How to Storytell Your Mission Through the Power of Video - Jonathan McCoy, CFRE, Becky Endicott, CFRE and Derek Watson

9:26PM Feb 18, 2022

Speakers:

Becky Endicott

Jonathan McCoy

Derek Watson

Keywords:

story

people

nonprofit

work

derek

interviewing

world

listening

storytelling

mission

lampstand

grew

lives

impact

friends

film

team

thought

life

virtuous

Hey, I'm John. And I'm Becky.

And this is the we are for good podcast.

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So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.

So let's get started. Thank you, Becky, what's up?

I think it's like my birthday. We have our friend on we're talking storytelling. We are talking video and marketing. Oh my gosh, so excited today.

I mean, this is our friend that has lived up to all the hype, because before we knew Derek, we knew of Derek and he lives in our community here. He is a filmmaker by trade. He's got Emmys literally in his office that he is one. But that's not the Derek that you hear about. You know, he has every accolade to be on paper, the most impressive filmmaker. But the Derek that we'd heard about is just this incredible human with this huge heart for perpetuating good through partnering with charities to tell their story in a really dignified and ethical way. But also one that cares about helping them raise more money and helping them use the video to really power their mission. And he has this incredible family, this incredible heart for this city in the world. He's the only guy that I've ever met that also has two sets of twins. So we can have a little support group together with that. But I mean, he has travelled the world. He grew up in Portugal, but has traveled to more than 40 countries to film stories. And so he just his heart and just his experience alone is going to be an incredible conversation. He's the founder and filmmaker behind lamp stem, and is based here in Oklahoma City. And so Derek, we're delighted is probably the biggest understatement ever to have you on the podcast.

Good grief, I just don't even Wow. All right, well, we could just turn this off and go away. I don't know how we can live up to that hype.

Let's do it. We'll just keep emoting that was just round one.

We cannot get over the fact that one of the greatest filmmakers and storytellers about social purpose lives in our backyard, like how small is the world?

Thanks for those kind words. There's a huge team here. Well, a 10 person team here lampstand, that makes all of this happen. So it is not just me by any stretch. So thanks for that introduction. That's amazing,

of course, and it's heartfelt. Truly, we've gotten to spend time with the lamp Sam team. And I'll just agree, like the team you have built is just ethos goals. You know, everyone kind of exudes the same heart and mission, and just loves what they do, too, and are so good at it. So tell us a little bit of your story, Derek, I mean, how did you end up making movies for a living that tell these incredible stories walk us through what brought you here?

So yeah, I grew up in Portugal. My father is a professor, I come from a pretty long line of missionaries. And so I grew up in Portugal, my dad had grown up in Mexico and Costa Rica and and so this kind of international perspective or worldview was kind of something that I grew up with. Growing up in Portugal, I had always just thought, Man, if I could just like, grab my friends from America and drop them down into this amazing place that I absolutely loved, like, what would it be like for them? To see that? How could that impact their life. And so that was kind of where a lot of that started. My dad is a seminary professor. So he teaches narrative preaching of all things. So I grew up with storytelling, just the human side of that consistently and constantly. I was always that little kid that was like sitting around the dinner table. After all the kids had run off doing their other thing, listening to adults talk and tell stories. That was one of the things that I got super passionate about. And we just kind of always gravitated to. I met Nick my business partner when I was 16. He was 18 and interlock in Switzerland, which is just this crazy story, how it all worked out and how it all unfolded. But Nick was wearing a hat. It was an Oklahoma Baptist University hat, which is where my parents went to school. And he was like, I'm going into filmmaking. I was like, I kind of want to do that, too. And he's like, Well, you should come to BU and two years later, I show up there in Oklahoma on campus, I got a TV, radio film degree part of me I always thought, Man, I'll just live in a hut somewhere and work on development. And that was kind of honestly a huge part of where I thought my life was headed, where my wife and I thought we were headed. But as I got into, like, really getting into film, just something clicked. So I just fell in love with storytelling and telling people stories. And in really, you know, as is that happened as I finished school, I got to go and do work as a photojournalist for PBS member station here in Oklahoma called VTA and was doing 30 minute documentaries every month on journalistic enterprise sort of stories, and just fell in love with it and just got to hone those skills and again, got a job I really had no business getting but for whatever reason, they kept me on which was amazing. And then two years later, I got my own show called state of creativity and I produced and directed that and then had kind of in the back of my mind had always thought me and it'd be amazing. You know, I grew up just devouring National Geographic documentaries and that kind of stuff and thought, Man, if I could have a camera in my hands, traveling the world, that would be the absolute best, biggest dream I could ever have, and hopefully making a difference in the world. So started lampstand, about 12 years ago in 20, April 1, April Fool's Day, great day to start to quit your awesome job and

and scare your parents. And they're like, What are you doing? This is a joke on April Fool's Day.

