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Initiating Change: Strategic Planning for Nonprofits with Expert Dr. Collette Portis, Episode 1 of 3
Episode 930th September 2025 • The NonProfit Nook • Wendy Kidd
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Today's episode features Dr. Collette Portis, an award-winning business strategist, who joins Wendy to discuss the fundamentals of strategic planning in the nonprofit sector. They cover the importance of not trying to handle everything in-house, the roles and responsibilities of key participants, the necessity of hiring an outside expert, and essential preparatory steps before the first strategic planning meeting. This episode is the first of a three-part series on strategic planning, focusing on actionable steps and effective implementation.

Links:

https://linktr.ee/reddevelopmentgroup

https://amzn.to/42h8UiE - JUST Strategy By Dr. Collette Portis

https://amzn.to/4ntu1a9 - G.O.A.L.I.E. By Dr. Collette Portis

https://amzn.to/3ImXHXd - CEOs Finish Strong: Learn What’s Weakening Your Company by Dr. Collette Portis

SBDC - https://www.sba.gov/local-assistance/resource-partners/small-business-development-centers-sbdc

Junior League of Collin County - https://www.jlcollincounty.org/community/meeting-facilitation-services/

https://www.bosslevelengaged.com/services-for-nonprofits-nonprofitnook

https://thenonprofitnook.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@BossLevelEngaged

https://www.instagram.com/thenonprofitnook/

00:00 Introduction to Strategic Planning

00:35 Welcome to The NonProfit Nook

01:20 Introducing Dr. Collette Portis

02:11 The Importance of Strategic Planning

02:47 Defining Strategic Planning

03:54 The Role of Strategy in Nonprofits

07:40 Who Should Be Involved in Strategic Planning?

07:58 The Role of External Consultants

09:10 Engaging Different Levels of Leadership

13:28 Involving the Board in Strategic Planning

15:09 Strategic Planning for Small Nonprofits

16:19 Finding the Right Consultant

18:15 Funding Your Strategic Planning

19:13 Alternative Funding Sources

21:09 Utilizing Local Resources

21:48 Exploring Free and Paid Resources for Nonprofits

23:09 Preparing for the First Meeting with Consultants

24:24 Conducting Initial Assessments and Consultations

29:25 DIY Assessments for Nonprofits

31:42 Key Elements to Assess in Nonprofits

36:59 The Importance of Technology and Disaster Recovery

39:14 Conclusion and Next Steps

Mentioned in this episode:

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Transcripts

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Do not try and do it yourself.

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Mm-hmm.

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I need people to understand that if you work inside an of an organization,

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you are in a, like, it's like you're in a forest and here's the tree.

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The tree is right against your nose.

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And if the tree is against your nose, nine times outta 10, you might know that

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there's 10 trees around you, but you don't know that you're standing in the

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midst of, of hundreds of trees and you don't know what those trees look like.

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You don't know what trees are in trouble, what trees are doing well,

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because you're way too close to it.

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Welcome to The NonProfit Nook, the podcast for nonprofit leaders, board members,

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and community change makers who want to build stronger, smarter organizations.

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I'm your host, Wendy Kidd, a longtime business owner and nonprofit leader,

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and I'm here to bring you real talk, real tools and real stories to help

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you thrive in the nonprofit world.

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I'll be talking with local nonprofit leaders, community change makers

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and experts in everything from board development to fundraising and digital

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tools, sharing real stories and simple strategies you can actually use,

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because running a nonprofit is hard, but you don't have to do it alone.

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Let's get started.

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Today's guest is Dr. Colette Portis, award-winning business strategist,

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speaker and author of five books.

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As founder and CEO of Red Development Group, she's helped businesses scale from

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zero to six figures in months and guided leaders to build agile, profitable teams.

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Named one of Fort Worth's top 15 coaches and 2023 Entrepreneur of the

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Year, Dr. Collette brings decades of experience in leadership, operational

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growth, and community impact.

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And trust me, she sent me a whole book of impressive accomplishments that I somehow

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managed to condense into this short intro.

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But her work in nonprofits is why she is here.

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And I want to thank her not only for being my guest, but for her work that

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she's already done in the nonprofit world.

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So welcome Dr. Colette.

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Thank you, Wendy.

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Thank you for having me.

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I'm excited about the conversation.

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Of course.

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So I want to preface this by telling my listeners that you and I have

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already talked about it and we have so much to talk about in the area

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of strategic planning that we are going to do a three podcast series.

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So today's is the first one, and we're going to talk about what strategic

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planning is and all that good stuff.

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But just know that we are going to get to the actionable steps.

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It's just going to be in a future podcast.

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So stay tuned.

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'cause Dr. Collette's going to bring it all.

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Yes.

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And I'm so excited.

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So excited.

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So am I. I am always excited about helping the people who help others.

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I know.

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You're so good at this.

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You're so good at this.

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Okay, well, so let's start off with what is strategic planning?

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What is it and why do we need it?

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So I am, um, a Christian woman.

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Mm-hmm.

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But I mean, even if you're not Christian, I just think the stream of

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words we call a sentence makes sense.

