127. LinkedIn Marketing for Nonprofits / Thought Leadership - Tania Bhattacharyya

8:18PM Jun 4, 2021

Speakers:

Julie Confer

Becky Endicott

Jonathan McCoy

Tania Bhattacharyya

Keywords:

people

linkedin

nonprofit

great

organization

thought

leader

connect

world

sharing

post

leadership

personal brand

tanya

build

brand

stepping

podcast

community

hashtags

Hey, I'm john. And I'm Becky. And this is the we are for good podcast.

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, where 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. Welcome, welcome, Jackie. We've got that certain smile on our face. When you've got a

good human on you got reason to smile, and we're all dressed the same. So you have to realize, and this is going to be the sunniest conversation. So we're all

channeling some cool vibes over here today,

I guess so.

So friends, I cannot wait for you to meet our guest today. She is truly an expert in this space and has so much goodness to share with us. Her name is Tanya Bhattacharya, which we're obsessed with her name alone,

we're gonna have to put a little jingle to it. Yes,

she is from Southern California but has found fundraising after graduating from the University of California Irvine. When pursuing a psychology degree. She spent 12 years in really all different aspects of the nonprofit world from fundraiser to marketer, eventually, Executive Director, and she's really just found her passion in that journey. And that's what we really want to talk about today. Even though she's raising billions of dollars, she believes that a brave conversation is the start to any new endeavor. And she now uses her skills and expertise in lumos marketing, which is a company that she founded, and she uses her superpower of lining up women and leaders of color voices to open doorways and opportunity for influence. She is truly in our field. And I was joking with her before we started, she posts something on LinkedIn and people like immediately start fanning. It's like the comments they gave. She lives this out. I mean, she is a thought leader in the space on thought leadership and branding as a from a personal perspective to and really a powerhouse on LinkedIn. So she is going to teach us all things thought leadership, all things how to connect and engage and build a tribe on LinkedIn. And she's just a really great human. So Tanya, welcome to the weird for good podcast, we're so glad you're here. Oh, my goodness, I can't even tell you how glad I am to be here. This is the highlight of my day. Thank you for inviting me. Oh, wow. So

early in the morning. I really hope that things also get better.

So would you kind of give us a little bit of your story I know touched at a high level. But I'd love for you to connect the dots with us of how you ended up here today.

Yeah, that sounds good. So you know, I like to see that I was raised in the nonprofit field. Because you know, I started part time as a fundraiser before I'd even actually graduated from my alma mater, UCLA. And like you said, I eventually became an executive director over a decade later in that same organization, which happened to be a nonprofit addiction treatment program for women and their families. And so as I grew in my nonprofit career, I became a face of that organization. And, you know, we all get training on things like major gifts and board governance and things like that, rightfully so. But truly, there isn't usually a lot of time or training invested in building out the personal brand of the executive or on thought leadership. Yet, I found myself giving, like huge speeches to large groups have been hundreds of people meeting with influential public officials, um, you know, incredibly credentialed medical professionals who were referral sources for us and just navigating spaces of great affluence, great, great power. And so I knew to stand out, I would need to build a personal brand for myself, which in other words, is just, you know, positioning yourself as a trusted authority, creating a trusted reputation based on your perceived experience, credibility and achievements. And I didn't have a specific strategy around it at first, just to be very honest. But as I began building up a personal brand, and my thought leadership on LinkedIn, it resulted in some pretty significant results, which I can tell you about in a little bit. And so in last year, and 2020, stuff hit the fan, right. And we continue to be in a public health to triple public health crisis, between COVID-19 racial trauma and violence and uptick in mental health and addiction diagnoses. And being in the nonprofit world, our field has been in the thick of it. So our nonprofit colleagues all around the nation are being asked to do more with less wealth, just trying to keep it together themselves. And I know a lot of nonprofit professionals who are making a huge difference in the issue that they were trying to solve. nonprofits are the first line of defense for people at the margins who are struggling, who needs support, and we have seen that very clearly over the last year. And that's just a The people who were closest to the heart of our world's problems have the solutions. They're just not always at the table, the funding table, the public policy table, the thought leadership table. And I know I'm biased. But I believe that the nonprofit field is the most important field. I heard boulais give a keynote last year, and he said, nonprofits are like air, you were invisible, people don't really notice, appreciate us until they really need us, you don't appreciate air until it's gone. So I'm very intentional about working with the nonprofit world because we all stand for something greater than ourselves. We are all about working at the heart of the world's biggest problems. And therefore, we have the solutions through our lived experience in the trenches. So I'm really passionate about thought leadership about personal branding. And I think LinkedIn is one of our best tools to do that. Because I think that it's how we build our own boardroom table. And, you know, this is a overused phrase, but people follow the leaders that they know, like and trust, they'll roll up their sleeves and jump into the arena to help those leaders make shift happen. They'll donate rally, protest, give, do whatever it takes. But if nonprofit leaders are not consistently sharing about the work to their target audience, they're leaving transformational opportunities on the table, because they're not at the table, to take them. That's how I feel about thought leadership. And that's a little bit about my journey. Okay, I

