Dreams, Teams, and Funding Themes
Danna Olivo Shares Her Secrets of Success Danna Olivo is a Business Growth Sequencing Strategist and CEO of MarketAtomy, LLC. Her passion is working with small first stage entrepreneurs to ensure that they start out on the right foot and stay on the path to financial freedom. Known as the Business Birthing Specialist, Danna understands the intricacies involved in starting and running a successful business. Her efforts extend beyond the initial strategic planning process on into the implementation and monitoring phase. As an intricate component ingrained into her client’s business structure, she works diligently to keep her client’s accountable and on track to fulfilling their success goals.
A graduate of the University of Central Florida’s College of Business, Danna holds degrees in both Marketing and Management Information Systems (MIS). She brings more than 35 years of strategic planning experience in business, marketing and business development both nationally and internationally.
Danna is not only a professional business growth strategist but has worked as an International Strategist within the country of Brazil, is a public speaker and #1 Best Selling Author on Amazon with “Success From The Heart” and “Journey To The Stage.” Her newest book “MarketAtomy: What To Expect When Expecting A Business” is now available through Amazon on Kindle.
You can find out more about Danna Olivo at http://www.marketatomy.com
Here's the Transcript
Hugh Ballou: Greetings to the Nonprofit Exchange. We do this live every Tuesday at 2:00 EST. Today, Russ is with me as always. Russ, how are you today?
Russell: Greetings. Happy Tuesday, everyone.
Hugh: Russ is in Denver, and I’m in Virginia. I’m getting ready to move into a new home. Moving is one of my most favorite things. It’s right below setting myself on fire or teaching middle school. It’s in close competition, but I am moving this week. My life is full of excitement.
Russ and I see each other at least once a week and talk in between. Thank you for being a faithful co-host in this series of interviews with thought leaders. We certainly have one that you and I both know. We are talking about some of the themes that we have talked about in the past, but we are on the verge of launching the third pillar of SynerVision Leadership Foundation. We have a pillar that supports clergy and all the religious organizations, like churches and synagogues, and the para-church organizations. And we have a leg that is all these social benefit community charities; we call them nonprofits, but it is the other tax-exempt type of organizations. Now the third leg is for early-stage entrepreneurs. There is a lot of struggle with early-stage nonprofits and businesses around the topic of getting your grounding and getting your funding. Today’s guest is a dear friend of ours, Danna Olivo. Danna, welcome.
Danna Olivo: Hi, Hugh. Hi, Russell.
Hugh: Danna, you and I have known each other for a number of years. We participate in some activities together. You have actually spent a day at one of my live events. You were not at the one where Russ was a co-presenter, but you were at one where Shannon Gronich was a co-presenter. You’re familiar with the methodology of SynerVision Leadership Foundation. I’m familiar in concept with the brilliant work you do. You came to me a couple weeks ago and said, “Hugh,” and you came with another friend of ours who is a funding expert, “let’s build a system, a program for those people early-stage who are struggling.” We are talking about the future now. This is what’s going to happen under the umbrella of SynerVision Leadership Foundation. Danna, welcome to the Nonprofit Exchange.
Danna: Thank you, Hugh. I am real excited about this new program that we’re talking about launching. You know as well as I do that there is a gap out in the marketplace that is just not being met. And we really need to touch on that and help them. We make it so easy for entrepreneurs to start a business here in the U.S, but we don’t make it easy for them to grow a business in the United States.
Hugh: They can start a business, but they lack the- We can teach them how to drive a car, but they need to put gas in it so it runs. That is the world of funding. Before we dig in, we are going to keep people in suspense for a minute. Before we dig into the topics for today, give our listeners some background about you. What’s your superwoman power? What’s brought you here? You could probably talk the whole podcast about your experiences. But capsule what’s brought you here and your primary passion for what we’re doing together.
