Ep 43: Shattering Norms: 10 Rules Every Changemaker Should Break

EPISODE 43

 
 
 

Let’s explore the 10 rules that every changemaker should break to let go of the notion of a right and wrong way to grow. These rules challenge conventional wisdom and provide new perspectives on scaling organizations, marketing strategies, and more. Let's dive in and discover how breaking these rules can lead to growth and success in pursuing your mission.

“Rule #1 to break: Waiting until you feel ready. This is the rule that, if you decide to break, will make you the most money.””

  1. Rule #1: Waiting until you feel ready: One of the biggest obstacles to progress is waiting for the perfect moment to take action. Many entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders fall into the trap of wanting to feel completely prepared before launching their initiatives. However, this mindset often leads to missed opportunities and stagnation. Instead, embrace the mindset of readiness based on a feeling of readiness rather than perfection. Taking action when you have a strong sense of purpose will propel you forward and open doors to success.

  2. Rule #2: Seeking buy-in from others: Waiting for approval and buy-in from those around you can hinder your progress. Often, seeking validation from others can stifle innovation and creativity. Instead, trust your instincts and make decisions based on your own judgment. While seeking feedback and advice is valuable, ultimately, it is up to you to determine the direction of your organization or business.

  3. Rule #3: Breaking free from "best practices": The notion of "best practices" suggests that there is a single right way to do things. However, in reality, there are countless paths to success. Embrace the idea that your unique approach and perspective are valuable. Trust your intuition and experiment with different strategies to find what works best for your mission and goals.

  4. Rule #4: Defying marketing rules: Conventional marketing wisdom often dictates specific rules for timing and frequency of communication. However, breaking free from these rules can provide you with the flexibility to tell your story authentically and engage with your audience on your terms. Embrace the freedom to send emails or share content when you feel compelled to do so, rather than strictly adhering to predetermined schedules.

  5. Rule #5: Embracing imperfection: The pressure to present a polished and flawless image can be overwhelming. However, allowing room for imperfections can be liberating and authentic. Recognize that making mistakes is a natural part of the growth process and prioritize progress over perfection. Embrace your humanity and let go of the need to be flawless in every aspect of your work.

  6. Rule #6: Challenging the idea of "slow and steady": While the adage "slow and steady wins the race" may hold some truth, it can also hinder growth and innovation. Sometimes, taking calculated risks and making bold leaps forward can yield greater rewards. Embrace the idea of quantum leaps—momentum-building actions that propel you toward your goals.