So that's where lampstands started. And the kind of the idea was, we want to tell powerful stories that move people to action. So we firmly believe that storytelling, which is I think, we're such good friends, that storytelling is such an innate human experience. And if you think of any revolution, or you think about any movement, or any product, or any sort of social change that has ever happened in any, you know, in the world, it's always come about because of really powerful storytelling. And so people's lives are transformed through story. And you can think about your own personal moments in your life about where you got to where you are, or why you do what you do. And there's a story behind it. There's an arc, there's tension, there's overcoming their sacrifice. And there's resolve to absolutely overcome that. And so we're like, Okay, well, how can we take the same sort of documentary authentic emotional style storytelling that we do on a large scale in 30? minute or hour feature length docs on television? How do we, how do we kind of package that up and re repackage it for nonprofits and corporations, and so lampstand, half of what we do is nonprofit ministry marketing, the other half is for corporations. And so it's kind of this neat blend of trying to every single day getting to come into work, and work with an amazing team and with amazing clients and say, Okay, how do we tell stories that move people to action and love our clients? Well, while we do it, so that's kind of a real brief, like how I got to where we are today?

Well, I just want to thank you for what you're doing in the way that you're showing up. Because we talk a lot on this podcast in our community about cognitive diversity. And if we are truly open to seeing another person's lived experience, it creates more compassion, it creates more understanding and connectedness. And I love people who actually go out into the field and talk to the people and lift the story up. And I have to tell everybody that's listening right now today's episode is going to be a super hard sell for you to invest in video at some point. And we're going to talk about why. Because even the shift of digital right now and what we're seeing just in the way that people consume videos, I mean, tick tock, and what YouTube is evolving into, and I want Derek to walk you through why this is so important. Because I'm a writer, I love to just put a pen to paper and talk about the things that are important to me. But video gives you layers, you have all these things that you cannot capture in writing, you have facial expressions, you have tone, you have music in the background, you have visual representation of what you're looking at, you have heartache, you see struggle, I just think there's so much layering that can happen in video. And I really want you to start Derek to just kind of talking about visual storytelling and the power behind it. I mean, we see this as a growing trend. And we just think that storytelling is this heartbeat of humanity. Why should this be a trend for nonprofit organizations to pay attention to especially in this moment? Yeah,

you know, I think it just works. We love working with nonprofits and fundraisers are some of our favorite people on the planet. Because there is a passion and dedication to change the world around them and then wake up every single day going, Okay, how do we, how do we impact the world and change the world today, and you see the world the way that it could be in should be and you're working towards that. And that's all it is, for us the way that we think about it's not a magic bullet. There's a whole ecosystem that takes that makes really great fundraising and giving work. But one one tool is absolutely film or video and you're right Becky like the chance to, to go in and to see someone's life radically transformed because of what a nonprofit has come in and done. All of a sudden, you start the giver has the chance to see themselves in that story and be part of the change making process. And so the way that we look at it giving is it's not going around and putting your hand out and asking for money. It's this amazing opportunity for donors to have the chance to be involved in something that's radically changing people's lives. And so we get super, super excited about it. And the film side of it is just is an opportunity. If it's done really, really well to draw people into that world and see firsthand in an authentic way. The the the transformation that happens when they get involved in so for us I think that that's One of those things that, you know, if we're shooting in Africa and showing the impact of clean water, you could see that change, you get to see the actual people behind and it doesn't, it doesn't become just a faceless organization and more people start giving. So they can see that change replicated over and over and over again. And so that would be our pitch for film it, it just seems to work.

Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot threaded behind that, because y'all make it look so effortless to and we'll drop some days film, or just I just think of like the nuance the jaw capture. And that is, you know, I still remember the hat of your business partner the in the story, it's like the small details that you drop throughout the engagement is what makes it relatable. And I think y'all do that so well. Because it is sometimes hard to get somebody to truly slide into the shoes of somebody else that have no commonality, you know, sometimes the stories that you're telling, so walk us through, you know, What elements do you focus on to really create this authentic narrative? And I'm expecting some seminary stuff in views as we think about narrative, right. But how do you make that authentic narrative feel connected to the audience? Yeah, great

question. I think a lot of it is it takes a lot of listening. I think people think okay, well, filmmaking, you grab your camera, you go out and you shoot our process. We talked about this a lot. I mean, it is 90% up front, to be perfectly honest with you. It's it's sitting there and listening, like our secret to his success. And it's not so much of a secret is, you know, Nick and I are great storytellers. Nick is an amazing strategist. And he can see and think through trends and can really cut to the quick on messaging on what really is effective. But then we also have Haley who's our account executive, and she walks our clients straight through this entire process. But in she has a Background and development, like she was a development director for a nonprofit, and then a marketing professional, is incredibly, incredibly successful at that and to have her on our team, she is immediately thinking through the eyes of a development director at a nonprofit to walk them through this process. But really, it's it's sitting down and listening and trying to understand, okay, what is the core ethos of this mission here? How do we really start to align the emotion that we're trying to communicate? And it's a ton of just discovery for us? We really try to be students right off the bat, how do we how do we listen and not put ourselves in the story just yet? And then think through, you know, what are the ways in which we can go about telling the story that really does emotion, emotionally move people, and so that process is, is a ton of listening, just a ton of listening. And then there's a lot of experience that comes with it, as well as being able to do this for so long, where you can start to see some of these trends. But then it's just it really is dedicating yourself as much as possible to understand the heart of the mission that you're trying to go after. And letting that just be second nature. And so how can we really see we, we constantly tell ourselves, like, we don't want to just tell a story, we want to be part of the story, like how can we be part of the story of this nonprofit of this mission in a way that really where we get to be essentially an extension of their team and tell a story that is powerful, that it's effective, that moves the needle,

I think one of the secret sauces of Lampstand is taking your next expertise, your whole team is so good on the technical level. But you hired Haley Haley, who is amazing, who has been in the nonprofit field, and the way that she can come in and layer strategy on to, okay, this can be used in this way, because they'll want to position it to prospective donors in this way, or we need to be able to connect this to a call to action. I mean, she has been in our world and understands how to leverage video and we talk about this a lot. Don't ever just play your video one time. If you get it for an event, holy smokes, use that video as much as you can in your social channels, put it in emails, put it on your website, break up chunks of it and make clips I mean, if you're going to invest in video, use it to its full potential. And so I think one of the things that trips up a lot of people without them actually knowing it is how they interface with the person that they're going to interview before the camera ever turns on. I think that's truly important about setting a tone and creating an environment of trust and safety. What advice do you have for people listening who are trying to make their subject feel comfortable, feel safe, and that we're honoring the dignity of their story? What advice do you have?

