Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions, and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories all to create an impact uprising.
So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabbit fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
So let's get started, friends. Friends, we've got such a special episode coming at you. Becky, Julie. We're all here.
Season nine, fair the well, really incredible season.
It was a good one.
Feels like a lifetime ago. Hi, Julie.
It was a long season, but a good season. Hi. It's so fun to have Julie. If y'all don't know Julie, Julie's behind the scenes. She's been our producer. She's our you know, I would consider our co founder
Head of media.
She's been here since the very beginning. But I gotta take us back, since we're talking about season season nine, we love to bring Julie into these conversations. This whole season kicked off with Rick Shadyac from ALSAC, St Jude, I mean, a larger than life organization, and I remember the day that we got pinged that Rick's team was pitching him to come on the show Julie about lost her mind.
So surreal.
Oh my gosh, Julie, this is, like, your fan favorite charity. It's where you interned. I mean, what did that mean to have him like this full circle moment for you?
It was crazy. I mean, imagine the person who runs the organization that you're interning at when you're like, 21 and it was my first glimpse at a massive nonprofit, and I learned so much about nonprofit and just even how they run that summer in Memphis. And so it was very full circle. I watched Rick on stage all that summer, and we actually shared a floor with him when we were interns. And so sometimes we'd ride up in the elevator with him, and he'd always ask our opinions and our ideas. So seeing him on our show four years later was just very surreal. He's an amazing person.
It was amazing. It was like little the LeBron James coming in, the Taylor Swift of nonprofits coming in, and just what he shared, I thought, was really transcendent, just talking about the culture that St Jude has created, and how they've sustained and elevated it. It is truly, like, nonprofit goals.
Yeah, so that was how we started the season. And I feel like, Man, I just look back and I'm like, we've all, like, grown and evolved so much this year. And I look back, it has been 68 episodes y'all, season nine, we just passed a huge milestone of 600,000 downloads. And just to break that down, I mean, you can't force that number like we haven't bought downloads. This means people actively downloaded. You're, you listening, have downloaded and shared like that number is larger than life to us, what a milestone.
Thank you so much, like we are so humbled by that number. I remember the first day that we recorded, and we had no prep. Do you remember that, guys? And we were just like, well, here we go. Let's just hit this button and see what happens as we interviewed
It was probably the wrong button, let's be clear.
Chris Fox. It was probably the wrong button. True.
Had a few of those.
Wild. The journey is wild. Thank you all.
Yep. So if you've been tracking this year, go back and listen, because in January we kick off every year with our trends that we're seeing. And this year, I feel like those trends, the nine trends that matter in 2024 really defined the first like quarter. And then we keep seeing, I'm still seeing them bubble up. Things that we are lifting are threaded in conversations. And to start the year with this series, with a partner like RKD Group, who saw the vision of what this could mean for the sector, like they poured in and helped us see trends that that, you know, we're bubbling up, but we didn't have words for and I remember some of those conversations. This is what a dynamic partnership looks like when we can all pull in the same direction, bringing our own expertise to the table. So so much gratitude for the way that rolled out and we had How It's Built. Do one of y'all want to talk about How It's Built.
Yeah, I love the How It's Built series. We wanted something that was really practical and tactical for all of our listeners, and really like soup to nuts. Of this is how this thing was created, and here's the step by step playbook to get there. So want to give a huge shout out to Allegiance Group and Pursuant, who underwrote the series, and we just had such incredible stories and outputs that came from that operational magic that's like putting your values to work creating modern donor journeys, like how someone created a 400 person mindfulness community for the Feeding America network, and even over to like a five minute fundraising strategy, like using the phone, so many incredible organizations and nonprofits who are doing the work on the front lines, sharing what they did, sharing the failures and the successes. So if you missed that series, please go back to it. There's 14 episodes, incredible playbooks, and it's all there for the taking.
So after having 68 episodes, there are some through lines that bubble up for us, and this is, there are so many more. We had an original document of like nine or 10, and we paired it back to five for you all. But these are just trends that we are seeing after having all these conversations. So think of this as your spark notes of the season. But Becky, do you want to kick us off with the first one?
I do, and I'm triggered by the fact that you said Spark Notes.
Me too.
That's great,
Remember the yellow and black paper versions of Spark Notes Cliff Notes?
