Missions to Movements
This isn't just another nonprofit podcast - it's your weekly invitation to think bigger, take bold risks, and create lasting change in an ever-evolving social impact landscape. Meet Dana Snyder, your guide through the evolving landscape of nonprofit innovation. She's on a mission to help change-makers like you push the boundaries of what's possible in nonprofit marketing and fundraising. Each week, Missions to Movements serves as your personal mastermind session, delivering actionable insights and bold strategies that challenge traditional nonprofit thinking. Dive into revolutionary approaches to digital fundraising, discover how to build magnetic monthly giving programs that create lasting donor relationships, and learn to amplify your voice as a thought leader in the social good space. Whether you're reimagining your organization's impact or forging game-changing partnerships, you'll find the ideas, insights, and inspiration to take your mission further than you've ever imagined. Ready to turn your mission into a movement?
Missions to Movements
Celebrating Failures: A New Approach to "Pluck Ups" with Liz Bohannon (Monthly Giving Summit Keynote Speaker)
Nonprofits need to stop playing it safe.
Liz Bohannon (our keynote speaker for the upcoming 2025 Monthly Giving Summit!) is here to share her take on embracing perceived failures, or as she calls them, "Pluck Ups."
What if failure wasn't something to fear, but something to celebrate?
Liz shares how the stories we tell ourselves about setbacks can either lead to shame and isolation or open doors to resilience and growth. She recounts a powerful moment when she misinterpreted an audience member’s reaction during a talk, only to later realize they were creating art inspired by her words.
This episode will challenge you to rethink your approach to risk-taking and storytelling, and teach you all about “failure funerals.” Because here’s the thing: impact-driven work requires BOLDNESS, vulnerability, and a willingness to "pluck up."
Plus, get a sneak peek into what Liz has planned for her keynote at the Monthly Giving Summit… an event you won’t want to miss! RSVP for FREE here.
Resources & Links
Connect with Liz on LinkedIn and Instagram and check out her book Beginner’s Pluck: Build Your Life of Purpose and Impact Now.
This show is presented by LinkedIn for Nonprofits. We’re so grateful for their partnership. Explore their incredible suite of resources and discounts for nonprofit teams here.
Monthly Giving Awareness Week is May 12-16! Join me, RKD Group, and GivingTuesday for 5 days of FREE resources to help you launch and grow recurring gifts.
Are you still dreaming about building your monthly giving program or refreshing your current one? Applications are now open for my “done with you” Monthly Giving Mastermind. 4 spots are open and we start in July. Click here to apply.
My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
Let's Connect!
So plucking up, or a pluck up this whole concept is a way of reframing our perceived failures and really coming back to this idea of like. Actually, I believe that failure isn't held in like what happened in the story, it's the story. We have about the story, much agency with how we engage with what happens to us or the things that we participate in that don't go the way that we thought that they were going to go. And if we don't believe that we have agency over that story, we very quickly come up with one story and oftentimes that story leads us to shame, it leads us to feeling incompetent, it can lead us to imposter syndrome and, most damagingly, it tends to lead us into isolation.
Speaker 2:I'm Dana Snyder, your host of the Missions to Movements podcast, and my path to philanthropy has been anything but traditional. This show is your weekly mastermind, designed to give you the ideas, insights and support you need to push the boundaries of what's been done before in nonprofit marketing and fundraising. Whether you're looking to build a magnetic monthly giving program, elevate your personal brand or create partnerships that amplify your impact, this space is for you. I'll bring you solo episodes and conversations with industry leaders offering actionable strategies and fresh perspectives that will move you and your mission forward. Let's turn your mission into a movement. You guys, this episode is such an honor for me.
Speaker 2:Liz Bohannon is on the line with us today on the mic from her house, and I am really excited for you to meet the 2025 keynote speaker for the Monthly Giving Summit. If you have not registered yet, it is coming up February 26th and 27th. She's going to kick it off with all of the goodness that she brings. And, Liz, you know this because we talked about this beforehand when I first reached out to you and asked you via Instagram all these years later, if you would be the keynote speaker. But, listeners, my backstory with Liz is I heard her speak when her book came out, 2019, in Los Angeles. I was two years into my business at the time. She was speaking at a conference called Yellow Co, which is all about social impact entrepreneurs. There is I don't know two 300 of us in the room.
