Bailey Lewis, founder of Words First Content Strategy, coaches leaders, teams, and professionals all over the world to cultivate a humans first approach to digital content practices and make their corner of the digital world a little better place for everyone involved, on both sides of the screen—all through the power of words. The Words First approach to digital content strategy practices and processes is rooted in user experience and the psychology of human behavior in digital spaces. This is ...
Feb 23, 2023•34 min•Ep. 88
Key Takeaways: Older generations and younger generations are struggling because of a gap relating to emotions. Boomers are more inclined to believe that feelings don’t matter while younger generations put heavy emphasis on understanding and being in touch with what they feel. The mature generation is more generous and loyal to an organization. To them, everything is about sacrifice, loyalty, and creating stability because they were born and raised during uncertain times. They represent 26% of na...
Feb 16, 2023•25 min•Ep. 87
Lauren Ready is an Emmy award-winning storyteller, keynote speaker, and the Principal Storyteller of Forever Ready Productions. The Forever Ready team tells mission-driven stories for nonprofits and businesses so they can realize and harness their collective purpose and impact. Lauren Ready started her TV news career as a production assistant at 17. She then spent the next ten years as a video journalist as she moved across Iowa, Nebraska, and Memphis to cover national breaking news. Lauren’s vi...
Feb 09, 2023•43 min•Ep. 86
Matt is the executive director of the The Blackbaud Giving Fund. He leads the organization's mission to unleash generosity by connecting people to the causes they care about throughout the world. Key Takeaways: Donor Advised means that the donor tells the organization where to send the money. Then as long as that charity is in good standing with the IRS, they’ll send the funds to that charity. Workplace giving amplifies the rate, it also allows employees to experience the joy of being able to gi...
Feb 02, 2023•28 min•Ep. 85
With more than a decade working in the nonprofit sector, Susan is passionate about the power of philanthropy and helping organizations meet and exceed their goals to fulfill their missions. Based in Chicago, Susan has experience working with major gifts, mid-level donors, planned giving, capital campaigns, and creating and executing fundraising strategies and events. Beyond Chicago, Susan has worked in Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Washington DC, and she brings her knowledge and e...
Jan 26, 2023•32 min•Ep. 84
Key Takeaways: Organizations start off small and grow bigger over time. However, you can never be too big to notice who your people are. You must make sure not to leave long-time supporters forgotten. Be curious about who is in your community and train your staff to be curious as well. Create a system that documents people’s stories and shares those stories with other people in the community. People stay involved in an organization because of their relationships with people and that’s why instit...
Jan 19, 2023•15 min•Ep. 83
Elyse Wallnutt is a senior marketing and tech leader with 16 years of experience driving results at the intersection of revenue, advocacy, brand, and policy objectives. She has delivered $39M+ in net new revenue for organizations over the past five years. She built the digital activation campaign for the clean future plan that powered the majority of President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. She’s grown acquisition programs to more than 9x their former size. Her communications efforts have led ...
Jan 12, 2023•31 min•Ep. 82
Nick Lynch is a senior product and business operations executive with experience managing, building, and executing product development strategy, developing business relationships, growing revenue, and executing initiatives in the social, digital, influencer (creator economy), traditional, and online media industries for multiple start-ups, growth stage, and blue chip companies. Strategic thinker focused on identifying businesses, processes, and people with growth potential, and providing actiona...
Dec 22, 2022•40 min•Ep. 81
Jenn Whitmer helps teams and leaders solve conflict, cultivate communication and create empowered teams. She is a keynote speaker, a TEDx speaker, and a consultant. She talks about hard topics with infectious joy. Through working with her, people improve communication, work through conflict, and build awareness with the Enneagram. She asks big questions that lead to big dreams, big ideas, and big living. Key Takeaways: You have to do your inner work and put your own healing first so that you can...
Dec 15, 2022•35 min•Ep. 80
Katelyn started her marketing career in tech then moved to the nonprofit sector to focus on mission-driven marketing. After having her first daughter (now has two!), she started her consultancy for more flexibility and freedom. Her strengths are digital strategy, project management, fundraising, and email marketing. Key Takeaways: If you want to give the highest quality of service that you want to give, make sure to give from the overflow and not from the depths of the well. Because if you give ...