  7. Rule #7: Rethinking the 80/20 rule: The 80/20 rule suggests that the majority of your content should be educational or informative, with only a small percentage focused on selling or fundraising. However, in the digital age, where engagement and storytelling are paramount, this rule may limit your impact. Instead, prioritize building relationships and connecting with your audience on a deeper level, while still delivering valuable content.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to the Purpose and Profit Club podcast for nonprofit leaders, mission-driven creatives and social entrepreneurs. Get ready to stop dreaming and start doing. Here, ideas become action. We prioritize purpose and profit. You ready, let's go. I've been working on this list of what I'm calling the 10 rules that every changemaker should break, and this list is, by far and away, the rules that I've learned along the way that I'm intentionally breaking that are either breaking the norm of the air quotes, right way to scale your organization or business, the right way to market, the right way to blah, blah, blah. So this is going to be that. This is going to be the 10 rules that I think you should really consider breaking and to empower you to pull from my list and maybe look at what are some of the rules in your life that you've just been accepting on autopilot, accepting on purpose, that maybe you don't want to keep around, maybe aren't so helpful in growing your mission and your impact. Okay, rule number one to break Waiting until you feel ready. I would argue this probably is the rule. If you decide to break, it will make you the most money. So waiting to feel ready is something that many entrepreneurs, many nonprofit leaders, anyone who really has to go out into the world to sell or to fundraise or to make an impact. It feels really nervous and it feels really what is the word Like, really just nervous and I can't think of the word to put yourself out there and be seen. And when you are fundraising, when you are telling your story, when you are making an offer, you want to wait. Like, inherently, we want to wait till we feel good and ready. Like I have my teas crossed, my eyes dotted, i've got the exact right thing to say. I have the brochure, i have the perfect website, i have the perfect blah, blah, blah, you know. And once I have those things, then I can go do the hard thing, which is to make the ask, make the pitch, do the thing, launch the promo, launch the campaign. So waiting until you feel ready is one of the biggest reasons why people fail. It's one of the biggest things that keep organizations and businesses stuck. So first rule to break wait till you feel ready. I don't wait till I feel ready. I wait till I feel like, like I just it's go time. That's the closest version I can think of of putting on an outfit to go out on, you know, saturday night and you're like, yeah, all right, this feels good. It is not perfect, it is not like the outfit of all outfits, it's good enough and we go. Because, why? Because it's not about putting on the perfect outfit, it's about going to do the thing that you're about to do. I'm thinking about how I got to see an amazing concert on Saturday night and it was so, so fun and I just danced for almost two hours. So great. You love LCD sound system, like I do, you know, and it wasn't about the outfit. I had a cute outfit, i felt good enough about it, but it was about being there and seeing them play and listening and dancing and all the things All right. Rule number two This is a big one Be buying buy-in from people around you. Okay, that is a rule to break. Do not wait for buy-in from people around you. And you might be thinking, of course, not Why would I do that? But buy, waiting for buy-in is actually sneaky. You could have a really great idea for a campaign and be waiting for another staff or team member or leadership to say that's a great idea. You should do that And in fact, you could just decide to do that, like if your role has that ability, or maybe you're the director or founder and you're thinking kind of, want to do this thing. This would be kind of a cool campaign, or this would be a kind of a cool platform to try or cool content piece to try, and maybe you mention it to your partner or you mention it to a friend especially when you mention it to somebody outside of your industry a parent, a neighbor, right, your brother, your sister, whoever And they give you that ur face and then you're like, oh yeah, that wasn't such a good idea or that won't work. Do not wait for buy-in from people around you, especially the people who have nothing to do with what you do, especially the people who don't serve in your sector. Now, the caveat to this too, or the other way to think about it, is well okay, but the people who also serve in your sector may also be terrible people to pitch this idea to, because they also may be stuck in their ways. They may be stuck in a content rut. They may be stuck in rear view thinking where they're just rinse and repeat of last year and the years prior. Right, and you have to be the disruptor, you have to be the pioneer. It's especially if you are the founder of your organization, like that's on you. When I used to run an agency, there was a lot of this rule right, we all have to agree, we all have to agree, And it is one of the slowest crawls in decision making. And one of the best reasons why I love doing what I do now is the only person I have to agree is me, and I stopped asking for buy-in from people around me. It wasn't necessary. It isn't necessary. I decide whether or not something is within my values, within what I can handle my bandwidth, and I go right, don't