Speaker 2:Liz took the stage to present about her book, Beginner's Pluck, and was freaking hilarious. So like, honest and real. And I was just like, oh my God, I want everything that she's talking about and like immediately came up to you. Afterwards you signed my book copy. I'm showing her the book copy here. See proof signed. And all these years later, when I was thinking about it's the new year, when we're up against so many big dreams and expectations of blowing everything out of the water and if you don't hit your goals you're going to fail and like all of these things that are like preached and that we hear who could come to the table and just tell us that's baloney and like have a whole different mindset on it. So, Liz, welcome to the podcast. I will read your mini bio from your website. But you are so much more than this To me. You are an entrepreneur, top 1%, VC-backed female founder. Her brand is incredible. We'll go into that. Best-selling author and internationally renowned keynote speaker, that is coming to our summit, which is so exciting.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Well, for my first Monday back in the office after the holidays, and really only my second call, this was a great way to get kicked off. I feel pumped up about my own life, and so when I check that box now, we got to move into hoping that everybody else feels the same way excited about the year to come, about their businesses, about their missions, and hopefully breaks through some of the messaging that, frankly, does work for a lot of people but leaves a lot of us feeling overwhelmed, afraid, a little bit scared, and I'm hoping that we get to do that together at your incredible summit. I love you, I love what you're about. I love not only what you're doing in the world and what you're creating, but how you're going about creating it and the spirit of it, and so it feels like such an honor to get to partner together on this. Thank you Super stoked.
Speaker 1:Can I take a side quest that truly is a side quest and tell a story that I've never told before that I just remembered when you were saying your intro yeah, okay, so yellow 2019, when you referenced that, I was like trying to go back and like pull some threads of memory of like what did the room look like and what did I talk about? And I got there and I remembered giving my talk and in the audience there was a woman. Her name's Morgan Harper Nichols.
Speaker 2:Do you know who Morgan is? Okay, this is her behind me.
Speaker 1:There you go. I can't see. It's a little bit blurred, but I believe you, Morgan.
Speaker 2:Harper Nichols. If you guys don't follow her, go on Instagram. She has the most beautiful poetic graphics, beautiful, so talented On sale at Target now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, big deal. But she's a poet plus an artist, right. So she writes poetry and then she does the art that goes along with it. Well, I was like total fangirl, followed her online. We had never met before but I knew that she was going to be at that conference. Or maybe I didn't, but I saw her when she was there and then I knew she was there. Regardless, I'm standing on stage and she is sitting just a few rows back, so she's like front and center basically. So I'm like, oh, and she always wears a hat, so she's like very easy to identify. So I saw her hat, very fashionable.
Speaker 1:And then, you know, as a speaker, there's always like a couple faces that you like notice, at least for me, and then that's kind of who I tuned into for the rest of the time, and so not only was it a face in the front row, but it was Morgan and I was. She pulls her iPad out and she puts her head down and then she spends the entire rest of the time that I'm talking on her iPad and, as a speaker, like obviously, what that signals to you when someone gets out their iPad or their phone in the middle of your talk, it's quite just like oh, wow, okay, well, we've lost. Bye, see ya, that was fun, because you're kind of getting your cues from the audience, whatever. And so the story that I told myself, the most innocuous story, was I'm just boring, and she's checked out. The probably more noxious story was I did something wrong. This is like an act of protest, I don't know. I said something that was accidentally offensive, or sometimes I can get a little loose lift and I'm like I don't know. I said something that was accidentally like offensive, or sometimes I can get a little loose lift and I'm like I don't know. But, and you're speaking, so none of these thoughts are like super coherent, like they're just these little like moments and feelings and thoughts that you're having. But those were kind of the two stories that I was saying and I was like, well, I'm going to try not to look at her because that's not very encouraging, and so then, anyway, whatever, give the rest of my talk. Blah, blah, blah, blah, I'm done.