Dec 08, 2022•35 min•Ep. 79
Julie Boll is passionate about supporting powerful, dynamic, and impactful leaders that are accountable, visionary, and always growing. Great people make great organizations. And great organizations change the world. It is her joy and passion to help people and organizations get clear on where they want to go and how they will get there and then help them hold themselves accountable to propel their organizations forward. At Julie Boll Consulting, they provide Leadership training, Strategic plann...
Dec 01, 2022•33 min•Ep. 78
Key Takeaways: You’ll find unexpected gems if you open your eyes to the lessons that you could learn from the people around you. Be personal but stay neutral. Don’t let your interactions with other people have any bearing on how you perceive your own self-worth. Be graceful to others and do not judge. The energy that you put out, you get back. If you want the energy of the atmosphere to be calm or compassionate, channel compassion and calm from within and let that energy fill each and every one ...
Nov 24, 2022•14 min•Ep. 77
Key Takeaways: Anytime there's something new, something different, something unexpected, it tends to stir up the monkey mind. It goes into overdrive. Relax into the present and release the need for certainty and control, knowing that you won’t be able to have it anyway. Shift your monkey mind into more deliberate, conscious thoughts. Be conscious of what’s happening and interrupt the pattern or the thought. Deliberately pick another thought that’s going to serve you better. Prepare a mantra or a...
Nov 17, 2022•25 min•Ep. 76
Key Takeaways: Energy is everything - it precedes outcome. How you think and feel about something determines the kind of results you’re going to get. We often prioritize strategy but we must also focus on energy. Write all the ways that your life is amazing, be specific about it - as if you’re going before a judge to present facts and evidence that your life is indeed amazing. There's little tiny miracle moments that are happening to us every day but we often don't pay attention because we're mo...
Nov 10, 2022•19 min•Ep. 75
About Kim Woods: Kim grew up in a family that kept astrology books on the coffee table. If it involves cards, crystals, or flower essences, she’s certified in it. However, she didn’t come fully out of the intuitive closet until her son was born with significant issues and she walked away from a highly successful corporate career to focus on healing. Now, she weaves strategy with intuition to help clients restore their intuitive knowing, earn more money, and claim their brilliance. She loves to s...
Nov 03, 2022•36 min•Ep. 74
Key Takeaways: You don’t own your social media, it’s unreliable reach. It’s a great way to create a community, but you have to find a way to transfer that community to more reliable reach. Creating content for a lead magnet is all about offering value that is relevant to the people that you want to reach. It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Instead of sending a monthly newsletter containing 5 or 6 items to your email list, why not share one awesome story a week? That’s the best way t...
Oct 27, 2022•15 min•Ep. 73
About Joey Goone: Joey Goone is the president of The Utopia Experience. Utopia is an experienced creation company, namely producing Events and Video stories for nonprofit organizations. They've helped 200 nonprofits raise more than $30 million since the onset of the pandemic. Joey's mantra and Utopia sole purpose is to serve those that serve the world. Key Takeaways: There are three forms of capital that are the reasons why anyone anywhere decides to go to an event any time. These three are: int...
Oct 20, 2022•44 min•Ep. 72
About Maria Bryan: She equips nonprofit leaders with the quality training, tools, and 1:1 support needed to thrive as change agents — through consultation sessions and group workshops on creating simple but powerful nonprofit marketing strategies. Because she believes that marketing doesn’t have to be an obstacle course. Key Takeaways: If your target audience would be people who have been through trauma, you have to think about structuring your message in a way that they feel safe, protected, an...
Oct 13, 2022•43 min•Ep. 71
Angie Winchel is a strategic and proven communication professional. With more than 30 years of experience helping companies and organizations find clarity. She provides strategy, marketing, and communications and fractional CMO services to a variety of clients. Key Takeaways: Don’t put yourself last, don’t do something if you’re not the right person for the job. Say no so that you can say yes to things that are more aligned to what you're best at. Your brand starts before your logo, it is the bi...
Oct 06, 2022•42 min•Ep. 70
Sarah founded The IllumiLab (as Insight Partners Consulting) in 2016 after having worked in the non-profit sector as a family therapist, program manager, quality improvement manager, grant-maker, and capacity-builder. Throughout her career, Sarah’s been driven toward increasing effectiveness, efficiency, and impact because she hates waste and loves seeing results. She believes that, as mission-minded professionals who are drawn into this work in order to make a difference in the lives of vulnera...