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And there's a scripture in Habe two and two that says, write

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the vision, make it plain.

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So he that finds it may run with it.

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Okay.

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Most people think that strategy is about deciding what they're

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going to do, and that's part of it.

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Mm-hmm.

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But strategy is really about writing it down so someone else

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can assist you in getting it done.

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Because my belief is that greatness cannot, it is impossible for greatness

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to happen without other people.

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I would agree with that completely.

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You could be great, but how do you know if there's not someone to use it?

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Try it.

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Test it.

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You would never know.

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Mm-hmm.

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So strategy is that like how do you take what's in your mind, put it down

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on a piece of paper in a way that would allow someone else to pick that piece of

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paper up and carry your vision forward.

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That's what strategy is.

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Absolutely.

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And I think it's important to note that strategic planning is not just goals,

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right?

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There's so much more to it than just creating a vision

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statement or a goal list.

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Exactly.

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Um, and that's, that's what we're, that's why I wanted to do this series, is

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because strategic planning is a big deal.

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Mm-hmm.

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And it should be something that your organization does to stay true to the

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mission and to help the mission grow.

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Yes.

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Right?

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Yes.

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And if they're not doing it the right way.

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They are wasting their time.

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Yes.

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And they're wasting everyone's time that's in the room and

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they're wasting their staff's time.

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If they didn't bring the staff into strategic planning again, we're going

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to get to that, but they're wasting everyone's time that is involved in

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it if you are not doing it correctly.

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Yes.

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And so I really want to make sure that people understand what it is.

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Mm-hmm.

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And how to do

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it and how to implement it.

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Absolutely.

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And if fortune 50 companies spend thousands of dollars,

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sometimes millions to plan.

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Then don't you think that that would mean that this is something that's

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very important to do and, and I want to pause for a moment because I know

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that there's somebody thinking, well, we're not a Fortune 50 corporation.

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Yes, we're a nonprofit, and I say all the time that we have to understand

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that a nonprofit is a corporation that has a different type of tax structure.

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Exactly.

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It's absolutely a business.

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It is absolutely a corporation and it just has a different type of tax structure.

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So there are principles in business.

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That you still need to practice and follow, and planning and strategizing

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is one of those principles you need to practice and follow.

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You don't have to.

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Yeah, that's the truth.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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You can just, you know, you can just throw seed, throw seed

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around and, and see what grows or.

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You can decide where your seed goes, why your seed goes there, and what you

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intend for it to do when it gets there.

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Yes.

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Mm-hmm.

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You know, work smarter, not harder.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, for sure.

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Mm-hmm.

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Well, and I think that a lot of people are.

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When they say, I'm a nonprofit, not a business, I, I think what

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I hear people saying from that is that they see business as corporate

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and unfeeling and without passion.

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And I am here to tell you, as a small business owner of

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over 20 years, I have passion.

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Yes.

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And I had passion when I started my business, and that's

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why I started my business.

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Small business owners are passionate.

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They're just doing it in a different tax classification, that's all.

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They're still going for profit.

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A nonprofit should be making money absolutely to be able to stay sustainable,

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so there really is no difference other than the tax classification.

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The other thing that people don't realize is as small business

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owners and as nonprofit leaders.

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They got into this a lot of times for the passion Yes.

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Not to run a business.

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Yes.

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And so that's my purpose in life right now is to get nonprofits to realize that

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we can help you do well in business.

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Just because you didn't have that muscle when you started your nonprofit

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doesn't mean you can't develop it.

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Absolutely.

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So that's why we're doing this and this is why this is going

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to be a three part series 'cause we got so much to talk about.

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Absolutely.

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And Wendy,

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I think you make a great point because in this season.

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Right now with funding being, you know, moved and, and so much uncertainty, yes.

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Nonprofits have to now figure out how to create funding for their organizations.

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They no longer have the option to sit around and wait for someone

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else to bring them funding.

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They've gotta figure out how to generate it.

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They have to be strategic.

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Absolutely.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Okay, so let's, let's start with the basics.

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Who should be participating?

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Who should be in the room?

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For the strategic planning sessions.

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Right.

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And you know, we're going to have these meetings.

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Who should be in the room and who should guide it?

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I think those are two very different questions.

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Yeah.

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So let's start with who should guide it?

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Do not try and do it yourself.

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Mm-hmm.

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I need people to understand that if you work inside an of an organization,

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you are in a, like, it's like you're in a forest and here's the tree.

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The tree is right against your nose.

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And if the tree is against your nose, nine times outta 10, you might know that

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there's 10 trees around you, but you don't know that you're standing in the

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midst of, of hundreds of trees and you don't know what those trees look like.

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You don't know what trees are in trouble, what trees are doing well,

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because you're way too close to it.

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Yeah.

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So bring in an outside expert with fresh eyes.

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Fresh ideas to come and ask you the right questions to get

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you to where you want to go.

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So that's number one.

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Yes, it should be led by someone outside of your organization.

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And it could be the same, someone that comes back every year, but

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they're not there every day with you.

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They're not in the day to day.

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Exactly.

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So they see your organization differently and what they can hear is.

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How people are making their decisions, how people see your organization.

