Ep. 95: [Training Replay] The #1 Shift to Make to Your Lead Gen & Ask Process
EPISODE 95
[Training Replay] The #1 Shift to Make to Your Lead Gen & Ask Process
About the Episode:
I recently hosted an advanced training that was all about the number one shift to make to your lead gen and outreach strategy, and the conversation and the coaching ended up being so good that I knew I had to share some of it on the podcast today. So if you hear some prompts happening in the recording, that's why. We had a live group on and one of my clients graciously said we can share her coaching because if you're like her, she's like, this is great and all but why do I actually say, what do I say when a prospect says this? What do I say when I'm talking about our programs? What do I actually say in, leading up to, and during the meeting to actually ask for funding or to upgrade a funder? So we did live coaching and it was so good, and I think you'll find it really helpful as you start to improve upon and develop your lead gen and outreach strategy. So don't forget to take action from this training. If you need more support in doing it, more guidance, more support, more commitment, more accountability, more motivation to make it happen, that's the work we're doing in my coaching program, the Purpose & Profit Club, you can always go to the link in the show notes to hop on the waitlist.
Topics:
The reminder that you don’t have to do asking one way and how to move through the different resistance that comes up when taking the action
Creating a plan that will help you take courageous action for the next 30 days in order to get into magnetic, attraction mode
Practicing leaning into a conversation instead of shutting down at the sign of rejection and allowing it to be just the beginning of growth
The importance of having belief in your cause, in your skillset, in whatever it is that your outreach is based on
Overcoming the objection from someone who says they’ve already given this year
Giving yourself the permission to allowing your ask to not be so formulaic and lean into personal, authentic connection
What to do when you’ve had to skip a day of outreach
Think you’ve reached out to “everyone” in your network? Out of ideas to get noticed and get funded? Generate leads for your nonprofit or social impact business: https://www.splendidcourses.com/prospect
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“When you retreat, that’s when you get stuck in the stalled process, that’s where you find yourself in the zone of difference.”
“When somebody says no, the conversation has just begun.”
“I only got better through making the process kind to me, and through listening and learning where I could do better.”
“You have to be willing to let the rejection be a part of the process where you make a lot of money.”
“When somebody says no, it's not a personal attack on you or your ability to fundraise. It could be timing, it could be confusion, it could be 1000 different things.”
“The belief is packaged in the how, you have to believe in whatever it is that you’re reaching out about.”
“If you treat your meeting lighter, like your meeting with a potential friend or potential, something that is not this heaviness of a donor that is going to be easier for you.”
Episode Resources:
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
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Christina Edwards 00:00
Oh, cool. Awesome. So, pop open your chat because we're going to be interacting today. So we're gonna talk about lead gen, we're gonna talk about outreach, and the number one shift that I want you to make in your entire legion and outreach strategy. So let's just like make sure everyone can see and hear me and kind of warm everybody up. So tell us your organization and where you're calling in from. I want to see that in the chat. Okay. See, Janine is here. Jada is here. Kathy? Sheila George Shamy. Amazing. Awesome. All right, while you're doing that, so you're introducing yourself in the chat, your organization where you're calling in from? I'm gonna ask you some questions. Okay. Yes. I want to know how often you're asking and you get to define asking for the purpose of this question, however you want. Tell me how often you're asking Okay, how often and tell me in the chat, that's what we're going to use today. How often you're asking, asking can be asking for donation, a partnership sponsor anything. Okay? Janine, totally fine. So you? If yes, if you're driving, and you're just listening totally fine. But go ahead and like do the exercises yourself and out loud or in your head? Okay. Once or twice a month? Yikes. Listen, no judgement. That's okay. I'm asking maybe monthly brand new we ask all the time. Isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting? Sheila, because when you're brand new, you're kind of scrappy. Right? And you're like, We'll do whatever it takes. George is here from Kenya. Welcome. Okay. Where are you asking? And by the way there what I mean is what platform so the asking could be in person, you could define asking as a direct mail piece you could define asking as one to one like, where do you feel like have the once or twice a month of the bulk of my asking even if you look at like the collective have in a 30 day period, where where is 80% of your asking happening? Okay, I want you to think about that. Where is it happening? Is it phone calls? What is it? Tell me that in the chat, okay, face to face letter of request, mostly in person. Okay. Sheila's doing the work because she's brand new, right? She's brand new email direct appeal for about 80%. So that's more scaled right? So that like one too many. Okay. While your answer if you've already answered this question, why aren't you asking? Then your next questions? Access 80% an email. Zack, is that like a mass email? Or is that individual email? Your next question is, why aren't you asking daily? And I want to feel I want to like know everything that comes up for you. When you're on the receiving end of that question. Why aren't you asking daily? Tell me in the chat. What comes up for you? Like why aren't I asking daily? Give me every reason why that comes up when you hear that question. It's tiring, right? I don't have an email list or social media reach yet for asking daily. Okay, interesting. It's tiring. Yeah. Interesting. What else? Too much else to do? Yeah, I got my hands and multiple fires, right? What's the same? Right You're you're doing all of the things. It's access mostly mass email, digital appeal, soft asks, and other email comms, but definitely a good amount by direct emails. Okay, great, Zack. So here's where we are. If you're just joining, why aren't you asking daily? I'm not asking daily, because my participants are physically doing a lot. I think people shut off with asking. Also, I've been dealing with health issues and more focused on that. And I know there's a lot of follow up. Okay. I wonder what this means. I think people are shut off with asking. So tell us in the chat a little bit more than anyone else. I want you to participate if you can. Um, I