Layla Nielsen
All right, welcome to season two of Content is Queen. And I am your host, Layla Nielsen, founder and principal strategist of Ellen and Co. And I am excited to talk to my friend, my fellow restaurant partner, my mom in know just all around girlfriend, Ms. Tameka Montgomery. She is the founder and CEO of Core Strategy Partners. Welcome.

Tameka Montgomery
Excited to be here and excited to just chat and connect with you. So thank you for the opportunity.

Layla Nielsen
So let’s just jump right on in. So tell me a little bit about Core strategy partners. Like, when I hear Core, that means right in the middle, you get into the weeds, you make sure that your head is you’re looking in and out. But tell me what is a potential client look like and what is your core services that you offer?

Tameka Montgomery
Yeah, so Core Strategy Partners, we are a consulting firm that is really driven to drive impactful change by providing human centered market research and strategy. And so we specialize in supporting corporations, governments and nonprofit organizations with market insights and strategy that helps them better understand their small and mid sized business stakeholders and also to help them better understand workforce. So all of our work that we do is really in that sector of really helping our clients understand small businesses so that they can improve policies, programs and services.

Layla Nielsen
So when you say human centered strategies, can you dig into that? What exactly does that mean?

Tameka Montgomery
Yeah. So this idea around kind of a human centered approach. So we take a human centered approach to market research and strategy. And what that means is that our approach is really led by gaining a deep understanding of the stakeholders because what we believe is that a strategy, any type of strategy or solutions, if they’re not rooted in a deep understanding of the experience, lived experiences, perspectives of the stakeholder, then it’s not going to deliver on the results. And so when we talk about human centered, that’s it. For example, you have market research companies where, let’s just say a product company may say, can you come and do some market research on this product or whatever. So for us, that’s not the type of market research that we really care about. I want to have a good bottle.

But at the end of the day, for us as a company focus on human centered market research, that’s not the type of research that we’re looking at. We are trying to better understand stakeholders, experiences that can drive kind of impactful systems change.

Layla Nielsen
That sounds really deep as I hear you talk. Right. I’m like stakeholders, that’s your customer, that’s your employees. That takes on a lot of different forms, really looking at things from different perspectives. What exactly in your background or your experience brought you to approach your strategies and your services in this way? What was your experience, what was your.

Tameka Montgomery
Journey that got you here? So what led me to really start Core Strategy Partners and to do this? Because, to be honest, I didn’t go to get my PhD. I’m not like this researcher in that regard, like someone might think. However, I was an Obama appointee at the Small Business Administration. And so in that role, I was responsible for designing programs and policies that impacted the nation’s 28 million small businesses. And as a part of that, I was responsible for a significant amount of appropriated government funds. Congress would want to know if they said, okay, we’re going to increase your funding, what type of programs can you create that will drive impactful change for small businesses? So then what would happen is I’d go back to my office and then we’d sit around and kind of figure out, okay, so what could we do?


Let’s strategize, what type of programs can we start? And I felt like that wasn’t the way to go. We didn’t have our ear to the ground where we could regularly tap into small businesses, a broad reach of small businesses to really almost in a sense, co create the solutions with them. We weren’t able to do that. Now, I did try to create like this little side team of mine who I would have them kind of scan the nation and see what’s happening. So that when were asked to do things, we attempted to have our ear to the ground. But I started Core Strategy Partners with the executive like myself in mind. So whether you work for a corporation, a nonprofit, or a government agency, you are being charged with solving some complex things.

And oftentimes you work in an environment that is frenetic, right? So you have to make a lot of decisions. It’s frenetic. And then oftentimes you’re doing that without all of the data and the insights that you need. Oftentimes you’re going off a gut or you’ve only listened to you’ve maybe had some casual anecdotal conversations with a few people. And so that’s going to inform your whole thing. And so it was that experience that led me to start Core Strategy Partners because I said, you know what? I want to create a firm that executives who were like me could tap into to go out there and gather those deep insights so they can truly understand the experiences of their stakeholders.

So in this case, it’s small businesses, for example, so that then when they’re making decisions about what to do with government funds or corporate funds, depending on what you’re doing, then you feel more confident in the decisions that you’re making and also in the impact that it will drive for maybe your company as well as the people who you’re serving.

Layla Nielsen
So we talk a lot about data points and how you leverage data to develop strategies for stakeholders and for your clients. But one of the things that I harp on with my team and even with my clients is that data is the story and it helps you craft the story. Talk to me a little bit about your approach to leveraging data so that you can tell an authentic story that’s backed with facts and not opinions or assumptions. Because sometimes we get lost in this conundrum, I believe sometimes when we’re trying to define our customers or who our target audience is. Talk to me about that approach and how data and that content and storyline go hand in hand.