Danna: My company’s name is MarketAtomy; it’s marketing anatomy. I have had so many clients that were coming to me that were new entrepreneurs, and they had a good product or service they had started their business on. But what happened was they got into business and there were no customers coming through the door. They couldn’t figure out how to bring those customers through the door. In an effort to teach them the infrastructure that needed to be in place around that product or service is where MarketAtomy was born. The way I do that is by explaining to them graphically through the human body that the heart of your business is your why. Why are your customers going to come to you? Why are your patrons going to visit you over the competition? The brain is your how. That is your structure. That is your systems, the methodologies, everything that runs the business. But in the human body, can the heart operate without the brain? And vice versa? No. You need both the heart and the brain in order to grow your business and bring those customers through the door by pushing your message out through the veins of the body to your market, which is the human body. It’s a real simple concept. My vision for MarketAtomy is to teach this to every single entrepreneur out there wanting to start their business. Ultimately, make a dent in the number of failed businesses out there in the world.
Hugh: I want to highlight what you’re saying and move it into the nonprofit sector. We teach nonprofits (we’re using the word because people understand it), we teach tax-exempt charities how to install business principles in their organization because it’s truly a tax-exempt business. We have more rules from the IRS for how we manage money. Basically, we have to create profit to fund the work that we’re doing. We need to attract those customers or stakeholders or donors or volunteers. There is not a whole lot of difference in how we attract those. How about you?
Danna: No. there isn’t. For the most part, you hear about nonprofits always trying to raise funds, and they are going to the for-profit corporations to help them through donations and things like that. What about the for-profit side? Is there a way, or there is a way, where they can rely on nonprofits that are going to help them build credibility in their company? Reach out and expand their market. There is a synergy there between the nonprofits and the for-profits by partnering, and that’s what we call cause marketing.
Hugh: Yeah, absolutely. I am going to use the words “business” and “charity” because it’s simpler for my brain not to have so many “p” words in there.
Danna: Business and charity works good with me.
Hugh: I want to cut through the chatter and get down to the brass tack. You’ve done a brilliant thing like we’ve done a brilliant thing. We have put synergy and vision together and got SynerVision, which is the synergy of the common vision. You put market anatomy together, and that comes up with a new concept. Plus you can go get a URL nobody has.
Danna: That’s true. Got it. Done it.
Hugh: I want to set the context for what we’re going to talk about later. I want to delve into some of your expertise. People tell us they learn important things they can utilize day to day in their charities. Our primary listening audience are those people who are executive directors or clergy, and they are trying to make their way through all this stuff they don’t understand. We want them to understand some business principles. People tell us if there is some very useful information. We have tens of thousands of people who view these videos and listen to the podcast. Knowing you, you will give us some nuggets for the interview. We are launching a program underneath SynerVision Leadership Foundation for early-stage entrepreneurs, whether they are running a business or a charity, to get that strategy and to have access to early-stage funding, which is a trap for a lot of people. They get stuck right there. We will talk about that later on in the interview.
As we start this, I have SynerVision International, which is a business. I work with business leaders. I have SynerVision Leadership Foundation, which is a 501(c)3 charity. There has to be a clear line as far as how the cash flows from one to the other; there are strict rules. There is tax rules for everybody, but there is more strict rules with a charity. Russ knows about this. He has had years with the IRS. We attempt to stay out of prison and not get in trouble and pay penalties because we try to uphold those rules. They are there for a really good reason. We can attract funding that is philanthropic funding, but there are eight streams of revenue there. There are a lot of ways we can attract funding.
You work with people in a business and a charity. Sometimes you have people that have both like me. You started talking a little bit about the two of those working together. What else would you like to share about how somebody could have an entity, two totally separate entities, two checking accounts, two different leaderships—you have to have a board with a charity. Just because you founded it doesn’t mean you get to say anything. You have to have real clear principles because the board is in charge of governance and the funding piece, the disbursement, the financial accountability. If people have both, you advocate to people to have both. If so, how do you manage that?
Danna: First of all, yes, whether you are a business or a charity, I think you should have a board of directors. On the business side, it could be an advisory board, depending on where you’re going. Yes, you need somebody that is holding you accountable to what your culture is, what your vision is, what your mission is. It’s the same thing on the charity side. If you have a nonprofit and a business, I would say it would be beneficial to have two different boards because there is two different mindsets going there.
Hugh: Let’s let the expert weigh in. Russ, we’re getting in your territory here. Do you want to weigh in here?
Russell: Good to see everyone. Having separate accountability structures is pretty critical because in essence you have different things that you’re doing. One of the terms by the way that I have seen is lack of social profit entities. That might be better terminology to talk about what you’re doing.
