From Voice to Velocity: Visibility Through Thought Leadership with Dion Dawson (MGS Main Stage Session)

Dion Dawson took the Monthly Giving Summit Main Stage in February and it was mic drop after mic drop. Over the last five years, his work at Dion’s Chicago Dream has generated more than $17.8 MILLION dollars in impact feeding families, building systems, and creating jobs. 

And he didn’t get there by being perfect or cracking a universal code. Dion shares how to build visibility through thought leadership, the importance of knowing where to invest your time, and why showing up over and over again is what builds trust and momentum.

If you’ve been sitting on ideas, waiting for the right moment, or questioning how you can build belief at scale, this episode will fire you up. Your mission deserves to be heard!

Resources & Links

Connect with Dion on LinkedIn and learn more about Dion’s Chicago Dream on their website.

Bloomerang is the proud presenter of Missions to Movements. 

Bloomerang is the trusted, all-in-one giving platform that connects your data, streamlines your systems, and helps your mission go further. Learn more at bloomerang.com.

If you’re building a movement, join Bloomerang’s GiveCon in St. Louis May 15-17 to learn what’s working in donor retention, AI, major gifts, recurring revenue, and community-driven campaigns. Register now and use code M2M to save $200!

The Monthly Giving Builder: Generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 

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Transcript

Why This Summit Replay Matters

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Today's episode is a replay from the Monthly Giving Summit back in February, but I had to share it with you. Dion Dawson is the CEO and chief dreamer at Dion's Chicago Dream. And man, did he light a fire under everyone? The chat was just blowing up during his session. His session was titled From Voice to Velocity: Visibility Through Thought Leadership. And man, he showed up clarity with conviction in how he has transformed and how you can transform visibility into real world impact. This, I mean, I just can't say enough about it. You will fully understand why the chat was on fire and dropping like mic drop after mic drop moments. So without further ado, check out this amazing session from Deion Dawson from the Monthly Giving Summit.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Thought leadership is not about being famous. It's about being familiar and trusted at scale. Monthly giving isn't a transaction model, it's a relationship model or subscription fee. Relationships don't grow. They do not grow from campaigns and most. They grow from consistency, clarity, and courage in how you show up. If every day you say, you know, campaign more than clarity, take a break for a minute, okay? Because for a long time we were doing good work. Quiet. We are focused on operations, on delivery, on impact, on surviving the next week, and that work matters.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

This is about using your voice strategically without overwhelm and to really build belief at scale. So please give a warm welcome to Dion Dawson. Welcome to the stage, my friend.