don't even know where to go. Because she just brought up like 12 of my favorite topics of all time, I promise, I won't go back to all 12 of them through all of them. But I think one of the most important things that I just want to lift up is, you know, you worked in this mental health space at the onset of your career. And actually, the last project that I worked on, before I left our last healthcare organization was a mental health and addiction treatment center here in Oklahoma. And when you work in that space, there is something about the way that your worldview shifts, it is I felt like I was an empathetic person before I ever worked in that space. But once you sit down with people who have experienced the pain and the cyclical effect of addiction, and the stigma that's tethered to that your your heart expands exponentially. And it also gave me a sense that, you know, we don't do enough in nonprofit to take care of ourselves. The self care component, particularly for women, is something that we do not take the time to do, because we are hardwired, to be multitaskers to pile on, to do all of the tasks, while still loving people and making sure that you know, harmonious relationships still still exist. And so I really love that the foundation of your career was rooted sort of in this empathy, and seeing all people and now I can understand how you're using that in LinkedIn. LinkedIn is like a foreign world to me, and we talk about it and where I'm on it. I've been on it for years, I don't think I've leveraged it well, and I don't know many people who think that they've managed it well. But this, this whole process about thought leadership is incredibly interesting to me and creating your own brand. I think when people think about leadership and about thought leadership, they're thinking of celebrities, they're thinking of individuals with really large social media followings like influencers. What advice do you have for our listeners about how they, as leaders within their organizations are thought leaders and how they can start building that brand?

Great question, you know, and on one hand, I feel like I feel like the term thought leader has almost been bastardized to the point where anyone with a big ego and Wi Fi can appoint themselves. And I think that's why it's such a it's a bad rap. And we don't even want to call ourselves that. But I think you're right, though, that on the other side of the coin, so many intelligent, hard working humble, knowledgeable changemakers. Like so many listeners of this podcast, probably shrug off that term, or the term expert, for that matter. They believe their internal stories that only people with Ivy League education, decades of experience and large social media followings, like you said, could achieve such a title or they or they hesitate about what other people would think about them if they put themselves out there in such a way because we were all raised to be humble to a fault, especially working in the nonprofit world. And truthfully, we don't give ourselves the title of thought leader. It's given to us by the perception of our target audience. So we become thought leaders by and build and build a personal trusted personal brand, by being of service to others and freely giving away the information that we have learned through our journey. And I think everybody can lead from where they are. Sometimes I think of it instead of thought leadership as lived leadership because you know, you're sharing literally the lessons like the hard lessons you've learned during your your life. And so if someone comes to you and says, Hey, You know, let's say a funder comes to you or a CSR comes to you and says, Hey, we're working on this huge national summit and need a speaker on x topic, who would you recommend? The person that comes to your mind has established a strong personal brand as a thought leader in that niche enough to make you think of them in the moment as your go to trusted recommendation. And I believe that everybody listening this podcast right now has a niche that they could become the go to trusted person in. And so you know, thought leadership kind of reeks of, you know, ego like I mentioned earlier, and so I created nine guiding principles to work with my clients to kind of so they can think of building up their thought leadership platform in a different way based on the way I think we'd see the world. And I'd love to to share them with you. Oh, my gosh, go for it. No,

no, I grab a pen.