Structurally, you need to keep things separate because if you get into a situation where your profit-making business has unrelated activity going on and the nonprofit is conceived as bringing in revenue from activity that is not related to its primary cause, you could create a taxable income situation. You don’t want to do that. You definitely don’t want to- The whole purpose of having a nonprofit is not paying tax. That is a big part of it.
Danna: I think the other thing to keep in mind- The most critical thing to think about is whether you have both a nonprofit and a for-profit arm, there are two separate businesses. You have to operate them as two separate businesses. They have their own licenses. Everything is operated separately. For that reason, I would say, you do need two boards.
Hugh: We talk about an arm and an arm, but really they are two distinctly different entities. What Russ was referring to is IRS has this thing called unrelated business income. If you are bringing in lots of money and it’s not related to your mission, then that is really taxable income, no matter if it’s a business or a charity. You could argue that I would rather pay tax on more money, but you want to keep your accounting really clean and keep really good records. There is some synergies between the two. There is lots of examples in the marketplace where people do business work here, but then they give away or have a greatly reduced price for those charities. For instance, Russ and I work with organizations through SynerVision Leadership Foundation either for free through opportunities or at a drastically reduced cost because that is the philanthropic calling for SynerVision. We offer people who can’t afford it goods and services, and that is why we are tax-exempt. On the business side, I work with business leaders who jolly well have the income and should be paying for it. They get value for that.
Let’s talk about some of your background. What would you say are your areas of expertise? You have used the word “strategist” and “business plan.” We use business plans.
Danna: I call it the life of hard knocks. Believe me. I’ve got my degrees, I’ve got this, I’ve got that, but I’m sorry. It’s life. It’s life experience that has taught me a great deal of what I know. It comes out in the way that I talk and the way that I teach. I don’t teach at a level of a professor or anything like that. I am right there at the level of the entrepreneur, and I think that’s what benefits me.
I’ve had two failed businesses. I’ll be up front. This is my third business, and it’s a success. I’m glad. But we are still growing it. Through those two failed businesses, I learned very early on what I was missing, which is what I’m bringing to the table now. I did not have that business experience. Even though I was a marketer, I did not have that strategic experience on how to develop a strategy to take a product to market, to take a business to market. I did not have those. I just jumped right in, which is what a lot of business owners do.
They have a good product or service. They jump into business, and before they know it, they have robbed themselves of their 401k, they have mortgaged their homes to the hilt, they have exhausted their savings, and now they are continuously putting money into a sinking ship, so to say, only because they don’t have that knowledge base. They don’t have the skills. Short of going back to school, which is what I did for four years and got my degrees, short of going back to school, they really have no other options. They have linda.com. They have other e-learning academies out there, but if you don’t know where to start, if you don’t know what questions to be asking, they’re not going to help you. I am introducing the MarketAtomy e-learning environment at the end of this year, and it will have the actual structure just like going back to school. If you want to learn about doing a market analysis, you have to know who your customer is, who your competitors are in order to do it. They will have to go and make sure they understand that. That is what we are trying to do.
Hugh: That is what we are going to do.
Danna: Yes, exactly. Oh yes. We are, Hugh. Okay. I am so glad I have you in my corner now.
Hugh: You got me cornered, didn’t you say. You could say that same thing about people starting charities. I have met people that have exhausted all their money. I have one yesterday that put a lot of money into the charity because they believe in it. I put money into my charity.
Danna: I’ve done it.
Hugh: It’s going the wrong way, and I’m not taking money out. I don’t take a salary form SynerVision. It’s a concept that I’ve rallied a lot of people around. We are moving into phase two of development, which is 2018 is going to be a substantial year for the work we are doing. What you don’t yet know is that the gentleman on the other end of this call, the other host, has some good programs that will be valuable to you as well around funding. He is an expert in a number of areas. He is more than a pretty-looking guy; he is smart.
Danna: That’s great. I’m telling you, I need all the help. I will be the first one to tell you I have big, big visions, just like you, Hugh. But I can’t implement them, and I need those people in my corner, which is why I reached out to you and Money Miners. It’s why I reach out and surround myself with those experts to make my vision a reality.
Hugh: Russ, did you capture that? Number one thing in leadership is to delegate, to bring people on your team. What do you think of that?