Visibility Sparks Need Systems

Three Tests For Clear Messaging

SPEAKER_00 2:53

What is going on, people? What's up? Dana, what's going on? Congrats. Really, really excited to be here. Happy afternoon. You know, I've been in and out, heard there's been a lot of fun, a lot of lessons learned, a lot of admitting of failures because we I know anybody on here who's been trying to figure out how to kind of pivot and restrategize on the go as much as we do these days. I know, you know, it feels like a marathon at times. But let's get grounded really quick. I'm Deion Dawson. I'm the founder of Deion Chicago Dream. And over the last five years, our work has helped generate and move more than$17.8 million in the impact, feeding families, building systems, creating jobs, and proving that dignity can scale at scale, can actually coexist. But I want to be honest with you about something. I didn't get here because I cracked some universal code. You know, I didn't get here because I found the one right way. And I definitely didn't get here from being perfect. And I want to, you know, really acknowledge that. That's important. I got here because I stayed on a journey figuring out what works, you know, for me, for my team, for our community. But I found what works for us and for the season that we're we're in. And I think that's really, really important. I want to make sure that we we frame it around the seasonality of this, okay? And that's the part that we don't talk about enough. We act like growth is supposed to look the same for everyone. We act like leadership comes with a template. And that's just not true. We act like if something worked for them, then it should work for me. It should work for us, right? And that's just that's just not how it always ends up happening. But the truth is, we're all experimenting in public. We're all building while learning. We're all, you know, flying the plane as we build it. And we're all trying to turn ultimately belief into something sustainable. Think about that. We're all trying to turn belief into something sustainable. And that that is something that is not only applaudable, but that is sometimes that could be heavy. So today isn't about me handing you answers. It's really about offering you a lens that helped us turn belief into momentum. And you know, that lens is most organizations, most teams don't have a revenue problem. They have a voice problem. Now, here's what I mean by that. We spend a lot of time talking about funnels and retention, LTV, acquisition costs. And don't get into the wrong. You know what I mean? Like we don't get into the other things, the things that matter. Because I want you to understand that before any of that works, people have to believe you. They have to recognize you, they have to trust you, okay? They have to understand what you stand for without needing 12 slides, okay? They have to, okay, hear me? They have to understand what you stand for without needing 12 slides. So when I say from voice to velocity, I'm really talking about a simple chain reaction. Your voice creates clarity. Clarity builds trust, trust creates momentum, and momentum is what turns one-time supporters into monthly believers. Okay. Thought leadership isn't about being famous, it's about being familiar. Okay. Thought leadership is not about being famous, it's about being familiar and trusted at scale. Okay. Monthly giving isn't a transaction model, it's a relationship model on subscription speed. Okay. Monthly giving isn't a transaction model, it's a relationship model on subscription speed. And relationships don't grow. They do not grow from campaigns alone. They grow from consistency, clarity, and courage in how you show up. If every day you say, you know, campaign more than clarity, then stop for a moment, okay? Stop. Take a break for a minute, okay? Because for a long time we were doing good work quietly, we were focused on operations, on delivery, on impact, on surviving the next week, and that work mattered. It still does. But here's what I learned the hard way. Because everybody on this call has had a hard lesson. Okay, if you ever had a hard lesson, you know it's gonna happen and it's okay. I don't wish them on anybody. If if you could get it the easy way, I would encourage you. But you know, a lot of us have had hard lessons. If you don't tell the story, the work will not travel. Okay, if you don't tell the story, the work doesn't travel. Just remember that, okay. Now, the important thing is even outside of that, there came moments of visibility, like the Allen show, like the big spike that came with it, and the big attention, and the big surge of interest. And here's the trap we think that moment is the moment of growth, right? It's not the moment is just a spark. The growth comes from the system behind the moment. Social content wasn't about going viral, it was about showing up when nothing special was happening. Leadership voice wasn't about branding, it was about earning trust over time. Okay, one big moment can introduce you, sure. Only consistent voice can build believers and builders of it. And that's when things started to compound, not because we were louder, but because we were clearer. Okay. Not because we were louder, but because we were clearer. We understood who we were, we understood what we needed to say, we understood what we shouldn't say and what did not fit us. So let me give you something that you can actually use. Here are three questions I think every organization uh should be able to answer. One is clarity. Can a stranger understand what you stand for after 30 seconds of encountering? When I think about Deion Chicago Dream, it is not the big moments that I remember, it was the moment I understood who we were. I understood our differentiators, understood that anybody else and any other entity can do their thing their way, but we do things this way, and this is why that intentionality is something that is necessary and clarity will get you there. Not your mission statement, not your grant language, your signal. The second one consistency. If you show up even when you're not launching fundraising or in crises, that's important. That's what I realized. If you're only showing up when you have a big announcement, if you're only showing up when you're asking for money, if you're only showing up when you're in crisis, then come on now exactly. We're imperfect. So again, do you show up even when you're not launching fundraising or in crisis? Okay, that's important, or do you disappear until you need something? That's a big question. Because if you disappear until you need something, that's not sustainable. And the last one is continuity. Are you inviting people into an ongoing story or just a series of one-off asks? That's important. Do you feel, do you treat what you're doing as an ongoing story? Because if you're starting over every time you have a new campaign, and I'm sorry to tell you, this era that we're in, people are more media literate when it comes to comms. Not all communications, but especially fundraising communications. They can sniff them out, I'm telling you. Okay. But here's the shit: monthly donors don't come from great campaigns, they come from continuity of belief. People don't subscribe to nonprofits, they subscribe to meaning, identity, and trust. Let me say something a little uncomfortable with love. Thought leadership is not ego, it's just leadership in public. And I think we've really lost that. Thought leadership is not ego, okay? You're not on your soapbox, it's not about being different, it's your leadership in public. And we have to remember that. If you don't shape your story, the algorithm will, the headlines will, or silence will. And silence is not neutral, okay? Your organization doesn't need to be louder, it needs to be clearer and braver. Not perfect, not polished, just honest and present, okay? Because the cost of being invisible is actually higher than the risk of being seen. Let me say that one more time. The cost of being invisible is higher than the risk of being seen. So I'll leave you with this. A voice creates trust, trust creates momentum, and momentum creates sustainability. The real question isn't how do we grow monthly giving? The real question is, are we brave enough to show up consistently enough to deserve it? And now I'm excited to shift from you know the ideas to the real life application as I move into this conversation with Dana. A lot of questions I hope we have, uh where we'll be able to kind of talk about those moments, the platforms, the mistakes, the systems behind turning voice into this. Let's go.

