The Business of Giving

Unknown Speaker 0:00
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Unknown Speaker 0:29
What's wrong with the world Maamar people live in live thank God. I think the whole world's addicted to the drama. Hello, everyone. And welcome to the business of giving podcast. My name is Guy Dawson and I am the founder and executive director of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. And we are a 501 C six nonprofit organization that brings businesses and nonprofit organizations together to create synergistic relationships that benefit the community. With the business of giving podcast, we do the exact same thing we highlight the successes, challenges and everything that goes into being a business owner, a professional or someone who runs a a nonprofit organization. And we are really huge supporters of two pillars of the community that is the for profit and nonprofit sectors. If you'd like to learn more about what we do at the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, cause marketing chamber.com. We had a phenomenal event. In the evening. Yesterday, I've been mentioning over the last couple of weeks that we were going to have a nonprofit organization that is extremely prominent in Las Vegas as a part of our quarterly mixer and opportunity village came out and spoke at the event last night. And it was a really an interesting talk at the level of getting a greater understanding of things that they do beyond the obvious. The speaker's name was Alex and one of the things that he talked about was the fact that when people think of opportunity village, they think of magical forest because that's such a popular campaign that they use year after year after year, hundreds and 1000s of people attend the magical forest events. During December actually I even tickets a little bit into November. And so they are known for those events. But the work that they're doing in the community is so critical helping adults with disabilities and we had just a great opportunity to get together as a chamber to celebrate this nonprofit we did a lot of networking had lots of last ate some great food, I'm a someone I enjoy breaking bread. That's why we've had so many of our events at at restaurants through the years it's there's something about getting together with people and breaking bread that creates bonds, and we were out at Joey's tavern last night, excellent food, and I would highly encourage you to attend future events that we host. For more information about that, I'll be announcing these events on the show. And you can always learn more cars marketing chamber.com As I was on my way over to the studio to record this show today, I was really trying to see what information I could provide for all of you that would touch you at a level that you may not even consider when it comes to the for profit and nonprofit sectors. I was just thinking about how important leadership is for a person who is in business or a person who's running a nonprofit organization or a part of a nonprofit organization. And that's a topic that I want to explore with all of you today is that if you are someone who is either running a business or you want to run one in the future, maybe you're preparing to run one, your ability to lead and I'm with my talk today I'm gonna talk quite a bit about that self leadership because leadership really starts with your ability to lead your own self and I'll explore that more as we go along during the course of the show today. But that your ability to lead yourself and others is unbelievably critical in the long term success of any business endeavor or or any thing related to the nonprofit sector. Because there are so many moving parts when it comes to running an organization, the coordination of of talent, when it when you're talking about leadership, your state of mind the way that you think the way that you connect with the people around you, be they your team members or clients the community itself really has an impact on the type of business image that you create or nonprofit image that you create. And the way that people relate to you directly affects how well your organization is able to fulfill the mission of, of whatever it is that you're trying to fulfill what I did, I talked earlier about the self leadership and I started out as an entrepreneur at a very young age, I started running my first business when I was 11 years old. And it was something that happened by chance. I was walking down the street one day, and a man pulled me aside and he said, Hey, would you be interested in mowing my lawn, I'd be willing to pay you every week to do it. And I said, Sure. So I started mowing his lawn. And he was paying me to do that I was 11 years old, which was great, because other than the allowance that I was receiving from my parents, I didn't have access to a lot of capital. And he was paying me consistently for the work that I was doing. And within a few months, I had other lawns, that I was cutting in the neighborhood. And that was really an eye opener at a young age about how there's so much money and opportunity available out there, if you're willing to just start moving toward it. And so for me, it was an opportunity that was presented to me, and I had a choice at that point, I guess I could have chosen not to have taken on the opportunity. But since I did, it really was life changing, not even understanding at the age of 11, that I was starting to shape my mentality when it came to entrepreneurship just because of my willingness to take advantage of opportunities. And so in business, and when you're talking about self leadership, the importance of knowing when a great opportunity is presenting itself to you and having the willingness to take on that opportunity. Despite the way that it may look, one of the things that I've always seen when it