Russell: I think that’s the way to go. At least, that’s what we have been telling people. We drink our own Kool-Aid. If we’re not drinking the Kool-Aid, then we are not going to get anybody else to do it.
Danna: My brain is too small to absorb everything, I’m sorry.
Hugh: My vision to you is that you have a big brain and a big heart and lots of really good content. You have great passion for what you do. What we preach in SynerVision, and you just did it, too, is we can do more if we run together. Down in your neck of the woods there was a NASCAR race in Daytona. When they draft, they go faster, and they use less fuel. Both cars. Three cars. It’s like a train. You can be much more efficient. We are creating our own draft here. You didn’t know I was a redneck and a race fan.
Danna: My daughter is a big redneck race fan. I hear it all.
Hugh: That’s me. We’re creating this vortex of energy. Focusing on the road ahead. Talk about some of your programs that you already have that you offer people and how you are going to repurpose those for business and for charities.
Danna: I mentioned the e-learning academy that we are developing. We are beta-launching at the end of December. That will fill that self-help avenue that needs to be filled. Then there is still do-it-with-you services because we are a firm believer that you do it with your business owners than for. They need to understand.
There are two areas that I have found with the services that I offer where my clients struggle the most. One is clarity. Vision clarity, market clarity, all of that. I have introduced a five-stage clarification process. It’s mind-mapping. I will actually take them and clarify all of the components and find those gaps that they are missing.
The other area of focus that I have found is even more prevalent is the financing side and funding side. Hugh, you and I know from going to CEO Space there are a lot of business owners that go in thinking that they can just pull together their business plans and just go and present before investors. But what they don’t realize is the amount of work that has to go into these packages. Not only that, but they also need to be answering the questions these investors ask. They are not putting themselves in the minds of the investors. That is the other side that we are helping them with by first educating them on the front end and getting their companies credit-worthy so that they can go for these larger dollars on the back end to help them grow.
Hugh: That’s really critical. You get your own house in shape. Russ, what are you hearing over there? What’s brewing in your mind?
Russell: What’s brewing in my mind is getting that message out there of what value you are bringing, the problem you solve. You got to do it in the language of people who are writing the checks. It’s language. If you don’t have the right language or you are talking to the wrong people, this is a component that has been challenging over the years for me. I have found myself a lot of times talking to the wrong people. You really have to have tools in place to measure what you’re doing. What people measure, and this is what makes social profit so maddening, because you do have dollars and cents, but there are other things that are important to people. It’s finding out and having systems to go find out what’s important to people so that you can deliver that. It’s really asking questions and tapping into their own genius. A lot of these have genius under their own roof that they’re not leveraging. That’s another story with over- and under-functioning leaders. That’s another path that we’re not going to go down today.
Danna: You’re absolutely right. I know I’m preaching to the choir here. I spent six years in Albuquerque, and I was working in the children’s department of Hoffmantown, one of the largest churches in the United States. Charles Lowry was the pastor there. Pastor Charles had a business side to the business as well, where he had a men’s group, and he would travel the country and teach men entrepreneurs the concept of business in the Christian sense of the word. Where I came out of this is understanding that even in a church environment, it’s a business. It needs to be run like a business. I got that from Hoffmantown. You have all of these smaller churches that crop up, and their memberships, their patrons are giving their dollars to these churches that don’t have a procedure, a system in place. They are not being good stewards of the dollars that are being brought into the church. Those are the kind of things that we need to teach.
Hugh: To be fair with our listeners, we are in concept stage with this. But we all see a huge importance. We are going to resources. Danna, this dovetails with what Russ and I have been working on with some of the other thought leaders you know in creating a portal with both live and virtual events. It’s going to be initially under the umbrella of SynerVision Leadership Foundation, and we will go after some philanthropic funding for that. We’re actually going to put our money where our mouth is basically. People may be listening to this podcast way into another year. If you’re listening to this podcast in 2018, you will see this launch. If you go to synervisionleadership.org, there will certainly be a section on the site that talks about this collaborative entity. We have kicked around names. Let’s leave that for later. We’ll name it something special, but it will be a project right now. It’s a tax-exempt project to empower early-stage thought leaders who really can’t afford it.