We look through the lens of those we serve with radical empathy and respect to we strategically share our lived experience and stories from the trenches to educate and inspire others to join our movement. Three, we commit to Transparent community building, attracting a growing audience of fans, friends and followers to sit around a campfire or we fill in collective gaps and understanding to benefit all who still suffer with a secondary goal of becoming the go to trusted expert in our niche by if we take the next right step to the best of our ability with humility and gratitude that we do the inner work so we can wear our protective trauma responses, such as perfectionism, imposter syndrome and people pleasing, as loose flowy garments beaven so we are comfortable not having all the answers we do what it takes to find them when the right questions are asked. Eight we show up with a spirit of abundance actively saying no thank you to scarcity mentality. And finally, number nine, put the community served above all else we've in their wisdom with credit into our shared solution. And so that's if you do those things consistently, you I mean, you will position yourself as a heart centered go to trusted expert, which in other terms is a thought leader, which then then will turn to greater influence and driving the change that you want to see in the world making your vision a reality. Okay,

oh my gosh, every time you talk, we need like 10 minutes to respond and emote. But just the fact that you use a campfire, and now I'm seeing it limos marketing that's their brand to a

kitchen table, whatever it is people

like disrupts the this idea that we're putting a thought leader on the stage. It's saying build a campfire where you can have community and talk because you're so bought in and so waving the flag that nonprofits are thinking small if they're thinking and scarcity, it is about really creating change. And so we need to share generously, the counsel that we have in our hearts and the things lessons that we've learned and inviting people to that is actually going to create the impact that we want to see. And so I love that that is just breathes through everything that you've just shared, they're so beautiful. I

think the thing that stuck out to me the most about what you said is again, using vulnerability as a suit of armor. And vulnerability has been something that we have been asked to sort of put in the drawer. And we're supposed to be as a thought leader, we're supposed to have all the ideas, we're supposed to have all the answers we're supposed to be, you know, completely buttoned up. And I love that you're flipping the script entirely. And saying, actually, that will that's going to be damaging to your brand. If you set a tone of perfectionism, there's just no way that you can own that in any phrase. And I have to tether this and connect it back to something I was visiting with a girlfriend about the other day. And it's feels cultural. But we were saying how we cannot remember our parents ever apologizing to us for anything when we were kids. Or even saying I was wrong about something and you have to know that our parents mess some things up. Sorry, mom, I love you. But you did. I mess things up as a parent to that. I love this new generation of of parenting and leadership that's coming in and saying, actually, when I come back and say to you that I messed up, and I apologize, and I'm working to be a better version of myself. That actually is an empowerment. And that is something that again, that's our armor, our vulnerability is our armor. And I just have to say number six, I want to repeat this because it just moved my heart Do the inner work so we can wear our protective trauma responses, such as perfectionism imposter syndrome and people pleasing as loose flowy garments. Oh my gosh, I visually can see that I can see all the things that are insecurities, just being the fabric of who we are, we own it, but it is not completely, you know, hardwired and threaded into us. It's just a loose flowy part that was like a masterclass in humanity. Well done.

Thank you so much. And one thing I just want to add to that when you spoke about how our parents never really apologize to us, I had that same experience. And when we think about it, our workplaces, the nonprofit's we work, at the communities we built around that they are a kind of a family too, it's not a family we're born into. And it's not really a family of choice, either. But those same mechanisms play out. And so if the leader is not vulnerable, does not apologize, you know, strives for perfection 100% of the time, the children, or the employees and the donors and the community will will pick up on that, and it is a struggle.

And it makes them not approachable, it makes you not relatable, makes people not feel like they have access to who you are incredibly, you can't speak honestly and openly at a level of trust. So please embrace, embrace all your scars and all the things that make us the messy humans we are.

I love it. Could we you know, even go one step further on this because we talked to so many founders and leaders of organizations that I think should step into this space. Some of them have stepped in formally. So others definitely should. How do you really manage and navigate that with somebody? How do you build your own personal brand, while still not taking away something from the mission, but just supporting the mission and still feeling like you can have your own voice?