Speaker 1:And then later in the day we were back in the green room and Morgan walked into the green room because she was also a speaker and I kind of was like I don't even want to go talk to her. Clearly she doesn't like me. But I was like I have a rule that I live by. One of my most precious rules is an agreement with myself to assume the friendship. So my goal is to show up in any space and assume that people want to be friends with me until they have used their own adult language skills to tell me otherwise. I'm not taking body cues, I'm not making up stories. I'm going to assume that people want to be friends with me until it is abundantly clear English language that they want space for me, at which point then I will respect it. Okay, I'm not trying to be on any notes. Okay, yes, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, I was like didn't want to go talk to her because I felt dumb or rejected or not good enough, and I was like but you have to assume the friendship and you would love to be friends with her. So I walked up to her and I introduced myself and she introduced herself. She didn't need to. And then, moments later, she was like hey, can I show you something? And I was like, yeah, sure. And she was like your talk today. It was so inspiring, it spoke so much to my heart and I just couldn't help. I hope you don't mind, but throughout the course of the 45 minutes that you talked, I made like nine pieces of art with moments and things that you were saying throughout your story. So she had taken verbatim things that I was saying was like scripting them beautifully and then doing this beautiful art and she's like I mean, if you want, I'm happy to share them with you. And so I now have like nine or 10 original pieces of her art with my talks on them and why that story I think matters that I've literally never told this before, so I'm verbally processing this with you is like the story we have about ourselves versus the actual story that's happening.
Speaker 1:Like I think so often we are so good. I meet so many people who are like I'm just not creative and I'm like but you have anxiety, and they're like huh, and I'm like oh, oh, oh yeah. Didn't you know that if you have anxiety, you're super creative? People are like, huh, what? And I'm like, yeah, that's what all anxiety is is. You are literally creating a story about what's going to happen in the future before it happens. That is a wildly creative act. You could call it anxiety. You could say you're a visionary. They're kind of the same skill set. One is just going what if, what if? What if, what if?
Speaker 1:And the other one is going what if, what if? What if, what if? And so if you remotely struggle with insecurity or anxiety, congratulations. You are a creative human. You have creative capacities within you, and I think where our creativity most of us really shine is in these stories. We tell ourselves we get little tiny bits of data or information and we spin this entire web. So for me, the data point was she pulled out her iPad. She'd never once looked at me again, she hates me, I said something offensive, or she thinks I'm so boring.
Speaker 2:Even with you knowing what she did, the thought didn't even cross your mind that she could be creating for you.
Speaker 1:That possibility did not remotely cross my mind, so I spun up this entire story and meanwhile, the reality of the story that's I'm playing is obviously a completely different story that, frankly, had we not had that interaction in the green room, I may have walked away from that conference holding my untrue story, and so I don't know about you. But as I walk into 2025, one of the things I am trying to do just in general in life is be so aware of going. What are the stories I'm telling myself? And then asking myself the question of just so nonjudgmental and simple but how is that story working out for you? Is that story serving you? Is that a story that leads you to be more of who you want and who you were created to be?
Speaker 1:And if the answer to that is no, going, what's another plausible story that could be happening right there? And just like triggering, it's not even asking myself to be more creative. It's just like shifting the creative energy from this negative story that I made up into a positive story, and this is where maybe it starts to feel a little bit more controversial. But I hold the belief that I'm like, even if it's not true, I'd rather hold a story that serves me and others than a story that doesn't so like. Get in the practice of being like a creative fiction writer of what's happening in your own life and just see how that serves you.
Speaker 2:I mean, I literally look at this from last year. I wrote a book last year, the summit launched last year. None of those things were on my bingo card for 2024.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I started the year with no intention of writing the book, with no intention of doing a summit, and it was to your point. It was that I did actually a whole New Year's episode on my word of the year is wonder. And what if? I just wondered. It was funny that you said this. The what if like. The positive what if Like this show right now is you've heard it in the promotion is brought to you by LinkedIn. I had this like audacious ask at the end of the year and I was like what if like? I love this platform. I am on it every single day. It has done so much for me. What if like? In my mind I was like the story I was originally telling myself I have no right for this to happen or for it to work out Right.