don't want to bother people. Right, one, common one. Right. What about other people? What else? What else comes up for you? All right, asking daily. People literally stopped, stop subscribing to emails. Do you mean that they're unsubscribing to your emails? Or do you mean yes. Okay. Got it. So you're like if I asked you like so here's an interesting distinction. And we'll dig into this but like, where I want your brain to open up was this really broad question if we asked 1000 people this question as it pertains to nonprofit Legion and outreach, we'd probably get like a grouping of different answers but different ones. Some of our brains on this went to like one too many. And they took this to mean I'm asking daily on social media on House asking daily on email. I'm like doing it that way. Other people kind of took it looks like to like I'm picking up the phone and asked me for a donation every day. So It's something to think about of like, who says I have to do it one way. But what's interesting is just the resistance that comes up in it. Okay? The other piece that I want to offer is the time piece, because that's something I hear a lot, which is like, I don't have time to do this, I wouldn't have time to do it every single day. And that is one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves. Because the the activity of asking is actually pretty short if you think about it. So let's say you send me an email, and you're like, hey, Christina, here's what we've got going on. Here's where we'd love to your support. How long does that take? Like, if I give you extra time for a four sentence, email? And you I already know you? Five minutes? How long does it take to call me? Right? Not long. How long does it take to send me a text message even shorter? So one of the things you want to think about is, what can I do? How can I? How can I incorporate this into my daily practice? And I'm not suggesting that you send out 30 days of mass emails on it. Okay, the next question I want you to think about is what are you saying? So in these asks, whatever came to your mind, in these asks, so if you're doing email, if you're doing one to one direct asks, What are you saying? What are the asks sound like? You put that in the chat for me? What does it sound like? And ask? So when you're thinking about oh, people little literally are unsubscribing to our emails. What's in that email? When you're thinking? I don't want to bother people. What does that ask? Right? That would sound bothersome. What else was in here? Yeah. Awkward. Okay. What are you're saying, Nancy, you're just saying like, I sound awkward. Carolyn says working to make our ask. Less neutral. Right. Okay. Good one, Carolyn. Yeah. Looking to match donations to be able to do X. Okay, that's motivating, right? That's good. Okay. So we want to think about what you're saying. And we're gonna dig into this a bit more. Okay. Fundraising Program Participation Program promotion among their network rate. So this is a good example of asking, meaning lots of different things, right. That's like five different ways you could ask some program participation, matching donations. What Carolyn's talking about making her ask less neutral is storytelling, right? And really stepping into our organizations thought leadership. So there are a lot of different ways that you can ask, So let's dig into that, right? And you may even want to jot this down when you when you're done with today's session are like, what are some ways that I can incorporate into my ask strategy that I'm not right now? Because they might only be thinking asks our take your wallet out and swipe? Right? How are some what are some other ways that I can get that growth that aren't just donate here, donate here? Alright, let's talk about the number one shift the number one shift that I want you to make in your ask in Legion process. And this may feel uncomfortable, and I want to hear everything that comes up for you. What if just like try this on for a second? What if for the next 30 days, every single day, you asked someone courageously every single day, and I added the word courageously because if I said Ask the daily, I know what this sounds like, it sounds like black. So if you came to the challenge last week, it sounds like it, you have to get out of the zone of indifference and get into attraction mode. When you're asking. You have to be magnetic when you're asking. So it doesn't work. If you just hammer me it's like again, somebody knocking on my door selling blinds I don't want to buy they can knock on my door for 30 days, but if I'm not interested, and if their pitch isn't compelling, it's a no. Right? So we need to ask courageously daily versus what I call a soft task or apologetic ask if you're guilty of the apologetic ask. Give me a one in the chat. The apologetic ask is story story. Story story story, small call to action at the bottom buried or in person. Let's say you have an hour with a prospect you know, warm storytelling, a lot of listening listening, listening listening last five minutes of the meeting asks Ah yeah, so JB says like so many other habits you have to do it several times before it becomes a habit. Exactly. And the thing that I want you to do just like just think about is what if every single day I just made one ask and here's the biggest like Craziest thing is it wouldn't cost you more time What if you once a day made an Ask and it took you five minutes. Now a very simple scale like way to do this is sometimes Mondays I make one ask and I asked one person that one five minute ask Tuesday's I send out an email right so you can pepper this and do this in a different way. I just want you to think about like what would that sound Yeah. Okay, I'm going through the chat here. Just want to make sure. Okay, so, um, to the unsubscribe, Jamie said this used to really bother me. But I'm starting to realize that unsubscribes are doing us a favor. Yeah. So when you have a large audience or just an audience, and they're just kind of hanging on, because you're in the zone of indifference, or you're not really communicating with them at a frequency, they don't really do anything, they don't self select on and they don't self select off. And then it makes it really hard for you to create stories and content that you're like, Oh, this is resonating with them. So it's actually okay to see unsubscribes it's totally fine to see unsubscribes Okay, um, one a day that's 20 asks a month and 200 per year you are on to something you already know my braids that Jaime, which is where we're going to this Yes. Okay, so let's look at some different types of asks. So for one to one asks, and if I list out something and you have a have something on here, or in your brain that's not on this list, I want you to put it in the chat. So when I think about a one to one ask here are some things I think about a call, a text, an email, a handwritten note, an in person meeting, a Zoom meeting, a DM Who here has ever DM and anyone and ask. So this a DM is a direct message. So you're on Instagram and maybe there is a really awesome