Ep 72: Momentum Makers: 12 Lessons for Social Impact

EPISODE 72

Breaking Through the Fear in Nonprofit Marketing

 
 
 

I'm sharing a complete guide of 12 transformative lessons—to propel you forward into the coming year. We'll delve into what sets apart the most successful nonprofit leaders and changemakers. 

Have you ever felt the weight of judgment while promoting your cause or felt frustrated by revenue plateaus or a failed campaign? Let's navigate through these hurdles together, exploring strategies and insights that pave the way for growth, resilience, and impactful change. 

Think you’ve reached out to “everyone” in your network? Out of ideas to get noticed and get funded?  Generate leads for your nonprofit or social impact business: https://www.splendidcourses.com/prospect

Steal my Prospect List! Lead Gen just got a lot easier!

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TRANSCRIPT:

00:02

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 Well, hello, purpose and Profit Clubbers.

00:22

Today we're talking about the 12 lessons that I've learned from so many of the changemakers that I've coached this past year, and how you can apply those lessons to get momentum, find some joy along the way for next year. So we're going to cast the vision forward using these 12 lessons. Let's dig into the first one. The first one is a big one. It is all about leveraging your own voice of authority to speed up your results. So if you're not seeing the results you want fast enough, it feels like you're just kind of treading water. You want to think about your own voice of authority, not in like a dictator kind of way, but in a way of are you stepping into your own thought leadership? Are you doing it online, on social media, in the stories you tell through any printed or mailed pieces or online stories, in your email or social marketing, all of those stories? Are you really stepping into your voice of authority Saying? Are you saying this is who we're for, this is what we're about. This is what I'm passionate about. Are you even letting your own vernacular shine through, right? Are you saying dear Christina to everybody? Are you like, hey, christina, what's up? Or sometimes do you just start an email and you don't have a direct salutation? Because, by the way, you can do that.

Find out a couple of different things. What is my own tone, my own kind of? Do some inward, go inward and say what is my own tone, my own voice sound like? What do I sound like when I'm talking to a friend or a colleague or a stakeholder? What does that sound like? Is that actually translating to the words I write, the way that I actually show up in prospect meetings, the way that I show up in any written or social posts? Think about that. Why, or why not? What would it be like to actually move over to more of a thought leadership role, more of an expert in what it is you do? What would that be like? What would you need to inject? What would you need to stop doing? That's the first one.

02:25

Second one what you appreciate, appreciates Another way to say this is what you focus on. You get more of If you spent a majority of the year, thinking about how you don't have enough supporters, you don't have enough members, clients, customers, how giving is really down, how it's a really bad economy. You will find lots and lots of proof that that is true. You will also continue to prove it true. You won't find new donors. You will continue to find how you need more donors. You will continue to find that true. What you appreciate, appreciates. If instead you said to yourself holy crap, look at the hundreds or thousands of supporters that we already have. They're literally right here. I can see them in my CRM, I can see them at our event. Let me love on them, let me embrace them, let me send them a quick little note, let me send them something, let me actually take no action and just think of them. The way that you show up, when you're coming from that place of appreciation, of gratitude, of enough, will actually inform the actions you take.

Talked about it a while ago the think, feel, act cycle. It's very similar to what we talk about in cognitive or they talk about incognitive, behavioral psychology. But basically, very often the thoughts we're thinking inform, or the beliefs that we have inform, our feelings and our actions. If I'm thinking I don't have enough donors, I don't have enough supporters. Everything is down. I'm feeling pretty terrible, probably feeling pretty dejected. From the place of feeling dejected, what actions do I take? I can tell you, not very good ones, not very productive ones. The result of that is that I'm not going to find more donors from the place of dejected, I'm certainly not going to enjoy my role in any prospecting, marketing, outreach, etc. Fundraising Versus saying who's here already, who's shown up already, what do I already have, what is already here. How would I feel then? I might feel abundant. I might feel Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, content, I might feel possibility, right, and then I'm going to take different actions from them.

04:55

Number three taking daring action. Okay, that's a foundational value of the podcast, so it is a standard if you're here, but that you're willing to take daring action, okay. You'll never get there if you don't ask. What do I mean by that? I mean that even the ask process typically requires you to be daring. Typically, isn't something that is just an easy action, like filling out a survey online. That is not a daring action. A survey, right? Filling out a testimonial not a daring action, right. Writing an email usually not a daring action unless there's something really juicy in there, right? So you really want to think about how can I embrace daring action over the next 12 months? What are some daring actions that I've been avoiding that actually would be high ROI, high revenue producing activities. Think about that. What would be like? Three Like take a pause and say what would be three daring actions that I could take this week, this month, this year that would have a high ROI for my mission?

