Rising Stars: Meet Kandice Porter

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kandice Porter.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
In 2012, I was tired of working in corporate America. I was actually done with it all! I had graduated with my degree in music liberal arts in 2006 from Xavier University of Louisiana. This was after hurricane Katrina pushed our 2005 graduation date back. I felt like I was missing out on my purpose. That I had spent all this time and money on a degree that I was not using. My faith is very important to me, and I prayed for a way out. “God if you release me from corporate America, I promise to work my butt off!” I was working at Apria Healthcare at the time and I will never forget the day I walked in my boss’s office and said, “I’m putting in my two week notice.”

I started as Kandiva’s Studio of Music, where I was teaching private voice and piano lessons and family music classes. I then started focusing my efforts solely on family music classes and changed the name to Mile High Mini Music. I then realized that someone already had that name, so I kind of went nameless for a little bit while I was trying to figure out my footing. In 2015, I had come in contact with a fantastic program hosted by RMMFI! They taught me the ins and outs of entrepreneurship. The knowledge obtained there was just what I needed! I then underwent yet another name change, which is my current name, Bonding to the Beat!

By this time in life, I had a focus on what the business would be and that was to serve preschool-aged children in the area of music. I now had a title! And that was Preschool Music Enrichment! I felt like a superhero! People would ask, “Kandice what is your business?” And I will proudly answer, “A preschool music enrichment program!” So from there, I knew how to market my business. I knew who to target. And people knew how to find me.

In 2018, I felt that there was a shift happening. I was working really hard teaching music enrichment at a school that I loved working at. Even though I was not operating in my business full time, I was still doing what the business was about. I was hustling! Working my daycare facilities under Bonding to the Beat in the morning, and going to work at the school in the afternoon. Did I mention that all of this was happening while I was pregnant with twins? I know… pretty wild!

In 2019, I received a straight up and down miracle. I was positioning myself for growth. I hired two employees, I was training, onboarding, making uniforms, talking to my lawyer about how to classify them, the whole nine!!! I had NO idea what I was doing, but somehow, they were the newest employees of Bonding to the Beat! I was so proud. But felt like I didn’t have enough work for them, but I held on to them anyway.

In February of 2019, I received a message from one of the members of the men’s choir at my church. I was the director of the choir and I had contact with this gentleman almost every Thursday. He would always travel around the state of Colorado to various places and I knew it involved kids. I concluded that he was a college football coach that was helping kids either get into college or something like that. I actually had no idea what he did. (Stick with me, this story is going somewhere!)

One day while I was wearing a jacket from the school that I worked at in the afternoons, he asked, “Kandice, what is the age range of the kids that you like to work with?” My response, “Well, I work with kids ages 0-14 (at the time), but my favorite is preschool-aged children” He shook his head and kept it moving.

Now back to February 2019, I receive a message from this gentleman saying, “Kandice, a lot of people don’t know this, but I am the CEO of a chain of daycare facilities and I want to integrate your program in all of our daycare centers!” So of course, I was a little hesitant. But after many discussions, he kept his word and we moved from being in just three daycare facilities in Denver to being in over 20 daycare facilities all over Colorado! Of course, our team had to grow as well. I went from being a party of 1, to 3 to a team of eight individuals all over the state! It was such a beautiful thing! Then… there was COVID-19…

In January of 2020, we were rolling! Business was booming. I was talking to other head start programs about getting started with music enrichment at their facility. We had just signed on with a couple of other schools. We were in demand. But that demand came to a screeching halt (Just like a lot of other demands) during the pandemic. We had no daycare facilities to go to anymore. My team of eight dwindled down to a team of about 4. Then 3. I was in a panic because everyone was saying PIVOT PIVOT! And I was thinking to myself HOW!! How does a service-based business pivot! I was in a little bit of an uproar because the beautiful success that we had seen prior to covid was now gone in the blink of an eye… literally.

So we went digital. It was then the hardest shift and it was really really hard on the business. The contract that we had received from my friend at church expired in February 2021. So at that point, I had to let the remaining four staff members go. So now it was right back to Bonding to the Beat, party of one. So I had to go back to where I started, and that was with God. My conversation looked a little something like this… “Hey God… what in the world is going on? And what do I do with this?” My directive was to go Digital. Fully, and boldly, So I did. And that is where we are now.