Danna, in the communities where we do the work, it’s part of reemploying the work force. Reactivating the military, there are 49,000 homeless vets, and there are a whole lot in homes who are wandering around. There are people who have come out of prison and need a leg up. There are small churches and charities that don’t have the vision you just talked about. Part of what we are going to have to do is narrow down our first target. There is plenty of work. No matter if we started in Orlando, Denver, or Virginia, it doesn’t matter, we could have plenty of work if people were willing.
Let’s talk about that piece for a minute. I would like Russ to weigh in, too. Danna, when you see a charity or a small business and there is really a lot missing, what is the biggest barrier to getting that message across? Is it their own lack of self-awareness? What is the barrier for them not coming forward and being open to receiving the assistance that you offer?
Danna: I will put into context. You and I met during CEO Space with a certain gentleman that I had put you in touch with. Great ideas. They always have great ideas, and their heart is there. But first of all, they approach it unprofessionally in the sense that they are not protecting themselves. This was the first thing I identified with this gentleman. He is already getting sponsorship dollars and things like that from the public and the community, but he’s not protecting his organization. As those funds come in, they’re not being funneled correctly or monitor correctly. The first thing I find out is they jump in without a plan for protecting or being good stewards of the dollars that are coming into the organization.
I think the other thing is they jump in because they don’t have the funding and they’re wearing way too many hats, so the project never really gets off the ground because they’re thinking they have to do it all themselves. This is in business; this isn’t just nonprofits and charity work. They think they have to do it all themselves to save money, but in actuality, energy is money. If they are spending all their energy doing a whole crapload of little things, they’re not getting anything done. They’re not making money. They’re not able to get what they need. I think the first thing that I would say that- it’s a matter of we have to clarify. What is that vision? What is the strategy to reaching that end vision? At the same time, showing them that you have a huge responsibility as a charity, as a nonprofit, you have a huge responsibility because it’s not just your money that you’re using and that you have to hold accountable. You want to make sure that you are able to report back to your donors how you’ve managed their money.
Hugh: In case of a grant, it’s crucial. You won’t get another grant. They might ask for the money back if you have not demonstrated the proper fiduciary oversight and good stewardship, as you put it, which is a really good term.
Danna: That’s why what you bring, Hugh, on the strategy side for nonprofits is just amazing. They really need this. There are so many people with such big hearts, but they don’t know how to do this.
Hugh: Russ, you heard it right here. I’m amazing.
Russell: I have been trying to tell him that for quite a while. Now I’m glad he hasn’t gone to that.
Danna: We’ll keep him grounded, but we can always lift him up.
Russell: All of us behind the scenes know all about it. In looking at and addressing that question, there are a number of things that might prevent people from actually doing something different. Sometimes it’s resource-based. Other times, it’s people that I’ve come across that are doing things that have been in the leadership role. They look at things, and they’re not comfortable getting outside of what they’re used to doing. Maybe looking at what they need from a person side, from a human capital type. This is a big thing because when investors or funders or donors of any type write you a check, they’re betting on your team, not necessarily just on you. If people are unable or don’t have the right collaborative partners, or they don’t have people that are willing to collaborate, they become starved for people to actually implement. Ideas are great, but it’s in that implementation that people actually need support. They may not know they need that support, or they may not feel like they have a trusted source for that support.
Danna: Exactly. One of the other things is, and I’m so glad I have you in my corner, Hugh, is I learned the other day: The word “foundation,” so many nonprofits will set up a foundation but they don’t realize the legal implications of having a foundation and having the money from that foundation be designated to other charities rather than just their own.
Hugh: In our case, it’s in-kind services. A dollar goes to SynerVision, it goes to other charities in the form of in-kind support, like those of us on this call. It’s money in a different form.
Danna: That was just a lesson I learned this week.
Hugh: Russ, the example that she used, without giving names, it’s okay if he’s listening. It’s a funny story. A colleague of mine, we were talking about CEO Space. It’s a business growth conference that all of us met at.
Danna: A collaborative environment, yeah.
Hugh: Teaching cooperative capitalism. We take it a step up in collaboration. We all know that it works. A friend of mine, Ed from there, we got with Ken Courtright and talked about… It was actually David. They’ve both been on this podcast. David and I got with Ken for some advice on critiquing a thing we were launching. Next thing I know, without names, he is talking about us on his podcast. He used Ed’s name because Ed had some sage advice, as he always does. I’m honored when somebody says, This is a guy, and this is what they need, and this is our conversation. I knew it was me, but he protected my identity.