Well, it's it's absolutely critical. And if you think about it, we talk about this a lot on our team. We have four different people on our team that are constantly interviewing and telling stories every single day and that interview process. If you think about it, a lot of times we are we are coming in and we are asking someone about the hardest moment of their life almost on a daily is what we're is what we're doing. So a lot of that is how do we start to build rapport and trust right away so a lot of that has happens well, before we ever show up with a camera, we focus a lot on pre interviews, of just being able to listen like being a great interviewer or just being a great conversationalist, and is honestly just listening and building that trust, so that someone could sit down and share. Either the thing that they're most passionate about, or something that is unbelievably tragic that's happened in their life are some really hard tension. And, and how their life has been impacted through that. And so to build that trust is incredibly hard. And so so it means just being empathetic and being a is gonna sound crazy, but like being a human, but just being a being a person in the moment. I think a lot of times, film crews will come in, and they have a job to do. And they want to, you know, they want to get this thing done. But they're thinking about the budget or the schedule or whatever. We try to remove that as much as as much as possible and say, Okay, we're sitting down with a human being that is giving up one of the most powerful things that they can give us. And that's their story, a story that has impacted my life forever as I was in Zambia, and we're shooting the story and a, after spending a week in the field with in this village camping shooting, you know, the story, I think the the chief again for letting us come into his community. And he said, Well, I gave you the most valuable thing I could ever give you. He said, I gave you my story that dramatically changed the way in which I've thought about storytelling is how do we come in and communicate to the people that we're interviewing that that one that they don't need to perform? I think that's another thing once people start getting in their head, okay, I need to say these words, I need you to do these things to really make this a success. And you can go in and say, Listen, this is a partnership, like I'm coming in, to sit down and have a conversation with you. The goal here is to make everyone look right. Like that's that's the goal. But you don't need to worry about that you don't need to worry about saying it the exact right way. My job is to guide you through that process. And we're a team in this in this kind of idea. So, so setting some of those, those clear expectations of kind of where you're going. But but just honestly building rapport. And so a lot of times like like in the village example. Like we don't even pull the camera out for the first day or two, you know, like we're trying to get to know people and build trust and rapport. So when they sit down, and there's cameras, and there's lights, and there's all this other stuff that hopefully all of that stuff disappears. And it's just one on one, like there's just person to person sold a soul talking through some really heavy issues typically. And so whether it's trauma from childhood, or it's losing a job or a family member, whatever, whatever that may may be, because that's what we're doing as storytellers it's how do we become empathetic and allow individuals to share their heart and open up and you can't, you just can't rush that. And so that's, that's really hard. And I think that that's a that's a mistake that a lot of people have. And then honestly just practice, if you're interviewing a US senator or a CEO, they have their own issues and their own fears that they bring in, even though they do this all the time. But once you earn their trust, and they understand, okay, you have a job to do, this is what's going on. I mean, those are the people that are interviewed every single day. But a lot of times for a lot of nonprofits, you're interviewing someone that this is the one chance this is the one interview that they will ever do in their life. And they've never done it before. So it's immediately like, Okay, how do we relieve the tension? How do we become personable? Like, it's okay, it's okay to mess up. It's okay to do whatever like this isn't this is just you sharing your story. So

in the same way, we have the credentials to be fundraisers, right that that's publicly recognized. But Becky, and I will take the mic and say, hey, it actually comes back to kindergarten principles. And I love that that's what you're saying. It's like listening, you know, is actually probably the most powerful step that you can take and just being a good human. So people feel what they want to open up to you. But I think some of you said that I would love every executive director, anybody that's going to be on film for your organization, like, of course, be prepared. But please do not perform. Like there's such like a difference. And it's like a subtle difference, but it's the ability to connect or not, you know, and we see that because we interview people all the time. If you're reading a teleprompter, it's a different experience. Hey, friends, this episode is presented by virtuous and they just happened to be one of our favorite companies. Let me tell you why. You know, we believe everyone matters. And we've witnessed the greatest philanthropic movements happen when you see and activate donors at every level. And here's the thing, virtuous created a fundraising platform to help you do just that. It's much more than nonprofit CRM. Virtuous is committed to helping charities reimagine generosity through responsive fundraising, which is simply putting the donor at the center of fundraising, growing giving through personalized donor journeys, and by helping you respond to the needs of every individual. We love it because this approach builds trust and loyalty, your personalized engagement. Sound like virtuous may be a fit for your organization. Learn more today@virtuous.org or follow the link in our show notes.

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I want to say if you walk into an interview, and you have a piece of paper with a long list of questions, and you get into it, that's what I would probably say I wouldn't say it's the wrong way. But I would say you're not going to get the sort of product that you're wanting to get. And I also love that we're talking about the trauma of revisiting these stories. And I'll give you one little pro tip that I just use is when we have really hard stories that we're telling and when I'm interviewing somebody, we I like to dignify them at the end by asking questions like, where's your hope now? What is that told you about the important people in your life if you can, that's almost like a little subtle parachute gift I think we can give to people at the end, as they're coming up on this really high level of intense story, we should give them the gift of coming down and finding gratitude and an ending with hope, which is what we all want. Because we all want to root for somebody in a story. And I would love for you to riff on that. Derek