Fourth one embracing discomfort. Welcome to the gateway for your success Paved with a bunch of discomfort and a bunch of, like you know, that butterfly feeling and, honestly, a bunch of nose. A bunch of nose. I've told you before I am the guinea panque here, right Before I make any of my clients do any of this stuff. I've done this stuff right. So my business has been built with this right. It has been built with the fact that I hear nose, I hear I don't think so. I hear I feel wobbly, I feel nervous, I feel the butterfly feeling. Right, it's all part of the deal and the years way, way back when I didn't feel those feelings very much, I wasn't really doing much right. This is with a previous business when I was just kind of like it was very cozy and rinse and repeat and I was not lit up or excited about the work I was doing.

06:59

Okay, so for me I'm willing to feel a little uncomfortable, a little nervous, a little, a little something, a little little anxious, right, because I know that I'm in the arena, I know that I'm probably doing something that's important to me and my mission and it's worth it. On the other side, so it's not like discomfort in the sense of like I'm going to go make myself skydive tomorrow because I don't want to do that, and, yes, that would be uncomfortable. That's not the discomfort I'm talking about. I'm talking about giving a talk next year and it's a. It's a big stage and it is not a zoom stage. That will be with in front of thousands of people and that will be my flavor of a new layer of discomfort for myself. Or I'm like, okay, here we go, right, but I'm okay with that Because I that also means I get to reach thousands of people instantly and help them, help their organizations. What's that flavor for you?

Number five, anytime you're thinking or worried about judgment, like, oh, if I post that, if I send that, if I ask that, if I say that you're like they're going to think blank about me, they're going to say, blank, right, whatever that judgment is, judgment reflects more about them than about you. Okay, so what do I mean? I mean that if you're worried that somebody is like, oh, she's sending too many emails, or there they go, you know, asking me again, or something like that, which, by the way, none of y'all are sending too many emails. But if that is a concern, one of my easy email students just told me that that that was a concern of hers at first. Right Of like, if I increase my email frequency, people will be annoyed, right, but really it's your own judgment that you're worried about, not actually theirs, because we couldn't even know what they would be worried about, right, unless they actually tell us right, and that's okay. If you have a thousand people on your email list and one person responds as as you're emailing too much, I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that one person being like it's not my jam, it's not for me, and that person unsubscribing. That is the cost of me getting my voice out there, my mission out there, and I hope it is for you too. Okay. And the person who's like super aggro about you emailing, or the person who thinks that the video you posted Is dumb or has a typo in it or whatever it is right.

09:33

Whatever your judgment, whatever your concern is, that's because they're worried about their own typos, that's because they're feeling their own self, their own lack, that's because they don't have that confidence to put themselves out there most of the time. That's what's going on, like it's their own shit, it's their own stuff that they're working through. So two ways to think about judgment. One judgment, any judgment that you actually hear from the person like in the sense of I Didn't like that, I don't agree, you're doing this too much. Right, that often is their own stuff, they haven't worked out, or that they're feeling right. Or or the judgment you're projecting on people like I'm worried, that they'll think Maybe just something that you need to check yourself on, like is it true?

Is it a real worry? Is it okay? Is it okay that you're worried some people might subscribe and it's still? It's still an integrity and worth sending anyway, right? Going back to the previous one, which is like it's worth being a little uncomfortable over it. That's okay. I just got to the point, especially with social media, especially with running an online business, where I said it's okay. It's okay if I'm not for everyone. It's okay if people want to get their information elsewhere, if they want to join other programs, if they have an opinion about me, that's okay. That's not a great opinion, right, I just give it back. Right, it's their opinion about the world. It's like the person in traffic who's like super aggro and honking like I'm, like they got some stuff going on. They got some stuff going on like there, this has nothing to do with me not Going fast enough, that's their own grumps. So it's like let people have their own grumps and you stay clear on your path, right? Because worrying about pleasing their grumps about a stranger or somebody you barely know is Is the is like a ball and chain to moving your mission forward. Okay, 6th one Talk about influencers a little bit of a different way.

11:34

Be your own influencer first. So when I think about influencer marketing, I'm thinking about, you know, those social influencers that are Endorsing a product, brand, service, something right? Hey, this is awesome. You should try it too. I want you to think about is. It might be own influencer first for my mission If you don't believe in your mission like wholeheartedly, a hundred percent, whatever it is. You're pitching your campaign, your fundraiser, you're something it's going to be really hard for other people too. Okay, so it's almost like you. First, like I have to believe, as as the coach, in my coaching, in my programs, in the transformation that my clients get, in the programs I teach, in easy emails, in amplify social right, versus the other way around where I say, hey, students, is this any good, do you like this right? I need to influence myself first. I need to show up and believe in my mission first, so then I can invite people in right, versus the other way around.

