The Practice of Nonprofit Leadership
The Practice of Nonprofit Leadership
Our 3 Words - Setting A Compass For 2025
This episode dives into the transformative practice of choosing three guiding words for the new year, offering nonprofit leaders a unique alternative to traditional resolutions. Through shared insights and personal experiences, Tim and Nathan share their 3 Words for 2025 and highlight the power of intention, accountability, and community in nonprofit leadership.
The Hosts of The Practice of NonProfit Leadership:
Tim Barnes serves as the Executive Vice President of International Association for Refugees (IAFR)
Nathan Ruby serves as the Executive Director of Friends of the Children of Haiti (FOTCOH)
They can be reached at info@practicenpleader.com
All opinions and views expressed by the hosts are their own and do not necessarily represent those of their respective organizations.
Welcome to the Practice of Nonprofit Leadership. I'm Tim Barnes.
Nathan Ruby:And I'm Nathan Ruby. Well, Happy New Year. Are you tired, Tim? Are you tired of hearing Happy New Year and hey, did you have a good Christmas and a good new year? Are you tired of people asking you that yet?
Tim Barnes:Absolutely.
Nathan Ruby:Well, how about all of the? How about watching all of the ads for your local gym workout place that you've seen on TV and on TikTok? And was it X now, and you know it's like tis the season for all of those ads to be coming up? How are you doing on your resolutions so far? Are you making them? Are you keeping?
Tim Barnes:them. Well, you know, here's my goal. My goal is to do them past January 19th, because January 19th is when pretty much everybody gives up on their resolutions. So I'm pushing through.
Nathan Ruby:I heard that this year for the first time I forget what commercial. Oh, it's a, I think it's a Nike commercial. Um, it's, they call it quitter's day. And I'd never heard of that until this year. After, like the 17th time I'd seen the the uh ad on whatever football game I was watching, it was like, okay, I don't know if that's true or not. So I Googled it and, sure enough, it's a real thing. You know, even though we make fun of that a little bit, uh, tim and I are, you know we do take it seriously. You know setting goals, writing them down, you know setting a direction for the year, and it is something that we do Sometimes. We do, sometimes we do it better than others, but at least we try, and so, and every year we we work on that. So, tim, watch a little bit more about how we're, what we're doing.
Tim Barnes:Well, if you're regular listeners to this podcast, you'll know that Nathan and I often start the year with what we call our three words, a practice that was started by Chris Brogan back in, I think, 2005 or 2006. I can't remember. But the words basically the idea, is that they serve more as a compass rather than a map. They provide a focus, a reminder of where to put your attention and your energy, and they work best if they're oftentimes, if they're action-oriented words or if they're words that lead you to action. I actually have some.
Tim Barnes:My words aren't so much action this year, but they actually help me think about the actions I'm going to take. That's what we do, and I think over the last couple of years, nathan, we've taken one podcast just to share what our words are, and we wanted to do that today, maybe just as an encouragement to you who are listening, to think about hey, maybe I should think about that as well. Here's some ways we use those words. One of them is that we really work hard to put them front and center every day, and so we do that in different ways, but for me, in my journal and in my planner, it's the first thing I do before I write anything down is I put those three words at the top of the page on both of my journal and my planner, just so they're there in front of me all the time. And you do something similar, don't you, nathan, with that.
Nathan Ruby:Yeah, I do. I have a document that I use every day. That's got you know, some of my wins. I guess you could call it a journal, I don't know if it's that formal, but you know some of my wins, uh, some of the struggles that I have, uh, some of the things that are important to me and um, and then, and so then I've, I've got, uh, my uh, uh, what, how do I describe that? I guess my philosophy, or you know some life's philosophy, things that I follow, are on there, and then these three words are on there as well, so that I'm. You know, if you don't pay attention, you're out of sight, out of mind. If you don't pay attention to it on a daily basis, or at least a weekly basis, you know it doesn't take long for it to just lose any type of relevance in your life.
Tim Barnes:Well, another. Another thing that we use them for is that when we're trying to figure out what's next, what should we do next, it's good to look at the words and then act accordingly. And I know it probably doesn't happen to you, but every once in a while I'm sitting in front of my desk like, okay, where am I and who am I and what should I be doing right now, and those three words go oh yeah, that reminds me I need to, I need to do something, and so it's a. It's a help on that as well. And the other thing and we were joking a little bit before we started recording we really do work hard to try to keep each other calm with those words, sometimes more than other times. Periodically, we try to review them and just assess hey, where are we?