The person you’re talking about has a huge vision. They’re bought in 100%. They have passion for it, and they’re going for it, no matter what. It’s a classic case of somebody getting the cart before the horse. They’re jumping in and not having the systems in place. Russ, there are some dangers from the auditing side, from the tax side of not having the records and not having a board that manages the cash flow. Are there some dangers people need to look out for as we are early-stage putting good systems in place from your standpoint in your years working with the Internal Revenue Service?
Russell: You definitely want to have good internal controls. How does money flow in and out? Who tracks the money? Who actually handles it? Who tracks it? The people that handle it and the people that are tracking it should be different. When you are talking about large amounts of money and large purchases, you need solid fiscal policies to determine how purchases are made. There are a lot of opportunities for funds to walk out of the door unbeknownst to the management if you don’t have very stringent internal controls in place. Separation of duties, that’s always a big one. If you’re dealing with government monies, you need to be aware of different things that you need to do to comply, especially federal monies under the Office of Management and Budget. There are a lot of pitfalls you can fall into. Of course, we already talked about unrelated business revenue. There are endless places you could end up stepping on a landmine from a tax perspective because the code is so complicated. I think that with a charity, one thing that is often overlooked is whether or not you are registered to collect donations or what you’re registered to collect. Are you registered in all places that you’re actually going to receive funds? That’s one that flies under the radar frequently.
Hugh: Those are good words. Russ and I have seen this, and I’m sure you have seen that people think because they have a good product on the business side or really good intentions on the other side, money is going to jump their way in the bank. It doesn’t happen that way.
Danna: No, I’ll tell you a perfect example. I was at a conference three weeks ago. We were in a mastermind session. We were talking about the financing side. When the question came up, two of the individuals, they were new entrepreneurs, said, “I’m incorporated. I don’t need to use my personal credit because now I am protected under the veil of incorporation.” My explanation to them is: That is absolutely true. You are protected. But consider it this way. Your LLC or corporation that you set up is another individual. It’s an individual that has absolutely no credit. You are wanting to launch your business and be able to get bank credit and financing and things like that. If you have no credit, chances are you’re not going to get any financing. That’s where you need to bring in your personal financing, your personal credit, to kick-start your business and then at a later date, you can take yourself off of that and everything else is put into the corporate veil. But you do need your personal credit, which is where we run into issues.
Hugh: We want to be careful with charities. They don’t want to put anything in there of theirs because you can’t get it back out. We want to create a firewall there. But you speak a really good track to lay down here. We must have personal disciplines with our leadership, with our funding, and with our behaviors. If we are going to be effective leaders, we got to get our own house in order as well.
Danna: That’s exactly it. That’s part of what we are going to be doing with this summit.
Hugh: Great. This is part one of a two-part conversation. Part two will be early in 2018 that we will do a formal announcement with the tracks and the programs. We do see a need. What I will create is a forum of SynerVision, an information forum, where you and I will collaborate on the questions. People can come and weigh in on their top issues. If they are starting a small business or a religious institution or community charity or a cause-based organization, any of those tax-exempt, or membership organization, 501(c)6, if they are starting one of those entities, what do they think their biggest needs are? We will have people in the conversation.
I’m envisioning—and I didn’t check this out with you, but I am going to blurt it out anyway. I’m envisioning a combination of things. The online learning, but also some live webinars. I am also envisioning some group processes. I find that when I have people, especially at a place we talked about, CEO Space—Danna, you saw it and Russell, you saw it on the SynerVision Leadership Empowerment Symposium—when I am helping one person think through their issues, other people are listening, and everybody is learning from that example. There is group learning that we haven’t talked about, but I think you and I have had similar experiences in that area. What are your thoughts on that?
Danna: I definitely agree. Masterminding is what we’re talking about here. When you think about it, it’s definitely one of the hot topics right now. That is one of the best ways to learn from other successful thought leaders. I know that’s how I’ve learned. We’ve got some mutual friends who are very big thought leaders, and they are holding their own masterminds. Don Ward is one of them. We can’t help but learn from others.