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'cause those kinds of things are driving their decisions.

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Yes.

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And then they can help you to build a strategy.

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So that's one.

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The other people that are in the room are your C-suite.

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Your C-suite needs to be in the room, all of them.

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Okay.

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Explain what a C-suite is.

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Yes.

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Because remember we're talking to nonprofits.

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They might not be familiar with that term.

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Absolutely.

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So your executive director should definitely be in the room.

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Yes.

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If you have someone in charge of HR, they should definitely be in the room.

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Your fractional CFO should definitely be in the room.

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If you have a COO, they should be in the room.

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Your board chair.

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Should be in the room with that for the initial start.

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'cause developing your strategy takes time.

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Mm-hmm.

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It is not a one day and we're done kind of thing.

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So initially your top leaders need to be.

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In that room.

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Secondarily, your second level leaders need to be in that room.

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Your program manager, your client relationship manager, need to be in

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that second phase because your upper level management team, your high

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level managers, they're going to decide what does vision look like?

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Are we still on track?

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Is it still the same?

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Do we need to make an adjustment to our mission?

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Have we met the goal?

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Right.

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Let's, let's talk about, and I know it's not a nonprofit, but McDonald's,

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they used to want, you know, a hundred thousand burgers sold and

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now you look at their sign and it just says, billions of burgers sold.

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Right, right.

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They, but they had to keep adjusting.

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Mm-hmm.

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Year after year because they, they got there, uh, Wendy and I are alum of

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Goldman Sachs, 10,000 small businesses.

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Woohoo.

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They are on their way to 20,000.

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They are right.

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They are, they have gone past the 10,000.

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They have gone past.

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It is behind us now.

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Exactly.

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And now they had to adjust the goal.

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Mm-hmm.

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And they had to adjust the mission.

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So your, your upper level meet leadership team makes that decision.

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What's the vision or how do we need to make an adjustment to the mission?

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And then your second level leadership team comes to join them to say, okay, we've

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decided what mission is, what vision is, what goals are now, how do we get it done?

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Yeah.

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Your strategy is about how we get it done.

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Yeah.

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Which is the difference.

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'cause some people think a strategic plan and a business plan are

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the same thing and they're not.

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No, not at all.

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No.

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Your strategy is talking about steps to getting the mission done.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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And so you're a second level.

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Management is helping you with steps.

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They know their departments, they know their teams.

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They know what, what kind of human capital you have and you don't have.

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Mm-hmm.

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And they can inform the strategy to say, we want to develop this

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technology, but we don't have anybody in this organization that's tech savvy.

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Right.

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So now we need to decide, do we outsource that or do we bring

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somebody in house to develop that?

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For us.

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Right.

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And then lastly, you want your individual teams, whoever's responsible for that

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department to run it by those, the others that are in that department.

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To say, get everybody on board.

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Get everybody on board.

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Yes.

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What do you think?

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This is what we're thinking about doing.

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Do you think this is going to be effective?

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And the reason why that is important is because if I'm the

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one doing the task every day.

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Mm-hmm.

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And all of us have probably experienced this.

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Yes.

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New plan happens.

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They do something new, they change the software, and now it takes you

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20 more minutes to do a task that took you two minutes to do because

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they never did ask the people.

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That we're actually doing the work, whether or not there's

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some changes we should make.

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What do you like?

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What do you, what do you not like?

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Yeah, so you should have different layers and different levels at which

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your team is being engaged with the strategic planning process,

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and you should always be assigning.

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Portions of that strategy to somebody in your organization.

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Mm-hmm.

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So that they know who is responsible for making sure

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that this strategy goes forward.

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Okay.

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So I'm going to sum up what we just said.

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So everybody catches this.

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There are more.

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There's more than one meeting happening.

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Absolutely.

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And who is in that meeting depends upon where you're at in the process.

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Absolutely right.

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So our first meeting is our top level leaders.

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Absolutely top level.

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We're talking your board members, we're talking your, your C-suite.

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We learned what C-suite is your C-suite and board chair.

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Board chair.

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So not the the whole board.

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Not

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the whole board.

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Mm-hmm.

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Okay.

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That's an important point.

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Mm-hmm.

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So talk to me about that.

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So your board chair's responsibility is to, to ensure that vision is going forth.

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Mm-hmm.

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And the organization is being fiscally responsible.

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Yes.

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Right?

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Yes.

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They are doing what they said they're going to do.

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Well, your board chair needs to make sure.

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Of one, what you said you were going to do, why you said you were going to do it,

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because then that now they've gotta go.

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Um, convince all these high powered com people from your community that

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this is the direction to go in.

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Mm-hmm.

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And they have to hold them responsible for helping you get there.

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Right.

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And if they don't know that and they're left out mm-hmm.

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Then you bring them this idea and they're like, what and why would you do that?

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And.

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We had momentum over here and why would we change that?

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And the board is, or we have, we've developed or built this

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board in this way for this purpose.

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Because your board might shift and change based on what your company's goals are.

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Right, right, right.

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Which is why most boards, their tenure is two years.

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Because the organization is going to look different about every two to five

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years, it's going to look different.