volunteer or follower. Super fan. Okay, cool. Yeah. I think DM is like something we don't even think about because we're like, that's not a thing. Yeah. DM. No, I don't mean a cold DM, like the people who are trying to sell you a product and you're not interested. You've never heard of it. Right. Oh, idea. All right. A scaled ask might be at an event, a webinar, an email, blast, social posts, your social street team. These are your ambassadors, your influencers that work with you, networking groups, or presentation memberships, and direct mail, these are all scaled asks, when I look at this list, and I think Oh 30 asks, in 30 days, 20 asks, and 20 days, if I see that I can diversify this. For me, it's not as overwhelming, because it doesn't necessarily mean I have to call or sit and have lunch with 30 people, which does take a lot of time, right. So here's what I want to offer you. I think it was last session or a session recently, I talked about how my very, very first kind of business where I really had to build and do this lead gen prospecting and build a client base from zero. I was in real estate. And I did cold calling. I did all of the things. And one of the ways that I closed like a sale wasn't one of my first ones. But it was a completely cold sale. I didn't have a warm intro. I didn't know this person is a note. I could not get her on the phone. I don't even know if this. This was probably flip phone era. I wouldn't have texted her. I definitely didn't have her email. I did not want to knock on her door because that is her personal space or house. Presume and I don't know about I don't even know if we were on Facebook. I don't know. I wrote her a hand written note that translated to 1000s 10s of 1000s of dollars. That's it. That's how I did it. And you know what she said to me, and I remember this was like, how many years ago 1520 years ago, she said, You're the only person who's ever done that. She's like, I got tons of calls. I got tons of calls. And I told the truth. And the note the truth was her house was yellow. And it was adorable. It was adorable. I remember her yellow house and I was like it's the cutest house. I would love to have be one of these days I will paint my house yellow maybe. But that's what I told her. I was just like, hey, I noticed this hurt her house had failed to sell the first time around. I loved her yellow house. That was it. My call to action is hey, would you be up for me? You know, meeting with you dropping by. And she took a handwritten note. She didn't know me from anyone who called me it was at her house. I sold it done. Right. That's it. So that required me to think outside the box because she got a lot of calls. I am sure I called her and she just went to voicemail or something like that. So when it went to voicemail, I was like, I'm not done. I'm selling this house. It's happening. Right? I think it's happening. I'm willing to like, try again. Right? And it was really simple. So those are like one to one these are scaled asks. So I want to move on to the number one mistake. Okay, I'm gonna before I do that, I'm just gonna see if there's anything else I missed in the chat. So, Nancy says I have actually had success in getting to partners with almost entirely cold DMS. Nancy put us tell us in the chat, what did you say in the DMS? Right, so smart. So when you see people this is kind of the social street team concept that I teach, but when you see people who are passionate about the mission or cause you support connect with them. And one of the things that I like to Do as I like to connect with them in their preferred platform. So let's say you're on LinkedIn or you're on Instagram or they're on Tik Tok, let's say, tick tock, let's do something a little more modern. Right? And they are such a thought leader in environmental issues, what kind of pull from Nancy a little bit? And you're like, wow, I totally agree, I totally resonate with this, start interacting with them. That is a way to build trust, that is a way to build advocacy. And ultimately, that is a way to build your donor base, okay. So the number one mistake that I see, is focusing on the what, instead of the how, so as we move into the actual ask process, the what is what we think matters, the what doesn't matter nearly as much as the how, and here's what I mean. I wanted to sell. Wait, I can almost remember her name. Hang on. It's gonna come to me after this. Oh, no, I can't remember this moment. I wanted to sell this this. Julie. I wanted to sell Julie's Yellow House. I did. I wanted to sell it. Guess what 100 other agents wanted to sell her house? That's the what, what did we say I can list your house, I can sell your house, I can list your house. Right. That's the what. And that's the lie. We tell ourselves that that there is some perfect script that I can say in a series of words to Mr. And Mrs. donor that will lead them to write the check. So that matters less than the how my tone was with her very warm and confident that was it warm and confident. Not this chi energy. She was a little bit high on the anxiety scale, who's just warming confident I got this, let me take care of it for you. Okay, my tone mattered so much more. Because I bet if you were to like, kind of crawl the words that I said versus the words that other listing agents said to her, there's probably a Venn diagram or overlaps. And it's 80%. Right. Now, maybe I did go the extra mile and talk more about her dogs because she loved dogs. She had several we talked about that. But overall, what I said was the same stuff, love to sell your house, I can do it for you. Here's the commission structure, here's how it would or blah, blah, blah, this is the same stuff you say, in your donor pitch meetings, that matters so much less than how you say it. If that's if that's like resonate with you, if you have questions about that. Tell me that in the chat. Okay. So it's so much manners, and let's talk about tone. Okay, let's talk about tone. So I shared this with in the purpose and profit club, my coaching program yesterday, we're running my course outreach genius in the program. So yesterday's lesson went live. What I was sharing with them, is this idea of tone. So if you've ever been around a teenager, and you say, how was school today? And they say, good, there's 1000 ways you can say it's good. It's good. It was good. It's good. It's good. Tone, tone, tone, tone, tone, and how many different meetings does that have? And yet the what of what they said the script of what they said was the same, okay, so do not get hung up, that my outreach has to sound a certain way and has to say, this, and then this and then this call to action. What matters is people buy what's aspirational to them, they buy a belief if they believe in your mission, if they believe in your program or service, and have confidence in that in a shared vision. That's it. You got the donation. That's it. But you do have to ask, and you do have to make sure that there is confidence or at least courage behind the ask because if the Ask sounds wobbly, you've lost them. Right? So if you're