Kathy & Brad Lambert – Success Story

Meet Kathy and Brad:
Co-Founders of KBL Impact Partners

Kathy and Brad Lambert are passionate social entrepreneurs with a combined 50+ years of experience in the field. They are innovative, resourceful, and committed to helping nonprofit leaders build thriving organizations and remain flexible and adaptive to the unique challenges in the nonprofit world.

In 2021, they created KBL Impact Partners to help nonprofit leaders successfully navigate the many obstacles and barriers that keep them awake at three in the morning; from meeting payroll to creating consistent sources of funding.

Today, Kathy and Brad are nationally recognized names in their field, and have blossomed KBL into a successful business venture; igniting social impact leaders to create extraordinary change in their communities.

Partnered With Red Cape On: July 2021

The Challenges

What challenges did Kathy and Brad want Red Cape to address?  

Kathy and Brad launched a 12-week program called Frame Up for Funding, and while they were experts at delivering the curriculum, they found themselves needing the added logistical support to manage their CRM, and streamline their email communications to make it a cohesive experience for their clients.

They realized the need to assemble everything in one central hub. They also needed a right-hand marketing team to bring their product to the market to reach their ideal customers. 

Red Cape was able to step in as their thought partner and marketing team, and help them refocus their energy and time on doing what they love. 

Why did Kathy and Brad face this challenge?  

“We always talk about the difference between working “in” the business versus working “on” the business,” Brad says. 

In the first few months, they developed their 12-week curriculum that had never been delivered anywhere to anybody. Kathy and Brad decided they needed to be really laser-focused on delivering this curriculum, and make adjustments along the way to bring it to its full potential. 

Red Cape enabled Kathy and Brad to focus on their Zone of Genius by providing a high-level strategic direction to answer their big questions: How do we find our ideal clients? What are the technology pieces needed for a complete online, virtual training? How do we maximize social media for brand recognition? What are our goals for the next year and what marketing and technology supports will be required? 

Kathy and Brad were able to benefit from this big-picture perspective. As they put it, “We were so drilled into our training those first eight months that had the world been on fire, we would not have known it.” 

What initial solutions or marketing companies did Kathy and Brad try prior to Red Cape?

Kathy and Brad initially contracted with another marketing company to handle their email marketing and brought on Red Cape to assist. They quickly realized it would be far more efficient to partner entirely with Red Cape.

Red Cape offered all the skills they needed, and had a team of specialists to take on any challenge that arose. That’s what caused Kathy and Brad to bring all their marketing operations under one roof – much to their relief.

“As social entrepreneurs, we like to move fast and make changes along the way,” Brad adds, “Red Cape was side-by-side with us and kept the train moving forward!”

With a new business to attend to, it was really important to Kathy and Brad to have that communication, that partner, to be really understanding of their full business plan and what they were trying to accomplish. 

The Solutions

Why did Kathy and Brad choose Red Cape?  

In March 2021, Kathy and Brad met Tiffany through a mutual friend and Business Coach Karen Cappello, who engages Red Cape’s services to deliver her courses. They were immediately impressed with the level of professionalism and with the efficient handling of all aspects of the course – from scheduling emails to streamlining the meetings.

After launching their business in July 2021, they reached out to Red Cape to get the background support to grow their business efficiently. They were able to access multiple services to support their business including course management, website management and social media marketing.

Kathy says, “We were completely blown away! We knew then that Red Cape would be the business partner that we were looking for.” 

How did Red Cape help Kathy and Brad solve this challenge? 

Red Cape provided a holistic end-to-end marketing plan that included course management, website management, and social media marketing. This provided clarity on who to reach out to, and how to engage new prospects or re-connect with old acquaintances to expand their network.

Brad admits, “It has definitely helped us scale our business. Never in a million years did I ever think that within our first year and a half, we would enroll 46 organizations in our training. Without our partnership with Red Cape, I don’t think that would’ve been possible.”

Red Cape handled their Facebook cohorts to make sure all the content was accessible to participants. Having this linkage to where their participants had easy access to the materials proved to be invaluable.

Kathy and Brad appreciate the forward-thinking approach with their marketing; to look ahead for each quarter and strategically build on the last to create huge gains in the business. To this end, Red Cape was able to step in and synthesize Kathy and Brad’s knowledge to put together a robust strategy. 

“We are now able to think years in advance and even explore multiple streams of income,” says Kathy. 

How did this solution impact Kathy and Brad’s business? 

Returning to their Zone of Genius was a relief. Kathy and Brad have been able to expand their online network, streamline their business development, and achieve exciting financial thresholds even in their first year and a half of business – “There’s no way we could have done it by ourselves.” says Brad.

Even in those first few months, Kathy and Brad saw a spurt in leads reaching out to have conversations. “People were starting to notice. We got a ton of compliments!” Kathy says. This led to speaking engagements and business meetings as a result of their strategic and consistent social media posting.

“Red Cape has helped us streamline our business and put it out into the world,” says Kathy. “This has allowed us to be the experts we are on our side of the wall! And together, the business is doing really well.” 

What was the timeline? 

After partnering with Red Cape in July 2021, they started seeing exciting results in August. KBL’s social media witnessed a meteoric spike in engagements by 54%, and at the close of August, they saw a 5.45% spike in memberships to their Facebook Group. 

The Road Ahead

Were there any unexpected/surprising benefits that Kathy and Brad were also able to receive with Red Cape? 

The most pleasant surprise for Kathy and Brad was getting a holistic business and marketing partner in Red Cape. They initially assumed this would be just a contracting relationship. “I thought Red Cape was just going to handle our classes and our website,” says Kathy.

They were amazed at being able to also hand off their social media and all related aspects, allowing them to focus on business development and getting into conversations with their clients.

Another huge benefit was the culture alignment. “The growth and culture of Red Cape is one with heart,” says Kathy, “Everyone really does care about the job they’re doing and about the people they’re working with. I feel like there’s that alignment with us and our mission to serve others.” 

Have Kathy and Brad signed on for additional services than what they initially engaged Red Cape for? 

Initially signing on to hand over the logistics of their courses and certain aspects of their website, they were “blown away” by the results. Kathy and Brad proceeded to have Red Cape take over their social media strategizing and content development.

By using Red Cape as a thought partner to run ideas by, KBL has strategically flourished to take advantage of all the opportunities in the market. 

What benefits do Kathy and Brad anticipate long-term with Red Cape? 

“I’d love to do a podcast,” Kathy admits. “I’ve also wanted to write a book about our journey for the longest time.”

Kathy and Brad look forward to the next chapter of KBL in the near future, and handing off the delivery of their courses to trained coaches. They are also eager to explore more speaking engagements.

“Leverage is a really exciting part about Red Cape,” says Kathy. “The results that we’ve gotten from organizations and the feedback are very exciting. Red Cape was able to pave the way. This has opened up new avenues of business and given us the opportunity to build more streams of income.” 

Kathy and Brad Lambert have come a long way since July 2021, and have surpassed all previous expectations in their financial growth and impact. They continue to do amazing work at KBL Impact Partners to ignite nonprofit leaders and empower their organizations to create a life-changing impact in their communities. We wish them all the best!