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So you need a different set of people supporting you if your board chair is

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not in the room, is not lending their voice to how those top level people who

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oversee your, your executive director.

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If they're not involved in this process, then what happens

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is you've gotta disconnect.

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Yes.

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And you lose your board.

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Yes.

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Or your board starts to feel like they're your employee and not your

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board member and so they go away.

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Yeah.

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So have the board chair in first.

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Mm-hmm.

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Board members come in at the next one.

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Now let me ask you this.

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I'm going to back us up even a little more.

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When we're talking baby nonprofits, little tiny nonprofits

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who, they just have a board.

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Mm-hmm.

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That's all they got.

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Mm-hmm.

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They don't have any staff.

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Is it just those people that's in the room?

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Is it all of those people, or do we still need to limit it to just the board chair?

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That's doing this first step,

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so that's a very good question.

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Mm-hmm.

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When you have tiny small profits, the smaller, small, uh, nonprofits, then

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my suggestion will be your executive director, whoever their right hand is.

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Mm-hmm.

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Because there's almost always one, there's always that volunteer.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yep.

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Mm-hmm.

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And then you're going to have your board chair and whoever

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your board chair's right hand is, which is normally your vice chair.

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Mm-hmm.

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And your treasurer and your secretary.

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So your

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officers, your

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officers are who are going to be assisting you mm-hmm.

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In making those decisions.

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The other piece is if you're a smaller nonprofit and you have say, um, somebody

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who's responsible for technology and things like that, they're going to be that

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second level, but they need to be there.

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Mm-hmm.

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Okay.

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All right.

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So now that we know who needs to be in the room,

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okay.

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And we know that we need to bring somebody else, yes.

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From outside into this room, what do we look for in that

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person that we're bringing in?

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Oh, first off, what you want to do is you want to find out how

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long have they been doing this.

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Mm-hmm.

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You want to pay attention to their process, to their onboarding process.

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If they're not asking you a bunch of questions, then they're

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probably not the right one.

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Yeah.

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Because what they're going to do typically is come in and

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tell you all of their ideas.

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Mm-hmm.

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And how they think you should be doing it better.

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But I, my.

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My son-in-law is an anesthesiologist, and one of the things that I say

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to him all the time is, every time you go into that room, I need you

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to understand that that person is the absolute expert on their body.

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They just haven't been able to figure something out.

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And your job is to listen to them enough to help them figure it out.

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Yes.

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You are not the expert on that body.

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Yes.

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And it's the same when it comes to any consultant.

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If consul, if your consultancy is not.

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Asking you lots of questions and measuring.

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Mm-hmm.

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Mm-hmm.

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Which we're going to get to that.

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Yep.

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Absolutely.

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Then they probably are not the right ones.

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And I know a lot of us have experienced strategic plans happening,

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and it never gets implemented.

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The statistic says 83% of them don't get implemented past, oh,

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I believe the first 90 days.

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83% y'all.

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Yes.

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83% is so true.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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But primarily because that consultant came in to give you their ideas.

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Mm-hmm.

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As opposed to understand the organization, see what you have, see what you can

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improve, and see what you don't have in order to inform your strategy.

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Mm-hmm.

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But while understanding where you are trying to go.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Let

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me ask

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you

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this, and I know this is not one of the questions I asked you before pre

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podcast, but I'm just going to go with it.

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Go with it.

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Because you know, everybody out, there's thinking, well, how much do

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I have to pay somebody like that?

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Right?

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Mm-hmm.

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And I personally, I have looked at these consultants, so I have a clue, but I'd

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like for you, the expert in the field, to give them an idea of what to expect.

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Yeah.

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It's going to completely depend on size of your organization.

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If you're a smaller, tinier nonprofit and you want somebody to come in and

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do strategy for you, you're going to be looking at maybe about $25,000.

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Mm-hmm.

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If.

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They, they are a real strategist, and let me define that.

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Yeah.

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Real strategist means that they're not coming in to just

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write something with you.

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They are coming in with tools to measure where you are.

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They want and need to know what your current state is.

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Mm-hmm.

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And then they are going to write your strategy, which is why it may seem like

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it's a high price tag, but what you get on the back end is more than a document.

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Right.

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You actually understand the value of what you have and the people

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you have, which I think is part of what gets missed in non-profits.

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Oh, absolutely.

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Absolutely.

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If no one has $25,000.

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Sitting on their table, where, where should they look?

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Um, if they don't have $25,000 sitting on their table and they

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really need somebody to do it mm-hmm.

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Then my suggestion is, recruit, recruit, recruit.

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Right.

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Find you someone Yes.

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In the industry that is really, really great, that loves your

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mission and is willing to come and do it, but you have to use the same

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sponsorship people to Yes.

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They give them sponsorship credit throughout the year.

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They're title sponsored.

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Absolutely, yes.

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And then you also have to make sure that.

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You still are picking the right person.

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Yes.

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Don't just, and I see this mistake happen all the time.

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Don't just say Yes because they decided to offer it to you.

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Yes.

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Because a lot of times it wastes your time.

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Yes.