Tim Barnes:And I think we both have found that 2024 was kind of a challenging year, and I feel like we got lost a couple of times. And I do go back to times where we had conversations, say, hey, how are you doing on your words? But we definitely could have done a better job in 2024. And so we're kind of re-upping our commitment to walk with each other, uh, this year as well. So, anyway, we'd like to jump in with our three words and we would just say uh, if you are doing this as well, or you'd like to, we'd love to hear what your three words are. What are you focusing on this year? Or maybe even if you have a goal, maybe you've said, hey, this year I'm going to do whatever. We'd love to hear from you because, yeah, we're just interested in what is the thing that's motivating you and what are you going after in 2025? And let's keep each other accountable to it as we go forward.
Nathan Ruby:Yeah, absolutely. How cool would that be. You know, we could just, yeah, send them to us and we'd love we'd do it with you, we could do it together as we go through the year.
Tim Barnes:That'd be awesome individually and together, has been our connection with each other, being in community with each other. You know, it's one thing to sit in your corner and to write down what you want to do. It's another thing to be part of a community that's helping you move forward and creating the positivity around you, to go after it, and so that's part of why sharing it it's a declaration, it's kind of putting out there okay, now I better do something. If I've told everybody I'm going to do it, but also just, hey, you can do it, and when you feel like you're not, there's someone there to kind of encourage you and keep you going.
Nathan Ruby:Well and we've talked about this before, tim where being an executive director of a small to medium-sized nonprofit is one of the most loneliest, isolating roles out there.
Nathan Ruby:It is very, yeah, you may be sitting in the corner office, but you're sitting in there alone, and so it is easy to get isolated when you're in that role. And you know you'll, you'll hear the words today. Not all have to do with our day job, not all have to do with work, but it is nice to, tim, to your point of of having other executive directors that are following the same road. You are traveling the same road. You are that have some of the same struggles. If you're struggling with something, I guarantee you there is a large number of people listening to this show right now that have the exact same problem, the same issues. So, even though you may feel like you're isolated, you don't have to be, and so one way to be in community is, you know, is through us. We love to play that role, and so if you want to be in community through this concept of the three words, we would love to have you join us and we'll do it together.
Tim Barnes:And our emails in the show notes. If you want to just shoot those goals or those three words to us by by email, we'd love to. We'd love to receive them. All right, here's the moment of truth. Uh, nathan, we're going to share our three words and we give you permission to send us an email and say, hey, how are you doing? We're going to really put it on the line. All All right, I guess I'm. Am I up first?
Nathan Ruby:You're first.
Tim Barnes:Okay, here we go. So, um, as I thought about 2025 and some of the key things that I'm I'm thinking about these, these three words came to mind. Uh, to the words. I have to be honest, were influenced by the words of, by things I have heard and have read from James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, which has been an impactful book for me in the last few years, and so I'm going to mention him as I share my words, but he was influenced as I thought about 2025. So here's my first word.
Tim Barnes:My first word is identity, and I want to be more aware of my identity in this year and be sure to be living out, and what I mean by that is one of the things that James Clear says is that your identity emerges out of your habits, and so I take that to mean that I do because I am and I am because I do, and it's this idea that if I identify as a healthy person, then I need to be doing what a healthy person does. And so that's a question I could ask each time. If I say, hey, I am a leader, what does a leader do? And am I doing those kinds of things? Am I a good partner to my spouse Well, what do good partners do? And so being able to say, hey, what is my identity? The other book I'm reading, which is quite interesting I'll put a plug in for it is called the algebra of wealth, scott Galloway, and I was challenged by him as well. Where he talked about, he got into the, he got into the habit of writing and he took on the identity as a writer and he wrote on a regular basis because he was a writer and he took that, he took that identity on. And so for me, I want to be asking you know, what are the things that identify with? Health has become a big issue for me in the last two years, and so I asked myself on a regular basis if I want to be healthy. What does a healthy person do? And I try to live that out. So identity is my first one.
Tim Barnes:My second word for 2025 is stacks. Has probably will not mean anything to anybody, except maybe one or two people, but another James Clear quote challenged me when he says you do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. And in 2025, I plan to be more consistent in creating systems that help me move towards my goals. If something happens more than twice, I should be looking at to create a system that provides clear steps and maybe even automation or something like that that allows me to put my energy towards my goals. From things that we've heard from Chris Brogan, as we mentioned earlier, rob Hatch another influence on us action stacks, where you, every time you do something, even though you do it a lot, you create an action stacks. What are the actions I need to take to get to that point? And it's creating this system so you can put your energy towards what's needed rather than having to figure out now what do I do next? What do I do next? And so I want to be intentional about creating stacks, creating systems around the goals that I have as we go forward. And then the last one one, my last key point or my last word, is center, and the center represents my goals and my priorities and my principles.
Tim Barnes:And I don't know if any of you ever played racquetball, or when I lived overseas, I played squash, which is similar longer racket, smaller, smaller ball and there's a couple different ways to play racquetball.