At this point in time, I am creating really fun Digital children’s content that can be seen on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Even Ticktock every now and again. I am really having a great time and I am so glad that I was able to use the opportunity of losing my biggest contract to make me a stronger entrepreneur. We have some really cool things in the works and I absolutely can not wait to share it with the world.

As you can see, this has been a rollercoaster of an experience, but I am so sure that I am exactly where I am supposed to be right now and I am headed in the right direction to where God is leading me. So again, my seatbelt is on tight, and I am in it for the ride!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I have learned to be grateful for every single season. For the seasons where there is no sign of any new business or leads insight. For the seasons where the important people know our name and we are in high demand. For the seasons where we are sitting face to face in classrooms all over Colorado full of little ones bursting with imagination and where we are feeding off of their energy and creating a magical music experience. To the times where it’s just me, my phone, a green screen, my guitar and an empty room. For the times where money is not a worry and I don’t have to check my account before I purchase something, to the times where I am trusting God so that I am able to make payroll. It’s just a balance. I have learned that the smooth and the struggle yield different results, but I should remain steadfast in how I handle both because both of the lessons are equally important.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Bonding to the Beat is a faith-based and traditional music enrichment program for children. We teach basic music techniques infused with life lessons. We are always mindful to create an experience that expands beyond the classroom, but an experience that families can bond to with one another in the home setting. When we were in the classrooms, the whole facility would be so happy to see us coming! The little ones said this was the best part of their week. We were the superheroes! We helped to make the day fun and exciting.

Post-Covid, we are in the process of creating a digital platform where children can be engaged and learn some really cool things in the process. While working with our contact that allowed us to serve underprivileged students and with the current climate of our world, I learned that my heart is where the underprivileged children are. It’s something about providing little ones with something that they have never had before, that lit my world on fire.

As a mother with brown kids, my heart breaks for the world they are growing up in. My heart breaks with just the thought of someone telling them that they are ugly because they have brown skin. Or that they are a threat. Or that they are weird or look funny because their hair is a different texture. My heart breaks for the little children of color who will be told that they will never amount to anything or be treated unfairly simply because they are brown. That makes my heart heart and I have decided to place my focus and my efforts on just that. Celebrating our children of color through music enrichment and life lessons. Where through my program, they will feel free to be themselves fully and completely without judgment. That they will be celebrated, acknowledged in a positive way, displayed as kind-hearted individuals and treated as humans. This type of talk starts with little ones from birth, so it’s my goal to help change the narrative and allow kids to see something different. That there are present black fathers. That mom is not always mad and mean. That its ok to rock your afro puffs! That you can be the majority in your own space, unapologetically!

I am most proud of the fact that myself, along with three other minority mothers, have found a love for what we do. Not only are we mothers, but we are educators. We know exactly who our market is and we are going to give them every.single.thing that we have. Great quality programing from mothers of color for children of color. We want them to be celebrated in every.single.thing that they do our set out to do.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The lesson that I have learned along the way is to just be true to myself. And to stand for what I believe and to not be swayed either way. When I first started Bonding to the Beat, we were strictly Faith-Based. And that was so good. It was meaningful. But when we received our Head Start contract, we had to take faith out of it. So I had to challenge myself and stay true to myself. I was a little sad that I was not able to keep my faith-based component, but after working with the underserved communities and seeing how much their faces lit up and how important we were to them, I realized I was still doing ministry. So I felt like I lacked nothing. And now, through that experience, they have become the ones that I want to be down with the most! And it’s all because I was just true to who I was.

Another lesson that I learned, especially after the pandemic, is ALWAYS HAVE A DIGITAL OFFERING! There is NO WAY a business can thrive without it. I’m grateful for that lesson and I can’t wait to see what our newfound digital world has to offer us!

Contact Info:

• Email: kandice@bondingtothebeat.com
• Website: www.bondingtothebeat.com
• Instagram: @bondingtothebeat
• Facebook: @bondingtothebeat
• Youtube: @bondingtothebeat
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxC4CdzBIjlnqC72vp2UHcQ