This is the beauty of a recap. You don't have to go through 68 episodes to get the nuggets. We're going to lift it through, we have. And I really want to talk about number one, which is this through line that we saw that the power is in the collective. And I want to break that down in a couple of ways, and we've already kind of referenced St. Jude, but I want to go back to something that we really saw in that episode, which is this concept of collective generosity. And Rick Shadyac, this is episode 500 if you want to go back and check it out. He said, Without grassroots support, there would literally be no st Jude's Children's Research Hospital. And when you think about the power of collective and how St. Jude has really built that base of people who've led the movement, St Jude hasn't been leading the movement, the people have been leading the movement. And Rick said, I think humanity is good, but what really troubles me is all the focus that we place on the negative things going on in the world, and we don't focus on all the beauty and the power of people coming together to do good. So the question really becomes, how can we, as missions, tap into that good, tap into that joy, inspire someone to activate on that good this is the power of collective generosity. And I think a second one that really encompasses this beautifully was that conversation we had with Kyle Roosen. It was a part of the How It's Built Series. Kyle's with the Tim Tebow Foundation. It's episode 536, and I have to tell you all, if you are thinking about building a monthly giving program, or if you really want to elevate your monthly giving community, this is your playbook. I mean, they grew their monthly giving groups, which I want to say they have four, right now, four different monthly giving programs, different lanes that people can engage with this foundation, and it's almost at 20,000 monthly givers. So Kyle broke down like the framework, and I'm just going to share it quickly here. Number one, develop and implement your data layer. Number two, create your branded product and community and love that one as marketers disguised as fundraisers, and number three build that audience, and number four become elite storytellers. I can literally see how these things start to stack and become foundational for what we're doing. And to us, there's so many examples of collective generosity, but if you're looking in the power of the collective go back to St Jude. Go back to the Tim Tebow Foundation. Check out those episodes.
Yeah. I mean, collective is just a word, and I feel like, you know, we start to see this. We kind of quirk our eyebrows at the same time, and we take note of this, because really early in the season two, I remember hearing this idea of collective voice. And y'all, this is not something we just hear and like, move on. We're hearing and trying to apply in our own work, in this movement that you're a part of, with Umpact Uprising, and We Are For Good. And so I got to kick it to this conversation with Liza Mueller from Echoing Green, because she was talking all about this collective voices needed to actually change things in our work. And it comes back to this idea of a collective voice, this collective power. And I know Julie's going to riff on this too, but we each have an individual role to play in that. And this is how it's infiltrated our head at We Are For Good that we realize you listening here, we all have, you know, this ability to lean in together. So if we kind of have these bigger conversations and realize that each of us really matter, that's how we can all shift in the same direction. That was the underpinnings of why ImpactUp was created the way it was. Let's all have these bigger conversations and then come out of it arced a little bit more of this direction together, and we can actually upend some of these systems. So gotta shout to the work of Echoing Green. You're doing the work. Thank you for leading that conversation this season. It was really powerful.
I love how you said shout out on collective voice. That really streamlines the approach. But I do want to say like your voice matters and that it can't just be one voice. We don't want it to be one voice. The Collective is going to be like this mosaic of so many different lived experiences, ideas. So we want to empower you to be that voice that's that sort of speaks out. Get your bravery. Strengthen it like a muscle.
And I know this is the longest through line ever as we're sharing it. This the power of the collective but this last piece with it that we really saw this season is just that collective power. And exactly what Jon was just talking about, feel like we got to double click on this. So much at ImpactUp back in July. And so we just talked through how to step into our power, build powerful teams, building equitable partnerships. But I just want to lift a few comments from speakers and people that attended in the chat, because the chat itself was collective power before my eyes. If I learned anything that day, it was just get together, get curious and start talking, because the power that was in that chat was something to be seen. But Dorothy Chang one of our favorite past guests from this past season, she said power itself is neither good nor bad. What matters is how it's being applied. And our friend Jeff Shuck said power can mean control, force, persuasion, and we're taught a lot about those things, but eventually none of them equip us for what our souls really need, and we have to redefine it. And then Dr. B, our amazing keynote from that day, said, the story we tell ourselves will either affirm or strip away our power. So those three quotes were just three things that were sent in the chat or said that day, and they were all just amazing, different takeaways on the topic. So that's our first through line is just the power of the collective and I feel like throughout this season, we saw it through that power of the collective generosity, our collective voice, and just the power that's unlocked when both of those two things are aligned and working.