That's a great question. And that's one that comes up often because sometimes people think it's almost like they clash, a personal brand, and a professional brand, or the brand of the organization might clash. But truthfully, they really amplify each other. And for every individual, not just the executive, but for every individual within a nonprofit to have a complimentary personal brand, where they're sharing what they're passionate about sharing their deeper vision for the future. It actually just really boosts up the organization as well. And so I do have like a quick tip around crafting your own brand personality, which is, which is interesting, right? Because our personal brand is us. It's It's who we are, but sometimes, and you know, I've heard a couple people gurus, if you will give advice like Oh, just be yourself. But in a world where we can't always be our authentic selves, or we're needing to like code switch, or we are needing to, you know, come off as different than we actually are. I think finding your deeper personal brand, is is deep work. It's like deep personal work. It's figuring out what do you stand for? It's like, what is the legacy you want to leave in the world? What keeps you up at night? What breaks your heart? And once you answer those questions for yourself, you can identify your personal brand, like the people you stand for, like the hill that you will die on, like who you are as a person. So I think actually creating a personal brand is is just a transformative experience for anyone. But just know that, I guess what I'll leave you with in terms of that question is, I believe everybody has a personal brand already, whether they realize it or not, it's their reputation. So take charge of it,

right? Like, think about how you want to come off in the world and position yourself in that way. And I love that you brought up that anyone can do this because I think we have a lot of millennials and Gen Z errs that listen to this podcast who may not be in a leadership position yet. But I think what you're saying has has great longevity in it that what you're doing and how you are operating right now in your organization, with your social footprint wherever it is, is setting the tone of your brand. And so if you're showing up and being your authentic self if you are you know stepping out when you've missed apt and apologizing and finding ways to pivot you know what you're posting on your social page will be there forever and someone will come and look at that that is an extension of your personal brand. Think about that and hardwired in your values to ensure that where you are professionally and where you are online matches and and reveals that authentic self

and you were so generous you have given our listeners a freebie and we will put this in the show notes but you can go to Tanya's website it's got develop your thought leadership brand guide and that's a freebie that you can send and connect people directly with you. Well, I think this all up but I wanted to say

we love freebies thank you I mean any way to activate someone and point them to a starting point is such a great thing. So I wonder if we can pivot a little bit and move into this mini LinkedIn masterclass again, Becky does not know how to utilize LinkedIn well, and I'm wondering who else is out LinkedIn

has gotten a lot cooler though as well. I

definitely I

just think they're stepping up their game.

Cool when I was a kid, they rebrand Did they came back out and target is super cool. Now LinkedIn is making its rise. Yes. Teach us your wise way starting Yeah.

Well, first of all Thursday, right?

Right. LinkedIn is changing a lot of people I speak to still think it's the place where you just use when you're trying to find a job, or the place where you just upload your resume. And it's just your living resume. It's actually an amazing social media platform where you can create a lot of engagement. And so first of all, thank you for letting me talk about literally like one of my favorite topics. I am an evangelist, I think it's one of the most underutilized resources for nonprofit professionals maybe the most, I'll just make a bold statement. It's the most underutilized resource. Taking a quick pause from today's episode to thank our sponsor, who happens to be one of our favorite companies virtuous, you know, we believe everyone matters. And we've witnessed the greatest philanthropic movements happen when you see an activate donors at every level. And virtuous is the platform to help you do just that. It's so much more than a nonprofit CRM, virtuous helps charities reimagine generosity through responsive fundraising. And we love it because this approach builds trust and loyalty through personalized donor engagement. Some, like virtuous may be a fit for your organization, learn more today@virtuous.org, follow the link in our show notes.

Talk to us about how an organization could leverage LinkedIn to get their voice out. Or personally,

