Latest / Share Your Fire / Share Your Fire, Ep. 4 -- Business, not battle (Elise Woodworth)
Transcript
- John Verrico: Hello and welcome. I am so excited that we have another episode of our Share Your Fire podcast, and I have I am so delighted to have this special guest with me today. I had the pleasure of working with this young woman many years ago, and I knew that she was going to do wonderful, great things. She is an Air Force veteran, the mother of five, the author of Business Not Battle. She helps organizations primarily non profit, mission focused, heart centered organizations to be able to function and achieve their mission. And I call her the Queen of Giving Back. So hi, Elise Woodworth, welcome. Elise Woodworth: I love that nickname. I'm gonna keep it. John Verrico: Just before we started recording I asked her if it was okay if I referred to her as that and she just said sure Elise, how are things going? Elise Woodworth: Really well John and I'm so excited to be here with you today and glad that light your fire, share your fire. I think the idea is so exciting and I really am glad to be able to to help grow this mission. John Verrico: Well, thank you. I couldn't wait to to get you on the show. I reached out specifically to invite you because, you know, I know your heart. I know where, you know, the things that you you like to do and and how you help others and and that focus I think is so important. There are so many people out there who are coaches who focus on businesses, who focus on executive leadership. And all of that stuff is important. And I know you do some of that as well. And you help them to create kind of a better mission focused, exciting work environment so that their team stays engaged and all of that stuff. But there's so much more to that. And especially when you're working with the nonprofit sector, where the mission is more important than the bottom line. And it there are so many nonprofits I've worked with too over the years. They're so focused on their mission at times that they don't always get the business side of things right and they wind up floundering or having a hard time, you know, staying afloat. And you have created a a wonderful program that actually helps. So let's talk a little bit about that and kind of what you bring to the table besides this Elise Woodworth: Yeah. John Verrico: energy. Elise Woodworth: Sure. That's why I say I bring business to non profits. A lot of nonprofits, like you've mentioned, have so much passion, have so much interest in bridging a particular gap. They've identified a need in their community. They've identified a a a lack of service or a lack of opportunity. And they're putting together a program, often building the program as it's operating. John Verrico: Yeah. Elise Woodworth: so often. Build John Verrico: Build the plane while flying. Elise Woodworth: the plane while it's flying. And like you said, they have that passion. But so often the business fundamentals are overshadowed by that passion. And so I when I started my company, it was in twenty fourteen. And I also around that time started as a board member. So I was starting my board member journey as I'm starting my business. And What I'd learned from my time in the Air Force was that I really liked helping grow leaders. I liked being able to take a younger airman, someone inexperienced with leadership, recognize the capabilities that they had, and give them the opportunity to practice those, to try it out, John Verrico: Absolutely. Elise Woodworth: and to see what that looked like. And so when I started my business, I any good business would have a mission. And so I set my mission to ignite tomorrow's leaders, inspire today's, and help grow teams that will shape history. Now that has taken on a lot of different focuses over the last 12 years. And it was four years ago that I realized I knew enough to write the book, Write Business, Not Battle, and focus it on helping nonprofit board members, particularly, engage. Ignite their fire and become the leaders their organizations need. Often you have a founder who is really passionate about something, and that founder will attract people that want to help. But if they're not engaged in the right way, aware of their role as a leader in the organization, it tends to create more of what I call these battles, these battles. battle situations where maybe we're not focused on the same mission or we're not aligned in the way that we communicate or with our strategic goals. John Verrico: Well people people get on boards for nonprofits for different reasons. Yeah, Elise Woodworth: Right, absolutely. John Verrico: some people do it for the esteem. Some people do it for for the title. Some people do it because they're passionate about it. and Elise Woodworth: And some because we're a friend. Like I'll help a friend out. John Verrico: Well, there you go. That's true too. Yeah. There's so many ways that people get involved. But then when it comes down to, you know, there are there are some boards that actually do the work of the non profit. There are other boards that simply support the work of the nonprofit. And each of those boards kind of function in different ways, but each of them need to have board members that are engaged in behind the mission. Elise Woodworth: Absolutely. And