Speaker 1:I'm like who do you think you are Right? Who do I?
Speaker 2:think I, who do you think you are Right?
Speaker 1:Who do? I think I am that this would actually happen, which, especially for a woman let's just name that. For a woman to put herself in a situation where she thinks other people could look at her and go who does she think she is? Is so much more psychologically and socially costly for us. Like cause. That's kind of the worst thing for a woman to be too big for her riches Dudes can get away with it a little bit more where it's like oh, he's confident, he like believes in himself. That is a dangerous place for a woman to be in, to go, like other people who have more power than me could look at me and go who do you think you are?
Speaker 2:Right, right, and I just like you know what? What do I have to lose? What do I have to lose and what do I have to lose, what do I have to lose? And I asked and they immediately was like love this idea. And I was like what? And so I think this literally comes from. And I want to get into the point about the book and your message on plucking up, because I feel like that was so much of me in this very recent moment, eight years in to being an entrepreneur, but still, quote unquote, plucking up. Will you explain the genesis of that topic and what it means and why it can literally be so transformative for people?
Speaker 1:Yes, I would love to, because talking about pluck ups is one of my favorite things.
Speaker 2:We're always told in marketing to go where your audience is. Well, I found where they are LinkedIn. 87% of surveyed LinkedIn members are donors. This blew my mind, and with over a billion with a B people using LinkedIn all around the world, that is a lot of potential donors. And here's what I love about this these aren't just passive users. These are professionals, leaders and change makers who are actively engaged in making an impact. So how can you use LinkedIn to reach them?
Speaker 2:I recommend checking out all the resources on nonprofitlinkedincom, and I've discovered this tool called Sales Navigator. Think of it as your secret Rolodex for finding the right person at that foundation you've been trying to connect with or that corporate partner you've been hoping to reach. It's all about finding the right person to talk to and getting your nonprofit on their radar, and Sales Navigator can help you do that. Linkedin for Nonprofits offers an exclusive nonprofit discount on Sales Navigator Plus. They have a whole library of free resources to help you engage your community of donors. Go check out all the LinkedIn product discounts and free resources at nonprofitlinkedincom, and I also have it linked down in the show notes. Now, speaking of building meaningful connections, back to the show.
Speaker 1:So obviously we're working a little bit on a play on words here, for what a pluck up is you know in case anybody's driving the minivan, proud minivan driver right here, I will refrain from spelling it out what we are insinuating here. But the word pluck actually means spirited and determined courage. I think it's one of the best words in English language. It kind of fell out of fashion and like the 1930s, but I'm really on a mission to try to bring it back. So plucking up or a pluck up, this whole concept is a way of reframing our perceived failures and really coming back to this idea of like. Actually I believe that failure isn't held in like what happened in the story. It's the story we have about the story and we actually have so much agency with how we engage, with what happens to us or the things that we participate in that don't go the way that we thought that they were going to go. And if we don't believe that we have agency over that story, we very quickly come up with one story and oftentimes that story leads us to shame, it leads us to feeling incompetent, it can lead us to imposter syndrome and, most damagingly, it tends to lead us into isolation. And when I say isolation, I don't mean like you become a old cat lady who doesn't leave her house. I do just mean, though, that, like when we experience shame, our way of protecting ourselves is kind of being like no one can know. I need to clean this up. I need to move through this really quick. I need to pretend like it's not impacting me or I just need. This is the one that breaks my heart the most. That was too painful, it was too embarrassing, it was too stressful, it was too shameful. I just need to play it safer. That's how I'm going to avoid these feelings in the future. Is I'm just going to build a life where I only do the things I know I'll get yeses to, I know I can do. Like no one is afraid of doing something easy, right, like whatever comes naturally or easy to you and that's very different for each of us, and I don't make assumptions about what comes easy to each of us, but whatever comes easy to us, we have a tendency to kind of be like not afraid of it. Obviously, I'm confident that I can do that. I wake up every morning and I do that, and so we start to subtly build this life where we're like. If I don't ever want to feel those experiences of shame, embarrassment, failure, I need to just play it safer in the future.