like, I, you know, I'd like to try and sell your house. No, that's a no if I had said to Julie, I'd like to try and sell your house. That's a waste of everyone's time because I that's I'm showing my non confidence in that. I'm like, oh, no, no, I think I can sell it. Right. Oh, I'm like, I've got it. It's done. Let me help you. Right, I would like you to do right. So you want to make sure you're coming from a confident tone. Now if you feel like you've struggled with tone or have questions about tone, I would love to hear that the chat. Okay. Now, I'm going to go down here and take a look Nancy shared to be honest, one would want and what so we're talking about direct messages and when I was a little sarcastic because I really appreciated the work. But a post they put up was not up to par and they left a bunch of super important info left out a bunch of super important info. So in this case, I actually commented as our NGO asking for relevant info okay, they immediately damned it asked to meet. This is thought leadership. This is getting out of the zone of indifference, right? That's what that is, is you were like hey, ya worked out some important stuff. And they were like, Eek, we did. And then there's a collaboration. There's a partnership there. Okay. Okay, so And just so you know, the head of this organization is now on our advisory board. And they're super busy, highly successful, but in a line business, all from a DM, or from a direct message this, I'm so glad you shared that. The second was after I but a bunch of comments on their posts. And they misunderstood a comment we made. So we made a DM Convo and they started sharing our publications, Oh, I love this so much. Because that's actually goes to right here. At the sign of somebody not agreeing with us at the sign of rejection at the sign of just any sort of negative motion. It is very common. This is where we like to go. Retreat. I'm out of here. So what you did, Nancy, is you leaned in and you were like they, they The second was after a bunch of posts, they misunderstood a comment they made. So instead of going like this, or shutting down the conversation, you leaned in, so good. And now like what's coming, that's so great. Now they're sharing your posts, right now you have a partnership there. So at the sign of rejection, so when we're in the prospect, we're in the outreach or ask process. And we hear either and no, or we hear some flavor of a no or we hear just any objection, like I already gave, right? There's one, right I already gave us here. It is very common. And what I see here is we agree with them. Mr. Donor you have already given this year. And that's it. Thank you so much. Click, I gotta get out of here. Right? Right. And when you retreat, that's when we see the stalled progress. That's when you're stuck in the zone of indifference, which I talked about last week, that zone of indifference is very, very cozy and very, very comfortable. And is where we are unwilling to repel some people, so we can attract a lot of people, a lot of our right people. Okay, that makes sense. Versus when you handle rejection. And I love this idea. I like to think when somebody says no, the conversation has just begun or when they said, already get lean in, tell me more start listening, start learning. When you do this, you will see faster results, it will improve your results, you will just get better. Now, going back to the cold calling real estate example. I was pretty good at selling expired listings, not because I read a bunch of books about how to cold call or how to you know, I probably took one or two trainings and then I just did it. And I only got better through repetition. I only got better through making the process kind to me, and through the listen and learn where I'm like, Yep, I stumbled on my words on that one. Okay, let's go to the next one. It's not a big deal. I don't need to stop. Right. This is where you attract people. This is where you have bought you start making lots of money. You have to be be willing to have the rejection be part of it. In last week's training, one of the questions that I asked was, What type of organization here's the most knows, if you weren't on that training, then you are welcome to answer that. What type of organization here is the most? They get rejected the most? Who gets the most rejection? What type of nonprofit? But anyone who doesn't know the answer if you want to guess? Somebody's thinking? Yes, exactly. The biggest ones. Think about how much charity water gets rejected. How much the Habitat for Humanity gets rejected? How much already? Right? There's so many people that are like, No, it's a no. And there are so many people that are like, yes, it's yes. Right. All day long. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. And they listen and they learn. Where can we improve? Where can we get it better? Where Where was their friction? And our ask, right? The ones who asked the most? Yeah, when you start when that really clicks in, it does start to just be I kind of struggle and hesitate to say a numbers game because there is so much connection and humanity in it. But it does soften the rejection. It softens the nose, right? It's not personal. It's not personal. When somebody says no, it's not a personal attack on you or your ability to fundraise. It could be timing, it could be confusion, it could be 1000 different things. And we go and we go. Now there are two people that I asked to be on my podcast. One of them I asked in January of 2023, maybe even December of 22. And it was a punt. He was like math, maybe come back to me. He was on the podcast in January of 24. It's one of our biggest episodes. So what it took a year. I don't care. I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled. There's another podcast guests that we're having on. We've been in talks since January of 2023. III. I'm not mad at it. I'm just thrilled that we were able to to it. The timing is right. It was not right, then I see that. This is a large startup that scaling up wasn't right then it is exactly right now, right? And her this guest, which TBD hasn't hasn't come out yet. This guest it the timing wasn't right. It had nothing to do with me. It had nothing to do with my podcast, right? That those are like neutral. Those are neutral events in this is also wasn't my pitch, there is nothing I could have said a year ago that would have been like, please come on. Now. There was no set of words, I didn't have to make the end. It's not not the right time mean anything. Right? So when you sort of like just diffuse all of the nodes, I find it gets so much easier. All right. Here's the habit I want you to create, okay. Third, 30 days, what do you want to do in 30 days, and I want you to pick your own thing. So Jamie said, If you did, I said, a daily outreach. And he I love, you're already thinking we get weekends off. So that'd be 2020 outreaches. In a month, perfect. Another way to think about this would be to batch it. So if you're like, I'm going to do what's equal to one outreach a day. But maybe I only do it on Mondays and