so that's what I help bring. I help bring some of the business fundamentals, the leadership fundamentals to a board, to an organization. And people will say to me, Well, how'd you get into nonprofit work? When were you an executive director? Where's your education? And it's you know, I came in as a board member. So I came in with that experience and wanting to apply what I knew about business and leadership. to the nonprofit space and the passion that they have. John Verrico: And being a board member you can you can see those things. You can see and experience it. Elise Woodworth: I still do. I I will sit in on various board meetings just as an advisor and I s I see it happen. It's almost a visual okay, they didn't get that. Like we need to explain what that means and how it connects. And yeah, it's just really interesting to be able to do that. John Verrico: It it's fascinating. I've been on on multiple boards myself over the years. I mean well, I have what my wife calls helium arm. So whenever Elise Woodworth: Mm-hmm. John Verrico: there's somebody needs some help or can you can you be on this board? Can you serve on this my the other hand goes up? and so this is yeah, I know, I Elise Woodworth: And that's why we remembered to call John when we need help. John Verrico: know. Because John still ha has a problem saying that mmm mm, you know, I have problems with the N word. I just can't get my my mouth to say it half the time. people out there listening to this don't get any ideas. That doesn't mean I'm gonna come jump and help you with your projects. I am trying to learn how to say no. but but it is it is so so true that when when people are are serving on a board and some of them, like I said, the boards the board members actually do all the work. And there's there may be an executive director who kind of runs the business aspects, but the members actually run the programs and It's really interesting to to see how the drive and the passion can stay with them, but when you start having business problems or other things start to happen, then people start to lose that connection. And so, you know, it takes somebody like you to come in Elise Woodworth: Mm-hmm. John Verrico: and and relight that fire. Elise Woodworth: And that's one of the things it's my this is my number one tip to any nonprofit listening, anyone leading a board or doing any sort of work like that, always start with the mission. Start your meeting with the mission. Restate it every time. Doesn't matter how awkward it is, it doesn't matter how many times that this particular group has met. Start with the mission and stay focused on that. Because everything you're about to talk about in the next hour. ninety minutes, whatever John Verrico: Whatever, yeah. Elise Woodworth: it is, needs to be able to tie back into how you're bridging that gap, how you're fulfilling that mission and how you're moving it forward. And so that's my number one tip that I I'm always like, start with the mission. Stay mission focused. John Verrico: And that is that is beautiful, especially since like you said, non profits are the core of your community. without without the nonprofit sector, which is which is har hard to to focus on, but without the people in d doing non profit work so many communities would fail. So many people would you know, would have challenges. what's that? Yeah, they'd fall through the cracks. There Elise Woodworth: Flip through the cracks. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. John Verrico: I mean there there are all sorts of folks that do I mean I've I've worked with everything from from rape counselors to education non profits to you know community outreach and and people working with cancer patients. Could you imagine what it would be like if these people were instead money focused and wouldn't do work unless they were being paid a lot of money to do it. It really need the the non profit sector and the volunteers who do these things in order for for us to survive. Elise Woodworth: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And it's so rewarding to give back. I think a lot of times we we think of the world as busy, busy, busy. Everybody's, you know, got a full calendar and they're running from here to there. No time for anything. And what we also mm hmm. John Verrico: I have an acronym for that. I have an acronym for that. Elise Woodworth: what's that? John Verrico: Busy means basically under serving yourself. Elise Woodworth: I like that. John Verrico: And and what what happens and I and I I'm a victim of that myself, right? We we wind up whether it whether we get involved in in whatever kind of projects, whether it's whatever the focus is, whether it's earning money or whatever, we get so involved with doing all these other things for other people's purposes that we kind of n start to neglect our own needs and our own ability. And so we either overcommit Or we make ourselves sick or we ignore our health or or we ignore time with our family. We lose out on opportunities because we're we get so focused on doing all this other stuff. Elise Woodworth: Right. And we're and they get lonely. And then you get lonely. John Verrico: Yeah. Elise Woodworth: And you pick up your phone and you start scrolling. And what? You you're not building community. You're