Tim Barnes:One is just keep flying around. Wherever the ball is going, you just run around. You just run around and go to that point, and if you do that enough, you get really tired and you also miss a lot because you're always chasing. A good way to play racquetball is to play from the center, so every time you hit the ball, go back to the center and you're always within reach most of the time with what's happening around you, rather than running to where it's going to all the time. And I feel like I spend sometimes a lot of time running from here to there, running to things, and I forget my center, and so, instead of rushing and flailing around to grab every opportunity, I want to play from center. I want to make sure that I don't get too far from what matters most, and I'm always returning to the center as I progress forward in my goals.
Nathan Ruby:So identity stacks and center are my three words for 2025. Wow, that's pretty good, tim. That's that's pretty good. I like the.
Nathan Ruby:The identity one, um, you know, cause that is one of the things for the, for the three words um is it. It gives you direction. It gives you a uh, a focus of, of you know what you want to get done, or at least a direction for the year. But it also is I use it at any given time of what should I be doing? Minutes before I'm done for the day and I got all my stuff done, what am I going to do?
Nathan Ruby:And so the identity piece is and it applies to anything people like blank, fill in the blank, do these things, and so it gives you a sense of okay, I need to do these things in this minute, this 10 minute window, this is what I need to do, and in this week, this is what I do, and this month, this is what I need to do. And when you start stacking up, um, you know 10 minutes, and then weeks and then months of consistently working on whatever it is. You know fill in the blank is that is where you get exponential growth in whatever it is that you're trying to achieve. So that's a that's awesome. I really liked that one.
Tim Barnes:Thank you.
Nathan Ruby:All right, so is it my turn now.
Tim Barnes:Your turn.
Nathan Ruby:All right, mine, mine, aren't as good as Tim's. That was, that was pretty good, all right, here's my three, and my first two came pretty quickly to me. My third one, one I had to work a little harder on, but once it got that, once I figured it out, it was, it was. It's the right one. It just I just had to work at it a little bit, uh. But my first one is podcast and you know, tim uh tim and I started this uh podcast adventure three years ago. Is that right? 2022?
Nathan Ruby:Yes, I think yes, I think that's right and we are. This is like episode. Are we at 130 yet?
Tim Barnes:Getting close to that. This is like almost 160 actually.
Nathan Ruby:Nope See, there's 30 more than I even knew.
Nathan Ruby:The lost exactly, so we'll call it one 60. Um, and it has been a great ride. I have loved doing this and, tim, I know you have too. Uh, it has been uh. It's brought joy and happiness. We've got to meet new people that we would have never met before and you know the the chance to get to, to speak to you as you, as you're listening to this is um, it's a um. I don't want to.
Nathan Ruby:It's a responsibility that we take seriously in that you know, we know that you're looking for help, you're looking for insights, you're looking for uh tactics. You're looking for tactics, you're looking for cheat codes. You're looking to run your organizations better, to get closer to your vision and mission and make a bigger impact in the world. And that is what we bring, and that's what we hope we deliver every week when we spend 20 to 30 minutes visiting with you. And, from the three-word perspective, what I'm getting at is I really want to work hard this year on making the podcast better, making the sound better, making the intros and the outros better, making the calls to action that we have better, to bring more value, to make the episodes deeper and more meaningful, and so that, after you decide to spend 20 minutes or 25 minutes of your day listening to us and when the show's over and you say, oh my gosh, that was so much value, that was awesome. And there are a lot of things that we could do to make the show better and more meaningful, and that is going to be one of my primary focuses this year. So number one is the podcast and making it a better experience for you. So that's one.
Nathan Ruby:Two, I kind of took a little bit of liberty with this one. The word is 260. Now, 260 is a word, but it's also a number 260. And that represents there are 260 workdays in 2025. Now, I am not the greatest math student, so my math might be off. Feel free to check my math but I'm pretty sure it's 256 workdays. And what this represents is every day, every workday this year, I am going to write a thank you note, a thank you card to one of my stakeholders, either board members or donors or volunteers, whoever the case may be, vendors, people that do work for us, contractors, whatever staff, whatever the case may be. Every day, I'm writing a note card. And, tim, this actually goes back to your identity piece. And because fundraisers if you are a fundraiser, especially if you're a major gift fundraiser. Your identity is that every day, you are doing things that move your donors closer and closer and closer to a major gift, and so recognition and saying thank you is part of that. It is what major gift fundraisers do, and, you know, consistency is one of the things that I I'm not sure it's struggle is the right word, but it probably is.
