saying, oh, we can do that. Oh, we can be better. What gives you that moat, that competitive advantage against people that are doing similar things to what Pinkprint does? I think really is because we have a data driven approach. A lot of times with grant tours, they're not looking at it from a business owner perspective.

52:14They're grant writers. I'm also a business owner. So I'm looking at, OK, how do we create? For instance, when we first started Pinkprint, what we did with every single client is we created two proposals, only two. And those two proposals, we will apply to every single grant that we applied to. I was doing an A-B split test. So what I'm doing is I'm saying, OK, if we send B proposal to, you know, these corporate grants and we send a proposal to these corporate grants, which one has the best result? So now we're understanding from a data driven perspective what messaging works, what type of sentence structure works the best, what type of budget alignment works the best.

52:48Like it's really the data driven approach that we have. And that comes from entrepreneur mindset, not just a grant writer mindset. A grant writer is going to be good for helping you create messaging, helping you follow the rules of the grant opportunity. But you need somebody who's looking at it as a business owner, too, because you're running a business and you really do need that data driven approach. That's what makes us different. So from a standpoint of InvestFest, how was your experience at InvestFest? I had a good time. I was there with Miss Business. We was giving out grants on the stage, you know, in the vendors marketplace.

53:20That's what that's what my contribution was. I had a great time. I think also, you know, when I, Miss Business had the, I forget what she called the boardroom that she did on the university stage. And when I went up there, she gave me five minutes to talk about grants. And so many people were like, I didn't even know I could get grants for my for-profit business. And I'm like, man, we got so much work to do. So that's what I left InvestFest for. I was like, I got so much work to do. I got to, I got to make this thing shake. Yeah, I know you're doing some stuff for us. Talk about the summit. you kind of alluded to earlier, but this is a way that you network.

53:57Talk about what that entails, what people get when they actually come to these summits. Yeah, so it's the Get Grant Ready Summit. And this is literally to be able to position for-profit and nonprofit business owners with everything that they're going to need in terms of business structure, grant mindset, where to find grants, how to align, create messaging, and how to handle them with the tax code and report properly. These are five-day summits that we host, sometimes three days. And this next one that we're doing in September 22 through the 26th, all virtual. And guess how much we charge for it?

54:27How much? It's$5. Five. $5. And the reason why we've done that and we've done that consistently for the last three years is because of access. I'm like, I want you to show up, pay the admin fees so that we can host it, host it on Zoom. But I want you to show up and I want you to actually get the information to be able to grow the business. I want you to actually take this and share this with a family member. I've had mothers come and say, hey i'm not i don't have a business but i'm gonna give this to my young daughter who wants to start a business right this is like the legacy approach that will be able to be created just from hosting these webinars so i'm like as long as we can give the information that'll spark a mind show up it's not about the making money part on the on that side i'm like we just want y 'all in the room and it's five like how many hours is it per day shoot depending on how many questions we get we be in there we be in there we be in there sometimes and go two three hours that's incredible we got five there's no excuse i think we were talking about that there really is an excuse when you talk about the amount of information the access to the information the professionals that look like you that are doing it i wonder when as you're paving this pathway are you seeing more especially young girls and even men that are like wait this is something this is a pathway that i've now inspired and you're seeing people do it right we've seen this in the podcast space right there was prior to 2019 how many people were talking about financial occasion financial education you look at the landscape now is different are you starting to see that change in your space 100 % i have um people that were talking about credit they're like oh i'm about to get into grants because this what they'll tell me is like their clients let's say they get them a a loan or a credit card or something they use the money on their business but then it just doesn't make money Right.

56:10Everything you put your money into is not going to always generate income. So now their clients are like, oh, well, we don't have, you know, you know, we got to pay this money back and we're using our own money to do it. And they're like, I want to just give people grants because I don't want them to be in that financial hardship. So they're definitely shifting and they're being inspired by like what we're doing with our company and in the lives that we're we're changing. So it is it's super monumental. And I'm encouraging them. Come do it. Pinkprint is a franchise. You can franchise Pinkprint.

56:33You don't even got to do it on your own. We'll get you the formula, the data, everything will set you up. Right. Right. So how does that work as far as it being a franchise? So basically we do all the fulfillment on the actual writing and on the application side. And we just franchise out, you know, different territories. So how many franchises do you have? We don't have any yet. OK, you started it. Correct. OK. So what does that take if somebody wants to be a franchise? Like what's that process? You know, you got to go through all your disclosures and you see how the business works and you pay what you want to pay.

57:04And we kind of go through for me initially starting, I want to kind of date my franchisees for a little while because I want to work with people who are genuine about the process and how, you know, grant writing actually works. And not just in terms of what you can make, but the impact that you can have on people's lives. And essentially what I'm looking for, right, is someone who's, of course, business minded, but they're in their community, that they have a reach to the business owners that are around them or are willing to build that. And I really want to, you know, touch those people's lives in that way.