not accomplishing anything in it. And John Verrico: Yeah. And what happens is people wind up getting to a point where they lose focus of the mission and and because they don't feel like they're b they're being able to be successful at it. Elise Woodworth: Mm-hmm. And so that's one of the things that I I always ask the question when I'm doing a a talk or a workshop and I'll say, What do nonprofits need? And everybody will inevitably say, 'cause I'll be like, what are the two things? And it's more money and more people. Okay. Sure, that might be the fact that you need more money to do more things and you need people to be able to do them. But I am very specific about what I think nonprofits need, and I think they need more advocates. I think they need more people that are willing to stand up, to share the mission, to carry the flag, wear the name tag, the t shirt, whatever it is. They need more people to do that. And by being an advocate for a nonprofit, and you don't have to be a formal volunteer, you don't have to fill out paperwork or anything, one of the things I do, I've share a Friday spotlight every week on na on LinkedIn and I'll spotlight a different nonprofit. They're not always nonprofits I know personally or work with, but it's missions I've seen in action usually have enjoyed being a part of their program or service, whatever it is, and I'll share that with my LinkedIn community. And it's just one way of furthering s a mission for a non profit. John Verrico: I was gonna mention that, so I'm glad you you brought it up. The fact that that you you spend a lot of time highlighting and promoting the work and advocating for the work of of the nonprofit sector, which was also one of the reasons why I said, you know, as I'm as I'm starting to get the schedule of this thing crazy filled up, I reached out to you and I said, We I gotta get you on before we get too busy. Elise Woodworth: I love that. Thank you. John Verrico: So now I I I'm gonna sidetrack just for a little bit because you do something that you very rarely find that any any business will do. And that's one of the reasons why I call you the Queen of Giving Back. Talk a little bit about your your new policy or your new way of giving back. Elise Woodworth: Sure, I call it my stewardship fund. And I'm a I'm my own small business, right? So I have the complete latitude to do this sort of thing. But last year I made a commitment to give back thirty percent of all my revenue, to set aside thirty percent of what I brought in to to give John Verrico: That is so amazingly generous. Elise Woodworth: back to the nonprofits I work with, whether it's someone asking for a sponsorship for an event. Or needing some board training, needing some board development, but not maybe having the funds to do that. that fund allows me a number of things. It allows me to give back. And it also helps me take care of myself at the same time because I am so passionate about helping nonprofit leaders that I just want to say. Yes, let's do all of the things. And John Verrico: Ha ha. Elise Woodworth: so I think it's important to have a a guideline or a number. And sometimes it wiggles a little bit when I need it to. just to allow because I think it's so important to have leadership development for your board, to have the access to a coach for an executive director who might not have anyone else to talk to about. daily operations or, you know, some of the struggles that they're facing with their board. It's a really unique situation. John Verrico: And and again so many of them so many of them are just focused on the mission or the work that they don't get that business side. Elise Woodworth: Yeah, and the relationship too is very unique with an executive director or a CEO hired by the board. John Verrico: Yes. Elise Woodworth: Hired by that board, but then responsible for all of the things, all of the reports, and and this is what I see happen a lot. They'll say, well, we hired an executive director to do that, to do the reporting, to do the grants applications, to do the outreach, to do all these, John Verrico: The the tax papers, all yeah. yeah. Elise Woodworth: you know, the all the things. And John Verrico: All the things that aren't directly mission performance. Elise Woodworth: Right. And and so what you have then are these roles that really should be the on the board's plate, setting the meeting agenda, creating the slides, what are we gonna talk about, finding some of you know, and it it varies for every organization, but a lot of times the board will assume the executive director is going to do those things. And so the executive director will do those things and do them very well. But then it's just another piece of paper to the board. Or it's just another document to read because John Verrico: Yeah. 