Speaker 1:And, of course, what we know happens is if, every day, your days lead to weeks and your weeks lead to months and your months lead to years, and we've built this life where our gifts are not activated, where we don't have purpose, where we're not making an impact, and that's like, in the attempt to avoid a micro failure, a failure of a specific initiative, experience, project, outreach, whatever it is, we've now actually contributed to kind of a life of failure to activate, failure to try, like failure to fly, and so, by kind of coining and branding pluck ups, my hope is just to completely reframe the conversation that, like pluck ups one, you have agency, not necessarily all the time about what happened to you, cause sometimes stuff does happen to us that's out of our control. You may not even have agency of what happened to you, but you have complete agency over the story you tell yourself. So I have a podcast called plucking up and literally the entire topic, the entire like premise of the show, and I will invite people onto the show. I don't want you to come on and tell me about your highlights, and tell me about your wins, and tell me about the magical things that just seemed to happen and worked and then worked again and then got bigger and like that's great, fine, you can talk about that on somebody else's podcast. And like, by all means, I'm rooting for you, great.
Speaker 1:But this is the space. Like I want to know the behind the scenes. Like tell me about when it didn't work. Like tell me about when you really went for it and you fell on your face. Like tell me about when you went for the dream and you thought you had it and then the rug got pulled out from underneath you. And then take us back to that moment. And then I want to be in that. Like what did it feel like? What did it look like? What was that shame story you told yourself. And then obviously, you're here on the show and you're doing these things. You moved through it. Help us understand how. How long did you sit in that? Who did you call first? How did you reframe that story or what did you learn from it?
Speaker 1:And the entire conversation is about that, and my hope is that we're just creating this library, this like bank of pluck ups and from people who are doing really incredible things in the world. And my reason for wanting to do that is like the next time you pluck up, instead of telling yourself the shame story of, like I plucked up because I'm an idiot, I can't be trusted, I always do this, I never can do that, whatever that story is, so I should just go play it safe, so I should just stop, so I should just give up, you're like, wait a second. This sounds a lot like a story this person I really admire shared. And like maybe I'm not experiencing pluck-ups because I'm a pluck-up. Maybe I'm plucking up because I'm actually trying to move the needle and to do something interesting in the world. And actually pluck-ups are kind of a requisite.
Speaker 1:You cannot build a life of purpose, passion and impact without pluck-ups along the way. In fact, I think the bigger the life, the bigger the impact, the bigger the mission, the more you're going to be plucking up. So like let's actually celebrate the pluck ups. I have a thing I call it a failure funeral Like I have literally buried a pair of shoes in my backyard, like physically buried, a physical manifestation of a huge pluck up, and I did like a eulogy and I laid it to rest Because if we don't have the freedom to talk about it and believe that we have agency over the eulogy, the story, then it has agency and control over us, and I want to build a world where leaders and creators aren't just avoiding mistakes, but where they are operating in complete freedom to become who they were created to be and to create the impact that they were made to create in the world, and who know that like a pluck up or nine or 900 along the way is actually a sign that you're probably on the right track.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's so good, it's so good, you guys, that was like 45 seconds of what you're going to hear at the summit in like 45 seconds.
Speaker 1:That was very generous. That was probably like four and a half minutes because your girl can run her mouth. But thank you, I appreciate that service you just did.
Speaker 2:But it is so true and I think speaking to this sector and the nonprofit space is so used to doing what we've always done playing it safe, being very cautious. We're using donors' money. We have to be cautious about this grant, like we are. You are listener, literally changing the world and doing the things that no one else is touching, and there's no way that we're going to end the water crisis and that we're going to end hunger and that we're going to end human trafficking and all these things by playing it safe. It's just not going to happen. It's not, and so it's like. I would love almost if, like at a board meeting, it was like what was your pluck up this week? Everyone needs to have one. Please share.