Hugh: Absolutely.
Danna: We can’t help but learn from others. Why reinvent the wheel and struggle if there are people out there willing to give us this help that we need? That is exactly what CEO Space is. You go there in a collaborative environment and you get the information you need. I just came off of Women’s Prosperity Network, which is a nation-wide organization. This is another one that is very collaborative, what they call cooperative, I think. Women, more and more women are starting businesses. This is a very fast-moving market right now.
Hugh: My wife and I took some time over the weekend and went down the route to Staunton in Virginia. It’s a really well-kept downtown, both in character and architecture. People were downtown. Business after business was young, female entrepreneurs. I just rejoiced in that. Everyone was a niche, and it was creative, and there was passion behind it. We are in the women’s era. It’s time to leave the old white guys behind. We messed it up; it’s time for a new era.
Danna: It’s amazing how many men have come in and joined the WPN, the Women’s Prosperity Network, because they like that interaction with the women. They like that comradery. I grew up in the architectural/engineering/construction market. In that market, I spent 35 years. Everything was so closely held to the chest. Don’t say this, don’t say that. We don’t want the competition to hear this. I just kept telling them, “Guys, get over it. They already know what’s going on. Get over it. Don’t be afraid. Just stay a step ahead of them.” Women just have a way of cooperating and helping and lifting each other up. If more and more people did that, we would be a lot farther along than where we are right now.
Hugh: We can make up for lost time. I totally agree with you. Women are very collaborative. At this point in history of recording, it’s time for the small business sector and the charity sector to set a new bar. We have conflict in the government and with football of all places, and people are divided over common issues where we ought to be united for those. We will not go into politics today.
Danna: Thank you.
Hugh: There is another channel and example that we are called to be. I want to do a Round Robin here. I want to start with Russ because we need to give the better-looking guy some attention, some airtime. Russ always has these great sound bites, but he has also got some really good contributions. When he speaks, people listen. Russ, two things. Do you have some comments about what Danna has brought up or questions for her? Then tell us about your next live event for your charity work and your program for funding that you have. First with Danna, and then talk about the two things that you have, or others you want to share.
Russell: I think that everything is relationship-based. This is the thing that we are coming around to. It’s all about relationships. The way that men operate, we’re more linear in our thought process and more results-oriented. Women are more relationship-based. What we’re finding out is that if you want to build partnerships and joint ventures, you are going to have people that resonate with you. If you’re going to get people to collaborate with you in any project, it’s all about relationships. You have to have good relationships. People aren’t just looking for the fast buck, the quick transaction. They’re not going there. That’s not going to work for people. It’s all about relationships. We really need to change that.
The other thing is in looking at churches, I have been working with my own envisioning project. Whatever we’re doing, the key is to raise our level of consciousness. This is what we’re finding out with today’s environment. We’re shouting at each other. We’re at a point in time where if we are going to succeed, it doesn’t matter what area you’re talking about. If you’re talking about your spiritual or economic situation, your business, we have to raise our level of consciousness to be more effective, to help more people. That’s my view on that.
As for right now, I am working on some new material with a group called Algorithms for Success. I’ve done some training with them. We’re actually strategizing on some of my online programs. I am working on different modulized programs for fundraising and board development. We’re working on rolling out a series of things for 2018 as well as the book Four Steps to Building a High-Performance Nonprofit. I have been working on that for a while; I have not gotten all the interviews I want, but we are going to be launching that online program that I am in the process of revising. That is taking me through the fundamental steps of building a strategy. It’s a 22-point strategy framework that Hugh and David Gruder actually developed a success map.
As far as questions for you, what benefits do you think could be realized from cross-sector partnerships? What are the big wins you see businesses getting through this collaboration? What are some of the wins for the nonprofits as well?
Danna: Wow. The reason I reached out to Hugh for this program that we’re talking about is because one of the benefits is with the target market that I go after, small businesses that are generally under $500,000 annual revenue or less, a lot of times they can’t afford my services. Much to the chagrin of my husband, I would love to give my services away. But his comment is, “Honey, I’m sorry, but we gotta make money. I don’t want to be working at a j-o-b all my life.”