Sep 29, 2022•26 min•Ep. 69
Key Takeaways: Time has value. Taking your time off from doing the things you’re good at to do the things that you can pay somebody to do, is wasting a lot of time and causing a lot of burnout in you and your team. We get back what we put out. If you’re putting out grace and ease, you’re going to get grace and ease. If you’re putting out stress and tension or the thought that there’s not enough time, then that’s exactly what you’re going to get. The past and the future live in our head, all we r...
Sep 22, 2022•20 min•Ep. 68
Key Takeaways: Stop pitching. Instead, take the time to talk with them, assess their needs, and then find something that works for them or create something to work for them based on their specific needs. Start with a quick call with the goal to connect. Get to know a person or organization first before giving your pitch. Once you’ve had more information about them and know how you can help them, that’s when you can give your offer pitch. When you schedule a follow-up call, do it in the moment wh...
Sep 15, 2022•20 min•Ep. 67
Key Takeaways: Our brains don’t process a negative so it’s important for us to speak in a language of what we want instead of what we don’t want. Look at your own messaging. Are we mired in the negative? Is there a better story we can tell? Here’s our six needs in order of lowest to highest: certainty, variety, significance, love and connection, growth, and contribution. When creating a vision, we need to consider how we will fulfill the higher order of needs such as connection, growth, and cont...
Sep 08, 2022•23 min•Ep. 66
Jenny is a veteran in nonprofit communications and she’s been with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet for 16 years, from doing PR Campaigns, Big Picture strategies, to making Facebook memes. She also shares her expertise through consulting projects and speaking engagements and she is a long time member in the Communicators For Women Religious and a local group in St. Louis, the Nonprofit Marketers Network. Currently her team is striving to be more courageous and authentic in sharing the Sis...
Sep 01, 2022•38 min•Ep. 65
Key Takeaways: You are the creator of your experiences. You have options and possibilities. You don’t have to put yourself in the role of a victim. A lot of times we paint our nonprofit spaces in the hero-victim-villain dynamic. We were taught to make our donors the hero and make the people we serve the victims. When you are challenged, you have the opportunity to flip from being the victim into being the creator of your own experience. That’s why it’s important to practice empowerment rather th...
Aug 25, 2022•18 min•Ep. 64
Adora Drake is a digital marketing consultant with High Spirits Marketing and she is an expert digital marketing strategist, coach, and consultant. She helps nonprofit organizations feel inspired to take action and to gain clarity in their marketing strategy and learn how to convert their followers into raving fans who want to be part of their mission. Key Takeaways: How you set boundaries at home or in your personal life directly translates to how you set boundaries at work or in any other part...
Aug 18, 2022•28 min•Ep. 63
Joanna Brody, M.A., is an award-winning communications professional with a distinct expertise in social marketing and a passion for promoting causes and issues. Her full-service public relations firm, Brody Public Relations, is known as “an agency with a conscience” for its work with clients who make a difference in the world. Joanna has spent 25 years in public relations, creating a variety of successful programs for government agencies, social enterprises, professional associations and nonprof...
Aug 11, 2022•42 min•Ep. 62
Key Takeaways: Don’t deliver content in silos. You don't have to pump out a lot of content to get people’s attention. Consistency is key. The top of the hourglass is one awesome story that you will tell per week. One story with one call to action. Tell this story on a video instead of writing it down. Upload the video of you telling the story on YouTube, now you have video content. Take the audio from that, have it transcribed and now you have an article. Make a graphic out of the content. Put a...
Aug 04, 2022•42 min•Ep. 61
Jess is with Out In The Boons, a small shop fundraising house. She teaches nonprofits how to raise more money through writing killer stories. Key Takeaways: Stories will outlast “billboard style” advertisements. That’s why when advertising for your nonprofit, you must use stories. The most vulnerable person is often the most powerful. Tell your story in an authentic and open way. Tell stories about transformation - stories of how your nonprofit has changed someone’s life for the better. Another ...
Jul 28, 2022•43 min•Ep. 60
Key Takeaways: It’s not your job to convince people to make people care about your nonprofit. Your job is to make people feel valued, heard and seen. The philanthropic heart is the reason why somebody cares about your nonprofit and somebody else doesn’t. You can’t convince someone to change their heart. All you can do is to reach out to those who already share your philanthropic heart. When people feel valued for who they are, they will remember you fondly. Every person has six needs: certainty,...
Jul 21, 2022•29 min•Ep. 59