Speaker 1:I do this in both a corporate setting and with my family Three nights a week. The question around the dinner table is what mistake did you make today? And we just talk about our mistakes and like what happened, how'd you feel, what'd you learn? What are you going to do different next time? And it's like kind of become like if you don't have a mistake to share, it's like a little bit shameful, like there's kind of a sense of like what did you do?
Speaker 1:What did you do that? You didn't make a single mistake. All day there's almost like peer pressure to be like oh, you got to hear this one. And I had a pretty big pluck up a couple weeks ago. That really impacted me emotionally and I was laying in bed putting I've got three boys an eight-year-old, a five-year-old and a three-year-old. And the five-year-old is just, he's so tender and really empathetic and I was putting him to bed and we do this really tender little tradition.
Speaker 1:That started actually one night when my kid and I were laying in bed and he was asking me about death and he was like mom, are you going to die? And you know, as a parent, you're like trying to navigate that, like tenderly but truthfully, you know, like how do you tell him? Yes, I will. But so I'm like kind of tenderly, gingerly, trying to tell him the truth, but in a way that's like appropriate, yeah. And then I asked him I was like how does all of that make you feel? Are you having any feelings that I could carry with you? Can I carry anything with you? And he goes yeah, that makes me feel scared and it makes me feel sad. And I was like, yeah, all of that makes a lot of sense. Like can mom just carry some of that? And I mean that obviously as an adult, that's language I use all the time like very symbolically, can I carry that for you? But he's a five-year-old and so he's laying in bed and he goes after I said, can I carry it with you? And I know our listeners won't be able to see me but he like goes to his chest and he like plucks out like a little pebble and then he hands it over to me, he plops it, he uses a sound effect, he goes there's my sadness. And then he goes here's my scaredness. But you probably don't want to hold that, do you? And I was like no, no, no, no, give it all, give it all to me, it's okay. So it goes. That's my madness. And he kind of like threw it in there. And so I'm like laying in bed with my kid with his pile of little pebbles and I'm like thank you so much for sharing that with mommy. Like I'm going to carry that, I'm going to carry that with me. And we's become this really tender, like sweet tradition in our family.
Speaker 1:But what triggered that was a couple of weeks ago. We were laying in bed and I was carrying a lot of stuff because I had made a pluck up and it was really impacting me, and it was impacting me in a way I wish it wouldn't. So that's where part of my shame was coming of. Like I thought I'd done more growth around this. This shouldn't be bothering me as much as it is, but I was just pretty bummed out and it was so amazing to be able to turn to my five-year-old and be like man mommy's feeling, all of these feelings. You know why? Cause she made a really big pluck up and like my kids know what that means, you know, like it's such a part of our family vernacular that you have pluck ups. When you have them, you talk about them, you share about them, and it's not that they don't hurt, but what I want my kids to know, which ultimately is, I think, what I want to know and believe is like we're not alone Is that we're not alone, and so what I love so much about the community that you're creating and my hope for your community and what I hope we get to do in a small, teeny, tiny sliver of a way when we're actually together at the summit, is go like you are in the midst.
Speaker 1:You are in this like precious, magical, amazing community, a minority of humans in the world. You are such a minority for going. I see a problem. It is a huge, big, messy problem. 99% of humanity looks at that problem and either goes it's too big, I can't fix it. They feel cynical, they feel overwhelmed, they feel powerless and they ignore it. Or they are overwhelmed by it. And you are the ones. You are the ones who are wild enough, who are bananas enough to go. But what if, like, what if it didn't have to be this way? And what if there could be a better, brighter future? And you're also the ones who are probably seriously plucking it up along the way. You know like you're plucking it up in ways that 99% of the population isn't, and you get to be together, and so I hope that this community is and continues to become a place where, instead of the like kind of posturing that can tend to happen, you know you go to like a business thing.
Speaker 2:Oh, there is none of that here.