So hopefully you feel that you are a part of the collective, that we need to be moving our missions, our cultures, into more of this collecting of the collective. And so whether that's voice, whether that's activation, whether that's generosity in some form, but I'm going to move into the second through line, and I think it's going to make all of us, including the three of us, very uncomfortable, but it's here for the taking, and it's the number two through line is that we really need to be embracing tension. Raise your hand if you like embracing tension. What looking around? Nobody raising their hands. None of us like that concept of tension, but it is such a value proposition right now, because we believe, if you can stand in the moment, and you know that value proposition that your organization brings to the table, it's going to create urgency, it's going to create FOMO, it is going to create curiosity, and it's going to lead to action. And I think somebody that really lit this up for us was Stacy Huston. She's the executive director of Six Degrees. This is Episode 537 please go check it out. If you love Kevin Bacon at all, if you want to talk about Footloose that's in there, go for the Kevin Baconm but leave knowing how to define your value proposition as an organization. And Stacy really doubled down into this, and she is so wise in how to really bring diversified partnerships in where everybody gets value, how to flex media and story. And she had this incredible quote, and she said, I think nonprofits and nonprofit professionals are trying to really position their mission is this great critical need that it is and that we really need partners to support us so that we can get this work done. And all of that is extremely true, but there is also a value proposition, and this can be really uncomfortable sometimes with fundraising professionals and those who are really trying to build partnerships. But if you have to really think through the different partners you're trying to work with, and you have to start thinking about what's in it for them, how do we bring that to the table? And so it's a different way to think about how you go into partnerships and embracing that tension, that it's not gonna be transactional anymore. We're gonna have deeper conversations, because we as nonprofits have power in what we're bringing to the table. It's not just our stories, it's not just our influence, it's not just our people. It again, is back to the collective, and we cannot talk about embracing tension without bringing in our dear friend Seth Godin, who is such a champion of this community, and has been such a leader and someone that we look to. And he keeps telling the three of us, y'all, he doesn't say y'all, but I put it on there, it's time to embrace tension. It's time to step out and not be what I call we no longer are creating this Norman Rockwell sort of idea about our nonprofits. We are talking about the hard things. We're talking about our needs. We're talking about how we actually move the needle and so defining what makes your nonprofit so unique, what makes your mission? You may not even be a nonprofit. You may be in social enterprise, you might be marketing for all of these do good causes. What are you doing that differentiates you, and how are you going to position that to a partner that's going to elevate both of you? Embrace that tension, step out, step by step, 1% shifts. We know you've got this.
I love that one. And if anyone remembers, this time last December, when we were recording one of these, one of the two times I talk on this podcast, I went on a long, long rant about
The best rant.
I love this rant so much.
Just the need, It's something I will continue to rant about, but I feel like we met so many people this season that are doing this work. But I went on a rant about how I just want good to be more mainstream. I want my Netflix queue to have a whole horizontal of stories filled with nonprofits and missions like I am just ready to see that in modern media. And I think we're working towards it, but I'll say our friend Eva Bloomfield, the CMO of Elevate Prize Foundation. They are. They are doing it. They are. I can't even rant about it, because they are doing it. So I want to shine a big spotlight on them,
Like in freaking Time Square. They're doing it, yes, on like, Prime Time TV, they're doing, it's amazing.
They are. Their mission is to make good famous, and I think that's something we can all get behind. But Eva joined us on the show, and she said social good deserves to be entwined in the fabric of our everyday, and so that's just how I want to present this next through line is that we need your missions' stories. It's not a want, it's a need. Our world needs to hear these stories. We can't just stay in our silos, and hope that people find the amazing work that we're doing, if we do want to one day be as big in the conversation of modern media. And so the first thing I feel like someone was talking about under this trend, Kyle Roosen talked a lot about just shifting our mindset around our media. And he said, I think nonprofits have such an important message to share, and we should be the innovators and how content is created. We have the best stories of any business to share. We should be the best content creators. So he shared, make room in your budget for this and shift your mindset like this is a complete vertical. It's not just it's no longer the marketing team, or your intern running your social media. And I, and I say that because I was the person that got hired and made an Instagram for our last foundation. And so shift your mindset around that this is now a full vertical. It's storytelling, it's branding, it's media, it's communications, it's all of the above. And so bring that into your strategy, and it doesn't have to be perfect. Just start if you don't have an Instagram, start today. If you don't have a Tiktok, start today. But just start sharing your stories in a way that's authentic to you as an employee of your mission and also for your mission, because our world desperately needs these stories. And I think back to that collective voice. The more we start sharing, the more it's going to be the solution to my rant in last episode.