or personally, or both, right? So, so I did an experiment as a nonprofit executive director, and mind you I was, you know, 11 years into this organization. So throughout those 11 years, I was intentional about, you know, adding people that I was connecting with, even if they so even if they left their job, move to a different Foundation, you know, did a career pivot, they were still connected with me. So I think that's, you know, number one thing, you, you consistently stay connected with people throughout, you know, a lifetime or throughout a career. So anyway, I did an experiment, I posted something every day, Monday through Friday for a month. And I also spent 10 minutes a day commenting on other people in my target audience. So board members, referral sources, Foundation, program officers, other subject matter experts in mental health addictions, etc. So by the end of it, I had gotten significant results. And I will say it's kind of hard to track the full value of these things, because personal branding is somewhat ephemeral. But the tangible results included, you know, invitations to sit on two boards, a referral of a patient into treatment from an intervention is it resulted in having, you know, conversations in person with funders, where they said, Oh, I saw on your LinkedIn, you posted X, Y, and Z, like, Oh, I saw your network with Blue Shield. Now. That's great. Can you tell me more about that. So it's strengthening existing relationships, and help me find more people like the stakeholders that we already have. So and just know to your audience is seeing your stuff, whether they're actually liking or commenting. So a lot of people I work with get discouraged because people don't like their posts, or they get like one post versus on Instagram, they get a ton of posts, or I'm sorry, a ton of likes. So just know like, your audience is seeing your stuff. And as a result, they are moving down that know like and trust funnel towards seeing you as the go to trusted expert in your specific niche. And so you can see why I call personal branding ephemeral. The true outcome of personal branding is trust. And there's no like app that really quantifies that, you know, but it is of trust is completely and totally priceless. I think trust is the currency of today. I don't think it's money. You know, we all go out and raise money. And that's important, obviously. But I think trust is the true currency. I think attention is the true currency of 2021. And so many LinkedIn masterclass. So that you brought up a great point, which is your stuff, you know, you're still getting comments on your stuff weeks later. And the reason for that is LinkedIn has over 700 million users, but most of them don't post their own content, but they check it, they get on there every day, at least multiple times a week. And so because there's a greater ratio of users to content than other social media platforms like Instagram or Twitter, your posts will linger longer. And so they have more time to get noticed even a week or more longer after the initial post. And if a donor a volunteer, a board member likes your posts, the algorithm does a really great job of showing their network your post to so it's a really easy way to meet more of your currently existing audience, people like the people that you already know and love. If you hear an amazing keynote speaker, like I mentioned last year, I heard les speak, and I was like, He's amazing. I didn't know he knew who he was. But I've connected with him on LinkedIn and now we're connected. You know, if you've read an author's amazing book, you know, you can connect with them. If you take a class from an esteemed professor. It's just not weird to connect with them on LinkedIn, whereas I would never do that on Facebook. It was just that would be strange. They in relationship with them and in the loop with what they're doing and vice versa. And that way, it just presents opportunities for collaboration that can benefit your organization.

And a lot of people use LinkedIn as its own search engine. So they're typing in what they're specifically looking for. So for example, you know, a summit planner might search for speakers on a topic, or a CSR professional might search for nonprofits that their company wants to support within a specific pillar. And so if you put the right words, the right keywords in your headline, your job title, your summary, you can easily be found by the right people for the right opportunities. And the last thing I'll say about this is it kind of serves as your digital professional homepage, right, we all have our purpose, our nonprofits all have websites, some of us have our own personal website, which is a great tool for personal branding, but many don't. And so if you google most professionals, their LinkedIn is one of the first things to pop up. And so if you build a name for yourself, and your personal brand strengthens, people are gonna start googling you. And you know, you want your LinkedIn to be to be used when that happens. So like, I had a friend who's a nonprofit executive director, and her PR firm submitted her first speaking opportunity. And they sent her LinkedIn profile as part of the media kit. And she was kind of surprised by that. But I wasn't because you know, LinkedIn is really the cover of your of your branding strategy. It's a cover your thought leadership. So you want to be sure it's something your audience is going to want to pick up.

This podcast would genuinely not be possible without LinkedIn, just from exactly what you're saying of individuals who are looking to find speakers for a summit like in the same way, we only know so many people. But when I see a connection from a previous podcast guest and they catch my eye, it's one easy LinkedIn message just to get to know them, introduce yourself, and then they become a friend and you meet them, and they join us on the podcast. So I'm here to give a thumbs up to utilizing LinkedIn. And don't be afraid to just reach out because people from my perspective, have been really receptive to meet and add me and learn more about what we're doing. And so yes, I'm just upping everything that you're saying. I mean, Julie, we have one brain because I was gonna say the same thing. I mean, how many times have all of us opened up an email to send to somebody? What is essentially a cold call, I've never met you and your heart is sort of beating, it's like, oh, it's, it feels so trepidatious to actually hit the send button. But there is something about friending or connecting with somebody, I guess it's not friending, connecting on LinkedIn, and the friction is gone. Yeah, the fear is gone. And the accessibility is so readily available, I can think of people that I never, I would have been too intimidated to reach out to them. But it's like, oh, I'm just gonna send them a LinkedIn message. If they don't respond well. Okay. But it took me 20 seconds. And that is the beauty I think of LinkedIn, it's that it's so connecting to all of us, it puts us on the all the same playing field,

