December 13, 2011 | Tom Suddes
Elevator Pitch: There Isn’t A Building Tall Enough!
I saw this clever cartoon by Jim Toomey in SHERMAN’S LAGOON.
Love that they’re at the “Entrepreneur’s Convention”. He’s going to enter the “Elevator Pitch Contest”. It’s a “fast and furious business proposal”. And, then there’s the result:
“By the end of the ride, you like me enough to give me money.”
The response:
“There isn’t a building tall enough!” is both funny… and in so many of our cases, true.
In our For Impact World, great organizations:
- 1. Know the goal isn’t to get money in the elevator!
- 2. Have a ridiculously simple message… that can be conveyed in 3 floors!
- 3. Still leave time to ask some questions of the ‘passenger’ in the elevator!
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December 12, 2011 | Tom Suddes
I’m not sure where this came from. Making some notes for myself this morning. A combination of Fellers, Wolfie, Driscoll, Loehr, et al.
Discipline + Focus + Energy = Productivity/Results.
Pretty ‘simple’ formula. Ridiculously ‘hard’ to pull off. However, I’m committed to this in 2012.
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December 12, 2011 | Tom Suddes
Commerce & Social Responsibility Balance
“There needs to be a balance between commerce and social responsibility. The companies that are authentic about it will make more money.” Howard Schultz.
There’s a great, great article in January 2nd, 2012 FORTUNE MAGAZINE on the 2011 Business Person of the Year, Howard Schultz of Starbucks.
Say what you want about Starbucks, their coffee or whatever… I really like Schultz and I really like the concept of a ‘Third Place’ (between home and work).
One reason you ought to read this article is Schultz’s take on corporate social responsibility.
There might be some value here in sharing this article with some of your ‘corporate champions’.
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December 9, 2011 | Nick Fellers
Tell Your Story Enough and You Will Change the World
Kerry and I were in Pittsburgh this week exchanging ideas with social entrepreneur Bill Strickland and his team at the Manchester Bidwell Training Center.
Bill’s credited as a terrific social entrepreneur and a visionary; he’s both. More importantly, his program to transform the lives of poor youth individuals and the community works. Harvard’s done four case studies exploring the success. (By the way, Apple is the only other ‘organization’ to be the subject of four Harvard Case Studies.)
What I really appreciate about Bill is his ‘persistent story telling’.
I’ll bet he’s shared his slide show 3000+ times. I know for a fact he’s shared his story in front of every audience that will have him… in hundreds of cities… around the world.
I share this with you for two reasons. First, Bill is a great storyteller and you need to hear his story. (Here’s the link to his TEDtalk.) Second, the dude works hard and you can too!
Sharing your story 3000 times is hard work. It requires persistence and conviction to your message. Sometimes you end up speaking to a room of five people and sometimes Jeff Skoll is in the audience. Bill’s stories frequently include something like, “And this [insert famous/influential name] was in the audience; she came up to me and said, ‘I’d like to help!’
If you tell your story 3000 times I promise these things will happen to you as well.
Here’s the thing… you don’t need to share your story 3000 times. You don’t even need to share your story 1000 times. It’s just the idea of committing to MASSIVE ACTION (as Tony Robbins calls it).
What if you told YOUR story 100 times? You WILL raise some funds and change some lives.
What if you told YOUR story 1000 times? You WILL change your sector or city.
What if you told YOUR story 3000 times? You WILL change the world.
Two weeks ago Bill was awarded the 2011 Goi Peace Award. This is Japan’s equivalent to the Nobel Peace Prize.
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December 7, 2011 | Tom Suddes
Forgot to add this 3rd great quote by Walt Disney to Bob Dylan and Steve Jobs.
Here’s all 3 together.
“SUCCESS is waking in the morning and doing what I WANT to do.” Bob Dylan
“If today were the last day of my life, would I WANT to do what I’m about to do today?” Steve Jobs
“Most of my life I’ve done what I WANT to do… and had FUN doing it.” Walt Disney
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December 7, 2011 | Tom Suddes
I was looking through some stuff on SUCCESS this morning and saw these two quotes from two icons.
Bob Dylan’s definition of success:
“SUCCESS is waking in the morning and doing what I WANT to do.”