How To Know If You’re Clear

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Dion, that was great. I know I agree with Josh. We need a snap emoji. Oh my gosh, I have so many questions I want to dive into. Okay, and I've added some based upon what you were talking about. And so many mic drop moments. Y'all, there's about to be social posts on social posts about just Dion mic drop moments coming up.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Listen, listen, listen, and drop those questions. We're gonna get to them.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Yes, okay, yeah, drop your questions too, because I'd love to know. I'll start with mine, but then chat. Yes, please let us know what your questions are as well. So you started out talking about not because we were loud, we were clear.

unknown 12:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

How does somebody know and distinguish and know if they're being clear?

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Because here's the thing I think that you want to have a values and a return-based assessment. And so it's not about what you feel you said. What did they walk away with? And sometimes when you're talking to people that you're comfortable with, asking them about what they heard, not about what you said.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Because what I realized is, you know, for us, you know, two of our biggest differentiators, they weren't clear in the beginning. So everybody thought we were a pantry. And I said, well, listen, our two core differentiators is number one, we don't have any volunteer labor. So six million pounds later, 56 employees later, or the almost 18 million dollars later, we've never recorded a single volunteer hour. I had to be clear in that differentiator. And the second point is the opposite of that pantry model was we've never taken donated food. We've purchased, delivered every single piece of produce of that six million pounds. And so when we talk about clarity, it's not about using big words. And please, everybody, listen to me. I want you to understand this. Stop thinking that you have to sound like everybody else.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Being an individual, you being yourself, you lifting up your lived experience, you using your lens and your framework will allow you to stand out to that subset of the community that deserves to hear your story and your voice in your campaign. And so when we talk about that, it's not only that clarity, but that unique clarity that could only come from a black man who is in the military, born on Chicago Southside, who's a husband and a father, and can't even swim. That is why my journey is so unique. And so, you know, no matter what, that clarity is something that I'll be able to stand on in any environment, not just when I want to launch a campaign.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

So good. So good. I'm gonna jump to Kelly's question in the chat. What's the best way for a small team of two to create consistency? Like where and when should they speak to their story? Should we be on social? Should we be on email? Like, where should they invest their time?

Consistency With A Two-Person Team

SPEAKER_00 15:10

You ready, Kelly? You ready? First things first, stop calling yourself small, okay? Right now, when we look at this, what we have to understand is everybody is under-resourced. The only difference is I never wake up and I never do inventory of what I cannot do. I never do inventory of what me or somebody else can't do. The bigger thing is understanding that all of us have the same amount of time to get to being experts, which is 5,000 hours. The only difference is that some people will do that in two years, some people will do it in 20. What I want to know, Kelly, is not where should you stop. Kelly, you and that other person should be everywhere. Because the funny thing that I what I realized, Kelly, is that when it when it came to socials, the same people that were saying, oh, well, I hope we can do one post or two posts a week, we're updating their Instagram story seven times a day. And so it's not really a question of where we should be. The question is doing an audit of where we are already. Because the funny thing is that we naturally communicate where we think people will see our communications. So the question then does not become where should we be, but where are we already? Because it's funny, you're here today, Kelly, because you felt like this was the place to be. That's right. And so, you know, the only thing I said was, what I'm going to do is I'm going to start to hone in on understanding that I don't have to go by everybody else's rules. I I post everything on every platform until proven otherwise. That's the thing. How do you stabilize you and that other team member, Kelly, and start trying to get just learn who you are and where you are? So starting with a simple message. Let's just say, Kelly, what's the other team member's name? I want to I want to make sure I honor their name. Drop it in the chat really quick, Kelly.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Let's see if she can drop it in the chat.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Yeah, let's see how she that's what I'm talking about. Is that Therese or Therese? Oh, Teresa. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

But either way, yeah, yeah.