Sometimes I see organizations who are like where, where is the visibility? Where are the people? Why aren't people championing us? Why aren't they advocating for us? And then when we kind of deep, we go kind of behind the curtain of the inner workings of the organization. There's a lot of wobbliness about the way they feel, about asking for money. There's a lot of wobbliness about their storytelling. It may not necessarily be wobbly in us, in the mission, the people they serve, etc. But in being out there, being seen right. So you need to be your own influencer first, right, figuring out how do I get a little bit more courageous, a little bit more confident in the process?

13:22

Number seven find the lightness, the joy and lean into the vision of what's possible in your storytelling. Okay, your mission may be serious, your mission may be hard, your mission may be heartbreaking, your mission may be sad, right, but your stories don't always have to be doomed in gloom. This is a mistake that a lot of organizations make. Okay, it doesn't matter if you're in necessarily like health, disease, healthcare, something like that, or or just a completely other other area. But I see this kind of as a through line of you know these really heavy stories, right, and those aren't the stories that we see repeat giving from. It's like telling the story of some sort of emergent thing. Right, you fall, you skin your knee, boom, here's the bandaid. Right. And it's like boom, here's your gift, here's a donation. Boom, stop the bleeding. Right.

But it's hard to build trust and loyalty when your stories are always doom and gloom, always emergent in that way. So I want you to think about what are some ways that we can tell stories that find the lightness, that embrace that, that find the joy, like there are giggles, there are funny moments there are at least contentment, there is some sort of happiness in every aspect of every single mission, like it exists. Okay, it doesn't have to be all rainbows and daisies, but you get what I'm saying about some harmony, some balance in between, okay. So figuring out that piece and also when you're storytelling, painting the picture of what's possible, is really, really important. As you are talking about finding the lightness, the joy, the something right, not being all you know six o'clock news, doom and gloom, not being so shocking with your imagery or your headline image or your headline text, right, thinking about how can I paint the picture of what's possible for our organization in a way that actually inspires people to take action, versus like triage, bandaid, stop the bleeding, right, because the inspiration is where we see repeat customers, members, donors. Okay, number eight, big one, big one, big one.

15:56

Break the marketing rules, break them all, throw them all out the window, whatever they are, whatever you're like, foundational marketing rule is go ahead and just toss it out. You don't need it because they are often keeping your organization stuck. So let's look at some that I love to break. One more is more More touch points, more outreach, more emails. Gives people more opportunity to say yes and take action.

Okay, what are some marketing rules that you have just held on to for far too long? Okay, ask yourself they can be email, they can be social, they can be organic, grassroots, it can be anything. What are some of those marketing rules that it may sound like, but we have to blank, because that's the best way, or it's best practice, to blank right. It's not true. It is not true. There is not one marketing book at the store, at the, at the bookstore. There's a bajillion different marketing books because there's a bajillion different strategies to do it. The best strategy is often the one that, like, lights you up, you're most excited about and that makes sense for the people, your audience, right? No one could know that better than you. But if there's one I can give you to break send more emails, send more emails, do that number nine, break the fundraising norms and Embrace innovation.

17:16

So this is similar to the marketing one, but we want to break some fundraising norms. So many times organizations will come to me and they're they're stuck in like a fundraising, like cultivation cycle, and that again sounds like. You know, we have to do a, b, c, d, e, fg before we can get to z, right, and it's like, holy crap, so much time, so much bandwidth, so much staffing. Right, let's just go from a To L to z or something like that. Or what if we throw out the entire alphabet and do it this way, right? What are some of those fundraising norms that don't serve the the size of your organization, that don't serve the mission of your organization, and maybe you're just ready to shake up. Maybe you're just ready to shake up because I think the way that we try and cultivate donors, it is long, clunky and unnecessary. I also think it keeps people safe and cozy and in that little cocoon of comfort, and it doesn't require you to embrace discomfort and take, during action, steps three and four, right, it actually prolongs you from having to take those steps right, and so it's easy to like, talk yourself into the current way, the current way, the current way Okay, so don't do that. Let's break some fundraising norms.

Lesson 10 collaboration amplifies impact. So what do we mean? Aligned partnerships are the secret to scaling up your visibility. Okay, aligned partnerships. Your aligned partnerships might be with social media influencers. They might be with digital ambassadors that's what I teach. And amplify social Okay, that's what I teach. It might also be with businesses, right, we've had a lot of students have success partnering with businesses. It might be with fraternities, sororities, college athletes, I mean, you know. It might be with doctors and nurses, depending on who your mission serves, right, even if you're a service provider, a consultant, right, your collaboration may be with other service service providers that are in sort of a, a next-door service to what you do, right? Collaboration amplifies impact. If you feel like you're doing it alone and you feel like it's all on you, that tells me You're under partnering, you're under collaborating and it's time to make some aligned, profitable partnerships. Okay, if you need help with that, click the link in the show notes and I have a free webinar about digital ambassadors. Click that.