comes to many areas of life, but business in particular, because that's what I'm talking about today, when opportunities are presented to you, they're not just wrapped up perfectly in a bow and presented exactly in the form that's going to lead you to what it is that you're you're working towards. It's usually you don't have a great understanding necessarily, of what it is that you're taking on. You just know, I know, for me, again, with you know, taking on that opportunity at at a young age, I wanted to make some extra money because I wasn't making enough with the allowance that I was receiving for the chores that I was doing around my house. And this just seemed like an opportunity that would put more money in my pocket. And it just grew into so much more. I was doing the lawns for a while and continued to do that. And then I ended up getting in the car washing business. And that was when I first started to bring in other people because I was pretty busy. I mean, as an 11 year old, I was going to school every day. And then I only did the lines on the weekend and wash the cars on the weekend. So with the lawns that I was doing, and then I started washing cars and more people started asking if I'd come by and wash their car. Now my weekends were full. And that required me to bring in other people to help. And luckily, for me, I've always had a sense of, of community. I've always liked to do things with other people. And since I had friends in the neighborhood, I just reached out to them and said, Hey, you want to make some extra money. We'll wash cars together, and I'll make sure that you are compensated for the work that you do. And they all joined in with me and we shared in the profits and the business grew, I got to get into the sales side, I was the one that was mostly going out and looking for other people who needed their cars washed. And after a while we had built a pretty successful car washing business. So I had this this individual thing that I was doing, which was mowing lawns. And then now I had a collaborative business that I was involved in. And there was so there was a lot of leadership skills that I learned from doing both of those things. Being the solopreneur, which is what I was doing mowing the lawns. It's very similar to what I did once I had a team but when you're the person that's doing the work, you don't have to really worry about assigning anything to anyone. It's all in on you. You complete the tasks. So for me mowing the lawns. I mowed the lawn made sure that my customer was satisfied, got paid for it and moved on. It was a different situation though with the car washing because now I had to trust in other people to get the job done. For me, for the most part, I was out there generating the sales getting people to bring us in to wash their cars. And then of course, I had to get a team of people together, we had to make sure that we had all the materials, we needed to wash the cars, wash cloths, water, classes of

Unknown Speaker 10:18
towels to dry the cars, we had Windex, we had newspapers to do the windows, it was. So there was that whole element. Now I'm getting beyond just that solopreneur mindset and having to make sure that the people who are working with me are supplied with the things that they need, in order to do a good job. That aspect of it was quite a bit different than being the solopreneur. Then of course, we had our commitments that we had made to people, if I went out and sold a project for a carwash to someone and we made a commitment that we were going to come at a certain time and wash the cars, we all had to be in agreement that we were going to make it over to that person's house and wash the cars. So now you've got that time management aspect, not just my own time, but also making sure that the people who were working with me made it there so that we could get the car washed, as we agreed that we were going to. And then of course, the actual work that we got done. The reason why people were hiring us to wash their cars was because we had shown that we could do quality work. And that meant that the people that I brought in with me to wash these cars, they had to pay attention to detail, we had to do a good job. Even though we were just little kids doing this, all of us were 1112, nine years old. I learned from an early age, how important customer service is and how your reputation really precedes you, for good or for bad. And so as the leader now of this larger organization, I went from being that solopreneur on the lawn mowing side now to being really a business leader making sure and a manager making sure that all of these moving parts worked out Oh, and then there was the financial aspect, of course, when I would collect the money for washing the cars. Now, on the solopreneur side, I only had to pay myself. But when I had brought on this team of people now it was, first really, I had to make sure that they got paid. So we agreed upon a price of how much I would give them for every car that we washed. And then they would get their salary after we were done. So there were so many extra elements to be in that business leader, as compared to the solopreneur side. But again, the advantage of being the business leader and having a business with more than one person is we were able to cover a lot more territory, we were able to do a lot more cars, which allowed us to make more money, I was able to pay more out to all of them, rather than me washing all the cars by myself which I it was impossible. Again, because it was the weekend, I was already doing these lines. And I could only do so much work. And that's how it is when you're running a business at any time or a nonprofit organization. There's only so much work that one person can do. And when you start to leverage the abilities of other people creating partnerships that worked for