Yeah, I would say if you're not if you're not doing that, then why why are we reliving the harshest moments of their life, if it's not for hope at the end. And just a normal story arc if if our heroes are going through tension, and overcoming and sacrificing for not showing the hope at the end, if we're not telling them why we have to dig into these traumatic moments of their life, and it's not to impact somebody else. Then I just don't know why we would put somebody through that. One of the most dramatic interviews I've ever done was for a documentary that we did that ended up on Netflix, it was called sowing hope is about a nun in northern Uganda named Sister Rosemary, who would take in

we love sister, she's lived with Sister Rosemary is

in no way. Are you serious? Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. So we did a film on her called sowing hope, and spent 678 weeks with her, which is amazing. But you know, we're interviewing women who were abducted by Lord, the Lord's Resistance Army, were forced to kill their family, their parents, we're talking about trauma on a level that is incredibly difficult to even relate to, and to ask them to, to go through that, again, as Susan is, is the person I'm thinking of at the moment. If we are going through this, why are we doing that unless it's to show hope and change. And I remember after that interview, sitting back behind her house, weeping, but hoping and praying that obviously, we dealt with her in a way that she could feel empowered, even by the end, and knowing that she has some control over her story and knowing that that trauma could be used for for good down the road. And so we have to talk about the hope and, and to get somebody to open up about some of those most dramatic moments in their life, you have to earn that trust, and then you have to do well with it on the backside. So it's to us, it's like, we don't want to just tell a story. But the way in which we tell a story has to matter, as well. Yeah. Oh,

man, thank you for sharing that. And I think that all this kind of comes together, we spend a lot of effort this season talking about ethical storytelling, and it's truly the only way to storytelling, we come back to values all the time. And I just think of like our our missions are built on values, our personal lives, we have our values are perpetuating, if you're true to those, there's no other way to show up. But to make sure that the person that cheers telling the story that is invited you to give their greatest gift, it's going back to the Chiefs words, you know, like their greatest offering, it's our duty, and to share it only in that way. And it is a shift from maybe how the sector has been portrayed, you know, of how we would use or manipulate people through story. So are there any other points that you would lift a flag to for ethical storytelling,

I would just think that the pieces that you're making are going to be out in the world forever. We can think about the event or we can think about the campaign. But I can't tell you how often we've we just had this conversation last week or a couple of weeks ago about featuring someone in a story and realizing they're just they are not ready for the story to be out there like their healing process has not. They are not through with the addiction They're not through with the challenges having the mindset that, like no one wants to do more harm than good. But But knowing that like, Okay, is there a way to tell this story to show the dignity of pain that someone has gone through? And then the successes and hope like how do we platform the right people? And I know that's kind of a weird term sometimes to use, but like, how do we do this in a way to where when they get back, and they see this, that they feel unbelievably honored, and they're in a better place? By the way in which they tell the story? How do we show extreme poverty in a way that shows the humanity of it and the realities of it, but also the fact that there are beautifully strong people behind this that are real, and we shouldn't look at them with with pity, but we should, we should look at them with a way to passionately empower them. So I think I think for us, I think the red flags are, think about the emotion but also think about like, the story is going to live forever. Are we okay with the way in which we tell the story. And so I think coming in with that sort of like being ready to tap the brakes, on things, I think is I think is important, and then also being okay, like leaning into some really hard conversations to,

I will say, just to add on to that, that if you can take in the experience that you are observing feeling as the interviewer, it will change you, at least I can speak to that in my own in my own life, if you can come in humbly and accept that story. And if you feel so moved, hug them afterward, you know, find a connection, a human to human, allow that to change you and build your empathy as a storyteller. I think that is also such a great takeaway from being bold enough to try this. And so I want to like address the elephant in the room with you, Derek, which is cost an investment in digital. And I think this is the thing that that keeps most nonprofits stuck, because you do have to make a significant investment, and sometimes maybe not significant. And I would love for you to talk about how someone can why someone should invest in this, and how they can start, you know, maybe with a modest investment and work up.