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And it still doesn't end up being beneficial, but you spent time doing it.

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Mm-hmm.

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Um, so you want to make sure that that's happening, but if you

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don't have the money, absolutely.

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Go find a sponsor.

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That's always.

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I think go find somebody who loves your mission, but make it beneficial to them.

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Mm-hmm.

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End of the tax year, people are trying to get rid of money.

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Yes.

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All of the time.

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Yes.

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So there's also, um, um, uh, what planned giving.

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You know, yes.

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Your, if your board members, if you've got board members, maybe rather than

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them paying, you know, board dues or whatever every year, maybe they've

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made your organization a beneficiary on their policies or something like that.

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One of the great ways to raise funds for this is to find out who you know

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that has stock sitting somewhere, who is willing to give you a little bit.

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'cause they didn't have to come out of their pocket for it, right?

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There's so many ways to, to there is to get it done.

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My mother used to say, there's so many ways to skin a cat.

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Right.

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You just have to know that you can, and you have to be determined to do it, and

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then your, your subconscious will open up to a, to give you opportunities to get

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it done.

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Well, and I think that they, they also need to look at local

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programs that support this, right?

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Yes.

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You've got your local incubators for small business.

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You're a business too.

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You qualify for this people.

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Yes.

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I can't tell you how many times I'm going to say that.

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You are a business too.

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Look at those who are supporting small businesses will support

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your nonprofit as well.

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You've got your local SBDC.

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Yes.

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The Small Business Development Center.

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Call 'em up.

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Yes.

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Guarantee you they've got somebody that volunteers with them.

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Maybe they'll just do a discounted rate for you.

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Maybe they can't give you a whole $25,000 for free.

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Wow.

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Well maybe they're going to give it to half.

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Right, right, right.

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You know, go to your nonprofit management certificate

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programs at the local colleges.

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Surely they've got somebody on staff they can recommend.

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There are resources out there.

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I know that here in North Texas, uh, one of our, uh, women's junior leagues Yes.

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Does it for free.

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Yes.

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So, you know, again, look like, like Dr. Collette says, absolutely.

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Look at them and evaluate this resource.

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Absolutely.

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Just 'cause it's free doesn't mean it's actually going to

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be worth anything to you.

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Right.

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But let's, let's look around and let's find somebody to help us with this.

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One of the things I tell people too is a lot of my mentors are in books.

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Yes.

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I have written a book called G.O.A.L.I.E.. It walks you step by.

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If you have a tiny, smaller nonprofit, G.O.A.L.I.E. is going to be it.

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If you have a bit of a, a larger nonprofit, JUST Strategy

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is going to be it for you.

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Take it in a room with your team once a week and spend an hour

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or two hours on each section.

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Yes.

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Thinking about it, yes.

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At least in writing something down, I ask all the questions that you need to ask.

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Now, of course, it doesn't come with the assessment piece and all of that

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kind of stuff, but if you say, have $10,000 and instead of 25, then you

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did that strategy piece on your own using a book, and then you went to

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someone and said, we need to measure some stuff inside the organization,

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then you could, you could do that.

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There's so many ways to get it done.

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Yes, for sure.

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Yes, I, yes, all of it.

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Okay.

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So let's talk about, now that we, we know who we've got in the room, we

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know who we're having come in here.

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Let's talk about the prep work before that first meeting.

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What are we doing before that first meeting?

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Yeah, prep work.

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Before the first meeting is all about interviewing consultants.

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Mm-hmm.

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And know that you get to interview them, just like you hire anybody

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else into your organization.

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Yes.

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Interview them.

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Use ai to help you determine what questions you should be asking

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a consultant who's going to come and support you with strategy.

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Yes.

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Right.

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If you do not know Ai Chat GPT, we will talk about it.

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Absolutely.

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I promise.

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Absolutely.

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We'll have a podcast on it.

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Yes.

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Use that tool to help you interview.

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Don't go with the first person who said yes, or the person

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who offered it for free.

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Determine how much of an impact you really want to make in your organization.

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Mm-hmm.

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What do you really want to do in the next 12 months?

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And if it's big things, then be intentional.

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Yes.

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About who you.

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And ask your friends.

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Ask around.

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Ask people you know in your industry who they've used.

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Who they've encountered when they were still in corporate America and ask

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for referrals, and then do your due diligence in interviewing them to make

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sure they're a fit for your organization.

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What is that person that they hire once they've interviewed and they

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hired, what is that person going to do for them before the first session?

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What they should do, mm-hmm.

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Is initially a conversation.

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With whoever is running the organization.

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So if it's the executive director, they want to know what the executive

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director's hopes and dreams are for their legacy that they will leave.

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You notice how I just said that?

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Mm-hmm.

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Right?

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Not just the organization, but what legacy do you want to leave?

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So when you leave here, what do you want people to say you've

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done right when you left?

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A lot of times we don't realize that we have the opportunity to

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do that, and I tell my clients, you get to write your own eulogy.

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Because really that's what life is.

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You writing your eulogy.

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You get to tell people what they're going to say about you on that day.

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Yeah.

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And so that first meeting is really that.

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What is it that you want people to say about you at the point that you're gone?