Fridays, right? And so you say to yourself, I'm doing five a day or whatever it works out too. Right? So you can batch it that way? Do you think that there is something about getting a little momentum around prospecting? So some of you may feel a little bit more aligned to say, You know what, I don't want to take a big bite of it. I don't want to do 10 outreaches. Today, I can do one. And that feels better. And then some of you are like, I'd rather take and bash it. So you can tell me what resonates with you. So here's what I want you to decide. You get to pick your frequency, I would love to suggest, after this, send an email to somebody, send a note to somebody send a text message to somebody. Think about how you say it matters, then what you say. And the belief. This is sort of that what's packaged in in the how, okay, the belief is packaged in in the how you have to believe in what it is that you're reaching out about your mission, your program, your service, your thing, if you believe in that, it doesn't matter. Your skill set, right, because you just need to talk about that. You just need to talk about the belief and really thinking about where am I wobbly? Where do I need to improve upon my tone? Right? Am I talking up here? Am I going down here? Is nice voice very fast. Is it too serious? Really just and you may want to record yourself. We had many of our outreach genius students do this in the past is just record. You can do it on video or just on phone have like record yourself doing a pitch. tell a little story about your organization, have a transition, have an ask and listen to it back. Do not listen to it in a way to just absolutely just criticize yourself. Listen it to it in a way and give yourself feedback like you would your best friend or colleague. That is the only way you're allowed to give feedback to yourself. You're not allowed to give yourself feedback. That's just me like, Oh, your voice sounds terrible. We're not doing that. But only like Oh, I see you got a little fast here. Christina, let's slow it down. Or hey, that got a little confusing. Record yourself. Do that today. Okay, so decide your frequency. Just decide your how your tone your belief and your Who do you want to reach out to? Who comes to mind I'm curious in thinking about Legion and thinking about outreach, who comes to mind that you would like to focus on and it can be a couple of different groups. If that feels better. That you want to focus your outreach on you can put that check it Carolyn says looking at making a follow up asks to upgrade several of our current annual donors to become monthly donors to increase their impact. In your experiences, it makes sense to set these one to one conversations to occur shortly after their annual donation within two months of their gift. Well go to bat for it. Carolyn, tell me why you think? Why would that be a benefit?
29:17
Oh, my oops, sorry. I thought is it's the perfect time because they've already said they love us.
Christina Edwards 29:26
But hang on, it might be me. It's me. Give me one second. My headphones aren't connected right now talk.
29:34
In my mind, it's the perfect time because they do give annually. They have a history of giving annually. They have said with the thank you call in the car. They said we love you. We love what you're doing. We look forward to seeing what else you do. It seems like it's a good time to just be courageous and say you know you want to do more and And I have the this fantastic project that we're building out. And you would be a great partner in that project. Would you consider a gift of than than the monthly amount that I'm asking for
Christina Edwards 30:12
100% of it, nailed it? Is that it? Do it? Yes. And here's why I love this example so much is how long does that take you to pitch me? Minute, 45 seconds. And that was right,
30:27
less than a minute, because I've already they already know us. I'm not like we've already set this to establish the partnership.
Christina Edwards 30:35
So good. And so the Lie we tell ourselves is this is going to have to cost a lot of time. And that's why I can't possibly do any of this, even though you absolutely nailed it. And I'm not saying you're saying this is a lie. But the lie here is, hey, that took 60 seconds, right? It takes 60 seconds. And then if for example, you know, there are a handful of people that are like this one person, boom, we've got our pitch. And I would just do like five of those in a row. Because it's like fresh in your brain. You know what I mean? So smart. And then listen in the rest is like and here's the other piece I want to give you on outreaches when you're making the ask that asked took 40 seconds, that's it. And then our job is to listen and clarify and not retreat. But it's not really to like sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, right? It's an invitation. And that's it. And then you listen, and then you ask good questions, and then you listen some more and that's it. And when there is I think to like you're in belief of this when the person's and no, it's okay. When they ask questions you weren't expecting, you're like, it's okay. It's okay. Okay. That was good. Gina says outreach focuses partnerships with corpse follow ups with interested individuals. I mean, that's such a good group to think about is if you spent just your new outreach habit is every single day, I'm gonna reach out to one person who was warm, one person who I don't have to re explain what we do to. So that person could be a donor or non donor, this could just be somebody in your ecosystem, this could be a follower, a fan, somebody who has messaged you, in the past have volunteer like anything, and I'm just going to reach out to them. So good. So your healing you want to focus on and you can round robin? Mondays, I reached out to one last donor, let it be that simple. So ask yourself 30 days from now, what could be possible? And really think about it and don't think about it in a way that feels impossible or unrealistic. But like what could you create? What do you want to create in the next 30 days? That doesn't feel impossible, that would not require you to work longer hours that would not require you to host an event that is not already in existence? Right? Like, what is the low lift thing that you could do? That could be part of this new outreach habit? I want to hear that a chat. I'm gonna go through and see if there were any other questions coming in. Okay, Nancy, I see you said what are the questions you would ask but that was earlier in the in the session, so remind me of what that was referring to?
33:28
What are the questions you would ask? Okay, so someone says, I already gave this year. And you said me men ask questions. And I'm always like, oh, like, question to you asked to that. Like, okay. Something true, like,
Christina Edwards 33:48
and okay, so that's, that's such a good thing to know is like, an objection. Is it something you have to like, fight or disagree with? Because that's true. So let's workshop this. I'm the I'm the donor. You asked me? How much are you asking me for?