Steve Jobs, in his Stanford Commencement talk of 2005, revealed that he gets up every morning and looks in the mirror and asks,
“If today were the last day of my life, would I WANT to do what I’m about to do today?”
Thought for the Day: If we’re not waking up in the morning… and doing what we WANT to do… we need to call the ‘timeout’ and re-think our focus/priorities.
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December 5, 2011 | Tom Suddes
NOW is a great time to turn our SACRED COWS into HAMBURGER! NOW is a great time to shed our BAGGAGE which is holding us back and keeping us from making QUANTUM LEAPS!
In all of my recent trainings (Ireland, 2 Colleges, Junior Achievement, Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits) I have asked the group to spend time at their table writing down the SACRED COWS of both the Industry (Third Sector, Fundraising, etc.) and their particular Organization. I usually provide some ‘yeast‘ with things like special events are not ‘special’ and not ‘events’. ‘Donors’ hate to go. Staff hates to put them on. The ‘triple net‘ is a very poor return-on-energy, return-on-investment. Or, why you can’t ask on the first date.
I find it fascinating that allowing people to talk about their SACRED COWS and the BAGGAGE that they are carrying around unleashes such enthusiastic response.
*I encourage them not to just ‘vent‘, but rather talk about real issues that need to be dealt with… and that are still happening because “It’s the way we’ve always done it.”
It’s the end of the calendar year. Just a few weeks away from the holidays and then a NEW YEAR/NEW START. It’s a great time of the year to gather the Team together and talk about turning all those SACRED COWS into HAMBURGER and dumping all the BAGGAGE that we are carrying.
Special Note: On my trip around the world, I actually saw those ‘sacred cows’ walking around the streets in India. I also learned that once those cows became too old or died, the carcasses would be shipped across the border and turned into hamburger.
Along those same lines, a Hindu sage, Ramana Maharshi, asks: “Would you carry your luggage on your head while on board a train?” He says we are not lessening the burden of the train by keeping it on our head, but only straining ourselves unnecessarily.
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December 1, 2011 | Tom Suddes
‘Yes, Dorothy, it IS this SIMPLE.”
Met with Junior Achievement Arizona’s talented team yesterday. (Thanks to Lisa for bringing me in!)
Did IMPACT drives INCOME and JUST ASK. Junior Achievement has HUGE IMPACT. JUST need to get out and ASK (for help, support, partners… not money.)
The WHY, the WHAT and the HOW/WHERE are all right there.
Still (after all these sessions with thousands of people) amazed at the universal feedback: “You make this soooo SIMPLE.”
Same thing happened day before with 80 orgs brought together by the great team at Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits (FOR IMPACT!).
7 hours of stuff… and the most common WOW’s/epiphanies were about SIMPLICITY.
My own takeaway from the last two days is a play on The Wizard of Oz:
“Yes, Dorothy, it really IS this SIMPLE.”
Not ‘easy‘, but simple.
Do what you know you need to do — Visit. Share the Story. Present the Opportunities. Fund the Vision.
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November 28, 2011 | Nick Fellers
It’s almost December, which means it’s time to start thinking about next June.
Our 1x per year SALES TRAINING will be held on June 19 – 20 at Eagle Creek in Columbus, OH.
This is two days focused on individual development*:
- How to execute against a sales process (for major gifts, campaign gifts, transformational gifts, etc)
- How to build and maximize relationships
- How to ask, close and follow-up
Every year this training sells out. Sign up now, while we have cyber-monday-like-prices.
*Each month we hold a two-day Custom Training for organizations. This training is attended by 3-6 organizations at a time. We focus on helping you create your message, create a funding plan AND get key elements of the sales training. To learn more about custom training contact Kerry Suddes (kerry@forimpact.org).
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November 28, 2011 | Tom Suddes
Working hard on things we don’t like equals STRESS.
Working hard on what we love equals PASSION.
This came from my friend Steve Wolf. You can follow Steve at eaglecreekohio.com.
This reminded me this morning of the ‘3 Lists‘:
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1. Things I WANT to do.
2. Things I HAVE to do.
3. Things I NEITHER have to do nor want to do.
Throw away the third list.
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About For Impact
We help "nonprofits" fund their visions through training, coaching and consulting based on 25+ years of experience and $1Billion+ raised directly and $1Billion via coaching/training. For Impact is also our message, our commitment and a movement.