Tameka Montgomery
Yeah, so a lot of the search that we do, the type of data that we gather is not really big longitudinal type of economic studies. That’s not the type of research data that we’re gathering. A lot of it is qualitative data where we’re interviewing those individuals and understanding their story. So the idea is, how do we help our clients step into the shoes of that customer? Now, when you think about it from a strategy standpoint, and again, a human centered strategy standpoint, what we’re trying to do is, like you said, data doesn’t like the numbers. Data alone doesn’t tell you everything. But our approach when we’re helping our clients put together strategy. So when I talk about strategy, to me strategy is about choices. At the end of the day, it’s deciding what you will do and what you won’t do.

I mean, that’s fundamental to strategy. And so the insights and the data should help you make those decisions on what you should do and what you shouldn’t do. And so as a part of that process and what we do with our clients is, yeah, we’re going out and we’re talking to their stakeholders. So we’re gathering some quantitative, but a lot of qualitative data. Then we’re using that information to then understand kind of what those key insights are, to then help us determine what new strategic possibilities might exist for that client. But then here’s the piece with those possibilities. Oftentimes people come up with ideas and they’re like, okay, we’re going to run and do that idea because it sounds good, feels good. Yeah, but that’s not what we do. What we then do is there’s a lot of ideas and a lot of possibilities.

But then what we try to do is how do we do a low fidelity prototype? How do we prototype something and then get it back in front of those stakeholders to see? Okay, well, if you do this we did this walk me through how you might experience this thing. So then you actually have better data to help inform the strategy. Now, no strategy is going to be 100% fail proof, obviously, because you don’t know how it’s going to get implemented. But when we do these things, when we get these various data points from the stakeholders and testing out the ideas and the strategy that we’re trying to put forth. It raises our level of confidence in the decisions and the choices that we’re going to make. Does that help?

Layla Nielsen
Yeah. No, it definitely does. So when I talk to entrepreneurs and agency owners like yourself, there’s a level of passion that goes into the work because this is your baby, this is your agency, your approach, your strategies, and where does that passion come? Know who is, like, what made you get here? I know you were an Obama appointee, and that experience brought you here. But deeper than, like, what is it about Tamika that got you where you are today and starting your agency?

Tameka Montgomery
You know what? I have always been socially minded. I’ve always been bent this way. I was just talking the other day to my family when I was in high school, I was in this group called the Bad Team. It was called Blacks Against Drugs. The bad team in Denver, Colorado. We would travel to schools, and we would do know. And I used to do this oratorical speech called My Name is Cocaine. And it was about how know how insidious it is and then how it just gets you and tears you down.

Layla Nielsen
Right.

Tameka Montgomery
So early on, I’ve always been it’s just the way that I’ve been bent. And so all of my work in my entire career has been socially focused, so whether it’s been in government or in the nonprofit sector, and now as a business owner, I’m a social entrepreneur. I guess you can kind of say I just say, God, just put it in me, and that’s just who I am.

Layla Nielsen
Yeah. I was so attracted to our friendship. I was so curious. You are homeschooling schooling your kids, and you have these amazing boys that are just so confident, and they’re in competitions, and they have their own businesses. I’m like, they get that from their mama. Yes, dad, I’m giving you some props, too. But your energy, I can just see that. And you started the Montgomery County Children’s Business Fair, which puts kids in the driver’s seats of their businesses and gives them the skills to actually put their products in a marketplace and all the skills that come along with that. What prompted you to come up with that idea? Because it’s super dope. I would have never thought about that.

I grew up in a family and entrepreneur, so I’m like, that is so perfect for a kid, because I can completely credit my mother for my experience as a kid in the nightclub business, making flyers and putting them on the cars. Like, I always joke, I was like, I was doing email marketing before email marketing. And you don’t realize what you’re absorbing as a kid right. For you with your sons and then know with their individual businesses, and now you’re opening this up. Know parents throughout Montgomery County, kids throughout Montgomery County. What prompted you or what triggered you to want to create this fair and talk to me about the fair and how people can get involved.

Tameka Montgomery
Yeah. So when the administration ended in 2017, I took a sabbatical. And during that time, I was like, my boys were still young. They’re still young, but they were younger. And I was like, well, which is something a project I can do. And so I had started this podcast called Raising Entrepreneurs where I was having conversations with parents of entrepreneurial kids because I wanted to find out what they were doing to really encourage and foster an entrepreneurial mindset. And the reason why I felt like an entrepreneurial mindset was so important is because before moving out here, I was in Denver, Colorado. And back in 2001, I started one of Denver’s very first business Incubators. In 2001. So that was a long time ago and have been working in this space for a long time advising small businesses.