34:05
I'm gonna ask you. Hi, Christina, would you I mean, do I'm going to ask you for $1,000
Christina Edwards 34:15
I already gave this year
34:22
I don't know what I'm supposed to ask. Then. I can talk and say thank you. And I really, really appreciate that. And that's wonderful.
Christina Edwards 34:32
Okay, finish and, and what's the question? You don't Okay. So I want you to I want you to come up with it. So you're right. Christina, you have already given this year. You're right. So why do you need more fancy? Why do you need I already gave.
34:50
Okay, but then you just asked me the question. I didn't ask. What if they don't answer that.
Christina Edwards 34:57
Then I have this that's why we're going through so I can show you. Okay,
35:01
so if you ask me the question, well, because this is, we have, we have done so much in three months that we've actually far exceeded our expectations. I'm we're now out of funding to go forward.
Christina Edwards 35:17
How much funding do you need?
35:20
In what timeframe?
Christina Edwards 35:22
Well, you said you need more funding to go forward. So what does that look like?
35:25
So in the next month, we hope to raise $30,000.
Christina Edwards 35:33
And what will you do with that 30,
35:36
we will host a workshop that is about that will involve genetic analysis of the cacao that grows wild in the area, and will do soil and water testing for heavy metals, which is important, both in terms of having products that the farmers can sell, and in terms of local health. And we will continue our work on the community based promoters. So
Christina Edwards 36:05
what you just listed was what I call features instead of benefits. Okay? Okay. So tell me the benefits of those things. What's the benefit of the workshop? I'm not going to work from right.
36:22
But you have to want to take your life. Um, you the benefits are that farmers will continue to equip farmers with the skills so that they can create sustainable livelihoods. Okay, pause.
Christina Edwards 36:40
So I want you to know, when you're in this process, and somebody gives you a small objection I already gave, I want you to already know what does Christina care about? Like, what's her zone? What's her affinity with your organization? Because if you have multiple programs, like where do I land? And if you don't know, you need to ask me. Hey, I noticed you gave $1,000 Last year like I'm curious what you're interested in. I'm like, I care about beekeeping. I don't know, like you want to know, so that when I give you that pushback, you can say, I know you're interested in x, that is part of what's happening over here. Right. So I want you to bridge that. Right.
37:18
So you would ask that question before you ever get to an ask.
Christina Edwards 37:23
I mean, yes. And no, I could we could do this all in one meeting.
37:29
Right. But anyone come first. And not mean it not?
Christina Edwards 37:33
There it okay. If I'm gonna make this formulaic? Yeah, I think that's a great way. It's like when you're dating, you're like, What do you want to? Do? You like movies? And you're like, No, I don't, you know, right. That's it. However, if you're at the point in the date, where things are going well, and you realize you haven't been asking any questions, it's a great time to ask some questions. It doesn't mean you got to kill the date and start over and do day two, and then go about it better. You could just be like, Wow, we went over here on the state. And I'm going to bring us back because I realized, I don't know anything about this person. That's okay. The dates not done and over. You with me? Yeah. Okay. Okay, so how does that feel in helping to clarify the process of what to say? Why don't
38:21
more questions first, because then when I make that ask, I'm going to feel a lot more comfortable, and not be as bodily tend to be very wobbly on the Ask part. Right? So maybe, at least until I start feeling more comfortable in asking, if I have asked more questions that makes? I mean, first of all, and then I'm already asking questions, who becomes easier to ask the next question, which has more, which feels more weight? It kind of takes that weight off a little bit? Yeah, part of the conversation rather than, like, all up there.
Christina Edwards 39:01
If you treat your meeting lighter, like your meeting with a potential friend or potential, something that is not this heaviness of a donor that is going to be easier for you. Okay. And the way that you would treat that meeting as you would if you were meeting with somebody who is like a new friend, right, a new neighbor, a new community member, you just ask them questions, like to do. Why are you interested in this organization? What brought you on today? Hey, we're doing this, what do you think of that? Right? Those are the questions you can still ask, right? And then you're just bridging that into Hey, I hear you're interested about this. This is what we're working on. Would you like to be a part of it? Would you like to make a donation? And then when the person makes scary face, and it's like, Ah, right. You don't retreat? You're like I see you making that face. What does that eyebrow mean? We don't know each other that well. Yeah. What does this mean? Right? Just lean in and say like,
39:54
I mean, do you mean that literally?
Christina Edwards 39:56
Literally, I would say that to somebody? Yeah.