Speaker 1:You know where you're just like, oh I'm not as big or our revenues or our profits or our donor base or our reoccurring numbers, and instead you just see this like pool of people that you're like that's a fellow plug that guy. He's a mother plucker. I know he's doing big work in the world, so what I actually know is that he is plucking it up on the regs One of my favorite comments that happened.
Speaker 2:The chat was like on fire in the last event and one person was like we would never get anything accomplished if we were in person together. We would just be like talking like the whole time and everybody was like cheering each other on and like giving shout outs. It was the coolest thing. One day I would love for this thing to be in person, but for right now I think the magical thing like you're talking about is it's people from all over the world which is so rad.
Speaker 2:And before we wrap, I do want to ask you I know we didn't get to dive really into anything that you do for a business, but that's okay, we'll talk about it in a couple of weeks. You have and I think this is so applicable Seiko Designs and I want you to like do a quick intro to that into Noonday Collection now, but really grew, if I remember this, right from an ambassador program in social selling and I think the story and the people in the community is so comparable to what we want to create with a recurring giving community. How was that structured and how did that take off?
Speaker 1:So, beyond the structure, really the kind of tipping point or motivation for me. Well, there was two things that happened. The first was I felt very distinctly like my role in the organization, in the company, was to be kind of the chief messenger, the chief messenger, the chief storyteller, and so my job is I go off and I live these amazing experiences and I meet these amazing people who, in my case, like, started out female scholars in Uganda, ended up growing all the way across the world. But these incredible people in their own context that have overcome incredible things and are becoming change makers and activators and restorers in their own community. I am the lucky one that gets to go meet those people, build relationships, see it happening. But then I have kind of the duty and the burden of like, and then I come home and I'm the storyteller and then I have to just regurgitate like this is why you should care about this, this is who we're, you know like, partnering with, or this is the story that we get to be a part of.
Speaker 1:And I was leading a trip to Uganda with a small group of people and we had spent the whole day together and that night we were, like back at the hotel and you know, like we were doing a kind of debrief and we were like talking about these moments that we had had throughout our day and pretty early on, this woman starts sharing about this experience that she had. We were in the same room together I don't know, it was 20 of us, like 50 of people we were visiting. So we were in the same room, we were doing the same thing and she's sharing this one-on-one experience that she had with this. That happened to be one of our female scholars in Uganda who was working her way towards university, one of our female scholars in Uganda who is working her way towards university. And it was this like beautiful, profound moment that they shared about a similar burden and kind of part of their story that they both had, and they were able to connect on that level of honestly just brokenness and vulnerability and encourage one another and speak kind of truth and life into each other.
Speaker 1:And as I'm listening, because they shared this part of their story which, by the way, I don't identify with, that's not a part of my story. And so, as she's sharing this story, I'm going oh my gosh, if I have that view that I'm like the chief messenger who goes and lives my story and then brings my story back. I am leaving so much on the table because her story and then brings my story back. I am leaving so much on the table because her story her name was Alyssa and the young girl's name was Jova because the chemistry and the story actually that Alyssa and Jova have, I can't live that story. I can't participate in that story because that's not my story and I wouldn't be able to encourage and inspire and like connect with Jova in the way that Alyssa can. And so that was like such a framework shift for me of going no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not the chief storyteller, I'm not the chief messenger. I am the captain of the team that builds the bridges. I build bridges, I build bridges.
Speaker 2:I love bridges. I build bridges here and there.
Speaker 1:And then that bridge I get to go hey, this is your bridge, come on, like we built it, it's strong, it's sturdy, it's safe. I know that that feels impossible or really far away or something you wouldn't do on your own and you don't have to do it on your own. But like I now get to encourage you, like, walk across the bridge and then go have your own story. And then you become the messenger and like I don't want you coming home from Uganda telling my story, I want you coming home telling your story. And so that really reframed everything for me and and led to a massive business model shift, because I'm asking the story of how do I build a business where the actual model enables me to be not a chief storyteller but a chief bridge builder. And so that is when we shifted from being a more kind of traditional e-comm wholesale model to it iterated and like we piloted out something and it ended up turning into something else. But at the core of what it was was a business model that enabled every single person who joined Seiko and became a part of our story Like now it's their story and then they had a pathway towards engagement, relationships and experiences that would enable them to go home and be the chief storytelling of our mission, of our purpose.