That was such a brilliant rant, and I love that it keeps coming back like that. I and I think there are so many Julie, I mean, Jon, and I included, who share that desire to see good more mainstream. And I think somebody that's doing it really, really well is Alison Moore and Comic Relief U.S.. If you haven't missed that episode, go back to Episode 533, and she really talks about this focus on experience generation. So she said media as we knew it before, and alone is not enough, and so nonprofits need to go beyond just awareness campaigns, and we need to start leveraging media in new ways. So the goal can't be just about awareness anymore. It needs to be down the funnel. We need to be looking at conversion, engagement, repeat exposure, because that's going to drive real action and donations. So here's the challenge, all of us need to start thinking about storytelling, content creation and like these bespoke experiences that are tailored to different platforms based on user experiences. So it's not just one and done. I put an ad in the paper, or, Oh, I bought a bunch of Facebook ads. How is it integrated? How are we showing up where our people are and giving them these incredible stories that lead to an experience that they want to have with us. If you need an example of that, go check out Allison Moore and Comic Relief U.S. They are doing it beautifully.
And the last example I want to share. My favorite part of our podcast interviews are the first like 10-15, minutes, when we're just hearing the guests story of maybe what they did before their current position, or just how they got to the current work they're doing. And when we met Alicia Maul from the Innocence Project, she, I just loved that episode, and she is now running their digital strategy. She joined us on the How It's Built Series to share that strategy. But she previously worked on President Obama's campaign. She worked at MSNBC, and so she brought this kind of new idea of how we as organizations can think like a newsroom, as a way to start sharing your stories. And I just think that's so cool that they have her mind and her experience inside that mission. But that's something that can be replicated in our missions too. You have stories, you have thought leadership, you have breaking news to share in regard to the expertise that you can bring with your mission. So just start thinking like a newsroom and start sharing those stories so people can look to you as an expert and your mission as a resource.
I love how this, like kind of played out, because the examples we just pulled from, obviously, Alicia has this really cool media background. Allson Moore, hello, was in media before she came into this space. Yeah. But I just, I think this is what's cool, like this rise of disruptors, is that we're trying to apply the things that really could accelerate slow, or, you know, behind thinking in nonprofits. Not that we throw the entire playbook out, but it's like, leverage these assets, because we're all in the same world together, in the same marketplace, in the same feeds together. So it's like embracing some of these principles really is revolutionary. So love this.
Can I share a story about that? It just came to me, and I this played out in our community over this season, and I think it's a good one. We had Neda Azarfar on the podcast, and if you want to know about how to build connection with an influencer and how to get I mean, it's totally this concept of newsroom. But we had someone in our community who listened to that episode and said, Hey, our nonprofit organization is really trying to get in front of this really big celebrity, because if there's total alignment, we don't know how to pitch. And by virtue of listening to that and just reaching out to us, we connected her to Neda, and they're working together on getting a really solid pitch in front of this very powerful and it girl right now, and that's on has a major like Prime Time TV show. And so I just want to say these things are possible, and they're possible within this community, and the person who reached out has never, ever done anything in terms of a collaboration with an influencer or flexing media in this way. So if you're feeling stuck or overwhelmed by it, lean into community. Lean into the people that are here. Neda was so excited to, like, make that connection. Those are happening in real time, and we want you to be connected and seize these opportunities. So,
And, that was episode 511 if you want to get that strategy.
Yeah, and you gotta stick around to the end of that episode for her personal story of philanthropy too. My gosh.
Probably top five most powerful personal story of philanthropies we've ever had.
Okay, back to some through lines. So we're on number four here. Y'all this one just kept coming up. I feel like there was a run of episodes that I just felt I was getting gut punched over and over again, and here it is, what is your culture strategy? It's a question, and it's an it's intentionally a question. We heard this concept first from our friend, Dr. Kevin Sansbury, y'all. He is, I hope, our BFF for a very long time, because
Come to Thanksgiving dinner at my house, Kevin, like you are that good.