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It really should be a conversation around that.

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There's going to be some questions about revenue and profit and, and

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fundraising and all of that kind of stuff, and questions about

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your board and that kind of thing.

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But for the most part, that conversation should really be about what is it that

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you want to leave behind when you're gone.

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Sure.

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Mm-hmm.

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Sure.

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And then what else are they going to do?

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Because I know that there's assessments that you guys do.

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Yeah.

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So now for us.

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Once we do that initial, um, consultation, our next step is to do

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what we call an operational snapshot.

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And you go to the doctor, right?

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Mm-hmm.

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And they're going to put your arm in a sleeve.

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'Cause they want to take your blood pressure.

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They might prick your finger because they want to take, they want to check your iron

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or whatever, or blood sugar, whatever.

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They're going to look in your ears.

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They might have you stick your tongue like they, there's, you know, you're going to

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get on this scale that we all hate, right?

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But you gotta do these things because they have to understand is the human breathing,

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is the human alive?

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Is the human working efficiently?

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Are they alive?

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Is the body warm?

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Yes.

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Right to the right temperature.

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They really should be doing that.

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Yeah.

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Is the organization alive?

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Is it surviving?

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Is it dying?

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Is it thriving?

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You are somewhere in there.

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And that snapshot is going to say, in these different departments, in

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these different areas inside of your organization, we are going to ask,

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it's like almost a hundred questions.

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Mm-hmm.

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But we are going to ask you this.

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Whole list of questions because we want to understand what the heartbeat is.

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We want to understand is the blood pressure high or low?

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We want to understand whether or where you are, because if I come in

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to a smaller nonprofit, or let's say I come into a larger nonprofit, like

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a United Way or something like that.

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Sure.

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And I'm not talking to them about their director of

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marketing because they have that.

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And I'm not considering that, then I have totally missed it.

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Yep.

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Likewise, if I come into a smaller nonprofit and I'm asking them about

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a director of marketing and they're like, lady, we don't have that.

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We pass out diapers.

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That is the extent of what we do.

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We are very small, but we are trying to grow.

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Mm-hmm.

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You gotta know who you're talking to.

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Yes.

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We say all the time, know your audience.

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Yes.

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Right.

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I, I need to know who I'm talking to.

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I need to know what.

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You're doing well, I need to know what you can improve and I need to know what

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your complete and total blind spots are.

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And so that initial assessment helps us to understand that.

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And when we do that for, um, nonprofits in particular, we don't

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even charge them to do that assessment.

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We don't charge them for the consultation.

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We don't even charge them for the operational snapshot.

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Then we take that data, not for for profits.

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We, we charge for it, but then we take that data and that data helps us to

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decide what additional assessments need to, to be deployed and then what is the

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strategy for helping this organization get to where they need to get to.

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Mm-hmm.

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So all that

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is done before you even sit down with those key members?

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Oh, the whole leadership team?

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Yes.

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Yeah, because I can't, if I don't know that if, if we do an

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operational snapshot and, and it measures sustainability mm-hmm.

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In different areas of your company and you have a zero when it comes to finance.

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That already lets me know.

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You can't even afford to bring us in right?

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To do, um, a, a strategic planning with you.

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But I can refer you to SBDC.

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Yes, I can refer you, I can tell you, you know, purchase this book and

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take it and do it it with your team.

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I can give you some resources to support you where you are.

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But if I don't do that measurement now, I have you in a room talking

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to you about giving me $25,000.

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When you're already trying to make sure that you pay the two people that

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you have on staff, and that is unfair.

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And in some cases I think quite abusive.

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Right?

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Because you haven't figured it out.

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And now the, the folks who take care of our people all the time

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are feeling bad about who they are.

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Mm-hmm.

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And feeling like they're not doing a good job of taking care.

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Of people right.

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When they

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really are, right.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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So let's, let's talk DIY a minute.

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Okay.

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So if we're going to do this assessment ourselves mm-hmm.

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What are these things?

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You talked about blood pressure, and we talked about blood

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sugar and all those things.

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What are those elements that we should be looking at as, as nonprofits?

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What we should we be assessing before we sit down to do strategic planning?

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Yes.

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So, wait, I have a, a book called CEOs Finish First.

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I think I'm terrible about remembering.

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I mean your own books.

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And you don't remember the names.

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I know.

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But it is a book that has this checklist.

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It is a checklist for you to go through and you can, if you put a

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check mark there, you get one point.

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Mm-hmm.

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If you didn't put a check mark there, guess how many points you get?

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None.

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None.

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And then you tally it up at the end of each section and then at the end of it.

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All, and now at least you have some idea of where you are.

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Mm-hmm.

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You can understand whether or not the budget that you have set, because a lot

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of times, especially, uh, for smaller nonprofits, we have our budget and

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we think like, okay, this budget, we did a budget, it's great, we present

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it to our board and things like that.

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But then you can't figure out what happened with the money.

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Right, right.

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Yeah.

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And it's like, I, wow.

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I know we had money, but what happened?

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What did we spend it on?

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What did we spend it on?

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Yeah.