for both sides, it really allowed us to expand and it created a solid business, but the leadership elements of that have been so valuable for me throughout my life. And I like to tell those stories, or stories, that particular story because that happened to me in my life. And when I have worked with people on things related to entrepreneurship and business, I have seen the mentality of business leadership or nonprofit leadership has a real effect on how well you succeed in the endeavor that you embark on. I know as far as the the nonprofit sector, when we started doing the businesses with heart events back in 2015. And I started to work extensively with nonprofits. I had already been doing quite a bit of that from the PR perspective, but I think once we really got engaged in the work and we started hosting these events regularly, I started to touch a lot of nonprofits and generally the people that I would encounter, we were the smaller nonprofit organizations as you have this person who has a huge heart, they've got a great idea of something that they want to to start to benefit a sector or the community in some way. And that's their starting point. It's their passion, more than anything else. They just believe in something they want to do it and they're determined to get it done so that they can provide this service. And so they'll start out kind of with the business model that I was sharing with you where they are the solopreneur starting this nonprofit organized session. So they're taking on all the jobs, doing everything, for the most part themselves, maybe they have a husband or a wife or their kids or a friend who's helping out a bit. But generally they're taking on that, that solopreneur role at the very beginning. And, again, when you're managing everything, a advantage to that is, you know, things are going to get done, because you're the one that's making sure that they get done, and you just take care of the tasks. Again, but what I've seen with these nonprofits is, when you start to expand the amount of services that you're able to provide to people, now, you need help. One of the things that I'm so big on is, when you get your nonprofit, I mean, you have to have a board of directors in order to even start a nonprofit organization. So there you go right off the bat, if you're a nonprofit, the way that you develop and build that board, really board of directors that you are required to have to be acknowledged by the state in the IRS. Your that's where your team begins. When you're working with another group of people collaboratively now, it's not just your mind, now you're able to tap into the minds of other people. So building your board in terms of leadership, you've got yourself leadership, right, your ability to get your message out there about the nonprofit, to get people passionate about it, believing in it, that's really a reflection of yourself. Leadership, is the way that you're able to present it to people and to get them to buy into the mission of what it is that you've created. Now you've got this board of directors, who you are going to be working very closely with, to start to craft what on a higher scale, what we're going to do to carry out the things that we've established as, as the mission and you're working with them, making sure that you choose the right people who are in alignment with what it is that you want to accomplish is a is a really big thing. And then of course, the right personalities, the right chemistry that you need, you know, these are skills that you develop through application. And if you as the leader, this goes back to more of the I think on the self leadership side, if you spend a lot of time working on making sure that you are mentally, emotionally, and spiritually conditioned to, to encompass what that mission is all about. A lot of that will start to rub off on the people around you which your board of directors and others. And as your organization grows, of course, now you start have to gotta bring in accountants, you have to bring in people to help you with administrative things. So it goes from beyond that solopreneur level, the nonprofit opportunity village that came and spoke for us last night, if they decided that they just wanted to be a one man show, you'd never have this massive 70 year old organization that you have now, they had to be willing to grow. And you as the leader are the main person who has to grow your growth, your ability to become more than what you are currently. And to keep working at it, even though it's it's not a precise science, becoming a greater leader. But your willingness to take on more challenges is going to have a direct effect on how many people you're going to be able to serve through that nonprofit organization. So now you've got that self leadership, combined with the fact that you're working with lots of people towards the mission and and things begin to stack and they begin to build and you make lots of mistakes. By the way. It's not always smooth sailing when you're becoming a greater leader and a bigger person. And you have to be willing to dust yourself off. And this is on the for profit or nonprofit side. When you make mistakes, things don't turn out the way that you expected them to turn out. You still have to be willing to dust yourself off, pick yourself up, be extremely accountable to the people that you're working with. Of course number your your highest level of accountability is to yourself and then it's the accountability to the people that you're working with. Admit when you make mistakes. That's a really powerful thing and leadership in my opinion, I think your team has a lot more respect for you. When you are transparent and willing to admit that you're human, you're not perfect you make mistakes, directly affects the type of relationship that you will have with them.