wait for buy-in. Another third rule to break Error quotes. Best practices say blank. This is the idea of believing that there is a right strategy or right way or best practice to implement something. So this could be your email marketing, this could be your social media content, this could be an online fundraiser, this could be a discovery meeting Anything. Somebody said to me recently. They were talking about donor cultivation And I could feel rule number three just like. It was like a red light flashing up their head when they were talking. Oh, best practices say this is the donor cultivation cycle. Best practices say this is the client cultivation cycle And I have one way to do it. But that's not true. And the reason why we know that's not true is because when you walk into the bookstore and you go find if you're looking for a book on sales or you are looking for a book on fundraising or looking for a book on email marketing, there is not just one book. There are dozens, hundreds of books on one singular topic, one singular outcome and goal, and that proves to me that there are a thousand ways to get there And no one knows the best way, especially for you and your mission. You know the best way, so releasing this idea of best practices is one of the most fraying things you could do in actually creating something that's really compelling and really interesting and different. Fourth rule to break Breaking the marketing rules. And one of the marketing rules that I break is I send emails when I want to. So the marketing rule that we would hear is you should have an email, go out the same day and time a week, and that is awesome. If you currently do that, go forth, keep going. But the marketing rule that works for me isn't that, and there are many people that have signed up for my courses and programs who would be like yeah, me neither. I can't send things at the exact same day at a time, so I'm not going to send them at all. And that's where I think it can be such an insidious rule, right, it can be such a detrimental rule to keep, so for me. I don't keep that rule for a couple of different reasons. One it gives me the freedom and flexibility to tell the stories I want to tell when I want to tell them, in the voice that I want to tell them. So knowing that I don't have to send an email on Wednesdays at 3 PM gives me the freedom and flexibility to send it at Monday at 10 AM, if that's when I feel like it. You feel me Now. Might I get into a cadence and have I before where I do send it at a specific time? Sure, but that's because I believe there is no right best time to send an email. I also believe that I get to email my audience more than one time a week. Super fun, right? Because I can email my audience and decide that they want to hear from me more than once a week, right? Or maybe they missed the first email and so I'm going to send them another email. So breaking that marketing rule has been really, really like Pivotal to my own and I know your own organization's growth and revenue. All right. Next rule number five No typos. You're supposed to be professional and polished, right? So anything you put out on the internet your emails, your social content, any piece of anything, should be typo free and polished, because that means that it's air quotes professional. So there's a Instagrammer that I follow that hopefully will be on the podcast soon And she was talking about this idea of somebody basically policing her typos. Recently She had a typo on a Instagram carousel and she saw the typo and decided to leave it in for a couple of different reasons, but the person I'm going to pause it and go find this post, so hang on, okay. So she linked to a study that was saying that judging others and calling out their typos is a projection of your own insecurities, which is 100% true. Like that's kind of like the mean trolling we see on the internet, right On the interwebs, and for me I decided, when it comes to email or social, those two things in particular, i get it to, you know, 80, 90%, i run it through Grammarly or whatever I have on on deck there and I send it and you know what, sometimes it doesn't catch something, sometimes something's a little clunky or I didn't misspell a word but the syntax is a little off and it's fine, and that I used to sweat a lot. And this idea that you that means you're unprofessional or that means you know I'm your shit together or you're not polished or whatever. I decided to throw all that out. I decided that that wasn't true. But in fact I'm just doing the work, i'm just getting it out there into the universe. I'd rather be that way than sound like chat GPT wrote it, which I don't hate, chat GPT, but I have noticed because I use it all the time. It is super helpful, but it sounds so formal and polished that it doesn't sound like anyone at all right, and I'm constantly kind of just taking the. It's almost like the bulleted notes it gives me, for certain things are very, very helpful, but the voice it's like too professional, it's sterile, right. So typos and being polished versus being imperfect. I decided, guess what? I'm imperfect, so are you, and so if there is an imperfection somewhere, there was a pop up on my website once that had a typo in it And somebody was very quick to tell me, oh, there's a typo in this word. I was like, all right, okay, but like I don't mind you letting me know that there's a misspelling like that. But I could feel the underpinnings of it like, oh, you're welcome, you're welcome, i really saved you. I'm like not really. I think I later that week put it on the to do list. It wasn't something I raced to do, it's okay. Humans make mistakes and I'm human, so no sweat. All