The $1M question that helped Black Innovation Alliance CEO Kelly Burton leave her startup behind

The Path is a video series where I chat with some of the most influential leaders in the world exploring the successes, missteps, and key pivotal moments that shaped their professional paths. It’s through these authentic stories that we can learn how to navigate our own career journeys.

My next guest is Kelly Burton, PhD, CEO of the Black Innovation Alliance.  

Kelly’s professional journey epitomizes the kind of nonlinear path that inspired me to start this series. She’s earned several titles from political scientist and consultant to serial entrepreneur. But unlike many entrepreneurs who opted to skip college or drop out before earning a degree, Kelly not only got hers, she went on to pursue a PhD. From there she made some gutsy moves and sharp pivots to find her way to help launch Black Innovation Alliance, the dynamic organization she leads today. The one constant through it all was her steadfast desire to help people. 

I was excited to hear more about Kelly’s unconventional career moves. She joined me in the studio to walk me through the twists and turns in her professional path.

“All I knew is that I wanted to help people.”

We’re all influenced in some way by the things we experience in our childhood. For Kelly, one of the things that impacted her most was the disparity she saw as a kid in Camden, New Jerey. Growing up in what was one of the most impoverished cities in the country shaped her will to do good for others. She told me, “Seeing that, I was like, ‘I'm going to be a part of the solution to ensure that kids get to grow up in communities that are loving, but also are supported and supportive, and have the things that are necessary in order for you to be safe and be well.’ ” 

For Kelly, in order to change the world, the place to start was politics, or so she thought. She moved to Atlanta to earn a bachelor’s degree in political science and started working as an intern at the Georgia state capitol. She said, “I thought it was going to happen through politics, and then I realized that politics is influenced by business, and influenced by money.” That realization put her on the path to entrepreneurship.

After earning her PhD, in 2009 Kelly started her own consultancy, Nexus Research Group. With this venture, she was able to do work in low-wealth communities and communities of color to impact the kind of social change she felt so passionate about. She also reveled in the chance to be her own boss.  

A little “crazy” goes a long way

Eventually, Kelly’s consultancy business hit a plateau, but that didn’t slow her down. She refocused her efforts to create a scalable business model. In 2014, she launched Bodyology, a product-based company that used activewear technology to make comfortable camisoles, tanks and undershirts. 

That kind of pivot isn’t an easy one to make. I asked Kelly what motivated her to take the risk. Her response? “What made me think I could do it? I’m crazy,” she said. Sometimes it takes a little bit of crazy to make a bold move and to keep going when things don’t go as planned.

Within a few years, Kelly ran out of money and didn’t have access to the resources she needed to scale. A good friend asked her, “If somebody gave you a million dollars today to take Bodyology forward, would you take it?” With that question, she knew she was done. She said there was nothing left of the passion and drive that helped her push through to that point. Even life-changing money wasn’t enough to keep her going down that path. It was time to make a shift to something new. She told me, “It's really hard as a person of color to scale a business for multiple reasons.” Those reasons were the impetus for her next bigger and bolder move.

It takes a coalition

Kelly kept moving forward, taking her failure and turning it into an opportunity by writing a LinkedIn article about the lessons she learned. She said, “I wanted to normalize failure because if you don't normalize it as an individual, you can internalize it and then you make it about you. And that can take you down a dark hole.” Her article resonated with other entrepreneurs who had struggled to scale their businesses, and it triggered a slew of responses. That was all the motivation she needed to create Founders of Color, an online platform that made connections for minority entrepreneurs to help them create scalable and sustainable businesses.

Throughout her career, Kelly has been on a mission to help others and she’s never wavered from that goal. Today, she is CEO of the Black Innovation Alliance, a coalition of over 50 organizations helping Black entrepreneurs and innovators to thrive. In only two years, the organization has raised nearly $7 million and helped over 370-thousand entrepreneurs. 

I really appreciated Kelly’s authenticity in how she explained what worked and didn’t work along the way. I can’t wait to see what she does next. Here are some of the key takeaways from our conversation:

• Build the life YOU want, not what others around you want. Kelly’s advice is to make your own choices about your career and your life, “not the life that your spouse wants, not the life that your in-laws want, or the life that your parents want. Build the life that you want. Your career is only a part of that.” 
• Tie your career to purpose. When your career is driven by purpose, it will help you through the challenging times and make all the hard work along the way seem worth it. Picking a path that allows you to do well in business and also do good for the world will give your career more meaning.
• Know what you truly want. Be clear about what you want. You’ll need that vision to guide you as you make decisions on whatever path you choose to take. Everyone’s path is different but if you don’t know what you want, you won’t know where you’re headed.

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