Speaker 1:And my favorite thing, my favorite thing, one of my biggest moments of like success was sitting at an event that someone else was hosting. A Seiko fellow was hosting and she's talking about Seiko like she started the damn thing and, whereas that might, for some people, inspire defensiveness, I was like who? And nobody knew who I was in the room. I was just like yeah, yeah, she did that and she thought of that and she has this like relationship, and so I'm just like this invisible. The founder of the company, the CEO, is sitting in the room and this woman who's telling her story is the star of the whole show.
Speaker 1:And it is her story and I'm like that's your aunt or your colleague or your next door neighbor. They care so much more about your story in this bigger story than mine and, like the happiness that I felt to be like I just want to like literally disappear into the wall right now, because I think oftentimes the myth and it's like obviously the founder plays a special role in the story and that that's important, but there are ways to do that that also acknowledge the absolute, paramount importance that at some point the founder's story, if it is really going to be sustainable and if it's really going to create momentum, it's like a little dandelion that the seeds actually just like go out and then other people grab onto them and then it actually deeply becomes their story.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, you were literally speaking to what I am about to host, so it would be actually interesting for me to talk about this, and maybe I will at the Monthly Giving Summit, so on Friday. So we're recording this in January. On Friday, this upcoming Friday, I am hosting my friends over, for I'm calling it Hope for the New Year and I am a monthly donor to a local nonprofit called the Hope Booth, and so I am inviting people over, and originally the founder who also wrote the foreword of my book, gloria Umano, is going to be here, but she has to go out of town, so she is still going to have two team members that are going to be present. But at first I was like what? If she's not going to be here, what's the point? She's the one that's supposed to talk. And then I was like wait a second, it's my invite, we have the relationships and I am the one that's really excited to talk about my experience with their organization and why I love being a monthly donor and why I think they should be too, and they are there to me as like credibility factor and can go more into the weeds on certain details that I might just not be privy to, but I love that. You just said that because there was a little bit of fear of like am I going to be like a good enough representative of the cause to like move it forward for them? And so I'm really excited to like bring this back to you listeners and share how the evening went. And I'm very excited about the structure of like kind of what we're doing. And I'm very excited about the structure of like kind of what we're doing. And it's the new year, so we're doing some new year fun things in there. I'm getting it catered with some barbecue like just going to be a fun night. So I love that and I am so excited Like I swear we could talk about this for hours, and hours, and hours.
Speaker 2:Liz, thank you so much for all that. You do Everyone go. Her book is hilarious. We're going to be doing some giveaways during the summit, so you'll get to read it. If you look it up on Amazon, it's Beginner's Pluck Build your Life of Purpose and Impact. Now it is as relevant as ever from 2019 to 2005. So please go pick it up. Find her on Instagram. You'll see her adorable, sweet family that she just referenced a little bit ago in your sweet boys.
Speaker 2:That story was amazing and I cannot wait for everyone just to see your gift on stage at the summit. So everyone don't forget. It's totally free to register. You can go to the link in the show notes or just go to monthlygivingsummitcom. Liz, anything you want to wrap with other than, like, tell people where else they can find you. That maybe I didn't mention.
Speaker 1:No, you did it. I'm just excited to be a part of the summit as the kickoff, but then also I'm going to join for the whole thing. It's going to be so valuable, I'm going to learn so much, and so I'm just so grateful for you and for the work that you're doing in the world and very, very expectant about what's going to happen with our time together.
Speaker 2:That our time together. That's right, amazing. Thank you all. I will see you next week. Thanks, liz. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Missions to Movements. If you enjoyed our conversation and found it helpful, I would love for you to take a moment to leave a review. Wherever you're listening, your feedback helps us reach more change makers like you and continue bringing impactful stories and strategies to the show. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button too, so you'll never miss an episode. And until next time, keep turning your mission into a movement.