I completely agree, I just had a call with somebody I met on LinkedIn just because as people share about their values, I would just encourage everybody to take that instant, just like Tonya said, if you've read the book, like you know how much it means to somebody to just send a personal message of what you took away from the book, or how much it meant to you like it will stop them in their day. And just, if anything, they're gonna see it and appreciate it. But most likely, they're not going to connect and hop on the phone with you if you want to do that, or zoom. People are just people at the end of the day. And this is kind of democratized access to everybody, which I love.

I do have one question too. I, I'm more in general, just like a private person. I've don't always just post everything on social media, do you have any advice for anyone listening that kind of feels in their gut, they probably should be posting more, and they're holding their own self back or something like that, just for people that are, in general, a little more private? Yeah, I

think we all hold ourselves back. And so I would say the advice that I give my clients because you know, we all tend to work in, we're all purpose driven, we help in the nonprofit space. And so we give so much think of the knowledge and the wisdom you have inside of yourself was, you know, as little gems like they are jewels and gems for other people like they, somebody out there in the world needs to hear your message today, whatever you're thinking about it is the solution to somebody's problem. So by not putting yourself out there, you're actually like allowing somebody out there to continue struggling with their issue. Whereas if you posted something that provided value, that provided solution that provided a guide map forward, that would actually be a really giving thing, that would be a really great way to to change the world in your own small, quiet way.

I love that. That's like the five minute favor that we talked about that we could do for someone else. I have one quick question that I want to double click on of something you said if you put the right keywords in people can find you and your organization. And one of the things that I feel like I'm hearing from you is there are so many voyeurs on LinkedIn and very little content creators and so I mean, one There's an opportunity if you want to start getting eyeballs on your things, if you want to start positioning yourself as a thought leader start sharing some content. And I would think probably original content would even be more powerful as it points back to your brand. What would you advise are would be a way that people could find whatever those right words are. And I'm curious if hashtags help or where you can find those key like SEO kind of words that will track really well with the LinkedIn algorithm?

Yeah, that's a great question. So you know, a lot of people think that their LinkedIn headline needs to be their job, like executive director of this nonprofit, and it doesn't, you can make it whatever you want it to be. And so let's say you help, let's say you work in the area of homelessness, maybe your headline can be, you know, helping, you know, helping to have housed, you know, 10,000 people since 1998. Or maybe your issue is, is, is climate crisis and climate change, it can be something around that you know, what the issue that you work on in your headline versus just your job title, because then when people are trying to find people to speak to that topic, we're experts on that topic, you will come up, versus being the ED of XYZ nonprofit, you know, what I'm saying, in hashtags really do help. I think LinkedIn is actually rolling out a lot more in terms of hashtags in the future, they're rolling out something called creator mode, which is still kind of to be seen. But in creator mode, the hashtags that you use most often are actually going to be put at the top of your, your LinkedIn profile. Some people have creator mode, it's not rolled out yet, I don't even have it yet. But I think in a couple of weeks, maybe by the time this podcast launches, the way our LinkedIn look will be different. And the hashtags that we talk about the most are actually going to be like readily on our profiles. So some way to do some sleuthing and some research is to look up some of the organizations that you love and respect, other thought leaders in your space. You know, experts who write about your topic, and look at the hashtags that they use, and start to do some research around how many people follow those hashtags. So a hashtag like I don't know, hashtag nonprofit. So many people follow that. But sometimes you'll be, there's such a limited say, here, there's so many people talking about that, that you might not rise to the top on a hashtag nonprofit, specificity is key, and then helps you stand out. And sometimes it's scary specificity and it goes back to scarcity. We're afraid to be specific, because then we're afraid of not reaching all of these people out here. But the truth is, if you're trying to speak to everyone, you're not really speaking to anyone because your message gets too diluted, your brain gets too diluted. So specificity is your friend Be specific.