39:59
Okay. I mean, if it were, I would say that and that's why I'm like,
Christina Edwards 40:08
if I liked you, which which pages this I'm going to give to you so much more. Or if I believe in you, if I have a mutual shared interest and your mission, or I just have a vibe with you, I'm gonna give you so much more than if you say the exact right set of words. And it's still perfect. 10 out of 10 fundraising consultants would say nailed it. But if it's formulaic, and it's sterile, you're getting my minimum or zero. Right? Now, if you call me out on my weird furrowed eyebrows, because we're vibing, it's fine. Right? Now I've got a connection, I remember you. There's something to that. Okay. Now, I'm not saying you want to lead with joking with everyone. But I do say like, people are different people, some people will be very warm with you. Some people will be very sterile with you and you want to, you want to connect with them on a human level, not on a formulaic level, and that is where the funding mix, not only will that person be more attracted to saying, Here's a gift, they'll say, Do you know, Julie, let me introduce you. I like what you're doing. She would like what you're doing to make sense. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for running through that with us. That was good. Thank you. Okay, so let's see. Nicole said, we have some new initiatives that I think really aligned with the projects you've supported in the past. And we want to extend an opportunity for you to support more of the work, wait, and we want to extend an opportunity for you to support more of the work you find meaningful, right? So that's the ask, that's it. This thing over here, the casting the vision of the future, and inviting them to take part, one of the mistakes people make is they think if somebody's a monthly donor, they are not going to give one another one time gift. If somebody gives annually, they're not going to give twice annually. They're not going right? We don't know because we don't actually ask them, we're just assuming. And that's where the funding gets stuck. So if you want some coaching, you can raise your hand, you can raise your zoom hand, or you can just type in the chat, I want coaching, or type in a question. We have a little bit of time, so it'd be happy to coach you on any outreach or ask questions you have. Now the club is open my group coaching program, it's where we're doing this work exactly like this, only you have the tools and the strategy and the support to get it done. It is $1,000 off through tomorrow. So you have through tomorrow to join the purpose and profit Club, you'll get an email about it, you've probably gotten a few. And I would love to see you inside. I'd love to support you inside this. This container is a six month program. And this is the work we're doing. We're helping organizations for their visibility, we're helping them increase their lead gen. We're going to be talking about talk about cold prospecting. So we talked about that a little we're really talking more about warm, we'll be talking about that this month as well. But if anyone would like any questions or coaching, you can unmute, you can let me know what comes up for you. Let's see here. And I'm gonna go through the chart one more time and see if there's anything else that I missed. Who hears heard of the saying, like what you focus on grows are some flavor of that. Give me a one in the chat. If you're like, Yeah, I know that saying. So, yeah. I was at a kid's birthday party. And I was talking to a woman that I've never met before. And she's really nice. And she was really cool. And there's kids like zooming around running everywhere chaos. And I looked at her and I said which one's yours? And she said, none of them. And then it kind of clicked and I was like, Oh, that's my friends. My friend Sarah. It's her friend that she keeps trying to match up and find her person. She goes, Yeah, I'm single. And she was like, so we got into it right away. And she tells me like her dating history and everything. And I had heard of her before because my friend had told me about her like, I'm trying to fix my friend up. She's she you know, she wants to, you know, find her person. She wants to have a family, etc. And I was listening to the way that she was talking about dating. I was listening to the way that she's talking about Finding Mr. Right? And I was like this, I see why it's not working. Because what I saw was this beautiful, highly intelligent woman who hits eight patch, a catch, like even I was like in my rolodex, who do I know? And what she was telling me is, there's no one out there. It's so hard to date. There's no one good. It was like all of these beliefs. Were coming up for her on how impossible it was. Right? And how everybody wants somebody who everybody her age. I think she's in her late 30s Once somebody who's 20 or something right it all and how it's this and how it's that right? And I thought to myself what you focus on grows? Yes, there are some people who are age who are looking for 20 year olds to date. Not all of them though. Right? Not all of them. And you have to really watch not only your thoughts and beliefs, but you have to watch what you say to people, because you will attract that back in, you will attract that back in. And what I mean is when you're saying to yourself, or you're saying to your colleagues or saying your your co workers, that people can't give more, it's a hard time. I've already asked, where is everybody like any of those thoughts, and you can give me your flavor in the chat. It is it is like a snowball. It will it will latch on. And it's not that I want you to be in lala land. And it's not that I want you to say none of that's true. Because there are some people who will unsubscribe, there are some people who can't donate right now. And yet, there are so many people who can, there are so many people who can go fund me is a beautiful example of this. How many people have ever given to a GoFundMe? And my friend Brian GoFundMe gave to his GoFundMe yesterday, okay, I did not wake up on Tuesday morning thinking I'm going to make a donation. But there it was on his Facebook donate, right there are so many people who can give and do give every single day or every single week, or every single month, whatever it is, who are generous, who are just waiting, they're waiting, they don't know you get they haven't been introduced to you yet. They're too distracted, they thought about it, and then they didn't hear back from you, they need to be reminded they need to hear that, that tone, that belief in what you do and the impact you have. Right? And you will bring them in. And then you just get 123 People who are raving and excited about the work that you do. They bring in their people, right? It was like, I didn't have time to finish my conversation with this person. But I was like, I'm gonna find you, your person. Like, this is ridiculous that you're single, there's no reason why you can't be married. If you want to be married by the end of the year, like in my mind, it's done. But it does require her to drop the story. And it does require her to put herself out there. Right. So it does require those things. She cannot only go to children's birthday parties and tell me how hard it is. She does have to take that story and go okay, that has happened. But 2024 Lookout is in my ear. Because I'm like this. This girl's is such a catch. Like, seriously, she wants an Indian guy in Atlanta. If y'all know of somebody, you gotta tell me. That's That's what she's looking for. And he can't live with his parents. Those are her criteria. It's like, can't live in his mom's basement. It was like, that's fine. We can find him. He's out there. But you got to be willing to do the work. You got to be willing to hear some nose. You got to be willing to get some frogs, right? God on the bad dates to find the good one. Okay, I see your hand raised, you can unmute?