Nathan Ruby:Consistency is not my friend, uh, you know. Vision, that's awesome. Um, you know, uh, that's something that comes very naturally to me. Ideas, very natural. I got all kinds of ideas, but sitting down at my desk with a and knowing where the note cards are, uh, and then finding a pen that actually works and doesn't skip or or is out of ink, and then it makes me mad and I throw it in the trash. Can? Um, that's what I do now that pen doesn't work right off the bat, right in the trash, can it goes to him, um, and having that all set ahead of time, which kind of goes back to the actions text, um, and so that I could sit down first thing in the morning, uh, and have it in my list of who it is that I'm going to write it to, and so you know, writing the note, putting the address on it, having the stamp there that I can put the stamp on, going into the database documenting hey yo, thank you. Note was sent to this person. Um, that is that is going to be. That is that is what I'm going to do this year. It won't come naturally to me. Uh, the concept that I need to do it comes natural. The concept of actually doing it is a little bit more of a struggle. So that's why it's one of my words today Uh, so it is uh early in January. I am a hundred percent. I've done it every day so far this year, so I'm in good shape. So we'll ask me in a month and see where I'm at. So 260.
Nathan Ruby:Number three is imagine, and this is the word that I struggled a little bit with and I think the reason I chose it is a lot of times as an executive director. This is this is me speaking as an executive director. I look at um, I was doing a coaching session yesterday and it was on budget and I was talking to an executive director and it was like okay, remember, you know your expense. This was a new executive director. Your expense budget is great, but every dollar you add to that expense budget has got to come from somewhere, which means over here on the revenue side, you've got to fundraise it and as the executive director, you're responsible for both sides of that budget. And so just remember, every dollar you spend you're responsible for both sides of that budget. And so just remember, every dollar you spend you've got to raise. And I think that comes a lot of executive directors. They think of the expense side, they don't necessarily think of the revenue side. But even that statement that I just made everything that you spend you have to raise that is a limiting belief, that is a self-limiting thought process.
Nathan Ruby:And so by imagine it is.
Nathan Ruby:What would it be like?
Nathan Ruby:What would my organization be if we went 2x or 3x or 10x?
Nathan Ruby:What does that look like? What impact could we make? What lives could be saved and changed, you know, for decades to come, if we were, you know, pick a number 5x, 10x, uh, what we are now. And what does that look like? And if, if, to say, okay, we're looking at 10, x, not to say, oh well, gosh, we'll never get there, we won't be able to do that, but to say, okay, well, what would it be? What would it take? How would we get there, if, that's, if we were going to get there, and so I think it just and you could do that only on work, not only on work, but on relationships and your own personal financial goals and a hobby, anything, your relationships with your kids or your grandkids or your siblings, it doesn't make any difference. Any of that is to be able to look out and say what would it be like if I could exponentially improve something? And then to figure out, okay, how do we make that happen? So, uh, so that's imagine. So those are my three podcasts 260 and imagine.
Tim Barnes:Well, I gotta say I I love imagine. Um, mindset is everything right, how, how we think about it. And mindset is everything right how we think about it. You know the way we show up and we are so limited by our beliefs. We're limited by what everybody says we can or can't do. Circumstances get in our way. Something goes bad, we go well. I guess that's not for me, but having a mind shift is so important and, yeah, I'm excited to see what's going to happen this year, nathan. You might become a whole new person. I don't know.
Nathan Ruby:Well, you never know.
Tim Barnes:As we kind of wrap up our podcast today, I hope it's helpful and fun to hear kind of our process, what we're doing, what we're wrestling with. You know, the biggest part of this is just going through the process, asking those questions, taking some time to think and look forward and be excited about what's ahead, and so we just encourage you to take some time. It's not too late. You know you could do this in June, but hopefully you'll do it now. At any time you can sit down and say, hey, what am I really focusing in on? What am I going to keep in front of me, nathan? Any final words of encouragement?
Nathan Ruby:No, we're off in the new year. Revenue numbers are back to zero or close to it. I looked on the, I looked on the database on January 2nd and, thankfully, somebody had already made a gift, so it didn't say zero. So I was like, oh, we're off to a great year. But you know, this is a go love your donors, go talk to them, go find out why they give.
Nathan Ruby:Connect what you do, what your organization does, how you change the world. Connect those to your donors. Do that every day. You know, as executive directors, you know we've got program, we've got marketing, we've got all of these things that we're doing. But just, you know, one day at a time, do your best. Tim, you and I were talking about this before we started to record. We got to do our best, do the best we can and then at the end of the day, at 4.30 or 5.00 or 6.00 or 6.30, whenever you stop, hang it up. You did the best you could Go home, be with your family, rest and then come back the next day and do it again. So excited for 2025, excited for the podcast this year and, uh, looking forward to get it all rolling.
Tim Barnes:Well, we're grateful for you listening today and hopefully it's been encouragement to you and, as we said, we'd love to hear what your words are for 2025. Well, if you're benefiting from what's being shared on this podcast, we'd love to ask you a favor Would you go and to the platform that you are listening to us on and leave us a five star rating and give us a review? That would really help others to know and see what's going on and give them an opportunity to also benefit from the show, them an opportunity to also benefit from the show. If you'd like to get in touch with us, our contact information can be found in the show notes. That's all for today, until next time.