Getting Leadership On Board

SPEAKER_00 17:21

But but but it's okay though. So you and your team member, the biggest thing is basically taking you all's activity and really going step by step into what we are doing, who we are, and how many people we want to know about it. Don't overcomplicate it. Because what you want to do is build that consistency so that it matches up with your timeline for the campaign. So if you have a campaign launching in two months, what we're building right now is just that ease of just doing the same thing every day. Because if you are here today, and you have to be someone who loves monotony because we're not we're not doing big changes every day, which is really, really getting into it. So that's what I would say, Kelly.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Oh, so good. Okay, there's so many things. I love this Dominique Party of one here, but no longer call myself small. Look, I can speak to this too, and I think like Dion, you get it as well. This is a I'm a one full-time person. I have wonderful people helping with this. I have a very small team, small quote unquote. However, we do a ton of things, and lots of people tell me, Dana, I see you everywhere. Yes. One, I did a LinkedIn post talking about the promotion of this event, and I'm always down to share behind the scenes. Yes, I have set up so many automations for direct mail pieces to go out, textes to go out, email workflows to go out. It looks like I probably have like a whole crew. Yes. Not true. It's just smart tech. Okay, so a couple of questions have popped up around how do I get my leadership on board?

Choosing Platforms And Saying No

SPEAKER_00 20:03

All right. Here's the thing. First and foremost, there's this balance, right? And what I try not to do is I try not to give so much blanket leadership advice. But what I will say is this I love the word audit, okay? We need to do an audit of how you view your leadership, their talents, and also their blind spots. Because I think what we don't do before we talk about getting the leadership on board is acknowledging how we make sure that we tailor the message so that the receiver can receive it in the best way possible. We do it a lot with children, we do it a lot with elders, but when it comes to grace in that middle zone, we don't give it. And so when you're talking about leadership, first and foremost, understanding that they're human. And so what they do and what they have because they're in their position, and I hope that they're competent and I hope that they're amazing team members, and we're gonna assume that they all are because we're not gonna be negative because it's just too easy to be negative. What we're going to do is then kind of take a moment and say, okay, not as a group, but individually. Let's just say we have our you know three leaders that need to be on board. Let's look at them individually and break down who they are. And then what are the dynamics and how do they operate? What are their workflows when they're together? Because a lot of time, what I would say, and everyone, a lot of people they know this about group dynamics, there's always that one. There's that one that if you get that early adopter in any group, it would really help with being able to scale and spread whatever message you want to. And so what I would say is don't, you know, we we use the leadership plural. Let's kind of make it singular and say, okay, not not how do we get leadership on board? I don't like big questions with a lot of ambiguity, but instead, who's the first leader I can talk to about. Yeah, I get that buy-in. And what am I missing? Because the two questions I ask myself every day is to what end? And what am I missing? Because I think what I hear in that question of how do I get leadership on board is how do I get them to do what I want them to do? There's there's no give there. And we know in any real relationship and any real sacrifice, we have to give something in order to get that adoption back. So what I would say is number one, individualize the leadership and the chain of command, and then also making sure that you're willing to sacrifice something to move the change forward.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

Love that. So good. Okay, I want to ask you a personal question because you do a lot of speaking and podcasts, and like you had the national exposure. And let's say again, we're working with not, they're not small teams anymore, they're mighty and they're powerful teams.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Damn right.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

How do you determine where to spend your time, where to invest your time, how to go after some of these certain things? And be like, yes, like this is a great opportunity for us. Or what we talked about today at the beginning was no, this is not. I need to say no to this to focus and open the door for something else.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Yes. I think the what we start with is where's our ICP? Where's our you know, ideal customer profile? Where are they located? You know, is it in person? Is it virtual? And if it's virtual and online, where are they? The setting a lot of times dictate how the learning and adoption occurs. You know what I mean? Don't don't try to you know splice it so much into certain social media platforms or different things like that, but just overall, who are you talking to? We're not talking about who you're representing or who you're helping, we're talking about who you're talking to. Who are you trying to get to do something, to learn something, to activate? Because once you figure out where they are, that will start to hone in on where you should be. If I know that, you know, they're my ICP ideal customer profile is is, and I say customer only because a lot of times we need to view them as a customer so that we can hold ourselves to uh hard return. I look at everybody that we're, you know, that behavioral change as customers. Where are they? Because chances are, if I know that they're chronically online, I have to make sure that I have a message and I have attention focused chronically online. You know what I mean? And so I don't want to give like, you know, super duper broad strokes. I I think what you should walk away from is way more questions that you have to ask yourself and your team. Okay. Because what you want to do is be extremely informed on what we're great at, where we can be better, where we should be, and how we start to experiment. I want everyone in that chat to leave today experimenting. Okay. That's the thing. Because at the end of the day, figure out what works for you, your team, and who you're trying to change.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

