How Claima Stories is empowering a new generation of creatives

Claima Stories with Bimma is a Career Discovery Podcast created by Bimma Williams and BJ Frogozo to help BIPOC creatives claim their dream careers by offering them exposure to life-altering opportunities.

‘Claima’ is short for ‘claim a seat at the table,’ a slogan co-founder Bimma Williams has set his compass to. He was born and raised in Baton Rouge, where his parents were employed in a chemical plant – a life he says that couldn’t be further removed from his current day-to-day. It was a pop-up marketing event from a sneaker company that got him started on what many might consider a dream career path, working with major activewear brands. But there was a stark lack of black, brown, and indigenous (BIPOC) representation around him, especially at the higher levels of corporate leadership.

Claima Stories is working to change that experience for the younger generation, one story at a time. During the one on one podcast interviews, Bimma explores the inspiring stories of top talent of color and the incredible careers they’ve been able to claim. “Whether they are designers or photographers, filmmakers or artists, we want to make sure that we could give them stories from people of all different walks of life that identify as BIPOC creatives,” says Williams. “I try to keep myself fueled by reminding myself what we’re doing, reminding myself about the young creatives that we’re here trying to help inspire.”

Keeping that mission in motion – especially during a pandemic – isn’t always easy. Fortunately for Williams, tools like QuickBooks exist so he can keep track of the challenges and scaling needed for building a storytelling business.

It was during the pandemic, in fact, that Claima Stories found a new studio space and brought employees on payroll. It was also when Williams made the difficult decision to leave his full-time job to devote himself to Claima Stories, which was gaining increasing momentum.

“What I think is amazing about QuickBooks is just being able to see our financial outlook holistically,” Williams says. “Thinking through how QuickBooks has been able to play a role into playing confidence in the [payroll process] can’t be overstated.” And it’s working. Season two of the podcast is soon to be released, bringing even more points of inspiration to Claima Stories with Bimma listeners all around the world.