Previous host and members of our community share their resolutions and prospects for 2018.

Read the Transcript for Episode 66 Below or Click Here!

Dolph Goldenburg: Welcome to the Successful Nonprofits™ Podcast. I’m your host Dolph Goldenburg, bringing you our annual New Year’s resolution show. But before we talk about New Year’s resolutions, let me first start by saying that this is episode 66 of the podcast, and we’ve been going for about 18 months now. I am just so grateful that each of you is on this podcasting journey with me. The podcast continues to grow and I can now say that we have listeners in all 50 states, although the top three states are California, New York, Pennsylvania. If we want to add a fourth and Georgia is number four. And we also have listeners in nearly 20 countries. Now, as I look back over the past year, I see some tremendous both growth and improvement in the podcast. So, this year we produced, I guess really last year now in 2017, we produced 46 episodes. Now, some of the big improvements that we made is we did a dramatic improvement in sound quality.

I have to admit that when I went back and listened to some of our earliest episodes, the sound quality was really poor. We now use professional recording software. We use a professional mic, and it just comes out so much better. 2017 was also the year where we did our first ever in-person conversations. So, at the board leadership forum, you know, we met with a lot of folks, and we were able to record conversations and it was face to face. The dynamic felt so much better. So, one of the things that I have now done to really help ensure that we have that dynamic even when the person I’m talking to is remote as we now use a video call instead of a regular audio skype call. We’re doing that again next week so I think you will see a really big difference as we continue to work on making both the audio and the conversation better and better.

Also, this year, we enhanced the artwork that we do for each show. If you have not been as www.successfulnonprofits.com to actually check out the artwork or if you’re not on our Facebook feed, twitter feed or on my LinkedIn page, then you’ve not seen the artwork, but we spent a good little bit of time putting together custom artwork for every episode. I think it makes a big difference in attracting new listeners. And then finally we brought on a staff member, Brianna Ohonba, who edits the podcast, and she also manages our social media. She has made doing this podcast so much more manageable for me and I am grateful for everything that she does to ensure that you get the podcast every Tuesday. Now, with that quick retrospective on where the podcast has come over the last year, let’s move on with our new year’s resolution show.

Now, one of the things that is now a tradition, because this is the second year that we’re doing it, is we go back to prior guests, and we invite them to share their New Year’s resolution. Now, what I love about this is that our guests are accomplished, successful and achievement-oriented people. And yet they still make New Year’s resolutions. They are at the top of their game, but they’re still making resolutions to improve their game even more. And so, as I listened to their resolutions, I am inspired by both their humility, but also by this sense that we’re all on a learning journey that we’re all on this journey where we will get better every day and every week and every year. So, we’re gonna roll into the resolutions. What we’ll do is we’ll do a quick little intro music before each person’s resolution and at the end of each person’s resolution. So, join me as we welcome Eleanor Boyd, Sandy Reese, Daria Torres, Ellen Bristol, Chris Sgrott-Wheedleton, Gary Hines and Eric Speakman, who were all sharing their resolutions with us today.

Eleanor Boyd: This is Eleanor Boyd. I’m the director of philanthropy at the Dickerson Children’s Advocacy Center in Lexington, South Carolina. My New Year’s resolution is to follow up even better than I’m following up now and really utilize our donor management system in the maximum way to do so.Thank you very much and happy new year.

Sandy Rees: This is Sandy Rees, Chief Encouragement Officer at Get Fully Funded. In 2018. I’m gonna do more of something that I started late in 2017 and that’s more self-care – actually start going to bed a little earlier at night and sleeping more and as crazy as it seems, it makes me feel better and a more productive. Another thing that started you in late 2017 let me do more of is just getting more, play time, more time to do those things that I really enjoy, more time to be creative and have fun because I find that when I do that, it not only refreshes and rejuvenates me, but it really sets me up for better success when it’s time for me to go sit down and work, especially if I’ve got to be creative. If I got to think, if I’ve got a writer generate something, that play time really does refresh my brain of refreshes, my mind and my soul and not my commitment to myself for the new year because I know when I’m the best me that I can be, I’m going to be much better able to be a good coach and a good mentor and a good trainer for all those small nonprofits that rely on us and rely on me to show them the way to raise more money.

Daria Torres: Thank you so much for the chance to share a 2018 resolution. I don’t always make them. I will confess, but this year I’m putting my money on linking up with more people to grow with, and I choose the phrase grow with very intentionally as opposed to grow from or grow for. So, that means I will be seeking out more opportunities to learn and earn with, to partner and contribute with, to work and play with. You get the jist. I am looking forward to a great next year. Twenty $18 and I hope all of your listeners are to. This message has been approved by me Daria Torres, founder and managing partner of the amazing strategy consulting firm, The Walls Torres Group.