right, 10 rules to break one number six. Number six Slow and steady wins the race. This was one that, about a decade ago, i really thought was true. Like I thought the best way to grow personally and professionally, as it as it pertains to revenue, was slow and steady. Because my, my thought was slow and steady means I'm being like cool and calculated and not growing too quickly and not burning the candle and all these other things right. But what I realized was slow and steady was actually a really beautiful like mirror or thought, one of my smoking mirrors for me set, being a perfectionist, for me, being worried and waiting till I felt ready. So what I mean is slow and steady was my business growth, was it was okay year over year over year, but it was. It was slow and steady, but so was my marketing. My marketing was safe and slow and steady. So were my relationships, my partnerships, my business relationships. Slow and steady, right, it was like comfy and cozy, that's the word that I had. The words that I have written down in these notes here is slow and steady for me meant comfy and cozy And it doesn't mean I was like leading a comfy and cozy life is that's kind of. The irony of it is that in that, perfection actually kept me. I was working more hours, harder hours, longer hours, because when you are seeking for the perfect anything you're like over editing, you're overthinking, you're over all of it right, and that's exhausting. The other side of that. So slow and steady Instead broke that rule Instead of what I actually like is this idea of quantum leaps, these big expansive leaps, not all the time, but sometimes these big moments where you're like you know what? I'm 85% ready and I'm going to make the jump. Here we go Right. I'm thinking of like the way kids are If you push a kid on a swing, at some point they learn to pump them their legs, they get really high And then at some point they decide they want to do the like jump off the swing, dismount right. Well, the first time you do it, you've literally never done it before. So the first time they do it they end up kind of in a tumble usually, or they end up on the buttons or they end up very rarely in a perfect like landing on their feet right, and that's kind of. The point is like I'd rather it be a quantum leap where I'm like ooh, i think I can do this, i think I can do this And maybe I wobble a little bit, but I kind of or like a gymnast, you know, you kind of wobble on that landing but you don't fall all the way. That's really a lot more fun for me than slow and steady. Rule number seven this may be controversial and this will be its own podcast at some point. Working on it is the 80 20 rule. The 80 20 rule is this idea that 80% of your contents should be educational and 20% and aspirational stories, et cetera, and 20% should be air quotes, selling or fundraising or something like that. I think that if you follow the 80 20 rule, that is a perfect way to go out of business because, specifically for the digital world we live in 20% of the time. If you look at, let's see a month that would be like two posts in a month where you would actually be selling or offering whatever it is you do, or fundraising. I know in Manu's interview Manu from your social team on the podcast she talked about this too. She's like there's no way she would have hit the seven figure mark if she was following that rule Also remember it being the rule of seven. I'm going to share that with you. The rule of seven says that the potential buyer needs to hear the marketing message seven times before they make the purchase. So if you are selling something, offering something, if you are fundraising, that means that they would need to see or hear the fundraising message seven times before they say, yep, donate. Now the rule of seven has turned into the rule of 18 because we are so distracted. The algorithm is what it is. So that tells me how can you have both? How can you have the rule of seven or the rule of 18 and the 80-20 rule? The numbers don't match. So one of the rules that I inched my way into breaking were these was the 80-20 rule, because I knew that there aren't enough hours in the day to constantly be doing that, only 20% of the time, making offers, no one would know how I could help and I wouldn't be able to help as many people. Period, that's it. If only one or two days a month did I talk about my workshops, my courses, my coaching, i wouldn't be able to help that many people And that's doing myself and you a disservice. The same thing for what you do. What I like to do is a couple of different things instead. I still think the educational pieces are valuable and important, so that my audience or your audience knows what it is you do and that it works. But I think you can sell, you can make offers, you can invite people in to take action in all of those. I don't think that you have to wait until like one or two days a month where you get to offer people to take action. Rule number eight Rule number eight has taken some time to get there because a lot of the marketing air quote gurus will tell you different. They say often that you should be known for one thing. You should have one core signature offer, one core thing and that should be what you're known for, like one. Drill it down and maybe after a certain level you can have. A second thing, a couple of reasons why I learned I'm just breaking the rule Like that is the worst rule ever for me. One is because I have been a lifelong entrepreneur. I've been doing this my entire life And if I had one core offer, i'd be leaving so much on the table that I can help you with that. It doesn't make any sense. So, for example, i only said I can