'Cause they don't have the ownership of it. Elise Woodworth: they don't have the ownership of it. So I I am a real strong supporter of improving the board director relationship. Clearly defining roles for a board and then having a president who will hold them accountable to those roles because it's not the executive director's job. John Verrico: You know, a and you remind me of of some some boards I'd worked with in the past that had kind of a similar structure. And they would hire a management company that would serve in these executive director positions, and they would have somebody on staff who did marketing or whatever. but they wind up serving multiple non profits. Elise Woodworth: Mm-hmm. John Verrico: And so then where does the focus happen and are they really able to focus on the individual smaller non profits when they've got this nonprofit over here, which can provide them more more finances. And so you have large, enormous international nonprofit type organizations that hire a management company, and they can afford to pay that management company to do lots of stuff. And then you've got a smaller nonprofit who may be also working with that same management company, but they don't have the budget to pay the the higher end. So they're just getting a little piece of that executive director's attention. And so that's Elise Woodworth: Mm. John Verrico: where some of the com some conflict happens for some of the smaller organizations. Elise Woodworth: And that's one again, one of those battles and you have to look at your mission and say, is this the right answer for our organization? Are we as a board, you that's a board's responsibility to be able to answer that. Is this where we need to be spending our time and our money, our resources? or are there other things that we could do with that to make it a stronger organization. Maybe we hire someone part time in our local community who knows the heartbeat and will have a passion for paving sidewalks or whatever it is, saving trees. There are lots of different things. but it's really aligning. John Verrico: There are s yeah. Elise Woodworth: Mm-hmm. John Verrico: And the alignment I think is what's really critical. There are so many people who are passionate about helping their communities or helping people who are facing adversity or whatever, the various types of things that that we can get involved with, or just you know, being advocating for a certain profession, because that's a that's you a lot of those are nonprofits as well. And Yet they'll they'll get out there, they'll they'll create a non profit, they'll go through the process, they'll start getting out there doing the work. But they can't get the funding. Or they're not getting the the board support that they need in order to keep functional. I know it's gonna be a sad statistic, but do you have any idea how many non profits kind of start and fail and what that that rate would be? I know it's I know it's pretty sad, unfortunately. Elise Woodworth: No, because one a a unique thing about nonprofits 'cause it's a business and you file for it like anything else, but so often, even if they d fail, they won't file. that they are closing. Mm-hmm. John Verrico: That they've closed the doors. Yeah. Elise Woodworth: They'll just stop. That happens a lot. So I don't I know that it happens. I know that a lot of times I've seen it where bi a business owner will say, Well if I start a non profit I can get more funding. I could get a grant or I could get sponsorships or whatever it is. And I caution heavily against that because the the five one C three designation is is no different from running a business, having a sustainable operation that's gonna keep itself going. Putting that nonprofit designation on you really only changes your tax status. Not not people's willingness to give you money. And and so you know, and that's kind of a difficult situation or conversation to have. It's like, yes, especially working with purpose-driven individuals, there has to be a really clear business plan. And and I'll say that to some potential founders and I never hear from them again. I'll say you need to have a really clear business plan before we s we have our next conversation. Like I'd like to see how you plan to make this sustainable. And I think if there was more intentionality on creating business plans, we'd have less non profits, perhaps, in that big high of all the nonprofits that are have been filed for, we'd have less of those, but I feel like they'd be more impactful. Because people would do the ecosystem research, they would do the the analysis of the business landscape, and they'd look around and they'd see the people already in their communities that run a food bank, that run a soup kitchen, that have access to clothing or housing or any number of things, but they'd look around and they'd see these organizations and then they'd partner. And and so often, John Verrico: Bingo. Elise Woodworth: if you have, if you're listening to this and have an idea for a nonprofit, I want you to go around and five find five or ten organizations doing the exact same thing as closely to your community as you can find. And then I want you to think of your idea, how you could have that be a program supporting those nonprofits. Because if it's not sustainable as a program, John Verrico: That is a that is a brilliant focus. Elise Woodworth: it's not going to be sustainable as a as its own organization. John Verrico: That is a brilliant focus. There are are and and I think we find this in any community. There are hundreds, thousands of nonprofits out there, some of them doing similar work, and they're all now competing for the same available donor dollars and support dollars. Elise Woodworth: Yes. John Verrico: And so, how many soup kitchens can we