Unknown Speaker 19:50
Take a break really quickly here and make a couple of announcements I've been talking to you all about the first annual cause in business crews October 19 through the 26th In 2024, we're going to as a cause marketing chamber, we are going to take a cruise through the Hawaiian Islands, it's going to give you a great opportunity if you join us to network with giving professionals proceeds from the cruise will benefit nonprofit organizations. And that is the cabins that you buy for the cruise, we're going to give a certain amount of money to the nonprofit organization of your choice, I just think it's going to be a tremendous opportunity for someone who wants to be around giving professionals who practice cause marketing principles, we're going to do some service work over on Maui. As many of you know, that island has devastated from fires back in the fall of 2023. And a lot of the citizens are still displaced over there. So we're going to be doing a layover during our cruise in Maui, we will be doing some service work while we're there. Again, we're going to spend a lot of time together talking about the principles of cause marketing. And of course, we're going to enjoy ourselves massively, because we're going to spend six days and seven nights cruising through one of the most beautiful places in the world, and that's the Hawaiian Islands. If you want more info about the cause of business, Cruz, cause marketing chamber.com or info at cause marketing chamber.com. I'd like to also announce the small business resources I challenge 2024 A learning initiative in honor of National Small Business Week, April 28. Through may 4, learn about Nevada's local, state and federal small business support programs and use them to achieve greater success in business for more information business.envy.gov sba.gov or 702-486-2750. And for those of you who have just tuned in, you are listening to the business of giving podcast brought to you by the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce at 91.5k. You envy jazz and more. And I've been talking about leadership in the for profit and nonprofit sectors. So I had just touched on some of the elements of leadership in the nonprofit world. And again, both sides we deal with both sectors, the for profit and nonprofit sectors. But there's so much overlap in it, especially when you're talking about leadership in the for profit or nonprofit side. I know in terms of business, when you're getting a business started, the mission that you have is a lot of times it's different than what you have on the nonprofit side. Because you are as a for profit business looking to create profits that are going to help you to sustain your life, take care of your family and build a legacy. So your focus is much more on providing that that product or service that will serve your mission in life as compared to generally unless of course there are also there are businesses out there that are called benefits businesses. And that's a form of the entity, a business entity that benefits the community. It's not a nonprofit organization, they're called B corpse. So you do have businesses out there that are specifically designed on the for profit side to also benefit the community, but very few people have B corpse. Most people who start up a business want to create something profitable so that they can take care of themselves, their families. And and that's their mission. So leadership, when it comes to the for profit side is being in business requires the development of a lot of skill sets that most people aren't born with. We live in a very employment oriented society where most of us I mean, yes, there are lots of people who are entrepreneurs, I think there are more entrepreneurs actually, than ever out in the world right now. But for the most part, we live in a very employee focused society. And so people's mindset is Alright, great, I'll get a job work for someone else, that you don't even think very much about everything that goes behind creating that job that you're showing up for you just know that you need to show up for the job. If you do a good job, you'll keep getting a paycheck from your employer. So you don't have a lot to think about as compared to the person who decides that they're actually going to own the business because in the process of delivering that product or that service as the business owner, you've just got a lot more responsibilities. Number one, you've got to figure out what it is that you want to bring to the We're all you want to, you got to figure out how you're going to bring it to them, you have to systematize a process for doing that. And all of this financially, you have to be able to manage that aspect, you have to be able to manage the emotions. And this is also very similar on the nonprofit side when you're running a non nonprofit organization is that business ownership or running a nonprofit organization requires a lot of dealing with your emotions, because you have so many peaks and valleys when you're in business. Again, it's a lot different than when you show up for the job, you do a great job, your boss rewards you with a paycheck, so you know that that check is on its way. Whereas when you're the person out there, who's creating a business, you've got these all these emotional peaks and valleys as I had talked about before, and you you've got to figure out how to get the money, to be able to sustain the business to be able to sustain your life. And so there's a lot of personal leadership that's involved in that just really managing the peaks and valleys of being in a business. And so in terms of that, the personal leadership is just so important. And I'm a big believer, for people who run a for profit or a nonprofit businesses do a lot of personal development, I am really, really big on reading lots of books, attending seminars, doing things to improve my emotional state. I have a lot of spiritual practices that I do as well. These things help you to be able to manage all the peaks and valleys that come with the irregularity that's involved in running a business or a nonprofit organization. So your personal development to become a better business or nonprofit leader, work a lot on yourself. And there's amazing books out there so many great books that you can read you tubers got lots of outstanding content as well. And you can just Google things related to professional development, personal development. These types of things help you to prepare for everything that comes with being someone who's in charge of running an organization. I hope that the information that I shared with you all today will help you in your entrepreneurial or nonprofit endeavors. And always want to remind you that you can listen to the business of giving podcast on Spotify, Apple podcast, and others other platforms transistor, dot F m, the business of giving is where you can find some of our podcasts, always want to invite you to follow us on our social media sites. And again, I'm just so enjoying the opportunity to be a part of the team over here at K u and v 91.5. FM to share these messages about cause marketing with all of you we've been getting some tremendous feedback. Oh, the other thing I wanted to remind you is if you go on one of these platforms, where you please leave us positive reviews, I'm getting a lot of positive feedback from the community about the content that we're sharing here and if you could give us some positive reviews, that would be really helpful because it helps us to reach a larger audience. I hope that everything is going well in your life and as I do every week when I end this show, I want to encourage you to give and do business for good. Take care of yourself see you next week.

Unknown Speaker 28:49
The weight of the world on my shoulder as I'm getting older your people guess holder. Most of us only care about money.

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