help you with your influencer marketing strategy. That's it. I can teach you how to work with influencers and it's going to be great. That's it. It's like this most tunnel vision way for me to help you in your organization And it doesn't really do anyone service. Because I'm sitting here thinking but what about your email strategy? But what about how you're thinking? Because if you're thinking that both of these are hard and won't work, then none of it matters None of the strategy, none of the how to matters. So I zoomed out and while I have sunset some of my offers a lot of them I've decided it's okay. It's okay for me to be a little bit of a Swiss army knife where I'm like I can't help you with your email. I can help you with social and fundraising and making money and scaling and systems. I can absolutely it's the most fun to help you with how you're thinking and your mindset, so that you enjoy the process of your day to day role, your day to day organization And it feels like something you want to be doing versus a grind. Okay, so let me self do that. And there are a lot of people who would say don't do that, can't do this, you can't do coaching this way, you can't do it this way, and I think that if that's for them, that's for them to decide And that's for you to decide. So I'm going to translate this a couple of different ways. So if you're an impact-driven business, then maybe you're thinking I got to have one kind of core thing that I'm known for And maybe you have one core thing you've known for. Once you master that, i feel fine. Once you have a system and process in place for that, i feel fine. With you being known for more right For scaling that versus just constantly going like deeper within that niche And for nonprofits. It's very similar in the sense of if you have a program or a service, you don't want to just throw spaghetti at the wall and have a bunch of different ideas of programs and services and do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But it is okay, as you grow, to grow broader within the sector you serve, and that's okay. Or it is okay for you to be a little bit of like somebody who's cross-trained, maybe even within your role of not being so hyper-specific that you're like I can only do this and I can't do that, i can't do this, i can't do that. For me deciding that I wasn't going to specialize in this one tiny core niche thing, it gives me the ability for my organizations who work with me to see exponential growth, because if they hired me and all we did was work on this one specific thing, they would be missing the rest of it. And I guess it's like I also have proof of that because I've worked with organizations on this one specific thing And it's like, oh, but we could be doing some much more. We could be making so much more of a profound impact if we thought about this holistically, if we thought about this entire strategy, this entire growth strategy as a whole, and we thought about how you're thinking about it. So the both of the pieces have worked really beautifully, both for me on how much I enjoy what I'm doing, and also for my clients in the ROI that they see. All right, rule number nine you have to finish something all the way. Whether you like it or you don't like it, you have to finish it all the way. I don't believe that at all. Okay, here's a couple of instances. So, as an online course creator, a lot of times I'll hear from other course creators this idea of well, my students aren't finishing my courses or some flavor of that. Right, how do I get them to finish? And what I noticed was as a user, as a student of online courses, when I sign up for something, many times I'm signing up because of a pain point or something I want to learn. Once I learn that thing, i get it, i go and implement, it's done. And that means sometimes I don't need to finish the whole course. That means maybe I needed the first two modules or the last two modules because I already knew the first two and I just jumped and got what I needed. So I myself, as a student, sometimes don't need to finish anything like to get 100% to finish it out. Right, i got what I needed. Same thing, same practice for finishing for not finishing something you don't like. Okay, you don't have to finish something you don't like. Now, if this is a new marketing tactic or strategy, i usually recommend that you start, that you commit before you start three to six months. So if you're deciding to do TikTok, for example, i want you to commit to a cadence of how often you're going to post each week, and I want you to commit at least three months before you say it didn't work. So this isn't that. But this is the idea of basically punishing yourself through something that you just do not enjoy like that. You have to finish it, because air quotes, finishing is what matters. I think you get to just abandon something that as long as it is not something you're promising a client, promising somebody receiving your services too, but if it's something that you're just not enjoying or you got what, you need it, and I'm going to give you a personal example of this. I believe and you may have heard this before time is our most precious resource, right? You have a very limited amount of time each day. One of the things that I do regularly, as I don't finish shows like, i'll watch like four episodes, seven episodes of a show, one episode of a show and then I just completely abandoned it. I'm like, eh, i don't love it, i don't have to finish it. There's literally no rule. I've gone through watching like three or four seasons of something and I just never watched the ending. And it's fine which I know for many of you may sound nuts but I'm