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And nine times outta 10, what we find is that means that your budget

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is not constructed correctly.

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Yeah.

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So it's never going to help identify where your, see where you're starving,

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you know where you're doing great.

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It's not structured in the right way to help you understand that, well,

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you go through this checklist and this checklist is going to help you go.

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Oh, right.

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So we didn't put that in

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there.

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Probably should add that.

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Just curious, is your checklist somewhere on your website that they can get to?

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No, no, no.

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You can buy the book on just Amazon book.

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Yeah.

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Got it.

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You can buy the book on Amazon, but we're not the only, you know,

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we're not the only game in town.

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Right.

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But that is a resource that you can use.

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I tell people all the time, don't try to go it alone.

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Yeah.

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You don't do that.

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I've been doing this for 31 years.

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I know, right.

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It's not what you do every day.

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So the likelihood that you will figure it out mm-hmm.

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Is the thing that kills a lot of businesses.

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Well, of course.

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Mm-hmm.

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Of course.

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We all think we can do it on our own and we all know you shouldn't.

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Yeah.

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So, okay.

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It sounds like some elements of this checklist is going to be, yeah.

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How's your budget been?

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Mm-hmm.

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Compared to what your actuals are.

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Mm-hmm.

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Mm-hmm.

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Right?

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Mm-hmm.

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Um, are we doing assessments of what the community thinks of the nonprofit?

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So we do a survey mm-hmm.

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To see what the community thinks of the nonprofit.

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But I will tell you before we even get to that place.

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Mm-hmm.

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The very first thing we need to understand is what does your team think

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of Well, I was going to say that next.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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What?

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And not just what does your team think of the nonprofit?

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Mm-hmm.

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How is that driving the, their decisions every day?

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Yes.

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Because the truth of the matter is you don't really care what they think.

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What you really care is how does their thinking impact my organization?

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That's what you really want to matter.

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Yeah.

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No, you should care what they think.

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Right, right.

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But you want to measure, you want to understand how, uh, how is your decision

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making driving my organization or hurting?

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My organization.

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You want to know that?

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Yeah.

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You want to understand where your executive director is.

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If you are a board chair, you want to know whether your executive director Yes.

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Is treating the organization like it's just a job for them.

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Mm-hmm.

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As opposed to being the visionary of the organization and, and driving that vision.

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Right?

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Those are two different seats to sit in.

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Yes.

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And two different ways to make decisions.

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So you also want to make sure that you're measuring, that.

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You want to make sure that you are measuring, who do I have on my team?

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What does my take an inventory of your human capital?

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And I don't mean I've got 10 men and five women.

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I don't mean that, I don't mean by ethnic group, I don't mean by religion,

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I mean by what kind of skills, knowledge, information, decision

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making, all of that kind of stuff.

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Do they have, and more importantly, what is it that they don't have?

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Right?

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Right.

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'cause if I don't know what they don't have, then how is

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it that I'm growing my team?

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I will keep hiring the same people, getting the same results.

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I think of, I think of the, uh, the board matrix, right?

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What you've got a board matrix, you're looking for certain skills for that board.

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You should have that same mat matrix for your staff.

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Yes.

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Right?

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And if you don't have that matrix, you need to start building one.

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And you can easily do that by asking your staff.

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What's your education?

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Mm-hmm.

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Where, where do you, what do you excel at?

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Mm-hmm.

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What are you good at?

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What do you love doing?

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Mm-hmm.

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These are key questions that you can ask of your team so that when you're doing

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your assessment, that's part of your, your human capital, like you talked

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about, but it's also something that when it comes to implementation, yes.

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You know who you can go to for these things.

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Yes.

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Wendy, we just, we have an assessment that we do specifically around

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who is your team and what, what kind of human capital do you have.

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Mm-hmm.

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And we just did it last week with, um, another company that's our client,

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and there was a team member that the owner was really like, I think I'm

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going to have to let my rockstar go.

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Mm-hmm.

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Like, I just, because there has been so much conflict and all of that,

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and we did this assessment and I was like, we, what we discovered is.

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Your rock star is still a rock star.

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You just have your rock star in the wrong place asking your

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rock star to do the wrong thing.

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And then afterwards, the, the owner and that particular employee had a

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conversation and the the owner was like, well, I know you want to do this.

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And the employee was like, I never wanted to do that.

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Like I never wanted.

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Oh my goodness.

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But you, if you don't know how to ask the right questions and discover the

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right things, you never get to that.

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And it was a five minute conversation.

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Yeah.

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And now that person within less than seven days is in the right seat.

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Doing the right thing and is killing it.

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That's lovely.

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Just, just with something that very simple.

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I mean, that goes back to my whole conversation with Kendria on feedback.

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If you don't have that feedback loop, you're not going to

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know this stuff people.

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So go back and listen to that podcast.

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Yes.

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Because you're going to need that for your strategic planning.

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Yes.

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Okay.

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So we talked about assessing budget.

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We talked about assessing human capital.

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What your team thinks of the organization, what the community thinks about the

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organization, what else are we assessing?

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We're assessing identity.

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Identity.

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That's a good one.

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Yes.

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Identity yes.