Seriously, I will drive to meet you in our Airstream. We'll find you. We're coming. But, you know, he talked about how cultures are the foundation for every outcome we will have as an organization, and I feel like that's very true in our experience right now, we're wrestling through some bigger, harder things that We Are For Good too of, like we're we're setting the tone for this. You know, because cultures, as Kevin says, take years to change, but we can make shifts in climate more rapidly. I think why I love like this question just in and how it's been lifted, is because culture is not new to this podcast. Like we have been talking about culture for years, I now I can say years in the podcast, because we talked about how it's it could be a powerful magnet for your brand, the kind of conversations that you're leading, we are representatives of the values that we live out, you know. So we've been talking about that through line, but I think this year we're seeing like how it is just like everything you know, it converges with like how our sector is looking at so many people wanting to leave the work and step away from the work. And so retention is a really big factor in this too, and that threads to some conversations we had on the podcast this season as well, because we called it retention is an inside job. It's about this building and being intentional about your culture and that your people matter, and how that looks is that culture can either be built when you're being intentional, or it's going to be building regardless. So that's why there is some hallmarks of, like, how are we being intentional, to be and to live out the values that we want to, like, create in this world? So I want to lift two other episodes that really poured into this, really, really well. And one is with Lindsey Fuller from The Teaching Well, this is just our lineup of folks that we just want to be in community with, but Lindsey has come on the show now a couple times. She said, Before you jump ship. She's talking to somebody out there listening today that may be thinking about leaving their organization. She's like, before you jump ship, look and see if we could tend the soil together. Because there's also a narrative of man, if you have got really great people, but there's just some things culturally that are off, like maybe it's worth it to, like, have the harder conversations and get to the, you know, undercurrents of what's wrong. And let's see if we can move through this. Don't just immediately jump, but is it a place that you want to till soil together, because you can't replace great teammates all the time. So how can you, you know, consider staying these are some of the questions that Lindsay lifted. And then secondly, Dorothy Chang, okay, Dorothy Chang's been brought up like four times on this episode alone, but she was all about operating. How do you take your values and actually put them to work? You know, we we don't want to be the organizations that just have them on a plaque on our wall, but it's like people see our values and how we email them, or how we talk to them, or how we live out our programs. She says our values are not the why, they are the how. And this whole episode is going to break down how you can integrate this. And it's episode 546, with Dorothy Chang but I mean, she's done this for incredible organizations in the Bay Area, and has helped operationalize values and just the way that we show up, even in our granting processes, or whatever it may be that your specific organization do does. So I guess here's my challenge, revisit your values and then ask, are they serving as a how for your organization? Like I threw like 20 questions at you, but I hope this through line is just doing that, because there's not an Easy Bake Oven answer. It's it's hard work, but it's like the good kind of work. You know, it's having the uncomfortable conversations to lead to a different kind of future state,
Yeah, and if in the power of vulnerability and authenticity, I mean, all of those culture conversations hit us. You know, in the culture that we're creating for We Are For Good. It's why I said eek at the very beginning. But I think the eek is maybe a good eek, like it's, it's a it's a gut punch of like, we can be going so hard at KPIs and campaigns and all the things, but when we get disconnected, that's where the problems start to bubble up, when we're not in flow, when we don't have that collective power going and so I think that that's a really good transition into our fifth through through line, which is taking care of ourselves, starts internally. And you knew we were going to throw something in here about taking care of yourself, because this work is heady, and we are very much listening to the heartbeat of this community and its stories. We're looking at the data from our mental health survey, and we see your wounds friends. We see how tired you are, how burnt out you are, and we see that you are desperately trying to stay in this sector, because you have that draw to the purpose. And so making sure that there's that alignment on the culture piece is so important, but also, how do we start to take care of ourselves? And I almost want to say, operationalize and normalize the fact that if we're staying healthy, it allows us to do more for our missions. And can't have this conversation without pulling in Sonya Perez-Lauterbach, who is just one of the greatest intern coaches ever. You can go check out her episode in five. It's episode 510 and she says, We get so tied into the work that we forget that this is an area that we have control over, this taking care of ourselves. It is within our control. We can take agency for how we show up as leaders. And I really want that to sit with you all like the empowerment component of care for yourself must be the bedrock of everything. As we move forward, we want you to take ownership of your wellness and growth. You know, Jeff Shuck had these, those powerful ImpactUp comments. I love how he took power and completely juxtaposed it. I mean, you had this great quote that he lifted Julie about how we can use that for wellness. Power can mean control, force and persuasion, but eventually, none of them equip us for what our souls need. So redefining what balance means is wildly important, and so I we can't mention Jeff Shuck without talking about how our team was able to go to Plenty's Lantern Retreat back in June. And again, I know we've talked about this on the podcast, but it was really a left hand move for us to go two weeks before our inaugural event, leave town all gather in Park City in the mountains, and work on ourselves, and I'll just share personally for me. I mean, we were grinding it out so hard as a team to get this gathering up and going, to activate community virtually in person, and we were so tired, and we got to Plenty, and it was like time to rest and time to focus and time to consciously be aware of how you get in balance with your purpose in this life. And I left those four days as a changed human being. I'm just wondering, Jon or Julie, if you have thoughts about your experience.