47:55
Um, I always like finding people, people. So speaks to me. Um, yeah. So I have sort of a specific question, which is the nonprofit that I have, I know that getting a significant amount of camera equipment to bring stuff in house would change things. And so I'm working on pitching the camera store themselves to be like, yeah, like, what do you want to do this? And the story of the person who started it was the projects about immigration. I know the story of this family has to do with it very much about immigration. So I'm introducing the project because I think that's really like this is cold, but then with that, ask since it's totally cold, do you start saying things like do you give to art nonprofits? Do you do this? Or is it like, this is you know, we worked with we work with this person in your store, this is what we need. Like, like, any interest in in like, okay, taking this legacy ask wobble of like what you ask for, because I want to ask for as much as possible, because like, yeah, I want to, you know, ask for it as much as possible, but I also don't want to be presumptuous of like, a
Christina Edwards 49:13
cold, what's in it for them? Why should they go to I
49:17
think for them, when we write a book, they can be thanked within it, like in an exhibition as long as it's okay with the place where they're being exhibited is a thank you like so it's like public Thank you, thank you, thank you thank yous and also that they're part of something that seems to be part of their like approach to the world like they seem to care about like coming to this country and like becoming part of it so I think it is but I just found out that the person who I'd be reading this to actually died in his now his daughter, so it's like a little bit like, like, in my mind, I was gonna write it two months ago is different. Like how it oh, it would be now um, so for them I think it's like the great feeling of being part of this project is local, they get publicly Thanks a bunch. And they know that they were there in a pivotal moment. So it's not just like, can you give us money? It's like, can you give us something that's kind of easy for you to give? And then it like gets scaled that make that? Yeah.
Christina Edwards 50:18
Um, can this be an in person conversation? Does it have to be a note? Um,
50:22
I think it has to start off with being a note. So this is like the intro note, but like the ask could be in person. You know what I mean? But I don't know if it makes sense to just intro of like, oh, we'd love to partner with you. Can we talk with you about this? And then ouiser.
Christina Edwards 50:38
My perfect scenario for this is you're in the store and you just like, have a conversation with the owner. Is she there? Sometimes? No. Okay.
50:48
No, yeah. But I found out that this has helped me that he'd figured out who the right person was to like,
Christina Edwards 50:54
got it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Fair. So I think you're on the right track. So this is harder to do, because we're going to do it over email. It sounds like, so it's harder to ask a question. But I would, I would be careful on the questions you ask that you're asking a question that you're prepared to hear no to. So it's like, do you do? There was something you said earlier that they could just be like, yeah, no. And I was like, well, crap. Like, do you? Like do you work with nonprofit? It was? That's yeah. Well, the specificity do you work with arts nonprofits? They're like, No. And you're like, Well, you know, so I wouldn't ask a question like that. I would ask something more open ended, like what causes do you care about what causes Do you support? I would probably start to with just like, hey, it was in your store. And to reach out, like, we're big fans of John, who works with the calendar to be so helpful. Here's what we're working on. And here's why I thought of you. And they want you to write an email to him to her. That isn't an email that has something in it that is specific, that would not work. If you sent it to BestBuy to buy equipment, right? It has to be specific like, so that they're the yellow house in this scenario. There's a connection point
52:08
for the state. Here's why we had to reach out to you because we're not reaching out to other camera stores. Like, just
Christina Edwards 52:14
say that. Okay. All right. We're not reaching out to other camera stores. I really wanted to reach out to you. Do you have 10 minutes, I could call you this week. I want you to be on the phone. I want you to be on the phone. Where's tone because of tone? You're going to close? Close this 100 times easier. If he can hear you if she there. You got Carolyn, if she can hear your enthusiasm, your excitement that you're a real person that is not formulaic, you know, it's going to be so much easier. So I would treat the email as the advertiser to book the meeting just to book the call and not have an ask. I wouldn't even necessarily tease out that. We want you to be a sponsor in the email. Yeah.
52:56
Okay. You got it. Let's do like the big takeaway is like, here's why I had to reach out to you. And so it's just an intro. Oh, my gosh, are you?
Christina Edwards 53:07
Yeah, yes. And then it's like, we're an arts nonprofit, do you have 10 minutes to talk on Friday or Monday, when's a good time, I'll make it happen. Something like that. And that's it. Cool. And then the piece that we want to be careful with with them, is before we tell them all the features, you get your logo here, you get their blah, blah, blah, here, we really want to talk first, actually, we want to talk at all we want to listen, see what they care about. If we can get them to tell us your right what you're you're onto something that isn't in alignment, then we just say, Hey, I heard you say this is important to you. That's what we're doing. That's why I want you to be alongside us, you know, and ask them to be a part of it. That's what I would do versus just like saying we're going to slap your logo everywhere.
53:55
It feels very also formulaic. This feels more like
Christina Edwards 53:59
I want to date with you. Okay. Awesome. Let us know how it goes. I want to know.
54:06
Thank you. Thank you for giving my first ask.
Christina Edwards 54:12
Yeah, join the club. Come get the support. Cool. Awesome. Anyway, anyone else have any questions? I'm going to look one more time and make sure that we got through everything. Cool. Are we committing to outreach? Are we committing to doing it daily? Are we committing it to doing it every three days, it doesn't matter to me pick something and decide I'm going to do it between now and the end of the month like you will decide and stick to it. And if you skip a day just recorded a podcast about this. If you decide I'm going to do daily outreach Monday through Friday, and life happens and you skip a day, don't you dare say now the whole thing's done. It's over. You just get back on you fell off the bike on a Wednesday. You Get back on Thursday do not say Oh, I didn't keep momentum so it's done. So decide your habit decide your frequency and you go, and you don't let yourself negotiate with. Oh, that thing happened. And so now the whole thing is not working. Well. Alright. Thank you guys. This was really fun. Awesome. Okay. Nancy says yes. All right. We've got her. She's committing. Awesome. Cool. I'll see you guys next time. Thank you. Thank you so much. Bye