That is sage advice, and something we talk about a lot.

And I also I am sorry that I keep asking questions about LinkedIn. But it's like, you know, we had a conversation the other day about just the use of emojis and how disruptive that is, or sharing something personal because everybody tries to keep it so buttoned up on LinkedIn. And I honestly think you don't have to. And I think that just showing that humanity again, being embracing wimzie am really sets you apart as someone who is not this completely buttoned up professional. I mean, I told john, the other day, I'm getting rid of all my suits, I hate suits. You know, I hate wearing them, you know, I'm not going to have pictures of me in a suit on my LinkedIn, because that is not my brand. So I would love your thoughts about if that's actually right.

Go back to being buttoned up. Please don't go back to being button. Thank you. Thank you so much. You are right on. And I think the pandemic actually, and all of us being forced to work from home has really sped up this process. Because you know, you're looking at my home, right, my dog keeps going back and forth. Like you're in my living room right now, we are all so interconnected. These days, we are seeing each other's children running around behind us, we are in each other's homes. And so it doesn't make sense to be buttoned up the world is not buttoned up anymore. And people want to know who people really are under the facade under the mask, like who are you really, it's speaking to the lessons that you've learned, it's speaking to the fears that you have, because honestly, everyone else has those same fears. And once we start talking about it, we can all start to heal together and, and, and rise together as a community. Well,

I just think it speaks to each of our journeys, you know, are informed by experiences along the way, and I just I've loved getting to see snippets of yours today. Is there a moment that philanthropy has really stood out to you? I mean, we believe it's life changing in so many regards. Is there a specific story that sticks with you every your career where you've seen philanthropy really impact or do something?

Yeah, you know, this is this is unrelated to LinkedIn, obviously. But what it is related to is, I think that so many of us think of the ultimate resource as money as donations as as dollars. And really, I think there's other resources that are even more important attention like I mentioned earlier, but one So my story is, you know, we were doing a capital campaign, we were wanting to expand our campus, this was back in 2016. So you know, we were in a residential neighborhood. And so we really had stretched ourselves to be good neighbors in every way. So involving the neighbors in our mission, hosting community block parties, you know, really involving them. And so one of our neighbors knew we were wanting to expand our treatment beds and grow our facility. And so he and his family made the decision to actually pack up their things and move so we could purchase their home. And he called his neighbor, and convinced him on our behalf to also do the same thing and sell his home at the same time. So we could have these two homes on our cul de sac. And they were the perfect homes. I mean, they were at the end of the street, they were beautiful. You know, they were a gorgeous environment of care. They were healing. They were just beautiful. And so you know, it wasn't a monetary gift. But can you I mean, can you imagine literally giving up your Rubio gives

the clothes off your back, but like, your stuff out of your house to give you your

nobody likes moving anybody. Nobody wants to move ever. How

beautiful.

Oh, I love that story. Thank you for sharing that. And Bravo to your organization for not just being a building in the middle of a residential area and actually building community, bringing people in to educate them love on them. And whether I'm sure some of those people are connected to you and had absolutely no personal connection to your mission at all. But they just love the people that you were in the help that you were giving. So I'd love that story. We ask all of our guests, what is your one good thing? What's your one? Good thing, Tanya?