like, eh, i'm over it, i'm not into it And that's okay. Like, you don't have to finish something. This may even be like a marketing book you're reading where. You're like, eh, you know, the first half was really good, but this next half isn't what I needed, isn't speaking to me, isn't whatever? Don't finish something just because you feel like you have to. I guess that's just what I want to get from this rule of like doing something because you think you have to finishing something, from the thought or belief that I have to. I invested in this, so I have to finish it, which is a little bit like throwing bad. What about bad money after good? Like, if you got what you needed in the first half, it's okay to be done and not finish it out, okay. Last rule, rule number 10. You should be an expert in something before you talk about it, before you use it in your work before you reference it. Okay. So, for example, if you're learning a newer tactic and you're like, ooh, i want to try this out, especially women, i think we think, well, i don't, i haven't actually tried this before, i haven't done it before, or I only read about it, so I'm not actually gonna bring it up, and this idea of, like, i'm not an expert in it, right. But the truth is, how do you become an expert in something? Right, how do you become an expert in something? How do you become an expert at, like, doing the swing and then jumping off and landing on your feet? You become an expert not through reading about it, not through asking other people about how they did it. You become an expert in it by doing it. So that disconnect of again, really step one, waiting to feel ready, and then rule one, right, and then rule 10 here, waiting to feel like an expert before you try it, do it, use it, talk about it. The truth is, we learn through action. So sometimes I will lean on statistics, i will lean on a recent study, i will lean on a science of something or a book I read and I might not have finished the book, rule nine And then I go, i take action, and the reason why that works really well for me is because I don't want to follow something to the T. Maybe you've noticed that through this whole thing a little bit of a rule breaker, i want to get like it's like getting the inspiration going And then I just want to do it my own way. As I'm talking about this, i'm thinking about how I cook And there are people who love to bake and there are people who don't. And there are people who, you know, are pretty good in the kitchen, like to cook and who follow recipes, and there are people who don't. Just like my mom, i'm not a recipe follower. I look for the shell of the recipe to be like oh yeah, i need parsley in that right, right, right, or I can know, and I just like, cannot follow a recipe. I cannot. You know the little teaspoon measuring things. I'm never going to measure spices ever. I'm always going to eyeball it, i'm always going to just kind of pinch And that really has. If you, if I apply that way of cooking in the kitchen, because I'm going to pinch it, i'm going to cook it, i'm going to taste as I go, i'm going to season as I go that same thing. That's a much more exciting body of work. That's a much more exciting campaign, because it wasn't follow the leader. Now, the caveat for my bakers is, as you know, you cannot do that in baking, which is why I don't love to bake, because you need to be very precise in baking, otherwise The cake's not going to rise, it's going to taste to something or it's not going to have the right crumb or whatever right. So I get it. That's the difference between my bakers and my. I don't know my, my chefs, i guess I don't know the difference of of the names, but that precision is necessary there, and I'd rather have the precision of my own voice, my own brand, my own, my own internal strategy, my own buy-in for myself, than waiting for buy-in from other people, waiting for figuring out the best practices, to say, waiting to make a tiny little sneaky offer because I'm following the 80-20 rule, making a small, small ask in the bottom of this fundraising email or social post, waiting for something to be perfectly polished with the great graphic and the perfect set of words. No, no, take it to 80, 90% and we go, and we go and we go. That's how your organization grows And that's how you enjoy the process of it. Because we don't want this, or at least I don't want this homogenous group of CEOs and EDs and founders who all are talking about their positioning and their values and their stories in the same way. I want to hear the way that you tell a story. I want to hear the way that you decide to make an offer. I want to hear the way that you decide to invite a donor to a meeting, and I don't want to be on the receiving end of 10 organizations asking me for a donor meeting in the exact same way, in the exact same voice. Right, it's a boring way to live. So go break some rules. Go break some rules And tell me which ones. Let's do this. Tell me which ones resonated with you the most and maybe which ones you want to adapt to your life and take some time to find your own rules to break. Okay, see you next time. You know how they say you should enjoy the journey, not just the destination. Have you ever wondered how do I crack the code to do that? I can help you do that. I can help you not only achieve your biggest, most daring goals, but the journey to get there. No more overwhelm, no more self-doubt. I want to invite you to book a call with me. Go to splendidatlcom, forward slash book.

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PodcastChristina Edwardspurpose and profit, marketing, entrepreneurship, purpose driven, nonprofit, founder, social impactComment