And a lot of times it could be a very niche publication you want to be in. I have a great person in my mini mastermind right now that is a female engineer and they do a lot of work at the borders, and their work is in engineering. And I was like, you need to go into all the engineering associations. There's a ton of events there. You're founded by three female engineers. You need to go speak there. You speak on like these podcasts. So I want to ask you like about your own ecosystem. So getting into the weeds about like in Dion's world. Yes. Because we're all dream, we're all in it right now. Yes, absolutely. How do you do this for yourself? How do you uh go for speaking? How do you manage social, like all that stuff? Plus, you're a founder and you know all of the things.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

I think you know what you'll realize is that you know, I treat everybody as if you know they're carrying the same weight as me. So I don't think that because I'm a founder or because I lead an organization with 55 employees, that that means my thing is heavier is actually not. So when I'm look when I'm approaching this, the biggest thing for me is, you know, I treat my speaking engagements over the last few years, I treat it like this nice mosaic of I speak about and in places where I can stand behind what I'm saying. And I don't treat the Ellen show as more important than a local podcast. What you want to do is if you're gonna be an expert across 5,000 hours, you know what I mean, you're not going to spend 5,000 hours on Ellen. You're gonna spend 4,500 hours, you know, honing in on your messaging and being everywhere else. But I really value people, and it's something if you've you know connected with me, if you haven't connected with me on LinkedIn or anywhere else, please do. But what you'll see is I don't I don't try to jump ahead of my journey. And when we're talking about, you know, for me and when it comes to speaking and whether it's campaigns or comms or anything like that, you really want to respect the fact that every single butt in that seat is important, yeah. And what the virtual world has kind of really desensitized us with is thinking that 30 likes is not a lot. Yeah, they've desensitized, and so for Dion, what Dion does is number one, you know, I make sure that there's a line that I don't cross, you know what I mean? And it's not uh and let's be clear, I want you all to understand this. What I'm not saying, don't be political, I'm not saying don't, you know, turn your eyes and ears off of everything that's happening. The only thing I want you to do is I want you to build the courage to always be able to communicate and stand behind what you put out, and that's what I focus on. I focus on making sure that I can build my courage every day because we also have to acknowledge that you know we are lucky to be driving communications. The world went toward our skill set, it went toward comms and toward media and toward fundraising. And so, how do we make sure we're responsible with these gifts? And so, day in and day out, number one, you know, I wake up and I say, okay, cool. Instead of consuming, I put something out. You know what I mean? I always, you know, want to put something out, but also where am I? Am I putting something out that's really about my personal journey? Am I putting something out that's about my professional journey? Am I putting something out that's reflective? Am I putting something out that's inquisitive? Am I putting something out that is me, you know, stating something happened? Am I putting something out that speaks about something I I am anticipating happened?

SPEAKER_02 28:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Am I manifesting something? And so again, always asking these questions because then you'll be able to be you'll be able to share out and never being scared to just admit where I am. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 28:19

Some of my yeah, there's moments where you're just putting your reps in.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Yeah, that's and understanding that a lucky layup counts. Okay. A lucky layup counts. Everybody's just like, oh, because I wasn't confident about this, it may do you'll be you all of us on here have been surprised at the most carefree thing we've done or posted or a campaign took off like hot cakes. I just believe and I manifest that really anything is possible.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

So true. I remember getting reps. And anybody remember charity how to? I used to do a ton of webinars on there when I was first starting out, like back in 2020, I think, and probably two or three times a month. And that's how I was starting to build speaking and did my first in-person, I think it was like 2019 or 2020, speaking engagement. And then it just like grew over time, but you had to be open to put yourself out there in that way. How have you found speaking, the thought leadership exposure, helping to because something else you said earlier that was also so on point was like it's not about ego, yes, but the mission is so important, and I have always said the mission is too important to not share.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Absolutely. It's way too important. I mean, listen, let me explain. What I realized was that what are the things that you can say that no one can? That's where the strength comes from. That's when it's not about ego. Ego is there to mask our fears, ego is there so that people don't see the real us. We want to protect how strong we may feel. Yep, but the more honest the message is, the less ego that's involved. And so what I would say is, you know, I went on a journey of just asking myself, you know, we were moving more produce when we got to the point we were packaging and delivering more produce than a Walmart. I said, I can say that.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

That's insane.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

And that's the thing. And so you're talking to a guy whose you know, organization and company started from him borrowing a hundred dollars from his mom during an economic downturn and a pandemic where everyone said it wasn't possible. The only thing I'm saying to you is, what can you say that no one else can say? Because then you got that in the chat. That's a good one. What can you say? What can you say? That is undeniably you, and no one can take that from you, and then you'll be surprised how much ego is absent.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

Have you always, since you started the organization, were you always out in the forefront speaking, or did that build over time?