20:00

Number 11. The future looks bright. You know that song future looks bright, the future looks bright. So At the end of the year and at the beginning of the year and really kind of throughout the year, there's this like tried and true news cycle which is like the state of the economy, trends for the economy, the little love, and it's very clickbaity and it is a very.

It behooves the news outlets to make it sound kind of scary, right, and it doesn't behoove news outlets to say everything's great. It's all it's. It's actually improved year over year. It's improved decade over decade, right, and so it's easy to talk about how bad things are and it's easy to click on the article that talks about how bad things are. It takes more effort to find the good. It takes more effort to appreciate what's working. It takes more effort to actually think about the future that you want to create, that your organization, your mission is creating, and to tell that story in a really positive way and really, really, really not in like a, you know, sunflower and daisies, like not everything's great kind of way. But I really want to urge you to figure out what is your version of how the future does look bright. Okay, because that is something that supporters can get excited about, that's something your staff can get excited about, your board can get excited about, and are like I'm along for that ride, how can I help? And it's less exciting and it almost feels like being voluntold when you tell me the clickbait version of how bad the future looks and so we bet you better help. The future looks so bad that you better help. Oh, that's not so great. That's not like I'm not feeling great about being a part of that. Why? Because it feels heavy and I feel powerless in it. Okay, so how can you tell the story about what's possible, guiding me there still in an honest, authentic way, but it's like I don't feel worse at the end.

22:06

All right, number 12, let's talk about the power of the plot twist. The plot twist is something we just can't control. That happens whenever it happens at a new point of the year. The plot twist is I thought it was going to go this way, but this other thing happened, this huge curveball, this thing dropped in my lap, this, whatever that kind of didn't want to happen has now happened. Right, the plot twist has a lot of opportunity built in it, and the plot twist is a fork in the road where some people shut down and they're like see, told you it wouldn't work. Some people go huh, what can I do with this? Like I'm eyebrow raising right now like what, what, what could I do here? So I think I'll record a separate episode about the plot twist and what to do there. But I want you to think about this For those of you that did Giving Tuesday and didn't hit your goal, where was the plot twist that you missed?

What could you have done in real time, not ahead of time? In real time, that would have been a response, a proactive, positive response to the plot twist, right? What could you have done? Think about that. Think about a campaign or maybe even an upcoming launch that you had to push back right. An upcoming thing, an event, a campaign, a fundraiser, a whatever plot twist. Did you say, oh, all, right, let's put it here on this calendar day instead? Or did you go well, now we can't do it, but it's a hands in the air, I give up, right?

23:49

One is exasperated, one is like oh, what's, what's, what's? How is this for me? What's the lesson here? What's the opportunity here? How do I navigate this? Like a total boss would? How do I navigate this? Like somebody who is at the top of their game, somebody who's already achieved this goal?

That can be another way to handle the plot twist, which is think about your main character energy, which, by the way, my new main character energy, which is an earlier podcast episode. We talked about activating your main character energy and I gave you some examples. But if you haven't seen the Beyonce movie, go see it. Even if you're not a Beyonce fan, just go see it, please enjoy.

24:31

So it's like in the moment where you get a plot twist that is not not ideal, not ideal, whatever that thing is lands in your lap, you could ask yourself whoever your main character energy is in this example, it's going to be Beyonce. How would Beyonce show up and handle this Like? What would she do when the entire campaign gets XYZ? How would she show up? How would she handle this? How would who would she call? Who would she ask for help? What would her attitude be like? You know, think about that piece and how you can adapt it to work for you, because she's both. She's got grit, which grit is something that's really important that you develop the skill for right, handling the fails, handling the discomfort, building up the resilience. That is grit. And she's also got this warmth to her. She's also got this like lightness to her, which is like it's okay, like it's okay, let's roll with these, let's roll with this. This, the plot twist, is what we got.

So those are the 12 lessons that I want you to bring forward into the year. Take what resonated with you the most. Those are probably the ones like whatever lessons stick out with you the most. Those are probably the ones where you're like ooh, that's where my work is and, as always, do two things. One, send me a note, let me know what resonated with you the most and maybe even like what your big lesson from the year was. Two, if you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast. It means the world to me. Share it with another change maker who you feel like might benefit from this list. I'll see you next time If you ask me. Everyone should have a coach, especially you. I want to invite you to schedule a free discovery call with me. Go to splendidatlcom forward, slash contact. You'll see my calendar there. Book a call with me. I want to learn about my smart growth method, where we can grow your business or organization sustainably, with ease and massive impact.

You Get To Have Purpose And Profit. I’ll Show You How.

 
 
PodcastChristina Edwardspurpose and profit, marketing, entrepreneurship, purpose driven, nonprofit, social impact, mindset, productivityComment