Ellen Bristol: Hi everybody. This is Ellen Bristol, president of Bristol Strategy Group, and we’re experts in fundraising effectiveness, productivity and management. And here’s my personal, a resolution for 2018: get more rest, take more downtime, don’t work on the weekends and stop killing myself. And I think everybody should be thinking about that. I also have one other professional resolution for the year, and that is to make fundraising management and fundraising productivity tactics and practices and techniques available to anybody who needs them, which is pretty much everybody in the nonprofit sector at a price they can afford, including free. Happy New Year everyone!

Cris-Sgrott Wheedleton: Hey, congratulations on doing podcast 66.  I am super excited, and it was a pleasure being on the podcast in 2017. I don’t like to any New Year’s resolutions, but I like to set good intentions into the coming year. So I’m this Cris-Sgrott, we don’t send with Organizing Maniacs and since I help people get more organized and managed our time better, I also want to do for myself next year, but in 2018 I want to try to connect with people more. I wanted to just make an intention on my calendar not to just be more productive for the sake of getting more stuff done, but for maybe spending more time with the people that I love to connect with. On a weekly basis, I would like to have a virtual coffee date with somebody that either I want to get to know better or somebody that I haven’t seen in a while. So that is my commitment in 2018. I hope you have an amazing year. I look forward to hearing the podcast in 2018 and much success to you. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye.

Gary Hines: Happy New Year. My name is Gary Hines. I’m the president of the Gary Hines Consultant Group, LLC. And my resolution is about helping people in 2018. I would like to do more outreach to people about how much better we are when we work together as a country, as a people. We are so much more alike than different. There are common bonds that really make America great. So, if I can touch people in some way with a message of hope, then 2018 will be a good year for me. Happy New Year.

Eric Speakman: Hello, this is Eric Speakman, principle of Speakman Management Consulting. Happy holidays to everyone and happy new year and thinking about 2018, my new year’s resolutions, I keep thinking of the theme of physician heal thyself, that as consultants and technical assistant experts that help and aid nonprofits that sometimes we forget to continue our development, our growth, become better. And so, I am committed next year to work on my personal growth and development, sharpening the saw, so to speak, in all aspects of my life. And I also look at continuing the efforts of 2017 in better partnering with other consultants so that we can have a better collective advocacy voice and better serve those within the nonprofit community. And my last resolution is to better support cross sector partnerships that really look at impactful efforts within the community. Again, happy new year.

Dolph Goldenburg: Hopefully our guests’ New Year’s resolutions have inspired you to make some of your own or perhaps to keep those that you have already made. Now it’s my turn to share my New Year’s resolutions with you, and I actually have to and the first is to get more sleep. About four years ago, I had the luxury of having an eight-month sabbatical. It was an incredible experience. I often talk about it on this podcast, but one of the things that I learned about myself on that sabbatical is that I reliably need eight to 10 hours of sleep every single night. Now before my sabbatical, I actually thought I only needed six because I could function with six hours of sleep, and over the last six to eight months, I have certainly noticed that I’m getting closer to six and not as close to eight as I would like. So, my new year’s resolution is to get more sleep.

I may not hit 10 hours, but seven to eight every night would be a good thing for me. And then my second resolution is to blog more. I have been so focused on my client work and also on the podcast that I have really kind of put the blog down. And so, in 2018 I will be blogging more, and my goal is to blog at least once a week. So, when you go to www.successfulnonprofits.com and then you click on our blog, you should see at least one new blog post every single week. Now, as with all resolutions, you’ve got to have a method for measuring them and also a plan for maintaining it when it gets tough. I’ve already talked about what my measurement is. I want to get seven to eight hours of sleep every night, and I want to post at least one new blog posts a week, but so here’s how I’m planning on maintaining it.

When the going gets tough in terms of sleep, what I’ve decided to do is to go to bed within 15 minutes of when my husband goes to bed because he has much, much better sleep patterns than I do. So, typically he goes to bed about 9:45 or 10:00, and I often like a little bit of alone time just by myself before I go up to bed. But sometimes that alone time stretches into an hour or an hour and a half or two hours. And so how I’m going to monitor that is when he goes to bed, that’s my, hey, it’s time for you to get ready. You need to be embedded in 15 or 20 minutes. And then for blog posting I have essentially prewritten about 10 or 12 blogs. And so, what that will help me do is when I’m having a week where I’m really, really jammed and I just don’t think I can write one more blog post, I’m going to pull one from that stack.

So, that’ll give me a little bit of a headstart. But it also keeps me going because what I believe is that as I start to really move into this rhythm of every Wednesday, there has to be a new blog post that gets published on the website, then I am much less likely when that stack of 12 or so possible posts empty to say, okay, I’m not going to do it. Then I’m going to say, I’ve got to dig down deep, and I’ve got to find the time to write this post. Although, it won’t be in the middle of the night because I will be asleep. So, that is our very short New Year’s episode. I hope that today you have gained some insight that will help you, your nonprofit thrive in a competitive environment.