SPEAKER_00 31:02

I think everybody's clearly you're you're very sure. Right, everyone here knows I don't shut up, okay? Like let's just let's just be honest, people, okay? But what I will say is the the acknowledgement and awareness of the weight of my words grew. But I understood that no matter even when I I say that this is me and not my organization or our other company, I still have to understand and be responsible for who I am and how I show up and what I say. And so, you know, the only thing I tell people is that if you really only spend time on what you care about, if you really only focus on the people who are for you and not focus on what's not for you, if you really only continue to get up and keep trying, then you'll look up and you'll have a life that you can't identify with because it's so well-rounded and is there to protect you.

One Action To Grow Visibility

SPEAKER_02 31:56

Yeah. Oh, okay. I gotta, I'm gonna wrap with I think two questions here. One if everyone in this audience, yes, talking to all a thousand plus of you, yes, committed to one action. Yes, I was gonna say this month, but that's real short. Got a couple days left. Let's go with March in March to grow their thought leadership. Yes, what should it be?

SPEAKER_00 32:19

Okay, I would say that it would be a two-part process. First, what I would want you to do is to pick you know the type of communication that you're most comfortable with. So, you know, is it written or is it spoken? Right? First, let's let's decide am I a written speaker or am I a speaking speaker? Because that matters, right? Now, over time, I want you to really work on explain like what do you mean by the difference of the two? Like, what would so here's the thing we all know those leaders that I mean they can write a profound message, you can read it, and it just it can't be.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Like an author, maybe, or like no, no, no, anybody.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

No, no, okay. Remember, as as communicators, as humans, our talent leans either towards spoken or written. So, what I'm asking is just look back over your life, your career, you know, even the last few years, of where have you been more successful? Has it been written communication or spoken communication? Once you decide that, then the only thing I want you to do is I don't want you to worry about oh, you have to post this thing or send out an email blast. No, yeah, I want you to pick three people. That's it. That's all three people, and you are going to share that communication with them without context, without saying I normally don't do this, but here this is. Not saying, like, well, I was tasked with this last month. No, you're gonna share it because what I want you to do, what I want you to do.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

I always give that weird caveat.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Yeah, we give the caveat because we think we think that it will protect us, but it won't. Because what we're what we what I want is you're going to see now, some of you are superstars, you're gonna get three people, right? But when I did this, one person responded. And they said, This is so insightful. I would have never thought you would have thought this. And that's what I want. I want you to start having the ability to receive organic feedback because right now it's not about framing, right now it's not about caveats, right now it's not about trying to protect ourselves. I need you to be the most unashamed you possible just for the next month. And every time you do it, just share it out to three people. And you'll look up, and and three rounds later, you've started to build this new community of who and where you are, and nobody can make you go back but you. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

I love that. Okay. Yes. Oh, first I feel validated. Yes, I am a written speaker. I love this. Okay, last one, and we're gonna do some manifesting here. Yes. Okay, what does velocity look like for you in your next season of work? And I'm saying this to you, Dion, but also I want to ask that just in general to everybody. What does velocity look like in the next season of your work?

SPEAKER_00 35:11

So a lot of speakers and a lot of people you're gonna listen to, and they're going to immediately associate velocity with growth. But I think honestly, right now, velocity is about sustaining. We have a lot of people who are being laid off. We have a lot of people and organizations and teams and companies who are closing their doors. And so velocity for me is being able to continue to do the work that I do. Okay, especially in a season like right now. And I would hope that you all are fair to yourself right now. That right now you all have shown so much velocity just by even making it to today.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

Ugh, Dion, can we just give it up one more time? Like chat, go wild. We're gonna do some virtual applause, claps. I mean, gosh, I'm truly from 2024, I think 2023 when we first met. It might have been 2023. It's been a long time to finally make this happen and beyond thrilled for everything you're doing and that you spent time here with us today. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Oh no, listen, thank you. Literally, one of the best webinar people in the game. First of all, I'm telling you, giving some of this words. Yes, man, okay. But no, listen, Dana, thank you so much. Thank you all. This is a testament to your hard work, team's hard work. I will return as much as you will have me. I appreciate you, okay?

Reviews Subscribes And Closing

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Thank you. Thank you, Dion. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Missions to Movement. 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 movie.