And one of the things that I often would see is you might have two entrepreneurs who come in and want our services for technical assistance or advisement. They appear to be at the same level in terms of resources, knowledge, experience. But what you find is you have one entrepreneur who takes that information and they run with it, you have the other entrepreneur. For some reason, they kept having excuses and they just couldn’t go. And what I realized is it had nothing to do with their ability. What it had to do with was their mindset. And so my thinking as a parent was if I could be able early on to rewire the circuits in my kids brain. So I guess I’m kind of doing some experiment technically on my children.


So I was like, if I could do some sort of experiment with my boys where I’m rewiring their brain early on so that when they become adults and if they choose to start a business, that they can go back to saying, you know what, I did something like that in the past. And so they would be that one who would spur that on. That was kind of my rationale. And so then when I was doing my podcast, I had a conversation with this woman out in Austin, Texas who created this thing called Acton, A-C-T-O-N acton Children’s Business Fair. And so she had started this fair back in Austin, Texas. And I was like, wow, that’s a cool idea. So I was like, I’m going to do one here in Montgomery County where I live. So that’s what I did.

And so our first one was in 2018 in our little town square because I wanted it in the space where there’s a lot of foot traffic so kids can make a lot of money. And then we did in 2019, and then COVID happened, but now we’re bringing it back. It’s going to be bigger, more kids involved. And, yeah, I’m excited. It’s so much fun just seeing the creativity that the kids bring. And even my boys have participated in just the different ideas. One year, my youngest, he called it a popcorn bar. He named his business Popcorn is Corny. And so he had popcorn.

Layla Nielsen
Now that’s a good name right there.

Tameka Montgomery
He’s so good at names. And so he had popcorn, and then he would have just different spices, right? And then you just put your spice on. That was his popcorn bar. So it’s just creative stuff like that, just letting them get a taste of it.

Layla Nielsen
I love that. So I know registration is closed for vendors, but you still have an opportunity to sponsor the event. So talk to me about sponsorship and what a potential business can how they can activate and partner with you for this event.

Tameka Montgomery
Yeah, thank you for offering to put that out there. I’m excited to talk about, as you can imagine. So I have a nonprofit organization called Raising Young Entrepreneurs. And so I use that nonprofit to host this fair. That’s really the only thing that the nonprofit does is this fair and to do these sorts of things. While it’s not a huge financial effort, there is a financial obligation. And so we have three levels of sponsors. We have friends, partner, and then a premier sponsor. 250 is a friends level, 500 is the partner level, and then 1500 is the premier. At the most basic level, 250, it really is about just demonstrating your support. We put your name out there. We acknowledge your participation in support of the fair.

At the $500 level, during the fair, one of the things that we do, so it’s for ages six to 15. And so we have judges who go around and talk to the kids about we judge them on their sales pitch, on the originality of their idea, and then how their booth is presented, like their marketing. And so the winners, we have winners in each of the age categories in each of those sections, and we give out cash awards or a check. And so at the $500 level, you have the opportunity to be a judge and to talk to the small business owners, the young entrepreneurs, and help us to decide the ones who are going to win that cash award.

And then at the premier level, you actually get a booth where you can engage with the young people or just in the community in general, pass out materials, and obviously continue to have kind of that title sponsorship opportunity as well.

Layla Nielsen
I love that. So as a mom, as an entrepreneur, as a child of an entrepreneur, I cannot say this enough. We need more programs like this across the board because you are right. You need to shift our kids and rewind their mindsets that just getting a job isn’t necessarily a path, but not the path. Right? And way more money. As an entrepreneur, as that path, the corporate path, will take you. So I definitely love this idea. I think it’s so on time. And folks, we want you to come out, support these kids, put some money in the bank and engage with the kids, challenge them and help them grow and understand their customer and their target audience, right. Their stakeholders, as you would say with our agency, digital marketing is our core product offering and service.

And I love the content that you post on social media. I think you are witty. You did something with your dog. And I’m like, this is super cute. And I was like, she’s going to get the most likes out of this because people love some puppies and some dogs and things like that. And when you’re marketing yourself as a personal brand and your organization, talk to me a little bit about how you approach your content and why you choose the content that you are publishing to promote your business and to promote your personal brand.

Tameka Montgomery
Yeah, okay. I feel like this is like I’m sure everybody’s like, oh, it’s hard. It is so hard. So it is a struggle for me, honestly.