Yeah, no, it is an investment. It is and and there are a lot of times where people are like, well, I could buy like X, Y and Z with this for the mission instead of this. And you could or you could raise 10x off of this investment as well. And so I would really look at it as an investment. And there's different scales, like I mean, you can hire the college kid, right out of school, who has the camera and can like shoot it. And I think a lot of times people think, Oh, I just need a video two to three minutes. And they don't think about the impact of what that one video can can have. If it's an event, or if you're trying to get a meeting with a big donor, or whatever it might be that two to three minutes or five minutes or whatever long that that is that is valuable time and you get one shot at that, like you get one shot to make an impression that has your brand that has your ethos, your mission, your impact, all wrapped into it in a in a story form that moves that person to action. So what I would, what I would say is, in terms of investment, our favorite phone calls or phone calls from our development friends, we're like, we just we just raised a million dollars off of that video. And of course, they did all of the work of cultivating the relationship, you know, creating the moment all of the ingredients that made that meal what it was, but the video had a huge role to play. And of course, it's not a magic bullet. You can't be like, Oh, well you play the video and you get a million dollars, I wish we can make that guarantee. That'd be incredible. If you only have one chance to tell your story, well, I wouldn't you want to invest it in it in it in a way that gets the biggest impact? If your mission is this important? How do you tell a story in such a way that it is beautiful and reflects the quality of the services that you're providing every single day? How do you how do you marry those two together? And I think it's okay to stairstep sometimes too, like there, there were times where I was the kid right out of college that somebody hired in, you know, to tell their nonprofit story and like that's okay, if that's where you are at the moment. But I but I do think that as you start to think and grow, that's kind of the way that I would look at it.

Let me just say like a real practical implication of this too, because I think we're talking about it as a fundraising tool. And it obviously is, but it's like a donor relations tool. It's like a stewardship tool. It's a marketing tool. And so if you're struggling with how do I fit this in my budget for my event, let's say look at it from the marketing angle, the donor relations angle, the event angle and split it up you know if that's how you need to figure out how to pay for it, but you can't think of it as this one and done put it on the shelf so use it again. And I think that break shells heart after you spend all this kind of effort and time to see it played in one room for 200 guests. That's the antithesis of what you should be using with your video. So I want to get a chance to respond there but invest like there's just there's so much leverage you can have out of one video.

Oh absolutely. And and coming into it. What we love about partnering with our clients is and being a part of their team is helping them think through that, for instance, we're about to shoot a story and Dubai and Turkey and we're already thinking through, okay, how do we maximize the impact on that trip on that initial investment, so we can help you tell stories throughout the year. That's what's kind of fun, too, about having these long term relationships with clients is that we get to go back and tell stories, or tell part of a story on this one year and finish it up in 2022, or 2024, whatever, we have the chance the opportunity to take that investment, and it pays dividends down the road in terms of the way in which he tells stories.

And I think that this is really a growth mindset challenge for everybody listening, including me is that I know that a lot of us are probably a lot of our leaders have been trained to think of video as a one off that we use in an event, you know, in a one off campaign. And that's, that's sort of the small minded thinking we're trying to get away from. And so I think you start to think about a video as the video is not just a video, the video is one of the most powerful tools that we're going to have in our toolkit that's going to bring people to understand our mission, they're going to feel the heart of the mission, we're going to make them feel something as a result of watching this video. And as a storyteller, I'm just telling you that the arc of the story when it hits the apex of the feeling in the moment where you want to cheer for somebody, you want to be a part of them, you wanted to see him succeed. That's where the Ask comes in. That's where the connection point comes in. And so I want to give you one compliment. Before I ask you our next question, John, and I everybody's listening this podcast for any length of time know that John, and I spent a considerable part of our last job building up this employee giving campaign, it was like our child, we loved it, we loved our donor so much. And we loved the ethos behind it when we left our health care organization, and kind of just handed it off, I remember it was like almost sending your kid off into the world and College. And I'm like, I hope it survives, I hope this campaign keeps living. Derek and his team come in and sit down with that Healthcare Foundation team for an hour and a half. And they do nothing but listen and ask questions. And the final product of what I saw from your team, moved my heart so much, I'm already like tearing up, it brought me to tears. This is a selfish thing to say, I felt so honored in what you did there. I felt like you honored what we did. I mean, John, and I forwarded to my mom, and my mom was like, they got it, they nailed it. You know, and I just want to tell you that for you to have that gift of coming in for an hour and a half. And understanding the heart of what took us what we felt like a decade to build is a gift. And if you can find somebody that can do that, and translate that, that is how movements take off and how connection and human empathy begins to build, I feel