It’s two-sided. In an effort to find a way for them to be able to afford the services that they need, there is grant money out there. That’s what we want to go after. I’m not familiar with nonprofits, and I know that I need a nonprofit. That’s why I reached out to Hugh Ballou. I knew I needed a nonprofit leg to help on the sponsorship side so we could go for sponsorship dollars for these events we are doing, and also for the grant money to help those business owners that qualify to get the education and the resources that they need. That is one of the reasons where I see for-profits and nonprofits can coordinate.
The other thing is by businesses partnering with nonprofits, you get that credibility factor. By building in that credibility factor, your clients look at a higher standard for you. Not necessarily at a higher standard, but they become advocates because they know you’re doing good for the community. You’re doing good for society, and they want to promote you because of that. So you get the credibility aspect. You get the market outreach. You get the dollars. There is so much value and benefit that comes from a business partnering with a nonprofit. You have to figure out how to make that work and not try and do it all yourself.
Russell: That’s critical.
Hugh: Russ, you’re so right. Let’s capture that. What I find over and over again is we help small business owners, especially solopreneurs, learn how to do things and then try to bring in team members. With a charity, it’s imperative that you start with a team. That’s the biggest problem leaders have in the charity/church world. The leader wants to do it all, but really you must engage the board for governance, for fiduciary oversight, and for support, their arms and legs. Lots of really good stuff here.
We are coming to the last stretch of our time here. Danna, we got a lot more to talk about. We need to do some heavy lifting. Right now, you are waiting for me to get a document back to you. I am starting to get a clearer vision of the potential. Our problem is going to be to scale it to what we can handle to begin with. I know the energy field here is really good.
Russ, where do people go for your stuff that you talked about? Your book and your online program, your website. Where do people go to find that?
Russell: For the four steps to building a high-performance nonprofit, you go to bit.ly/fourstepshpnpo. I will drop that in the chat box so that people can see it. If you’d like to have a talk with me, I do discovery sessions with folks. You can go to bit.ly/bookruss to get on my calendar, and we will have a discovery session about whatever concerns you. I am in the process of having people rebuild my website, so I’ll have free offerings. I have a donor series and some board series things that people will be able to tap into once my website rebuild is done. I’m working on some other courses and writing articles. All of that stuff will be available to everyone out there.
Hugh: I want to know when you sleep. Do you sleep?
Russell: I sleep quite a bit, maybe more than I should. I’m finding as more time passes by, I sleep a little bit more. The real opportunity, I think, in this is to get people talking to one another.
This thought crossed my mind. I was thinking of asking Danna: What is the high point, the one single thought that needs to be conveyed to people on both sides, for-profit and nonprofit? What would you say is the single thread that needs to run through their minds when they are debating about whether or not they should collaborate?
Hugh: I’m going to let her think about that a minute. That’s a great question. You took the words right out of my mouth. Danna, think about that for a minute.
We need to think about profit in our charities. That is the gas that is going to help us fully achieve our mission and vision. Thenonprofitexchange.org is the place you can view this video a few hours after we stop here. I will put the links for Russell’s website and Danna’s website. You will already be on the SynerVision website when you go to thenonprofitexchange.org. That will take you to SynerVision for this Tuesday program.
Danna, we are going to let you close us out with Russell’s question that you have been pondering on. Your website is…
Danna: Marketatomy.com. It is also being revised, so there may be a little bit of Greek in there right now. Just ignore it.
Hugh: We have to stop here. Danna, will you leave that closing thought for us?
Danna: Russell, correct me if I’m wrong. You sked me what is the one thing that should be considered when thinking about collaborating with a nonprofit or a for-profit. First, you need to be clear in your messaging. You need to be clear in what you want so that you can communicate it clearly, and then also synergy. For instance, me teaming with Hugh, he is a strategist. We have the same processes and things like that, so that creates that synergy. Does that answer your question?
Russell: That does. Synergy is all about synergy and alignment.
Danna: Alignment, yep.
Hugh: That was my inspiration for combining vision and synergy. It’s the synergy we get from the common vision, which is our trademark. Danna Olivo from Orlando, Florida, thank you for sharing your wisdom and your time. Russell, thank you for your friendship and support. Thank you both for being here.
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Strategy for Charities: Dreams, Teams, and Funding Themes | The Nonprofit Exchange: Leadership Tools & Strategies podcast - Listen or read transcript on Metacast