I need a whole 45 minute episode to share how much it changed my life. But I was doing a meditation on the Calm app the other day and the like they usually share, like a quote at the end to kind of center you, and it was the more I slowed down, time did too. And I think that's exactly what happened at Lantern. The days felt longer, the week felt long. And all of that can be unlocked in our normal day to day, like I'm still referencing a lot of the things that we did during our time at the retreat in my normal life. So yes, it was not the most ideal from like, a business calendar standpoint, to go.
Totally.
But it was exactly the right timing for us, because I think it set the tone and made our event successful. Because we slowed down. Time slowed down, we made better decisions. Jon, I'll let you share more, but it definitely was life changing for me.
Yeah. I mean, I agree. I feel like we need, like, a whole episode to unpack it, because I think it's part of the magic of it was, it was connected to nature, as well. So it was like in Park City, and it was in and out of a space. There's guided reflection, there's a lot of time to just like process, and there's things that are just hard to carve out time and your normal your normal day to do. But I'll say the thing that really bubbled up to me from the retreat, and I've seen even come through this conversation today, is that this alignment, Becky you said, purpose. You know, we all were kind of like attuned to, like, what is really our purpose. And I think in this conversation, we've called out some really natural leaders who know a lane so deeply because it flows from them. It's not like they're having to force themselves to talk about these things. It's just it's their passion. It comes through and it connects. And I think I left this retreat knowing we all have that, you know, every single one of us, they call it a light, and people define it in different ways. But I hope everyone listening realizes like you have immense value. You, yourself, and in that value, like the world needs it. The world needs your light, and it doesn't look like my light or Becky's light or Julie's light for you, it looks like your light, which is the beautiful thing of this. And the more we could encourage each other to create space, to understand what that is, and harness it for good. Like this is actually how the world can unleash so much more impact and beauty and connection, you know. And so there is something wildly out there for you to lean into, and I'm just like excited for people to discover it. Like, I realize how much I love encouraging people in that too. So if I see it in you, I'm going to tell you and get ready for it, because I think it's just such an unlock when we can know that power and not feel like we need to copy or mask or do anything, like we can be ourselves at our core being and show up. That's so beautiful and so needed.
Brother McCoy is in the pulpit, and I am here for it, raising my hands. That was so powerful. And if this is sparking anything within you, I mean, Plenty has quarterly retreats. They do this often. The next one is October 22 through the 25th and we're going to drop the link to it in the show notes if you want to know more. But if this is speaking to you, I really encourage you. If you have the means to get there, please do this for yourself. But it's not just enough to say these things. We really want to help you activate them, and so please hold your calendars for the next ImpactUp. It's October 10. This is going to give Jon life. It's 10/10, it's like seamless to remember,
I can design around that.
Totally and y'all, we're going to unveil the theme of this incredible gathering and its Pause, and the gathering is about diving into how we can create this rest, how we can literally start to operationalize and prioritize our wellness, our health, our healing, and really become the vibrant, beautiful professionals we are bringing in the most incredible people to come and walk you through it. We will have workshops. We will have coaches come and just breathe with us. And we want to get you recentered. Hopefully we'll see you there. Go check out impactuprising.com. We've got a button up there on the top right where you can register. Please come. We want to see you there. Bring a friend. Let's all rest.
And y'all, we're going to post the schedule, you know, so you can know what's happening. But I would say block off the six hours because it is intentional time that's really being built as a cadence, because it is hard to, like, go to the TPS reports and then jump in for a guided meditation. It's so much better if you could really block out and be intentional with this day, but we get it that you know you're fitting this, and we'd love for you to join for whichever part you can.
And encourage your team and yourself too, because we all three just did it. When we were talking about carving out time for the Lantern Retreat, we were like, Oh, we were so busy, and it was hard to to mentally like, feel like we deserve to take that break. And the theme for the day is pause. And we really hope that you can also use this as a conversation to normalize that rest and taking care of yourself, and coming to learn how to take care of yourself is professional development. Just start a conversation within your team that could lead to further conversations of how to normalize caring for ourselves within our organization. Just treat it as a true pause, and we hope you you can come for as much of it as you can, because you deserve it.
Okay. I mean, so those are five through lines. You can see this just flows from us because we're so excited about the things that we're learning and the way we're evolving. But I want to ask each of y'all, what's an episode that's kind of stuck out to you that you don't want anyone listening here to miss. Julie, you want to start sure
There, there are so many, but I we've referenced her quite a few times already this episode, because I do think that when Lindsey Fuller speaks, I listen. So if you have not caught Episode 513, jot that one down, the one good thing that she shared we referenced it earlier, is something that I have quoted many, many, many times, is that the organization that you want you have to be a part of building it. And so her episode was just all about a human centered approach to leadership, human centered policies that you can put into practice today, even as granular is the difference between supervising and coaching. And I just think if our cultures can always be better, like no one has, just like the perfect culture, workplace environment, like we can always grow and evolve ourselves and the teams that we work on. So 513 is just a really, really, really great one to check out. So that was one of my favorites this season that I'm still quoting.