Layla Nielsen
Really? Well, thank you.

Tameka Montgomery
I’m trying. We are trying because I know it is so important. And so what we’re trying to do is one personalize just because at this point, if I’m going to be honest about it, core strategy partners, people know it because of Tamika. It is me. So, you know what? Why not leverage that? And so people love to kind of get into your life. So it’s funny. I did this one post with my youngest son. So I was on a business trip, and he calls me. He says, Mom, I have something to ask you. I was like, okay. He’s like, well, no, I want to wait until you get home. So I’m like, okay. So I get home. I was like, So what do you want to ask me? He’s like, I have a presentation. I said, okay.

So he put together a presentation, had it up on why he should be allowed to get a pet snake. And so I posted that on LinkedIn to kind of talk about the importance of knowing your audience. Like, my son knew his mom, right? And he put together a presentation, and it was like, each one, each title was like, and if you say this and then he would have that response. He knew his mother. And that one right there, people were like, So what did you got to let him have the snake. You got to let him have the snake. He has the snake now.

Layla Nielsen
Yeah. So now I know you have a snake. I won’t be coming downstairs. Let me know. I’m africans and snakes, we don’t get along at all. Have a whole separate conversation about that. But to your point, authenticity always wins when it comes to social media. Folks can sniff out phoniness, and this is an experience that you went through with your child, but it directly aligns to your services. Right? It’s like alignment. So this is what you get. I live this. I breathe it. Even my kids are showing up like this. So if you think your stakeholders or your customers or your workforce my son is putting together presentations on snakes. Not because I told him, because he has seen me do the work.

So that is a direct alignment and correlation to your services and who you are as the CEO of the agency. So I love that story because it is spot on for content marketing strategies, authenticity. And what is authenticity? It’s like, what do you do the easiest? What can you show up and do without thinking, without having to put a whole plan together? You could just drop it just like that. And for you, that know, just what you described with that post on social media. So I love that. So I wanted to wrap up with what know your audience, even the content is queen. Audience expect from Tameka Audio, your agency, and then the type of initiatives outside. I know the Montgomery County piece is a big piece, but is there anything else you would like to share?

Any events, activities, a newsletter that they can join? Here’s the time to just get them all into your databases.

Tameka Montgomery
Yeah. Okay. So one is yes, the Fair. So if you’re in the Montgomery County PG, whatever in the DMV on August 19, from eleven to two, come down with some money or some cash through your app, whatever, and support about 70 or so young entrepreneurs.

Layla Nielsen
Are they category specific or do you like anything? They could sell anything.

Tameka Montgomery
Yeah, they can sell whatever they’re selling. Different types of things. Yeah, it’s amazing. Just their ideas. So that I would say come out. The other thing I would say is, check out. I did a Ted Talk. A TEDx. And I always go to TED.com, put my name in there and watch it because I love the raise, the visibility, and just to hear more about kind of thinking about raising young entrepreneurial kids. And I tell some interesting stories through that.

Layla Nielsen
I was in the audience, guys, and I was like, I needed a notepad. I was writing stuff down. She dropped some serious gems on how to make your babies millionaires in that mindset. So I’m over here like, okay, so I want to make sure my baby’s a millionaire. Step one, two, and three. Because Tameka said I do encourage you to listen to her Ted Talk.

Tameka Montgomery
Yes, thank you. Thank you. And then kind of like, what I’m working. So, you know, you and I, we’re in this grind of growing a business, right? Trying to grow seven figure, eight figure business. And one of the things that I’m working on is a technology platform. And so I would just say we’re in the early stages of it, but it is something that I’m working on, and it’s really pushing me to step outside of my comfort zone because I don’t think of myself as a techie. And so the idea of building some technological solution that helps clients engage better with their stakeholders is intimidating. But I look forward to kind of sharing that journey.

So on LinkedIn, connect with me on LinkedIn and be able to kind of follow me and watch as we see what happens with core strategy partners kind of moving into a new space. Yeah, I think those are the big things. And visit our website and that’s where you can actually get in and join our mailing list and that’s corestrategypartners.com well.

Layla Nielsen
You might say that’s only a couple of things, but those are three very big things. And I’m so happy that were able to have this conversation. I will definitely be at the fair with my money, and so I’ll definitely talk to you about sponsorship as well, because I think that is a great initiative that I definitely want to have Ellen and Co involved with. And I just want to say thank you, girlfriend. You are a rock star. And thank you so much for spending your time with my content. Is Queen audience today.

Tameka Montgomery
Great. Thank you. I loved it. It was so much fun. And looking forward to seeing each other in yes.