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Of the organization.

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What's the majority of the folks you have around you?

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Because that's impacting your day to day.

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Mm-hmm.

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That's impacting your output, that's impacting the level of impact that

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you leave on your, your clients, your customers, your community, whatever.

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Mm-hmm.

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If you, um.

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I have a, a friend who works for a certain company and they, her

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department feels like they're the, they're, they are the company.

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Mm-hmm.

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The other department is always the one that's causing the problem.

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Mm-hmm.

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And it's like, and so I'll say things to her like, have you ever considered if

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they weren't around, what would happen?

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Have you ever, 'cause Yeah.

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Because oftentimes what happens is we don't understand the value.

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Mm-hmm.

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And sometimes, especially as leaders, we will go hire a bunch of people like

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us and we don't even realize that we, things aren't getting done in the way

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we need them to get done, done, because.

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We haven't diversified.

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Yes.

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Our folks, yes, we've got a bunch of people that are the same here.

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Coming back to assessing your human capital.

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Yes, yes.

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But then the other thing you gotta measure is where are we technologically?

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Mm-hmm.

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Because you, you are going to get left behind.

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Yes.

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There, there's no possibility.

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It is an absolute, you will get left behind if you're

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not technologically savvy.

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Where are you with that?

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Are you paying for too much tech or do you not have enough tech?

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Or are you in the right place?

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Does the tech you currently have serve you at the level that you are now?

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But does it serve you in your growth stage?

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Yes.

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Yes.

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Right.

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I had a, one of

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my other podcast guests actually said to me.

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Nonprofits are typically 10 years behind when it comes to technology.

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Oh my God.

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I actually would think it would be longer.

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Yeah.

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I, I do.

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Um, I agree because we're, we're talking some of the things that I hear.

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I agree.

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You know, like not wanting, I was having a conversation with a, a nonprofit founder

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and, uh, she was upset because she got a new board chair and the board chair wants.

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The board to use GroupMe.

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Mm-hmm.

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As opposed to texting?

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Yes.

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Or just email and she's going, I don't want to learn anything new and

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I don't want to, I said, that's fine.

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You don't have to learn anything new.

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She's like, well, it's going to take me, you know, the 10 minutes is going to take

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me to understand and know this thing.

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I said, but what if that 10 minutes could save you 10 days?

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Yes.

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Wouldn't it make sense to do it?

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Yes.

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It's going to save you time.

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I said, right now you're sending individual messages.

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Yes.

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And spending time to hit the button 10 times where you could put it

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in one place and hit the button one time and go on about your day

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because you have way too much to do.

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So if you, if you're not implementing technology, using technology and

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creating parameters around how it gets used inside your organization, right?

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Don't just implement.

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You need some parameters Yep.

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Around how it gets used in your organization.

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You have to do that.

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You've gotta be responsible for your data.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yes.

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Your client's data,

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that's, that's such a huge issue I think in, in all small

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businesses, not just nonprofits.

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People are not thinking about the security of the data that they're

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working with, and they don't think about it until it's too late.

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Absolutely.

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And it's, that happens every time.

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So that's a whole nother podcast I need to do when you talk about technology,

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how to get people up to date on technology and all that good stuff.

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So, um, we're running outta time, so I'm going to wrap up.

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What else?

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Is there anything else that you think that they should assess

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that we have not talked about?

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Yes.

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Disaster recovery.

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Oh yes.

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Business continuity and succession.

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Yes.

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Which gets missed 99% of the time.

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Yes.

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Strategists just don't do it.

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Yes,

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they don't do it.

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And you have to do it except, um, Lord, um, well that was one of those situations.

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9/11 People needed these nonprofits, COVID people needed nonprofits.

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More than that, if you have no business continuity plan, if you have no disaster

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plan, if you have no succession plan, then what happens to your organization when

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somebody decides that they're leaving?

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Yes.

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Or somebody doesn't decide that they're leaving and they're just gone.

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Like, well, what happened?

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And I'm going to add to that list.

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Most nonprofits don't have an exit plan.

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There you go.

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And it is required by the IRS on how they handle when they shut down.

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Mm-hmm.

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And most of them don't know that.

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No.

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So that, that should be part of the strategic planning mm-hmm.

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As well, is that exit plan.

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Absolutely.

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So, okay.

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We have a lot that we have talked about.

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In a very short amount of time, but I don't think it's

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short, but it feels short.

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Um, so I'm going to put a lot of this in our show notes.

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Mm-hmm.

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Guys, I'm going to give you lots of links of different resources that

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we've talked about in these show notes.

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Um, and next time what we're going to talk about is.

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Going through and actually developing that strategic plan, what it's

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going to look like, how long it's going to take, all that good stuff.

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And then the third episode is how we're going to implement that plan.

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Yes.

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So thank you, Dr. Collette.

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You're welcome.

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This is fantastic, and I cannot wait to get started on our next session.

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Absolutely.

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I look forward to it.

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All right.

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Thanks guys.

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See you next time.

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Bye.

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Thanks for listening to The NonProfit Nook We're building better nonprofits together.

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If you found today's episode helpful, please subscribe, leave

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