What about you, Jon?
I mean, I never want to pick. I love being the peacemaker, and I don't want anyone to feel slighted because loved all these.
What does it say about me that I always want to pick? I don't know what that means.
But I got a shout out to my accomplished optimist friend Dorri McWhorter. I mean, she is such a powerhouse, I feel like meeting her was one of the highlights of this year to me. I mean, if you've seen the Uncharitable movie, if you know Dori's voice is really threaded into this, because she is just a powerhouse, somebody that could go and do anything with her skillset and her knowledge, but she is channeling it into revolutionizing the YMCA, the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago. And I just think this is a quote that I lift that you're going to hear it, and maybe you think of us too, because we talk about this a lot. She says, the quality of the questions gets you the right solution, so you need to ask bigger and better questions. And to me, that episode was beautiful in a lot of ways, but just that she's thinking innovatively, like, what got us here is not going to get us to the next step. How do we really grow a movement? How do we really unlock corporate partners? And how do we, you know, think differently about how things are funded? And she's just such a beautiful optimist, and is actually doing the dang work at the same time. So go listen and go follow her, because she is an incredible human being. Okay B.
I apparently I love picking, so I'm going to give a shout out to episode 523, with our good friend Sixto Cancel. And if you have not checked out, Sixto and the Think of Us organization, it is revolutionizing our entire child welfare and foster system, and it's through Sixto and his incredible team, so many of them, including Sixto, were foster kids, and they experienced the brokenness of the system that kept them away from family that could have been living with. And the thing that I love so much about him, and the reason that I'm bringing him up is because he has an entirely different outlook, mindset and strategy for creating impact at this system level. And he just has these beautiful quotes. He came in and talked to us about the, you know, getting a $47.5 million investment. From the Audacious Project, and what they're doing with that capital. And it's really about, how are they looking at systems? And you would think, when you hear systems, at least I do with my old thinking, I think of ops, and I think of data, and they're going so much deeper. And he's like, how do you use storytelling and data and partnerships and advocacy to really drive systems change? And he had this quote that just stayed with me, and it's like, for most of our children in the system, they actually are not cases that end up coming into the system and then they get screened out. But what we've started to learn through research is that two, three years down the line, you see those same families who needed help and actually now having their children removed because they don't have a stable place to live, because their child is going to go to school without proper nutrition and food, and their clothes may not have been washed. And so we have to ask people what they're going through. We ask people all the time, what do you need? What do you need? And that's an important question, but we've got to be asking what's going on, and really getting into that qualitative data, and the way that Think of Us is completely reimagining the way we look at data, not just the quantitative, but how the qualitative drives, the need drives the change, and they are changing the game in Washington, DC and across the country. Please go follow them. Keep changing the world. Sixto. We love you.
I mean, Sixto is such a good human love getting to meet him in person this year too. Okay, y'all, we gotta, like, round this episode out. One good things. This is our most dreaded question, because it's so hard to distill it down. So I'm gonna throw a curveball here, and it's coming from a book that I've been working through recently. It's called Hidden Potential by Adam Grant. Love Adam Grant anyway, but hidden potential, I think that, you know, we see people like Sixto, or we see these Dorris in the world that have had inordinate amounts of success, and once you start really unpacking stories, I think Sixto is a great example of this. He wasn't born with just access to all these resources, like, he was literally living in the world that he's trying to combat against and, like, flip the script on but it's really not about, you know, being born with these advantages, but it's about the reps. You know. It's about aligning ourselves. And I talk a lot about growth mindset here since the podcast started, like, I think it's such a superpower, but Adam's challenged me in this. That's what I want you to think about. It's also not just about having a growth mindset, because that's great, but it's about really building the scaffolding around your growth mindset, because heck, doing that by yourself is nearly impossible, but changing and evolving with scaffolding of community and resources, and you know, like things that you can actually lean on, whether that's a coach or whether it's a mentor, or whether it's your community. Like, we need that scaffolding. So I think about it for yourself, like wherever you want to grow this year, what's the scaffolding that you can put around that to really help you achieve that, because feeling like we're on an island that we got to get off the island by ourselves, is not a good vibe, you know, but realizing we have all these resources and heck, this podcast, I hope for you as one of the pieces of your scaffolding. But community is such a through line. That's why we're so leaned in to, you know, what Impact Uprising is going to mean from a community standpoint, too. So that's kind of what's bubbling up. Is not really one thing, but many things come into coming together. What about you? B,
Well, we're changing places because I'm going to be extremely short. I'm usually like the long winded one, but I heard this quote. Apparently, we're quoting Jeff Shuck all day today, but and I've been thinking about it and journaling about it. And he said taking space will help you find space.