like I have to give a shout out to to Brienne, Hagar Miller on the team who said we have to make this investment. You know, it's like what we're talking about today that she was bold enough to say we've never spent this kind of investment. But we need to come out really strong this year, you know, in the middle of layoffs and all these kind of different challenges. But it was a pandemic, it really

is a whole team effort. And that is a huge compliment, Becky, and thank you so so much. But we see every story is completely unique. If everyone does have a story, and we truly believe that they do, how do we tell that story in the most powerful way possible. And your former team, you had obviously left an amazing legacy there to trust us with that, and to come up with a concept that that that hopefully worked. So thanks for that, well,

we can't have a storyteller on our podcast without hearing a story of a time you were moved in your life by someone by philanthropy, by a person that you're interviewing, what is the one story that kind of sticks out to you that you feel like has fundamentally changed you,

we have the best job, we get to see this every single day like this is our life's work, which is pretty amazing to work with partner with organizations. And see the impact. I think one really big one was reshooting with our friends at water for and so we were doing this, this piece and we're on this island in the middle of this massive lake and Zambia. And it's like 75 kilometers wide like you see the curvature of the earth and you're on this little skinny Island. And we had gone out six months before to drill the water well, and we captured all of that and spent two or three weeks out on this island capturing all of that and then we came back six months later to show the impact and I kind of fought for and the organization was super supportive of letting us go back like not just showing the the well moment that everyone celebrates and all of that but like what would it look like to go back six months later and see the impact and to go back six months later was amazing. We shot the piece and it was great to hear Later, we go back for a whole other story and to walk down, I couldn't find the trails to the, to the lake anymore. Like I'd spent six weeks on this island, grass had grown up over where they used to fetch water. And it hit me I thought I was just going crazy. And I realized and I asked like, little no one goes down there anymore. Because people had given to make sure that they had the opportunity to be empowered to drill, throne water, their own wells. So now there was no reason to go back and fetch water from the lake anymore. They had their own clean water. And there's like stories like that, that just impact that has actually changed the geography of the village, people's lives are changed by the work that philanthropy does. And I think sometimes we can forget those little individual stories to see the story arc beyond the film beyond the story of beyond the story that we show. Is this pretty powerful? It's pretty amazing.

Isn't that just why we're here? Doesn't it just feel so good? I live for those moments.

Our story, goodness sakes. Okay. I mean, we've just been hanging on every word of this conversation. Derek, it's been so good. Would you share all we always end our podcast asking for one good thing? What is, you know, one of your habits or piece of advice you could leave with us today?

Yeah, so one of our mantras, it's actually on our window. It's on our website. It's everyone has a story, how will yours be told, we all have a story. And the reason why it's on the window is more for me than anything else is I get to walk, walk in to work every day, how's my story going to be told, and I don't mean it in terms of like an egocentric sort of way, we're a part of a much bigger story in our lives. And there, there's tension, and there's failure, and there's victory. And there's if you think about any of your favorite stories, like it's always hard, like, it's always hard. Otherwise, it's not a story. Otherwise, it's going to the grocery store, right? There has to be tension, there has to be failure, there has to be overcoming. And so as I think about your audience, specifically, some of my favorite people in the world, people who are involved in philanthropy who are going out every day to try to have this vision for what the world could be in should be in our sacrificing to make it happen. That this is just one chapter of your story. So whether it's hard or it's difficult, or you don't know what's coming next, that you're a part of this much bigger story, and we have a chance to leave the world in a better place than than where we found it. And, and your story's not over.

Well, Derek, we have loved this conversation. We adore you and your team, that ethos, and just really what you are putting out into the world with your expertise and your skill set. How can our listeners connect with lampstand? Oh, thanks

so much. Yeah, go to go to Lampstand story.co. That's our website. And then there's a higher S button, you can click that. And you can talk with Haley, who will be your new best friend, immediately, I guarantee you about how about how we could potentially partner it on the road. And even if we can't, we absolutely love meeting new folks. And it's a it's a ton of fun for us to get to be involved with with whatever you're doing. So we'd love to tell your story.

And here's a big mama bear hug to everybody you can do this story is going to change the arc of your mission. And I really believe in it. I'm hugging you and cheering you on. Invest in it. I think you're ready.

Thanks, Derek. This has been awesome.

Thank you guys.

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