support? We can have multiple soup kitchens. But they can all be organized and work together. We we and that goes back to Yeah. Elise Woodworth: Mm-hmm. Who's got Monday? Who's got Tuesday? John Verrico: But there are so many things that and they don't have to be separate organizations. They can all work together as one organization. Now that that may may seem kinda counter to the idea, but at the same time, partnering will actually get you a lot further than than competing. And that's why I kinda liked Elise Woodworth: Mm-hmm. John Verrico: your concept of your book, right? Business not battle. Yeah. Elise Woodworth: Business. Right. And w wha the way I define business is the mutually beneficial exchange of products, services and ideas. And so often we we get ideas, we get momentum in a particular direction. We're starting to get people behind us in a in a particular direction, and people will say, I want to start a nonprofit. And and I'll speak to the other side of this too. As an established nonprofit, I think there's almost a responsibility to continue. And it and it is on so many nonprofits' minds. How are we gonna grow? How are we gonna continue to have impact? All those things. One of the ways you could do that is simply to look around for other people trying to swim in the same direction. And be open to bringing them on as a program. Be open to supporting their mission as part of your own. And as a nonprofit grows, I feel like that's an amazing way to come together to expand your own services without putting much strain on resources and just say, Yeah, we'd love to see if that program would work. Let's put together a business plan. Let's put together an idea and see if we can't get build momentum under it. And then you don't have the added stress or frustration. of the organizational filing for anything, right? John Verrico: Yeah. Elise Woodworth: the establishing a board, the all of the things. There's so many things and it's so expensive when it comes down, if you want to do things right, there is a price tag that comes with that that people don't often see. And then how do we raise funds? How do we apply for grants? How do we do those things? But if you're already an established nonprofit, you have relationships, you have connections with the government, you have connections in the community where you're serving, and so many more opportunities come to make that program successful. And if it succeeds, great. And it if it needs to become its own organization, later down the line, let's be open to that. Let's not create battle where there there doesn't need to be one. John Verrico: th it it's beautiful. There not everything is a conflict and that's where people need to remember and also the fact that you can't do things alone. And you're not alone. There are a lot of people out there with the same mission, with the same heart, with the same devotion. And when you can partner together and work together, you can accomplish so much more. The same thing about, you know, this is a share your fire is all about, right? You've got your own motivational fire and they've got their own motivational fire, but between the two of us, we bring both of our torches together, we can illuminate so much more. Elise Woodworth: Mm-hmm. And if we stay focused on a particular mission, if there's a mission we can both align to, think of that fire and how if you think about we were talking about how busy people have gotten, right? And they're also lonely and distracted. And when they recognize the passion that you or I have for a particular thing, If that sparks something in them, it might be a torch they can actually pick up and carry that will help them find connection, that will help them have purpose and move in a direction that's strengthening for them and their community. So that's why I think it's so important to continue to have the conversations about nonprofit partnerships, about strengthening leaders in the nonprofit sector. I'm just so excited to be able to share that with you and your audience as well. John Verrico: love it and thank you so much for doing that and for coming on. And before we run out of time, I'm gonna put this stuff in the show notes as well. But let's put it out there for people who are only looking at audio right now. you know, how can people get in touch with you and where can they find information? Elise Woodworth: LinkedIn is the best place to get a hold of me. Elise Woodworth, you can also look up business not battle. so Elise Woodworth or Business Not Battle on LinkedIn, you'll find all you need from there. And send me a send me a DM. I'm happy to respond. John Verrico: I love it. Elise, thank you so much for joining us and for sharing your fire. I you know, like I said, I I really wanted to reach out because I know your passion and there are so many nonprofits or people who are thinking along those lines who really needed to hear this and and I hope that I I know that you've made a difference for them. Elise Woodworth: Thank you for letting me be here. John Verrico: Thank you again. Folks, go and listen to this a couple of times and and then catch our other episodes. We'll talk to you soon. This is Share Your Fire and I'm John Verico and my guest today was the fabulous Elise Woodworth, known as the Queen of Giving Back.