Apex Current founder & SBA THRIVE Subject Matter Expert, Corbitt Chandler.
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 26, 2022 — The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced that Corbitt Chandler, founder and CEO of Apex Current, will serve as the Digital Marketing and Social Media Subject Matter Expert (SME) for T.H.R.I.V.E. Emerging Leaders Reimagined, a c-suite level training program for small business leaders.
"The T.H.R.I.V.E. Emerging Leaders Reimagined initiative is designed to equip up-and-coming small business leaders with tools, knowledge, and access to the brightest minds in economic development and business," stated Mark Madrid, Associate Administrator of the Office of Entrepreneurial Development. "Under the Biden-Harris Administration and Administrator Guzman's leadership, the SBA is tirelessly working to empower small business owners, to fuel their growth, and continue bolstering our nation's historic economic surge. We are energized, mobilized, and ready for action."
The program aims to cultivate strong leaders and boost the growth of high-potential small businesses throughout the United States. It provides complimentary entrepreneurship education and training to executives of qualifying high-performing small businesses. The six-month intensive executive entrepreneurship training series will encompass in-person coaching, self-paced learning, mentoring, and classroom instruction.
Participants will collaborate with a network of experienced SMEs specializing in core business topics, each tailored to meet the unique needs of small business owners. These topics span across accounting, business strategy, marketing, human resources, and, of course, digital marketing.
“It’s a privilege to be chosen as one of the program’s Subject Matter Experts,” commented Corbitt Chandler, the founder of the performance-driven digital marketing agency, Apex Current. “I've always relished the process of teaching and training small business owners how to grow their businesses using effective, strategic, paid digital advertising & social media strategies that yield tangible results. I'm eager to deliver as much value as possible to these owners and positively influence their small businesses.”
The initiative is spearheaded by the SBA’s Office of Entrepreneurial Development, which has collaborated with Isom Global Strategies (IGS), a strategic marketing and management firm based in Washington, D.C. This fresh partnership between the SBA and IGS aims to perform a significant revamp of the program's infrastructure, virtualizing certain aspects post-pandemic.
The program's intensive curriculum includes 66 total hours of training, comprising 33 hours of in-person classroom sessions with a business coach and 33 hours of online video training modules led by SMEs. Approximately 1,000 business owners participating in this year's program will be the first to experience this new online segment.
SMEs from across the country, each an expert in their field, have been carefully selected. These SMEs, contracted by the SBA, will develop course content and record video training modules for their sections of the online course. Topics covered include effective leadership, business planning, raising capital, culture, driving sales, and digital marketing & social media strategies.
For the Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategies sections of the program, the SBA chose Chandler due to his extensive experience as a digital marketing expert and successful entrepreneur. These parts of the program will include two core sections, with Chandler leading the paid digital and social media marketing sections and fellow SME, Tani Lopez, a social media creator and entrepreneur, leading the segments related to organic social media management.
“I’m excited to collaborate with Tani, who’s extremely talented in her field, to develop these modules,” said Chandler. “Although our roles are different, they are two sides of the same coin. Our shared goal is for participants to derive the maximum value possible from our allocated time.”
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About Corbitt Chandler:
Recognized as one of Birmingham’s Top CEOs by the BBJ in 2018, Corbitt Chandler is an entrepreneur, digital marketer, consultant as well as the founder of multiple startups including, Apex Current, which has received many accolades which includes being ranked by DesignRush as one of the Top 10 ROI-Driven Digital Marketing Agencies in the U.S. in 2020. As a digital marketing innovator, Chandler has mastered a wide variety of digital ad serving platforms, adjacent technologies, backend applications and online strategies and is a highly sought after consultant by brands across the U.S. and abroad for his expertise as a Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) specialist. To learn more about Corbitt Chandler click here or to learn more about his agency, Apex Current click here.
About SBA T.H.R.I.V.E.:
The U.S. Small Business Administration’s T.H.R.I.V.E. Emerging Leaders Reimagined is a 6-month intensive training program that helps CEOs and Executives get unstuck and take their business to the next level. Accelerate your leadership skills, learn an MBA-level curriculum, receive tailored business coaching, and build relationships with a community of business owners, advisors, and experts. To learn more about SBA T.H.R.I.V.E. click here.