57:33But yeah. So the franchise is up next. Franchise is up. Ready. You talked to us about the book potentially, which is going to come. Absolutely. I'm interested when it happens, are you putting a concise body of work from your entire life experience or what we've done here now with the Pinkprint in terms of grant writing? I think it's going to be starting from Pinkprint on forward. yeah I think I'll probably touch on entrepreneur experience of why this makes sense to just kind of allude to the purpose into it but it's not going to be a full body of work not yet I gotta I gotta get back on that so what's your vision for the company like you're doing the franchise like where do you want to see this go as far as what you're doing acquisition yeah I want to do So my goal, we're launching the franchise Fully, Fully Q4.

58:27So my full goal is to do four franchises this year and kind of grow at that same rate for next year. And then once we get to an evaluation, about 20 million, I'll be ready to sell. What's the multiple on this space? Right. So in order to get that 20 million valuation, how much do we have to actually have in revenue for the year? Is it like a 2x, 3x? Three. 3x. Yep. All right. And then you said 19 million we've done. Is there a goal number that you guys have or is, you know what, we're just going to try to keep doing as much as possible? Oh, yeah. When it comes to funding, we just doing as much as we possibly can.

59:04Yeah, I want a Guinness World Record something. You know, we just trying to do as much as we possibly can and still, you know, keep it fun. Like, I'm not trying to be sick over it, but yeah. Who's the target market of people that work with you? So we actually like to help small business owners and nonprofits one to three years. That's that's what we like, because typically they're the ones that don't really get access to the funding as much. So that's kind of our pocket. How as you just said, that made me think about how time consuming this is. Is this something that consumes your entire life or is there a balance that is needed to actually do this?

59:44Like you said, if you're applying to the 30 different grants, obviously you have a team, but how time intensive is it to be in this space? Depending on the grant you're working on, it could take you 60 hours to read through a RFP and find out what's really working, do the research on it, write the grant opportunity and actually apply. Right. So it can be pretty time consuming. Me personally, I have a very good balance with my life because I really look at what I'm doing as a creative thing. and if I'm constantly just in work mode, it suffocates my creativity. So I like to get outside, take a breather, vibe, chill and then I'll have like a really consistent week of just like crazy output.

1:00:27So 60 hours for one? It can. I mean, it's decreased a lot with AI but man, some of those RFPs be 60 pages long. Yeah, that was one of the things when we sat down with Jack Dorsey, I was telling you, he said the first thing that he does is he wakes up and figures out, how can I get my time back? So if you go to 60 hours of using AI, you're getting your time back. That's good to know. So, okay. So if people want to sign up for the summit, your services, what's the website, Instagram, all that situation? So the website is pinkprintfirm.com. Pinkprintfirm. And that's the same across all socials. Pinkprintfirm.

1:01:06Pinkprintfirm.com. So what about the summit? The summit's on pinkprintfirm.com. It's literally the first thing you see as soon as you get on the website. information is there it's there five cash i better stop playing five cash five cash people they get to ask questions yeah of course do people be doing summits where they don't get to ask questions well it's i don't if it's a lot of people sometimes you know it's difficult to answer everybody's questions we might not be able to answer every single our last summer had 1500 people in that summit wow wow yeah and i'm talking about it was activated like so you know the chat going crazy the chat's going crazy just pick and choose just a random yeah like you know we had a chat box and we're like what we try to pick the questions of course that are going to incite more knowledge and more conversation if you're just asking like those personal like where do i start my llc you know sis get us on the back end dm us hit us on the indirect yeah 1500 people is a lot what that just tells you the appetite is there for it i mean it goes crazy every time every time yeah especially on the for-profit side because they didn't know how accessible grants were and how it could really like your your operational costs can be floated from grants just imagine that i got some ideas it's needed especially like you said a lot of businesses struggle because they don't have funding so you know you're trying to get venture capital you're trying to get bank trying to use your credit cards, but it's another alternative that you don't have to pay back when somebody's not taking equity in your company.

1:02:38So if you can get a grant, then that would be a blessing for most people that actually have some level of boost in their engine as far as, you know, having more running capital available to them. 100%. And it's important too, right? The more grants that are created, if they're not used, when that budget sheet comes back, that line gets crossed off. So we got to have more people in the space that are actually applying for these grants, winning these grants so they can stay on that budget line so that every year after year more people can actually have access to it. 100%. 100%. The more you know.

1:03:09And the more people that are applying they'll create more programming. You know what I'm saying? So we got to speak up for ourselves. There you have it. Well, appreciate it. Appreciate y 'all. Thank you. Thank you. Stormy has been incredible. Thank you for coming. Appreciate this. Do you have a personal Instagram too? What you want to say? Yeah, I am Stormy Banks. Stormy with an I. I am Stormy Banks. But I'll be over there chilling. Everything's earned. Everything is earned. Everything earned. The pink print, is that Nicki Minaj inspired? No, you know, a lot of people ask me that, and I should have did a little more research.

1:03:42But it really, I was on a walk with my mom, and I was like, what about the blueprint for women? Because that was kind of my thing. I was like, I want the women to be able to have some access. And I was like, what about pink print? She was like, yeah, do it. And I was just like, all right, bet. So it's pink print, the blueprint for women in business. Okay. I was thinking Blueprint, maybe the J influence. Yeah, you know, all that. All that greatness. Throw it in together. Okay, we got to tie Brooklyn in there somehow. For sure. All right, guys. Thank you for rocking with us. I'll see you next week.

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