Wow,
I'm gonna say it again. Taking space will help you find space. Because once your body starts to tell you, I don't have time to do that, or I'm too busy, or I've got this other thing over there, that's your cue. It's time to slow down and take that time. And I'm telling you as someone who battles with this mightily, because all my Enneagram twos out there as we're trying to care for everybody around us, and we forget to care for ourselves. And I gotta say, this is a common problem with people who work in purpose driven and impact work. I'm telling you, you are worthy of taking time for yourself. You are worthy of taking time off. Don't feel guilty. This is your rest and rejuvenation, and that rest is actually an asset, because it's going to pay dividends to the mission in the long run, as you are able to show up more vibrantly, more clear headed, more rested.
Boom.
I love when we're all in line and we haven't even talked about what we're gonna say.
It's so good.
My one good thing today is some quotes and things that I know we mentioned Sonya Perez-Lauterbach earlier in this episode, but I've had the joy of getting coached one on one by her since probably February or March. I'd have to look back at when we started. But some common themes that she said to me, and I've been saying to myself a lot, is just very in line with what you're saying Becky is caring doesn't mean you have to carry it all and you have your own back. And I've been saying that a lot to myself lately, of I, I have, I'm have mastered having other people's backs. I I have got my team's back, I've got my friends back, my family's back, that I can do. And I found myself January and February, and my body was screaming at me. I was at doctor's appointments trying to figure out what was going on with me, and it was just the result of a lot of stress and the weighing down feeling of having everyone else's back around me and so that led me to Sonya, and I need a whole nother episode, similar to Plenty of how much Sonya and her work has helped me and changed my life, but my one good thing are those statements that you can say those to yourself, and also that Sonya is starting a rejuvenation community. And I just really want to shout her and her work out. And every season has different needs for us. I really needed a coach at that time, just based on where I was at. And if you're maybe not ready for that, or maybe you're just curious, she's going to start monthly virtual community calls. They're going to be 30 minutes. She's going to have two different times in a week that you can just come and be in community. She's going to share a quote, or maybe some ideas, have a guest person join for some meditation. It can just be kind of your first foot in the door of learning how to have your own back if maybe that's something new to you, like it was for me, but you can learn more at Sonyaperez.com but Sonia's, Sonia and her work is my one good thing. So if you're listening to this, love you and everyone go, go check her out.
You literally manifested in action and resource and tool out of my one good thing. Yes, I absoultely love that.
She's there and waiting.
We'll see you there.
Oh my gosh. I just love that practice. You know, I think when we think about the first season of We Are For Good, and we're, like, planning out the show. We wanted a way to tie up the bow, but I don't think we knew how much the one good things would really impact us, and how it really does give kind of the framework for integration. And I think that's something we really want to, you know, empower this community to do is, like, every day we have the opportunity to do something, you know, even if it's a small shift. And so one good thing, you never let us down. So grateful for those reflections. Okay, y'all season 10 is like, here, like it is coming like a train, and we are so excited. I mean, some of the commitments that are already coming on the podcast the hope booth. Gloria, the founder, the CEO of the Hope Booth. Like, you gotta go find I love when we discover these missions, these ideas, these disruptors. And she is so early on her journey, but this thing is going to revolutionize the world, because it already is in communities and cities. So go check out the Hope Booth. Excited to unpack that story. We also are talking to the CEO of the AmeriCorps. Hello. Like we're talking like, how you can activate, like, 1000s of volunteers and change makers and really getting into their playbooks. We're also gonna be talking a lot of practical things. I mean, monthly giving. Dana Snyder's launching her book, and is gonna be coming through giving this everything she's learned after hundreds of interviews of those that are building those communities, and so much more, lots of friends are launching books this season. And so we have a lot that we want to share and really get in community together about.
Y'all thanks for being here season nine. Check it off your list. Epic season we are growing. We are evolving together with you. We are celebrating the collective that's here. Thank you for staying with us. Thank you for believing in the Impact Uprising, we are here for you. Please use this community as your collective resource for good.