So we all know and love Simon Sinek and his his concept of the importance of the why, right, the deeper reason that you are committed to your work. And that was a game changer for me many years ago, no doubt. But now I'm actually more interested in the who, like Who do you need to become to make your vision for the future a reality. And this also comes from reading atomic habits by James clear. So like he says that people who are successful at meeting their goals don't focus on the goal itself only. Instead, they focus on the systems they need to put in place and the identity that they need to adopt. And it's not about, you know, being someone you're not, but it's about stepping into the role that putting on your big girl pants, it's stepping into like, you know, the big shoes. So similarly, a nonprofit executive who is working towards becoming the trusted, respected expert, the thought leader in their space, right, not for the purposes of their ego. But for the purpose of being able to serve more people must focus on becoming that person focused on becoming that expert. And we all need to give up something to do that. Stepping into a greater identity means giving up something. So a healthy person gives up pans of brownies, they give up evenings to run or workout or meal prep. And I think that the nonprofit executive was wanting to become a thought leader and build up a strong personal brand, they have to give up the comfort of being safely hidden and comfortably silent. When we stand for something greater than ourselves, which is our nonprofits mission and vision. It's not fair to stay hidden and be small. And I know some listeners might be thinking, but Tanya, like, it's good to be humble and just do our thing and help people I don't really need to be recognized for for this work by the community. My work speaks for itself. But I want to tell you very clearly that it doesn't you have to speak for your work, otherwise, the miracle may not happen. And when I say miracle I talk I'm talking about for example, someone who needs the services that you offer, who is struggling with the issue that you help solve, learn about your work maybe on LinkedIn, and reaches out to use your services and transforms their life as a result.

Okay, that was a really good one good thing. And I want to tie it back to something you said at the very beginning. If you do if you are sitting in that comfort, of being silent of being in the background, you are becoming the air that WGU is talking about. We don't want to be the air. We want to be able to speak up, own our truth be our authentic selves. And I would also say there is a there is an inclusivity component here as well. When you speak up, especially for your staff, for your projects, you go and fight for them. And you're including more people at the table. People who look differently than you people who think differently than you. You are becoming a more vibrant organization. You're becoming a more harmonious team. We need someone to step up. Even if it's uncomfortable, do some baby steps I say right now because I really think in the long term, what you just said is going to grow more vibrant organizations. Thank you for that

about getting 1% more verbal every day, right because you can't skip it. If you're not using LinkedIn at all. You can't just all of a sudden put out like you Your most vulnerable learning moments, right, but it's about getting 1% more uncomfortable. And maybe that's connecting, when you're afraid to maybe that's looking about a mistake that you made, and what and what you did to fix it the next month, and you just grow from there. It's just an uphill journey. It's all up from here.

I just love the intentionality of that 1%. Because by consistently, and I feel like this is something that's been threaded through, and then we haven't specifically set it, but just being consistent over a long period of time is how you grant gain this influence and how you can make a bigger impact by showing up is probably not going to happen the first time you post, or even the 100th podcast episode, we haven't reached, you know, the the way that we want to impact at this point, but we're just gonna keep being consistent. So I'm just taking this conversation, I'm gonna listen to it. Many times.

We're gonna absorb all of this.

Okay, can you tell our listeners and us how to connect with lumos marketing? You know, where are you online? we've we've clearly let you on LinkedIn. But where else can people connect with you and follow you and all the things?

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, what's funny is I've really kind of gone all in on LinkedIn, I don't have I have a personal Instagram, which you can find me on and follow my dog and stuff like that. Intentionally, you know, I think you need to find your playground and really saturate your channel. And so LinkedIn is that for me, like where I am at, so find me there in search for my name, and I'll come up. Also, my website is Lumo smarketing.co. And of course, Lumo says the magical Harry Potter illumination spell, you know, cuz my goal is to help people light up their voice and shine so they can drive the change they want to see in the world, right and drive out the darkness. So limos just made sense, though. So lumens marketing. And one of my favorite ways to work with people is I take them through this one day VIP day where I help them build their personal brand on LinkedIn. So if I can be helpful with that, or if you just want to geek out on Harry Potter with me, I would love to hear from you all, connect with me on LinkedIn. And my website. Either way is great.

Tanya, I just Yes, I love that you just created this incredible space where you're encouraging and mobilizing people to show up in a way that is so authentic, and it just feels good to be that way. And so appreciate you coming on and giving us so much good insight today. Thank you for this opportunity. Thanks for listening to today's conversation with Tanya diving into thought leadership and leveraging your LinkedIn profile for good. We hope it's inspired you to rebuild your LinkedIn virtual boardroom table. You probably hear it in our voices but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you do more for your mission. We'd love for you to join our good community. It's free and you can think of it as the after party for each podcast episode. Join us now we are for good comm backslash Hello. One more thing if you love what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating or review? It really does help more people find our community. Our production here is the thought leader for kindness. Julie Confer

that was nice

and our theme song is sunray by rebor spam. Thanks for being here, everyone.